JOHN A KENT AND JOHN A CUMBER.
I am much obliged to you, Mr. Editor, for giving additional circulation to my inquiry (through the medium of the Athenæum of the 19th ult.) regarding the two ancient popular wizards, John a Kent and John a Cumber. I was aware, from a note received some time ago from my friend the Rev. John Webb of Tretire, that there are various current traditions in Monmouthshire, and that Coxe's history of that county contains some information regarding one of these worthies. That fact has since been repeated to me by a gentleman of Newport, who wrote in consequence of what appeared in the Athenæum, and whose name I do not know that I am at liberty to mention. I may, however, take this opportunity of thanking him, as well as the transmitter of the curious particulars printed in the Athenæum of Saturday last.
One point I wish to ascertain is, whence John a Kent derived his appellation? This question has not been at all answered. Has his name any connexion, and what, with the village of Kentchurch, in Monmouthshire; and why was the place called Kentchurch? To what saint is the church dedicated? and has the name of that church anything to do with the name of the saint? Anthony Munday (or Mundy), in his MS. play (now in my hands by the favour of the Hon. Mr. Mostyn, and by the kind interposition of Sir F. Madden), does not give the slightest clue to the "birth, parentage, and education" of John a Kent. As to John a Cumber, all we learn is, that he was a Scottish conjuror, employed by a nobleman of the same country to counteract the proceedings of John a Kent, who is represented as in the service of Sir Gosselin Denville, a person who appears, from what Munday says, to have had power and influence in South Wales.
Now, the name of Sir Gosselin Denville itself suggests a Query; because I find in Johnson's Lives of Highwayman, &c., fol. 1734, p. 15. (I do not of course refer to it as a book of any authority), that there was a celebrated collector of tribute from travellers who bore that name and rank. He, however, came from Yorkshire, and lived (according to the narrative of Johnson, who had it most likely from Capt. A. Smith, whose work I have not at hand) as long ago as the reign of Edward II. Let me ask, therefore, whether there exist any tidings respecting such a person as a native of Wales, and as the "master" (I use Munday's word) of John a Kent?
But this is not the principal object of my present communication, which relates to one of the heroines of Munday's drama—a daughter of Llewellin, Prince of North Wales. To her the name of Sidanen is given, and she is constantly spoken of as "the fair Sidanen," with the additional information, in one place, that "sonnets" had been written in her praise. Every person who sends a Query must plead ignorance, and mine may be great as regards Welsh poetry, when I inquire, who was Sidanen, and where has she been celebrated? By the second volume of Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company (printed for the Shakspeare Society), it is evident that she was well known about the middle of the reign of Elizabeth, for on p. 94. I read the following entry:—
"xiii Augusti [1580]
"Rich. Jones. Rd. of him for printinge a ballat of brittishe Sidanen, applied by a courtier to the praise of the Queen."
British Sidanen probably meant Sidanen of Ancient Britain, or Wales, to whom some unnamed and adulatory courtier had compared Queen Elizabeth. I fancied also that I recollected, in Warner's Albion's England, some allusion to Elizabeth under the name of Sidanen, but I cannot at present find it.
As I have my pen in hand, may I add another word, quite upon a different subject: it is upon the nimium (pardon the word) vexata questio about esile, as it is spelt in the first and second folios of Hamlet. Have any of your correspondents, from MR. SINGER to MR. CAMPKIN, with all their learning and ingenuity, been able at all to settle the point? Surely, then, I cannot be blamed for not taking upon me dogmatically to decide it eight years ago. I stated the two positions assumed by adverse commentators, and what more could I do? What more have your friends done? The principle I went upon was to make my notes as short as possible; and after pages on pages have been employed in your miscellany, it seems, in my humble judgment, that the case is not one jot altered. Esile may still either mean vinegar (eyesel) or the river Eisell.
J. PAYNE COLLIER.