duced to the Bar, where he pleaded his Cause, in Forma Pauperis, before the Honourable Ch-m-n- of the C-m-te; and, operating on the risible Muscles of the Gay, and Good-Natured, he fairly laughed it out of the House" (pp. 43-44). Such incidents as those referred to above do not indicate that Aston was, to use the words of Mr. Nicholson, an ignorant and uncultured person in whom egotism, mendicancy, and coarsemindedness are inherent faults everywhere shamelessly featured. Nor does Allan Ramsay's tribute to Aston in 1726 seem to support Mr. Nicholson's characterization: "Mr. Aston and his family live themselves, to my certain knowledge, with sobriety, justice, and discretion, he pays his debts without being dunn'd; is of a charitable disposition, and avoids the intoxicating bottle." Nor must we censure Aston too severely, as Mr. Nicholson is inclined to do, for his boasts regarding his histrionic powers and his association with better society. There is every reason to believe that Anthony was an outspoken, perhaps over ardent, champion of what he considered to be justice and his own rights; consequently, when in his Sketch and his speech in Parliament, he expresses a willingness to pit himself against the leading actors of the day, we must remember his own words which follow one of these boasts: "I am obliged to appear thus vain, because of the many repulses, Shams, and Male-Treatment I have received from those in Power." His experiences at London in 1717 and at Edinburgh in 1727 prove that this is not an entirely unjustified remark. Again, when he claims in his speech before Parliament that he has often been invited to show his "Medley" in the "Private Apartments of the Heads of Colleges and Noble and Gentlemen's Houses," Anthony is indulging in no especially egotistical or boastful talk. That he did manage to move among a higher class of people than was ordinarily accessible to an itinerant actor is proved by his experiences in Edinburgh; and that he took especial pains to associate with those who were on an equality with his Staffordshire ancestors is shown not only by his sketch of his life, but by the words which concluded his advertisement, when, in 1716, he brought from Bath to London his Welsh "mock voice" and other curiosities: "Any person of quality, or others, may command him to their houses, etc., by sending word to the place above (Fitzgerald, II, 50). Anthony's son is worth discussing briefly here. A document quoted by Dibdin (p. 40) shows that in 1715 Aston received permission from the Lord Mayor of Dublin to present his "Medley" in that city, and that his son, who two years later is advertised as being an actor of only ten years of age, took part in the father's entertainment Another document, cited by Dibdin, proves that this son was named Walter, perhaps in honor of Anthony's distinguished kinsman, Walter Aston (1584-1639), eldest son of Sir Edward Aston, of Tixall, Staffordshire, and patron of the poet Dryden and Baron of Forfar in the Scottish peerage. The same document also shows that Anthony's son apparently married above himself at Edinburgh in April, 1728, where he and his father were imprisoned "as supposed to have enticed away that young gentlewoman,” that is, a certain "Mrs. Jean Ker." The hero of this adventure, it may be added, is apparently the Walter Aston who wrote "The Restoration of King Charles II, or, The Life and Death of Oliver Cromwell. An Historic-Tragi-Comi-Ballad Opera"a piece which was forbidden to be performed and was consequently published in 1733, with a vindication of the author against the unjust censure that his production had aroused. Mr. Nicholson, (p. 38) remarks that "at one time during his career Tony was afflicted with consumption, against which he seems to have put up a winning fight." Mr. Nicholson does not cite his authority for this statement. If it is possible that he has based his remark on Chetwood's facetious comment that Aston, after tricking a certain landlord, paid him "when his Finances were in Order, and cur'd of the Consumption," then he has made a curious blunder; for Chetwood is speaking not of a bodily ailment but a disease of which a no less robust person than Sir John Falstaff complained. Some idea of Aston's personal appearance is appropriate in connections with the assertion that he was a consumptive. The frontispiece of the British Museum copy of The Fool's Opera contains a scene presumably taken from the piece, in which Aston is revealed as a rather tall and slender personage. In one corner of the frontispieces is an inset medallion. Mr. Nicholson says (p. 43) that it is "labelled Tony Aston." This, however, is a mistake. It is not "labelled," but a former owner has written on the fly-leaf that the inset is the only known portrait of Aston. The face thus revealed