42 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2 nd S. IX. Jan. 21. '60. 



EDWARD KIRKE, THE COMMENTATOR ON 

 SPENSER'S "SHEPHEARD'S CALENDER." 



The ShephearcTs Calender of Spenser was first 

 published in 1570, by E. K., who has prefixed 

 thereto an epistle to the most excellent and 

 learned both orator and poet, Maister Gabriel 

 Harvey, and " The Generall Argument of the 

 whole Booke." He is likewise author of the "Ar- 

 guments of the several Aeglogues, and a certaine 

 Glosse or scholion for the exposition of old wordes 

 and harder phrases." 



In a letter from Spenser to the " Worshipfull 

 his very singular good friend Maister G[abriel] 

 H[arvey], Fellow of Trinity Hall in Cambridge," 

 dated " Leycester House this 1G of October, 

 1579," are these passages : — 



" Maister E. K. hartily desireth to be commended unto 

 your Worshippe, of whom, what accompte he maketh, 

 your selfe shall hereafter perceive, by hys payncfull and 

 dutifutl verses of your selfe. 



" Thus much was written at Westminster j-esternight ; 

 but comming this morning, beeyng the sixteenth of 

 October, to Mystresse Kerkes, to have it delivered to the 

 carrier, I receyved youre letter, sento me the laste weeke; 

 whereby I perceive you other whiles continue your old 

 exercise of versifying iu English ; whych glorie I had 

 now thought sboulde have bene onely ours heere at 

 London, and the Court." 



At the close, speaking of letters which he wishes 

 to receive from Harvey, he says : — 



" You may alwayes send them most safely to me by 

 Mistresse Kerke, and by none other." 



From the mention of Mrs. Kerke, and of E. K. 

 in this letter, it was long since conjectured that 

 E. K. was E. Kerke. 



Mr. Craik (Spenser and his Poetry, 40.) re- 

 marks : — 



" If E. K. was really a person whose Christian name and 

 surname were indicated by these initial letters, he was 

 most probably some one who had been at Cambridge at 

 the same time with Spenser and Harvey, and his name 

 might perhaps be found in the registers either of Pem- 

 broke Hall, to which Spenser belonged, or of Christ 

 Church [Christ's College] or Trinity Hall, which were 

 Harvey's colleges." 



Your correspondent J. M. B. ("N. & Q." 1 st 

 S. x. 204.) drew the attention of your readers to 

 this subject upwards of five years ago. 



We have now ascertained that a person named 

 Edward Kirke was matriculated as a sizar of 

 Pembroke Hall in November, 1571. He subse- 

 quently migrated to Caius College, and graduated 

 as a member of that house, B. A. 1574-5, M.A. 

 1578. 



Spenser was matriculated as a sizar of Pem- 

 broke Hall, 20 May, 1569, proceeded BA. 1572-3, 

 and commenced M.A. 1576. 



It will be seen, therefore, that Spenser and 

 Edward Kirke were contemporaries at Cambridge, 

 and were for some time of the same college. 



As it has also been conjectured that E. K. was 



< Edward King, it may be satisfactory to state 

 that the earliest person of that name who occurs 

 amongst the Cambridge graduates, is Edward King 

 of S. John's College, B.A. 1597-8, M.A. 1601. 

 These dates render it very improbable that he 

 could have been the E. K. of 1579. 



Under these circumstances we feel justified in 

 assigning the editorship of the Shepheard's Calen- 

 der to Edward Kirke, and shall accordingly notice 

 him in the forthcoming volume of Athena Can- 

 tdhrigienses. He was evidently a man of consi- 

 derable talent, and we cannot but regret our 

 inability to give any other particulars of him than 

 may be collected from this communication. 



It is somewhat remarkable that none of the 

 biographers of Spenser appear to have been aware 

 that Gabriel Harvey, the common friend of Spen- 

 ser and Kirke, between his leaving Christ's Col- 

 lege and being elected a Fellow of Trinity Hall, 

 was a Fellow of Pembroke Hall. He was elected 

 a Fellow there (being then B.A.) 3rd Nov. 1570 ; 

 but we are not now enabled to state how long a 

 period elapsed before he removed to a Fellowship 

 at Trinity Hall. 



We think it very probable that Harvey was 

 the tutor both of Spenser and Kirke at Pembroke 

 Hall. C. H. & Thompson Cooper. 



Cambridge. 



iHwar $otetf. 



Origin of "Cockney." — In "TheTumanientof 

 Tottenham ; or, the Wooeing, Winning, and Wed- 

 ding of Tibbe, the Reeves Daughter there," in 

 Percy's Reliqucs, vol. ii. p. 24., occur the follow- 

 ing lines descriptive of the wedding feast with 

 which the "turnament" closed : — 



"At the feast they were served in rich array; 

 Every five and five had a cokney." . 



The learned editor says, with reference to the 

 meaning of cokney, that it is the name of " some 

 dish now unknown." May not the cant term 

 Cockney, applied to Londoners, have arisen from 

 their fondness for this dish ? In the same way 

 that in Scotland a Fife man is styled a " Kail- 

 supper," and an Englishman in France is termed 

 " un rosbif." Dorricks. 



Unburied Coffins. — The late interesting dis- 

 cussion in the pages of " N. & Q." relative to the 

 unburied coffins in Westminster Abbey, calls to 

 mind a note which I made some time since from a 

 pleasing work entitled An Excwsion to Windsor 

 in July, 1810, by John Evans, Jun., A.M., Lon- 

 don, 1817. In a brief account of Stains, he says : 



" The church is at the extremity of the town, but lias 

 nothing remarkable, with one exception. In a small 

 apartment under the staircase, leading to the gallery, is 

 presented the spectacle of two unburied cofiins containing 

 human bodies, covered with crimson velvet. They are 



