368
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. MAY g, im.
volume, in which he discusses the various works
that have at any time been associated with his
name. Most readers would be well content to
accept the judgment of an expert like Prof. Skeat
on the non-authenticity of these attributions ; but
he prefers giving us the reasons which have guided
his decision, and asks the reader to weigh and
estimate them for himself. The intelligent student
of English will find it well worth his trouble to do
so, and will learn much by the way. The more
superficial reader, who has no liking for minute
points of textual criticism, will probably take the
finished product, and not trouble himself with the
chips and shavings of the literary workshop which
were struck off in its making.
It is well known that poems by Lydgate, Hoccleye, Ros, Clanvowe, and sundry others, which, like wild geese, flew unclaimed of any man, have long been ascribed to Chaucer through the carelessness or ignorance of successive editors. These are here submitted to certain well-ascertained tests of true Chaucerian verse, drawn from fourteenth-century grammar, rimes, and pronunciation, and are found to be wanting. By this irrefragable internal evi- dence it is demonstrated that they could not possibly have come from, the hand of Chaucer. As to ' The Romaunt of the Rose, 5 Prof. Skeat is cer- tain, as against Prof. Lounsbury, that Chaucer is not responsible for Fragment B (11. 1706-5810), which he thinks written by some Northern imi- tator ; and with more confidence than in his larger edition throws doubts on his being the author of Fragment C (11. 5811-7698).
THE papers on astronomy which have from time to time appeared in the Edinburgh Review have usually been of first-rate excellence. The one on * The Evo- lution of the Stars ' in the April number is assuredly no exception. It will, we feel sure, have no little educative value. It is somewhere about forty years since Kirchhoff found " the key to the hieroglyphics of the solar spectrum " ; but still the greater number of well -instructed persons who have not made astronomy a special object of study have but vague notions as to the vast and far-reaching results which have already flowed from this wonderful dis- covery results which have entirely changed our estimate of the history and destiny of the stellar universe. The paper on Dean Milman is very interesting, and will be found especially so by those who had the pleasure of knowing him. The writer regards the Dean as a great historian. In this we are in entire agreement with him, though there is no doubt that at times he generalized somewhat rashly, and was not in every instance able to allow sufficiently for differences of time and states o moral feeling. We, on the other hand, do noi think the writer estimates Milman's verse so highly as it deserves. * Alexander Leslie and Prince Rupert ' has given us great pleasure. If there be in it no information which is absolutely new, it is none the less valuable, as it demonstrates that the men were real living creatures like ourselves, no mere figures on the great chessboard of war. We wish the writer had vouchsafed some explanatioi of Leslie's flight from Marston Moor. The Scottisl leader was no coward. We believe that he con ceived rightly, according to the information in hi possession that the armies of the Parliament ha< sustained a complete rout, and that his first duty was to rally his scattered forces. The pictur given of Prince Rupert is very effective. He was
ot a great soldier, but has seldom had justice
meted out to him. He had to work under extra-
rdinary difficulties. No leader of men who ever
ived could have been successful, and at the same
ime obedient to so vacillating a master. ' Cappa-
ocian Discoveries' requires careful reading and
o little previous knowledge of what has been done
n our own time on the sites of the old empires
hat had passed away ere Romulus emerged from
he she -wolf's den. The Mongolian influence on
arly civilization is, we are glad to find, dwelt upon
s it deserves. ' Morris and Rossetti ' and l Religion
n Greek Literature ' are both bright papers, which
vill give pleasure to the reader.
THERE is nothing calling for especial note in the
Antiquary for April. Perhaps the most interesting
hing in the number is the account, by Mr. Thomas
Iheppard, of a Roman vase or urn, recently dug up
a a clay pit at Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire.
An illustration is given, which shows that it is an
xceedingly fine one.
THE Genealogical Magazine appeals only to those who are interested in genealogical subjects, and annot be regarded in the light of a magazine of
- eneral antiquarian interest. Nevertheless, in the
jresent nuniber there are reproductions of the >rasses of Margaret, Lady Camoys, and Sir John jeventhorpe, given with accounts of theni that jannot fail to be of interest to a wide circle of eaders.
to
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