Not. 9. 1850,] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



387 



llaid on for; and commit be Accented on the first syl- 

 lable. Thus the line, though of twelve svllables, is 

 MOt unmetrieal ; indeed much less prosaic than with 

 the old reading of count. 



This correction, upon the principle which go- 

 verns Messrs. Collier and Knight, and which indeed 

 should govern all of us, 



" To lose no drop of that immortal man," 



ought to be satisfactory; for it is effected without 

 taking away a letter. The transposition of two 

 evidently misplaced words, and the correction of a 

 letter or two palpably misprinted in one of them, 

 is the whole gentle violence that has been used in 

 a passage which has been, as we see, considered 

 desperate. But, as Pope sings : 

 " Our sacred Sliakspeare, — comprehensive mind ! 

 Who for all ages writ, and all mankind, 

 Has been to careless printers oft a prey, 

 Nor time, nor moth e'er spoil'd as much as they ; 

 Let the right reading drive the cloud a'.vay. 

 And sense breaks on us with resistless day." 



Peeiergus Bibliophilus. 



October, 1S50. 



MASTER JOHN SHOKNE. 



If proof were wanted how little is now known- 

 of tliose saints whose names were once in every- 

 body's mouth, although they never figured in any 

 calendar, it might be found in the fact that my 

 friend, Mr. Payne Collier, whose intimate know- 

 ledge of the phrases and allusions scattered through 

 our early writers is so well known and admitted, 

 should, in his valuable ^.rf;-acfo/7-c>m the Hegisteis 

 of the Stationers' Company (1557 — 1570), have il- 

 lustrated this entry, — 



" 1569-70. Rd. of Thomas Colwell, for his lycense 

 for the pryntinge of a ballett intituled ' Newes to 

 Northumberlande yt skylles not where, to Syr John 

 Shorue, a churche rebell there ' - . - iiij'^." 



by a note, from which the following is an ex- 

 tract : — 



" Sir John Shorne no doubt is to be taken as a ge- 

 neric name for a shaven Roman Catholic priest." 



Reasonable, however, as is Mr. Collier's con- 

 jecture, it is not borne out by the facts of the case. 

 The name Sir John Shorne is not a generic name, 

 but tiie name of a personage frequently alluded to, 

 but wiiose history is involved in considerable ob- 

 scurity. Perhaps the following notes nnxy be the 

 means, by diawing forth others, of throwing some 

 light tipon it. In Michael ^V'odde's Dialogue, 

 quoted by Brand, we read — 



" If we were sycke of the pestylcnce we ran to .Sainte 

 Rooke ; if of the ague, to Sainte I'ernel or blaster John 

 Shorne." 



Latimer, in his Second Sermon preached in Lin- 

 colnshire, p. 475, (Parker Society ed.), says, — 



** But ye shall not think that I will speak of the 

 popish pilgrimages, which we were wont to use in 

 times past, in running hither and thither to Mr. John 

 Shorn or to our Lady of Walsingham." 



On which the editor, the Rev. G. E. Corrie, re- 

 marks that he was — 



" A saint whose head quarters were probably in the 

 parish of Shorn and Merston near Gravesend, but who 

 seems to have had shrines in other parts of the country. 

 He was chiefly popular with persons who sufl'ered 

 from ague." 



Mr. Corrie then gives an extract from p. 218. of 

 the Letters relativg to the Suppression of Monas- 

 teries, edited by Mr. 'Wright for the Camdeii So- 

 ciety ; but we quote from the original, ]Mr. Corrie 

 having omitted the words given iu our extract in 

 Italics : — 



" At Merston, Mr. Johan Schom stondith blessing 

 a bote, whereunto they do say he conveyd the devid. 

 He ys moch sowzt for the agou. If it be your lordesc/a'ps 

 pleasur, I schall sell that hotyd ymage in a notlier place, 

 and so do wyth other in other parties wher lylte seeking ys." 



In that extraordinary poem 2'he Fantassie of 

 Idolatrie, printed by Fox in his edition of 1563, 

 but not afterwards reprinted until it appeared 

 in Seeley's edition (vol. v. p. 406.), we read — 

 " To Maister John Shorne 

 That blessed man borne ; 



For the ague to him we apply, 

 Whiche jugeleth with a bote 

 I beschre've his herte rote 



That will truste hira, and it be I." 



The editor, Mr. Cattley, having explained bote 

 " a recompense or fee," Dr. JNIaitland, in his i?e- 

 marhs on Rev. S. R. Cattley' s Defence of his Editioii 

 of Foxs Martyrology, p. 46., after making a re- 

 ference to Nares, and quoting his explanation, pro- 

 ceeds : 



" The going on pilgrimage to St. John Shorne is 

 incidentally mentioned at pages 232. and 5S0. of the 

 FOURTH volume of Fox, but in a way which throws no 

 light on the subject. The verse wliich I have quoted 

 seems as if there w;is some relic which was supposed 

 to cure the ague, and by which the juggle was carried 

 on. Now another passage in this same fifth volume, 

 p. 4G8., leads me to believe that this relic really was, 

 and therefore the word ' bote' simply means, a boot. In 

 this passage we learn, that one of the causes of Robert 

 Testwood's troyhle was his ridiculing the relics which 

 were to be distributed to be borne l)y various persons 

 in a procession upon a relic Sunday. St. George's 

 dagger having lieen given to one Master Hake, Test- 

 wood said to Dr. Clifton, — ' Sir, Master Hake hath 

 St. George's dagger. Now if he had his horse, and' 

 St. Jlartin's doiik, and Muster John Sliorne s hoots, with' 

 King n.u-ry's spurs and his hat, he might ride when 

 he list."' 



That tliero is some legend connected with 

 Master ,I()hn Sliorne and "his bote, whereunto they 

 do say he conveyd the devill," is evident lioiii 



