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NOTES AND QUERIES. en s. i. FEB. 12, 1910.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.
Campion's Works. Edited by Percival Vivian.
(Oxford, Clarendon Press.)
WE always expect good matter and a good text when we see the brown coat and white label of the Clarendon Press. In this case we are certainly not disappointed. Mr. Vivian's Introduction represents a notable advance in our knowledge of a lyricist who must appear in every represen- tative collection of English poetry.
Campion does not figure in Palgrave's * Golden Treasury,' having been discovered, or rediscovered, after that volume came into being. Mr. A. H. Bullen's privately printed edition of his works in 1889 is a landmark in this respect. The one before us is due to fresh matter procured by Mr. Vivian when he was working on an edition of the poet for " The Muses' Library." He has followed up clues with such success as to add much to Campion's life. Hitherto the date 'of his birth has been given with a query ; now it is settled as 12 February, 1567. John Campion, his father, was a " Cursitor " who drew up the writs of the Court " de cursu," according to routine, and his office or Inn was near, or possibly on the site of, the present Cursitor Street. John died in 1576 ; his wife Lucy married again in 1577, and died in two years' time. Her second husband also married again, a widow ; and the widow's son and the poet were soon packed off to Peterhouse, and entered as gentlemen pensioners. Anticipat- ing the poetic tradition, Campion did not take a degree at Cambridge, but appears to have gone to London to indulge in a wild career, partly excused by his ignorance of life. His Latin poems, which are very free in expression, and not modelled on Martial for nothing, explain this. He probably got at Cambridge his zeal for Latin poetry and his own proficiency in the art. We must leave further details of the poet's life to readers of Mr. Vivian's volume, who will, we hope, be many.
A sound view is expressed of Campion s lucu- brations on metre contained in his ' Observations on the Art of English Poesie.' Into so vexed a domain it is not profitable to enter. Suffice it to say that the ' Observations ' are worth reading, though, like other excellent persons of a much later date, Campion does not seem to appreciate the difference between quantity and accent. A number of rules of an arbitrary sort are added at the end of the treatise.
The various books of ' Ayres ' give us much of beauty and grace. Campion was clearly a master of the art of love, and when he throws off the affectations of the Euphuist, he produces verse which reminds us of Herrick. We do not profess to understand his hints on the technical side of music. We have, however, read many o the Latin epigrams with pleasure. At their best they are neat and pointed, approximating to the idiom of Martial. There is a well-known story of an Irishman explaining that a man in ragged clothing could not get better clothed because he was so ticklish that he could not bear to be measured and fitted. Oddly enough, this very excuse turns up in Book I. of the Epigrams, 32. Histricus can afford good garments, though
those he has are worn out. Asked what is the
objection to new clothes, he replies : " Timet
titillari." There are two epigrams against
tobacco, and several are clever enough to tempt
the reader to give them an English dress.
IN uniform style with the above the Clarendon Press publishes Spenser's Faerie Queene, in two volumes, containing Books I.-III. and IV. -VII., and edited by Mr. J. C. Smith. His aim is to produce " a true text. . . .founded upon a fresh collation of the Quartos of 1590 and 1596 and the Folio of 1609." The Introduction and the Critical Appendix at the end of the second volume show the care and acumen which Mr. Smith has brought to his study of the poet. He points out that Spenser in nine instances " substitutes for a rhyming word a metrically equivalent synonym which does not rhyme .... It seems as if, borne along on the swell of his metre and the easy flow of his imagination, two words identical in sense and metre, but different in sound, rose to the poet's mind almost simultaneously ; and the one he meant to reject slipped nevertheless from his pen, having been (we infer) the first to occur."
Another source of error is, says Mr. Smith, due to the fact that Spenser, when confronted with a subtle or complex situation, sometimes " involves himself inextricably," the result being passages difficult either to emend or explain. This comment shows that the editor is not one of those determined admirers who can see no wrong in an author they have taken up for special study.
The Critical Appendix is concerned largely with the question^ whether the second thoughts of 1596 are directly due to the poet's own hand or not. Much is, as usual, put down to the un- fortunate printer. Mr. Smith holds that Spenser deliberately altered words like " garre " to " do " as smacking of Northern dialect, while he returned to more archaic forms such as " upsidoune " for " upside doune " (text of 1590). Sometimes " parablepsy " is brought in to account for difficulties. The word is new to us, though its meaning is obvious. This edition is likely to remain the text of Spenser for scholars for many years to come.
THIS month, as might be expected, The National Review is very strong in political denunciation. Lord Willoughby de Broke has some sensible suggestions regarding the conduct of ' Political Meetings,' which, we fear, are not in the least likely to be carried out. Mr. F. S. Oliver notices a recent book which combines economics and politics, ' A Project of Empire,' by Prof. J. S. Nicholson. Mr. Oliver always writes well, and is, therefore, likely to attract attention. There is a charming character-study of the late ' Lord Percy,' by J. S. M., who knew him well. Lprd Percy had qualities which are rare in our nobility, or, indeed, anywhere, and many will regret the death of one so well fitted to serve the State. Miss Mary Bridson gives a good idea of the pleasures of the hunter's life in ' Elephants' Tracks.' She did not get any elephants when she left the shores of Lake Nyasa, but she thoroughly appreciated the differences between hunting life and average civilization. ' Sir John Hawkins, Knight,' by Mr. Austin Dobson, is one of those eighteenth -century articles in which he excels. We are told so much and so easily that we wish
