Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/229

 9*8. VII. MARCH 23, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

221

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAECH 25, 1901.

CONTENTS. No. 169.

NOTES : Mrs. Jordan in Dublin, 221 Animals in People's Insides, 222 -St. Patrick's Day Reminiscence of 1837 Newspaper and Magazine Statistics, 223 El Conde de Caserta Blue Beard " Zareba " or " Zeriba " Lizard Folk-lore, 224 Animal Superstitions in India King Edward VII. 's Title in Scotland -Arabs and Odd Numbers, 225 " Log" ' Thomas Fletcher, Poet,' 226.

QUERIES -.Anonymous Voyages and Travels American Spelling Brawling The Orb ' Capt. Rock " " As right as a trivet "Odd Numbers, 227 Author of Verses Wanted " Gill's Lap" Sir A. Brabason Irish Harps A City Marat " To sit bodkin " Roman Steelyard Weights Johnson, Sheriff of London, 228 "Foulrice" : " Lock Elm " : " Chincherer " Guadagnoli Nell Gwyn Mary, Countess de Front Roulston Family Walpole's Letters to Mann, 229.

REPLIES -.Journalistic Errors, 230 - Arundel : Walden Suwarroff and Massena Mrs. Arbuthnot Bishop of London's Funeral, 231 Epitaph of J. Nichols Simon Fraser Allusion in Wordsworth Author of Hymn Wanted " Bob-baw ! " Lamb Jottings, 232 Safford Family Chisel Marks Footprints of Gods "So long," 233 Questing Beast "Le trecente cariche " Byfield Family " Sarson Stones," 234 Brasenose, Oxford Sur- names Pall-mall and Golf Poem attributed to Milton Hulme Ships of War on Land, 235 Title of Esquire "Better to have loved and lost" Counting Another's Buttons Old London Taverns, 236 Date Wanted Author of Recitation" In the swim "Dr. Johnson "Barted," 237 Chaucerian Passage "Jeber's cooks" High and Low " Roker " " Caendo "=Cercando, 238 Col. Thomas Cooper, 239.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Harbottle and Dalbiac's ' Dictionary of French and Italian Quotations ' Baildon's ' Robert Louis Stevenson 'Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.

MRS. JORDAN IN DUBLIN.

So little do we know, save what is told us in the pages of Sir Jonah Barrington and Tate Wilkinson, of Mrs. Jordan's novitiate (i.e., the period when she figured as Miss Francis), that it seems fitting the following particulars should be embalmed in the columns of * N. & Q.' They were found quite recently by the writer, while making a careful ex- amination of the playhouse announcements in a curious volume of miscellaneous London and Dublin newspapers of the latter half of the eighteenth century, one of the treasures of the National Library at Dublin.

So far as Hibernian journalism was con- cerned, space was too restricted and too valuable in those days to permit of any save a very occasional theatrical notice ; but, as if to compensate for this to posterity, advertise- ments were lavish in casts of performances so much so that one could wish for a new history of the Irish stage, compiled after the approved manner of Genest. Readable it might not be, but it could hardly fail to be much more exhaustive and no less trust- worthy than Chetwood, Victor, Hitchcock, and the rest.

Gilliland, writing in 1807, is barely able to tell us that Mrs. Jordan's debut on the stage was made in Dublin, as Miss Francis, and in the character of Phoebe in ' As You Like It.' Mr. J. Fitzgerald Molloy. in his * Romance of the Irish Stage,' goes so tar as to say that the event took place in 1776, at the Crow Street Theatre, and that Owenson, the father of Lady Morgan, played Oliver on that occasion. What authority exists for this statement? Assuming the correctness of Mrs. Jordan's generally accepted birth-date of 1762, and remembering that her friend Sir Jonah Bar- rington puts her age at seventeen at the time of her debut, I see little reason, person- ally, to believe that she had taken to the boards before the year 1779. My first trace of her is at the benefit of O'Keeffe, at Crow Street, on 20 May, 1780, when 'The Governess'

a pirated version of the ballad opera of ' The Duenna ' was performed, with a topsy- turvy-like cast. The characters were assigned as follows : Ursula, the governess, Mr. T. Ryder ; Sophia, Mr. Owenson ; Flora, Mr. Johnson ; Enoch Isachar, the Jew, Mrs. Heaphy ; Octavio, Mrs. Thompson ; Don Pedro, Mrs. Hoskin ; Father Paul, Mrs. Logan ; Lopez, Miss Francis ; Lay Brother, Mrs. O'Neil ; Lorenzo, Mrs. Johnson.

One hardly knows whether it is to this pre- cise period or to some earlier performances of ' The Governess ' that Sir Jonah Barring- ton refers when he says, in the course of his charming account of Mrs. Jordan in his ' Personal Recollections of his Own Times ' :

" Mr. Daly about this time resorted to a singular species of theatrical entertainment, by the novelty whereof he proposed to rival his competitors at Smock Alley namely, that of reversing characters, the men performing the female and the females the male parts in comedy and opera. The opera of ' The Governess ' was played in this way for several nights, the part of Lopez by Miss Francis. In this singular and unimportant character the versatility of her talent rendered the piece attractive, and the season concluded with a strong anticipation of her future celebrity."

As to the popularity in Dublin at this period of these bizarre entertainments there can be no question. Ever and anon one remarks the recurrence of 'The Beggar's Opera ' with a quaint reversal of characters : e.g., at Smock Alley on 1 November, 1784, Miss Farren (announced as from the Hay- market) actually made her first appearance there as Macheath to the Lockit of Mrs. Gemea and the Filch of Mrs. O'Reilly.

In the advertisement of the City Theatre, Smock Alley, for 19 February, 1782, Miss Francis is announced to play Adelaide in Jephson's tragedy of 'The Count of Nar-