*

This William de Hay is evidently the same who is said to have died towards the end of the 12th century, leaving six sons, David, William, John, Thomas, Robert, and Malcolm, to whom ought to be added Eva, making a seventh son, since it is clear that he was a living witness at the confirmation of his father's benevolence to the Monks of St. Andrew's.

Whether, by the marriage of Julian, daughter of Ranulph de Sules, formerly cup-bearer, with one of the Hays, that office had descended to William de Hay, no evidence is found; but in various charters by William the Lion from 1204 to 1226, mostly relating to grants of land in Angus and Mearns, two of them being dated from Forfar, where there was a royal residence till the time of Bruce, the name of "Malcolm miles pincerna Regis" appears as an attesting witness. Malcolm de Hay in 1237 witnessed a charter by his brother Thomas to the monks of Cupar. The name and designation of Malcolm pincerna domini Regis" are also attached to an agreement with the prior and monks of Mary (?); respecting the chapel of Ricarton and the Kirk of Rindalgross [qu. Randlestone?]; who was possibly the same Malcolm de Hay.

Upon the death of "Malcolm miles," or on his relinquishing the office of Cup-bearer to the King, Chalmers, quoting the chartulary of Newbottle, states, Nicholas, nephew of Ranulph de Sules, "acquired, by his talents, the office of pincerna, which he exercised under Alexander the Second, and also under Alexander the Third." Subsequently, the title of pincerna would seem to have become obsolete in Scotland, and in the memorable letter of the Scottish Barons in 1320 to Pope John, William, the representative of the old family de Sules, subscribes himself "buttelarius Scocie. This William de Sules, for conspiring against Bruce, soon after suffered death; and from that period the office or title of "buttelarius Scocie," is rarely, if at all mentioned.

for those of Carnegie, in Carmyllie; and assumed the name of Carnegie,† in lieu of that of de Balindard. From the time of Duthacus de Carnegie, grandson of the last John de Balindard, and the first of the Carnegies of Kinnaird or Southesk, various members of the family have held important positions in the history of their country. The date of the appointment of Cupbearer to the King as conferred upon one of the Carnegie family has not been ascertained, but if the Cup, as an heraldic charge upon the breast of the spread eagle, in the armorial insignia of that family, may be held as an honorary signification of the office, that appointment preceded the year 1565, as the Sir Robert Carnegie of that time used that distinction upon his seal.

King Charles the First, in 1633, in consideration of the services of Sir David Carnegie, as a lawyer and statesman, created him a peer, by the title of Earl of Southesk, subsequently forfeited by James, the fifth Earl, for his adherence to the cause of the Stuarts. He died in exile, in 1729; and leaving no issue, the representation of the family devolved on Sir James Carnegie, of Pitarrow. The present baronet, who is great grandson of the last named, is Lord Lieutenant of Kincardine shire, and claimant for the Earldom of Southesk. He married the Hon. Lady Catherine Noel, second daughter of the Earl of Gainsborough, by whom he has several daughters, and a son born March 20, 1854. Brechin, Feb. 16. A. J.

Such are the brief notices obtainable in reference to the names and families of the earliest known Cupbearers to the Kings of Scotland, but, it has to be observed, that although for some centuries past, neither the designation of the office pincerna Regis, nor the names of persons holding that office, occur in the records, yet it has still a place among the officers of the royal household, in the almanacs and political registers of the kingdom; and by those authorities it is held, that the family of Carnegie of Southesk, in Forfarshire, are the hereditary holders of that office.

agree;

In Littleton's Latin dictionary, to concur, to condog, was long held as a jocosery, said to have originated in a pettish remark by the lexicographer; but in the early editions of Cockeram's Dictionary the words are used as a synonyme for the word "to agree;" thus, " concurre, cohere, condog, condescend." And earlier, in Lyly's Galathea, 1592, 4to. act III. sc. 3, we find the words "concurre, condogge," applied as if it was simply in burlesque. How this has originated does not appear. F. N.

Douglas' Peerage of Scotland, by Wood, vol. I. p. 544.

Regist. de Aberbrothoc, pp. 34, etc.

Douglas' Peerage, Vol. II. p. 545.

Registr. de St. Andree, p. 396.

Acta Parl. vol. i. p. 114.

Martin de Clermont assigns considerable antiquity to

the first of them, in the time of William the Lion, was Constable to the King's House at Fettercairn, for which service he obtained the lands of Fesdow and Pitnamoone. Macfarlane's copy of the Manuscript in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh.

