Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/145

 9 th S. I. FEB. 12, 98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

137

Orescent Moon. 3. He leaves the house in rags and is mocked by the harlots. 4. He is making a bargain with the owner of the swine. 5. He is eating husks with the swine. 6. He returns home penitent. 7. The feast of reconciliation. 8. The elder brother returns from the field and is met outside the house by his father.

I have another of these most charming of all books, printed by Kerver, 1505, which contains four of the scenes (Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5); and one by Hardouyn, which also has four scenes (Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5). No. 4 is not only printed from two blocks of different design, but each of them is repeated. All the different volumes agree in representing the sign of the Crescent Moon as the scene of the prodigal's revelry.

These little pictures, If in. in height by fin. in breadth, are full of quaint grace and natural expression, and are marvellously finished. They are cut in metal, probably brass or copper.

Seeing that this is one of the most beauti- ful narratives in the world, it is not surprising that pictures from it have been popular with all classes. Some of those intended for the " people " are very grotesque. The most beautiful and touching of all is Albert Diirer's copper of the prodigal son praying, kneeling among the swine: a most sorrowful, pity-compelling face, said to have been in- tended by the artist for a portrait of himself.

I have also the Wierx New Testament illustrations on copper, which comprise four of the prodigal son, the same scenes as Nos. 1, 2, 4, 6, in Pigouchet's set. These are fine works of art, full of quaint and interesting detail, to adequately describe which would fill a page of ' N. & Q.' I will only point out that in No. 2 a fool with cap and bells has laid down his bauble, while he holds both hands extended from the tip of his nose, "taking a sight" at the foolish prodigal, and the harlot beats him with her slippers as he is thrust down the steps by two young men. This is the only old representation known to me of " taking a sight," so much practised by vulgar boys three score years ago. li. R.

Aset of plates such as ME. PEACOCK mentions was in my father's house, Rutland, Vermont, even before 1823, when Irving's account of them was published. They were coloured, showing the prodigal in red coat and leather breeches. To the best of my memory their size was 8 in. by 12 in. JAMES D. BUTLEE.

This subject reminds me of a story of a clergyman who, preaching on this parable, said that the father was so delighted at the return of his son " that he killed the fatted

calf, which had been in the stable for years, and years, and years." CELEE ET AUDAX.

WILL OF EDMUND AKEEODE (9 th S. i. 105). The "charming relic" of 1557 mentioned by ME. JOHN HEBB is evidently not the original will of the parson of Tewing, which is doubtless yet contained among the national records in one of the probate registries. The item offered is but an official copy of the will with probate attached the actual docu- ment delivered to the executor, which alone gives the authority or power to act. It is entirely a private deed, and as such can be freely offered or sold for what it is worth. I have a large number in my possession mostly, however, pertaining to my own family. I may add that the Master of the Rolls is not the lawful custodian of wills or of other instruments mentioned. The latter, with other papers connected with the estate of the deceased, are very frequently (and often most unfortunately) deposited or allowed to remain in a lawyer's possession after the executorship is closed, and after many years, or sometimes through death, are turned out and either sold or destroyed as waste. Only last year I heard of a typical case, where a whole room- ful of papers were so treated in one of our London Inns of Court ; and the only relic that has found rescue is a most interesting volume of antiquarian and topographical MSS. and drawings by a well-known collector. WALTEE CEOUCH.

POPULAE NICKNAMES FOE COLONIES (9 th S. i. 109). Rhodesia is not a name for a colony, and not a nickname. Westralia is little used except in adjectival form. West Australians call their colony "W. A."; but they some- times say " our Westralian gold-fields," " our Westralian hard- wood forests." D.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. The RubcCiyat of Omar Kha^/dm. Translated by

Edward Heron- Allen. (Nichols.) THIS handsome and erudite volume is the latest and, as yet, the most conspicuous outcome of the Omar Khayyam cult or craze. Consisting as it does of a facsimile of the manuscript in the Bodleian, with a transcript into modern Persian characters, its most direct appeal is made to the Orientalist. A new translation is, however, furnished, together with introduction, notes, and a bibliography, and by means of these it approaches the lovers of the poet in his English dress, with whom, and not with Persian scholars, we have to class ourselves. On the merits of the Bodleian MS. we will not presume to speak. It is the oldest MS. available to the student, is dated A.H. 865 (equivalent to A.D. 1460 of our chronology), is written, according to the cata- logue, in Nasta'lik=small and cursive (or, in Mr,