NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.
The members of the Percy Society have just received the third and concluding volume of The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer, a new Text, with Illustrative Notes, edited by Thomas Wright, Esq. It is urged as an objection to Tyrwhitt's excellent edition of the Canterbury Tales, that one does not know his authority for any particular reading, inasmuch as he has given what he considered the best among the different MSS. he consulted. Mr. Wright has gone on an entirely different principle. Considering the Harleian MS. (No. 7334.) as both "the oldest and best manuscript he has yet met with," he has "reproduced it with literal accuracy," and for the adoption of this course Mr. Wright may plead the good example of German scholars when editing the Nibelungen Lied. That the members of the Society approve the principle of giving complete editions of works like the present, has been shown by the anxiety with which they have looked for the completion of Mr. Wright's labours; and we doubt not that, if the Council follow up this edition of the Canterbury Tales with some other of the collected works which they have announced—such as those of Hoccleve, Taylor the Water Poet, &c.—they will readily fill up any vacancies which may now exist in their list of members.
Mr. Parker has just issued another handsome, and handsomely illustrated volume to gladden the hearts of all ecclesiologists and architectural antiquaries. We allude to Mr. Freeman's Essay on the Origin and Development of Window Tracery in England, which consists of an improved and extended form of several papers on the subject of Tracery read before the Oxford Architectural Society at intervals during the years 1846 and 1848. To those of our readers who know what are Mr. Freeman's abilities for the task he has undertaken, the present announcement will be a sufficient inducement to make them turn to the volume itself; while those who have not yet paid any attention to this interesting chapter in the history of Architectural progress, will find no better introduction to the study of it than Mr. Freeman's able volume with its four hundred illustrations.
Mr. Foss has, we hear, gone to press with two additional volumes of his Judges of England, which will carry his subject down to the end of the reign of Richard III.
The Athenæum of Saturday last announces that the remaining Stowe MSS., including the unpublished Diaries and Correspondence of George Grenville, have been bought by Mr. Murray, of Albemarle Street, from the Trustees of the Duke of Buckingham. The correspondence will form about four volumes, and will be ready to appear among our next winter's novelties. The Grenville Diary reveals, it is said, the secret movements of Lord Bute's administration—the private histories of Wilkes and Lord Chatham—and the features of the early madness of George III.; while the Correspondence exhibits Wilkes, we are told, in a new light—and reveals (what the Stowe Papers were expected to reveal) something of moment about Junius; So that we may at length look for the solution of this important query.
Messrs. Puttick and Simpson (191. Piccadilly) will sell, on Monday and Tuesday next, a collection of Choice Books, mostly in beautiful condition. Among the more curious lots are, an unpublished work of Archbishop Laud, on Church Government, said to have been presented to Charles I. for the instruction of Prince Henry; and an unique Series of Illustrations for Scotland, consisting of several thousand engravings, and many interesting drawings and autographs.
We have received the following Catalogues:—Bernard Quaritch's (16. Castle Street, Leicester Square) Catalogue (No. 24.) of Books in European and Oriental Languages and Dialects, Fine Arts, Antiquities, &c.; Waller and Son's (188. Fleet Street) Catalogue of Autograph Letters and Manuscripts, English and Foreign, containing many rare and interesting Documents.