NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of."—CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

CONTENTS.

Notes.

INEDITED LETTER FROM THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY, AUTHOR OF THE "CHARACTERISTICS," TO LE CLERC, RESPECTING LOCKE.

"St. Giles's, in Dorset, Feb. 8-13. 1705.

"Sir,—Having once writt to you in my own Language, I continue to use the same Privilege. I am sorry that I am in no better a condition to acquit my self of my Promise to you. My Recovery has been so slow, that I am scarce yet got up: and I have been unable to hold any Correspondance with my Friends in Town. Mr. King promisd to send me the Papers I mention'd to you of Mr. Lock's; who, it seems, had begun some Memoires of his own relating to my G^d Father. These however imperfect, yet as being Mr. Lock's own I should have been glad to send you with what supplement I could make myself: But Mr. King's Engagements in the Publick affaires has made him delay this so long, that according to the account you have given me of the shortness of your Time, I must wayt no longer: but content my self with giving you what I can out of my own head, without other Assistance.

"Mr. Lock came into my Grandfathers Family in the summer of the year 1666, recommended by his Friend^[1] Mr. Bennet of y^e town of Shaftesbury. The occasion of it was thus. My Grandfather had been ill for a great while after a Fall, by w^ch his Breast was so bruised that in time it came to an Imposthumation (?) within, and appeard by a swelling under his stomach. Mr. Lock was at that time a student in Physick at Oxford: and my Grandfather taking a journey that way to drink the Waters (having Mr. Bennett in y^e Coach with him), He had this young Physician presented to him: who tho' he had never practic'd Physick; yet appear'd to my Grandfather to be such a Genius that he valew'd him above all his other Physicians, the great men in practice of those times. Accordingly on his advice and allmost solely by his Direction my G^d Father underwent an Operation w^ch sav'd his Life, and was the most wonderfull of the kind that had been heard of, till that time. His Breast was layd open, the matter discharg'd, and an Orifice ever afterwards kept open by a silver pipe: an Instrument famouse upon Record, in the Writings our Popish and Jacobite Authors, who never faild to reproach him with this Infirmity.

"After this Cure, Mr. Lock grew so much in esteem with my Grand-Father that as great a Man as he had experienc'd him in Physick; he look'd upon this but as his least part. He encourag'd him to turn his Thoughts another way. Nor would he suffer him to practice Physick except in his own Family and as a kindness to some particular Friend. He put him upon the studdy of the Religiouse and Civil affaires of the Nation with whatsoever related to the Business of a Minister of State: in w^ch he was so successfull, that my G^d Father begun soon to use him as a Friend, and consult with him on all occasions of that kind. He was not only with him in his Library and Closet, but in company with the Great Men of those times, the Duke of Buckingham, Lord Hallifax and others, who being men of Witt and Learning, were as much taken with him. For together with his seriouse, respectfull and humble Character, he had a mixture of Pleasantry and a becoming Boldness of Speech. The Liberty he could take with these great Men was peculiar to such a Genius as his. A pleasant Instance of it runs in my Mind: tho' perhaps the relation of it may not be so pleasing to another.

"At an appointed Meeting of two or three of these Great-Men at my G^d Father's House, more for Entertainment and good company than for Business, it happen'd that after a few Compliments the Cards were called for, and the Court-Fashion prevailing, they were engag'd in Play before any Conversation was begun. Mr. Lock sate by as a spectator for some time. At least taking out his Table-Book, he began to write something very busily: till being observd by one of the Lords, and ask'd what he was meditating; My Lords (sayd he) I am improving my self the best I can in your Company: for, having impatiently wayted this Honour of being present at such a meeting of the wisest Men and greatest Witts of the Age, I thought I could not do better than to write your Conversation: and here I have it, in substance, all that has pass'd for this hour or two. There was no need of Mr. Lock's writing much of the Dialogue. The great men felt the ridicule, and took pleasure in improving it. They quitted their Play, and fell into a Conversation becoming them: and so passed the remainder of the Day.

