Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/346

 340

NOTES AND Q UERIES. t ii s. iv. OCT. 21, 1911.

on

The Roman Era in Britain. By John Ward,

F.S.A. (Methuen & Co.)

THIS volume of " The Antiquary's Books " will certainly be of service to the general reader who desires to gain an adequate notion of those traces of Roman occupation and influence which are still to be found in England and Scotland. The illustrations of altars, tombstones, pottery, glassware, implements, and personal adornments are all useful and enlightening ; but the plans and maps may be considered of still greater ad- vantage. The latter give a definite idea of what the physical condition of Roman Britain was, as -contrasted with that of our modern island. They show clearly how much the brain and hand of man has to accomplish before a district in the rough can be made to support a numerous popula- tion. " The Roman hold upon the country," explains Mr. Ward, " once established, the great works which had in view the development of its natural wealth were immediately put in hand, and chief of these was a magnificent system of durable roads and posting-stations. Under the .security of the imperial rule the rural population rapidly increased, and the zenith of prosperity was reached in the Constantine period."

After a description of the means of com- munication comes a chapter on military remains, and following it a painstaking account of the large country houses, which " abounded in the fertile lowlands and vales of the southern half of Eng- land. Northwards their remains are found in Lincolnshire, and they practically cease with York and Aldborough. This distribution repre- sents the portions of the island where the popula- tion was most Romanized and wealthy, and where the conditions of life were best and the land most cultivated." These houses were not places of defence. The Romano-Briton lived under an authority which was able to keep a man's family and property safe. Hence the fortresses and strongholds that became a feature of medieval feudalism were unneeded. General order and safety being enjoyed under the Pax Romana the homes of the wealthier persons of the time were planned for domesticity and agriculture, as their remains indicate. Public buildings and baths tell the same story of safety and confidence in the power of the government to preserve the peace. After an account of the patchwork of religious beliefs which Britain shared with the rest of the dominions of the Empire, Mr. Ward treats of the religious buildings and altars which have been discovered here. From this subject he naturally passes to sepulchral remains, and tombstones with their inscriptions, some of which still stir us with that touch of nature which makes the worshipper of the best and greatest Jupiter, or Isis, or Mithras, at one with the men of to-day. " Her freedman Cascilius Musicus placed this," records one funeral monument. "To Simplicia Florentina, a most innocent thing, who lived ten months .... the father erected this, ' ' says another. of the First Cohort of Vangiones, and Aurelia Egleciane, raised this to their daughter most sweet," is the inscription on a third.
 * ' To Fabia Honorata, Fabius Honoratius, tribune

The implements, utensils, and appliances used in ordinary life, from the Claudian conquest in

A.D. 43 till the end of the Roman era in Britain four hundred and fifty years later, receive due attention.

Mr. Ward may be said to succeed in giving a clear, if condensed, account of all existing evidence which indicates wliat the conditions of human life were in this island when guided and controlled by the practical spirit of the Latin race.

Coriolanus, edited by A. W. Verity (Cambridge University Press), is a useful addition to the " Pitt Press Series." General information is liberal, and the notes are adequate. We do not, however, agree with Mr. Verity that this play is the least modern of Shakespeare's tragedies. To us, on the contrary, it seems that nothing could be more appropriate to certain issues of so-called modernity than the struggle in the strong man's soul between the self-advertisement and popular cajolery of the stump-orator, and the proud yet modest dignity of the man of action. Nor do we think with Mr. Verity that " this tragedy has no prominent character who excites and keeps our full sympathy." What greater appeal to an English schoolboy than the brave man's abhorrence of public praise, of hearing his " nothings monstered," of currying favour, or of cant and brag ? Of such stuff surely, despite its flaws, was the " stiff-necked pride " of Corio- lanus ; and so far from agreeing with Mr. Verity that this stiff-necked pride " deserves no pity ,vhen the inevitable befalls," we should cite the play as pre-eminently a fulfilment of the Aris- totelian maxim.

The hints on dramatic irony are useful, though we do not, with Mr. Verity, think it well said that ' Macbeth ' is " oppressive with the sense of something subtly malignant and inexorably revengeful in the forces that rule the world, of a tragic irony in the ultimate scheme of things." No fates are malign or revengeful that punish or revenge man's malignity. Macbeth is not, like (Edipus the King, a sufferer from the irony of Fate ; and surely to suggest this to young readers is to blink the entire ethics of the pla'y.

The glossary is excellent, derivations being freely given. Instead of the somewhat damping statement that " cog " is of unknown origin, " like most slang words," it might perhaps have been remarked that the Welsh peasant even to this day uses the word " cogeo " for cheating at a game, as distinguished from " twyllo " for cheating at commerce. But we bow to Mr. Verity if he has any evidence that this rare and ancient British word was, like others of a very different character, imported into Wales.

to <K0rasp0ntottis,

ON all communications must be written the name ind address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- lication, but as a guarantee of good i'aith.

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

C. C. (" Who fills the butchers' shops with great blue flies"). From ' Loyal Effusion,' the first of the Rejected Addresses,' by Horace and James Smith.