ii s. vm, AUG. 2, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
87
said The Queen on its first appearance ;
a-nd The Literary World added, "The
literary puzzle of the hour is Who wrote
' The Silver Domino ' ? " For twenty years
this puzzle has, so far as I know, remained
unsolved, but an apparent solution has at
last come from an unexpected source, for
in the ' Katalog der Byron-Abteilung
des Englischen Seminars,' by Ottokar
Intze, in ' Byroniana und Anderes aus dem
Englischen Seminar in Erlangen,' 1912
(kindly sent to me recently by Dr. H.
Varnhagen in reply to my query on ' Byron
and the Hobhouse MS.'), is the following
entry :
" Corelli, Marie. Byron loquitur. In deren :
- The Silver Domino ; or, Side Whispers, Social
.and Literary,' London, Lamley & Co., 1893. S. 327-356."
Is this " a bow at a venture," or an authoritative statement ? If the former, it is a pure literary lese-majeste against anonymity ; if the latter, whence its source, and how long has the veil been lifted ? Is it, after all, but the latest attempt to detect a mysterious iden- tity, only to be added to many con- temporary such, and equally foredoomed to failure with (to quote the confident sar- casm of the Note) other " supposititious clues and random shots " concerning a satirist too " closely masked " to fear detection ? And did the compiler of the
- Katalog ' draw the inference upon which
he based his statement from the subjoined passage in the very chapter or paper ( ' Byron loquitur,' xix. 327) which he cites ?
" With the reckless Corelli, I propound to myself the startling question, ' Suppose God were dead ? We see that the works of men live ages after their death why not the works of God ? ' '
Did he regard this sentence as a " blind " and a clue at the same time ? Possibly. But the evidence, though internal, is slight and risky, and the entry looks perilously analogous to that of the catalogue compiler who entered George Eliot's work under " Mill " as ' Mill on the Floss.'
This desire to unmask the identity of authors of books that, for whatever reason, have enjoyed even an ephemeral vogue is not altogether idle curiosity, but "is often," as George Tyrrell acutely observes, " a healthy instinct a desire to integrate our general view of the world in which we have to live"; yet its gratification should be pursued along lines which invade no private territory nor intersect ruthlessly the domain of uncertainty. Whether this
has been so or not in the present instance
I have no available information to enable
me to decide. Perhaps others more en-
lightened can make the decision for me.
J. B. McGovERN.
St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.
A SHOVEL CALLED A BECKET. Just outside Littleport on the Wisbech Road is a small inn with the curious sign " Spade and Becket." The landlord informs me that a becket is "a shovel with a wing on made for turf digging, as it cuts out the shape of the turf." GEORGE WHERRY.
WE must request correspondents desiring: in-
formation on family matters of only private interest
to affix their names and addresses to their queries,
in order that answers may be sent to them direct.
JOHNSON BIBLIOGRAPHY. 1. Can any one
supply the sources of the following quota-
tions, which are among the mottoes prefixed
to Johnson's ' Rambler ' ?
By A. W. : No. 75.
When smiling fortune spreads her golden ray, All crowd around to flatter and obey ; But when she thunders from an angry sky, Our friends, our flatterers, our lovers fly.
By A, W. : No. 172.
Thou hast not known the giddy worlds of fate, Nor servile flatteries which enchant the great.
The initials suggest the name of Anna Williams.
By E. C. : No. 166.
Once poor, my friend, still poor you must remain, The rich alone have all the means of gain.
By E. C. : No. 150.
Led by our stars what tracts immense we trace ! From seas remote, what funds of science raise 1 A pain to thought ; but when th' heroic band Keturns applauded to their native land, A life domestic you will then deplore, And sigh, while I describe the various shore. " E. C.' 1 might be Elizabeth Carter.
By Catcott : No. 52. How oft in vain the son of Theseus said, Thy stormy sorrows be with patience laid : Nor are thy fortunes to be wept alone ; Weigh others' woes, and learn to bear thy own.
2. A cutting from an old catalogue of a second-hand bookseller's stock shows the existence of a
" facsimile inscription for the collar of Sir Joseph Banks's goat, 1772 ; designed by Dr. Samuel Johnson. Norwich, 4to."
The inscription is printed, sub 1772, in Boswell (Hill's ed., ii. 144). I shall be glad to know when, and for whom, this fac- simile was printed at Norwich.
