Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/475

 v* s. v. JUNE 9, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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are more trustworthy than are the utterances of Shakespeare, which, when they are not essentially dramatic, are at least sufficiently reserved to baffle conjecture. As a rule, the dean is as anxious to acquit Dante of the charges brought against him by wicked men, such as Boccaccio, as was any biographer of Shakespeare Halliwell-Phillipps or another to repudiate the assumption that the dramatist ever shot the king's deer. Apropos of the mention by Dante of Gentucca, the dean arraigns " the unclean birds of literature, that scent carrion everywhere, the * apes by the Dead Sea,' who make mouths at every prophet as he passes by," and who, after their manner, have pounced upon it. When he dwells upon the not incredible hypothesis that Dante, attracted by the fame of Peter Lightfoot, may have visited Glastonbury, and may even have worshipped within the walls of his (the dean's) own cathedral, we sympathize with the aspiration that led to the utterance ; but there are too many hypotheses "probable" or "not incredible" and there are also too many " I seem to sees." The book is, however, a work of much scholarship, and gives an interesting and readable, if not wholly unprejudiced view of the influences under which Dante passed.

Researches into the Origin of the Primitive Con- stellations of the Greeks, Phoenicians, and Baby- lonians. By Robert Brown, Jun.,F.S. A., M.R.A.S. Vol. II. (Williams & Norgate.) WE noticed the first volume of this interesting work (which appeared early last year) in 9 th S. iii. 259 ; in this our author continues his researches, accord- ing to the scheme there propounded, of "tracing the constellation - figures backward from the era of Alexander until their first appearance in the dawn of history." For this purpose it was, of course, necessary to make as much use as possible of the astronomical tablets in the British Museum, and, though a great amount of cuneiform literature is still unpublished, yet enough is available to furnish a fairly complete list of Euphratean stars and constellations. The general conclusion is that it was by the star-gazers in Babylonia that the greater part of the ancient constellations were formed ; the system there constructed was adopted in Western Asia and carried by the Phoenicians into Greece, the main foundations of the science having been laid in the country of the Two Rivers before Greek civilization began.

A TEACHER of youth (or perhaps we ought to say man) who can write words and music of a cheery and effective, if not hedonistic sort is to be com- mended. Hence we are glad to notice the songs which Mr. E. H. Griffiths, a well-known Cambridge coach, calls Lyra Fumosa (Cambridge, Heffer & Sons). More especially associated with Sidney College, the collection also appeals to the ordinary 'Varsity man as suitable for cheerful occasions. The metre is not always superfine, but the meaning is clear.

MB. CECIL T. DAVIS (Librarian and Clerk to the Commissioners) has issued a Dictionary of Wands- worth, with illustrations. It is entirely produced in Wandsworth, and was sold at the Empire Bazaar in aid of the Wandsworth Technical School. Mr. Davis is a well-known enthusiast concerning the district with which he deals.

IN a number of the Fortnightly of altogether exceptional interest and importance three or four

articles stand prominently forward. First among these is 'The Evolution of Mystery' of M. Maurice Maeterlinck. To some extent this is a defence of, and an apology for, the writer's methods of labour and choice of themes. Who better fitted than a mystic to deal with the question of mystery ? In his treatment of the subject Maeterlinck stands at the opposite pole from Goethe, and. if something like a bull may be pardoned, from Rabelais also. Goethe holds that subjects to which no definite response is obtainable are to be left to dilettanti; a man with work to do in the world must fight shy of them On the other hand, M. Maeterlinck shows that attempts to pierce the mystery in which our lives are enveloped are the primary duty of the responsible intellect. Between these two men, at a point in a triangle equidistant from each, stands Rabelais, with his declaration that " le rire est le propre de 1'homme." We will contribute nothing of our own to the question, the opportunity not fitting. Mr. Arthur Symons gives a striking description of Ernest Dowson, recently deceased, showing us a man who had much in common with the Villons, the Theophiles, and the Chattertons of the past. The article is well written, and shows us many aspects of an attractive, but hopelessly erratic individuality. Miss Helen Zimmern deals with Eleonora Duse, and besides d\velling upon her histrionic and expository gifts supplies us with particulars, previously unpossessed, of her early life. She shows us through what squalid portals there reached the stage one who now counts among its most conspicuous ornaments. Mr. Ernest Rhys deals with 'The New Mysticism' as it is exem- plified in the writings of Miss Fiona Macleod and Mr. W. B. Yeats. Mr. F. Edmund Garrett depicts to us Paul Kruger in his inner as well as his outer life. Other excellent papers, apart from those on polemical subjects, consist of 'The Government Factory Bill,' by Miss Gertrude M. Tuckwell, and an account by Mr. J. A. Marriott of Sir William Hunter. Mr. Heathcote Statham's 'At the Royal Academy' contains some just criticism, and is, as was to be expected, not too optimistic in view. The summary of the month's news contributed to the Nineteenth Century by Sir Wemyss Reid con- tains a summary of the proceedings on "Mafeking Day" which constitutes very stimulating reading. We were ourselves witnesses of the spontaneous and overmastering outburst on the Friday night, one of the most thrilling and wonderful and, let us add, creditable exhibitions ever made by Englishmen. So far as we were able we avoided the subsequent day's crowd, but we like to read of it in these vigorously descriptive pages. More than usually controversial are many of the articles which appear, one especially by Mr. Wilfrid Ward, on which he bestows the repellent title of ' Liberalism and Intransigeance.' We should have preferred almost any amount of circumlocution to the foisting on our language of such a gallicism as the latter word. It is pleasant to turn from questions of warfare, national or ecclesiastical, to Mrs. Stephen Batson's meditations on 'The Vogue of the Garden Book.' For the words "garden books " she would herself suggest diaries " written in or suggested by a garden." Some banter is bestowed upon the Laureate's 'The Garden that I Love,' though the Veronica of the conversation is said to have about her "something very lov- able." ' Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden ' suggests that the heart of the writer, Mrs. Earle, is in the