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LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1861.

No. 262.-CONTENTS. NOTES:- Spenceana: Some Account of the Life, Writ

ings, and Character of Dr. Swift, 1-Commendatory

Verses of the First Folio Shakspere. - Who was I. M. ? 3 - King Arthur's Waes-hael, 4-Sir Walter Raleigh's Last Voyage, 5- Fletcher's "Custom of the Country," 7. MINOR NOTES:- Hugh Boyd-Witty Renderings-Note of an Entry on the Register Book of Clyst St. George,

Devon John Milton-Harvest in December-Bivouac, 8.

QUERIES:- Milton Portraits, 9-Anæsthetics- -Basset: Ancient Plate-Chinese Books, &c.- Egidia, Geils, Giles ---Thomas Green, Poet- Heryngham-John Huss, the Bohemian Reformer-Family of Hussey -- Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, near Dublin - Prince Maurice- Mells -George Pickering - Pomona in the Orkney Islands

J. Rees - Starachter and Murdoch - Frances, Duchess of

Suffolk, 10.

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[Among the Spence MSS. sold at the sale of Mr. Singer's Books, &c. (all of which, with one exception, are now in our possession), was one entitled "Collections relating to the Lives of some of the Greek, Latin, Provincial, Italian, French, and English POETS." Some of the Lives of our English Poets are well deserving of publication, and will appear in these columns. The MS. does not contain any Life of Pope or Swift. But against each of their names appears a memorandum, "See separate Papers." No such separate Life of Pope has yet been found. But among the Spence MSS. in the possession of the Duke of Newcastle-the whole of which His Grace

has most kindly placed in our hands-is the following Life of the Dean, which there can be no doubt is the "separate Paper" referred to.

When the readers of " N. & Q." remember who were the "intimate friends and acquaintance" of Swift, from whom Spence "learnt some things," they will at once see the value of such a work; and they will also, we are sure, agree, that the thanks of all students of English literature are due to the Duke of Newcastle for the liberality with which he has enabled us to commence our proposed New Series of ANECDOTES OF BOOKS AND MEN with so interesting a Sketch.]

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SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, AND CHARACTER OF DR, SWIFT.

As the works of Dr. Swift have given so much entertainment to almost every one that has been conversant in them, it may not be disagreable to

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them to be better inform'd in the particulars of his life; the time in which each of his more considerable pieces were written; and the odd turn of his humour, which, tho' impossible to be wisht, may, howe'r, be trac'd farther, and described so fully and distinctly as might be nearer to the truth, than ever it has yet been. I therefore, sit down with pleasure to this task, because I am persuaded it must give pleasure to others; and have, besides, this encouragement, that there are more things already publisht which may be of assistance to me in the following account, than perhaps there ever was of any one of our English writers, within so short a time after their decease. Beside what may be collected from several parts of his own works, Dr. Swift has himself given a sketch for his life to the thirty-third year of it, publisht by his relation, who is now in possession of his grandfather's estate in Herefordshire. The same gentleman has given us many particulars relating to that, and all the remaining part of his life. The Earl of Orrery has entered (I wish I could not add) too minutely and too unkindly into his character, in his Letters: and the Observator on them has added several particulars, which his most familiar acquaintance with Dr. Swift (if the author be rightly guess'd at) must have given him more opportunities than almost any one, to observe, at least, during a considerable part of the doctor's life. Mrs. Pilkington, whose admiration of him, and the pleasure (perhaps the pride) she took in being admitted to his conversation, made her observe every little thing he did, and every word he said, has given us a picture of him in his domestic behaviour; which, as I have been assured by several persons who were very well acquainted with the doctor, is exactly like him. Mr. Hawksworth has written his life, in as exact and handsome a manner, as we had been before taught to expect from his pen; and there is another (said by the author of it, to be chiefly collected from my Lord Orrery), in the Lives of the English Poets, which I know not by what means, or rather by what blunder, they have chosen to attribute chiefly to a very unpromising name in the title-page. To what may be most to my purpose in all of these, I shall add some things which I have learnt from several of Swift's intimate friends and acquaintance and with all these helps taken together, am in some hopes of giving a fuller and more expressive idea of one who was so serviceable a politician in the cause of his native country, so very excellent and humorous a writer, and so singular a

man.

