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The 

Modern   Language 
Quarterly 

Vol.  VII. 


The 


Modern   Language 
Quarterly 


EDITED   BY 

WALTER    W.    GREG 


VOL.   VII.— 1904 

if 

.& 


LONDON 
DAVID    NUTT 

57-59    LONG    ACRE 
1904 


MU 


Editor: 
WALTER  W.  GREG. 

Assistant  Editors: 

For  Germanic,  K.  H.  BREUL. 

For  Romance,  E.  G.  W.  BRAUNHOLTZ. 

For  Teaching,  W.  RIPPMANN. 


Contents  of  Vol.  VII. 


Articles. 

PAGE 

Alexandre  Dumas.     Sir  H.  Jerning- 

ham         .                         ...  73 

Dramatic  Fragment.     W.  W.  Greg    .  148 
Influence    of    Percy's    'Reliques    of 
Ancient  English  Poetry '  on  German 

Literature.     E.  I.  M.  Boyd     .  80 
In  Memory  of  Johann  Gottfried  Her 

der.     K.  Breul       ...  1 

Jersey  French,     de  V.  Pay  en-Pay  no  155 

Matter  and  Form.     E.  Bnllough  10 

Schiller  as  an  Historian.     K.  Breul  137 

Wieland  and  Richardson.     C.  B.  Low  142 


Observations. 

Chaucer's  '  Drye  Se '  and  '  The  Carre- 

nare.'    P.  Toynbee         .         .         .15 

Chaucer's  '  Drye  See.'    A.  C.  Panes   .  100 

Donne  v.  Dodsley.     G.  C.  M.  Smith  .  100 
Entertainment    at    Richmond.       \V. 

W.  G.    .         .         .                 .         .  17 

'Euphues'   and    the  "'Colloquies'   of 

Erasmus.  R.  B.  McKerrow  .  .  99 
Hobson.  W.  Bang  .  .  .  .158 

'  Lead  Apes  in  Hell.'    G.  C.  M.  Smith  1C 
Notes  on  'Queen  Hester.'    G.  C.  M. 

Smith 157 

Scattered  Notes.     G.  C.  M.  Smith      .  159 
Sound-Change  of  vA  into  wfi  in  English. 

R.  J.  Lloyd 17 

Reviews  (Authors). 

Bang,   W.      Pleasant   Dialogues   and 

Dramma's  von  T.   Hey  wood.     W. 

W.  G 30 

Barbeau,  A.  Une  Ville  d'Eaux  anglaise 

au  xviiime  siecle.  G.  C.  M.  S.  .  18 
—  De  usu  articuli  finiti  anglici.  R. 

B.  McKerrow  .  .  .  .102 
Brunhubor,  K.  Sir  Philip  Sidneys 

Arcadia  und  ihre  Nachliiufer.     W. 

W.  G 170 

Carpenter,  F.  I.  The  Life  and  Repent- 

aunce   of   Marie   Magdalene.      W. 

\V.  G 170 

Chase,  L.  N.  The  English  Heroic  Play  105 


Faraday,  L.  W.     The  Cattle-Raid  of 

Cualnge 107 

Hargreaves,  A.  A  Grammar  of  the 

Dialect  of   Adlington,  Lancashire. 

R.  J.  Lloyd 25 

Harrison,  J.  S.  Platonism  in  English 

Poetry  in  the  Sixteenth  and  Seven- 
teenth Centuries  .  .  .  .105 
Hart,  C.  H.  The  Alchemist,  by  Ben 

Jouson.  W.  W.  G.  .  26 

Hathaway,  C.  M.  The  Alchemist,  by 

Ben  Jonson.  W.  W.  G.  .  .  26 
Holt,  L.  H.  The  Elene  of  Cynewulf .  100 
Lange,  A.  F.  The  Gentle  Craft,  by 

T.  Deloney.  R.  B.  McKerrow  .  29 
Macaulay,  G.  C.  Gower :  Selections 

from  the  Confessio  Amantis  .  .107 
Mantzius,  K.  A  History  of  Theatrical 

Art.  W.  W.  G 168 

Mayor,  J.  B.  A  Handbook  of  Modern 

English  Metre.  W.  W.  G.  .  .  21 
Paton,  L.  A.  Studies  in  the  Fairy 

Mythology  of  Arthurian  Romance. 

R.  B.  McKerrow  .  .  .  .100 
Pollard,  A.  W.  Chaucer's  Canterbury 

Tales :  The  Knight's  Tale  .  .  104 
Saintsbury,  G.  Loci  Critici  .  .104 
-  A  History  of  Criticism,  Vol.  III. 

J.  G.  Robertson  .  .  .  .160 
Sandbach,  F.  E.  The  Nibelungenlied 

and     Gudrun     in     England     and 

America.  K.  B 165 

Schultc,  E.  Glossar  zu  Farmans  An- 

teil  an  der  Rushworth-Glosse .  .108 
Smith,  G.  Gregory.  Elizabethan 

Critical  Essays.  G.  C.  M.  S.  .  161 
Tilley,  A.  The  Literature  of  the 

French  Renaissance.  G.  Saintsbury  164 
Usteri,  P.,  et  Ritter,  E.  Mme.  de 

Stael,    Lettres    ine'dites    a    Henri 

Meister.     M.  J.  Tuke  20 


Reviews  (Titles). 

Cattle-Raid  of  Cualnge,  trans.  L.  W. 

Faraday 107 

Chaucer's    Canterbury    Tales  :     The 

Knight's  Tale,  ed.  A.  W.  Pollard    .     104 


VI 


THE  MODEEN  LANGUAGE  QUAETEELY 


PAGE 

Columbia    University:     Studies    in 

Comparative  Literature  .  .  105 
-Cynewulfs  Elene,  trans.  L.  H.  Holt  .  106 
Deloney  :  The  Gentle  Craft,  ed.  A.  F. 

Lange.  E.  B.  McKerrow  .  .  29 
De  usu  articuli  finiti  anglici  thcsim 

proponebat    A.    Barbeau.      E.    B. 

McKerrow 102 

Elizabethan  Critical  Essays,  ed.  G. 

Gregory  Smith.  G.  C.  M.  S.  .  161 
English  Heroic  Play,  by  L.  N. 

Chase 105 

Glossar  zu  Faruians  Anteil  an  der 

Eushworth-Glosse  .  .  .  .108 
Gower :  Selections  from  the  Confessio 

Amantis,  ed.  G.  C.  Macaulay  .  107 
Grammar  of  the  Dialect  of  Adlington, 

Lancashire,  by  A.  Hargreaves.     E. 

J.  Lloyd  .  .  .25 

Handbook  of  Modern  English  Metre, 

by  J.  B.  Mayor.  W.  W.  G.  .  21 

Heywood :  Pleasant  Dialogues  and 

Dramma's,  ed.  W.  Bang.  W.  W.  G.  30 
History  of  Criticism,  by  G.  Saints- 
bury,  Vol.  III.  J.  G.  Eobertson  .  160 
History  of  Theatrical  Art,  by  K. 

Mantzius.  W.  W.  G.  .  .  .168 
Jonson :  The  Alchemist,  ed.  H.  C. 

Hart.     W.  W.  G.  .  26 


Jonson :  The  Alchemist,  ed.  C.  M. 
Hathaway.  W.  W.  G.  .  .  .  26 

Literature  of  the  French  Eenaissance, 
by  A.  Tilley.  G.  Saintsbury .  .  164 

Loci  Critici,  by  G.  Saintsbury    .         .104 

Mme.  de  Stael :  Lettres  inedites  ii 
Henri  Meister,  publiees  par  P. 
Usteri  et  E.  Eitter.  M.  J.  Tuke  .  20 

Nibelungenlied  and  Gudrun  in  Eng- 
land and  America,  by  F.  E.  Sand- 
bach.  K.  B 165 

Palseografisk  Atlas :  Dansk  afdeling. 
E.  Magnusson  ....  24 

Platonism  in  English  Poetry  of  the 
Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Cen- 
turies, by  J.  S.  Harrison  .  .105 

Sidneys  Arcadia  und  ihre  Nachlaufer, 
von  K.  Brunhuber.  W.  W.  G.  .170 

Studies  and  Notes  in  Philology  and 
Literature  (Harvard).  E.  B.  McKer- 
row   100 

Studies  in  the  Fairy  Mythology  of 
Arthurian  Eomance,  by  L.  A.  Paton. 
E.  B.  McKerrow  .  .  .  .100 

Ville  d'Eaux  anglaise  au  xviiirae  siecle, 
par  A.  Barbeau.  G.  C.  M.  S.  18 

Wager :  The  Life  and  Repentaunce  of 
Marie  Magdalene,  ed.  F.  J.  Car- 
penter. W.  W.  G.  .  .  .170 


MODERN    LANGUAGE    TEACHING 


Articles. 

PAGE 

Aperiju  d'une   Mtithode.      Victor   E. 

Kastner  (Junr.)  .  .  .  .61 
Correspondence,  The  Scholars'  Inter- 
national   66 

Direct  Method,  Some  Dangers  and 

Difficulties    connected    with    the. 

Cloudesley  Brereton  ...  52 
Elementary  French  Grammar,  The 

Teaching  of.  W.  Mansfield  Poole.  47 
English  to  Foreigners,  The  Teaching 

of.  Arthur  Powell  .  .  .  125 
Litterature  dans  1'Ecole  .  .  .  179 
Method,  Common  Faults  in  .  .181 
Modern  Language  Association,  34,  109,  172 
Modern  Languages  and  Modern 

Thought.  G.  G.  Coulton  .  .  40 
Neuphilologentag  at  Cologne,  The  .  110 

Paris  Meeting 109 

Phonetic  Association,  The  International  179 
Phonetics,  The  Application  of  .  .116 
Presidential  Address  by  Sir  A.  Eiicker  35 


PAGE 

Eeform  1  Is  it  a.     Walter  Eippmann        57 
Eegisters,  Supplemental    .         .         .178 
Eeport  of  M.L.Q.  Sub-Committee       .     175 
Tableaux  et  de  leurs  Limites,  Des.  V. 
E.  Kastner  (Junr.)          :         .         .125 

Examinations. 

Cambridge  Local  .  .  .  .186 
Elementary  French  Exam.  Paper,  An  128 
Home  Civil  Service  (Aug.  1904)  .  184 
India  Civil  Service  (Aug.  1904)  .  184 
Public  Schools,  Entrance  to  .  .126 

Reviews. 

Billaudeau,  A.-G.  Eecueil  de  Locu- 
tions fran9aises  Proverbiales,  Fami- 
lieres,  Figur6es  Traduites  par  leurs 
Equivalents  anglais  .  .  .129 

Giinther,  J.  H.  A.  English  Synonyms 
Explained  and  Illustrated  .  .130 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  VII. 


vn 


Scholle,  W.,  and  Smith,  G.  Elemen- 
tary Phonetics,  English,  French, 
German :  Their  Theory  and  Prac- 
tical Application  in  the  Classroom. 
R.  A.  Williams  63 


Notes,  etc. 

Arteaga  y  Pereira,  F.  de    .         .         .     130 
Baines,  C.  Talbot       .         .         .         .130 

Brenl,  K .67 

Collins,  J.  C., 187 

Conference  of  Teachers      ...       66 

Debailleul,  M.  A 187 

Deputation,  M.L.A 186 

Dixon,  W.  Macneile  .         .         .         .186 
Fynes-Clinton,  O.  H.          .  .130 

Gonville  and  Caius  College,  Cambridge, 

Lectorship  in  French      ...       67 
Herdener,  C.  F 130 


Holiday  Courses, 
Linnell,  C.  D.    . 


66,  67,  131 
131 


PAGE 

Liverpool,  Chair  of  English  .  .130 

Lycees,  Assistant  Teachers  in  French  129 

Paris  Meeting  .....  67 

Rahtz,  F.  J 187 

Raleigh,  W 130 

Rea, 131 

Scottish  Literature,  Proposed  Chair 

of 186 

Smith,  D.  N 187 

Tripos 67 

-  Results  of  last  Modern  and 

Medieval  Language  .  .  .  131 

Vaughan,  C.  E 130 

Wyld,  H.  C 187 

Wright,  J 131 


Correspondence. 

Brereton,  Cloudesley  .  .  .131 
Coulton,G.  G.  .  .  .  .131 
Scholle,  W.,  and  Smith,  G.  .  .133 
Williams,  R.  A 135 


LIST  OF  CONTRIBUTORS 


(O.)  Observation.     (R.)  Review.     (T.)    Teaching. 


PAGE 

A.,  O.  Examinations.     (T.)        .         .126 
Atkins,    H.  G.    and   Kastner,   L.    E. 

Correspondence      ....       33 
Bang,  W.     Hobson.     (0.)          .         .     158 
Boyd,   E.   I.   M.      The   influence   of 
Percy's  '  Reliques  of  Ancient  Eng- 
lish Poetry'  on  German  Literature       80 
Brereton,  C.    Some  Dangers  and  Diffi- 
culties connected  with  the  Direct 
Method.     (T.)        ....      52 

Correspondence         .         .         .     131 

Breul,  Karl.     In  Memory  of  Johann 
Gottfried  Herder   ....         1 

—  The    Neuphilologentag   at   Col- 
ogne  110 

Schiller  as  an  Historian,    .         .137 

—  The  '  Nibelungenlied '  and  '  Gud- 

run  '  in  England  and  America.  (R.)     165 
Bullough,  E.     Matter  and  Form         .       10 
Coulton,  G.  G.     Modern  Languages 
and  Modern  Thought.     (T.)  .         .       40 
—  Correspondence          .         .         .     131 
Edwards,  E.  R.     The  Application  of 
Phonetics :  Notes  on  Modern  Lan- 
guage    Teaching     in     Secondary 
Schools.     (T.)        .         .         .         .116 


Greg,  W.  W.     A  Dramatic  Fragment 
The  Entertainment  at  Richmond. 


(0.) 


Short  Notices    .... 
A  Handbook  of  Modern  English 


Metre,  by  J.  B.  Mayor. 

—  The  Alchemist,  by  Ben  Jonson, 
ed.  H.  C.  Hart.     Ditto,  ed.  C.  M. 
Hathaway.     (R.)    .         .         . 

—  Pleasant  Dialogues  and  Dramma's 
von  T.   Hey  wood,   hersg.    von   W. 
Bang.     (R.) 

—  A  History  of  Theatrical  Art,  by 
K.  Mantzius.     (R.) 

•  The    Life   and   Repentaunce   of 


Marie   Magdalene,   by   L.    Wager, 
ed.  F.  I.  Carpenter.     (R.) 

Sir  Philip  Sidneys  Arcadia  und 


ihre  Nachlaufer,  von  K.  Brunhuber. 

(R.) 

Jerningham,     Sir     H.        Alexandre 

Dumas  ...  . 

Kastner,  V.  E.     Aperiju  d'une  Meth- 

ode.     (T.) 

Des     Tableaux     et    de     leurs 

Limites.     (T.) 


PAGE 

148 

17 
104 

21 


26 


30 


168 


170 


170 


73 


61 


125 


Vlll 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


Kastner,  V.   E.      De   la  Literature 

dans  les  Ecoles.  (T.)  .  .  .179 
Lloyd,  R.  J.  The  Sound-Change  of 

wd  into  wfi  in  English.  (0.)  .  .  17 
A  Grammar  of  the  Dialect  of 

Adlington,  Lancashire,  by  A.  Har- 

greaves.  (R.)  ....  25 
Low,  C.  B.  Wieland  and  Richardson  142 
McKerrow,  R.  B.  '  Euphues '  and  the 

'  Colloquies  '  of  Erasmus.  (0.)  .  99 
The  Gentle  Craft,  by  T.  Deloney, 

ed.  A.  F.  Lange.  (R.)  .  .  29 
Studies  and  Notes  in  Philology 

and     Literature     (Harvard),     and 

Studies  in  the  Fairy  Mythology  of 

Arthurian.      Romance,   by    L.    A. 

Paton.  (R.) 100 

— —  De  usu  articuli  finiti  anglici 

thesim    proponebat    A.    Barbeau. 

(R.) 102 

Magniisson,  E.  Pateografisk  Atlas  : 

Dansk  afdeling.  (R.)  ...  24 
Paues,  A.  C.  Chaucer's  'Drye  See.' 

(0.) 100 

Pay  en-Payne,  de  V.  Jersey  French  155 
Poole,  W.  M.  The  Teaching  of 

Elementary  French  Grammar.  (T.)  47 
Powell,  A.  The  Teaching  of  English 

to  Foreigners.     (T.)       .         .         .121 


Rippmann,  W.    Is  it  a  Reform?    (T.)       57 
Robertson,  J.  G.     A  History  of  Criti- 
cism, by  G.  Saintsbury.      Vol.  III. 

(R.) 160 

Riicker,  Sir  A.     Presidential  Address       35 
Saintsbury,  G.     The  Literature  of  the 
French  Renaissance,  by  A.  Tilley. 

(R.) 164 

Scholle,  W.,  and  Smith,  G.      Corre- 
spondence     .         .         .         .         .133 
Smith,  G.  C.  M.    'Lead  Apes  in  Hell.' 

(0.) 16 

Donne  v.  Dodsley.     (O.)    .         .     100 

Notes  on  'Queen  Hester.'     (O.)     157 

Scattered  Notes.     (0.)       .         .159 

Une  Ville   d'Eaux  anglaise  au 

xviiime  siecle,  par  A.  Barbeau.    (R.)       18 
—  Elizabethan  Critical  Essays,  ed. 
G.  Gregory  Smith.     (R.)        .         .     161 
Toynbee,    Paget.      Chaucer's    'Drye 

Se '  and  '  The  Carrenare.'    (0.)      .       15 
Tuke,  M.  J.     Mme.  de  Stael :  Lettres 
inedites  a  Henri  Meister,  publiees 
par  P.  Usteri  et  E.  Ritter.     (R.)     .       20 
Williams, R.  A.  Elementary  Phonetics, 
English,   French,   German :    Their 
Theory  and  Practical  Application 
in  the  Classroom,  by  W.   Scholle 
and  G.  Smith.     (T.)  .         .63 


The 

Modern   Language 
Quarterly 

Edited  by 
WALTER  W.   GREG 

With  the  assistance  of 
E.  G.  W.  BRAUNHOLTZ,  K.  H.  BREUL,  and  W.  RIPPMANN 


Vol.  VII.  April  1904 


IN  MEMORY  OF  JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER. 


No.  i. 


HERDER  CENTENARY  ADDRESS. 
December  22,  1903.     London. 

'  Fortwirkung  auf  menschliche  Seelen  ira  Kreise 
tier  Meuschheit  ist  die  Aufgabe.' 

J.  G.  v.  HERDER. 

JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER. 

'  Ein  edler  Mann,  begierig  zu  ergriinden, 
Wie  iiberall  dea  Menschen  Sinn  erspriesst.' 

GOETHE. 

IN  the  introduction  to  his  essay  on  '  Winckel- 
mann'  (Weimar  ed.  46,  10-13)  Goethe 
expressed  the  thought  that,  just  as  there 
are  periodical  celebrations  of  pious  founders 
and  public  benefactors,  it  is  meet  and  fit- 
ting to  arrange  from  time  to  time  for  public 
expressions  of  gratitude  to  those  who  have 
bequeathed  inexhaustible  treasures  of  fruit- 
ful ideas  to  their  own  people  and  to  man- 
kind. To  the  memory  of  Johann  Gottfried 
Herder  not  only  Germany,  but  the  world 
at  large,  owes  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude — 
although  some  people  may  not  be  fully 
aware  of  its  extent — and  the  high  appre- 
ciation of  the  lasting  value  of  this  great 
teacher's  work  will  during  this  week  find 
VOL.  VII. 


eloquent  and  varied  expression  among 
lovers  of  literature  and  students  of  poetry, 
history,  and  philosophy  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic.  The  German  Goethe  Society, 
which  has  rightly  included  within  the  field 
of  its  attention  the  great  men  who  lived  and 
worked  with  Goethe  on  the  banks  of  the  Ilm, 
especially  Schiller  and  Herder,  has  arranged 
a  solemn  celebration  of  the  one  hundredth 
anniversary  of  Herder's  death.  On  the  18th 
and  19th  of  December  a  large  and  repre- 
sentative gathering  was  held  at  Weimar  at 
which  students  and  admirers  of  Weimar's 
great  court  preacher,  Goethe's  'Humanus,' 
paid  tributes  to  his  memory,  where  also  by 
the  side  of  the  spoken  words l  strains  of 
exquisite  music  were  heard,  that  soul- 
unbinding  art  of  which  from  his  earliest 
childhood  Herder  was  so  fond.  It  is  the 
wish  of  the  Goethe  Society  that  this  day 
may  be  observed  in  other  lands  where 
Herder's  influence  has  made  itself  felt,  and 
I  know  that  a  number  of  American  uni- 
versities have  arranged  Herder  memorial 
celebrations.  But  no  country  except  Ger- 
many owes  so  much  to  Herder  as  England, 
and  I  hope  that  our  commemoration  to-day 
may  be  the  occasion  of  a  revival  of  in- 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


terest  in  Herder  in  this  country  and  will 
give  a  fresh  impetus  to  Herder  study  in 
England. 

The  fine  sketch  of  Herder's  head  which 
you  see  exhibited  here,  among  other  Herder 
portraits,  has  just  been  published  at  Wei- 
mar.2 It  is  a  reproduction  of  a  crayon 
drawing  by  Graff  (a  well-known  artist  to 
whom  we  owe  the  best  portrait  of  Schiller), 
and  it  represents  Herder  in  the  last  year 
of  his  life.  It  costs  (postage  paid)  2s.  6d., 
and  the  net  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  it 
will  be  handed  over  to  the  '  Herder  Fund ' 
which  is  attached  to  the  Weimar  Gym- 
nasium. Perhaps  some  of  those  present 
to-day  may  wish  to  subscribe  for  a  portrait, 
and  thus  help  to  increase  a  most  deserving 
benefaction. 

Allow  me  now  to  remind  you  first  very 
briefly  of  the  principal  characteristics  of 
Herder's  life  and  literary  activity,  and  then 
to  devote  the  rest  of  my  address  to  the 
discussion  of  what  in  this  country  is  sure 
to  arouse  the  chief  interest — Herder's  rela- 
tion to  England  and  to  English  literature. 

LIFE. 

'  Humanitat  aei  unser  ewig  Ziel.' 

GOETHE  on  Herder. 

Herder's  life  was  simple,  and  on  the 
whole  devoid  of  notable  events.3  Its 
early  years  are  by  far  the  most  important. 
He  was  born  on  August  25,  1744,  in  the 
small  East  Prussian  town  of  Mohrungen, 
near  Konigsberg.  His  parents  were  pious 
and  hard-working  people,  but  extremely 
poor,  and  the  boy  spent  his  early  life 
amidst  unremitting  work  and  incessant 
privations.  But  even  as  a  child  he  was  an 
insatiable  reader,  and  during  the  summer 
months  used  to  spend  his  scanty  hours 
of  leisure  with  some  book  which  he  had 
borrowed,  perched  high  up  in  a  cherry- 
tree,  to  the  stem  of  which  he  used  to  tie 
himself  with  his  belt.  By  the  kindness  of 
strangers  the  promising  boy  was  enabled 
to  enter  as  a  student  the  University  of 
Konigsberg;  here  he  became  one  of  the 
most  enthusiastic  pupils  of  Magister  Im- 
manuel  Kant,  whose  fame  had  at  that  time 
not  yet  spread  over  Germany.  But  greater 
even  than  Kant's  influence  on  Herder  was 
that  of  Hamann,  an  extremely  gifted  and 
suggestive,  but  highly  eccentric,  man,  the 
'  Magus  in  the  North,'  as  he  was  called,  a 
man  who  not  only  gave  to  Herder  most 
fruitful  suggestions  on  language,  poetry, 
history,  and  religion,  but  initiated  him 
into  the  study  of  English,  and  made  him 


read  the  works  of  Shakespeare,  Ossian, 
and  other  great  writers  in  the  original. 
When  the  young  student  of  divinity  and 
philosophy  was  just  twenty  years  old  he 
accepted  an  appointment  still  further  east. 
He  went  as  a  schoolmaster  and  preacher 
to  Riga,  which  town,  though  politically 
belonging  to  Russia,  was  still  quite  German 
in  language  and  in  spirit.  After  five  years, 
however,  when  he  had  already  produced 
some  remarkable  works  and  had  won  a 
name  for  himself,  he  felt  anxious  to  see 
something  of  life,  to  visit  some  of  the 
chief  places  of  Western  civilisation,  and, 
amid  the  regrets  of  his  numerous  friends, 
he  started  for  France.  This  was  in  1769. 
He  sailed  slowly  round  Denmark,  and, 
passing  through  the  Channel,  he  landed  in 
Brittany.  He  first  stayed  for  some  time 
at  Nantes,  and  then  proceeded  to  Paris, 
where  he  was  well  received  by  the  leading 
writers.  During  this  journey  Herder  kept 
a  most  interesting  kind  of  diary,  in  which 
he  freely  jotted  down  not  only  bold  schemes 
of  political  and  social  reform  for  Livonia, 
but  numerous  plans  of  books  and  pamphlets 
that  were  then  fermenting  in  his  mind; 
this  remarkable  diary  abounds  in  great 
ideas  and  fruitful  thoughts,  many  of  which 
were  subsequently  worked  out  by  Herder 
in  important  essays.  He  sailed  from  France, 
after  a  stay  of  several  months,  very  much 
dissatisfied  with  French  writers  and  their 
works,  and  was  shipwrecked  off  the  coast 
of  Holland,  but  saved  by  some  fishermen. 
Proceeding  to  Hamburg  he  met  Lessing 
and  Claudius,  and,  in  1770,  accepted  the 
post  of  travelling  tutor  to  the  son  of  the 
prince-bishop  of  Liibeck  on  his  grand  tour. 
In  spite,  however,  of  the  tempting  prospect 
of  visiting  Italy  and  other  interesting  parts 
of  the  world,  he  soon  gave  up  the  post ;  in 
Darmstadt  he  became  secretly  engaged  to 
the  high-minded  Karoline  Flachsland,  and 
in  Strassburg,  where  he  stayed  for  several 
months  in  order  to  undergo  an  operation  on 
the  eye,  he  became  the  friend  and  teacher 
of  Strassburg's  most  brilliant  student — 
Wolfgang  Goethe.  When  it  became  clear 
that  the  painful  and  oft-repeated  operation 
had  been  a  failure,  and  that  his  eye  would 
never  be  quite  cured,  Herder  left  Strass- 
burg and  settled  for  a  few  years  as  court 
chaplain  at  Biickeburg,  a  charming  little 
North  German  town,  the  capital  of  the 
principality  of  Schaumburg  -  Lippe.  He 
now  married  Karoline — his  'Greek  girl,'  as 
he  fondly  called  her — Goethe  called  her 
'Psyche'  and  'Electra';  you  see  her  por- 
trait, dating  from  the  time  of  her  engage- 


IN  MEMORY  OF  JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER 


ment,  exhibited  among  the  portraits  here. 
With  this  excellent  wife  by  his  side  Herder 
spent  a  few  exceedingly  busy  years  in  work- 
ing out  some  of  his  favourite  subjects ;  some 
interesting  books  were  written  during  this 
time.  But  he  never  felt  quite  happy  in 
the  unintellectual  atmosphere  of  the  little 
town,  and  was  glad  when  suddenly  a  new 
prospect  opened  out  to  him.  In  1775 
Goethe,  with  whom  he  had  kept  up  a 
regular  correspondence,  went  to  Weimar, 
where  he  soon  became  the  confidential 
friend  and  indispensable  adviser  of  the 
gifted  young  duke,  Karl  August,  and  he 
easily  prevailed  upon  the  Duke  to  offer  to 
Herder  the  vacant  post  of  court  preacher 
and  chief  pastor  of  the  town  and  Duchy  of 
Weimar.  Consequently,  in  the  autumn  of 
1776,  Herder  moved  to  Weimar,  which,  in 
spite  of  several  attempts  to  secure  him  for 
the  University  of  Gottingen,  remained  his 
home  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Only  once,  in 
1788,  did  he  leave  Weimar  in  order  to  visit 
Italy — an  'Italian  journey'  being  at  that 
time  the  great  event  of  a  man's  life.4  He 
was  the  third  of  the  great  authors  of  Ger- 
many who  came  to  live  at  Weimar :  he 
found  Wieland  and  Goethe  established 
there ;  the  fourth  great  star,  Friedrich 
Schiller,  came  considerably  later.  Herder 
took  a  deep  interest  not  only  in  the  Church, 
but  also  in  the  schools  of  the  Duchy,  especi- 
ally in  the  Weimar  Gymnasium,  where  he 
delivered  many  a  stirring  address  to  the 
boys  leaving  school.  He  also  strove  hard 
— not  always  successfully — to  relieve  the 
boys  at  the  head  of  the  school  from  serv- 
ing as  stage-walkers  at  the  Weimar  Court 
theatre,  or  from  taking  part  in  the  choruses 
required  for  the  operas,  a  bad  custom  which 
he  found  established  on  his  arrival  at 
Weimar.  In  his  book  Great  and  Small 
People  in  Old  Weimar,  Roquette  has  given 
a  description  of  Herder's  efforts  in  this 
direction.5  He  continued  writing  on  literary 
and  other  subjects  until  the  end  of  his  life, 
which  unfortunately  closed  in  bitterness 
and  isolation.  He  became  estranged  from 
his  old  friend  Goethe ;  he  never  was  on 
intimate  terms  with  Schiller ;  and  he  waged 
a  literary  feud  with  his  old  master  Kant. 
He  was  frequently  in  bad  health,  and  he 
died  after  some  years  of  suffering  in  his 
sixtieth  year,  on  December  18,  1803.  His 
death  was  the  first  break  in  the  circle  of 
poets  living  at  Weimar ;  he  was  followed 
less  than  two  years  later  by  Schiller,  while 
Klopstock,  the  singer  of  the  Messiah,  had 
preceded  him  in  the  same  year  by  only  a 
few  months,  and  Kant  died  in  February 


1804.  Herder,  the  German  patriot,  did  not 
live  to  see  the  downfall  of  his  beloved 
country  in  1806  after  the  battle  of  Jena. 
The  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Percy  and 
English  popular  poetry  would  have  hailed 
with  joy  the  publication  of  Scott's  Minstrelsy 
of  the  Scottish  Border  (1802),  but  he  probably 
did  not  see  a  copy  of  it,  and  it  was  not  till 
two  years  after  his  death  that  there  appeared 
the  first  instalment  of  that  long  series  of 
German  folk-songs,  the  need  for  the  collec- 
tion and  publication  of  which  he  had  never 
been  tired  of  urging  upon  his  countrymen, 
Des  Knaben  JFunderhorn,  '  The  Boy's  Magic 
Horn,'  by  Arnim  and  Brentano. 

But  if  Herder's  outward  life  was  com- 
paratively quiet,  his  inner  life  was  all  the 
richer;  a  life  of  the  greatest  importance 
for  Germany  and  the  world  at  large.  It 
is  a  most  remarkable  fact  that  the  great 
ideas  set  forth  by  Herder,  on  account  of 
which  we  are  now  gratefully  celebrating 
his  memory,  were  proclaimed  by  him  in 
powerful  writings  at  a  time  of  life  when 
most  great  authors  have  scarcely  begun 
their  literary  career.  It  is  no  less  curious 
that  his  great  teachings  in  the  domain  of 
history,  philosophy,  literature,  and  poetry 
were  uttered  in  so  -impressive  a  style,  and 
in  so  convincing  and  irresistible  a  way,  that 
they  soon  penetrated  deeply  and  completely 
into  the  minds  and  works  of  all  the  best 
men  in  Germany,  and  now  seem  to  us 
almost  self-evident.  Yet  at  the  time  when 
they  were  first  proclaimed  by  him  in 
his  stirring  pamphlets  they  produced  a 
complete  revolution  in  the  literary  world 
— they  inaugurated  the  great  period  of 
'Storm  and  Stress.'  After  her  husband's 
death,  Karoline  Herder,  assisted  by  one 
of  her  sons  and  several  devoted  friends, 
brought  out  a  monumental,  although  un- 
fortunately not  a  critical,  edition  of  his 
works.6  This  edition  is  now  entirely  super- 
seded by  the  excellent  critical  edition  of 
Professor  B.  Suphan,  the  most  prominent 
Herder  scholar  of  the  present  day  and  the 
kind  and  obliging  director  of  the  Goethe- 
Schiller  Archiv  at  Weimar.7  The  last 
volume  of  the  grand  new  Herder  edition 
was  completed  by  Professor  Suphan  just 
in  time  for  the  centenary  celebration ;  his 
excellent  selection  (in  five  volumes)  from 
the  large  edition  should  be  in  the  hands 
of  all  admirers  of  Herder  and  lovers  of 
German  literature.8 

The  family  of  Herder  still  continues  to 
flourish  in  Germany.  Some  of  its  mem- 
bers have  occupied  important  positions  at 
Weimar  and  elsewhere,  and  it  may  interest 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


some  of  my  audience  to  learn  that  Herder's 
great-granddaughter,  sharing  her  illustri- 
ous ancestor's  predilection  for  England  and 
for  the  study  of  history,  came  over  to 
Cambridge  and  became  a  student  of  Girton 
College.  She  studied  history  for  three 
years  and  did  well  in  the  Historical  Tripos. 
She  afterwards  continued  her  historical 
studies  at  Oxford,  and  is  now  married  to 
an  Englishman. 

Several  portraits  of  Herder,  and  one  of 
Karoline,  are  exhibited  here  to-night. 
From  one  of  them  we  can  well  imagine 
his  dark,  flashing  eyes,  and  his  impressive 
personality. 

Students  of  Goethe  will  remember  that 
the  figure  of  Herder  appears  in  various 
forms  and  aspects  in  Goethe's  poetry.  A 
great  deal  of  Herder  is  to  be  found  in  the 
figure  of  Gotz  von  Berlichingen.  Gotz  or 
Gottfried  was  Herder's  own  Christian  name, 
and  in  one  of  his  letters  the  young  Goethe 
compares  his  great  friend  to  the  noble  Gotz, 
himself  to  Gotz's  faithful  page  George.9  In 
his  later  letters,  from  Weimar  and  Italy, 
Goethe  addresses  him  often  familiarly  as 
'Lieber  Bruder.'10  The  noble  figure  of 
'  Humanus '  in  Goethe's  unfinished  grand 
philosophical  poem  The  Secrets  (1784-85)  is 
meant  to  represent  Herder.  The  sympa- 
thetic figure  of  the  clergyman  in  Hermann 
und  Dorothea  is  likewise  inspired  by,  and 
modelled  after,  Herder.  He  is  introduced 
in  the  first  canto  as  'the  noble  and  excel- 
lent pastor,  the  ornament  of  the  town ' : 

'  He  was  acquainted  with  life,  and  knew  the  wants 
of  his  hearers, 

Fully  convinced  of  the  worth  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, whose  mission 

Is  to  reveal  man's  fate,  his  inclinations  to 
fathom ; 

He  was  also  well  read  in  the  best  of  secular 
writings." 

'  Our  Herder '  is  also  feelingly  celebrated 
in  Goethe's  best  fancy-dress  procession, 
that  of  'December  18,  1818,'  part  of 
which  was  performed  a  few  days  ago  at 
the  Weimar  celebration.  n  In  the  tenth 
book  of  his  Autobiography  Goethe  has 
given  an  excellent  sketch  of  Herder's  per- 
sonality when  he  first  made  his  acquaint- 
ance, and  has  testified  to  his  great  influence 
on  him.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Herder's 
great  personality  inspired  some  situations 
and  utterances  in  the  early  portions  of 
Goethe's  Faust.12  Other  and  less  pleasant 
sides  of  Herder's  character  during  the  time 
of  their  early  acquaintance  are  satirised  in 
Goethe's  poems  Eagle  and  Dove,  Amateur 
and  Critic,  in  his  farce  Pater  Brey,  and  per- 
haps also  in  Saiyros.13  Thus  we  see  what 


a  deep  impression  the  figure  of  Herder 
made  on  the  imagination  of  Germany's 
greatest  poet.14 

WORKS. 

'  Der  Verleiher  vieles  Guten.' — GOETHE. 
The  number  of  Herder's  published  works 
— apart  from  his  important  and  suggestive 
correspondence — is  very  great,  forty-five 
volumes  in  the  first  complete  edition.  They 
fall  naturally  under  three  distinct  heads : 
writings  on  theology  and  religion  (12 
vols.),  on  history  and  philosophy  (17 
vols.),  and  on  poetry  and  art  (16  vols.). 
In  the  former  fields  the  following 
two  are  by  far  his  most  important  pro- 
ductions, Ideas  on  the  Philosophy  of  the 
History  of  Mankind,  and  his  Letters  on  the 
Advancement  of  Humanity.  In  the  Ideas, 
an  unfinished  work,  but  perhaps  his  master- 
piece in  this  field  of  research,  Herder  makes 
his  memorable  attempt  to  sketch  the  de- 
velopment of  the  human  race  historically 
and  philosophically.  He  has  done  so  with 
the  deepest  historical  insight  and  in  the 
most  beautiful  language.  The  work  is  no 
less  than  a  bold  attempt  to  trace  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  human  spirit  in  the  light  of 
history.  Many  ideas  and  numerous  details 
of  the  great  book  are  now,  of  course,  entirely 
superseded,  but  when  Lotze  wrote  his  grand 
attempt  at  an  anthropology  which  he  called 
Mikrokosmos,  Ideas  on  the  Natural  History  and 
Historical  Development  of  the  Human  Race 
(translated  by  Miss  E.  Hamilton  and  Miss 
E.  E.  Constance  Jones),  he  remarked  in 
the  Preface  that  he  wished  his  book  to  do 
for  the  nineteenth  century  what  Herder's 
Ideas  had  achieved  so  brilliantly  for  the 
eighteenth.15  The  Ideas  are  by  far  the 
greatest  work  of  Herder  in  the  domain 
of  history  and  philosophy,  but  it  is  in 
several  respects  well  supplemented  by  the 
Letters  on  the  Advancement  of  Humanity.  It 
was  on  account  of  Herder's  incessant  urging 
on  his  contemporaries  of  the  necessity  of 
the  expansion  of  man's  highest  and  noblest 
impulses  to  an  ideal  of  pure  and  serene 
humanity  that  Goethe  called  him  'Humanus ' 
in  his  lofty  poem  The  Secrets.  By  means 
of  these  two  great  works  Herder  has  placed 
the  science  of  history  on  a  much  higher 
plane,  and  has  given  it  that  breadth  of 
conception  which  henceforth  it  can  never 
lose. 

But  more  important  to  us  than  these  and 
similar  minor  works,  which  I  must  pass 
over,  are  his  contributions  to  literature 
proper.  In  the  field  of  poetry — in  spite 


IN  MEMORY  OF  JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER 


of  a  few  excellent  original  productions 
such  as  his  Ice -Dance,  a  comparison  of 
skating  with  life,  in  which  a  favourite 
subject  of  Klopstock's  odes  is  worked  out 
in  an  original  manner — Herder  shines  less 
as  a  poet  of  great  natural  parts  than  as  an 
unrivalled  translator  and  adapter  of  foreign 
poetry.  Seldom,  if  ever,  has  a  man  pos- 
sessed to  the  same  extent  that  rare  gift  of 
entering  fully  and  sympathetically  into  the 
spirit  of  the  most  diverse  poets  of  all  times 
and  nations,  and  in  doing  justice  in  his 
renderings  to  the  most  different  styles  of 
poetry.  His  imagination  knew  how  to 
transplant  itself  into  the  very  soil  and 
climate  of  the  poems  he  wished  to  trans- 
late. He  showed  himself  greatest  as  poet, 
when  he  penetrated  into  the  innermost 
spirit  of  foreign  poetry  and  became  the 
unsurpassed  interpreter  to  his  own  people 
of  the  finest,  the  grandest,  and  the  most 
delicate  poetic  productions  of  other  nations. 
German  literature  can  boast  of  an  unusually 
large  number  of  first-rate  translators,  of 
whom  I  will  here  only  mention  Voss  for 
Homer,  Schlegel  for  Shakespeare,  and  Hertz- 
berg  for  Chaucer;  but  not  one  of  them  has 
surpassed  Herder,  in  whose  hands  the 
foreign  flowers  did  not  wither,  but  were 
transplanted  in  all  their  freshness  and 
original  beauty  into  the  garden  of  German 
poetry.  Schlegel  in  a  letter  to  Herder 
called  himself  gratefully  his  pupil  in  the 
art  of  translating,16  and  most  modern  trans- 
lators have  been  inspired  by  him. 

The  best  known  of  his  numerous  trans- 
lations and  adaptations,  the  work  which 
is  still  very  widely  read  in  Germany,  is 
his  cycle  of  romances  called  The  Cid.  It 
is  a  most  skilfully  composed  epic,  written 
in  close  imitation  of  the  short  trochaic 
metre  of  the  old  Spanish  romances,  on  the 
deeds  of  the  great  national  hero  of  the 
Spaniards  in  the  eleventh  century,  Rodrigo 
Diaz,  surnamed  'Cid  el  BattaF  (Lord  of 
the  Battle)  and  'Campeador'  (Champion). 
It  is  a  most  artistic  production,  a  spirited 
adaptation  rather  than  a  faithful  rendering 
of  a  given  number  of  Spanish  romances. 
There  are  now  more  literal  translations  of 
them,  but  no  man  has  ever  caught  the 
peculiar  spirit  and  the  grandeur  of  the 
old  Castilian  poems  more  happily  than 
the  sage  of  Weimar.  The  Cid  was  written 
quite  at  the  end  of  Herder's  life  (finished 
in  1803,  published  in  1805),  and  in  this 
work  he  returned  in  a  masterly  way  to  the 
best  endeavours  of  his  early  life. 17 

Greater  versatility,  however,  is  exhibited 
in  an  earlier  work  of  Herder's,  perhaps  the 


most  charming  of  all  his  productions,  the 
influence  of  which  has  made  itself  widely 
felt,  namely  his  volume  of  Popular  Songs, 
Volkslieder  as  he  called  them — the  term 
'  Volkslied '  was  coined  by  Herder — 'Voices 
of  the  Nations  in  Songs,'  as  his  literary 
executors  subsequently  styled  the  little 
book  in  the  '  Collected  Works. ' 1S  The  '  Folk- 
Songs '  are  a  collection  of  the  most  charac- 
teristic and  the  most  beautiful  lyric  pro- 
ductions of  many  nations,  ancient  and 
modern,  civilised  and  savage,  in  that  simple 
and  natural  style  which  Herder  was  anxious 
to  point  out  as  the  only  true  source  of 
rejuvenescence  to  the  elegant  and  witty, 
but  mostly  affected  and  conventional  poets 
of  his  time.  This  collection  is  a  fragrant 
bunch  of  charming  flowers,  picked  by  a 
connoisseur  in  the  gardens  of  poetry  of  all 
ages  and  of  all  climates.  The  renderings 
of  the  foreign  pieces  all  possess  the  greatest 
charm,  but  nowhere  do  Herder's  powers 
as  a  sympathetic  interpreter  of  the  spirit 
of  foreign  poetry  show  to  greater  advan- 
tage than  in  his  numerous  translations 
from  English,19  from  Shakespeare  (some 
fragments  of  scenes  and  a  few  songs), 
Percy,  Ossian,  and  many  others.  A  few 
years  before  Herder,  Bishop  Percy  had 
published  (in  1765)  his  grand  collection 
of  Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry,  the 
great  importance  of  which  for  English  and 
German  literature  it  is  not  necessary  to 
discuss  here  at  any  length. 20  The  interest 
taken  by  scholars  and  critics  in  true 
national  poetry  received  from  it  an  extra- 
ordinary impetus,  and  poets  of  the  highest 
gifts  took  their  inspiration  from  the  songs 
and  ballads  of  the  Percy  collection.  Now 
Herder  did  not  propose  to  become  a '  German 
Percy,'  his  collection  was  not  restricted  to 
the  songs  of  his  own  nation,  but  it  was  the 
first  great  attempt  at  inaugurating  what 
Goethe  called  a '  World  Literature.'  Never- 
theless the  far-reaching  influence  of  this 
work  was  in  many  respects  like  that  of 
Percy's  collection.  Herder  included  in  his 
collection  a  number  of  the  best  German 
songs  of  ancient  and  modern  times,  be- 

§  inning  with  a  rendering  of  an  interesting 
Id  High  German  historical  ballad,  The 
Song  of  King  Lewis  (881),21  and  also  ad- 
mitted certain  poems  of  his  own  or  his 
contemporaries  provided  they  were  con- 
ceived in  a  simple  and  truly  popular  style. 
One  of  them  is  his  before-mentioned  Ice- 
Dance,  and-  another  is  Goethe's  well-known 
ballad  Heidenro'slein,  'Little  Wild  Rose,' 
which  first  appeared  (though  in  a  different 
form  from  the  present)  in  Herder's  book. 22 


r, 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


Or  again,  Herder  would  revive  some  half- 
forgotten  German  song  of  olden  times, 
and,  by  including  it  in  his  anthology,  make 
it  universally  known,  the  cherished  property 
of  the  whole  nation.  Thus  he  translated 
from  Low  German  into  High  German  that 
heartfelt  song  of  his  countryman,  the  East 
Prussian  poet,  Simon  Dach,  which  begins 
'  Atike  van  Tharaw  oss,  de  my  gefollt.'  In 
his  delightful  rendering  Annchen  von  Tharau 
has  become  one  of  the  most  popular  songs 
of  Germany. 

Among  the  translations  from  foreign 
languages,  those  from  the  English  and 
Scandinavian  literatures  are  by  far  the 
most  numerous  and  also  the  most  im- 
portant. A  fine  specimen  of  Herder's 
power  of  rendering  a  most  impressive 
dramatic  ballad  is  his  translation  of  the 
grand  Edward  ballad  from  Percy's  collection. 
And  if  you  wish  to  trace  the  influence  of 
Herder's  Volkslieder  on  modern  German 
literature,  especially  on  Burger  and  Goethe, 
there  are  no  better  specimens  than  Herder's 
translation  of  William's  Ghost,  which  partly 
inspired  Burger's  greatest  ballad  Lenore, 
and  Herder's  Erlkonigs  Tochter,  from  which 
Goethe  drew  the  inspiration  for  \usErlkiinig. 
It  was  Herder  who  translated  the  Danish 
'  ellekonge  '  (which  stands  either  for  '  elve- 
konge,'  'the  king  of  the  elfs,'  'the  elf- 
king,'  '  Elfenkonig  ' ;  or  very  probably,  by  a 
further  mistake,  for  'elvekone,'  'the  elf- 
woman,'  '  fairy-queen  ')  by  '  Erlkonig,' 
'Erlking,'  and  Goethe  adopted  this  twice 
mistaken  rendering  from  Herder's  poem 
Erlkonigs  Tochter.23 

The  mention  of  Herder's  Volkslieder,  many 
of  which  were  translations  and  adaptations 
from  Percy's  Reliques,  brings  me  to  the  last 
part  of  my  address,  a  brief  discussion  of 
Herder's  relation  to  English  literature. 


HERDER  AND  ENGLAND. 

'  Herder  ist  nach  der  Weite  seines  Sinnens  und 
Schauena  recht  eigentlich  zu  einem  Vermittler 
zwischen  alien  gebildeten  Nationen  berufen.' — 
B.  SUPHAN  (Herder  Ausga.be,  i.  Preface,  xi). 

Herder  did  perhaps  more  than  any  other 
of  the  great  leaders  of  German  thought  in 
the  eighteenth  century — even  more  than 
Lessing — to  introduce  English  literature  to 
his  countrymen,  and  especially  to  recom- 
mend its  study  to  the  young  German 
authors  of  his  time.  He  was  initiated  by 
Hamann  into  the  beauties  of  English 
literature  when  he  was  a  student  at 
Konigsberg.  They  began  with  no  easier  a 


piece  than  Hamlet.  English  was  not  then  a 
subject  taught  in  the  schools  of  Germany, 
which  devoted  all  their  time  to  Latin  and 
Greek,  and  sometimes  Hebrew,  which  is 
still  a  voluntary  subject  in  most  German 
grammar-schools.  Both  French  and  English 
had  to  be  acquired  somehow  in  later  life 24 ; 
things  have  now  considerably  improved  in 
this  respect,  partly  owing  to  the  endeavours 
of  Herder  and  his  followers.  Herder, 
Goethe,  Lessing  and  Schiller  never  came 
over  to  England,  but  Herder,  like  Goethe, 
did  go  to  Rome  and  Naples.  He  helped 
to  spread  a  knowledge  of  English  literature 
by  his  essays,  letters,  and  conversations, 
and  also  by  his  numerous  excellent  transla- 
tions. 

The  following  are  the  authors  in  whom 
Herder  took  a  special  interest,  whom  he 
translated,  discussed  and  held  up  as 
models : 

In  the  domain  of  the  novel,  Sterne, 
Fielding,  Richardson,  and,  above  all,  Gold- 
smith, were  his  favourites.  While  at 
Strassburg  Herder  read  a  translation  of 
the  Vicar  of  Wakefield  to  Goethe  and  his 
friends  which,  as  Goethe  tells  us,  impressed 
them  very  much.  The  influence  of  Gold- 
smith on  Goethe  and  Germany  has  recently 
been  made  the  subject  of  investigation  by 
Miss  Hertha  Sollas,  a  former  pupil  of  mine 
at  Newnham  College,  and  her  essay  is  now 
printed  as  a  Heidelberg  dissertation.25 
Herder's  and  Goethe's  warm  recommenda- 
tion secured  for  the  Vicar  the  greatest 
attention  in  Germany,  and  till  quite  recently 
this  novel  was  invariably  one  of  the  very 
first  books  a  German  student  of  English 
would  read.  Goethe  saw  in  the  idyllic 
existence  of  the  Brion  family  in  the 
Alsatian  parsonage  of  Sesenheim,  the  exact 
counterpart  of  the  life  of  the  worthy  Mr. 
Primrose,  and  brought  out  the  striking 
analogy  in  his  masterly  sketch  of  the 
Sesenheim  episode  which  is  inserted  in 
the  tenth  book  of  his  Autobiography. 

With  regard  to  lyric  poetry  I  have  dis- 
cussed Herder's  relation  to  Percy  as  far 
as  it  is  shown  in  the  Volkslieder.  He  has 
also  referred  again  and  again  to  Percy's 
collection  in  a  remarkable  essay  'On  the 
Affinity  between  the  older  English  and 
older  German  Poetry'  (he  says  'Middle 
English '  and  '  Middle  German,'  which 
terms,  however,  are  now  used  in  a  different 
sense).26  The  effect  of  Herder's  theory  and 
practice,  as  shown  in  his  essays  and  transla- 
tions, was  first  that  Biirger  and  Goethe 
were  induced  to  write  their  fine  ballads 
in  the  style  and  spirit  of  Percy,  and  that 


IN  MEMOEY  OF  JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER 


after  them  the  Romanticists  Arnim  and 
Brentano  published  a  splendid  collection 
of  German  folk-songs  under  the  title  Des 
Knaben  Wunderhorn  ('  The  Youth's  Magic 
Horn ').  This  anthology  was  clearly  inspired 
by  Herder,  and  was  subsequently  surpassed 
by  Uhland's  more  scientific  works  on  the 
German  folk-songs.  Of  modern  German 
poets  inspired  by  Percy  I  will  only  mention 
Moritz  von  Strachwitz,  and  Theodor 
Fontane,  who  has  translated  many  of 
Percy's  best  ballads  and  has  written 
numerous  fine  ballads  of  his  own  in  the 
style  of  'Chevy  Chase.'27  It  is  also  worthy 
of  remark  that,  if  Burger's  'Lenore,'  and 
other  ballads  took  their  origin  from  Percy, 
the  German  ballads  of  Biirger  in  their  turn 
inspired  Scott  in  his  early  youtli  and  stim- 
ulated his  poetic  talent.  Lenore  and  Gotz 
von  Berlichingen28  are  the  main  sources  of 
the  English  Romantic  movement,  which 
can  thus  be  traced  back  to  Germany.  In 
Scott's  days  the  German  muse  gave  back 
with  interest  what  she  had  before  so  gladly 
received  from  her  English  sister.  Apart 
from  Percy,  Herder  translated  from  the 
lyrics  of  Goldsmith,  Pope,  Waller,  Young 
and  Robert  Burns,  and  also  from  Mac- 
pherson's  Ossian.  He,  like  his  contem- 
poraries, believed  Ossian  to  be  genuine 
Northern  poetry — I  do  not  wish  to  discuss 
here  the  vexed  question  of  its  authenticity 
— and  he  admired  and  praised  it  highly. 
Herder's  interest  in- Ossian  was  at  Strass- 
burg  communicated  to  Goethe,  who  inserted 
translations  of  his  own  of  a  spurious  song 
of  Ossian's  into  The  Sorrows  of  Werther.  It 
is  partly  through  Werther  that  Ossian, 
whose  songs  are  so  full  of  the  'delight  of 
melancholy,'  became  generally  read  in 
Germany.  Some  of  Herder's  translations 
from  Ossian  are  (by  mistake)  printed  in 
Der  Junge  Goethe,  \.  286-292.  See  B. 
Suphan's  large  ed.  of  Herder,  iv.  494. 

With  regard  to  the  drama,  Herder  never 
ceased  to  hold  up  Shakespeare  as  the  great 
source  of  inspiration  for  the  young  poets 
of  Germany.  His  most  characteristic  utter- 
ances— but  by  no  means  the  only  ones — 
are  contained  in  an  early  essay  '  On 
Shakespeare '  (1773),  which  was  widely 
r<>ad  at  the  time  of  its  publication,  and 
did  much  to  enlighten  the  Germans  with 
regard  to  the  great  dramatist  whose  works 
had  just  begun  to  be  more  generally 
studied.29  Herder  thought  as  highly  of 
Shakespeare  as  Lessing  did,  but  he  held 
him  up  to  the  young  dramatists  of  his 
time  with  still  greater  enthusiasm  than  the 
author  of  the  Hamburgische  Dramaturgie. 


Here  is  the  beginning  of  his  essay  on 
Shakespeare : — 

'If  the  thought  of  any  man  calls  up  this 
stupendous  image :  "  One  seated  on  a  rocky 
summit  with  storm,  tempest,  and  the  raging 
ocean  at  his  feet,  but  his  head  set  about  by 
the  radiance  of  heaven  " — it  is  Shakespeare  ! 
With  this  addition,  of  course,  that  round 
the  lowest  step  of  his  rocky  throne  there 
swarm  crowds  of  critics  who  explain,  de- 
fend, censure,  excuse,  idolise,  malign,  trans- 
late and  abuse  him,  and  he  hears  none  of 
them. 

'What  a  library  of  books  praising  or  blam- 
img  him  has  already  been  written !  And  I 
have  no  desire  to  add  to  their  number  in 
any  way.  I  should  much  prefer  that  in  the 
small  circle  in  which  this  essay  will  be 
read,  none  should  ever  again  conceive  the 
idea  of  writing  in  his  defence  or  against 
him,  either  to  excuse  or  to  malign  him,  but 
rather  to  explain,  to  realise  what  he  is,  to 
make  practical  use  of  him,  and,  if  possible, 
to  make  us  Germans  acquainted  with  him. 
Would  that  these  pages  might  contribute  a 
little  to  that  end  ! 

'  Shakespeare's  boldest  enemies  have  in 
what  manifold  ways  accused  and  held  him 
up  to  ridicule  as  an  inferior  dramatist  how- 
ever great  a  poet,  and  even  if  a  good 
dramatic  poet,  at  any  rate  no  classic 
tragedian  such  as  Sophocles,  Euripides, 
Corneille,  and  Voltaire,  who  have  exhausted 
all  that  is  best  and  perfect  in  this  art.  And 
Shakespeare's  boldest  friends  have  for  the 
most  part  been  merely  content  to  excuse 
and  vindicate  him  on  this  ground,  to  main- 
tain that  his  offences  against  the  rules  are 
amply  compensated  by  the  beauties  of  his 
work,  to  absolve  him  from  the  accusations 
levied  against  him  and  then  to  idolise  his 
greatness  all  the  more  because  obliged  to 
shrug  their  shoulders  over  his  defects. 
This  is  even  the  case  with  his  latest  editors 
and  commentators.  I  hope  these  pages  will 
modify  their  point  of  view  and  that  his 
picture  may  be  placed  in  a  better  light. 

'  But  is  not  this  hope  too  bold  ?— in  face 
of  so  many  great  men  who  have  treated  the 
subject,  too  presumptuous  ?  I  do  not  think 
so.  If  I  can  only  show  that  both  parties 
have  built  up  their  opinions  on  a  mere  pre- 
judice, a  delusion  which  is  worthless,  if  I 
can  only  by  that  means  remove  a  cloud 
from  men's  eyes,  or,  best  of  all,  if  I  can 
manage  to  place  the  picture  in  a  better  light 
without  in  the  least  changing  the  spectator 
or  the  picture,  it  may  perhaps  be  the  fault 
of  our  age  or  an  accident  that  I  have 
chanced  upon  the  point  where  I  can  now 


8 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


hold  the  reader  fast  and  say  :  "  Stand  here, 
or  you  will  see  nothing  but  a  caricature." 

'  If  we  could  do  nothing  more  than  wind 
up  and  unwind  the  great  ball  of  erudition 
without  making  the  least  progress,  what  a 
sad  life  this  barren  endeavour  of  ours  would 
give  us ! ' 

He  discussed  Shakespeare's  greatness 
and  originality,  and  took  pains  to  describe 
him  as  the  greatest  product  of  English 
life  and  genius  in  the  memorable  time 
of  Elizabeth — he  showed  clearly  why  Shake- 
speare was  so  different  from  Sophocles 
on  the  one  hand,  and  from  the  French 
classical  tragedians  on  the  other — being  not 
a  follower  and  imitator,  but  '  a  brother  of 
Sophocles.'30 

Again,  Herder's  enthusiasm  is  reflected 
in  Goethe's  dithyrambic  speech  (October  14, 
1771)  'Zum  Schiikespeares  Tag '  (J.  G.,  ii. 
39-43),  in  Goethe's  'Gotz  von  Berlichingen,' 
and  in  the  dramatic  productions  of  the 
young  writers  of  the  '  Storm  and  Stress ' 
Period. 


HERDER'S  IMPORTANCE. 

Herder's  importance  lies  mainly  in  the 
extraordinary  stimulus  which  his  works 
produced  on  poets  and  scholars  of  his  own 
and  of  the  following  generations.  He 
became  the  teacher  of  Goethe  and  his  time, 
the  father  of  the  Romantic  movement  in 
Germany,  of  the  scientific  study  of  history 
and  comparative  literature  in  its  modern 
acceptation,  and  indirectly  even  of  German 
and  Germanic  philology  and  literature. 
Many  of  his  works  remained  fragments ; 
they  were  mostly  suggestive,  but  rarely 
exhaustive  and  conclusive.  The  best  of 
them  were  those  produced  during  the  first 
half  of  his  life.  They  are  sometimes  not 
easy  to  read ;  they  may  be  compared  to 
sibylline  books ;  they  are  dithyrambic, 
abrupt,  pathetic,  but  stirring  and  worth 
pondering  over.  Herder  was  the  first 
great  German  writer  who  looked  at  things 
historically,  a  critic  who  insisted  on  tracing 
the  evolution  of  whatever  he  studied,  and 
whose  great  object  it  was  to  arrive  at  a 
true  history  of  the  human  spirit  in  all  its 
manifestations. 

CONCLUSION. 

It  is  a  comfort  to  think  that  many  of 
Herder's  ideals  have  now  been  fulfilled, 
that  much  of  the  best  he  had  to  give,  and 
was  the  first  to  give,  has  now  become  part 
of  our  most  cherished  convictions,  and 


animates  the  spirit  of  all  our  scientific 
methods  and  investigations.  Still,  if  the 
first  century  that  has  elapsed  since  his 
death  has  done  much  to  realise  his  great 
aims,  if  the  century  has  been  full  ol  his 
influence,  there  is  plenty  of  work  left  for 
the  second  century  which  is  just  beginning. 
During  these  weeks  many  people  have 
assembled  in  many  countries  to  celebrate 
his  memory,31  but  I  hope  that  the  Herder 
celebrations  will  be  much  more  than  mere 
meetings  at  which  words  will  be  spoken 
in  his  memory  and  glory — passing  phrases 
that  will  soon  be  forgotten.  It  should 
not  be  the  aim  of  those  who  cherish  the 
memory  of  this  great  and  noble  man  merely 
to  glorify  his  name !  He  himself  would 
not  have  liked  it.  Hear  what  he  says 
about  the  striving  for  '  personal  glory.' 3: 

'  Truth  is  one  and  goodness  is  one  for  all 
men :  for  we  are  all  of  one  and  the  same 
nature.  In  this  feeling  is  also  merged  the 
sweet  love  of  renown  and  posthumous 
fame  ;  not  that  of  the  vain  man  who  would 
so  fain  thrust  his  name  upon  eternity  and 
would  like  to  set  his  imperfect  being  as  the 
supreme  goal  for  the  being  of  all  humanity. 
A  senseless  desire  which  every  good  man 
hates  and  which  I  do  not  understand. 

'  Infinitely  sweeter  is  the  nameless  post- 
humous fame  which  consists  only  in  the 
influence  of  a  man's  mind  or  a  living  work. 
What  harm  does  it  do  the  artist  that  I 
should  be  ignorant  of  his  name  as  I  look  on 
his  Apollo,  and  what  good  would  it  be  if  I 
knew  it  ?  I  know  his  intrinsic,  everlasting 
name  in  that  I  feel  his  immortal  spirit  in 
this  work.  Be  this  one  of  Plato's  works  or 
not,  research  into  this  question  may  be 
necessary  and  profitable  for  other  reasons, 
but  it  does  not  concern  the  real  worth  of 
the  author  who  himself  lives  in  this  work. 
May  my  name  be  lost  and  every  one  of  my 
thoughts  at  once  reappear  in  other  better 
forms ;  the  pleasantor  and  finer  it  will  be 
that  I  am  forgotten  and  have  been  the 
source  of  these  thoughts.  It  is  sweet  to 
die  without  a  name,  provided  one's  life  has 
not  been  spiritless  and  without  endeavour. 
The  more  our  thoughts  unite  and  inter- 
twine with  the  thoughts  of  a  thousand 
others,  the  longer  our  forgotten  endeavour 
lives  on  in  the  incessant  greater  endeavour 
of  others :  the  more  will  our  mind  have 
escaped  from  its  shell :  it  has  flowed  back 
to  the  ocean  of  the  divine  among  men,  to 
the  realm  of  dominant,  living  powers.' 

No,  what  Herder  would  bid  us  do,  would 
be  to  carry  on  his  work  in  his  spirit, 
adapting  its  methods  and  objects  to 


IN  MEMORY  OF  JOHANN  GOTTFEIED  HERDER 


9 


the  altered  conditions  of  our  times. 
The  Germans  have  their  tasks  before 
them — but  what  can  be  done  in  this 
country  ?  The  answer  is  not  far  to 
seek.  Herder  is  perhaps  the  least  well 
known  in  England  of  all  the  great  German 
classics  of  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  although  he  is  probably  the  most 
catholic  of  all.  Among  all  the  many 
volumes  of  Bonn's  'Standard  Library '  there 
is  not  a  single  volume  containing  transla- 
tions from  Herder's  works.  His  language 
and  style  are  such  as  to  make  the  study 
of  his  original  works,  especially  some  of 
his  finest  early  ones,  a  matter  of  consider- 
able difficulty  to  Englishmen,  and  yet  they 
deserve  and  amply  repay  the  most  careful 
study.  A  good  translation  of  some  of  the 
greatest  of  his  early  writings  would  be 
particularly  welcome. 33  There  is  but  one 
life  of  Herder  in  English,  by  Mr.  Nevinson, 84 
which  in  more  than  one  respect  is  capable 
of  improvement.  There  would  be  ample 
room  for  a  shorter,  more  scientific,  and 
more  sympathetic  account  of  Herder's  Life 
and  Work — an  extremely  interesting  and 
useful  task  to  undertake  for  a  lover  of 
German  and  comparative  literature.  If  the 
'  Herder-Tage '  which  are  now  being  held 
in  this  country  and  in  America  were  to 
call  forth  some  practical  work  of  this  kind, 
and  by  doing  so  were  to  cause  the  best 
thoughts  of  Herder  to  tinge  freely  the 
currents  of  modern"  English  thought,  a 
monument  would  be  erected  to  him  cere 
perennius,  and  one  which  would  have  best 
pleased  the  man  who  despised  the  mere 
vainglory  of  a  name. 

On  the  18th  December  1803  Herder 
passed  quietly  away,  but  his  work  is  still 
with  us.  To  all  who  will  follow  this  great 
leader  of  human  thought  it  will  long  con- 
tinue to  be  what  it  was  to  the  best  of  his 
contemporaries — a  powerful  stimulus,  and 
an  abundant  and  refreshing  source  of 
LIGHT,  LOVE,  and  LIFE. 

1  Professor      B.     Suphan's     stirring     address 
('Unser  Herder.      Rede  zur  Gedachtnisfeier  der 
Goethe  Gesellschaft ')  is  printed  in  the  Deutsche 
Rundschau,  February  1904. 

2  By  Hermann  Biihlaus   Nachfolger,  Weimar. 
This  edition  is  now  exhausted.    The  head  is  given, 
in  greatly  reduced  size,  in  the  latest  Herder  bio- 
graphy, by  Richard  Biirkner,  Berlin,  1904,  and 
also  in  the  fortnightly  magazine,  Das  Litlerarixche 
Echo,  January  15,  1904,  p.  560. 

The  following  are  the  best  German  lives  of 
Herder : — Rudolf  Haym,  Herder  nach  xeinem 
Leben  und  seinen  Werken.  2  vols.  Berlin,  1877- 
1885.  (By  far  the  most  comprehensive  work.) 
Eugen  Kiihnemann,  Herders  Leben.  Munchen, 
1895.  A  much  smaller  and  quite  recently  pub- 
lished biography  is  the  one  by  Richard  Biirkner, 


Herder.  Sein  Leben  und  Wirken.  Berlin,  1904. 
(Vol.  45  of  the  series  called  Geisteshelden  (Filh- 
rende  Geister).  A  very  condensed  life,  for  the 
use  of  German  secondary  schools,  was  written  by 
R.  Franz,  Herders  Leben  mid  Werke.  Bielefeld 
and  Leipzig.  Velhagen  and  Klasing.  Sammlung 
deutscher  Schulausgaben.  Fart  48.  No  year. 
Gp.  also  B.  Suphan's  short  sketch  of  Herder's 
life  in  the  new  edition  of  K.  Goedeke's  Grundriss 
zur  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Dichtung,  and  pre- 
fixed to  the  most  valuable  bibliography  (by  B. 
Suphan  and  K.  Ch.  Kedlich)  in  vol.  iv.  (1891), 
pp.  274-299,  §  229.  For  later  publications  see  the 
excellent  Jahresberichte  fiir  Neuere  Deutsche  Lit- 
teraturgeschichte  (since  1890). 

4  Compare  Herders  Reise  nach  Italien.  Herders 
Jiriefwechsel  mil  seiner  Gattin  vom  August  1788 
bis  Juli  1789,  ed.  by  H.  Diintzer  and  F.  Gott- 
fried v.  Herder.  Giessen,  1859.  See  also  the 
Tagebiicher  und  Briefe  Goethes  aus  Italien  an  Frau 
von  Stein  und  Herder.  Weimar,  1886.  (Schriflen 
der  Qoelhe-Gesellschaft,  vol.  ii.,  ed.  Erich  Schmidt.) 
It  is  most  interesting  and  instructive  to  compare 
Herder's  letters  with  those  written  by  Goethe 
about  two  years  earlier  from  the  same  places. 

3  See  Otto  Roquette,  Grouse  und  kleine  Leute  in 
Alt-Weimar.  Novelleu.  Breslau,  1887.  The 
second  novel,  Der  Schillerchor,  deals  with  this 
question.  See  p.  115,  and  compare  R.  Haym, 
Herder,  ii.  pp.  804  sqq.,  and  the  Zeitschrift  fiir 
den  deutschen  Unterricht,  xviii.  (1904),  pp.  175  sqq. 

6  Joh.  Gottfr.  v.  Herders  Sammtliche  Werke. 
Tubingen.  Cotta,  1805-1820.  45  volumes.  See 
Goedeke,  Grundr.  siv.  p.  297,  sub.  106. 

I  Joh.    Gottfr.   r.    Herders  Sammtliche    Werke. 
ed.  Bernhard  Suphan.  '  Berlin,  1877-1903.      See 
Goedeke,  ibid.  p.  298,  sub  113. 

8  Herders  Auagewiihlte   Werke,  ed.   B.   Suphan 
und  C.  Redlich.     5  vols.     Berlin,  1884-1901.     See 
Goedeke,  No.   116.     There  are  some  other  good 
selections,  e.g.  H.  Lambel's in  Kiirschner's  Deutsche 
National-Lilteratur,  and,  quite  recently,  a  selec- 
tion in  five  volumes  by  Theod.  Matthias,  Leipzig, 
Bibliographisches  Institut,  1904,  with  good  notes 
and  introductions.     Its  text  is  based  on  Suphan's 
fundamental  edition. 

9  Compare  Derjunge  Goethe,  i.  p.  308.     Weimar 
Edition,  Letters,  ii.  pp.  17,  19-20. 

10  See  Weimar  Edition,  Letters,  vol.  iii.,  No. 
381,  391,  476,  482,  485,  494,  etc. 

II  The  Maskenzuy  is  printed   in   the  Weimar 
Edition,  Works,  xvi.  pp.  270-276. 

"  See  Minor  und  Sauer,  Studien  zur  Goethe- 
Philoloyie.  Wien,  1880,  pp.  73  sqq.  R.  Weissen- 
fels,  Goethe  im  Sturm  und  Drang.  Halle,  1894, 
i.  p.  461,  note  42. 

"  See  Wilh.  Scherer,  Aus  Goethes  Fruhzeit, 
Strassburg,  1879,  pp.  43-68 ;  but  see  also  W.  v. 
Biedermann,  Goethe- Forschungen,  Frankfurt  a/M., 
1879,  pp.  9-20;  and  F.  Meyer  v.  Waldeck,  in 
the  Goethe-Jahrbuch,  vii.  (1886),  pp.  283-286. 

14  Of  the  numerous  essays  on  Goethe's  relation  to 
Herder,  written  from  different  points  of  view,  I  can 
here  only  refer  to  the  following : — Minor  und  Sauer, 
Studien  zur   Goethe-  Philologie,   pp.    72  sqq.      H. 
Diintzer,  Zur  Goethe- Forschung.     Nene  Beitrage, 
Stuttgart,  1891,  pp.  77-140.    B.  Suphan  in  Deutsche 
Rundxchau,  vol.  Hi.  (1887),  pp.  63-76.     R.  Haym, 
Herder,   i.  pp.  392-416.     R.  Weissenfels,  Goethe 
im  Sturm  und  Drang,  i.  pp.  140-162. 

15  H.    Lotze,  Mikrokosmos.     Ideen   zur  Nalur- 
geschichte  und  Geschichte  der  Menschheit.     3  vols. 
Leipzig,  1856.     41885. 

16  See  A.    W.  v.   Schegel's  letter   to  Herder, 
dated  May  22,  1797.     It  is  quoted  in  A.  Waag, 


10 


THE  MODEEN  LANGUAGE  QUAETEELY 


Uber  Herders  L'ltertrayungen  englischer  Gedichte, 
Heidelberg,  1892,  pp.  46-47. 

17  See  Reinhold  Kiihler,  Herders  Cid  und  seine 
franzosische  Quelle,  Leipzig,  1867.     Cp.  also  Th. 
Matthias's  edition,  vol.  v. ,  pp.  203-359,  and  the 
notes,  by  Karoline  Michaelis,  in  Julian  Schmidt's 
ed.     Leipzig.     Brockhaus,   1868.     See  Goedeke, 
Grundrits,  2iv.,  p.  296,  No.  99. 

18  See  B.  Suphan's  small  edition,  vol.  ii.  (ed.  C. 
Redlich),  Berlin,   1885.     The  edition   by  Theod. 
Matthias,  vol.  ii. ,  etc.,  etc. 

19  See  A.  Waag,   Uber  Herders  Ubertragungen 
englischer  Gedichte.     Heidelberg,  1S92. 

-"  See  H.  F.  Wagener,  Das  Eindringen  von 
Percys  Reliques  in  Deutschland.  Heidelberg,  1897. 
(The  importance  of  Percy's  Reliques  for  the 
German  poets  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  hardly 
touched  upon  in  this  dissertation.) 

21  See  W.  Braune,  Althochdentsches  Lesebuch. 
Halle,  51902,  No.  xxxvi. 

22  See  E.  Joseph,  Das  Heidenroslein.     Berlin, 
1897. 

23  See  F.  Sintenis  in  the  Goelhe-Jahrbuch,  xxii. 
(1901),  p.  261,  and  the  Cotta  Jubilee  Edition  of 
Goethe's  works,  i.  (1902),  p.  338. 

21  See  W.  Mangold  in  Die  Reform  des  hoheren 
Schulwesens  in  Preussen.  Halle,  1902,  pp.  191  sqg. 

25  See    Hertha   Sollas,    Goldsmiths  Einfluss  in 
Deutschland  im  18.  Jahrhundert.   Heidelberg,  1903. 

26  Cp.  the  selection  by  Th.   Matthias,  vol.  ii. , 
pp.  95  sqq.       (Von  der  Ahnlichkeit  der  mittleren 
englischen  und  deutschen  Diohtkunst,  nebst  Ver- 
schiedenem,  dasdaraus  folget).    R.  Franz,  Herders 
Kleinere  Prosaschrifleii ,  awgewahlt  mid  mit  Ein- 
leitunyen    und    Anmerkungen    versehen.       (Some 
passages  omitted  in  order  to  shorten  the  essay.) 
Bielefeld  and  Leipzig.     No  year.     Pp.  28-72. 

27  An  essay  on  some   of   the   modern   German 
poets  influenced  by  Percy's  Reliques,  by  one  of  my 
pupils,  is  in  course  of  preparation. 

28  See  W.  W.  Greg's  exhaustive   treatment  of 
'  Burger's  Lenore  in  England '  in  this  paper,  then 
called  The  Modern   Quarterly  of  Language   and 
Literature,  No.  5   (Aug.    1899),    pp.  13-29.      On 
'Giitz  in  England,"  see  A.  Brandl  in  the  Goethe- 
Jahrbuch,  iii.  (1882),  pp.  59-67. 


*>  See  Theod.  Matthias,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  66-94  (from 
the  pamphlet  Von  deulscher  Art  mid  Kunst). 

30  See  B.  Suphan,  Herders  Sammtl.  Werke,  v. 
p.  225.     Matthias,  ii.,  p.  87,  line  20. 

31  See  the  Litterarisches  Echo,  vi.  (1904),  No.  7, 
p.  522;  vi.,  No.  8,  pp.   556-561.      Cp.  also  the 
monthly  Wartburti/stimmen,  Herder  Number,  No- 
vember 1903,  and  the  German- American  Annals, 
New  Series,  vol.  ii. ,  No.  3. 

32  Quoted  in  B.  Suphan's  essay  '  Von  Herder's 
Geburtstag'  (  Weimarische  Zeitung,yio.  202,  August 
29,   1903)   from    the    manuscript    of    book    15   of 
Herder's  Ideas.     Cp.  also  Herder's  poem  '  Nach- 
ruhm'  in  Ausgewahlte  Werke,  edd.   Suphan  und 
Redlich,  iii.  (1887),  pp.  22-23. 

33  Of  the  few  English  translations  of  Herder's 
works  the  following  deserve  to  be  mentioned:  — 
(1)  Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  the  History  of  Man. 
Translated  by  T.  Churchill.     London,  1800.     One 
vol.  in  4to.      Second  edition,  London,  1803,  2  vols. 
in  8vo.      In  his  preface  the  translator  remarks  :  '  I 
did  not  engage  in  it  without  the  encouragement 
of  one  who  can  appreciate  the  merits  of  Herder, 
who  happily  unites  a  critical  knowledge   of   the 
English  with  that  of  the  German  ;  and  to  whose 
kindness  I  am  indebted  forthe  explanation  of  many 
passages  and  the  improvement  of  many  expressions, 
as  well  as  some  notes  distinguishedby  the  signature 
F.'      (2)    Treatise  vpon  the  Origin    of  Language. 
Translated    from    the    German.     London,    1827. 
(3)  The  Spirit  of  Hebrew  Poetry.     Translated  by 
J.  Marsh.     2  vols.     Burlington,  1833.     (4)  Fables 
and  Parables  from  the  German  ofLessing,  Herder, 
Krmnmacher,  and  others.     Published  by  J.  Burns. 
London,  1845.     These  translations  can  all  be  con- 
sulted in  the  British  Museum.     There  is  so  far,  I 
believe,  no  printed  translation  of  Herder's  early 
essays  on  Shakespeare,  Ossian,  popular  songs,  etc., 
but  a  translation  of  them  has  been  made  by  a  pupil 
of  mine,  a  former  student  of  Newnham  College. 

34  Henry  Nevinson,  A  Sketch  of  Herder  and  his 
Times.     London,  1884.     Professor  James  Sully's 
article    on    Herder    in    the    Fortnightly    Review 
(October  1882)  is  not  satisfactory. 

KARL  BRETJI,. 


MATTEE  AND  FOEM. 


THE  question  of  Matter  and  Form  appears 
to  be  one  of  the  most  obscure  and  compli- 
cated problems  of  aesthetics,  for  three  reasons, 
as  it  seems  to  me:  the  first,  more  general, 
reason  is,  that  of  the  majority  of  people, 
every  one  uses  these  terms  (and  nobody  in- 
terested in  literature  and  art  can  help  using 
them)  in  a  different  sense  from  every  one 
else.  The  second,  more  historical,  reason 
is,  that  the  aesthetic  theories  of  the  beginning 
of  last  century,  resting  on  a  metaphysical 
basis,  invested  the  matter  or  '  idea,'  as  they 
called  it,  with  a  nimbus  of  transcendental 
symbolism,  much  to  the  detriment  of  form, 
until  the  whole  question  became  shrouded 
in  a  misty  veil  of  philosophic  thought, 


which  might  well  discourage  the  unpre- 
judiced researches  of  people  outside  the 
philosophic  pale.  The  last  reason  is,  that 
the  almost  undefinable  flexibility  and 
delicacy  of  artistic  forms  cannot  submit  to 
the  rough  handling  of  dogmatism,  which 
only  succeeds  in  wiping  the  diaphanous 
dust  from  its  butterfly  wings  without  grasp- 
ing the  true  essence  of  its  nature. 

Modern  psychological  aesthetics  have 
fared  much  better  with  such  problems;  and 
it  is  on  this  basis  that  the  following  lines 
attempt  the  explanation  of  the  component 
elements  of  an  artistic  production  and  their 
importance  relatively  to  each  other. 

All  natural  phenomena  we  consider  under 


MATTER  AND  FORM 


11 


the  aspect  of  causality,  i.e.  we  consider  them 
as  the  effects  of  certain  causes.  In  the 
same  way,  sensuous  manifestations  of 
(human  or  other)  beings  we  regard  as  the 
effects  of  some  inward  process  or  force — in 
other  words,  as  an  expression.1  An  invol- 
untary cry  or  an  unconscious  movement 
we  interpret  in  this  manner,  much 
more  so  an  action,  both  conscious  and  in- 
tentional, i.e.  an  action  intended  to  be  a 
communication  to  others.  It  is,  therefore, 
only  natural  that  we  should  regard  a  work 
of  art,  which  is  a  manifestation,  both  con- 
scious and  intentional,  of  its  creator,  as  the 
phenomenal  expression  of  something  which 
he  desired  to  express.2 

But  a  work  of  art  is  a  special  kind  of 
expression,  inasmuch  as  we  regard  it 
sesthetically,  that  is  to  say,  only  in  itself, 
without  reference  to  any  benefit  or  use, 
practical  or  theoretical,  which  we  might 
derive  from  it,  as  an  isolated  whole,  which 
requires  no  extraneous  matter  or  idea  for 
its  internal  completeness.3  It  is,  therefore, 
necessary  that  this  expression  should  have 
certain  qualities  which  facilitate  its  being 
accepted  in  this  manner.4  Such  qualities 
are :  objectivity  (i.e.  having  a  separate  in- 
dividual existence  apart  from  its  creator), 
unity,  isolation,  completeness,  and,  further- 
more, as  an  additional,  more  external 
support  of  these  qualities,  symmetry,  in  the 
case  of  the  arts  of  space  (architecture, 
painting,  and  sculpture)  or  rhythmf  in  the 
case  of  arts  of  time  (music  and  poetry) : 
all  these  qualities  we  will  comprise  under 
the  name  of  formation  (Gestaltung). 

We  must  not,  however,  forget  that  the 
division  of  expression  and  formation  is 
merely  a  theoretical  abstraction  which  in 
practice  is  impossible.  The  co-existence  of 
expression  and  formation  is  not  accidental, 

1  8.  Witasek,  Orundz.  d.  Ally.  Aesthetik  (Leip- 
zig, Earth,  1904),  p.  388;  V.  Laprade,  Proleyo- 
mi:nea  (to   'le    sentiment  cle    la    nature,'  Paris, 
Didier),  p.  93. 

2  Of.  in  Y.  Him,  The  Origins  of  Art  (Macmillan, 
1900),  the  excellent  chapter  on  'Social  Expression." 

3  F.  Cohn  (Allg.  Aest/ietik,  Leipzig,  Engelmann, 
1901,  p.  27)  calls  the  aesthetic  value  '  rein  intensiv,' 
in  distinction  to  other  values,  viz.  the  intellectual, 
which  he  calls  '  transgredient. ' 

'  M.  Guyau,  Probtftnes  de  VeslMtique  (Paris, 
Alcan,  18974),  pp.  180,  181. 

5  Cf.  Him,  The  Origins  of  Art.  Also  Butcher's 
Commentary  to  Aristotle's  Poetics  (Macmillan, 
19033),  pp.  116-117.  Aristotle  was  the  first  to 
maintain  that  versification  was  not  essential  to 
the  artistic  form. 

Minturno,  who  revived  this  theory,  aroused  a 
storm  of  indignation  among  the  critics  of  the 
Renaissance.  (Of.  Spingarn,  Literary  Criticism  in 
the  Renaisxance  (New  York,  Macmillan.  1899), 
p.  351.) 


nor  their  relation  as  arbitrary  as,  for  in- 
stance, (according  to  the  example  given  by 
Cohn,  Allg.  Aesth.,  p.  126),  that  of  a 
colour  and  a  plane.  No  plane  can  be  with- 
out a  colour  nor  a  colour  without  a  plane  ; 
but  any  plane  may  have  any  colour,  and 
vice  versd.  A  certain  expression,  on  the 
other  hand,  must  have  a  certain  formation, 
and  in  a  certain  formation  we  unconsciously 
look  for  a  certain  expression;  in  other  words, 
every  expression  requires  an  adequate 
formation,  and  expression  and  formation  do 
not  simply  eo-exist,  but  condition  one 
another.  It  is  most  important  to  remember 
this  close  and  organic  connection  between 
expression  and  formation,  which  both  to- 
gether make  up  the  phenomenal  appear- 
ance of  that  which  is  expressed,  i.e.  the 
FORM." 

Thus  far,  then,  we  have  arrived  at  two 
elements  constituting  a  work  of  art :  '  that 
which  is  expressed'  and  '  expression  and  forma- 
tion' or  'Form.' 

Now  the  question  arises,  what  is  '  that 
which  is  expressed  '  ?  This  is  the  first 
occasion  for  much  confusion  in  this  pro- 
blem. It  has  been  called  'Matter,'  as  form- 
ing the  original  material  for  the  work  of 
art  or  'Contents,'  'Idea,'  'the  Absolute,' 
'the  Infinite,'  'the  Spirit,'  etc.  Nothing 
could  be  more  chaotic  or  more  incompre- 
hensible to  the  ordinary  mind,  than  that 
the  same  thing  should  be  called  by  names 
so  contradictory  as  '  matter  '  and  '  idea '  or 
'spirit.'  To  define  it  more  closely,  we 
must  examine  the  medium  of  expression  of 
each  art. 

In  Architecture,  although  we  have  to 
deal  with  three-dimensional  objects,  we 
are  (unless  inside  the  building),  in  con- 
sequence of  its  size,  only  sensible  of  its 
two-dimensional  aspect,  i.e.  of  the  planes. 
But  since  planes,  in  order  to  form  any  pro- 
portion such  as  is  necessary  to  appeal  to  our 
aesthetic  judgment,7  must  be  distinguished 
from  each  other  by  varying  degrees  of  light 
and  shade  or  colour,  there  remains  nothing 
but  the  one  dimension,  i.e.  the  line  to  form 
the  aesthetic  proportion.  We  may,  there- 
fore, say  that  it  is  a  combination  of  lines 

6  Cf.  E.  Reich,  Grillparzer's  Kunstphilosophie, 
(Wien,  Manz,  1890),  p.   18  to  Gr.'s  Definition  of 
Form  : 

'Form  d.h.  der  Inbegriff  der  Mittel  um  den 
Gedanken  in  seiner  vollen  Lebendigkeit  atif  den 
Zuhorer  iibergehen  zu  lassen.' 

7  We  must  content  ourselves  with  this  hypo- 
thesis that  a  certain  proportion  is  necessary  for 
our  judgment  to  rest  upon,  for  to  prove  it  here 
would  lead  beyond  the  scope  of  this  statement. 
A  hint  that  this  is  the  case  in  all  nominative 
sciences  may  appease  the  first  doubts. 


12 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


which  furnishes  the  medium  of  expression 
in  architecture. 

In  Painting,  it  is  the  combination  of  two- 
dimensional  coloured  planes1  which  serves 
the  same  purpose,  although,  since  these 
plans  are  circumscribed  by  lines,  the  linear 
or  so-called  architectonic  beauty  also  finds 
a  place  in  the  picture.2  For  the  same 
reason,  symmetry,  which  originally  belongs  to 
architecture,  plays  an  important  part  in 
painting ;  in  such  places,  for  instance, 
where  the  figures  in  a  picture  are  arranged 
on  bilaterally  or  radially  symmetrical  lines 
or  in  the  shape  of  some  geometrical  figure. 

The  same  holds  good  for  Sculpture,  whose 
specific  medium  of  expression  is  the  combina- 
tion of  three-dimensional  contours  (korperliche 
Umrisse). 

In  Music  the  particular  quality  appealing 
to  our  aesthetic  feeling  seems  to  reside  in 
the  combination  of  sounds  coupled  with 
rhythm;  in  Poetry,  in  the  combination  of 'ideas.s 
This  may  be  further  enhanced  by  elements 
borrowed  from  music,  such  as  the  musical 
sound  value  of  the  language,  or  rhythm, 
corresponding  to  architectonic  beauty  in 
painting.4  Even  symmetry  may  show  itself 
to  a  certain  extent  in  the  construction  of 
the  sentences  or  stanza. 

Of  all  these,  the  last  one  alone  is  capable 
of  expressing  an  idea,  as  neither  a  line-com- 
bination, nor  combinations  of  coloured 
planes,  three-dimensional  contours  or  of 
sounds  can  do  so  except  symbolically. 

But  a  symbolical  representation  is  by  its 
very  nature  indefinite,  and  in  many  cases 
nothing  prevents  us  from  substituting  one 
idea  for  another  as  possible  equivalent  for 
the  subject  of  the  expression.  And,  since 
the  characteristic  of  an  abstract  idea  is  its 
definiteness,  those  works  of  art  which 
employ  symbols  as  their  medium  of  expres- 
sion cannot  be,  strictly  speaking,  said  to 

1  Of.  C.  Van  Dyke,  Art  for  Art's  Sake  (London, 
Sampson,  Low,  Marston,   1893),   p.  39 :    '  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  there 'is  no  such  thing  in  nature 
as  line  .   .  .  but  the  supposed  line  is  nothing  more 
than  a  distinction  between  different  colours. ' 

2  Cf.  Th.  Vogt,  Form  u.  Gehalt  in  der  Aesthetik 
(Wien,  1865),  pp.  117-119. 

3  Guyau,   Problemes,  p.  253 :    '  Nous  avons  le 
plus  frappant  exemple  de  cette  pensee  rhythmee 
dans  la  poe'sie  h^braique.' 

[And  not  only  in  Hebrew,  but  in  Oriental  poetry 
generally.  Cp.  the  beautiful  Babylonian  hymn  to 
the  Rising  Sun,  given  by  King,  Babylonian  Mytho- 
logy and  Religion  (London,  Kegan  Paul,  1899), 
p.  32.] 

P.  254 :  ' .  .  .  il  y  a  une  sorte  de  poesie  sans 
parole,  d'harmonies  delicieuses  des  pensees  entre 
elles  qui  ne  demande  qu'a  a  s'exprimer,  a  devenir 
sensible  a  1'oreille.' 

4  Cp.  Vogt,  p.  160. 


represent  ideas,  and  Grillparzer  (Reich,  G.'s 
Kunstphilosophie,  p.  88)  welcomed  the  use 
of  '  intention'  in  the  place  of  the  customary 
'  Idee.'  This  has  been  felt  even  by  men 
who  deliberately  use  the  term  'idea.'  In 
the  case  of  architecture  Vogt 5  says :  '  Urn 
einen  einzigen  Gedanken  anschaulich  dar- 
zustellen,  muss  eine  ganze  Masse  von  Linien 
mitwirken.  Einen  viel  breiteren  Raum 
haben  Malerei  und  Flastik  durch  die 
physionomische  Bedeutung  der  Farben  und 
Umrisse,  wahrend  hingegen  in  der  Musik 
an  Stelle  des  klaren  Gedankens  die  Ton- 
Vorstellung  tritt,  welche  nur  den  dunkeln 
Gedanken  objectivirt,  also  statt  des  klaren 
Gedankens  .  .  .  nur  ein  Gefiihl  auftritt.6 
Nur  die  Poesie  schafft  alle  ihre  Gebilde  aus 
Gedanken.'  In  view  of  this  difficulty  to  do 
justice  to  the  changing  nature  of  the  subject 
of  the  expression,  Cohn  suggests  the  term 
'  inward  life,'  which  expresses,  without 
straining  every  shade  of  the  meaning.  The 
value  of  this  term  is  evident,  if  applied 
to  ornamentation  and  to  the  beautiful  in 
nature. 

It  is  a  matter  of  indifference,  whether 
the  inward  life  actually  exists  or  whether 
we  only  presuppose  it.T  In  the  most 
abstract  ornamental  design  we  can  still  see 
the  spirit  of  order  and  harmony,  and  in  the 
gently  undulating  line  we  feel  the  presence 
of  a  power  which  shows  its  firm,  self- 
possessed  strength  in  the  calm,  languid 
flow  of  the  outline  without  effort,  but  also 
without  weakness.8  In  natural  beauty  the 
importance  of  inward  life  becomes  still 
more  obvious.  What  distinguishes  an 
artificial  from  a  natural  flower,  or  the 
'  parfum  de  violette  de  Parme '  from  the 
scent  of  the  violet,  if  it  is  not  the  lack  of 
inward  life  in  the  imitated  flower  and  the 
artificial  scent  ?  We  unconsciously  anthro- 
pomorphise  natural  phenomena,  thunder, 
lightning,  the  howling  wind,  and  the 
rippling  brook,  although  our  presupposition 
of  inward  life  need  not  even  reach  a  very 
complete  and  elaborate  stage  of  personifica- 
tion. 

6  p.  109. 

e  Of.  Laprade,  ProUgomenes,  p.  183  ;  Reich, 
Grillp.'s  Kunstphilos.,  p.  132. 

7  Reich,  p.  21  ;  Cohu,  pp.  34,  57-8 ;  F.  Volkelt, 
Aesthetik  des  Trayischen,  pp.  10-11.    Cf.  especially 
Th.   Lipps,   Aesthetische   Factoren   der  Rauman- 
schauung  (Beitrage  zur  Psychologic  u.  Physiologic 
der  Sinnesorgane.    Festgruss.    1891).    Also  Vogt, 
p.  119  ;  and  Cohn,  pp.  124-5  for  '  empty  Form.' 

8  Cf.  Guyau,  Problemes,  p.  38.     A  comparison 
between  undulating  lines  in  which  the  waves  are 
too  high  or  too  low,  will  bear  out  this  statement. 
In  the  first  case,  effort,  in  the  second,  weakness 
will  become  apparent. 


MATTEE  AND  FORM 


13 


Thus  far,  then,  we  may  further  define  a 
work  of  art  to  consist  of  inward  life  and  Us 
phenomenal  expression  plus  formation  (Form). 

This  statement  does  not,  however, 
exhaust  all  possibilities  of  confusion. 
Coloured  planes  or  ideas  may  be  said  to  be 
the  'matter'  with  which  a  painter  or  a 
poet  forms  his  production.  Certain  parts 
of  the  history  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  may 
be  said  to  furnish  the  '  matter '  for  Schiller's 
Wallenstein.  Lastly,  a  stone  mason  may 
be  said  to  supply  the  '  matter  '  for  building 
a  house.  So  there  we  have  three  new 
kinds  of  '  matter.'  Are  they  identical  with 
'  matter '  in  the  sense  of  '  that  which  is 
expressed '  ? 

Firstly,  it  is  self-evident  that  neither  of 
these  'matters'  has  any  connection  with 
that  which  we  termed  '  inward  life.' 
Neither  coloured  planes  nor  ideas,  nor  the 
historical  facts  concerning  Wallenstein, 
nor,  least  of  all,  the  physical  material,  such 
as  stones  or  colours,  can  be  the  subject  of 
the  expression,  which  we  defined  an  artistic 
production  to  be.  The  only  relation  which 
they  can  bear  to  the  problem  must  be 
sought  in  connection  with  the  form. 

Combination  of  coloured  planes  or  of  ideas 
are  the  medium  of  expression  of  painting 
and  poetry  respectively.  Nothing  sestheti- 
cally  valuable,  as  said  before,  can  exist 
without  some  kind  of  harmonious  propor- 
tion, and  this  proportion  is  to  be  found 
between  the  coloured  plane  in  painting  or 
between  ideas  in  poetry.  Any  single  coloured 
plane  or  any  single  idea  will,  therefore,  be 
incapable  of  producing  an  aesthetic  feeling ; 
it  will  be  indifferent,  as  forming  only  one 
term  in  the  required  ratio,1  and  as  euch  we 
may  consider  it  as  '  matter  in  the  primary 
sense.'  Thus  we  find  the  following  series  of 
primary  matter  in  the  respective  arts  :  lines 
in  architecture,  coloured  planes  in  painting, 
three-dimensional  contours  in  sculpture, 
sounds  in  music,  ideas  in  poetry. 

