Portrait by Boonen. -Can any of your correspondents state the precise time when Boonen, said to be a pupil of Schalcken, flourished? And what eminent geographer, Dutch or English, lived during such a period? This question is asked with reference to a picture by Boonen, -a portrait of a singular visaged man, with his hand on a globe, now at Mr. Peel's in Golden Square; the subject of which is desired to be ascertained. It may be the portrait of an astrologer, if the globe is celestial.

Z.

Beaver Hats.-On the subject of beaver hats, I would ask what was the price or value of a beaver hat in the time of Charles II.? I find that Giles Davis of London, merchant, offered Timothy Wade, Esq., "five pounds to buy a beaver hat," that he might be permitted to surrender a lease of a piece of ground in Aldermanbury. (Vide Judicial Decree, Fire of London, dated 13. Dec. 1668. Add. MS. 5085. No. 22.) F. E.

graphs, or of their bold introduction into William Shakspeare's will in the Dublin edition of his own work.

It is therefore clear that Mr. Jebb is mistaken in thinking that it was "a blunder of Malone's." It seems, as far as we can see, to have been, not a blunder, but an audacious fabrication; and how it came into the Irish edition, seems to me incomprehensible. The printer of the Dublin edition, Exshaw, was a respectable man, an alderman and a Protestant, and he could have no design to make William Shakspeare pass for a papist; nor indeed does the author of the fraud, whoever he was, attempt that; for the three paragraphs profess to be the confession of John. So that, on the whole, the matter is to me quite inexplicable; it is certain that it must have been a premeditated forgery and fraud, but by whom or for what possible purpose, I cannot conceive.

C.

REPLIES.

BLUNDER IN MALONE'S SHAKSPEARE.

I regret that no further notice has been taken of the very curious matter suggested by "Mr. JEBB" (No. 14. p. 213.), one of the many forgeries of which Shakspeare has been the object, which ought to be cleared up, but which I have neither leisure nor materials to attempt; but I can afford a hint or two for other inquirers.

1. This strange intermixture of some John Shakspeare's confession of the Romish faith with William Shakspeare's will, is, as Mr. Jebb states, to be found in the Dublin edition of Malone's Shakspeare, 1794, v. i. p. 154. It is generally supposed that this Dublin edition was a copy (I believe a piracy) of the London one of 1790; but by what means the three introductory paragraphs of John Shakspeare's popish confession were foisted into the real will of William is a complete mystery. 2. Malone, in a subsequent part of his prolegomena to both those editions (Lond. v. i. part ii. 162., and Dublin, v. ii. p. 139.), printed a pretended will or confession of the faith of John Shakspeare, found in a strange, incredible way, and evidently forgery. This consisted of fourteen articles, of which the three first were missing. Now the three paragraphs foisted into William's will would be the kind of paragraphs that would complete John's confession; but they are not in confession. Who, then, forged them? and who foisted them-which Malone had never seen-into so prominent a place in the Dublin reprint of Malone's work?

a

3. Malone, in his inquiry into the Ireland forgeries, alludes to this confession of faith, admits that he was mistaken about it, and intimates that he had been imposed on, which he evidently was; but he does not seem to have known any thing of the second forgery of the three introductory para

HINTS TO INTENDING EDITORS.

Beaumont and Fletcher; Gray; Seward; Milton. By way of carrying out the suggestion which you thought fit to print at page 316, as to the advantages likely to arise from intimations in your pages of the existence of the MS. annotations, and other materials suitable to the purposes of intending editors of standard works, I beg to mention the following books in my possession, which are much at the service of any editor who may apply to you for my address, viz.:

1. A copy of Tonson's 10 vol. edit. of Beaumont and Fletcher (8vo. 1750), interleaved and copiously annotated, to the extent of about half the plays, by Dr. Hoadly.

2. Mr. Haslewood's collection of materials for an edit. of Gray, consisting of several works and parts of works, MS. notes, newspaper cuttings, &c., bound in 6 vols.

