9*s. VH. JUNE is, IDOL] NOTES AND QUERIES.
479
an accelerating rate. For reasons which the editor
explains it has been found impossible to get into
one volume, bulky as this is, the whole of the
MS. constituting what is known in the Council
Office Collection as Elizabeth Vol. X., 106 pages
out of nearly 600 having to appear in the following
volume. Among matters of picturesque and his-
torical interest is the death in the Tower of Sir
John Perrott, the natural son of Henry VIII. and
consequently the brother of the queen. Not the
slightest allusion can we trace to the circumstances
under which this brave and turbulent spirit passed
away, but it is easy to believe that his departure
was a matter of relief to the Council. French wars
and the support afforded to Henry IV. in his con-
test with the League occupy a considerable space,
and there is (p. 502) an account of a disaster to the
troops of the Princes of Conty and Dombes at the
hands of Spaniards and "Bretaignes" under the
Duke of Mercury (Mercosur), in which the English
contingent serving with the two princes was sadly
mauled. News of this calamity was received by
the Council on the last day of May, 1592. No great
discouragement was, however, felt, and the first
item in Vol. XXIII. (1 July, 1592) deals with the
dispatch of 2,550 troops from the Low Countries to
reinforce Sir John Norris. Resolute as was the
Council, the public response was scarcely adequate,
and we find the Mayor of Rye protesting that, as
there were no walls to his town, he was unable to
prevent desertion. Great care had to be exercised
to prevent the recruits catching the plague or
suffering from "the new ague," a disease then
prevalent. Difficulties of transport seem also to
have been almost insuperable. Everywhere the
complaint is made of lack of funds. Money could,
however, be produced for her Majesty's amusements,
and we find warrants to the Vice-Chamberlain and
Treasurer to "paie to the servantes of our verie
good Lord the Earle of Hartfort for a plaie enacted
before her Majestic one [sic] the Twelfenight last
the some of ten poundes." A following warrant
is for the payment to the Lord Straunge's servants
of forty pounds, and "by waie of her Majesty's
rewarde twentie pownds " for "sixseverall plaies
by them enacted before her Majestic at the Court
at Whitehall" on "St. John's daie, Innocents' daie,
Newyeare's daie, Souday next after Twelfe daie,
Shrove Sondaie and Shrove Twesdaie." Payments
to the Earl of Sussex's men and to the queen's own
players are also mentioned. Once more we have to
express our regret that so little information in
fact, no information at all is supplied us concern-
ing the pieces given. Knowledge of the kind would
fill up some gaps in our stage information. We still
hear much concerning recusants and concerning
seminary priests and Jesuits. Commissions to
search for them and examine those committed by
the Council are granted. The state of England
seems to have been more settled than before, but
abductions are still attempted, and deeds of violence
on the part of masterless men and others have to be
dealt with. The inhabitants of Muche Wendon in
Essex make grievous complaint against one John
Feltwell, "a verie troublesome and contencious
person who prosecuted divers frivolous suites
against them to their great charge and vexacion."
One gets, indeed, from these volumes a livelier
picture of life in England under Elizabeth than can
be elsewhere obtained. Mr. Dasent's prefaces con-
dense admirably what is of most historical value in
the matters of which his volumes treat.
Beowytf,and the Fight at Finruburgh. Translated
by John R. Clark Hall, M.A. (Sonnenschein &
Co.)
THOSE who seek to form an acquaintance with a picture of Anglo-Saxon life such as is furnished in the lav of Beowulf ' cannot do so better than in the clever, scholarly, and eminently readable translation into modern English prose of Dr. Clark Hall. 'Beowulf,' it is recognized, gives us a picture of the life of heroes and of the weapons employed by them as vivid as is supplied in the case of the Greeks by Homer. No fewer than three trans- lations practically appear: the first in the shape of an argument heading each "Fit," the second in a connected and explanatory summary, and the third in the regular rendering. There is in addition an introduction supplying all information concerning the poem, its authority, and the existing MS. in the British Museum Library, a facsimile reproduction of a page of which is given. Besides these things, twelve pages of illustrations of armour, offensive weapons, and ornaments, with a map notes, indexes of names and things, &c., render the edition ideal. It is likely to be of highest service in the school curriculum and to the more advanced student.
The Dunbar Anthology, 1401-1508 ; The Cowmr Anthology, 1775-1800. Edited by Prof. Edward Arber, F.S.A. (Frowde.)
THE two volumes of the "British Anthologies" now issued are numbered respectively I. ana X., and are supposed to complete the series to which they belong. Without supplying every poem the reader is likely to desire, the series is the most ambitious and comprehensive that has yet appeared. Those who can be contented with anthologies may well rest satisfied with the work now finishea, and those even who prefer the complete works of the poets, and are not disposed to accept any " taster," may well find pleasure in glancing over poems to be found in few collections, or even, as in the case of 'The Dunbar Anthology,' to refresh their memories of works they have read before. In ' The Dunbar Anthology,' which is the earliest in date of the ten volumes, are included the poems of Occleve (or Hoccleve), Lydgate, and other con- temporaries of Chaucer. Few are those who have read these. We are of the few, however, having, apart from other perusal, gone through the writings with a view of supplying materials for the Philo- logical Society now happily incorporated into the ' H.E.D.' Small enough is the poetic worth of these writers, though that of Dunbar, Henryson, and Valois, Duke of Orleans, is greater. The best poems in the volume are, however, anonymous, consisting of ballads such as ' The Battle of Otter- burn,' ' Chevy Chase,' ' The Nut-Brown Maid,' and 'Adam Bell, dim of the Clough, and William of Cloudeslee.'
'The Cowper Anthology' comprises, among other poets, William Blake, Robert Burns, Cole- ridge, Lamb, Southey, and Wordsworth, and does not, accordingly, suffer from want of material. The whole of 'Christabel' and 'The Ancient Mariner' is given. Southey is poorly represented; but very little of his work was produced during the period covered. We are glad to find some spirited songs of Joanna Baillie, and could have done with more. Are not " The winds whistle cold and the stars glimmer red" and "Hart and hind are in their lair" by her? Half a century has
