which Wordsworth said, "I'll just show you another lake, and then we'll go homewards." To this the Shepherd replied, "I dinna want to see onny mair dubs. Let's step into the public and hev a wee drap o' whusky, and then we'll hame!" Wordsworth used to tell the story, and say that at first he was offended at hearing his lakes called dubs; but, on reflection, he could not take umbrage—the dubs was so characteristic of the man. The Shepherd contrasted the small English lakes with the large Scottish ones, and dubs was the natural consequence of the comparison ! Another anecdote has been recorded of the Ettrick Shepherd. It was during Hogg's stay at Rydal that he met with Byron. Byron was an inmate at the Salutation Hotel, and one day he encountered Hogg propping the doorway of the Grasmere Inn, of which the late Jonathan Boll (named in Hone) was then the landlord. It is said that Byron, accosting Hogg, said, "Your name's Hogg, I believe; my name is Byron. We ought to be acquainted!" The story goes that the two poets reached their respective lodgings in a very queer state. The Missal of the Abbot Gonçalves.—In the Library of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, which formerly belonged to the suppressed Convent of Jesus, is preserved one of the most beautiful illuminated Missals in the world. It is the work of Estevao Gonçalves Neto, sometime Abbot of Serem, in Portugal, and afterwards Chaplain to Dom Joao Manuel, Bishop of Vizen, to whom, as a token of gratitude, he presented this precious work of art. The execution occupied from 1610 to 1622, and the Bishop of Vizen, who founded the Jesuit Convent, placed the Missal in the Library, where it remains. The book is a Pontifical Missal, such as is used at a Bishop's Mass; the critics have always regarded it as a marvel of workmanship, and quite equal to the celebrated one executed by Juvenal des Ursines, Secretary to the Bishop of Poitiers circa 1455, and kept in the Library of Paris. The Polish Count Raczinski, well known as an art critic, speaks loudly in praise of this Missal; and when the late Thomas Boone, the Nestor of booksellers, was in Lisbon, he offered 1.000 guineas for it; moreover, a Paris house raised the bid to 2,500l., but the authorities will not allow it to be sold. The Missal is folio size, and is ornamented with eleven pictures drawn with the pen and beautifully colored; they are models of composition and correctness of design and perspective. Besides the large plates, there are numerous vignettes and capital letters, which show a most fertile fancy and the hand of a miniature painter. The large plates are the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Wise Men of the East, the Last Supper, Calvary, the Resurrection, Descent of the Holy Ghost, Assumption, Scourging at the Pillar, Christ Disputing with the Doctors, Our Lady Receiving the Child Jesus, all admirable pictures. Some three years ago the government allowed the firm of Macia & Co., of Paris, to copy the Missal by the chromo-lithographic process, and the work is now far advanced. A subscription-list has been opened, which includes nearly all the crowned heads and art academies in Europe. My In one of the longest and most curious of the autograph letters extant of H. De Balzac, he refers to the manuscript of the "Médecin de Campagne," of which he says: "Look sharp, Maître Mame, I have been long aspiring to popular glory, which consists in having sold thousands upon thousands of copies of a little book, like 'Atala,' 'Paul et Virginie,' the 'Vicar of Wakefield,' etc. a book which may reach the hands of the young lady, the child, the old man, and even the old bigoted woman. book is written with such a purpose. I have taken for models the Gospel and Catechism, two books which sell excellently well. . ." Balzac ends by asking his bookseller for an advance of a thousand francs, which he wants for a tour in Italy. The money was paid down; but six months after no copy had been sent, for not a line of it had yet been written. publisher brought an action before a court of law, and Balzac received an injunction from the judge to compose his novel, the copy of which was supplied from time to time in driblets. There were so many alterations and corrections in the proofs that the composition had to be done over and over again. Besides, the readers of the "Médecin de Campagne" know quite well that this novel, like his "Contes Drolatiques," which