Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/387

 12 s. iL NOV. 11, me.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

381

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1916.

CONTENTS. No. 46.

TJOTES : Mrs. Boutell, 381 Dr. Robert Uvedale, Scholar and Botanist, 384 The Lady Godiva and the Countess Lucy. 387 John Curwen, 388 A Prize at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1789 Earl's Court, a London Suburb, 389.

QUERIES: Substitutes for Pilgrimage, 389 Irish (Volunteer) Corps e. 1780 Coloured Book- Wrappers- Mayoral Trappings Lead-Tank Lettering ' The Chel- tenham Guide 'Sir William Perkins School, Chertsey Sir Andrew Richard Scoble Thirlwall, Chaplain to Queen Anne Boleyn John Prine, 1568 Authors Wanted Bible and Salt, 390 Walter Wilson, the Nonconformist Biographer Palavicini Family -Binnestead in Essex J. T. Staton-Sons of Mrs. Bridget Bendysh Sheppard Family of Blisworth, 391.

BEPLIES : An English Army List of 1740, 391" Jobey ' of Eton, 394 "Blighty " Sandford Family Foreign Graves of British Authors, 395 Pallavicini : Arms- Matthew Shortyng, D.D.-St. Madron's Well, near Penzance, 396 Greatest Recorded Length of Service- Author and Title Wanted : Boys' Book c. I860" Cardew " Poem Wanted London's Entertainment to "Four Indian Kings "Hare and Lefevre Families Folk-Lore : Chime-Hours, 397 Legal Macaronics Plumstead Lloyd Authors Wanted C. Lamb : Chimney Fireplaces- Naval Records Wanted-' 1 Driblows," 398 Authors of uotations Wanted Eighteenth-Century Dentists- ray : a Book of Squibs, 399.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' A Descriptive Catalogue of Mis- cellaneous Charters relating to Sheffield and Rotherham ' "The Burlington' "The Nineteenth Century.'

Notices to Correspondents.

MRS. BOUTELL.

MBS. BOUTELL,* one of our earliest actresses, whilst quite a girl, joined Killigrew upon the opening (May 7, 1663) of the new Theatre Royal, Bridges Street, Covent Garden, a liouse, for convenience' sake, generally spoken of by us as the first Drury Lane Theatre, but not actually known under that name until bout 1690. Downes, it is true, says that she joined the theatre about the same time s Nell Gwyn, Mrs. James, Becke Marshall, Mrs. Rutter, Mrs. Verjuice, and Mrs. Knight. Nell Gwyn's first recorded part was Cydaria, in Dryden's ' The Indian Emperor,' produced circa March, 1665, and we may safely assign Mrs. James's appearance to the same year. We have, however, a cast of ' Rule a Wife and Have a Wife,' in which Mrs. Boutell is

iurther supplies a very incomplete list of her roles, a selection only, as he allows ; his dating moreover Is most inaccurate throughout. The article in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' which largely bases on Genest, is inadequate save for the merest general reference.
 * Genest gives Mrs. Boutell scant notice. He

playing Estefania to the Margarita of Mrs. Ann Marshall, with Mohun as Leon; Hart, Michael Perez ; and Walter Clun, Cacafogo. On Tuesday night, Aug. 2, 1664, Clun, having played Subtle in ' The Alchemist,' and subsequently spent a jovial evening, was riding home to his country house at Kentish Town, when near " Tatnam Court " he was set on by robbers, wounded, bound, and flung in a ditch, where, owing to his struggles to release himself, he bled to death. Downes's chronology, although he has been only too faithfully followed herein by stage historians not a few, is his weakest point, and we must be especially careful with regard to the sequence of his statements concerning the early history of the Theatre Royal. It must be remembered that the old prompter was writing many years after ; and that he officiated at Dorset Gardens, not at Killigrew's house. We can certainly assign this production of ' Rule a Wife and Have a Wife ' and Mrs. Boutell's appearance as Estefania to 1663. Says Davies :

" Hart and Mohun were much celebrated for their excellent action in this comedy : the latter in Leon, and the former in Michael Perez. Mrs. Marshal, the greatest tragic actress of that com- pany, represented Margaretta* ; and Mrs. Boutel, celebrated for the gentler parts in tragedy, such as Aspatia in ' The Maid's Tragedy,' and Statira in ' Alexander,' played Estifania with applause."

It was in the same year 1663 that Mrs. Boutell sustained Aspatia to the Amintor of Hart, the Melantius of Mohun, and the Evadne of Mrs. Marshall, a cast which has perhaps never been surpassed. It was in this tragedy that she had to appear (probably for the first time) in male attire, which proved so becoming that the poets invariably desid- erated her when in their dramas some faithful heroine disguises herself as a page to follow and win her lover. Her fragile beauty in a boy's coat and hose seems particularly to have fascinated the house, and saved many a poor comedy. In the ' History of the Stage ' which Curll, in 1741, published under the name of Betterton, she is spoken of as follows :

" Mrs. Boutel was likewise a very considerable Actress ; she was low of stature, had very agreeable Features, a good Complexion, but a Childish look. Her Voice was weak, tho' very mellow ; she gener- ally acted the young Innocent Lady whom all the Heroes are mad in Love with ; she was a Favourite of the Town."

She was especially famous for her blue eyes and lovely hair ; ' chestnut - maned Boutel" a contemporary ' Satire on the Players ' (unprinted MS.) dubs her.

This is also the spelling of the quarto, 1040.