Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/426

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [9* s. vm. NOV. 23, 1901.

official Vienna Gazette, dished them up to the British Foreign Office as true reports on the state of affairs in the Austrian Empire. It is all the more difficult to explain the working of his lordship's mind, as, previous to the series of curious reports he afterwards sent home, he had had an excellent reporter in Hungary in the person of J. Blackwell, who was on friendly terms with the leading men of the revolution, and was intimately ac- quainted with the language, laws and institu- tions of the country. Apparently Blackwel] was there doing yeoman's service for the British legation in Vienna, expecting as a reward a snug little berth as British consul either at Budapest or Fiume. The Foreign Office began to print his excellent reports; but these no doubt alarmed the Austrian Government, and he was either dismissed or recalled, as his correspondence suddenly breaks off with 25 April, 1848, in the 'State Papers.' He died at an advanced age in Germany, after having held the post of British consul, first at Liioeck and later at Stettin. The ' Foreign Office List ' is mysteriously silent about his employment in Hungary.

L. L. K.

AN INEDITED SEVENTEENTH - CENTURY POEM.

title-page the autograph ot " Geor : Skippe, together with a memorandum that it cost him two shillings and sixpence. It has also on the fly-leaf the autograph of Elizabeth Skipp, dated 16 May, 1700. At the begin- ning and end of the volume there are some verses in manuscript, which seem to me to be worthy of notice. Those at the beginning are headed ' On Mrs. Henerietta Skipp,' and are exceedingly quaint and curious, as the following extracts will show : Hear lyes the mirror of this worldly Age For vertue, witt, and comely personage, Whom spitefull Death in His Imperious Rage Did snach away just in her primest Age : She was so meek and courteous lickwise lhat none with her could scarscelly equalise Likewise a pattern to her Sex was she I<or Godliness and decent modesty, As did appear by her most Godly end, The which was by a worthy Student pen d

e hear She lyes whose like can scarce be found Hear Mature s prid lyes buried in the ground Nay hear S;he sleeps whose worth deserves to have A goolden Tom be more like then such a grave By her we prove that things of greatest prize ' Are soonest snacht from wretch ? d m or tall eyes I say by Death of this fair Skipp we see lhat Choicest things from men first taken be.

Then as her Corps beneath Incloased must lye So hear on earth her Fame shall never dye. Sence then that Skipps are good I wish that we Were all made Skipps if they are all like she, And then most certain all would happy bee. But since She Sleeps and never will awake We'll prize the rest for Dear Henrietta's sake. It was perhaps rather rash of the poet to promise that his dear Henrietta's fame should never die; but since his verses are now enshrined in ' N. & Q.,' who shall say that she has not attained the immortality he promised her 1

Of a very different quality are the verses at the end of the volume. They are, I think, excellent in their kind, and were they signed by Cowley, or almost any poet of the second half of the seventeenth century, might pass unquestioned so far as merit goes. But let the reader judge for himself :

FRIENDSHIP IN ABSENCE. I.

When chance or cruel business parts us two, What do our souls, I wonder, do ? Whilst Sleep does our dull bodies tie,

Methinks at home they should not stay Content with dreams, but boldly flie

Abroad and meet each other half the way.

ii.

Sure they do meet, enjoy each other there, And mix I know not how nor where ; Their friendly lights together twine,

Though we perceive 't not to be so, Like loving stars which oft combine,

Yet not themselves their own conjunctions know.

in.

'Twere an ill world, I '11 swear, for every friend, If distance could their union end : But love itself does far advance

Above the power of time and space ; It scorns such outward circumstance

His time 's for ever, everywhere his place.

IV.

I 'm there with thee, yet here with me thou art, Lodg'd in each other's* heart : Miracles cease not yet in love

When he his mighty power will try, Absence itself does bounteous prove,

And strangely ev'n our presence multiply.

v.

Pure is the flame of Friendship and divine, Like that which in Heaven's sun does shine ; He in the upper ayr and sky

Does no effects of heat bestow, But as his beams the farther fly

He begets warmth, life, beauty, here below.

VI.

Each day think on me, and each day I shall b\>r thee make hours Canonical ; By every wind that comes this way

Send me at least a sigh or two ; Such and so many I '11 repay

As shall themselves make winds to get to you.

Perhaps some such word as " faithful " has here )een accidentally omitted by the writer.