and other English poets of that day also drew their one-sidedly gloomy interpretation of Old Norse life. A cursory turning of the pages of Bartholinus' massive tome furnishes two more striking parallels: In the Pirate, Scott has one of the characters ask, Or was it the tomb of some Scandinavian chief, interred with his arms and his wealth, perhaps also with his immolated wife?" This remark may have been based on the following statements of Bartholinus: "Pecunia cum defunctis simul sepulta" (Cap. ix), "Arma cum mortuis simul cremata et sepulta" (l. c. p. 562), "Conjuges cum maritis mortuis concrematae et consepultae" (l. c. p. 499). The very heading of Caput I, "Exempla Danorum, qui intrepidi, immo ridentes ad mortem ibant," probably suggested the references to the heroes "smiling in death" in the Letter in Verse to the Duke of Buccleugh, the Antiquary, and the Pirate.5 In many instances, when more direct sources are cited, the writer shows by internal evidence that the poet simply culled his citations from the Latin of Bartholinus. He has established incontrovertibly, that wherever Bartholinus gives the Old Norse and its Latin translation in parallel passages, Scott invariably chose the language which was easiest for him to translate, i. e. Latin (p. 16), and that wherever an English translation was available beside a Latin one, he apparently chose the English version (p. 21). An inspection of Sharon Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons, 1799-1801, might have furnished some interesting material, as Scott acknowledged his indebtedness to this work in a letter to Ellis, "I have derived much information from Turner; he combines the knowledge of the Welsh and northern authorities." Professor Lieder, as well as Nordby, overestimates the significance of Scott's review of Herbert's Translations." Nordby had gone so far as to award to Scott the distinction of having first 2 Sir Walter Scott, Waverley Novels, Andrew Lang Edition, Boston, 1892, XVIII, 303. J. G. Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., Boston, IV, 161. 'W. Herbert, Translations from the German, Danish and Select Icelandic Poetry. Translated from the Originals with Notes, London, 1804-6. Reviewed in Edinburgh Review, vol. 9, 211. pointed out to English readers the force of the negative contractions in Old Norse; and on the face of it, Scott seems to betray a minute acquaintance with the earlier English translators of Icelandic poetry. Thus he mentions the limitations and blunders of Gray, Mason, Bishop Percy and Amos Cottle. A reference to the Announcement and Notes to Herbert's volumes would have revealed the fact that these strictures as well as most of the other essential points of Scott's review were simply taken over from them and that Scott's own contributions are insignificant." Accordingly, when Professor Lieder sums up this particular discussion with the words, "this review suggests how widely, and with what interest, Scott had read the most important English translators of Scandinavian literature; it shows, too, a certain keenness, or at least a scholarly exactitude, in his judgment of them" (p. 46), he attributes to Scott a far more detailed knowledge of these things than the facts warrant. Similarly, many of the Notes to the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, from which Professor Lieder quotes frequently, were furnished to Scott by others. So for example, in the Letters on Demonology Scott refers to the Essay on the Fairy Superstition 10 and states that many of the materials were contributed by Dr. Leyden, and the whole brought into the present form by the author." 11 In the Introductory Remarks on Popular Poetry, prefixed to the later editions of the Minstrelsy,12 and in Note K to the Lady of the Lake, he speaks appreciatingly of Robert Jamieson's "extensive acquaintance with the Scandinavian literature" and of his indebtedness to him. Indeed, Scott's indebtedness to Jamieson must have been considerable, for he anonymously edited a collection of translations for him. In the unsigned announce Nordby, 13. Cf. Herbert, Part Second, pp. viii, 9, 47, 49, 54, and Part Third (misprinted as Part Second), p. 53 for a discussion of all the translators mentioned by Scott. In Part Second, p. 118, is explained the negative force of the suffix at. 10 Introduction to the Tale of Tamlane. On the Fairies of Popular Superstition in Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., Edinburgh, 1833, II, 255. 11 New York, 1855, Note, p. 119. Poetical Works, 1, 80. ment of Jamieson's book, there is printed a letter addressed by the translator to the editor, which ends with "kindest remembrances to Mrs. Scott and family.” 13 The present author is the first to make use of the Catalogue of Scott's Library, published in 1838. But the list, which he gives of works dealing with Scandinavian material, could have been made far more imposing by the addition of at least fifty titles. Some of the most important works which were overlooked are: Resenius, P. J., Snorronis Edda Islandorum, 1665-73. Peringskiöld, J., Heims-Kringla, Holm., 1679. Arius Thorgilsi Filius, Libellus de Islandia Islandinga Bok dictus, 1733. Sofrensen, Andres, Kaempe Viser, Copenh., 1695. Peringskiöld, J., Wilkina Saga, Stockholm, 1715 (with Mss. Notes by Sir Walter Scott). Björner, A. J., Nordiska Kampe Datur, Stockholm, 1737. Müller, P. E., Sagabibliothek, Kjöb., 1817-20. On the other hand, the significance of these titles must not be overestimated, as Scott's library contained over 50,000 volumes and he scarcely could have