scripts are wanted, and it is hardly too much to say that every line of Chaucer contains points that need re-consideration. The proposal, then, is to begin with The Canterbury Tales, and give of them (in parallel columns in Royal 4to) six of the best unprinted Manuscripts known, and to add in another quarto the six next best MSS. if 300 Subscribers join the Society. Inasmuch also as the parallel arrangement will necessitate the alteration of the places of certain tales in some of the MSS., a print of each MS. will be issued separately, and will follow the order of its original. The first six MSS. to be printed will probably be

The Ellesmere (by leave of the
Earl of Ellesmere).
The Lansdowne (Brit. Mus.).
The Hengwrt (by leave of W. S.
W. Wynne, Esq.).

The Corpus, Oxford.
The

best Cambridge (Univ.

Libr.).

The Petworth (by leave of Lord
Leconfield).

To secure the fidelity and uniform treatment of the texts, Mr F. J. Furnivall will read all with their MSS. It is hoped that the first Part of the Works, comprising the Prologue and Knight's Tale, will be ready by December, 1868, together with specimen extracts from all the accessible MSS. of the Tales, and a Table showing the Groups of the Tales, and the changing order of these Groups in the different MSS.

The first Essay in illustration of Chaucer's Works that will be published by the Society will be, A detailed Comparison of Chaucer's Knight's Tale with the Teseide of Boccaccio,' by HENRY WARD, Esq., of the MS. Department of the British Museum. The second will probably be either a translation of Kissner's Chaucer and his relation to Italian Literature,' or 'A detailed Comparison of the Troylus and Cryseyde with Boccaccio's Filostrato, by W. MICHAEL ROSSETTI, Esq.

The first French work will be Guillaume de Machault's Dit du Lyon, the possible original of Chaucer's lost Book of the Leo, edited from the MSS., for the first time, by Monsieur PAUL MEYER. This will be followed by such originals of Chaucer's other works as are known, but are not of easy access to subscribers.

Messrs Trübner & Co., of 60, Paternoster Row, London, E.C., are the Society's publishers, Messrs Childs its printers, and the Union Bank, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., its bankers. The yearly subscription is two guineas, due on every first of January.

Prof. Child, of Harvard University, Massachusetts, will be the Society's Honorary Secretary for America. For England and the Continent Mr Furnivall will act as Hon. Sec. till the appointment of a permanent one. Members' names and subscriptions may be sent to the Publishers, or to

FREDK. J. FURNIVALL,

3, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, London, W.C.

The Ballad Society.

THE Completion of the edition of the Percy Folio seems a good opportunity for beginning to print all the other collections of Ballads. The importance of Ballads for the student of history, of society and manners, of thoughts and customs, in former days, is admitted by all writers and thinkers. These light hand-glasses reflect for us many a feature of the times that is lost in the crowded scenes which larger mirrors, hung at other angles, present to our view; and without the sight of the Ballad pictures, as well as the larger and more formal ones of professed Histories, State-Papers, Memoirs, and Treatises, we cannot know faithfully, or, at least, we cannot know as faithfully as we have the means of knowing,the lineaments of the ages that have preceded us. That it is the duty of the student of history to endeavour so to know those lineaments, as well in their nobleness as their commonplaceness and deformity, no real student will question. He wants the portraiture of each age as complete as he can get it; he desires to study all its expressions, of power, of whim, of impulse, of faith, of nobleness and baseness;—and many of these he can get from Ballads alone.

Now the known collections of printed Ballads are the Pepys at Magdalene College, Cambridge; the Roxburghe, the Bagford, and the King's-Library Civil-War and London Ballads, in the British Museum; the Ashmole, Douce, Wood, and Rawlinson, at Oxford; Mr Euing's at Glasgow (from Mr Heber's Library); the Earl of Jersey's at Osterley Park; and small ones in the Antiquaries' Society, etc. Manuscript Ballads are also at Oxford and elsewhere. The Ballad Society proposes to print the whole of these collections, so far as it can, with copies of the original woodcuts to such of the Ballads as have them, and Introductions when needed.

Had the Pepys collection been a public one, it would have been the first chosen for issue by the Society; and the founder's first care was to apply to the authorities of Magdalene for permission to print the Pepys collection entire for the Ballad Society. The answer received was to the effect that the Master and Fellows of Magdalene had for some time had the intention of some day printing the collection themselves-were indeed then indexing it; that in no case would the College print the collection entire, but that they might soon issue part of it under the charge of one of their Fellows. Until, therefore, the College make up their minds themselves to publish their Ballads,-which men of letters have desired any time these hundred years without getting them, or to let the Society do it, the Society is obliged to turn to other collections.

