Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/548

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 s. n. DEC. si,

admitted that Scott's heroes are almost invariably " prigs." None is, however, quite so aggravating as Nigel Olifaunt. On every possible occasion he offends one, and he remains to the end, in spite of all the efforts to redeem him, the most invertebrate creature in heroic fiction. So redolent of adventure is, however, the entire work that we forget the central figure. One would like, in the interest of Scott, to cut out the whole of the scenes in which Nigel is under the influence of Dalgarno, and we own to skipping portions of the volume. We know not where, meanwhile, to rival the description of London in the time of James I., and there are a score admirably depicted portraits. When Mar- garet Ramsay is accused of reading romances, play- books would surely be better ; and when we are told of Dame Ursula entering David's house by a pass-key, we wonder when such things came into use. As a watchmaker, David might, of course, have made one. We should be glad to know what is approximately the date of the appearance of pass-keys. Something of the kind might possibly be suggested in the first speech of Isabella in the first scene of the fourth act of 'Measure for Measure.' So far as Scott is concerned the matter is of no importance.

The More Excellent Way. By the Hon. Mrs.

Lyttelton Gell. (Frowde.)

MRS. LYTTELTON GKLL has set herself in this pretty little volume to controvert, by a "sequence of meditations," the base views on love which find utterance in the present day, especially in "the erotic imaginations and experiences" of some realistic writers. From various authors from ^Eschylus to Mr. Ruskin she draws passages fur- nishing a noble ideal of love, life, duty, and responsibility. The volume, which is. we gather, a companion to the popular ' Cloud of Witnesses ' of the same author, is high in aim, and constitutes a beautiful gift-book. We can only suggest, should further volumes of the kind be issued, more ample references. Names such as Fuller, Seneca, Long- fellow, Jeremy Taylor, John Wesley we quote at random do not aid us much in tracking a thought to its source. Typographically the work is exquisite.

Runic Rocks. By Wilhelm Jensen. Translated by

Marianne E. Suckling. (Stock.) A CHEAP edition of Miss Suckling's translation of Jensen's mystical and poetical picture of Frisian life is likely to introduce to a large public the works of a German writer who has, together with much narrative and descriptive power, a message to deliver, and is, in the phrase of Goethe, a voice, not an echo.

The Vicar of Wakejield. By Oliver Goldsmith.

(Frowde.)

WE have here another typographical marvel. In a pigmy shape, two inches square and perhaps a third of an inch thick, we have the entire ' Vicar of Wakefield ' in a type so clear and beautiful as to be distinctly legible by septuagenarian eyes. In its morocco "jacket," and with its gilt edges and other ornaments, it should form the basis of an elfin library.

Who's Who, 1899. Edited by Douglas Sladen.

(Black.)

VERY little time has been taken, under Mr. Sladen's competent editorship, in raising ' Who's Who ' into

an institution. Within its thousand and odd pages is supplied a mass of information that will enable the possessor to dispense with many customary books of reference. It thus all but serves for a peerage and an account of the titled classes ; it is practically a ' Men of the Time,' and much more, supplying those biographies of celebrated men which in ' Men of the Time ' are not seldom con- spicuous by their absence. It is a score things besides. To the present volume have been added 1,500 biographies, generally supplied by their sub- jects, and a very long search is requisite to discover a single omission. A variety of new features have been introduced, such as Queen's Counsel of Scot- land, American ladies bearing English titles, pecu- liarly pronounced names, principal Government officials, &c. In the list of peculiarly pronounced names we do not find Auchinleck, pronounced, we fancy, Affleck. Do not some Beaumonts, moreover, pronounce their name Beemont ?

DR. BRUSHFIELD has reprinted from the Trans- actions of the Devonshire Association the second part of his Raleghana. This valuable contribution to our knowledge of " one of the greatest of British heroes " was read as a paper at Honiton.

MR. HENRY MURRAY LANE, Chester Herald, promises for February the first of four volumes of 'The Royal Daughters of England,' showing the actual living representatives of the sixty princesses, beginning with the daughters of William the Con- queror, who have issue surviving. The work will be published by subscription in a limited edition. Application should be made to D. Lines & Co.. 31, Bedford Street, Strand.

MR. JAMES CLEOG points out that the name of the bookseller which we said was not in his ' Directory of Booksellers,' though absent from the body of the book, appears in the "Additions and Changes." Mr. Clegg also sends us a catalogue of interesting and valuable second-hand books.

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M. L. BRESLAR("Cut his lucky"). A query as to the origin of this was asked 8 th S. vi. 489, and remains unanswered.

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