Page images
PDF
EPUB

WILLIS'S

CURRENT NOTES:

A SERIES OF ARTICLES

ON

Antiquities, Biography, Beraldry, Bistory, Languages, Literature, Natural Bistory, Curious Customs, Kr.,

SELECTED FROM

ORIGINAL LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS

ADDRESSED DURING THE YEAR

1855,

TO THE PUBLISHER,

GEORGE WILLIS,

GREAT PIAZZA, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON.

MDCCCLVI.

[blocks in formation]

Aberdeenshire benefactions, 72

Adair, Sir Rob., writer in Rolliad, 83.
Adamson, John, notice, 78.

Adamson, Sonnet on loss of Library,
92.

Ambry in Airlie kirk, 3, 10.

Colburn personalty, 84.
Colman the elder, 64.
Combustibility of the Diamond? replies,
44, 63.

Concordance, the earliest English, 8.
Condog, 12.

Amadis de Gaule, early editions, 95-96, Constable's White Horse, 28.

American Presidents, 22.
Angelo's Reminiscences, 39.
Anti-Jacobin Poetry quoted, 83.
Arctic armorial distinction, 65.
Army abuses, (by Erskine)? 3.
Associations, Literary and Scientific,

40.

Assuanlee Cup, 51.
Atlantidis Reliquiem, 2.

Atossa, characterised by Pope, 14.
Baal-Zephon, the god of the North, 29.
Bacon, on early Education, 88.
Bayle's Dictionary defined, 35.
*Bedford, First Duke, signature, 18.
Belfry rhymes, 7, 19, 36.

Bell inscriptions, 19, 30, 85.

Bell marks, 29.

Best's Poems? 20; reply, 27.
Bill nor ban? 56.

Biographical History suggested, 34.

Black-book of Scone, 4.

Blenheim palace stone, 79.
Blessington on Society, 86.
Blood-hound noticed, 38.
Boccaccio and Chaucer, 52.
Book Inscriptions, 44.
Broomes, New Broomes! 69.
Bunyan's descendant, 94.
Burial customs, 44, 45.
Burney's Apologetical lines, 38.
Butler's Hudibras misquoted, 3.
Camden Society? 2; reply, 14.
Carnival assassinations, 38.
Charles I., bronze statue, 17.
Charles and Henrietta Maria ? 71.
Chaucer's Miller's Tale, 52.
Chinese Mythology, 59.
Christ Cross rhyme, 86.

Churchyards, north side unhallowed,
24, 31.

Clever, uses of the word, 23, 38, 47.
Coinage, 1854, 48.

Copernicus opposed to the Bible, 88.
Cowper's death, verses on, 5.
Covent Garden Market, 17.
Croft's Musica Sacra, 72.
Cromberger, early printer, 95.
Culloden relics, 75.

Cur morietur Homo, etc? 44; replies,
see Schola Salernitana

Cutler's poetry? 56; replies, 56, 66,
75, 92.

Dante, Paradiso, quoted, 97.
Dagger attached to sword, 38.
Debt of Nature, 64.
Dialects in the World, 56.
Dispraise of Women, 49.
Doom-Well of St. Madron, 93.
Dorchester Roman Vase, 21.
Dorchester Antiquities, 45.
Douglas' Praise of Heraldry, 29.
D'Oyley Family? 14.
Ducking-stool, Scotland, 98.
D'Urfey portrait, 81.
Easter Court Frolics, 24.

Edmondson's Manuscripts? reply, 47.
Edward I., Coinage of, 34.
Edward VI. legend on Shilling, 1.
*Effigy in Airlie kirk, 4.
English Epistolary Correspondence, 24.
Epitaphs, 36, 63, 64, 71, 72, 82, 85,
97.

Exeter Change? reply, 31.
Falstaff's Praise of Sack, 70.
Fastradana; Monumental Inscription
explained, 86.

Feast of Tabernacles? reply, 35.

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

Grotesque in Churches, 42.
Hampton Court Theatricals, 49, 50.
Handel Commemoration, 38.
Henry Vth, Embarkation, 40.
Henry VIIIth, Irish groats, 16.
Highland wives, 23.
Honour and Fame? 56.
*Hornbooks described, 75-78, 86.
Hornbook of Jacobite Toasts, 18.
Hoyle Family notes, 31, 40, 41.
Hume, Joseph, early career, 47.
Immaculate Conception, 64.
Infant Sleeping, verses on, 100.
Ingledew Family? 51; replies, 64, 65.
Inscribed Wall rhymes, 69.
Inveni portum, etc.? 36.
*Inverquharity castle, 62.

Invocation to the Virgin, 56, 63, 64,
70, 71.

