bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Who Was “Cenus” in the Poem To the Memory of Mr. Congreve?
Authors: Williams George G.
Published: February 2007

The poem To the Memory of Mr. Congreve, first printed in 1729, is usually attributed to James Thomson, although his authorship of it has been questioned. This poem was not reprinted until 1843, since which date some editors have included it in their collections of Thomson's works, and some have excluded it. I hope soon to present some hitherto unrecorded evidence that this poem was written by Thomson, and accordingly in the present paper I proceed on the assumption that he was its author. At the same time, as I shall try to show, the conclusion which this paper seeks to establish will itself supply important evidence in support of Thomson's authorship.
Changing Taste in the Eighteenth Century
Authors: Havens Raymond D.
Published: February 2007

For some time the conviction has been growing that many of the current generalizations concerning eighteenth-century literature have been arrived at by the à priori, or deductive, method. A few outstanding figures that have been studied with considerable care have furnished the chief and sometimes the only basis for characterizations of the period. The age has suffered, as most ages have, from the tendency to dogmatize as to what the people of the time must have thought, and from the corresponding neglect of that humbler and more arduous task of finding out what, as a matter of fact, they said.
Voltaire's Name
Authors: Wade Ira Owen
Published: February 2007

Ever since the Chevalier de Rohan met Voltaire at the Comédie Française and asked: “M. de Voltaire, M. Arouet, comment vous appelez-vous?” his name has been the subject of much dispute. Lately, the discussion was reopened when a certain M. P., having read in Excelsior that Voltaire was the name of a house in Saint-Loup, addressed a query to the Intermédiaire des chercheurs et des curieux in an effort to verify the statement. Students, admirers, or compatriots of Voltaire immediately gave their views, but other than a restatement of several of the old theories no positive result was gained. Somewhat previously Mr. G. B. Watts published a short article upon “Voltaire's Change of Name,” but this article did not aim to throw light upon the general problem. At the present writing, Desnoiresterres' treatment of the subject and that of Maynard remain the most satisfactory. Nevertheless, neither critic pretended to have solved the question. They merely endeavored to collect in compact form the various theories previously proposed. Even in this modest endeavor, their presentations are defective, for, although they were prevented by circumstances from uniting all the theories, they have not always been careful to weigh their testimony. Moreover, the origin of the name is only one of three questions confronting the investigator. We are not only interested in how Voltaire chose his name, we are further curious to know why and when he did so. In the discussion which follows I do not claim to have solved these three questions; I shall be satisfied if I succeed in offering suggestions which may contribute to their solution.
A Study of Clough's Mari Magno
Authors: Turner Albert Morton
Published: February 2007

Mari Magno, by Arthur Hugh Clough, is a series of six narratives in verse related by voyagers across the Atlantic. Clough wrote these tales during his travels for health through southern Europe in the final year of his life—the last tale, indeed, on his very deathbed—and he left them unrevised at the end. Though in themselves deficient in narrative power, these tales present to the literary investigator two distinct problems, neither of which has as yet been satisfactorily solved. The first of these relates to the extent to which Clough in his narrative drew upon the events of his own life; the second is the question of the nature and the importance of the influence exerted upon him by the works of other authors, particularly Chaucer and Crabbe.
Attila's and Beowulf's Funeral
Authors: Klaeber Fr.
Published: February 2007

By way of caution a sub-title should be added: “A Set of Questions”—questions, that is, to which I do not presume to return a positive answer.

The classical parallels (Vergil, Homer) of Beowulf's obsequies as well as the Jordanes parallel are well known to students of Old English literature (cf. Klaeber's edition, pp. 209, 213, 216). It is especially the latter which has commonly been considered of very great value as illustrating the authentic character of the notable closing scene of Beowulf. “The accuracy [of the Beowulfian funeral],” says Chadwick1—to cite an English authority—“is confirmed in every point by archeological or contemporary literary evidence. We may refer especially to the account of Attila's funeral given by Jordanes.” Again, “the agreement between the two versions could not possibly be greater; here [i.e., in the recital of Attila's obsequies] everything is Germanic”—this was the verdict of Kögel,2 who regarded that 49th chapter of Jordanes' history3 as a most precious source of information on ancient Germanic poetry. It is true, certain differences between the sixth century and the eighth century version did not escape observation, as may be seen from Chambers' Introduction to Beowulf, p. 124, or from Klaeber's Edition, p. 216. But it remained for Edward Schröder's incisive article (ZfdA. LIX, 240-44) to aim a deadly blow at the famous account of Attila's funeral as currently interpreted.
Hrethric
Authors: Malone Kemp
Published: February 2007

Two minor characters in Beowulf are Hreðric and Hroðmund, the young sons of the aged Danish king Hroðgar. The English poet represents the two princes as mere boys, too young to do anything. Yet they are not introduced simply to complete the picture of the royal household. On the contrary, they are the central and unifying figures in an episode so fraught with pity and terror that even now, after twelve centuries, we read and are deeply moved. Let us examine this episode, and see, if we can, what the poet was about.

