6

AUTHOR OF FRENCH SONG WANTED (12 S. i. 11).—' Ah ! vous dirai-je, Maman?' is given in the third volume or part of Chants et Chansons Populaires de la France,' nouvelle édition illustrée, 1848, about the middle of the volume, which is not paged.

A preliminary notice by du Mersan, author of many of the notices, says that the composer of the air is unknown to the professors and to those learned in music; but that from its style (facture) it evidently dates from a hundred years ago (i.e., about 1748). The note adds that the words are of the period of the vaudeville shepherds (Bergers de Trumeaux). Perhaps fancy dress shepherds" would be a better transla

tion.

The title given to the words is 'La Confidence,' while the heading of the music for the voice and piano is Ah, vous dirai-je, 'maman.' The song is placed with and between Philis, plus avare que tendre' ('L'avaricieuse'), and L'amour est un enfant trompeur' (' La curieuse'). According to du Mersan, Philis,' &c., was by Charles Rivière Dufresny (1648-1724), apparently both words and music; and L'amour,' &c., author apparently unknown, belongs to the time of Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman?' 'Who is there,' asks du Mersan, who in his or her youth has not sung the song?" ROBERT PIERPOINT.

of "

66

66

I believe that all trace of the writer Ah! vous dirai-je, maman?" is lost. It appears anonymously in Louis Montjoie's Chansons Populaires de la France,' as also in John Oxenford's Book of French Songs,' in which occurs the note (p. 41):

"What young lady who has taken half-a-dozen lessons on the piano is unacquainted with the air of 'Ah vous dirai-je,' which is by some attributed to Rossini? The words, which are anonymous, are less generally known."

ST. SWITHIN.

SIR JOHN SCHORNE (12 S. i. 4). The correct reading of the eighth and ninth versicles of the sequence must surely be as follows:

Aue duum puerorum suscitator submersorum per tua suffragia.

Aue tu qui es cunctorum consolator miserorum

qui sunt in tristicia.

It would seem that the legend of Schorne contained a story of the restoration to life of two drowned boys. In most handwritings of the period the words duum and diuini (each consisting of a d followed by seven

GUNFIRE AND RAIN (12 S. i. 10).-The farmers of Galloway, that is Wigtonshire and Kirkcudbrightshire, believe that gunfire caused rain, as is shown by their M.P., Capt. Lord Dalrymple, asking in the House if it was not possible for the naval authorities to postpone the firing of the big guns of the warships in the Solway and Irish Channel until after the harvest, because it was noticeable that after such firing rain came down in torrents, and so hindered the I think it was in

gathering of the crops. July, 1913, that the Captain asked the question.

W. MEIKLE.

Mr. Ackermann in his 'Popular Fallacies," published some eight years ago, says :—

"It has been often stated that the noise of cannon will produce rain, and it is not unusual in the Austrian Tyrol to hear the church bells ringing to avert thunder. These are fallacies. The experiments in America. made recently, to test whether rain could be produced by exploding a large quantity of gunpowder in the air, resulted in nothing except noise and smoke, though the thing was well worth trying."

WILLOUGHBY MAYCOCK,

It may not be amiss to mention an experience that seemed to imply a strong confirmation of popular belief. Many years ago, when volunteering was an interesting pastime rather than a serious enterprise, there was a country district in Scotland in which big-gun practice regularly occurred on the Saturday afternoon. As regularly the inhabitants in the long run expected that the day would end in rain. The two

THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM' (11 S. xii. 259, 487). In my query I referred to a copy mentioned by Prof. Dowden as being in the library of the Duke of Devonshire. LIEUT. JAGGARD has supplied the useful information that a copy never existed in that library. I am not satisfied with his reference to the third copy. If such a rare bibliographical treasure had turned up, it would surely have been chronicled and the owner identified. Recently a copy of the 1612 edition found its way to America, which may account for MR. JAGGARD's third copy

of the 1599 edition.

MAURICE JONAS.

THE TALLEST ONE-PIECE FLAGSTAFF IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE (11 S. ix. 7, 94, 254; xii. 73). The following extract from The Daily Telegraph of Dec. 30, 1915, may be worth adding to the discussion of this subject:

"MONSTER FLAGSTAFF.

