Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/124

 100 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vn. JULY 31, 1920. -ambition was to sing of war : his course has led 'him on from one thing to another till he has ' come to his present scheme of a poetical castigation of vice. Markham was called by somebody " the first English hackney writer." The quality thereby "implied is well-marked in ' The Newe Metamor- phosis.' The lifelessness of the mere bookmaker 'lies heavy upon it : its very length attests habit and weariness both too strong for control. So 'far as we have seen them even the attacks upon the Church of Rome show but a whipped-up violence. The best passages, if any can be called i)est, have to do with country scenes and ways. Here, again, the identification justifies itself. We think that J. M. has, to some small extent, hypnotised his careful and scholarly editor who gives him credit for good qualities which we are unable to discern in him. The twenty-four arguments which we are invited twice over to admire as evidence of the author's "amazing" variety hardly strike us as exhibiting variety in any high degree. Nor have we dis- covered any passages to which we felt the words " pungent " or " nicely etched " could well be applied. We agree that obscurity and un- couthness are not to be charged upon J. M. ; but that we should say, is chiefly because those particular imperfections do not assort with the hackney writer's mind. Ovid is supposed to be J". M.'s " patterne " : apart from some of the incidents related in the tales, no pattern was ever more distant from its cony. It is interesting to compare J. M.'s^doggerel slightly amplified and enriched doggerel, but doggerel all the same with a passage of his brother's prose which appeared in our columns at 12 S. vi. 253 (Mav 29) kindly contributed bv Colonel Leslie in elucidation of " Master-gunner." Francis Markham rolls out interminable sentences, but they have the force and the charm of some- thing really intended ; they are curiously clear and impressive in their first aim of civi'-ig in- struction, and though they do not attain to be classic examples of beauty of rhythm they make a fine and rich example of Elizabethan working prose. work ' A Helpe to Discourse,' 1634, has been found a full quotation of King Henry's apos- trophe to Sleep. Of the authors from whom quotations are made Thomas Durfey furnishes the greatest number, several conspicuous enough to have been noted before, one might have thought. One has been gleaned from ' Hudibras '; one from Roger L'Estrange's The Observator, and two with explanatory notes by the author from Henry Higden's ' Modern Essay on the Thirteenth Satyr of Juvenal,' 1686, The quotations from anonymous works are numerous and interesting including ' Not Marble, nor the Gilded Monument ' much garbled and found in the dedication of ' Eromena ; or, The Noble Stranger : a Novel ' (1683). A list of the works of Shakespeare repre- sented in the allusions might have been added to the Index. Some Seventeenth Centum Allusions to and his Works Not Hitherto Collected. (London, Dobell, 3s. net.) THIS collection of allusions to Shakespeare is composed of examples not included in. ' The Shakspere Allusion Book, MCMIX.' Many have, however, already appeared in our columns. We agree with the publishers in thinking it worth while to print them all together. The earliest comes from William Barksted's ' Hiren or the Faire Greek ' 1611. " O Love too sweet, in the digestion sower ! " The latest from Ward's " Metamorphos'd Beau' 1700: "Then let the stricken deer, <S:c." In the quotation " Give Sorrow words," &c., on the title-page of 'Urania: A Funeral Elegv ' (on the death of Queen Mary), 1695, the publishers have found a title-page allusion by three years earlier than any hitherto known. Falstaff's appearances largely out- number those of any other character counting among these mention of ' The Merry Wives of Windsor,' which is common. In an^anonymous tn EDITORIAL communications should be addressed tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- ishers " at the Office, Printing House Square, London, E.C.4. ; corrected proofs to the Athenaeum Press, 11 and 13 Bream's Buildings, E.G. 4. IT is requested that each note, query, or reply 36 written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. WHEN sending a letter to be forwarded to another contributor correspondents are requested to put in the top left-hand corner of the envelope etter refers. WHEN answering a query, or referring to an article which has already appeared, correspondents ire requested to give within parentheses m mediately after the exact heading the numbers )f the series, volume, and page at which the con- .ribution in question is to be found. CORRESPONDENTS repeating queries are requested o head the second communication "Duplicate." MR. ALBERT WADE writes in re ' Heraldry of Fishes ' (ante, p. 29): " If XOLA would care to send me a stamped addressed envelope, <;/o The Editor, I should be pleased to forward him a reprint of an article from The Antiquary on the subject." SUBSCRIPTION RATE for Twelve Months, including Volume Indexes and Title- Pages, 1 10s. 4d., post free. B~ OOKS. ALL OUT - OF - PRINT BOOKS supplied, no matter on what subject. Please state wants Purohas (-S ) Hakluytus Posthumous, 5 vols., folio, calf 1625 150 BAKER'8 Great Bookshop 14-16 John Bright Street, Birmingham ' r pHE AUTHOR'S HAIRLESS PAPER-PAD. The LEADENHALL PRE*S, Ltd., Publishers and Printers, 9-47 GARDEN ROW. ST. GEOBGE8 ROAD, SoOTHWARK, S.E.I. Contains hairless paper, over which the pen slips with perfect freedom. Ninepence etch. 8s. per dozen, ruled or plain PcokeC size, 5*. per dozen, ruled or plain. SriCKPHAST is a clean white Paste and not a messy liquid.
 * p " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' "Adver-
 * he number of the page of ' N. & Q.' to which the