Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/55

 T 9“'S.VI.JULr 21.1m1 NOTES AND QUERIES. 41 LONDON, SATUBDA Y. JULY II. 1900. CONTE NTS. - No. 134. NOTES :-Forged Shakespearlana, 41 -The Chinese ln London, 42-Webb, the Swimmer, 43-Addison and Tenny- son-Nelson’s Signal at Trafalgar, 45-Lost Beauty in Architecture - Mural Inscrlptions - “ Translator” - Andre's House at Bath -Acrography, 46-Curious N autlcal Epitaph-‘° The hrst rats,” 47. QUBRIBS :-Deed of Athelstan - “ Bsk - lits ” - General Gordon-Lamb Pamlly, 47-“ Phutatorins " and “ Gastri- pheres ” - De Bruyn - Bolsdanne - Cryptography - St. Patrlck’s Cross-St. Anne's, Blackfrlars-“Hurtllng"- Lady Ogle - Watch Candle - Laton Chartulary, 48 - Frederlck Gilbert, Artist - Walbury Camp - Frost ln August - London Land ln the Seventeenth Century - ‘ The Lost Plelsd ’ - Treble Christian Names - Largest First Issue of a Book, 49. RBPLIES :-Edgett, 49- An Abbot of Furness, b1-Pro- nunciatlon of “ Inundate," 52-“ They say. What say they ? ” &c.-"ln Gordano," 53-Scrope, the Regiclde- Lafontalne’s ‘ Oles de Frere Phllllppe ’-Iron Mines ln Warwickshire-Muggletonlan Writings, 54-John Moore - Registers in France - Football on Shrove Tuesday- ” Spotted negro boy," 55 - “ Hognayle "-Shakespeare md Ciggm, 56-Omar Khayyam-Library Classlhcatlon- Powell, the Pedestrian, 67-‘The Dlspensary '-Harrison Weir on CNA 58. NOTES ON BOOKS :-The ‘ Dictionary of National Blo- graphy ’-‘A New English Dlctlonary ’-Leonarrl’s ‘ Early History of English Poor Relief ’-Cornaro’s ‘Treatise of Tem and Sobrlety ’ perance . Notices to Correspondents. gsm. FORGED SHAKESPEARIAN A. AT p. 367 of the fourth edition of his excel- lent ‘Life of Shakespeare’ Mr. Sidney Lee gives a list of forged documents relating to Shakespeare and his plays, and in this list he includes :- “ 1607. Notes of performances of 'Hamlet' and ‘Richard II.’ by the crews of the vessels of the East India Company’s fleet off Sierra Leone. First rinted in ‘Narratives of Vo es towards the glorth-West 1496-l63l,’ edited bgglfhomas Rundall for the Hakluyt Society, 1849, p. 231, from what Burported to be an exact transcrikt ‘ln the India dice’ of the ‘ Journal of William eeling ’ captain of one of the vessels in the exraedition. lice mg’s manuscript journal is still at t e India Office, but the leaves that should contain these entries are now, and have long been, missing from it.” That no itive proof of the correctness of Mr. Rund)a(:§’s statements is forthcoming has long been known, but I believe this is the first time that the entries quoted by him have been denounced as foggeries; and as Mr. Lee’s great and deserv authority on all matters Shakespearian is likely to secure for this view an unquestioned acceptance, l_ should like to put in a plea on the other su§,rif only in justice to Mr. Rundall. _ . Lee does not give his authority for the statement that the journal which once contained the disputed entries is still at the India Oflice ; but he doubtless derived his information from a subsequent volume of the Hakluyt Society’s series, viz., ‘The Voyages of Sir James Lancaster,’ edited by Mr. (now Sir) Clements Markham, and pub- lished in 1877. A calendar of all the early nautical journals then extant at the India Oilice is included in the volume; and in the course of some general remarks on these the editor (introduction, p. ix), after quoting Mr. Rundall’s statements, goes on to say that the entries in question “ have been abstracted from the manuscript volume since 1849, together with all the pages containing entries between 30 August, 1607, and 19 Feb- ruary, 1607/8.” He continues :-- _ “ Owing to the robbery of these leaves of the manuscript, there is now no contem ra evidence of the interesting fact that the pg) 0? Hamlet’ was acted by Captain Keelinge’s sailors at Sierra Leone in the autumn of 1607. The only evidence is the quotation from the ori 'nal document made by Mr. Rundall before the rogbery took place.” Recently I made a careful examination of the volume here described, which is now known as No. IV. of the India Oiiice Marine Records. The statement as to the ap exist- ing between 30 August, 1607, ang 19 Feb- ruary, 1608, is quite correct; and although the manuscript shows no trace of the missing leaves having been torn out, it is bound in such a way that only blank pages would have been dislodged at the same time, and subsequent rebin ing would have easily con- cealed their removal. I next looked closely into the entries that remained, and to my surprise found that they had evidently no connexion with the journal from which Mr. Rundall had %uoted. The latter was kept on board the ragon b Ca t. Keelin him- self, as is clear from (1) hir. £undal1’s ciafinite statement to that effect ; (2) his reference to the reproduction of this particular journal gith certain omissions) in ‘Purchas His °lgrimes’; (3) the tone of the entries them- selves. But the journal with the pages missing was kept on board the sister ship, the Hector, and not by the captain, but by some subordinate factor. The writer ex- pressly says (4 March, 1607) that he embarked on board that vesssel, and this is borne out by a number of later passages; while as to his position he describes himself as “a stranger to sea affayres ” and “ of the meanest ranke of my sorte’ (29 May). The inference is obvious. The editor of the 1877 volume was mistaken in thinking that he had before him the journal from which his predecessor had quoted, and although there is a gap