author - "Andrew Lang"
hunt for them, that the following pages are totreat. It is a subject more closely connected with the taste forcuriosities than with art, strictly so called. We are to beoccupied, not so much with literature as with books, not so muchwith criticism as with bibliography, the quaint duenna ofliterature, a study apparently dry, but not without its humours.And here an apology must be made for the frequent allusions andanecdotes derived from French writers. These are as unavoidable,almost, as the use of French terms of the sport in tennis and infencing. In bibliography, in the care for books AS books, theFrench are still the teachers of Europe, as they were in tennis andare in fencing. Thus, Richard de Bury, Chancellor of Edward III.,writes in his "Philobiblon:" "Oh God of Gods in Zion! what a rushingriver of joy gladdens my heart as often as I have a chance of goingto Paris! There the days seem always short; there are the goodlycollections on the delicate fragrant book-shelves." Since Dantew
or Child. It is to be hoped that some pupil of his maycomplete the task in his sense, if, indeed, he has left it
unfinished.
Ballad: Sir Patrick Spens
(Border Minstrelsy.)
The king sits in Dunfermline town,
Drinking the blude-red wine o:
"O whare will I get a skeely skipper
To sail this new ship of mine o?"
O up and spake an eldern-knight,
Sat at the king's right knee:
"Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor
That ever saild the sea."
Our king has written a braid letter,
And seald it with his hand,
And sent it to Sir Patrick Spens,
Was walking on the strand.
"To Noroway, to Noroway,
To Noroway oer the faem;
The king's daughter of Noroway,
'Tis thou maun bring her hame."
The first word that Sir Patrick read,
Sae loud, loud laughed he;
The neist word that Sir Patrick read,
The tear blinded his ee.
"O wha is this has done this deed,
And tauld the king o me,
To send us out, at this time of the year,
The Twelve Dancing Princesses -- The Princess Mayblossom -- Soria Moria Castle -- The Death of Koschei the Deathless -- The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen -- The Master Thief -- Brother and Sister -- Princess Rosette -- The Enchanted Pig -- The Norka -- The Wonderful Birch -- Jack and the Beanstalk -- The Little Good Mouse -- Graciosa and Percinet -- The Three Princesses of Whiteland -- The Voice of Death -- The Six Sillies -- Kari Woodengown -- Drakestail -- The Ratcatcher -- The True History of Little Goldenhood -- The Golden Branch -- The Three Dwarfs -- Dapplegrim -- The Enchanted Canary -- The Twelve Brothers -- Rapunzel -- The Nettle Spinner -- Farmer Weatherbeard -- Mother Holle -- Minnikin -- Bushy Bride -- Snowdrop -- The Golden Goose -- The Seven Foals -- The Marvellous Musician -- The Story of Sigurd
gover the fire.
'Good evening, mother. I see you have lived long in this world; doyou know anything about the three bulrushes?'
'Yes, indeed, I've lived long and been much about in the world, butI have never seen or heard anything of what you ask. Still, if youwill wait till to-morrow I may be able to tell you something.'
Well, he waited till the morning, and quite early the old womanappeared and took out a little pipe and blew in it, and in a momentall the crows in the world were flying about her. Not one wasmissing. Then she asked if they knew anything about the threebulrushes, but not one of them did.
The prince went on his way, and a little further on he found anotherhut in which lived an old man. On being questioned the old mansaid he knew nothing, but begged the prince to stay overnight, andthe next morning the old man called all the ravens together, butthey too had nothing to tell.
The prince bade him farewell and set out. He wandered so far thathe crossed seven kingdoms, an
earfully hungry, and made terrible havoc among the mice.
Then the queen of the mice held a council.
"These cats will eat every one of us," she said, "if the captain of the ship does not shut the ferocious animals up. Let us send a deputation to him of the bravest among us."
Several mice offered themselves for this mission and set out to find the young captain.
"Captain," said they, "go away quickly from our island, or we shall perish, every mouse of us."
