Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/147

 9s.v.FEB.i7,i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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tavern brawls ; nor was he ever, like Mars ton and Chapman, threatened with the penalty of having his ears lopped and his nose slit." So great an enthusiast is Dr. Furness, and so much are we given to admiring his zeal and capacity, that we hesitate to point out that this sanguine estimate rests only on presumption, and that we have no reason beyond sentiment for holding that the participator in the wit-combats at the "Mermaid, 3 and the associate of Jonson and Dray ton, was incapable of an occa- sional carouse, and of a consequent brawl with some of his associates. Still we love the Doctor's sunny optimism, which we would not disturb. We are fain to believe that Shakespeare's "life was so gentle and so clear in the sight of man and of Heaven that no record of it has come down to us," and if we do not quite share the fervent aspiration that no future year may "reveal even the faintest peep through the divinity which doth hedge this king," it is because the shaping such a wish seems to imply some vague mistrust that the revelation thus deprecated might after all show shortcomings for which we are unprepared. It is useless for us to suppress a wish, on the contrary, for all the light we can get, since this would not avail. Whatever fact concerning Shakespeare the assiduous industry of explorers can unearth will at once be given to the world, and Dr. Furness himself would be the last to withhold, did he possess it, the information of which he speaks.

We may not go afresh through the arrangement of the text, which is the same precisely as in the many previous volumes with which we have dealt, nor even commend the value of the criticisms arid the wonderfully helpful nature of the information supplied. We can but congratulate the Shake- spearian upon procuring in the best edition yet accessible the text of yet one more play of Shake- speare, award our congratulations to the editor, and cheer him in the prosecution of a task the accomplishment of which the younger among us alone may hope to witness.

Symbolism of the East and West. By Mrs. Murray-

Aynsley. (Red way.)

DURING the course of twenty-one years' wandering over our Indian empire and travels in other parts of the world in company with her husband, the late Mrs. Murray - Aynsley made numerous observations upon objects or customs bearing upon Oriental symbolism. The result of these appeared in the Indian Antiquary. With con- siderable additions, and with an introduction by Sir George C. M. Birdwood, M.D., the whole is reprinted in the handsome and well-illustrated volume before us. The subjects dealt with are mostly familiar to our readers, and include snake worship, tree worship, sacred stones, the evil eye, and the questions generally of sun worship, the cross as a pagan and a Christian symbol, and other kindred matters. The arrangement is less scientific than it might have been had Mrs. Murray- Aynsley lived to superintend the publication of her own work. She died, however, in 1893. Her volume is a mine of curious and interesting information, some of it not devoid of novelty, and all of it appealing to students of folk-lore and of primitive culture. She was not, as Sir George Birdwood scarcely regrets, able to test her conclusions by the epoch-marking ' Golden Bough.' The independent "empirical method" of her inquiries "not only constitutes their characteristic charm to the general

reader, but their specific value for the specialist in symbolism." Apropos of tree worship, recollections of which survive in many English festivals, the significance of which is fully recognized, Sir George quotes in his introduction from Charles Valiancy, "the" antiquary, a curious origin for the word "lambswool": "The first day of November was dedicated to the angel [i.e., resuscitated Pomona] presiding over fruits and seeds, and was, therefore, named La Mas Ubhal, that is the day of the apple fruit, and being pronounced Lamasool, the English have corrupted the name to Lambs-wool." Mrs. Murray -Aynsley speaks (p. 16) of a remnant of sun worship prevailing in lipperary, where the sun is supposed to dance for joy of the Resurrection in the water placed outside the door in a bucket on Easter morning. For the sun dancing at Easter the pages of ' N. & Q.' may be consulted. We have ourselves watched the so-called dancing, to which references in our literature are abundant. The explanation advanced at the above reference, though doubtless accurate, is scarcely adequate. Conditions of space forbid us from quoting the folk information a propos of the Svastika given (p. 60) of the significance of pieces of hoop iron of a similar class on the external walls of houses in Hereford- shire and Gloucestershire. Chap, v., on the con- necting link between the Tau of Egypt, the cross as a heathen and a Christian symbol, and the hammer of the Scandinavian god Thor, repays study, though the treatment is at times rather timid. See also what is said concerning the secret rites still occasionally performed by childless women in Brittany in connexion with the dolmens. Mrs. Murray-Aynsley's book abounds with odd and out-of-the-way information with regard to amulets, talismans, and the like. How far the infor- mation is in all cases trustworthy we may not say. At any rate, the work is full of suggestion. Its plates are well executed and valuable, and the whole should occupy a place on the shelves of every antiquary and folk-lorist.

The Spenser Anthology. 1548-1591 A.D. Edited by

Prof. Edward Arber, F.S.A. (Frowde.) THE new volume of the "British Anthologies" immediately precedes ' The Shakespeare Anthology,' with which, naturally, it has something in common. Apart from Spenser himself, extracts from whom occupy little short of fifty pages, the principal con- tributors are Sir Philip Sidney, Lodge, Greene, and Peele. Of an earlier date are Gascoigne, Whet- stone, and Turberville, and, to some extent, Lyly. Breton, Dyer, Raleigh, and others of " that learned pack," John Hey wood, and Alexander Montgomerie are represented, as is Tom Watson, who, in the opinion of his contemporaries,

wrote

Able to make Apollo's self to dote. Giles Fletcher the elder finds a place, and the bucolic muse of Thomas Tusser supplies a few lines reminding one of

The Seed Cake, the Pasties, the Furmenty Pot. Poor, disreputable Nicholas Udall brings his offer- ing. Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset, is, of course, represented by extracts from ' The Mirror of Magis- trates.' Barnaby Googe's praise of money is happily answered by Turberville. Among the anony- mous poems is the spirited story of the " brave bonny lass, M^ry Ambree." All these and more, including Queen Elizabeth, "come thronging," and