I wish your correspondent, "J.R.F.," had given a reference to the book or charter from which he copied his note.
Has Mr. B. Ker's work ever been reviewed?
MELANION.
[Mr. Ker's book was certainly reviewed in Fraser's Magazine at the time of its appearance, and probably in other literary journals.]
By Hook or By Crook.—I have met with it somewhere, but have lost my note, that Hooke and Crooke were two judges, who in their day decided most unconscientiously whenever the interests of the crown were affected, and it used to be said that the king could get anything by Hooke or by Crooke. Query, is this the origin of the phrase?
If I cannot give my authority, perhaps "J.R.F." may be able to give his, for deriving it from "Forest Customs?"
H.T.E.
El Buscapié.—A very full and able disquisition on the subject of MR. SINGER's query (No. 11., p. 171.), respecting El Buscapié, will be found in the appendix to a work which is just published, viz. Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature, vol. iii. Appendix D. 371. et seq. That writer, whose opinion is entitled to credit as that of a consummate student of Spanish letters, and who gives good reasons for his conclusions in this instance, pronounces against the authenticity of the poor little pamphlet recently put forth as belonging to Cervantes.
Those who take an interest in Spanish literature will find this book of Ticknor's a most valuable contribution to their knowledge of its whole compass, and worth "making a note of."
V.