52 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 65. 



little light upon their origin [the ballads, I suppose?], 

 or the cause which gave rise to their composition. He 

 has to grope his way in the dark : like Bunyan's pilgrim, 

 on crossing the Valley of the Sliadow of Death, he hears 

 sounds and noises, but cannot, to a certainty, tell from 

 whence they come, nor to wliat place they proceed. 

 The one time, he has to treat of fabulous ballads in the 

 most romantic shape ; the next, legendary, with all its 

 exploded, obsolete, and forgotten superstitions; also 

 history, tragedy, comedy, love, war, and so on ; all, 

 perhaps, within the narrow compass of a few hours, — 

 so varied must his genius and talents be." 



After thi.s we ou2;lit surely to rejoice, that any 

 one hardy enough to become an Editor of Old 

 Ballads is left amongst us. 



Edward F. Rimbault. 



THE FATHER OF PHILIP MASSINGER. 



Gifford was quite right in stating that the 

 name of the father of Massinger, the dramatist, 

 was Arthur, according to Oldys, and not Philip, 

 according to Wood and Davies. Arthur Massinger 

 (as he himself spelt the name, although others 

 have spelt it Messenger, from its supposed ety- 

 mology) was in the service of the Earl of Pem- 

 broke, who married the sister of Sir Philip Sidney, 

 in whose family the poet Daniel was at one time 

 tutor. I have before me several letters from him 

 to persons of note and consequence, all signed 

 " Arthur Massinger;" and to show his importance 

 in the family to which he was attached, I need only 

 mention, that in 1597, when a match was proposed 

 between the son of Lord Pembroke and the 

 daughter of Lord Burghley, Massinger, the poet's 

 father, was the confidential agent employed be- 

 tween the parties. My purpose at present is to 

 advert to a matter which occurred ten years earlier, 

 and to which the note I am about to transcribe 

 relates. It appears that in March, 1587, Arthur 

 Massinger was a suitor for the reversion of the 

 office of Examiner in the Court of the Marches 

 toward South Wales, for which also a person of 

 the name of Fox was a candidate ; and, in order 

 to forward the wishes of his dependant, the Earl of 

 Pembroke wrote to Lord Burghley as follows : — 



" My servant Massinger hathe besought me to ayde 

 him in obteynlng a reversion from her Majestie of the 

 Examiner's office in this courte ; wliereunto, as I \yil- 

 lingly have yielded, soe I resolved to leave the craving 

 of your Lordship's furtheraunce to his owne humble 

 snte ; but because 1 heare a sonn of Mr. Fox (her M;i- 

 jestie's Secretary here) doth make sute for the same, and 

 for that Mr. Slierar, who now enjoyethe it, is sicklie, 

 I am boulde to desier your Lordship's honorable 

 favour to my servaunte, which I sliall most kindlie 

 accepte, and he for the same ever rest bounde to praye 

 for your Lordship. And thus, leaving further to 

 trouble you, &c. 28. March, 1587. H.Pembroke." 



The whole body of this communication, it is 



worth remark, is in the handwriting of Arthur 

 Massinger (whose penmanship was not unlike that 

 of his son), and the signature only that of the 

 Earl, in whose family he was entertained. I have 

 not been able to ascertain whether the application 

 was successful ; and it is possible that some of tlie 

 records of the court may exist, showing either the 

 death of Sherar, and by whom he was succeeded 

 about that date, or that Sherar recovered from 

 his illness. As I have before said, it is quite clear 

 that Arthur Massinger was high in the confidence 

 and service of Lord Pembroke ten years after the 

 date of the preceding note. 



I have a good deal luore to say about Arthur 

 Massinger, but I must t.ake another time for the 

 purpose. The Hermit of Holyport. 



TOUCHSTONE S DIAL. 



(Vol. ii., p. 405 ) 



The conjecture of Mr. Knight, in his note to 

 As You Like It, and to which your correspondent 

 J.M. B. has so instructively drawn our attention, 

 is undoubtedly correct. The "sun-ring" or ring- 

 dial, was probably the watch of our forefathers 

 some thousand years previous to the invention of 

 the modern chronometer, and its history is de- 

 serving of more attention than has hitherto been 

 paid to it. Its inunense antiquity in Europe is 

 jiroved by its still existing in the remotest and 

 least civilised districts of North England, Scotland, 

 and the Western Isles, Ireland, and in Scandinavia. 

 I have in my possession two such rings, both of 

 brass. Tlie one, nearly half an inch broad, and 

 two inches in diameter, is from the Swedish island 

 of Gothland, and is of more modern make. It is 

 held by the finger and thumb clasping a small 

 brass ear or handle, to the right of which a slit in 

 the rinc extends nearly one-third of the whole 

 length. A small narrow bandof br.iss (about one- 

 fifth of the width) runs along the centi-e of the 

 rino-, and of course covers the slit. This narrow 

 band is movable, and has a hole in one part 

 through which the rays of the sun can fall. On 

 each side of the band (to the right of the handle) 

 letters, which stand for the names of the months, 

 are inscribed on the ring as follows : — 



J A S O N D 



r IM V W d f 

 Inside the ring, opposite to these letters, are the 

 following figures for the hours : — 



3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11'-= 



The small brass band was made movable that 

 the ring-clock might be properly set by the sun at 

 stated periods, perhaps once a month. 



The second sun-ring, which I bought in Stock- 

 holm in 1847, also "out of a deal of old iron," is 