Of these the most celebrated and complete is the ROXBURGHE, in the British Museum, in three large folio volumes, each containing above six hundred ballads, almost all of which are headed by woodcuts, but which illustrate manners and customs rather than politics. Of Political Ballads, the most important collection is that relating to the CIVIL WAR and the PROTECTORATE, in the King's Pamphlets in the British Museum. These two collections have therefore been taken in hand, and will be produced as quickly as funds and editors' leisure will allow. Dr E. F. RIMBAULT and Mr WILLIAM CHAPPELL, whose long study of Ballads and Ballad Literature is so well known, and whose knowledge has been so often tried and proved to be sound, have kindly undertaken to act as Editors of the Ballads,-Dr Rimbault of the Civil War set, and Mr Chappell of the Roxburghe,-and the Rev. Alexander Dyce has promised general help. Other aid will be forthcoming when called for, and the Manuscript Ballads will be produced when Mr FURNIVALL, or whoever their Editor may be, has had time to collect them.

Already 150 of the old woodcuts have been copied on wood by the Society's artist, Mr RUDOLF BLIND, and most of them engraved by Mr JOHN H. RIMBAULT, two gentlemen whose interest in the work has led them to place their services at the Society's disposal at a rate far under their market value. Already also half the Roxburghe Ballads, and the whole of the Civil War ones, have been copied; so that the Society will certainly be able to issue one volume of each collection before the end of this year; and it will therefore begin publication in 1868, instead of in 1869, as at first proposed. A catalogue of all the Oxford Ballads has also been made.

The books will be printed in demy 8vo, like those of the Early English Text Society, and the Percy Folio (but on toned paper for the sake of the woodcuts), and also in super-royal 8vo, on Whatman's eighty-shilling ribbed paper. The subscription for the demy 8vos will be One Guinea a year; that for the royal ribbed papers Three Guineas. The subscriptions will date from January 1, 1868, and immediate payment of them is asked, as considerable expense has already been incurred for the copiers and artist. The Society's books will not be on sale separately to the public. The Society's printers will be Messrs J. E. TAYLOR and Co., Little Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.

Local Secretaries are wanted.

Subscriptions should be paid either to the account of The Ballad Society at the Chancery Lane Branch of the Union Bank, or to—

F. J. FURNIVALL,

3, Old Square, Chancery Lane, W.C.

12, ST. JAMES'S SQUARE.

Patron.

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES.

President.

THE EARL OF CLARENDON, K.G., G.C.B., ETC.

Vice-Presidents.

HIS EXCELLENCY MONS. VAN DE WEYER.
THE EARL STANHOPE.

THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD.
THE LORD LYTTELTON.

MESSRS. RANSOM, BOUVERIE, AND CO., I, PALL MALL EAST.

This institution, now twenty-eight years old, contains nearly 100,000 volumes, including the best works in every department of literature. Before its establishment no such collection of books was available for home use to the earnest student, the scholar, or the professional man.

The founders thus announced their scheme in 1840 :

"We propose to establish a Library which, containing books in every department of literature and philosophy, shall allow these books to be taken out and read, where they can be read best, in the study and by the fireside, and which shall offer its advantages to the public on terms rendering it generally accessible. We propose to establish this Library by means of a subscription, so moderate that it can be grudged by none who feel the want of a large, general, comprehensive Lending Library, either for themselves or for their families, and yet sufficient to ensure the establishment of the Library on an ample scale, with the support of all by whom the want of it is felt. And, taking into consideration the increased and daily increasing facilities of conveyance to all parts of the United Kingdom, we propose to frame regulations which shall make it worth the while of persons in the country and at a distance, no less than of those living in London and its immediate vicinity, to avail themselves of the Library, thereby increasing at one and the same time its sphere of usefulness, and its means of supplying the wants of its Subscribers. Not therefore only for the Metropolis itself, but for all parts of the United Kingdom between which and the Metropolis there is easy and regular communication, we propose to establish in London a large, general, comprehensive, cheap, lending Library."

While the original objects of the Library have been steadily kept in view, the advantages offered to its members have gradually increased. The Library has from its commencement had the advantage of a Committee selected from among the most distinguished men of letters. Lord Macaulay, Sir G. Cornewall Lewis, Dean Milman, Chevalier Bunsen, Mr. Hallam, and others, have given valuable aid in the choice of books.

The number of volumes allowed to each member is ten in London or fifteen in the country. The newest standard books are supplied in such proportion to the demand as is consistent with the original design of the Library, that, namely, of furnishing the best books of all ages and countries. The Reading-rooms, which are open from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M., contain the best periodicals, English and foreign, which, with a selection of the newest books, are kept on the table. Encyclopædias, dictionaries, and other works of reference, are alsc kept in the Reading-rooms.

The Subscription is £3 a year without entrance-fee, or £2 a year with entrance-fee of £6. Life subscription, £26. The Catalogue (962 pages), with a classified Index of subjects, is sold for 15s.; to Members, 10s. 6d.