G ILBERT'S GUIDE TO LONDON, with Map, &c. This original Work having long been in full preparation for publication is now ready. It is especially intended as a useful and indispensable Pocket-companion to every Visitor to the Metropolis during the Great Exhibition of 1851. Price only 1s. 6. sewed, or 2s. bound; or Postage Free, 6d. extra. Separate Editions of the Book are also issued in the French and German Languages at 6d. each extra. Now ready, in 200 pages, demy 18mo., with Illustrations, price, in fancy binding, only Is. 6d., or Post Free, 2s., the Second Edition, DEDICATED TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ᎪᏞᏴᎬᎡᎢ, GILBERT'S POPULAR NARRATIVE of the ORIGIN, HISTORY, PROGRESS, and PROSPECTS of the GREAT INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION, 1851; with a Guide to the future Rules and Arrangements. By PETER BERLYN, Esq. "A useful record of the history and progressive development of the marking incident of our age and nation. The narrative is sufficiently full in its details for the general public now and hereafter." Athenæum. "We are bound to say that the work has been judiciously done, and the result is a very satisfactory review of all that has been effected in the way of Industrial Exhibitions up to the present time."-Literary Gazette. "It is a really useful volume of practical information to all exhibitors and visitors at the Exhibition."- Expositor. At least 100 other equally laudatory criticisms have appeared in the various l'ublic Journals. In a few days will be published, beautifully printed in 8vo., price only 7s. 6d., or Postage Free, 8s. 6d., illustrated by 90 splendid Pictures, engraved by GEORGE MEASOM, DEDICATED TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT, GILBERT'S DESCRIPTION OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE; its Architectural History and Constructive Marvels. By PETER BERLYN and CHARLES FOWLER, Jun., Esqrs. 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London: Published by JAMES GILBERT, 49. Paternoster Row. Orders received by all Booksellers, Stationers, &c. GREAT EXHIBITION. CENTRAL AVENUE. An Illustrated Priced Catalogue of Church Furniture Contributed by GILBERT J. FRENCH, BOLTON, LANCASHIRE, forwarded Free by Post on application. Parcels delivered Carriage Free in London, daily. Just published, No. VIII., price 2s. 6d., royal 4to. DETAILS of GoTfrom existing Examples, by J. K. COLLING, Architect. CONTENTS: Font from Greetwell Church, Lincolnshire; Window from Cottingham Church, Yorkshire; Pulpit from Westminster Abbey; Chimney Shaft from Southwell Minster; Five examples of Closing Rings. London: GEORGE BELL, 186. Fleet Street. Just published, a New Translation of HEAVEN and ITS WONDERS; the WORLD of SPIRITS (or the intermediate Region, which is the first receptacle of Man after Death); and HELL: described by one who has heard and seen what he relates. From the Latin of EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. Translated by the Rev. SAMUEL NOBLE. 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Cocks and Co., New Burlington Street, Publishers to Her Majesty.-N.B. A variety of the most elegant Pianofortes (manufactured by Messrs. Cocks) from 22 Guineas upwards. - Price List with drawings gratis, and postage free. Pianos on hire at 15s. per Month; Cocks's Musical Miscellany for May, 2d., Stamped, 3d.; S. Glover's Great Globe Quadrilles, 2d., Stamped, 3d. Printed by THOMAS CLARK SHAW, of No. 8. New Street Square, at No. 5. New Street Square, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London; and published by GEORGE BELL, of No. 186. Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Dunstan in the West, in the City of London, Publisher, at No. 186. Fleet Street aforesaid.-Saturday, May 3. 1851. CATAL ATALOGUES OF JOHN RUSSELL 1. Parts I. and II. of a Classified Catalogue of 25,000 Ancient and Modern Pamphlets. 2. Books on the History and Topography of Great Britain, arranged in Counties. 3. Twelve Hundred Books and Pamphlets relating to America. 4. Five Hundred Books relating to the Counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. 5. Ancient Manuscripts, Deeds, Charters, and other Documents relating to English Families and Counties. 6. Parts II. and III. for 1851, of Choice, Useful, and Curious Books, in most Classes of Literature, containing 1600 articles. Any of the above Catalogues may be had, gratis, on appli. cation, or any one will be sent by post on receipt of four postage labels to frank it. 4. Old Compton Street, Soho, London. COMMITTEE FOR THE REPAIR OF THE TOMB OF CEOFFREY CHAUCER. JOHN BRUCE, Esq., Treas. S.A., 5. Upper Gloucester Street, Dorset Square. J. PAYNE COLLIER, Esq., V.P.S.A., Geys House, Maidenhead. PETER CUNNINGHAM, Esq., F.S.A., Madeley Villas, Kensington. WILLIAM RICHARD DRAKE, Esq., F.S.A., Honorary Treasurer, 46. Parliament Street. THOMAS W. KING, Esq., F.S.A, York Herald, College of Arms, St. Paul's. SIR FREDERICK MADDEN, K.H., British Museum. JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS, Esq., F.S.A., 25. Parliament St. HENRY SHAW, Esq., F.S.A., 37. Southampton Row, Russell