Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/532

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. VL NOV. so, 1912.

eighty-nine. He left some 750 portraits, painted a la gouache, a unique collection of Court celebrities and others, of which the greater part was eventu- ally bequeathed by the Due d'Aumale to the Institute of Prance, and is now in the Orleans Salon of the Musee Conde. Among Carmontelle's sitters were the Dauphin and his wife, father and mother of Louis XVI., the Princesse de Lamballe, Mile, de Lespinasse, Garrick, and Sterne ; but the portrait of Voltaire, which the artist un- doubtedly painted, is missing from the catalogue of the Conde Gallery. Other papers show Garrick on the " Grand Tour," capturing the hearts of the French people to whom he was by descent so near akin ; Loutherbourg, the artist, inventor of the " Bidophusikon," a set of moving pictures, showing scenes affected by changing lights, and Robert Lloyd, usher, man of pleasure, and minor poet, who died of a broken heart at -thirty-one, a prisoner in the Fleet.

Mr. Dobson has had the luck to light on two unprinted letters of Fielding, dating from his voyage to Lisbon and sojourn in Portugal ; these show the novelist much elated at his apparent Tecovery of health, until his spirits are dashed by domestic difficulties, Mrs. Fielding's home-sick- ness, and the husband-hunting manoeuvres of that lady's companion and friend probably Miss Margaret Collier. Fielding's friend Ralph Allen, and his fine house overlooking Bath, where Pope, Warburton, and Pitt were hospitably received, form the subject of the title essay. Pope's last visit terminated abruptly, by reason of some obscure disagreement between Mrs. Allen and Martha Blount, and perhaps the poet never quite forgave his Prior Park host. More magnificent entertainers than the Aliens were the Temples of .Stowe, and the account of their garden, studded with classic " fanes," is full of matter delightfully characteristic of the eighteenth century. Stowe would have furnished an ideal setting for a Watteau picture ; but age and thoughts of death and the banter that destroys illusions should have no part in afetechampetre. " It made me laugh," says Horace Walpole, who was one of a party, mainly composed of " giddy young creatures of near threescore," formed to entertain the Princess Amelia at Lord Temple's in 1770, " as we were descending the great flight of steps from the house to go and sup in the grotto on the banks of Helicon ; we were so cloaked up, for the evening was very cold, and so many of us were limping and hobbling, that Charon would have easily believed we were going to ferry over in earnest."

The Poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus. With Notes and a Translation by Charles Stuttaford. (Bell & Sons.)

DESIGNED for the use of those whose Latin has " lost its freshness," this pleasantly printed and attractively " got-up " volume contains a lively sketch of the times of Catullus, an account of the principal MSS. of the text, articles on the lyrical metres used by the poet, and an index of persons and places, besides the bulk of the work, the text with its accompanying translation and the notes. The notes give a good deal of information in a chatty, not to say colloquial manner, without going unduly deep, and will probably do more than the translation to revive the authentic savour of Catullus for the taste of readers who have half forgotten him. The translation we

found disappointing ; without rhythm or cha- racter, it carries nothing of the spirit of the original, and has as little the merit of keeping close to the true sense of the words. We append Mr. Stuttaford's translation of " Odi et amo," and his rendering of the last line or two from the poem to Caecilius to show what we mean :

I hate and yet I love ; perhaps you ask how this can be. I do not know, but that it is so I feel too well, and live in torment."

Ignosco tibi, Sapphica puella musa doctior ; est enim venuste Magna Caocilio incohata Mater. " I can excuse you, maiden more learned than the Sapphic muse, for consummate indeed is this poem on the Great Mother that Caecilius has begun."

WE congratulate the readers of ' Printer's Pie ' on the fact that Mr. W. Hugh Spottiswoode has granted their wish and published a Christmas number which he calls Winter's Pie. He tells us that " Oliver, having asked for more, has got it this time ; I hope there will be no cause for indigestion." The Pie is certainly full of rich things, and a most delectable dish ; but as laughter is a good aid to digestion, people will be quite safe in indulging freely, and we have no fear as to the results. We are not going to pull out any of the plums, as the Pie can be purchased, in its entirety, for one shilling.

to

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G. H. W. ('The Kentish Note-Book '). Anti- cipated ante, p. 76.

W. S. B. H. This use of the present participle was discussed under the heading of ' Jane Austen's " Persuasion" ' at 11 S. iv. 288, 339, 412, 538; v. 75, 157.

CORRIGENDUM. Ante, p. 396, col. 2, 1. 17 from foot, for " Nickall's " read Nickoll's.