have been recently translated into English and suppressed in Great Britain, is not fit to be put in the hands of a youth, and still less of a young lady. CORRESPONDENCE. The Dictionary of Books. In almost every number of the BIBLIOPOLIST I find somebody inquiring who wrote this or that book, or asking some other question to which, even among your readers, an answer cannot sometimes be given. We have many dictionaries of biography, of dates, of geography, of authors, and all that sort of thing; and what we want now is a 66 Dictionary of Books." It is an old idea with me, but I have neither the time nor the means to put it into book shape; but I suggest it to you in the hope that through the BIBLIOPOLIST, something may come of it. In making the dictionary I take the books alphabetically, without regard to subject, and arrange them by titles, dropping "a's" and "the's." Mostly a line will answer, but the compiler can make his description as full as he sees fit. For example : Abbott, a novel, Sir Walter Scott. Alroy, a tale, Right Hon. B. Disraeli. Baron Munchausen, a fiction, Anonymous. Ingoldsby Legends, poems and tales, Rev. Richard Proportional Representation, political, Charles R. Buckalew. Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, history of the times of Charles I, Earl of Clarendon. Testamentum Novum Polyglotton, the New Testament in Latin, Greek, German, and English, edited by C. G. W. Theile, D.D., and R. Stier, D.D. Iliad, a poem in Greek by Homer, translated into English by Chapman, Cowper, Derby, Pope, Dart, Bryant, Hobbes, Sotheby, Merivale, and others. BLOOMSBURGer. A Proposition for International Copyright. Under the existing system, a British author sacrifices his native copyright if he publishes in the first instance in America. I would propose, to prevent that, he should lose his British rights by such anterior publication, and to carry it out in the following manner, by Act of Parliament. Let it become law that, if an English publisher advertises or announces a book by an author, a British subject, say for a month before the day of publication (giving title and other particulars so as to establish a proper identification of the book), that meanwhile, if, during the intervening month, the author chooses to publish his book in America, so as to obtain by a prior publication the copyright there, the English copyright shall, nevertheless, remain intact, having been already legally secured by the antecedent announcement of the English publisher. Suppose, for illustration, that Messrs. Chapman & Hall should, on the 1st of next August, announce that a novel, entitled by Mr. Anthony Trollope, will be published by them in London on the Ist of September, yet if, on some day between the 1st of August and the 1st of September, the book in question should appear in New York through an American publisher (thereby securing the copyright in America to the author), nevertheless, no English firm, except Messrs. Chapman. & Hall, shall be entitled to reproduce it in England, their right having been already obtained by the act of previous announcement-an act which, of itself, necessarily presupposes a perfected contract between themselves and the author. M. F. MAHONY. The Shakespeare-Bacon Controversy.— With respect to the Shakespeare-Bacon theories, which are now being discussed with so much learning and logical ability, I beg to recall attention to the fact that Sir Walter Scott, in his famous novel, "Kenilworth Castle," publishes a foot note, in which he prints a copy of a petition, which was forwarded to Queen Elizabeth by "Oscar Pinant, Keeper of Her Majesty's Bear Gardens." That important official prays of the Queen to take measures against one William Shakespeare, or Shakspere, an idle person," who was corrupting the public morals by drawing the people to playhouses, and such like resorts, "British away from the manly, healthy, sport of bear baiting." A copy of Oscar Pinant's memorial to the Virgin Queen is printed in an edition of Scott's works, which I read very many years since. In Kenilworth Castle," Sir Walter Scott portrays the struggle which was maintained in Elizabeth's time between the advocates of the rough jousts and tournaments of the day and the converts to the new light of the legitimate drama. Sir Walter, in the same novel, makes one of the Court officers read to the Queen a portion of a Shakespearian work, while Her Majesty was being rowed down the river toward the scene of the Leicester fêtes. Scott does HIBERNICUS. not refer to Bacon. 