REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.
Passage in Hamlet (Vol. ii., p.494.).—The word modern, instead of moderate, in my editions of Shakspeare, is a printer's error, which shall be corrected in the edition I am now publishing. To a person unfamiliar with printing, it might appear impossible that any compositor, with this copy before him,—
"While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred,"
should substitute—
"While one with modern haste might tell a hundred."
And yet such substitution of one word for another is a constant anxiety to every editor. Some may consider that a competent editor would detect such a gross blunder. Unfortunately, the more familiar the mind is with the correct reading, the more likely is such an error to escape the eye. Your correspondent who did me the favour to point out this blunder will, I trust, receive this explanation, as also your other readers, in a candid spirit. The error has run through three editions, from the circumstance that the first edition furnished the copy for the subsequent ones. The passage in question was not a doubtful text, and therefore required no special editorial attention. The typographical blunder is, however, an illustration of the difficulties which beset the editors of our old dramatists especially. Had the word modern occurred in an early edition of Shakspeare, it would have perplexed very commentator; but few would have ventured to substitute the correct word, moderate. The difficulty lies in finding the just mean between timidity and rashness. With regard to typographical errors, the obvious ones naturally supply their own correction; but in the instance before us, as in many others, it is not easy to detect the substitution, and the blunder is perpetuated. If a compositor puts one for won—a very common blunder—the context will show that the ear has misled the eye; but if he change an epithet in a well-known passage, the first syllable of the right and the wrong words being the same, and the violation of the propriety not very startling, the best diligence may pass over the mistake. It must not be forgotten that many gross errors in typography occur after the sheet is gone to press, through the accidents that are constantly happening to the movable types.
CHARLES KNIGHT.
Passage in Tennyson (Vol. ii., p. 479.)—The following extract from Sir James Mackintosh's History of England vol. ii. p. 185., will explain this passage:
"The love of Margaret Roper continued to display itself in those outwardly unavailing tokens of tenderness to his (her father, Sir Thomas More's) remains, by which affection seeks to perpetuate itself; ineffectually, indeed, for the object, but very effectually for softening the heart and exalting the soul. She procured his head be taken down from London Bridge, where more odious passions had struggled in pursuit of a species of infernal immortality by placing it. She kept it during her life as a sacred relic, and was buried with that object of fondness in her arms, nine years after she was separated from her father."
X.Z.
Was Quarles pensioned? (Vol. i., p. 201.).—I believe that no reply has been made to this Query. The following passage, transcribed from the Epistle Dedicatory to the surreptitious edition of Quarles's Judgment and Mercy, affords a slight negative proof to the contrary;—
"And being so usefull, dare not doubt your patronage of this child, which survives a father, whose utmost abilities were (till death darkned that great light in his soule) sacrificed to your service."
Now if Charles had conferred a pension on Quarles, is it not exceedingly probable that the publisher and dedicator, Richard Royston, would have recalled so honourable a circumstance to the memory of his "Most gratious soveraigne King Charles" in this Epistle Dedicatory, when he had so excellent an opportunity of doing so?
J.M.B.
Old Hewson the Cobbler (Vol. ii., p. 442.).—I remember that there was a low song sung at some wine parties in Oxford about fifteen years ago, which began with the words, "My name is old Hewson," &c. I do not remember the words, but they were gross: the chief fun seemed to consist in the chorus,—a sort of burring noise being made with the lips, while the doubled fists were rubbed and thumped upon the thigh, as if the cobbler's lapstone had been there.
Was Hewson, the Parliamentarian colonel, a cobbler?
C.P.
The Inquisition (Vol. ii., p. 358.).—The following reply to IOTA'S Queries is extracted from Walchii Bibliotheca Theologica, tom. iii. p. 739.:
"Auctor libri: Histoire de l'Inquisition et son origine. Coloniæ MDCXCIII. 12. qui Jacob Marsollierius est."[[1]]
Of the history of the Bohemians I can ascertain only that J. Amos Comenius was the author of the original. (See Walch, tom. iii. p. 265.)
Footnote 1:[(return)]
Journal des Savans, MDCXCIV, p. 331.; Niceronii Memoir., tom. vii. p. 64.
T.J.
