282 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[S»« S. IX. April 14. 



look upon it without a kind of veneration. As he was 

 only at first a servant to a planter in Barbadoes, and 

 tho* that state of life is the meanest and the most dis- 

 graceful which a white man can be in, yet he never dis- 

 owned the fact, yea so far 1 to the contrary, that the chain 

 and pothooks are painted by his own order in the picture 

 I spoke of just now." 



Now this portrait, if not destroyed by fire or 

 otherwise, seems so capable of identification, that 

 I trust some of your readers may be able to 

 favour me with a clue to its discovery. C. E. L. 



"The Siege of Malta." — Who is author of 

 this tragedy, published by Murray, London, 1823 ? 



Ii. InGLIS. 



Milton's Autograph (2 nd S. v. 115.)— Will 

 Leodiensis do me the favour to send to Mr. 

 Henry "Wright, 8. Little Ryder Street, Picca- 

 dilly, London, S.W., a careful tracing of each of 

 the signatures in his book, together with a brief 

 description and history of the book ? D. D. 



<: II Sfortunato Fortunato." — ■ 

 '■ II Sfortunato Fortunato, translated from the Spanish 

 of Malagon, has just been put upon the stage, and is very 

 popular. To a Protestant the mixture of low jokes with 

 a sacred subject is offensive; bnt the audience is pleased 

 and respectful. The hero is Pontius Pilate, who is con- 

 verted to Christianity in the last act, and before killing 

 himself gives some ingenious theological reason why he 

 should do so." (Letter dated Naples, Jan. 10. 1789.) — 

 Letters written in Italy and Switzerland. London, 1790. 

 8vo., pp. 368. 



Can any of your readers help me to an account 

 of the plav or its author, who is not mentioned by 

 Ticknor or Schack ? E. C. 



Tart Hall, etc. — What can have been the 

 origin of the name of" Tart Hall ? " and why did 

 Lady Arundel keep house there in her husband's I 

 lifetime. Walpole always uses the name Tart ! 

 Hall. Dallaway says that that is the vulgar term j 

 for Stafford House. 



Whence, too, the name of Burton's Court, near 

 Chelsea Hospital ? of Homer's Terrace, and of ' 

 Cook's ground ? T. H. 



Admiral John Fish. — Wanted, any informa- 

 tion about this gentleman with such a very ap- 

 propriate name? Did he marry? If so, whom, 

 when, and where ? His death is recorded in the 

 Gentleman's Magazine and Nai-al Biography, but 

 I can find no account of his services. 



John Ribton Garstin. 



Dublin. 



<&uertts* toitlj QnSltntvi* 



The Republic of Babine. — Stated in the 

 Annual Register for 1764 (p. 213.) to have been 

 instituted at the Court of Sigismund Augustus, 

 by Psonika and Peter Cassovius. Its object was 

 to put proper restraints upon conversation. Can 

 any of your obliging correspondents inform me 



where I can obtain farther information respecting 

 this remarkable society ? G. B. 



[There is a very extensive lordship near Lublin in Po- 

 land, which has been long in possession of the House of 

 Psomka ; the eldest branches of which are called Lords of 

 Babine, the name of the estate. At the court of Sigis- 

 mond Augustus, a gentleman of the family of Psomka, 

 in concert with Peter Cassovius, Bailiff of Lubin, formed 

 a society, which the Polish writers call the P.epublic of 

 Babine, and which the Germans denominate the Societv 

 of Fools. This society was instituted upon the model of 

 the republic of Poland ; it had its king, its chancellor, its 

 councillors, its archbishops, bishops, judges, and other 

 officers : in this republic Psomka had the title of cap- 

 tain, and Cassovius that of chancellor. When any of the 

 members did or said anything at their meetings which 

 was unbecoming or ill-timed, they immediately gave him 

 a place of which he was required to perform the duties 

 till another was appointed in his stead; for example, if 

 any one spoke too much, so as to engross the conversa- 

 tion, he was appointed orator of the republic; if he spoke 

 improperly, occasion was taken from his subject to ap- 

 point him a suitable employment ; if, for instance, he 

 talked about dogs, he was made master of the buck- 

 hounds; if he boasted of his courage, he was made a 

 knight, or, perhaps, a field-marshal ; and if he expressed 

 a bigotted zeal for any speculative opinion in religion, 

 he was made an inquisitor. The offenders being thu3 

 distinguished for their follies, and not their wisdom, gave 

 occasion to the Germans to call the republic The Society 

 of Fools, which, though a satire on the individuals, was 

 by no means so on the institution. It happened that the 

 King of Poland one day asked Psomka if they had 

 chosen a king in their republic? To which he replied. 

 " God forbid that we should think of electing a king 

 while your Majesty lives; your Majesty will always be 

 King of Babine, as well as Poland." The king was not 

 displeased with this sally of humour, and inquired farther 

 to what extent their republic reached? " Over the whole 

 world," says Psomka, "for we are told by David, that all 

 men are liars." This society very soon increased so much 

 that there was scarce any person at court who was not 

 honoured with some post in it, and its chiefs were also in 

 high favour with the king. The view of this society was 

 to teach the young nobility a propriety of behaviour, and 

 the arts of conversation ; and it was a fundamental law 

 that no slanderer should be received into it. The regi- 

 ment of the Calot, which was some years since established 

 in the court of France, is very similar to the republic of 

 Babine. — Gent. Mag., xxxiv. 111., 17G4.] 



The Translators' Address in the Bible 

 (2 ,a S. ix. 198.) —I have a Folio Bible with Beza's 

 notes, printed at Amsterdam by Joost Broerst, 

 dwelling in the Pijl Street at the sign of the 

 Printing House, which contains " the Address of 

 the Translatours to the Reader." The date is 

 partly effaced. Is this edition scarce ? I havs 

 never seen a description of it. Information will 

 much oblige, Gilbert. 



[This is the first edition of a series of English Bibles 

 with the text of our present version (1611). having the 

 tables and marginal notes of the Puritan or Genevan 

 translation, but without the Dedication to Elizabeth, 

 the Preface to the Reader, and the Supputation of years. 

 The date is 1642. The printer's name to the Bible, Joost 

 Broerss, and to the New Testament, Joost Broersz. The 

 title-pages are engraved on copper plates. Mv series are 

 1G42, 1649, 1672, Amsterdam, and London, 1679, 1683, 



