RoTerence - Faxen A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. "When found, make a note of." CAPTAIN CUTTLE. No. 62.] Price Threepence Stamped Edition 4d. NOTES: CONTENTS. SATURDAY, JANUARY 4. 1851. Old Ballads upon the "Winter's Tale," by J. Payne Collier Page Crossing Rivers on Skins, by Janus Dousa QUERIES: Histoire des Sévarambes Origin of present Penny Postage, by E. Venables Red Book of the Irish Exchequer Lucy and Colin Minor Queries: - Abbey of Shapp, or Hepp-" Talk Suem, Ferling, Collections of - The Butcher "Defender of the Faith," by Robert Anstruther Beatrix Lady Talbot, by F. 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Trusting that this, and all the other arrangements we are proposing to ourselves, may meet with the approbation of our friends and subscribers, we bid them Farewell! and wish them, what we trust they wish to NOTES AND QUERIES-a Happy New Year, and many of them! Notes. OLD BALLAD UPON THE "WINTER'S TALE." Some of your correspondents may be able to give me information respecting an old ballad that has very recently fallen in my way, on a story similar to that of Shakspeare's Winter's Tale, and in some particulars still more like Greene's novel of Pandosto, upon which the Winter's Tale was founded. You are aware that the earliest known edition of Greene's novel is dated 1588, although there is room to suspect that it had been origin ally printed before that year: the first we hear of the Winter's Tale is in 1611, when it was acted at court, and it was not printed until it appeared in the folio of 1623. The ballad to which I refer has for title The Royal Courtly Garland, or Joy after Sorrow: it is in ordinary type, and was "Printed and sold in Aldermary Churchyard, London." It has no date, and in appearance does not look older than from, perhaps, 1690 to 1720; it may even be more recent, as at that period it is not easy to form a correct opinion either from typography or orthography: black-letter has a distinguishing character at various periods, so as to enable a judgment to be formed within, perhaps, ten years, as regards an undated production; but such is not the case with Roman type, or white-letter. What I suspect, however, is that this ballad is considerably older, and that my copy is only a comparatively modern reprint with some alterations; it requires no proof, at this time of day, to show that it was the constant habit of our old publishers of ephemeral literature to reprint ballads without the slightest notice that they had ever appeared before. This, in fact, is the point on which I want information, as to The Royal Courtly Garland, or Joy after Sorrow. Can any of your correspondents refer me to an older copy, or do they know of the existence of one which belongs to a later period? I cannot be ignorant of DR. RIMBAULT's learning on such matters, and I make my appeal especially to him. It is very possible that it may bear a different title in other copies, and for the sake of identification I will furnish a few extracts from the various " parts" (no fewer than six) into which the ballad is divided; observing that they fill a closely printed broadside, and that the production is entirely different from Jordan's versification of the Winter's Tale, under the title of The Jealous Duke and the injured Duchess, which came out in his Royal Arbor of Loyal Poesie, 8vo. 1664. It is singular that two ballads, hitherto wholly unknown, should have been written upon the same incidents of the same drama, although we are yet without evidence that Jordan's effusion was ever published as a broadside. Not a single name is given to any of the persons in my Royal Courtly Garland, but the places of action are reversed exactly in the same way as in Greene's novel of Pandosto, where what Shakspeare represents as passing in Sicily occurs in Bohemia, and vice versâ; moreover, the error of representing Bohemia as a maritime country belongs to my ballad, as well as to the novelist and the dramatist. The King of Bohemia, jealous of an "outlandish prince," who he suspected had intrigued with his queen, employs his cup-bearer to poison the prince, who is informed by the cupbearer of the design against his life. "For fear of the king the prince dare not stay: The wind being fair, he sailed away, Saying, I will escape from his blood-thirsty hand By steering away to my native land." Not long after his departure, the queen, "who had never conceived before" (which varies both from Greene and Shakspeare), produces a daughter, which the king resolves to get rid of by turning it adrift at sea in "a little boat." He so informs the queen, and she in great grief provides the outfit for the infant voyager: “A purse of rare jewels she placed next her skin, And fasten'd it likewise securely within; A chain round her neck, and a mantle of gold, Because she her infant no more should behold." It is revealed to the king in a dream that his wife is innocent, but she soon dies of a broken-heart. Meanwhile, the prince, on his return to his own dominions, marries, and has a son. The infant princess is driven on shore in his kingdom, and is and his wife as their own child, they carefully saved by an old shepherd, and brought up by him concealing the riches they had found in the "little boat." "This child grew up, endued with grace, A modest behaviour, a sweet comely face; And being arrived at the age of fifteen, For beauty and wisdom few like her were seen." "Her" is