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(James Macdonnell's widow), had a sonne Mac Gillye Aspucke, who betrayed O'Neale to avenge his father's and uncle's quarrell." It is not likely that a nephew of the lady only by marriage would have stood up so fiercely for her reputation. This Gillaspic, or Archibald, was James Macdonnell's eldest son, and is always mentioned as his heir in the various grants of lands in Cantire made to his father by Mary Queen of Scots.* James Macdonnell had a nephew (son of his brother Colla) named also Gillaspick, but he was killed by an accident at Ballycastle, just on the day he came of age, and could not have been more than fifteen years of age at the time Shane O'Neill was slain. Mr. Froude 'writes too decidedly in the væ victis style, and is angry because the Irish did not accept with a better grace the blessings of subjugation. He utters complaints as he proceeds, pretty much in the spirit which dictated the letters of Fitzwilliam and Piers. The queen, forsooth, "cared to burden her exchequer no further, in the vain effort to drain the black Irish morass, fed as it was from the perennial fountains of Irish nature." (Page 377-8.) This writer also speaks as if he really believed that the Irish and Scottish chieftains were more truculent or ferocious than English officials. Shane O'Neill is described (page 420) as a "drunken ruffian," and Allaster M'Connell (Alexander Oge Macdonnell) acts (page 413) "like some chief of Sioux Indians." All this may be true, but their "Irish nature" is not blacker than English nature after all. The English were caught twice plotting the secret assassination of Shane O'Neill by poison; and Sussex, the Lord Deputy, was concerned in at least one, if not both, of these infamous affairs. As Mr. Froude proceeds, he will find that Sir James Macdonnell, of Dunluce, was poisoned, in 1601, by a government emissary, named Douglas, whom that chief was hospitably entertaining at his castle on the Antrim coast. Mr. F. will also, no doubt, meet the following extract from a letter written by Sir Arthur Chichester, and descriptive of a journey made by that famous statesman and soldier from Carrickfergus along the banks of Lough Neagh:

"I burned all along the Lough within four myles of Dungannon, and killed 100 people, sparing none, of what quality, age, or sex soever, besides many burned to death; we kill man, woman and child; horse, beast, and whatsoever we find."

This stolid monster's policy was, that the Irish could be more quickly reduced to subjection by hunger than any other means; hence he destroyed corn and cattle in every direction; and during his administration, little children in Ulster were seen eating the flesh of their dead mothers! Belfast. GEO. HILL.

* See Origines Parochiales Scotia, vol. ii. part 1, under "Kintyre."

SHAKSPEARIANA.

"But roomer, fairy, here comes Oberon,"

Midsummer Night's Dream, II. 1. (Puck.)

By thus adding r to the roome of the first folio, on the supposition that the printer or copier dropped it through carelessness or ignorance, the line can be scanned, and the rhythm is, I think, better, and the expression less prosaic than those of any other reading. Room and roomer were sea phrases, which, in speaking of the sailing of ships, meant to alter the course, and go free of one another, or of rocks or land, or more generally in reference to the wind, to go, as we now say, large or free (or roomer, freer) before the wind. Thus we read in Hakluyt

"Then might the Hopewell and the Swallow have payed roome payed off before the wind] to second him, but they failed him, as they did us, standing off close by a wind to the eastward;

and in the same, Best, narrating how in Frobisher's second voyage the ships were caught in a storm amidst drifting ice and icebergs, says:

"We went roomer [off our course, and more before the wind] for one (iceberg), and loofed [luffed up in the wind] for another (and so up and down during the whole night.")

