358
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. XIL OCT. si, iocs.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.
A Bibliography of the Works of Robert Louis Steven- son. By Col. W. F. Prideaux, C.S.I. ( Boilings. ) AMONG Col. Prideaux's contributions to biblio- graphical knowledge we are disposed to reckon this the most important and the most interesting. Without pretending to absolute completeness, so far as regards the appendix, which is occupied with biography and criticism of Stevenson in books, magazines, newspapers, &c., it supplies all that the student and the admirer can seek to know, and is the result of such conscientious labour as few men are able to bestow. An earnest and enlightened bibliophile, with the species of flair which is the high and rarely accorded gift of the best class of collector, Col. Prideaux has been able to supply from his own shelves the account of many of the rarest items to be found in his book. Of the five parts into which the volume is divided, the first is occupied with those original editions of Stevenson's works which come within the "domain of pure literature"; the second with juvenile effusions, Davos toy-books, and privately printed vers d? occa- sion, things which, in the booksellers' catalogues, are quoted at ten to hundreds of times their published price; and the remaining parts with Stevenson's contributions to books and periodicals. In execution the work is a model of what a biblio- graphy ought to be, supplying all the information that can possibly be required. We say this after comparing it with the fine bibliographies that have been issued in France during years comparatively recent, such as, for instance, the ' Bibliographic et Iconographie ' of Restif de la Bretonne by P. L. Jacob. For instance, Col. Prideaux gives, which Bibliophile Jacob does not, the divisions of the lines in the title-page and the cover, &c., of the book in its original state. Literary comment is rarely attempted. When it is, the information and the comment are alike attractive. Stevenson's own criticisms are sometimes quoted ; see, for instance, what is said, p. 30, under ' Prince Otto,' and espe- pecially, pp. 102 et seq., on 'Letters to his Family and Friends. 5 The volume is beautifully printed by Constable, and is a work to grace any shelves. Its illustrations include a characteristic portrait, from a photograph, serving as a frontispiece ; a fac- simile of a letter to Mr. Alexander Ireland ; and reproduced title-pages of ' Macaire,' ' The Story of a Lie,' 'Kidnapped,' 'Some College Memories,' 'The Master of Ballantrae,' 'The Misadventures of John Nicholson,' k Weir of Hermiston,' and ' The Surprise.'
Gossip from Paris during the Second Empire : Cor- respondence of Anthony B. North Peat. Selected and arranged by A. R. Wallis. (Kegan Paul & Co.)
THE letters of Mr. Peat from which the selection constituting the present volume has been made were mainly contributed to the Morning Star during the years 1864 to 1870, their progress being arrested by the death of the writer from an accident during the early days of the siege of Paris. Some, however appeared in the Yorkshire Pont. Mr. Peat himself was Attach^ au Cabinet du Ministre de 1'Interieur special permission being accorded him by the Marquis de Lavalette to undertake a function which might almost be thought irreconcilable
with his office, of sending reports to the English
press. In these circumstances it is scarcely a
matter for surprise that the communications are
models of discretion, that the praise of the empress
or a description of a Court fete is the nearest
approach to politics which is traceable, and that
the matters treated of are, as a rule, connected
with art, social life, and matters of current gossip.
Nine volumes of similar things are in existence,
and it is possible, supposing the reception of the
present volume to be favourable, that others may
follow. The best that can be said is that what is
told is generally exact, frequently sprightly, may
be read with amusement, and conveys a good idea
of life in the closing years of the second empire. The
opening article describes Etretat, a favourite resort
of our own at the period, that of the early sixties.
It supplies a capital account of a place then delight-
fully unsophisticated, though it neglects to mention
the hotels notably the Hotel Blanquet which
had a charm of their own. We hear of matters
such as the exposure of the Brothers Davenport,
Theophile Gautier at an exhibition of paintings,
the death of Baudelaire, the neglect of Lamartine,
Victor Hugo and the pieuvre yictor Cousin, the
first night of ' Hernani,' Louis Blanc, Rossini,
Nilsson, Jules Janin, Hector Berlioz, the Emperor
Maximilien, Bar bey d'Aurevilly, Gustaye Dore, &c.
Sometimes, but rarely, we get a sidelight on his-
tory, as when we find, in 1867, a French marshal
saying to the Comte de Goltz, the Prussian am-
bassador, "France need not follow any one's
example, and still less [that] of a power she has so
often defeated. We could easily, with our rusty
muskets, conquer Prussia with her needle-guns.
We detect some errors, but none of consequence.
Microcosmographie. Faithfully reprinted from the
Edition of 1633. (Methuen & Co.) BISHOP EARLE'S wise and witty 'Microcosmo- graphie ' was first issued in 1628, and was one of the best books of its time. It had then fifty-four " characters," enlarged in the fifth edition, no longer discoverable, to seventy-six, and in the sixth, from which the present admirable reprint is taken, to seventy-eight. Dr. Bliss edited the work in 1811, and Prof. Arber issued an edition in 1868. Those who know it not will do well to make acquaintance with it in this trustworthy and elegant reprint. They will find in it a source of lasting pleasure. The reissue is the more welcome since the work is not, like some others of similar or less pretensions, included in every series. Much light is thrown by it upon subsequent fiction. Take, for instance, the marvellous character of "A young, raw Preacher," overflowing with wit, which recalls Lamb's friend Thomas Fuller, likewise a bishop : " His friends and much painefulnesse may preferre him to thirtie pounds a yeere, and this means to a Chamber-maide ; with whom wee leaue him now in the bonds of Wedlocke." Decidedly a book is this to be bought and studied for delectation.
John B. Leicester Warren, Lord de Tabley. By
Hugh Walker, M.A. (Chapman & Hall.) DR. WALKER'S biographical sketch of< Lord de Tabley is rather in the nature of an apologia. It tells the story of a man never able to realize his ideals, and ending in defeat a life that might easily have been brilliant. Lord de Tabley was, however, what Goethe calls* " an echo " rather than a voice. Full justice what, indeed, some will think more
