Carmichael
was a well-known figure
either and never both ; Mr.
either and never both ; Mr.
Athenaeum - London - 1912a
One other
pot-boiling trash. Mr. Seccombe almost thea Beale, of Cheltenham, who laboured will suffice: it shows that Sidney had
persuades us to regard Samuel Butler, the for the education of her sex is to be found before him the contemporary version of
author of 'Erowhon,' as a deliberate not far from Ada Ellen Bayly (Edna Heliodorus by Underdowne, where may
philosopher, but it would be nearer the Lyell), who wrote novels with purposes, be found this account of a feast :-
mark to look on him as a whimsical and devoted much of their proceeds to
satirist. Surely there should have been charitable causes.
The tables were furnished with delicate
There is, in fact, much
some mention of Seven Sonnets and a fino, confused interest in this volume, those that were slaine, being in steede
dishes, some wheroof laie in tho handes of
Psalm of Montreal' and 'God the Known and if some may question the propriety of weapons. . . . Besides, the cuppes were
and the Unknown,' first published in The of including a patent medicine vendor in overthrowen, and fell out of the bandes,
Examiner of 1879. Mr. Seccombe some- its scope, whereas not a single plumber or either of them that dranke, or those, who
what oddly refers to Butler's “outwardly pastrycook is to be discovered in it, still had instead of stones used them. For that
conventional aspect. ” Did he expect him the hoardings are always with us, and soudaine mischiefe wrought nowe devises,
and taught them in stoade of weapons to
to wear a cap and bells ? It would have act as passports to fame of a sort.
been pertinent to say that his way of life
use their pottes. . . . bruing bloude with wine,
joyning battaile with banketting. ”
was unconventional, and that the books
which are now well known brought him
Sidney followed with this :-
little profit in his lifetime.
On the whole, the men and women
The Greek Romances in Elizabethan Prose “Thus was their banquette turned to a
of letters in this volume are not of
Fiction. By Samuel Lee Wolff. (New battaile, their winie mirthes to bloudia
exceptional interest. Miss Elizabeth Lee
York, Columbia University Press ; Lon- rages. . . . They never weyed how to arme
has the mot juste for poor Ouida (Marie
themselves, but tooke up everything for a
don, Henry Frowde. )
weapon, that furie offered to their handes.
Louise Do la Ramée), whose novels on DR. WOLFF's book consists of summaries
. . . . Some caught hold of spikes (though
Italy are by no means to be despised ; but of three Greek romances by Heliodorus, death. And there was some such one, who
serviceable for life) to be the instruments of
she does not seem sufficiently conscious of Longus, and Achilles Tatius, and a very held the same pot wherein he drank to your
the value of Aubrey De Vere as a pioneer careful study of their matter and literary health, to use it to your mischief. "
of the “Celtio Renascence. ” Mr. Bickley method, followed by summaries and studies
makes no attempt to pigeon-hole John of the prose romances of Sidney, Greene, Sidney, however, seems to be thinking of
Davidson, and therein he acts wisely. and Lodge, showing the correspondence the Virgilian “furor arma ministrat. ”
Much of Davidson's verse is nimble and the actual connexion between the In our opinion the multiplication of
rhetoric, and even the Fleet Street English and the Greek. Dr. Wolff's such examples is not to be encouraged.
Ecologues' await their final critic. Mo- thoroughness does not conceal itself. Far fewer would have been enough to
berly Bell touched literature at some His 500 pages present not only what prove Dr. Wolff's power of observation,
points, but he can scarcely be said to have we suppose are all his conclusions, but and for the rest, references should suffice.
belonged to it, and, as Mr. Monypenny also virtually all his grounds for them, As it stands at present the book is a
candidly admits, many of his enterprises quoted at length. A characteristic para- model for students, but by no means
strictly beyond the bounds of graph is where he notices that,
for writers. The method of work is ex-
journalism. "
cellent, but the amount of paper covered
No great artists figure in this volume ;
“in Sidney's episode of the Princess's lamentable. Nor is it for lack of
but an architect whose fame cannot fail captivity, the brutal Anaxius, forcing his ability to do anything else that Dr.
to endure, John Francis Bentley, receives chin (* Arc. , III. xxvi. 352) Putting Wolff adopts this monumental method ;
his
due from Mr. Paul Waterhouse. him away with her faire hand, Proud beast for, wherever he personally intervenes
Among the actors, Lionel Brough is, (said she), yet thou plaiest worse thy comedy, with argument or comment, he is lively
perhaps, the most noteworthy; an un- then thy Tragedy. '". Thersander, forcing his and sensible, though we do not think his
signed article on him gives little idea of caresses upon Leucippe, also takes her by style one that bears the sudden use of
his powers as a raconteur.
the chin, and also receives a sharp reproof.
"Twaddle! ” Once, probably to relieve
We will conclude our survey by It is, in fact, his principal aim to show the tedium--though if unconsciously, then
mentioning some of the philanthropists not only that was Sidney indebted to the naturally—he gives way to the style
who figure in this closely packed volume. Greek romances, but also that he alone under discussion by speaking of "the
Foremost comes the Baroness Burdett- among Elizabethans has developed the heroic spectacle, and the spectacular
Coutts, whose wise use of her wealth is form further on his own account, and " has heroics, of shipwrecked Pyrocles. "
clearly described by Mr. J. P. Anderson. actually brought nearer perfection the His study of this style is the most
The list of portraits adds value to this, complex architectonics of Greek Romance. " interesting part of the book, and he has
as to many other, articles in the ‘Supple- Dr. Wolff will find fow to challenge the ventured to coin a new word,
“ homeo-
ment. Mr. James Marchant says just last part of his statement, since the phony,” as a generic term for one of its
enough about Dr. Barnardo. There was Arcadia' is a book which there are devices, the rhetorical use of similarities
no necessity to go into all the litigation many to praise and very few to love and in sound-repetition, assonance, allitera-
in which Barnardo became involved read. A committee of Senior Wranglers tion, rhyme. These, on a small scale,
through the reception of children of Roman night still further elaborate and perfect are the result of the same hard external
Catholio parentage into his homes, and Mr. ! the architectonics, and in the course of a sense of form which the romances as a
were
## p. 676 (#506) ############################################
676
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4416, JUNE 15, 1912
ور
no
never
66
was
nor
" the sense
sense.
whole, and all of their parts, exhibit to an touchwood, but from the old roots of the
extraordinary degree. For modern ex- faith still spring as beautiful examples
SOME RECENT VERSE.
amples of homeophony equal to the old, of love and human charity as those which
The King: a Tragedy en a Continuous
readers must turn to the prose and the mediæval world enshrined in its Series of Scenes. By Stephen Phillips.
verse of Swinburne. Some of his prose legends. It is a thousand pities that these (Stephen Swift. )-Mr. Phillips has a prolific
seems to be written for the joy of con- folk-stories and mediæval traditions which pon, and writes with some passion, fluency,
structing formally perfect sentences which Mr. Gales touches upon in papers such as and spaciousness of conception. But his verso
must have hovered before his mind's The Lore of the Three Kings,' The often lies open to the imputation of spurious-
eye before he had anything to pour into Queen of Festivals,' 'The Land of Par-
ness of effect, owing to a tendency to forcing
them. At other times he was the subject dons,' should either have faded from the into artificial and extravagant postures.
a genuine capacity for emotional expression
of fitful inspiration, as when, having memory of the English Church or were
His latest poetic drama is much inferior to
spoken of “a curious monotony in the never transplanted here by Continental his best work, and accentuates its blemishes.
variety," he thought well to ask “if piety. Mr. Gales says aptly :-
Its motif is that of unconscious incest,
there be not a curious variety in the
culminating, on discovery, in the suicide
monotony," but went
further. “It is one of the normal functions of of the lovers. Though less crude and
Rhyme bad entered into his soul. There religion to provide an immense background transpontine than Ford's famous treatment
“ breath”
divided from
to life, to create an atmosphere, to bring of a similar theme, it can bear no comparison
death, "light" from
something large and imaginative into the to it in tragic massiveness and poignancy.
