2=^ S. X. Oct. G. '60. J 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



261 



LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6. 1860. 



N». 249. —CONTENTS. 



NOTES: — The Tragedy of "Ferrexand Porrex," 261 — Al- 

 lusions to William III. and the Dutch in Dryden's Trans- 

 lation of Virgil, 263 — Macbeth, lb. 



MiNOE Notes : — Bishop Goodman — Horrocks — Lord 



• Macaulay— Pew in a Playhouse —A Providential Escape, 

 .265. 



QUERIES :— Ancient Stained Glass from Cologne, 266 — 

 Weston Family, Id. — Standard-bearer for Ireland — 

 '• Scottish Dictionary " — Dr. De Gueldro — " 3Iissa Trium- 

 phans " — Oliver Cromwell — Thomas Aldersey, M.D. — 

 Numbering Houses in Streets— Prohibition of Marriages 



— George Kirkc — Quotation from Chalmers — Masters 

 of Edinburgh High School— Sir John Duddlestone — 

 Yarranton's Survey of Eingsend, near Dublin, 1674— Sir 

 John Home —The Beau — Dalnotter Company— Stuke- 

 ley's Abury and Stonehenge — The Theatre of Ingenuity- 

 Quotation — Smith, Cork — Sacheverell— MS. Life of Dr. 

 George Hickes — AUeyne of Barbadoes — " Chiist's Birth 

 Miss-timed"— Locke, the Civic Restaurateur— The Red 

 Rose of Lancaster — Asteroids — " Lancashii-e and Cheshire 

 Wills " : Warrington Academy, 266. 



QUEEiES WITH Answees : — Othello — "II Nipotismo di 

 Roma," &c. — Du Prat's Literary Miscellanies — " The 

 True Idea of Jansenism " — The Duke's Wounds — " Door 

 Mice" — " Stark-naked Lady," 271. 



REPLIES:- Missing Scriptures, 271 — Leonard Euler, 272 



— Sayers the Caricatiu-ist, 274 — Figures in Weston 

 Church — Tepsond — Wit — Charles Martel — Toads found 

 in Stone — Withers and Johnson — Armorial — The 

 Tower Ghost — Witton — Joseph D. — "North Sea",— 

 Kent Archaeological and Naturalist Society — Bullokar's 

 Bref Grammar— Marsh Gate— Tory Song — Transfer of 

 Land— Where to find Lancashire Wills in the last Ceu- 

 tury- X.M. T. — Bastard— Thomas Hawkins's Works- 

 Legendary Painting, 276. 



THE TRAGEDY OF "FERREX AND PORREX." 



In reading, some months sinCe, the tragedy of 

 Ferrex and Porrex, in Mr. Eussell Smith's edition 

 of Sackville's Works, I was struck with the poli- 

 tical character of a great portion of it ; and as 

 this does not seem to have been noticed by any 

 writer on our history or literature, a few re- 

 marks on it may perhaps be worth insertion in 

 "N. & Q." The argument prefixed to the tra- 

 gedy runs thus : — • 



" Gorboduc, King of Britain, divided his realm in bis 

 life time to his sons, Ferrex and Porrex. The sons fell 

 to dissention. The younger killed the elder. The mother, 

 that more dearly loved the elder, for revenge, killed the 

 younger. The people, moved with the cruelty of the fact, 

 rose in rebellion, and slew both father and mother. The 

 nobility asseriibled, and most terribly destroyed the rebels ; 

 and afterwards, for want of issue of the Prince, whereby the 

 succession of the crown became uncertain, they fell to civil 

 war, in which both they and many of their issues were slain ; 

 and the land for a long time almost desolate, and tmserably 

 wasted." 



The reader, acquainted with the history of the 

 reign of Elizabeth, sees the bearing of this plot 

 upon a question which agitated Englishmen dur- 

 ing that time ; and if he will turn to the Fifth 

 Act of the play, he will find every page full of 

 ■Bllusions to it. The earlier Acts have hints and 



warnings : the Fifth may be regarded as an ora- 

 tion distributed by formal necessity among dif- 

 ferent speakers on " the tumults, rebellions, arms, 

 and civil wars," which follow on a " want of cer- 

 tain limitation in the succession of the crown." 

 The play is rather a political argument than a 

 simple tragedy. 



I will make one or two extracts, and then show 

 how the publication of Ferrex and Porrex fits in 

 with the history of Elizabeth. 



In Act V. Sc. 2., a messenger announces that 

 Fergus, Duke of Albany, pretends to the crown : — 



" Daily he gathereth strength and spreads abroad, 

 That to this realm no ctrtain heir remains, 

 That Britain land is left without a guide, 

 That he the sceptre seeks, for nothing else 

 But to preserve the people and the land." 



Two of the lords speak thus : — 



" Though we remain without a certain prince 

 To wield the realm, or guide the wandering rule," 



" . , . . The wretched land, 



Where empty place of princely governance 

 No certain stay now left of doubtless heir, 

 Thus leaves this guideless realm an open prey 

 To endless storms and waste of civil war." 



Arostus, a third, advises that a parliament be 

 called, since — 



" , . of the title of descended crown, 

 Uncertainly the divers minds do think. 

 Even of the learned sort." 



And in this parliament to prefer the right : — 



" Right mean I his or hers upon whose name 

 The people rest by mean of native line. 

 Or by the virtue of some former law. 

 Already made their title to advance. 

 Such one, my Lords, let be your chosen king. 

 Such one so bom within your native land." 



Eubulus, after a long harangue on the mischiefs 

 which will ensue, proceeds : — 



" And this doth grow, when lo, unto the prince, 

 Whom death or sudden hap of life bereaves. 

 No certain heir remains ... 



Alas, in parliament what hope can be ? 



No, no : then parliament should have been holden. 

 And certain heirs appointed to the crown. 



While yet the prince did live, whose name and power 

 By lawful summons and authority 

 Might make a parliament to be of force." 



A little consideration of English history will 

 show us the application of some of these speeches. 



By a statute of Henry VIII. (35 Hen. VIII. 

 c. 1.) the succession was limited, on default of 

 lawful issue of any of his three children, to such 

 person as the king should name by letters patent, 

 or by his will ; and by his will Henry named his 

 nieces : first, Lady Frances Brandon, and the 

 heirs of her body; and secondly. Lady Eleanor 

 Brandon, and the heirs of her body, in remainder 



