9*" s. x. DEC. 20, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
499
were done before his education was over, and that
never again will he find time to study Lyly and
many a better man whose works he keeps on his
shelves, with the grim knowledge that the time for
a reperusal will never come. With the young it is,
of course, otherwise. It is possible that one or other
of the volumes of Euphues, a play or two even, though
hardly a work such as ' Pappe with an Hatchet,'
may be included in some curriculum of study. For
young and old alike it is delightful to have on the
shelves the entire works in an edition so scholarly
and so sumptuous, yery much In the work rests
on conjecture, especially as regards the poems
doubtfully assigned our author. Not a few will be
startled to find in Lyly's literary baggage, though
not absolutely assigned to him, poems by Ignoto in
' England's Helicon ' hitherto dubiously credited
to Raleigh or other authors. Mr. Bond's observa-
tions on the contents of ' England's Helicon,' ' The
Phrenix Nest,' &c., are to be studied, as is all he
says. How far internal evidence for the ascription
to Lyly of many of these poems is to be trusted is a
dubious question, and needs closer study than can
easily be afforded. One thing, at least, we may
say : we would not have this part of the volume
abridged. Whether the poems belong to Lyly or
others, it is pleasant to possess them again, even
though we own them already in Mr. Bullen's re-
print or elsewhere. Whenever and however they
present themselves, they are welcome. On Lyly's
position as virtually the earliest of our dramatists
Mr. Bond rightly insists. Shakespeare's indebted-
ness to Lyly is shown in some eminently suggestive
pages. There are some scores of matters we have
marked for observation for which we cannot find
space. Again and again, especially in biblio-
graphical matters, we have tested Mr. Bond's
edition, and find nothing whatever at which to
cavil. His is a noble edition of Lyly to which to
point, and it is as handsome as it is scholarly.
Are we before long to have all our Tudor dra-
matists and poets thus fully treated ? if so, there
is plenty of work for editors. In spite of the
labours of Grosart and others, there is no definitive
edition of half the great Elizabethan writers-
nothing, certainly, to compare with the work before
us. Scholars owe'a deep debt of gratitude to Mr.
Bond. We may scarcely hope, personally, to benefit
by his future efforts, but we welcome him, among
other things, as a pioneer.
A Supplement to Burnet's History of My Own Time.
Derived from Sources Hitherto Unpublished.
Edited by H. C. Foxcroft. (Oxford, Clarendon
Press.)
As has previously been stated (see 9 th S. v. 298), Dr. Osmund Airy has been unable to continue those labours upon Burnet which resulted in the publica- tion of the first portion of the ' History of My Own Time,' dealing with the reign of Charles II. it was announced at the time that no intention existed of carrying the original work further than the close of the first part. That purpose is not even now entertained. Instead of the second part of Burnet s great work, which is accessible in the earlier Clarendon Press editions, we are now presented with a supplemental volume of higher interest, the preparation and conduct of which have been trusted to Miss Foxcroft. The materials for this consist of Burnet's original memoirs, autobiography, letters to Admiral Herbert, and private meditations. That the larger portion of these materials were
in existence has long been known to scholars, the
fact being mentioned by Dr. Routh in the preface
to his edition of 1823 as well as by Miss Strick-
land, Macaulay, Von Ranke, and Dr. Airy. The
volume and much of the work described consist
of fragments. For these things the reader must
be referred to the book, and especially to the
parallel references, which are extensive and, so far
as we can judge, accurate. The added matter is of
the highest importance. Well as he is known
to students of seventeenth - century literature,
Burnet is not generally read. Were it only for the
characters of contemporaries which he supplies he
deserves close study. Among "characters" now
first printed is one of Oliver Cromwell, occupying
some dozen pages. This is different from, if not
more important than, what is said in the ' History,'
vol. i. pp. 138 et seq. Another character that
should be closely studied is that of Lady Russell,
which is supposed to have been omitted from-
the * History ' out of consideration for that
" sweet saint,' 5 who survived Burnet for many
years. It is her modesty only that could have
suffered from its earlier appearance, since
Burnet, whose knowledge of her was close,
finds no words too good for her praise. After
dwelling upon her mixed English and French
extraction, Burnet saf s that " though, she has
naturally a great edge upon her temper (a not very
familiar locution), " better principles have softened
that much," and "though the fire of her passions
ismuch extinguished, theheatand tenderness of them
is still such that, as.it has made her one of the best
wives I ever knew, so it has sunk her into an
extreme sorrow upon her lord's death, which yet
she goyerns so, that though it must appear much to
her friends, she sets it off with no affectation to
others, and, indeed, I have scarce seen one freer
of all the exterior parts of pride than she
is." Burnet, indeed, counts her " among the
perfectest pieces of her sex." Burnet's auto-
biography, from his birth, 1643, to the year 1710,
is written on the model of De Thou, and the bishop
congratulates himself upon the resemblance. The
letters to Admiral Herbert present Burnet as a
humourist. From whatever point of view this
volume is contemplated it is of high importance and
value, and its publication is a boon to history.
No. 6,584 in the catalogue of the Harleian Library, which constitutes the principal source of new matter, of its provenance, and of the manner in which it came into the possession of the nation, is given by Miss Foxcroft in her introduction, wherein may also be found an account of treasures sub- sequently unearthed in the Bodleian. Under what conditions two transcripts of Burnet's great work c%me into possession of the Harley family is not yet ascertained, though some highly ingenious and almost romantic conjecture is hazarded by the editor. That the whole of the ' Secret History,' as Burnet styles it, was originally committed to paper by the hand of the historian is beyond doubt. " With characteristic garrulity" Burnet advertised the existence of his 'Secret Memoirs,' and appears to have shown them in confidence to various in- timates. Common prudence, then, Miss Foxcroft holds, must have suggested the expediency of preparing a duplicate. Of the before-mentioned MS. 6,584 portions only are preserved. Forty-seven opening folios, amounting on a rough calculation to about 4,700, are " missing from the initial 'Number.'"
