Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/147

 in. FEB. 11, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

119

' Centurie of Praj'se,' have restricted their extracts to early writers, if not to those of established reputation. l)r. Forahaw has come down to modern days, and has burdened his book with passages from nineteenth or twentieth century obscurities in a manner destructive of all sense of balance or proportion. A single couplet of Thomas Heywood from the ' Hierarchic of the Blessed Angels,' which is not given,

Mellifluous Sliake-spearc, whose enchanting Quill

Commanded Mirth or Passion, was but Will, is worth reams of modern rubbish ; and Dryden's comment on his own mangled version of ' The Tempest,' also not given,

But Shakespeare's magic could not copied be ;

Within that circle none durst walk save he (we quote from memory), is far better than the longer extracts from him which are supplied. Much of interest is, of course, furnished the tributes of Ben Jonson, Milton, Matthew Arnold, Hartley Coleridge, Thomas Hood, and many others being given. A sense of burlesque is, however, conveyed when we find Mr. John George Speed fa writer wholly unknown to us, as are many of Dr. Forshaw's bards) beginning some verses with

England! spare that place ; Touch not a single stone,

which seems like a barefaced imitation of a once- popular song,

Woodman ! spare that tree ; Touch not a single bough.

Drayton's quatrain on Shakespeare of the inser- tion of which, naturally, we do not complain is un- worthy of both poets. On the whole, of things of little repute which appear, Garrick's " Ye Warwickshire lads and ye lasses" is the best. There is a good lilt about " For the wag of all wags was a W(trn:i<-];- once famous Shakespeare Jubilee, which, absurd as it was in some respects, eclipses in interest what has since been done. Dr. Forshaw who is a con- tributor to his own volume speaks generously of the share of 'N. & Q.' in announcing his scheme, and securing him a portion of his material. We acknowledge his kindness, but we cannot conceal our impression that the omission of a third of his matter would improve his book. The choice of a great subject does not necessarily beget great treat- ment, or we should not have so many contemptible hymns contemptible, that is, from the literary standpoint. Dr. Garnett has allowed of the appear- ance in ' At Shakespeare's Shrine ' of his lecture on ' Plays partly written by Shakespeare,' delivered before the London Shakespeare Society in April jast,
 * hin wag.' 5 This was written by the actor for his

mmer Norwood Athenctum : The Record of the Winter Muting* and Summer Excursions, 1904. (Printed by Truslove & Bray, West Norwood.) THE work of the twenty-eighth season of the Upper Norwood Athenjeum has been excellent in every way. The winter meetings were resumed, and special permission having been obtained from the Duke of Wellington, Apsley House was the first place visited, Mr. H. Martyn Hill being the conductor. Mr. Hill in his paper related the story of George II. and the soldier Allen. Allen, who had fought under the king at Dettingen, had an apple-stall on the present site of Apsley House. The king, riding past one morning, saw Allen, and

asked what he could do for him. " Please, your Majesty, to give me a grant of the bit of ground my hut stands on, and I shall be happy." " Be happy," said the king, and Allen's wish was granted. Allen's son became a lawyer, and, after a stately- mansion had been erected, put in a claim which was settled by the payment of 45W. per annum as ground rent. Another winter meeting was at the museum of the Record Office, the paper being read by Mr. Thomas H. Alexander. The summer excursions included Ockham (paper read by Mr. Charles Wheeler), the Pilgrims Way and Coldrum (paper by Mr. \V. T. Vincent), Chenies and Latimer (Mr. A. J. Pitman), Ongar (Mr. H. A. King), Colnbrook and Stanwell (the editor, who also took St. John's Gate at one of the winter meetings), and Winchester,, when Mr. G. H. Lindsey-Renton was the leader. The last paper, like all the others, had been carefully prepared. We would advise Mr. Renton to read Mr. Sergeant's ' Winchester,' one of the series of excellent guides to the Cathedrals published by Messrs. Bell & Sons, and reviewed by us on, 26 February, 1898. Mr. Theophilus Pitt, who edits The Record for the first time, has done so with much care, and the number of beautiful illustrations render the booklet very attractive. We would suggest to the Upper Norwood Athenseum that it would be interesting to arrange for a general meet- ing with the members of kindred societies, such as those of Hampstead, Woolwich, Balham, &c. ; it would be pleasant to compare notes as to progress made.

THE Burlington opens with a beautiful frontis- piece of Adam and Eve, after Lucas Cranach, from Buckingham Palace. Other admirable reproduc- tions of the same master, also from the royal collection, appear, accompanied by an article of Mr. Lionel Cust. In an editorial article it is said that the mordant caricatures of Mr. Max Beerbohm will soon be appreciated. Further portrait draw- ings by J. F. Millet, from the Staats Forbes collec- tion, are given, concluding a valuable paper. At p. 395 some striking miniatures are reproduced.

THE Fortnightly opens with '"King Lear" in. Paris,' by M. Maurice Maeterlinck. From this we learn that the recent performance of 'Lear' at the Theatre Antoine has not been wholly successful, and that, propos of this play, the best-known Parisian critics were writing in a style recalling the worst heresies of Voltaire. M. Emile Faguet speaks of most of it as being "no more than a heap of stupid crimes, foolish horrors, and idiotic vices.'' It is, M. Faguet declares, a " bruto-tragedy or bruto- drama." Prof. J. Churton Collins writes eloquently and well on the enlightened side under the heading ' Greek at the Universities.' Under the title ' The Red Virgin of Montmartre' the late Louise Michel is described. ' French Life and the French Stage ' resolves itself into an account of the production at the Odeon of ' La Deserteuse ' of M. Brieux and at the Comudie Franchise of M. Capus's latest farce. ' Kitchen Comedies,' by Mrs. John Lane, presents amusingly most, but not quite all, of the aspects of the servant question. On ' Compulsory Greek as a National Question ' Prof. \Vestlake writes, in the Nineteenth Century, in a sadly different spirit from Prof. Churton Collins, and we turn from his article with som discouragement. Mr. Fuller Maitland describes the madrigal as 'A Waning Glory of England.' It is curious that of three musicians of the middle of last century, whose works are selected