consulted all the books he possessed. For the earliest interest in things Scandinavian, Professor Lieder failed to note the pertinent statement of Lockhart, that "on the fourth of January, 1791, he (Scott) was admitted as a member of the Speculative Society and that on the eleventh of December he read an essay on the Origin of the Scandinavian Mythology." "14 In the discussion of the more intimate knowledge and interest in Scandinavian literature on the part of the Germans of this time (p. 34, note 85), the reader might have been reminded of the fact that Henry Weber, the co-editor of Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, was "a poor German scholar, who escaping to this country in 1804, from misfortunes in his own, excited Scott's 13 Robert Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs, Edinburgh, 1806, 11, 98. 14 Lockhart, I, 207. compassion, and was thenceforth furnished." 15 Weber thus undoubtedly facilitated for the poet the acquaintance with this vast field of antiquarian research. On the basis of very fragmentary evidence, Nordby had summed up Scott's position with regard to things Scandinavian with a remarkable degree of intuition. The interest in Professor Lieder's study lies in its completeness. It seems, therefore, all the more regrettable that he did not at least mention the Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft of 1830, which contain a large number of additional references to Old Norse superstitions, particularly fairies, dwarfs, and ghosts. Columbia University. FREDERICK W. J. HEUSER. CORRESPONDENCE CORNEILLE'S RELATIONS WITH LOUIS PETIT Various authors have touched upon the friendly relations of P. Corneille with Louis Petit, the satirical poet of Rouen (1614?1695). Although the diversity between their kinds of talent, between Corneille's tragic loftiness and Petit's cool-headed satire, was marked, Corneille seems to have had real esteem for his friend's poetical powers and to have addressed to him an exhortation to undertake more ambitious work than his occasional amorous verse and his satires. Petit replied with a poem to Corneille, under the pastoral disguise of Damon, in which he defended his free and easy manner and stressed his disdain of literary glory.1 The satirical works of Louis Petit are in the vein of the other satirical poets of seventeenth century Normandy: Courval-Sonnet, Jean Auvray, Robert Angot, David Ferrand, the principal author of La Muse Normande, etc. He began to publish only at the end of his career. In 1686, he printed his Discours satyriques et moraux, ou Satyres générales (Rouen, 1686), which was reprinted, 15 Lockhart, IV, 9. Cf. Goujet, Bibliothèque Françoise, XVIII, 230-Nouv. Biographie Didot.-Notice by A. Chassant in La Muse Normande de Louis Petit, Rouen, 1853.-Notice by Ol. de Gourcuff in Les Satires de Louis Petit, Paris, 1883. Notice by P. Duputel in Précis de l'académie de Rouen, 1827.Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, May, 1687.-Oursel, Biographie Normande. Lebreton, Biographie Rouennaise.-Fred. Lachèvre, Bibliographie des Recueils Collectifs, 11, 413.-A. van Bever, Les Poètes du Terroir, III, 427 etc. with a changed title, as Le nouveau Juvenal satyrique, pour la réformation des mœurs et des abus de notre siècle (Utrecht, 1716). There exists also a modern reprint of the same text with the title: Les satires de Louis Petit (Paris, Jouaust, 1883). Again the same satires, with the exception of the first, are found, with variants and additions, in a volume published in 1713: Les Oeuvres diverses du sieur D*** (Paris, no publisher given). Fred. Lachèvre is inclined to believe that all the poems appearing in this volume are by Louis Petit.2 His only other volume published during his lifetime is the Dialogues satyriques et moraux (In prose, Paris, 1686 and Paris, Amsterdam, 1688). In 1853, Alph. Chassant studied a manuscript volume of Louis Petit's unpublished poems, which, at that time, belonged to Leopold Marcel, notary at Louviers, and which now seems lost. Since it was dated 1658, it contained evidently his early verse, written before P. Corneille left Rouen for Paris, in 1662. It is clearly to this poetry of his youth that he refers in the first satire of his Discours satyriques et moraux ou Satyres générales (1686): Jusqu' icy de l'amour j'ay chanté les tendresses Alph. Chassant published a few of the poems, most of them in "patois Normand" as: La Muse Normande de Louis Petit de Rouen, en patois Normand (Rouen, 1853). From his description of the manuscript it results that it contained exactly the kind of amorous and capricious verse to which Petit referred as constituting his early work. Some of it may have appeared in the Recueils of the time, to which he contributed.3 About L. Petit's relations with P. Corneille the abbé Goujet states: "Il estoit l'ami particulier de Pierre Corneille, et il fut l'éditeur de ses pièces de Théatre, reimprimées à Rouen chez Lallemant. Corneille avant quitté Rouen, M. Petit alla aussi à Paris, et il y fut très assidu à l' Hôtel de Rambouillet, où il se fit aimer et estimer." This example of constant friendship was taken over by various Notices on Louis Petit, generally with a few additional embellishments. Alph. Chassant says that after Corneille's death, in 1684, the Parisian drawing-rooms lost their attraction for Louis Petit and that he returned to Rouen. Yet the information given by the abbé Goujet is contradicted by the Au Lecteur of Petit's second book, the Dialogues satyriques et moraux. There Petit explains: "Je n' ay donc qu' un petit |