April 10. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



349 



" For he is In the right, and I '11 make it so appear : 

 Him I dare to single combat, for insulting Delaware. 

 A stage was soon erected, and to combat they went. 

 For to kill, or to be kill'd, it was cither's full intent. 



" But the very first flourish, when the heralds gave 



command, 

 The sword of brave Devonshire bent backward on 



his hand ; 

 In suspense he paused awhile, scann'd his foe before 



he strake. 

 Then against the King's armour, his bent sword he 



brake. 



" Then he sprang from the stage, to a soldier in the 



ring, 

 Saying, Lend your sword, that to an end this tragedy 



we bring : 

 Though he's fighting me in armour, while I am 



fighting bare. 

 Even more than this I'd venture, for young Lord 



Delaware. 



" Leaping back on the stage, sword to buckler now 



resounds, 

 Till he left the Dutch Lord a-bleeding in his 



wounds : 

 This seeing, cries the King to his guards without 



delay, 

 Call Devonshire down : take the dead man away ! 



" No, says brave Devonshire, I 've fought him as a 



man, 

 Since he's dead, I will keep the trophies I have won ; 

 For he fought me in your armour, while I fought 



him bare. 

 And the same you must win back, my Liege, if ever 



you them wear. 



J' God bless the Church of England, may it prosper on 



each hand, 

 And also every poor man now starving in this land; 

 And while I pray success may crown our King upon 



his throne, 

 I'll wish that every poor man may long enjoy his 



own. " 



Edward F. Rimbahlt. 



FAMILY LIKENESSES. 



(Vol. v., p. 260.) 



To most persons the discovery by Vokaros of 

 a family likeness existing between the face on the 

 brass of the Abbess of Elstow, and the portrait of 

 the Marquis of Bristol, after a lapse of three cen- 

 turies, would probably seem moderately far- 

 fetched ; but when this is adduced as " valuable 

 evidence on the disputed point, whether portraits 

 were attempted in sepulchral brasses," a very 

 great demand indeed is made upon our credulity. 

 I have not the means now of referring to the 

 works of Fisher and Rokewode; but I have before 

 me a rubbing of the Elstow brass. Any person 



tolerably familiar with the subject will at once 

 see that the face of the lady is identical with that, 

 which is repeatedly to be found on numerous 

 brass effigies of persons of both sexes at the be- 

 ginning of the sixteenth century ; in fact, it is not 

 very dissimilar to that of the fellow brass of the 

 Abbot at Dorchester, Oxon. If, therefore, we 

 might judge by the likeness, very many brazen- 

 faced gentry of olden time might claim the honour 

 of being ancestors of the noble lord. And so far 

 from its being a disputed point, whether the faces 

 on brasses are attempted likenesses, no one, I 

 think, who has at all studied our monumental 

 brasses, can fail to have come to the conclusion 

 that they were not intended to be portraits. The 

 great proof of this lies in the obvious similarity 

 in the faces of cotemporary figures which have 

 been produced by the same artists, who, probably 

 from their residing in London, and perhaps in a 

 few other places, very rarely had an opportunity 

 of seeing the persons to be commemorated. The 

 instructions forwarded to the engravers would 

 seem to have been confined to the inscription and 

 other details, chiefly the costume, at least if we 

 may judge from the large brasses at Digswell, 

 Herts, and other similar figures. The ready adop- 

 tion of unaltered palimpsest effigies may also be 

 cited as an additional proof of the likeness being 

 entirely a matter of indifference ; and It is not 

 improbable that many brasses were kept ready 

 made, half-length figures of priests for Instance ; 

 and files of clnldreii, all bearing a strong family 

 likeness, may have been engraved, ready to be 

 cut off" on the shortest notice, and laid down at so 

 much per foot. The only approach towards a 

 likeness, if it may be termed such, seems to be 

 the distinction between youth and age, and even 

 that was almost wholly neglected in the fifteenth 

 and earlier half of the sixteenth centuries. The 

 foregoing remarks apply chiefly to brasses before 

 the latter end of the sixteenth century; after 

 that pei'iod portraits were evidently not unfre- 

 quently attempted. Very rare Instances, how- 

 ever, before this time, mai/ be found. I may 

 specify the e&gy of Nich. Canteys, 1431, Margate, 

 Kent. 



Mr. Doyle, in his able paintirg of Caxton sub- 

 mitting' his proof-sJieet to Abbot Estney (noticed In 

 " N. & Q." No. 54. p. 398.) has taken the likeness 

 of the Abbot from his brass in AVestminster 

 Abbey, which is, I suppose, as good a likeness of 

 the original as any other that can be foimd ; but 

 the members of Queen's College, Oxford, have not 

 been so fortunate. Several years ago, while 

 hunting up a likeness of their founder (Robt. 

 Egglesfield, 1340), they stumbled upon an old 

 brass In the College Chapel, from which a painting 

 and engraving was made purporting to be that of 

 the founder. Recent researches have unfortu- 

 nately fatally dispelled this Illusion, as the e&igy 