;

Hence roomer aptly expresses one of the two courses which must be adopted by an inferior vessel when it meets another, whose sovereignty entitles her to hold on her way unchecked, and the course which would be adopted if it were wished to get away unchallenged. The fairy had luffed, and so stayed her course to speak with Puck. Having interchanged civilities, Here, says Puck, comes Oberon, bearing down upon you full sail do you, vassal as you are of a power that he is unfriends with, alter your course; go off before the wind, and free of him. In a word, roomer. Why should not the earth-engirdling imp have a few such phrases at command, or have gone masquerading as a sailor-boy, especially in Attica or in England in 1595? in both which places even Titania seems to have been fond of Neptune's yellow sands. Or, if objection still be made, I would quote the inlander Romeo, who talks as though by nature of the high top-gallant of his joy.

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"HAMLET."

"Thus has he (and many more of the same breed that I know the drossy age dotes on), only got the tune of the time and outward habit of encounter, a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions, and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out." (First Folio.) Act V. Sc. 2. "Prophane and trennowed (trennowned) quartos fanned and winnowed."- -Warburton.

Hamlet of course means that Osric and his compeers have not that inward wit necessary to parley true euphuism, but only the outward trick of the language, which, while it passed with folks of like mind, would not stand the trial of better judgments. So at least he says in the rest of the passage; but when he is made to say that their yesty collection of words carries them through and through the winnowed, or fanned and winnowed, opinions of the age-through the wheat of the world-he is made to say the contrary of what he means, and the contrary to the fact; for Osric did not pass through two such winnowed opinions as those of Horatio and Hamlet. Or if, contrary to all analogy of speech, the fanned and winnowed opinions are the chaff and not the wheat, what sense is there in a yesty collection carrying one through either wheat or chaff? or if a yesty collection did such a strange act, where, after such a passage, would be the bubbles that the puff of air is to blow away? But if for winnowed or trennowed, we read vinewed or vinnewed-and blue vinney is Dorsetshire, and vinewedst is spelt in the folio edition of Troilus and Cressida "whinidst" —we have a change that restores the sense-a word not incongruous with, but suggested by, the metaphorical yesty collection, and a repetition of that Shakspearian expression, a mouldy wit. In truth, Hamlet's metaphor is drawn from Sly's pot of ale, as is shown by the words, "blow them to their trial." The yesty collection is the frothiness of sour and stale beer, which passes with those of corrupted and vitiated taste; but when tried and blown upon by more sober judgments flies off, and does not remain like the true head of sound liquor or wit.

B. NICHOLSON.

HAMLET'S GRAVE.-Writing of Elsinore, Mahony, in a small work on The Baltic, published in 1857, says:

"It was not here, but in Jutland, according to Saxo Grammaticus, from whose Chronicle Shakspeare drew the plot of his inimitable tragedy, that Amblettus, or Hamlet, about four centuries before the Christian era, avenged the murder of his father. But though the tourist will seek in vain the grave of the Danish prince, he will find ample compensation in the many romantic stories connected with the monuments in the old cathedral and the gloomy vaults of Kronburg Castle."

This reminds me of the following story, au contraire, lately told by a friend. He visited

Elsinore this autumn, and hearing that the English who called there always asked for and visited "Hamlet's grave," he undertook the same pilgrimage. On his road, at a short distance out of the town, he came to a place called Marienlyst, a public garden nicely laid out, and with the usual refreshment rooms of the continental states. Sauntering along the walks, he met a gentleman, with whom he entered into conversation, and stated his object in being there. After a few turns of the path, the gentleman pointed to a block of stone about three feet high, something like part of a column standing on a slight mound, and said, "That is Hamlet's grave." My friend thanked him, but, seeing a smile on his countenance, asked "What is the matter?" Well," said he, "I will explain. On the establishment of this place a short time since, a countryman called on the proprietor to say that he was so much troubled with the English visitors who flocked to his garden to see Hamlet's grave,' and did him so much damage, that he would be greatly obliged if the proprietor would allow him to place the stone at the back part of his garden, by which means he would be relieved of it, and both of them be greatly benefited. This was acceded to, and here is the grave. I fear you will think you have had your walk for nothing." As dinner was not quite ready, he made a sketch of the spot.

