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.