April 9. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



361 



And again : 



Jan. 6, 1605. — " Op't versouck aen die van de Ge- 

 rechte gedaen by de Engelsche Comedyanten om te 

 mogen spelen : staet geappostilleert. Die van de Ge- 

 rechte deser stadt Leyden gesien in haer vergaderinge 

 opt Raedthuys der voors. stede, de favorable brieven 

 van Recommandatie ende testimoniael vanden Forst 

 van Brandenburch van de X Augustij des jacrs XVI<= 

 vier, raitsgaders t consent by Zyne Ex'" van Nassau 

 verleent den xxij Decembris laest verleden, Es dis- 

 ponerende opt versouc int blanc van dezen, liebben voor 

 zoo veel in hem is, de Engelsche Commedianten ende 

 musicyns toondeis in dezen, conform haer versouc toe- 

 gelaten binnen deser stede te mogen spelen en haer 

 consten doen oufFenen ende vertoonen ter gewoenlycke 

 plaetse te weten opten groten hofF onder de biblio- 

 tecque, dewelcke hem toonders mits dezen ten eynde 

 voorseyt, belast wert te werden ingeruymt, Ende dit al 

 voor den tyt van veertien dagen eerstcomende, en mits, 

 voor den jegenwoordige gracieiise toelatinge, gevende 

 ten behouve van de gemeene liuysarmen dezer stede 

 een somme van twaelf gulden van xl groot tstuck. 

 Aldus, gedaen opten vi January XVI" en vyfF. My 

 jegenwoordich en is get, J. van Hout." 



Translatioiu 

 On the request to the magistrates of the English 

 comedians to be allowed to perform, was decided : 

 The magistrates of this city of Leyden, having seen in 

 their assembly in the Town-House of the aforesaid city, 

 the favourable letters of recommendation and testi- 

 monial of the Prince of Brandenberg of the 10th Aug., 

 1604, as well as the consent granted by his Excellence 

 of Nassau, the 22nd of Dec. last, have permitted the 

 English comedians and musicians, according to their 

 request, to perform and exercise and exhibit their arts 

 in the accustomed place, namely, in the great court 

 under the library; and this for the space of fourteen days, 

 provided they, for this gracious permission, give twelve 

 guilders of forty groats a-piece to the poor of this city. 

 Done on the 6th Jan., 1605. Me present ; and signed 

 "J. van Hout." 



Elsevier. 



Constanter has communicated the following 

 lines of G. A. Brederode, confirming the state- 

 ments of Heywood and Tieck : 



" Ick mach soo langh oock by geen reden-ryckers 

 zijn : 

 Want dit volckje wil steets met alien menschen 



gecken. 

 En sy kunnen als d'aep haer afterst niet bedecken ; 

 Sy seggen op haer les, soo stemmigh en soo stijf, 

 Al waer gevoert, gevult met klap-hout al haer lijf ! 

 Waren 't de Engelsche, of andere uytlandtsche 

 Die men hoort singen, en soo lustigh siet dantse 

 Dat sy suyse-bollen, en draeyen als een tol : 

 Sy spreken 't uyt eaer geest, dees leeren 't uyt een 

 rol. 

 't Isser weer na (seyd ick) als 't is, sey Eelhart 



schrander, 

 Dat verschil is te groot, besiet men 't een by 't 

 ander 1 



D'uytheemsche die zijn wuft, dees raden tot bet 



goedt, 

 En straffen alle het quaet bedecklelijck en soet." 



Translation. 

 To stay with rhetoricians I've no mind : 

 The fool they'll play with men of every kind, 

 And, like the ape, exhibit what's behind. 

 With gests so stiff their lesson they repeat, 

 You'd swear with staves their bodies were replete I 

 Heard you the men from merry England sing ? 

 Saw you their jolly dance, their lusty spring? 

 How like a top they spin, and twirl, and turn ? 

 And from the heart they speak — ours from a roll 

 must learn — From the Navorscher. 



THE SWEET SINGERS. 



(Vol. v.. p. 372.) 



A. N. asks for some historical notices of the 

 above fanatics : as he may not be satisfied with 

 Timperley's meagx-e allusion, allow me to refer him 

 to the Memoirs of the Lord Viscount Dundee : 

 London, 1714. The author of this, "An Officer 

 of the Army," speaking of the stiff-necked Pres- 

 byterians, says : 



" At this time (1681), about thirty of these deluded 

 people left their families and business, and went to the 

 hills, where they lived in rocks and caves for some 

 weeks. John Gib, sailor in Borrowstowness, Walter 



Ker, in Trafritham, Gemmison, in Linlithgow, 



were their chief leaders. They called themselves the 

 Sweet Singers of Israel, eat nothing that there was salt 

 in or paid tax to the king, blotted the name of king 

 out of their Bibles, and cohabited all together. When 

 a party of dragoons took them at the Ouffins, in Tweed- 

 dale, they were all lying on their faces, and jumped up 

 in a minute, and called out with an audible voice, that 

 God Almighty would consume the party with fire from 

 heaven, for troubling the people of God. On the road, 

 as they went to Edinburgh, when any of their relations 

 or acquaintances came to visit them, they spit at them, 

 and threw themselves on their faces, and bellowed like 

 beasts, whereof his Highness (the Duke of York, then 

 in Scotland) being informed, ordered them immediately 

 to be set at liberty." 



A more detailed account of these Gibbites will ■ 

 be found in the curious Presbyterian biographies 

 " collected by, and printed for Patrick Walker, in 

 the Bristo-Port of Edinburgh," the early part of 

 last century. In that entitled " Some remarkable 

 Passages in the Life, &c. of Mr. Daniel Cargill:" 

 12mo. Edin. 1732, A. N. will find the original 

 story of the crazy skipper and his band of " three 

 men and twenty-six women," whom worthy 

 Mr. Cargill endeavoured unsuccessfully to reclaim. 

 From this it would appear that the sweet singers 

 went far greater lengths than above described, and 

 that Gib, after the dispersion of his followers, took 

 himself off to America, " where," says the afore- 

 said Patrick, " he was much admired by the blind 



