Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/580

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. v. JUKE 15, 1912.

French sources. A large part of the rest of the volume is taken up with a discussion of the opinions of Profs. Kittredge and Gunmere on the origin of ballads, and we found this a tedious method of dealing with a question in itself of great interest. The Professors will have it that true ballads are the product of no single brain, but of groups who, in some manner not clearly ex- plained, compose them together, and as time goes on modify them ; while Mr. Henderson maintains and we are inclined to agree with him that, however much altered or debased in the process of transmission, each ballad is, in the beginning and as a whole, the work of one author. We would suggest a consideration of the origin and fortunes of schoolboy rimes as, perhaps, the nearest analogy to the ballad which the present day affords. We have an example of what we mean in the columns of the present issue (p. 476). A correspondent asked to have missing words supplied to the rime ' Goliath of Gath,' and several correspondents from different quarters sent us the version we print with MR. MURRAY'S signature showing that it is known over a tolerably wide area. The query, however, has elicited " also the original version differing at least in two points materially from the common one and at the same time has revealed the identity of the author.

In saying that we are disappointed in Dr. Robertson's Goethe and the Twentieth Century, we do not forget that Goethe is, of all his peers, the most difficult to write about in such a way as to inspire sympathy, whether one address oneself to those who know him or those who do not ; it is not clear which of the two groups is here addressed. Those who know him in any real degree especially if they share, or have at any time shared, the boundless enthusiasm of his more ardent admirers find, no doubt, an interest in any and every detail of his life ; but these the presenta- tion of it here given is little likely to content. Those, on the other hand, who know nothing of his works beyond their names may be pardoned if they find this account of him dreary, and if they wonder why any one should occupy himself with a person so perilously near being a " prig," whose tremendous genius, from the angle here taken and within this restricted compass, some- how makes very little show. For Goethe the man to appear attractive one must have space for anecdotes which shall, so to say, break the tame outline of his " calm optimism," and display him human ; and, again, so to interweave his life and work as to form the single and living picture of a great genius, requires if not likewise a fairly large canvas, then unusually close calculation and happy judgment as to what shall be omitted and what included, and where the emphasis be thrown. We should have liked his life to have been left on one side, and his work only discussed a course which would probably also have turned out more in accordance with the expectations raised by the title.

A Chronicle of the Popes. By A. E. McKilliam. (Bell & Sons.)

WE believe that nothing quite like this volume has been published before ; and the omission, now that it is repaired, appeal's surprising. For it is obvious that in order with any exactness to understand the course of European history

few things are more necessary for the student than to carry with him through it the thread of the history of the Papacy ; and to do so, except- ing in regard to certain special periods, without the assistance of a continuous and compact account of the Popes, in which one may find one's place without trouble and waste of time, is by no means always easy. The excellent idea of furnish- ing such an account has been here well carried out, in the form, as the author emphatically reminds us in his Preface, not of a history, but a chronicle. He gives us first a bibliography of the principal works consulted, then an alphabetical index of the Popes, and then a list, dated, and also referred to the pages of the text, of the (Ecumenical Coun- cils. Next follows in order of succession the long line of some 360 pontiffs. Each is made the subject of a biography complete in itself. Ulti- mate causes are not sought nor theories offered ; but facts and events are set out in considerable detail at sufficient length, as well as in a manner sufficiently lively, to impress the memory. The author has aimed at giving an " absolutely un- biassed account " of these lives, and, so far "as we have tested him, we find that he has made good that intention also. Legendary matter is given, but the authority, or want of authority, for it is indicated. Naturally, references to authorities have had to a great extent to be omitted : the great moments of the history of the Papacy to be dealt with all too succinctly, and matters merely curious or entertaining to be at the best just glanced at, and no more ; but it would be indeed unreasonable to cavil at these necessary limitations in "a work which claims only to be a handbook, and as a handbook is excellent.

WE regret that the notice of the 'Western Rebellion,' which appeared at 11 S. v. 400, has been so worded as to imply that Richard Locke, bv whom the pamphlet here reprinted was published in 1782, is a contemporary of our own. We are grateful to Mr. John Coles, jun., for drawing our attention to the matter.

Jiotias to

WE beg leave to state that we decline to return communications which, for any reason, we do not print, and to this rule we can make no exception.

To secure insertion of communications corre- spondents must observe the following rules. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. When answer- ing queries, or making notes with regard to previous entries in the paper, contributors are requested to put in parentheses, immediately after the exact heading, the series, volume, and page or pages to which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second com- munication " Duplicate."

CORRESPONDENTS who send letters to be for- warded 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.

G. W. REIMVAY ("That blessed word Mesopo- tamia "). See 11 S. i. 369, 458 ; ii. 2.1.3.