Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/263

 ii s. vii. MAR. 29, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Another map shows the Ottoman advance tc 1566. Then we have Italy in 1490, and the [berian Peninsula in the time of Ferdinand anc [sabella. France under Louis XI. is followed by various maps showing that country before the Revolution, and since 1814. Germany and othe countries are treated in the same way, so that ir
 * his one volume we get a conspectus of the historj

)f the world. Maps of England and Wales show exhibits the colonial possessions of the variou Powers at the present time.
 * he Parliamentary representation before and after
 * he Reform Bill of 1832 ; and a map of the work

The editing has been undertaken by Dr. A. W tVard, Dr. G. W. Prothero, and Mr. Stanley lieathes, assisted by Mr. E. A. Benians. The In reduction to the Atlas tells " how, in the course f modern history, the European political system vhich in the fifteenth century included only Western Europe, has been extended to include the vhole of Europe ; and how, as European societies lave been planted in other continents, new lands lave been drawn by commerce and political de >endencies into its political life until almosl he whole known world forms a single political ystem." Very succinctly does the narrative ontinue to trace the effects on the history o Curope of the wars with Napoleon, the freeing f Italy from the Austrian yoke, and the rending sunder of the German Confederation by the ivalry of Austria and Prussia, when a German Empire, under the hegemony of Prussia, took the lace of the old Confederation, and enlarged its Boundaries at the expense of France by acquiring he long-disputed middle lands of Alsace and jorraine.

Outside of Europe there has been even greater transformation, including the expansion of the Lussian Empire in Northern and Central Asia, and be uninterrupted growth of the British Empire in ndia, Australia, and Africa. France is once more

colonial Power ; the German Empire has acquired xtensive possessions ; and in Eastern Asia Japan ow competes with Europe, and resists the advance f Russia. There is an index to local names, and n index to the maps.

The maps, 141 in all, have been executed by lessrs. Stanford, to whom the editors express heir obligation.

We cannot close our notice without again scpressing the pleasure and information we have )und in the volume. As a work of reference it is i valuable.

'udor and Stuart Library. Aiirelian TownshencF* Poems and Masks. Edited by E. K. Chambers. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.)

PART from the Masks, these Poems, including mr that are doubtful, number but twenty-two, hree or four of them have riot been printed before, he editor claims for them that they contain "cer- lin touches of rareness here and there " in which e fully agree with him. We are glad to have hat is known of Townshend's life brought together lus completely and skilfully, without, neverthe- sss, quite assenting to the description of such work le can now judge of him, few of the shadowy ames that flit about in the backgrounds of history ave less right to pious attention on the part of ,ter generations than Mr. Aurelian Townshend, if
 * an "act of piety." For, indeed, so far as any

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 a foretaste of the rapidity, neatness, and flexibility which were to characterize the next age. His sense for the happy fall of accent, as well as 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 urj 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 man 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 and 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, as 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 DicJcens and Music. By James T. Lightwootl. (0. H. Kelly.)

Tins is a capital litfle book multum in panto. Dickens was very fond of music, especially of national airs and old songs ; and of this there i.s full proof in the number of songs mentioned in his works. Of classical music there is little. [n 4 Great Expectations ' Pocket refers to n 'charming piece of music by Handel called ' The Harmonious Blacksmith,' "and Morfin in ' Dombey and Son ' speaks of a Sonata in B by Beethoven. As 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 sonatas in Ji flat, or, as the Germans say, " in B." Phc many allusions in Dickens's works to the harp point very clearly to the period in which ic flourished, as does his reference to music in: a village church which was " accompanied by a ! ew instrumental performers " a subject recently discussed 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