COARSIE" (9th S. v. 457).-Examples of the use of this word will be found in N. & Q.,' 3rd S. xii. 390, 516; 4th S. i. 62, 160; vi. 370, EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 485. AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (9th S. v. 397). Like our shadows, Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines. Young, 'Night Thoughts,' Night V. 11. 661-2. E. YARDLEY. Stanza xl. of Shelley's Adonais' contains the passage inquired about by MR. PAGE. ARGINE. Miscellaneous. NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. By William Shakespeare: Prosody and Text. Stoffel. (Williams & Norgate.) pro THIS is a work of conspicuous erudition and found conviction. In a close study of English rhythms the writers have found a means of obtaining a better editing and a more adequate appreciation of the works of Shakespeare and the Elizabethan poets. There is a great deal of truth in what they have to say. As Whately was fond, however, of pointing out, the world wants truths, full truths, and not an amalgam in which truth has a considerable share. The mention of the subject sends us back to Edwin Guest's History of English Rhythms,' a work formerly in more regard than now it is, and one with which our authors are not always in accord. Curiously enough, the very first passage in this on which we lit consisted of a strange mistake. Guest gives in his fashion a line and a half from 'Comus' with his system of nota tion: Jael wh with hos | pita | ble guile | Smote Sisera sleeping. explanations of the manner in which these MSS. have been used by printers and editors. Still less can we deal with the manner in which vowels are to be synizesized, syncopated, apocopated, and so forth. Each suggestion furnishes matter for disto show the manner in which our authors arrive at cussion under 'Shakespeariana,' and the attempt what they hold to be the right text would be unjust to them and wearisome to our readers. While admiring the energy and ingenuity_displayed, we are dissatisfied with the results. We are not content with the arrangement of the lines in 'Othello' which gives us Malignant and a turban'd Turk beat a The system of line-shifting which is recommended and illustrated is carefully to be avoided. While Mr. Van Dam fails in many cases to convince us, there is much in his book which must warmly be commended to the reader. Those interested in the critical study of texts cannot afford to neglect a book that is full of observation and suggestion. Pausanias and other Greek Sketches. By J. G. Frazer, D.C.L. (Macmillan & Co.) THE masterly translation of Pausanias by Dr. Frazer, dear to scholars, redeems England from the charge of neglect of a writer whose description of Greece is a treasure-house practically inexhaustible. The one English translation previously existing, by Thomas Taylor, the Platonist, is uncritical and used by Sir Uvedale Price and others are insignifiuntrustworthy, and the portions of the itinerary cant. What Dr. Frazer did for scholars he now does for the general reader by reprinting as a separate and handy work the introduction to his version of Pausanias, with descriptions from his commentary on the Itinerary of Greece, and an account of Pericles contributed to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. To the average reader who comes across it, this work will probably constitute an introduction to the author whose description of Greece was first printed in July, 1516, in a scarce and beautiful, but lamentably inaccurate folio of the Alduses. The authority of Every student of Milton should know that the first Pausanias has been assailed, and he has been line runs 66 Jael who with inhospitable guile. The "wh" for who is corrected in the "Errata," but the serious omission of in is not noted. There are, especially at the outset, many things in Mr. Van Dam's work with which the student is compelled to agree. Mr. Van Dam holds that all Shakespearian editors have been ignorant of nearly every rule of prosody. He finds that of modern editions the well-known Globe is among the worst, being illogical, eclectic, bungling. Unlike most of his predecessors, he is of opinion that if the mistakes and discrepancies in the "old texts can be satisfactorily accounted for on grounds perfectly compatible with the assumption that these texts were printed from the author's own writings," no reasonable person persist in denying that the plays were actually printed from the genuine manuscripts," and we have consequently no right to infer, as has frequently been done, that Shakespeare did not concern himself about his fame as an author." cannot follow the writer or writers through their 66 66 will We charged with slavish dependence upon Polemo, and with describing a state of affairs which in his time no longer existed. From these and similar accusations he is defended by his latest and best