Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/364

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL APRIL 13, 1907.


make a volume. If this is so, lit is a pity. One may say that marriage is common with high and low but heroism is rare (we mean particularly the sort of heroism which occurs in everyday life, not on the battle-field), and deserves the transfiguring touch of poetry.

The Enf/lixh Catalogue of Books for 190G. (Sampson

Low, Marston & Co.)

FROM 100, South wark Street, S.E., appears the r seventieth yearly issue of this important biblio- graphical work, one of the most trustworthy and indispensable guides to the collector of books and the dealer therein. In this the titles and index .are in one alphabet. The value of the work, proven by long experience, is once more apparent. The names and addresses of publishers, together with those of the principal publishers in the United States and Canada, are supplied.

'The Scottish Historical Review. January April,

1907. (Glasgow, MacLehose & Sons.) MUCH has been written on what is known as the Great Schism of the Roman Church an event which largely modified the hold which the Papacy had on the nations of Europe, and was the fore- runner, though but in a slight degree the cause, of the Reformation. No history, however, has yet been written of this important contest of sufficient scope to satisfy the reasonable desires of either the historian or the student of theology. The subject is in many respects the most difficult in mediaeval history, for it must never be forgotten that a large number of the most devout and conscientious Catholics of the time St. Vincent Ferrer among others took the side of him who is now generally regarded as the anti-Pope. To the future historian, when he arises, Mr. A. Francis Steuart's ' Scotland and the Papacy during the Great Schism ' will be a valuable directory of local knowledge. Scotland, as a kingdom, took the side of the anti-Popes. Why this was so it is hard to say ; perhaps the fact that England adhered to the Roman Pontiff, and France to the dweller at Avignon, may have had something to do with it, but it is not easy to believe that a geographical reason of this kind can have had much weight ; for although the State held with what is called the schismatic party, the Roman Pontiff had a by no means despicable following in Scotland, which was at times the cause of dispute and turmoil. On these matters Mr. Steuart has collected many useful facts, and, so far as we can see, has stated the case with admirable fairness.

Mr. J. L. Morison's paper on 'Ancient Legend and Modern Poetry in Ireland ' indicates a pro- found knowledge of the oldest thoughts and imaginings of the Irish people. With all he has said some people may not agree, but no one can master what is given without an increase in breadth of view. Mr. Morison feels deeply the intrinsic power of those forms of knowledge or feeling which are embodied in Irish legend. In such cases neither knowledge nor feeling has to him anything beyond symbolic significance, for he says, in words with which many readers will be in full agreement, that "The mood which finds satisfaction in old tales is that which recognizes how things which do appear constitute only a fringe of reality, and how beyond are truths whose import may bow the mind with awe."

The Rev. J. Hungerford Pollen discusses once more the vexed question of the Papal dispensation


for the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, with Darnley. Much depends on the time when it was issued. The document was antedated for the pur- pose of legalizing a marriage which had taken place before the dispensation reached Scotland.

Miss Sophia H, McacLehose contributes a pape r on the separation of Church and State in France as it was carried out in 1795. It is of special interest at the present time, the more so as we cannot detect the slightest trace of party feeling. She might, however, have drawn attention, we think to the injustice displayed by some of the subordinates who carried out in the provinces the details of the great change.

' The Union of 1707 ' is of undying interest to all Scotchmen. There are at the present time those who hold it to have been a national crime, though they may be few in number ; but no one who knows the history of what occurred can doubt that the means by which the change was brought about were culpable. Mr. William Law Mathieson has told the story accurately, but in a manner so highly condensed that he does not impress the English reader so fully as he ought. This may perhaps be pardoned in one who has before written at greater length on the same subject.

In the notes at the end there is a Scottish variant of the warning to boqk-stealers, which we take the freedom of transferring to our own pages, wherein many English forms of this good advice have already acquired immortality: "He yat stelis yis Buyk fra Me, god gif he be hangit one ane tre. Amen for me, amen for the [thee], amen for all good company. Teste manu propria."


We must call special attention to the following notices :

ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- lication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

To secure insertion of communications corre- spondents must observe the following rules. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip ot paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. When answer- ing queries, or making notes with regard to previous entries in the paper, contributors are requested to put in parentheses, immediately after the exact heading, the series, volume, and page or pages to which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second com- munication "Duplicate."

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately, nor can we advise correspondents as to the value of old books and other objects or as to the means of disposing of them.

R. S. (' Visiting my Relations' and 'Reminiscences of Thought and Feeling '). The author was Mary Ann Kelty, who died in 1873. See D.N.B.'

CORRIGENDUM. Ante, p. 274, col. 1, 1. 24, for

hare read hari.

NOTICE.

Editorial communications should be addressed to "The Editor of 'Notes and Queries '"Adver- tisements and Business Letters to "The Pub- lishers at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.G.