21. Yett the Bonds they exact, destroy their own Act of pardon, which all men extoll. Wee thought wee should bee, good subjects and free, but now wee are Bondmen to Noll. I believe this poem to be by Sir John Denham, for the following reasons : 1. John Denham was arrested with the persons mentioned here early in June, 1655. An order of the Council dated June 9, 1655, runs as follows:"Order, on Lambert's report of the names of some persons apprehended last night in and about London, that Lord Newport, Andrew Newport his brother, Jeffrey Palmer, Francis, Lord Willoughby of Parham, and Henry Seymour be committed to the Tower. That Sir Frederick Cornwallis, Ed. Progers, Thos. Panton, and Maj. Gen. Ayres be committed to the Serjeant at Arms, and that John Denham be confined to a place chosen by himself, not within twenty miles of London." -Calendar of State Papers (Domestic), 1655,' p. 204. 2. In the second place, it is exactly in the style of those occasional poems which Denham was fond of writing-full of the personal references in which he was accustomed to indulge. Compare the poems on 'Lord Crofts's Journey to Poland, on Killigrew's Return from his Embassy to Venice,' and on 'Sir John Mennis going from Calais to Boulogne to eat Roast Pig' (Denham's 'Poems, ed. 1671, pp. 67-76). The metre of this poem-not a very common metre-is the same as that of the poem on Killigrew : Our Resident Tom, from Venice is come And hath left the Statesman behind him; Talks at the same pitch, is as wise, is as rich, And just where you left him you find him. 3. This poem is from a copy in the Clarendon MSS. in the Bodleian ('Calendar, vol. iii. p. 79). Mr. Macray cannot identify the hand, but thinks the poem to be a copy, and not an original. It is remarkable that a copy of Denham's poem on Killigrew is also to be found amongst Clarendon's papers ('Calendar,' ii. 143). 4. If it was not written by Denham, the absence of any allusion to so prominent a Cavalier as Denham is difficult to understand. C. H. FIRTH, THE DUKEDOM OF CLARENCE. The third holder of this title was George, sixth (and second surviving) son of Richard, Duke of York, and brother of Edward IV. He was born in Ireland in 1451, and through his grandmother, Anne Mortimer, was a lineal vol. ii. brother of the king and the son-in-law of the descendant of Lionel, the first duke, and his ❘cester would join me I would make Edward know daughter, Philippa, the lady of Clare. (See N. & Q., 7th S. ix. 481; Dugdale, 'Baronage,' nearer to him than strangers of his wife's blood!" ، From this time, about 1470, till his death in the Tower in 1478, the career of Clarence is so intimately connected with the history of his brother's reign that it need not be followed here in detail. No part of our history, perhaps, has been more fully treated than the brief period during which the House of York occupied the throne. At the same time no period, in regard to its treatment by chroniclers and early historians, has suffered more from misrepresentation and prejudiced tradition. How Clarence wavered between allegiance to his brother and co-operation with Warwick; how at length he deserted the latter and was the instrument of his ruin; how justly he earned the titles of " false;" "fleeting," 'subtle," treacherous," and "perjured Clarence," -is told with ample confirmation in all the histories, and by none more graphically than Shakespeare. Of the three brothers, Edward IV., Clarence, and Gloucester, the historians of the past have painted the last in the blackest colours. Most moderns will agree that this is undeserved, and that of the three Clarence was the worst. At any rate, Richard was loyal to the king, his brother, and when he himself assumed the crown made a better ruler than most mediæval kings. Much that appears in the chroniclers respecting the House of York must be read with a large allowance. Those who wrote in Tudor times were under every temptation to blacken the characters of the princes of this house, and the same is true, in great measure, of Shakespeare. The Tudor chroniclers are more tender towards Edward than towards his brothers; this was due, perhaps, to the fact that Henry VII.'s queen, Elizabeth of York, was his daughter. Shakespeare spares neither Clarence nor Gloucester. The reader will recall the charges brought against Clarence by Shakespeare in 'Richard III.,' I. iv. I refer principally to the supposed