LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 12, 1913.

CONTENTS.-No. 185.

NOTES:-The Arabian Nights Entertainments,' 21-The Forged 'Speeches and Prayers' of the Regicides, 22-St. Mary's, Amersham, Churchyard Inscriptions, 23-A Daily Telegraph' Jubilee: Mr. J. M. Le Sage-An Ambiguous Possessive Case, 25-Fruit Trees, 1753-Goldsmith's 'Deserted Village,' 26-"Castalia interdictus aqua, interdictus et igne Pierio"-"Satire": its Pronunciation-Cathedral Bell Stolen-Peter Pett-"Paraboues," 27. QUERIES:-Du Thisac of Lorraine-Ancestry WantedRear Admirals Durell and Charles Holmes "Sarcistectis"-Jeremy Bentham-Curious Bibliographical Item -Black Hole of Calcutta, 28-The Mask,' a Humorous Review-Autograph Letters of Charles I.-" Dubbing": "Iling" - Burns's Maternal Great Grandfather Sir Francis Galton in the Sudan-Ellis Walker, Translator of Epictetus-Bell Family, 29-The Wednesday Club Hebrew or Arabic Proverb-J. de Fleury-The Miller of Huntingdon "The Faithful Durhams" - Dr. Garret Power-Percy Society, 30.

REPLIES:-The "Peccavi" Pun, 30- The Pay of, a Cardinal, 31-Doronderry, Cornwall-"Raising Feast "Ashford Family, 32-Unicorn's Horn-Colleges: Matriculation and Graduation - Ewing of Ireland The Alchemist's Ape, 33-Pictures of the Deity in ChurchesCardinal Newman's Epitaph-"He" in Game of "Touch"

Quo vadis?"-"To banyan," 34-Blake and his Friend Butts "Attainting royal blood"-St. Katherine'sby-the-Tower, 35-Washington's Connexion with SelbyCobbett Bibliography-'The Reader' and Dr. Johnson's Dictionary, 36- Authors Wanted Wilderness Row Matthew Arnold's Poems-'Stamford Mercury': Earliest Provincial Newspaper, 37-"The Star," Broad Green, Croydon-Chilston-Coaching Clubs, 38.

NOTES ON BOOKS: - 'Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry III.'-"Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature 'The Imprint.'

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

Notes.

Thousand and One Nights' in Paris to transfer to London those immortal tales. Fifty-eight years ago the name of this benefactor was asked for in these columns (1 S. xii. 148), and the question remains unanswered yet. It was probably that of some hack who was unknown beyond the limits of Grub Street, but what a hack! A hack who knew the secret of that antiseptic quality which enables dead-and-gone stories to "smell sweet, and blossom in the dust" centuries after their authors have been forgotten. The language adopted by the translator is as nervous and limpid as that of Swift or Defoe, and there is not a reader who would consent to give up one of its quaint archaisms. The querist to whom I have referred indicated "the excellent English version, that of our schoolboy days," and the Editor, with somewhat unusual density (with bated breath be it spoken), replied that his correspondent should have given the date of the edition perused by him in his schoolboy days. There is, or was, for I have no knowledge of the youthful tastes of the present day, but one version of The Arabian Nights' known to the schoolboy world, and that was the one from which the poet drew his inspiration when on Many a sheeny summermorn, Adown the Tigris I was borne, By Bagdat's shrines of fretted gold, High-walled gardens green and old ; True Mussulman was I and sworn, For it was in the golden prime Of good Haroun Alraschid.

The bibliography of the first English translation of The Arabian Nights' is rather obscure. According to Brunet ('Manuel du Libraire,' ed. 1862, tome iii. col. 1716), Galland's translation of 'The

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MENTS.'

THE world knows nothing of its greatest men," and still less, if that were possible, does it know of those who have contributed most to its youthful pleasure and enjoyment. What does it really know of Robert Samber, who was the first to introduce Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood to an English audience? The translator of Madame d'Aulnoy's fairy tales, The Fair One with the Golden Locks,' The Yellow Dwarf,' and many others that delighted six generations of childhood, and formed the stock-intrade of Planché and the extravaganza writers of old Lyceum days, is nameless. But he is no worse off than the writer who seized the opportunity presented by the publication of Galland's translation of 'The

