From Grave to Gay: a Volume of Selections from the Complete Poems of H. CholmondeleyPennell. (Longmans.) The popularity of Mr. Cholmondeley-Pennell's volumes of light verse (even though that popularity was largely due to the illustrations) fully justifies him in issuing the present selection, which is illustrated only with a portrait of the author-poet we may not truthfully call him. The book is a pleasant one both to read and to handle, except that the paper is somewhat too thick for our taste. NOTES AND NEW S. WE hear that the Council at Cambridge have resolved unanimously to offer to Prof. George Stephens, of Copenhagen, the honorary degree of Doctor in Letters. The same degree has been given in regular course during this week to Mr. H. A. J. Munro, Mr. J. Peile, and Mr. Henry Jackson; but the present is the first occasion on which this newly instituted degree has been used to confer distinction upon stranger. The time could not have been better chosen, when Prof. Stephens has crowned the labour of a lifetime by bringing out the third and last volume of his Old Northern Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England, together with a popular handbook on the same subject, which he may be said almost to have created. CAPT. R. F. BURTON is, we hear, putting the last touches to his translation of The Thousand Nights and a Night. The first volume (fifty nights) is already copied, and the whole can be prepared for print within a year. The version was begun some thirty years ago in conjunction with the late Dr. T. F. Steinhalneer, of Aden. It will try to do justice to one of the most interesting of anthropological and ethnographical works, by being a verbatim et literatim copy of the original, preserving all its technique, such as the divisions of the nights and the naïve and child-like plain-speaking of the Arabic-a perfect contrast with the English of the present day. Of course, it will be printed, not published, and the issue will be limited to subscribers. MR. ELLIOT STOCK announces for publication a volume on Church Bells, by Mr. J. C. L. Stahlschmidt, a past-Master of the Founders' Company, who has devoted his spare time for some years to accumulating information as to the early bell-founders of London. He now gives the result of his labours in the first part of the book, the second part of which will be devoted to an account of the bells of Surrey. The title will be Surrey Bells and London BellFounders. Much new and interesting information is promised from sources hitherto entirely unworked, especially the Corporation Records at Guildhall. MESSRS. HURST & BLACKETT will shortly publish two three-volume novels-Gaythorne Hall, by John M. Fothergill, and Venus Doves, by Ida Ashworth Taylor. MESSRS. W. SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & Co. will publish very shortly a novel by Mr. Ulick J. Burke, entitled Couleur de Rose. A NEW edition of Murray's Handbook to France, part ii., is going through the press. Many interesting and valuable additions have been made, notably with regard to the Morvan, the Jura, Franche-Comté generally, and the Vosges-regions little known, and yet so interesting to travellers in search of the picturesque. New plans have also been added, and many additions made to the Index. WE understand that the work entitled My Bible, which Canon Boyd Carpenter, Bishopdesignate of Ripon, recently contributed to the "Heart Chords" series, has already passed into a second edition, while the same author's Commentary on the Revelation," contributed to Bishop Ellicott's Bible Commentary, which has been reprinted in a separate volume, is now in its third edition. It title of a volume by the Rev. J. Inches Hard Battles for Life and Usefulness is the Walter C. Smith, author of Olrig Grange, which Hillocks, with an Introduction by the Rev. Dr. Messrs. Sonnenschein have in the press. consists of three parts. The first and second"Battles to Live and Learn" and "Battles for Usefulness"-give an autobiographical record of the author's life and work. The third part is a review of the roots and remedies of London misery. MR. ALEXANDER ROBERTSON has a long article in the May number of the English Law Magazine and Review, on "The Conflict of Jurisdiction between the English and Scotch Courts," with special reference to the OrrEwing case. MR. E. J. W. GIBB's translation from the Turkish of "The Story of Jewad," which we have before announced as to be published by subscription through Messrs. Wilson & M'Cormick of Glasgow, will be ready for distribution in the course of next month. The price is seven shillings. THE June number of the Antiquarian Magazine will contain a continuation of Mr. J. H. Round's paper on the vexed question