320
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. OCT. is, 1904.
Tudor -kings, Henry VII. and VIII. These, as is
pointed out, extend over about sixty years. The
translated letters are taken from MSS., from Camp-
bell's 'Materials for a History of the Reign of
Henry VII.,' and from the compilations of Hearne
and Halliwell - Phillip[p]s. Very interesting and
characteristic are many of these letters, those espe-
cially of Henry VIII. We should like at times
more information than is supplied, or than is
always obtainable, concerning them. It is the
worst fault of Halliwell-Phillipps that he refuses
to give authority, his alleged excuse being that he
had himself hunted things out, and that others
might do the same, the sources open to himself
being open to all. Some letters which he says
that he took from the State Papers Mr. Steele
is unable to find. Some of Henry's letters to Anne
Boleyn, which breathe the most fervent affection,
were presumably, and, indeed, apparently, written
in French. By whom was the translation made?
No scribe or translator would use a word such as
" elengeness " for loneliness, or talk of Anne's "pretty
dukkys " or breasts. The spelling generally is not
-of the epoch, nor does it conform to that given
in the 'N.E.D.' in words quoted from Halliwell-
Phillipps's edition of the letters. The volume
constitutes a welcome addition to the series to
which it belongs. A frontispiece of Anne Boleyn,
by an unknown artist, is admirably reproduced,
but endows the queen with no special beauty.
Gerald the Welshman. By Henry Owen, D.C.L.
(Nutt.)
^FIFTEEN years after its first appearance, Dr. Owen's monograph on Giraldus Cambrensis appears in a revised and enlarged edition. To those who do not know the monumental edition of his works under- taken for the Rolls Series by J. S. Brewer and J. F. Dimock this work should be welcome. It supplies a full account of the turbulent career of this handsome, heroic, vainglorious, self-inflated .mediaeval ecclesiastic, and gives a capital insight into his works, which are a remarkable product of knowledge and credulity, and are the more interest- ing to the antiquary on account of the author's total absence of historic perception. His 'Itinerarium Cambrise,' his 'De Rebus a se Gestis,' his 'Invec- tionum Libellus,' and his biographies of Bishops of Lincoln and others have value, and his ' Gemma Ecclesiastica ' throws a striking, if at times decep- tive, light upon the excesses of an unmarried clergy, and might be accepted as a narrative of a fifteenth- century storyteller rather than a twelfth-century Welsh ecclesiastic. Giraldus was born at Manorbier, one of the most picturesque spots in Little England beyond Wales.
Mother Goose's Melody. With Introduction and
Notes by Col. W. F. Prideaux, C.S.I. (Bullen.) EDITED by that tasteful and accurate scholar Col. Prideaux, printed by Messrs. Constable, and issued in artistic shape by Mr. Bullen, this facsimile repro- duction of the earliest known edition of ' Mother Goose's Melody ' is a gem. It is a booklet to delight equally the bibliophile, the antiquary, and the folk- lorist. With its reproduction of the old illustra- tions and of the quaint lyrics which linger in our memories, it is a perpetual delight. Did we not know we can now always recur to it, we could scarcely tear ourselves away from it. Col. Prideaux's introduction and notes are beyond praise.
The Story of Arithmetic. By Susan Cunnington.
(Sonnenschein & Co.)
THIS clever and interesting volume is written by an assistant mistress of Brighton and Hove High School, for the delectation of her pupils. It gives much curious information not generally accessible. 'Folk-lore in Arithmetic' may be commended to our readers. It is said that the term thousand as used in Hebrew, as in the Arabian ' Thousand and One Nights,' is indefinite in signification. A few problems given, from 1700 B.C. downwards, furnish an agreeable intellectual exercise. The problem of Ahmes, the earliest in date, recalls that of St. Ives and its old wives.
IK the Burlington Magazine the third portion of the article on the lonides bequest deals with the French landscape painters. It has designs of 'A Storm,' by Rousseau ; ' L'ImmensiteY by Gustave Courbet ; the ' Mill,' by Georges Michel ; ' Twilight,' by Corot, and other well-known works. Some fine pictures of the Venetian School in Sweden are reproduced, including a 'Jupiter and Io,' to which the critic imputes a frivolity we fail to trace. Mr. Claude Phillips has an article on ' Gerard of St. John of Haarlem,' which has several illustrations. Among the editorial articles is a vindication, to a certain extent, of ' Photo- graphy as a Fine Art.'
IN the number for 1 October, p 278, we accident- ally attributed Mr. Chambers's 'Mediaeval Stage' to Messrs. Duckworth as publishers. It is, of course, one of the Clarendon Press books. We were confusing it for the moment with Dr. Mantzius's ' History of Theatrical Art.'
gtotkes to
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