Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/322

 312

NOTES AND QUERIES, pi B. XL AFRO. n.

philosophy tolerably easy for a man who did not need it ; but Pope was to play his friend false, and wrong him about a theft of letters which never took place, in Ireland at any rate. The tortuous vanity of the little diseased poet has put certainty beyond our reach ; but judicious readers will find it difficult to resist the conclusions, first stated by Charles Wentworth Dilke in The Mhencewn, and afterwards reprinted in ' Papers of a Critic,' that the correspondence between Pope and Swift as originally published emanated from Twickenham, and that all Pope's complaints of the surreptitious conveyance of matter from Swift's copies of letters in Ireland were a deliberate fabrication. This view is strengthened by one of the learned Appendixes which add so much to Dr. Ball's editing. Another shows that as early .as 1738 efforts were made to secure Swift's help in getting a degree for Dr. Johnson. Dr. Ball .adds : " The University of Dublin at a later date voted the great Doctor the degree of a doctor of laws, but it was never conferred."

This is odd, for Johnson's letter to Dr. Leland, vne of the signatories to the diploma for the degree, is printed in Birkbeck Hill's ' Bos well ' (i. 518), and speaks of " the degree which I have had the honour of receiving." Perhaps Johnson was not legally LL.D. of Dublin, as he never .-availed himself of the " gratiam concessarn . . . . pro gradu doctoris " mentioned in the diploma. Yet another Appendix which should not be -missed concerns ' The Writings and Friends of Swift's Last Years.'

There are illustrations of relics of Swift and places of interest in both volumes, and the last has a magnificent General Index, as well as one of ' Correspondents,' both by Miss Constance Jacob. Such thorough and easy aids to the student are not often provided to-day. This e lition can never be superseded, and we con- gratulate all concerned in it on their services to literature.

IN The Burlington for April Sir Lionel Gust con- tinues his ' Notes on Pictures in ^ the Royal Collection,' and discusses some portraits of Byron 'by George Sanders. These have been reproduced % permission of the King. They consist of an oil painting of Byron and a companion against a back- ground of Scottish coast scenery, and two miniature portraits of head and shoulders only. The former, though " less self-conscious than any subsequent portrait of the poet," is hardly free from that be- setting defect.

A very interesting article by Mr. W. R. Lethaby discusses some points relating to the sculptures of the West Pediment of the Parthenon the contest of Athena and Poseidon for the soil of Attica of which, alas ! but imperfect fragments remain to us. Mr. Lethaby is principally concerned with the great Athena some parallel to which was thought to be identified by Furtwaengler in some copies of the famous Lemnian Athena by Phidias. It seems hardly consonant, however, with our mythological sense in spite of the sentiments of Euripides to suppose the contest to have been an essentially peaceful one.

Mr. Tancred Borenius describes a little-known collection of pictures at Oxford, several of which are reproduced. They include some Italian primitives, amongst which we may specially men- tion a spirited predella representiug the Death of

St. Benedict and the Martyrdom of St. Lucilla, by Spinello Aretino. Mr. Bernard Rackham in his article on ' Italian Majolica ' discusses the work of Prof. Otto von Falke in identifying a new group of wares of the early Renaissance.'

'L'INTERMEDIAIRE.'

OUR contemporary the French 'Notes and Queries,' under the heading * Reponses,' places first "les articles concernant les questions d aetualite"." It may interest our readers to see what are the questions being discussed in its pages, and we there- fore propose to print extracts from them from time to time, together with one query if there chance to be one which is of British reference.

QUESTION : Kelso, abbaye. Qu'e"tait cette abbaye an moment de la Revolution franaise ? Situee en Ejosse et appartenant a 1'ordre de saint Benoit, n'avait-elle pas comme titulaire, en 1790, Jean Antoine de Clinchamps? Mais ce dernier, a qui avait-il succede ? L. C.

R&PONSE : Comment appellera-t-on la guerre actuelle? (LXXI, 89). II n'y a pas de doute que les Allies, provoqueX n'ont pris les armes que dans le butde hitter contre 1'esprit, la "Kultur," 1'ambi- tion, la domination des Germains.

C'est pourquoi, bien que la Turquie (depuis long- temps sous la botte des Allemands) se soit jointe a nos ennemis, je propose : la guerre anti-germanique.

Je crois que ce nom tientcompte des deux aspects de^ la lutte et que les Allemands pourraient eux memes en user, puisqu'ils pretendent que*le monde- entier est contre eux. ROAN.

Pourquoi pas La Guerre pour la BelgiqiLe?

BOSTON.

On Tappellerasimplement La Guerre Allemande ; le temps et 1'histoire donneront sa signification a ce qualificatif. THIX.

Je desirerais fort que toutes les guerres, comme tous les faits, fussent dsignees chronologiquement et geographiquement, sans plus : Guerre de 1914, en Belgique. Guerre de 1914, en France, etc., etc., comme semailles de 1914, en Beauce, recolte de 1914, en Brie, etc., etc

Dans I'arret^ du Ministre de la Guerre du 22 feVrier 1915 portant inscriptions pour la Legion d'honneur et la me'daille militaire, on trouve : "A continue a faire preuve du plus grand courage dans la campagne de France." Journal afficieL 24 fev. 1915, p. 971, col. 1. SGLPN.

On pourrait 1'appeler la guerre de 1914, ce qui est precis. Et comme cette guerre de 1914 est certainement la plus grande guerre qui ait jamais existe, tant par le nombre des peuples qui 1'ont faite, que par celui des combattants, pourquoi ne

pas 1'appeler : La grande guerre

J. CHAPPIE.

fn

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately, nor can we advise correspondents as to the value of old books and other objects or as to the means of disposing of them.

MR. R. GRIME. Will you kindly repeat query ? We may have room for it early in May. MARY DACRE. Forwarded to querist.