460
NOTES AND QUERIES.
[9 th S. II. DKC. 3,
man lucky enough, let us say for things are best
shown in extremes to find a Caxton folio or a
Shakspeare quarto, would be apt to keep it, or turn
it to profitable account, rather than hand it over to
some brother member of the club in whose line it
was supposed to be. At any rate, the society is dead.
It is interesting to read concerning books that have
fallen from their high estate. Every collector
knows that the first editions of the classics, which
were the delight of our grandfathers, are in little
demand, and that unless they are on vellum, in
remarkable binding, or of extreme rarity and
curiosity, they are of little account. Elzevirs,
Aldines, Baskervilles, Bodonis, are not what they
were, and there are scores of other works once
in great demand that may now be easily found.
Fine early English books, meantime, are still
rising. Some pages of Mr. Slater's book give
the prices at which Shakspeare quartos were
sold in the Roxburgh e sale and those they now
fetch. The rise in recent years is enormous.
What will a fine Herrick's ' Hesperides,' 1648, now
bring, or even a fine Suckling's ' Fragmenta Aurea,'
1646? We are not, it will be seen, dealing with the
most costly works. We could ourselves instance a
steady rise in whole classes of English books, and
as steady a decline in others. This, however, we
are not called upon to do. It is the conclusions of
Mr. Slater we are recommending to our readers.
These are good so far as they extend, and the fact
that we could supplement them is of no import-
ance to our readers. We doubt the possibility of
finding any copies for which a collector will care
in the hunting - grounds Mr. Slater commends.
It is possible, of course, to come on a rarity. We
have ourselves done so now and then, as when we
f ound Baudelaire's 'Fleursdu Mai' the first edition,
in the paper covers for the now traditional price of
fourpence, and a genuine first edition, intact and
without a carton, of the ' Apologie pour Herodote '
for a few shillings. But booksellers and all dealing,
however incidentally, with books now nap as rarely
as Homer.
Canterbury Marriage Licences. Edited by J. M.
Cowper. Fourth Series, 1677-1700. (Canterbury,
Cowper.)
IN noticing the third part of Mr. Cowper's 'Can- terbury Marriage Licences' (8 th S. x. 187) we mentioned that the compiler looked forward to completing the work in a fourth part, carrying the entries up to 1700. Considerable progress had at the time been made with this part, which now sees the light, bringing the entire list of licences up to over 32,000. There is in such work no finality short of absolute accomplishment, and we are glad to think that further progress will be made with Mr. Cowper's task, the subsequent parts being, we presume, like the present and previous parts, limited to 108 copies. Female names in the later become more familiar, and the quaintest or most fanciful names on which we light in the present volume are Legey, Adriana, Jocosa, Aphra, Alba, Mabella, Walbery, Bethulia, Abelina, Julian (as a female name), Philadelphia, Christobellow, Bethia, Lovina and Lovoina (these two with the same surname), Godly, and Damaris. Naturally many of the surnames are the same as occur in the previous parts. In the list of trades and professions we find chairbottomers, common sailor (in which the prefix is rather curious), copperas boiler, farmacopea macer, scaveller, and tobacconesse.
Abundant indexes are supplied, and nothing that
can add to the utility of the work is spai-ed. We
congratulate Mr. Cowper on the progress he has
made, and trust that encouragement to finish his
important and self-imposed labour will not be
wanting.
The Tatler. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by George A. Aitken. Vols. I. and II. (Duckworth & Co.)
THOUGH the name of a different publisher appears to the reprint of the Tatler, the first two volumes of which have reached us, the edition is in appear- ance ^a continuation of that, by the same editor, of the Spectator, to which we have frequently drawn attention. The two \vorks are almost uniform in size and shape, the colour of the binding is similar, the type and internal appearance have much in common, and in both editions each volume has a well-executed portrait of one or other of the prin cipal contributors. What is more to the purpose, the editing of the text follows the same lines, the notes especially being pertinent, accurate, and eminently serviceable. Mr. Aitken is, indeed, conferring a genuine obligation upon students by supplying them with these admirable reissues of the works of the British essayists. One point in which the advantage, as regards appearance, is with the Tatler, is that the top edges are gilt, always a comforting thing in a book that, after having been read, has to be placed upon the shelves. The portraits of Steele and Addison by which tho first volumes are accompanied are taken from con- temporary engravings in the British Museum, and are admirably reproduced. It is easy to say that this will be, when completed, the favourite edition of the Tatler. Its supremacy as regards convenience and literary merit is not likely to oe disputed.
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