of "Port and Port-reeve." MR. BEHRAMJI M. MALABARI goes on steadily with his great undertaking of having Prof. Max Müller's Hibbert Lectures "On the Origin and Growth of Religion" translated into the principal vernaculars of India. In addition to the Guzerathi and Maráthi translations which we noticed some time ago, we have now received the translation into Bengali. The translation in this case is the work of Rajanikanta Gupta, the author of the History of the Great Sepoy THE June number of Sunday Talk will conWar, Studies in Indian History, &c. The ex- tain the opening chapter of a new story by pense of the publication seems to have been Mrs. Oliphant, entitled "Elinor; "" an account entirely defrayed by the Maharani Shurnomaye. of "Another Carlyle Shrine," by Shirley; a A Bengali translation of Prof. Max Müller's paper by Prof. Nichol on "A Broad Churchlast work, India, what can it Teach us? is like-man;" and a poem by Prof. Blackie. wise advertised. A RECORD of the public life of Sir Henry Cole will shortly be published by Messrs. G. Bell & Sons. The story of his association with the Prince Consort in the successful inauguration of the Exhibition of 1851, and of his subsequent connexion with the Department of Science and Art at the South Kensington Museum, will give the book an exceptional interest. THE annual general meeting of the Education Society will take place on Thursday, May 29, at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, at 8 p.m., when the president, the Rev. Dr. H. M. Butler, will deliver his address. THE following is the official return of the results of the L.L.A. examination of 1884 at the University of St. Andrews:-In Latin 11 passed; in mathematics 4; in logic 12, and 2 with honours; in moral philosophy 4; in English literature 57, and 57 with honours; in natural philosophy 1; in education 47, and 16 with honours; in political economy 10, and 3 with honours; in French 45, and 37 with honours; in German 31, and 17 with honours; in Italian 1; in comparative philology 30, and 1 with honours; in history 34, and 11 with honours; in chemistry 3; in physiology 35, and 2 with honours; in botany 22, and 4 with honours; in zoology 2; in geology 10, and 9 with honours; in Church history 1; and in Hebrew 1. Of the 363 candidates who entered, 81 have gained the title. The Committee of Senators have been empowered to draw up a scheme by which the honours standard may be raised in future, either by adding to the number of subjects necessary for honours, or by making certain important subjects obligatory, so as to bring the qualification nearer to the full M.A. degree. THE sixteenth annual meeting of the Society for the Encouragement of Home Study was held in London during three days last week. The examiners reported on the work done by the young ladies during the year, and awarded the prizes. Fresh papers of questions on literature, theology, arithmetic, German, and household hygiene were given. Applications for admission should be made to the hon. se retary, Miss A. C. Moore, Eltham. CAPITANE DUVOISIN has begun in the number of the Revue des Basses-Pyrénées des Landes a series of folk-lore legends, collected about 1830, which promises to be very valuable. The Basque text is given, with a French translation. ORIGINAL VERSE. TWO MEDIAEVAL STUDENT SONGS. The Lover's Monologue. Love rules everything that is: Love doth change hearts in a kiss: Love seeks devious ways of bliss: Love than honey sweeter, Love than gall more bitter. Blind Love hath no modesties. Love is lukewarm, hot and cold; Love is timid, over-bold; Loyal, treacherous, manifold. Present time is fit for play: Let Love find his mate to-day: Hark, the birds, how sweet their lay Love rules young men wholly; Love lures maidens solely: Woe to old folk, sad are they! Sweetest woman ever seen, Fairest, dearest, is my queen; And, alas, my chiefest teen! Let an old man, chill and drear, Never come thy bosom near; Oft he sleeps with sorry cheer, Too cold to delight thee: Naught could less invite thee. Youth with youth must mate, my dear. Blest the union I desire; Naught I know, and naught require, In this closed room Love takes flight; To Flower o' the Thorn. The blithe young year is upward steering; I with her love am thralled and taken, JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS. Note.