342
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIIL OCT. 26, 1901.
May hew, the author of ' London Labour and
the London Poor,' and was first performed at
the Royal Fitzroy Theatre (which was one
of the numerous aliases of the theatre in
Tottenham Street, Tottenham Court Road,
which afterwards became famous as the
Prince of Wales's Theatre under the manage-
ment of Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft) on Thursday,
16 January, 1834. The farce was transferred
to the Grecian Saloon, City Road, and it was
Robson's performance of Jem Bags, " the
wandering minstrel," at this theatre which
led to his engagement at the Olympic
Theatre. The creator, as the French say, of
the part of Jem Bags was Mr. Mitchell, an
actor unknown to fame, and it is to be noted
that the part of the lover, Herbert Carol
(with a song), was originally played by a
lady, Miss Crisp.
Robson's first recorded appearance as an amateur, according to the ' D.N.B.,' " was in a once well-known little theatre in Catherine Street, Strand, where he played Simon Meal bag in a play called 'Grace Huntley." 5 See also 9 th S. vii.' 268 ; viii. 194.
JOHN HEBB.
A SPANISH BIBLIOPHILE. Some years ago I procured a copy of Peter Victorius, Florence, Junta, 1569. It is handsomely bound, and stamped with a rich coat of arms : legend, " J. Gomez de la Cortina et Amicorum. Fallitur hora legendo." Sometimes I have thought I must ask 'N. & Q.' about this Gomez. Then I accidentally ran across the Gentleman's Magazine, June, 1883, and learned that Don Joaquin Gomez de la Cortina, Marquis de Morante, was born in Mexico in 1808. He became Rector of the University of Madrid, and was a great collector of books. His library was dispersed about thirty years ago. Mr. Richard Copley Christie wrote a notice of him for private circulation. I should like to own a copy of it. Gomez died, as the result of a fall from a ladder in his library, about the year 1868.
RICHARD H. THORNTON. Portland, Oregon.
LUTHER : CANDLES BEFORE HIS PORTRAIT. In Blackwoods Magazine, vol. xxiv. p. 541 (1828), allusion is made to candles burning around a portrait of Martin Luther. Is this truth or fable ? There are other examples on record of reverence of this kind being paid to representations of persons who are not
M m w 0n i&i, rep . Uted fco have been sain ts. Mr. W. Miller, in an article contributed to the August number of the English Historical lteview,szys that when the Oriental Christians entertained hopes of deliverance from the
rule of the Moslem by Napoleon I., "the
women of Maina kept a. lamp lighted
before his portrait, as before that of the
Virgin " (p. 454) ; and Ficino the Renaissance
Platonist (1433-91), is said to have kept a
lamp ever burning before the image of Plato
(Lupton's 'Two Treatises of the Hierarchus of
Dionysius,' p. xxxii). Dr. Ludwig Pastor in
his ' History of the Popes ' tells his readers
that at the time of the Renaissance Plato " was
made by these fanatical admirers the object
of a veritable cultus, as though he had been
a saint : lamps were burned before his picture,
he was ranked with the Apostles and
Prophets, and feasts were celebrated in his
honour. It was even seriously proposed to
add extracts from his writings to the
homilies which were read in the churches on
Sundays" (Father Antrobus's trans., vol. v.
p. 154). N. M. & A.
INDEX EXPURGATORIUS. The Pope has removed from the Index the two works of Galileo, ' De Revolutionibus ' and ' The Dia- logues on Motion.' The sentence against these was pronounced on 22 June, 1633.
WE must request correspondents desiring infor-
mation on family matters of only private interest
to affix their names and addresses to their queries,
in order that the answers may be addressed to them
direct.
OCEANIA. When and by whom was this geographical term introduced? It does not appear to be recognized by the l Penny Cyclo- paedia' in 1840, but is used in 'Chambers's Information ' in 1857. Lyell in 1832, Prichard in 1842, used Oceanica. The adjective " Oceanian " occurs in the Westminster Review of January, 1831, in a review of a French work of M. Lesson, by whom Oceanien was applied to the South Sea islanders. The adjective may been earlier than the substantive, and may have suggested the latter. I should like also to know about the first appearance of oceanography, oceanographer, ana their kin, which seem to be hardly twenty years old, although, according to Godefroy, oceanogra- phie was used in French in the sixteenth century. J. A. H. MURRAY.
Oxford.
MASTER OF THE MUSICK. It has been announced that Sir Walter Parratt has been reappointed by the King as Master of the Musick. Perhaps Mr. Shedlock can tell us when such an official was first appointed.
