Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/407

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S. I. MAY 14, '98.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

399

i;sues his works in the only form in which they are 1 kely to reach those for whom they are specially c esigned. With a view to rendering intelligible t j his public his entire meaning he crowds his pages vith stage directions and other prefatory matter in eich abundance that we are reminded at times of t he extravagances of the Duchess of Newcastle, at others of the elaborate preparations of Balzac. ( 'hampion as he is of causes, Mr. Shaw's advocacy in not likely greatly to benefit them. His Mephis- tophelian manner of treatment extends to his own arguments. He boasts, in his cheerful, airy, im- pertinent way, of having normal vision, and seeing tilings exactly as they are. This may be; we will not dispute the point. Whatever he sees, however, he does not present things as they are, or seem to us, and his exhibitions of human proceedings are among the most fantastic ever made. Neither the subjects with which he deals nor the methods of treatment are such as we are accustomed to in these columns. Our purpose is not, accordingly, to deal with the plays, pleasant or unpleasant to use Mr. Shaw's own words which have come before us. We will, none the less, say thus much that those who care for the eminently unconventional theories discussed, or who can bear to be fleered just at the time when they become interested in the author's characters and modes of procedure, will find in these two volumes some of the most divert- ing products of the human intellect. Mr. Shaw has eminent gifts of invention, dialogue, and character painting. His knowledge of stage methods and possibilities is, apparently, not extensive, and his tendency to laugh at his public is irresistible. There are in his plays scenes of dramatic grip, the most poignant satire, and the most frolicsome ex- travagance that can be found in the modern drama.

The Art of Chess. By James Mason. (Cox.) A COUPLE of years ago (see 8 th S. vii. 180} we spoke in terms of eulogy of Mr. Mason's 'Principles of Chess, 5 a work which has had a warm welcome in the chess world, and is already established in authority. ' The Art of Chess ' of the same writer, which has now reached a second edition, is com- piled on similar lines, and is entitled to no less high recognition. It supplies from games recently played the most advanced information obtainable, can for the most part be studied without the board, and is so fascinating that we, who have occupation other than chess-playing, are compelled reluctantly to put it by. A sounder, more instructive, more scientific, and more trustworthy guide does not exist. It is not, moreover, especially as regards end-games, likely to be soon replaced. To the chess-player its merits are already known.

The Lives of the Saints. By the Rev. S. Baring- Gould, M.A. Vols. XI. and XII. (Nimmo.) OCTOBER is one of the months in the calendar best (provided with saints, which are so numerous as to occupy two volumes of Mr. Nimmo's beautiful edition. A good many of those whose lives Mr. Baring-Gould now supplies are presented in a rather uncertain light, and the cases are numerous in which the editor attributes little importance to the legends that have in course of time become attached to names. The illustrations in these latest volumes ire numerous and interesting. The life of St. Francis of Assisi has thus a design after Cahier, and ^productions of Giotto's ' Marriage of St. Francis

to Poverty' (from the Lower Church at Assisi) and of the same artist's ' St. Francis preaching to the Birds.' The life of St. Victor of Marseilles ia accompanied by an engraving of the fine and martial jicture of the saint by Giov. Antonio di Bazzi at Jiena. ' The Festival of the Holy Rosary,' from the Vienna Missal, constitutes the frontispiece. The Vienna Missal also supplies the design for the Festival of the Maternity of the Virgin Mary. Hans Vtemling's 'Reliquary of St. Ursula,' from the Chapel of St. John's Hospital at Bruges, furnishes, of course, a very striking illustration, as does the oicture of ' St. Luke painting the Virgin,' from the Jathedral at Prague. ' The Funeral of St. Edward the Confessor ' is from the Bayeux Tapestry. An- other very striking picture of St. Denys carrying

lis head, and supported by two angels, is from a

MS.

pearance of which has delayed, now nears completion.

miniature in a fourteenth-century MS. The work, the appearance of which has been accidentally

The Spectator. With Introduction and Notes by

George A. Aitken. (Nimmo.) THE sixth volume of Mr. Nimmo's handsome re- print of ' The Spectator ' has made its appearance. It has a portrait of Thomas Parnell and a capital vignette on the title-page of Kensington Palace. Mr. Aitken's notes remain brief, helpful, and adequate.

Journal of the Ex-Libris Society. (Black. ) MB. WRIGHT, the indefatigable secretary of the Ex-Libris Society and the editor of its Journal, announces in the May number the next general meeting for Thursday, 9 June, at 4.30, at the West- minster Palace Hotel. The exhibition of book- plates will be open on that and the following day. The number opens with a reproduction of the splendid armorial book-plate of William Hunt, dated 1715. Mr. Wright supplies a supplementary catalogue of 'Trophy Book-plates,' with further illustrations. Both the Society and its Journal maintain their popularity.

THE article in the Edinburgh Review on 'Peter the Great' a review of M. Waleszewski's well- known book is of exceptional merit. It is written by some one who knows Russia sufficiently well not to be led away by the common fault of judging the country by our Western standards. The great Tzar is treated with what seems to us remarkable fairness. This is in itself merit of a high order, for many of his acts were of a very repulsive character, such as could not be condoned even when committed by an Oriental despot. The paper on 'Babylonian Discoveries' deserves, and we do not doubt will receive, attention. Few except specialists realize how much our knowledge of the history of Babylonia and the adjacent lands has been widened during the last quarter of a century. Very much, however, yet remains to be done, alike by the excavator and the interpreter, ere we can picture, even in dim outline, the sequence of events in those great Oriental monarchies which have left so many historic treasures amid the dust of empire. There is one passage, and one only, to which we must take exception. The writer says, "It must not, however, be supposed that the Babylonians generally were able to read and write." Whether this assumption be true or false we do not know; but it is certainly a mistake to conclude they could not do so from the fact that each man owned a seal,