Square. SAMUEL SHEPHERD, Esq., F.S.A., Marlborough Square, Chelsea. WILLIAM J. THOMS, Esq.. F.S.A., Honorary Secretary, 25. Holy-Well Street, Millbank, Westminster. THE TOMB OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY stands in need of repair. The portrait and the inscriptions have disappeared; the overhanging canopy has suffered damage; the table is chipped and broken; the base is fast mouldering into irretrievable decay. Such an announcement is calculated to stir every heart that can respond to the claims of poetry, or feel grateful for the delight which it affords to every cultivated mind. It summons us, like the sound of a trumpet, "To the rescue!" It cannot be that the first and almost the greatest of English bards should ever be allowed to want a fitting memorial in our "Poet's Corner," or that the monument which was erected by the affectionate respect of Nicholas Brigham, nearly three centuries ago, should, in our time, be permitted to crumble into dust. A sum under One Hundred Pounds will effect a perfect repair. It is thought that there can be no difficulty in raising such a sum, and that multitudes of people in various conditions of life, and even in distant quarters of the globe, who venerate the name of Chaucer, and have derived instruction and delight from his works, will be anxious to contribute their mite to the good deed. The Committee have therefore not thought it right to fix any limit to the subscription; they themselves, with the aid of several distinguished noblemen and gentlemen, have opened the list with a contribution from each of them of Five Shillings, but they will be ready to receive any amount, more or less, which those who value poetry and honour Chaucer may be kind enough to remit to them. The design of the Committee is sanctioned by the approval of the Earl of Carlisle, the Earl of Ellesmere, the Earl of Shaftes bury, Lord Braybrooke, Lord Londesborough, Lord Mahon, the Right Hon. C. W. W. Wynn, and by the concurrence of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. An account of the sums received and expended will be published when the work is completed. Subscriptions are received by all the members of the Committee, and at the Union Bank, Pall Mall East. Post-office orders may be made payable to William Richard Drake, Esq., the Treasurer, 46. Parliament Street, at the Charing Cross Office. And here, talking of prophecy, we would, first reminding our readers how, in the olden time, the Poet and the Prophet were looked upon as identical, call their attention to the following vision of our Queen in her Crystal Palace, which met the eye when in "fine phrensy rolling" of the Father of English Poetry, as he has recorded in his House of Fame. Had Chaucer attended the opening of the Exhibition as "Our own Reporter," could his description have been more exact? THE TEMPLE Y-MADE OF GLAS. A Prevision by Dan Chaucer, A.D. 1380. O thought, that wrote al that I met Of my braine, nowe shall men see To tellen al my dreme aright Nowe kithe thy engine and thy might! But, as I slept, me mette I was Within a temple ymade of glas, In which there were mo images Of gold, standing in sundry stages, Sette in mo rich tabernacles, And with perrie mo pinnacles, And mo curious portraitures, And queint manner of figures Of gold worke, than I saw ever. But all the men that been on live That might of beauty be his make; So that the wondir great beautie I saw, and ful eke of windowes And eke in each of the pinnacles When I had seene all this sight In this noble temple thus, Hey, Lord, thought I, that madest us, What maner stone this castel was: It was, I n' iste redely, But at the last espied I, And found that it was every dele But, Lord, so faire it was to shewe, up God save the Lady of this pell! Our owne gentill Lady Fame And hem that willen to have a name." All on hie above a deis Satte in a see imperiall That made was of rubie royall A feminine creature That never formed by nature For alderfirst, soth to saie, Me thought that she was so lite Was lenger than she seemed to be; Tho was I ware at the last And thus found I sitting this goddesse In noble honour and richesse Of which I stinte a while now Other thing to tellen you. But Lord the perrie and the richesse, Tho saw I standen hem behind Then saw I stande on thother side Of metall, that shone not full clere, There saw I Coll Tragetour Then saw I sitting in other sees, What should I make longer tale? Then gan That there came entring into the hall Of all kind of condicions That dwelle in yearth under the Moone, At the last I saw a man, And therewithall I abraide, Had let me knowen, and began to write Thus in dreaming and in game, We are indebted for this interesting communication to our correspondent A. E. B., whose admirable ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER in our columns have given so much pleasure to the admirers of the old poet. Our correspondent has sent it to us in the hope that it may be made available in helping forward the good work of restoring Chaucer's tomb. We trust it will. The Committee who have undertaken that task could, doubtless, raise