July 11. Out of a MS. which Dr. Hudson borrowed of Sir John Osborn, containing divers curious things relating to the reigns of Edward II. and Henry V. Mr. Tyrrel tells me there are several curious things in it not taken notice of by any printed authors: Te matrem laudamus, te dominam confitemur, te æterni Patris præelectam veneramur. Tibi omnes Angeli, tibi coeli et universæ potestates, tibi Cherubin et Seraphin humili nobiscum voce proclamant, Ave, Ave, Ave Maria, virgo Theothecos.1 Pleni sunt coeli et terra majestate filii tui. Te gloriosam prophetæ pronunciant. Te pretiosam martires floribus circumdant. Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur ecclesia, matrem im members of the house of commons were the authors, and that the manuscript was brought to him by two women, one with a mask on, the other "bare-faced," who agreed with him for printing 350 copies, which copies his anonymous employers sent for by four porters of their own. Improbable as this story was, it was all the house could procure, and Drake escaped detection, though not suspicion. Whilst these inquiries were pending, our author had the courage to engage in a weekly paper called Mercurius Politicus, and his opponents sought occasion to wreak their vengeance on him for some expressions made use of in this publication. He was accordingly prosecuted in the court of king's bench, but acquitted upon a flaw in the information, the substitution of the word nor for not proving fatal to the indictment. The government however brought a writ of error, and the continual harassment of mind and body to which he was exposed by these proceedings, added to some disappointments met with from certain persons of his own party, threw him into a fever, which soon terminated his existence. He died at Westminster, March 2, 1707. Dr. Drake wrote The Sham Lawyer, or the Lucky Extravagant, a Comedy. Lond. 1697, 4to. Commendatory Verses upon the Author of Prince Arthur and King Arthur. Lond. 1697. Notes to Le Clerc's History of Physic. Lond. 1699, 8vo. mensæ majestatis, venerandam Dei sponsam marisque nesciam, sanctam quoque solamque gravidam spiritu. Tu regina es coeli, tu domina es totius mundi, tu ad liberandum hominem perditum vestisti altissimum filium, tu vincendo mortis aculeo protulisti clarissimo vitam ex utero, tu ad dextram nati sedes dignitate matris. Te ergo quæsumus Angligenis subveni, quos pro dote propria defendisti, æterna fac cum sanctis ejus gloria numerari, salvum fac populum tuum domina, et a mortis peste dotem tuam libera. Et rege eos et extolle illos usque in æternum. Per singulos dies benedicimus te, et laudamus nomen tuum in sæculum, quæ cunctas hæreses sola interemisti. Dignare, domina laude digna, in fide firma nos custodire. Miserere nostri domina and 1711, 8vo. The last with a preface giving some account of the author. A paper in the Philosophical Transactions, entitled, A Discourse concerning some Influence of Respiration on the Motion of the Heart, hitherto unobserved. Phil. Trans. 1702, No. 281. Mercurius Politicus. Lond. 1706. A new System of Anatomy. Lond. 1707, 8vo. Published after his death by Dr. William Wagstaffe. second edit. 1717, in 2 volumes, with an Appendix printed in 1728, 8vo. Dr. Drake also translated Herodotus into English; but this has not been printed: and he wrote a prefatory dedication to Historia Anglo-Scotica: or an Impartial History of all that happened between the Kings and Kingdoms of England and Scotland, from the beginning of the Reign of William the Conqueror, to the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Lond. 1703, 8vo. Which book was burnt by the hands of the hangman at Edinburgh, and is now become of rare occurrence. And he prefixed a long preface to a new edition of the well known libel called Leicester's Commonwealth, which he supposed he was then printing from an old MS. for the first time, under the title of Secret Memoirs of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Prime Minister and Favourite of Queen Elizabeth. Lond. 1706, 8vo. See farther under Novemb. 5. There is a good portrait of Drake engraved by Vandergucht, (Tho. Forster delin.) which represents him as a very handsome man. 1 Quære OεоTÓKоç, i. e. Deipara. mater misericordiæ. Fiat misericordia filii tui domina super nos ope tua qui clamitamus illi. In te domina speramus, non confundamur in æternum. This is the conclusion of the book, being the last chapter of an anonymous piece concerning the Acts of Henry V. The contents of this hymn are thus worded: De Hymno a gente Anglorum cantando ad laudem Dei genitricis Mariæ, propter gloriosam expeditionem Regis Henrici quinti et pro successu Regni Angliæ dotis suæ, quæ cunctas Hæreses cum Hæresiarcha Johanne Oldecastel suis precibus interemit. July 12. The messenger of the press is