Chancellor
gives a good account of the third chapter of his History of to Stow's 'Survey (book iv.
Athenaeum - London - 1912a
Political feeling
as one of the soundest scholars in English
we have, and he is the very man to put
the parvenu whose head is turned by was very bitter, political controversy was
political elevation, and who assumes violent and scurrilous, yet the President's rature before the uninstructed public.
an outline of English Mediæval Lite-
aristocratic or even royal pretensions in opponents, with few exceptions, respected His knowledge and taste are unimpeach-
his prerogatives, both of power and of his death-chamber at a time when nothing able, and his style is effective, simple,
pleasure. The President of the Republic, was sacred to polemical writers.
though Madame Steinheil does not tell the The book is written and compiled with breaks out ever and anon; unlike some
yet never dry. He has a sly humour which
story, once, when entertaining a grand ability worthy of a better theme. The of the learned, he can hear the singing
duchess at the Élysée, had himself served parts which are obviously taken from the voice” in a ballad ; and he goes behind
before the princess, on the ground that French are not badly translated, though details of word and rhythm to the mind
Louis XIV. was always served before attorney-general is not the equivalent of and temper of the people which produced
If he had confined his “ avocat-général,” and “hall of the lost them. Thus he tells us that the story of
mimicry of kings to such-like follies, he steps ” for salle des pas perdus suggests Orpheus as distilled by popular tradition
might have been alive now, and Madame Thackeray's “new street of the little into Sir Orfeo' has a happy ending,
Steinheil's ‘Memoirs’ would not have fields. ”. . . Whether the narrative portion nothing having been said of the injunction
been written. But he killed himself by was originally written in English or French not to look back :-
taking to irregular courses late in life, we cannot teil. It contains few Gallicisms,
after bringing France to the brink of a but many un-English expressions, such
“It was probably left out when Orpheus
revolution. Madame Steinheil confirms
sculpture, noblewoman,"
was turned into a fairy-tale, on account of
what we already knew-that he contem- entrained
the power of music ; the heart of the people
(of a person getting into a
felt that Orpheus the good harper ought not
my valet," meaning footmanto be subjected to the common plot [. . e. , the
by a coup d'état. “ Félix Faure has not Good taste is not to be looked for in a story founded on some act of forgetfulness).
the necessary qualities is her comment in work of this kind, and it is useless to so now the heart of the people insists
a passage supposed to be taken from her inquire if, in publishing a signed photo on a happy ending, and the purveyors of
diary of October, 1898.
graph of M. Bonnat, the portrait-painter, popular fiction would never venture to
This was on the eve of the Fashoda on a larger scale even than that of Presi- indulge in tragedy and ruin their sales.
incident. It was a moment when French dent Faure, the author obtained the per-
The Introduction examines the various
patriots,” of whom the President was mission of the artist. The historical motives which draw people to study
the chief, were all Anglophobes, partly mistakes are fewer than might be antici- mediæval literature. Among these per-
from their love of Russia, partly because pated. Thiers was not Prime Minister haps the most frequent is the study of some
the English press was aggressively Drey- when the second funeral of Napoleon took particular author, who, taken up at first
of fashion placeThe palace where Queen Victoria
was unanimously hostile to Dreyfus, in- stayed in 1855 was that of St. Cloud. lation of a new world. ” To master tho-
casually, captures attention by his “reve-
cluding even certain Jews. As Madame “ An eminent English personage. . . . who roughly one great romance or poem is
Steinheil says: The strangest phe- told lively anecdotes about the ravishing the best way of approach to a period,
nomenon in that strange time was the sister of Napoleon” would surely have and we hope that no one who has read
anti-Dreyfusard attitude of the Jewish ascertained that Pauline Borghese never
this little book will feel that he knows
élite. ” So Félix Faure, as became a man
courtisan. ” In
of fashion, “was absolutely sincere in his the list of ministerial offices held by Félix it will be an excellent foundation for study,
enough about the subject. Properly used,
conviction of Dreyfus's guilt ”-and also Faure some of the dates are wrong, and but there are no short cuts to learning,
in his Anglophobia, which was not a creed the author omits to mention that his first and summaries are apt to produce pre-
confined to anti-Dreyfusards. Never- post was a minor office in Gambetta's tentious sciolists. In so difficult a subject
theless, the two countries were not so * Grand Ministère,” of which he was very
nearly at war as Madame Steinheil sug. proud.
Home University Library. --English Lite-
gests. But feeling was very bitter, and
Mediæval. By W. P. Kor.
Félix Faure denounced to his friend a
The English Language. By Logan Pearsall
speech by our ambassador, Sir E. Monson,
Smith. (Williams & Norgate. )
cs to
as
66
wore a crown even as a
rature :
## p. 495 (#375) ############################################
No. 4410, May 4, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
495
romance :-
are
rare.
are
as mediæval lore the positive results, always to go together) are aptly mingled on 'Language and History,' and two on
which naturally figure chiefly in hand in this summary of the Middle English Language and Thought,' express admir-
books, are as nothing compared with the attitude towards French
French models inably the vivid interest of the subject.
things that we do not know for certain,
Our only criticism is that he is too much
the gaps which must be filled in by guess-
“The English in the reign of Edward I. given to making catalogues of words.
work. The reader, for instance, who
or Edward III. had often much difficulty in A smaller selection with fuller explanation
goes from Tennyson back to Malory and understanding what the French romantic would have been much more effective,
the origins of the Arthurian stories may well school was driving, at-particularly when and all the words explained might then
get lost in a Serbonian bog of conjecture it seemed to be driving round and round, have been introduced into the Index,
which he did not expect.
spinning long monologues of afflicted damsels, which now only gives a few.
There is, naturally, in volumes of the between the knight and his lady. The diffi.
or elegant conversations full of phrases
We have frequently advocated the
scope of the “Home University Library
culty was not unreasonable. If the French addition of derivations, as fixing words
no room to deal with any poem or romance authors had been content to write about in the memory, and in the present age
in full detail ; but Prof. Ker has extracted nothing but sentimental conversations and they may even serve the purpose of per-
the essence of all the important things languishing lovers, then one would have suading people that the commonplaces
apart from drama, which is deliberately known what to do. The man who is look; of philology are not idle fictions. Ame-
left untouched
and the trend of the time ing at the railway bookstall for a good thyst, for instance, is simply duétvotos
,
is neatly hit off in discussing romances,
detective story knows at once what to say
“not drunk," the stone being supposed
when he is offered the Diary of a Soul.
ballads, comic poetry and allegory, sermons But the successful French novelists of the to preserve its possessor from intoxica-
and histories. The writer knows that twelfth century appealed to both tastes, tion, but we could not persuade a seeker
opinions expressed or implied on human and dealt equally in sensation and sentiment; after truth of this philological fact until
conduct are of deeper import than diffi- they did not often limit themselves to what we produced a Greek lexicon. Mr. Smith
culties of grammar or disputes about
was always their chief interest, the moods gives the superstition on p. 171, and tells
origins. He brings before us here and of lovers. They worked these into plots
us ten pages later that the word is Greek.
there quotations to illustrate the actual adventures were too good to be lost ; so
of adventure, mystery, fairy magic; the It is fair to say, however, that such separ
language, and due warnings as to rash the less refined English readers, who were
ations of things which might be said
judgments. Thus we learn that Danish puzzled or wearied by sentimental con completely once
The reader
pirates were not restricted to the profes- versations, were not able to do without the cannot fail to be struck with the frequency
sion of harrying, but were respectable and elegant romances. They read them; and of the prefix al- in Arabian words. Its
beneficent gentlemen at home; and that they skipped. The skipping was done for simple meaning might have been added.
“ Sumer is icumen in,” the song that them, generally, when the romances were "Enthusiasm and enthusiastic
figures at the beginning of English sions are shorter than the French in most rightly described as becoming in the
anthologies, is not a free outburst of
cases where comparison is possible. As a eighteenth century abusive terms for
melody, but governed alike by music and general rule, the English took the adven religious fanaticism and religious fanatics,
a Latin original. The English of these turous sensational part of the French but we should have gone further than this
earlier days seem to have been keener romances, and let the language of the heart to explain that in that century the Estab-
linguists and musicians than their de- alone. ”
lished Church was notoriously torpid, if
scendants.