night," most contracted lives. Normally this is It carries frequent evidence of slovenly
and he gave the most perfect example of done for the mass of the people by their workmanship, and Mr. Phillips ignores
prolonged homeophony to be found when religion. "
many opportunities of heightening his lan-
he wrote,
guage into lofty relationship with tragic
In Catholic countries, perhaps, but in Eng- possibilities. The scenes drift lazily and
Slowlier than life into breath,
Surelier than time into death. . . . . . land our author, we fear, is right in his mistily past us, carelessly picked out and
contention that a
in 'To Walt Whitman in America. ' bound to lose its hold upon the mass of
“colourless religion ” is without any sharp, concrete realization of
outlines. The characters, too, are lack-
His poetry was the first entirely happy simple souls by neglecting to emphasize oratorical mouthpieces. Indeed, the play
ing in
individuality; they are merely
place for this treatment of words. Prose, in its “ Feasts and Festivals
as a whole is metallic and otiose, untouched
which approximates to the language of of joy and wonder in human life. In this by the authentic wand of inspiration. The
speech, can never perhaps be trained connexion an interesting essay might be quality of the poetry itself is fitful ; some-
to such completeness of artificiality as written on the atrophy of the aesthetic
written on the atrophy of the æsthetic times curiously naked and divorced from
verse, without announcing itself as non-
This completeness, unlike the indirect appeal for the cultivation of the rhetoric. The speech of Carlos, the king's
sense in the English people. Mr. Gales's Mr. Phillips's peculiar genre ; sometimes
sweeping, processional
nonsense, is not to be met in Sidney old brotherliness and gracious charity son, is typical -
or his predecessors. Dr. Wolff might among men unseals religious springs
establish a connexion between Swinburne which have been silting up slowly, but
Why you encircle me as doth the air,
And nothing breathes or moves apart from you.
and Achilles Tatius, but purely as an surely in the last two centuries. Theo-
The Universe hath got from you à soul;
ingenious exercise, not as
Since first I saw you on a fated night,
a contri-
retically the Church inculcates brotherli- From the dark palace casement secretly
bution to knowledge worthy of pub- ness among all men, but how different
Leaning with loosened hair to midnight lilies
lication” with Prof. Thorndike's impri- was the spirit of its work in the mediæval Thou art more sweet than souls of evening flowers
matur.
In
village from our modern practice !
In a dim world, and ere a star hath come.
this light our author's catholicity, his This is self-consciously purple”; clever,
ardent sympathy with the poor and simple but too affected to be born of lively
Studies in Arcady. Second Series. By joyous and beautiful in human feeling
minded, his appreciation of all that is spontaneity.
R. L. Gales. (Herbert & Daniel. )
appear both as a survival and a revival Sonnets and Ballate of Guido Cavalcanti.
With
of
Translations of
It is pleasant to encounter a writer whose Southern lands. It is pleasant to add "I cannot trust the reader," says Mr.
them, and
a priestly ideal not uncommon in
Introduction by Ezra Pound. (Swift. )
humble pages shine with the gracious that Mr. Gales's tone, though scholarly, Pound, " to read the Italian for the music
light of a great
spiritual tradition, and is simple and homely, and perfectly free after he has read my English for the sense. ”
Essays from a Country Parsonage’ may from the tinge of artificiality which mars Therefore he has abandoned his intention
do far more to reconcile the modern the utterance of many of our latter-day of printing the Italian of Guido Caval-
thinker with the authority of the Church School of ritualists. Many of his best canti's poems with what he calls an una
than the works of many imposing and
celebrated divines. One muses on laying essays, indeed, as · Dickens in Real Life' rhymed "gloze. He has, in fact, written a
and Town and Country English,' show doubt as to his aim, he announces that
down Mr. Gales's delightful little volume
a native sympathy with the racy spirit of he has tried “ to bring over the qualities of
dogma is necessary for the nurture of the old English life, while others demonstrate Guido's rhythm, not line for line, but to
living seeds of faith-as the majority of his cosmopolitan outlook. , The Breton embody in the whole of my English some
Churchmen have strenuously held. But peasant, the Russian muzhik, the English trace of that power which implies the man. "
clerics as broad - minded as Mr. Gales villager to him are equally as interesting Such hopes are alone enough to handicap
rare, and evidence is abundant
in their common family features as in him. Ho has desired and hoped to write
their innate temperamental differences like that of Guido
what shall have on English readers an effect
that the letter killeth. " Studies in
Arcady,' indeed, at the first glance has The only, passage we have noted which looking at this distant goal he has become
but an indirect bearing on the Church's fails a little in brotherly charity is one
blind to nearer things. He has become
in which the name of Dr. Clifford is cited. blind to the necessity of writing English and
problems or policy, but, as one turns from It is natural that the great schism of being intelligible ; or, if not blind, then he
one to another of these pleasant ‘Dis dissent should still rankle in the minds of has allowed rhyme and a purely self-conscious
cussions and Digressions' on villagers and
He
their ways, on Christian legends, folk-
even the most broad-minded Anglicans, choice of words to make him appear so.
speech, Medieval traditions, Colourless and it is one of times ironies that the to put it mildly), or furlon (for which
Religion, &c. , one recognizes that their social root of that schism, viz. , “the
he has to give a note), or forlendye" (to
Poor Man's gospel » should be less and rhyme with
comprehend me,'' but of
springs not merely from the author's kindly less propagated by the Free Churches as doubtful meaning): "he will say :-
springs not merely from the author's kindly their congregations become more and
humanity, but also from his cultivation
Deadly 's the poison with thy jogs connected ;
of the flower of medieval religious senti-
more prosperous.
and speak of “where Love is situate
ment. All the dogmas of the schoolmen,
will brighten up Guido by saying that
all the tangled growths of doctrinal con-
troversy have rotted slowly away to
Ramour, courier through the mind, ran crying,
"A vileness in the heart, Oyea I lies dying. . .
an
are
6
on
: he
## p. 677 (#507) ############################################
No. 4416, JUNE 15, 1912
677
THE ATHENÆUM
s like
66
no
His vocabulary seems to have been taken Boy' and 'The Carol of the Poor Children. ' the native kilt, and the kindly, serene face,
from dictionaries or a crude and disorderly, In the last-named Middleton's tender fanci. | they felt that something of the sturdy
if picturesquo, memory, so that time after fulnoss is at its meridian :-
independence of the folk of the Western Isles
time he ghooks us and blinds us to Guido
We are the poor children come out to see the sights
among whom he was born and bred, and
with words which he has not made his own. On this day of all days, on this night of nights,
something, too, of their gentle introspective-
This astonishing example is not solitary : The stars in merry parties are dancing in the sky
A fine star, a new star, is shining on high !
ness, had passed into him. It was in going
The grace of youth in Toulouse ventureth;
up and down these islands in the exercise
She's noble and fair, with quaint sincerities,
We are the poor children, our lips are frosty blue,
of his calling that he gradually accumulated
Discreet she is and is about the eyes
We cannot sing our carol as well as rich folk do,
Most like to our Lady of sweet memories.
