Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/237

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

us. m. MAK. 25, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


231


Mozart was born in 1756. In 1775 he had already composed 10 works of an opera ti or dramatic nature, including ' Bastien unc Bastienne,' ' La Finta semplice,' and ' I Re pastore.' No pianoforte sonata appearec till 1778, when he produced 6 in succession followed soon afterwards by sets containing 3 and 4 each. Six dramatic works

  • Zaide,' * Konig Thamos,' ' Idomeneo,' ' Ent

fuhrung,' ' L'oca del Cairo,' and ' Lo sposo deluso ' intervened before the appearance in 1784 of the Sonata in c minor, to which he prefixed the beautiful fantasia in that key Then came ' Der Schauspiel-direktor ' anc

  • Figaro,' both in 1786, and ' Don Giovanni

in 1787. One more sonata in 1788 and tw in 1789 formed his last works in that form offcomposition. The opera ' Cosi fan tutte appeared in 1790, while ' Zauberflote ' and ' Clemenza di Tito ' belong to 1791, the year which brought his labours to a close.

Miss SMITH should endeavour to consult Von Kochel's well-known and admirable ' Chronologisches-thematisches Verzeichniss,' which casts a wonderful light on the in- dustry of the great composer.

J. E. MATTHEW.

Mozart when eight years of age resided in London, and published six sonatas dedi- cated to Queen Charlotte. The dedication is dated the 18th of January, 1765. Three years afterward, in Vienna, he composed an opera, ' La Finta semplice.'

WILLIAM H. CUMMINGS.

[The REV. SIR D. O. HUNTER BLAIR and TOEREA also thanked tor replies.]

DICKENS: " SHALLABALAH " (11 S. iii. 68, 111, 153). In The Evening News of 8 March, Mr. Fitzroy Gardner, in a paper 'The Most Popular Play in the World: The Acting Version of Punch and Judy,' says :

" Probably few of those who have paused for a few minutes to watch the show in the street are aware that in most cases the showman has studied the several parts from an authorized

version of a real play Whether the ' book' of

this immortal tragedy is on sale at the present time I have not been able to ascertain, but most of the old actor-managers who ' present ' this, and no other dramatic works from year to year in the street or at fairs OP ftes, arc, or have been, I am told, in possession of a printed acting version .... such as one that has come into my possession ....

Unfortunately it bears no date It is described

on the first page as ' Punch and Judy : a Serio- Comical Tragedy in Three Acts.' The charac- ters are more numerous than might be supposed by ' the man in the street.'

" There are twelve of them : Mr. Punch, Judy (his wife), the Baby, Joey (the Clown), the Doctor,


ShaUaballa (a Black Servant), the Ghost, a^Police- man, Jack Ketch, Toby (the Dog), Hector (a favourite horse), and the Dragon."

I think we most of us are familiar with the old rime,

Shallaballa, ShaUaballa,

A most notorious rascal you are !

In 1843 H. G. Hine, the leading Punch cartoonist, used to sign his drawings " Shalla- balla " ; but ' The Old Curiosity Shop ' had been then recently published, so it may have been rather from the novel than from the old play that he borrowed his pseudonym. As Punch, the famous hunchback, is of Italian origin, and may still be occasionally met with in the flesh at Neapolitan festivals, would it be too far-fetched to suggest that " Shallaballa " might be derived from Zanni, a buffoon, a Merry- Andrew, and balla (ballata), a dance or dancing - song, or ballatore, a dancer ? HERBERT B. CLAYTON.

39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane.

In the days of my youth, in the sixties, a Punch verse-book used to be sold with the Punch slides supplied as children's magic- lantern apparatus. So far as memory serves, the black man's speech was :

Shallabalah, Shallabalah,

Massa Punchee, how you are ?

To which Punch was made to reply : Shallabalee, Shallabalee, Massa Teapot, come and see.

Blackie's rejoinder was :

What you call me Teapot, sar ? Dat stick of yours, dat iron bar.

Whereupon Punch knocked him over,

saying :

"Which you shall taste, 'twill do you good To know the taste of a piece of wood.

ALGERNON WARREN.

" GENTLEMAN " : " ARMIGER " : " PRIVI- .EGIATUS " (11 S. iii. 167). A "privileged )erson " at Oxford and Cambridge was one imenable to University jurisdiction only. Such persons are roughly defined in the harter of Richard II. granted to the Uni- versity of Cambridge on 10 December,

383, which provided that the Chancellor or the time being and his vice-gerent

should for ever have before them conusance of 11 and all manner of personal pleas as well of ebts, accounts, and all other contracts and ijuries, as of trespasses against the peace and nisprisions whatsoever, done within the town of Cambridge or the suburbs (mayhem and felony nly excepted) where a master, scholar, or scholar's errant or a common minister of the University hould be a party." Translation by Cooper, Annals of Cambridge,' i. 127.

G. C. MOORE SMITH.