Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Notes on Books.

A Study of A Newe Metamorphosis, written by J. M., Gent., 1600. By John Henry Hobart Lyon. (Columbia University Press. London: Humphrey Milford, 8s. 6d. net.)

IN 1844 the authorities of the British Museum purchased from Payne & Foss an Elizabethan MS. in three volumes quarto "very neatly written, in the original vellum binding" entitled "The Newe Metamorphosis,' and said to be by J. M., Gent. 1600. It is known to have been in the hands of Francis Goldolphin Waldron (1744-1818) who annotated it on the margins, and to have been examined by Joseph Haslewood, of Roxburghe Club fame. Waldron conjectured that the author might have been John Marston, Jervase Markham, James Martin or John Mason; Haslewood believed that John Marston was he, and stated this belief with sufficient assurance to create a tradition to that effect. Only four other critics have made any pronouncement on the subject: Halliwell-Phillipps, throws doubt on the attribution to Marston; Grosart also sees difficulties therein; Bullen, admitting but a super ficial acquaintance with the poem, shows himself unfavourable rather than not, and Miss Lucy Toulmin-Smith, who seems to have spent more time over the volumes than her predecessors and enters somewhat further into the question, decides that neither Marston nor yet Markham can very well have written it.

mere

The quasi-neglect of a work which has all the appearance of importance is partly explained by its great length-the excuse put forward by Bullen. But a more operative cause has certainly been its dulness. Dr. Lyon gives us to start with a short but detailed outline of the contents of the twenty-four books. These, speaking generally, are composed of groups or series of licentious tales, the intention of which is to be taken as satirical. But this indication shows plainly enough that J. M.'s material is such as can be made into tolerable reading only by the strongest transmuting -forces, those of a brilliant wit or imagination or charm of music, or that of a scathing indignation-with not one of which the author is provided. In the sixty pages of 'Selections' which we bent ourselves to go through with some measure of attention we have not succeeded in finding a single passage, hardly here and there a line, which had any kind of arresting quality. A rearrangement of the words into prose might make something less stupid of them: as verse they can only be regarded as a minor instrument of torment. We imagine that these sixty pages, together with the numerous other quotations occurring in the rest of the book, are all of Newe Metamorphosis,' which the world ever require to see in print; and also that the book before us will, to the end of time, suffice for every student of whom some slight acquaintance with J. M. is demanded.

The will

The real interest of Dr. Lyon's work, lies, as he himself admits, not in the MS. itself. It is satisfactory to have had this once for all tho

treasure and no further industry, can be wasted upon it; but with that negative satisfaction we might simply take our leave of it. The authorship, however, presents a pretty problem, and this both with competence and with zest; to one worth solving; Dr. Lyon has entered into and proving his own counter-theory that Jervase watch him disproving the attribution to Marston Markham is J. M. (for we think he achieves this) makes the true reason why a student does well to concern himself with 'The Newe Metamorphosis." This work could not have been done without a study of the text of the poem; for the best of the arguments are drawn from the character, experience and tastes of the poet as the poem reveals them.

Below the Epistle dedicatorie' is a couplet. which has much exercised the minds of the few stalwarts who have looked at the MS:

My name is Frenche to tell you in a worde but came not in wth Conqueringe Williams.

sworde.

This alone, as our author sees, seems to throw Marston out of the question, and its effect is

not

counteracted by a comparison between. Marston's known work and The Newe Metaimplied in the poem about the writer's career. morphosis,' nor by an examination of what is J. M. had served as a soldier at Cadiz, in Ireland, Dr. Lyon shows good reason to believe that possibly in Flanders; that he was a follower, or at any rate an admirer of Essex; that he was well-versed in the occupations and sports of a country gentleman, having in a high degree the knowledge of rural economy to be expected; tastes belonging to that quality, and also the and that he was a well-read, even a multifariously read, person, with an affection for Cambridge, and a home on the east of England (on the "outmost side of the East Angles). All thisas well as his filial affection, his depreciation of himself as a writer of poetry, and the justification for that humility in the roughness of his verses, agree excellently with Jervase Markham, and with no other known bearer of the initials J. M. so well.

[ocr errors]

We agree with Dr. Lyon in making light of the objection which Miss Toulmin-Smith grounded upon the words in the prologue :

to filching lynes I am a deadly foe.

