Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/168

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* 8. n. AUG. -20, t


ever, we are not yet to expect. A fine and per- fect copy of the Book of Common Prayer of King Edward VI., printed at Dublin in 1551 by Humfrey Powell, is in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. This work, which is a verbal reprint of Whit- church's edition of 1549, is said by Cotton to be the first book printed in Dublin. Powell claims in the colophon to be printer "to the Kynges Maieste." Mr. Dix does not go back so early as this, his scheme confining him to the seventeenth-century press. Very few are the books dealt with in the

S-esent instalment. As regards books advocating oman Catholic principles, the danger of printing them in Ireland was too great, and theologians preferred to issue their works from the presses of Douai, Louvain, or Paris, though some, it is assumed, were printed in Dublin surreptitiously. Most of them were probably destroyed. Printing in Dublin, and, indeed, in Ireland, appears to have been in the seventeenth century at a very low ebb, contrasting strangely with the position taken by the Irish MSS. of long before. Mention is made of an edition of St. Jerome's ' Lives of the Saints,' printed by Faber in 1475, which is said to have been issued from Cashel, in Ireland. This Mr. C. W. Dugan, in an introduction to the work before us, holds " not improbable." Further information will be necessary before it is received. The list of books, broadsides, &c., supplied is not large. Mr. Dix, the compiler, will be glad of additions. We welcome the work as a beginning.

Ivanhoe. By Sir Walter Scott. Edited by Andrew

Lang. (Ninnno.)

' IVANHOE,' now first added to the large-type " Border Edition" of the " Waverley Novels," will always be a favourite with the general reader. The opening chapters breathe the very atmosphere of romance, and the entire action up to the seizure of Front de Bceuf's castle, the death of its owner, and the supposed slaughter of Athelstau is one of the most spirited records of adventure. Reading it yet once more, one cannot but be sensible of these merits. One admires, moreover, the manner in which, while slaying character after character, Scott in this, as in other of his romances, never allows hurt to come to any in whom it is possible to feel an interest. The fat and beef-fed Ttnights are knocked on the head, but Scott leaves his other victims nameless and obscure, and even spares Bracy, for whom the smallest modicum of sympathy is demanded. Twelve admirably executed illustra- tions by M. Lalauze accompany the volume.

Notes on Medieval Services in England. By Chr.

Wordsworth, M.A. (Baker.)

MR. WORDSWORTH in this volume has gathered a spieileyium of his occasional writings on matters of liturgical interest from the antiquary's point of view. His ' Notes ' embrace an inquiry as to the time of the various services in cathedral and parish churches in olden days, an account of some old customs and ceremonies once prevalent in the Lincoln diocese, and an index to the calendar of Lincoln use. These researches reveal a curious medley of multitudinous functions interspersed with revelling and drinking and scenes of utter irreverence within the very precincts of the sacred buildings. In Wells statutes had to be enacted to forbid buying and^ling, games and spectacles, in the nave pi th^ -w^ch. ^ evensong has begun before the' entry '01 the Dean in Lincoln choir, he


strikes the desk and makes the service recommence for his behoof. Other matter of interest will be found in the comments on Shakspeare's " evening mass" (p. 45), and in the long dissertation on piscinas, aumbries, and altars (pp. 209-58).

A f ~w slips call for correction. " Hearse," 0. Eng. herce, is mistakenly connected with Lat. ericitix, a hedgehog (p. 156). Scissor, a tailor, a " cutter-out," is surely more correct than cissor, the form to which Mr. Wordsworth seems to give the preference, though our "scissors," as he justly observes, lies quite aloof from it (p. 131). And why should Mr. Wordsworth indulge in such a pedantic bit of affec- tation as to date his book upon the " Feast of SS. Philip and Jacob "? If he must be learned, why not Ya'aqOb at once ?

MR. E. M. DEY writes from St. Louis, U.S.A. : "I am pleased to note the deserved recognition by Ids ahna mater of R. M. Spence, M.A., the Univer- sity of Aberdeen having conferred on him the degree of D.D. on 21 July. It will occasion no surprise to those who have for many years read ' N. & Q.' to learn that his Shakespearean studies are mentioned by the University as having come under its favour- able notice. The scene of the Rev. Dr. Spence's labours is a quiet little country parish at Fordoun, N.B., where, in the seventy-second year of his age and the forty-eighth year of his ministry in the Church of Scotland, he continues to reside. Of him it may be said

He ne'er had changed nor wished to change his place,

for the Doctor has resolutely declined overtures of removal to more prominent spheres. The church belongs to the thirteenth century, and, with the Manse of Arbuthnott, is picturesquely situated in a deeply wooded vale with a bright stream running near.

We ourselves also congratulate Dr. Spence on his new and well-deserved honours.


ia

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GENERAL P. MAXWELL ("Mending or Ending"). The illustration from the ' Heart of Midlothian ' which you give appeared in the original query. See 8 th S. v. 487.

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