misprinted him in the original, and the whole, as may be expected, is not a first-rate specimen of typography. The son of the prince sees and falls in love with the supposed shepherd's daughter, and, to avoid the anger of the prince his father, he secretly sails away with her and the old shepherd. By a storm they are driven on the coast of Bohemia: "A violent storm on the sea did arise, Drove them to Bohemia; they are took for spies; Their ship was seized, and they to prison sent: To confine them a while the king's fully bent." Here we arrive at an incident which is found in Greene, but which Shakspeare had the judgment wonderful for its art, as delightful for its poetry. to avoid, making the termination of his drama as Greene and my ballad represent the king of Bohe did not recognise. She effectually resisted his hemia falling in love with his own daughter, whom entreaties, and he resolves "to hang or burn " the reveals that she is not his daughter, and produces whole party; but the old shepherd, to save himself, "the mantle of gold" in which he had found her: "He likewise produced the mantle of gold. The king was amazed the sight to behold; Though long time the shepherd had used the same, The king knew it marked with his own name." This discovery leads directly to the unwinding of the plot: the young prince makes himself known, and his father being sent for, the lovers are "married in triumph" in Bohemia, and the old shepherd is made "a lord of the court." If any of your readers can inform me of another copy of the above ballad, especially unmodernised (the versification must have suffered in the frequent reprints) and in black-letter of an early date, they will do me a favour. At present I am unable to decide whether it was founded upon Greene's novel, Shakspeare's play, or upon some independent, possibly foreign, narrative. I am by no means satisfied that Greene's novel was not a translation, and we know that he was skilful in Italian, Spanish, and French. J. PAYNE COLLIER. I cannot find the particular Number of NOTES AND QUERIES, but unless I am greatly mistaken, in one of them, a correspondent gave praise (I am the last to say it was not deserved) to DR. MAGINN for suggesting that miching mallecho, in Hamlet, Act. III. Sc. 2., was from the Spanish mucho malhecho. I never heard of DR. MAGINN's opinion until I saw it in your pages; but if you happen to be able to refer to the Shakspeare I superintended through the press in 1843, vol. vii. p. 271., note 9., you will see that I propose the Spanish word malhecho as the origin of "mallecho." I did not think this point worth notice at the time, and I doubt whether it is worth notice now. If you leave out this postscript, as you are at perfect liberty to do, I shall conclude that you are of my opinion. J. P. C. [The passage to which our valued correspondent refers is in our Second Volume, p. $58., where J. M. B. points out that the suggestion of a writer in the Quarterly Review for March 1850, that Shakspeare's miching mallecho was a mere misprint of the Spanish words mucho malhecho, had been anticipated by DR. MAGINN. It now appears that he had also been anticipated by MR. COLLIER.] CROSSING RIVERS ON SKINS. The mode of crossing a river on skins, mentioned by Layard (Nineveh and its Remains, 5th edition, vol. i. p. 129., vol. ii. p. 381.) is also referred to in the works of the following ancient writers. I quote Facciolati Lexicon Totius Latinitatis, in vocibus Uter et Utricularius. [Edit. Furlanetto, 4to.] Frequens fuit apud veteres utrium usus ad flu mina trananda, Liv. 21. 27. Hispani, sine ulla mole, in utres vestimentis conjectis, ipsi cetris suppositis incubantes, flumen tranavere, Cas. B. G. i. 48. Lusitani, peritique earum regionum cetrati citerioris Hispaniæ, consectabantur, quibus erat proclive transnare flumen, quod consuetudo eorum omnium est, ut sine utribus ad exercitum non eant, (Cf. Herzog., qui longam huic loco adnotationem adscripsit), Curt. 7. 5. Utres quam plurimos stramentis refertos dividit; his incubantes transnavere amnem, Plin. 6. 29. 35. Arabes Ascitæ appellati, quoniam bubulos utres binos sternentes ponte piraticam exercent, h. e. utribus junctis tabulas instar pontis sternentes. Adde Front. Strat. 3. 13., et Ammian, 30. 1. med." "Utricularii vocabantur qui utriculos, seu utres inflatos ratibus ita subjiciebant, ut iisdem flumina transnare possent. Eorum collegium in quibusdam urbibus ad flumen aliquod sitis habebatur, ideoque utricularii sæpe cum nautis conjunguntur, Inscr. ap. Mur. 531, n. 4. Ex voto a solo templum ex suo fecerunt collegio utriculariorum." JANUS DOUSA. Manpadt House, near Haarlem. FOLK LORE OF SOUTH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, NO. 3. who, in addition to his still credited attribute of Hedgehog. Among other animals looked upon in a superstitious light, we have the hedgehog, Sucking cows, is looked upon by our rustics as the emblem of craft and cunning; playing the same southern fableaux. part in our popular stories as Reynard in the more They tell concerning him, the legend given by M. M. Grimm, of the race between the Hare and Hedgehog. The Northamptonshire version makes the trial of speed between a for and hedgehog. In all other respects the English tale runs word for word with the German. Hares. Besides the ancient superstition attached to the crossing of the path by one of these animals, there is also a belief that the running of one along the street or mainway of a village, portends fire to some house in the immediate vicinity. Toads.. Belief in their venomous nature is yet far from being extinct. This, added to the ill-defined species of fascination which they are supposed to exercise, has caused them here, as elsewhere, to be held in great abhorrence. I have heard persons who ought to have known better, exclaim on the danger of gazing upon one of the harmless reptiles. The idea respecting the fascinating powers of the toad, is by no means confined to our district. Witness the learned Cardan: 66 Fascinari pueros fixo intuitu magnorum bufonum et maximè qui è subterranco specu aut sepulchris prodierint, utque ob id occulto morbo perire, haud absurdum est."