Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/501

 9tbS.Iv.DEc.23,'99.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 529 t)OUBLE-NAME SIGNATURES FOR PEERS (9th S. iv. 399, 487).—There is a query at the last reference regarding the signature of Lord Auckland, Bishop of Bath and Wells. I have had the opportunity of examining his signa- ture, and it runs " Auckland Bath and Wells." J. R. FitzGerald. gttfswllaiuxma. NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. The Dryde.ii Anthology, 1675-1700. Edited by Prof. Edward Arber, F.S.A. (Frowde.) The Pope Anthology, 1701-17U. (Same editor and publisher.) Two volumes have been added to this admirable series of British anthologies, in commendation of which we have already spoken. Half the task set himself by Prof. Arber is now accomplished, the volumes which have appeared being consecutive and covering the period between 1592 and 1744. The opening and closing volumes—the Dunbar, Surrey, and Wyatt and Spenser anthologies (1401-1591), and the Goldsmith and Cowper anthologies, 1745-1800 —have yet to appear. Besides being admirably selected and edited, th.e volumes are delightful in size and in type, and can be read with ease and comfort. At the close of the volume, under the heading 'First Lines,' Prof. Arber gives some few short notes, principally indicating the source whence the verses are taken. Wherever it is possible the Professor goes back to the earliest form of a lyric which is extant. This is in the main a good plan, if not invariably the best. In quoting, for in- stance, ' The King's Epitaph' of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, Tie gives the form- Here lies a great and mighty King; Whose promise none relied on ! He never said a foolish thing; Nor ever did a wise one! This is open to the objection that the rime is lost. We are aware that in 'The Works of Rochester, Roscommon, &c.,' 1739, the same rime, or omission of rime, occurs: we see the difficulty, in an epitaph, of speaking in the present tense of a man supposedly dead, and we have no authoritative version at hand, though we have consulted the ' State Poems' and other likely sources. We seem to recall, however, a very characteristic version, beginning- Here lies our mutton-loving king, Whose word no man relies on. For "mutton-loving," in the sense in which it is used, see 'Mutton' in Wright and Halliwell's ' Dictionary.' It is likely that many of Rochester's satires on the king were published in emasculated or bowdlerized versions. In 'The Dryden Antho- logy' appear Mrs. Behn's beautiful lyric " Love in fantastic triumph sate" and other agreeable pro- ducts of her indecorous muse, some of the best poems of Marvell and Prior, Oldham, Durfey, Ethe- rcge, Anne Killigrew, &c. Pope, in 'The Pope Anthology,' is represented by the whole of his ' Rai» of tho Lock' and many other poems; Swift by ' Mary the Cookmaid's Letter,' &c.; (Jay by 'Molly Mog.' Garrick's verses—though some of them to Peg Woffington were probably written by this time—will, it is to be supposed, come in the next series. Allan Ramsay supplies several poems, and Ned Ward one. It is impossible to convey an idea how diversified are the contents. The Ship: her Story. By W. Clark Russell. (Chatto & Windus.) In his latest book Mr. Clark Russell meets us on unfamiliar ground. No living writer has done more than he to familiarize us with adventures by sea. We noticed the other day an application for the fifty best books to be read during convalescence. If our own experience may be trusted, Mr. Clark Russell's sea novels will supply half that number. Theyarejust the works to be turned to in the luxurious hours when health re-enters through the pores by which formerly it quitted us, and we love, after Lucretius, to survey from the safe shore, and even the easy- chair, the struggles of those who go down to the great waters. Now, however, Mr. Clark Russell tells us not of tho conduct of the ship, but of its history. A pleasant gossiping book has he written concerning vessels, real or imaginary, from the Ark, with its carefully arranged inmates, through the ship of the Flying Dutchman, to the United States cruiser Columbia and Britain's fleet of defence. His agreeably conveyed observations concerning ships first struck us in the pages of the Pall Mall Maga- zine. They are now issued in book form, with fifty illustrations by Mr. H. C. Seppings White, which add greatly to their value. These designs, indeed, are of remarkable excellence. They are admirable alike in execution and feeling, and the book, though not announced as such, is an edition de luxe. From King Orry to Queen Victoria. By Edward Callow. (Stock.) Mr. Callow has given us in this useful volume a concise history, "Constitutional, Political, Eccle- siastical, Legendary, and General," of the Isle of Man. In addition to works of recognized authority, such as Train's ' Historical and Statistical Account,' and the writings of Stanley, Woods, Bullock, and others, he has had access to documents, pictures, &c, at Knowsley, and other sources of information. The result is a book which, though flippant in some of its judgments, and not always scrupulously accurate, may be read with advantage. For in- stance, in the first paragraph of his preface he spells Joseph Train, the historian of Man and friend of Sir Walter Scott, as " Traine," a blunder from which almost any book of reference would have saved him. He talks of the schemes of Queen Henrietta for her husband's assistance as "Chateaux d'Espagne " (sic), and says,'' Of Charles II. the least that is said the better." The book is liberally illus- trated. Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings, and Nobles. By W. G. Searle, M.A. (Cambridge, University PreRs.) Mr. Searlk has devoted himself to the study of our Anglo-Saxon antiquities with industrious en- thusiasm. The present volume would surely come within Charles Lamb's category of a book that is no book. In other words, it is a book, useful perhaps to be consulted, but impossible to read. In- deed, its columned pages, sprinkled with numerals, crabbed contractions, and bald lists of names, look scarcely more interesting than so many tables of logarithms. Nevertheless—or perhaps we should say therefore—it represents a large amount of con- densed research and digested information from early documents. The first and larger division of