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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. JUNE ao, 1900.

lee on 5 June. The most picturesque feature was a procession in which costumes of fifty years ago were reproduced with more or less success. In addition there were decorated cars, the chief of which was devoted to the "Queen of Beauty" and her six maids of honour. The visitors numbered 7,000, which, looking to the fact that Wenlock is a small and inaccessible place, is a very satisfactory attendance. CHARLES HIATT.

ACTRESSES. An early mention in our dramatic literature of actresses, though not as appearing on our own stage, is to be found in Ford's 'Love's Sacrifice,' III. ii., which was printed in 1633 :

Not long since

I saw in Brussels, at my being there, The duke of Brabant welcome the archbishop Of Mentz with rare conceit, even on a sudden Perform'd by knights and ladies of his court, In nature of an antick ; which methought, (For that I ne'er before saw women-anticks) Was for the newness strange, and much commended.

ALFRED F. BOBBINS.

SIR THOMAS WILSON. Of the death of this official the biographer in the ' Dictionary ' is content to state that "he died some time before 31 July, 1629," as letters of adminis- tration were then granted his widow. This statement might very easily have been ren- dered more exact. " On 17 July, 1629, Thomas Wilson Equis Auratus sep. fuit in Ecclesia" is entered duly in the parish register of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. From the church- wardens' accounts of the same date we know that the burial fees amounted to 2?. 5s. 6<, an expensive burial for the time ; and that on 7 May, 1630, the churchwardens " received of the Lady Wilson, for various Parish dues in Arrears by her late husband Sir Thomas, 31. 14s." The latter entry shows that he was a resident in the parish.

CHARLOTTE CARMICHAEL STOPES.

AN OLD CURE FOR SHINGLES. In 1897 a correspondent spoke of the milky secretion exuded by the toad as the specific for shingles in South America. (See 8 th S. xii. 428.) The following is from "A Supplement to the Queen-like Closet, or a Little of Everything. Presented to all Ingenious Ladies, and Gentle- women. By Hannah Woolley. London: 1684":

" For the Shingles. lake a Cat, and cut off her Ears, or her Tail, and mix the Bloud thereof with a little new-Milk, and anoint the grieved place with it Morning and Evening for three davs ; and every night when the Party goes to Bed give her or him two spoonfulls of Treacle-water, to drive out the venom." P. 35.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

DANTE'S HOUSE AT. MULAZZO. The house occupied by Dante at Mulazzo, in Emilia, after his expulsion from Florence, has been lately sold. It was in this house that the poet wrote, it is said, portions of the 'Inferno.' The hopes that the Government would inter- vene to save this interesting building have not been realized. The house was, it appears, knocked down to a Signor Guelfi for the small sum of 2,100 lire, or 84.

The municipality of Mulazzo, which is de- scribed in the text-books as constituting a single autonomous commune, must be a very poor one if it could not afford to purchase this relic of its great poet. The Corporation of Lichfield recently purchased for a larger sum the birthplace of Dr. Samuel Johnson in the market-place of that town, and the English are not a sentimental people.

JOHN HEBB.

Canonbury Mansions, N.

INDEX TO ' NOTES AND QUERIES.' (See ante, p. 413.) Recently I sent an article on the value of the General Indexes of 'N. & Q.' I have now to add an extract from a catalogue of old and curious books on sale at 1, Orange Street, Red Lion Square, just received :

" Notes and Queries Index, General Index to the First Series, vols. 1 to 12, cloth, 35-s.. 1856. One of the most useful and scarcest of the Indexes to this publication."

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers maybe addressed to them direct.

" IRONY." With whom did the phrase " the irony of fate," and its kindred " irony of his- tory," " of time," or " of circumstances," begin ? Quotations before the middle of the nine- teenth century are wanted. In what respect is the " irony of fate " ironical 1 Where is the " covert sarcasm " or " sarcastic laudation," or "mode of speech in which the meaning is contrary to the words'"? Is it that Fate is understood to promise one thing and mock- ingly intends the opposite 1 She held out to Sir Ralph the Rover the malicious pleasure of plaguing the Abbot by silencing the warning bell, but her real intent was that he should tear his hair and curse himself in his despair as he sank by the bell-less rock. But then people do not call the "abuse of the white flag " the " irony of the Boers " ; they are more