-De Rerum Varietate, lib. xvi. c. 90. Crickets, contrary to the idea prevailing in the western counties, are supposed to presage good luck, and are therefore most carefully preserved. Their presence is believed to be a sure omen of prosperity; while, on the other hand, their sudden departure from a hearth which has long echoed with their cry, betokens approaching misfortune, and is regarded as the direst calamity that can happen to the family. Omens of death and misfortune are also drawn from the howling of dogs - the sight of a trio of butterflies- the flying down the chimney of swallows or jackdaws; and swine are sometimes said to give their master warning of his death by giving utterance to a certain peculiar whine, known and understood only by the initiated in such matters. Gaule, in his Mag-astromancers Posed and Puzzled, Lond. 1652, p. 181., ranks among evil omens "the falling of swallows down the chimney and "the grunting of swine." T. S. Thursday night some villains robbed the Kentish Town stage, and stripped the passengers of their money, watches, and buckles. In the hurry they spared the pockets of Mr. Corbyn, the druggist; but he, content to have neighbour's fare, called out to one of the rogues, Stop, friend, you have forgot to take my money.' Morning Chron, and Lond. Advertiser, Jan. 9. 1773, son and many other persons, that in his youth the Somerset House. Gray's Alcaic Ode. A question asked in Vol. i., p. 382., whether "Gray's celebrated Latin Ode is actually to be found entered at the Grande Chartreuse? is satisfactorily answered in the negative at p. 416. of the same volume, and its disappearance traced to the destructive influence of the first French Revolution. It may not, however, be without interest to some of your readers to know, that this elegant "Alcaic" was to be found at the Chartreuse not very long before the outbreak of that great political tempest, proof of which will be found in the following extract taken from the 9th volume of Malte-Brun's Annales des Voyages, Paris, 1809. It is found in a paper entitled "Voyage à la Grande Chartreuse en 1789. Par M. T******* and is in p. 230.: "L'Album, ou le grand livre dans lequel les étrangers inscrivent leurs noms, présente quelquefois une lecture intéressante. Nous en copiâmes quelques pages. Le morceau le plus digne d'être conservé est sans doute l'Ode latine suivante du célèbre poëte anglais Gray. Je ne crois pas qu'elle ait été publiée encore.' Then follows the ode, as usually printed, excepting that in the third line, G. B. "Nativa nam certe fluentia," the words "nam certe" are transposed. Fleet Marriages. - The General Evening Post, June 27-29, 1745, contains the following sin Murray's Hand-book for Devon and Cornwall.— The author does not mention Haccombe Chapel or the Oswell Rocks, both near Newton; the latter is a most picturesque spot, and the view near and far most interesting! A notice of the tiles, and of the 2 ft. 2 in. effigy at Haccombe, appears in the Arch. Journal, iii. 151. 237.—The monuments are in fine preservation up to the last of the "Hac-gular Note of a Fleet marriage: combes" ante 1342, which is perfect. The chapel would be improved by the removal of the two pews, and of the family arms from the velvet cloth on the communion-table! - Tavistock Church has an east window by Williment; pattern, and our Saviour in the centre. The church by Dartmouth Castle contains a brass, and armorial gallery; the visitor should sail round the rock at the harbour entrance, its appearance from seaward is fine. — Littleham Church has a decorated wooden screen, very elegant.-A work on the Devonshire pulpits and screens would be valuable. A. C. Judges' Walk, Hampstead. A friend of mine, residing at Hampstead, has communicated to me the following information, which I forward to you as likely to instruct your readers. He states that the oldest inhabitant of Hampstead, Mr. Rowbotham, a clock and watchmaker, died recently, at the age of ninety. He told his Yesterday came on a cause at Doctors' Commons, wherein the plaintiff brought his action against the defendant for pretending to be his wife. She in her justification pleaded a marriage at the Fleet the 6th of February, 1737, and produced a Fleet certificate, which was not allowed as evidence: she likewise offered to produce the minister she pretended married them, but he being excommunicate for clandestine marriages, could not be received as a witness, The court thereupon pronounced against the marriage, and condemned her in 281., the costs of suit." Queries. HISTOIRE DES SÉVARAMBES. Y. S. The authorship of Gaudentio di Lucca has recently been discussed by some of your correspondents, and it has been shown that this Voyage |