It is true that Markham was notorious for his plagiarisms: but it is equally true that in the prefaces to works known to be his we get professions of disdain for such a practice. This sort of profession then, may more justly be counted a characteristic trick of Markham's than an indication of his absence. Miss Toulmin-Smith boggles a little at

Myne infante Muse, longe studieng what to wright

at first resolved, some bloody warres t'endighte; but two or three explanations, any one of which would be compatible with Markham's having published verse before 1600, might be offered to reassure her. Read in its context we think the expression " Myne infante Muse" may well be supposed to begin a hasty retrospect of the writer's career as a poet. When he first began to

GREENWOOD FAMILY

A LATE BRASS : (12 S. vii. 5, 38, 56).—I have been much interested in the reference to Benjamin and Austin Greenwood on p. 56. Austin was the son of John Greenwood (Mayor of Lancaster, 1671, 1678, 1688). Augustine was bapt. on July 5, 1656, at St. Mary's, Lancaster, and buried there on Apr. 6, 1701. He was not a Freeman of the borough, though his son Benjamin (the subject of the brass) took up his Freedom in 1721-2.

T. CANN HUGHES, M:A., F.S.A.

There is a small late brass of high quality and charming execution, an inscription only, no figures in Mawgan Church (Mawgan in Meneage) near Helston. The inscription

is :

Hanniball Basser here interd doth lie
Who dying lives to all Eternitye
Hee departed this life the 17th of
Jan. 1708/9 in the 22nd year of his age.
A lover of learning.

Shall wee all dye,
Wee shall dye all,
All dye shall wee,
Dye all wee shall.

W. H. QUARRELL.

"Brother Jonathan" as a name for the
United States of America. I was, however,
able to convince him of the soundness of
my suggestion, which was consequently
adopted in the Dictionary. If I remember
rightly the earliest quotation for the term
that Dr. Murray had up till then received
was of later date than Colman's play,
'John Bull '!
C. C. B.

Moss-TROOPERS : BIBLIOGHAPHY (12 S. vii. 31).-Your correspondent may find the following novels of use to him.

Crockett (S. R.) The Moss Troopers.
Forster (R. H.) The Last Foray.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

See Lord Ernest Hamilton's 'Outlaws of
the Marches,' a novel. For history, see
Borland's Border Raids and Raiders.'
W. E. WILSON.

Hawick. WILD DARRELL (12 S. vii. 30, 53).—In the list given in the last reference of works relating to this notable case, I observe the omission of one of the most important, namely, Mr. Hubert Hall's 'Society in the Elizabethan Age,' a third edition of which ROBES OF SERJEANTS-AT-LAW (12 S. vi. appeared in 1892. In this volume there is 334; vii. 37).—In my recollection (my father not only an extended account of the tragedy, was made a Serjeant-at-Law, and a member but also much documentary evidence of Serjeants Inn, in the year 1852) the Ser-bearing upon it, together with biographical jeants never spelt the title with a g, as they do in the army. I fancy Serjeant Pulling was the last one made in 1864.

66

[ocr errors]

RALPH THOMAS. ORIGIN OF JOHN BULL" (12 S. vii. 69)— The title of Arbuthnot's satire in which 66 John Bull' was first introduced to the public was not The History of John Bull, &c.' (see editorial note at above reference), but Law is a Bottomless Pit. Exemplified in the case of The Lord Strutt, John Bull, Nicholas Frog, and Lewis Baboon: who spent all they had in a Law suit." It is perhaps worth noting as an instance of human fallibility that when the N.E.D. arrived at the letter "J," Dr. Murray was at a loss for the origin of the nickname and inquired for it in his list of desiderata for the forthcoming section of the Dictionary. My attention was called to this by an article, evidently from the pen of Andrew Lang, in The Daily News, and I wrote to that paper suggesting Arbuthnot as the origiDr. Murray in a very contemptuous letter replied that we might as well go to

nator.

details of the parties implicated, and of Sir
John Popham, the judge who tried the case,
and who was alleged to have been bribed by
the defendant.
J. E. HARTING.

ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA (12 S. vii. 31).— I think it was in a little church on the outskirts of Cahors, that perusal of a prayer printed on a card and offered for the use of worshippers, first made me aware that St. Anthony's aid was invoked in cases of articles being lost. I have sought in vain for any legend which seems to justify the appeal, and have come to the conclusion

it was resemblance in sound between Padoue

and perdu which suggested it. At some stage of his life Anthony would seem tohave been in Limousin. He was born at Lisbon and must not be accounted an Italian.

ST. SWITHIN.

PROHIBITED MASSES (12 S. vii. 8).-A learned priest tells me that MR. SUMMERS will find much information on the subject of his query in Mgr. Barbier de Montault's Œuvres,' tom. vi, pp. 235-265; but I am unable to look up the passage myself.