What a contrast is such writing to the not a refrigerating machine. Pros-
The scholar, immersed in his special aridity of earlier instructors in literature ! perity to the Established Church and no
authors, is apt to find no faults in them, and
encouragement to Enthusiasm" is actu-
is a source of irritation to the less in- Prof. Ker ends with Chaucer, whose ally inscribed on a church bell of 1758 in
structed, whose standards are nearer to influence on the English of his day Mr. a Cambridgeshire parish. It was the
human pleasure. We are glad then to Pearsall Smith fully recognizes. The efforts of Wesley and Whitefield and the
find that the Professor's abundant learning latter offers an excellent summary of phenomena of revivalism that produced
does not lead him to overrate authors the merits and defects of mediæval the bad sense of the terms. The novelty
inaccessible to the ordinary reader. 'Beo- thought, and warnings as to the danger of “sentimental” might have been
wulf,' we learn, is commonplace in story of deducing too much from the absence of emphasized by Wesley's remark on read-
and feeble in plan; Anglo-Saxon poetry particular words at any period :
ing Sterne's Sentimental Journey' that
is often very tiresome, and merit is some- “If the Elizabethans had no word for dis.
the adjective was not English, and might
times of a negative character, as in Law- appointment or home - sickness, we cannot
as well have been “ Continental. ” The
rence Minot, who “can put contempt assume that they did not experience these history of “sentimental,' too, is
into his voice with no recourse to bad feelings, but only that they were not inter largely of religious reaction. Fashionable
language. "
ested in expressing them. '
society, shocked by the denunciations of
Reading such judgments, we are pre- The author in less space than 250 Nonconformists, selected the more tender
pared to enjoy all the Professoris obiter pages has certainly managed to include and graceful parts of the Gospels. Hell
dicta, and the literary taste often wanting a vast amount of information, and, while was not, of course, for people of quality,
in the specialist. He shows clearly the his writing is clear and lucid, he is always and they enjoyed the luxuries of romantic
survival of artistic methods throughout in touch with life, seeking for the frag- grief and pathos, while retaining a com-
the centuries, tracing the origin of all ments of belief and thought which have fortable indifference to the stern realities
modern poetry and novels to the society won the battle of linguistic competition
of life.
of the twelfth century, and discovers the and make us talk in terms of astrology,
In tracing the various channels through
“rime couée," or tail-rhyme, in the the Crusades, or other lost battles of which words came and the culture they
parody of Wordsworth among the Re- religion and science without knowing it. imply the author is at his best. We think,
jected Addresses, and the usage of the “ Græcia capta ferum victorem cepit” in however, he might have said something
illiterate of all ages in word - for - word Horace's neat phrase, but there was no
as to the Italian influence which was
translation.
such effective retaliation in this country. so strong in Shakespeare's day, and has
The influence of foreign elements on The various conquerors who brought new
naturalized some odd-looking words and
English romance and story is one of the elements to the nation imposed them forms. The ideas of evolution and pro-
most difficult things to estimate, much selves but slowly and partially on the lan-gress which permeate thought to-day are
of the matter used being common to guage of the people, and we possess to-day comparatively modern, and due to men
various parts of Europe, and romantic many pairs of words with a similar mean-
like Darwin and Herbert Spencer. The
heroes having at all times a tendency ing, but of different origin, which add Middle Ages had no such terms, and the
to flourish outside the limits of their infinitely to the richness of our tongue, explanation of this deficiency will serve
inventors' experience. On such points and have in course of time been differ-
as a good specimen of the author's style :
this little book is always illuminating. entiated to express slight nuances of “ The idea of progress may have visited
Humour and discernment (which ought 'expression. Mr. Smith's three chapters' the thoughts of a few lonely philosophers
one
## p. 496 (#376) ############################################
496
No. 4410, May 4, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
is
a
even
66
7
ܕܙ
as
are
un-
but it obtained no general acceptance, and say that, admitting for the moment the cannot be defended by any competent
found no expression in the language. The premises, this consequence does not follow. mediæval scholar. It
great
social consciousness was not favourable to As a matter of fact, the whole question of mistake to think that, because a law
it, being dominated as it was by the religious national Churches in pre-Reformation existed on the English statute
belief in the degeneracy of a world fallen times is one that requires careful handling. books, it was enforced on the people till
from grace, and fated to worse deterioration
before its sudden end, which might come
No one, least of all an archivist, can deny long after the Middle Ages. Further, the
at any time. Even at the Reformation the that there were Anglican, Gallican, Roman, decision in any case in a mediæval court
ideal, as the word Reformation shows, was &c. , Churches, quite apart from the usually depended, not on the law dealing
that of a return to the purity of primitive Catholic and Apostolic Church. John's with the point, but only on the law cited
and uncorrupted times; and the conception concession of his kingdom and his oath of in the case and the power of the opposing
of continuous evolution, of an advance fealty (most certainly drawn by a canonist) advocate to produce contradictory law.
beyond the limits set by the past, is one
which has appeared at a late period in the
were to the Ecclesia Romana, and obvi- Lastly, as Mr. Ogle points out, much of
statute
ously the Universal Church did not receive the Roman Canon Law is not
history of thought. '
the head-rent that England had to pay; at all, but merely declarations of custom,
Of the world in which we live and its Magna Charta confirmed to the Ecclesia obviously a different thing.
language not much is said, nor could Anglicana all its rights and liberties; the
If we pass over in silence the fact that
much be expected within the limits of a
Dictum of Kenilworth (1266) expressly the Canon Law made provision for dis-
small volume. Mr. Smith, however, notes differentiates the “Sacrosancta Catholica obedience to part of its code under the
the rage for introspection which has now atque Apostolica Romana Ecclesia” and pretext of " consuetudo”; that subjects.
almost become a disease. He leaves un the" Ecclesia Anglicana”; and Archbishop which are vital to its jurisdictione. g. ,
touched that Americanization which has Boniface summoned his clergy to discuss patronage-were excluded from English
affected the whole of our life, especially “Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ eventus. ' We have Ecclesiastical Courts; that its rules as to
in the press, and the increasing vocabulary thus some guide as to what was the ritual can be disobeyed; that its courts
of sport and pleasure, which erects the mediæval conception of the English can take cognizance of things with which
popular mime to the lordship over lan- Church. Of course, every member of the the Canon Law does not deal—if, in short,
guage deserved only by the poet. The Ecclesia Anglicana was also a member we avail ourselves of Friar Tuck's formula
pedantry of the learned, who frequently of the Church Universal, but the separate “exceptis excipiendis,” we can agree with
make mistakes when they pretend to be existence of the former is bound up with Maitland that the Canon Law had the
most accurate, is fully recognized in these that of rights and immunities, not of force of “ absolutely binding statute law”;
pages. Freedom from any such influ- theological doctrines or ritual observances. but it is as well that we should be clear on
ences is certainly a characteristic of the No lawyer can deny that, whatever these the force of this agreement. The whole
present age. Commerce and invention rights and immunities were on the day subject is difficult; early Ecclesiastical
go their own wild way in language. The that Henry VII. was alive and dead,” to Courts were not courts of record—all we
hostile and often furious abuse and fix a point when the English Church was know of their procedure is derived from
opposition ” of which Mr. Smith speaks by common consent Catholic, they were the documents drawn up by litigants in
is not so much “ hard to withstand
unaltered at the accession of James I. -
a few famous cases, and we
futile and useless. We look to such books that is, that the Ecclesia Anglicana in the likely to learn much more of them than
as this to improve the standard of English, only sense in which it ever had a legal we know now-still, we are thankful to
and to suggest to a public which is some-existence has had
existence has had a continuous one.
Mr. Ogle for a very clear and simple
what dazed, perhaps, by the flattering
Maitland's arguments were directed not criticism of Maitland's brilliant and stimu-
recital of its new powers and opportunities, to this point, but to the denial that there lating excursion into a part of our history
that it has a good deal to learn.
was any considerable body of Canon Law which has remained for centuries almost a
peculiar to English Ecclesiastical Courts. sealed book. Doubtless Mr. Ogle will be
He himself pointed out a number of answered by some of Maitland's followers.
The Canon Law in Mediæval England. By importance, while Mr. Ogle devotes much discussion of a purely historical question
divergences, of which he minimized the In the meantime it may be hoped that the
Arthur Ogle. (John Murray. )
space to emphasizing them. In this we will not
will not be complicated by modern
It is, perhaps, to be regretted that an think he is right. Canon Law has its basis political issues.
historical problem should be raised in the in Christian ethics and principles of Roman
discussion of Disestablishment in Wales jurisprudence, and many of the decretals
which, it is patent, will be settled on quite of the Roman Pontiffs are, on the face of
different considerations; and the publica- them, mere statements of what these FLEET STREET AND THE STRAND.
tion of such a clear and well-written con- involve in the particular case submitted MR. CHANCELLOR may consider himself
tribution to the study of the problem as
to them. When we put on
fortunate in that he is the first in the field
Mr. Ogle has given hardly consoles us for questions of property in its public aspect, in the separate treatment of the history
the spectacle of well-intentioned poli- with which English law did not allow the of two such important streets as Fleet
ticians and others quoting dicta of which Church to interfere, and matters
they understand neither the force nor the public policy, where writs of prohibition Street and the Strand. Much, of course,
this: prevented the Ecclesiastical Courts from thoroughfare stretching from the City .
