removed his sword, as well as prepared "two chopping-knives" at the instance of Violenta) when Didaco is asleep, pulls the rope which prevents him from resisting, while Violenta deliberately cuts his throat. She subsequently mangles the body most savagely, and with the help of Janique casts it out of window into the street, where it is found and recognised. The maid escapes to Africa with the connivance of her mistress; and Violenta, before the judges and officers, makes a bold confession of her guilt. The description of the murder is very revolting from the coarseness of the "butcherly" language; and the poem concludes, not with any moral reflections on the hideous brutality of the heroine, but upon the folly of those who allow themselves to be overcome by blind passion:

"Hap glad or sad, hap weale or woe,

Hap hoped joy or payne,

Yet both in this one issue end,

In love nought is but vayne;"

the line being printed in italic type, in order to enforce the axiom : the last words are

"FINIS. (qd) Thomas Achelley."

The whole story is written much in the same style as Drout's "Gaulfrido and Bernardo," which had come out six years earlier; but, if anything, Achelley has the advantage in ease, as well as in variety of versification. We have dwelt the longer upon this novel of "Didaco and Violenta," because, although it is mentioned both by Warton and Ritson, no bibliographer has hitherto given any account of it.

ACHELLEY, THOMAS.-The Massacre of Money. Terunteo seu vitiosa nuce non emitur.-London: Printed by Thomas Creede for Thomas Bushell. 1602. 4to. 23 leaves.

It has been usual, upon no very sufficient grounds, to assign this work to a Thomas Achelley: the initials T. A. at the end of the Dedication (to M. William and M. Frauncis Bedles) form the only mark of authorship.

There can be little dispute that "The Massacre of Money" was not by the Thomas Achelley who, twenty-six years before, had written the subject of the preceding article; but he may have had a son of the same name, and of a similar poetical propensity. The later work, both in style and topic, more nearly resembles Barnfield's "Encomion of Lady Pecunia" (see hereafter), which had come out in 1598, and

was republished, with changes adapted to the altered circumstances of the times, in 1605. The initials T. A. belong to no other known writer of the period, and Achelley is a poet whose name occurs, not unfrequently, in "England's Parnassus," 1600.

As the extreme scarcity of the poem (we have heard of only two complete copies) has hitherto prevented the appearance of any specimens from it, we will make one or two quotations, which do not prove that the author was very original in his notions, or harmonious in the expression of them. In the following lines a simile has been caught from "Romeo and Juliet:" Act I. sc. 5. Pecunia, who is the subject of a contest between Avarice, Prodigality, and Liberality, thus speaks :

"Whilst that my glory midst the clouds was hid,
Like to a Jewell in an Ethiop's eare,

Or as a spot upon a christal lid,

So did my brightnes with more pride appeare."

The three candidates for the favour of Pecunia having abused each other abundantly, the strife is augmented by the arrival of Fortune, Vice, and Virtue: the two latter, after a formal challenge, have a vigorous struggle, which is about to end in the discomfiture of Virtue, when Jove decides the contest by striking down Vice with a thunderbolt. The production closes with an extravagant compliment to Queen Elizabeth, who was still on the throne when it was published:

"Jove now departing, Vertue did command

In England to set up her chiefest rest;

She should find favour at Eliza's hand,

With whom faire wisdome builded hath his nest.

The Gods ascend to heaven, Vertue departs

T'our more then mortall Queene, ruler of harts.

Fortune now frets to see her selfe throwne downe,
And Vertue lifted to such dignitie;

Truth at the last attained due renowne;
Pecunia is disposed thriftily.

England, thou art Pleasures-presenting stage,

The perfect patterne of the golden age.

Never be date of this felicitie;

Never be alteration of this joy;

Never, ah never! faile thy dignitie;

Never let Fortune crosse thee with annoy:

Never let Vertue by Vice suffer death;

Never be absent our Elizabeth !

Ever, for ever, Englands Beta bee,

Feared of Forraines, honour'd of thine owne:

Ever let treason stoope to sov'raigntie;

Ever let Vice by truth be overthrowne!

Ever, graunt Heavens Creator, of our Queene
We still may say she is, not she hath beene!"

In the outset the writer informs the reader that the whole construction of his poem is the result of "a thought conceived dreame."-The quotations ascribed to Tho. Achely, Tho. Achlow, and Tho. Ach. in "England's Parnassus," 1600, could not of course be from "The Massacre of Money," not published until two years afterwards.

ADAGES.-Adagia Scotica, or a collection of Scotch Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases. Collected by R.B. Very usefull and delightfull. Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci.-London. Printed for Nath Brooke, &c., 1668. 12mo. 30 leaves.