"The Royal Mail Steam Packet Merionethshire, running in the Eastern service of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, has just arrived in London, having amongst its cargo a flagstaff measuring 215 ft., and weighing eighteen tons. It has been presented by the Government of British Columbia to Kew Gardens, to replace the one recently taken down, measuring 159 ft.

"The new flagstaff is one of the largest in the world, and is made from the trunk of a Douglas fir-tree grown in British Columbia."

An American Garland, being a Collection of Ballads relating to America, 1563-1759. Edited with Introduction and Notes by C. H. Firth. (Oxford, Blackwell, 38. 6d. net.)

STUDENTS of English literature and history may well be grateful to Prof. Firth for this book. The attitude of the generations of the street towards America and the successive problems presented by its conquest and colonization is interesting alike for what it includes and for what it ignores, and direct evidence of any sort concerning it is not plentiful. This renders the little that we have all the more valuable. As Prof. Firth remarks, it is surprising that America plays so small a part in the ballad literature of the black-letter" period-i.e. till about 1700. What with exploration and fighting the Indians, Puritan settlements, kidnapping into slavery, and the divers political and social disturbances in the colonies, one would have supposed there was plenty in the early English occupation

vivals.

of America to stir the imagination and provoke the rough caustic wit of the ballad-monger. But for some reason it did not so turn out. Whereas the black-letter ballads printed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries number some four or five thousand, examples relating to America are of the greatest rarity. No doubt some have perished-indeed, so much is certain Company; but, on the other hand, diligent colfrom entries in the registers of the Stationers' lectors of ballads came pretty early upon the scene, and if such songs had been popular and circulated in a great number of copies, they would surely appear as a larger percentage of the surin the emigrants which might provoke satire One can but suppose that those points could be more tellingly illustrated from examples at home; whilst for story-telling and romantic purposes generally America was at once too unfamiliar and too much of hard matter of fact. Twenty-five ballads are given us here. The sources from which they come are the Roxburghe Ballads in the British Museum; the collections. of Rawlinson and Douce at the Bodleian; Pepys's collection at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and the Suffolk collection at Britwell Court, to which must be added examples from Prof. Firth's own collection, some of which had not been printed before.

The first ballad given is that on the 'Adventurous Viage' of Thomas Stutely, of slender Water to Florida' is one of the few which have interest except for its date. Have over the some touch of literary merit. But of the group is the News from Virginia, relating the voyage of earlier ballads the most generally interesting of Sir George Somers, who reached Virginia in 1610 after being shipwrecked on one of the Bermudas. London's Lotterie '-to be referred to 1612-is an amusing, and also rather instructive, illustration of the kind of inducements held out to the people to support the foundation of the colony of Virginia. It is remarkable that, when we come to the Puritan emigration, there is no ballad favourable to the Puritans. In the satirical verses which are included also in 'Merry Drollery the peculiarities of the Roundhead are handled with a roughness which has occasional gleams of wit and cleverness in it.

The aspect of America-more precisely of Virginia as the land to which the irksome or and where they led a piteous and oppressed undesirable might be transferred by kidnapping, of the remaining ballads if we except. the halfexistence as slaves, forms the subject of the best dozen or so at the end which deal with Wolfe. The last in the volume is the frigid and stupid song, with its tiresome classical conceits, supposed to have been written by Thomas Paine, which may be contrasted with that beginning Bold General Wolfe to his men did say,' a delightful example of a street song.

This leads us to express a wish that the literary editors of ballads would give more attention than they commonly do to the tunes to which the verses are to be sung. One can form no just idea of a ballad without being able to fit the words to their proper melody, for as often as not, the best points are made by the tune rather than by the words. We do not suppose that a great many of Prof. Firth's readers are able off-hand to hum The Lusty Gallant,' or The Townsmen's Cappe,' or | A Taylor is a man.' We should like to suggest

that, wherever it is possible, the tune should be given as well as named, and of these particular songs we should much like to know the tunes for Have over the Water to Florida' and Bold General Wolfe.'

In conclusion a word must be said in appreciation of the agreeable and lucid essay, packed full of information, which forms the introduction. But at this time of day it is superfluous to draw attention to the merits of Prof. Firth's work.