3. A collection of works of Miss Anne Seward, Mr. Park's copy, with his MS. notes, newspaper cuttings, &c.

As a first instalment of my promised notes on Milton's Minor Poems, I have transcribed the following from my two copies, premising that "G." stands for the name of Mr. Gilchrist, and "D." for that of Mr. Dunster, whose name is misprinted in your 316th page, as "Dunston."

Notes on Lycidas.

On 1. 2. (G.) :

"O'er head sat a raven, on a sere bough."

Jonson's Sad Shepherd, Act I. Sc. 6.

On 1. 26. (D.) :

"Whose so early lay Prevents the eyelids of the blushing day." Crashaw's Music's Duel.

On 1. 27. (D.):

Supposed Etymology of Havior (No. 15. p. 230., and No. 17. p. 269.). - The following etymology of "heaviers" will probably be considered as not satisfactory, but this extract will show that the

term itself is in use amongst the Scotch deerstalkers in the neighbourhood of Loch Lomond.

"Ox-deer, or heaviers,' as the foresters call them (most likely a corruption from the French 'hiver'), are wilder than either hart or hind. They often take post upon a height, that gives a look-out all round, which makes them very difficult to stalk. Although not so good when December is past, still they are in season all the winter; hence their French designation." Colquhoun's Rocks and Rivers, p. 137. (London, 8vo. 1849.)

C. I. R.

Spurious Letter of Sir R. Walpole (No.19. p. 304.), - "P. C. S. S." (No. 20. p. 321.) and "LORD BRAYBROOKE" (No. 21. p. 336.) will find their opinion of the letter being spurious confirmed by the appendix to Lord Hervey's Memoirs, (vol. ii. p. 582.), and the editor's note, which proves the inaccuracy of the circumstances on which the in

the letter founded his fabrication. In

addition to Lord Braybrooke's proofs that Sir Robert was not disabled by the stone, for some days previous to the 23th, from waiting on the king, let me add also, from Horace Walpole's authority, two conclusive facts; the first is, that it was not till Sunday night, the 31st January (a week after the date of the letter) that Sir Robert made up his mind to resign; and, secondly, that he had at least two personal interviews with the king on that subject. C.

Line quoted by De Quincey. - "S. P. S." (No. 22.

"Aver or Aiver, a horse used for labour; commonly an old horse; as in Burns

"Yet aft a ragged cowte's been kenn'd
To mak a noble aiver.'

"This man wyl not obey.... Nochtheles I sall gar hym draw lik an avir in ane cart.'-Bellend. Chron. ""Aiver, a he-goat after he has been gelded: till then he is denominated a buck.

"Haiver, haivrel, kaverel, a gelded goat (East Lothian, Lanarkshire, Sutherland).

"Hebrun, heburn, are also synonymes. "Averie, live-stock, as including horses, cattle, &c. ""Calculation of what money, &c. will sustain their Majesties' house and averie.'- Keith's Hist.

""Averia, averii, 'equi, boves, jumenta, oves, ceteraque animalia quæ agriculturæ inservient.' "- Ducange.

Skene traces this word to the low Latin, averia, "quhilk signifies ane beast." According to Spelman, the Northumbrians call a horse aver or afer. See much more learned disquisition on the origin of these evidently congenerous words under the term Arage, in Jamieson. EMDEE.

Mowbray Coheirs (No. 14. p. 213.). - Your correspondent "G." may obtain a clue to his researches on reference to the private act of parliament of

"With battlements that on their restless fronts Bore stars"...

is a passage taken from a gorgeous description of "Cloudland" by Wordsworth, which occurs near the end of the second book of the Excursion. The opium-eater gives a long extract, as "S. P. S." probably remembers. A. G.

Ecclesfield, March 31. 1850.