The Adages are alphabetically arranged, but, the Collector, R.B., (possibly Richard Brathwaite, who was a north-countryman, although not a native of Scotland, and who did not die until 1673) has not shown much skill in this respect, for all the Proverbs beginning with the definite and indefinite articles are placed under the letters A. and T.: thus the first proverb in the volume is, "A fair bride is soon buskt, and a short horse is soon wispt." The same objection applies to the Collection published by N. R., in 1659, 8vo. "Proverbs in English, French, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish;" from whence we might be led to conclude that they were inserted in those languages, but they are only translated, and miscellaneously printed. The work before us appears to be the earliest assemblage professedly of Scotch Proverbs, with the exception, perhaps, of that of R. Fergusson, said to have been first printed in 1598: the "Adagia in Latine and English," printed at Aberdeen in 1622, 8vo. is taken from the Adagia of Erasmus, with corresponding English Proverbs subjoined.

Although the work, of which the title is inserted at the head of this article, is called "Adagia Scotica," some of the proverbs are of a general kind, and belong to many countries, and to various states of society, while others are purely national. The following are a few specimens of the most characteristic:

"A teem purse makes a bleat merchant.

A man may wooe where he will, but wed where he is weard.
Biting and scarting is Scots folks wooing.

Curtesie is cumbersom to them that kens it not.

Drink and drouth comes sindle together.

Every man can rule an ill wife but he that hes her.

Fair words brake never bain, foul words many ane.

Good chear and good cheap garres many haunt the house.

He that is ill of his harbery is good of his way kenning.

Hap and a halfpennie is worlds geir enough.

It's na mair pity to see a woman greit, nor to see a goose go barefoot.
Knowledge is eith born about.

Little kens the wife that sits by the fire, how the wind blows cold in hurle

burle swyre.

Many masters, quod the Paddock to the harrow, when every tind took her a knock.

Neir is the kirtle, but neirer is the sark.

Of other men's leather men take large whangs.

Put your hand no farther nor your sleeve may reek.
Quhen thieves reckon leal men come to their geir.
Rhue and time grow both in ane garden.

Sooth bourd is na bourd.

There is little to the rake to get after the beisome.
They are good willy of their horse that hes none.
The next time ye dance wit whom ye take by the hand.
Wishers and woulders are poor householders.

Ye breed of the cat, ye would fain have fish, but ye have na will to wet
your feet."

The earliest extant collection of proverbs in English is that made by John Heywood, the dramatist, printed in 1547, 4to. and many times afterwards. There are two distinct works, called "The Crossing of Proverbs," one by B. N., (probably Nicholas Breton) in 8vo. with the date of 1616, and the other by B. R., also in 8vo. published about 1680: the latter is not a reprint of the former, but both consist of proverbs with answers to them immediately following, as:

"Proverb. No man can call againe yesterday.

Cross. Yes; hee may call till his heart ake, though it never come.

Proverb. Had-I-wist was a foole.

Cross. No; he was a foole that said so."

These are from "The Crossing of Proverbs," 1616, as well as the following:

"Proverb. The world is a long journey.

Cross. Not so; the Sunne goes it every day.

Proverb. It is a great way to the bottome of the sea.
Cross. Not so; it is but a stone's cast."

These two proverbs and crosses are found in the ballad of "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury," and in several old jest books.

As no perfect copy of either part (for it was in two parts) of Crossing of Proverbs" is known, we give a full transcript of the title of the first part :-" Crossing of Proverbs. Crosse-Answeres. And Crosse-Humours. By B. N. Gent.-At London, Printed by John Wright, and are to be solde at his Shop without Newgate, at the signe of the Bible. 1616." The date of the second part (imperfect, but sold in Heber's Sale, Part IV. p. 10) is the same, but it professes to

have been compiled not by B. N., but by N. B. (Nicholas Breton sometimes reversed his initials), and was called "Crossing of Proverbs. The second part, with certaine briefe Questions and Answeres." The above will be sufficient for identification, should a complete copy ever be discovered: the popularity of the small work inevitably led to its destruction.

ADAM BELL.-Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesle. London, Printed by A. M. for W. Thackeray at the Angel in Duck-Lane. 4to. B. L. 11 leaves.

There is no date to this impression of a most popular ballad in three parts, or "fits," as they were called of old, although the divisions are here marked only by spacing. A woodcut of three men occupies the centre of the title-page, the centre one with sword and target, while on his right and left stand a bow-man and a bill-man: it was used for various other pieces of the time.

It seems likely that the original edition of "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesley" was that, very incorrectly, printed by W. Copland: there is also an entry of it by John Kyng in the Stationers' Registers in the year 1557-8; but that impression has not come down to us, unless it be in a fragment of a single sheet, not long since discovered as the fly-leaf to another book. As far as it goes it supplies a text vastly superior to that of Copland, which, however, has been usually adopted, and we find it repeated, more or less accurately, by James Roberts in 1605, 1616, and by Thackeray some thirty years later. Ritson, in his "Ancient Popular Poetry," 8vo. 1791, gave Copland's text, but how inferior it was to that which we may, perhaps, presume to be Kyng's we will illustrate by a single example. Not far from the beginning of the second fit we read thus in Copland :

"And as they loked them besyde

A paire of new galowes ther thei see,
And the justice with a quest of Squyers

That had judged Cloudesle there hanged to be."

Thackeray printed the last two lines thus :

"And the Justice with a Quest of Esquires,
That judgeth William hang'd to be."

What we may call Kyng's text abolishes at once the "Quest of