June 19. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



589 



gratulatory to M. Ben. Jonson for his adopting of 

 bim to be his son." 



In Jonson's Underwoods is a poem "To my 

 dear Son and right learned Friend Master Joseph 

 Rutter." This is in praise of his " first play," but 

 I am unable to state what that play was ; nor can 

 I give further information respecting Master 

 Joseph Rutter, than that he is apparently the 

 author of " An Elegy upon Ben. Jonson" in Jon- 

 sonits Viribus. 



Of William Cartwright Ben. Jonson used to say, 

 " My son, Cartwright, writes all like a man." 

 (Campbell's Specimens of the British Poets, ed. 

 1841, p. 183.) 



James Howell was another of Jonson's sons, 

 and has, in Jonsonus Viribus, some lines "Upon 

 the Poet of his Time, Benjamin Jonson, his 

 honoured Friend and Father." 



Shackerley Marmion seems to have been another 

 son. See in Jonsonus Viribus, " A Funeral Sacri- 

 fice to the sacred memory of his thrice-honoured 

 father Ben. Jonson." 



If Jonson really had twelve sons, it is not im- 

 probable that some of the following were of the 

 number : Sir Kenelm Digby, Thomas Carew, John 

 Cleveland, Sir John Suckling, Thomas May, 

 Edward Hyde (afterwards Earl of Clarendon), 

 Owen Feltham, Jasper IVfayne, Richard West, 

 John Vaughan, Thomas Hobbes. 



I should have been disposed to have added to 

 the above illustrious list the name of Edmund 

 Waller, but for a statement of Aubrey, Avho says, 

 *' He told me he was not acquainted with Ben. 

 Jonson" (Aubrey's Zit'e*, p. 564.). 



Aubrey (Lives, p. 413.), speaking of Ben. Jonson, 

 says: 



" Serjeant Jo. Hoskins, of Herefordshire, was" his 

 father. I remember his sonne (S' Bennet Hoskins, 

 baronet, who was something poeticall in his youth), 

 told me, that when he desired to be adopted his son, 

 ♦ No,' sayd he, ' 'tis honour enough for me to be your 

 brother ; I am your father's son, 'twas he that polished 

 me, I do acknowledge it.' " 



I observe that, prefixed to Randolph's Poems, 

 are some lines by Richard West, B.A., and student 

 of Christ's Church : " To the pious Memory of my 

 dear Brother-in-Law, Mr. Thomas Randolph." 

 As West must have been unmarried, and as I 

 believe Randolph was also unmarried, it is pos- 

 sible that West calls him his brother-in-law from 

 his being also an adopted son of Ben. Jonson. 



C. H. COOPEH. 

 Cambridge. 



shakspeare's seal. 



(Vol. v., p. 539.) 



There is a very full and curious account of a 

 rn/g'-seal (of which I possess two red wax impres- 



sions), supposed to have belonged to Shakspeare, 

 in a work unassumingly entitled A Guide to Strat- 

 ford-upon-Avon, by R. B. Wheler, published in 

 1814. I presume that is the seal — or, rather, 

 n"«^-seal — to which reference is made; but how 

 far Mr. Wheler's statements and speculations may 

 encourage " belief in the genuineness of this relic," 

 your correspondent, and others taking any interest 

 in such matters, must fqr themselves determine. 



As the publication above named is before me, it 

 may not be unacceptable to give a summary of 

 Mr. Wheler's narrative, which occupies eight con- 

 cluding pages of the Guide. It appears that on 

 the 16th March, 1810, an ancient gold ring, weigh- 

 ing 12 dwts., and bearing the initials "W. S.," 

 engraved in Roman characters, was found by a 

 labourer's wife upon the surface of the mill-close 

 adjoining Stratford churchyard, being the exact 

 spot whereon Mr. Oldaker since erected his present 

 residence. It had undoubtedly been lost a great 

 many years, being nearly black ; and, continues 

 Mr. W.,— 



" Though I purchased it upon the same day, for 36». 

 (the current value of the gold), the woman had sufficient 

 time to destroy the 'precious arugo' by having it un- 

 necessarily immersed in aquafortis, to ascertain and 

 prove the metal, at a silversmith's shop, which conse- 

 quently restored its original colour. It is of tolerably 

 large dimensions, and evidently a gentleman's ring of 

 Elizabeth's age. Similar seal-rings are represented on 

 cotemporary paintings and monuments: and the cross- 

 ing of the central lines of the ' VV.' with the oblique 

 direction of the lines of the ' S.' exactly agree with the 

 characters of that day. For proof we need wander no 

 farther than Stratford Church, where the Totness and 

 Clopton tombs will furnish representations of rings, and 

 Shakspeare's monument of letters, perfectly correspond- 

 ing in point of shape. The connexion or union of the 

 letters by the ornamental string and tassels " [or True 

 Lover's Knot, according to your correspondent], " was 

 then frequently used, of which numberless instances 

 may be found upon seals and upon inscriptions, ii» 

 painted windows, and in the title-pages of books of that 

 period; and for further coincidenceof circumstances, it 

 may be observed over the porch leading into the hall of 

 Charlcote House near Stratford (erected in the early 

 part of Elizabeth's reign, by the very Sir Thomas Lucy 

 said to have prosecuted Shakspeare for deer-stealing), 

 that the letters ' T. L.' are surrounded in a manner 

 precisely similar." 



After adverting to many vain efibrts made by 

 him to discover whether there existed anywhere 

 Shakspeare's seal attached to letter or other writ- 

 ing, Mr. Wheler states that he had examined — 

 " A list of all the inhabitants of Stratford assessed to the 

 levies in 1617, wherein I cannot discover any appa- 

 rently rcspectaWe person the initials of whose name agree 

 with ' W. S. :' but from this assessment, though pro- 

 babl}' copied from an anterior one, nothing conclusive 

 can be estimated, it being made in the year subsequent 

 to Shakspeare's death ; and I should, from a close ob- 

 servation of the ring, be inclined to suppose that it was 



