Some of the things which seem to be indubitable respecting the original work are these:—1. That it was first printed in 1535. 2. That, consequently, Bishop Burnet (Hist. of Ref., Part I. b. iii. p. 166.: Dublin, 1730) was mistaken in representing it as having been written in reply to Cardinal Pole. 3. That there was an octavo edition published at Strasburg in 1536, and that Goldastus followed it. 4. That there was an additional reprint of the tract at London in 1603. (Schelhornii, Amœn. Hist. Eccles., tom. i. pp. 15. 849.) But I am anxious to make three inquiries relative to this really important document and its fictitious preface.
1. The Roane volume, certainly the earliest in English, professes to have been printed by "Michal Wood" in 1553. Can we not determine the place of its origin by the recollection of the fact, that Bishop Bale's Mysterye of Iniquyte, or Confutation of Ponce Pantolabus, was printed at Geneva by "Mychael Woode" in 1545?
2. With regard to the typographical achievements of the Brocards, is it not rather an apropos circumstance, that "Biliosus Balæus," as Fuller calls him, was the author of a Historia Divi Brocardi? (Ware's Works, ii. 325.)
3. May not Bale (or Baal, according to Pits) be suspected to have been the composer of the Bonnerian Preface? He might have reckoned it among the many Facetias et Jocos which he declares that he had put forth. It is observable that, while the writer of this Preface designates Bishop Gardiner as the "common cutthrot of Englande," the same title is bestowed upon Bonner in the Foxian Letter addressed to him by "an unknown person" (Strype's Memor. iii., Catal. p. 161.: London, 1721), and which, from internal evidence taken from the part relating to Philpot, must be referred to the year 1555. The style of these performances is similar; and let "gaie Gardiner, blow-bole Boner, trusti Tonstal, and slow-bellie Samson" of the Preface be compared with "glorious Gardiner, blow-bolle Bonner, tottering Tunstal, wagtaile Weston, and carted Chicken." (Bale's Declaration of Bonner's Articles, fol. 90. b., London, 1561.)
R. G.
Minor Queries.
Lord Byron.—What relation to the poet was the Lord Byron mentioned in the Apology for the Life of George Ann Bellamy?
Uneda.
Philadelphia.