murder of young Edward of Lancaster by Clarence and Gloucester. The contemporary chroniclers, Warkworth the Lancastrian, and Fleetwood the Yorkist, assert that he was slain in the field, calling on his brother-in-law Clarence for help; but the generally received account is that he was slain in the king's tent by Edward's servants. None of the earlier writers who record the king's brutality in striking his vanquished rival with his gauntlet, mentions either of the king's brothers as the assassin. Hall, who wrote in Henry's VIII.'s time, is the first who brings forward this charge. Hollinshed repeats the words of Hall, and Shakespeare invariably follows him. Weight is due to the note of PROF. THOROLD ROGERS (' N. & Q.,' 7th S. ix. 423), but the evidence is far from clear. At any rate, there is little to connect Gloucester with the deed. All three brothers in turn have been charged with the murder of Henry VI. in the Tower, but upon nothing worthy of the name of evidence. Still, envy, falsehood, and intrigue mark the entire history of the third Clarence; and his brother Edward had every reason to regard him with distrust and dread. He seems also to have had a bitter enemy in the queen. Edward does not appear to have been other than generously disposed towards both of his brothers, and he had forgiven a great deal before he accused Clarence of high treason and sentenced him to death. The particulars of the charge are given in Sandford, Genealogy of the Kings,' bk. v. p. 438. The king in person appears there as the sole accuser and Clarence as the sole defender. Some of the charges were ridiculous enough; but the picture drawn by Edward of the favours which he heaped upon his brother, and of the ingratitude with which he had been repaid, is not overdrawn. Clarence was condemned to die on Feb. 17, 1478, and the House of Commons petitioned for his immediate execution. The statement of the chroniclers that he was privately murdered by his brother Richard, drowned in a butt of malmsey, is unsupported by anything like evidence. It may be remarked, however, that Fabyan, the sheriff chronicler of London, records : "This yere, that is to mean, ye xviiith day of Febuary, the Duke of Clarence and Warwick, brother to the King, thanne being prisoner in yo Tower, was secretly put to death and drowned in a barell of Malvesye, within the sayd Tower."-Fabyan, p. 666 of Ellis's edition. Miss Halstead, in her interesting Life of Richard III.,' vol. i. p. 322, successfully, I think, vindicates Richard from this charge : "He was [she says] certainly absent from the scene action, and residing in the North; but the partizans of the queen and those of Gloucester mutually recriminated his death upon each other." Similar views are adopted in the latest life of Richard, Legge's 'Unpopular King, vol. i. p. 146. The only fact upon which we can rely is this, that Clarence was found dead in the Bowyer Tower on the morning of Feb. 18, 1478, with his head hanging over a butt of malmsey. Probably an cuted; but as he was a popular favourite it was thought expedient to ascribe the effect to accident. Certainly the king took the blame of the deed, and appears, if the chroniclers be correct, to have afterwards regretted it : order for his death was issued, and that order exe "He mourned the loss of his brother to that degree that when any one solicited for the life of a condemned Person he would with sorror this exclamation; unfortunate brother, for whose life no one would make suit.' "-Fisher, 'Key to the History of England,' p. 129. Hence there is great probability in the words which are put into Edward's mouth by Shakespeare ('Richard III.,' II. ii.) : Have I a tongue to doom my brother's death, Who sued to me for him? Who, in my wrath, That Clarence was acceptable to the common people maybe admitted. Hishandsome person and plausible exterior would be likely to impress the crowd, as such endowments have done in all times. His untimely death has also led posterity, as well as many of his own contemporaries, to cast a veil over his numerous tran transgressions. That the estimate of Shakespeare respecting his general character, although some of the crimes laid to his charge may be said to be "non proven," is correct in the main may be fully accepted. He died at the age of thirty, and his wife Isabel is said to have died from poison administered (? wilfully) by a domestic during her