Queries.

POPE AND THE MARQUIS MAFFEI.

I would beg the insertion of the following Note, which occurs at p. 338. of Walker's Historical Memoir on Italian Tragedy; with a view to ascertaining whether any light has been thrown on the subject since the publication of the work in question. I fear there is little chance of such being the case, but still I would be glad to learn from any of your correspondents, whether there is other evidence than the passage given from the Marquis's letter to Voltaire, to prove that Pope was actually engaged in the translation of his tragedy; or whether there is any allusion in the cotemporary literature of the day, to such a work having been undertaken by the bard of Twickenham.

"It seems to have escaped the notice of all Pope's biographers, that when the Marquis Maffei visited Twickenham, in company with Lord Burlington and Dr. Mead, he found the English bard employed on a translation of his Merope: yet the public have been in possession of this anecdote about fifty years. The Marquis, in his answer to the celebrated letter addressed to him by Voltaire, says: 'Avendomi Mylord Conte di Burlington, e il Sig. Dottore Mead, l'uno e l'altro talenti rari, ed à quali quant' io debba non posso dire, condotto alla villa del Sig. Pope, ch' è il Voltaire dell Inghilterra, come voi siete il Pope della Francia, quel bravo Poeta mi fece vedere, che lavorava alla versione della mia Tragedia in versi Inglesi: se la terminasse, e che ne sia divenuto, non so.'—La Merope, ver. 1745, p. 180. With the fate of this version we are, and probably shall ever remain, unacquainted: it may, however, be safely presumed, that it was never finished to the satisfaction of the translator, and therefore committed to the flames."

T. C. S.

THE CHURCH CATECHISM.

Allow me to make the following inquiries through the pages of "N. & Q.," which may possibly elicit valuable information from some of your many correspondents. In the Archbishop of York's questions put to candidates for Holy Orders, Feb. 1850, occurred this Query: "The Church Catechism ... by whom was the latter part added and put into its present form; and whence is it chiefly derived?" The former part of this is readily answered; being, as any one at all read in the history of the Prayer-Book well knows, added at the Hampton Court Conference, 1603; and was drawn up by Bishop Overall, at that time Dean of St. Paul's: but whence is it chiefly derived? That is the question for which I have hitherto sought in vain a satisfactory solution, and fear his grace, or his examining chaplain, must have looked in vain for a correct reply from any of his quasi clergymen, college education though they may have had. It is a point which seems to be passed over entirely unnoticed by all of our liturgical writers and church historians, as I have been at no little pains in searching works at all likely to clear it up, but, hitherto, without success. It may be conjectured that the part referred to, viz., on the Sacraments, was taken from Dean Nowell's Catechism; or, at all events, that Overall borrowed some of the expressions while he changed its meaning, as Nowell's was purely Calvinistic in tendency. He may have had before him the fourth part of Peter Lombard's Liber Sententiarum, or some such work. But all this is mere supposition; and what I want to arrive at, is some correct data or authoritative statement which would settle the point. Another interesting matter upon which I am desirous of information, is, as to the protestation after the rubrics at the end of the Communion Service. In our present Prayer-Book it is in marks of quotation, which we do not find in the second book of King Edward VI., where it originally appears—and the expressions there admit the real presence. It was altogether left out in Elizabeth's Prayer-Book, but again inserted in the last review in 1661, when the inverted commas first appear: the sense being somewhat different, allowing the spiritual but not the actual or bodily presence of Christ. Why are the commas or marks of quotation, if such they be, then inserted? I have written to a well-known Archdeacon, eminent for his works on the Sacraments, but his answer does not convey what is sought by

C. J. Armistead.

Springfield Mount, Leeds.

A COUNTESS OF SOUTHAMPTON.

I have just been reading, in the Revue des deux Mondes, an interesting article upon the recently-published Memoirs of Mademoiselle de Kœnigsmark, in which I meet with the following passage:

"Ce fut à Venise que Charles-Jean de Kœnigsmark rencontra la belle Comtesse de Southampton, cette vaillante amoureuse qui, plantant la fortune et famille, le suivit désormais par le monde déguisée en page: romanesque anecdote que la princesse Palatine a consignée dans ses mémoires avec cette brusque rondeur de style qui ne marchande pas les expressions. 'Il doit être assez dans le caractère de quelques dames anglaises de suivre leurs amans. J'ai connu un Comte de Kœnigsmark qu'une dame anglaise avait suivi en habit de page. Elle était avec lui à Chambord, et comme, faute de place, il ne pouvait loger au Château, il avait fait dresser dans la forêt une tente où il logeât. Il me raconta son aventure à la Masse; j'eu la curiosité de voir le soi-disant page. Je n'ai jamais rien vu de plus beau que cette figure: les plus beaux yeux du monde, une bouche charmante, une prodigieuse quantité de cheveux du plus beau brun, qui tombèrent en grosses boucles sur ses épaules. Elle sourit en me voyant, se doutant bien que je savais son secret. Lorsqu'il partit de Chambord pour l'Italie, le Comte Kœnigsmark se trouva dans une auberge, et en sortit le matin pour faire un tour de promenade. L'hotesse de cette maison courut après lui et lui cria: 'Montez vite là-haut, Monsieur, votre page accouche!' Le page accoucha en effet d'une fille: on mit la mère et l'enfant dans un couvent à Paris."

He afterwards went to England, where—

"Les frères, cousins, et petits cousins de lady Southampton l'attendaient, et les duels se mirent à lui pleuvoir dessus. Comme son épée aimait assez à luire au soleil, il la tira volontiers, et avec une chance telle que ses ennemis, ne pouvant le vaincre par le fer, jugèrent à propos d'essayer du poison. Dégouté de perdre son temps à de pareilles misères, &c. &c. Tant que le comte a vecu il en a eu grand soin; mais il mourut en Morée, et le page fidèle ne lui survécut pas long-temps. Elle est morte comme une sainte."

Can you, or any of your correspondents, say who this interesting Countess of Southampton was? She lived at the end of the seventeenth century. In addition to these particulars, which are so nicely told that I would not venture to alter them, as Orsino asks Viola, "What was her history?"

W. R.