"Hunk [sic] librum Jacobus rex dono dedit amico suo reverendo
Doctori Hall."
These details may interest bibliographers, as I do not find any notice
of this edition in Dibdin, or any other work within my reach[2] but the
main object of my curiosity is the Latin epigram in the Queen's hand,
and supposed (I suspect erroneously) to be her composition. The lines
are:
"Sæpe meæ dixi 'tandem discede' puellæ--
In gremio sedit protinus illa meo;
Sæpe 'pudet' dixi; Lacrimis vix illa retentis
'Me miseram cur te,' dixit 'amare pudet?'"
[Footnote 2: [See Panzer's _Annales Typog._, vol. vii. p. 335.]]
The obvious reason for doubting _ex facie_ that this is the Queen's
composition, is its masculine character; but some of your many learned
correspondents may be able to say whether the verses are to be found
elsewhere, and attributed to any other author?
I myself have not seen the volume for above fifty years; but the
foregoing extracts have been furnished me by a friend who lately
examined it. One curious particular, however, I remember. The capital
letters at the head of the several divisions of the work are, after the
manner of the time, ornamented with _devices_, and one of these, which
Queen Mary _must_ have seen (if _she_, indeed, wrote the MS. notes), is
of a most grotesque character, totally unfit for a lady's, or indeed for
any body's eye; and I dare say _that_ page was not exhibited in 1849.