Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/187

 i28.m.MAKCHio,i9i7.] NOTES A$V QUERIES.

181

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1917.

CONTENTS. No. 63.

NOTES : Fieldingiana, 181 Inscriptions in Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street, 183 Foreign Books of Fortune, 184 A Riming Will, 185 Army Casualties " Cadua." 186 Desecration of Sunday Synonyms for "News." 187.

QUERIES : Lydia Touchet Titles " Baron " and " Lord," 187 Colloquial Similes Isaac D'Israeli : Parisian San- hedrimLast Earl of Mountrath, 188 Reference Wanted Creusot John Tickers First Steamer to America Bristol Channel Frozen Over, 189.

REPLIES : Gambardella, 189 English Army List, 190 Saying attributed to Cardinal Pole Music to Song of Christina Rossetti Heraldic Query : Salamander, 192 Cassell's 'Robinson Crusoe,' 194 Capt. Ross and the Gluckst ul Mews and Mildmay Families Authors Wanted Officers' " Batmen," 195 Shelley and the Abb Barrnel's Work on Secret Societies, 196 Legend of the Magi Butler's ' Analogy ' Bevis Marks, 197 Portraits in Stained Glass Admirals Hood, 199.

NOTES ON BOOKS: 'The Monks of Westminster' Reveiws and Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.

FIELDINGIANA. (See 12 S. i. 483 ; ii, 441.)

ni.

1. THE design of the author's benefit ticket for Fielding's ' Pasquin ' is said to be Hogarth's, mainly because it purports to be signed by him. F. G. Stephens, in the ' British Museum Catalogue of Satires,' vol. iii., p. 186, writes:

"It represents a stage scene, " the background comprising a colonnade, from the respective wings of which a tight-rope is stretched. On this rope-dancers are performing and holding their balancing poles ; an ape sits astride of the rope on our right."

Mr. Wheatley in his ' Hogarth's London ' {Constable, 1909) refers to this ticket at p. 336 :

" The inscription on it is ' The Author's Benefit Pasquin. At ye Theatre in the Hay- market.' On S. Ireland's copy is written in Fielding's handwriting, ' Tuesday. April 25th. Boxes.' "

He adds that the authenticity of this ticket, as Hogarth's work, has been doubted. ^

Were the handwriting in fact Fielding's, it would be strong evidence of its genuine- ness, for he would be no party to circulating tickets to which Hogarth's name was falsely

affixed ; consequently the following three points may be worth recording :

(a) A comparison of the writing on the ticket with undoubted Fielding manuscript establishes that Fielding never wrote the letter d as in the word Tuesday, nor made the figure 5 as in the date. Fielding's 5s are very characteristic.

(6) That April 25, 1736, when worked out by the Perpetual Calendar, falls on a Sunday, and not on a Tuesday, and see Gent. Mag. 1736, p. 230.

(c) That an examination of the La Treille Theatrical Manuscripts shows that the Haymarket Theatre was closed from April 20 to 27, 1736, and see Qent. Afagr.,1736, p,234.

If, then, the benefit ticket be a forgery, is the Pasquin cartoon, reproduced in Miss Godden's ' Memoir of Henry Fielding ' (Sampson Low, 1910) at p. 64, and signed " W. Hogarth," which it resembles in many details, in any better case ? Miss Godden notes that the signature is doubtful.

2. Lord Glenconner's picture ' The Green- Boom, Drury Lane,' attributed to Hogarth, is generally accepted as that master's work. The difficulty this celebrated canvas raises is the identity of the seven persons portrayed. Six names are on the frame. Spranger Barry, at full length, occupies the centre, and stands three-quarter back with face in profile, while his six associates, grouped serni- circularly, of whom five are seated, turn towards him. The two ladies to Barry's left are given as Miss Pritchard and her mother, Mrs. Hannah Pritchard ; the two players, on his extreme right, in dramatic pose, James Quin and Miss Lavinia Fenton ; while of the two figures in the background, much hidden from view by Barry's large frame and richly laced coat, the one with face averted is stated to be Fielding, the other, who converses with him, being unnamed.

The picture, which has been several times exhibited, is well reproduced in Miss Godden's ' Memoir ' (supra, p. 86), and still more excellently in Mr. Austin Dobson and Sir Walter Armstrong's ' Hogarth,' p. 84 (Heine- mann, 1902).

The quantum of reliance to be placed on the legend will, as regards Fielding, not be uninfluenced by the accuracy of identification of the other portraits, and a consideration of the attributed names begets a choice of dilemmas.

(a) The inclusion of Miss Pritchard in- dicates that the picture was painted, at earliest, in 1756, when she made her debut