Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/298

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [iis.ix. APRIL n, ion.

the oath of fealty to Edward the Black Prince on his accession to the Principality of Wales (Roll of Fealty, &c., Minist. Accts., Early Ser., 16 and 17 Ed. III., No. 16).

For " Pennara " in 1 4, p. 196, read Pennard. AP THOMAS.

TARRING (11 S. viii. 368, 416, 473 ; ix. 158, 212). Thanks to H. B. S. W., who has sent me a list of Devon wills, considerable light is thrown on the subject as far as Devonshire is concerned. There are twenty-four entries from 1547 to 1729 in various spellings, begin- ning with John Torryng, and ending with Wilmote Tarring. Seventeen of these entries are connected with Stoke Gabriell, a place situated on the east bank of the Dart, and not far from Torbay. From this it may be inferred that the name was suggested by the well-used s term tor ; and Stoke Gabriell, if not its place of origin, was, at any rate, its stronghold for 200 years.

The Sussex problem remains unsolved ; but it may be noted that one of the Devon- shire spellings, Torringe (1644), is not unlike the original Sussex word Terringe. Will Sussex readers please note ? Why Tarring in each case ? G.

MILTON'S EPITAPH : THE SECOND FOLIO OF THE SHAKESPEARE PLAYS, 1632 (11 S. viii. 141. 196, 232. 294, 317; ix. 11, 73, 114, 172, 217, 237, 257.) In ' N. & Q.' of 7 June last, 1913, I pointed out that in my library Milton's Epitaph appears correctly printed upon a cancel leaf which is inserted in my copy of the 1632 Folio. After worldwide inquiry only two other correctly printed copies have been reported. One is in the New York Public Library (Astor, Lenox, Tilden Foundations), and one in the library of Queen's College, Oxford. All experts are agreed that " this page is evidently an original and contemporary print, not a reproduction in any modern sense," and that " the paper is contemporary." COL. PRIDEAUX says :

" This cancel leaf was evidently printed after the book had been placed on sale, and was issued to purchasers in the same way as cancel leaves are occasionally issued at the present day."

Two questions therefore arise : Why was the cancel leaf issued ? and Why are so few copies of it found ?

The first question can be answered with absolute certainty. The cancel leaf was issued to render Milton's Epitaph correct, and to teach those capable of understanding that it informs us quite clearly and distinctly that Shakespeare, the author of the plays, was in fact Francis Bacon. I myself think,

with respect to the second question, " Why is the leaf so rare that only three copies are known to exist ? " that there is but one explanation, viz., that it was issued only to those to whom Bacon's secrets were entrusted. Up to the year 1910 the number of "A. A. Rouge Croix No. 33 'Masons," to whom Bacon's secrets have from the begin- ning been entrusted, was strictly limited to nine persons. But in 1910 the number was increased from nine to thirty-three, all of whom are " fully informed."

In various letters which appeared in ' N. & Q.' I have pointed out that Milton's' Epitaph is mainly derived from the opening; lines of ' Love's Labour 's Lost ' and from page B 2 in ' Josuah Sylvester's Translation of Du Bartas His Divine Weekes and Workes,' which was first published in 1605. Every word which I have written about the emblem upon that page B 2 is absolutely and exactly correct. " Apelles " does mean " skin off." However unclassical this may be considered to be, yet your correspondents generally admit that, at that period, apella was almost universally supposed to mean sine pelle (without a skin).

In ' Nuttall's Dictionary ' " Credat Ju- dseus Apella " is translated as " Let Apella the circumcised or credulous Jew believe that." I do not quote this as unimpeachable evidence of the correctness of the translation, but it does supply indisputable testimony to the persistence and prevalence of the translation. Of course, all emblems are purposefully prepared to deceive I will not say fools, but the uninformed while giving a full and accurate revelation to the " ini- tiated." Hence MR. DENHAM PARSONS is quite unable to see that the very carefully drawn rope with a ring to form a slip-knot, which is round the neck of the animal, does not, and cannot by any possibility be sup- posed to, represent a badly drawn collar and chain, but shows us in fact that the creature has a halter round its neck, and represents a " hanged hog," a Bacon. The 1623 First Folio of the Shakespeare plays is signed upon the first page with the author's name " hanged hog " " Bacon " by means of what is generally supposed to be a "printer's error." That "Apelles Table" does, as I say. mean the list of Bacon's anonymous works is proved by MR. DENHAM PARSONS, ante, p. 217, where he tells us that

" in 1627 a sixth book was added to the ' Arcadia,' the writer, R. B., contributing a Preface in which occurs the statement : ' I have added a limne to Apelles Picture.' See Beling's address ' To the Reader ' on p. 485."