10 s. x. NOV. 28, 1908.1 NOTES AND QUERIES.
439
the chief reference by the cataloguer, there
is a cross-reference to Kniphofia, while this
term is repeated in the definition. W. B.
JRisrdlanmts.
NOTES ON BOOKS, c.
The Tudor Facsimile Texts: Issues for 1907-8.
(T. C. & E. C. Jack.)
THE crying want of our schools of literature to-day, whether in England or America, is a first-hand acquaintance with the subjects of which they treat. In no part of the subject is this more evident than in the productions of the couple of centuries which separate Chaucer from Shakespeare. We could name an imposing number of textbooks which in- spire the gravest suspicion whether their authors have even glanced at a tithe of the works on which they comment at some length. The net result of this unanimity of neglect is a general impression that during that time the English people had lost the sense of metre, scansion, rhythm, and poetry. But in these matters, as in others, it is true that you cannot bring an indictment against a people, and writers and teachers alike would have been better occupied in reading what was left of the literature of the time, and trying to understand the metrical system that arose out of their reading, than in forcing it into the Procrustean bed of Chaucerian prosody, or to change the simile to one of Dr. Johnson's skinning the eel alive, and cursing it because it will not lie still.
There is some excuse for the ignorance of which we complain, though there is none for writing text- books while it persists. Originals are hard to come by are for most purposes non-existent ; and re- prints, even when made with the best intentions, are often unsatisfactory, as many an unfortunate editor knows. Your facsimile is the only wear. Who can tell us exactly what an interlude was to Henry VIII. 's nobles or Mary's? When did they differentiate themselves from moralities ? A score of similar questions present themselves for settle- ment before we can begin to write a history of the origins of the English stage. They can only be answered by a careful study of all the specimens extant, carried on simultaneously by teachers and students in all directions. In publishing these fac- similes Messrs. Jack have done more for the his- tory of the drama of the period than all the pro- fessors for the last five-and-twenty years.
Take another point of view, on which we have already touched. These plays are written in verse. True, it makes no aesthetic appeal to us, while the verse of Shakespeare a few years later moves us greatly. But that is no reason for denying its possession of poetic qualities. Critics are too prone to fall into the mistake of regarding poetry in an aesthetic light. Yet no man living can feel the thrill at a line of 'Beowulf or of the English alliterative verse that Keats or Wordsworth gives him ; and how many Englishmen can feel that Racine is a great poet in this sense ? Our judgment tells us that ' Beowulf ' and Racine must be great not our instinctive appreciation. Let us try, then, to reconstruct the prosody of our despised fore fathers and make out as good a case as we can These texts, and those that are to follow, will put the student in Texas or California in as good a
position as if he lived in London. Mr. Herbert's
jertificate is a guarantee of that, and we confidently
expect great results from their use.
The facsimiles already issued fall into several
divisions, duly set out in the prospectus, but not
jlearly distinct. Some of them are reproductions-
f MSS., such as the three Macro plays published
jy the Early Drama Society, Massinger's 'Be-
ieve as You List' in the author's handwriting,.
and the ' RespuUica 'the latter two being folios,
11 other publications being quartos. It is good for
ditors or texts to have facsimiles of their originals
sometimes published, and we hasten to say that the
editors of the Macro texts come out much better
than usual ; but we prefer the facsimile with all its
meaningless scribbles and ciphers.
We do not propose to remark particularly on the reprints of printed plays and interludes, of which some score are now published, as the editorial remarks are very properly short, and confined to- statements of fact. The printer of Bale's ' Promises ' ought to be identified without difficulty, and this- edition of the play of ' The Four Elements ' cannot have been printed anywhere near 15701539 is a much more likely date, for the only other use of the music type in it is of that year, and is not so worn. We have seldom felt more pleasure in commending a work to our readers than we do in the present instance.
More Truth, Wit, and Wisdom: Another Mine of Information : 656 Letters to the Press from the Pen of Algernon Ashton. (Chapman & Hall.) THE title-page explains the character of this volume one of the oddest that we have come across of recent years. This is the author's " second arid last volume of letters on the most varied subjects." No man in-, ages that are to come, it is suggested, will succeed! in getting more than 656 letters published in the press within twenty-five months. Whether this is- so or not, we imagine that journalists will continue to make about the same amount of mistakes, or- possibly more, if they write faster. The author has done a service in pointing out how extensive; these mistakes are ; also in looking after the tombs- and memorials of those who are prematurely for- gotten. On music he writes with some authority, being himself a composer; indeed, he ends by assuring us that as a musician and composer he- " will now endeavour to become a great English- man." There is one pleasing aspect of true great- ness which Mr. Ashton, to judge rrom his published! work, will never reach and that is modesty. His limitations are painfully obvious in the amazing title of his book, his ideas of humour, and his con- fidence in the press as a source of information. "Extensive newspaper and dictionary reading" does not in itself constitute an education, as we understand the word. We are not surprised that Mr. Ashton regards Bacon as the son of Queen Elizabeth, or that he considers that no one else- ought to sign himself A. A. (is not the Poet Laureate, . as an old journalist, entitled to use the same initials?), or that he has, apparently, no doubts and fears as to his own competence on the most varied subjects.
In spite of his 1,181 letters (there were 525 pub- lished in 1905) Mr. Ashton has much to learn in the way of expression. He has much to learn in many other ways, but to attempt to disturb his ideas of himself would be idle. After all, such complacency as is exhibited here almost amounts to a gift.
