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LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1910.

CONTENTS.-No. 27.

NOTES:-Tottel, Puttenham, and Turbervile, 1-Sir W.

Jones and the Representation of Oxford University, 3

-T. L. Peacock on Fashionable Literature, 4-The

National Flag, 5-Sir Thomas Cooke, Mayor of London

-"Bullion "-Portable Railway-"Pepita," a Pattern

-J. R. Smith: Dr. W. Saunders, 6.

QUERIES:-George I.'s Statue at Hackwood-Garibaldi

and his Flag-William Penn's Letters-Andronicus
Lascaris-Donne's Poems, 7-Spexhall Church-Poem on
Death of George II.-Cornelius de Witt-'Sir Edward
Seaward's Narrative-The_Circle of Loda-Doge's Hat
The Duenna and Little Isaac'-Huguenot Church at

Provins-Prince Eugene of Savoy-Commonwealth Grants

of Arms, 8-Parish Registers burnt in 1837-Stones in

Early Village Life-Prior's Salford Church-Clergy

retiring from the Dinner-Table-Heworth-Edw. Hatton

-Sir Isaac's Walk-Episcopal Visitations-Chapel le

Frith M. de Calonne's House in Piccadilly, 9-Prince

Rupert-Goldsmith and Hackney, 10.

REPLIES:-Bubb Dodington and his Circle, 10-'Rape of

Proserpine'- London Children's Outdoor Games-

"Arabis"-"Teart"-Buff and Blue as Party Colours, 11

-Flax Bourton-Duncan Liddel and Jo. Potinius-Wall-

Papers, 12-"Montjoy et St. Dennis"-"Worth" in

Place-Names-"The Cock Tavern "-Kempesfeld, 13-

"Onion"-Grey Family-Earthenware Tombstone, 14-

"Literary Gossip," 15-Strettell-Utterson - Colman's

'Man of the People'-Robin Hood's Men-" Broche "-

Hampden and Ship Money, 16-Firegrate Folk-lore

The Ravensbourne-Door-knocker Etiquette, 17-Comets

and Princes -Chevalier de Laurence-"Pull "-"The

Fortune of War," 18.

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Turbervile is mentioned only once by name

in Puttenham (Arber, p. 75), the passage

reading as follows:-

"And in her Majesties time that now is are

sprong up an other crew of Courtly makers Noble
men and Gentlemen of her Majesties owne
servauntes, who have written excellently well as
it would appeare if their doings could be found
out and made publicke with the rest, of which
number is first that noble Gentleman Edward
Thomas Lord of Bukhurst,

Earle of Oxford.

when he was young, Henry Lord Paget, Sir

Philip Sydney, Sir Walter Rawleigh, Master

Edward Dyar, Maister Fulke Grevell, Gascon,

Britton, Turberville and a great many other

learned Gentlemen, whose names I do not omit

for envie, but to avoyde tediousnesse, and who

have deserved no little commendation."

Knowing that Turbervile was thus com-

mended, I did not expect to find that he
is the "rimer" who is belittled and held up
to censure more often than any other poet
or poetaster dealt with by Puttenham ;
and even now I cannot find an explanation
tion and the censures that follow, all of which
for the difference between the commenda-
indicate in the very plainest terms that
Turbervile was far from being a master of his
craft, that he was an imitator or mimic of
other men's work, and that his verse is, in
truth, very little better than doggerel.

Now all this seems strange, because the
faults alleged against Turbervile_are_faults
to be found in all poets, good and bad, who
wrote about that time; and Puttenham
need not have gone outside Tottel's 'Mis-
cellany' for similar examples for his book.
Why does he open his criticism of bad verse
with a quotation from Turbervile, and close
it with a succession of quotations from the
same author, and then at the end of his
book hark back_to_Turbervile's writings?
If this attack on Turbervile is new to us, it is
hardly likely that it passed unrecognized by
his contemporaries; and it would seem that
Puttenham had quarrelled with Turbervile
some time after he wrote the words of com-

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Puttenham says there cannot be a fouler fault in a poet than to falsify his accent to serve his cadence, or by untrue orthography to wrench his words to help his rime. do either is a sign that the poet or maker is not copious in his language, or (as they are wont to say) not half his craft's master; that he is but a bungler, and not a poet :

66 as he that by all likelyhood. having no word at hand to rime to this word [joy], he made his other verse ende in [Roy] saying very impudently thus, O mightie Lord of love, dame Venus onely joy, Who art the highest God of any heavenly Roy.' Arber, p. 95.

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This quotation (altered) is dealt with again on p. 259, where it is cited as an instance of 'Soraismus,' or The mingle mangle,' the false orthography being dealt with a second time as an inexcusable vice, ignorant, and affected,

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as one that said using this French word Roy, to make ryme with another verse, thus:

O mightie Lord of love, dame Venus onely joy, Whose Princely power exceedes ech other heavenly roy.