66 [Vide also Judge Pierrepont, on the controversy, in the Literary (and other) Gossip, of this part.— ED.] Epitaphs (Vol. vi, p. 71).—Your correspondent, W. H. C., wishes to be enlightened in relation to the use of fractional numbers in dating upon tombstones (and everywhere else, he might have added), common in the last century. The practice arose from the fact that prior to 1752, the legal year began on the 25th of March; and, to avoid confusion as to the year in which the date belonged, it was customary to give both the years in fractional form for all days between the 1st January and If a change in the reading is advisable, and I confess it seems desirable, permit me to suggest that it be made as follows: "Thy waters wanton'd there while they were free, And many a tyrant since." I would adduce the following reasons in support of the proposed change: 1. From an illegible MSS. "wanton'd there" might readily be set by the puzzled printer, "wasted them." 2. It leaves the simile perfect, as at the time Byron wrote, all the countries cited (Rome excepted), had been long ruled by Moslems, with well filled harems; and the post-republican tyrants of Rome also played the wanton, if history be not all a lie. 3. It accords with Byron's accepted expression, same canto, stanza clxxxiv. from a boy I wanton'd with thy breakers." J. S. THRASHER. Galveston, Tex., July, 1874. German Emigrants in the Eighteenth Century.-Under what regulations were German emigrants permitted to settle in AmerIn ica during the previous century? "German Pioneers, a Tale of the Previous P. S. My copy has a book-plate also of this printer, which I have never seen anywhere else. Who knows about him? "Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire' (Vol. vi, p. 72).—The old Greek proverb "Out of the smoke into the fire," corres ponds even more closely to our English proverb than the Latin quoted by Mr. Tew, from Tertullian. Plato uses it (De Rep, viii, p. 569, B), thus:-kal`TÒ λεγόμενον, ὁ δῆμος φεύγων ἂν καπνὸν δουλείας ἐλευθέρων εἴς πυρ δούλων δεσποτείας ἂν ἐμπεπτωκὼς εἴη (utque in proverbio est, populus servitutis liberorum. fugiens fumum in flammam servorum dominationis inciderit). Stallbaum, in his note on the passage, quotes the following from Theodoret (Therap., iii, 773):καὶ τὸν καπνὸν κατὰ τὴν παροιμίαν, ὡς ἔοικε, φυγόντες εἰς αὐτὸ δὴ τὸπ πυρ ἐμπεπτώκαμεν. FR. NORGATE. 17 Bedford Street, Covent Garden, London. Dr. Dee's Crystal.-The newspapers, some time back, recorded the death of Commander Richard James Morrison, the compiler of Zadkiel's Almanac. It will be remembered by many that, in a trial in which he was concerned several years ago, it came out that he was the possessor of Dr. Dee's magic mirror, so famous in the early part of the seventeenth century, to which was assigned the credit of having made known the Gunpowder Plot. So widely was this assertion believed, that it found its way into the English prayer books. In one, printed by Baskett, 1737, is a picture representing the mirror disclosing the facts. Surely it is well worth while to see that this magical relic be preserved, and not left to be sold for old lumber, and be lost and forgotten. E. L. BLENKINSOPP. [This celebrated relic of the absurdity of the seventeenth century is quite safe and sound in the British Museum, London. It is a pink-tinted glass ball, about three inches and a half in diameter.-ED.] Literary Parallelisms.—I do not recollect seeing in the BIBLIOPOLIST any notice of the following parallelisms. In Bartlett's "Familiar Quotations," sixth edition, the expression, "There never was a good war or a bad peace, ," is referred to Franklin. The same idea, with a qualification, was advanced by Sir William Temple, Swift's patron, who says: "Nothing can make a war good, or a peace ill, but its growing too necessary "-[Memoirs of Life, &c., of Sir William Temple, by Courtenay, vol. I, p. 75.] One of the stereotyped prefatory recommendations of the later editions of "Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy" is, that it was a favorite with the great novelist. It seems probable that Dr. Johnson's celebrated definition of oats was suggested by the following remarks from Burton, Part I, Sec. 2, Mem. 2, Subs. 1: "John Mayor, in the first book of his History of Scotland,' contends much for the wholesomeness of oaten