Notes and Queries, Number 07, December 15, 1849

Sir,—Can you, or any of your readers, give me any information relating to Caraccioli's Life of Lord Clive? It is a book in four bulky octavo volumes, without date published, I believe, at different periods, about the year 1780—perhaps some years later. It enjoys the distinction of being about the worst book that was ever published. It bears, on its title-page, the name of "Charles Caraccioli, Gent." A writer in the Calcutta Review, incidentally alluding to the book, says that "it is said to have been written by a member of one of the councils over which Clive presided; but the writer, being obviously better acquainted with his lordship's personal doings in Europe than in Asia, the work savours strongly of home-manufacture, and has all the appearance of being the joint composition of a discarded valet and a bookseller's hack." The last hypothesis appears very probable. Internal evidence is greatly in its favour. Can any of your readers tell me who was "Charles Caraccioli, Gent.,"—when the atrocity which bears his name was published,—or any thing about the man or his book? Probably some notice of it may be found in the Monthly Review, the Gentleman's Magazine, or some other periodical of the last century. The writer, indeed, speaks of his first volume having been reviewed with "unprecedented" severity. Perhaps you can help me to the dates of some notices of this book. The work I believe to be scarce. The copy in my possession is the only complete one I have seen; but I once stumbled upon an odd volume at a book-stall. It is such a book as Lord Clive's family would have done well in buying up; and it is not improbable that an attempt was made to suppress it. The success of your journal is greatly dependent upon the brevity of your correspondents; so no more, even in commendation of its design, from yours obediently,

    K.

Covent Garden, Dec. 5. 1849.

ON SOME SUPPRESSED PASSAGES IN W. CARTWRIGHT'S POEMS

As I want my doubts cleared up on a literary point of some importance, I thought I could not do better than state them in your "NOTES AND QUERIES."

I have before me a copy of the not by any means rare volume, called Comedies, Tragi-Comedies, with other Poems, by Mr. William Cartwright, 8vo. 1651, with the portrait by Lombart. Though the book may be called a common one, I apprehend that my copy of it is in an uncommon state, for I find in it certain leaves as they were originally printed, and certain other leaves as they were afterwards substituted. The fact must have been that after the volume was published by H. Moseley, the bookseller, it was called in again, and particular passages suppressed and excluded.

These passages are three in number, and occur respectively on pp. 301, 302, and 305; and the two first occur in a poem headed "On the Queen's Return from the Low Countries," an event which occurred only shortly before the death of Cartwright, which took place on 23d Dec. 1643.

This poem consists, in my perfect copy, of eight stanzas, but two stanzas are expunged on the cancelled leaf, viz. the second and the fifth; the second runs as follows:—

"When greater tempests, than on sea before,
Receiv'd her on the shore,
When she was shot at for the king's own good,
By legions hir'd to bloud;
How bravely did she do, how bravely bear!
And shew'd, though they durst rage, she durst not fear."

The queen landed at Burlington on 22nd Feb. 1642, so that Cartwright may have written what precedes; but how could he have written what follows, the fifth stanza of the poem, which mentions an event that did not occur until six or seven years afterwards?

"Look on her enemies, on their Godly lies,
Their holy perjuries,
Their curs'd encrease of much ill gotten wealth,
By rapine or by stealth,
Their crafty friendship knit in equall guilt,
And the Crown-Martyr's bloud so lately spilt."

Hence arises my first question—if Cartwright were not the author of this poem, who was? Although Izaac Walton, Jasper Mayne, James Howell, Sir John Birkenhead, and a host of other versifyers, introduce the volume with "laudatory lays," we are not to suppose that they meant to vouch for the genuineness of every production therein inserted and imputed to Cartwright. Was the whole poem "On the Queen's Return" foisted in, or only the two stanzas above quoted, which were excluded when the book was called in?

The next poem on which I have any remark to make immediately succeeds that "on the Queen's Return," and is entitled "Upon the Death of the Right Valiant Sir Bevill Grenvill, Knight," who, we know from Lord Clarendon, was killed at Lansdown on 5th July, 1643, only five months before the death of Cartwright, who is supposed to have celebrated his fall. This production is incomplete, and the subsequent twelve lines on p. 305, are omitted in the ordinary copies of Cartwright's Comedies, Tragi-Comedies, with other Poems:—

"You now that boast the spirit, and its sway,
Shew us his second, and wee'l give the day:
We know your politique axiom, Lurk, or fly;
Ye cannot conquer, 'cause you dare not dye:
And though you thank God that you lost none there,
'Cause they were such who liv'd not when they were;
Yet your great Generall (who doth rise and fall,
As his successes do, whom you dare call,
As Fame unto you doth reports dispence,
Either a – or his Excellence)
Howe'r he reigns now by unheard-of laws,
Could wish his fate together with his cause."

It is clear to me, that these lines could not have been written in 1643, soon after the death of Sir B. Grenvill; and, supposing any part of the poem to have come from the pen of Cartwright, they must have been interpolated after the elevation of Cromwell to supreme power.

I have thrown out these points for information, and it is probable that some of your readers will be able to afford it: if able, I conclude they will be willing.

It may be an error to fancy that the copy of Cartwright now in my hands, containing the cancelled and uncancelled leaves, is a rarity; but although in my time I have inspected at least thirty copies of his Comedies, Tragi-Comedies, with other Poems, I certainly never met with one before with this peculiarity. On this matter, also, I hope for enlightenment.

