General Books

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN REPRINTS OF OLD BOOKS Most people are aware of the great demand there is for English literature, and indeed for all literature in the United States: for some years the anxiety of persons in that part of the world to obtain copies of our early printed books, prose, poetry, and plays, has been well known to such as collect and sell them on this side of the water. Where American... more...

DOMINGO LOMELYN, JESTER TO HENRY VIII. Shakespeare, in the Second Part of Henry IV. act v. sc. 3 makes Silence sing the following scrap:— "Do me right, And dub me knight: Samingo." And Nash, in his Summer's Last Will and Testament, 1600 (reprinted in the last edition of Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. xi. p. 47.) has "Monsieur Mingo for quaffing doth surpass, In cup, in can, or glass;... more...

ORIGIN OF A WELL-KNOWN PASSAGE IN HUDIBRAS. The often-quoted lines— "For he that fights and runs away May live to fight another day," generally supposed to form a part of Hudibras, are to be found (as Mr. Cunningham points out, at p. 602. of his Handbook for London), in the Musarum Deliciæ, 12mo. 1656; a clever collection of "witty trifles," by Sir John Mennis and Dr. James Smith.... more...

OUR PROGRESS We have this week been called upon to take a step which neither our best friends nor our own hopes could have anticipated. Having failed in our endeavours to supply by other means the increasing demand for complete sets of our "NOTES AND QUERIES," we have been compelled to reprint the first four numbers. It is with no slight feelings of pride and satisfaction that we record the... more...

KING ALFRED'S GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. The sketch of Europe, which our illustrious Alfred has inserted in his translation of Orosius, is justly considered, both here and on the Continent, as a valuable fragment of antiquity; and I am sorry that I can commend little more than the pains taken by his translators, the celebrated Daines Barrington and Dr. Ingram, to make it available to ordinary readers.... more...

NOTES. DANIEL DE FOE AND HIS GHOST STORIES. I feel obliged by your intelligent correspondent "D.S." having ascertained that De Foe was the author of the Tour through Great Britain. Perhaps he may also be enabled to throw some light on a subject of much curiosity connected with De Foe, that appears to me well worth the inquiry. Mrs. Bray, in her General Preface prefixed to the first volume of... more...

THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL RECORDS. The two principal causes of the loss of these records are, the abstraction of them by Edward I. in 1292, and the destruction of a great many others by the reformers in their religious zeal. It so happens that up to the time of King Robert Bruce, the history is not much to be depended on. A great many valuable papers connected with the ancient ecclesiastical state of... more...

NOTES LATIN EPIGRAM AGAINST LUTHER AND ERASMUS. Mr. Editor,—Your correspondent "Roterodamus" (pp. 27, 28) asks, I hope, for the author of the epigram which he quotes, with a view to a life of his great townsman, Erasmus. Such a book, written by some competent hand, and in an enlarged and liberal spirit, would be a noble addition to the literature of Europe. There is no civilised country that... more...

A FEW WORDS TO OUR FRIENDS. In our opening Address we carefully avoided any thing at all approaching to a boast of what we would, or even what we hoped to perform. We stated that "we would rather give a specimen than a description." We are now in like manner unwilling to point as exultingly, as we think we might, to the position which we have already taken. But there is a vast difference... more...

WHAT BOOKS DID OTLOH WRITE? Sir,—In Dr. Maitland's able vindication of the Dark Ages (p. 419. 1st ed.), he concludes his interesting extract from the scribe Otloh's account of himself by saying:—"One would like to know what books they were which Otlohnus thus multiplied; but this, perhaps, is now impossible." I have it accidentally in my power to identify two at least of the... more...