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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIL MAY 4, 1901.

time in the public market. Accounts of many private collections were published in the AthencKum some years ago.

I have merely thrown out this suggestion, in the hope that some young, energetic, zealous men, each with a thorough knowledge of the subject, will imbibe the idea and com- bine to carry it into effect, and in due time produce such a catalogue up to 1900, in alphabetical order, as will supersede all others, and be not only the admiration of the world, but England's example to it to go and do likewise, for not one country in Europe now possesses such a work, so far as I know.

C. MASON.

29, Emperor's Gate, S.W.

[Has not MR. MASON omitted one of the most useful and important of all authorities, Chaloner Smith's 'British Mezzotinto Portraits'?]

COMEDY.

BUKLESQUK, satire, farce, and genuine poetry also, may be seen in Aristophanes, the oldest writer of comedy. Perhaps all the other known great writers of comedy have studied their predecessors, and borrowed something from them. Plautus and Terence took much from their Greek originals. It is impossible to say how much, since those originals are lost. Even Shakspeare is in- debted to others. He has taken something from Sidney, Spenser, Marlow, Daniel, Ben Jonson, and perhaps other of his contempo- raries. Sir Charles Sedley, in his play of 'Bellaraira,' has adapted the 'Eunuch' of Terence, and has proved himself an adapter of the better kind ; for he has kept quite to the level of his model, and has himself shown originality and wit, as in the scene between Merryman and Thisbe, which, so far as I know, is original, and seems to have suggested a scene in Congreve's 'Way of the World,' between Mirabell and Millamant. I do not know why Prof. Morley in his 'First Sketch of English Literature' should have said that Sedley died about 1728. There is a letter of Steele to Pope, dated 1712, in which Sedley's death is mentioned.* Moliere, as is well known, borrowed largely, and im- proved almost everything which he touched. Wycherley owes something to Moliere, but he nevertheless is both witty and original. If Congreye has surpassed Wycherley, he has also imitated him. Congreve's Witwould clearly is a copy of Dapperwit. Congreve remembered in addition the works of other predecessors. Bluffe, in the 'Old Bachelor,'

[* According to the * Diet. Nat. Bios., 3 Sedlev died 20 August, 1701.]

takes his beating just as Bobadil and Pistol did. Sir Joseph Wittol, in the same play, almost echoes the words of Sir Andrew Ague- cheek, " I knew 'twas I, for many do call me fool." Farquhar also seems to have remem- bered the words of Sir Andrew. Scrub's knowledge that others were talking of him because " they laughed so consumedly " is surely a reminiscence of the foolish knight. I I do not know whether it has been noticed that the plot of Sheridan's * School for j Scandal ' seems to be founded on the follow- ing passage from Congreve's 'Way of the World.' Fainall speaks : " Now I remember, 1 I wonder not why they were weary of you: I last night was one of their cabal nights. They I have them three times a week, and meet by turns at one another's apartments, where I they come together like the coroner's inquest I to sit upon the murdered reputations of the I week." Corneille's 'Menteur,' itself for the I most part a translation, has been translated, or I adapted, by Foote. Everything which is good 1 in Foote's play has been taken from that of I Corneille. Racine's comedy of ' Les Plaideurs,' altered from Aristophanes, seems to me a I somewhat dull work. Regnard certainly has I produced one good comedy, * Le Joueur, and I as certainly has produced several mediocre I plays. His ' Retour Imprevu ' is an obvious J imitation of the ' Mostellaria ' of Plautus. I As is well known, the 'Barber of Seville' of Beaumarchais is founded on Moliere's 6 ' Sicilien.' It has been said that the ' Amants I Magnifiques ' suggested almost all the come- dies of Marivaux. I do not remember these I comedies, though I think that I once ex- amined them, and found the above remark [1 to be true ; but I know that one of the novels j of Marivaux is written on a theme similar to I] that of Moliere's play. The theme, however, | is a favourite one in fiction ; and many other [] plays and novels, such as Octave Feuillet's 'Roman d'un Jeune Homme Pauvre,' have [ the same leading idea.

Shakspeare's plays have been sometimes H separated into two classes only, into tragedies j and comedies. Those works of fancy 'The [j Tempest ' and ' Midsummer Night's Dream ' might be differently classed. And of other i plays many have so much poetry in them | that they can hardly be considered comedies H pure and simple. Perhaps 'The Merry rj Wives of Windsor ' is the only pure comedy [j that he has written. It is certainly the only i] one among his greater works. The inferior [j ' Taming of the Shrew ' may be thought a I pure comedy, and, with the exception of the I part relating to Christopher Sly, with some- what, besides which can be recognized as I