Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/327

 9 th S, II, OCT. 15, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

319

at an end. One part more, announced as ready for issue when subscriptions are received, will be neces- sary to complete vol. viii., and, so far as we can see, a ninth volume, to consist largely of supplementary matter, indexes, &c., is still requisite. All that we can draw from the further prefatory matter now supplied is that the ballads, as such, are in the hands of the subscribers to the Society, and that what is yet to appear consists of matter indis- pensable to their full utilization and enjoyment. The opening and longer portion of part xxvi. con- tains additional notes to the completed eight volumes of 'The Roxburghe Ballads'; the second portion is entitled " Introduction to the Final Volume of the Double Series of the Roxburghe Ballads," and is arranged under twelve sectional divisions, apart from a poetical dedication to Her Majesty. Not very easily comprehensible to those who have not followed the entire series are the headings of these sectional divisions, which are as often picturesque as explanatory. "Mistakenly deemed lost" may be understood: but phrases such as " Love rules the Court, the Camp, the Grove," and " All Sorts and Conditions of Men," which are quotations, do not convey very plainly the purport of what follows. What, however, reconciles and repays the reader is the fact that the introductions and the notes are made up of ballads not previously printed, no one of which he would be contented to miss. Some of the ballads quoted by Mr. Ebs worth from what he quaintly calls " Trowbesh Tran- scripts " are of singular value and interest. One of these, ' The Courteous Shepherdess,' a companion to 'The Longing Shepherdess,' also given m the present volume, is transcribed from a unique ballad in the Manchester Free Library. ' A Noble Riddle Wisely Expounded ; or, the Maid's Answer to the Knight's Ihree Questions,' has a pretty burden, " Lay the bent to the bonny broom." Even quainter is that to a worse than doubtful West -Country version in ten stanzas, which opens thus : There were three sisters fair and bright,

Jennifer, Gentian, and Rosemaree ; And they three loved one valiant knight.

As the. dewjiien over (he mulberry tree. In a ballad which follows, and need not be further indicated, we seem to have a recollection of one of the old fabliaux. Another curious transcript by Mr. Ebsworth of a broadside, supposedly unique, entitled " Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice, their farewell to England, with the manner of their taking shipping at Dover, and of their departure, set forth in dialogue verse," though terribly muti- lated, has singular interest. It is a dialogue between the two brothers, in which both confess their mis- demeanours and the low esteem in which they are held in England, so that, as says the burden, which changes slightly with each verse,

Now we are forced to bid England adue. Among Rupert's avowed faults are stopping after Edgehill " to plunder their waggons " and losing Bristol, which is said to have been purchased by the enemy with good store of argan= argent. Most miscellaneous are, indeed, the subjects of the ballads which now see the light. Among the accompanying illustrations, all of them admirably reproduced by the editor, is a picture of the murder of Thomas Arden of Feversnam while engaged at the notable parti at backgammon. Another illustration is to ' England's Pride,' a portion of which was formerly given, and is followed in the present part by the

remaining four stanzas. Aversion of 'The Swine- aced Gentlewoman,' a note on which appears p. 801, s still current. We once more congratulate Mr. Ebsworth on his

accomplishment, and the Ballad Society on 'the progress that is being made. Once more, too, we irge the expediency of hastening up the subscrip- tions, that the best and most scholarly of ballad ditors may be in a position to finish his task. Should e be unable through any cause to finish his work, ihere are no other hands into which it can be

entrusted. Equal knowledge, capacity, and zeal

are not to be found elsewhere.

Book-Prices Current. Vol. XII. (Stock.) ALWAYS an event on which the book-lover is to be congratulated, the appearance of a new volume of 'Book-Prices Current' brings with it this year a change of arrangement which is likely to add to the attractiveness and utility of the series. Instead of appearing with the new year, the twelfth volume ia already in the hands of the public. The explanation of this is as follows. It has been hitherto the cus- tom to begin the year in December, and close it in the November of the following year. This plan haa been observed in all the volumes from one to eleven inclusive. The fact has now dawned upon Mr. J. H. Slater, the editor, and upon the publisher that an arrangement such as this is purely arbi- trary and not altogether to be commended. The natural basis for a work of the kind is the auction season, which, beginning in October, practically with the end of the legal Long Vacation, terminates at the end of July or the beginning of August. In the present volume, then, ana for the future the book- selling season will be treated as are the legal and theatrical seasons will begin with the autumnal reopening of the sale-rooms, and will close with the arrival of the summer holidays. Carrying out this new and salutary system, the twelfth volume appears three months earlier than its predecessors. Much may be urged in favour of this change, and nothing, so far as we can see, is to be said against it. For one single occasion a volume begins where the previous volume left off. Considering that in one sense the latest volume covers but nine months, as against twelve in that previously issued, it is with some surprise we see that it is the thickest and the most comprehensive of the series, contain- ing 778 pages as against 660 in vol. xi. This remark- able increase of dimensions must not be taken as marking any customary rate of progress. It is principally owing to the reports of two portions of the great Ashburnham sale which appear in its pages, and of the Lamb sale, so rich in Burnses that it has been found expedient to give the entire catalogue. The prices in this ranged from a couple of shillings to 5751. 5*. for the first, or Kilmarnock, edition of Burns's poems, a record and an heroic price. The libraries offered for sale were below the average in number, but are of exceptional import- ance, 33,763 lots bringing 92,857/. or an average of 21. 15s. a lot, as against 21. 13\ 9d. in the previous year. "There is no question," says Mr. Slater,

that the sales reported in the volume are the most important that have occupied the attention of the various auctioneers for at least ten years, while the prices realized have in some instances been phenomenal."

It speaks volumes for the conduct of ' Book-Prices Current' that while its success has naturally pro- voked at home and abroad many rival undertaldngs,