Notes and Queries, Number 185, May 14, 1853 | Page 6

19th in the Scholes Quadrangle. The Regents first drew up a Petition to have it censured; then some others more busy than wise tooke upon them to gett it subscribed, and went to coffee houses and taverns as well as colleges for that purpose: these proceedings being ag^{st} statute, and reflecting upon the vice ch., gave great offence; at last he call'd a meeting of y^e {474} heads of houses, who deputed 6 to examine it: they pick'd several Proposit. w^{ch} were read. The sentence was in this form: Propositions &^c tanqu[=a] falsas et impias in Chris. Relig. et in Ecc. pr?cipue Anglican[=a] contumeliosas damnamus, plerasq; insuper h?reticas esse decernimus et declaramus, &^c. This was first subscribed by all y^e heads of Coll. and then condemn'd unanimously in a full convocation. The Decree is printed, but is too large to send. The Author of y^e Booke has sent about a soft vindication of himselfe, that he is unwilling to be accounted a Socinian, &c. If I can gett a sight of it I will send you the contents. I do not know how far you are in the right about guessing at a Bursar: Tim. seems resolv'd to act according to y^e song; but I to shew good nature even w^{th}out a tree have promis'd to make him a Dial: and when that's done I will doe y^e like at Astrop. I am
Your very humble serv^t, W. R.
If you see Coll. Byerly, give my service to him.
Directed thus: These to George Clark, Esq., Secretary of War in Ireland.
By y^e way of London.
Indorsed: W. Rooke, Rec^d at Tipperary, Sept. 7th.
[Footnote 3: [For some account of this work, by Arthur Bury, and the controversy respecting it, see Wood's Athen?, edit. Bliss, vol. i. p. 483. William Rooke, the Writer of the letter, was of Queen's College; made B.A., May 16, 1674; M.A., Oct. 30, 1677; B.D., April 12, 1690.--ED.]]
* * * * *
A SHAKSPERIAN BOOK.
"There exists," says Mr. John Wilson, "as it were a talismanic influence in regard to the most trivial circumstances connected with Shakspeare," and yet this enthusiast has not, in his Shaksperiana, alluded to the dramatic works of Mary Hornby, written under, and dated from, the dear old roof at Stratford-upon-Avon!
It was my late good fortune, after filling my pockets from the twopenny boxes of the suburban bookstalls, to find, on turning out the heterogeneous contents, that I had accidentally become possessed of The Broken Vow, a comedy by the aforesaid lady, who waits to be enrolled in that much wanted book, a new edition of the Biographia Dramatica. This Broken Bow which looks like a re-cooking of the Merry Miller of Thomas Sadler, 1766, bears to be "printed at Stratford-upon-Avon, for the Author, by W. Barnacle, 1820." Mary Hornby, following the example of the preoccupier of the butcher's shop, tries her hand at both tragedy and comedy; in the first line she stands charged with the perpetration of The Battle of Waterloo, which, I doubt not, rivalled its original enactment in its sanguinary character. I have not been lucky enough to fall in with this, which was a hit; our fair authoress, in her preface to the comedy under notice, modestly attributing its great success more to the kindness of her friends than to its literary merit.
Mrs. Hornby sustains the dignity of the drama by adhering to her five acts, with prologue and epilogue according to prescription. Looking to the prologue for the who, the why, and the wherefore, I am sorry to say I find no materials for the concoction of a biographical note; upon the second point, the why, she tells us:
"When women teem, be it with bad or good, They must bring forth--forsooth 'tis right they should, But to produce a bantling of the brain, Hard is the task, and oft the labour vain."
That her literary accouchement should not be a failure, she further says:
"Lord, how I've bother'd all the gods and graces, Who patronize some mortals, in such cases."
I take the expressive use of the word "some" here to indicate her predecessor, the ancient occupier of the tenement, who certainly was a protégé of the said parties.
Mrs. Hornby then goes on to relate how that during her gestation she invoked Apollo, Thalia, and Erato:
"Soon they arrived, with Hermes at their side, By Jove commission'd, as their friend and guide. But when the mirth-inspiring dames stepp'd o'er The sacred threshold of great Shakspeare's door, The heav'nly guests, who came to laugh with me, Oppress'd with grief, wept with Melpomene; Bow'd pensive o'er the Bard of Nature's tomb, Dropt a sad tear, then left me to my doom!"
I leave the reader to judge for himself whether the Muses really "came to laugh" with Mary Hornby, or whether, under the belief of the immortality of our Bard,