The  second  kind  of  matter  (certain  parts 
of  history  in  relation  to  Wallenstein)  has, 
strictly  speaking,  nothing  to  do  with  the 
problem.  It  is  a  kind  of  scaffolding,  which 
may  betray  the  rough  outlines  of  the 
building,  but  cannot  be  said  to  be  the 
object  of  the  architect.  In  painting  and 
sculpture  the  material,  which  is  offered  by 
nature  in  the  shape  of  landscapes  and  types 
of  human  forms,  represents  this  kind  of 
matter,  and  touches  in  this  respect  on  the 
much-discussed  and  by  no  means  settled 
question  of  the  'imitation  of  nature.'  In 
poetry  we  find  it  in  historical  facts,  in 
1  Vogt,  p.  106. 


myths,  legends,  and  all  manner  of  stories 
which  the  poet  finds  already  in  existence, 
and  which  he  uses,  alters,  and  transforms 
according  to  his  requirements.  Thus,  after 
the  example  given  by  Vogt,2  the  story  of 
Dr.  Faustus  may  be  said  to  form  the 
matter  of  Goethe's  famous  work,  but  a 
simple  comparison  between  Marlowe's  Dr. 
Faustus  and  Goethe's  drama  will  show  the 
secondary  importance  it  has  in  the  expres- 
sion aimed  at  by  the  two  poets.  Neverthe- 
less, confusion  has  here  always  played  a 
prominent  part,  for  the  reason  that  this 
matter  may  possess  esthetic  qualities  in 
itself,  which  misleads  people  into  attributing 
to  it  too  large  a  share  in  the  aesthetic  effect 
produced  by  a  work  in  which  it  has  been 
employed.  To  distinguish  it  from  the 
primary  matter,  we  will  call  it  'subject- 
matter  '  or  '  matter  in  a  secondary  sense.' 

The  last  kind,  finally,  we  recognise  at 
once  as  physical  material  without  any 
connection  with  the  aesthetic  result  attained, 
except  the  inevitable  necessity  of  its  exist- 
ence for  the  work  of  art :  you  cannot  build 
a  house  without  stones,  paint  a  picture 
without  colours,  form  a  statue  without 
clay  or  marble,  make  music  without  an 
instrument,  or  write  a  poem  without 
words. 

After  this  attempt  to  clear  up  the  misty 
notions  concerning  the  meaning  of  the 
elements  commonly  called  'matter'  and 
'form,'  we  can  pass  on  to  the  consideration 
as  to  which  of  the  two  higher  importance 
is  to  be  attached.  If  the  indifference  of 
matter  can  be  proved,  the  aesthetic  qualities 
must  necessarily  reside  in  the  form.  The 
question  therefore  is :  Is  '  that  which  is 
expressed '  indifferent  or  not  ? 

Our  mental  life  ranges  from  the  vaguest 
feeling  to  the  clearest  abstract  thought, 
and  from  this  fact  we  ought  to  learn  two 
things  concerning  art :  one,  that  in  the 
question  of  'matter'  we  should  guard 
against  narrow  restrictions,  which  would 
fail  to  appreciate  the  infinite  diversity  of 
the  subject  of  expression,  further  increased 
by  the  association  of  ideas ;  and,  secondly, 
that  the  difference  of  the  expressive  power 
of  the  various  arts  is  a  question  of  degree 
rather  than  one  of  quality.  We  can,  there- 
fore, neglect  at  this  point  the  '  feeling ' 
expressed,  and  turn  our  attention  to  the 
'idea,'  always  bearing  in  mind  that  it  is 
impossible  to  fix  the  exact  point  at  which 
the  feeling  gains  in  sufficient  definiteness 
to  be  treated  as  idea,  and  vice  versa.  Here, 
however,  is  the  place  to  warn  against  a 
2  p.  106. 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


confusion  which  is  constantly  made,  and 
which  perhaps  is  not  altogether  illegitimate, 
in  spite  of  the  sad  consequences  it  has 
frequentlyentailed — the  confusion  of  (esthetic 
and  ethical  evaluation. 

The  question,  as  it  stands,  is  this :  If '  that 
which  is  expressed '  consists  of  an  idea,  is  it 
indifferent  or  not?  The  answer  must  of 
necessity  depend  on  the  nature  of  the  idea. 
An  idea  may  be  indifferent :  such  an  idea, 
for  instance,  is  '  death,'  which  lies  at  the 
bottom  of  so  many  artistic  productions, 
paintings,  sculptures,  poetry.  The  idea  of 
death  is,  therefore,  destitute  of  all  qualities 
likely  to  arouse  our  judgment,  and  as  such 
contains  no  aesthetic  element. 

But  this  is  not  the  case,  if  the  idea  in 
itself  contains  an  ethical  value.  Then  we 
no  longer  remain  indifferent,  impartial,  so 
to  speak,  scientifically  disinterested,  but 
our  judgment  is  at  once  on  the  alert,  only 
not  our  (esthetic  judgment.  A  Gothic  church, 
with  its  decided  preference  for  vertical  lines, 
seems  to  express  the  fervent  desire  for 
elevation,  an  ardent  striving  after  the 
deity,  i.e.  an  idea  of  high  ethical  value; 
and  no  doubt  this  idea  comes  in  for  a  large 
share  in  our  judgment  of  a  Gothic  church. 
It  would  be  interesting  to  hear,  about  the 
same  object,  the  opinion  of  a  savage,  who 
would  look  at  the  building  without  any 
such  preconceived  notion.  We  ourselves 
are  in  pretty  much  the  same  position  in 
the  case  of  works  of  art  of  past  ages,  em- 
bodying ethical  ideas  which  to  us  no  longer 
present  ethical  values.  The  greatest  part 
of  Egyptian  art  contained  religious  associa- 
tions, which  are  lost  to  us,  and  the  Greeks 
probably  saw  in  the  Zeus  of  Olympia  the 
personification  of  their  highest  ethical  ideal, 
where  we  would  only  see  the  beautiful 
manifestation  of  a  human  mind.  There 
are  whole  classes  of  productions  of  a  pro- 
fessedly ethical  character,  religious  and 
patriotic  paintings  and  poetry,  which  excite 
the  wildest  admiration,  often  undeserved, 
for  they  have  little  or  no  aesthetic  value, 
but  supply  the  want  by  their  ethical  pre- 
tentions.  The  danger  of  such  ill-founded 
admiration  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  leads,  and 
has  led  at  different  periods,  to  the  complete 
extinction  of  aesthetic  beauty  for  the  benefit 
of  the  ethical  idea,  yet  ethical  beauties  can 
never  give,  nor  even  add  to,  the  aesthetic 
value  of  a  work  of  art,  however  much  they 
may  increase  its  generally  human  import- 
ance. Here,  again,  I  would  like  to  point 
out  an  important  side-issue — the  mistaken 
idea  that  poetry  in  general,  and  tragedy  in 
particular,  give  us  the .  representation  of 


'  the  moral  constitution  of  the  world.' 1  No 
doubt  they  may  do  so,  intentionally  on  the 
part  of  the  artist,  even  unintentionally  by 
association  of  ideas  on  the  part  of  the  hero ; 
but  to  make  a  rule  of  this  metaphysical 
conception  is  certainly  false,  as  are  also 
its  logical  consequences,  such  as  'poetic 
justice,'2  or  certain  kinds  of  'tragic  guilt.'3 
It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  supporters 
of  this  theory  were  usually  men  who  held 
very  pronounced  views  on  philosophic 
matters,  and  seemed  predisposed  for  such 
association — viz.  Kant,  Schiller,  Hegel, 
Schelling,  Schopenhauer,4  etc.  But  this 
would  lead  us  away  from  our  subject  to 
the  questions  of  the  'Ideal  in  Art'  and  the 
'  Theory  of  the  Drama.' 

Yet,  an  idea  of  an  ethical  nature  may, 
strange  to  say,  under  certain  circumstances, 
depreciate  the  aesthetic  value,  namely,  if  the 
idea  is  such  as  to  awaken  our  indignation 
or  an  objection  on  moral  grounds.  The 
aesthetic  attitude  we  take  up  as  regards  a 
work  of  art  consists  in  the  abandonment  of 
our  personality  and  its  subordination  to  the 
idea  of  the  production.  Now,  if  we  feel 
obliged  to  condemn  this  idea,  the  result 
will  be  an  increased  assertion  of  our  indi- 
viduality, and  the  sympathy  with  the  work 
of  art  will  be,  if  not  altogether  destroyed, 
at  least  seriously  impaired.  Cases  of  this 
kind  are,  I  believe,  on  the  whole  extremely 
rare,  particularly  if  we  remember  that  we 
must  carefully  distinguish  between  moral 
depravity  as  part  of  the  subject-matter  and 
as  attribute  of  the  idea.  Moliere's  Tartiifr 
is  certainly  a  picture  of  moral  depravity, 
but  the  idea  of  the  play  is  anything  but 
depraved. 

Finally,  there  exists  another  possibility, 
namely,  that  '  that  which  is  expressed ' 
possesses  in  itself,  not  an  ethical,  but  an 
aesthetic  value.  This  is  the  case,  if  the 
subject  of  the  expression  is  represented 
not  by  a  single,  but  by  a  combination  of 
at  least  two  ideas.  In  Francesco,  e  Paolo, 
for  instance,  it  is  not  only  the  idea  of 
jealousy,  but  jealousy  together  with  love 
to  the  friend  and  brother,  which  form  the 
contents  of  the  expression,  and  which 
already  in  themselves,  in  their  relation  to 

1  Cf.  Cohn,  pp.  199  ff.,  250  ff.  ;  Reich,  pp.  58, 
73. 

-  Cohn,  pp.  197  ff. 

*  Volkelt,  Aesthetik  des  Trag. ,  pp.  143  ff. ;  Cohn, 
pp.  201-2. 

4  Schopenhauer  held  just  the  opposite  view  to 
that  of  Schiller,  Hegel,  etc. — namely,  that  Tragedy 
was  the  representation  of  the  inevitable  misery  of 
creation,  and  therefore  a  stimulus  to  the  negation 
of  the  will  to  live. 


OBSERVATIONS 


15 


each  other,  carry  aesthetic  possibilities. 
Often,  as  in  a  single  note  we  hear  others, 
completing  the  harmony,  insensibly  vibrat- 
ing, so  in  a  single  idea  we  are  conscious  of 
the  hidden  presence  of  one  or  several  others, 
making  up  a  thought-harmony  which  we 
are  unable  to  formulate  in  words. 

After  these  considerations,  the  conclusions 
as  to  the  comparative  value  of  the  subject 
of  the  expression  and  the  form  are  very 
obvious.  The  subject  of  the  expression  is 
entirely  indifferent  (aesthetically)  with  the 


exception  of  the  last-mentioned  instance, 
and  even,  here  our  pleasure  arises  by  no 
means  from  the  aesthetic  qualities  of  the 
idea  alone.  Without  taking  up  a  one-sided, 
formalistic  stand-point,  we  may  therefore 
be  justified  in  maintaining  that  the  aesthetic 
effect  of  a  work  of  art  results  from  a  specific 
property,  not  of  the  commonly  called 
'matter,'  but  of  the  'form,'  as  defined  in  the 
beginning  of  this  statement. 

E.   BULLOUGH. 


OBSERVATIONS 


CHAUCER'S  'DRYE  SE'  AND  'THE 
CARRENARE.' 

IN  connection  with  Professor  Torraca's 
remarks  on  this  subject  in  the  first  number 
of  the  Journal  of  Comparative  Literature  ('  Un 
passo  oscuro  di  G.  Chaucer,'  pp.  82-4),  in 
which  he  suggests  that  the  '  drye  se '  in  the 
Book  of  the  JJuchesse  is  '  the  Adrye  se '  (i.e. 
the  Adriatic),  it  may  be  of  interest  to  note 
that  I  proposed  this  solution  to  Professor 
Skeat  just  fifteen  years  ago,  shortly  after 
the  publication  of  the  first  edition  (1888)  of 
his  Chaucer's  Minor  Poems.  In  reply 
Professor  Skeat  wrote,  under  date  Feb.  17. 
1889,  as  follows  :— 

'  The  suggestion  to  read  tti  Adrye  see  for 
the  drye  see  has  been  made  :  and  so  have  a 
great  many  others  of  that  sort.  I  left  all 
such  things  out,  because  I  could  not  find 
any  evidence  except  against.  Thus  we 
should  expect  either  A'drie  or  A'driutic;  the 
accent  on  Adrye  is  not  very  likely.  Again, 
I  can  nowhere  find  any  mention  of  Hadria 
in  any  M.E.  author.  In  Acts  xxvii.  27, 
Wyclif  carefully  avoids  it,  and  translates  it 
by  "  the  stony  see,"  which  seems  to  have 
been  the  received  English  name,  and 
has  been  explained ; J  though  I  forget  the 
explanation.' 

In  this  same  connection  I  may  observe 
that  Professor  Skeat's  note  on  Carrenare 

1  The  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  the  medieval 
etymology  of  the  word,  which  is  given  as  follows 
in  the  Oatholicon  of  Giovanni  da  Genova  :  '  Adria, 
adrie,  vel  adros,  greoe,  petra  latine  :  inde  hec 
adria — drie,  mare  quoddam  eo  quod  sit  magis 
petrosum  quam  alia  maria  :  unde  adriaticus-ca- 
cum,  id  eat  petrosus.'  Similarly  in  the  old  Latin- 
German  dictionary  known  as  Gemma  Gemmarum  : 
'  Adriaticum,  id  est  mare  saxosum  :  die  see  oder  das 
meer  da  vil  stein  in  «ynt.' 


(which  is  reproduced  lotidem  verbis  in  his 
edition  of  the  Complete  Works  of  Chaucer,  vol. 
i.  p.  487),  is  altogether  misleading  in  so  far 
as  it  relates  to  Dante.  He  writes :  '  Mr. 
Brae  suggests  that  the  reference  is  to  "  the 
Gulf  of  the  Carnaro  or  Quarnaro  in  the 
Adriatic,"  to  which  Dante  alludes  in  the 
Inferno,  ix.  113,  as  being  noted  for  its  perils. 
Gary's  translation  runs  thus : 

As  where  Rhone   stagnates  on  the  plains  of 

Aries, 

Or  as  at  Pola,  near  Quarnaro's  gulf, 
That  closes  Italy  and  laves  her  bounds, 
The  place  is  all  thick  spread  with  sepulchres. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  hint  in  Dante 
as  to  the  Gulf  of  Quarnaro  '  being  noted  for 
its  perils';  nor  is  there  any  suggestion  (as 
is  implied  by  Professor  Skeat's  italics)  as  to 
a  connection  between  these  'perils'  and  the 
sepulchres  at  Pola  mentioned  by  Dante. 
He  simply  compares  the  tombs  (avelli)  in 
which  the  Heretics  are  confined  in  Circle  vi. 
of  Hell  to  the  sepulchres  at  Aries,  and  at 
Pola  near  the  Quarnaro  : 

Si  come  ad  Arli,  ove  Rodano  stagna, 
Si  com'  a  Pola  presso  del  Quarnaro, 
Che  Italia  chiude  e  suoi  termini  bagna, 

Fanno  i  sepolcri  tutto  il  loco  varo  : 
Cosi  facevan  quivi  d'ogni  parte.  .  .  . 

It  would  be  just  as  reasonable  to  infer 
from  Dante's  words  a  connection  between 
the  tombs  at  Aries  and  the  delta  of  the 
Rhone,  which,  as  Dante  indicates,  begins  to 
form  at  that  place. 

The  sepulchres  at  Pola  were  well  known 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  inasmuch  as  Pola  was 
one  of  the  regular  stopping-places  on  the 
voyage  of  pilgrims  to  the  Holy  Land.  Thus 
we  find  them  mentioned  by  the  Seigneur 
d'Anglure,  a  contemporary  of  Chaucer,  in 


16 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


his  account  of  Le  Saint  Voyage  de  Jherusalem 
undertaken  by  him  in  1395-1396: 

'  Le  lundi  matin  nous  partismes  du  port 
de  Venise  ;  sy  arrivasmes  a  Paula,  qui  est 
a  cent  M.  oultre  Venise,  le  mardi  ensuivant, 
darrien  jour  d'aoust. 

Paula  est  cite  asses  bonne.  .  .  .  Dehors 
la  cit6,  devers  la  terre,  a  une  tresbelle  fon- 
teine  d'eaue  doulce  devant  laquelle  a  ung 
tournoyement J  .  .  .  et  le  fist  faire  Rolant, 
si  comme  Ten  dit,  et  encore  1'appellent  au- 
jourd'uy  le  palaix  Rolant.  Et  dehors  ledit 
palaix,  vers  la  marine,  a  moult  grant 
quantity  de  monumens  de  pierre  entaill^e 
couvers,  et  sont  sur  terre  :  et  y  en  peut  bien 
avoir  environ.iiii0. ;  et  dedens  les  aucuns 
voit  1'en  les  os  des  chrestiens  qui  illec  furent 
mis  apres  une  grande  desconfiture  quo 
mescreans  y  firent.  Plusieurs  y  a  desdits 
monumens  que  Ten  ne  peut  veoir  dedans, 
car  ilz  sont  trop  couvers.' 

(Pp.  6-7,  ed.  S.A.T.F.,  Paris,  1878.) 

These  sepulchres  are  mentioned  again  in 
the  account  of  another  voyage  to  the  Holy 
Land,  undertaken  some  forty  years  later 
by  one  'Ser  Mariano  of  Siena,  who  sailed 
from  Venice  on  April  25,  1431.  On  the 
next  day  he  records : 

'  A  di  xxvi.  fumo  in  Istria  nella  citta  di 
Pola,  nella  quale  trovammo  uno  edifizio 
quasi  simile  al  Coliseo  di  Roma,  e  mold 
altri  nobili  edifizii.  Anco  vi  trovammo  si 
grande  la  quantita  di  Sepulcri  tutte  d'uno 
pezzo  ritratti  come  arche,  che  sarebbe  in- 
credibile  a  dire  el  numero  d'essi  con  molte 
ossa  dentro.' 

(Del  Viaggio  in  Terra  Santa,  fatto  e  descritto 
da  Ser  Mariano  da  Siena.    Firenze,  1822.) 

It  is  obvious  from  these  references,  to 
which  others  no  doubt  might  easily  be 
added,  that  the  name  of  the  Gulf  of 
Quarnaro,  close  to  the  mouth  of  which 
Pola  is  situated,  must  have  been  pretty 
well  known  to  the  '  Palmers '  (or  pilgrims 
to  the  East,  as  Dante  explains  the  term) 2  of 
and  about  Chaucer's  day.  So  that  Profes- 
sor Torraca's  suggestion  that  Chaucer  can 
hardly  have  heard  of  the  name  save  from 
the  passage  in  the  Inferno,  and  that  conse- 
quently he  was  acquainted  with  Dante 
before  1372,  need  not  be  taken  too 
seriously. 

PAGET  TOYNBEE. 

1  That  is,  the  Roman  amphitheatre. 

2  Vita  Nuova,  §  41,  11.  44-46. 


'LEAD  APES  IN  HELL.' 

IN  Elizabethan  literature  we  frequently 
encounter  the  fancy  that  the  future  state  of 
old  maids  is  to  '  lead  apes  in  hell.'  It  is  suffi- 
cient to  refer  to  Much  Ado,  II.  i.  35  (which 
Mr.  Wright  illustrates  by  two  passages  from 
Lyly's  Euphues — one  of  them  being  the 
earliest  example  of  the  phrase  known  to 
Murray's  Oxford  Dictionary),  Taming  of  the 
Shrew,  n.  i.  43,  London  Prodigal,  i.  2  (quoted 
by  the  editor  of  Much  Ado  in  the  '  Warwick 
Shakespeare ')  and  Chapman's  May  Day,  ad 
fin. 

Murray's  Dictionary  says  nothing  to  ex- 
plain the  phrase.  Mr.  Wright,  it  may  be 
only  hali-seriously,  says:  'Perhaps  it  was 
thought  fitting  that,  having  escaped  the 
plague  of  children  in  this  life,  they  (i.e.  old 
maids)  ought  to  be  tormented  with  some- 
thing disagreeably  like  them  in  the  next.' 

A  different  explanation  is  suggested  by 
Professor  Skeat's  note  on  Chaucer,  Canoun 
Yemannes  Tale,  760  (G.  1313),  'the  priest  he 
made  his  ape.'  Comparing  this  with 
Prologue,  706,  and  B.  1630,  Skeat  shows  that 
'ape'  means  'dupe,'  and  he  adds,  'to  lead 
apes  means  to  lead  about  a  train  of  dupes.' 
Unfortunately  Skeat  gives  no  example  of 
the  phrase  '  to  lead  apes '  in  this  sense,  and 
it  is  not  clear  if  he  has  the  phrase  '  to  lead 
apes  in  hell '  in  his  mind. 

It  seems  to  me  that  if  we  extend  Skeat's 
explanation  to  the  latter  phrase,  we  have  an 
interpretation  which  is  at  any  rate  plausible, 
and  this  Mr.  Wright's  interpretation  would 
hardly  claim  to  be.  The  old  maid  is  viewed 
as  the  coquette  who  in  Chaucer's  phrase 
'  holds  '  her  lovers  '  in  hand,'  leads  them  on 
as  her  apes  or  dupes.  What  more  suitable 
fate  for  her  than  to  be  doomed  hereafter  to 
lead  apes  in  hell  ?  I  think  it  is  possible  to 
explain  the  phrase  thus,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  suppose  that  in  Shakespeare's  time 
the  phrase  was  used  with  little  consciousness 
of  its  original  meaning. 

In  the  following  passage  of  R.  Brath- 
waite,  Shepheards  Tales,  Part  I.,  Eel.  in. 
(Natures  Embassie,  p.  217),  the  phrase  is 
introduced  with  distinct  reference  to  a 
coquette : 

'  And  her  I  lou'd  and  lik'd  and  su'd  and  sought, 
But  all  my  loue  and  labour  turn'd  to  nought ; 
For  she  had  vow'd  which  vow  should  nere  be 

broke, 
Shee'd  die  a  Maid,  but  meant  not  as  she  spoke. 

Dor.  No,  Dymnus,  no,  the  nicest  sure  I  am 
Would  Hue  a  Maid  if  'twere  not  for  a  man  ; 
But  there  is  none  of  them  can  brooke  so  well, 
To  be  a  Beareward  and  leade  Apes  in  Hell.' 

G.  C.  MOORE  SMITH. 


OBSEEVATIONS 


17 


THE  SOUND-CHANGE   OF  WA  INTO 
WQ  IN  ENGLISH. 

IN  the  course  of  some  other  work  I  have 
made  an  observation  concerning  the  above 
sound-change,  which  has  perhaps  not  been 
made  before,  and  may  be  interesting  to 
students  of  English.  Everybody  knows 
that  the  original  wd  combination  in  wander, 
squander,  quadrant,  squadron,  twaddle,  thwart, 
swarthy  has  now  become  wO.  The  same 
thing  happens  to  whit  (e.g.  in  what  and 
whap).  There  are  a  few  exceptions  to  this 
transformation ;  and  it  is  the  nature  of 
these  exceptions  which  has  attracted  my 
attention.  The  exceptions  which  I  have  so 
far  observed  are  wag,  swag,  swagger,  wax, 
twang,  quack,  quag,  thwack,  and  whack.  What 
strikes  one  immediately,  on  writing  them 
down,  is  that  the  consonant  succeeding  the 
wd  or  who.  is  in  every  case  velar — k,  g,  or  rj. 
And  on  scrutinising  the  other  series  of 
words  one  finds  that  the  consonant  succeed- 
ing to  the  wu  is  in  no  case  velar,  but  always 
belongs  to  the  anterior  organs. 

It  is  much  easier  to  establish  this  dis- 
tinction than  to  account  for  it.  I  suggest, 
tentatively,  that  when  the  organs  have  to 
travel  from  the  very  close  back  round 
position  of  the  w  or  wh  to  that  of  some 
front,  or  point,  or  lip  consonant,  the  half- 
open  back  round  position  of  ft  is  vastly  more 
convenient  as  a  half-way  house  between 
them  than  the  original  front,  open,  un- 
rounded a  was.  Everybody  will  admit  that, 
probably ;  and  will  also  admit  that  the 
explanation  given  above  for  front  and  lip 
consonants  would  not  apply  to  velars — not 
at  least  without  modification.  Still,  the 
presence  of  the  back  consonant,  k,  g,  or  rj, 
ought  not  to  be  in  itself  unfavourable  to 
the  development  of  the  back  vowel  '* ;  and 
the  difficulty  of  conceiving  that  the  front 
open  d  can  be  the  more  convenient  half- 
way house  between  the  very  close  back  w 
and  the  stopped  back  /;,  y  or  i)  is  at  first  sight 
insurmountable. 

But  I  think  I  have  found  the  explanation 
of  ifc  in  a  fact  which  has  recently  forced 
itself  upon  my  notice  in  other  connections, 
namely,  the  independent  mobility  of  the 
velum.  Phoneticians  have  hitherto  laid 
little  or  no  stress  on  the  fact  that  the  soft 
palate  and  the  back  of  the  tongue  (unlike 
the  hard  palate  and  the  front  of  the  tongue) 
are  both  movable.  They  have  spoken  as  if 
all  back  constrictions  were  framed  simply 
by  raising  the  back  of  the  tongue.  But 
there  is  an  alternative,  quite  practicable  in 
this  and  many  other  cases ;  the  constriction 

VOL.  VII. 


may  be  very  largely  created  by  a  motion  of 
the  velum,  the  tongue  remaining  compara- 
tively passive.  With  this  information  in 
hand,  we  can  now  easily  conceive  that  the 
front  a  is,  after  all,  the  more  convenient  half- 
way house  between  the  back  w  or  wh  and 
the  back  k,  g,  or  rj ;  for  though  the  back  of 
the  tongue  must  drop  a  long  way  from  its 
w  or  wh  to  its  position  for  A,  it  has  no  need 
to  go  all  the  way  back  again  ;  the  velum 
comes  to  meet  it. 

The  reader  will  have  already  perceived 
that  the  doctrine  here  stated  must,  if  well 
founded,  profoundly  qualify  the  usual 
teaching  about  the  '  height'  of  back  vowels. 
There  are  some  more  facts  worth  naming 
about  that,  but  my  present  subject  is 
already  exhau  sted . 

R.  J.  LLOYD. 


THE  ENTERTAINMENT  AT  RICH- 
MOND. 

SINCE  the  publication  of  the  Entertain- 
ment at  Richmond  in  Professor  Bang's 
Materialien  I  have  lighted  by  chance  upon 
what  is,  I  believe,  an  unrecorded  reprint  of 
the  greater  part  of  the  Entertainment  in 
Kirkman's  collection  of  drolls,  etc.,  entitled 
The  Wits.  The  bulk  of  this  collection  con- 
sists of  short  comic  scenes  based  on  a  num- 
ber of  the  earlier  dramas,  and  has  a  title- 
page  bearing  the  date  1672  on  which  it 
purports  to  be  '  Part  I.'  This  is  in  octavo. 
The  following  year  a  different  collection  of 
miscellaneous  pieces,  including  the  Enter- 
tainment, was  also  published  by  Kirkman 
under  the  same  name.  This  is  in  quarto. 
This  second  part  was  reprinted  in  octavo, 
with  a  fresh  set  of  signatures,  and  added  to 
the  1672  volume,  which  at  the  same  time 
was  enlarged  by  prefixing  an  address  to  the 
reader,  a  general  titlepage  dated  1673,  and 
the  well-known  engraved  frontispiece  re- 
presenting the  Red  Bull  stage. 

It  is  perhaps  worth  while  noting  the 
differences  between  this  popular  reprint  and 
the  original  quarto  of  1636.  The  title- 
page  is  replaced  by  a  simple  head-title  run- 
ing  'WILTSHIRE  TOM,  |  An  Entertain- 
ment at  Court.'  The  verse  dedication  to 
the  Queen  and  the  prose  introduction,  etc., 
everything,  that  is,  before  1.  37  of  Professor 
Bang's  edition,  is  omitted ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  have  the  following  list  olpersmae, 
not  found  in  the  original : 

The  Actors'  Names. 
Usher. 
Tom.  A  Wiltshire  Man. 


18 


Mr.  Edward. 

Madge. 

Euchard. 

Doll. 

Wilkin. 

Luanda. 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


A  Courtier. 

A  Country  Wench. 


A  Shepherd. 
A  Shepherdess. 


The  text  then  follows  the  original,  with 
only  minor  variations  of  spelling  and  the 
like,  as  far  as  1.  289,  where  it  ends,  the  re- 


maining courtly  portion  (11.  290-637)  being 
omitted.  The  only  variation  of  any  in- 
terest I  have  noticed  is  in  1.  54,  in  which 
'M.  Edward  Sackville '  is  altered  to  '  M. 
Edward,  a  Courtier,'  the  occasional  nature 
of  the  original  piece  having  been  deliber- 
ately altered  with  a  view  to  a  popular 
audience  at  a  later  date.  So,  too,  '  M.  Sa '  in 
the  speakers'  names  becomes  'M.  Edw.' 

W.  W.  G. 


REVIEWS 


Une  Ville  d'Eaux  anglaise  au  xviiime 
Siecle. — La  Societ6  61egante  et  litte- 
raire  a  Bath  sous  la  reine  Anne  et  sous 
les  Georges.  Par  A.  BARBEAU,  docteur 
es  lettres,  charg6  de  cours  a  la  facult6 
des  lettres  de  I'universit6  de  Caen. 
(A.  Picard  et  Fils,  82,  rue  Bonaparte, 
Paris.) 

IT  is  a  noteworthy  phenomenon  of  the  last 
twenty  years  that  some  of  the  chief  contri- 
butions to  the  history  of  English  literature 
and  life  have  been  the  work  of  Frenchmen. 
It  is  sufficient  to  mention  Messieurs  Jusse- 
rand  and  Legouis,  and  the  late  M.  Texte. 
To  these  names  we  must  now  add  that  of 
M.  Alfred  Barbeau,  whose  book  on  Bath 
in  the  Eighteenth  Century  holds  its  own 
with  the  works  of  the  authors  we  have 
named  for  solid  erudition,  sober  reasoning, 
critical  insight,  sympathy  with  the  English 
character,  clear  arrangement  and  polished 
style. 

The  book  may  be  called  a  development 
of  a  remark  made  by  Thackeray — '  As  for 
Bath,  all  history  went  and  bathed  and 
drank  there.'  What  was  this  Bath  to 
which  all  the  notabilities  of  a  century  and 
a  half  wended  their  steps'!  M.  Barbeau 
sketches  the  history  of  the  watering-place 
from  its  mythical  origin  to  the  beginning  of 
its  vogue  after  the  Restoration :  he  shows 
how  under  the  strict  rule  of  Beau  Nash  its 
irregularities  were  repressed  and  it  became 
a  school  of  manners  for  the  whole  country  : 
he  points  out  how  the  secret  of  its  fall  was 
contained  in  its  very  growth,  till  at  last 
when  the  aristocracy,  separating  themselves 
from  the  bourgeois,  ceased  to  attend  the 
Pump-room  and  the  Assemblies,  the  life 
in  common  which  Nash  insisted  on  came 
to  an  end  and  the  glory  of  Bath  departed 


for  ever :  he  shows  how  in  modern  times 
Baden-Baden  and  Homburg  have  nourished 
on  its  ruins.  And  along  with  this  sketch 
of  the  gay  city's  rise  and  fall,  M.  Barbeau 
gives  us  pictures  of  the  chief  men  and 
women  who  contributed  to  its  fame  or 
whose  character  received  some  bent  or 
stimulus  from  the  genius  loci.  It  is  a  long 
series  of  interesting  portrait-sketches — Beau 
Nash  himself;  Sheridan;  Lady  Huntingdon, 
the  Methodist  she-bishop ;  Lady  Miller,  the 
Muse  of  Batheaston ;  the  good  Ralph  Allen 
and  his  guests,  Pope  and  Fielding;  the 
youthful  portrait-painter,  Thomas  Law- 
rence; the  Hanoverian  band-master,  William 
Herschel,  giving  his  music  lessons  in  a  room 
littered  with  telescopes  of  his  own  construc- 
tion— these  and  a  score  or  two  beside  pass 
before  us  in  procession.  And  everywhere 
M.  Barbeau  subtly  indicates  the  part  which 
Bath  played  in  the  life  or  genius  of  its 
children  or  its  visitors.  'The  characteristic 
of  Bath,'  he  writes,  'as  of  other  English 
watering-places  of  the  same  date,  is  to  have 
remained  for  one  hundred  years  and  more 
not  merely  a  place  of  cure  and  amusement, 
but  almost  a  national  sanctuary  of  fashion 
and  good  tone,  a  conservatory  of  fine 
manners :  to  have  attracted  to  itself  by 
its  6clat  every  one  in  the  three  kingdoms 
who  affected  elegance,  and  so  to  have  be- 
come as  it  were  a  crucible  of  social  fusion  : 
finally — to  the  great  profit  of  literature — to 
have  set  before  the  eyes  of  some  great 
observers  (Sheridan,  Smollett,  Anstey,  Miss 
Austen,  Dickens)  a  marvellously  instructive 
and  varied  spectacle.' 

There  is  something  fresh  and  original  in 
the  idea  of  studying  men  and  their  works 
in  the  peculiar  atmosphere  of  a  city  of 
pleasure,  and  M.  Barbeau  has  not  only  had  a 
good  idea,  but  has  worked  it  out  with  the 
most  painstaking  erudition.  It  is  clear 


REVIEWS 


19 


that  for  a  long  course  of  years  he  has  read 
everything  that  could  possibly  bear  on  his 
subject,1  and  the  result  must  be  not  merely 
the  success  of  the  present  work,  but  the 
immediate  recognition  of  M.  Barbeau  as  one 
of  the  chief  living  students  of  the  English 
eighteenth  century.  Now  that  he  has 
achieved  this  magnum  opus — in  which  one 
may  perhaps  suppose  that  all  the  men, 
women  and  things  which  came  within  his 
historical  survey  were  not  equally  con- 
genial to  him — we  must  hope  that  he  will 
give  us  in  the  lightness  of  his  heart  a  new 
series  of  literary  studies  of  those  authors 
or  works  for  which  his  sympathies  are 
keenest. 

The  present  book  is  so  carefully  executed, 
as  we  have  said,  that  it  gives  opening  for 
very  little  of  the  nature  of  suggestion  or 
correction.  One  point  in  which  Bath 
affected  literary  history  seems,  however, 
to  have  escaped  M.  Barbeau's  observation. 
Every  one  acquainted  with  the  later  life  of 
the  poet  Gray  remembers  how  in  the 
winter  of  1769-1770  a  gleam  of  joy  came 
to  him  in  his  learned  seclusion  in  the  warm 
affection  which  he  conceived  for  the  young 
Swiss,  Charles  de  Bonstetten,  an  affection 
which  lasted  till  the  poet's  death.  Bon- 
stetten came  to  Gray  at  Cambridge  with  a 
letter  of  introduction  from  Gray's  friend, 
Norton  Nicholls,  and  Nicholls  and  Bon- 
stetten had  made  each  other's  acquaintance 
a  few  weeks  earlier  at  the  general  rendez- 
vous, Bath. 

On  pages  58,  62,  63,  and  68,  some  foot- 
notes appear  to  be  attached  to  wrong  words 
in  the  text,  probably  through  a  note  being 
added  or  omitted  and  no  corresponding 
change  being  made  in  the  numbers  indicat- 
ing the  notes. 

p.  69.  'la  premiere  partie  de  Henri  v. 
de  Shakespeare.'  This  seems  to 
need  a  word  of  explanation,  un- 
less '  Henri  IV.'  is  meant. 

p.  135.  'to  post  him  as  a  L- and  a 

treacherous  S '  is  translated  'de 

proclamer  ici  publiquement  qu'il 
en  a  menti  et  qu'il  est  un  chenapan 
sans  foi.'  We  suppose  the  word 
indicated  by  'S '  is  'Seducer.' 

p.  163.  Walpole's '  letter.  'Behind  the 
pit  ...  is  a  plain  table  within 

1  M.  Barbeau's  Bibliography  (of  some  500  items !) 
does  not,  however,  include  a  pleasantly  written 
paper  by  Mr.  H.  D.  Trail!,  called  'Two  Centuriesof 
Bath,'  which  appeared  in  The  Enr/li»h  Illustrated 
Mai/azine  for  June  1884.  The  paper  is  illustrated 
with  drawings  by  W.  G.  Addison,  and  one  by 
Hugh  Thomson. 


rails.'  Should  not  '  pit '  be  '  pul- 
pit'? 

p.  165.  'the  Toads  must  be  singing 
Psalms  or  preaching  to  my 
Customers,  and  be  pox'd  to  'em, 
from  morning  to  night.'  (I  have 
inserted  the  necessary  comma 
after  '  'em.')  The  phrase  '  and  be 
pox'd  to  'em '  has  been  misunder- 
stood apparently,  judging  by  the 
translation  —  'ils  passent  leur 
temps  a  chanter  des  Psaumes,  les 
animaux,  ou  a  faire  des  sermons  a 
mes  clients,  et  a  les  imporiuner  du 
matin  au  soir.' 

p.  174.  Milton's  line,  'rose  like  a  steam 
of  rich  distilled  perfumes '  (given 
rightly  in  the  note),  is  translated 
'montait  comme  un  flat  de  par- 
fums,  etc.'  Was  '  steam '  misread 
as  '  stream '  1 

p.  192,  193.  'he  aimed  the  ball  at  the 
lead  with  such  discomposure  that 
it  struck  on  the  wrong  side  and 
came  off  at  an  angle  which  directed 
it  full  in  the  middle  hole.'  M. 
Barbeau  comments  :  '  The  lead  (le 
plomb)  dit  le  texte ;  je  ne  sais 
au  juste  ce  qui  est  de'signe'  par  la, 
ni  par  oil  les  billards  anglais 
du  xviii"  siecle  diffe'raient  des 
actuels.'  We  don't  understand 
eighteenth-century  billiards  any 
more  than  M.  Barbeau.  We 
think,  however,  he  is  wrong  in 
translating  'the  lead'  as  'le 
plomb,'  and  that  the  word  is 
'lead.'  The  Oxford  Dictionary 
seems  to  throw  no  light  on  the 
use  of  the  word  in  connexion 
with  billiards.  But  some  help 
may  perhaps  be  gafned  from  the 
following  '  Rules  and  Regula- 
tions to  be  observed  at  the 
White  Winning  Game '  in  '  Mr. 
Dew's  Treatise  on  Billiards,'  given 
in  Hoyle's  Games  Improved,  1796 : — 

'  I.  When  you  begin,  string  for  the  Lead, 
and  the  Choice  of  Balls,  if  you 
please. 

'  IV.  If  the  Player  holes  his  own  Ball, 
either  in  stringing  or  leading,  he 
loses  the  Lead. 

'V.  If  the  Leader  follow  his  Ball  with 
either  Mace  or  Cue  past  the 
middle  Hole,  it  is  no  Lead ;  and 
if  his  Adversary  chuses,  he  may 
make  him  lead  again. 

'VI.  The  Striker  who  plays  at  the  Lead 


20 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


must  stand  with  both  his  Feet 
within  the  limits  of  the  Corner  of 
the  Table,  etc.' 

p.  214.  'There  are  baths  near  at  hand  in 
which  a  part  of  the  company  wash 
themselves,  and  a  band  plays 
afterwards  to  congratulate  the 
remainder  on  their  having  done 
so.'  If  we  understand  the  passage 
aright,  the  humour  of  the  words 
the  remainder  is  lost  in  the  trans- 
lation :  '  1'orchestre  joue  pour 
feliciter  les  baigneurs  de  s'etre 
mis  a  1'eau.' 

p.  228.  Horace  Walpole  having  spoken 
of  Lady  Miller  as  '  Mrs.  Miller,' 
M.  Barbeau  remarks  :  '  Lady,  titre 
de  pure  courtoisie,  habituellement 
donn6,  comme  Ton  sait,  aux 
femmes  de  baronnets.  On  a  vu 
que  1'aristocratique  Walpole,  selon 
la  rigueur  des  regies,  dit  toujours 
Mrs  Miller.'  Most  readers  will 
hardly  find  M.  Barbeau's  explana- 
tion satisfactory,  and  a  reference 
to  Burke's  Peerage  and  Baronetage, 
for  1893  say,  will  justify  their 
scepticism.  Horace  Walpole  was 
writing  in  1775,  Captain  Miller 
was  created  a  baronet  of  Ireland 
on  24th  August  1778,  and  Miss 
Seward's  account  of  the  Bath- 
Easton  assemblies  was  not  written 
till  after  Lady  Miller's  death  in 
July  1781.  The  baronetcy  is  now 
extinct. 

Apart  from  a  few  misprints  not  given  in 
the  'Errata,'  we  have  noted  nothing  else 
which  needs  correction  in  Monsieur  Bar- 
beau's  work,  and  considering  that  it  runs  to 
300  pages  and  consists  largely  of  notes  in 
small  print — whatever  allowance  be  made 
for  our  defective  knowledge — this  is  no 
small  testimony  to  the  scholarly  care  which 
M.  Barbeau  has  spent  on  his  task.  The 
width  of  his  sympathies  may  be  seen  in  the 
treatment  he  accords  to  our  English  Metho- 
dists :  no  Englishman  could  write  with 
more  appreciation  of  their  religious  sincerity 
and  earnestness  than  is  here  shown  by  a 
French  Catholic. 

In  all  the  portraits  we  see  the  same 
generous  appreciation  of  what  is  good,  the 
same  conscientious  adherence  to  truth,  the 
same  vivid  sense  of  character.  The  story 
of  Sheridan  and  Eliza  Linley  is  made  so 
interesting  that,  when  it  is  cut  short  by 
their  removal  from  Bath,  we  feel  defrauded. 
(This  perhaps  illustrates  a  certain  con- 


straint which  the  choice  of  his  subject  has 
imposed  on  the  author.  Successful  as  he 
has  been  with  this  book,  he  will  perhaps  be 
happier  when  he  can  treat  some  favourite 
writer  without  regard  to  the  place  with 
which  at  some  period  of  his  life  he  has  been 
connected.) 

The  book  abounds  in  thoughtful  criticism. 
We  need  only  mention  the  importance  given 
(and,  as  it  seems  to  us,  rightly  given)  to 
Anstey's  Bath  Guide  as  a  factor  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  modern  light  verse. 

But  we  have  said  enough.  We  will  only 
express  the  hope  that  the  book  may  speedily 
appear  in  a  good  English  translation. 
Though  it  would  be  impossible  to  preserve 
in  English  the  charm  of  M.  Barbeau's 
French  style,  a  translation  would  have  one 
advantage  over  the  original,  that  passages 
which  now  appear  in  French  in  the  text 
and  in  English  in  the  footnotes  need  only 
be  read  once.  That  the  book,  especially 
if  illustrated,  would  be  long  in  popular 
demand— above  all,  in  the  city  whose  history 
it  records  so  kindly  and  so  brilliantly — we 
do  not  for  a  moment  doubt.  And  such 
popular  appreciation  would  not  derogate 
from  the  value  set  on  it  by  scholars  as  an 
invaluable  contribution  to  the  literary  and 
social  history  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

G.  C.  M.  S. 


Mme.  de  Stael,  Lettres  incites  & 
Henri  Meister.  Publiees  par  P. 
USTERI  et  E.  RITTER.  Paris,  Hachette 
et  Cie.  1903.  16°.  Fr.  3.50. 

IT  is  not  without  a  thrill  that  we  take 
up  a  work  likely  to  throw  a  fresh  light 
on  the  mind  or  person  of  a  great  man 
or  woman.  Many  series  of  letters  have 
thrown  such  a  light,  whether  for  good 
or  ill.  With  such  a  thrill  did  I  take  up 
the  volume  of  Lettres  Mdites  de  Madame 
de  Stael.  What  fresh  vision  might  they 
not  afford  of  this  brilliant,  essentially 
feminine  mind  1  The  hope  so  awakened 
has  not  been  altogether  fulfilled.  There 
is  no  doubt  much  to  interest  in  these 
letters,  put  together  with  so  much  skill 
and  care  by  MM.  Usteri  and  Ritter.  The 
acquaintance  of  Henri  Meister  himself,  to 
whom  the  letters  are  for  the  most  part 
addressed,  is  well  worth  the  making.  '  The 
excellent  Meister,'  we  feel  disposed  to  call 
him,  so  solid  is  he,  so  self-contained,  so 
constant,  so  unmoved  in  his  friendship  in 
his  course  of  life.  He  serves  as  an  admir 


REVIEWS 


21 


able  foil  to  his  changeful,  uncertain  corre- 
spondent. There  are  days  when  she  writes 
that  she  cannot  live  without  him.  '  Je  ne 
vous  parlerai  pas  de  ce  que  je  vous  dois, 
vous  m'etes  n^cessaire,  et  je  cherche  a  rap- 
procher  ma  vie  de  la  votre,  parce  que  vous 
plaisez  a  tout  mon  coeur  et  tout  mon  esprit.' 
Again  there  are  months  when  he  seems  to 
be  forgotten.  Coldness  and  warmth  alike 
he  received  with  unswerving  friendship. 
We  should  like  to  see  his  replies.  The 
one-sidedness  of  the  correspondence  leaves 
a  blank.  But  had  his  letters  been  other 
than  calm  and  friendly,  there  would  have 
been  more  of  rapture  and  rebuke  in  hers. 
Be  this  as  it  may,  the  main  charm  of  this 
correspondence  between  Madame  de  Stael 
and  a  faithful  friend  lies  in  its  personal 
side.  If  we  look  for  the  author  of  Corinne, 
if  we  look,  that  is,  for  any  special  power 
of  portraying  scenes  and  persons  such  as 
may  be  looked  for  in  a  writer  of  fiction, 
we  shall  hardly  be  successful  in  our  search. 
There  is  but  little  vividness  or  characterisa- 
tion in  her  mention  of  persons  and  events. 
Still  less  shall  we  have  success  if  we  seek 
for  the  famous  writer  of  I'Allemugne,  who, 
more  perhaps  than  any  other,  made  known 
to  her  countrymen  the  great  writers  of 
Germany,  and  who  was  certainly  one  of 
the  great  forces  which  made  up  the 
Romantic  movement  in  France.  There  is 
not  much  talk  of  literature,  and  such  talk 
as  there  is  gives  cause  for  surprise.  She 
writes  thus  of  Goethe,  who  had  sent  her  a 
beautifully  bound  copy  of  Wilhelm  Meister : 
'Comme  il  etait  en  allemand,  je  n'ai  pu 
admirer  que  la  reliure.  Mais  il  faut  que 
dans  votre  bonti':,  vous  fassiez  parvenir  de 
ma  part  a  Goethe  un  remerciment  superbe, 
qui  jette  un  voile  sur  mon  ignorance  et 
parle  beaucoup  de  mon  admiration  pour 
1'auteur  de  Werther.' 

The  editors  of  the  letters  hold  that  they 
refute  Sainte-Beuve's  assertion  that  Madame 
de  Stael  was  indifferent  to  the  horrors  of 
the  Year  of  Terror.  This  appears  to  me 
true  only  in  part.  She  does  indeed  speak 
of  '  1'affreux  ^croulement  de  1'univers.'  She 
does  indeed  allude  often  to  the  sufferings 
of  her  friends.  She  is  indeed  anxious  to 
return  to  Paris.  But  this  desire  seems 
chiefly  due  to  her  wish  to  escape  the 
'frightful  boredom'  of  Switzerland,  and 
the  upheaval  affects  her  through  its  effect 
on  her  friends,  or  herself.  This  brings  me 
back  to  my  first  contention.  It  is  the  per- 
sonal character  of  the  letters  which  has 
interest.  It  is  the  unaffected  egoism  of  a 
brilliant  and  accomplished  woman  of  the 


late  eighteenth  century,  revealed  with  a 
complete  sincerity  which  appeals  to  the 
reader.  This  is  the  debt  which  we  owe 
to  the  compilers.  They  have  shown  us 
Germaine  Necker — not  in  love-letters,  of 
which  we  have  had  something  of  a  surfeit 
of  late,  but  in  letters  almost  devoid  of 
passion.  This  Germaine  is  a  woman  alert 
to  all  that  passes,  keenly  sensitive  to  the 
whirl  of  change  into  which  she  was  drawn, 
in  which  she  played  a  part,  so  often  unkind 
to  herself.  The  letters  show  her  a  repub- 
lican, who  is  unable  to  say  anything  which 
altogether  pleases  the  Republic ;  an  ardent 
Bonapartist;  an  anti-Imperialist ;  above  all, 
they  show  her  a  devoted  and  zealous  friend. 
They  touch  upon  all  manner  of  themes, 
though  lightly.  But  throughout  they  re- 
flect less  a  profound  thinker  than  a  thinker 
who  is  swayed  by  impassioned  feeling.  As 
she  herself  says:  'Si  aimer  profondem,ent 
ce  qu'on  estime,  si  rester  fidele  au  lieu  sacrti 
de  1'amitie,  est  jouer  un  role,  je  1'ai  rempli ; 
on  plutot,  il  n'est  rien  en  moi  qui  m'inspire, 
qui  me  permette  une  autre  maniere  de 
vivre.' 

The  letters,  which  present  her  to  us  in 
many  moods — hopeful,  disappointed,  bitter, 
affectionate- — show  her  at  last  content  and 
in  prosperity.  Four  months  before  her 
death  a  letter  to  Meister  tells  that  she  is 
'  au  comble  de  ses  vceux :  sa  maison  est  la 
plus  anim^e  de  Paris,  et  influe  tant  qu'elle 
veut  et  tant  qu'elle  peut,  sans  trouver  d'op- 
posants.  Sa  fortune  est  grande.'  The  last 
word  of  her,  then,  written  in  her  lifetime, 
shows  her  what  she  really  was — the  brilliant 
society  woman,  the  last  to  hold  a  true 
eighteenth-century  salon,  and  when  Corinne 
and  de  I'Allemagne  are  forgotten,  or  at  least 
unread,  her  name  will  still  be  remembered 
among  others  famous  for  this  lost  art. 

M.  J.  TUKE. 


A  Handbook  of  Modern  English  Metre. 
By  JOSEPH  B.  MAYOR.  Cambridge,  at 
the  University  Press.  1903.  [2s.] 

THE  author  of  Chapters  on  English  Metre 
has  a  right  to  be  heard  on  that  subject,  and 
the  present  little  volume  in  which  he  has 
embodied  his  system  of  prosody  in  a  form 
suitable  for  teaching  purposes  will  be 
welcomed  by  many  interested  in  the  techni- 
cal problems  of  versification. 

Mr.  Mayor  begins  his  preface  by  saying 
that  he  has  sought  to  give  a  '  methodical 
and  uncontroversial  statement'  of  what  he 
calls  his  'theory  of  metre.'  If  by  '  uncon- 


22 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


troversial'  the  author  means  that  he  has 
neither  sought  to  refute  rival  theories  nor 
to  substantiate  his  own,  but  merely  to 
state  and  illustrate  it,  his  statement  is 
eminently  true ;  and  if  the  reader  has 
previously  convinced  himself  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  that  theory  or  is  willing  to 
swallow  it  whole  upon  authority,  he  will 
ask  for  nothing  more.  The  argument, 
moreover,  is  developed  at  length  in  the 
author's  former  work.  If,  however,  we  are 
to  understand  '  uncontroversial '  in  its  ordi- 
nary sense  of  excluding  disputed  matter, 
we  can  only  say  that  the  author  has 
been  singularly  unsuccessful.  There  is 
scarcely  a  page  out  of  the  hundred  and 
fifty  odd  which  form  the  volume  which 
does  not  contain  statements  with  which  we 
profoundly  disagree.  The  preface  itself,  in 
which  the  aim  and  object  of  the  work  is 
set'i  forth,  is  no  exception.  Mr.  Mayor 
is  disturbed  at  the  '  epidemic  of  metrical 
theories '  which  we  are  informed  has  been 
raging  of  late  years,  and  thinks  '  it  cannot 
be  denied  that  the  conflict  of  experts  has  a 
tendency  to  produce  confusion  and  un- 
certainty, or  even  entire  scepticism,  among 
the  reading  public.'  It  would  certainly 
never  occur  to  us  to  deny  anything  of  the 
sort.  But  it  is  quite  useless  for  the  author 
to  deprecate  these  rival  theories,  and  his 
apparent  claim  to  the  right  of  expound- 
ing the  orthodox  and  authoritative  view  to 
which  all  others  should  defer  is  hardly 
likely  to  be  universally  recognised.  He  has 
overlooked  the  somewhat  relevant  fact  that 
what  has  called  forth  the  'epidemic  of 
metrical  theories '  is  the  profoundly  unsatis- 
factory nature  of  the  system  of  which  he 
has  constituted  himself  'the  advocate.  He 
has  a  statement  a  few  lines  lower  down 
which  puts  his  position  in  a  clearer  and,  to 
our  mind,  a  yet  worse  light.  He  says, 
namely,  that  his  book  is  intended  '  for 
those  who  have  not  had  a  training  in  metre 
through  the  practice  of  Greek  and  Latin 
versification,'  implying  thereby  that  such  a 
training  fits  the  student  to  deal  with  the 
wholly  different  problems  of  English  verse. 
But  without  going  so  far  as  to  deny  the 
convenience  of  classical  names  and  methods 
in  speaking  of  and  analysing  English  versifi- 
cation, most  English  scholars  will,  we  fancy, 
admit  that  the  attempt  to  transfer  the 
classical  system  bodily  into  modern  lan- 
guages is  theoretically  indefensible,  and  has 
in  practice  proved  a  lamentable  failure. 
That  Mr.  Mayor,  whose  remarks  on  indi- 
vidual problems  are  often  very  acute, 
should  not  have  perceived  this  affords 


matter  for  speculation.  He  remarks,  for 
instance,  that  the  distinction  of  degrees  of 
stress  '  makes  it  possible  to  interpose  an 
intermediate  foot  between  a  trochee  and 
spondee,'  adding  that  it  is  'a  matter  of 
indifference  whether  we  call  it  trochee  or 
spondee.'  Surely,  then,  nothing  is  gained 
as  regards  a  scientific  system  by  calling  it 
either  1 

A  few  instances  will  serve  to  show  how 
absolutely,  artificial  the  system  of  versifica- 
tion based  on  the  division  of  feet  must  be 
in  such  a  language  as  ours.  Thus  we  find 
a  full  discussion  of  the  inversion  of  the 
ciccent  ivithin  the  foot  followed  by  a  section  on 
the  pyrrhic  and  spondee.  'These,'  re- 
marks the  author,  '  may  be  naturally  taken 
together,  as  they  are  often  found  together, 
the  loss  of  stress  in  one  foot  being  com- 
pensated by  added  stress  in  the  neighbour- 
ing foot.'  Of  course  they  are  often  found 
together,  for  it  is  merely  the  perverse  divi- 
sion into  feet  that  obscures  the  fact  that 
these  so-called  pyrrhics  and  spondees  are 
in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  merely  in- 
stances of  inversion  of  accent  not  within 
the  foot.  The  distinction  between  the  two 
cases  is  utterly  meaningless  and  unscientific. 

On  the  whole  the  distinction  between 
dissyllabic  and  trisyllabic  rhythms  does  not 
give  much  trouble ;  the  difficulty  arises 
when  we  come  to  consider  the  distinction 
between  rising  and  falling  rhythms,  between 
iambic  and  trochaic,  dactylic  and  anapaestic. 
A  so-called  '  law '  of  supreme  importance  is 
italicised  on  p.  19.  'An  unaccented  syl- 
lable, preceding  the  initial  accent,  or 
following  the  final  accent  of  the  normal 
line,  is  treated  by  the  poets  as  non-essential 
to  the  rhythm,  and  may  be  added  or 
omitted  without  necessarily  changing  the 
metre.'  This  is  the  'law'  according  to 
which  any  metre  may  be  shown  to  be 
iambic  or  trochaic,  dactylic  or  anapaestic, 
at  the  fancy  of  the  critic.  For  instance, 
on  p.  39,  Shelley's  lines  are  treated  as 
trochaic  : 

Many  a  |  green  isle  |  needs  must  |  be  ^ 
In  the  )  deep  wide  |  sea  of  |  miser  |  y  A  > 
Or  the  |  mariner  |  worn  and  |  wan  A 
Never  |  thus  could  |  voyage  |  on  /\  ; 

but  they  might  equally  well  be  written  : 

Many  |  a  green  |  isle  needs  |  must  be 
In  the  deep  |  wide  sea  |  of  mi  |  sery 
/\  Or  |  the  ma  |  riner  worn  |  and  wan 
/\  Ne  |  ver  thus  |  could  voy  |  age  on. 

Again  on  the  next  page  the  author  admits 
that  some  lines  of  Swinburne  may  be 
scanned  either  as  'trochaic  with  dactylic 


REVIEWS 


23 


and  spondaic  substitution '  or  as  anapaestic. 
'  I  much  prefer  the  former,'  he  adds,  but  as 
neither  in  the  least  affects  the  reading  of  the 
lines  it  is  rather  a  matter  of  indifference. 
The  footnote  on  p.  55  leaves  no  shadow  of 
doubt  that  the  poet  himself  would  have 
voted  his  verse  anapaestic.  Such  con- 
sideration should  raise  a  doubt  whether 
these  much-disputed  terms  really  indicate 
any  organic  difference  in  the  verse  at  all. 
The  division  into  feet  appears  to  us  to  lie  at 
the  root  of  the  mischief,  but  even  without 
it  difficulties  remain.  It  is  often  possible 
to  say  that  a  poem  has  a  marked  iambic  or 
trochaic  rhythm.  What  determines  the 
effect  1  Division  into  feet,  it  has  been 
seen,  affords  us  no  help.  The  fact  of  the 
first  syllable  being  accented  or  unaccented 
frequently  goes  for  next  to  nothing.  Pro- 
bably the  most  powerful  factor  in  determin- 
ing the  rhythm  is  whether  an  accented  or 
unaccented  syllable  follows  the  first  distinct 
pause  in  the  line.  The  rhythm,  that  is, 
depends  upon  the  prevalent  form  of  the 
syllabic  group.  If  attention  is  paid  to  this 
it  will  be  found  that  the  vast  majority  of 
English  verse,  whether  beginning  with  an 
accent  or  not,  is  iambic  or  anapaestic  in 
type.  Few  poets  can  sustain  anything 
like  a  trochaic  or  dactylic  cadence,  especially 
in  long  lines. 

A  most  interesting  example,  and  an 
admirable  test  of  any  system  of  scansion, 
is  afforded  by  a  stanza  from  Meredith's 
wonderful  poem,  Love  in  the  Valley.  We 
give  it  as  it  stands  in  Mr.  Mayor's  book. 

Shy  as  the  |  squirrel  and  |  wayward  |  as  the  | 

swallow, 
Swift  as  the  j  swallow  a  ]  long  the  |  river's  | 

light  A  , 

*Circleting    the  |  surface    to  |  meet  his  |  mir- 
rored |  winglets, 
Fleeter   she  |  seems    in    her  |  stay    than  |  in 

her  |  flight  A  . 
Shy  as    the  |  squirrel    that  |  leaps    a  |  mong 

the  |  pine-tops, 
"Wayward  as  the  |  'swallow  over  |  head  at  | 

set  of  I  sun  /y , 
She  whom  I  |  love  is  |  hard  to  I  catch  and  | 

conquer, 
*Hard,  but  0  the  |  *glory  of  the  |  winning  | 

were  she  |  won  A  ! 

It  is  called  a  five-foot  dactylic  metre  with 
trochaic  substitution  in  the  last  three  feet, 
and  a  note  informs  us  that  in  the  five  feet 
marked  above  with  an  asterisk  '  a  superflu- 
ous syllable  has  to  be  slurred.'  Now  of  one 
thing  we  are  absolutely  convinced,  namely, 
that  in  the  whole  poem  there  is  not  one 
single  'superfluous  syllable,'  and  that  not 


one  can  be  slurred  without  injury  to  the 
verse.  In  spite  of  the  obvious  audacity  of 
such  an  act,  we  are  tempted  to  give  our  own 
idea  of  the  metre  of  the  poem,  dividing  the 
lines,  for  the  sake  of  comparison,  into  '  feet.' 
We  believe  it  to  be  the  equivalent  of  a 
six-accent  measure,  the  rhythm  in  each 
line  changing  from  trochaic  at  the  beginning 
to  iambic  at  the  close. 

Shy  A   I  as  the  |  squirrel  |  and  way  |  ward  as 

|  the  swal(low 
Swift  A   I  as    the  |  swallow  |  alung  |  the     ri  | 

ver's  light, 
Circle  |  ting  the  |  surface  |  to  meet  |  his  mir  | 

rored  wing(lets 
Fleeter  |  she  A    I  seems  in  |  her  stay  |  than  in 

|  her  flight. 
Shy  A    I  is  the  |  squirrel  |  that   leaps  |  among 

|  the  pine(tops, 
Wayward  ]  as    the  |  swallow  |  over    head  |  at 

stSt  |  of  sun, 
Sh£  A   I  whom  I  |  love  A   i  is  hard  |  to  catch  | 

and  confquer, 
Hard,  but  |  0  the  I  glory  |  of  the  win  |  ning 

were  [  she  won. 

Into  the  example  from  the  Midsummer 
Night's  Dream  given  on  p.  66  inters  the 
question  of  reading.  -As  quoted  it  runs  : 

Over  hill,  |  over  dale, 

Thoro'  bush,  |  thoro'  briar,  etc. 

This  is  the  usual  reading  and  rests  on  Q  1. 
Metrically  we  certainly  prefer  the  reading 
of  the  folio : 

Over  hill,  over  dale, 

Through  bush,  through  briar,  etc. 

which  introduces  a  further  variation  into 
the  rhythm,  which  then  includes  ana- 
paestic, iambic,  and  trochaic.  The  lines 
from  Scott  on  p.  58  are  misquoted ;  the 
third  line  should  read  'Come  in  your 
war-array.' 

We  have  allowed  ourselves  to  dwell  at 
some  length  upon  what  appear  to  us  the 
fatal  drawbacks  of  the  system  of  versifica- 
tion which  Mr.  Mayor  has  expounded, 
because  we  believe  it  to  be  radically  un- 
sound, and  because  its  introduction  into 
school  text-books  has  already  given  rise  to 
highly  undesirable  questions  in  certain 
examination  papers  which  have  come  under 
our  notice.  We  must,  however,  say  in  con- 
clusion that  there  is  much  that  is  of  the 
greatest  interest  in  the  author's  little 
volume,  and  that  those  who  are  prepared 
to  accept  the  theory  he  advocates  will 
find  in  it  a  sober  and  exceedingly  able 
exposition. 

W.  W.  G. 


24 


THE  MODEEN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


Palseografisk  Atlas :  Dansk  afdeling. 

Udgivet  af  kommissionem  for  det 
arnamagnseanske  legal.  Fol.  Gylden- 
dalske  boghandel.  Kwbenhavn,  1903. 

THE  Syndics  of  the  Arna-Magnsean  Library 
at  Copenhagen  have  planned,  and  through 
their  librarian,  Dr.  Kristian  Kalund,  already 
partly  executed,  a  work  which  for  a  long 
time  has  been  a  desideratum — a  Palseo- 
graphical  Atlas  for  the  medieval  literatures 
of  Denmark,  Norway  and  Iceland.  The 
volume  under  notice  forms  the  Danish 
section  of  the  work.  It  consists  of  thirty- 
eight  plates  representing  sixty-four  splen- 
didly executed  collotype  reproductions  from 
forty-five  MSS.  and  of  thirteen  charters, 
exhibiting  altogether  upwards  of  a  hundred 
specimens  of  handwritings.  The  palaeo- 
graphical  material  thus  brought  together 
and  chronologically  arranged  illustrates 
Danish  writing  for  a  period  of  some  425 
years  (1125-1550).  In  the  selection  of 
specimens  Dr.  Kalund  aimed  at  every  phase 
of  Denmark's  medieval  literature  being 
represented  in  such  a  manner  that  the 
traditional  evolution  of  the  handwriting 
through  the  course  of  time  might  be 
followed  by  those  interested  in  the  matter 
without  too  great  jumps  being  involved. 
Of  course,  the  work  must  have  its  limits, 
and  consequently  much  of  the  material  the 
editor  would  have  liked  to  include  in  the 
Atlas  had  to  be  kept  out.  But  it  must  be 
admitted  that,  though  limited,  the  contents 
of  the  Atlas  give  a  fairly  complete  picture  of 
the  palaeography  of  the  period  it  is  intended 
to  illustrate.  In  this  respect,  too,  Dr. 
Kalund's  scholarly  treatment  of  the  speci- 
mens is  very  helpful.  Every  illustration  is 
transliterated  in  a  manner  which  leaves  but 
little  to  be  desired.  Where  an  important 
specimen  presents  several  handwritings, 
they  are  printed  in  as  many  different 
founts  of  type  in  the  transliteration.  This 
is,  in  every  case,  prefaced  by  a  concise 
description  of  the  document  from  which 
the  specimen  is  selected,  supplying  the 
main  points  of  the  history  of  each  and  of  its 
particular  characteristics.  And  in  addition 
to  all  this,  the  learned  editor  prefaces  the 
work  with  an  introduction  chronologically 
reviewing  the  whole  collection  of  specimens 
and  adding,  where  the  interest  of  the  case 
demands  it,  an  account  of  conflicting  views 
on  the  age  of  a  MS.,  notably  in  respect 
of  the  Angers  fragment  of  Saxo  Gramma- 
ticus,  which,  on  the  whole,  is  the  most 
interesting  specimen  of  the  collection.  In 


short,  we  have  here  a  catalogue  raAsonnd  of 
the  most  important  literary  productions  of 
medieval  Denmark.  Dr.  Kalund's  scientific 
method  in  dealing  with  his  materials  is 
much  to  be  commended ;  even  his  caution, 
in  respect  of  the  age  of  undated  documents, 
which,  we  are  inclined  to  think,  he  some- 
times carries  a  little  too  far,  redounds  to 
his  credit. 

A  valuable  aid  towards  forming  an  opinion 
of  the  relative  ages  of  thirteenth  and  four- 
teenth century  handwritings  is  afforded  by 
illustrations  LXIII.-IV.,  from  the  codex  con- 
taining the  old  Danish  bye-laws  of  the  town 
of  Sleswick.  Here  we  have  exhibited  two 
Ducal  decrees,  dated  respectively  1295  and 
1321,  each  conveying  a  command  that  a  copy 
of  it  should  be  added  to  the  body  of  the  bye- 
laws.  Such  a  command  would  be  obeyed 
by  the  burgomaster  without  any  consider- 
able delay ;  so  that  we  are  warranted  in 
referring  the  handwriting  of  each  ordinance 
to  about  the  time  at  which  it  was  issued. 
These  fixed  chronological  points  are  thus  of 
great  service  for  a  comparative  study  of 
Danish  palaeography  when  no  actual  data 
are  available. 

It  would  be  impossible,  in  a  notice  of 
this  kind,  to  deal  in  any  detail  with  the 
several  documents  before  us.  We  may, 
however,  be  allowed  to  call  attention  to 
one,  the  above-mentioned  fragment  of  Saxo 
Grammaticus,  notice  of  the  existence  of 
which  in  the  Municipal  Library  of  Angers 
in  France  was  first  given  in  a  catalogue 
made  in  1863.  Fifteen  years  later  the 
fragment  had  found  its  way  to  the  Royal 
Library  of  Copenhagen,  where  it  is  now 
registered  in  the  '  New  Royal  Collection  of 
MSS.'  under  No.  8698,  4°.  Incredible  as  it 
may  seem,  it  is  a  fact,  however,  that  of  this 
monumental  product  of  Danish  talent  and 
patriotism,  this  Angers  fragment  —  four 
leaves —  is  the  largest  remnant  now  left  in 
MS.  Even  as  early  as  1514  it  was  with 
the  greatest  difficulty  that  the  energetic 
admirer  of  Saxo,  Canon  Christiern  Pedersen 
of  Lund,  could  find  a  copy  at  all  from  which 
to  prepare  the  editio  princeps,  which  issued 
that  year  from  the  Ascensian  Press  in 
Paris.  The  codex,  lent  for  the  purpose  by 
Birger,  Abp.  of  Lund,  was,  presumably, 
after  the  printing  restored  to  the  owner, 
and  so  perished  in  the  North.  At  any 
rate,  the  Angers  fragment  cannot  be  a 
remnant  of  that  codex,  for  between  it  and 
the  editio  princeps  there  are  such  differences 
in  reading  (e.g.  occurrisse  for  adesse)  which 
can  scarcely  be  due  to  liberty  taken  by 
Pedersen,  who,  as  editor,  had,  in  reality, 


KEVIEWS 


25 


no  reason  for  substituting  the  one  reading 
for  the  other. 

The  fragment  is  remarkable  for  certain 
interlinear  emendations  in  the  same  hand 
as  the  main  text  (a  few  glosses  in  a  later 
hand  do  not  concern  us)  of  such  a  nature 
that  it  is  hardly  conceivable  how  they 
could  emanate  but  from  the  author  himself. 
In  the  opinion  of  all  the  experts  we  have 
consulted,  the  handwriting  is  rather  a  late 
twelfth  than  an  early  thirteenth  century  one 
(late  thirteenth  or  still  more  late  fourteenth 
is  out  of  question).  In  describing  a  prince 
(Gram)bent  on  redeeming  a  Swedish  princess 
(Gro)  from  marriage  with  a  giant  (bearserk  ?) 
the  main  text  reads  :  Cum.  .  .  caprinistergori- 
bus  amictus  incederet  et  uariis  ferarum  pellilus 
circoactus  giganteas  simularet  exuuias,  while 
the  interlinear  emendator  adds :  orrificumgue 
dextra  gestamen  complexus.  Here  the  most 
obvious  explanation  seems  to  be  this,  that 
having  missed  out  in  the  first  instance  the 
essential  statement  of  his  original  (oral  or 
otherwise),  that  Gram  wielded  a  rough  club 
in  his  right  hand,  the  author,  on  revising 
his  work,  made  good  the  omission.  To 
the  description  of  the  effect  the  sight  of 
Gram  had  on  Gro :  Que  tarn  insoliti  cultus 
horrore  muliebriter  mola,  there  is  attached 
the  interlinear  amendment:  uel  que  sponsum 
occuirisse  [editio  princeps.:  adesse]  rala  simulque 
cultus  horrore,  etc.  This  is  no  emendation 
of  a  mechanical  scribe,  but,  as  the  particle 
uel  indicates,  one  of  a  reviser,  who  by  the 
disappointment  the  sight  of  the  supposed 
suitor  brought  to  Gro's  mind  supplies  the 
psychological  motive  for  his  next  emenda- 
tion to  these  words  of  the  main  text : 
Succussis  frenis :  patrio  carmine  sic  cepit, 
which  runs :  maxima  cum  tocius  corporis 
trepi/ladone  uel  per  summam  corporis  ac  nods 
uel  corporis  animique  trepidacionem :  p.c.s. 
This  is  an  instructive  alternative  emenda- 
tion; it  is  not  an  aimless  practice  in  rhetoric: 
the  most  natural  explanation  of  it  is,  that 
the  author  of  it  was  in  search  of  an  exact 
Latin  rendering  of  a  point  (a  phrase)  in 
the  vernacular  original  which  stated  that 
Gro  '  was  all  a-tremble,  life  and  limb.'  Scalf 
hun  a  lif  oc  lemnue,  we  imagine,  would  be  a 
not  incorrect  older  Danish  expression  for 
the  phrase  the  emendator  was  endeavour- 
ing to  reach,  and  caught  at  last  in  his  third 
attempt,  having  hit  upon  animi,  the  exact 
equivalent,  in  casu,  for  lif.  We  cannot  see, 
how  a  scribe  can  deserve  the  credit  for 
emendatory  work  of  this  intelligent  descrip- 
tion ;  to  us  it  bears  transparently  the  stamp 
of  Saxo's  nimble,  resourceful  mind  and 
method  of  working. 


The  real  points  conveyed  by  these 
emendations  had  found  their  way  into  the 
Lundensian  codex  on  which  the  editio  prin- 
ceps is  based.  Saxo  dedicated  his  work  to 
Abp.  Anders  Suneson  (1201-1228)  and,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  presented  that  prelate  with 
a  fair  copy  of  it.  He  would  naturally  take 
care  that  such  an  edition  of  his  work 
should  agree  throughout  in  point  of  text 
readings.  A  copy  of  the  revised  work 
became  the  basis  of  further  issues,  and  at 
Lund  there  would  from  the  beginning 
develop  such  copying  activity  as  the 
popularity  of  the  work  demanded.  The 
codex  from  which  the  editio  princeps  was 
made  was  evidently  one  of  the  revised  edi- 
tion and  '  eine  treffliche  alte  Handschrift,' 
as  Alf.  Holder,  Saxo's  last  editor,  charac- 
terises it.  He  does  not  even  hesitate  to 
assert  that  it  was  '  Um  1200  dem  Saxo  zu 
Gehor  geschrieben  mit  einigen  Zusiitzen  von 
des  Verfassers  Hand,'  which  is  quite 
possible,  though  injuria  temporwn  deprives 
us  of  the  means  of  directly  proving  it. 

Finally  we  call  attention  to  the  following 
small  points  of  difference  between  us  and 
the  learned  editor.  The  letters  /.»•.  with 
regnal  years  of  Danish  kings  attached, 
PI.  I.,  stand,  in  our  opinion,  for  fuit  rex, 
not  for  feliciter  regnavit.  PI.  IV.,  last  line, 
the  document  reads  clearly  prouintie,  not 
prouincie,  and  PI.  xxix,  in  the  sixth  line  of 
the  fragment  of  the  old  Euangelarium :  xxx. 
arg  must  stand,  not  for  argenti,  but  for 
argenteos  as  in  the  Vulgate  (Matt.  xxvi.  9, 
Zach.  xi.  12,  'in  hieremia'  is  a  very  ancient 
misquotation  by  the  Gospel). 

E.  MAGNUSSON. 


A  Grammar  of  the  Dialect  of  Adling- 
ton,  Lancashire.  By  ALEXANDER 
HAKGREAVES.  Heidelberg,  Karl 
Winter.  Pp.  viii  +  121. 

How  this  book  comes  to  be  printed  in 
Heidelberg,  by  a  gentleman  who  speaks  of 
the  people  of  Adlington  as  '  we,'  though  his 
own  English  appears  to  be  markedly 
southern,  does  not  quite  appear,  but  he 
seems  to  have  studied  under  that  able 
Anglist,  Dr.  Arnold  Schroer  of  Koln,  and 
to  have  been  guided  by  him  to  the  produc- 
tion of  this  excellent  book.  It  is  a  pity 
that  it  does  not  cover  more  ground  :  Ad- 
lington contains  only  4000  people,  and  if 
every  4000  of  the  10,000,000  or  20,000,000 
dialect-speakers  in  the  United  Kingdom  is 
to  have  a  book  to  itself,  we  wonder  in  which 
of  two  worlds  the  English  dialectologist 


26 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


will  be,  when  he  shuts  up  the  2500th  or  the 
5000th  volume  !  Would  it  not  have  been 
possible  to  bring  in,  say,  by  footnotes,  the 
slightly  differing  dialects  of  Horwich  and 
Aspull  and  other  neighbouring  places  t  Let 
that,  however,  be  a  hint  for  others  who 
may  follow  in  Mr.  Hargreaves'  footsteps. 
They  will  find  his  book  a  model  for  the 
orderly  and  scientific  arrangement  of  dialect 
material. 

Adlington  lies  almost  in  the  middle  of 
Ellis's  district  22,  which  is  practically  the 
whole  of  south-west  Lancashire,  between 
the  Ribble  and  the  Mersey.  There  is  a 
section  of  the  district,  south  and  west  of 
Adlington,  called  the  Moss  Country,  whose 
dialect  has  recently  been  very  thoroughly 
described  by  the  Rev.  John  Sephton,  in  the 
Otia  Merseiana,  vol.  iii.,  Liverpool,  1903. 
The  comparison  of  the  two  is  very  instruc- 
tive, and  demonstrates  that  a  separate 
description  of  the  Adlington  dialect  was 
fully  justified. 

There  is  a  curious  tendency  in  Adlington 
to  lengthen  the  second  element  in  certain 
diphthongs  (ai,  el,  ol,  OH),  as  in  smalf,  welv, 
koll,  fout= normal  smash,  weave,  coal,  fought. 
If  these  sounds  are  fully  long,  it  is  rather 
surprising  that  they  do  not  carry  the  accent 
with  them.  There  is  also  a  remarkable 
tendency  of  theyconsonant  to  create  diph- 
thongs of  this  type  after  a  preceding  a  or  u, 
by  developing  a  long  *  between  the  vowel 
and  the  consonant,  e.g.  wash  and  smash  be- 
come waif  and  smalf,  whilst  blush  and  rush 
become  blutf  and  ruilf.  Blind  mice,  on  the 
other  hand,  become  bland  mas,  with  total 
loss  of  the  second  element  of  at.  Elsewhere 
in  the  district  a  trace  of  the  i  generally 
remains.  Another  exceptional  change  exists 
all  over  the  district — that  of  t  or  d  between 
vowels  to  r.  Mr.  Hargreaves  gives  ntibri, 
sumbri,  enibri,  for  nobody,  somebody,  anybody. 
Elsewhere  I  have  heard  nonbinvit,  i.e.  not 
a  bit  of  it !  The  changes  of  gl  to  dl,  and  of 
kl  to  tl,  are  also  common  property,  e.g.  glory 
and  cloak =dldri  and  tliik. 

Etymologies  are  all  carried  back  to 
Middle  English  and  earlier  sources,  or,  if 
French,  to  Anglo-French.  I  am  not  sure 
that  the  latter  course  is  quite  correct; 
Anglo-French  must  have  been  long  extinct 
in  the  district  when  most  of  these  French 
words  were  introduced.  I  am  not  quite 
disposed  to  agree  that  the  common  pre- 
position Ut  (without)  has  lost  a  syllable.  At 
any  rate  that  is  no  special  feature  in  the 
Adjington  dialect.  The  Anglo-Saxon  is 
beutan,  but  already  in  Anglo-Saxon  it  be- 
comes butan,  and  in  Middle  English  it  is  late. 


Print  and  paper  are  good,  and  misprints 
and  oversights  are  remarkably  few.  On 
p.  77  wufs  and  monz  are  given  as  illustra- 
tions of  plural  possessives  ;  slicJcin,  p.  95, 
contains  thrice  a  superfluous  c ;  amuyng, 
p.  107,  a  superfluous  n;  and  armd  d,  p.  103, 
is  printed  for  arnd  u?—Am  not  I?  But 
there  is  nothing  that  the  intelligent  reader 
cannot  easily  correct. 

There  is  only  one  point  on  which  I  am 
inclined  to  quarrel  with  Mr.  Hargreaves, 
and  that  is  his  alphabet.  Mr.  Sephton  uses 
the  alphabet  of  the  Association  1'honetiqut, 
and  one  reads  the  book  through  without 
the  trouble  of  making  a  single  reference 
about  the  meaning  of  the  signs.  Mr.  Har- 
greaves tells  us  that  his  alphabet  is  '  mainly  ' 
Sweet's,  but  it  is  Sweet's  with  a  difference, 
and  the  difference  is  a  large  one.  It  neces- 
sitates frequent  and  troublesome  reference. 
An  alphabet  which  is  '  mainly '  Sweet's  is 
simply  a  nuisance,  though  Sweet's  alphabet 
in  its  totality  would  have  been  excellent, 
because  everybody  knows  it. 

The  chief  departures  are  these.  There  is 
no  distinction  between  the  signs  for  '  wide ' 
and  'narrow'  vowels.  The  apical  (coronal) 
formation  of  some  of  the  vowels,  which  is 
so  characteristic  of  this  dialect,  is  left 
unmarked.  Sweet's  simple  y  is  changed, 
without  reason  assigned,  to  p ;  and  the  9, 
which  Sweet  calls  mid-front-wide-round,  is 
here  defined  as  mid-mixed-narrow,  but  is 
in  fact  used  for  every  obscure  vowel  which 
happens  to  turn  up,  be  it  dorsal  or  coronal, ' 
front,  neutral,  or  back.  The  distinction 
between  palatal  and  velar  consonants  is 
also  omitted,  the  trio  kgj  being  made  to 
do  duty  for  Sweet's  two  trios  k  p  s  and  c  jj. 
The  result  is  that  when  catch,  kettle,  bag, 
back  are  written  kjatf,  kjetl,  bajg,  bajk,  we 
ask  ourselves  which  of  these  sounds  are 
palatal  and  which  are  velar;  but  we  ask 
in  vain.  The  untrilled  r  ought  also  to  be 
written  .«;  it  is  impossible  to  transcribe 
Northern  dialects  properly  without  having 
both  signs  at  command.  These  deficiencies 
are  the  more  to  be  regretted,  because  the 
author's  knowledge  of  the  facts  is  evidently 
as  exact  as  it  is  universal. 

R.  J.  LLOYD. 


The  Alchemist,  by  Ben  Jonson.  Newly 
edited  by  R.  C.  HART.  London : 
De  la  More  Press.  1903. 

-  Edited  by  C.  M.  HATHAWAY,  Jr. 
[Yale  Studies  in  English,  xvii.]  New 
York:  Henry  Holt,  1903. 


REVIEWS 


27 


THE  two  editions  of  Jonson's  masterpiece 
before  us,  though  both  printed  in  this 
country,  appeared  almost  simultaneously 
one  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic.  They 
are  not,  however,  likely  to  compete  with 
one  another ;  in  aim  and  execution  they  are 
as  different  as  can  be. 

In  producing  the  De  la  More  quarto 
attention  has  been  chiefly  paid  to  appear- 
ance ;  the  part  played  by  the  editor  is 
subordinate.  The  text  is  entirely  modern- 
ised and  is  based  on  that  of  Gifford, 
though  certain  alterations  have  been  made. 
Neither  in  the  cases  in  which  he  has 
followed,  nor  in  those  in  which  he  has 
departed  from,  the  readings  of  his  pre- 
decessor, does  the  editor  appear  to  us  to 
have  been  happily  inspired.  Certain  dashes 
which  are  introduced  pudoris  causa  into  the 
text,  strike  us  as  particularly  futile  in  the 
case  of  such  a  play  as  this.  In  the  few 
pages  of  Introduction  1  Mr.  Hart  admits  the 
difficulty  of  adding  anything  to  Gifford's 
elucidations.  Nevertheless  it  is  by  his 
success  in  doing  so  that  an  editor  of 
Jonson  must  be  judged.  To  say  that  Mr. 
Hart  has  wholly  failed  would  be  unfair. 
His  notes,  which  are  thrown  into  the  often 
inconvenient  form  of  a  glossary,  contain  a 
good  deal  of  interesting  matter.  The  shape, 
however,  in  which  it  is  presented  is  not 
always  very  satisfactory,  and  the  whole  can 
hardly  claim  to  advance  our  knowledge  of 
Jonson's  work  in  any  notable  degree.  The 
object  of  editor  and  printer  alike  appears 
to  have  been  the  production  of  a  handsome 
book,  and  in  this  they  have  been  distinctly 
successful ;  they  have  not  succeeded  in  pro- 
ducing a  volume  of  any  considerable  in- 
terest to  the  student  of  literature. 

The  second  edition  appearing  at  the  head 
of  this  notice  was  printed  at  the  Oxford 
University  Press,  and  presented  as  a  thesis 
for  the  doctorate  of  philosophy  at  Yale. 
Mr.  Hathaway  has  aimed  at  nothing  less 
than  producing  a  comprehensive  and  ex- 
haustive edition  of  Jonson's  titanic  satire 
of  quackery,  possibly  the  play  most  difficult 

1  In  the  first  paragraph  of  this  Introduction 
Mr.  Hart  writes  :  '  The  dedication  to  Lady  Mary 
Wroth  was  omitted  in  the  folio ;  and  several 
other  unimportant  alterations  occur.  They  are 
mentioned  in  the  foot-notes  from  collation  with 
the  quarto  in  the  British  Museum.'  It  will  be 
sufficient  to  point  out  that  (i)  it  was  not  the 
dedication  but  the  address  to  the  reader  which 
was  omitted  in  the  folio,  the  dedication  appearing 
in  a  somewhat  shortened  form  on  p.  603  (both  are 
omitted  in  Mr.  Hart's  edition) ;  also  that  (ii)  the 
only  footnotes  in  Mr.  Hart's  text  contain  trans- 
lations of  Spanish  phrases  and  have  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  the  quarto  readings. 


of  elucidation  in  the  whole  range  of  Eliza- 
bethan drama.  To  say  that  he  has  pro- 
duced a  definitive  edition  and  has  told  us 
everything  concerning  the  play  that  we  can 
reasonably  wish  to  know,  would  be  foolish, 
but  he  has  produced  a  work  which,  if  not 
in  all  ways  adequate,  is  at  least  in  many 
ways  admirable.  In  the  first  place,  the  text 
is  a  faithful  reprint  of  that  of  the  folio  of 
1616.  Of  all  authors  Jonson  is  the  one 
•whose  work  it  is  least  permissible  to  tamper 
with  in  the  way  of  modernisation.  Where 
the  printed  text  received  his  personal  re- 
vision there  is  not  an  italic  letter,  an  apos- 
trophe, or  a  query-mark,  but  possesses  its 
proper  intent  and  meaning.  Thus  a  care- 
ful and  intelligent  reproduction  of  the  most 
authoritative  early  print  becomes  the  only 
tolerable  form  which  a  modern  edition  can 
take.  Two  points  only  in  Mr.  Hathaway's 
treatment  of  the  text  are  not  quite  satis- 
factory. In  the  first  place,  he  is  unaware 
of  certain  attempts  which  have  been  re- 
cently made  to  impugn  the  authority  of 
the  1616  folio;  to  question,  that  is, 
whether  it  received  the  revision  of  the 
author  in  proof.  The  point,  however,  is 
unimportant,  for  no  strong  case  has  yet 
been  made  out  for  the  view.  It  is  worth 
mentioning  here  only  because  it  is  a  point 
still  in  dispute,  and  one  on  which  future 
editors  of  Jonson  will  do  well  to  bestow 
some  close  attention.  A  second  point  is 
of  more  immediate  interest.  The  editor 
is  apparently  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  the 
1616  folio  underwent  revision  while  it  was 
passing  through  the  press,  with  the  result 
that  certain  sheets  present  variant  readings 
in  different  copies.  Sometimes  a  stage- 
direction  is  omitted  or  inserted,  sometimes 
a  small  alteration  is  made  in  the  wording, 
sometimes  a  portion  is  reset  with  minute 
variations  for  no  obvious  purpose  at  all. 
Whether  such  variations  are  to  be  found  in 
the  course  of  the  present  comedy  we  are 
not  in  a  position  to  say ;  they  seem  to 
occur  particularly  frequently  in  the  early 
leaves  of  Every  Man  out  of  His  Humour.  It 
is,  again,  a  question  which  will  call  for 
investigation  by  future  editors,  and  one 
which  may  not  improbably  demand  all  their 
ingenuity  and  patience  to  unravel. 

There  is,  unfortunately,  one  section  of 
Mr.  Hathaway's  work  to  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  extend  the  praise  merited  by 
the  rest  of  the  volume.  This  is  the  first 
division  of  the  Introduction,  dealing  with 
the  bibliography  of  the  editions.  It  is 
remarkable  how  difficult  editors  appear  to 
find  it  to  give  a  bibliographical  description 


28 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


of  a  book  with  any  approach  to  accuracy. 
The  merits  of  the  present  work  as  a  whole 
appear  to  us  sufficiently  great  to  make  it 
worth  while  supplying  as  shortly  as  possible 
certain  corrections  to  this  section. 

Quarto  1612. — The  collation  is  correctly 
given  as  A — M  in  fours.  This,  however,  is 
inconsistent  with  the  further  statement 
that  the  volume  consists  of  forty-seven 
leaves.  There  are,  of  course,  forty-eight. 

Folio  1616.  —  Engraved  general  title- 
page.  The  imprints  to  this  vary  in  a 
most  bewildering  manner.  That  here  given 
from  a  copy  in  the  library  of  Yale  Uni- 
versity at  New  Haven  runs :  '  London 
Printed  by  William  Stansby.  An0  D. 
1616.'  All  agree  in  the  date  which  appears 
in  a  separate  compartment ;  the  variations 
are  on  the  shield  which  bears  the  printer's 
name,  etc.  The  above  imprint  is  found  in 
a  copy  at  the  Bodleian.  Another  copy  in 
that  collection  and  one  in  the  British 
Museum  have  '  Imprinted  at  London  by 
Will  Stansby,'  while  another  at  the  Museum 
and  one  in  the  Cambridge  University 
Library  have  '  London  printed  by  W: 
Stansby,  and  are  to  be  sould  by  Rich: 
Meighen.'  Thus  we  have  at  least  three 
different  imprints  on  the  same  engraved 
titlepage  and  all  dated  the  same  year. 
Collation :  The  statement  '  Lll  is  missing 
from  the  alphabet'  is  obviously  incorrect. 
The  editor  himself  notes  lower  down  that 
L113  is  misprinted  Kkk3,  whence  his  mis- 
take. The  description  of  .the  engraved 
titlepage  is  also  incorrect.  There  is  no 
'  temple  of  Tragicomcedia ';  the  name  applies 
to  the  central  figure.  The  two  small  figures 
unnamed  are  evidently  Bacchus  and  Apollo. 
The  Alchemist.  The  play  does  not  end  as 
stated  on  Kkk3  but  on  L113,  misprinted 
Kkk3. 

'The  Poetaster  has  two  titlepages,  one 
engraved,  one  printed.'  The  ornamental 
one  is  not  engraved  but  is  merely  sur- 
rounded by  a  woodcut  border.  The  two, 
as  is  proved  by  the  collation,  are  alterna- 
tives, not  duplicates,  as  the  above  might 
seem  to  imply. 

Folio  1640. — Engraved  general  title- 
page  :  three  errors  of  transcription  (Crooke, 
S'-  An"  D).  Collation:  L1114  should  be 
L114.  The  portrait  is  by  Vaughan. — The 
Alchemist.  Titlepage  :  two  errors  (SER- 
VANTS. Mafter). 

Folio  1692. — Titlepage:  four  errors 
(LONDON,  Brew/ler,  Baffett,  Chifwell). 
Collation :  '  five  leaves  preceding  B,  the 
second  signatured  (!)  A  3'  should  be  'A  six 
leaves  including  portrait.' 


Mr.  Hathaway  is  quite  right  in  supposing 
that  Hazlitt's  collation  is  wrong.  The 
elaborate  collations  of  later  editions  are 
of  insufficient  interest  to  detain  us.  One 
further  point  only  need  be  mentioned  in 
this  connection.  This  is  the  extraordinary 
statement  on  p.  9  :  '  neither  [sic]  of  the  so- 
called  folios,  the  first  of  1616,  the  second 
of  1640,  or  the  third  of  1692,  are  folios  at 
all.'  Apparently  the  editor  imagines  that 
a  folio  ceases  to  be  a  folio  if  several  sheets 
are  sewn  together.  Of  course  it  does 
nothing  of  the  kind,  the  question  of  whether 
a  book  is  a  folio,  quarto,  etc.,  depending 
not  on  the  sewing  but  on  the  folding. 
Folios  in  twos  do  occur,  though  they  are 
rare  (Berkeley's  Lost  Lady,  1638,  is  an 
example),  but  the  most  common  are  the 
folios  in  sixes.  Naturally  these  remain 
folios  just  as  much  as  quartos  in  eights, 
octavos  in  fours,  or  duodecimos  in  sixes 
remain  quartos,  octavos,  and  duodecimos. 

These  criticisms  might  be  taken  as  throw- 
ing doubt  on  Mr.  Hathavvay's  powers  of 
accurate  work :  a  comparison  of  his  text, 
however,  with  the  original,  restores  con- 
fidence. Indeed,  the  accuracy  of  the  text 
is  remarkable,  and  we  find  it  difficult  to 
explain  the  errors  in  the  transcripts  of  the 
titlepages  except  on  the  ground  that  mis- 
prints are  most  liable  to  be  overlooked  in 
the  most  obvious  places.  Something  may 
also  be  due  to  the  admirable  readers  of  the 
Oxford  Press.  The  addition  of  varying 
readings  from  the  quarto  of  1612,  the  folios 
of  1640  and  1692,  and  occasionally  from  later 
editions,  makes  the  text  the  first  scientific 
edition  of  any  work  of  Jonson's,  and  so  far 
as  this  particular  play  is  concerned  we  do 
not  see  what  more  can  be  required. 

The  bulk  of  the  Introduction  is  devoted 
to  an  elaborate  account  of  alchemy  and  the 
frauds  which  have  always  gathered  round 
it.  This  has  been  found  too  American  and 
journalistic  in  some  quarters,  but  we  should 
be  sorry  to  quarrel  with  it  on  these 
grounds.  The  seventy-five  pages  or  so 
devoted  to  the  subject  represent  a  very 
considerable  amount  of  research,  and  a 
competent  knowledge  of  the  subject  is 
absolutely  necessary  to  the  proper  under- 
standing of  the  play. 

A  short  section  deals  in  an  interesting 
and  fairly  convincing  manner  with  the  date 
of  the  play.  The  general  conclusion  is  that 
it  was  written  during  plague  time  not  later 
than  October  3,  1610,  with  a  view  to  pro- 
duction early  in  the  Michaelmas  term,  but 
that  it  did  not  actually  appear  before  about 
November  22. 


REVIEWS 


29 


The  notes,  occupying  a  hundred  pages,  are 
comprehensive  and  interesting,  though  not 
everything  that  might  be  desired.  Severe 
pruning  in  certain  directions  would  have 
left  room  for  important  additions  in  others. 
There  is  a  bibliographical  list,  a  glossary, 
and  an  index. 

It  is  with  great  pleasure  that  we  welcome 
what  is  on  the  whole  a  very  sound  piece  of 
work.  W.  W.  G. 


The  Gentle  Craft.  By  THOMAS  DELONEY. 
Edited  with  notes  and  introduction  by 
ALEXIS  F.  LANGE,  Ph.D.  (Palaestra, 
xviii.).  Berlin,  1903.  (8  m.) 

DR.  LANGE  has  earned  the  thanks  of  all 
students  of  Elizabethan  literature  by  this 
republication.  While  few  will,  I  think, 
agree  with  the  very  high  estimate  that  he 
has  formed  of  Deloney's  talent — that  '  his 
tales,  at  all  events  those  of  the  Gentle 
Craft,  are  distinguished  by  two  qualities 
which  no  other  Elizabethan  manifests  in 
the  same  degree — unforced  humor  and  the 
gift  of  story-telling,' — all  will  allow  that, 
whatever  may  be  their  merit  as  literature, 
they  had  at  least  those  qualities  that  make 
for  popularity,  and  on  this  account  deserve 
the  attention  of  students  of  the  period.  More 
especially  are  they  of  importance  in  the 
history  of  the  drama,  not  only  as  occasion- 
ally affording  the  source  of  a  plot,  but  as 
belonging  to  the  kind  of  literature  which 
would  be  most  familiar  to  the  middle-class 
townsmen  who  formed  the  great  bulk  of 
the  theatre-going  public,  and  for  whom, 
after  all,  the  plays  were  written. 

The  text  before  us  seems  to  have  been 
prepared  with  great  care.  The  old  spelling 
is  retained  except  in  the  case  of  u  and  v,  i 
andy,  but  not  the  old  punctuation,  and  the 
speeches  are  arranged  as  in  a  modern  novel 
— probably  the  most  satisfactory  plan  for 
work  of  this  class.  The  two  parts  are 
printed  from  editions  dated  respectively 
1648  and  1639,  the  editor  having  been 
unable  to  trace  any  copies  of  earlier  editions, 
though  it  is  known  that  such  copies  existed 
at  a  comparatively  recent  date.  This  is 
unfortunate,  but  in  the  particular  case  is 
probably  of  little  importance. 