Stubbs made certain statements as to coming to any decision, we have very walls to Charing Cross, but no distinct
the authority of Canon Law in English little left on which to found a separate volumes have previously been devoted
pre-Reformation Church Courts ; Maitland code. Maitland complains, for example
, to the registration of the varied occur-
thought that these were over-statements that there was no English marriage law :
rences and associations connected with it.
of fact, and quoted Bishop Lyndwood, naturally, one would think, since there
Boswell obtained Johnson's agreement
an English fifteenth-century canonist, to no English, but only Christian
prove that these courts were absolutely marriage. We have now
to his assertion that Fleet Street was more
an English
bound by every part of Canon Law. He marriage law, with the fantastic result delightful than Tempe, although the
then went on to deduce-or his inter- that a man may be legally married to grounds of comparison between the two
preters deduce for him—that,
are not very evident; and Lord Beacons-
three women in as many
as English
different countries.
Church Courts after the Reformation are Mr. Ogle's treatment of Maitland's field declared that the Strand was the
admittedly not absolutely bound by Canon attack on the position of Stubbs as to
finest street in Europe. Charles Lamb's.
Law, the post - Reformation Church of the authority of Canon Law in English The Annals of Fleet Street ; its Traditions and
England is not the same body as the courts errs, if anything, on the side of
Associations. By E. Beresford Chancellor.
pre-Reformation Ecclesia Anglicana. Now under-statement. The use of, and the
(Chapman & Hall. )
no one will suspect us of disrespect to so unconscious connotations implied by, such The Annals of the Strand, Topographical and
famous a scholar as Maitland when we 'terms as "absolutely binding statute law Historical. (Same author and publishers. )
was
## p. 497 (#377) ############################################
No. 4410, May 4, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
497
>
exclamation, “I often shed tears in the It has now been restored by the London Chancellor Earl of Beaumont), ambassador
County Council as far as possible to its to this country from France. The famous
much life," however, enlists our sym- original state as the office of the Duchy of Rosny, afterwards Duc de Sully, who
pathy more thoroughly, and makes us Cornwall under Henry, Prince of Wales. came to England in 1603 as Ambassador
feel its true influence in spite of its The charming Temple, with its beautiful Extraordinary to James I. , resided in
narrowness and want of grandeur. round church-one of London's greatest this house for a few days until Arundel
Both streets are ancient as roads, but assets—would alone give distinction to House was ready for his reception.
Fleet Street takes priority from being the Fleet Street, but there is much more of Butcher Row and its neighbourhood
natural outgrowth of the City, as one of great historical interest. The two came to be filled with disreputable inhabi-
the suburbs that gradually grew up churches in Fleet Street, St. Dunstan's tants, and was cleared away in 1813, when
outside the walls, and extended from the and St. Bride's, are described in a separate the considerable improvements advocated
various gates into the country beyond chapter.
by Alderman Pickett were carried out;
until they were included within the City The memory of the old Friary of the but Pickett Street was itself destroyed
jurisdiction as “the Liberties. " The Carmelites, or White Friars, has been when the fresh clearance of the site of
Strand was for some centuries merely a almost wiped out of existence, but the the new Law Courts was undertaken.
road for heavy traffic, lined on the south privilege of sanctuary which it possessed Of the early history of this east end of
side with the offices and stables attached
was continued to the inhabitants of the the Strand there is stiil much to be learnt,
to the mansions built on the banks of the precinct after the Dissolution. In conse-
and we may some day be able to explain
Thames. Its name is apparently much quence the place was named Alsatia, as the old tenure of the Forge of the farrier
more ancient than that of Fleet Street, as being one of the most dangerous places of the Strand, by the terms of which the
it was obtained long before any houses in London, where fraudulent debtors, Sheriffs of London still pay the yearly
were built there. Fleet Street takes its name gamblers, and the outcasts of society rent of six horseshoes and nails. The
from the time when the Fleet ditch (now gathered as to a favoured retreat. Mac- history of St. Clement's parish is illus-
a sewer) was really a navigable river.
aulay pictures it with vivid language in trated by a passage in Strype's additions
Mr.
Chancellor gives a good account of the third chapter of his History of to Stow's 'Survey (book iv. chap. vii. ),
Fleet Street and its inhabitants, as well England. ' The baneful “privilege was quoted from information given by Re-
as the streets on the north and the south; abolished in 1697, but it was many years corder Fleetwood to Lord Burghley, to
but the varied interests of the locality are
before the neighbourhood returned to the effect that those Danes married to
so considerable that he must have found the ranks of respectability. Whitefriars English women who were left in London
it difficult to compress all he had to say has lately been largely rebuilt, by which after the others were driven out of the
into a single volume. It is pleasing to means more room has been found for kingdom, were constrained to inhabit
read of the changes in the character of its newspaper offices and warehouses more between Westminster and Ludgate," and
inhabitants at different periods of its
or less connected with literature. The built a synagogue called Ecclesia Cle-
existence. At one time it was the head- old Whitefriars Theatre was built on the mentis Danorum. " This throws some
quarters of printers and booksellers, such site of the hall of the Friary, to be suc- light on the known fact that much of
as Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Berthelet, ceeded, first by the Salisbury Court Fleet Street belonged to the Abbey of
Robert and William Copland, and others. Theatre, and then by the Duke's Theatre Westminster. The open-air court held
Before 1502, when Pynson removed to
in Dorset Gardens. The old Blackfriars by the justices itinerant at the stone cross
the George, next St. Dunstan's Church, Theatre was also not far from Fleet Street. opposite what afterwards became Somerset
he lived in St. Clement's parish without
The chapter on the taverns and coffee - House proves the great antiquity of this
Temple Bar. In later times many famous
houses contains a full account of the district.
booksellers had shops in Fleet Street. various signs which were plentiful in this
We are glad to be able to recommend
Now the leading newspapers have taken district, but we must protest against the Mr. Chancellor's two volumes, as
the place of the book - producers.
misquotation in Herrick's apostrophe to taining a mass of interesting information
For many years Fleet Street exhibited
Ben Jonson. The author has the grace in a convenient form. Both books are
in a special degree one of the chief features to add, “The Dog' is sometimes printed arranged on a similar plan, and as relating
of a suburb—that of being one of the instead of the ' Cheese ""; but
it is hardly to
one connected thoroughfare, they
show-places of London for monsters, giants, necessary
to say that “Dog” is the only should be read together.
dwarfs, posture-makers, and fire-eaters.
known reading, and that there is no
Mrs. Salmon, the Madame Tussaud of evidence that Jonson knew of the existence
of “The Cheshire Cheese. "
AUTOGRAPH SALE.
her day, opened an exhibition of wax-
works in the reign of Queen Anne at simultaneously from both ends, Ludgate Mr. T. Toovey, the most important lotit breins
Fleet Street seems to have grown On Thursday, April 25th, Messrs. Sotheby sold
a collection of autograph letters, the property of
the Golden Salmon in St. Martin's near being the starting - place on the east, the following : Sir Thomas Boleybol detteur nts,
Aldersgate. The exhibition was removed
later in the eighteenth century to the as Temple Bar was on the west.
letter to James Howie, Dec. 20, 1786, 231. ;
latter formed a sort of special district
north side of Fleet Street, near Chancery
, of 'My ',
Lane, to a house which stood on the site round itself. A large number of houses letter to Dr. C. D. Clarke, June 17, 1813, 271. ;
of Anderton's Hotel. Here Mrs. Salmon grew up to the west of the Bar, which did another to John Hunt, Oct. 31, 1822, 311. Charles
died in 1760, and the waxworks were
not become a portion of the Strand until 1, letter to the Duke of York, Feb. 28,
1679,
251. 108. Oliver Cromwell, letter to Robert
continued under the old name by a surgeon
a comparatively recent period.
Bernard, Jan. 23, 1643, 2251. Dryden, letter to
of Chancery Lane named Clark, who
The frontispiece of ‘Old Temple Bar' his cousin Honor Dryden, probably written in
1655, 1051. Edward IV. , signed letter to the
purchased the collection. Another
(destroyed in the Fire of London) is a
Chancellor of the Duchy of Burgundy, 501.
moval took place in 1788 to No. 189, a
satisfactory addition to the Fleet Street Edward VI. , letter to Henri II. introducing the
house which was pulled down in 1795, and
book, as its appearance is not generally to Henri II1. about the Alençon marriage negotia-
known.
rebuilt for Praed's Bank. The widow of
tions, 2451. ; signed letter to Dr. Dale on the
same subject, March 15, 1573, 761. ; another to
the proprietor removed the exhibition In spite of the great historical interest Lord Willoughby, April 26, 1588, 311. ; letter
to the south side of the street (No. 17, of Fleet Street, the Strand may be con-
from Elizabeth's Privy Council to the Master
over Inner Temple Gate), and here the sidered its equal in this respect. Its 1579, 411. Henry VIII. , signed letter to Madame
and Wardens of the Drapers' Company, July 26,
collection of waxworks continued to be growth followed the same course as did de la Forte, 391. 108. ; sign manual to an order
exhibited by Mrs. Clark until 1816–17. that of the City street. The most fashion letter in French to Louis XIII. , July 18, 1812, 672.
