Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/537

 9* s. VL DEO. a, loco.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 445 sumtyme Erie Boithvile wes the cheif executour pi the horrible and unworthy murther perpetrat in the persoun of uniquhill King Henry of gude memory, father to our said soverane lord, and the qnenis lauchful husband : sa wes she of the foir- knawlege, counsel!, devis, perswader and com- mander of the said murther to be done, and man- 'enar and fortefear of the exeeutouria thairof." The fourth part of these articles describes vfary's counterfeited "dule," lasting only eight days, instead of forty, and her playing at Seton "one day richt oppinlie in the feildis with the palmall and goii. This conjunction of the two games recalls a recent note in the Interme'diaire (xlii. 695), under the title 'Paille-maille':— " C'iStait un jeu qui devait fort ressembler au jeu de ' golf' ou de la ' crosse' fort en vogue en Angle- terre.—P. Cordier." Some months ago (9th S. v. 207) I drew attention to an Italian professor's quasi- identification of palla-inaglia (^pall-mall) with criamet* and of palla-spayata with golf (" o meglio goff"). May I invite your learned contributor SIGNOE PAOLO BELLEZZA to unbend so far as to tell us the rules of jxilla-spaf/ata, and to explain how palla-corda is played ? MR. H. B. WHEATLEY (4th S. xi. 63) wrote as to pall-mall:— " Unfortunately, we do not possess any rules of the game, but there is reason to believe that it had not much likeness to modern croquet. It was a game scarcely suited for ladies," &c. There is a description of the game, 3rd S. viii. 492 ; and it is referred to in the Inter- me'diaire, i. 339 ; ii. 84, 494, 557 ; iv. 72 ;+ xlii. 577, 695, 749, 788. Probably one of the volumes of the " Badminton Library " may give full details; but I have not been able to consult it. One of your correspondents states that pall-mall was played in an alley of a garden, and, of course, the "feildis" in which Mary Stuart played may have been levelled. An ordinary golf-course seems an unlikely place for a game played by Marie de' Medici and the ladies of the French Court. It would be of interest to have a connected account of the game; and I hope one of vour readers will find time to examine the above and other sources of information, and com- municate the result to you, so that we may "visualize" the conduct of Mary, which so grievously outraged the feelings of the com- cricket; pall-mall has, I understand, mallets not unlike croquet-mallets, and hoops, or, at least, a hoop. t I take those references from the 'Table Generate,' piler (or compilers) of the ' Book of Articles' in 1586. Q. V. JoHNBRiGHTOB'CBANFOED.'—Inthecurrent issue of the Anglo-Saxon Review Sir Wemyss Reid tells the following story of John Bright: " Admonished by a daughter for lack of care of his personal appearance, he said, 'It does not matter; nobody knows me in London, so I can dress as I like. 'But you dress just as badly in Rochdale,' was the reply. ' Yes, my dear; but in Rochdale everybody knows me, so it matters still less how I dress there.'" The idea of this story is, I think, un- doubtedly taken from ' Cranford,'whose ladies were wont to observe :— "' What does it signify how we dress here at Cranford, where everybody knows us?" And if they go from home, their reason is equally cogent, What does it signify how we dress here where nobody knows us ?'" It is extremely probable that John Bright being a Lancashire man, would be a reader of Mrs. Gaskell's works, and adapted the idea therefrom; but as the two were contem- poraneous, it is possible, though scarcely probable, that Mrs. Gaskell had heard the story of John Bright. In either case, more definite or authentic information would be interesting. T. A. LAMB. Leeds. BEN JONSON'S SIGNATURE.—In Mr. W. C. Hazlitt's article on Ben Jonson in Quaritch's ' Dictionary of Book Collectors' he says :— ' It is both remarkable and sad that of the few volumes from his shelves which have descended to us, the autograph attestation has in several in- stances been mutilated or effaced for some unknown reason." Has any reason ever been suggested to account for this 1 The Royal College of Physicians possesses three volumes of Maroloiss works (oblong 4to., La Haye, 1614-16) from the library of Ben Jonson. In the 'Opera Mathematica' the signature has been roughly torn out, leaving not a trace behind. In the 'Qeo- metrie' it is also torn out. but remains are left of an "S," a "B," and an "n." In the ' Perspective' it has not been torn out, but remains intact. At the top right-hand corner of the title-page is written, tanqua Explo- rator "; at the bottom right-hand corner, Su Ben: Jonsonij." The book wasclosed before the ink was dry (unfortunately not the case with the other two volumes), so that there is a rough inverted reproduction of it on the fly- leaf. The signature is similar to that men- tioned by MR. GEORGE STEPHENS (3rd S. viii. 403), as in the above instance also the Greek •- is used. I do not see either Marolois or
 * Presumably this word means croquet, and not