Do the stanzas "on the Queen's Return" and the lines on the Death of Sir B. Grenvill exist in any of the various collections of State Poems?

    INVESTIGATOR.

MINOR QUERIES

Christencat.

In Day's edition of Tyndale's Works, Lond. 1573, at p. 476., Tyndale says:—

"Had he" [Sir Thomas More] "not come begging for the clergy from purgatory, with his supplication of souls—nor the poor soul and proctor been there with his bloody bishop Christen catte, so far conjured into his own Utopia."

I take the word to be Christencat; but its two parts are so divided by the position of Christen at the end of one line, and catte at the beginning of the next as to prevent it from being certain that they form one word. But I would gladly learn from any of your correspondents, whether the name of Christencat, or Christian-cat, is that of any bishop personified in the Old Moralities, or known to have been the satirical sobriquet for any bishop of Henry VIII.'s time. The text would suggest the expectation of its occurring either in More's Utopia, or in his Supplication of Souls, but I cannot find it in either of them.

    HENRY WALTER.

Hexameter Verses in the Scriptures.

Sir,—I shall feel obliged to any of your readers who will refer me to an hexameter line in the authorised English version of the Old Testament.

The following are two examples in the New Testament.

    W.J.B.R.

NOTES ON BOOKS—CATALOGUES, SALES, ETC

The extraordinary collection of the works of Daniel Defoe formed by Mr. Walter Wilson, his biographer, which at his sale realised the sum of 50l., and which had been rendered still further complete by the addition of upwards of forty pieces by the recent possessor, when sold by Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, on Wednesday, the 5th instant, produced no less than 71l. Mr. Toovey was the purchaser.

The Shakspeare Society have just issued a very interesting volume, the nature of which is well described by its ample title-page:—

"Inigo Jones. A Life of the Architect, by Peter Cunningham, Esq. Remarks on some of his Sketches for Masques and Dramas, by J.R. Planché, Esq.; and Five Court Masques. Edited from the original MSS. of Ben Jonson, John Marston, etc., by John Payne Collier, Esq.; accompanied by Facsimiles of Drawings by Inigo Jones; and by a Portrait from a Painting by Vandyck."

Many particulars in the memoir are new in the biography of the great architect. Mr. Planché's too brief Remarks on the Costume make us join with Mr. Collier in regretting that he did not extend to all the plates "the resources of his attainments and talents;" while the five masques and the general preface, contributed by Mr. Collier, form by no means the least valuable portion of a volume which cannot fail to give satisfaction to all the members of the society by which it is issued.

Mr. Kerslake, of Bristol, has just issued a small Catalogue of Books bought at Brockley Hall, and some which formerly belonged to Browne Willis, which contains some interesting articles, such as No. 222., M'Cormick's Memoirs of Burke, with numerous MS. notes throughout by J. Horne Tooke; the first edition of Wit's Recreation, 1640, with a MS. note by Sir F. Freeling:—"I have never seen another perfect copy of the first edition." That in Longman's Bib. Ang. Poetica, wanted frontispiece and 4 leaves, and was priced 7l. 7s.

Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, who have during the present week been selling the curious Dramatic Library, printed and manuscript, and the theatrical portraits of the late Mr. James Winston, will commence, on Monday, the sale of Mr. Mitchell's Collection of Autograph Letters. The most interesting portion of these are eight-and-forty unpublished letters by Garrick, among which is one written to his brother Peter, commenced on the day on which he made his appearance on the London boards and finished on the following. In it he communicates his change of occupation to his brother, premising that since he had been in business he had "run out four hundred pounds, and found trade not increasing," and had now begun to think of some way of redeeming his fortune. "My mind (as you know) has always been inclined to the stage; nay, so strongly so, that all my illness and lowness of spirits was owing to my want of resolution to tell you my thoughts when here.... Though I know you will be displeased with me, yet I hope when you shall find that I may have the genius of an actor without the vices, you will think less severe of me, and not be ashamed to own me for a brother." He makes an offer as to the transfer of his business, stock, &c. "Last night I played Richard the Third to the surprise of every body; and as I shall make very near 300l. per annum of it, and as it is really what I doat upon, I am resolved to pursue it." In a postscript, he adds, "I have a farce (The Lying Valet), coming out at Drury-lane." And his progress in his new profession is shown in another letter, addressed also to his brother Peter, on the 19th of April following, in which, after mentioning some affairs of business connected with their wine trade, he says:

"The favour I have met with from the greatest men has made me far from repenting of my choice. I am very intimate with Mr. Glover, who will bring out a Tragedy next winter on my account. I have supp'd with the great Mr. Murray, Counsellor, and shall with Mr. Pope by his introduction. I supp'd with Mr. Littleton, the prince's favourite, last Thursday night, and met with the highest civility and complaisance; he told me he never knew what acting was till I appeared, and said I was only born to act what Shakspeare writ.... I believe nobody as an Actor was ever more caressed, and my character as a private man makes 'em more desirous of my company (all this entre nous as one brother to another). I am not fixed for next year, but shall certainly be at the other end of the town. I am offered 500 guineas and a clear benefit, or part of the management," &c.

The whole collection forms, indeed, a curious and new contribution towards the biography of that distinguished actor.

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