Various

“ The use that Burton makes of the name of Euphormio is any thing but happy. He was not a "trencher chaplain" but the slave of a rich debauchée, Callion, sent in company with another slave, Percas, to carry some all-potent nostrum to Fibullius, a friend of Callion, who was suffering from an attack of stone. Euphormio cures Fibullius, not by the drug with which he was armed, but by a herb, which he sought for and found on a mountain. Fibullius, to reward his benefactor, offers him as a wife a most beautiful girl, whom he introduces to him privately while in his sick room. ”

“ But there are books of another kind—books {18} which our worthy bibliopoles designate as "standard works." These are the books of competent workmen—books which are the result of honest labour and research, and which from the moment of their publication assume a permanent station in our national literature. Even in such books there are many things incomplete, many things erroneous. But it is the interest of every man that such books should be rendered as complete as possible; and whatever tends to illustrate or correct works of that class will be sure of insertion in our columns. ”

“ Callion had paid his sick friend Fibullius a visit, and, on the eve of his departure, had ordered Euphormio to ride post before him, and prepare the inhabitants of the districts through which he was to pass for his arrival. While Euphormio is on the horseblock in the act of mounting his steed, a rustic brings him a letter from Fibullius, and in conversation gives him such an account of his bride as forces upon him the reflection, that even the grim Libitina would be preferable, as a bride, to so confirmed a Thais, so fruitful a partner, as the protegée of Fibullius would be likely to prove. ”

“ There is not, however, one among them in which the reading many may note, for the use of himself and his fellow-labourers in the wide field of Literature, the minute facts which he meets with from time to time, and the value of which he so well knows, or insert his Queries, in the hope of receiving satisfactory answers from some of his literary brethren.
NOTES AND QUERIES, A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, is, as its name implies, intended to supply this deficiency. Those who meet with facts worthy of preservation, may record them in its columns ”

“ To illustrate such books, to add to their information or correct their blunders, would be useless and almost ridiculous. They should be left to die of mere powerlessness and exhaustion, or to wither under the wholesome influence of a just and manly criticism. ”

“ A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
Among the many periodicals which issue from the press, daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly, there is not one especially intended to assist Men of Letters and of research in their pursuits. Literary Journals there are in abundance, many of them of the highest degree of merit, which in their Reviews and Announcements show the current sayings and doings of the literary world. ”

“ Lus. Satyricon, such as Callion, Pereas, Fibullius, &c., are real characters or not? as, in the former case, I am inclined to think that the work might throw some interesting lights on the private manners and characters of some of the courtiers of the day. "No scandal against any of the maids of honour"—of course. The phrase "To the halves" (in the quotation from Burton) means, inadequate, insufficient; we still talk of "half and half" measures. Montanus inveighs against such "perturbations, that purge to the halves, tire nature, and molest the body to no purpose."—Burton, Anat. ”

“ A knowledge of the intellectual acquirements of the middle ages must be mainly formed upon a consideration of the writings which directed them, or emanated from them. Unfortunately such materials are very imperfect, our knowledge of the existence of works often resting only upon their place in some loosely-entered catalogue—and of the catalogues themselves, the proportion still remaining must be small indeed. ”

“ He is convinced that the want of specific acknowledgment will only be felt by those who have no idea of the labour and difficulty attendant on the hurried management of such a work, and of the impossibility of sometimes giving an explanation, when there really is one which would quite satisfy the writer, for the delay or non-insertion of his communication. Correspondents in such cases have no reason, and if they understood an editor's position they would feel that they have no right, to consider themselves undervalued ”

“ They frequently puzzle those who are engaged in literary works, and indeed those who are merely readers, and who have not access to public libraries or the manuscript treasures of the metropolis and the universities. ”

“ Macaulay's History which describes the "young Levite's" position in society during the seventeenth century; and as chance lately threw in my way the work from which Burton took his illustration, I take the liberty of submitting Notes of both for your examination.
"If he be a trencher chaplain in a gentleman's house (as it befel Euphormio) , after some seven years' service he may perchance have a living to {27} the halves, or some small rectory, with the mother of the maids at length, a poor kinswoman, or a crackt chambermaid, to have and to hold during the time of his life."—Burton, Anat. ”

“ It will be seen that the instrument we have given above is nearly a century earlier; and the minute description of the book given in this document supplies some very curious facts illustrative of the mode of putting together ancient books, which have not hitherto been remarked, for the simple reasons that no opportunity for comparison like that presented by the present case has yet been noticed. Among the Cottonian MSS. (Galba E. iv.) is a perfect specimen of an ancient Library Catalogue, which, although not altogether unnoticed, deserves a more careful examination than it has yet received. ”

“ It is likely, however, that Drayton's expressions are not to be taken literally; and that his meaning merely was, that the story of Lucrece had lately been revived, and brought upon the stage of the world: if this opinion be correct, the stanza we have quoted above contains a clear allusion to Shakespeare's Lucrece; and a question then presents itself, why Drayton entirely omitted it in the after-impression of his Matilda. He was a poet who, as we have shown in the Introduction to Julius Cæsar (vol. viii. p. 4.) ”