"When my G^d Father, from being Chancellor of the Exchequer, was made High Chancellor (w^ch was in the year 1672) he advanc'd Mr. Lock to the Place of Secretary for the Clergy: and when my G^d Father quitted the Court and began to be in Danger from it, Mr. Lock now shard with him in Dangers, as before in Honours & Advantages. He entrusted him with his secretest negotiations, and made use of his assistant Pen in matters that nearly concerned the State, and were fitt to be made publick, to raise that spirit in the Nation which was necessary against the prevailing Popish Party.

"It was for something of this kind that got air, and out of great Tenderness to Mr. Lock that my Grandfather in the year 1674 sent him abroad to travell: an Improvement w^ch my G^d father was gladd to add to those he had allready given him. His Health servd as a very just Excuse: he being consumptive as early in his Life as that was. So that having travelld thro' France he went^[2] to Montpelier and there stayd for some time. He returnd again to my G^d Fathers in the year 1678, and remaind in his Family till the year 1682: w^ch was the year that my G^d Father retird into Holland and there dyed. Mr. Lock who was to have soon followd him thither, was not prevented in the voyage, by this Death: but found it safest for him to retire thither, and there lived (at our good Friend Mr. Furly's of Rotterdam) till the happy Revolution of King William, w^ch restord him to his native Country and to other Publick offices of greater Note, w^ch by fresh Meritts he deserv'd: witness his then Publishd Books of Government, Trade and Coin: by w^ch he had as considerably servd the State, as he had done the Church and Protestant Interest by his defence of Toleration and support of the Revolution-Principles.

"But of this part of his Life, you need no Information.

"Thus far I have made mention of Mr. Lock as to his station in Publick affaires, under my Grandfather. Now as to his Service in private affaires, and the Concerns of a Family, w^ch was, in every respect, so happy in him, that he seem as a good Guardian Angel sent to bless it.

"When Mr. Lock first came into the Family, my Father was a youth of about fifteen or sixteen. Him my Grandfather entrusted wholly to Mr. Lock for what remain'd of his Education. He was an only Child, and of no firm Health: w^ch induc'd my G^d Father, in concern for his Family to think of marrying him as soon as possible. He was too young and unexperienc'd to chuse a Wife for himself: and my Grandfather too much in Business to chuse one for him. The affair was nice, for tho' my Grandfather requir'd not a great Fortune, he insisted on good Blood, good Person and Constitution, and above all, good Education, and a Character as remote as possible from that of Court- or Town-bred Lady. All this was thrown upon Mr. Lock, who being allready so good Judge of Men, my Grand Father doubted not of his equal Judgment in Women. He departed from him, entrusted and sworn, as Abraham's Head-servant^[3] that ruled over all that he had, and went into a far-Country (the North of England) to seek for his Son a Wife whome he as successfully found. Of Her, I and six more of us, Brothers & Sisters, were born; in whose Education Mr. Lock govern'd according to his own Principles (since publishd by him) and with such success that we all of us came to full years, with strong healthy Constitutions: my own the worst; tho' never faulty till of late. I was his more peculiar Charge: being as eldest son, taken by my Grandfather, & bred under his immediate Care: Mr. Lock having the absolute Direction of my Education, and to whome next my immediate Parents as I must own the greatest Obligation, so I have ever preserved the highest Gratitude & Duty.

"I could wish that my Time and Health would permit me to be longer in this Account of my Friend and Foster-Father, Mr. Lock. If I add any thing as you desire, concerning my Grandfather himself, it must have a second place: this being a subject more selfish and in w^ch I may justly suspect my self of Partiality: of w^ch I would willingly be free: and think I truly am so in this I now send you. But I fear least this (such as it is) should come too late, and therefore hasten to conclude with repeated Assurances of my being your Oblig'd Friend and humble Servant

"Shaftesbury.