-These songs are translated from the Carmina Burana. The originals are in Latin, of the twelfth century. inequalities of the territorial tax in Spain, TENNYSON ON "THE PRINCESS." "DEAR SIR,-I thank you for your able and thoughtful essay on 'The Princess.' You have seen, amongst other things, that if women ever were to play such freaks, the burlesque and the tragic might go hand-in-hand. I may tell you that the songs were not an after-thought. Before the first edition came out, I deliberated with myself whether I should put songs in between the separate divisions of the poem. Again, I thought, the poem will explain itself; but the public did not see that the child, as you say, was the heroine MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS. of the piece, and at last I conquered my laziness and inserted them. You would be still more certain Belgravia, noticeable from month to month that the child was the true heroine if, instead of for Mrs. Cashel Hoey's suggestive and interest- the first song as it now stands, As thro' the land ing novel "The Lover's Creed," is this month at eve we went,' I had printed the first song which doubly worth attention, for it contains an eight-sitting on the bank of a river, and playing with I wrote, "The losing of the child.' The child is page story of great power and pregnancyMiss Clementina Black's flowers-a flood comes down-a dam has been "Moonlight and Floods." broken thro' the child is borne down by the flood-the whole village distracted-after a time the flood has subsided-the child is thrown safe and sound again upon the bank, and all the women are in raptures. I quite forget the words of the ballad, but I think I may have it somewhere. THE Deutsche Rundschau has some "Studies on Goethe," by Herr Wilhelm Scherer, which are all to the point and deal with definite problems concerning Goethe's writings. Herr von Sarburg begins an appreciative study of Alessandro Manzoni," and Herr Curtius gives a pretty sketch of "Athens and Eleusis." IN the Revue historique M. de Grammont begins a series of "Etudes algériennes" which are likely to be of general interest. The first is a careful study of the rise and activity up to modern times of the Algerian Corsairs-a subject frequently alluded to, but little understood. M. R. Hammond publishes some documents bearing on the relations between France and Prussia from 1763 to 1769, the period of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations after the Seven Years' War. THE Theologisch Tijdschrift for May (a double number) gives a varied choice of subjects, ranging from Mr. Spencer's and Mr. Green's philosophy (Hugenholtz) to the genesis of the narratives respecting Aaron (Oort), the relation of John the Baptist and his disciples to Christianity (Hockstra), the Christology of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Mayboom), and the origin of the Eucharist (Bealage). The second and larger half of Green's Prolegomena to Ethics is considered to be a more vigorous defence of the author's standpoint than the first. With the reserve indicated, Dr. Hugenholtz ranks the book among the most valuable fruits of recent philosophic thought. IN the Revista Contemporanea for April, Rodriguez Villa begins a valuable History of the campaign of the Archduke Leopold in Flanders in 1647; the present chapters carry the account down to the surrender of Armentières, May 30. Don Ramon L. de Vicuña treats of "The Subject of History," which is defined as "the relations of man to God, to nature, and to his fellows." Señor Barzanallana discusses the "Your explanatory notes are very much to the 'A full sea glazed with muffled moonlight.' 'A great black cloud Drag inward from the deep.' 'With all Its stormy crests that smote against the skies.' Suggestion: A storm which came upon us in the middle of the North Sea. 'As the water-lily starts and slides.' Suggestion: Water-lilies in my own pond, seen Suggestion: I was walking in the New Forest. A wind did arise and 'Shake the songs the whispers and the shrieks my custom, a letter, when I had merely intended 66 Aldworth, Haslemere, Surrey, Nov. 21st, 1882. "PS.-By-the-by, you are wrong about the tremulous isles of light;' they are 'isles of light,' spots of sunshine coming through the leaves, and seeming to slide from one to the other, as the procession of girls 'moves under shade.' And surely the beard-blown' goat involves a sense of the ruined pillar." wind blowing the beard on the height of the GUIZOT, M., Lettres de, à sa Famille et à ses Amis mythology, however, are not the same; and, if MALOT, Hector. Marichette. Paris: Dentu. 6 fr. MARIO, A., Scritti scelti e curati da Giosuè Carducci. T. 9. Paris: Quantin. 10 fr. HISTORY, ETC. CAVALLARI, S. e C., e A. HOLM. Topografia archeo- 2 L. 50 c. feld Huber. 1 M. 60 Pf. FLEISCHFRESSER, W. Die politische Stellung Ham burgs in der Zeit d. dreissigjährigen Krieges. II. 1627-29. Hamburg: Jenichen. 1 M. Thorin. 5 fr. Roy de France et de Navarre Henry IV. Paris: SEINECKE, L. Geschichte d. Volkes Israel. 2. Thl. Vom Exil bis zur Zerstörg. Jerusalems durch die Römer. