Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/143

 VIIL AUG. 10, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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LAMB QUESTIONS (9 th S. viii. 82). Hickman must have been Tom Hickman, better known as "The Gaslight Man," a most determined fighter, whose portrait is given and whose battles are recorded in ' Boxiana,' vol. iii. p. 287. J. J- F.

"PiNT UMBIT" (9 th S. vii. 489). Evidently, I should think, " post obit," " gone dead." The context should show. THOMAS J. JEAKES.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o. The Wife of Bath's Tale : its Sources and Analogues.

By G. H. Maynadier. (Nutt.) THE thirteenth volume of Mr. Nutt's "Grimm Library " consists of an investigation by Mr. May- nadier, an instructor in English at the Harvard University, into the history and development of 1 The Wife of Bath's Tale.' Studies of the kind are in fashion, and much sound erudition has been exhibited in tracing myths to their sources and showing how widely disseminated are most of them. In the same series has previously appeared Mr. Edwin Sidney Hartland's study of ' The Legend of Perseus,' a model of research and critical acumen. Mr. Maynadier's task has been satisfactorily accom- plished, and his work is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the diffusion of legend. The story, as all are supposed to know, is that of a knight of Arthur's Court who in brutal fashion violates a maiden, and is condemned to death unless he can within a year's space answer the question what women love loest. Thanks to a loathly old hag, he is able to say that it is sovereignty over husband and lover. His life is saved, but he is compelled to marry the hag. This he reluctantly does ; and resigning to her the sovereignty she covets, he finds her transformed into a bride lovely, graceful, and high-born. Gower in the 4 Confessio Amantis ' has a story that is substan- tially the same. Whence did the two authors, who were contemporaries, obtain the tale? No direct answer to this query can be given. Mr. Maynadier's task is to show the various forms that portions of the legend assume in different countries. He establishes, accordingly, parallels English, Scotch, Irish, Norse, French, and German. Little is definitely determined. The loathly hag of Chaucer's story is first found in Ireland, and this favours the theory, which commends itself to Mr. Maynadier, that English popular stories of the Middle Ages borrowed probably "material from Ireland, either directly or through the medium of some of the Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain." The presence of a kindred story in the various parts of Scandinavia, and indeed throughout North- western Europe, seems established. The book cannot fail to commend itself to all interested in the subject, and the treatment proves that American students are no less earnest and well informed than their English rivals.

THE August magazines are principally occupied wilh subjects outside our treatment, among which the Navy naturally holds a prominent place. We echo the protest made by Miss E. L. Banks (does the second initial stand for Linnaeus ?) in the Fort- nightly against the publication of the love-letters of

Bismarck and Victor Hugo. They were written to be seen only by those to whom they were addressed, and there is distinct profanation m giving them to the world. Miss Banks congratulates the world that Anne Hathaway kept to herself the love-letters of William Shakespeare, and that in this case at least the odious vulgarity of public taste has nothing on which to feed. Of some of the paroxysms of Hugo's calf-love Miss Banks says that they are nauseating; and she holds that if young French- men express their feelings after the fashion of Hugo the surveillance exercised over French girls is praiseworthy. The title of her article is ' Love that was Blind.' In the Count du Bois Mr. Richard Davey introduces us to ' A New French Poet,' and one with a pleasing message. Curiously enough, the Count likes England, even Kilburn and " Mary- le-bonne," and writes of

Le brouillard dore qui met au front de Londre[s] Un voile harmonieux.

' My First Morning at a Persian Court,' by Mr. Wilfrid Sparroy, gives an animated account of his reception. Mr. Maurice Hewlett, in ' The Scrivener's Tale,' gives from Froissart an account of the heroic Countess of Salisbury. In the Nineteenth Century Mr. Charles Welkins writes on ' Beau Nash,' and finds something to praise in his vulgar and ostenta- tious career. In favour of Nash's knowledge and taste nothing can be said. His good heart is praised, however, and an account is given of the strangely unconventional practices in which he participated. Many familiar stories are told concerning the Beau. Some of these are hard of acceptance, even if in- capable of disproof. Mr. Samuel E. Moffett, of the New York Journal, has an article on * How America really feels towards England,' which strikes us as at once moderate and truthful. It is not wholly satisfactory reading for Englishmen, but it does not greatly disturb either our faith or our composure. S. Staples writes on ' The Emigration of Gentle- women,' and shows the gifts that are requisite in intending emigrants. % A Remnant of Buddha's Body,' by Mr. Perceval Landon, deals less with primitive religion than with questions of political expediency. Mr. Henniker Heaton inveighs against 'Postal Pettifogging,' and Mr. W. Roberts writes with knowledge on ' The Present Rage for Mezzo- tints.' The Pall Mall has for frontispiece a repro- duction of Vandyke's admirable picture of Henri- etta, daughter of Charles I. Two illustrated articles, bearing some resemblance to each other, are ' The Fight for the Atlantic,' showing the marvellous growth of the Transatlantic liners, and 'Over a Hundred Miles an Hour,' which deals with new developments of railway enterprise. ' Napoleon at Play ' depicts his existence with Josephine at the barrack-like palace of Malmaison. ' The Game of Bridge' deals with a subject of occasional and exceptional interest. 'Studies under the Sea' gives some blood-curdling pictures of devil-fish crushing and almost devouring sea-going ships. ' The Cost of a Scotch Moor ' will be studied by some. ' The New Switzerland ' describes the Cana- dian Rockies as a resort for Alpine climbers. In honour of the holiday season Scribner's is, according to precedent, a fiction number, consisting almost entirely of short stories. With these we need not concern ourselves. It may, however, be said that the coloured illustrations to ' Phoebus on Halzaphron' are very remarkable, and that the narrative by Mr. Quiller - Couch is striking