Mrs. Salmon's name was omitted in these able portion during the seventeenth century James 1. , letter in French to Henri IV. , June 10,
later years. The house was long occupied was the district known as Temple Bar 1606; 621. Mary, Queen of Scots; signed letter to
as “ Carter's Hairdressing Saloons," with Without, and not then styled the Strand.
III. , sign manual on a warrant to W. Catesby, 491.
this remarkable statement inscribed on Under the shadow of the Bar was a hand- Earl of Strafford, letter to his sister, Sept. 11,
the front : Formerly the Palace of some building inhabited by Christopher
1836, 571. Cardinal Wolsey, signed letter of credit
to the ambassadors at Calais, probably written in
King Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey. " 'Harley, Comte Beaumont (called by Mr. 1520, 441. The total of the sale was 2,4741. 58.
con-
re-
## p. 498 (#378) ############################################
498
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4410, MAY 4, 1912
THE
assiduity compiled a list of legal prosecutions | Southey (Robert), Wat TYLER, 3d.
relating to offences against religion";
Stewart & Co.
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
thus exposing and throwing into perspective It is hard to account for a cheap edition
Notice in those columns does not preclude longer the whole course of the penalties imposed of this “ thrilling poem of Republicanism. "
raviow. )
upon heresy, for the suppression of free We find in it very little thrill and no poetry,
Tbeology.
opinion and the principles of religious and the literature of democracy can surely
liberty. She carries her inquiry from early produce better things nowadays.
Browne (Fred. Geo. ), CHATS ABOUT mediæval times up to the present. Her
CHURCH, A HANDY CHURCH DEFENCE
purpose is avowedly propagandist, designed Sylva (Carmen), POEMS
Jarrold
MANUAL FOR WORKING MEN, 61.
to excite an agitation for the repeal of our
S. P. C. K. obsolete blasphemy laws. For ready refer-lator," would be as good as to offer the
“A bad translation,”? quotes the trans-
A revised edition of what is nothing but
a collection of examination papers based inaccessible her work serves an extremely how a cornfield looks. 22
ence to enactments otherwise practically people husks and say Look here, that's
upon historical data, and concerned with useful end. It is written with much force, vinced that Carmen Sylva in the original is a
We are not con-
disestablishment and disendowment. and under stress of indignation against remarkable lyricist, but the rendering has
Church Quarterly Review, April, 3/
miscarriage of justice.
certainly blighted what she has to offer.
Spottiswoode
From a literary point of view the most
McCarthy (Charles), THE WISCONSIN IDEA, These jingles are vague, insipid melodies,
interesting article of this number is that by
6/6 net. New York, Macmillan Co. with all the conventional trappings of the
minor versifier. The quiet, sentimental
Mr. Shelly on 'Rhythmical Prose in Latin
Wisconsin has become something, like ditties of the Roumanian are transmogrified
and English '-a discussion chiefly of the
a laboratory for wise experimental legis- into lackadaisical banalities.
cursus, prompted by Mr. Clark's recent work lation,” aimed at social and political im-
upon it.
As Mr. Shelly points out, the provement. This book has been written to Time and the Man: Lines on tho Seal of
study of the rules and practice of rhythmical answer many inquiries from legislative
Napoleon Bonaparte, 2/6 net.
prose is not merely a scholarly amusement : leaders and reformers in other American
Humphreys
it plays its part also in criticism, and of this States. Mr. Roosevelt commends it in
we might well have been furnished more
A metrical panegyric of Napoleon. Each
an Introduction which revels in platitude.
extensively with instances. The principal What Wisconsin has achieved—e. g. , in the quatrain occupies a page, and is accom-
theological article is Dr. Darwell" Stone's fight against consumption, the preservation panied by a drawing of a Napoleonic symbol
of forests, and a series of Standing Com- is immune from criticism, for it suggests
'The Creeds and Modern Movements,'
or characteristic attitude. The verse itself
which sums up the present complicated mittees for legislation—is sufficiently striking,
no poetical standard.
position as exemplified in some dozen works and well told by the author, Legislative
by writers of as many types of thought, and, Librarian for over ten years in the State. He Trévelyan (R. C. ), THE BRIDE OF DIONYSUS,
after discussing the origin and place of the recognizes divergent" views, and avoids
A MUSIC-DRAMA, AND OTHER POEMS,
miraculous element in the creeds, concludes dogmatism.
3/6 net.
Longmans
that to forbear the assertion of it would be
poetry.
not to renew the life, but to hasten the death,
Mr. Trevelyan is a metrist of considerable
of the Christian faith. Dr. Brown's criti- Bernard de Morlaix,
skill, versatility, and knowledge. In com-
"JERUSALEM
cism of Bergson's Philosophy is concerned
THE parison with the frothy ebullitions of count-
GOLDEN,”? A HYMN OF THE CELESTIAL Iess minor fry, his verse is severe, chaste, and
with a part of it hitherto somewhat dis-
regarded-Bergson's theory of the relation
COUNTRY, with a Version into English statuesque, and its fabric is closely and
Metre by John Tattersall.
neatly woven. What he lacks is strong,
between mind and brain set forth in 'Matière
et Mémoire. Mr. Gwynn's 'Some Saints in
Jones & Evans imaginative potency. His tropes are too
Ireland'-a review of Mr. Plummer's Vitæ rhapsodical translation than of the original
, born less from inspiration than from the
We think less of the interjectional, obviously figurative, and seem to us to be
Sanctorum Hiberniæ '—is a delightful paper. with its dactylic metre and rhymed spondees brain of the subtle mechanician.
• The
We were glad to observe that Mr. Gwynn, at the close. Both have a monotony and a Bride of Dionysus' contains much captivat-
though admiring the rest of Mr. Plummer's diffuseness which suggest the wisdom of a ing melody and some ingenious dramatic
work, will not pass the solar hypothesis. " rehandling or selection such as Neale made presentation and classical verisimilitude, but
On social questions we have the Bishop of in the famous hymn.
lacks central force.
Colchester's The Problem of Elementary
Schools,' and a short, but strong and even Hart (J. Laurence), POEMS, with an Introduc-Visiak (E. H. ), THE PHANTOM SHIP, AND
startling paper by Mr. Allen on The Social tion by J. Cuming Walters.
OTHER POEMS, with an Introduction by
Evil in Chicago and Elsewhere. ”
Rugby, Over
W. H. Helm, 1/ net. Elkin Mathews
A selection of lyrical pieces. They display
Temple (William), THE KINGDOM OF GOD,
some feeling and understanding of natural
Another volume from Mr. Visiak's freakish
2/6 net.
Macmillan
sights and sounds, and some power of and volatile pen. Its quality varies almost
Roughly, the first half of this book, which suggestive, if often forced and misplaced, breathlessly, drifting from exercises in the
deals with faith in the Kingdom of God imagery. "At their best they have a limpid grotesque to sudden gleams of inspiration,
historically considered, has some merit ; but and dewy note, coupled with an easy and which go out almost as precipitately as they
when the author in the latter portion deals Auid rhythm and a genuine felicity of appear. The only piece in the book which,
with present aspects of thought and belief, expression; at their worst they are insipid, in our view, partakes of the essential nature
our disappointment is the greater from the sentimental, and somewhat languishing. of poetry is 'The Sower,' which has a
expectation he had raised of his possession
Wordsworthian depth, majesty, and rhythm.
of intuitive sympathy.
Lobley (J. Logan), THE TOUR, AND OTHER
POEMS, 5/
Sutton
Bibliograpby.
Wood (H. G. ) and Robertson (J. M. ), THE A number of baldly topographical sonnets,
HISTORICITY OF JESUS : BEING A Con, with a seasoning of miscellaneous verse.
Cardiff Libraries' Review, a Monthly Periodi-
CHRIST-MYTH
The author's aim is to popularize culture,
cal and Guide to Books and Reading,
CONTROVERSY, 6d.
February-March.
which, he imagines, is obtained“ ' by the
Cambridge, ‘Daily News ? simplicity or obviousness of the
Cardiff, Educational Publishing Co.
