"Notes and Queries" in Holland
The following extremely interesting, and, we need scarcely add, to us most gratifying, communication reached us at too late a period last week to admit of our then laying it before our friends, readers, and contributors. They will one and all participate in our gratification at the proof which it affords, not merely of that success which they have all combined to secure, but of the good working, and consequent wide extension, of that great principle of literary brotherhood which it has been the great object of "Notes and Queries" to establish.
To the Editor of "Notes and Queries."
Mr. Editor,
We have the pleasure of sending you the prospectus of "De Navorscher," a new Dutch periodical, grounded upon the same principle as its valuable and valiant predecessor "Notes and Queries." The title, when translated into English, would be—"The Searcher; a medium of intellectual exchange and literary intercourse between all who know something, have to ask something, or can solve something." If it be glorious for you to have proposed a good example, we think it honourable for us to follow it.
Though we do not wish to be our own trumpets, we can say that never a Dutch newspaper was greeted, before its appearance, by such favourable prognostics. Your idea, Mr. Editor, was received with universal applause; and Mr. Frederik Muller, by whom "De Navorscher" will be published, is not only a celebrated bookseller, but also one of our most learned bookmen.
Ready to promote by every means in our power the friendly intercourse between your country and our fatherland, we desire of you to lay the following plan before the many readers of "Notes and Queries."
1. Every Query, which, promulgated by our English sister, would perhaps find a solution when meeting the eyes of Dutch readers, will be TRANSLATED for them by her foreign brother. We promise to send you a version of the eventual answers.
2. Of Queries, divulged in "De Navorscher," and likely to be answered if translated for the British readers of "Notes and Queries," a version will be presented by us to the sister-periodical.
3. The title of Books or Odd Volumes wanted to purchase, of which copies may exist in the Netherlands, will be duly inserted into "De Navorscher" when required. Mr. Frederik Muller will direct his letters, containing particulars and lowest price, to the persons anxious for information.
4. All communications for "De Navorscher" must be addressed to Mr. D. Nutt, Bookseller, No. 270. Strand; or, carriage free, to the "Directors of the same," care of Mr. Frederik Muller, "Heerengracht, near the Oude Spieglestraat, Amsterdam."
With a fervent wish that in such a manner, two neighbourly nations, connected by religion, commerce, and literary pursuits, may be more and more united by the mail-bearing sea which divides them, we have the honour to remain,
Mr. Editor,
Your respectful servants,
The Directors of "De Navorscher."
Amsterdam, the 16th of December, 1850.
When by the publication of "Notes and Queries" we laid down those telegraphic lines of literary communication which we hoped should one day find their way into every library and book-room in the United Kingdom, we little thought that, ere fifteen months had passed, we should be called upon, not to lay down a submarine telegraph, but to establish a supermarine communication with our brethren in the Low Countries. We do so most gladly, for we owe them much. From them it was that Caxton learned the art, but for which "Notes and Queries" would never have existed; and of which the unconstrained practice has, under Providence, served to create our literature, to maintain our liberties, and to win for England its exalted position among the nations of the earth.
Heartily, therefore, do we bid God speed to "De Navorscher;" and earnestly will we do all we can to realize the kindly wish of our Amsterdam brethren, that the "two neighbourly nations of Holland and England, connected by religion, commerce, and literary pursuits, may be more and more united by the mail-bearing sea which divides them."
Notes
SIR JOHN DAVIES AND HIS BIOGRAPHERS
Sir John Davies, the "sweet poet" and "grave lawyer"—rather odd combinations by the bye,—according to Wood, was "born at Chisgrove, in the parish of Tysbury in Wiltshire, being the son of a wealthy tanner of that place!" This statement is repeated in Cooper's Muses' Library, p. 331.; Nichols's Select Poems, vol. i., p. 276.; Sir E. Brydges's edition of Philips's Theatrum Poetarum, 1800, p. 272.; Sir Harris Nicolas's edition of Davison's Poetical Rhapsody, vol. i. p. cii., &c. And Headley, in his Select Beauties of Poetry, ed. 1787, vol. i. p. xli., adds, "he was a man of low extraction!" Wood's assertion concerning Davies's parentage, was made, I believe, upon the authority of Fuller; but it is undoubtedly an error, as the books which record the admission of the younger Davies into the Society of the Middle Temple, say the father was "late of New Inn, gentleman."
Mr. Robert R. Pearce, in a recent work, entitled A History of the Inns of Court and Chancery, 8vo. 1848, p. 293., gives the following sketch of the leading facts in the life of our "poetical lawyer:"—
"Sir John Davis, the author of Reports, and several other legal works, and a poet of considerable repute, was of this Society [i.e. the Middle Temple]. His father was a member of New Inn, and a practitioner of the law in Wiltshire. At the Middle Temple, young Davis became rather notorious for his irregularities, and having beaten Mr. Richard Martin (also a poet, and afterwards Recorder of London) in the hall, he was expelled the house. Afterwards, through the influence of Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, he was restored to his position in the Middle Temple; and, in 1601, was elected a Member of the House of Commons. In 1603, he was appointed by King James Solicitor-General in Ireland. In 1606, he was called to the degree of Serjeant-at-Law; and, in the following year, was knighted by the King at Whitehall. In 1612, he published a book on the state of Ireland, which is often referred to; and soon afterwards he was appointed King's Serjeant, and Speaker of the House of Commons in Ireland. On his return to England he published his reports of cases adjudged in the King's Court in Ireland,—the first reports of Irish cases made public. The preface to these reports is very highly esteemed. It has been said to vie with Coke in solidity and learning, and equal Blackstone in classical illustration and elegant language. Sir John Davis died 7th of December, 1626."