The night before, Beowulf had put Grendel to flight, and all day the Danes have been celebrating his victory. The celebration ends with a feast in Heorot. The poet exclaims over the feasters: “I never heard of a people with a greater band of men, a finer array around their lord” (1011 f.). But the picture of such peace and happiness has for the poet and his hearers a tragic irony, for they know it will be short-lived.
An Obscure Analogue of the Compleat Angler
Authors: Lloyd Claude
Published: February 2007

In both his Life of Sir Henry Wotton and The Compleat Angler, Izaac Walton testifies to Wotton's love of angling. Wotton was, says Walton, “a most dear lover, and frequent practiser of the art,” and intended “to write a Discourse of the Art, and in praise of Angling.” Doubtless when Walton went down from London to visit Wotton at Eton, they would turn aside from discussions of letters and the vexatious questions of church and state to talk about fish and the best methods of catching them. It is not improbable that they cast their lines together in convenient brooks and rivers. Was their talk about angling overheard by a lad who later made both a literal and a literary application of their ideas? It is not unlikely; and it would seem that herein lies a kinship between the fourth section of Robert Boyle's Occasional Reflections and the great masterpiece of mid-seventeenth century literature.
Macpherson on Pinkerton: Literary Amenities of the Eighteenth Century
Authors: Craigie W. A.
Published: February 2007

In the latter part of the eighteenth century one of the most notable scholars and editors in the field of the older Scottish literature was the learned and energetic John Pinkerton, who began to publish his own poetry at the age of eighteen, brought out several volumes of poems and ballads before he was twenty-five, wrote valuable contributions to the history of Scotland, published two collections of old Scottish poetry, as well as editions of Barbour's “Bruce,” etc.,—and then after 1800 went off into entirely new lines in his “Modern Geography,” “General Collection of Voyages and Travels,” “New Modern Atlas,” and even a “Petralogy.”
The Pearl—A New Interpretation
Authors: Greene Walter Kirkland
Published: February 2007

Spenser, realizing how doubtfully his allegory or dark conceit might be construed, wrote a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh explaining, in part, the general structure of The Faerie Queene. The poet of the Pearl, except within the poem itself, has given us no inkling of its meaning. The attempt to find that meaning has been and is yet a matter of unusual interest to scholars.
Spenser and Boiardo
Authors: Blanchard Harold H.
Published: February 2007

No systematic study of the parallels in the Orlando Innamorato and the Faerie Queene has hitherto been presented. Random references to analogues were noted by Upton,1 but most of them remain of little value as positive proof of influence.
The Later Career of the Elizabethan Villain-Hero
Authors: McIntyre Clara F.
Published: February 2007

The “villain-hero,” as he developed in the plays of Marlowe and in those of some later Elizabethans, is a distinct and important type of character. Moreover, he did not make his final exit with the ending of the Elizabethan period, but has reappeared at various times since, especially during the Romantic Revival at the end of the eighteenth century. This “Romantic Movement,” as we are accustomed to call it, was in many ways a revival of the earlier Romantic spirit which we call Elizabethanism. Nothing shows the resemblance between the two periods more strikingly than this habit of taking for the dominating figure in the story a man of great power, stained with crime.
Shelley and the Empire of the Nairs
Authors: Graham Walter
Published: February 2007

In the year 1793, James Lawrence, an Englishman living on the Continent, contributed to Wieland's Deutsche Merkur an essay on what he called the “Nair system of gallantry and inheritance.” The system was highly Utopian. Its main ideas were so distinctly different from those of even the radical philosophers and theorists, that the essay must have attracted considerable attention. We know from Wieland's footnotes in the Merkur that he was interested.
Another Source for The Cloister and the Hearth
Authors: Turner Albert Morton
Published: February 2007

Charles Reade's masterpiece, The Cloister and the Hearth, gives an admirable picture of life in the Fifteenth Century. The reader wanders along deserted roads and through deep forests; he sees the inside of cottages, monasteries, inns, caves, and palaces; he makes the acquaintance of peasants and nobles, churchmen and artists, hermits and robbers. The life so opulently pictured is not limited to one country, but flows through Holland, Germany, Burgundy, and Italy.
English Iambic Mete
Authors: Routh James
Published: February 2007

In classifying the feet of English verse and their variations we may remove some of the difficulties, and some of the divergencies in the conclusions, by a scientific defining of the terms stressed and unstressed syllables. For simplicity we may confine the discussion at present to iambic feet.
Milton and Marston
Authors: Damon S. Foster
Published: February 2007

A possible source for the opening lines of L'Allegro, apparently unnoted hitherto, is to be found in the opening lines of the last satire in John Marston's Scourge of Villanie:

Sleep grim Reproofe, my iocond Muse doth singIn other keyes, to nimbler fingering.Dull sprighted Melancholy, leaue my braineTo hell Cimerian night, in liuely vaineI striue to paint, then hence all darke intentAnd sullen frownes, come sporting meriment,Cheeke dimpling laughter, crowne my very souleWith iouisance, whilst mirthfull iests controuleThe goutie humours of these pride-swolne dayes,Which I doe long vntill my pen displaies.0 I am great with mirth, some midwifrie,Or I shall breake my sides at vanitie.Roome for a capering mouth, whose lips nere stur,But in discoursing of the gracefull slur:Who euer heard spruce skipping CurioEre prate of ought, but of the whirle on toe
Milton and the Epic Subject from British History
Authors: Jones Putnam Fennell
Published: February 2007