DOUBTFUL PORTRAIT OF SKELTON.

SINCE my former communication in Current Notes, December last, p. 103,* I have obtained two interesting works, to which I would call the attention of your readers. One of them is the "Histoire des Livres Populaires, ou de la Littérature du Colportage, etc. par M. Charles Nisard," printed at Paris, 1854, 2 vols. 8vo † M. Nisard, in the second volume, enters into the subject of the Dance of Death, or "Danse Macabre," and at p. 303, notices an edition of "La Grande Danse Macabre des Hommes et des Femmes," printed at Troyes, by Jean Ant. Garnier. No date appears on the title, but the time of publication is determined by that of the permission to print, May 6, 1728. Garnier's volume is in quarto, pp. 76, with sixty figures. Several facsimiles are given; the last, at p. 326, is that which has been put forth as the portrait of Skelton.

Nisard observes upon this,

C'est l'éditeur qui s'est un peu moqué de nous, car la figure qu'il nous donne ici pour un portrait de l'auteur, est celle-là même qui représente le mois d'Avril dans le 'Compost des Bergers', de l'édition de 1705. Cette planche n'a donc ni rime ni raison; mais elle remplit apparement une place qui fût demeurée vide sans cela. C'est tout ce qu'on peut dire de mieux pour la justifier.

The other work alluded to by me, entitled, "Les Cartes à Jouer et la Cartomancie, par P. Boileau D'Ambly," printed at Paris, 1854, sm. 8vo., affords further evidence that this fanciful woodcut has served a variety of functions. The work contains forty woodcut facsimiles of various cards, and on p. 83, is again found this fantastical pseudonyme Skelton, below which we read "Valet de feuilles" (Grün-Vert), i.e. the Knave of Leaves, in a pack of cards. The author adds

Estampe allemande à ce que je crois, et des premiers temps. On dirait le dessin d'un miniature semblable à celles de nos vieux manuscrits. J'en ai vu d'à peu près pareilles, gracieusement exécutées par le roi Réné, à la bibliothèque d'Angers.

F. R. A.

In the reference to British Bibliographer, vol. IV. for p. 189, read p. 389.

+ As Sterne has observed, they manage these things better in France; a similar work in reference to the early popular literature of England would be replete with much interest, and highly acceptable. Nothing beyond one or two lists of specimens of provincial dialects, and the two Notices of Popular English Histories, Fugitive Tracts and

Chap Books, forming nos. 79 and 83 of the Percy Society

publications, proffer any materials for their bibliography or elucidation. Even these Notices are devoid of chronology, method or order, and appear to have been nothing more than as successful ephemeral advertisements for effecting the sale of the collection to the British Museum Library for 3001. No production of the Stonecutter Street Press is noticed, and yet many chap books and ballads emanated from it. Possibly the following hand-bill supplies the date of its extinction.

To be sold by Hand, To-morrow, January 8, 1756, and the following days, all the Printing Materials of Mr. Robert

SCOTLAND'S HILLS.

Ox one point, that this song did appear in the Edinburgh Literary Gazette, G. W. N. is correct, (Current Notes, Dec. vol. iv. p. 100,) but is in error in supposing it first appeared therein. The Gazette indeed, May 31, 1829, in a note, admits the first two stanzas had been previously published. Whitelaw's book of Scottish Song I have not seen; but G. W. N.'s version is not that given in the Gazette, which has two stanzas in addition to those originally published, and forwarded by me in my first note. These additional verses, wholly different from the third one, noticed by G. W. N. are as follow:The throstle and the nightingale

May warble sweeter strains,
Than thrill at lovely gloaming hours
On Scotland's daisied plains.
Give me the merle's mellow note,
The linnet's minstrelsy;
The lav'rocks on the roseate cloud,
Oh! Scotland's hills for me.
And I would rather roam beneath
Her scowling wintry skies,
Than listlessly attune my lyre
Where sunbright flow'rs arise.
The baron's hall, the peasant's cot,
Protect alike the free;

The tyrant dies who breathes their air,
Oh! Scotland's hills for me.

Apropos of this said Edinburgh Literary Gazette, the very existence of it had some little connection with “Scotland's Hills," which was printed in its third number. Possibly, it may be in the recollection of some of the readers of Current Notes, that a periodical entitled the Edinburgh Literary Journal existed some months previously to the Gazette; and in an early number of that paper, January 11, 1829, was a short notice of the "Covenanter's Communion." The author was in W. B.