[ocr errors]

Notes on Books.

APStudy of A Newe Metamorphosis, written by J. M., Gent., 1600. By John Henry Hobart Lyon. (Columbia University Press. London: Humphrey Milford, 8s. 6d. net.)

[ocr errors]

IN 1844 the authorities of the British Museum purchased from Payne & Foss an Elizabethan MS. in three volumes quarto-" very neatly written, in the original vellum binding entitled "The Newe Metamorphosis,' and said to be by J. M., Gent. 1600. It is known to have been in the hands of Francis Goldolphin Waldron (1744-1818) who annotated it on the margins, and to have been examined by Joseph Haslewood, of Roxburghe Club fame. Waldron conjectured that the author might have been John Marston, Jervase Markham, James Martin or John Mason; Haslewood believed that John Marston was he, and stated this belief with sufficient assurance to create a tradition to that effect. Only four other critics have made any pronouncement on the subject: Halliwell-Philliprs, throws doubt on the attribution to Marston; Grosart also sees difficulties therein; Bullen, admitting but a superficial acquaintance with the poem, shows himself unfavourable rather than not, and Miss Lucy Toulmin-Smith, who seems to have spent more time over the volumes than her predecessors and enters somewhat further into the question, decides that neither Marston nor yet Markham can very well have written it.

The quasi-neglect of a work which has all the appearance of importance is partly explained by its great length-the excuse put forward by Bullen. But a more operative cause has certainly been its dulness. Dr. Lyon gives us to start with a short but detailed outline of the contents of the twenty-four books. These, speaking generally, are composed of groups or series of licentious tales, the intention of which is to be taken as satirical. But this mere indication shows plainly enough that J. M.'s material is such as can be made into tolerable reading only by the strongest transmuting

-forces, those of a brilliant wit or imagination or charm of music, or that of a scathing indignation-with not one of which the author is provided. In the sixty pages of 'Selections' which we bent ourselves to go through with some measure of attention we have not succeeded in finding a single passage, hardly here and there a line, which had any kind of arresting quality. A rearrangement of the words into prose might make something less stupid of them: as verse they can only be regarded as a minor instrument of torment. We imagine that these sixty pages, together with the numerous other quotations occurring in the rest of the book, are all of The Newe Metamorphosis,' which the world will ever require to see in print; and also that the book before us will, to the end of time, suffice for every student of whom some slight acquaintance with J. M. is demanded.

The real interest of Dr. Lyon's work, lies, as he himself admits, not in the MS. itself. It is satisfactory to have had this once for all tho

treasure and no further industry, can be wasted upon it; but with that negative satisfaction we might simply take our leave of it. The authorship, however, presents a pretty problem, and this both with competence and with zest; to one worth solving; Dr. Lyon has entered into watch him disproving the attribution to Marston and proving his own counter-theory that Jervase Markham is J. M. (for we think he achieves this) makes the true reason why a student does well to concern himself with 'The Newe Metamorphosis.' This work could not have been done without a study of the text of the poem; for the best of the arguments are drawn from the character, experience and tastes of the poet as the poem reveals them.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

This alone, as our author sees, seems to throw Marston out of the question, and its effect is not between. counteracted by a comparison Marston's 'known work and The Newe Meta

morphosis,' nor by an examination of what is implied in the poem about the writer's career. J. M. had served as a soldier at Cadiz, in Ireland, Dr. Lyon shows good reason to believe that possibly in Flanders; that he was a follower, or at any rate an admirer of Essex; that he was country gentleman, having in a high degree the well-versed in the occupations and sports of a knowledge of rural economy to be expected; tastes belonging to that quality, and also theand that he was a well-read, even a multifariously read, person, with an affection for Cambridge, and a home on the east of England (on the "outmost side" of the East Angles). All this as well as his filial affection, his depreciation of himself as a writer of poetry, and the justification for that humility in the roughness of his verses,agree excellently with Jervase Markham, and with no other known bearer of the initials J. M. so well.

We agree with Dr. Lyon in making light of the objection which Miss Toulmin-Smith grounded upon the words in the prologue :

to filching lynes I am a deadly foe. It is true that Markham was notorious for his plagiarisms: but it is equally true that in the prefaces to works known to be his we get professions of disdain for such a practice. This sort of profession then, may more justly be counted a characteristic trick of Markham's than an indication of his absence. Miss Toulmin-Smith boggles a little at

Myne infante Muse, longe studieng what to wright

at first resolved, some bloody warres t'endighte; but two or three explanations, any one of which would be compatible with Markham's having published verse before 1600, might be offered to reassure her. Read in its context we think the expression "Myne infante Muse" may well be supposed to begin a hasty retrospect of the writer's career as a poet. When he first began to

ambition was to sing of war: his course has led him on from one thing to another till he has come to his present scheme of a poetical castigation of vice.

