Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/195

 12 s. vii. AUG. 21, i92o.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

159

THE PREFIX "RIGHT HONBLE." (12 S. vii. 30, 57). As an additional note to your correspondent's reply at the second reference, three Bishops London, Durham, and Winchester are entitled to this prefix in addition to the prefix Right Revd. e.g., The Rt. Hon. and Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop of Durham.

W. G. HARDING, M.R.S.L., F.R.Hist.S. Royal Societies Club, St. James's St., S.W.

RIBES SANGTJINEUM (12 S. vii. 49). I have consulted numerous* botanical works, but can find no mention of this berry being poisonous. Several of the authorities state that it is unpleasant and insipid in taste, and this, combined with the prevalent use of the shrub in parks and pleasure gardens, leads one to suppose that it is not harmful.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

rm

Richard Steele. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by G. A. Aitken. The Mermaid Series. (Fisher Unwin, 3s. Qd. net.)

STEELE'S comedy reads, we think, very well. It seems improbable that any of it will ever be acted again ; in so far as it survives it must be in the fashion of a book. Students of the eigh- teenth century will always prize it : but we should like to suggest that the general reader might find it acceptable, presented as it is here in an attractive, inexpensive volume, which for the first time, includes the whole of it. In fact, this seems to us just the book to slip into one's coat- pocket as companion for a holiday.

It is none the worse, from that point of view, for being permeated with excellent intentions. These, if they hamper the spontaneity of the comedy here and there, more than atone for that by keeping it good-natured and mellow, and affording the reader a sense of security from any fear of occasions for indignation, malice or disgust. The hand of the essayist touches the dialogue not unhappily. The longer speeches have the eigh- teenth century rotundity, plus Steele's own individual manner, and his choice of anecdote and the points to be made. The wit is good : the humour better. The stories and the characters not too ingenious ; not loo elaborately developed, verging often towards the farcical, but seldom actually reaching this make an amusing succession of pleasant scenes. These qualities, may, we think, continue to claim readers for their own sakes apart from the more distinctly literary interests of the plays as, for instance, Steele's relation to and borrowings from Latin and French Comedy.,or his place in English dramatic history, as a founder of the sentimental comedy.

Mr. Aitken gives an analysis and criticism of each play in his Introduction, and appends to the texts a few judicious Notes. Steele's life is also briefly related too briefly, we think, as regards its political aspect, which might possibly have been omitted altogether, but should have been

rendered intelligible if attempted at all. We may cite Steele's relation to Swift as one example of" what we mean. It is clear that the writer knows his subject so well, and can read so much between his own lines, that often he does not realise it,, when what he has actually set down is too frag- mentary to be serviceable.

The Year -Book of Modern Languages, 1920. Edited for the Council of the Modern Language Association, by Gilbert Waterhouse. (Cam- bridge University Press, 15s. net.) THIS is the first volume of a new venture to which we wish every success, for it should prove of no little utility. The Editor, in his Preface explains that contributors were asked to observe the follow- ing general principles. The ' Year Book ' to be a plain record of work done and progress made, original research being reserved for the Modern Language Review ; events and theories dealt with to be only such as had given rise to discussion and made some recognised contribution to a study ; and bibliographies to be carefully selected and restricted to works of real importance.

Upon these lines, then, we have ten sections summarizing the latest work done in French, Provencal, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Celtic literature with papers on the Civil Service Modern Languages and the progress of Phonetics- since 1914.

The most interesting single article is Professor Fitzmaurice-Kelly's ' Cervantes ' ; with it may be. mentioned Dr. 'Thomas's ' Sixteenth Century. Spanish Literature.' The French articles are almost entirely and severely bibliographical, but they bear witness to a surprising amount of work done in the French Language, Literature and History of the Middle Ages and the Fifteenth Century during the years 1914-1919.

The Trout are Rising in England and South Africa.

A Book for Slippered Ease. By B. Bennion.

(John Lane, 10s. 6d. )

THERE are books for people to take away, stuffed into their strapful of rugs, as mental provision for a holiday : and there are other books made for the delectation of people compelled to work while others play who must refresh themselves for odd half-hours with imagination. The book before us is of the latter order.

It belongs also to a class of book we mean bhis, though it sounds dubiously, as praise which

best read when one is tired and sleepy. It flows on and on, kindly, rambling, full of good sense, and mostly, though by no means entirely, about fishing, on which subject the writer extends to us from the very first page the solid support of bis evident competence. But every writer about fishing, weaves round his rod and his river pictures of scenery, character sketches and odd stories. So does Mr. Bennion, not, indeed, with any particular brilliance, in fact, in a rather pedestrianly unobtrusive style but in such a way as to conjure up in a lazy brain hosts of restful reminiscences.

His methods are journalistic and he is not wholly free from that inclination towards coaxing which journalism, preaching and the art of advertisement produce and foster harmlessly or harmfully as the case may be. Taken. >ne by one his stories seem a little flat, and