KNOWLEDGE is truly pabulum animæ, and books the best caterers for that entertainment.-Tho. Forde. POPE'S CHARACTER OF ATOSSA. POPE'S Epistle, addressed to Mrs. Martha Blount, "Of the Characters of Women," written in rivalry of Young's lighter and more sportive Characters in his most unjustly neglected poem of the "Universal Passion ;" and which Bolingbroke considered was Pope's masterpiece; was first printed in 1735, in folio; and reprinted, in the same year, in the second volume of the collected edition of his works, in quarto; the first having been published in 1717. The number of lines is 196: and no variation occurs in these editions beyond one or two verbal alterations. In those of 1735, the very prominent characters of Philomedé, Atossa, and Cloe, form no part. The lines which characterise Atossa are said to have been read to the Duchess of Marlborough, as designed for a portrait of the Duchess of Buckingham; but she soon stopped the person who was reading them; and on the authority of the Duchess of Portland, is further said to have loudly avowed-"I cannot be so imposed upon I see plainly enough for whom they are designed." All the currently related intimations of her having bribed the poet in order to his suppressing these lines, had possibly no real fact upon which that assertion was based; the person satirized, and the satirist, both died in one year, in 1744, and the enlarged Epistle as it now appears, was first published from the author's manuscript in 1746, in folio. The additions by Pope extend the poem from 196 to 292 lines, and time has since defined the poet's delineations of character impersonated with a firm and unflinching pen. That of Philomedé, commencing at line 69— See Sin in state, majestically drunk ; is unequivocally allusive to Henrietta, usually called the young Duchess of Marlborough; Atossa was her mother, Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough; and Cloe, the Countess of Suffolk. For further notices, the reader is referred to Roscoe's variorum edition of Pope's works, 1824, vol. V. PP. 285-313. S. MODERN ILLUMINATORS.— -The whole Academy at Vienna, are employed in illustrating a Missal, intended to be presented to the Empress. LETTERS from Weimar announce the death of Dr. Eckermann, the well-known friend and amanuensis of Goëthe. His last years were saddened by bad health and social isolation. SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY. We are enabled to state, on good authority, that the affairs of this Society will be publicly wound up at the usual Anniversary Meeting, the 27th of April next, when the Audited Accounts will be laid before the Members, and the final Report of the Council read. are from the elegant stanzas, "To Lucasta, on going to the wars," addressed by Colonel Richard Lovelace to Lucy Sacheverel, the lady of his affections; and printed with other of his poems, in a volume, entitled Lucasta ; Odes, Sonnets, Songs, etc. 1649. Sir Walter Scott has adopted the last verse as the motto prefixed to the twenty-fifth chapter of “the Talisman," and is erroneously quoted by him as from Montrose's lines. Bristol. J. K. R. W. ANOTHER Correspondent, who also refers to Lovelace's Lucasta, adds— Do any of your Correspondents know where are to be found Words are things, and a small drop of ink, THE lines misquoted by your correspondent, J. W., are by the cavalier-poet Colonel Richard Lovelace, and are really thus, The poems of Colonel Lovelace, who died in 1658, were printed in two volumes, one in 1649; the other, after his decease, in 1659. In my copy of the last is an autograph inscription, "Ursula D'Oyley, her book," whom I suppose to have been one of the D'Oyley's of Greenland, in Buckinghamshire, a family, who in the King's interest defended their house in the Civil War. If any of your readers can give me any information relating either to them, or to her, I shall be much obliged. Birmingham, Jan. 27. TOMB OF JULIET AT VERONA. J. H. S. VERONA, the birth-place of Pliny and Catullus, has deadly animosities of the Houses of Montagu and the been no less celebrated in an age not so remote for the Capulet, made interesting to us by the incident of Romeo and Juliet. Girolamo della Corte, in his History of Verona, relates the story as an historical event, and Bandello, who derived it from Luigi da Porto, places the occurrence in the time of Bartolommeo Scaligeri. Few tales have ever found so many different versions as that of Romeo and Juliet, a proof of the interest it was calculated to excite. It has been traced to a Greek romance, and there are two versions by old French writers, by whom the scene has been placed in France. In Italy, it is first discovered in Massuccio, from whom, as supposed by some persons, Shakespeare derived it, while others imagine him to have taken it from the old drama by Luigi da Groti; and again subsequently written by Luigi da Porto, whose version of the catastrophe differs from that of Massuccio. Luigi da Porto makes Juliet awake from her death-like slumber after Romeo has swallowed the poison, which affords occasion for a scene of great pathos. The natural joy of her finding him near her when she awakes, and