other three. It is most probably for this reason that the bird was chosen for the lecterns of churches. W. E. LAYTON, F.S. A. Cuddington Vicarage, Surrey. The eagle has long been considered as the emblem of St. John the Evangelist, and is mentioned as such by St. Augustine. Opinions differ as to the reasons for its general use for church lecterns, some contending that it was adopted because St. John was the most spiritually minded of the evangelists, while others affirm that the eagle symbolizes the promptness and celerity with which the commands of God should be ever obeyed, likewise as an emblem of strength and power. J. T. THORP. Leicester. The late W. J. THOMS, the founder and original editor of N. & Q.,' explained in vol. vi. of the First Series that an eagle was the attribute of St. John the Evangelist, because, says Durandas, "he soareth to the divinity of Christ, while the others walk with their lord on earth"; and a contributor gave at p. 543 the following extract from Dr. Wordsworth's Lectures on the Apocalypse': ་ "The eagle is the natural foe of the dragon; and the church of Israel is said, in Scripture, to be borne from Egypt by God through the wilderness on eagles' wings' (Exod. xix. 4). Hence the church is here described in the Apocalypse as thus rescued from the dragon. And antient expositors, observing that the church flies on the pinions of Holy Scripture through all ages and into all lands, saw that the two wings of the great eagle are the two Testaments of the Incarnate Word, who ascended on the clouds of heaven, and carries His children thither, like the eagle, described in Scripture, 'spreading abroad his wings, and mounting with his young upon them' (Deut. xxxii. 11, Isa, xl. 31)." [Very numerous replies have been received.] JOHN NICHOLSON (8th S. xii. 327).-He was an eccentric Cambridge bookseller of a century ago, very well known at that time, and by tradition much later. He began as a street seller of maps and pictures, from which he received and accepted the name of "Maps "; then, setting up as a bookseller, he used to itinerate through the colleges, carrying such books as undergraduates wanted for their work, and shouting "Maps, Maps," as he went. His portrait hangs in the University Library at Cambridge; BRIC-A-BRAC's engraving is doubtless from it. See Gunning's 'Cambridge Reminiscences,' i. 181, who says of the portrait, a distinction he was better entitled to than a smirking professor in scarlet robes who hangs very near him.' As & Cambridge man, I ought to know who this pro The History of Reynard the Fox. A Metrical Version of the Old English Translation. By F. S. Ellis. (Nutt.) THE feat accomplished by Mr. Ellis is, so far as we know, unique in literature. In 1894 he published a metrical translation of Reynard the Fox' which was duly reviewed and eulogized in our columns. See 8th S. v. 399. Feeling, like Milton when in 1630 he began and ended, he has rewritten the entire work. Nothing "The Passion,' "nothing satisfied with what was begun t less than heroical seems this task when it is recollected that the book occupies 300 pages in the new edition and over 350 in the old. What appears to have dissatisfied Mr. Ellis in his first rendering was its familiar and conversational familiarity. We are less censorious or exacting than he, and find no fault with a method such as this in the case of a humorous and sustained narra tion. There is in the new volume a nearer approach to the sustained dignity of the epic, which in a quaint fashionReynard the Fox' is, but we are not sure that the revision was imperatively demanded. We are at least content to have both translations. Verses in the earlier edition such as the description of "the merry hovedance"-which last word, though it is in Wright' 'Dictionary,' should surely be explained in the glossaryare omitted, and the measure generally is graver and statelier. The same archaic words are, however, constantly employed. We have sought through the volume and find no lines that will better show the nature of the change effected than the first four after the proem. In the earlier version these ran: They 'Twas near the time of Pentecost, When clean forgot is winter's frost 'Twas near the days of Pentecost, When woods grow green, and Winter's frost Bedeck the meadows, brakes, and bowers. The reader can choose for himself. Mr. Ellis requests that the later version may be regarded as superseding the former. We have every disposition to consult his inclinations, but the task is beyond his or our power. Too many copies of the former work have got into circulation to render possible the task of suppressing it, were there, which there really is not, any call for such an attempt. So naïve and primitive is the story, in spite of its satirical purpose, that a humorous and familiar method of treatment is not, in our view, out of of the old, is, like it, embellished with illustrative devices