Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/433

 9* s. vi. NOV. 359 FOTES AND QUERIES. NOTES ON BOOKS, to. The. Surrey and Wyait Anthology, 15OS-1547. Edited by Prof. Edward Arber, F.S.A. (Frowde.) TheGo/dwnith Anthology, 1745-1774. (Same editor 'and publisher.) WITH the api>earanco of these two volumes the splendid series of anthologies of Prof. Arber is com- plete except the two outside volumes—the Dunbar anthology, covering •omething more than a century, 1401-1508, and the Cowper anthology, 1775-1800. With the appearance of these four centuries will be covered. Except so far as regards their influence on metrical forms, and in establish- ing in England a knowledge of the Italian poets, and the romance with which their names are associated, Surrey and Wyatt do not occupy the highest position in English poetry. The selection from poems long only accessible in the horribly cumbrous quartos of Nott is welcome. Prof. Arber is right in saying that Wyatt is both the nobler man and the nobler poet of the two, and was, moreover, the introducer of the sonnet stanza, the terza-rima, and blank verse into England. Among the anonymous poems in this volume is the delight- ful " Ah ! my sweet Sweeting !" two lines of which Milton in ' II Penseroso' seems to have imitated :— She is so proper and pure, Full steadfast, stable, and demure. In Collins's ' Ode to Evening,' which forms part of the Goldsmith anthology, the rendering is not that we prefer—at least so far as regards the opening lines. These, however. Collins reshaped or rewrote more than once. We did not know that " 0 Nancy, wilt thougo with me?" was by Bishop Percy, though we knew that the cento " It was a Friar of Orders Grey " was in the ' Reliques.' V, e are glad of the presence of a few Jacobite songs. A poem of Shen- stone, which we reread for the first time for half a qentury. reminds us of a disgraceful parody in a play called ' St. James's Park,' the significance of which we had failed to grasp. It is obviously intended as a travesty of Shenstone, but we will not further indicate it. The Book of Sun-Dial*. By Mrs. Alfred Gatty. Enlarged and re-edited by H. K. 1. Kden and Eleanor Lloyd. (Bell & Sons.) SUCCESSIVE editions of ' The Book of Sun-Dials'by Mrs. Gatty, as enlarged by her daughter and Miss Eleanor Lloyd, see the light at intervals so short as to prove the estimation in which the volume is justly held. There is no finality in things, otherwise it might bo held that the work has attained its definite shape, and that further ad- vance was not to be expected. It is not likely that any large addition will be made to the list now given of dials existing in England. A systematic research through countries, many of which have never been visited for the purpose, would be necessary before it could be affirmed that all foreign dials had been catalogued. Comparatively little variation, either in the shape of the dials or in the lessons inculcated in the mottoes, is to be expected, and the present work is, accordingly, in all respects adequate and representative. The illustrations are, moreover, beautiful, and the work has deve- loped into a Here de luxe. These designs may now be counted by hundreds, many of them occupying | an entire page and being very elaborate. A pleasant feature consists of the chapter on ' Portable Sun- Dials' by Mr. Lewis Evans, F.S.A. That these arc much later in date than the fixed dials a certain. Portable dials, however, existed in clas- sical times, and one made in the shape of a ham, and discovered in Herculaneum, is now in the Naples Museum, where a drawing of it has been taken by Miss Lloyd. The date of this, which is of bronze, is between A.I>. 28 and A.D. 79, when Herculaneum was buried. H could, of course, only be used in one latitude. King dials, shepherds' dials, and compass dials were all in use in the time of Shakespeare, and it is not to be decided upon which form the clown in ' As YTou Like It' gazed with lack-lustre eye. A representation is also given of a beautiful goblet or chalice dial from Bavaria of the date of 1550, now in the British Museum. Although at the outset the literary and poetical aspects of the dial were those in which Mrs. Gatty elected to regard it, other aspects were not neglected. These have, indeed, assumed more im- portance with each succeeding edition. In these respects the work naturally associates itself with horology. All means of measuring time have, indeed, an interest and a sentiment of their own. Though long out of use, the hour-glass is a pic- turesque and attractive object, while the mottoes on the sun-dial are still as much a subject of study as the records in our churchyards Which tell in homely phrase who lie below. Butler even, little given as he was to sentiment, indulges in it when he draws the tine and poetical illustration :— True as the dial to the sun, Although it be not shiued upon. We have spoken more than once in praise of this delightful work, and have "said our say" in recommending it to our readers. On the shelves of very many of them, we make bold to say, it now rests, and the new edition, enlarged, adorned, and improved in every respect, needs no further intro- duction or recommendation. The Unpublished and UneoUected Poem* of William Cowptr. Edited by Thomas Wright. (Fisher Unwin.) To his "Cameo Series" Mr. Fisher Unwin has added a volume comprising twenty-seven poems or fragments of Cowper not inserted in authorized collections. These are edited by Mr. Wright, the Principal of Cowper School, Olney, and the author of a ' Life of Cowper.' They add little, it is avowed, to the poet's reputation, and some of them are even announced as " morsels devoid of literary merit." In the debate as to the expediency of publishing what the author intended to repress we are dis- posed to side with those who would deny such right. The present volume furnishes, however, the opportunity for illustrations of Cowper and spots associated with him, and its contents are dedicated to the members of the Cowper Society formed in April of the present year. We are sorry to find (p. 37) a mistake so serious as A bee of most deserving taste, which should, of course, read A bee of most discerning taste. As this reading appears in the various editions of Cowper it is not a variant of the poem—a sup- position, indeed, not to be maintained.