Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/531

 10* s.i. MAY 28, low.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the man, probably the painter himself, and the woman holding to her lips an emptied glass. Last comes from the Rijksmuseum, of wMch it is the supreme ornament, the misnamed 'Night Watch' of Rembrandt van Rhin, " the greatest treasure of the Dutch National Collection of Pictures." In the reproduction of this animated picture the rich effects of colour and the deep shadows which pre- sumably gained it its name are splendidly preserved. Needless to say that each of the plates is worthy of a frame. It is, however, as a collection repre- sentative of what is best in early art that the chief claim and delight of ' Great Masters ' will always be found.

England's Elizabeth : being the Memories of Mattheic Bedale. By his Honour Judge Parry. (Smith & Elder.)

IN the form of the recollections of one Matthew Bedale Judge Parry, the editor of Dorothy Osborne, supplies a veracious account of the life of Queen Elizabeth, and especially of her relations with Leicester, in whose household the narrator or diarist is supposed to have been. The whole con- stitutes an agreeable romance of history, and has a certain measure of antiquarian interest. It is scarcely close enough to actual record to justify us in dealing with it at length, but may be commended to those who seek for further knowledge of an animated and terrible period, with which our old and lamented contributor HERMENTRUDE used frequently to concern herself.

The. Cattle -Raid of Cualnge (Tain Bo Cuailnge): an Old Irish Prose -Epic. Translated by L. Winifred Faraday, M.A. (Nutt.) THE latest contribution to the " Grimm Library" of Mr. Nutt consists of a translation of ' The Cattle- Raid of Cualnge' (pronounce Cooley), which is described as the chief story belonging to the heroic cycle of Ulster dealing with the brave deeds of Conchobar MacNessa and his nephew Cuchulainn MacSualtaim. Students of the 'Cuchullin Saga,' a translation of which by Miss Hull appears in No. VIII. of the "Grimm Library," are aware how important is this book, which has undergone no such sophistication as has attended later works, such, for instance, as 'The Tragical Death of Conachor,' to which the Christian scribe adds the conjecture that the king received before his demise news of the death of Christ. The pre- liminary portion of ' The Cattle-Raid ' (from Leabhar na h-Uidhri) contains the account of the boyish deeds of Cuchulainn (as the name is spelt), before which are given the remarkable pre- dictions of Fedelm, the prophetess of Connaught. On p. 35 begin the account of the geio, or tabooes, which the hero lays on the principal warriors of the invading host, and the long list of slaughter. After these things comes a continuation from the ' Yellow Book of Lecan,' the whole ending with a peace which endured for several years, during which " there was no wounding of men" between two opposing hosts. To those unfamiliar with these Irish legends it is impossible to convey an idea of their nature or of their savagery. Nothing we can say will lead to their perusal others than those whom the mere announcement of their appearance will attract. As an illustration of the savagery of the whole we may say that Cuchulainn, rousing himself upon hearing three momentous blows struck by Fergus, "smote the head of each

of the two handmaidens against the other, so that each of them was gory from the brain of the other."

A Register of the Members of St. Mary Magda?en College, Oxford. New Series. Vol. IV., 1648- 1712. By William Dunn Macray. (Frowde.) DR. MACRAY'S new volume is arranged equally well with its predecessors ; it includes the fellows who were intruded into the college by the Parliamentary visitors after the surrender of Oxford and those- who were illegally forced upon the college by- James II. The earlier class, though their succes- sion was irregular, were, many of them, men of learning and high character, who contrast favour- ably with most of James's nominees, many of whom seem to have been chosen almost entirely on account of their religion being the same as that of the king, their agreement with him being, as Dr. Macray suggests, in some cases caused by motives of worldly interest.

The biographies are executed with care, contain- ing a great number of minufce facts \vhieh we are very glad to have in our possession. Many correc- tions are made of the slips of former biographers. Though the life of every one of the fellows has- been well worthy of investigation, yet we are sure- Dr. Macray would admit that very few of them were persons of any great eminence. There is one noteworthy exception. Christian Ravis, the great German Orientalist, was made a fellow of the- college in March, 1649, by the Parliamentarian- visitors ; as well as being fellow he was appointed librarian and Hebrew lecturer, but he soon vacated all his appointments, because he found so few persons in Oxford who cared for Eastern learning.

The author possesses a sense of the humorous and the grotesque, which is notby any means vouchsafed to all those who tread the bypaths of history. He tells a story of how the President and FelloM's intruded by the Long Parliament, when they came into residence, removed the figure of our Saviour from the great east window of the chapel, but left re- maining that of the Devil. The scene represented was probably that of the temptation in the wilderness. "The peril of idolatry," as the book of homilies calls it, haunted in those days the minds of even good and wise men in a manner it is hard for us to realize, but to which nearly every old church in the land bears testimony ; but, after all, we English, were not quite so wild in our destructiveness as our Scottish neighbours. We are told by a high authority that at the beginning of the Wars of the Covenant, Jameson's portrait of the provost of Aberdeen was removed from the"] Sessions-house there as savouring of Popery. In 1662 we find a certain Dr. Yerbury discommoned for a fortnight,, "propter verba tasdiosa." We cannot but feel that this wholesome discipline might be revived in some of our colleges at the present time with good effect.

The Reliquary and Illustrated Archaeologist. Edited by J. Romilly Allen. April. (Bemrose & Sons.) THE contents of this number are varied and in- teresting. The first article, by Henry Philibert Feasey, treats on 'The Evolution of the Mitre.' Until the sixth century it was quite plain, when "John of Cappadocia adorned it with ornamental' embroidery and with images of saints needle- painted. Formerly its colour was always white." Previous to the tenth century its shape was that of a horned or pointed cap, reduced by the twelfth century to a mere crown. The symbolism of the