262 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 75. 



3ISS. AngUcB, 1697, vol. ii. p. 216., among the 

 manuscripts of Sir Henry Langley of Sbropsliire, 

 " No. 22. Jo. Se^inard [read Seguard] Foemata." 

 I would therefore close tliese remarks by request- 

 ing attention to the following Queries : — 



1. As Blomefield is silent on the subject, is any- 

 thing more known respecting the biography of 

 John Seguard ? 



2. Can a list be obtained of the contents of the 

 Merton manuscript ? 



3. What became of the Langley MS., and where 

 is it at present ? 



4. In what manuscript of the British Museum 

 is the poem on Henry V. contained ? 



F. Madden. 



P.S. Since I wrote the above, I have found in 

 the Sale Catalogue of the Towneley library, 1814, 

 pt. i. lot 396. : 



" Seguardi Opuscula. Manuscript on vellum. This 

 volume contains several treatises not mentioned by 

 liale or Pits." 



It was ptirchased by Mr. Laing for ll. Is. May 

 I, therefore, add one more Query? 



5. Can tiie present owner of this MS. (which is 

 probably the same as the Langley copy) furnish a 

 note of its contents ? F. M. 



EPITAPH ON THE COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE. 



Who was the writer of the oft-quoted lines, 

 " Underneath this marble (sable) hearse,"&c. 

 intended, as all know, for an epitaph on Mary 

 Sidney, afterwards Countess of Pembroke, but not 

 inscribed upon any monumental stone ? They are 

 almost universally attributed to Ben Jonson, and 

 are included amongst his poems. But this is not 

 conclusive evidence, as we also there find the 

 epitaph on Drayton, which was written by 

 Quarles. In Aubrey's MS. Mewmres of Naturall 

 llemarques in Wilts, these verses are said to 

 have been " made by Mr. Willia. Browne, who 

 wrote the Pastoralls, and they are inserted there." 

 Mr. Brilton, in his Life (f Aubrey (p. 96.), adds: 



" It is essential to observe, that Aubrey is not alone 

 in stating them to be by Browne ; for, in his note upon 

 the subject, he lift a blank for the latter's Christian name, 

 'William,' which was filled up by Evelyn when he perused 

 the manuscript. Indeed, Kvelyn added as ^ further 

 not^ ' William, Governor to the now Eail of Oxford.'" 

 But these lines are not to be found in Browne's, 

 Patilorals. In book ii., song 4., there is an 

 epitaph, but which bears little resemblance to the 

 one in question. It concludes with tlie Ibllowing 

 conceit : 



" If to the grave there ever was assign'd 

 One like this nymph in l)ody and i.i minde. 

 We wish here in balme, not vainely spent. 

 To fit this maiden with a monument, 

 For l)rass, and marble, were they seated here, 

 Would fret, or melt in tears, to lye so near." 



Addison, in The Spectator, No. 323., speaks of 

 this epitaph as "written by an uncertain autlior." 

 This was not more than seventy-five or eighty 

 years after Jonson's death. In the lives oC the 

 Sidneys, and in Ballard's Memoirs of Celebrated 

 Ladies (1752), no author is nientioned ; but the 

 latter speaks of the ej)it;iph as likely to be more 

 la^sting than marble or brass. To the six lines 

 which generally stand alone, the following are 

 added in the two last-mentioned works : 

 " Marble pyles let no man raise, 

 To her name, for after daies, 

 Some kind woman, born as she, 

 Reading this like Niobe, 

 Shall turn marble, and become. 

 Both her mourner and her tomb," 

 These are also given by Brydges in his Peers of 

 James II., but they are not in Jonson's works. 

 Did tliey originally form part of the epitaph, or are 

 they the production of another and later author ? 

 That this epitaph should be attributed to 

 Jonson, mav possibly have arisen from the follow- 

 ing lines being confounded with it. Jacob, in his 

 English Poets, says — 



" To show that Ben was famous at epignuu, T need 

 only transcribe the epitaph he wrote on the Lady 

 Elizabeth L. H. : 



" Underneath this stone doth lie 

 As much virtue as could die, 

 W^hieh when alive did harbour give 

 To as much beauty, as could live. 



J. H. M. 

 Bath. 



The Vellum-bound Junius. — Mr. Cramp, in bis 

 late j)ublication, Junius and his Works, conjectures 

 that the printer having bound a copy of Junius for 

 an<l under the direction of the writer of the letters, 

 followed the pattern in the binding of other copies ; 

 and this, he says, "will account for similar copies 

 having been Ibund in the libraries of so many per- 

 sons, which from time to time has occasioned so 

 much speculation." AVitli Mr. Cramp's conjecture 

 I do not concern myself; but 1 should be much 

 obliged if he woidd inform me, through your 

 Journal, in what libraries, and where, these many 

 vellum-bound copies have been found, and where 

 I can find the speculations to which they have 

 given rise. V. B. 



The Vellum-hound Junius. — Some years ago, on 

 reading the private letters of Junius, addressed to 

 H. S. Woodfall, and printed by G. Woodfall, 1812, 

 I was particularly struck by those of No. 58. and 

 59., wherein he states a desire to have one set of 

 his letters (which were published 3d March, 1772, 

 by Woodfall) bound in vellum. 



Constantly bearing in mind the fact of the vel- 

 lum copy, I invariably examined all the book 



