Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/500

 492

NOTES AND QUERIES. rn ?. xn. DEC. is, 1915.

With our present knowledge it seems impossible -to say who wrote the comedy. F. G. $ Fleay and others have made tentative suggestions^ which have not won approval. In an Appendix Mr. Brooke surveys the present state of the question, and concludes that it would be rash and arbitrary to make a definite attribution of authorship. He takes safe ground when he says that the play has obvious affinities to Thomas Preston's ' Cambises ' on the one hand, and to the anonymous ' Clyomon and Clamydes ' on the other, and suggests that further discussion would be unprofitable. He proves himself throughout a similarly cautious and expert guide, admirably handling his text, and -providing indispensable help in his scholarly .and suggestive notes.

The Binding of Books : an Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled Bindings. By Herbert P. Home. Second Edition, Revised and Cor- rected. " Books about Books." (Kegan Paul & Co., 2s. Qd. net.)

A Short History of English Printing ' 1476-1900. By Henry B. Plomer. Second Edition. (Same series, publishers, and price.) 'THESE volumes are cheap reissues of standard

works noticed at length in ' N. & Q.' > h ir Q first

appearance Mr. Home's in April, 1894 (8 S. v.

319), and Mr. Plomer's in January, 1901 (9 S.

V1 Mr. Home writes of his subject as a true lover and enthusiast, nothing less than the nearest possible approach to perfection satisfying him. He will not have anything to do With mere mechanical accuracy ; and commercial require- ments are anathema to him. His volume is adorned with specimens of fine bindings from the ^early part of the sixteenth century to the work /of Mr. Cobden Sanderson and Mr. Douglas Cockerell.

Mr Plomer, whose name is familiar to readers

^of ' N. & Q.,' has much humbler materials to deal

with, but may nevertheless interest a larger

circle. He, too, is thorough in his methods, and

Ihis pages ' bear evidence of his painstaking

research, references to original authorities bepg

plentiful. One comes across many interesting

items of information, such as accounts of the

first use of movable Greek type in English printing

(pp. 101, 102), the earliest English representation

."of a printing press (p. 105), and the first book

published in England by subscription (p. 165).

The original edition of Mr. Plomer s volume, being pxiblished at half-a-guinea, was adorned with portraits and facsimiles. These were hardly to be expected in a reissue at the modest price of half-a-crown ; but Mr. Plomer has in- corporated in his new edition many facts dis- covered by bibliographers since his book first appeared." It is, however, to be regretted that in his account of the Chiswick Press he has not mentioned Mr. C. T. Jacobi, who has done so much to improve the standard of English printing. The lapse of time has also rendered one or two statements inexact. Thus it is not now correct to say that John Barber was " the only printer Who has ever held the high office of Lord Mayor of London " (p. 193), Sir Wyatt Truscott having filled the position in 1908 ; and Messrs. Eyre & Spottiswoode no longer have a monopoly o Government printing (p. 249). These smal ^inaccuracies do not, however, detract from the general value of a sound piece of work.

The Library Journal : November. (New York,

B. B. Bowker Co., Is. 6d.)

DR. BOSTWICK of St. Louis Public Library con- tributes a paper full of suggestions on ' Some Tendencies of American Thought.' The tendency s to combine and blend in every donaain, and this s exemplified in an eminent degree in the public ibrary. At St. Louis there are collections of postal cards, specimens of textile fabrics, a bindery in all operation, a carpenter's shop, and a power- plant of considerable capacity. Mr. Slosson, jhe literary editor of The Independent, makes many amusing remarks in his address ' How the i'ublic Library looks to a Journalist,' and says las to wait seven and a half minutes for a book
 * hat when he feels inclined to be impatient if he

be found and placed before him in the New York Library, he reminds himself of his experience at the Berlin Library, where, " after he had hunted up the book he wanted in the catalogue no easy iask and made out the necessary documents, .neluding information as to his private affairs jhat no American census- taker ever dared to ask," nd the librarian had ascertained that the book was in, and politely notified that all was in order, was told that he " could get the book to- morrow."

Among ' Bibliographical Notes ' it is announced bhat the ' Athenceum Subject-Index for Periodicals' is being prepared at the request of the Council of the British Library Association, and that it will include some 10,000 entries chosen from 300 English, American, and Continental periodicals, fiction and minor verse being excluded. A series of class lists will be published as fast as com- piled, and these will be combined in one alphabet early in the new year. Monthly indexes will be pub- lished in 1916. American libraries may obtain both the class lists and the annual volume through B. F. Stevens & Brown of New York City.

The Berks, Bucks, and Oxon Archaeological Journal : October. Edited by P. H. Ditchfield and John Hautenville Cope. (Beading, Slaughter & Son, 1*. Qd.)

THE latest number of this quarterly Journal starts with the continuation of Mr. C. E. Keyser's paper on certain churches those dealt with here being Hampstead Norreys and Aldworth. The paper is full and thoroughly worked out, and illustrated with abundant photographs. Major Kempthorne on Sandhurst, Berks, gives interesting particulars of the rates for the latter half of the eighteenth century ; and Mary Sharp continues the ' History of the Parish of Beenham.' Mr. Tape states the present position of the inquiry into the English ancestry of George Washington ; and Mr. J. E. Field begins a 'Survey of Wallingford in 1550.' The number is a good one.

t0

OK all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub licatiou, but as a guarantee of good faith.

EDITORIAL communications should be addressed to "The Editor of 'Notes and Queries '"Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- lishers "at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.G.