"Willingly," replied the young captain, "upon one condition. That is that you shall first bring me back a bronze ring which some clever magician has stolen from me. If you do not do this I will land all my cats upon your island, and you shall be exterminated."
The mice withdrew in great dismay. "What is to be done?" said the Queen. "How can we find this bronze ring?" She held a new council, calling in mice from every quarter of the globe, but nobody knew where the bronze ring was. Suddenly three mice arrived from a ve
tions, thoughts, and emotions. But dreams, being familiar, are credible; it is admitted that people do dream; we reach the less credible as we advance to the less familiar. For, if we think for a moment, the alleged events of ghostdom--apparitions of all sorts--are precisely identical with the every-night phenomena of dreaming, except for the avowed element of sleep in dreams.
In dreams, time and space are annihilated, and two severed lovers may be made happy. In dreams, amidst a grotesque confusion of things remembered and things forgot, we see the events of the past (I have been at Culloden fight and at the siege of Troy); we are present in places remote; we behold the absent; we converse with the dead, and we may even (let us say by chance coincidence) forecast the future. All these things, except the last, are familiar to everybody who dreams. It is also certain that similar, but yet more vivid, false experiences may be produced, at the word of the hypnotiser, in persons under the hypnotic
ed home his wife and children received him with the greatest joy. But instead of embracing them he began to weep so bitterly that they soon guessed that something terrible was the matter.
"Tell us, I pray you," said his wife, "what has happened."
"Alas!" answered her husband, "I have only a year to live."
Then he told them what had passed between him and the genius, and how he had given his word to return at the end of a year to be killed. When they heard this sad news they were in despair, and wept much.
The next day the merchant began to settle his affairs, and first of all to pay his debts. He gave presents to his friends, and large alms to the poor. He set his slaves at liberty, and provided for his wife and children. The year soon passed away, and he was obliged to depart. When he tried to say good-bye he was quite overcome with grief, and with difficulty tore himself away. At length he reached the place where he had first seen the genius, on the very day that he had appointed
hunt for them, that the following pages are totreat. It is a subject more closely connected with the taste forcuriosities than with art, strictly so called. We are to beoccupied, not so much with literature as with books, not so muchwith criticism as with bibliography, the quaint duenna ofliterature, a study apparently dry, but not without its humours.And here an apology must be made for the frequent allusions andanecdotes derived from French writers. These are as unavoidable,almost, as the use of French terms of the sport in tennis and infencing. In bibliography, in the care for books AS books, theFrench are still the teachers of Europe, as they were in tennis andare in fencing. Thus, Richard de Bury, Chancellor of Edward III.,writes in his "Philobiblon:" "Oh God of Gods in Zion! what a rushingriver of joy gladdens my heart as often as I have a chance of goingto Paris! There the days seem always short; there are the goodlycollections on the delicate fragrant book-shelves." Since Dantew
or Child. It is to be hoped that some pupil of his maycomplete the task in his sense, if, indeed, he has left it
unfinished.
Ballad: Sir Patrick Spens
(Border Minstrelsy.)
The king sits in Dunfermline town,
Drinking the blude-red wine o:
"O whare will I get a skeely skipper
To sail this new ship of mine o?"
O up and spake an eldern-knight,
Sat at the king's right knee:
"Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor
That ever saild the sea."
Our king has written a braid letter,
And seald it with his hand,
And sent it to Sir Patrick Spens,
Was walking on the strand.
"To Noroway, to Noroway,
To Noroway oer the faem;
The king's daughter of Noroway,
'Tis thou maun bring her hame."
The first word that Sir Patrick read,
Sae loud, loud laughed he;
The neist word that Sir Patrick read,
The tear blinded his ee.
