80
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vi. JULY 27, 1912.
Of the portraits of his family we may mention
P. M. Alix's ' Eugene Beauharnais,' c. 1810,
151. los., and Marie Louise, a stipple engraving
by D. Weis, after De Guerard, 1808, 251. ; and in
the collection of portraits of persons connected
with Napoleon's career we noticed Alix's engrav-
ing of Legros's ' General Berthier,' in colours,
1798, 211. : Flint's mezzotint after Hoppner's
' Sir Samuel Hood,' 1808, 121. 10s. ; and Alix^s
engraving, printed in colours, after Hickel's
portrait of William Pitt, c. 1800, 181. 18s. There
are some 115 caricatures, among the best of which
are ' The Arms of Napoleon Bonaparte, alias the
Corsican,' the supporters being the devil and
a fiend in colours, with description in Dutch,
c. 1807, 21. 2s. ; ' La Consultation,' Cardinal Fesch
holding Napoleon's pulse in colours, c. 1809,
'21. 10s. : and the ' Rival Gardeners,' pencil
drawing by Woodward, c. 1800, 41. 4s'
Catalogue No. 291 gives us Messrs. Maggs's Autograph Letters and MSS. For 1051. they offer a collection of letters written to Charles Roach Smith and other antiquaries, from 1837 to 1890, on Shakespeare's life and works ; these are bound (by Riviere) in 3 vols., and include some printed matter programmes, prospectuses, and the like connected with the letters. 1851. is asked for a letter signed and sealed by Queen Elizabeth, addressed to Dale, Ambassador at the French Court, on the subject of the proposal of a marriage between herself and the Due d'Alencon, 15 March, 1573. Messrs. Maggs have also ac- quired five short poems in MS. (as yet, it is believed, unpublished), and with them some thirty lines of prose, by Emily Bronte ; two pieces are dated 1826 and 1840 651. ; and we noticed a letter from Garrick to his friend King, dated Adelphi, 1776, on the .subject of his retirement from the stage, '351. Since our correspondents have lately been discussing Gregory XIII. 's medal to commemorate the massacre of St. Bartholomew, we may mention an example of his signature, the letter being one addressed to Monsignor Taverna, 1578, 11. 12s. 6d. A very interesting item, for which 131. 13s. is asked, is a holograph letter to M. Boutilier from Louis XIII. of France concerning a regiment which had incurred his displeasure, undated, but endorsed 1633. A note-book of Dr. Johnson's, with jottings of the names and authors of books, headings, apparently for meditations, under the word " Preces," and some notes in Latin, is offered for 181. 18s. ; and a collection of letters and telegrams relating to Robert Louis Stevenson's illness in 1884 at Hyeres, from his wife, his doctor, Henley, and some other friends, for 521. 10s. We noticed also a letter of Disraeli's to his sister Sarah referring to ' Vivian Grey,' 1843, 11. 10s. ; a letter of Cavour's (in French), Turin, 23 May, 1837, 21. 12s. 6d. ; a document addressed to the Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk in 1665, giving directions concerning the plague at Yarmouth and prohibiting meetings of Independents bearing several interesting signatures, of which the most important are Clarendon's and Archbishop Sheldon's, 151. 15s. ; a document relating to the East India Company, addressed to the Aldermen of London, and signed by Oliver Cromwell, 1655, 251. ; the original MS. of a petition addressed by Laud to Charles I., 1636, 31. 10s. ; and an amusing pen-and-ink sketch of the way in which she thought the drapery at the back of one of her statues should be arranged, done by Queen Victoria, 11. Is.
There are besides a great number of good literary
items : letters of Scott, Dickens, Coleridge, Rossett i ,
and many others.
[Notices of other Catalogues held over.]
ANDREW LANG.
THE death of Andrew Lang, which took place on the 20fch iusfc. at Banchory, Kincardineshire, is a heavy loss to the world of letters. By it is with- drawn from us a "writer of singular brilliance and felicity, and a savant whose extensive knowledge, industry, critical insight, and sense of humour have contributed to the elucidation of many pro- blems of history and scholarship.
It is usual, in noticing the quasi-universality of his interests, to imply some regret that he did not rather concentrate himself upon a single subject and make his work upon it an epoch in its history. But it may be questioned whether, in these days of specialization, the services he rendered through being what he was, were not in some sense more needed. It would seem as if a ceaseless impulse to industry in external matters thwarted and obstructed the more intimate play of his genius. Yet the poet's gift was there, and permeated all he wrote, making him, in whatever he took up and with whatever degree of depth or measure of success he worked at it, always something of an interpreter detached, sensitive, ironic above all, never oblivious of the difference between what matters and what does not matter, though he might indeed choose to treat both with equal fullness, and possessed so ready and curious an enjoyment of the, beauty and humours of pastimes, fairy tales, and other fleeting things.
He was a Scotchman on both sides, though oddly unlike the typical Scotchman of popular imagina- tion. He was educated first at the Edinburgh High School, then at the University of St. Andrews, and then at Balliol College, Oxford. It is not possible here to attempt an enumeration of his works. We owe to him, in pxrf, the best of the modern translations of the ' Iliad ' arid ' Odyssey ' ; a series of books on anthropology which, with their good sense and incisive wit, have contributed largely to so much popularization of a difficult subject as has been achieved ; a few books of verse, which show what powers lay behind this devotion of himself to discursive learning ; and a vast mass of essays on all kinds of subjects, scattered in countless books, newspapers, and periodicals. Nor must we omit to mention what was virtually his last piece of serious work his defence of ' Joan of Arc ' against Anatole France.
It may be possible with justise to praise many a man's work more highly, with less reservation ; but there are few scholars who will be so greatly missed.
Jioticrs to
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