"P.S. If after what I have said I dare venture a Word to you as to my Grandfather's Apology for the one and only thing I repine at in his whole Life (I mean the unhappy Words you mention delenda est Carthago), It must be this: That the Publick would not insist on this as so ill, and injuriouse; if they considered the English Constitution and manner of those times in w^ch the Prince more lofty in Prorogative and at greater distance from his People than now of days, used but a few Words to his Parlement; and committed the rest to his Keepers or Chancellor, to speak his sence for him (as he expresses it in y^e conclusion of his own speech) upon w^ch my Grandfather, the then Chancellor, and in his Chancellor's Place^[4], spoke of King's sence, as the King's mouth; in y^e same manner as the Speaker of the House of Peers or Commons, speaks the House's sence, as the House's mouth (for so he is esteemd and calld) whatsoever may be his own private sence; or tho' he may have deliver'd his own Opinion far contrary.

"Such was my Grandfather's Call: who was far from delivering his Vote or Opinion in this manner, either as a Councillor or Peer, or in his Place in Parlement: where he carryed on a direct opposite Interest: he being allready in open Enmity with the Duke of York and his Party that carryed on that Warr, in so much that he was at that very time suspected of holding a Correspondence with Holland in favour of the Commonwealth-Party in England. However it be, it is no small Comfort to me that that wise Commonwealth of Holland, the Parent and Nursing-Mother of Liberty, thought him worthy of their Protection when he was a sufferer for the common Cause of Religion and Liberty: and he must ever remain a noble Instance of the Generosity of that State, and of that potent Head of it, y^e City of Amsterdam; where yourself and other Great Men have met with a Reception y^t will redound to their Honour.

"My Grandfather's turning short upon the Court (as^[5] Sir William Temple expresses it) had only this plain reason for it; that he discoverd the King to be a Papist, through that disguise of an Esprit fort, w^ch was a character his Vices and over fondness of Witt made him affect and act very naturally. Whatever Complyances my Grandfather, as a States-man, might make before this discovery, to gain the King, from his Brother and y^e French Party, he broke off all, when by the Duke of Buckingham's means, he had gaind this secret. For my Grandfather's Aversion and irreconcileable Hatred to Popery, was (as Phanaticisme,) confessd by his greatest Enemyes to be his Master-Passion. Nor was it ever said that the King left him: but He the King, for nothing was omitted afterwards by that Prince to regain him; nor nothing to destroy him, when that was found impossible——

"But I must end: least I fail this Post."

The superscription is:

MR. GOUGH'S TRANSLATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE.

In vol. vi., p. 266., of Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, "Memoirs of Mr. Gough," is the following anecdote of Mr. Gough's precocious talents—

"At the very early age of eleven he commenced a task that would have reflected credit on any period of life; which, by the indulgence of his mother, appeared in print under the title of 'The History of the Bible, translated from the French by R. G., junior, 1746. London: Printed by James Waugh in the year 1747.' Of this curious volume, consisting of 160 sheets in folio, not more than twenty-five copies were printed, as presents to a few particular friends and when completed at the press, it is marked by way of colophon, 'Done at twelve years and a half old.'"

Mr. Nichols in his notes says, that the French edition was printed at Amsterdam, in 2 vols. folio, with plates, 1700. That by the generosity of Mr. Gough's worthy relict, he had a copy of the work with Mr. Gough's corrections in maturer age; and in a note at p. 642. of this volume of the Literary Anecdotes Mr. Nichols further states, that

"By a singular chance, at a sale of the library of Dr. Guise in January, 1812, he met with two copies of Mr. Gough's juvenile translation of the History of the Bible; and at the end of one of the volumes were ten sheets of Mr. Pickering's Dictionary, perhaps the only copy of them in existence."

The Rev. Roger Pickering was Mr. Gough's tutor until he was admitted at Bene't College, Cambridge, July, 1752, being then in the 17th year of his age. This Dictionary was compiled on the plan of Calmet, but left unfinished.

