78
NOTES AND QUERIES. do* s. n. JULY 23, 1904.
Admirably effective are, in the present case, the
liaisons between the separate parts, and the idea
that the whole is the product of co-operative labour
is not aggressively assertive. Prof. Montague and
Mr Moreton Macdonald are the principal contri-
butors to the accounts of the elections to the States
General, to the National Assembly, the Legislative
Assembly, and the National Convention to the
Fall of the Gironde, the latter supplying also an
excellent chapter on the Thermidorian Reaction.
So soon as Bonaparte is brought prominently upon
the stage, Dr. J. Holland Rose comes to the fore.
Tn addition to the chapters he supplies are those
of Mr. H. W. Wilson on 'The Naval War' and
' The Struggle for the Mediterranean,' Mr. G. K.
Fortescue's account of ' The Directory,' and Prof.
Lodge's narrative of 'The Extinction of Poland.'
To Mr. P. F. Willert, of Exeter College, is assigned
the responsible chapter on 'Philosophy and the
Revolution,' in which the famous work of Jean
Joseph Mounier and the ' Mercure Britannique ' of
Mallet Du Pan are contrasted. Going behind
Rousseau and the Encyclopaedists, and abandoning
as purposeless the attempt to trace in classical
writers the " history of the idea of Nature, her
rights and her law," Mr. Willert finds what were
called " the principles of 1789 " recognized and used
in the sixteenth century against the authority of the
Crown by the Catholics and Huguenots,'and notably
by the priest Jean Boucher' ' a trumpet of sedition "
Bayle called him and the Jesuit Mariana. Mon-
tai<me and the " Libertines " placed deadly weapons
in the hands of Voltaire, and Bayle supplied the
opponents of orthodoxy and tradition with a quiver
not easily emptied. As showing the influence of
the Libertines, a phrase is quoted from the Duchess
of Orleans, employed in 1679, to the effect that
"every young man either is or affects to be an
atheist." The Jansenist controversy, and " the fierce
and indecent conflict between the Molinist hierarchy
and the Gallican Parlement over the Bull Uni-
genitus," are said to have dealt deadly blows at
religion. Importance is attached to Montesquieu,
whose 'Parisian Letters' preceded by thirteen
years Voltaire's ' Letters on the English,' though in
him, we are told, a modern reader is disgusted by a
frigid arid elaborate indecency, "far more repulsive
than the spontaneous obscenity of Aristophanes
and Rabelais."
Apart from appendices, bibliographical lists, and other supplementary matter of highest value to the student, the volume contains twenty-five chapters, each dealing with some important aspect of the Revolution, and each demanding the kind and amount of notice ordinarily awarded a separate work. How impossible becomes accordingly the effort to do justice to the work, or to give an idea of the contents, is evident. A few interesting sentences are devoted to Simon the Cobbler, the friend of Marat and the murderer of Louis XVII., and the Thermidorians themselves are taxed with having acquiesced in his death. "In praising the moderation of the Thermidorian Government," says Mr. Macdonald, " it should never be forgotten that they share the blame for the most brutal crime of the whole Revolution." A touching picture is presented of the Dauphin passing away, according to his own description, to the sound of " heavenly music and the voice of his mother." Another portion of the work worthy of close study is the description of the events of the 18th Brumaire. Apart from it& claim to breadth of view and impar-
tiality, the history will be widely useful as a work of
reference. In this respect the index might, perhaps,
have been larger. We have used it freely, however,
without being sensible of any notable deficiency.
An academically superior tone in dealing occasion-
ally with certain matters is to be pardoned, and
perhaps to be expected.
Great Masters. Part XIX. (Heinemann.) WITH so much delight is each successive part received of this noble publication, that we begin to look with regret to the period, now close at hand, of completion, when the fort- nightly recurrence of four new plates is no longer to be expected. Part XIX. opens with one of the glorious paintings by Titian of that daughter Lavinia whom he called " the absolute mistress of his soul," and " the person dearest to- him in the world." This work, which shows her holding aloft a basket or dish of fruit, was once in. the possession of Niccolo Crasso, and is now in the Berlin Museum. It is painted with a brush every touch of which is a caress. From Mr. Donaldson's collection comes a Dutch ' Landscape ' of Jan van Goyen, presenting a view of canals, windmills, and cottages, with a central tower like that at Delft. No spot exactly realizing what is shown is to be found, and the design is reluctantly declared imaginary. Romney's ' Elizabeth, Countess of Derby,' is also from a private collection, that of Sir Charles Tennant. It is a highly finished work, in which the artist is credited with imitating his rival Sir Joshua, who also painted the same lady. Another
Sicture by Sir Joshua is supposed to have been estroyed by her husband after he had divorced her, and is only known from the contemporary engraving. Last comes from the Haarlem Museum, where we have often admired it, Frans Hals's Doelen- stuck, 'The Officers of the Corps of St. Adriaen,' a marvellous reproduction of life. Apropos of this, the editor says that it is only in recent years that the fame of Frans Hals has reached its full develop- ment. So true is this that in a period well within our memory a judge might have picked up for fifty pounds pictures the value of which is now counted in hundreds, or even thousands. The number is once more in the full sense repre- sentative.
The History of Fulk Fit?,- Warine. Englished by Alice Kemp- Welch. With an Introduction bv L. Brandin, Ph.D. (De La More Press.) SINCE it was first privately printed by Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy, the history, or romance, of Fulk Fitz- Warine, contained in a unique MS. in French in the British Museum (Reg. 12 C. xii.), has been three times translated and pretty frequently issued, the best - known edition being that given in 1855 by Thomas Wright as one of the four works con- stituting the Warton Club publications. So far as regards historical significance, the book assigns to one the deeds of several successive bearers of the name. In a readable translation and in a pretty shape the volume before us will give wider pub- licity to a story that deserves to be generally known. Its connexion with the Quatre fils Aymon and with Robin Hood is shown in the introduction. The work, which now forms a part of "The King's Classics," has been of service to ProL Skeat in his ' Ludlow Castle.' It constitutes very agreeable and entertaining reading, and, if not historically accu- rate, casts light upon history.
