Feb. 12. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



161 



Tyrwhitt regarded them as genuine ; and Malone 

 authoritatively affirmed that " no one except the 

 nicest judges of English poetry, from Chaucer to 

 Pope, was competent to test their genuineness." 

 Why, this little word its might have tested it. You 

 see we have not been able to trace it in poetry 

 higher up than the end of the sixteenth century ; 

 and I am quite sure that it is not to be found in 

 either Chaucer or Spenser : and yet, in the very 

 first page of Rowley, we meet with the following 

 instances of it : 

 "The whyche in j/ttes felle use doe make moke dere." 



" The thynge yttes {ytte is ?) raoste bee yttes owne 

 defense." 



But there is a still surer test. We can hardly 

 read a line of Chaucer, Gower, or any other poet 

 of the time, without meeting with what the French 

 term the feminine e, and which must be pro- 

 nounced as a syllable to make the metre. From 

 one end to the other of the Poems of Rowley, there 

 is not a single instance of it ! Thos. Keightlet. 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE YEAR. 



(Vol. vi., p. 563.) 



It may be of service to the inquirer as to the 

 commencement of the year, to call his attention to 

 the note appended to the "Table of moveable 

 Feasts" in editions prior to 1752. As given by 

 Keeling, from tlie editions antecedent and sub- 

 sequent to the last review, in 1662, they are as 

 follows : 



"Note. — That the supputation of the year of our 

 Lord in the Church of England beginneth the xxvth 

 day of March, the same day supposed to I)e the first 

 day upon which the world was created, and the day 

 when Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin 

 Mary" [1604]. 



"Note That the supputation of the year of our 



Lord in the Church of England beginneth the xxvth 

 day of March" [1662]. 



Of course, after the act for alteration of the 

 style (24 Geo. II. c. 23.) was passed, this note 

 was omitted. But up to that date the old sup- 

 putation was authoritative and legal. Reference 

 to Hampson's Medii jEvi Kalendarium might fur- 

 ther illustrate the point. 



To this Note allow me to append a Query. 

 After the collect for St. Stephen's Day follows 

 this rubric : 



" Then shall follow the collect of the Nativity, 

 which shall be said continually until New Year's 

 Eve." 



Query, Was this collect to be repeated from De- 

 cember 25 to March 24 ? for, according to the 

 above supputation, that would be New Year's 

 Eve. 



The following note, from the preface to Gran- 

 ger's Biographical History, may not be out of 

 place : 



" The following absurdities, among many others, 

 were occasioned by these different computations. In 

 1667 there were two Easters, the first on the 25th of 

 April, and the second on the 22nd of March following; 

 and there were three different denominations of the 

 year of our Lord affixed to three state papers wfiich 

 were published in one week, viz. his Majesty's Speech, 

 dated 1732-3; the Address of the House of Lords, 

 1732 ; the Address of the House of Commons, 1733." 

 — Page xxiii., edit. 1824. 



Ballioleksis. 



"PENAKDO AND LAISSA. 



(Vol. vii., p. 84.) 



Your correspondent E. D. is fortunate in the 

 possession of a rare book, worth a "Jew's eye " in 

 the good old days of the Bibliomania. It formed 

 a part of the Heber Collection, where (see Part iv. 

 p. 111.) it figures under the following quaint 

 title : 



" The First Booke of the Famous Historye of 

 Penardo and Laissa, other-ways called the Warres of 

 Love and Ambitione, wherein is described Penardo his 

 most admirable deeds of Arms, his ambition of glore, 

 his contempt of love, with loves mighte assalts and 

 ammorous temptations, Laissa's feareful inchantment, 

 hir relief, hir travells, and lastly, loves admirabel force 

 in hir releiving Penardo from the fire. Doone in 

 Heroik Verse by Patrik Gordon. 



Printed at Dort by George Waters, 1615." 



This copy, which was originally John Pinkerton's, 

 cost Mr. Heber 21/., and was resold at his sale for 

 12/. 5s., for the library of Mr. Miller, of Cnvigen- 

 tenny ; another is in the possession of Dr. Keith, 

 Edinburgh. Pinkerton, in his Ancient Scottish 

 Poems, London, 1792, thus describes Penardo and 

 Laissa : 



" Rare to excess ; nor can more than two copies be 

 discovered, one in the editor's possession, another in 

 that of an anonymous correspondent in Scotland. The 

 author was probably so ashamed of it as to quash the 

 edition, for it is the most puerile mixture of all times, 

 manners, and religions that ever was published ; for 

 instance, the Christian religion is put as that of Ancient 

 Greece." 



Of the author, Patrick Gordon, little or nothing 

 seems to be known beyond the fact of his styling 

 himself " gentleman," probably the only ground 

 for Pinkerton calling him " a man of property." 

 The fame of Gordon, however, rests upon a better 

 foundation than the above work, he having also 

 " doone in heroik verse The Famous Historic of 

 the Renoimed and Valiant Prince Robert, surnamed 

 the Bruce, King of Scotland," " a tolerable poem," 

 says the same critic, " but not worth reprinting, 

 although it had that compliment twice paid to it." 



