New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-24
English Biography

ENGLISH BIOGRAPHY By Waldo II. Dunn.
NJ. A. Lit D. Professor Of the English Ian
guage and Literature IN the College % wooster
T. :. 4 svo pp. Xxi 323. L. F. Dution q
Co
In a definite attempt 10 set forth
the aims and the form of English life
writing the author brings together the
fruits OF assduous research and pro-
vides material such rs should be boon
to the student of English letters. Not
only are the outstanding biographies
gone over for the purpose of erecting
some canon of perfection, but the earli-
est and the more obscure endeavors are
accorded careful attention whenever
they have anything TO teach as to the
evolution of form. An opening chapter
traces the life-writng impulse in
Britain in the Latin period, 500 to 1866
A. D., followed by survey OF verse
lives such as that of st. Alban, attrib-
uted to Riber of Gloucester, and Sir
Thomas Storers life of Wolsey. The
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are
taken together as forming a period Of
new beginnings for biography in the
English language, period yielding the
antiquarians Leland, Bale and Pitt.
with their fanciful inaccuracies; and
advancing to the rich and humorous
work of Thomas Fuller in his account
of the Worthless of England, and to the
ever charming old izaak Walton, who
was the first to take in hand the
writing Of deliberate biography.
Modern English lfe-writing, having
its rise near the beginning of the
eighteenth century. is our authors
proper theme. Being judicious, he is
fond of originals" and he has cour-
age for frst-hand quotation. Illus
trating the generous ambitions of
few pioneers, he gives US this from
Bishop Jackets formidable tome on
the Great Deservings of John Williams.
d. d., who in an earlier day had been
the Lord Keeper:
need not admonish my readers, for
they find it all the way, that my scope
is not so much to insist upon the mem
! orable things of one mans life, as 20
furnish them with reading out of my
small store, that are well-willers to
learning in theological, political, ana
moral knowledge have Dor
rowed this much room TO get up lit
tie obelisk for King James, out OF
that which is only intended to the
memorials of his Lord Keeper.
On turning to that work toward
which al English biography before
1871 tends, and 10 which all since that
date looks back reminiscently," Dr.
Dunn assemblies the facts that go 70
explain, so far as work OF genius
may be explained, Boswell's Life Of
Johnson. The times were favorable;
the taste for the form was strong; the
interest in literary gossip was keen;
all the elements entering into bio
graphical narrative were fully appre-
ciated. Moreover, great man, per
haps England's greatest literary die
tator. was demanding a biographer.
While Mrs. Piozzi and Sir John Haw-
kins and others hurried into the field.
James Boswell toiled steadily for seven
years, sighted or else scorned. When
he emerged il was with piece of work
that gave testimony TO his self-dis-
cipline and that showed how sedulously
he had studied the best models in
biography; but, above all, it showed
that he had the subtle gift of impart-
ing life.
In the unfinished debate centring in
the Carlyles, our author follows the
discriminating judgment of Leslie
Stephen in looking upon Froude's biog-
raphy mot as defnitive truth, but as
an aspect of the truth seen from par
ticular point of view" Sir Sidney
Lees admonition on the length of biog-
raphies is cited approvingly, but IL
does not hinder DR.. Dunn from speak
ing of A. V. G.. Aliens Life OF Phillips
Brooks as marking the highest point
attained by an American biographer.
If we ventured to dissent from him
in this particular he would, no doubt,
be able TO bring home the fact that
ne is not essaying to deal in solemn
deliverances. What he would do, he
has we'll done, in this capable and en-
gaging study OF the biographical
function