[ocr errors]

work A Helpe to Discourse,' 1634, has been found a full quotation of King Henry's apostrophe to Sleep. Of the authors from whom quotations are made Thomas Durfey furnishes Markham was called by somebody "the first the greatest number, several conspicuous enough English hackney writer." The quality thereby to have been noted before, one might have implied is well-marked in The Newe Metamor- thought. One has been gleaned from Hudibras ': phosis.' The lifelessness of the mere bookmaker one from Roger L'Estrange's The Observator, and lies heavy upon it its very length attests habit two with explanatory notes by the author from and weariness both too strong for control. So Henry Higden's Modern Essay on the Thirteenth far as we have seen them even the attacks upon Satyr of Juvenal,' 1686, The quotations from the Church of Rome show but a whipped-up anonymous works are numerous and interestingviolence. The best passages, if any can be called including Not Marble, nor the Gilded Monument best, have to do with country scenes and ways. -much garbled and found in the dedication of Here, again, the identification justifies itself. 'Eromena; or, The Noble Stranger: a Novel (1683). A list of the works of Shakespeare represented in the allusions might have been added to the Index.

The

We think that J. M. has, to some small extent, hypnotised his careful and scholarly editor who gives him credit for good qualities which we are unable to discern in him. twenty-four arguments which we are invited twice over to admire as evidence of the author's "amazing" variety hardly strike us as exhibiting variety in any high degree. Nor have we discovered any passages to which we felt the words "pungent or "nicely etched" could well be applied. We agree that obscurity and couthness are not to be charged upon J. M.; but that we should say, is chiefly because those particular imperfections do not assort with the hackney writer's mind. Ovid is supposed to be J. M.'s "patterne": apart from some of the incidents related in the tales, no pattern was ever more distant from its copy.

[ocr errors]

un

It is interesting to compare J. M.'s doggerelslightly amplified and enriched doggerel, but doggerel all the same-with a passage of his brother's prose which appeared in our columns at 12 S. vi. 253 (May 29) kindly contributed by Colonel Leslie in elucidation of "Master-gunner." Francis Markham rolls out interminable sentences, but they have the force and the charm of something really intended; they are curiously clear and impressive in their first aim of giving instruction, and though they do not attain to be classic examples of beauty of rhythm they make a fine and rich example of Elizabethan working

[blocks in formation]

The

Notices to Correspondents.

EDITORIAL Communications should be addressed to "The Editor of Notes and Queries '"-Advertisements and Business Letters to "The Publishers"-at the Office. Printing House Square, London, E.C.4.; corrected proofs to the Athenæum Press, 11 and 13 Bream's Buildings, E.C.4.

IT is requested that each note, query, or reply signature of the writer and such address as he be written on a separate slip of paper, with the wishes to appear.

WHEN sending a letter to be forwarded to another contributor correspondents are requested to put in the top left-hand corner of the envelope the number of the page of N. & Q.' to which the letter refers.

·

WHEN answering a query, or referring to an article which has already appeared, correspondents are requested to give within parentheses immediately after the exact heading the numbers of the series, volume, and page at which the contribution in question is to be found.

CORRESPONDENTS repeating queries are requested to head the second communication "Duplicate."

*

MR. ALBERT WADE writes in re Heraldry of send me a stamped addressed envelope, c/o The Fishes' (ante, p. 29):-" If NOLA would care to Editor, I should be pleased to forward him a reprint of an article from The Antiquary on the subject."

THIS collection of allusions to Shakespeare is composed of examples not included in Shakspere Allusion Book, MCMIX.' Many have, however, already appeared in our columns. agree with the publishers in thinking it worth for Twelve Months, including Volume Indexes and Title

We

while to print them all together. The earliest comes from William Barksted's Hiren or the Faire Greek '-1611. "O Love too sweet, in the digestion

Sower!" The latest from Ward's B00

Metamorphos'd Beau '-1700: "Then let the stricken deer, &c." In the quotation "Give Sorrow words," &c., on the title-page of Urania: A Funeral Elegy (on the death of Queen Mary), 1895, the publishers have found a title-page allusion by three years earlier than any hitherto known. Falstaff's appearances largely outnumber those of any other character-counting among these mention of The Merry Wives of

[ocr errors]

SUBSCRIPTION RATE

Pages, £1 10s. 4d., post free.

