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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 B. iv. FEB., IMS.

LETTER LXXIX.

John Smith to RicJiard Edwards. ' (O.C. 3622.)

Decca January 23d 167i Mr Richard Edwards.

Esteemed freind

Yours of date 8th* received 16th present.

Am sorry my Letters met with soe Long a passage. Thank you kindly for your care in provideing and sending my things to Ballasore, which Mr Reade writes hee re- ceived and sent for England.

I writ severall times to Mr Clavell for the Bale Silk Mr March provided for mee, but hee did not deliver it, by which means Im greatly disappointed, and I heare hee hath 2 of my Europe Letters in his custody which hee sends not, nor have I received any answer to any Generall or perticulerf sent him this 5 months. I understand not the meaning of it.

Am sorry you are like to come to a losse for your trouble in tracking the Companys goods, but glad to heare of your advance in Sallary and place, in which wish you much happinesse and prosperity. Am sorry to read you are not well ; hope your Sicknesse will have left you ere this reach your hands.

I have at last Sold our Pepper at 19 rupees, a poore price ; feare there will bee Little or noe proffet. As soone as have oppertunity, shall remitt yotir mony with your Case etca. here, which I intended to have carried with mee if had gone last Shipping. Your successe as well as mine is bad in tradeing here, the Swords beleive will ly as long as the Pepper, here being many arrived. I received the peice TaftaJ ; for its procury thank you. I rest

Your assured freind and servant

JOHN SMITH.

Have writt to Mr Vincent if hee remitt any more mony to pay your 500 Rupees out of it ; you are pardoned.

[Endorsed] To Mr Richard Edwards Merchant in Cassumbuzar.

R. C. TEMPLE. (To be continued.)

letter here given is the only one addressed to Edwards that has been preserved for the year 1671 (ending March 24, 1671/2). After 1670 no further drafts of Edwards 's replies to his correspondents appear to exist.
 * This letter has not been traced. Smith's

t Official or private letters.

% Taffeta. See Letter XIII.

SHAKESPEARIANA.

SHAKESPEARE AND THE BAIXAD. Re- ferring to the Interlude in ' A Midsummer Night's Dream,' Howard Staunton sug- gested that

'' in the rude dramatic performance of these handicraftsmen of Athens, Shakespeare was referring to the plays and pageants exhibited by the trading companies of Coventry, which were celebrated down to his own time, and which he might very probably have witnessed." Variorum Edition, p. 33, ed. Furness.

If, as Staunton suggested, such were the case, it would be interesting to know whether a custom is referred to in the following words spoken by Bottom (IV. i.):

" I will get Peter Quince to write a ballet of this dreame, it shall be called Bottom es Dreame, because it hath no bottome ; and I will sing it in the latter end of a play, before the Duke." Furness's Variorum Edition.

How far these words refer to a dramatic custom facts alone can tell. I find, on examining the Coventry cycle of plays, that ' The Shearmen and Taylors' Pageant ' and 'The Weavers' Pageant' (E.E.T.S., ed. Dr. Hardin Craig) both end with songs that need not of necessity form an integral part of the plays. These songs appear to me to have been written independently by Thomas Mawdrycke and James Hewjrt ; at least their names are associated with the songs. Quince's " ballet " may there- fore have been sung at " the latter end of a play " in accordance with a more or less accepted dramatic custom. It may be suggested, perhaps, that this custom ex- plains in part the meaning of the Clown's song at the end of ' Twelfth Night.' With the exception of Knight, most commentators of the play regard this song as not being Shakespeare's own production. Warburton referred it to " the Players." Farmer con- sidered it had " no other authority than theatrical tradition." Staunton, however, came nearer the truth in considering it as " one of those jigs with which it was the rude custom of the clown to gratify the groundlings upon the conclusion of a play."

The interpretation of a jig as a lyric set to ballad measure and accompanying a dance finds support in references in Eliza- bethan dramatic literature. ' Twelfth Night ' might therefore end with the Clown singing while the players, in whole or in part, dance to the music of his final song.

A pageant given at the reception of Queen Margaret at Coventry, in 1456, ends with a " balet," for there is the following remark referring to the "balet" as given: