474 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d S. X. Dec. 15. '60. 



She is also noticed in 'a bajlad printed in Walker Wil- 

 kins's recently published and interesting collection of 

 Political Ballads, ii. 189 : — 



" Up leapt Lepell and frisk'd away, 

 As though she ran on wheels; 

 Miss Meadows made a woful face, 

 Miss Howe took to her heels." 



Two letters by Miss Howe, characteristic of that levity 

 which led to her ruin, are printed in the Countess of 

 Suffolk's Correspondence, 2 vols. 8vo. 1824, vol. i. pp. 36. 

 39., edited by the late John Wilson Croker. Nanty Low- 

 ther, as he was familiarly styled, was one of the Commis- 

 sioners of the Revenue in Ireland, and M.P. for Westmor- 

 land. He died unmarried, Nov. 24, 1741.] 



" The Gkeen-E-oom Scuffle." — To what cir- 

 cumstance are vire indebted for this humorous 

 print ? Thespian. 



[[This melee is thus noticed by Davies, (^Dramatic 3Iis- 

 cellanies, i. 233.) : " Small matters, they say, often serve as 

 preludes to mighty quarrels. In the year 1754, the play 

 of Henry the Fourth was acted at Drur^- Lane. Barry was 

 the Hotspur ; a very beautiful and accomplished actress 

 condescended, in order to give strength to the pla}', 

 to act the trifling character of Lady Percy; Berry 

 was the Falstaff. The house was far from crowded ; for 

 the public could no more bear to see another Falstaff, 

 while Quin was on the stage, than they would now flock 

 to see a new Shylock, as long as Macklin continues to 

 have strength fit to represent ' the Jew which Shakspeare 

 drew.' A very celebrated comic actress triumphed in the 

 barrenness of the pit and boxes. She threw out some 

 expressions against the consequence of the Lady Percy. 

 This produced a very cool, but cutting answer from the 

 other; who reminded the former of her playing, very 

 latelj-, to a much thinner audience, one of her favourite 

 parts. And now the ladies not being able to restrain 

 themselves within the bounds of cool conversation, a most 

 terrible fray ensued. I do not believe that they went so 

 far as pulling of caps, but their altercation would not 

 have disgraced the females of Billingsgate. While the 

 two great actresses were thus entertaining each other in 

 one part of the Green Koom, the admirer of Lady Percy, 

 an old gentleman [Owen Swiny], Avho afterwards be- 

 queathed her a considerable fortune, and the brother of 

 the comic lady, were more seriously employed. The 

 cicisbeo struck the other with his cane ; thus provoked, 

 he very calmly laid hold of the old man's jaw. ' Let go 

 ray jaw, you villain I ' and ' Throw down your cane. Sir ! ' 

 were repeatedly echoed by the combatants. Barry, who 

 was afraid lest the audience should hear full as much of 

 the quarrel as of the plaj', rushed into the Green Room, 

 and put an end to the battle. The printsellers laid hold 

 of this dispute, and published a print called ' The Green 

 Room Scuffle.' "] • 



" Running " Wool. — Amongst some old news- 

 paper-cuttings of the year 1730 to 1750, occurs the 

 following from the Daily Advertiser : — 



" If it's the Desire of Parliament the running our Wool 

 shall cease, a Gentleman has prepared a scheme that will 

 in every Shape and Respect prevent effectually for the 

 future the running of our Wool ; and will, beyond Con- 

 tradiction, show that it's both a practicable and an in- 

 fallible Remedy. This is to be done without any Expence 

 of either Ships or Sloops of War to guard our Coast, 

 without a separate or new Commission, and without a 

 Duty to be laid on our Wool, or any Expence on the 

 Woollen Manufactory, or -the least Inconvenience to the 

 Trade thereof. Proposals are therefore hereby ofiered to 



His Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council and Parlia- 

 ment. 



" N.B. By directing a Letter to G. G. at Mr. JVilcox's 

 Bookseller in the Strand, at proper Notice the Gentleman 

 will attend, &c., with his proposals." 



Can any reader of " N. & Q." give any farther 

 explanation of this matter than here appears ? 



J. S. A. 



[Our correspondent will have to consult the following 

 two pamphlets : 1. " Remarks on the English Woollen 

 Manufacture for Exportation, and the necessity of pre- 

 venting the Irish VVool being run, as presented at the 

 door of both ' Houses of the British Parliament.' " Dub- 

 lin [1730?]. 2. " A Scheme to Prevent the Running of 

 Irish Wools to France, and Irish Woollen Goods to Fo- 

 reign Countries, by Prohibiting the Importation of 

 Spanish Wool into Ireland, and permitting the People of 

 Ireland to send their Woollen Goods to England, not for 

 Consumption, but for Exportation." Dublin, 1745. A 

 syllabus of these two works will be found in BischofF's 

 History of Woollen and Worsted Manufactures, 2 vols. 

 8vo., 1842, vol. i. pp. 128—138., which may also be con- 

 sulted with advantage.] 



Pope's Shakspeare. — Who is the author of 

 the following work ? 



" An Answer to Mr. Pope's Preface to Shakespear. In 

 a Letter to a Friend ; being a Vindication of the Old 

 Actors who were the Publishers and Performers of that 

 Author's Plays : whereby the Errors of their edition are 

 further accounted for, and some Memoirs of Shakespear 

 and Stage- History of his Time are inserted, which were 

 never before collected and publish'd. By a Strolling- 

 Player. London, 8vo. 1729." 



It is signed on the last page " Anti-Scriblerus 

 Histrionicus." John Moobe. 



[This very scarce pamphlet is by John Roberts, the 

 actor. See Dodsley's Dramatic Miscellanies, ed. 1785, vol. 

 ii. p. 133.] 



JleiJlte^. 



MAUDLEN CUPS. 

 (2"'» S. X. 346.) 



Some years ago I was just as desirous as Mb. 

 Nichols " to ascertain the origin and meaning of 

 the word Maudlen Cup," but there was no " N. 

 & Q." at that time, so I was compelled to cudgel 

 my own brains until I arrived at a conclusion, 

 satisfactory to myself at least, whatever it may 

 be to others. 



Chance, however, favoured me more than re- 

 search. One day I found myself standing before 

 Murillo's magnificent Magdalen in the Louvre, and 

 as I wonderingly admired the gleam of heaven- 

 born faith that, by the painter's art, illuminated 

 the tear-dimmed eye of the penitent sinner, I per- 

 ceived a gold covered cup on the ground, close 

 beside the kneeling Mary. It at once struck me 

 that this cup was the pictorial representative of 

 the " alabaster box " of the gospels, and that the 

 painter, by giving it a cover, pointed out to the 

 mind's eye the evanescent volatile nature of its 