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Have any of your correspondents and readers experienced this walk to "Hamlet's grave"? and if so, have they ever heard how this block came to be originally attributed to this so-called "Prince of Denmark," and when it may have been first named and placed in its former position? It would seem to lie between 1857 and 1863. WYATT PAPWORTH,

"THE GRAND IMPOSTOR."

I have lately acquired a copy of The Grand Impostor Detected, or an Historical Dispute of the Papacy and Popish Religion, by S. C., Part I., 4to, Edinburgh, 1673. The initials upon the title are, in the dedication to the Duke of Lauderdale and preface, extended to Samuel Colvill; and it is still a moot point whether the man, who here so seriously handles the Pope is identical with he of the same name who, in the opposite vein, showed up the Scottish Covenanters in the Mock Poem, or Whiggs' Supplication, 8vo, London, 1681. The last is undoubtedly a piece of coarse texture, and, at first glance, assorts so ill with the former, that without closer inspection one might accept the inference drawn by Lowndes-that there were two of these Samuel Colvills. I have, however, looked into the long preface of the polemic; and, on comparing passages with others in the Author's

Apology for the Mock Poem, find sufficient resemblance in the phraseology to warrant the belief that they are both written by the same hand; and should the books be in the possession of any of your correspondents, I shall be glad to have my opinion checked. Charter, a contemporary, in his Catalogue of Scottish Writers (not published until 1833), certainly assigns both to the same person-Samuel Colvill, Gentleman, and brother to Alex. Colvill, D.D., and it is only upon the apparent incongruities of style displayed by the polemic and poet, that any doubt upon the subject existed. With respect to the author, there does appear to be a most remarkable want of information. Can nobody supply a biographical Note which would explode or confirm the popular belief, in his being a son of Lady Culros?

A correspondent, some time back, suggested that he might be also the "S. C." who wrote The Art of Complaisance, 12mo, London, 1673; but, believing him to have written the Grand Impostor, it is highly improbable that in April of that year the same individual obtained an imprimatur both at Edinburgh and London: and that, too, for works of such an opposite character. It seems to me also, that we should know something more regarding the publication of the Whiggs' Supplication. There are many contemporary manuscripts of the poem about, which, coupled with what the author says in his Apology, would almost lead to the belief that it was at first extensively published in that way: indeed, as far as we know, it may have got into print surreptitiously-the original edition bearing only "London, printed in the year, 1681."

In Chalmers's Life of Ruddiman, we find that our author was alive in 1710: it being noticed that the North Tatler was printed at Edinburgh that year by John Reid for Sam. Colvill. As the author of the Scots Hudibras has come in for more abuse than commendation, I may record Daniel Defoe, when dealing with his own enemies, adopts the language used by honest Sam. Colvill in his Apology, to repel malicious criticism. Cunningham, too, in his Hist. of Great Britain (always supposing there is but one Samuel), is said to have complimented him upon being a strenuous defender of the Protestant religion; but I do not find the passage in Thomson's edition, 1787. Finally, who was the "S. C.," alluded to by Peterkin in the following extract from his Records of the Kirk of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1838? Speaking of the powers exercised over the Kirk by the English Commissioners in

1654:

They put," says he, "Mr. John Row, in Aberdeen; Mr. R. Leighton, in Edinburgh; Mr. P. Gillespie, in Glasgow; and Mr. Samuel Colvill they offered to the Old College of St. Andrews: this last is still held off, but the other three act as principals."

A. G.

P.S. The author of the Grand Impostor designed a much larger work, but says it would be difficult for him to publish it all at once; and, I think, no more than this Part I., treating "Of the Bishoprick of St. Peter," appeared. Samuel Colvill, in his dedication, calls himself a condisciple of his patron; and reminds his grace that he had before received his countenance, by the acceptance of several trifles from him. What were they?

