Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/279

 12 S. VI. MAY 22, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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trisyllable, pronounced Cor - yo - les. His ^authority, North's ' Plutarch,' used the same spelling. But in the Second Folio Shake speare, the word is always spelt Coriolus.

H. DAVEY. 89 Montpelier Road, Brighton.

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

CONGREVE'S DRAMATIC WORKS. In pre- paring my new edition of the Dramatic Works of William Congreve I find three .allusions which have until now baffled my 0-esearches, and I should be very grateful if explanatory references. Mv paginal cita- tions are from the popular Mermaid Edition of Congreve, as being the most easily accessible.
 * any reader could give me contemporary or

' Love for Love,' Act II. (p. 225), Sir Samp- son Legend banteringly dubs Foresight the astrologer " Old Fircu." As this is in juxta- position to "old Ftolomee " ; "old Nostro- >damus " ; " old Merlin " ; Fircu is possibly the corrupted name of some astrological writer or legendary wizard, but I should be glad to have the exact reference.

T I** tor Love >' Aet m - (P- 244) Tattle says : I have more vizor-masks to inquire for me than ever went to see the Hermaphrodite or the Naked Prince." Doubtless two frequented shows -of the day. The Hermaphrodite has been traced, but I require some reference to the " Naked iPrmce.

'The Way of the World,' Act V. (p. 407). Mincing says : " You swore us to secrecy upon Messalinas poems," It is more than probable that the allusion is to a real book. I suggest that it was a clandestinely printed collection of loose verse. It does not, however, seem to be recorded, .and I have failed to find any further reference to " Messalina's poems."

' The Way of the World,' Act V. (p. 399) Mrs. Marwood says : "To have my young revellers of the remple take notes, like 'prentices at a con- venticle. It was the custom for " 'prentices " to take notes of the sermon at church in order that -they might retail the heads and substance of the discourse to their masters and mistresses. I had xsollected several references, but my notes on this .point are unfortunately lost. Would anv of your readers oblige me with pertinent passages? I 'believe that Sir Walter Scott has somewhere an .allusion to or a note on the custom.

MONTAGUE SUMMERS, M.A., F.R.S.L.

ST. JOHN'S HEAD ALTAR-SLABS. I believe 'these were portable. Can any one say why they were so called, and are any churches Known to retain them ? A. G. KEALY.

MOORFIELDS. In the eighth (1713) edition of that not uncommon work " The Whigs unmask'd Being the Secret History of the Calf's-Head-Club," &c., there is at p. 99 an allusion of some interest :

" The Whiggish Managers Prosecution of Doctor Sacheverel, provoking the Good People of England to shew their Resentments in pulling down th Meeting-Houses, upon the First of March, in the same year, we have thought fit, in memory of their notable Exploits, to introduce the preceeding Cut, being a lively Representation of the General Attack, which the enrag'd Rabble so successfully made upon Doctor Burgesses Theatre in Rogue- Lane, where the Gallows had the Honour to stand formerly, before Tyburn was erected."

The "Cut " is a full (demy 8vo) page plate representing a paved alley or lane opening into a large open space, divided by posts and rails. On the right a chapel and an adjoining house are being looted and wrecked by a mob. Some of the plunder is in the foreground and a figure having the initials A. P. on his back is bearing a wig and broad-brimed hat fed with boards

towards a bonfire being in the open area. The

If this is accurate the scene is one earliest illustrations available of

background is partly filled in with a line of trees behind a stone wall lined with spectators and a belfry stands on the extreme left. There is no title, but the text " Dr. Bxirgisses Theater " and a new moon is engraved above the trees.

There is, I suggest, presumptive evidence of this scene representing Moorfields, looking towards St. Giles's, Cripplegate the belfry, trees, and wall but I would like to have an authenticated identification. I have failed to identify Rogere's Alley, but am informed " Dr. Burgisses Theater " was in Ropemaker Street, of the

Moorfields, therefore of special interest in the fragmentary bibliography and icono- graphy of that famous locality.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

DAVIDIANS : DAVID GEORGE'S SECT. In Strype's ' Cranmer ' at p. 291 Thomas Becon is quoted as alluding to the above in the reign of Edward VI. What is known of them or their founder ?

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

HARRIS, A SPANISH JESUIT. On May 3, 1788, Dr. James Beattie wrote to Sir William Forbes (Forbes's 'Life of Beattie,' Edin- burgh, 1806), vol ii. p. 228, mentioning " an extraordinary pamphlet " which had just appeared to prove the lawfulness of the slave-trade from the Scriptures, and writes :

" It is the work of a Spanish Jesuit of the name of Harris, who it seems is connected with the slave