his transport at her restoration to life indulged in for a few brief moments, render the horror of the discovery of his having taken poison the more heart-rending. Shakespeare adopted Massuccio's relation, and made Juliet awaken after Romeo had expired; the scene as now represented, being it is presumed Colley Cibber's arrangement. Many dramas have been founded on this tale, two in the Spanish language, by Lope de Vega and by Fernando Roxas, change wholly the names and the catastrophe, as in them the lovers are happily united. Margaret, Countess of Blessington, in her "Idler in Italy," describing her visit to Verona, exclaims-" Verona! the very name is instinct with associations dear to every English heart, and the place seems like a second home, so blended is it with recollections awakened in early youth, by the enchanter, whose magic wand has rendered parts of Italy, never visited before, as familiar to us as household words. "Who has ever forgotten the first perusal of Romeo and Juliet, when the heart echoed the impassioned vows of the lovers, and deeply sympathised with their sorrows? Though furrows of care and age may have marked the brow, and the bright hopes and illusions of life have long faded, the heart will still heave a sigh to the memory of those days, when it could melt with pity at a tale of love; and grief for the loss of our departed youth becomes blended with the pensiveness awakened by the associations of what so greatly moved and interested us in that joyous season of existence. "Few places have undergone less change than Verona, and this circumstance adds to the interest it excites. It is difficult, if not impossible, at least while in Verona, to believe that the story of these lovers is, after all, but a legend, claimed by many countries. I confess it appears to me, to be more true than many of the facts recorded by grave and reverend' historians, as connected with cities and buildings which still retain proofs of their authenticity. It is the genius of Shakespeare that has accomplished this, and every English heart will own it. I feel much less interest about seeing the farfamed amphitheatre here, than the tomb of Juliet, a confession calculated to draw on me the contemptuous pity of every antiquary in Italy. 66 My first visit was to the vineyard in which is the sarcophagus said to have been that of Juliet, the fair and gentle maid immortalised by our own Shakespeare, and to whose memory every English heart turns with an interest, with which he alone could have invested it. The vineyard is near the Franciscan convent, and is "This coffin, if such it may be called, is composed of a coarse red stone, greatly injured by time,f and resembles much more one of those large stone vessels used for feeding pigs in farmyards, than a sarcophagus. It is large enough to have contained two bodies, provided, as the cicerone gravely observed, they were not very large. I confess that my enthusiasm was very much cooled by the view of this tomb; for I could not bring myself to believe that it really was the last resting-place of the maiden whose story enabled Shakespeare to give to the world a creation so full of beauty, that cold indeed must be the mind which feels not its truth, and sympathises not with the sorrows of the gentle lovers. "The doubt of the sarcophagus having really been that of Juliet, consoled me for the base uses' to which it had been applied; for, hear it all ye who have wept over her fate as represented by our glorious bard! it bears irrefragable proofs of having served as a receptacle for washing vegetables, many fragments of which floated in the impure water at the bottom of it. "The least doubt of this coffin having been Juliet's greatly excites the choler of its proprietor; who, believing that the exercise of English generosity depends on its authenticity, and actuated by a fear of the diminution of his receipts, should discredit be attached to it, zealously proclaims it. I felt proud when I reflected that never would the names of the lovers be mentioned without a reference to England's greatest poet, who in * Juliet was buried in the subterrain of Ferma Maggiore, a monastery founded in 1230, and which belonged to an order of Franciscan friars. Some years since, the monastery was destroyed by fire, when the vaults and the burying place were reduced to ruins. At this time, the stone sarcophagus, the reputed sepulchre of Juliet, was moved from its original deposit, and placed in the entrance gateway of the monastery, in which situation Duppa saw it in 1822. When placed there, it was whole, and the upper edge entire; but the votaries of Shakespeare had even then caused the mutilation shewn in the woodcut, and carried off the of its being placed in the grounds of the ruined convent. fragments as relics. Since that period, the Countess speaks The injuries by time are nothing compared to the mischief perpetrated by sacrilegious hands which carry off pieces as sacred relics. The hole in the side, as shewn in the woodcut, was doubtless made to let out the impure water. immortalising them, has made his own fame, and that of his country still more widely extended. Happy is he