2"-' S. No 109., Jan. 30. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



83 



No. 5. The title-page agrees in all respects 

 with No. 4., except that there is a period^ instead 

 of a comma, after the word Brittain. 



The Address of the Printer to the Reader is 

 omitted; but the Arguments of each Book and the 

 page of Errata succeed ; all of which have been re- 

 prmted. Lowndes adds, " the last two leaves of 

 the poem appear to have been reprinted." After 

 examining all my copies I cannot discover any 

 traces of such a reprint.* 



Todd, in his life of Milton (London, 1826), 

 note on p. 195., says, "I have seen several copies 

 with the title-page 1669, in which the notification 

 (Licensed and entred, &c.) is omitted." Does it 

 ever occur except in Nos. 1., 1. A., and 2. ? 



I have also a copy of the first edition of Comus. 

 It was purchased in London at Mr. Bright's sale. 

 Is it true that very few copies of the first edition 

 of this poem are known ? Neo-Eboracensis. 



LITTLE JACK HOKNER. 



With reference to a paragraph headed "Jack 

 Horner," in 2"'' S. iv. 215., I send the particulars 

 of a story which v/as told to me by an old lady in 

 Somersetshire. It is supposed to account ibr the 

 nursery rhyme of 



" Little Jack Horner 

 Sat in the corner, 



Eating a Christmas pie : 

 He put in his thumb, 

 And pulled out a plum, 

 And said, ' What a good boy am I.' " 



It is this : When the monasteries and their pro- 

 perty were seized, orders were given that the title 

 deeds of the abbey estates at Mells, which were 

 very extensive and valuable, and partly consisted 

 of a sumptuous grange, built by Abbot John Sel- 

 wood, should be given up to the commissioners. 

 After some delay, it was determined by the Abbot 

 of Glastonbury to give them up ; and for want of 

 a safe mode of conveying them it was decided 

 that the most likely to avoid their being seized by 

 any but those for whom they were intendeJ, was 

 to send them in a pasty, which should be for- 

 warded as a present to one of the commissioners 

 in London. The safest messenger, and least 

 likely to excite suspicion, was considered to be a 

 lad named Jack Horner, who was a son of poor 

 parents living in the neighbourhood of the Grange. 

 The lad set out on his journey on foot, laden with 

 the pasty. It was a weary I'oad, and England not 

 being so thickly inhabited as now, he sat to rest 

 in as snug a corner as he could find by the way- 

 side. Hunger, too, overcame him, and he was at a 

 loss what to do, when he bethought himself that 

 there would be no harm in tastin": ever so little of 



the pasty which be was carrying. He therefore 

 inserted his thumb under the crust, when, lo ! 

 there was nothing but parchments. Whether that 

 allayed his hunger then, or not, I cannot say ; but, 

 although he could not read or understand these 

 parchments, yet he thought they might be valu- 

 able. He therefore took one of the parchments and 

 pocketed it, and pursued his journey with the rest 

 of his pasty. Upon his delivering his parcel, it 

 was perceived that one of the chief deeds (the 

 deeds of the Mells Abbey estates) was missing ; 

 and as it was thought that the abbot had with- 

 held it, an order was straightway sent for his exe- 

 cution. 



But the sequel was, that after the monasteries 

 were despoiled, there was found in the possession 

 of the family of Jack Horner a piece of ])avch- 

 ment, which was in fact the title deed of Mells 

 Abbey and lands; and that was " the {)lum" which 

 little Jack Horner unwittingly had become pos- 

 sessed of. The Abbot Whiting was executed for 

 withholding the deeds. That is the tale as told to 

 me.* A. D. C. 



* Perhaps some of your readers may be able to point 

 out the variations. 



SHAKSPEAEIANA. 



Shdhspeare and Livy, and Plutarch, and the 

 '■^Evening Star." — 



" Ban. . . . But 'tis strange : 

 And oftentimes to win us to our harm, 

 The instruments of darkness tell us truths ; 

 Win us with honest trifles, to betray us 

 In deepest consequence." — Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 3. 

 " An Syphaci Numidisque credis? Satis sit semcl cre- 

 ditum : non semper temeritas est felix; et fraus fidem 

 in parvis sibi pracstruit, ut, quum operaj pretium sit, cum 

 mercede magna fallat." — Lib. xxviii. cap. xlii. 



" Do you indeed trust Syphax, or relie upon the Nu- 

 midians? Well, let it suffice that once ye trusted them. 

 Rash adventures speede not alwaj^es best. And often- 

 times wee see that fraude seemeth faithfull, and maketh 

 way of credite in small things, that in matters of great 

 importance, and when the time serveth, it may pay 

 home, and worke a mischiefe with a witnesse." — Phil. 

 Holland's Translation, p. 701. 



" Hot. ... . and his chin, new reap'd, 

 Shew'd like a stubble land at harvest home." 



King Henry IV., Act I. Sc. 3. 

 " . . his beard he causeth to be cut and shorne as 

 neero as a new-mowen field in harvest, when all the 

 corne is gone." — Plutarch's 3Iorals, Phil. Holland's 

 Translation, p. 88. 



" Ham. To what base uses we may return, Horatio ! 

 Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alex- 

 ander, 'till he find it stopping a bung-hole ? 



Hor. 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so. 



Ham. No! 'faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither 

 with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as thus, 

 Alexander died, Alexander Avas burled, Alexander re- 

 turned to dust: the dust is earth; of earth we make 

 loam ; and why of that loam, Avhereto he was converted, 

 might they not stop a beer-barrel ? " — Hamlet, Act V. 

 Sc. L 



[* Another version of this story appeared in our last 

 volume, p. 156. — Ed.] 



