Margaret of Navarre have been more or less profusely illustrated, and the last-century editions of two of these writers or collectors of stories are among the works most cherished of the bibliophile. Such even less edifying works as Le Moyen de Parvenir' have appeared with all the luxury of india paper and indecorous designs. When now, at length, Masuccio comes for the first time before us, it is in a form difficult to surpass. We do not often supply our books with culs-de-lampe such as grace the Decamerone' with the rubric of Londra [Parigi], 1757, or the Heptameron Français,' Berne, 1780-1, nor do our publishers rush into such expense of illustration as when their more or less erotic efforts were backed up by the purses of the Regent or of the Fermiers-Généraux, enriched by the spoil of the armies of their country. In beauty of design and execution, meanwhile, the plates by Mr. E. R. Hughes, R.W.S., need not shrink from comparison with those of the best lastcentury designere, from Gravelot to Eisen or Freudenberg, while as regards bold and unconventional treat ment, some of the plates, at least, will furnish the most exigent amateur with no cause of complaint. In typographical respects, moreover, the two volumes are as perfect as anything that has issued from Messrs. Law. rence & Bullen, whose publications are the delight of the book-lover. No work previously issued by their firm is more genuinely beautiful and artistic than are these volumes.

Of Masuccio Guardati-for to that noble family he belonged-what shall be said? That he was himself a nobleman, and lived on terms of intimacy with the princes and men of distinction to whom he dedicated the fifty tales-all of them true, as he asserts-is a matter of little consequence. As Aretino declared himself the scourge of princes, Masuccio is the scourge of monks. In assuming this office he was not without rivals, some as flippant as himself, others as earnest as Erasmus, who said that monks took on themselves vows of ignorance as well as of poverty. He is aleo, which is a rare quality, the scourge of false wives. Alexandre Dumas is not more relentless in his persecution of unchaste women than is our author. How far in this respect he was in earnest it is difficult to say. Painting as he does sexual relations into which intrudes no sentiment such as in modern days is attached to the idea of love, it is difficult to believe in his absolute sincerity. Concerning monks he leaves little room for doubt, and his writings are thus linked with those of his successorsRabelais, Maguerite of Navarre, and what may be called the allies of the Reformers. His stories, like those of the Heptameron,' are more apt to be coarse than erotic. In one case the translator-whose task is so far admirably accomplished that the whole reads easily, and conveys the idea of vigour-has been obliged to leave the language in the original Italian, and dispense with translating it. Such an instance occurs, however, but once. With the original Italian text we claim no familiarity; and it is charged with so many Neapolitan idioms that we doubt our capacity to read it. In the stories generally -those especially which lash the monks-there is a skatological flavour more to the taste of the Italian or, it may be said, the Latin public than the English. The character of the stories may, however, be gathered by those unfamiliar with the works of Masuccio from the tale of The Knight and the Friar,' which George Colman-who was the licenser of plays, and anything rather than indulgent in the discharge of his duties-included in his Broad Grins.' From Mr. Waters's very interesting notes we gather that the story, which is probably derived from the fabliau of Jean le Chapelain, Le Sacristain de Cluni,' has an English parallel in Heywood's "History of Women'; in 'Dan Hew, Munk of Leicestre';

in the Gesta Romanorum'; and 'The Seven Wise Masters.' Heywood's version is transferred into Blomefield's ' History of Norwich,' Sir Thomas of Erpingham figuring as the husband. Scarcely a writer is Masuccio to be placed in the hands of youth. To those, meanwhile, to whom insight into life is an indispensable adjunct of study, and who are not disposed to quarrel with an epoch because its views and its speech are different from what. now they are, the book will appeal. The lover of beautiful books will need no introduction.