Scholars have explained why Milton chose Paradise Lost as the subject for his great epic, but they have not directly considered his reasons for giving up his original plan of writing a heroic poem about the half-mythical figures of the Britons who preceded the Germanic tribes in England. Reasons may well be sought. Certainly the selective process consists not only in approving the good characteristics inhering in one alternative; it also recognizes the defects and disadvantages in the alternative which is rejected. It is my aim in the following pages to show that these negative considerations had their share in determining Milton to write “Of Man's first disobedience” rather than of

what resoundsIn fable or romance of Uther's son,Begirt with British and Armoric knights.
Optimism and Romanticism
Authors: Lovejoy Arthur O.
Published: February 2007

The purpose of this paper is, first, to attempt to correct a still rather widely prevalent error concerning the logical import and the usual emotional temper of eighteenth-century optimism, and, second, to point out that the significance in the history of ideas of the multiplication and the popularity of theodicies in the first half of that century consisted less in the tendency of these arguments to diffuse optimistic views of the nature of reality than in their tendency to procure acceptance for certain new ideas of the nature of the good, which the logical exigencies of the optimistic argument involved—ideas pregnant with important consequences for both ethics and aesthetics, since they were to be among the most distinctive elements in what perhaps best deserves to be named “Romanticism.”
The Authorship of The Taming of the Shrew
Authors: Kuhl Ernest P.
Published: February 2007

For well nigh a century and three-quarters the authorship of The Taming of the Shrew has been a Shaksperian problem; Warburton was apparently the first to question that it was the work of a single author. According to him The Shrew represents the work of Shakspere to the extent “that he has, here and there, corrected the dialogue, and now and then added a Scene.” This view was held by Steevens, who believed, however, that Shakspere's hand was visible in almost every scene, particularly in those scenes between tamer and shrew. In 1857 Grant White proposed the theory of dual composition: a collaborator supplied the love element of the underplot, whereas to Shakspere belonged “the strong, clear characterization, the delicious humor, and the rich verbal coloring of the recast Induction, and all the scenes in which Katharine and Petruchio and Grumio are the prominent figures, together with the general effect produced by scattering lines and words and phrases here and there, and removing others elsewhere throughout the rest of the play.” In general, White's theory has prevailed down to the present day; it was supported by that industrious student, Fleay, and Professor A. H. Tolman. On the other hand, not a few writers, on aesthetic or general grounds, have voiced the opinion that Shakspere worked unaided: notable among these is Miss Charlotte Porter. It is the purpose of the present study, by undertaking a more systematic investigation, to show that Shakspere is responsible for the entire play.
A Victorian Faust
Authors: McKillop Alan D.
Published: February 2007

I

In 1833 a precocious seventeen-year-old boy, Philip James Bailey, came from Nottingham to London; and thus reached, in time and space, the very centre of the nascent Victorianism which he was destined so curiously to illustrate. Initiated by his father into liberal politics and theology, and by his own youthful reading into the spirit of romanticism, he set himself to writing endless verses that should be at once theology and romantic poetry. Bailey's Festus has been known to three generations of readers who have scarcely thought, perhaps, of the position of the work in literature or of the poet himself. The present paper is concerned with the poem Festus rather than with Philip James Bailey, although documents recently come to hand make it possible for us to follow his life in the thirties with some detail. And yet there is surprisingly little about London in Bailey's early letters. He did not, like Browning in the same decade, make his way into literary and theatrical circles; almost his only literary acquaintance seems to have been John Robertson, the editor who preserved himself like a fly in amber by telling Carlyle that “he meant to do Cromwell himself.” Although Bailey occasionally submitted his verses to the London editor as well as to his father, he seems not to have been open to suggestions.
Drayton's Sirena Again
Authors: Jenkins Raymond
Published: February 2007

Any attempt to interpret an allegorical pastoral which was written three hundred years ago is a stimulating but precarious undertaking. Particularly is this true when the author deliberately exercises his ingenuity to make his allegory difficult of interpretation even by his contemporaries. This generalization is especially applicable to Drayton's pastoral allegory, The Shepheards Sirena. Any number of hypotheses may be erected; none, I think, can be completely and satisfactorily substantiated. Replying to my former article, Professor J. William Hebel recognizes this limitation of our knowledge when he remarks: “Possibly we are too far away from The Shepheards Sirena, and have too little information, to arrive at a completely satisfactory interpretation of the dark conceit of the poem.”
Henry Vaughan as a Nature Poet
Authors: Judson Alexander C.
Published: February 2007

In spite of Henry Vaughan's widely recognized significance as an early poet of nature, discussion of his nature poetry has almost always been incidental to a general consideration of the man and his work. The feeling that a more systematic examination of his nature poetry would be of value has prompted the present study.
The Rules of Common School Grammars
Authors: Fries Charles C.
Published: February 2007

