Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/243

 III. MARCH 11, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

half-indolently turned over the new volumes, to see how they compare with the first edition, we were unable to quit them, and have, consequently, reread the portion of the diary which they cover. On only two other works can we bestow the same praise that however often has perusal been begun, it has never been abandoned until the end namely, of Shakespeare's 'As You Like It" and Scott's 'Rob Roy.' Constant service as the pub- lishers render to the student, this cheap edition of Pepys may be held the greatest boon with which they furnish him.

The Canterbury Pilgrimages. By H. Snowden

Ward. (A. & C. Black.) The Dickens Country. By Frederick G. Kitton.

(Same publishers.)

MR. SXONVDEN' WARD'S interesting and handsomely illustrated volume belongs to the "Pilgrimage Series" of Messrs. Black, which it may indeed be supposed to have originated. In addition to three sketch maps and numerous woodcuts in the text, it contains fifty full-page illustrations (photo- graphed by Catherine Weed Barnes Ward) of spots in Kentish fields and Surrey downs. Its interest, according to Mr. Ward's introduction, centres in two great tragedies, the fall of Thomas the Arch- bishop and the fall of the worship of Thomas the Martyr. It is a work pleasant and edifying, and casts an agreeable light upon Chaucer and the pilgrims he immortalized. The illustrations con- stitute, to our thinking, the most attractive portion of the volume. \Ve disapprove of the omission, with no sign of elision, on p. v, of line 295 in 'The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales' as purposeless ; but this is the only fault we are disposed to find with a book which is useful and delightful in almost all respects.

A second volume of the same series is 'The Dickens Country.' As is generally known, this is a posthumous work of Mr. Kitton, celebrated for his assiduous cult of the great novelist. From many works on similar lines recently issued the present, which owes its finishing touches to Mr. Arthur Waugh, differs in the really remarkable number of views it supplies of houses which at one time or other were tenanted by Dickens. Many of them, of course, were inhabited by his father, and it is surprising how many spots or urban squalor must have become familiar to the youthful observer. In the later portion of the work we proceed, still in the track of Dickens, to many counties, extending so far as Yorkshire. Dotheboys Hall does not even look unattractive in the photograph presented. The most interesting spots depicted are naturally in Kent, the most closely associated with Dickens of all counties. To the Dickens lover the work is full of interest and delight.

A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English. Abridged from ' Slang and its Analogues.' By John S. Farmer and W. E. Henley. (Routledge & Sons. )

THOSE and they are the majority who cannot afford the authoritative 'Slang and its Analogues ' of Mr. John S. Farmer and Mr. W. E. Henley will be glad of the present work, which is in part founded on it. That the original should undergo processes of expurgation before it was submitted to a general public was inevitable. The chief omis- sions consist of those illustrative passages from Tudor writers, such as Dekker and others, in which

the soul of Henley rejoiced. These have now disappeared en bloc. Words generally which are variously described as erotic and obscene have- as a rule disappeared, in obedience, it may be- supposed, to the censor, real or imaginary, of lite- rature. Such words even as " pimp," "stews," and the like, which appear in accepted dictionaries in the special sense, are omitted, perhaps for the valid reason that they are not slang. "Little Englander" has obtained admission, which "Little Mary " has- not. We are disposed to think that squeamishness has been exhibited in dealing with words ; but in. the case of works intended, like this, for general circulation, it is probably well to be carefuL " High or clouted shoon," which is given as an equivalent for countryman, has, of course, though not in the same sense, the justification of Milton^ and so belongs to literature. Milton says ia 'Comus' :

And the dull swain

Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon. And the Bible has, " Old shoes and clouted upon their feet." Hood writes :

By the simple accident of birth, You might have been high priest to Mumbo Jumbo. Under words such as " mutton " a good deal of interesting information is supplied. The work is the most extensive on the subject which is gener- ally accessible, and constitutes amusing reading. "Stark-naked" is a name for neat gin, possibly as indicative of the effects of its use. It is rather difficult to tear oneself away from the book, which is, however, issued at a price that brings it within the reach of most readers.

The Fa?*taf Letters. By James White. (De Lsu

More Press.)

BELOVED of Charles Lamb, who has left tributes equally warm to the man and the book, White's 'Falstaff Letters' constitutes an eminently agree- able addition to " The King's Classics." From the 1877 reprint of this clever and curious work, the present edition differs widely in respect of externals. It reproduces, moreover, for the first time the quaint frontispiece presenting Falstaff' learning to dance. A modified success is all that is to be hoped in a revival of this kind, and Lamb's praise, though unmistakably genuine, will be re-

tarded by some as excessive, as Lamb's praise, ivine as it is, was apt to be. The book is an eminently desirable possession, and we are glad to have it in this guise.

The Burlington Magazine for March is principally^ devoted to the Whistler Exhibition. Criticism on the artist and his work is supplied by Mr. Bernhard Sickert. Among the illustrations may be counted the famous 'Piano Picture,' a charming portrait of Miss Alexander, and a portrait (a capital like- ness) of Connie Gilchrist (Lady Orkney) skipping. In his presentation of old women and young girls the artist was equally happy. Other illustrationa- contained in the number consist of a portrait of An- tonio Palma, assigned to Titian, and one of Lorenzo Lotto, by himself. 'A Knight's Armour of the Early Fourteenth Century' is very valuable both, artistically and archoeologically. In the Whistler- picture of Miss Alexander we find a distinct sug- gestion of Velasquez.

ONE would not readily have anticipated a revival for Harrison Ainsworth. Such, however, seems in