Mrs. Tempest (Vol. ii., p. 407.).—In reply to your correspondent requesting information respecting this lady, I have much pleasure in sending you the following particulars, which I leave obtained through the kindness of Colonel Tempest of Tong Hall, the present representative of the ancient family of Tempest of Tong. Henry Tempest, the oldest son of Sir John Tempest, Bart., of Tong Hall, by Henrietta his wife, daughter and heir of Sir Henry Cholmley of Newton Grange, married Alathea, daughter of Sir Henry Thompson of Marston, county of York, and had two daughters, Alathea and Henrietta; one of these ladies was celebrated as Pope's Daphne. Henry Tempest died very young, before his father Sir John; the next brother, George, succeeded to the title and Tong estates. Daphne was on the point of being, married very highly, tradition says to the Duke of Wharton, but died of the small-pox before the celebration.
In the library at Tong Hall there is a painting, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, of Pope's Daphne.
OLIVER THOMLINSON WYNDOWE.
Cardinal Allen's Declaration (Vol ii., p. 497.).—I am happy to inform H.P. that the Declaration of the Sentence and Deposition of Elizabeth, the Usurper and pretended Queen of England, alluded to in his note, is in the Bodleian Library; where, a few days since, I saw Dr. Cumming poring over it; and where, I have no doubt, he, or any friend, can easily obtain a sight of it by applying to any of the librarians.
Z.X.Z.
Cardinal Allen's Admonition (Vol. ii., p. 497.).—The Declaration of the Sentence and Deposition of Elizabeth, the Usurper and pretended Queen of England, will be found accurately reprinted in the Appendix to vol. iii. of Dodd's Church History, edited and enlarged by the Rev. M.A. Tierney, F.R.S., F.S.A., in whose possession a copy of the Declaration is stated to be.
D.
Scandal against Queen Elizabeth (Vol. ii., p. 393.).—Although many of your correspondents must be well able to reply to P.T.'s Query, I have seen no notice of it as yet. The note to Burton's Diary, in citing Osborn, ought to have begun with the word which precedes the words quoted. The note would then have run thus:—
"That Queen Elizabeth had a son, &c., I neglect to insert, as fitter for a romance than to mingle with so much truth and integrity as I profess."
In the Add. MSS. 5524. is an apparently modern note, stated to be in the handwriting of Mr. Ives, to the following effect:—
"I have heard it confidently asserted, that Queen Elizabeth was with child by the Earl of Essex, and that she was delivered of a child at Kenilworth Castle, which died soon after its birth, was interred at Kenilworth, and had a stone put over it, inscribed 'Silentium.'"
This is doubtless one of the many tales, which, as Osborn says, "may be found in the black relations of the Jesuits, and some French and Spanish Pasquilers." These slanderers were chiefly, I believe, Parsons or Persons, and Sanders, who scrupled at nothing that would tend to blacken the character and reputation of Elizabeth. Thus besides the above, and other stories of Elizabeth
herself, it was stated by Sanders that her mother, Anne Boleyn, was Henry VIII.'s own daughter; and that he intrigued, not only with Anne's mother, but with her sister. P.T. will find these points, and others which are hardly suited for public discussion, noticed in the article on ELIZABETH in Bayle's Dictionary.
CUDYN GWYN.
Church of St. Saviour, Canterbury (Vol. ii., p. 478.).—I would submit to Sir Henry Ellis, that the church at Canterbury which is mentioned in the charter from which he quotes, is termed Mater et Domina, not on account of its greater antiquity, but by reason of its superior dignity; and that the church referred to is clearly the cathedral church. The charter is one of confirmation of privileges: it proceeded upon the "admonition of the most pious Archbishop Liuingus," and "upon consideration of the liberties of the monasteries situated within Kent." It granted that the church of the Saviour (ecclesia Salvatoris), situated in Canterbury, the mother and lady of all the churches in the kingdom of England, should be free, and that no one should have any right therein save the archbishop and the monks there serving God. The whole tenor of the charter, and more particularly the words last referred to, "archiepiscopum et monachos ibidem deo famulantes," seem to me to indicate the cathedral church, and no other. If it be inquired, How then came it to pass that the cathedral, which is dedicated to Christ, should be described as ecclesia Salvatoris? some persons may answer, that this apparent blunder is an indication that the charter is not genuine. But that is not my opinion. The charter is printed from the register of the cathedral, and if it had been forged by the monks, they would scarcely have made a mistake upon such a point as the dedication of their own church. Coming out of such custody, the unusual designation, as we now esteem it, seems clear proof that the charter is genuine. I would suggest, either that the cathedral, or a part of it, was really dedicated to the Saviour; or that the words are to be understood not as indicating the church of St. Saviour, but the church of the Saviour, that is, Christ.
