I have long been convinced that the _Passionate Pilgrim_ was published surreptitiously; and although it bears Shakspeare's name, the sonnets and ballads of which it is composed were several of them taken from his dramas, and added to by selections from the poems of his cotemporaries, Raleigh, Marlow, and others; that it was a bookseller's job, made up for sale by the publisher, W. Jaggard. No one can believe that Shakspeare would have been guilty of such a gross plagiarism. Griffin's _Fidessa_ bears date 1596: the first known edition of the _Passionate Pilgrim_ was printed for W. Jaggard, 1599. It has no dedication to any patron, similar to Shakspeare's other poems, the _Venus and Adonis_, the _Rape of Lucrece_, and the _Sonnets_; and why it bears the title of the _Passionate Pilgrim_ no one has ascertained. But I am losing sight of the object I had in view when I took up my pen, which was, through the medium of "N. & Q.," to request any of its readers to furnish me with any particulars of B. Griffin, the author of _Fidessa_. Mr. Singer supposes him to have been of a Worcestershire family; as he addresses his "poore pamphlet" for patronage to the gentlemen of the Innes of Court, he might probably have been bred to the law. Perhaps your correspondents CUTHBERT BEDE, or MR. NOAKE, the Worcestershire rambler, might in their researches into vestry registers and parish documents, find some notice of the family. I am informed there was a gentleman of the name resident in our college precincts early in the present century, that he was learned and respected, but very eccentric. J. M. G. Worcester. [Footnote 1: The early copies read "Venus, with Adonis sitting by her;" the defective word was added at Dr. Farmer's suggestion. Had he seen a copy of _Fidessa_, the true reading might perhaps have been restored. (Note by Mr. Singer.)] * * * * * CAPS AT CAMBRIDGE. At the congregation in the Senate House at Cambridge, Nov. 23, presided over by the Prince Chancellor, it was observed that the undergraduates in the galleries (for want I suppose of an obnoxious Vice-Chancellor or Proctor upon whom to vent their indignation) poured it forth in yells and groans upon those members of the senate who kept on their hats or caps. The same has been done on several former occasions. It probably {28} arises from a mistake, in ascribing to the _gaucherie_ of individuals what is really the observance of a very ancient custom. The following extract, from an unpublished MS. of the middle (I think) of the seventeenth century, in which the custom is incidentally noticed, will serve for a confirmation of what I say: