Notes and Queries, Number 75, April 5, 1851 | Page 6

complectitur
orbis. Anglis rubra dabunt pretiosas æquora conchas, Indus ebur, ramos
Panchaia, vellera Seres, Dum viget Henricus, dum noster vivit Achilles;
Est etenim laudes longe transgressus avitas."

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:
"Ad Salvatoris laudes, titulos et honores."
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. {262} 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,
"Underneath this marble (sable) hearse," &c.
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. Willi[=a]. 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