(323). The Marriage of "Tho. Queeny tow (323).—The Judith Shakespeare," 10 February, 1615-16.

The bride was Shakespeare's younger daughter and four years her husband's senior.

Reproduced by permission of the REV. W. G.
MELVILLE, M.A., Vicar of Stratford-upon-
Avon, 1910.

324.-Facsimile Heading of the first page of an Account of Thomas Quiney, Judith Shakespeare's husband, as Chamberlain of the Borough of Stratfordupon-Avon, delivered to the Corporation in the year, 1623; with facsimile of his signature and monogram, as well as of a quotation in French with which he embellished the front cover of his account-book.

The French lines in Quiney's autograph were from St. Galais, a French mediæval romance, in which they run :"Heureux celui qui pour deveuir sage

Du mal d'autrui fait son apprentisage."

The original manuscript is among the records of the Corporation of Stratford-upon-Avon.

EARLY NOTICES OF SHAKESPEARE AND HIS WORK, Nos. 325-336.

325.-TRIBUTE TO SHAKESPEARE'S GENIUS IN 1598. WITS TREASURY. The Second Part. A Treasurie of Diuine, morale, and Phylosophicall similies and sentences, sentences, generally usefull. But more particularly published for the vse of Schooles, by F.M. Master of Arts of both Vniversities. London, 1634. 12mo.

The author of this book, Francis Meres (1565-1646), a divine and schoolmaster, having graduated at Pembroke College, Cambridge (B.A. 1587, M.A., 1591), was incorporated at Oxford in 1593, and became on 14th July, 1602, Rector of Wing, co. Rutland. There he kept a school until his death, in 1646, at the age of 81 years.

The second impression of the book, which, on its first issue in 1598, bore the title “ Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury, being the second part of Wits Commonwealth. By Francis

Meres, Maister of Artes of both universities." Shakespeare figures in Meres's pages as the greatest man of letters of the day.

Meres's tribute to Shakespeare in 1598 runs thus:—

"As the soule of Euphorbus was thought to live in Pythagoras; so the sweete wittie soule of Ovid lives in mellifluous and hony tongued Shakespeare witnes his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugred Sonnets among his private friends, &c.

"As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for Comedy and Tragedy among the Latines; so Shakespeare among the English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage; for Comedy, witnes his Gentlemen of Verona, his Errors, his Love labours lost, his Love labours wonne, his Midsummers nights dreame, and his Merchant of Venice: for Tragedy his Richard the 2, Richard the 3, Henry the 4, King John, Titus Andronicus and his Romeo and Juliet.

"As Epius Stolo said, that the Muses would speake with Plautus tongue, if they would speake Latin: so I say that the Muses would speak with Shakespeare's fine filed phrase, if they would speake English."

don.

Bequeathed by MRS. BEISLY, Sydenham, 1896.

326.-The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. LonPrinted by Richard Bishop and are to be sold by Andrew Crooke in St. Paules Church-yard Ano D. 1640. Folio.

The volume contains two early notices of Shakespeare in the capacity of actor. Prefixed to the reprint of Jonson's play of "Every man in his humour. A Comedie. Acted in the yeere 1598. By the then Lord Chamberlaine his Servants," is the list of "The principall Comedians" where the name "Will. Shakespeare" stands first.

Again in the reprint of the play of "Seianus his fall. A Tragedie. First acted in the yeere 1603. By the Kings Maiesties Servants," the names of "The principall Tragedians

are given

thus:

327.—WILLIAM CAMDEN'S MENTION OF SHAKESPEARE, 1603.-Remaines of a greater worke, Concerning Britaine, the inhabitants thereof, their Languages, Names, Surnames, Empresses, Wise speeches,

Poesies, and Epitaphes.

At London, Printed by

G [eorge] E [ld] for Simon Waterson, 1605. 4to.

This volume forms a separately-published appendix to the standard topographical work entitled Britannia, which first appeared in 1586. The author, William Camden, was the chief antiquary of Shakespeare's day and the intimate friend of Ben Jonson. Camden's Remaines was, according to the 'Epistle dedicatorie,' ready for press on 12 June, 1603. Under the heading of Poems,' Camden wrote at page 8:

"These may suffice for some Poeticall descriptions of our auncient Poets; if I would come to our time, what a world could I present to you out of Sir Philipp Sidney, Ed. Spencer, Samuel Daniel, Hugh Holland, Ben: Johnson Th. Campion, Mich. Drayton, George Chapman, John Marston, William Shakespeare, and other most pregnant witts of these our times, whom succeeding ages may iustly admire."

328.-MICHAEL DRAYTON'S TRIBUTE. - The Battaile of Agincovrt, and other poems.

London, Printed for William Lee, at the Turkes Head in Fleete-Streete, next to the Miter and Phoenix, 1627. Folio.