Dr. Swift was descended from a younger branch of the antient family of the Swifts in Yorkshire. His grandfather, Thomas Swift, was

1 'Tis generally thought to be Dr. Delany.

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minister of Goodrich, near Ross, in Herefordshire; where he had an estate, too, of about 100l. a year. He suffer'd very often 3 and much for the royal cause in the Civil Wars, and died before the Restoration. He left behind him six sons (he had had ten) and four daughters. The poetical connexions in his family are uncommon: his own wife was the famous Mr. Dryden's aunt 7; and his second son marry'd the eldest daughter of Sr William Davenant. No less than five of his sons (Godwin, William, Dryden, Jonathan, and Adam), chiefly to avoid the troublesomeness and persecution of the fanatics, quitted England, and settled in Ireland.10 Godwin, the eldest of them, was a counsellor 11; and all the other four were attornies. Ireland was then almost destitute of lawyers 12, the Civil Wars having made almost every body soldiers. Godwin 13, in particular, succeeded there so well, that he got an estate of 3000l. a year by the law; tho' he lost it all again, in his latter days, by being a dupe to projectors. Of the others, Jonathan had marry'd a lady of the family of the Erics 14; a very antient (and formerly a very considerable) family in Leicestershire. He died in two years after his marriage 15, and his widow, who was then big of her second child (and who had only an annuity of 20l. a year settled upon her before she and her husband left England), was very kindly receiv'd by Counsellor Swift into his family 16 in Dublin, where she was deliver'd of her second child Jonathan 17 (after wards the famous Dr Swift) on St. Andrew's 18 day, 1667. Her former child was a daughter.

The opinion, or rather the whim, of Swift's being a son of St William Temple, must be wholy without foundation 19: his mother having never been out of the English dominions; and Sr William having been abroad from the year

1665 to 1670.

The nurses in Ireland are remarkable for their love to those they suckle.20 Swift's nurse, who was a native of Whitehaven, in Cumberland, was call'd thither by urgent business, when he was but a year old. She cou'd not bear to part with her foster-child; so stole away privately, and carry'd him with her. The family was for some time without knowing what was become either of 1 Dr. Swift's own account, p. 8. 2 Hawksworth, p. 3. 3 Dr. Swift's own Account, p. 10. 4 In 1658. Ib. p. 28. 5 Hawksworth, p. 3. 7 Dr. Swift, p. 36. Swift, p. 15. to 21.

6 Mr. Swift's Essay, p. 12. 8 Ib. 33.

9 Mr.

10 Dr. Swift's own account, p. 30. 11 Mr. Swift's Essay, pp. 15. to 21. 12 Hawksworth, p. 4.

15 Mr. Swift's Essay, pp. 15. to 21.

14 Dr. Swift, p. 37.

16 Dr Swift, p. 38.

18 Nov. 30.

19 Mr. Swift's Essay, p. 77.

15 Mr. Swift, p.

22.

17 Mr. Swift, p. 22.

20 Dr. Swift's own Account, p. 39., and Mr. Swift's,

p. 26.

her or the child. At last, they had an account of them: but they did not oblige her to bring him back to them, till they had been there for three years. Their apprehensions for him made them defer this his second voyage, till he was four; tho' the nurse's eagerness had made her overlook the much greater danger, when he was but one.

Two years after his return to Ireland [1673], he was sent to the school at Kilkenny; and when fourteen' [1682], to the College at Dublin. He had no relish for the most usual studies there; employ'd himself in reading history and poetry; and when he came to stand for his Batchelor's degree, was put by it for some time for dulness and insufficiency, and did not obtain it at last [1686] without their entering the opprobrious mark "of its being given him by the uncommon indulgence of the University," in their Register. This disgrace affected Swift so strongly, as to make him apply himself to his studies very closely 3 for several years immediately succeeding it.

