Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/467

 n s. i. JUNE 4, mo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

459

DICKENS: SHAKESPEARE: " WOODBINE " (10 S. xii. 281, 333, 411 ; 11 S. i. 76). See the references cited s.v. ' Smilax 2 at 6 S. xii. 232. N. W. HILL.

New York.

0n

The Works of Christopher Marlowe. Edited by

C. F. Tucker Brooke. (Oxford, Clarendon

Press.)

MR. TUCKER BROOKE, now described as " In- structor in English in Yale University," is known to Oxford, we believe, as a Rhodes Scholar, and certainly does credit to his training. He has already given us an excellent collection of ' The Shakespeare Apocrypha,' and the present volume in a uniform style will be equally useful to lovers of Elizabethan drama. It shows careful and well- weighed learning, and will be regarded as at once a serviceable and a trustworthy text. Punctua- tion and capitalization only have fceen modified.

" In the latter particulars it appears incon- sistent with the requirements of conscientious editing to retain such errors as are due to the carelessness of the original compositor or to the limitations of the printer's fount used, but in making these necessary minor changes the text has in no sense been ' modernized.' "

This seems to us a very reasonable position to adopt. In matters of Elizabethan punctua- tion the edition goes further than we should, considering the enjoyment of the average reader. Thus " the employment of the comma for elocu- tionary effect, to indicate a drop of the voice, has been retained." The critic of modern letters may have noticed this elocutionary comma in George Meredith's verse, and will, we think, have generally been worried by it, or, at least, got nothing in the way of pause-indication (which the sense of the line itself should show) com- pensating for the mental shock of a noun hedged off from its verb.

The Preface further explains that " only the most indispensable matter could be admitted into this volume." On .this score the book is amply equipped for the ordinary student, critical notes being added, as in Greek and Latin texts, at the bottom of the page, with brief indications of the authorities, Dyce and others. A library edition on a larger scale is announced as in pre- paration, and will be eagerly awaited. We are promised there a discussion of Marlowe's life and genius by Prof. Raleigh, as well as explanatory notes, and an investigation of Marlowe's share in various Shakespearian dramas.

In smaller type some pieces are printed which siderable poems " printed by Dyce have been omitted on the ground of inadequate evidence. One of these, a fourteen-line Latin epitaph on Sir Roger Manwood, is described in a note as " last heard of in the possession of Col. W. P. Prideaux of Calcutta (1886)." It would be interesting to have recent news of this epitaph from our old friend and staunch correspondent.
 * uv of doubtful authenticity. "Two incon-

In accordance with the principles of punctua- tion stated above, we should have expected to see in ' The Tragedie of Dido ' " larbas " so printed

throughout. As it is, we have the form " larbus " generally in the text, though clearly not in the list of characters. Knowing as we do that the Elizabethan -compositor had to work at a great rate, we should have had no hesitation in printing " larbas " throughout.

In ' The Jew of Malta ' (p. 304), 11. 2340-43, we read : Bar. Will't please thee, mighty Selim-Calymath,

To ascend our homely stayres ? Cal. I, Barabas, come Bashawes, attend.

The only critical note to these lines is : " attend] ascend Dyce, Wag." But " I " is a compositor's error for " Ay," and might have been corrected. Those who are familiar with the Fdlios of Shake- speare will recall similar corruption there. The same remark applies to the beginning of 1. 1687 in ' The Jew of Malta ' :

I, Mr. he 's slain.

Other modern texts read " Ay," which, as a mere matter of convenience for the ordinary reader, we should prefer. A scholar of Mr. Tucker Brooke's experience, doubtless, makes the mental correction without the slightest trouble, but in such a case it is well to consider the position of the less instructed.

We have left ourselves no space to deal with the various ' Introductions ' to the plays, which are all sound, laudably brief, and accurate. Oddly enough, there is "no documentary evi- dence to establish the authenticity " of the two parts of ' Tamburlaine ' ; but they are every- where, as is remarked, clearly signed by Marlowe. If there were another capable of the glorious un- rhymed lyric,

Now walk the angels on the walles of heauen, As Centinels to warne th' immortall soules, To entertaine deuine Zenocrate, we should have to add a wonderful poet to the Elizabethan galaxy.

There are several interesting problems in the various texts of ' Doctor Faustus.' It is decided here that Marlowe, though his material comes ultimately from the German ' Faustbuch ' pub- lished in 1587, did not know German, and used an English translation of 1588, though no such copy has yet been discovered earlier than 1592. ' Edward II.' is mainly from Holinshed ; but no direct source for ' The Jew of Malta ' has so far been found.

Folk-Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa.

By Elphinstone Dayrell. (Longmans & Co.) IN these, as in most other African folk-tales, we find the chief parts played by the beasts and birds which live and act on an equal footing with their human brothers ; and the stories are often a childlike, not to say childish attempt to account for the peculiar ways and habits of animals, ' Why the Bat flies by Night,' ' Why the Bush Cat devours the Poultry,' and the like. Other subjects which call out the story-telling faculty of these children of nature are the mysterious phenomena of the earth and sky. The reason ' Why the Moon W T anes and Waxes ' is this. Originally she was a rotund female who came down to earth, and in a charitable mood allowed a poor starving old woman every evening tp carve slices from her obesity, to the manifest diminution of her figure. When frightened away by some