Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/495

 Reviews and Notes 491 already available. 4 Dr. Steeves' conclusion finds "the place of learned societies in the tradition of American literary scholarship relatively unimportant. The Modern Language Association only has produced work comparable in volume and significance to the productions of English learned societies. The book clubs, however, have played and are likely to continue to play, an important part in the furtherance of literary culture; in fact they compare favorably with their great predecessors in England and Scotland. Altogether, America's part in this special movement is very creditable," (p. 217). MARGARET LEWIS BAILEY. Smith College. THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE IN GERMAN LITERA- TURE. By Edwin Hermann Zeydel, Ph.D. New York: Columbia University Press, 1918. Pp. ix, 143. The title of the present monograph is too comprehensive, if not, indeed, misleading, although the author attempts to justify it by remarking in the Preface: "Originally the study was to be entitled Literary Satire at the Expense of the Holy Roman Empire, but in the course of the work it was found advis- able to adopt the present broader, more euphonious title." At the beginning of the study proper (p. 20), the aim to emphasize the satirical literature on the subject is stated again. Certainly a very wholesome restriction considering that, in spite of it, the material to be studied is still over-abundant, for the period to be covered is of course identical with the duration of the Empire discussed, extending over a thousand years from A.D. 800 onward. The author has divided his subject-matter into five chapters: The Period Prior to 1500 (pp. 20-33); The Sixteenth Centurv (pp. 34-59); The Century of the Thirty Years' War (pp. 60-76)'; The Eighteenth Century Before the Classical Period (pp. 77-87) ; and Goethe and His Contemporaries (pp. 88-120). To these he has prefixed an introductory chapter, entitled "Some His- torical Data" (pp. 1-19). The rest of the book is made up of "English Renderings of the Latin and Old German Citations" (pp. 121-131) and the Bibliography (pp. 132-143). An index is 4 A. Growoll: American Book Clubs, their Beginnings and History, and a Bibliography oj their Publications. New York, 1897. R. R. Bowker: Publications of Societies; a Provisional List of the Publica- tions of American Scientific, Literary and other Societies. . . New York, 1899. A.P.C. Griffin: Bibliography of American Historical Societies. . . 2nd. Ed., [Vol. II of Annual Report oj the American Historical Association for 1905}. Washington, 1907. (J. D. Thompson, Editor.) Handbook of Learned Societies and Institutions- America. Washington, Carnegie Institution, 1908.