Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/227

 g*s. xri. SEPT. 12, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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serves the saucy Sally and her associates to play a rather dangerous trick in frightening with it a Mr. Tilly, a young Virginian officer. Fortunately a complete amnesty is afforded, thanks to the youth and charms of the jokers, but the consequences might easily have been serious. This book must have a wonderful charm for an American public, and may be read with much pleasure by English- men, to whom the scenes and characters, and even the history, which is illustrated are less familiar.

The Three Days' Tournament : a Study in Romance

and Folk-lore. By Jessie L. Weston. (Nutt.) THIS latest addition to "The Grimm Library," in which attractive series it is No. XV., is, in fact, an appendix to No. XII. in the same series, author. If ever the earlier work reaches to the honour of a reprint this will be inserted in it as an added chapter. Its chief interest is in the further proof it affords of the value of Miss Weston's labours. With the tournament, in which Lancelot appears in suits of armour of three different colours and executes prodigies of valour, and with its analogues, or corresponding tales, we need not con- cern ourselves. We are most interested in the views of Miss Weston as to the extent to which any form of historic base is to be accepted. One point on which Miss Weston insists is that we have fallen into the error of dealing with Arthurian romance as if the literary form in which it first appeared synchronized with the beginning of the action. The Arthurian problem, moreover, in literary value and in intrinsic interest forms " the most important group in mediaeval literature," and although it does not, like the Charlemagne romances, reflect certain facts or periods of history, is worth scientific study on its own account. Miss Weston writes well as a rule. We wish, then, she would not fall into a slovenliness such as "To thoroughly understand." Does she not see that " Thoroughly to understand" is more vigorous as well as more accurate ?
 * The Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac ' of the same

The Vita Nuova, or New Life, of Dante Alighieri.

Translated from the Italian by Frances de Mey.

(Bell & Sons.)

WE have here a fairly effective translation of the ' Vita Nuova,' artistically and daintily got up, with rubricated capitals, an emblematical cover, and a lovely text. Dante Gabriel Rossetti's translation will always be a delight for scholars. The present rendering will, however, reach a different class, and will serve to popularize a work a knowledge of which is indispensable to the full comprehension of Dante's life and labours.

The Minor English Poems of John Milton. By

H. 0. Beeching. (Methuen & Co.) To the "Little Library" has been added a pretty reprint of Milton's ' Minor Poems,' accompanied by a portrait of the poet at the age of twenty-one by W. N. Gardiner. What is the source or authority for this we know not, but it gives an attractive likeness of Milton at the time when he was spoken of as the " lady of Christ's." Mr. Beeching's intro- duction is, necessarily, appreciative and delightful. We do not agree, however, with the limitations upon the praise of the 'Hymn on the Nativity.' We do not think that the "towers and battle- ments" of 'L' Allegro' are those of Windsor, and we protest with all our might against the declara- tion that 'Arcades' is "rot interesting." It is a

pity that the lines of poems such as * L' Allegro ' and 'II Penseroso,' ' Lycidas,' 'Comus,' &c., are not numbered, especially as Mr. Beeching some- times refers to the numbers of lines, and forces on the reader a process of computation. We would have the notes also a little more numerous. Why not, when mentioning who was the " starred Ethipp queen " of '11 Penseroso,' tell us who was "Prince Memnon's sister" in the same poem? It is not every one who knows.

A Short History of the Ancient Greek Sculptors. By

H. Edith Legge. (Fisher Unwin.) IN the absence of more ambitious treatises this well-written and fully illustrated little volume may convey to thousands of readers some knowledge of a subject which in this country has never received the attention it merits. It is a trustworthy and excellent work, a study of which may be com- mended to those about to visit the principal European galleries or to study the frieze of the Parthenon and the other treasures of the British Museum. It aspires also to be of service in schools, and is thoroughly fitted for such a purpose.

The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens. Edited

by F. G. Kitton. (Chapman Hall.) NEITHER very bulky nor very important is Dickens's poetical baggage. Dickens had, indeed, few gifts either dramatic or lyrical, and 'The Ivy Green' is perhaps the only poem of his that enjoys any appreciable popularity. By including 'The Village Coquettes,' produced by Braham at the St. James's in 1836, the Prologue to Westland Marston's ' Patri- cian's Daughter,' 1842, and some other not too accessible items, Mr. Kitton has made up a mode- rate-sized volume, which he has enriched with a few notes and an interesting frontispiece, and has dedicated to Miss Georgina Hogarth.

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. MESSRS. E. PARSONS & SONS catalogue a library of seventeenth-century literature in contemporary bindings and in choice condition, which includes some remarkable rarities. First comes, under America, Peter Martyr's ' De Novo Orbe,' trans- lated into English by R[ichard] Eden [who was cited before Gardiner for heresy], 1612, priced 85/. Another American rarity is John Josselyn's 'An Account of Two Voyages to New England,' 1674,

201. Bacon's 'Twoo Bookes of the Proficience

and Advancement of Learning,' 1605, said to be probably the best and finest copy in existence, is priced 150 guineas. Other early Bacons are quoted, including R. G.'s translation of ' The Naturall and Experimentall History of Winds,' 1653, priced 121. 12s. A 1647 Beaumont and Fletcher, slightly impaired, 25 guineas ; ' The Supplication of Doctour

taphia,' first edition, 51. 5s. ; Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy,' second edition, 121. 12-s., sixth edi- tion, 11. 71.; Carew's 'Poems,' 1640, 15/. 15s., 1642, 51. 51. ; Cartwright's ' Comedies,' 1651, 20 guineas ; ' Cavendish Negotiations of Thomas Woolsey ' 1641, 12/. 12s., ibid., 1667, 41. 4-?. ; Charro's (sic) ' Of Wisdom,' translated by Samson Lennard, 1651, 131. 13s., unmentioned in Lowndes (Lennard was Rouge-Rose Pursuivant); Major Clancei's ' Life and Death of the Greatest Cheat of this Age,' 1680;