Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/290

This page needs to be proofread.

238


NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. i. MARCH 19, 100*.


MESS DKESS : SERGEANTS' SASHES (10 th S. i. 168). About 1857 a mess jacket and waist- coat of regimental pattern were generally adopted ; it was not, however, until 1872 that a regulation pattern of mess jacket and waistcoat was authorized. The above only refers to regiments serving at home or in temperate climates. In the East and West Indies infantry officers had worn a variety of dinner costumes suitable to the climate, never being much troubled by inspecting officers. At home, previous to the Crimean War, officers sat down to dinner in their red long-tailed coatees, with epaulettes or wings, and the sash round the waist, but without shoulder-belt or sword.

From the evidence of original drawings sergeants wore sashes round the waist quite as far back as 1720, and possibly may have worn them for many years previously.

S. M. MILNE.

JAPANESE NAMES (10 th S. i. 187). Is ME. PLATT quite correct in quoting " Osaka " as an example of the stress generally falling on the penultimate ? When I was there it would certainly have been classified among the exceptions, at least by its inhabitants, and was pronounced Osaka (the o long).

MORRIS BENT.


NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Leviathan ; or, the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiasticall and drill. By Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. The Text edited by A. R. Waller. (Cambridge, University Press.) WITH an edition of Hobbes's ' Leviathan' the Cam- bridge University Press opens out a new and attractive series of " English Classics." The cha- racter of a series intended for the lovers of English literature in its best days must not be arbitrarily judged by the selection of an opening volume, seeing that the list of works ready for speedy pub- lication includes 'The English Works of Roger Ascham,' edited by Mr. Aldis Wright ; ' The Poems of Richard Crashaw,' edited by Mr. Waller ; and 'The Early Poems of George Crabbe,' edited by the Master of Peterhouse. All will be published in a handsome and attractive form, reproducing with scrupulous fidelity the original spelling and punctuation, and supplying a text upon which the student can depend as upon the original editions. The ' Leviathan ' is far from a common work. Of the genuine 1651 folio copies are scarce, though later editions bearing the same date are encoun- tered. In these later impressions the crowned figure on the title-page bears, says Mr. Waller, a manifest resemblance to Cromwell. A full history of the circumstances under which the later portrait was substituted for the earlier, or Carolinian eikon, would be curious. So timid was, however, Hobbes as regards facing persecution that the change was probably dictated by what was held to be expediency. In the voluminous edition of Hobbes


by Molesworth the ' Leviathan ' has, of course, its place, and it is in that shape that the work has of late been most closely studied. 1 he present edition will do much to revive interest in a philosopher who connects, in a sense, the teaching of Gassendi with that of Locke, and has the merit, rare among his tribe, of lucidity. Regarded in his own country a an atheist, Hobbes had to face strenuous opposition. On the Continent his influence was more felt. It is but a fragmentary scheme that he expounds, and he carries paradox to its utmost limits ; but his work has had a decided and permanent effect upon European thought, and the present publication is likely to lead to a renewed and closer study of it- A few alternative readings are supplied at the end, together with an index 01 persons and places other than Scriptural. One of the most interesting chapters is that on ' Darkness ' and its denizens.

Great Masters. Part X. (Heinemann.) PART X. of 'Great Masters ' opens with 'An Old Woman saying Grace,' by Nicolaes Maes, from the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam, one of the few works of a little- known and not too highly esteemed pupil of Rembrandt, painted in his best period. It ha all the minute realism and conscientious sincerity of the Dutch School. The atmosphere is superbly produced. In a totallydifferent line is ' The Rape of Ganymede,' from the Vienna Gallery, attributed to Correggio. This is a striking and remarkable work in Allegri's most sensuous style ; the foreshortening is marvellous, and the black plumage of the eagle- stands in strange contrast with the colour and tissue of the flesh. The figure of Ganymede is chubby and almost feminine, while the face shows strangely little feeling for one embarked on so dan- gerous a flight. From the Hague Gallery comes, the superb portrait by Hans Holbein of Robert Cheseman, of Dormanswell, painted in 1533, wherv the subject was forty-eight years of age. Some- thing has recently been discovered about Chese- man, who was a justice of the peace and a man of position in Middlesex. Nothing is known, how- ever, to account for his singularly aristocratic and refined appearance. On account of the hawk which he bears he was once credited with being falconer to Henry VIII. Whatever he may have been, the portrait is beyond praise. Last comes Gains- borough's ' Girl feeding Pigs,' from Lord Carlisle's collection, a picture which, on its first exhibition, in 1782, was purchased by Sir Joshua, and was afterwards in the famous dolonna Collection. It is declared to have few equals among his works for colour and tone. In every instance the repro- ductions are brilliant.

The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. Edited by E. V. Lucas. Vol. IV. Dramatic Specimens and the Garrick Plays. (Methuen & Co.) THE appearance of this volume of Mr. Lucas's exhaustive and monumental edition of the works of Charles and Mary Lamb brings the collection once more into consecutive order, the volumes previously issued consisting of i., ii , iii., and v. All we have now to await before the definitive edition is in our hands consists of the letters and of the promised life by the editor. For reasons which he advances, and which seem to us thoroughly justified, Mr. Lucas chooses as the basis of his text not the original edition of Longmans of 1808 of the text of the 'Specimens' and the additions from the 'Gar- rick Plays' contributed to Hone's ' Table-Book' in.