Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/67

 9*S. II. JULY 16, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

sends us to the notes, where further details are supplied as to the career, university, published works, and preferments of the divine in question. The arrangement of these notes, we must say, does not seem to us an ideal one. With a pagination running from i to clxxix, they are printed on the recto side of the first 179 pages, which verso form the text. In this unusual position the notes are grouped under the letters of the alphabet, 300 entries under each letter, and ending with W, 264. Thus no fewer than 6,864 separate notices are given of the clergy registered. Though an alphabetical index at the end makes reference to them fairly easy, this seems an eccentric arrangement of what would naturally come at the close of the volume. These annotations, moreover, though laudably full and accurate, are not meted out in strict proportion to the comparative merits of their subiects. Thus the renowned Tom Fuller is dispatched in four lines, while on the previous page a much smaller man, Thomas Goocn, is allowed to monopolize sixteen. In some few instances (and no marvel) the information as to preferments is not quite up to date, as in note L, 297; and a lacuna for the dis- tance of Teddington from London is left unfilled (p. 425). Weever, of the ' Funerall Monuments,' is incorrectly cited as Weaver ; and p. 1Q4A is appa- rently intended to be a cancel of p. 104, of which it is all but a duplicate.

The Lives of the Saints. By the Rev. S. Baring- Gould, M.A. Vol. XV. (Nimmo.) THE penultimate volume of the revised edition oi Mr. Baring-Gould's ' Lives of the Saints ' concludes, in a sense, the work, ending with 31 December. There remains, however, the sixteenth volume, the index in which is necessary to the full utilization oi the book. The most picturesque life in the presenl volume, and that of most historical interest, is that of Thomas a Becket, commemorated or 29 December. The lives of St. William Longsworc and St. Ambrose are also of high interest. The story of St. Crispina is told almost in full, the author declaring that when so many of the Acts o Martyrs are forgeries, it is a pleasure to come unoi those which are undoubtedly genuine. The illus trations to the present volume include an engraving of the murder of Peter Martyr, said to be "pro bably " after the picture by Titian formerly in the chapel of SS. Giovanni e Paolo at Venice. We were fortunate enough to study that picture before its lamentable destruction, and have no hesitation in saying that the design is after it. Of two view of the translation of the Holy House to Loreto, the more curious is taken from the ' Atlas Marianus ' o Pere Kucher. The Vienna Missal supplies som half-dozen illustrations. From the Louvre is taken the picture of the Madonna enthroned, by Cima di Conegliano, which forms the frontispiece, and fron the Pinakothek, Munich, that of St. Barbara Guide's ' Massacre of the Innocents ' is engravec from the Museum in Bologna. Among the plate is also a very faithful presentation of the grotto a Lourdes.

Dante at Ravenna: a Study. By Catherine Mar

Phillimore. (Stock.)

DANTE, like our own Shakspeare, has so vast literature gathering round his name that it is almos impossible to say whether what we read from tim to time is new knowledge or whether it has bee communicated to the world before. We are in

.ined to believe that, so far as relates to the leasantly written book before us, the information ontained therein has none of it been given for the rst time ; but whether this be so or not, it has a ermanent value for all students of the Florentine rho have not a vast library at hand.* Sadly too .ttle is known of the outer life of Dante, especially n the latter years of his exile, and it is pleasant to ave so many of the facts gathered together, accom- >anied by a commentary which is always bright nd never sinks into tnat verbose commonplace vhich disfigures the writings of so many who under- ake to instruct us about poetry and poets. The uthpr understands the world in which her hero Nourished ; and by this we mean not only that she s familiar with the sort of men who were his con- emporaries, but that she possesses the faculty of eading the feelings and beliefs of the times, and loes not go blundering on like those unhappy per- ons who judge the men of the Middle Ages from he standpoint of our own narrow ideals. The fact, which has been a puzzle to so many, that Dante, although, or perhaps because, he was a loyal son of lie Church, had 110 hesitation in branding with the ire of his infinite detestation and scorn certain of the Popes with whom he was contemporary, ^resents no difficulties to her, because she realizes vhat were the ideas at the root of the long quarrel >etween the Church and the Empire. To see things now as an honest and patriotic Ghibelline saw them centuries ago is by no means easy ; but it is neces- sary for every one who would understand the inner meaning of mucli of the ' Divine Comedy.'

The paper on the ' Volgare Eloquio' is well worthy of attention. Dante y s theories as to dialects were in some ways in advance of those of the stupid people, yet to be found, who fancy that they are corruptions of the " polite" diction. It is striking to find him maintaining that Hebrew was the original language of mankind. We believe, how- ever, this was the current, though by no means the universal opinion little more than a century ago. The volume contains many very good verse-transla- tions, some of which, we think, are original.

Vigorian Monologues : a Series of Papers in Illus- tration of the Dialect of Worcestershire. By Rev. Hamilton Kingsford. (Worcester, Humphreys & Co.)

MR. KINGSFORD is a beneficed clergyman in Wor- cestershire who, it is evident, has devoted much time and thought to the composition of these dia- logues. They are excellent alike in matter and manner, though we are not sure that the spelling might not have been made more intelligible to such of his readers as are not students of dialect. To the latter class it will present no difficulties ; but they are at present but a feeble folk, and it is very much to be desired, both for social and literary reasons, that all those who dwell in the country should understand, and be able to speak on occa- sion, the language of their poorer neighbours. Glossaries we have in abundance ; but the dialect literature of most parts of the country is small in the extreme in fact, in many places it is non- existent. Few people seem to realize the undoubted fact that to many an English peasant the language of the educated classes presents as great difficulties as his dialect does to them. Mr. Kingsford knows this, and tells a good tale in illustration. He was once asked, at a time when a great political crisis seemed at hand, what was his opinion on the matter,