Ipswich Arms grant, 80.
Ireland, William Henry, 98.
Jacobite Toasts hornbook, 18.
Jacobite Mementoes, 75.
Johnsonian advice, 85.
King's Cup-bearer, 11, 12.
Kirby Family notes, 61.
Kneller's Jocosery, 26.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Madron Well chapel? 85; replies, 93, Pope's Last hours, 31.

94.

Mai, Cardinal, Vatican Librarian, 31.
Malespini, Novelle, 38.
Mancini, Marie de, 24.

Mary I., legend on coins, 1.

Marie Antoinette, correspondence? 25.
Masses for the dead, 37.

Melbourne, lines on a bed? reply, 50.
*Merchants' marks, 97.
Microcosmos illustrated, 70.
Midwatch Sea-song? 20; replies, 30.
Mill the historian's birth-place, 27.
Milton's mock funeral, 37.

Mixed Alphabets, 2.
Modern Illuminators, 14.
*Monastic cell-lamp, 26.
Mormon Fanaticism, 64.
Mysteries and Stage-plays, 45.
Nancy Dawson, song, 26.
Napoleon's bequest, 100.
Natural intellect misapplied, 87.
Nelson effigy in Abbey, 20.
Newspapers, English, 34.
Newspapers, French, 8.
Newspaper slander, 34.

Newspaper, its universality, 71.
*Nuremburg mask, 73.
Obituary :-

Adair, Sir Robert, 83.
Adamson, John, 78.
Bell, Currer, 25.

Brown, James, Boston, 32.
Bunyan, Robert, 94.

Burns' Jessy Lewars, 45.
Eckermann, Dr., 14.

Mitford, Mary Russell, 5.

Rogers, Samuel, 100.

[blocks in formation]

Porcelain, Chinese, 59-60.
Posture of buried dead, 44.
Pre-Adamite pictures, 22.
Prepaid envelopes, 24.
Prescott, the historian, 23.
Prior's Chloe, 72.
Propugnacula described, 75.
Pulci's Amatory Verses, 24.
Pump, motto for a, 8.
Radcliffe and Kneller, 26.
Ravenscroft, the musician, 67-69.
Reflective Moments, 39.
Reynard the Fox, 88-89.

Rex Anglorum, see Schola Salernitana.
Right of way? replies, 82.
Rolliad quoted, 83.
Rosemary blossoms, 5-7.
Routh library, 94.

Rundale land tenure ? 81.
Russian Easter ceremonies, 33.
Russian profaneness, 30.
Russian state-coach, 40.

Sainthill medal described, 66.

*Samian ware bowl, 21.

Sardinian motto explained, 94.

[blocks in formation]

Shropshire belfry rhymes, 19.
Shropshire epitaphs, 32.
Shropshire dialect, 98-99.
Sicilian Vespers, 74, 86.
Simon on Irish coins, 22.
Skelton portrait, 13.
Skimming-dish hat, 58.
Smithfield market, 45.
Smith library sale, 5.
Songs, Early English, 67-69.
Spectator, assignment, 56.
Spenser's death? reply, 41.
Spes et Fortuna valete! ? 36; replies,
42, 43, 52, 63, 72.
Sterne's Le Fevre, 50.
Sterne's Inedited Letters, 9.
Sterne's grave, 96.

Strutt's Queen Hoo Hall? 8.
Swallows taken by flies, 48, 56.
Swedish copper money, 48.
Symbolic Hand? reply, 45.
Talbois Family? 100.
Talbot's Pix judgment, 38.
Thames liquid world'? 31.
Thunderstorms on deaths, 92.

Tiled in, origin of phrase? reply, 58.
Timor Domine Fons Vitæ, 1.
Tobacco-smoke, its weight, 4.

Tomb of Juliet, 14-16.

Tottleben, letter respecting, 90-91.
Turner, R.A.? 18; reply, 37.

Schola Salernitana, 54, 55, 60, 73, 74, Unicorn in heraldry? 56; reply, 70.

89.

Scold presentment, 98,

Scotland's hills, 13.

*Scottish 'yets' or gates, 61, 71.
Scottish tack or lease, 40.

Seals, silk interwoven? reply, 48.
Sebastopol, lost survey, 23.
*Sebastopol bronze galley, 90.
Sepulture in Ireland, 45.
Sevendible? reply, 13.
Seven Whistlers? reply, 25.
Shaftesbury belfry rhymes, 19.
Shakespeare, Chandos portrait, 2, 35.
*Shakespeare's chair, 81.
Shakespeare's mention of rosemary,6.
Shakespeare read by sparkish girls, 56.

Veritas Temporis Filia, 1.

*Verona, Tomb at, 15.

Victory, or Westminster Abbey ! 20.
*Victoria pattern Florins, 7-8.
Virginia, origin of name, 4.

Wayside crosses ? 38; replies, 46, 47.
Welsh burial custom, 45.
Who will bell the Cat? 16.

