Queries.

POEMS OF JOHN SEGUARD OF NORWICH.

In the Letters on the British Museum, 1767 (referred to Vol. iii., p. 208.), at p. 33. is given a short Latin poem, which the writer states he "found among the manuscripts;" and adds, "It was written by John Seward in the time of Henry V., who conquered Charles VI. of France." The poem is as follows:

If these lines are compared with the contemporary Leonine verses in praise of Henry V., preserved in MS. Cott. Cleop. B. i. f. 173. beginning:

their great superiority, in point of Latinity, will be perceived, and this Query forthwith arises: Who was John Seward?

In reply to this, the following information has been collected. The name of the author was not Seward, but Seguard. He is not mentioned by Leland, but Bale calls him "insignis sui temporis rhetor ac poeta;" and states further, that in the city of Norwich, "non sine magno auditorum fructu, bonas artes ingenue profitebatur." He then gives a list of his writings, among which is a work on Prosody, entitled Metristenchiridion, addressed to Richard Courtney, Bishop of Norwich, who held the see only from Sept. 1413 to Sept. 1415, and therefore composed during that interval. He notices also a tract De miseria hominis, together with Carmina diversi generis and Epistolæ ad diversos; all of which, he says, he himself saw in manuscripts in Merton College, Oxford, and in the Royal Library of Edward VI. Pits, the next authority in point of date, chiefly follows Bale in his account of John Seguard; but adds, "Equestris ordinis in Anglia patre natus," and among his writings inserts one not specified by Bale, De laudibus Regis Henrici Quinti, versu. Tanner copies the first of these statements, yet, singular enough, omits all notice of the poem on Henry V., the very one, apparently, cited in the Letters on the British Museum. But there are further difficulties. It was natural to suppose, that the MS. seen by Bale in the Royal Library would be there still; and Tanner unhesitatingly refers to the volume marked 15 A. xxii. art. 5., as the one which contained the poem De miseria hominis, noted by Bale. On looking, however, at this manuscript, it became apparent that both Bale and Tanner are in error in ascribing this poem to Seguard. The handwriting is of the early part of the thirteenth century, and consequently full a century and a half before the Norwich poet was born! At the conclusion is this note, by the same hand:

"Hos versus, sicut nobis quidam veridicus retulit, Segardus junior de Sancto Audomaro composuit."

The writer here named is not mentioned in Fabricius, nor in the Histoire Littéraire de la France. Besides the MS. in Merton College, Oxford, referred to by Bale, which still exists there under the signature Q. 3. 1., I find another in Bernard's Catt. MSS. Angliæ, 1697, vol. ii. p. 216., among the manuscripts of Sir Henry Langley of Shropshire, "No. 22. Jo. Segnard [read Seguard] Poemata." I would therefore close these remarks by requesting attention to the following Queries:—

1. As Blomefield is silent on the subject, is anything more known respecting the biography of John Seguard?

2. Can a list be obtained of the contents of the Merton manuscript?

3. What became of the Langley MS., and where is it at present?

4. In what manuscript of the British Museum is the poem on Henry V. contained?

F. Madden.

P.S. Since I wrote the above, I have found in the Sale Catalogue of the Towneley library, 1814, pt. i. lot 396.:

"Seguardi Opuscula. Manuscript on vellum. This volume contains several treatises not mentioned by Bale or Pits."

It was purchased by Mr. Laing for 1l. 1s. May I, therefore, add one more Query?

5. Can the present owner of this MS. (which is probably the same as the Langley copy) furnish a note of its contents?

F. M.

EPITAPH ON THE COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE.

Who was the writer of the oft-quoted lines,

intended, as all know, for an epitaph on Mary Sidney, afterwards Countess of Pembroke, but not inscribed upon any monumental stone? They are almost universally attributed to Ben Jonson, and are included amongst his poems. But this is not conclusive evidence, as we also there find the epitaph on Drayton, which was written by Quarles. In Aubrey's MS. Memoires of Naturall Remarques in Wilts, these verses are said to have been "made by Mr. Williā. Browne, who wrote the Pastoralls, and they are inserted there." Mr. Britton, in his Life of Aubrey (p. 96.), adds:

"It is essential to observe, that Aubrey is not alone in stating them to be by Browne; for, in his note upon the subject, he left a blank for the latter's Christian name, 'William,' which was filled up by Evelyn when he perused the manuscript. Indeed, Evelyn added as a further note, 'William, Governor to the now Earl of Oxford.'"

But these lines are not to be found in Browne's Pastorals. In book ii., song 4., there is an epitaph, but which bears little resemblance to the one in question. It concludes with the following conceit:

Addison, in The Spectator, No. 323., speaks of this epitaph as "written by an uncertain author." This was not more than seventy-five or eighty years after Jonson's death. In the lives of the Sidneys, and in Ballard's Memoirs of Celebrated Ladies (1752), no author is mentioned; but the latter speaks of the epitaph as likely to be more lasting than marble or brass. To the six lines which generally stand alone, the following are added in the two last-mentioned works:

These are also given by Brydges in his Peers Of James II., but they are not in Jonson's works. Did they originally form part of the epitaph, or are they the production of another and later author?

That this epitaph should be attributed to Jonson, may possibly have arisen from the following lines being confounded with it. Jacob, in his English Poets, says—

"To show that Ben was famous at epigram, I need only transcribe the epitaph he wrote on the Lady Elizabeth L. H.:

J. H. M.

Bath.