Our bellies are so empty we have no singing voice,
those stores of lore concerning old rites and
so that within my heart desirous
But this night of all nights good children must rejoice. customs, and those collections of Gaelic
She hath clad the soul in fashions peregrine. We do rejoice, we do rejoice, as hard as we can try, hymns, charms, and 'Blessings' which he pub-
Such verse suggests that Mr. Pound has
A Ane star, a now star, is shining in the sky!
lished in 1900 in the two sumptuous volumes
And while we sing our carol, we think of the delight
lost his natural feeling for the value of The happy kings and shepherds make in Bethlehem to.
which he named “Carmina Gadelica. ' Here
words. Where Rossetti says
night.
we have over 200 poems and fragments
cross," he says cruciform," as if it were But as a poet Middleton was seldom more
in Gaelic and English, and we may truly
the same, and not a rigid technical word than a charming literary butterfly. Had he say that in no other published material is
somewhat difficult to raise into poetry. Nor lived, the bad habits generated by facility the inner soul of the Highlander revealed as
is he afraid of ineptitude, as in the lines :- would probably have prevented him from
it is in the beauty and delicacy of these
An archer is he as the Scythians are
making of versé a vehicle for the seriousness poems. Many of them retain a half-pagan
Whose only joy is killing some one else. of thought, depth of emotion, and freshness note, and show evident signs of pre-Christian
He will speak of a “ spirit” in one line and of vision that were beginning to mark his origin ; even as we possess them, coloured
as they are by later Christian influence,
"
sprites" in the next, without distinction, prose.
they are among the most precious testimony
and translate mia donna" as “Milady. "
The Widow in the Bye-Street. By John
we possess to the native cults of these
It is unnecessary to give further examples
of the kind of difficulties which Mr. Pound
Masefield.
islands. But, apart from all scientific uses,
(Sidgwick & Jackson. )- The
has added to those created by a poet of Widow in the Bye-Street, which appeared well worthy of the labour bestowed upon
another age and another tongue, difficulties in the pages of The English Review, has by their collection and publication. For many
months before his death Dr. Carmichael had
conceal the translator's insight. He has Everlasting. Mercy, which, if an unequal, been busied in arranging for the press a
never overcome the disadvantage of not
was a genuine product of the imagination. second collection, almost equal in number
knowing that a writer of verse may do any-
We expect rather better things from Mr.
to the first; but ill-health has prevented
thing rather than be both unreadable and Masefield than the former, in which the the fulfilment of this design.
unintelligible. Rossetti, at least, is seldom realism inclines to be mechanical and the
Dr.
Carmichael was a well-known figure
either and never both ; Mr. Pound's version versification bare and arid. The elimination
cannot, as poetry, supersede his, and as a
of all ornament is too evident; to attain wherever the native tongue and the old
crib it is not sufficient.
to the baldest diction becomes a kind of customs survived. He was President or
ideal. There is nothing here of the romantic,
Chief of many Gaelic societies, and he was
magical naturalness of Wordsworth's sim- the inspirer of many younger men. Fiona
Poems and Songs. By Richard Middleton.
plicity. After all, metrical exigencies do Macleod's best work, in particular, was done
With an Introduction by Henry Savage. entail some poetic vraisemblance. Prose and when in his company or under the influence
(Fisher Unwin. /Richard Middleton's death,
verse are not interchangeable ; their spirit of his writings and spirit. He helped Dr.
at the age of twenty nine, has robbed us of one
of our most promising young prose - writers.
may approximate, but they are separate William Forbes Skene substantially in the
media of expression. The Widow in the preparation of his third volume of Celtic
It will not, we think, be so generally agreed Bye-Street' tends to be wilfully prosy and Scotland,' contributing to it a study of the
that the poetical loss is as great. Seen one to select the sordid.
native system of land-tenure and the tillage
by one in the weekly periodicals to which he
of the soil in the Western Hebrides, and he
contributed, Middleton's poems never failed
was the companion of Campbell of Islay in
to impress the reader with their grace,
Song in September. By Norman Galo.
many of his wanderings in the West. His
dexterity, and verbal pleasantnoss. At (Constable. )-The author's rustic muse re-
own university of Edinburgh conferred upon
his best he could sweep away criticism by mains undisturbed in a sophisticated age, and
him an honorary degree of LL. D. on the
his rapid, though careful, exuberance; in
those who liked his Orchard Songs' will publication of his great work. It is probablo
contrast with most periodical verse, his find this new volume as unpretentious and
that no other single man has done so much
poems impressed themselves upon the as pleasing. Mr. Gale writes with taste
as he to stimulate a love for the national
memory.
and feeling of trees and flowers and birds
customs and traditions of his native country
Collected here, they reveal Middleton's distinguished, it is as rarely faulty; if his spirit of Scottish nationality.
and country love If his manner is rarely and to keep alive in its best sense the
good qualities more insistently than ever,
but at the same time bring his limitations once or twice in this book the marriage of
matter is never striking, it is never tedious. spirit of Scottish nationality.
ELEANOR HULL.
forcibly into the light. Opened anywhere, sincere, gentle emotion and simple language
the book displays an unusual fluency and
against poetic success. Little of this writing second verse :
ease ; but the poet's very ease has militated produces genuine poetry, as in "A Christen-
The Voice, with its charming
comos straight from the heart; rarely does
JANE AUSTEN FOR SCHOOLS.
the poet stop to find the just word or the
It was my mother's name. A part
Of wounded memory sprang to tears,
YOUR reviewer of ‘Pride and Prejudice'
illuminating phrase. Usually he is content
And the few violets of my heart
(Athenaeum, June 1st, p. 617, col. 1) com-
to weave round any subject a pleasant
Shook in the wind of happier years.
Quicker than magic came the face
plains that no detailed explanation is given
fabric of familiar symbols-roses, dreams,
by the editor, of the intrusive
stars, and 80 on-caring little for their
The garden shawl, the cap of lace,
The collie's head against her knee.
which he notices on p. 366 and elsewhere. It
appropriateness; and the effect is sometimes
did not seem necessary to correct," for
merely that of skilful bouts-rimés.
the benefit of school children, the charac.
But even in the least sincere-seeming
teristic punctuation of the first edition ; but
poems he often achieves some passage with
DR. ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL,
it would have been difficult to give a detailed
à sense of magic about it. The first stanza
of 'New Love' is an example :-
THERE are some personalities who sum
account of its differences from modern usage.
up in themselves a definite type-clear, Your reviewer will find in Mr. Percy Simp-
The boy weeps in the wild woods,
distinct, and individual.
son's Shakespearian Punctuation
Bis bright eyes are sore,
now obsolete. The
The old inhuman solitudes
Such a personality was that of Alexander classification of uses
May shield his heart no more ;
Carmichael, the author of Carmina Gade. principles_there examined continued to
A maid has happened out of hell
lica,' of 'Deirdre,' and of numerous papers
influence English punctuation at least as late
And kissed his crimson lips too well.
in the Journals of Scottish Antiquarian and
as 1813; they differed fundamentally from
The first four lines here have that quality Gaelic Societies, who passed away at a ripe the modern “ logical ” system.
that hangs around the best work of Mr. age on Wednesday week last, June 5th. In
In the passage quoted, Gave him to
Walter de la Mare; the last two bring us him the simple dignity, the quiet persistence, understand, that her sentiments had under-
back to easy deadness and artificial obvious. the grit of the West Highlander, found its gone so material a change, since the period
ness. This patchiness of quality is notice complete representative. As his friends to which he alluded, as to make her receive
able throughout the volume. Not one of received from him the warm Highland wel with gratitude and pleasure, his present
these four-score lyrics is completely satis- come given with outstretched hands, and assurances,” the comma before a substantival
fying. The best are, perhaps, The Bathing I looked at the grave, dignified figure clad in that clause' is normal; the comma after
9
That once was sun and moon for me;
commas
some
## p. 678 (#508) ############################################
678
No. 4416, JUNE 15, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
or
ге.
>
pleasure " also follows the rhythm of the 4401. Les Chroniques de France, dites de St.
Law.
sentence and marks a natural pause. The
Denis, illuminated MS. , French, late fourteenth
century, with 50 fine ininiatures, 1,6501. Chro-
modern tendency is to balance one comma
nicles, German illuminated MS. , fifteenth century,
Higgins (A. Pearce), WAR AND THE PRIVATE
by another : either “receive with gratitude with '204 curious illustrations, 3501. Anthony
CITIZEN : STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL
and pleasure his present assurances Chute, Beawtie Dishonoured, written under the LAW, 5/ net.
