2''-» S. VII. ApKiL 2. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



281 



which well illustrates this subject : — "In 1769 I set for 

 Smart and Newbery, Thornton's burlesque Ode on St. 

 Cecilia's Day. It was performed at Ranelagh in masks, 

 to a very crowded audience, as I was told ; for I then re- 

 sided in Norfolk. Beard sang the salt-box song, which 

 was admirably accompanied on that instrument by Brent, 

 the fencing-master, and father of Miss Brent the cele- 

 brated singer, Skeggs on the broomstick as bassoon, and 

 a remarkable performer on the Jew's harp : — 



' Buzzing twangs the iron Ij're.' 

 Cleavers were cast in bell-metal for this entertainment. 

 AH the performers of the Old Woman's Oratory, emploj'ed 

 by Foote, Arere I believe employed at Ranelagh on this 

 occasion. "3 



Mr. Sympson. — The Rev. Dr. Seward of Lich- 

 field published in 1750 an edition of Beaumont 

 and Fletcher. Dr. Seward was assisted in his 

 editorial labours by a Mr. Sympson. Can you in- 

 form rae who this Mr. Sympson was ? R. Inglis. 



[Dr. Seward's assistant was the Eev. John Sympson of 

 Gainsborough, who, according to his monumental inscrip- 

 tion printed in Stark's History of Gainsborough, edit. 

 1843, p. 395., died on April 24, 1755.] 



BISHOP BEDELL. 



(2°o S. vii. 229.) 



Your intelligent correspondent ^. has been led 

 into a chronological inaccuracy by the biographers 

 of Sir Henry Wotton and Bishop Bedell. He 

 states that — 



" Bedell quitted Cambridge in 1599 for St. Edmunds- 

 bury ; in which last-mentioned place he continued until 

 the'spring of 1604, when he accompanied Sir Henry Wot- 

 ton as his chaplain to Venice. He remained abroad eight 

 [ ? five] years, or until 1612. The gunpowder conspiracy 

 was detected in Nov. 1605, or twenty months at least 

 after his departure for the Continent. It is manifest, 

 therefore, that he could not have ' received a letter from 

 London, while he was A preacher at St. Edraundsbury, 

 about the discovery of the gunpowder plot, with all the cir- 

 cumstances of it.' " 



This mistatement is not surprising ; for Walton 

 positively assures us that Bedell accompanied 

 Wotton on his embassage to Venice. He says, 



" Sir Henry having resolved upon Venice, left England 

 nobly accompanied through France to Venice by gentle- 

 men of the best families and breeding that this nation 

 afforded ; they were too many to name, but these two, 

 for the following reasons, may not be omitted. Sir Al- 

 bertus Morton his nephew *, who went his secretary ; and 

 William Bedell, a man of choice learning and sanctified 

 wisdom, who went his chaplain." — Life of Sir Henry 

 Wotton. 



Wotton was dispatched by James I. as ambas- 

 sador in July, 1604 — not in the spring, as stated 

 by Nichols, Progresses of James /., ii. 469. Wot- 

 ton, writing to Secretary Winwood from Dover, 

 July 19, 1604, tells him, that he expects to be at 



* Not his half-brother, as stated by Mr. John Holmes 

 in the last edition of Wordsworth's Eccles. Biography. 



Venice in thirty-five days. (Winwood's Memorials., 

 ii. 25.) At this time Bedell was faithfully dis- 

 charging his pastoral duties at Bury St. Edmunds. 

 The chaplain who accompanied Sir Henry was 

 Nathaniel Fletcher, son of Dr. Richard Fletcher, 

 Bishop of London, who continued to reside at 

 Venice for above two years. This we learn from 

 the following fragment of a letter sent by Sir 

 Henry Wotton to the Earl of Salisbury, Birch 

 MS. 4160, p. 360., in British Museum : — 



« Sept. 22, 1606. Sent by this, Mr. Nathaniel Fletcher, 

 son to the Bishop of London. He is drawn home by his 

 own urgent occasions, having been here [Venice] with 

 me now two years. And as the first that bath preached 

 God's truth on this side the Alps, since the main de- 

 formities thereof, so it hath pleased God also to bless his 

 peregrination with the sight of this memorable, and I 

 hope eternal variance between the Pope and a neighbour 

 State upon the point of his authority, which, as it was 

 built and conserved by ignorance, the great mj'stery of 

 this Church, so being now called into examination and 

 discourse, is likely by all human reason to lose much of 

 that foolish reverence which maintained it.* For himself, 

 I am bound to say, that we have in this poor family re- 

 ceived much benefit by his painful and learned instruc- 

 tions, and much contentment in his discreet behaviour." 

 Sir Henry Wotton then requests " that Mr. Fletcher may, 

 by his Lordship's means, be put into the list of the 

 preachers at the Court the next Lent." 



Another letter from Sir Henry Wotton to the 

 Earl of Salisbury, preserved by Dr. Birch on a 

 fly-leaf of his copy of Burnet's Life of William 

 Bedell, informs us that Bedell did not join Wot- 

 ton's embassage until the year 1607 : — 



" Venice, Feb. 23, 1606-7. 



" I have occasion, at the present, of the begging your 

 Lordship's passport and encouragement for one Mr. Be- 

 dell, whom I shall be very glad to have with me in the 

 place of Chaplain ; because I hear very singular commen- 

 dation of his good gifts and discreet behaviour. It may, 

 therefore, please your Lordship, when he shall take the 

 boldness to present himself before you, to set forward also 

 this piece of God's service." 



Bedell appears to have reached Venice towards 

 the latter part of May, 1607; for in his Original 

 Letters, Dublin, 12mo., 1742, Letter I. p. 14., he 

 says, " Not long after my coming [to Venice], the 

 Pope sent his nuncio hither, the Bishop of Ri- 

 mini." Now Cardinal Gessi, Bishop of Rimini, 

 received his instructions from Paul V. on the 4th 

 of June, 1607, as the appointed nuncio to the re- 

 public of Venice (Ranke's Popes of Home, ii. 426., 

 edit. 1847). Bedell was certainly at Venice when 

 the attempt was made upon the life of Father 

 Paul, which happened on October 5, 1607 ; for 

 when the Republic assigned him a guard, and 

 ordered that no one should be permitted to speak 

 with him. Bedell alone was excepted, who had free 

 ingress to him. J. Yeowell. 



* Paul V. did not absolve the subjects of Venice from 

 their allegiance, but put the state under an Interdict, for- 

 bidding the celebration of divine offices throughout its 

 territory. The Venetian clergj', except the Jesuits, 

 obeyed the Senate rather than the Pope. 



