Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/347

 9* s. xn. OCT. 24, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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doned the effort to use them, and have placed on the inaccessible shelves which are the trouble of every collector volumes that fall to pieces from their own weight. Shapely, compact, and strongly sewn and covered, the present works endure and form an orna- ment to the library in which they appear. Until they are disabled by constant use we shall never think of binding them. We speak thus as an assiduous collector, whose purchases are constantly influenced ' by the information herein supplied. We go so far, meanwhile, as to say that the man who studies closely consecutive volumes will become, almost in his own despite, an expert in practical bibliography. There is no need to recapitulate the lessons con- cerning the prices of books which have been sup- Elied in the reviews of previous volumes. These jssons are always strange, if not always edifying. We find, under the heading of 'Wilde, Oscar,' some startling facts. A small-paper copy of * Lady Windermere's Fan ' thus brings 4.L 2s. Qd., and a large-paper, Ql. 7s. 6d. A first edition of Rossetti's ' Poems ' 'is 2QL Black-letter Chaucers fetch from five to forty pounds, no early edition of ' The Can- terbury Tales ' being instanced. Milton's ' Poems,' 1645, just escapes three figures, being 99. ; the 1673, without portrait, is 11. 10s Herrick's ' Hesperides,' 1648, is 591., and Killigrew's 'Comedies and Tra- gedies,' 261. 10s. We are not dealing with Shake- speare Folios, or even with the ' Boctrinale ' of Alexander Gallus, price 320/., but with works that may well rest upon the shelves of any scholar or man of taste. It is, indeed, natural to turn before others to books in one's own possession. We may not, however, continue the process of dipping, but need only reassert that the book keeps up its high quality, and remains the intelligent collector's best friend.

The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. Edited by E. V. Lucas. Vol. III. Books for Children. (Methuen & Co.)

THE third volume of the collected works of the Lambs the fourth in order of appearance consists of the books for children, the whole of which are now for the first time included between two covers. In the decision as to which of the works ascribed to the Lambs belong to them Mr. Lucas employs, as is but fitting, his own judgment, with the result that while the 'Tales from Shakespeare,' 'The Adventures of Ulysses,' ' Mrs. Leicester's School,' 'The King and Queen of Hearts,' 'Poetry for Children,' and ' Prince Dorus ' are given in the body of the book, ' Beauty and the Beast ' is relegated to an appendix. Haying made no study of the evi- dence for and against the Lamb authorship of the disputed work, we are in no position to question, even if we were disposed so to do, the ascription. To us, however, it seems easier to believe that Lamb wrote 'Beauty and the Beast' than 'The King and Queen of Hearts,' good as is the evidence on which rests his claim to the latter. Rimes such as ladle and able, itching and kitchen, willing and sullen, all appearing within ten lines, are not easily accepted. On the other hand, the references to Shakespeare in ' Beauty and the Beast ' are such as few except Lamb would have made.

" Alas ! " said she, with heartfelt sighs, The daughter rushing to her eyes, seems directly inspired by the passage in 'King Lear,' how this mother swells up towards my heart !

an allusion on which few except Lamb would have ventured. In the present volume, which contains much that others besides children will be tempted to reread, the illustrations are specially numerous and of exceptional interest. Those to the 'Tales from Shakespeare' are from a copy of the first edition lent to the editor. 'Prince Dorus' and the ' Poetry for Children ' are taken from the facsimiles of the late Mr. Andrew W. Tuer, to which, on their first appearance, we alluded. Other illustrations are from the first editions, the engraved title-pages being, in some cases, reproduced in the notes. The notes themselves are less numerous than in the previous volumes, occupying fewer than thirty pages out of more than five hundred. They are of undiminished interest, and give a plea- sant account of Lamb's connexion with William Godwin. To the fund for Godwin's benefit started after his bankruptcy Lamb, who was always staunch to him, in spite of his dislike to Mrs. Godwin, contributed fifty pounds, a sum which, under the circumstances, may be considered princely. It is as regards Mary Lamb that the Godwin influence is principally felt. But for this, Mr. Lucas says, Mary Lamb might " have gone almost silent to the grave." The choice of the cuts to the ' Tales from Shakespeare ' seems to have been left to Mrs. Godwin, "the bad baby," and was far from satisfactory to Lamb, who, however, ascribes to Godwin himself the notion of putting "Nic" Bottom under a design. The cuts themselves deserve all Lamb has to say against thern."^ The plates in the rare separate edition of the plays are attributed to Blake. Full explanation is given of the influence exercised over Lamb in ' The Adven- tures of Ulysses ' by Chapman. In a letter to Cole- ridge, 23 October, 1802, Lamb says characteristically of Chapman, " What endless egression of phrases the dog commands." The frontispiece to the volume consists of Charles and Mary Lamb, from the paint- ing by F. S. Gary. In addition to the index appears a table of first lines of the poems.

Essays and Historiettes. By Walter Besant. (Chatto

& Windus.)

THESE essays of Sir Walter Besant, reprinted, we presume, form in the main an agreeable supplement to the same author's book on the French humourists, one of the most valuable, though scarcely one of the best known, of his works. They number ten in all, the first seven being wholly occupied with French subjects. They are dated between 1871 and 1879 the most important being those on ' King Ren6 o'f Anjou' and 'The Failure of the French Refor- mation.' Students of French history and letters will welcome them with delight, and give them an honoured place on their shelves. Time has not stood still since their appearance, and a little of the information they supply is out of date. The complaint, for instance, ,that no student of modern history has taken up Etienne Dolet is no longer justified, the late "Chancellor" Christie having given the world a biography which is one of the most masterly works overwritten by an Englishman concerning a Frenchman. In dealing with the effect on France of the horrible massacre of St. Bartho- lomew, Sir Walter says: "Massacres cannot crush a creed, so long as it has any vital power, unless, which is next to impossible, they are thorough and complete." To which we answer that the Inqui- sition killed the intellectual life of Spain, where the new light took its rise, and where alone no