About the end of 1688 (possibly on his foreseeing that Ireland wa be the seat of war), Swift quitted that country, and went for some months to his mother, who liv'd at Leicester; and thence by her advice to S William Temple's, at Moor Park, near Farnham, in Surrey. There had been a very great friendship between S William's father and Swift's unkle, the Counsellor; and his own mother and Lady Temple were relations. S William receiv'd him as handsomely as might be expected from such a friend, and such a man; and when he was sufficiently acquainted with his abilities, no doubt was very glad to invite him to make Moor Park his home.

Swift's chief studies, whilst he resided there (as at the University), were poetry and history, only with the addition of politics; which, as he was with so good a master of them, he might then perhaps follow more than either of the other. Hence his cousin Swift may say, "That he was immerst in politics from the 21st year of his life;" it being the very year after he was twenty-one that he first went to live with S William Temple.

About two years after his coming to Moor Park, Swift took a journey into Ireland for the recovery of his health. He had contracted a coldness of stomach, by a surfeit of fruit, before he was twenty. He was troubled with a giddiness; which he 10 prophesied would never leave

1 Dr. Swift's own account, p. 40.; and Mr. Swift's, p. 30. 2 Speciali Gratiâ, Mr. Swift, p. 43.

3 Eight hours a day for seven years, says Delany, p. 7. Ten hours a day, for nine years, says Mr. Swift, p. 36. 4 Dr. Swift's own account, p. 42.; Mr. Swift's, p. 36. 5 Mr. Swift, pp. 36. 38.

6 Mr. Swift.

8 Dr. Swift's own account, p. 42.

7 Id., p. 239. 9 Ib., p. 43.

10 Dr. Swift, in the account of his life, speaks of himself in the third person; and speaking in it of his giddiness,

him. As he found, after some time of tryal, this change of air had not the effect which the physicians had promis'd, he returned to St William Temple's; grew (as he himself modestly words it) into some confidence with him, and was often trusted with matters of great importance. Once in particular, he was sent by S William to the King1 at Kensington, where he was obliged to explain no easy point to his Majesty and the Earl of Portland. He says, "this was the first time he had any converse with Courts, and that it helped to cure him of vanity." He sometimes saw the King too, at Sheen; and3 us'd to attend him in his walks about the garden, when St William was laid up with the gout.

Swift seems to have entertain'd a settled resolution (and nobody was more firm when he had once taken a resolution than he) to be an ecclesiastic. King William once offered him to make him a Captain of Horse; and S William Temple would have made him his deputy as Master of the Rolls in Ireland. He declin'd both, and stuck to his first plan.

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5

In 1692, Swift made some visits to Oxford; enter'd at Hart Hall, now Hertford College 6, and took his Master of Arts degree in that University.

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In -94, he went again into Ireland. The open reason? was to take orders: the hidden one 3, some differences that had happen'd between him and S William Temple. Just after this parting, his aims were so low, that he was desirous of being chaplain to our factory at Lisbon. However, not long after he had taken orders, Ld Capel 10 (on the request of his old friend S William) gave him the prebend of Kilroot 11, in the North of Ireland, and Diocess of Conner 12; worth about 500l. a year. Swift grew weary of it in a few months; and at the desire of St William, and his promising to get him some preferment in England, he resign'd his prebend in favor of a poor man that had a large family; and returned [1695] to Moor Park. After this they grew better friends than ever. Swift continu'd with him to is the end of his life; and Sr William left him a handsome legacy, and the care and 14 advantage of publishing his Works.

(To be continued.)

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The obvious question is - Who was I. M.? "Perhaps John Marston," says Steevens; "Perhaps John Marston," says J. Payne Collier, F.S.A.; "Perhaps John Marston," says Samuel Weller Singer, F.S.A.; Perhaps John Marston," says the rev. Alexander Dyce.

