io s. i. to so, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
99
presided over its birth, and it is the most enjoyable
work of its class to which the enlightened and
sympathetic student may turn. Ale and beer songs
we have in plenty ; but we know not where else to
point to so stimulating a collection of bacchanalian
lyrics. Xot only Mr. Bullen, but the late W. E.
Henley has assisted in the task of selection. The
opening poem consists of the immortal drinking-
song assigned somewhat dubiously to Walter Mapes.
From this, however, one or two stanzas, especially
that beginning
Magis quam ecclesiam diligo tabernam, disappear, a matter of which we do not complain, but for which we are sorry. Leigh Hunt's familiar translation is given. Much of this is good. Would not the following be a better rendering of the first stanza ?
In a tavern I propose to end my days a-drinking, With the %yine-stoup near my hand to seize when I
am sinking ; That celestial choirs may sing, sweet angel voices
linking, God be merciful to one who drank well without
shrinking.
The credit of writing the famous " Back and side go bare" is withdrawn from Bishop Still; but the Rev. John Home, of ' Douglas ' fame, is responsible for the praise of claret, and the Rev. John Black- lock, D.D., for that of punch, while Dean Aldrich is credited with the five excellent ' Reasons for Drinking.' Those who supply the remaining lyrics include Lyly, Shakespeare, Jonson, Herrick, Henry Vaughan, Congreve, Dr. Johnson, Sheridan, Gold- smith, Burns, Blake, Thackeray, and innumerable others, besides some few writers of later date. It is a fine collection, truly, almost the only really immortal lyric we fail to see being that concerning "All our men were very merry,' which probably does not come into the scheme. A poem assigned to Thackeray, called ' Commanders of the Faithful,' we knew very many years ago in a different form. Permission has been obtained to insert Sir Theo- dore Martin's (or Aytoun's) ' Dirge of the Drinker.' We repeat that for those to whom bacchanalian chants appeal the volume will bring unending delight.
The Judicial Dictionary of Words and Phrases Judicially Interpreted. By F. Stroud. Second Edition. 3 vols. (Sweet & Maxwell.) SIXCE the appearance in 1890, from the same pub- lishers, of the first edition, Stroud's 'Judicial Dictionary ' has been enlarged to thrice its original size. This is due in part to the amplification of materials. The augmentation of size may, how- ever, be taken as a proof of the utility of a work which is, in its way, unique, and has, as its author justly observes, neither predecessor nor rival. Its first and most obvious appeal is to lawyers, to the more intellectual and philosophical among whom it is indispensable. Its aims extend, how- ever, far beyond this limited circle, since it is sought to make it " the authoritative Interpreter of the English of Affairs for the British Empire." Even here its utility does not end, and the philologist will do well to have it at his hand and consult it as a work independent of, even if supplementary to, accepted dictionaries. It is not a law lexicon, but a dictionary of words and phrases which have received interpretation by the judges. Not easy is it to convey to those who are unfamiliar
with the work an idea of its nature and methods.
A basis is to be found in works such as Cowel's
' Interpreter ' and the like, but the general mass
of information is derived from decisions in the
various courts. A preliminary ' Table of Cases '
occupies over one hundred and twenty closely
printed pages in double columns, to which a ' Table
of Statutes' adds some fifty pages more, other
lists of abbreviations bringing the preliminary
matter up to two hundred and twenty pages.
Sometimes the information given is purely legal,
as when, under ' Cheese,' we are told, with a cross-
reference to ' Margarine,' that what is known as
cheese contains "no fat derived otherwise than
from milk " ; sometimes it seems arbitrary, as when
we find, under 'Crew,' that "the crew does not
always mean the whole crew." Sometimes, again,
it is of widespread influence, as when we meet the
many definitions of ' Crime.' Often it is technical,
as under headings such as ' Negative Pregnant ' ;
sometimes, again, the information supplied is vir-
tually negative, as when we hear that "the word
'indecently' has no definite legal meaning," or
learn that "'negligence' is not an affirmative
word," but is " the absence of such care, skill, and
diligence as it was the duty of the person to bring
to the performance of the work which he is said
not to have performed." Any work that facilitates
reference, and in so doing saves time, is of extreme
importance, and in this respect, as in others, the
present book should be found in every library of
reference, private as well as public.
The Collected Poems of Lord de TaUey. (Chapman
& Hall.)
THESE collected poems of John Byrne Leicester Warren, third and last Lord de Tabley, are issued without any form of preface or introduction beyond an inserted slip to the effect that a single poem, entitled ' Orpheus in Hades,' is reprinted from the Nineteenth Century by permission of Mr. [Sir] James T. Knowles. They include, presumably, all that is found worthy of preservation in the volumes issued respectively in 1859 and 1862 under the pseudonym of George F. Preston, and in 1863 and 1868 under that of William Lancaster, the anonymously pub- lished tragedies of ' Philoctetes ' and ' Orestes,' and the verses subsequently given (1873, 1876) under the writer's own name. Their reappearance has been preceded by that of selection^ which would, it might have been supposed, have sufficed for the require- ments of the average reader. There is, however, a class with which we sympathize which, if it is to have a poet at all, asks for him in his entirety, and to this the present volume appeals. Lord de Tabley's poems are the products of a thoughtful, highly cultivated, and richly endowed mind, which at its best rises near inspiration. They have been sadly overpraised by writers who should know better, but who may be pardoned, perhaps, the desire to find in the dead level of mediocrity of modern verse some promise of better things, and they owe something to unconscious imitation of the best models. The subjects are largely classical, but are not treated in the conventional manner. It is curious, indeed, to encounter a tragedy with the title of ' Orestes' containing no mention of Pylades, Agamemnon, Clytsemnestra, or Electra, and yet dealing with the slaying of a mother's paramour. In observation of nature Lord de Tabley is always at his best. Sometimes, as in 'The Nymph and the Hunter,' the subject of which is quasi-classical,
