Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/481

 io- B. iv. NOT. 11. loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES. Shakespeare Mr. Slater chronicles the sale for 2,00ty. of a slightly defective copy of 'Titus Andro- nicns,' 1594: for l,75W. of a damaged copy of •Richard III.,' 1605: and for 1,0007. of a slightly damaged copy of * 1 Henry IV.,' 1608. A ' King Lear' of the same date brings 9001., and '2 Henry IV."' 16U5. SOW. A dozen other works bring from 100/. to 3001. Among non - Shakespeare volumes, the Mentz Psalter of Fust & Schoeffer of 1459 fetches 4,0001. This, of course, is one of the earliest and scarcest books in existence. Robert Burns's Family Bible, 1766, imperfect, brought 1.56W., the value lying in the family entries concerning the poet and his Family; and 'The Book called Caton, printed by Caxton in 1483, was sold for 1,3501. As a Burns relic, the family Bible is, of course, of singular interest, and it is pleasant to think that it has gone back to Scotland, and is to be placed in Burns Cottage at A Ho way. Innumerable other books, from a defective Pentateuch of Tyndale, 1530, at 940/., to Blake's ' Marriage of Heaven and Hell' at 1501., might be cited. In a sale in the results of which we were neces- sarily interested, peculiar results were witnessed. Books which were in fashion fetched prices that, having regard to their original cost, were stu- pendous. Others, out of fashion, and of immeasur- ably greater curiosity and interest, did not even bring the price which entitled them to mention. To the eminently unsatisfactory prices fetched by the books which are really scholarly and sane, the editor, in his notice of the sale, draws attention. The average sum realized by lot reached 21. 17-. 2(2. as against 27. 9s. 3d. last year. Prices such as we have mentioned do much, however, to swell an average which, in fact, was very low. A copy men- tioned of Wither's 'Emblems,' in unsatisfactory condition, was sold for 51. Another, unnoted, advertised as a " very good copy," brought little more than half that sum. The lesson thus taught we may uot enforce, but it is eminently unsatisfac- tory to the scholar and book-lover. Very wisely the general and subject indexes have been com- pressed into one. The Modern Language Review. Edited by John G. Robertson. Vol. I. No. 1. (Cambridge, Univer- sity Press.) WE have here, appropriately enough, from the Cambridge University Press, the first number of a new quarterly periodical—or, as it is called, journal —devoted to the study of mediaeval and modern literature and philology. The idea is admirable in every respect; the names of the best living scholars appear on the advisory board, and the opening number shows how broad a field is to be covered! Our sole regret is that it is impossible for us to do justice to each separate article. Space, however, fails us for such an effort, and we can only show how representative are the contents. Mr. G. Gregory Smith contributes as the opening paper some notes on 'The Comparative Study of Litera- ture.' Mr. Paget Toynbee has a profoundly inter- esting and very curious article on ' English Eigh- teenth-Century Translators of Dante.' Very quaint is the effect when the solemn passages of the great Florentine are presented in Popean measure, or •when we find extracts from Dante's ' Inferna' (sic) made into a song. Mr. A. C. Bradley contributes • Kotes on Shelley,' and Mr. W. W. Greg opens out 41 new and stimulating subject in ' The Authorship of the Songs in Lyljrs Plays.' Mr. Moore Smith sends a few noteworthy Shakespeariana, and Miss- Jessie Crossland communicates a German version of the thief-legend. Reviews and book notices follow. A tempting list of promised communications appears at the end. Special attention must be paid to a periodical which seems likely to widen the scope of English scholarship and form an organ specially adapted to the expression of its latest conclusions. IN The Burlington, the frontispiece to which con- sists of an excellent reproduction of Sir Joshua Reynolds's portrait of Mrs. Nisbett, from the Wallace Collection, appears an article by Mr. D. S. MacColl, which the author calls ' Grania in Church ; or, the Clever Daughter,' the proper place for which would appear to be our pages rather than those of a periodical devoted to art. It explains- cleverly the significance of a miserere carving in Worcester Cathedral. Mr. Roger E. Fry has a good essay on ' Mantegna as a Mystic," which is well illustrated. Watteau's 'Flute Player' is repro- duced in a photograph to accompany a paper by Mr. Claude Phillips. A bronze statue, eight feet high, of Trebonianus Gallus, from the Metropolitan- Museum of New York, is a very striking figure. It has been known for a hundred years, but arbitrarily entitled Julius Caesar. It has a curious and signi- ficant history. IN The Fortnightly Mr. William Archer under- takes the rehabilitation of George Farquhar, whom,, in regard of moral sense, he places much above those Restoration dramatists with whom, by the whim or exigencies of a bookseller, he has been specially associated. From the extreme immo- rality of Wycherley and the obscenity of Van- brugh, Farquhar is comparatively free. His literary defence, supposing such to be neces- sary, is also conducted. The charge of absence of gaiety brought by the Master of Peter- house against the dramatist is disputed by Mr. Archer. Mr. W. H. Mallock, who is once more on the war path, attacks ' Sir Oliver Lodge on Religion and Science. The editor has a short poetical tribute to Sir Henry Irving, and Mr. T. H. S- Escott tells some very interesting stories concern^ ing the deceased actor and Tennyson. ' Life and Literature in France' is excellent in all respects.— Miss Rose M. Bradley gives, in The Nineteenth Century, a very bright sketch of ' Days in a Paris Convent.' Miss Gertrude Kingston deals with things theatrical in ' The Stock-Size of Success.' What is meant by her title, and to what country slang " stock-size belongs, we have no idea. The- Countess of Desart writes strongly on ' The Gaelic League.' Mr. H. W. Hoare supplies an interesting article on "The Roman Catacombs.' In a brightly written article on 'Some Seventeenth-Century Housewives' Lady Violet Greville upholds the reputatjon of that delightful creature Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, a heroine un- justly and incorrectly described as Mad Meg of Newcastle. No woman, however, since Queen Elizabeth was the subject of such laudation as was bestowed upon Her Grace. Mr. Stephen Paget may be read on ' Latin for Girls.' Of ' Out on the "Never Never"' the Bishop of North Queensland gives a singularly animated account.—The chief interest in the contents of The National is political or warlike. An Italian Statesman has much to say on the influence on the European situation of the Far Eastern war. Sir Rowland Blennerhassett •