Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/265

 10 s. viii. SEPT. 14, 1907.] .NOTES AND QUERIES.

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NOTES ON BOOKS &o.

The' Poems of William Dunbar. With Introduc- tion, Notes, and Glossary by H. Bellyse Baildon. (Cambridge, University Press.) THE number of students who are able to procure for themselves either of the great critical editions of Dunbar that published by the Scottish Text Society and that of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna is very limited, and a cheap issue of the poems accordingly comes as a real boon. For we think most lovers of literature will agree with us that while we may be content to borrow books of the meaner order, the greater writers can be read with complete satisfaction only in our own private copies. The present volume therefore, which gives an unexpurgated text we have to thank the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press for their wise decision in that matter together with an Introduction, notes, and a full glossary, is sure to be welcomed by all who now care for Dunbar, and will, we trust, induce many others to make acquaintance with a poet of remark- able gifts. Certainly no one who takes delight in the mere power of expression will be able to read these verses without keen enjoyment. Dunbar emphatically knows how to write, and a study of his better work is a valuable lesson in the art of handling words. His poems are extremly varied in style courtly, humorous, satirical, moral, and reli- gious : perhaps in no branch does he mount to the greatest heights, but in all he shows himself a genuine literary artist, and often something more. His forcible and copious vocabulary, his admirable technique, his sense of the right rhythm for his theme, are virtues of which any author might be proud. How his verse exults and rushes in that

Ejm of splendid praise ' In Honour of the City of ndon ' ! How archly and humorously it beats time in the description ' Of a Dance in the Quenis Chalmer ' ! With what an eager courtliness it welcomes the Princess Margaret on her arrival at Holyrood ! and with what a grave and pathetic cadence it cries, "Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia Vanitas " ! Of course this does not mean that Dunbar takes rank with the greatest poets ; that would be too much to claim for him. The foundation of his poetry, indeed, is intellectual rather than ima- ginative ; he has none of the divine intuitions of the supreme singers ; and though we read him with constant admiration, we never get from him the genuine thrill. In this respect he falls short ot Heine, with whom he has not very happily been compared, and of Villon, with whom he really has many points in common, and by whose work he appears to have been considerably influenced. Mr. Baildon declares that Dunbar "was undoubtedly of the school of Chaucer," and of course, in a sense, this is true ; but it might have been added that he points to a new era as well. Chaucer is genuinely mediseval; Dunbar, while he represents the close of medievalism, already shows, like Villon, marked traces of the modern spirit of the Renaissance, and it is largely owing to this that his poetry is so interesting.

Of Mr. Baildon's editorial W9rk it is unnecessary to speak at length. Much of it has naturally and

properly consisted in selection and condensation from the large editions, and it is sufficient to say that the wants of the general reader have been as- amply attended to as one could desire. The chief faults we have to find are a certain slovenliness of expression, sometimes more apparent than real, and an occasional lapse into annotation that strikes one- as a trifle ridiculous. Why, for instance, should Mr, Baildon employ the terms Middle Scots, Middle Scottish, and Middle Scotch, and not stick to the first? and why should he include in his- glossary words which do not occur in his text, the- references following them holding good only for the Vienna edition? And surely nothing could be more- futile than a comment upon Dunbar's deliciously whimsical ' Ballad of Kynd Kyttok ' to the effect that " in reading this poem one must bear in mind that it is sarcastic, and even paradoxical." But these are small matters, and we must conclude by expressing our sincere gratitude for a convenient and serviceable edition.

Since we finished this review, we regret to hear of Mr. Baildon's sad death last Saturday.

Short Studies on Great Subjects. By James Anthony

Froude. 5 vols. (Longmans & Co.) IT has long been the fashion to decry Froude for- his partisan tone as an historian, and in so doing to- lose sight of his greatness as a master of clear, lucid English. The 'Short Studies,' with their wide- range of subjects, historical, religious, literary, political, and fantastic, can be read especially the- historical with the more pleasure, even by persons holding views diametrically opposed to those of the author, because of their essay - character, which makes them rather emphatic expressions of per- sonal opinion than the dogmatism of the writer of history. It is true that the quality which has pro- voked criticism appears here also. In ' The Life- and Times of Thomas Becket,' for example, may be- observed, in its highest development, that tendency to special pleading, generally associated with Froude- an inclination to treat doubt as regards an accepted tradition as proof positive of its falsehood, and to assume from the vast mass of historical details which have not come down to us some that will confute the comparatively few that are known. These are dangerous weapons for the historian, but for the essayist they are of small account, and in- terfere no whit with the pleasure to be derived from Froude's controversial subjects ; while in such* delightful studies as 'A Bishop of the Twelfth Century' (with its vivid glimpses of contemporary life), "The Lives of the Saints,' 'A Cagliostro of the Second Century,' ' A Fortnight in Kerry,' or,, again, in the little parable of ' The Cat's Pilgrim- age,' they are hardly traceable. Moreover, in- dividuality is the essayist's essential gift, and! Froude possessed it in as strong a degree as any man before or since. We hope that the present admirable reissue, convenient as it is both hit form and type, will serve further to stimulate interest in this, not the least of the masters of English prose.

The National Review leads off with the vigorous, and always ^interesting summary, 'Episodes of the Month.' We are informed that " Germany remains- the one disturbing international element, and that "the German Emperor is personally responsible for the appalling anarchy in Morocco, which dates from his mischievous visit to Tangier." Sir Rowland