Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/187

 9 th S. II. AUG. 27, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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to fortify us in it. That Richard, when he had established himself on the throne, ruled with a fail- amount of regard for the country and was a good way from being the worst of English monarchs, is accepted. The same would probably have been true of Macbeth had he once felt himself established in security. What is of most interest in Richard is the manner in which he clomb to the throne, and not that in which he occupied it. It is probable that others were as actively concerned as he in some of the murders committed. The murder of the two princes is, however, the crime that startled the consciences of Englishmen and steeped Richard in a species of infamy shared only by John and "bloody" Mary. After a careful summing up of

authorities, Dr. Gairdner has "no doubt that

the dreadful deed was done," which necessarily implies that it was done with Richard's connivance, and therefore, necessarily again, at his bidding. Not one of his tools or agents dared have committed an action such as this except with the knowledge that its commission was consonant with the wishes of the monarch. On Dr. Gairdner's authority we say, then, cadit quivxtio. The question, What was the share of Richard in the murder of Hastings or Buckingham? is of importance as a matter of literary or historical interest, but concerns us no more than that of the domestic virtues of Charles I. concerns his claims as a monarch. That Richard was "not destitute of better qualities," that he was " a good general in time of war " and " liberal even to the ex- tent of imprudence," that he " seems really to have studied the country's welfare," and that " he passed good laws, endeavoured to put an end to extortion, declined the free gifts offered to him by several towns, and declared he would rather have the hearts of his subjects than their money" all this and much more we will accept. None the less, against all the doubts or special pleading of a Wal-

Sle, we hold that the Richard of Shakspeare and ore is the true Richard, and we will proclaim the monarch a man of exceptional baseness, even when judged by the standard of a Henry VIII., a Charles IX. of France, or a Ferdinand V. of Spain. The additions to the life of Perkin Warbeck have interest principally for the light they cast on the tortuous diplomacy of the times.

Michel de Montaigne: a Biographical Study. By

M. E. Lowndes. (Cambridge, University Press.)

THE scholarly book on Montaigne of Mr. Lowndes

is more important as a study of the writings thar

of the man. So candid in self-avowal is the grea

moralist, and so close attention has been paid to

his character and writings, that further discoverie

concerning him are scarcely to be expected. No

thing of importance is, indeed, to be added to wha

concerning nim can be extracted from the ponderou

history of De Thou, the ' Letters' of Etienne Pas

quier. and the ' Bibliotheque ' of La Croix du Main

and Du Verdier ; or what has been said about bin

by a series of writers from Bouhier to Villemain

Sainte - Beuve, Bigorie de Laschamps, Payen, anc

Bayle Saint-John. Opportunity, however, exister 1

to show what were his relations to the thinkers o

his day and of the days immediately succeeding

This Mr. Lowndes has seen, and his book is a

instructive comment on the Pyrrhonism of Mon

taigne, on the influence he exercised directly upo

Scarron and others, and the hostility he provoke

in Pascal and Malebranche. It has been well sai

that those who assisted at the movement of th

Reformation are more interesting to the student of literature and life than those by whom it was carried out ; that Erasmus and Rabelais are greater len, from some standpoints at least, than Luther nd Calvin. Though later in date by nearly half a entury than either of the men named,^and though rofessing himself a Catholic, Montaigne is of the ame brood. The Pyrrhonism of which we have poken prevented him from taking an active share i the strife between the Leaguer or the Guisard nd the Huguenot, and he practically confines him- jlf, in a period of intolerable cruelty and persecu- on, to preaching toleration and to the expression f antipathy to every form of dogmatism. His nfluence as Mayor of Bordeaux was all on the side f peace and mercy, and his chief if temporary func- ion at Court was to serve as intermediary between he King of Navarre and the Duke of Guise. The atter was so far well disposed toward him as to ecure his freedom when he had been imprisoned, lenry of Navarre was meanwhile his friend, and it times his guest. Very interesting are the pages n which Mr. Lowndes shows the influence on suc- eeding thought of Montaigne. He fails, however, o indicate to what extent Montaigne, and after him )escartes, animated the sect, if so it may be called, )f the " Libertins." The Bible of this sect, or, as it ivas called, the livre cabalistique, was the 'Essais' )f Montaigne. Lucilio Vanini who was eight years >ld at the time of Montaigne's death, and whose ,ragic and discreditable, if courageous death is one of the many blots on the seventeenth century was perhaps more directly the leader of the Ldbertuu ; but from Montaigne they derived avowedly their views. We have discovered but one error in Mr. Lowndes's book. At the opening of the tenth chapter he dates the treaty or con- 'erence of Fleix in 1550, which is exactly thirty years too soon. As the election of Montaigne to
 * he mayoralty of Bordeaux was the year following
 * he treaty, Montaigne would thus appear to have

oeen Mayor of Bordeaux when only eighteen years of age, instead of forty-eight. This slip is, of course, important. Its effect is diminished by the fact that those who read on cannot fail to correct it. Still, it must be amended in a future edition. For the rest, Mr. Lowndes's book is to be warmly commended to all who seek a knowledge of the great Renaissance moralist, of the influence he exercised on the thought of his day, and of the troublous times in the midst of which he dwelt.

Acts of the Privy Council of England. New Series, Vol. XVII. A.D. 1588 9. Edited by John Roche Dasent, C.B. (Stationery Office.) VERY diligently and no less successfully does Mr. Dasent continue his task of rendering accessible the Acts of the Privy Council. His latest volume yields in no respect of interest to its predecessor, though from one standpoint it is less pleasant read- ing. The entries concerning the dispersal of the Spanish Armada, frequent in the previous volumes, are replaced by others relative to what is known as the "Portugal Voyage," the results of which were far from fulfilling the anticipations of those who took part in it, and to the foolish, if heroic escapade of the Earl of Essex. These things are, of course, familiar enough to the student of history, but acquire fresh vivacity and life as we read the details now supplied; Mr. Dasent is at some pains to vindicate the expedition from the charge of failure that has frequently