414
NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii a. xii. NOV. 27, 1915.
Town and Country magazines, and in nearly
every case the criticism was unfavourable.
But although they have no literary merit,
and displayed the worst of bad taste at
the time of their publication, these satires
help to throw much light upon the social
history of the time. It is a most instructive
task for any one who wishes to gain an
intimate knowledge of the period to identify
the actual persons who are satirized in these
pages. It is often possible to recognize a
name which otherwise might have been
buried in obscurity, and by collating the
various lists one is able to understand
the opinion of contemporaries with regard
to many a famous individual. These
pamphlets thus form a most valuable
commentary upon the well-known memoirs
of the century, and I append a bibliography
of the most familiar of them, which no doubt
the readers of * N. & Q.' will be able to
amplify. Except for their impertinence
there is nothing objectionable in any of
them.
Sketches | and | Characters | of the most Eminent and most Singular | Persons | Now Living. | By Several Hands. | Vol.1. | Bristol. | Printed for John
Wheble | 1770.
[The author was Philip Thicknesse.]
Modern Characters | For 1778. | By Shakespeare
London : | Printed and sold by D. Brown |
1778.
[These " characters " appeared originally in The Morning Post and Public Advertiser, and the author is supposed to have been the Rev. Mr. Barton, Rector of St. Andrew's, Holborn.]
Sketches | From I Nature, | In | High Preserva- tion, I By the Most Honourable Masters; |
London | Printed for G. Kearsly | 1779.
The | Picture Gallery. | Containing Near | Two Hundred Paintings By the Moat | Distinguished Ladies in Great Britain. I ......London : ] Printed
for G. Kearsly 1780.
The | Abbey of Kilkhampton ; | or, | Monumental Records | For the year 1980. i Faithfully Tran- scribed | From the Original Inscriptions |
London : | Printed for G. Kearsly | 1780.
[This satire is attributed to Sir Herbert Croft, and has been noticed in ' N. & Q.,' 9 S. xii. 381, 411, 488; 10 S. i. 12 ; xii. 323, 451 ; 11 S. i. 76, 212.]
Miniature Pictures. | Written Originally by Mr. Gay, | Author of The Beggar's Opera, etc. etc. | Newly Adapted to | The Most Fashionable and
Public Characters, | of Both Sexes, Now Living
Containing | above Six Hundred Portraits; |
London, | Printed for M. Smith 1781.
The | World as it Goes : [ Exemplified in the | Characters | of | Selected from the Most Dis- tinguished | English Poets, | from | Chaucer to
Churchill; | And all the | Characters Applied. |
London : ) John Fielding, | 1781.
[Written by William Combe ; cf. his Royal Register,' vii. 35.]
Ways and Means : | or, a | Sale [ of the | L[ord]s
S[piritua]l and T[empora]l, | By R[oya]l P[ro-
clamatioln ; | London : Printed for G. Kearslv
I 1782
Prophecies I Delivered by a | Descendant | from the | Oracle of Delphos, | of the Lives and Deaths | of the | Following Distinguished Personages, I London: | Printed for W. Priest 1791.
I purposely have excluded from my list all satirical poems of the style of ' The Diaboliad ' or ' The Torpedo,' which are also cryptic productions and which exist in- large numbers. HORACE BLEACKLEY.
JEWISH TREASURE -TROVE.
(See ante, p. 395.)
IN the middle of the sixteenth century the Jews of Constantinople appear to have obtained considerable influence with the Turks. A Jew is credited with being the boon companion of Selim the Sot (II.), and another member of the race about the same time acquired the sovereignty of the Archi- pelago. The next story we hear about the Tomb of David is, therefore, one in which the Jews take an important part.
About the year 1561 a Constantinople Jew of wealth and influence visited Jerusalem for the purpose of praying at the tomb of David. He seems to have fixed upon the ancient church of the " Cenaculum " on Mount Sion, just outside the city walls, as the correct site (perhaps in consequence of Benjamin of Tudela's story) ; but, as will be- seen hereafter, such an identification could have had no basis in any tradition older than, the twelfth century. On begging to be permitted to worship within the Franciscan church of the " Cenaculum," he was indig- nantly refused by the monks. The Jew threatened revenge, and on his return to Constantinople rebuked the Grand Vizier for his indifference to the tomb of one of the great Prophets of Islam, in permitting it to remain in the hands of the infidel Nazarenes. His representations, aided by bribes, had the* desired effect, and the Franciscans were accordingly driven from their convent, and eventually permitted to purchase their present property within the walls of Jeru- salem.
But although the Jews are perhaps rightly credited with having something to do with the expulsion of the Christians from the " Cenaculum," they have certainly not benefited if such was their desire by the change in its ownership. We do not hear of the Moslems permitting the Jews to approach
