June 15. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



39 



Lord Ellesmere for certain favours shown him, 

 probably in some Cliancery suit, to which he here 

 seems to allude, as if still suffering in his pocket 

 from its ill consequences. 



My first quotation from the poem itself is one of 

 some importance, as serving to show the probable 

 time at which it was written. On the reverse of 

 fol. 9., at the commencement of the poem, an allu- 

 sion is thus made to the destruction of Troy: — 



" And wasted all the buildings of the king, 

 Which unlo Priamus did glory bring, 

 Uestroy'd his pallaces, the cittie graces, 



And all the lusters of his royall places, 

 Just as Noll Cromewell in this Hand did, 

 For his reward at Tiburne buried." 



So also, again, on the reverse of fol. 11., in re- 

 ference to the abuses and profanations committed 

 by Cromwell's soldiery in St. Paul's Cathedral, he 

 says : — 



" Pittie it were this faberick should fall 



Into decay, derives its name from Paul, 

 Bid yet of late it suffered vile abuses, 



JVas made a stable for all traytors' uses. 



Had better burnt it down for an example, 



As Herostratus did Diana's temple." 



And again, at the commencement of the eighth 

 chapter, fol. 104. : — 



" In this discourse, my Muse doth here intend, 

 The honor of Saint Patrick to defend, 

 And speake of his adventrous accidents. 



Of his brave fortunes, and their brave events, 

 That if her pen were made of CromwdVs rump. 

 Yet she should weare it to the very stump." 

 At the end of the poem he again alludes to his 

 great age, and to the time which had been occupied 

 in writing it; and also promised, if his life should 

 be prolonged, a second part, in continuation, 

 which, however, appears never to have been 

 accomplished: — 



" My Muse wants eloquence and retoricke. 

 For to describe it more scoUerlike, 

 And doth crave pardon for hir bold adventure, 

 When that upon these subjects she did enter. 

 'Tis eight months since this first booke was begun. 

 Come, Muse, breake off, high time 'tis to adone. 

 Travell no further in these raartiall straines. 



Till we know what will please us for our paines. 

 I know thy will is forward to performe. 



What age doth now deny thy quill t' adorne, 

 Whose age is seventy-sixe, compleat in yeares, 

 Which in the Kegester at large appeares." 

 &c. &c. &c. &c. 



Cromwell died Sept. 3, 1658, and was interred 

 in Westminster Abbey ; but his bones were not 

 removed and buried at Tyburn till the 30th of 

 January, 1660 ; very so(m after which it is most 

 probable that this poem was written. Now if the 

 author was, as he says, seventy-six at this time, he 

 must have been born about I5B3 or 1584, which 

 will rightly correspond with the account given by 



Chalmers and others; and thus he would be about 

 twenty-two or twenty-three years of age when he 

 wrote his first poem of Aacpvls Uo\v(jTi<pai>oc, and 

 twenty-seven when he succeeded to the office of 

 IMaster of the Revels. There appears to be no 

 reason for supposing, with Ritson, that IVte Great 

 Plantagenet, which was the second edition of that 

 poem, and published in 1635, was done "by some 

 fellow who assumed his name ;" but that the varia- 

 tions, which are very considerable, were made by 

 the author himself, and printed in his lifetime. 

 The Dedication to Sir John Finch, Lord Chief 

 Justice of the Common Pleas, signed " George 

 Buck," and written exactly in his style ; the three 

 sets of commendatory verses addressed to the 

 author by O. Rourke, Robert Codrington, and 

 George Bradley, not in the first edition of the 

 poem " Upon King Henrie the Second, the first 

 Plantagenet of England," &c., added to this impres- 

 sion ; all tend to show that the author was then 

 living in 1635. We learn by the above quotations 

 from his MS. poem, that his days were further 

 prolonged till 1660. 



Perhaps some of your numerous readers may be 

 able to discover some corroborative proofs of this 

 statement from other sources, and will be kind 

 enough to favour me, through your paper, with any 

 evidence which may occur to them, bearing upon, 

 the subject of my inquiries. Thomas Corsee. 



Stand Rectory. 



COSAS DE ESPANA. 



The things of Spain are pocubar to a proverb, 

 but they are not so exclusively national but we 

 may find some connection with them in things of 

 our own country. Any information from readers 

 of Notes and Queries, on a few Spanish things 

 which I have long sought for in vain, would prove 

 most acceptable and useful to me. 



1. In Catalogi Lihroruin Manuscriptorura, An- 

 gUcB et HibernicB, &c., under " Library of ^A'^est- 

 minster Abbey," at p. 29., I find mentioned the 

 following jNIS. : Una Resposal del Reverend Padre 

 Thomaso Cranmero. It is not now in that li- 

 brary — is it in any other ? I suppose it may be a 

 translation, made by Francisco Dryander or En- 

 zinas, translator of the Spanish New Testament, 

 1543, of — " An Answer by the Right Rev. Father 

 in God, Thomas, Abp. of Canterbury, unto a crafty 

 and sophistical cavillation devised by Stephen 

 Gardener," &c. Dryander came to this country with 

 Bucer, recommended to Cranmer by Melancthon, 

 and resided two months in the Archbishop's house 

 before he went to Cambridge to lecture in Greek. 



2. Ferdinando de Tcreda, a Spani.sh Protestant, 

 came to this country in 1620. The Lord Kee))er 

 Williams took him into his house to learn Spanish 

 of him, in order to treat personally with the 

 Spanish ambassador about the marriage of Prince 