Two articles: Mr. Wood's criticism of thoughts. ". The latter condition he has Library (The), April, 3) net. Moring
Mr. Robertson's theory of the Crucifixion as amply fulfilled. His lines are stiff and
a mystery-play, and Mr. Robertson's reply gauche, and lacking in taste. We find
The first article in this number, by Mr.
as one of the soundest scholars in English
we have, and he is the very man to put
the parvenu whose head is turned by was very bitter, political controversy was
political elevation, and who assumes violent and scurrilous, yet the President's rature before the uninstructed public.
an outline of English Mediæval Lite-
aristocratic or even royal pretensions in opponents, with few exceptions, respected His knowledge and taste are unimpeach-
his prerogatives, both of power and of his death-chamber at a time when nothing able, and his style is effective, simple,
pleasure. The President of the Republic, was sacred to polemical writers.
though Madame Steinheil does not tell the The book is written and compiled with breaks out ever and anon; unlike some
yet never dry. He has a sly humour which
story, once, when entertaining a grand ability worthy of a better theme. The of the learned, he can hear the singing
duchess at the Élysée, had himself served parts which are obviously taken from the voice” in a ballad ; and he goes behind
before the princess, on the ground that French are not badly translated, though details of word and rhythm to the mind
Louis XIV. was always served before attorney-general is not the equivalent of and temper of the people which produced
If he had confined his “ avocat-général,” and “hall of the lost them. Thus he tells us that the story of
mimicry of kings to such-like follies, he steps ” for salle des pas perdus suggests Orpheus as distilled by popular tradition
might have been alive now, and Madame Thackeray's “new street of the little into Sir Orfeo' has a happy ending,
Steinheil's ‘Memoirs’ would not have fields. ”. . . Whether the narrative portion nothing having been said of the injunction
been written. But he killed himself by was originally written in English or French not to look back :-
taking to irregular courses late in life, we cannot teil. It contains few Gallicisms,
after bringing France to the brink of a but many un-English expressions, such
“It was probably left out when Orpheus
revolution. Madame Steinheil confirms
sculpture, noblewoman,"
was turned into a fairy-tale, on account of
what we already knew-that he contem- entrained
the power of music ; the heart of the people
(of a person getting into a
felt that Orpheus the good harper ought not
my valet," meaning footmanto be subjected to the common plot [. . e. , the
by a coup d'état. “ Félix Faure has not Good taste is not to be looked for in a story founded on some act of forgetfulness).
the necessary qualities is her comment in work of this kind, and it is useless to so now the heart of the people insists
a passage supposed to be taken from her inquire if, in publishing a signed photo on a happy ending, and the purveyors of
diary of October, 1898.
graph of M. Bonnat, the portrait-painter, popular fiction would never venture to
This was on the eve of the Fashoda on a larger scale even than that of Presi- indulge in tragedy and ruin their sales.
incident. It was a moment when French dent Faure, the author obtained the per-
The Introduction examines the various
patriots,” of whom the President was mission of the artist. The historical motives which draw people to study
the chief, were all Anglophobes, partly mistakes are fewer than might be antici- mediæval literature. Among these per-
from their love of Russia, partly because pated. Thiers was not Prime Minister haps the most frequent is the study of some
the English press was aggressively Drey- when the second funeral of Napoleon took particular author, who, taken up at first
of fashion placeThe palace where Queen Victoria
was unanimously hostile to Dreyfus, in- stayed in 1855 was that of St. Cloud. lation of a new world. ” To master tho-
casually, captures attention by his “reve-
cluding even certain Jews. As Madame “ An eminent English personage. . . . who roughly one great romance or poem is
Steinheil says: The strangest phe- told lively anecdotes about the ravishing the best way of approach to a period,
nomenon in that strange time was the sister of Napoleon” would surely have and we hope that no one who has read
anti-Dreyfusard attitude of the Jewish ascertained that Pauline Borghese never
this little book will feel that he knows
élite. ” So Félix Faure, as became a man
courtisan. ” In
of fashion, “was absolutely sincere in his the list of ministerial offices held by Félix it will be an excellent foundation for study,
enough about the subject. Properly used,
conviction of Dreyfus's guilt ”-and also Faure some of the dates are wrong, and but there are no short cuts to learning,
in his Anglophobia, which was not a creed the author omits to mention that his first and summaries are apt to produce pre-
confined to anti-Dreyfusards. Never- post was a minor office in Gambetta's tentious sciolists. In so difficult a subject
theless, the two countries were not so * Grand Ministère,” of which he was very
nearly at war as Madame Steinheil sug. proud.
Home University Library. --English Lite-
gests. But feeling was very bitter, and
Mediæval. By W. P. Kor.
Félix Faure denounced to his friend a
The English Language. By Logan Pearsall
speech by our ambassador, Sir E. Monson,
Smith. (Williams & Norgate. )
cs to
as
66
wore a crown even as a
rature :
## p. 495 (#375) ############################################
No. 4410, May 4, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
495
romance :-
are
rare.
are
as mediæval lore the positive results, always to go together) are aptly mingled on 'Language and History,' and two on
which naturally figure chiefly in hand in this summary of the Middle English Language and Thought,' express admir-
books, are as nothing compared with the attitude towards French
French models inably the vivid interest of the subject.
things that we do not know for certain,
Our only criticism is that he is too much
the gaps which must be filled in by guess-
“The English in the reign of Edward I. given to making catalogues of words.
work. The reader, for instance, who
or Edward III. had often much difficulty in A smaller selection with fuller explanation
goes from Tennyson back to Malory and understanding what the French romantic would have been much more effective,
the origins of the Arthurian stories may well school was driving, at-particularly when and all the words explained might then
get lost in a Serbonian bog of conjecture it seemed to be driving round and round, have been introduced into the Index,
which he did not expect.
spinning long monologues of afflicted damsels, which now only gives a few.
There is, naturally, in volumes of the between the knight and his lady. The diffi.
or elegant conversations full of phrases
We have frequently advocated the
scope of the “Home University Library
culty was not unreasonable. If the French addition of derivations, as fixing words
no room to deal with any poem or romance authors had been content to write about in the memory, and in the present age
in full detail ; but Prof. Ker has extracted nothing but sentimental conversations and they may even serve the purpose of per-
the essence of all the important things languishing lovers, then one would have suading people that the commonplaces
apart from drama, which is deliberately known what to do. The man who is look; of philology are not idle fictions. Ame-
left untouched
and the trend of the time ing at the railway bookstall for a good thyst, for instance, is simply duétvotos
,
is neatly hit off in discussing romances,
detective story knows at once what to say
“not drunk," the stone being supposed
when he is offered the Diary of a Soul.
ballads, comic poetry and allegory, sermons But the successful French novelists of the to preserve its possessor from intoxica-
and histories. The writer knows that twelfth century appealed to both tastes, tion, but we could not persuade a seeker
opinions expressed or implied on human and dealt equally in sensation and sentiment; after truth of this philological fact until
conduct are of deeper import than diffi- they did not often limit themselves to what we produced a Greek lexicon. Mr. Smith
culties of grammar or disputes about
was always their chief interest, the moods gives the superstition on p. 171, and tells
origins. He brings before us here and of lovers. They worked these into plots
us ten pages later that the word is Greek.
there quotations to illustrate the actual adventures were too good to be lost ; so
of adventure, mystery, fairy magic; the It is fair to say, however, that such separ
language, and due warnings as to rash the less refined English readers, who were
ations of things which might be said
judgments. Thus we learn that Danish puzzled or wearied by sentimental con completely once
The reader
pirates were not restricted to the profes- versations, were not able to do without the cannot fail to be struck with the frequency
sion of harrying, but were respectable and elegant romances. They read them; and of the prefix al- in Arabian words. Its
beneficent gentlemen at home; and that they skipped. The skipping was done for simple meaning might have been added.
“ Sumer is icumen in,” the song that them, generally, when the romances were "Enthusiasm and enthusiastic
figures at the beginning of English sions are shorter than the French in most rightly described as becoming in the
anthologies, is not a free outburst of
cases where comparison is possible. As a eighteenth century abusive terms for
melody, but governed alike by music and general rule, the English took the adven religious fanaticism and religious fanatics,
a Latin original. The English of these turous sensational part of the French but we should have gone further than this
earlier days seem to have been keener romances, and let the language of the heart to explain that in that century the Estab-
linguists and musicians than their de- alone. ”
lished Church was notoriously torpid, if
scendants.
