Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/40

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I. JAN. 8, '98.

us, though its bearers have fallen from their ancestor's high position. Among a host of other references I have, the following may be of use to PELOPS : Carthew's ' Launditch ' and 'W. Bradenham'; L'Estrange's 'Official Lists'; Kirkpatrick's 'Religious Orders'; Martin's 'Thetford'; ' Cressingham Court Rolls '; Rye's ' N. Erpingham,' ' Freemen of Norwich," Norfolk Fines,' 'Holt Inscriptions,' and 'Happing Inscriptions'; Norris's 'MS. Pedigrees'; Chancery Proceedings, 1558-79; the County Polls of 1714, 1734, and 1768; and the Norwich City Polls of 1714, 1734, and 1768. There are many of the name still both in county and city, e. g., Town Councillor Mallett, of Norwich, one of the best athletes the county has produced. WALTER RYE. Frognal House, Hampstead.

A branch of this Norfolk family lived in Yarmouth from 1775 to 1802. William Mallett, a brewer, died in 1776, leaving two sons, Wil- liam Langham, who died in 1779, and Joshua, who died in 1781. The latter only left issue two daughters, who both died young and unmarried, and the family became extinct in 1802 (Palmer's 'Perlust. of Great Yarmouth,' vol. ii. p. 171). It is suggested that the original spelling was Malet, an old Suffolk surname. W. B. GERISH.

Hoddesdon, Herts.

These Malletts are now represented by the Peytons and Dashwoods, derived from Wil- liam Malet, of Peyton Hall. They originated with William Malet, Lord of Greville, and one branch, starting from Robert Malet de Ufford, ended in the male line with William, second Earl of Suffolk, who died 1381 s.p., leaving his titles in abeyance. A. HALL.

BROWNING'S 'THE RING AND THE BOOK,' X. 1375-80 (8 th S. xii. 307, 416). I thank MR. C. B. MOUNT very much for his note at second reference. His suggestion, that "which" is understood before "would confound me else" in 1. 1376, has quite removed the perplexity which the punctuation of the passage had caused me. If Browning had only con- descended to write,

I can believe this dread machinery

Of sin and sorrow, 't would confound me else,

Designed, &c.,

all would have been plain.

I cannot see, as MR. MOUNT seems to do. anything perplexing in the parenthetical clause, "all pain at most expenditure of pain," &c. I connect it thus: "I can believe this dread machinery of sin and sorrow, I can believe all pain, designed to evolve the moral qualities of man." The absolute need of pain in this present life, viewed as moral

discipline, was a favourite theme with Browning, e. </., see 'Mihrab Shah' in 'Ferishtah's Fancies.' 'Ferishtah's Fancies' was the first of Browning's works which I read. When afterwards I read him through, from 'Pauline' onwards in chronological order, it was delightful to trace the onward and up- ward steps by which he reached at last the lofty heights of wisdom attained in'Ferishtah.' Even in 'Pauline' we can see him "Dervish, though yet undervished." and " call him so no less beforehand "; when he wrote, for instance, thus :

When spring comes

With sunshine back again, like an old smile, And the fresh waters and awakened birds And budding woods await us, I shall be Prepared, and we will question life once more, Till its old sense shall come renewed by change, Like some clear thought which harsh words veiled

before ;

Feeling God loves us, and that all which errs Is but a dream which death will dissipate.

R. M. SPENCE, M.A. Manse of Arbuthnott, N.B.

Unless I am greatly mistaken, both MR. SPENCE and MR. MOUNT miss the point of this passage, and their proposed readings give a meaning quite different from Brown- ing's^ The Pope speaks ; he has iust said that in spite of the sin and misery there is in the world his faith in God still stands ; but, he goes on, "else" that is, were it not so, did his faith not stand "I could believe this dread machinery of sin and sorrow would confound me this machinery devised as all pain is devised, at most expenditure of pain on His part who devised it to evolve the moral qualities of man." That I interpret aright the parenthetic clause which puzzles MR. MOUNT is clear from what follows :

To make him love in turn, and be beloved,

Creative and self-sacrificing too,

And thus eventually God-like.

The idea of the passage is reproduced in Mr. Illingworth's fine essay on ' The Problem of Pain' in ' Lux Mundi.' C. C. B.

The statement which MR. MOUNT takes

from the 'Agamemnon' has an -illustration

in Herodotus, in the speech of Croesus to

Cyrus (i. 207): TO, Se JUCH

'

a^a/HTa, txa^mtara yeyo'i/ee. The variant in the MS. F. (Gaisf.) is still more emphatic : TO, Se pot TT 0.6 TI {JLO.ro. ra eoi/ra apia-ra )Lia077/zaTa eyeyovce. ED. MARSHALL, F.S.A.

SIR CHARLES SEDLEY (8 th S. iii. 388; xii. 485). From some notes made many years ago, I find that Sir Charles Sedley, "Bart., of Southfleet, Kent, and St. Giles-in-the- Fields, Middlesex," died at Hampstead (Pro-