NOTES AND QUERIES. 



{No. 271. 



If he had examined Cvpids whirligig as printed 

 in 1607, 1611, or 1616, he must have observed 

 that it was addressed to maister Robert Hayman 

 hy E. S. ! If he had examined The careless shep- 

 herdes he must have seen that it was written for 

 the theatre in Salisbury-court : now that theatre, 

 as my friend Mr. Peter Cunningham has proved 

 by documentary evidence, was not even built in the 

 life-time of GofFe! 



Langbaine deserves about the same character 

 as Philips. Of the five plays which he ascribes to 

 Goffe, two are mis-ascribed, and he cites no one 

 of the authoritative editions. Gifford condemns 

 our author for making a raging Turk speak in 

 character, and praises him for what he never 

 wrote. I spare Manning and Bray, as dramatic 

 history was rather out of their line. 



I do not mean to insinuate that all the corrective 

 facts now produced are discoveries. Langbaine 

 asserted that GofFe was not the author of Cvpids 

 whirligig, and Mr. Isaac Reed proved that he 

 could not be the author of Selimus ; but all the 

 authorities whom I have consulted ascribe to him 

 The careless shepherdes — and all of them betray 

 a deficiency of bibliographic research. 



I have now justified the epigraph prefixed to 

 this note, which cannot be too often repeated. It 

 was written by its estimable author after a literary 

 career of more than half a century. 



The discovery of errors sugstests the query. 

 How did they arise? And an attempt to solve 

 such a query is far from useless curiosity. It 

 leads us to consider the nature of evidence ; it 

 helps to sharpen the detective faculty ; and to pre- 

 serve those who write from the censures of future 

 critics. 



How then did the errors arise in this particular 

 instance ? Here are my humble conjectures. 



Philips omits The raging Tvrke. Now, as that 

 tragedy is ascribed to Goffe in the dramatic cata- 

 logues which were printed in 1661, 1671, and 1675, 

 it may either have been omitted through oversight, 

 or because it was assumed to be the same piece as 

 The covragiovs Tvrke. 



He may have ascribed Selimus to Goffe either 

 on the authority of the aforesaid catalogues, or of 

 the edition of 1638, in which the piece is said to 

 be written by T. G. It is, however, the edition of 

 1594 with a falsified title ! 



He may have ascribed The careless shepherdes 

 to Goffe, though not published till five-and-twenty 

 years after his death, either on the authority of 

 the aforesaid catalogues, or because it is said to be 

 written by T. G.Mr, of arts. 



He may have ascribed Cvpids whirligig to 

 Goffe because it follows, in the aforesaid cata- 

 logues. The careless shepherdes ; and he may have 

 seen only the edition of 1630, in which the dedi- 

 cation by E. S. is omitted. 



After so many conjectures, I must return to 



facts. Langbaine says Goffe " was buried at his 

 own parish-church at Clandon, the 27th of July, 

 1627. ' This is an error. By the kind permission 

 of the rev. Edward John Ward, M. A., the rector, 

 I copied, some time since, the subjoined entry 

 from the original register : 



« 1629 July 27« Sepultus Thomas Goffe SS Theolog. 

 Baccalaureus et Ecclesiae hujus Paroch Rector." 



Bolton Corkbt. 



ANTIQUfTT OF SWIMMING-BELTS. 



Those who hold that, literally, " there is nothing 

 new under the sun," will see more than a fancifm 

 parallel between a well-known passage in the 

 Odyssey, and the following incident in the late 

 wreck of the mail steamer " Forerunner." Cap- 

 tain Kennedy, one of the passengers in that ship, 

 thus modestly related to the Court of Inquiry an 

 heroic act of his own, which is well worthy of 

 record : 



"Remembering that there was a sick gentleman, a 

 merchant captain, Mr. Gregory, who was below, I weat 

 to inform him of our danger. This gentleman had pre- 

 viously informed me that if any accident ever occurred 

 he would certainly be drowned, as he could not swim. I 

 remembered this at the moment, and as I had a swimming- 

 belt in my cabin, I immediately rushed down to my cabia 

 for the purpose of getting it. I gave it to Mr. Gregory. 

 I inflated it for him, and put it round him, for he did not 

 understand how to use it. I then left Mr. Gregory to 

 shift for himself," &c. — The Times, Nov. 21, 1854. 



In the fifth book of the Odyssey we read the 

 beautiful passage, which forms the subject of one 

 of Flaxman's graceful illustrations, of the sea- 

 nymph Leucothoe bringing to Ulysses, tempest- 

 tost upon his raft, a magic zone, which, bound 

 around his breast, enables him to swim to land. 

 I will not trouble unlearned readers with the 

 Greek ; Cowper's translation is, — 



" Take this : this ribband bind beneath thy breast. 

 Celestial texture : thenceforth every fear of death dis- 

 miss," &c. 



The Greek word is KfyfiSefj-vov, variously rendered 

 in English zone, girdle, ribband, cincture. 



Without going so far as to believe that all new 

 arts and inventions are but lost ones revived, I 

 think it not improbable that the swimming-belt, 

 inflated with air, may have been known in ante- 

 Homeric times, and the tradition of it thus pre- 

 served. F. 