I  have  compared  a  number  of  passages 
taken  at  random  with  the  copies  of  the 
book  in  the  British  Museum  which  were 
used  as  the  basis  of  the  reprint,  and,  so  far 
as  I  can  judge,  the  text  is  very  accurate. 
Three  slight  errors  may  be  noticed,  how- 
ever :  at  i.  98.  13,  '  then '  should  be  '  than  ' ; 


at  ii.  14.  13,  'trinkler'  should  be  'crinkler' 
(Crinkler  Q.);  and  at  ii.  97.  25,  'never' 
should  be  'ever.'  The  spelling  has  been 
followed  with  great  care :  apart  from  the 
above  I  only  notice  two  trifling  mistakes, 
which  are  quite  without  importance.  It 
might,  however,  have  been  well  in  describ- 
ing the  principles  followed  in  forming  the 
text  to  have  stated  that  obvious  misprints 
are  sometimes  corrected  without  note,  as, 
for  example,  '  dewlling '  for  '  dwelling '  and 
'  Tpe '  for  '  The,'  and  that  in  the  case  of 
italics  the  modern  usage  has  been  followed. 

Each  part  of  the  book  consists  of  several 
distinct  stories.  In  the  original  there  is  no 
break  between  these,  and  the  numbering  of 
the  chapters  is  continuous,  but  in  this 
edition  those  of  each  story  are  numbered 
separately  and  sub-titles  are  added ;  thus 
what  is  here  the  first  chapter  of  'Crispine 
and  Crispianus '  is  in  the  quarto  the  fifth 
chapter  of  the  whole  book,  and  what  is  here 
the  first  of  'Simon  Eyre'  is  there  the 
tenth  of  the  whole.  There  is  no  harm  in 
the  change,  though  perhaps  not  much 
advantage,  but  it  certainly  seems  a  pity 
that  the  original  numbers  of  the  chapters 
were  not  added  for  the  sake  of  reference. 

The  Introduction  is  a  good  piece  of  work, 
especially  the  latter  part,  which  deals  more 
particularly  with  The  Gentle  Craft,  though 
both  parts  seem  to  suffer  slightly  from  a 
certain  vagueness  and  lack  of  precise  quota- 
tions and  references  which  would  be  better 
suited  to  a  magazine  article  than  to  a  publi- 
cation of  this  nature.  Thus  we  are  told  on 
p.  xix,  that  Deloney  introduced  characters 
from  recent  plays  into  his  works,  but  we 
are  not  told  what  these  characters  are,  nor 
in  what  works  the}'  are  to  be  found.  Again 
on  p.  xxxvii,  after  quoting  from  Grafton,  the 
editor  says:  'Besides,  Deloney  follows 
Grafton  elsewhere.  It  is  therefore  evident 
that  he  did  so  in  this  case.'  The  reason- 
ing would  have  been  much  more  convincing 
if  some  at  least  of  these  other  cases  of 
borrowing  had  been  specified. 

In  dealing  with  the  sources  used  by 
Deloney,  Dr.  Lange  has  to  a  great  extent 
relied  on  the  statements  of  the  editors  of 
The  Garland  of  Good  Will  and  of  Strange 
Histories,  for  the  Percy  Society.  I  am  not 
sure,  however,  that  he  is  right  in  taking 
for  granted  that  it  was  the  intention  of 
these  editors  to  give  the  sources  actually 
used  by  Deloney,  as  distinguished  from  the 
earlier  Latin  chronicles  from  which  the 
stories  were  ultimately  derived,  and  in  any 
case  I  think  that  a  little  investigation 
would  have  showed  that  it  is  not  safe  to 


30 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


build  on  their  statements  the  theory  that 
Deloney  knew  Latin,  a  question  of  some 
importance  as  bearing  on  his  authorship  of 
two  translations  which  have  been  attributed 
to  him.  It  is  impossible  to  go  into  the 
subject  here,  but  it  is  at  least  as  likely  that 
the  story  of  '  A  Song  of  King  Edgar '  was 
taken  from  Grafton,  who  has  for  the 
heroine  the  alternative  names  of  Elfrida 
and  Estrild,  the  latter  being  the  one  used 
by  Deloney,  as  direct  from  William  of 
Malmesbury,  who  has  only  Elfrida.  So  too 
the  story  of  Sabina  may  quite  as  well  have 
come  from  Grafton  as  from  Geoffrey  of 
Monmouth.  It  is  also  to  be  found  in 
Holinshed,  Warner's  Albion's  England,  The 
First  Part  of  the  Mirror  for  Magistrates,  and, 
I  doubt  not,  elsewhere.  Dr.  Lange  also 
instances  Thomas  of  Reading  as  evidence  of 
Deloney's  debt  to  William  of  Malmesbury, 
but  as  he  does  not  give  precise  references 
it  is  impossible  to  form  any  opinion  as  to 
this.  There  seems,  however,  to  be  little  in 
William  which  was  not  taken  over  by  one 
or  other  of  the  English  chroniclers. 

On  the  whole  it  would  perhaps  have 
been  better  for  the  editor  either  to  have 
made  a  new  and  independent  study  of 
Deloney's  sources  or  to  have  limited  him- 
self to  those  of  The  Gentle  Craft,  which  he 
treats  in  a  much  more  satisfactory  manner. 

I  have  only  space  to  refer  to  one  other 
point  in  the  Introduction.  On  p.  xxxvi  the 
editor  quotes  a  passage  from  Grafton  with 
the  remark  that  it  occurs  in  no  other  Eliza- 
bethan chronicler.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it 
is  to  be  found  almost  in  the  identical  words 
in  Holinshed.  The  note  that  it  occurs  in 
Strype's  edition  of  Stowe,  and  that  '  one  of 
Strype's  purposes  was  to  include  in  the 
Survey  the  charities  of  London  and  their 
history,'  is  quite  beside  the  point,  seeing 
that  it  is  to  be  found  in  Anthony  Munday's 
edition  of  1618,  twenty-five  years  before 
Strype  was  born. 

The  annotations  certainly  do  not  err  on 
the  side  of  over-elaboration,  but  perhaps 
include  all  that  there  was  need  to  say.  On 
i.  76  the  reading  of  S.,  'whome.'  evidently 
stands  for  'home';  though  etymologically  in- 
correct, the  spelling  is  not  particularly  rare. 
On  p.  77  the  second  note  seems  unsatisfac- 
tory. There  was  surely  no  need  to  introduce 
an  O.F.  word  coron  (  =  corner)  from  Godefroy 
to  explain  the  Frenchman's  exclamation, 
'  Adeput  in  corroyname  shant ! '  Is  it  riot 
simply  'Ah  de  [i.e.  the]  putain  carogne,  ah 
mechanic  ! '  We  must  not  be  too  particular 
about  the  correctness  of  the  French. 

At  ii.  18  the  note  on  the  'bold  betrice' 


(see  Corrigenda)  might  have  been  illus- 
trated from  Dekker's  BatcJielor's  Banquet, 
'such  an  other  old  Bettresse  haue  I  at 
home  :  for  neuer  giue  me  credit  gossip,  if  I 
tooke  her  not  the  other  day  in  close  con- 
ference with  her  maister,  but  I  think  I 
beswaddeld  my  maid  in  such  sort,  that  she 
will  haue  small  list  to  do  so  againe.'—  Works, 
ed.  Grosart,  i.  176. 

The  last  note  of  all,  on  p.  109,  is  not  good. 
If  the  editor  had  looked  up  the  account  of 
the  battle  of  Musselburgh  in  Holinshed,  he 
would  have  found  that  the  Sir  Michael 
Musgrave  mentioned  should  have  been 
Cutbert,  not  John,  Musgrave ; '  that  Tom 
Trotter  was  a  real  person,  the  guardian  of 
Lord  Hume's  castle  of  Thornton  ; 2  and  that 
Parson  Ribble  is  probably  a  mere  mistake 
for  Parson  Keble,3  who  '  discharged  foure 
or  fine  of  the  carts  of  munition,  and  there- 
with bestowed  pikes,  billes,  bowes  and 
arrowes,  to  as  manie  as  came.' 

Lastly,  the  curious  piece  of  folklore  that 
mules'  milk  is  a  cause  of  barrenness  (ii.  47. 
9)  should  surely  have  found  a  place  in  the 
index ;  and  a  register  of  unusual  words, 
proverbial  phrases,  etc.,  would  have  been 
useful. 

These  criticisms  have  perhaps  occupied  a 
disproportionate  space,  but  while  I  think 
that  the  editor  has  left  a  good  deal  still  to 
be  done  in  the  way  of  investigation  of 
Deloney's  sources  and  of  annotation,  I  do 
not  mean  in  the  least  to  blame  him  for  not 
putting  more  work  into  this  particular  book. 
When  more  of  the  author's  writings  are 
accessible,  as  we  may  hope  they  some  day 
will  be,  it  will  be  worth  while  to  make  a 
detailed  study  of  them  and  of  their  literary 
relations  with  other  works  of  the  time.  In 
the  meanwhile,  accurate  reprints  such  as 
this  is  are  really  more  to  be  desired  than 
elaborate  editions  which,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  could  not  be  final. 

R.  B.  McKERROW. 


Pleasant  Dialogues  and  Dramma's  von 

THO.  HEYWOOD,  nach  der  Octavausgabe 
1637,  in  Neudruck  herausgegeben  von 
W.  BANG.  [Materialien  zur  Kunde 
des  alteren  Englischen  Dramas,  Band 
III.]  Louvain,  Uystpruyst,  1903. 

THIS  is  by  far  the  largest  piece  of  work 
yet  brought  out  by  the  energetic  editor  of 

1  Holinshed,  (1587)  iii.  989a. 

2  Ibid.  iii.  981n. 

3  Ibid.  iii.  988a. 


ANNOUNCEMENT 


31 


the  Afaterialien.  The  choice  was  a  good  one 
in  several  ways.  In  the  first  place  there  was 
no  edition  in  existence  that  could  in  any  way 
claim  to  be  considered  as  even  moderately 
satisfactory.  Pearson  indeed  purported  to 
give  it  in  his  reprint  of  Hey  wood,  but  while 
printing  the  dialogues  together  in  his  sixth 
volume,  he  scattered  the  numerous  pro- 
logues and  epilogues  in  as  many  different 
places,  and  omitted  a  good  deal  of  the 
matter  altogether.  Then  the  original  is 
more  or  less  rare,  and  is  beyond  the  means 
of  a  large  section  of  the  students  of  the 
drama,  while  it  is  so  villainously  printed 
that  it  is  very  trying  to  read.  Lastly,  the 
work  is  one  of  considerable  importance, 
since,  being  mainly  composed  of  transla- 
tions from  neo-Latin  sources,  it  is  a  useful 
index  to  the  quarters  from  which  one  may 
expect  less  direct  and  acknowledged  in- 
fluence. Thus  Professor  Bang  does  well  to 
insist  on  the  importance  of  Erasmus,  especi- 
ally of  the  Colloquies,  in  connection  with  the 
sources  of  the  Elizabethan  drama. 

In  the  reprint,  which  adheres  to  the 
ultra-conservative  methods  which  character- 
ised the  former  volumes  of  the  series,  the 
editor  achieves  a  high  degree  of  accuracy, 
and  this  in  what  he  recognises  in  his 
introduction  as  being  a  particularly  difficult 
text  from  the  typographical  point  of  view. 
If  we  take  his  remark  that  of  each  sheet  as 
many  as  seven  or  eight  proofs  were  read, 
to  mean  that  each  of  them  was  collated 
with  the  original,  we  may  well  be  appalled 
by  the  gigantic  nature  of  his  task  ;  but  those 
who  have  had  experience  of  similar  work 
will  hardly  be  surprised  at  the  amount  of 
revision  he  found  necessary. 

A  concise  introduction  is  followed  by  the 
three  hundred  odd  pages  of  the  text.  After 
this,  we  have  full  indications  of  the  sources 
so  far  as  it  has  been  possible  to  ascertain 
them,  with  reprints  of  the  more  important 
or  less  accessible,  occupying  close  on  fifty 
pages  ;  finally  twenty  pages  of  notes  and  an 
index  (in  the  last,  by  the  way,  '  junkets ' 
is  misprinted  'jnnkets'). 


There  are  certain  points  on  which  the 
editor  solicits  further  information.  One 
is  the  'mery  Dialogue,  declaringe  the  pro- 
perty es  of  shrowde  shrewes,'  mentioned  in 
a  note  on  p.  x.  The  suggestion  he  there 
makes  is  erroneous.  He  seeks,  namely,  to 
identify  the  piece  as  a  translation  of  Eras- 
mus's colloquy  called  Virgo  Muro-ya/ios  or 
Catharina,  whereas  it  is  in  fact  a  translation 
with  certain  additions  of  the  Uxor  Me/x^t- 
•ya/^os  or  Conjugium.  Another  undecided 
point  is  the  sequence  of  the  editions  of 
Love's  Mistress.  The  first  edition  appeared 
in  1636,  and  was  followed  by  two,  bearing 
the  date  1640,  namely,  '40A  ('Mistresse') 
B.M.  644,  e.  42,  and  '40B  ('Mistrese') 
B.M.  644,  e.  43.  Now  '36  and  '40A  agree 
as  against  '40B,  while  '40A  and  '40B  agree 
as  against  '36 ;  from  which  it  follows, 
provided  there  are  no  lost  editions,  that 
'40A  was  printed  from  '36,  and  '40B  from 
'40A.  There  can,  moreover,  be  little  doubt 
that  in  '40b  we  have  a  case  of  reprinted 
imprint ;  the  style  of  printing  makes  it  pro- 
bable that  the  real  date  is  not  much  before 
1660,  though  1651  would  not  be  impossible. 

The  notes  contain  much  interesting 
matter  to  which  we  cannot  here  refer  in 
detail.  With  regard  to  chargeable  (1.  3215), 
we  might  refer  to  the  phrase  in  the  Duchess 
of  Malfi,  'give  o'er  these  chargeable  revels,' 
where  the  sense  is  undoubtedly  '  expensive.' 
The  development  of  the  senses  is  clearly 
shown  in  N.E.D.  In  1.  8521,  Charles  little 
appears  to  us  a  perfectly  natural  inversion 
for  'little  Charles';  we  see  no  reason  to 
suppose  the  omission  of  the  article.  It  may 
be  well  in  this  place  to  correct  an  error  to 
which  the  editor  has  himself  called  our 
attention.  In  the  note  on  1.  2085,  einsilbig 
should  be  dreisilbig. 

Professor  Bang  is  to  be  congratulated  on 
the  successful  completion  of  a  large  and 
arduous,  if  at  the  same  time  interesting, 
piece  of  work.  The  series  deserves  more 
recognition  and  support  than  it  has  hitherto 
received  in  this  country. 

W.  W.  G. 


ANNOUNCEMENT. 


THE  idea  of  a  carpus  of  the  early  English 
drama  is  one  which  has  our  earnest 
sympathy.  But  one  condition  is  absolutely 
essential  to  such  a  scheme,  namely,  that  the 
corpus  shall  be  adequate  to  the  needs  of 
the  serious  student.  Unfortunately  we  see 


no  reason  to  suppose  that  this  essential 
condition  will  be  fulfilled  by  Mr.  John  S. 
Farmer's  Unexpurgated  Garner  of  Early 
English  Dramas,  the  prospectus  of  whch 
lies  before  us.  In  spite  of  his  advertise- 
ment of  the  fact  that  he  '  will  bring  to  his 


32 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


task  an  almost  unique  experience  of  twenty 
years'  philological  research  and  wide  read- 
ing,' the  prospectus  is  hardly  likely,  we 
venture  to  think,  to  command  the  con- 
fidence of  scholars.  Without  questioning 
Mr.  Farmer's  profound  acquaintance  with 
slang,  we  cannot  help  remembering  the 
elementary  linguistic  blunders  which  dis- 
figured, for  instance,  his  glossary  of  school 
and  university  terms.  It  is  indeed  perfectly 
clear  from  the  circular  before  us  that  Mr. 
Farmer  has  wholly  failed  to  grasp  the  re- 
quirements of  modern  scholarship.  The 
specimen  page  from  Royster  Doyster,  for 
instance,  is  modernised,  whereas  there  can- 
not be  two  opinions  on  the  question  of 
retaining  the  original  orthography  in  works 
of  the  earlier  sixteenth  century.  Parts  of 
the  prospectus  are,  moreover,  likely  to 
prove  misleading.  Such  is  the  '  First  list  of 
playwrights,  John  Hey  wood  to  Shakespeare, 
showing  the  ground  still  uncovered  by 
editions  of  collected  works."  Concerning 
this  list  we  are  informed  that  '  Playwrights 
between  [  ]  are  excluded  from  the  present 
scheme '  (for  the  reason,  we  presume,  that  in 
their  case  the  ground  has  been  covered), '  and 
mention  does  not  imply  that  material  is  ex- 
tant '  (in  which  case  we  fear  that  Mr.  Farmer 
may  be  no  more  successful  than  his  pre- 
decessors in  covering  the  ground).  Re- 
moving the  bracketed  names  from  the  list, 
there  remain  twenty-eight  authors.  Of 
these  Kyd's  works  have,  of  course,  been  col- 
lected by  Mr.  Boas,  and  there  is  also  a 
collected  edition  of  Lodge,  though  it  is  not 
very  accessible.  John  Heywood  is,  we 
believe,  in  course  of  editing,  and  Professor 
Bang  is  only  wanting  to  find  an  editor  for 
Bale.  Most  of  the  remainder  are  repre- 
sented by  one  piece  only  which  has  in 
almost  every  case  been  already  reprinted. 
Of  five  there  are  no  extant  remains,  while 
two  others  have,  so  far  as  we  can  discover, 
never  been  credited  with  any  dramatic 
work  at  all.  There  are  also  omissions 
from  the  list,  Gascoigne,  Sackville,  and 


Norton  being  the  most  important.  The 
'  tentative  list '  of  the  first  twelve  volumes 
is  still  more  unsatisfactory.  The  'etc., etc., 
etc.'  with  which  the  list  of  contents  of  most 
of  the  volumes  ends  is  airily  vague.  In  the 
case  of  John  Heywood  it  covers  at  least  one 
undoubted  and  perfectly  v/ell-known  play  of 
that  author ;  in  the  case  of  Bale  it  covers 
all  his  work  with  the  exception  of  'John, 
King  of  England,'  i.e.  the  MS.  play  usually 
known  as  King  Johan.  Vol.  iv.,  which  is 
devoted  to  Udal,  is  to  contain  the  Cam- 
bridge play  of  Ezechias,  which  is  not  ex- 
tant. Vol.  v.  is  similarly  to  contain  the 
lost  Palcemon  and  Arcyte.  As  the  work  of 
R.  Wever  appears  'Lusty  Juvenlus,  etc.,' 
though  no  other  play  has  ever  been  attri- 
buted to  him.  The  same  remark  applies  to 
U.  Fulwell. 

We  leave  readers  to  form  their  own 
opinions  concerning  the  measure  of  technical 
knowledge  possessed  by  the  proposed  editor. 
His  methods  of  attracting  subscribers,  more- 
over, are  not  such  as  commend  themselves 
to  us.  He  asserts,  for  instance,  that  the 
editions  of  early  plays  have  been  in  many 
cases  '  shamelessly  bowdlerised.'  We 
should  like  to  see  this  statement  sub- 
stantiated by  the  mention  of  an  expurgated 
edition  of  any  play  in  question,  of  which  an 
unexpurgated  edition  is  not  also  accessible. 
Such  assertions  taken  in  connection  with 
the  prominent  place  given  to  the  '  unexpur- 
gated'nature  of  his  'Garner'  will  hardly 
serve  to  render  Mr.  Farmer's  scheme 
attractive  to  those  whose  interest  in  our 
early  drama  is  literary.  So  far  as  we  can 
see,  that  scheme,  if  carried  out,  can  only 
have  the  effect  of  blocking  the  way  for  an 
adequate  corpus  of  the  drama,  by  throwing 
on  to  the  market  a  number  of  modernised 
reprints.  We  could  only  regard  such  a 
result  as  unfortunate.  Probably,  however, 
the  high  price  demanded  (9d.  a  sheet  of  16 
small  pages  on  small  paper,  or  3s.  on  large 
paper)  will  effectually  save  us  the  trouble  of 
saying  anything  further  on  the  subject. 


CORRESPONDENCE 


To  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  'MODERN 
LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY.' 

SIR,— A  review  of  any  published  work, 
whether  favourable  or  unfavourable,  is  quite 
a  different  thing  from  an  accusation  of 


literary  disingenuousness.  To  review  a 
published  work  is  open  to  all,  and  no  one 
can  demur  at  any  opinion  honestly  arrived 
at  by  the  reviewer ;  but  to  bring  an  accu- 
sation of  the  above-mentioned  nature  is 
fortunately  regarded  as  a  quite  different 


COREESPONDENCE 


33 


matter,  and  one  requiring  due  and  careful 
consideration  of  the  facts  of  the  case.  May 
this  be  our  excuse  for  asking  you  to  insert 
a  few  lines  in  answer  to  F.  C.  N.'s  criticism 
of  our  edition  of  Goethe's  poems,  published 
in  the  August  number  of  the  M.  L.  Q. 

There  have  been  many  great  scholars 
who  have  made  virulent  charges  of  unac- 
knowledged plagiarism  from  their  own  and 
others'  works,  but  in  one  very  important 
respect  F.  C.  N.  differs  from  them  all, 
namely,  that  he  adduces  no  chapter  and 
verse  in  proof  of  his  accusations.  Surely 
this  is  no  more  'playing  the  game'  in 
scholarship  than  elsewhere. 

The  least  that  can  be  done  in  such  a  case 
is  to  give  instances  of  peculiar  information 
derivable  only  from  the  source  in  question. 
We  feel  sure  that  no  one  can  have  been 
more  surprised  than  Dr.  Breul  himself  to 
see  the  present  volume  described  as  being 
'  produced  '  by  '  judicious  adaptations  and 
additions '  from,  we  gather,  notes  of  his 
lectures. 

F.  C.  N.  would  appear  to  have  forced  an 
opportunity  of  expressing  a  gratitude  which 
would  have  been  better  taken  for  granted 
than  expressed  in  such  a  fashion.  The 
editors  of  the  work  in  question  will  not 
concede  him  priority  in  recognition  of  and 
gratitude  for  the  help  they  received  at 
Dr.  Breul's  hands,  even  though  they  did 
not  find  in  the  above  edition  any  natural 
opportunity  of  expressing  the  same. 
We  are,  yours  faithfully, 

H.  G.  ATKINS. 
L.  E.  KASTNER. 

[Our  reviewer  has  sent  us  the  following 
reply  :— 

It  is  said  that  we  ought  to  have  adduced 
chapter  and  verse,  but  from  the  nature  of 
the  case  this  was  impossible.  The  lectures 


referred  to  have  never  been  published,  and 
we  could  only  have  appealed  to  our  own 
manuscript  notes  or  to  personal  recollec- 
tions, which,  however  strong  to  convince 
ourselves,  could  hardly  be  cited  as  proofs. 
One  or  two  broad  facts  may,  however,  be 
stated  in  justification  of  what  we  said. 

Dr.  Breul's  lectures  were  confined  to 
certain  portions  of  Goethe's  poems,  and 
did  not  include  the  Lieder,  Sonette,  or 
WestiJstlicher  Divan ;  now,  the  examples 
taken  by  Messrs.  Atkins  and  Kastner  from 
these  divisions  make  up  less  than  a  quarter 
of  their  selection,  which  for  the  rest  con- 
sists, with  two  small  exceptions,  entirely  of 
poems  dealt  with  and  fully  discussed  by 
the  lecturer.  It  is  natural,  it  is  almost 
inevitable,  that  a  student  should  be — no 
doubt  to  some  extent  unconsciously  — 
influenced  by  what  he  has  heard  in  the 
lecture-room,  and  certainly  the  editors' 
notes  and  comments  on  the  poems  often 
reminded  us  curiously  of  the  lecturer's.  In 
our  review  we  drew  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  criticism  was  not  altogether  up 
to  date ;  works  of  importance,  published 
since  the  time  at  which  the  lectures  were 
delivered — such  as  the  excellent  editions  of 
Heinemann  and  Harnack,  for  example — do 
not  appear  to  have  been  consulted,  and  we 
could  find  no  reference  to  any  books  other 
than  those  quoted  in  the  said  lectures.  We 
thought,  therefore,  we  were  well  within  the 
mark  in  saying  that  the  editors  had  in 
these  lectures  '  secured  an  admirable  basis 
for  their  work.' 

As  regards  the  question  of  acknowledg- 
ment, the  preface  to  the  book,  where  the 
editors  state  their  obligations  to  printed 
authorities,  would  seem  to  have  afforded  a 
not  unnatural  opportunity  of  expressing 
gratitude  in  other  quarters  also. 

F.  C.  K] 


VOL.  VII. 


Modern  Language  Teaching 


Edited  by 
WALTER  RIPPMANN 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION. 


THE  45th  Meeting  of  the  GENERAL  COM- 
MITTEE was  held  at  the  College  of  Pre- 
ceptors on  Saturday,  January  23rd,  1904. 

There  were  present — Miss  V.  Partington, 
Messrs.  Allpress,  Braunholtz,  Breul,  Eve, 
Fiedler,  Greg,  Kirkman,  Longsdon,  Milner- 
Barry,  Priebsch,  Eippmann,  Storr,  Twenty- 
man,  the  Hon.  Treasurer,  and  the  Hon. 
Secretary. 

The  following  officers  were  re-elected  : — 

Chairman  of  Committee,  Mr.  Storr. 
Hon.  Secretary,    .         .    Dr.  Edwards. 
Hon.  Treasurer,    .         .    Mr.  Payen-Payne. 

The  Executive  Committee  for  1904  was 
then  elected : — 

Messrs.  Allpress,  Atkins,  Brereton,  Breul, 
Eve,  Fiedler,  Kirkman,  Lipscomb,  Longsdon, 
Milner-Barry,  Priebsch,  Rippmann,  Siep- 
mann,  Somerville,  Twentyman. 

It  was  unanimously  agreed  to  re-elect 
Professors  Robertson  and  Brandin  on  the 
General  Committee. 

The  following  NEW  MEMBERS  were 
elected : — Miss  Cadmore,  Mrs.  Graham,  Mrs. 
Taylor,  and  Messrs.  W.  H.  Andrews,  F. 
Brown,  H.  Brown,  Rev.  R.  P.  Davidson, 
P.  Demey,  J.  Evans,  L.  Lassiemoune, 
E.  W.  Rhodes,  H.  W.  Serpell,  T.  Thomp- 
son, and  C.  T.  Williams. 

Dr.  Breul  consented  to  represent  the 
Association  at  the  Neuphilologentag,  to  be 
held  this  year  at  Cologne  on  the  25th  to 
27th  May. 

Letters  were  read  from  Miss  Williams 
giving  further  details  about  the  arrange- 
ments for  the  Easter  meeting  in  Paris. 
The  date  of  the  meeting  was  fixed  for  April 
14th  to  April  19th.  Messrs.  Storr,  Twenty- 
man, and  Edwards  were  appointed  to  form 


a  Sub-Committee  to  carry  out  the  necessary 
arrangements. 

Five  resolutions,  submitted  by  Mr. 
Twentyman,  concerning  the  Journal  of  the 
Association  were  discussed,  and  a  Sub-Com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  consider  the 
question,  consisting  of  Messrs.  Heath  (con- 
vener), Braunholtz,  Edwards,  Fiedler,  Greg, 
Rippmann,  Robertson,  and  Storr. 

The  38th  Meeting  of  the  EXECUTIVE 
COMMITTEE  was  held  at  the  College  of 
Preceptors  on  March  26th,  1904. 

There  were  present — Messrs.  Atkins, 
Eve,  Fiedler,  Longsdon,  Rippmann,  Storr, 
Twentyman,  the  Hon.  Treasurer,  and  the 
Hon.  Secretary. 

The  following  NEW  MEMBERS  were 
elected : — 

A.    Anderson,    M.A.,   LL.D.,   President 

Queen's  College,  Galway. 
Miss  W.  H.  Barnard,  Lansdowne  House, 
St.  George's  Road,  St.  Margaret's-on- 
Thames. 

M.  C.  Baron  Bethune,  Louvain,  Belgium. 
Miss     L.    B.    Brown,    Salisbury    Villa, 

Salisbury  Road,  Blandford. 
S.   H.  Clark,  M.A.,  Hill  Crest,  Broms- 

grove. 
Miss    J.    H.    Comte,    2    Cowley    Place, 

Oxford. 
L.    B.    Corbett,     M.A.,     The    College, 

Malvern. 
J.  B.  Dick,  Loretto  School,  Musselburgh, 

N.B. 

Miss  F.  Gadesden,  Headmistress,  Black- 
heath  High  School. 
F.  Gohin,  Docteur  es  Lettres,  Professeur 

agr6ge  au  Lycte  de  Rennes. 
Miss    Edith    Gumley,   Woolwich    Poly- 
technic, Woolwich. 


PRESIDENTIAL  ADDRESS  BY  SIR  ARTHUR  RUCKER 


35 


W.    G.     Hartog,     University     College, 

Central  Foundation  School. 
Miss  J.  Haslett,  St.  Andrew's   College, 

Dublin. 
Miss  Margaret  Hill,  The  Higher  Grade 

School,  Norwich. 
Miss  A.  A.  Hontsch,  Ph.D.,  Lecturer  in 

Modern    Languages,    Girton    College, 

Cambridge. 
Miss    A.    C.    Johnson,    The     Technical 

School,  Swindon. 
0.  H.  Lace,  M.A.,  H6tel  de   1'Europe, 

38  rue  St  Severin,  Paris. 
A.  G.  Linney,  Boothham  School,  York. 
H.   W.  G.    Meyer-Griffiths,    Lieut.    3rd 

S.  Wales  Borderers,   Warden  Lodge, 

Upper  Deal,  Kent. 
David  Muir,  Civil  Service  Commission, 

Burlington  Gardens,  W. 
F.  W.   Odgers,  B.A.,  Sedbergh  School, 

Yorkshire. 
Miss  Clara   Pember,    14   Serville  Road, 

Worthing. 
Miss     Powell,    The    Training     College, 

Cambridge. 

Dr.  S.  Rappoport,  Birkbeck  College,  Chan- 
cery Lane,  E.G. 
Sydney  G.  Reed,  B.  A.,  c/o  Fraulein  Heun, 

Argelander  Strasse,  Bonn. 


H.  Rieu,  B.A.,  Merchant  Taylors'  School, 

B.C. 
D.     L.      Savory,     B.A.,     Marlborough 

College,  Wilts. 
H.    J.    Spratling,    Central    Foundation 

School,  E.C. 
Rev.    H.    F.    Stuart,    Trinity    College, 

Cambridge. 
B.    Heywood    Whitley,    St.    Cuthbert's 

College,  Worksop. 
Dr.  R.  A.  Williams,  University  College. 

Mr.  Twentyman  reported  the  progress 
of  arrangements  for  the  Easter  Meeting  in 
Paris. 

Mr.  Payen-Payne's  resolution  was  put 
forward :  '  That  Headmasters  be  urged  to 
have  a  duplicate  Modern  Language  Paper, 
set  on  "reform  method  lines,  for  their 
entrance  and  scholarship  examinations.' 

It  was  resolved  'that  the  Board  of 
Management  be  asked  to  confer  with  a 
deputation  of  the  Modern  Language  Asso- 
ciation. The  deputation  to  consist  of 
Messrs.  Payen- Payne,  Rippmann,  and 
Somerville.' 

The  next  Meeting  of  the  EXECUTIVE 
COMMITTEE  was  fixed  for  May  28th. 


PRESIDENTIAL   ADDRESS  BY  SIR  ARTHUR  RUCKER.1 


IT  is,  perhaps,  a  sign  of  the  times  that  I, 
a  man  of  science,  with  no  special  know- 
ledge of  your  subject,  should  be  called  upon 
by  you  to  address  you  as  your  President. 
In  part,  I  have  no  doubt  that  this  is  due  to 
the  fact  that  I  have  the  honour  to  be  the 
Principal  of  the  University  of  London,  and 
in  that  capacity  am  brought  into  contact 
with  many  and  varied  currents  of  thought 
in  the  educational  world.  In  part  it  may 
be  that  the  international  character  of 
natural  science  forces  scientific  men  to  take 
an  interest  in  modern  languages — an  in- 
terest which  is  often  confined  to  regarding 
them  as  necessary  instruments  for  the 
attainment  of  natural  knowledge,  but  which, 
we  may  hope,  will,  in  an  increasing  number 
of  cases,  extend  to  the  literatures  to  which 
those  languages  are  the  keys.  But,  what- 
ever my  qualifications  or  disqualifications, 
you  have  chosen  me  as  your  President,  and 
you  must  forgive  me  if  in  my  address  I 
frankly  deal  with  questions  on  which  you 
are  experts  from  an  external  and  non-expert 
point  of  view. 


In  the  first  place,  then,  let  me  say  a  few 
words  on  the  general  question  of  the 
relations  of  the  time-honoured  systems  of 
classical  education  and  those  more  modern 
developments  in  which  you,  as  teachers  of 
modern  languages,  and  I,  as  a  teacher  of 
science,  have  for  long  been  interested.  The 
foundation,  on  Saturday  last,  of  a  Classical 
Association  of  England  and  Wales  in  view 
of  the  danger,  stated  by  the  Chairman  to 
exist,  that  classical  studies  would  be  'ab- 
solutely excluded  from  any  part  in  the 
education  of  the  country,'  makes  it  especi- 
ally desirable  that  the  aims  and  objects  of 
those  who  are  connected  with  the  new 
studies  should  be  clearly  defined.  I  count 
myself  among  the  supporters  of  a  classical 
education.  I  certainly  should  advise 
parents  who  can  afford  it  to  base  their 
children's  education  on  the  classics.  But, 
if  the  study  of  classics  is  endangered,  and 
if  it  is  to  be  successfully  defended,  it  is  of 

1  Delivered  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the 
Modern  Language  Association  on  the  22nd  Decem- 
ber 1903. 


36 


THE  MODEEN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


no  use  to  employ  arguments  which  do  not 
touch  the  case  of  the  opponent.  It  is,  for 
instance,  useless  to  insist  on  the  advantages 
of  an  advanced  study  of  Latin  and  Greek. 
There  is  no  controversy  as  to  the  import- 
ance of  classical  literature.  In  the  case  of 
Greek,  especially,  the  beauty  of  the  lan- 
guage and  the  fundamental  character  of  the 
problems  discussed  in  it  by  writers  of 
unsurpassed  ability  are  unquestioned  and 
unquestionable.  We  should  all  grant  that 
those  who  have  really  mastered  Latin  and 
Greek,  who  have  read  and  appreciated  the 
great  philosophers,  historians,  poets,  and 
dramatists,  have  received  an  education  of 
the  very  highest  type ;  and  that  the 
country  would  suffer  in  many  direct  and 
indirect  ways  if  this  form  of  education  were 
to  die  out. 

But  all  this  is  beside  the  mark  when  the 
gravamen  of  the  charge  is  that,  whether  it 
be  the  fault  of  the  subject  or  the  fault  of 
the  method  of  teaching,  comparatively  few 
boys  ever  reach  the  stage  at  which  these 
advantages  can  be  reaped,  and  that  of  these 
the  great  majority,  outside  the  ranks  of 
professional  teachers,  throw  aside  the  whole 
subject  when  their  education  is  finished, 
and  have  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  imbibed 
that  interest  in  ancient  authors  which  would 
make  them  the  familiar  companions  of  later 
life.  I  take  it  that  the  real  point  at  issue 
is  not  whether  lads  who  can  profit  from  the 
study  of  the  classics  are  to  be  forced  to 
desert  them ;  but  whether  it  would  not  be 
possible  to  distinguish  at  an  earlier  age 
between  those  who  will  and  those  who  will 
not  reap  any  real  benefit  from  Latin  and 
Greek ;  and  to  put  the  latter  class  to  more 
congenial  work.  This  must,  of  course,  be 
done  without  any  suspicion  that  a  stigma 
is  thereby  attached  to  those  whose  mathe- 
matical or  scientific  abilities  are  as  remark- 
able as,  though  different  from,  the  talents 
of  their  best  classical  comrades.  The 
division  should  be  made  as  naturally  as 
that  which  decides  whether  a  boy  is  to 
row  or  play  cricket.  In  both  cases  the 
question  should  be  settled  by  his  individual 
capacities,  without  a  shadow  of  degradation 
attaching  to  either  choice. 

This,  I  take  it,  is  what  the  more  en- 
lightened public  schools,  if  left  to  themselves, 
would  do.  Some  have  provided  and  others 
are  providing  beautiful  laboratories.  In 
some,  modern  methods  of  dealing  with 
modern  languages  are  being  introduced.  I 
hear  rumours  that  the  attempt  is  to  be 
made  to  trust  to  Latin  for  grammatical 
principles,  and  to  teach  Greek  with  the 


object  of  attaining  fluency  in  reading.  The 
main  difficulty  in  the  way  of  all  such  im- 
provements is  the  demands  of  universities, 
which  have  practically  enforced  the  study 
of  the  classics  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
school  career  of  future  undergraduates. 
The  reorganised  University  of  London 
decided  from  the  first  that  it  would  not 
thus  interfere  by  rigid  regulations  with  the 
freedom  of  the  schoolmaster.  I  shall  have 
to  return  to  this  point  again,  so  I  will  not 
dwell  on  it  now,  but  it  is  sufficient  to  say 
that  the  wide  options  allowed  in  the 
Matriculation  Examination  are  intended 
not  to  undermine  the  study  of  the  classics, 
but  to  allow  the  schoolmaster  to  enforce 
that  study  only  where  he  thinks  it  desirable. 
It  might  perhaps  be  answered  that,  whether 
the  boy  and  his  schoolmasters  do  or  do 
not  believe  it,  the  reluctant  and  inefficient 
study  of  the  classics  affords  such  an  incom- 
parable mental  gymnastic  that  it  is  the 
business  of  the  University  to  insist  upon  it 
at  all  costs.  With  this  view,  if  seriously 
maintained,  I  utterly  disagree.  Granting, 
for  the  sake  of  argument,  all  the  points 
urged  in  favour  of  classical  study,  the  air 
of  unreality  imparted  to  the  whole  of 
education  by  compelling  boys  to  study 
something  from  which  they  feel  no  benefit, 
and  from  which,  even  in  the  opinion  of 
their  masters,  they  are  getting  little  good, 
accounts  very  largely  both  for  lack  of 
interest  in  the  boys  themselves  and  for  the 
belief  in  the  futility  of  school  and  college 
education  which  is  so  characteristic  of  this 
country.  The  system  of  training  which 
produces  scholars,  philosophers,  and  men  of 
the  world  commands  respect,  but  there  are 
signs  of  impatience  with  a  method  which, 
for  the  sake  of  the  few,  condemns  the 
many  to  a  drudgery  which,  as  they  them- 
selves and  their,  friends  believe,  leaves 
behind  little  of  value  when  they  have  '  put 
away  childish  things.' 

But,  if  this  view  be  accepted,  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  all  that  is  possible 
must  be  done  to  attach  to  modern  systems 
of  education  the  benefits  which  in  the  past 
have  been  derived  from  the  classics.  I  am 
not  defending  early  specialisation,  but  the 
earlier  determination  of  the  particular 
studies  from  which  particular  benefits  are 
to  be  derived.  It  would  be  a  misfortune 
if  boys  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age 
studied  science  and  mathematics  only ;  but 
for  those  who  have  special  aptitudes  for 
these  subjects  and  no  special  literary  ability, 
I  believe  that  the  advantages  of  a  general 
education  may  be  better  obtained  through 


PRESIDENTIAL  ADDRESS  BY  SIR  ARTHUR  RUCKER 


37 


the  medium  of  modern  languages,  which 
will  help  them  in  their  scientific  pursuits, 
than  in  the  reluctant  study  of  Latin.  But, 
if  for  this  and  other  reasons  the  study  of 
modern  languages  is  to  take  a  higher  place 
in  the  future  than  in  the  past,  let  me 
remind  you  that  you  have  a  novel  problem 
to  solve — novel  not  in  the  sense  that  it  has 
not  been  attacked  elsewhere,  but  novel  in 
the  sense  that,  as  yet,  it  has  not  been 
fully  solved  in  this  country. 

The  teachers  of  classics  have  long  given 
instruction  in  Latin  and  Greek  not  only  as 
dead  languages,  but  as  languages  for  which, 
as  means  of  intercommunication,  there  can 
be  no  resurrection.  I  was  one  of  those 
responsible  for  framing  the  conditions 
under  which  the  'International  Catalogue 
of  Scientific  Literature'  is  published.  Latin 
is  only  included  in  the  list  of  recognised 
languages,  because  a  few  botanists  still  use 
it  abroad,  but  I  doubt  if  one-tenth  per  cent, 
of  the  forty  thousand  papers  which  are 
catalogued  annually  are  written  in  Latin, 
and  I  believe  that  the  practice  is  decaying. 
The  dream  that  Latin  might  be  the  universal 
tongue  of  the  learned  will  never,  as  far  as 
we  can  judge,  be  realised ;  yet  the  whole 
system  of  teaching  languages  which  are 
living  and  spoken  and  changing  now  has 
been  based  upon  that  adopted  in  the  case 
of  those  which  are  chiefly  spoken  at  Uni- 
versity ceremonies,  chanted  'in  quires  and 
places  where  they  sing,'  and  written  either 
as  a  charming  accomplishment  or  in  the 
stately  interchange  of  courtesies  between 
ecclesiastical  and  academic  authorities. 
Thus  the  belief  has  sprung  up  that  there 
is  something  antagonistic  between  the 
power  to  speak  a  language  and  the  ability 
and  knowledge  to  study  it  as  a  scholar. 
An  eminent  authority  on  education,  now 
dead,  once  said  in  my  hearing  that  'a 
University  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
purely  commercial  art  of  speaking  a  lan- 
guage.' My  presence  in  this  chair  is 
perhaps  sufficient  proof  that  I  do  not  share 
this  view;  but  you  will  forgive  me  if  I 
warn  you  that,  if  your  Association  is  to 
carry  out  its  programme  successfully,  this 
imaginary  line  of  division  must  not  produce 
a  cleavage  in  your  own  ranks.  The  founda- 
tion of  the  teaching  of  modern  languages 
will  never  stand  firm  on  great  popular 
needs,  on  the  necessity  for  their  support  to 
varied  forms  of  intellectual  and  industrial 
activity,  if  French  and  German  are  studied 
only  for  the  benefit  of  scholars  of  high 
attainment.  They  will  never  rank  high 
as  forms  of  mental  discipline  if  they  are 


taught  only  so  as  to  produce  fluent  diplo- 
matists and  business  men. 

It  is  for  you  to  devise  a  system  which 
shall  combine  the  requirements  of  practical 
utility  with  the  possibility  of  the  attain- 
ment of  high  scholarship.  For  different 
parts  of  the  path  which  leads  through  the 
one  to  the  other  different  members  of  your 
society  may  be  guides ;  but  it  should  be 
clearly  understood  that  they  have  not 
divergent  interests — that,  if  the  journey  is 
to  be  accomplished  safely,  all  are  necessary. 
The  scholar  will  glean  more  advanced 
students  from  the  crowd,  if  in  its  earlier 
stages  the  teaching  of  modern  languages  is 
made  interesting  and  useful.  The  influence 
of  every  teacher  on  his  pupils  will  be  all 
the  stronger  if  he  and  they  know  that  the 
subject  he  teaches  is  worthy  to  exercise  the 
ability  of  scholars  of  the  highest  type,  and, 
as  such,  is  fully  admitted  to  academic  rank. 
The  Modern  Language  Association  includes 
teachers  of  every  class,  and,  believe  me,  in 
this  unity  lies  your  strength. 

Turning  from  these  general  considerations 
to  particulars,  I  must  leave  you  to  discuss 
many  details  on  which  my  opinion  would 
be  of  little  or  no  value.  I  believe,  however, 
that  the  theory  that  the  learning  of  a 
modern  language  should,  as  far  as  possible, 
be  assimilated  to  that  of  mastering  the 
mother-tongue  is  approved  both  by  your 
own  body  and  by  the  instinctive  common- 
sense  of  many  who  cannot  claim  to  be 
experts.  It  is  not  possible  to  separate  the 
arts  of  speaking,  reading,  and  writing  a 
language  and  the  scholarly  study  of  its 
construction  and  literature  into  four  or  five 
independent  steps,  each  of  which  must  be 
surmounted  before  the  next  can  be  reached ; 
but  the  order  in  which  I  have  named  them 
roughly  describes  the  order  in  which  the 
mother-tongue  is  mastered.  I  know  that 
much  has  been  accomplished,  and  largely 
through  your  efforts,  to  adopt  this  order  in 
the  teaching  of  modern  languages;  but 
much  remains  to  be  done.  Till  lately 
modern  languages  were  studied,  not  in  the 
spirit  of  a  sculptor  intent  on  beauty  of  line 
and  the  subtle  grace  of  harmonious  form, 
but  rather  in  that  of  a  surgeon  conducting 
a  post-mortem  examination.  All  that  is 
abnormal,  irregular,  and  strange  was  re- 
garded as  of  more  interest  than  the  normal 
and  efficient. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that,  especially 
in  the  case  of  boys,  attention  to  speaking 
the  language  was  almost  confined  to  the 
earliest  stage  of  education.  Born  of  well- 
to-do  parents  who  displayed  an  interest, 


38 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


which  is  by  no  means  universal,  in  his 
education,  a  boy  of  eight  or  ten  years  of 
age  may  have  acquired  from  a  foreign 
nurse  and  a  good  governess  some  notion 
of  carrying  on  a  simple  conversation  in 
French  or  German.  After  this,  as  far  as 
speaking  is  concerned,  he  steadily  went 
backward,  though  at  school  he  learned  to 
read  a  little  and  to  translate  an  easy  exer- 
cise. But  the  whole  subject  of  modern 
languages  took  a  lower  and  lower  place  as 
his  education  progressed,  till  at  the  uni- 
versities it  was  practically  ignored.  In 
most  cases  the  final  result  was  that  the  boy 
passed  through  life  with  enough  knowledge 
of  French  to  make  himself  understood  in  a 
hotel,  to  be  thoroughly  uncomfortable  if 
asked  by  his  hostess  to  take  a  French  lady 
down  to  dinner,  and  to  fail  ignominiously 
if  compelled  to  write  a  letter  in  French 
without  frequent  reference  to  a  dictionary. 
Of  course  there  were  many  exceptions  to 
this  generalisation,  but  they  could  usually 
be  explained  by  exceptional  circumstances 
or  ability.  Few  of  the  older  among  us  who 
are  moderately  efficient  in  the  use  of  a 
foreign  tongue  would  admit  that  they  owed 
their  mastery  to  the  ordinary  routine  of 
English  education.  In  a  somewhat  humbler 
rank  of  life  the  state  of  things  was  worse. 
To  take  the  case  with  which  I  am  best 
acquainted,  a  lad  fighting  his  way  up 
through  the  mechanics'  institute  and  the 
technical  school  would  often  be  led  by  what 
appeared  to  be  his  own  interest  and  that  of 
his  teachers  to  neglect  everything  for  the 
sake  of  science.  If  he  won  a  national 
scholarship,  he  would  have  found,  up  to 
about  four  or  five  years  ago,  only  professors 
of  science  (of  whom  I  was  one)  at  the  Royal 
College  of  Science,  and  a  steady  refusal  on 
the  part  of  the  Government  to  supply  the 
teaching  in  modern  languages  which  these 
professors  declared  to  be  necessary  for  the 
advance  of  their  students  in  the  sciences 
they  professed.  At  no  time  in  their  careers 
would  the  majority  of  such  lads  have  had  a 
chance  of  learning  to  speak  French  and 
German,  and  it  was  much  to  their  credit 
that  in  many  instances  they  picked  up 
enough  to  read  foreign  memoirs. 

I  know  that  things  are  better  now  than 
the  above  descriptions  represent;  but  the 
improvement  is  spreading  slowly,  and  the 
time  has  not  yet  come  to  forget  how  bad 
they  were  in  the  very  recent  past.  What, 
then,  can  be  done  to  accelerate  the  improve- 
ment 1  I  believe  that  you  will  all  answer 
that  the  main  obstacle  is  at  present  the 
dearth  of  competent  teachers.  It  is  the 


dominant  view  that  a  foreign  language 
should  be  taught  to  boys  by  one  of  their 
own  nationality  who  has  studied  abroad, 
assisted,  if  the  school  is  large  enough,  by 
one  to  whom  the  language  in  question  is 
the  mother-tongue.  But  that  arrangement 
involves  a  good  deal  of  organisation  and 
expense.  The  would-be  teacher  of  French 
or  German  must  be  sent  abroad.  The 
future  teacher  of  English  in  other  countries 
must  come  here.  The  most  obvious,  and 
probably  the  most  economical  and  efficient, 
way  of  securing  this  result  would  be  to 
effect  an  exchange  of  assistant  teachers — to 
make  an  arrangement  with  foreign  Govern- 
ments by  which  teachers  would  acquire  not 
only  a  mastery  of  a  foreign  tongue,  but  a 
wider  intellectual  outlook  from  a  knowledge 
of  a  foreign  system  of  education. 

But,  till  this  is  done,  it  is  desirable  to 
take  such  steps  as  are  immediately  possible 
to  make  it  easy  for  teachers  of  foreign 
languages  to  visit  for  short  periods  the 
countries  whose  tongues  they  teach.  Nor 
would  such  a  plan  be  superseded  by  the 
larger  scheme  to  which  I  have  referred. 
Even  if  that  were  carried  out,  it  would  still 
be  necessary  at  regular  intervals  to  send 
the  English-born  teachers  of  French,  Ger- 
man, or  Italian  back  to  the  country  where 
these  tongues  are  spoken.  Provided  that 
holiday  courses  do  not  trench  too  much 
upon  the  rest  which  is  necessary  to 
efficiency,  they  seem  to  afford  the  best 
means  of  providing  for  these  wants.  Abroad 
the  University  of  Grenoble  has  taken  an 
honourable  lead  in  the  provision  of  holiday 
courses  for  foreign  teachers  of  French — 
provision  all  the  more  acceptable  in  that  it 
is  made  amid  charming  scenery  and  close  to 
the  playground  of  Europe.  It  is  probable 
that  this  example  will  be  followed. 

Arrangements  for  the  provision  of  similar 
courses  in  London  were  being  made  by  the 
Teachers'  Guild ;  but,  on  second  thoughts, 
it  appeared  that  foreign  Governments  would 
be  more  ready  to  sanction  arrangements 
made  with  a  University  than  to  co-operate 
with  a  society  or  guild.  With  rare  self- 
abnegation,  therefore,  the  members  of  the 
Guild  have  placed  all  their  knowledge  and 
machinery  at  the  disposal  of  the  University 
of  London.  The  Senate,  on  the  other 
hand,  have  sanctioned  the  arrangement  of 
holiday  courses  for  foreign  teachers  in  the 
next  long  vacation,  and,  to  carry  out  the 
scheme,  have  authorised  the  appointment 
of  a  Board  or  Boards  to  which  members  of 
other  bodies  whose  co-operation  may  be 
desired  can  be  co-opted.  On  this  Board 


PEESIDENTIAL  ADDRESS  BY  SIR  ARTHUR  RUCKER 


39 


the  Teachers'  Guild  will,  of  course,  be 
represented,  and  it  is  a  hopeful  augury  for 
the  success  of  the  scheme  which  they 
initiated  that  it  has  the  approval  of  M. 
Hovelacque,  Inspecteur-general  de  1'Instruc- 
tion  publique,  whose  recent  visit  to  this 
country  may,  I  hope,  mark  the  beginning 
of  an  era  of  closer  relations  between 
English  and  Continental  teachers. 

But,  though  foreign  study  and  holiday 
courses  are,  perhaps,  all  that  can  be  done 
for  modern  language  teachers  in  isolated 
colleges  and  schools,  it  is  not  all  that  can 
be  accomplished  for  those  who  dwell  in  a 
University  city.  They  can  be  secured 
from  falling  behind  in  the  race,  both  by 
bringing  lecturers  from  abroad  to  address 
them  at  times  when  it  is  convenient  for 
them  to  attend,  and  by  inviting  them  to 
courses  on  the  higher  branches  of  their 
subject  given  by  the  professors  of  the 
University.  Both  these  steps  have  been 
taken  by  the  University  of  London.  During 
the  present  session  Prof.  Antoine  Thomas, 
of  the  Sorbonne,  is  giving,  in  the  rooms  of 
the  University,  two  courses  of  three  lectures 
each  on  French  language  and  literature. 
These  lectures  are,  of  course,  delivered  in 
French.  The  first  group  was  attended  by 
many  teachers  ;  the  second  will  take  place 
on  March  15,  16,  and- 18.  Similarly  Prof. 
Brandin,  of  University  College,  has  given 
there,  at  the  invitation  of  the  University,  a 
course  of  ten  lectures  on  '  L'Epopee  nation- 
ale.'  Nor  is  this  all.  The  various  divisions 
of  the  Faculty  of  Arts  have  arranged  inter 
collegiate  courses  of  lectures  in  which 
instruction  of  the  highest  type  is  given,  suit- 
able both  for  post-graduate  students  and  for 
teachers  in  whom  the  burden  of  teaching 
has  not  crushed  the  ambition  to  be  students 
still.  I  take  as  my  example  German, 
which,  as  I  have  before  explained  in  public, 
has  been  selected  by  the  University  as  the 
language  to  which  the  whole  of  that  portion 
of  the  annual  grant  of  £10,000  a  year  from 
the  County  Council  which  is  available  for 
modern  languages  has  been  devoted.  One 
language,  and  one  language  only,  was 
selected  in  order  that  London  might  have 
before  it  an  example,  on  a  fairly  large  scale, 
of  the  method  of  dealing  with  such  pro- 
blems which  the  University  would  adopt 
did  funds  permit.  Two  professors,  Dr. 
Priebsch  and  Dr.  Robertson,  on  whose 
qualifications  I  need  not  in  this  room  dwell, 
and  three  Readers  have  been  appointed. 
They  lecture  in  the  various  colleges  as  may 
be  convenient ;  but  the  centre  of  their  work 
has  been  fixed  in  University  College.  All 


the  books  on  German  belonging  both  to  the 
University  and  to  the  College  have  been 
collected  there,  in  a  library  which  is  now 
open  to  all  graduates  of  the  University, 
and  which,  thus  strengthened  by  combina- 
tion, is  far  better  than  their  own.  This 
library  has  been  increased  by  means  of  the 
grant  from  the  Technical  Education  Board, 
and,  I  need  hardly  add,  is  within  a  few 
minutes'  walk  of  the  British  Museum.  I 
am  assured  by  the  professors  that  the 
means  at  their  disposal  are  now  adequate  to 
the  wants  of  the  most  advanced  students, 
and  that  they  can  carry  on  in  University 
College  a  Seminar  of  which  the  University 
need  not  be  ashamed.  Their  lectures  are 
placed  late  in  the  afternoon  specially  to 
meet  the  convenience  of  teachers  who  may 
be  able  to  attend  when  the  bulk  of  their 
day's  work  is  done.  When  funds  permit 
French  will  be  placed  on  the  same  footing 
as  German. 

I  hope  that  I  have  now  convinced  you 
that  the  Senate  is  doing  all  in  its  power  to 
meet  the  wants  of  teachers  of  modern 
languages.  It  is  not,  therefore,  unreason- 
able to  appeal  to  the  governors  and  head- 
masters of  London  schools  to  do  what  they 
can  to  make  it  easy  for  their  teachers  to 
avail  themselves  of  these  advantages. 

The  question  as  to  whether  there  shall 
be  a  permanent  improvement  in  modern 
language  teaching  lies  in  the  hands,  not  of 
universities,  not  of  associations,  but  of 
those  who  control  the  schools.  If  they 
insist  on  high  degrees  for  their  classical 
masters,  but  are  content  to  dispense  with 
academical  qualifications  from  those  who 
teach  modern  languages ;  if  they  exact 
hours  so  long  that  a  man  who  fulfils  them 
must  necessarily  become  a  drudge,  and  can 
give  no  time  to  self-improvement ;  if  where 
the  modern  system  of  oral  teaching  has  been 
introduced  they  forget  the  additional  strain 
thus  thrown  upon  the  teacher;  then  modern 
language  teaching  will  remain  at  a  low 
level.  I  know  that  such  evils  were  rampant 
in  the  past.  I  do  not  pretend  to  have 
personal  knowledge  as  to  the  precise  extent 
to  which  they  are  rife  now,  but  I  fear  that 
they  are  not  unknown  ;  and  I  can  only  beg 
the  authorities  of  London  schools  to  do 
what  they  can  to  help  the  University  in 
the  efforts  it  is  making  to  improve  the 
teaching  of  modern  languages. 

The  discussion  of  the  possibilities  of 
improvement  in  schools  leads  easily  to  the 
consideration  of  the  opportunities  afforded 
by  a  University  course  for  the  teaching 
of  French,  German,  and  other  modern  Ian- 


40 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


guages.  I  have  already  described  the 
arrangements  for  teachers.  It  remains  to 
discuss  the  courses  of  study  and  examina- 
tions required  from  candidates  for  a  degree. 
The  Matriculation  Examination  is  not 
designed  to  cover  the  whole  range  of  a 
school  curriculum.  That  plan  was  tried  in 
the  past,  with  the  result  that  the  number 
of  subjects  embraced  in  the  examination 
was  too  large.  The  strain  upon  the  candi- 
dates was  unduly  great.  The  doctrine 
that  everybody  was  to  know  something 
of  everything  fostered  cramming.  The 
number  of  subjects  is  now  five,  of  which 
two  may  be  modern  languages. 

I  should  be  sorry  to  leave  you  with  the 
impression  that  my  mind  is  full  of  mechan- 
ism, and  of  mechanism  only.  The  sails 
and  spars  of  our  new  ship  may  be  perfect, 
but  she  will  never  be  famous  if  her  crew 
are  content  with  the  ordinary  trade  routes, 
and  do  not  sometimes  carry  her  into  seas 
where  the  soundings  are  as  yet  unknown. 
Intelligent  students,  well-equipped  teachers, 
are  essential ;  but  they  are  not  enough 
unless,  from  time  to  time,  there  are  found 
among  them  those  who,  as  discoverers, 
writers,  or  thinkers,  lead  men  where  they 
have  not  been  before.  It  was  a  sound 
instinct  which  led  your  young  Association 
to  found  a  journal  in  which  the  best  work 
done  in  connection  with  modern  languages 
might  find  a  place.  I  frankly  admit  that 
the  more  recondite  parts  of  your  subject 
are  so  far  outside  the  range  of  my  own 
studies  that  I  am  no  judge  as  to  how  far 
you  have  realised  your  own  ideals ;  but  I 
am  sure  that  neither  a  University  nor  a 
learned  association  will  be  famous  unless  it 
numbers  among  its  teachers  or  its  members 
men  who  are  leaders  of  thought.  Let  me, 
then,  urge  upon  you  never  to  let  the  ques- 
tions, pressing  as  they  are,  of  school  and 
University  courses  divert  you  from  the 
determination  to  be  not  only  an  association 


of  teachers,  but  also  an  association  of 
students,  among  whom  are  found,  as  they 
are  found  now,  the  names  best  known  in 
connection  with  the  study  of  modern  lan- 
guages. To  depart  from  this  ideal  would 
be  fatal.  To  lower  the  standard  of  your 
journal  would  be  a  grave  mistake.  For — 

'  If  we  draw  a  circle  premature 

Heedless  of  far  gain, 
Greedy  for  quick  returns  of  profit,  sure 
Bad  is  our  bargain.' 

Your  past  history,  however,  has  suffi- 
ciently proved  that  you  will  avoid  such  a 
mistake,  and  that,  looking  back  on  that 
history,  you  are  to  be  congratulated  on 
what  has  been  achieved.  More  attention  is 
being  paid  to  modern  languages  and  to  the 
methods  of  teaching  them.  All  over  the 
country,  modern  methods  of  teaching  are 
being  introduced,  and,  as  I  have  already 
said,  one  of  the  chief  difficulties  is  to  secure 
a  sufficient  number  of  competent  teachers. 
As  might  be  expected,  the  Technical  Edu- 
cation Board  of  the  London  County  Council 
is  awake  to  the  necessities  of  the  case,  and 
it  has  just  asked  the  University  of  London 
to  report  to  it  on  the  teaching  of  modern 
languages  in  about  forty  London  schools 
which  the  Board  assists.  The  University 
has  undertaken  the  task,  and  the  two 
inspectors  who  have  been  appointed  are 
Prof.  W.  Rippmann  and  your  Secretary, 
Dr.  Edwards.  We  feel  sure  that  by  such 
inspectors  a  report  will  be  produced  which 
will  mark  an  era  in  the  teaching  of  modern 
languages  in  the  Metropolis. 

With  this  announcement  I  must  end  my 
address,  adding  only  that  I  believe  that 
your  Association  has  a  great  future  before 
it  if  it  still  aims  at  securing  that  modern 
languages  shall  be  taught  well,  shall  be 
taught  so  as  to  be  useful,  and  shall  be 
taught  so  as  to  deserve  the  place  which 
they  have  won  among  the  highest  branches 
of  a  University  education. 


MODERN  LANGUAGES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.1 


IT  is  often  well,  in  surveying  our  way,  to 
take  points  of  triangulation  as  distant  as 
possible ;  and  I  had  intended  to  begin,  this 
afternoon,  by  quoting  and  discussing  in 
detail  two  passages  written  six  hundred 
years  ago  by  Roger  Bacon,  which  show  how 
much  the  intellectual  barrenness  of  the 
Middle  Ages  was  due  not  only  to  the  neces- 
sarily narrow  range  of  knowledge  in  an  age 


of  few  books,  but  perhaps  even  more  to  the 
wilful  exclusiveness  of  their  educational 
system.  But  I  found,  on  completing  my 
paper,  that  I  should  have  room  only  to 
summarise  this  very  briefly. 

(a)  Their  narrow  range  of  knowledge  falsi- 

1  A  paper  read  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the 
Modern  Language  Association  on  the  22nd  Decem- 
ber 1903. 


MODERN  LANGUAGES  AND  MODEEN  THOUGHT 


fied  their  notions  of  the  world's  history. 
The  greatest  men  even  of  the  thirteenth 
century  were  convinced  that  the  world  was 
steadily  growing  worse,  and  would  very 
soon  come  to  an  end.  This  removed  them 
as  far  as  possible  from  that  faith  in  the 
building  up  of  all  the  greatest  truths  by 
the  patient,  coral-like  growth  of  millions  of 
separate  minds,  which  characterises  the 
modern  scientific  spirit.  The  medieval 
philosopher  necessarily  spoke  with  haste 
and  some  impatience,  as  a  dying  man  to 
dying  men.  Again,  narrow  as  their  range 
of  knowledge  must  necessarily  in  any  case 
have  been,  they  wilfully  narrowed  it  still 
further  by  practically  treating  as  non- 
existent (with  few  exceptions)  whatever 
could  not  be  read  in  Latin. 

(J)  Even  more  disastrous,  however,  was 
the  exdusiveness  of  their  educational  ideal 
consequent  upon  their  making  Latin  the 
one  vehicle  of  serious  knowledge.  This 
was  the  real  reason  why  even  such  glimpses 
of  the  future  world  as  Bacon  showed — and 
not  Bacon  alone — remained  so  useless  to 
his  and  succeeding  generations.  Latin 
formed  an  insuperable  barrier  between  the 
ideas  of  the  learned  and  the  vaguer,  less 
articulate,  but  often  marvellously  true 
ideas  of  the  people  at  large.  We  scarcely 
realise  sufficiently  what  the  modern  world 
owes — and  how  much  more  the  coming 
world  will  owe — to  the  democratisation  of 
literature  and  learning.  The  Middle  Ages 
show  us  the  seeds  of  magnificent  possi- 
bilities, but  seeds  which  withered  away 
because  they  had  no  depth  of  soil. 

The  ideas  of  a  really  original  student 
appeal  generally  far  less  to  the  majority  of 
the  student-class  than  they  appeal  to  the 
man  in  the  street.  The  man  who  has 
studied  all  his  life  without  dreaming  of  any 
such  revelation,  has  all  the  force  of  habit 
and  of  self-esteem  against  his  recognition 
of  the  new  truth.  The  true  soil  for  a 
revolutionary  idea  is  the  fresh  and  open 
mind  of  the  intelligent  layman,  who  will 
see  all  the  more  clearly  now,  at  the  one 
supreme  moment,  because  he  had  never 
professed  to  think  seriously  on  the  subject 
before — that  here  at  last  is  one  speaking 
with  authority,  and  not  merely  with  the 
voice  of  tradition.  This  is  the  history  of 
all  great  reforms:  opposed  by  the  greater 
number  of  the  specialists,  but  carried  by 
the  awakened  common-sense  of  the  nation. 
There  were  great  men  in  the  Middle  Ages 
— very  great  men — but  they  were  powerless 
to  fertilise  the  mass  of  the  world,  and  even 
the  best  of  them  suffered  terribly  from  the 


narrowness  of  their  education.  And  the 
interest  of  this  for  us  is  that,  as  the  medie- 
val penal  code  lingered  in  England  later 
than  anywhere  else,  so  the  medieval  ideal 
of  education,  in  much  of  its  wilful  narrow- 
ness and  exciusiveness,  lingers  with  us  still. 
The  narrowness  of  the  strict  classical  ideal 
is  proverbial,  though  we  must  sadly  confess 
that  the  attempts  to  widen  the  curriculum 
have  not  always  been  conspicuously  well  con- 
sidered or  successful.  But  its  exdusiveness 
seems  to  me  to  be  at  least  as  fatally  in  con- 
tradiction with  the  necessary  movement  of 
the  modern  world.  As  life  becomes  more 
and  more  complicated,  the  victory  in  the 
struggle  for  survival  among  nations  will 
rest  more  and  more  surely  with  those 
peoples  who  can  best  utilise  the  latent 
energy  among  the  masses.  If  this  be  so, 
there  can  be  few  more  fatal  handicaps  than 
a  system  of  education  which  tends  to  keep 
different  classes  of  the  nation  from  com- 
peting with  each  other  intellectually,  and 
fertilising  each  other.  Yet  this  must  be 
always  the  defect  of 'an  education  which  is 
from  the  very  beginning  (intellectually 
speaking),  aristocratic  and  exclusive.  In 
other  words,  the  system  which  not  only 
devotes  the  best  energies  of  the  best  boys 
to  a  study  which  the  majority  of  the  nation 
cannot  even  touch,  but  devotes  them  to 
this  from  the  very  beginning  of  their  school 
career,  is  a  very  mischievous  system  of 
specialisation.  Even  if  the  Classics  were, 
as  educational  instruments,  all  that  has 
been  claimed  for  them  by  their  most  un- 
compromising supporters,  it  would  still  be 
a  very  unwise  arrangement  to  specialise  in 
that  subject  so  early  that  the  vast  majority 
of  the  nation  are  necessarily  excluded  from 
all  competition.  But  this  could  be  avoided 
by  the  simple  reform  of  beginning  school 
life  with  easier  subjects  than  the  Classics — 
with  subjects  which  are  admittedly  within 
the  reach  of  all,  such  as  English,  Arithmetic, 
and  the  elementary  study  of  nature.  If 
Latin  and  Greek  are  the  highest  subjects  of 
education,  then  let  those  who  have  shown 
most  ability  in  the  simpler  subjects  be 
passed  on  to  the  study  of  the  Classics.  But 
at  least  let  there  be  free  intercommunication 
at  the  early  stages,  and  at  least  let  the 
children's  minds  have  been  measured  by 
some  rational  process  before  we  erect  a 
practically  impassable  intellectual  barrier 
between  one  class  and  another. 

The  lack  of  some  such  common  measure 
at  present  leads  to  the  most  ludicrous  mis- 
apprehensions. As  Dr.  Johnson  looked 
down  upon  Davis  as  '  an  author  generated 


42 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


by  the  corruption  of  a  bookseller,'  so  many 
men  will  assert,  almost  in  as  many  words, 
that  the  man  of  science  is  stitched  together 
out  of  remnants  from  which  God  had  first 
cut  out  the  perfect  Classic.  It  is  very 
natural  and  strictly  logical.  Did  not  Darwin 
fail  miserably  in,  while  Herbert  Spencer 
never  even  attempted,  those  subjects  which 
are  not  only  the  ultimate,  but  the  first  and 
only  test  of  capacity  at  our  most  important 
schools?  Who  can  blame  the  successful 
classical  scholar  for  bearing  always  in  mind 
that  he  himself  is  the  first  choice  of  that 
material  whose  very  shreds  and  leavings 
may  be  made,  with  care  and  industry,  into 
Darwins  and  Spencers  ]  If  we  in  England 
are  ever  to  cast  off  all  purely  medieval 
impediments,  and  to  teach  as  living  men  for 
living  men — as  the  heirs  of  an  age  more 
wonderful,  perhaps,  in  its  floods  of  light 
than  any  other  age  in  history — then  one  of 
our  first  cares  must  be  to  institute  that 
common  substructure  of  education,  common 
to  all  classes  and  to  all  intellects,  which 
already  obtains  so  widely  abroad.  Free 
trade  in  the  first  stages  of  class-work  would 
raise  the  intellectual  standard  all  over  the 
country,  while  it  lessened  intellectual  friction 
and  minimised  the  waste  of  energy  caused 
by  our  present  medieval  system.  We  all 
know,  and  deplore,  the  waste  of  time  and 
energy  caused  by  the  difficulty  of  reducing 
our  weights,  measures,  and  coins  to  common 
terms  with  those  of  countries  with  which 
we  deal.  But  even  greater  waste  is  caused 
by  the  lack  of  common  intellectual  terms 
between  citizen  and  citizen.  Yet  there  was 
a  time  when  few  nations  approached  ours  in 
intellectual  homogeneity,  and  none  surpassed 
us.  That  was  when  the  Bible  was  more  or 
less  familiar  to  nearly  all  educated  English- 
men. For  good  and  for  evil,  things  have  so 
far  changed  that  we  can  no  longer  depend 
upon  this  bond  of  union,  and  we  have  as 
yet  nothing  to  take  its  place.  There  is 
probably  no  country  of  equal  rank  in  the 
world  where  one  citizen,  speaking  with 
another,  can  assume  with  so  little  certainty 
that  he  has  read  any  particular  book,  or 
followed  any  particular  line  of  thought,  and 
that  a  reference  to  that  book,  or  to  that  line 
of  thought,  will  therefore  be  immediately 
intelligible.  It  is  difficult  to  overestimate 
the  intellectual  loss  which  we  suffer  from 
this.  The  nation  can  never  reach  its 
maximum  of  intellectual  fertility,  so  long 
as  the  different  classes  are  deliberately 
educated  as  intellectual  strangers  to  each 
other. 
But  some  love  to  point  to  the  enormous 


success  of  our  country  in  the  past,  a  success 
which  I,  for  one,  am  quite  willing  to  hear 
attributed,  in  a  very  great  degree,  to  our 
public  school  education.  That  education, 
we  hear  it  daily  repeated,  has  made  us 
rulers  of  men :  will  it  not  still  make  us 
rulers  of  men  1  This  is  a  dangerous  argu- 
ment :  it  assumes  permanence  in  a  world 
which,  under  our  very  eyes,  is  changing 
almost  beyond  recognition.  There  are  at 
least  two  very  serious  reasons  which  forbid 
our  arguing  from  public  school  success  in 
the  past  to  public  school  success,  on  the 
same  old  lines,  in  the  future. 

A.  In  the  first  place,  the  very  complete- 
ness of  modern  public  school  organisation 
has  brought  into  prominence  faults  which 
were  only  latent  in  the  past.  The  late 
Headmaster  of  Bedford  once  described  at  a 
Headmasters'  Conference  the  old  Winchester 
system  which  allowed  the  Sixth  Form  a 
whole  day  for  writing  a  copy  of  Latin  verses 
in  their  own  studies — a  day  of  which  the 
greater  part  was  spent  by  the  boys  reading 
Byron  or  a  novel  instead.  At  Eton,  until 
quite  recently,  it  was  possible  to  read  English 
novels  and  poetry  under  the  table  in  class, 
as  a  Latin  or  Greek  book  lay  open  on  the 
table.  These  are  only  samples  of  a  thousand 
discrepancies  between  theory  and  practice 
which  tempered  the  strict  classical  education 
of  former  generations.  Nowadays,  how- 
ever, there  is  no  means  of  escape;  Latin 
verses  mean  Latin  verses,  and  no  boy  can 
do  himself  justice  in  a  competition  for  a 
classical  scholarship  if  he  has  not  kept  his 
nose  strictly,  for  years,  to  the  bare  classical 

grindstone.  The  consequence  is,  as  even 
lassical  Headmasters  are  beginning  to  find 
out,  that  clever  Sixth  Form  boys  have  often 
no  leisure  or  energy  to  read  any  English 
but  Tit-Bits,  and  that,  in  proportion  as  the 
average  standard  of  Latin  and  Greek 
scholarship  has  risen  in  our  schools,  the 
knowledge  of  the  mother-tongue  has  fallen. 
And  it  might  be  added,  that  the  very 
classical  scholar  himself  is  now  too  fre- 
quently as  narrow  a  specialist,  and  as  unfit 
to  adapt  himself  to  a  fresh  view  of  life, 
as  any  specialised  product  of  the  South 
Kensington  Science  and  Art  examinations. 
The  boys,  as  Professor  Henry  Sidgwick 
pointed  out  forty  years  ago,  and  as  even 
Mr.  Benson  of  Eton  frankly  admits  now, 
are  subjected  to  an  increased  mental  friction 
while  they  learn  increasingly  little.  Even 
thirty  or  forty  years  ago,  when  the  present 
generation  of  rulers  of  men  were  at  school, 
class-teaching  in  public  schools  differed  very 
widely  indeed  from  what  it  is  at  present. 


MODERN  LANGUAGES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT 


43 


B.  The  second  and  even  more  important 
point  (though  perhaps  it  is  insufficiently 
realised)  is  that  the  public  schools  are  certain 
to  take  their  colour  ultimately  from  the 
State.  Very  much  of  what  has  been  and 
still  is  best  in  those  schools  is  a  direct  con- 
sequence of  our  wider  political  liberties ;  so 
that  Eton  has  turned  out  its  rulers  of  men 
rather  as  a  secondary  eifect  of  the  British 
constitution  than  as  a  primary  effect  of  the 
peculiar  English  form  of  upper-class  educa- 
tion— if  form  it  may  be  called  which 
form  hath  none. 

During  the  interminable  wars  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  we  in  our  island  were  in 
comparative  peace.  This  immunity  from 
invasion  which  England  has  enjoyed  for 
more  than  eight  centuries  has  contributed 
more  than  we  are  often  willing  to  recognise 
to  the  steady  evolution  of  English  liberties 
and  to  the  formation  of  the  two  national 
characteristics  on  which  we  have  most  cause 
to  pride  ourselves :  our  businesslike  mind, 
and  the  sense  of  fair-play  which  makes  it 
possible  for  one  man  to  assert  his  own  in- 
dividuality strongly  without  refusing  to 
allow  the  similar  expansion  of  different  or 
even  contradictory  individualities  arpund 
him.  The  whole  nation  has  learnt,  first, 
to  believe  in  human,  nature — a  faith  lament- 
ably lacking  to  the  so-called  ages  of  faith  ; 
and,  secondly,  to  realise  that  petty  inter- 
ferences do  not  constitute  strong  govern- 
ment, but  rather  that  tolerance  is  one  of 
the  most  definite  notes  of  real  power. 

Surely  these  are  exactly  the  character- 
istics of  our  public  schools.  In  them,  as  in 
the  State,  the  unwritten  law  is  more  power- 
ful even  than  the  written  law  ;  and  there 
is  very  great  discipline  side  by  side  with 
very  great  liberty.  In  the  Middle  Ages, 
espionnage  was  the  sacred  rule,  the  pillar  of 
discipline,  in  our  colleges  and  our  schools.  At 
Pembroke  College,  Cambridge,  for  instance, 
the  fourteenth-century  statutes  compel  the 
scholar  to  swear  solemnly,  on  his  admission, 
that  he  will  tell  tales  of  his  fellow-scholars 
whenever  occasion  shall  require.  But  the 
freedom  of  the  towns,  and  of  the  State, 
gradually  reacted  upon  the  schools.  As 
citizens  learnt  in  our  towns,  and  conflict- 
ing parties  learnt  in  our  Parliament,  that 
very  sincere  conviction  is  compatible  with 
a  very  great  deal  of  tolerance,  and  that  it  is 
cheaper  to  let  human  nature  have  its  way, 
within  certain  limits,  than  to  try  and  bend  it 
exactly  to  ourown  particular  pattern— as  this 
lesson  was  learnt  in  political  life,  gradu- 
ally it  found  its  way  into  our  schools ;  and 
again,  the  freedom  and  self-reliance  taught 


in  our  schools  has  unquestionably  reacted 
favourably  upon  the  conduct  of  the  State. 

It  seems  necessary  to  emphasise  the 
natural  growth  of  our  scholastic  virtues, 
because  they  are  too  often  spoken  of  as  if 
we  inherited  them  by  right  divine ;  or  as  if 
they  were  ours  by  an  eternal  and  immut- 
able law  of  nature.  We  once  thought  the 
same  of  our  trade,  until  others  began  to 
catch  us  up. 

The  peace  of  the  modern  world  is  en- 
abling other  nations  to  develop  now  the 
same  quiet  civic  virtues,  to  learn  the  same 
political  lessons,  which  have  done  so  much 
for  England  in  the  past.  Not  only  have 
we,  in  America,  a  rival  of  our  own  blood, 
inhabiting  a  country  of  far  greater  natural 
resources  and  far  more  safe  from  invasion 
than  ours ;  but  all  the  nations  of  the  Con- 
tinent are  working  out  their  own  salvation 
in  politics,  each  nation  for  itself,  in  such 
quiet  and  by  such  natural  processes  of  evo- 
lution as  were  possible  among  the  wars  of 
the  past  only  to  such  favoured  nations  as 
Great  Britain  and  Switzerland.  What  is 
more,  in  such  of  these  States  as  are  our 
direct  rivals,  the  vast  but  latent  intellectual 
resources  of  the  masses  are  already  being 
methodically  exploited,  and  the  national 
mind  is  being  prepared,  to  an  extent  un- 
known among  us,  to  receive  the  new  ideas  of  a 
new  age.  Not  only  that,  but  in  several  direc- 
tions the  people  of  these  States  are  receiving 
something  of  the  training  for  which  we  are 
so  justly  grateful  to  our  public  schools,  but 
which  we  so  persistently  deny  to  all  but  the 
few  educated  at  those  schools. 

(1)  While  the  English  upper-class  school- 
boy is  physically  the  best  educated  in  the 
world,  the  English  lower  classes  receive  at 
school  perhaps  the  worst  physical  education 
in  the  world.     This,  however,  will  perhaps 
soon  be  remedied. 

(2)  In   other  countries   the    educational 
ladder  has  long  been  carefully  arranged  to 
allow  talent  to  rise  from  the  lowest  ranks  ; 
with  us  the  very  idea  is  new,  and  the  arrange- 
ments are  still  incomplete. 

(3)  Lastly,  the  compulsory  military  service 
of  other  countries  has  upon  the  masses  an 
educative  influence  which  we  are  very  apt 
to   underestimate.       I   must  apologise  for 
alluding  here  to  what  might  be  called  almost 
a  burning  political  question ;  but  one  can- 
not discuss  the  principles  of  education  with- 
out touching  sometimes  on  the  principles  of 
politics.     I  should  be  as  loth  as  any  one  else 
to  see  the  French  or  German  systems  of 
conscription  introduced  bodily  into  England ; 
but,  in  our  dislike  of  what   seems   to   us 


44 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


tyrannous  in  these  systems  as  they  stand, 
we  are  apt  to  forget  what  a  real  school  of 
life  a  citizen-army  is  to  the  lowest  classes. 
It  widens  their  views.  It  teaches  them 
(what  our  lowest  classes  never  learn)  the 
value  of  cheap  and  plain  foods  and  of 
sensible  cooking ;  it  teaches  them  cleanli- 
ness, and,  in  consequence  you  may  see 
everywhere  in  Germany  river-baths  used 
by  hundreds  of  people  to  whom  in  England 
cold  water  would  have  remained  compara- 
tively unknown.  And,  in  spite  of  all  the 
scandals  of  tyranny  in  conscripted  armies, 
to  the  poorest  and  most  ignorant  classes 
the  army  is  even,  on  the  whole,  a  school  of 
fair-play  and  justice,  as  it  is  undoubtedly  a 
lifelong  object-lesson  in  the  value  of  co- 
operative work.  If,  moreover,  instead  of 
studying  only  the  conscription  of  France 
and  Germany,  we  look  at  the  equally  com- 
pulsory and  universal  militia  system  of  a 
free  state  like  Switzerland,  with  its  officers 
all  promoted  from  the  ranks,  there  we  see 
the  educational  advantages  doubled  or 
trebled ;  and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say 
that  the  Swiss  militia  system  is  as  remark- 
able a  national  influence  in  education  as 
our  English  public  schools  themselves,  and 
an  influence  even  more  widespreading.  It 
is  impossible  to  work  out  educational  pro- 
blems in  England  without  bearing  this  in 
mind. 

It  is  plain  then  that  we  may  very  easily 
rely  too  much  on  the  admitted  value  of  our 
public  schools  as  training-grounds  of 
character.  The  public  schools  by  them- 
selves cannot  possibly  keep  the  whole 
national  life  fresh  and  sweet.  What  is 
more,  the  public  schools  cannot  long  retain 
their  living  virtues,  apart  from  the  main  life 
of  the  nation.  Their  ultimate  salvation 
depends  on  their  forming  part  of  a  system 
of  education  proportioned  to  the  needs,  to 
the  daily  growing  needs,  of  an  age  which, 
with  all  its  faults,  is  immeasurably  superior 
in  knowledge,  in  decency  of  manners,  and 
in  freedom  from  crime,  to  the  past  ages 
from  which  the  thorough-going  advocates  of 
the  classics  inherit,  however  unconsciously, 
many  of  their  most  cherished  traditions. 
The  dead  languages  will  always  be  a  noble 
study  for  the  few  :  the  rising  tide  of  modern 
language  study  may  seem  at  first  a  mere 
turbid  flood ;  but  it  is  surely  destined  to 
fertilise  vast  tracts  which  have  hitherto 
remained  desert  even  in  the  midst  of  modern 
civilisation.  For,  first  and  foremost  among 
modern  languages,  I  think  of  that  which  Pro- 
fessor H.  Sidgwick  called  '  probably  the  com- 
pletest  instrument  of  thought  in  the  world.' 


If  the  English  nation  of  the  twentieth 
century  is  to  remain  worthy  of  its  past 
traditions,  schoolmasters  must,  first  and 
foremost,  make  sure  that  no  boy  leaves 
school  without  having  assimilated  what 
it  was  in  that  boy's  capacity  to  assimi- 
late of  English  language  and  literature. 
For,  in  doing  this,  we  should  also  feed 
our  pupils  on  what  is  best  in  English 
thought.  From  Gulliver  and  Itobinson 
Crusoe  in  the  lower  forms  to  Hamlet  and 
Sartor  Resartus  in  the  upper,  the  boys 
ought  to  be  familiarised  with  a  certain 
choice  of  English  classics — of  books  that 
would  interest  them,  that  would  stimulate 
thought,  and  would  supply  models  of 
literary  form.  Even  the  average  board- 
school  boy  would  then  know  something  of 
some  real  English  classics ;  many  of  which, 
like  Gulliver,  are  so  natural  and  amusing  that 
we  are  quite  startled,  in  later  life,  to  find 
that  they  are  also  models  of  literary  form. 
The  future  classical  scholar  and  the  future 
student  of  science  would  meet  and  compete 
on  this  common  ground  ;  and  would  under- 
stand each  other  better  their  whole  life 
long.  Most  important  of  all,  there  would 
be  a  real  common  bond  of  thought — and  of 
the  best  and  truest  thought — among  all 
Englishmen. 

After  the  mother-tongue,  as  the  Germans 
have  discovered,  and  we  are  beginning  to 
discover,  would  come  naturally  a  foreign 
modern  language — this  also  compulsory  for 
all  scholars  in  secondary,  and  for  a  large 
number  in  primary  schools.  This  would 
add  still  further  to  the  recognised  common 
stock  of  national  thought,  to  the  mutual 
understanding  between  scholars  destined 
later  on  to  specialise  in  very  different 
directions,  and  to  the  opportunities  of  open- 
ing boys'  minds  to  the  real  significance  of 
the  world  in  which  they  live.  Of  course,  it 
is  not  my  province  to  speak  here  of  the 
history,  geography,  and  physical  science 
which  the  boys  would  naturally  learn  at 
the  same  time.  I  am  simply  alluding  to 
reforms  which  have  long  been  in  the  minds 
of  the  more  thoughtful  educationists  in 
England,  and  will  no  doubt  be  carried  out 
when  the  blank  wall  of  classical  conser- 
vatism has  been  sufficiently  battered,  and 
when  even  the  most  stubborn  defenders 
shall  be  ashamed  of  the  assumption,  worthy 
of  the  most  irrational  days  of  medieval 
asceticism,  that  (as  Professor  H.  Sidgwick 
put  it  forty  years  ago)  '"training  the 
mind"  is  a  process  essentially  incompatible 
with  "imparting useful  knowledge." '  When 
once  the  finest  schoolmasters  in  the  country 


MODEEN  LANGUAGES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT 


45 


have  abandoned  their  untenable  position, 
when  they  devote  to  educational  methods 
really  worthy  of  the  present  century  that 
intellect  and  those  energies  which  are  now 
too  often  wasted  on  a  dead  system,  then  we 
may  well  hope  that  the  greater  freedom  of 
organisation  in  England,  and  the  greater 
freedom  of  national  life,  will  enable  us 
rapidly  to  evolve  a  system  which  will 
reflect  the  national  character  not  only  on 
the  playground,  but  in  the  classroom  also. 

But  that  time  comes  slowly ;  meanwhile 
what  is  to  be  done  ?  Our  scholars  on  the 
modern  side  are  still  inferior.  We,  their 
masters,  are  also  inferior  in  average  ability 
and  education — not  perhaps  inferior  in  pro- 
portion to  our  salaries  and  position,  but 
still  definitely  inferior  on  the  whole  to  the 
classical  masters.  Not  many  wise  men 
after  the  flesh,  not  many  mighty,  not  many 
noble,  are  called  to  be  Modern  Language 
masters  at  English  public  schools.  But  we 
have  a  conviction  which  supports  us,  and 
we  have  the  encouragement  of  constant  pro- 
gress. We  can  quote  against  what  seems 
to  us  false  conservatism  that  boast  of  the 
early  Christians  against  the  old  pagan 
culture  :  '  We  are  men  of  yesterday,  yet 
we  have  penetrated  into  all  your  strong- 
holds.' But  it  is  not  enough  for  us  to 
expose  the  faults  of  the  old :  we  must  do 
our  best  to  show  by  practice  that  the  new 
method  is  the  more  excellent  way.  We 
are  heavily  handicapped  in  the  classroom, 
but  that  is  no  reason  why  we  should  lose 
heart.  The  world  on  the  whole  is  a  just 
world :  the  English  world,  I  am  insular 
enough  to  believe,  is  juster  than  most ;  and 
we  constantly  find  fair  consideration  even 
from  those  most  pledged  by  habit  and 
position  to  opposing  tenets.  What  can  we 
do  then,  even  under  existing  circumstances, 
to  hasten  the  new  era  to  which  we  look 
forward  1 

In  the  first  place,  let  us  venture  to  do  our 
best  to  be  interesting.  The  Eton  master, 
from  whose  frank  criticisms  I  have  already 
quoted,  agrees  with  many  educational  re- 
formers in  attributing  the  modern  athletic 
craze  directly  to  the  uninteresting  character 
of  most  public  school  teaching.  '  The  boys,' 
he  says  again,  '  master  nothing,  and  are 
interested  in  nothing.'  Let  us  try  then, 
first  of  all,  to  remove  that  reproach,  at  least 
from  our  own  classrooms.  In  a  large 
number  of  cases  our  definitely  lower  posi- 
tion does  at  least  carry  with  it  the  privilege 
that  we  may  do  very  much  as  we  please ; 
and  there  is  among  the  best  of  our  head- 
masters a  generous  willingness  to  let  each 


man  dig  with  his  own  spade.  Our  real 
tyrant  is  the  examiner ;  yet  even  he  may 
often  be  outwitted.  In'  some  cases  we  are 
of  course  helpless;  as,  for  instance,  when 
the  Oxford  and  Cambridge  Examination 
Board  set  for  the  Higher  Certificate  French 
an  amount  of  work  which  the  boys  cannot 
possibly  do  properly  in  the  time  that  can 
be  spared  from  their  classical  work.  But 
in  most  cases  the  worst  tyranny  of  the 
examiner  lies  in  his  grammar  questions ; 
and  we  shall  find,  if  we  only  dare  to  give  it 
a  trial,  that  it  pays  to  neglect  silly  grammar 
questions  altogether.  To  the  credit  of 
human  nature  be  it  said,  it  is  very  diffi- 
cult indeed  to  teach  a  boy  the  exact  kind 
of  folly  which  certain  examiners  would  like 
to  find  in  him ;  and  as  the  greater  part  of 
even  the  worst  examination  papers  nowa- 
days consists  of  translation  and  composition, 
we  may  quite  safely  spend  our  time  on 
these  more  interesting  subjects.  Not  only 
this,  but  the  most  interesting  ways  of 
teaching  composition,  the  loosest  in  appear- 
ance, are  (so  far  as  my  experience  goes) 
the  most  paying  also  in  examination.  Viva 
voce  retranslation  of  the  passage  just  read 
in  French,  words  and  short  phrases  chosen 
from  the  same  source  to  be  repeated  viva 
wee  in  French,  many  little  methods  of  this 
kind,  which  can  be  varied  ad  infinilum,  and 
are  more  human  in  proportion  as  the  human 
voice  and  human  personality  come  into  play 
— these  teach  the  boys  more,  even  for  ex- 
amination purposes,  than  the  time-honoured 
classical  system  of  placing  the  boy  before 
a  dead  book,  and  making  him  write  from 
it  in  another,  with  constant  reference  to  a 
third  and  a  fourth  lying  by  his  side.  The 
examiner  may  perhaps  not  permit  us  to 
throw  off  this  system  altogether,  but  for 
our  own  sake  it  is  as  well  to  sit  as  free  of 
it  as  possible. 

In  English,  at  our  higher  secondary 
schools  at  any  rate,  the  problem  is  much 
more  simple.  If  we  are  granted  an  hour 
a  week  to  teach  English,  it  is  as  a  conces- 
sion to  popular  prejudice,  and  the  subject  is 
therefore  not  considered  important  enough 
to  be  worthy  of  examination,  so  that  we 
have  a  free  hand  altogether.  We  have  only 
therefore  to  choose  a  book  both  classical 
and  interesting — an  easy  task  in  an  age  in 
which  no  boy  of  his  own  accord  reads  one 
of  Scott's  novels — to  make  the  boys  read 
it  aloud  in  turn,  to  question  and  explain 
just  as  we  think  fit,  and  every  now  and 
then  to  make  the  boys  reproduce  in  their 
own  words  the  gist  of  what  they  have  read. 
In  this  way  we  can  not  only  keep  the 


46 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


boys  interested,  but  teach  them — what  it 
is  notorious  they  do  not  learn  at  present — 
to  write  sensibly  and  intelligibly  in  their 
own  language. 

This  system,  simple  as  it  is,  has  enough 
in  it  for  the  very  highest  work.  None  of 
his  classical  work  could  exercise  a  boy's 
mind  more  widely  or  more  intensely  than 
to  summarise  and  discuss  a  chapter  or  two 
of  Sartor  Resartus  or  The  Origin  of  Species ; 
no  work  could  give  the  teacher  a  better 
chance  of  impressing  his  own  personality 
on  his  class. 

Think  of  all  the  forces  at  the  command 
of  the  master  who  is  allowed  to  teach,  in 
his  own  way,  the  literature  he  was  born  to 
understand  best  of  all,  among  boys  who 
were  born  also  to  receive  it  more  naturally 
than  any  other.  Prince  Kropotkin,  in  his 
remarkable  autobiography,  records  that 
most  Russians,  if  asked  to  name  the  most 
inspiring  teacher  of  their  youth,  will  answer, 
'My  Professor  of  Russian  literature.' 