THE sanest of the literary articles in the Fortnightly is that by Madame Van de Velde on Alexandre Dumas fils and his Plays.' Concerning those marvellously witty theses in dramatic shape for which the world is indebted to Dumas the writer holds much the same opinion as everybody else. What is said about the dress, personality, and method of workmanship of Dumas, is, however, new to the majority of English readers. While easy-going and almost careless in habits and dress, Dumas was minutely careful in all matters connected with his literary work. We scarcely know whether to regard it as sincerity or affectation that for those of his heroes or heroines to whom he gave titles be invented a coat of arms, which he blazoned upon the covers of the bound copies to be given away. It may please those of our readers who, besides being interested in armorial bearings, are familiar with the plays of Dumas, to know that De Perigny, in La Princesse Georges,' had on a ground gules a salamander disporting in gold flames, with the motto, " Per Ignes," and that the arms of Madame de Morancé, in Une Visite de Noces,' were a sword argent on a shield of gold. How far English heralds will approve of those coats we know not. Part I. of The Blessedness of Egoism,' by Mr. Russell P. Jacobus, deals in able, if somewhat morbid style with the writings of Maurice Barrès and Walter Pater. There is from the pen of Mr. John Bailey the customary article on Matthew Arnold, whose critical method at its best is said to have been an "admirable combination of simplicity of manner, subtlety of perception, and sanity of judgment." "The School Boy's Feast,' by Mr. A. F. Leach, deals, among other matters, with the Boy Bishop. Dr. Robson Roose writes onThe Climate of South Africa' as a health resort.Ouida sends to the Nineteenth Century a long and characteristic arraignment of the conditions of modern life. From much that she says it is impossible to dissent. Her lesson is, however, somewhat over-vigorously preached. We are far from going with her all the way, and though we sympathize with her to a great extent, and admire her energy and zeal, we wish she had a little more sense of the value of humour, and would insert a little satire into her jeremiad. Maxwell Gray, otherwise M. G. Tuttiett, should learn the great lesson to verify bis quotations. He builds something approaching to an argument upon a terrible misquotation. Where, may we ask him, does he find such an example of bathos and cacophony as Half a beast and half a man Was the great God Pan?

Not, certainly, in Mrs. Browning. As a whole, his paper on The Advantage of Fiction' repays perusal. Sir Algernon West tells some striking stories concerning English Prisons.' A very erudite article is that of M. J. Gennadius on 'Erasmus and the Pronunciation of Modern Greek.' Dr. Augustus Jessopp advocates Church reform as against Church defence. Mrs. Archibald Little describes rather arduous travelling in The Wild West of China.' Some of the controversial matter discussed in the number is of pregnant interest.-The opening article in the Century, A Kaleidoscope of Rome, with illustrations by A. Castaigne, is partly anti

