Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/289

 9«. s. vi. SEPT. 22, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 239 John T. Thorp has just written a work, which is published at Leicester, entitled 'French Prisoners' Lodges: a Brief Account of Twenty- six Lodges and Chapters of Freemasons, established and conducted by French Prisoners of War in England and Elsewhere, between 1756 and 1814.' O. T. QUOTATION WANTED (9th S. vi. 129).—' Un- answered Yet' was in a magazine of May, 1896, with the name "Robert Browning" attached ; four verses. I am not sure, but think it was in the Banner of Faith. ANNA BIDDELL. yjutSxntsmt. NOTKS ON BOOKS, 4c. The Life, Unpublished Letters, and Philosophical Regimen of Anthony, Earl of Shaftesbury. Edited by Benjamin Rand, Ph.D. Harvard. (Sonnen ichein & Co.) THE influence of Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury, the author of the ' Character- istics,' has been narrowed, so far as his own country is concerned, by his curiously crabbed and pedantic style. As with some other English writers, notably Richardson and Byron—with whom, of course, it is not sought to compare him—he was closely studied in France and Germany, and exercised great in- fluence upon all such portions of the Continent as were accessible to English thought and speculation. Diderot began his literary career by translating the ' Inquiry concerning Virtue,' and in a succeeding work carried so far Shaftesbury's destructive criticism as to have his book burnt by order of the Parliament of Paris. Leasing, Wieland, and Leib- nitz were indebted to him, and the Scotch " philo- sophers" hailed him with delight. These things may console his shade for the censure of English stylists and for the neglect of the general public For the neglect of which we speak amends has been made in America, and Dr. Hand, who speaks o Shaftesbury as " the most fascinating Englisl moralist," now gives the unpublished letters an( the ' Philosophical Regimen,' together with the life by his son, the fourth Earl of Shaftesbury, whicl appeared in the ninth volume of the ' Genera Dictionary' of 1734-41. Very considerable material concerning the author of the ' Characteristics existed in the Shaftesbury Papers in the Rccon Office, a careful consideration of which has Ion; been felt to be expedient. This has now been supplied, the result being a scholarly and ira ]X>rtant work, which will make forcible appea to a limited circle. Into his 'Characteristics Shaftesbury collected all his writings which h Bought to preserve. His son, moreover, speaks ii terms of strong protest against the publication without the leave or knowledge of the family, o letters, some of them private in character, am others written in "so hasty and careless a manner that copies of them were not even preserved. Th times are long past in which the views of an autho as to which of his writings are worthy of preset vation are accorded any consideration. Rightly o wrongly, it is determined that the world shall hav le whole obtainable baggage of any man in whom can conceivably be interested, and it is useless ow to dispute on the point. If Pope was right in ay ing that the ' Characteristics' has done more arm to revealed religion in England than all the nil-.s on infidelity put together, the perusal of ic ' Philosophical "Regimen would not be likely to bange his opinion. The subjects dealt with range 'mil Deity to the Beautiful (with a capital B), and ubjects such as Familiarity. Shaftesbury, though arraigned as a Deist, was, we are told, a professing Christian, went regularly to church, and was a 'Misi.Mii "communicant. His works convey the dea of cultivated paganism, and it would be oarcely difficult to affiliate him on the " Libertins " f the previous century. Plato is an object of his pecial worship, and is continually quoted. The assays remind one at times, aed lonyo intervallo, of dontaigne. Many of the letters are addressed to x>cke, who was largely responsible for his educa- ion, and many to Sir John Cropley, and some to Wheeloek, who appears to have been a sort of confidential servant, since he is always addressed as Wheeloek, without any preliminary "dear" or ' Mr." To this correspondent he unbosoms himself concerning his forthcoming marriage, unhesitatingly ixpressing his opinion that the selected bride, whom le had not previously seen, and of whom he had leard as a lady of no great attractions, is " a very etters are domestic. His letters to his mother, whom he addresses as " Madam " or " Your Lady- ship," are apologetic in tone and very formal. For lome reason or other he did not stand high in her avour. Among his correspondents is the Duke of Berwick. The work is an important contribution to English literature. It would be the better for an index, though such in this case is scarcely indis- pensable. A reproduction of Gribelin's portrait lerves as frontispiece. Lea TheAtres de la Foirt, 1660-1789. Par Maurice Albert. (Paris, Hachette & Cie.) M. ALBERT, the author of more than one work which has been crowned by the AcadtSmie Francaise, lias written an erudite and an authoritative book on supremely difficult subject. Though they gave employment to some of the best dramatists—Lesage, Fuzelier, D'Orneval, Piron, Legrand, Boissy, Favart, and many others—and resulted in the establish- ment of theatres such as the Opera Comique, the Gaite, and the Ambigu, the theatres of the fair had a long and an arduous struggle for exist- ence, and were an object of perpetual persecution by regularly constituted and authorized bodies such as the Comedie Francaise. Records concern- ing them are abundant, but informal and un- digested, and the task of extracting from them a consecutive history of the rise of popular enter- tainments has been one of extreme difficulty. The growth of the theatres of the fair synchronizes with and is analogous to that of our own Bartholomew Fair, of which Prof. Morley constituted himself the historian. To the gatherings for the purpose of worship first, and afterwards of trade, which centred round important shrines flocked, natur- ally, every variety of juggler, rope-dancer, gymnast, minstrel, acrobat—all, in short, who sought to fill their purses by contributing to the amusement of the populace. From the first such crowds were under the protection of the great ecclesiastics, who reaped a large income from the privileges accorded.
 * reat beauty." On this point he insists. A few of the