King
receive, with gratitude and pleasure, his title of Shore's Wife, 1593, 3501. Cicero, Epistolæ “I believe," says Dr. Higgins," that the
present assurances. " The comma after“ ad. Familiares, printed at Venice by Joannes de wider diffusion of the knowledge of Inter-
Spira, 1469, 1001. Treatises of Old Age and
ceive is logical only; there is no pause,
Friendship, with the Declaration of Noblesse,
national Law, and particularly of that
So we now write, I told him that, if he did
&c. , printed by Caxton, 1481, 1,0001. Columbus,
branch of it which relates to war, the greater
not take an umbrella, he would get wet”. Epistola de Insulis Indie supra Gangem nuper is the hope of peace. ” This, no doubt, is
the old style would be, “I told him, that if inventis, the earliest issue, n. d. (1493), 2101. ;
true, and any one who helps to educate
he did not take an umbrella, he would get
the second issue, 1493, 2401. Eyn schön hübsch public opinion and spread the knowledge,
Lesen von etlichen Inszlen, &c. , 1497, 1321.
wet,"
R. W. CHAPMAN.
Columna, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, 1499, 2901.
not only of abstract Public Law, but also of
A Complaint of a Dolorous Lover, n. d. (c. 1540), actual international practice, is performing
*** I am obliged to Mr. Chapman for his 1001. Concilium Buch, of the Council of Con- a useful service in the cause of peace. The
explanations. They do not, however, con- stance, printed at Augsburg by Anton Sorg, 1483, author deals with the question how non-
vey any information which is new to me. 1901.
combatants would be affected by war, the
Like other reviewers, I am familiar with
rules relating to hospital ships and the
Mr. Simpson's excellent book; but I have
carriage of passengers, and the more contro-
no reason to suppose that its conclusions are
versial problems of the conversion of mer-
generally known either among teachers of
chant ships into ships of war.
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
English or school children. The charac.
Ho treats all
his points with judicial impartiality, and
teristic punctuation of the first edition of a
(Notice in these columns does not preclude longer gives a lucid exposition of arguments on
classic is a pleasure to those who know it review.
both sides. With regard to the Hague
well; it can only be a stumbling-block to
Conference, his advice might well be taken.
those who are reading it for the first time,
Tbeology.
“ The work of future conferences," he sug-
, ,
of
of giving a detailed account is surely not an
Apostolic Pope
to be brought forward. "
on English Ordinations, 1/
If we intend
excuse for avoiding it. It seems to me
Longmans to treat the Hague Conferenco seriously,
one of several reasons for regarding the Addressed to the whole body of Bishops our delegates should be carefully picked
book as unsuitable for young readers.
of the Catholic Church in 1896 (and first men, and should confer with the Foreign
YOUR REVIEWER.
published March 9th, 1897), A translation office authorities for some months before
into English, reprinted with a Prefatory the Conference meets. If our representatives
Note and an Historical Introduction by are chosen merely for their names, appointed
John Wordsworth.
only a few weeks beforehand, and supplied
with vague and meagre instructions, our
AUTOGRAPH LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS.
Carpenter (S. C. ), A PARSON'S DEFENCE, 3/6 highly complex international problems must
contribution to the discussion of these
On Friday, May 31st, Messrs. Sotheby held a
net.
sale of autograph letters and documents, of
Longmans be ineffective. The author dismisses the
which the most important were the following: This is “an attempt to put the clerical question of the immunity of private property
A Collection of eleven documents relating to
Eugene Aram, 201. John Evelyn, letter to position, to express the creed of Christen from capture in time of war in a very few
Ralph Thoresby, July 19th, 1699, 201. 108. dom from the parson's point of view. " The pages, maintaining that by spreading the
Oliver Cromwell, holograph letter, one page, writer is Warden of the Caius College burden of war over the nation the evils of
February 18th, 1650, 2151. ; another, September Settlement in Battersea, and brings to his war are brought home to the whole com-
1st, 1852, 2101. William Pitt the Younger, task a wide experience of laymen; he munity. But this subject requires far more
Tolstoy, five letters to Ivan F. Mazhivin, 1907-8, brings to it also humour and outspokenness, detailed consideration, and, indeed, Dr.
121. 108. C. L. Dodgson, letter to Tom Taylor, and a knack of writing as if he were speaking, Higgins admits that in the near future it
asking to be introduced to Tenniel, December 20th, together with some turn for epigram and a will come into greater prominence. It is
1863, 241. 108. Washington, signed letter to facility in the choice of homely illustration. not improbable that the growing opinion
General Smallwood about the military operations In the method one is sometimas reminded in favour of immunity may receive more
which preceded the battle of Brandywine,
September 9th, 1777, 251. 108. ; letter to the Rev. of Mr. Chesterton; in the inner handling of sympathetic attention than it has hitherto.
W. Gordon, June 29th, 1777, 701. Charles and the matter there is something akin to Dr.
Mary Lamb, letter to Louisa Martin, March 28th, Figgis's books; but we say this, not to hint
poetry.
1809, 581. ; C. Lamb, letter to Miss Kelly, July 6th, that the book' is derivative far from it Campbell (Mrs. Victor), THE CHOICE, AND
1825, 301. Mary Lamb, letter to the same,
OTHER POEMS, 2/6 net.
March 27th, 1820, 151. 108. Byron, his special but to suggest to what school of thought it
Lynwood
marriage licence, December 23rd,' 1814, 631. belongs.
The value of Mrs. Campbell's verse is
Autograph MS. of ten stanzas from Don Juan,
largely depreciated by falling into the
July 10th, 1819, 1051. Shelley, letter to Byron,
December 21st, 1821, with a note from Byrºn to Chicago University: HISTORICAL AND LIN- alluring temptation of poetasters-allegoriz-
Moore on the back, 611. P. B. and Mary Shelley, GUISTIC STUDIES IN LITERATURE RE-
ing. She personifies the abstract stock-in-
letter to Jane Clairmont about Allegra, 1822, 961. LATED TO THE NEW TESTAMENT, issued trade_hope, despair, memory, passion,
Charlotte Brontë, MS. verses beginning
The
under the Direction of the Department sorrow, pity, friendship et hoc genus omne,
trunpet hath sounded, it's voice is gone forth,”
December 11th, 1831, 241. 108.
of Biblical and Patristic Greek. - First and declaims her exhortations to them after
the fashion of the scarlet 1} school. The
The total of the sale was 1,815l. 28, 6d.
Series, TEXTS ; Vol. II. GREEK TEXTS ;
Part II. THE TORONTO GOSPELS, by capital letter is sown profusely through
her
Edgar J. Goodspeed, 1/ net.
pages.
Illinois, University of Chicago; | Latin Love Poems, translated by J. M.
THE AUTH LIBRARY.
Cambridge, University Press Krause, 1/6 net.
Kegan Paul
The sale of the second portion of the Huth A careful collation of a Greek MS. of the Mr. J. A. Pott's. Greek Love Songs and Epi,
This pretty little volume is uniform with
Library, comprising the letters C and D, was
begun by Messrs. Sotheby on Wednesday, June four Gospels, written on parchment in a
5th. We append a list of the books which realized
grams,' and offers Latin on one page faced
minute cursive hand, which is assigned to by English on another-a severe test for
1001. and upwards during the first three days: the late eleventh or early twelfth century,
J. c. , Saint Marie Magdalen's Conversion, 1803, and is of special interest because it is not
any rendering. Mr. Krause keeps a good
1151. Jacques Cartier, A Shorte and Briefe
Narration of the Two Navigations and Dis-
mentioned in any of the published lists of average level, but does not equal the best
coveries to the North weast Partes called New Gospel
cursives. Now in the library of the inversions and feels the bondage of rhyme.