In neither case is Turbervile correctly quoted, and this circumstance seems to mark malice. Turbervile wrote:

O Mightie lorde of love!

Dame Venus onely joy,

Whose princely powre doth farre surmount all other heavenly roy.

The Lover to Cupid for Mercie,' &c. Collier's reprint, p. 80. The verse, says Puttenham, is good, but the term peevishly affected; and at p. 95 he says roy was never yet received in our language for an English word.

22

Now Puttenham's censure, after all, amounts to this only, that Turbervile wrenched a word to help his rime, and that he had no authority for using 92 roy.' But I turn to that portion of The Mirror for

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wont of kinde.

The Lover refused lamenteth his Estate.'

As very much of Turbervile's work in his Songs and Sonnets' is directly founded on poems in Tottel's Miscellany,' I have no doubt he caught up his phrasing from Tottel in this case. But you never find PuttenTottel, although he deals with twentyham speaking slightingly of anything in seven passages to be found in that book, some of which are quoted twice and even three times.

Most of the quotations in Puttenham are from effusions of his own, which ungrateful and ill-discerning men have allowed, with the exception of one poor remnant, to be drowned in the black waters of oblivion. One hardly knows whether to weep or to laugh at these examples of his muse; and the suspicion often haunts one's mind that the terse, eloquent, and clear-headed prosewriter is making a May-game of his reader. These quotations come in strings; they are often contrasted with passages from the best writers; and occasionally the productions

of poets like Surrey, Wyatt, and Sir Philip Sidney are alluded to merely to enable Puttenham to cite something of his own, which he makes you clearly understand is to be preferred to things that are to be found in the works of the persons named. And then he will deal with one of "your ordinary rimers " It is all done so pleasantly, and the assurance of the critic in the merit of his own verse is so superbly self-confident, that one feels compelled not only to accept with good-humoured toleration what he says, but also to forget his "side," and only remember his supreme ability as a teacher.

Following one of these strings of his own verse, pp. 187-8, we come to Endiadis or the Figure of Twinnes, a manner of speech which seems to make two phrases of one :

And as one of our ordinary rimers said.
Of fortune nor her frowning face,

I am nothing agast.

In stead, of [fortunes frowning face.]”

The "ordinary rimer" is George Turbervile again, but why he should be dragged in thus needs explanation, because no fault is to be found in the manner of his speech that does not occur frequently in all writers of poetical compositions, who use the form, with more or less judgment, to give euphony to their verse. But some of Puttenham's readers would know who was aimed at, and it may be that in this case, as in others, the poet is purposely misquoted.

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himself a Fellow, sat for Oxford from 31 January, 1750, until 1780, when he retired.

The University was represented in 1780 by Sir William Dolben, Bt., D.C.L., sometime Student of Christ Church, and Francis Page, D.C.L. of New College. Sir William, great-grandson of John Dolben, Archbishop of York, represented Oxford during seven Parliaments, from 3 February, 1768, until 1806, when he retired. He always gave his steady support to Wilberforce's measures for the abolition of the slavetrade. Francis Bourne assumed the name of Page on inheriting the Oxfordshire estates of his great-uncle Sir Francis Page, the judge. He was junior member for Oxford from 23 March, 1768, until 1801.

The following letter is not among those printed by Lord Teignmouth in his life of Sir William Jones (1806), vol. i. pp. 358-83: Lamb Building, Temple, 29 April, 1780. DEAR SIR, I beg you will accept a Latin Ode, lately written in imitation of Collins by a person who has a high respect for you, and who has disguised his name in the form of an anagram under that of Julius Melesigonus. The writer is not ashamed to confess that this little poem contains his own political sentiments with some poetical amplification and colouring. Very few copies have been printed, to save the trouble of making many transcripts.

I had fully intended to send you a copy of this ode, without giving you any further trouble; but I have just received a piece of news, which induces me to trouble you with one short question. Sir Roger Newdigate having declared his intention of vacating his seat for Oxford, the university will at the general election be called upon to chuse one of their members è gremio Academice to represent them, and, “to protect in the legislature the rights of the republick of letters," for which purpose, as Sir W. Blackstone observes, the franchise of sending members was first granted to our learned body. Now, the great attention and kindness, which you have shown me, Sir, tempt me to ask you, who are well able to inform me, whether the writer of the enclosed poem, if his friends were to declare him a candidate, would have any chance of respectable support from such members of the University, as would trust the defense of their rights, as scholars and as Englishmen, to a man who loves learning as zealously as he does rational constitutional Liberty. If the little personal influence that he has at Oxford, joined to his avowed affection for the genuine freedom of our English constitution, would make it improbable that he should be at all supported, it would be absurd in him to harbour a thought of making so fruitless an attempt; but if there were a prospect even of an honourable nomination, it would be an honour, which no other man or society of men could confer. I entreat you to excuse this liberty, and to believe me, with infinite respect, Sir,

Your much obliged and ever faithful servant W. JONES. To Dr. Adams, Master of Pembroke Colledge.

