Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/461

 Reviews and Notes 457 and critical reflections is difficult to understand. But it is a tribute to the prevailing thoroughness and catholicity of the editor's work that so few writings as these suggest themselves in so vast a field. The brief summaries of the history of dramatic criticism in the various periods are well condensed, and, so far as I have been able to test them, reasonably accurate and well proportioned. What one misses is any attempt to bring out clearly the signifi- cance of an era or of an individual critic for the development of the great critical principles which stand out from the subject, or what might be still more useful to guide the reader to their various sources. Suppose, for instance, that the book provided some index or table, if nothing more, which would enable one to trace out the theory of Probability or Verisimili- tude, the doctrine of the Unities, the definitions of comedy and tragedy, the question of poetic justice, of realism, of dramatic conflict, and other such cruces of criticism; its value would be enhanced, for the serious student, perhaps tenfold. Mr. Clark might well have devoted to some such end the space devoted, rather questionably, to biographies of the authors quoted; for it is surely of little use, for the purpose in hand, to give the familiar facts in the life of Dante, of Cervantes, or Moliere, or more recondite details such as that Jean de la Taille " took cold after the battle of Coutras." But if the editorial work is desti- tute of critical philosophy, the book is rich in materials that tempt the philosophic critic to interpret and analyze for himself. My suggestion of a possible index rerum, as distinguished from an index of names, brings to mind the fact that the actual index to the collection of authors and titles is the worst made feature of the volume, being one of the familiar examples of such work of the kind as may be done by a printer's clerk or anyone else who can read and write. For Aristotle there are 106 page entries, for Shakespeare 79, all without any indication of the topic or relationship involved, and without distinction between passing allusion and relevant discussion. Nor does the index, for the most part, cover the extensive bibliographical lists (though in a few cases it seems to have been stretched to do so) a field where it might be particularly serviceable. If a second edition of the book should appear, a new index should certainly be made. A few matters of detail may be noted. On page 41, under " Dramatic Criticism of the Middle Ages, " some mention of the remarks on tragedy by Boethius and Notker may be looked for; these are to be found in Cloetta's well known work which Mr. Clark cites on p. 43, under Donatus, but not under the general subject of medieval criticism. Chase's English Heroic Play, cited on p. 101, should be transferred to the section on drama of the Restoration. In like manner, Miss Wylie's Studies in the