270 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"<» S. X, Oct. 6. '60. 



Venice. The coincidence is remarkable, only 

 Othello was a lawyer, and not a Moor. My copy 

 of the tract is dated Frankfort, 1607. B. H. C. 



[On the 6th of Oct. 1621, Thomas Walkley entered at 

 Stationers' Hall The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Ve- 

 nice ; and in 1622, Walkley published the edition, in 4to., 

 for which he had thus claimed the copy. Collier assigns 

 good reasons for the tragedy having been originally acted 

 by Burbidge's company in 1602. The story of Othello 

 was unquestionably borrowed from the novel of Giraldi 

 Cinthio, II Moro di Venezia ; but Shakspeare, as usual, 

 has improved on his original. " There was wanting," re- 

 marks M. Guizot, '■ in the narrative of Giuthio the poetical 

 genius which furnished the actors — which created the 

 individuals — which imposed upon each a figure and a 

 character— which made us see their actions and listen 

 to their words — which presented their thoughts and 

 penetrated their sentiments : — that vivifying power 

 which summons events to arise, to progress, to expand, 

 to be completed : — that creative breath which, breathing 

 over the past, calls it again into being, and fills it with a 

 present and imperishable life : — this was the power which 

 Shakspeare alone possessed, and by which, out of a for- 

 gotten novel, he has made Othello."'\ 



" II Nipotismo di Roma," etc. — 



" II Nipotismo di Roma, or the History of the Pope's 

 Nephews from the Time of Sixtus IV., anno 1471, to the 

 Death of the late Pope Alexander VII., anno 1667. 

 Written originally in Italian, and Englished by W. A., 

 Fellow of the Royal Society. London : Printed for John 

 Starkey at the Miter, near Temple Bar, in Fleet St., 1673." 



In the Address to the Reader the author says : 



" A friend of mine, calls the advice to the reader, the 

 sauce of the book, because it is that part which gives us 

 a stomach to read the rest." 



Again : 



" I know that in Rome this History will produce the 

 same effect that our Nails do upon a Sore ; that is, the 

 more they scratch it, the worse they make it : Yet the 

 itching pleases everybody, and the more we scratch, the 

 more we have a mind to scratch still." 



In concluding this compound sauce for the 

 stomach of his reader, the author says : 



" I promise thee another Work, much more worthy 

 thy curiosity, and fit for anybody that hath a public 

 Employment, which is // Cardincdismo : a Work which, 

 speaking in general only of that Dignity, doth yet never- 

 theless now and then descend to particulars. In a word, 

 I call the Cardinalismo and the Nipotismo Brothers ; but 

 the Cardinalismo is the eldest, because first conceived by 

 me ; in a moneth it will be printed, and if thou wilt have 

 it, thou mayest; and I can assure you it will please you 

 infinitely." 



I shall wind up now by asking : — Who is the 

 author of this work ? Who is the W. A. — the 

 "Englisher"? Was the second volume, II Car- 

 dinalismo, ever published ? If so, when ? 



George Llotd, 



\^The Nepotism, of Rome is the production of Gregorio 

 Leti, a voluminous writer of history, called the Varillas 

 of Italy, born at Milan in 1630. He came to England in 

 1680, when he was promised the place of historiographer. 

 Being one day at a levee, Charles II. said to him, " Leti, 

 I hear you are writing the history of the court of Eng- 

 land " [his Teatro Sritannico'}. " Sir," said he, " I have 



been for some time preparing materials for such a his- 

 tory." " Take care," said the King, " that your work give 

 no offence." " Sir," replied Leti, " I will do what I can ; 

 but if a man were as wise as Solomon, he would scarce 

 be able to avoicj giving some offence." "Why, then," 

 rejoined the King, " be as wise as Solomon ; write pro- 

 verbs, not histories." His other work, II Cardinalismo di 

 Santa Chiesa was published in 1668, 12mo., and is a 

 violent satire. Gregorio Leti used to boast that he had 

 been the author of a book and the father of a child for 

 twenty years successively. Granger says, " Leti, in his 

 historical works, has much true and interesting history 

 blended and debased with fable. He is one of those 

 writers to whom we know not how to give credit, unless 

 his facts verify themselves, or are supported by much 

 better authority than his own. Engaging talents in a 

 faithless historian are as dangerous in the republic of 

 letters as the agreeable manners of a profligate are in 

 civil societ}'." Leti eventually became historiographer to 

 the city of Amsterdam, where he died in 1701.] 



Du Pbat's Literary Miscellanies. — In the 

 Harleian MSS. (1589) there is a volume of Lite- 

 rary Miscellanies by Dr. Peter Du Prat. Any 

 information regarding the author and the contents 

 of the volume, will oblige R. Inglis. 



Glasgow. 



[From the contents of this book Du Prat would appear 

 to have been living 1666, 15 June, the date of a letter 

 signed "D. P." From another letter some twenty years 

 earlier he would seem to have been an ecclesiastic. M. 

 Spanheim, writing to M. le Marechal de Gassion, speaks 

 of him (Du Prat) as " Pasteur de votre Maison." Doubt- 

 less a perusal of this MS., which appears chiefly to consist 

 of historical passages in the life of De Gassion, might 

 throw light upon Du Prat's biography.] 



" The True Idea of Jansenism." — Who is 

 the author of The Ti'ue Idea of Jansenism, both 

 Historick and Dogmatick, by T, G., printed for E. 

 Calvert, at the West End of St. Paul's, London, 

 1669? The preface is written by another hand, 

 and is signed John Owen. I can find no account 

 of it in Lowndes. A Constant Reader. 



55. Upper Brunswick Place, Brighton. 



[By Theophilus Gale, the author of The Court of the 

 Gentiles.'l 



The Ddke's Wounds. — As "N. & Q." has 

 lately favoured us with one or two articles re- 

 specting the Duke, perhaps I may be permitted 

 to propose a Query upon the interesting but as 

 yet undecided question of his alleged wounds, 

 which I cannot but regard as a subject of some 

 historical as well as military interest. How often, 

 and on what occasions (if ever) was the Duke 

 wounded ? A Reading Man. 



[Amongst the heroes of a hundred fights, one has 

 again and again escaped unhurt, till at length cut asun- 

 der by a cannon-ball ; another, ere he received the fatal 

 bullet, has in successive conflicts been cut and riddled 

 into a scarecrow ; while a third, no less combative, has 

 at length died in his bed without a scar. We agree with 

 our correspondent in deeming it a question of some in- 

 terest how the Duke fared ; and we are induced to think 

 that it is not yet too late to settle this hitherto undecided 

 question. 