whose name is blended with that of his land, and who in distant ones has made both beloved! How many thousands have visited the supposed sarcophagus of Juliet from having seen or read Shakespeare's tragedy, who would never have thought of her, if the story had not been related by him." WHO WILL BELL THE CAT? JAMES the Sixth, upon the death of the Regent, Earl of Marr, October 29th, 1572, was, with the Earl's children, committed to the care of the Earl's brother, Sir Alexander Erskine of Gogar; to George Buchanan, Adam and David Erskine, and Peter Young, under the direction and government of the old Countess of Marr, whose loyalty and devotion to the Royal family of Stuart had induced her to suckle the young king, and afterwards to be his nurse and attendant, under the commission of the regent and parliament of Scotland. son. One day, the young king had for his theme from Buchanan the history of the conspiracy against James the Third, at Lauder, in which Archibald, Earl of Angus, obtained the name of "Bell the Cat," from his telling them the fable of some rats having combined against a cat, which they proposed to seize and tie a bell about his neck, to warn them of their danger; but as they were about to put their project in execution, one of the old rats asked which of them would be the first to seize the cat? This witty question created a profound silence, when Angus exclaimed, "I'll bell the cat! After dinner the young king began romping and trifling with the Master of Erskine, the Earl of Marr's eldest Buchanan ordered the king to be silent, and not to interrupt Erskine in his reading; to which command James paying no heed, Buchanan said that if he did not hold his peace he would whip his breech. "Will you do so?" said the kingling, "I would fain see who will bell the cat?" Up started Buchanan, and putting aside his book, with a sound drubbing sternly performed his promise. The old Countess, being in her apartment immediately adjoining, ran up to the boy-king, and taking him up in her arms, asked him the cause of his crying? which the bawling sovereign explained in the best way he could. Resenting this castigation of royalty as an insult to the dignity of her charge, she boldly asked Buchanan how he dared to lay his hand on the Lord's anointed? To this Buchanan gravely replied, "Madam, I have whipped the King for disobedience and rudeness in the usual way; you may heal it with a kiss if you please." The Master of Erskine, upon another occasion having a tame sparrow, James resolved to take it from him. Erskine resisted, and in the struggle the king killed the sparrow. Buchanan, for his tyranny and cruelty, gave his royal pupil a box on the ear; yet the tutor is charged with having instilled into the king's mind absurd notions. M. S. M. Whereas, the Kings most royall Maiestie at his graces great costes and expenses hathe a longe tyme susteynyd and well for conseruation and deffence of his seid lond as for yet kepith a great armye in his londe of Irelond, as the annoyance of suche his highness enymyes as attempt dayle great dyspleasures agenst his subiectes of the same; and for the mayntenaunce and relyf of the said armye and subiectes by his most excellent wysdome hathe ordenyd a coyne of money, as well of grottes as peñs of twopenc' to be currant only within his seid lond of Irelond, beryng the prynte of the harpe on the oon syde thereof, whiche coyne dyuers and sondre persons haue lately transported and brought of the seid lond, and uttrid the same within this hurte of his seyd graces lond of Irelond, and of the seid his realme of Englond, not only to the great detryment and armye and subiectes of the same, but also to the great deceyt of his heignes louing subiectes of this his realme of Englond. For remedye whereof his maiesty by this his proclamacion stretly chargith and comaundyth that no persone or persons of what estate, degre or condycion so euer he or she be of, shall from hensforth transporte or brynge out of his seid heighnes lond of Irelond, eny of the seid coyne of grottes or peñs of twopens' ordeynyd to be currant for and within the seid lond, nor utter or paye for eny payment within this realme of Englond, Wales, Barwyke, Calice or the Marches of the same, any of the seid coyne, vppon peyne of fforfeture of the treble value of the seid coyne brought, transported, or uttrid for payment contrary to this proclamacion, and on that to suffer ymprysonment and make fyne at his graces wyll and pleasure. This proclamation is of some importance to Irish Numismatists, and refers to the groats and half groats, having in field on the reverse the initials H. K., the harp dividing them. The King's marriage with Catherine Howard took place on August 8, 1540, when the weight and quality of the coinage that immediately followed that event in no way rendered them of equal value with the groats and half The Irish groat is figured in Simon's plate V. numb. 107; and the half-groat, groats then current in England. in Holmes's additional plate, appended to the edition, 1810, numb. 18. This, with others of Holmes's coins there engraved, passed into the Henderson collection, and were dispersed at his sale