What a contrast is such writing to the not a refrigerating machine. Pros-
The scholar, immersed in his special aridity of earlier instructors in literature ! perity to the Established Church and no
authors, is apt to find no faults in them, and
encouragement to Enthusiasm" is actu-
is a source of irritation to the less in- Prof. Ker ends with Chaucer, whose ally inscribed on a church bell of 1758 in
structed, whose standards are nearer to influence on the English of his day Mr. a Cambridgeshire parish. It was the
human pleasure. We are glad then to Pearsall Smith fully recognizes. The efforts of Wesley and Whitefield and the
find that the Professor's abundant learning latter offers an excellent summary of phenomena of revivalism that produced
does not lead him to overrate authors the merits and defects of mediæval the bad sense of the terms. The novelty
inaccessible to the ordinary reader. 'Beo- thought, and warnings as to the danger of “sentimental” might have been
wulf,' we learn, is commonplace in story of deducing too much from the absence of emphasized by Wesley's remark on read-
and feeble in plan; Anglo-Saxon poetry particular words at any period :
ing Sterne's Sentimental Journey' that
is often very tiresome, and merit is some- “If the Elizabethans had no word for dis.
the adjective was not English, and might
times of a negative character, as in Law- appointment or home - sickness, we cannot
as well have been “ Continental. ” The
rence Minot, who “can put contempt assume that they did not experience these history of “sentimental,' too, is
into his voice with no recourse to bad feelings, but only that they were not inter largely of religious reaction. Fashionable
language. "
ested in expressing them. '
society, shocked by the denunciations of
Reading such judgments, we are pre- The author in less space than 250 Nonconformists, selected the more tender
pared to enjoy all the Professoris obiter pages has certainly managed to include and graceful parts of the Gospels. Hell
dicta, and the literary taste often wanting a vast amount of information, and, while was not, of course, for people of quality,
in the specialist. He shows clearly the his writing is clear and lucid, he is always and they enjoyed the luxuries of romantic
survival of artistic methods throughout in touch with life, seeking for the frag- grief and pathos, while retaining a com-
the centuries, tracing the origin of all ments of belief and thought which have fortable indifference to the stern realities
modern poetry and novels to the society won the battle of linguistic competition
of life.
of the twelfth century, and discovers the and make us talk in terms of astrology,
In tracing the various channels through
“rime couée," or tail-rhyme, in the the Crusades, or other lost battles of which words came and the culture they
parody of Wordsworth among the Re- religion and science without knowing it. imply the author is at his best. We think,
jected Addresses, and the usage of the “ Græcia capta ferum victorem cepit” in however, he might have said something
illiterate of all ages in word - for - word Horace's neat phrase, but there was no
as to the Italian influence which was
translation.
such effective retaliation in this country. so strong in Shakespeare's day, and has
The influence of foreign elements on The various conquerors who brought new
naturalized some odd-looking words and
English romance and story is one of the elements to the nation imposed them forms. The ideas of evolution and pro-
most difficult things to estimate, much selves but slowly and partially on the lan-gress which permeate thought to-day are
of the matter used being common to guage of the people, and we possess to-day comparatively modern, and due to men
various parts of Europe, and romantic many pairs of words with a similar mean-
like Darwin and Herbert Spencer. The
heroes having at all times a tendency ing, but of different origin, which add Middle Ages had no such terms, and the
to flourish outside the limits of their infinitely to the richness of our tongue, explanation of this deficiency will serve
inventors' experience. On such points and have in course of time been differ-
as a good specimen of the author's style :
this little book is always illuminating. entiated to express slight nuances of “ The idea of progress may have visited
Humour and discernment (which ought 'expression. Mr. Smith's three chapters' the thoughts of a few lonely philosophers
one
## p. 496 (#376) ############################################
496
No. 4410, May 4, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
is
a
even
66
7
ܕܙ
as
are
un-
but it obtained no general acceptance, and say that, admitting for the moment the cannot be defended by any competent
found no expression in the language. The premises, this consequence does not follow. mediæval scholar. It
great
social consciousness was not favourable to As a matter of fact, the whole question of mistake to think that, because a law
it, being dominated as it was by the religious national Churches in pre-Reformation existed on the English statute
belief in the degeneracy of a world fallen times is one that requires careful handling. books, it was enforced on the people till
from grace, and fated to worse deterioration
before its sudden end, which might come
No one, least of all an archivist, can deny long after the Middle Ages. Further, the
at any time. Even at the Reformation the that there were Anglican, Gallican, Roman, decision in any case in a mediæval court
ideal, as the word Reformation shows, was &c. , Churches, quite apart from the usually depended, not on the law dealing
that of a return to the purity of primitive Catholic and Apostolic Church. John's with the point, but only on the law cited
and uncorrupted times; and the conception concession of his kingdom and his oath of in the case and the power of the opposing
of continuous evolution, of an advance fealty (most certainly drawn by a canonist) advocate to produce contradictory law.
beyond the limits set by the past, is one
which has appeared at a late period in the
were to the Ecclesia Romana, and obvi- Lastly, as Mr. Ogle points out, much of
statute
ously the Universal Church did not receive the Roman Canon Law is not
history of thought. '
the head-rent that England had to pay; at all, but merely declarations of custom,
Of the world in which we live and its Magna Charta confirmed to the Ecclesia obviously a different thing.
language not much is said, nor could Anglicana all its rights and liberties; the
If we pass over in silence the fact that
much be expected within the limits of a
Dictum of Kenilworth (1266) expressly the Canon Law made provision for dis-
small volume. Mr. Smith, however, notes differentiates the “Sacrosancta Catholica obedience to part of its code under the
the rage for introspection which has now atque Apostolica Romana Ecclesia” and pretext of " consuetudo”; that subjects.
almost become a disease. He leaves un the" Ecclesia Anglicana”; and Archbishop which are vital to its jurisdictione. g. ,
touched that Americanization which has Boniface summoned his clergy to discuss patronage-were excluded from English
affected the whole of our life, especially “Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ eventus. ' We have Ecclesiastical Courts; that its rules as to
in the press, and the increasing vocabulary thus some guide as to what was the ritual can be disobeyed; that its courts
of sport and pleasure, which erects the mediæval conception of the English can take cognizance of things with which
popular mime to the lordship over lan- Church. Of course, every member of the the Canon Law does not deal—if, in short,
guage deserved only by the poet. The Ecclesia Anglicana was also a member we avail ourselves of Friar Tuck's formula
pedantry of the learned, who frequently of the Church Universal, but the separate “exceptis excipiendis,” we can agree with
make mistakes when they pretend to be existence of the former is bound up with Maitland that the Canon Law had the
most accurate, is fully recognized in these that of rights and immunities, not of force of “ absolutely binding statute law”;
pages. Freedom from any such influ- theological doctrines or ritual observances. but it is as well that we should be clear on
ences is certainly a characteristic of the No lawyer can deny that, whatever these the force of this agreement. The whole
present age. Commerce and invention rights and immunities were on the day subject is difficult; early Ecclesiastical
go their own wild way in language. The that Henry VII. was alive and dead,” to Courts were not courts of record—all we
hostile and often furious abuse and fix a point when the English Church was know of their procedure is derived from
opposition ” of which Mr. Smith speaks by common consent Catholic, they were the documents drawn up by litigants in
is not so much “ hard to withstand
unaltered at the accession of James I. -
a few famous cases, and we
futile and useless. We look to such books that is, that the Ecclesia Anglicana in the likely to learn much more of them than
as this to improve the standard of English, only sense in which it ever had a legal we know now-still, we are thankful to
and to suggest to a public which is some-existence has had
existence has had a continuous one.
Mr. Ogle for a very clear and simple
what dazed, perhaps, by the flattering
Maitland's arguments were directed not criticism of Maitland's brilliant and stimu-
recital of its new powers and opportunities, to this point, but to the denial that there lating excursion into a part of our history
that it has a good deal to learn.
was any considerable body of Canon Law which has remained for centuries almost a
peculiar to English Ecclesiastical Courts. sealed book. Doubtless Mr. Ogle will be
He himself pointed out a number of answered by some of Maitland's followers.
The Canon Law in Mediæval England. By importance, while Mr. Ogle devotes much discussion of a purely historical question
divergences, of which he minimized the In the meantime it may be hoped that the
Arthur Ogle. (John Murray. )
space to emphasizing them. In this we will not
will not be complicated by modern
It is, perhaps, to be regretted that an think he is right. Canon Law has its basis political issues.
historical problem should be raised in the in Christian ethics and principles of Roman
discussion of Disestablishment in Wales jurisprudence, and many of the decretals
which, it is patent, will be settled on quite of the Roman Pontiffs are, on the face of
different considerations; and the publica- them, mere statements of what these FLEET STREET AND THE STRAND.
tion of such a clear and well-written con- involve in the particular case submitted MR. CHANCELLOR may consider himself
tribution to the study of the problem as
to them. When we put on
fortunate in that he is the first in the field
Mr. Ogle has given hardly consoles us for questions of property in its public aspect, in the separate treatment of the history
the spectacle of well-intentioned poli- with which English law did not allow the of two such important streets as Fleet
ticians and others quoting dicta of which Church to interfere, and matters
they understand neither the force nor the public policy, where writs of prohibition Street and the Strand. Much, of course,
this: prevented the Ecclesiastical Courts from thoroughfare stretching from the City .
