Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/459

 ID* S.V.MAY 12, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

town/' In the chapter 'Concerning Ambergris' it is stated that, blended with opium, it constitutes an aphrodisiac. One is not a little surprised to find in the concluding chapter a serious defence of the system by which Japan shunned commerce and communication with foreign nations.

A deeply interesting feature in an eminently attractive and valuable reprint consists in the illustrations. These reproduce the curious maps, and the designs generally, of the original, and include the large collection of quaint natural objects. A portrait of Sir Hans Sloane forms a frontispiece to the first volume, which supplies also a reproduction of the emblematical title-page and one of the printed title-page of the original. A more interesting and happier reprint is not to be desired. Dictionary of Quotation* (German}. By Lilian

Dalbiac. (Swan Sonnenschein & Co.) IT was originally intended to include in a single volume of the excellent "Quotations Series" of Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein quotations from German and Spanish. In consequence of the augmenting number of the former, however, the idea has been abandoned, and a full-sized volume of close upon five hundred pages Has been devoted to German quotations alone. German compilations such as the 'Gefliigelte Worte,' the only short- coming of which consists in their scant notice of Leasing and Heine, have been employed ; while the best existing translations have, so far as is possible, been called into use, American, as well as English renderings being requisitioned. In the case of Heine the translation of Leland is employed ; in the first part of ' Faust,' that of Bayard Taylor ; in the 'Gedichte' of Schiller, that of E. Bulwer Lytton as a rule, supplemented on emergency by that of E. A. Bowring. The list of quotations is large, and the work, which is an excellent product of scholarship, seems entitled to a prominent place in the valuable series to which it belongs.

Diaru and Correspondence of John Evelyn, F.R.S.

Edited by Wm. Bray, F.A.S. (Routledge &

Sons.)

IN a goodly volume of close on a thousand pages we have here a full reprint of Bray's edition of Evelyn. In appearance the volume is uniform with the edition of Ranke's 'Reformation in Germany' and the ' Political Writings of Bacon.' Subjoined are the private correspondence between Charles I. and Sir Edward Nicholas, and that between Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon, and Sir Richard Browne. Cheap editions of Evelyn's ' Diary ' are numerous. To the bulk of these the present is superior in get-up as well as comprehensiveness. To the man of few books it is a precious gift.

The Rumour Club, Edinburgh : Miscellanea. Part I. TJIE object of this club is the collection, with a view to the ultimate editing and printing, of ballads, lyrics, and other rimed material illustrative of Scottish dialect, character, manners, and music of the olden time. Further information is obtainable from the secretary, Mr. Alan Reid, F.S.A.Scot., The Loaning, Merchiston Bank Gardens, Edin- burgh. The Scottish Historical Review. April. (Glasgow,

MacLehose & Sons.)

PROF. C. H. FIRTH, whose work on the Great Civil War period seems never-ending, has contri-

buted an interesting paper on ' The Ballads of the- Bishops' Wars,' 1638-40. They indicate in a remarkable manner the popular feelings of the- time, but poetry, even of the meaner sort, is sadly- wanting in all of them. The most interesting, and? the one we regard as being written in the least unsatisfactory English, is one preserved in the- manuscript of an unknown author, entitled ' Verses against the Scots coming into England.' ProL Firth thinks it once belonged to Archbishop. Sancroft. It is now, however, among the Tanner manuscripts in the Bodleian. ]t must have been composed before the execution of Strafford. As is not uncommon with ballads themselves of small importance, we find light thrown on questions which must have been very far away from the- minds' of contemporary readers. In the second verse here the word Protestant is used, not as a designation of the reformed bodies in general, but of the members of the Established Church to dis- tinguish them from Sectaries and Roman Catholics. This distinction still lingered some forty years- ago among a few old-fashioned families in York- shire. The widow of a country doctor once said in- our hearing, " We are Protestants, so never go to- chapel." The lines are worth quoting as indicating: the current use of the term upwards of 260 years ago, and correcting mistakes that sometimes even, now occur :

Let Puritans rise, let Protestants fall,

Let Brownists find favor, and Papists loose all ;

Let them dam all the Pattents that ever were

given, And make Pymm a Saint, though he never see

heaven.

Mr. Andrew Lang continues his admirable papers on the portraits and jewels of Mary of Scotland. The pictures which pass for likenesses of the victim of Fotheringay are numerous beyond any estimate- we dare enter upon. Mr. Lang has, however, satis- fied himself that there are about thirteen which are- " contemporary and authentic, or at least related closely to others which did possess these qualities.'* We have not ourselves seen what Mr. Lang names- the Freshfield portrait; from his description it must be one of the most interesting of her pictures that have survived. It was probably painted not long before the end came. He tells us that " t he- face is one of more than mournful beauty, wasted and tormented, but still fair."

Mr. J. Maitland Anderson contributes an article on the connexion of James I. of Scotland with the- University of St. Andrevrs, and Mr. Hiram Bing- ham, of the University of Harvard, one on the organization of the Scots Darien Company so far as England was concerned. Both these will repay the reader.

The Burlington Magazine.

AMONG the 'Notes on Pictures in the Royal Col- lections,' Article IX., on 'The Lovers' at Bucking- ham Palace, is noteworthy for critical value. A reproduction of the painting forms a frontispiece to the number. To a conception of Giorgione Mr. Lionel Cust attributes this work, the passionate sensuousness of which transmutes "that which is probably little more than an ordinary incident of lawless amour into a love poem to which Catullus might have signed his name." Copies new and old of the same conception are also given. * The Romance of a Book,' by Mr. H. Yates Thompson, has some very fine illustrations from a MS. Josephus.