Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/33

. vii. JAN. 12, IDOL] NOTES AND QUERIES.

ings, would form a useful volume. It couk

be made very interesting also, with som

little compilation and editing, as a catalogu

of portraits of individuals. Acknowledgec

printed catalogues of engraved portrait

could ba compared, and the recent catalogu

by Mr. Daniell (claimed to be the most com

plete list of portraits issued since that pub

lished by Evans) would be of much assistance

supplied as it is with short biographical note

and a topographical index. The portrait

already mentioned in the articles of the die

tionary might be referred to again, anc

further information concerning paintec

portraits might be gleaned from private anc

other sources. Possibly the manuscript Cata

logue of engraved portraits in the Print-Room

of the British Museum would include many

portraits which should be mentioned, and

of course, catalogues of the National Por

trait Gallery and other collections ought not

to be overlooked.

As the names of the personages should be followed by the years of birth and death corrections found in the notes which have appeared in 'N. & Q.' might with advantage be adopted.

If the publishers of the ' D.N. B.' were in- duced to take up the suggestion here unfolded, no one would begrudge them their advan- tages. Probably few of the subscribers to the dictionary would care to be without the supplementary volume, which, if issued by subscription in an edition interleaved for notes, could hardly fail to be a success. Many persons who are unable to purchase the dictionary would be willing to take the independent and supplementary volume.

SIGNIA.

[An index volume is announced by the publishers as in preparation.]

THE BATTLE OF FONTENOY, 1745. In the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a very interesting painting on this subject entitled The French and Allies confronting Each Other.' The French are represented in the picture as in line, with the Irish Brigade, in red, in the centre, and at the moment when the leaders of the French (presumably Louis XV., the Dauphin, Marshal de Saxe, Due de Richelieu, etc.) were taking off their hats in salutation of the English, and in the following accoutrements : Black three-corner hats, blue frock coats, large red cuffs, long white leggings ; each private soldier is armed with a musket, bayonet, and sword, the sergeants with a sword and halbert ; the hair ot all the officers was, apparently, powdered white creating altogether, I may be per-

mitted to remark, a picturesque appearance, and contrasting vividly with the dull colour of the uniforms worn by our matchless troops in the Boer war of 1900. In connexion, how- ever, with the subject in question, I beg to say that as a great-great-grandson of an Irish soldier (Major Peter Taaffe) in Viscount Dillon's regiment, who fought at Fontenoy, I shall appreciate very much indeed full information respecting the details of the uniform worn by the famous Irish Brigade, composed of six regiments (whose conduct, perhaps, resembled that of Caesar's six pickea cohorts of 3,000 at Pharsalia), in the ever-memorable battle of Fontenoy. I have on my shelves 'History of the Irish Brigades' (Glasgow, 1870), but the author, J. 0. O'Callaghan, gives no particulars beyond that the English were surprised to behold the scarlet uniform and "the well-known fair complexions of the Irish." And with regard to the remark of Mrs. Morgan John O'Connell (whose husband, by the way, was captain of A Company when I was captain of M Com- pany, London Irish Volunteers) in my copy of her 'Last Colonel of the Irish Brigade, Count O'Connell' (London, 1892), that "the Irish regiments were all red -coated," I shall be glad to be enlightened as to the reasons that induced the clothing of the [rish soldiers in red, a colour so different ! rom that of the uniforms of the other regi- ments of the French army in 1745. Of course I am fully aware that the great Napoleon had in his service a red lancer regiment during the Waterloo campaign. HENRY GERALD HOPE.

119, Elms Road, Clapham, S.W.

THE EARLIEST PRINTED TESTIMONY TO THE FAME OF SHAKESPEARE. I do not know whether this interesting question has yet been lealt with in 'N. & Q.' In the splendidly xecuted Catalogue of the Huth Library, of vhich this college has the good fortune to possess a copy the only copy, it is said, in [Clarke (sic) William] Polimanteia,' the ditor, after quoting the title in full, makes he following remark :
 * he Southern world under the heading

This copy has belonged to Mr. Bright, Dr. Bliss, nd Mr. G. Smith. Dr. Bliss notes on the fly-

eaf : 'This tract perhaps contains at sig. R 2 erso, the earliest printed testimony to the fame F Shakespeare.' "

Dr. Bliss would seem to have fallen into n error. At least two eulogistic references lan the ' Polimanteia ' are extant.
 * o Shakespeare in publications of earlier date

The ' Polimanteia ' was published in 1595. )rayton, in his 'Legend of Matilda' (1594),