Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/363

 IO*B. in. APRIL is, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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introduction, which is capital. The edition is excellently printed, and is legible and attractive in all respects.

The same credit may be extended to the transla- tion by Mr. Machen of the ' Heptamerou,' which is said to be the sole complete rendering. It is dis- tinctly superior as English to that of Mr. Kelly, included among Bohn's extra volumes, which is the only edition accessible to the average English student. An introduction supplies much curious and instructive information on bibliographical points. It is, we suppose, unlikely that any indi- vidual will deal with the present works as the secretary of what claimed to be a society dealt with the extra volumes of Bohn, and even more unlikely that any English publisher will yield nowadays to similar dictation. So long as Bohn lived and owned the series, the menace was dis- regarded and laughed at. Subsequently the student had to watch the withdrawal from publication, at individual instance, of the works of Rabelais, Cervantes, Count Hamilton, Boccaccio, and the Queen of Navarre, an insult to literature without a parallel. The reader cannot peruse the works in a pleasanter or more convenient shape. Had it not been just issued, we would have suggested a rendering of Apuleius, as the beginning of fiction. We wonder whether any of the less-known novels of De Foe are contemplated. At any rate, we con- gratulate Mr. Baker on the progress made with his interesting task.

Shrines of British Saints. By J. Charles Wall.

(Methueu & Co.)

IN this the most recent addition to the handsome series of " The Antiquary's Books " Mr. Wall has been fortunate in finding an almost virgin subject, which well deserves to have a volume devoted to it. It is to be noted that he uses the word " British " in his title in its wider and popular sense, and by no means restricts his researches to Wales and Scotland. He shows that the shrines erected to do honour to local saints in pre-Reformation Eng- land were as splendid as they were numerous, and often monuments of artistic excellence, which merited a better fate than to be swept away in the tide of reforming zeal. Some have perished beyond recovery ; the scattered fragments of others have been laboriously collected and reconstructed, as at St. Alban's Abbey and Christ Church, Oxford. Mr. Wall gives a liberal interpretation to the word " shrine," and takes it to include reliquaries of metal, ivory, and wood, as well as the larger archi- tectural erections in which the bodies of the holy men were enclosed. In both classes works of exquisite grace are found, and a generous supply of illustrations enables us to form a good idea of their design and beauty. The raids that were made on these receptacles by competing commu- nities of monks eager to appropriate their contents for their own establishment form a curious and, it must be said, a discreditable feature of monastic history. It is strange, also, to be told that certain saints were jealous of the more costly shrines with which others were honoured, and could only be appeased by being awarded a similar receptacle. This stimulus to the faithful we may put down to monkish finesse. An interesting account is given of the disinterment of the remains of St. Cuthbert by Canon Raine in 1899.

We notice as corrigenda "is," a misprint for si (p. 114); nu-scis translated by "nuts" (p. 58), in

place of ouches (or nouches) ; and "a body laying on> its side " (p. 186) ; but these latter two errors are attributable to the writer's authorities rather than to himself.

The Burlington Magazine for April deals at the outset with Velasquez, supplying a series of repro- ductions of works from his brush. A portrait of Philip IV. of Spain, recently obtained by the Boston Museum, shows the monarch at the age of eighteen. Its authenticity has been contested, but Mr. Francis Lathrop advances proofs of its genuine- ness. Young as Philip is, the hard lines of his features are already assertive. Other pictures of the same monarch, of Don Carlos, and Don Fer. nando follow, assigning the number remarkable value and interest. Apropos of the Boston Museum, the editor writes on 'The Opportunity of the Govern- ment,' and is supported in so doing by Mr. M. H. Spielmann under the heading ' A Ministry of the Fine Arts.' In the later portion are 'St. Jerome in the Desert,' attributed to Titian ; a head of John the Baptist, by Antonio da Solario ; a portrait of a girl, by H. Fantin-Latour ; and other interest- ing reproductions.

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. APRIL.

MR. FRANCIS EDWARDS has a number of modern- books, which he offers at specially low prices. He has also a separate list of dictionaries. These include Ogilvie, Halliwell - Phillipps's 'Archaic Words,' Hughes's ' Dictionary of Islam,' Littre", Farmer and Henley's ' Slang,' Allibone's ' Eng- lish Literature,' and a copy of Brunei's ' Manuel du Libraire et de 1'Amateur de Livres,' 1860-80, last edition, 17/. In the general list we find Frankau's 'Eighteenth- Century Colour Prints,' 81. 10s. {this was published at 181. 18-s. net) ; Bowdler Sharpe and Wyatt's ' Monograph of the Family of Swallows,' 51. ( published at 1W.) ; Wright's 'Court Hand Restored,' 10-*. M. (published at 21. 2s.) ; ' Warwick Castle and its Earls,' by the Countess of Warwick, 12*. 6d. (published at 30s.) ; and General Maisey's ' Sanchi and its Remains,' II. (this gives a full description of the ancient buildings, &c.).

Mr. Glaisher in his spring list has a valuable col- lection of remainders, offered at very low prices. We quote a few, also giving the published prices ia parentheses : Bryant's ' Picturesque America,' 25s. (81. 8s.) ; Flower's ' Aquitaine/ 10.*. (31. 3*.) ; 'Ascham's Works,' 8s. (II.) ; 'Cruise of H.M.S. Bacchante,' 5*. 6rf. (21. 12*. 6d.) ; Blades's ' Enemies- of Books,' 6s. (15s.) ; Farrar's ' Lives of the Fathers,' 9-*. (21s.) ; Heckethorn's ' Lincoln's Inn Fields,' 5s. (21s.) ; Hennessy's ' Novum Repertorium Eccle- siasticum Parochiale Londinense.' fo. 6d. (31. 3.)t Wey's ' Rome,' 9s. &l. (21. 2*.) ; ' The Triqueti Mar- bles in tho Albert Memorial Chapel at Windsor, 1 " 10$. (10?. 10s.); and Spenser's 'Faerie Queene,' edited by Thomas J. Wise, with 231 illustrations by Walter Crane, 41. (101. 15s. net).

Mr. Fred. W. Goad, of Bath, has a good general list, including works on Australia, and India. Or- merod's ' Cheshire ' is 4?. 5s. ; Cussans's ' Hertford- shire,' 1870-9, 67. 10-*. (published at 301.) ; Morris's 'Moths,' 1872, 21. 5s.; Newman's 'Lives of the Saints ' ; Stirling-Maxwell's works, 6 vols., 4/. 10s. ; ' Choice Drollery, Songs and Sonnets,' from the original editions, with introductions and notes by Ebsworth, 1875-6, 21s. ; and Watt's ' Bibliotheca Britannica,' 1824, 21. 2s.