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck. 7 M. WERTHEIMER, E. Geschichte Oesterreichs u. Ungarns im ersten Jahrzehnt d. 19. Jahrh. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. 8 M. PHYSICAL SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. BOUILLIER, F. Etudes familières de Psychologie et de LUNDSTROEM, A. N. Pflanzenbiologische Studien. I. PACHER, D., u. M. Frhr. v. JABORNEGG. Flora V. mayr. 6 M. Queen's College, Oxford: May 17, 1881. Sir George Cox's letter in the last number of the ACADEMY admits of an easy reply. on 1. There is only one chapter, not "chapters,' Comparative Philology and the Science of Religion, not "Myths and Mythology," in my Introduction to the Science of Language. I cannot have plagiarised from Sir George Cox in this, as when the chapter was written I had not read a page of his book. If I have plagiarised from anyone, it is from myself, in my Principles of Comparative Philology, published eleven years ago. Sir George Cox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations remained known to me only by name until my Introduction was passing through the press and I was preparing a list of selected works for recommendation to the student. As I then found that it contained a good deal of what seemed to me to be questionable matter, I added a note of warning as regards the use of it. On p. 570 of the new edition of his book I observe that Sir George Cox does not accuse me of copying from him-a charge, indeed, which he could not sustain but only of arriving at similar conclusions. Our theories of comparative some of our conclusions are similar, it is because This proof of my "unfairness" to Herodotos, "HUNTING THE WREN." however it may have arisen, had become quite senseless, was, when Thompson wrote, falling into disuse, and in 1845 the then Mayor of Cork by proclamation forbade its continuance. Mr. Halliwell (Nursery Rhymes, ed. 2, p. 248) notices the words there sung; while on February 4, 1846 (as same practice in the Isle of Man, and gives the appears by the Literary Gazette, p. 131, of the 7th of that month), Mr. Crofton Croker drew attention to the subject at a meeting of the British Archaeological Association, and it was stated that a similar custom existed in Pembrokeshire, where, on Twelfth Day, a wren was carried from house to house in a box with glass windows, surmounted by a wheel to which ribbons were hung. Sonnini (Voyage dans la Haute et la Basse Egypte, i., p. 18 mentions a like ceremony practised a century ago, towards the end of December, at La Ciotat, near Marseilles, but there the wren's murderers were armed with swords and pistols, and their victim was slung to a pole borne, as if it were a heavy load, on the shoulders of two men, who paraded the village, and then, after gravely weighing it in a pair of scales, all [present] gave themselves up to festivity. "It is for antiquaries to throw light on the origin of this widely spread custom, of which many unsatisfactory explanations have been attempted. It has been ascribed to a wren which, alighting on a drumhead, roused and saved from defeat some Protestant troops in the Irish civil wars of the seventeenth century. Others refer it to a similar incident some centuries earlier in the wars of the Danish occupation of Ireland. Others say that the wren was an object of so great veneration to the 'Druids' that the early Christian missionaries enjoined its persecution upon all adherents of the new faith. Any speculations would here be futile, though one cannot but be struck by some coincidences. The wren, in the first line of the Irish song, is called the king of birds. The Pembroke. shire ceremony was, or is, performed on Twelfth Day-the feast of the Three Kings-and the bird was also spoken of as the king. The common name of the bird, shared to some extent with the golden-crested wren, in most European languages, Basiliskos, Regulus, Reyezuelo, Reatino, Roitelet, Zan könig, Ellekonge, Winterkoninkje, and so forth-all assign to it the kingly dignity. These names probably are connected with the old and wellknown fable of birds choosing for their king that one of them which should mount highest in the This the eagle seemed to do, and all were ready to do him homage, when a loud burst of song was heard, and perched upon the eagle's head had been borne aloft by the giant. In England was the exultant wren, which, unseen and unfelt, the story does not seem to have had hold, and, so far from ascribing royal qualities to our little favourite, it is nearly everywhere known to us by the humbler name of 'Kitty' or 'Jenny' Wren." Magdalene College, Cambridge: May 16, 1884. would be a great satisfaction if anyone could point to any reasonable explanation of this