480
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. JCXE n, 190*.
Stevenson through the Cevennes. Mr. Frederick
Lees has obtained from well-known Frenchmen
opinions concerning our degenerate stage. There
are Englishmen who could, "an they would," tell
him more on a subject on which much might be
said. The question, ' What is a Lady ? ' is answered
by saying she is a gentlewoman. This is doubtless
accurate, but not altogether illuminating. Part vi.
of ' Historical Mysteries,' by Mr. Lang, in the
Cornhill, deals with ' The Murder of Escovedo.' In
this case the mystery has nothing to do with the
manner in which the crime was committed or
the identity of the murderer, but is wholly con-
cerned with the motive of the deed. Sir Herbert
Maxwell supplies, from the latest sources, a deeply
interesting account of Sir John Moore, and the
Dean of Westminster describes ' Westminster
Abbey in the Early Part of the Seventeenth Cen-
tury.' Mrs. Elizabeth Robins Pennell describes
from an American standpoint some of the mysteries
of ' London Chambers,' and Mr. C. J. Cornish gives
interesting particulars concerning ' Partridge Rear-
ing in France.' In ' At the Sign of the Ship,' in
Longman's, Mr. Lang utters an incidental phrase
the value of which we should like to see acknow-
ledged. It is to the effect that " all lectures are a
nuisance to a studious person," and the utterance
should be written in letters of gold. We have
attended lectures innumerable, and never received
the slightest gain from any. Mr. Lang writes justly
and amusingly on Herbert Spencer. 'A Journey
from Edinburgh to Paris in 1802' is striking and
interesting. There is some excellent fiction. Dr.
Japp sends to the Gentleman's a pleasant 'Vision
of Trees.' Mr. A. M. Stevens, in ' Tobacco and
Drama,' speaks of allusions to smoking in plays,
such as 'The Fawn,' 'Blurt Master Constable,'
'A Fair Quarrel,' &c. 'A Plea for Cowper' is
advanced. It is welcome, but we did not think it
required.
GERMANY, which takes a vivid interest in English philology, is to produce at the beginning of next vear a new periodical devoted to modern English, entitled Bausteine. Prof. Gustav Kriiger, already well known to us as an excellent writer on English, and Leon Kellner are the editors, and they are supported by the new Philological Union of Vienna and various scholars, the English representative of the scheme being Mr. N. W. Thomas, who can be addressed on the subject at 7, Coptic Street, W.C. The circular gives on its first page a formidable list of words which are not satisfactorily rendered in <Jerman dictionaries e.g. , agency, aggressive, argue, baffle, effusive, poignant, strenuous, distracted, and bounder, a term which, we note, has been applied by a distinguished professor to St. Paul. Special efforts are to be made to render the literary and aesthetic adjectives " of a Gosse or Archer," who will occasionally, we dare say, afford occasion for some "furious thinking," if we may adopt the French idiom. Great writers, such as Milton and Dryden, will also have their vocabularies examined, and we hope that some effort will be made to fix the phraseology of science. Some words of the kind used by Erasmus Darwin will be treated in the first number, as well as Parliamentary language and the group of words "suggest, suggestion, sug- gestive." The scheme seems to us excellent, and may, we hope, help us to arrest and revive the fast- fading glories of our tongue. Only we trust that scholars of our own will be allowed to supervise
and occasionally revise views on difficult English
passages put forward by German ingenuity. While
we envy and admire Teutonic erudition in this
matter, as in others, we see occasionally things
suggested which every-day practice of our own
tongue pronounces impossible or mistaken. English
slang is a snare for the outsider e.g., Baumann,
in his ' Londinismen,' a capital book, mistakes
wholly the meaning of " That 's not cricket." The
Times has been boasting of its pure English ; but
how many foreigners know what the " wallflower"
we once saw flourishing in its account of a social
function means? Further, our best writers, like
Sophocles, often have the vernacular latent in
their dignified periods, or a piece of homeliness
half peering through their grandeur in a way which
would defy the deep student of many philological
dissertations. And words are often brought to-
gether with a happy perversity because they do not
bear the value of their usual combination. These
are the graces and subtleties of language bound up
with its use as a living instrument. There is the
further difference in humour and sentiment between
two peoples which may be so slight as occasionally
to defy verbal analysis. But we expect the best
results from this spirited enterprise, for which that
splendid storehouse the ' New English Dictionary '
supplies unlimited material, especially as there is a
section which flatters us most sincerely. A pillory
for journalese would be an interesting addition to
the periodical, though the offenders would pro-
bably regard it as nothing but an advertisement of
their ability to be " up to date."
to
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J. P. B. ('Recommended to Mercy'). MR. LATHAM stated ante, p. 232, that Mrs. Houstoun's novel was not the work he sought.
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