Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/99

 10* 8. V. JAN. 27, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Earl i/ English Dramatists. Six Anonymous Plays, c. 1510 1537. Edited by John S. Farmer. Dramatic Writings of John Heywood. Edited by John S. Farmer. Printed by Subscription. UNDER the charge of Mr. John S. Farmer, to whom are owing many scarce and curious reprints and publications, now appear the first two volumes of what if continued as it is begun will be an abso- lutely inappreciable boon to the student. Nearly half a century ago we cried out for exactly what is now being given us a collective edition of the Tudor dramatists under the heads of the various writers, and with supplemental volumes containing anonymous plays arranged, so far as possible, in chronological order. The first two volumes of a work precisely of the class thus indicated are before us. One volume contains all the known dramatic writings of John Heywood, six in number; the other supplies six anonymous works of approxi- mately the same date.

It is, of course, with the mysteries and moralities that the present issue is concerned. To these compositions, which follow immediately upon the liturgical drama, the volumes are necessarily con- secrated. Heywood's plays or dialogues have, how- ever, a certain vein of comedy, though far inferior to that which, at a period almost corresponding, was shown in France in the farce of ' Maistre Pierre Pathelin.' The characters are genuine human beings, and not mere abstractions; and the satire of worthless wives and of priests the latter especially is marvellously outspoken, considering that the writer was a Roman Catholic and the father of a sufficiently aggressive Jesuit priest.

Of the six anonymous plays which consist of 'The Four Elements,' 'Calisto and Melibsea,' 'Every Man,' ' Hickscorner,' 'The World and the Child,'' and 'Thersites 'some are genuine morali- ties, such action as is exhibited being in the hands of beings like Studious Desire and Sensual Appetite, or Perseverance, Imagination, Contemplation, and Free Will, or, again, Mundus, Infans, Manhood, and Conscience. In ' Thersites ' and the play now named 'Calisto and Melibsea' we have names of real persons. Both these works have, however, been assigned to John Heywood, though on no very trustworthy authority and with no great probability of accuracy. The latter is, indeed, a translation of a portion of the Spanish drama in twenty-one acts of Fernando de Rojas, now generally known as 'Celestina,' or in English 'The Spanish Bawd.' Celestina, the procuress in ques- tion, figures as one of the characters, and is excellently drawn. There is a sort of anticipation of Falstaff when she says : And I thank God ever one penny hath been

mine, To buy bread when I list, and to have four for

wine.

The merit of the creation of this personage belongs, however, to the Spanish author. The date of his play is about 1480.

We cannot attempt to deal with the literary claims of works which belong to the foundation and growth of our drama, and are of course known to the student. The appearance of the volumes is admirable : they are on excellent paper,

are printed artistically, and have elegant bind- ings that will grace any shelves. The frontis- piece to the writings of Heywood appears in facsimile ; the woodcut portrait of Heywood which is supplied was prefixed in 1556 to his ' The Spider and; the Flie,' and in 1562 to, 'Epigrams upon, Proverbs.' Facsimiles of title-pages are given also in this and the companion volume. ' Note-Books *" and 'Word-Lists' are included in both volumes,, and fulfil a useful purpose, supplying all biblio- graphical, literary, and glossarial information at present attainable, together with the varice lectiones. It is apropos of this estimable feature that such qualms arise as we now feel. The scheme is noble ; it may even be said ideal. Is such a work within the range of one life, however industrious and prolonged? Enormous labour, and, it may be added, very considerable capital, are necessary to see to the end an undertaking which might tax the resources of one or other of the University Presses,, or a no less great and august firm such as the- Longmans. Energy, meanwhile, of a scholar such as a Dyce of yesterday or a Bullen of to-day is requisite to bring the task to a successful issue. It would even seem as if what the French call a. socie'te des gens de lettres should be secured, except that materials for such a society can scarcely be said to exist. We owe Mr. Farmer thanks for his effort, credit him with serious intention, and trust he will at least exhibit much accomplishment in. regard to his ambitious task.

A Boole for a Rainy Dai/. By John Thomas Smith

Edited by Wilfred Whitten. (Methuen & Co.) THOUGH consisting of chips from a workshop, the ' Book for a Rainy Day' earned, in its time, a con- siderable measure of popularity, and was once familiarly quoted. It still ranks with ' The Table Talk of Samuel Rogers,' and has a distinct message for the present generation. As is to be expected, considering the period with which its recollections of persons and things are concerned the years,, namely, between 1766 and 1833 it has reached a time when it calls for, and is supplied with, ex- planatory notes and comments. Smith whom the present age has all but forgotten was a topo- graphical draughtsman and antiquary, and a fairly voluminous author, his best book being ' Nollekens and his Times,' published in 1828. He was an. accurate observer, and seems to have been an early one also, since his observations are said to have begun in 1766, in which year, on the 23rd of June, he was prematurely born in a hackney coach in. which his mother was returning from a visit. At the close of his life he was Keeper of Prints and' Drawings in the British Museum. Opportunities for obtaining information about Nollekens were ample, since Smith's father Nathaniel at one time a sculptor and afterwards a printseller was chief assistant to Nollekens, in whose studio Smith him- self was from 1778 to 1781. This life has been declared the " most candid ever published in England." Among other books of Smith may be mentioned 'The Ancient Topography of London' (perhaps his most important production) and ' Vagabondiana ; or, Anecdotes of Mendicant Wan- derers through the Streets of London.'

The 4 Book for a Rainy Day ' merits its title. It is, as its author calls it, a salmagundi, a collection ot heterogeneous anecdotes thrown together higgledy-piggledy, with no pretence of arrangement. When once its perusal is begun, however, you would'