But Dr. Mackinnon's guidance is by no means always trustworthy. The bibliographical details at the end of the chapters are a useful feature.

The Russian Peasantry: their Agrarian Condition, Social Life, and Religion. By Stepniak. (Routledge & Sons.) By arrangement with Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., Messrs. Routledge have issued a cheap and popular edition of Stepniak's important work. Its appearance cannot be otherwise than opportune at a time when all eyes are fixed upon the fortunes of the great people it depicts. It has been found impossible to bring the information quite up to date. Russian folk-lore has a strongly marked character of its own, and of this the volume incidentally treats. A large number of readers will be glad of the opportunity of studying the chapters on 'The Agrarian Question,' 'The Moujiks and the Russian Democracy,' and 'Paternal Government.'

WE have received Wenhaston and Bulcamp, Suffolk, containing curious parish records, com. piled by the late Rev. J. B. Clare (Elliot Stock). It contains several noteworthy facts, but the arrangement of the materials cannot be commended, and here and there we come upon mistakes. For example, we are told that the De before the names of some early vicars indicates that they were of noble birth. This is not necessarily true. In fact, in a large majority of instances it could be proved not to have been the case. The De was used very commonly to signify that the priest's birthplace or home in boyhood was the village whose name he had appropriated.

Excommunication died out slowly in the Church of England. When the last case occurred would be an interesting subject for inquiry. An account is given here of one that took place in 1732. There is also information afforded of the various Acts of Parliament relating to burial in woollen. One fact is stated of which we were unaware. As there was a heavy penalty inflicted on those who did not obey the law, and the fine went to the informer, the dying person or his friends sometimes directed one of the servants to lay the information, thus "securing the fine as a kind of legacy." Some notes and extracts relating to the condition of the poor in former times are worth attention. Several examples are given of the practice indulged in by parish authorities of paying men to marry widows with large families, for the sake of relieving their own rates. An instance occurs as early as 1761, and there are others of later date. How long this form of bribery and cheating continued in Suffolk we do not know, but in many parts of the country nineteenth-century examples could no doubt be produced. The custom probably did not entirely disappear until the passing of the poor-law of 1834. The volume has a glossary of upwards of fifty pages, containing a few matters worthy of notice.

REV. H. A. WALKER.-On the 8th inst., at the residence of his brother, Major-General A. L. Walker, The Chase Cottage, Enfield, the death occurred of the Rev. Henry Aston Walker, vicar of Chattisham, Ipswich, at the age of seventy-one. The Church Times of 11 May contained the following obituary:

"We have to record the death of an aged priest, the Rev. H. A. Walker, whose name was better known amongst Churchmen a quarter of a century ago than it is to-day. He was one of the colleagues of the late Fr. Mackonochie at St. Alban's, Holborn, and became vicar of St. James's, Hatcham, after Mr. Tooth's resignation of that living. But it is as one of the earliest pioneers of Plainsong in the services of the Church that he will, perhaps, be best remembered. His compilation of supplemental hymns to The Hymnal Noted,' and, perhaps, his version of 'Missa de Angelis,' are his best-known works.-R.I.P."

He was of Oriel Coll., Oxon, B.A. 1856, M.A. 1859; and became vicar of Chattisham, Ipswich, in 1891. Contributions from him, signed H. A. W., have appeared from 4th S. vii. to 10th S. iv. W. C. B.

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES.

MR. B. H. BLACKWELL, of Oxford, has a copy of Holinshed, black-letter, 1577, 35s.; Evelyn's Sylva,' 1664, 21. 15s.; Lodge's 'Portraits, 1823-9, 2l. 15s. first editions of Browning and Dickens; Grote's Greece,' 8 vols., 1852, 37. 3s.; Gallery of Portraits, C. Knight, 1833-7, 7 vols., 30s.; Picturesque Europe, 5 vols. 4to, 2. 12s. 6d.; Rawlinson's Five Great Monarchies of the Eastern World,' 51. 15s. 6d.; Sir Thomas Browne's Works,' 1686, 27. 5s.; and the sixth edition of Religio Medici, 1669, 7s. 6d. The 47 volumes of The British Theatre,' 1826, are priced 31, 158.; and Daniel's 'Works,' Spenser Society, 1885, 31. 35.

་

Messrs. Browne & Browne, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, have a fine large-paper set of Books about Books,' 6 vols., 7. 10s.; "British Novelists," edited by Mrs. Barbauld, 50 vols. 1813, 67. 10s.; Don Quixote,' first folio edition in English, 1652, 51. 58.; Crawhall's 'Collection of Right Merrie Garlands for North-Country Anglers,' large-paper copy, 47. 10s.; Cox's 'The Gentleman's Recreation,' the rare first edition, 1674, 67. 6s.; Cruikshank's 'Life in Paris,' 1822, rare, 12.; and a complete set of The Satirist, very rare, 1808-14, 107. Under Durham is Surtees's County History,' 1816-52, 5 vols. folio, 307. Other items include the third edition of Montaigne, 1632, 97.; and Milton's ' Historical Works,' first collected edition, 1698, 21. 28. Under Shakespeare are 'The Shakespeare Gallery,' 1792, very rare, 21. 10s. ; and The Blazon of Gentrie,' 1586, not quite perfect, 31. The Catalogue closes with Bargains for Collectors.

