Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/565

 10* s. ii. DEC. 10, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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so many heads were employed over one piece of work, it is a little curious to find that one important item was omitted from all these bibliographies. This is the well-known sonnet of Rossetti, headed * Lost Days,' which was originally published in the following work :

" A Welcome : | Original Contributions in [ Poetry and Prose | [Printer's device.] | London : j Emily Faithfull, | Printer and Publisher in Ordi- nary to Her Majesty, | Princes Street, Hanover Square, and | 83A, Farringdon Street. | 1863."

This book was published on the occasion of the arrival of the Princess Alexandra in England, and, like most of Miss FaithfulPs publications, it has become rather scarce. The contributors were among the leading writers of the day, although two or three of the distinguished names which are found in Miss Faithf ull's earlier volume, ' The Victoria Regia/ are missing. Dante Rossetti's sonnet was printed on p. 118. In the index to Mr. W. M. Rossetti's * Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Designer and Writer/ 1889, the date of com- position of this sonnet is conjecturally as- signed to 1858. Mrs. Dante Rossetti died in February, 1862, and this sonnet must have been amongst those which escaped the fate of the greater number of Rossetti's writings. A copy probably remained in the possession of Miss Christina Rossetti, who contributed the poem of 'Dream Love' to * A Welcome,' and was doubtless responsible for the inser- tion of her brother's sonnet. ' Lost Days ' was afterwards published in the Fortnightly fievieio, vol. v. pp. 266-273, N.S., 1869, and was included in the privately printed sets of * Poems,' 1869 and 1870, before it found a final resting-place as an integral portion of 'The House of Life' in the published 4 Poems' of 1870.

In the Bibliographer article (December, 1902, p. 429) Mr. W. M. Rossetti says that in one of the numbers of the Dark Blue appeared D. G. Rossetti's poem ' Down Stream.' It may be well to give the exact reference : the Dark Blue, vol. ii. pp. 211, 212 (October, 1871).

The poem was illustrated by two woodcuts, the work of Ford Madox Brown. One was on a separate sheet of plate paper, and the other formed the tailpiece of the poem. According to Mr. W. M. Rossetti ('Dante Gabriel Rossetti,' 1889, p. 155), ' Down Stream' was written towards the month of July, 1871, " as its local colouring clearly points to Kelmscott." It was contributed to the Dark Blue on the invitation of Madox Brown, and was not reprinted till it appeared in the 'Poems' of 1881, p. 142. It was originally called ' The River's Record.'

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

" SYCAMORE " : " SYCOMORE. " Discussing the form u sycomore," the 'Encyclopaedic Dictionary ' has the following :

" The wood is of little value, but the fruit is sweet and edible. It is the sycomore (1 Kings x. 27 : 2 Chron. i. 15, ix. 27) and sycamore (Isa. ix. 10 ; Luke xix. 4) of Scripture. In the last two passages the R.V. properly substitutes sycomore for syca- more."

It will be observed that no reference is made in this statement to the use of the word in 1 Chron. xxvii. 28, Psalm Ixxviii. 47, and Amos vii. 14. Apart from this omission, however, it is curious to compare what is said with the versions of several reprints of the A.V. immediately at hand. In an edition of 1634, "printed by Robert Barker, Printer to the Kings most excellent Majestie, and by the Assignes of John Bill," " sycamore" is the reading of 1 Kings x. 27, the other passages noted by the lexicographer all having " syco- more." Of versions that have appeared within the last thirty years, two published by Messrs. William Collins & Sons, one by Messrs. Go wans & Gray, and one bj r Messrs. Samuel Bagster & Sons all have " sycamore " throughout, while copies printed respectively by Messrs. Eyre & Spottiswoode and at the Cambridge University Press agree with the R.V. in giving only "sycomore." Another difference of view among those responsible for the various editions is illustrated in their adjustment of the allied words "sycamore trees," some giving them independent value as now quoted, while others link them with a hyphen. The version of 1634 presents the words separately in 2 Chron. ix. 27, using the compound form elsewhere. With regard to the name of the tree our collation brings out three groups of divergences in reprints of the A.V., while a fourth is involved in the sum- mary of the 'Encyclopaedic Dictionary.' It may be added that in Cruden's ' Concordance,' ed. Eadie (Charles Griffin & Co., 1875), " syca- more" alone is recognized.

THOMAS BAYNE.

CERVANTES AND BURNS. J. G. Lockhart himself the best biographer of Burns, and, at the same time, a master of both English and Spanish literature expresses an opinion, in his edition of 'Don Quixote,' 1822. which very much astonished me. In his Notes he mentions Cervantes's ' Colloquio de Dos Perros,' to which he appends this foot-note (vol. v. p. 340) :

" By the way, it is evident that Burns has taken from this colloquy not only the title, but the general idea and strain of his famous ' Twa Dogs.' "

After searching through several of the best modern editions of Burns's works, I could