take and receive of such as shall resort to see or heare any such playes, sceanes, and entertainements whatsoever, such summe or summes of money as have bin heretofore given or taken in the like kind.

"And Wee do here by theis presents graunt to the said William Legg, his heyres and assignes, that the said company soe to bee erected by the said William Legg, his heyres or assignes, shall bee subject to the governement of the said William Legg, his heyres and assignes, and alsoe under the oversight, rule, and order of the said Thomas Killigrewe and Sir William Davenant, their heyres and assignes: and that the said William Legg and his heyres, and the said company so by him to bee gathered by vertue of theis presents, shall conforme in all things to such orders as the said Thomas Killigrewe and Sir William Davenant, their heyres and assignes, shall from time to time sett downe, and shall act in such place, manner, and time, and forbeare acting, and be subject to such removes for the supply of the said two severall theaters abovementioned, as they the said Thomas Killigrew and Sir William Davenant, their heires and assignes, shall from time to time appoint.

“And Wee doe hereby graunt power unto the said William Legg and his heyres and assignes, with the approbation of the said Thomas Killigrew and Sir William Davenant, their heyres and assignes, and not otherwise, to make such allowances to the severall players to be employed in the said Nursery as to him and them shall seeme meete.

"And Wee doe hereby declare that the profitts ariseing and comeing by the acting of plaies by the company to bee erected by the said William Legg, his heyres and assignes, by vertue of theis presents, and the full benefitt accrewing thereby, shalbe disposed and employed as shall, by articles likewise betweene the said William Legg and the said Thomas Killigrew and Sir William Davenant, be agreed on for the purpose.

"And We doe expressly hereby prohibite that any obscene,

scandalous, or offensive passages be brought upon the stage, but such onely shalbe there had and used, as may consist with harmeless and inoffensive delights and recreations.

"And theis our Letters Patents, or the inrollment thereof, shalbe in all things good and effectuall in the law, according to the true intent and meaneing of the same, anything in theis presents conteined, or any law, statute, act, ordinance, proclamation, provision, or restriction, or any other matter, cause, or thing whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding, although express mention &c.

"In witness, &c. xxxth day of March.

Witness ourselfe at Westminster, the

"Per BRE. DE PRIVATO SIGILLO.”

ART. XX.-On the word "Scamels," in Shakespeare's
"Tempest."

Shakespeare in his play of the "Tempest," act ii., scene 2, makes Caliban say,

"I pr'ythee, let me bring thee where crabs grow;
And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts;
Show thee a jay's nest, and instruct thee how
To snare the nimble marmozet; I'll bring thee
To clustering filberds; and sometimes I'll get thee
Young scamels from the rock."

Now the above mentioned word "scamels" has been altered to sea-mells in some late editions,1 under the idea that it means those sea-gulls which are called sea-mells, sea-malls, sea-maws, But the question is whether the allusion is to those birds or to the ancient British word samol, which is referred to in the Rev. Mr. Whitaker's "History of Manchester," vol. ii., p. 130, as follows:

or sea-mews.

"We have three or four plants pointed out to us by the ancients, that were peculiarly the favourites of the Druids. One was what they denominated the samol, and which has been very differently interpreted, as the botanical mind had no standard of determination, but was probably, as the L and the R are frequently interchanged, the seamar, or wild trefoil, to which the Irish Britons pay a particular attention at present, wearing it in their hats on St. Patrick's day under the diminutive appellation of seamrog. This was esteemed an excellent remedy for all the diseases of their droves and herds, if it was bruised and then mingled with the water that the cattle drank. But when it was gathered in the swamps where it grew, it was

1 See the note to Knight's edition.

constantly plucked by the left hand alone; and the simpler was fasting, never looked back while he gathered it, and deposited it no where till he put it into the watering-troughs.'

I merely throw this out as a conjecture, as perhaps much may be said for and against both interpretations.

Lower Wick, Worcester,

May 22, 1847.

JABEZ ALLIES.

1

Pliny, lxxiv., c. 11.

ART. XXI.—A Poem containing notices of Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, Massinger, &c.

The following curious poem is extracted from a very scarce little volume, entitled, "Choyce Drollery, Songs, and Sonnets, being a collection of divers excellent pieces of poetry of severall eminent authors, never before printed," 12mo., London, 1656. Only two copies of this work have occurred at sales: Heber's fetched £6 16s. 6d. ; see Bibl. Heberiana, part iv., p. 90.

On the Time-Poets.

One night, the great Apollo, pleas'd with Ben,
Made the odde number of the Muses ten;
The fluent Fletcher, Beaumont rich in sense,
In complement and courtships quintessence;
Ingenious Shakespeare; Massinger, that knowes
The strength of plot to write in verse and prose,
Whose easie Pegassus will amble ore
Some threescore miles of fancy in an houre;
Cloud-grapling Chapman, whose aerial minde
Soares at philosophy, and strikes it blinde;
Daubourn I had forgot, and let it be,
He dy'd Amphibion by the ministry;
Silvester Bartas, whose translatique part
Twinn'd or was elder to our laureat;
Divine composing Quarles, whose lines aspire 1

The April of all poesy in May,

Who makes our English speak Pharsalia ;

Sands metamorphos'd so into another,

We know not Sands and Ovid from each other;
He that so well on Scotus play'd the man,

The famous Diggs, or Leonard Claudian ;

1 A line is here wanting in the original.

1;