258
NOTES AND QUERIES. D9* s. xn. SBOT. 20, iwa
NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.
The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. Edited by
E. V. Lucas. Vol. II. (Methuen & Co.) OF every edition of Lamb the volume containing
- Elia' and the 'Last Essays of Elia' must be the
mos timportant. Lamb's criticisms of plays and actors are, of course, priceless, and there is no portion of his work Math which we should be con- tent on any terms whatever to part. But it is as Elia he is best known and dearest. Of the text Mr. Lucas supplies it need only be said that it is that of the first edition of each book, the ' Elia' of 1823, and the ' Last Essays of Elia ' of 1833. Although a pleasant air of antiquity clings to the text, it is not in this respect that we can deal with the edition. It is in the notes and illustrations, which occupy rather more than a third of the space 176 pages out of 475 that what is most individual consists. For the length of these Mr. Lucas offers afresh a species of apology that saw the light in the General Intro- duction in vol. i., to the effect that they constitute an attempt to show the place of each essay in Lambs life and the relation of each to Lamb's other writings, and an effort " to account for every allusion in the text not likely to be fully understood by the general reader." This plan involves, neces- sarily, the inclusion of much that is known to the vast majority, and to some may appear trivial. This Mr. Lucas holds a less evil than that other readers should turn away baffled of information. In the main we agree with this view. To the scholar it appears superfluous to translate ' Cicero de Amicitia' 'Cicero's Essay on Friendship,' or explain "esurient" as hungry; and, to a card- player, to assert that "to capote "at piquet is to take every trick. But these things, even, are not known of " all the world and his wife," and there is a mass of information which will be new and valuable to almost every reader. Take, for instance, the first note in the volume on the origin of the name Elia, which Lamb said should be pronounced Ellia. William Hone rimed it to " desire." Which of us, except, perhaps, some editor of Lamb, actual or potential, is aware of the fact, or, knowing it, intends to be in any way influenced by it ? Hone must, indeed, be wrong, since if it came, as Lamb says, from an old Italian clerk in the South Sea House, it would rime more nearly with "fear" than with "desire."
So wide was the range of reading of Lamb that the task of hunting out the allusions, quotations, locutions, &c., is one for a literary syndicate rather than an individual. Such, indeed, may almost be said to have been employed. Shakespeare and Milton are the writers he most frequently quotes, the latter especially. When Lamb talks of saying grace before reading it is Milton he first advances. A use of the concordances to these writers simplifies matters much. With regard to the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Carolinian drama- tists, the pursuit of the lines laid down in the 4 Dramatic Specimens' is inevitable. Almost the entire range of English poetry, from Spenser and Daniel to Coleridge and Wordsworth, was included in Lamb's stock-in-trade. Mr. Lucas's notes in this respect are of exemplary fulness, and are of great merit and interest. "Sparkling gooseberry (p. 42, 1. 16) is spoken surely of gooseberry wine, used as a substitute for champagne. A reference to Ino
Leucothea (p. 69) would be the richer for a reference
to "Leucothea's lovely hands" ('Comus,'875), which
was doubtless in Lamb's memory, as was, p. 99, 1. 6,
the " burning idol " of the * Hymn on the Nativity.
ESTE, a contributor to 'N. & Q.,' mentioned p. 389,
is the late Samuel Timmins. Where Lamb refers
to "the thrice noble, chaste, and virtuous Mar-
garet Newcastle, his memory runs tricksily upon
the titles to her books, which speak of her con-
stantly as "the thrice noble, illustrious, and
' Vida y Lechos " (p. 449) should be Vida y Hechos.
The accuracy of the book is as remarkable as its
erudition. Apart from the illustration afforded of
Lamb's style and method, the notes may be read
with delight for their own sake.
Thomas Campion's Songs and Masques, &c. Edited
by A. H. Bullen. (Bullen.)
Tins delightful edition of Campion comes, we may almost claim, in answer to our call. In noticing, 7 th S. vii. 39, the appearance of the first edition, in which Mr. Bullen virtually introduced Campion to the English reader, we claimed, echoing words of Beatrice in ' Much Ado about Nothing,' another edition for "working days," since the book was "too costly to wear every day." The volume we sought has come, and Campion may now be put on the same shelf with Drayton, Daniel, Herrick, Marvell, and Donne. Pretty enough is the present volume, which, indeed, contains some features the earlier work may not boast. It has thus a facsimile of the title of Campion's ' Poemata ' (London, Richard Field, 1593), from the only per- fect copy known, which is in the possession of Viscount Clifden. Of the existence of this work Mr. Bullen was previously in ignorance. We get also for the first time an essay, by Miss Janet Dodge, on Campion's music. From the earlier edition, apart from bibliographical variations, it differs principally in omitting the Latin poems, and giving only the songs and masques and the "Observations on the Art of English Poetry.' So great has been the influence of the first republica- tion that Campion is now constantly mentioned by those who, less than a score years ago, knew him not, and he now runs the risk, as Mr. Bullen justly says, of "becoming the object of uncritical adula- tion." For the book-lover the first edition will always retain its value and its charm. The lover of poetry will be thankful for a book he can handle without self - rebuke, and the later volume may well do more than its predecessor to secure for Campion the place he merits in English poetical literature.
Letters of a Templar, IS 20- 50. Selected and arranged by William Lowes Rushton, Barrister- at-law. (Liverpool, Howell: London, Simpkin, Marshall & Co.)
EDWARD RUSHTON, the writer of these letters, opposed Canning in his election in March, 1820, and Huskisson in February, 1823. He was a Liverpool man, and, like almost all the middle classes at that time, a Liberal. In 1839 he was appointed stipendiary magistrate of his native place, and died in 1851. His letters, mostly addressed to his wife, are principally concerned with political personages or men of local eminence. We come occasionally upon mention of people such as Godwin and
