San Graal (Vol. iii., pp 224. 281.).—Roquefort's article of nine columns in his Glos. de la L. Rom., is decisive of the word being derived from Sancta Cratera; of Graal, Gréal, always having meant a vessel or dish and of all the old romancers having understood the expression in the same meaning, namely, Sancta Cratera, le Saint Graal, the Holy Cup or Vessel, because, according to the legend, Christ used it at the Paschal Supper; and Joseph of Arimathea afterwards employed it to catch the blood flowing from his wounds. Many cities formerly claimed the honour of possessing this fabulous relic. Of course, as Price shows, it was an old Oriental magic-dish legend, imitated in the West.
George Stephens.
Stockholm.
Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke (Vol. iii., pp 262. 307.).—It has been asserted that the second part of this epitaph was written by Lady Pembroke's son; among whose poems, which were published in 1660, the whole piece was included. (Park's Walpole, ii. 203. note; Gifford's Ben Jonson, viii. 337.) But it is notorious, that no confidence whatever can be placed in that volume (see this shown in detail in Mr. Hannah's edit. of Poems by Wotton and Raleigh, pp. 61. 63.); nor have we any right to distribute the two parts between different authors. There are at least four
old copies of the whole; two in MSS. which are referred to by Mr. Hannah; the one in Pembroke's Poems; and the one in that Lansdowne MS., where it is ascribed to William Browne. Brydges assigned it to Browne, when he published his Original Poems from that MS. at the Lee Priory Press in 1815, p. 5. Upon the whole, there seems to be more direct evidence for Browne than any other person.
R.
MISCELLANEOUS.
NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.
A History of the Articles of Religion: to which is added a Series of Documents from A.D. 1536 to A.D. 1615; together with Illustrations from Contemporary Sources, by Charles Hardwick, M.A., is the title of an octavo volume, in which the author seeks to supply a want long felt, especially by students for Holy Orders; namely, a work which should show not the doctrine but the history of the Articles. For, as he well observes, while many have enriched our literature by expositions of the doctrine of the Articles, "no regular attempt has been made to illustrate the framing of the Formulary itself, either by viewing it in connection with the kindred publications of an earlier and a later date, or still more in its relation to the period out of which it originally grew." This attempt Mr. Hardwick has now made very successfully; and it is because his book is historical and not polemical, that we feel called upon to notice it, and to bear our testimony to its interest, and its value to that "large class of readers who, anxious to be accurately informed upon the subject, are precluded from consulting the voluminous collectors, such as Strype, Le Plat, or Wilkins." Such readers will find Mr. Hardwick's volume a most valuable handbook.