Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/315

 io* S.H. SEPT. 24,190*.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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nicled. Peternell is a common female Christian name ; Agnes is generally spelt Angnis. The spell- ing of female Christian names is often quaint.

Nouvean Dictionnaire: Anglais- Francais et Fran- fab-Anglais. Par E. Clifton. Refondu et aug- mente par J. McLaughlin. (Gamier Freres.) DURING forty years the French and English dic- tionary of E. Clifton has enjoyed great popularity as a dictionnaire de poche, though the poche must be large that will contain it. It has now been enlarged to double the size and in other ways recast, and is admirably calculated for popular use. It supplies hints for pronunciation as useful as such things can be made, and though the expla- nations are sometimes inadequate where a word from the same root is supplied from each language, as French monodie, English monody, it shares this defect with all similar works, and it must be borne in mind that a dictionary is not an encyclopedia. Existing mistakes are seldom rectified, e.g.,jeu de patience does not find an equivalent in puzzle. Yet it will always do so in dictionaries.

Cupid and Psyche, and other Tales from the Golden Ass of Apidrius. Newly edited by W. H. D. Rouse, Litt.D. (De La More Press.) AMONG the most interesting and popular of the excellent series of " Tudor Translations " Adling- ton's ' Apuleius ' occupies a conspicuous place. To the delightful series of "King's Classics" Dr. Rouse has added portions of the work containing the story of * Cupid and Psyche ' and other adven- tures. Without satisfying scholars, since the lan- guage is modernized and the narrative is abridged, the oook may serve to introduce to a general public a work of conspicuous merit and interest. In the introductory portion, meantime, the latest opinions, we can hardly say conclusions, of scholarship, as to the source of the * Golden Ass ' are quoted. Whether Lucian or Apuleius is to be credited with the in- vention, or whether, according to Photius, the whole originated in a fable of Lucius of Patrse, will never be known. Discussions on the point have, however, an attraction of their own, and the story, whencesoever derived, is immortal All that a reader of average pretence to cultivation can seek to know is told in the introductory portion, and the story can be read in a version void of offence.

Oreat Masters. Part XXIV. (Heinemann.) WE had been under the impression delusive, as it proves that the twenty-fourth part of 'Great Masters ' would bring this princely work to a con- clusion. So far is this from being the case, that the contents of the twenty-fifth part are announced upon the cover of the twenty-fourth. We, at least, shall not complain however far the original scheme may be extended. For the first picture, ' La Coquette' of Greuze, from the collection of Sir Algernon Coote, a species of apology is offered, and we are told that the work has "a very obvious grace" and "a superficial kind of charm." It appeals, we are instructed, to the inartistic. In days such as the present utterances of the kind are to be expected. For ourselves, we accept the rebuke, and continue to admire. A ' Portrait of a Man,' from Mr. Donaldson's collection, is by Alvise Viva- rini, a painter whose worth is also fiercely disputed. The power of the workmanship is at least not to be disputed. From the Vienna Gallery comes the altar- piece of the S. lldefonso Chapel by Rubens. This is an exquisite and sumptuous work, with nothing to

suggest a religious basis except the faint effluence- round the central figure, doing duty for a nimbus. Its cherubim are as delightful amonni as ever were designed by Boucher or Eisen. There is a lovely portrait of the second wife of Rubens, painted in the artist's most uxorious style. ' A Maiden's Dream,' by Lorenzo Lotto, is from the collection of the editor, Sir Martin Conway. The work, which shows a sleeping maiden, with a cherub pouring flowers into her lap, was purchased in Milan, and was offered for sale as a Rotten hammer. On each side of the girl are satyrs, male or female.

The Fitz- Patrick Lectures for 1903. English Medi- cine in the Anglo-Saxon Times. By Joseph Frank Payne, M.D. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.) SPECIAL interest attends this handsome and attrac- tive volume, the substance of which consists of the two opening lectures, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians on 23 and 25 June, 1903, by the first Fitz -Patrick Lecturer. The- foundation is due to Mrs. Fitz- Patrick, the widow of Thomas Fitz- Patrick, M.D., who sought in this fashion to honour the memory of her husband, a member of the College, and to advance the study of early medicine, in which he took a keen and an- enlightened interest. This study has been neglected in England, though within the last few years some- thing has been done to wipe out the reproach. The two lectures of Dr. Payne deal with Anglo-Saxon medicine, which seems to have been no more primi- tive than that of succeeding Norman times. To- the non-scientific reader the blending of knowledge with superstition is very interesting, and much strange and curious matter may be gleaned by the curious. Among such things are the ^Egyptiaci, or days of which there were two in each month when blood-letting, or undergoing any form of medical treatment, was specially dangerous. A book of which much use has been made is ' The Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and IStarcraft of Early England,*" by the Rev. Oswald Cockayne, 3 vols., 1864-6. A reissue of this work seems eminently desirable- To the collection of Anglo-Saxon medical works which it contains no important addition has been made. Its first volume contains the English render- ing of the Latin ' Herbarium Apuleii Platonici,' of which a full account is given. Very curious are many of the charms that appear. See, p. 129, the Latin account how Christ cured the toothache of St. Peter. Superstitious medicine is, as might be expected, very interesting. It would be curious to know how much still influences rustic belief. Very few repulsive remedies are mentioned, though such* survived until a recent date as folk-lore. A series of plates, principally from the British Museum, given at the close of the volume, constitute an interesting feature. Four methods of digging up mandragora with the aid of a dog are among these.

Clarence King Memoirs : The Helmet of Mambrino.

(Putnam's Sons.)

THIS book is in its line a novelty. It is a tribute of affectionate admiration on the part of friends to a man wholly unknown in this country, but of some eminence and great popularity in the Western- States of America. Except that it was published after a man's death instead of in his lifetime, and that the writers are club friends and companions- of him it is sought to honour, and not scholars of European reputation, the work might be likened, in some respects, to ' An English Miscellany ' presented