Three  educational  documents  have  ap- 
peared lately,  which  are  sometimes  spoken 
of  as  depressing,  but  which  to  me  seem  full 
of  hope  for  the  future.  Mr.  Benson  writes 
unsparingly,  though  regretfully  and  sym- 
pathetically, of  the  bankruptcy  of  the  high 
and  dry  classical  system ;  Mr.  Headlam,  of 
the  rottenness  of  our  inferior  secondary 
schools;  and  Canon  Lyttelton  asks  us  to 
doubt  whether  the  so-called  educational 
progress  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  pro- 
gress at  all.  He  even  seems  to  say,  in  the 
last  page  of  his  article,  that  we  have  done 
more  harm  by  teaching  the  proletariat  to 
read,  and  so  making  filthy  literature  acces- 
sible to  them,  than  we  can  mend  by  any- 
thing we  teach  them  at  school.  Now  the 
mere  fact  that  three  eminent  classical 
authorities  are  so  extremely  dissatisfied 
with  English  education  is  a  gain  to  us,  for 
the  old  edifice  of  classical  exclusiveness  and 
specialisation  is  so  rotten  now,  that  every 
fresh  blow  struck,  even  with  the  intention 
of  patching  it  up,  shakes  it  to  the  very 
foundations.  The  nation  is  more  and  more 
realising  how  fully  the  old  system,  and 
the  old  authorities,  are  responsible  for  the 
present  state  of  things  all  over  the  country. 
With  regard  to  the  schools  on  which  M'r. 
Headlam  reports,  the  examinations  for 
which  these  boys  work,  and  according  to 
their  success  in  which  the  teachers  have 
hitherto  been  judged,  are  examinations 
which  owe  their  distinctive  character  mainly 
to  classical  scholars  of  the  old  school.  The 
weakest  points  in  these  examinations,  as  it 
is  now  generally  admitted,  are  the  points 


in  which  they  slavishly  copy  classical  pre- 
cedent. The  lifeless  text-books,  of  which 
the  report  complains,  are  not  proportion- 
ately more  lifeless  than  any  accredited 
classical  text-books.  Even  the  meanest 
annotated  editions  of  English  works  used 
in  elementary  schools  are  plainly  modelled 
on  the  familiar  editions  of  Latin  and  Greek 
classics,  and  scarcely  supply  a  less  efficient 
key  to  the  real  spirit  of  the  text.  There 
is,  of  course,  a  peculiarly  sordid  element 
in  the  education  of  which  Mr.  Headlam 
speaks,  but  this  is  inevitable  whenever  the 
poor  and  struggling  copy  faithfully  the 
vices  of  their  betters.  What  have  the 
older  authorities  ever  done  till  now  to 
raise  these  second-  and  third-grade  schools 
from  the  mire  ?  Yet  even  until  quite 
recently  the  united  and  repeated  recom- 
mendations of  our  public  school  head- 
masters could  have  persuaded  almost  any 
'  reasonable  change  in  our  national  educa- 
tional policy,  and  would  have  earned  the 
abiding  gratitude  of  the  nation. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  elementary 
schools.  Directly  or  indirectly,  our  present 
system  derives  from  the  classical  authorities 
who,  until  recently,  were  omnipotent,  not 
only  in  the  teaching  profession,  but,  through 
their  pupils,  in  Parliament  and  in  the 
country ;  for  most  men  of  any  influence 
were  the  products  of  a  classical  education. 
And,  so  far  as  there  is  any  harm  in  our 
proletariat  having  at  last  learnt  to  read, 
the  harm  lies  only  in  the  words  'at  last.' 
They  should  have  learnt  to  read  half  a 
century  earlier  at  least.  Our  elementary 
school  system  is  still  fighting  with  the 
doubts  and  difficulties  that  always  beset  a 
reforming  movement  in  its  youth.  And  the 
worst  of  all  its  difficulties  have  been  the 
bad  old  traditions — too  much  book-work, 
too  much  grammar,  everywhere  formalities 
instead  of  life,  words  instead  of  realities. 
If  our  board-school  boys  have  borne  all  the 
labour  of  learning  and  reaped  but  little  of 
its  fruits,  they  have  fared  no  worse  in 
proportion  than  their  more  aristocratic 
brethren.  In  both  cases  the  useless  wear 
and  tear  of  nerves  has  begotten  a  craving 
for  artificial  excitements,  while  the  little 
the  boys  have  read  leaves  them  determined 
to  read  no  more — of  that  sort.  The  love 
of  betting  and  of  unhealthy  books,  with 
which  Canon  Lyttelton  charges  the  children 
of  the  poor,  is  simply  a  reflection  of  the 
rage  for  athletics  and  for  unhealthy  ex- 
citement among  the  children  of  the  rich. 
And  yet,  sad  as  it  may  seem  for  the 
moment,  the  present  state  of  things  is  a 


THE  TEACHING  OF  ELEMENTAEY  FRENCH  GRAMMAR 


47 


definite  advance  upon  the  old.  It  is,  at 
least,  no  longer  possible  for  impenetrably 
conservative  educationists  to  meet  every 
suggestion  of  reform  with  the  plea  that 
the  system  works  well  enough  in  practice. 
The  nation  is  at  last  beginning  to  wonder 
whether  the  general  anarchy,  so  long  pro- 
phesied by  those  who  feared  reform,  could 
possibly  be  so  bad  as  the  present  state  of 
things ;  and  whether  anything  but  good 
could  come  of  making  sure,  first  of  all,  that 
the  boys  learn  something  of  matters  which 
have  a  natural  interest  for  them  and  an 
obvious  use ;  and  that  then  only,  when  they 
know  something  of  their  own  tongue  and 
of  the  world  in  which  they  live,  they  should 
grapple  with  Latin  and  Greek. 

The  Modern  Language  master,  then,  must 
prepare  to  take  his  share  of  a  heavy  burden 
which  is  slowly  but  surely  slipping  from 
other  shoulders.  And  for  the  present — 


heaviest  burden  of  all ! — he  must  do  his 
best,  with  one  hand  tied,  to  show  that 
teaching  is  not  necessarily  bad  for  being 
interesting  and  useful,  and  for  limiting  the 
simple  minds  of  boyhood  to  simple  pro- 
blems. Thus  only,  by  some  measure  of 
success  in  practical  work,  can  we  ensure  the 
sympathy  of  the  best  among  our  adversaries, 
and  at  last  secure  what  is  even  more  valu- 
able, their  co-operation.  Already  many  of 
the  most  distinguished  classical  education- 
ists have  brought  us  help  and  encourage- 
ment. But  we  must  still  find  our  most 
real  encouragement  in  the  inward  convic- 
tion that  English  education  has  not  only  a 
great  past,  but  a  great  future ;  that  indeed 
the  very  ferment  and  trouble  of  these  pre- 
sent years  is  working  for  greater  things 
than  the  world  has  yet  seen. 

C.  C.  COULTON. 


THE  TEACHING  OF  ELEMENTARY  FRENCH  GRAMMAR.1 


FOR  some  time  one  of  the  chief  objections 
urged  against  the  New  Method  was  that  it 
neglected  the  teaching  of  grammar.  I 
think,  whatever  grounds  there  may  have 
been  for  such  an  objection  at  first,  that  this 
can  no  longer  be  seriously  urged  against 
us ;  in  fact,  I  maintain  that  we  teach 
grammar  more  scientifically,  in  a  far  more 
stimulating  way,  and  with  better  results 
than  was  the  case  under  the  old  re'gime. 

First  and  foremost,  I  would  urge  that 
French  grammar  should  be  taught  in 
French.  In  no  part  of  my  teaching  do  I 
absolutely  insist  on  the  exclusion  of  the 
mother-tongue,  and  this  applies  equally, 
but  not  more,  to  the  case  of  grammar.  If 
a  difficulty  presents  itself  which  cannot  be 
readily  explained  in  the  ordinary  way,  both 
in  order  to  save  time  and  to  avoid  any 
doubt  arising  in  the  pupil's  mind,  I  explain 
the  difficulty  in  English  and  then  return  to 
the  French  again.  Under  these  circum- 
stances it  seems  to  me  that  the  objection, 
so  often  urged,  that  the  pupils  fail  to  under- 
stand what  is  being  taught  them,  largely 
disappears.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  find 
such  difficulties  arise  comparatively  seldom, 
[f  they  are  of  frequent  occurrence,  it  shows 
that  the  master  is  going  too  fast,  that  he  is 
trying  to  teach  abstruse  grammatical  points 
before  his  pupils  have  a  proper  hold  of  the 
simple  everyday  language.  If  the  pupil 


cannot,  as  a  rule,  understand  the  simple 
language  required  for  the  explanation  of 
difficulties,  he  is  not  fit  to  be  confronted 
with  these  difficulties.  He  must  be  gradu- 
ally led  up  to  them.  This  affords  a  most 
useful  check  on  us  all,  a  drag  on  the  wheel 
of  the  too  zealous  modern  language  teacher, 
for  it  is  an  almost  universal  fault  of  his  to 
hurry  on  too  fast  and  to  attempt  to  build 
before  the  foundations  are  safe.  I  am  sure 
that  time  is  saved  in  the  long-run,  with  the 
average  boy,  by  spending  what  may  seem 
to  be  a  great  deal  too  much  time  on  making 
sure  that  the  foundations  are  sound. 

I  think,  then,  that  difficulties  which  could 
not  be  clearly  explained  in  French  would  not 
very  often  occur  with  a  careful  teacher,  and 
that  when  they  do  occur,  as  they  are  sure 
to  do  from  time  to  time,  a  few  words  of 
English  will  clear  them  up  at  once.  All  will 
admit  that  the  use  of  French  on  every 
possible  occasion  is  of  immense  value  in 
helping  to  secure  confidence  and  fluency, 
independently  of  what  may  be  incidentally 
learnt ;  the  only  doubt  that  ever  existed,  as 
far  as  I  know,  was  whether  these  objects 
were  not  attained  at  too  great  a  sacrifice  in 
another  direction,  viz.  in  clearness  and 
accuracy  of  teaching.  I  can  only  add  that, 

1  A  paper  read  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the 
Modern  Language  Association  on  the  22nd  Decem- 
ber 1903. 


48 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


with  the  precautions  I  have  mentioned,  I 
do  not  think  that  any  serious  sacrifice  is 
occasioned,  and  that  the  gain,  both  direct 
and  indirect,  is  greater  than  many  of  those 
imagine  who  have  not  yet  given  this  method 
a  fair  trial. 

The  psychological  foundation  of  the  prac- 
tical study  of  languages  is  the  law  of 
association ;  the  whole  process  of  learning 
a  language  is  one  of  forming  associations. 
The  function  of  grammar  is  to  sum  up  the 
associations  we  have  formed,  to  classify 
them  and  arrange  them  in  the  clearest 
possible  way. 

We  have  then  to  form  our  associations 
first ;  that  is  to  say,  that  many  examples  of 
any  given  rule  must  have  been  met  with 
before  the  rule  is  presented  to  the  pupil. 
As  first  associations  are  always  the 
strongest,  because  they  are  least  disturbed 
by  conflicting  associations,  and  because 
they  have  the  longest  time  to  establish 
themselves,  therefore  they  must  be  carefully 
chosen.  Examples  of  rules  must  precede 
exceptions  to  those  rules,  or  the  exceptions 
will  be  as  strongly  or  more  strongly 
impressed  than  the  examples.  I  have  met 
with  many  cases  of  this.  Perhaps  one  of 
the  most  common  is  the  plural  of  substan- 
tives in  on.  There  are  not  many  very 
common  substantives  in  ou  which  are 
regular,  and  words  like  genou,  hibou,  chou, 
crop  up  in  a  most  awkward  way  at  a  very 
early  stage.  I  have  time  after  time  found 
boys  who  think  that  all  nouns  in  ou  take  x 
in  the  plural,  and  that  words  like  clou  and 
trou  are  exceptions.  Teaching  which  pro- 
duces such  confusion  as  this  shows  a  viola- 
tion of  our  principle  of  association.  And 
how  often  this  is  the  case !  Boys  know 
irregular  verb  forms  before  the  regular — 
irregular  plurals  —  irregular  f eminines — 
everything  irregular.  After  a  course  of 
this  kind  of  teaching,  a  boy  no  sooner  sees 
a  noun  in  ou  than  he  hastens  to  add  an  x  to 
it,  rejoicing  in  his  knowledge  of  an  imaginary 
irregularity,  or  a  noun  in  ail,  than  he  insists 
on  changing  the  ail  into  aux.  I  would 
sooner  see  a  whole  army  ofpou's  with  s's  on 
their  tails  than  a  single  clou  with  an  x 
hanging  on  to  it. 

There  is  a  further  evil  in  this  promi- 
nence being  given  to  exceptions.  It  should 
be  our  duty,  as  far  as  possible,  to  initiate 
the  young  mind  into  a  belief,  and  not 
a  disbelief,  in  law  and  order.  The  teaching 
of  exceptions  is  a  real  evil,  and  only  borne 
for  the  sake  of  the  greatly  preponderating 
benefits,  but  when  carried  to  excess,  as  it 
so  often  is,  it  becomes  intolerable. 


It  is  evident  from  what  I  have  said,  that 
there  is  a  period  in  the  learning  of  a 
language  which  precedes  the  study  of 
grammar.  This,  I  believe,  is  what  originally 
gave  rise  to  the  idea  that  reform  teachers 
neglected  the  teaching  of  grammar.  In 
this  pre-grammatical  stage  the  pupils  are 
forming  their  first  and  therefore  their 
strongest  and  most  durable  associations. 
They  are  learning  the  commonest  and 
most  necessary  words,  phrases,  idioms 
and  constructions,  carefully  avoiding  all 
unnecessary  irregularities. 

This  period  is  the  phonetic  period,  i.e. 
the  pupil  is  provided  only  with  phonetic 
texts.  Directly  he  begins  an  ordinary 
text,  almost  the  first  lesson,  he  will  begin 
what  we  call  grammar.  By  degrees  his 
associations  will  be  summed  up,  classified, 
and,  for  the  sake  of  clearness  and  simplicity, 
stated  in  the  form  of  rules. 

I  will  now  take  a  few  elementary 
grammatical  points  and  try  and  show  how 
the  law  of  association  should  be  applied. 

Let  us  take  the  question  of  gender. 
French  genders  are  exceedingly  difficult, 
and  for  some  time  the  gender  of  each  word 
must  be  learnt  separately,  and  for  a  much 
longer  time  only  a  few  simple  rules  can  be 
given,  which  admit  of  very  few  exceptions. 

It  would  be  quite  wrong  to  teach  a  boy 
that  the  French  for  house  is  maison,  and 
that  maison  is  feminine  and  therefore  you 
must  say  la  maison.  There  is  no  natural 
association  between  the  words  maison  and 
feminine,  or  the  letters  s.f.  placed  after  it  in 
the  dictionary.  The  pupil  should  be  taught 
from  the  first  to  say  la  maison,  and  that 
because  you  say  la  maison  you  must  also  say 
ma  maison  or  ma  Idle  maison.  There  is 
a  natural  association  between  the  la  and 
maison  which  will  be  strengthened  every 
time  the  word  is  met  with, 

If  the  pupil  forgets  the  gender  of  a  word, 
it  means  that  he  is  not  sure  whether  he 
should  place  le  or  la,  man  or  ma,  lean  or 
belle  before  it,  and  not  that  he  cannot  re- 
collect whether  he  saw  the  letters  s.m.  or 
s.f.  after  it  in  the  dictionary.  If  you  are 
asked  in  class  the  gender  of  the  word 
plume,  do  not  say  feminine,  but  la  plume. 
You  will  thus  be  establishing  the 
simplest  and  most  natural  association.  In 
order  to  help  in  strengthening  these  associa- 
tions, never  let  a  boy  say  or  write  a  substan- 
tive without  an  article. 

By  the  time  a  certain  number  of  direct 
associations,  such  as  that  between  la  and 
maison  have  been  found,  the  pupil  will 
probably  come  across  some  contradictory 


THE  TEACHING-  OF  ELEMENTARY  FRENCH  GRAMMAR 


49 


association,  such  as  mon  Apie,  for  example. 
Here  the  grammar  comes  in,  and  in  order  to 
save  much  labour  in  collecting  other  cases, 
you  simply  inform  the  pupil  of  the  rule. 
The  first  association,  however,  being  the 
stronger,  it  will  require  the  word  tpfa,  or 
some  other  such  word,  to  recall  this  con- 
tradictory association. 

At  a  later  stage  certain  rules  for  the 
gender  of  nouns  can  be  given.  Care  should 
be  taken  in  the  choice  of  these  rules.  The 
usefulness  of  a  rule  depends  on  three  things  : 

(1)  Its  extent — that  is,    the   number  of 
examples  included  under  it ; 

(2)  Its  efficiency — that  is,   the    number 
of  exceptions  it  has  to  admit,  the  rule  that 
has  the  fewest  exceptions  being  the  most 
efficient ;  and 

(3)  Its  definiteness,  clearness,   and   sim- 
plicity— that  is,  the  ease  with  which  it  is 
learnt  and  applied 

Nos.  1  and  2  balance  one  another  to  some 
extent.  Thus  you  may  have  a  rule  with  no 
exceptions,  but  which  only  applies  to  a  few 
words,  as,  for  example  :  '  The  names  of  the 
seasons,  months,  and  days  of  the  week  are 
masculine,'  and,  on  the  other  hand,  you  may 
have  a  rule  which  covers  a  great  many 
words,  but  which  has  several  exceptions,  as, 
for  example  :  '  Nouns  in  -age  are  masculine,' 
which  covers  over  two  hundred  and  fifty 
words,  and  to  which  there  are  six  excep- 
tions. 

Both  of  these  rules  are  worth  learning. 
We  have  no  memoria  technica  in  French  to 
correspond  to  the 

Common  are  sacerdos,  dux, 
Vates,  parens  et  conjux, 

of  the  Latin  grammar,  but  French  genders 
have  none  the  less  to  be  learnt.  A  French 
professor  who  has  had  considerable  experi- 
ence with  English  pupils  once  told  me  that 
few  mistakes  produced  such  an  unpleasant 
effect  on  a  French  ear  as  a  false  gender,  and 
that  the  English  were  much  worse  offenders 
than  the  Germans  in  this  respect.  I  think 
that  we  must,  after  a  certain  stage  has  been 
reached,  make  considerable  use  of  such 
rules  as  are  available.  For  the  ordinary 
pupil,  rules  which  depend  on  a  knowledge  of 
Latin  are  quite  useless ;  they  could  only  be 
learnt  with  advantage  in  the  higher  forms 
of  the  classical  side  of  a  big  public  school. 
For  the  vast  majority  of  boys  we  must 
depend  solely  on  their  knowledge  of  French. 
I  would  first  give  the  most  important  of 
what  are  called  'General  Rules,'  such  as 
those  which  apply  to  the  names  of  the 
seasons,  months,  and  days ;  the  names  of 
VOL.  VII. 


trees  and  shrubs,  of  metals  and  minerals, 
winds,  cardinal  points,  etc.,  with  any  excep- 
tions that  may  be  of  sufficient  importance. 
But  these  rules,  though  simple,  easily  learnt, 
and  admitting  of  few  exceptions,  do  not 
include  a  very  large  number  of  words.  I 
would  therefore  teach  separately,  and  later 
on,  some  of  the  rules  for  determining  the 
gender  by  the  termination.  But  knowing 
the  rules  is  no  use  unless  they  can  be 
applied.  A  very  large  number  of  exercises 
should  be  prepared  for  rapid  drill.  I  am 
afraid  that  here  we  must  descend  to  simple 
lists  of  nouns  before  which  the  article  has 
to  be  placed,  to  be  constantly  run  through 
at  intervals  until  the  article  comes  quite 
naturally.  This  is  most  uninteresting  both 
for  teacher  and  taught,  but  I  know  of  no 
better  way  of  producing  the  desired  result, 
accuracy  of  gender  in  at  any  rate  the  more 
ordinary  words.  But,  as  I  said  before,  in  a 
great  number  of  cases,  and  always  in  the 
initial  stages,  the  gender  must  be  learnt 
separately  with  each  new  word  by  learning 
the  article  with  it. 

The  plural  of  nouns  and  adjectives  is  not 
very  hard  to  teach.  Remember  the  first 
associations  must  he  with  regular  plurals. 
The  fact  that  this  corresponds  to  the 
English  form  renders  it  exceptionally  easy, 
and  I  should  not  hesitate  to  introduce 
words  in  s,  x,  and  z,  in  al,  au,  and  eu,  at  a 
very  early  stage — but  do  not  forget  regular 
nouns  in  ou  and  in  ail.  When  a  sufficient 
number  of  words  have  been  met  with,  give 
the  simple  rules  or  get  the  pupils  to  deduce 
them,  and  then  give  exercises  to  strengthen 
their  associations.  There  are  many  kinds 
of  exercises  that  might  be  given,  and  one  that 
should  not  be  given,  and  yet,  strangely 
enough,  that  one  kind  is  the  commonest.  I 
mean  a  string  of  words  with  not  even  an 
article  to  put  in  the  plural.  I  would  begin 
with  expressions  like  le  chien  fidUe,  le  beau 
cheval,  etc.,  to  be  put  in  the  plural,  and  similar 
expressions  in  the  plural  to  be  put  into  the 
singular.  Then  simple  sentences,  as  le  chien 
estfidUe,  to  be  treated  in  the  same  way. 

For  revision  later  on,  when  the  pupils 
have  learnt  other  rules,  make  your  sentences 
larger,  and  introduce  other  points,  as,  for 
example  in  the  sentence  : 

Le  cheval  eat  un  bel  animal. 

But  don't  overcharge  them,  or  you  will  get 
ridiculous  and  impossible  sentences.  An- 
other excellent  way  for  occasional  revision 
is  a  suitable  story  or  extract  to  be  put  in 
the  plural. 

The  formation  of  the  feminine  of  nouns 


50 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


and  adjectives  is  rather  more  difficult,  as 
there  are  so  many  exceptions  and  irregular- 
ities among  the  commonest  words.  One 
can  deduce  a  few  rules  after  a  short  time, 
but  many  feminines  will  have  to  be  treated 
as  isolated  cases,  and  learnt  as  such,  for  a 
considerable  period.  More  exercises  and  a 
greater  variety  must  be  given  than  for  the 
plurals  of  nouns  and  adjectives. 

The  case  of  the  nouns  which  have  two 
genders  presents  special  difficulties.  It 
would  be  a  violation  of  the  principles  of 
association  to  put  before  a  beginner  such 
a  contrast  as  that  between  le  page  and  la 
page.  These  words  ought  at  first  to  be 
kept  entirely  apart  and  mastered  separately, 
each  in  its  natural  context.  But  when 
they  have  been  learnt  in  this  way,  it  is 
not  only  allowable  but  advisable  to  confront 
them,  and  call  the  learner's  attention  to  the 
difference  of  gender.  Otherwise  he  might 
be  tempted  to  transfer  the  gender  of  the 
word  he  was  more  familiar  with  to  the  less 
familiar  one. 

Perhaps  a  point  which  gives  as  much 
trouble  as  any  is  the  use  of  the  partitive 
article. 

I  would  start  off  with  a  large  number  of 
sentences  with  the  indefinite  article,  to  be 
in  the  plural : 

J'ai  un  livre, 

Tu  as  une  plume,  etc. 

Then  add  adjectives  which  follow  the  nouns, 
giving  the  sentences  in  the  singular,  to  be 
put  in  the  plural : 

J'ai  un  livre  interessant, 
Tu  as  une  plume  rouge,  etc. 

Now  give  the  same  sentences  with  adjectives 
which  precede  the  nouns : 

J'ai  un  beau  livre, 

Tu  as  une  belle  plume,  etc. 

The  pupils  will  not  be  long  in  detecting 
why  they  have  to  use  des  in  the  first  two 
cases  and  de  in  the  third. 

Now  return  to  the  simple  sentence,  but 
with  the  partitive  article  this  time : 

J'ai  du  beurre, 

Tu  as  de  la  creme,  etc. 

Then  introduce  adjectives  following  the 
nouns,  leaving  a  blank  before  the  nouns,  to 
be  filled  in  by  the  pupils.  The  sentences 
would  then  be : 

J'ai beurre  frais, 

Tu  as creme  fraiche,  etc. 

And  finally  the  same  sentences  with  adjec- 
tives which  precede  the  nouns,  leaving  the 
space  as  before : 

J'ai excellent  beurre, 

Tu  as bonne  creme. 


In  all  these  cases,  the  examples  must  be 
very  numerous,  partly  taken  from  the 
reading-book,  and  largely  supplemented  by 
sentences  including  words  not  met  with  in 
the  reading-book,  specially  chosen  with  the 
object  of  keeping  up,  and  even  enlarging, 
their  general  vocabulary. 

The  sentences  with  the  partitive  article  : 

J'ai  du  beurre, 

Tu  as  de  la  creme,  etc., 

can  now  be  put  in  the  negative : 
Je  n'ai  pas  de  beurre,  etc. 

and  the  rule  deduced. 

Lastly,  a  number  of  sentences  containing 
expressions  of  quantity  should  be  given,  a 
space  being  left  before  the  noun  for  the 
insertion  of  the  preposition  de.  I  would 
not  give  such  words  as  la  plupart,  plusieurs, 
and  bien  in  this  exercise.  Let  them  be 
learnt  separately,  at  any  rate  at  first. 

When  possible,  exercises  should  be  done 
orally  before  being  written  out.  For  re- 
vision with  older  boys,  the  exercises  can  be 
much  more  complicated.  The  idea  should 
be  always  to  concentrate  the  attention  at 
first  on  one  point  only  in  the  sentence,  then 
gradually  introduce  other  matter  which 
more  or  less  veils  the  point  in  question ; 
the  final  test  being  to  pretend  to  emphasise 
some  other  part  of  the  sentence,  and  then 
introduce  the  point  you  have  recently  been 
teaching.  To  take  an  example,  suppose  we 
have  been  teaching  the  use  of  the  preposi- 
tion de  instead  of  the  partitive  article  after 
a  negative.  The  pupils  have  without  diffi- 
culty been  able  to  deal  with  the  sentences 
you  have  given  them,  i.e.  they  have  mas- 
tered the  practical  application  of  the  rule 
in  sentences  presented  to  them  as  illustra- 
tions of  the  rule.  Now  start  them  on  the 
conjugation  of  a  verb,  say  avoir  soif,  first 
affirmatively,  then  negatively.  Then  take 
another  verb,  avoir  du  pain,  for  example, 
first  affirmatively,  then  negatively.  That  is 
a  simple  case,  but  it  serves  to  illustrate  my 
meaning.  The  pupils  are  thinking  about 
the  conjugation  of  the  verb  and  the  place 
of  the  negative,  and  not  how  the  negative 
will  affect  the  partitive  article.  If  they 
survive  such  a  test,  you  may  safely  go  on 
to  something  else. 

The  teaching  of  verb  forms  is  apt  to 
become  very  tedious  both  for  the  teacher 
and  the  taught.  I  do  not  know  of  any 
satisfactory  way  of  avoiding  the  conjuga- 
tion of  a  verb,  tense  by  tense ;  but  in  this, 
perhaps  more  than  in  any  other  part  of 
grammar,  is  it  necessary  to  stimulate  the 
pupil  and  arouse  his  interest.  Verbs  can 


THE  TEACHING  OF  ELEMENTARY  FRENCH  GRAMMAR 


51 


always  be  conjugated  in  short  sentences 
for  viva  voce  work,  and  if  only  the  master 
will  take  the  trouble,  he  can  make  up 
interesting  sentences,  and  the  pupils  are 
often  quite  keen  on  knowing  what  they 
are  going  to  conjugate  next. 

Many  of  these  sentences  are  taken  from 
the  reading-book ;  but  here  again,  even  if 
it  were  possible,  it  would  not  be  advisable 
to  confine  oneself  to  this  book,  as  we  would 
thus  lose  a  valuable  opportunity  of  enlarg- 
ing the  vocabulary  in  any  required 
direction. 

The  simpler  the  sentence  the  better.  I 
begin,  for  example,  with  such  verbs  as 

avoir  f aim,         avoir  soif,  etc.,  and 
ttre  Je  premier,  etre  le  dernier,  etc., 

and  conjugate  them  interrogatively,  nega- 
tively, and  interrogatively-negatively.  I 
thus  get  constant  variety.  Small  boys 
always  brighten  up  when  they  begin 

hier  j'ttais  mf chant, 

and  they  are  most  amused  at  the  idea  that 
demain  Us  seront  sages. 

They  seem  also  to  have  a  decided  prefer- 
ence Cor  such  exercises  as :  Gonjuguez  au 

pass6  indefini,  affirmativement avoir  trap 

de  travail,  and  seem  to  take  quite  a  personal 
interest  in  the  successful  conjugation  of 
demain  faurai  mains  de  travail. 

I  also  have  posted  about  my  classroom 
bills  and  notices  of  all  kinds.  I  sometimes 
make  use  of  these  when  I  want  a  little 
further  variety. 

In  conjugating  the  tenses  of  the  subjunc- 
tive mood  the  sentence  is  invaluable  : 
always  try  and  have  a  complete  sentence 
with  the  conjunction  or  verb  which  requires 
the  subjunctive,  and  never  orally  go  through 
the  senseless  patter  que  je  fasse,  que  tuf asses, 
etc.  I  say  orally,  because  when  writing 
out  verbs  I  find  that  it  takes  too  long  if 
one  insists  on  the  complete  sentence  being 
always  written.  I  generally  make  my  boys 
do  it  for  the  first  person  only,  putting  dots 
under  the  rest  of  the  sentence,  unless  any 
change  occurs.  In  this  way  you  will  find, 
when  you  begin  to  teach  the  syntax  of  the 
subjunctive,  that  your  pupils  have  already 


unconsciously  learnt  a  good  deal  of  it.  For 
example,  you  select  four  suitable  verbs  and 
give  your  question  in  the  form :  Conjuguez 
au  mode  subjonciif  en  faisant  prMder  de  :  il 
faut  que;  on  ddsirerait  que  ;  il  a  fallu  que;  il 

aurait  fallu  que and   then  your  four 

verbs.  In  this  way  they  will  have  learnt 
something  about  the  sequence  of  tenses, 
and  not  a  book  knowledge  that  they  may 
not  be  able  to  apply  when  they  require  it, 
but  a  practical  knowledge  formed  by  the 
natural  association  of  the  two  moods  and 
tenses  in  such  sentences  as  they  are  likely 
to  meet  with. 

Another  good  way  of  avoiding  the 
mechanical  writing  of  a  tense  is  to  have 
the  first  person  written,  say  interrogatively, 
the  second  negatively,  and  the  third  inter- 
rogatively-negatively: Such  work  is  cer- 
tainly more  difficult  to  correct,  but  it  is 
undoubtedly  far  better  for  the  pupil. 

Conjugating  a  verb  in  chorus  is  an  excel- 
lent thing,  but  it  must  be  well  done  to  be 
of  real  value.  It  will -take  a  few  lessons  to 
get  a  class  to  do  it  properly  together  and 
with  the  right  pitch  of  voice.  A  mistake 
can  then  be  detected  with  great  ease,  even 
a  slight  mistake  of  pronunciation. 

Such  an  exercise  as  this  is  also  very 
useful  for  filling  in  a  minute  or  two  at  the 
end  of  a  lesson.  It  is  remarkable  what  can 
be  done  in  this  way  by  an  energetic  teacher. 
I  have  sometimes  timed  my  classes — they 
can  conjugate  three  to  four  tenses  a  minute, 
unless  they  have  to  be  corrected  a  great 
deal.  The  numerals,  cardinal  and  ordinal, 
can  be  quickly  learnt  in  this  way  in  odd 
moments.  A  class  can  easily  count  in 
chorus  from  one  to  fifty  in  one  minute. 

I  have  taken  these  few  points  to  show 
the  general  lines  I  would  adopt  in  teach- 
ing grammar.  There  is  a  wide  gap  which 
separates  theory  from  practice.  I  con- 
stantly find  myself  teaching  in  a  way  of 
which  I  theoretically  disapprove,  but  which 
I  yet  believe  to  be  practically  the  best. 
For  the  same  reason  I  am  afraid  that  there 
are  inconsistencies  in  this  paper,  which  I 
can  only  justify  by  saying  that  I  have  found 
them  to  answer  in  the  classroom. 

W.  MANSFIELD  POOLE. 


52 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


SOME  DANGERS  AND  DIFFICULTIES  CONNECTED  WITH  THE  DIRECT 

METHOD.1 


THE  following  paper  is  largely  based  on 
personal  observation  obtained  in  the  course 
of  inspecting  schools.  It  has  frequently 
struck  me  in  the  course  of  these  inspections 
that  what  we  chiefly  want  at  the  present 
time  is  not  a  rehash  of  more  or  less 
accepted  theories  by  learned  specialists,  but 
the  interchange  of  views  between  those  who 
are  actually  engaged  in  teaching  or  in 
superintending  the  teaching  of  modern 
languages— those  to  whom,  in  fact,  the 
problems  are  most  real  and  pressing. 
There  must  be  a  considerable  number  of 
persons  here  to-day  who,  as  a  rule,  do  not 
speak  so  often  as  they  ought  at  these  meet- 
ings ;  yet  their  evidence,  in  as  far  as  they 
can  tell  us  about  the  actual  working  of  their 
classes,  about  their  problems,  and  how  they 
get  round  them  or  solve  them,  seems  to  me 
the  most  valuable  information  we  can 
procure,  and  it  is  in  view  of  eliciting  the 
personal  experience  of  the  practical  teacher 
that  I  have  been  tempted  to  offer  my  paper 
to  the  Association. 

THE  DIRECT  METHOD  WHEN  POSSIBLE. 

Let  me  say  at  the  outset,  to  prevent 
any  lurking  doubt  about  my  orthodoxy,  that 
I  am  a  thorough  believer  in  the  direct 
method  in  the  broad  sense  of  the  word,  or 
the  proper  method  for  the  beginner  to  start 
any  foreign  language,  provided  the  teacher 
is  fairly  capable;  otherwise  I  am  very 
doubtful  whether  the  older  methods  are  not 
the  better,  for  the  simple  reason  that  there 
is  less  to  unlearn  later  on  in  the  shape  of 
acquired  mispronunciation  or  pidgin-French. 
Again,  in  the  higher  classes  I  am  in  favour 
of  translation  into  the  mother-tongue,  with 
a  strong  dose  of  literary  culture,  so  woefully 
lacking  in  English  education,  and  here, 
however  much  I  may  displease  those  fervent 
believers  in  the  direct  method  who  would 
maintain  the  exclusion  of  the  mother-tongue 
to  the  bitter  end,  I  am  glad  to  say  I  have 
behind  me  the  latest  conclusions  to  which 
the  reformers  in  France  have  come.  Though 
the  new  programmes  apparently  favour  a 
rigid  adherence  to  the  direct  method 
throughout  the  school  course,  I  am  in- 
formed, on  the  highest  authority,  that  trans- 
lation, and  even  composition,  is  permitted 
in  the  upper  forms. 


A  PLEA  FOR  ELASTICITY  IN  THE  METHOD. 

The  truth  is,  the  various  Pauls,  Cephases, 
and  Apollos  of  the  new  method  have  fortun- 
ately not  as  yet  been  able  to  formulate  a 
stereotype  creed,  however  strait  may  be 
the  tenets  that  each  of  them  attempts 
severally  to  profess.  To  be  a  follower  of 
the  new  method  in  the  broad  sense  of  the 
word  does  not  mean  one  is  necessarily  a 
blind  believer  in  this  or  that  propagandist. 
The  very  absence  of  any  rigidly  codified 
dogma,  however  vehemently  the  various 
leaders  of  the  movement  may  cry  '  Lo  here,' 
or  '  Lo  there ! '  is  at  the  present  stage  of 
development  rather  a  gain  than  a  loss. 
While  the  method  in  its  actual  state  pro- 
vides us  with  a  certain  number  of  principles 
and  teaching  devices  that  are  already  re- 
cognised as  extremely  valuable,  it  still  leaves 
to  the  individual  teacher  to  decide  the 
degree  and  proportions  to  which  he  may 
apply  them,  while  it  further  permits  him 
scope  and  freedom  to  incorporate  with  them 
something  of  his  own,  which  is  often  tho 
most  precious,  because  it  is  the  most  per- 
sonal, part  of  his  teaching.  In  fact,  although 
we  owe  a  good  deal  to  the  reformers,  it  is 
clear  there  is  in  the  teaching  of  modern 
languages  plenty  left  to  think  out,  and, 
what  is  still  more  important,  to  put  to  the 
test  of  experience.  To  state  one's  opinion 
in  a  nutshell,  one  might  say  that  there  is 
strictly  no  one  new  method,  but  many 
varieties. 

EXTERNAL  DIFFICULTIES. 

To  discuss  then  the  difficulties  in  con- 
nection with  the  direct  method  in  general 
would  be  too  wide  a  subject ;  the  particular 
variety,  therefore,  with  which  I  propose 
more  especially  to  deal  is  that  in  which,  at 
least  in  the  lower  classes,  a  most  laudable 
effort  is  made  to  conduct  the  entire  lesson 
in  the  foreign  language,  and  exclude  the 
mother-tongue  altogether  from  the  class- 
room. All  teachers  who  are  engaged  in  this 
task  seem  to  me  to  be  carrying  on  one  of 
the  most  interesting,  and  certainly  the  most 
arduous  of  experiments  in  modern  lan- 
guages. I  think  we  all  sympathise  with 

1  A  paper  read  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the 
Modern  Language  Association  on  the  23rd  Decem- 
ber 1903. 


DANGERS  AND  DIFFICULTIES  CONNECTED  WITH  DIRECT  METHOD      53 


them,  even  if  in  some  cases  we  have  our 
doubts  about  some  of  their  over-conscien- 
tious efforts,  because  we  are  not  certain 
that  they  have  chosen  the  more  practical 
way.  One  says  '  more  practical '  because  the 
teacher  on  rigorously  direct  lines  must,  in 
nearly  all  schools,  be  carrying  on  a  gallant 
struggle  against  unfair  odds,  which  would 
not  exist  were  modern-language  teaching 
given  the  fair  field  and  no  favour  that  it 
really  deserves.  At  present,  in  the  vast 
majority  of  schools  the  work  is  made  more 
difficult  by  a  large  number  of  extraneous 
reasons.  One  of  the  most  serious  is  the 
different  ages  at  which  the  pupils  enter  the 
schools.  Time  after  time  I  have  inspected 
schools  in  the  different  forms  of  which  there 
has  been  alongside  of  pupils  studying  the 
subject  for  two,  three,  or  even  four  years, 
a  large  contingent  of  newcomers  who  have 
never  seen  French  or  German  before.  Un- 
less the  system  of  sets  has  been  adopted,  there 
is  no  means  of  bringing  these  stragglers 
into  line,  except  that  of  extra  classes  on  half- 
holidays  or  out  of  school,  in  which  they 
may  learn  the  goose-steps  of  the  language. 
Again,  in  the  greater  number  of  schools,  as 
at  present  organised,  if  there  is  a  specialist 
on  the  staff,  he  cannot  possibly  teach  all 
the  classes,  and  so  there  are  necessarily  a 
certain  number  of  derelict  classes  which 
are  taken  by  the  form" masters  or  mistresses. 
The  only  choice  left  for  the  specialist  is  to 
decide  which  are  the  classes  he  will  abandon 
to  the  unskilled  teacher,  and  he  generally 
wisely  resolves  to  give  up  those  which  are 
near  the  middle  of  the  school,  because,  while 
the  highest  classes  naturally  need  the  best 
teaching,  it  is  all-important  that  the  begin- 
ners should  be  properly  taught  at  the  out- 
set, even  if  they  must  be  allowed  to  run 
wild  for  a  season.  When  they  are  taken 
in  hand  again,  there  is  a  sound  grounding 
at  bottom,  so  that  when  the  work  of  the 
unskilled  teacher  has  been  reconstructed  or 
removed,  the  specialist  will  be  able  to  put 
on  the  necessary  top-story.  Thirdly,  in 
many  of  our  schools  the  classes  are  far 
too  large ;  twenty  to  twenty-four  should  be 
the  maximum,  yet  classes  of  thirty  are  not 
uncommon,  nor  classes  of  forty  unknown, 
And,  finally,  not  only  are  the  classes  too 
numerous  and  the  pupils  ill-classified  from 
a  modern-language  point  of  view,  but  also, 
and  this  is  perhaps  the  most  important, 
many  have  never  had  a  proper  education  in 
their  own  mother-tongue,  owing  to  our 
preposterous  methods  of  teaching  English. 

So  much  then  for  the  various  external 
drawbacks  by  which  all  teaching  of  foreign 


languages  on  modern  lines  is  hampered. 
Let  us  now  come  to  the  dangers  and  diffi- 
culties which  seem  more  particularly  to 
affect  the  new  methodist  who  follows  the 
direct  method  in  its  strictest  sense. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  ATTENTION. 

The  great  problem  for  such  a  teacher  is 
to  maintain  attention.  He  is  the  principal, 
if  not  the  sole,  channel  of  communication. 
The  class  must,  therefore,  when  not  speak- 
ing themselves,  be  literally  hanging  on  his 
lips.  Hence  the  besetting  sin  observable, 
more  especially  in  the  case  of  foreign-born 
teachers,  to  talk  too  much.  They  appear 
to  act  on  the  principle  of  '  throw  plenty  of 
mud,  and  some  of  it  will  stick ' ;  but  how 
much  will  stick,  and  how  it  will  stick,  do 
not  appear  to  concern  them  much.  This  bad 
habit  is  nearly  always  accompanied  with 
great  carelessness  about  pronunciation  or 
grammatical  accuracy  on  the  part  of  the 
pupil :  almost  anything  is  accepted  by  way 
of  answer.  The  teacher  apparently  thinks 
enough  is  done  in  the  way  of  correcting 
the  pupils'  mistakes  if  he  repeats  a  revised 
version  of  what  they  ought  to  have  said. 
But  such  work  is  about  as  valuable  as  that 
of  the  drawing-master  in  the  fashionable 
finishing  school  for  young  ladies,  who  touches 
up  the  pupils'  sketches  for  the  yearly  ex- 
hibition for  parents  and  friends  of  the 
school.  In  contrast  to  this  procedure, 
which  is  clearly  a  case  of  'more  haste, 
worst  speed,'  is  an  opposite  danger,  which 
is  still  more  common.  The  teacher  in  this 
case  does  not  neglect  the  pupil  for  the  sake 
of  the  class,  but  rather  neglects  the  class 
for  the  sake  of  the  pupil.  With  the  laudable 
aim  of  allowing  each  pupil  to  puzzle  out  his 
own  difficulties,  the  teacher  with  a  class  of, 
say,  thirty,  will  slowly  extract  in  the  course 
of  half  an  hour  about  one  question  apiece 
from  the  majority  on  such  a  recondite 
subject  as  the  time  of  day.  Here,  no  doubt, 
the  remedy  would  be  to  pass  the  question 
speedily  round.  One  cannot,  without  doing 
harm  to  the  class,  attempt  to  perform  a 
series  of  mental  operations  on  the  pupil's 
brain  in  the  hope  of  delivering  the  em- 
bryonic thought  it  contains.  While  we  are 
saving  the  sinner,  the  ninety-and-nine  com- 
paratively just  persons  who  form  the  bulk  of 
the  class  are  in  imminent  danger  of  relapse. 
Continuous  attention,  while  essential  to  all 
forms  of  teaching,  is  absolutely  indis- 
pensable in  the  case  of  the  rigidly 
direct  method.  To  use  Wordsworth's 
expression,  a  class  must  be  as  'forty  feed- 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


ing  like  one.'  And  the  reason  of  it  is  clear. 
The  failure  of  a  pupil  to  understand  a  single 
expression  may  mean  he  may  lose  ground 
that  lie  can  never  make  up.  Except  with 
very  careful  teaching  these  losses  accumu- 
late, so  that  one  not  infrequently  comes 
across  a  pupil  not  merely  detached,  but 
completely  isolated — -far  more  isolated  than 
a  backward  pupil  in  a  form  taught  on  old- 
fashioned  lines ;  because  in  the  latter  case 
the  text-book  helps  in  a  way  to  keep  the 
class  together,  whereas,  with  the  rigidly 
direct  method,  the  failure  to  understand  an 
expression  leads  to  the  failure  to  under- 
stand phrases  based  upon  it,  so  that  the 
pupil's  ignorance  tends  to  grow  in  a  geo- 
metrical ratio.  Hence  the  teacher  has  not 
only  to  attempt  to  maintain  an  incessant 
attention ;  he  must  also  be  perpetually 
taking  precautions  to  see  that  he  has  main- 
tained it.  Something  may  be  done,  no 
doubt,  by  permitting  answers  in  chorus,  or 
by  allowing  all  those  who  think  they  know 
to  hold  up  their  hands  when  a  question  is 
asked;  but  even  then,  with  the  native  tongue 
forbidden,  there  is  a  real  danger  of  the 
pupil  forming  merely  a  vague  or  even  an 
incorrect  idea,  and  thinking  he  knows  the 
answer  when  he  does  not.  I  well  remember 
a  class  in  which  neige  and  blanche  were  con- 
vertible terms.  It  is  difficult  enough  for  a 
child  to  differentiate  ideas  in  its  own  native 
tongue  :  do  we  not  set  it  at  times  too  hard  a 
task  in  asking  it  to  differentiate  them  in  a 
foreign  language  ?  The  most  amusing  in- 
stance of  complete  misconception  was  given 
in  the  Journal  of  Education  a  month  or  two 
back.  An  inspector,  if  I  remember  right, 
cutting  into  a  conversation  on  the  Good- 
child  family  that  figures  in  the  Holzel 
pictures,  asked,  '  Et  ou  est  la  mtre  ? '  and  the 
whole  class  pointed  at  the  teacher.  To 
guard  against  such  misapprehensions  an 
individual  audit  is  essential,  and  the  in- 
dividual audit  of  a  big  class  takes  time. 
This  is  important,  because  all  teaching  is 
under  our  present  conditions  a  match  against 
time.  It  also  means  an  excessive  reitera- 
tion of  practically  the  same  questions  for 
the  brighter  children  to  listen  to.  In  the 
teaching  of  other  subjects,  or  of  French  on 
less  rigidly  direct  lines,  the  saying  of  a 
former  headmaster  always  seems  to  me  very 
much  to  the  point.  His  advice  was  to  go 
for  the  middle  of  the  form.  But  here  the 
imperative  need  of  keeping  the  form  to- 
gether seems  to  imply  that,  if  some  pupils 
are  not  to  be  hopelessly  tailed  off,  the  pace 
must  be  not  so  much  the  pace  of  the  '  middle 
markers '  as  of  the  '  hindmost.'  This,  in  the 


ordinary  course  of  events,  means  a  danger 
of  producing  listlessness  among  the  brighter 
and  better  pupils.  No  doubt  the  clever 
teacher  tries  to  bring  them  along  by  throw- 
ing them  down  something  in  advance  of  the 
rest,  as  a  farmer  throws  down  roots  to  draw 
on  a  herd  of  cattle,  but  he  has  necessarily 
less  time  to  devote  to  the  leaders  than  if  he 
were  teaching  on  other  lines. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  WILL-TRAINING. 

This  imperative  need  of  keeping  the 
forms  together  involves  two  further  diffi- 
culties which  are  not  so  prominent  in 
ordinary  teaching.  The  teacher,  being 
largely  dependent  on  the  goodwill  of  the 
class  for  their  attention,  is  compelled  to 
render  his  teaching  as  pleasant  and  attrac- 
tive as  possible.  This  is  excellent  as  far  as 
it  goes,  and  is  helping  to  bring  into  English 
teaching  a  conception  of  the  real  doctrine 
of  interest  as  understood  in  America.  But 
it  has  its  perils  and  its  limitations.  The 
teacher  is  tempted  to  make  things  too 
pleasant,  too  easy.  There  is  a  tendency  to 
avoid  the  hard  and  distasteful,  and  the  class, 
unless  the  teacher  is  unusually  enthusiastic, 
are  apt  to  think  it  is  a  case  of  'go  as  you 
please.'  The  training  of  the  will,  which 
teaches  us  to  do  unpleasant  tasks  and  over- 
come obstacles,  and  which  is  the  bed-rock 
of  English  education,  is  rather  neglected. 
Again,  with  the  unruly,  the  indolent,  the 
unwilling  to  work,  the  teacher's  task  is  a 
very  difficult  one.  Once  the  arts  of  peace 
are  exhausted,  how  is  one  to  get  behind  the 
boy  who  refuses  to  work  and  professes  not 
to  understand?  All  teachers  know  the 
type  of  faineant  and  malingerer  I  mean. 
To  give  him  up  as  hopeless  is  not  to  solve 
the  problem.  It  is  rather  to  acknowledge 
one's  own  hopelessness. 

But  the  desire  to  make  things  too  easy 
may  not  only  have  a  bad  effect  on  the 
character  of  the  pupils :  it  may  even  react 
disadvantageous^  on  their  intelligence.  In 
more  than  one  school  where  the  teaching 
has  struck  me  as  extraordinarily  conscien-. 
tious,  I  have  also  found  it  too  peptonised. 
The  consequences  have  been  curious.  I 
remember  in  one  school,  where  the  pupils 
had  been  usually  carefully  '  spoon-fed,'  I 
used  a  simple  word  like  malheureusement  in  a 
sentence  otherwise  composed  of  words  the 
class  had  been  learning,  and  the  class  dis- 
played infinitely  less  resource  in  discovering 
what  I  was  saying  than  pupils  trained  in 
ordinary  methods  or  on  rigidly  direct  lines. 
This  is  by  no  means  an  isolated  case,  and  it 


DANGERS  AND  DIFFICULTIES  CONNECTED  WITH  DIRECT  METHOD      55 


Joes  seem  to  me,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
mental  alertness,  a  serious  matter.  These 
children,  being  unused  to  obstacles,  were 
stopped  by  something  very  simple. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  VOCABULARY. 

Again — and  here  I  feel  I  am  venturing  on 
more  debatable  ground — I  have  been  struck 
more  than  once,  in  schools  in  which  the 
rigidly  direct  method  obtains,  at  the  slow 
rate  at  which  the  vocabulary  is  acquired, 
and  at  its  extremely  limited  nature.  My 
criticisms  are  based  on  two  practical  con- 
siderations which  I  will  at  once  proceed  to 
give.  The  first  is — and  every  one  who  has 
learnt  a  foreign  language  will  bear  me  out — 
that  the  business  end  of  learning  a  foreign 
language  is  the  amassing  of  a  good  vocabu- 
lary. An  ounce  of  fact  in  these  matters 
seems  to  me  to  be  worth  a  ton  of  theory. 
I  learnt  German  rather  late  in  life,  and  I 
found  as  an  absolute  fact  that,  when  I  had 
gone  through  the  grammar,  and  had  been 
learning  steadily  the  phrases  of  daily  life 
from  those  around  me  in  the  country,  I 
had  still  to  tackle  the  vocabulary  problem. 
I  discovered  that  the  famous  six  hundred 
words  which  are  always  being  thrust  down 
one's  throat  as  the  average  vocabulary  of 
a  peasant  were  a  downright  snare  and 
delusion  for  any  one"  who  wanted  to  talk 
at  all  in  German ;  and  that  to  discuss 
matters  in  anything  like  an  adequate  fashion 
one  required  to  know  a  good  deal  more 
like  five  or  six  thousand  words  at  least. 
So  serious  does  this  question  of  adequate 
vocabulary  seem  to  me  that  I  cannot  help 
thinking  it  should  be  a  matter  for  early 
consideration  in  the  acquirement  of  the 
language.  And  now  I  come  to  the  other 
practical  point,  which  is,  that  there  are 
vocabulary  and  vocabulary — not  one,  in 
short,  but  two.  Is  it  not  an  undoubted  fact 
that  we  require,  whether  it  be  in  our  mother- 
tongue  or  in  a  foreign  language,  two  sorts  of 
vocabulary,  one  which  consists  of  words  we 
use  ourselves,  and  the  other,  a  far  larger 
one,  which  consists  of  words  which  we 
understand  when  we  hear  them  or  see  them 
in  print,  but  rarely  if  ever  employ  them  in 
writing  or  conversation  1  I  suppose  the 
ordinary  educated  Englishman  who  is  not  a 
writer  or  public  speaker  uses  about  five 
thousand  words,  and  knows  at  least  ten 
thousand  or  fifteen  thousand  more.  It 
would  appear  to  be  a  matter  of  common-sense 
to  assume  that  any  one  learning  French  or 
German  would  likewise  acquire  the  two 
vocabularies,  and  would  acquire  them  in 


something  like  the  same  proportions.  Now, 
unless  I  am  mistaken,  it  seems  that  many 
of  the  new  methodists  take  little  or  no 
account  of  this  principle  of  daily  life  and 
common  experience;  but  from  the  very 
beginning  ram  and  cram  into  the  speaking 
vocabulary  of  the  pupil  every  word  he 
comes  across,  instead  of  being  merely  con- 
tent to  teach  him  the  correct  pronuncia- 
tion of  the  less  common  ones.  Were  they 
merely  the  most  necessary  terms  in  the 
language,  there  would  be  less  to  be  said ; 
but  when  we  find  at  the  outset  pupils 
plunged  into  a  series  of  farming  and  agri- 
cultural expressions,  it  is  clear  the  pupils 
are  learning  to  employ  a  certain  number  of 
words  for  which  at  present  at  least  they 
will  have  no  practical  use,  and  may  perhaps 
never  need  at  all,  unless  they  visit  rural 
France ;  though,  if  these  words  are  only 
meant  to  be  added  to  what  I  would  call  the 
'comprehensive'  vocabulary,  the  objection  is 
less  forcible.  In  any  case,  it  is  fully  evident 
that,  if  the  compulsory  assimilation  and 
reproduction  of  every  word  were  not  in- 
sisted on,  the  pupil  would  probably  get  on 
faster  and  with  more  pleasure  to  himself, 
because  he  would  not  have  been  so  often 
taken  over  and  over  again  the  same  ground, 
or  have  contemplated  for  so  many  hours 
on  end  the  same  picture.  At  the  same 
time  he  would  have  mastered  more  of  the 
vocabulary,  which,  as  has  already  been 
pointed  out,  constitutes  a  really  serious 
difficulty. 

As  regards  vocabulary,  it  has  always 
seemed  to  me  that  the  best  way  of  learning 
it  is  by  practising  conversation  on  the  read- 
ing lesson.  The  advantages  of  such  a 
method  are  numerous  and  substantial. 
Neither  pupil  nor  teacher  need  make  mis- 
takes, for  all  the  material  is  given  in  a  more 
or  less  ready-made  state.  A  good  deal 
more  talking  can  be  got  through  than  by 
any  other  method ;  the  questions  can  be 
graduated  to  any  degree  of  difficulty  ;  and 
there  is  no  better  way  of  teaching  oral  com- 
position, which  is,  or  ought  to  be,  the  basis 
of  free  written  composition ;  only  it  ought 
to  be  based,  at  least  at  first,  on,  and  not  about, 
the  subject-matter.  An  apt  illustration  of 
how  not  to  do  it  was  given  me  the  other 
day  by  a  French  teacher  to  whom  I  tried  to 
explain  the  system.  There  was  a  sentence 
which  began,  Une  veuve  qui  avail  deux  en/ants. 
Before  he  would  allow  me  to  explain  that  a 
typical  question  for  beginners  was  Combien 
d'enfanls  avail  la  veuve  ?  he  blurted  out,  '  Oh  ! 
I  see  ;  you  ask  Qit'est-M  que  c'esl  qu'une  veuve  ?  ' 
No  doubt,  the  difficulty  of  teaching  vocabu- 


56 


THE  MODEEN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


lary  with  sufficient  rapidity  is  increased  for 
those  who  teach  on  rigidly  direct  lines  by 
the  absence  of  a  sufficient  choice  of  suitable 
text-books.  Some  of  those  which  exist  have 
fallen  into  the  over-peptonising  tendency 
mentioned  above,  and  are  written,  at  least 
as  far  as  French  is  concerned,  in  a  dull,  life- 
less style,  from  which  the  delightful  light- 
ness and  sprightliness  that  characterise 
French  books  for  children  have  simply 
evaporated. 

PROBLEMS  OF  ORDER  AND  SYSTEM. 

The  other  difficulties  and  dangers  more 
especially  connected  with  the  rigidly  direct 
method  seem  to  me  to  be  chiefly  concerned 
with  questions  of  order  and  system.  Just 
as  proper  co-ordination  between  class  and 
class  is  even  more  essential  in  the  case  of 
the  direct  method  than  in  the  case  of  teach- 
ing on  the  old  classical  lines,  so  within  the 
class  itself  there  is  still  more  need  for  well- 
thought-out  and  carefully  arranged  teaching 
than  in  the  case  of  the  older  methods,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  with  the  older 
methods  the  framework  and  scaffolding  of 
the  lesson  are  largely  supplied  by  the  text- 
book, and  the  lesson  for  the  day  has 
therefore  already  received  some  sort  of 
arrangement  in  the  pupil's  mind ;  while  in 
the  case  of  the  new  method,  even  when  a 
text-book  is  used,  the  logical  arrangement 
of  the  lesson  is  not  so  obvious,  less  stress  is 
rightly  laid  on  the  importance  of  the  text- 
book, and  at  the  same  time  the  lessons  are 
far  more  dovetailed  into  one  another  and 
interdependent  than  other  lessons  framed 
on  the  old  lines.  In  a  word,  the  new 
method  throws  a  great  deal  more  respon- 
sibility on  the  teacher,  which  no  doubt 
is  right.  But  cwruptio  optimi  pessima ; 
there  is  a  distinct  danger  of  the  teacher 
becoming  flabby  or  invertebrate,  because 
the  supply  of  the  structure  rests  in  this 
case  with  the  teacher.  Another  possible 
danger  is  the  tendency  to  lessen  unduly  the 
written  work.  One  fully  admits  it  should 
be  very  light  at  the  outset,  but  certainly  in 
some  schools  more  should  be  made  of  it. 
The  whole  secret  lies  in  the  fact  of  not 
making  the  exercise  in  writing  too  difficult. 
One  sees  this  precaution  neglected  later  on 
by  teachers  who  often  give  their  pupils  free 
composition  on  original  subjects  far  too 
early,  or  do  not  supply  them  with  nearly 
enough  subject-matter.  I  have  seen  free 
compositions  which  can  only  do  the  children 
who  have  attempted  them  positive  harm ; 
there  was  no  sense  of  arrangement;  the  exer- 


cise was  not  only  crammed  with  mistakes 
in  grammar,  but  the  French  itself  was  of 
the  most  canine  description.  The  first  thing 
is  to  supply  beginners  with  an  ample  store 
of  subject-matter.  You  can't  make  bricks 
without  clay,  and  the  wise  teacher  further 
assists  the  process  by  supplying  straw  in 
the  shape  of  hints.  A  more  serious  fault  is 
the  neglect  to  insist  on  a  proper  conception 
of  the  work  at  the  outset.  This  scant 
respect  for  accuracy  appears  to  me  inex- 
plicable. One  knows  how  in  one's  own 
case  a  mistake  once  made  may  take  years 
to  eradicate.  Yet  I  have  seen  teachers  who 
would  not  tolerate  a  slipshod  pronunciation, 
apparently  indifferent  to  howlers  made  in 
the  written  work.  I  remember  a  head- 
master, who  is  rather  a  shining  light,  saying 
to  me,  'We  don't  bother  much  about  the 
written  work.'  He  apparently  looked  on  it 
as  too  disciplinary  a  matter.  Yet  surely 
accuracy  in  writing,  whatever  exercise  one 
may  think  fit  to  give  the  pupil,  is  every 
whit  as  important  as  accuracy  in  accent 
and  grammar. 


PROBLEMS  OF  PHONETICS  AND  GRAMMAR. 

And  here  we  touch  a  point  on  which  one 
would  like  to  obtain  the  opinion  of  the 
teachers  present.  Do  they  really  find  that 
pupils  who  have  learnt  to  read  by  means 
of  a  phonetic  script  really  do  in  the  later 
stages  spell  and  write  as  correctly  as  pupils 
who  have  learnt  to  read  straight  away 
from  an  ordinary  text-book  1  French  spell- 
ing seems  to  come  so  difficult  even  to  French 
children,  we  must  be  careful,  if  we  can  help 
it,  not  to  render  the  task  more  difficult  for 
our  own  children.  One  has  been  assured 
that  it  makes  no  difference,  but  it  would  be 
interesting  to  hear  public  opinion  on  the 
subject. 

The  last  danger  connected  with  the  direct 
method  is  the  possible  neglect  of  grammar. 
Teachers,  it  seems  to  me,  cannot  give  up 
their  grammar  drill  any  more  than  soldiers 
can  give  up  military  exercises.  The  whole 
point  is  to  make  these  manoeuvres  as  prac- 
tical as  possible.  A  reference  to  Mr. 
Kirkman's  notes  on  the  method  of  using  a 
reader,  and  his  excellent  hints  on  the  teaching 
of  the  subjunctive  after  voiiloir,  will  give  an 
inkling  of  what  I  mean.  But  my  experi- 
ence convinces  me  that  a  knowledge  of  the 
genders,  the  uses  of  the  pronouns,  and  of 
the  prepositions  after  the  verbs  which  take 
(t  or  de,  and  of  the  parts  of  the  verbs,  all 
need,  as  some  one  has  said,  'ramming  in.' 


IS  IT  A  REFORM  ? 


57 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION. 
In  conclusion,  let  me  repeat  in  the  form 
of  questions  some  of  the  various  points  I 
have  raised,  in  order,  if  possible,  to  focus 
the  discussion  : 

1.  What  are  the   results    of    trying    to 
teach  a  class  of  thirty  or  over  on  the  rigidly 
direct  method  ? 

2.  If   one   cannot  teach  all  the  classes, 
which  should  one  rather  give  up  1 

3.  What  is  the  best  way  of  solving  the 
problem  when   the  class  receives   a  large 
contingent  of  absolute  beginners  ? 

4.  How  do  you  get  over  the  difficulty  of 
pupils  who  are  ill  grounded  in  English  1 

5.  How  do  you  maintain  attention,  and 
by  what  means  do  you  assure  yourself  that 
it  is  maintained  1 

6.  Do  you  find  the  rigid  exclusion  of  the 
mother-tongue    compensated    for    by    the 
quicker  grasp  that  pupils  obtain  of  (.he  lan- 
guage ? 

7.  How  do  you  guard  against  vagueness 
of  conception  ? 

8.  Do   you  go   for    the   middle   or   the 
bottom  of  the  form  ? 

9.  Do   you   sometimes    feel    there   is   a 
danger  of  playing  down  too  much   to  the 
form,  with  the  result  that  one  does  not  «et 
the  best  out  of  the  brightest  children  ? 

10.  How  do  you  manage  the  faineants,  the 
indolent,  and  the  malingerers  1 

11.  Do  you  think  there  is  a  danger  of 
vocabulary  being  acquired  too  slowly  ? 


12.  Do    you    consider    the    distinction 
between   the   two   vocabularies   should   be 
established  from  the  start,  or  when  ? 

13.  Do  you  feel  the  need  of  a  greater 
choice  of  text-books?    Are  our  text-books, 
generally  speaking,  sufficiently  French  in 
spirit? 

14.  Is   there  generally   enough   written 
work  ? 

15.  Do   you    find    free    composition   on 
original  subjects  a  success  with  pupils  in 
the  earlier  stages  ? 

16.  What  are  your  views  on  the  correc- 
tion of  written  work  ? 

17.  Does  the  use  of  the  phonetic  script 
handicap  children  from  a  spelling  point  of 
view  in  comparison  with  those  who  have 
used  the  ordinary  script  1 

18.  What  are  your  views  on  the  necessity 
of  grammar  drill  after  the  newer  models  1 

Such  are  some  of  the  questions  I  have 
raised  for  discussion,  and  I  trust  my  appeal 
will  meet  with  a  fruitful  response.  What 
we  want  at  the  present  time  is  to  centralise 
as  much  as  possible  the  information  which 
is  largely  scattered  up  and  down  the 
country.  I  cannot  imagine  this  Association 
acting  in  a  more  fruitful  fashion  than,  by 
means  either  of  oral  discussion  or  of  printed 
questionnaires,  making  itself  the  common 
clearing-house  of  the  experience  of  indi- 
vidual teachers. 

CLOUDESLEY  BRERETON. 


IS  IT  A  REFORM? 


ralM"      m  a  8omewflat  crude  way  perhaps  to 
lohsh  this  magnificent  structure  of  the  method 

"^  hT^hed  I?  many  teache™,  especially 
d.''—  OTTO  SIEPMANN. 


No  one  welcomes  criticism  more   heartily 

than   the  earnest  teacher  of  modern   lan- 

guages.    We  are  all  experimenting  ;  and  I 

hink  there  is  no  more  hopeful  sign  than 

Ihe  teacher  who  is  not  continually 

reconsidering  his  methods,  who  is  not  alive 

to    every   stimulating    suggestion,    hardly 

deserves  the  name. 

Those  who  rejoice  in  the  interest  which 

has  been  universally  aroused  by  the  changes 

suggested    in    modern   language    teaching 

have  no  doubt  readMr.CloudesleyBrereton^s 

valuable  address  to  the  Modern  Language 

)ciation  on  '  Some  Dangers  and  Difficul- 

1  The  italics  are  not  Mr.  Siepinann'?. 


ties  connected  with  the  Direct  Method' 
and  Mr.  Otto  Siepmann's  animated  address 
to  the  Association  of  Headmasters  in 
Preparatory  Schools  on  'The  Advantages 
and  Fallacies  of  the  New  Method  in  Teach- 
ing French.'  We  have  here  the  views  of 
an  inspector  and  of  a  teacher.  As  one 
who  has  had  experience  in  both  capacities, 
and  has  been  interested  in  furthering  the 
reform  method  in  England,  I  may  be 
allowed  to  discuss  some  of  the  statements 
made  and  some  of  the  questions  raised  in 
the  two  articles  I  have  mentioned  ;  and  for 
the  sake  of  brevity,  I  shall  allude  to  them 
as  B.  and  S. 

I  need  waste  no  time  on  the  quite 
inadequate  review  of  the  history  of  the 
movement  given  in  S.  The  two  specific 
statements  (i)  that  the  movement  received 


58 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


its  first  impulse  from  Perthes'  Zur  Reform 
des  lateinischen  Unterrkhts,  and  (ii)  that 
Professor  Victor's  Der  Sprachunterricht 
muss  umkehren  was  published  in  1886, 
are  both  inaccurate.  Those  who  are  inter- 
ested in  the  matter  may  be  referred  to 
Mangold's  article  in  Die  Reform  des 
hbheren  Schulwesens  in  Preussen,  which 
gives  much  food  for  thought. 

What  was  it  that  Vietor  demanded  ? 
That  the  nature  of  the  child  mind  should  be 
considered,  not  only  the  language  taught ; 
that  the  learner  should  be  interested;  that 
the  reasoning  powers  should  be  cultivated, 
and  not  the  memory  alone  ;  that  the  use  of 
the  foreign  language  should  become  instinc- 
tive, that  is,  that  the  child  should  learn  as 
soon  as  possible  to  connect  the  object  or 
idea  with  the  foreign  word  ;  that  due  regard 
should  be  paid  to  the  ethical  and  aesthetic 
side  of  teaching. 

Look  at  the  books  in  general  use  when, 
in  1882,  Vietor  uttered  his  eloquent  appeal, 
and  ask  yourself  if  nothing  has  been 
achieved.  When  a  level-headed  educational 
authority  like  Findlay  uses  these  words  : 

Quite  deliberately  the  present  writer  ventures 
to  assert  that  the  'reform'  in  modern  language 
teaching  now  in  progress  is  one  of  the  most  note- 
worthy events  in  the  sphere  of  Teaching  since  the 
Renaissance,  surpassing  in  importance  even  the 
result  of  introducing  Science  to  the  schools, 

we  view  with  some  suspicion  attempts  to 
discredit  the  reform. 

I  do  not  like  the  term  '  new  method,'  and 
have  avoided  it  as  far  as  possible.  The 
method  is  not  new ;  nor  is  it,  in  its 
main  features,  applicable  only  to  modern 
languages.  Certain  general  principles 
underlie  all  sound  teaching,  and  the  appli- 
cation of  these  to  modern  languages  is 
the  great  merit  of  the  reform  method. 
Naturally  there  are  certain  features  peculiar 
to  the  methods  of  teaching  modern  foreign 
languages,  as  compared  with  the  methods 
of  teaching  the  mother -tongue,  or  the 
classics,  or  science. 

A  little  thought  will  show  that  many  of 
the  difficulties  pointed  out  in  B.  are  not 
really  peculiar  to  modern-language  teaching. 
Thus  the  importance  of  maintaining  the 
attention  •  of  the  pupils  is  universally 
acknowledged;  in  B.  this  is  done  in  the 
strangely  worded  sentence,  'Continuous 
attention,  while  essential  to  all  forms  of 
teaching,  is  absolutely  indispensable  in  the 
case  of  the  rigidly  direct  method.'  I  do  not 
know  what  difference  there  is  between 
'  essential '  and  '  absolutely  indispensable.' 

Another  alleged  difficulty  is  that   'the 


teacher  has  necessarily  less  time  to  devote 
to  the  leaders  than  if  he  were  teaching  on 
other  lines.'  If  this  means  that  the  manner 
of  teaching  necessitates  the  chief  attention 
being  given  to  the  middle,  i.e.  the  bulk,  of 
the  class,  it  is  surely  an  advantage.  In 
teaching  a  class  of  thirty  children,  the  pace 
is  set  by  the  middle  twenty  to  twenty-five. 
I  think  that  is  generally  conceded. 

A  further  statement  in  B.  which  seems  to 
me  to  have  no  special  bearing  on  modern- 
language  teaching  is  this :  '  The  teacher, 
being  largely  dependent  on  the  goodwill  of 
the  class  for  their  attention,  is  compelled  to 
render  his  teaching  as  pleasant  and  as 
attractive  as  possible';  and  a  fear  is 
expressed  that  '  The  training  of  the  will, 
which  teaches  us  to  do  unpleasant  tasks 
and  overcome  obstacles,  and  which  is  the 
bedrock  of  English  education,  is  rather 
neglected.'  To  my  mind  this  raises  ques- 
tions which  apply  to  all  teaching.  The 
attention  of  the  pupils  depends  not  on 
their  '  goodwill ' ;  unless  we  take  that  to  be 
equivalent  to  '  interest.'  Who  will  deny 
that  all  teaching  should  be  made  interest- 
ing 1  And  to  the  vast  majority  of  children 
who  are  well  taught,  interest  renders  the 
work  '  pleasant  and  attractive.'  There  are 
illegitimate  ways  of  rendering  it  so ;  the 
personality  of  the  teacher  may  form  too 
large  an  element  in  the  '  pleasantness,'  and 
he  may  not  have  realised  that  he  can  best 
interest  his  pupils  in  the  subject  by  letting 
them  find  out  as  much  as  possible  for  them- 
selves. The  pupils'  own  efforts,  the  sense 
of  what  they  have  gained  by  their  own 
work,  the  pleasure  derived  from  jointly 
achieving  results — these  are  what  render 
the  lesson  '  attractive  '  in  all  good  teaching. 
In  modern  languages,  for  instance,  the 
cultivation  of  alert  habits  of  combination 
leads  to  the  power  of  quickly  guessing  the 
meaning  of  words  from  the  context  and 
from  associated  ideas  :  and  this  power  is  of 
far  greater  educational  value,  and  adds  far 
more  to  the  interest  of  the  work,  than  any 
amount  of  skill  in  turning  over  the  pages  of 
a  dictionary. 

'How  is  one  to  get  behind  the  boy  who 
refuses  to  work  and  professes  not  to  under- 
stand 1 '  is  asked  in  B. ;  and  again  I  would 
point  out  that  the  modern-language  teacher 
is  not  alone  in  having  to  face  this  problem. 
I  quite  agree  with  S.  in  not  hailing  the 
reform  method  '  as  a  panacea ' ;  and  I  do 
not  think  that  even  the  most  rabid  reformer 
has  claimed  that  it  will  cure  all  the  ills  to 
which  juvenile  human  nature  may  be 
prone. 


IS  IT  A  REFORM 


59 


I  pass  on  to  consider  briefly  some  of  the 
general  principles  bearing  on  the  teaching 
of  modern  languages  which  the  reform 
method  may  claim  to  have  emphasised,  and 
theirpossible  misapplication  by  inadequately 
trained  or  by  pedantic  teachers. 

(1)  Due  attention  should  be  paid  to  the 
pronunciation  from  the  outset. 

B.  and  S.  agree  on  this  point ;  and  it  is 
noteworthy  that  S.  is  now  an  advocate  of 
the  phonetic  transcript,  which  found  no 
place  in  his  German  Primer. 

There  is  a  danger  that  drill  in  sounds 
may  be  carried  on  exclusively  for  too  long 
a  time,  and  that  teachers  may  use  it  with- 
out an  adequate  knowledge  of  phonetics. 

(2)  The  vocabulary  taught  in  the  early 
stages  should  be  useful,  i.e.  common  words 
should  be  learnt  thoroughly.     For  this  pur- 
pose   the    vocabulary   must    be    carefully 
selected,  and  repetition  is  necessary  to  im- 
press   the   words,    until    there    is    direct 
association  between  the  object  or  idea  and 
the  foreign  word.    This  end  is  best  achieved 
by  the  use  of  the  foreign  language  in  the 
classroom,  the  use  of  the  mother -tongue 
being  avoided  as  much  as  possible.     As  to 
the  need  for  selecting  the  vocabulary  and 
for  repetition,  B.  and  S.  agree.    Both  rightly 
object  to  the  'rigidly'  direct  method,  which 
absolutely    excludes    the    mother  -  tongue. 
Any  method  which  becomes  'rigid'  is  ipso 
facto  erroneous.     The  true  principle  seems 
to  be  here,  as  in  all  teaching,  not  to  do  for 
the  pupil  what  he  can  do  for  himself,  and  to 
use  your  common-sense  in  deciding  when  to 
give  help  and  how  much  help  to  give.    I  may 
venture  to  quote  from   Hints  on  Teaching 
French. 

If  the  teacher  is  not  convinced  that  his  pupils 
fully  grasp  the  meaning  of  the  new  word,  and 
cannot  easily  help  them  to  do  so,  he  may  supply 
the  English  word.  This  should  be  regarded  rather 
as  a  last  resource  ;  at  the  same  time,  it  would  be 
unreasonable  to  make  oneself  the  absolute  slave  of 
the  rule  that  the  foreign  language  should  be  used 
in  the  classroom.  Many  who  make  the  attempt 
will  be  surprised  how  very  little  English  they  will 
find  it  necessary  to  introduce.  In  bringing  out 
some  point  of  grammar,  it  will  sometimes  be  found 
convenient  to  give  explanations  in  English  ;  but  as 
soon  as  the  pupils  are  somewhat  advanced,  this  too 
is  best  done  in  French.  (Page  10.) 

As  a  teacher's  experience  grows,  he  becomes 
more  skilled  in  thus  leading  his  pupils  to  find  out 
new  words.  At  first  it  may  often  seem  rather 
difficult,  and  there  are  critics  who  have  not  been 
slow  to  make  fun  of  this  feature  of  the  method— to 
describe  it  as  a  childish  game,  a  futile  setting  and 
solving  of  riddles.  Yet,  after  all,  does  not  the 
child  learn  new  words  in  its  mother-tongue  in  just 
this  way  ?  The  child  is  led  in  both  cases  to  find  the 
meaning,  by  being  shown  the  object  designated,  or 


by  being  helped  to  associate  it  with  something  it 
already  knows. 

The  process  is  indeed  not  to  be  compared  to  the 
setting  and  solving  of  riddles  ;  rather  is  it  like  the 
use  of  algebraic  equations,  and  it  requires  clear 
thinking  and  application  to  deduce  the  unknown 
quantity  from  several  that  are  known.  It  is  true 
that  the  definition  of  a  new  word  given  by  the 
teacher  is  often  suggestive,  rather  than  exhaustive  ; 
but  the  end  is  achieved  all  the  same,  and  the 
mental  process  represents  a  definite  gain  to  the 
pupil,  who  has  not  only  learnt  the  new  word,  but 
repeated  several  old  ones,  with  which  fresh 
associations  are  now  formed. 

This  method  appeals  not  only  to  the  memory  ;  it 
calls  forth  the  reasoning  faculty  and  the  imagina- 
tion. The  lessons  become  more  stimulating  to  the 
teacher  and  the  taught ;  the  former  is  not  the  ser- 
vant of  the  printed  word,  the  latter  rejoice  in 
thinking  for  themselves.  (Pp.  32,  33. ) 

It  has  always  seemed  important  to  me  to 
encourage  our  teachers  to  use  the  foreign 
language  in  class.  It  has  often  led  to  the 
altogether  profitable  result  of  making  them 
anxious  to  acquire  greater  fluency  in  the  use 
of  the  foreign  language.  That  is  why  I 
have  given  the  advice  in  the  form  'avoid  the 
mother-tongue  '  rather  than  '  use  the  mother- 
tongue  for  every  new  word.' 

It  would  be  idle  to  deny  that  many  are 
using  the  foreign  language  in  the  class-room 
who  speak  it  neither  very  fluently  nor  always 
correctly.  Nevertheless,  I  disagree  with  the 
statement  that  '  If  the  teacher  is  not  fairly 
capable,  the  older  methods  are  perhaps 
better,  for  the  simple  reason  that  there  is 
less  to  unlearn  later  on  in  the  shape  of  ac- 
quired mispronunciation  or  pidgin-French.' 
A  teacher  who,  though  not  yet  'fairly 
capable,'  adopts  the  newer  methods,  shows 
by  that  very  fact  that  he  is  anxious  to  im- 
prove; and  if  he  teaches  by  the  older 
methods,  his  pupils  will  attach  some  pro- 
nunciation to  the  foreign  words,  even  though 
he  should  never  utter  a  foreign  word 
himself. 

3.  In  the  early  stages  there  is  no  need 
to  translate  into  the  mother-tongue ;  only 
at  an  advanced  stage  is  translation  from 
the  mother-tongue  to  be  attempted. 

The  demand  that  the  foreign  language 
should  be  used  as  much  as  possible  implies 
that  systematic  translation  is  to  be  avoided 
in  the  early  stages  ;  as  Findlay  says,  '  every 
minute  taken  from  native  speech  and  con- 
ducted in  foreign  speech  is  a  gain  to  the 
foreign  language.'  Not  wishing  to  take  up 
too  much  space  here,  I  would  refer  those 
interested  to  Hints  on  Teaching  French 
(Appendix  A,  'Translation  from  and  into 
French,  and  the  use  of  French-English 
Vocabularies,'  p.  127  of  the  third  edition). 


60 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


Considering  the  nature  of  public  exami- 
nations, and  the  practice  of  coercing  de- 
fenceless children  into  taking  them,  a 
teacher  may  be  grateful  if  he  can  be 
allowed  to  teach  his  pupils  on  reform  lines 
for  two  years.  He  finds  then  that  his 
pupils  can  translate  quite  as  well,  and  as  a 
rule  even  more  idiomatically,  than  those 
who  have  been  taught  according  to  the 
older  methods. 

4.  Grammar  is  not  made  the  keystone 
of  the  bridge. 

To  use  words  without  knowing  their 
inflections  or  acquiring  habits  of  correctly 
placing  them  in  the  sentence,  is  to  ignore 
the  rules  of  grammar.  To  elevate  these 
rules  to  a  position  of  unique  importance  is 
to  emphasise  form  to  the  detriment  of 
matter. 

One  of  the  most  frequent  charges  brought 
against  the  reform  teachers  is  that  they 
neglect  grammar.  Two  considerations  are 
usually  left  out  of  account,  namely  : 

(a)  That  much  depends  on  the  way  in 
which  grammar  is  taught.  To  supply  the 
rules  and  then  give  examples  (and  this  is 
the  universal  practice  in  the  older  books)  is 
far  less  valuable  than  to  let  the  pupils  find 
out  the  rules  for  themselves.  If  grammar 
amounts  to  nothing  more  than  memorising, 
its  place  is  very  low  indeed. 

(6)  That  the  amount  of  grammar  that 
can  properly  be  taught  depends  on  the 
capacity  (roughly,  the  age)  of  the  pupil. 
If  we  take  French  at  nine  or  ten,  and  as 
the  first  foreign  language,  we  shall  proceed 
more  slowly  than  with  the  pupils  of  twelve 
who  have  already  learnt  Latin.  In  the 
younger  child  we  make  our  teaching  appeal 
more  to  the  imagination ;  in  the  case  of  the 
older  child  we  are  justified  in  making 
greater  demands  on  the  reasoning  powers. 

I  do  not  happen  to  know  of  any  First 
French  Book  on  reform  method  lines  and 
published  in  this  country,  which  does  not 
pay  a  good  deal  of  attention  to  the  grammar 
from  the  very  beginning. 

The  extent  to  which  French  should  be 
used  in  teaching  grammar  is  a  matter 
depending  on  the  teacher's  common-sense 
and  capacity. 

5.  A  good  vocabulary,  a  knowledge  of 
the  main  rules  of  grammar  (not  of  all  the 
exceptions),  and  some  acquaintance  with 
French  life  and  ways,  are  regarded  as 
essential  to  a  proper  appreciation  of  French 
literature ;  and  those  books  are  preferred 
which  may  be  regarded  as  expressing  in  an 


exceptional  degree  the  achievements,   the 
aspirations,  and  ideals  of  the  French. 

It  is  a  little  wearisome  to  have  to  listen 
again  and  again  to  the  allegation  that  the 
reform  teacher  cares  nothing  for  culture, 
and  that  all  his  work  is  '  utilitarian.'  Let 
us  concede  that  among  the  adherents  of  the 
older  and  the  newer  methods  equally  there 
are  those  who  have  mean  aims  and  a  narrow 
outlook  in  teaching  foreign  languages  ;  but 
let  us  hear  no  more  of  this  preposterous 
charge  that  the  desire  to  enable  our  pupils 
to  speak  and  to  acquire  Sprachgefiihl  renders 
us  insensible  to  the  higher  beauties  of 
literature  and  indifferent  to  opening  them 
up  to  our  pupils.  Such  claptrap  phrases 
are  calculated  to  mislead  the  young  teacher, 
and  to  turn  him  away  from  the  reform 
method  altogether. 

In  this  connection  let  me  advert  to  a 
passage  in  the  circular  of  the  French 
Ministry  of  Education :  '  On  renoncera 
resolument  a  faire  de  l'enseignement  des 
langues  vivantes,  soit  une  gymnastique 
intellectuelle,  soit  un  moyen  de  culture 
litteraire.'  The  Konigsberg  reactionaries 
pounced  upon  this  sentence ;  and  I  am 
grieved  to  find  it  again  in  S.  At  the  first 
glance  it  may  indeed  appear  '  a  startling 
confession  ' ;  but  what  does  it  really  amount 
to,  when  we  consider  the  circular  as  a 
whole  1  It  simply  means  that  the  teaching 
of  modern  languages  is  not  to  be  exclusively 
a  juggling  with  grammatical  terminology, 
nor  solely  a  means  to  enable  the  pupils  to 
read.  These  are  real  dangers,  to  which  the 
French  Ministry  of  Education  is  fortunately 
alive ;  to  say  that  these  words  exclude 
grammar  or  literature  from  the  curriculum 
is  manifestly  wrong,  as  an  inspection  of  the 
regulations  issued  will  show. 

I  have  tried  to  put  very  simply  the  aims 
of  the  reform  method ;  and  in  doing  so,  I 
have  naturally  not  consulted  the  extremists. 
I  am  well  aware  that  there  have  been,  and 
possibly  still  are,  extremists  •  but  I  do  not 
think  that  those  who  have  compiled  First 
French  Books  in  this  country  can  be 
reckoned  among  their  number.  If  there  is 
much  divergence  of  opinion  among  earnest 
reform  teachers,  there  is  far  more  upon 
which  they  agree.  Such  divergence  as 
there  is,  let  us  welcome.  '  The  various 
Pauls,  Cephases,  and  Apollos  of  the  new 
method  have  fortunately  not  as  yet  been 
able  to  formulate  a  stereotyped  creed.  .  .  . 
The  very  absence  of  any  rigidly  codified 
dogma  isat  the  present  stage  of  development 
rather  a  gain  than  a  loss '  (B.).  Yes  indeed, 
heaven  foibid  that  we  should  ever  become 


APEKgU  D'UNE  METHODE 


61 


rigid  ;  it  would  be  the  rigor  mortis.  When 
I  look  at  the  First  French  Book  which  my 
valued  friend  Alge  issued  in  1887,  and  then 
at  each  subsequent  edition  up  to  our  New 
First  French  Book  of  1903,1  witness  a  slow 
but  steady  progress,  signs  of  a  better 
understanding  of  the  difficult  problems 
involved,  of  ever  greater  agreement  with 
what  is  regarded  as  essential  in  all  good 
teaching.  Mr.  Siepmann  is  working  in  a 
different  plane  from  ours;  it  may  be  a 
higher  plane;  but  I  hope  and  believe  we 
are  getting  nearer  to  the  child. 


Since  writing  the  above  I  have  been 
engaged  with  my  colleague,  Dr.  Edwards, 
in  summing  up  the  results  of  an  inspection 
of  modern  language  teaching  in  thirty-seven 
London  schools,  in  the  course  of  which  361 
classes  were  visited  and  the  work  of  206 
teachers  and  over  8200  pupils  was  ob- 
served. Our  report,  which  will  doubtless 
be  published  shortly  in  The  Technical  Edu- 
cation Gazette,  shows  clearly  that  a  genuine 
reform  is  taking  place,  and  that  trained 
teachers  in  particular  are  quick  to  recognise 
the  validity  of  the  principles  which  guide 
us  in  our  endeavours  to  ensure  better  teach- 
ing ;  and  that  it  is  the  untrained  teacher  who 
holds  aloof,  or  applies  them  unintelligently, 
and  thus  brings  discredit  on  the  method. 


The  statement  in  the  quotation  which 
heads  my  article,  to  the  effect  that  many 
teachers,  especially  in  England,  have  been 
'  bewitched '  by  the  new  method,  seems  to 
imply  that  our  English  teachers  are  excep- 
tionally liable  to  be  taken  in  by  specious 
appearances.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  reform 
method  has  far  more  adherents  on  the  Con- 
tinent than  in  England :  those  who  frame 
the  Prussian  regulations  have  yielded  more 
and  more  to  its  demands,  in  France  it  has 
received  the  most  ample  official  recognition, 
in  Switzerland  it  has  long  been  widely 
adopted,  and  in  Sweden  and  Denmark  are 
to  be  found  some  of  the  most  valued 
pioneers  of  the  movement.  In  this  con- 
nection I  would  call  especial  attention  to 
Prof.  Jespersen's  important  book,  of  which 
an  English  rendering  (How  to  Teach  a  Foreign 
Language)  has  just  been  published  by 
Messrs.  Swan,  Sonnenschein  &  Co.  It  was 
most  gratifying  to  find  that  the  distinguished 
Danish  reform  teacher  uses  very  similar 
arguments  to  those  which  I  have  urged  in 
the  above  article  and  elsewhere,  more  par- 
ticularly as  he  seems  quite  unaware  of  what 
has  been  done  in  England  during  the  last 
five  or  six  years.  I  warmly  recommend 
the  perusal  of  his  book  to  all  who  are 
interested  in  the  problems  of  language 
teaching. 

WALTER  EIPPMANN. 


APERQU  D'UNE  METHODE. 


TOUTE  langue  est  1'ensemble  de  nos  idees, 
resultat  premier  et  dernier  des  perceptions, 
exprimees  par  des  sons  ou  represented  par 
des  mots  et  affirmees  par  la  proposition, 
d'oii  la  pens6e.  Selon  un  certain  milieu,  les 
id6es,  toujours  invariables  comme  telles,  sont 
rappelees  par  une  difference  de  sons.  C'est 
ce  qui,  avec  des  diversites  dans  1'enchalne- 
ment  des  jugements,  fait  en  somme  la 
difference  d'une  langue  a  1'autre. 

Or,  on  ne  peut,  pour  1'acquisition  d'une 
langue  6trangere,  rep6ter  strictement  et  de 
nouveau,  ainsi  que  le  veulent  quelques-uns, 
les  operations  de  Pintelligence  qui  out  et6 
faites  pour  la  langue  mere.  II  est  vrai 
qu'aussitot  que  1'intelligence  de  1'enfant  a 
6t6  mise  en  rapport  avec  le  monde  exterieur, 
la  mere,  afin  qu'il  puisse  exprimer  ses  id6es, 
lui  a  donne  pour  chacune  un  certain  son. 
Ainsi  ont  et6  acquis  les  vocables  qui  se 


rapportent  soit  au  tact,  soit  a  la  vue,  a 
1'ouie,  au  gout  ou  a  1'odorat. 

Cependant,  il  n'en  est  pas  tout-a-fait  ainsi 
quand  il  s'agit  d'enseigner  une  langue 
etrangere. 

Dans  la  langue  mere,  les  idees  sont  le 
premier  et  dernier  resultat  des  perceptions. 
Pour  une  autre  langue  que  la  sienne,  ce  fait 
de  1'intelligence  ne  peut  etre  reproduit. 

Meme  pourrait-on  concevoir  une  id6e  sans 
concevoir  dans  le  meme  temps  le  mot  qu'on 
a  1'habitude  premiere  d'associer  a  cette  idee, 
il  n'est  possible,  surtout  en  classe,  d'appliquer 
que  tres  imparfaitement  une  methode  basee 
sur  les  perceptions,  puisque  le  monde  externe 
ne  peut  agir  librement  sur  les  organes  et 
que,  des  cinq  sens,  on  ne  pent  en  exercer 
que  deux :  1'ou'ie  et  la  vue.  Quant  aux 
id6es  qui  sont  le  resultat  du  tact,  du  gout, 
et  de  1'odorat,  on  est  bien  oblig6  d'accepter 


62 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


celles  qui  ont  et6  preincrement  acquises. 
II  en  est  de  meme  des  sentiments.  De 
meme  aussi  trouvons-nous  toutes  faites  les 
affirmations  des  idees  exprimees  par  la  pro- 
position. 

Force  est  done,  pour  apprendre  une 
langue  etrangere,  de  se  contenter  de  rappeler 
les  idees  premieres  auxquelles  nous  avons 
deja  donn6  des  sons  et  des  signes  pour  leur 
donner  d'autres  sons,  les  revetir  d'autres 
signes. 

Si  cela  est,  1'enseignement  d'une  langue 
vivante  revient : 

1°  A  la  reproduction  de  nouveaux  sons 

et  de  nouveaux  signes ; 
2°  A   la    traduction    de    la    proposition 

simple  d'abord,  puis  complexe ; 
3°  A  1'arrangement  des  propositions  co- 

ordonnees. 

D'apres  cet  ordre,  on  doit,  non  seulement 
des  le  debut  mais  avant  tout,  exiger  la 
pronouciation. 

Oubliant  combien  de  travail  est  deja 
accompli  ainsi  qu'il  est  demontr6  plus  haut, 
nous  voulons  g6neralement  aller  trop  vite. 
Tout  au  commencement  il  ne  faudra  qu'un 
vocabulaire  choisi  consistant  de  substantifs, 
de  verbes  et  d'attributs  qui  seront  repetes 
jusqu'a  ce  que  la  prononciation  en  soit 
parfaite. 

Pour  cette  tache,  il  vaudrait  peut-etre 
mieux  avoir  un  livre  de  propositions 
simples.  Quoi  qu'il  en  soit,  nos  livres  de 
lecture  tels  qu'ils  sont  ne  remplissent  pas 
leur  but. 

Si  les  eleves  sont  des  commemjants,  on 
leur  met  entre  les  mains  un  'Elementary 
Reader';  s'ils  ont  quelques  connaissances  de 
la  langue,  on  leur  donne  des  'Advanced 
Readers.' 

Or,  au  point  de  vue  de  la  prononciation 
cette  difference  de  livres  est  absolument 
illusoire  car,  que  la  texte  soit  facile  ou 
difficile  a  traduire,  les  uns  ou  les  autres 
presentent  toutes  et  les  memes  difficult^ 
de  la  prononciation. 

Au  lieu  de  presenter  toutes  les  difficultes 
a  la  fois  et  afin  que  1'eleve  puisse  mieux  les 
vaincre,  il  faut  les  amener  graduellement. 
Prenant  encore  la  langue  mere  pour  grande 
base,  1'on  voit,  en  la  comparant,  disons, 
avec  le  fra^ais,  qu'une  partie  du  travail 
est  fait.  En  effet,  il  n'est  besoin  de  s'occuper 
des  consonnes  simples,  leur  valeur  etant  la 
meme  dans  les  deux  langues  a  1'exception 
de  tres  peu  de  difficultes.  On  peut  en  dire 
autant  des  consonnes  doubles.  II  reste 
done  1°  les  voyelles  pures,  2°  les  sons 
represented  par  une  combinaison  de  voyelles, 
3°  les  sons  nasaux  et  4°  les  sons  figures  par 


certaines  combinaisons  de  consonnes  entre 
elles  ou  avec  des  voyelles  et  qui  semblent 
plus  particulierement  donner  du  mal  selon 
la  nationality  de  celui  qui  apprend. 

D'apres  Texp^rieuce  la  chose  est  faisable. 
Un  livre  compose  de  propositions  simples 
oil  entreraient  et,  par  degres,  ces  divisions 
de  la  prononciation,  est  a  faire.  Sans  com- 
prendre  les  exercices  de  repetition,  il  comp- 
terait  environ  trente-ciuq  Ie9ons  de  lectuie 
pour  vaincre  les  difficultes  une  a  une. 

Les  enfants,  il  est  vrai,  apprennent  sans 
ordre  aucun  les  differents  sons  des  mots  de 
la  langue  mere.  Oui ;  mais  parce  qu'il  y  a 
une  imitation  et  une  repetition  de  tous  les 
instants  que  Ton  ne  peut  esperer  remplacer 
que  par  quelque  systeme  analogue  a  celui 
que  je  viens  de  donner,  mais  qui  doit  etre 
assurement  different  de  celui  que  Ton  em- 
ploie  generalement. 

Une  fois  la  prononciation  de  ces  proposi- 
tions bien  acquise  et  les  mots  qui  les 
composent  sus  par  cceur,  alors  seulement 
commencera-t-on  le  theme  avec  des  pro- 
positions non  plus  simples  mais  complexes, 
faites  a  haute  voix  plutot  que  par  6crit,  pour 
exercer  encore  la  prononciatiou  et  pour  ainsi 
tenir  1'eleve  mieux  en  haleine. 

Dans  ce  but  il  n'y  aurait,  ce  me  semble, 
aucune  objection  a  donner  un  autre  livre, 
cette  fois,  de  propositions  complexes  dans 
la  langue  mere,  lesquelles  propositions 
seraient  traduites  en  presence  du  maitre, 
1'eleve  se  servant  des  connaissances  deja 
acquises  par  le  travail  precedent.  Ce  serait 
done  une  continuation  ou  plutot  une  pro- 
gression. II  va  sans  dire  que  ce  second 
livre  contiendrait  les  mots  que  necessite 
1'extension  du  premier  travail. 

Par  ce  moyen  et  par  les  varietes  que 
trouve  1'initiative  d'un  bon  maitre,  il  devient 
facile  non  seulement  de  faire  emettre  encore 
une  fois  les  sons  mais  aussi  de  faire  donner 
1'intonation.  Et  tant  qu'il  y  aura  hesita- 
tion, on  fera  renter. 

Jusque  la  il  y  aurait  d'acquis  un  certain 
vocabulaire  bien  prononce  consistant  a 
present  de  substantifs,  de  verbes,  d'attri- 
buts et  de  mots  qui  determinent  et  le  verbe 
et  1'attribut. 

II  reste  alors  une  derniere  extension : 
1'arrangement  des  propositions  coordonnees 
et  1'examen  de  leur  difference  avec  celles  de 
la  langue  mere. 

La  traduction  de  la  langue  mere  dans 
une  langue  etrangere  —  ce  n'est  que  plus 
tard  que  1'on  devrait  faire  de  la  composition, 
c'est-a-dire  des  dissertations  —  est,  quand 
on  est  pass6  par  les  degres  qui  y  amenent, 
le  grand  moyen. 


REVIEW 


63 


Malheureusement,  dans  1'enseignement 
des  langues  modernes  011  a  neglige  cet 
exercice  et  ceux  qui  disent  que  c'est  '  faire 
de  la  mosaique '  n'ont  pas  compris  toute  sa 
valeur. 

C'est  alors  que  la  gramraaire,  plutot  la 
syntaxe,  devient,  si  Ton  peut  s'exprimer 
ainsi,  ouvertemeut  permise.  On  a  des  ce 
moment  ses  coudees  franches  et  il  est  diffi- 
cile de  concevoir  de  lemons  plus  interes- 
santes,  plus  profitables  que  n'offre  un  pareil 
travail  et  pour  le  maitre  et  pour  1'eleve, 
mais  il  faut  s'y  prendre  d'une  certaine 
facjon. 

II  ne  faut  pas  avoir  pear  d'un  texte, 
disons,  anglais.  Tant  mieux  s'il  devient 
tres  anglais,  plus  les  progres  se  font  sentir. 
II  sera  d'autant  plus  utile  qu'il  servira  a 
demontrer  que  la  pensee  d'une  langue  a 
1'autre  peut  prendre  differentes  tournures 
pour  arriver  a  la  meme  conclusion. 