bread; it was objected to him, then living at Paris, in France, that his countrymen fed on oats and base grain, as a disgrace; but he did ingenuously confess Scotland, Wales, and a third part of England, did most part use that kind of bread, that it was as wholesome as any grain, and yielded as good nourishment, and yet To the above title are added the words, "Fourth Edition." In those words may be recognized the appreciation by the public of Dr. Nicholas's valuable labors. He is the successful champion and advocate of the Celtic race. He shows that at least half of the subjects of the early Anglian and Saxon kingdoms must have been of the "British" race. He traces "race-amalgamation" with great care and ability; and few will differ from his conclusion that "the English people embraces a much larger infusion of Ancient British blood than English historians have been accustomed to recognize." The book is a most important contribution to the history of Britain, as well as to ethnology especially. From first to last Dr. Nicholas secures the interest of his readers by the force of his argument and the attrac tiveness of his style. We heartily commend this work to our readers as one of the most admirable volumes on the subject, and it cannot fail to be of deep interest to all Americans. PEDIGREES OF THE COUNTY FAMILIES OF ENGLAND. YORKSHIRE. Compiled by Joseph Foster, Esq. 3 vols., royal 4to, large paper. (London, 1874.) The first portion of this collection of pedigrees is now published, and from almost every point of view we think that the public and the compiler may be congratulated on its appearance. It is hardly more than twelve months since the collection of Lancashire pedigrees, which constituted the first of the series, was published, and now we have before us two volumes relating to the families seated in the West Riding of Yorkshire. One hundred and forty pedigrees are here set forth, and many of them are marvels of elaborate and, so far as we have tested them, of accurate work. We do not remember ever to have seen more complete and well arranged pedigrees than those of the Howard family, filling two huge sheets; there are others also which we may name, though less extensive and elaborate, yet have special interest for the genealogist, viz.: Bosvile, Calverley, Copley, Fairfax (with all the American Fairfaxes included), Fitzwilliam, Gascoigne, Ingleby, Radcliffe, Savile, Stapleton, Vavasour, Wentworth, &c. The Wentworth pedigrees, as far as here printed, we understand contain the condensed results of the labors of Colonel Chester, an American genealogist, *New York, J. Sabin & Sons. Price, $4.00. resident in Great Britain. In the Gascoigne pedigree we notice two new baronets as yet unrecorded by Sir Bernard Burke or any other genealogist. We are glad to find that Mr. Foster has included some of the extinct aristocracy of Yorkshire. Amongst these we remark Clarell, Currer, Hopton, Hungate, More, Plumpton, Pudsey, Reygate, Richardson, Rockley, Talbot of Bashall, Thoresby, &c. Some of these West Riding families have prospered and multiplied exceedingly. The pedigrees of Cooke of Wheatley, Croft of Stillington, Raw son of Mill House, Stansfeld of Field House, Thornton of Birkin, and Walker of Masborough may be noted as examples of rapid increase, involving much care and labor to the genealogist. Many of the pedigrees are, as we have said, more complete than any we have hitherto met with of the same families, and to those already mentioned we may add: Creyke, Ibbetson, Sherd and Hirst of Rotherham and Chapel-en-le-Frith, Ingram, Lee of Grove Hall, Westby of Ravenfield Gilthwaite and Howarth, Wood of Hickleton (Lord Halifax), Wood of Hollin Hall, Yarborough, and many others. Many of the illustrations in the volume are of a superior character, but others want finish and are evidently by a different pencil. In his introduction Mr. Foster says that to him "endless genealogies are a most interesting pursuit, and the care he has bestowed on this compilation must have been the care of one who is intensely devoted to his subject. He acknowledges, in his preface, having received invaluable assistance from the Rev. C. B. Norcliff, Charles Jackson, Esq., Dr. Sykes, Mr. R. H. Scaife, Mr. Charles Sotheran, and others, and as the "Herald and Genealogist says "if the genealogical craft in general wanted any confirmation of the excellence of the work they would find it in the fact that