2«» S. X. Aug. 18. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



127 



Dramatic Authors. — Can you give me any 

 information regarding the following dramatic au- 

 thors, whom I find mentioned in Mr. Halliwell's 

 Dictionary of Old English Plays. 1st, Sir George 

 Talbot, author of "Fillis of Scirus," translated 

 •into English. (British Museum, MSS. Addit. 

 12,128.) 2nd, Ladies Jane Cavendish and Eli- 

 zabeth Brackley*, authors of "The Concealed 

 Fansyes," a play, in the Bodleian Library, MS. 

 Hawl. Poet. 16. 3rd, R. K., author oi Alfrede, or 

 Right Re-inthroTid, a tragi-comedie, 1659, "De- 

 dicated to Lady Blount by her brother K. K." 

 Query, who was Lady Blount ? Sir Geo. Blount, 

 2nd Baronet of Soddington, married Mary, daugh- 

 ter and heiress of Richard Kirkham, of Blagdon in 

 Devon. This however, I presume, was not the 

 Lady Blount alluded to. Iota. 



WoRCESTEKSHiRE Badge. — The members of 

 the Worcestershire Volunteer corps have upon 

 their appointments a " Pear-tree fructed," and it 

 is said that the Worcestershire bowmen bore this 

 badge at the battle of Agincourt. 



Drayton, in his Polyolbion, makes the pear a 

 characteristic of this county : — 



" Quoth WorsetsJdre again, ' and I will squint the 

 Pear.' " 



And Leland {Collectanea), describing the proper- 

 ties of the shires of England, commences thus : — 



** The property of every shire 

 I shall tell 3'ou and ye shall hear; 

 Herefordshire shield and spear, * 

 Worsetershire, wring the pear," &c. 



Three pears occur also in the armorial bearings 

 of the " faithful " city of Worcester. Of course 

 the allusions in these antiques morqeaux is clear 

 enough, as Worcestershire is still famous for its 

 cider and perry ; but I should like to know two 

 things, first. Whether the statement as to the 

 Worcestershire bowmen bearing this as their badge 

 at Agincourt rests upon reliable authority ; and, 

 secondly. Where I can find a list of the badges or 

 arms borne by other counties. 



A very dishonourable origin is assigned by the 

 Staffordshire old women to the knot which meets 

 one's eyes, nsque ad nauseam, throughout that 

 county. It was first assumed, according to these 

 venerable authorities, in consequence of one of the 

 sheriffs, " many years ago," being sus. per coll. for 

 murder, or some such heinous crime. It is, how- 

 ever, the well-known badge of the old Earls of 

 Stafford, and hence its usage by the county. 



H. S. G. 



Nelson of Chaddleworth. — I find that Tho- 

 mas Nelson of Chaddleworth, in Berkshire, who 

 was justice of the peace in 1601, and married 

 Mary, daughter of Stephen Ducket, had by her 

 four sons : William, who succeeded him ; Ducket, 



Probably daughters of William Duke of Newcastle. 



Francis, and Thomas. And two daughters : Mary, 

 who married the Rev. Thomas Blagrave of Pur- 

 ley ; and Elizabeth, who married Thomas Castil- 

 lion, Esq., of Benham Valence. And that the 

 eldest son William, who died in 1681, had, by his 

 first wife, James, from whom the present pro- 

 prietor of Chaddleworth descends, Anne, Mary, 

 and Jane, who married John Scrope, Esq., of 

 Castle Combe ; and by his second wife, Dorothy 

 (daughter of John Pocock of WooUey), William, 

 Frajicis, George, Henry, John, Dorothy, and Eli- 

 zabeth. 



I should be glad to know whether any of your 

 readers could give any information as to where 

 those members of the family (whose names are in 

 Italics) settled, whom they married, and what de- 

 scendants they left ? 



This is a matter of national as well as private 

 interest ; as I have reasons for suspecting that the 

 last named William Nelson may have been iden- 

 tical with William Nelson of Dunham Parva, 

 Norfolk — the great-grandfather of Lord Nelson. 



I should also like to know whether the Dorothy 

 Pocock above mentioned was related to Dr. 

 Pocock, the celebrated Orientalist, who was, at 

 rather a later period, rector of Childrey, Berks ? 

 And if so, to have some farther particulars of that 

 family ? Jas. Edw. Nelson. 



Chobham. 



P.S. — The arms of Nelson of Chaddleworth 

 are : Paly of six ar. and gu. a bend vairee or. 

 and sa. 



A Prologue to Square Play. — It was not 

 unusual in the sixteenth and seventeenth centu- 

 ries to introduce country sports with a set speech, 

 delivered by the village schoolmaster or parish 

 clerk, in some allegorical or Imaginary character, 

 such as a heathen deity, a pilgrim, a shepherd, or 

 a satyr, — after the example of the masques and in- 

 terludes written by Ben Jonson and his contem- 

 poraries, and performed before Queen Elizabeth 

 and her immediate successors. I have found 

 among the papers of an ancient knight of that 

 period, who resided near Charnwood Forest in 

 Leicestershire, the following prologue to an exhi- 

 bition of "Square Play;" and it may interest 

 some readers as an illustration of ancient man- 



" The rare reporte of your worshipes favoure, gentle 

 acceptance, extra3'ordynary kyndness, and most lyberall 

 intartaynment, that you have allwayse shewed to your 

 nej'ghbores, hath not onely wonne the hartes of your do- 

 mesticall frendes, but hath now drawne pore Amintas, 

 even in the wayninge of his age : frome the downes, to 

 come to presente himself, and alle the frewtes of his fore- 

 passed youth, the lyvly ofspring of this aged sheparde a 

 few sylly boyes, to make such sporte this nyght in square 

 play, as shall in no sorte be offencyve to yow, nor much 

 hurtful! to them if fortune favoure them not, for they 

 beynge not mountaynes of mony, but mouldhilles, gotton 

 on mountayns, I thought good as my duty is: to ac- 



