200
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. iv. SEPT. 2, 1911.
- nd odd, bright comments vivified by Coleridge's
insight how great at its best all students of Shakespeare should know and judgments of and by Coleridge which afford piquant contrasts. The comments on Walter Scott are, as is remarked in a note, " not justifiable," and will be ranked by the judicious along with the spleen of Carlyle. As for Scott's poetry, a word might have been said of the reasons why Coleridge was prejudiced Against it. Lockhart does not fail to record the metrical hint taken from the casual recitation by Sir John Stoddart of the unpublished ' Christabel.' Pleasant certainly is Coleridge's appreciation of the Lambs ; and there is entertainment to be had, though of a less elevating character, in the poet-philosopher's relations with the motley world of society, politics, trade, and literature. We find him as ingenious in palliations and excuses as Beethoven when that great master did not choose to be bothered with an archducal pupil.
Nanoleon I. : a Biography. By August Fournier. Translated by Annie Elizabeth Adams. With an Introduction by H. A. L. Fisher. 2 vols. (Longmans & Co.)
MR. FISHER points out in his brief Introduction that the author is an Austrian Professor " whose name has long been a household word among those students whose special concern is the lite- rature of the Napoleonic age." The book before us achieved an immediate success in 1885 ; but its present form is an English version of a revision in which the great mass of recent research \*as considered, and which appeared in Vienna, 1904-6. The translator has done her work very well, a fact which Mr. Fisher might have left independent critics to discover. It is pleasant to have in sound and easy English so readable a work as this.
Prof. Founder, unlike some academic nota- bilities, has the gift of putting before the reader clearly and concisely the acts and motives A\hieh reveal character. His history is, in fact, strong in human interest, and, though frequently " docu- mented" in foot-notes, gives a narrative which can be followed with ease, and is free from the infinite complications so dear to the specialist. Wo find, for instance, revealing accounts of the coup d'etat of IS and 19 Bnunaire, and of Napo- leon's life at St. Helena. By his skilful use of detail the author tells us much in a few word?.
With the greatest admiration for Napoleon as a general and strategist, Prof. Foamier does not hesitate to expose his selfishness and trickery, and calls attention to the many discrepancies between fact and the Emperor's rhetoric. To plunge France in perpetual war, even with glorious results, was hardly patriotic, and Napoleon could have indulged as a civilian in his inexhaustible zeal for detail. Even ab Elba he was full of improvements for the island.
Decided views are expressed on many disputed points, but we have no objection to this course. If there is error, Napoleon himself in his dis- torted memoirs has contributed to it. In matters of motive certainty can seldom be attained ; yet it represents the part of history which is of the greatest interest, and the part, in which, it seems to us, Prof. Fournier particularly dis- tinguishes himself. His way of writing, too, if not epigrammatic, is agreeably incisive at times. He brushes aside easily Napoleon's claim, after
coming on board the Bellerophon, to be treated
as a guest rather than an enemy ; and lie does
not take so black a view of Sir Hudson Lowe as
Lord Rosebery did in ' The Last Phase.' He
does not mince words concerning the murder of the
Due d'Enghien, or, earlier in Napoleon's career,
the massacre of prisoners at Acre. In palliation
of the latter a note quotes military reasons,
but, even if these are veracious, " no laws of war
could justify such an iniquitous deed." Ambi-
tion was surely never made of more heartless
stuff than in Napoleon, and his wonderful powers
of attracting people in spite of this are alone suffi-
cient to show his greatness as a " superman."
There are formidable Bibliographies provided at the end of each volume ; two frontispieces which give unusually attractive views of Napoleon, and seven maps.
GEORGE EDWARD COKAYNE. We ought to have noticed before the death, on 6 August, of Mr. George Edward Cokayne, Clarenceux King of Arms. He had reached his eighty-seventh year, and had a unique experience of heraldry, starting his official work as Rouge Dragon in 1859, and later holding the positions of Lancaster Herald and Norroy King of Arms. ' G. E. C.'s Complete Peerage ' has long held the position of a work of prime authority on its subject. But readers of our columns do not need to be told of Mr. Cokayne's wonderful knowledge and ready courtesy. The last letter he ever dictated was sent to Notes and Queries, and he insisted on not leaving a query unanswered in his favourite paper. He was one of our oldest contributors, and. remarked (10 S. xii. 433) that as early as 1852, in the First Series, he wrote under the signature G. E. Adams, his name until 1873.
Reference to the Indexes of the Ninth and Tenth Series will show how much valuable matter from his pen enriched our pages. His unequalled grasp of family history and genealogy was combined with the modesty which, with the desire to help others, is characteristic of the best type of scholar.
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W. T. (" We left our country for our country's good.") From G. Barrington's prologue when Dr. Young's tragedy 'The Revenge' was played by convicts at Sydney, New South Wales, in 1796.
H. C. BARNARD. Forwarded.