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This unanimity of opinion, and this identity of phrase, suggest the idea that the learned anno

tators had made no serious efforts to solve the

problem. If this inference be admitted, a new conjecture may be advanced without the imputation of temerity.

As no evidence has been produced in favour of the claims of Marston, there is no need of controversy. I rejoice at the circumstance—so rare in Shaksperean proceedings and shall at once assume that I. M. denotes James Mabbe, alias Don Diego Puede-Ser, de Santa Maria Magdalena.

To halt at this step of my argument would be to substitute one problem for another. I must therefore give an outline of the career of the almost-forgotten Don Diego Puede-Ser.

James Mabbe, a native of Surrey, was educated at Magdalen-college, Oxford - B.A. 1594; M.A. 1598. In 1605 he had the honour to make an

oration before prince Henry, and in 1606 was chosen one of the proctors of the University. He was taken into the service of sir John Digby, afterwards earl of Bristol, and accompanied him in one of his embassies to Spain, where he remained many years. Wood calls him a "noted orator and wit of his time"; and he is praised as a translator by Ben. Jonson, John Florio, William Browne, etc. He published the following works under the pseudonym of don Diego Puede-Ser-i. e. Mr. James May-be or Mabbe. 1. The rogue or the life of Guzman de Alfarache - from the Spanish of Mateo Aleman. London, printed for Edward Blount. 1623. Folio. — 10 Dr. Swift's own account, p. 47., and Mr. Swift's, Oxford, 1630. Folio. - London, 1634. Folio. 2.

says: "This disorder pursu'd him, with intermissions of
two or three years, to the end of his life." (P. 43.)
1 His own account, p. 46.
5 Mr. Swift, p. 108.

2 Ibid.

5 Dr. Swift's own account, p. 1.

4 Mr. Swift, p. 108.

6 Mr. Swift, p. 31. (see p. 44.)

7 Dr. Swift's own account, p. 47.

8 Mr. Swift, p. 51.

9 Id. ibid.

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pp. 60. to 67.

12 Hawksworth, p. 13.

Devout contemplations expressed in two and forty sermons from the Spanish of Ch. de Fonseca. London, 1629. Folio. 3. The Spanish bawd, ex

pressed in Celestina - from the Spanish. London, 1631. Folio. This translation was made at the request of sir Thomas Richardson. 4. The exemplarie novells of Cervantes in sixe books. London, 1640. Folio. The above were works of much celebrity in Spain, and translated into various languages.- Mabbe was in orders, and became prebendary of Wells. He seems to have passed his latter days as the inmate of sir John Strangways. He died at Abbotsbury, Dorset, about 1642. The exact date cannot be ascertained, as the register of burials has perished, and no other memorial remains. I am indebted for this information to the rev. G. A. Penny, vicar of Abbotsbury.

While Mabbe flourished, and for some years afterwards, the fashion of commendatory verses prevailed. If often the sincere tribute of friendship or admiration, they were as often due to the influence of the publisher, and they promoted the sale of a book as much as it is now promoted by a favourable review or an attractive advertisement. In support of this theory I might appeal to Humphrey Moseley-but shall call in no other witness than Mabbe and his publisher.

In the year 1623 Edward Blount and Isaac Jaggard acquired the copyright of sixteen inedited plays of Shakspere, and printed all the authenticated plays in one volume folio. Blount was also one of the four stationers at whose charges that renowned volume was printed. He was therefore much interested in its success more so, if we may rely on the evidence now in existence, than any other individual concerned in its production and publication.

The commendatory verses prefixed to the plays are signed Ben. Ionson Hugh Holland — L. DiggesI. M. Ben. Jonson, as I conceive, wrote to retrieve his own character: he had been taxed by the players with envy. The verses of Hugh Holland must have been written soon after 1616, and are therefore out of the question. Leonard Digges and I. M. remain for consideration.

