30 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2°* s. vi. 132.. July lo. 'ss. 



seem to have been W. O. ; perhaps William Oldis- 

 worth, some of whose poems are inserted. 



To Dr. Bentley, on his licentinus and conceited 

 alterations of Mi/ton. 

 " Milton's intemperate studies oft by night, 

 Did but deprive him of organic sight ; 

 Thou hast obscured the rays of his bright mind, 

 And now the book is like the author — blind." 



On 3Iiltons Executioner. 

 "Did Milton's prose, O Charles, thy death defend: 

 A furious foe unconscious proves a friend. 

 On Milton's verse does Bentley comment? know 

 A weak officious friend becomes a foe ; 

 While he would seem his author's fame to further. 

 The murderous critic has avenged thy murther." 



Cl. Hoppee. 



CEuertejS. 



OLD BIBLE. 



I have a 4to Bible which belonged to Queen 

 Elizabeth, about which I am desirous of informa- 

 tion. It is in black-letter type, in double columns, 

 with marginal references, and having each leaf (not 

 each page) marked in Roman letters and nume- 

 rals thus: "Folio I.," &c., and a running title at 

 the top of each page. The verses are not numbered 

 or separated ; but the chapters are divided into 

 paragraphs, with Roman capitals in the margins at 

 irregular intervals, and not according to the para- 

 graphs. Eve is called "Heva," and the first 

 word of Genesis, chapters xxxi. and xxxii., is 

 " Bwt," with innumerable other variations from 

 the authorised version. The letterpress measures 

 Gf by 4f inches. I do not find any semicolon in 

 the punctuation ; but there is a thin stroke (/) 

 which is sometimes used as a parenthesis, and also 

 as a comma, or to mark a pause. Numbers is 

 " Numeri," and the 25th verse of chapter xxi. 

 [xxii.] reads, " she ivrenched unto the wall." The 

 "Psalter," &c., and the Prophets are in "the 

 thirde parte of the Byble," which has a separate 

 title, inclosed in an architectural border; having 

 in the base a shield, containing a tall monogram 

 (a printer's or engraver's mark), the base of which 

 is a broad A with a cross at the top, surmounted 

 by a C, through which rises (from the A) an up- 

 right line, having a cross above the C ; and from 

 its point a line is deflected to the right-hand. 

 In this " Thirde parte" the Canticles is entitled, 

 " The Ballet of Ballettes of Salomon," &c., and 

 Obadiah " Abdy." The Apocrypha (there called 

 " Hagiogropha ") has a separate title, with the 

 same border as that to " The thirde parte." Its 

 first books are called "The thirde and fourth 

 bookes" of Esdras, being the same as are called 1st 

 and •2nd Esdras in our common version ; and it 

 ends with 2nd " Machabees," having at the bottom 

 of each column a good woodcut, — one representing 

 John preaching in the wilderness, with his bap- 



tizing Christ in the background ; and the other, 

 the good Samaritan, with the Priest and Levite 

 passing by. 



The first chapter of most of the books begins 

 with an ornamented Roma(fi*dBpital, but all the 

 other chapters with a plain one. Each separate 

 book runs on from the last chapter of the previous 

 book. "The Revelacion" ends with first column 

 of a page, and the second column begins with "A 

 Table to fynde the Epystles and Ghospelles," &c., 

 which table is continued on the next page. 



The title-page of the Bible is lost, but that of 

 the Testament is perfect, having a grotesque bor- 

 der, in the top of which is a woodcut of the last 

 supper, and at the bottom is another of Judas be- 

 traying Christ. But in no part of the volume is 

 there any intimation of the printer's name, where 

 printed, or its date. 



On the (once) blank page at the back of the 

 last page of the Bible, and facing the title-page of 

 the New Testament, is the autograph — " Eliza- 

 BETHE Regina," with her usual lengthened tail of 

 the " z " in " Elizabethe," and of the "a" in "Re- 

 gina," as also her more elaborate flourish from the 

 tail of the " E " in " Regina." Below this, in the 

 same handwriting and ink, is "Testameniii Novu 

 p. (probably for pro or pej"), followed by a word, 

 the first letter of which is an intricate flourished 

 capital (probably a T), and the letters " desbia," 

 as I read them ; the tail of the last letter being 

 also elongated exactly like that at the end of 

 " Regina." 



Perhaps what I have said may lead to an iden- 

 tification of the edition, &c., and an explanation 

 of the MS. writing; but I also enclose photo- 

 graphs, half the size of the originals, of — 1. The 

 title-page of " The thirde parte," for the sake of 

 the monogram ; 2. The last page of the Bible ; 3. 

 The blank leaf on which is the autograph name 

 and writing ; 4. The title-page of the New Testa- 

 ment. 



The Bible, &c., is bound up between two black- 

 letter prayer-books ; that at the end being the 

 prayer-book of 1559, with its rubricated title ; 

 that at the beginning is imperfect and without a 

 title, and has not the Collects, Epistles, and Gos- 

 pels, but the Litany with a few prayers called 

 "suflTrages." " Quene Elizabethe ' is prayed for 

 in both. 



The binding was before 1697, which is the date 

 under the autograph of "Rich"'. Legg" on the 

 fly-leaf. 



If Me. Offoe will be so kind as to give his 

 opinion of the edition and MS. writing, and say 

 whether it would be acceptable to the British 

 Museum, he will oblige P. H. F. 



[Mr. Offor has kindly forwarded the following re- 

 ply:— 



" From the very accurate description which R. H. F. has 

 given of his Bible, it agrees with Cawood's edition of Cran- 