biographer and editor, who proves that his statements are in the main borne out by the evidence of coins, and, indeed, vindicates his accuracy, it may almost be said, throughout. Dr. Frazer has, moreover, followed piously in the wake of the traveller whose work may be regarded as the first surviving guide-book, and shows the present condition of spots at the mere mention of which the pulses quicken Marathon, Hymettus, Nauplia, the Ladon, Hippocrene, the plain of Charonea, Delphi, Acheron, and a score other spots. One may trace the influence of the study of Pausanias upon the labours of Dr. Frazer in comparative mythology. We hear how, in the course of his Italian wanderings, Pausanias, beside the sylvan lake of Aricia, met probably the grim priest pacing sword in hand, the warder of the Golden Bough: The priest who slew the slayer, Pausanias arrived in "the nick of time." The stitutes one of the "Eversley Series." that her book will prove eminently attractive to a class of readers, and will introduce to many a curious and interesting individuality, and perhaps, also, a little studied epoch. Storyology. By Benjamin Taylor. (Stock.) MR. TAYLOR's not too happily named work-should it not be storiology? - gives a readable and popular account of folk-lore. In talking of those who claim to have been up to the moon, Mr. Taylor mentions only Lucian and M. Jules Verne. Surely Cyrano de Bergerac is sufficiently in evidence just how to merit mention. In his Etats et Empires de la Lune' he describes the means by which he ascended or was exhaled to the moon, as well as what he saw when he arrived there. We meet with some curious slips: the learned author of 'Pseudodosia Epidemica' "" for Pseudodoxia Epidemica, "John Andrey" for John Audrey, &c. In its unpretentious way the book merits recognition. THE Quebec Diocesan Gazette for March contains an appreciative obituary notice of Dr. Aspinwall Howe, and records the great services he rendered to the McGill University at Montreal, as well as his work as Rector of the High School during fortythree years. Dr. Howe was an old friend of 'N. & Q.,' and has bequeathed his beautifully bound copy to the High School, the condition being that the work be regularly subscribed for in future. Dr. Howe died on 13 February at the age of eighty-five. 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 pub lication, but as a guarantee of good faith. Let MISS GARDNER has contributed an admirable monograph on that mysterious personage John the Scot, otherwise John the Irishman. Readers of N. & Q. may be supposed to be much above the average in erudition. We doubt, however, if very many even among these know much more concerning this NeoPlatonist mystic than they know concerning the real author of the works attributed to Dionysius Areopagitica," which he translated for Charles the Bald. The little that can be said concerning the man is principally negative. He was not the man he is held to have been; was not, in WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately. fact, the other fellow." He was a little, merry To secure insertion of communications corre. man, whose companionship Charles prized, but spondents must observe the following rules. neither his mirthfulness nor the smallness of his each note, query, or reply be written on a separate stature preserved him from enemies or suspicion slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and of heresy. That by calling him a Scot an such address as he wishes to appear. When answer. Irishman was intended is, of course, known to ing queries, or making notes with regard to previous all who are aware that Scotland at this time entries in the paper, contributors are requested to had no such culture as existed in Ireland. put in parentheses, immediately after the exact The root of the name Erigena," moreover, heading, the series, volume, and page or pages to is found in Erin. Curiously enough he was which they refer. Correspondents who repeat apparently not an ecclesiastic. "Nullis eccle- queries are requested to head the second comsiasticæ dignitatis gradibus insignitum," says Pru: munication "Duplicate." dentius. The mass of myth that has surrounded him has been carefully sifted by Miss Gardner, whose chief object in writing the book has been to show the relation of the philosophy of Scotus to the thought of his times. There is much that still repays attention in the mystical significance which John the Scot assigned to Christian doctrine. Scotus, his biographer maintains, was not naturally controversial. He succeeded, however, in becoming engaged in some heated arguments concerning his mystical interpretation of predestination the sacraments, &c., taking part in what our author calls "a dull, interminable war of words, waged with a perverted faith, an unjustified hope, and a conspicuous absence of charity." We cannot follow Miss Gardner in her task. We can only say 66 SCRUTATOR.