is evidently that of a lean and droll person. Such a description of the comedian is supported by a statement made by Thomas Davies, who was in a position to know what he was talking about. In the early eighteenth century, says Davies, when Pierre, challenging the conspirators in Otway's Venice Preserved, addressed one of them as "Oh, thou! with that lean, withered, wretched face!" it was customary for an actor "of a most unfortunate figure with a pale countenance" to half-draw his sword and confront his accuser. Aston was "the last performer of this ridiculous part" (cf. Dutton Cook, On the Stage, I, 248). Davies's comment is better evidence than Chetwood's remark for saying that Tony was at one time afflicted with consumption. Mr. Nicholson, it may be noted in passing, fails to note that Aston, like Dogget, acted Shylock in the ridiculous fashion made necessary by Lansdowne's version of Shakspere's play, and that on January 9, 1722, Anthony was announced to act the part of Fondlewife at Lincoln Inn Fields, his first appearance at this theater (Genest, III, 75). A minor matter in connection with The Fool's Opera calls for discussion. Mr. Nicholson (pp. 41-2) conjecturally assigns the British Museum copy of the production to the year 1730. This is the date assigned to the piece in the British Museum Catalogue. Lowe inclines to the year 1731. It is possible that there were two editions of the production, one of which was specifically dated 1731, for "The Fool's Opera, or the Taste of the Age" is definitely assigned to that year in Egerton's Theatrical Remembrancer (p. 176), where it is listed under anonymous plays; in Barker's List of Plays (p. 105), where it is assigned to "Medley"; and in the 1812 edition of Biographia Dramatica (II, 243), where it is conjecturally assigned to Aston. If the words "To which is prefixed A Sketch of the Author's life, Written by Himself," printed on the title-page of the British Museum copy of Aston's opera, appeared on that of the edition listed by Baker and others, then it is rather strange that none of them took the trouble to see who the author was. It is, of course, quite possible, on the other hand, that they were not sufficiently interested to consult the Sketch, especially since it is not "prefixed" to but follows the text of The Fool's Opera. Be this as it may, the edition of the production dated 1730 by Mr. Nicholson and the British Museum Catalogue was evidently published some time after the appearance of Gay's Beggar's Opera in 1728. This is revealed by the interesting "A Ballad, Call'd a Dissertation on the Beggar's Opera," which follows the text of Aston's play. Finally, Mr. Nicholson makes no attempt to determine the date of Aston's death. Russell, on what authority I know not, states that he died in 1753 (Representative Actors, p. 15, note 2). That he was dead in 1756 is proved by the words "of drole Memory" which Theophilus Cibber applies to him in the Dissertations quoted above. University of North Carolina THORNTON S. GRAVES ON CHAUCER'S TROILUS AND CRISEYDE I, 228 The text of Troilus and Criseyde I, 225-231, runs in The Oxford Chaucer as follows: So ferde it by this fers and proude knight: Yet with a look his herte wex a-fere, That he, that now was most in pryde above, The Campsall manuscript alone ends line 228 with dere; the other manuscripts have stere. What is the meaning of the phrase "his herte stere"? Some modern translators have rendered it with the words "stir his heart," a translation which is based, I believe, on an erroneous idea as to the source of the verb stère. For stěre almost certainly springs not from Old Kentish -sterian (WS. styrian), but from OE. steoran, and consequently is to be taken in the sense of "control," and not of "stir." One may compare the similar meaning of the verb in such passages as the following: For with o word ye may his herte stere.-Troil. and Cr. iii, 910. And fyr so wood, it mighte nat be stered.—Legend of Good Women, 935 Suffre a while and your herte stere.-Generydes, 1773. The evidence of Chaucer's rimes is also in favor of stère < OE. stĕoran, the è being indeed regularly close in Kentish a-fère, and close as well, in this particular instance, for the pret. subj. were (WG. a). Thus Chaucer rimes fère (cf. Angl.-WS. fŷr), T. iii, 978, with dere (OE. deore) and here (Angl.-Ken. heran); while William of Shoreham, too, assigns to fère, “fire,” or to its variants fēr, uēre, vēre, the close e, examples of which are found in Konrath's edition, pages 5, 15, 32, 38, 40, 99, 100, 112. In like manner Shoreham has a close è in kepe (cf. WS. cÿþan),— which he combines with for-sepe (<OE. -seopan), vii, 832-833,— and in the rime beerde, "bride," with ferde (OE. pret. ferde), v, 298-299. The è in ME. ferde, however, may have undergone analogical shortening. |