In my first communication I did myself the pleasure to send you a correct list of all the royal letters which had been sent by different English monarchs to the Grand Masters of Malta, with their dates, the languages in which they were written, and stating to whom they were addressed. I now purpose to forward with your permission from time to time, literal translations of these letters, which Mr.... more...

A LEADER FROM A FOREIGN NEWSPAPER: THE NEW RUSSIAN MANIFESTO. Mention was recently made, in Vol. ix., p. 218., of the valuable character of many of the leading articles in the continental journals, and a wish expressed that translations of them were more frequently communicated in our own papers to English readers. The great newspapers of this country are too rich in varied talent and worldwide... more...

NOTES ON GRAMMONT. Agreeing with Mr. Peter Cunningham (vide History of Nell Gwyn), that a new edition of Grammont is much wanted, I beg to avail myself of your pages, and to offer a few remarks and notes which I have made in reference to that very entertaining work for the consideration of a future annotator. Of the several maids of honour mentioned therein I will begin with those of the queen. They... more...

The Arke of Artificial Day. Before proceeding, to point out the indelible marks by which Chaucer has, as it were, stereotyped the true date of the journey to Canterbury, I shall clear away another stumbling-block, still more insurmountable to Tyrwhitt than his first difficulty of the "halfe cours" in Aries, viz. the seeming inconsistency in statements (1.) and (2.) in the following lines of the... more...

Minor Notes. Italian-English (Vol. viii., p. 436.).—The following wholesale assassination of the English language was perpetrated in the form of a circular, and distributed among the British residents at Naples in 1832: "Joseph the Cook, he offer to one illuminated public and most particular for British knowing men in general one remarkable, pretty, famous, and splendid collection of old goods,... more...

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DEFENCE OF THE EXECUTION OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. Allow me to supply a deficiency in my last volume of Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company, printed by the Shakspeare Society. It occurs at p. 224., in reference to an entry of 11th Feb., 1587, in the following terms: "John Wyndett. Lycensed alsoe to him, under the B. of London hand and Mr. Denham, An Analogie or Resemblance... more...

Notes. ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER, NO. VI. Unless Chaucer had intended to mark with particular exactness the day of the journey to Canterbury, he would not have taken such unusual precautions to protect his text from ignorant or careless transcribers. We find him not only recording the altitudes of the sun, at different hours, in words; but also corroborating those words by associating them with physical... more...

WILLIAM BLAKE. My antiquarian tendencies bring me acquainted with many neglected and obscure individuals connected with our earlier English literature, who, after "fretting their hour" upon life's stage, have passed away; leaving their names entombed upon the title-page of some unappreciated or crotchetty book, only to be found upon the shelves of the curious. To look for these in Kippis,... more...

PARTY-SIMILES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY—NO. I. "FOXES AND FIREBRANDS." NO. II. "THE TROJAN HORSE." With Englishmen, at least, the seventeenth was a century pre-eminent for quaint conceits and fantastic similes: the literature of that period, whether devotional, poetical, or polemical, was alike infected with the universal mania for strained metaphors, and men vied with each other in... more...