“ Maitland's suggestions," we should open our columns with equal readiness to the correction and illustration of more modern and more popular works. We entirely concur with him; but in reference to this subject there is a distinction which must be borne in mind. Our own literature, like that of every other country, consists of two classes of books. We have the books of pretenders to knowledge, the hasty, crude, imperfect, but often for the time attractive and popular volumes of the Ned Purdons of the day. These books have a use—such as it is—and thus answer their purpose ”

“ Coffee continued its progress through Syria, and was received at Damascus and Aleppo without opposition; and in the year 1554, under the reign of Solyman, one hundred years after its introduction by the Mufti of Aden, became known to the inhabitants of Constantinople, when two private persons of the names of Schems and Hekin, the one coming from Damascus, and the other from Aleppo, opened coffee-houses.
"It is not easy," says Ellis, "to determine at what time, or upon what occasion, the use of coffee passed from Constantinople to the western parts of Europe. ”

“ Mr. Editor,—I am encouraged by the eminent names which illustrate the first Number of your new experiment—a most happy thought—to inquire whether they, or any other correspondent, can inform me who was the William de Skypwith, the patent of whose appointment as Chief Justice of the King's Bench in Ireland, dated February 15. 1370, 44 Edward III., is to be found in the New Fædera vol. iii. p.877.? In the entry on the Issue Roll of that year, p. 458., of the payment of "his expences and equipment" in going there, he is called "Sir William Skipwyth, Knight, and the King's Justice in Ireland." ”

“ THE CAMDEN SOCIETY FOR THE PUBLICATION OF EARLY HISTORICAL AND LITERARY REMAINS.
The following works are now ready for delivery to Members who have paid their Annual Subscription of 1l., due on the first of May last.—
I. INEDITED LETTERS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH, AND KING JAMES VI. From the Originals in the possession of the Rev. Edward Ryder, of Oaksey, Wilts., and from a MS. formerly belonging to Sir P. Thompson. Edited by JOHN BRUCE, Esq., Treas. S.A.
II. THE CHRONICLE OF THE ABBEY OF PETERBOROUGH; from a MS. in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries. ”

“ The work referred to by our correspondent was written by Barclay, better known as the author of the Argenis. The First Part of the Satyricon, dedicated to James the First, was published, London, 12mo. 1603; and with the addition of the 2nd Part, Paris, 1605. The best edition of the work (which, really in two parts, is made, by the addition of the Apologia Euphormionis, &c. sometimes into five) is said to be the Elzevir 12mo., 1637. ”

“ Farmer, occur in a copy of the edition of Drayton's Poems published in 1619, in small folio, by John Smethwick, which contains "The Barons' Wars; England's Heroical Epistles; Idea; Odes; The Legends of Robert Duke of Normandie, Matilda, Pierce Gaveston, and Great Cromwell ”

“ Some whose good opinion we most value, and who have spoken most warmly in favour of our plan, have proved the sincerity of their praise by suggestions of improvement in its detail, and hints for its further extension. They may feel assured that such hints and such suggestions shall not be lost sight of. For instance, one respected correspondent hints that as we have very properly adopted Dr. ”

“ The Oxford edition is recorded by Ames, and there is a copy of the London edition in the British Museum. Strype, in his account of bishop Aylmer, gives the substance of the letter as his own narrative, almost verbatim—but fails to identify the pamphlet in question. Park briefly describes it in Censura Literaria, 1815, ii. 18.; and there is a specimen of it in The Poetical Works of John Skelton, as edited by the Reverend Alexander Dyce, 1843.
While queries evince a sharp mental appetite, answers help to satisfy it ”

“ No one of them shall be forgotten; and if for a time our pages seem to indicate that we have made a QUERY as to the adoption of any suggestion, let our kind contributors be assured that there is no hint which reaches us, whether at present practicable or not, that we do not seriously and thankfully "make a NOTE of." ”

“ Preparing for Publication, in One Vol. 8vo.
ILLUSTRATIONS of the REMAINS of ROMAN ART in CIRENCESTER, the SITE of ANCIENT CORINIUM. By JAMES BUCKMAN, F.G.S. and C.H. NEWMARCH, Esq.
The work will have reference principally to the illustration of the following subjects:
1. The remains of the architecture of Corinium, including detailed drawings and descriptions of the fine Tesselated Pavements, especially the one recently discovered, as also the beautiful specimen on the estate of the Right Hon. Earl Bathurst. ”

“ N.B.—Any person possessing Roman Antiquities from Cirencester, will confer a great favour on the Authors by communicating intelligence of them to Messrs. Baily and Jones.
London: GEORGE BELL, 186. Fleet Street.
Nearly ready.
THE PRIMEVAL ANTIQUITIES of DENMARK. By J. J. A. WORSAAE, Member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Copenhagen, and a Royal Commissioner for the preservation of the National Monuments of Denmark. Translated and applied to the Illustration of similar Remains in England. By WILLIAM J. THOMS, F.S.A., Secretary of the Camden Society. Illustrated with numerous Woodcuts. ”

“ They may be of use to some future editor of Drayton, an author now undeservedly neglected, whose Nymphidia alone might tempt the tasteful publisher of the "Aldine Poets" to include a selection, at least, of his poems in that beautiful series:—
"The works of Michael Drayton, Esq., were reprinted in folio, 1748. ”