T. J.
Metrical Psalms, &c. (Vol. iii., p. 119.).—Arun may find all the information he seeks by consulting a treatise of Heylin's on the subject of the metrical version of the Psalms, published by Dr. Rich. Watson, under the title of The Deduction, 8vo. Lond. 1685.
Together with this treatise, two letters from Bishop Cosin to Watson are published; in the latter of which, towards the end, the following paragraph occurs:—
"The singing Psalms are not adjoined to our Bibles, or to our Liturgy, by any other authority than what the Company of Stationers for their own gain have procured, either by their own private ordinances among themselves, or by some order from the Privy Council in Queen Elizabeth's time. Authority of convocation, or of Parliament, such as our Liturgy had, never had they any: only the Queen, by her Letters Patent to the Stationers, gave leave to have them printed, and allowed them (did not command them) to be sung in churches or private houses by the people. When the Liturgy was set forth, and commanded to be used, these psalms were not half of them composed: no bishop ever inquired of their observance, nor did ever any judge at an assize deliver them in his charge: which both the one and other had been bound to do, if they had been set forth by the same authority which the Liturgy was. Besides you may observe, that they are never printed with the Liturgy or Bible, nor ever were; but only bound up, as the stationers please, together with it," &c.
J. Sansom.
Aristophanes on the Modern Stage (Vol. iii., p. 105.)—Molière has availed himself in the comedy of the Bourgeois Gentilhomme very liberally of the comedy of the Clouds. The lesson in grammar given to Monsr. Jourdain is nearly the same as that which Socrates gives to Strepsiades.
W. B. D.