Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/207

. IX. MARCH 8, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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policy of holding the balance between the conflict- ing extremes of Church parties is skilfully depicted, and we commiserate the hard lot of good Arch- bishop Parker, who was employed as the necessary cat to draw the chestnut of Uniformity out of the fire, so that his royal patron might not burn her fingers. Among the points incidentally cleared up is the disuse of the title "Supreme Head of the Church," which died out with Henry VIII., it having been repealed in the first year of Mary and Philip and never afterwards revived. The "Nag's Head" fable is shown to be not even ben trovato, and is traced up to its first concoction in 1604 in Holy wood's ' De Investiganda Vera ac Visib. Christi Ecclesia.' The same conclusion is arrived at as in Dr. Gee's * Elizabethan Clergy and the Settlement of Religion,' that the Reformation movement was so thoroughly national that not more than 200 out of 9,400 parish priests were deprived for not accepting it.

Regarding Canon Dixon's work from a literary point of view, we cannot say we are admirers of his style, although we are aware that we here dissent from the judgment of many competent critics. He uses words in a slovenly manner some- times, with a want of precision and choice which we should not have expected from one who was also a considerable poet. We may give two instances. He speaks of a declaration which " bears the images of the hammers wherewith it was forged." He tells of a poor comedy " which descended to midnight, but not to posterity," meaning, we sup- pose, that it lasted till midnight, but has not survived to our own times. Occasionally, indeed, the sentences are so peculiar as to remind one of a foreigner writing in an unaccustomed language. Thus, Elizabeth's "charm lay in the feminine quality which met all men with that which seemed the partner of their several tastes, resembling that which they preferred, and yet not the double, but the counterpart and completion of it." Again : " Ire- land will be difficultly stayed in obedience For

France, try for peace ; kindle religious controversy. Scotland the same : augment the hope of them who incline them to good religion : and fortify Berwick and get demilances. Ireland wants some money spent on it. How is the alteration to be done?" "Awaking spicery of conscience," "an incident in midst exemplifying" something, are crabbed phrases; and such archaisms as "regiment" for regime or rule, and "they perused the rest of the diocese," are at least unusual. A sentence like the following stands self-condemned : " This cleansing of temples, taking place the most part about Bar- tholomew tide ; on the eve, the day, the day after the day of St. Bartholomew, may be said to make a Brtholomean era in our annals, an era to which the epithet that denotes the colour of darkness may be considered inappropriate." Among verbal eccentricities we mark an "abscondite" clerk (something new for Dr. Murray), " inter-religion," "to iionconform," "martyric" boldness, a "mani- fest" (for manifesto). " Romanensian " does not seem to us a happy substitute for JRomanizer, nor "Calvinian" for Calvinist, nor "parochs" for parochial clergy, nor "executor" at Holy Com- munion for celebrant. After these we hardly stag- gered at reading that " the queen besiyned, as some say, to exhibit her reformation in a fair aspect to the foreign world " ; but, as Dr. Murray again fails us here, we are charitable enough to believe that this is only a misprint.

These volumes have been seen through the press by the author's friend Dr. Henry Gee, who under- took the laborious task of verifying all the citations taken from documents in the Record Office and public libraries. Quotation marks to define the beginning of an important passage which ends on vol. v. p. 22 are missing, leaving its extent quite ambiguous. The index is excellent. Arundd Hymns, and other Spiritual Praxes.

Chosen and edited by Henry, Duke of Norfolk,

and Charles T. Gatty, F.S.A.

THESE hymns, intended for the use of Catholics, are published with Papal permission and with an introductory letter from Pope Leo XIII. They are wholly from Roman Catholic writers. The Latin in many cases accompanies the English text. As a rule the compositions are more notable for devoutness than for poetical facility. The volume is published by the editors, 3, Queen Street, May- fair.

A CLOSE study of the political articles in the leading reviews can scarcely be recommended to those of a nervous temperament. Time was when it was part of the scheme that those who frightened us with prospects of invasions, coalitions against us, and every form of European complication, used to sign their own names, so that we might judge as to the value of their opinions. Those days are long past, and those who now set before us the inevitable results of our modern actions employ pseudonyms implying the possession of oracular wisdom and unequalled sources of information, but so far as regards their identity veil their heads in the obscurity of the clouds whence they fulminate. The temptation to deal with these prophets of evil has never been strong, and is now weaker than ever. For different reasons we cannot discuss Sir Henry Thompson's thoughtful contribution to the Fortnightly, 'The Unknown God.' Mr. G. H. Powell's ' The Care of Books ' appeals very directly to our readers, and may, indeed, be warmly com- mended to them. Concerning the wisdom of what he says there is no doubt. His are, however, counsels of perfection. It is well to have the advice given by the Marquis of Macciucca to frequenters of the library, though some of the counsels, such as "Do not steal the books," belong to elementary forms of morality. M. Maeterlinck, now a frequent writer in the Fortnightly, has an article on ' Our Past,' and is as fantastically ingenious and para- doxical as needs be wished. A line or two from this will suffice : " * The past is past,' we say, and it is false ; the past is always present : ' We have to bear the burden of our past,' we sigh, and it is false; the past bears our burden." This is the right butterwoman's rate to market, and a con- tinuance of it will almost console us for the loss of 'Proverbial Philosophy.' Miss Elizabeth Robins writes on 'Pleasure Mining.' The nature of her communication seems scarcely indicated in her title. Miss Janet Hogarth discusses ' Lucas Malet's Novels.' In the Nineteenth Century Mr. Walter Frewen Lord berates Thackeray as ' The Apostle of Mediocrity.' We will leave others to answer this railer, and wait with some curiosity to see how large a nest of hornets he will bring about his ears. The article is not written in banter, but is as serious as it can be. Mr. Claude Phillips speaks strongly, as is but due, on the ' Increasing Export of England a Art Treasures.' This is a difficult subject, and will become more so as times go on. The great English