Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/475

 u s. vii, JUNE 14, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

467

and " lust-burn'd " is in ' The Silver Age '

Behold the lust-burn'd and wine-heated monsters Once more make head.

' Dramatic Works,' 1874, iii. 143.

Two examples of the substantive " strage "

= " destruction," "slaughter," were also

given from Heywood's works, and the sug-

gestion made that Heywood first used it in

published in 1635. Since my paper was written I have found an earlier example in
 * The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels,'

Boasting of nought, save shipwrake, spoyle and
 * Londons lus Honorarium ' (1631) :

strage. ' Works,' 1874, iv. 271.

It occurs also in ' Procus and Puella ' (1637) and 'Anna and Phillis ' (1637) ; see ' Dramatic Works,' 1874, vi. Ill, 328.

The evidence that led me to hazard the conjecture that ' Appius and Virginia ' showed traces of indebtedness to ' The Hierarchic of the Blessed Angels ' is ob- viously not of a sufficiently substantial nature to justify much reliance being placed upon it, and if ' Appius and Virginia,' has been correctly ascribed to Webster's sole authorship, I now believe such indebted- ness to be impossible. If Webster wrote the play in the form in which it has reached us, this, I submit, necessarily implies that he was alive after 1630. There is, however, strong presumptive evidence that he died before 1635. I hope shortly to deal with this evidence, and the assistance it affords us in determining the date of the play within even narrower limits than those I have already suggested. H. D. SYKES.

Enfield.

ALE - TASTER. The survival of this ancient appointment in places has been lately brought into some prominence, and it may be Well to note one or two refer- ences that have appeared. The Manchester Guardian published an explanation by a correspondent of the duties of the officer and their performance the former being to detect adulteration, and especially the addition^ of sugar to beer, to do which the bench and sit on the wet place. If his leathern breeches stuck to the wood, he had found adulteration : pure malt beer in those days was expected to contain nothing sticky.
 * ' taster " had to spill a portion on a wooden

Ale - tasters were annually appointed by the Corporation of Derby a quarter of a -century ago, and may be so still.

In Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, xxiv. 296 (1911), is given, in extenso, the oath of the

ale-tasters at Torrington, Devon (which was discontinued by resolution of the Town Council in 1853), taken from the old " Oath Book " of that borough, where no fewer than twenty - two oaths to be taken by various officials are set out. W. B. H. [See 7 S. iv. 4, 77.]

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

THE YOUNGER VAN HELMONT. (See ante, pp. 307, 378.)

CAN any of your readers furnish information on the following additional points ?

Has an exact and complete list of F. M. van Helmont's works, printed and in manu- script, including anonymous, pseudonymous, and posthumous editions, been compiled ?

Has any extensive and adequate biography of him ever been published ?

Did Van Helmont spend most of his youth upon his father's estate ? During what years and in what countries did he travel with the gipsies ? What is known of his residence in Belgium, Holland, Austria, and Germany ? When was he in Vienna ? Was he in Italy only in 1663, when he visited Rome and was imprisoned by the Inquisition? What caused his release, and are the records of his trial extant ? During what years and at what places did he reside in England ? Did he ever reside in France ? Who was the impostor who traded upon Van Helmont's name in Paris circa 1680, and thereby ob- tained considerable money ? and who was the impostor in London, a lieutenant- colonel, who, by pretending to have married Van Helmont's sister, did the same ? Are any MSS. by or relating to Van Helmont known to be extant in any of the above- mentioned countries ? When and how" did the philosopher Leibnitz become acquainted with him ? What is known of Van Hel- mont's sisters ? What of his other relatives? Who was the Baroness von Merode, at whose house he died ? What degree of kinship existed between Ambrosius de Meghem and the children of Augustinus de Gottignies and F. M. van Helmont ?

Who was Mr. Serrarius, the correspondent of Samuel Hartlib who was acquainted with