Fraunce, 1580, 2361. Cervantes, El Ingenioso University of Toronto, it was purchased by Still, it is pleasant to have this collection,
Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, Madrid, its former owner from an English dealer which brings together good things from
1605; the first issue, with the privilege for Madrid more than twenty years ago.
pot-boiling trash. Mr. Seccombe almost thea Beale, of Cheltenham, who laboured will suffice: it shows that Sidney had
persuades us to regard Samuel Butler, the for the education of her sex is to be found before him the contemporary version of
author of 'Erowhon,' as a deliberate not far from Ada Ellen Bayly (Edna Heliodorus by Underdowne, where may
philosopher, but it would be nearer the Lyell), who wrote novels with purposes, be found this account of a feast :-
mark to look on him as a whimsical and devoted much of their proceeds to
satirist. Surely there should have been charitable causes.
The tables were furnished with delicate
There is, in fact, much
some mention of Seven Sonnets and a fino, confused interest in this volume, those that were slaine, being in steede
dishes, some wheroof laie in tho handes of
Psalm of Montreal' and 'God the Known and if some may question the propriety of weapons. . . . Besides, the cuppes were
and the Unknown,' first published in The of including a patent medicine vendor in overthrowen, and fell out of the bandes,
Examiner of 1879. Mr. Seccombe some- its scope, whereas not a single plumber or either of them that dranke, or those, who
what oddly refers to Butler's “outwardly pastrycook is to be discovered in it, still had instead of stones used them. For that
conventional aspect. ” Did he expect him the hoardings are always with us, and soudaine mischiefe wrought nowe devises,
and taught them in stoade of weapons to
to wear a cap and bells ? It would have act as passports to fame of a sort.
been pertinent to say that his way of life
use their pottes. . . . bruing bloude with wine,
joyning battaile with banketting. ”
was unconventional, and that the books
which are now well known brought him
Sidney followed with this :-
little profit in his lifetime.
On the whole, the men and women
The Greek Romances in Elizabethan Prose “Thus was their banquette turned to a
of letters in this volume are not of
Fiction. By Samuel Lee Wolff. (New battaile, their winie mirthes to bloudia
exceptional interest. Miss Elizabeth Lee
York, Columbia University Press ; Lon- rages. . . . They never weyed how to arme
has the mot juste for poor Ouida (Marie
themselves, but tooke up everything for a
don, Henry Frowde. )
weapon, that furie offered to their handes.
Louise Do la Ramée), whose novels on DR. WOLFF's book consists of summaries
. . . . Some caught hold of spikes (though
Italy are by no means to be despised ; but of three Greek romances by Heliodorus, death. And there was some such one, who
serviceable for life) to be the instruments of
she does not seem sufficiently conscious of Longus, and Achilles Tatius, and a very held the same pot wherein he drank to your
the value of Aubrey De Vere as a pioneer careful study of their matter and literary health, to use it to your mischief. "
of the “Celtio Renascence. ” Mr. Bickley method, followed by summaries and studies
makes no attempt to pigeon-hole John of the prose romances of Sidney, Greene, Sidney, however, seems to be thinking of
Davidson, and therein he acts wisely. and Lodge, showing the correspondence the Virgilian “furor arma ministrat. ”
Much of Davidson's verse is nimble and the actual connexion between the In our opinion the multiplication of
rhetoric, and even the Fleet Street English and the Greek. Dr. Wolff's such examples is not to be encouraged.
Ecologues' await their final critic. Mo- thoroughness does not conceal itself. Far fewer would have been enough to
berly Bell touched literature at some His 500 pages present not only what prove Dr. Wolff's power of observation,
points, but he can scarcely be said to have we suppose are all his conclusions, but and for the rest, references should suffice.
belonged to it, and, as Mr. Monypenny also virtually all his grounds for them, As it stands at present the book is a
candidly admits, many of his enterprises quoted at length. A characteristic para- model for students, but by no means
strictly beyond the bounds of graph is where he notices that,
for writers. The method of work is ex-
journalism. "
cellent, but the amount of paper covered
No great artists figure in this volume ;
“in Sidney's episode of the Princess's lamentable. Nor is it for lack of
but an architect whose fame cannot fail captivity, the brutal Anaxius, forcing his ability to do anything else that Dr.
to endure, John Francis Bentley, receives chin (* Arc. , III. xxvi. 352) Putting Wolff adopts this monumental method ;
his
due from Mr. Paul Waterhouse. him away with her faire hand, Proud beast for, wherever he personally intervenes
Among the actors, Lionel Brough is, (said she), yet thou plaiest worse thy comedy, with argument or comment, he is lively
perhaps, the most noteworthy; an un- then thy Tragedy. '". Thersander, forcing his and sensible, though we do not think his
signed article on him gives little idea of caresses upon Leucippe, also takes her by style one that bears the sudden use of
his powers as a raconteur.
the chin, and also receives a sharp reproof.
"Twaddle! ” Once, probably to relieve
We will conclude our survey by It is, in fact, his principal aim to show the tedium--though if unconsciously, then
mentioning some of the philanthropists not only that was Sidney indebted to the naturally—he gives way to the style
who figure in this closely packed volume. Greek romances, but also that he alone under discussion by speaking of "the
Foremost comes the Baroness Burdett- among Elizabethans has developed the heroic spectacle, and the spectacular
Coutts, whose wise use of her wealth is form further on his own account, and " has heroics, of shipwrecked Pyrocles. "
clearly described by Mr. J. P. Anderson. actually brought nearer perfection the His study of this style is the most
The list of portraits adds value to this, complex architectonics of Greek Romance. " interesting part of the book, and he has
as to many other, articles in the ‘Supple- Dr. Wolff will find fow to challenge the ventured to coin a new word,
“ homeo-
ment. Mr. James Marchant says just last part of his statement, since the phony,” as a generic term for one of its
enough about Dr. Barnardo. There was Arcadia' is a book which there are devices, the rhetorical use of similarities
no necessity to go into all the litigation many to praise and very few to love and in sound-repetition, assonance, allitera-
in which Barnardo became involved read. A committee of Senior Wranglers tion, rhyme. These, on a small scale,
through the reception of children of Roman night still further elaborate and perfect are the result of the same hard external
Catholio parentage into his homes, and Mr. ! the architectonics, and in the course of a sense of form which the romances as a
were
## p. 676 (#506) ############################################
676
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4416, JUNE 15, 1912
ور
no
never
66
was
nor
" the sense
sense.
whole, and all of their parts, exhibit to an touchwood, but from the old roots of the
extraordinary degree. For modern ex- faith still spring as beautiful examples
SOME RECENT VERSE.
amples of homeophony equal to the old, of love and human charity as those which
The King: a Tragedy en a Continuous
readers must turn to the prose and the mediæval world enshrined in its Series of Scenes. By Stephen Phillips.
verse of Swinburne. Some of his prose legends. It is a thousand pities that these (Stephen Swift. )-Mr. Phillips has a prolific
seems to be written for the joy of con- folk-stories and mediæval traditions which pon, and writes with some passion, fluency,
structing formally perfect sentences which Mr. Gales touches upon in papers such as and spaciousness of conception. But his verso
must have hovered before his mind's The Lore of the Three Kings,' The often lies open to the imputation of spurious-
eye before he had anything to pour into Queen of Festivals,' 'The Land of Par-
ness of effect, owing to a tendency to forcing
them. At other times he was the subject dons,' should either have faded from the into artificial and extravagant postures.
a genuine capacity for emotional expression
of fitful inspiration, as when, having memory of the English Church or were
His latest poetic drama is much inferior to
spoken of “a curious monotony in the never transplanted here by Continental his best work, and accentuates its blemishes.
variety," he thought well to ask “if piety. Mr. Gales says aptly :-
Its motif is that of unconscious incest,
there be not a curious variety in the
culminating, on discovery, in the suicide
monotony," but went
further. “It is one of the normal functions of of the lovers. Though less crude and
Rhyme bad entered into his soul. There religion to provide an immense background transpontine than Ford's famous treatment
“ breath”
divided from
to life, to create an atmosphere, to bring of a similar theme, it can bear no comparison
death, "light" from
something large and imaginative into the to it in tragic massiveness and poignancy.
