Page:Notes and Queries - Series 1 - Volume 1.djvu/203



13.]

Domingo Lomelyn, Jester to Henry VIII., by Edward F. Rimbault 193
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Marlowe and the Old Taming of a Shrew 194

Beetle Mythology 194

Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Margaret's, Westminster, by Rev. M. Walcott 195

Notes on Cunningham's London, by E. F. Rimbault 196

Old Painted Glass 197

Ælfric's Colloquy, by S. W. Singer 197

Logographic Printing 198

Memorial of Duke of Monmouth's Last Days 198

—

—Including :—



Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 206

Books and Odd Volumes wanted 207

Notices to Correspondents 207

Advertisements 207

Shakespeare, in the Second Part of Henry IV. act v. sc. 3., makes Silence sing the following scrap:—

And Nash, in his Summers Last Will and Testament, 1600 (reprinted in the last edition of Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. xi. p. 47.), has

T. Warton, in a note in vol. xvii. of the Variorum Shakespeare, says, "Samingo, that is San Domingo, as some of the commentators have observed. But what is the meaning and propriety of the name here, has not yet been shown. Justice Silence is here introduced as in the midst of his cups; and I remember a black-letter ballad, in which either a San Domingo or a Signior Domingo, is celebrated for his miraculous feats in drinking. Silence, in the abundance of his festivity, touches upon some old song, in which this convivial saint, or signior, was the burden. Perhaps, too, the pronunciation is here suited to the character." I must own that I cannot see what San Domingo has to do with a drinking song. May it not be an allusion to a ballad or song on Domingo, one of King Henry the Eighth's jesters?

None of the commentators have noticed this, but I think my suggestion carries with it some weight.

In the Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry the Eighth (published by Sir H. Nicolas, in 1827), are many entries concerning this Domingo, most of which relate to payments of money that he had won from the king at cards and dice. He was evidently, as Sir Harris Nicolas observes, one of King Henry's "diverting vagabonds," and seems to have accompanied his majesty wherever he went, for we find that he was with him at Calais in 1532. In all these entries he is only mentioned as Domingo; his surname, and the fact of his being a Lombard, we learn from Skelton's poem, mentioned above.

The following story, told of Domingo, occurs in Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Harington's Treatise on Playe, 1597, printed in the Nugæ Antique, edit. Park, vol. i. p. 222.:—

"The other tale I wold tell of a willlnge and wise loss I have hearde dyversly tolde. Some tell it of Kyng Phillip and a favoryte of his; some of our worthy King Henry VIII. and Domingo; and I may call it a tale; becawse perhappes it is but a tale, but thus they tell it:—The kinge, 55 eldest hand, set up all restes, and discarded flush; Domingo, or Dundego (call him how you will), helde it upon 49, or som such game; when all restes were up and they had discarded, the kinge threw his 55 on the boord open, with great latter, supposing the game (as it was) in