Aug. 16. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



117 



was used, i. e. wlien Ilolberg •wrote his comedies) 

 as an affirmatory oath. Native authorities explain 

 it to mean "so it is, by the holy 7)ien" or in other 

 terms, " by the saints I swear." 



I have no doubt that the same kindness which 

 led your correspondent to communicate those de- 

 lightful extracts, will also make him willing to 

 assist the understanding of them. J. E. 



Oxford. 



78. Did Bishop Gibson write a Life of Crom- 

 well? — Mr. Carlyle, in treating on the biographies 

 of Oliver Cromwell, says that the Short Critical 

 Review of the Life of Oliver Cromwell, by a gen- 

 tleman of the Middle Temple, was written by a 

 certain "Mr. Banks, a kind of a lawyer and play- 

 wright," and that the anonymous Life of Oliver 

 Cromwell, L^rd Protector of the Commonwealth, 

 impar-tially collected, &;c., London, 1724, which 

 Noble ascribes to Bishop Gibson, was by " one 

 Kember, a dissenting minister of London." 



On the other hand, Mr. Russell, in his Life of 

 Oliver Cromicell, 2 vols. 12mo. 1829, says: 



" There is an anonymous work deserving of some 

 notice, entitled A Short Critical Review of t/ie Political 

 Life of Oliver Cromwell. The title professes that it 

 was written by a gentleman of the Bliddle Temple, 

 but there Is reason to believe that it proceeded from 

 the pen of the learned Bishop Gibson." 



It would seem, therefore, by these statements, 

 that two different lives of the Great Protector 

 have been ascribed to Gibson. Query, Did Gibson 

 ever write a life of Cromwell; and if so, which is it ? 



It is well worth knowing which Gibson did 

 write. If he wrote one at all, for he was connected 

 with the Cromwell family, and, what is of more 

 consequence, a learned, liberal man, not given 

 to lying, so that his book probably contains more 

 truth than any of the other Cromwell biographies 

 of that time. Dryasdust. 



79. English Translation of Alcon. — Is there any 

 translation of Alcon by lialdisare Castiglione ? 

 The Lycidas of Milton is a splendid paraphrase of 

 it. The parallel passages are to be found in (I 

 think) No. 47. of the Classical Journal, published 

 formerly by Valpy. The prototypes of L'AUegro 

 and 11 Penseroso are at the beiTinnin'j of Burton's 

 Anatomy of Melancholy. Thus three of Milton's 

 early poems cannot be termed wholly original. 



iEGKOTUS. 



JOHN BOUI.EY. 



(Vol. iv., p. 59.) 



J<;lin Bodley is a name that ought not to be 

 passed over without due reverence. lie not only 

 fostered the tianslation of tiie Genevan Bible, but 

 was specially interested in its circulation through- 



out England. Neither Fox, Burnet, or Strype, 

 Mr. Todd, or Mr. Whittaker give us any par- 

 ticular information respecting him. Lewis glances 

 at him as one John Bodley ; and Mr. Townley, 

 in his valuable Biblical Literature, after some 

 notice of Whittingham, Gilby, Sampson, &c., closes 

 by saying, " Of John Bodleigh no account has 

 been obtained." 



This good and pious man was the father of the 

 celebrated Sir Thomas Bodley. He was born at 

 Exeter, and, according to the statement of his son 

 (^Autobiography, 4to., Oxf. 1 647), — 



" In the time of Queen Mary, after being cruelly 

 threatened and narrowly observed by those that maliced 

 his religion, for the safety of himself and my mother 

 (formerly Miss Joan Hone, an heiress in the hundred 

 of Ottery St. Mary), who was wholly affected as my 

 father, knew no way so secure as to fly into Germany; 

 where, after a while, he found means to call over my 

 mother, with all his children and family, when he 

 settled for a while at Wesel, in Cleveland, and from 

 thence we removed to the town of Frankfort. How- 

 beit, we made no long tarriance in either of these 

 towns, for that my father had resolved to fix his abode 

 in the city of Geneva, where, as far as I remember, the 

 English Church consisted of some hundred members." 



John Bodley returned to England m 1559, and 

 on the 8th oi" January, 1560-61, a potent was 

 granted to him by Queen Elizabeth, " to imprint, 

 or cause to be imprinted, the English Bible, with 

 annotations." This privilege was to last for the 

 space of seven years. In 1565 Bodley was pre- 

 paring for a new impression ; and by March the 

 next year, a careful review and correction being 

 finished, this zealous reformer wished to renew his 

 patent beyond the seven years first granted. It 

 does not appear, however, that his application to 

 the authorities had the desired effect; iov it will 

 be remembered that Archbishop Parker's Bible 

 was now in the field, and the Queen's Secretary, 

 Sir William Cecil, was compelled to act with 

 caution. A curious letter, addressed by the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London 

 to Sir William Cecil, concerning the ext^sion of 

 Bodley's privilege, is printed from the Lansdown 

 ]\1S. No. 8. (Art. 82.), in Letters of Eminent Lite- 

 rary Men, edited by Sir Henry Ellis for the 

 Camden Society. 



For a full history of the Geneva Bible, I beg to 

 refer S. S. S. to the second volume of Anderson's 

 Annals of the English Bible : Lend. 2 vols. 8vo. 

 1845. Edward F. Rimbault. 



In the notice of Sir Thomas Bodley contained in 

 Prince's Worthies of Devon, S. S. S. will find some 

 particulars relating to his fathei', John Bodley. 

 Prince's account of Sir Thomas is " from a MS. 

 on jirobable grounds supposed to be his own 

 handwriting, now in the custody of a neighbour 

 gentleman," (Walter Bogan of Gatcombe, near 