Paris in twelve duodecimo volumes between the years 1704 and 1717. But the English translator did not wait for the completion of the work before he entered on his task. The earliest mention of the translation that I have been able to discover is contained in an advertisement of Books newly Publish'd,' which is printed on the last page of the first edition of The Diverting Works of the Countess d'Anois,' printed in 1707 for several publishers, among whom was Andrew Bell at the Cross Keys and Bible in Cornhill. The advertisement simply runs : Arabian Nights Entertainments. Six Parts in 3 Vol. in Twelves. Price 3s. a Volume." I cannot find a reference to this issue, which was probably the first, in the late Mr. Arber's

Term Catalogues,' but in the third volume of that work, at p. 592, Easter and Trin.,

1708, is a transcript of the lengthy title of a succeeding volume as under :

Arabian Nights Entertainments: Consisting of 1,001 Stories, told by the Sultaness of the Indies, to divert the Sultan from the Execution of a bloody Vow he had made, to Marry a Lady every Day, and have her cut off next Morning; to avenge himself for the Disloyalty of his first Sultaness, &c. Containing a better Account of the Customs, Manners, and Religion, of the Eastern Nations, viz., Persians and Indians, than is to be met with by any Author hitherto published. Translated into French from the Arabian MSS., by Monsieur Galland, of the Royal Academy; and now done into English. Vol. VII. Twelves. Printed for A. Bell at the Cross Keys and Bible in Cornhill. Where may be had the other Six Volumes."

I do not know if a copy of this first edition is extant, but Mr. Arundell Esdaile, in his valuable List of English Tales and Prose Romances printed before 1740,' which has recently been issued by the Bibliographical Society, notes the following editions being in the British Museum (p. 149)::

as

"The Second Edition. For A. Bell. 1712.

12mo. 6 or 8 vols.? (B.M. 12410 bbb. 32. Vols. 3, 4)."

"The Fourth Edition [sic]. For A. Bell. 1713. 12mo. 6 or 8 vols.? (B.M. 12410 bbb. 32. Vols. 1, 2)."

"The Third Edition [sic]. For A. Bell. 1715. 12mo. 6 or 8 vols.? (B.M. 12410 bbb. 32. Vols. 5, 6)."

I have in my own collection a copy of the work, which is called "The Fifth Edition on the title-page, and is dated 1718. The title is an exact replica of that which I have copied from the 'Term Catalogues,' but the work is complete in two volumes, and it ends with The Story of the Three Callenders, Sons of Kings, and of the Five Ladies of Bagdad.' The subsequent volumes, containing the remainder of the tales, were also probably published in pairs.

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Lowndes mentions an edition in six volumes which was published in 1724 (Bindley, pt. i. 10, 18s. 6d.), and vindicates the taste and virtue of his own day by remarking that this old translation is not only incorrect, but coarse and vulgar in its diction." Mr. Esdaile notes that parts ix.xii. in 2 vols. were advertised, as completing the work, by D. Browne, jun., and S. Chapman, in The Memoirs of the Baron de Brosse,' 1725. Parts 5 and 6," "never before in English." are advertised by Browne in Fénelon's Fables,' 1723."

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Since that date 'The Arabian Nights,' in its original form as presented to English readers, has been reprinted in hundreds of editions. That which was the unfailing friend and companion of my own boyhood

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was printed in 1843 by C. Whittingham of Chiswick in three tiny tomes for the adventurous Thomas Tegg of Cheapside. After nearly seventy years and many wanderings in the lands of its " begettings," it is still within easy reach of my hand, and notwithstanding its coarseness and vulgarity," I still prefer its "diction" to polished and erudite phrasing of Lane, Burton, Payne, and the other scholars of more recent times whose versions do such distinguished credit to the Oriental learning and literary attainments of our countrymen. W. F. PRIDEAUX,

the more

THE FORGED SPEECHES AND

PRAYERS' OF THE REGICIDES.

(See 11 S. vii. 301, 341, 383, 442, 502.) VI.-THE EVIDENCE ABOUT JOHN COOKE.

COOKE's case is a crucial test of the truth of the Speeches and Prayers.' The pamphlet devotes immensely lengthy passages to Cooke. Long treatises in favour of Republicanism in the form of letters asserted to have been written by him are set out. But whoever reads the scurrilous and semiilliterate pamphlets published by Cooke in 1648 and 1649 cannot fail to notice that the letters in the Speeches and Prayers' were, both in thought and language, written by a more highly educated man than Cooke. Apart from this, the question is whether Cooke died penitent and praying for the King. According to the Speeches and Prayers,' he certainly did not, but gloried in his crime even more than Harrison. against this there are the following witnesses :

