342 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'><» S. VII. April 23. '59. 



Puritan principles, but adhered to the Church, and was 

 very popular as a preacher. His Works are wholly prac- 

 tical, and were printed together in 2 vols, folio, 1620, 

 1624, There is a short biography of him by Robert Hill 

 prefixed to the second volume.] 



Viscount Stirling — Who was the Lord Ster- 

 line, whose tragedy of Darius, printed in 1603, 

 contains a passage similar in thought to Shak- 

 speare's : — 



" The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces," &c. 



Cetlonensis. 



[Has our intelligent correspondent neglected to "make 

 a note" of our British Solomon's "philosophical poet," and 

 His Majesty's Lieutenant of Nova Scotia, whose Knight 

 Baronets, instead of receiving for their 150/. sterling six 

 thousand good and sufficient acres of Nova Scotia ground, 

 had eventually to search for land amongst the Selenites 

 in the Moon, or turn Knights of the Sun ? Sir William 

 Alexander first commenced as an amatory poet, with a 

 complaint of his unsuccessful flirtation with a lady he 

 namedjAurora, who, preferring the hand of another suitor, 

 "matched her morning to one in the evening of his 

 days," as our poet pensively complains in one of his 

 Sonnets, After Sir William had sold Nova Scotia to the 

 French, Charles I. made him Secretary of State for Scot- 

 land, and in September, 1630, a peer of that kingdom by 

 the title of Viscount Stirling. He died on February 12, 

 1640.] 



Anonymous MS. Comedy. — In the Sloane MS. 

 1828, there is a tragedy by the Earl of Orrery, 

 called Zoroastres, and a comedy. What is the 

 title or subject of this comedy ? Z. 



[The comedy is in five acts, but has no title. On the 

 first leaf is the date 1699, crossed with a pen. The 

 dramatis persona are. Old Lovewell; Young Lovewell; 

 Trueboy; Wildman; Doolittle; Lady Tumbol; Mrs. 

 Shorter, her daughter; Rachel Tumbol; Clarinda and 

 Lucie ; Mrs. Friskett ; Phillis and Bettj'. It appears to 

 be a satire on the practices of the Puritans ; and con- 

 cludes with the following lines : — 



" Trueboy. May the great Judge of all things set us 

 free 

 From Presbyterians as from Popery. 

 Open their eyes, let them their error spy ; 

 Repent their crimes, and from their factions fly. 

 May we in perfect unity remain, 

 Secure by them may our great monarch reign." 

 This MS. comedy contains the earliest notice yet known 

 of that curious work. The Heavy Shove, so frequently dis- 

 cussed in " N. & Q.," and that too in connexion with the 

 name of Baxter ; although the name of William Bunyan 

 appears on the title-page of a copy recently sold by 

 Sotheby & Wilkinson (" N. & Q.," 2'--^ S. vi. 80.) Doo- 

 little says : — "I will not have a wife to pry into my 

 actions; how these holy women love holy men. So I 

 hear there is a young woman of a very good fortune 

 in love with my brother Baxter ; but let me see, let me 

 look over my papers,* and see what is ready for the press. 



Here is my Shove to the Heavy A Christian, that will 



be ready in a week. My Nearer Way to Heaven than 

 with a Ladder. My Vision, or, the Triumph of the Coven- 

 ant ; this is to show how well I can write in verse. Bayes 

 never wrote anything half so well in his life, it tickles 

 the Tory." The tragedy by the Earl of Orrery, which 

 follows this comedy in the same volume, is in a different 

 handwriting, and does not appear to have been known 

 to the Earl's biographers.] 



The Maudeleyne Grace. — I shall be much 

 obliged if any of your readers can give me some 

 information concerning the origin of the custom 

 of singing the Latin hymn on the tower of Mag- 

 dalen College, Oxford, on the 1st of May at sun- 

 rise. The points on which I wish to gain some 

 information are, 1 . the date of the first performance 

 of the custom ; 2, the object of the ceremony, and 

 the origin of its institution ; 3. any change which 

 may have taken place since it was first esta- 

 blished. Daunia. 



[Akermann, in his History of Oxford, i. 251., has the 

 following notice of this custom:' — "Previous to the Re- 

 formation a mass Avas performed every May morning, at 

 an early hour, on the top of Magdalen tower, for the 

 repose of the soul of Henry VII., who had honoured the 

 college with a visit in 1486-7. The choristers, however, 

 continue to execute, in the same place and on the same 

 day, certain pieces of choir music ; for which harmonious 

 service the rectory of Slimbridge, in Gloucestershire, pays 

 the yearly sum of 10/. This ceremonj' has encouraged 

 the notion that Henry contributed to the erection of the 

 tower : but his only recorded act of favour to the college 

 is the confirmation of its ' claim to the rectory charged 

 with the annual payment." Consult also Dr. Rimbault's 

 article in our 1" S. i. 437., for some notices of the " Grace," 

 composed by Benjamin Rogers, M.D.] 



Passage in Burke. — The following quotation 

 occurs in Burke's first letter on a Regicide Peace : 



" Thus painters write their names at Co." 

 It will be found at p. 201. of the 8th vol. of 

 Burke's Works, ed. 1815. Perhaps some of your 

 correspondents can explain this puzzling quota- 

 tion ? A. Z. 



[Burke's quotation is appended to his commendation of 

 a certain " manly and masterly state-paper," concerning 

 which he says, ",The diplomatick collection never was 

 more enriched than with this piece. The historick facts 

 justify every stroke of the master." The island of Co, 

 Coos, or Cos, was very generally supposed (though this is 

 questioned by some) to have given birth to the famous 

 painter Apelles, who is said to have never put his name 

 to any pictures but three ; a Sleeping Venus, a Venus 

 Anadyomene (his best), and an Alexander (which also 

 appears to have been first-rate). Burke's meaning is 

 complimentary. He intimates an analogy between " the 

 stroke of the master" discernible in the important "state- 

 paper " to which he refers (Declaration, Oct. 29, 1793, see 

 London Gazette or Annual Register of that year), and 

 the painter's name attached to his best picture. There 

 remain two desiderata. One would wish to know, 1. 

 who wrote the line cited by Burke; 2. who wrote the 

 Declaration which he, and not he alone, so highly com- 

 mends. It sets forth the grounds on which the war with 

 France was vindicated by the British government.] 



The Bishop of Sarum and Dr. Cole. — Informa- 

 tion is required respecting the following work : 

 The True Copies of the Letters betweene the Reve- 

 rend Father in God, John, Bisshop of Sarum and 

 D. Cole. No date. [1560.] C. J. E. 



[The occasion of this correspondence between Bishop 

 Jewel and Dr. Cole, Dean of St. Paul's, was owing to the 

 Bishop's celebrated Sermon, containing a challenge to the 

 Romanists, on moat of the principal points in controversy 