Donn6s  des  textes  choisis  qui  permettent 
une  marche  progressive,  les  eleves  traduiront 
de  vive  voix,  tirant  des  connaissances  deja 
acquises  tout  ce  qu'il  leur  est  possible.  Si 
ce  qu'ils  disent  tout  haut  a  1'approbation  du 
maitre,  ils  le  coucheront  aussit6t  sur  papier 
afin  qu'ils  en  retiennent  1'orthographe  et 
qu'ils  1'aient  plus  longtemps  sous  les  yeux. 
An  contraire,  aussitot  que  les  eleves  feront 
une  faute,  suivront  au  tableau  les  explica- 
tions, les  raisons,  le  pourquoi  on  a  failli  et, 
la  correction  faite,  ils  1'ecriront  comme  ils 
ont  fait  pour  ce  qui  a  et6  approuve  et  ainsi 
de  suite  jusqu'a  la  fin  du  theme. 

Quant  au  vocabulaire,  il  ne  sera  pas  assez 
etendu  pour  pouvoir  se  passer  de  quelque 
auxiliaire  mais  c'est  le  maitre  qui  doit  etre 
cet  auxiliaire  et  non  le  dictionnaire. 


Dans  un  cahier  special,  qu'on  pourrait 
appeler  le  '  cahier  d'ignorance,'  chaque 
eleve  y  inscrira  tout  mot,  toute  regie,  toute 
explication  qu'il  a  pu  demander  pour  les 
appreudre  comme  devoir. 

De  cette  fa$on  il  se  fait  un  vocabulaire  a 
lui,  de  tout  ce  que  lui  particulierement  ne 
savait  pas. 

Ge  vocabulaire  aura  aussi  ce  grand  avan- 
tage  pour  la  memoire  que  le  mot  a  frapp6 
1'oreille,  a  ete  vu  apparente,  associe  a  d'autres 
mots,  enfin  que  c'est  la  le  mot  juste.  Aussi 
le  theme  ne  devrait-il  pas  etre  donne  comme 
devoir  en  1'absence  du  maitre  ou  alors  on 
fera  de  la  '  mosaique.' 

Comme  devoir  on  demandera  des  com- 
positions, des  dissertations  que  1'eleve  devra 
tant  bien  que  mal  tirer  de  ses  propres  con- 
naissances sur  des  sujets  donnes  et,  bien 
entendu,  a  sa  portee. 

On  a  trop  attach^  d'importance  a  la 
traduction  de  la  langue  etrangere  dans  la 
langue  mere. 

Certainement  ce  travail  exerce  la  memoire 
des  mots  mais  n'a  guere  d'autre  avantage 
pour  les  jeunes,  du-  moins  en  fran£ais.  II 
faut  une  attention  trop  soutenue,  de  plus 
grandes  connaissances  que  n'ont  la  plupart 
des  eleves  pour  pouvoir  appr6cier  et  vouloir 
chercher  a  retenir  les  nuances  d'un  texte 
en  langue  etrangere.  C'est  un  travail 
d'etudiant  et  non  d'ecolier.  Enfin,  plus  une 
classe  entendra  et  fera  entendre  la  langue 
qu'elle  cherche  a  connaitre,  plus  les  progres 
se  feront  sentir,  et  c'est,  je  crois,  sur  le 
theme  de  vive  voix  que  nous  devons  baser 
toute  m^thode. 

VICTOR  E.  KASTNER  (Junr.). 


REVIEW. 


Elementary  Phonetics,  English, 
French,  German:  Their  Theory 
and  Practical  Application  in  the 
Classroom.  W.  SCHOLLE,  Ph.D., 
and  G.  SMITH,  M.A. 

THIS  book  is  one  of  a  class  which  continues 
to  pour  from  the  press  on  all  subjects  in 
great  abundance,  and  which,  if  he  were 
alive  at  the  present  day,  would  certainly 
not  cause  '  the  weary  King  Ecclesiast '  to 
retract  the  world-famous  sigh  so  often 
echoed  by  all  those  whose  profession  forces 


them  to  read  books.  The  pity  of  it !  One 
would  have  been  delighted  to  welcome  a 
new  book  on  Phonetics,  were  it  only  as  a 
sign  that  interest  for  this  too  often  sadly 
neglected  subject  is  gradually  spreading. 
But  in  the  case  of  the  book  before  us  even 
moderate  expectations  will  be  frequently 
disappointed. 

To  begin  with,  the  general  plan  of  the 
book  is  confusing  for  the  ordinary  reader. 
It  seems  to  address  itself  in  the  main  to  the 
teacher,  but  much  is  treated  in  such  an 
elementary  manner  that  it  appears  rather 
to  be  aimed  at  the  pupil.  Directions  for 


64 


THE  MODEEN  LANGUAGE  QUAKTERLY 


teaching  and  descriptions  of  sounds  are 
hence  mixed  up  in  a  way  which  occasions 
rather  more  '  repetition  of  certain  facts  and 
observations'  (Preface,  p.  vi.)  than  is  likely 
to  be  agreeable  to  the  more  mature  student. 
In  other  words,  the  book  has  a  double  aim : 
it  claims  not  only  to  teach  phonetics,  but 
also  to  teach  how  phonetics  are  to  be  taught. 
Herein  lies  the  fundamental  mistake  of  the 
whole.  It  would  undoubtedly  have  been 
better  (and  more  interesting)  if  the  authors 
had  set  themselves  to  produce  either  an 
elementary  primer  for  schools,  or  a  book  in 
which  they  laid  down  the  results  of  their 
own  experience  as  teachers ;  either  one  or 
the  other  by  itself,  but,  in  the  name  of  all 
that  is  scientific,  not  these  two  things  united. 
How  the  mistake  arose  we  can  easily  per- 
ceive. The  Preface  contains,  after  some 
pertinent,  if  not  altogether  novel,  remarks 
on  the  necessity  for  Phonetics  in  the  teach- 
ing of  modern  languages,  a  rather  elaborate 
apology  to  the  teacher  who  '  has  a  shot '  at 
a  subject  and  gives  it  up  because  he  finds  it 
more  difficult  than  he  bargained  for.  Text- 
books (p.  xii.)  are  condemned  for  being  '  as 
a  rule'  too  elaborate  and  aiming  too  high, 
so  that  'they  confuse  and  discourage  the 
beginner  by  too  much  detail,  especially  in 
the  description  of  the  different  parts  of  the 
larynx  and  their  functions.'  Now  against 
this  it  may  be  claimed,  that,  if  the  teacher 
really  exists  who  likes  to  have  a  shot  at 
a  subject,  who  would  find,  say,  Sweet's 
Primer  of  Phonetics  (or  any  one  of  various 
other  elementary  books)  too  elaborate  and 
too  high  in  its  aims  to  be  mastered  by  him, 
such  a  one  is  either  a  duffer  or  an  ass,  and 
the  best  thing  one  can  do  is  to  leave  him 
to  himself.  It  is  certainly  not  worth  while 
to  write  books  for  his  encouragement.  He 
will  surely  never  be  an  ornament  of  his 
profession,  and  is  not  likely  under  any  cir- 
cumstances to  learn  enough  about  phonetics 
to  be  able  to  teach  phonetical  principles  in 
a  persuasive  manner. 

I  pass  over  now  to  a  few  remarks  on 
various  matters  of  detail.  The  arrange- 
ment of  the  scientific  material  which  we 
find  here  excites  criticism  in  many  respects. 
It  has  up  to  the  present  been  customary  for 
the  authors  of  books  on  phonetics  to  begin 
with  certain  fundamental  principles.  To 
take  the  example  of  one  of  the  most  famous 
authorities  already  referred  to :  Sweet 
begins  his  Primer  with  a  definition  of 
Phonetics  as  a  science,  which  also  gives 
an  opportunity  for  impressing  on  the  learner 
the  attitude  he  must  adopt  towards  this 
science.  He  begins  his  analysis  with  the 


statement  that  the  '  foundation  of  speech  is 
breath  expelled  by  the  lungs.'  This  may 
be  sufficiently  evident  in  itself,  but  is  at 
the  same  time  the  starting-point  for  a 
scientific  classification  and  description  of 
speech-sounds.  All  scientific  writers 
begin  in  this  or  a  similar  manner.  It  is 
therefore  not  plain  why  the  writers  of  the 
book  under  consideration  have  thought  fit 
to  break  with  tradition  and  start  at  once, 
without  the  slightest  introductory  remark, 
with  'the  upper  part  of  the  windpipe.'  In 
practical  school  teaching,  of  course,  a  more 
or  less  empiric  method  may  or  may  not  be 
necessary,  but  I  imagine  that  nothing  is 
gained  by  plunging  even  children  straight- 
way into  a  description  of  the  speech  organs, 
without  first  making  clear  to  them  why 
that  description  is  necessary,  which  can,  of 
course,  be  done  only  by  starting  from  first 
principles.  What  would  be  thought  of  a 
book  on  chemistry  which  began  with  a 
description  of  the  experiment  by  which 
oxygen  is  prepared  from  mercuric  oxide  ? 
Even  admitting  that  such  a  proceeding  is 
practically  useful  in  the  classroom,  where 
teachers  can  add  or  prefix  the  necessary 
comments  and  explanations,  even  admitting 
so  much,  there  is  no  doubt  that,  when  a 
book  is  put  into  the  hands  of  the  learner, 
that  book  should  be  a  clear  exposition  not 
only  of  principles,  but  also  of  scientific 
arrangement.  It  is  just  this  last  feature 
which  is  sadly  lacking  in  the  Elementary 
Phonetics.  'Articulation'  is  not  defined 
until  the  22nd  paragraph,  and  then  only  in 
a  footnote !  The  authors  may  be  termed 
helpless  in  this  respect,  as  is  instanced  by 
the  following.  On  p.  14  we  meet  a  section 
headed  General  Remarks,  which  includes 
paragraphs  on  Lip  Articulation,  Activity  of 
the  lower  jaw,  Relation  between  quantity 
and  quality  of  a  vowel,  etc.  On  p.  26  we 
are  again  confronted  with  General  Remarks 
(still  under  the  main  division :  Vowels — 
English).  Here  in  three  subdivisions  (of 
§  52)  we  are  told  of  (a)  vowel-lengthening, 

(b)  importance   to  the    student    of   being 
able  to  produce  vowels  by  themselves,  and 

(c)  the  usefulness  of  practice  in  lip-rounding. 
Such    a    scheme    of    arrangement  is  bad 
enough,  but  one   is   further  compelled  to 
ask  why  §  52  (a),  lengthening   of  vowels 
before  voiced  consonants,  should  be  separ- 
ated   by   ten    pages   from   §   28,    shorten- 
ing of  vowels  before  voiceless  consonants  ? 
Should  these  two  phenomena  not  stand  side 
by   side    under    one    heading — Quantity  ? 
Most    phoneticians    would    demand    that 
before  describing  the  speech-sounds  of  any 


REVIEW 


65 


language  it  should  be  made  clear  what  is 
meant  by  the  basis  of  articulation.  Nothing 
is  said,  however,  about  the  basis  of  articula- 
tion till  quite  near  the  end  of  the  book, 
long  after  the  sounds  of  English,  German, 
and  French  have  been  described  in  detail. 
The  definition  given  there  on  p.  138  is  not 
in  the  words  of  the  authors  (a  fact  which  is 
characteristic  of  their  attitude  of  mind),  but 
in  a  series  of  paragraphs  copied  word  for 
word,  albeit  with  acknowledgment,  from 
Sweet's  Primer.  One  would  have  thought 
that  the  copying  might  easily  have  been 
done  with  accuracy,  but  this  is  not  the  case 
[e.g.  eliminate  instead  of  eliminates,  lips  are 
artif-ulated  instead  of  articulate].  Apparently 
the  basis  of  articulation  was  an  after- 
thought, and  the  authors  had  not  time  to 
elaborate  an  independent  description  of  it. 

Preface,  p.  x.  The  authors  insist  here 
and  elsewhere  (§  187)  upon  the  pronuncia- 
tion of  German  on-sounding  vowels  with 
the  glottal  stop,  the  directions  they  give 
in  this  respect  seeming  to  be  based  on 
Vietor,  Elemente,  §  33.  It  may  be  as  well, 
however,  to  point  out  that  the  German 
authorities  are  divided  on  the  question 
of  the  use  of  the  glottal  stop.  Sievers 
(Grundzuge*,  §  358,  see  also  Pmut  Grundriss, 
I.2,  S.  299)  gives  it  as  usual  only  in  the 
case  of  'stark  betonte  Vocale  im  freien 
Anlaut,'  and  says  that  it  vanishes  '  im 
Satzinnern.'  This  certainly  agrees  with 
my  own  observations,  which  have  im- 
pressed on  me  the  fact  that  one  very 
seldom  indeed  hears  a  word  like  Verein 
pronounced  with  the  glottal  stop,  in  spite 
of  the  testimony  of  Professor  Vietor. 
Whether,  however,  Sievers  or  Vietor  be 
right  is  not  what  I  wish  to  debate  here. 
I  only  ask,  is  it  worth  while  to  trouble 
English  pupils  with  the  glottal  stop, 
except  in  the  one  comparatively  rare  case 
mentioned  by  Sievers  ?  It  would  certainly 
be  simpler  and  more  easy  to  teach  a  school- 
boy to  pronounce  Verein  as  Sievers  does 
rather  than  in  the  way  claimed  by  Vietor. 

P.  11,  §  14.  'Instead  of  narrow  and 
wide  the  terms  close  and  open  are  often 
used.'  (About  this  quite  unscientific  use 
of  the  terms,  see  Sievers,  Pauls  Grundriss, 
i.2,  296.)  'Sweet  uses  the  terms  high 
and  low.'  Of  course  he  does — but  not  at 
all  in  this  connection !  Have  the  authors 
really  read  their  Sweet?  One  is  inclined, 
in  spite  of  the  copying  referred  to  above, 
to  doubt  it  after  this. 

P.  25,  §  48.  It  is  certainly  wrong  to  class 
direct  along  with  balloon  as  an  example 
for  9.  In  educated  English  pronunciation, 

VOL.  VII. 


unstressed  short  i  may  be  more  or  less 
reduced,  but  it  never  becomes  9,  the  latter 
sound  in  such  cases  being  in  fact  charac- 
teristic not  of  English  but  of  Irish  pro- 
nunciation. 

P.  42,  §  84.  So  far  as  I  know,  most 
authorities  are  now  agreed  that  the  ordinary 
German  long  «  has  the  tongue  position  not 
of  i,  but  of  the  long  narrow  e,  while  o  has 
the  tongue  position  of  the  narrow  English 
vowel  which  forms  the  first  part  of  the 
diphthong  e».  Even  Vietor  admits  that  the 
'  artikulirende  Hebung  .  .  .  etwas  tiefer 
steht'  (see  Elemente,  §  59).  In  addition 
to  this,  these  vowels  are  over -rounded 
(cf.  Sweet,  Primer,  p.  17),  that  is,  have, 
according  to  Vietor,  an  '  abnormally  strong 
labialisation'  (I.e.  Note  2).  These  facts 
ought  certainly  to  be  alluded  to  even 
in  an  elementary  book  like  the  present. 

P.  43,  §  86.  It  is  incorrect  to  say  that 
a  'pouting  of  the  lips'  is  essential  to  the 
learning  of  the  y  and  <f>  sounds  in  German. 
A  large  number  of  Germans  round  these 
vowels  energetically  without  pouting  (cf. 
with  this,  Sievers,  Grundziige,  in  regard  to 
Rundung  and  Vorstulpung,  and  also  §  254). 
This  being  so,  there  can  be  little  gained 
by  teaching  to  English  children  the  pouting 
rather  than  the  other  species  of  rounding, 
which  is  more  in  accordance  with  their 
normal  habits. 

P.  44,  §  88.  It  is  undoubtedly  correct 
to  warn  against  pronouncing  a  glide  9 
between  vowels  and  r  in  German,  in  such 
examples  as  dir.  Apart  from  this,  how- 
ever, the  use  of  '  off-glide '  here  is  un- 
scientific, as  the  word  has  a  special  (not 
this)  sense  in  phonetics.  Ubergangslaute  are 
not  unknown  in  German  (cf.  Feuer,  Mauer), 
and  that  language  is  just  as  rich  in  off- 
glides  in  the  proper  sense  (Lautalsatze, 
Sievers)  as  most  modern  tongues. 

P.  70,  §  138.  German  j  is  certainly  not 
the  same  as  English  y  in  the  pronunciation 
of  most  Germans  ;  cf.  Vietor,  Elemente,  §§  79 
and  80.  It  is  furthermore  wrong  to  class  he 
and  hue  together  as  is  done  here.  Qij  for 
he  is  certainly  only  '  sometimes '  heard, 
but  all  people  who  pronounce  normally 
say  cjuw  for  hue. 

P.  71,  §  141  (6).  It  is  necessary  to  protest 
energetically  against  the  idea  that  the 
'  only  difference '  between  English  6  and  p 
is  one  of  the  presence  or  absence  of  voice. 
Can  they  not  be  distinguished  from  each 
other  when  we  whisper?  Or  is  there  no 
difference  between  South  Germ<an  6  and  p, 
both  being' voiceless?  From  their  remarks 
in  SS  191  and  211  the  authors  seem  to  have 


66 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


felt  that  there  is  indeed  a  difference,  but 
they  have  nowhere  clearly  expressed  what 
it  is. 

P.  102,  §  189.  It  is  certainly  an  in- 
consequence that  having  laid  so  much 
stress  on  the  necessity  for  pronouncing  the 
glottal  stop  (see  above),  the  authors  should 
content  themselves  in  regard  to  the  German 
I  with  the  following  simple  directions : 
'  The  German  I,  though  it  has  slight  vibra- 
tion of  the  sides  (or  of  one  side)  of  the 
tongue,  may,  for  our  purpose,  be  regarded 
as  practically  the  same  as  the  English  I.' 
The  glottal  stop  is  a  comparatively  un- 
important matter  for  the  beginner,  but  I 
think  most  people  will  agree  that  the 
difference  between  the  German  and  the 
English  I  is  a  very  important  one  indeed. 
The  deep-sounding  guttural  English  I  is  a 
quite  foreign  sound  to  German  ears,  so  far 
as  my  experience  goes.  A  reference,  how- 
ever, to  Sweet's  Elementarbuch  des  gespro- 
chenen  Englisch,  p.  12,  is  quite  sufficient  to 
dispose  of  the  idea  that  the  two  I  sounds 
may  be  '  regarded  as  practically  the  same ' 
— no  matter  for  what  purpose  it  be  claimed. 

What  is  meant  by  the  'slight  vibration 
of  the  sides  of  the  tongue'  referred  to 
above  ?  Does  this  mean  that  German  I 
is  a  sort  of  lateral  rl  That  is  certainly  not 
the  description  usually  given  of  it ! 

P.  109,  §  207.  The  contrast  here  set  up 
between  vowels  and  consonants  is  super- 
ficial. Any  one  who  whispers  the  vowels 
will  easily  be  persuaded  that  the  character- 


istic difference  between  the  articulation  of 
vowels  and  open  consonants  (apart  from 
the  presence  or  absence  of  voice)  is  not 
one  of  kind  but  of  degree.  What  is  the 
difference  between  whispered  i  and  con- 
sonant y  in  you  ?  It  will  be  sufficient  here, 
however,  to  refer  to  Bremer,  who,  in  his 
Deutsche  Phonetik,  §  66,  well  brings  out  the 
gradual  transition  that  exists  between 
consonants  and  vowels.  The  wording  of 
this  §  207  is  absurdly  self-contradictory.  If 
a  vowel  is  voice  which  passes  'unimpeded 
through  the  oral  cavity,  and  between  the 
lips,'  how  can  it  be  '  thereby  modified  in 
different  ways '  1 

In  conclusion,  there  is  one  disagreeable 
feature  of  this  book  which  cannot  be  passed 
over.  This  is  the  frequent  occurrence  of 
the  'split  infinitive,'  an  irregularity  in 
modern  English  which  ought  surely  to  be 
left  as  the  untouched  and  unenvied  property 
of  the  careless  journalism  that  brought  it 
into  existence.  In  a  book  intended  for 
school  use  this  offence  against  the  tradition 
of  literary  usage  ought  most  certainly  to 
be  avoided  with  the  utmost  fastidiousness. 
One  or  two  other  slips  are  perhaps  owing 
to  the  fact  that  the  book  has  evidently 
been  partly  written  by  a  German,  but  there 
is  a  rather  bad  mistake  on  p.  156,  the 
existence  of  which  I  only  mention  as  the 
authors  have  probably  regretted  it  them- 
selves by  this  time. 

R.  A.  WILLIAMS. 


FROM  HERE  AND   THERE. 


Two  excellent  lectures  have  been  delivered 
this  session  under  the  auspices  of  The 
Modern  Language  Association.  We  regret 
to  say  that  Dr.  Reich's  stimulating  address 
cannot  appear  in  the  Quarterly,  but  Sir 
Hubert  Jerningham's  lecture  on  Dumas 
pere  will  appear  in  our  next  number. 
***** 

We  are  also  compelled  to  hold  over  a 

valuable  article  by  Mr.  Arthur  Powell,  of 

Brussels,  in  which  he  discusses  the  question 

how  English  should  be  taught  to  foreigners. 

***** 

Those  who  take  interest  in  the  matter 
will  learn  with  pleasure  of  the  establish- 
ment in  London  of  a  Holiday  Course  for 
Foreigners,  in  which  the  University  of 


London  and  the  Teachers'  Guild  are  co- 
operating. Among  the  lecturers  we  notice 
the  names  of  Mr.  Storr,  Dr.  Heath,  Mr. 
Graham  Wallas,  Professor  Hall  Griffin, 
Dr.  R.  D.  Roberts,  Dr.  E.  R.  Edwards, 
Mr.  B.  MacDonald,  and  Professor  Walter 
Rippmann,  who  has  been  appointed  Director 
of  the  Course. 

***** 

The  Inaugural  Address  will  be  delivered 
by  Sir  Arthur  Riicker  on  the  18th  July. 
Further  particulars  can  be  obtained  on 
application  to  the  Director  of  the  Holiday 
Course  for  Foreigners,  University  of  London, 
South  Kensington,  S.W. 

***** 

At  the  Conference  of  Teachers  held  under 


FROM  HERE  AND  THERE 


67 


the  auspices  of  the  Technical  Education 
Board  on  January  7th,  8th,  and  9th,  the  whole 
of  the  second  day  was  given  to  modern 
languages,  our  Association  having  assumed 
the  responsibility  of  providing  lecturers. 
At  the  morning  session  the  Hon.  W.  N. 
Bruce  was  in  the  chair,  and  papers  were 
read  by  Dr.  E.  R.  Edwards  on  The  Applica- 
tion of  Phonetics  to  Language  Teaching,  and 
by  Mr.  F.  B.  Kirkman  on  The  Method  of 
Using  a  French  Reader.  In  the  afternoon 
the  chair  was  taken  by  Dr.  Heath,  owing  to 
the  unavoidable  absence  of  Sir  Arthur 
Riicker,  and  Mr.  G.  G.  Coulton  contributed 
a  paper  on  Grammar  Teaching  in  Modern 
Languages,  and  Professor  Rippmann  an 
address  on  Modern  Language  Examinations. 
***** 

The  papers  and  the  discussions  are  given 
in  full  in  The  London  Technical  Education 
Gazette  for  January  and  February  1904  (2d., 
by  post  4id.).  The  attendance  was  very 
good,  and  the  audience  most  appreciative. 
***** 

As  we  go  to  press,  a  number  of  our 
members  are  setting  out  for  Paris,  where  a 
most  attractive  programme  has  been  pre- 
pared. We  regret  to  learn  that  Professor 
Sadler,  our  President,  is  unable  to  go ;  but 
Mr.  Storr  and  Dr.  Heath,  not  to  mention 
several  of  the  hard-worked  members  of  the 
Executive  Committee,  will  be  there  as 
spokesmen  of  the  Association. 

***** 

It  gives  us  pleasure  to  record  that  Gon- 
ville  and  Cains  College,  Cambridge,  is  once 
again  to  the  fore  in  encouraging  the  study 
of  modern  languages.  We  learn  that  the 
governing  body  of  Gonville  and  Caius 
College  has  determined  as  an  experiment  to 
establish  for  two  years  a  '  Lectorship '  in 
French.  The  Lector  will  be  a  graduate  of 
a  French  university,  selected  with  the  help 
and  sanction  of  the  French  Minister  of 
Education.  He  will  come  into  residence  at 
the  college  in  October  next,  and  will  be 
admitted  on  the  status  of  an  'advanced 
student,'  and  will  be  expected  to  prosecute 
some  special  branch  of  study  or  research. 
As  Lector  he  will  give  lectures  on  any 
subject  he  may  choose  in  his  own  language, 
and  will  conduct  at  least  two  carefully- 


planned    conversation    classes    in  French. 

Both  lectures  and  classes  will  be  open  to 
the  whole  university. 

*  *  *  *  * 

Dr.  Breul  informs  us  that  there  are  42 
candidates  (18  men  and  24  women)  for  the 
forthcoming  Tripos,  and  that  a  large  per- 
centage of  them  will  also  take  the  examina- 
tion in  spoken  French  and  spoken  German. 
This  is  a  much  more  serious  test  than  the 
optional  examination  which  used  to  be 
attached  to  the  Tripos ;  it  is  open  to  any 
students  who  have  passed  the  Tripos  or  the 
Modern  Language  Special. 

***** 

M.  Baron,  Professor  at  the  College  of  St. 
Servan,  and  a  member  of  the  Association, 
announced  at  the  General  Meeting  that  the 
Holiday  Courses  for  Foreigners,  which  had 
been  inaugurated  at  St.  Servan  in  August 
1903,  under  the  patronage  of  the  Alliance 
Fram('aise  and  of  the  University  of  Rennes, 
would  be  continued  in  1904. 

The  Courses  are  under  the  direction  of 

M.  Fettu,  Professeur  a  la  Faculte  de 
Droit  de  l'Universit6  de  Rennes. 

M.  Gohin,  Professeur  agr6g6  au  Lyc6e 
de  Rennes. 

N.B. — All  correspondence  should  be  ad- 
dressed to  M.  Gohin,  Professeur  au  Lyc^e 
de  Rennes. 

References  in  England  : — 

J.  H.  Haydon,  Esq.,  M.A.,  Headmaster, 
Tettenhall  College,  near  Wolver- 
hampton. 

A.  W.  Street,  Esq.,  B.A.,  Second 
Master,  The  Grammar  School,  Wan- 
tage. 

R.  H.  Allpress,  Esq.,  M.A.,  City  of 
London  School,  Victoria  Embank- 
ment, E.C. 

[The  London  and  South- Western  Railway 
Company  will  issue  return  tickets  available 
for  one  month,  from  Southampton  to  St. 
Malo,  during  the  month  of  August,  at  the 
reduced  price  of  £1  (second  class),  on  pro- 
duction of  the  card  of  admission  to  the 
Courses.] 


68 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


THE  SCHOLARS'  INTERNATIONAL  CORRESPONDENCE. 


MODERN  language  teachers  having  expressed 
their  desire  for  a  list  of  those  teachers  who 
find  the  international  exchange  of  letters 
helpful  to  their  pupils,  we  propose  to  publish 
such  a  list  twice  a  year.  For  the  informa- 
tion of  those  who  have  not  yet  tried  the 
plan,  it  is  perhaps  well  to  give  some  of  the 
approved  rules. 

1.  The    exchange    of    letters    is    always    and 
everywhere  under  the  supervision  of  the  foreign 
language  teacher.     All  foreign  letters  and  other 
postal  communications  are  under  his  control,  and 
the  school  address  only  should  be  given. 

2.  If    by  mischance    a    scholar    receives    two 
letters,  the  teacher  is  asked  to  arrange  that  some 
other  suitable  scholar  respond,  and  he  or  she  is 
always   free   to   rearrange,   if,   for    example,   one 
pupil    appears   to   be   more    suitable  as  regards 
position  in  class  and  socially  than  another. 

3.  The   rule  is  that   the   scholar   should  write 
alternately  in  his  own  and  the  foreign  language, 
but  the  first  letter  should  always  be  in  his  own 
tongue  and  written  with  great  care,  as  a  satisfac- 
tory development  depends  largely  upon  the  first 
impression  received. 

The    letters    should  be  exchanged    regularly ; 
twice  a  month  is  usual. 

4.  As  the    letters  in  the  mother  tongue    are 
intended  as  models  for  the  partner,  they  must  be 
written  with  care  and    must  be  grammatically 
correct.     The  scholar  should   endeavour  to  find 
something  of  interest  to  tell  his  friend.    Questions 
should  be  asked  and  answered,  and  a  helpful  bond 
of  union  thus  formed.      Courtesy  and  sympathy 
are  imperative. 

5.  The  teacher  or  parent  is  asked  to  help  in 
finding    materials    for    letters.      In    some    cases 
teachers   have   planned   a   series   of    letters,    and 
have   written    suggestions    each    month    on    the 
blackboard.      Political  and  religious  topics  are 
undesirable. 

6.  The  faulty  English  of  the  foreign  writer  must 
be  carefully  corrected  by  the   partner,   and   the 
foreign  pupil  will  also  correct  his  correspondent's 
mistakes.     For  this  a  wide  margin  should  be  left 
in  letter. 

7.  The    letters    should    be    plainly  and  fully 
addressed,  and  the  address  of  the  foreign  corre- 
spondent retained.    It  is  not  so  customary  abroad, 
as  with  us,  to  head  the  letter  always  with  the 
address. 

8.  If  a  scholar  no  longer  desires  to  exchange 
letters,  he  should  at  once  send  word  to  his  or  her 
correspondent. 

It  hns  been  suggested  that  teachers  will 
not  care  to  make  inquiry  for  every  indivi- 
dual pupil,  and  will  prefer  to  exchange 
batches  of  letters  with  one  school  alone. 
This  would  be  fatal  to  the  best  interests 
of  the  scheme ;  the  variety  given,  and  the 
geographical  knowledge  ensured  by  the 


rule  of  one  boy,  one  place,  being  invalu- 
able. 

Supposing  a  teacher  has  ten  pupils  need- 
ing correspondents.  He  should  send  out 
five  reply  postcards,  one  to  each  of  the 
schools  which  he  chooses,  asking  the  teacher 
of  it  whether  he  or  she  has  a  boy  (or  a  girl) 
willing  to  correspond  with  one  of  his  pupils, 
giving  ages  within  prescribed  limits,  say, 
from  thirteen  to  sixteen,  or  fifteen  to 
eighteen,  for  instance,  and  asking  about 
social  position  and  ability  in  languages. 
On  receipt  of  replies,  he  will  be  able 
to  pair  some  of  his  ten  at  least.  He 
can  then  send  out  other  reply  cards  to 
other  teachers,  and  fill  up  the  remaining 
vacancies. 

If  a  teacher  has  sixty  or  a  hundred  to 
arrange  for  at  one  time,  this  would  be  too 
great  a  tax.  In  such  case,  if  a  list  be  sent 
to  Miss  Lawrence,  Review  of  Reviews,  14 
Norfolk  Street,  Strand,  she  will  arrange  as 
hitherto,  leaving  teachers  to  bear  part  of 
the  costs  as  they  will. 

No  fee  has  been  asked  except  when 
adults  desired  correspondents,  when  Is.  was 
required  towards  cost  of  search.  But  with 
an  international  list,  Modern  Language 
teachers  would  have  no  difficulty  in  finding 
a  correspondent  should  they  themselves 
desire  one. 

Miss  Lawrence,  believing  that  Modern 
Language  professors  would  prefer  to  act 
without  intermediary,  has  compiled  this 
list,  but  she  is  as  ready  as  heretofore  to 
arrange  when  teachers  desire,  and  to  answer 
all  inquiries,  and  she  earnestly  hopes  that 
they  will  tell  her  how  the  plan  works  and 
give  their  opinion. 

LIST  OF  FOREIGN  TEACHERS  WHO  APPROVE 
OF  THE  EXCHANGE  OF  LETTERS. 

FRENCH. 
Professors  in  Boys'  Schools. 

M.  Andreii,  College  de  St.  Pol,  Pas  de 
Calais. 

M.  Bally,  ^cole  Primaire  supeVieure,  Gre- 
noble, Isere. 

M.  Bastide,  Lyc6e  de  Beauvais,  Oise. 

M.  Bazennerie,  College  de  Coulommiers, 
Seine-et-Marne. 

M.  Beltette,  Lyce'e  de  Tourcoing,  Nord. 


THE  SCHOLARS'  INTERNATIONAL  CORRESPONDENCE 


69 


M.  Benard,  Ecole  Normale  d'Instituteurs, 

Douai,  Nord. 

M.  Berlaud,  College  d'Uzes,  Gard. 
M.   Binet,   College  de  ConcU-eur-l'Escaut, 

Nord. 

M.  Bie,  College  de  Mazamet,  Tarn. 
M.   Blancheton,   College    de    St.    Nazaire, 

Loire  Inferieure. 

M.  Bonnet,  Lycee  de  Rennes,  Ille-et-Vilaine. 
M.  Bonafous,  Petit  S6minaire  de  Lavaur, 

Tarn. 
M.  Camerlynck,  Lyc6e  de  Nancy,  Meurthe- 

et-Moselle. 

M.  Chauliat,  Lycee  de  Foix,  Ariege. 
M.  Commandeur,  College  de  Montelimar, 

Dr6me. 

M.  G.  Copperie,  College  de  Calais,  Pas-de- 
Calais. 
M.  A.  Couturier,  College  d'Ambert,  Puy- 

de-D6me. 

M.  Desclos,  College  d'Eu,  Seine-Infre- 
M.  Divry,   Institut  St.  Louis,  Perpignan, 

Pyrenees  Orientales. 
Drieu,  College  de  Verdun,  Meuse. 


M.    Salvau,    College    St.    Jean    d'Angely, 

Charente  Inf. 
M.  Secheresse,  College  de  Bergerac,  Dor- 

dogne. 
M.  Thoumazoxir,  Petit  S6minaire  de  Brive, 

Correze. 

M.  Touzain,  Lycee  d'Angouleme,  Charente. 
M.  Voillot,  College  Monge  a  Beaune,  Cote 

d'Or. 
M.  Wirth,  Lyc6e   Fontanes,    Niort,   Deux 

Sevres. 

Teachers  in  Girls'  Schools. 

Mile  Abrey,  College  Fenelon,  Lille,  Nord. 
Mile   Boisson,  Ecole   Normale,    Versailles, 

Seine-et-Oise. 
Mile   Coblence,   Ecole   Normale   d'lnatitu- 

trices,  Melun,  Seine-et-Marne. 
Mile  Cros,  Lycee  de  Jeunes  Filles,  Orleans, 

Loiret. 

Miss  Crowe,  42  Rue  de  Bruxelles,  Paris. 
Mme  H.  Dupre,  Lycee  de  Jeunes  Filles, 

Bordeaux,  Gironde. 


JVL.     I  /  j  n-ii,    v-/unc;^c   uc     T  <  I  'iiin,   .Lrxuuoi/.  -\irii  Ti    1_         J  '        .', 

M.  Duplenne,  College  de  Cholet.  Maine-et-      Mlle    Erhard,     Ecole    supeneure,    Tours, 

_   *  .  °  '  T.~.lnn    ~*.  T  ~C., 


Loire. 

M.  Dupre,  Lycee  de  Bordeaux,  Gironde. 
M.  Feignoux,  Lyc6e  de  Montlu§on,  Allier. 
M.  Feytel,  Ecole  Normale,  Bonne ville,  Hte. 

Savoie. 

M.  Fournier,  College  de  Sezanne,  Marne. 
M.  Fra^ois,  Lycc5e  d'Alen9on,  Orne. 
M.  Gabriel,  College  de  Lun6ville,  Meurthe- 

et-Moselle. 
M.  Gandner,  College  d'Arnay-le-Duc,  Cote- 

d'Or. 

M.  Gascard,  Lyc6e  de  Montpellier,  H6rault. 
M.  Joseph,  College  de  Corte,  Corsica. 
M.  Koenig,  College  d'Aubusson,  Creuse. 
M.  Le  Rouge,  College  de  Josselin,  St.  Croix 

de  Josselin,  Morbihan. 
M.  Lochon,  College  de  La  Reole,  Gironde. 
M.  Maffre,  Lycee  de  Toulouse,  Hte.  Garonne. 
M.  Marchand,  College  de  Tonnerre,  Yonne. 
M.  Mieille,  Lycee  de  Tarbes,  Htes.  Pyrenees. 
M.  Nida,  Lycee  de  Troyes,  Aube. 
.M.  Obry,  Lyc6e  d'Alais,  Gard. 
M.  Odemps,  Lyc6e  de  St.  Brieuc,  Cotes  du 

Nord. 

M.  Odru,  College  de  Riom,  Puy-de-D6me. 
M.  Peignier,  Lycee  de  Bordeaux,  Gironde. 
M.  Pradel,  Lyc6e  de  Montlu5on,  Allier. 
M.  Quenouille,  College  de  Grasse,  Alpes 

Maritimes. 

M.  Rouge,  Lyc6e  de  Tours,  Indre-et-Loire. 
M.   Roussel,   Lyc6e   de  Vendome,   Loir-et- 

Cher. 
M.   Roy,   College    de    La    Rochefoucauld, 

Charente. 
M.  Sabardu,  College  de  Draguinan,  Var. 


superieure,     Saint 


Indre-et-Loire. 
Mile    Fayolle,     Ecole 

Chamond,  Loire. 
Mlle  Finlayson,  Ecole  Normale,  St.  Etienne, 

Loire. 
Mile    Fischer,    College    de    Jeunes   Filles, 

Chalon-sur-Sa6ne,  Saone-et-Loire. 
Mme  Veuve  Fran9ais,  College   de   Jeunes 

Filles,  Constantine,  Algerie,  Afrique. 
Mlle  Goisey,  College  de  Jeunes  Filles,  La 

Fere,  Aisne. 

Mlle  Gilard,  Lycee  de  Jeunes  Filles,  Mar- 
seilles. 
Mlle   Masson,   College   Fenelon,    Cambrai, 

Nord. 
Mme   Mieille,   College    de    Jeunes    Filles, 

Tarbes,  Htes.  Pyr6n6es. 
Miss  Murray,  6  Rue  Bosio,  Paris. 
Mlle  Pitsch,  Lycee  Victor  Hugo,  43  Rue 

Maubeuge,  Paris. 
Mme  Rolland,    College   de   Jeunes   Filles, 

Castres,  Tarn. 

GERMANY. 
Teachers  who  will  like  to  hear  direct : — 

Mr.  W.  E.  Birkett,  12  Hohstrasse,  Schweid- 

nitz,  Germany. 
Mr.  J.   Bolgar,    32    Hansaring,    Koln    am 

Rhein. 

Prof.  G.  Coym,  Hagenau  44,  Hamburg  23. 
Friiulein  Eckardt,  Stadtische  hohere  Miid- 

chenschule,  Bochum,  Westphalia. 
Prof.  G.   HSft,   19    Henriettenstrasse  21", 

Hamburg. 


70 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


Fraulein  H.  Ludwich,  Miirkische  Strasse  9,      C.  Dirac,  Esq.,  Merchant  Venturers'  School 


Bochum,  Westphalia. 
Prof.     Nader,     Waehringer     Strasse     61, 
Vienna  9/2. 


Bristol. 

W.   K.   Foucar,   Esq.,   The   High    School, 
Bradford,  Ontario,  Canada. 


Miss  Webb,  Helgoliinder  Ufer  6,  Berlin,  Norman  Fraser,  Esq.,  Netherton,  Bensham 

Lane,  Croydon,  Surrey. 

J.  H.  Fuoss,  Esq.,  Grammar  School,  Wolver- 
hampton. 

C.  H.  Fynes-Clinton,  Esq.,  King  Edward's 
School,  Aston,  Birmingham. 


N.W.  52. 

Prof.  Martin  Hartmann  prefers  to  keep  to  the 
former  plan.  Lists  should  therefore  be  sent  to 
him  to  distribute.  He  requires  the  age  of  pupil, 


school  standing,  and  profession  of  parent.     Also       ^     ^^     ^     Intermediate     School, 

Newport,  Monmouthshire. 
W.  J.  Greenstreet,  Esq.,  Marling  School, 

Stroud,  Gloucester. 
J.  de  Gruchy  Gaudin,  Esq.,  County  School, 

Carnarvon,  Wales. 
J.  Rowland,  Esq.,  Stand  Grammar  School, 

Whitefield,  Manchester. 
T.  Keen,  Esq.,  High  School,  Glasgow. 


address  is,  Fechnerstrasse  2,  Gohlis-Leipzig.     He 
writes  that  he  can  find  students  for  all  who  apply. 

BELGIUM. — Mme    Vasseur,     16     Rue    du 
Remorqueur,  Brussels. 

HOLLAND.— M.    Grasse,    32    Alex    Boers- 
straat,  Amsterdam. 


ITALY.— Prof.  F.  Chimenti,  R.  Istituto  A.  Lafreut,  Esq.,  Grammar  School,  Ports- 
mouth. 

D.  Mackay,  Esq.,  Burgh  Academy,  Ayr, 
Scotland. 

A.  Mercier,  Esq.,  The  University,  St. 
Andrews,  N.B. 

T.  Phillips,  Esq.,  Intermediate  School, 
Newport,  Monmouthshire. 

G.  R.  Pringle,  Esq.,  Burgh  High  School, 
Peebles,  Scotland. 


Tecnico,  Bari. 

RUSSIA.  —  Mr.    Hood,   Commercial   School, 
Ostojenka,  Moscow. 

SPAIN.  —  Senor  Patricio  Clara,  Aribau,  37. 
Barcelona. 

ENGLISH   TEACHERS  WHO   MAKE  USE  OF 


THE  SCHOLARS'  INTERNATIONAL  COR-     B.  Prowde,  Esq.,  Grammar  School,  Camber- 
well,  London. 

E.  Renault,    Esq.,   Commercial    Institute, 

Mount  Street,  Liverpool. 
H.  Robjohns,  Esq.,  Lady  Berkeley's  School, 

Wotton-under-Edge,  Gloucester. 
N.  Ross,  Esq.,  Grammar  School,  Bradford. 
L.   R.   Rougeault,   Esq.,   Royal    Grammar 

School,  Worcester. 
Hermann    Schiitz,    Esq.,    The    Academy, 

Hamilton,  Scotland. 
H.  E.  Vipan,  Esq.,  The  Grammar  School, 

Taunton,  Somersetshire. 

F.  Walter,  Esq.,  County  School,  Hereford. 


RESPONDENCE. 

SECONDARY  SCHOOLS. 
Soys'  Schools.    Ages  from  14  to  17. 

M.  P.  Andrews,  Esq.,  The  Grammar  School, 

Bolton,  Lancashire. 
H.  C.  Arundel,  Esq.,  Friends'  School,  Great 

Ayton. 
C.  Bain,  Esq.,  Masonic  Boys'  School,  Clons- 

keagh,  Dublin,  Ireland. 
W.  C.  Barley,  Esq.,  Crossley  and  Porter 

Home  and  School,  Halifax,  Yorkshire. 
J.  Bazin,  Esq.,  Grammar  School,  Wallasey, 

Cheshire. 


Girls'  Schools. 

J.  L.  Blaser,  Esq.,  Grammar  School,  Brent-  Miss   Arnot,   Grammar    School,   Campbel- 

wood.  town,  Scotland. 

F.  Brook,  Esq.,  Secondary  School,  Widnes.  Miss  M.  Atkinson,  Girls'  Grammar  School, 
B.  Chaffey,  Esq.,  Durham  School,  Durham,  Keighley,  Yorkshire. 

England.  Miss  E.  Browne,  The  High  School,  Wig- 
P.  L.  Charlier,  Esq.,  Durham  School,  Dur-  town,  Scotland. 

ham.  Miss  Burras,  The  High  School,  Hereford. 

Rev.    H.    J.   Chaytor,   Merchant    Taylors'  Miss  S.  Clapp,  The  High  School,  Medford, 

School,  Crosby,  Liverpool.  Mass.,  U.S.A. 

E.  B.  Davis,  Esq.,  Rutgers  College,  New  Miss  Clarke,  Lord  Digby's  School  for  Girls, 

Brunswick,  New  Jersey,  U.S.Al  Sherborne,  Dorset. 

F.  A.  Dawes,  Esq.,  County  School,  Pern-  Mme     Davies,     Girls'    Grammar     School, 

broke  Dock.,  S.  Wales.  Bradford,  Yorkshire. 

E.  Dick,  Esq.,  Clacton  College,  Clacton-on-  Mrs.   Dawes,    County    School,    Pembroke 
Sea.  Dock,  S.  Wales. 


THE  SCHOLARS'  INTERNATIONAL  CORRESPONDENCE 


71 


Mile  Gaertner,  Trinity  Hall,  Southport. 

Miss  M.  Hare,  West  Ham  High  School, 
West  Ham  Lane,  Stratford,  London. 

Miss  Harding,  Ackworth  School,  Nr.  Ponte- 
fract,  Yorkshire. 

Miss  F.  Heinke,  The  College,  Stoke  Bishop, 
Nr.  Bristol. 

Miss  Hodge,  High  School,  Duufermline, 
Scotland. 

Miss  E.  Lacaille,  The  High  School,  Aberdeen, 
Scotland. 

Miss  Mackenzie,  Tain  Academy,  Tain,  Scot- 
land. 

Miss  I.  Mackie,  Albyn  Place  School,  Aber- 
deen, Scotland. 

Miss  Miles,  Fountain  House,  Central  Beach, 
Lytham,  Lancashire. 


Miss  Maxwell,  The  Academy,  Peterhead, 

Scotland. 
Miss  Moser,  Municipal  High  School,  Nelson, 

Lancashire. 

HIGHER  GRADE  AND  TECHNICAL  SCHOOLS. 
Boys.    Ages  from  13  to  15. 

E.  R.  Broome,  Esq.,  Technical  School, 
Glossop. 

G.  W.  Dolbel,  Esq.,  Higher  Grade  School, 
Hanley,  Staffordshire. 

A.  Hutcheson,  Esq.,  Broughton  Higher 
Grade  School,  Broughton  Road,  Edin- 
burgh, Scotland. 

R.  C.  Platt,  Esq.,  P.  T.  Centre,  Brunswick 
Road,  Gloucester. 


Miss    E    Snow    Brockton    High     School,      R    Rober^    Egq ^    Hjgher  Grade 


Brockton,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 
Miss  E.  Sutcliffe,  North  Manchester  High 
School,  Higher  Broughton,  Manchester. 

INTERMEDIATE  SCHOOLS. 

Mixed  Schools  for  Boys  and  Girls. 
Ages  from  14  to  17. 

G.    E.    Hugelshofer,    Esq.,  The   Academy, 

Dumfries,  Scotland. 
W.  J.   Mabbott,  Esq.,  Berwickshire  High 

School,  Duns,  Scotland. 
J.  Schilling,  Esq.,   High  School,    Stirling, 

Scotland. 

Miss  Bryson,  Burgh  Academy,  Dumbarton, 

Scotland. 
Miss  J.  English,  Higher  Grade  Senior  School, 

Durham  Road,  Gateshead-on-Tyne. 
Miss    K.    Erskine,   Higher  Grade   School, 

Burntisland,  Scotland. 
Miss  Harding,  Ackworth  School,  Pontefract. 


Darwen,  Lancashire. 
T.  Rodgers,  Esq.,  Medburn  Street  Higher 

Grade  School,  St.  Pancras,  London. 
A.   Whiting,  Esq.,  St.  Margaret's  Higher 

Grade  Schools,  Whalley  Range. 

Girls. 

Miss  Dodgeon,  Higher  Grade  Girls'  School, 

Red  Lion  Street,  Burnley. 
Miss  M.  Haley,  Science  School,  St.  George, 

Bristol. 
Miss  E.  Stent,  Central  Foundation  School, 

Spital  Square,  London. 
Miss     M.    Sudborough,     Pupil    Teachers' 

Centre, Midland  Institute, Birmingham. 

Ages  from  14  to  17. 

G.   Collar,   Esq.,  P.  T.  School,   Hackford 

Road,  Stockwell. 
Mr.  Witter,  Pupil  Teachers'  Centre,  Hudson 

Road,  Sunderland. 


The  Modern  Language  Quarterly 

NOTICE  TO  CONTRIBUTORS.— The  Modern  Language  Quarterly  is  open  for  the  discussion 
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Wimbledon  Park,  London,  S.  W.  All  contributions  should  be  clearly  written,  and  should  bear  the 
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The 

Modern   Language 
Quarterly 

Edited  by 

WALTER  W.   GREG 

With  the  assistance  of 
E.  G.  W.  BRAUNHOLTZ,  K.  H.  BREUL,  and  W.  RIPPMANN 


Vol.  VII. 


October  1904 


ALEXANDEE  DUMAS.1 


No.  2. 


YOUR  EXCELLENCY,  LADIES,  AND  GENTLE- 
MEN,— 1  must  crave  your  indulgence  at  the 
outset  for  my  presumption  on  the  choice  of 
the  subject.  When  invited  by  the  Committee 
of  our  Modern  Language  Association  to  read 
a  paper  on  Dumas,  I  asked  to  be  per- 
mitted to  speak  of  the  elder  rather  than 
the  younger  Alexandre,  not  because  I  do  not 
admire  the  polished  style  of  the  author  of  so 
many  works  that  brought  him  to  the  coveted 
honour  of  becoming  a  member  of  the  French 
Academic,  but  because  I  have  never  con- 
sidered him  the  born  genius  which  his 
father  undoubtedly  was,  and  hence  the 
interesting  personality  which  that  char- 
acter constituted. 

It  seemed  to  me  also  that  we  English- 
speaking  people,  seeking  as  we  always  do 
for  originality  and  colour,  for  warmth  and 
strength,  must  necessarily  more  sympathise 
with  Alexandre  Dumas  pfae,  whose  fiery 
imagination,  probably  without  its  equal, 
was  like  a  rainbow  in  the  literary  firma- 
ment, displaying  at  one  and  the  same 
moment  every  colour  of  the  prism — than 
with  his  gifted  son,  whose  dissecting  psycho- 
logy and  somewhat  maudlin  philosophy 
have  not  given  us  the  same  hours  of  re- 
creation, pleasure,  and  amusement. 

VOL.  VII. 


To  our  British  taste  Les  Idles  de  Madame 
Aubray  and  L'Affaire  Cttmenceau  would 
never  produce  the  exhilarating  sensations 
of  Les  Mousquetaires,  La  Reine  Margot,  or 
even  La  Dame  de  Monsoreau. 

Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  I  thought  it 
might  be  acceptable  to  this  audience  if  once 
again  we  examined  the  burly,  rough,  spark- 
ling, old  diamond  that  caused  such  a  stir 
in  his  day,  with  a  view  of  appreciating  the 
secret  of  that  power  which  he  possessed 
instinctively,  and  which  is  at  once  the  key 
to  his  success  as  well  as  to  his  manifold 
irregularities,  not  to  use  any  stronger  term. 
It  may  be  we  shall  also  find  it  to  be  the 
natural  explanation  of  the  unblushing 
manner  in  which  he  undoubtedly  and  ad- 
mittedly appropriated  whole  scenes  from  the 
works  of  others  whenever  he  thought  his 
own  inward  sun  could  not  shed  upon  his 
literary  efforts  all  that  lustre  on  which  he 
relied  for  success. 

I  am  conscious  of  the  difficulty  there  is 
in  saying  anything  new  about  the  subject 
of  our  lecture.  No  less  than  one  hundred 
known  volumes  and  twenty  journalistic 

1  An  address  delivered  by  Sir  Hubert  Jerning- 
ham,  K.C.M.G.,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Modern 
Language  Association  held  on  December  12,  1903. 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


appreciations  in  French  and  I  know  not 
how  many  in  English  have  been  separately 
printed  dealing  with  Dumas  as  a  man,  as  a 
novelist,  and  as  a  dramatist :  and  not  satis- 
fied with  this  bulk  of  information,  a  hundred- 
and-first  volume  was  issued  last  year  from 
an  English  pen  which,  I  believe,  for  I  only 
saw  it  casually  a  few  days  ago,  is  a  r&umt 
of  the  vast  library  on  Dumas  which,  out  of 
admiration  for  his  subject,  Mr.  Davidson 
has  considered  it  necessary  to  compile. 

But,  apparently,  even  this  effort  has  not 
satisfied  the  author,  credible  as  it  appears  to 
be,  for  he  startles  the  reader  at  the  outset 
by  using  somewhat  strong  language.  '  None 
but  a  simpleton  or  an  impostor,'  says  this 
latest  biographer,  '  would  think  to  measure 
the  length  and  breadth  of  Alexandre  Dumas 
within  the  compass  of  one  moderate 
volume.'  To  say  the  least  this  is  disheart- 
ening, for  if  the  epithets  simpleton  or  im- 
postor do  really  apply  to  whomsoever  at- 
tempts a  single  volume  without  distinctly 
laying  down  limits,  what  epithets  will  be 
launched  at  the  head  of  the  unfortunate 
lecturer  who  tries  to  measure  the  length 
and  breadth  of  Alexandre  Dumas  in  a  short 
paper  and  on  the  sole  ground  of  gratitude 
for  past  enjoyments. 

You  may,  however,  remember  those 
beautiful  lines  of  Lamartine,  I  think,  which 
truly  say : 

'  Du  besoin  du  passe  notre  ame  est  poursuivie, 
Et  sur  les  pas  du  temps  1'homme  aime  a 

revenir. 

II  faut  au  jour  present  de  la  plus  belle  vie, 
L'espe>ance  et  le  souvenir.' 

I  knew  Dumas  well  personally,  I  knew 
his  length  and  his  breadth  too ;  and  my  hope 
is  that  my  few  words  will  only  be  taken  as 
a  humble  tribute  to  him  of  a  very  pleasing 
remembrance. 

It  is  now  thirty-three  years  since  Dumas 
died,  and  there  seems  to  be  a  tendency  to 
forget  or  to  ignore  the  influence  which  he 
unquestionably  exercised  in  the  dramas  and 
plays  which  in  France  constitute  so  im- 
portant a  branch  of  national  literature,  or 
upon  his  literary  contemporaries  by  the 
revelation  of  his  disturbing  vitality. 

Even  the  best  of  the  present  day  critics 
do  not  altogether  appear  willing  to  treat 
him  fairly,  possibly  forgetting  themselves 
that  remark  of  Boileau,  '  la  critique  est 
ais6e  et  1'art  est  difficile';  and  it  is  from 
this  point  of  view  of  regret  to  note  the  ten- 
dency that  I  venture  to  speak  of  the  man 
and  of  his  work. 

I  was  mostly  lead  to  this  by  reading  two 
books  published,  the  one  so  late  as  last 


year,  the  other  in  1898  by  M.  Parigot  and 
by  M.  Filon. 

Thus  M.  Parigot,  whose  authority  is 
great,  for  he  was  selected  to  write  about 
Dumas  in  the  great  series  of  Les  grands 
dcrivains  Franf ais,  writes  in  1902:  'Dumas 
est  inseparable  de  son  temps.  Plus  t6t 
il  eut  etc  pris  au  tragique :  plus  tard  il 
n'6tait  plus  pris  au  serieux ' ;  and  M. 
Augusti-n  Filon,  whom  we  all  know 
to  be  an  eminent  critic  of  histrionic  art, 
as  he  resides  amongst  us  and  has  given 
us  one  of  the  best,  if  not  the  very  best, 
criticism  of  our  own  stage,  deliberately 
declares  that — "de  1825  a  1845  le  Roman- 
tisme  qui  donne  a  la  France  line  poesie, 
s'essaie  en  vain  de  lui  donner  un  theatre.' 

These  statements  are  staggering,  for  if 
they  be  at  all  correct  and  accepted,  they 
mean  that  as  Alexandre  Dumas  lived  from 
1802  to  1870,  he  neither  could  hold  a  place 
among  the  literary  men  of  the  last  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  still  less  in  the  latter 
half  of  the  nineteenth ;  and  further,  that 
his  own  efforts  in  his  lifetime  were  fruit- 
less. Surely  such  sweeping  statements  are 
rather  too  sweeping,  and  placed  in  con- 
junction, lead  to  a  reductio  ad  absurdum, 
which  reminds  one  of  a  celebrated  pamphlet 
once  written  to  prove  that  Napoleon  was 
a  myth. 

The  man  to  whom  Lamartine  wrote : 

'  You  ask  me  for  my  opinion.  I  have  opinions 
on  things  which  are  human  but  none  on  miracles.' 

And  Victor  Hugo : 

'  Vous  nous  restaurez  Voltaire.' 

And  Heine : 

'Next  to  Cervantes  and  Sheherazade  you  are 
the  most  delightful  raconteur  I  know.' 

And  the  less  poetical  Michelet : 

'Je  vous  aime  et  vous  admire  parceque  vous 
etes  une  des  forces  de  la  nature.' 

And  finally,  Hugo,  writing  to  console  the 
son  on  the  death  of  his  father : 

'  Cet  esprit  eiait  capable  de  tous  les  miracles.' 

The  man  who  did  what  Corneille, 
Voltaire,  Diderot,  Beaurcarchais  wanted  to 
achieve  and  could  not :  what  Delavigne 
vainly  tried  and  others  equally  vainly 
attempted,  viz.  to  liberate  the  stage  from 
conventionalism  and  make  the  actors  living 
beings,  in  contact  with  their  hearers  by 
means  of  simple  words  to  express  simple 
emotions :  the  man,  in  fact,  who  created  in 
conservative  literary  France  a  drama  of  a 
new  kind  in  which  less  heed  is  paid  to 


ALEXANDRE  DUMAS 


75 


traditional  methods  than  to  dramatic  effect, 
and  which  aims  at  emotional  results  rather 
than  an  intellectual  repast,  thus  collecting, 
in  one  grand  unity,  public  and  actors,  is 
scarcely  the  play-writer  who  can  be  said 
to  have  '  essaye  en  vain  de  donner  un 
theatre  a  la  France,'  or  to  remain  unplaced 
among  the  great  writers  of  the  eighteenth 
and  nineteenth  century  who  honoured  their 
country  by  their  talents.  If  it  be  borne 
in  mind  that  the  drama  of  Henry  III.  et  sa 
Cour  which  caused  the  first  stir  was  also 
the  first  serious  effort  of  the  scarcely 
educated  '  demi  negre  de  26  ans  employe 
a  1500  francs,'  the  allusions  to  miraculous 
performances  by  both  Lamartine  and  by 
Hugo  are  not  so  exaggerated  as  they  sound. 
Dumas'  creative  power  deserves  more 
recognition  than  the  critics  are  ready  to 
allow:  his  works  merit  more  praise  than 
the  present  age  appear  willing  to  bestow. 
He  wrote  as  he  spoke,  impetuously, 
torrentially,  and  he  had  no  time  to  follow 
Boileau's  advice  : 

'  Vingt  fois  sur  le  mutier  remettez  votre  ouvrage, 
Polissez  le  sans  cesse  et  le  repolissez. ' 

Nor  indeed  would  he  have  done  so  had  he 
had  the  leisure.  But  he  gained  by  force, 
clearness,  and  brilliancy  from  the  world  at 
large  what  lie  lost  in  appreciation  by  the 
lovers  of  correct  art  in  writing;  and  yet 
though  '  1'art  d'ecrire  n'existait  pas  pour  lui,' 
as  M.  Parigot  mentions,  still  Nizard,  no  bad 
judge,  thought  proper  to  compare  him  with 
Balzac  :  '  Observateur  moins  profond  que 
Balzac  Alex.  Dumas  conte  avec  plus  de 
vivacit6  :  dialogue  avec  plus  de  verve  et  de 
naturel :  6crit  dans  une  meilleure  langue.' 

But  elegant  phraseology  was  not  his  aim. 
To  create,  to  give  life,  to  transfer  to  his 
pages  the  impetuosity  of  his  own  tempera- 
ment and  then  to  delight  in  the  sensations 
he  caused,  was  his  ambition. 

As  M.  Parigot  more  justly  remarks : 
'Pendant  40  annees  il  cr^e,  il  anime;  mili- 
eux 6poques  et  individus  pour  le  plus 
grand  plaisir  de  ses  contemporains.  II 
n'est  ni  un  penseur  ni  un  ideologue  et 
de  mediter  il  n'eut  jamais  le  loisir.  Sa 
fonction  est  d'imaginer.  Toute  son  exis- 
tence, toutes  ses  ceuvres,  il  les  a  livrees  en 
proie  a  son  imagination,  et  a  ce  don  de 
n'-pandre  la  vie,  de  la  vient  qu'il  lui  arrive 
de  se  confondre  avec  ses  heros.' 

He  might  have  added  that  this  was  the 
gift  that  poets  like  Hugo,  Lamartine,  and 
Heine  envied  him,  and  because  of  which 
Michelet  called  him  'une  force  de  la 
nature.' 


If  man  in  his  early  development  is  much 
influenced  whether  morally,  physically,  or 
intellectually  by  his  immediate  surround- 
ings, we  shall  understand  Dumas  better 
and  certainly  take  him  au  s6rieux  if  we 
bear  in  mind  that  at  Villers-Cotterets,  where 
he  was  born,  he  never  had  a  chance  of 
intellectual  development ;  very  little  oppor- 
tunity of  moral  or  religious  teaching  in  his 
fathers'  republican  household  ;  and  was 
brought  up  to  consider  athletic  feats  as  the 
acme  of  complete  and  perfect  manhood. 

It  is  this  all-absorbing  and  early  admira- 
tion of  physical  strength  which  first  fired 
his  love  for  startling  scenes  and  whetted 
his  appetite  for  thrilling  situations,  and  it 
was  his  boyish  admiration  for  an  herculean 
father  that  gave  birth  to  that  hero-worship 
which  never  left  him,  and  which  later  was 
to  create  a  Porthos,  whose  prototype  was 
no  other  than  that  same  father  as  Dumas 
again  saw  him  in  fancy  as  the  gay,  gallant, 
and  powerful  dragoon  of  the  days  of  his 
infancy. 

This  conception  of  manly  greatness  in 
the  possession  of  physical  strength  only 
harnessed  to  an  imagination  ever  in  search 
of  stirring  episodes  to  satisfy  its  cravings, 
was  bound  in  the  first  place  to  make  him 
an  ardent  reader,  and  in  the  next  to  seek 
in  the  books  he  devoured  not  for  amuse- 
ment but  for  a  purpose,  those  powerful 
scenes  which,  when  found,  were  at  once 
transplanted  from  their  foreign  soil  to 
French  soil,  peopled  by  him  with  French 
actors,  and  lightened  by  him  with  native 
wit. 

It  is  this  early  power  of  adaptation 
which  jealous  rivals  fastened  on  him  to 
denounce  him  as  a  plagiarist. 

Granier  de  Cassagnac  in  1833  and  de 
Mirecourt  in  1845  attacked  him  in  the 
press  and  in  an  ungenerous  pamphlet, 
which  at  the  present  day  is  not  agreeable 
reading. 

But  was  he  a  plagiarist  ?  He  himself  styled 
himself  an  'arrangeur.'  Is  the  man  who 
gives  a  new  turn  to  an  idea,  a  new  tone 
to  a  picture,  a  new  use  to  an  invention, 
necessarily  a  plagiarist  t  It  is  more  a 
question  of  detail  than  of  fact,  and  perhaps 
more  for  a  judge  to  decide  in  court  than 
for  me  to  judge  in  Queen's  College.  But 
I  think  all  will  agree  that  he  was  more 
than  an  '  arrangeur,'  for  he  was  the  artist 
who,  by  a  touch  of  his  pencil,  can  imprint 
on  a  composition  the  mark  of  individuality, 
and  can  borrow  from  his  recognised  masters 
situations  of  thrilling  pathos  to  which  he 
thinks  he  can  ad.d  a  note  of  pain  or  pleasure 


76 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


or  intensity,  as  he  did  in  the  great  drama 
of  Antony. 

Dumas  himself  admitted  that  to  Shake- 
speare, Goethe,  Schiller,  Walter  Scott,  and 
the  old  chroniclers  of  France  he  owed  the 
best  of  his  dramatic  work.  But  would 
Goethe  who  wrote  Egmont  have  accused 
him  of  plagiarism,  because  of  Christine  ;  or 
Schiller,  because  of  Henry  in. ;  or  Walter 
Scott,  because  of  Richard  Darlington?  Or 
did  they  do  so  1 

He  wrote  67  plays  in  all  and  acknowledged 
18  as  written  by  himself  only.  Two, 
L' Intrigue  etL' Amour  and  L'Honneurest  satis- 
fait,  are  translations  from  Schiller :  all  the 
rest,  viz.  47,  were  written  in  conjunction  with 
others,  of  whom  the  principal  'collaborateur ' 
was  Auguste  Maquet,  but  few  of  them  com- 
plained of  their  work  being  attributed  to  or 
claimed  by  Dumas  alone,  because  they  well 
knew  that  without  his  peculiarly  forcible 
touch — that  touch  which  gave  to  all  writ- 
ings a  magnetic  life,  which  enraptured 
audiences  and  charmed  the  reader — their 
individual  efforts  would  have  fallen  on  dull 
ears  and  on  blind  eyes. 

Dumas  wrote  :  'Ce  sont  les  homines  et  non 
pas  1'homme  qui  inventent.  Chacun  arrive 
a  son  tour  et  a  son  heure,  s'empare  des 
choses  connues  de  ses  peres,  les  met  en 
oeuvre  par  des  combinaisons  nouvelles,  puis 
meurt.  C'est  ce  qui  faisait  dire  a  Shakespeare 
lorsqu'un  critique  stupide  1'accusait  d'avoir 
pris  parfois  une  scene  toute  entiere  dans 
quelque  auteur  contemporain :  "  C'est  un  etre 
que  j'ai  tire  de  la  mauvaise  societe  pour  le 
faire  entrer  dans  la  bonne  "  et  a  Moliere  "  je 
prends  mon  bien  ou  je  le  trouve."  Et  Shakes- 
peare et  Moliere  avaient  raison,  car  l'homme 
de  genie  ne  vole  pas,  il  conquiert.' 

I  would  not  for  a  moment  let  it  be  thought 
that  I  sympathise  with  the  doctrine  these 
lines  lay  down,  but  I  would  point  out  that 
in  a  man  who  fought  his  way  to  Paris  with 
no  money  in  his  pocket  and  only  a  gun  on 
his  shoulder  for  the  purpose  of  subsisting 
on  any  game  he  could  poach  on  the  way,  it 
was  but  natural  that  he  should  rejoice  in 
claiming  the  shelter  and  protection  afforded 
by  geniuses  like  Shakespeare  and  Moliere, 
with  whom  he  so  naively  and  conceitedly 
identified  himself. 

But  there  is  this  much  to  be  said  in  his 
behalf,  that  if  he  took  from  classic  authors 
what  best  suited  his  purpose  and  cast  all 
these  into  a  new  mould,  the  result  was  that 
out  of  the  genius  of  Shakespeare,  Goethe, 
Schiller,  and  Walter  Scott  there  arose  an 
eminently  French  product  to  the  full  as 
genuine  as  out  of  the  wholesale  emigration 


of  German,  French,  and  Italian  into  the 
United  States  there  comes  out  a  wholly  new 
individual — the  genuine  American. 

And,  after  all,  what  was  he  himself  but  an 
exotic  product  of  human  vagaries.  Let  us 
consider  his  origin. 

Antoine  Alexandre  Davy,  Marquis  de  la 
Pailleterie,Dumas'  grandfather,  was  a  noble- 
man of  the  old  school.  Somehow  or  other 
without  much  reputation  or  fixed  principles, 
he  went  to  San  Domingo,  where  he  lived  a 
few  years,  and  married  a  uegress  of  the 
name  of  Marie  Cossette  Dumas.  A  son  was 
born  to  them  of  whom  it  is  said  by  Dumas 
in  his  Memoirs  with  much  pride : 

'C'etait  un  colosse  au  teint  bruni,  aux 
yeux  marrons  et  velout6s,  avec  les  dents 
blanches,  les  levres  6paisses  et  souriantes ;  le 
cou  solidement  attache  sur  de  puissantes 
6paules,  et  malgr6  sa  taille  de  cinq  pieds  neuf 
pouces  une  main  et  un  pied  de  femme. 

'Sa  force  6tait  proverbiale.  Junot  en 
6tait  jaloux,  ainsi  que  des  merveilles  qu'il 
accomplissait  avec  le  fusil  ou  le  pistolet,  et 
quand,  s'accrochant  a  une  poutre  il  enlevait 
son  cheval  entre  ses  jambes.' 

As  we  read  these  remarks  in  the  Memoirs 
written  fifty  years  after  the  death  of  his 
father,  it  is  impossible  not  to  be  struck  by 
the  kind  of  religious  enthusiasm  with  which 
he  recalls  these  acrobatic  feats,  glories  in 
their  performance ;  and  exalts  them  into 
heroicdeeds;  indcedthereisscarcely  asingle 
work  of  Dumas  in  which  he  does  not  in 
some  way  bring  in  the  physical  powers  of 
his  father,  and  so  much  did  he  prize  physi- 
cal strength  that  he  onceexclaimed,  'Laforce 
pouss^e  a  un  certain  point  est  presque  de  la 
divinite.' 

But  to  return  to  the  father,  who  was  the 
first  to  drop  the  name  of  Davy  de  la  Paille- 
terie. 

Being  anxious  to  enlist  in  the  army  he 
consulted  the  old  marquis,  who  cared  not 
what  he  did,  provided  his  son  did  not  carry 
his  fine  name  into  the  ranks. 

'  If  that  be  so,'  said  the  son, '  I  will  take  the 
name  of  my  mother  and  drop  yours.' 

'  Very  well,'  said  the  marquis,  and  they 
parted,  never  to  meet  again. 

The  recruit,  as  le  dragon  Dumas,  became  a 
general  in  the  republican  army  of  France, 
earned  the  nickname  of  the  '  black  devil,'  and 
having  quarrelled  with  Bonaparte,  settled  at 
Villers-Cotterets  in  1792,  where  he  married 
Marie  Louise  Labouret,  the  daughter  of  an 
innkeeper. 

Ten  years  later,  in  1802,  the  'infant 
Hercules,'  our  present  hero,  was  born. 

His  sire  a  '  black  devil,'  his  grandsire  a 


ALEXANDRE  DUMAS 


77 


marquis,  his  mother  an  innkeeper's 
daughter,  his  grandmother  a  San  Domingo 
negress,  he  himself  at  his  birth,  as  we  are 
told,  '  weighing  nine  pounds,  measuring  18 
inches,  and  displaying  in  his  features  unmis- 
takable trace  of  his  mongrel  blood.' 

Four  years  later  the  general  died,  and  the 
child  being  told  that  le  bon  Dieu  au  del  had 
taken  away  the  father  he  so  idolised,  had 
a  first  inspiration. 

Stealing  one  of  his  father's  pistols  from 
the  room  in  which  the  body  lay,  he  ascended 
to  the  top  of  the  house  (because  it  was  nearer 
heaven  than  below),  for  the  purpose  of  shoot- 
ing at  le  bon  Dieu  because  he  had  taken  his 
father  from  him. 

In  1816  the  mother,  who  was  extremely 
poor  and  had  been  unable  to  obtain  any  relief 
from  Napoleon,  who  would  never  permit 
General  Dumas'  name  to  be  mentioned, 
thought  it  would  be  a  claim  on  the  restored 
Bourbons  if  her  son  appealed  to  them  under 
his  real  name  and  title.  But  the  boy,  who 
was  then  only  fourteen,  would  listen  to  no 
such  thing,  and  thus  it  came  to  pass  that  he 
remained  Alexandre  Dumas  to  the  end  of 
his  life  without  once,  even  in  the  days  of  his 
greatest  prosperity,  evincing  any  desire  to 
add  social  position  to  his  fame  by  taking  up 
a  title  which  was,  in  fact,  his  birthright. 

That  was  not  his  vanity.  He  had  all  the 
others,  and  could  loftily  dispense  with  one. 

Every  effort  was  made  to  give  him  some 
sort  of  education  and  to  prepare  him  for  a 
profession,  but  except  reading  and  writing, 
which  his  sister  taught  him,  and  Latin,  which 
he  learnt  from  a  village  schoolmaster,  he 
spent  his  boyhood  in  rambles  through  the 
woods  and  in  poaching  among  his  neigh- 
bours' preserves,  ever  fancying  that  he  was 
emulating  his  father's  deeds.  He  became  a 
good  rider,  a  good  fencer,agood  shot,  and  all 
these  accomplishments  served  him  well  when 
his  hour  came  and  he  had  accurately  to 
describe  the  pastimes  of  his  heroes ;  but  they 
were  not  renumerative.  It  was  decided, 
however,  that  the  boy  must  earn  a  living. 
His  sister  sang  :  why  should  he  not  sing  ? 
After  two  lessons  it  was  acknowledged  that 
nature  had  not  made  him  a  songster.  Still 
he  might  be  a  musician.  After  three  lessons 
the  master,  who  was  very  poor  himself,  told 
the  mother  that  he  really  could  not  stoop  to 
rob  her  of  her  money.  He  had  a  good  hand- 
writing, so  he  was  sent  to  Pr6vy  to  be 
apprenticed  to  a  solicitor.  Here  he  made 
the  acquaintance  of  two  men  who  between 
them  exercised  some  sort  of  beneficial  influ- 
ence overhim,  and  practically  determined  the 
bent  which  his  future  career  was  to  take. 


One  was  M.  de  Loewen,  a  Swede,  whose 
father  had  been  concerned  in  the  murder  of 
Gustavus  in.,  and  who  having  a  turn  for 
literature  and  some  fortune,  made  journeys 
to  Paris,  and  on  his  return  excited  the 
curiosity  of  his  young,  rough  friend  by 
bringing  him  translations  of  the  latest  pro- 
ductions of  Goethe,  Schiller,  and  Walter 
Scott,  while  opening  out  vistas  of  fame,  suc- 
cess, and  riches,  if  working  together  for  the 
stage,  they  could  bring  their  plays  to  be 
accepted. 

No  sooner  imparted  to  him  but  Dumas 
insisted  on  carrying  out  the  plan,  and  the 
result  was  that  before  he  was  twenty  he 
and  De  Loewen,  the  future  author  of  Le 
Postilion  de  Longjumeau,  had  written  together 
Le  Major  de  Strasbourg :  Le  diner  d'amis,  and 
Les  Abencerrages. 

All  this  was  rejected,  and  it  struck  the 
pair  that  the  provinces  were  not  suited  to 
their  plans.  They  must  repair  to  Paris, 
where  they  were  sure  to  be  well  received. 
No  fear  of  failure  entered  their  minds. 

How  could  they  entertain  any  such  thing? 
De  Loewen  knew  all  the  great  actors  of  the 
day,  and  Dumas  had  read  Ivanhoe  with  so 
much  zest  that  he  believed  himself  to  be 
Walter  Scott.  He  had  also  read  Egmont  of 
Goethe  and  some  of  Schiller's  dramas,  and 
fancied  himself  Schiller  and  Goethe  com- 
bined in  his  single  French  brain.  Had  he 
not  material  enough  in  these  three  great 
writers'  works  to  create  a  sensation  when 
he  came  to  put  them  on  the  stage  of  the 
Fran$ais,  of  the  Odfon,  of  the  Ambigu,  in 
their  new  French  dress  and  talk  1 

But  all  this  meant  work,  and  he  re- 
membered the  advice  of  his  other  friend,  De 
Ponce,  an  officer,  who  had  taken  a  liking 
for  him  and  had  warned  him  that  steady 
hard  work  was  the  sine  qud  non  of  success. 
On  the  spot  he  resolved  to  work  ten  hours  a 
day,  and  what  is  remarkable  to  relate  is, 
that  for  forty  years  from  that  resolve  he 
did  work  regularly  ten  hours  a  day  despite 
his  very  erratic  proceedings  during  the 
other  fourteen  hours  of  his  day. 

Perseverance  generally  wins  in  the  end, 
and  Dumas' Memoirs  relate  how  quickly  his 
conquest  of  Paris  followed  on  his  arrival 
there  with  his  friend — only  twenty-seven 
francs  between  them,  a  horse  that  they  had 
alternately  ridden  on  the  way,  and  a  bag  of 
game  shot  as  they  came  along. 

That  he  had  no  means  of  subsistence  was 
quite  immaterial.  His  brain  was  sure  to 
supply  him  with  funds,  but  his  mother  could 
not  come  and  live  with  him  on  his  sole 
confidence  in  future  success,  and  realising 


78 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


this,  he  therefore  called  on  General  Foy  for 
employment,  when  the  following  conversa- 
tion took  place. 

'A  quoi  vous  sentez-vous  bon? ' 

'  Pas  a  grand-chose.' 

'  Savez-vous  un  peu  de  mathematiques  ? ' 

'  Non,  general.' 

'  Avez-vous  quelques  notions  d'algebre  1 ' 

'Non.' 

'Dedroitr 

'Non.' 

'  De  comptabilite  1 ' 

'Non.' 

'  Avez-vous  de  quoi  vivre  ? ' 

'Rien.' 

Then  moved  by  pity  the  general  told  him 
to  write  his  address,  and  finding  the  hand- 
writing good,  kindly  turned  to  the  boy  and 
said : 

'Nous  sommes  sauves.  Vous  avez  une 
belle  ecriture.  Vous  entrerez  comme  surnu- 
meraire  au  secretariat  du  Due  d'Orleans.' 

In  a  second  the  boy  flew  into  the  general's 
arms,  embracing  him  wildly,  and  flinging 
these  words  at  the  astonished  benefactor  : 

'Jevais  vivre  de  mon  Ecriture;  maisje 
vous  promets  qu'un  jour  je  vivrai  de  ma 
plume.' 

Three  years  from  that  day  the  general 
was  at  the  Fran^ais,  where  all  the  world  had 
congregated  to  applaud  le  'chef  d'ceuvre 
d'un  jeune  negre,'  and  to  recognise  that  '  sa 
plume  vaut  encore  mieux  que  son  6criture.' 

This  was  Henri  III.  el  sa  Cour,  a  drama 
which  he  wrote  in  two  months,  of  which 
M.  Lecomte,  who  has  written  much  about 
Dumas,  justly  says  : 

'Ce  fut  1'avenement  du  drame  historique 
avec  une  signification  plus  importante  que 
la  reVelation  d'un  genie  de  27  ans  :  c'6tait 
1'emancipation  d'un  genre  jusqu'alors  em- 
prisonn6  dans  les  langes  de  1'imitation 
ancienne,  une  revolution  litteraire  dont  les 
suites  devaient  etre  aussi  utiles  qu'interes- 
santes.' 

A  curious  instance  of  his  astonishing 
confidence  in  his  genius  is  exemplified  in 
the  audience  which  he  sought  of  the  Due 
d'Orleans  on  the  very  day  when  Henri  III. 
was  to  be  given,  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
asking  the  Duke  to  be  present. 

'Mais  j'ai  des  Princes  et  des  seigneurs 
etrangers  a  diner.' 

'  Amenez-les.' 

'  Mais  nous  dinons  a  7  heures.' 

'  Mettez  votre  diner  a  6.' 
And  the  royal  Duke  actually  did  as  he  was 
bid    by    Me    presomptueux    petit    commis 
negre.'     From   that  date,    11    Feb.    1829, 
Dumas  was  a  made  man.     Pleasures,  riches, 


applause  were  his,  and  with  his  charac- 
teristic impetuosity  he  plunged  into  the 
vortex  in  a  manner  so  new,  so  undreamt  of, 
that  if  his  talent  amazed  people,  his  dissipa- 
tion alarmed  them.  And  yet  in  the  midst 
of  it  all  he  persevered  in  his  ten  hours' 
work,  and  determined  still  more  to  astonish 
the  world  by  the  vast  quantity  of  his 
labour,  having  no  doubt  whatsoever  of  its 
quality. 

It  is  only  quite  at  the  end  of  his  life  that 
he  began  to  think  there  were  degrees  in  his 
prolific  pen.  He  preferred  Les  Movsquetaires 
to  Monte  Christo,  but  he  would  not  admit 
that  the  stage  had  ever  known  so  passionate 
a  drama  as  Antony,  a  play  so  correctly 
put  together  as  Henri  III.  et  sa  Cour,  or  a 
comedy  more  suited  to  La  Salle  Molicre  than 
Mile,  de  Belleisle. 

The  pride  he  took  in  all  he  did  was  at 
times  ludicrous  and  childish. 

There  being  a  vacancy  in  Parliament  for 
one  of  the  departments  of  the  Seine,  Dumas 
offered  himself  as  a  candidate  on  the  ground 
that  the  produce  of  his  brain  had  made 
over  two  thousand  workmen  live  for  twenty 
years,  and  hence  he  had  a  right  to  appeal 
to  the  workman's  vote. 

This  is  what  he  wrote  : 

'Je  me  porte  candidat  a  la  deputation, 
je  demande  vos  voix,  voici  mes  litres.  Sans 
compter  six  ans  d'education,  quatre  ans 
de  notarial  et  sept  annees  de  bureaucratic, 
j'ai  travaille  vingt  ans  a  dix  heures  par 
jour,  soit  73,000  heures.  Pendant  ces  vingt 
ans  j'ai  compose  400  volumes  et  35  drames. 
Les  400  volumes  tires  a  4000  et  vendus  5 
francs  1'un,  ont  produit  11, 853,600  francs. 
Les  35  drames  joues  cent 

fois,  chacun  1'un  dans 

1'autre  ont  donne       .       6,360,000      „ 


soit 


18,213,600 


'Drames  et  livres,  en  fixant  le  salaire 
quotidien  a  3  francs  pour  300  journees  de 
travail  dans  1'annee,  ont  done  solde  en 
moyenne  le  travail  de  2160  personnes. 

'Ne  sont  pas  compris  la-dedans  les 
contrefacteurs  beiges  et  les  traducteurs 
etrangers.' 

Amazing  as  this  composition  reads, 
Dumas  naively  believed  it  to  be  convincing 
in  the  same  way  that  when  writing  to  a 
clergyman  he  considered  it  a  proof  of  his 
own  sanctity  of  spirit  when  he  ended  his 
letter  by  '  Je  vous  salue  avec  1'amour  d'un 
frere  et  1'humilite  d'un  chretien,'  after 
having  informed  the  reverend  gentleman 
that  his  reason  for  insisting  on  respect  for 
holy  things  was  that  '  la  religion  etant  au 


ALEXANDRE  DUMAS 


79 


premier  rang  des  choses  saintes,  je  voudrais 
autant  qu'il  est  ea  moi  contribuer  a  cette 
(Buvre  sociale.' 

Of  course  it  was  childish,  but  in  the 
appreciation  of  genius  we  have  to  make 
allowances ;  and  as  Edmund  About  once 
wrote  about  the  lions  that  decorate  the 
entrance  to  the  tomb  of  Agamemnon  at 
Mycenae,  '  L'enfance  de  Part  ressemble  beau- 
coup  a  1'art  de  1'enfance,' in  a  similar  way 
the  ways  of  genius  are  for  ever  young  be- 
cause, like  the  soul,  genius  is  immortal. 

I  have  purposely  dwelt  on  his  origin, 
because  out  of  such  a  mixture  as  he  came 
from,  no  one  had  any  right  to  expect  either 
sanctity  or  even  respectability,  and  out  of 
such  education  as  he  got,  no  one  could  hope 
for  learning,  still  less  for  teaching ;  and 
yet  by  the  sole  action  of  intuitive  genius 
Dumas  rose,  despite  his  faults  and  virtues, 
to  the  proud  position  of  inspiring  pride  in 
his  own  countrymen  in  the  wonderful  pro- 
lific pen  which  was  his. 

With  a  nose  and  hair  that  recalled  his 
negro  blood,  with  a  stature,  hands,  and 
feet  that  did  honour  to  'le  diable  noir '  his 
father,  with  an  insouciance  to  this  world's 
obligations  which  the  marquis  might  have 
envied,  with  a,  kindness  of  heart  which  he 
owed  to  his  humbly  born  mother,  Dumas, 
for  each  enemy  he  made,  inspired  a  friend. 
His  generosity  was  unbounded,  and  it  is 
on  record  that  never  did  a  single  person 
apply  to  him  for  help  in  vain.  Stories  are 
innumerable  on  that  score.  But  he  was 
gigantically  vain,  bombastic  in  the  extreme, 
and  a  spendthrift  of  colossal  dimensions. 

First  and  last,  some  one  calculated  that 
he  must  have  earned  25,000,000  francs  by 
his  pen,  or  £1,000,000. 

Put  it  at  half  that  amount  and  properly 
used,  he  could  easily  have  lived  in  comfort 
on  between  £15,000  and  £20,000  a  year. 

Yet  when  he  died,  all  he  was  possessed 
of  was  16s. — one  louis. 

Seeing  it  on  the  chimneypiece  from  his 
bed  a  few  days  before  his  demise  in  the 
house  belonging  to  his  son  at  Dieppe,  he 
exclaimed  : 

'Quand  je  vins  a  Paris  je  possedais  un 
louis  Pourquoi  m'accuse-t-on  de  prodi- 
galite !  Je  1'ai  toujours  ce  louis,  tiens  le 
voila.' 

I  think  I  have  said  enough  to  show  that, 
contrary  to  M.  Perigot's  and  M.  Filon's 
opinion,  the  man  who  invented  the  his- 
torical drama,  the  author  who  emancipated 
the  French  stage  from  its  slavery  to  ob- 
solete and  conventional  methods,  would 
have  been  taken  au  strieux  even  to-day, 


and  has  by  right  of  genius  a  place  in  the 
literary  history  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
More,  had  he  never  written  for  the  stage 
at  all,  the  creator  of  le  roman  historique  en 
France  has  an  historical  claim  to  the  regard 
of  his  countrymen  as  he  has  that  of  the 
world.  And  I  would  add  that  if  in  this 
respect  he  was  inspired  by  Walter  Scott, 
it  is  doubtful  whether  even  Walter  Scott 
could  have  imagined  such  light-hearted 
Frenchmen  as  the  cunning  D'Artagnan,  the 
masculine  Porthos,  the  romantic  Athos,  or 
the  discreet  Aramis,  who  must  ever  remain 
the  favourites  of  fiction  and  give  their 
creator  a  high  place  in  word-painting.  And 
I  would  further  suggest  that,  as  great 
writers  like  his  own  son,  Emile  Augier, 
Jules  Sandeau,  Alphonse  Daudet,  Jules 
Lemaitre,  are  the  fruits  of  Dumas'  school, 
the  critics  have  no  right  to  put  aside  the 
master  on  a  single  point  of  literary  tech- 
nique, but  are  bound  in  honour  to  recog- 
nise the  genius  that  shone  despite  grammar 
and  orthography. 

Monte  Christo  and  Les  Mousqnetaires  would 
have  saved  him  from  being  '  pris  au  tra- 
gique' before  1802.  His  plays  have  to  be 
taken  mi  sfoieux  since  1870,  and  his  work 
for  forty  years  between  those  years  has 
assured  fame  and  literary  immortality  to 
his  name. 

It  is  not  possible  within  the  compass  of 
this  paper  to  review  even  briefly  the  400 
works,  making  together  1200  volumes, 
which  bear  Dumas'  name,  but  it  is  not  an 
invidious  assertion  to  say  that  his  great 
dramas  are  superior  to  his  great  novels,  and 
that  among  the  former  Antony  being  the 
most  powerful,  is  also  the  play  which  made 
the  pulse  of  Paris  beat  with  a  frenzy  never 
before  experienced. 

As  is  well  known,  Antony  is  a  passionate 
love  drama,  at  the  end  of  which  the  hero 
Antony  kills  his  mistress.  This  he  does 
as  the  door  opens  and  reveals  the  lady's 
soldier-husband,  when,  to  save  the  honour 
of  the  faithless  wife,  Antony  exclaims : 
'  Elle  me  rosistait,  je  Pai  assassinee,'  upon 
which  the  curtain  drops. 

This  dramatic  ending  created  such  a 
furore  that  no  audience  would  stir  from 
their  seats  until  the  spoken  words  had 
followed  the  deed,  and  this  fact  gave  rise 
to  a  ludicrous  incident  which  redounded  to 
the  credit  of  the  heroine. 

Bocage  and  Madame  Dorval  were  playing 
the  principal  parts  in  1831,  when  one  even- 
ing by  mistake  the  curtain  came  down  as 
Antony  stabbed  Adcle  Hervey.  The  spec- 
tators, incensed  at  being  deprived  of  the 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


80 

proper  ending,  shouted  for  the  curtain  to 
go  up.  Dorval  remained  on  the  sofa  where 
she  was  lying  dead  by  the  hand  of  her 
lover,  and  calmly  awaited  the  return  of 
Bocage,  but  the  actor,  furious  at  being 
deprived  of  his  finest  effect  by  the  stupid 


mistake  of  the  curtain  falling  too  soon, 
would  not  return.  Whereupon  Dorval, 
rising  from  the  sofa,  advanced  to  the  foot- 
lights, and  amid  complete  silence  said  : 

'  Messieurs,  je  lui  resistais :  il  m'a  assas- 
sin6e.' 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  PERCY'S  'RELIQUES   OF  ANCIENT  ENGLISH 
POETRY'  ON  GERMAN  LITERATURE. 


A  STUDY  IN  '  WELTLITTERATUR.' 

THE  study  of  international   literary  rela- 
tions, of  '  Weltlitteratur,'  to  use  the  aged 
Goethe's  felicitous  term,1   can   scarcely  be 
said  to  have  found  much  favour  as  yet  with 
English   modern   language  students.      All 
the  same  it  is  one  of  the  branches  of  literary 
science  with  which  an  acquaintance  at  least 
is  essential   to  a  true  estimate  of   the  in- 
tellectual capacity  of  mankind  as  a  whole, 
and  to  a  correct  judgment  upon  any  par- 
ticular literature,   or   kind    of    literature. 
Especially  is  this  the  case  with  the  litera- 
ture of  two  peoples  so  closely  akin  as  those 
of  England  and  Germany.     The  very  fact 
of   their  kinship  cannot  fail  to  rouse  the 
suspicion  in  the  minds  even  of  beginners, 
that   there  must  be  literary   as    well    as 
physical  affinity  between  the  two  nations. 
Yet  in   spite  of    that    suspicion,    and    in 
spite  of  the  well-known  fact  that  Germany 
possesses    all    the    English    classics,    and 
indeed    most   of    the   second-rate   English 
authors'   works   as   well,   in   at    least   one 
translation,     English     modern     language 
students  have    hitherto   shown   but  little 
interest  in  the  work  of  reproducing  German 
works  of  note  in  English,  and  still  less  in 
investigating  the  problem  of  the  literary 
relations  between  England  and  Germany. 

In  particular,  although  it  has  been  said 
(cf.  Chambers's  Cycl.  Eng.  Lit.,  ed.  1903,  ii. 
505) :  '  Percy's  Reliques  gave  impulse  to 
Herder  and  the  German  romantic  move- 
ment,' and  was  no  doubt  the  prime  mover  in 
the  rise  of  the  Kunstballade,  an  English 
essay  on  the  influence  of  Percy's  Reliques  on 
German  literature  has  never  yet,  as  far  as  I 
can  discover,  been  published. 

In  German  there  do  exist  three  essays 
bearing  on  the  subject : — 

1.  A.  W.  von  Schlegel's  Burger,  which 
deals  with  the  influence  of  Percy's  Reliques 

1  Cf.  Correspondence  between  Goethe  and  Thomas 
Carlyle.  Pp.  136,  148,  etc.  (W.  Hertz.  Berlin, 
1887.) 


on  Burger.  (First  published  in  1800;  re- 
edited,  with  additions,  in  1828  in  vol.  ii. 
of  A.  W.  von  Schlegel's  Kritische  Schriften.) 

2.  A.  Waag's  Uber  Herders  (Jbertragungen 
englischer     Gedichte     (Heidelberg,      1892), 
which    traces    in    detail    the    relation    of 
Herder's  Folkslieder  to  Percy's  Reliques. 

3.  H.  F.  Wagener's  Das  Eindringen  von 
Percy's  Reliques  in  Deutschland  (Heidelberg, 
1897),  which  gives  a  general  account  of  the 
influence  of  Percy's  Reliques  upon  German 
literature  down  to  the  appearance  of  Des 
Knaben  Wunderhorn  in  1806. 

No  one  of  these  attempts  to  deal  with 
the  whole  subject  embraced  by  the  title  of 
the  present  essay,  although  each  of  them  is 
extremely  useful  as  far  as  it  goes.  The 
present  paper  is  an  attempt  to  weave  the 
threads  of  the  information  which  they  give 
about  the  direct  influence  of  Percy's 
Reliques  into  a  more  complete  whole;  it 
includes  a  discussion  of  sundry  modern  ad- 
aptations of  ballads  from  Percy's  Reliques, 
which  they  do  not  mention  at  all.  An 
account  of  the  indirect  influence  will,  I 
hope,  constitute  a  companion  paper  at 
some  future  time.  I  have  not  as  yet  had 
opportunities  of  fully  investigating  the 
question,  and  so  dare  not  attempt  to  dis- 
cuss it  at  any  length. 

I.  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  PERCY'S  '  RELIQUES.' 
It  may  be  well  first  to  briefly  consider 
the  Reliques  themselves. 

In  1765,  Dodsley  of  London  published  a 
collection  of  English  ballads  with  this 
title:  Reliques  of  indent  English  Poetry: 
consisting  of  old  heroic  ballads,  songs  and 
other  pieces  of  our  earlier  poets  (chiefly  of  the 
Lyric  kind).  Together  with  some  few  of  later 
date.  The  editor  of  the  collection,  Thomas 
Percy,2  had  begun  his  literary  career  in 

2  1729-1811.  Born  at  Bridgnorth  in  Shrop- 
shire of  a  tradesman  family,  though,  in  later  life, 
he  tried  to  trace  his  descent  from  the  Percy 
family  of  Northumberland.  Studied  at  Chrisl 


INFLUENCE  OF  PERCY'S  'RELIQUES'  ON  GEEMAN  LITERATURE      81 


1761  by  a  desperate  effort  to  find  some 
really  new  dainty  to  tempt  the  jaded 
appetite  of  his  day  in  England.  He  pub- 
lished a  translation  of  a  Portuguese  manu- 
script of  a  Chinese  novel  called  Han  Kion 
CfiiMin,  and  added  as  an  appendix  '  the 
Argument  of  a  Chinese  play,  a  collection  of 
Chinese  proverbs  and  fragments  of  Chinese 
poetry.'  About  the  same  time  he  became 
deeply  interested  in  the  older  poetry  of 
Europe,  and  under  the  influence  of  Mac- 
pherson's  studies  in  Gaelic  and  Erse  poetry, 
published  in  1763  Five  pieces  of  Runic  poetry 
translated  from  the  Icelandic  language.  Two 
years  later  appeared  his  collection  of 
English  ballads. 

