Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/328

 320

NOTES AND QUERIES,

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

none of these has in any degree shared its popu- larity. The French skilful organizers as they are supposed to be have not succeeded in producing a work equally convenient in arrangement and handy for purposes of reference. We welcome with pleasure each succeeding volume, and watch with contentment and approval the expanding row. The (question of a general index to the twelve volumes is still under discussion. It is to be hoped that it will be answered ultimately in the affirmative.

The Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln. Translated from the French Carthusian Life, and edited, with large Additions, by Herbert Thurston, S. J. (Burns & Gates.)

ST. HUGH OF LINCOLN has been fortunate in his biographers. The 'Magna Vita, 5 written by his chaplain, is, we need not say, a contemporary life. It was edited by the late J. F. Dimock for the "Rolls Series of Chronicles," and is a most im- portant biography. Where we have power of testing it we find the author to have been strictly accurate. His affection for the subject of his memoir never seems to have led him into those foolish ex- aggerations which are so frequent among biographers or all periods. Some twenty years ago the late Archdeacon Perry gave us a modern biography ; it is, indeed, too modern in one respect, for the author sometimes failed to divest himself of the feelings naturally aroused by recent and present contro- versies, and thus it comes to pass that when we read his pages the mind is distracted from the contem- plation of St. Hugh and the persons with whom he was contemporary by considerations of relatively small importance, which have but the slightest con- nexion with the career of a mediaeval monk-bishop. Notwithstanding this drawback, the archdeacon's book is a good, sound piece of work, from which most persons have gained such information as they possess regarding the great Carthusian.

The anonymous French life which has been so excellently translated by Father Thurston reads as if it had been written in our own language, and the large additions he has made contribute much to its value for English people. To compare it with Archdeacon Perry's work would be futile. A Protestant and a Roman Catholic cannot be ex- pected to see a mediaeval saint from the same point of view ; but it is only simple justice to say that the two writers who belong to the same body as that of which St. Hugh was so illustrious a member have carefully avoided making their pages a means of controversy, or even of suggestion. Their object seems to have been limited to giving an accurate and clear portrait of one who was a great social and political force in the time almost immediately suc- ceeding the murder of Beckett. There are few omis- sions of importance, perhaps none, when we take into account the scantiness of the material, for we must remember that the contemporary life by the chap- lain, important as it is, disappoints us by not telling much that we crave to know. Things which were of every-day occurrence have been passed by without note or comment, while others which to us seem of less value have received more or less elaborate treatment. Did Hugh, we wonder, ever acquire the English of his day so as to speak it easily ? The upper classes may be credited with having known the northern French in forms more or less insular and dialectic, but it must have been as unintelli- gible to the Oxfordshire or Lincolnshire rustics then as it would be now. Yet, though the companion

of kings, much of his work, and probably that part of it which appealed most strongly to his loving and gentle nature, lay among the poor and the outcast. The miracles recorded in the life of St. Hugh aro neither so numerous nor so astounding as those we frequently encounter in medieval literature. The saint does not seem to have set a high value on such supposed portents, and this attitude of mind may have influenced his biographer. Things of this kind are, however, recorded incidentally, and of some of these Father Thurston furnishes expla- nations. The "sacred fire," as it was called, is a case in point. Cures of this horrible scourge were, it seems, wrought in the presence of the saint. Father Thurston has, we think, cleared up the mystery. The disease is almost unknown in Eng- land, but a case occurred, seemingly identical with what Hugh witnessed, in Suffolk in 1762. Bleeding bread was a frequent miracle in the Middle Ages. Of this we have a very good account, and, what is more to the purpose, a scientific explanation of the cause of what must have appeared in those days to have been a reversal of the laws of nature.

WE regret to record the death, on the 27th ult., of Col. J. B. Payen-Payne, an old contributor to our columns, who is known chiefly as the author of 'The Armorial of Jersey,' his native island, "a model for all genealogical works." He edited Haydn's ' Dictionary of Biography, 'and wrote mono- graphs on the Lempriere and Millais families, and a 'Gossiping Guide to Jersey.' He was the editor of the King of Arms during its too brief existence, and for some time (1884-5) of Colburn's United Service Magazine. Col. Payen-Payne was a prominent figure in Legitimist circles, and fought for Don Carlos in the war of 1874. He was one of the few English Knights of Francis I. and of the Eagle of Este : he was a Commander of the Lion and Sun, the Nichan - If tikar, and the Medjidie. His son, Mr. De V. Payen-Payne, remains a valu- able, if infrequent contributor.

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FRITZ. Scarcely.

CORRIGENDA. P. 263, col. 1, 1. 3 from bottom, insert a comma after " Augustinian " ; col. 2, 1. 33, for "Tibernia" read Tiberina.

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