in June 1818. Simon appears to have had but a slight knowledge of this proclamation, as he refers the proposed penalties to the year 1541, when his highness had assumed the sovereignty as King of Ireland ;* and the coinage with the regal titles was wholly different. Essay on Irish Coins, 1749, 4to., p. 34. The editors of the edition, 1810, 4to., have not corrected this appropriation; and Mr. Lindsay, Coinage of Ireland, 1839, p. 50, simply refers to Simon. No. LI.] WILLIS'S CURRENT NOTES. "Takes note of what is done- COVENT GARDEN IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. THE appellation is said to be derived from the land having been formerly part of the possessions of the Convent Garadon, in Leicestershire. Upon the dissolution of religious houses in England, this land fell to the crown, and King Edward the Sixth granted it to his uncle, Edward Seymour, Lord Protector, created Duke of Somerset in 1547, but who being attainted and beheaded in 1552, all his honours and lands were forfeited. In May 1552, John Russell, Earl of Bedford, then Lord Privy Seal, obtained a grant to hold by socage the said pasture land lying in the Parish of St. Martin's in the Fields, next Charing Cross, with seven acres called the long acres, now known as the street called Long Acre, parcel of the possessions of the late Duke of Somerset, of the yearly value of 61. 6s. 8d. The Earl at this time resided in Bedford House, in the Strand, which had been the town mansion of the bishops of Carlisle, and was situated upon the site of the present Beaufort Buildings; but on acquiring this grant, erected a large wooden building upon this land, named Bedford House, with an extensive fore court for carriages, towards the Strand, and a large garden behind, the whole enclosed by a wall. The former house was then abandoned to the Cecil family. The Earl died in 1554. Beyond the boundary of the garden of Bedford House, the land continued to be but a common field,† with some irregularly situated tenements and stables, when Francis Russell, the fourth Earl, in 1631, if not before, determined on laying out the site for building streets with houses of some importance, Inigo Jones was instructed to devise the lines, and that now named Henrietta Street was the first so laid out, the front of the houses on the south side being parallel with the * Howel describing the south side of the Strand, observes: "Then is there Bedford House, which was sometimes the bishop of Carlisle's Inne. It stretched from the Savoy to Ivie-bridge, where Sir Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, raised a large and stately house of brick and timber." Londinopolis, 1657, p. 349. Ivie-bridge remains as the way from the Strand to the Fox under the Hill, on the river side, at which place many boat loads of fruit are landed, and conveyed thence by sturdy porters to Covent Garden market. + In 1627, when Edward, the third Earl of Bedford died, the poor rate books of St. Martin's parish, under the head of Covent Garden, noticed but two persons who were so assessed. Francis, the fourth Earl, was in 1630 the principal undertaker in that great work, the drainage of the fens known as the Great Level, and since named the Bedford Level. VOL. V. [MARCH, 1855. garden wall of Bedford House. A plot of ground 180 feet long by 33 feet wide, lying on the south side of a parcel of ground then set forth for a new churchyard, constituting apparently the houses on the north side of the same street, was leased to Edward Palmer, Citizen and Girdler, who after having erected nine houses on the site, died; and a new lease, dated March 10, 1631-2, was granted by the Earl to Edward Palmer, of the parish of St. Andrew's, Holborn, Gent., son of Edward Palmer, citizen and girdler, lately deceased; and to two others named in the said lease, to hold the same for thirty-four years from the above date, paying quarterly, the yearly rent of 177. Os. 6d, "at, or in the dining hall of the Earl, commonly called Bedford House in the Strand, in the parish of St. Martin's in the Fields." Between the plot now occupied by the church, and immediately behind the house now number 2, in King Street, Le Soeur, in 1633, cast the bronze statue of King Charles the First. It was intended to decorate the centre of the piazza or square, in front of the church,* but that edifice not being finished or consecrated till late in 1638, the statue was, possibly from some political cause, not set up, and it remained there till 1676, when it was placed at Charing Cross, upon a pedestal, carved by Grinling Gibbon, then a parishioner. Francis, Earl of Bedford, of whom there is a portrait by Vandyck, died in 1641. William, the fifth Earl, obtained in January, 1645-6, a parliamentary ordinance for the constituting the parish of St. Paul, Covent Garden, divided from that of St. Martin's in the Fields. The church was thereby parochial, and Hollar in that year engraved his view of the piazza of Covent Garden, the square being defined by wooden railing, and the church of St. Paul shewn in the distance. As the streets became tenanted, a market for the daily sale of fruit, flowers, roots and herbs, was The The