154 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 172. 



quated blunder, and pertinaciously attempts to 

 justify it." 



I doubt much whether he is entitled to any such 

 privilege. If the words as restored were really 

 those of Shakspeare, as is alleged, I do not see 

 how the writer of the MS. corrections could him- 

 self claim any property in them ; and if he had 

 none, much less can Mr. Coi.lier have. It would 

 be a pity were the public to be deprived of the 

 benefit of the corrections by the use of them 

 being exclusively confined to Mr. Collier's 

 editions. 



Query 2. Does the writer of the MS. correc- 

 tions occasionally give reasons in support of the 

 changes proposed? At p. 306., Mr. Collier 

 says : " The manuscript corrector assures us that 

 although the intention of the dramatist is evident, 

 a decided misprint has crept into the line." 



Again, at p. 305., Mr. Collier says : " For 

 'senseless obstinate,' the corrector of the folio 

 1632 states that we must substitute words," &c. 

 Again, at p. 352. : "A note in the folio 1632, in- 

 duces us to believe that Shakspeare did not use 

 the term," &c. The MS. corrector is also some- 

 times made to tell us, that a certain error is the 

 printer's ; and another that of the copyist. Per- 

 haps these are only rhetorical forms of expression, 

 to intimate that certain corrections appeared on 

 the margin of the folio 1632, and Mr. Collier's 

 own opinion of their propriety. Scotus. 



Edinburgh. 



HONE S " HISTORY OF PARODY. 



A small collection of the political squibs and 

 pamphlets published by Wm. Hone about 1820, 

 has lately come into ray possession. An advertise- 

 ment in several of these announces that the large 

 material collected for his defence had induced him 

 to prepare, and "very speedily" to publish, A com- 

 plete History of Parody, " with extensive graphic 

 illustrations." This on March 20. Again, on 

 October 2, same year, he says : " I take this op- 

 portunity of announcing that the work will appear 

 in monthly parts, each containing at least five en- 

 gravings, and that it will probal)ly be completed 

 in eight deliveries at 5s. each. I pledge myself that 

 the First Part shall be published, without fail, on 

 the 1st January next, and respectfully invite the 

 names of subscribers. The money to be paid on 

 the delivery of each Part." 



Lastly, in an " Explanatory Address," appended 

 to No. 1. of his Every-Day Book, dated 31st Dec, 

 1824, Hone says : " The History of Parody, with 

 enlarged reports of my three trials, a royal 8vo. 

 volume of 600 pages, handsomely printed, and 

 illustrated by numerous engravings on copper 

 and wood, plain and coloured, is in considerable 

 forwardness. The price will be 21. 2s., in extra 

 cloth boards," &c. 



Thus, though advertised more than four years 

 previously, this work had not yet come out, and 

 indeed, if not mistaken, I think it never appeared 

 at all. Will some of your bibliographical corre- 

 spondents inform me if my surmise is correct ? 

 and if so, what has become of Hone's MSS., and 

 the large collection he made on the subject of 

 parody ? James B. Murdoch. 



162. Hope Street, Glasgow. 



THE COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE S LETTER TO SIR 

 JOSEPH WILLIAMSON. 



Sir Joseph Williamson, Secretary of State to 

 Charles II., having presumed to recommend a 

 candidate for her borough of Appleby, she wrote 

 him the following spirited and well-known reply : 



" I have been bullied by an usurper : I have been 

 neglected by a court : but I will not be dictated to by 

 a subject. Your man sha'n't stand. 



" Anne Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery.*' 



This statement is taken from A Sermon preached 

 at the Funeral of Anne, Countess of Pembroke, Sfc, 

 by Bishop Rainbow ; with Biographical Memoirsf 

 (1839), page of the Memoir xiii. In a note, it is 

 observed that — 



" Mr. Lodge questions the genuineness of this letter, 

 which appears to have been first published in The 

 World in 1753." 



I concur with Mr. Lodge. The style of the 

 letter is quite modern : the verb " bully" seems also 

 quite a modern coinage and the signature varies 

 from the usual setting forth and sequence of titles 

 contained in the inscriptions which the Countess 

 placed over the gateways of her castles, as she 

 repaired them, and which ran thus, the peerages 

 being placed in the order of their creation, viz. : 

 " Countess Dowager of Pembroke, Dorset, and 

 Montgomery." In support of the genuineness of the 

 letter, it may be urged that Sir Joseph Williamson, 

 from an early period after the Restoration until 

 1674, when he became Secretary of State, held 

 various ofiices about the Court that might have thus 

 brouo-ht him into collision with the Countess ; that 

 he was not a very scrupulous man ; that he was 

 the " son of a clergyman somewhere in Cumber- 

 land;" and that his highest promotion took place 

 before the death of the Countess in 1675. (For 

 some account of him, see Evelyn's Memoirs, In- 

 dex.) To this it may be added, that the letter 

 accords with her courageous spirit. Can no earlier 

 authority be given for it than that of The World 

 in 1753 ? J. K. 



[Although this subject has been already briefly dis- 

 cussed in our columns (see Vol. i., pp. 28. 119. 154.), 

 we think it of sufficient interest to be renewed, now 

 that our increased circulation will bring it under the 

 notice of so many more readers j among whom, per- 