In 1617 Blount published The rape of Proserpine, translated out of Claudian by Leonard Digges; and in 1622 he published Gerardo the unfortunate Spaniard, translated from the Spanish of D. Gonzalo de Cespedes y Meneses by the same Leonard Digges. Here is evidence of a sort of connexion for a period of six years. Now, is it not probable that the verses contributed by Digges to the Shakspere of 1623 were written at the request of Blount? I leave the query to its fate, and pass on to James Mabbe.

The first of the translations made by Mabbe, entitled The rogue: or the life of Guzman de Alfarache, was published by Blount. As Mabbe, "whose province it was to correct it," was elsewhere, Blount edited the volume for him. - a folio

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of 666 pages and he records his services in two short addresses To the reader.

I wish Mabbe had been in the way, or Guzman out of the way. The text of Shakspere might then have appeared in a less faulty state, and the critics might have been spared a world of perplexity. This remark is an afterthought, and might admit of expansion, but it somewhat interrupts the course of my argument, which I resume.

Does it not now seem probable, or more than probable, that Mabbe should have been applied to by Blount for a contribution to the preliminaries of Shakspere, in return for his editorial services on Guzman, and that the initials I. M. denote James Mabbe? This is no more than circumstantial evidence; but, as it seems to me, almost irresistible.

The verses

I must touch on internal evidence. which occur in the translations of Mabbe afford no instances of resemblance to the commendatory specimen, but I have met with a prose paragraph in Guzman which is too curious to be omitted. It is a prize to the hunters after parallel passages.

"It is a miserable thing, and much to be pitied, that such an idol as one of these [a proud courtier], should affect particular adoration; not considering that he is but a man, a representant, a poor kind of comedian that acts his part upon the stage of this world, and comes forth with this or that office, thus and thus attended, or at least resembling such a person, and that when the play is done (which cannot be long) he must presently enter into the tyring-house of the grave, and be turned to dust and ashes as one of the sons of the earth, which is the common mother of us all."

Guzman de Alfarache, Part I. p. 175. As the above paragraph and the commendatory verses were in the press at the same time, I cannot but consider the verses to be a reminiscence of the labours of Mabbe while occupied on the translation of Mateo Aleman-but of this opinion, and of other novel opinions herein expressed, the ratification must be left to disinterested critics.

The Terrace, Barnes, S.W.

BOLTON CORNEY,

KING ARTHUR'S WAES-HAEL. When the Brown Bowl is filled for Yule, let the dome or upper half be set on. Then let the Waes-haelers kneel, one by one, and draw up the wine with their reeds through the two bosses at the rim. Let one breath only be drawn by each of the Morrice for his Waes-hael.*

Waes-hael! for Lord and Dame!
O! ferry be their Dole;
Drink-hael! in Jesu's name,

And fill the tawny Bowl:
But cover down the curving crest,
Mould of The Orient Lady's Breast!

* Waes in this word is sounded Waze.

Waes-hael! but lift no lid;
Drain ye the Reeds for Wine! *
Drink-hael! the milk was hid

That soothed that Babe divine:
Hush'd, as this hollow channel flows,
He drew the Balsam from the Rose!
Waes-hael! thus glow'd the Breast,
Where a God yearn'd to cling;
Drink-hael! so Jesu press'd

Life, from its mystic Spring;
Then hush, and bend in reverent sign,
And breathe the thrilling reeds for Wine!