very curious and doubtless very ancient custom, for such must be deemed one that, without reasonable cause assigned, extends from the shores of the Mediterranean to those of St. George's ALFRED NEWTON. Channel. "The curious custom of 'hunting the wren' has Some parts of the foregoing extracts may be "To Mr. Norman Moore the editor is indebted for the Erse words of the song above quoted. In Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall's Ireland: its Scenery, Character, &c. (i, pp. 23-25), the entire English version, as sung in the county Cork, is given, together with the musical notes of the time." THE "SWINBEORG OF KING ALFRED'S WILL. Weston-super-Mare: May 15, 1884. In King Alfred's will (Pauli, Life of Alfred, p. 409), we find that an arrangement as to the destiny of certain lands was made by Ethelred and Alfred at a Witenagemote at Swinbeorg. Has this place been identified? I had conjectured that the name is found in that of Swanborough hundred in Wilts; but I was unaware till a few days since of the exact spot. In Mr. G. Laurence Gomme's Primitive FolkMoots (Sampson Low, 1880) I read (p. 108):"The Rev. R. Nicholson kindly informs me that by the side of the road between Woodborough and Pewsey, Wilts, and in the parish of Manningford Bruce, is a hillock on which grow two y three ash-trees of no great age, but which it is possibly spring from the site of an old tree. It is alled 'Swanborough Tump,' or 'Swanborough Ashes. The name of the hundred is Swanborough; and within the memory of an old man, who died a few years ago, courts used to be held there." Where is the original register of Alfred's Abbey at Winchester containing the will? That part of the MS. is said to be of about the date of 1028. It would be interesting to ascertain the exact reading. But surely the Swinbeorg where Ethelred and Alfred stood must be Swanborough Tump, and from that important Lands moot-hill the hundred took its name. 8 p.m. Civil Engineers: "Wood Pavement in the Metropolis," by Mr. G. H. Stayton. WEDNESDAY, May 28, 8p.m. Society of Arts: "Primary Batteries for Electric Lighting," by Mr. I. Probert. 8 p.m. Geological. W. H. Garrett. 8 p.m. Society of Literature: "A Critical Examination of the Character of Macbeth,'" by Mr. "Flame THURSDAY, May 29, 3 p.m. Royal Institution: and Oxidation," V., by Prof. Dewar. 8 p.m. Society of Arts. 8 p.m. Educational: Presidential Address, by FRIDAY, May 30, 8 p.m. Society of Arts: "Street the Rev. Dr. H. Montagu Butler. Architecture in India," by Mr. C. Purdon Clarke. scopical Geology," III., by Prof. Bonney. very remarkable document which I here print, with a translation, is one of the title-deeds of Westminster." It did not follow from this statement that Westminster was the present resting-place of the original. More than one enquirer has failed to trace it. After Kemble, Mr. Thorpe printed it in his Diplomatarium (1865) with this note:-" Unfortunately, I have not been successful in finding the MS., notwithstanding the good-will of the authorities at Westminster." This uncertainty the Ordnance Survey the document lies before us in good condition and in the unmistakable lineaments of the tenth century. of Alfred at Bedwin, Pewsey, and Alton passed SATURDAY, May 31. 3 p.m. Royal Institution: "Micro- is now dissipated; among the facsimiles of by his will to his eldest son and heir, Edward, and these doubtless contained within their bounds this very Swanborough Tump. HENRY GEORGE TOMKINS. FUNERAL SURVIVALS IN SOUTH-WEST FRANCE. 66 Sare, par St-Jean-de-Luz: May 16, 1881. In the ACADEMY of May 10, p. 329, the following note of Eugène Pelletan on the death of Louis XIV. is quoted with approval:"Lorsque le peuple apprit la mort du grand roi, il alluma un feu de joie à chaque carrefour, et il improvisa une farandole." I do not deny the feeling of relief at the death of the King; but I cannot think that the funeral- or deathfire at the cross-roads was un feu de joie." The custom is still kept up in parts of France, especially in the South-west. It is dying out, and is nowhere universally observed, but it is still usual in the parish from which I write; the mark of the last such fire on the road close by is hardly yet obliterated. I have endeavoured to get at the meaning attached to the ceremony, but without much success. The most common reply is that it is done "pour prier; every passer by the lighted fire is supposed to say a "paternoster" for the benefit of the deceased; in one case a stone was said to be thrown by each on to a heap at the north-eastern corner of the cross-roads. In the minds of some the fire itself seems to constitute the essential part of the rite, in that of others the prayer; while some regard more the