Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/543

 12 s. n. DEC. so, i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

-when it was first performed privately by the -'Independent Theatre" at the Royalty ori March 13, 1891, in Mr. William Archer's Introduction to the English translation, published by the Walter Scott Company in Paternoster Square. The first licensed public p >rformance was given at the Haymarket Theatre on July 14, 1914.

WILLOUGHUY MAYCOCK.

SECOND FORTUNE THEATRE (12 S. ii. 408). In Timbs's ' Curiosities of London' (1855), p. 717, the author, after mentioning the destruction of the first theatre of this name by fire on Dec. 9, 1621, describes the second one, and continues :

" The interior was burnt in 1649, Pry_nne says by accident, but it was fired by Sectarians. In the Mercurius Politicus, Feb. 14-21, 1661, the building, with the ground thereunto belonging, was advertised ' to be lett to be built upon,' and it is described as standing between ' Whitecross 'Street and Golden Lane,' the avenue now known as Playhouse Yard."

ALAN STEWART.

I think Sir Walter Besant made a mistake. Mr. W. J. Lawrence, in ' The Elizabethan Playhouse and Other Studies ' (1912), p. 26, says of this playhouse :

" Unroofed, brick theatre ; erected on site of older house, c. 1623 ; dismantled in 1649, and never afterwards used as a playhouse ; serving as a secret conventicle in November, 1682 ; later used as a brewery. For exterior view in final stage, see Wilkinson's ' Londina Illustrata.' "

A. R. BAYLEY.

NATIONAL FLAGS : THEIR ORIGINS (12 S. ii. 289, 358, 455). The little Jaibliography on the subject contributed by MR. SPARKE is of value, but the remarks of L. L. K. and J. DE 13. SMITH seem hardly conclusive.

The blue and white flag of modern Greece is certainly older than 1832. It is supposed to be the flag, or " standard of rebellion," raised by Bishop Germanos of Patras in 1821 (March 25), which, according to a Greek acquaintance of mine, is referred to in a modern Greek school-hymn, in words some- thing like the following : O Child of Germanos * Banner beautiful ! Godchild of the Panagia, compassionate and

merciful !

Blue and white are the colours of the B.V.M. or Panagia.

The national flag of the Greek Republic (1821-33) was, presumably, the blue flag with a white cross now used as the naval flag of Greece, and considering the Russian influence in the Levant of those days, it is presumable that the blue and white naval flag of the great Slav race may have had

something to do with its design. The stripes may have been copied from the " star- spangled banner." The blue and white

tinctures" of Bavarian heraldry could have little to do with the national colours they happened to resemble each other by a mere coincidence.

A vulgar legend has it that Miaoulis, the famous popular hero of the Greek revolution, being asked to make a flag for his people, tore up his shirt (white) and breeches (blue) and pieced them together for the purpose.

What I chiefly want to find out is if there is any mediaeval or earlier history of the Greek flag. What were the " colours " of Byzantium ? We hear of the factions of " blues and whites " opposed to the " reds and greens," up to the seventh century. Were these the ' colours " surviving amongst Greek Christians and Turkoman Moslems in the eighteenth and nineteenth centimes ?

The American flag (according to ' Cham- bers's Encyclopaedia ') appears to originate in our old English " colonial flag " of red and white stripes, the " jack " in the corner replaced by the stars, and dates from an Act of Congress in 1808. The old flag referred to is still' flown by the Eastern Telegraph Co. as their " house flag."

G. J., F.S.A.

SCOTCH UNIVERSITIES : UNDERGRADUATES' GOWN (12 S. ii. 469). Students at the University of Glasgow have, if not always, at all events from an early date, been in the habit of wearing red gowns. In 1634 Charles I., in a letter to the Archbishop, writes that members of the College should attend services in the Cathedral " in their gowns," and should also wear their academic habits in the University, and in the streets. In 1642 the Visitation from the General Assembly directed that every student should have a Bible, and wear a gown. The Com- missioners of the Visitation of 1664 enjoined masters and students to wear their gowns in College, and students to do so in the street as well. In 1696 students were required to wear red gowns constantly during the session, and the masters to wear black gowns. See ' A History of the University of Glasgow,' by James Coutts passim. (Glasgow, James MacLehose & Sons, 1909.) In modern days the red gown \\as only worn by students of tin- Faculty of Arts. Those who attended the faculties of Divinity, Medicine, and Law were not supposed to wear it. The enforcement of the rule was not very strict in some classes, a good deal depending on the views of the Professors.