Gardener's shop, in Dundee, on the day the said number made its appearance; it was certainly not very gratifying to his feelings, and he almost immediately started for Edinburgh, where, upon a consultation with some of his literary friends, resulted the publication of the Gazette, in which, at no distant day, the " Covenanter's Communion" obtained a lengthy criticism of an highly approving tone.

Forfarshire, Jan. 2.

D. P.

KNOWLEDGE is truly pabulum animæ, and books the best caterers for that entertainment.-Tho. Forde.

POPE'S CHARACTER OF ATOSSA.

POPE'S Epistle, addressed to Mrs. Martha Blount, "Of the Characters of Women," written in rivalry of Young's lighter and more sportive Characters in his most unjustly neglected poem of the "Universal Passion ;" and which Bolingbroke considered was Pope's masterpiece; was first printed in 1735, in folio; and reprinted, in the same year, in the second volume of the collected edition of his works, in quarto; the first having been published in 1717. The number of lines is 196: and no variation occurs in these editions beyond one or two verbal alterations. In those of 1735, the very prominent characters of Philomedé, Atossa, and Cloe, form no part. The lines which characterise Atossa are said to have been read to the Duchess of Marlborough, as designed for a portrait of the Duchess of Buckingham; but she soon stopped the person who was reading them; and on the authority of the Duchess of Portland, is further said to have loudly avowed—“I cannot be so imposed upon: I see plainly enough for whom they are designed." All the currently related intimations of her having bribed the poet in order to his suppressing these lines, had possibly no real fact upon which that assertion was based; the person satirized, and the satirist, both died in one year, in 1744, and the enlarged Epistle as it now appears, was first published from the author's manuscript in 1746, in folio. The additions by Pope extend the poem from 196 to 292 lines, and time has since defined the poet's delineations of character impersonated with a firm and unflinching pen. That of Philomedé, commencing at line 69—

See Sin in state, majestically drunk;

is unequivocally allusive to Henrietta, usually called the young Duchess of Marlborough; Atossa was her mother, Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough; and Cloe, the Countess of Suffolk. For further notices, the reader is referred to Roscoe's variorum edition of Pope's works, 1824, vol. V. PP. 285-313. S.

MODERN ILLUMINATORS.-The whole Academy at Vienna, are employed in illustrating a Missal, intended to be presented to the Empress.

LETTERS from Weimar announce the death of Dr. Eckermann, the well-known friend and amanuensis of Goethe. His last years were saddened by bad health and social isolation.

SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY.

We are enabled to state, on good authority, that the affairs of this Society will be publicly wound up at the usual Anniversary Meeting, the 27th of April next, when the Audited Accounts will be laid before the Members, and the final Report of the Council read.

The poems of Colonel Lovelace, who died in 1658, were printed in two volumes, one in 1649; the other, after his decease, in 1659. In my copy of the last is an autograph inscription, "Ursula D'Oyley, her book," whom I suppose to have been one of the D'Oyley's of Greenland, in Buckinghamshire, a family, who in the King's interest defended their house in the Civil War. If any of your readers can give me any information relating either to them, or to her, I shall be much obliged. Birmingham, Jan. 27.

TOMB OF JULIET AT VERONA.

J. H. S.

VERONA, the birth-place of Pliny and Catullus, has been no less celebrated in an age not so remote for the deadly animosities of the Houses of Montagu and the Capulet, made interesting to us by the incident of Romeo and Juliet. Girolamo della Corte, in his History of Verona, relates the story as an historical event, and Bandello, who derived it from Luigi da Porto, places the occurrence in the time of Bartolommeo Scaligeri. Few tales have ever found so many different versions as that of Romeo and Juliet, a proof of the interest it was calculated to excite. It has been traced to a Greek romance, and there are two versions by old French writers, by whom the scene has been placed in France.

In Italy, it is first discovered in Massuccio, from whom, as supposed by some persons, Shakespeare derived it, while others imagine him to have taken it from the old drama by Luigi da Groti; and again subsequently written by Luigi da Porto, whose version of the catastrophe differs from that of Massuccio. Luigi da Porto makes Juliet awake from her death-like slumber after Romeo has swallowed the poison, which affords occasion for a scene of great pathos. The natural joy of her finding him near her when she awakes, and his transport at her restoration to life indulged in for a few brief moments, render the horror of the discovery of his having taken poison the more heart-rending. Shakespeare adopted Massuccio's relation, and made Juliet awaken after Romeo had expired; the scene as now represented, being it is presumed Colley Cibber's arrangement. Many dramas have been founded on this tale, two in the Spanish language, by Lope de Vega and by Fernando Roxas, change wholly the names and the catastrophe, as in them the lovers are happily united.

