most of the other plays. The lines of Ben Jonson on Shakspeare and the conversation of Ben Jonson with Drumrnond of Hawthornden sufficiently show that Shakspeare was that man, even if there were no other evidence of the fact. E. YARDLEY.
Permit me to thank MR. CURRY for his proof that in the very same year, 1592, in which Greene lampooned Shakespeare as Shakescene (and made him wince) another dramatist (Kyd 1), in 'Arden of Feversham,' styled a somewhat ferocious murderer Shakebag. Three years later the play going Sir John Harrington puts out his unmistakable innuendoes, and in 1599 Middleton gives to Cheating Drone's lure the name of Shakerag. Thus the same idea runs through three of the playwrights' allusions, while the whole four are contemporaneous, independent of each other, and consistent as well with much of what we knew before as with MR. AXON'S discovery.
But why does MR. CURRY speak of my "hatred" and "hereditary vendetta"? I do assure him that none exists. On the contrary, I own two of the Folios—a first and fourth. I only want, like Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, to know what the real Shakespeare was like.
I have not even a theory about the plays, save that the eminent scholars and students in Lord Essex's pay, whose centre was at Bacon's Twickenham scrivenery, were capable of doing a great deal in that way, and were also in close touch with that very intimately connected pair Shakespeare and Bacon.
W. G. THORPE, F.S.A.
32, Nightingale Lane, Clapham Common,!S.W.
ADULATION EXTRAORDINARY (8 th S. x. 152, 322). May I add another instance of this? It occurs in the dedication of a sermon dated 1701, the preacher being John Griffith, M.A., and the patron William, Duke of Devonshire:
"Flattery, my Lord, sits but very indecently upon Men of my Profession; Yet, while the St. Evremonts applaud Your Valour, and the Poets of the Times Your Wit and Judgment deservedly, and all the World, that are honor'd with the least Knowledge of Your Lordship, the Awful Majesty of Your Person, the Noble greatness of Your Mien, and the unaffected Condescension and Humility of Your Deportment and Behaviour; I hope it will not be accounted Parasitical in me to express my just Esteem (According to the Poverty of my Apprehension, and the small Oportunities [sic] I have had of so much honour) of Your Grace's unexpected insight into Theological Affairs."
Griffith, poor fellow, was the duke's most dutiful chaplain. RICHARD H. THORNTON. Portland, Oregon.
THE 'MARSEILLAISE' (9 th S. viii. 61, 126, 187, 245, 287, 331, 372, 407). I have no wish to prolong this controversy, which seems to be unproductive of any real evidence in favour of the contention of MR. BLIND; but I must ask leave to contradict, as flatly as possible, the insinuation that I ever used the pluralis majestatis, " we." No suggestion could well be more inaccurate. Seeing that two correspondents of ' N. & Q.' had dared to differ from MR. BLIND, and not one had supported his contention, I wrote that, as I ventured to think, no one, so far as ' N. & O.' was concerned, had yet been convinced by his " mass of statements," or, as he now describes it, "literature." That that was " a style and a statement contrary to patent facts," as he contemptuously asserts, is, I think, not at all justifiable. When facts are adduced I shall be happy, like others, to submit to their cogency, as I have said before. If a disputant wishes to retire from a discussion gracefully, while claiming the privilege of the last word, he should refrain, I think, from discharging Parthian shafts. JULIAN MARSHALL.
Twice has MR. BLIND darkly hinted that he will have more to say on the origin of the French National Anthem " elsewhere," and has also concluded twice with "these final lines." Why is MR. BLIND so anxious to rob the real author and composer of his rights? Is it because MR. BLIND is anxious that one of his own countrymen should be hailed as the producer of this great work? I have already shown that the claimants to the melody put forth by MR. BLIND are ruled out of court on the mere trifling matter of dates. MR. BLIND'S last note on the subject brings forth nothing that has not been known to hundreds, if not thousands, of students these twenty years past.
S. J. ADAIR FITZ-GERALD.
BARRAS (9 th S. viii. 202, 228, 267). Perhaps CANON TAYLOR did not know the Cornish cliff called Barras Nose, close to Tintagel. It is a high and steep promontory, washed by the sea. H. M. BATSON.
"EXPENDITOR" (9 th S. viii. 303). There is an officer bearing this title in Romney Marsh, Kent. R. J. FYNMORE.
Sandgate, Kent.
AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (9 th S. viii. 85, 154).
The lines beginning "Have communion with all" seem to be a wordy paraphrase of
Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none, in ' All 's Well that Ends Well,' I. i. W. S.
