Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/626

 520 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io-s. iv. DEC. 23, IMS. recognize, but all are welcome. We hope that the series will be extended. Life, and Death of Mr. Btulmaai and The Holy War. By John Bunyan. Edited by John Brown, D.D. (Cambridge, University Press.) AMONG the many valuable, scholarly, or popular reprints included in the "Cambridge English •Classics " that of these two rare productions of John Bunyan is not the least interesting. With the •earlier of these works we had no previous acquaint- ance. It is a curious and, from the Puritan point •of view, supremely edifying work, with no pretence to allegory. What were regarded as the principal •offences against God and man—as drunkenness, swearing, uncleanness, and the like—are imputed to a certain child, who grows to manhood under the •direct influence of original sin, marries, lives, atid dies impenitent. The description of Badman's •evil practices and fate is given in a sustained conversation between Mr. Wiseman and a sym- pathetic listener and respondent, Mr. Attentive. The moral lessons are pointed by stories "abomin- able, unutterable, and worse," to which may be -added incredible also, concerning murderers of the .Midlands or Eastern counties, Dorothy Mately of As[h]over ; a certain Ned, who was blind ; and his brother H. S., who, when rebuked for his wicked- <ness, said, " What would the Devil do for com- pany if it was not for such as I ?" We hear of such beings as the "Damme Blades" and of "slithy, rob-shop, pick-pocket men," and have animated .pictures of the consequences of sin and un- •cleanness. The work is quaint and curious, and may be read with amusement and with a kind of edification not contemplated by its author. 'The Holy War' made by Shaddai upon "Dia- •bolusforthe taking of the Town of Mansoul," was a favourite book of childhood, since it was one in those days allowed for Sunday reading. •Captains Boanerges, Judgment, Conviction, and Execution, were on the whole rather shadowy •creatures, and remained abstractions beside the more mundane heroes who fought "at Thebes or Ilium," assisted Sir William Wallace, or aided Pathfinder; but they would serve as a Sabbath substitute. When now re-read the book • i-rins strangely naive, but perusal is anything rather than a task. Early editions are reprinted under conditions on which we have dwelt in -noticing previous volumes of the series; and a very interesting plate of the siege of Mansoul is given in facsimile from the first edition. Much valuable 'bibliographical information is supplied in an intro- •ductory note. The Story of King Lear from Cleofrey of Mon- mouth to tihakexpeare. By Wilfrid Perrett, B.A. (Berlin, Mayer & Muller.) To Palaestra, a well-known periodical devoted to German and English philology, Dr. Perrett has •contributed one of those comparative studies which have of late come into fashion. It is a work of much erudition, and of singular labour, tracing the story of King Lear and his daughters from its first appearance in literature, about 1135 A.D.. in the ' Historia Regum Britanniie' of Geoffrey of Mon- mouth, to Shakespeare. A map illustrating the pedigree of the story is prefixed to the volume. The task was undertaken at the suggestion of Prof. Brand!, one of the editors of the ' Shakespeare- Jahrbuch,' and has been conducted with praise worthy diligence in Berlin. How much labonr it* prosecution involved, and what study of early lite- rature was necessitated, those will gee who study as it deserves a volume of over three hundred closely printed pages. Geoffrey's work, monu- mental in its way, claims to be the translation of a book of great antiquity. 'Britannicus Sertno.' t work which the most diligent search has failed to trace. Among the works which Dr. Perrett cluM as the line of descent are those of our old chronicled, who were given to copy one another, and, indeed, works such as 'The Mirror of Magistrates.' 'The Fairy Queen," Warner's ' Albion's England,' the ballad of ' King Lear,' the early play, and innumer- able others. We may not do more than com- mend to Shakespearian students and to folk-IonsU a work the adequate analysis and description of which would overtask alike our energies and our apace. The workmanship is thorough, and the book will have to be consulted by every future editor of the play with which it deals. Two Calendars for 1906 — equally attractive, though appealing to a very different class of mind- have reached us from the De La More Press. The 2?elson Calendar, the appearance of which is oppor- tune, is edited by A. D. Power, and has portniu of Nelson, Rodney, Hood, Hardy, St. Vincent, and Collingwood, and representations of the battles of Copenhagen, the Nile, and other sea-fights, ending in Trafalgar.—Even more interesting is the Dante Calendar, in which Blanche McManus gives a seriei of pictures illustrating incidents in the life of the poet and his worship of Beatrice, with English translations from 'The Divine Comedy' and the ' Vita Nuova,' accompanied by her own designs. MR. W. G. BLAIKIE MCRDOCH writes: "Allow me to thank most cordially your various corre- spondents who have replied to my inquiry anenl James V." Jlotkfa ia C0rresj)oubnit», We mutt call special attention to the follovv.j notices :— ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- lication, but as a guarantee of good faith. WE cannot undertake to answer queries privatelj. To secure insertion of communications com- spondents must observe the following rule*. Lrt each note, query, or reply be written on a Kpant* slip of paper, with the signature of the writer aid such address as he wishes to appear. When answer- ing queries, or making no-tes with regard to prerioai entries in the paper, contributors are requested w put in parentheses, immediately after the duet Heading, the series, volume, and page or page* <• which they refer. Correspondents who reptd queries are requested to head the second CM- munication " Duplicate." JOHN W. FORD ("Totum sume, anit").-H§ variations were noted ante, p. 391. NOTICE. Editorial communications should be to "The Editor of 'Notes and Queries'"—A tisemenu and Business Letters to "The Pat- Usher"—at the Office, Bream's Buildings, ChioarJ Lane, E.C.