Margaret, Countess of Blessington, in her "Idler in Italy," describing her visit to Verona, exclaims-" Verona! the very name is instinct with associations dear to every English heart, and the place seems like a second home, so blended is it with recollections awakened in early youth, by the enchanter, whose magic wand has rendered parts of Italy, never visited before, as familiar to us as household words.

"Who has ever forgotten the first perusal of Romeo and Juliet, when the heart echoed the impassioned vows of the lovers, and deeply sympathised with their sorrows? Though furrows of care and age may have marked the brow, and the bright hopes and illusions of life have long faded, the heart will still heave a sigh to the memory of those days, when it could melt with pity at a tale of love; and grief for the loss of our departed youth becomes blended with the pensiveness awakened by the associations of what so greatly moved and interested us in that joyous season of existence. "Few places have undergone less change than Verona, and this circumstance adds to the interest it excites. It is difficult, if not impossible, at least while in Verona, to believe that the story of these lovers is, after all, but a legend, claimed by many countries. I confess it appears to me, to be more true than many of the facts recorded by grave and reverend' historians, as connected with cities and buildings which still retain proofs of their authenticity. It is the genius of Shakespeare that has accomplished this, and every English heart will own it. I feel much less interest about seeing the farfamed amphitheatre here, than the tomb of Juliet, a confession calculated to draw on me the contemptuous pity of every antiquary in Italy.

66

6

My first visit was to the vineyard in which is the sarcophagus said to have been that of Juliet, the fair and gentle maid immortalised by our own Shakespeare, and to whose memory every English heart turns with an interest, with which he alone could have invested it. The vineyard is near the Franciscan convent, and is

"This coffin, if such it may be called, is composed of a coarse red stone, greatly injured by time,f and resembles much more one of those large stone vessels used for feeding pigs in farmyards, than a sarcophagus. It is large enough to have contained two bodies, provided, as the cicerone gravely observed, they were not very large. I confess that my enthusiasm was very much cooled by the view of this tomb; for I could not bring myself to believe that it really was the last resting-place of the maiden whose story enabled Shakespeare to give to the world a creation so full of beauty, that cold indeed must be the mind which feels not its truth, and sympathises not with the sorrows of the gentle lovers.

66

The doubt of the sarcophagus having really been that of Juliet, consoled me for the base uses' to which it had been applied; for, hear it all ye who have wept over her fate as represented by our glorious bard! it bears irrefragable proofs of having served as a receptacle for washing vegetables, many fragments of which floated in the impure water at the bottom of it.

"The least doubt of this coffin having been Juliet's greatly excites the choler of its proprietor; who, believing that the exercise of English generosity depends on its authenticity, and actuated by a fear of the diminution of his receipts, should discredit be attached to it, zealously proclaims it. I felt proud when I reflected that never would the names of the lovers be mentioned without a reference to England's greatest poet, who in

Juliet was buried in the subterrain of Ferma Maggiore, a monastery founded in 1230, and which belonged to an order of Franciscan friars. Some years since, the monastery was destroyed by fire, when the vaults and the burying place were reduced to ruins. At this time, the stone sarcophagus, the reputed sepulchre of Juliet, was moved from its original deposit, and placed in the entrance gateway of the monastery, in which situation Duppa saw it in 1822. When placed there, it was whole, and the upper edge entire; but the votaries of Shakespeare had even then caused the mutilation shewn in the woodcut, and carried off the of its being placed in the grounds of the ruined convent. fragments as relics. Since that period, the Countess speaks

+ The injuries by time are nothing compared to the mischief perpetrated by sacrilegious hands which carry off pieces as sacred relics. The hole in the side, as shewn in the woodcut, was doubtless made to let out the impure water.

immortalising them, has made his own fame, and that of his country still more widely extended. Happy is he whose name is blended with that of his land, and who in distant ones has made both beloved! How many thousands have visited the supposed sarcophagus of Juliet from having seen or read Shakespeare's tragedy, who would never have thought of her, if the story had not been related by him."

WHO WILL BELL THE CAT?