Although the present-day popular views of grammar do not, in medieval fashion, find “divine inspiration in the eight parts of speech” and veiled references to the Trinity in “the three persons of verbal conjugation” yet they do look upon the rules of the common school grammars as the infallible measure of correct language, and the one defence against the forces of corruption that continually beset it. “Grammatici unus finis est recté loqui” still expresses the attitude of the ordinary public, of most school teachers, and of many men of letters. Even a hundred years of the historical method in linguistic scholarship has failed to affect in any marked degree the common grammatical ideas and ideals of the general public.
The Title of Sedaine's Le Philosophe Sans Le Savoir
Authors: Wade Ira Owen
Published: February 2007

Le Philosophe Sans Le Savoir has always been one of the most discussed of the eighteenth-century plays. Ever since it was presented to the police censors for approval and permission to be played, it has been subjected to diversified criticism. This criticism, however, has failed to solve several questions arising from contradictory statements made at the time of the play's appearance. The original title of the play, the reason for the hesitation between the two titles, and the relation of the title to the principal character are still unsolved questions which hinder the accurate interpretation of Sedaine's work.
Blake and Thomas Taylor
Authors: Pierce Frederick E.
Published: February 2007

The mystical philosophical (or pseudo-philosophical) tendencies of the English romantic movement probably owed a good deal to Thomas Taylor. From the publication of Cowper's Task and Burns' Kilmarnock poems to the death of Shelley and Byron, Taylor poured out an unceasing stream of commentaries and translations elucidating for England the doctrines of Plato and the Neo-Platonists. To be sure, his works had very limited sale, and most of one edition was locked up for a lifetime in the archives of the rich nobleman who financed its publication. But no man could print so much and receive as many comments as he did without having a definite effect.
The Coward Knight and the Damsel of the Car
Authors: Muchnic Helen
Published: February 2007

Among the many curious episodes in the Grail Romance, Perlesvaus, that of the Coward Knight has received comparatively little attention. It is mentioned by Birch-Hirschfeld and by Brugger and a few pages are devoted to it by Professor Nitze in his dissertation. The most recent, as well as the fullest, treatment which it has received thus far is that given to it by Miss Jessie Weston. Professor Nitze and Miss Weston make the story of the Coward Knight the basis of their argument as to the relative date of Perlesvaus and Manessier's continuation of Chrétien, since this happens to be the only episode common to these two texts. But though they deal with precisely the same evidence they arrive at opposite conclusions. The question, therefore, appears to be one which invites further discussion. Before considering their arguments, however, it will be convenient to have before us an outline of those portions of the romance which deal with the Coward Knight and his lady, the Damsel of the Car.
Sur le Zadig de Voltaire; Quelques Influences Probables
Authors: Rovillain Eugène E.
Published: February 2007

De nombreuses recherches ont été faites pour retrouver les sources des romans de Voltaire, recherches fructueuses en ce qui concerne Zadig.

L'objet de ce travail n'est nullement de remonter à des sources
déjà mentionnées, mais bien d'indiquer des sources possibles, ou
plutôt des rapprochements de quelque intérêt, entre Ie Zadig de
Voltaire et certains ouvrages qui l'ont précédé. Dans les résumés
et paralléles que nous ferons de Zadig et de ces oeuvres, les expressions
en italiques seront tirées des auteurs mêmes.
The Stage Adventures of Some Gothic Novels
Authors: Thorp Willard
Published: February 2007

The characteristic drama of the first years of the nineteenth century was, as everyone knows, absurdly romantic and sentimental. Incited by the extravagant Kotzebue and charmed into emulation by the new mélodrame from France, the first specimen of which reached England in 1802, the English playwrights supplied the stage with a variety of plots involving robber barons, victims of the Inquisition, captive maidens and sentimental villains. Frequently they seasoned these delicacies with supernatural horrors and garnished them with vaulted halls, sepulchral chambers, and dungeons.
Sir Walter Scott's Review of Jane Austen's Emma
Authors: Reitzel William
Published: February 2007

In 1816 The Quarterly Review issued its number for October 1815, and among the articles was a review of Miss Austen's most recent novel Emma. This was the review, universally attributed ever since to Sir Walter Scott, and consistently spoken of as “that magnanimous article”. Biographers of both Scott and Jane Austen point to it with pleasure as a signal example of one genius recognizing another. In view of the prominence accorded to this review in the literary histories it is remarkable that no one has taken pains to enquire into the truth of its ascription to such a distinguished pen, especially since a discrepancy exists between the date of this review and the dates of Scott's recorded utterances on Jane Austen, and further since the review itself is unlike Scott's known critical work.
Melville's Benito Cereno and Captain Delano's Voyages
Authors: Scudder Harold H.
Published: February 2007

