Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/226

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. SEPT. 9, me.

consciousness," but we do not think very cogent the reasons urged by Mr. Pearson in its favour from evolution. Mr. Christopher Tumor in ' The Anti-Small Holdings Mania ' (a paper which

Australian a very neat illustration of the difference between the English and the Australian attitude towards the man who wants a holding of his
 * is well worth consideration) quotes from an

-own. Mr. W. ' S. Weatherley gives some good advice as to the sort of memorials to erect to our soldiers, but we think this is too largely con- cerned with minutiae and externals ; to get a satisfactory memorial even if it be but a simple

-one Art must go down a little deeper than he has chosen to go. Bishop Bury's ' Recent Ex- periences in Russia ' are interesting, picturesque m more than one passage touching. The other papers are concerned either with the management

of the war, or with politics, or with burning questions, the most important of these last being Father Vaughan's strenuous and admonitory ' England's Empty Cradles.'

The CornhiU Magazine is an unequal number. ' The Kaiser as his Friends knew Him,' by a Neutral Diplomat, and ' A German Business Mind,' contributed by Sir John Wolfe Barry, are both and especially the latter of some im- portance as well as of great interest. Sir Herbert Maxwell's ' Army Uniforms, Past and Present,' .a gain, is well worth having plenty of information .and also plenty of entertainment in it. And the stories and sketches about the war especially Mr. Bennet Copplestone's ' The Lost Naval Papers ' are all lively reading. But we cannot think what we are meant to gather from ' The New Tempta- tion of St. Anthony ' a piece of crude and puerile sentimentality, in which the woman who is supposed to impersonate France is but a poor -compliment to our Ally would, indeed, but for the label, fail altogether to suggest her ; and in which the travesty of the underlying significance of " St. Anthony seems nowadays old -fashioned. Dr. A. C. Benson's counsels about the memorials "to those who have fallen are not very concrete, but they may serve to give the keynote for the active performers to use a metaphor from another art and perhaps that was all they were intended to achieve.

' L'INTERM EDIAIBE.'

' Intermediaire for August is a very interesting number. It contains the full text of ' Le Soldat par Chagrin,' by Gerard de Nerval, which we
 * think some of our readers may be glad to have :

I.

Je me suis engag6 (bis)

Pour 1'amour d'une blonde, (bis) Pas pour mon anneau d'or Qu'fl d'autre elle' a donne', Mais c'est pour un baiser Qu'elle m'a refused

Je me suis engage 1 (bis)

Dans regiment de France (bis) La oiic' que j'ai Iog6, Un m'y a conseill^, De prendre mon conge, Par-dessous mes soulicrs.

Dans mon chemin faisant, (bis)

J'rencont' mon capitaine, (bis)

Mon capitain' me dit :

" Od vas-tu, Sans-souci ? "

" J'm'en vas dans le vallon,

Rejoiml' mon bataillon."

" Soldat. t'as dxi chagrin, (bis)

Par I'abandon de ta blonde (bis) EH* n'est pas dign' de toi, La preuve est a mon doigt : Tu vois bien clairement, Que je suis son amant."

v.

La-bas, dans le vallon, (bis)

Coule claire fontaine ; (bis)

J'ai mis mon habit bas, Mon sabre au bout d'mon bras, Et je me suis battu, Comme un vaillant soldat.

VI.

Du premier coup portant, (bis)

J'ai tue mon capitaine, (bis)

Mon capitaine est mort, Et moi, je vis-t-cncor, Mais dans quarante jours, Ca sera-t-a mon tour.

vn.

Celui qui me tuera, (bis)

a s'ra mon camarade ; (bis)

il me band'ra les yeux Avec un mouchoir bleu, Et me fera mourir, Sans me faire souffrir.

vm.

" Que Ton mette mon coeur (bis) Dans une serviette blanche, (bis) Qu'on le porte a. ma mi, Qui demeure au pays, En disant : c'est le cceur De votre serviteur.

" Soldats de mon pays, N'le dit' pas a ma mere, Mais dites-lui plutot, Que je suis-t-A Bordeaux, Prisonnier des Anglais, Qu'a n'me r'verra jamais."

(bis) (bis)

to

CORRESPONDENTS who send letters to be forwarded 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.

CORRIGENDUM. ' Statues arid Memorials,' ante, p. 168, col. 2, 1. 27, for " Dec." read Sept.

G. B. and Y. T. Forwarded.

MR. CECIL CLARKE. Many thanks. You are not a delinquent.