According  to  the  historic  story  Percy 
had  been  inspired  to  make  his  collection  by 
his  rescue  from  the  study  floor  of  his  friend 
Humphrey  Pitt  of  Shiffnal,  in  Shropshire, 
of  an  old  folio  manuscript l  containing  some 
200  ballads  copied  out  in  a  handwriting  of 
the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
but  composed  '  at  all  times  and  dates  from 
the  ages  prior  to  Chaucer  to  the  con- 
clusion of  the  reign  of  Charles  I. '  (cf. 
Preface  to  the  1765  edition).  With  the 
help  of  his  friends  Percy  supplemented 
this  collection  by  ballads  from  the  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  libraries  (notably  the  Pepys 
collection  in  Magdalene  College,  Cam- 
bridge), Scotland,  Wales,  Ireland,  Stafford- 
shire, and  Derbyshire.  The  following  words, 
to  quote  again  from  the  Preface  to  the  1765 
edition,  show  the  principle  which  guided 
the  ultimate  choice  of  the  poems  in  the 
Reliques :  '  Such  specimens  of  ancient  poetry 

Church,  Oxford,  where  he  received  his  M.A. 
degree  in  1753.  The  same  year  he  settled  in  a 
college  living  at  Easton-Maudit,  Northampton, 
where  most  of  his  works  were  written.  In  1770  lie 
received  the  degree  of  D.D.  from  Emmanuel  Col- 
lege, Cambridge.  In  1778  he  became  Dean  of 
Carlisle,  and  in  1782  Bishop  of  Dromore  in  Ireland, 
in  which  see  he  remained  till  his  death.  Works : — 
1761 — Han  Kion  Choam,  a  translation  of  a  Chinese 
novel.  1763 — Five  pieces  of  Runic  poetry  trans- 
lated from  the  Icelandic  language.  1765 — Reliques 
of  Ancient  English  Poetry.  1768 — The  household 
book  of  the  Earl  of  Northumberland  in  1512.  1770 
— Northern  Antiquities,  with  a  translation  of  the 
Edda  and  other  pieces  from  the  ancient  Icelandic 
tongue.  1771— The  ballad  of  the  Hermit  of  Warl- 
worth.  Also,  after  leaving  Easton-Maudit:  An 
Essay  on  the  origin  of  the  English  stage,  -particularly 
the  historical:  plays  of  Shakespeare. 

English  editions  of  the  Reliques — Authorised  by 
Percy,  four  editions— 1765,  1767,  1775,  1794. 
Posthumous  editions— 1823,  1839,  1844,  1847, 
1851 , 1856,  1857, 1865.  (Cf.  A.  Schroer's  edition  of 
Rfliqurs,  p.  xxiv  ff. ) ;  also  ed.  //.  B.  W.  Wheallfy, 
3  vols.  London,  1876. 

1  This  folio  MS.  was  reprinted  by  J.  Hales  and 
F.  Furnivall.  3  vols.  and  Appendix  (London,  1867). 
It  is  now  in  the  British  Museum. 


have  been  selected  as  either  show  the 
gradation  of  our  language,  exhibit  the  pro- 
gress of  opposite  opinions,  display  the 
peculiar  manners  and  customs  of  former 
ages,  or  throw  light  on  our  earlier  classical 
poets.' 

Percy  was  quite  unaware  of  his  own 
literary  importance  ;  in  fact,  so  far  removed 
was  the  thought  of  any  great  literary 
revolutions  coming  from  his  work  that  he 
had  serious  misgivings  as  to  whether  he 
had  employed  his  energies  profitably,  and 
expressed  the  hope  that  '  the  names  of 
so  many  men  of  learning  and  character ' 
among  his  patrons  would  '  serve  as  an 
amulet  to  guard  him  from  unfavourable 
censure  for  having  bestowed  any  attention 
on  a  parcel  of  old  ballads'  (cf.  Preface  of 
1765).  Nevertheless  'that  collection  re- 
vived his  nation's  interest  in  popular  poetry, 
and  from  its  appearance  we  are  accustomed 
to  date  the  revival  of  natural  poetry  in 
England'  (cf.  Richard  Wiilker's  Geschichte 
der  englischen.  Litteratur.  Leipzig,  1896, 
p.  429).  The  impetus  given  to  the  collect- 
ing of  old  ballads  in  particular,  by  the 
publication  of  Percy's  Reliques,  snowed 
itself  in  the  rapid  succession  of  volumes 
of  the  same  class  which  issued  from  the 
press.  Mr.  H.  B.  Wheatley,  in  his 
admirable  introduction  to  his  edition 
of  Percy's  Reliques  (London,  1886),  has 
given  a  short  critical  summary  of  these 
subsequent  collections,  p.  xci  ff.  Since, 
however,  this  paper  is  concerned  with 
the  influence  of  the  Reliques  on  German 
literature,  it  is  beside  the  mark  to  enter 
into  detail  about  their  influence  on  England.2 

II.   THE  DIRECT  INFLUENCE  OF  PERCY'S 
'  RELIQUES  '  ON  GERMAN  LITERATURE. 

A.  Die  Geniezeit. 

As  beforesaid,  the  Reliques  were  published 
in  England  in  1765.  The  first  printed 
notice  of  the  book,  which  is  known  to 
have  been  published  in  Germany,3  was  in 
the  first  volume  of  the  Bibliothek  der  schonen 
Wissenschaften  und  freien  Kiinste,  which 
appeared  the  same  year.  Raspe  therein  . 
criticised  the  editor  of  the  Reliques  as  a 
man  'of  good  taste,  not  without  critical 
discernment  and  of  unwearied  diligence  in 
bringing  to  light  the  history  of  poetry  in 
his  country.'  He  concluded  his  criticism 

-  Cf.  Kiebitz,  The  Influence  of '  Percy's  Reliques 
of  Ancient  English  Poetry'  on  the  Development  of 
English  Poetry  (Bautzen). 

3  Cf.  H.  F.  Wagener's  Das  Eindrinyen  von 
Percy's  Reliques  in  Deutschland,  p.  11  ff. 


82 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


by  expressing  the  desire  for  some  German 
art  critic  who  should  with  equal  diligence 
compile  a  collection  of  old  German  poetry. 
A  desire  which  was  reiterated  the  following 
year  by  Gerstenberg  in  his  Briefe  uber 
Merkwiirdigkeiten  der  Lilteratur,  and  by  G.  H. 
Schmidt  in  1767  in  his  Theorie  der  Poesie 
nach  den  neusten  Grundsatzen  und  Nachrichten 
von  den  besten  Dichtern  (Leipzig,  bei  S.  S. 
Crusius,  p.  76).  The  immediate  fruit  of 
these  criticisms  was  the  publication  of  the 
first  German  edition  of  Percy's  Reliques  in 
1767.  It  contained  eleven  ballads: — 


Wheat.,  i.  131;  Sch.,  82.1 
Wheat.,  ii.  75;  Sch.,  310. 
Wheat.,  i.314;  Sch., 220. 
Wheat.,  ii.  326;  Scft.,485. 


The  Child  of  Elle,      . 
Harpalus,  . 
Cupid's  Pastime, 
Loyalty  Confined, 
Love  will  find  out  the 

Way,  .  .  .  Wheat.,  iii.  232;  Sch.,  730. 
The  Spanish  Lady's 

Love,  .  .  .  Wheat.,  ii.  247;  Sc/i.,413. 
Winifreda,  .  .  Wheat.,  i.  323  ;  Sch.,  227. 
Bryan  and  Pereene,  .  Wheat.,  i.  328  ;  Sch.,  233. 
AlcanzorandZayda,  .  Wheat.,  i.  338  ;  Sch., 241. 
Lucy  and  Colin,  .  Wheat.,  iii.  312 ;  Sch., 178. 
Margaret's  Ghost,  .  Wheat. ,  iii.  308  ;  Sch. ,  780. 

This  book  was  printed  at  Gottingen,  the 
University  city  of  the  Electorate  of  Hanover, 
where  at  that  time,  owing  to  the  close  con- 
nection between  the  royal  house  of  Hanover 
and  that  of  England,  the  study  of  English 
literature  was  much  more  cultivated  than 
in  the  other  German  Universities,  and 
where  in  consequence  a  public  appreciative 
of  such  a  work  might  be  expected.  This 
first  edition  is  of  special  interest  only  in 
so  far  as  4t  is  the  first  German  edition  of 
Percy's  Reliques ;  it  was  too  small  a  collection 
to  do  more  than  rouse  interest  in  its 
original.  Some  critics,  it  is  true,  have 
said  that  it  was  this  edition  which  fell  into 
Burger's  hands  during  his  early  student  days 
at  Gottingen,  and  therefore  was  the  spring 
of  his  enthusiasm  for  ballad  poetry.  Other 
critics,  however,  and  those  the  latest,  such 
as  E.  Schmidt,  consider  it  improbable  that 
Biirger  really  knew  any  but  the  original 
English  edition.  At  all  events,  the  first 
German  edition  only  contains  one  of  the 
ballads  which  Burger  eventually  trans- 
lated, 'The  Child  of  Elle.'  the  first 
English  edition,  on  the  other  hand,  had 
a  considerable  circulation,  especially  among 

1  These  references  and  all  subsequent  ones  are 
made  to  Wheatley's  three-volume  edition  of  the 
Reliques,  published  1876,  and  to  A.  Schroer's  repro- 
duction of  the  first  edition :  Percy's  Reliques  of 
Ancient  English  Poetry,  nach  der  ersten  Aiisgabe 
von  1765  mil  den  Varianten  der  spiiteren  Original, 
ausgaben  heraungegeben  von  A.  SchrOer.'  First  half 
in  Englische  Sprach-  und  LiUeratnrdenkmale,  ed. 
K.  Vollmoller.  Heilbronn,  1889.  Second  half  pub- 
lished by  E.  Felber.  Berlin,  1893. 


literary  circles  in  Germany,  and  it  is  the 
influence  of  the  book  in  its  English  dress 
which  must  be  taken  into  account. 

What,  however,  was  the  state  of  the 
world  spiritual  in  Germany  in  1767  1  Only 
by  realising  that  can  the  immediate  effect 
of  the  entrance  of  the  Reliques  upon  the 
literary  stage  of  the  day  be  gauged.  Thomas 
Carlyle  thus  describes  it  in  his  Essay  on 
' Goethe's  Works ': — 'As  Disorder  is  never 
wanting,  so  at  the  present  junction  it 
specially  abounded.  The  reign  of  Earnest- 
ness had  dwindled  into  that  of  Dilettantism. 
No  Divinity  any  longer  dwelt  in  the  world  ; 
and  as  men  cannot  do  without  a  Divinity,  a 
sort  of  terrestrial-upholstery  one  had  been 
got  together  and  named  Taste,  with  medallic 
virtuosi  and  picture  cognoscenti  and  en- 
lightened belles-lettres  men  for  priests.  For 
two  centuries  German  literature  had  lain  in 
sere  leaf.  The  Luther  whose  words  were 
half  battles,  and  such  half  battles  as  could 
shake  and  overset  half  Europe  with  their 
cannonading,  had  long  since  gone  to  sleep ; 
Ulrich  Hutten  slept  silent;  the  tamer 
Opitzes  and  Flemmings  had  long  fallen 
obsolete.  One  unhappy  generation  after 
another  of  pedants,  living  on  Greek  and 
Hebrew ;  of  farce  writers,  gallant  verse 
writers,  journalists  and  other  jugglers  of 
nondescript  sort  wandered  nomadic-wise 
whither  provender  was  to  be  had ;  among 
which  if  a  passionate  Giinther  go  with  some 
emphasis  to  ruin,  if  an  illuminated  Tho- 
masius,  earlier  than  his  time,  deny  witch- 
craft, we  are  to  esteem  it  a  felicity.'  In 
the  sphere  of  poetry  in  particular  the  in- 
fluence of  Klopstock  and  Gleim  reigned 
supreme.  And  the  influence  of  both 
Klopstock  and  Gleim,  artificial  as  was  the 
form  of  their  verse,  and  comparatively 
exotic  as  was  their  spirit,  proved  to 
be  a  forerunner  of  indispensable  value  to 
the  new  era  which  began  with  the  arrival 
of  Percy's  Reliques  in  Germany.  For  one 
of  Gleim's  most  important  ideals  and 
achievements  was  the  renaissance  of  the 
ballad  genre  of  poetry,2  and  one  of  Klop- 
stock's  principal  claims  to  literary  import- 
ance was  his  lifelong  endeavour  to  revive 
the  German  spirit  in  the  literature  of  his 
own  country.  So  that,  in  spite  of  all  their 
shortcomings,  the  work  of  Gleim  and  Klop- 
stock can  never  be  left  out  of  account  in 
tracing  the  evolution  of  the  German  ballad 
in  the  true  sense  of  the  word. 

"  For  a  detailed  account  of  Gleim's  work  for  the 
German  ballad,  <•/.  P.  Holzhausen's  '  Ballade  und 
Romanze  bis  Biirger.'  Zeitschrift  f.  deutschePhil., 
xv.  129. 


INFLUENCE  OF  PEECY'S  'EELIQUES'  ON  GERMAN  LITEKATURE       83 


The  University  in  which  Klopstock  had 
the  most  ardent  company  of  admirers  about 
1767  was  that  of  Gottiugen.  When  G-.  A. 
Burger  went  there  in  1768,  nominally  to 
study  law,  he  soon  found  himself  a 
member  of  quite  a  large  circle  of  Klopstock 
devotees.  The  more  ardent  of  them  formed 
themselves  into  a  literary  club  in  1770, 
'Der  Main,'  for  the  purpose  of  practising 
and  promulgating  more  effectually  the 
theories  of  their  hero.  Two  of  their 
number,  Boie  and  Voss,  edited  a  Musen- 
almanach  which  continued  to  flourish  for 
many  years.  It  is  the  best  witness  to  the 
modification  of  its  contributors'  views,  and 
especially  to  the  astounding  change  which 
passed  over  Biirger's  work  as  a  result  of 
the  reading  of  Percy's  Reliques.  The  book 
came  into  his  hands  in  1770  through  the 
medium  of  his  friend  Ludwig  Holty,  who 
had  taken  it  out  of  the  University  Library 
and  circulated  it  among  the  members  of  the 
Hainbund.1  Burger  seems  to  have  been 
captivated  by  its  popular  spirit,  the  purity 
of  its  Englishism.  He  forthwith  realised 
that  if  Klopstock  had  been  right  in  urging 
the  revival  of  the  use  of  German  by 
Germans  in  literature,  the  cultivation  of 
his  nation's  native  genius  rather  than  the 
transplanting  of  foreign  plants,  he  had  been 
wrong  in  disregarding  the  natural  vehicle 
for  popular  ideas  and  thought,  popular 
forms  of  verse,  such  as  the  ballad.  So  he 
determined  at  least  to  arouse  interest  in  the 
ballad  by  German  translations  of  some  of 
Percy's  Reliques  and  by  producing  original 
ballads  of  the  same  kind.  Percy's  Reliques 
were  his  salvation,  so  to  speak,2  and  with- 
out their  influence  in  his  work,  A.  W.  von 
Schlegel  would  never  have  written  of  him  : 

'  Den    dcutschen    Volksgesang    erschufst     du 

wieder 

Und  durftest  nicht  erlernte  Weisen  borgen.' 
An  Burger's  Schatlen,  1.  5. 
The  first  as  well  as  the  best  example  of 
Biirger's  work  under  the  influence  of  Percy's 
Reliques  was   'Lenore,'  which  appeared  in 
the  Gottinger  Musenalmanach  of  1774.     The 
inspiration  of  Percy  originals  is,  however, 
apparent  in  : — 

Lenardo  und  Blandine.    1776.    Berger  ed. 

p.  92.3 

Der   Bruder   Graurock  und    die   Pilqerin 
1777.     p.  135. 

1  Cf.  Sailer's  Introduction  to  Biirfjer'x  Poems, 
p.  x.  (in  Kiirschner's  Deutwhc  National  Lilleratur, 
vol.  Ixxviii.  Berlin  and  Stuttgart,  1883. 

3  Cf.  E.  Schmidt,  Charaktermtikm,  i.  204. 

These  and  subsequent  references  are  made  to 
Berger's  edition  of  Burger's  poems  (published 
Leipzig  und  Wien.  Bibliographisches  Institut). 


Des  Schiifers  Liebeswerbung.    1777.    p.  149. 

Die  Entfuhrung.     1777.     p.  152. 

Frau  Schnips.     1777.     p.  143. 

Der  Kaiser  und  der  A  bt.     1785.     p.  218. 

Graf  Walter.     1789.     p.  281. 

Burger's  'Lenore,'  his  masterpiece,  and, 
according  to  some,  the  masterpiece  of  all 
German  ballad  poetry,  has  been  examined 
and  discussed  by  several  critics.  Any  one 
desiring  a  nearer  acquaintance  with  the 
ballad's  inner  and  outer  history  can  refer  to 
the  following : — 

1.  Herder's    review    of    Althof's   G.    A. 

Bilrger  nebst  einem  Beitrag  zur  Cha- 
rakteristik  dessclben;  published  1798. 
Cf.  Suphan  ed.  of  Herder's  Works, 
xx.  387. 

2.  A.  W.  von  Schlegel's  Burger.    Cf.  A.  W. 

von  Schlegel,  Kritische  Schriften. 
1828. 

3.  W.  Wackernagel's  Zur  Erklcirung  und 

Beurtheilung  von  Burgers  Lenore,  pub- 
lished 1835.  Reprinted  in  Kleinere 
Schriften,  vol.  ii.  Leipzig,  1873. 
pp.  399-427.  . 

4.  E.  Schmidt's  '  Burger's  Lenore,'  pub- 

lished Charakteristiken,  i.  pp.  199-244 
(Berlin,  1886). 

A.  Brandt's  '  Lenore  in  England  ' — a 
contribution  to  E.  Schmidt's  essay, 
pp.  244-248. 

5.  W.  W.  Greg's  '  English  Translations  of 

"Lenore,"'  in  Mod.  Lang.  Quarterly,  ii. 
No.  5,  p.  13  ff. 

Of  great  interest  is  also  Burger's  corre- 
spondence with  Boie  for  the  months  of 
April — September  of  1773. 

In  this  paper  it  will  be  sufficient  merely  to 
mention  the  fact  that  although  Burger  him- 
self did  not  claim  an  English  ballad  as  the 
original  of  his  '  Lenore,'  and  his  early  critics 
were  inclined  to  think  it  was  worked  up 
from  some  Low  German  legend,  E.  Schmidt 
and  subsequent  students  of  the  ballad  hold 
that  it  loudly  re-echoes  at  all  events,  if  it 
does  not  actually  reproduce,  'Sweet  Wil- 
liam's Ghost.'  (Wheat.,  iii.  130 ;  Sch.,  643.) 

The  loudest  of  these  echoes  are  : — 

(1)  'Lenore,' 11.  147-8. 

Wohl  urn  den  trauten  Reiter  schlang 
Sie  ihre  Lilienhande. 

Cf.  '  Sweet  William's  Ghost,'  1.  37. 
She  stretched  out  her  lilly- white  hand. 

(2)  '  Lenore,' 1.  137, 

'  Sag'  an  !  wo  ?  wie  dein  Kammerlein  ? 

Wo?  wie  das  Hochzeitbettchen  ? ' — 
'  Weit,  weit  von  hicr  !  Still,  kiihl  und  klein  ! — 

Sechs  Bretter  und  zwei  Brettchen  ! ' — 
'  Hat's  Raum  filr  mich  ?' 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


Of.  Herder's  translation  of  'Sweet  Wil- 
liam's Ghost,'  '  Wilhelms  Geist,'  1.  45  ff., 
which  appeared  in  the  summer  of  1773  in 
the  Volkslieder,  Part  n.  Book  iii.  No.  25. 

'  1st  Raum  noch,  Wilhelm,  dir  zu  Haupt, 
Oder  Raum  zu  Fiissen  dir  ? 
Oder  Raum  noch,  Wilhelm,  dir  zur  Scit', 
Dass  ein  ich  schliipf '  zu  dir  ? ' 

(3)  The  name  of  the  hero. 

In  '  Lenardo  und  Blandine,'  as  in  'Lenore,' 
there  are  evidences  of  more  than  one  orig- 
inal as  is  set  forth  in  Berger's  critical  note 
on  the  ballad.  To  'Little  Musgrave  and 
Lady  Barnard'  (Wheat.,  iii.  68;  Sch.,  601), 
it  bears  the  following  resemblances : — 

1.  In  both  a  lady  of  high  degree  invites 

an  inferior  to  go  with  her  by  night 
to  a  secret  bower  in  the  forest,  and 
in  both  he  accepts  the  invitation. 
Of.  Len.  u.  Blan.,  1.  61  ff.  ;  Little 
Musgrave,  1.  21  ff. 

2.  In  both  the  lady  is  put  to  death  as 

well  as  her  lover.  Cf.  Len.  u.  Blan. 
1.  236  ff. ;  Little  Musgrave,  1.  26  ff. 

The  differences  between  the  two  ballads, 
however,  greatly  preponderate  over  the  re- 
semblances. In  fact,  it  is  a  question  whether 
there  is  more  than  merely  a  similar  '  motiv ' 
in  the  two  poems. 

'  Der  Bruder  Graurock  und  die  Pilgerin  ' 
is  a  much  more  obvious  adaptation  of  '  The 
Friar  of  Orders  Gray'  (Wheat.,  i.  242  ;  Sch., 
174).  The  only  difference  beyond  that  of 
the  metre  is  that  the  lady  pilgrim  in  Biirger's 
version  already  suspects  her  lover  is  in  the 
monastery  (cf.  1.  13  ff.),  whereas  in  the 
English  ballad  she  thinks  of  him  as  a  pil- 
grim and  merely  asks  (cf.  1.  7  ff.) 

If  ever  at  yon  holy  shrine 
My  true  love  thou  didst  see. 

Only  slightly  less  faithful  to  its  original, 
'The  Passionate  Shepherd  to  his  Love' 
(Wheat.,  i.  220;  Sch.,  157),  is  'Des  Schafers 
Liebeswerbung.'  The  metre  in  both  is  the 
same,  and  some  lines  in  Biirger's  poem  corre- 
spond almost  word  for  word  with  lines  in 
original  ballad : — 

1.  1.     Komm  !  bis  mein  Liebchen,  bis  mem  Weib! 
1.  1.     Come  live  with  me  and  be  my  love. 

1.  5.  Bald  wollen  wir  von  freien  Ho'hn 
Rundum  die  Herden  weiden  sehn. 

1.  5.  There  will  we  sit  upon  the  rocks, 

And  see  the  shepherds  feed  their  flocks, 

1.  11.  Und  an  des  Bachleins  Murmelfall 

Ein  Solo  holder  Nachtigall ; 
1.  7.     By  shallow  rivers,  to  whose  falls 

Melodious  birds  sing  madrigals. 


1.  2".  Ein  Rockchen  weiss,  aus  zarter  Woll', 
Aus  Lammchenwoir,  es  tragen  soil. 

1.  13.   A  gown  made  of  the  finest  wool, 

Which  from  our  pretty  lambs  we  pull : 

1.  35.  Behagt  dir  dieser  Zeitvertreib 

So  bis  mein  Liebchen,  bis  mein  Weib. 

I.  23.  If  these  delights  thy  mind  may  move  ; 
Then  live  with  me  and  be  my  love. 

'Die  Entfiihrung'  is  Burger's  adaptation 
of  '  The  Child  of  Elle  '  (Wheat.,  i.  131 ;  Sch., 
82).  The  general  outline  of  the  story  is  the 
same  in  both  poems,  but  Burger  works  his 
into  a  Kunstballade  by  filling  in  sundry 
omissions  of  the  English  version  with  its 
more  popular  style  :  e.g.  when  the  Child  of 
Elle  is  attacked  by  Emmeline's  father  and 
train  : — 

...  he  put  his  home  to  his  mouth, 
And  blew  both  loud  and  shrill, 
And  soone  he  saw  his  owne  merry  men 
Come  ryding  over  the  hill. 

Burger  accounts  for  their  being  within 
earshot  of  that  blast  by  inserting  these 
lines  into  his  description  of  Ritter  Karl's 
setting  out  to  visit  Gertrud  :— 

Drauf  liess  er  heim  sein  Silberhorn 
Von  Dach  und  Zinnen  schallen. 
Herangesprengt  durch  Korn  und  Dorn 
Kam  M  racks  ein  Heer  Vasallen. 
Draus  zog  er  Mann  bei  Mann  hervor 
Und  raunt'  ihm  heimlich  Ding  ins  Ohr  : 
'  Wohlauf  !  Wohlan  !    Seid  fertig 
Und  meines  Horns  gewartig  ! ' 

It  is  also  worthy  of  note  that  Burger 
altered  the  local  colouring  completely,  like- 
wise the  nationality  and  the  names  of  the 
characters. 

The  Hans  Sachs-like  burlesque  'Frau 
Schnips '  is  an  elaboration  of  '  The  wanton 
Wife  of  Bath'  (Wheat.,™.  333  ;  Sch.,  655.) 
In  both  a  woman  of  disreputable  character 
is  seen  seeking  entrance  at  the  gate  of 
heaven.  She  is  interviewed  by  Adam, 
Jacob,  Lot,  Judith,  David,  Solomon,  Jonah, 
Thomas,  Mary  Magdalene,  the  Apostle 
Paul,  and  scorned  by  all  of  them  for  her 
evil  life.  St.  Peter  then  talks  with  her, 
and  on  her  professing  repentance  such  as 
his,  the  Lord  God  has  mercy  on  her,  and 
she  enters  heaven.  Burger's  most  striking 
addition  to  his  original  is  his  '  Apologie,'  in 
which  he  applies  the  moral  of  the  story  to 
his  contemporaries,  ending  thus  : — 

Ihr,  die  ihr  aus  erlogner  Pflicht 
Begnadigt  und  verdammet, 
Die  Liebe  sagt :  verdammet  nicht, 
Dass  man  nicht  euch  verdammet ! 

For  some  years  after  writing  '  Frau  Schnips ' 
Burger  did  not  make  use  of  Percy  originals. 
In  1785,  however,  appeared  'Der  Kaiser 


INFLUENCE  OF  PERCY'S  'RELIQUES'  ON  GERMAN  LITERATURE      85 


und  der  Abt,'  a  close  rendering  of  '  King 
John  and  the  Abbot  of  Canterbury ' 
(Wheat.,  ii.  302;  Sch.,  466);  and  in  1789 
'  Graf  Walter,'  an  even  closer  adaptation  of 
'Child  Waters'  (Wheat.,  iii.  58;  Sch.,  595). 
In  both  these  poems,  as  in  'Die  Entfiih- 
rung,'  Burger  made  the  local  colouring 
German,  instead  of  English.  Indeed  'Der 
Kaiser  und  der  Abt '  has  attained  to  quite 
the  popularity  of  an  indigenous  story  in 
Germany. 

As  before  said,  it  was  owing  to  the  in- 
spiration of  Percy's  Rtliques,  read  for  the 
first  time  in  1770,  that  Burger  conceived 
the  idea  of  writing  ballads  with  popular 
motives.  His  working  out  of  that  idea, 
however,  was  strongly  influenced  by  a 
German  contemporary,  J.  G.  Herder,  and 
more  especially  by  his  Fragmente  zur  deut- 
schen  Litleralur  (published  1767)  and  his 
Blatter  von  deutscher  Art  und  Kunst  (pub- 
lished 1773).  We  owe  these  critical  works 
of  Herder  almost,  if  not  quite,  as  great  a 
debt  of  gratitude  in  respect  of  Burger,  the 
ballad  poet,  as  we  do  to  Percy's  Reliques. 
This  is  what  he  wrote  to  his  friend  Boie 
after  reading  the  latter  work  of  Herder : 
'  0  Boie,  Boie,  welche  Wonne  !  als  ich  fand, 
dass  ein  Mann  wie  Herder  eben  das  von 
der  Lyrik  des  Volks  .und  mithin  der  Natur 
deutlicher  und  bestimmter  lehrte,  was  ich 
dunkel  davon  schon  liingst  gedacht  und 
empfunden  hatte.' 

This  mention  of  Herder  brings  me  to  the 
second  great  Gorman  author  who  profited 
by  the  influence  of  Percy's  lieliques.  J.  G. 
Herder  became  interested  in  English  litera- 
ture in  his  student  days  at  Konigsberg 
when  working  with  Hamann.1  He  studied 
between  1764  and  1765  Shakespeare's 
Hamlet,  Milton's  Paradise  Lo4,  Bacon's 
Essays,  Hume  and  Shaftesbury,  and  became 
interested  most  of  all  in  popular  literature, 
the  natural,  untrained  utterance  of  the 
common  people.  He  gradually  came  to 
adopt  as  his  own  Hamann's  most  charac- 
teristic article  of  creed  :  '  Poetry  is  the 
mother-tongue  of  the  human  race.'  It  is 
not  known  how  or  when  exactly  Percy's 
Reliques  fell  into  Herder's  hands,  but  we 
know  it  was  in  his  possession  before  1770, 
for  in  that  year  one  of  the  topics  of  con- 
versation between  Herder  and  his  young 
friend  Goethe  at  Strassburg  was  the  value 
of  folksong  as  shown  in  Percy's  ReUquc.s. 
Herder  conceived  the  idea  of  a  German 
collection  of  ballads  which  should  corre- 
spond to  Percy's  Rdiques,  and  reiterated 

1  Of.  R.  Haym,  Herder  nach  teinem  Lelen  und 
Werken,  i.  53.  Berlin,  1877. 


Raspe's  and  Gerstenberg's  desire  for  'a 
German  Percy '  in  his  essay  Uber  Ossian 
und  die  Lieder  alter  Fulker,  published  in 
1773  : — 'In  more  than  one  province  I  know 
of  the  existence  of  folksongs,  songs  in 
dialect  and  peasant  songs  which  are  in  no 
way  inferior  to  the  folksong  of  other 
nations  as  regards  energy  and  rhythm, 
naivetd  and  vigour  of  language ;  but  who  is 
there  who  would  collect  them,  who  would 
trouble  himself  about  them  ?  Who  would 
trouble  himself  about  the  songs  of  the 
common  people  on  the  streets,  in  the  by- 
ways and  on  the  fish-markets,  about  the 
glees  of  country-folk,  about  songs  which 
are  often  without  scansion  and  with  bad 
rhymes  ?  Who  would  collect  them  ?  Who 
would  have  them  printed  for  our  critics 
who  are  so  clever  at  counting  syllables  and 
scansion  1 ' 

He  shows  how  possible  it  might  be  to 
compile  the  collection  if,  after  Percy's 
example,  some  German  would  commission 
his  friends  to  ransack  the  provinces  of 
Germany  for  folksongs.  This  idea  appealed 
to  the  young  Goethe,  and  we  know  he  did 
collect  some  twelve  Alsatian  peasant  songs, 
and  sent  them  to  Herder  at  Strassburg. 

Herder,  however,  did  not  become  '  the 
German  Percy.'  The  desire  that  there 
should  one  day  arise  one  generated  in  his 
mind  a  wider  idea :  he  planned  and  exe- 
cuted his  collection  of  folksongs  translated 
from  all  languages.  We  can  never  be 
grateful  enough  to  Percy's  Reliques  that  it 
inspired  Herder  to  do  this  work  :  it  is  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  collections  ever 
made  in  European  literature,  in  the  width 
of  its  embrace,  the  critical  insight  with 
which  the  poems  were  selected,  and  the 
beauty  of  the  translations  from  the  various 
languages  into  German.  Begun  in  1773, 
the  collection  was  almost  ready  for  publica- 
tion in  1774.  Herder  delayed  it,  however, 
'  bis  das  Publicum  etwas  liebfreundlicher 
sei.'  He  was  evidently  afraid  of  deriding 
critics,  and  it  required  all  Karoline's  powers 
of  persuasion  to  bring  him  even  to  the  con- 
templation of  some  day  sending  the  manu- 
script to  the  press.  In  1776  there  appeared 
the  first  volume  of  Nicolai's  Feyner  kleyner 
Almanack,  a  nondescript  collection  of '  Volks- 
und  Pobellieder,'  intended  to  quench  the 
rising  interest  in  popular  poetry.  In  1777 
Ursinus  published  his  Balladen  und  Lieder 
altenglischer  und  altscholtischer  Dichtart.  In 
Herder's  eyes  neither  of  these  was  adequate 
to  serve  the  purpose  of  showing  Germany 
the  wealth  of  popular  poetry  in  other  lands. 
He  even  called  Nicolai's  collection  'eine 


86 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


Schiissel  voll  Schlamm.'1  So  in  1777 
Herder  really  set  himself  to  complete  his 
collection.  He  prepared  the  public  for 
the  appearance  of  the  book  by  an  essay 
in  Boie's  Museum  of  November  1777,  en- 
titled :  '  tiber  die  Ahnlichkeit  mittlern 
englischen  und  mittlern  deutschen  Dicht- 
kunst,'  and  containing  the  three  prefaces 
written  for  Books  1,  3,  4  of  the  collection  in 
1774.  The  Volkslieder,  subsequently  called 
S/immen  der  Volker  in  Liedern,  appeared  in 
1778  and  1779. 

The  manuscript  had  increased  in  volume 
since  1774  and  had  been  considerably 
altered  in  form :  as  eventually  published 
it  was  merely  a  collection  of  poems  in 
German.  Into  his  1774  manuscript,  how- 
ever, Herder  had  transcribed  the  English 
originals  of  fifteen  ballads  in  the  first  book 
and  of  twelve  in  the  third,  while  in  the 
second  book  the  original  text  of  the  Scenes 
and  Songs  from  Shakespeare  stood  side  by 
side  with  the  German.  As  regards  the 
Percy  Reliques  found  among  the  Volkslieder 
of  1778,  there  are  altogether  twenty-seven 
ballads  which  can  be  traced  to  Percy 
originals.  They  are  selected  from  every 
division  of  the  Beliques,  a  fact  testifying 
to  Herder's  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
entire  collection,  and  may  be  classified  into 
two  groups :  translations  and  adaptations. 
Many  in  the  first  group  are  almost  word 
for  word  renderings,  e.g.  'Edward,  Edward'; 
'  Die  Chevy  Jagd ' ;  while  some  of  those 
in  the  second  are  as  free  adaptations  as 
Burger's  ballads.2  The  following  is  the 
list  of  translations,  with  the  titles  of  their 
originals : — 

Alkanzor  und  Zaida,  p.   148 — Alkanzor 
and  Zayda. 

Wheat.,  i.  338  ;  Sch.,  p.  241. 3 

Bettlerlied,    p.    511 — The   Gaberlunzie 
Man.        Wheat.,  ii.  67  ;  Sch.,  p.  592. 

Chevy  Jagd,  p.  480— The  Ancient  Ballad 
of  Chevy  Chase. 

Wheat.,  \.  19;  Sch.,  p.  23. 

Edward,    Edward,     p.     476  —  Edward, 
Edward.      Wheat.,  i.  82  ;  Sch.,  p.  58. 

Das  Unvergleichbare,\  p.     521   -  -  You 

Eine  in  der  Natur,      /  meaner  Beauties. 
Wheat.,  ii.  312;  Sch.,  212. 

1  Of.  '  Uber  die  Ahnlichkeit  der  mittlern  eng- 
lischen und  mittlern  deutschen  Dichtknnst. ' 
Suphan's  edition  of  Herder's  Works,  ix.  p.  530. 

-  For  more  detailed  discussion  of  several  of 
Herder's  versions  of  Percy's  ballads,  c/.  A.  Waag's 
tfber  Herder's  Ubertragungen  englischer  Gedichte 
(Heidelberg,  1892.) 

8  These  and  subsequent  references  are  made  to 
Suphan's  edition  of  Herder's  Works,  vol.  xxv., 
published  1885,  and,  as  before,  to  Wheatley's  and 
Schrb'er's  editions  of  the  Beliques. 


Die   Judentochter,   p.    190 — The    Jew's 

Daughter.      Wheat.,  i.  54  ;  Sch.,  44. 
Der  Knabe  mit  dem  Mantel,   p.  244 — 
The  Boy  and  the  Mantle. 

Wheat.,  iii.  3;  Sch.,  556. 
Konig  Esthmer,  p.  232 — King  Estmere. 

Wheat.,  i.  85;  Sch.,  59. 
Lied  im  Gefiingniss,  p.  516 — To  Althea 
from  Prison. 

Wheat.,  ii.  321 ;  Sch.,  p.  482. 

0  weh,  0  weh,  p.  203 — Waly,  waly  Love 
be  bonny. 

Wheat.,  iii.  145;  Sch.,  p.  653. 
Roschen  und  Kolin,  p.   180 — Lucy  and 
Colin. 

Wheat.,  iii.  312;  Sch.,  p.  778. 
Der  Schiffer,  p.  175 — Sir  Patrick  Spence. 

Wheat.,  i.  98;  Sch.,  p.  69. 
Die    scheme    Rosamunde,    p.    135 — Fair 
Rosamund. 

Wheat.,  ii.  154 ;  Sch.,  p.  348. 
Weg  der  Liebe,  p.  358 — Love  will  find 
out  the  Way. 

Wheat.,  iii.  232;  Sch.,  p.  730. 
Wiegenlied  einer  ungliicklichen  Mutter, 
p.  164 — Lady  Anne  Bothwell's  Lament. 

Wheat.,  ii.  209;  Sch.,  391. 
Wilhelm's  Geist,  p.  523— Sweet  William's 
Ghost. 

Wheat.,  iii.  130;  Sch.,  p.  643. 
Wilhelm    und    Margreth,    p.    192 — Fair 
Margaret  and  Sweet  William. 

Wheat.,  iii.  124;  Sch.,  p.  638.* 
The     Volkslieder     to    be     classified    as 
adaptations  from  Percy's  Reliques  are  the 
following : — 

Der  blutige  Strom,  p.  263— Gentle  River, 
gentle  river. 

Wheat.,  i.  331 ;  Sch.,  p.  236. 
Gewalt  der  Tonkunst,  p.  377 — A  Song 
to  the  Lute  in  Musike. 

Wheat.,  i.  187;  Sch.,  p.  133. 
Der  Gliickliche,  p.  274— The  Character 
of  a  happy  Life. 

Wheat.,  i.  317;  Sch.,  223. 
Gliickseligkeit   der   Ehe,  p.  369— Wini- 

freda.          Wheat.,  i.  323 ;  Sch.,  227. 
Der  entschlossene  Liebhaber,   p.   277— 
The  steadfast  Shepherd. 

Wheat.,  Hi  253;  Sch.,  p.  741. 
Murray's  Ermordung,  p.  382 — The  Bonny 
Earl  of  Murray. 

Wheat.,  ii.  226;  Sdi.,  p.  402. 
Das  nussbraune  Madchen,  p.   415 — The 
notbrowne  Mayd. 

Wheat.,  ii.  31 ;  Sch.,  p.  285. 

1  '  Chevy  Jagd '  omits  the  last  three  verses  of 
the   original,   and    '  Roschen   und   Kolin,'   verses 
1,   2,   4  of    'Lucy    and    Colin.'      In    'Edward, 
Edward,'  verse  4,  and  in  'Konig  Esthmer,'  verses 
34  and  64  have  been  altered. 


INFLUENCE  OF  PERCY'S  '  RELIQUES '  ON  GERMAN  LITERATURE       87 


Die  Todtenglocke,   p.    278  —  Corydon's 
doleful  Knell. 

Wheat.,  ii.  274;  Sch.,  p.  464. 
0  wend',  o  wende  diesen  Blick,  p.  204— 
Take  those  Lips  away. 

Wheat.,  i.  230;  Sch.,  164. 
Der  eifersiichtige  Konig,  p.  119— Youug 
Waters. 

Wheat.,  ii.  228;  Sch.,  376. 

It  must  be  also  remarked  that  Herder 
translated  and  adapted  sundry  other  ballads 
from  Percy's  Reliques  which  do  not  stand 
either  in  the  manuscript  of  1774  or  among 
the  Volkslieder  published  in  1778.  These 
may  be  divided  into  two  groups  : — 

A.  Translations  intended  for  insertion  in 
Alte  Volkslieder,  but  not  in  the  1774  manu- 
script : 

Die  Dammerung  der  Liebe,  p.  125 — Un- 
fading Beauty. 

Wheat.,  ui.  239;  Sch.,  p.  223. 
Feind  im   Paradiese,  p.   121— Jealousy, 
Tyrant  of  the  Mind. 

Wheat.,  Hi.  260 ;  Sch.,  p.  1072. 

B.  Translations  intended  for  insertion  in 
the  Volkslieder,  but  not  found  in  the  1778 
edition : 

Er  und  Sie,  p.  603— Take  Thy  old  Cloak 
about  Thee. 

Wheat.,  i/195;  Sch.,  p.  139. 
Gretchens    Geist,    p.    561  —  Margaret's 
Ghost. 

Wheat.,  iii.  308 ;  Sch.,  p.  780. 
Menschenreformation,  p.  567 — A  Dyttie 
to  Hey  Downe. 

Wheat.,  iii.  44  ;  Sch.,  p.  584. 
Nach    einer    alten    englischen    Ballade, 
p.  559 — Cupid's  Pastime. 

Wheat.,  i.  314;  Sch.,  p.  220. 
Schottische    Ballade,   p.    566 — Sir  John 
Grehme  and  Barbara  Allan. 

Wheat.,  iii.  133 ;  Sch.,  p.  645. 
Ein    Soldatenmiirchen,    p.    556  —  The 
Spanish  Lady's  Love. 

Wheat.,  ii.  247;  Sch.,  p.  413. 
Siisse  Einfalt,  p.  555 — The  sweet  Neglect. 

Wheat.,  iii.  169;  Sch.,  p.  671. 
Der  Verliebte,  p.  553— Why  so  pale  ? 

Wheat.,  ii.  343 ;  Sch.,  p.  736. 
Die  Pilgerin.   Ein  zweites  Gespriich,  p.  564 
— As  Ye  came  from  the  Holy  Land. 
Wheat.,  ii.  101 ;  Sch.,  p.  326. 
The  following  two  ballads  are  found  in 
the  1774  manuscript,  but  were  not  inserted 
in  the  1778  edition  of  the  Reliques: 

Gesprach  einer  Pilgerin,  p.   25 — Gentle 
Herdsman,  tell  to  Me. 

Wheat.,  ii.  p.  86;  Sch.,  p.  318. 


Jugend    und   Alter,   p.   52— Youth   and 
Age. 

Wheat.,  i.  237 ;  Sch.,  p.  170. 

After  the  publication  of  Herder's  Volks- 
lieder there  appeared  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  translations  from  Percy's  tteliques  by 
other  poets.  These  translations  came  out 
either  in  collections  or  singly  in  periodicals, 
such  as  the  Guttinger  Musenalmanach  or  the 
Teutsche  Merkur.  As,  however,  H.  F.  Wag- 
ner in  his  Das  Eindringen  von  Percys  Reliques 
in  Deutschland  has  treated  the  whole  sub- 
ject of  these  minor  translators'  productions 
with  great  care,  I  need  only,  for  the  sake  of 
completeness,  include  their  titles  in  this 
paper.  They  will  be  found  in  the  table 
which  concludes  this  essay. 

B.  '  Die  Zeit  der  Classicitiit.' 

The  noblest  of  Herder's  literary  children 
is  J.  W.  Goethe,  the  Colossus  of  the 
world  of  German  thought.  From  Herder 
Goethe  caught  his  enthusiasm  for  popular, 
and  especially  sixteenth-century  popular, 
literature,  though  of  course  that  was  only 
a  fraction  of  his  debt  to  '  the  first  of  modern 
thinkers.'  During  the  months  they  spent 
together  at  Strassburg  in  1770,  when  Goethe 
was  made  the  Goethe  we  know-  by  his  daily 
and  hourly  contact  with  that  master-mind, 
Percy's  Reliques  was  often  a  topic  of  conver- 
sation. By  Herder's  ideals  Goethe's  poetical 
horizon  was  immeasurably  widened,  and  in 
the  tenth  book  of  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit 
Goethe  says  that  he  came  to  see  poetry  as 
'an  endowment  of  the  world,  of  nations, 
and  not  the  private  inheritance  of  a  few 
refined,  educated  people.' 

As  I  have  said,  the  immediate  outcome  of 
that  intercourse  in  the  darkened  room  of 
the  'Gasthof  zum  Geist'  at  Strassburg  was 
Goethe's  collection  of  twelve  Alsatian  folk- 
songs, which  reached  Herder  in  the  end  of 
August  or  the  beginning  of  September  1771. 
Two  of  these  were  given  places  among  the 
Volkslieder : 

Das  Lied  vom  jungen  Grafen. 

Das  Lied  vom  eifersiichtigen  Knaben. 

The  influence  of  Herder,  however,  and 
through  Herder  of  Percy's  Reliques,  was  far 
deeper  than  merely  to  entice  Goethe  to  col- 
lect ballads  for  Herder's  use  or  for  a  private 
collection  of  his  own.  Goethe  was  impelled 
to  write  ballads  himself  in  the  real  spirit  of 
ballad  poetry,  to  take  popular  motivs  and 
work  them  into  poetry  which  would  appeal 
to  the  popular  imagination  by  its  natural 
style,  its  lifelike  truthfulness.  And  what 


88 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


an  array  of  ballads  emerged  from  his  citadel 
to  win  the  common  people  back  to  the  king- 
dom of  literature ! 

Among  Goethe's  ballad  motivs,  however, 
there  did  not  appear  one  out  of  Percy's 
Reliques  for  very  many  years  after  that  book 
fell  into  his  hands.  Only  in  1820,  in  his 
last  period  of  work,  when  we  are  accustomed 
to  style  him  '  Goethe  der  Romantiker,'  did 
he  publish  his  first  and  only  ballad  in  which 
the  influence  of  Percy's  Reliques  is  tangible. 
His  last  ballad,  'Ballade  voin  vertriebenen 
und  zuriickkehrenden  Grafen,'  has  its  foun- 
dation in  '  The  Beggar's  Daughter  of  Bed- 
nail  Green'  (Wheat.,  ii.  171;  Sch.,  p.  364), 
and  shows  traces  of  '  King  Cophetua  and 
the  Beggar  Maid'  (Wheat.,  i.  189;  Sch., 
p.  "135).  In  his  own  explanation  of  the 
ballad,  written  in  1821  (cf.  Hempel  ed. 
Goethe's  Poems,  i.  p.  193  ff.),  Goethe 
observes  that  '  eine  vor  vielen  Jahren  mich 
anmuthende  altenglische  Ballade,  die  ein 
Kundiger  jener  Litteratur  vielleicht  bald 
nachweist,  diese  Darstellung  veranlasst 
habe.'  So  that  it  may  be  that  from  the 
days  when  he  first  became  acquainted  with 
Percy's  Reliques  in  1770  down  to  1820,  those 
two  ballads  had  clung  to  his  memory.1 

In  the  following  points  there  is  connection 
between  '  The  Beggar's  Daughter  of  Bednall 
Green '  and  Goethe's  '  Ballade ' : — 

(1)  In  both  a  beggar  maiden  is  wooed  by 
a  high-born  gentleman,  who  disregards  her 
poverty,  and  for  his  true  love  is  rewarded 
by  the  beggar  maiden's  father's  consent  to 
marry  her. 

Cf.  'Ballade,'  11.   37-46.    'The   Beggar's 
Daughter,'  11.  41-42,  81-132. 

(2)  In  both  a  beggar  minstrel  comes  into 
the  castle  of  a  knight  and  tells  the  story  of 
his  own  life  by  way  of  amusing  his  audience. 

Cf.  'Ballade,'  11.  10-53.     'The   Beggar's 
Daughter,'  part  ii.  11.  49-120. 

(3)  In  both  the  beggar  proves  his  high- 
born origin  and  receives  recognition  as  a 
prince. 

Cf,  '  Ballade,'  11.  82-98.     '  The  Beggar's 
Daughter,'  part  ii.  11.  81-120. 

(4)  In  both  the  gentleman  and  the  beg- 
gar  maid    are    betrothed    on    the   village 
green. 

Cf.    'Ballade,'    1.    44.      'The    Beggar's 
Daughter,'  1.  94  ff. 

1  Goethe  intended  to  work  out  the  subject  of 
his  '  Ballade '  into  an  opera  to  be  called  '  Der 
Lowenstuhl.'  Cf.  Goethe's  Works,  Weimar  ed., 
xii.  294  ff.  Also  Waetzoldt's  essay  on  the  subject, 
'  Zeitschrift  fiir  den  deut.  Unterricht,'  iii.  502  ff. 


In  the  following  detail  the  influence  of 
'  King  Cophetua  and  the  Beggar  Maid '  is  to 
be  traced : — 

In  both  the  high-born  suitor  saw  the  beg- 
gar maid  by  accident;  neither  of  these 
ballads  says  anything  of  several  lovers,  who 
proved  unequal  to  marrying  a  poor  girl,  as 
is  the  case  in  '  The  Beggar's  Daughter  of 
Bednall  Green,'  1.  77  ff. 

In  thinking  of  Goethe's  ballads  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  dissociate  them  from  his  friend 
Schiller's.  There  is,  however,  no  ballad  of 
Schiller's  in  which  the  influence  of  Percy's 
Reliques  can  incontrovertibly  be  traced. 
The  only  one  which  may  have  been  coloured 
by  a  ballad  in  that  collection  is  '  Graf  Eber- 
hard  der  Greiner,'  which  was  written  in 
Schiller's  earliest  days  of  ballad  writing,  in 
1782.  The  metre  is  the  same  as  that  of 
'  The  more  modern  ballad  of  Chevy  Chase  ' 
(Wheat.,  i.  249;  Seh.,  p.  178).  A  third 
line  of  eight  syllables,  however,  is  inserted 
between  the  third  and  last  line  of  each  of 
Schiller's  stanzas : — 

God  prosper  long  our  noble  king, 
Our  lives  and  safetyes  all ! 
A  woefull  hunting  once  there  did 
In  Chevy  Chase  befall. 

Ihr,  ihr  dort  aussen  in  der  Welt, 

Die  Nasen  eingespannt ! 

Auch  manchen  Mann,  auch  manchen  Held, 

Im  Frieden  gut  und  stark  im  Feld, 

Gebar  das  Sch\vabenland. 

It  must  be  remarked  that  Gleim's  Grena- 
dierlieder,  of  1758,  are  also  in  the  same 
metre  as  'The  more  modern  ballad  of 
Chevy  Chase,'  so  that  it  may  be  they  and 
not  this  Percy  Relique  which  inspired  the 
metre  of  '  Graf  Eberhard  der  Greiner.'  I 
cannot,  however,  find  any  mention  of 
interest  in  Gleim's  Orenadierlieder  on  the 
part  of  Schiller  about  the  year  1782, 
whereas  there  is  this  remark  in  Diintzer's 
Life  of  Schiller  (vol.  i.  p.  58) :  '  Man  wettei- 
ferte  in  den  mannigfachsten  eignen  Ver- 
suchen  und  in  begeisterter  Aufnahme  innerer 
Dichtungen.  .  .  .  An  lyrischen  Gedichten 
fehlte  es  nicht,  bei  denen  Klopstock  Haupt- 
leitstern  blieb,  neben  dem  die  im  Gottinger 
Musenalmanach  auftretenden  Dichter,  be- 
sonders  Burger,  Holty,  Miller,  Voss  und 
die  Grafen  Stolberg,  bewundert  warden.' 
And  I,  therefore,  feel  justified  in  supposing 
that  Schiller  was  first  interested  in  English 
ballads  and  Percy's  Reliques  in  particular 
by  means  of  Biirger's  adaptations  of  them, 
which  appeared  in  the  Gottinger  Musen- 
almanach. His  '  Die  Kindermorderin,'  which 
bears  so  much  resemblance  to  Burger's  '  Des 
Pfarrers  Tochter  zu  Taubenhain,'  appeared 


INFLUENCE  OF  PEECY'S  'EELIQUES'  ON  GEEMAN  LITEEATUEE       89 


in  1781,  and  in  the  Anthologie  auf  das  Jahr 
1782'  was  published  'Graf  Eberhard  der 
Greiner.'  Is  it  not  probable  that  it  was 
influenced  by  Percy's  Eelique  '  The  more 
modern  ballad  of  Chevy  Chase,'  in  which 
Schiller  would  have  become  interested  in- 
directly through  Burger's  ballads  with  Percy 
originals  t 

Before  leaving  Schiller,  it  is,  perhaps, 
worth  while  noticing  that  Schiller,  like 
Goethe,  wrote  his  first  ballads  under  the 
influence  of  the  Storm  and  Stress  poets. 
Like  Goethe,  Schiller  also  preserved  an 
interest  in  their  work  long  after  he  may 
be  said  to  have  outgrown  their  influence. 
In  a  letter  to  Korner  from  Weimar,  dated 
April  30,  1789,  Schiller  wrote  thus  of  the 
chief  Storm  and  Stress  poet,  Burger : 
'  Burger  was  here  a  few  days  ago,  and  I 
have  made  his  acquaintance.  .  .  .  He  seems 
to  be  a  frank,  honest  fellow.'1 

C.  The  Romantics  and  Uhland. 

The  death  of  Schiller  is  generally  taken 
as  the  close  of  the  Classic  Age  of  German 
literature,  and  after  1805  a  new  era  begins  : 
the  Age  of  the  Eomantics.  Uhland  has 
been  here  classed  with  that  age,  because 
his  connection  with  Percy's  Reliques  is  so 
closely  bound  up  with  one  of  the  chief 
productions  of  the  Eomantic  School :  '  Des 
Knaben  Wunderhorn.' 

The  Eomantics  of  Germany,  though  their 
work  shows  such  a  deep  impress  of  the 
indirect  influence  of  Percy's  Reliques,  have 
not  left  many  reproductions  of  Percy 
motivs.  It  is  only  among  the  poems  of 
the  minor  Eomantics  that  ballads  based 
on  Percy  originals  are  found :  e.g.  '  Der 
kiihne  Schiffer,'  by  Samuel  Christian  Pape 
(1774-1817),  recalls  'Sir  Patrick  Spence' 
(Wheat.,  i.  98;  Sch.,  p.  69),  though  there 
are  but  slight  resemblances  between  them  : 

(1)  LI.  3  and  4  of  'Der  kiihne  Schiffer' 
are  an  echo  of  11.  21  and  22  of  the  English 
ballad. 

Der  kiihne  Schiffer  stand  am  Bord  : 
'  Ihr  Manner,  auf  ins  Meer  ! ' 

Mak  hast,  mak  haste,  my  mirry  men  all, 
Our  guid  schip  sails  the  morne. 

(2)  In  Pape's  poem  one  lady,  the  skipper's 
daughter,  bids  him  farewell,  and  with  fore- 
boding awaits  his  return.     In  'Sir  Patrick 
Spence'   many   ladies    are    represented   as 
doing  so. 

(3)  In    both   the  name  of  a  place  near 

1  Of.  Schiller's  Briefwechsd  mit  KOrner,  ed. 
Goedeke,  Leipzig,  1874,  i.  p.  308-9. 

VOL.  VII. 


which  the  skipper  was  drowned  is  men- 
tioned as  a  consolation  to  those  awaiting 
his  return : — 

O  Madchen,  still !    Bei  Helgoland, 
Bei  Helgoland  im  tiefen  Meer, 
Da  ruht  dein  Vater  rechter  Hand, 
Die  Manner  um  ihn  her. 

Have  owre,  have  owre  to  Aberdour, 
It 's  fif tie  fadom  deip  : 
"  And  thair  lies  guid  Sir  Patrick  Spence, 
Wi'  the  Scots  lords  at  his  feit. 

'Das  Gelubde,'  by  Ludwig  Eobert  (1778- 
1832),  is  a  ballad  on  the  same  Old  Testa- 
ment story  as  '  Jepthah,  Judge  of  Israel ' 
(Wheat.,  i.  182;  Sch.,  p.  1066),  and  especi- 
ally in  the  closing  verses  bears  resemblance 
to  the  English  ballad  : — 

'  Nur  ein  Wort  noch  lass  mich  sprechen  : 
Noch  drei  Tage  lass  mich  leben. 

Manche  Thrane  auch  vergiessen, 
Weil  als  Jungfrau  ich  mein  Leben 
Ohne  Liebe  muss  beschliessen  ; 

Lass  mich  einsam  mich  verbergen, 
Bis  man  mich  zum  Tode  ruft." 
Und  der  Vater  sprach  :  '  So  gehe  ! ' 

Und  sie  weinte  .  .  . 

Bis  man  sie  zum  Tode  rief. 

'  But  dear  father,  grant  me  one  request, 
That  I  may  go  to  the  wilderness, 

There  to  bewail  my  virginity ' ; 

So  he  sent  her  away, 

For  to  mourn,  for  to  mourn,  till  her  dying 
day. 

'Der  Keuschheits  Mantel,'  by  Wilhelm 
Gerhard  (1780-1858),  the  translator  of 
sundry  poems  by  Eobert  Burns,  is  a  free 
translation  of  '  The  Boy  and  the  Mantle ' 
(Wheat.,  iii.  3  ;  Sch.,  p.  556).  Gerhard's 
version  is  greatly  lacking  in  the  true  spirit 
of  popular  poetry,  and  is  by  no  means  to  be 
compared  with  its  original  as  regards  force 
and  spontaneity. 

Among  Uhland's  poems,  as  among 
Goethe's  and  Schiller's,  there  is  only  one 
ballad  which  shows  the  direct  influence  of 
Percy's  Reliques:  'Des  Sangers  Fluch' 
bears  traces  of  '  The  Bonny  Earl  of  Murray ' 
(Wheat.,  ii.  226 ;  Sch.,  p.  402);  'Young 
Waters'  (Wheat.,  ii.  228 ;  Sch.,  p.  376); 
and  'King  Estmere'  (Wheat.,  i.  85;  Sch., 
p.  59).  E.  M.  Werner  thus  writes  on  the 
subject  in  the  Vierteljahrschrift  fur  Littera- 
turgeschichte  (i.  504  ff.) :  'Uhland  hat  den 
Stoff  seiner  Ballade  "  Des  SSnger's  Fluch  " 
zwar  frei  erfunden,  aber  die  Anregung  dazu 
aus  der  schottischen  Eomanze  "  Der  eifer- 
siichtige  Konig"  gewonnen  .  .  .  Unmit- 


90 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE,  QUARTERLY 


telbar  auf  diese  Romanze  folgt  in  Herders 
Volksliedern,  gleichfalls  nach  Percy, 
"Hurrays  Ermordung."  Ein  paar  Kliinge 
aus  diesern  Gesang  tonen  aucli  in  Uhlands 
Ballade  nach.  .  .  .  Auch  das  alte  Marchen, 
bei  Herder  "  Konig  Esthmer "  bietet  ein 
paar  Parallelen  zu  Uhlands  Ballade  : — 
'  Adler  sagt  (1.  75)  : 

'  "  Und  ihr  sollt  seyn  ein  Harfner,  Bruder, 
Wie  ein'r  aus  Norden  pflegt, 
Und  ich  will  seyn  Eur  Singer,  Bruder, 
Der  Euch  die  Harfe  tragt. 
Und  ihr  sollt  seyn  der  beste  Harfner 
Der  je  die  Harfe  schlug, 
Und  ioh  will  seyn  der  beste  Singer 
Der  je  die  Harfe  trug." 

'  Nun  kommen  die  beiden  in  ihrer  Ver- 
kleidung  ins  Schloss  Adland's,  dessen 
Tochter  der  Sultan  noch  heut  freien  will ; 
in  der  Halle  stehen  sie : 

"'Konig  Esthmer  dann  die  Harpe  zog, 
Und  spielt  darauf  so  siias. 
Aufstarrt  die  Braut  an  Konig's  Seit  ! 
Dem  Heiden  macht's  Verdriess,"  u.s.w. 

'  Auch  hier  sind  Motive  welche  nicht  ohne 
Einfluss  auf  Uhlands  Erfindung  blieben ; 
Vertrautheit  mit  Herders  Volksliedern 
diirfen  wir  bei  Uhland  wohl  schon  damals 
voraussetzen.' 

D.  '  Die  Politischen  Lyriker.' 

Passing  on  to  those  poets  who  worked  in 
the  troublous  times  of  the  middle  of  the 
century,  and  who  on  account  of  their  many 
war-songs  and  songs  connected  with  war, 
have  earned  the  name  of  'die  Politischen 
Lyriker,'  there  is  only  one,  as  far  as  I  can 
discover,  who  made  use  of  a  Percy  motiv. 
In  'Das  Lied  vom  falschen  Grafen,'  by 
Moritz  von  Strachwitz  (cf.  Gedichte,  ed. 
Reclam,  p.  139),  there  are  such  clear  echoes 
of  'Lord  Thomas  and  Fair  Ellinor'  (cf. 
Wheat.,  iii.  82;  Sch.,  p.  610),  that  it  cannot 
but  be  concluded  it  was  written  under 
the  influence  of  that  ballad  from  Percy's 
Reliques. 

(1)  In  both  a  nobleman   while   in  love 
with  a  high-born  lady  swears  he  will  marry 
a  peasant  girl,  and  in  both  the  peasant  girl 
kills  the  high-born  lady  in  the  very  presence 
of  the  nobleman. 

(2)  In  both  the  quaint  adjective  '  brown ' 
is  applied  to  the  peasant  girl : 

The  brown  girl  she  has  got  houses  and  lands 
Fair  Ellinor  she  has  got  none. 

Eine  Fischerdirn'  mit  braunem  Gesicht, 
Die  rudert  den  Kahn  mit  Macht. 

There  are  several  important  differences 
between  the  two  poems,  though  the  trend 


of  the  story  is  so  very  much  the  same ; 
e.g.  Strachwitz  has  changed  the  local  colour- 
ing completely,  making  the  scene  of  the 
poem  Denmark,  not  England,  the  farmer's 
daughter  a  fisher  maiden,  and  the  scene  of 
her  crime  a  cliff-bound  coast  in  Scandinavia, 
not  a  peaceful  English  village  church.  Also 
Strachwitz  causes  the  three  lovers  to  meet 
their  death  together,  while  in  'Lord  Thomas 
and  Fair  Ellinor,'  the  browne  girl  kills 
Ellinor,  is  then  put  to  death  by  Lord 
Thomas,  who  afterwards  ends  his  own  life. 

E.  Ballad  Writers  since  1860. 

Among  the  ballad  writers  since  1860 
there  are  two  in  particular  who  have  worked 
at  translations  of  ballads  in  Percy's  Reliques. 
A  brief  account  of  Theodor  Fontane's  and 
Felix  Dahn's  versions  will  suffice  to  show 
that  the  power  to  fascinate  German  poetic 
genius  has  by  no  means  departed  from  the 
Reliques. 

Th.  Fontane  published  his  Balladen  first 
in  1861,  but  since  then  his  collected  poems 
have  appeared  in  several  editions.  In  that 
of  1902  there  are  altogether  fifty-four 
poems  with  English  subjects,  and  of  these 
twelve  are  ballads  with  Percy  originals. 
They  are  to  be  classed  into  two  groups : 
translations  and  adaptations. 
1.  Translations — 

Barbara   Allen,    ed.    1902,   p.    382— Sir 
John  Grehme  and  Barbara  Allan. 

Wheat.,  iii.  133;  Sch.  645. 
Jung  Walter,  p.  384 — Young  Waters. 
Wheat.,  ii.  228 ;  Sch.,  376. 
Sir  Patrick  Spens,  p.  389— Sir  Patrick 

Spence.  Wheat.,  i.  98  ;  Sch.,  69. 

Lord  Murray,  p.  391— The  Bonny  Earl 
of  Murray.     Wheat.,  ii.  226  ;  Sch.,  402. 
Konigin   Eleonorens   Beichte,   p.    393 — 
Queen  Eleanor's  Confession. 

Wheat.,  ii.  164;  Sch.,  357. 
Konig    Johann    und    der    Bischof    von 
Canterbury,   p.   428 — King  John  and 
the  Abbot  of  Canterbury. 

Wheat.,  ii.  303 ;  Sch.,  466. 

These  are  excellent  translations,  yet  none 
of  them  do  full  justice  to  Fontane's  skill  as 
a  poet.  The  ballads  in  the  second  group, 
however,  are  many  of  them  fine  poems,  and 
had  Fontane  been  willing  to  sacrifice  their 
English  local  colouring,  they  would  certainly 
have  won  great  favour  with  his  fellow- 
countrymen.  As  it  is,  in  his  desire  not  to 
forfeit  the  Englishism  of  his  originals, 
Fontane  has  had  to  forfeit  much  of  his 
merited  popularity  as  a  German  ballad 
poet. 


INFLUENCE  OF  PERCY'S  'RELIQUES  '  ON  GERMAN  LITERATURE      91 


2.  Adaptations — 

'Von  der  schonen  Rosamunde  '  (ed.  1902, 
p.  115  ff.)  is  a  '  Romanzen-Cyclus '  of  nine 
chapters  baaed  on  '  Fair  Rosamond  (Wheat., 
ii.  154;  Sch.,  348).  All  the  essential  de- 
tails of  the  English  ballad  are  reproduced 
and  elaborated  in  the  German  one,  except 
the  mention  of  the  thread  by  following 
which  entrance  to  Rosamond's  bower  could 
alone  be  gained.  The  most  obvious  elabo- 
rations made  by  Fontane  are  as  follows : — 

i.  The  opening  lines  of  the  English 
ballad  :— 

When  as  King  Henry  rulde  this  land, 
The  second  of  that  name, 
Besides  the  queene,  he  dearly  lovde 
A  faire  and  comely  dame  .  .  . 

give  no  indication  of  the  story  of  Henry's 
meeting  with  and  wooing  of  Rosamond. 
The  ballad  opens  at  the  point  in  the  story 
when  Rosamond  is  established  at  Wood- 
stocke,  to  the  jealous  indignation  of  Ellinor, 
and  Henry  is  about  to  start  for  a  war  with 
France.  Fontane,  however,  wrote  three 
introductory  chapters  the  titles  of  which 
indicate  their  contents:  (a)  'Wie  Konig 
Heinrich  Rosamunden  findet.'  (6)  'Wie 
Konig Heinrich  Rosamunden  gen  Woodstock 
f iihrt.  (c) '  Von  der  Konigin  Leonore.' 

ii.  In  that  third  introductory  chapter 
Fontane  goes  into  many  details  about  the 
queen's  hearing  of  the  bringing  of  Rosa- 
munde to  Woodstock.  He  found  simply 
this  in  the  English  original : 

Yea  Rosamonde,  fair  Rosamonde, 
Her  name  was  called  so, 
To  whom  our  queene,  dame  Ellinor, 
Was  knowne  a  deadlye  foe. 

iii.  Fontane  has  inserted  an  entire  chapter 
about  the  king's  return  to  his  palace  in 
London  after  his  first  night  at  Woodstock 
with  Rosamunde  :  '  Wie  Konig  Heinrich  gen 
London  zieht.' 

iv.  In  the  two  descriptions  of  Woodstock 
there  is  this  notable  difference :  in  the 
Relique  it  is  a  new  tower  built  on  purpose 
for  Rosamond : 

The  king,  therefore,  for  her  defence 
Against  the  furious  queene, 
At  Woodstocke  builded  such  a  tower 
The  like  was  never  seene  .  .  . 

while  in  Fontane  Rosamunde  was  taken  to 
an  old  castle  long  since  in  existence  : 

Schloas  Woodstock  ist  ein  alter  Bau 
Aug  Konig  Alfreds  Tagen  .  .  . 

v.  After  Heinrich  has  gone  to  France, 
Fontane  inserts  a  scene  between  Rosamunde 
and  a  beggar  woman  who  warns  her  she 
has  been  betrayed  and  that  her  end  is  near ; 


also  a  very  beautiful  chapter  called  'Em 
Sturm.'  In  the  latter  the  wind  is  made  to 
overhear  these  words  in  Woodstock,  '0 
komm,  o  rette,'  and  to  carry  them  to  the 
king's  ears  in  his  tent  in  France.  Heinrich 
forthwith  takes  ship  to  come  to  the  help  of 
Rosamunde. 

vi.  It  is  not  from  actual  violence  that 
Rosamunde  pleads  to  be  preserved  in  Fon- 
tane's  poem,  for  he  makes  the  evil  done  to 
her  by  the  queen  to  consist  in  this: 

Kein  Wortlein  von  des  KOnig's  Gruss, 
Noch,  dass  im  fernen  Land  sein  Fuss 
Darf  je  nach  Woodstock  dringen. 

Ich  bring  ein  kostlich  Gift  ihr  bei, 
Das  Zweifelgift  an  seiner  Treu — 
Das  muss  das  Herz  ihr  brechen. 

Hence  the  end  of  the  ballad  is  altered  by 
Fontane:  he  makes  Rosamunde  take  her 
own  life  in  an  agony  of  despair. 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  letzte  Nacht  (ed.  1902, 
p.  167  ff.)  gives  Fontane's  ideas  about  the 
occasion  of  the  beautiful  ballad  '  The  Lye ' 
(Wheat.,  ii.  297  ;  Sch.,  458).     That  Fontane 
was  mistaken  in  his  view  that  '  The  Lye ' 
voiced   Sir  Walter's    feelings  on  the   last 
night  of   his  life  is  shown  by  the  critical 
note  prefixed  to  the  ballad  in  Wheatley's 
edition.     'This  poem  is  reported  to  have 
been  written  by  its  celebrated  author  the 
night  before  his  execution,  Oct.  29,  1618. 
But  this  must  be  a  mistake,  for  there  were 
at   least  two  editions  of  Davison's  poems 
(among  which  Percy  found  it)  before  that 
time,  one  in  1608,  the  other  in  1611.     So 
that,  unless  this  poem  was  an  after-insertion 
in   the  fourth  edition,  it  must  have  been 
written  long  before  the  death  of  Sir  Walter: 
perhaps   it   was    composed   soon   after  his 
condemnation  in  1603.'     Into  the  narrative 
of  the  poem  Fontane  has  inserted  his  adap- 
tation of    'The   Lye.'      In   these   rhymed 
stanzas  of  eight  lines  each  (the  rest  of  the 
poem  is  in  blank  verse)  he  has  not  kept 
closely  to   his  original.     In  fact,  the  first 
and  last  stanzas  are  not  in  '  The  Lye '  at  all, 
and  a  different  idea  is  inserted  for  1.  1  of 
v.  12  of  the  English  ballad.     The  following 
are  the  parallels  in  the  two  poems  :— 

Stanza  2,  1.  1. 

Des  Hofes  Glanz  und  Schimmer 
Blinkt  nur  wie  faules  Holz, 
Die  Kirche  lebt  vom  Flimmer 
Und  wird  vor  Demuth  stolz. 


Cf.  '  The  Lye,' 1.  7. 


Goe  tell  the  court,  it  glowes 
And  shines  like  rotten  wood, 
Goe  tell  the  church  it  showes 
What's  good,  and  doth  no  good. 


92 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


Stanza  2,  1.  5. 

Des  Reichen  Opfer  bringen 

Der  Quell,  daraus  sie  springen 
Heisst  Sucht  naoh  Ehr'  und  Ruhm. 

Of.  '  The  Lye, '  1.  19. 

Tell  men  of  high  condition 

Their  purpose  is  ambition. 
Stanza  3,  1.  1. 

Des  Klugen  Witz  verschwendet 
Der  Worte  viel — nur  nichts  ; 

Cf.  'The  Lye,' 1.  43. 

Tell  wit,  how  much  it  wrangles 
In  tickle  points  of  nicenesse  ; 

Stanza  3,  1.  3. 

Die  Weisheit  wird  geblendet 
Vom  Glanz  des  eignen  Lichts  ; 

Cf.  '  The  Lye,'  1.  45. 

Tell  wisedome  ;  she  entangles 
Herselfe  in  over-wisenesse ; 

Stanza  3,  1.  5. 

Selbst  du,  des  Weltgewimmels 
Gepriesenste,  o  Kunst, 
Es  zeugt  dich  statt  des  Himmels 
Die  Mode  und  die  Gunst. 

Cf.  'The  Lye,' 1.  61. 

Tell  arts,  they  have  no  soundnesse, 
But  vary  by  esteeming ; 

Stanza  4,  1.  2. 

Die  Lieb  ist  eitel  Lust, 

Cf.  'The  Lye,' 1.  32. 

Tell  love  it  is  but  lust ; 
Stanza  4,  1.  3. 

Ergebung  kniet  und  fallet 

Nur  weil  es  heisst :   '  Du  musst ! ' 

Cf.  'The  Lye,' 1.  31. 

Tell  zeale,  it  lacks  devotion  ; 
Stanza  4,  1.  5. 

Die  Treu  ging  langst  verloreu 
In  Sohein  und  Lug  und  Trug, 

Cf.  'The  Lye,' 1.  67. 

Tell  faith,  it's  fled  the  citie  ; 

Stanza  4,  1.  7. 

Das  Gluck  wird  blind  geboren ; — 
Cf.  '  The  Lye,'  1.  55. 

Tell  fortune  of  her  blindnesse. 

Among  those  poems,  which  Fontaue  calls 
Lieder  und  Balladen,  frei  nach  dem  Englischen, 
there  are  several  which  are  not  such  elabor- 
ate adaptations  as  the  above-mentioned,  but 
which  are  also  by  no  means  to  be  reckoned 


as  translations :  '  Jung  Musgrave  und  Lady 
Barnard'  (ed.  1902,  p.  365  tf.)  is  obviously 
a  version  of  'Little  Musgrave  and  Lady 
Barnard '  (Wheat.,  iii.,  68  ff. ;  Sch.,  601).  It 
omits,  however,  the  first  stanza  of  the 
English  ballad,  it  does  not  mention  the 
English  place-name  Bucklesford  —  Bury, 
where  Lady  Barnard's  bower  was,  it  does 
not  reproduce  all  the  gruesome  details  of 
the  English  story,  and  passes  over  entirely 
Lord  Barnard's  self-recrimination  at  the 
end  of  the  poem. 

In  'Schon  Margret  und  Lord  William' 
(ed.  1902,  p.  378)  Fontane's  version  of 
'Fair  Margaret  and  S  weet  William '  (Wheat., 
iii.,  124;  Sch.,  638)  there  are  also  sundry 
omissions: — i.  William's  saying  to  his  re- 
tainers that  he  goes  to  Margret's  bower 
'by  the  leave  of  my  ladie'  (cf.  11.  39,  40). 
ii.  These  words  of  William  to  Margret's 
brother  at  her  funeral : 

For  whatever  is  dealt  at  her  funeral  to-day 
Shall  be  dealt  to-morrow  at  mine. 

iii.  Also  the  following  lines  : 

Fair  Margaret  dyed  to-day,  to-day, 
Sweet  William  dyed  the  morrow  : 

Fontane  has,  however,  made  several 
additions  to  the  original  ballad,  and  that 
without  spoiling  it: — i.  An  expression  of 
reluctance  on  the  part  of  William  to  marry 
his  rich  bride ;  cf.  \.  78.  ii.  Descriptions  of 
the  manner  of  Margret's  death,  1.  17  if.; 
of  her  appearing  to  William,  1.  25  ff. ;  of 
the  growing  again  of  the  rose  bushes  after 
the  sexton  had  cut  them  down,  1.  83.  iii. 
A  concluding  adage,  1.  84. 

'  Chevy  Chase  oder  die  Jagd  im  Chevy- 
Forst'  (ed.  1902,  p.  396  ff.)  is  based  not  on 
the  Ancient  Ballad  of  Chevy  Chase,  like 
Herder's  '  Chevy  Jagd '  and  Bothe's  '  Die 
Chevy  Jagd,'  but  on  the  more  modern 
version  of  the  poem ;  cf.  Jfheat.  i.  249 ; 
Sch.,  178.  The  parts  of  the  English  ballad 
which  are  reproduced  by  Fontane  are  com- 
paratively close  translations,  but  as  so  much 
of  it  has  been  omitted  by  him,  I  class  it 
among  his  adaptations.  The  following  lines 
are  altogether  omitted:  65-78;  145-149; 
156-160;  165-169;  196-200;  227-262;  266- 
269.  The  passage  from  1.  117  to  1.  127  is 
condensed  into : 

Das  gab  ein  Stechen  und  ein  Haun, 
Manch  breite  Wunde  klaffte, 
Langst  unser  englisch  Bogenvolk 
Nicht  mehr  den  Bogen  straffte. 

The  description  of  the  many  English  and 
Scotch  lords  who  fell  in  the  battle  (11.  227- 
262)  has  the  following  equivalent : — 


INFLUENCE  OF  PERCY'S  'EELIQUES'  ON  GERMAN  LITERATURE       93 


So  fiel  Sir  Ralph  Montgomery, 
CJnd  mit  ihm  sind  gefallen 
Auf  beiden  Seiten  manniglich 
Die  Ritter  und  Vaaallen. 

A  few  lines  have  been  added  by  Fontane 
to  the  original : — Percy's  comparison  of  his 
foe  to  a  deer,  11.  157-160;  also  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  field  of  battle  after  the  fray  in 
the  second  last  verse  of  the  poem.  The 
closing  verse  is  different  from  the  original 
in  Fontane ;  he  evidently  saw  no  reason  for 
alluding,  as  does  the  English  conclusion, 
to  the  troubled  state  of  the  time  when  the 
ballad  was  written. 

God  save  our  king  and  bless  this  land 
With  plentye,  joy  and  peace  ; 
And  grant  henceforth  that  foule  debate 
'Twixt  noblemen  may  cease. 

l)as  war  die  Jagd  in  Ciievy  Forst, l 
Wo  Herr  und  Hirsch  gefallen. 
Gott  schiitz'  den  KOnig  unsern  Herrn, 
Und  sei  uns  gniidig  alien. 

In  the  two  parts  of  'Der  Aufstand  in 
Northumberland'  (ed.  1802,  p.  408  ff.)  are 
treated  'The  Rising  in  the  North'  (Wheat., 
i.  266;  Sch.,  190)  and  'Northumberland 
betrayed  by  Douglas'  (Wheat.,  i.  279;  Sch., 
196).  Fontane  follows  Percy's  suggestion 
in  thus  making  the  one  ballad  the  sequel  to 
the  other. 

'  Percy  und  die  Nortons '  is  much  the 
closer  rendering  of  the  two,  though  even 
it  omits  several  verses  of  the  original,  viz. 
verses  1,  8,  23,  28-30.  The  most  important 
of  these  omissions  are  Earl  Percy's  wife's 
idea  that  she  might  serve  as  hostage  for 
her  lord  at  the  court,  and  the  episode  of 
Sir  George  Bowes'  flight  to  his  castle 
instead  of  joining  the  rebels.  Some  minor 
differences  are  these:  in  11.  6  and  14  Fon- 
tane mingles  bashfulness  in  Percy's  defiance 
of  the  court;  in  1.  42  Fontane  has  'seine 
Sb'hne'  for  'that  goodly e  company';  Fon- 
tane mentions  eight  instead  of  nine  Nortons, 
seven  instead  of  eight  of  whom  he  makes 
join  the  rebels;  in  Fontane's  version  the 
Nortons  go  straight  to  Percy's  castle  and 
are  there  joined  by  the  other  nobles,  while 
in  the  English  ballad  the  host  gathers  at 
Wetherbye. 

'  Percy's  Tod '  differs  considerably  from 
its  original  as  regards  details,  though  their 
subject  is  obviously  identical.  Fontane 
omits  the  following  : — 

1.  The  account  of  Percy's  wanderings 
round  Scotland  before  he  reached  the 
castle  of  Douglas.  Percy  simply  says  : 

1  This  line  closely  resembles  the  last  words  of 
A.  The  Middle  High  German  epic,  '  Der  Nibelunge 
Not'  :— '  daz  ist  der  Nibelunge  not.'  B.  Uhland's 
'Des  Sangers  Fluch':— 'Dasist  des  Sangers  Fluch.' 


Mein  Dach  ist  der  Himmel  seit  manchem  Tag, 
Mein  Lager  zur  Nacht  des  Waldes  Streu  : 
Zu  William  Douglas  will  ich  gehn, 
Sein  Sehloss  ist  fest,  sein  Herz  ist  treu. 

The  reason  underlying  1.  26  of  the  English 
ballad, 

He  halehed  him  right  courteouslie, 
is  explained  thus : 

Als  einst  er  floh,  wie  jetzt  ich  flieh', 
Da  fand  er  Schutz  am  Herde  niein  : 
Die  Douglas  waren  immer  treu, 
Auch  William  Douglas  muss  es  sein. 

2.  The   sending  of   the   Lord  Warden's 
demand   to  the  Regent  for  'the  bannisht 
Earl,'  cf.  11.  31-36,  and  so  the  occasion  of 
Mary  a  Douglas'  word  of  warning,  cf.  11.  55- 
60,  is  not  specified.     In  fact,  the  whole  of 
the  conversation  between  Mary  and  Earl 
Percy  is  much  condensed ;  cf.  Percy's  Tod, 
11.    37-84.      Northumberland   betrayed   by 
Douglas,  11.  55-112. 

3.  The   reference    to    Mary   a   Douglas' 
mother;  cf.  1.  133  ff. 

4.  The  farewell  between  Percy  and  Mary 
a  Douglas;  cf.  11.  157-164,  169-188.  _ 

There  are  three  elaborations  of  lines  in 
the  English  ballad  which  are  worthy  of 
note : — 

1.  Fontane  works  out  his  third  and  fourth 
stanzas  from  1.  25  : 

And  when  he  to  the  Douglas  came. 

2.  Fontane's  eighteenth  and   nineteenth 
stanzas  are  suggested  by  11.  103-104  : 

Yet  step  one  moment  here  aside, 
He  showe  you  all  your  foes  in  field. 

3.  The  last  stanza  of  the  English  ballad 
is  supplemented  by  the  three  best  stanzas 
of  Fontane's,  which  give  a  detailed  account 
of  Percy's  execution. 

Felix  Dahn,  the  other  poet  of  recent 
years  whose  ballads  show  the  influence  of 
Percy's  Eeliques,  has  not  used  any  outside 
those  treated  by  Fontane.  Whether  this 
fact  points  to  some  intimate  connection 
between  them  I  have  not  had  the  means 
of  ascertaining.  None  of  Dahn's  ballads, 
however,  can  be  called  translations;  they 
are  free  adaptations  of  Percy  motivs. 

'Jung  Douglas  und  schon  Rosabell '  (cf. 
Gedichle,  I8te  Sammlung,  p.  219)  is  con- 
nected with  'Fair  Margaret  and  Sweet 
William'  (Wheat.,  iii.  124;  Sch.,  638)  in  so 
far  that  in  both  (1)  the  man  marries  another 
girl  than  his  beloved,  and  the  beloved,  as 
she  is  combing  her  hair  on  the  wedding 
morning,  sees  the  bridal  pair  pass  under 
her  window  ;  (2)  there  is  introduced  a  rose 
motiv  ;  in  the  English  ballad  at  the  end  of 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


the  poem,  cf.  1.  71  ff.,  in  the  German  earlier 
in  the  story,  cf.  11.  31-34,  50-51,  61  ff. 
The  names  in  Dahn's  poem  are  different, 
and  the  whole  story  is  more  elaborate.  He 
omits,  however,  the  ghostly  episode ;  cf.  1. 
17  ff.,  and  all  about  Margaret's  seven 
brothers ;  cf.  1.  43  ff.  The  part  played  by 
the  hero's  father  in  the  story  is  quite 
original  to  Dahn ;  cf.  1.  1 3  ff. 

'Der  Zaubermantel'  (cf.  Gedichle,  I8te 
Sammlung,  p.  242  ff.)  is  evidently  a  con- 
densed reproduction  of  '  The  Boy  and  the 
Mantle'  (Wheat.,  iii.  3;  Sch.,  556),  but 
between  the  two  there  are  the  following 
differences :  Dahn  gives  a  longer  account 
of  the  banquet,  11.  5-9,  though  he  curtails 
the  description  of  the  trying  on  of  the 
magic  cloak :  only  the  virtue  of  the  queen 
and  one  other  lady  is  tested,  whereas  several 
other  ladies  are  introduced  in  the  original. 
Also  in  Dahn's  poem  the  court  ladies  arc 
challenged  to  try  on  the  cloak,  while  in  the 
English  one  they  show  no  reluctance  to 
doing  so.  Dahn  omits  altogether  the  last 
part  of  the  English  ballad,  the  episode  of 
the  boar's  head;  cf.  1.  141  ff.  In  both, 
however,  the  queen  is  shown  to  be  disloyal 
at  heart,  and  in  both  the  lady  whom  the 
cloak  does  fit  has  first  to  confess  to  the 
little  fault  of  having  once  kissed  her  future 
husband  before  they  were  married. 

'Rosamunde'  (Gedichte,  2te  Sammlung, 
p.  138)  is  suggested  by  'Fair  Rosamund' 
(Wheat.,  ii.  154;  Sch.,  348);  for  both  tell 
how  a  king  of  England,  Dahn  does  not 
specify  which,  once  kept  his  mistress, 
Rosamunde,  shut  up  away  from  court  in 
a  hunting-lodge  in  the  forest.  In  Dahn's 
poem,  however,  the  king  is  given  a  higher 
moral  tone  than  in  the  English  ballad : 
there  is  no  mention  of  another  woman  than 
his  rightful  wife.  Eleanor  is  indeed  intro- 
duced by  Dahn,  but  as  the  king's  mother. 
It  is  out  of  pity  for  the  country  that  she 
does  Rosamunde  to  death : 

So  langer  kann  dies  Auge  schauen — 
Ich  fiihls — verloren  ist  mein  Sohn. 
Auf  !  todtet  sie  !  nur  ihr  Verderben 
Giebt  England  seinen  Herrn  zuriick. 

In  Dahn's  ballad  there  is  no  mention  of 
the  king's  going  from  the  court  for  a  war. 
One  night  after  Eleanor  had  overheard  her 
son  reveal  in  his  sleep  the  name  of  Rosa- 
munde's  refuge,  she  goes  and  has  her 
murdered.  Dahn  closes  his  poem  with  a 
description  of  the  effect  upon  the  king  of 
seeing  his  murdered  beloved  which  is  quite 
original : 

Er  schaut  die  Mutter,  die  Barone, 
Er  starrt  der  Schlaf 'rin  ins  Gesioht : 


'  Nun  magst  du  wieder  tragen  Krone 

Der  bose  Zauber  ward  zu  nicht. 

Der  schwiile  Traum,  er  war  vom  Biisen  : 

Du  kannst  nicht  irren  mehr  :  es  tagt— 

Von  Qual  und  Wahn  rnusst'  ioh  dich  losen ' — 

'  Ja,  Mutter,  wahr  hast  du  gesagt. 

Nur  eine  Bahn  ist  mir  geblieben  : 

Du  liisst  der  Liebe  keine  Wahl ! ' 

Uiid  bis  zum  Heft  ins  Herz  getrieben 

Traf  ihn  zum  Tod  der  treue  Stahl. 

'Lord  Angus  und  Jung  Kenneth'  (cf. 
Gedichte,  2tc  Sammlung,  p.  151)  echoes 
'  Little  Musgrave  and  Lady  Barnard 
(Wheat.,  iii.  68 ;  Sch.,  601).  In  both  a  lady 
of  high  degree  invites  an  inferior  to  a 
secret  bower  by  night,  and  Dahn  has  added 
a  description  of  the  way  in  which  the  lady 
undertook  to  make  easy  the  boy's  coming. 
In  both  the  boy  pays  her  the  visit,  only  in 
Dahn's  poem  it  is  as  a  ghost,  for  he  was 
killed  on  his  way  to  the  bower  by  the 
lady's  husband.  There  is  no  mention  of  a 
betrayal  by  another  servant,  but  Jung 
Kenneth  simply  says :  '  Lady  Angus,  dein 
Gatte  stach  mich  todt.' 

Besides  the  above-mentioned  adaptations 
to  be  found  among  Dahu's  poems  it  is 
worthy  of  note  that  in  'Ralf  Douglas'  (cf. 
Gedichte,  2te  Sammlung,  p.  141)  there  are 
three  passages  which  are  echoes  of  passages 
in  'Northumberland  betrayed  by  Douglas,' 
though  the  two  ballads  are  not  on  the 
same  subject : — 

(1)  LI.  23-28  of  'Ralf  Douglas,'  the  in- 
vitation with  its  treacherous  purpose  given 
to  King  James  to  hunt  in  the  demesne  of 
the  castle  of  Stirlingsford,  corresponds  to 
11.  43-48  of  the  English  ballad  : 

To-morrow  a  shootinge  will  bee  held 
Among  the  lords  of  the  North  countrye,  etc. 

(2)  Thomas  Kairn's  answer  to  the  king 
on  being  asked  if  the  invitation  should  be 
accepted : 

'  Mir  diinkt  es  sicher  im  eignen  Haus  :  Wort,  Glas 
und  Treue  brieht' — 

is  much  in  the  same  strain  as  the  warning 
given  by  Mary  a  Douglas  to  Percy;  cf. 
11.  55-60. 

(3)  The  clearest  echo  of  all,  however,  is 
in  King   James's  words  on  his  arrival  at 
Stirlingsford  : 

'Die  Douglas  waren  immer  treu,  ein  Douglas 
bist  auch  du. ' 

And  again,  on  being  awakened  by  Thomas 
Kairn  from  his  sleep  beside  Douglas  : 

'Die  Douglas  waren  immer  treu,  ein  Douglas 
ist  auch  der.' 

They  obviously  reproduce  11.  147-8  of  the 
English  ballad : 


INFLUENCE  OF  PERCY'S  'RELIQUES'  ON  GERMAN  LITERATURE       95 


'  The  Douglases  were  ever  true, 
And  they  can  ne'er  prove  false  to  niee. ' 

To  conclude  this  account  of  the  direct 
influence  of  Percy's  Keliques,  and  to  sum- 
marise as  conveniently  as  possible  both  its 
information  and  that  of  the  essays  of  A. 
Waag :  Herder's  Ubertragengen  englischer 
Gedichte,  and  H.  F.  Wagener :  Das  Ein- 
dringen  von  Percy's  Eeliques  in  Deutschland, 
I  have  drawn  up  the  following  table  of  the 
existing  German  versions  of  ballads  in 
Percy's  collection: — 


1.  The  Ancient  Ballad 

of  Chevy  Chase. 
Cf.    Wheat  i.   19; 
Sell.  23. 

2.  TheJew'sDaughter. 
Cf.    Wheat,  i.   54; 

Sch.  44. 


3.  Sir  Cauline. 

Cf.    Wheat,   i.   61; 
Sch.  46. 

4.  Edward,  Edward. 
Cf.    Wheat,  i.  83; 

Sch.  58. 


5.  King  Estmere. 
Cf.    Wheat.  \.  85; 
Sch.  59. 


6.  Sir  Patrick  Spence. 
Cf.    Wheat,  i.   98; 
Sch.  69. 


1.  Herder.    Chevy  Jagd. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 
xxv.  480. 

2.  Bothe.     Die  Chevy  Jagd. 
Gf.  Volkslieder,  publ.  1795. 

1.  Herder.     Die  Judentochter. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  190. 

2.  Bodmer.    Das  Kind  im  Zieh- 

brunnen. 
Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780.1 

3.  Kosegarten.       Die     Juden- 

tochter. 

Cf.   Gesammelte    Gedichte, 
ed.  v.  p.  203. 

4.  Seckendorf. 

Cf.  his  Musenalnianach,1808, 
p.  5. 

1.  Bodmer.     Cawlin. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

2.  Bothe.     HerrKalin. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 

1.  Herder.     Edward,  Edward. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  476. 

2.  Seckendorf. 

Cf.  Seckendorfs      Musenal- 
manach,  1808,  p.  7. 

1.  Herder.     Konig  Esthraer. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  232. 

2.  Uhland.   L>es  Sangers  Fluch. 
Cf.  Bibliogr.   Instit.  ed.  p. 

267.2 

3.  Bodmer.     Konig  Westmar. 
Cf.  Altenglisehe     Balladen, 

1780. 

1.  Herder.     Der  Schiffer. 

Cf.  Volkslieder.  Suphan  ed. 
'xxv.  175. 

2.  Bodmer.     Patrick  Spense. 
Cf.    Altenglische    Balladen, 

'1780. 

3.  Kosegarten.     Das  Lied  von 

Sir  Patrick  Spence. 
Cf.  Gesammelte  Gedichte,  ed. 
v.  p.  200. 

4.  Seckendorf.       Sir     Patrick 

Spence. 

Cf.    Seckendorfs    Musenal- 
manach,  1808. 

5.  8.   Ch.   Pape.      Der  kiihne 

Schiffer. 
Cf.  Hub's  Auswahl,  p.  190.3 


1  The    full    title   of    this    work  —  Alttnglisrhe, 
BcUladen ;    Fabeln  von  Laudine ;   Siegeslied   der 
Franken,'  publ.  Zurich  und  Winterthur,  1780. 

2  Ludwiy    Uhlaiid'i     Werke,,    ed.     by    Ludwig 
Frankel,  2  vols.,  Leipzig  und  Wien,  1893. 

3  Ignaz    Hub.     Deutschland' *    Balladen-     und 
Romanzendichter,  von  G.   A.   Biirger  bis  auf  die 
netiste  Zeit.     Wiir/.burg  and  Karlsruhe,  1845. 


7.  Robin    Hood    and 

Guy  of  Gisborne. 
Cf.  Wheat,  i.  102; 
Sch.  71. 

8.  The  Child  of  Elle. 
Cf.  Wheat,  i.  131 ; 

Sch.  82. 


9.  Edom  o'  Gordon. 
Wheat,     i.     140 ; 
Sch.  88. 

10.  Jephthah,    Judge 

of  Israel. 

Wheat,     i.     183; 
Sch.  1066. 

11.  A  Song  to  the  Lute 

in  Musicke. 
Wheat,     i.     187 ; 
Sch.  133. 

12.  King       Cophetua 

and  the  Beggar 
Maid. 

Wheat,     i.     189 ; 
Sch.  135. 

13.  Take  thy  old  Cloak 

about  thee. 
Wheat,     i.     195 ; 
Sch.  139. 

14.  Geruntus  the  Jew 

of  Venice. 
Wheat,     i.     211 ; 
Sch.  150. 

15.  Take    those    Lips 

away. 

Wheat,     i.     230 ; 
Sch.  164. 

16.  King  Leir  and  his 

three  Daughters. 
Wheat,     i.     232 ; 
Sck.  165. 


17.  Youth  and  Age. 
Wheat,     i.     237 ; 

Sch.  170. 

18.  The  Friar  of  Or- 

ders Gray. 
Wlient.     i.     242 ; 
Sch..  174. 


19.  The  more  modern 
Ballad  of  Chevy 
Chase. 

Wheat,     i.     249 ; 
Sch.  178. 


20.  Death'sFinal  Con- 

quest. 

Wheat,     i.     264 ; 
Sch.  189. 

21.  The  Rising  in  the 

North. 

Wheat,     i.     266 ; 
Sch.  190. 


6.  Th.  Fontane.  Sir  Patrick 
Spens. 

Cf.  Gedichte,  ed.1902,  p.  389. 
1.  Bodmer.  Robin  Hood. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1781. 


1.  Burger.     Die  Entfiihrung. 
Cf.    Berger's    ed.    Burger's 

Gedichte,  p.  152. 

2.  Bodmer.     Emmelyne. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1781. 

3.  Bothe.    Der  Ritter  von  Elle. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 

1.  Bodmer.     Gordon. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

1.  L.  Robert.     Das  Gelubde. 
Cf.  Hub's  Auswahl,  p.  277. 


1.  Herder.      Gewalt  der  Ton- 

kunst. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  377. 

1.  Goethe.     Ballade   vom   ver- 
triebenen  und  zuriickkeh- 
renden  Grafen. 
Cf.  Gedichte,    Hempel   ed. 
i.  p.  193. 

1.  Herder.     Er  und  Sie. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 
xxv.  603. 

2.  Voss.     Der  Flausrock. 
Cf.  Gedichte,  vii.  p.  161. 

1.  Eschenburg. 

Cf.    Ursinus'  'Balladen  alt- 
engl.  und  altschott.  Dicht- 
art,'  publ.  1777. 
1.  Herder.      Wend',   o    wende 

diesen  Blick. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 
xxv.  p.  204. 