In the concluding section of this volume entitled 'Elegies,' Drayton gives a poetic epistle-'Of Poets and Poesie '- which he addressed to his friend, Henry Reynolds. There, Drayton, who was born in 1563, at Hartshill, a hamlet near Atherstone, Warwickshire, and was a Warwickshire friend of Shakespeare, apostrophises the great dramatist thus (p. 206):

"and be it said of thee,

Shakespeare, thou hadst as smooth a Comicke vaine,
Fitting the socke, and in thy naturall braine,

As strong conception, and as Cleere a rage,

As any one that trafiqu'd with the stage.'

It would seem that Drayton wrote these lines before 1619.
Purchased January, 1909.

329.-THOMAS HEYWOOD ON SHAKESPEARE.— The Hierarchie of blessed Angells. the Their Names, orders, and Offices. The fall of Lucifer with his Angells Written by Tho: Heywood.-London. Printed by Adam Islip, 1635. Folio.

Thomas Heywood, the poet and dramatist, who was a friend of Shakespeare and of many contemporary men of letters, writes in the fourth book of this work of the form of honour paid to poets

30/

in old times, and draws attention to the familiarity with which
poets of Shakespeare's epoch were treated by the public, who
commonly talked of them by their Christian names.
Shakespeare Heywood remarks:

"Mellifluous Shake-speare, whose inchanting Quill
Commanded Mirth or Passion, was but Will."

Purchased December, 1908.

Of

329. SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT'S TRIBUTE, 1638.-Madagascar; with other poems. By W. Davenant. London, 1638. 12mo.

The author Sir William Davenant or D'Avenant (born at Oxford in 1606, died in London in 1668), claimed to be Shakespeare's godson. His father was an Oxford innkeeper, at whose house Shakespeare often stayed on his journeys to and fro London. D'Avenant, who won fame as poet and dramatist is said to have changed the spelling of his name from Davenant to D'Avenant in order to emphasize his claim to kinship with the Warwickshire Avon. In this, the earliest collection of his poems, appears the following on p. 37.,

In remembrance of

Master William Shakespeare.

Ode
(I).

Beware (delighted Poets!) when you sing
To welcome Nature in the early Spring;
Your num'rous Feet not tread
The Banks of Avon; for each Flowre
(As it nere knew a Sunne or Showre)
Hangs there the pensive head.

(2).

Each Tree, whose thick, and spreading growth hath made
Rather a Night beneath the Boughs, than Shade,
(Unwilling now to grow)

Lookes like the Plume a Captive weares,
Whose rifled Falls are steept i'th teares
Which from his last rage flow.

(3).

The piteous River wept it selfe away
Long since (Alas!) to such a swift decay;
That reach the Map; and looke

If you a River there can spie;

And for a River your mock'd Eie,

Will find a shallow Brooke.

Bequeathed by F. W. FAIRHOLT.

331.-A Hermeticall Banqvet, Drest by a Spagiricall Cook: for the better Preservation of the Microcosme. London, 1652. 12mo.

66

A jeu d'esprit on cookery books, good-naturedly ridiculing literary affectations. Eloquence is personified as mistress of the house, and her servants' various offices are thus allotted: Shack-spear, Butler. Ben Johnson, Clark of the Kitchin, Fenner his Turn-spit, And Taylor his Scullion. All these have their chamber-doors pester'd with sharking Players, Fidlers, Balladsingers, and such like hangers on."

The references to Fenner and Taylor are to two rival doggerel versifiers, William Fenner and John Taylor, the waterpoet, who amused the town in 1615 by violently attacking one another in print.

Bequeathed by MRS. BEISLY, Sydenham, 1896.

332. SIR WILLIAM DUGDALE, 1656.-The Antiquities of Warwickshire illustrated; from Records, Leiger - Books, Manuscripts, Charters, Evidences, Tombes, and Arms. Beautified with Maps, Prospects, and Portraitures. London, 1656. Folio.

Sir William Dugdale (1605-1686) the great Warwickshire antiquary, gives under the heading, 'Stratford-upon-Avon,' an account of Shakespeare's monument and tomb-stone with plate by Hollar. He concludes his description of the borough with these words (p. 523):

"One thing more, in reference to this antient Town is observable, that it gave birth and sepulture to our late famous Poet Will. Shakespere, whose monument I have inserted in my discourse of the Church."

Under date 1653, in the Diary of Sir William Dugdale, (first published in 1827, p. 99), the antiquary makes the entry, 'Shakespeares and John Combes Monuments, at Stratford-superAvon, made by one Gerard Johnson."

66

Purchased.

333.--FULLER'S BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE in his Worthies of England. London 1662. Folio. The first edition.

In this work (begun about 1643), Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) a literary divine of great repute, attempted the first biographical notice of Shakespeare. Fuller's notice includes these sentences: "William Shakespeare was born at Stratford-on-Avon, in this County [Warwickshire] in whom three eminent poets [Martial,