250
NOTES AND QUERIES. [lO* S. I. MARCH 26, 1904.
followed in'NovaSolyma.' However, whether
we consider the earlier Armada epic or the
later unsurpassable ones of Milton's blind
old age, in neither case can it be allowed
that the author was a plagiarist. There is
the "strange case" of him and Vondel the
Dutchman, it is true, and the undoubted and
remarkable similarities and parallel passages
are amazing ; but they need not induce any
one to consider Milton a plagiarist any more
than to consider the immortal Elizabethan
author of the chronicle plays to be in the
same category because he, page after page,
presents his readers with almost the very
words of Holinshed. The fact is these two
illustrious borrowers took, as it were, lead,
or tin, or some baser metal, and transmuted
it by their wondrous alchemy into the finest
gold the world knows of. If this be pla-
giarism or literary theft, the world is willing
to have more of such deeds. Take the case
of Francis Bacon. If ever a man knew how
to put in better phrase what had been written
or said by other people, and to magnificate
and glorify it in the process of change, then
Francis Bacon was the man. Indeed, this
was frequently admitted by both his friends
and enemies, and to some extent allowed
by himself; but he, too, was no plagiarist,
though he was able to bombast a line or two
out of Holinshed better even than Shakspear
of Stratford, as many people think.
~NE QUID NIMIS.
Addison, in the following passage from the Spectator, probably refers to these imita- tions :
"I have likewise endeavoured to shew how the Genius of the Poet shines by a happy Invention, a distant Allusion, or a judicious Imitation ; how he has copied or improved Homer or Virgil, and raised his own Imaginations by the Use which he has made of several Poetical Passages in Scripture. I might have inserted also several passages of Tasso, which our Author has imitated." No. 369 on Milton's Paradise Lost.'
All the great epic poets since Homer have enriched their poems intentionally with the thoughts of their predecessors : and Milton certainly has done so as much as any oi th em. E. YAEDLEY.
MERRY THOUGHTS IN A SAD PLACE ' (10 U
S. i. 141, 193). The authorship of these lines
has always been a matter of interest to
students of seventeenth-century verse, and i
short bibliographical note may perhaps pro
duce more evidence upon the point.
Twelve stanzas of the poem (omitting that beginning "What though I cannot see my King ) were printed in a pamphlet of four
leaves, together with verses ' Upon his
Majesties coming to Holmby ' and ' A Pane-
?yrick faithfully representing the proceed-
ings of the Parliament.' The pamphlet has no
ritle and is undated ; it is bound among the
tracts of 1647 in the King's Pamphlets in the
British Museum, but part of the manuscript
date has been cut off, and it might possibly
oe 1649. The lines are headed ' The Liberty
of the Imprisoned Royalist,' and this is, I
oelieve, their first appearance in print. They
nave been offered for sale by auction in this
form as the work of Lovelace, but it is not
necessary to suppose that their author had
even seen the lines to Althea, as the ideas
ommon to both may be found in various
other places.
The whole poem, entitled 'The Requiem or Libertie of an Imprisoned Royalist, G.M.,' appears in some copies of ' Vaticinium Voti-
vum ; or, Palsemon's Prophetick Prayer
Trajecti. Anno Caroli Martyris primo.' Mr. Percy Dobell, of Charing Cross Road, kindly called my attention to this, and procured me a copy of the book. Other places in which it was printed are : ' Parnassus Biceps,' 1656, p. 107, 'The Liberty and Requiem of an Imprisoned Royalist'; ' Wit and Drollery,' 1656, p. 11, and ' Rump Songs,' 1662, pt. i. p. 242 (reprint), ' Loyalty Confin'd ' ; ' Westminster Drollery,; 1671, p. 96 (ed. Ebsworth), 'The Loyal Prisoner.'
I have purposely omitted Lloyd's 'Memoirs,' 1668, p. 95, where it was introduced by these words : " But I will cloath his free thoughts in the closest restraint, with the generous Expressions of a worthy Personage that suffered deeply in those times, and injoys only the conscience of having so suffered in these." What Lloyd says has been thought to fit L'Estrange, the traditional author (see Percy's 'Reliques,' ii. bk. iii. No. 12, 1767), who was seized near Lynn in December, 1644, and imprisoned until he was allowed to escape from the Tower in the spring of 1648; but Mr. Ebsworth points out that he had not gone entirely unrewarded after the Restora- tion, having been appointed Licenser in 1663.
The poem has also been assigned to Lord Capel ('Royal and Noble Authors,' ed. Park, iii. 35) ; but apart from the difficulty in his case of Lloyd's statement, MS. authority is, I believe, in favour of L'Estrange, who was accepted by Archdeacon Hannah as the author. G. THORN-DRURY.
" BRIDGE " : ITS DERIVATION (10 th S. i. 189). This game is said to have been brought to England from Constantinople, where it had been introduced by Russian members of the
