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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. NOV. 22, 1902.

origin of the place-name Crooked Usage, I should like to tell him that in the April number of the London County Council Staff Gazette he will find a note calling attention to this thoroughfare. It is suggested that in the early agricultural days of Chelsea the street or passage now called Crooked Usage was the site of some allotments, and that the different plots were separated from each other by strips of unturned grass. These strips, tracks, or "usages" were generally quite straight, but the writer suggests that one might have been crooked, and was known by the name of " the crooked usage," a name that was ultimately given to a passage built on or near its site. AUGUSTA NASH.

60, Elm Park Gardens, Chelsea.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.

The Complete Works of John Oower. Edited from the Manuscripts by G. U. Macaulay, M.A. The Latin Works. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.) WITH the appearance of the fourth volume, con- taining the Latin poems, Mr. Macaulay's important task of supplying a critical edition of Gower is accomplished. We have drawn attention to the successive volumes as they have seen the light, and have now only to congratulate the editor upon the satisfactory accomplishment of a work which ranks with Prof. Skeat s edition of Chaucer, and is in all respects worthy of the reputation of the Clarendon Press, which, in respect of scholarly effort, stands now foremost, if not alone. Witn the concluding volume is given the life of Gower. Materials for this are far from abundant, and Mr. Macaulay's chief claim is to have disproved many assumptions of his predecessors. The assertion of Caxton that Gower was born in Wales is held to have been suggested by the name of the "land of Gower" in that principality. Little credit is assigned to the efforts to link the poet with the well- known family of Gowers of Stytenham, in York- shire, the arms of which family are quite different from those of the poet as seen on his monument. Most that has been said about Gower is, in fact, guesswork. " Definite and positive " evidence proves that he was of a Kentish family, his arms being identical with those of Sir Robert Gower, who had a tomb in Brabourne Churc^, Kent. Other evi- dence, both internal and external, is provided to support this connexion. The supposition that the poet was the same John Gower shown by a commission 40 Edward III. to have been engaged in some shady not to say infamous transactions may not be assumed. Gratifying as it would be to have further light upon Gower, it is not a matter of extreme importance. His monument in the church of St. Mary Overies is enough to establish that he was of social position, and his liberality to the monastery of the Marian canons is acknow- ledged.

The Latin poems, though not without value, are naturally of less interest than those in English and French. Principal among them is the 'Vox Cla- mantis,' the longest and the most ambitious. It

contains 10,265 lines, and is written in elegiac verse, " more or less after the manner of Ovid." In the first of the seven books into which it is divided an account is given of the peasant rising, by which the author was greatly impressed. Mr. Macaulay is disposed to accept this account, important as it is, as possibly an afterthought or an insertion. Like innumerable books of the time, the work takes the shape of a vision. What is very remarkable is the manner in which the author borrows, not only from Ovid, with whom he has great familiarity, but from mediaeval works such as Alexander Neckam's ' De Vita Monachorum,' from the ' Speculum Stultorum,' and from the ' Pantheon,' not only lines and couplets, but passages of ten or twenty lines being taken. Most of the lines for which he has obtained credit are plagiarisms. Gower writes in Latin with "great facility and tolerable correctness." In his Latin works, as in the English, he remains the " moral Gower." He is specially severe upon " Pre- latis illis qui carnalia appetentes ultra modum deli- cate vivunt" and upon the monks and clergy. Did not other things disprove the supposition, we might suppose him to have been influenced by the teachings of Wicliff. The knights with whom also he deals are urged to shun the weakening influences of love, and the citizen is warned of the mischief wrought by the tongue. We may not enter further upon this poem nor deal with the others. For the light which, in common with Gower's other works, they cast upon the condition of England in the days of Richard II. these writings will always have value. The bibliographical information supplied is inter- esting and ample. An index to the notes adds to their value. A glossary of words unclassical in form and usage is also supplied.

The Red-Paper Boole of Colchester. Transcribed and translated by W. Gurney Benham. (Col- chester, Essex County Standard, Office.) THE annals of no Eastern town are of greater interest than those of Colchester. As Swift said of Pomfret, " 'Tis in all our histories." They begin in the dream-world of mythology, and may be said to end as a Greek tragedy with the stern justice or murder call it which you will that followed after Fair- fax's memorable siege. Colchester is, moreover, fortunate in possessing a large series of records, many of which go back to early times. In former days they were much neglected, but the authorities of Colchester woke up earlier than those of many other places to the knowledge of the value of the treasures they possessed. In 1865 the Town Council employed a gentleman, in every way competent for the work, to arrange and report on their posses- sions, and since that time, we understand, no small sum has been spent in arranging their papers in proper order, ana taking the necessary steps to pre- serve them from further decay. This work has. we believe, been accomplished, and the members of the Corporation now propose to print in full or in a condensed form many of the interesting records of which they are the custodians.

' The Red-Paper Book ' has been the volume first taken in hand. It is a book containing miscellaneous entries varying much in importance, but every one of them well deserving publication. All the docu- ments are given in English, though some are in a condensed form. The more important are also printed in their original language. We have tested the translations wherever an opportunity has been afforded us, and it is but justice to add that we