Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/9

 2 nd S. N 1., JAN. 5. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 18(56.

OUK NEW VOLUME.

On commencing our Thirteenth Volume, we must be permitted a few words of self-gratulation on the progress which " NOTES & QUERIES" has made, and the position it has attained since November 3, 1849, when the first Number of it was submitted to the Reading World.

We have the less scruple in referring with pride to j our success, because, whatever merit may attach to the idea on which "N. & Q." is founded, that success is ! chiefly to be attributed to the kindly spirit in which our friends and correspondents have come forward to help this Journal and one another. And not the least gra- tifying result of the establishment of "N. & Q.," has been the interchange of which it has been the medium ; not only of friendly offices of books and of other literary assistance but even, in some cases, of more substantial benefits among parties whose first acquaint- ance has originated in oar columns. LORD MONSON'S very graceful allusion to this characteristic of " N. & Q." in the Number of, the 8th Dec. last, is but one of many such instances which have come to our knowledge.

This friendly spirit on the part of our correspondents, has greatly facilitated our editorial labours. But with all the care and tact that we can exercise, we know too well that we cannot at all times expect to please all readers. We are happy to acknowledge, however, that our endeavours to gratify their varied tastes have, on the whole, been very successful. We hope in future to be yet more so : especially if they will bear in mind the advice of the learned and witty Erasmus :

"A reader should sit down to a book, especially of the miscellaneous kind, as a well-behaved visitor does to a banquet. The master of the feast exerts himself to satisfy his guests; but if, after all his care and pains, something should appear on the table that does not suit this or that person's taste, they politely pass it over without notice, and commend other dishes, that they may not distress a kind host."

But we are occupying space for ourselves which we would rather <> occupied by our Correspondents. One remark, however, we must find room for. We have spoken of this as our Thirteenth Volume, as indeed it is ; but, in compliance with a wish urged upon us from many quarters, we have made it the first of a NEW SERIES : that they who may now wish to subscribe to " N. & Q.," may have the opportunity of doing so ; without, on the one hand, having an incomplete work, or, on the other, incurring the expence of purchasing the back volumes.* We may hope the Series now commenced in the same spirit, and, as it will be seen, in a great measure by the same friendly hands, will be received with the favour so kindly bestowed upon its predecessor. That it may de- serve such favour, we will spare no efforts. And so, Gentle Reader, we bid you heartily Farewell.

ifl in a forward state of preparation.
 * A very elaborate Index to the first Twelve Volumes

PROSE CHRONICLES OF ENGLAND CALLED THE BRUTE.

In the Introduction to the Ancient English Ro- mance of Havelok the Dane, printed in 1828, I endeavoured to clear up the somewhat confused history of this compilation ; but as the volume in question was intended only for the members of the Roxburghe Club, my remarks can have been read by few, except through the medium of the French translation published by M. Francisque Michel, in 1833. I may therefore be permitted, perhaps, to offer again to a wider circle of readers the result of my inquiries on the subject of this .Chronicle, corrected and enlarged by subsequent investigation.

With regard to the name, it is well known that, from the middle of the twelfth century, the title of Brut or Brutus was often given to the various French and Latin translations or abridgments made from the popular history of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and was derived from the name of the Trojan hero who first set foot on the land, since denominated from him Britain. Not only have we the metrical French Brut of Wace, but a prose Petit Bruit, said to have been abridged out of the Grand Bruit, by Rauf de Boun, in 1310 (MS. Harl. 902.), and in Latin we have a metrical version of Geoffrey, named Brutus (MS. Cott. Vesp. A. x.), dedicated to Hugh Pudsey, Bishop of Durham, 1153 1194; together with many prose chronicles so intitled (MSS. Cott. Vesp. E. x., Lambeth, 99., &c.), as also a Brutus Abbre- viatus (MS. Rawlinson, 150). Whether among the numerous Latin compilations preserved still in our manuscript libraries there exists one which can with certainty be affirmed to be the prototype of the subsequent French and English prose Chronicles, I am unable to say, but it is sufficient for my present purpose to assume that the original text was compiled in French, and doubtless at the commencement of the reign of Edward III., since all the copies of it, which are complete, unite in coming down to the year 1332. It is chiefly founded on Geoffrey of Monmouth, but borrows also from other sources ; and in the later portion, from the reign of Edward I., contains much ori- ginal and valuable matter. The copies of this French Chronicle are by no means so common as of the English version, but among the MSS. of the British Museum I have examined five, which will enable us to determine with sufficient accu- racy the character of the text. The earliest copy is that contained in the Cottonian MS. Domitian A. x., which must have been written shortly after the date (1332) at which it concludes. The in- troductory chapter has been cut out, but is pre- served in two later copies of the same text (Add. MS. 18,462. art. 2., and Harl. 200.), both written

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