Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/126

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 8. I. FEB. 5, 1916.

suffers for your coat ? " which was the equivalent of those days to our " What's the damage ? "

The great bulk of the section is of Latin derivation, but in Sudra and Sufi it has Oriental words of prime importance ; and in " suckeny ' a curious and interesting example of Slavonic. The words recorded number 1,224 and the illustrative quotations 8,398, which may be com- pared respectively with 121 and 478 in Johnson.

The Fortnightly Review for February has two articles upon the present crisis of the world's history in its academic aspect which should command careful attention, not necessarily entire agreement : the first, Dr. Dillon's impressive criticism of our national attitude towards the war, its effect hitherto, and the fxirther results which may be expected from it ' The Fruits of Amateurism ' ; the second, Mr. Sidney Low's discussion of ' The New Orientation of History.' r fhe tendency of both is to deride the generaliza- tions which Were as light to the steps of our fore- fathers, and we admit that there was some mistak- ing about this illumination. At the same time we think there is increasing among writers of maga- zine articles, and exemplified in these two, a rather absurd inclination to scold the last quarter of the nineteenth century for not having tackled problems the terms of which it had not the means of knowing. Mr. W. W. Gibson contributes four sonnets in memory of Rupert Brooke, in which, though the main thought and outline of the imagery have nothing extraordinary, there are touching and finely set details. The editor gives us the first part of a classical study ' Aristo- phanes the Pacifist ' : very lucid, vivacious, and good. Mr. P. P. Howe makes pleasant reading on ' Hazlitt and Liber Amoris,' and castigates, we think with reason, the indiscretion of Mr. le Gallienne in making public the total MS. from which the author had taken a selection to com- pose his work. Mr. D. A. Wilson has .justice on his side in accounting for Carlyle's attitude to- wards the German Empire, and this defence is timely. Madame Hel&ne Vacaresco's sketch of 'Marriages in Roumania ' should be noted by the folk-lorist, though it is descriptive and entertain- ing rather than learned.

IN The Nineteenth Century for this month the article of the greatest permanent importance is that by Mr. H. Wickham Steed, entitled ' The Pact of Konopisht,' in which, upon the authority of a correspondent whom he has every reason for believing to be well informed, the writer states that a visit paid by the Kaiser to the late Arch- duke Franz Ferdinand, ostensibly to see the fa.mous rose-gardens at Konopisht in the height of their beauty, was, in reality, the occasion of the framing of a startling plan for the reorganization of Central and Eastern Europe. Mr. Steed shows good grounds for giving careful attention to the account, and points out how it explains the curious, the otherwise inexplicably negligent and con- temptuous manner in which the funeral of the Archduke and hls^wife was^conducted the assumption being that, in the interval between the assassination and the funeral, the Archduke's papers, revealing the nature of the agreement with the Kaiser, had been brought to the know- ledge of Francis Joseph and the Hapsburgs generally. There are two literary papers : Mr. Arthur Waugh's sketch of Lionel Johnson, and

Mr. W. S. Lilly's ' Balzac Re-read.' Balzac, or rather his work, is like London a vast entity about which, after any prolonged contact with it, a literary person feels compelled to say his say for there is a quality in that vastness which strikes each observer afresh, as if it were some new discovery ; and all the time there is nothing much to be said about it after the few obvious things are said, because it is too huge for purely literary analysis. Still, we confess to a complete sympathy with Mr. Lilly in his inability to resist saying these things yet. once again ". Bishop Mercer, in ' Humour and War,' justifies the ways of Tommy Atkins to the serious more par- ticularly to the German and is able to enter very thoroughly into the difficulties of the question from a serious point of view. Mr. Hugh Sadler draws out a ' Contrast ' between Disraeli and Abraham Lincoln deftly enough. ' Is Anything wrong with German Protestantism ?' seems rather like inquiring ' Is Anything wrong with the Bankrupt's Solvency ? ' But the essay, by Bishop Bury, under that title is worth noting ; and so is Mr. R. S. Nolan's ' Social Training and Patriotism in Germany and in England.' A paper which should by no means be missed is Mr. W. H. Rem\ick's ' British Merchant Sailors under War Conditions.'

THE February CornhiU to be frank about it a somewhat weak number. There are five papers concerned with the war, of which ' A Wounded Officer's Day ' is well worth reading ; but the others, except Mr. Boyd Cable's, are lull, that is to say, are merely on "a level with the products of daily journalism. With Mr. Boyd table's we quarrel because it is too obviously, and at too great length, " written up," and for 3his we find the subject altogether too tragic. There is an exuberant, but very interesting ap- preciation of Sir William van Home, by Miss S. Vi'acnaughtan, and one by the late Sir Clements Vlarkham of Sir Allen Young ; and then a set of ketches called ' Little Girls I have Met,' by Mr. W. H. Hudson, which is graceful and sympathetic, but has not quite the crispness of touch necessary to make a perfect success of such slender material.

The Athenaeum now appearing monthly, arrange- ments have been made whereby advertisements of posts vacant and wanted, which it is desired to publish weekly, may appear in the intervening weeks in 4 N. <fc Q.'

t0

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.

MR, A. E. MARTEN. The ' N.E.D.,' in the article under ' Tradesman,' shows that the word las been commonly used for an artisan as well as 'or a seller of goods, and that especially in Scotland.

GUY EDDIS (" Now Barabbas was a pub- isher"). Commonly attributed to Byron, but in reality a joke perpetrated by Thomas Camp- bell. See MR. MURRAY'S letter at US. ii. 92.