Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/62

 56

NOTES AND QUERIES. [u s. v. FEB., 1919.

Lastly, nothing brings the eighteenth-century zest for Fielding's tragedy more vividly before us than the delightfully playful account in Fanny Burney's ' Diary ' of its private representation at Worcester in 1777. She herself impersonated Huncanuinca, while her little niece Anna Maria, of less than seven years, under her tuition, won all hearts by her rendering of Tom Thumb.

As Sir Walter Besant in his essay on Rabelais remarks, " Life is too serious to make good burlesque writing possible except within very narrow limits, and directly the puppets touch on human interests, they become themselves human"; and those who take up Fielding's ' Tragedy ' will enjoy much diversion, but, from the very nature of the subject, they must not look for the intense humanity and fidelity to nature characteristic of the works written by him when he had travelled two decades further towards the Shade.

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES.

MESSRS. MAGGS rightly entitle their Catalogue 374 'Rare and Beautiful Books and Manuscripts,' for it is full of literary and artistic treasures, such as the English version of Christine de Pisan's ' Book of Fayttes of Armes,' translated, printed, and bound by Caxton, 1489, in its original oak boards (650Z.) ; the illuminated manuscript on vellum of Wyclif's translation of the New Testa- ment, 232 leaves, with elaborate initials (3502.) ; or the original manuscript of Lucy Hutchinson's celebrated Life of her husband Col. Hutchinson, 477 closely written pages, containing a good deal of unpublished matter (150^.)- Shakespeare is represented by the Second Folio (225J.) and the rarer Third Folio (385Z.), and Spenser by the first edition of 'Colin Clouts Come Home Again,' 1595 (95Z.). Mr. Cobden Sanderson contributes two fine specimens of the workmanship of the Doves Press Keats's 'Poems and Sonnets' and Shelley's 'Poems' (85Z. each). There are also two presen- tation copies from Dickens, ' Pickwick ' (195Z.) and 'Martin Chuzzlewit' (1851.). Davies's 'Life of Garrick ' has been extended by Queen Charlotte to 4 folio volumes by the insertion of over 300 portraits and historical scenes (175Z.). Among some choice MSS. is a fifteenth-century collection of prayers, originally belonging to an unknown cardinal (525Z.).

HEER NIJHOFF sends from the Hague his Cata- logues 441 and 442. The former includes under Bibliographic Cockle's ' Bibliography of English Military Books up to 1642,' 1900 (10fl.), and Gordon Duff's ' Fifteenth-Century English Books,' Biblio- graphical Society, 1917 (30fl.) There is also a French translation (lfl.50), but published in 1846 at Berlin, of "The Diary of Lady Willoughby.' an additional testimony to the success achieved by Mrs. Hannah Mary Rathbone's semi - historical fiction (see 11 S. x. 241, 297).

The January issue contains two important entries : a manuscript of the ' Speculum Humane Salvationi s,' 97 leaves, with 190 coloured illustra- tions (1400fl.), and an elaborate history, in 13 vols., of the Dutch horse artillery (1200fl.). The section HeValdique includes a French manuscript armorial with 1,100 coats of arms (250n.) and a Dutch seventeenth - century armorial with 18 coats of English peers (36n.).

MESSRS. RIMELL & SON devote the first part of their Catalogue 248 to books on the fine arts and literature, and the second part to engravings. Among the former may be noted ' The Ingoldsby Legends,' with 42 duplicate proof impressions of the engravings, 1864, 151. 15s. ; Michel's ' La Reliure Francaise,' with 22 plates of bindings, 151. 15s. ; a set of first editions of Dickens's Christmas Books, 6 vols., with additional proofs of the illustrations, formerly the property of Swain, the wood engraver, 66Z. ; an extra- illustrated copy of ' The Vicar of Wakefield,' 1843, 201. ; a complete set of the 120 plates issued by the Society for photographing Relics of Old London, 10Z. ; a collection of 1,046 plates of the Saints, mounted in 4 portfolios, 10Z. 10s. ; and an extra-illustrated copy of Thomson's ' Seasons," 2 vols, 232 plates, 70Z. An item of a different kind is a manuscript collection of extracts from, Kent wills recorded at Canterbury, 1444-1730, 7 vols., 81.

to

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately, but we will forward advance proofs of answers received if a shilling is sent with the query ; nor can we advise correspondents as to the value of old books and other objects or as to the means of disposing of them.

BARRULK. See ante, p. 48.

MR. J. B. WAINEWRIGHT and DR. J. L. WHITE- HEAD. Forwarded.

J. B. W. ('An Adieu to the Turf '). Anti- cipated at 12 S. iv. 55.

J. B. McGovERN (F. F. Montresor). ' The Literary Year-Book ' and Dr. E. A. Baker's 'Guide to the Best Fiction ' both give Miss F. F, Mon- tresor.

E. S. B. (C. S. Calverley's Charade IV.). The answer is " drugget." SIR WUJLOUGHBY MAY- COCK supplied at 12 S. ii. 216 the answers to the complete set.

H. R. B. (Sir William Beechey). See the account in ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' which cites several works giving fuller information. See also the section ' Art Sales ' in ' The Year's Art ' (Hutchin- son & Co.).

T. HAYLER (Henry Fen wick, M.P. for Sunder- land). Boase's ' Modern English Biography/ vol. i. col. 1034, states that Fenwick died at Lansdowne House, Richmond, Surrey, on April 18, 1868.

J. R. H. (" Killed through drinking the Chelten- ham waters ") Mr. E. R. Suffling includes these lines in his ' Epitaphia ' (p. 299), placing them at Droitwich with the date 1701 ; but he adds r " Some doubt has been expressed as to whether this epitaph exists, and I am sorry to say I cannot vouch for it."

H. STONE (" Sad-iron "). The ' New Eng. Diet.' says : " From sad, a. or v. A smoothing iron, properly a solid flat-iron, in contradistinction to a ' box-iron.' " And under the adjective, in various physical senses, the Diet, has : "7. Of material objects. Solid, dense, compact ; mas- sive, heavy. O6."