Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/460

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. xn. DEC. 4, 1915.

of Butler's edition of ^Eschylus were, we think, partly due to the position of the two scholars as adherents of Person and Parr. We are pleased 1<o see a tribute to W. G. Headlam, but the account of Verrall is surely inadequate. It is not stated where his review of Jebb's gifts as a scholar and critic appeared ; nothing is said of his ac- complishments in English ; and he is not credited with the part in the modern revival of Euripides which surely belongs to him. We think, also, that B. B. Cowell deserved longer notice, if only for his work in India and his literary connexion -with Edward Fitz Gerald. The brief mention of Thorns does not include his services to folk-lore.

In many cases the bibliographies will supply details latent or missing in the text. They remain wonderful and unapproachable, including references to articles as well as books of criticism, .find various editions. We have noted a few additions, such as Hugo's ' Sir Walter Scott : A propos de Quentin Durward ' in his ' Littera- tureet Philosophic melees,' but they are of no importance.

THE last Fortnightly Review of the year begins with a dramatic poem by Mr. John Masefield entitled ' Good Friday.' It is an interesting piece of work. The events of Good Friday are dealt with from the point of view of Pontius Pilate, with emphasis, it seems, on those elements in the attitude of the Roman governor which are likest to the attitude of an Englishman in the same place. The careful, simple versification is kept as near unostentatious prose as heroic couplets will allow it to be. By a very happy device the Prisoner never far off is yet not brought upon the scene. Much is made of the reconciliation between Herod and Pilate. It would not be true to say the restraint is overdone, or the diction pitched too low ; but there is perhaps not quite sufficient indi- cation of there being anything particular to restrain. If we had had that, we should have felt the whole to be more than interesting. Mr. Bailey gives us another of his polished and lively sketches of Polish life ; and Mr. Ezra Pound undertakes to convince us of the greatness of Remy de Gourmont. We think he had better have omitted the line : 4< Les e"paules sont des sources d'ou descend la fluidity des bras." [!]

There is an unsigned dialogue on * The Rationale of Prayer 'rather thin. Mr. John Drinkwater contributes some truly delightful verses on 'Sunrise on Rydal Water.' The rest of the number if we except 'Pictures from Gallipoli,' lay Mr. S. A. Moseley, which is principally anecdotal is taken up with discussion of the political and military questions of the hour.

THE December Nineteenth Century is good reading. The anecdotal papers on the war are Mr. Francis Gribble, and the conclusion of Prof. J. H. Morgan's 'Leaves from a Field Note- book.' It is not necessary to commend them to the attention of readers. The state of Germany as Mr. Gribble vividly describes it, is, from the point of view of the attainment of speedy peace, the most hopeful sign of the times we have as yet seen expounded. The Field Note-book in this in- stalment is full as ever of fine stories : the Wilt- shireman will linger a long while in most readers memories, and so will the maire. Mr. Moreton
 * Germany seen from an Internment Camp,' by

Frewen's ' Memories of Melton Mowbray * is a pleasant collection of portraits of sporting men and good horses, well put together, and well ''touched off." Mr. Wilfrid Ward writes on

Death Bills' a title which we would wager not me reader in twenty will guess the meaning of till turns to the article. "Death Bills," in this

nstance, are the quasi-official obituary notices of /he "Dames" and "Converse Sisters " composing the Benedictine Convent at Ghent, founded as an offshoot from Brussels within the first quarter of the seventeenth century. Each is the biography of a nun, recording her particular excellences, and Mr. Ward has here retrieved for us many quaint and attractive descriptions of sanctity, more lively and diversified than might have been expected. Lady Mary Roper and Lady Mary Knatchbull, who had to do with Charles II. and James II., are perhaps the most generally interesting. We must also mention the double article on Serbia by Mr. W. F. Bailey and Mr. E. Hilton Young,

The Cornhill closes the year 191 5 with no fewer than three articles of which the staple is composed of old letters and reminiscences. Lady Charnwood prints a delightful selection of letters from a collection of autographs good examples among them of Sydney Smith and Lamb, and a Ion* letter of Shelley's, the whole being capped by one from Rouget de Lisle inquiring, with a certain pathetic gracefulness of expression, about his pension. Mr. Thomas F. Plowman's 'From the Land of Letters ' contains some very good stories about the literary giants of mid-Victorian days, and we take it' that this rendering of Thackeray's encounter with the Vice-Chancellor should 'be received as the correct one. Thackeray comes before us as a man of somewhat ponderous wit and of lively kind hearted compunction in Bishop Frodsham's article entitled ' The Humour of Thackeray,' written around three letters to his friends the Carpenters. 'Switzerland in War-time ' is described effectively by Mr. Arnold Lunn ; and Mr. A. G. Bradley has a useful paper on ' The Military Traditions of Canada/

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CORRESPONDENTS who send letters to be forwarded to other contributors should put on the top left- hand corner of their envelopes the number of the page of 'N. & Q.' to which their letters refer, so that the contributor may be readily identified.

MR. HORACE BLEACKLEY. Forwarded.

MR. E. L. BATTENHAM ("Omne epigramma sit instar apis," &c.). The author of this has not, so far as we know, yet been discovered. It has been erroneously attributed to Martial.

MB. J. R. O'CONNELL ( " I shall pass through this world but once," &c.). Few quotations have been more often discussed in ' N. & Q.' than this ; but no one has as yet been able to identify the author. Carlyle, Emerson, and Stephen Grellet are suggested ; but some correspondents have hoped to find it in Addison (The Spectator), and others consider it to be a paraphrase of a passage in Marcus Aurelius.