ordered to discover, if possible, the author, printer, and publisher of The Memorial of the Church of England, there being several things in it which give great offence at court;1 whilst those of the other side are winked at, as The History of the Court of Poland, &c. Mr. Wotton, who wrote the Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning, was entered at Cambridge in the ninth year of his age. July 13. Dr. Wallis in a spare leafe, before a 4to book of tracts which (with another in 8vo) he gave to the Bodlejan Library, hath inserted, under his own hand, the following memorandum : GEORGE KEITH, a Scotch-man, (the author of those tracts contained in this volume, in 4to, and of those in 1 And very justly. The government was indeed so determined upon the suppression of the book, that a bookseller having reprinted it with an answer, paragraph by paragraph, all the copies were seized immediately. This was about the same time that Hearne wrote the memorandum above. another volume in 8vo,) was, for sometime, himself a Quaker, (and a preacher amongst them ;) induced thereunto by the Quakers' great pretensions to a more than ordinary degree of piety and spirituality, and a light within, which they pretended to be a sufficient and infallible guide. And did distinguish themselves from others, by divers affected singularities, such as these, not to use the words, you, your, (with relation to a particular person,) but thou, thee, thine; not to use the words, yes and no, but yea and nay; not to use the titles of master, lord, and the like, as savouring of pride and ambition; not to wear in their apparel, lace, silks, gold and silver, as savouring of vanity; not to salute any, by pulling off the hat, or like gestures; not to strike, however wronged or provoked, as pretending to greater meekness and patience; not to join in our publick worship, as not spiritual enough, but in separate meetings of their own, with other the like affectations. But when he was better acquainted with them, he found that they did (under divers uncouth and affected expressions) entertain many gross and erroneous tenets, inconsistent with the fundamentals of Christian religion, and destructive thereof. He did therefore endeavour, for some years, (by arguments, perswasions, and books written for that purpose,) to reduce them from those erroneous principles, (which by the craft and subtiltie of some of their leaders, with the ignorance and simplicity of their followers, they had entertained,) and did prevail with divers of them, so far as to divide from the rest of the Quakers, to disclaim their gross opinions, and meet separately from them; and were called (by way of distinction,) the reformed Quakers. And, after some time, he, with most of these, did return to the communion of the Church of England. And himself was ordained a Presbyter of the Church of England. These small tracts, published on several occasions, I thought not amiss (that they be not lost) to gather to gether, and bind-up in these two volumes,1 and put them into the Bodlejan Library; that, in future times, such as shall be inquisitive into such matters, may thence understand, what kind of people they are, who are now called Quakers. JOHN WALLIS D. D. Geom. Prof. Oxon. April 12, 1701. Among the testimonies for the antiquity of Oxford before King Alfred's time, may be added what Thomas Gulielmus says in Chron. Brit. viz. Pherychtiand ordh yn trigo yn Rhydychen cyn gwneithyr O Alphred yscol yndhi; i. e. that chymists dwelt at Oxford before Ælfred built a school there.2 July 14. 'Tis said the Duke of Buckingham is author of the pamphlett called The Memorial of the Church of England, and that he has sent to the lord treasurer (Godolphin) to desist from making any farther search concerning that particular, being ready at any time to defend what he has said in it. Mr. Stratford, chaplain to the House of Commons, made one of the Canons of Christchurch in room of Dr. Ratcliff deceased. He took his Dr. of Divinity's Degree upon that account this Act Term. Dr. Ratcliff left all he had, being between two or three These two volumes are now marked 8vo. A. 83, Th. and 8vo. F. 95, Th. In the same library is another volume of tracts by this voluminous writer, given by the author himself. (4to. U. 73. Th.) "I give this book (saith he) with the following "small treatises to the Bodleyan Library in the University of Oxford, there to remain as a testimony I have given to the true doctrine and faith of the Christian religion, against the "vile errors asserted by some of the great leaders among them "called Quakers, directly opposite to the true Christian faith "and doctrine. GEORGE KEITH." 66 66 2 See the Additions to the xth chapter of Dr. Plot's Natural History of Oxfordshire; second edition, Oxford, 1705, page 366. |