Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/405

 ,

s,iiLMAY2o,m] NOTES AND QUERIES.

399

if jot final. That a full edition, with no excisions w latever, will see the light is scarcely probable. M jrcantile greed is, of course, ready to appeal to m >rbid curiosity, but the 'Diary' is in the pos- se ision of Magdalene College, which is not likely to le id itself to the exploitation of prurient curiosity. M ?. Wheatley has incurred some censure for what he has inserted and for what he has omitted. We dc not know what are the few passages that he has le t in the crypt of Pepys' s cipher. Paying heed to the way in which his task has been generally exe- cuted, we are prepared to put implicit faith in his juigment. He has, at any rate, provided the best edition of Pepys extant, a work fulfilling all requirements. We own our debt to him and to the publishers, who have given us the book in so hand- some a form, and we repeat our congratulations to scholars that they possess at last this most striking of human documents in the shape which, had he lived in these days, Pepys, it is to be believed, would have left it.

Spain, its Greatness and Decay, 1479-1788. By Martin A. S. Hume. (Cambridge, University Press.)

MAJOR MARTIN HUME has, as scholars are well aware, turned to eminently practical use his studies in the Spanish State Papers, and has cast a flood of light upon epochs in the history of Spain. He has now contributed to the "Cambridge Historical Series" of Dr. Prothero a useful and valuable summary of Spanish history from the birth of Philip II., on 21 May, 1527, to the death, on 14 Dec., 1788, 011 the eve of the French Revolution, of Charles III., " the only good, great, and patriotic king that Providence had vouchsafed to Spain in modern times." The preliminary portion of the volume in- cluding the rule of Ferdinand and Isabella, Philip I. and the Regency of Ferdinand, Charles I. (V.), and a chapter on Spain and Europe is given in the i guise of an introduction by Mr. Edward Armstrong. Neither the least interesting nor the least valuable portion of the work is this ; yet here alone we are disposed to join issue with pur author or authors. Too little is made of that influence of the Inqui- sition which left Spain, the home of the new learn- ing, torpid and dead when the trumpet challenge of the Reformation thrilled the pulses of most nations of Europe. One, indeed, is surprised to find a species of apology for the Inquisition, which is likened to the Hermandad, and is said to have re-established in the great towns " doctrinal order, which was threatened by the mixed character of the population." This is euphemism with a ven- eance ! We cannot but suspect Mr. Armstrong f some sympathy with the movement or some )articipation in the Judenhatze which is a sign of he day. Major Hume's history is exemplary. It egins a little too late, and it stops a little too soon, ^his is, however, due in part to the aim of the eries. The period comprised in the present book overs the rise and decadence of Spain and what is ailed "the commencement of a fallacious resusci- tation." Maps and a good index add to the utility )f an excellent and most serviceable volume.

The Evolution of the English House. By Sidney

Oldall Addy, M.A. (Sonnenschein & Co.) A.CCIDENT has delayed unduly the recognition offered this opening volume of the " Social England Series." Our acknowledgment of its merits will not the less warm on account of being tardy. Mr.

Addy's little book it is only little is "worth its weight in gold," and the series it begins cannot well be other than most valuable if the same standard is maintained. Mr. Addy is, of course, known in our columns, as elsewhere, as an acute philologist and an admirable antiquary. His new work is to be read with pleasure, and to be put on the shelves nearest to hand for constant reference. Few people who read it but will obtain new light upon many matters of extreme interest and curiosity. We cannot undertake to explain argument or method. With its numerous and excellent illustrations it shows the processes by which from the round hut, still in existence in Africa, and once common in Europe, which is the earliest form of dwelling fit to be called a house, we rise to the magnificent cathedrals which are the crowning triumph of our architecture. We can notice but a few points. The old English houses built a foot or more below the surface, into which you descend by one or two steps, are survivals from pit-dwellings of the neo- lithic age still to be found in England. Some reason- able foundation exists for the tales concerning under- ground passages from house to house. Such exist at Bologna, v ery interesting is what is said con- cerning the derivation of "nave" from navis, the Latin for a ship. A house in England was in the tenth century sometimes called a " hulk," and in old Norse poetry the house is called the "hearth ship." A light upon a passage in Shakspeare is cast, p. 32, by the curious information supplied on the word " bay." A query in ' N. & Q.,' editorially answered, of MR. BOUCHIER finds, p. 139, a full reply in the explanation of what "was known in Scotland as a ' trance,' and in England as a ' traunce,' ' tresawnce,' or ' tresaunte.' " Attention is drawn to the " almost total absence " in England " of any municipal build- ings during the whole period of the Middle, Ages." Of immediate interest to our readers is what is said about the English parish church being known as a basilica. What is said of the bower is also of great interest and significance. The volume is, indeed, in all respects to be warmly commended.

Dante : the Divina Commedia and Canzoniere. Translated by the late E. H. Plumptre, D.D., Dean of Wells. Vols. I. and II. (Isbister & Co.) A DOZEN years have elapsed since the appearance of the late Dean Plumptre s translation of the ' Divina Commedia' and the 'Canzoniere ' of Dante, and the work is now issued by Messrs. Isbister, the original publishers, in a cheap and an eminently attractive shape. It will be divided into five elegant and con- venient little volumes, prettily bound in elastic leather. Of these the first two have appeared, con- taining the 'Purgatorio' and the 'Inferno,' the former with a photogravure reproduction of Mr. Watts' s ' Paolo and Francesca,' the second with a presentation of Gustave Dora's mystical 'Tree.' Vol. iii. will, we are told, contain the ' Paradise,' vol. iv. the 'Canzoniere,' and vol. v. the studies which some still regard as the Dean's most im- portant contribution to Dante literature. The translation of the 'Divina Commedia' is into terza rima, the only form in which a translation of the 'Divine Comedy' should be acceptable. This is fairly fluent, though it might perhaps with advant- age be made more so. To take the very opening lines :

When our life's course with me had halfway sped, 1 found myself in gloomy forest dell.