Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/127

 9th S. IV. Sept. 9, !99.] 219 NOTES AND QUERIES. a possible congener of stir. That puariine word boy, which in the German Kluge was held to be related to Dutch boef, is here taken to be a diminu- tive of an Old Eng. b6, a childish form of bro, or brother. But what evidence is there of this ? Is it anything more than a mere shot ? Handy is con- jecturally separated from hand, and brought into connexion with O.H.G. hantag, sharp. Certainly good-bye. is not short for " God be by you, but for the historically known formula " God be wi you. There are several other risky etymologies which give us pause; but enough has been said to show that the book, though generally trustworthy, must be used with caution by the beginner. Misprints have been let pass under the words fold, porcupine, and vouch. The August number of the Antiquary contains an instalment of ' England's Oldest Handicrafts, by Miss Isobel Stuart Robson. The subject of the present paper is 'Working in Precious Metals, and an interesting account is given of the plate and foldsmiths of a Tudor and Stuart period. Mr. [averfield's quarterly notes on Roman Britain are, as usual, extremely good, and we only wish they could be issued separately in yearly volumes. ' Notes of the Month1 are full of interest. By far the most interesting and instructive paper in the August number of the Genealogical Magazine is one upon that much-debated subject 'The De- ceased Wife's Sister,' as regards the recent altera- tion of the law in Man. There are some points in the article that we feel sure will be new even to those who have made a study of the subject. The rest of the contents of the magazine call for no comment. In the Journal of the Ex-Libru Society for Sep- tember we are told of the formation of a 'Book- Plate Exchange Club,' the membership of which is confined to twenty individuals, all of whom must belong to the Ex-Libris Society. A series of papers on ' Urn Book-Plates,' which are not very numerous, and belong principally to the close of the last cen- tury and the beginning of the present, is begun by Mr. W. H. K. Wright, the secretary. Mr. W. Bolton, F. B.S. L., writes on the' Homes and Humes, and reproduces many of their plates. The Journal is kept up with much spirit. In the Fortnightly Miss Alice Law supplies an account of a MS. commonplace book of trie seven- teenth century on which she has been fortunate enough to light. Few of its contents are new. Our author is, however, apparently unacquainted with ancient calligraphy. In some well-known verses, known as ' Punctuation: a Lesson, she sub- stitutes "Joy" for ivy in the third of the lines, which begin :— I saw a peacock, with a flaming Tail I saw a star, that [a blazing comet] drop[t] down hail. , T I saw a cloud, begirt with a Joy Round [with Ivy round] I saw a sturdy oak, creep upon ye ground. The last two lines of some fourteen are omitted. These, for the benefit of herself and others, we supply :— I saw the sun, at twelve o'clock at night I saw the man that saw this wondrous sight. Writing on 'Literary Courtships,' Mrs. Charles Towle deals with Scott, Coleridge and Southey, Thomas Day, Landor, Cowper, Sheridan, Miss Burney, Miss Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Thomas Carlyle, and Robert Browning. Swift and Pope, who have as much right as Cowper to be in the list, are omitted. Mr. Frederick S. Boas is still on the track of Thomas Kyd, and supplies some ingenious conjecture concerning his arrest. More than con- jecture it cannot be called. Mr. Charles Bastide has a good paper on the strange personality of M. Bruneticre. We should like, however, to know how Mr. Bastide justifies a compound word such as "bye-play." "Bye-law" is bad enough, and we bye "the side of." 'King Country' the Rev. Mr. Greswell seems disposed to make " follow roughly the shadowy outlines of the great Arthurian kingdom." Other articles are there of great interest, with which we are for- bidden to deal.—' Tho Father of Letters,' by Mr. Herbert Paul, which appears in the Nineteenth Century, is concerned with Cicero, whom, oblivious of Lucian, Mr. Paul regards as " the most modern of the ancients." Mr. Paul is an eager and a zealous advocate, and uses on behalf of his subject some strong language. We are thus told that a dark and an ineffaceable stain rests on the memory of Augustus, and that the real Mark Antony " was a drunken, illiterate boor, whose answer to the eloquence of Cicero was the hired assassin." On the other hand, Cicero had "one of the warmest hearts that ever beat in a human bosom," though he was vain and egotistical. " All his geese are swans." There is a temptation to go on quoting which we must resist. Mr. George Macaulay Trevelyan vindicates the right of Carlyle to rank as an historian. Who, he asks, is responsible for the statue to Oliver Cromwell before Westminster Hall? Not the man who "gave it to a nation needing it so much"; not "even Mr. Gardiner." No. " At the base, behind and out of sight, should be inscribed, ' Erected by Thomas Carlyle, 1845- 1899.'" Mr. Martin Morris's essay on ' The Philo- sophy of Poetry' is transcendental. A very curious and striking paper is that of Miss Elizabeth L. Banks, an inhabitant of a Western State, on ' The American Negro and his Place.' Place he has none in the North, according to this latest writer. It is edifying, moreover, to read what is said by the writer concerning the exercise of lynch law. Much curious information as to how to live cheaply in London is furnished in Mr. Sommerville's ' Rowton Houses—from a Resident.' Miss Cornelia Sorabji sends 'An Indian Plague Story,' giving vivid pictures of life in the East. Most of the other contents deal with matters outside our province, and most are excellent.—The Pall Mall has, as a frontispiece, an attractive photogravure of an ex- quisite 'Lady Hamilton,' by Romney. The Rev. A. H. Malan gives an account, illustrated from photographs, of Alnwick, the superb feudal castle of the Percies, which in its massive effects reminds us of Windsor. Among the illustrations is a repro- duction of Canaletto's ' View of the East Front of the Castle.' The famous ' Madonna del Garofano' is also reproduced. Mr. G. S. Layard gives an account of Hogarth's ' Suppressed Plates.' These include the various plates of ' Enthusiasm Vin- dicated,' with ' Credulity, Superstition, and Fana- ticism,' ' The Man of Taste,' &c, but do not comprise