cross-roads, and will light the fire only on such spots, others are not so particular about this; and many do it simply from habit. The straw-stuffed mattress usually supplies the material, but not invariably; in the towns only a very little straw is burnt. This, I think, shows that the fires lighted at the cross-roads at the death of Louis XIV. were not necessarily "feux de joie." Of analogous survivals in South-west France, the saint whose image was placed at the end of bridges in Guyenne was invoked to preside at a birth. Witness the well-known hymn sung by Jean d'Albret at the birth of Henri IV.: "Nousté-Dame deü cap deü poun." The latest writer on the Basques, l'abbé Haristoy, the first volume only of whose Recherches historiques sur le Pays-basque (Bayonne, 1883) has appeared, admits that his former parishioners in La Soule practise a kind of obscure worship of trees in times of trouble Of the worship of stones, of offerings and prayers addressed in caves and holes to fairies, I have known instances both among Basques and Gascons; and older documents contain traces of many other similar survivals of former religions. WENTWORTH WEBSTER. APPOINTMENTS FOR NEXT WEEK. MONDAY, May 26, 8 p.m. Society of Arts: Cantor Lec ture, Fermentation and Distillation," III., by Prof. W. Noel Hartley. TUESDAY, May 27, 3 p.m. Royal Institution: "The Physiology of Nerve and Muscle," IV., by Prof. Gamgee. 8pm. Anthropological: "Remains from Cemeteries in the Island of Antiparos," by Mr. Theodore Bent; "The Koeboes of Sumatra," by Mr. H. O. Forbes; The Osteology of the Koeb:es of Sumatra," by Dr. J. G. Garson, SCIENCE. Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts. Photozincographed by Col. A. C. Cooke. With Translations by W. Basevi Sanders. (Published by Authority.) IN this second part of the "Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts" we do not find a series of original charters like those in the first part, which contained the Canterbury documents, the best set in existence anywhere out of the British Museum. But if this volume gives us a more mixed collection, it is not on that account the less useful. The benefit of good facsimiles of undoubted originals consists in this, that it authenticates the forms of drafting deeds and of penmanship for certain periods, and affords a sound basis for the criticism of other deeds, whether purporting to be originals or only honest copies. This is the advantage to be derived from a select series such as the first part of the "Ordnance Survey Facsimiles" and the four volumes from the British Museum. But such choice examples form altogether but a small proportion of this "diplomatic" literature, which fills the six volumes of Kemble, and of which there exists perhaps enough to fill two volumes more. The present volume is characterised rather by mixture than selection, so that it presents a sample of what may be called high average quality. Thus an opportunity is afforded to the student of exercising that discrimination for which former publications have supplied elementary and guiding principles. 66 one of those curious The volume contains fifty-four documents, The Exeter documents famous as having figured largely in the are historically Dissertatio Epistolaris of George Hickes (1705)—a treatise which first gave a critical basis to this study. It is singular that Kemble added nothing to Hickes's information about these Exeter deeds Perhaps he assumed that Hickes had exhausted that deposit; he does not appear to have visited the archives at Exeter; he simply adopted those deeds which he found printed in Hickes, and thus left several remarkable documents unnoticed, some of which are now published for the first time. Six of the Exeter deeds are concerned with land in Cornwall, and these preserve many old Cornish place-names, which will probably supply new and welcome material to the Celtic philologist. It is an excellent feature of Mr. Sanders' work that he furnishes the previous literary history of each document, with the necessary references not only to Wanley, Hickes, Kemble, and Thorpe, but also now and then to local historians who have published them or contributed to their illustration. He has also brought together some valuable information about the persons and estates concerned, by which light is thrown either on the transaction itself or, where the transaction is doubtful, upon the motive of the documentary fabrication. An illustration of this is afforded by No. ii. of the Westminster series. This purports to be a grant by Offa, in 785, of the estate of Aldenham to St. Peter's, Westminster. As penmanship, and for general composition, it is a very skilful work, which might easily be mistaken for a writing of