NOTES IN ANSWER TO MINOR QUERIES.
Genealogy of European Sovereigns.
Sir,—Perhaps the following books will be of service to your correspondent Q.X.Z., viz.:—
"A Genealogical History of the present Royal Families of Europe, the Stadtholders of the United States, and the Succession of the Popes from the 15th century, &c. &c., by the Rev. Mark Noble." London, 1781.
"Historical and Genealogical, Chronological, and Geographical Atlas, exhibiting all the Royal families in Europe, their origin, Descent, &c., by M. Le Sage." London, 1813.
"Complete Genealogical, Historical, Chronological, and Geographical Atlas, &c., by C.V. Lavoisne." Philadelphia, 1821.
W.J.B.
Countess of Pembroke's letter—Drayton's Poems—A Flemish Account—Bishop Burnet.
Your correspondent, at p. 28., asks whether there is any contemporary copy of the celebrated letter, said to have been written by Anne, Countess of Pembroke, to Sir Joseph Williamson? I would refer him to Mr. Hartley Coleridge's Lives of Distinguished Northerns, 1833, p. 290. His arguments for considering the letter spurious, if not conclusive, are very forcible, but they are too copious for this paper.
Your readers, who may not be conversant with that undeservedly neglected volume, will confess their obligation, when they have consulted its pages, in having been directed to so valuable and so original a work. It may be observed, that those letters of the Countess which are authentic, are certainly written in a very different style to the one in question; but this letter, if addressed by her to Sir Joseph Williamson, would be written under peculiar circumstances, and being in her 84th year, she might naturally have asked the assistance of the ablest pen within her reach. I have the copy of an interesting letter, addressed by the late Mr. John Baynes to Ritson, in 1785, stating his admiration of the Countess's "spirit and industry, having seen the collections made by her order relative to the Cliffords—such as no other noble family in the world can show."
I join in wishing that Mr. Pickering would add a judicious selection from Drayton's poetical works to his Lives of Aldine Poets. To the list given by your correspondent (p. 28.), may be added a work entitled Ideas Mirrour Amours in quatorzains (London, 1594, 4to. p. 51.), which was lent to me about forty years ago, but which I have not seen since. Some notice of it, by myself, will be found in the Censura Literaria. with the following note by Sir C. Brydges:—"The extreme rarity of this publication renders a farther account desirable, and also more copious extracts. It appears wholly unknown to Herbert, and to all the biographers of Drayton." It is unnoticed by Ritson also. Chalmers, in his Series of English Poets, has referred to this communication, but he has not printed the poem amongst Drayton's works.
The expression "a Flemish account" is probably not of very long standing, as it is not found in the most celebrated of our earlier dramatists, unless, indeed, Mrs. Page's remark on Falstaff's letter may be cited as an illustration:—"What an unweighed behaviour hath this Flemish drunkard picked out of my conversation, that he dares in this manner assay me."
If the habit of drinking to excess prevailed in the Low Countries in the sixteenth century to the extent represented, may not the expression have arisen from that circumstance, and been equivalent to the contempt which is usually entertained for the loose or imperfect statements made by a tipsy or drunken man?
When quoting opinions upon Burnet, we must not forget the brief but pregnant character which Burke has given of the Bishop's History of his Own Times. In his admirable speech at Bristol, previous to the election if 1780, Burke says, "Look into the History of Bishop Burnet; he is a witness without exception."
Dr. Johnson was not so laudatory:—"Burnet is very entertaining. The style, indeed, is mere chit-chat. I do not believe that he intentionally lied; but he was so much prejudiced, that he took no pains to find out the truth."
The reader may refer to Dr. Hickes's Criticism (Atterbury's Correspondence, i. 492.). Calamy's expression is a significant, if not a very complimentary one, as regards Burnet's candour (Life and Times, i. 59.).
I.H.M.
Bath, Dec. 1849.
Viz., why the contracted form of Videlicet.
I shall be much obliged if any one of your readers can inform me of the principle of the contraction viz. for videlicet, the letter z not being at all a component part of the three final syllables in the full world.
[Cross symbol]
[Is not our correspondent a little mistaken in supposing that the last letter in "viz." as originally a letter z? Was it not one of the arbitrary marks of contraction used by the scribes of the middle ages, and being in form something like a "z," came to be represented by the early printers by that letter? In short, the sign3 was a common abbreviation in records for terminations, as omnib3 for omnibus, hab3 for habet. Vi3, corruptly viz. is still in use.]
Authors of Old Plays.
We are enabled by the courtesy of several correspondents, to answer two of the Queries of Q.D., in No. 5. p. 77., respecting the authors of certain old plays.
G.H.B. informs us that Sicily and Naples was written by Samuel Harding; of whom, as we learn from J.F.M., an account will be found in Wood's Athenae.
NASO informs Q.D. that Nero was written by Matthew Gwinne; there are two editions of it, viz. 1603 and 1633,—and that a copy of it may be procured at 17. Wellington Street, Strand, for 2s.
Birthplace of Coverdale.
Can you inform me of the birthplace of Miles Coverdale?
W.C.
["Bishop Myles Coverdale is supposed to have been born in the year of our Lord 1488, in the district of Coverdale, in the parish of Coverham, near Middleham, in the North Riding of Yorkshire; and it is the opinion of the learned historian of Richmondshire, that it is an assumed, and not a family name." These are the words of the Rev. Geo. Pearson, B.D., the very competent editor of the works of Bishop Coverdale, published by the Parker Society. His reference is to Whitaker's Hist. of Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 17.]
Caraccioli—Author of Life of Lord Clive.
In reply to K.'s query in No. 7., I have to inform him that "Charles Caraccioli, Gent." called himself "the Master of the Grammar School at Arundel," and in 1766 published a very indifferent History of the Antiquities of Arundel; and deprecating censure, he says in his preface, "as he (the author) was educated and till within these few years has lived abroad, totally unconversant with the English tongue, he flatters himself that the inaccuracies so frequently interspersed through the whole, will be observed with some grains of allowance." His Life of Lord Clive was a bookseller's compilation.
WM. DURRANT COOPER.