Wigs, their disuse? 85.
Will's Coffee-house closed, 66.
Wolcot's annuity, 27.
Women, Dispraise of, 49.
Words are things? 14; reply, 24.
Wycherley's Country Wife, 38.
Yankee Doodle, song, 20.

No. XLIX.]

WILLIS'S CURRENT NOTES.

(JANUARY, 1855.

"Takes note of what is done-
By note, to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE.

PAINTER'S PALACE OF PLEASURE. SHAKESPEARE borrowed largely from this rich storehouse of "Pleasant Histories and Excellent Novels, Tragicall Matters, and other morall Argument," for the plots of his dramas, or the enrichment of his incidents; and there are few books in early English literature, so attractive in their import, or more difficult to obtain in a clean, sound, and unexceptionable condition than the volumes under notice.

A circumstance which adds to its rarity, and consequently the difficulty of obtaining the two volumes, either together, or in a co-equal condition, is the fact that each were printed at separate times. The first was printed in 1566, again in 1569, and again in 1575. The second in 1567, and again in 1580, but the title is not dated. | The Harleian copy, which is noticed in Oldys' Catalogue of that superb, nay, national library, after it was purchased by Thomas Osborne, at Gray's Inn Gate, for 13,000/., a much less sum than had been expended on the binding of a portion, was formed of the editions, vol. I. 1575, and vol. II. 1567. See Catalogue, 1744, vol. III., Romances and Novels, numb. 6375. The binding red morocco, with richly tooled corners.

Whether Mr. Hans Stanley was then purchaser or not, does not appear, but he presented the work to the immortal Garrick, with these lines inscribed on the fly-leaf of the first volume

From these dark Legends of a barbarous age,
The self-taught SHAKESPEAR drew his Tragic page,
From each faint portrait, each imperfect line,
He traced Othello, Juliet, Cymbeline;
His wilder muse succeeding criticks foil'd,
Fruitless their author to explain they toil'd.

'Twas thine, O GARRICK, in each lofty part,
To write a comment in the anxious heart;
By skilful accent, gesture, voice, and mien,
To show the beauties of each rapt'rous scene,
What he to Cynthio, or to Boccace ow'd,
Thy buskin on the British bard bestow'd.

[ocr errors]

VERITAS TEMPORIS FILIA.

YOUR Correspondent, M. R. C., asks why Queen Mary the First adopted this motto as a legend on her coins. adding that it was one to which Mary at no period of her life was entitled." It must not be assumed that the Sovereign ever suggests a legend for the coinage, on the contrary, she, or he, merely approves or rejects what the Master of the Mint, or the designer of the medal, under the sanction of the Lords of the Treasury, may have proposed. The legend on the shillings of her predecessor, King Edward the Sixth, is TIMOR DOMINE FONS VITE, the family motto of the Butlers, Earls of Dunboyne; and the present Earl informed the writer that one of his ancestors was Master of the Mint in the reign of that Prince, and as a record of the fact placed his own motto on the coinage. May not that of Queen Mary have had some similar origin? It is much the fashion to imagine a Popish origin for every event of Mary's reign, and Mr. Hawkins, in his Silver Coins of England, ventures on this conjectural explanation : "The motto was adopted by the persuasion of her Romish clergy in allusion to her endeavours to restore the abominations of Popery, which had been in a great degree suppressed by her predecessors." B. N.

The inconsistency of this assertion will be apparent in reverting to facts. Sir James Butler, who married Joan, daughter of Pierce Butler, Earl of Ormonde, died in Jan. 1533,leaving Edmund his son and heir, ennobled in 1541 by King Henry the Eighth, as Baron Dunboyne. It is true, the armorial motto appears to be TIMOR DOMINI FONS VITE, and that legend is attached to the shillings of King Edward the Sixth, from 1547 to 1551, but not the slightest evidence is to be found that connects Lord Dunboyne with the mint affairs of either monarch, in England or Ireland, in which latter country he.seems to have been a resident, and married Julia, who after a month's marriage, was the widow of Gerald the red haired,' fifteenth baron Kerry killed in Desmond, August 1, 1550. Edward, Baron Dunboyne, was deceased in 1566.

The legend on the shillings of Edward the Sixth was dexiv. 27. The editions by Henry Stephens, of Paris, being then very popular among the Reformers.-Ed.

Below these dedicatory lines, Garrick, thus highly rived from the Vulgate version of the Bible, Proverbs, complimented, wrote

The above lines were written by Mr. Hans Stanley, who gave me this book. D. G.

Upon Mrs. Garrick's decease, the library of her husband was dispersed by public auction, when this copy was purchased by Mr. Jolley for 281. 17s. 6d., and on the 16th inst. was, in the last day's sale of his books, purchased by Mr. Lilly for 187.

VOL. V.

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »