2'" 1 S. IX. Mar. 3. '60. "J 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



165 



Greek MS. Play. — In the British Museum 

 (Addit. MS. 4458. art. 19.) there is a Greek play, 

 having the date 1723. Is anything known re- 

 garding the author ? Z. 



[This turns out to be only a small opening fragment of 

 a Greek play, and professedly a translation from the Eng- 

 lish. There is much erasure and interlineation, and parts 

 are rewritten and again corrected. The title rims thus: 



" 'luAoyAd'pi'pos I Kwpcufii'ot | Ek fipiTtxi'VLKris | yAwtttjs pera- 

 <bpaL<T0ei<ra | Trapa Sioavvov JWa: | eret (roirrfpiw 1723 [xrjvbs ok- 

 Tojpfliov a. ' 



As < S>iA<ry*i<f>vpos is not a classical, nor, as far as we can 

 find, a mediaeval word, its meaning seems open to con- 

 jecture. As here used for a title we are disposed to 

 render it, the Macaroni. With this accords the opening 

 of Act I.: — 



" ApdfAClTOS TOU TTpiiJTOV OX7JP1J 17 TTptUTTJ. OtKTJpa (TtoKtj^. 



Tparre^a oiiv en-iKaAvp.p.aTi* ip-drta effio^ erotpa." 

 Perhaps, however, we are to understand an Old Beau j — 

 *' 'fls iTKaiov kou aijSes, at 0eol, ZpoiTtKas ypafaw SeA-rous, eKn-i- 



TTTOVOTJ? T1JS bpfLTjS KOLl TOV TOPOV OVK CTt OI/T09." 



If tliis fragment of a Greek play be really a translation 

 from the English, one would wish to discover the original 

 English drama. We find nothing nearer than a comedy 

 by R. Hitchcock (entitled The Macaroni, but bearing the 

 later date 1773), which has a somewhat similar com- 

 mencement : — " Act I. Scene, a Dressing-Room in Epi- 

 ikse's House. Epicene discovered sitting before a Glass." 

 This is no very close coincidence, and, after all, may be 

 merely accidental. Still, however, we think it not im- 

 BOSBible that the *iAoyA<i<pvpos and The Macaroni may 

 have derived their origin from some common source. 

 The Greek fragment is accompanied with some other 

 translations from the English, and is followed by an 

 amusing Greek letter, apologising for not keeping an 

 appointment in consequence of an invitation to dinner. 

 This letter, unfortunately, does not bear the name of the 

 writer, the whole subscription being eppoxro. OZSas tov <tov. ] 



" The Female Volunteer." — The Rev. L. H. 



Halloran, a chaplain in the Navy, published a 

 drama with this title in 1801. Who are the dra- 

 matis persona f Z. 



[Sir George Liberal, a Devonshire baronet. Lieut. 

 Minden, a loyal half- pay officer. Capt. Cavil, a demo- 

 cratic half-pay officer. Henry Pensive, ensign of the 

 i orpg. Frank Faithful, his valet. Erasmus Syntax, an 

 Irish schoolmaster. Ned Hrace, a sailor with a wooden 

 leg. Clod, a fanner and volunteer. Emma, daughter of 

 leo. Liberal, in love with Hen. Pensive. Jeanette, 

 ili': Female Volunteer, betrothed to Frank Faithful. Vo- 

 lunteers, &c. The scene lies on the Devonshire coast.] 



aeollrrf. - 



THE DE HUNGERFORD INSCRIPTION AND 



ITS INDULGENCES. 



(2 aa S. ix. 49.) 



Of our old English inscribed stones few have 

 tboul them more interest than the one now under 

 noiic.-, affording as it does several valuable hints 

 h»r tin- antiquary and liturgical student. Though 

 Mu Gouqb Nichols has succeeded in mending 

 :. text as given by others, I suspect his own is 



not without some little speck, for, to my thinking, 

 instead of " noun," as he has it, we ought to read 

 " nouin." My present object, however, is to show 

 the value of this inscription for illustrating some 

 ritual usages once followed throughout this land 

 in olden times. 



The very asking of prayers in behalf of Sir 

 Robert " so long as he shall live," yields, by itself, 

 the strongest proof that the same De Hungerford 

 had it put up during his own lifetime. That 

 churchmen, while they were yet alive, used to 

 choose their own graves, and get ready the stone 

 tomb or figured brass that was to lie over them, 

 may be shown by various examples ; and the in- 

 scription now under consideration goes to prove 

 that the same religious practice found imitators 

 among the high-born and the wealthy of our lay- 

 folks. As the thought to a man that one day he 

 must die, makes, or ought to make, him live the 

 better, no one will blame, while perhaps many 

 could wish that such a wholesome usage were 

 even yet observed. 



Mr. Gough Nichols tells us " that fourteen 

 bishops should have promised five hundred and 

 fifty days of pardon to all comers, for an object 

 so perfectly personal as the temporal and spiritual 

 welfare of Sir Robert Hungerford, seems very 

 strange to our modern notions." If Mr. Gough 

 Nichols will take with him his " modern no- 

 tions" when he goes among the monuments of 

 antiquity, especially religious antiquity ; if he 

 makes exclusive use of such " modern notions " to 

 understand for himself, and unfold unto others, 

 the meaning of those remains of another period, 

 and of a belief far other than his own, he must 

 not be surprised if he be often at fault and in a 

 puzzle : to gather the true meaning of such mo- 

 numents, they must be read under the light of their 

 own days. 



That she might testify how thankful she was for 

 every good work wrought for the better hallowing 

 of God's name among men, or for the country's 

 common weal, the Church in those days used to 

 bid the people to pray for such as had thus be- 

 come the people's friends and benefactors. To 

 draw our forefathers to do her behest the sooner, 

 she offered them her spiritual gifts, then called 

 "pardon," now "indulgences." It so happened 

 that this same house of the De Hungerfords had 

 made for itself a distinguished name by its reli- 

 gious as well as civic munificence, both before and 

 after the times of the Sir Robert of the inscrip- 

 tion. This very Sir Robert bestowed broad acres 

 upon St. Leonard's church, Hungerford; and one of 

 his descendants, Walter, was a great benefactor to 

 Salisbury cathedral, wherein he built and endowed 

 a chantry chapel for two priests, besides founding 

 other chantries at Farley, Hungerford, Ilaytes- 

 bury, and Chipenham (Test. Vet. i. 257.)- From 

 the heir of his good example as well as of his lordly 