Hymn to the Pillory,' the first edition, edges uncut, Mr. J. G. Commin, of Exeter, has Defoe's 'A 1703, rare, 21. 28. Defoe describes the pillory as

A hieroglyphic state-machine Condemned to punish fancy in. A complete set of The Illustrated London News, 1842-1906, is priced 147. 10s. Under Lever are first editions of The Martins of Cro' Martin,' 1855-6, 31. 10s., and Tony Butler,' 17. 10s. (the first is in the original parts). There is a unique copy of Harrison Weir's Poetry of Nature,' containing a pen-and-ink drawing with the inscription "To Edward Capern, the sweet songster that sings all the year round, 2. 10s. Interesting items will be found under Dramas, Plays, Napoleon, &c. There are also sets of The Antiquary, Cornhill, and Temple Bar.

Messrs. Douglas & Foulis, of Edinburgh, have a list of books withdrawn from their library, the

QUERIES:-" Pit "-Cockpit-"Pit-counter"-"Plane" --Sycamore-Tarot Cards, 407-Black Box and the Mayor

of Bodmin - Christopher Martin and the Defence of St. John's, Newfoundland-Heraldic-Authors of Quotations Wanted" Ginla Augusti"-Earl's Eldest Son and Supporters-The Battered Tar,' 403-Xavier de Maistre's Allusions-Capt. Onley, R.N.- Canbury House, Middlesex -West's Picture of Wolfe's Death-Dover-Winchester Road -Blandina-"Pearl": its Etymon-Iliads of the Iliad' -Ralph, Lord Hopton - Barnes Pikle-Ward Family"Hearts of Oak," 409-John Hook, of Norwich-J. Rampini, 410. REPLIES:-Churchwardens' Accounts, 410-Saint with Five Stars, 411-" Place," 412-Ballad by Heber: W. Crane -Watches and Clocks with Words instead of FiguresMay Morning at Magdalen: its Music-Collop Monday, &c., 413-Vowels on Monument-"Brown Bess as applied to a Musket-Travelling in England-"Dog's Nose." 414 Provincial Booksellers - Ariel - Cheyne Walk: China

Walk, 415-Goethe-Irish Bog Butter-Axholme PrioryRamsgate Christmas Procession, 416-Kipling Obscurities Holy Britons - Sixteen Bishops consecrated at One Time-Samuel Williams-Abbey or Priory-Hawtrey. 417 -Dover Pier-Ropes used at Executions - Bookseller's Motto-Macaulay's “New Zealander," 418. NOTES ON BOOKS:- Phillimore's Translation of Propertius - Hazlitt's View of the English Stage-Longinus on the Sublime Homeland Handbooks The Vicar of Wakefield Edinburgh Review-Routledge's

"New Universal Library" - Folk - lore -L'Intermédiaire.' Obituary:-Mr. James Peacock. Notices to Correspondents.

Jotes.

THE DEATH SONGS OF PYRAMUS AND THISBE.

(See ante, p. 341.)

SHAKESPEARE has hit off very happily some of the most ludicrous features of these oldfashioned tragical comedies, though it must be admitted that the passages which have been quoted from Farrant's songs and Edwards's play are almost beyond the reach of parody. First of all we may note how he has burlesqued the persistent habit of heroes and heroines (or friends on their behalf) of bursting into song at the crisis of their fate; for I take it for granted that both Pyramus and Thisbe are intended to sing their death songs. When it is recognized

I think that Shakespeare has already had a laugh at this habit when he makes Bottom say (speaking of the ballad to be called Bottom's Dream'), "I will sing it in the latter end of a play before the duke: peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death." The last sentence I should interpret as if it ran, peradventure to make her [the heroine's] death the more gracious, I shall sing it" at that catastrophe.

that this was the practice in the old plays,* the change of metre in Pyramus and Thisbe' seems plainly to indicate that these passages should be sung. Besides Bottom (Pyramus) is a character" with a song" (Act III. i.), and attention has already been directed to the fact that "he is a very paramour for a sweet voice."

Turning next to details, we must note how Shakespeare ridiculed the conventional invocations to Death and the Fates; the reiterated asseverations "I die, I die," &c; and the stereotyped phrases and words which recur so often in old plays of this kind as to become ridiculous-such words, for instance, as "imbrue"; or in particular the word "dole," which distressed heroes and heroines much affected, either as a noun or in the adjective "doleful." And the use of this word in Pyramus's death song is noteworthy, for it is a word which Shakespeare very seldom uses seriously in his plays ; it seems, indeed, to have had burlesque associations to his mind, as when it is put into Pistol's mouth, or used in reference to Autolycus's ballads. And I venture to suggest that when Shakespeare makes Bottom explain that "a lover is more condoling," he is laughing at the tragi-comical use of this hackneyed old

word.