the hundred pounds required, by asking those who have already come forward to help them, to change their Crown subscriptions into Pounds. With a right feeling for what is due to the poet, they prefer, however, accomplishing the end they have in view by small contributions from the admiring many, As rather than by larger contributions from the few. we doubt not we number among the readers of " NOTES AND QUERIES" many admirers of "Old Dan Chaucer, in whose gentle spright, The pure well-head of poetry did dwell," to them we appeal, that the monument which was erected by the affectionate respect of Nicholas Brigham, nearly three centuries ago, may not in our time be permitted to crumble into dust; reminding them, in Chaucer's own beautiful language, "That they are gentle who do gentle dedes." Notes. ON "THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL." I resume the subject commenced in the comments on "a Passage in Marmion," printed in No. 72., March 15, 1851; and I here propose to consider the groundwork and mechanism of the most original, though not quite the first production of Scott's muse, The Lay of the Last Minstrel. In the Introduction prefixed to this poem, nearly thirty years after its publication, Sir Walter Scott informs the world that the young Countess of Dalkeith, much interested and delighted with the wild Border tradition of the goblin called "Gilpin Horner" (which is given at length in the notes appended to the poem), enjoined on him the task of composing a ballad on the subject: "And thus" (says Sir Walter) "the goblin story objected to by several critics as an excrescence upon the poem, was, in fact, the occasion of its being written." Yes, and more than this; for, strange as it may appear to those who have not critically and minutely attempted to unravel the very artful and complicated plot of this singular poem, the Goblin Page is, as it were, the key-note to the whole composition, the agent through whose instrumentality the fortunes of the house of Branksome are built up anew by the pacification of ancient feud, and the union of the fair Margaret with Henry of Cranstoun. Yet, so deeply veiled is the plot, and so intricately contrived the machinery, that I question if this fact be apparent to one reader out of a thousand; and assuredly it has never been presented to my view by any one of the critics with whose comments I have become acquainted. The Aristarchus of the Edinburgh Review, Mr. Jeffrey, who forsooth thought fit to regard the new and original creations of a mighty and inventive genius as a misapplication, in some degree, of very extraordinary talents," and "conceived it his duty to make one strong effort to bring back the great apostle of this (literary) heresy to the wholesome creed of his instructor," seems not to have penetrated one inch below the surface. In his opinion "the Goblin Page is the capital deformity of the poem," a perpetual burden to the poet and to the readers," "an undignified and improbable fiction, which excites neither terror, admiration, nor astonishment, but needlessly debases the strain of the whole work, and excites at once our incredulity and contempt." 99.66 Perhaps so, to the purblind vision of a pedantic formalist; but, nevertheless, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, that poem, whose varied imagery and vivid originality, combined with all its other beauties, have been, and ever will be, the delight and admiration of its readers, could not exist without this so-called "capital deformity." This I shall undertake to demonstrate, and in so doing to prove the "capital absurdity" of such criticism as I have cited. Let us therefore begin with the beginning. The widowed Lady of Branksome, brooding over the outrage which had deprived her husband of life, meditates only vengeance upon all the parties concerned in this affray. The lovely Lady Margaret wept in wild despair, for her lover had stood in arms against her father's clan : And well she knew, her mother dread, The first Canto of the poem contains that singular episode, when — "(The Ladye) sits in secret bower That moans the mossy turrets round," &e. The Ladye knew it well! It was the Spirit of the Flood that spoke, And he called on the Spirit of the Fell." And when the River Spirit asks concerning the fair Margaret, who had mingled her tears with his stream: "What shall be the maiden's fate? Who shall be the maiden's mate? " the Mountain Spirit replies, that, amid the clouds and mist which veil the stars,— "Ill may I read their high deeree : I must here transcribe the following Section xviii. : "The unearthly voices ceased, And the heavy sound was still; It died on the side of the hill, And her heart throbbed high with pride: And your streams ascend, Ere Margaret be our foeman's bride ( *" sought the lofty hall" where her retainers were In pursuance of this stern resolution, "the Ladye assembled: "And from amid the armed train She called to her William of Deloraine." She then gives him the commission, well remembered by every reader, to proceed on that night to Melrose Abbey to unclose the grave of Michael |