Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/171

 10 s. XL FEB. is, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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In the text some misprints have escaped the editor's vigilance. On p. 556 (first volume) " Chimaeras dire stories," &c., should read " Chimaeras dire stories," &c. ; p. 612 " soot " should be " suit " ; pp. 618 and 622, " crurns " should be " crumbs " ; 642, " these " should be " their." These printer's errors, with the excep- tion of the second and fifth, occurred first in the edition of 1823, having been correctly printed in The London Magazine ; but they were rectified when the ' Prose Works ' of 1835 were being passed through the press. We are pleased to see that the unfortunate " stake " for " slake " in the essay on Wither has not been overlooked. Ainger called attention to this misprint ; but he was in error in his statement that all editors had passed it over. The proper reading is to be found in the 1835 edition, and, we believe, in this alone. In the second volume in ' The Wife's Trial ' on pp. 788 and 801 respectively, an intrusive " a " and the substitution of " hand- kerchief " for " kerchief " spoil the scansion of the lines in which they appear.

The following, which are stated to have been collected in Moxon's edition 1868-70, first ap- peared in Talfourd's ' Letters of Charles Lamb, with a Sketch of his Life ' : ' The Death of Munden,' ' Thoughts on Presents of Game,' ' Margaret W ,' ' To Clara N[ovello],' and ' The Three Graves.'

In the verses to Sarah L[pcke] and ' In Miss Westwood's Album ' the initials J. P. and S n stand respectively for John Forster and Sugden. The latter, who was an assistant schoolmaster to Dr. May of Enfield, married Frances Westwood in the summer of 1828. The proof of this is to be found in an unpublished letter of Lamb now lying before us.

Had sufficient space been at our disposal, we should have liked to go into the question of authorship of ' An Appeal from the Shades,' first attributed to Lamb by Mr. Bertram Dobell. We incline to believe that it was the work of another writer, possibly of Thomas Hood.

A Century of Archceological Discoveries. By

Prof. A. Michaelis. (John Murray.) " DISCOVERY " is an ambiguous word : it may signify the act or the result the finding of a hidden thing, or the " find " or hidden thing itself when brought to light. It is chiefly with the former sense that this admirable book is concerned. It essays to give an historical account of how, when, where, and by whom the relics of antiquity were excavated ; but any lengthened notice of the objects themselves, the temples and statues, was manifestly impossible.

If bringing to light a New World was the great achievement of the fifteenth century, the un- covering of the Old will ever be held one of the glories of he nineteenth. It was no easy task to give a summary record of the manifold activities of the archaeological spade during that period, and few could have discharged it with such con- spicuous success as the Strasburg professor. We do not deny that he has his limitations, which compel him to specialize. His interests and sympathies, as he candidly admits, lie in the region of classical antiquity rather than in the Orient ; yet it is in the latter that the moat fruitful and important results have been obtained for the history of civilization and religion. The fact'- of an Assyrian monument being chosen

for the frontispiece might lead the reader to expect that the explorations in the valley of the Euphrates as well as those in the land of the Nile would occupy a large share of the work, proportioned to their importance. But such is not the case. Italy, Greece, and Troy monopolize far the greatest number of pages ; while Babylonia, Egypt, and Palestine are relegated to a place of secondary consideration among the " outlying- countries." Hellas is the acknowledged centre of interest for Prof. Michaelis. " My main object," he says, " has been to give an account of the rise, the diffusion, and the deepening of our knowledge of Greek art " ; but with inscrip- tions, cylinders, or religious emblems he has no- concern. Relics of Mithraism we should have thought came within his scope, but they find no- mention. His book, therefore, needs to be supple- mented by works like King and Hall's ' Egypt and Western Asia in the Light of Recent Dis- coveries ' and Vincent's ' Canaan apres 1'Explora- tion Recente.' The survey of a field so wide, over a period so long, is necessarily cursory and rapid, and so far the interest is unpaired ; but the volume is the work of an expert, and replete with information. The illustrations are clear and good.

A Shakespeare Word-Book. By John Foster.

(Routledge & Sons.)

THE sub-title, ' A Glossary of Archaic Forms and Varied Usages of Words employed by Shakespeare,' fairly describes the range of this useful work. Mr. Foster has spent, he tells us, almost sixteen years over his book, and, deriving substantial help from those who have gone before, has made a laudably complete aid to the text of Shakespeare, which, being published at a moderate price, snould secure a wide sale.

The Preface says : "It may be objected" that in the following pages the discriminating sense is sometimes too finely exercised.'' We see- no need, for instance, to make, as the author does, thirteen different meanings out of " bosom." Thus 'Julius Caesar,' Act V. s. i. 7, " Tut, I am in their bosoms," might go under either (5) desires, inmost thoughts, or (6) secrets meanings which we should have put together. We are pleased to see that the illustrations from the plays are numerous, for Shakespeare is his own best commentator, though we value also parallel usages from the literature of the Elizabethan period.

The Preface further notes that " Malapropisms and most vulgar corruptions " are also beyond the scope of the book, so that Mrs. Quickly, Fluellen, Dogberry, Launcelot, Bardolph, Evans, and Jerrold' in their characteristic outpourings " have here practically no place." Yet we find on p. 308 Mrs. Quickly's "honey-seed" for "homicide," while missing "impeticos thy gratillity," so that the compiler is not altogether consistent. On this same pa?e the proverbial longest word of 'Love's Labour 's Lost ' has slipped a syllable, as we are assured by recalling the Latin hexameter in which it figures.

" The derivation of words is given only in obscure cases where it is considered that their etymology may to some extent illuminate their meaning." We are grateful for what we get in this way, but wish, for more, being ever

Keen thro' wordy snares to track Suggestion to her inmost cell.