300
NOTES AND QUERIES-
[11 S. IV. OCT. 7, 1911.
Plumer, usher at a school in 1311, is~more likely
to have been a penman, plumarius, than a plumber
(p. 255). When a Merton boy in his school-bill,
1300, is charged a halfpenny " pro sutura cali-
garum et pro agulet," the last item is not an
eylet, as Mr. Leach suggests, but evidently the
needle used in the darning of his socks (old Fr.
aiguilette, a diminutive of aiguille, L. aculeus,
and the same word as aglet). On p. 466 libell
chartacci is misrendered " parchment note-books.
It might have been pointed out that the glomeri
(grammar) studied at Cambridge, 1276, is th
same word as our " glamour " ; and a note t
explain who was the writer Susenbrotus, read b
the Westminster boys in 1560, would have been
welcome.
Mr. Leach has provided a valuable and interest ing book on a much-neglected subject.
De Quincey. Edited by Sidney Low. " Master of Literature." (Bell & Sons.)
" THERE are few authors," the editor remarks " who have less to lose and more to gain by being read in Selections. The best of him can toe presented in comparatively small compass.' The selections are well chosen for diversity o style, critical essays being included, besides .extracts from the ' Confessions,' the ' Satire,
- The English Mail Coach,' ' Analecta,' and others
In the Introduction the personality is wel touched of the modest, reserved little man, with- out reticence in print, to whom " not many things happened," whose adventures were " those of the spirit and intellect " ; and some pleasant anec- dotes make us regret our author's own censure of all anecdotes as false. Mr. Low seems at times to have doubted unnecessarily his own capacity for being intelligible, so that a fresh paragraph begins by telling us what we have already well understood in the last.
Speaking of De Quincey's appreciation of music, Mr. Low suggests that the " spirit of the great tone-poets gives a distinctive quality to the best of his writing." Of Charles Lamb's deficiency in this sense he says : " It follows that he [Lamb] has no sense of the rhythmical in prose composition." It is interesting to note that poets and prose- poets are often deficient in the musical sense. We cannot, however, agree that Charles Lamb had tl no sense of the rhythmical in prose composition." In the writings of Elia there is surely some of the rhythm^ and cadence, the "lucent vision of Mozart," which Mr. Low discovers in De Quincey. But we applaud the stress which Mr. Low lays upon the metrical quality of the best prose.
The editor's notes, heading his selections, are interesting, and the book should find wide appre- ciation.
IN The Cornhill for October Mr. A. C. Benson concludes his ' Leaves of the Tree ' with a paper on Matthew Arnold. He tells of an occasion when his father, then Bishop of Truro, was bantered by Arnold in a manner not quite tactful. He quotes the phrase used as an instance of one of those half-genial, half-ironical utterances which gave rise to that reputation for conscious supe- riority which the ' Letters ' belied. On Matthew Arnold and education Mr. Benson has little that is new to say. In the essayist's opinion it was Arnold s religious position and influence which most effectively helped his generation.
- A Garden in Shadwell ' is an eloquent appeal
by the Bishop of Stepney for carrying out the plan of a riverside breathing-space for East London as a memorial of King Edward VII. The Bishop has discovered a suitable site, and suggests, as adjuncts to the scheme, a floating swimming bath, a basin of shallow water for the children, and a garden which would revive the tradition for famous roses which still lingers in the neighbourhood. Such a terrace, garden, and playground conjures up a pleasant vision in a desert of dismal monotony which we may well hope may before long become a practical reality.
In ' Leaves from a Note-Book in Denmark ' Mr. Edmund Gosse describes the publishing house of Gyldendal. The idea of embracing all that was best in Norway in one common fold with the best of Denmark was the aim of the most dis- tinguished member of the firm Frederik Hegel. At his graveside Georg Brandes said that Hegel had enabled the little Denmark to subjugate the literature of so proud and so sensitive a neigh- bour as Norway.
Dr. W. H. Fitchett writes of ' Waterloo as Napoleon Saw It ' ; while short stories are ' The Bust of Marcel Mathieu,' by Katharine Tynan, and ' Lex Talionis, by Mr. W. H. Adams, the latter a vivid description of a Gold Coast fetish shrine and of the perils and desperate courage found in the native convert to Chris- tianity. In ' At the Sign of the Plough ' appear a set of questions on Kipling by Mr. C. L. Graves, and the answers to questions on Dr. Johnson. [Notices of other magazines next week.]
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RAYMUND ("Shakespeare's Monument at Strat- ord ). See one of the lives of Shakespeare.
J. P. S. ("Consumption"). Not suitable for our olumns.