6

As

whose tryal you heard at large in our last, was Tuesday Octob. 16. This day John Cooke,. executed at Charing Cross. He carried himself at his execution (as well as at his tryal) much. better than could be expected from one that acted such a part in that horrid arraignment of our late soveraign; for, not to wrong him, he express'd exceeding much penitence and, which best became him, heartily prayed for his Majesty that now is,. and taking notice of Hugh Peters that was executed next after him, wish'd he might be reprieved because, at present, as he conceived, he was not Oct., 1660.

prepared to dye."-Mercurius Publicus, 11-18:

William Smith wrote:

"On Tuesday, despairing Hugh Peters and John Cook, the only penitent, were hanged."-Hist. MSS. Commission's Fifth Report, Appendix, p. 174. The True and Perfect Relation of the Grand Traytors' Execution' (669. f. 26, [31]) also says:

On Tuesday October 16 Mr. Cooke was drawn in a hurdle from Newgate to Charing Cross.

to suffer the pain of death for his execrable treason. He shewed much contrition of spirit, and, taking notice that Hugh Peters was there and to be executed next after, he heartily wished that he might be reprieved, being, so he conceived, not prepared to dye."

VII.—THE EVIDENCE ABOUT GREGORY
CLEMENT.

So little was said about Clement that the test here is a very short one. All that the Speeches and Prayers' say about him is as follows:

"Perhaps some may think it strange that there is so little said as to Mr. Gregory Clement, who suffered with the rest. Therefore this only is to be said more (which is known to many) that Mr. Clement was very silent both at the time of his imprisonment at Newgate and at the time and place of his execution at Charing Cross. Only this is said, that he exprest' his trouble to some friends in the prison, for yielding so far to the importunity of his Relations as to plead guilty to the indictment. And although he spoke little at the place of execution, yet as far as could be judged by some discerning persons who were near him, he departed this life in peace."

But Mercurius Publicus (11-18 Oct.)

states :

Gregory Clement, at his death, express'd a great deal of sorrow and penitence, confessing that he most justly suffered both from God and man and that his judges had done nothing but according to law, begging the prayers of all spectators."

William Smith once more adds further details (Hist. MSS. Commission's Fifth Report, Appendix, p. 174) :

"On Wednesday Thomas Scot, railing" [Mercurius Publicus confirms this], "and Gregory Clement, howling, because, he said, his sin could not be forgiven, died as and where the rest.

who had sign'd a warrant to the Executioner for the murther of his own king.

"Mr. Axtell said that he was cal'd out at thebeginning of the war and went not out into arms. without advice, for he had conference with a minister in Laurence Lane (we give you his very words) who told him it was the cause of God.. That after he had engag'd in England he was. cal'd into Ireland where he endeavoured to do his work. We will not mention what that work was, for he is now dead [see a tract entitled A Colleccommitted on the Irish in Ireland since the 23rd of October, 1641 -press-mark 601. f. 14 (7)], but for that minister and all his bretheren who so.

tion of some of the Murthers and Massacres

notoriously inflam'd all our distractions, they may now see to what they have brought theirproselytes. After this Mr. Axtell went to prayers, wherein Mr. Hacker joyn'd, which ended, the executioner did his office.'

Finally, William Smith (as before) wrote: "On Friday Francis Hacker, without remorse, and Daniel Axtell, who dissolved himself into tears and prayers for the King and his own soul, were executed at Tyburn."

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The remaining cases are all equally unfavourable to the Speeches and Prayers,' and I do not think it necessary to add any more evidence in support of the contemporary statement that they were a meer forgery and imposture "-a conclusion, I may add, which was endorsed by Dr. Philip Bliss,. the learned bibliophile and editor of Anthony à Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses,' in a letter which the reader will find pasted in the Grenville copy of the Speeches and Prayers' in the British Museum. J. B. WILLIAMS.

(To be continued.)

ST. MARY'S, AMERSHAM, BUCKS: CHURCHYARD INSCRIPTIONS.

(See 11 S. vii. 464.)

THE next lot are those between the path · leading from the gate at the north-east end of the churchyard, which terminates at the south-east corner by the swing-gate leading into Church Alley, and the path from the north-east gate leading to the south porch, whence another starts and meets the firstmentioned at the swing-gate, the piece of ground being almost triangular in shape.

23. James son of James | and Mary Ann Avern of Bovingdon Hertfordshire | who died Sep. 11 1810 aged [29 years ?]. buried on

The Register states he was 13 Sept. of that year.

24. William Baldwin | who died Deer. 4th 1814 aged 55 years.

25. Joseph Baldwin | died February 4th 1839 aged 47 years.