-The feathery forms of frost are due to a particular formation of crystals. Consult & scientific manual. CORRIGENDA.-P. 471, col. 1, 1. 18, for "Charles I." read Charles V.; p. 486, col. 1, 1. 19 from bottom, for "lime" read carbonate of lime. 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 communications which, for any reason, we do not print; and to this rule we can make no exception. WHAT is probably the most complete account of the flag commonly known as the Union Jack is to be found in the Archæological Journal for December, 1891 (xlviii. 295-314), in a paper on the subject by Mr. Emanuel Green, F.S.A. The history of the flag is there fully set forth, with a series of coloured plates showing (1) the formation of the first Union Jack, (2) various alternative ways of combining the three banners of St. Andrew, St. Patrick, and St. George, and (3) the formation of the second or present Union Jack. The several alternatives are interesting, as showing the superiority of the design eventually adopted. I notice that PROF. SKEAT says of the official description of the flag that "no description can be more exact"; but Mr. Green points out that it contains no intimation how the fimbriation of the St. Patrick's cross is to be obtained, or that the same cross is narrower than that of St. Andrew; there is also nothing to show that the fimbriation is confined to one side of the St. Patrick's cross. It is obvious, on drawing the flag, that, whether intentionally or otherwise, the saltire is actually composed of a fimbriated St. Patrick's cross dimidiated with the cross of St. Andrew per saltire and counterchanged; and I would venture to suggest as a more exact heraldic description of the flag the following: Azure, the crosses saltire of St. Andrew and St. Patrick, the latter fimbriated argent, dimidiated per saltire and counterchanged, and surmounted by the cross of St. George fimbriated of the second. With regard to the name Jack in connexion with the flag Mr. Green points out that as early as 1375 the same term was applied to the wadded or quilted surcoats or jackets worn by our soldiery, and covered with white charged with the red cross of St. George. Two hundred years later such "Jackes" were ordered to be made for the furniture of the Queen's Majesty's ships, perhaps for use in the same way as in the well-known painting of the embarkation of Henry VIII. from Dover in 1520, where rows of what may be such Jacks are arranged along the quarterdecks of the vessels. It is not improbable that the early flags were also called Jacks, from being of a similar shape, an upright oblong. I would add that Mr. Green maintains that owing to the restriction of the Union Jack to the Royal Navy and to forts and military garrisons, and of the White or St. George's Ensign as the flag of the Royal Navy, "there remains for general purposes the Red Ensign as the national flag, and this only," he says, "should be generally and publicly used." Personally, I fail to see what bearing the very necessary and obvious restrictions on the use of particular flags by the naval and military and merchant services have upon the use of such flags at large, or why we may not use the Union Jack, and the White and Blue Ensigns or the Pilot Jack, and yet may use the Red Ensign. The Red Ensign was originally a naval flag like the Blue Ensign and the White Ensigu, and, by Admiralty orders, has been assigned a certain part at sea, namely, as the flag of the merchant navy. I suppose it will not be disputed that from at least 1300, when it was so borne as one of the English ensigns at the siege of Carlaverock, the banner of St. George has been a national flag, and as it did not cease to be so when combined with the banner of St. Andrew, and, again, with that of St. Patrick, so in the form of the Union Jack have we our national banner to-day. The national flag is now happily flown on the Victoria Tower over the Houses of Parliament, and was flown on the Queen's last birthday on all the Government offices, thus giving an official confirmation that the flag of which an illustration is given is the national flag. W. H. ST. JOHN HOPE. *** By an Order in Council of 7 August, 1899, the flag to be used by Her Majesty's Diplomatic Servants, Ministers Plenipotentiary, Chargés d'Affaires, &c., whether on shore or embarked in boats or other vessels, is the Union Flag, with the Royal Arms in the centre thereof on a white shield, surrounded by a green garland. The flag to be used by Her Majesty's Consular Officers ashore, to distinguish their residences, is the Union Flag. The flag to be used by Her Majesty's Consular Officers, when embarked in boats or other vessels, is the Blue Ensign, with the Royal Arms in the centre of the fly of the flag—that is, in the centre of that part between the Union and the end of the flag. |