Notes and Queries, Number 41, August 10, 1850   By: Various

A MEDIUM OF INTER COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of." CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

No. 41.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1850. [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES: Sir William Gascoigne, by Edward Foss An old Guy, by Dr. Bell Folk Lore: Folk Lore of South Northamptonshire, No. 2 Mice, Snakes, Poultry, Crows, Owls, Cuckoos, &c. Minor Notes: Hon. A. Erskine Gloves Punishment of Death by Burning India Rubber

QUERIES: The "Bar" of Michael Angelo, by S.W. Singer Annotated Copies of Bishop Andrewes' Works Minor Queries: Robert Innes, a Grub Street Poet Sicilian Vespers One Bell Treasure Trove Poeta Anglicus Hornbooks Ben Jonson, or Ben Johnson MS. Book of Prayers belonging to Queen Catherine Parr Waltheolf De Combre Family Ilda "De Male quæsitis" Westminster Abbey Haberdasher Martinet "Querela Cantabrigiensis" Long Lonkin

REPLIES: Treatise of Equivocation Boethius' Consolations of Philosophy, by C.H. Cooper Etymological Queries answered, by Albert Way Replies to Minor Queries: Solingen Blackguard The Three Dukes Bonny Dundee Was Quarles pensioned? Collar of Esses The Story of the Three Men and their Bag of Money Will. Robertson of Murton Long Meg of Westminster Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Antholin's The Plant "Hæmony" Mildew in Books The Carpenter's Maggot Martello Towers Highland Kilts Derivation of Penny Scarf Smoke money Common, Mutual, and Reciprocal Juice Cups Curfew Derivation of Totnes, &c.

MISCELLANEOUS: Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c Books and Odd Volumes Wanted Notices to Correspondents Advertisements

NOTES.

SIR WILLIAM GASCOIGNE.

Although you and I no doubt unite in the admiration, which all our fellow countrymen profess, and some of them feel, for our immortal bard, yet I do not think that our zeal as Shakspearians will extend so far as to receive him as an unquestionable authority for the facts introduced into his historical plays. The utmost, I apprehend, that we should admit is, that they represent the tradition of the time in which he wrote, and even that admission we should modify by the allowance, to which every poet is entitled, of certain changes adopted for dramatic effect, and with the object of enhancing our interest in the character he is delineating.

Two facts in his Second Part of Henry IV , always referred to in connection with each other, notwithstanding the ingenious remarks on them made by Mr. Tyler in his History of Henry V. , are still accepted, and principally by general readers, on Shakspeare's authority, as undoubtedly true. The one is the incident of Prince Henry's committal to prison by Chief Justice Gascoigne; and the other is the magnanimous conduct of the Prince on his accession to the throne, in continuing the Chief Justice in the office, which he had shown himself so well able to support.

The first I have no desire to controvert, especially as it has been selected as one of the illustrations of our history in the House of Lords. Frequent allusion is made to it in the play. Falstaff's page says to his master, on seeing the Chief Justice:

"Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the prince for striking him about Bardolph."

And Falstaff in the same scene thus addresses Gascoigne:

"For the box of the ear that the prince gave you, he gave it like a rude prince, and you took it like a sensible lord. I have checked him for it, and the young lion repents."

And Gascoigne, when Henry refers to the incident in these words:

"How might a prince of my great hopes forget So great indignities you laid upon me? What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison The immediate heir of England! Was this easy? May this be wash'd in Lethe, and forgotten?"

thus justifies himself to the king: