Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/379

 9"1 S. IV. Nov. 18, '99.] 429 NOTES AND QUERIES. of each recognized bearer of the name. Simply as furnishing a subject for further research, we will supply Mr. Butler with a personage of the name whose antecedents he may think worthy of inves- tigation. Among the marriage licences and allega- tions in tho Bishop of London's Office, under the date 15 November, 1588, is a licence for the marriage of "William Hughes, Esq., and Anne Keynsham, now of the City of London, widow of Stephen Keynsham, Gent., late of Tamesford, co. Beds, deceased." We have nothing to advance in favour of this William Hughes except that the dates fit with those Mr. Butler assigns to the production of the Sonnets, and that the marriage of W. H. might account for the cessation or disruption of intimacy which took place near the time fixed. As a means of completely mastering the Sonnets, Mr. Butler committed them all to memory, a task we ourselves once essayed, and abandoned on account of its difficulty. Not at all a bad plan is it, when dealing critically with poems of no excessive length, to get thorn by heart. Readers must, and will, judge for themselves how far the arrangement Mr. Butler adopts and carries out, and the inter- pretation he supplies, go to solve a mystery by which the world is still perplexed. Mr. Butler's book is easy and delightful reading, and we perused it for the first time " at a breath," and have returned to it more than once. As an aid to the reader, the Sonnets are printed at the close of the volume in two forms—first with a date and an explanatory heading by the author of the book, then in a reprint of Mr. Tyler's facsimile of the original edition, with, in brackets, the alterations of the number which Mr. Butler counsels. These things the reader must study for himself. No Shakespearian student will, indeed, need to be told so to do. We ourselves will only add that the Mr. W. H. is held to have been a " worthless fellow," probably a fool, and possibly, though not necessarily, an actor, and that he was pardoned by Shakespeare for a trick which it might be thought, even in those days, was unpardonable. The attention of the reader may be specially drawn to the parallel between the love of Achilles for Patroclus, as depicted by Homer, and that of Shakespeare for Mr. W. fl. While the former is "purely English, absolutely without taint or alloy of any kind, the love of the English poet for Mr. W. H. was, though only for a short time, more Greek than English." This Mr. Butler cannot explain. A more instructive parallel is perhaps furnished in the case of Michael Angelo. Echoes of Old Lancashire. By William E. A. Axon. (Andrews.) Mr. Axon, well known to our readers as a con- tributor to our columns, is no less familiar as one of the erudite and accomplished writers of whom Manchester is justly entitled to boast. His pre- sent volume seems intended as a companion to the " Bygone " series of Mr. Andrews. It deals with the records, picturesque, romantic, historical, and antiquarian, of the County Palatine of Lancaster. These epitomized, and very brightly told, con- stitute amusing and edifying reading. The opening chapter, headed "The Lancashire Plot," points out what comparatively few know, that many of the most distinguished Lancashire families ran, in 1694, the risk of being the victims of persecution such as, a few years earlier, befell the objects of the infamous attacks of Titus Gates. De Quincey's' Highwayman' presents the career of Higgins, a notorious thief and murderer, who for a time passed as a country squire and gentleman. We nave also a capital account of Thomas Lurting, a warlike Quaker, wnose good deeds are specially worthy of celebration, and a picture of the Peterloo massacres, with which, early in the century, all England rang. How com- promised Manchester was in the rising of 1715 is shown, and there is a good chapter on "Manchester Folk-lore." Under the heading " What was tho First Book printed in Manchester?" Mr. Axon deals with the secret press supposed to have been located at Lostock, the home of the Andertons. There was also a wandering printing press whence issued Marprelate tracts, oneof them,entitled 'More Work fortheCooper,' being seized upon in 1588 by the Earl of Derby. The full title of this tract should surely be'Hay any more Worke for the Cooper?' being a supposed continuation of the previous work, ' Hay any Worke for Cooper ?' Bishop Cooper is, of course, aimed at. The first book noted in Cotton's ' Typographical Gazetteer' as printed in Manchester is dated 1/32. Mr. Axon carries the date back to 1719, or, if this vagabond press be taken into account, to 1588 or earlier. The volume overflows with matter of interest. Ararlia ; or, the Gospel of the Witches. By Charles G. Leland. (Nutt.) Indefatigable in research, Mr. Leland collects from the mouths of Italian peasants all the infor- mation still surviving concerning witches and their rites. Much of this he incorporated in his previous writings, and much more—some of it, we are glad to think, on the point of appearance—has yet to see the light. It is difficut to over-estimate the interest of these survivals in Italy of pagan faith and rite, and it is eminently desirable that so much of them as possible should be preserved. They are on the verge of disappearance, and what is not now re- claimed will inevitably perish. On this point Mr. Leland insists. There are still, however, some few people in the Northern Romagna who know the Etruscan names of the twelve gods. Invocations to Bacchus, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, and the Lares may yet be heard, and there are women in the cities who mutter over the amulets they prepare spells known to the old Roman, and have lore which may be found in Cato or Theocritus. Aradia (Herodias), it may be said, is, according to the Vangelo of the witches, the daughter of Diana by her brother Lucifer, the god of the sun and of the moon, who for his pride was driven from Paradise. Aradia— not, Mr. Leland thinks, the Herodias of the New Testament, but an earlier replica of Lilith—is the chief patron of witches and the teacher of witch- craft. Deeply interesting is all that is said con- cerning her, and the book, which translates the poetic invocations, is a treasure house to the student of witchcraft and myth. The invocation to Diana on p. 79 reminds us of Ben Jonson's exquisite Queen and Huntress chaste and fair, which might well have been inspired by it. Mr. Leland will do well to quote this when another edition is called for of his very fascinating book. The Rci<m of George VI., 1900-1996. With Preface and Notes by C. Oman. (Rivingtons.) Justification for the reprint of an imaginary reign of George VI., first issued as a forecast in 1763, is found in the fact that we are reaching tho point at which the supposed action commences.