In Putnam's Monthly Magazine for October, 1855, appeared the first installment of a sea story entitled Benito Cereno, which was continued and concluded in the November and December numbers. Following the established custom of that periodical, the story was printed without signature: and it remained unacknowledged until the following year, when it was included in The Piazza Tales, a volume of short stories by Herman Melville. Lost for half a century in the oblivion which engulfed all that Melville wrote, it did not again appear in type until its inclusion in the Standard Edition of Constable and Company in 1924. This year it has been republished separately in a limited edition by the Nonesuch Press.
The English Controversy over Realism in Fiction 1885-1895
Authors: Frierson William C.
Published: February 2007

It is well known that a heated controversy took place during the eighteen-nineties over the inclusion of fact, brutal fact, in fiction. It is likewise well known that the controversy ended with a partial victory for the “New Realists.” The chief literary historians of the period—W. G. Blaikie-Murdock, Holbrook Jackson, Harold Williams, and Oscar Burdett—agree in dating the change during the early years of the decade. Of these writers, however, Holbrook Jackson alone has indicated—and then only in romantic generalizations—the turbulent clash of ideas which accompanied the transition. In Emile Zola, Novelist and Reformer 1904, Ernest Vizetelly describes with strong partisan feeling the outcry against his father's published translations of Zola's works. But Vizetelly takes us no further than the year 1889, when his father was imprisoned, and he does not deal with the subsequent reaction in England toward tolerance and even sympathy. Accordingly, Vizetelly's account fails to give an adequate appreciation of the important results which followed the controversy over realism, in fixing the chief line of development which English fiction was to take for at least thirty-five years.
The Genealogical Novel, A New Genre
Authors: Zucker A. E.
Published: February 2007

As a direct result of the widespread discussion of Evolution during the third quarter of the nineteenth century and the new interest aroused in the doctrine of heredity, there appeared toward the end of the century a new genre of the novel. The genealogical novel is in itself an interesting phenomenon, marking the introduction of a new type of fiction ruled by science. Additional interest is given to the investigation through the remarkable circumstance that this new type of novel was projected contemporaneously and independently by two writers, Emile Zola and Samuel Butler, one in France and one in England.
I. The “Donna Angelicata” in The Ring and the Book
Authors: Shaw J. E.
Published: February 2007

It cannot be denied that the personages in Browning's great poem, The Ring and the Book, are of the poet's own making, and he himself would have been the first to acknowledge them as his own creatures. On the other hand, his repeated assertions that, in mingling his fancy with the material derived from the Old Yellow Book, he has not misinterpreted the facts contained in his source, and the insistence upon the poet's historical fidelity by the editor of the “Book” and other critics, have been regarded with suspicion. Indeed, the question has recently been raised whether The Ring and the Book is not a glorious misinterpretation of The Old Yellow Book.
III. Actors' Names in the Registers of St. Bodolph Aldgate
Authors: Denkinger Emma Marshall
Published: February 2007

Last summer I undertook a systematic examination of the Registers of the London parish of St. Botolph Aldgate, in the hope that they might yield some new material in regard to the members of the Elizabethan acting companies. The Registers of this parish seemed worth the combing for several reasons. In the first place, within the limits of St. Botolph, along its western boundary, lay Houndsditch, which was tenanted by pawn-brokers and dealers in cast-off clothing, just such gentry as might attract the patronage of indigent players who were called upon to supply their own wardrobes. Houndsditch, in turn, led directly to Bishopsgate. The proximity of this district to Aldgate supplied another reason for searching the records of St. Botolph's, inasmuch as Elizabethan actors were likely to establish themselves in the neighborhood of their employment; and in and about Bishopsgate stood several playhouses: on Bishopsgate Street proper stood the Bull Inn (1575-1590); and on Gracious [Gracechurch] Street, the Bell Inn (1560-1576) and the Cross Keys (1588-1596). Or, following Bishopsgate to its northern end, one arrived within short distance at Shoreditch with its famous Theatre (1576-1599) and Curtain (1577-1634?). Nor were these neighboring playhouses the only ones which might have attracted actors to St. Botolph's. At least one theatre, the Boar's Head, existed within the confines of the Aldgate district. The exact location of this playhouse (or converted inn) is open to doubt, but whether it was within or without the Bars, the Boar's Head was clearly on Aldgate High Street and well within the parish of St. Botolph.
X. Emerson on the Organic Principle in Art
Authors: Foerster Norman
Published: February 2007

One could not desire a better instance of the need of defining critical terms than is afforded by a comparison of Poe's and of Emerson's definition of art. Since Poe defined poetry as “the rhythmical creation of beauty,” he would necessarily have defined art in general as “the creation of beauty.” Now, although Emerson's view of art is in striking contrast with Poe's, he begins with these very words. In his first book, Nature, he says, “The creation of beauty is Art.” What does he mean?
Goethe in his Diaries
Authors: Schilling Hugo K.
Published: February 2007

In casting about for a subject suited to this audience with its diverse if fundamentally related interests I regretted at first that I was not, like some of my distinguished predecessors, inspired with a message on some general educational, literary, or linguistic topic. A technical paper from my field of study was, of course, barred. But I thought of the warning of Faust that to reach human hearts one must speak from the heart:

Doch werdet ihr nie Herz zu Herzen schaffen,

Wenn es euch nicht von Herzen geht.

