"For once I loved a mayden fayre," and has a chorus in the "Mayden's'" answer, "Hey nonny, nonny, nonny!" More than one ballad refers to the familiar subject of the king and the Miller of Mansfield. Some of the pieces are religious, some political, others again festive, and not a few deal with monstrous offences and crimes. No. 1, 'The Widow of Watling,' tells how the fair woman in question is branded by her son as a harlot, and her daughters denounced as bastards. Being as they are Elizabethan and Jacobean, the ballads are early specimens. Many of them are illustrated by reproductions of the quaint pictures in the blackletter copies. The whole is treated in very scholarly fashion, and the book is in all respects a credit to the august press from which it is issued.
The Fortnightly leads off with a poem by Mr. Alfred Noyes dedicated to Mr. Swinburne, dated April 5th, 1837, and called 'A Seventieth Birthday.' A very thoughtful and edifying article on Fielding and his writings is supplied by Mr. H. C. Minchin. 'King Mugwump; or, the Moral of the Elections,' is an amusing contribution. Major Arthur Griffiths gives an illuminating article on 'London Clubs, Past and Present.' The only mistake we find in this is the calling of the Windham Club the Wyndham, which is a common, though not too pardonable form of error. 'Modern England' is an estimate of Mr. Herbert Paul's work so entitled.
The early articles in The Nineteenth Century, though important in themselves, are mainly controversial. After the first four, women occupy a rather disproportionate share. Miss Rose M. Bradley gives her impressions concerning 'Some London Children at Play,' and Miss Eva M. Morton writes on 'Children's Competitions.' The Abbé Ernest Dimnet describes 'M. Clemenceau as Writer and Philosopher.' Dr. George W. Prothero has an earnest and appeciative contribution on 'The Life and Letters of Leslie Stephen'; and Mr. Herbert Paxil writes eloquently upon the 'Greek Anthology.' Canon Vaughan has a paper on 'The Literary Associations of Hampshire'; and Mr. J. A. Spender puts in 'A Plea for the Popular in Literature.'
In The Cornhill S. G. Tallentyre gives a capital picture of 'The Curé.' Mr. R. Brudenell Carter has an important contribution on 'Eugenics and Descent.' Dr. Arthur Sidgwick, advancing from the Sophoclean view, writes on 'Some Forms of Irony in Literature'; and His Honour Judge Parry on 'The Folk-lore of the County Court.'
The frontispiece to The Burlington consists of a superb reproduction of a photograph, by Mr. Emery Walker, of Frans Hals's 'Young Man with Mandoline,' the recent history of which is remarkable. Fine illustrations accompany the statement of 'The Case for Modern Painting,' by a modern painter. The first plate, 'Hermes and the Infant Bacchus,' by Mr. C. H. Shannon, is very fine. A colour-print of fisherwomen by Hokusai is a remarkable work. Mr. Laurence Binyon has a note on 'Colour-Printing in China and Japan.'
To The Gentleman's Mr. Bayford Harrison contributes the first part of 'The Marriages of Mazarin.' Mr. Walpole-Bond describes 'The Raven at Home.' Mr. Arthur Salmon has an appreciative article on James Beattie. An interesting sketch is that of 'Life in the Abruzzi.' A vivacious and illustrated paper is on 'Sweet Nell Gwynn and Sandford House, Chelsea.'
Booksellers' Catalogues—April.
This is evidently to be a Shakespeare year. On Saturday, the 23rd of March, Mr. Quaritch purchased at Sotheby's a copy of the First Folio for the astounding sum of 3,600l. Mr. Quaritch's victory was believed to be England's, but at the end of the day the winner informed The Daily Telegraph representative "that he had succumbed to an offer made by Dr. A. S. Rosenbach, of Philadelphia, who was present at the sale. The famous song of 'Off to Philadelphia' therefore takes on another meaning." At the same sale 'The Compleat Angler' brought 1,290l., and The Daily Telegraph states that "the total of the sale 16,351l. 15s. 6d., works out at the astonishing average of over 67l. a printed book. Mr. J. H. Slater in his 'Book-Prices Current' for 1906 gives the average of each lot for the season 1905-6 as 2l. 11s. 3d. We expect that with the sale just recorded and that of the Mildmay Library on the 18th to the 20th inst. Mr. Slater will find this year's average greatly increased.
The first catalogue on our list is that of Mr. Frank Albert, of Richmond, Surrey. It contains a choice collection of first editions. These include 'Jane Eyre,' 7l. 7s.; and Byron's 'The Age of Bronze,' 1l. 1s. Under Dickens is 'The Pickwick Papers,' in original parts, 9l. 15s. Part 15 contains an apology for delay in its issue, owing to the death of Dickens's sister-in-law, Mary Hogarth. 'Our Mutual Friend,' wrappers and advertisements complete, is 1l. 15s.; 'Master Humphrey's Clock,' 2l. 15s.; and 'Nicholas Nickleby,' 4l. 10s. Under Kipling are first Indian editions of 'Soldiers Three,' 2l. 15s.; and 'Wee Willie Winkie,' 2l. 2s. Under William Morris is the Kelmscott edition, 8 vols., 9l. 9s. Under Rossetti is the first edition of his 'Poems,' 3l. 3s.; also of 'The Early Italian Poets,' 2l. 10s.; 'Timbuctoo,' Tennyson's poem which obtained the Chancellor's medal, Cambridge, is 2l. 10s. The Athenæum, in its review of this on the 22nd of July, 1829, said: "We have never before seen a prize poem which indicated really first-rate poetical genius, and which would have done honour to any man that overwrote. Such, we do not hesitate to affirm, is the little work before us." We would suggest to Mr. Albert that he should either number or date his catalogues.
Mr. Thomas Baker's Catalogue 508 contains a complete set of Migne's 'Patrologia Latina,' 222 vols., 120l.; first edition of 'The Anatomy of Melancholy,' 24l.; the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology, 1872-93, 5l. 5s.; "The Ante-Nicene Christian Library," 25 vols., 3l.; Bampton Lectures, 112 vols., complete except four, 25l.; Diderot et D'Alembert's 'Encyclopédie,' 33 vols., folio, Paris, 1751-77, 5l.; first edition of White's 'Selborne,' 9l.; Clement's 'L'Art de Vérifier les Dates,' 8 vols., 8l. 8s.; "The International Library of Literature," edited by Dr. Garnett, 4l. 15s.; and Scott's Poems, first editions, 5 vols., 2l. 10s. There are interesting items under Greek Church, Jesuits, and Jewish.
Messrs. Browne & Browne, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, have in their List 88 eighteen Vanity Fair caricatures of the Bench and the Bar for 2l. 10s.; also 'The Encyclopædia Britannica,' Times edition, 36 vols., including the supplementary volumes, 18l. (cost the late owner, a subscriber, 40l.); and Aleyn's 'Prince Henrie,' 1633-8, 6l. American items include
