Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/146

 118 s. iv. ACO. ». IBO& NOTES AND QUERIES. •which is, for one thing, a touchstone of the amount of thought and poetry in the original. Mr. Walker's versions are to be ranked with the best of modern Oxford, such as Mr. H. W. Greene's wonderful elegiac version of FitzGerald's ' Omar' ; and when the next edition of the 'Anthologia Oxoniensis' appears, we shall expect to see two, at least, of his translations among the ' Carmina Sacra." ROMXEY'S lovely' Study for the Egremont Family Piece' forms the frontispiece to The Burlington. A portrait of Pietro Aretino, from the Chigi Palace, now in the possession of Messrs. Colnaghi, has extraordinary interest both pictorial and literary. It is a remarkable work of Titian, and gives an appallingly sensual portrait of the author of the 'Sonnetti Lussuriosi,'the man whom Ariosto calls "II flagello dei principi, il divin Pietro Aretino." A movement, to which we wish success, is on foot to secure this for our national collection. In 'Some Florentine Woodcuts' Mr. G. T. Clough has hit on a good subject. Very little is known concerning Florentine work of the kind. Mr. Lionel Gust's eighth article on ' Pictures in the Royal Collection' is of great excellence. THE ' Message of Buddhism to the Western World,' which Mr. W. S. Lilly contributes to The Fortnightly, is likely to create some stir. Mr. Lilly is naturally anxious to guard against possible mis- apprehension, and to impress on his readers that he goes no further than pointing out the "im- measurable superiority possessed by Buddhism, in virtue of its ethics, over the antitheistic system of contemporary Europe.'' A curious, but not wholly satisfactory article is sent by Mr. Charles J. Norris on 'First Love in Poetry.' Mr. W. H. Mallock answers the 'Two Attacks on Science, Clerical and Philosophical,' and Mr. T. H. S. Escott chronicles, and in part deplores, ' The Extinction of Egeria.' Mr. Macdonalds 'French Life and the French Stage' deals at considerable length with 'Les Ventres Bores' at the Odeon, and, more briefly, with ' Le Duel' at the Comedie Franchise, which •we think the more original piece. 'Marriage and Divorce in America' supplies many striking facts which may with advantage be studied. So short are the separate items in Mr. Lawler-Wilson's 'Causerie on Current Continental Literature' we feel that the essay scarcely deserves its title. We can express no great delight on the appearance of a contribution such as 'The Financial Outlook.'— Lady Paget sends to The. Nineteenth Century, under the title of 'Vanishing Vienna,' a readable, picturesque, and pleasing account of life in the capital of Austro- Hungary. An article better in its class we do not recall. Mr. Dominick Italy supplies a short account of Madame Tallien. the wife of, among others, the great Conventionnel, to whose influence over her second husband were due the death of Robespierre and the end of the Reign of Terror. Writing on 'Impressional Drama,' Lady Archibald Campbell refers to her well-remembered pastoral plays at Cannizzaro. Mr. Norman Pearson writes on ' The Macaronis,' a subject which would repay more elaborate and exhaustive treatment; Mr. William Warrand Carlile opens out an interesting branch of study in ' The Origin of Money from Orna- ment '; Mr. T. H. Weir describes ' An Autumn Wandering in Morocco'; and Mr. Frederick Wed- more ' Some French and English Painting.' ' The Camargue' by Mr. David H. Wilson, deals, of ourse, with the beauty of the much-discussed Arle- siennes, in whom the author finds a fusion of racial types.—In The National Review the article of most literary interest is that of the Hon. Maurice Baring, entitled ' Racine.' Englishmen who appreciate- Racine are as rare as Frenchmen who comprehend Milton. We are not quite of accord with Mr. Baring; as to the secret of Racine's greatness ; but we admit the beauty of his selection, and we warmly approve his closing utterance concerning Racine: " He may not be with Shakespeare, and Dante, and Beethoven; but he is with Praxiteles, with Virgil, and Mozart." In 'Some Old School-Books,' Miss Catherine Dodd treats cleverly a fresh and an interesting subject. ' Is Scotland Decadent ?' by Malagrowther — whether Sir Mungo or Malachi is not denoted —might well cause some sensation "ayont the- Tweed." The concluding sentence is, "At present Scotland is the dreary paradise of bourgeois pros- perity and sectarianism, a country of 15 sects, 3,000 churches. 300 bowling greens, SioO golf courses, —and no poet." The Rev. A. H. F. Boughey's ' The Universities and the Study of Greek' is excel- lent. Other papers are worthy of high praise.— Canon Beeching prints in the Cornhill a lecture on, Atterbury, where delivered we know not. It has more interest than such things ordinarily posses?. Mr. Atlay's account of ' Tarleton of the Legion' depicts admirably a stormy career, which did much to vindicate English soldiership during the war with America. 'Some Recent Theories of the Ether' are expounded by Mr. W. A. Shenstone : and Mr. Rodcn Shields's 'Blurred Memory of Childhood ' casts light upon Henley and Stevenson. Part IV. of ' From a College Window' is supplied. The fiction is excellent.—Following Mr. Lang, Miss Amy Tasker tries to solve in The Gentleman'* the problem of 'The Man in the Iron Mask.' It is needless to say that none but negative results attend the effort, and the theory of a brother of the French king is not entirely dismissed. ' The Gladstone-Browning Controversy' is an amusing skit on modern crazes. 'My Irish Friends ' tells capitally some tolerably well-known stories. Mr. Radford'* ' Swinburne on Sea'is scarcely adequate. Part VIII. of Mr. Holden MacMichaels 'Charing Cross and its Immediate Neighbourhood' is of unabated interest.—The frontispiece to Ihel'atl Mall consists of ' Cubbing with the York and Ainsty,' a wonder- fully clever work of the late C. W.'Furse. Mr. William Hyde's 'Dover and Calais,'illustrated by the author, presents in a pleasing light scenes with which the travelled Englishman is most familiar. Sir Frank Burntind has an amusing article on ' The Punch Pocket-Books,' with reproductions of the original designs. The Hon. Whitelaw Reid writes on'Journalism as a Profession.' Under the title 'An Ex-Minister of France' is given an account of M. DelcassL1. The best portion of the contents consists of fiction.—Mrs. Charles Towle sends to Longman* an animated account of ' Edward Fitz- Gerald and his Friends." Part II. of 'A Road iu Orcady'is even better than Part I. Mr. John Lang's'The Midnight Axe' is very striking. 'Sir Walter Scott's Use of the Preface,' by M. H. H. Macartney, is a very interesting piece of literary criticism. In his 'At the Sign of the Ship' Mr. Andrew Lang recurs to false antiquities. WE hear with regret of the death, on Sunday last, in his eighty - sixth year, of Mr. Henry Sotheran, the head of the spirited firm of book- sellers and publishers in Piccadilly and the Strand-