Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/222

 ISO NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vni.FEB.2o, 1021. His humour indeed is so ceaseless a play on personal experience that the individual and the man-of -letters can never be detached and, as among his contemporaries there were some KThomas Carlyle was one of them) who had no liking for the individual, so in these present days we may pay homage to his English and take no pleasure in his Essays. He said that it was Shakespeare's method to write " to make the <reader happy." He was animated by a like benevolent intention, but he added to it the satisfaction of a natural craving. Isolated by the tragic conditions of his life his demand for sym- pathy was expressed in the best of his essays for to those who love him the best are those that hold the most soliloquy. Dreams, ambitions, disappointments, and self-condemnation, memo- ries of childhood and fear of death, all the intimate revelation of himself that a man will snake to the one nearest to him was made by EHa to his unknown lovers. It is the Essays that admit to intimacy, and to his intimates the Miscellaneous Essays of Charles Lamb are indispensable. The first twelve in the present volume appeared before their writer borrowed the name of a com- panion and Elia became known in the literary world. The criticism (or eulogy) of Hogarth is the most celebrated, and that on the fitness of Shakespeare's tragedies for the stage is charac- terized by the quality of boldness which makes Charles Lamb so delightful a companion in a library. His own joy in reading is never more evident, and appreciation of that joy (which may Dimply participation) is the first essential to under- - standing of him as he lived and thought and wrote. Face to face with such a tragedy as breaks the barriers of established custom a man .will choose for sacrifice that which he values most. The event that blackened life for Lamb summoned him, as he thought, to relinquish what- ever stood for happiness. Under that stress he wrote to Coleridge he would have no more books. -The book- lover stands confessed in that decision. Considerable light on the detail of his wide reading and retentive memory is thrown by the Xotes to this volume and to its predecessors. They are worthy of study. French Furniture under Louis XVI. and the Empire. By Roger de Felice. Translated by F. M. Atkinson. (Heinemann, 4s. Qd. net.) THIS volume is the last of the series of " Little Illustrated Books on Old French Furniture." We recommend it to our readers' notice with great pleasure. The one criticism we would make is that the illustrations in themselves admirably chosen are hardly large enough and in several < xses not clear enough to give an adequate notion of details. A few drawings or photographs of detail would have been both acceptable and useful. It is amusing to reflect on philosophy as modi- Diving the shapes of tables, chairs and chests. From Louis XV. furniture, through that of Louis XVI. to the Empire, we follow not merely a change of fashion but a change of ideal. Furni- ture must be adapted to the new classical severity. The right angle and the straight line, formerly avoided, are now more than tolerated. The 'house, instead of presenting the pleasant assem- blage of delightful things which, on the bad days of a northern climate, can compose and exhilarate the mind as successfully as a garden may on fine ones, takes on the aspect suitable for countries where, in general, enjoyment is to be found out of doors, and the interior becomes the place for work, sleep and the storing of one's possessions. The historical side of the matter must also be emphasized. People occupied with the example of ancient heroes will make such furniture as those heroes might suitably use. You could not, as oxir author wittily contends imagine Leonidas " stark naked, his sword between his legs and on his head his great casque with its flowing horse- hair crest " looking anything but ridiculous seated on the flowered brocade of a Louis XV. bergere. M. Felice writes charmingly and the translator, on the whole, does him justice. Though only professing to give a short summary of his subject, and setting out such matters as belong to a text- book for beginners, M. Felice shows himself s< copious, displays learning of so enthusiastic a complexion, and possesses so good a knack of infusing life into his subject, that it is quite possible to read and remember these pages simply as a literary essay. A few of the illustrations chosen have his- torical interest ; we may mention the humble cane-seated chair, lyre-backed, and with a fluted fillet across the front below the seat, which was Marie Antoinette's seat in her cell at the Con- cierzerie. There are some good notes on the choice of furniture for modern houses conformable to tl Louis XVI. style of architecture and decoratior now prevalent. EDITORIAL communications should be addressed to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' "Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- lishers" at the Office, Printing House Square, London, E.C.4. ; corrected proofs to the Atheuasuni. I Press, 11 and 13 Bream's Buildings, E.C.4. ALL communications intended for insertion in our columns should bear the name and address oj the sender not necessarily for publication, but as j a guarantee of good faith. CORRIGENDA. " Weekly Miscellany " (not Western) (ante, pp. 11, 56, 132, 133, 134). W. S. B. H. writes : " I am very much obliged to the correspondents at the later references, especially to the last, who have enabled me to recognize, to my great regret and vexation, that an error was made in the heading of original query. For this lapsus calami I must apologise, and especially to 'those readers who have, after some troubl* <>f examination, recognized that no weekly publica- tion was issued bearing the title of The Western Miscellany." " Glass Painters of York : 1. The Chamber Family " (ante, p. 128) for " Durham Account Bolls ; ed. by Rev. Canon Fowler, Surtees Soc., vol. ii. p. 408," delete " vol. ii. " and read p. 2*B The volumes are paged continuously throughout. JOHN A. KNOWLES. MR. HENRY POWLE. A life of Henry Povl<-. the Speaker and Master of the Rolls will be found in the ' Dictionary of National Biography, followed by a long list of authorities.