1.  Eschenburg. 

Cf.  Ursinus'  '  Balladen  alt- 
engl.  und  altschott.  Dicht- 
art,'  ed.  1777,  p.  165. 

2.  Bodmer.     Konig  Liar. 

Cf.  Sammlung  altengl.  Bal- 
laden, 1780. 
1.  Herder.    Jugend  und  Alter. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 
xxv.  52. 

1.  Burger.     Der  Bruder  Grau- 

rock  und  die  Pilgerin. 
Cf.    Gedichte,    ed.    Berger, 
p.  135. 

2.  Bodmer.     Der  Monch  vom 

grauen  Orden. 
Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

3.  Bothe.    Der  Monch  und  die 

Pilgerin. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 

1.  Bodmer.    Die  Wildschutzen. 
Gf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1781. 

2.  Schiller.    Graf  Eberhard  der 

Greiner. 

Cf.  Gedichte,  ed.  Seller- 
maim.  p.  54. 

3.  Fontane.   Chevy-Chase  oder 

Die  Jagd  im  Chevy-Forst. 
Cf.   Gedichte,   ed.  1902,  p. 

396. 

1.  Bothe.     Des  Todes  Sieg. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 


1.  Seckendorf. 

Cf.    Seckendorfs    Musenal- 
manach,  1807. 

2.  Fontane.      Percy    und    die 

Nortons. 


96 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


22.  Northumberland 

betrayed         by 
Douglas. 

Wheat,     i.     279 ; 
Sch.  196. 

23.  My  Mind  to  Me 

a  Kingdom  is. 
Wheat.     i.     294 ; 
Sch.  204. 


24.  ThepatientCount- 

Whe'at.     i.     299 ; 
Sch.  206. 


25.  Dowsabell. 
Wheat,     i.     304 ; 

Sch.  213. 

26.  Cupid's    Pastime. 
Wheat,     i.     315 ; 

Sch.  220. 


27.  The  Character  of 

a  happy  Life. 
Wheat,     i.     317 ; 
Sch.  223. 

28.  Winifreda. 
Wheat,     i.     323 ; 

&A.  227. 

29.  Bryan   and    Per- 

eene. 

Wlieat.     i.     328 ; 
Sch.  233. 

30.  Gentle         Kiver, 

gentle  river. 
Wheat,     i.     331 ; 
Sch.  236. 


31.  Alcanzor 
Zayda. 
Wheat,     i. 
Sch.  241. 


and 


32.  The    not-browne 

Mayd. 

Wheat,      ii.     31  ; 
Sch.  285. 


33.  The    Gaberlunzie 

Man. 

Wheat,     ii.     67 : 
Sch.  592. 


Cf.  Gedichte,  ed.  1902,  p. 
408. 

1.  Fontane.     Percys  Tod. 

Cf.  Gedichte,  ed.  1902,  p. 
'413. 

2.  F.  Dahn.     Ralf  Douglas. 
Cf.  Gedichte,  2'«  Sammlung, 

p.  141. 

1.  Claudius. 

Cf.  Gb'tt.  Musenalmanach, 
1774,  p.  170. 

2.  Matthesius. 

Cf.  Gb'tt.  Musenalmanach, 
1779,  p.  103. 

3.  Bothe.     Mein  Sinn  ist  mir 

ein  Kb'nigreich. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 

4.  Hang. 

Cf.  Epigrammeu.  vermischte 
Gedichte,  vol.  ii.,  publ. 
1805. 

1.  Bodmer.        Die     geduldige 

Gattin. 
Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1781. 

2.  Bothe.     Die  goldeue  Mittel- 

strasse. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 
1.  Bothe.     Angelika,  eine  Bal- 
lade. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 

1.  Gerstenberg. 

Cf.  Brief  8  iiber  Merkwiir- 
digkeiteu  der  Litteratur, 
publ.  1766,  p.  57. 

2.  Herder.     Nach   einer   alten 

englischen  Ballade. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 
xxv.  559. 

3.  Bothe.     Amors  Kurzweil. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 

1.  Herder.     Der  Gliickliche. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 
xxv.  274. 

1.  Herder.     Gluckseligkeit  der 

Ehe. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  369. 

1.  Bothe.     Bryan  und  Ferine. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 


1.  Herder.    Der  blutige  Strom. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  263. 

2.  Seckendorf. 

Cf.  Seckendorfs  Musenal- 
manach, 1806,  p.  122. 

1.  Herder.        Alkanzor      und 

Zaida. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 
xxv.  148. 

2.  Ursinus. 

Gf.  Ursinus'  '  Balladen  alt- 
engl.  und  altschott.  Dicht- 
art,'  ed.  1777. 

3.  Seckendorf. 

Cf.  Seckendorfs  Musenalm. 
1806,  p.  120. 

1.  Herder.       Das    nussbraune 

Madchen. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed 
xxv.  415. 

2.  Kosegarten.  Das  nussbraune 

Madchen. 
Cf.  Gedichte,  ed.  v.  p.  177. 

3.  Anon,  in  'Die  Volksharfe,' 

publ.  1838,  vol.  ii.  p.  7. 
1.  Herder.     Bettlerlied. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 
xxv.  511. 


34.  Harpalus. 
Wlieat.     ii.      75 ; 

Sch.  310. 

35.  Gentle  Herdsman, 

tell  to  Me. 
Wheat,     ii.      86 ; 
Sch..  318. 


36.  King  Edward  IV. 

and    Tanner    of 
Tamworth. 
Wheat,      ii.     92 ; 
Sch.  320. 

37.  As  Ye  came  from 

the  Holy  Land. 
Wheat,    ii.     102 ; 
Sch.  326. 


1.  Bothe.    William  und  Fanny. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 

1.  Herder.    Gesprach  einer  Pil- 

gerin. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 
xxv.  564. 

2.  Bothe.     Guter  Schiifer,  sage 

mir. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  170r.. 

3.  Bodmer.     Die  Pilgerin. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 
1.  Bodmer.        Kdnig    Edward 

und  der  Gerber. 
Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 


Herder.  Die  Pilgerin.  Zweites 

Gesprach. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  564. 
Bothe.  Der  Pilgrim  und 

der  Reisende. 


38.  The  heir  of  Liune. 
Wheat,    ii.     138 ; 

Sch.  471. 

39.  Fair  Rosamond. 
Wheat,     ii.     154 : 

Sch.  348. 


40.  Queen     Eleanor's 

Confession. 
Wheat,  ii.  p.  161 ; 
Scli.  357. 


41.  The    Beggar's 
Daughter  of  Bed  - 
nail  Green. 
Wheat,    ii.    171  ; 
Sch.  364. 


42.  Lady  Anne  Both- 

well's  Lament. 
Wheat,    ii.     209  ; 
Sch.  391. 


Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 

Haug. 

Cf.    Epigramme    nucl     ver- 

mischte Gedichte,   vol.   ii. 

publ.  1805. 
Bodmer.       Der    Erbe     von 

Linue. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1781. 
Raspe. 
Cf.  Recension  iiber  Percy's 

Reliques.    Bibl.  d.  scbbnen 

Wissenschaften,     vol.      i. 

publ.  1765. 
Herder.      Die  schb'ne  Rosa- 

munde. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  135. 
Bodmer.     Die  schb'ue  Ro.se- 

munde. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 
Anon,  in  'Die  Volksharfe,' 

vol.  i.  p.  5,  publ.  1838. 
Fontane.    Von  der  schouen 

Rosamunde. 
Cf.   Gedichte,   ed.    1902,  p. 

115. 

F.  Dahn.     Rosamunde. 
Cf.    Gedichte,    2te    Samm- 

lung, p.  138. 
Ursinus. 
Cf.    Ursinus'  'Balladen  alt- 

engl.   u.   altschott.    Dicht- 

art,'  publ.  1777. 
Bodmer.     Der  Kbnigin  Ele- 

norens  Beichte. 
Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1781. 
de  la  Motte  Fouque. 
Cf.   Chamissos'   u.  Varnha- 

gen's  Mnsenalnianach,1806, 

p.  52. 
Fontane.      Konigin  Eleono- 

rens  Beichte. 
Cf.  Gedichte,  ed.   1902,  p. 

393. 
Bodmer.    Des  Bettlers  Toch- 

tv. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladeu,  1781. 
Goethe.      Ballade  vom  ver- 

triebenen  und  zuriickkeh- 

renden  Grafen. 
Cf.   Gedichte,    Hempel    ed. 

p.  193.  Weimar  ed.  vol.  xii. 

p.  294  ff. 
Herder.      Wiegenlied    einer 

ungliicklichen  Mutter. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  164. 
Anon,   in  Weimar.    Musen- 

almanach, 1798,  p.  158. 


INFLUENCE  OF  PERCY'S  'RELIQUES'  ON  GERMAN  LITERATURE       97 


43.  The  Murder  of  the 

King  of  Scots. 
Wheat,     ii.     213. 
Scfi:  393. 

44.  The    Bonny    Earl 

of  Murray. 
Wheat,    ii.     226 ; 
Sell.  402. 


45.  Young  Waters. 
Wheat,    ii.     228 ; 
Sdi.  376. 


1.  Bodmer.       Der    Mord    des 

Kdnigs  der  Schotten. 
Of.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1781. 

1.  Herder.      Murray's   Ermor- 

dung. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 
xxv.  382. 

2.  Uhland.    Des  Sangers  Fluch. 
Of.  Bibliogr.     Instit.  ed.   p. 

267. 

3.  Kosegarten.     Das  Lied  voin 

edlen  Murray. 
Cf.  Gedichte,  5th  ed.  p.  198. 

4.  Fontane.     Lord  Murray. 
Of.   Gedichte,   ed.  1902,  p. 

391. 

1.  Herder.     Der    eifersiichtige 

Ktinig. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 
xxv.  379. 

2.  Uhland.    Des  Saugers  Fluch. 
Cf.  Bibliogr.     Instit.  ed.  p. 

267. 

3.  Fontane.     Jung  Walter. 
Cf.    Gedichte,  ed.  1902,  p. 

384. 

1.  Herder.     Soldatenmarchen. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  556. 

2.  Bothe.      Das    Friiulein    aus 

Spanien. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 
1.  Herder.     Die  Todtenglocke. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  278. 

1.  Fontane.      Sir    Walter    Ra- 
leigh's letzte  Nacht. 
Cf.   Gedichte,    1902  ed.    p. 
167. 

1.  Burger.    Der  Kaiser  und  der 

Abt. 

Cf.  Gedichte,  ed.  Berger,  p. 
218. 

2.  Bodmer.       Der     Abt     vou 

Kantelberg. 
Of.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1781. 

3.  Fontane.   KonigJohannund 

der   Bischof   von    Canter- 
bury. 

Cf.  Gedichte,   ed.   1902,   p. 
428. 


50.  You  meaner  Beau-    1.  Herder.     Das   Unvergleich- 

ties.  bare. 

Wheat,    ii.  312 ;        Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

Sch.  212.  xxv.  521. 

51.  To    Althea  from    1.  Herder.      Lied  im  Gefang- 

Prison.  niss. 

Wheat,    ii.  321 ;         Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

Sch.  482.  xxv.  516. 


46.  The  Spanish 

Lady's  Love. 
Whmt.    ii.     247; 
Sch.  413. 


47.  Corydon's  doleful 

Knell. 

Wtieat.     ii.    274 ; 
Sch.  464. 

48.  The  Lye. 
Wheat,    ii.    297  ; 

Sch.  458. 

49.  KingJohnandthe 

Abbot  of  Canter- 
bury. 

Wheat,     ii.    303  ; 
Sch.  466. 


52.  Why  so  pale  ? 
Wheat,     ii.    343 ; 
Sch.  736. 


53.  The      Lady     dis- 

tracted        with 
Love. 

Wheat,    ii.     354 ; 
Sch.  500. 

54.  The       distracted 

Lover. 

Wheat,    ii.     355 ; 
Sch.  501. 

55.  The  frantic  Lady. 
Wheat,    ii.     357 ; 

Sch.  503. 


1.  Herder.    Der  Verliebte. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  553. 

2.  Anon. 

Cf.    Gottinger    Musenalm. , 

1781,  p.  181. 
1.  Boie. 

Cf.  Voss'  Musenalm.,  1792, 

p.  119. 


1.  Haug. 

Cf.    Epigramme    und    ver- 
mischte  Gedichte,  vol.  ii. 

1.  Haug. 

Cf.    Epigramme    und    ver- 
mischte  Gedichte,  vol.  ii. 


56.  The  Braes  of  Yar- 

row. 

Wheat,    ii.     362 ; 
Sch.  506. 

57.  Admiral   Hosier's 

Ghost. 

Wheat,    ii.    367 ; 
Sch.  509. 


58.  Jemmy    Dawson. 
Wheat,    ii.    371 ; 

'   Sch.  228. 

59.  The  Boy  and  the 

Mantle. 

Wheat,     iii.     3 ; 
Sch.  556. 


60.  The    Marriage  of 

Sir  Gawaine. 
Wheat,    iii.     13  ; 
Sch.  563. 

61.  King       Ryence's 

Challenge. 
Wheat,     iii.     24 ; 
Sch.  572. 

62.  King        Arthur's 

Death. 

Wheat,    iii.     27  ; 
Sch.  575. 

63.  A  Dyttie  to  Hey 

Downe. 

Wheat,    iii.     44  ; 
Sch.  584. 


64.  Glasgerion. 
Wheat,     iii.     45 ; 

Sch.  585. 

65.  Old  Robin  of  Port- 

ingale. 

Wheat,     iii.     50 ; 
Sch.  588. 

66.  Child  Waters. 
Wheat,     iii.     58 ; 

Sch.  595. 


67.  Little  Musgrave 
and  Lady  Bar- 
nard. 

Wheat,     iii.     68 ; 
Sch.  601. 


1.  Leuz.     Yarrow's  Ufer. 

Cf.  Gedichte,  ed.  Weinhold, 
p.  162. 

2.  von  Halem. 

Of.  Voss'  Musenalm.,  1792. 

1.  Bothe.       Admiral     Hosiers 

Geist. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 

2.  Kosegarten.    Hosiers  Geist. 
Cf.    Gedichte,    5th    ed.    p. 

239. 
1.  Haug. 

Cf.    Epigramme    und    ver- 
mischte  Gedichte,  vol.  ii. 

1.  Herder.       Der    Knabe    mit 

dem  Mantel. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 
xxv.  244. 

2.  Bodmer.      Der   Mantel    der 

Keuschheit. 
Cf.  Altengl.   Balladen,  1780. 

3.  Bothe.      Das  Kniiblein  mit 

dem  Mantel. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 

4.  W.  Gerhard.     Der  Keusch- 

heitsmantel. 
Cf.  Hub's  Auswahl,  p.  302. 

5.  Anon. 

Cf.   Die   Volksharfe,    pitbl. 
1838,  vol.  i.  p.  126. 

6.  F.     Dahn.        Der    Zauber- 

mantel. 

Cf.  Gedichte,  I'^Sammlung, 
p.  242. 

1.  Bodmer.   Gaweens  Heyrath. 
Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

2.  Bothe.         Herrn       Gabins 

Hochzeit. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 
1.  Bodmer.      Der  Mantel  mit 

Biirten  belegt. 
Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

1.  Seckendorf. 

Cf.  Seckendorf's  Musenalm., 
1806,  p.  110. 

1.  Herder.     Menschenreforma- 

tion. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 
xxv.  667. 

2.  Bodmer.     Der    Landstorzer. 
Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

1.  Bodmer.     Glasgerion. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladeu,  1780. 

1.  Bodmer.     Robin  von  Portu- 
gal. 
Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

1.  Burger.     Graf  Walter. 

Cf.  Gedichte,  ed.  Berger,  p. 
281. 

2.  Bodmer.     Waters. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

3.  Bothe.     Graf  Walter. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 

4.  Seckendorf. 

Cf.  Seckendorfs  Musenalm., 
1808,  p.  120. 

1.  Burger.     Lenardo  und  Blan- 

dine. 

Cf.  Gedichte,  ed.  Berger,  p. 
92. 

2.  Bodmer.     Der  kleine  Mus- 

grave.   ' 
Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

3.  Fontane.      Jung    Musgrave 

und  Lady  Barnard. 
Cf.  Gedichte,   ed.   Iy02,   p. 
365. 


98 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


4. 

F.  Dahn.     Lady  Angus  und 

77. 

Waly,  waly,  Love 

1. 

Jung  Kenneth. 

be  bonny. 

< 

Of.  Gedichte,  2*"  Sammlung, 

Wheat,    iii.    145; 

p.  151. 

Sch.  653. 

2. 

68. 

The      Shepherd's 

1. 

Bodmer.     Das  Schaferkind. 

Address   to    his 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

( 

House. 

Wheat     iii.     80  ; 

78. 

The      Lady     Isa- 

1. 

Sch.  609. 

bella's  Tragedy. 

Wheat,    iii.    155; 

69. 

Lord  Thomas  and 
Fair  Ellinor. 

1. 

Esehenburg. 
Cf.  Ursinus'  Balladen  alteng. 

79. 

Sch.  661. 
The  sweet  Neglect. 

1. 

Wheat,     iii.     82  ; 

und     altschott.    Dichtart, 

Wheat,    iii.    169  ; 

Sch.  610. 

1777,  p.  165. 

Sch.  671. 

2. 

Bodmer.  Die  scheme  Ellinor. 

2. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

3. 

Strachwitz.     Das   Lied  vom 

80. 

The  Children    in 

1. 

falschen  Grafen. 

the  Wood. 

Cf.  Gedichte,  ed.  Eeclam,  p. 

Wheat,    iii.    169; 

139. 

Sch.  672. 

2. 

70. 

The  Lady  turned 

1. 

Merck.    Die  in  einen  Dieuer 

Serving-man. 
Wheat,     iii.     86  ; 

verwandelte  Lady. 
Qf.  Hamburg,  Address-Com- 

81. 

The      Shepherd's 
Resolution. 

1. 

Sch.  613. 

toir-Nachrichten,  No.  83. 

Wheat,    iii.    188; 

2. 

Bodmer.      Der  Diener,  der 

Sch.  637. 

zur  Konigin  wird. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

2. 

3. 

Bothe.     Die  in  einen  Diener 

verwandelte  Lady. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 

3. 

71. 

Fair  Margaret  and 

1. 

Herder.        Wilhelm       und 

Sweet  William. 

Margreth. 

Wheat,    iii.    124  ; 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

4. 

Sch.  638. 

xxv.  192. 

2. 

Bodmer.     Die  schone   Mar- 

greth    und      der      siisse 

82. 

RobinGoodfellow. 

1. 

Wilhelm. 

Wheat,    iii.    199; 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

Sch.  693. 

2. 

3. 

Fontaue.     Schon-  Margreth 

und  Lord  William. 

83. 

Love  will  find  out 

1. 

Cf.   Gedichte.  ed.   1902,   p. 

the  Way. 

378. 

Wheat,    iii.    232; 

4. 

F.    Dahn.      Jung    Douglas 
und  schon  Rosabell. 

Sch.  730. 

2. 

Cf.  Gedichte,  Erste  Samm- 

84. 

Lord  Thomas  and 

1. 

lung,  p.  219. 

Fair  Annet. 

72. 

Barbara     Allen's 

1. 

Bodmer.     Barbara  Elle. 

Wheat,    iii.    234  ; 

2. 

Cruelty. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

Sch.  461. 

Wheat,    iii.    128  ; 

2. 

Kosegarten.     Die  Romanze 

Sch.  641. 

von  Barbara  Allen. 

3. 

Cf.  Gedichte,  ed.  5,  p.  207. 

3. 

Haug. 

Cf.    Epigramme    und    ver- 

85. 

Unfading  Beauty. 

1. 

mischte  Gedichte,  vol.  ii. 

Wheat,    iii.    239  ; 

73. 

Sweet    William's 

1. 

Herder.     Wilhelm's  Geist. 

Sch.  223. 

Ghost. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

Wheat,    iii.    130; 

xxv.  523. 

86. 

The         steadfast 

1. 

Sch.  643. 

2. 

Burger.     Lenore. 

Shepherd. 

Cf.  Gedichte.  ed.  Berger,  p. 

Wheat,    iii.    253; 

64. 

Sch.  741. 

3. 

Bodmer.     Des  siissen  Wil- 

87. 

Jealousy,  Tyrant 

1. 

helm's  Geist. 

of  the  Mind. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1781. 

Wheat,    iii.    260  ; 

74. 

Sir  John  Grehine 

1. 

Herder.  SchottischeBallade. 

Sch.  1072. 

2. 

and        Barbara 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

Allan. 

xxv.  566. 

Wheat,    iii.    133; 

2. 

Fontane.    Barbara  Allen. 

3. 

Sch.  645. 

Cf.  Gedichte,   ed.   1902,   p. 

382. 

76. 

The     Bailiff's 

1. 

Bodmer.       Des   Schultzens 

88. 

To    Lucasta,    on 

1. 

Daughter  of  Is- 

Tochter zu  Islington. 

going     to     the 

lington. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

Wars. 

Wheat,    iii.    135; 

2. 

Haug. 

Wheat,    iii.    264; 

Sch.  646. 

Cf.    Epigramme    und    ver- 

Sch.  745. 

mischte  Gedichte,  vol.  ii. 

89. 

Valentine        and 

1. 

76. 

The  Willow-tree. 

1. 

Eschenburg. 

Ursine. 

Wheat,    iii.    137  ; 
Sch.  648. 

Cf.    Leipzig.        Musenalm.. 
1773,  p.  124. 

Wheat,    iii.    265; 
f!ch.  745. 

2. 

Kosegarten.     Das  Lied  vom 
Weidenbaum. 

90 

Margaret's  Ghost. 
Wheat,    iii.    308; 

1. 

Cf.  Gedichte,  ed.  5,  p.  213. 

Flch.  780. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  202. 
2.  Kosegarten.       0     Jammer, 

Jammer. 
Cf.  Gedichte,  ed.  5,  p.  210. 

1.  Bodmer.      Der    Stiefmutter 

Grausamkeit. 
Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 

Herder.     Siisse  Einfalt. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  555. 

M.  A.  von  Thunimel. 
Cf.  Gedichte,  publ.  1782. 
Bodmer.    Die  Kinder  in  dem 

Wald. 

Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 
Bothe.  Die  Kinder  im 

Walde. 

Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 
Raspe. 
Cf.  Recension  ttber  Percy's 

Reliques,  publ.  1765.    Bib- 

liothek  der  schonen   Wis- 

senschaften,  vol.  i. 
C.  F.  Weisse. 
Cf.  Gedichte,  vol.  ii.,  publ. 

1772,  p.  253. 
Eschenburg. 

Cf.    Go  ttinger    Musenalm. , 

1773,  p.  167. 
Haug. 

Cf.     Epigramme     u.     Ver- 

mischte  Gedichte,  vol.  ii. 
Voss.     Kneclit  Robert. 
Cf.  Gedichte,  vol.  iv.  p.  200. 
Bothe.     Robert  Gutfreund. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 
Herder.     Weg  der  Licbe. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  358. 
Haug. 

Cf.  Voss's  Musenalm.,  1792. 
Bodmer.  Der  geaffte  Ritter. 
Cf.  Altengl.  Balladen,  1780. 
Bothe.  Der  Ritter  mit  der 

langen  Nase. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 
Talvj. 
Cf.  Charakteristik  der  Volks- 

'lieder,  publ.  1840. 
Herder.      Dammerung    der 

Licbe. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  125. 
Herder.     Der  entschlosseue 

Liebhaber. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  277. 

Herder.  Feindim  Paradiese. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  121. 
E.  Kuh. 
Cf.  Hinterlassene  Gedichte, 

i.  229. 
Haug. 
Cf.     Epigramme    und    ver- 

mischte  Gedichte,  vol.  ii. 
Haug. 
Cf.    Epigramme    und     ver- 

mischte  Gedichte,  vol.  ii. 


1.  Bothe.    Valentin  und  Ursin. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  1795. 


1.  Holty.         Adelstan       und 

Rbschen.     Die  Nonne. 
Cf.  Hub's  Auswahl. 


OBSERVATIONS 


99 


2.  Fried.  Muller.    Das  braune 

Fraulein. 
Gf.  Hub's  Auswahl. 

3.  Eschenburg. 

Cf.    Guttiuger    Musenalm. , 
'1772,  p.  161. 

4.  Herder.     Gretehens  Geist. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  5«1. 

5.  Fr.  Ch.  Kuhs. 

Cf.    Gdttinger    Musenalm., 

1801,  p.  194. 
91.  Lucy  and  Colin.       1.  Eschenburg. 

Wheat,    iii.    312;         Cf.   Aim.   d.   deut.  Musen., 
Sck.  778.  1774,  p.  154. 


2.  Herder.   RdschenundKolin. 
Cf.  Volkslieder,  Suphan  ed. 

xxv.  180. 

3.  Haug. 

Cf.    Epigranmie    uiid    ver- 
mischte  Gedichte,  vol.  ii. 

92.  The  wanton  Wife    1.  Burger.     Frau  Schnips. 

of  Bath.  Cf.    Gedichte.    ed.    Berger, 

Wheat,   iii.    333 ;          p.  143. 
Sch.  655. 

93.  The     Hermit     of   1.  Campe. 

Warkworth.  Cf.  Teutscher  Merkur,  1774, 

Sch.  1086.  Oct.  p.  5. 

E.  I.  M.  BOYD. 


OBSERVATIONS 


EUPHUES  AND  THE   'COLLOQUIES' 
OF  ERASMUS. 

IT  is  well  known  that  Lyly's  Euphues 
contains  a  section,  'Euphues  and  his 
Ephcebus,'  the  greater  part  of  which  is 
taken  from  Plutarch's  treatise  De  Educa- 
tione  Puerorum.  There  are,  however,  cer- 
tain passages  in  it  which  are  not  to  be 
found  in  the  Greek,  and  which  have,  I 
believe,  always  been  looked  upon  as  Lyly's 
own.  It  is  therefore  perhaps  worth  while 
to  point  out  that  one  of  the  longest  of  them, 
occupying  nearly  two  pages  in  Mr.  R.  W. 
Bond's  edition  (i.  264-32—266-24),  is  taken, 
partly  in  the  form  of  translation  and 
partly  in  that  of  summary,  from  Erasmus' 
Colloquy  called  Puerpera. 

The  comparison  of  a  single  passage  in 
each  will  serve  to  put  the  borrowing  be- 
yond doubt.  I  choose  the  first,  though  in 
some  others  the  Latin  is  more  closely 
followed,  as  a  good  average  example  of 
Lyly's  use  of  his  source. 

Lyly  has : — 

'  Is  not  the  name  of  a  mother  most 
sweet]  If  it  bee,  why  is  halfe  that  title 
bestowed  on  a  woman  which  neuer  felte 
the  paines  in  conceyuing,  neyther  can  con- 
ceiue  the  lyke  pleasure  in  nurseing  as  the 
mother  doth?  Is  the  earthe  called  the 
mother  of  all  thinges  onely  bicause  it 
bringeth  foorth?  No,  but  bicause.  it 
nourisheth  those  thinges  that  springe  out  of 
it:  whatsoeuer  is  bredde  in  the  sea,  is  fed 
in  the  sea,  no  plant,  no  tree,  no  hearbe 
commeth  out  of  the  ground  that  is  not 
moystened  and  as  it  were  nursed  of  the 
moysture  and  milke  of  the  earth :  the 
Lionnesse  nnrseth  hir  whelpes,  the  Rauen 
cherisheth  hir  birdes,  the  Uiper  hir  broode, 


and  shall  a  woman  cast  away  hir   babe  1 
(ed.  Bond  i.  264-32—265-7). 

In  the  Latin  the  passage  runs : — 
Eutrapelus.  Die  mihi,  nonne  sentis  esse 
dulcissimum  matris  vocabulum  1  Fabulla. 
Sentio.  Eu.  Itaque,  si  fieri  posset,  pateris 
aliam  mulierem  esse  matrem  tui  partus  1 
Fa.  Minime  gentium.  Eu.  Cur  igitur 
volens  plusquam  dimidiatum  matiis  nonieu 
transfers  in  feminam  alienam?  Fa.  Bona 
verba,  Eutrapele ;  non  divide  filium,  sola 
totaque  sum  mater.  Eu.  Imo  heic  tibi, 
Fabulla,  reclamat  in  os  ipsa  natura.  Cur 
terra  dicitur  omnium  parens  1  an  quod 
gignat  tantum  1  imo  multo  magis  quod 
nutriat  ea  quae  genuit.  Quod  aqua  gignit, 
in  aquis  educatur.  In  terra  nullum  ani- 
mantis  aut  plantee  genus  nascitur,  quod 
eadem  terra  succo  suo  non  alat :  nee  est 
ullum  animantis  genus  quod  non  alat  sues 
foetus.  Ululse,  leones,  et  viperse  educant 
partus  suos;  et  homines  suos  foetus  abji- 
ciunt  1 

This  is  from  a  passage  about  a  quarter  of 
the  way  through  the  Colloquy,  and  the 
borrowings  continue  from  this  part  until 
after  the  quotation  from  Horace.  Lyly 
now  passes  over  several  pages  of  the  Latin, 
what  follows,  'Therefore  lette  the  mother 
as  often  as  she  shal  beholde  those  two 
fountaynes  of  milke  .  .  .,'  being  taken  from 
'  Cum  vides  in  pectore  duos  istos  veluti 
fonticulos  .  .  .'  toward  the  end  of  the 
Colloquy.  From  this  part  comes  all  the 
rest,  including  the  astonishing  derivation  of 

p-r/Typ  from  /x^  rr/pelv.1 

Admirably  as  Mr.  Bond  has  worked  out 
the  sources  used  by  Lyly,  he  does  not  seem 

1  '  Et  in  tales  feminas  mihi  competere  Grsecorum 
videtur  etymologia,  qui  tiJ\Ti\p  dici  putant  a  ^ 
Tr]ptii>,  hoc  eat,  a  non  strvando.' 


100 


THE  MODEEN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


to  have  found  any  indication  of  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Colloquies  of  Erasmus.  It 
would  be  strange  if,  making  such  use  of 
one,  he  had  taken  nothing  from  any  other. 
The  point  might  be  worth  investigation. 
R.  B.  McKERROW. 


names  are  only  too  frequent  in  M.E.  MSS. 
In  the  Biblical  Text  mentioned  above,  the 
scribe  writes,  for  instance,  alssone  for  Asson 
(Acts  xx.  14),  and  a  yite,  a  gate  for  Azoto 
(ib.  viii.  40). 

A.  C.  PAUES. 


CHAUCER'S  'DRYE  SEE.' 
(See  M.L.Q.,  April  1904,  p.  15.) 

IN  support  of  Professor  Torraca's  and  Mr. 
Paget  Toynbee's  views  as  to  the  meaning 
of  drye  see  (=•  Adrye  see)  in  Chaucer's  Book 
of  the  Duchesse,  1.  1028,  I  should  like  to 
quote  the  following  verse  from  a  Fourteenth 
Century  Biblical  Version  which  will  shortly 
be  published  by  the  University  Press, 
Cambridge : 

Acts  xxvii.  27  :  '  Bot  efter  fo  fourten[d]e 
nyghte  was  comen,  and  we  wore  schippande 
in  A-drye,  aboute  ]>o  mydde- nyghte  )>o 
schipmen  supposed  fat  pei  see  a  contre.' 

A-drye  (the  capital  is  my  own)  is  the 
reading  of  the  three  MSS.  in  which  the 
above  text  occurs,  and  it  constitutes 
sufficient  proof  for  the  existence  and  use 
of  the  word  in  Chaucer's  time. 

That  the  word  was  comparatively  rare 
in  M.E.  is  extremely  likely ;  in  fact, 
Professor  Skeat  states  that  he  has  been 
unable  to  find  it  in  any  M.E.  author. 
This  very  fact  helps  us  to  understand 
how  the  Chaucerian  reading  came  about. 
The  scribe  found  in  the  original  the  a  drye 
see;  now,  since  the  name  a-drye  was  un- 
known to  him,  the  phrase  appeared  mere 
nonsense.  He  evidently  took  the  and  a 
to  be  articles,  and  emended  the  text  by 
omitting  the  less  suitable,  hence  the  drye  see. 

Scribal    disfigurements   of    geographical 


DONNE  ».  DODSLEY. 

ROBERT  DODSLEY  in  his  'ballad  farce,'  The 
Blind  Beggar  of  Bethnal  Green  (1741),  intro- 
duces as  a  song  (p.  30)  the  now  well-known 
lines : 

'  As  Death  alone  the  Marriage  Knot  unties, 

So  Vows  that  Lovers  make 
Last  until  Sleep,  Death's  Image,  close  their  Eyes, 

Dissolve  when  they  awake  ; 
And  that  fond    Love   which  was    to-Day    their 

Theme 
Is  thought  To-morrow  but  an  idle  Dream." 

The  song  is  reprinted  among  Dodsley's 
poems  in  Chalmers'  English  Poets,  vol.  xv., 
and  again  appears  under  his  name  in 
Dodd's  Epigrammatists  with  the  inappro- 
priate title  A  Dream  of  Love.  I  am  not, 
however,  aware  if  any  one  has  pointed  out 
that  Dodsley's  share  in  its  composition  was 
confined  to  skilfully  expanding  three  lines 
from  Donne's  little  poem  called  Jl'oman's 
Constancy.  (Donne's  Poems,  ed.  E.  K. 
Chambers,  i.,  p.  5). 

'  Now  thou  hast  loved  me  one  whole  day 
To-morrow,  when  thou  leavest,  what  wilt  thou 
say?  .  .  . 

[Wilt]  say  that  now 

We  are  not  just  those  persons  which  we  were  ?  .  .  . 
Or  as  true  deaths  true  marriages  untie, 
So  lovers'  contracts,  images  of  those, 
Bind  but  till  sleep,  death's  image,  them  unloose?  ' 

G.  C.  MOORE  SMITH. 


REVIEWS 


Studies  and  Notes  in  Philology  and 
Literature.  Vol.  VIII.  Published, 
under  the  direction  of  the  Modern 
Language  Departments  of  Harvard 
University,  by  Ginn  &  Co.  Boston, 
1903.  Price  7s.  net. 

Studies  in  the  Fairy  Mythology  of 
Arthurian  Romance.  By  LUCY 
ALLEN  PATON,  Ph.D.  (Radcliffe).  (Rad- 
cliffe  College  Monographs,  No.  13.). 


Ginn    &    Co. 
$1.50  net. 


Boston,    1903.      Price 


THIS  volume  of  Harvard  Studies  and  Notes 
is  one  of  the  most  interesting  in  the  admir- 
able series  to  which  it  belongs.  It  consists 
of  two  essays  of  approximately  equal  length, 
the  first  by  Mr.  Arthur  C.  L.  Brown  on 
Iwain,  and  the  second  by  Professor  G.  L. 
Kittredge  on  Arthur  and  Gorlagon.  Some 
years  ago  Professor  W.  Foerster,  in  his 
editions  of  Chretien  de  Troyes'  Cligts  and 


REVIEWS 


101 


Iwain,  put  forward  the  theory  that  the  basis 
of  the  latter  poem  is  a  form  of  the  '  leicht 
getrostete  Wittwe '  story  which  is  most 
familiar  in  the  Matron  of  Ephesus,  a  view 
which  has  met  with  by  no  means  universal 
acceptance.  Mr.  Brown's  contribution  to  the 
present  volume  is  a  new  study  of  the  whole 
question,  in  which  he  attempts  to  show  that 
the  real  source  is  a  Celtic  other-world  tale. 
The  story  of  the  Matron  of  Ephesus  is 
given  from  Petronius,  together  with  an 
analysis  of  Iwain.  From  this  it  at  once 
appears  that  only  a  quite  insignificant  part 
of  the  latter  can  possibly  be  derived  from 
the  former,  and  that,  unless  indeed  it  can 
be  shown  that  other  variants  of  the  story 
existed  which  presented  far  more  striking 
resemblances,  Professor  Foerster's  theory  is 
by  no  means  satisfactory.  As  Mr.  Brown 
shows,  the  '  leicht  getrostete  Wittwe'  motive 
cannot  be  stretched  to  account  for  more 
than  some  five  or  six  hundred  lines  at  most 
out  of  the  six  thousand  eight  hundred  of 
Iwain.  Furthermore,  the  similarity  resolves 
itself  into  little  else  than  the  presence  in 
each  of  a  lady's-maid  who  takes  the  part  of 
the  hero,  and  a  bereaved  widow  who 
marries  again  suddenly.  Such  things  are 
not  altogether  unknown  in  real  life,  and  it 
seems  hardly  necessary  .to  go  to  the  Matron 
of  Ephesus  for  them. 

Mr.  Brown  next  takes  a  number  of  Celtic 
stories  of  the  journey  to  the  other-world, 
and  shows  that  in  one  or  other  of  these 
parallels  can  be  found  for  almost  every 
incident  in  Iwain.  The  most  striking  case 
is  afforded  by  the  Serglige  Conculaind,  or 
Cuchulinn's  Sick-Bed,  in  which  he  finds,  in 
practically  the  same  order,  no  less  than  ten 
of  the  incidents  made  use  of  by  Chretien. 
This  single  legend  thus  supplies  a  source 
for  nearly  half  of  the  poem.  For  other 
incidents  parallels  are  found  in  the  mabinogi 
of  Pwyll,  Prince  of  Dyvet,  in  the  Voyages 
of  Bran  and  of  Mailduin,  and  elsewhere. 
In  fact,  the  only  incident  for  which  Mr. 
Brown  finds  no  parallel  in  Celtic  story 
seems  to  be  that  of  the  rain-making  char- 
acter of  the  fountain ;  but  this,  as  he 
says,  may  well  be  a  modification  of  the 
magic  fountain  which  in  ancient  Celtic 
legend  is  a  feature  of  the  other-world 
landscape.  Stories  of  such  fountains  are 
by  no  means  uncommon,  and  the  particular 
one  at  BeYenton  with  which  Chretien  seems 
to  identify  the  Fountain  Perilous  had 
already  been  described  by  Wace. 

I  can  only  say  that,  so  far  as  it  is  possible 
to  judge  without  a  special  study  of  the 
works  themselves,  Mr.  Brown's  theory  of 


the  Celtic  origin  of  Chretien's  poem  appears 
to  be  absolutely  conclusive.  The  argument 
is  put  forward  with  a  clearness  which  is 
unfortunately  not  universal  in  writings  on 
the  terribly  complicated  subject  of  the 
Arthurian  legends. 

Professor  Kittredge's  study  of  Arthur  and 
Gorlagon  opens  with  a  reprint  of  the  text,  a 
werewolf  tale  in  Latin  from  Rawlinson  MS. 
B.  149  at  the  Bodleian  Library.  This  story, 
which  seems  to  have  remained  up  to  the 
present  altogether  unnoticed,  tells  how,  at 
a  banquet  at  Caerleon,  Arthur,  making  love 
somewhat  too  publicly  to  his  queen,  is  told 
that  he  does  not  understand  women  ('  nun- 
quam  uel  ingenium  mentemue  femine  com- 
perisse ').  '  If  I  have  hitherto  been  ignorant 
of  these  matters,  I  will  never  taste  food  till 
I  discover  them,'  cries  the  astonished  king, 
and  at  once  sets  out  for  the  palace  of  a 
neighbouring  monarch,  the  wise  Gorgol, 
from  whom  he  hopes  to  learn  the  secret. 
From  him  he  can  obtain  no  information, 
nor  yet  from  his  brother  Torleil  (or  Gorbeil), 
to  whom  he  is  referred,  but  from  the  third 
brother,  Gorlagon,  by  the  common  device 
of  refusing  to  accept  of  hospitality  until  he 
has  been  told  what  he  wishes  to  know,  he 
at  last  learns  the  story.  This,  to  which  all 
that  precedes  has  been  a  mere  introduction, 
is  the  tale  of  a  king,  Gorlagon  himself,  who, 
being  turned  by  his  wife  into  a  wolf,  in 
that  form  passed  through  many  adventures, 
until  he  at  last  regained  his  proper  shape 
and  punished  those  by  whom  he  had  been 
bewitched. 

The  story  •  itself  is  quite  short,  only 
occupying  some  twelve  pages.  The  rest  of 
the  book  is  devoted  to  a  detailed  investiga- 
tion of  the  relationship  between  this  and 
other  werewolf  legends,  particularly  Marie's 
Lai  de  Bisclavret,  the  anonymous  Lai  de 
Melion,  and  an  Irish  form  of  the  story,  of 
which  eight  versions  are  known.  It  is  quite 
impossible  in  the  space  at  my  disposal  to 
attempt  any  discussion  of  the  long  and  in- 
tricate, but  very  ably  handled,  series  of 
arguments  which  Professor  Kittredge  puts 
forward ;  but  the  conclusion  at  which  he 
arrives  is  briefly  this : — That  there  were  two 
Irish  tales,  one  belonging  to  the  Fairy-wife 
group,  the  other  a  werewolf  legend.  The 
second  of  these  passed  into  Brittany,  where 
it  afforded  the  material  for  the  Lai  de  Bis- 
clavret.  In  Ireland  the  two  stories  were  com- 
bined into  a  single  saga,  and,  thus  united, 
passed  also  into  Brittany,  where,  somewhat 
altered,  they  became  the  Lai  de  Melion.  In 
its  original  home  the  tale  underwent  still 
further  modifications,  being  set  in  a  frame- 


102 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


story  of  a  quester  who  has  to  discover  '  the 
cause  of  the  one  story  about  women' — cor- 
responding to  the  search  for  the  '  ingenium 
et  mens  feminse  '  of  the  Latin — and  certain 
new  incidents  were  added,  the  most  im- 
portant being  the  defence  of  a  child  by  a 
faithful  dog  (the  Beth  Gelert  story).  The 
whole,  in  its  new  form,  passed  into  Wales, 
as  appears  by  the  names  of  Gorlagon  and 
his  two  brothers,  Gorgol  and  Gorbeil  (1). 
There  a  new  conclusion,  describing  the 
punishment  of  the  sorceress,  was  added,  to 
which  the  author  has  found  parallels  in  the 
Gesta  Romanorum  and  in  certain  Oriental 
tales,  and,  to  suit  this,  the  fairy  character 
of  the  lady  was  suppressed  and  she  became 
an  ordinary  mortal.  It  is  from  the  Welsh 
version  that  the  Latin  story  under  discus- 
sion was  derived. 

At  the  end  of  the  book  there  are  some 
pages  of  notes,  among  which  is  to  be  found 
a  very  interesting  investigation  of  the 
legend  of  the  Faithful  Dog  already  re- 
ferred to. 

Dr.  Paton's  work  is  an  elaborate  study  of 
the  history  of  Morgain  la  Fee  in  the 
Arthurian  legend,  and  incidentally  of  La 
Dame  du  Lac  and  of  Niniane  (Nimue). 
The  author  finds  the  origin  of  all  these 
characters  in  the  fairy-mistress  of  Celtic 
legend,  the  earliest  appearance  of  whom  is 
in  the  Imram  Brain  male  Febail.  Dr.  Paton, 
however,  opposes  the  view  of  Prof.  Rhys, 
that  the  Lady  of  the  Lake  and  Niniane 
'  may  be  taken  as  different  aspects  of  the 
one  mythic  figure,  the  lake-lady  Morgen,' 
and  claims  that  they  are  in  reality  different 
personages,  each  with  a  distinct  individu- 
ality and  with  a  legend  proper  to  her- 
self. 

The  origin  of  the  name  '  Morgain '  has 
been  much  discussed,  and  many  derivations 
have  been  proposed.  All  these,  however, 
connect  her  in  some  way  with  the  sea, 
while,  as  Dr.  Paton  points  out,  in  no  early 
form  of  her  legend  has  she  anything  what- 
ever to  do  with  the  sea,  except  in  so  far  as 
she  is  the  inhabitant  of  an  island.  All  the 
derivations  hitherto  proposed  are  therefore 
rejected,  and  it  is  suggested  that  her  name 
may  come  from  that  of  the  Morrigan,  one 
of  the  five  ancient  Irish  goddesses  of  war, 
and  the  most  prominent  of  them.  Deriva- 
tion from  this  goddess  would  not  of  course 
account  for  Morgain's  fairy-mistress  charac- 
ter, but  it  is  shown  that  some  of  the  minor 
incidents  of  her  story  recall,  at  least  faintly, 
episodes  connected  with  the  Morrigan,  and 
that  she  is  credited  with  powers  which  are 
properly  characteristic  of  the  latter,  the 


chief  being  the  gifts  of  prophecy  and  ot 
shape-shifting.  One  can  hardly  say  that 
Dr.  Paton  has  succeeded  in  actually  proving 
any  connection  between  the  two  characters, 
but  her  theory  is  attractive  and  seems  at 
least  as  plausible  as  any  other. 

The  greater  part  of  the  book  is  devoted 
to  an  account  of  the  various  episodes  in 
which  the  three  chief  fays  appear,  and  of 
their  relations  to  Arthur  and  his  knights, 
and  seems  to  cover  the  ground  with  great 
thoroughness.  The  most  difficult  question 
is  perhaps  that  of  the  relationship  or  want 
of  relationship  of  Morgain  and  the  Lady  of 
the  Lake.  In  later  times  they  were  of 
course  clearly  distinguished,  and  Dr.  Paton 
attempts  with  some  success  to  show  that 
the  fays  were  from  the  beginning  different 
characters.  At  the  same  time  it  might,  I 
think,  be  argued  that,  if  Morgain  be  the 
Morrigan,  there  is  a  somewhat  suggestive 
parallel  between  the  Lady  of  the  Lake's 
most  characteristic  presentation  as  the  fairy 
guardian  and  protectress  of  a  young  knight 
and  the  Morrigan's  protection  of  the  youth- 
ful Cuchulinn. 

Niniane  is  somewhat  more  easily  separ- 
ated from  the  others  as  the  real  heroine  of 
the  single  story  of  the  enchanting  of 
Merlin,  the  occasional  substitution  of  the 
name  of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake  for  hers 
seeming  to  be  due  rather  to  confusion  than 
to  any  original  connection  between  the 
two  characters. 

At  the  end  we  find  several  interesting 
appendices,  among  them  one  on  Morgan 
Tud,  the  physician  of  Arthur  in  the  Welsh 
Geraint,  who  has  been  connected  with 
Morgain,  and  another  on  the  Diana  myth 
in  its  relation  to  medieval  fairy  lore. 

In  conclusion,  I  need  only  say  that  the 
subject,  intricate  as  it  is,  seems  to  have 
been  treated  with  the  greatest  possible 
clearness,  and  that  the  notes  and  references 
to  authorities  leave  in  completeness  no- 
thing to  be  desired. 

R.  B.  McKERROW. 


De  usu  artieuli  finiti  anglici  quantum 
differat  in  Scripturae  Sacrse  trans- 
lations A.D.  MDCXI  edita  et  in 
hodierno  sermone  thesim  pro- 
ponebat  Faeultati  Litterarum 
Parisiensi  A.  Barbeau.  Lut.  Par. 
apud  A.  Picard  et  filium.  MCMIV. 

PERHAPS  those  alone  who  have  attempted 
to  explain  the  use  of  the  English  definite 


REVIEWS 


103 


article  to  non-Aryan  pupils  can  ever  quite 
adequately  realise  how  extraordinarily  full 
of    difficulties  the   subject  is,   but   all  are 
aware  that  both  the  older  and  present-day 
uses  of  it  offer  many  apparent  anomalies, 
and  will  welcome  any  investigation,  either 
historical   or   logical,    which    will   help   to 
explain   them.      M.   Barbeau's   work  is  in 
conception  excellent — to  take  an  example 
of  early  prose  written  in  a  serious  and  care- 
ful style,  and  by  analysing  the  uses  of  the 
definite  article  in  it,  to  see  how  far  these 
are  at  variance  with  its  functions  at  the 
present  day.     Had  he  taken  as  the  subject 
of  his  investigation  almost  any  other  book 
than  the  Authorised  Version  of  the  Bible, 
his  work  might  have  been  of  very  great 
value.     Unfortunately,  however,  in  choos- 
ing this,  he  has  made  one   of   the   worst 
selections   for  his  purpose  that   he   could 
have   made.       He    seems    to    have    quite 
overlooked   the  fact  that  the   Authorised 
Version    was    by    no    means   a  new    and 
independent  translation  from  the  Hebrew 
and  Greek  originals,  but  was  in  very  great 
measure  based  on  older  versions,  going  back 
in  a  regular  series  to  that  of  Wycliffe  at 
the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century.      Of 
course,  at  each  revision  such  archaisms  as 
would    render    the    text   unintelligible   to 
ordinary  people  of  the  time  would  be  struck 
out,  but  a  somewhat  old-fashioned  flavour 
would  doubtless  be  no  more  distasteful  to 
the  various  revisers    than   it   is   to   us  at 
present.      Even  if  there  had  been  in  the 
minds   of   the   translators  of   1611  no   de- 
liberate intention  of  preserving  this,  it  would 
have  been  quite  impossible  for  men  familiar 
with  the  earlier  versions,  as  they  must  have 
been    from   constantly   reading    them   and 
hearing  them  read,  not  to  be  influenced  by 
them.     As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  language  of 
the  A.V.  and  that  of  the  four  chief  versions 
which  preceded  it,  Tyndale's  (1534),  Cran- 
mer's  (1539),  that  of  Geneva  (1560),  and 
the  Rheims  New  Testament  (1582),  is  on  the 
whole  extraordinarily  similar,  though  there 
are  of  course  many  differences  in  the  trans- 
lation. 

It  results  from  this  that  the  text  of  the 
A.V.  is,  standing  alone,  of  comparatively 
little  value  for  the  grammatical  investiga- 
tion of  the  language  of  its  time.  Unless  we 
can  be  sure  that  a  given  reading  is  not  an 
archaism  taken  from  an  earlier  version,  the 
most  we  can  say  is  that  it  was  probably  not 
so  far  out  of  date  in  1611  as  to  have  become 
unintelligible  or  to  appear  an  obvious  gram- 
matical blunder,  and  it  is  clear  that  especially 
in  the  use  of  the  article  and  in  minor  and 


doubtful  points  of  this  nature  it  would  take 
a  very  great  deal  of  archaism  to  bring  about 
such  a  result. 

If  we  compare  the  quotations  given  by 
M.  Barbeau  from  the  A.  V.  with  the  corre- 
sponding passages  in  earlier  versions,  we 
find,  first,  that  in  a  very  large  number  of 
cases  the  peculiar  use  of  the  article  seems 
to  have  been  taken  over  from  one  or  other 
of  them,  and,  secondly,  that  the  A.V.  is 
frequently  more  archaic  in  this  respect  than 
the  Geneva  version  of  half  a  century 
before. 

For  example,  in  §  4,  M.  Barbeau  quotes, 
as  an  instance  of  that  where  we  should  now 
use  the,  a  phrase  from  John  vii.  37,  '  In  the 
last  day,  that  great  day  of  the  feast.'  In 
the  versions  of  Tyndale  and  Cranmer  we  also 
find  that,  but  the  Geneva  version  has  'the 
last  and  great  day;'  that  of  Rheims,  'the 
last,  the  great  day.'  The  fact  that  the 
Geneva  version  differs  from  that  which  pre- 
cedes it  appears  to  render  it  at  least  as 
likely  that  the  expression  seemed  antiquated 
in  1560  as  that  it  did  hot  so  seem  in  1611. 

So  too  in  the  example  in  §  11,  'children 
of  the  youth,'  the  G.V.  has  the  more 
modern  'children  of  youth,'  and  in  the 
three  quotations  in  §  12,  n.  1,  where  M. 
Barbeau  notes  the  used  for  thy,  the  G.V.  has 
in  every  case  thy,  so  also  in  the  example 
given  in  note  2. 

It  is  thus  clear  that  we  cannot  immediately 
accept  the  readings  of  the  A.V.  as  repre- 
senting the  normal  English  of  1611,  and 
this  of  course  renders  instances  quoted  from 
it  of  doubtful  value  for  the  purpose  which  the 
author  has  in  view,  though,  as  here  collected, 
they  would  form  an  excellent  basis  for  a 
comparison  of  the  use  of  the  article  in  the 
earlier  versions,  a  comparison  which,  I  think, 
might  prove  of  considerable  value. 

Even  as  it  is,  M.  Barbeau's  book  is  by  no 
means  without  its  uses.  It  seems  to  be  a 
very  careful  piece  of  work  and,  so  far  as 
one  can  judge,  complete,  while  at  the  end 
there  is  an  excellent  summing  up  of  the 
general  results  of  the  investigation.  In  a 
certain  number  of  cases  perhaps  more  notes 
might  have  been  given ;  the  shades  of 
meaning  due  to  the  article  are  often  exceed- 
ingly delicate,  and  the  exact  sense  of  an 
expression  must  be  decided  before  one  can 
say  whether  its  use  is  or  is  not  in  accord- 
ance with  modern  principles.  Again,  in 
some  of  the  quotations  the  peculiarity  seems 
to  lie  rather  in  the  whole  form  of  the  ex- 
pression, which  would  be,  if  not  archaic,  at 
least  unusual  in  modern  English,  than  in 
the  use  or  omission  of  the  article;  for  ex- 


104 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


ample,  in  §  74,  M.  Barbeau  quotes  such 
phrases  as  '  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians,' 
'in  Galilee  of  the  nations,'  'in  Syria  of 
Damascus,'  as  examples  of  the  omission  of 
the  definite  article  where  in  modern  English 
it  would  be  necessary.  But  were  we  to 
say,  '  Great  is  the  Diana  of  the  Ephesians,' 


etc.,  we  should  certainly  imply  that  there 
were  other  Dianas,  other  Galilees,  and  other 
Syrias,  which  is  not  implied  in  the  phrases 
as  they  stand.  Is  not '  Tess  of  the  D'Urber- 
villes'  quite  correct  modern  English  ? 

R.  B.  McKERROW. 


SHORT   NOTICES. 


Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales:  The 
Knight's  Tale.  Edited  by  ALFRED 
W.  POLLARD.  Macmillan.  1903. 
[2s.  6d.] 

MR.  POLLARD,  even  when  he  consents  to 
produce  a  school-book,  refuses  to  play  the 
part  of  the  mere  compiler.  Whenever  he 
touches  a  literary  subject,  and  whatever 
may  be  the  side  from  which  he  approaches 
it,  he  always  finds  something  original  and 
suggestive  to  say.  Thus  he  takes  the  oppor- 
tunity afforded  him  in  the  Introduction  to 
the  present  volume  of  boldly,  and  to  our 
mind  successfully,  challenging  the  orthodox 
theory  concerning  the  composition  of  the 
'  Knight's  Tale.'  Students  will  recall  the 
facts  which  that  theory  has  been  advanced 
to  explain.  Briefly  they  are  as  follows. 
The  'Knight's  Tale '  is  based  upon  Boccaccio's 
Teseide.  The  story  of  this  poem  is  combined 
with  other  material  in  the  fragment  known 
as  Queen  Anelida  and  False  Arcyte.  Three 
stanzas  properly  belonging  to  the  Teseide 
are  introduced  into  Troilus  and  Criseyde, 
while  sixteen  stanzas  of  the  Parlement  of 
Foules  can  be  traced  to  the  same  source. 
The  theory  which  was  formulated  by  Pro- 
fessor Skeat,  and  has  met  with  general 
acceptance,  is  that  'Chaucer  originally 
translated  the  Teseide  rather  closely,  sub- 
stituting a  seven-line  stanza  for  the  ottava 
rima  of  the  original '  in  a  poem  mentioned  in 
the  Prologue  to  the  Legend  of  Good  Women  as 
'  Palamon  and  Arcyte  ' ;  that  being  dissatis- 
fied with  this  attempt  he  discarded  what  he 
had  written  with  the  exception  of  certain 
stanzas  which  he  used  up  in  the  composition 
of  other  works,  namely,  Anelida  and  Arcyte, 
Parlement  of  Foules,  and  Troilus  and  Criseyde ; 
and  that  at  a  later  date  he  returned  to  his 
Italian  original  and  transformed  it  into  the 
'Knight's  Tale.'  The  theory,  which  Mr. 
Pollard  advances  in  opposition  to  the  above; 
may  be  best  given  in  his  own  words : 

'(i)  that  the   first    use   which   Chaucer 


made  of  the  Teseide  was  to  try  to  combine 
the  story  of  it  with  other  material  in 
Anelida  and  Arcyte ; 

'  (ii)  that  when  he  failed  in  this  he  laid  it 
aside,  while  using  passages  from  the  Teseide, 
according  to  his  custom  with  other  books, 
to  enrich  the  Parlement  of  Foules  and  (per- 
haps) Troilus; 

'(iii)  that  when  he  had  finished  the 
Troilus  he  returned  to  the  Teseide  and 
treated  that  on  the  same  lines  as  he  had 
treated  the  Filostrato,  using  the  heroic 
couplet ; 

'(iv)  that  the  Knight's  Tale  is  thus 
substantially  the  same  poem  as  that  alluded 
to  in  the  Legend  of  Good  Women  as  treating 
of  "all  the  love  of  Palamon  and  Arcyte," 
but  that  slight  alterations  were  subsequently 
made  to  fit  it  for  to  place  in  the  Canterbury 
Tales.' 

It  will  be  noticed  that  if  this  theory  be 
adopted  an  important  result  follows,  namely, 
that  we  must  place  the  '  Knight's  Tale ' 
before  the  Legend  of  Good  Women,  and  con- 
sequently regard  the  former  as  the  first 
poem  in  which  Chaucer  employed  the 
couplet  form.  This  is,  of  course,  opposed  to 
the  prevalent  view  of  Chaucerian  chrono- 
logy, but  it  remains  to  be  shown  that  any 
inherent  improbability  is  involved.  The 
theory,  we  may  add,  is  not  new,  having  been 
already  touched  upon  by  Mr.  Jewett  Mather 
in  the  Furnivall  Miscellany;  but  it  is  in  its 
inception  Mr.  Pollard's  own,  and  was 
originally  hinted  at  in  the  Introduction  to 
the  'Globe'  Chaucer;  it  deserves  wider 
recognition  than  it  has  so  far  received. 


Loei  Critic! :  passages  illustrative  of  criti- 
cal theory  and  practice  from  Aristotle 
downwards,  selected,  partly  translated, 
and  arranged  with  notes  by  GEORGE 
SAINTSBURY.  Ginn  and  Co.  1903. 
[7s.  6d.] 


SHORT  NOTICES 


105 


THE  fitness  of  the  editor  for  his  task  will 
not  be  questioned  by  any  one  acquainted 
with  the   two  volumes   that  have  already 
appeared  of  Professor  Saintsbury's  History 
of  Criticism.     The  idea  of  the  volume,  which 
sufficiently  appears  in   the   title,   was  an 
excellent  one,  and  it  has  been  carried  out  in 
a   manner  which  should  fully  satisfy  the 
most  critical  expectations.     By  the  side  of 
the  most  important  passages  from  the  great 
classics  of  criticism,   supplemented  where 
necessary  by  concise  summary  and  analysis, 
we  find  a  number  of  characteristic  extracts, 
often  only  a  line  or  two,  from  all  manner, 
even  of  the  least  of  writers,  both  ancient 
and  modern,  Similus,  Aulus  Gellius,  Boe- 
thius,  in  the  classical  languages;   Giraldi 
Cintio  (for    some    reason    called    Cinthio 
Giraldi),    Thomas    Wilson,     and     several 
Spanish  critics,  among  the  moderns.     The 
conjunction  is   often    suggestive,   and   we 
learn  to  know  and  to  recognise  the  possible 
importance  of  the  forgotten  writer  who  has 
left  perhaps  a  single  significant  sentence. 
For  the  aim  of  the  editor  has  been  rather  to 
extract  and  present  to  the  student  whatever 
there  was  of  new  in  the  criticism  of  each 
period,  whatever  step  it  could  claim  as  its 
own  in  the  general  advance,  than  to  illus- 
trate from  an  historical  point  of  view  its 
general   attitude  and  'temper.      Had   the 
latter  been  his  aim  he  must,  for  instance, 
have  given   far  more  space  to  the  rather 
barren   critics   of  the  Italian   renaissance, 
who    he    himself   acknowledges   'founded 
criticism  anew.'    Even  as  it  is  we  are  not 
sure  whether  his  own  favourite  views  con- 
cerning literary  criticism  have  not  led  him 
to  do  some  little  injustice  to  the  importance 
of  this  school.     Almost  half  the  volume  is 
devoted  to  the  nineteenth-century  critics 
and  their  immediate  predecessors,  to  that 
portion  of  the  subject,  namely,  to  the  Pro- 
fessor's treatment  of  which  we  still   look 
forward  in  the  third  volume  of  his  Histvry 
of  Criticism.     It  is  this  volume,  we  venture 
to  think,  that  should  prove  the  most  valu- 
able of  his  work,  and  we  obtain  an  interest- 
ing foresight  into   the  treatment  we  may 
expect,  from  the  texts  here  selected.     The 
volume    is    to    be  strongly  recommended 
whether  as  a  supplement  to  the  History  or 
as  an  independent  critical  'reader.' 


Columbia  University:  Studies  in  Com- 
parative Literature.  The  English 
Heroic  Play,  a  critical  description  of 
the  rhymed  tragedy  of  the  Restoration, 

VOL.  VII. 


by  LEWIS  NATHANIEL  CHASE.  [8s.  6d. 
net.]  Platonism  in  English  Poetry 
of  the  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth 
Centuries,  by  JOHN  SMITH  HARRI- 
SON. Columbia  University  Press. 
Macmillan.  1903.  [8s.  6d.  net.J 

IT  must  be  clearly  understood  that  these 
works  are  rather  of  the  nature  of  general 
essays  on  their  respective  subjects  than  of 
exhaustive  monographs.  This  is  in  itself 
no  demerit  when  fairly  recognised,  but  the 
fact  remains  that  the  titles  are  capable  of 
raising  expectation  in  the  reader  which  the 
volumes  are  far  from  satisfying,  and  the 
consequent  disappointment  may  lend  colour 
to  the  feeling  of  distrust  with  which,  in 
certain  quarters,  everything  which  appears 
under  the  title  of  '  Comparative  Literature ' 
is  apt  to  be  viewed. 

Mr.  Chase's  volume  offers  a  '  critical 
survey  '  of  the  Heroic  Drama  of  the  Resto- 
ration '  with  the  object  of  determining  the 
type.'  So  far,  and  in.  so  far  as  the  deter- 
mination of  literary  '  types '  can  with  pre- 
cision and  advantage  be  pursued,  the  work 
is  satisfactory  enough,  but  in  the  absence  of 
any  discussion  of  what,  to  make  use  of  a 
now  almost  trite  metaphor,  we  may  term 
the  biological  history  of  the  form,  it  remains 
what  its  author  justly  styles  it,  at  most '  a 
partial  introduction 'to  the  complete  subject. 
We  understand  that  Mr.  Chase  is  at  present 
engaged  upon  the  more  essential  portion  of 
his  investigation,  a  task  in  which  we  wish 
him  every  success,  and  it  would  therefore 
appear  to  be  both  more  satisfactory  to  the 
reader  and  more  just  to  the  author  to 
postpone  criticism  until  the  whole  work 
lies  before  us. 

Mr.  Harrison  traces  the  influence  of 
Platonic,  or,  as  he  acknowledges,  necessarily 
rather  of  Neo-PIatonic  philosophy,  in  its 
broad  lines  and  in  its  more  obvious  examples 
in  English  poetry  from  Spenser  and  Milton. 
Of  the  beginnings  of  that  influence  and  of 
its  channels,  native  and  foreign — of  the 
Italian  philosophers,  of  their  English 
followers,  of  the  foreign  poets  who  wrote 
under  the  same  influence — we  hear  little  or 
nothing.  The  essay  is  rather  suggestive 
and  sketchy  than  exhaustive  or  minute. 
It  contains,  indeed,  much  that  is  thoughtful 
and  of  interest  from  a  literary  point  of 
view.  To  mention  only  one  instance,  the 
tracing  of  a  difference  between  the  first 
two  books  of  the  Faery  Queen  and  the  rest 
of  the  poem,  due  to  the  difference  between 
the  fundamental  virtues  of  Platonic  philo- 


106 


THE  MODEEN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


sophy,  and  the  more  derivative  or  incidental 
virtues  of  Christian  ethics  which  they 
respectively  exemplify,  is  worth  close  atten- 
tion. Nevertheless  we  are  a  little  astonished 
at  an  essay  of  this  nature  being  presented 
as  a  doctoral  dissertation.  Though  fully 
alive  to  the  danger  of  the  narrow  view  of 
scholarship  divorced  from  literary  presen- 
tation prevalent  in  the  German  schools,  we 
cannot  help  feeling  rather  dissatisfied  with 
the  tendency  visible  in  some  quarters  in 
America,  though  in  some  only,  to  accept 
more  or  less  suggestive  and  more  or  less 
brilliant,  but  at  the  same  time  vague  and 
often  superficial  generalities,  as  evidence  of 
sound  scholarship.  We  intend  no  derogation 
to  Mr.  Harrison's  interesting  essay  as  such, 
but  after  all  the  object  of  academic  disserta- 
tion is  to  test  a  man's  powers  of  sound 
critical  investigation,  not  his  gift  of  con- 
structing a  suggestive  literary  essay  out  of 
nothing  in  particular.  The  assurance  of 
solid  building  should  come  before  the 
happiness  of  architectural  elaboration. 


The  Elene  of  Cynewulf  translated  into 
English  prose  by  Lucius  HUDSON 
HOLT.  (Yale  Studies  in  English,  xxi.) 
New  York  :  Henry  Holt  and  Co.  1904. 

A  CERTAIN  interest  always  attaches  to 
any  attampt  at  rendering  the  peculiarities 
of  Old  English  poetry  through  the  medium 
of  thu  modern  idiom.  In  the  present  case 
the  translator  informs  us  that  '  The  aim  of 
this  translation  is  to  give  an  accurate  and 
readable  modern  English  prose  rendering 
of  the  Old  English  poetry.  .  .  .  While  I 
trust  that  my  rendering  has  not  departed 
so  far  from  the  text  that  it  will  be  useless 
to  the  student,  yet  at  places  it  will  be  found 
that  I  have  to  some  extent  expanded  or 
contracted  the  literal  translation  in  the 
hope  of  benefiting  the  modern  English 
version.'  We  can  hardly,  unfortunately, 
regard  Mr.  Holt's  attempt  as  an  unqualified 
success.  Judged  by  neither  of  the  two 
tests  it  is  possible  to  apply  to  transla- 
tion, does  it  appear  to  us  satisfactory. 
Read  without  reference  to  the  original  it 
hardly  produces  a  consistent  or  pleasing 
effect ;  the  prose,  of  course,  does  not  ad£ 
quately  represent  the  metrical  qualities  of 
the  poem,  while  yet  sufficient  of  the  original 
rhythm  survives  to  prevent  its  being  good 
as  prose.  On  the  other  hand,  read  "by  the 
side  of  the  Old  English  text,  it  suffers 
from  not  being  more  literal,  modern  ideas 


being  at  times  suggested  which  are  absent 
from  the  original,  while  the  full  meaning  of 
the  original  is  notalways  adequately  brought 
out.  The  student  who  attempts  to  use  the 
translation  as  a  guide  to  the  original  will 
meet  with  serious  difficulties.  For  instance, 
in  the  opening  passage,  the  translator 
appears  to  have  combined  the  two  half 
lines  '  geteled  rimes '  and  '  finggemearces,' 
and  to  render  both  together  by  'as  men 
mark  the  tale  of  time,'  in  connection  with 
'geara  hwyrftum,' which  he  translates  'in 
the  turn  of  years.'  This  last  phrase  is 
surely  very  inadequate  ;  '  the  turn  of  years ' 
conveys  no  meaning  in  modern  English, 
and  is  not  even  particularly  close  to  the 
original  which  evidently  means  'the  circling 
of  the  years.'  '  As  men  mark  the  tale  of 
time'  really  shirks  the  meaning  of  'geteled 
rimes '  (reckoned  by  number)  and  '  Jnngge- 
mearces  '  (in  the  marking  of  events).  It  is, 
however,  very  possible  that  the  two  phrases 
should  be  taken  in  close  connection  with 
one  another,  in  which  case  we  suspect  that, 
'  according  to  the  reckoning  of  the  chronicle,' 
would  not  be  far  from  the  poet's  meaning, 
though  hardly  itself  a  literal  translation. 
A  few  lines  further  on  we  find  the  following 
passage.  '  The  wolf  in  the  wood  howled 
his  war-song,  and  hid  not  his  secret  hopes 
of  carnage ;  and  at  the  rear  of  the  foe  the 
dewy-feathered  eagle  shrieked  his  note  on 
high.'  We  cannot  help  thinking  that  '  hid 
not  his  secret  hopes  of  carnage '  is  a  very 
far-fetched  rendering  of  '  waelrune  ne  maS.' 
It  can  hardly  mean  anything  but  'proclaimed 
the  coming  carnage'  (literally,  'concealed 
not  the  slaughter-secret').  'Sang  ahof,' 
again,  is  simply  '  raised  his  cry,'  and  the 
paraphrase  '  shrieked  his  note  on  high  ' 
does  not  strike  us  as  happy  either  as  a 
literal  translation  or  as  a  literary  equivalent. 
'  Dewy-feathered '  is,  no  doubt,  a  possible 
rendering  of  '  urigfefera,'  it  is  even  the 
orthodox  one ;  but  it  seems  to  us  that 
'storm-drenched'  would  be  an  equally 
possible  and  perhaps  more  appropriate 
rendering  ('de&wigfefere'  is  found,  but  not 
apparently  in  connection  with  the  eagle, 
while  '  urigfefera '  is  specifically  applied  to 
that  bird  in  more  than  one  passage  ;  while 
'  tirig,'  though  not  found  alone  in  Old 
English,  is  obviously  the  Icelandic  '  urigr,' 
wet,  from  'ur,'  drizzle).  The  aims  of 
accuracy,  or  adequacy  of  literal  rendering, 
and  of  readableness  and  literary  presenta- 
tion are  not  always  compatible,  but  we 
regret  that,  while  striving  in  a  measure  to 
combine  both,  Mr.  Holt  should,  as  it  seems 
to  us,  have  achieved  neither. 


SHOET  NOTICES 


107 


The  Cattle-Raid  of  Cualnge  (Tain  Bo 
Cuailnge).  An  Old  Irish  Prose-Epic 
translated  by  L.  WINIFRED  FARADAY. 
(Grimm  Library,  xvi.)  David  Nutt. 
1904.  [5s.  net.] 

THE  Tain  Bo  Cuailnge  is  described  by 
the  translator  as  '  the  chief  story  belonging 
to  the  heroic  cycle  of  Ulster,  which  had  its 
centre  in  the  deeds  of  the  Ulster  king, 
Conchobar  Mac  Nessa,  and  his  nephew  and 
chief  warrior,  Cuchulainn  Mac  Sualtaim.' 
It  survives  in  several  MSS.,  the  most  im- 
portant of  which  are  (i)  Leabhar  nah-Uidhri, 
'The  Book  of  the  Dun  Cow,'  dating  from 
about  1100;  (ii)  'The  Yellow  Book  of 
Lecan,'  a  late  fourteenth  -  century  MS., 
which,  however,  sometimes  preserves  an 
earlier  text  than  the  above  and  supplies 
deficiences  ;  and  (iii)  '  The  Book  of 
Leinster,'  which,  though  written  before 
1160,  is  evidently  a  later  recension.  The 
present  translation  is  based  on  a  collation 
of  the  two  former  MSS.,  while  a  German 
version  of  the  latter  is  announced  as  im- 
minent. Apart  from  isolated  episodes  which 
have  now  and  again  found  their  way  into 
print,  the  work  has  been  so  far  chiefly 
known  from  an  analyis  of  the  Leabhar  na 
h-Uidhri  (with  conclusion  from  the  Book  of 
Leinster)  by  Professor  Zimmer,  and  another 
of  a  MS.  closely  related  to  the  Book  of 
Leinster  in  the  '  Grimm  Library  '  volume  on 
Cuchullin.  A  facsimile  of  the  Leabhar  na 
h-Uidhr.i  has,  however,  been  accessible,  and 
an  edition  both  of  this  and  the  Book  of 
Leinster  is  in  course  of  preparation. 

Since  the  present  translation  is  intended 
for  those  who  are  unable  to  read  the  original, 
all  textual  annotation  has  been  rightly 
excluded.  Notes  on  the  folklore  would, 
however,  have  been  welcome.  We  doubt, 
moreover,  whether  without  more  helpreaders 
will  find  it  easy  to  follow  the  allusive 
brevity  of  Old  Irish  style.  The  translator 
has  had  no  easy  task,  and  there  are  probably 
few  who  will  make  much  of  such  a  passage 
as :  '  Cuchulainn  was  practising  feats  at 
that  time,  i.e.  the  apple-feat,  the  edge-feat, 
the  supine-feat,  the  javelin-feat,  the  rope- 
feat,  the feat,  the  cat-feat,  the  hero's 

salmon  [-leap  1],  the  cast ,  the  leap  over 

— ,  the  noble  champion's  turn,  the^ae  bolga, 
the  —  -  of  swiftness,  the  wheel-feat,  the 

— ,  the  feat  on  breath,  the  mouth-rage  ("!), 
the  champion's  shout,  the  stroke  with  proper 
adjustment,  the  back-stroke,  the  climbing  a 
javelin  with  stretching  of  the  body  on  its 
point,  with  the  binding  (?)  of  a  noble 


warrior.'  A  good  deal  of  this  appears  to 
defy  the  resources  of  modern  scholarship, 
while  even  those  portions  in  which  the 
translator  feels  sufficiently  confident  to 
venture  on  an  English  version,  can  scarcely 
claim  to  have  much  meaning. 

Gower :  Selections  from  the  Confessio 
Amantis.  Edited  by  G.  C.  MAC- 
AULAY.  Oxford,  Clarendon  Press. 
1903.  [4s.  6d.] 

ALL  who  are  interested  in  the  teaching 
of  English  literature  will  welcome  this 
admirable  text-book.  In  his  preface  the 
editor  writes :  —  'In  view  both  of  the 
literary  and  the  linguistic  interest  of 
Gower's  Confessio  Amantis  it  seems  desir- 
able that  it  should  be  made  more  accessible 
than  it  has  hitherto  been  to  young  students. 
One  author  alone,  even  though  that  one  be 
Chaucer,  is  not  sufficient  to  illustrate  the 
important  period  in  the  history  of  English 
literature  and  the  English  language  which 
was  reached  towards  the  end  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  and  in  the  history  of  the 
development  of  the  standard  literary 
language  Gower  properly  takes  his  place 
beside  Chaucer,  notwithstanding  his  in- 
feriority in  genius.  Indeed,  for  linguistic 
purposes  the  text  of  the  Confessio  Amantis 
is  in  many  respects  more  satisfactory  to 
deal  with  than  that  of  the  Canterbury  Tales, 
since  it  has  been  handed  down  to  us  more 
exactly  as  it  was  written,  and  it  was  written 
by  an  author  who  was  particularly  careful 
in  matters  of  language  and  orthography. 
The  contents  too  are  sufficiently  interesting, 
and  on  the  whole,  no  doubt,  Gower  repre- 
sents the  average  literary  taste  of  the  time 
better  than  Chaucer.'  Indeed,  Mr.  Mac- 
aulay's  venture  stands  in  need  of  no 
defence,  while  his  name  is  sufficient 
guarantee  for  the  quality  of  the  work. 
With  characteristic  thoroughness,  instead 
of  merely  reprinting  portions  of  his  monu- 
mental edition,  he  has  based  his  text  upon 
a  thorough  new  collation  of  the  Fairfax 
MS.,  which  he  has  practically  reproduced 
exactly,  without  such  points  of  normalisa- 
tion as  were  allowed  in  his  former  work. 
Thus  the  volume  has  an  interest  for  the 
scholar,  even  apart  from  its  usefulness  as  a 
text-book.  The  introduction  has  been  ably 
condensed  from  the  large  edition,  while  the 
notes  have  been  considerably  expanded  with 
a  view  to  helping  the  younger  students. 
Two  miniatures  from  Bod  ley  MSS.  are  re- 
produced as  a  frontispiece. 


108 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


Glossar  zu  Farmans  Anteil  an  der 
Rushworth-Glosse  (Rush worth  l). 
Von  ERNST  SCHULTE.  Bonn,  Carl 
Georgi.  1904. 

THIS  is  a  complete  glossary  to  those 
portions  of  the  Old  English  Rushworth 
Gloss  which  are  due  to  the  priest  Farman 


of  Harewood,  that  is,  to  the  Mercian 
portion.  The  Northumbrian  portion  has 
already  been  indexed  by  Lindelof  (Helsing- 
fors,  1897),  so  that  the  whole  is  now 
accessible  for  the  student's  use.  The  work, 
which  is  based  on  Professor  Skeat's  edition 
of  the  text,  has  been  elaborately  planned, 
and  executed  with  great  care. 


ANNOUNCEMENT. 


WE  have  much  pleasure  in  calling  attention 
to  the  representations  of  Old  English  plays 
by  the  Mermaid  Society.  Those  who  re- 
member the  performances  given  by  the 
Elizabethan  Stage  Society  in  its  youthful 
days  will  welcome  the  formation  of  a  new 
body  with  a  similar  aim.  The  Mermaid 
Society  has  already  given  representations 
of  Comus,  The  Faithful  Shepherdess,  the  Mask 
of  Cupid,  and  The  Way  of  the  World.  The 
list  from  which  plays  will  be  selected  for 


performance  in  the  autumn  is  now  pub- 
lished, and  contains  a  number  of  most 
interesting  pieces.  Full  prospectus  will  be 
sent  on  application  to  the  president,  Mr. 
Philip  Carr,  3  Old  Palace  Chambers,  Old 
Scotland  Yard,  Whitehall.  The  subscrip- 
tion is  fixed  at  5s.  annually,  which  will 
entitle  members  to  receive  all  announce- 
ments of  the  Society  and  to  purchase 
tickets  for  the  performances  at  a  reduced 
price. 


Modern  Language  Teaching 


Edited  by 

WALTER  RIPPMANN 


MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION:  THE  PARIS   MEETING. 


AT  the  last  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Modern 
Language  Association  Miss  Williams,  the 
President  of  the  International  Guild  of 
Paris,  appeared  in  person  to  invite  the 
Association  in  the  name  of  that  organisa- 
tion to  hold  a  meeting  at  Paris.  Despite 
some  foreboding  of  failure,  the  invitation 
was  accepted,  and  the  production  of  an 
excellent  programme,  containing  among 
others  the  names  of  Professor  Sadler,  Mon- 
sieur Hovelaque,  Monsieur  Passy,  Professor 
Seignobos,  and  Dr.  Heath,  turned  the 
hearts  of  many  waverers  and  set  their  feet 
on  the  path  to  Paris.  Some  fifty  members 
and  their  friends  availed  themselves  of  the 
special  terms  offered  by  the  railway  com- 
panies, and  journeyed  together,  while  a 
still  larger  number  found  their  way  to 
Paris  independently.  It  was  a  matter  for 
regret  that  so  many  who  have  for  long 
years  been  prominent  in  the  life  of  our 
Association  were  unable  to  take  their  share 
in  this  new  departure,  but  it  is  not  easy  at 
Eastertide  to  find  a  date  which  will  suit 
all  parties. 

The  opening  function,  which  took  place 
in  the  Amphitheatre  Descartes,  courteously 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Conference  by 
the  authorities  of  the  University  of  Paris, 
was  conducted  with  a  simplicity  which 
could  hardly  be  equalled  even  in  the  annals 
of  republican  Rome.  There  is  no  elaborate 
procession,  but  a  file  of  black-coated  men 
enter  the  room  and  silently  take  their 
places  at  a  long  table  on  a  slightly  raised 
platform.  In  the  centre  sits  the  Minister 
of  Public  Instruction,  flanked  on  right  and 
left  by  Monsieur  Rabier  and  Monsieur 
Bayet,  the  directors  of  the  branches  for 
Secondary  and  Higher  Education  respec- 
tively. Monsieur  Beljame  begins  to  speak, 


and  in  a  few  well-chosen  words  explains  to 
the  Minister  the  object  of  our  coming. 
Monsieur  Chaumi6  rises  to  address  us,  and 
emphasises  the  homeliness  of  the  scene  by 
removing  his  greatcoat  before  he  utters 
those  felicitous  expressions  of  welcome 
which  most  directly  appealed  to  all  who 
heard  them.  The  Association  found  a 
worthy  spokesman  in  Sir  Hubert  Jerning- 
ham,  who  acknowledged  with  Gallic  ele- 
gance the  cordiality  of  our  reception. 

Two  disappointments,  however,  awaited 
those  who  had  come  to  attend  the  Con- 
ference. The  Minister  who  had  paid  us 
.such  conspicuous  honour  by  returning  to 
Paris  expressly  to  be  present  at  the  meeting, 
had  to  cancel,  owing  to  his  immediate 
departure,  the  reception  fixed  for  that 
evening.  As  the  main  object  of  our  visit 
was  serious  business  and  not  pleasure,  an 
even  greater  sense  of  loss  was  occasioned 
by  the  announcement  that  the  President 
of  the  Association,  Professor  Sadler,  had 
been  obliged,  by  loss  of  voice  consequent 
upon  over-work,  to  give  up  all  thoughts  of 
coming  to  Paris. 

There  is  no  need  here  to  give  an  ex- 
haustive account  of  all  the  lectures  that 
contributed  so  largely  to  the  profit  and 
enjoyment  of  our  meeting  ;  of  the  brilliant 
exposition  of  the  aims  and  progress  of  the 
Reformers  in  France  given  by  Monsieur 
Hovelaque,  a  masterly  display  of  his 
thorough  grasp  of  detail,  and  delivered 
without  the  help  of  a  single  note ;  of  the 
thoughtful  paper  by  Dr.  Heath  on  the 
relation  of  language  to  science  in  the  field 
of  education,  which  brought  into  clear 
relief  our  great  need,  even  in  the  interests 
of  science  itself,  of  a  closer  and  more  exact 
study  of  language ;  of  the  lucid  statement 


110 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


by  Monsieur  Baret  of  the  present  organisa- 
tion of  Secondary  Education  in  France ;  of 
the  wit  and  humour  of  Mr.  Storr,  who 
amid  a  stuffy  atmosphere  kept  his  audience 
in  a  merry  mood  while  he  sketched  the 
various  phases  of  French  teaching  in  Eng- 
land, as  it  was  and  as  it  is ;  of  the  scholarly 
and  subtle  analysis  of  some  of  the  tendencies 
in  contemporary  French  Prose  by  Dr.  G. 
Pellissier,  expressed  in  such  balanced  phras- 
ing and  delivered  in  such  admirable  fashion 
that  every  one  was  charmed ;  of  the  enter- 
taining lecture  of  Professor  Hudson  on 
modern  English  Poetry,  illustrated  in  the 
main  from  Watson  and  Kipling ;  of  the 
most  interesting  address  from  our  Hon. 
Member,  Monsieur  Paul  Passy,  who,  though 
preaching  to  the  converted,  was  able  to 
show  that  the  practical  uses  of  a  study  of 
phonetics  had  not  yet  been  thoroughly 
explored ;  of  the  practical  application  of 
phonetics  to  the  science  of  Modern  Lan- 
guage Teaching,  dealt  with  by  Dr.  Edwards 
in  a  paper  which  rested  on  the  results  of 
numerous  and  close  personal  observations  ; 
of  the  interesting  account  by  Monsieur 
Dispan  de  Floran,  a  member  of  the  staff 
of  the  Lyce'e  Lakanal,  of  the  organisation 
and  functions  of  a  '  Lyc6e  Autonome ' ;  of 


the  most  instructive  analysis  by  Professor 
Seignobos  of  the  elements  which  go  to 
make  up  modern  France — for  are  not  these 
all  written  in  the  faithful  record  of  the 
Journal  of  Education  ] 

It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that  the 
education  authorities  allowed  us  to  visit 
certain  schools,  to  be  present  at  the  class 
instruction  at  the  Lyce'e  Carnot  and  the 
interesting  College  Chaptal,  and  at  the 
Lyc6es  Moliere  and  Fenelon  for  Girls.  On 
the  Saturday  we  were  entertained  by  Mon- 
sieur Bazin,  Proviseur  of  the  Lyc6e  Lakanal, 
a  man  of  very  considerable  initiative  and 
full  of  educational  zeal.  The  school  build- 
ings are  magnificent,  and  the  arrangements 
may  be  commended  to  the  earnest  attention 
of  all  responsible  for  the  management  of 
boarding-schools  in  this  country. 

The  Association  owes  a  great  debt  to 
Miss  Williams  for  the  trouble  which  she 
took  to  organise  the  meeting,  and  for  the 
making  of  such  excellent  arrangements  for 
our  comfort  and  enjoyment.  We  hope  that 
the  return  visit  may  be  equally  enjoyable, 
and  even  happier  in  its  opportunities  of 
permitting  us  to  gain  a  knowledge  of 
our  French  colleagues. 


THE  NEUPHILOLOGENTAG  AT  COLOGNE.1 


THE  Eleventh  General  Biennial  Meeting  of 
the  German  Modern  Language  Association 
was  held  on  May  25  and  the  following  days 
at  Cologne,  which,  although  it  possesses  no 
university  proper,  yet  has  an  excellent 
Commercial  Academy  (Handelshochschule), 
and  is  in  many  respects  a  most  suitable  place 
for  a  '  Modern  Language  Day '  on  a  large 
scale.  The  town  of  the  'holy  three  kings,' 
with  its  glorious  cathedral,  great  in  old  and 
in  modern  times,  famous  in  history  and 
in  legend,  is  full  of  interesting  associations 
for  modern  language  students.  In  it  or 
near  it  the  Annolied  was  composed  early  in 
the  twelfth  century,  and  in  the  present  day 
it  is  the  centre  of  most  successful  Blumen- 
spiele;  its  early  connection  with  England 
is  also  symbolised  in  legendary  lore.  It  is 
the  town  of  the  'good  Gerhard,'  a  rich 
merchant,  who,  according  to  the  naive  poem 
of  Rudolf  von  Ems,  saved  both  the  king 
and  the  future  queen  of  England  from 
misery  and  captivity,  and  who  in  return 
for  eminent  services  rendered  to  them  was 


nearly  made  king  of  England  by  the  grateful 
nobles  of  the  realm  when  they  despaired  of 
ever  finding  their  lawful  king  William 
again.  Gerhard,  however,  modestly  declined 
this  honour,  and  brought  the  king  and  his 
queen  in  great  state  to  London  in  his  own 
ships.  A  modern  merchant  prince  gave  to 
his  native  town  of  Cologne  the  present 
flourishing  Commercial  Academy  in  which 
a  number  of  modern  languages  are  excel- 
lently taught  and  diligently  studied,  English 
occupying  among  them  the  place  of  honour. 
Not  far  from  Cologne,  a  little  further  down 
the  Rhine,  is  beautiful  Diisseldorf,  the  town 
of  artists  and  of  great  exhibitions,  Heine's 
birthplace ;  while,  on  the  other  side,  a  few 
miles  up  the  Rhine  and  near  the  'Sieben- 
gebirge,'  lies  the  University  of  Bonn,  the 
town  of  Bopp  and  Schlegel,  where  Gaston 

1  Reports  on  the  Ninth  Conference  (at  Leipzig, 
written  by  Mr.  Eve)  appeared  in  the  Quarterly, 
iii.  1  (July  1900),  pp.  41-45;  and  on  the  Tenth 
Conference  (at  Breslau,  written  by  Dr.  Breul)  in 
the  Quarterly,  v.  3  (December  1902),  pp.  160-166. 


THE  NEUPHILOLOGENTAG  AT  COLOGNE 


111 


Paris  and  Adolf  Tobler  sat  in  friendly 
rivalry  at  the  feet  of  Friedrich  Diez,  where 
Simrock  worked  for  the  spreading  of  a 
knowledge  of  Old  German  poetry,  where 
Delius  expounded  Shakespeare,  and  where 
the  old  traditions  are  now  worthily  upheld 
by  Wilmanns,  Foerster,  and  Biilbring. 

Cologne  is  thus  eminently  fitted  to  be 
the  place  for  a  general  Conference  of  pro- 
fessors and  teachers  of  modern  languages — 
ancient  and  modern  art,  industry  and  enter- 
prise, scientific  research,  and  active  practical 
life  are  all  focussed  here.  Rhenish  hos- 
pitality, genial  and  kindly,  was  not  want- 
ing, glorious  spring  weather  favoured  the 
meeting  throughout,  and  the  exceptionally 
favourable  position  of  Cologne,  situated  as 
it  is  on  the  high-road  to  Belgium  and 
Holland,  France  and  England,  attracted  an 
unusually  large  number  of  foreigners  to  the 
meetings. 

Never  before  in  the  annals  of  the  German 
Modern  Language  Association  lias  there 
been  such  a  large  attendance.  At  the  last 
meeting  (1902)  at  Breslau  there  were  about 
two  hundred  members,  and  that  has  been 
so  far  the  average  number ;  this  time,  how- 
ever, there  were  no  less  than  three  hundred 
and  sixty-four  names  on  the  final  official  list. 

Among  the  German  and  Austrian  uni- 
versity professors  there  wereHofrat  Schipper 
(Vienna),  Trautmann  (Bonn),  Wagner 
(Halle),  Wetz  (Freiburg),  Foerster  (Wiirz- 
burg),  Schneegans  (Wiirzburg),  Stengel 
(Greifswald),  von  Weilen  (Vienna),  Luick 
(Graz),  and  others ;  while  Morf  (Frank- 
furt), Curtis  (Frankfurt),  and  the  able 
and  energetic  President  of  the  meeting, 
Schroer,  represented  two  of  the  four  great 
Commercial  Academies.  All  the  leading 
'  Reformers '  were  present  this  time— viz. 
Vietor,  Dorr,  Walter,  Hartmann,  Wendt, 
Kron,  Quiehl,  Klinghardt,  Rossmann,  Gund- 
lach,  and  others.  Among  other  eminent 
pedagogues,  some  of  whom  took  a  very 
active  part  in  the  debates,  there  was,  first 
and  foremost,  Geheimrat  Munch  (Berlin) ; 
there  were  also  Oberschulrat  Waag  (Karls- 
ruhe), the  headmasters  Hausknecht  (Kiel), 
Hamann  (Berlin),  Unrah  (Breslau),  and 
many  others  ;  the  veteran  champions  Sachs 
(author  of  the  famous  German-French  Dic- 
tionary), and  Ey  (of  Hanover,  first  Pre- 
sident of  the  first  Neuphilologentag  at  Han- 
over, at  one  time  teacher  of  French  and 
German  to  Lord  Kitchener,  and  also  for 
many  years  teacher  of  French  and  English 
to  the  writer  of  these  lines). 

Among  the  foreign  visitors  there  were 
no  less  than  twelve  Frenchmen  (including 


Professors  Schweitzer,  Potel,  and  Sigwalt) ; 
four  had  come  from  England  and  Scotland 
[Professor  D.  H.  Bellyse  Baildon  (Dundee), 
Dr.  Thistlethwaite  (Glasgow),  Mr.  Ph. 
Bauer  (Bradford),  Dr.  Breul  (Cambridge)]  ; 
there  were  some  Belgian,  Dutch,  Swedish 
professors  and  teachers,  and  even  Russians 
from  Kieff  and  Tiflis. 

The  German  official  world  was  very  largely 
represented,  and  clearly  showed  the  interest 
and  the  appreciation  with  which  the  work 
of  modern  language  teachers  at  schools  and 
universities  is  now  being  watched  by  the 
educational,  commercial,  and  military  autho- 
rities in  Germany.  The  members  of  the 
meeting  were  addressed  and  welcomed  by 
the  Oberprasident  (the  highest  official  of 
the  Rhine  Province),  by  representatives  of 
the  ministries  of  education,  of  commerce, 
and  of  war,  by  several  chief  Government 
inspectors  of  secondary  schools,  by  the 
mayor  of  Cologne,  and  by  the  representative 
of  the  Commercial  Academy.  Professors 
Schweitzer  and  Potel  represented  the  French 
Minister  of  Education,  the  latter  and  Pro- 
fessor Sigwalt  also  the  newly  founded 
'  Society  des  professeurs  des  langues  vivantes 
de  1'enseignement  public '  (see  Quarterly,  vi. 
3,  p.  156).  Dr.  Breul  expressed,  on  behalf 
of  the  Modern  Language  Association,  the 
hearty  good  wishes  of  the  English  colleagues. 
The  portraits  of  a  number  of  the  leading 
German  and  foreign  modern  language 
scholars  and  teachers  appeared  soon  after 
the  Conference  was  over  in  the  magazine 
called  Das  Bheinland  in  Wort  und  Bild  (iv. 
No.  28,  July  10,  1904,  Cologne). 

As  had  been  done  on  most  previous 
occasions,  a  valuable  Festschrift  was  presented 
to  all  who  had  come  to  Cologne,  by  the 
modern  language  teachers  of  the  town. 
It  contained,  among  other  acceptable  con- 
tributions, an  essay  by  G.  Blumschein  on 
the  vocabulary  of  the  Cologne  dialect ;  a 
verse  translation  of  the  Middle  English 
metrical  romance,  King  Horn,  by  H.  Linde- 
mann ;  an  essay  on  Henry  Becque,  by  E. 
Jade  ;  and  a  spirited  address  by  the  Pre- 
sident, Professor  A.  Schroer,  on  the  best 
way  for  modern  language  teachers  to  con- 
tinue their  scientific  and  practical  training, 
and  on  the  aims  of  the  English  and  French 
Seminar  at  the  Cologne  Academy.  Special 
numbers  of  Die  Neutren  Sprachen  and  of  the 
Neuphilologisches  Zenlralblatt  were  also  dedi- 
cated to  the  members  of  the  Conference, 
the  former  containing,  among  other  things, 
a  very  valuable  Aufstellung  eines  orgcnnsch- 
zusammenhangenden,  stufenweise  geordneten 
Lektiireplans  nach  Jen  Beschliissen  des  X.  Neu- 


112 


THE  MODEEN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


philologentages,  the  latter  a  useful  digest  of 
the  subjects  discussed  at  the  first  ten 
modern  language  Conferences,  together  with 
other  statistics.  The  question  of  devising 
a  reasonable  and  graduated  Lektiireplan  or 
Kanon,  which  has  engrossed  the  attention 
of  German  modern  language  teachers  for 
many  years,  will  before  long  claim  the 
serious  attention  of  English  teachers,  who 
will  be  able  to  derive  much  assistance  from 
the  (still  unfinished)  labours  of  their  German 
colleagues. 

The  statistics  of  the  Zentralblatt  show  a 
steady  rise  in  the  numbers  of  the  members  of 
the  German  Association:  in  188G,  the  num- 
bers were  133,  but  in  1902  they  had  risen  to 
1551.  A  considerable  increase  may  be  safely 
prophesied  for  the  immediate  future,  as  in 
its  final  session  the  Cologne  Conference 
resolved  almost  unanimously  to  admit 
henceforth  women  to  membership  of  the 
Association.  Probably  many  women  will 
attend  future  conferences,  as  regular  mem- 
bers ;  up  to  now  only  a  few  wives  or 
daughters  were  present  at  the  meetings. 