place. The new volume has all the luxurious typography of great beauty by Mr. Walter Crane, and is, unlike it, in a lovely binding of spotless vellum. English Masques. With an Introduction by Herbert mysteries dealt with result only in confusion worse WE have here another delightful-we had almost said precious-addition to the valuable "Warwick Library" of Messrs. Blackie & Son. No book covering fully the ground now occupied has previously appeared. It is true that the masks of Ben Jonson, Beaumont, Chapman, Shirley, Daniel, and others are familiar to the student of Elizabethan literature. We have ourselves scores of extracts from all those given in the volume, excluding Campion's 'Lords' Masque,' which at the time when we made extracts was not accessible. No one will object to a collection of the best of these, familiar though they be, in a shape so convenient and so pretty. Mr. Evans's introduction breaks new ground, and gives an explanation concerning the mask which we know not where, with equal convenience, to find. Much, perhaps most, of the information supplied can be extracted from Warton's History of Poetry' (a work Mr. Evans does not quote from), Collier's His tory of the Stage' (which, without a word impugning Its authority, he frequently quotes), and from the recently published works of Mr. Fleay. For the first time, however, Mr. Evans tells us straight off what constitutes a real mask. His definition is rather rigorous, but that we do not mind. Not sonnets at all are the sonnets of Shakspeare and Drayton, yet they remain among the greatest of sonnets all the same, if a contradiction apparent, not real, may pass. Mr. Evans will not treat as a mask the mask of Comus,' which is the loveliest of existing masks, or even 'Arcades,' which is, in fact, "part of an Entertainment." With certain mental REPRINTS of Crashaw's religious poems will always find reservations we accept his views, and we are pleased and readers. His entire works, or what are called such, edified with all he tells us as to the orthodox form of are accessible in the ponderous collections of Chalmers this composition. So useful is what he says that we are and Anderson, in Gilfillan's wretched edition, and in disposed to keep his volume at hand for the purpose of W. B. D. D. Turnbull's volume of the "Library of Old reference. Masks died with the monarchy, and are not Authore." Mr. Groeart-who obtainted possession of a likely to be revived. It is very pleasant to read of these copy once our own of Crashaw's 'Steps to the Temple," shows-quaint, poetical, and fantastic-and some of the printed on one side of the leaf only, and giving MS. pleasantest of all verse is contained in those of Ben on the other, which was sold in errorJonson. A veritable king of the mask is Jonson, and limited edition more poems than any of his predeprinted in a out of the sixteen now reprinted more than half are his. cessors. Mr. Tutin now gives the sacred poems only. In his mask at Lord Haddington's wedding, 1608, we In these Christian raptures assume a very sensuous find deceit rhyming with bait-a familiar rhyme (see aspect, and the language in which celestial aspirations "Historical English Dictionary,' s. v. "Deceit "), repeated are shaped might at times pass for the expressions of in 1668, with the identical words, by Wither. The notes earthly worship. Crashaw is, however, a genuine poet, are excellent. So many obvious things are explained although lacking in lyrical fervour, such even as was posthat an explanation of Dame Eleanor or Elinor Rum-sessed by his Puritan rival Wither, and has occasionally ming, p. 195, might have been afforded. A chrono- exquisite happiness of phrase. The volume now relogical list of the Masques properly so called " printed printed first saw the light in 1652, with beautiful illus between 1604 and 1640, forty in all, is given, and is said trations. It is a very scarce book, a reproduction of to be complete. The only serious fault we have to find which in facsimile might be recommended. Meanwhile with a welcome volume is the absence of an index, Mr. Tutin's reprint will delight the lovers of poetry and of religion. Crashaw was a fervent Roman Catholic, changing his creed after being ejected from his fellow. ship at Peterhouse. ་་ The Canon. An Exposition of the Pagan Mystery perpetuated in the Cabala as the Rule of all the Arts. (Elkin Mathews.) CANON," in the sense in which it is used by the anony. mous author of the volume before us, seems to mean one absolute piece of worke from whence artificers do fetch their draughts, simetries, and proportions" (see Holland's Pliny, as quoted in The Historical English Bictionary'). Not easy is it to be sure in dealing with works by the illuminati. If that be, indeed, its meaning, the canon by which the great architects of antiquity executed their enduring works, and to which music, religion, and other things are to be referred, is now