is it that North-Country people use the short a in such words as "ask," "last," "pass," whereas South-Country people use the long? I suppose the long a is really the correct use. York.
Adam Lyttleton, LL.D.—I have a Latin dictionary of date, I think, previous to 1690 from which the title-page is missing. On the fly-leaf some one has written, "A Dictionary of the Latin Tongue, by Adam Lyttleton, LL.D." Can any one give me information about this man? Was he really the author, or only an editor of the book? I cannot find any notice of him in the books I have consulted. G. Petersen.
[The 'D.N.B.' supplies a life. The date of the dictionary is 1673. Adam Littleton was a prebendary of Westminster in 1674.]
"Was you?" and "You was."—About what time and why did the custom obtain of using "was" with "you"? When did it cease? In "The Trial of Elizabeth, Duchess Dowager of Kingston, for Bigamy…Published by Order of the House of Peers," 1776, "Was you?" and "You was" are used by peers and counsel, I think, invariably. In the "Minutes of Evidence" of the trial of Queen Caroline, 1820, "Were you?" is the form used. On p. 69 I find:—
"'Were you living in the Ambassador's House? 'No.' 'Was it during the time that you was supported by the Ambassador?'"
In the errata, p. 489, is the following: "Page 69, line 11, for 'you was' read you were." The said "Minutes of Evidence" are Lords' Paper 105 of 1820.
[See 6ᵗʰ S. iii. 287, 458; vi. 397.]
Copernicus and the Planet Mercury.—Are there any real grounds for supposing that Copernicus never saw the planet Mercury during his long life, and that the famous astronomer's last moments were embittered by the circumstance? The matter has again cropped up during the present easterly elongation of the planet.
Thomas Neale: "Herberley."—The decree of the Holy Office on Anglican Orders, dated 17 April, 1704, speaking of the "Nag's Head" story, says:—
"Ita accidisse testatus est oculatus testis Thomas Keal [sic], Professor linguæ Hebraicæ Oxonii, cuidam suo amico Herberlei, cum uterque religionis causa exul ex patria in Belgio degeret."
The 'D.N.B.' (xl. 136), which knows nothing of an exile in Belgium, says that Neale's connexion with the "Nag's Head" story rests on the 'De Illustribus Angliæ Scriptoribus' of John Pitts, posthumously published in 1619. This appears to be an error, for John Holywood, or Christopherus a Sancto Bosco, tells the story on Neale's authority in his 'De Investigatione veræ et visibilis Christi Ecclesiæ,' published in 1604, after which it, most unhappily in my opinion, became a commonplace of controversy. Neither Holywood nor Pitts mentions the exile in Belgium or "Herberley." Whence is the statement that Neale was in exile in Belgium derived? Who was "Herberley"?
Caspar Welsbach.—I possess a copy of Luther's Bible, 1541, with his own manuscript notes and other interesting items. It also contains a book-plate "stamped" in from a block, with a coat of arms, and the name "Caspar Welsbach" underneath. Can any one tell me who the owner was?
Replies.
BARNES: 'THE DEVIL'S CHARTER.'
(10ᵗʰ S. i. 467.)
In reply to Mr. C. R. Dawes, I may say that I have at present in hand a reprint of this play for Prof. W. Bang's series of "Materialen zur Kunde des älteren Englischen Dramas." The text was finished last year, and the book will, I hope, be published shortly. The play contains many difficulties, and the compilation of the notes has necessitated a good deal of work; hence the delay.
The kernel of the plot is the legend of a contract entered into with the Devil by Pope Alexander VI., when a cardinal. This is made the occasion for a number of imperfectly connected scenes, displaying the "faithless, fearless, and ambitious lives" of Alexander and his son Cæsar Borgia. There is so little dramatic unity in the play that it is impossible to construct an "argument"; but possibly the following list of the chief incidents may be of use. By the agreement with the Devil, A. becomes Pope; Charles VIII. enters Italy; Lucretia Borgia murders her husband, "Gismond di Viselli"; Charles enters Rome; Cæsar Borgia murders his brother, the Duke of Candy; A. raises devils, and learns by whom the murder was committed; A. poisons Lucretia; Cæsar takes the town of Furly (Forli); A. poisons Astor Manfredi and his brother; A. and Cæsar attempt to poison two cardinals, "Cornetto and Medina," at a banquet, but the Devil
