Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/347

 ii s. i. APR. 23, iwo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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free from the theorizing which he deprecates in others. Perhaps some theory is inevitable in the present state of knowledge concerning Elizabethan printers ; at any rate, it is not likely that any one will have a wider basis of knowledge to go upon than the author of this exhaustive and fascinating, study. We could steal from it many facts of interest to lovers of Shakespeare, but in conclusion will confine ourselves to this remark concerning the printer-editors of the Fourth Folio :

" But with all their lack of enterprise they did enough to show that they were confronted by a greater demand than existed for the works of any other Elizabethan playwright, and these four large folios, in addition to upwards of seventy quarto editions of single plays, should surely suffice to dispel the myth that either in his lifetime or at any subsequent period Shakespeare was other than the most popular of English dramatists."

The whole book is admirably printed, in a clear and pleasant type with an ample margin ; and there is an Index which appears to be a deliberate copy of the Elizabethan style of such things, but might be fuller.

Milton : Paradise Lost. Edited by A. W.

Verity. (Cambridge, University Press.) MR. VERITY has long been known as an excellent editor of separate books of ' Paradise Lost,' and now there appears in a revised, enlarged, and improved form, and in one volume, the whole of the great poem with his editorial matter. The result is a masterly commentary which gathers up, with due acknowledgments, all the best work of past editors such as Todd and Masson, while giving much that is due to Mr. Verity's own care and research. It is pleasant to notice the frank way in which he speaks of his debt to previous workers.

The notes are not likely to be superseded for many years, if ever, and we think them important enough to deserve publication in a separate volume. At present, with the additions of a very useful Glossary, Introduction, Appendixes, and two Indexes, the book runs to 750 pages, and is somewhat bulky. The Introduction gives a judicious summary of Milton's life and achieve- ment.

The edition is one which wovild have delighted Joseph Knight, a great Miltonian, no less by its literary taste than by its frequent references to Shakespeare and the language of the Bible.'

\\K received The National Review for April to., late for notice with the other magazines of the month. It includes one of Mr. Austin Dobson's learned and charming articles on ' Laureate Whitehead.' ' Some Thoughts on the Scenery of Xorth America." ly Mr. James Bryce, was specially written for The Youth's Companion, but it has a touch of philosophy which is welcome to the a hilt. The writer mentions that a desire to it ify the village is at work in Ohio and Ilinois, and ;! U<> in parts of Canada. Mr. George Green- 1 has a searching article on ' Dr. Wallace's "New Shakespeare Discoveries"'; and 'The U'ultfet ' is discussed by a financial expert of list Suction, Sir R. H. Inglis Palgrave. ' Episodes of the Month ' are considered in the usual trenchant style.

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. APRIL.

MR. BARNARD'S Tunbridge Wells Catalogue 36 is devoted to Works from the Presses of Fifteenth Century Printers. The books, as in all Mr Barnard's lists, are fully described, and there are many illustrations. The presses include German, Italian, French, Belgian, Spanish, and English. Under the last is Ralph Higden's ' The descryp- cyon of Englonde,' folio, Wynkyn de Worde, 1498, half-calf, 181. 18s. From Pynson's press is ' Liber Intrationum,' folio, Feb. 28, 1510, morocco, 201. 10s. Under Henry VIII. is ' Assertio Septem Sacramentorum aduersus Martin. Lutheru,' first edition, and bound with it is the answer made in Latin by the Pope, russia gilt, 211. From the second press of W. de AVorde is Erasmus's ' Enchiridion,' Nov. 15, 1533. This is among the last books printed by Wynkyn de Worde, who died in 1535. It was printed for John Byddell r one of Wynkyn's assistants, and is priced in morocco at 251. At the end of the Catalogue is an index to authors and titles.

Mr. Andrew Baxendine's Edinburgh catalogue 118 is a good general list. There are works- on Angling, Architecture, and Art. Under Burns is the 1787 London edition, full morocco,. 31. 10s. 6d. ; and under Dickens is the Library Edition, 30 vols., cloth, new, QL 6s. Books on Flowers include Hogg and Johnson's ' Wild Flowers,' 12 vols. in 11, half-morocco, 51. Is. 6d. There is a handsome set of Grote's ' Greece/ 12 vols., full calf, 4:1. Under Omar Khayyam is the fourth edition, Quaritch, 1879, II. 5s.' " There is much under Scotland and Scott ; and xinder Stuarts is Foster's ' History,' 33 portraits, II. 5s. A fine set of Swift, 19 vols., full polished cah% Edinburgh, 1824, is QL 6s.

Mr. Bertram Dobell's Catalogue 182 opens with a subject which occupies at present a prominent place aeronautics, a collection of prints and cuttings relating to balloons, and ranging from 1769 to 1864, mounted, folio, cloth, being priced 61. 6s. There are two Alken items : ' Shake- speare's Seven Ages,' McLean, 1824, 31. 3s. ; and ' A Touch of the Fine Arts,' same date, 31. 15s. First editions of Matthew Arnold include ' The Strayed Reveller,' B. Fellowes, 1849, 31. 10s. ; and ' On Translating Homer,' 2 vols., 15s. The first edition of ' Ingoldsby,' 3 vols., original cloth, is 10L 10s. Under Barnes, the Dorsetshire Poet, is ' Orra : a Lapland Tale,' Dorchester, 1822. 21. 10s. This is excessively rare. Works of the Bibliophile Society, Boston, U S.A., include ' Lamb's Letters,' limited to 470 copies for members, duplicate portrait and plates, 5 vols. (one folio), 151. Under Clayton's 'Queens of Song ' is a copy extended to 3 vols. by the in- sert ion of 271 portraits, 51. 5s. There are first editions of Dickens. Drama includes ' The Thespian Dictionary,' extra -illustrated, 3 vols.,. half-morocco extra, 1805, 61. 10s. ; and Ray- mond's ' Memoirs of Elliston,' the 2 vols. ex- tended to 5 by the insertion of portraits, playbills, &c., while another volume contains six rare pamphlets relating to Elliston, half-morocco, 1810-45, 10Z. 10s. The excessively rare Pre- Raphaelite magazine The Germ, original issue, is 28?. 10s. L T nder Horae is a very beautiful Dutch- Flemish manuscript on vellum, brilliantly illuminated throughout, end of fifteenth century,.