98
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vn. FEB. 2, 1901.
which Miss Sharp could scarcely have lifted
(her * Dixonary ' was an abridgment of this),
and found the word with its various signi-
fications, supported by suitable quotations,
among which are the very lines mentioned.
Let Ben Jonson himself be the Court of Ap-
peal. In ' Underwoods ' there is * An Epigram
to the Household,' in which the old bard
complains that the sack granted him by the
king had not been forwarded. The twelfth
line runs as follows :
'Twere better spare a butt, than spill his muse. With an interesting note from ' Anonymiana, London, 1809, I conclude. The writer says :
" There is an hexameter verse in the New Testa' ment: 'Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them ' (Col. iii. 19). But this does not run so well as the following : Benjamin, immortal Jonson, most highly renowned. This though is not accidental, but was made on purpose." The book was written by Dr. Samuel Pegge-
I may add that I have seen Dr. Jessopp's little book on Dr. Donne, but have been unable to consult Mr. E. Gosse's more com- plete history of that patriarch and poet.
JOHN T. CURRY.
Liverpool.
SURNAMES (9 th S. vii. 28). If this question had been less indefinite, a more definite reply would have been possible. Surnames grew out of descriptive appellations, and the date at which they originated varied, according to the locality and the person's rank in life. In the South we first find them at the beginning of the twelfth century. In the Northern counties they were not universal at the end of the fourteenth ; and in remote parts oi Wales, in the mining districts, and in the slums of Glasgow they are still unknown They were first used by the barons anc franklins, then by the tradesmen and artisans and lastly by the labourers. Nor is it always easy to determine whether a name has become a surname. If John Wilson's son is caller Johnson, and not Wilson, then Wilson is stil a description, and not a surname.
ISAAC TAYLOR.
DUKE OF BOLTON'S REGIMENT (9 th S. vi. 508 vii. 52). According to Mr. Dal ton's ' Englisl Army Lists and Commission Registers vol. iii. pp. 67-8, there were two regiment of foot known as the Duke of Bolton's. Th first was raised in Hampshire by the Marqui of Winchester (afterwards first Duke o Bolton) in March, 1689, and was disbande< in 1697. The second was raised in Yorkshir and proceeded to the West Indies in 1690, am was there disbanded after the Peace of Rys
rick. The marquis was appointed colonel
f both regiments 8 March, 1689.
G. F. R. B.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.
The Successors of Drake. By Julian S. Corbett.
(Longmans & Co.)
VLB. CORBETT has constituted himself the historian f the Elizabethan navy and its heroes. In May, 898, he issued in two volumes ' Drake and the ?udor Navy : with a History of the Rise of England is a Maritime Power,' which was followed in June f the same year by ' Papers relating to the Navy iuring the Spanish War, 1585-7.' To these works The Successors of Drake ' comes as a complement, arrying the record to the death of Elizabeth and .he stoppage of the naval war. Though less gratifying to the national pride than the exploits )f the years immediately precedent, including the constant singeing by Drake of the King of Spain's jeard and the destruction of the " Invincible Armada," and though barren, in a sense, of result, the incidents now depicted are sufficiently striking and heroic. Between the wreck of the " Invincible Armada" and the approach of the "Invisible Armada " attempts of Spain to effect a landing in England, or otherwise to injure us, were continuous. Even more numerous were the efforts of English- men we will not say to retaliate, since they were constantly the aggressors, but to repeat the deeds of Drake ; to capture the rich Spanish possessions n the West Indies, and to seize the richly laden jalleons which, for fear of the English " pirates "
- he use of the term is almost to TDC justified, even
though they were not the original aggressors scarcely dared show their noses out of port. The period occupied that between 1588 and the acces- sion of James I., which put an end to the war with Spain is, as Mr. Corbett says, one "of brilliant failures." Deeds of highest valour were accom- plished, and Englishmen, accustomed to constant success, learned to despise their foe until there were scarcely any odds they were not prepared to face. So mismanaged, however, were matters at home, and such were the evils of divided counsels and commands, that the results achieved were practically unrenmnerative ; and the indignities to which Philip was subjected were calculated to waken rather than weaken, to arouse that monarch from his lethargy, and to provoke him, as finally was done, into a stern resolve to revenge at any cost the contempt with which he had been treated.
Among the events recorded, the most important, if not the most heroic, was the occupation of Cadiz. Seeley has called this "the Trafalgar of the Elizabethan war." Nothing practically came of it except the creation of a Spanish fleet, the occupation of Ireland, the attempted launch- ing against England of three Armadas, the forma- tion of naval stations down the length of the Channel, and the establishment at Sluys prac- tically within our defensive armour of Spinola, one of the ablest and most adventurous of Spanish commanders. Mr. Corbett's own estimate is that,
so far from being a crowning success, it was rather an irretrievable miscarriage, that condemned the
