Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/407

12 s. i. MAY 20, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

401

NOTES:—'Revenge for Honour': Glapthorne's Play attributed to Chapman, 401—Stories of the Swarming and Ascension of Fishes, 404—Statues and Memorials in the British Isles, 406—Letter of Warrant from Queen Elizabeth for putting Two of the Duke of Norfolk's Servants to the Rack—The "Penny-a-Liners" of 'The Daily Chronicle' Corner, 407—Owen Brigstocke Pepys's 'Diary': Editors—Rowland Hill : MS. Diary, 408.

QUERIES:—A Family Tradition: Addison—'A Simple Story 'Edward Henry Purcell William Bromley Chester, M.P., 408 Chappedelaine " Correi " ' The Tale of the Raven and the Blackbird ' " Laus Deo " : Old Mer- chants' Custom Heralds at Funerals Richard Whitford " Have " : Colloquial Use Diego Ortiz Hymn-Tune 'Presburg,' 409 " Descendants' Dinners" "M. A. E." : Who was She? Altars of Antiquarian Interest Gar- brand R. S. Charuock Harlington, Middlesex 'Chaitivel,'410.

REPLIES : Julian Hibberb, Printer, 410 -Anne Boleyn Author and Context Wanted Thomas Hoteroft's De- scendants: Marsac, 412 -Supposed Miscarriage of Justice Rochard, Artist in Wax Portraits Mack Surname 4 La Bete du Ge"vaudan," 413-^-John Hamilton Mortimer, R.A. Bookwonns : Remedies against Them ' The Standard': Evening Papers Authors Wanted The Witches of Warboys Shakespeare's Schoolmasters, 414 " A la Caroline " : Collegium Carolinum ' Romola ' Wright Family Arms Chimney-Sweeps : "Lucifer" Match Factories, 415 The Colour of Mediaeval Wax Seals Village Pounds Allen and Ferrers : Sheldon Family, 416 Erzenim Poisoned Robes Brianus de Rede Folk-Lore : Chime-HoursMoses Griffith, Conper- plate Engraver. 417 Shakespeare Portraits Treasury Notes Hoby : Poulett Action on Water of Frogs and Toads Picture Wanted : Trial of the Tichborne Claimant Maxse Surname Copley and Mrs. Fort, 418 Ryder or Rider : Skynner : Amyand Johns tone of Lockerbie, 419.
 * ' Jerry-Builder" Eighteenth-Century Virginian Letters

NOTES ON BOOKS:-' Two Pioneers of Romanticism: Joseph and Thomas Warton ' ' Some Studies in the Topography of the Cathedral Close, Exeter ' ' The Psalms of Penitence ' ' Bulletin of the John Rylands Library.'

'REVENGE FOR HONOUR': GLAPTHORNE'S PLAY ATTRIBUTED TO CHAPMAN.

IN 1654 twenty years after Chapman's death was published "Revenge for Honour, A Tragedie, by George Chapman. London, Printed for Richard Harriot, in S. Dunstan's Church-yard, Fleetstreet." It is included in both the modern collections of Chapman's plays (Pearson, 1873 ; R. H. Shepherd, 1874 and 1889) ; and, although many critics have expressed doubts of its genuineness, it always finds a place in discussions of his dramatic work.

That Chapman's authorship has been doubted is not surprising. The style of '* Revenge for Honour ' is totally different from that of any of his authentic plays, and

shows the most palpable evidence of the influence of his later contemporaries. The free use of lines with feminine endings makes Fletcher's influence the more obvious, but Massinger's is equally apparent on a closer study of the play. It would indeed be remarkable should Chapman, towards the close of his life, have changed his methods lor those of the new school. Yet there are those who seem to feel no hesitation in assuming that he did so. It is strange to find so careful a critic as Dr. Stoll using ' Revenge for Honour ' as the text for a disquisition upon the ' Influence of Fletcher on Chapman '* without the faintest allusion to any suspicion of its genuineness.

In 1653 (the year before the publication of ' Revenge for Honour ') a play entitled ' The Paraside, a Revenge for Honour,' printed for the same publisher, was entered in the register as by Henry Glapthornef. The most conspicuous feature of the play published as Chapman's is the murder of Almanzor, Caliph of Arabia, by his son Abrahen. The play entered as Glapthorne's had a similar title, it had parricide for its theme, and it was printed for the same publisher. There is, therefore, good prima facie evidence to support the suggestion of FleayJ that the two plays are identical.

Although Fleay is convinced of their identity, and is equally convinced that Chapman did not write the extant play, for some reason or other the natural inference that its author was Glapthorne does not commend itself to him. After mentioning that it was entered in the Stationers' Re- gister by Richard Harriot on Nov. 29, 1653, as Glapthorne's, and issued by him in 1654 as by George Chapman, he continues :

" How any one can attach the slightest value to such attributions of authorship is a puzzle to me. Yet Mr. Swinburne says, ' That it is the work of Chapman I see no definite reason to dispute, and not a little room to suppose that it may be.' But Chapman's writing for the stage ceased in 1608. . . .1 can only say that there is no author known to me to whom I can assign it, and that I dare not imitate the rashness of those who set value on Harriot's statement."

Sir Adolphus Ward (' History of English Dramatic Literature') and Prof. Macneile Dixon (' Cambridge History of English


 * See Appendix II. to his * John Webster.

f An earner play called 'The Parricide,' acted by the Prince's Company, is mentioned in Sir Henry Herbert's licence-book under date May 27, 1624. There is not the slightest evidence to connect this with the play under discussion.

J ' Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama,' vol. ii. pp. 326-7.