night," most contracted lives. Normally this is It carries frequent evidence of slovenly
and he gave the most perfect example of done for the mass of the people by their workmanship, and Mr. Phillips ignores
prolonged homeophony to be found when religion. "
many opportunities of heightening his lan-
he wrote,
guage into lofty relationship with tragic
In Catholic countries, perhaps, but in Eng- possibilities. The scenes drift lazily and
Slowlier than life into breath,
Surelier than time into death. . . . . . land our author, we fear, is right in his mistily past us, carelessly picked out and
contention that a
in 'To Walt Whitman in America. ' bound to lose its hold upon the mass of
“colourless religion ” is without any sharp, concrete realization of
outlines. The characters, too, are lack-
His poetry was the first entirely happy simple souls by neglecting to emphasize oratorical mouthpieces. Indeed, the play
ing in
individuality; they are merely
place for this treatment of words. Prose, in its “ Feasts and Festivals
as a whole is metallic and otiose, untouched
which approximates to the language of of joy and wonder in human life. In this by the authentic wand of inspiration. The
speech, can never perhaps be trained connexion an interesting essay might be quality of the poetry itself is fitful ; some-
to such completeness of artificiality as written on the atrophy of the aesthetic
written on the atrophy of the æsthetic times curiously naked and divorced from
verse, without announcing itself as non-
This completeness, unlike the indirect appeal for the cultivation of the rhetoric. The speech of Carlos, the king's
sense in the English people. Mr. Gales's Mr. Phillips's peculiar genre ; sometimes
sweeping, processional
nonsense, is not to be met in Sidney old brotherliness and gracious charity son, is typical -
or his predecessors. Dr. Wolff might among men unseals religious springs
establish a connexion between Swinburne which have been silting up slowly, but
Why you encircle me as doth the air,
And nothing breathes or moves apart from you.
and Achilles Tatius, but purely as an surely in the last two centuries. Theo-
The Universe hath got from you à soul;
ingenious exercise, not as
Since first I saw you on a fated night,
a contri-
retically the Church inculcates brotherli- From the dark palace casement secretly
bution to knowledge worthy of pub- ness among all men, but how different
Leaning with loosened hair to midnight lilies
lication” with Prof. Thorndike's impri- was the spirit of its work in the mediæval Thou art more sweet than souls of evening flowers
matur.
In
village from our modern practice !
In a dim world, and ere a star hath come.
this light our author's catholicity, his This is self-consciously purple”; clever,
ardent sympathy with the poor and simple but too affected to be born of lively
Studies in Arcady. Second Series. By joyous and beautiful in human feeling
minded, his appreciation of all that is spontaneity.
R. L. Gales. (Herbert & Daniel. )
appear both as a survival and a revival Sonnets and Ballate of Guido Cavalcanti.
With
of
Translations of
It is pleasant to encounter a writer whose Southern lands. It is pleasant to add "I cannot trust the reader," says Mr.
them, and
a priestly ideal not uncommon in
Introduction by Ezra Pound. (Swift. )
humble pages shine with the gracious that Mr. Gales's tone, though scholarly, Pound, " to read the Italian for the music
light of a great
spiritual tradition, and is simple and homely, and perfectly free after he has read my English for the sense. ”
Essays from a Country Parsonage’ may from the tinge of artificiality which mars Therefore he has abandoned his intention
do far more to reconcile the modern the utterance of many of our latter-day of printing the Italian of Guido Caval-
thinker with the authority of the Church School of ritualists. Many of his best canti's poems with what he calls an una
than the works of many imposing and
celebrated divines. One muses on laying essays, indeed, as · Dickens in Real Life' rhymed "gloze. He has, in fact, written a
and Town and Country English,' show doubt as to his aim, he announces that
down Mr. Gales's delightful little volume
a native sympathy with the racy spirit of he has tried “ to bring over the qualities of
dogma is necessary for the nurture of the old English life, while others demonstrate Guido's rhythm, not line for line, but to
living seeds of faith-as the majority of his cosmopolitan outlook. , The Breton embody in the whole of my English some
Churchmen have strenuously held. But peasant, the Russian muzhik, the English trace of that power which implies the man. "
clerics as broad - minded as Mr. Gales villager to him are equally as interesting Such hopes are alone enough to handicap
rare, and evidence is abundant
in their common family features as in him. Ho has desired and hoped to write
their innate temperamental differences like that of Guido
what shall have on English readers an effect
that the letter killeth. " Studies in
Arcady,' indeed, at the first glance has The only, passage we have noted which looking at this distant goal he has become
but an indirect bearing on the Church's fails a little in brotherly charity is one
blind to nearer things. He has become
in which the name of Dr. Clifford is cited. blind to the necessity of writing English and
problems or policy, but, as one turns from It is natural that the great schism of being intelligible ; or, if not blind, then he
one to another of these pleasant ‘Dis dissent should still rankle in the minds of has allowed rhyme and a purely self-conscious
cussions and Digressions' on villagers and
He
their ways, on Christian legends, folk-
even the most broad-minded Anglicans, choice of words to make him appear so.
speech, Medieval traditions, Colourless and it is one of times ironies that the to put it mildly), or furlon (for which
Religion, &c. , one recognizes that their social root of that schism, viz. , “the
he has to give a note), or forlendye" (to
Poor Man's gospel » should be less and rhyme with
comprehend me,'' but of
springs not merely from the author's kindly less propagated by the Free Churches as doubtful meaning): "he will say :-
springs not merely from the author's kindly their congregations become more and
humanity, but also from his cultivation
Deadly 's the poison with thy jogs connected ;
of the flower of medieval religious senti-
more prosperous.
and speak of “where Love is situate
ment. All the dogmas of the schoolmen,
will brighten up Guido by saying that
all the tangled growths of doctrinal con-
troversy have rotted slowly away to
Ramour, courier through the mind, ran crying,
"A vileness in the heart, Oyea I lies dying. . .
an
are
6
on
: he
## p. 677 (#507) ############################################
No. 4416, JUNE 15, 1912
677
THE ATHENÆUM
s like
66
no
His vocabulary seems to have been taken Boy' and 'The Carol of the Poor Children. ' the native kilt, and the kindly, serene face,
from dictionaries or a crude and disorderly, In the last-named Middleton's tender fanci. | they felt that something of the sturdy
if picturesquo, memory, so that time after fulnoss is at its meridian :-
independence of the folk of the Western Isles
time he ghooks us and blinds us to Guido
We are the poor children come out to see the sights
among whom he was born and bred, and
with words which he has not made his own. On this day of all days, on this night of nights,
something, too, of their gentle introspective-
This astonishing example is not solitary : The stars in merry parties are dancing in the sky
A fine star, a new star, is shining on high !
ness, had passed into him. It was in going
The grace of youth in Toulouse ventureth;
up and down these islands in the exercise
She's noble and fair, with quaint sincerities,
We are the poor children, our lips are frosty blue,
of his calling that he gradually accumulated
Discreet she is and is about the eyes
We cannot sing our carol as well as rich folk do,
Most like to our Lady of sweet memories.