I should add, while upon the subject, that to me the London imprint, 1681, to the Mock Poem, appears a blind. At the period the Presbyterians were at the height of their resistance to the episcopal intrusion; and it would hardly have been safe to have openly published at Edinburgh such a book, with the aggravation of what may be considered a Puritanical armorial device upon. the title. Colvill was, of course, a prelatic advocate; and my belief is, that the book was printed at Edinburgh, and not at London as indicated. The second impression of 1687 was avowedly from Edinburgh, without the device; and "Sam. Colvil" signed to the Apology for the first time.

ST. MARY'S, BEVERLEY.

time the priest's chambers belonging to this noble Some seven years ago I explored for the first perpendicular church. The inner room, which, if I remember right, contained no furniture but an old box and a shelf or two, was strewn, and heaped with antique books, folios and quartos, brown, wormeaten, dilapidated. They lay jumbled together on the shelves, tossed together on the floor; some open; all dusty and uncared for. The lattice stood wide, and the wind and rain were driving in; the bindings of the books were wet accordingly, and clouds of loose leaves were eddying about the room. These books were the remains of the old church library of St. Mary's, and this was their normal condition.

September in company with the parish clerk. After seven years I returned to the place last The window was still open, but it was not raining this time, and the books, such of them as survive, had been, by some pious hand, thrust piecemeal and sausage-fashion into that same old box. When the lid was lifted, and the simoom of disturbed dust that arose had been fanned away by the clerk's coat-tail, I spent my ten minutes in jotting down the titles, as far as I could discover them, of the topmost volumes. Behold the random result:

"St. Bernard on the Canticles, folio. Crakenthorp's Logic.

"Calvini Op. (one vol. of), folio.

"The Theologia Naturalis of Raymond Lebon, folio. "The Theatrum Hist. Illust. Exemplorum, folio. "Sylvester's Du Bartas. (A fine, I think folio, copy.) "Guicciardini's History of Florence." (A fine and early Italian edition.)

Nearly all these were seventeenth century editions, and had originally been noble copies and well bound; and everyone of them had lost its titlepage, and few or many of its leaves. As I closed the lid, I addressed to my companion certain brief, and possibly, caustic remarks; but he, readjusting his coat-tail the while, in a spirit of meekness, replied, "Sir, it was always so! Why," he continued, "they used to make bonfires of the books, and I remember when I was a boy (he looks about forty now) the clerk that was used to light the vestry fires with 'em."

Après tout, what matters it? For, as my friend again remarked, with a sympathetic snuffle, "T" books is nigh all gone now, Sir." A. J. M.

BEVERLEY MINSTER. I have found the following lines on Beverley Minster in an old newspaper (date 1836), and should like very much to know who is their author. They are of considerable merit, and aptly describe that beautiful structure, the west front of which is perhaps the finest specimen of the perpendicular style in England:"Built in far other times, those sculptured walls Attest the faith which our forefathers felt,Strong faith, whose visible presence yet remains: We pray with deeper reverence at a shrine Hallowed by many prayers. For years, long years, Years that make centuries-those dimlit aisles, Where rainbows play, from coloured windows flung, Have echoed to the voice of prayer and praise; With the last lights of evening flitting round, Making a rosy atmosphere of hope, The vesper hymn hath risen, bearing heaven, But purified the many cares of earth.

How oft has music rocked those ancient towers,
When the deep bells were tolling; as they rung,
The castle and the hamlet, high and low,
Obeyed the summons: earth grew near to God.
The piety of ages is around.

Many the heart that has before yon cross
Laid down the burden of its many cares,
And felt a joy that is not of this world:
There are both sympathy and warning here.
Methinks, as down we kneel by those old graves,
The Past will pray with us."

FANTOCCINI.

OXONIENSIS.

