Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/331

 9th S. IV. Nov. 4, '99.] 389 NOTES AND QUERIES. With these may be compared the pictures of Jean de Caturce and Jean de Boyssone, Guillaume Bude and Jacques Bording. Our recommendations are, however, tardy and futile. There are few, if any, students of the French Renaissance at whose elbow or within whose immediate reach the volume is not. If any such are to be found, they can be those only to whom in its previous shape the work was inaccessible. Such a plea may no longer be put in, and the book must hold a place in every moderately representative historical collection. For a picture of the great printer, whose physiognomy is reproduced on the title-page, a man command- ing our admiration at many different points, we translate the declaration of Niceron : " Extreme in all things, loved extremely of some, hated to the point of fury by others, overwhelming some with praise, rending pitilessly the other, ever attacking, ever attacked, learned beyond his age, indefatigable in labour, proud, scornful, vindictive and restless," such was the man. Mr. Christie has set for the first time before us this product of a tierce, fearless, unscrupulous age, and representative of the time when the love of learning might almost rank as one of the primary passions of human nature. Le Livre de* Utile Nuit* et Une Nuit. Traduction Litterale et Complete du Texte Arabe. Par le Dr. J. C. Mardrus. Tome II. (Paris, La Heme Blanche.) In introducing to our readers the first complete French translation of the 'Arabian N ights' (see 9th S. iii. 498) we dwelt upon the merits of the rendering of Dr. Mardrus and upon its claims to recognition by English readers. The defence of the undertaking has not to be begun afresh, and our present agreeable duty is only to announce the appearance of a second volume in the same year that witnessed that of the first. The present instalment, extending from the twenty-fourth to the forty-fourth night, includes much that is not given by Lane and other English translators, though it is, of course, to be found in the renderings of Payue and Burton. From Lane, for instance, the stories of two out of the three eunuchs, therein simply called slaves, are omitted, and the nature of the remaining story is modified. Great liberties have been taken in England with the stories of the barber's brothers, the highly Rabe- laisian adventures of the third brother—Haddar with Dr. Mardrus, El-Heddar with Lane—being thoroughly bowdlerized. In his notes Lane explains his omissions, justifying them upon the ground of the licentiousness of the original. We will not say that the licentiousness is the cause of the appear- ance of the later English translations, though we hold it responsible for the high price at which the books are now sold. We will, moreover, in no spirit of aggressive prudery, recommend the English reader for amusement or pleasure to confine himself to known and valued translations, which are adequate to his requirements and in which there is no possibility of offence. Scholars want, however, the entire work, and such they cannot obtain in a more convenient shape or at so moderate an expense. Burton was the least possible of a stylist, and reading his translation, even in the case of the most humorous stories, is precious hard work. We essayed the task on the appearance of the first volume, but abandoned it after getting through fifty to a hundred pages. No other volume was opened, and we were not sorry to banish the book from our shelves, at what we confess to have been an excellent profit. In its present shape we have the whole in admirably perspicuous and elegant French, with the maximum of charm and the minimum of offence. We own to haying in the case of one or two stories leant back in our chair and "laughed consumedly"— laughed as we have scarcely laughed since we read Capt. Marryat. We repeat our caution, how- ever, that though the work from beginning to end is literature, and though the bulk of its contents might be read in schools, those to whom the idea of nudity is indecorous, and pictures of Oriental proceedings are intolerable, had better leave it unread. It is a book for scholars, and to such it is welcome. Fortunately for the world generally, the best collection of stories in the world—for such the 'Arabian Nights' is—is accessible in a dozen adequate and delightful renderings. Book-Prices Current. Vol. XIII. (Stock.) The thirteenth volume of ' Book-Prices Current,' which brings with it the gratifying announcement that an index to the first ten volumes will appear in the course of 1900, maintains the rate of progress noticeable in the previous volumes. Though but a few pages thicker than the volume for 1898, it contains much more information, and it notes a steady advance in the price of books, the average per auction lot having mounted from 11. 6s. 7tf in 1893 to 21. 19s. 5d. in 1899. This increase is con- tinuous, in spite of the fact that 1897 was strongly influenced by the sale of the great Ashburnham Library. From the fact that this season has witnessed no sale of special importance to raise the average, which yet stands higher than ever, it is to be inferred that desirable bookshave not yet attained their maximum. In behalf of this latest volume it is stated that it is the first which strictly coincides with the auction season, which begins in October of one year to end in July of the next. In the present, as in some others of the later volumes, we have, in addition to a table of the auction sales reported, a full index of subjects, which greatly facilitates reference. Successive improvements which we have advocated have been adopted, and we have no further suggestions to make. Having, since the appearance of the first volume, been in the habit of making constant reference, and having found so valuable the information supplied in the case of certain works by the editor, we experience now no difhculties, and are able to dispense with a great portion of a library of bibliographical reference. We read wi th special interest the observations of the editor as to the probable future of the books most in demand. The most startling advance of recent years has been in the books printed by William Morris. From the present volume we learn that for the Chaucer obtainable last year at 28/., 58/. has now to be paid. For the ' Story of the Glittering Plain, obtainable in 1891 for 57., 33/. has been paid! For the encouragement of possessors it may be said that the editor holds that within the next five years the prices of some works from the Kelmscott Press will be doubled, and that of all will be largely augmented. In the body of the book some per- plexing problems present themselves. That the works of Mr. Rudyard Kipling published in India fetch sometimes fantastic prices we know; while, however, many of them sell for sums ranging from 30s. to 67. 7s. 6U, and thence up to 100/., we find more than one work bringing no more than a couple of shillings. No. 6733 in the work chronicles the sale of the First Folio Shakespeare for the