church was designed by Inigo Jones, but Nicholas Stone, Master Mason of the King's Works, superintended the building. D and advantages whatsoever, to Adam Pigott and James Allen, Citizens and Cutlers of London, with liberty to dig cellars and build shops along the front of the garden wall of Bedford House, for twenty-one years, from Christmas in that year, they paying the said Earl eighty pounds per annum, "at, or in the hall of the mansion house of the said Earle, situate in the parish of St. Paul, Covent Garden, aforesaid." Whatever rights were conceded by this lease to James Allen, devolved lawfully to Thomas Day, of the parish of St. Clements' Danes, Tallow Chandler, who on Pigott's surrendering at Midsummer, 1678, the previous lease, became with him conjointly the lessees of the market, for twenty-six years, from that time forward, they having to the Earl's satisfaction erected the shops with slated and leaded roofs, and balustrades upon the top, of a uniform design, the whole being one foot below the ranging line of the garden wall, and covenanting to maintain the same unimpaired during the term of that lease. The regulations for holding the market daily, the restraining it, if possible, to the south side, and without the rails, so as not to obtrude upon the enclosed square, are all minutely detailed. The lease had two special clauses of forfeiture; one was the use of any chimneys or tunnels by any of the shops placed along the front of the garden wall, or before the banquetting houses in the said garden; the other was, allowing twenty-one days to pass before payment of the quarterly portion of the yearly rent of eighty pounds, the same being due on the first day of each third month. This lease dated July 6, 1678, fully established Covent Garden Market, and was signed by the Earl,* whose signature is here given in facsimile. 1. Bedford: The poor rate books of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, for 1679, shew the first assessment of the salesmen; there were then but twenty in all, severally rated at two shillings, and one shilling. In Bernard Lens' print of the Rejoicings in Covent As an historical autograph, it possesses much interest, but is not known to be extant in any modern collection. The Earl was well known to hold the same political principles for which his son Lord William Russell, had perished on the scaffold; they were those principles which led to the placing William of Orange on the throne of these realms, yet James in his last extremity appealed to him for assistance to avert that event, and the Earl's memorable reply in reference to his son, is matter of history. The original indenture is in the Editor's possession, and at the Bedford Office they state they have no records of this period. 66 Garden, upon the return of King William the Third from Ireland, September 10, 1690, the garden wall of Bedford House is shewn, as also the domed summer houses in the garden, designated in the lease as banquetting houses," but no indication of the shops in front; possibly these shops were found an annoyance to the Bedford family, and consequently were at this time removed and the stands conducted under some other regulation.* The lease for twenty-six years terminated at Midsummer, 1704, when Bedford House being untenanted, by reason that Wriothesley, the Duke of Bedford, resided at Streatham, in Surrey-he having married in 1694, Elizabeth, the daughter of John Howland of that place, the then richest heiress in England-it was demolished, and the site with the garden ground laid out for building. The new street from the Strand was named Southampton Street, in compliment to the Duke's mother, Lady Rachel Russell, daughter and heiress of Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton; and widow of Lord William Russell, executed in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1683; and Tavistock Street was so named in honour of his grandfather, the first Duke of Bedford, who had also the title of Marquis of Tavistock. THE LATE J. M. W. TURNER, R.A. IN Current Notes for Jan. 1852, there are some interesting particulars respecting the late J. M. W. Turner. I take the liberty of writing to you in the hope that at some leisure moment the writer might be disposed to set down on paper any further particulars which he remembers about him; and to beg that I might be favoured by the perusal of any such notes. original sketch, if still existing, from which the woodMight I also ask for the privilege of a glance at the cut in the Current Notes was executed. I know that in transference to wood many points of character are likely to be lost. Denmark Hill, Camberwell. J. RUSKIN. * In Richard Blome's collections for the booksellers' enlarged edition of Stow's Survey, progressing at this period, of Covent Garden it is said, "the south side lieth open to Bedford Garden, where there is a small grotto of trees, most pleasant in the summer time, and on this side is kept a market for fruits, herbs, roots and flowers, every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, which being well served with choice goods, makes it much resorted to, and is grown to considerable account." |