Exhibitions of puppets have always been amongst the favourite amusements of the British public. I speak not of that most popular of wooden performers, Mr. Punch, but of such entertainers as have aimed at the representation of more regularly constructed dramas. The allusions to them in our older writers are numerous; but it will suffice to notice here those of Shakspeare, in his Winter's Tale, where, having "compassed a motion of the Prodigal Son," is mentioned as one of the many callings which the merry rogue Autolycus had followed; and of Ben Jonson, whose ex

quisitely humorous portrait of Lanthorn Leatherhead, with his "motions" of Hero and Leander and Damon and Pythias, in his comedy of Bartholomew Fair, is familiar to every reader of the old dramatists. A large circle of readers of another class of literature will remember how, a century later, Steele and Addison celebrated the "skill in motions" of Powell, whose place of exhibition was under the arcade in Covent Garden. In April, 1751, the tragedy of Jane Shore was advertised for representation at " Punch's Theatre in James-street, in the Haymarket," by puppets; "Punch's Theatre" being, of course, located in Hickford's Room; and other puppet exhibitions were announced at different times during the last century. Strutt (Sports and Pastimes, edit. Hone, 1838, p. 167), says:

"A few years back [i. e. before 1801] a puppet-show was exhibited at the Court end of the town, with the Italian title, Fantoccini, which greatly attracted the notice of the public, and was spoken off as an extraordinary performance: it was, however, no more than a puppetshow, with the motions constructed upon better principles, dressed with more elegance, and managed with greater art, than they had formerly been."

I have a note of an "Italian Fantoccini" having been exhibited at Hickford's Room in Panton Street (the same place as the before-mentioned "Punch's Theatre in James-street," it having entrances in both streets), in 1770; but it is more likely that the exhibition, referred to by Strutt, was one which was shown in Piccadilly in 1780, and which continued open during the greater part of that year. Many different pieces, chiefly of an operatic kind, were represented; and from the advertisements, which are very numerous, I have selected the following as best explaining the nature of the performance :

"Italian Theatre, No. 22, Piccadilly. At the Italian Fantoccini, on Thursday next, will be performed a Comedy in three Acts, called 'The Transformations; or, Harlequin Soldier, Chimney Sweeper, Astrologer, Statue, Clock, and Infant.' End of Act I. Several favourite Italian Songs, Duets, and Chorusses. End of Act II. A Dance in Character. And End of Act III. A most magnificent Representation of a Royal Camp. The whole to conclude with a general grand Chorus. Tickets at Five Shillings each may be had as above, and of Signor Micheli, No. 61, Haymarket, where Places may be taken from Eleven in the Forenoon till Five in the Evening. illuminated with Wax. The Doors to be opened at Six, The Room is neatly fitted up, kept warm, and will be and begin at Seven o'Clock precisely. Vivant Rex et Regina."

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"(Tuesday, January 18th, 1780.)

"Italian Fantoccini, No. 22, Piccadilly. This, and Every Evening during this Week, will be presented, a new Comic Opera in two Acts, called Ninnette à la Cour; or, The Fair Nancy at Court.' The Poetry by Mons. Favre. The Music composed by the celebrated Signor Pergolesi, Signor Jomelli, and other celebrated Composers. End of Act II. A Dance in Character. And End of the Opera, a Merry new Dance. To which will

be added a new Entertainment, in one Act, called 'Harlequin's Love-Triumph, By the Magic Art.' With an additional Farce of Harlequin, while refreshing himself with a Dish of Macaroni, is surprised by the Appearance of a Spaniard from a remote Corner, who sings a favourite Comic Song. In which Harlequin will take his Flight round a Room of 60 Feet long and 40 Feet wide, in a Manner truly surprizing, and never before exhibited in Europe. The whole of the Scenery and Machinery entirely new. The public is acquainted by the Managers that this valuable Edifice is just imported from Italy; and is, in small Compass, the exact Model of the superb Teatro Nuovo at Bologna, and the Scenery are the Painting of the celebrated Bibbiena. Front Seats 5s. Back ditto 2s. 6d. Tickets may be had as above, and of Signor Micheli, No. 61, Haymarket. Places may be taken from Eleven in the Forenoon till Five in the Evening. The Room is neatly fitted up, kept warm, and will be illuminated with Wax. The Doors to be opened at Halfpast Six, and to begin at Half-past Seven o'Clock precisely. Any Ladies or Gentlemen may have a private Exhibition any Hour in the Day, by giving Notice as above the Day before. Vivant Rex & Regina.

