QUEENBOROUGH, or QUINBOROUGH
A spt. In Kent on the Isle of Sheppey, 2 m. S. of Sheerness. Its inhabitants are employed in fishing and oyster-dredging. In Middleton's Queenborough, Simon, the Mayor, is one of the leading characters. The time is that of the coming of Hengist and Horsa to England in the reign of Vortigern. Taylor, the water poet, on one occasion sailed in a paper boat "from Lond. unto Q;" a distance of abt. 35 m. Nash, in Prognostication, predicts "Quinborowe oyster boats shall oft times carry knaves as well as honest men." Gascoigne, in Voyage into Holland (1572), tells how he went from Gravesend "To board our ship in Q. that lay."

QUEENHITHE, or QUEENHIVE
A quay on the N. bank of the Thames in Upper Thames St., a little W. of Southwark Bdge. It was originally called, from its owner, Edred's Hithe, but K. John gave it to his mother Eleanor, and hence it was named Q. It was the landing place for all kinds of goods brought to Lond. by sea, and the revenue from tolls and wharfage dues came to the Queen. They were sold to the city of Lond. in Harry III's reign for £50, but by the time of Henry VII they had sunk to £15 per annum, owing to the growth of the size of ships so that they could not come through Lond. Bridge.

An old legend told how Eleanor, Queen of Edward I, on telling a lie about her share in the murder of the Lady Mayoress, sank into the ground at Charing Green and rose up again at Q., or, as it is alternatively called, Potter's Hithe. The story is enacted in Peele's Ed. I, which has on the title-page: "Lastly, the sinking of Queen Elinor, who sunk at Charing Cross and rose again at Potters Hith, now named Queen Hith." There is an old ballad on the same subject. In Middleton's Quiet Life v. 3, Knavesby says, "I will sink at Queen Hive and rise again at Charing Cross, contrary to the statute in Edwardo Primo." In his Witch i. 1, Almachildes says to Amoretta, "Amsterdam swallow thee for a Puritan and Geneva cast thee up again! Like she that sunk at Charing Cross and rose again at Q." In Cartwright's Ordinary v. 4, Hearsay, when the Watch cannot find the sharpens, says, "Sunk like the Queen! They'll rise at Q., sure!"

In Bale's Laws ii., Idolatry says, "Give onions to St. Cutlake and garlic to St. Cyriac, if ye will shun the headache: ye shall have them at Q." In iv., Infidelity says, "He that spake of ye was selling of a cod in an oyster-boat a little beyond Q." in Dekker's Westward iv. 1, Birdlime says, "I'll down to Q. and the watermen which were wont to carry you to Lambeth Marsh shall carry me thither." i.e. to Brainford. In v. 3, Moll says, "I warrant they [the husbands of the ladies who have gone on a jaunt to Brainford] walk upon Q., as Leander did for Hero, to watch for our landing." In Middleton's Chaste Maid ii. 2, one of the Promoters says, "Let's e'en to the Checker at Q. And roast the loin of mutton till young flood: Then send the child to Brainford." In Jonson's Staple iii. 1, Fitton says, "The eel-boats here, that lie before Q., came out of Holland." In Penn. Parl., one of the provisions is "Poor bargemen at Q shall have a whole quart [of beer] for a penny." In Westward for Smelts, we read of "the watermen's garrison of Q." which met at the Red Knight. In B. & F. Thomas iv. 2, Launcelot tells how the Watchman followed him: "The sts. are dirty, takes a Q. cold," i.e. such a cold as would easily be caught in the damp and mud there. In Wit S.W. v. 1, Pompey says, "I hear more than I eat: I'd ne'er row by Q. while I lived else." I suppose he means if he could eat indefinitely he would never pass by Q., but put in to visit one of the many taverns in the neighbourhood.

QUEEN'S COLLEGE
University of Cambridge, founded by Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VI, in 1446. It stands on the bank of the Cam in Silver St., behind St. Catherine's Hall. Textor's Thersites was acted there in 1543, and in 1546 a College ordinance was passed that any student refusing to act in the College Plays or absenting himself from their performance would be expelled. Nicholas Robinson's comedy Strylius was performed in 1553. A play in Latin, entitled Laelia, was acted, probably in 1595, in the presence of Lord Essex and other noblemen. John Weever, referring to this performance, in Epig. iv. 19, says, "When such a Maister with you beareth sway How can Q. C. ever then decay? No. Yet Q. C. evermore hath been Is, and will be, of Colleges the Queen." Another Latin play, Fucus Histriomastix, was acted here in Lent 1623.

QUEEN'S COLLEGE
University of Oxford, founded in 1340 by Robert Eglesfeld, Chaplain to Queen Philippa, and named by him in her honour. It stands in the High St. opposite to University College. John Rainolds, who took up the controversy against stage-plays in the Colleges in 1592 against William Gager of Christchurch, was a Q. man.

QUEEN'S HEAP ALLEY
(now Q. H. PASSAGE) Lond., running from No. 41 Newgate St. to Paternoster Row. It was named from a tavern at the corner, where the professors of Canon Law lodged before they removed to Doctors' Commons. R. Harford had a bookshop in Q. H. A. in 1638 with the sign of the Gilt Bible.

QUEUBUS
An imaginary place in the topography of Sir Andrew Aguecheek. The whole sentence is doubtless modelled on Rabelais. In Tw. N. ii. 3, 25, Sir Andrew says to the fool, "Thou wart in very gracious fooling last night when thou spok'st of Pigrogromitus, of the Vapians passing the equinoctial of Queubus."

QUEVIRA
(another name for NOVA ALBION, q.v.).

QUILOA
(better known as KILWA). A town with a fine harbour on the E. coast of S. Africa, S. of Zanzibar and a little over 100 m. N. of Cape Delgado. It is known to have been a flourishing spt. as early as 1330; it was taken by the Portuguese in 1507, and remained in their possession. Milton, P. L. xi. 399, enumerates among the kingdoms shown in vision to Adam by Michael, "Mombaxa, and Quiloa, and Melind."

QUINTIN'S (SAINT)
(more properly ST. QUENTIN'S). An ancient town in France (Picardy) on the Somme, 87 m. N.E. of Paris. It was the scene of a battle in 1557 between the Spaniards and the French: the Spaniards, who were assisted by a force of English soldiers, gained the victory. In Wit & Wisdom ii. 1, Idleness says, "I have been at St. Q. where I was twice killed." In Jonson's Tub iii. 4, Sir Hugh says, "I was once a capt. at St. Q." In T. Heywood's Ed. IV, B. 93, Scales reports that the Count St. Paul "lies and revels at St. Q. And laughs at Edward's coming into France." This was in 1474, when Edward IV invaded France. In Merry Devil i. 2, 32, the Host says to Bilbo, "My soldier of St. Q., come, follow me." Puttenham, Art of Poesie iii. 22, blames "one that would say k. Philip shrewdly harmed the town of St. Quintaines, when indeed he won it and put it to the sack." Sir John Davies, in In Gerontem 10, represents his hero dating events from "The going to St. Q. and Newhaven." In Old Meg, Hall, the ox-leach, is said to be so old that he might have "cured an ox that was eaten at St. Q."

QUIRINAL
One of the 7 hills of Rome, lying N.E. of the Capitol. Spencer, in Raines of Rome iv., says of Rome that Jove "Upon her stomach laid Mt. Q."