* * * * *
Replies to Minor Queries.
_Earth upon Earth, &c._--I think the information which has been elicited in
connexion with the so-called "Unpublished Epigram by Sir W. Scott," "N. &
Q.," Vol. vii., p. 498., sufficiently curious to justify an additional
reference to the sentiment in question; the more so as I have to mention
the name of its putative author. In Montgomery's _Christian Poet_, 3rd
edit. p. 58., he gives, under the title of "Earth upon Earth," five verses,
which it would appear are substantially the same as those published by
Weaver (whose _Funeral Monuments_, his only publication, I have not within
reach), but they exhibit considerable verbal difference in the verses
corresponding with those cited in "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 576. Montgomery
tells us in a note that this extract, given under the name of William
Billyng, along with another from a poem entitled "The Five Wounds of
Christ," by the same author, were from "a manuscript on parchment of great
antiquity, in possession of William Bateman, Esq.," of which a few copies
had been printed at Manchester, and "accompanied by rude but exceedingly
curious cuts." Now who was William Billyng? And when did he live?
Montgomery says "the age of this author is well known." The death of the
Archbishop of Canterbury, to whom Weaver (_Fun. Mon._ 1631) applies the
Stratford epigraph, is temp. Edward III. Is Mr. Bateman's MS. in a hand
indicating so early a date?