Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/307

 )th s. I. APRIL 9, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

299

fn of antiquarian information and suggestion, and a lood of light is cast upon the events which, among miny other things, "fixed anew dynasty on the tl rone of England." The appendices alone consti- ti te a source of antiquarian information. Specially us- eful to a large class of readers will be the table of noney values given in an appendix, as well as what is said in the text concerning the standard English cc in. Very stimulating is the chapter in the fourth volume headed " St. Cloud," describing the ravages and cruelties of the Armagnacs. So far as the light cast upon Shakspeare is concerned, Mr. Wylie admits concerning Prince Hal that he was some- times "a truant to chivalry, losing his princely privilege in barren pleasures and rude society. ' None, indeed, of the sons of Henry IV. could be called sober-blooded. The legends, however, " of his cut- pursing and rifling chapmen's males and other such thievish living on the common road, are late literary embellishment." That Mary de Bohun, when but twelve years of age, in spite of her separation from her husband, bore Henry IV. a son, who died

I shortly afterwards at Rochford, Mr. Wylie holds established, and he adds in a note that his daughter Blanche was married before she was eleven and

1 had a baby when she was twelve. That Henry IV. died a leper is a belief Mr. Wylie opposes, and the arguments appear potent. Of what Henry died is not very evident. The diverse opinions that have been expressed give rise to the last words of Mr. Wylie's

1 history, that apparently " it is as hard to diagnose a

. mediaeval disease as to make sense of a mediaeval battle."

Journal of the Ex-Libris Society.

THE April portion of this popular periodical, still

I flourishing under the editorship of Mr. W. H. K.

] Wright, contains several additional pages. In spite

\ of the increase of size, the continuation of ' Trophy

Plates ' has had to be held over. Miss Edith Carey's

' Guernsey Book-plates,' part iv., occupies the largest

share of the number, and deals with the Dobree

book - plates. Mr. Thairlwall's ' Book - plates of

i Eminent Lawyers' is continued, and gives the

I plates of Sir William Lee, Lord Cam den, William

Blackstone, and others. A fine plate of Buchanan

of that ilk is reproduced. The annual meeting and

exhibition have been fixed for June.

MR. YEATS'S 'Broken Gates of Death,' in the Fortnightly, casts a strange light upon Celtic forms of superstition concerning the intercourse between the dead and the living. A more curious chapter of folk-faiths has not often been written. The old only get a full release from this world in death; those who are still good for anything in the shape of work or play are carried off by the fairies (" the others "), and make efforts, not always unsuccessful, to renew their earthly experiences and resume their pristine employments. Children come back to their parents and wives to their husbands, not always willingly, because "their will is under enchant- ment. Not seldom a mother comes back to feed her child, which, under such circumstances, always thrives. It is impossible to convey an idea of the interest and value of what is said ; but all inter- ested in folk-lore are bound to look after the con- tribution. Mr. Stephen Gwynn writes on ' The Posthumous Works of Robert Louis Stevenson,' and holds that at the time of Stevenson's untoward death he was just coming to the fulness of his power. He was entering on a new path in the

matter of the relation of the sexes. His treatment, which had previously been timid, had gained courage. All this is shown in ' Weir of Hermiston,' for which the world, little interested in fragments, will not care, but which for artists " will remain a monument." Ouida contributes a short wail over the death of 'Felice Cavallotti,' the "one man dearest to the heart of Italy," whose death she can never cease to deplore. Mr. Henry James writes on ' The Story-teller at Large : Mr. Henry Harland,' whose 'Comedies and Errors' reflect as do few- other works " the feeling of the American for his famous Europe." In the Nineteenth Century Sir Henry Thompson demands 'Why "Vegetarian"?' and indicates under what conditions a diet of animal food is advantageous to human beings. His con- clusions command respect, though what he has to say on the sentimental aspects of the question is not very novel and not, perhaps, wholly convincing. M. Jules Jusserand deals with 'French Ignorance of English Literature in Tudor Times,' which we are prepared to find colossal, though not perhaps very much more colossal than English ignorance of French literature during a corresponding period. It is amusing to find Du Bartas, who was specially sent for by James VI. of Scotland, finding only three English writers whom he can count as pillars of English speech, the three being Thomas More and Baccon (sic), " tous deux grand chanceliers," and Le milor Cydne", qui, cygne doux-chantant, Va les flots orgueilleux de Tamise flatant,

under which description it is not easy to recognize Sir Philip Sidney. The French stage in the time of Shakspeare was influenced by the ancients, the Italians, and the Spanish, but not at all by the English, a matter, perhaps, not in itself very sur-

Sising. In his ' Places and Things of Interest and sauty' Sir Robert Hunter deals with the question of the preservation of ancient edifices, &c., and draws from the destruction of the Falls of Foyers sad conclusions as to the impotence of public opinion. Sir Robert points out how little is done by modern legislation for the maintenance and protection of ancient English monuments, when not even the Roman Wall in Northumberland or the Wall of Antoninus is under the protection of the Act of 1882. The Dean of Rochester, under the heading 'A Surrey Garden,' notices Mrs. C. W. Earle's ' Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden,' and supplies or repeats some useful hints as to the flowers to be grown in the various months of the year. ' El^onore Dolbreuse and Queen Victoria ' supplies an interesting chapter of genealogy. The Century opens with ' Her Last Letter,' a poem by Bret Harte, giving such strange would-be double rhymes as date means" and "hate scenes," "summon "and "someone," "Yolo" and "know Joe," "knew not" and "shoe not," "side walk" and ' ' wild talk. " Mrs. Elizabeth Robins Pennell de- scribes ' Over the Alps on a Bicycle,' without com- municating to us any unquenchable ardour for the trip. Mr. Joseph Pennell illustrates it with some pictures of Alpine scenery. ' The Fall of Maxi- milian,' by Sara V. Stevenson, is concluded, and gives a graphic account of that saddest of receui tragedies. ' An Artist among the Fellaheen ' is agreeably continued. ' The Superfluous Critic ' holds " that we shall not have a great literature

and art until we have labored a little more in

the field of the higher criticism." The exact con- verse might, perhaps, be just as easily maintained.