Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/269

 11 S. 1.

APR. 2,1910.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

261

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL .?, 1910.

CONTENTS.-No. 14.

NOTES :-Poe: R. L. Stevenson, 261 Sir Philip Perceval, M.P. "The Peter Boat and Doublet," 262 Aristotle and Political Science Lady Hamilton and Hayley's 'Triumphs of Temper,' 263 "Year" "Presidency of Fort William " " Half-staff "=" Half-mast " ' A Sister of Prince Rupert,' 264 Ticket, Portrait Painter "Svabach" The Common Hangman Herb-woman to the King, 265 Byron Relics Fly painted on a Shield : Japanese Variant Belt. Family, 266.

QUERIES : Travellers not in ' D.N.B.,' 266 General Eyre Billyng's 'Five Wounds of Christ' M. d'Herwart at Berne G. and W. Chalmers Conde", Queen Mary's Musician, 267 D. Camerino Arcangelus, Painter First Elections under the Ballot Act "Rowland-hoe" John Abbot Roger Altham George Ellis" Forbes-Mac- kenzie hour of eleven " London Rectors' Confederation Wall-Papers, 26S Gulf Stream Authors Wanted, 269.

REPLIES .-Public School Registers, 2$) -Speaker Pelham Pronunciation of " oo," 272 Beheading in Germany- Lynch Law "Ljus," 273 "The Naked Man" Burning of Moscow -Early Field Telegraph, 274 ' Deil stick the Minister' Republican Son of Louis XV. Ralph and Henry Thrale Mohammed and the Mountain, 275 Errors in Macaulay Comparative Value of Money " Rumbelow "Authors Wanted Curious Biblical Stat- isticsMonkeys' Parade, 276' Publick Buildings in Lon- don,' 1734 " Rosamonda's lak" British Barrows C. B. Coles, 277 "Tally-ho" Hair suddenly White- Easter on 27 March" Le Whacok" "Scandalize," 278.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Escott's 'Edward Bulwer, first Baron Lytton.'

Notices to Correspondents.

POE : R. L. STEVENSON.

THE two following cases of possible literary relation are submitted to the readers of 4 N. & Q.'

1. In the collection of ' Voyages Imagi- naires ' (1787-9), vol. xix. contains a narra- tive entitled ' Le Passage du Pole Arctique a,u Pole Antarctique par le Centre du Monde.' The date of this is given as 1723; no author's name is mentioned, nor luu the writer of the present note as yet been able to discover the provenance of the account. It conveys a number of Poe-like nations.

In the opening pages mention occurs of an Arctic tournant d'eau " leading to a " gouffre epouvantable et sans fonds," t "wards which the vessel is drawn with its terrified crew. (' MS. found in a Bottle.')

Chap, i., dealing with subterranean adven- tures, describes birds " an plumage tres noir, t leur bee rouge comme du sang." ('Arthur

Gordon Pym,' in which tale the colour of the strange creature is white instead of black. )

This Imaginary Voyage abounds in de- tailed description of fantastic aerial pheno- mena and cloud effects, thus : " un tres bel arc [-en-ciel] compose de deux couleurs, savoir d'un jaune clair et d'un verd qui tirait un peu sur le bleu " (chap, ix.) ; and the narrator adds that on a perfectly smooth sea it made a complete circle.

Still, the most striking suggestion of all rests in the singular combination of imagina- tion with the obvious design of explaining phenomena through the application of scientific or quasi-scientific theory ; this, too, quite independently of any discernible con- nexion with Cyrano, and three years^before the publication of ' Gulliver ' (1726) ; thus, in chap, iv., reference to a little building of quaint construction, inscribed with strange characters, to the solution of which crypto- graphy offers no key.

The question now arises whether Poe had access to the ' Voyages Imaginaires ? at least before his first success with the ' MS. found in a Bottle l (1835). An extremely obliging communication from Prof. John S. Patton, Librarian of the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Va.), states that there is no record that that library ever possessed the work ; Poe was a student there in 1826. Evidence to show that he had cognizance of it would be welcome. At all events, his silence concerning it carries no weight either way, any more than his dis- cretion concerning E. T. A. Hoffmann's fantastic tales.

2. The second example possesses more cogency of probable dependence. R. L. Stevenson's story of 'A Lodging for the Night ' is well known. If we turn to Sainte-Beuve's ' Causeries du Lundi l (vol. xiv. pp. 301-2), an article on Franois Villon (26 Sept., 1859) furnishes a significant terminal paragraph, of which the following sentences seem irresistibly to indicate the outline into which R. L. S. worked his acute psychological study of the picaroon poet and his adventures of one night :

" Plus d'une fois, le soir, Villon en fuite, traqu6 par les gens du Guet, se sera souvenu tout d'un coup, en voyant la lampe briller a la fenetre du studieux jeune homme, qu'il avait la un admira- teur, un ami, et il lui aura demande abri et gite pour une nuit ou deux, en pr^textant quelque belle et galante histoire, et, toute la nuit durant, pour le payer de son accueil, il Taura charm 6 de ses recits, ebloui de ses saillies et de sa verve. II aura meme pouss6 I'amiti^, en partant le matin jusqu'a accepter tout 1'argent, toutes les epargnes de son genereux h6te "