these household names amongst Yorkshire antiquaries have assisted in its compilation and revision." We shall await the issue of the concluding volume with much pleasure, and hope that the success may be sufficient to induce Mr. Foster, as he has promised, to give to the other English counties the benefit he has bestowed on Lancashire and Yorkshire. THE HISTORY OF MUSIC, FROM THE EARLIEST RECORDS TO THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, By W. Chappell, F. S. A. Vol. I. (London: Chappell & Co., 1874.) Mr. William Chappell's "History of Music " possesses all kinds of merit. It is learned, accurate, thoughtful, simple, and thoroughly interesting. Few, indeed, can be qualified to sit in judgment on Mr. Chappell; but no reader of ordinary intelligence can tail to see that his history is the work of a man who is completely master of his subject. He does not simply disagree with Hawkins and Burney as regards their notions, acquired at second or third hand; nor does he content himself with proving them to be entirely in the wrong. He also makes it his business to show how it was they went wrong; how, indeed, considering their slovenly and delusive method of inquiry, they could not very well have gone right. He demolishes, too, the pretensions of the archimpostor Fétis, whose charlatanism, divined by Heine, is now demonstrated. We feel personally obliged to Mr. Chappell for slaying this dragon, who from behind the volumes of his interminable but very incomplete "Biography of Musicians," had defied the world too long. To write the history of music among the ancients, which is the task Mr. Chappell has set himself in the present volume, a combination of gifts and acquirements has been necessary, which few authors and few musicians but the present writer possesses. Of the three modern musical historians Mr. Chappell shows most tenderness for Sir John Hawkins, who, notwithstanding his sometimes meaningless, sometimes absolutely misleading, habit of reproducing Greek words in an English dress, instead of translating them, worked with more good faith than either Burney or Fétis. Burney wrote much better English than Sir John Hawkins, and when he was wrongwhich was whenever he touched upon the music of the ancients-was wrong in an intelligible manner, whereas Sir John Hawkins was unintelligible and wrong at the same time. The great result of Mr. Chappell's labors in connection with ancient music has been to establish the fact that its history has been continuous from the earliest ages, that the white keys of the modern piano-forte form the "Common "Greek scale, that the intervals of tone and semitone are precisely the same in every Greek "diatonic" scale, and that as our piano-forte keys are borrowed from the keys of organs, so our organs are derived from those of the Romans, who derived theirs from the Greeks, who derived theirs from ancient Egypt. It will be very satisfactory to the generality of amateurs, who have neither time nor knowledge for pursuing such investigations as Mr. Chappell has engaged in, to learn on such authority as his that the music of the ancients was not altogether different from the music of the moderns, and that, as regards fundamental points, it was identical with it. BOSWELL'S LIFE OF DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. Newly edited by Percy Fitzgerald. 3 vols., 8vo. (LonGon*, 1874.) Mr. Fitzgerald's new edition of Boswell's Johnson, an old familiar friend, appears likely to be permanent and deserves to be successful. If Mr. Fitzgerald censures the former editor, Mr. Croker, he also acknowledges the merits of that gentleman, who never cared to acknowledge merit in others. Mr. Fitzgerald's own labors must have been of the heaviest ; but he has accomplished them honestly, and he may be fairly congratulated on the result. As for Boswell himself, the more closely he is contemplated the more attractive he looks. He was a gentleman and a scholar, and by no means the frivolous personage which some people have taken him for. In his way, Boswell served literature to as good purpose as his idol, Johnson, did in his. Boswell's "Life" alone is sufficient to prove that he acquired, what it has often been denied that he ever possessed or could possess, the power of persistent application to the successful completion of any pursuit. He has been called vain, but he modestly said of himself, "My *New York, J. Sabin & Sons. Price, $10,50. |