Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/329

 12S. VI. JUNES, 1920.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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almost without exception, mention is made of " commendations," either received or given. So in Act III. sc. iii. of ' Timon ' we find, " commend me to thy honourable, virtuous lord," and " commend me bounti- fully to his good lordship." Middle ton habitually dropped the personal pronoun in the nominative case, as in these instances from ' Timon ' :

takes no account How things go from him. Has only sent his present occasion now.

Must I take the cure on me ? Has much disgraced me in't How fairly this lord strives to appear foul ! takes virtuous copies to be wicked.

If the argument for Middleton be proved, | it is plain that he figures in every act. j Therefore, ' Timon ' cannot be a partnership play : there is too much of Middleton for that. The question remains : Did Shake- 1 speare revise Middleton's work, or Middleton , Shakespeare's ? Everything points to the : conclusion that the original ' Timon ' was an early work of Middleton's, no later, cer- tainly, than ' Michaelmas Term' (1607).! It was probably revised by Shakespeare : some five or six years later. Middleton's work in the play cannot be referred to his \ latest period, for when writing ' The Game at Chess,' and revising ' The Noble Gentle- man,' he had ceased to employ prose, of j which, be it remembered, he must have found a large amount in the last-named play, j written by Beaumont and Fletcher about 1606-8. In conclusion, let it be said that though, in a few cases, the peculiarities noticed may be found in the work of other dramatists, none but Middleton can lay claim to all. WILLIAM WELLS.

THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD. The four hundredth anniversary of the meeting of the sovereigns of England and France on the Field of the Cloth of Gold falls this month. The festivities began on Friday, June 8, and lasted till Sunday, June 24, 1520. The place where Henry and Francis met lay between Guines and Ardres, which towns were respectively the headquarters of the two monarchs, and occupied a great extent of ground. The site, however, may be said to have been at or near Balinghem, a village lying a little to the north of the road between Ardres and Guines. The Carte de 1'Etat-major marks the " Camp dti Drap d'Or," some two or three kilo- metres to the south-west of the village, on

the other side of the road. Bremes, which is sometimes named as the place of the meeting, lies on the road close to Ardres, some four or five kilometres south-east of Balinghem. M. Ardouin-Dumazet, in his ' Voyage en France,' tells how he went out of his way to visit the site of the Field of the Cloth of Go'd, but found nothing but the name on the map. He states that the peasants who live in the vicinity know nothing about the famous meeting of the sovereigns. The site was called Drap d'Or, they said, because of a windmill of that name which formerly stood there !

The field of meeting is only some two or three miles west of the great highway between St. Omer and Calais. On the high- way itself, about two kilometres from Ardres on the St. Omer side, is a site styled " Le Plat d'Or." The name occurs on the Carte de 1'Etat-major, and on an iron sign-post by the roadside. What is the signification of " Le Plat d'Or ? " M. Ardouin-Dumazet does not mention it, and there is no reference to it in the Abbe Dusautoir's ' Guide des Touristes ' in the arrondissement of St. Omer. Regarding the meeting of the sovereigns Abbe Dusautoir says, " C'est a Balinghem que Francois ler et Henri VIII. d' Angle terre se reunirent pour signer la paix," and further on, " La celebre entrevue du Camp du Drap d'Or, en 1520, eut lieu entre Bremes et Campagne." F. H. CHEETHAM.

DEGREES OF " BELOVED "-NESS. When the ' O.E.D.' reaches the word " well- beloved," the editor may be glad to refer to official examples of the exact gradation of royal affection, though he will not be able to cite them in full. The Letters appointing the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Courts (1881, ' Report,' p. 3) begin :

Victoria [etc.] to.... Our Bight trusty and Right entirely-beloved. . . .Archbishop of Canter- bury.... Our Bight trusty and entirely-beloved Cousin, J. A., Marquess of Bath.... Our Bight trusty and Bight well-beloved H.T., Earl of Chichester. . . .Our Bight trusty and well-beloved Councillor, J.P., Baron Penzance,. . . .Our trusty and well-beloved Sir W. C. James, Baronet.

It is to be observed "that the word " beloved " is not applied to the sovereign's son, who in the commission on the Housing of the Working Classes (1884, Pref. to ' Report,' p. 3) is addressed as :

Our Most Dear Son Albert Edward Prince of Wales, Knight of our Most Noble Order of the Garter, Field Marshal in our Army.

Q. V.