io«>s. iv. SEPT. so. 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 279
library of adventure. Not wholly English are the discoveries recorded in vol. vii., which is mainly occupied with the explorations of the Portuguese, our great rivals, and often our predecessors, in travel. First in the volume comes 'The Voyage of Sir Francis Alvarez, a Portugal), made onto the Court of Prete Janni, the great Christian Emperour of Ethiopia.' Of this—which, greatly reduced as it is, occupies much over two hundred pages—we learn in vol. vi., in which the opening chapters appear, that the translation is anonymous, the book having been found "in Master Haclduyt's papers." Prete, otherwise Priest or Presbyter, John is so called in obedience to a vulgar error, according to which the title, assigned at a much earlier date to Prester John in Asia, was bestowed upon the Negus of Ethiopia. The English title of "Sir," conferred upon the celebrated priest and traveller Alvarez, we must suppose to nave been bestowed in the same fashion as that in which it is assigned to clergymen, such as Sir Hugh Evans. Purchas apologizes for the dullness of the narration. It constitutes, however, a deeply interesting record, though there is nothing in it to flatter English vanity. The general title of Purchan describes his 'Pilgrimes' as depicting sea voyages and land travels by Englishmen and others. Francisco Alvarez appears to have received, like Herodotus, with some credulity the information given him by travellers and priests, especially concerning gold, with dreams of which early discoverers were always flattered. There were those, too, who assured him they had seen tritons and mermaids. The Nubians near Suaguen (Suakin) are said, through lack of bishops, to have fallen off from Christianity. A story as to the death of the King of Xeilei (vii. 341) seems to belong to the general domain of folklore. This is told in the record of Don John Bermudez, in which narratives concerning the phœnix and the griffons are treated with incredulity, which, though theological in basis, is not characteristic of the age. Under the name Abassia, Abyssinia is described, a curious account being given of the camelopard. At p. 420 the eighth book begins a history, by Robert, "whom some call the English-man," of the First Crusade. The illustrations to vol. vii. consist of the maps of Hondius of Abyssinia, Asia, Asia Minor, the Holy Land, Sicily, Cyprus, Spain, Italy, and Germany.
An eminently controversial account of the advance of the Papal Monarchy, which opens out vol. viii., is followed by large excerpts from the four books of George Sandys constituting 'A Relation of a Journey began a.d. 1610,' descriptive of the Turkish Empire, Egypt, the Holy Land, and remote parts of Italy and islands adjoining. When introducing this well-known and valuable portion of his work, Purchas says, "I present men rather as Travellers, then as Scholers; and in the Historicall Stage produce them, telling what they haue seene; not what they can say." Sandys's style, especially when referring to the Hellespont and the fate of Ino or Leucothea, and Hero and Leander, is eminently poetical. Writing from Aleppo, Master William Biddulph describes coffee under the name of "Coffa," "a blacke kinde of drinke made of a kind of Pulse like Pease called Coava, which being grownd in the Mill, and boiled in water, they drinke it as hot as they can suffer it." 'A Briefe Compendium of the Historic of Sir Anthony Sherley's Travels into Persia' has much interest. Among the maps of Hondius in this volume is one, on p. 520, of Paradise, which is placed in Mesopotamia and Chaldea, with another of the Peregrinations of the Israelites in the Desert. A picture of a Turkish woman is also supplied. The book continues to be a mine of information and adventure.
A fifth volume, consisting of the English poems of Abraham Cowley, has been added to the scholarly and appetizing series of "Cambridge English Classics." The text of the new Cowley is that of the folio edition of 1668, published a year after the poet's death, containing, presumably, his latest corrections, and supplying for the first time the life (not now reprinted) by Thomas Sprat, subsequently Bishop of Rochester. It preserves, as do the earlier volumes, the old orthography, the use of capital letters and italics, and all the features of a seventeenth-century press, and is an edition to gladden the heart of the scholar. In the present volume are comprised the four parts which constituted the first folio of 1656 as well as the 'Verses written on Several Occasions,' of which two editions in 1663, one in small 8vo and another in 15mo (sic), followed the appearance of a surreptitious imprint in Dublin. A companion volume is promised, and will contain the Several Discourses by way of Essays in Verse and Prose' (perhaps the most generally prized of his works), Cowley's juvenile writings, and his English plays. Everything of the poet's, with the exception of his Latin works, which are not included in the scheme, will be supplied in the most convenient, attractive, and scholarly of shapes. To the present volume are affixed indexes of titles and of first lines, and notes comprising various readings from 'The Mistresse' of 1647, the first folio of the works of 1656. the second folio of 1668, and the 'Verses' of 1663. A revival of interest in Cowley has been inspired of late years, and is a hopeful sign. This the appearance of the present edition will do something to foster. Cowley is a genuine poet, and the best translator of his epoch. Let those unwilling to take our words on trust look at the 'Anacreontiques,' that especially on drinking (p. 51), and on the rendering from Catullus of 'Acme and Septimius' (p. 419). His 'On the Death of Mr. William Hervey,' with its
Ye fields of Cambridge, our dear Cambridge, say,
seems to have influenced both Gray and Matthew Arnold. 'The Change,' beginning
Love in her Sunny Eyes does basking play, say,
inspired Gay's "Love in her eyes sits playing," while 'The Inconstant' supplied Sheridan with the idea for the best-known of his lyrics. The best- known of all Cowley's poems is perhaps that 'On the Death of Mr. Crashaw,' commencing:—
Poet and Saint! to thee alone are given
The two most sacred Names of Earth and Heaven.
Cowley is to be restudied in this fascinating edition.
The seventh volume of the Letter-Books printed by order of the Library Committee of the Corporation of the City of London differs from all ids