"(Wednesday, February 23d, 1780.)”

Signor Micheli named in these announcements was, in all probability, a gentleman who held the post of copyist to the Opera-house, at that period, when but few opera songs were printed singly, and the copyist had the privilege of supplying the dilettanti with manuscript copies, a very lucrative appointment.

Can any reader of "N. & Q." say which of the existing houses in Piccadilly bore the No. 22 in 1780? The numbering of the houses was altered after the removal of several for the formation of Regent Circus.

In conclusion, I may just remind the reader of the "Marionettes " exhibited some years since at the Adelaide Gallery behind St. Martin's Church, (where "Practical Science" has now given way to tea and coffee and cheap ices), and of George Cruikshank's admirable delineation of the itinerant Fantoccini shown in the streets of the metropolis in 1825. W. H. HUSK.

"ONE SWALLOW DOES NOT Make a Summer.”

The original of this proverb appears to be the Greek-Mía xeλidwv čap où moieî"—which we have in Aristotle, Ethic. Nic. (A); and I think the old version is the better. Was the form-"One swallow does not make a Spring"-ever in use?

This leads me to notice what appears to me to be a singular omission. We are accustomed to look upon the advent of the swallow as one of the surest signs of returning Spring; and yet I cannot, at present, recall a single passage of our old poets containing any allusion to the swallow as spring's harbinger. And not only this, but I find the swallow connected more especially with sum

mer:

"The swallow follows not summer more willing, than we, your Lordship."

Shakspeare, Timon of Athens, Act III. Sc. 6.

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And allowance must of course be made for poetic license; but that which strikes me as remarkable, is the absence of passages connecting the swallow directly with the first return of spring. And I shall be obliged if your correspondents will refer me to any such passages, if such there be. No poet has shown a greater love for our small birds than Chaucer, and yet he seldom mentions the swallow. The only instance I can recollect is in "The Assembly of Foules," and that is not complimentary :

"The swalowe, murdrer of the bees smale,

That maken honie of flowres fresh of hew." Perhaps the bird's lack of song was the cause of the poet's neglect, for he loved the small birds for their song. No one can read Chaucer without noticing how he loved the warbling of the little feathered songsters, especially in the early morn ing. R. C. HEATH.

DRUIDICAL REMAINS IN INDIA.-After the publication of the Notes on the religion of the Druids in "N. &. Q." (3rd S. iv. 485), it may interest some of your readers to learn that throughout the south of India, situated in secluded spots, such as mountain summits, sequestered valleys, and tracts overrun by jungle, are to be found cromlechs, cistvaens, tolmens, upright stones, double rings of stones, cairns and barrows, containing earthenware cinerary urns, spearheads, &c. &c., and every other relic of the Druidical religion occurring in our own country. They have been examined, and are fully described in one of the periodicals of the Madras Presidency. furnish another interesting link in the chain of evidence connecting the ancient inhabitants of Europe with those of India.

They

H. C.

ANAGRAMS.-A copy of the Jesuita Vapulans [Lugd. Bat. 1635] has written upon a flyleaf as follows:

"ANDREAS RIVETUS, Anagr. "Veritas res nuda,

Sed naturâ es vir,
Vir naturâ sedes,
E naturâ es rudis,
Sed es vitâ rarus,
Sed rure vanitas,
In terrâ suâ Deus,
Veni, sudas terra."

B. H. C.

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