New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-06-11

of England shines through these old tales Of the
sea that they move with a sense OF youth
and courage; it is because the waters of the
very central stream of golden romance flow
through them that their involved phraseology is
powerleSs to weary a modern taste.
In style Purchas may be, as we have said a
little difficult; but on the other hand he is in
substance more living, more human than many
writer using the language of to-day. Dip al
most anywhere into these Volumes and you
will come upon some poignant souvenir Of men
going about their business in strange places.
and suffering emotions which establish at once
bond of sympathy between them and the
reader Take, for example, the Discourse Of
Java" written by Master Edmund Scot and
CONTAINING a Historic of things done from the
Eleventh of Februarie, 1902. till the Sixt Of Oc-
tOber, 1G05.' It contains this passage on the
reception of the news of the death of Elizabeth:
In November. and the beginning of December, We
We're busted both in building and getting in, and
making cleane of Pepper the fourteenth OF De-
t6 ii ne IT. C,ieere md ~ The s,raet
Plague and Sicknesse, that had beene all over
ChristendOrne which strooke more terrour to our
mindes than all the troubles wee had passed. but
they could tell newes of our ships which
King of Scots was crowned. and that our Land
in peace. which was exceeding great comfort unto
u.s. also they told US of the peace that was likely
to be betwext England and SDaine- In all the
Dutch rect ana because we 9eaTd OF no letters s
aboord the Dutch ADMIRAL to bid him welcome.
also to enquire for Letters the which We found IN
their Vice-Admiral.
The very simplicity of this note helps US to
realize the more wildly just what it meant to
to those Elzabethan mariners to receive just
that news from home. We can feel the shock
that it meant to them to hear of their queens
death; we can feel the terror by which they were
smitten when they heard of the coming of the
plague; and We can almost see them as they go
"a boord the Dutch AdmiraIl,' doubt to bid
him welcome. as Scot says, but, above all, Ito
enquire for Letters" letters which we can mag
inc them reading with frantic eagerness. Pur-
chas is full of this sort of thing. He brings
the dead centuries nearer to US and makes them
live. He was. in a sense. only compiler, but
he made literature, and the reprinting of his
book is boon.
Thomas Coryat has little, if any, of that dig
nifty which is one of the most attractive ele-
ments in the work of Purchas, but he has
geniality which makes him, in his very different
way, quite as companionable an author He IS
more than genial he is rolicking. Never was
there more valiant traveller or more gor-
geous rhetorician. He prances about Europe.
hungering and thrsting for sensations, and
never resting content with one but going in
KIM or passion Oh LltIAI 70 ll4C 40
is fish that comes to his net, great castles and
sweet springs, famous man or a ''Whitsuntide
foole disguised like a foole." On the way from
to Montreuil he passes a "Gallowes,
of two goodly faire pliers of free
stone" and notices that it has mo cross beanie
as upon our English GaOwes. but that cross
beanie is erected when any are hanged, AMI
taken down againe Immediately after the ex-
ecution-" At Padua he falls into muse about
''Fredericus Barbarosa. who oppunged it with
great fury, and defaced a great part of it about
the year G10." In this wise he proceeds dis
roundly of men and manners, descri5-
ing historic scenes and talking intimately Of
Venetian life, mixing scholarship with scandal
and carrying off his whole story with an ex-
hilaratng swing. He is not so important man
as Purchas. He is less the historian and more
the gossip. But he is enormously entertain
ing, and he, too, fascinates by his SAVIOR Of
of an unspoiled epoch. The Con-
tinent was not, for him, as it is for us, an old
story He saw it with the eyes of youth.
and there is a naive zest in his pages which
gives them lasting vitality.