Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/437

 Reviews. 417

deal of diligence has been given to the survey of the field and the search for information about ApoUonius ; the result is a book which illustrates in an interesting and useful way the common processes of transmission between different languages in the Middle Ages and the common forms employed in the publication of favourite stories. By means of Mr. Smyth's indications, the way may be found to a large number of sources for the study of mediaeval literature. Folklore has a much smaller place in the book than the literary and professional adaptations of romance according to the taste of different markets. But the interest of popular and oral tradition, distinct from that of the professional dealers in romance, is not left out of account. There are one or two oversights. In the passage about Solomon and his wife, in legend, there ought to have been a reference to Cliges, and to Professor W. Forster's Introduction in his edition of Chrestien de Troyes. Some names should be corrected : e.g. "Lopez de Vega," "Vincentius Bellovac," and " Alphonse le Savant," in the middle of an English sentence, used for Alphonso the Wise of Castile. Odense is not in Finland, and "lystig og fornojelig at Isese og hore " does not mean "jolly and novel io read and hear." These things are trivial, but they detract somewhat from the merit of the book and make the reader uncomfortable. Mr. Smyth, it should be noted, has reprinted the rhyming English ApoUonius fragment published by Halliwell in 1850.

Journal of the Folk-Song Society. Vol. I., No. i, 1899, pp. viii., 26. No. 2, 1900, pp. viii., 27 — 62. Printed for the Society by Spottiswoode & Co.

Our unpretending but vigorous offshoot, the Folk-Song Society, has now been at work for two years, and has fully justified its claim to a separate existence. Its scheme of operations consists of the collection, annual performance, and subsequent publication of inedited folk-music, as well words as airs, with notes thereon. The numbers of its annual /ourna/ for 1 899-1 900 are now before us. The first contains an introductory address by Sir Hubert Parry, one of the vice-presidents ; a paper on " Modal Survivals

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