Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/88

This page needs to be proofread.

MO NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vil Jan. 25,1913. the play, and somehow in the various processes ttirough which ' Jocasta' passed the dramatic swiftness of Euripides has disappeared. But there are touches of poetry in ' Jocasta,' and Kinwelmersh, in his ode to Concord at the close of the fourth act, shows his command over that marvellous instrument, the English of the Eliza- bethans. DR. Fen'nell has been employing his enforced leisure (due, we regret to know, to indisposition) in contributing " a mite towards the clearer appreciation of the ' masterpiece ' (H. J.) of Action "—' Edwin Drood,' the initials " H. J.," as our readers know, standing for Prof. Henry- Jackson. In his pamphlet " The Opium- Woman ■and " Datchery" in ' The Mystery of Edwin Drood,' published by Mr. E. Johnson of_ Cambridge, Dr. Fennell first deals with the question of the identity of the Opium-Woman, and suggests that ■one of Miss Rosa Bud's four grandparents, after Rosa's mother was engaged to Mr. Bud, became a hard drinker and then an opium-smoker, so that she figures in ' The Mystery of Edwin Drood ' as the " haggard woman, ' " ' hostess ' of the opium- den frequented by Jasper." As to Datchery, Dr. Pennell agrees with Mr. Edwin Charles and others that he is Bazzard, and he infers that " Baz- zard has been employed for some time, as well as when Datchery visits Cloisterham, as a private de- tective. .. .Rosa's guardian seems a likely person for her father to select for the business of trying to trace her grandmother, if an inebriate, and lost to her relations, with a view to relieving her if necessary, and reclaiming her if possible, and to prevent her annoying Rosa." But though Dr. Pennell " cannot allow that Helena is Datchery," he " believes that as a huntress of her brother's foe she may have gone through one -very trying ordeal, disguised as Edwin Drood, in the crypt, namely, the scene depicted in the central lowest sketch on the cover, and that she scared Jasper into betraying his guilt Bazzard is JJatchery. Eventually the plotters against Jasper's peace invite him to get a key and go with them, nominally to see if any traces of Edwin can be found, but really to be tricked into betraying his secret by seeing what he takes for his victim alive again or for his phantom. So he reveals his secret to the men behind him and to Helena and her escort, or else to Bazzard, before he becomes violent, or tries to escape from the Cathedral or elsewhere." It will be seen that the writer agrees with Sir Robertson Nicoll that Edwin Drood was dead. We cordially welcome this valuable contribu- tion to the studies on the mystery Charles Dickens In? left us. All interested in Mary, Queen of Scots, will be glad to obtain from Mr. Robert McClure of " Ye Auld Book Shop," Cromwell Street, Glasgow, for the small sum of one shilling, the transcript he has just published from a contemporary Venetian manuscript in Latin, entitled Mary, ■Queen of Scots, and the Prince, her Son. Mr. McClure has reproduced on the title-page por- traits of Mary and her son which first appeared in Leslie's ' De Origine Moribus et Rebus Gestis Scotorum,' published at Rome in 1578, and Teprintcd in Holland in 1675. The MS. forms one of a collection of " Relazioni " in the posses- sion of the editor. Booksellers' Catalogues—January. Catalogue No. (504, which we have received from Messrs. Joseph Baer & Co., Frankfort-on- the-Main, contains a list, running to over 2,70(1 items, of works connected with Alsace-Lorraine. Many are of high interest, and we note amonj; them a copy of Martin Schongauer's ' Die Passion '—a complete series of the twelve engrav- ings composing this famous work, 6,000m. ; and Thomas Murner's ' Schelmen-Zunft'—a second edition, printed at Strassburg probably in the same year as the appearance of the original edition at Frankfort. In addition to the thirty- two woodcuts of the Frankfort edition—satirical compositions whose crude and naive character lends probability to the idea that they are the work of the poet himself—the Strassburg edition has four new ones (2,000m.). For 800m. are offered three rare books bound in one volume, with a parchment cover, and bearing an eigh- teenth-century ex - Iibris: Paull's ' Schimpf und Ernst,' the " second part " of the same, and the ' Preidanck' attributed to Sebastian Brant, the two latter first editions, and all three illus- trated with numerous woodcuts, which in the ' Freidanck ' are the work of the master of the " Griininger'schen Offizin." Messrs. Baer's Catalogue 605 is Part V. of their series " Theologia Catholica," and the first section of the subdivision ' Church History.' They have a framed folio sheet of parchment inscribed with " Litterse indulgentiarum" of Pope Sixtus IV. The writing comprises eighty- three lines, two in the middle having been erased by a contemporary or nearly contemporary hand. The top of the sheet is occupied by a miniature, and down the left side are portraits of Popes, with a portrait of Sixtus in an initial S (900m.). ' Concilia Sacrosancta,' the 23 vols, of Coletas's edition of the work of Labbeus and Cossartius, Venice, 1728-33, with the Supplement published twenty years later, is also offered for 900m. Five thousand marks is the price of a perfect copy of De Mandeville's 'Reise nach Jerusalem,' Augsburg, 1481; and we noticed from the Hoe Library, printed on vellum by Verard, a copy of the first edition of the first work of St. Gregory ever translated into French—' L(e) Dialogue mons. Sainct gregoyre,' to quote the title-page. The only other copy resembling it has a woodcut of St. Gregory, here in perfect condition, coloured in such a manner as to render its meaning un- certain (5,000m.). [Notices of other Catalogues held over.] iHoittts to Comspontortts. 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 Building', Chancery Lane, E.C. E. H. Moyi.k Cooper.- Many thanks. Antici- pated ante, p. 57. P. W.—The line meant is evidently "Tread softly because you treed on mv dreams " (Yeats, ' Aedh wishes for theOloths of Heaven ').