Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/56

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. JULY IG, 19%.

K I N G'S

CLASSICAL AND FOREIGN

QUOTATIONS.

READY ON JULY 14.

We have to announce a new edition of this Dictionary. It first appeared at the end of '87, and was quickly disposed of. A larger (and corrected) issue came out in the spring of 1839, and is now out of print. The Third, now about to be published, contains a large accession of important matter, in the way of celebrated historical and literary sayings and mots, much wanted to bring the Dictionary to a more complete form, and now appearing in its pages for the first time. On the other hand, the pruning knife has been freely used, and the excisions are numerous. A multitude of trivial and superfluous items have thus been cast away wholesale, leaving only those citations which were worthy of a place in a standard work of reference. As a result, the actual number of quotations is less, although it is hoped that the improvement in quality will more than compensate for the loss in quantity. The book has, in short, been not only revised, but rewritten throughout, and is not so much a new edition as a new work. It will be seen also that the quotations are much more " racontes " than before, and that where any history, story, or allusion attaches to any particular saying, the opportunity for telling the tale has not been thrown away. In this way what is primarily taken up as a book of reference, may perhaps be retained in the hand as a piece of pleasant reading, that is not devoid at times of the elements of humour and amusement. One other feature of the volume, and perhaps its most valuable one, deserves to be noticed. The previous editions professed to give not only the quotation, but its reference; and, although performance fell very far short of promise, it was at that time the only dictionary of the kind published in this country that had been compiled with that definite aim in view. In the present case no citation with the exception of such unaffiliated things as proverbs, maxims, and mottoes has been admitted without its author and passage, or the " chapter and verse" in which it may be found, or on which it is founded. In order, however, not to lose altogether, for want of identification, a number of otherwise deserving sayings, an appendix of Adespota is supplied, consisting of quotations which either the editor has failed to trace to their source, or the paternity of which has not been satisfactorily proved. There are four indexes Authors and authorities, Subject index, Quotation index, and index of Greek passages. Its deficiencies notwithstanding, * Classical and Foreign Quotations ' has so far remained without a rival as a polyglot manual of the world's famous sayings in one pair of covers and of moderate dimensions, and its greatly improved qualities should confirm it still more firmly in public use and estimation.

KI N G'S

CLASSICAL AND FOREIGN

QUOTATIONS.

London : J. WHITAKBR & SONS, LTD., 12, Warwick Lane, E.G.