320 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd g. No 42., Oct. 18. '56. 



Fig-pie Wake (2"'' S. i. 227. 322.) — Fig-pies, 

 or as they are there called, " fag-pies," are, or at 

 least were very recently, eaten in Lancashire on 

 a Sunday in Lent, thence known as " Fag-pie 

 Sunday." I have tasted them in my childhood ; 

 but 60 far as I recollect, they were anything but 

 nice eating, being of a sickly taste. The compo- 

 sition was, so far as I recollect, sugar, treacle, and 

 dried figs. Hbnkt T. Kilet. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



When noticing the first Part of Mr. Mayor's Cambridge 

 in the Ylth Century, which, as our readers may remember, 

 contained the two lives of Nicholas Ferrar writtea by his 

 brother John, and Dr. John Jebb, we paid a just compli- 

 ment to the editor for the public spirit with wliich, avail- 

 ing himself of his leisure for reseai'ch and means of access 

 to rare and manuscript sources of information, he applied 

 those advantages to illustrate the historj' of his own 

 University. We spoke, too, of the sound scholarship and 

 high feeling which distinguished his editorial labours. 

 Those remarks might well be repeated with respect to 

 the Second Part of the work in question, which is now 

 before us ; and contains the Antohiography of Mattheio 

 Robinson, sometime Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, 

 and Vicar of Burneston, Yorkshire. Every page and note 

 contains evidence of the honest painstaking spirit in 

 which the editor has undertaken what is clearly a labour 

 of love ; and if the men of Cambridge have reason to be 

 proud of Matthev/ Robinson, they may point with great 

 satisfaction to the manner in which his quaint and in- 

 teresting Memoir has been edited by one who is still 

 amongst them ; and whose dedication of this volume to a 

 " Townsman," Mr. C. H. Cooper, who is preparing a Cam- 

 bridge Athena, shows that he possesses that catholic spirit 

 which distinguishes every true lover of learning. 



Nothing can show more clearly how deep and widely 

 spread is the interest taken by all who have any preten- 

 sions to a taste for letters in the writings of Shal^speare, 

 than the innumerable pamphlets which are issued from 

 the press illustrative of his life or works. Two such are 

 now before us. One, a very ingenious and well written 

 essay, entitled Hamlet : an Attempt to ascertain whether the 

 Queen were an Accessory before the Fact to tJie Murder of 

 Iter First Husband ? In which, after examining the various 

 points of evidence which go to prove her participation 

 in the murder, the author urges, with considerable skill 

 rind success, that, " if the innocence of the Queen cannot 

 be proved, the balance of evidence is in heii' favour." The 

 pamphlet well deserves the perusal of every student of 

 Hamlet. The Second Pamphlet is a much more startling 

 one. It is a Letter to the Earl of Ellesmere, suggesting 

 whether the Plays attributed to Shakspeare were not in 

 reality written by Bacon. The author has overlooked 

 two points: one, the fact that his theory had been an- 

 ticipated by an American writer ; the second, one which 

 certainly tells strongly in favour of his theory, and which 

 has been on several occasions alluded to in these columns, 

 namely, the very remarkable circumstance that nowhere 

 in the writings of Shakspeare is any allusion to Bacon to 

 be met with ; nor in the writings of the great philoso- 

 pher is there the slightest reference to his wonderful and 

 most philosophic contemporary. 



It is not the smallest merit of the Annotated Edition of 

 the British Poets, that its editor has ventured to throw 

 new blood into the corpus by introducing into his series 



the writings of men whose poetry had not received such 

 honour at the hands of Bell, Johnson, &c. The last vo- 

 lume issued belongs, like those containing the Foems of 

 Oldham and Ben Jonson, to this division of the work. It 

 is devoted to Early Ballads, Illustrative of History, Tra- 

 ditions, and Customs; and Avhether we "look at the old 

 songs themselves, or the literary introductions to them by 

 Mr. Bell, it would be bard to find a volume richer iia 

 popular poetry or general interest. 



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