GEORGE BUCK, 1647. Let Shakespeare, Chapman, and applauded Ben, Prefixed to the first edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's Works. 1647. T. PALMER, 1647. I could prayfe Heywood now: or tell how long, And scarce invent the Title for one Page. Prefixed to the first edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's Works. 1647. C. M. I. SH. ALLN. BK.-I. LL * SAM. SHEPPARD, 1647. Suck[-dry]. We are in an excellent humour-lets have the tother quart. Common-curfe]. Rare rogue in Buckram-thou shalt goe out a wit, and vie with Martin Parker,1 or John Tailor.2 The Committee-Man Curried. A Comedy presented to the view of all Men. Written by S. Sheppard, Printed Anno Dom. 1647. 4to. Act. 3, p. 7. F. J. F. Having regard to the great popularity of Hen. IV, this may be an allusion to Falstaff's 'rogues in buckram': though a buckram lord, rogue, man, &c. was a common phrase. C. M. I. 1 The Ballad-Writer. 2 The Water-Poet. J. S., 1648. With reference to Mr. Bullen's letter printed on the next page, and issued in my Stubbes, Part I, 1879, a note of mine appeard in the Athenæum of April 3, 1880, saying that I had chanced to take up Wits labyrinth "in the British Museum, and opening it at p. 19, my eye caught at once a line of Petruchio's remonstrance with Kate before she touches his meat :The poorest service is repaid with thanks. Taming of the Shrew, IV. iii. 45. As this line is not in the.'Taming of a Shrew,' 1594, it negatives Mr. Bullen's supposition that J. S., the compiler of 'Wit's Labyrinth,' had access only to Shakspere's historical plays and 'Titus.' That J. S. was Shirley the dramatist I don't for a moment believe. There are other J. S. initial books in 1639, 1643, 1660, 1664, &c.”—F. J. F. 1648. J. S. "Wit's labyrinth. Or a briefe and compendious Abstract of most witty, ingenious, wise and learned Sentences and Phrases. Together with some hundreds of most pithy, facetious and patheticall, complementall expressions. Collected, compiled, and set forth for the benefit, pleasure, or delight of all, but principally the English Nobility and Gentry. Aut prodesse aut delectare potest. By J. S. Gent. London, printed for M. Simmons, 1648,' 4to, 53 pages. "The quotations which [this volume] contains are strung together apparently without any order or arrangement, and without any indication of the sources from which they are derived. No name, in fact, of any author whatever is mentioned. The following, however, I have identified as being from Shakspeare, and, with the aid of Mrs. Cowden Clarke's valuable Concordance, I have appended to them the exact positions which they occupy in the Shakspearean dramas : Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.'-3 Henry VI., Act v. sc. 3. Thieves are 'Diana's Foresters or Gentlemen of the Shade.'- Henry IV., Act i. sc. 2. "I have thus verified thirteen distinct quotations from Shakspeare in this little work, and I believe that there are still more. Of those which I have traced, it is singular that all except three are from the English historical plays, and that the three exceptions are from Titus Andronicus." This would almost show that the compiler, whoever he was, had access only to those particular dramas, and not to any complete edition of Shakspeare's plays, either the 1623 edition or the 1632 edition. Otherwise we might have expected passages from the greater dramas, 'Hamlet,' 'Macbeth,' ' Lear,' 'Romeo and Juliet,' 'Othello,' 'The Tempest,' &c. “And now the question arises, Who was the compiler? Who was ‘J. S. Gent.'? The first name one thinks of is that of James Shirley, a dramatist himself, and the last of the glorious band in whom there survived somewhat of the genius of Shakspeare,-Marlowe, Webster, and Beaumont and Fletcher. "Shirley, besides being a dramatist, was a clergyman of the Church of England who turned Catholic. He was also a schoolmaster, and the Latin quotation of the title-page, together with another Latin quotation in the preface, might lead one to suppose that the compilation was his. But the style and manner of the preface are altogether unworthy of him. Here is a passage from it : “And lastly although this Poem [work ?] is but a collection of divers sentences, phrases, &c., as appeareth in the Title (not methodically composed or digested), it being unpossible in a subject of this nature so to doe, but promiscuously intermixt with variety and delight, which many yeares since, in times of my better prosperity, I gathered out of some hundreds of Authors, never having the least thought of putting it to Presse: yet now,' &c. Then he goes on, in the style usual then as at present, to say that he was prevailed on by the importunities of friends to put it into print,' &c. ‹ Perhaps some one else may be more fortunate in discovering the name of the compiler." [Athenæum, Sept. 6, 1879.] G. BULLEN. Anonymous, 1648. Wednesday the 27 of December. From Windfor came to White-Hall this day thus. That the King is pretty merry, and spends much time in reading of Sermon Books, and fometimes Shakspeare and Ben: Johnsons Playes. Perfect Occurences of Every Daies iournall in Parliament, Proceedings with His Majesty, and other moderate intelligence. No. 104. Fryday Dec. 22 to Fryday Dec. 30 1648. [It is well known that the cultivated taste of Charles I. delighted in Shakespere; we here see how he could thus find distraction from his troubles within a month of his death. See also after, J. Cook, p. 525. L. T. S.] HENRY TUBBE, 1648-54. Th' Example of his Conversation Not mafk'd with forms of false Hypocrifie : Of reall Features twisted in a String Of rich Ingredients, fit to make a King. Harleian MS. 4126, leaf 50 (or 51 by the 2nd numbering), [The Passage was first pointed out by Mr. Halliwell, and was sent by me See what a grace was seated on his Brow, |