confinement. They left issue, as is well known, a son and a daughter. To the daughter, Margaret, was allowed the earldom of Salisbury, which honour descended to her from her grandfather Warwick. The son was generally called "Earl of Warwick," although the attainder of his father was never reversed. The title of Clarence was suspended. The fate both of the son and of the daughter of this Clarence is known to his tory: the "Earl of Warwick" was executed Νον. 21, 1499; and Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, May 27, 1541. With them, the "last of the Plantagenets," this royal race became in the direct line extinct. The melancholy end of Clarence is commemorated in the 'Mirrour for Magistrates' (ed. of 1609, 4to., p. 380). Here the crime is directly attributed to the Duke of Gloucester : His purpose was with a prepared string New christened me because I should not cry. The story as generally bruited abroad in England was evidently known and believed in France, but with a difference. See Martin, 'Histoire de la France,' tome vii. p. 1: et du duc de Clarence, "La haine mutuelle d'Edouard fomentée par le troisième frère, Richard de Gloucester, venait d'aboutir à un fratricide Edouard avait fait à condamner à mort et exécuter secrètement son frère Clarence pour crime et haute trahison. L'on prétende qu' Edouard ayant laissé au condamné le choix de son genre de morte l'ivrogne Clarence choisit d'être noyé dans un tonneau de Malvaise." This is taken from the contemporary French chronicler Jean Molinet, vol. ii. chap. xciv. p. 377 of the edition by Buchon, 8vo., Paris, 1828. Martin adds : ing's ROBERT BROWNING'S 'CALIBAN UPON Two or three years ago I was reading Brown'Caliban upon Setebos,' and as I did not follow the drift of the poem clearly, I asked a very intelligent lady friend, who is a devoted lover of Browning and who is more accustomed to his poetry than I am, if she would write me a little analysis of it. She did so; and as her analysis is very clear and to the point, and possesses the brevity which Polonius calls "the of wit," I have thought that it may be interesting to other readers of Browning who, like myself, are true admirers of the poet without always quite catching his drift. Speaking for myself, my friend's lucid comments have to a great extent removed the difficulties I found in clearly understanding this remarkable and interesting poem. If any of your readers should differ from any of my friend's conclusions, I need not say that both she and myself would be very glad to weigh their objections. As the manner of the notes may seem to be somewhat staccato, it must be borne in mind that they formed part of a private letter, and were written without any thought of publication. My friend, in reply to my request for permission to publish them, says that, if the Editor is willing, she has no objection at all to their appearing in 'N. & Q.,' but she does not wish her name to be mentioned. race, says Tennyson ('Maud,' part i, iv.). "Through nearly the whole of the poem Caliban seems to speak of himself in the third person,-(he) 'hath spied an icy fish,' &c. This form strikes me as being peculiarly apposite, because I believe that the lowest type of savages-earth-eating tribes of South Americause the third, and not the first person in speaking of themselves. The poem then proceeds to give, with consummate art and skill in word-painting, a description of the various creatures made by the great and powerful Setebos-the otter, badger, ant, &c. and man, but 'weaker in most points, stronger in a few. Caliban has no conception of God, or Setebos, as creating or injuring for any other purpose than the gratification of a whim or impulse- Making and marring clay at will'; 'Such shows nor right nor wrong in Him'; 'He is strong and Lord.' Caliban can only recognize force as creative power, and as an evil strength who must be coaxed and bribed not to hurt, much in the same way that the lower class Chinese implore the evil spirits not to cross their luck, and make offerings of various kinds to them. ""The something over Setebos'; 'The Quiet': Caliban means by this to imply Eternity. Then It pleaseth Setebos to work, Use all His hands most of the Indian and African idols are many-handedand exercise much craft, By no means for the love of what is worked. speare renders no help, and the other dramatists are practically indexless. In Sowerby's 