Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/188

 180 NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. vii. MAR. i, 1913. health, went to the Deanery, apparently for the first time, to nurse him in his sickness, and a poem dedicated to her commemorates this. Swift frequently afterwards experienced, such kindness from her, as shown in the last two lines of the birthday poem for 1726/7 :— You, to whose care so oft I owe That I 'm alive to tell you so. Stella at this time was seriously ill, but although Swift in this poem says he would gladly share her suffering, he went to England twice during her illness, and appears to have been anxious to save himself the pain of seeing her die—indeed, it was not until he had received a letter of admonition from Sheridan that he went to see her. His presence
 * always brought relief, but on his second return

" the improvement was only the flickering of the candle before it is extinguished, and on 28 Jany., 1727/8, Stella passed from him." Dr. Ball, in quoting the inscription from the tablet in St. Patrick's Cathedral, gives the date as the 27th of January. Perhaps this date is wrong, as the tablet " is said to have been erected not long before the year 1780." " According to Sheridan, Stella adjured Swift on her death-bed to acknow- ledge her as his wife, and was deserted by him in her last hours (Sheridan's 'Life,' p. 361); and according to Sir Walter Scott, he offered to Acknowledge their marriage, but she replied it was too late. The last conversation is said to have been overheard by Mrs. Whiteway, who had then no intercourse with Swift." In closing our review we must join in the chorus of praise with which this valuable contribution to the literature of Swift has been received. These four volumes make us impatient for the rest. We must also commend the publishers for their enterprise in producing such a work, perfect both in paper and print. The illustra- tions from photographs include Woodbrooke, and the Grove, by Mr. Wynne ; Stella's Cottage, near Laracor, by Mr. Westropp ; and the Dean's Chair, and the Old Gateway at Gosford Castle, by Mr. H. Allison. . Sir Roger L'Estrange : a Contribution to the History of the Press in the Seventeenth Century. By George Kitchin. (Kegan Paul k Co.) IT is with pleasure that we draw attention to the appearance of this exhaustive and scholarly piece of work, which may be expected to take a central position in the group of studies bearing on the seventeenth - century press. Mr. Kitchin deals with his hero and with his material at once fully and judiciously. He is able here and there in detail to correct misconceptions of L'Estrange's character, and criticism of his actions; but in general he finds the verdict of his contemporaries and the generation immediately succeeding him to have beeu justified. As one of the principal wielders of a new power, and a prominent shaper of its engines, L'Estrange must always be a figure of high interest and importance; as furnishing a penetrating line of illustration for the stormy movements of the time his career must always, from students of that period, claim a considerable attention; and as a personage extraordinarily able, versatile, active, and accomplished, with principles and purposes difficult for the imagina- tion to reconstruct, he presents no mean problem to the student of humanity in general. But his character cannot be cleared of meanness and cruelty—nor perhaps, in spite of its vehemence and loyalty, of cowardice; and in these serried and vigorous pages the kindlier side of human nature finds little enough expression. All the more ad- mirable is-the skilful manner in which L'Estrange's share in the course of desperately intricate machina- tions is here lifted out of the general entanglement and accurately laid before us. In the final pages Mr. Kitchin gives us a good analysis of L'Estrange's qualities as a prose writer, and of the services to English rendered by his translations. The Romance of the Hebrew Language. By the Rev. W. H. Saulcz. (Longmans & Co.) THE author's purpose of exciting a sympathetic interest in the study of the original text of the Old Testament has been admirably achieved by the publication of this work. The romance-like aspect of many Biblical words and phrases has been well brought out, and there is also present something of the poetic atmosphere which every- where hovers over the ancient Hebrew page. The author is, moreover, a preacher as well as a teacher, and he aims throughout at inculcating reverence for Biblical ideas and the Biblical modes of expressing them. His wide reading has enabled him to illustrate his remarks by witty sayings and stories derived from many sources; and a considerable amount of out-of-the-way information is provided in the chapters respect- ively entitled ' Symbolism ' and ' Jewish Romance,' the former dealing with the metaphorical mean- ings attaching in the Old Testament to such terms as cloud, hey, manna, salt, and the latter giving an account of certain Jewish methods of interpreta- tion, including the device known as " Gematria," which explains the text in accordance with the numerical value of words and phrases. Readers must not, however, expect to learn Hebrew from the book. They will only learn a number of things about Hebrew ; and if— as is to be hoped will be the case—some should, as a result, undertake to master the Hebrew language, they might after some years of study even be able to suggest improvements and correc- tions here and there. But their appreciation of the volume need not be appreciably diminished by a knowledge of its defects, the author's object not being to leach Hebrew, but to incite people to learn it. JtoJiwa to (Eomspontonts. ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- lication, but as a guarantee of good faith. 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. 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. The Editor thanks Mr. GEORGE B. NEVIN for the copy of hia part-song. L. MASON.—Forwarded.