Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/125

 Reviews. 109

but helping and encouraging the preservation of what remains of the Celtic heritage of the past.

M. de Villemarque's work is scarcely acknowledged (save in a note) for what it is, namely, a brilliant forgery by a man of talent who amused himself by his artificial and romantic " recon- struction " of an epoch he never knew. Breton literature indeed deserved a little more detailed treatment than is accorded it here, especially as information affecting the tongue and literary output of La Bretagne bretonnante is not accessible to most Englishmen. There is a more serious lacuna still in the absence of any account of modern Welsh literature. The mighty David, beloved of Borrow, is apparently unknown to Dr. Maclean ; and the remarkable history of Welsh verse and Welsh prose, of Welsh versions (such as the renowned " Blind Bard ") and Welsh paraphrases, and all the amazing amount of vernacular printing (and some reprinting) in Wales is wholly unmentioned. A history of Celtic literature that omits so much is obviously imperfect and inadequate. Dr. Maclean should seek further Welsh collaboration, cut down and excise much that he has written, limit himself to essentials, put his work into more methodic form, cut away all his own hypotheses and conjectures, and so get somewhat nearer his aim of writing a popular survey of Celtic literature than the present unbalanced and sadly imperfect but well-meant volume can ever come. Let Dr. Maclean read and mark such manuals as those of Dr. Mackail, Mr. Murray, or Mr. Brooke, or any good French manual of litera- ture, and he will find models he will do well to follow as best he can in his next edition.

F. York Powell.

Short Notices.

Les Infiue?ices Celtiques avant et apres Cohwiban ; Essai historique et archeologiqiie par Ch. R(xssler. Illustrations. 8vo. Paris. 1902.

In this little essay M. Roessler tries to show his countrymen the interest of the study of Celtic antiquities. He is not himself by any means an advanced student, but he is full of enthusiasm and has read a good deal, though not always wisely. His book may