The Cambridge Songs. A Goliard's Song Book of the Eleventh Century. Edited from the Unique Manuscript in the University Library by Karl Breul, Litt.D. (Cambridge University Press, 1. 18. net.)

DR. BREUL, who is Professor of German in the University of Cambridge, has been interested for over thirty years in the remarkable collection of mediæval Latin poems known as The Cambridge 'Songs.' His first article on the subject appeared in vol. xxx. of Haupt's Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum. The precious manuscript is supposed to have come to Cambridge during the last quarter of the seventeenth century. It was not in the University Library in 1670, but was purchased soon after that date out of Bishop Hacket's bequest. John Leland, just before the middle of the sixteenth century, saw it at St. Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury.

The Goliard's Songs form only a small, though important part of the collection, and in this volume Dr. Breul gives a photographic reproduction of all of them, a trustworthy transliteration, and many valuable elucidations of the text, and comments on the subject-matter. The handwriting shows a mixture of Continental and old English characters, and there are other differences which suggest more than one scribe: certain numbers are extracts from Latin authors, 37 are in Latin, and two are in macaronic, a mixture of Latin and

German.

For nearly two centuries the Cambridge collection has attracted the notice of scholars in our country, and, naturally, also in Germany (Jacob Grimm, Pertz, Uhland, &c.).

The Songs deal with religious subjects, praises of Christ, Mary, patron saints, &c.; others refer to memorable events which occurred during the second half of the tenth, and the first half of the eleventh century; while a considerable number treat of novelistic and humorous themes. Some

Concerning No. 11, 'De Heinrico,' Dr. Breul has a specially long note. Up to fairly recent times it was supposed to refer to one of the several reconciliations of the German Emperor Otto I. the Great (936-73) with his rebellious brother, Henry I., Duke of Bavaria. Unfortunately, however, the parchment containing the ending of the most important line, apparently in favour of Otto's brother, is worn off, probably owing to frequent turning of the leaf. The whole of this note offers a specimen of the care and critical acumen with which the Songs have been treated. The excellent photographs, in size exact reproductions of the original, were taken by Mr. W. F. Dunn, of the University Library.

Obituary.

HARRY HEMS.

AN interesting personality has passed away in the death of Mr. Harry Hems of Exeter. Born in 1842 at Islington, he was sent at an early age to Minasi's Educational Academy, and so beneficent was the influence of this famous master that the pupil always spoke of him as the most wonderful man Islington had ever produced.

Hems began work at Sheffield in the family trade of cutler, but his taste for carving showed itself early and persistently, and when his father left Islington in 1855 he was apprenticed to a woodcarver, and after a visit to Italy commenced business in Exeter in 1866 as sculptor and ecclesiastical art worker. Many important works were completed by him with the best results. The High Altar Screen at St. Albans was one of his admirable restorations; and many memorials at Exeter, Tavistock, and other West-Country churches give evidence of his skill, taste, and wise restraint. His business success was marked each year by a banquet given to the poor of Exeter, and that city will long retain a regard for the memory of this admirable citizen. As an antiquary and contributor to these pages, MR. HEMS had a vigorous enthusiasm and great diversity of interests. A large number of his notes appeared in the Ninth and Tenth Series. A voluminous correspondent, he wrote me numerous letters giving his recollections of Islington, and he was always interested in its changes and the progress of the excellent Islington Antiquarian and Historical Society. A. A.

Notices to Correspondents.

ticularly interesting remark that the satiric poet Sextus Amarcius, who wrote about the middle of the eleventh century, mentions the subjects of four poems that were sung by a mime before a Rhenish audience, and he adds, "No fewer than three of these songs are among those of the Cambridge collection." Probably Dr. Breul is right; though the subjects might be the same, yet the poems different.

S. R. C.-" An Austrian army awfully arrayed. These lines were printed in full at 3 S. iv. 88, and were discussed in vol. i. of our Tenth Series at Pp. 120, 148, 211, 258, 277, 280. Their authorship has been the subject of some conjecture. They may be found in The Trifler, May 7, 1817, and in Bentley's Miscellany, March, 1838.

CORRIGENDUM.- Inscriptions in the Churchyard of St. Mary's, Lambeth,' 11 S. xii. 397, No. 144, for "Larkson Stanfield" read Clarkson Stanfield.