Stubbs made certain statements as to coming to any decision, we have very walls to Charing Cross, but no distinct
the authority of Canon Law in English little left on which to found a separate volumes have previously been devoted
pre-Reformation Church Courts ; Maitland code. Maitland complains, for example
, to the registration of the varied occur-
thought that these were over-statements that there was no English marriage law :
rences and associations connected with it.
of fact, and quoted Bishop Lyndwood, naturally, one would think, since there
Boswell obtained Johnson's agreement
an English fifteenth-century canonist, to no English, but only Christian
prove that these courts were absolutely marriage. We have now
to his assertion that Fleet Street was more
an English
bound by every part of Canon Law. He marriage law, with the fantastic result delightful than Tempe, although the
then went on to deduce-or his inter- that a man may be legally married to grounds of comparison between the two
preters deduce for him—that,
are not very evident; and Lord Beacons-
three women in as many
as English
different countries.
Church Courts after the Reformation are Mr. Ogle's treatment of Maitland's field declared that the Strand was the
admittedly not absolutely bound by Canon attack on the position of Stubbs as to
finest street in Europe. Charles Lamb's.
Law, the post - Reformation Church of the authority of Canon Law in English The Annals of Fleet Street ; its Traditions and
England is not the same body as the courts errs, if anything, on the side of
Associations. By E. Beresford Chancellor.
pre-Reformation Ecclesia Anglicana. Now under-statement. The use of, and the
(Chapman & Hall. )
no one will suspect us of disrespect to so unconscious connotations implied by, such The Annals of the Strand, Topographical and
famous a scholar as Maitland when we 'terms as "absolutely binding statute law Historical. (Same author and publishers. )
was
## p. 497 (#377) ############################################
No. 4410, May 4, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
497
>
exclamation, “I often shed tears in the It has now been restored by the London Chancellor Earl of Beaumont), ambassador
County Council as far as possible to its to this country from France. The famous
much life," however, enlists our sym- original state as the office of the Duchy of Rosny, afterwards Duc de Sully, who
pathy more thoroughly, and makes us Cornwall under Henry, Prince of Wales. came to England in 1603 as Ambassador
feel its true influence in spite of its The charming Temple, with its beautiful Extraordinary to James I. , resided in
narrowness and want of grandeur. round church-one of London's greatest this house for a few days until Arundel
Both streets are ancient as roads, but assets—would alone give distinction to House was ready for his reception.
Fleet Street takes priority from being the Fleet Street, but there is much more of Butcher Row and its neighbourhood
natural outgrowth of the City, as one of great historical interest. The two came to be filled with disreputable inhabi-
the suburbs that gradually grew up churches in Fleet Street, St. Dunstan's tants, and was cleared away in 1813, when
outside the walls, and extended from the and St. Bride's, are described in a separate the considerable improvements advocated
various gates into the country beyond chapter.
by Alderman Pickett were carried out;
until they were included within the City The memory of the old Friary of the but Pickett Street was itself destroyed
jurisdiction as “the Liberties. " The Carmelites, or White Friars, has been when the fresh clearance of the site of
Strand was for some centuries merely a almost wiped out of existence, but the the new Law Courts was undertaken.
road for heavy traffic, lined on the south privilege of sanctuary which it possessed Of the early history of this east end of
side with the offices and stables attached
was continued to the inhabitants of the the Strand there is stiil much to be learnt,
to the mansions built on the banks of the precinct after the Dissolution. In conse-
and we may some day be able to explain
Thames. Its name is apparently much quence the place was named Alsatia, as the old tenure of the Forge of the farrier
more ancient than that of Fleet Street, as being one of the most dangerous places of the Strand, by the terms of which the
it was obtained long before any houses in London, where fraudulent debtors, Sheriffs of London still pay the yearly
were built there. Fleet Street takes its name gamblers, and the outcasts of society rent of six horseshoes and nails. The
from the time when the Fleet ditch (now gathered as to a favoured retreat. Mac- history of St. Clement's parish is illus-
a sewer) was really a navigable river.
aulay pictures it with vivid language in trated by a passage in Strype's additions
Mr.
Chancellor gives a good account of the third chapter of his History of to Stow's 'Survey (book iv. chap. vii. ),
Fleet Street and its inhabitants, as well England. ' The baneful “privilege was quoted from information given by Re-
as the streets on the north and the south; abolished in 1697, but it was many years corder Fleetwood to Lord Burghley, to
but the varied interests of the locality are
before the neighbourhood returned to the effect that those Danes married to
so considerable that he must have found the ranks of respectability. Whitefriars English women who were left in London
it difficult to compress all he had to say has lately been largely rebuilt, by which after the others were driven out of the
into a single volume. It is pleasing to means more room has been found for kingdom, were constrained to inhabit
read of the changes in the character of its newspaper offices and warehouses more between Westminster and Ludgate," and
inhabitants at different periods of its
or less connected with literature. The built a synagogue called Ecclesia Cle-
existence. At one time it was the head- old Whitefriars Theatre was built on the mentis Danorum. " This throws some
quarters of printers and booksellers, such site of the hall of the Friary, to be suc- light on the known fact that much of
as Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Berthelet, ceeded, first by the Salisbury Court Fleet Street belonged to the Abbey of
Robert and William Copland, and others. Theatre, and then by the Duke's Theatre Westminster. The open-air court held
Before 1502, when Pynson removed to
in Dorset Gardens. The old Blackfriars by the justices itinerant at the stone cross
the George, next St. Dunstan's Church, Theatre was also not far from Fleet Street. opposite what afterwards became Somerset
he lived in St. Clement's parish without
The chapter on the taverns and coffee - House proves the great antiquity of this
Temple Bar. In later times many famous
houses contains a full account of the district.
booksellers had shops in Fleet Street. various signs which were plentiful in this
We are glad to be able to recommend
Now the leading newspapers have taken district, but we must protest against the Mr. Chancellor's two volumes, as
the place of the book - producers.
misquotation in Herrick's apostrophe to taining a mass of interesting information
For many years Fleet Street exhibited
Ben Jonson. The author has the grace in a convenient form. Both books are
in a special degree one of the chief features to add, “The Dog' is sometimes printed arranged on a similar plan, and as relating
of a suburb—that of being one of the instead of the ' Cheese ""; but
it is hardly to
one connected thoroughfare, they
show-places of London for monsters, giants, necessary
to say that “Dog” is the only should be read together.
dwarfs, posture-makers, and fire-eaters.
known reading, and that there is no
Mrs. Salmon, the Madame Tussaud of evidence that Jonson knew of the existence
of “The Cheshire Cheese. "
AUTOGRAPH SALE.
her day, opened an exhibition of wax-
works in the reign of Queen Anne at simultaneously from both ends, Ludgate Mr. T. Toovey, the most important lotit breins
Fleet Street seems to have grown On Thursday, April 25th, Messrs. Sotheby sold
a collection of autograph letters, the property of
the Golden Salmon in St. Martin's near being the starting - place on the east, the following : Sir Thomas Boleybol detteur nts,
Aldersgate. The exhibition was removed
later in the eighteenth century to the as Temple Bar was on the west.
letter to James Howie, Dec. 20, 1786, 231. ;
latter formed a sort of special district
north side of Fleet Street, near Chancery
, of 'My ',
Lane, to a house which stood on the site round itself. A large number of houses letter to Dr. C. D. Clarke, June 17, 1813, 271. ;
of Anderton's Hotel. Here Mrs. Salmon grew up to the west of the Bar, which did another to John Hunt, Oct. 31, 1822, 311. Charles
died in 1760, and the waxworks were
not become a portion of the Strand until 1, letter to the Duke of York, Feb. 28,
1679,
251. 108. Oliver Cromwell, letter to Robert
continued under the old name by a surgeon
a comparatively recent period.
Bernard, Jan. 23, 1643, 2251. Dryden, letter to
of Chancery Lane named Clark, who
The frontispiece of ‘Old Temple Bar' his cousin Honor Dryden, probably written in
1655, 1051. Edward IV. , signed letter to the
purchased the collection. Another
(destroyed in the Fire of London) is a
Chancellor of the Duchy of Burgundy, 501.
moval took place in 1788 to No. 189, a
satisfactory addition to the Fleet Street Edward VI. , letter to Henri II. introducing the
house which was pulled down in 1795, and
book, as its appearance is not generally to Henri II1. about the Alençon marriage negotia-
known.
rebuilt for Praed's Bank. The widow of
tions, 2451. ; signed letter to Dr. Dale on the
same subject, March 15, 1573, 761. ; another to
the proprietor removed the exhibition In spite of the great historical interest Lord Willoughby, April 26, 1588, 311. ; letter
to the south side of the street (No. 17, of Fleet Street, the Strand may be con-
from Elizabeth's Privy Council to the Master
over Inner Temple Gate), and here the sidered its equal in this respect. Its 1579, 411. Henry VIII. , signed letter to Madame
and Wardens of the Drapers' Company, July 26,
collection of waxworks continued to be growth followed the same course as did de la Forte, 391. 108. ; sign manual to an order
exhibited by Mrs. Clark until 1816–17. that of the City street. The most fashion letter in French to Louis XIII. , July 18, 1812, 672.
