Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/37

 9* S. IV. JULY 8, '99.] 21 NOTES AND QUERIES. LOKDON. SATVXDAY, JULY 8. 1899. CONTENTS.-No. 80. XOTES :—' The Burial of Sir John Moore,' 21—Bibliography John Seller, 23—Beaver and Python—' Down among th Dead Men'—Jewish Antiquities at Lincoln '—'The Giant of Patagonia,'24—"Right of onstand "—Spirits at Hamp ton Court—Skull Writing—Manrteville's 'Travels,' 25— Keats'fi ' Eve of St. Agnes '—"An old friend and a goo singer "—" Gazebo "—Mountain Ash—Names of Teas, 28. QUERIES :— Family Portrait Group —'Comical Pilgrim' Pilgrimage' — "Gy" — "Girst"—Stowe Picture Sale- Amen Court — Heraldic Survivals — Byron's Materna Grandfather—"Off" for "Of," 27—Sir T. Armstrong— General J. Armstrong— Scabious—Meaning of " Lurid — National Nicknames—Tonghes—Sevres China—" Mrs. Q. —Theobalds of Kent—Latin Couplet Wanted—L'Ordre di Devoir (France)—La Ciega de Manzanares, 28—Sheep ii tie Green Park-Ben Jonson's Works—'The Waverlej Album'—Peculiar Use of " British "—Arrest for Debt in Ireland. 29. REPLIES :—Loyal Addresses to Kichard Cromwell, 30— " London " and " Lonnon "—Sir ;Walter Scott—" Twilly Toes"—Bingham Armorial, 31 — "Bailey "—"Mead am Obarni "—Prior's Parentage, 33 —Ueputed Marriage o Cardinal Beaton—Poet's Immortality predicted by Him •elf—Gate: Sign of Inn—Bligb, 33-Dover : Smith s Folly —Prime Minister—Expulsions from Oxford—Death-rat at Dublin—Hexham and the Augustales, 34—Petworth and the Percies—Friar Nicholas of Lynn—Bunhill Field Burial-ground, 35—Swansea: its Derivation—Stone Ale- Peat, 37—"Per pro," 38. NOTES ON BOOKS:-Piper's 'Church Towers of Somer »et' —Wordsworth's Bradshaw's 'Statutes of Lincoln Cathedral' — Lang's Scott's ' Fair Maid of Perth ' an< •Anne of Geiersteln '—' Transactions of the Hampstead Antiquarian and Historical Society for 1898.' Notices to Correspondents. golt*. •THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE.' WHY should various anthologies persis- tently give different readings in the text of this standard requiem ? There ought surely to be one recognized form of such a poem from its first word to its last, just as there should be no divergence in a thousand pre- sentations of the National Anthem or the Psalms of David. All lovers of poetry should be able to repeat ' The Burial of Sir John Moore' from beginning to end, and to repeat it in exactly the same way. The unity and individuality of such an outstanding lyric ought to be definitely and absolutely recog- nized, and diversity of opinion as to its de- tails should be utterly impossible. Now, as Archdeacon Russell's little volume of Wolfe's collected writings is not a common possession, it follows that one's knowledge of the elegv will depend very largely upon the text-book employed in making its acquaintance, and it is curious to notice how freely editors use their own discretion in presenting the text. Thealternativereadings in the poem appear to begin with the second line of the first stanza. Editors are at variance as to whether the poet wrote "corse" and "ramparts" or corpse and "rampart." In Palgrave's Golden Treasury' andMr. March Phifiipps's Look of English Elegies' the line runs thus : As his corpse to the rampart we hurried. Miss Frances Martin, in ' The Poet's Hour' gives the variant "ramparts"; Mr. Humphry Ward in English Poets,' vol. iv., has " corse *: and Miss Woods, in 'A First Poetry Book5 reads corse" and "ramparts." Alaric A. i -Vein'1/8 Lau,rel and Lvre'' Published about 1830 (new ed. 1867), differs from all these editors in giving "While" as the initial word of the line, which according to him is as follows:— While his corse to the ramparts we hurried. There appears to be a pretty general agree- ment as to the text of the second stanza, although even here occasion lias been found for diversity of view and editorial preference, ine editors are not unanimous as to whether the nrst line should be broken with a comma after "darkly," and the second lino should be closed with a comma or a semi- colon Mr. Phillipps reads sod in the second line for sods"; and in the third line some have "moonbeam's," while others prefer moonbeams, as possessing the misty light that was aided by the lantern dimly burning Ihese may seem small and paltry matters, but their comparatively insignificant cha- racter gives the strongest ground for object- ing to their existence. In a standard elegy no point, however minute or apparently trivial, should prompt an editor's critical sagacity or depend for its form or colour upon his individual discretion. The reading of the second line in the third stanza appears to be u bone of contention among anthologists. According to Palgrave Miss Martin, and Mr. Humphry Ward the reading is Not in sheet nor in shroud we wound him • while Mr Phillipps and Miss Woods give Nor" as the first word of the line, in which particular they are supported by the earlier authority of Watts, who further reads bound instead of " wound," his text finally standing thus :— Nor in sheet nor in shroud we bound him. .n the matter of punctuation the editors are lere again at variance. Watts, Mr. Phillipps, and Miss Woods close the second line with a comma while the others mentioned — Pal- grave Miss Frances Martin, and Mr. Hum- vyi ™££.d~use a semicolon; and Miss Voods differs from all in placing a point of xclamation at the end of the stanza in the fourth stanza there is inevitable livergence of view as to the proper punctua-