Johnson's friend Dr. William Adams was especially when we consider that the English are Master of Pembroke College and Canon the most thinking people in the universe, but that of Gloucester from 1775 until his death in the gloss on a new coat does seem at first view a the faculty of amusing should be as transient as 1789. He was also for some time Archdeacon little singular: for though all fashionable people of Llandaff. The Ode to Liberty had been read (gentlemen who have been at college exprinted in the preceding March under the cepted), yet as the soul of fashion is novelty, the title of Julii Melesigoni ad Libertatem.' books and the dress of the season go out of date The assumed name is formed by a trans-together, and to be amused this year by that which amused others twelve months ago would position of the letters of Gulielmus Jonesius. be to plead guilty to the heinous charge of having A. R. BAYLEY.

6

T. L. PEACOCK'S ESSAY ON FASHIONABLE LITERATURE.' THIS hitherto unpublished fragment, to which allusion has already been made in the pages of N. & Q.,' is the only work of its author which alludes to writers and periodicals under their own names, and as such is an invaluable addition to our knowledge of Peacock's views as well as a characteristic specimen of his style. It is contained in vol. 36,815 of the MSS. in the possession of the British Museum. Admirers of Peacock will find his likes and dislikes portrayed in the same trenchant style that the novels display, and the explanation, perhaps, of difficulties which have arisen owing to suppression of names. The first part of it is as follows:

The fashionable metropolitan winter, which begins in spring and ends in autumn, is the season of happy reunion to those ornamental varieties of the human species who live to be amused for the benefit of the social order. It is the season of operas and exhibitions, of routs and concerts, of dinners at midnight and suppers at sunrise. It is the period of the general muster, the levyen masse of gentlemen in stays and ladies in short petticoats against their arch enemy Time. But these are the arms with which they assail the enemy in battalion: there are others with which in moments of morning solitude they are compelled to encounter him single-handed; and one of these weapons is the reading of light and easy books which command attention without the labour of application, and amuse the idleness of fancy without disturbing the sleep of understanding.

"This species of literature which aims only to amuse and must be very careful not to instruct had never so many purveyors as at present: for there never was any state of society in which there were so many idle persons as there are at present in England, and it happens that these idle persons are, for the most part, so circumstanced that they can do nothing if they would, and, in the next place, that they are united in the links of a common interest which, being based in delusion, makes them even more averse than the well-dressed vulgar always are from the free exercise of reason and the bold investigation of truth

"That the faculty of amusing should be the only passport of a literary work in the hands of general readers is not very surprising even,

lived out of the world

"The stream of new books, therefore, floats over the parlour window and the drawing-room table to furnish a ready answer to the grunt of Mr. Donothing as to what Mrs. Dolittle and her daughters are reading, and having served this purpose, and that of putting the monster Time to a temporary death, flows peacefully on towards the port of Lethe.

changes which it has undergone with the fashions "The nature of this lighter literature and the of the last twenty years deserve consideration for many reasons, and afford a subject of speculation which may be amusing and, I would add, instructive, were I not fearful of terrifying As every age has its my readers in the outset. own character, manners, and amusements, which are influenced even in their lightest forms, by the fundamental features of the time, the moral and political character of the age or nation may be read by an attentive observer, even in its facie' from morals and politics. lightest literature, how remote soever prima

"The newspaper of the day, the favourite magazine of the month, the tour, the novel, and the poem which are most recent in date and most fashionable in name, furnish forth the morning table of the literary dilettante. The springtide of metropolitan favour floats these intellectual delicia into every minor town and village in the kingdom, where they circle through their little day in the eddies of reading societies.

"It may be questioned how far the favour of fashionable readers is a criterion of literary merit. It is certain that no work attracts any great share of general attention which does not possess considerable originality and great power to interest and amuse. But originality will sometimes attract notice for a little space, as Mr. Romeo Loates attracted some three or four audiences by the mere force of excessive absurdity; and the records of the Minerva Press will shew that a considerable number of readers can be both interested and amused by works completely expurgated of all the higher qualities of mind. And without dragging reluctant dullness back to-day, let us only consider the names of Monk Lewis and of Kotzebue-they have sunk in a few years into comparative oblivion-and we shall see that the condition of a fashionable author differs very little in stability from that of a political demagogue.

"Mr. Walter Scott seems an exception to this. Having long occupied the poetical throne, he seems indeed to have been deposed by Lord Byron, but he has risen with redoubled might as a novelist, and has thus continued from the publication of The Lay of the Last Minstrel' the most popular writer of his time-perhaps the most universally successful in his own day of any writer that ever lived. He has the rare talent

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