And I iisked myself what in all my study of Goethe had given me the most heartfelt joy, that innre Wrme, Seelenwrme, Mittelpunkt which he prized so highly; and in that respect I had to place the appreciation of Goethe the man even above that of Goethe the poet. Moreover, human interest has a universal appeal. So I chose for my subject the human Goethe, his personality as it appears net so much in his works as rather in the details of his life.
The Construction of Piers Plowman
Authors: Wells Henry W.
Published: February 2007

Many strikingly divergent views have been advanced as to the structural integrity or looseness of Piers Plowman. Its early critics, to be sure, had little to say upon the subject but there seemed to be general agreement in the view that the work is loosely put together. The long summaries by Morley and others, for example, give small evidence that the critics had detected any strong organizing elements in the design. With the strenuous attack by Professor Manly, a new epoch in the criticism of the work began. Scholars who favored multiple authorship naturally agreed that the poem lacks a well defined plan, and even advanced the view that we have in fact not only from two to five authors but from two to five poems, all upon themes in important respects dissimilar and more or less loosely constructed. While Professor Manly tore Piers' seamless coat asunder, the advocates of a single authorship—somewhat less emphatically, to be sure—found relative coherence in the poem as a whole and discounted the view that the style is excessively digressive. Throughout the controversy the critics dealt largely with textual problems, only occasionally turning to consider the primary subject-matter of the work. The articles of Mensendieck furnished the most important contributions to an interpretation of an underlying plan, especially in regard to the most difficult section, the Vita de Do-Well. His chief concern, however, was with a few theses relating to special passages, so that his studies hardly deal with the larger problem of the enveloping thoughts of the poem, if indeed such thoughts exist. Thus far investigation has resulted in many contradictory views but in no detailed statement upon the cardinal problem in the interpretation of Piers Plowman.
Defense of Criseyde
Authors: Graydon Joseph S.
Published: February 2007

Strange perversions of the story, tending to the disparagement of Criseyde, began almost in her creator's lifetime, and have been repeated and enlarged upon down to the present day. She has been accredited with a versatility in vice that matches the accusations of Catullus against bis lost Lesbia.
Chaucer on Preachers and Preaching
Authors: Chapman Coolidge Otis
Published: February 2007

Elsewhere I have undertaken to show that the sermons of Chaucer's Pardoner and Parson conform to the practice of the mediaeval pulpit. It remains to examine Chaucer's utterances regarding preachers and preaching, in order to determine the full extent of his knowledge of the ars praedicandi. I shall treat the passages regarding the methods of sermon making, the times and places of preaching, the conduct of the preacher in the pulpit, and finally the audience.
The Origin of the Long-Bow
Authors: Pancoast Henry S.
Published: February 2007

There is no doubt about the effectiveness of the long-bow in the hands of a skilful archer. There is no doubt that the skilful employment of the archers, armed with this formidable weapon, contributed largely to the English victories in the Hundred Years War. The long-bow, peculiarly adapted to the foot-soldier rather than the knight or the horseman, seems a fitting national weapon for a nation which, even in the Middle Ages, showed a more democratic temper than did the great Continental powers.
Was Gilbert Pilkington Author of the Secunda Pastorum?
Authors: Foster Frances A.
Published: February 2007

In his recent paper, “The Authorship of the Secunda Pastorum” Mr. Oscar Cargill brings forward an entirely new suggestion. Observing that the same bob-wheel stanza is used in the burlesque poem known as the Turnament of Totenham, he makes a detailed comparison with the Towneley Play which discloses a series of striking similarities in humor and in characterization as well as in metre and language. The reader's surprise when these resemblances are called to his attention is quickly succeeded by astonishment that they had not been observed previously. On the basis of these similarities Mr. Cargill very plausibly concludes that the Turnament is also the work of the Wakefield playwright. And whatever difficulties one may find in following the further steps in Mr. Cargill's argument, he deserves the thanks of all students of the early drama for throwing this new light on the activities of the author of the Secunda Pastorum.
The York Plays and the Gospel of Nichodemus
Authors: Clark Eleanor Grace
Published: February 2007

In her study of the relationship of the York and Towneley Plays, Dr. Marie C. Lyle directed special attention to a series of discrepancies which she found between the description of the York plays given by Burton in his list in 1415 and the extant text of these plays. Noting the fact that these discrepancies occurred in plays which incorporated material from the Gospel of Nichodemus, she undertook to account for them by supposing that these plays as we have them represent a revision, made subsequent to Burton's list, under the influence of the Middle English metrical Gospel of Nichodemus.
Contemporary Satire in Otway's Venice Preserved
Authors: Moore John Robert
Published: February 2007

From the accession of Charles II, English drama manifested a continuous strain of political satire, most of it in favor of the Court party. The Roundheads, the citizens, the Presbyterians, the opposers of the Crown, above all the foremost Liberal of the day, Anthony Ashley Cooper, later the Earl of Shaftesbury, were fair game to be attacked in a prologue, an epilogue, and even at times in a full-length character portrayal or an entire play.
Ritson's Life of King Arthur
Authors: Hopkins Annette B.
Published: February 2007