'English Botany, ed. 1836-8, we read that Papaver rhœas is one of the most troublesome weeds of the cornfield, in all soils and situations, but claiming, from the rich and vivid scarlet of its large petals, to rank among the most beautiful of our wild flowers" (vol. v. p. 5). In the same work the scarlet pimpernel, or poor man's weather-glass, is said to be "the only British scarlet flower besides the poppy" (vol. ii. p. 40). There cannot, therefore, be any doubt that the writer believed the scarlet poppy to be a native plant. I feel sure, for many reasons, that in this opinion he was correct. I have Dryden on my side, who says, in 'The Conquest of Granada' (Part i., Act I., sc. i., ed. 1808, vol. iv. p. 36): The undaunted youth Then drew; and from his saddle bending low, It fell so quick, it did even death prevent, Though I do not remember any earlier mention of the English corn-poppy, except in our old books referred to by poets. Caliban can comprehend only blind creative power, and of botany, I cannot doubt that it has been often so tries to imitate this by I may, perhaps, be permitted to mention Setting up endwise certain spikes of tree, * * * No use at all i' the work. * * "At the close of the poem, in the brute nature of Caliban, the lowest depth of slavish dread is manifested towards Setebos: Wherefore he mainly dances on dark nights, Moans in the sun, gets under holes to laugh; and, if ever caught rejoicing, would make a sacrifice to appease the wrath of Setebos. At the end Caliban is supposed to crouch down in an ecstasy of terror at a thunderstorm and the 'white blaze.' "I shall be interested to know if my ideas on this wonderful poem and those of your other friend are alike." My "other friend," in alluding to the foregoing a few months ago, said, "I remember her admirable analysis of Browning's 'Caliban upon Setebos." I am glad that my friend's notes should be preserved in the antiseptic pages of 'N. & Q.' Ropley, Alresford. JONATHAN BOUCHIER. THE CORN-POPPY.-I was conversing a few days ago with a friend who has a considerable knowledge of what I may call the historic botany of this island. He affirmed that the common corn-poppy (Papaver rheas) is not a native plant, but has been imported in recent days with foreign seeds. I felt very doubtful of the truth of the allegation, but held my peace, not having at hand any evidence with which to refute him. Shake which has no connexion with the above, but is curious as showing how notions of utility may blunt, or even destroy, the sense for beauty. Some five-and-forty or fifty years ago, a lady who had lived in a part of England where the cornpoppy was rarely seen went to dwell in a county where it was very abundant. She was much struck with its great beauty, and expressed her feelings to her friends and neighbours. Most of these people were the wives and daughters of persons "whose occupation was the owning of land." They were not only puzzled, but horrified also, to find a woman seeing beauty in a noxious weed. I well remember a lady-a person of considerable intellectual cultivation-who expressed herself so strongly against the new-comer on that account, that it was evident she thought there was something sinful in the heart of one who could see loveliness in a plant which farmers and rentreceivers detested. EDWARD PEACOCK. Bottesford Manor, Brigg. 'SING A SONG FOR SIXPENCE.' - The beautifully illustrated editions of the old nursery rhymes which this generation is supplying to its children would alone serve to keep those rhymes alive. But as we pictorially improve let us not textually deform them. In the late Mr. Caldecott's 'Sing a Song for Sixpence' the very title contains an alteration quite new to my friends and myself. We always sang a song "of" sixpence. This is not all. The artist's ingenious interpretation shows an old woodcutter with one of his great-coat pockets full of rye. We always sang of a "poke." But even if it were a pocket, it would not necessarily be the pocket of a coat. Witness a pocket of hops. W. C. B. WHITSTER. No doubt this good English word for washerwoman survives somewhere in the provinces, but it was not till lately that I came across it in official use. Among the salaries of Chelsea Royal Hospital appears 70l. per annum for the Whitster. It is the exact equivalent of blanchisseuse, the woman who makes white; for, as PROF. SKEAT points out in his 'Dictionary' (s.v. "Spinster"), "the A.