Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/324

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318


NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. ix. APRIL is, 191*.


ceiver's office 7, Gray's Inn Square in default of which legal means would be taken for recovery. The sum is stated to be for " thraves out of Long Riston," from time immemorial a chapelry of Hornsea, but constituted a separate parish since my cession. E. L. H. TEW,

Vicar of Hornsea 1872-1897. Upham Rectory, Hants.

SIB JOHN DYNHAM (11 S. ix. 270). A correspondent who mentions that this man married the heiress of Sir Richard Arche asks where the Arche family came from. According to ' The Norman People ' :

" Arch, or De Arques, from the Castle of Arques, near Dieppe. Osborne Giffard, Sire de Bolbec, m. c. 960 Ameline, sister of Gunnora, wife of Richard I of Normandy, and had Walter, ancestor of the Earls of Bucks ; and Geoffry, Viscount of Arches or Arques, afterwards Viscount of Rouen, and founder of Trinity du Mont, Rouen. William de Arcis, his son, in 1086 held estates from Odo of Bayeux and Lanfranc in Kent, and in Suffolk from Bernard de St. Audoen, and Robert Malet (Archceologia, 1846, 216, &c. ; Des Bois, ' Diet, de la Noblesse ' ; La Roque, ' Mais. Harcourt,' i. 174). Osborne de Archis, his son, made grants to St. Mary, York, and from him descended the family of Saville. Hubert de Arches occurs in Scotland 1165-1214 (Chart. Mailros)."

HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.


0tt


Dedications. Compiled by Mary Elizabeth

Brown. (Putnam's Sons, 10s. 6d. net.) WE can highly commend this anthology of forms of dedications, in which selections are given from the earliest times to the present. In doing so we desire to express our sympathy with the com- piler, who has been deprived of all practical use of her eyes during the past two years, so that she has had to rely upon her memory and the help of friends. These include Miss Alice De Voll, "who has acted as eyes for me during my search," and Miss Dorothy Brewster, who has seen the book through the press. Her own daughter, Miss Mary Magoun Brown, is also among the helpers.

The arrangement is chronological, having sepa- rate sections devoted to the Deity, the Virgin, Royalty, the nobility, friends, and others. Among" those to friends is one of special interest to our readers : Westland Marston's dedication of ' Our Recent Actors ' to Joseph Knight. After referring to the dedications which were pub- lished a century or so ago, in which " the poet's praise of his patron was usually in such superla- tives that he often evinced more imagination in his dedication than in his poem," Marston con- tinues : " And yet I have at length learned from experience some toleration for them, for you have taught me that seeming hyperbole may well consist with truth. Of the man whose imagina- tive sympathy and refinement have not only


endeared him to some of our best poets, but made him a poet himself ; of the critic whose rare discernment has been in nothing more con- spicuous than in his quick detection of merit ; of the friend who has rejoiced in the successes of others as if they had been his own, while their misfortunes have called forth his untiring devotion ' Victrix causa diis placuit sed victa Catoni ' of such a man I draw a portrait which, though absolutely faithful, may be re- garded by those who do not know him as purely ideal. Accept from me these Recollections touching an art in which we are both deeply interested, and believe, dear Knight, in the pro- found and grateful affection of lyours always." A dedication which Knight criticized is also- given : Rostand's of ' Cyrano de Bergerac.' " It was my intent to dedicate this poem to the soul of Cyrano, but since that soul has entered into thy soul, Coquelin, I dedicate it to thee." Of this Knight, in his notice of the play which appeared in The Athenceum on the 9th of July, 1898, says, " M. Rostand tells us the soul of Cyrano has passed into that of M. Coquelin," and with sly humour adds " Without opposing a statement the full significance of which we scarcely comprehend, we concede that M. Coquelin's performance is remarkable in picturesqueness, and marvellous as a revelation of method."

Of course, in such a work it is only possible to give selections, but we should like to see included in a future edition the name of Alexander John Scott, the first Principal of Owens College, a man regarded with great affection, to whom Maurice dedicated his ' Mediaeval Philosophy,' Baldwin Brown his ' Home Life in the Light of the Divine Idea,' and George Mac Donald his ' Robert Fal- coner.'

The work contains a good Index, and the number of names shows the industry with which the volume has been compiled.

Marlowe's Edward II. By William Dinsmore Briggs. (David Nutt, 12s. M. net.)

IN a hundred and thirty pages of Introduction Prof. Briggs gives us a detailed account of the early beginnings, development, and decline of the Chronicle play. The difference between the Chronicle play and others of the period is chiefly one of subject-matter, the former being, as Nashe wrote in ' Pierce Penilesse his Supplication to. the Diuell,' " borrowed out of our English Chro- nicles, wherein our forefathers valiant acts (that haue line long buried in rustic brasse and worme- eaten bookes) are reuiued, and they themselves raised from the Graue of Obliuion, and brought to pleade their aged Honours in open presence." Prof. Briggs draws a comparison between the early Chronicle and the later religious play. A* regards arrangement of material each lacked " an election and a mean." The playwright was satisfied with a survey of a number of events, arranged according to their accidental, chrono- logical order, and limited, in general, by the death of the central character. In each case he regarded himself as a public instructor, for the people depended on the stage for their knowledge both of Old Testament and of national history. This conception of the function of the dramatist was the cause of his uncritical and undramatic treat- ment of the material at his disposal. Marlowe's superiority over his predecessors lay as is well