460 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"'i S. V. 127., June 6. '68. 



conversion from the year 583, and Ussher his 

 death in 590. j3. 



The following extracts are from Geoflfrey of 

 Monmouth's British History (Bohn's ed. 1848) : 



" He (Uther Pendragon) had been informed of the 

 king's (Aureliiis') sad fate, and of his burial by the bishops 

 of the country, near the convent of Ambrius, within the 

 Giaot's Dance, which in liis lifetime he had commanded 

 to be made." — Boole viii. chap. xvi. p. 221. 



" As soon as the king's (Uther's) death was divulged, 

 the bishops and clergy of the kingdom assembled, and 

 carried his body to the convent of Ambrius, where they 

 buried it with regal solemnity, close by Aurelius Am- 

 brosias, within the Giant's Dance." — Book vni. chap. 

 xxiv. p. 229. 



The whole account of the miraculous removal 

 of the Giant's Dance from Mount Killaraus in 

 Ireland to Stonehenge may be found in Book viii. 

 chaps. X. — xii. Resupinus. 



VERSES ON THE EUCHARISTIC BREAD. 



(2"" S. V. 438.) 



Besides the four poetic lines on the question of 

 the Real Presence, attributed to Queen Elizabeth, 

 and printed as above, there is another much lonojer 

 piece on the same subject, upon the authorship 

 of which I find great difficulty. It expounds at 

 length the Protestant doctrines on the subject, as 

 held by the Church of England; consisting of 

 eighteen quatrains, or seventy'-two short lines, 

 in the ballad measure ; and will be found in 

 Foxe's Actes and Monuments, in Walpole's Royal 

 and Noble Authors (edit. Park), i. 63., and in 

 Ellis's Specimens of English Poetry, ii. 116. Foxe 

 has introduced the verses with this heading : — 

 " The Instruction of King Edward the sixt, given 

 to Sir Anthony Seyntleger, Knight of his privie 

 chamber, being of a corrupt judgement of the 

 Eucharist." 



And they are followed by the following para- 

 graphs : — 



" ^ Thisj^oung Prince became a perfect schoole-maister 

 unto old erroneous men, so as no Divine could amend 

 him, and therefore this piece is worthy of perpetuall 

 memory to his immortall fame and glory. 



" ^ When Queene Mary came to her raigne, a friend 

 of Maister Sentleger's charged him with this liis Pam- 

 phlet. ' Well,' quoth he, ' content your selfe ; I perceive 

 that a man may have too much of God's blessing.' And 

 even heere Peter began to deny Christ, such is men's 

 frailtie. 



" By W. M. as it is supposed." 



Upon these statements Walpole and Ellis ac- 

 cepted the verses as the composition of King 

 Edward VI. ; but while such seems to be plainly 

 implied by the first paragraph, in the second it 

 is called Sir Anthony St. Leger's " pamphlet." 

 Upon this evidence I was inclined to conclude 

 that the verses were written by the King, and 



printed in the form of a pamphlet by Sir Anthony 

 St. Leger; but still I am not sure that the word 

 " pamphlet " necessarily implies a printed form. 



There is, however, a passage in Campion's 

 Historie of Ireland, which not only positively 

 states that Sir Anthony St. Leger wrote the 

 verses himself, but goes so far as to assert that 

 the knight lost his place as Lord Deputy of Ire- 

 land in consequence of having written them. I 

 beg to lay this before the reader's criticistn : — 



" Queene Mary, established in her crowne, committed 

 her government [of Ireland] once more to Saintleger, 

 whom sundry noblemen pelted and lifted at, till they 

 shouldered him quite out of all credit. He, to be counted 

 forward and plyable to the taste of King Edward the 

 sixt his raigne, rimed against the Reall Presence for 

 his pastime, and let the papers fall where courtiers might 

 light thereon, who greatly magnitied the pith and con- 

 veyance of that noble sonnet. But the original of his 

 own handwriting had the same formerly (though con- 

 trary to his own judgement) wandering in so many 

 hands, that his adversary caught and tripped it in his 

 way : the spot whereof he could never wipe out. Thus 

 was he removed, a discreete gentleman, very studious of 

 the state of Ireland, enriched, stout enough, without gall." 

 (Campion's Historie of Ireland, edit. 1809, p. 184.) 



I should be very glad tq have the opinion of 

 the judicious correspondents of " N. & Q." with 

 regard to these contradictory statements. I know 

 of no other verses attributed to Edward VI. Are 

 there any attributed to Sir Anthony St. Leger ? 

 And what is the meaning of the last line in the 

 extract from Foxe, and who is likely to be desig- 

 nated by the initials " W. M." ? Any suggestions 

 tending to solve these doubts will much oblige 

 The Editor of " The Literary Remains 

 OF King Edward the Sixth." 



BACON S ESSAYS. 



(2°'» S. v. 251. 380. 420., &c.) * 



As a general rule it would be inexcusable for a 

 man to write to " N. & Q." on any subject with- 

 out first exhausting the dictionaries and ordinary 

 books of reference : but when I wrote my third 

 paper on Bacon without any helps of the kind, 

 instead of waiting till I could procure them, I 

 did so purposely, in order to strengthen my ar- 

 gument, and show experimentally that there are 

 many verbal difficulties in the Essays requiring 

 elucidation, which, strange to say, have been 

 hitherto passed over. Immediately after the paper 

 was printed, I wrote for and obtained the reply 

 inserted this week at p. 421., but the Editor by 

 some oversight kept it back until now, and 

 omitted a P.S. on the passage in Virgil, which, 

 once more, I beg he will insert as it stands. In 

 an edition now before me, Notis ex editione Hey- 

 niana excerptis Illustrata. Oxonii, impensis J. Vin- 

 cent. 1830, I find this note : — 

 " Hie tantum : e Theocr. ix. 12, 13. et 19. 20. Numerum 



