Notes and Queries, Number 14, February 2, 1850

Notes and Queries, Number 14, February 2, 1850

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes & Queries, No. 14. Saturday, February
2, 1850, by Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Notes & Queries, No. 14. Saturday, February 2, 1850 A Medium Of Inter-Communication For Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, Etc.
Author: Various
Release Date: September 30, 2004 [EBook #13558]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
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"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
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No. 14.] SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1850 [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.
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CONTENTS
NOTES: Reprints of Old Books, by J.P. Collier. 209 Catacombs and Bone-houses. 210 Lines attributed to Hudibras. 210 Notes from Fly-leaves, No. 5. 211 The Pursuits of Literature. 212
QUERIES:-- Barryana. 212 Nine Queries by the Rev. J. Jebb. 212 Minor Queries:--Mowbray Coheirs--Draytone and Yong--Fraternity of Christian Doctrine--Treatise by Engelbert--New Year's Day Custom--Under the Rose--Norman Pedigrees--Dr. Johnson's Library--Golden Frog--Singular Motto--Sir Stephen Fox--Antony Alsop--Derivation of Calamity, &c. 213
REPLIES:-- Field of Forty Footsteps, by E.F. Rimbault. 217 Queries answered, No. 4.--Pokership, by Bolton Corney. 218 Mertens the Printer. 218 Etymology of Armagh. 218 Matters of the Revels, by E.F. Rimbault. 219 Replies to Minor Queries:--Red Maids--Poetical Symbolism--Fraternitye of Vagabondes--Anonymous Ravennas--Dick Shore--Travelling in England--Sanuto--Darnley's Birth-place--History of Edward II., &c. 219
MISCELLANIES:--Gray's Elegy--Shylock--Sonnet--The Devotee--By Hook or by Crook--Macaulay's Young Levite--Praise undeserved--Cowper's "Task". 221
MISCELLANEOUS:-- Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 223 Books and Odd Volumes wanted. 223 Notices to Correspondents. 223 Advertisements. 224
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ENGLISH AND AMERICAN REPRINTS OF OLD BOOKS
Most people are aware of the great demand there is for English literature, and indeed for all literature in the United States: for some years the anxiety of persons in that part of the world to obtain copies of our early printed books, prose, poetry, and plays, has been well known to such as collect and sell them on this side of the water. Where American purchasers could not obtain original editions they have, in all possible cases, secured reprints, and they have made some themselves.
Not very long since a present of a most creditable and well-edited republication of "Four Old Plays" was sent to me from Cambridge, U.S., consisting of "Three Interludes: _Thersytes_, _Jack Jugler_, and Heywood's _Pardoner and Frere_; and _Jocasta_, a tragedy by Gascoigne and Kinwelmarsh." They are preceded by a very well written and intelligent, and at the same time modest, Introduction, signed F.J.C., the initials of Mr. Francis James Child; who in fact was kind enough to forward the volume to me, and who, if I am not mistaken, was formerly a correspondent of mine in a different part of the republic.
My particular reason for noticing the book is to impress upon editors in this country the necessity of accuracy, not only for the sake of readers and critics here, but for the sake of those abroad, because Mr. Child's work illustrates especially the disadvantage of the want of that accuracy. It so happens that two, if not three, of the pieces included in the Cambridge volume, are absolutely unique, and are now in the library of the Duke of Devonshire. They went through my hands some years ago, and as they had been previously reprinted in London (two of them for the Roxburghe Club), I took the opportunity of collating my copies of them. The third interlude, which was not reprinted for any society, but as a private speculation, "by George Smeeton, in St. Martin's Church-yard," is Heywood's _Pardoner and Frere_, the full title of which is "_A mery playe betwene the pardoner, and the frere, the curate and neybour Pratte_." The original copy has the following imprint: "Imprynted by Wyllyam Rastell the v. day of Apryll, the yere of our lorde, M. CCCCC. xxx III."
The reprint by Smeeton is in black letter, and it professes to be a fac-simile, or as nearly so as possible; and although it consists of only eight leaves, it contains no fewer than forty variations from the original, all more or less important, and one of them the total omission of a line, so that the preceding line is left without its corresponding rhyme, and the sense materially injured.
Unfortunately, Mr. Child reprinted in America from this defective reprint in England; but his sagacity prevented him from falling into some of the blunders, although it could not supply him with the wanting line; and his notes are