Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/104

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL JAN. 31, 1903.

secours des Chevaliers, aurait contraint Osman & se rembarquer en toute hate. Ce serait a cette occasion, disent ces historiens, et Bossuet avec eux, que la Maison de Savoie aurait adopt6 cette deyis. du Collier de 1'Annonciade : F. E. R. T., qu'ils tra- duisent ainsi : Fortitudo ejus jRhodum tenuit. Cette version, dans la force classique du mot, nous parait un peu hasardee. Dans un sens plus large, elle rencontre des difficultes plus serieuses. En effet, pendant la periode de 1308 & 1310, Amedee V. de Savoie assistait au couronnenient d'Edouard III., roi d'Angleterre ; intervenait en Irlande entre ce dernier et Philippe le Bel, qui demandait satisfaction pour 1'insulte faite k Isabelle sa fille, et se trouvait a Rome pour le couronnement de Henri VII., du- quel il recevait 1'investiture d'Asti et d'ivree. Comment au milieu de tant d'e"v6nements, dont les premiers en Angleterre et au Nord de la France, Amedee V. aurait-il pu trouver le temps n^cessaire pour une expedition lointaine jusqu'i 1'Ile de Rhodes? En outre, il est incontestable que cette devise etait dej celle des ancetres d'Amedee, puis- qu'on pouvait la lire sur leurs tombeaux et entre autres sur le collier d'un chien sculpt^ sur le mausolee de Thomas II. son frere, Comte de Mau- rienne, et ensuite de Piemont par la cession que lui fit de ce comt6 son frere Amedee IV. Louis de Savoie, Baron de Vaud, mort en 1301, portait dans sa monnaie plus de dix ans avant qu'Osman eut attaqu6 les Chevaliers, ce mot : F E R T ; mais les lettres ne sont pas s6parees par des points."

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

The following quotation from Nash's ' Wor- cestershire,' vol. ii. p. 365n. (1782), is to the point :

" Sir Richard Musard, Knt., was the only English- man who, among fourteen persons some princes, others persons of great eminence were elected into the Order of the Knights of the Annuntiation in the kingdom of Savoy. They joined with the Knights Hospitalers in the conquest of Rhodes on the Feast of the Annuntiation, A.D. 1310. The ensign of this order was a collar of gold, whereupon was interlaced in the manner of a true lover's knot these four letters, F. E. R. T., that is, Fortitudo ejus

Rhodum tenuit Others have thus interpreted

these initials, Frappez, entrez, rompez tout. The king of Sardinia is sovereign of the order."

BERNARD P. SCATTERGOOD.

Moorside, Far Headingley, Leeds.

SIR JOHN DE ODDYNGESLES (9 th S. x. 387), Dugdale (p. 343, Thomas's edition) has a table of the Odinsells family, Long Itch- ington branch.

Hugh died 33 Edward I, 1304-5.

(a) John died 10 Edward III., 1336-7.

(6) John died 27 Edward III, 1353-4. Married Aruicia, daughter of Roger Corbet.

(c) John died 4 Richard II., 1380-1. Mar- ried Alicia, daughter of John St. John.

(d) John died 5 Henry IV., 1403-4.

(a) was born in 1276-7, (b) in 1312-3, (c, in 1337-8, and was consequently only four at the time of the robbery.

(6) was outlawed in 1351-2 "for divers feloneys and seditions," of which the Cannock

Wood adventure would appear to have been one.

(c) was indicted for a crime of violence 1357-8, but afterwards became a reputable magistrate. He would seem to have been the holder of Overhall and Cavendish.

Of the other branches of the Odinsells lamily, one had assumed the name of Limesie Defore 1342, and the other, the Solihull oranch, never had a John.

Their wives' names may help to identify (b) and (c). P. E. MARTINEAU.

Solihull, Warwickshire.

SHAKESPEARE'S SEVENTY - SIXTH SONNET (9 th S. x. 125, 274, 412, 495, 517). If MR. LEEPER will consult p. 18 of Mr. Sidney Lee's 4 Life of Shakespeare,' to which he refers me, he will find that it is not Aubrey who is responsible for the statement that Shake- speare was "a butcher's apprentice." What Mr. Lee says is :

"Probably in 1577, when he was thirteen, he was enlisted by his father in an effort to restore his decaying fortunes It is possible that John's ill- luck at the period compelled him to confine himself to this occupation [a butcher's], which in happier days formea only one branch of his business. His son may have been formally apprenticed to him. An early Stratford tradition describes him as ' a butcher's apprentice. 3 "

The authority given for this is not Aubrey, but notes by John Dowdall taken in 1693-. Mr. Lee adopts the tradition, and although,, like most of his other "facts " regarding the personal history of Shakespeare, his state- ments are clothed with "probably," "pos- sible," and " may have been," of which there- are sco res in the 'Life,' the "fact" is accepted! by him with the same facility as are all his- other imaginative "facts" regarding the personality of the Stratford Shakespeare. GEORGE STRONACH..

MR. STRONACH'S treatment of Ben Jonsoo does not seem to be justifiable by any canon of criticism. MR. STRONACH assumes that- there was a conspiracy of concealment, and! that Bacon made " the simple and guileless; Ben Jonson " a participator in it. Now there- is not an atom of evidence to prove that such a conspiracy ever existed, and it may be remarked that conspirators do not, as a rule, take " simple and guileless " people into their confidence ; and, in order to justify the assumption of a conspiracy, MR. STRONACH practically says to Ben Jonson, "When your statements agree with my theory, I will believe them, but when they don't, I won't." 1 If Jonson attacked Shakspere during his life- time, and uttered and published warm eulogies of him after Shakspere's death, the only