Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/447

 XL MAY so, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Charles Clifford, descriptive of Dasent's second visit to Iceland. In this Dasent, who figures as Mr. Darwin, is thus described : " Of Herculean height and strength, with his long black beard descending to his waist, he resembled a Viking of old, and such, I conceive, he at times supposed himself to be." Again: "In dull fact he was an excellent citizen, a householder, paying rates and taxes, an affectionate husband, and the good father of a family ; but in the dream, the fancy ' the spirit, Master Shallow ' he was a Berseker, a .Norse pirate, ploughing the seas in his dragon- shaped barque, making his trusty falchion ring on the casques of his enemies, slaying, pillaging, burn- ing, ravishing, and thus gratifying a laudable taste for adventure." Of the pleasant party described one is still surviving, who appears under the pseudonym Ragner, Lord Lodbrog. In praise of the work now reprinted in what will be its definite shape it is superfluous to speak. The introductory portion constitutes the best popular account we possess of what may be called the diffusion of legend, and did more than any work of its epoch to establish the study of folk-lore on a solid basis. The translation from the 'Norske Folkeeventyr ' of Asbjornsen and Moe is one of the most enchant- ing collections of stories in existence. ' Popular Tales from the Norse ' is handsomely got up, and will be an ornament to any shelves. It has never been forgotten, but is likely to enjoy an aftermath of prosperity.

The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. Edited

by Temple Scott. Vol. VI. (Bell & Sons.) THE sixth volume of the critical edition of Swift's prose works is occupied with 'The Drapier's Letters,' the work that did more than all others to endear the Dean to the Irish people. None of Swift's works has exercised greater influence than this, and none is written in more masterly style. The controversy concerning Wood's copper coinage is forgotten except by students and politicians. It can, however, be read with unending delight in Swift's pages. In the long record of wrongs in- flicted upon Ireland the nefarious concession to Wood occupies a conspicuous place, and English- men, who blush as they read it, can only think it was part of those principles of government which prevailed and were afterwards to lose us our Ame- rican colonies. The volume is accompanied by a reproduction of a portrait ascribed to Francis Bindon and by a plate of specimens of the half- pence and farthings coined by Wood.

The Story of Cupid and Psyche. From the Latin of Apuleius. By Charles Stuttaford. Illustrated by Jessie Mothersole. (Nutt.) RARELY has the charming story of Cupid and Psyche been set before the public in more attractive guise The paper is a delight to contemplate or handle the printing, including the rubricated title-page, is a credit to the Ballantyne Press ; and the covering and other details of execution render the work a real objet de luxe. Against the rendering nothing is to be urged, and the tine illustrations of Miss Mothersole are of the latest school of modernity, There is, however, something of bitter in the cup The volume exhibits a carelessness, for which we know not whom to blame, which is eminently reprehensible in a work of this character. An instance or two of this must suffice. In the list of illustrations plate 4 is entitled 'Psych

.wakened by Cupid.' The proper title, as every eader of Apuleius knows, is 'Cupid awakened >y Psyche.' This title is, indeed, given at he foot of the illustration. Before the prose .ranslation is happily printed Keats's divine ' Ode o Psyche.' In glancing through this we were truck with some unfamiliar readings. That these are not supplied on some accepted or acceptable <ext we cannot say. It leaves us, however, aghast when we find in the third of the four following ines the word " ready," which we print in italics, entirely omitted a process destructive of sense as well as sound :

Their lips touch'd not, but had not bade adieu, As if disjoined by soft-handed slumber, And ready still past kisses to outnumber At tender eye-dawn of aurorean love. Ln the present case the third line runs

And still past kisses to outnumber, quite inconceivable line.

A publisher who issues so dainty a volume has a right to complain bitterly of those to whom such oversights are due. Since the above was written the error in the list of illustrations has been officially corrected.

The English Catalogue of Books for 1902. (Sampson

Low & Co.)

THIS most indispensable of works to the literary man has reached its sixty-sixth year of issue. We draw annually attention to its merits, as to which a habit of constant reference enables us abundantly to testify. It may be of small interest to our readers, but is, at any rate, a matter of much satisfaction to ourselves, that we have succeeded after much labour and at considerable cost, since some of the volumes are very dear and difficult of acquisition in making up what is virtually a com- plete set from the eighteenth century, when the work was issued by W. Kent, up to the present time.

Devon Notes and Queries. Edited by P. F. S.

Amery, John S. Amery, and J. Brooking Rowe.

Vol. II. Part VI. April, 1903. WE always welcome with pleasure our Devonshire namesake. This is a most instructive number, for as well as the usual amount of notes, questions, and replies, the second instalment of Morebath churchwardens' accounts is given, ex- tending from 1532 to 1535. The original accountant did his work carefully ; we need not say that every word of what he has left behind him is well worth giving to the public. The editor has abstained from annotations. This may be well if he intends to give a commentary at the end, but it is by no means so if that be not a part of his plan. To pre- serve this most curious record of early sixteenth- century religious and social life from all chance of destruction will, even taken alone, have been a most praiseworthy undertaking ; but it should be borne in mind that it is not given to all to be able to read without some help the language of the earlier Tudor time, especially when veiled in a form of spelling, excellent, indeed, of its kind, though one to which most twentieth-century readers are quite unaccustomed. For example, it was no un- common practice to spell words which now begin with with an initial W. Many examples occur in these pages. Thus, by no means every reader will know that wokis signifies oak-trees used as