Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/433

 Rez'iezvs. 401

out the puzzle presented, I mention the tact tlut internal evidence makes it clear that page i of the book corresponds to page 89 of the periodical, and consequently a deduction of 88 from the number given in the index provides the zealous inquirer with the requisite page. It is a pity that carelessness of this kind should be allowed to blemish the production of a good book.

The book itself contains a mass of information, useful references, and valuable Quellenforschung. Its subject is of interest to the lover of Shakespeare, the student of folklore, and the explorer of that tortuous maze of erudite folly which tiie Middle Ages inherited from antiquity.

The starting point is the pictures of "the Ages of Man" familiar in mediaeval art, and to-day purchaseable in the markets of rustic Germany. Flanked, may be, on one side by Lord Roberts shaking hands with Cronje over the corpse of a white horse, and on the other, perhaps, by a picture of the War of Liberation, " the Ages of ^Lin " adorn many a cafe in Modern Greece. The prints are, I think, imported from Germany. They are very popular.

The conception of life as consisting of a series of defined stages is the product of an instinctive philosophy. IlaVra pet, life is a succession of changes, identity is a problem. The dichotomy of crabbed age and youth forces itself on the least attentive moraliser. Platitude after platitude it has evoked in all times and all ages. The triple division arises, according to Boll, from the dual. It is in a sense more real and corresponds to political fact. " We once were warriors," say Plutarch's old men ; " we are the warriors," reply the men ; " we are the better warriors of the future," chime in the boys. The quotation, if you will, is moralising, but none the less the boys, the warriors, the old men, wise in counsel though weakened in thew, represent the fundamental political analysis of society at a certain stage.

In antiquity the triple division was supported by the analogy of morning, noon, and evening, the quadruple was based on that of the four seasons. In art as well as in literature the four ages of life were popular. Sporadically 5, 6, 9, 10 occur as the number of the ages of man, but 3, 4, and, most important, 7 are the favourite.