Quem Jupiter vult perdere priùs dementat. Malone, in a note in Boswell's Johnson (p. 718., Croker's last edition), says, that a gentleman of Cambridge found this apopthegm in an edition of Euripides (not named) as a translation of an iambric.

“*Ον Θέος θέλει ἀπολέσαι, πρῶτ' ἀποφρένοι.” The Latin translation the Cambridge gentleman might have found in Barnes; but where is the Greek, so different from that of Barnes, to be found? It is much nearer to the Latin.

C.

as it were, surviving in Northumberland onely; which, when that state of kingdome stood, was known to be a part of the Kingdome of Bernicia, which had peculiar petty kings, and reached from the River Tees to Edenborough Frith."

At p. 817. Camden traces the etymology of Berwick from Bernicia. P. C. S. S.

Casar's Wife. - If the object of "NASO'S" Query (No. 18. p. 277.) be merely to ascertain the origin of the proverb, "Cæsar's wife must be above suspicion," he will find in Suetonius (Jul. Cæs. 74.) to the following effect:

"The name of Pompeia, the wife of Julius Cæsar, having been mixed up with an accusation against P. Clodius, her husband divorced her; not, as he said, because he believed the charge against her, but because he would have those belonging to him as free from suspicion as from crime."

J. E.

Gray's Elegy. In reply to the Query of your correspondent "J. F. M." (No. 7. p. 101.), as well as in allusion to remarks made by others among your readers in the following numbers on the subject of Gray's Elegy, I beg to state that, in addition to the versions in foreign languages of this fine composition therein enumerated, there is one printed among the poems, original and translated, by C. A. Wheelwright, B.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge, published by Longman & Co. 1811. (2d edition, 1812.) If I mistake not, the three beautiful stanzas, given by Mason in his notes to Gray, viz. those beginning,

"The thoughtless world to majesty may bow," "Hark! how the sacred calm that breathes around," "Him have we seen," &c.

(the last of which is so remarkable for its Doric simplicity, as well as being essential to mark the concluding period of the contemplative man's day) have not been admitted into any edition of the Elegy.

With regard to the last stanza of the epitaph, its meaning is certainly involved in some degree of obscurity, though it is, I think, hardly to be charged with irreverence, according to the opinion of your correspondent "S. W." (No. 10. p. 150.). By the words trembling hope, there can be no doubt, that Petrarch's similar expression, paven

Cromwell's Estates (No. 18. p. 277., and No. 21. p. 339.). -I am much obliged to "SELEUCUS" for his answer to this inquiry, as far as regards the seignory of Gower. It also throws a strong light on the remaining names; by the aid of which, looking in Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire, I have identified Margore with the parish of Magor (St. Mary's), hundred of Caldecott, co. Monmouth: and guess, that for Chepstall we must read Chepstow, which is in the same hundred, and the population of which we know was stout in the royal cause, as tenants of the Marquis of Worcester would be.

Then I guess Woolaston may be Woolston (hundred of Dewhurst), co. Gloucester; and Chaulton one of the Charltons in the same county, perhaps Charlton Kings, near Cheltenham; where again we read, that many of the residents were slain in the civil war, fighting on the king's side.

This leaves only Sydenham without something like a probable conjecture, at least: unless here too, we may guess it was miswritten for Siddington, near Cirencester. The names, it is to be observed, are only recorded by Noble; whose inaccuracy as a transcriber has been shown abundantly by Carlyle. The record to which he refers as extant in the House of Commons papers, is not to be found, I am told.

Now, if it could be ascertained, either that the name in question had been Cromwell's, or even that they were a part of the Worcester estates, before the civil war, we should have the whole list cleared, thanks to the aid so effectually given by "SELEUCUS's" apposite explanations of one of its items.

Will your correspondents complete the illustra

tions thus well begun? Belgravia, March 26.

MISCELLANIES.

V.

