Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/99

 12 S. VII. JULY 24, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 79 SPOONERISMS (12 S. vii. 6, 35, 52). One of the Spoonerisms in Sir Willoughby May cock's collection at the second re- ference " rambling up the scalps " was invented by Adrian Ross in some verses which he contributed to The Tatler in its early days. The occasion was the reported suppression of an Oxford Alpine Club, the object of which was to scale the dizzy heights of the colleges and houses under cover of night. If I remember rightly, the immediate cause of the sup- pression was said to be a rush excursion on the roof of Dr. Spooner. Thereupon Adrian Ross wrote a new ' Excelsior,' in which Dr. Spooner warned the aspiring youths not to "rouse my slaughters from their deep," &c. The only good Spoonerism which I have ever heard occur in actual conversation was : " The Oxford and boatbridge Cam- race," the a in Cam retaining its long sound as in Cambridge. G. H. WHITE. 23 Weighton Road, Anerley. There was something on this subject in The Grand Magazine for May 1906, p. 494. I may mention that I had the advantage when at Oxford of attending some excellent lectures by Dr. Spooner, and am bound to say I never heard any " spoonerism." GIFFORD H. JOHNSON. The Strand Magazine some time ago published an article on ' Spooneriana ' by A. T. Corke illustrated by G. Morrow. J. CASTELLO. Spanish and Portuguese Romances of Chivalry. By Henry Thomas. (Cambridge University Press, 1 5s. net.) DB. THOMAS'S interesting volume revives the old, pleasant puzzle of the why and wherefore of the vogue of romances of chivalry in the sixteenth century. At the time when 'Amadis of Gaul' enchanted the Peninsula the invention of printing had recently made the possession of a modest library about as widely attainable as, say, the possession of a motor-car among ourselves. The needs of learning and of devotion having been duly cared for what should writers and printers invent wherewith to amuse the nations 1, ? In the first instance so it would seem these inter- minable stories of battles, single combats, love and magic, which astonish the modern reader by their fantastic puerility, their unreality, their >verty of human interest above all by their lless, endless and unabashed, reiteration of the le few scenes. The sixteenth century was full of clever people, - and it is not surprising that much scorn was poured out upon these romances, quite apart from Don Quixote : and yet it is not to be con- cealed that some of the cleverest, and even of the best, minds of that time took a certain delight in them. A taste so widespread and so long- lasting must bear some special relation to a prevalent and constant demand oi the human* imagination. On the whole we should say that we have not, in the sixteenth century, a taste for romance and chivalry as such. We should say the pleasure these romances gave was produced ' by the combination of unreality with familiarity (the notion and appearance of knights, dragons, castles, dwarfs, etc., were familiar enough) ; by the ease and vividness with which the differenrb scenes could be visualized ; by the suggestions of violence ; and not by any means the least important factor by the repetition, with slight variation, of the same situation, the same im- pression. The minimum of memory and of constructive imagination was required of the reader. What his mind's eye saw was a succession of similar, brightly-toned, exhilarating scenes,. and he was, by them, in the original sense of the word, amused. He was caught in the current of a train of visual images, and by their movement isolated, with the least possible trouble to himself, from the real world about him. This is a state which is found pleasant enough, as occasional relaxation, to the best brains, especially in youth, and it is, of all others, the bliss of the half- educated. For generations, since romances have decayed, it has been but scantily supplied. Good stories have too much construction, require to be- held too steadily in the mind ; poor stories arer usually -too difficult to visualize, and also may be too closely reminiscent of real life, to produce that special form of enchantment. But our own generation has been favoured with a renewal, under yet easier conditions, of the long with- drawn 'spell. The revue, and, still more, the picture-palace, offer, direct to our bodily eyes, amusement essentially of the same order as the romances of the sixteenth century offered, and' the avidity with which it is seized testifies to the closeness with which it meets the nature and? quality of the demand. Palmerin of England and Amadis of Gaul must be spoken of with respect, however. We would: even strengthen somewhat the praise Dr. Thomas bestows upon them. The character of Amadis is distinct and sympathetic ; his relations with all the other knights of the world are skilfully laid down and maintained : the fighting, set before us by the simplest possible means, is bold and lively enough never entirely to lose and interest and to be often actually exciting. The- women are graceful and, as with Amadis. so with Oriana, their subordination to the central character is skilfully effected, Oriana being, however, a less successful personage than Mabilia and far less successful than Amadis. If there were space to do so several scenes, bits of dialogue or passing touches might be quoted for their measure of pleasantness and beauty. The authorship of Amadis that is to say, of the original, which Montalvo worked over is accepted by Dr. Thomas as probably belonging to Joham de Robeira, a Portuguese who flourished