There is one point of which I believe no satisfactory explanation has been offered, which inclines me to think that Shakespeare had the chorister actors particularly in his mind. That is Flute's speech in Act IV. ii. :—

"O sweet Bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day during his life; he could not have 'scaped sixpence a day: an the duke had not given him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged; he would have deserved it: sixpence a day in Pyramus or nothing."

Here it is evident that some allusion is intended which the audience would have recognized. The usual explanation seems to be that we must suppose that some actor had been pensioned for his abilities on the stage ;+

*

the two or three mentioned.
Examples will readily occur to the mind besides
For instance, in
Cambyses' the Queen is led out to murder singing
a psalm:-

Yet with a joyful heart to God
A psalm I mean to sing,
Forgiving all, and the King,

Of each kind of thing. [Sing and exeunt. + Only twice, if we except a passage in one of the Gower prologues in 'Pericles': once in K. John,' and once in Hamlet.' Did Shakespeare possibly in these instances inherit the word from the old plays on which his were founded?

The case of Thomas Preston, author of Cambyses,' which is always quoted in illustration of

46

but if so, it would have been neither graceful nor prudent for other actors to hold the circumstance up to derision. The point plainly lies in the constantly repeated "sixpence a day." Now sixpence a day was the sum which the Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal received for each child's board; and Hunnis, who succeeded Edwards in that post in 1566, complained in 1583, in a petition to the Council, that he was unable to maintain an usher, a man-servant, for the boys, and a woman to keep them clean, on an income of 6d. a day each for food, and 407. a year for apparel and all expenses" (I quote from the article 'Hunnis' in the Dict. Nat. Biog.'). Is it far-fetched to suppose that this is the point of the joke? the suggestion, that is to say, that Bottom is to take a choirboy actor's place, and keep it for life. In Mr. Verity's edition of 'M.N.D.' I find quoted the following apt passage from Ben Jonson's Masque of Christmas,' performed before James I. in 1616, where a boy is supposed to act for the first time before the Court, and his mother asks the Master of the Revels, "How does his Majesty like him, I pray? Will he give eightpence a day, think you?" Possibly wages were higher under James than under Elizabeth, though I rather gather that the old woman (Venus) has named an unusually high sum. Anyhow, this passage shows that Court audiences then knew enough about acting-boys' salaries to be ready to appreciate a joke on the subject.

Excepting the two Farrant songs, I have met with none in musical collections which can certainly be said to be extracts from plays. But there are other songs of the same period," passions," laments, invocations to Death, &c., which may very probably have had a similar origin. The older musical antiquaries were evidently puzzled by them, and generally dubbed them A Complaint of Queen Anne Boleyn,' who in their opinion must have spent the last hours of her unhappy life in composing swan-songs. Two of the songs which I have in mind are composed by Robert Johnson, a Scottish priest, who fled to England before the Reformation on accusation of heresy, and seems to have settled at Windsor: it is not known whether he had anything to do with the chapel there, but one would be inclined to guess that he

this point, seems to me to be singularly unfortunate because Preston was not an actor, but a Cambridge don; and the circumstances in which the Queen gave him a pension of 207. a year (not sixpence a day), with the title of "her scholar," have no bearing upon the matter.

Death.

Then end my days and ease my sad laments :
End wretched Life, and end my discontents.

If we except the phrase "Stop my vital breath," which illustrates Pythias's lament for Damon, and suggests to modern readers a familiar formula of Lord Foppington's, there is nothing here for any one to smile at. Another song written for the same combination is in the same MSS. (B.M. Addl. 30480-4), and may also be by Johnson, though no composer's name is given. It begins :O death, rock me asleep, bring me to quiet rest, Let part my wery giltles gost out of my carfull Toull on the passing bell, Let the sound my death tell, Ring out the doolefull knell, Death doth drawe neigh; Sounde my deth dolefully,

brest.

For now I dye.

Another entirely different setting of these words will be found in Chappell's 'Popular Music of the Olden Time,' which in yet another version is printed in Wooldridge's edition of Chappell's Old English Popular Music.' In the last version it may be noted that the singer announces the fact "now I dye" seven times in every verse, and there are several verses. This song is well known, Pistol quoting it in '2 Hen. İV.,' II. iv. :— What! shall we have incision? shall we imbrue? Then death rock me asleep, abridge my doleful days!

This fact rather tends to confirm one in one's belief that the song is from a play, in spite of the following learned opinions reported by Chappell (first ed., i. 237), who says:

"The words were printed by Sir John Hawkins in his History of Music,' having been 'communicated to him by a very judicious antiquary' then lately deceased' [I suppose Stafford Smith], whose opinion was that they were written either by, or in the person of, Anne Boleyn; 'a conjecture,' he adds, which her unfortunate history renders very probable.' On this Ritson remarks. It is, however, but a conjecture: any other State prisoner of that period having an equal claim. George, Viscount Rochford, brother to the above lady, and who suffered on her account, "hath the fame,"