Mr. J. B. Nichols, son of the late venerable octogenarian, having recently presented me with a copy of Mr. Gough's scarce volume, I am anxious to learn by whom the original French work was written, and where a copy may be purchased. It is one of much erudition; sound in doctrine and principle; pleasing and familiar in its language, and would, I should think, well repay the publisher of a new edition, after a careful correction of a few deficiencies in composition, incidental to the early period at which Mr. Gough translated it. There is nothing in the preface, or in any part of the volume, to indicate the name of the original author. Should Mr. J. B. Nichols still possess Mr. Gough's more matured and corrected copy, he might perhaps discover some reference to the author.

J. M. G.

Worcester, Jan. 1851.

FOLK LORE.

Lammer Beads (Vol. iii. p. 84.).—If L. M. M. R. had taken the trouble to consult Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary,—that rich storehouse of curious information, not merely in relation to the language, but to the manners and customs, and the superstitions of North Britain,—he would have found interesting notices connected with his inquiry. See the word Lammer, and the same in the Supplement. We might accept, without a moment's hesitation, the suggestion of a learned friend of Dr. Jamieson's, deriving Lammer from the French, l'ambre, were it not that Kilian gives us Teut. Lamertyn-steen, succinum. In Anglo-Saxon times it was called Eolhsand (Gloss. Ælfr.), and appears to have been esteemed in Britain from a very early period. Amongst antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon age, beads of amber are of very frequent occurrence. Douglas has collected some interesting notes regarding this substance, in his Nenia, p. 9. It were needless to cite the frequent mention of precularia, or Paternosters, of amber, occurring in inventories. The Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, purchased a most costly chaplet from a Parisian jeweller, in 1431, described as "une patenostres à signeaux d'or et d'ambre musquet." (Leber, Inventaires, p. 235.) The description "de alba awmbre," as in the enumeration of strings of beads appended to the shrine of S^r William, at York Minster, may have been in distinction from jet, to which, as well as to amber, certain virtuous or talismanic properties were attributed. There were, however, several kinds of amber,—succinum rubrum, fulvum, &c. The learned professor of Copenhagen, Olaus Worm, alludes to the popular notions and superstitious use of amber—

"Foris in collo gestatum, contra fascinationes et nocturna terriculamenta pueros tueri volunt; capitis etiam destillationibus, et tonsillarum ac faucium vitiis resistere, oculorum fluxus et ophthalmias curare."

By his account it would seem to have been received as a panacea, sovereign for asthma, dropsy, toothache, and a multitude of diseases.

"In summâ (he concludes) Balsami instar est, calorem nativum roborans et morborum insultibus resistens."—Museum Wormianum, p. 32.

Bartholomaeus Glanvilla, in his work, De Proprietatibus Rerum, has not overlooked the properties of amber, which he seems to regard as a kind of jet (book xvi., c. xlix.).

"Gette, hyght Gagates, and is a boystous stone, and never the les it is precious."

He describes it as most abundant and of best quality in Britain of two kinds, yellow and black; it drives away adders,—

"Is contrary to fendes,—helpeth for fantasies and ayenste vexacions of fendis by night.—And so, if so boystus a stone dothe so great wonders, none shuld be dispisid for foule colour without, while the vertu that is within is unknowe." (Translation by Trevisa.)

Albert Way.

ON CATALOGUES OF BOOKS.

A series of notes on the utility of printed catalogues of public libraries may seem to be a superfluity. It may be said, Who ever denied it? Relying on a official document, I can assert that it has been denied—in defiance of common sense, and the experience of two hundred and fifty years!

At such a time, it behoves every lover of literature to declare himself, and to furnish his quota of facts or arguments corrective of this upstart paradox. It is under the influence of that sentiment that I submit, for consideration in the proper quarter, some short extracts from my bibliographic portfolios.

Bolton Corney.

"The forwardness of your CATALOGUE [of the public library at Oxford] is very good tidings.... I would intreat you to meditate upon it, how it may be performed to both our credits and contents."—Sir Thomas Bodley to Tho. James, c. 1604.