Our bellies are so empty we have no singing voice,
those stores of lore concerning old rites and
so that within my heart desirous
But this night of all nights good children must rejoice. customs, and those collections of Gaelic
She hath clad the soul in fashions peregrine. We do rejoice, we do rejoice, as hard as we can try, hymns, charms, and 'Blessings' which he pub-
Such verse suggests that Mr. Pound has
A Ane star, a now star, is shining in the sky!
lished in 1900 in the two sumptuous volumes
And while we sing our carol, we think of the delight
lost his natural feeling for the value of The happy kings and shepherds make in Bethlehem to.
which he named “Carmina Gadelica. ' Here
words. Where Rossetti says
night.
we have over 200 poems and fragments
cross," he says cruciform," as if it were But as a poet Middleton was seldom more
in Gaelic and English, and we may truly
the same, and not a rigid technical word than a charming literary butterfly. Had he say that in no other published material is
somewhat difficult to raise into poetry. Nor lived, the bad habits generated by facility the inner soul of the Highlander revealed as
is he afraid of ineptitude, as in the lines :- would probably have prevented him from
it is in the beauty and delicacy of these
An archer is he as the Scythians are
making of versé a vehicle for the seriousness poems. Many of them retain a half-pagan
Whose only joy is killing some one else. of thought, depth of emotion, and freshness note, and show evident signs of pre-Christian
He will speak of a “ spirit” in one line and of vision that were beginning to mark his origin ; even as we possess them, coloured
as they are by later Christian influence,
"
sprites" in the next, without distinction, prose.
they are among the most precious testimony
and translate mia donna" as “Milady. "
The Widow in the Bye-Street. By John
we possess to the native cults of these
It is unnecessary to give further examples
of the kind of difficulties which Mr. Pound
Masefield.
islands. But, apart from all scientific uses,
(Sidgwick & Jackson. )- The
has added to those created by a poet of Widow in the Bye-Street, which appeared well worthy of the labour bestowed upon
another age and another tongue, difficulties in the pages of The English Review, has by their collection and publication. For many
months before his death Dr. Carmichael had
conceal the translator's insight. He has Everlasting. Mercy, which, if an unequal, been busied in arranging for the press a
never overcome the disadvantage of not
was a genuine product of the imagination. second collection, almost equal in number
knowing that a writer of verse may do any-
We expect rather better things from Mr.
to the first; but ill-health has prevented
thing rather than be both unreadable and Masefield than the former, in which the the fulfilment of this design.
unintelligible. Rossetti, at least, is seldom realism inclines to be mechanical and the
Dr.
Carmichael was a well-known figure
either and never both ; Mr. Pound's version versification bare and arid. The elimination
cannot, as poetry, supersede his, and as a
of all ornament is too evident; to attain wherever the native tongue and the old
crib it is not sufficient.
to the baldest diction becomes a kind of customs survived. He was President or
ideal. There is nothing here of the romantic,
Chief of many Gaelic societies, and he was
magical naturalness of Wordsworth's sim- the inspirer of many younger men. Fiona
Poems and Songs. By Richard Middleton.
plicity. After all, metrical exigencies do Macleod's best work, in particular, was done
With an Introduction by Henry Savage. entail some poetic vraisemblance. Prose and when in his company or under the influence
(Fisher Unwin. /Richard Middleton's death,
verse are not interchangeable ; their spirit of his writings and spirit. He helped Dr.
at the age of twenty nine, has robbed us of one
of our most promising young prose - writers.
may approximate, but they are separate William Forbes Skene substantially in the
media of expression. The Widow in the preparation of his third volume of Celtic
It will not, we think, be so generally agreed Bye-Street' tends to be wilfully prosy and Scotland,' contributing to it a study of the
that the poetical loss is as great. Seen one to select the sordid.
native system of land-tenure and the tillage
by one in the weekly periodicals to which he
of the soil in the Western Hebrides, and he
contributed, Middleton's poems never failed
was the companion of Campbell of Islay in
to impress the reader with their grace,
Song in September. By Norman Galo.
many of his wanderings in the West. His
dexterity, and verbal pleasantnoss. At (Constable. )-The author's rustic muse re-
own university of Edinburgh conferred upon
his best he could sweep away criticism by mains undisturbed in a sophisticated age, and
him an honorary degree of LL. D. on the
his rapid, though careful, exuberance; in
those who liked his Orchard Songs' will publication of his great work. It is probablo
contrast with most periodical verse, his find this new volume as unpretentious and
that no other single man has done so much
poems impressed themselves upon the as pleasing. Mr. Gale writes with taste
as he to stimulate a love for the national
memory.
and feeling of trees and flowers and birds
customs and traditions of his native country
Collected here, they reveal Middleton's distinguished, it is as rarely faulty; if his spirit of Scottish nationality.
and country love If his manner is rarely and to keep alive in its best sense the
good qualities more insistently than ever,
but at the same time bring his limitations once or twice in this book the marriage of
matter is never striking, it is never tedious. spirit of Scottish nationality.
ELEANOR HULL.
forcibly into the light. Opened anywhere, sincere, gentle emotion and simple language
the book displays an unusual fluency and
against poetic success. Little of this writing second verse :
ease ; but the poet's very ease has militated produces genuine poetry, as in "A Christen-
The Voice, with its charming
comos straight from the heart; rarely does
JANE AUSTEN FOR SCHOOLS.
the poet stop to find the just word or the
It was my mother's name. A part
Of wounded memory sprang to tears,
YOUR reviewer of ‘Pride and Prejudice'
illuminating phrase. Usually he is content
And the few violets of my heart
(Athenaeum, June 1st, p. 617, col. 1) com-
to weave round any subject a pleasant
Shook in the wind of happier years.
Quicker than magic came the face
plains that no detailed explanation is given
fabric of familiar symbols-roses, dreams,
by the editor, of the intrusive
stars, and 80 on-caring little for their
The garden shawl, the cap of lace,
The collie's head against her knee.
which he notices on p. 366 and elsewhere. It
appropriateness; and the effect is sometimes
did not seem necessary to correct," for
merely that of skilful bouts-rimés.
the benefit of school children, the charac.
But even in the least sincere-seeming
teristic punctuation of the first edition ; but
poems he often achieves some passage with
DR. ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL,
it would have been difficult to give a detailed
à sense of magic about it. The first stanza
of 'New Love' is an example :-
THERE are some personalities who sum
account of its differences from modern usage.
up in themselves a definite type-clear, Your reviewer will find in Mr. Percy Simp-
The boy weeps in the wild woods,
distinct, and individual.
son's Shakespearian Punctuation
Bis bright eyes are sore,
now obsolete. The
The old inhuman solitudes
Such a personality was that of Alexander classification of uses
May shield his heart no more ;
Carmichael, the author of Carmina Gade. principles_there examined continued to
A maid has happened out of hell
lica,' of 'Deirdre,' and of numerous papers
influence English punctuation at least as late
And kissed his crimson lips too well.
in the Journals of Scottish Antiquarian and
as 1813; they differed fundamentally from
The first four lines here have that quality Gaelic Societies, who passed away at a ripe the modern “ logical ” system.
that hangs around the best work of Mr. age on Wednesday week last, June 5th. In
In the passage quoted, Gave him to
Walter de la Mare; the last two bring us him the simple dignity, the quiet persistence, understand, that her sentiments had under-
back to easy deadness and artificial obvious. the grit of the West Highlander, found its gone so material a change, since the period
ness. This patchiness of quality is notice complete representative. As his friends to which he alluded, as to make her receive
able throughout the volume. Not one of received from him the warm Highland wel with gratitude and pleasure, his present
these four-score lyrics is completely satis- come given with outstretched hands, and assurances,” the comma before a substantival
fying. The best are, perhaps, The Bathing I looked at the grave, dignified figure clad in that clause' is normal; the comma after
9
That once was sun and moon for me;
commas
some
## p. 678 (#508) ############################################
678
No. 4416, JUNE 15, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
or
ге.
>
pleasure " also follows the rhythm of the 4401. Les Chroniques de France, dites de St.
Law.
sentence and marks a natural pause. The
Denis, illuminated MS. , French, late fourteenth
century, with 50 fine ininiatures, 1,6501. Chro-
modern tendency is to balance one comma
nicles, German illuminated MS. , fifteenth century,
Higgins (A. Pearce), WAR AND THE PRIVATE
by another : either “receive with gratitude with '204 curious illustrations, 3501. Anthony
CITIZEN : STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL
and pleasure his present assurances Chute, Beawtie Dishonoured, written under the LAW, 5/ net.