"O wha is this has done this deed,
And tauld the king o me,
To send us out, at this time of the year,
The Twelve Dancing Princesses -- The Princess Mayblossom -- Soria Moria Castle -- The Death of Koschei the Deathless -- The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen -- The Master Thief -- Brother and Sister -- Princess Rosette -- The Enchanted Pig -- The Norka -- The Wonderful Birch -- Jack and the Beanstalk -- The Little Good Mouse -- Graciosa and Percinet -- The Three Princesses of Whiteland -- The Voice of Death -- The Six Sillies -- Kari Woodengown -- Drakestail -- The Ratcatcher -- The True History of Little Goldenhood -- The Golden Branch -- The Three Dwarfs -- Dapplegrim -- The Enchanted Canary -- The Twelve Brothers -- Rapunzel -- The Nettle Spinner -- Farmer Weatherbeard -- Mother Holle -- Minnikin -- Bushy Bride -- Snowdrop -- The Golden Goose -- The Seven Foals -- The Marvellous Musician -- The Story of Sigurd
gover the fire.
'Good evening, mother. I see you have lived long in this world; doyou know anything about the three bulrushes?'
'Yes, indeed, I've lived long and been much about in the world, butI have never seen or heard anything of what you ask. Still, if youwill wait till to-morrow I may be able to tell you something.'
Well, he waited till the morning, and quite early the old womanappeared and took out a little pipe and blew in it, and in a momentall the crows in the world were flying about her. Not one wasmissing. Then she asked if they knew anything about the threebulrushes, but not one of them did.
The prince went on his way, and a little further on he found anotherhut in which lived an old man. On being questioned the old mansaid he knew nothing, but begged the prince to stay overnight, andthe next morning the old man called all the ravens together, butthey too had nothing to tell.
The prince bade him farewell and set out. He wandered so far thathe crossed seven kingdoms, an
earfully hungry, and made terrible havoc among the mice.
Then the queen of the mice held a council.
"These cats will eat every one of us," she said, "if the captain of the ship does not shut the ferocious animals up. Let us send a deputation to him of the bravest among us."
Several mice offered themselves for this mission and set out to find the young captain.
"Captain," said they, "go away quickly from our island, or we shall perish, every mouse of us."
"Willingly," replied the young captain, "upon one condition. That is that you shall first bring me back a bronze ring which some clever magician has stolen from me. If you do not do this I will land all my cats upon your island, and you shall be exterminated."
The mice withdrew in great dismay. "What is to be done?" said the Queen. "How can we find this bronze ring?" She held a new council, calling in mice from every quarter of the globe, but nobody knew where the bronze ring was. Suddenly three mice arrived from a ve
tions, thoughts, and emotions. But dreams, being familiar, are credible; it is admitted that people do dream; we reach the less credible as we advance to the less familiar. For, if we think for a moment, the alleged events of ghostdom--apparitions of all sorts--are precisely identical with the every-night phenomena of dreaming, except for the avowed element of sleep in dreams.
In dreams, time and space are annihilated, and two severed lovers may be made happy. In dreams, amidst a grotesque confusion of things remembered and things forgot, we see the events of the past (I have been at Culloden fight and at the siege of Troy); we are present in places remote; we behold the absent; we converse with the dead, and we may even (let us say by chance coincidence) forecast the future. All these things, except the last, are familiar to everybody who dreams. It is also certain that similar, but yet more vivid, false experiences may be produced, at the word of the hypnotiser, in persons under the hypnotic
ed home his wife and children received him with the greatest joy. But instead of embracing them he began to weep so bitterly that they soon guessed that something terrible was the matter.
"Tell us, I pray you," said his wife, "what has happened."
"Alas!" answered her husband, "I have only a year to live."
Then he told them what had passed between him and the genius, and how he had given his word to return at the end of a year to be killed. When they heard this sad news they were in despair, and wept much.
The next day the merchant began to settle his affairs, and first of all to pay his debts. He gave presents to his friends, and large alms to the poor. He set his slaves at liberty, and provided for his wife and children. The year soon passed away, and he was obliged to depart. When he tried to say good-bye he was quite overcome with grief, and with difficulty tore himself away. At length he reached the place where he had first seen the genius, on the very day that he had appointed