Habes, benigne lector, catalogum librorum, eo ordine dispositum, quo in celeberrima Oxoniensi bibliothecâ collocantur; opus diu multumque desideratum, et jam tandem editum."—Thomas James, 1605.

"Quamprimum benignis academicorum suffragiis in bibliothecarium electus essem, viderémque justum bibliothecæ publicæ catalogum ab omnibus desiderari, ego ut gratiis litatum irem, me protinùs accinxi ad conficiendum proprio marte novum catalogum."—Thomas Hyde, 1674.

"The general use of catalogues of [of books], and the esteem they are in at present, is so well known, that it were to waste paper to expatiate on it."—Gerard Langbaine, 1688.

"Quelles obligations la république des lettres n'a-t-elle pas aux Anglais, d'avoir donné les catalogues des livres que renferment leurs bibliothèques! Celui d'Oxford est d'une utilité reconnue, par le grand nombre de livres qu'il contient, et par l'ordre alphabétique qu'on leur a donné."—Jourdan, 1739.

Catalogues of books are of great use in literary pursuits.... We mean not here to enter into all the conveniencies of a more improved catalogue, for it would require a volume to display them."—William Oldys, 1745.

"Solebat [sc. Ruhnkenius] haud exiguam subsecivæ operæ partem tribuere perlegendis catalogis librorum, sive per auctiones divendendorum, sive in bibliothecis publicis servatorum; unde factum est, ut rariorum cognitionem librorum, jam in Bergeri disciplina perceptam, continuo augeret."—Dan. Wyttenbach, 1799.

"Le premier besoin de l'homme de lettres qui entreprend un ouvrage, est de connoître les sources auxquelles il peut puiser, les livres qui ont traité directement ou indirectement le sujet qui l'occupe."—S. Chardon de la Rochette, 1812.

"La bibliothèque [savoir, la bibliothèque royale établie à Bruxelles] aura deux catalogues: l'un alphabétique, l'autre systématique. Dans l'intérêt de la science, le catalogue sera imprimé, en tout ou en partie."—Léopold, roi des Belges, 1837.

"Le catalogue est l'inventaire en le véritable palladium d'une bibliothèque. L'impression des catalogues est toujours une chose utile, sinon indispensable.... La publicité est, en outre, le frein des abus, des négligences, et des malversations, l'aiguillon du zèle, et la source de toute amélioration."—L. A. Constantin, 1839.

"La publication d'une nouvelle édition complète du catalogue de la bibliothèque du roi [de France], serait, sans doute, le plus grand service qu'on pût jamais rendre à l'histoire littéraire; et nous ne regardons pas cette entreprise comme impraticable."—Jacques Charles Brunet, 1842.

"M. Merlin pense avec moi, et c'est quelque chose, que les justes plaintes formées contre l'administration de la bibliothèque royale [de France] cesseront dès l'instant où l'on aura rédigé et publié le catalogue géneral des livres imprimés."—Paulin Paris, 1847.

Minor Notes.

The "Winter's Tale."—As Mr. Payne Collier is making inquiries as to the origin of Shakspeare's Winter's Tale, perhaps he will allow me to call his attention to an oversight he has committed in his edition of Greene's Pandosto, in the series called Shakspeare's Library. In a note to the introduction, p. ii., Mr. Collier says,

"Some verbal resemblances and trifling obligations have been pointed out by the commentators in their notes to the Winter's Tale. One of the principal instances occurs in Act IV. Sc. 3., where Florizel says:

"'The gods themselves,

Humbling their deities to love, have taken

The shapes of beasts upon them: Jupiter

Became a bull and bellow'd; the green Neptune

A ram, and bleated; and the fire-rob'd god,

Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain,

As I seem now. Their transformations

Were never for a piece of beauty rarer,

Nor in a way so chaste.'

"'This,' says Malone, 'is taken almost literally from the novel'—when, in fact, the resemblance merely consists in the adoption by Shakspeare of part of the mythological knowledge supplied by Greene. 'The gods above disdaine not to love women beneath. Phœbus liked Daphne; Jupiter Io; and why not I then Fawnia?' The resemblance is anything but literal."

