10 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 53., Jan, 3. '57. 



was in a difficulty, that I am induced to put an- 

 other question to vour correspondents of a similar 

 kind. In the first place, however, let me thank 

 Dr. RiMBAUi-T for the ready assistance and useful 

 information he afforded me, respecting the fine old 

 national ballad on Henry V. and the battle of 

 Agincourt. I did not bear in mind that it had 

 been quoted in Heywood's "Edward IV.," 1600 ; 

 but that fact had been previously called to my 

 recollection in a private note, which showed that 

 it had already been noticed by our mutual friend, 

 Mr. W. Chappell, in the new edition of liis Po- 

 pular Ballad Music of England, a work of the 

 greatest interest and industry. 



Dr. Rimbault states that the ballad on the 

 ." Battle of Agincourt" exists, as he believes, in 

 the Pepysian Collection at Cambridge. Is such 

 the case with respect to another historical effusion 

 of the same sort, on a very different subject, the 

 life and character of Richard III. ? A ballad 

 with the title of " A Tragical Report of King 

 Richard III." was licensed, with twenty others, 

 to Henry Carre in the summer of 1586; see the 

 Extracts fi-om the Ilegisters of the Stationers' Com- 

 pany (published by the Shakspeare Society in 

 1849), vol. ii. p. 212. Has this production come 

 down to our day in any shape, either printed or 

 manuscript ? That is my question. The late 

 Mr. Heber had a volume of short popular poems, 

 in a handwriting of about the time of Anne or 

 George I., which he lent to me, and from which, 

 with his permission, I copied several pieces, one 

 of them a ballad headed " Of King Richard III." 

 It is not at all impossible that this is the very 

 ballad licensed to Henry Carre, and it opens 

 thus : 



" King Richard, you shall understand, 



Was cruel'st tyrant in this land ; 

 King John that Arthur slew, 



Was not so bloody as this king : 

 lie kill'd but one nephew, 



But Richard did a bloodyer thing ; 

 He smothered nephews two." 



I give ray extracts in modern orthography, be- 

 cause the MS. I copied did not at all profess to 

 follow what must have been the old spelling. An- 

 other stanza (there are eight of them in the 

 whole) is this : 



" No sooner was King Edward dead, 

 Th;in he made shorter by the head 



The friouds of the poor Queen ; 

 For Rivers, Hastings, and Lord Gray, 



Alive no more were seen : 

 At Pomfret they were made away, 



As they had never been." 



Here we have an historical error (not of much 

 consequence in productions of this class), for it 

 was Vanghan, and not Hastings, who suffered 

 with Rivers and Grey at Pomfret. The preceding 

 quotations will be enough to enable the readers of 

 " N. & Q." to identify tlie ballad, but I will sub- 



join the concluding stanza, which follows the 

 mention of the battle of Bosworth Field : 

 "Wherein the tyrant he was slain. 

 And Henry did the crown obtain. 



Which many a year he wore ; 

 Uniting so the roses two, 

 Most deadly foes before. 

 To flourish here as erst they grew. 

 And shall do evermore." 



Has the preceding production ever been printed 

 or reprinted ? and is any other coj)y of it in ma- 

 nuscript known ? The sooner I procure informa- 

 tion on either of these points, the more serviceable 

 it will be to J. Payne Collier. 



Maidenhead, 



morley's first booke of ayres, fol. 1600. 



The late Mr. T. Rodd, a few years ago, sold a 

 copy of this work for \l. \s. Its full title is : 



" The first Booke of Ayres, or little short Songs to sing 

 and play to the Lute with the Base-Viol, by Thomas 

 Morley.'fol. London, 1600." 



A copy of it is most particularly desired, and if 

 the purchaser of Rodd's exemplar of it, or any 

 other possessor, would kindly communicate with 

 me at No. 6. Tregunter Road, West Brompton, 

 near London, I would willingly, if a purchase is 

 practicable, give ten guineas for the book rather 

 than not possess it. The " N. & Q." would in- 

 crease the obligations to which many of us are 

 under to it, if it could be a medium for obtaining 

 some otherwise almost " impossible " books. There 

 are some old plays of Shakspeare and others that 

 I know are in existence, for which one would wil- 

 lingly give weight in gold including their binding 

 in the scale. How gladly would I give 105Z. for 

 a nice copy of the Hamlet of 1604, to put in the 

 same case with the recently acquired and cherished 

 treasure of that of 1603 ! J. O. Halliwell. 



" John Decastro and his Brother Bat." — Can 

 any reader of " N. & Q." give information re- 

 specting a novel called John Decastro and his 

 Brother Sat, published by Mr. Egerton in 1815 ; 

 any particulars respecting the book and its author ? 



J. M. L. 



Interment in Stone Coffins. — I request to know 

 any well-authenticated instances of interment in 

 a stone coffin, with recess for the head, and a 

 bevelled or peaked lid of stone, as early as the end 

 of the eleventh or during the twelfth century, or 

 how soon thereafter ? 



I inquire, also, for any instance of a body, so 

 entombed oi» otherwise, swathed in a leathern 

 shroud, laced or not on the back or front, about 

 the same period. P. C. 