JOHN BRUCE.
Pope Ganganelli (Vol. ii., p. 464.).—In reply to the inquiry of CEPHAS, I give you the following anecdote, in the words of the Rev. Dr. Kirk, of Lichfield, who still survives (and long may he yet survive!) to bear testimony to its correctness:—
"Charles Plowden travelled with Mr. Middleton; and when at Rome, he called with Mr. Thorpe to see me at the English college. We walked together for some time in St. George's Hall, and he quite scandalised me with the manner in which he spoke of Ganganelli. There is no doubt that Mr. Plowden had a principal hand in the Life of Ganganelli, which was published in London in 1785. Father Thorpe supplied the materials (J.T. is subscribed to the letters printed), and Mr. Plowden arranged them. I brought a packet of letters from Mr. Thorpe to Mr. C. Plowden, and one or two other packets were brought from him to Mr. Plowden by other students. 'The contents were so scandalous,' said Bishop Milner in my hearing, at Oscott, 'that Mr. Weld, with whom Mr. C. Plowden lived, insisted on the work being suppressed.' The copies were all bought up, and I have never seen or heard of a copy since I saw it in Coghlan's shop in 1785. Mr. Cordell, of Newcastle, wrote some observations upon it. Mr. Conolly, S.J., told me at Oxford, October 17, 1814, that he 'once saw in a corner of Mr. C. Plowden's room, a heap of papers, some torn, and put there apparently to be burnt. I took up one of them,' he said, 'which was torn in two.' It contained anecdotes and observations against Ganganelli."
It was doubtless from this collection that Mr. Keon was supplied with those papers, which he published in Dolman's Magazine in 1846, concerning "The Preservation of the Society of Jesus in the Empire of Russia."
M.A. TIERNEY.
Arundel.
Pope Ganganelli (Vol. ii., p. 464.).—The Rev. Charles Cordell, a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, who was stationed at Newcastle-upon-Tyne about the date mentioned by your correspondent CEPHAS (he was there in 1787), was the translator of the letters of Pope Clement XIV. (Ganganelli); but as I have not the book, I do not know whether it contained also a life of that pontiff. Mr. Cordell was editor of other works.
W.S.G.
Nicholas Ferrar's Digest (Vol. ii., p.446.).—One of the copies of the Gidding Digest of the History of our Saviour's Life, inquired after by J.H.M. (a most beautiful book), is in the library of the Marquis of Salisbury. I believe it to be the copy presented to Charles I.
W.H.C.
Ferrar, Nicholas.—The following extract from a very interesting paper on "Illustrated Books" in the Quarterly Review, vol. lxxiv. p. 173, will aid J.H.M. in his researches after the curious volumes arranged by the members of the Ferrar family:
"King Charles's statues, pictures, jewels, and curiosities, were sold and dispersed by the regicide powers; from this fate, happily, the royal collection of manuscripts and books was preserved; neither was it, like the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth, doled out piecemeal to Hugh Peters and his brother fanatics. This good service was mainly owing to Bolstrode Whitelocke. When the British Museum was founded, King George II. presented to it the whole of the royal library; and Ferrar's Concordance, with another similarly illustrated compilation by him, is there preserved in safety. The Rev. Thomas Bowdler of Sydenham, the representative of the last baronet of the Cotton family, the founders of the Cottonian Library, possesses another of the Ferrar volumes. Of those which were presented by Ferrar to George Herbert and Dr. Jackson, no record remains."
JOHN I. DREDGE.
Cardinal Erskine (Vol. ii., p. 406.) flourished later than your correspondent G.W. supposes. He was in communication with Mr. Pitt about 1799-1800. Query, was he then in England?
W.H.C.