Franz von Sickingen. - Your correspondent "S. W. S." (No. 21. p. 336.) speaks of his having had some difficulty in finding a portrait of Franz Von Sickingen; it may not therefore, be uninteresting to him to know (if not already aware of it) that upon the north side of the nave of the cathedral of Treves, is a monument of Richard Von

BODY AND SOUL,

(From the Latin of Owen.)

The sacred writers to express the whole, Name but a part, and call the man a soul, We frame our speech upon a different plan, And say "somebody," when we mean a man. Nobody heeds what everybody says,

And yet how sad the secret it betrays!

Rurus.

"Laissez faire, laissez passer."-I think your correspondent "A MAN IN A GARRET" (No. 19. p. 308.) is not warranted in stating that M. de Gournay was the author of the above axiom of political economy. Last session Lord J. Russell related an anecdote in the House of Commons which referred the phrase to an earlier date. In

the Times of the 2nd of April, 1849, his Lordship is reported to have said, on the preceding day, in a debate on the Rate-in-Aid Bill, that Colbert, with the intention of fostering the manufactures of France, established regulations which limited the webs woven in looms to a particular size. He also prohibited the introduction of foreign manufactures into France. The French vine-growers, finding that under this system they could no longer exchange their wine for foreign goods, began to grumble. "It was then," said his Lordship, "that Colbert, having asked a merchant what he should do, he (the merchant), with great justice and great sagacity, said, 'Laissez faire et laissez passer-do not interfere as to the size and mode of your manufactures, do not interfere with the entrance of foreign imports, but let them compete with your own manufactures."

Colbert died twenty-nine years before M. de Gournay was born. Lord J. Russell omitted to state whether Colbert followed the merchant's advice. C. Ross.

College Salting and Tucking of Freshmen (No. 17. p. 261., No. 19. p. 306.). A circumstantial account of the tucking of freshmen, as practised in Exeter College, Oxford, in 1636, is given in Mr. Martyn's Life of the First Lord Shaftesbury, vol. i. p. 42.

"On a particular day, the senior under-graduates, in the evening, called the freshmen to the fire, and made them hold out their chins; whilst one of the seniors, with the nail of his thumb (which was left long for that purpose), grated off all the skin from the

lip to the chin, and then obliged him to drink a beerglass of water and salt."

Lord Shaftesbury was a freshman in Exeter in 1636; and the story told by his biographer is, that he organized a resistance among his fellow freshmen to the practice, and that a row took place in the college hall, which led to the interference of the master, Dr. Prideaux, and to the abolition of the practice in Exeter College. The custom is there said to have been of great antiquity in the college.

The authority cited by Mr. Martyn for the story is a Mr. Stringer, who was a confidential friend of Lord Shaftesbury's, and made collections for a Life of him; and it probably comes from Lord Shaftesbury himself.

C.

Byron and Tacitus. Although Byron is, by our school rules, a forbidden author, I sometimes contrive to indulge myself in reading his works by stealth. Among the passages that have struck my (boyish) fancy is the couplet couplet in "The Bride of Abydos." (line 912),

"Mark! where his carnage and his conquests cease! He makes a solitude, and calls it-peace!"

Engaged this morning in a more legitimate study, that of Tacitus. I stumbled upon this passage in the speech of Galgacus (Ag. xxx.),

"Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem adpellant." Does not this look very much like what we call "cabbaging?" If you think so, by adding it to the other plagiarisms of the same author, noted in some of your former numbers, you will confer a great honour on A SCHOOLBOY.

The Pardonere and Frere. - If Mr. J. P. Collier would, at some leisure moment, forward, for your pages, a complete list of the variations from the original, in Smeeton's reprint of The Pardonere and Frere, he would confer a favour which would be duly appreciated by the possessors of that rare tract, small as their number must be; since, in my copy (once in the library of Thomas Jolley, Esq.), there is an autograph attestation by Mr. Rodd, that "there were no more than twenty copies printed."

G. A. S.