Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/156

 150 Reviews and Notes the genesis of the ideas and the literary influences which deter- mined the form of each composition, and the result is always illuminating. His judgments are mature and well-balanced, show- ing no disposition to exaggerate the intrinsic value of Southey's work. There are pages of admirable psychological analysis, though perhaps in discussing Southey's character the writer is inclined to show too great a deference to Southey's weaknesses. It seems as if it were laboring a point too strenuously to explain a certain blindness of Southey's to the rational and his terrified re- actions to the vital and progressive forces of his time by reference to his sufferings from the visitations of death among those he loved. His experiences in this were not so unusual as to constitute a special plea. Dr. Haller writes excellently and altogether he has produced a book which satisfies every reasonable demand that the student of literature can make upon it. We wish him success in his design to continue the study here begun and we shall look forward with interest to the appearance of the next portion of his work. JACOB ZEITLIN. University of Illinois. ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER'S ENGLAND, edited by Dorothy Hughes, M.A., with a Preface by A. F. Pollard, M.A., Litt.D. [University of London Intermediate Source-books of History, No. I.] Longmans, Green and Co., London, New York, Bombay, etc. 1918. Pp. xiv+302. $2.50 net. Since 1857, when the English government adopted a plan pro- posed by the Master of the Rolls for the publication of original materials for English history, and since the founding of the Early English Text Society (1863), and the Chaucer Society (1868), English students of history and literature have more and more become accustomed to go to the sources for their facts. And the volume before us is a source-book. In the words of Mr. Pollard'^ Preface: "The immediate object of this volume, and of the series which it inaugurates, is of a prac- tical character. It is to remove some of the difficulties which beset students, teachers, and examiners in connection with the original texts prescribed as part of the Intermediate course and examination in history in the University of London." The editor is no novice in dealing with sources, as her "Early Years of Edward III, " published in 1915, well shows. Obviously, a book made up to suit the needs of a specific course in one institution is compelled to move within somewhat narrow lines and cannot be regarded as representing the wholly untram- meled choice of the editor. But owing to the fact that Mr. Pollard writes the preface, the editor herself nowhere tells us precisely what she is aiming to do. The title suggests to the