A. Holt White.
Capital Punishments (Vol. vii., pp. 52. 321.).—The authorities to which W. L. N. refers not being generally accessible, he would confer a very great obligation by giving the names and dates of execution of any of the individuals alluded to by him, who have undergone capital punishment in this country for exercising the Roman Catholic religion. Herein, it is almost needless to remark, I exclude such cases as those of Babington, Ballard, Parsons, Garnett, Campion, Oldcorne, and others, their fellows, who suffered, as every reader of history knows, for treasonable practices against the civil and christian policy and government of the realm.
Cowgill.
Thomas Bonnell (Vol. vii., p. 305.).—In what year was this person, about whose published Life J. S. B. inquires, Mayor of Norwich? His name, as such, does not occur in the lists of Nobbs, Blomefield, or Ewing.
Cowgill.
Passage in the First Part of Faust (Vol. vii., p. 501.).—Mr. W. Fraser will find good illustrations of the question he has raised in his second suggestion for the elucidation of this passage in The Abbot, chap. 15. ad fin. and note.
A few weeks after giving this reference, in answer to a question by Emdee (see "N. & Q.," Vol. i., p. 262.; Vol. ii., p. 47.), I sent in English, for I am not a German scholar, as an additional reply to Emdee, the very same passage that Mr. Fraser has just forwarded, but it was not inserted, probably because its fitness as an illustration was not very evident.
My intention in sending that second reply was to show that, as in Christabel and The Abbot, the voluntary and sustained effort required to introduce the evil spirit was of a physical, so in Faust it was of a mental character; and I confess that I am much pleased now to find my opinion supported by the accidental testimony of another correspondent.
It must, however, be allowed that the peculiar wording of the passage under consideration may make it difficult, if not impossible, to separate earnest from the magical form in which Faust's command to enter his room is given. Göthe's intention, probably, was to combine and illustrate both.