gs. vm. NOT. 23, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
435
cessor. For the present instalment it is claimed
that it contains an unusual number of important
and valuable books which rarely find their way
into the saleroom. Not a few of these, indeed,
appear for the first time in the history of
' fixnir . Prices Current,' receiving in so doing
recevng n so
comment which will be of highest utility to the coming bibliographer. When, indeed, that great bibliography for which we have long waited appears, and enables us finally to dispense with the com- pilations of Lowndes, Watt, and hoc genus omne, it will supply us with little which is not to be found in ' Book-Prices Current.' It was during the months of June and July that the rarest works came under the hammer. A glance through the pages of the book, or indeed a close study of its contents, fails to disclose to us many of the bibliographical treasures in question. Such must be numerous, however, since the average price of the lots reaches the highest figure at which it has yet stood, being 3^. 7s. IQd. per lot. The total amount realized was 130,275/. 9s., against 87,929. in the season of 1899-1900, which was very low. Large as is the gross total of 1901, it appears comparatively insignificant in these days of multi - millionaires, one of whom might purchase without inconvenience all the collections catalogued in the volume. Sales of illuminated MSS. and the like are not as a rule recorded in ' Book-Prices Current.' It is accordingly only in a separate section (see pp. 647-8) that we find an account of the sale, in the Barrois collection made by the late Earl of Ashburnham, of the vellum MS. of the ' Psalterium Latine,' the paintings on which are supposed to have been executed by Giotto while residing at Avig"non with Pope Clement V. This brought 1,530^. Another MS. also fourteenth century, and on vellum in the same collection was purchased for 1,500. This was " La Vie du Vaillant Bertrand du Guesclin,' in verse, by Cuvelier, a name we fail to trace as that of an ancient poet. It will astonish few to know that the entire collection of Barrois MSS., sold for over 33,217^., had been, with seventy-four other MSS., offered to the British Museum for 6,000^. No. 6466 is a copy, supposedly unique, of " The Scottish Soldier by Lawder [George Lauder] and Wight, 4to, 1629." It consists of twelve leaves, and was sold for 30^. 10s. , having previously realized 9. 9s. Some of the scarcest books to be traced are those formerly in the possessi9n of an Italian collector, a selected portion of which constituted one of the most interesting of the July sales. Books printed at the Kelmscott Press do much to swell the total of receipts. The Ellis sale is, of course, too recent to be included, and its treasures will be dealt with in the following volume. From that before us we gather that there is an American ' Book-Prices Current,' which is also in demand and brings a good price. The publishers seem to have done little to recommend this to the notice of English purchasers. We ourselves at least have not heard of or seen a copy. We have but dipped, as a rule, into Mr. Slater's fascinating book, a term which the real bibliographer will not find too strong. Such an occupation is in a sense profitable as well as pleasurable. It is one, at any rate, of which we should not soon weary.
Essays of an Ex-Librarian. By Richard Garnett. ' (Heinemann.)
THE twelve essays here reprinted by Dr. Garnett show the wide knowledge and graceful erudition
that we have learnt to expect from him, and also
a sound taste and judgment which are only too
valuable in an age of fantastic impertinence, idle
abuse, and idler praise posing as criticism. In the
opening pages, ' On Translating Homer,' Dr. Garnett
exhibits those limits of the English hexameter
which many refuse to understand, and easily finds
objections to all extant versions of the ' Iliad.' So
do we : " Non ilium nostri possunt mutare labores."
Still we would not discourage any enthusiast in a
language falling into deplorable desuetude from
trying his best. Dr. Garnett ought to have given
references to the originals of the passages he trans-
lates. The essay on the date of ' The Tempest ' is
a highly ingenious attempt to show that Prospero
is James I., and the whole piece in other ways and
persons fitted to the royal marriage of Princess
Elizabeth (Miranda). The theory would be more
convincing if it was not strained for the sake of
including references in which we cannot believe.
Shelley and Disraeli are skilfully linked in an
article on the latter's ' Venetia. Dr. Garnett's
cleverness in making out these connexions commands
our admiration, though we cannot, for our own
part, feel certain about the " general trustworthi-
ness" of Trelawny on Shelley which Dr. Garnett
has generously conceived from meeting him on a
single occasion. An article on Coleridge's poetry
describes him as " the greatest of English critics.
We prefer to say that he might have been the
greatest, in view of the fragmentary nature of his
achievement. It is rather slaying the slain to
deprecate praise of the eighteenth-century manner
in poetry at this -date ; still we quite agree with
what is said about Coleridge's work in that line and
his splendid later poems, while there is an excellent
and significant protest against those who count
against poetry unfairly circumstances which have
nothing to do with it. We are not fond of specula-
tions, as a rule, but interested to find Dr. Garnett
suggesting that Coleridge would have given us
much more first-rate poetry if he had married
Dorothy Wordsworth or gone to sit at the feet of
Goethe. We think he would always have been a
poor creature as far as life and responsibility went ;
but the same must be said, unfortunately, of many
of our brightest names in literature. On ' Vathek*
Dr. Garnett is very interesting, and has found some
of his matter in ' N. & Q.' ; but his essay on Peacock
is perhaps his best where all are good. ' Sohrab
and Rustum,' in an introduction to Matthew
Arnold, is rightly praised as a masterpiece of
pathos, and the only expression of surprise which
these accomplished essays have drawn from a
critical reviewer concerns the poem selected from
the range of modern poetry as perhaps its equal in
pathos. Even if we gave the author, we do not
think that one reader out of ten would guess the
particular poem correctly. The present reviewer
certainly would not have done so, although he has
written on the author often and knows his work
well.
Velazquez. By George C. Williamson, Litt.D. Sir Edward Burne- Jones. By Malcolm Bell. Fra Angelico. By George C. Williamson, Litt.D. (Bell & Sons.)
WITH these volumes Messrs. Bell & Sons begin what is to be known as the " Miniature Series of Painters," intended to assist those who, without being able to make a thorough study of art, desire to obtain some familiarity with the works of the