·

An

quarian, partly modern, and blends Christian imaginings with pagan proceedings. The opening picture presents naked Christians lying in the circus among the wild beasts, and protected by an angelic visitant. We next see the Forum under the Cæsars, and in turn arrive at the peasants of the Campagna or the Piazza Colonna at night. An interesting paper follows on Responsibility among the Chinese.' Mr. William M. Sloane's Life of Napoleon Bonaparte' depicts the crumpling up of Prussia at Jena and Auerstädt, and ends with the dubious encounter with the allied forces at Eylau. It constitutes deeply interesting reading, and is finely illustrated. 'A Feast Day on the Rhone' depicts the proceedings on a voyage down the Rhone from Lyons to Avignon by the members of two Felibrien Societies.-A full account of a decorative painting, by Robert Blum, in the Mendelssohn Glee Club of New York, is given in Scribner's. This is a very imaginative and harmonious work, well deserving the publicity accorded it. A view from the Seine, Rouen, forms a frontispiece to the magazine. A fairly good account of Frederick Locker is accompanied by a portrait. The History of the Last Quarter Century in the United States' is continued, and The Waterways from the Ocean to the Lakes' furnish some graphic illustrations. An account is given of The New Building of the Boston Public Library,' and a new story by Mr. J. M. Barrie is begun.- Legends of Old St. Malo,' which appears in Macmillan's, is picturesque and sentimental rather than antiquarian in treatment. account is given of the well-known soldier of fortune Sir John Hawkwood. A brilliantly humorous satire on the proceedings in our public offices is furnished in The Seat of Justice.'-Among many articles of interest in Temple Bar are Part I., 'Lions in the Twenties,' an animated account by an old lady of Southey and Campbell and other celebrities. Mr. W. P. Courtney gives a capital picture of Fighting Thurlow,' and Mr. W. Davies depicts Haworth Thirty-seven Years Ago.' The delight ful papers by S. B. Wister on 'Cats and their Affections,' begun in the last number, are concluded, with no diminution of interest, in the present.-Mr. James Hooper sends to the Gentleman's an excellent paper on 'Thomas Hickathrift, the Norfolk Giant-Killer. It sets forth, in capital style, one of the most remarkable of legends. Mr. Alfred F. Robbins writes on Mr. Gladstone's Phrases,' Mr. Sydney on 'Furness Abbey,' Mr. G. Walford on Middle-Class Surnames,' and Mr. Schütz Wilson on Juvenile Lead.' The number is of exceptional value. -In the Pall Mall the most striking paper is the account of that strange, fantastic revivification of the Middle Ages the Eglinton Tournament. It is by Lady Fairlie Cunninghame, and conveys a capital account of the picturesque and martial proceedings. M. Georges Dubois gives a full and well-illustrated account of the 'Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris.' 'Calcutta Past and Present' is illustrated from photographs. 'Secrets in Cipher will appeal to some, at least, of our readers. seems likely to have serious and unexpected interest. 'Some Memorable Shipwrecks' contains many sad illustrations of English losses in the past century and the present. A Family of Statesmen' deals with the Cecils. A Third-rate Painter,' by Mr. Grant Allen, reproduces the Marriage of St. Catherine of Siena,' by Lorenzo de San Severino. The New House in Pompeii' is fully revealed. Bernini's Apollo and Daphne is also reproduced. The Cornhill supplies an account of Burma,' 'In the Land of Claret,' dealing with Margaud, shows that things are worse than once they were. At the little hotel where the writer obtained indifferent red wine we drank some of the best it has been our lot to taste. Returning a Verdict' is a brilliant sketch.-' Furbos the Aardvark,'

A New Eldorado

in Longman's, is very whimsical and humorous. Mr. Austin Dobson deals admirably with Grosley's London.' Mr. Lang, in 'At the Sign of the Ship,' is entertaining and instructive as ever.-Chapman's Magazine has a capital variety of fiction.-Under the title of The Lake of Shadows,' Lough Swilly, co. Donegal, is described in Belgravia.

CASSELL'S Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland, Part XXVIII., begins with Ilkeston and ends with Jura. Its best-or, at least, longest-papers are on Inverness and Jersey. A good view of Ilfracombe from Hillsborough is also given.

MESSRS. ALDEN & Co., of Oxford, promise Chronicles of the Royal Borough of Woodstock,' compiled from original documents, including the Borough Records, with a chapter on Blenheim, by Adolphus Ballard, B.A., LL.B., Town Clerk of Woodstock and author of Notes on the History of Chipping Norton.'

MR. MAURICE LENIHAN, J.P., editor and proprietor of the Limerick Reporter and Tipperary Vindicator, and the author of a valuable history of Limerick, who died on Christmas Day, aged eighty-six, was at one period a frequent contributor to N. & Q.'

Notices to Correspondents.

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Contributors will oblige by addressing proofs to Mr. late, Athenæum Press, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C. J. M. G. ("The lass that loves a sailor").But still the toast

That pleased them most,
Was the wind that blows,
The ship that goes,

And the lass that loves a sailor.

This, we are pretty sure, is by Charles Dibdin. J. P. STILWELL ("Clawhammer Coat").-The modern dress coat is so styled.