It is amusing to see how erroneous statements creep into ordinary biography. Headley, as we have just seen, calls Davies "a man of low extraction;" and now we find a more recent biographer adding (without the shadow of an authority), "at the Middle Temple, young Davies became rather notorious for his irregularities!"
Davies's quarrel with Richard Martin is alluded to by Wood. After speaking of his admission into the Middle Temple, and of his being made a barrister (July, 1595), that writer adds:—
"But so it was that he [Sir John Davies] being a high-spirited young man, did, upon some little provocation or punctilio, bastinado Rich. Martin (afterwards Recorder of London) in the Common Hall of the Middle Temple, while he was at dinner. For which act being forthwith [February, 1597-8] expell'd, he retired for a time in private, lived in Oxon in the condition of a sojourner, and follow'd his studies, tho' he wore a cloak. However, among his serious thoughts, making reflections upon his own condition, which sometimes was an affliction to him, he composed that excellent philosophical and divine poem called Nosce Teipsum."
It is not a little singular that this very Richard Martin, whose chastisement is thus recorded, had been on terms of strict friendship with our "high-spirited" young lawyer. In 1596, Davies had published his poem on dancing, entitled Orchestra, the title-page of which is followed by a dedicatory sonnet "To his very friend, Ma. Richard Martin." This sonnet is written in extravagant terms of friendship and admiration; and as it is only to be found in the rare first edition, and in the almost equally rare Bibliographical Catalogue of the Ellesmere Collection, some of your readers may not be displeased to see it on the present occasion:—
"TO HIS VERY FRIEND MA. RICH. MARTIN
"To whom shall I this dauncing Poeme send,
This suddaine, rash, halfe-capreol of my wit?
To you, first mover and sole cause of it,
Mine-owne-selves better halve, my deerest frend.
O, would you yet my Muse some Honny lend
From your mellifluous tongue, whereon doth sit
Suada in majestie, that I may fit
These harsh beginnings with a sweeter end.
You know the modest sunne full fifteene times
Blushing did rise, and blushing did descend,
While I in making of these ill made rimes,
My golden bowers unthriftily did spend.
Yet, if in friendship you these numbers prayse,
I will mispend another fifteene dayes."
The cause of quarrel between the two young lawyers is not known, but the "offence," whatever it was, was not slight. In the year 1622, when Davies reprinted his poetical works, we find that his feelings of resentment against his once "very friend" had not abated, for in place of the dedicatory sonnet to Richard Martin, is substituted a sonnet addressed to Prince Charles; and at the conclusion of the poem, he left a hiatus after the one hundred and twenty-sixth stanza, on account of the same quarrel.
Sir John Davies's celebrated poem, Nosce Teipsum (mentioned by Wood in the previous extract), is said to have gained the author the favour of James I., even before he came to the crown. Wood gives the precise period of its composition, and, I think, with every appearance of truth, although it does not accord with the statement of modern biographers, that it was written at twenty-five years of age. (See Campbell's Essay on Poetry, &c., ed. 1848, p. 184.) The first edition of this poem was printed in 4to. in the year 1599, and has for its title the following:—
"Nosce Teipsum. This Oracle expounded in Two Elegies. 1. Of Humane Knowledge. 2. Of the Soule of Man, and the Immortalitie thereof. London, Printed by Richard Field, for John Standish. 43 leaves."
As I am deeply interested in all that relates to the subject of this note, I have compiled a list of editions of the above poem, which shows its popularity for more than a century and a half:—
1. 1599. London, 4to. First edition.
2. 1602. ib. 4to. Second ed.
3. 1608. ib. 4to. Third ed.
4. 1619. ib. 8vo. Fourth ed.
5. 1622. ib. 8vo. The last edition printed during the Author's lifetime.
6. 1653. ib. 4to. Published by T. Jenner with curious plates, and prose paraphrase.
7. 1688. ib. folio. With prose dissertation.
8. 1697. Dublin, 8vo. With Life of the Author, by Nahum Tate.
9. 1714. ib. 12mo. Second edition by Tate.
10. 1733. ib. 8vo. With Essay by Dr. Sheridan.
11. 1749. London, 12mo.
12. 1759. Glasgow, 12mo. With Life of the Author.
13. 1760. London, 8vo. In Capel's Prolusions.
14. 1773. ib. 12mo. In Davies's Poetical Works, edited by Thompson.
Sir John Davies left behind him a large number of MSS. upon various subjects, none of which have since been printed. It would be very desirable that a list, as far as can now be made out, should be put on record. Anthony Wood says, several of Davies's MSS. were formerly in the library of Sir James Ware of Ireland and since that in the possession of Edward, Earl of Clarendon. The most interesting of these MSS. were a Collection of Epigrams, and a Metaphrase of David's Psalms. The Harleian MSS., Nos. 1578. and 4261., contain two law treatises of this learned writer, and in Thorpe's Catalogue for 1823, I find A Treatise of Tenures touchinge his Majesties Prerogative Royal, by John Davies, folio, MS.
Granger does not record any engraved portrait of this writer, and all my enquiries have failed in discovering one. In Mr. Soame Jenyn's Hall, at Botesham, in Cambridgeshire (in 1770), was a full-length portrait of an elderly gentleman in a gown, with a book in one hand, on which is written "Nosce Teipsum." If this is a genuine portrait of Sir John Davies, it ought to be engraved to accompany a new edition of his poetical works; a publication which the lovers of our old poetry would deem an acceptable offering.
Edward F. Rimbault.