Waes-hael! in shadowy scene,

Lo! Christmas children, we! Drink-hael! behold we lean

At a far Mother's knee;

To dream that thus her Bosom smiled,
And learn the lip of Bethlehem's Child!
BEN. TAMAR.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S LAST VOYAGE. [So many doubts still hang over the second voyage of Sir Walter Raleigh to Guiana-his final and fatal voyage that every fresh original testimony respecting it must be regarded with interest. The following journal is printed from a contemporary manuscript, kindly communicated by Sir T. E. Winnington, Bart., and will take its place among the most valuable of the historical materials for this important incident - an incident not only in the personal history of Raleigh and King James, but even in the greater history of our native country. The writer was the preacher, or chaplain, of the Flying Chudleigh, or Chidley, or the Flying Joan, as it is more frequently termed, commanded by Capt. Chidley, or Chudleigh, of the Devonshire family of that name, and afterwards Sir John. The ship in which he sailed was a vessel of only 120 tons, and carried 14 guns. From her size, it was not likely that she should have taken any very prominent part in the voyage; but all who were on board must have had opportunities, some more and some less, of observing what went on; and it is in that light that the present narrative must be regarded. The writer's feeling was evidently not friendly to Raleigh; but his means of information were not the most complete, and in this narrative he was addressing persons whose favour he was desirous of securing, and whom he knew to be Raleigh's enemies. We shall be glad to receive any information respecting him.] MR. JONES, TOUCHING SIR WALTER RALEIGH HIS VOYAGE.

To the Right Honorable the Lordes of his Majesties most honorable Privy Counsell. A true and briefe relation of Sir Walter Raleigh his late Voyage to Guiana. By Samuel Jones, preacher in one of his Shippes called the Flyinge Chudleigh.

Right Honourable

A Comon reporte of his Maties Large Comission to Sir Walter Raleigh, the great expectation

In Rome, at the Chalice, the Pope does not sip or drink, but he draws through a silver reed or pipe. Nasus is the Ritual name, from váw, to flow.

of successe, the importunity of many worthy gentlemen, the good reporte I hearde of Captaine Chudleigh: joyn'd with the consideration of my want of imploymt at that time in the churche, (under wh misery I still suffer) were the inducemts that prevailed wh me to undertake so dangerous a voyage.

To wch we set saile frō Plimouth the 12th of June año 1617. We put in againe at Phamouth in Cornwaile, after at Corke in Ireland, where we arrived the 25th of June, and remained till the 19th of August. These delayes, however occasioned, forced diverse younge gentlemen and others to sell their private provisions both of apparell and dyet, to the untimely death of many of

them.

The first shippe we gave chase unto at sea we found to be one of London; frō whome nothinge was taken but by mutuall curtesy. The 30th of August we gave chase to a fleet of four or five sayle, but could not gett up wh them, nor knowledge directly what they were.

The next day other foure shippes wch we tooke, and found to be frenchmen & Biscaners. Sir Walter Raleigh stayed them two dayes, the reason (as was reported) bycause they were bound for Sivill in Spayne; nothinge was taken frō them by force, only a shallop and fishing seane, for which they were payed and so departed.

At Lancerok, one of the Canary Ilands, we put in, desiringe only water and some other provisions, which yf the inhabitants could parte with, they should be payd for, when we were promised our desires, but so long delayed, that three of our men being basely murthered without doinge any harme to the Ilanders, we retired to our shippes. At Gomera, after some intercourse of messages (they seeing our force) gave us free leave to water, for at first they withstood us.

These passages I the rather relate, bycause they put not only my selfe, but many other gentlemen in a comfortable hope that Sir Walter Raleigh had a certainty of his project, whereof by his many former delayes we made great doubt: till we sawe these places wherein we receaved such. injuries spared: which might, as we thought by our forces, have been easily overcome and ruined. Yet for ought I could perceive their would have beene smale scruple made of surprisinge any Spanish shippinge, for at the Grand Canaryes a Spanish caruel was taken, her men being all formerly fled; her ladinge was for the most part salte, some little wine, and other provisions, whereby it seemed she was bound a fishinge. And about the same time neare the Canaries a Spanish canter, a fish of smale worth, in her some 14 Spaniards, boat of fifteene or sixteene tunnes, laden with all which were set free except one, that desired to accompany us in our voyage, and did, being used as one of our own men. Frō these Ilands we

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