Notes and Queries, Number 30, May 25, 1850 — John Shaqi
Notes and Queries, Number 30, May 25, 1850Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 30, May 25, 1850
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
"There are three copies of verses on that model; two of which,
viz., one of four stanzas and another of size, were printed by
Byrd in 1588. They have been reprinted from his text in _Cens.
Lit_ ii. 108-110, and _Exc. Tudor_, i. 100-103. Percy inserted
them in the _Reliques_ with some alterations and additions; but
he changed his mind more than once as to whether they were two
distinct poems, or only the discovered parts of one (see i.
292-294. 303., ed. 1767; and i. 307-310. ed. 1839). The third
(containing four stanzas) is among Sylvester's _Posthumous
Poems_ p. 651.; and Ellis reprinted it under his name. In _Cens.
Lit._ ii. 102., another copy of it is given from a music book by
Gibbons, 1612. Now the longest, and apparently the earliest of
these poems is signed 'E. DIER,' in MS. Rawl. Poet. 35., fol.
17. That copy contains _eight_ stanzas, and one of the two which
are not in Byrd corresponds with a stanza which Percy added. The
following are the reasons which incline us to trust this
MS.:--(1.) Because it is the very MS. to which reference is
commonly made for several of Dyer's unprinted poems, as by Dr.
Bliss, _A.O._ i. 743.; and apparently by Mr. Dyce, ed. of
Greene, i. p. xxxv. n.; and by Park, note on Warton, iii. 230.
Park is the only person I can recollect who has mentioned this
particular poem in the MS., and he cannot have read more than
the first line, for he only says, 'one of them bears the popular
burden of "My mind to me a kingdom is."' (2.) Because it is
quite impossible that Dyer wrote many extant poems, of which he
is not known to be the author; for, as Mr. Dyce says, none of
his (_acknowledged_) productions 'have descended to our times
that seem to justify the contemporary applause which he
received.' (3.) Because I cannot discover that there is any
other claimant to this poem. One of Greene's poems ends with the
line,
'A mind content both crown and kingdom is.'"
(_Works_, ii. 288., ed. Dyce.)
It will be observed that no mention is here made of the copy in Breton's
tract; therefore this summary gains from both the correspondents of
"NOTES AND QUERIES"--an addition from the one, a corroboration from the
other.
R.A.
_Gesta Grayorum_ (No. 22. p. 351.).--"J.S." is informed that copies of
the _Gesta Grayorum_ are by no means uncommon. It was originally printed
{490} for _one shilling_; but the bibliomaniac must now pay from
_twenty_ to _thirty shillings_ for a copy. The original, printed in
1688, does not contain the second part, which was published by Mr.
Nichols for the first time. Copies are in the Bodleian, and in the
University Library, Cambridge.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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