Ritson in a letter to Scott, dated July 2, 1803, writes: “I have put into Mr. Longman's hands at his own request, for the opinion of some critic he is used to consult, my ‘Life of King Arthur.’” Again, in a letter of August 16, 1803 to his nephew, Joseph Frank, editor of his correspondence, he says: “I will give you .... all of my late publications, if you have not got them already; then, such as are to come: ‘the Life of King Arthur,’ which I have finished, etc.”. (Letters, II, 247 f.). Ritson died September 23, 1803. From the editor's advertisement to King Arthur we learn: “The curious work now offered to the world was prepared for the press by Mr. Ritson, with a view to immediate publication, a short time before his death.” Thus, the date of composition is clearly 1803. The book marks the culmination of Ritson's researches into the history and literature of the middle ages; it was the fruit of mature experience in a life devoted to scholarly investigation.
Wordsworth and Philosophy
Authors: Stallknecht Newton P.
Published: February 2007

Suggestions Concerning the Source of the Poet's Doctrines and the Nature of His Mystical Experience

“. . . . his eyes

Have read the book of wisdom in the sun,

And after dark deciphered it on earth“—E. A. Robinson

To Call Wordsworth a great philosopher would, I suppose, if we put the word to its customary use, be extravagant. For he left the world no synthesis of doctrine that could be called his own. And yet his philosophy is a fascinating study, for although many may have understood with greater acuteness the numerous doctrines that appear in his poems, none could feel with an intensity greater than his, their human significance and value. Wordsworth's interests led him to demand more of philosophy than do most reflective men ; besides seeking a criterion of the good and probing into the problem of human freedom, he looked for an explanation of his own strange communion with Nature. Thus his philosophical life, proving as it did the source of some of the finest metaphysical and religious poetry in literature, was a deep and a rich one. It led him to absorb the teachings of many thinkers and to incorporate their doctrines in his poems.
Notes on John Cleveland
Authors: Gapp S. V.
Published: February 2007

Since the appearance of Professor Berdan's edition of Cleveland's poems little has been added to our knowledge concerning the poet's biography. The purpose of this paper is to present certain biographical data which supplement those given by Professor Berdan.
The Sources of Hawthorne's Feathertop
Authors: Kern Alfred A.
Published: February 2007

According to entries in his Note Books which have often been pointed out, Hawthorne in 1843 was reading a “tale of Tieck”; and it has been conjectured that this tale was Die Vogelscheuche, which thus served as the source of Feathertop. On the other hand, the resemblance of Feathertop to the following entry of 1840 in the Note Books has also been frequently noted: “To make a story out of a scarecrow, giving it odd attributes. From different points of view it should appear to change—now an old man, now an old woman—a gunner, a farmer, or the Old Nick.” And it has been suggested that if this note of 1840 be accepted as the source of Feathertop, the probability of Hawthorne's indebtedness to Tieck is thereby lessened.
References to the Law in Piers the Plowman
Authors: Kirk Rudolf
Published: February 2007

It is well known that whoever wrote Piers the Plowman felt bitterly against the administration of the law in his day and never tired of railing against lawyers, but what has not been pointed out is that the references to the law which occur in the three texts of this poem reveal a significant increase in legal knowledge from the A-text to the later texts. Throughout the three texts William scorns the attendants of the courts as a class and arraigns the legal system for its cruelty, its injustice, and its gross favoritism towards the rich. Meed and False use as horses for their trip to Westminster a sheriff and a juryman; jurors, sumners, sheriffs, pleaders of the court of arches, over which the archbishop of Canterbury presided, all run about Meed when she arrives at Westminster; and William warns judges and others to consider what they do, for the Day of Doom will find them out. But William is perhaps most severe when he declares of the sergeants of the law:

pow mihtest beter meten pe myst Ŀ on Maluerne hulles,pen geten a Mom of heore moup Ŀ til moneye weore schewed.
Metapher und Märchengestalt
Authors: Diez Max
Published: February 2007

Den Märchengestalten eine tiefere Bedeutung zu verleihen, wie es Goethe mit seinen Königsgestalten tat, wie man sie deshalb auch gern hinter den andern Gestalten des Goetheschen Märchens sucht oder ahnt—das wird für Novalis das Mittel zur Hebung des Märchens auf ein höheres Niveau: Ein höheres Märchen, sagt er in einem Fragment, wird es nun, wenn, ohne den Geist des Märchens zu verscheuchen, irgend ein Verstand (Zusammenhang, Bedeutung usw.) hineingebracht wird. Sogar nützlich könnte vielleicht ein Märchen werden (iii, 20). So bewegt sich sein Märchen der Allegorie zu.
An Experimental Study of Accent in French and English
Authors: Parmenter C. E. , Blanc A. V.
Published: February 2007

