Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/530

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NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. VIL JUNE i, iw.

difficulty in his annotations in pointing to his artistry, often employed with sly malice against those he disliked. He was certainly impayable on occasion, as Mr. Fitzgerald says. Occasionally we are irritated by the editorial comments. Mr. 1 itz- rerald brings in Dickens, another of his favourite authors, rather unnecessarily, but he does not give us notes in two or three places where they would have been serviceable, e.g., on the use of the word " palates " (p. 7) for dishes of special relish, and on the secret ot Johnson's collections of dried orange peel which Johnson would not disclose to his tormentor and biographer, but which a letter to one of his favourite female friends in earlier lite makes plain. Miss Boothby was advised by him to take this same orange peel, and drink it in a glass of red-hot port, or eat it first, and drink the wine after it," as an easy remedy for indigestion.

Mr Fitzgerald wisely ends his selection with the remark that there is much more of equal quality that might have been chosen. Johnson is an in- exhaustible theme, and always interesting trom his originality of mind and courageous defence of his own opinions. In many ways he was far from being a typical Tory. He helped to expose the Cock Lane ghost, but he was before his age in seeing something in apparitions which seems to be beyond reason or the "laws of nature," yet is supported by apparently sound evidence of trustworthy people.

"THE WORLD'S CLASSICS" under Mr. Frowde's management continue to supply admirable additions to the wide field of English Letters. Palgrave's Golden Treasury, the outstanding anthology ot the nineteenth century, is published with additional poems to the end of that period. These begin with five pieces of Landor which fully deserve their places. We find further selections from Peacock, Barnes, Browning and his wife, Tennyson, and Matthew Arnold, and exquisite less-known poetry like that of the author of ' lonica,' all of which shows that no mean judge has been responsible for the new matter. This is as it should be, and the volume will be treasured by lovers of poetry as worthy, in its extended form, of the master (perhaps we should say "masters," in view of Tennyson's help) who made it.

Mr. C. R. L. Fletcher contributes a searching introduction to Carlyle's French Revolution, 2 vols., which is both honest and competent. Mr. Austin Dobson is, of course, the right man to edit Gold- smith'* Poems, for his own writing has some of that gracious charm which endears to us the author of the 'Vicar,' and he rightly dwells on those felicities of Goldsmith's conversation which shine out the more for being embedded in the prejudiced narrative of Boswell. Mr. Brimley Johnson supplies an introduction to Hazlitt's Lectures on the English Comic Writers, and fairly deals with the position of Lamb's friend as a man whose work is of the highest mark, and deserves our warmest admira- tion, though we cannot love or even admire his strange personality.

The "Works of Edmund Burke, Vol. IV., edited by Mr. F. W. Raffety, form part of a treasure- house of wisdom and fine English which is, we fear, little disturbed by the average man. He has here, at any rate, a chance to enter in and enjoy, if he can get over the solidity of Burke, which is il] suited to an age of snippets and smartness. Burke has his epigrams too, though they are not written

n the " telegraphese " which most readily secures i hearing at present. We could wish many of our

rose writers of to-day no better fate than to be confined to the eighteenth century for their read- ing. They would learn much, and perhaps lose- some of the restless fripperies of modern display.

AT the last meeting of the Modern Language Association of America announcement was made, )f a proposed concordance to the poetical works of kVordworth, to be edited by Profs. Lane Cooper and Dlark S. Northup of Cornell University. Before- proceeding further with their work r they desire to snow with certainty whether any concordance ta Wordsworth already exists in MS. News of such may be sent to either of the above at the Depart- ment of English, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. JUNE.

WE notice below the earliest of the June Cata- .ogues, with those which lack of space compelled us.
 * o leave over a fortnight ago.

Mr. B. H. Blackwell, of Oxford, opens his List CXXI. with an interesting collection under Dante. This is followed by History, including Thorpe's ' Ancient Laws,' 21. 17s. Gd. ; Brewer's 'Henry VIII.,' edited by Gairdner, 31. ; the Oxford edition, 1829-33, of Burnet, 21. ; Creighton's ' Queen Elizabeth,' 39 beautifully coloured plates, III. 11&. ; Srote's 'Greece,' 1849, 12 vols., 5L 5s. ; Whitcombe and Sutherland's views of the naval achievements of Great Britain from 1793 to 1817, III. ; and Wel- lington's ' Despatches,' 13 vols., 21. 4s. There are- sections under Shakespeare, Political Economy, and! Travel ; while first editions of Borrow and the Percy Society's Publications (4. 4#.) will be found under Miscellaneous.

Mr. F. S. Cleaver sends from Bath his Cata- logue 4, which contains the Riverside Emerson,. 12 vols., 42s.; 'English Pottery,' by J. E. and E. Hodgkin, 4to, II. 2s, 6d. Pallas's ' Southern Pro- vinces of Russia,' 1793 - 4, 17s. 6d. ; Kennan's- ' Siberia,' 196 illustrations, 16s.; 'Trial of Warren Hastings,' 4 vols., II. 5s.' r Wood's ' Conchology, 5 " 1815, 21. 2s.; ' Rome and the Campagna,' by Robert Burn, 15s.; and 'The Master Painters of Britain/ by Gleeson White, 4 vols., royal 4to, II. The last volume contains a Biographical Dictionary of the Artists.

Mr. Bertram Dobell's Catalogue 151 contains a copy of ' The History of Henry the Fyfth,' a con- temporary manuscript of the play by Robert Boyle, Earl of Orrery. Mr. Dobell queries whether it is> not the author's manuscript. It has a list of the actors (Betterton, Mrs. Davis, and others), and is priced II. 16s. Malcolm's 'Views within Twelve Miles round London,' 1800, is IL 18s. Under Witch- craft is a collection of works bound in one volume,. 1601-14, 61. 6s. There is an interesting list of books with woodcut illustrations, mostly engraved by the- brothers Dalziel, from drawings by Birket Foster,. Harrison Weir, and others. These are offered at surprisingly low prices. The miscellaneous list includes Barham's ' Cousin Nicholas,' first edition,. 1841, 11. Is. ; and Broome's 'Poems,' 1739, 4s. 6d.:

Pope came off with Homer, but they say

Broome went before and cleanly swept the way. There are first editions under Defoe, Goldsmith, Pope, Swinburne, Thackeray, and' others. There