At Shakspear's plays instead of my Lord Coke."
"Sylva; a Poetical Revenge," p. 44., Works, Part II., London, 1700, fol.
RT.
Warmington.
Monumental Portraits (Vol. v., p. 349.).
—Fully agreeing with my friend H. H. in his opinion of the brass of the Abbess of Elstow, considered as a portrait, I should yet be glad if your correspondents would send to "N. & Q." the names of any effigies which may appear to them exceptions to the rule of conventional portraiture, especially if of earlier date than the latter half of the sixteenth century. H. H. has mentioned one, Nicholas Canteys, 1431, at Margate: and I am inclined to add another in the well-executed little brass of Robert de Brentingham at East Horsley, Surrey; this is about the date of 1380. The artists of that time, in brasses as well as in painted glass, wood-carving, &c., may have sometimes desired to produce a portrait, but certainly they seldom succeeded: a religious severity of expression atoned for the deficiency. In English coins it is well known that there is no appearance of a portrait before the reign of Henry VII.
The particular costume, however, of the deceased was more attended to in monumental effigies; and it is this fact which renders the study of them so serviceable towards a knowledge of the manners and habits of our ancestors. Care was even taken not to omit any peculiarity which may have distinguished the deceased; of which the long beard of Sir Wm. Tendring, at Stoke, by Layland, is perhaps an instance, and many others might be quoted. If any decided portraits are known in stone effigies, it would I think be desirable to communicate such to the pages of "N. & Q."
C. R. M.
Motto on Chimney-piece (Vol. v., p. 345.)
—It does not appear to me that the mottoes sent by your inquirer C. T. are very difficult to solve. The first is Latin: