Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/345

 9*s. V.APRIL 28, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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any dictionary within my reach. I sent these particulars and inquiry last August to Dr. Murray, Oxford, for his new dictionary, but have had no acknowledgment, and I therefore fall back on the ever-courteous ' N. & Q.'

HENKY SMYTH. Harborne.

DECLARATORY ACT. In 1775 Lord Chatham introduced a Bill for the repeal of this Act. What were its provisions ] H. T. B.

" ESTO PERPETUA." This was the prayer of Father Paul (presumably the historian Father Paolo Sarpi). In what connexion did he use these words? H. T. B.

[A dying apostrophe to his beloved Venice.]

WHATELY AND J. B. PERES. Can you inform me whether any one has noted that Archbishop Whately's ' Historic Doubts con- cerning Napoleon' are anticipated, both in topic and method, by Jean Baptiste Peres, who published in 1817 a little book entitled 'Comrne quoi Napoleon n'a jamais existe.' Pe'res died at Agen in 1840. Possibly the coincidence has been dealt with previously in the columns of 'N. & Q.,' in which case I should be grateful for a reference.

JOHN DE SOYRES.

BREAD AND CHEESE CLUB. About the year 1824 was established, under the leader- ship of Feniinore Cooper, the Bread and Cheese Club, New York. We are told members were admitted by bread and cheese. If during the voting when a name was up for admission any cheese was found on a plate the candidate was rejected. Where can I find a history of this club ?

WILLIAM ANDREWS.

THEBAL. Was he a saint or a devil ? His name, inscribed on amulets, assuaged ab- dominal affections. The cure of colic in the middle ages, and in the middle regions, was his speciality. An interesting paper by Dr. Tille in an early number of Scots Folk-Lore suggests that Thebal is either a transformed Theobald us or a distorted Diabolus, and the writer traces the diabolical descent through diabaulus, deobalus, deobals, and debal to Thebal. But what says ' N. & Q.' ? SENEX.

THE EARL'S PALACE, KIRKWALL, ORKNEY ISLANDS. Can any one give me fuller infor- mation about the above than is contained in Barry's 'History of the Orkneys,' or the ' Journal ' of Sir W. Scott in Lockhart's ' Life of Scott'? I mean information as to the number of rooms, and whether there is any staircase into the vaults from the upper story. FRANCESCA.

AN UNCLAIMED POEM BY BEN JONSON. (9 th S. iv. 491 ; v. 34, 77, 230.)

MR. CURRY'S reply is little to the point- That is a pity, for my argument was wrong, and he should not have left it to me to prove his case for him. A knowledge of Mr. Fleay's work was needed ; the views of Gifford and Whalley may be accepted after verification, not otherwise. I was aware that the plays in the 1616 folio of Jon son ended with the year 1611 ; but I believed that the 'Epigrams,' with which alone we are con- cerned in this discussion, went on to 1614. Gifford gives no help. The extract supplied for my benefit contains two errors (one of which is very serious) and does not touch the question of the 'Epigrams.' In point of fact, the latest possible limit of date for any of these poems is 15 May, 1612, six months before Prince Henry's death, and an analysis of the collection points to a probability that the actual limit is 1611, as in the case of the plays. See the 'Biographical Chronicle of the" English Drama,' vol. i. p. 316, by Mr. F. G. Fleay, who arrives at this result by a minute study of the separate poems with special reference to their dates. The Stationers' Kegister, under 15 May, 1612, enters for John Stepneth "A booke called, Ben Johnson his Epigrams " (Arber, ' Transcript,' vol. iii. p. 485). "Not known," is Mr. Fleay's com- ment. No edition published by Stepneth is either known or likely to be. This is the last entry for which his name appears in the Register, and it must refer to the epigrams collected for the forthcoming folio. Probably Stepneth died at this time, and Stansby (who published the folio) acquired his rights in the matter of the ' Epigrams.' Mr. Fleay's final summary of the folio (Lc. p. 323) is vitally connected with the subject of our discussion :

"There can be little doubt that the entry S.R. 1612, 15 May, marks the conclusion of Jonson's work, and that it would have been followed by a similar entry for the newly printed masks [i.e., 'Prince Henry's Barriers,' 'Oberon,' and 'Love freed from Folly '] and the whole book issued in 1613 ; but Prince Henry (to whom, I think, it was meant to be dedicated) died 1612, 6 Nov., and the publication was put off."

It was, as we know, actually issued in 1616, with five additional masques the only section of the work complete at the time of publication.

This evidence is unanswerable, and I now accept as genuine the poem recovered by Chetwood and MR. CURRY. The folio of 1640