Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/427

12 S.I. MAY 27, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

421 LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1916.

CONTENTS.- No. 22.

NOTES:—Joseph and David Williams, 421—Bibliography of Histories of Irish Counties and Towns, 422—Monumental Inscriptions and Heraldry in Salisbury Cathedral, 425—"Strafe"—St. Luke's, Old Street: Bibliography, 426—Anagram: "Monastery"—Cardinal Newman: his Bust in Oxford—Robin Hood Bibliography—Andria—"For one's sins"—Southampton Row, Marylebone, 427.

QUERIES.—Italian Opera in England—Mediaeval Alabaster Panel W. B. Hulme, Esq., Halifax, N.S. Authors of Quotations Wanted John Ranby, F.R.S., Serjeant-Surgeon Charles Badbam, M.D. Archdeacon Edmund Prys's 'Salman,' 428 Briggs Collection of Pictures Song in Goldsmith's 'She Stoops to Conquer' "Galoche": "Cotte" Thelma : Christian Name Author Wanted John Miller, M.P. for Edinburgh- Julius Caesar on " Sudden Death " English Carvings of St. Patrick Shakespeare's Falcon Crest Catholics under Elizabeth Charles Lamb and John Locke " Agnostic " and " Agnosco," 429 Touching for Luck, 430.

^REPLIES : Death Warrants and Pardons, 430 -" Victoria County Histories "Resemblances between Semitic and Mexican Languages Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset " Coat and Conduct Money," 431 Authors of Quotations Wanted British Herb: Herb Tobacco, 432 The "Jennings Property " Penge as a Place-Name, 433 Hymn-Tune ' Lydia 'The King's Own Scottish Borderers English Prisoners in France in 1811, 434 The Turkish Crescent and Star 'The Ghent Paternoster 'The Cos- mopolitan Club Elizabeth Evelyn The Newspaper Placard " Aviatik," 435 Mid-Nineteenth Century Literature for Boys A Church Bell at Farnhara in Dorset Song Wanted : ' The Dustman's Wife ' Eighteenth-Century Plate, 436 Reference Wanted Richard Wilson Churches used for Elections of Muni- cipal Officers, 437 Sir Robert Mansel. Kt. The Rabbit in Britain Accidental Likenesses ' King Edward III.' : Heraldic Allusion Thomas Fuller: "Man is immortal till his work is done," 438.

'.NOTES ON BOOKS: 'The Self-Discovery of Russia' ' Ancient Liturgical MS. discovered in Exeter Cathedral Library.'

'Miscellaneous Jottings from this Month's Catalogues.

JOSEPH AND DAVID WILLIAMS.

IT is a noticeable fact that upon the Restora- tion stage we find more than one pair of

-actors with the same name, a coincidence which now and again has caused no little difficulty and error among several of our theatrical annalists. Sometimes the per-

'iormers in question were brothers. Such was the case with Robert and James Nokes* of D'Avenant's company, and Robert and William Shatterel of the King's House. Sometimes they do not appear to have been related. The widespread blundering that

^muddled Mrs. Mary Lee (Lady Slingsby) with Mrs. Elizabeth Leigh, wife of Antony Leigh, and Mrs. Anne Quin (Gwin) with Nell

original Sir Martin Mar- All and Gomez. Robert i died before 1673.
 * James Nokes was the famous comedian, the

Gwyn, I have recently corrected in my annotations on Mrs. Behn (vol. i. pp. 438-40). These were important instances, and we have yet another in the frequent confusion of the celebrated Joseph Williams with David Williams, an actor of very different rank. Here, however, the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' to which the late Mr. Joseph Knight contributed a list of the roles played by Joseph Williams, lends us good aid. It is the more worth while to clear up a dubious point mentioned in that account.* Mr. Knight, duly noticing that there were two actors of the same name, has :

"An actor called David Williams was with Williams at Dorset Garden during many years. It is difficult to distinguish one from the other, and it is possible that some characters assigned Williams in the foregoing list, now first given, belong to his namesake."

In Dryden and Lee's ' Oedipus ' (1679) the Ghost of Laius has in the Incantation Scene of Act III. a sonorous and important speech of some thirty lines, but he hardly speaks again save to call on Oedipus from within, although in Act V.- the phantom is seen to ascend " by degrees, pointing at Jocasta," and anon it " vanishes with thunder," crying, " Jocasta, Oedipus ! " Knight I think with reason assigns this role, small as it is, to Joseph Williams as the Mr. Williams of the printed cast. The fearful denunciation pealed by the apparition to old Tiresias, upon which the whole tragedy turns, though comparatively brief, demands great force and power in the delivery, and to have given such lines to an indifferent elocutionist would have endangered the success of the play. If we accept this, then the Mr. Williams who acted Alcander, an attendant lord, a quite minor role, will be David Williams.

Mr. Knight also drew attention to a passage in Genest :

" Genest supposes him [Joseph Williams] to have made his first appearance at Dorset Garden in 1673 as the Second Gravedigger in 'Hamlet.' It is doubtful, however, whether he was the Williams who played that part."

It may, I think, be almost certainly shown that he was not. Genest, basing upon a quarto 1703 'Hamlet' with a printed cast, gives a revival of Shakespeare's tragedy at Dorset Garden in 1673. This is, however, quite unwarrantable. The ' Hamlet ' quartos of 1676, "As it is now Acted at his

ascribes * The Revenge ; or, A Match in Newgate ' (Betterton's adaptation of Marstori's The Dutch Courtezan'), to Mrs. Behn. He also writes by a slip * A Match at Newgate.'
 * It should be remarked that Knight erroneously