OOKS.-ALL OUT OF PRINT BOOKS supplied, no matter on what subject. Please state wants. Purchas (3) Hakluytns Posthumous, 5 vols., folio, calf, 1625, £150.BAKER'S Great Bookshop 14-16 John Bright Street, Birmingham. THE AUTHOR'S HAIRLESS PAPER-PAD.

The LEADENHALL PRESS, Ltd, Publishers and Printers, 9-47 GARDEN ROW,

ST. GEORGES ROAD, SOUTHWARK, 8. E.1. Contains hairless paper, over which the pen slips with perfect freedom. Ninepence each. 88. per dozen, ruled or plain. Pocket size, 58, per dozen, ruled or plain.

A Medium of Intercommunication

NPRAL LIBRY

AS ARY

NOME OF M

[blocks in formation]

"When found, make a note of."-CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

TWELFTH

[TWIT]

SERIES.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Oxford University Press

SWIFT'S TALE OF A TUB. Battle of the Books and Mechanical Operation of the Spirit; edited with Appendixes containing the History of Martin, Wotton's Observations upon The Tale of a Tub, Curli's Complete Key, &c., and reproductions of the original drawings. By A. C. GUTHKELCH and D. NICOL SMITH.

8vo. 248. net.

ENGLISH MADRIGAL VERSE, 1588-1632. Edited from the Original Song Books by E. H.
FELLOWES. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 12s. 6d. net; on Oxford India Paper, 158. net.

Athenæum.-".... an exquisite book.....It goes without saying that anyone who can afford 128 6d. should buy it; it is a possession for ever."

THE LETTERS OF DANTE.

Emended Text, with Introduction, Translation, Notes, and Indices and

Appendix on the Cursus. By PAG ET TOYNBEE. Crown 8vo. 128. 6d. net. SELECTIONS FROM EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH, 1130-1250. Edited, with Introductions and Notes, by JOSEPH HALL. Crown 8vo. In two Parts. Part I.: Text, 78. 6d. net; Part II.: Notes, 158. net. The two Parts together, 218 net.

DEAD TOWNS AND LIVING MEN. Being Pages from an Antiquary's Notebook.

LEONARD WOOLLEY. With 24 Illustrations. Medium 8vo. 128 6d. net.

By C.

Contents:-Egypt; Italy; Carchemish; Haj Wahid, and others; The Kaimmakam of Birijik; A Chief of the Kurds;
Naboth's Vineyard; Aleppo.

ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES OF RAJASTHAN: or the Central and Western
Rajput States of India. By JAMES TOD. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by
WILLIAM CROOKE. 8vo. 3 Volumes. 52s. 6d. net; on Oxford India Paper, 638. net.
AKBAR: The Great Mogul, 1542-1605. By VINCENT A. SMITH. Second Edition. With
14 Illustrations, 8 Maps, and a Frontispiece in Colour. 8vo. 168. net.

AN OUTLINE OF THE RELIGIOUS LITERATURE OF INDIA. By J. N. FARQUHAR.
8vo. 188. net.
[Religious Quest of India Series.
With a Preface by PERCY GARDNER,

HELLENISTIC SCULPTURE.

and 23 Plates. Crown 4to, 16s. net.

By the late GUY DICKINS.

CONTENTS -The School of Pergamon; The School of Alexandria; The Rhodian School; The Mainland Schools during the Hellenistic Age; Græco-Roman Sculpture; Appendix; Index.

THE MEDALLIC PORTRAITS OF CHRIST; The False Shekels; The Thirty
Pieces of Silver. By G. F. HILL. 4to. 188. net.

THE LIVING PAST. A Sketch of Western Progress.

Edition. Crown 8vo. 58. 6d. net.

By F. S. MARVIN. Fourth

OXFORD TRACTS ON ECONOMIC SUBJECTS, 1920. Set No. IV, Nos. 22-28. Royal 8vo.
Each 4 pp., 14d. Set of 7 in envelope with Introduction, 10d.; postage 1d. extra. 108. 6d. per 100 Pamphlets.
No. 22, The Nature and Principles of Taxation: No. 23, Capital, Capitalism, and Capitalists. IV: No. 24. The
Economics of Large and Small Farms; No. 25, Price Index Numbers; No. 26, Railway Nationalization. I; No. 27.
The Story of Money; No. 28, Vocational Selection in Industry.

London: HUMPHREY MILFORD,

« AnteriorContinuar »