Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/65

 12 S. VI. FEB., 1920.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

on Uoohs.

The Stone* and Story of Jesns Chapel. By Iris and !

Gerda Morgan. Illustrated by Iris, Blenda and

Coral Morgan. (Bowes and Bowes, Cambridge,

Crown 4to, xiv-378 pp., 21s. net.) THE gifted daughters of the late Dr. Morgan* Master of Jesus, whose memory is revered by more than one generation of Jesus men, have given us not merely an architectural record, as the title would suggest, but a living story of this unique Cambridge college that is worthy of a high place amongst University histories. The work so hand- somely carried out was printed in 1914 but the War delayed its publication till December 1919.

The style makes it more suitable for the general reader than for the archaeologist. The diction is plain and straightforward, though for the most part the tone of the marginal notes is sometimes more such as we expect in books written for young folk. Not only do the authors trace with admirable clearness the identity of the college buildings with those of the Benedictine nunnery of St. Radegnnd, which was founded in the 12th century and con- tinued with varying fortunes until the foundation of the college by Bishop Alcock in 1496, but they bring out the essential continuity of the social life lived within these walls through nearly eight cen- turies. That they are telling, as it were, the history of their own home, is evident from the vivid and human touches with which they describe the doings of the nuns, the gradual decay of their community, and the evolution of the college out of the small body of six fellows and a few school boys founded by the statesman Bishop of Ely. The troubles of the Society in the uncertain times of the Reform- ation and Cromwellian period make an eventful story. In the eighteenth century the college appears to have been distinguished rather by solid scholar- ship and piety than by brilliance, until the names of Coleridge, Malthus and E. D. Clarke appear on the record

For the student of ecclesiastical architecture there is much valuable material in the account of the de- velopment of the Chapel, commencing with its origin as the parochial and conventual Church of St. Radegund and tracing its reconstruction by Bishop Alcock, its beautifications and spoliations in Tudor and Puritan times, and its successive Classical and Gothic restorations in the last century. The story of the domestic buildings, first as the house of the nuns and then as part of the colleg, is also full of interest, culminating in the discovery of the well- known chapter-house entrance so recently as 1893-4. One appendix gives biographical notes of the Masters, a second a list of the gravestones and memorial tablets in the Chapel, and the volume is enriched by a number of excellent illustrations.

Gullivers Travel*, The Tale of a Tub, and The Battle of the Book*. By Jonathan Swift. (Humphrey Milford, '3s. 6rf. net).

WE welcome this addition to the ' Oxford Edition of Standard Authors,' a series of books which is both sound and decidedly cheap. 'Gulliver 'of late has gone up considerably in secondhand bookshops ; indeed, the latest edition we saw the other day has advanced sdme 250 per cent in price during the War. The reader who wants the book could hardly do better than secure this edition, as it contains

also other authentic efforts of Swift's genius. - His full text is not for children, for the strange, morbid side of Swift shows up in his fairy-like fan- tasies. But how much of his satire remains pun- gent to-day, particularly for the political world, the Big-Endians and their ruthless opponents, and the great officers of Lilliput who win their places by skill in rope dancing! The Treasurer could cut a caper on the tight ropo at. least an inch higher than anybody else, and Gulliver had seen him " do the summerset several times together upon a trencher fixed on the rope."

The irony of ' A Discourse on the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit' is still pretty shrewd, and, if we had a Swift living to-day, he could find abun- dant material for a '.Critical Essay upon the Art of Canting.'

The Oxford University Press may always be trusted to give a good text ; and the reproductions of the original titlepages and introductions are a* pleasant reminder of the age which admitted, as- Swift notes in the 'Tale of a Tub,' a "multiplicity of god-fathers." One of the t itlepages of ' Gulliver ' mentions " verses explanatory and commendatory." Could not some of Pope's ' Poems Suggested by Gulliver' have been added, the 'Ode 10 Quinbus Flestrin ' for instance, or ' The Lamentation of Glumdalclitch for the Loss of Grildrig'?

Penseex sur la science, la fjuerre et sur den svjets tres varies. Glances par Dr. Maurice Lecat. (Bruxelles, Lamartin ; Paris, A. Hermann et fils, 1919. Extract, fr. 1 50.)

WE have received an extract of this work, made up of sample pages and parts of the indexes of subjects and authors, quoted. The author says in his preface that this book is a part (about 11,000 we suppose) of the 123,500 quotations he has col- lected in h>s leisure during twenty years. As he gives no details of the sources beyond the authors' names, anyone rash enough to wish to verify the quotation* may sacrifice another twenty years in so doing. Science is the main subject. Dr. Lecat ' documente les savants proprements dits.' But his range is truly catholic, and he may well claim im- partiality. Leonardo da Vinci is near Zamakhs- chari, Cicero near Schilling, Voltaire near Tolstoi ; the ex-Kaiser goes with Spinoza, Heraclitus with Lichteuberger. But we do not understand the principle of translation. Menander is in Greek, but Plato in French, Machiavelli is translated, but Lope de Vega left in Portuguese. The author makes too many claims for his work, but a certain interest, especially to some sorts of minds, un- doubtedly attaches to it. Dr. Lecat is a mathe- matician, and must have chuckled when he noted down M. Vipsanius Agrippa's " Mathematics is not a fit study for those who fear God."

Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. v. nos. 3 and 4. Manchester University Press, 2. IN this very interesting and well-illustrated number Dr. Rendel Harris writes on ' Metrical Fragments in III. Maccabees ' and Dr. F. A. Bruton on ' The Story of Peterloo.' Dr. Mingana contributes ' Synopsis of Christian Doctrine in the Fourth Century according to Theodore of Mopsuestia ' a translation of a Syriac. text giving the " father of rationalism's " opinions. Mr. Robert Fawtier writes on the ' Jews in the " Use of York." ' Prof. Tout is admirable oh ' Mediaeval Forgers and Forgeries ' ; he discusses