the eighth century; but the grammar of the Saxon part betrays the man of the thirteenth century; and, when Mr. Sanders informs us that there was litigation about this estate in 1249, the history of the piece becomes pretty clear. But any inference we may draw applies only to the history of the writing before us, and does not touch the question of right. A still more important instance occurs There are in among the Exeter charters. existence five documents purporting to be grants of land by King Athelstan to the church at Exeter, and all bearing the impossible date of 670. They are not by any means such contemptible documents as so absurd an error might seem to imply. Though condemned by Hickes, they were partially vindicated by Kemble; one of them has even been justified as to its substance by the discovery of the genuine deed for the same transaction. Here Mr. Sanders brings in a quotation from Domesday, which speaks of documents submitted to the Domesday surveyors at Exeter, that will in all probability help to give the required clue to the history of this problematical group of writings. These documents have been referred to CORRESPONDENCE. THE EDITING OF MEDIAEVAL TEXTS. Mr. Hessels having misunderstood the purport of my last letter to the ACADEMY, I ven is to be understood by a critical edition. He canon. not only by such historians as Kemble, Free-portance to the philologist, and for his sake, ture again to trespass on your space. Mr. Hessels is apparently indignant that I still persist in terming Dr. Buddensieg's Wiclif a critical edition. He would have us believe that critical scholarship is purely a matter of palaeography. Now, the historical student is, as a rule, perfectly indifferent to philology; he reads a text for the thought or facts which it contains, and not for its word-forms. He wants a readable text, whence he can easily draw the sense of his author. I am quite ready to admit the importance of philological study; I am quite content that Mr. Hessels and other philologists who want mediaeval texts edited in one fashion rather than another should fill columns of the ACADEMY with indignant protest till they attain their end. The historical student can look on with perfect indifference so long as the success of Mr. Hessels and his fellows does not mean that the labour of reading mediaeval texts will be seriously augmented. But there are two points in this controversy which do affect the historical student. First, if mediaeval texts are to be edited verbatim from the MSS., all forms which are calculated to puzzle the ordinary reader should be accompanied by explanatory foot-notes, or rather, for easier perusal, the ordinary form put in the text and the MS. eccentricity in the foot-note. Mr. Hessels seems to make light of the difficulties presented by orthographical (sic) eccentricity to the historical reader. Now, if I mistake not, he once told me that he would, if he could, reproduce even the MS. abbreviations in the text. In other words, he would publish much such a text as the early printer did; every abbreviation and every eccentricity of the MS. before him would be reproduced, regardless of sense and regardless of the difficulty of perusal. If I do not misinterpret Mr. Hessels' views, he would vastly prefer Otto Brunfels' edition of the Trialogus, with its mediaeval spelling, to Lechler's, with its classical Latinity. Yet the historian who wishes to study life and thought, and not spelling, would undoubtedly declare for Lechler. Mr. Hessels may perhaps assert that one text is as easy to read as the other. For him, possibly; personally, I had spent hours over a page of Brunfels' edition before I became aware that Lechler's text was far more readable. All I ask is that the task of the historical student shall not be made too hard for the sake of the palaeographer. Palaeography, albeit an important art, is but the handmaiden of history, and her first duty is to make things easy for her mistress. The mere palaeographer can only produce a text inferior to the worst photograph; the historical student wants more than that. This brings me to my second point with regard to Mr. Hessels' protest; that is its extremely narrow view of what not quite understand how he could, on four or five occasions, declare, in very distinct terms, that he agrees with me, and yet "consider this question of orthography to be of no very great moment." I am contending (and I know many agree with me) for the faithful reproduction of all MSS., because several years' hard work on Mediaeval Latin has taught me the great value of such faithful reproduction, even of so-called evident mistakes. I consider the orthography to be of immense importance, even if only one