Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/128

102 is historical absurdity in wearing oak-leaves on the 29th of May. Was it not on this day, which was also his birthday, that Charles II. made his entry into London on his return from exile? The custom of using oak-leaves as decorations at May festivals is probably of very great antiquity; but since the Restoration it has naturally been connected in a special manner with the picturesque, if perfidious, Stuart, who was once constrained to find shelter from his enemies in the Boscobel oak.

Mr. Moss might consult the works of our philological authorities with advantage when the derivation of words is in question. To speak of one instance only: had he referred to the New English Dictionary before writing "the word burial is derived from bury-ale, the ale or feast that was given to the kindred and neighbours who were bidden to the burying of any one," he would have found that the opinion of the most skilful philologers is against this assertion.

has begun the publication of a series of detailed studies upon the sources and transformations of the Novelle of Italian literature. If we may judge by the work before us, the series is likely to prove not merely valuable but indispensable for students of the migration of tales. Straparola's famous collection was first published in 1550-3. It was several times reprinted during the following sixty years. After a period of depreciation and neglect, lasting for two centuries, Dunlop first perceived its importance for literary history; and from the time he drew attention to it in his History of Fiction, published in 1814, it has been the subject of constant interest to students of literature and of folklore. Owing to the freedom of its contents from the trammels of conventionality, and indeed of decency, it has never been translated as a whole into English. In spite of this grave defect, common to most of the Italian collections, among which it is by no means the coarsest, it is not without beauty, and for us it has the supreme merit that it draws its inspiration chiefly from the stories and beliefs of the "folk."