King
receive, with gratitude and pleasure, his title of Shore's Wife, 1593, 3501. Cicero, Epistolæ “I believe," says Dr. Higgins," that the
present assurances. " The comma after“ ad. Familiares, printed at Venice by Joannes de wider diffusion of the knowledge of Inter-
Spira, 1469, 1001. Treatises of Old Age and
ceive is logical only; there is no pause,
Friendship, with the Declaration of Noblesse,
national Law, and particularly of that
So we now write, I told him that, if he did
&c. , printed by Caxton, 1481, 1,0001. Columbus,
branch of it which relates to war, the greater
not take an umbrella, he would get wet”. Epistola de Insulis Indie supra Gangem nuper is the hope of peace. ” This, no doubt, is
the old style would be, “I told him, that if inventis, the earliest issue, n. d. (1493), 2101. ;
true, and any one who helps to educate
he did not take an umbrella, he would get
the second issue, 1493, 2401. Eyn schön hübsch public opinion and spread the knowledge,
Lesen von etlichen Inszlen, &c. , 1497, 1321.
wet,"
R. W. CHAPMAN.
Columna, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, 1499, 2901.
not only of abstract Public Law, but also of
A Complaint of a Dolorous Lover, n. d. (c. 1540), actual international practice, is performing
*** I am obliged to Mr. Chapman for his 1001. Concilium Buch, of the Council of Con- a useful service in the cause of peace. The
explanations. They do not, however, con- stance, printed at Augsburg by Anton Sorg, 1483, author deals with the question how non-
vey any information which is new to me. 1901.
combatants would be affected by war, the
Like other reviewers, I am familiar with
rules relating to hospital ships and the
Mr. Simpson's excellent book; but I have
carriage of passengers, and the more contro-
no reason to suppose that its conclusions are
versial problems of the conversion of mer-
generally known either among teachers of
chant ships into ships of war.
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
English or school children. The charac.
Ho treats all
his points with judicial impartiality, and
teristic punctuation of the first edition of a
(Notice in these columns does not preclude longer gives a lucid exposition of arguments on
classic is a pleasure to those who know it review.
both sides. With regard to the Hague
well; it can only be a stumbling-block to
Conference, his advice might well be taken.
those who are reading it for the first time,
Tbeology.
“ The work of future conferences," he sug-
, ,
of
of giving a detailed account is surely not an
Apostolic Pope
to be brought forward. "
on English Ordinations, 1/
If we intend
excuse for avoiding it. It seems to me
Longmans to treat the Hague Conferenco seriously,
one of several reasons for regarding the Addressed to the whole body of Bishops our delegates should be carefully picked
book as unsuitable for young readers.
of the Catholic Church in 1896 (and first men, and should confer with the Foreign
YOUR REVIEWER.
published March 9th, 1897), A translation office authorities for some months before
into English, reprinted with a Prefatory the Conference meets. If our representatives
Note and an Historical Introduction by are chosen merely for their names, appointed
John Wordsworth.
only a few weeks beforehand, and supplied
with vague and meagre instructions, our
AUTOGRAPH LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS.
Carpenter (S. C. ), A PARSON'S DEFENCE, 3/6 highly complex international problems must
contribution to the discussion of these
On Friday, May 31st, Messrs. Sotheby held a
net.
sale of autograph letters and documents, of
Longmans be ineffective. The author dismisses the
which the most important were the following: This is “an attempt to put the clerical question of the immunity of private property
A Collection of eleven documents relating to
Eugene Aram, 201. John Evelyn, letter to position, to express the creed of Christen from capture in time of war in a very few
Ralph Thoresby, July 19th, 1699, 201. 108. dom from the parson's point of view. " The pages, maintaining that by spreading the
Oliver Cromwell, holograph letter, one page, writer is Warden of the Caius College burden of war over the nation the evils of
February 18th, 1650, 2151. ; another, September Settlement in Battersea, and brings to his war are brought home to the whole com-
1st, 1852, 2101. William Pitt the Younger, task a wide experience of laymen; he munity. But this subject requires far more
Tolstoy, five letters to Ivan F. Mazhivin, 1907-8, brings to it also humour and outspokenness, detailed consideration, and, indeed, Dr.
121. 108. C. L. Dodgson, letter to Tom Taylor, and a knack of writing as if he were speaking, Higgins admits that in the near future it
asking to be introduced to Tenniel, December 20th, together with some turn for epigram and a will come into greater prominence. It is
1863, 241. 108. Washington, signed letter to facility in the choice of homely illustration. not improbable that the growing opinion
General Smallwood about the military operations In the method one is sometimas reminded in favour of immunity may receive more
which preceded the battle of Brandywine,
September 9th, 1777, 251. 108. ; letter to the Rev. of Mr. Chesterton; in the inner handling of sympathetic attention than it has hitherto.
W. Gordon, June 29th, 1777, 701. Charles and the matter there is something akin to Dr.
Mary Lamb, letter to Louisa Martin, March 28th, Figgis's books; but we say this, not to hint
poetry.
1809, 581. ; C. Lamb, letter to Miss Kelly, July 6th, that the book' is derivative far from it Campbell (Mrs. Victor), THE CHOICE, AND
1825, 301. Mary Lamb, letter to the same,
OTHER POEMS, 2/6 net.
March 27th, 1820, 151. 108. Byron, his special but to suggest to what school of thought it
Lynwood
marriage licence, December 23rd,' 1814, 631. belongs.
The value of Mrs. Campbell's verse is
Autograph MS. of ten stanzas from Don Juan,
largely depreciated by falling into the
July 10th, 1819, 1051. Shelley, letter to Byron,
December 21st, 1821, with a note from Byrºn to Chicago University: HISTORICAL AND LIN- alluring temptation of poetasters-allegoriz-
Moore on the back, 611. P. B. and Mary Shelley, GUISTIC STUDIES IN LITERATURE RE-
ing. She personifies the abstract stock-in-
letter to Jane Clairmont about Allegra, 1822, 961. LATED TO THE NEW TESTAMENT, issued trade_hope, despair, memory, passion,
Charlotte Brontë, MS. verses beginning
The
under the Direction of the Department sorrow, pity, friendship et hoc genus omne,
trunpet hath sounded, it's voice is gone forth,”
December 11th, 1831, 241. 108.
of Biblical and Patristic Greek. - First and declaims her exhortations to them after
the fashion of the scarlet 1} school. The
The total of the sale was 1,815l. 28, 6d.
Series, TEXTS ; Vol. II. GREEK TEXTS ;
Part II. THE TORONTO GOSPELS, by capital letter is sown profusely through
her
Edgar J. Goodspeed, 1/ net.
pages.
Illinois, University of Chicago; | Latin Love Poems, translated by J. M.
THE AUTH LIBRARY.
Cambridge, University Press Krause, 1/6 net.
Kegan Paul
The sale of the second portion of the Huth A careful collation of a Greek MS. of the Mr. J. A. Pott's. Greek Love Songs and Epi,
This pretty little volume is uniform with
Library, comprising the letters C and D, was
begun by Messrs. Sotheby on Wednesday, June four Gospels, written on parchment in a
5th. We append a list of the books which realized
grams,' and offers Latin on one page faced
minute cursive hand, which is assigned to by English on another-a severe test for
1001. and upwards during the first three days: the late eleventh or early twelfth century,
J. c. , Saint Marie Magdalen's Conversion, 1803, and is of special interest because it is not
any rendering. Mr. Krause keeps a good
1151. Jacques Cartier, A Shorte and Briefe
Narration of the Two Navigations and Dis-
mentioned in any of the published lists of average level, but does not equal the best
coveries to the North weast Partes called New Gospel
cursives. Now in the library of the inversions and feels the bondage of rhyme.
Fraunce, 1580, 2361. Cervantes, El Ingenioso University of Toronto, it was purchased by Still, it is pleasant to have this collection,
Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, Madrid, its former owner from an English dealer which brings together good things from
1605; the first issue, with the privilege for Madrid more than twenty years ago.