JAMES the Sixth, upon the death of the Regent, Earl of Marr, October 29th, 1572, was, with the Earl's children, committed to the care of the Earl's brother, Sir Alexander Erskine of Gogar; to George Buchanan, Adam and David Erskine, and Peter Young, under the direction and government of the old Countess of Marr, whose loyalty and devotion to the Royal family of Stuart had induced her to suckle the young king, and afterwards to be his nurse and attendant, under the commission of the regent and parliament of Scotland.

son.

One day, the young king had for his theme from Buchanan the history of the conspiracy against James the Third, at Lauder, in which Archibald, Earl of Angus, obtained the name of "Bell the Cat," from his telling them the fable of some rats having combined against a cat, which they proposed to seize and tie a bell about his neck, to warn them of their danger; but as they were about to put their project in execution, one of the old rats asked which of them would be the first to seize the cat? This witty question created a profound silence, when Angus exclaimed, "I'll bell the cat!" After dinner the young king began romping and trifling with the Master of Erskine, the Earl of Marr's eldest Buchanan ordered the king to be silent, and not to interrupt Erskine in his reading; to which command James paying no heed, Buchanan said that if he did not hold his peace he would whip his breech. "Will you do so?" said the kingling, "I would fain see who will bell the cat?" Up started Buchanan, and putting aside his book, with a sound drubbing sternly performed his promise. The old Countess, being in her apartment immediately adjoining, ran up to the boy-king, and taking him up in her arms, asked him the cause of his crying? which the bawling sovereign explained in the best way he could. Resenting this castigation of royalty as an insult to the diguity of her charge, she boldly asked Buchanan how he dared to lay his hand on the Lord's anointed? To this Buchanan gravely replied, Madam, I have whipped the King for disobedience and rudeness in the usual way; you may heal it with a kiss if you please."

The Master of Erskine, upon another occasion having a tame sparrow, James resolved to take it from him. Erskine resisted, and in the struggle the king killed the sparrow. Buchanan, for his tyranny and cruelty, gave his royal pupil a box on the ear; yet the tutor is charged with having instilled into the king's mind absurd notions. M. S. M.

Whereas, the Kings most royall Maiestie at his graces great costes and expenses hathe a longe tyme susteynyd well for conseruation and deffence of his seid lond as for and yet kepith a great armye in his londe of Irelond, as the annoyance of suche his highness enymyes as attempt dayle great dyspleasures agenst his subiectes of the same; and for the mayntenaunce and relyf of the said armye and subiectes by his most excellent wysdome hathe ordenyd a coyne of money, as well of grottes as pens of twopenc' to be currant only within his seid lond of Irelond, beryng the prynte of the harpe on the oon syde thereof, whiche coyne dyuers and sondre persons haue lately transported and brought of the seid lond, and uttrid the same within this his realme of Englond, not only to the great detryment and hurte of his seyd graces lond of Irelond, and of the seid armye and subiectes of the same, but also to the great deceyt of his heignes louing subiectes of this his realme of Englond. For remedye whereof his maiesty by this his proclamacion stretly chargith and comaundyth that no persone or persons of what estate, degre or condycion so euer he or she be of, shall from hensforth transporte or brynge out of his seid heighnes lond of Irelond, eny of the seid coyne of grottes or peñs of twopens' ordeynyd to be currant for and within the seid lond, nor utter or paye for eny payment within this realme of Englond, Wales, Barwyke, Calice or the Marches of the same, any of the seid coyne, vppon peyne of fforfeture of the treble value of the seid coyne brought, transported, or uttrid for payment contrary to this proclamacion, and on that to suffer ymprysonment and make fyne at his graces wyll and pleasure.

This proclamation is of some importance to Irish Numismatists, and refers to the groats and half groats, having in field on the reverse the initials H. K., the harp dividing them. The King's marriage with Catherine Howard took place on August 8, 1540, when the weight and quality of the coinage that immediately followed that event in no way rendered them of equal value with the groats and half figured in Simon's plate V. numb. 107; and the half-groat, The Irish groat is groats then current in England. in Holmes's additional plate, appended to the edition, 1810, numb. 18. This, with others of Holmes's coins there engraved, passed into the Henderson collection, and were dispersed at his sale in June 1818.

Simon appears to have had but a slight knowledge of this proclamation, as he refers the proposed penalties to the year 1541, when his highness had assumed the sovereignty as King of Ireland; and the coinage with the regal titles was wholly different.

Essay on Irish Coins, 1749, 4to., p. 34. The editors of the edition, 1810, 4to., have not corrected this appropriation; and Mr. Lindsay, Coinage of Ireland, 1839, p. 50, simply refers to Simon.