Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/52

 40 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vn. JULY 10, 1920 list of pieces which have disappeared from Win- chester, neither through fraudulent dealing, nor through the fury of iconoclasts but through mere failure on the part of the authorities to guard the glass effectively against the ravages of time and weather. Considerable portions of this lost glass are noted by Winston and other as in situ in the mid-nineteenth century, and a little even as late as 1884 It is a grateful thought that many of the acts of vandalism recorded in this and the like studies are now hardly possible ; and yet more grateful must it be to our author and his fellow-workers to reflect that the knowledge they have so labo- riously collected, and disseminated with such care and fulness, is one of the principal agencies in bringing about this improvement. English into French. Five thousand English Locutions rendered into Idiomatic French. By D. N. Samson. (Oxford, Humphrey Gilford, 12s. Gd. net). MR. S ALISON originally, and we think happily, called this book a Promptuary, a title which, though discarded, remains in the page-headings. This information is derived from a short, slightly melancholy and provocative, Introduction in which we are told that these five thousand locu- tions have been " extracted from the unfinished manuscript of a new and original English-French dictionary which has been in preparation by one man for nearly twenty years, amid trials and troubles of all kinds, without a word of encourage- ment, a smile of favour, or an act of assistance." Once more, it is clear, the world stands con- victed of injustice and that in its commonest and dreariest form, neglect ! But in spite of Mr. Samson's evident depression, we sincerely trust that there is still some chance of timely repara- tion. For this book is very good indeed, and should be of the greatest use to those numerous English men and women who speak and write French well enough to make.no grammatical mistakes, and to convey their general meaning, but fail to " get home " to their correspondents for want of knowing the living French of the national idiom. A full, well planned French-English and English- French dictionary of locutions or phrases would, for practical purposes, be worth incalculably more than the ordinary dictionary, and we are glad that Mr. Humphrey Milford is seeing to it that the valuable accumulations, of which this is a first instalment, should not be any longer unused. Exact and sensitive reading of a foreign language is the best preliminary to speaking and writing it well, and this considera- tion leads us to wish for the counterpart of this volume, the " French into English " as soon as may be. T ~ Ji These five thousand phrases|(are all of three (or more) English words ; and repetition has been preferred to cross-reference, so that each entry is complete in itself. The English phrase seems, in some cases, to have been dragged in in order to introduce the French. Thus " A guilty con- science needs no accuser " hardly strikes one as an English phrase in the same sense as qui s'excuse s' accuse is a French one ; and we have never heard " between hawk and^buzzard," which here introduces the not uncommon expression entre chien et loup; " between lights " would have been better. In fact, the inversion of this book suggests itself distinctly all through. Inevitably there are things one has looked for and not found, and things one has found which one could have spared ; inevitably, too, there are instances where the equivalence of the locutions might afford ground for friendly dispute. But on the whole, the selection seems to us excellent being both practical and entertaining. There are interspersed a few judicious notes on pronuncia- tion and grammar, and here and there illustra- tions from French literature, in which, naturally, Moliere and La Fontaine figure most frequently. We do not see why a mystery is made of the meaning of soulevement de cceur, which is the subject of a careful note % of warning. 5 to EDITORIAL communications should be aldre^sed to " The Editor of ' Note.s and Queries ' " Adver- tisements and Business Letters to ' The Pub- lishers J| at the Office. Printing House Square, London, E.C.4. ; corrected proofs to the AtheriEeum Press, 11 and 13 Bream's Buildings, E.C.4. ALL communications intended for insertion in our columns should hear the name and address of the sender not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee ot good faith. IT is requested that each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. WHEN answering a query, or referring to an article which has already appeared, correspondents are requested t'> y;ive within parentheses immediately after the exact heading the numbers of the series, volume, and page at which the con- tribution in question is to be found. FOR the convenience of t he printers, correspon- dents are requested to w rite only on one side of a sheet of paper. MR. M. L. E. BRESLAR. The expression " Abraham's bosom " occurs in the parable of Dives and Lazarus at Luke xvi. 22. CORRIGENDUM. Ante p. 8, col. 2, ' 1. 42, for " Bianthini " read Bianchini. SUBSCRIPTION RATE for Twelve Months, including Volume Indexes and Title- Pages, 1 10s. 4d., post free. BOOKS. -ALL OUT - OF - PRINT BOOKS supplied, no matter on what subject. Please (state wants. Purr-has (8.) Hakluytus Posthumous, 5 vols., folio, calf. 1625, 150 BAKER'S Great Bookshop. 14 16 John Bright Street, Birmingham ' rpHE AUTHOR'S HAIRLESS PAPER-PAD. The LBADSNHALL^PRBS^Ud.. furnishers and Printers ST. GEORGE'S ROAD, SOUTHWARK, S.E.I. Contains hairless paper, over which the pen slips with perfect freedom. Ninepenoe each. 8. per dozen, ruled or plain. Pocket site, 5s. per dozen, ruled or plain. 8TIUKPH AST is a clean white Pttste and not a messy liquid.