ii. SEPT. 10, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
219
advantage. In quoting Dante's lines, 'Inferno,'
xix. 115-17, addressed to the Emperor Constantine,
beginning
Ahi, Constantin, di quanto nial fu matre, it would be better to use the translation of Milton, happily available, than that of the respectable Gary. It is satisfactory to find the right meaning and authority given for the phrase, constantly misused, " Cui bono?" Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and German quotations are numerous, and occasional excursions are made into other Romance languages. In a quotation from ' Le Grand Testa- ment' of Villon (see p. 64) the word "eftions" should be estions. The long -s has been mistaken for an/. In the black-letter editions what is here given
Deux eftions, et n'avions qu'ung cueur, should read
Deux estoient et n'avoient qu'ung cueur. Under "Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat," appears a long and erudite note. We have found a few errors, all trivial, and are not disposed to dwell on them. On the other hand, we can bear the tribute that, apart from its value as a book of reference, the work leads us on to sustained perusal. When once we dip into it we are scarcely able to lay it down.
Essays on Art, Life, and Science. By Samuel Butler. Edited by R. A. Streatfeild. (Grant Richards.)
THE author of ' Erewhon ' was that rarely found and eminently welcome combination an exact scholar and a profound humourist. This praise includes in Renaissance times Rabelais, Erasmus. and Montaigne, men who have been the chief delight of subsequent scholars. With these men, or with some of them, at least, Butler has this in common, that he lets his fancy run away with him, and leaves his worshippers in some doubt as to how far, if at all, he is ever to be taken quite seriously. Doubt of the kind presents itself often in reading these collected essays, two of which were first heard as lectures, while the rest were published in the Universal fieview. As the work of a man unique in his way, of most varied acquire- ments, of unsurpassable alertness and of profound originality, a pungent satirist, and yet a dreamer and a worshipper of the ideal, the papers now collected are very welcome. 'Quis Desiderio,' which stands first, approaches books from a new bibliophilistic, though hardly from a bibliographical standpoint. In order to write in comfort at the British Museum or elsewhere, Butler needed a sloping desk, a commodity the Museum does not supply. A task on which he bent his energies was to discover among all the "interesting works'" which the Museum contains one that he could adapl to his purpose. This, after weeks of experiments he found in Frost's * Lives of Eminent Christians, and on this most of his lucubrations were penned As no one but he ever employed the work, it was re moved from its accessible shelves, and the subsequeni career of the author was said to have dependec upon his ability to find another equally available volume. Some delightfully characteristic humour is spent on this discussion. 'Ramblings in Cheap side,' which follows, contains much charming extra vagance, such as the declaration concerning books that " ' Webster's Dictionary,' ' Whitaker's Alma nack,' and 'Bradshaw's Railway Guide' should be
ufficient for any ordinary library." At the close
f the volume is to be found some serious and con-
roversial reasoning on matters connected with the
rigin of species. What is really to be read and to
>e commended to all lovers of humour is the open-
ng portion. He who fails to acquire or read this
olume will neglect his opportunities.
PART XXIII. of Great Masters (Heinemann)v which, if the original plan is maintained, should be he penultimate number, contains four specimens >f Velasquez, Lancret, Veronese, and Rembrandt, The first portrait, that of 'The Lady with the an,' painted in 1631, is one of the few likenesses- f that illustrious artist which depict a person of lirth supposedly non-royal. Whom it presents will never be known. It is enough to say that she s characteristically Spanish, religious, dark, ano> landsome, wears her mantilla with grace, and is >ainted as only this artist could paint. Lancret's FeteGalante, from Sir Algernon Coote's collection, s one of his most important works. It is painted in> acknowledged imitation of ' L'Embarcation pour Jythore' of VVatteau, his rival and superior, and s a striking specimen of his gayest and most ,oyous work. An essay upon regency manners and upon characteristic features of eighteenth-century iterature might be written from this work. Fron> the Doge's Palace, Venice, where it occupies the place for which it was originally designed, comes The Rape of Europa' of Paolo Veronese. Not very comprehensible from the point of view of fable is the picture, and it is as far as possible from ">reek motive. It is, however, a splendid piece of iageantry, and its rich stuffs, gorgeous colouring, exquisitely voluptuous fc
ana exquisitely voluptuous forms are faithfully
reproduced. In striking contrast with the sensuous-
ness of this work is the rigid asceticism of the
- Portrait of an Old Woman by Rembrandt, from
the collection of Mr. Hugh L. Lane. Increased knowledge has deprived this work of the title of the painter's mother, traditionally bestowed upon it. It was, indeed, executed twelve years after the death of that mother Rembrandt so frequently and so reverently painted. Its uncompromising fidelity is not its only transcendent merit.
MR. H. B. M'CALL contributes to Yorkshire Note* and Queries for August an ^interesting account of the opening of a barrow at Kirklington, which took idace about ten years ago. It was probably of the Bronze period, though no implements were dis- covered, so that we have no absolute certainty. Most of our readers have heard of the Halifax; gibbet law, but the hall of judgment, where the trials took place, had passed out of common memory and become a joiner's workshop, but a vague tradi- tion of its former use had still survived. It was used as a place for the trial of certain offences in the eighteenth century, for we hear of two notorious scolds being tried there and condemned to the ducking-stool. Jemmy Hirst was a notorious York- shire character, of whom Mr. A. W. Millar, of Bradford, gives an account. His eccentricities were of an amusing character. He usually rode on a bull when he went to the market at Snaith. He had also trained a white bull, called Jupiter, on which he was accustomed to follow the hounds. We have heard that soon after his death in 1829 a chap-book account of his life was vended by the North-Country hawkers. We think it is now scarce, as we have never seen a copy. Mr. Redman's paper on old Sheffield plate is of interest. The process of coat-