The Author of Peter Wilkins (Vol. ii., p. 480.).—An advertisement prefixed to the edition of this remarkable work in Smith's Standard Library, 1839, gives the following information respecting the author:—
"In the year 1835, Mr. Nicol the printer sold by auction a number of books and manuscripts in his possession, which had formerly belonged to the well-known publisher Dodsley; and in arranging them for sale, the original agreement for the sale of the manuscript of 'Peter Wilkins,' by the author, 'Robert Pultock of Clement's Inn' to Dodsley, was discovered. From this document it appears that Mr. Pultock received twenty pounds, twelve copies of the work, and 'the cuts of the first impression,' that is, a set of proof impressions of the fanciful engravings that professed to illustrate the first edition, as the price of the entire copyright. This curious document was sold to John Wilks, Esq., M.P. on the 17th December, 1835."
Mr. Leigh Hunt, in his Book for a Corner, remarks upon this,—
"The reader will observe that the words 'by the author,' in this extract, are not accompanied by marks of quotation. The fact, however, is stated as if he knew it for such, by the quoter of the document."
The difference mentioned by DR. RIMBAULT between the initials in the title-page and those appended to the dedication, occurs also in Mr. Smith's edition. But the dedication to which the initials R.P. are affixed, speaks of the book as the work of the writer in the most unmistakeable terms. Was the S. in the place of the P. a typographical error, perpetuated by carelessness and oversight; or a mystification of the author, adopted when the success of the book was uncertain, and continued after the dedication had contradicted it, by that want of attention to minutiæ which was more frequently manifest in former times than at present?
Mr. Leigh Hunt informs us that the Countess of Northumberland, to whom the dedication is made, was the lady to whom Percy addressed his Reliques of Ancient Poetry. "She was a Wriothesley descended of Shakspeare's Earl of Southampton, and appears to have been a very amiable woman."
Permit me to take this opportunity of saying, that there is a misprint in the poem by Barry Cornwall (Vol. ii., p. 451.), by which the title of a poem from which a quotation is made, appears as the name of a dramatis persona. "Paris" is the title of a poem by the Rev. Geo. Croly, from which the "motto" is quoted.
G.J. DE WILDE.
Peter Wilkins (Vol. ii., p. 480.).—In the preface to a garbled and mutilated edition of this work, which appeared Lond. 1839, sq. 12mo., it is stated that the author was Robert Pultock, of Clement's Inn, which is in accordance with the initials to the dedication. Those of R.S. on the title I consider as mere fiction. Lowndes gives the 1st ed. 1750, 2 vols. 12mo. and I have a note of a reprint, Dublin, Geo. Falkner, 1751, 2 vols. 12mo., "illustrated with several cuts." My copy is Lond. 1816, 2 vols. 12mo., with a few indifferent engravings.
F.R.A.
"The Toast," by Dr. King (Vol. ii., p. 480.).—DR. RIMBAULT will find the key to the characters named in this poem printed in Davis's Second Journey round the Library, &c., p. 106.
F.R.A.
[W.A. informs us that there is a key to this work in Martin's Account of Privately Printed Books.]
The Widow of the Wood (Vol. ii., p. 406.).—The history of this publication can hardly be given without raking up a piece of scandal affecting an honourable family still in existence. If DR. RIMBAULT wishes to see the book, and has any difficulty in meeting with it, I shall be happy to forward him my copy by the post on learning his address. I inclose you mine, and will thank you to communicate it to him if he should wish for it.
The maiden name of this "widow" was Anne Northey. Her second husband was Sir Wm. Wolseley; her fourth, Mr. Hargrave, father of the celebrated jurist. Every copy of the work which could be found was destroyed by the latter gentleman.
H.C.
Damasked Linen (Vol. ii., p. 199.).—It may interest R.G.P.M. to learn that portion of the damasked linen which formed part of the establishment of James II. when in Ireland, still exists in the possession of R. Ely, Esq., of Ballaghmore Castle in the Queen's County. I have seen with that gentleman several large napkins beautifully damasked with the then royal arms, together with the initials J.R. of large size, and elaborately flourished. The tradition of the family is, that they were obtained from the plunder of James's camp equipage, after the defeat of the Boyne. Mr. Ely's ancestor was in William's army.
X.Y.A.