hidden. Not impossible is it by the aid of geometry and the power of numbers to recover it, and the attempt is constantly being made. There is a world of symbolists and mystics to which works such as the present appeal. not of that world, and our attempts to fathom the We are Carmen Deo Nostro Te Decet Hymnus: Sucred Poems, By Richard Crashaw. Edited by J. R. Tutin. (Andrews.) The Spectator. With Introduction, &c., by George A. IT is pleasant in days in which the wail is constant that written introduction Mr. Aitken tells the story of the Divina (Chapman a warm controversy has ended in its adoption by many scholars, one of the latest of whom is Dr. Edward Moore. Lays of the Red Branch. By Sir Samuel Ferguson, THESE renderings by Sir Samuel Ferguson of what The First Book of Krab. By his Honour Judge Edward JUDGE PARRY's annuals are now looked forward to with eager expectation by the children, young and old, to whom The Children's Study.-Rome. By Mary Ford. (Fisher A PLEASANTLY written and useful synopsis of Roman MR. NIMMO sends us Scott's Guy Mannering, the second volume of the cheap reissue, in twenty-four volumes, of Mr. Lang's "Border" edition, with all the illustrations and notes of the earlier edition, Mr. Lang's introduction, and the very useful glossary. We have already spoken in praise of what seems likely to be an eminently popular edition. PART X. of Mr. Bernard Quaritch's Dictionary of English Book Collectors includes, among others, lives of Bertram, fourth Earl of Ashburnham, George Daniel, and Dr. Hawtrey, of Eton. It supplies facsimiles from the Durandus' of 1459 and the Ethica Aristotelis,' Oxford, 1479. MR. ALFRED E. HUDD, F.S.A., has reprinted from the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archæological Society a valuable paper on Two Bristol Calendars. MR. RALPH THOMAS has issued in a privately printed edition, from 13, Clifford's Inn, a booklet On the Use of Mr. Thomas's views are known to the Word British. our readers, and have found occasional exposition in ouk columns, to which he is a frequent contributor. MR. SCHÜTZ WILSON has printed privately A Study from the Terror, based upon a recent work of Boisgobey. THE Journal of the Ex-Libris Society contains a further instalment of the account, by the Hon. Secretary, Mr. W. H. K. Wright, of 'Trophy Book-Plates,' and a second article, by Miss Edith Carey, on 'Guernsey Book-Plates." Mr. Wright appeals for assistance from those capable of writing on heraldic subjects. The burden imposed upon him is, indeed, unjustifiably heavy. THERE is a short but interesting paper on 'Folk-lore Parallels and Coincidences' in the current number of Folk-lore. A much longer article, which shows evidence of patient research in the byways of human thought, is entitled Ghost Lights of the West Highlands.' Judging from the stories Mr. Maclagan has succeeded in collecting, corpse-candles and other portents of death are. still common enough among the Celts of Scotland; it, must, indeed, be rare for a soul to pass away without some "forego" appearing to predict its departure. STICKPHAST PASTE has become indispensable in the office and library. With a view to rendering it decorative as well as useful, a leather case, with silver rim and top, has been provided for the bottle. Notices to Correspondents We must call special attention to the following notices: ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith, WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately. To secure insertion of communications correspondents must observe the following rule. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second communication "Duplicate." J. C. P. (Tale of a Tub').-Ben Jonson has a play named A Tale of a Tub.' PHILIP HEDGER ("Pitt Club").-See 8th S. viii. 108, 193; ix. 13, 116; x. 461; xi. 15. CORRIGENDUM.-P. 393, col. 1, 1. 25 from bottom, for "whole" read old. NOTICE. Editorial Communications should be addressed to "The Editor of 'Notes and Queries ""-Advertisements and Business Letters to "The Publisher"-at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C. We beg leave to state that we decline to return com. munications which, for any reason, we do not print; and to this rule we can make no exception. M A SELECTION OF BOOKS ON NATURAL HISTORY, SPORT, ETC., OFFERED AT GREATLY REDUCED PRICES BY And at the Railway Bookstalls, to which places they will be forwarded carriage free. A HISTORY of BRITISH BIRDS. By the Rev. F. O. MORRIS, B.A. Fourth Edition, newly Revised, ... .... ... ... ... A NATURAL HISTORY of the NESTS and EGGS of BRITISH BIRDS. Thoroughly Revised and ... A SELECTION FROM SMITH, ELDER & CO.'S LIBRARY BOOKS. "A WORK ABSOLUTELY INDISPENSABLE TO EVERY WELL-FURNISHED LIBRARY."-TIMES. Price 158. each net, in cloth; or in half-morocco, marbled edges, 208. each, net. THE DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY. 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