Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/83

 a*s. vm. JULY 20, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

75

"Qui VIVE?" (9 th S. vii. 245, 336, 438.) Prof. Deschanel's book is anything but useful, and every person not well versed in French philology must be earnestly warned against it. Prof. Adolf Tobler, the famous repre- sentative of the Romance languages in the University of Berlin, has dealt with it severely in Herrig's Archiv fiir das Studium der neueren Sjwachen und Litteraturen, vol. ci. pp. 222-4, telling him that "he lacks the most elementary knowledge of the history of his own language."

How can Qui vive? be a transcription of a Latin Quis vivus? Did French sentries originally challenge in Latin 1 Had the French any need to go back to Latin in order to have a phraso for challenging 1 And where is this pretended Latin to be found ? How childish is the question, "Quel est le vivant 1 " The Italians challenge, as do now the French, Chi va la ? And vif would have never become vive. All this is mere twaddle ; and for it we are expected to give up an explanation equally satisfactory from the standpoint of reason and language. Let me repeat that the sense of Qui vive ? was " Pour qui etes-vous 1 " and that the person chal- lenged was to reply, "Vive la France, la Republique, 1'Empereur," &c.

G. KRUEGER.

Berlin.

VALIA AS A FEMALE NAME (9 th S. vii. 447). I have a Russian friend whose name is Valerie. She is called by members of her family Vally (pronounced Valya).

E. MEIN.

There are nineteen "Val" forms in the 'History of Christian Names,' all meaning " healthy." The nearest in spelling to that required is Valerij as a name for a male. It is given as a Russian name of Latin origin. ARTHUR MAYALL.

Miss Yonge, in her work on Christian names, gives Vallia of Spanish usage and Valheri of the Franks, both of Teutonic origin and masculine, meaning slaughter. From val, of choice or slaughter.

JOHN RADCLIFFE.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.

Index to the First Ten Volumes of Book-Price*

Current, 1887-1896. (Stock.)

THE long-promised ' Index to Book-Prices Current has now been issued, and proves to be an invaluabl and indeed indispensable supplement to a work the claims of which upon book lovers and dealers we were among the first to recognize. It is the pro

duction of Mr. William Jaggard, and is a work in- olving a large amount of labour. No fewer than thirty thousand distinct titles and "considerably )ver half a million numerals" have, as we are told n the introduction, been marshalled into order in /he course of what must necessarily have been a abour of love, seeing that no conceivable remu- neration could be adequate to the labour involved. That the task set before Mr. Jaggard has been diligently accomplished may safely be said. How "ar the work discharges the functions for which it uired, and how great is the benefit to be by the bibliophile, it is too early as yet to leclare. Constant reference, which we have already jegun to make, and in which we hope to persist, can alone enable us to pronounce definitely upon its merits. Not easy is it, indeed, to demonstrate the system on which the whole is worked. A point or two in this may, however, be indicated. Take, as is but natural, 'Shakespeare,' which occupies some ten columns. First comes the 1623 folio, of which twenty-five copies appear to have been sold. These are given, with the numbers they bear in the volumes of ' Book- Prices Current,' under the successive dates of those volumes, 1887, 1888, &c. Then follows a list of the sales of the reprints in the order of their reproduction. Next come the other folios of 1632. 1664, and 1685. The quartos appear in the order of date, the poems being included with them. The question suggests itself whether the poems might not occupy by themselves a separate section. Under the respective editors, Ashbee, Bell, Boydell, &c.. appear the recognized editions, what are callea miscellaneous editions being given under the year of their production. These are succeeded by Shakespeariana. Under ' Notes and Queries ' we find between fifty and sixty entries, no fewer than eighteen sales having taken place in the year 1887. To those who seek to turn ' Book-Prices Current ' to practical use and such, we conceive, constitute the vast majority of subscribers the work needs no commendation, its utility being immediately apparent. Suppose a student desires to know about a Caxton Chaucer's ' Canterbury Tales,' no date, but presumably 1478, he finds from the ' Index ' that none has been sold except in the year 1896, opposite which stand the numbers 2084, 4541. Turn- ing to these numbers in the volume for that year, he traces the sale to Mr. Quaritch of two copies, both more or less imperfect, for 1,02$. and 1,880/. respectively, with collation and other important accounts of the books. Before the next 'Index' appears (and such will inevitably be called for) we shall probably possess a knowledge of the ' Index ' which will enable us to pronounce definitely upon it. As it is, we welcome it as a part of the most important contribution to bibliographical know- ledge that England has known in recent years or seems likely to know in the immediate future.

The Works of Lord Byron. Edited by Ernest Hart- ley Coleridge, M. A. Poetry. Vol. IV. (Murray.) To the merits of Mr. Coleridge's definitive and exhaustive edition of the works of Byron, now being issued in most tasteful form by Mr. Murray, we drew attention in a notice of the three opening volumes (see 9 th S. v. 506). A fourth volume of six, presumably now appears, and is in all respects up to the high level previously established. It consists of poems written between 1816 and 1823, and includes, in addition to less important or less