Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/183

 12 S. VI. APRIL 24 1920.1 NOTES AND QUERIES.

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rridiculed by Latin story-tellers in the Middle Ages, when the former in coming to England attempted to make themselves understood in English. The following is a quotation from ' Giraldus Cambrensis,' Opera I., Preface, p. Ixii, note (Rolls Series, ed. J. S. Brewer, M.A., London, Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts, 1861) :

" Latin story-tellers in the Middle Ages are fond of exposing the Welshman's ignorance of English. Here is one : Three Welshmen resolved to travel into England, but being ignorant of the language of the country, they resolved to divide between them the pains of mastering the necessary vocabulary. One was to say : ' We three Welsh- men ' ; the second : ' For a penny in the purse ' ; the third : ' All right.' This stock of English they supposed would be sufficient to meet all the -exhorbitant demands of tradesmen and hotel- keepers ; and thus furnished, they started on their travels. They had not proceeded far when they found on the highway the body of a man who had been lately murdered. As they stood pitying his misfortune, the Hue and Cry overtook them. 4 Who did this ? ' exclaimed the leader of the quest. ' We three Welshmen,' was the ready -answer. ' What for ? ' ' For a penny in the purse,' chimed in the second. ' Then you shall all be hanged.' ' All right,' exclaimed the third."

This story is, as regards plot, substantially the same as that told by des Periers.

JOSEPH J. MACSWEENEY. Howth, co. Dublin.

BAYLE'S ' DICTIONARY ' : CROMWELL FAMILY. It is not often that one finds the learned Bayle making a mistake in his famous book ; but in his article on ' Xenophanes ' (Note D.) he has a marginal reference to Dr. "Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, in which it is stated that he married a sister of Cromwell, by whom he had a daughter who became wife of Dr. Tillotson. Wilkins married Robina, Cromwell's sister, no doubt ; but she was the widow of Canon Peter French, 1>y whom she had a daughter Elizabeth, who Tsecame the wife of Tillotson she was therefore step -daughter, not daughter, of the Bishop. (I quote the English transla- tion.) J. F. F.

Dublin.

JOHN FBEE, D.lX Foster's' Alumni Oxonienses ' contains the following :

" Free, John, s. John, of St. Michael's, Oxford irieb. ; Ch. Ch., matric. Mar. 27, 1727, aged 15. B.A. 1730, M.A. 1733 ; Hertford Coll., B. and D.D.. School, Southwark."
 * 1744 ; head-master of St. Olave's Grammar

Dr. Free subsequently held the rectory of .St. Mary's, Newington Butts. He published various works, and amongst them in 1766 " A Plan for founding in England, at the expense of a great Empress, a Free Uni-

versity, &c." On this The Monthly Review, vol. xxxv., p. 472, has this comment :

" Dr. Free having learnt that her Majesty of Eussia hath several times sent some of her subjects for education to the University of Oxford, where they can never be admitted as regular

scholars proposes that the said Empress shall,

with the assistance of him, the said Dr. Free, found a free University at Newington Butts, which he thinks the most proper situation, and gives his reasons for so thinking : and certainly no place can be more convenient for the Doctor, because he is already settled there ; and the Dover coach passes through the village, and sets down passengers at the sign of the Elephant and Castle. The plan of the proposed seminary is here particularly set down ; and then comes the proposed liturgy in three languages [English, Latin, and French], for the use of this royal college ; in which all Jews, Turks, Heretics, and Infidels may join without the least scruple of conscience, as there is not a word of Christianity in it."

Dr. Free was still alive in 1786, but his extraordinary project never materialized. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

0$ items.

We must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

SHAKESPEARE SIGNALS ?

A WELL-KNOWN Shakespearian with an hereditary reason for taking a special interest in the First Folio, CAPT. JAGGABD, has suggested my submitting to ' N. & Q.' certain traces of sub -surf ace signalling discovered by me in a First Folio com- mendatory poem.

The (poem is that initialled "I. M." the one which, in properly bound copies of the First Folio, is that placed next before the plays.

In the second line, which runs : " From the Worlds-Stage to the Graves-Tyring- roome," the absurd hyphens suggest that here might be a fllum labyrinthi. The repetition of the first word of the poem, "WEE," as the first word of the third line is another arguable clue to a cryptogram, as conceivably marking off the first three rows of words, or of their numerical values, for some purpose. The eight lines or chess- board depth of the poem, provides yet another hint for those suspicious of sub- surface signalling.

Discarding the superfluous hyphens so as to get only lexicon words, I worked out the word numerical values according to various Elizabethan letter-number codes. And I