Mrs. Salmon's name was omitted in these able portion during the seventeenth century James 1. , letter in French to Henri IV. , June 10,
later years. The house was long occupied was the district known as Temple Bar 1606; 621. Mary, Queen of Scots; signed letter to
as “ Carter's Hairdressing Saloons," with Without, and not then styled the Strand.
III. , sign manual on a warrant to W. Catesby, 491.
this remarkable statement inscribed on Under the shadow of the Bar was a hand- Earl of Strafford, letter to his sister, Sept. 11,
the front : Formerly the Palace of some building inhabited by Christopher
1836, 571. Cardinal Wolsey, signed letter of credit
to the ambassadors at Calais, probably written in
King Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey. " 'Harley, Comte Beaumont (called by Mr. 1520, 441. The total of the sale was 2,4741. 58.
con-
re-
## p. 498 (#378) ############################################
498
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4410, MAY 4, 1912
THE
assiduity compiled a list of legal prosecutions | Southey (Robert), Wat TYLER, 3d.
relating to offences against religion";
Stewart & Co.
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
thus exposing and throwing into perspective It is hard to account for a cheap edition
Notice in those columns does not preclude longer the whole course of the penalties imposed of this “ thrilling poem of Republicanism. "
raviow. )
upon heresy, for the suppression of free We find in it very little thrill and no poetry,
Tbeology.
opinion and the principles of religious and the literature of democracy can surely
liberty. She carries her inquiry from early produce better things nowadays.
Browne (Fred. Geo. ), CHATS ABOUT mediæval times up to the present. Her
CHURCH, A HANDY CHURCH DEFENCE
purpose is avowedly propagandist, designed Sylva (Carmen), POEMS
Jarrold
MANUAL FOR WORKING MEN, 61.
to excite an agitation for the repeal of our
S. P. C. K. obsolete blasphemy laws. For ready refer-lator," would be as good as to offer the
“A bad translation,”? quotes the trans-
A revised edition of what is nothing but
a collection of examination papers based inaccessible her work serves an extremely how a cornfield looks. 22
ence to enactments otherwise practically people husks and say Look here, that's
upon historical data, and concerned with useful end. It is written with much force, vinced that Carmen Sylva in the original is a
We are not con-
disestablishment and disendowment. and under stress of indignation against remarkable lyricist, but the rendering has
Church Quarterly Review, April, 3/
miscarriage of justice.
certainly blighted what she has to offer.
Spottiswoode
From a literary point of view the most
McCarthy (Charles), THE WISCONSIN IDEA, These jingles are vague, insipid melodies,
interesting article of this number is that by
6/6 net. New York, Macmillan Co. with all the conventional trappings of the
minor versifier. The quiet, sentimental
Mr. Shelly on 'Rhythmical Prose in Latin
Wisconsin has become something, like ditties of the Roumanian are transmogrified
and English '-a discussion chiefly of the
a laboratory for wise experimental legis- into lackadaisical banalities.
cursus, prompted by Mr. Clark's recent work lation,” aimed at social and political im-
upon it.
As Mr. Shelly points out, the provement. This book has been written to Time and the Man: Lines on tho Seal of
study of the rules and practice of rhythmical answer many inquiries from legislative
Napoleon Bonaparte, 2/6 net.
prose is not merely a scholarly amusement : leaders and reformers in other American
Humphreys
it plays its part also in criticism, and of this States. Mr. Roosevelt commends it in
we might well have been furnished more
A metrical panegyric of Napoleon. Each
an Introduction which revels in platitude.
extensively with instances. The principal What Wisconsin has achieved—e. g. , in the quatrain occupies a page, and is accom-
theological article is Dr. Darwell" Stone's fight against consumption, the preservation panied by a drawing of a Napoleonic symbol
of forests, and a series of Standing Com- is immune from criticism, for it suggests
'The Creeds and Modern Movements,'
or characteristic attitude. The verse itself
which sums up the present complicated mittees for legislation—is sufficiently striking,
no poetical standard.
position as exemplified in some dozen works and well told by the author, Legislative
by writers of as many types of thought, and, Librarian for over ten years in the State. He Trévelyan (R. C. ), THE BRIDE OF DIONYSUS,
after discussing the origin and place of the recognizes divergent" views, and avoids
A MUSIC-DRAMA, AND OTHER POEMS,
miraculous element in the creeds, concludes dogmatism.
3/6 net.
Longmans
that to forbear the assertion of it would be
poetry.
not to renew the life, but to hasten the death,
Mr. Trevelyan is a metrist of considerable
of the Christian faith. Dr. Brown's criti- Bernard de Morlaix,
skill, versatility, and knowledge. In com-
"JERUSALEM
cism of Bergson's Philosophy is concerned
THE parison with the frothy ebullitions of count-
GOLDEN,”? A HYMN OF THE CELESTIAL Iess minor fry, his verse is severe, chaste, and
with a part of it hitherto somewhat dis-
regarded-Bergson's theory of the relation
COUNTRY, with a Version into English statuesque, and its fabric is closely and
Metre by John Tattersall.
neatly woven. What he lacks is strong,
between mind and brain set forth in 'Matière
et Mémoire. Mr. Gwynn's 'Some Saints in
Jones & Evans imaginative potency. His tropes are too
Ireland'-a review of Mr. Plummer's Vitæ rhapsodical translation than of the original
, born less from inspiration than from the
We think less of the interjectional, obviously figurative, and seem to us to be
Sanctorum Hiberniæ '—is a delightful paper. with its dactylic metre and rhymed spondees brain of the subtle mechanician.
• The
We were glad to observe that Mr. Gwynn, at the close. Both have a monotony and a Bride of Dionysus' contains much captivat-
though admiring the rest of Mr. Plummer's diffuseness which suggest the wisdom of a ing melody and some ingenious dramatic
work, will not pass the solar hypothesis. " rehandling or selection such as Neale made presentation and classical verisimilitude, but
On social questions we have the Bishop of in the famous hymn.
lacks central force.
Colchester's The Problem of Elementary
Schools,' and a short, but strong and even Hart (J. Laurence), POEMS, with an Introduc-Visiak (E. H. ), THE PHANTOM SHIP, AND
startling paper by Mr. Allen on The Social tion by J. Cuming Walters.
OTHER POEMS, with an Introduction by
Evil in Chicago and Elsewhere. ”
Rugby, Over
W. H. Helm, 1/ net. Elkin Mathews
A selection of lyrical pieces. They display
Temple (William), THE KINGDOM OF GOD,
some feeling and understanding of natural
Another volume from Mr. Visiak's freakish
2/6 net.
Macmillan
sights and sounds, and some power of and volatile pen. Its quality varies almost
Roughly, the first half of this book, which suggestive, if often forced and misplaced, breathlessly, drifting from exercises in the
deals with faith in the Kingdom of God imagery. "At their best they have a limpid grotesque to sudden gleams of inspiration,
historically considered, has some merit ; but and dewy note, coupled with an easy and which go out almost as precipitately as they
when the author in the latter portion deals Auid rhythm and a genuine felicity of appear. The only piece in the book which,
with present aspects of thought and belief, expression; at their worst they are insipid, in our view, partakes of the essential nature
our disappointment is the greater from the sentimental, and somewhat languishing. of poetry is 'The Sower,' which has a
expectation he had raised of his possession
Wordsworthian depth, majesty, and rhythm.
of intuitive sympathy.
Lobley (J. Logan), THE TOUR, AND OTHER
POEMS, 5/
Sutton
Bibliograpby.
Wood (H. G. ) and Robertson (J. M. ), THE A number of baldly topographical sonnets,
HISTORICITY OF JESUS : BEING A Con, with a seasoning of miscellaneous verse.
Cardiff Libraries' Review, a Monthly Periodi-
CHRIST-MYTH
The author's aim is to popularize culture,
cal and Guide to Books and Reading,
CONTROVERSY, 6d.
February-March.
which, he imagines, is obtained“ ' by the
Cambridge, ‘Daily News ? simplicity or obviousness of the
Cardiff, Educational Publishing Co.
Two articles: Mr. Wood's criticism of thoughts. ". The latter condition he has Library (The), April, 3) net. Moring
Mr. Robertson's theory of the Crucifixion as amply fulfilled. His lines are stiff and
a mystery-play, and Mr. Robertson's reply gauche, and lacking in taste. We find
The first article in this number, by Mr.