language were concerned; but in the case of Mediaeval-Latin texts the orthofor the study of Mediaeval Latin itself, but for graphy of the MSS. is of importance, not only that of all the Romance languages, which, as we know, embraces a large portion of the English tongue. It is some comfort to know that Mr. Poole is, indeed, of opinion that MSS. should be faithfully adhered to, and, so far, we agree; but, when it comes to stating our reasons for adopting such a method, Mr. Poole gives no reason whatever for his opinion, and mine (the study of palaeography and philology) he "considers to be of no very great moment." This is not, I think, agreeing with me. However, there is no immediate danger, as Mr. Poole's text will satisfy, I believe, all reasonable demands. And I may, perhaps, hope that, when Mr. Poole has made the enquiries which I invited Dr. Buddensieg to make, we shall arrive at a more complete agreement than seems to exist between us at present. J. H. HESSELS. I Frenchay Rectory, Bristol: May 10, 1884. In editing ninth- to eleventh-century MS. material for the Clarendon Press, chiefly the work of Anglo-Saxon and Irish penmen, ventured on a deviation from the MSS. not mentioned by Mr. R. L. Poole in his letter in the last ACADEMY, and, therefore, I suppose not adopted by him; I mean the introduction of capital letters after full stops. This seems to me to flow naturally from the first of his two admitted exceptions-the alteration of the Cambridge: May 17, 1884. original punctuation. With regard to all other Mr. Poole has done well, I think, in quoting capital letters, I faithfully followed the eccentrithe identical words he wrote in the Modern cities of the original scribes, omitting them Review regarding the editing of the Wiclif before proper names, and inserting them in volumes, as the extract quoted by Dr. Budden- their capricious and unmeaning, though rare, sieg suggested an opposite method to that appearances at the commencement of other and which he publicly advocated. I may perhaps ordinary words. It is to be hoped that we may be permitted to say a few words more, which, shortly have in England, what Dr. Buddensieg I trust, need not give rise to further correspond-states that they have already in Germany, ence. F. E. WARREN. generally accepted rules, laid down by some When I wrote my first letter of March 29 central literary authority, to regulate these and (ACADEMY, April 12) I did not know on what other details. The modernisation of the orthoparticular Wiclif work Mr. Poole was engaged.graphy in certain past volumes of the Rolls I had received, through the great kindness of Series, and in such present undertakings as Mr. Mr. Furnivall, proof-sheets of two Wiclif works W. de Gray Birch's Cartularium Anglo-Saronnow in the press (De civili dominio and De incar-icum, seems to me to detract considerably from natione Verbi), and had always been under the the value of those publications. impression that the first was edited by Mr. Matthew, the latter by Mr. Poole. As these proof-sheets showed, I thought, that these two editors faithfully adhered to the words and spellings of their MSS., or recorded in a footnote any reading of the MS. or MSS. which they felt compelled to reject for the text, I felt at liberty to tell Dr. Buddensieg that this was the true method of editing critically." Dr. Buddensieg's own method I called a bad one, with which we were already more familiar" in this country than he imagined. 66 " It now turns out that Mr. Poole has in hand the De civili dominio, and Mr. Harris (also of Oxford) the De incarnatione Verbi. The remarks I have made must, therefore, refer to these two editors, not to Mr. Matthew, who has just informed me, to my great regret, that he, objecting to the "strange" spellings of his MSS., has altered them, and is not able to go over his work again to rectify this. Mr. Poole will, no doubt, pardon me if I do an CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LATIN LEXICON. Edinburgh: May 5, 1884. The following list of Latin words not found in our latest and best Latin Lexicon, that of Profs. Lewis and Short-and the list is by no means exhaustive one-was jotted down in the course of my reading for Prof. Wölfflin's complete Latin Thesaurus, shortly to be published. The books read were the Commentaries on the New Testament (ed. Migne) of that by no means out-of-the-way writer, Jerome. The list may be useful in showing how far we still are from perfection even in a branch of study which has been more industriously and continuously pursued than perhaps any other. And it may also be interesting to the many careful students among your readers who may like to enrich the margins of their own copies therewith, |