Various attempts have been made to express the difference which is felt between French and English accent; for example, French accent has frequently been described as a caress, while English accent has been compared to a blow. Such rather impressionistic terminology has been found suggestive and helpful in teaching, but it represents an attempt to treat the complex phenomenon of accentuation as if it were more simple than it is. In order to make a quantitative study of accent, it is necessary to measure the various elements which constitute it. The object of the present paper is to describe the method used in making a comparative study of the nature of accent in French and English and to present a summary of the results of this investigation.
The Use of Color Words by Edgar Allen Poe
Authors: Clough Wilson O.
Published: February 2007

In that rich volume, The Decline and Fall of the West, we observe that the color preferences of a given people or age are considered as a part of the accumulated evidence that finally places the cultural stage of the group in the whole vast Spenglerian cycle. The Greeks, we learn, were fond of primitive reds and yellows, while the Christians, partly in revolt against Greek paganism, came to prefer the other end of the color scale, the greens and blues, and the purity of white. Red had become for them a symbol of sin and bloodshed, and yellow a mark of shame. These observations are further tied up with Spengler's time-space theories. The Greeks, whose time-space conceptions are labelled as present, as contrasted with our own efforts to link the dim past and the remote future by the aid of our historical and evolutionary perspective, are said naturally to prefer red and its variants as symbolic of life, love, and splendid action; while the Christians as naturally preferred the more remote greens, blues, and whites as symbolic of meditation and worship, the projection of interest into the mystic, the supernatural, the life yet unrealized. A later romantic development also associated blues and greens with nature and its poetry, while whites, grays and blacks inevitably spell the abstract, the psychic, and the mystery of the unknown.
John Dryden and the Royal Society
Authors: Lloyd Claude
Published: February 2007

For over a hundred years critics and biographers, in commenting on Dryden's interest in experimental science, have assumed that he was an active member of the Royal Society. That Dryden's name was connected with the early affairs of the Society seems to have been discovered by Andrew Kippis and announced by him in the following note to his account of Dryden's life in the second edition of Biographia Britannica.
The Authorship of a Curious Eighteenth-Century “Drame”
Authors: Nolte Fred O.
Published: February 2007

In the year 1761 there was published, it is uncertain where, a French play entitled L'Humanité ou le Tableau de l'Indigence, Triste Drame par un Aveugle Tartare. Although of mediocre dramatic or literary merit, it has attracted the attention of various scholars because it forms the center of a “curious problem of literary history.” The mystery that has hitherto surrounded the play may be satisfactorily cleared up, it seems to me, with the aid of a notice furnished by C. H. Schmid in an eighteenth-century German periodical.
Ann Smollett, Wife of Tobias Smollett
Authors: Knapp Lewis M.
Published: February 2007

Almost a century and a half ago, on March 3, 1784, a brilliant audience overflowed the Theatre Royal at Edinburgh on the occasion of a performance “For the Benefit of a Lady in Distress.” The proceeds, some three hundred pounds, were later sent to Ann Smollett, then a widow in Leghorn. Since that remote period there has been very little news of the wife of Tobias Smollett. Rather recently, however, certain material has come to hand which contributes to our knowledge of Ann Smollett, and also throws additional light upon the closing years of the author of Roderick Random.
Shelley and Charles Brockden Brown
Authors: Sickels Eleanor
Published: February 2007

Though scholars have long been familiar with Peacock's interesting statement concerning the strong influence exerted upon Shelley by certain novels of Charles Brockden Brown, no one has undertaken to define precisely the extent of Shelley's debt to the American novelist. Professor M. T. Solve in a recent article has ably analyzed the intellectual and spiritual kinship of the two men, and pointed out the general direction of the presumptive influence, but he notes no specific indebtedness beyond the borrowing of some details of gothic phraseology and the name Constantia. It is my present purpose to examine relevant passages from the works of Shelley in the light of Peacock's statement, with a view to more precise definition.
The Chapter-Tags in the Waverley Novels
Authors: Haber Tom B.
Published: February 2007

When Sir Walter Scott, with his friend and publisher John Ballantyne at his shoulder, was adding his chapter-tags to the proofsheets of his third novel, The Antiquary (1816), he came to a halt at one chapter for which he wanted some lines from Beaumont and Fletcher. Ballantyne undertook the task of finding the passage. Awaiting for some time the discovery of the verses he wished, Scott at length exclaimed, “Hang it, Johnnie, I believe I can make a motto sooner than you will find one.” He did so, and thus began his habit of calling upon his invention when memory failed, producing throughout the remainder of the Waverley Novels numerous chapter-headings ascribed “Anonymous,” “Old Play,” etc., which Lockhart calls “some of the most exquisite verses that ever flowed from his pen.” Of “Old Play” captions there are 94; “Old Ballad” 26—mostly Scott's free-hand alterations; “Old Song” 12; “Anonymous” 29; and unsigned mottoes 10. One of the best of the “Old Play” fabrications occurs at the head of chapter xxix of Anne of Geierstein, describing the good king René of Provence;—in reality, it may be called Scott's own epitaph:

A mirthful man he was—the snows of ageFell, but they did not chill him. GaietyEven in life's closing touched his teeming brainWith such wild visions as the setting sunRaises in front of some hoar glacier,Painting the bleak ice with a thousand hues.—Old Play