Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/556

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. n. DEC. 3, 1904.

rooms of the deposed Queen of the Adriatic ; but even with all the facilities that are now given for modern research, it is not to be hoped for that a trade history of the Venetian republic will ever be produced in a manner which will satisfy those who desire to have an exhaustive acquaint- ance with the methods of the great distributor of the productions of the East among the nations of the West, whom we cannot doubt that the merchant-princes regarded as mere money- spending barbarians. In the rest of Europe, from the days of Charlemagne to a period not long before the discovery of America, affluence, and conse- quently grandeur, followed the career of the suc- cessful soldier. It was otherwise in the eastern city on the gulf, where carefully organized trade took at least as high a position as large estates and a mul- titude of warlike retainers did elsewhere. The men of trade, like the men of the sword, were not Ambitions, at least not in the way that the word is now commonly misused. They cared for present power, profit, and pleasure, but not for the fame which follows after death. The more wide-minded .and sharper-witted among them became great in their own day, but they left nothing behind them in the shape of biographical memoranda their inner thoughts are unknown to us. We must glean what we can from the meagre notices in chronicles and the still less stimulating entries in account rolls. We know from the architecture they left ^behind them, their tombs, and the scanty remains of their armour and domestic utensils, that they loved beautiful things ; but this was in those days hardly a distinction, for all men then craved after beauty. The severance between the great traders of Venice and the Westerns was rather one of geographical position than of desire or capacity. The English- man, the German, or the Spaniard had not the opportunity which topographical position gave the Venetian traders of exploiting the treasures of the Orient. It must not, however, be assumed that the Venetians were merchants only. The glass of Venice was known from an early period, and her soap was the best in the world. The writer tells us the interesting fact that for the latter article the trade-marks of the three chains, the dove, and the half-moon were used, as well as others which he does not specify. Were these equivalent to heraldic badges, or were they fanciful pictures only, like most of the trade- marks of our own time? The fourth Crusade was the culminating period of the prosperity of the Island City ; but even that would have been of small advantage to her had not her powerful navy been able to clear the Levant of the pirates that infested it. To these things in a great degree she owed her wealth and her power, and, what is at the present of far more importance, she became in a position to elaborate a scheme of sea law which, if not the foundation, was at least the substructure of the imperfect systems which exist at the present time. ' Byzantine Architecture in Greece' is interesting, though the title is in some degree a misnomer, as much space is occupied by a discussion regarding the mosaics of St. Mark's, Venice. It may be that those which adorn St. Mark's are, viewed from the standpoint of art alone, the finest in existence, though the statement is open to question ; but there is another factor in the problem. It should ever be borne in mind that it is impossible to separate art from history. The paper on Prosper Merimee is the work of an admirer, but he never becomes enthusiastic. He

realizes Merimee's greatness, but we think he feels also that it was of a kind which could attract only in a very imperfect manner the sympathies of a cultured Englishman. The paper on ' Recent French and English Plays ' is the work of one who knows not the playhouse alone, but has worked out a theory of play-construction which, though not our own, is worthy of careful con- sideration. The part where the English drama is discussed is more helpful than the French portion. Another point is worth notice. Is the writer quite sure that what he calls Puritanism is the sole reason for the dislike of the theatre which in some minds exists almost as strongly as it did among those who wrote for the Evangelical Magazine a hundred years ago ? Surely there are other reasons, one of which is the conception, quite apart from any influence of right or wrong, that some of the stronger emotions are not fitted for scenic repre- sentation. Another is that the accessories are frequently so much overdone that comedy and tragedy are wont to change places in the minds of the kind of persons whom we have indicated.

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W. L. POOLE, Montevideo (" Authors of Quota- tions Wanted "). " Budge doctors of the Stoic fur," Milton's ' Comus,' 1. 707. "And beauty, born of murmuring sound," Wordsworth's 'Three Years she grew in Sun and Shower.'

C. LAWRENCE FORD (" Hoc habeo, quodcumque dedi "). Seneca, ' De Beneficiis,' vi. 3, 1. See ' Quod expendi habui,' 7 th S. xii. 506 ; 8 th S. i. 155, 503 ; ii. 74 ; v. 75.

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DOWGATE ("Neither of which is satisfactory"). The singular verb is correct.

E. F. McPiKE, Chicago.' McDonald Family of Ireland ' will appear next week.

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