406
. NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vi. NOT. 23, 1012.
Thomas Wood purchased his appointment
to the Deanery of Lichfield from Charles
II. ; and was excommunicated by his
Bishop (John Hacket), the sentence being
read in the cathedral while the Dean was
there who heeded it not. As Bishop,
Wood lived much away from his diocese,
and was finally suspended by Archbishop
Bancroft.
On 14 July, 1682, Nathaniel Ellison, M.A., Fellow of C.C.C., was made Archdeacon of Staffordshire by Thomas Wood, Bishop of Lichfield, being then Vicar of Towcester and Minor Prebendary of Lichfield (v. Wood's ' Life and Times,' iii. 24).
11. Nathaniel Freind to Wood from Wester- leigh, 5 July, 1688, enclosing a letter from Edward Stephens to Freind of 25 June, 1688. In the covering letter Freind says :
" I understand yt. M r Fulman [' Athcme,' iv- 239 ; ' D.N.B.,' xx. 326] is lately dead. I request that you Avill please to secure my book of Bristoll w ch you told mee was in his hands when I was last at Oxford."
On this matter see Wood's ' Life and Times,' iii. 174-5, 206, 217, 252 ; iv. 229, 271.
Edward Stephens was of " Cherrington near Tetbury " (' Athenae,' iii. 999 ; ' Life and Times,' iii. 252, 328 ; ' D.N.B.,' liv. 170).
He says :
" Of our family there have bin divers of that University [Oxon.], but not any that I know of who hath bin of any other profession than of the Law ; nor any, who hath written any thing, that hath bin printed. There was one M 1 ' Stephens heretofore a proctor at Gloucester, a man of good learning, as I have heard from others, and I think hath some things in print ; but he was not of our family, nor can I give you any further account of him. Nor can I say more of M r Stephens of Fenny Drayton. But for M 1 ' James Stephens, who was a great friend and favourer of D r Pierce, he is not of our family ; but I have had some conversation with him once or twice between Oxford and London. He is a gentleman of a great estate as I am informed by others, hath purchased Sir Bainham Throgmorton's estate at Clowerhall [?], where he lives, a very learned gentleman, as I have found by the little conversation I had with him ; and, which I more value, a very pious man. I have heard the present Bp. of Lincoln [Thos. Barlow] speak very honour- ably of him."
For Nathaniel Stephens of Fenny Drayton see 'Athens?,' iii. 1148 ;' D.N.B.' liv. 179.
12. From William Croft to Wood of 16 July
1688.
The writer can learn nothing of " Poet Freeman " (' Athenae,' ii. 155 ; ' D.N.B ' xx. 241).
" As for M r Indimion Porter, he was most certainly born at a little village in Gloucpter
Sh: call'd Aston under Hill, two miles from Camp-
den, 8 from M r [Ralph] Sheldon at Weston. The
old Bayliffe was buried yesterday."
Wood has given Porter's birthplace in ' Athense,' iii. 2 (and v. ' D.N.B.,' xlvi. 172). After " Will Croft's " signature Wood has written " comonly callid Thump (v. his ' Life and Times,' ii. 368, 465 ; iii. 98).
13. From Henry Hurst to Wood of May Day, 1688.
The writer (' Athenae,' iv. 273 ; ' D.N.B.,' xxviii. 319) encloses a brief notice of John Biscoe in another handwriting ( ' Athente,' iii. 1198; 'D.N.B.,' v. 89), under which Wood has written : " This is a silly account."
14. Already given ante, p. 145. Wood accepts 1635 as the date of Bishop Ken's birth (' Athenae,' iv. 547).
A. R. BAYLEY.
PviCHAED BURBAGE. It is affirmed by
Karl Elze (p. 248, English version) that
Burbage played Lear ; but the statement
appears to be conjectural. The same au-
thority tells us that Flecknoe, who died
1582, and probably wrote by report, praises
the Protean nature of Burbage. Elze inter-
prets this to mean that he played in the
principal and grandest characters in Shake-
speare's dramas. This is not the true
significance of the epithet. Proteus rapidly
transforms himself when you try to catch
him :
Fiat enim subito sus horridus, atraque tigris, Squamosusque draco, et fulva cervice leama Aut aerem flammae sonitum dabit, atque ita
vinclis Excidet, aut in aquas tenuis dilapsus abibit.
By a succession of rapid disguises does Edgar escape discovery. Now it seems to be generally acknowledged that Burbage acted Volpone* in the play of that name, and I believe Face in ' The Alchemist.' Now in the first scene of Act I. of ' Volpone,' Volpone is first himself, then a moribund invalid ; in the first scene of Act II. he is a mountebank ; in the sixth scene of Act III. he throws off his invalid disguise, and is the brisk lover wooing Ceiia. His words here are very significant, and amply explain the epithet " Protean " applied to Burbage :
Why art thou mazed to see me thus revived ? Rather applaud thy beauty's miracle ; Tis thy great work : that hath, not now alone But sundry times raised me, in several shapes,
- According to Dr. Brinsley Nicholson, this
part was taken by Lowin on the first production of the play in 1605 ; Elze only says that Lowin played in ' Volpone.'
