Private Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth.—The curious little volume mentioned by Mr. Roper (Vol. iii., p. 45.), is most probably the book alluded to by J. E. C., p. 23. I possess a copy of much later date (1767). It is worthy of note, that the narrative is headed The Earl of Essex; or, the Amours of Queen Elizabeth; while the title-page states, The secret History of the most Renown'd Q. Elizabeth and Earl of Essex.

I think it can scarcely be said to be corroborative of the "scandal" contained in Mr. Ives's MS. note, or that in Burton's Parliamentary Diary, cited by P. T., Vol. ii. p. 393. Whitaker, in his Vindication of Mary Q. of Scots, has displayed immense industry and research in his collection of charges against the private life of Elizabeth, but makes no mention of these reports.

E. B. Price.

Bibliographical Queries (No. 39.), Monarchia Solipsorum (Vol. iii., p. 138.).—Your correspondent asks, Can there be the smallest doubt that the veritable inventor of this satire upon the Jesuits was their former associate, Jules-Clement Scotti? Having paid considerable attention to the writings of Scotti, Inchofer, and Scioppius, and to the evidence as to the authorship of this work, I should, notwithstanding Niceron's authority, on which your correspondent seems to rely, venture to assert that the claim made for Scotti, as well as that for Scioppius, may be at once put aside. No two authors ever more carefully protected their literary offspring, numerous as they were, by the catalogues and lists of them which they published or dispersed from time to time, than these two writers. In them every tract is claimed, however short, which they had written. Scotti published one in 1650, five years after the publication of the Monarchia Solipsorum; and I have a letter of his, of the same period, containing a list of his writings. Scioppius left one, dated 1647, now in MS. in the Laurentian Library with his other MSS., and which carefully mentions every tract he had written against the Jesuits. The Monarchia Solipsorum does not appear in the lists of these two writers; and no good reason can be assigned why it should not, on the supposition of its being written by either of them. If not in those which were published, it certainly would not have been omitted in those communicated to their friends, not Jesuits, or which were found amongst their own MSS. Then, nothing can be more distinct than the style of Scotti, of Scioppius, and that of the author, whoever he was, of the Monarchia. The much-vexed spirit of the bitterest of critics would have been still more indignant if one or two of the passages in this work could ever, in his contemplation, have been imputed to his pen.

It is in this case, as in most other similar ones, much easier to conclude who is not, than who is the author of the book in question. The internal evidence is very strong in favour of Inchofer. It was published with his name in 1652, seven years only after the date of the first edition; and the witnesses are many among his contemporaries, who speak positively to his being the author. Further, there is no great dissimilarity in point of style, and I have collected several parallel expressions occurring in the Monarchia and Inchofer's other works, which very much strengthen the claim made on his behalf, but which it is scarcely necessary to insert here. In my opinion, he is the real author. The question might, I have no doubt, be finally set at rest by an examination of his correspondence with Leo Allatius, which is, or was, at all events, in the Vatican.

James Crossley.

Manchester, Feb. 22, 1851.

Touching for the Evil (Vol. iii., p. 93.).—It was one of the proofs against the Duke of Monmouth, that he had touched for the evil when in the West; and I have seen a handbill describing the cures he effected. It was sold at Sir John St. Aubyn's sale of prints at Christie's some few years since.

H. W. D.

"Talk not of Love" (Vol. iii., pp. 7.77.).—In answering the Query of A. M. respecting this pleasing little song, your correspondents have neglected to mention that the earliest copy of it, i.e. that in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, has two additional stanzas. This is important, because, from No. 8. of Burns's Letters to Clarinda, it appears that the concluding lines were supplied by Burns himself to suit the music. He remarks that—