-S. suffix -estre was used to denote the agent, and was conventionally confined to the feminine gender only, a restriction which was gradually lost sight of." This suffix (irrespective of gender) is now more common in Lowland Scots than in English, e.g., baxter=baker, wabster= weaver, &c. Anyhow, whitster is a good and useful word, by many degrees perferable ble to the polysyllabic "washerwoman." HERBERT MAXWELL. CAFÉ PROCOPE. It may be worth while to record in 'N. & Q.' the closing of this famous café, situated in the Rue de l'Ancienne Comédie of Old Paris, and once patronized by Rousseau, Voltaire, and many others of note, on the closed shutters of which was to be seen recently the notice, "Matériel à Vendre"! T. F. F. THE BURIAL-PLACE OF SIR THOMAS MORE'S BODY. Sir Thomas More's head we all know about. But the devout pilgrims who worshipped lately at St. Peter ad Vincula were paying their tribute to an empty sepulchre; and I do not think a trip up to Chelsea (a much more likely place) would have been more accurately historically comforting. The fact is, I believe, no one knows where the headless body of the now beatified chancellor was interred. H. PUGH. DAB.-In Barrère and Leland's 'Dictionary of Slang,' the only citation for dab, in the sense of an expert, is from an undated number of Punch, which appears to belong to some year in the forties, from its mention of Sir Peter Laurie (misspelt Lawrie). The word is, however, of much earlier date, as in a letter from Lord Chesterfield to Lady Suffolk, Aug. 17, 1733, that nobleman speaks of certain persons as being "known dabs at finding out mysteries" ("Suffolk Correspondence,' 1824, ii. 64). The derivation of dab from the verb to dab, or to touch with a light and skilful hand, is probably correct. There is another signification of dab which is not given by Barrère and Leland. Horace Walpole, in asking Mann to negotiate for the purchase of four small rings, says "It will be a gentilezza to sell me these four dabs." In this place the word probably means a thing of trifling value. Mr. Farmer, in his most valuable work, 'Slang and its Analogues,' does not give an earlier date for the phrase "like anything" than 1840. Lady Mohun, in a letter to Mrs. Howard, which is ascribed by Mr. Croker to the year 1716, asks her to tell "dear Molly I like her like anything" ('Suffolk Cor.,' i. 8). An extensive storehouse of slang and strange proverbial expressions is a little book called 'A Collection of Welsh Travels, London, 1738, which contains a frontispiece of Dean Swift setting out on his journey to Wales. I venture to invite Mr. Farmer's attention to this "pleasant relation." W. F. PRIDEAUX. Jaipur, Rajputana. "AFORE T' FRIEND." - In the Rev. S. BaringGould's 'Yorkshire Oddities' a certain woman is said to be living "afore t' friend." This phrase, I am informed by the author, means "shifting for herself." I have looked into several glossaries without discovering it. The phrase is a very striking one, but the precise symbolism is not easy to follow. WILLIAM E. A. AXON. Queries. We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interest, to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct. UNIVERSITY CENTENARY MEDALS.-When, in 1884, the University of Edinburgh celebrated its tercentenary, a medal was struck in honour of the event. The obverse shows a shield bearing the university arms (Argent, on a saltire azure, between a thistle in chief proper and a castle in base sable, a book expanded or) within a quatrefoil, ornamented with thistles, and enclosed in a double circle, bearing the inscription "Universitas Academica Edinburgensis." On the reverse, within a raised circular border of thistles, is the legend "Universitas Academica Edinburgensis annvm trecentesimvm feliciter exactvm celebrat A.D. MDCCCLXXXIV." Diameter, two and a quarter inches. A larger and more artistic medal serves to recall the quincentenary of Heidelberg in 1886. On the obverse the inscription "Fridericvs D. G. Badarvm M. Dvx Rector Heid. Perp." surrounds the head of the reigning Grand Duke, finely executed in bold relief. On the reverse a female figure upholds two medallions, the dexter with the head of the founder of the university, the Elector Rupert I., the sinister with that of its reorganizer, the first Grand Duke, Charles Frederick. Behind, in faint outline, appears the castle of Heidelberg. Below |