252 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«*S. N0 65., MAB.28.'6t. 



Phillips in bis New World of Words, " a keeping 

 company with, or being familiar with any : " and 

 this is the only definition which John Milton's 

 nephew, a learned man and a copious writer, gives 

 of it. At present, the word rarely means anything 

 but colloquy. The declension is gradual, I sup- 

 pose. Thus, in the old translations of the New 

 Testament, as in Matthew v. 37., Koyos is rendered 

 word, talk, communication, never * conversation. 

 In speaking of the sexes, conversation, subdivided 

 into lawful and unlawful, was what is now co- 

 habitation. The question is, how far had the 

 word progressed in its change of meaning in 1712? 

 What witnesses can be adduced of conversation 

 then meaning no more, between man and woman, 

 than colloquy or habit of colloquy, when used of 

 a long terra of years ? A. D« Mobgan. 



ANTHONY BACON AND SIR HENBT WOTTON. 



(2"-^ S. iii. 121. 190.) 



Unless I could convey to A. B. R. the impres- 

 sions derived from the perusal of fifteen or sixteen 

 thick folios of miscellaneous correspondence in 

 manuscript, I cannot attempt to discuss with him 

 the probabilities of Sir H. Wotton's story. As 

 long as you know nothing of a man but his name, 

 there is no difficulty in believing him a rascal ; but 

 when you have an intimate knowledge of himself 

 and his aflairs, there may be the greatest difficulty 

 in believing that he can be a rascal without your 

 having seen some traces of it. Thus, when Dr. 

 Birch knew no more of Anthony Bacon than 

 A. B. R. does, he believed and repeated Sir H. 

 Wotton's story ; but when he had read the fifteen 

 manuscript volumes at Lambeth, he repudiated it 

 as incredible ; and if A. B.,E,. would go through 

 the same process, I have no doubt he would come 

 to the same conclusion. In the mean time, all I 

 meant to establish was this : Evidence being in 

 existence which has convinced everybody who has 

 examined it that the story cannot be true, the 

 truth of the story ought not to he taken for granted. 



But, it might be asked, if the story be not true, 

 how do you account for its having been told? 

 I answer, nothing more natural : a secret trans- 

 action excites curiosity, curiosity stimulates specu- 

 lation, and a conjecture in one man's mouth easily 

 becomes a fact in another's. If A. B. R. thinks 

 that the transmutation cannot be effected unless 

 the last mouth be the mouth of a liar, let him try 

 a simple experiment. The next time he is present 

 when a story is under discussion which touches a 

 neighbour's reputation, and of which he knows 

 the true version, let him say nothing and listen. 



Of course I do not quote Dr. Birch as infallible, 



* Does my ear deceive me, or is it common in oral 

 quotation, to say " Let your conversation be yea, yea," &c. ? 



any more than myself. We may both be wrong. 

 But A. B. R. is certainly not in a position to pro.^ 

 nounce judgment upon us, as long as he is una-s 

 ware even of the kind of evidence to which we 

 appeal. Part of Wotton's story is that Anthony 

 Bacon had a noble entertainment at Essex House, 

 and at least lOOOZ. of annual pension ; upon which 

 Dr. Birch remarks that " of this pretended pen- 

 sion [not ' of this affair,' as A. B. R. misquotes it, 

 — meaning the intrigue by which the 4000Z. had 

 been extorted] there is not the least trace in all 

 Mr. Bacon's papers." " That" (rejoins A. B. R.) 

 " is exactly what might have been expected." 

 How can he possibly know that, unless he knows 

 what kind of papers they are ? Suppose they 

 contain details of receipt and expenditure ; op 

 negociations with creditors about security, and 

 means and times of payment ; or answers to 

 maternal expostulations about money matters ; or 

 confidential discussions with his brother as to 

 financial perplexities. Is it so likely that no traces 

 should anywhere appear in them of such an item 

 as lOOOZ. of annual pension ? J. S. 



TEACES OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, THE REFORMBB. 



(2"'i S. iii. 204.) 



Mr. Offbr's researches in quest of information 

 respecting the life and circumstances of Mr. Tyn- 

 dale, as cited by J. G. N., enabled him to collect 

 and publish several very interesting facts and do- 

 cuments unknown to Foxe and Strype, and to 

 every subsequent historian of our Reformation. 

 In the course of those researches Mr. Offbr became 

 acquainted with the documents which appear ixx 

 J. G. N.'s article. When I undertook, at the late 

 Mr. Stokes's request, to edit Tyndale's Works for 

 the Parker Society, it became my duty to weigh 

 the evidence for my friend Mr. Offor's conclusions, 

 as they had been given to the public in his Life of 

 Tyndale, with the aid of the late Rev. Christopher 

 Anderson's further diligent inquiries, as published 

 in his invaluable Annals of the English Bible. 

 The result was a decisive conviction, as stated in 

 my biographical notice, "prefixed to the Parker 

 Society's edition, p. xv., that neither the William 

 Tyndale whose ordination is mentioned, nor the 

 one who became an Observant friar, can have been 

 the same person as the translator of the Scriptures. 

 The confraternity of Observants at Greenwich 

 lived under the eyes of Henry VIII. and his 

 court ; and the king, who declared to Pope Leo X. 

 his " ferventissimum studium erga sanctam fa- 

 miliam fratrum minorum de Observantia," in 

 1513 (Ellis, Original Letters, 3rd Series, L. 66.), 

 was proportionably angry when some of them 

 boldly condemned his divorce (75., L. 201., and 

 Letters in previous series) ; so that Sir Thomas 

 More would not have been unacquainted with 