It would appear, however, that the passage cited by Mr. Collier is not the one referred to by Malone. Mr. Collier's passage is at p. 34. of his edition of the novel; the one Malone evidently had in view is at p. 40., and is as follows:—

"And yet, Dorastus, shame not at thy shepheard's weede: the heavenly godes have sometime earthly thoughtes. Neptune became a ram, Jupiter a bul, Apollo a shepheard: they Gods, and yet in love; and thou a man, appointed to love."

E. L. N.

Inscribed Alms-dish.—There is an alms-dish (?) in the possession of a clergyman near Rotherham, in this county, with the following inscription:—

"VREEST . GODT . ONDERHOVEDT . SYN . GEBOEDT . ANNO . 1634."

[Fear God (and?) keep his commandments.]

Having so lately been so justly reproved by your correspondent, Mr. Janus Dousa, for judging of Vondel's Lucifer by an apparently unjust review rather than by perusal,—and his beautiful chorus having so fully "established his case,"—I am rather shy of making any remarks upon this inscription: otherwise I would venture (errors excepted) to observe that there may be a mistake in the position of the last three letters of the third word.

If Mr. Dousa would kindly inform a very imperfect Dutch scholar whether this sentence is intended as a quotation from Ecclesiastes xii., 13th verse,—

or whether the third word is from the verb "onder houden,"—as looks probable, I shall be greatly obliged to him. The Bible to which I refer is dated 1644.

Being neither a scholar nor a critic, but only a lover of books and languages, I hope Mr. Dousa will accept my apology for the affront offered to his countryman, Vondel. Your publication has been a great temptation to people with a few curious books around them to set sail their little boats of inquiry or observation for the mere pleasure of seeing them float down the stream in company with others of more importance and interest. I confess myself to have been one of the injudicious number; and having made shipwreck of my credit against M. Brellet's Dictionnaire de la Langue Celtique, and also on Vondel's Lucifer, I must here apologise and promise to offend no more. If Mr. Dousa will not be appeased, I have only to add that I "send him my card." As Mrs. Malaprop said to Sir Lucius O'Trigger—

Hermes.

P. S. Can Mr. Dousa fix a positive date to my undated History of Dr. John Faustus?

Landwade Church.—It appears to me that an important service would be rendered to posterity, if a full account were taken of all the monuments and inscriptions in such deserted churches as Landwade appears to be. Such records may ere long become invaluable, and every day is hastening them to oblivion. Already hundreds of such churches, with the several monuments and inscriptions they contained, have entirely passed away. I have been making some investigation into the demolished and desecrated churches of Buckinghamshire, and am astonished at the number of monumental records which have thus perished. Thirty-one churches at least have been lost to the county, and some of them were rich in monumental memorials.

Other counties, doubtless, have equally suffered. Would it not, therefore, be well to collect accounts of the memorials they contained, so far as they can be obtained, and have them recorded in some publication, that they may be available to future historians, genealogists, and antiquaries? Is there any existing periodical suitable for the purpose?

W. Hastings Kelke.

The First Edition of the Second Book of Homilies, by Queen Elizabeth in 1563.—In the edition of the Homilies at the Oxford University press in 1822, and which from inspection, in the portion concerned, appear to be the same in the last, I find in the Advertisement, page iv. note d., that there exist four editions of the date 1563. Of these, I presume, are two in my possession, and I conclude one of them to be the first edition on the following grounds:—That one, printed by Richard Jugge and John Cawood, 1563, has in the last page and a half, "Faultes escaped in the printyng," which appear to have been corrected in all the subsequent editions, and are as they stand in the subsequent and modern editions, I presume, up to the present time. But the principal proof arises from a cancelled leaf in the Homily, "Of Common Prayer and Sacraments," as it stands in the Oxford edition of 1822, p. 329-331. The passage in question, as it there stands, and stands likewise in another edition of 1563, which I have, begins within three lines of the end of the paragraph, p. 329.,—"eth, that common or public prayer," &c., and ends at p. 331. line 13.,—"ment of baptism and the Lord's supper," &c. In my presumed first edition the original passage has been dismissed, and the substituted passage, being one leaf, in a smaller type, in order plainly to contain more matter, and it is that which appears, as I suppose, in all subsequent and the present copies. It would have been a matter of some curiosity, and perhaps of some importance, to have the original cancelled passage. But every intelligent reader will perceive that the subject was one which required both delicacy and judgment. Is any copy existing which has the original passage? My copy unfortunately is imperfect, wanting three leaves; and I apprehend this is an additional instance in which the first edition of an important work has been in a manner thrown aside for its imperfection; as was the case with the real first edition of the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, and the Execution of Justice given to Burghley. As the Oxford editor wished for information upon this subject, it is hoped that the present communication may not be unacceptable to him.

