Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/267

 ii s. vii. MAU. 29,1913. i NOTES AND QUERIES. 259 Another map shows the Ottoman advance t 1566. Then we have Italy in 1490, and th Iberian Peninsula in the time of Ferdinand unc Isabella. France under Louis XI. is followed b_ various maps showing that country before the Revolution, and since 1814. Germany and othe countries are treated in the same way, so that ii this one volume we get a conspectus of the history of the world. Maps of England and Wales show the Parliamentary representation before nnd afte the Reform Bill of 1832; and a nmp of the work exhibits the colonial possessions of the variou Powers at the present time. The editing has been undertaken by Dr. A. W Ward, Dr. G. W. Prothero, and Mr. Stanley Leathes, assisted by Mr. E. A. Benians. The In troduction to the Atlas tells " how, in the course of modern history, the European political system which in the fifteenth century included onlj Western Europe, has been extended to include the whole of Europe ; and how, as European societies have been planted in other continents, new lands have been drawn by commerce and political de pendencies into its political life until almosi the whole known world forms a single political system." Very succinctly does the narrative continue to trace the effects on the history o Europe of the wars with Napoleon, the freeing of Italy from the Austrian yoke, and the rendinj asunder of the German Confederation by the rivalry of Austria and Prussia, when a German Empire, under the hegemony of Prussia, took the place of the old Confederation, and enlarged its boundaries at the expense of France by acquiring the long-disputed middle lands of Alsace and Lorraine. Outside of Europe there has been even greater transformation, including the expansion of the Russian Empire in Northern and Central Asia, and the uninterrupted growth of the British Empire in India, Australia, and Africa. France is once more a colonial Power; the German Empire has acquired extensive possessions ; and in Eastern Asia Japan now competes with Europe, and resists the advance of Russia. There is an index to local names, and an index to the maps. The maps, 141 in all, have been executed by Messrs. Stanford, to whom the editors express their obligation. We cannot close our notice without again expressing the pleasure and information we have found in the volume. As a work of reference it is invaluable. Tudor and Stuart Library.—AureHan ToienxhenrF* Poems and Monk*. Edited by E. K. Chambers. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.) APART from the Masks, these Poems, including four that are doubtful, number but twenty-two. Three or four of them have not been printed before. The editor claims for them that they contain "cer- tain touches of rareness here and there"—in which we fully agree with him. We are glad to have what is known of Townshend's life brought together thus completely and skilfully, without, neverthe- less, quite assenting to the description of such work as an "act of piety." For. indeed, so far as any one can now judge of him, few of the shadowy names that flit about in the backgrounds of history have less right to pious attention on the part of later generations than Mr. Aurelian Townshend, if his manner of life be considered. But he could most undoubtedly write verse. He combines, as felicitously perhaps as any except the acknow- ledged great masters of English song, the richness of Elizabethan diction and imagination with u foretaste of the rapidity, neatness, and flexibility which were to characterize the next age. His sense for the happy fall of accent, as well ns his ear for strength and harmony in syllables, were plainly quick and true'far beyond those of most versifiers. This gift was no doubt connected with the lin- guistic gift which attracted Cecil's attention to him, and thereby opened up for him prospects which somehow failed to fulfil themselves. If one may piece out the scanty data of his life by infer- ences from his verse, the failure probably came from his own inward poverty. One guesses that the touch of rareness was unaccompanied by capa- city of any fruitful kind. As a mm of wealth he might have made a greater mark ; as a man of slender fortune, who must render service of some kind where he looked for promotion, he must have been compelled to betray the frivolity which other- wise would have been concealed or partly atoned for by his wit. As the result of careful and extensive research Mr. Chambers has succeeded in placing Townshend where he belongs in the family pedigree, and in correcting one or two mistaken conjectures which have crept into accounts of him—as, for instance, his identification with the man of whom John Manningham wrote that "Ben Johnson the poet now lives upon one Townesend"—this being said at a time when Aurelian—still a youth ana hard- pressed for money—was on his way home from the sojourn abroad which Cecil's liberality had made possible for him. Little more has been made out as to his life, and the date of his death remains unknown. He fades away in this biographical sketch. 03 we may sup- pose he did in real life, as a somewhat negligible Father-in-law, insignificant behind the flaunting notoriety of the Kirkes and their kind. We congratulate Mr. Chambers on a piece of work satisfactorily accomplished. Charles Dlrken* and Mimic. By James T. Lighlwuod. (C. II. Kelly.) Tins is a capital litlle book—miildini in purvo. Dickens was very fond of music, (specially of national airs and old songs ; and of this there h 'ull proof in the number of songs mentioned in lis works. Of classical music there is little. !n 'Great Expectations' Pocket refers to a. ' charming piece of music by Handel called ' The larmonious Blaeksmith,' " and Morlin in' Dombey »nd Son ' speaks of a Sonata in n by Ueetboven. s such a Sonata was never written by that composer, Dickens may have seen an announce- ment in a German edition of one of the three onatas in 11 flat, or, as the Germans say, " in B." The many allusions in Dirkens's works to the isrp point very clearly to the period in which le nourished, as does his reference to music in i village church which was " accompanied by a ew instrumental performers "—a subject recently iscussed in ' N. & Q.' Dickens's sense of humour is well known. A entleman once, when singing (and singing very 'adly) " By the sad sea waves," wound up with