New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-02-28
LITERATURE.
ESSAYS IN HISTORY CRITICISM AND
BIBLIOGRAPHY.


p bcaH schmitz Vol, H. Part H. Octave PIP tx
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ENGLISH LITERATURE Ty stCp a,,fIo Brooks poke
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The appearance In English Of the posthumous
volume Of Ten Drinks History Of English Lit
erature' is not, perhaps to be considered an
event Of high Importance. yet It is a work which
will be welcomed everywhere by students OF the
subject. In this volume. too. the author displays
at its best the quality which has made him from
the start an acceptable writer on English liter
AZURE that quality Of seeing the latter as part
of human progress which Is most often lacking
In literary historians Ten Brink had the traits
of his race: he was minute to the point of being
hat
so conquered the dry archaeologist in him as to
make his chapters uniformly vivacious reading.
But they are profitable reading always. and, as
has been said the present volume is we'll worthy
of Its predecessors in it's frequent passages OF
lively description and interpretation These Will
be found particularly in the pages dealing with
the Lancastrian Sir John Fortescue's various
polemcal writngs--a body Of treatses and
pamphlets which occupy an interesting, II not
an important position in English letters-and in
the discussions Of Caxton. Dunbar, More, Wyatt
and Surrey.
In the aforementioned writer Ten Drinks in
terest seems to have been profound, and his book
concludes on the observation that the Earl's pre-
mature end was immense loss to English
poetry" The epitaph is little far-fetched be-
cause, as our author admits Surrey died r1cher
in promise than in performance. But what he
acter and as the dawn Of the Elizabethans be-
gins to break. his gallant figure appeals to the
Imagination with a presage of the great achieve
ments to come Ten Drinks imagination was
caught by the soldier and poet; he lavishes all
his love Of detail upon him. and, considering
that he had bat few pages 10 assign to his hero,
he has given a remarkably clear and animated
portrait of him. He recognizes in him especially
the lyric note, the note that links Surrey with
ourselves It is to be regretted that he was not
permitted to carry his history 10 completion.
Closely written as it is. with long stretches OF
painfully dry investigation. it is, nevertheless.
SO sympathetic whenever an opportunity arises
for characterization and personal portraiture
that 1t is almost diverting as it Is accurate ana
useful.
For the Rev Stopford Brooke's primer. Eng
ljsh Literature" there canrot be quite such
warm praise. The volume is systematic and con-
else to a degree that lends it some Of the charac-
ter of a pure textbook. But, in view of the fact
that he has compressed into less than three hun
dred pages a really comprehensive survey or
English letters from the year 60 to practically
the present day, il is perhaps not to be wondered
at that he is a little lacking in color and atmos-
phere The work has the merit OF lucid ar
rangement and its critical passages are marked
by the good judgment which DR.. Brooke has
shown in his more important book on early Eng
ljsh literature II he makes any slips at ALL they
are In the last chapter which brings him upon
the perilous ground Of nineteenth century verse
Here he ventures the doubtful assertion that
Browning equally with Tennyson. had much
power as he had desire TO shape the thought and
the loneliness he saw That Brownings art was
equal TO his poetic inspiration is troublesome
question at the best. When he is named with
he claim
even more dangerous to make. On the Other
hand Dr. Brooke's summing up Of modern Eng
ljsh poetry is generally acute. and il is certainly
suggestive for so brief and compact chapter.
The republication of Sidney Laniers lectures
on the English novel will revive al interest in
the curious direction his critical method took
He was himself disposed 10 blame the critics
who thought him too scientific. He tells us how
ne read what the newspapers said Of his
Science of English Verse; and how disap
pointed he was to find that in nine cases out OF
Ten he had been misunderstood His work was
assumed TO be "a collection of rules for making
verses" He retorts that mot one Of these
writer's would nave treated a work on the
science of geology as a collection Of rules FOL
making rocks" The answer is plausible bu
at bottom the critics were hardly to be blamed
Laner had a passion for theory it was uncon
scious in him. perhaps. And TO him, also th'
studies of poetic form to which he was wont t
devote himself were no more misdirected thai
composers study OF counterpoint To tn
spectator OF his intellectual processes he seems
nevertheless to b. concentrating himself undui!
upon his forms; TO be. without any Of the usua
triviality Of the mere artifcer lacking in pur'
inspiration and Astounding in pure mechanism
He was prone to fasten upon an 'idee fxe an'
to apply it to literature to the bitter end. TIT
present chapters. originally composed more thai
fifteen years ago and published soon after in no
so carefully edited form as in the volume undo
review. offer good illustration of his strang
persistence. He was impressed, as every pene
trating reader is impressed. by the great par
which the personality of mankind plays In III
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