J. M.

Jan. 23. 1851.

Queries.

DUTCH TRANSLATION OF A TRACT BY ROBERT GREENE.

I was thinking of sending you a note or two on an early Dutch translation of a very celebrated English tract when your last number came to hand, by which I find that so much interest has been produced by "Notes and Queries" in Holland, that certain literati are about to establish a similar work in that country. If I mistake not, what I now transmit will be acceptable to your Batavian friends, and not unwelcome to those who approve of your undertaking on this side of the water.

A good deal has been advanced lately regarding the interest taken by the inhabitants of Holland, Belgium, and Germany, in our ancient drama; and in consistency with what was said by Thomas Heywood more than 200 years ago, some new information has been supplied respecting the encouragement given to English players abroad. The fact itself was well-known, and the author last cited (Shakspeare Society's reprint of the Apology for Actors, 1841, p. 58.) furnishes the name of the very play performed on one occasion at Amsterdam. The popularity of our drama there perhaps contributed to the popularity of our lighter literature, (especially of such as came from the pens of our most notorious playwrights,) in the same part of Europe, and may account for the circumstance I am about to mention.

At this time of day I need hardly allude to the reputation the celebrated Robert Greene obtained in England, both as a dramatist and a pamphleteer; and although we have no distinct evidence on the point, we need hardly doubt that some of his plays had been represented with applause in Holland. The Four Sons of Aymon, which Heywood tells us was acted with such strange effect at Amsterdam, must have been a piece of precisely the same kind as Greene's Orlando Furioso, which we know was extraordinarily popular in this kingdom, and may have been equally so abroad. We may thus suppose that Greene's fame had spread to the Netherlands, and that anything written by him would be well received by Batavian readers.

His Quip for an Upstart Courtier, or, a Quaint Dispute between Velvet-breeches and Cloth-breeches, was published in London in 1592, and went through two, if not three, impressions in its first year. It was often reprinted, and editions in 1606, 1615, 1620, 1625, and 1635, have come down to us, besides others that, no doubt, have entirely disappeared. That the fame of this production extended to Holland, I have the proof before me: it is a copy of the tract in Dutch, with the following imprint—"Tot Leyden. By Thomas Basson. M.D.CI." A friend of mine writes me from Rotterdam, that he has a copy, without date, but printed about twenty or five-and-twenty years after mine of 1601, which shows how long the popularity of the tract was maintained; and I have little doubt that mine is not by any means the earliest Dutch impression, if only because the wood-cut of the Courtier and the Countryman (copied with the greatest precision from the London impression of 1592) is much worn and blurred. The title-page runs as follows, and the name of Robert Greene is rendered obvious upon it for the sake of its attraction:—

"Een Seer vermakelick Proces tusschen Fluweele-Broeck ende Laken-Broeck. Waer in verhaldt werdt het misbruyck van de meeste deel der Menschen. Gheshreven int Engelsch door Robert Greene, ende nu int Neder-landtsch overgheset. Wederom oversien."

At the back of this title is printed a short address from the translator to the Edele ende welghesinde Leser, which states little more than that the original had been received from England, and concludes with the subsequent quatrain:—