Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/69

 9">s.vii.jAx.26,i9oi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

61

THE saddest task that has yet fallen to Notes and Queries is the record of the national loss.

Born 24 May, 1819 ; died 22 January, 1901. These are the simple outlines of fact which an empire's love and an unparalleled historic record have filled in until a picture is constituted the noblest, the grandest, the most splendid upon which the world has gazea. The reign has been longer as it has been more brilliant than that of any pre- vious sovereign. At present Britain may say with Queen Constance,

To me and to the state of my great grief Let kings assemble.

All rivalries and jealousies are for- gotten, the rulers of the whole world of civilization bring homage and tribute. No chronicle attests a state of affairs so solemn, so sorrowful. Our thoughts are wholly occupied with the illustrious dead. let even when so absorbed what temptation to swelling pride presents itself! What, beside V ictoria, are Semiramis and Cleopatra 1 What even is our own Elizabeth, who presided over the birth of empire, com- pared with the Queen who has borne its full state and burden ?

That the tragedy of recent days has shortened and clouded her life there is cause to fear. Her personal empire has, however, been that of peace. Con- spicuous and exceptional as in all respects has been her career, its chief glory is that it has maintained, in a time when licence prevails, the purity of womanhood, the sanctity of the family. On the wisdom of Victoria, her recognition of the principles of constitutional rule, the gain to her councils of her personal sway, history will speak. The meanest of her sub- jects know, however, how her per- sonal life has been worthy and pure, how it has been founded on morality and established in righteousness, an example of the principles on which national greatness is founded and safe- guarded. As queen, as wife, as mother, in all that is typical of England at its best, she claims and receives our homage, our admiration, our tears.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1901.

CONTENTS.-No. 161.

VICTORIA REGINA BT IMPBRATHIX.

NOTES : Spenser, 'Locrine,' and 'Selimus,' 81 Mussul- man Legend of Job, 63-St. Clement Danes, 64 "Keel," 65 " Insurrection " Burns, 66 Lizard Folk-lore " Money trusted," 67.

QUERIES: Pennant's 'Tours in Wales,' 67 Blankets Tinkhame Family Serjeant George Hill D'Auvergne Family Motto for Laundry Porch Burke on Malvern " Attur Acad." Rose and Zorzi Families, 68 Whately's Logic '- Monolith in Hyde Park James Granges George Golding Greaves " Knievogue "Old London Taverns -Heraldic-Boca Chica Shakespearian Allusion

Water in Death Chamber, 69 Gossage of Spratton, Northamptonshire, 70.

REPLIES: Berners Family " Cluzzom " Col. Moor- house, 70-George Eliot-Irish Wills Genealogy Passy

" Inundate " ' D.N.B.,' 71 Striking the Anvil Early Lines on Cricket " Hattock," 72 Monkeys Darcy Lever Pabein ham, 73" Crying ' notchell ' " Charnock Quotations, 74 Rectors of Sutton Coldfield " Philo- scriblerius " The Bellman " Lanted ale" Arrand and Darrand Simon Fraser Corpse oil Shipboard, 75 Scottish Dance "Runagate" Arnold of Rugby, 76 " Gutter-snipe "Author of Lines "Thamp," 77 Fox- names Laymen reading in Cathedrals, 78.

NOTES ON BOOKS : - Murray's Oxford English Dic- tionary ' Frazer's ' Golden Bough ' ' Norwood Athe- nreum Record.'

Notices to Correspondents.

grtti,

EDMUND SPENSER, ' LOCRINE,' AND 'SELIMUS.'

SEVERAL years ago, when I first began to read Spenser, I noticed that his writings generally, but especially ' The Faerie Queene,' had exercised a remarkable influence over Marlowe j and further, that the anonymous play of * Locrine ' copied whole lines and even stanzas of the same poet's minor poems, with little or no attempt at variation. However, as the parallels 1 was able to gather did not bear directly upon the subjects I had in hand, I contented myself with merely taking a note of them, and then let them rest. But some time ago, at the instigation of the late Dr. Grosart, I obtained a copy of another anonymous play, 'Selimus,' and I very soon discovered that my Spenser-'Locrine'parallels were of rather more importance than I had suspected ; and a close and searching exami- nation of 'Selimus' revealed to me the fact that I was at work on a tragedy from the pen of Christopher Marlowe.

'Selimus,' I need hardly say, is generally supposed to have been written by Robert Greene ; and, as regards ' Locrine,' everybody knows the play has been assigned to Marlowe as well as to Shakespeare, j