Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/158

 152 Reviews and Notes Manifestly, a book containing less than three hundred pages of text in large print can present only a limited amount of historical detail and, as already remarked, can be of no special service to the advanced student who is plowing through the entire field. But on the other hand the book is in a high degree suggestive and stimulating to the beginner. The extracts dealing with the French War are skillfully selected so as to bring out the turning points in that great struggle and illustrate characteristic features of fourteenth century warfare. Peculiarly interesting is it to follow (pp. 70 ff.) the raids of the Black Prince in Gascony in 1355. The burning and pillaging of the towns, the laying waste of the country, the destruction of the bridges, all this has an amazing resemblance to what has been going on in France and Belgium and elsewhere during the past four years, with the difference that much that was normal warfare five hundred years ago is now regarded as savagery. One passage from Froissart (pp. 83, 84) telling of the ransom of prisoners after the battle of Poitiers throws some light on modern national traits: "And the knights and squires who were prisoners found the Englishmen and Gascons right courteous; there were many that day let go only on their promise of faith and truth to return again between then and Christmas to Bordeaux with their ransoms. . . . They constrained them no otherwise but that they asked them on their honour how much they could pay, without burdening them too mucji and willingly believed them. For they said that they would set no knight's or squire's ransom so high but that he might pay at his ease and maintain his degree according to his estate, and ride about to advance his person and his honour. The custom of the Germans nor their courtesy is not such, for they have neither pity nor mercy upon any gentleman, but ransom them to the full extent of their means, and beyond, and put them in stocks and chains, and keep them in prison as straitly as they can, to extort greater ransom from them." Special attention may be directed also to the thrilling descrip- tions of the battles of Crecy (pp. 46 ff .) and Poitiers (pp. 80 ff.) ; to the text of the Treaty of Bretigny (pp. 89 ff.); to the Statute of Artificers and Servants, 25 dw. Ill, Stat. 2 (pp. 155 ff.); to the passages relating to Wyclif (pp. 194 ff.). Possibly for students of history the amount of space devoted to the French War may not be excessive, yet most students of Chaucer will regret that social history gets rather scant measure. Some day we may hope to have a really adequate, first-hand presentation of the outstanding facts relating to the social life in Chaucer's day. But, all in all, though not primarily a handbook for students of Chaucer, the book is a good one for any student who aims to understand the fourteenth century as a whole, and it is likely to lead those who use it intelligently to independent conclusions.