Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/49

 ii s. ix. JAN. 17, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

her,"* the flatness of the visit was a plain intimation that William had no intention of asking for the hand of the Princess. It was taken as such by all concerned, and the matchmakers turned their speculations in other directions.

In conclusion, though this tragedy of etiquette probably helped to make the title of King desirable in Frederick's eyes, there is not the least suggestion that it was the original cause of his ambition. William III.'s tenacious insistence on the dignities and prerogatives enjoyed by former Kings of, England had been known to, and acqui- esced in by, the princes of Germany since his first appearance as a crowned head on the Continent in 1691. t And if in 1696 eti- quette served as a veil to his dislike for marriage, it would have been very un- reasonable of the Elector to complain of a discretion which saved him from the con- sequences of his own folly. M. LANE.

ROBERT BARON, AUTHOR OF ' MIRZA, A TRAGEDIE.'

(See ante, pp. 1, 22.)

BARON'S third work appeared in 1650 as

"Pooula Castalia (The Authors Motto. For- tunes Tennis-Bali. Eliza. Poems. Epigrams, kc.). By R. B. Gen. London, Printed by W. H. for Thomas Dring 1650.":]:

It is, perhaps, noticeable that Baron no longer refers to his connexion with Gray's Inn. He was never called to the Bar.

The pagination of the book is continuous, but there are separate title-pages for ' For- tunes Tennis T Ball,' 'Eliza,' 'Poems,' and ' Epigrams, &c.' Possibly these were also published separately. Mr. Hazlitt states in his * Handbook ' :

" In one or two copies of this book, it is called The Poems : it should have a portrait of the author by Lorn bar t/'

The British Museum copy has (as stated already) Marshall's portrait, " ^Etat. siue 17," with the " 17 ;: altered to " 19." I have seen no other reference to any portrait of Baron by Lombart.

In ' The Authors Motto ' Baron expresses his literary ambition :

Its my intent To reare my selfe a death-lesse Monument,

Buccleuch at Montagu House,' vol. ii. part ii. p. 1. t Macaulay, * History of England,' chap. xvii. I Thomason received his copy on 25 June.
 * Hist. MSS. Comm. Rep., 'MSS. of the Duke of

though he cannot refrain from pillaging once or twice more Milton's sonnet on Shakespeare :

Not that I doe desire to shrowd my bones The labour of an Age in piled stones, Or that my worthlesse Ashes should be hid Under a skie-invading Pyramid. (A 2.)

That Kings for such a Tombe would wish to die.

(A. 4.)

Perhaps he hints at his Royalist sym- pathies when he declares that he will not

Wield

A speare again Ith bloood-bedabled Field, Unlesse my Prince. Honor, and Virtues cause Call to assert their Rights, and equall laws. He prints commendatory verses from James Howell, who prophesies that he may in time

Be Lord Chief-Baron of the Court of Wits ; from Mr. Tho. Moore of the Inner Temple^, who calls him " the growing branch of' Virtue," and from "C. B. Art. Baccha."

' Fortunes Tennis-Bali ' is dedicated in verse " To The Choicest of my Noble Friends, John Wroth, Esquire." Probably this was John Wroth of Blenden Hall,. Kent (son and heir of Sir Peter Wroth, Kt.),. who was admitted to the Inner Temple in November, 1629, and was created a baronet at the Restoration. It includes ' A Ballade vpon the Wedding,' which is a bold plagiar- ism of Suckling's poem, further adorned by reminiscences of Lovelace :

Now were our Heads with Rosebuds crown'd, And flowing cups ran swiftly round, &c., ' Eliza ' is a series of love-poems to a lady (" the Lady E. R." ?) to whom the poet had previously presented his ' Cyprian Academy ' and ' Apologie for Paris.' It has also its plagiarisms e.g., the rose

Smells not of it selfe, but Her. and the audacious prayer, borrowed from. Basse's epitaph :

Sweet SvcKLixc4 remove a little from

Thy excellent CAREVV, and thou dearest TOM, Loves Oracle, lay thee a little off Thy flourishing SVCKLINC;, that between you both I may find room.

The section ' Poems ' contains some lines ' In Principem arma petentem,' which are written with studied ambiguity, but are intended, I think, to express the writer's sympathy with the expedition of Charles, Prince of Wales, in 1650.

Other poems are addressed to John Wroth, Esq., to Lady Diana Willoby, and to Benjamin Garfield,* Esq.. upon his tragi-

- B. G. of Gray's Inn, called to the Bar 11 Feb., 1645/16. He, John Hall, and others were sum- moned by the Benchers on 4 June, 1649, to show cause '' why they doe not paie the Preacher."