2»d S. No 101., Dec. 5. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



447 



It is obvious tliat at this time Pope did not con- 

 template the " Juvenile Volume," which Lintot 

 published as the 3rd volume of Pope's Works in 

 1736. F. E. 



Odell and Pope. — According to D'Israeli {Cu- 

 riosities, vi. 385.), Oldys records in his Journal : — 



"July 31. [1749?] Was at Mrs. Odell's. Saw some 

 of her husband's papers, mostly poems in favor of the 

 ministry, and against Mr. Pope. One of them printed 

 by the late Sir Robert Walpole's encouragement, who 

 gave him ten guineas for writing, and as much for the 

 expense of printing it ; but through his advice it was 

 never published, because it might hurt his interest with 

 Lord Chesterfield, and some other noblemen, who favored 

 Mr. Pope for his fine genius," 



Of Odell little is known ; but from his early 

 connexion with the Court, and subsequently with 

 the theatre, he could have told us much that was 

 of interest. He appears, according to Oldys, to 

 have left behind him a "history of his conversa- 

 tions with ingenious men ; characters, tales, jests, 

 and intrigues of them," with which " no man was 

 better furnished." 



Is this " history " in existence ? Is it known 

 what was the work against Pope suppressed at 

 the suggestion of Walpole ? O. A. P. 



p. JANNET S " BIBLIOTHEQUE ELZBVIRIENNE. 



I have taken the liberty of putting together a 

 few notes on a collection of works which are 

 likely, I believe, to interest the readers of the 

 "IsT. & Q." Yoxxr journal addresses itself in a 

 peculiar manner to persons whose studies bear 

 upon the history of literature and the minutiae of 

 antiquarian lore. What, therefore, can be more 

 appropriate than a short review of a goodly array 

 of octavos illustrating in the fullest manner these 

 very topics ? ' ^ 



M. Jannet, the spirited editor of the Bihlio- 

 theque Elzevirienne, had already made himself 

 known by various elegant reprints of scarce and 

 important works, when he conceived, about six 

 years ago, the jidea of publishing in a uniform 

 manner a series of volumes including the prin- 

 cipal monuments of French literature. Ronsard, 

 Clement Marot, Alain Chartier, Christian de 

 Pisan, are authors seldom to be met with except 

 in the dust of public libraries; and our modern 

 Elzevir was certainly rendering a great service 

 to literature by issuing their productions and such 

 like in an elegant, cheap, and convenient form. 

 Seventy-four instalments of the collection have 

 already appeared. The general title adopted by 

 M. Jannet suflBciently describes their outward 

 semblance, and we can only say that in point of 

 scholarship, typographical care, and material exe- 

 cution, the Bibliotheque Elzevirienne is perfectly en- 



titled to take its place side by side with the most 

 unexceptionably got-up publications of Messrs. 

 Pickering, Bell and Daldy, Russell Smith, &c. 



Multifarious as the contents of M. Jannet's 

 series must be, they naturally fall under several 

 distinct classes, on each of which I shall now pro- 

 ceed to offer a few remarks. 



I. Romances, Tales, and Poetry. — From the me- 

 trical tales of the Middle Ages down to the sati- 

 rical poems of the seventeenth century and the 

 novels of Scarron, the Bibliotheque includes a 

 variety of works of imagination, which enable us 

 to study the progress of the French language. 

 M. Francisque-Michel's edition* of Gerard de 

 Rossillon contains the reprint both of the langue 

 d'oil and of the Provengal versions, taken, the first 

 from the original in tlie Harleian collection, and 

 the second from a unique vellum MS. preserved 

 in the Imperial Library in Paris (fonds de Cange, 

 N° 48. 8°). We can only regret that M. Michel 

 should not have added any notes to his very cor- 

 rect edition, as the allusions scattered throughout 

 the text require most certainly to be fully illus- 

 trated and explained. In his preface the learned 

 editor has given a few statements respecting the 

 long-lived popularity of the tale, and the various 

 MSS. which still exist of it. The most ancient 

 form under which it appeared was a Latin chron- 

 icle, entitled Gesta nobilissimi Comitis Oerardi de 

 Roussillon, and formerly preserved at the abbey 

 of Rothieres, founded by Gerard de Rossillon him- 

 self. Both the Provenqal and tlie langue (Toe ver- 

 sions are incomplete towards the beginning, and 

 M. Michel deserves great credit for the trouble 

 he has taken in correcting the spelling and intro- 

 ducing a good system of punctuation ; however 

 plausible, indeed, the idea may appear of reprint- 

 mg mediaeval MSS. in statu quo with all their 

 blunders, their cacography, and their non-punc- 

 tuation, we cannot subscribe to it, backed though 

 it is by no less an authority than that of M. 

 Fauriel. 



If the Elzevirian edition of Gerard de Rossillon 

 is incomplete through paucity of annotation, M. 

 Edelestand Dumeril's Floire et Blanceflor^ may 

 be described as quite the reverse. 234 pages of 

 introduction, copious notes and a glossary to boot, 

 — such is the formidable apparatus brought to 

 illustrate one of the most popular of ancient chi- 

 valric romances. M. Edelestand Dumeril's learn- 

 ing is extraordinary, but he allows it to run wild ; 

 and his prefatory remarks, besides being de Floire 

 et Blanceflor, are also et de quibusdnm aliis. The 

 tale reprinted in this volume is known to have 



* " Gerard de Rossillon, chanson de geste publiee en 

 Proven9al et en Fran9ais, d'aprfes les manuscrits de Paris 

 et de Londres, par M. Francisque-Michel, 1 vol." 



f " Floire et Blanceflor, pofemes du XI1I« sifecle, publics 

 d'aprfes les manuscrits, avec une Introduction, des Notes 

 et un Glossaire, par M. Edelestand du Mdril, 1 vol." 