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memoir Walton speaks of his "happy affinity" with William Cranmer and two of his sistere, one of whom was the wife of Dr. John Spencer, President of C.C.C., Oxford. The other sister referred to is not named, but may have been Susanna, who married William Floud, or Lloyd, of Chepsted, Kent, 11 Sept., 1598 (Sundridge parish register). With these two sisters Isaac Walton relates that he had "an entire and free friendship"; and when the Rev. Richard Hooker became Rector of Bishop's Borne, near Canterbury, in 1595, William Cranmer and his two sisters were thrown into great intimacy and received some part of their education in his house. Walton married Rachel, daughter of William and Susanna Floud, at St. Mildred's, Canterbury, on 22 Dec., 1626; and Susanna, his motherin-law, lived with them for some time, and died in their house in Chancery Lane in 1635. Walton acknowledges the private information received from various members of the Cranmer family in his Memoir of Richard Hooker,' and specially alludes to his "aunt" (i. e., wife's mother's sister), the wife of Dr. John Spencer, who gave most important testimony regarding the preparation by her husband of the last three books of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity' and the delivery of Dr. Spencer's papers into the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The connexion of Isaac Walton with the Cranmer family through Susanna Floud, and with the Flouds or Lloyds of Chevening and Chepsted through his wife Rachel, seems to be clearly established; and the circumstances under which the Life of Hooker' was prepared show that Walton was considered to be his fittest biographer by reason of his own connexion by marriage with the families of Cranmer and Floud. The writer will be happy to correspond with any person interested in the subject of this paper.

A. W. CRAWLEY-BOEVEY.

76, St. George's Square, S.W. P.S.-Since this paper was written, I have been informed, by the kindness of the Rev. Wyndham Merewether, of North Bradley Vicarage, Trowbridge, Wilts, that the Merewether seal, referred to by the Editor of 'N. & Q.' in 1859 as "Isaac Walton's seal," is now in his possession. It is not a seal ring, as might be inferred from the correspondence quoted above, but a pendent seal. It is smaller than the Flaxley seal, and bears no motto. The stone is described as "6 dark green, possibly heliotropian.' This seal is said to be the original seal of Isaac Walton, received from Dr. Donne. It is clearly a family relic of the greatest interest.

CAMDEN'S ANNALS OF ELIZABETH,'
TRANSLATIONS.

The first volume of Camden's 'Annales Regnante Elizabethâ' was published in 1615, the

second, posthumously in 1625. Of translations there are the following:

1. In 1624, a French translation of vol. i. was brought out by Paul de Bellegent, published in London, and dedicated to King James.

2. In 1625, Abraham Darcie published an English translation, mainly made, as appears, from that of Bellegent, whose dedicatory address he gives (and see specimen below). One little flourish of his own is amusing. Camden begins with the grave and becoming sentence: "Elizabethæ Angliæ Reginæ genus paternum vere regium erat." Darcie says:

"The all-glorious, all vertuous, incomparable, inuict, and matchlesse pattern of Princes, the Glory, Honour, and Mirror of Womankind, the Admiration of our Age, Elizabeth, Queeue of England, was by the Father's side truely Royall."

3. In 1629, Thos. Browne, of Christ Church, Oxford, translated the second volume.

4. In 1630, a new translation of the whole was made by R. N. (Robert Norton).* It passed through (at least) three editions. The Bodleian has a copy of the first, the British Museum has one of edition 1635.

5. In 1675, some one, anonymous, took in hand and recast Norton's translation, "without destroying the groundwork," as he says, but supplying omissions, correcting errors, omitting superfluities, &c. He calls it "the third edition," apparently as having worked upon Norton's third edition of 1635. There is no earlier copy of this revised edition, either in the British Museum or in the

Bodleian.

gent.

"The French king likewise was in an extasie, considering how important and dangerous it was to France, if Spaine her enemy should vnite and adjoyne to his kingdoms the realmes of England and Ireland."-Darcie.

This also troubled the French king, who could not but misdoubt France, if by this new marriage England should fall again to the Spaniard his enemy."-Norton. Norton's reviser, idem.

"Nor could the King of France sit easy or unapprehensive, under the prospect of this new alliance, which his Spanish enemy was like to contract with England." -White Kennett's translator.

From which it may appear that Robert Norton

* See notice of him in 'Dict. of National Biography.'