Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/339

 10* s.i. APRIL 2, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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nor are they true to the etymology of the names. Probably, therefore, they do not represent what PROF. SKEAT means by " real additions," but neither do they appear due to "phonetic causes." They are simply re- dundant.

To turn to names that have received additional letters out of a mistaken mean- ing, their name is legion. There are two farms, one in Ayrshire, another in Eastern Galloway, written Bardrochwood. When the Ordnance surveyors requested me to help them in revising the orthography of place- names in South- Western Scotland, I pointed out fco them that this name had no reference to a wood, but was good Gaelic bar drochaid, the hill by the bridge. They proposed to alter it accordingly, but in one case the proprietor refused his consent, because the correct orthography would not correspond with the name in his title-deeds.

Again, Craigends, in Renfrewshire, has re- ceived the accretion of d and s. The original name was the Gaelic plural creagean, the crags. Somebody thought it meant " the end of the crag," which accounts for the d. Then the owner of the land so named built a mansion house ; and he being known, more Scotico, as Craigend, his house became spoken of as Craigend's [place].

It is quite possible that in all this I am speaking aside from what PROF. SKEAT in- tended to convey. If so, I trust he will excuse my density.

PROF. SKEAT refers to the havoc wrought by Norman scribes upon Saxon names. Saxon scribes are avenging themselves at this dav. The following are quoted in the Gardener's Chronicle from a list of roses lately offered for sale in Hertfordshire : Yules Murgottin [Jules Margottin], Lausi van Haute [Louis van Houtte], General Yucuminal [General Jacqueminot]. Among others which were past recognition occurred Witte Ethos, Mad. guro Feshant, Chape de Napolian, Prins cum a Bohn, and Loun vun Ilauffe.

HERBERT MAXWELL.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

A History of Theatrical Art in Ancient and Modern Times. By Karl Mantzius. Authorized Trans- lation by Louise von Cossel. Vol. III. (Duck- worth & Co.)

WE have already (see ante, p. 77) spoken in high praise of Dr. Karl Mantzius's history of theatrical art. To the two volumes there noticed has been added a third and concluding volume, the ap- proaching advent of which we announced. To the average Englishman this last volume will pro-

bably prove the most popular and useful. In solid merit it is not superior to its predecessors, and it supplies little information that will be new to the advanced student. What, however, it under- takes is admirably executed, and it furnishes in a, readable and accurate form much knowledge which elsewhere is only to be found in obscure and often- rare publications. Materials for a thorough his- tory of the stage are more abundant than is gener- ally supposed. So widely scattered are they that the volumes in which they appear constitute in themselves a considerable library. These have fqr the most part been diligently employed by our Danish historian, whose work is a solid and most important contribution to our knowledge of the stage. Works such as the lives of Shakespeare by HaTliwell-Phillipps and Mr. Sidney Lee, the his- tories of Mr. Fleay, the laborious chronicle of Genest, and the like, are generally known and within easy reach. Strange, however, to say, the not less important works of Malone and Chalmers are all but ignored. The valuable information they supply is undigested, and the absence of adequate indexes is discouraging to students. Dr. Mantzius has most of these and other works at his finger ends, the only book bearing on the subject he appears not to have seen being Halliwell- Phillipps's ' Collection of Ancient Documents respecting the Master of the Revels, and other Papers relating to the Early English Theatre,' of which eleven copies only were issued at 3/. 8a. 3d. each, and which, consequently, is of the utmost rarity. We sought vainly for a copy during a score years. The result of Dr. Mantzius's labours is a work which every scholar must have on his shelves and all may consult with advantage. Within a short space it presents a full history of all that is known about the pre-Restoration stage. Especially- useful is the information supplied concerning: theatres such as the Cockpit, the Blackfriars, and others not included in Mr. Fairman Ordish's ' Early London Theatres (In the Fields),' the half-promised supplementary volume to which has not ap- peared. The work is no less correct than ample. Almost the only misleading statement we trace is the assertion (p. 54, note) that John Taylor, the- Water Poet, " left in all sixty-three works of great interest to investigators of the life of those times." Sixty-three is the number of works in a single collection, and not that of his entire publica- tions. The volume is further recommended by the illustrations, which are numerous, and in some instances rare. These include views of the Tabard Inn, London in Shakespeare's time (after Hoef- nagel's ground plan), the interior of a private theatre (from Alabaster's ' Roxana '), the interior of the Red Bull Theatre, Tarlton as a clown, Kemp in his famous morris dance, &c., and por- traits of Alleyn as Dr. Faustus and Hieronimo, Richard Burbage, and Nathaniel Field, together with how obtained we know not William Shake- speare, from the bust belonging to the Garrick Club.

Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (English}.

By Helena Swan. (Sonnenschein <fe Co.) THOUGH a work of considerable labour, this book may not be pronounced worthy of association with the best volumes of the series to which it belongs. It assigns far too much prominence to writers con- cerning whom the world has but a languid interest, if it has any interest at all. It is a difficult and, perhaps, an ungracious thing in the case of living.