Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/606

 500 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.ix. DEC. 17,1021. out with all the minute accuracy which modern scholarship requires. There are two illustrations the portrait of Edward VI. from the initial letter of the Charter of Incorporation of Stratford- on-Avon, and the signatures and marks of the Bailiff, Aldermen, and Burgesses of that town to a document of September, 1567, wherein appears the mark of " Jhon shackspere." It was, indeed, to be expected that the Strat- ford-on-Avon documents should be given the first place in the productions of the new society. These begin with the Charter of Incorporation, dated 1553, and this first volume closes with the account of William Tyler and William Smith made by John Shakespeare in February, 1565/6. They include 13 views of Frankpledge ; the Kent Roll and the Court Roll, dated respectivelv January, 1560/1 and May, 1561 ; the Book of the Orders, in its first form and then revised ; various accounts and agreements, and sundry other docu- ments. The appearances of John Shakespeare, it need hardly be said, are worth careful attention. In these pages one may follow his rise into a position of some civic importance when still a compara- tively young man ; see him playing a manly part as acting Chamberlain in the days of the Plague ; catch a glimpse of his appearances in the courts, now plaintiff, now defendant, as a true, litigious Stratford man ; and trace out both the various occupations which he added to his trade of glover and whittawer and the growth of his family. The better one knows the records the more favourable appear the surroundings of William Shakespeare's boyhood. His home was humble, but at least it buzzed with a variety of affairs, and was ruled by a father who, in his degree, was a public man, that is, belonged to the governing section of this community. It is part of the distinctive poetic gift to see the great in the little, and read the little by the great ; and it may be that the manage- ment of the unruly town of Stratford-on-Avon, by men of like passions with their fellow-towns- men, gave Shakespeare his extraordinarily clear conception of the qualities, the besetting faults and weaknesses, the inward tragedies and outward vicissitudes of rulers. He feels with the man who has to lead and to keep order against the crowd. Was it not that which he saw his father and his father's friends about the proudest of their activities ? This, as a poet's childish initiation into a knowledge of kings, was better than a court would have been ; for here the boy would see the actual contact made between governors and governed, perceive directly the effect of character, and learn at close quarters what men will fight about and how. Those of our readers who enjoyed the articles so generously contributed to our columns at the end of last year and the beginning of this by Mr. Edgar I. Fripp will not need to be told that in his Introduction he paints the town and the inhabitants of Stratford for us to the life. His work is unsurpassed among work of its kind in the combination it presents of exact, minute and endless detail, breadth in the main lines of the arrangement, and delicacy in the touches by which the detail is set out and given its value. No student of Shakespeare ought to miss what he has to tell us ; and this Introduction embodies an important part of the results of his researches. The Oral Method of Teaching Languages. By Harold E. Palmer. (Cambridge, W. Heffer. 5s. net.) IN the oral teaching of language a good teacher is almost certain to find himself baulked if he does not follow methods invented by himself and adapted closely to the needs of the moment and the character of student or class. But even a good and fairly experienced teacher may profit by seeing his general course surveyed and the problems it presents solved by another mind, while the promising but as yet inexperienced teacher will receive stimulus and information as well. This little book should thus prove useful, for Mr. Palmer has systematized the oral teaching of language in a thoroughgoing way needlessly thoroughgoing we had almost said but for the existence of the indifferent teacher, who will here find his task laid out clearly before him and his difficulties met so far as it is possible to meet them. IT is fitting that the writer who contributed to our columns so many particulars of " Statues and Memorials " should have his own memorial recorded in ' N. & Q.' We are grateful to MB. ABDAGH for the fol- lowing particulars. He writes : The late J. T. Page (12 S. v. 112). It is in- teresting to record that a memorial window has been erected by his widow in Long Itchington Church to the memory of our valued correspon- dent. It is on the north side of the building, and consists of two panels, representing on the left St. John the Divine, and on the right St. Thomas. The inscription reads : " To the glory of God and in memory of John Thomas Page this window is dedicated by his wife, 1919." The window was designed by Mr. E. J. Prest and was carried out by Messrs. Hall and Sons. Under- ; neath is a white marble tablet on a red granite base with inscription : "To the glory of God and in loving memory of John T. Page, who died March 16, 1919. Erected by public sub- scription." The dedication took place on Nov. 2, 1919, the window and tablet being unveiled by Dr. Clague. J. ABDAGH. to Corregpontrente. 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