Notes and Queries, Number 67, February 8, 1851 | Page 6

le grand
nombre de livres qu'il contient, et par l'ordre alphabétique qu'on leur a
donné."--JOURDAN, 1739.
Catalogues of books are of great use in literary pursuits.... We mean not
here to enter into all the conveniencies of a more improved catalogue,
for it would require a volume to display them."--William OLDYS,
1745.
"Solebat [sc. Ruhnkenius] haud exiguam subsecivæ operæ partem
tribuere perlegendis catalogis librorum, sive per auctiones
divendendorum, sive in bibliothecis publicis servatorum; unde factum
est, ut rariorum cognitionem librorum, jam in Bergeri disciplina
perceptam, continuo augeret."--Dan. WYTTENBACH, 1799.
"Le premier besoin de l'homme de lettres qui entreprend un ouvrage,
est de connoître les sources auxquelles il peut puiser, les livres qui ont
traité directement ou indirectement le sujet qui l'occupe."--S.
CHARDON de la Rochette, 1812.
"La bibliothèque [savoir, la bibliothèque royale établie à Bruxelles]
aura deux catalogues: l'un alphabétique, l'autre systématique. Dans
l'intérêt de la science, le catalogue sera imprimé, en tout ou en
partie."--LÉOPOLD, roi des Belges, 1837.
"Le catalogue est l'inventaire en le véritable palladium d'une
bibliothèque. L'impression des catalogues est toujours une chose utile,
sinon indispensable.... La publicité est, en outre, le frein des abus, des

négligences, et des malversations, l'aiguillon du zèle, et la source de
toute amélioration."--L. A. CONSTANTIN, 1839.
"La publication d'une nouvelle édition complète du catalogue de la
bibliothèque du roi [de France], serait, sans doute, le plus grand service
qu'on pût jamais rendre à l'histoire littéraire; et nous ne regardons pas
cette entreprise comme impraticable."--Jacques Charles BRUNET,
1842.
"M. Merlin pense avec moi, et c'est quelque chose, que les justes
plaintes formées contre l'administration de la bibliothèque royale [de
France] cesseront dès l'instant où l'on aura rédigé et publié le catalogue
géneral des livres imprimés."--Paulin PARIS, 1847.
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
The "Winter's Tale."--As MR. PAYNE COLLIER is making inquiries
as to the origin of Shakspeare's Winter's Tale, perhaps he will allow me
to call his attention to an oversight he has committed in his edition of
Greene's Pandosto, in the series called Shakspeare's Library. In a note
to the introduction, p. ii., MR. COLLIER says,
"Some verbal resemblances and trifling obligations have been pointed
out by the commentators in their notes to the WINTER'S TALE. One
of the principal instances occurs in Act IV. Sc. 3., where Florizel says:
"'The gods themselves, Humbling their deities to love, have taken The
shapes of beasts upon them: Jupiter Became a bull and bellow'd; the
green Neptune A ram, and bleated; and the fire-rob'd god, Golden
Apollo, a poor humble swain, As I seem now. Their transformations
Were never for a piece of beauty rarer, Nor in a way so chaste.'
"'This,' says Malone, 'is taken almost literally from the novel'--when, in
fact, the resemblance merely consists in the adoption by Shakspeare of
part of the mythological knowledge supplied by Greene. 'The gods
above disdaine not to love women beneath. Phoebus liked Daphne;

Jupiter Io; and why not I then Fawnia?' The resemblance is anything
but literal."
It would appear, however, that the passage cited by MR. COLLIER is
not the one referred to by Malone. MR. COLLIER's passage is at p. 34.
of his edition of the novel; the one Malone evidently had in view is at p.
40., and is as follows:--
"And yet, Dorastus, shame not at thy shepheard's weede: the heavenly
godes have sometime earthly thoughtes. Neptune became a ram, Jupiter
a bul, Apollo a shepheard: they Gods, and yet in love; and thou a man,
appointed to love."
E. L. N.
Inscribed Alms-dish.--There is an alms-dish (?) {102} in the possession
of a clergyman near Rotherham, in this county, with the following
inscription:--
"VREEST . GODT . ONDERHOVEDT . SYN . GEBOEDT . ANNO .
1634."
[Fear God (and?) keep his commandments.]
Having so lately been so justly reproved by your correspondent, MR.
JANUS DOUSA, for judging of Vondel's Lucifer by an apparently
unjust review rather than by perusal,--and his beautiful chorus having
so fully "established his case,"--I am rather shy of making any remarks
upon this inscription: otherwise I would venture (errors excepted) to
observe that there may be a mistake in the position of the last three
letters of the third word.
If MR. DOUSA would kindly inform a very imperfect Dutch scholar
whether this sentence is intended as a quotation from Ecclesiastes xii.,
13th verse,--
"Vreest Godt ende hout sÿne geboden;"

or whether the third word is from the verb "onder houden,"--as looks
probable, I shall be greatly obliged to him. The Bible to which I refer is
dated 1644.
Being neither a scholar nor a critic, but only a lover of books and
languages, I hope MR. DOUSA will accept my apology for the affront
offered to his countryman, Vondel. Your publication has been a great
temptation to people with a few curious books