Dowry Parade, Clifton.
Wotton's Poem to Lord Bacon (No. 19. p. 302.).—The poem communicated by Dr. Rimbault, with the heading, "To the Lord Bacon when falling from Favour," and with the remark that he does "not remember to have seen it in print," was written by Sir Henry Wotton, and may be found under the title, "Upon the sudden restraint of the Earl of Somerset, then falling from Favour," in all the old editions of the Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (1651, 1654, 1672, and 1685), as well as in the modern editions of Sir Henry's poems, by Mr. Dyce and Mr. Hannah. It was also printed as Wotton's in Clarke's Aurea Legenda, 1682, p. 97., and more recently in Campbell's Specimens, in both cases, doubtless, from Rel. Wotton. The misapplication of it to Lord Bacon's fall dates from an unauthorised publication in 1651, which misled Park in his edition of Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, ii. 208. In stanza 3. line 2. of Dr. Rimbault's copy, "burst" should be "trust."
R.A.
"My Mind to Me a Kingdom is" (No. 19. p. 302.).—The following note, from the Introduction to Mr. Hannah's edition of the Poems of Sir H. Wotton and Sir Walter Raleigh, 1845, p. lxv., will answer Dr. Rimbault's Query, and also show that a claim had been put in for Sir E. Dyer before Mr. Singer's very valuable communication to "NOTES AND QUERIES," p. 355.
"There are three copies of verses on that model; two of which, viz., one of four stanzas and another of size, were printed by Byrd in 1588. They have been reprinted from his text in Cens. Lit ii. 108-110, and Exc. Tudor, i. 100-103. Percy inserted them in the Reliques with some alterations and additions; but he changed his mind more than once as to whether they were two distinct poems, or only the discovered parts of one (see i. 292-294. 303., ed. 1767; and i. 307-310. ed. 1839). The third (containing four stanzas) is among Sylvester's Posthumous Poems p. 651.; and Ellis reprinted it under his name. In Cens. Lit. ii. 102., another copy of it is given from a music book by Gibbons, 1612. Now the longest, and apparently the earliest of these poems is signed 'E. DIER,' in MS. Rawl. Poet. 35., fol. 17. That copy contains eight stanzas, and one of the two which are not in Byrd corresponds with a stanza which Percy added. The following are the reasons which incline us to trust this MS.:—(1.) Because it is the very MS. to which reference is commonly made for several of Dyer's unprinted poems, as by Dr. Bliss, A.O. i. 743.; and apparently by Mr. Dyce, ed. of Greene, i. p. xxxv. n.; and by Park, note on Warton, iii. 230. Park is the only person I can recollect who has mentioned this particular poem in the MS., and he cannot have read more than the first line, for he only says, 'one of them bears the popular burden of "My mind to me a kingdom is."' (2.) Because it is quite impossible that Dyer wrote many extant poems, of which he is not known to be the author; for, as Mr. Dyce says, none of his (acknowledged) productions 'have descended to our times that seem to justify the contemporary applause which he received.' (3.) Because I cannot discover that there is any other claimant to this poem. One of Greene's poems ends with the line,
'A mind content both crown and kingdom is.'"
(Works, ii. 288., ed. Dyce.)
It will be observed that no mention is here made of the copy in Breton's tract; therefore this summary gains from both the correspondents of "NOTES AND QUERIES"—an addition from the one, a corroboration from the other.
R.A.
Gesta Grayorum (No. 22. p. 351.).—"J.S." is informed that copies of the Gesta Grayorum are by no means uncommon. It was originally printed for one shilling; but the bibliomaniac must now pay from twenty to thirty shillings for a copy. The original, printed in 1688, does not contain the second part, which was published by Mr. Nichols for the first time. Copies are in the Bodleian, and in the University Library, Cambridge.