Teddy the Tiler.—Who was Teddy the Tiler?
W. P. E.
[This is a fire-and-water farce, taken from the French by G. Herbert Rodwell, Esq., ending with one element and beginning with the other. Mr. Power's performance of Teddy, as many of our readers will remember, kept the audience in one broad grin from beginning to end. It will be found in Cumberland's British Theatre, vol. xxv., with remarks, biographical and critical.]
Duchess of Mazarin's Monument.—I read yesterday, in an interesting French work, that the beautiful Hortense Mancini, a niece of Mazarin, and sister to Mary Mancini, the early love of Louis XIV., after various peregrinations, died at Chelsea, in England, on July 2, 1699. Although not an important question, I think I may venture to ask whether any monument or memorial of this remarkable beauty exists at Chelsea, or in its neighbourhood?
W. Robson.
[Neither Faulkner nor Lysons notices any monumental memorial to the Duchess of Mazarin, whose finances after the death of Charles II. (who allowed her a pension of 4,000l. per annum) were very slender, so much so that, according to Lysons, it was usual for the nobility and others, who dined at her house, to leave money under the plates to pay for their entertainment. She appears to have been in arrear for the parish rates during the whole time of her residence at Chelsea.]
Halcyon Days.—What is the derivation of "halcyon days?"
W. P. E.
[The halcyon, or king's fisher, a bird said to breed in the sea, and that there is always a calm during her incubation; hence the adjective figuratively signifies placid, quiet, still, peaceful: as Dryden says,—