There  were  all  in  all  six  meetings  (on 
three  days),  five  of  which  were  devoted  to 
papers  and  discussions,  and  the  sixth  to 
resolutions  and  other  business.  They  were 
all  held  in  the  splendid  large  hall  of  the 
famous  old  '  Giirzenich,'  which  the  mayor 
and  corporation  had  most  kindly  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  the  members  of 
the  Conference.  The  morning  meetings 
began  at  9  and  lasted,  with  but  short 
pauses,  till  1  or  even  2  o'clock.  The 
afternoon  meetings  began  at  5  and  lasted 
till  7.  The  long  interval  between  the 
morning  and  afternoon  meetings  proved 
very  acceptable  to  all  members  of  the 
Conference,  as  it  left  ample  time  for  sight- 
seeing, and  for  valuable  informal  inter- 
change of  ideas  with  colleagues. 

The  discussions  —  the  committee  were 
well  advised  in  imposing  a  time  limit,  which 
made  them  considerably  shorter  than  at 
Breslau— were  all  most  interesting,  and  the 
debates  were  conducted  with  perfect  good 
feeling.  Waag's  views  as  set  forth  in  his 
interesting  paper  on  'the  importance  of 
translation  from  the  foreign  language  into 
the  mother-tongue,'  led  to  a  lively  discus- 
sion. The  necessity  or  desirability  of  much 
translation  was  emphatically  denied  by 
most  of  the  leading  'reformers,'  while  they 
admitted  the  usefulness  of  occasional  choice 
renderings  of  especially  difficult  passages.1 

It  is  impossible  to  give  in  this  place  an 
account  of  the  many  interesting  papers 
1  See  also  Quarterly,  iii.  1 ,  43. 


even  in  the  barest  outline.  Readers  who 
are  anxious  to  obtain  this  information  will 
find  good  summaries  in  the  July  number 
of  Die  Nemren  Sprachen,  while  some  of  the 
lectures  will  appear  in  full  in  the  October  and 
November  numbers  of  the  same  periodical. 
The  official  report  (Verhandlungen  des  XI. 
deutschenNeuphilologentages)vfi\\  be  published 
towards  the  end  of  the  year  at  Cologne. 
An  interesting  impressionist  account  of  the 
proceedings  from  day  to  day  is  contained 
in  the  June  number  of  the  Bulletin  mensuel 
de  la  socittt  des  professeurs  des  langues  vivantfs 
(written  by  M.  Potel),  and  a  short  but 
spirited  article  on  the  Conference  was 
contributed  by  Prof.  Bellyse  Baildon  to  the 
Dundee  Advertiser  of  Monday,  June  13, 
1904.  I  must  content  myself  with  giving 
a  list  of  the  papers  read,  from  which  it  will 
appear  that  in  the  very  varied  programme 
many  problems  were  dealt  with  by  scholars 
and  teachers  of  wide  repute  and  much  ex- 
perience. 

Among  the  practical  papers  those  by 
Waag,  Borbein,  and  Walter  aroused  the 
greatest  interest,  the  two  last  ones  being 
received  with  enthusiasm  by  the  whole 
audience.  Among  the  grammatical  papers 
the  one  read  by  Morf  was  deservedly  ap- 
preciated ;  the  literary  papers  dealt  with 
Moliere,  Shakespere,  Byron,  the  Heliaud 
and  Old  English  epic  Literature,  and  Goethe 
in  his  relation  to  English  literature. 

It  is  also  deserving  of  special  mention 
that  at  the  Cologne  Modern  Language  Con- 
ference, for  the  first  time  a  paper  was  read 
by  a  lady.  Mrs.  Marie  Gothein,  the  highly 
accomplished  wife  of  Professor  Gothein 
of  Bonn  (now  of  Heidelberg)  gave  us  a 
most  stimulating  paper,  evidently  the  out- 
come of  long  and  fruitful  study,  on  'the 
English  landscape  -  garden  in  literature.' 
It  is  hoped  that  henceforth  ladies  will  not 
only  assist  at  the  meetings  as  duly  qualified 
members  of  the  Association,  but  that  they 
will  occasionally  contribute  to  the  pro- 
gramme by  reading  papers. 

Professors  Victor  and  Dorr  in  short 
addresses  urged  upon  the  Conference  the 
necessity  of  formulating  for  the  benefit  of 
modern  language  students  a  scheme  of 
studies  (Studienplari),  and  also  of  making 
suggestions  as  to  the  best  wajr  of  preparing 
future  modern  language  teachers  for  their 
particular  work  after  they  have  passed 
through  their  university  course.  It  was 
agreed  unanimously  that  these  two  points 
should  form  subjects  for  detailed  discussion 
at  the  next  Conference  to  be  held  (in  1906) 
at  Munich.  Dr.  DOIT'S  motion  took  up 


THE  NEUPHILOLOGENTAG  AT  COLOGNE 


113 


again  the  suggestions  thrown  out  by  Dr. 
Breul  and  others  at  the  Breslau  meeting 
(1902),  while  at  Cologne  among  the  prac- 
tical questions  dealt  with  those  of  the 
Kanon,  or  drawing  up  lists  of  suitable  school- 
books  (also  treated  at  Breslau  in  1902),  of 
the  value  of  translation  (also  treated  at 
Leipzig  in  1'JOO),  of  the  importance  of 
using  the  foreign  idiom  in  the  teaching  of 
higher  forms,  and  of  the  desirability  of  re- 
quiring modern  language  teachers  as  a  rule 
to  teach  only  one  modern  foreign  tongue 
instead  of  two  (insisting,  however,  on  his 
taking  in  addition  to  it,  according  to  his 
gifts  and  inclination,  another  important 
form  subject)  stood  in  the  foreground. 
Questions  of  great  importance  are  not  in- 
frequently dealt  with  in  Germany  at  two 
Conferences,  the  interval  of  two  or  more 
years  serving  for  further  investigation  and 
interchange  of  opinion.  Of  the  two  main 
problems  discussed  at  Breslau  the  one 
(the  Kanon  question)  was  further  dis- 
cussed at  Cologne,  and  will  probably  be 
brought  to  some  sort  of  conclusion  at 
Munich.  The  other  (preparation  of  future 
modern  language  teachers),  which  at  Breslau 
stood  in  the  centre  of  the  discussions,  will 
be  taken  up  again  in  1906. 

The  following  is  the  official  programme 
of  the  subjects  dealt  with  at  the  various 
meetings — an  unusually  rich  and  varied 
list,  in  which  about  half  of  the  papers 
were  devoted  to  scientific  and  half  to 
practical  questions. 

Mittwoch,  den  25.  Mai,  vormittaga  piinktlieh  9 
TJhr,  im  groszen  Giirzenichsaale  :  Eroffnung 
des  11.  Neuphilologentages  durch  den  1. 
Vorzitzenden,  Herrn  Professor  Dr.  A.  Schriier. 
Erste  allgemeine  Sitzung, 
Vortriige. 

1.  Professor  Dr.  K.  Luick  (Uuiversitiit,  Graz)  : 
Biihnendeutsch  und  Schuldeutsch. 

2.  Professor  Dr.   Waag  (Oberschulrat,   Karls- 
ruhe) :     Wie     iibermitteln     die    neusprachlichen 
Schulen  gegeniiber  den  altspracliliclien  eine  gleich- 
wertige  Allgemeinbildung  ? 

3.  Dr.  H.  Borbein  (schultechniseher  Mitarbeiter 
bei    dem    konigl.     Provinzial-Schulkollegium    in 
Berlin,  Friedenau) :  Die  miigliche  Arbeitsleistung 
der  Neuphilologen. 

4.  Direktor  F.  Dorr  (stadt.  Liebig-Realschule, 
Frankfurt    am    Main)    und    Professor    Dr.    W. 
Victor    (Universitat,    Marburg    an    der    Lahn)  : 
Antrage  :  a)  Empfehlung  eines  Studienplanes  fiir 
die    Studierenden    der    neueren    Philologie ;     b) 
Verlegung  des  Seminarjahrs  an  die  Universitat. 

Mittwoch,   den  25.   Mai,  nachmittags  piinktlich 
5  Uhr.     Zweite  allgemeine  Sitzung. 

1.  Professor  Dr.  H.  Morf  (Akademie  fiir  Sozial- 
und  Handels-  W  issenschaf  ten ,  Frankfurt  am  Main) : 
Die  Terapora  historica  im  Franziisischen. 

2.  Professor  Dr.  L.  Schemann-Freiburg  i.  B.  : 


Uber  Gobineau,  insbesondere  seine  Werke  iiber 
das  neuere  Persien. 

3.  Professor   Dr.    Charles    Glauser    (Handels- 
akademie,  Wien) :  Die  Fortbiklung  in  den  neueren 
Sprachen  nach  Absolvierung  einer  Real-Handels- 
schule. 

4.  Professor  Dr.  V.  Hoffmann-Gent :  Les  prin- 
cipes  fondamentaux  des  humanite's  modernes. 

Donnerstag,  den  26.   Mai,   vormittags  piinktlich 
9  Uhr.     Dritte  allgemeine  Sitzung. 

1.  Professor  Dr.   M.   Trautmann  (Universitat, 
Bonn) :  Der  Heliand,  eine  Ubersetzung  aus  dem 
Altenglischen. 

2.  Frau    Marie  Gothein-Bonn  :    Der  englische 
Landschaftsgarten  in  der  Litteratur. 

3.  Karl    Breul,    M.A.,    Litt.D.,   Ph.D.    (Cam- 
bridge University  Reader  in  Germanic,  Delegierter 
der   Modern   Language   Association)  :    Uber   das 
Deutsche  im  Munde  der  Deutschen  im  Auslande. 

4.  Professor  Dr.  H.  Schneegans  (Universitat, 
Wiirzburg)  :  Molieres  Subjektivismus. 

5.  Professor  Dr.  Karl  Sachs-Brandenburg  a.  H.  : 
Uber  Goethes  Beziehungen  zur  englischen  Sprache 
und  Litteratur. 

Dounerstag,  den  26.  Mai.  nachmittags  piinktlich 
5  Uhr.     Vierte  allgemeine  Sitzung. 

1.  Professor  Dr.  W.  Wetz  (Universitat,  Frei- 
burg i.  B. ) :  Neuere  Beitrage  zur  Byron-Biographie. 

2.  Dr.     Th.     Eichhoff  -  Charlottenburg :     Uber 
Kritik  des  Shakespeare-Textes. 

3.  Dr.    Casimir    Heck-Berlin :    Quantitat    und 
Akzentuation  im  Modernenglischen. 

4.  M.  Adolphe  Ziind-Burguet  (Paris,  Gymnase 
de  la  Voix) :    La   Phonetique   experimental  et 
1'Enseignement  de  la  Prononciation. 

Abends  8  Uhr  im  grossen  Saale  der  Biirgergesell- 
schaft,  Appellhofplatz  20A  -  26  :  Festmahl. 
Freitag,  den  27.  Mai,  vormittags  piinktlich 
9  Uhr.  Fiinfte  allgemeine  Sitzung. 

1.  Direktor  Max  Walter  (Musterschule,  Frank- 
furt a.  Main) :  Gebrauch  der  Fremdsprache  bei  der 
Lektiire  in  den  Oberklassen. 

2.  Oberlehrer  Dr.  Max  Lowiseh-Eisenaeh  :    Die 
litterarische,  politische  und  wirtschaftliche  Kultur 
Frank  reichs    in    unserer    franzosischen   Klassen- 
lektiire. 

3.  Direktor  F.  Unruh  (Oberrealschule,  Breslau) : 
Bericht    iiber    die    Aufstellung    eines    organisch 
zusammenhiingenden,      stufenweise      geordneten 
Lektiireplanes    nach    den    Beschliissen    des    10. 
Neuphilologentages. 

4.  Professor    Dr.    R.    Kron   (kaiserl.    Marine- 
akademie,  Kiel) :  Bericht  iiber  die  Tiitigkeit  des 
Ausschusses  fiir  den  Lektiire-Kanon  und  Neuwahl 
der  Ausschuszmitglieder  (die  neue  Vorschlagsliste 
wird     den     Teilnehmern     vorher     eingehandigt 
werden). 

Freitag,   den  27.  Mai,  nachmittags  piinktlich  5 

Uhr.     Sechste  allgemeine  Sitzung. 

Geschaftliches. 

Ereitag,  den  27.  Mai.  abends  8  Uhr:  Festvor- 
stellung  im  Neuen  Stadttheater  am  Rudolfs- 
platz  (Shakespeares  Sommernachtstraum). 
Samstag.  den  28.  Mai :  Rheinfahrt  nach 
Konigswinter. 

Wahrend  der  Verhandlungstage  zu  geeigneter 
freier  Zeit :  Besichtigung  und  Erlauterung  einer 
von  Prof.  Dr.  W.  Scheffler  (Techn.  Hochschule, 
Dresden)  im  Isabellensaal  des  Giirzenichs  veran- 
stalteten  Ausstellung,  die  besonders  auch  die 


114 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


Frage  tier  Asthetik  im  neusprachlichen   Unter- 
richt  klaren  soil. 

Professor  Scheffler's  exhibition  of  models 
etc.,  illustrating  the  French  classical  stage 
and  French  literature  generally,  was  much 
appreciated  by  members  of  the  Conference. 

Among  the  resolutions  passed  by  the 
Conference  at  its  final  meeting  the  most 
important  were  the  following  : — 

1.  To  admit  women  as  ordinary  members 

of  the  Neuphilologen-Vcrland. 

2.  To  make  representations  to  the  proper 

authorities  urging  them : 

(a)  To  provide  the  universities  with  suffi- 
cient means  to  ensure  a  thorough 
practical  training  of  their  modern 
language  students,  and  especially  to 
provide  for  foreign  Lektoren  at  every 
German  university,  and 

(6)  To  grant  on  a  larger  scale  than  before 
to  modern  language  teachers  travel- 
ling bursaries  for  a  stay  in  the 
foreign  country,  and,  moreover,  to 
give  them  every  five  years  half  a 
year's  leave  of  absence,  with  con- 
tinuation of  pay,  in  order  to  enable 
them  to  stay  abroad  for  some  length 
of  time. 

These  proposals  by  Walter  (taking  up 
proposals  made  in  1896  at  the  Neuphilolo- 
gentag  at  Hamburg — see  K.  Breul,  The 
Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages,'' 
p.  27)  were  supported  on  all  hands,  and  to 
justify  the  demand  of  a  periodical  leave 
of  absence  of  the  length  of  six  months  it 
was  urged  that,  while  teachers  of  classics 
are  able  to  enjoy  a  thorough  rest  during 
their  holidays,  modern  language  teachers 
are  often  kept  at  least  as  busy  as  in  term 
time  by  attending  lectures  at  holiday 
courses,  etc.,  and  that  the  successful  carry- 
ing out  of  the  principles  of  the  direct 
method  requires  of  the  teacher  a  ready 
command  of  the  foreign  idiom  and  a 
thorough  acquaintance  with  foreign  life 
and  customs,  which  cannot  be  acquired  or 
kept  up  by  a  short  stay  abroad. 

3.  To  express  the  strong  conviction  of 
the  members  of  the  Conference  that  it  is 
highly  desirable  to  discourage  the  teaching 
of  English  and  French  (the  two  foreign 
languages  usually  taught  at  German 
schools)  by  the  same  man,  and  to  urge 
intending  teachers  to  combine  one  modern 
foreign  language  with  some  other  important 
subject,  say  French  with  Latin,  English 
with  German,  or  either  foreign  language 
with  history  or  geography.  The  conviction 
is  fast  gaining  ground  that  French  and 


English  should  cease  to  be  regularly 
assigned  to  the  same  teacher,  after  the 
model  of  Latin  and  Greek;  and  will  no 
doubt  sooner  or  later  be  officially  recognised 
in  Germany. 

Finally,  I  have  to  mention  the  unanimous 
adoption  of  an  important  proposal  brought 
forward  by  Monsieur  Potel,  one  of  the 
French  delegates.  It  runs  as  follows  : J 

Le  Congres,  considerant  qu'il  est  indispensable 
d'assurer  d'une  manure  permanente  les  relations 
entre  les  professeurs  des  langues  modernes  des 
differents  pays,  decide : 

1.  Une   commission   permanente,    composee  de 
reprusentants  des  differents  pays,  sera  chargee  de 
soumettre  au  prochaiu  Congres,  qui  se  tiendra  a 
Munich  en  1!)06,  un  projet  concernant  la  creation 
d'un    btireau    international   de    renseiynemenls    a 
I'usage  des professturs  det  langues  modernes. 

2.  Cette  commission  fera  appel  au  concours  des 
soci^tes     ou     associations    des     professeurs    des 
differents  pays. 

3.  Des  a  present  elle  fournira  dans  la  mesure 
du  possible  des  renseignements  aux  professeurs  qui 
s'adresseront  a  elle.    Toute  demande  de  renseigne- 
ments   doit    etre    aecompagnee  d'une   somme   de 
Ofr.  75  (60  Pfennig,  7id.). 

The  names  of  the  preliminary  executive 
committee  elected  on  May  27  are  given  in 
the  Bulletin  Mensuel  of  June,  and  on  page 
238  of  the  (July  number  of)  Die  Neueren 
Sprachen.  The  committee  has  the  right  of 
co-option,  and  several  prominent  members 
of  the  Modern  Language  Association  have 
already  promised  me  their  active  sup- 
port. The  present  chairman  of  com- 
mittee is  M.  Potel,  professeur  au  Lyc6e 
Voltaire,  Paris,  who  is  admirably  supported 
in  his  work  by  M.  Sigwalt,  professeur  au 
Lyc6e  Michelet,  Vanves  (Seine).  The 
original  English  representatives  on  the 
committee  were  Professor  Ph.  Bauer  of 
Bradford,  and  Dr.  Breul  of  Cambridge. 
Germany  was  represented  by  Prof.  M. 
Hartmann  (2  Fechnerstrasse,  Leipzig),  Prof. 
0.  F.  Schmidt  (12  Magnusstrasse,  Cologne), 
Prof.  Volcker  (37  Mozartstrasse,  Cologne). 
For  Austria  Prof.  Glauser  (23  Kolchitsky- 
gasse,  Vienna  IV)  is  ready  to  give  informa- 
tion, and  other  gentlemen  will  help  with 
other  countries.  How  far  the  scheme  may 
be  developed  remains  to  be  seen.  Much 
can  and  will  no  doubt  be  done  in  the  future 
by  other  (official)  channels,  such  as  our 
Board  of  Education ;  still  the  formation 
of  an  international  bureau  consisting  of 
modern  language  teachers  ready  to  give 
reliable  private  information  to  colleagues 
will  no  doubt  soon  prove  a  real  boon  to 
our  Fachgenossen  on  both  sides  of  the 
Channel. 

1  For  the  German  wording  of  the  resolutions  see 
Die  Neueren  Sprachen,  xii.  4  (Juli  1904),  236-39. 


THE  NEUPHILOLOGENTAG  AT  COLOGNE 


115 


From  all  that  has  been  said  so  far  it  will 
be  clear  that  a  great  deal  was  successfully 
achieved.  But  the  most  satisfactory  result 
of  the  Conference  was  that  another  step 
was  made  towards  a  better  mutual  under- 
standing not  only  between  the  university 
professors  and  the  school  teachers,  but  also 
between  the  supporters  to  the  older  methods 
of  teaching  and  the  radical  reformers.  From 
important  statements  made  by  individual 
members  during  the  debates,  it  became 
clear  that  both  parties  have  become  less 
extreme ;  that  on  both  sides  concessions 
have  been  made,  and  will  probably  con- 
tinue to  be  made;  that  it  will  be  more 
freely  admitted  that  the  difference  in  the 
personality  of  the  teachers  may  give  rise 
to  different,  yet  equally  satisfactory  solu- 
tions of  the  same  problem  of  method. 
Already  it  is  possible  to  speak  of  a  con- 
ciliation of  the  different  methods ;  the  re- 
maining differences  between  the  older  way 
of  teaching  and  the  new  have  become  rather 
differences  of  quantity  than  of  quality, 
which,  with  growing  experience  and  fuller 
interchange  of  ideas,  may  be  still  further 
reduced.  A  certain  amount  of  freedom  in 
the  choice  of  methods  and  consequently  a 
certain  variety  will  and  should  always  re- 
main. The  'peace  of  Breslau'  was  fully 
maintained  at  Cologne,  and  looking  back 
on  the  developments  and  struggles  of  the 
last  twenty  years,  one  may  well  say  that 
they  have  ended  in  a  victor)'  of  moderate 
reform  all  along  the  line. 

The  social  part  of  the  Conference  was  no 
less  successful  than  the  lectures  and  debates 
in  the  Giirzenich.  Everywhere  the  German 
and  foreign  members  of  the  Congress  were 
received  with  great  hospitality.  On  Tues- 
day, May  24,  before  the  actual  beginning 
of  the  meeting,  there  was  the  customary 
interesting  Begriissungsabend  in  the  large 
rooms  of  the  Lesegesellschaft.  We  were 
offered  a  Festtrunk,  we  listened  to  addresses 
of  welcome,  various  songs  and  recitations, 
renewing  old  and  making  new  acquaint- 
ances ;  the  presence  of  ladies  graced  the 
proceedings,  and  old  and  new  songs  were 
sung  in  chorus,  accompanied  by  the  music 
of  an  excellent  military  band.  As  on 
former  occasions,  Direktor  Rosenthal  of 
Hanover  had  provided  for  the  use  of  the 
members  of  the  Conference  a  charming 
Liede.rheft,  containing  Kommerslieder  and 
other  songs  written  for  the  occasion,  and 
sung  with  much  flan.  Among  the  poems 
there  were,  of  course,  many  old  friends, 
but  also  a  few  humorous  new  songs.  Of 
the  large  selection  I  mention  the  following  : 


Die  ffeuen. 

'  Uu  romisch-grieehisch  klass'sche  Zeit, 
Wohin  bist  du  entschwunden, 
Da  einzig  in  der  Toga  Kleid 
Die  Welt  ihr  Heil  gefunden  ? 
Der  Sprachgebrauch  bei  Cicero, 
Zwei  Spiritus  beim  Doppel — j>p — 
Hielt  Alt  und  Jung  gefangen. 
In  elirfurchtsvollem  Bangen,'  etc.,  etc. 

Der  Neaphilologe. 

'  Es  ist  der  Neophilolog 
Ein  vielgequalter  Mann,"  etc.,  etc. 

A  comic  parody  of  the  Lohengrin  story  in 
genuine  Cologne  dialect  was  sung  with 
much  amusement: 

Lohengrin,  oder  bestrofle  Neugeer. 

'  Op  ehrer  Burg  zo  Xante, 
Met  allerhand  Trabante, 
Doh  wonnte,  we  bekaunt, 
Et  Elsa  vun  Brabant. 
It  hatt  nit  Vah  noch  Moder, 
Un  nor  'ne  kleinen  Broder ; — 
Diin  hiitt'  se  grus'lig  omgebraht ; — 
So  wodt  ehr  nohgesaht, '  etc.,  etc. 

Old  French  songs'  and  Middle  English 
songs  were  again  not  wanting.  Schwan's 

'  De  totes  pucelles  gentils  avenanz 
Me  plaist  mielx  belle  Lorotte ' 

and  Breul's 

'  The  murie  Mai  ys  cumen, 
These  raeedes  waxen  green ' 

had  already  been  sung  at  Breslau.  Two 
new  songs  were  printed  along  with  them 
from  manuscripts  in  private  possession,  the 
sources  of  which  I  leave  to  the  members 
of  our  Association  to  find  out.  The  first 
stanza  of  the  Old  French  poem  ('Ci  comen- 
cet  une  chancon  molt  dulitable  translatede 
del  latin  ')  ran  thus  : 

'  Car  tuit  nos  esledecons 
Que  que  somes  juefne  et  fort, 
Des  (ju'oni  de  jouente  feste 
Out  et  d'edage  moleste 
Saisit  ermes  de  mort'  (author  unknown). 

Dr.  Breul  published  from  the  Codex,  that 
also  contains  the  '  may-song,'  the  song  be- 
ginning: 

'  Yn  the  colblak  whal  at  Assecalonne 
lij  daies  dronk  a  mon, 
Till  at  the  tabull  of  marbelstone 
He  lay  as  stylle  as  si  on.' 

A  song  of  Eegel's,  not  contained  in  the 
printed  list,  varied  Simrock's  famous  Rhine- 
song,  beginning  : 

'  My  son,  my  son,  be  advised  full  well : 
By  no  means  go  to  the  Rhine  ; 
The  spirits  of  youth  so  highly  there  swell, 
The  country  's  by  far  too  fine. ' 


116 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


On  Thursday  night  there  was  a  great 
dinner  with  many  speeches  and  songs, 
the  military  band  playing  the  accom- 
paniments, and,  besides  several  foreign 
national  hymns,  including  '  Rule  Britannia ' 
and  the  'Marseillaise,'  a  selection  of  music. 
On  Friday  night  we  were  invited  to 
assist  at  a  splendid  performance  of  the 
Midsummer  Night's  Dream  in  the  'new 
theatre.'  After  the  performance  most 
members  remained  together,  chatting 
till  a  late  hour  in  the  open  on  the  large 
terrace  of  the  theatre.  Saturday  was 
entirely  devoted  to  a  delightful  excursion 
on  the  Rhine.  A  special  steamer  with  a 
military  band  on  board  left  Cologne  at 
eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  on  a  perfect 
day  with  several  hundred  members  and 
their  friends,  steamed  up  the  Rhine  past 
Bonn  and  past  the  Drachenfels,  then  turned 
and  stopped  for  a  few  hours  at  Konigs- 


wiuter  to  give  the  party  an  opportunity 
of  going  up  the  Drachenfels.  The  steamer 
then  took  us  across  the  Rhine  to  Godes- 
berg,  where  a  most  successful  and  animated 
farewell-dinner,  with  many  speeches,  songs, 
and  comic  recitations  was  thoroughly  en- 
joyed by  every  one,  and  in  the  evening  we 
merrily  steamed  back  to  Cologne,  chatting 
with  many  friends  and  acquaintances  who 
a  few  hours  later  would  again  be  scattered 
all  over  Germany,  or  be  returning  to  Eng- 
land, Scotland,  France,  Russia,  or  Scandi- 
navia. Thus  a  most  successful  Conference 
was  brought  to  an  end,  and  on  taking  leave 
I  was  charged  with  the  kindest  good  wishes 
for  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  the  Eng- 
lish Modern  Language  Association.  Who- 
ever will  have  the  honour  of  representing 
it  at  Munich  in  1 906  may  look  forward  to 
a  most  hearty  welcome. 

K.  B. 


THE  APPLICATION  OF  PHONETICS:    NOTES  ON   MODERN  LANGUAGE 
TEACHING  IN   SECONDARY  SCHOOLS.1 


I  AM  very  anxious  that  those  who  arranged 
this  programme  (and  I  was  so  busy  at  the 
time  it  was  done  that  I  had  no  share  in  it) 
are  asking  a  great  deal  of  you  in  expecting 
you  to  listen  to  a  disciple  directly  after  his 
master,  and  especially  after  such  a  master 
as  M.  Paul  Passy.  I  have  also  here  in  this 
building  something  of  the  awed  feeling  that 
one  who  was  but  lately  a  sixth  form  boy 
would  have,  if  he  came  back  to  his  old 
school,  to  sit  no  longer  in  his  accustomed 
place,  but  at  the  master's  desk,  for  it  is 
not  many  years  since  1  was  a  humble 
student  of  the  Sorbonne. 

You  might  be  less  critical  if  the  disciple 
bad  some  startling  new  development  to 
communicate  to  you,  or  something  of  a  par- 
ticularly inspiring  nature.  You  will  find 
that  I  have  deliberately  chosen  otherwise. 
M.  Passy  has  dealt  with  the  actual  applica- 
tion of  phonetics;  I  shall  content  myself 
with  trying  to  make  you  feel  that  there  is 
a  necessity  for  the  application  of  phonetics. 

Speaking  generally,  my  thesis  is  'that 
phonetics  must  form  an  important  part  of 
language  teaching,'  to  which  I  shall  add,  as 
you  will  see  from  the  examples,  '  especially 
in  the  elementary  stages.' 

It  is  a  thesis  which  has  been  proved  a 
great  many  times  already,  infinitely  better 


than  I  shall  be  able  to  do  it.  But  if,  as  I 
say,  this  thesis  has  been  maintained  many 
times  already,  I  hope  the  mere  fact  of  my 
venturing  over  the  same  ground  will  make 
you  understand  that  what  this  side  of 
language-study  especially  needs  is  more 
material,  collected  by  a  large  number  of 
trained  observers,  faithful  records  of  facts 
of  all  kinds  relating  to  the  subject. 

A  great  deal  of  the  material  for  this  paper 
is  drawn  from  personal  observation  during 
the  past  few  months  of  some  two  hundred 
modern  language  classes  containing  about 
six  thousand  pupils. 

I  hope  to  show  you  the  effects  of  ignoring 
phonetics  ;  so  that  my  argument  will  chiefly 
be  in  a  negative  form :  '  that  language 
teaching  without  phonetics  is  unsatisfactory.' 
Incidentally  you  will  learn  something  of 
various  sound-systems,  especially  present 
English  sound-systems. 

M.  Hovelaque,  on  Thursday,  in  speaking 
of  the  kind  of  English  heard  in  a  French 
lycle,  told  us  that  they  had  'une  prononcia- 
tion  particuliere  et  fort  remarquable.'  I 
am  going  to  speak  of  the  same  thing  in 
English  schools,  only  instead  of  confining 

1  This  Paper  was  read  at  the  Paris  meeting  of 
the  Modern  Language  Association  on  the  18th  of 
April  1904. 


THE  APPLICATION  OF  PHONETICS 


117 


myself  to  stating  that  it  is  so,  I  am  going 
to  inflict  upon  you  many  painful  details. 

And  after  you  have  heard  them  I  hope 
you  will  not  go  away  simply  thanking 
Heaven  that  you  are  not  as  these  other 
men  are.  It  is  you  who  know  better  who 
ought  to  make  up  your  minds  that  it  is 
high  time  an  end  was  put  to  such  slipshod 
work. 

Before  we  consider  these  mistakes  it  is 
necessary  to  be  quite  clear  about  certain 
fundamental  points.  One  of  these  state- 
ments may  run  as  follows :  '  A  group  of 
people  in  constant  communication  with 
each  other  at  any  given  point  in  their 
history,  will  have  certain  habits  of  pro- 
nunciation, certain  tendencies  of  their 
speech-organs,  which  may  be  described  as 
their  basis  of  articulation.'  Minor  differences 
in  these  habits,  or  exaggerations  of  these 
tendencies,  constitute  from  a  phonetic  point 
of  view  dialects  of  the  language  in  question, 
the  differences  being  counted  from  that 
branch  of  the  language  which,  for  the  time 
being,  is  the  standard,  generally  the  speech 
of  the  educated  classes  in  and  around  the 
centre  of  intellectual  activity  and  of 
government  in  that  area. 

We  shall  take  as  standard  dialects  in  this 
sense  the  speech  of  the  educated  classes  of 
London  and  a  great  part  of  the  south  of 
England,  for  English,  and  that  of  Paris 
and  the  north  of  France,  for  French. 

It  will  be  inferred  that  if  the  basis  of 
articulation  varies  slightly  with  the  dialects 
of  the  same  language,  the  differences  are 
immensely  greater  when  we  compare  the 
speech  of  groups  of  people  who  are  not 
geographically  and  historically  connected. 

There  is  another  important  point  which 
must  be  considered.  Let  ns  suppose  that 
speaking  man  makes  use  of  twenty-five 
modifications  of  the  voice  passage  which 
are  musical  sounds,  and  fifty  more  noises 
of  the  nature  of  pops  and  hisses,  do  we 
find  on  analysis  that  any  one  group  of 
people  uses  all  these  seventy-five  sounds 
to  mark  significant  differences  in  their 
speech  ?  The  answer  is  that,  speaking  very 
generally,  a  given  community  finds  it  suffi- 
cient to  use  only  half  of  this  total — some 
twelve  of  the  first  category,  and  twenty-four 
of  the  second. 

Another  question  we  must  ask :  What 
generally  happens  when  those  who  use  this 
half  of  the  sounds  hear  or  try  to  imitate 
some  of  the  other  half?  It  is  necessary  to 
distinguish  here  in  the  answer  :  the  majority 
will  think  they  hear  and  will  consequently 
utter  some  sound  in  their  own  system  which 


bears  some  organic  or  acoustic  similarity  to 
the  new  sound ;  I  shall  try  to  make  this 
clear  by  examples  presently.  The  minority, 
those  with  what  is  called  a  good  ear,  will 
hear  that  this  is  a  new  sound,  and  will 
produce  the  nearest  acoustic  approximation 
which  their  untrained  organs  permit. 

These  points  are  clearly  shown  in  the 
borrowed  words  of  a  language. 

Before  we  consider  English  and  French 
together,  I  am  going  to  show  you  the  trans- 
formation which  English  words  have  under- 
gone when  they  have  been  taken  into  a 
language  with  a  very  different  basis  of 
articulation  and  a  very  different  sound- 
system. 

During  the  past  forty  years  a  certain 
small  number  of  English  words  have  been 
borrowed  by  the  Japanese. 

I  shall  not  go  into  a  detailed  comparison, 
but  let  us  take  the  respective  vowel-systems. 
Our  present  southern  English  system  of 
vowels  is  a  complicated  one,  containing 
from  twelve  to  sixteen  sounds,  some  of 
which  do  not  seem  well  defined  and  well 
separated,  except  to  an  Englishman.  A 
series  like 

o  of  not 
A  of  bat 
s:  of  bird 
8  of  again 

or  the  ae  of  man  and  the  middle  e  of  m«n  ; 
these  are  not  easy  for  a  foreigner  to  dis- 
tinguish. 

Now  Japanese  make  use  of  only  five  well- 
defined  vowels,  great  use  being  made  of 
quantity  or  length,  to  make  up  for  the  want 
of  differences  in  quality. 

With  words  containing  the  well-separated 
fundamental  vowels,  i,  e,  a,  o,  u,  the  borrowed 
words  have  passed  in  without  serious  altera- 
tion, so  that  when  '  ink '  and  '  book '  were 
borrowed  to  represent  European  ink  and 
European  books  they  became  ir)ki  and  bukhi. 

But  when  we  come  to  the  vowels  of  the 
less  well-defined  series,  we  shall  see  a 
change  of  the  very  kind  I  want  to  point 
out.  Take  the  words  'tunnel,'  'shirt,' and 
'  button,'  and  we  find  they  have  become 
tonneru,  fatsu,  and  iotafj,  that  is,  our  inter- 
mediate sounds  have  been  levelled  with  the 
nearest  vowels  in  the  Japanese  system — o, 
a, 

You  may  ask  what  that  has  to  do  with 
mistakes  made  in  English  secondary  schools. 
I  want  you  to  see  that  the  difference  is 
only  of  kind  and  not  of  degree,  when  an 
English  child  says,  fai  lvuw,'  or  fai  'vjuw,' 
instead  of  fai  m.  He  has  his  own  basis 


118 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


of  articulation,  his  own  sound-system,  his 
accustomed  movements  of  the  tongue  and 
lips. 

A  further  point :  a  beginner  may  hear 
a  new  sound  a  thousand  times  without 
reproducing  it  rightly.  This  is  the  '  imita- 
tion fallacy,'  to  suppose  that  mere  hearing 
is  sufficient.  There  must  be  knowledge 
and  conscious  effort.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  in  this  connection  that  of  all  the 
classes  I  visited,  the  pronunciation  was 
worst  in  those  held  by  foreigners  teaching 
their  own  language  to  English  children. 

As  a  further  example  of  approximation, 
take  the  Welsh  sound  which  is  written 
'double  I.'  This  sound,  which  is  nothing 
but  a  breath  lateral  instead  of  the  common 
voice  lateral,  suggests  to  English  ears  the 
fricative  made  by  putting  the  tip  of  the 
tongue  between  the  teeth,  so  it  becomes 
Olan  instead  of  Ian. 

We  can  guess  from  an  imported  word 
like  blanc  mange  (blamonds)  that  the 
English  child  will  need  to  be  taught  a  new 
class  of  sounds,  the  nasal  vowels  ;  that  he 
will  have  a  difficulty  in  distinguishing  a  and 
o,  and  that,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
synthesis,  there  is  a  strong  tendency  to 
have  alternate  weak  and  strong  stress,  to 
stress  one  syllable  of  a  group  strongly  and 
to  slur  over  the  rest,  so  that  my^gd  is  the 
line  of  least  resistance  from  manger  (mw^e), 
and  that  yj,ijvei  is  infinitely  easier  for  him 
than  arriver  (arive). 

Take  another  word  we  sometimes  use  : 
onwi,  which  is  a-.nt/i  (ennui) ;  we  can  feel 
sure  that  the  English  beginner  will  make 
no  difference  between  the  lui  of  je  lui  ai 
dmnt  and  Louis  of  Louis  XIV. 

So  we  can  see  that  there  ought  to  be  a 
step  before  teaching  the  foreign  language 
at  all,  that  is,  we  must  know  something 
about  the  basis  of  articulation  of  the  mother- 
tongue,  and  the  analysis  of  the  sounds  of 
the  mother-tongue,  finding  out  what  the 
tendencies  are,  and  how  and  where  each 
sound  is  made. 

And  we  have  not,  even  yet,  necessarily 
arrived  at  the  starting-point.  Let  us 
presume  that  the  teacher's  starting-point 
is  the  standard  dialect ;  it  is  not  at  all 
necessary  that  the  pupil's  is  the  same.  It 
is  just  the  same  for  the  other  parts  of 
.grammar  as  for  phonetics ;  a  child  whose 
dialectal  past  tense  is  '1  see  (h)im  when  I 
come  yesterday,'  will  hesitate  whether  to 
use  je  viens  or  je  siiis  venu. 

Take  the  pronunciation  of  the  London 
child  in  many  of  the  second-grade  secondary 
schools.  It  requires  a  different  process  to 


arrive  at  the  French  or  German  sounds, 
generally  longer,  because  the  London  dialect 
in  most  cases  exaggerates  the  tendencies  and 
peculiarities  of  standard  English.  It  is  harder 
to  arrive  at  the  French  lateral  of  la  table, 
ville,  from  the  exaggerated  back  position  and 
curled  tip  of  the  tongue  for  the  London 
dialectal  fijulz  (fields) ;  it  is  more  difficult  to 
get  the  German  diphthong  of  Haus  (ha.us) 
from  the  dialectal  haus  or  haus,  than  from 
the  normal  '  house '  (haus). 

Or  to  get  the  high  front  vowel  i  of 
French  si  or  German  Biene,  when  the 
Cockney  beginner  says  'staejt,'  'tej,'  with 
the  vowel  almost  lowered  to  the  position  of 
'  e '  in  eU. 

Or  to  pronounce  properly  the  initial  con- 
sonant of  the  German  Gaumen  when  his 
own  plosive  is  frequently  a  front  palatal 
instead  of  a  back  palatal,  as  in  'jseua  staejt' 
(  =  Gower  Street). 

I  think  there  has  now  been  sufficient  ex- 
planation to  understand  the  point  of  the  list 
of  mistakes  which  I  have  grouped  together. 

I  must  preface  this  also  with  a  remark  : 
if  the  corrected  form  which  I  give  after 
the  mistake  is  not  altogether  what  it 
should  be,  remember  that  owing  to  the 
necessity  of  changing  the  whole  basis  of 
articulation  which  has  already  been  referred 
to,  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  change 
backwards  and  forwards  at  short  intervals 
from  one  language  to  another.  This,  by  the 
way,  should  be  remembered  in  oral  classes : 
it  is  easier,  from  a  phonetic  point  of  view, 
to  speak  French  throughout  the  lesson 
than  to  mix  the  two  languages.  Further, 
it  is  quite  sufficient  for  the  purposes  of  my 
argument  if  the  corrected  form  is  in  any 
way  nearer  the  standard  than  the  original 
mistake. 

The  mistakes  ought,  strictly  speaking,  to 
be  discussed  one  sound  at  a  time ;  but  I 
think  it  will  bring  out  the  enormities  better 
for  non-specialists  if  we  consider  whole 
words,  even  if  this  makes  the  grouping 
difficult,  since  a  word  may  be  made  up  of 
many  sounds. 

Quality  of  Vowel. — Let  us  begin  with  two 
such  forms  as  tceblou  and  ta:llou,  frequently 
heard  instead  of  t&blo. 

This  (e  and  a:  instead  of  a  is  similar  to  the 
case  of  botar)  and  falsu,  approximations  to 
button  and  shirt.  The  a  of  t&blo  and  p&tte  only 
occurs  in  southern  English  in  the  diphthongs 
ai  and  aw  ;  it  is  not  a  regular  tongue  position, 
so  that  the  English  beginner  takes  it  either 
as  a,  the  vowel  pronounced  with  the  tongue 
in  the  lowest  position,  or  takes  it  too  high 


THE  APPLICATION  OF  PHONETICS 


119 


up  to  ce,  the  vowel  in  man.  The  English 
beginner,  of  course,  does  the  same  in 
German  man,  which  he  calls  'mseu,'  arid 
er  hat,  which  he  makes  '  ha:t.' 

Further  instances  of  changes  in  the 
quality  of  the  vowel :  the  3  of  3>n  (homme) 
and  IM  (bonne)  is  less  open  than  the  3  of 
English  not  and  lond,  so  that  the  French  3 
suggests  the  a,  of  butter,  and  we  get  am  and 
ban. 

Diphthong  for  Vowel. — We  have  not  yet 
explained  the  reason  for  the  chnnge  in  the 
final  vowel  of  the  first  example  we  took  : 
'  taiblow.'  We  can  group  with  this  '  bou ' 
for  beau,  '  meim '  for  meme,  '  tei '  for  the, 
'  sij '  for  si. 

We  see  that  this  is  nothing  but  applying 
to  French  what  always  happens  in  English. 
A  stressed  final  vowel  always  becomes  long, 
and  all  long  vowels  in  southern  English  are 
more  or  less  diphthongs,  due  chiefly  to  our 
preferring  to  speak  with  the  muscles  of  the 
tongue  as  relaxed  as  possible.  The  tongue 
is  flat  and  flabby,  and  flops,  so  to  speak,  into 
the  position  for  pronouncing  a  given  vowel 
[compare  ei,  OH].  In  French,  as  a  general 
rule,  the  muscles  are  firm  and  the  tongue 
is  kept  high  up  and  slightly  arched  :  e:  o:. 

As  many  French  words  end  in  a  stressed 
vowel,  and  as  there  are  many  long  pure 
vowels,  this  diphthonging  is  one  of  the 
commonest  English  mistakes. 

These  have  been  so  far  comparatively 
small  mistakes.  I  say  comparatively  small, 
because  these  do  not  always  destroy  signifi- 
cant differences. 

We  shall  now  consider  the  mistakes 
which  come  from  ignoring  sounds  which  are 
new  to  the  mother-tongue.  These  sounds  are 
naturally  used  to  distinguish  words,  so  that 
the  neglect  of  them  means  the  neglect  of 
significant  differences;  take  an  English 
example,  the  initial  consonant  of  '  thimble,' 
'  thistle,'  'thin,'  is  for  most  non-Englishmen 
a  new  and  difficult  sound,  and  the  beginner 
who  has  not  been  taught  to  pronounce  it 
will  choose  some  supposed  equivalent  '  fin," 
•sin,'  'tin.' 

So  the  English  beginner  is  severely  handi- 
capped who  has  not  been  taught  the  front 
rounded  vowels  of  mi,  pen,  seul,  which  have 
no  equivalent  in  English.  For  them  there 
is  no  difference  between  au-dessous  and  au- 
dessus. 

The  sound  y  may  also  suggest  the  com- 
bination juw,  so  that  we  hear  fai  '  vjuw  '  as 
a  variant  of  fai  '  vuw.'  In  the  same  way, 
the  unrounded  vowel  of  'bird'  or  'third '  is 
substituted  for  the  other  two  front  rounded 
vowels : 


da:  for  deux 
sail  for  seul. 

With  Cockney  children  who  say  biiwts  for 
600/5,  an  intermediate  between  the  juw 
mentioned  above  and  y  takes  the  place 
even  of  the  back  vowel  u ;  gilt  for  German 
gut  is  quite  common. 

The  French  nasal  sounds  are  another 
class  of  sound  which  do  not  occur  in 
English,  so  that  the  untrained  beginner 
substitutes  some  approximate  combination  : 

mot)  for  man 
kontei  for  compter 
maerj  for  main 
_/iser)  for  ehien 
AT)  or  O:TJ  for  MM. 

Then  since  the  nasalised  form  of  a  vowel 
gives  the  acoustic  effect  of  a  vowel  one 
degree  further  back  :  a,  a ;  o,  v> ;  the  English 
beginner  hearing  «,  thinks  he  hears  5,  so 
that  he  tries  to  say 

bla  for  blanc 

ato:da  for  attendre 

vj5:d  for  viancle. 

And  the  three  or  four  combinations  pro- 
nounced d«  and  the  three  or  four  pronounced 
do  become  hopelessly  confused  when  the 
pupils  write  dictations. 

The  mistakes  in  the  consonants  are  just  as 
common  and  almost  as  serious. 

The  difference  in  the  average  tongue 
position  of  French  and  English  is  very 
clearly  heard  in  those  consonants  which  the 
French  pronounce  with  the  tongue  close 
behind  or  touching  the  teeth,  and  the  Eng- 
lish with  the  tongue  in  an  alveolar,  some- 
times even  in  a  palatal,  position  ;  the  series 
d,  n,  s,  and  especially  the  lateral  I:  so  that 
we  get 

ta:bul  for  table 

fial  iorfil 

vial  for  ville. 

In  German  also,  and  just  as  historically, 
taulk  became  talk,  so  the  English  beginner 
says 

ola  for  alle 
and  even  o:dla  for  Adler. 

Then  just  as  there  were  new  vowels  to 
be  learnt,  so  there  are  consonants  which 
bare  no  equivalent  in  English.  These  are 
particularly  difficult  for  any  beginners. 

if  in  lui,  depuis,  suggest  only  the  sound 
w  of  water,  and  wijl  is  substituted  for  huile. 

The  front  palatal  nasal  is  another  stum- 
bling-block ;  English  people  always  go  to 
buhin  (Boulogne).  Strangely  enough  the 
front  palatal  does  not  seem  to  suggest  our 


120 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


back  palatal  of  sing,  sang,  sung,  but  the 
dental  n  plus  the  front  vowel  i  or  its  equiva- 
lent consonant  j. 

senja:  for  seigneur 
monta:nj  for  montagne. 

So  the  ich-laut  and  the  ach-laut  in  German 
present  difficulties,  and  we  get 

i/or  ik  for  ich. 

One  of  the  most  important  of  these 
neglected  consonants  is  the  trilled  r.  The 
southern  English  beginner  is  particularly 
handicapped  with  regard  to  this  sound, 
since  he  has  quite  lost  even  his  untrilled 
r,  unless  it  is  followed  by  a  vowel ;  a  Scots- 
man can  say  first  and  the  North  country- 
man by.id,  but  in  the  South  all  trace  of  the 
sound  in  such  positions  is  lost.  For  a 
final  r  there  is  the  regular  substitution  of 
the  neutral  vowel  y :  compare  hia  (here) 
with  hi:r  (hier). 

From  this  many  significant  differences  in 
French  are  lost: 

partir  is  the  same  as  p&tir. 

b:  may  be  the  definite  article  or  it  may 

be  the  possessive  pronoun  of  the  3rd 

person  plural. 
S3:  for  soeur 
mey  for  mire 
mjuwy  for  mur 
po-.t  for  porte. 

So  in  German  dijza  may  stand  for  masculine 
or  feminine,  and  hofya  stands  for  hervor. 

Another  tendency  that  must  be  noticed 
is  the  desire  to  avoid  difficult  combinations  of 
sounds,  that  is,  combinations  unusual  in  the 
mother- tongue.  We  see  this  in  German 

naaba  instead  of  knabe 
fenig  „        pfennig. 

It  should  be  noticed  in  this  matter  that 
a  known  sound  becomes  difficult  in  a  new 
position ;  for  instance,  a  large  percentage 
of  you  who  are  English  would  not  be  able, 
without  considerable  practice,  to  pronounce 
the  Japanese  nominative  participle  rja,  al- 
though it  is  made  up  from  two  sounds 
quite  common  in  English,  the  last  sound 
of  song  and  the  a  of  ask. 

These  are  only  a  few  of  the  mistakes 
made  owing  to  lack  of  training  in  the  actual 
sounds;  and  there  is  the  whole  field  of 


synthesis  to  .be  covered  with  mistakes  as 
well  as  the  analysis. 

I  shall  take  just  one  point.  Neglect  of 
the  rules  of  syllable  division  is  responsible 
for  a  very  favourite  series  of  mistakes : 

venio  divided  like  ven/om      for  venir 
regaidei        ,,         reg/ular    for  regarder 
pet-i  ,,         pett/y        for  petit 

resavwae       „         res/ervoir  for  recevoir 
devwaa         „         Dev/on      for  devoir. 

There  are  many  mistakes,  too,  which  can 
be  better  explained  psychologically  than 
phonetically. 

Chief  among  these  are  mistakes  due  to  the 
influence  of  the  written  word  and  analogy 
with  written  forms  in  the  mother-tongue. 
An  English  child  beginning  German  natur- 
ally wants  to  read  von,  wasa,  zein  for  von, 
Waster,  and  zehn. 

The  superfluous  letters  infewlle,  o'il,  clef, 
the  numeral  sept  worry  him. 

This  is  only  another  reason  of  course  why 
a  beginner  should  always  hear  and  speak 
before  he  attempts  to  read  and  write. 

The  question  must  naturally  arise  after 
such  a  paper:  Why  is  it  that  only  lately 
special  attention  seems  to  have  been  called 
to  this  side  of  language  work  1  One  of  the 
reasons  is  this :  it  was  not  at  all  unusual 
in  elementary  classes  in  the  old  days  for 
95  per  cent,  of  the  words  spoken  in  a 
French  class  to  be  not  French  but  English, 
since  the  object  of  these  classes  was  not  to 
teach  the  language  but  disconnected  linguis- 
tic facts.  And  there  are  many  classes  still 
where  the  feminine  of  grand  is  not  grande  but 

d^ij  a:a  ei  en  dij  ij  ; 

and  where  the  idea  of  the  imperfect  tense 
is  not  contained  in  concrete  examples,  it 
simply  means 

ei  ai  es,  ei  ai  es,  ei  ai  tij. 

It  comes  to  this,  that  modern  language 
work  has  had  to  become  more  accurate  and 
more  practical  since  we  now  try  to  teach 
the  language  itself,  instead  of  the  supposed 
minimum  of  isolated  facts  necessary  for  a 
particular  examination. 

And  not  until  our  work  becomes  more 
accurate  and  more  living  will  modern  lan- 
guages take  the  place  they  ought  to  have  in 
the  curriculum  of  our  secondary  schools. 
E.  R.  EDWARDS. 


THE  TEACHING  OF  ENGLISH  TO  FOREIGNERS 


121 


THE  TEACHING  OF  ENGLISH  TO  FOREIGNERS. 


THE  educational  atmosphere  has  been 
heavily  charged  during  the  past  few  years 
with  schemes  and  methods,  and  suggestions 
for  imparting  modern  languages  to  British 
youth.  It  will  be  the  fault  of  these  young 
people,  and  not  of  their  teachers  or  the 
systems  they  employ,  if  their  knowledge 
of  foreign  languages  is  not  superior  to, 
and  more  practical  than,  our  own.  We  can 
all  remember,  when  Plancus  was  consul,  a 
merry  hour  or  so  in  each  week,  devoted  to 
what  was  jocosely  called  'learning  French.' 
These  hours  continued  during  a  school-life 
of  six,  seven,  or  eight  years,  with  the  result 
at  the  end  that  the  vast  majority  of  us 
would  as  soon  have  thought  of  talking 
French  as  of  talking  Latin.  Our  sons  are 
more  fortunate,  though  they  may  not  think 
so ;  and  the  methods  of  teaching  now 
becoming  general  lead  to  more  practical 
results,  if  they  leave  less  joyous  memories. 

With  all  this,  it  is  sometimes  forgotten 
that  English,  the  most  curious,  in  some 
respects  the  most  difficult  of  modern 
languages,  is  being  taught,  either  by 
natives  or  by  Englishmen,  from  Stockholm 
to  Lisbon.  The  teaching  of  our  language 
by  English  teachers,  however,  is  chiefly 
confined  to  central  and  southern  Europe. 
The  Germans,  with  the  enterprise  and 
thoroughness  that  characterises  them,  learn 
English  carefully  and  then  teach  it  them- 
selves; and  their  example  is  followed  in  a 
large  degree  by  the  people  of  Holland  and 
the  Scandinavian  countries.  But  in  such 
countries  as  France  and  Belgium,  the 
English  '  professor '  is  very  much  to  the 
fore.  And  his  mission  is  an  important 
one.  Since  the  days  when  'barbarians' 
meant  those  whose  language  the  Greeks 
could  not  understand,  the  entente  cordiale 
has  been  greatly  quickened  by  the  increas- 
ing knowledge  of  our  language  on  the 
Continent,  if  -it  is  expressed  by  no  more 
than  the  modest  legend  in  a  shop-window, 
'  Englisch  spocken.'  May  I  then,  in  view  of 
the  importance,  international  as  well  as 
educational,  of  the  work,  make  a  few 
remarks  on  how,  to  my  mind,  English 
should  be  taught.  If  I  am  not  brief,  it  is 
because,  like  Horace,  I  fear  to  be  obscure  ; 
and  if  I  seem  egotistical,  it  is  because  it  is 
inevitable  :  for  '  the  method  that  seems  to 
me  the  best,'  is  generally  to  be  translated 
'  the  method  that  I  employ  myself.' 

VOL.  VII. 


First  and  foremost,  then,  the  teacher 
should  be  English.  I  say  this  after  some 
years  of  experience,  and  with  the  con- 
current testimony  of  the  more  cultured  and 
more  thoughtful  of  my  pupils.  For  Eng- 
lish is  by  no  means  an  easy  language  to 
acquire,  still  less  to  teach.  The  Latin 
languages,  with  their  logical  rigidity  and 
inflexible  pronunciation,  are  not  hard  to 
learn.  German  is  certainly  more  difficult; 
but  English,  above  all,  should  be  taught  by 
an  English  teacher.  The  eccentricities  of 
the  pronunciation  may  be  mastered  un- 
aided ;  but  the  elasticity  of  our  language, 
dating  from  foreign  influence  or  from 
verbal  importations  by  foreign  rulers, 
Normans,  Danes,  etc.,  and  the  way  in  which 
the  meaning  of  a  word  will  change  within 
a  century,  while  they  account  for  much  of 
its  richness  and  variety,  greatly  increase 
its  difficulty  for  a  foreigner.  Again,  when 
the  pupil  has  embarked  on  the  sea  of  Eng- 
lish literature,  he  has,  to  borrow  a  simile 
from  cycling,  to  adjust,  another  speed-gear 
when  he  passes  from  one  author  to  another. 
How  difficult  is  Dickens  !  How  much  Kip- 
ling differs  from  Crawford,  and  Meredith 
from  every  one  else !  Again,  for  Eng- 
lish as  for  other  modern  languages,  the 
more  or  less  direct  method  is  the  one  to  be 
aimed  at :  the  teacher,  therefore,  must  be 
one  who  will  be  perfectly  at  home  in  the 
language  he  is  teaching,  and  who  will  make 
no  mistake  in  it.  A  recent  French 
Minister  of  Instruction  has  said  that  the 
knowledge  of  a  language  is  based  upon 
conversation  in  that  language,  and  who  is 
equal  to  that  requirement  but  an  English- 
man? 

The  teacher,  again,  should  be  a  man.  I 
make  this  ungallant  statement  without 
reserve,  though  I  know  that  female  teachers 
of  distinction  abound,  and  though  the  most 
brilliant — yet  most  methodical — and  most 
successful  teacher  of  my  acquaintance  is  a 
lady.  But  physical  as  well  as  mental 
power  is  needed  in  teaching,  and  a  woman 
is  often  unequal  to  the  strain  of  confronting 
a  class  of  turbulent  French  or  Belgian  boys, 
who  are  prepared  to  treat  their  teacher 
with  scant  respect.  Of  course,  for  individual 
members  of  her  own  sex,  a  woman  is  indis- 
pensable. There  is  an  evil  form  of  educa- 
tion, known  as  '  walking  out,'  which  is  very 
dear  to  the  heart  of  the  French  or  Belgian 


122 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


mother,  and  for  this  the  'English  miss'  is 
obviously  necessary.  For  pure  ground- 
work, again,  a  woman,  with  her  attention 
to  small  details,  and  her  methodical  habits 
(it  is  only  necessary  to  compare  the  state  of 
a  man's  study  with  that  of  his  wife's 
drawing-room),  is  often  more  successful, 
because  more  patient  than  a  man.  But 
when  it  comes  to  raising  the  superstructure 
high  and  broad,  entering  the  wide  field  of 
literature,  climbing  the  heights  of  art,  or 
delving  to  the  depths  of  philology,  the 
man,  with  his  less  restricted  outlook,  and 
his  larger  experience  of  the  world  and  of 
men,  is  the  woman's  superior. 

For  his  qualifications,  the  teacher  should 
be  a  graduate  of  one  of  the  great  universi- 
ties. His  knowledge  of  Latin  and  Greek 
will  often  prove  an  additional  bond  of 
union  with  a  cultured  pupil.  A  very 
charming  Dutchman  of  my  acquaintance 
would  often  propose  to  wind  up  an  English 
lesson  with  an  ode  of  Anacreon,  in  the  in- 
terpretation of  which  he  was  certainly  more 
at  home  than  his  teacher.  The  English 
graduate,  too,  is  so  very  different  to  the 
continental  'student,'  that  the  former's 
intimate  knowledge  of  men — sometimes 
men  who  have  since  risen  to  high  place  in 
the  nation — and  the  many-sided  character 
of  English  university  life,  gives  him,  quite 
apart  from  any  scholastic  attainments  that 
he  may  have,  a  social  and  moral  value  in 
the  eyes  of  his  pupils  that  is  not  without 
its  uses.  Being  a  university  man,  he  will 
also  probably  be  what  is  conventionally 
called  a  gentleman,  that  is,  a  man  of  some 
breeding,  with  the  habit  of  comporting 
himself  with  dignity  and  courtesy,  and, 
above  all,  of  speaking  English  with  purity 
and  some  distinction — certainly  with  dis- 
tinctness and  with  no  trace  of  provincialism. 
It  is  as  necessary  for  a  teacher  of  English 
to  speak  well  as  it  is  for  a  music-master 
to  play  well.  'But'  said  a  new  pupil, 
'my  ancient  (sic)  professor  always  said 
"  Coom  oop." '  No  doubt  he  did,  and  no 
doubt 'my  ancient  prof essor '  hailed  from 
north  of  Trent.  But  pace  Mr.  Barnes, 
however  philologically  pure  the  dialect  of 
a  Wessex  peasant  may  be,  the  speech  of 
a  refined  English  gentleman  is  what  we 
must  try  to  impart  to  our  pupils  if  they  are 
to  make  their  way  in  the  intelligible  world. 
The  teacher  should  also  be  a  man  of 
general  reading  and  varied  information. 
He  may  be  expected  to  answer  a  hundred 
questions  on  the  geography,  scenery,  fauna 
and  flora,  politics  and  mercantile  pro- 
ductions of  these  islands.  I  had  one 


intelligent  French  pupil  who  wished  to 
know  all  about  the  British  Lepidoptera, 
and  another  who  hungered  after  the  various 
architectural  epochs,  while  a  third  was 
insatiable  in  his  thirst  for  every  conceivable 
branch  of  sport.  The  pupil  is  reasonable 
as  a  rule,  and  does  not  expect  his  mentor 
to  be  a  walking  encyclopaedia,  but  he  does 
expect  an  intelligent  answer  to  any 
question  that  he  may  put.  Another  im- 
portant matter :  Quis  custodiet  custodes  ? 
The  teacher's  own  English  must  be  above 
suspicion.  By  this  I  mean  that  he  must 
avoid  that  most  vicious  habit  of  speaking 
what  is  known  as  '  Continental  English,' 
and  yet  which  is  not  always  accompanied 
by  great  fluency  in  any  other  language. 
The  disease  shows  itself  in  a  habit  of 
saying  'arrive'  for  'happen,'  'pension' 
for  'board,'  'actions'  for  '  shares,' '  to  be 
abonne^d '  (sic)  for  '  to  subscribe  to,'  etc. 
This  habit  if  acquired,  should  be  rooted 
out  at  all  hazards. 

It  is  sometimes  advanced  that  a  more  or 
less  perfect  knowledge  of  the  pupil's  own 
language  is  necessary  for  giving  an  English 
lesson.  I  think  this  is  a  mistake.  Eng- 
lishmen, from  laziness  or  other  causes,  are 
not  as  a  rule  good  linguists,  and  it  is  not 
generally  expected  of  them.  But  a  certain 
knowledge,  colloquial  rather  than  literary, 
of  the  language  used  as  a  medium,  is  indis- 
pensable (I  am  assuming  that,  in  the 
earlier  lessons  at  least,  the  teacher  will 
speak  to  his  pupils  in  their  own  tongue) ; 
and,  for  purposes  of  discipline,  he  must  be 
able  to  speak  e^ea  Trrepoena  on  occasion, 
and  to  tell  a  refractory  pupil  in  French,  etc., 
exactly  what  lie  thinks  of  him. 

The  question  may  naturally  be  asked — 
What  book,  grammar  or  otherwise,  should 
the  teacher  use  t  I  reply  emphatically— 
none.  There  are  many  books,  far  too 
many,  written  by  foreigners  in  their  own 
language  and  in  English  ;  but  the  teacher 
should  pin  his  faith  to  none  of  them. 
Still,  I  think  he  should  read  such  as  come 
in  his  way,  and  here  and  there  he  will  pick 
up  a  useful  hint.  But  the  teacher,  after  he 
has  been  at  work  for  a  year  or  two,  will 
find  the  '  teaching-idea '  gradually  shap- 
ing itself  in  his  mind,  and  he  will,  to  a 
great  extent,  be  his  own  book,  jotting 
down  more  or  less  elaborate  notes  for  each 
lesson.  I  seem  to  be  ignoring  the  many 
excellent  manuals  published  in  England, 
and  of  course  the  teacher  will  be  familiar 
with  the  best  of  them.  But  writing  in 
English  for  Englishmen  is  very  different 
from  teaching  English  to  foreigners.  In 


THE  TEACHING  OF  ENGLISH  TO  FOREIGNERS 


123 


the  latter  case,  the  teaching  will  vary 
very  much  with  the  language  spoken  by  the 
pupils,  and  the  teacher  will  often  have  to 
point  out  how  the  English  word  or  phrase 
resembles  or  differs  from  its  Latin  or 
Teutonic  equivalent.  I  think,  too,  it  is  an 
immense  gain  if  no  book  comes  between 
the  teacher  and  the  class,  and  if  the  teach- 
ing is  oral  or  nearly  so. 

Now  comes  the  crux  of  the  whole  ques- 
tion. What  method  shall  our  teacher  em- 
ploy ?  Needless  to  say,  it  is  the  man 
rather  than  the  method  that  makes  for 
success.  The  finest  method  in  the  world 
in  the  hands  of  an  incompetent  teacher  is 
useless.  Still,  the  teacher  must  have,  from 
his  first  lesson,  a  clear  idea  of  how  he  is 
going  to  convey  his  notions  of  English, 
from  the  present  tense  of  the  verb  'to  be,' 
up  to  '  to  be  or  not  to  be.'  The  old 
method,  which  dies  hard,  but  is  neverthe- 
less dying,  is  to  spend  an  hour  in  speaking 
(say)  French,  with  an  English  word  or 
phrase  thrown  in  here  and  there,  just  to 
show  that  English  is  really  being  taught. 
According  to  that  method,  the  nationality 
of  the  teacher  is  of  small  importance ;  but 
it  is  happily  in  extremis.  The  antipodes 
of  this  is  the  direct,  method  pure  and 
simple,  where  the  teacher  speaks  nothing 
but  English  from  the  first  word  of  the 
lesson.  For  children  (the  younger  the 
better)  the  method  is  ideal :  they  learn 
like  parrots  or  mocking-birds.  But  for 
older  pupils  I  question  if  it  is  so  useful- 
The  constant  repetition  with  variations 
of  the  same  phrase,  is  sometimes  irritating 
to  the  pupil,  and  it  is  often  tiresome  for 
the  teacher.  Again,  when  strictly  adhered 
to,  it  often  wastes  precious  time.  For 
instance,  the  teacher  wishes  to  describe  a 
broom  and  its  uses.  If  he  is  a  slave  to 
the  direct  method  he  may  say  (unless  he 
has  a  model — and  models  are  expensive), 
'A  broom  is  a  long  thing  made  of  wood; 
at  one  end  is  something  made  of  fibre 
or  little  branches  of  trees,'  and  so  on  and 
so  on.  This,  as  a  witty  colleague  of 
mine  said,  is  'goin^  all  round  the  village 
to  find  the  pump  ! '  Let  him  say  le  balai 
at  once,  and  time  is  saved.  But  the  teaching 
of  English  in  English  is  the  goal  to  be 
aimed  at,  and  sooner  or  later  the  ideal 
method  will  take  that  shape,  beginning, 
in  a  small  degree,  with  the  very  first 
lesson.  The  teacher  will  then  take  his 
stand  at  his  opening  lesson,  his  class  in 
front  of  him  and  a  big  black-board  at  his 
back.  He  will  begin  by  giving  his  pupils 
in  their  own  language  certain  '  principles ' 


which  govern  English,  as,  that  the  last 
consonant  of  every  word  is  pronounced, 
that  capitals  are  much  used,  that  the  de- 
finite article  is  often  omitted,  that  the 
passive  voice  is  used  more  than  in 
French,  etc.,  etc.  He  will  then  tell  them 
tliat  one  learning  a  foreign  language  is 
like  one  travelling  in  an  unfamiliar 
country,  like  India  or  China,  or  like  a 
little  child  beginning  to  notice  the  objects 
that  he  sees.  In  both  cases,  the  question 
that  is  most  frequently  on  their  lips  is 
'  What  is  that  ? '  And  that  introduces  the 
root-idea  of  his  first  lesson,  that  of 
Existence  and  Identity.  He  will  take  the 
principal  objects  in  the  room,  writing  their 
names  on  the  black-board,  and  making  the 
pupils  read  them  carefully.  This  will 
introduce  the  important  words  '  Why  '  and 
'  Because,'  and  the  more  usual  tenses  of  the 
verb  'to  be.'  The  pupils  then  leave  with 
the  satisfaction  of  having  carried  on  a  con- 
versation, however  elementary — 'Why  is 
this  not  the  desk?'  'Because  it  is  the  table,' 
in  a  language  previously  unknown  to  them. 
The  next  lesson  will  introduce  the  idea  of 
position,  introducing  such  words  as  Where  ? 
Here  is,  etc.,  taking  objects  from  outside, 
and  gradually  using  longer  sentences  as 
illustrations.  'The  soldier  is  not  in  the 
post-office,  because  he  is  in  the  barracks.' 
The  third  lesson  will  deal  with  the  posses- 
sion of  objects,  making  the  acquaintance  of 
the  verb  'to  have,'  and  the  possessive 
adjectives.  Further  lessons  deal  with  the 
number,  size,  quality,  etc.,  of  adjectives, 
important  phrases  being  written  down  and 
learned,  as,  '  What  is  a  horse  like  ? '  '  What 
sort  of  country  is  Russia?'  'What  season 
do  you  like  best  1 '  etc.  A  lesson  on  irreg- 
ular verbs  will  comprise  only  those  of 
common  use,  as  come,  go,  begin,  think, 
etc.  Lessons  on  such  subjects  as  the  Eng- 
lish form  of  the  negative  and  interrogative 
may  be  made  very  interesting ;  while  a 
charming  little  lesson  may  be  made  on  the 
various  English  equivalents  of  N'est-ce  pas  ? 
Is  it  not?  Is  it  ?  Do  they  not  1  Shall  we  ? 
etc.  To  keep  up  the  practical  character  of 
the  teaching,  the  ordinary  grammatical 
lessons  are  varied  by  such  subjects  as 
travelling  by  train,  shopping,  cycling,  etc. 
The  method  now  becomes  very  plain  sailing, 
and  it  grows  plainer  as  the  pupils  begin  to 
'  feel  their  feet '  more.  Dictation  is  intro- 
duced as  early  as  possible,  according  to  the 
capacity  of  the  pupils.  It  is  invaluable  as 
a  help  to  learning  a  language,  for  eye,  ear, 
and  brain  all  work  together.  A  reading- 
book  should  be  introduced  at  the  very  first- 


124 


THE  MODEEN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


lesson,  even  though  the  matter  is  barely 
understood  and  has  to  be  carefully  trans- 
lated. The  pupils  soon  get  to  distinguish 
words  previously  learned,  and  the  exercise 
of  reading  aloud  is  invaluable.  And  here  I 
must  make  a  plaint  as  to  the  paucity  of 
reading-books  for  foreigners.  In  fact  they 
do  not  exist;  for  the  ordinary  Standard 
Readers,  excellent  as  they  are  for  English 
children,  naturally  presuppose  a  greater 
knowledge  of  the  language  than  foreigners 
can  possess.  Again,  their  style  is  often 
faulty,  and  a  reading-book,  like  a  gram- 
matical explanation,  must  be  more  or  less 
faultless.  An  excellent  plan  is  to  make 
the  pupils  learn  the  dictation  by  heart :  at 
the  next  lesson  they  repeat  it,  explaining 
certain  words  in  English,  and  answering 
questions  on  the  subject-matter.  The 
teacher  will  also  make  frequent  use  of  the 
excellent  German  system  of  '  teaching  by 
pictures.'  A  large  picture,  representing  a 
familiar  scene  in  town  or  country,  is  hung 
up,  and  the  pupils  tell  the  story  of  the 
picture.  In  this  way  their  conversation 
becomes  more  elastic,  and  their  vocabulary 
is  enriched.  Nothing,  especially  for  a  class, 
will  be  neglected  that  is  of  a  practical 
nature.  A  special  lesson  will  be  given  on 
the  art  of  writing  and  addressing  a  letter, 
so  that  the  pupil  may  learn  not  to  begin  his 
letter  'Dear  Mister,' or  to  write  'Sir  Smith' 
011  the  envelope.  Much  the  same  method 
will  be  employed  for  classes  as  for  private 
pupils,  though  for  the  latter  the  lessons 
will  naturally  be  more  thorough  and  at  the 
same  time  more  familiar.  In  a  year,  or  two 
or  three  at  the  outside,  the  class  comes  to 
an  end.  In  the  '  Cercle  Polyglotte '  of 
Brussels,  an  excellent  teaching  institution, 
combining  the  ideas  of  a  social  club  and  an 
adult  school,  where  almost  every  language 
is  taught  from  Russian  to  Esperanto,  four 
English  teachers  are  employed,  one  of 
whom  devotes  himself  entirely  to  com- 
mercial subjects.  The  English  course  is 
divided  into  three  classes,  Elementary, 
Intermediate,  and  Higher,  with  a  further 
course  of  popular  lectures  on  English  liter- 
ature. After  quitting  such  classes,  those  of 
the  pupils  who  attend  for  practical  pur- 
poses find  themselves  more  or  less  in  a 
position  to  undertake  posts  in  which  a 
knowledge  of  English  is  required,  or  to 
teach  English  in  the  various  Brussels 
schools.  Private  pupils  are  of  different 
classes.  One  wishes  to  pass  an  examina- 
tion in  a  hurry,  another  to  qualify  for 
residence  in  India  or  China,  a  third — and 
this  is  the  most  interesting  type — takes  up 


the  study  of  English  from  pure  love  of  the 
subject.  I  have  known  one  such,  a  man 
approaching  middle  life,  who  has  continued 
the  study  of  English  long  after  he  could 
speak  fluently,  write  accurately,  and  read 
with  appreciation  and  enjoyment.  The 
choice  of  reading-books  (not  'Readers')  for 
private  pupils  is  naturally  varied.  Little 
Lord  Fauntleroy  is  always  a  favourite ;  so 
are  Anthony  Hope's  books  and  Conan 
Doyle's  short  stories.  The  Wide  Wide 
World — it  is  difficult  to  say  why — was  for  a 
long  time,  in  vogue ;  but  now  it  has  received 
decent  burial.  A  most  charming  book  for 
an  intelligent  pupil  is  Besant's  London. 
But  nothing  was  more  pleasurable  than-  to 
see  how  the  gentleman  of  whom  I  have 
spoken  above,  would  appreciate  the  some- 
what mordant  style  of  Plain  Tales  from  the 
Hills,  and  even  enter  into  the  purely  local 
fun  of  Voces  Populi,  a  book  as  difficult  for  a 
foreigner  as  Gyp's  Parisian  Sketches  are  for 
an  Englishman.  It  must  be  remembered 
too  that  the  average  pupil  has  most  of  his 
time  occupied  by  his  profession  or  his  busi- 
ness, and  can  only  give  his  spare  moments 
to  the  study  of  English.  One  golden  rule 
for  the  teacher  is  Ne  nimis,  especially  with 
a  view  to  grammar.  There  is  a  tradition 
among  the  profession  that  a  painstaking 
German  once  set  himself  to  account  for 
every  variation  in  English  grammar,  with 
the  result  that  his  mind  gave  way  under  the 
strain.  The  moral  needs  no  pointing. 
The  more  the  pupil  reads  and  talks,  and  the 
more  he  breaks  loose  from  the  'faultily 
faultless '  phrases  of  the  average  book  of 
exercises  with  their  Ollendorffian  disquisi- 
tions on  the  beauty  of  the  tulips  in  the 
garden  of  his  grandmother  (say  his  grand- 
mother's garden),  the  easier  our  eccentric 
language  will  become  for  him. 

The  work  of  teaching  English,  then,  is 
difficult,  involving  as  it  does,  not  only  the 
ordinary  arts  of  the  teacher,  but  also 
average  intelligence,  fairly  wide  reading 
and  varied  interests,  courtesy,  tact,  and 
occasional  severity.  But  if  the  work  is 
difficult  and  exacting,  it  brings  its  intel- 
lectual reward.  For  nothing  is  so  delight- 
ful and  refreshing  for  the  teacher  as  to 
see  the  pupil  gradually  grasping  the  often 
crabbed  diction  of  an  English  author,  seeing 
his  points,  and  appreciating  his  humour, 
his  pathos,  or  his  sarcasm.  He  feels  more- 
over that,  by  inducing  a  community  of 
tastes  and  interests  in  the  language  studied, 
he  is  doing  something,  however  humble, 
to  bring  two  minds  of  different,  sometimes 
hostile,  nationalities  into  closer  union 


DES  TABLEAUX  ET  DE  LEUES  LIMITES 


125 


through  the  medium  of  the  language.  He 
will  find  himself  a  member  of  a  profession 
which,  in  southern  Europe  at  least,  is 
regarded  with  scant  respect,  and  he  will 
probably  never  earn  more  than  the  wages 
of  a  journeyman  mechanic ;  but  in  his 
modest  way  he  will  be  playing  the  part  of 
a  bridge-maker,  if  he  can  never  call  himself 
more  than  a  Pontifex  Minimus. 

ARTHUR  POWELL. 


P.S. — Since  writing  the  above,  La  langve 
anglaise,  by  Mr.  Harold  Palmer,  a  teacher 
of  English  at  Verviers,  Belgium,  has  come 
into  my  hands,  and  seems  an  admirable 
exposition  of  the  'common-sense'  method 
of  teaching  English. 

A.  P. 


DES  TABLEAUX  ET  DE  LEUES  LIMITES. 


LA  plupart  de  nos  '  me' thodes '  ne  sont  pas 
de  la  methode  parce  qu'elles  ne  reposent 
sur  aucune  base  scientifique.  Ces  nou- 
veautes,  malgre  ce  qu'en  disent  quelques- 
uns,  ne  sont  que  de  1'empirisme  embarrasse 
de  tout  un  attirail  qui  en  impose  au- 
jourd'hui,  il  est  vrai,  mais  qui  bientot 
rendra  1'enseignement  des  laugues  vivantes 
ridicule  si  nous  ne  descendons  pas  des 
treteaux. 

Entre  autres  amusettes,  il  y  en  a  qui  pre- 
conisent  les  Tableaux. 

Je  sais  qu'on  parle  beaucoup  des  enfants, 
'qu'il  faut  revenir  a  1'enfance.'  Or,  il 
s'agit  de  savoir  si,  en  dehors  du  kinder- 
garten, les  images  sont  aussi  utiles  qu'on 
voudrait  le  faire  croire  pour  enseigner  a 
parler  dans  nos  classes. 

A  mon  avis,  elles  n'ont  pas  1'utilite1  qu'on 
leur  suppose  d'abord,  parce  que,  si  Ton 
interroge  les  donnees  de  la  conscience  de 
l'6leve,  il  ne  reste  rien  de  ces  Tableaux 
qu'il  ne  sache  deja  et,  puis  aussi  parce  que 
leurs  limites  sont  telles  qu'ils  ne  servent 
tout  au  plus  qu'a  faire  de  1'enfantillage. 

La  conscience  de  1'eleve  a  I'&ge  ou  il  ap- 
prend  une  langue  etrangere,  meme  accep- 
terait-on  la  theorie  de  la  table  rase,  n'est 
plus  une  table  rase. 

II  y  a  longtemps  que  les  fonctions  d'ac- 
quisition,  de  conservation  et  d'61aboration 
ont  6t6  mises  en  oauvre  dans  des  limites 
plus  ou  moins  grandes  selon  le  progres  de 
1'individu  dans  son  evolution.  Or,  1'etat 
passif  d'une  perception  externe  est  une 
image. 

De  la  foule  d'images,  resultat  final  du 
passage  de  la  sensation  par  la  perception, 
depend  1'imagination  reproductrice  ou  la 
faculte  que  nous  avons  de  nous  representer 
1'exteriorite  actuellement  absente.  L'idee 
ne  va  done  jamais  sans  image  et  cette 


image  est  a  la  fois  schematique  et  sonore. 
L'idee  de  'cheval,'  par  exemple,  amene  1° 
1'image  schematique  de  'cheval'  et,  2° 
1'image  sonore  du  mot  '  cheval.' 

Par  consequent,  a  moins  qu'un  etre  ou 
un  objet  ne  soit  point  r6el  ou  plutot,  ne 
reste  etranger  a  1'intelligence  parce  qu'elle 
n'a  jamais  eu  la  possibilite  de  le  percevoir, 
nul  besoin  de  s'embarrasser  de  representa- 
tions imitees  par  Fart  puisque  nous  avons 
1'image  schematique  de  tout  etre  ou  de 
toute  chose  qui  est  de  la  connaissance 
generate  soyons-nous  ou  Anglais  ou  Fran^ais 
ou  Allemands.  Mais  ce  que  n'a  pas  1'eleve 
et  ce  qu'il  lui  faut  quand  il  apprend  a  parler 
une  langue  etrangere,  ce  sont  de  nouvelles 
images  sonores,  c'est-a-dire,  la  prononciation 
aidee  de  la  me'moire. 

II  est  vrai  que  1'image  produit  sur  nous 
les  effets  de  la  sensation  et,  il  est  aussi 
admis  qu'il  y  a  des  images  plus  ou  moins 
generales  de  tous  les  sens.  Cependant,  je 
lie  croirais  pas  donner,  par  exemple,  le  sens 
de  1'odorat  a  mes  eleves,  si  je  portais  un 
mets  repugnant  dans  ma  classe  de  frai^ais. 
Je  pourrais  provoquer  des  nausees,  sen- 
sations per9ues  et  anterieures  a  la  repre- 
sentation, mais  je  ne  pourrais  leur  donner, 
leur  apprendre  que  1'image  sonore  de  la 
sensation  en  franrais. 

D'autre  part,  on  ne  peut  trouver  la  raison 
d'etre  de  ces  Tableaux  dans  la  loi  d'associa- 
tion  oil  quelques-uns  s'imaginent  la  de- 
couvrir.  Certainement  les  donnees  de  la 
conscience  sont  des  groupes.  Donn6  un 
element  d'un  groupe,  tout  le  groupe  peut 
reparaltre  mais  cela  ne  veut  pas  dire  que 
si  j'apprends  une  langue  etrangere  et,  parce 
qu'on  m'aura  mis  sous  les  yeux,  par  exemple, 
la  representation  d'une  ferme,  la  poule  dans 
la  cour  me  rappellera  par  association  1'image 
sonore  de  tout  autre  objet  qui  peut  bien  se 
rapporter  a  cette  ferme.  La  contiguite  des 


126 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


elements  est'un  rappel  dans  la  langue  mere 
caralors  1'esprita  acquis  une  tendance  a  les 
penser  ensemble.  Travail  tout  fait  quand 
il  s'agit  d'une  langue  etrangere  et  pure  perte 
de  temps  de  vouloir  le  reproduire.  Aussi 
perdrait-il  son  temps  si  celui  qui  apprend 
une  langue  etrangere  n'avait  jamais  vu  dans 
la  realit6  les  quatre  saisons  avec  leurs  effets 
concomitants,  car  il  faudrait  qu'il  passat 
anterieurement  par  cette  experience  pour 
que  1'idee  d'association  eftt  bien  du  tout. 

La  representation  graphique  ne  devient 
done  utile  dans  1'enseignement  que  pour  ce 
dont  nous  n'avons  pas  d'experience,  de  ces 
choses  dont,  sans  elle,  nous  n'aurions  qu'une 
fausse  conception.  En  effet,  pour  la  com- 
prehension complete,  disons,  d'un  sujet 
Iitt6raire  ou  historique,  un  tableau,  une 
gravure,  par  exemple  d'un  marquis  du 
temps  de  Louis  xiv.  ou  d'un  incroyable  a 
1'epoque  du  Directoire,  est  d'une  certaine 
utilite,  mais  autrement  les  Tableaux  ne  sont 
qu'un  jouet  qui,  dans  une  classe,  porte  a 
rire,  car  c'est  insulter  a  1'intelligence  de  la 
jeunesse  sortie  du  kindergarten. 

Que  Ton  cherche  a  faciliter  la  connais- 
sance,  cela  se  comprend,  mais  il  faut  d'abord 
s'enquerir  si  les  moyens  qui  doivent  con- 
duire  a,  cette  fin  ne  sont  pas  aussi  trompeurs 
que  faciles. 

Toute  connaissance  repose  sur  une  con- 
naissance.  Pourquoi  alors  ne  pas  tirer  tout 
1'avantage  possible  de  ce  qui  est  deja  acquis 
pour  aller  de  1'avant  au  lieu  de  chercher  en 
route  des  passe-temps  t  Puisque  les  opera- 
tions sensitives  entrent  d'elles-memes  spon- 
tanement  en  exercice,  il  s'agit  de  voir  que, 
par  1'attention,  la  repetition  et  la  vivacite, 
1'eleve  arrive,  avec  une  spontaneite  presque 
egale  a  celle  qu'il  a  pour  la  langue  mere,  a 
exprimer  en  classe,  des  idees  au  moyen  de 
nouvelles  images  sonores  sans  cause  ex- 
terieure  apparente  autre  que  son  propre 
alphabet. 

Pour  enseigner  a  parler  une  langue 
etrangere,  les  apprets,  tout  un  attirail 
effarouche  1'eleve.  II  ne  faut  pas  le  mettre, 
pour  ainsi  dire,  sur  ses  gardes  ou  alors, 
comtne  nous  le  savons  par  experience,  il 


en  resulte  une  conversation  tiree  par  les 
cheveux  aussi  decourageante  pour  le  maitre 
que  pour  1'eleve  et  tous  les  deux  finissent 
souvent  par  se  tenir  coi. 

Surtout  quand  les  classes  sont  grandes  et 
qu'il  faut  faire  dire  quelquechose  a  une 
trentaine  d'eleves  en  une  heure  de  temps, 
un  livre  de  propositions  dans  la  langue 
mere  est  encore  ce  qu'il  y  a  de  mieux. 
Donnees,  par  exemple,  trois  heures  de 
fran^ais  par  semaine,  Ton  demandera  com- 
me  devoir  trois  themes  consistant  d'une 
douzaine  de  phrases  bien  choisies  et  le 
vocabulaire  qui  s'y  rapporte  apres  1'avoir 
fait  prononcer.  Une  fois  ces  devoirs  corrig^s 
par  le  maitre  chez  lui  et  pour  lesquels  il  a 
donne  des  points,  il  s'est  rendu  compte  des 
difficultes  qu'a  eues  1'eleve  non  pas,  bien 
entendu,  a  s'exprimer  de  vive  voix,  mais 
a  donner  ce  qui  doit  en  etre  le  moyen  en 
classe.  Alors  il  fera  r6peter  a  haute  voix  ce 
meme  theme  que  1'eleve  a  encore  tout  frais 
dans  la  memoire.  La  memoire  ainsi  sou- 
lag£e  et  done  plus  prompte  au  rappel,  1'eleve 
a  plus  de  courage  a  produire,  a  donner  ce 
que  j'appellerai  la  '  sonorite '  de  la  pensee 
qu'il  a  prete  en  tete.  Ainsi  on  a  un  certain 
fonds  de  conversation  et  tout  maitre  avec 
un  peu  d'initiative  pent  en  faire  sortir  plus 
qu'il  n'en  faut  pour  une  heure  de  travail 
tres  profitable. 

II  faut  toujours  tenir  compte  de  ses  eleves. 
Tout  maitre  sera  d'accord  avec  moi  si  je  dis 
qu'un  travail  quelconque  fait  a  la  debandade 
demoralise  une  classe.  Meme  la  classe 
n'aurait-elle  rien  retenu  des  variet6s  qu'a 
pu  faire  le  maitre  sur  le  theme  donn6,  tout 
n'a  pas  ete  Iaiss6  au  hasard,  a  quelque  chose 
de  d^cousu,  car  on  aura  ainsi  travailie  sur  un 
fonds  qui  conduit  progress! vement  vers 
une  fin. 

Quel  que  soit  le  sujet  d'etude,  il  est  dans 
la  nature  des  eleves  d'aimer  1'ordre  et,  on 
ne  peut  les  encourager  dans  la  voie  qu'en 
leur  faisant  sentir  que  d'etape  en  etape  ils 
arriveront  surement  a  un  but  qui,  s'il  n'est 
pas  definitif,  sera  au  moins  determine. 

VICTOR  E.  KASTNER  (Junr.). 


EXAMINATIONS. 


COMMON   EXAMINATION    FOR    EN-      in  seeing  a  specimen  of  the  papers  that  have 

TR/llvm?    Tn    PTTBTTn   cviir/-!/-!!- o  V,^,n«  ,-.,,4  «i  i.u_  c *  u :__  — i-:«i,  ., 


TRANCE  TO  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS. 
WE  think  our  readers  will  be  interested 


been  set  at  the  first  Examination  which  was 
held  on  June  27  and  28  at  the  Preparatory 
Schools  themselves — another  improvement 


EXAMINATIONS 


127 


on  the  old  method  of  making  small  boys 
travel  long  distances  and  be  under  examina- 
tion sometimes  from  7  A.M.  till  5  P.M. 

The  only  criticism  of  the  following  paper 
that  we  should  like  to  make  is  that  question 
A  3  is  hardly  clear  enough  for  boys  to 
understand  what  they  were  required  to  do. 
The  Exercise  and  the  Unseen  seem  to  hit 
the  just  medium  between  the  old-fashioned 
and  the  new-fangled  schools.  The  questions 
on  Idioms  seem  especially  noteworthy. 

FRENCH. — One  and  a  half-hour. 

l^f.B. — Half  an  hour  will  be  allowed  for  each 
of  the  three  sections  (A ,  li,  C)  of  this  paper.  They 
will  be  collected  separately  on  the  expiration  of 
the  time  allotted  for  each.] 

A. — GRAMMAR. 

1.  Conjugate  in  full : — 

(a)  Present  indicate  (negative)  of  le  nier 

(to  deny  it). 

(b)  Perfect   conditional    (affirmative)    of 

s'amuser). 

(c)  Present   subjunctive   (affirmative)   of 

je  vends  nwn  cheval  preceded  by  il 
faut  que. 

2.  Use  the  adjectives  of  columns  A  with 
the  nouns  in  columns  B  : — 


A 

B 

cet  oiseau  blanc 

fleur. 

un  soldat  suisse 

servante. 

un  dieu  ijrec 
ce  bon  livre 
un  homme  boiteux 

armee. 
plume, 
femme. 

A 

B 

des  reufs/rais 
mon  chapeau  netif 
notre  frere  cadet 

roses, 
robe, 
soeur. 

sa  soeur  est  muette 

frere. 

la  premiere  lecon 


livre. 


3.  Kewrite  the  following  six  times,  insert- 
ing the  words  given  below  and  making  the 
necessary  alterations  : — Des  maisons. 

(a)  beaucoup.      (c)  la  plupart.      (e)  bien. 
(6)  petit.  (d)  vieux.  (J)  point. 

4.  Rewrite  the  following  sentences,  sub- 
stituting a  personal  pronoun  for  the  expres- 
sion printed  in  italics: — 

(a)  11  parlait  aux  enfants. 

(b)  Je  pense  a  mon  voyage. 

(c)  II  a  besoin  d'une  plume. 

(d)  II  a  6crit  les  lettres. 

(e)  Nous  ob&ssons  a  notre  p^re. 
(/)  Parlez  de  vos  avenlures. 

5.  Give  the  third  plural  of  the  present 
indicative,   preterite  or  past  definite,  and 
past  indefinite  of  the  following  verbs  (each 
set  of  verbs  on  a  separate  line) : — s'en  aller, 
revenir,  s'asseoir,  donnir,  vouloir,  les  voir. 


B. — EXERCISE. 

1.  Translate  into  French  : — 

(a)  He  started  (past  indefinite  of  partir) 

at  a  quarter  past  one. 

(b)  He  will  return  (revenir)  next  week. 

(c)  I  must  know  it  (use  il  faut  que). 

(d)  How   long  have   you   been   learning 

French  1 

(e)  They  will  be  punished  unless  they  do 

it  at  once. 

(/)  Whatever  you  do,  do  it  well. 
(g)  Do  you  believe  that  he  can  do  it  1 
(h)  That  is  the  best  house  I  know. 
(i)  You  ought  to  have  given  them  to  me. 
(j)  Where  are  the  letters  ?     Have  you  not 

yet  written  them  ? 

2.  I  got  up  (past  indefinite  of  se  lever)  at 
half-past  seven.     When  I  came  down  (de- 
scendre)  breakfast  was  ready.    I  took  a  cup 
of  tea,  some  toast  with  butter,  and  a  fresh 
egg.     As  soon  as  I  had  finished  my  break- 
fast I  went  out,  because  I  had  a  headache. 
The  weather  was  beautiful  and  the  birds 
were  singing  merrily:    When  I  came  back 
(rentrer)    the    postman    had    just    arrived. 
After  reading  my  letters  I  set  to  work. 

C. — UNSEEN. 

1.  Translate  into  English  : — 

Le  chien  Bob,  raconte  un  journal  anglais, 
a  peri  sous  les  debris  d'une  charpente.1  Des 
que  le  tocsin  2  sonnait,  il  s'elan9ait  avant  les 
pompes3  et  arrivait  ton  jours  un  des  pre- 
miers sur  le  theatre  de  1'incendie ;  aussitot 
qu'on  avait  dresse  les  echelles,  il  y  grimpait, 
entrait  par  les  fenetres  et  penetrait  dans  les 
chambres  avant  les  pompiers  eux-memes. 
II  portait  un  collier  de  cuivre  avec  ces 
mots :  'Ne  m'arretez  pas,  mais  laissez-moi 
courir,  je  suis  Bob,  le  chien  des  pompiers 
de  Loudres  ! '  Pendant  les  ann6es  de  son 
service,  il  a  sauve  la  vie  a  plusieurs  per- 
sonnes  par  son  intelligence  et  son  devoue- 
ment. 

1  La  charpente,  timber  work.  2  Le  tocsin,  alarm- 
bell.  3  La  pompe,  fire-engine. 

2.  Translate  into  English  prose  : — 
Une  nuit  claire,  un  vent  glace.     La  neige 

est  rouge. 
Mille  braves    sont    la  qui  dorment  sans 

tombeaux. 
L'epee  au  poing,  les  yeux  hagards.     Pas 

un  ne  bouge. 
Au-dessus  tourne  et  crie  un  vol  de  uoirs 

corbeaux. 

3.  Translate  into  idiomatic  English   - 

(a)  II  vaut  mieux  tatd  que  jamais. 

(b)  Je  m'en  suis  tire  sain  et  sauf. 


128 


THE  MODEKN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


(c)  II  est  au  bout  de  son  latin. 

(d)  La  fin  couronne  1'ceuvre. 

(«)  II  s'agit  de  savoir  s'il  consentira. 


AN  ELEMENTARY  FRENCH  EXAM- 
INATION PAPER. 

A  Test  of  Memory  or  a  Test  of  Power  ? 

THE  question  to  decide  on  reading  these 
two  papers,  which  are  the  same  paper  set 
in  two  different  ways,  is  this  :  Which  is  the 
better  test  of  an  elementary  knowledge  of 
French  ?  One  of  them  is  the  type  of  paper 
very  commonly  set  in  English  schools,  the 
other  is  not. 

PAPER  A 
1.  Translate: — 

Les  Vieux  (from  Daudet). 

Une  lettre,  pere  Azan  ? 

Oui,  monsieur — 9a  vient  de  Paris. 

II  6tait  tout  fier  que  9a  vient  de  Paris, 
ce  brave  pere  Azan.  Pas  moi.  Quelque 
chose  me  disait  que  cette  lettre  tombant 
sur  ma  table  de  si  grand  matin  allait  me 
faire  perdre  toute  ma  journ6e.  Je  ne  me 
trompais  pas,  voyez  plutot : 

Mon  cher  ami, 

II  faut  que  tu  me  rendes  un  service.  Tu 
vas  fermer  ton  moulin  pour  un  jour  et  t'en 
aller  tout  de  suite  a  Eyguieres — Eyguieres 
est  un  gros  bourg  a  trois  ou  quatre  lieues 
de  chez  toi — une  promenade. 

En  arrivant,  tu  demanderas  le  couvent 
des  Orphelines.  La  premiere  maison  apres 
le  couvent  est  une  maison  basse  a  volets 
gris  avec  un  jardinet  derriere.  Tu  entreras 
sans  frapper — la  porte  est  toujours  ouverte 
— et  en  entrant,  tu  crieras  bien  fort : 
'  Bonjour,  braves  gens !  Je  suis  1'ami  de 
Maurice.' 

Alors  tu  verras  deux  petits  vieux,  oh ! 
mais  vieux,  vieux,  archivieux,  te  tendre  les 
bras  du  fond  de  leurs  grands  fauteuils,  et 
tu  les  embrasseras  de  ma  part,  avec  tout 
ton  cceur,  comme  s'ils  etaient  a  toi. 

Puis  vous  causerez;  ils  te  parleront  de 
moi,  rien  que  de  moi;  ils  te  raconteront 
mille  folies  que  tu  ecouteras  sans  rire — Tu 
ne  riras  pas,  hein? — Ce  sont  mes  grands- 
parents,  deux  e"tres  dont  je  suis  toute  la  vie 
et  qui  ne  m'ont  pas  vu  depuis  dix  ans.  Dix 
ans,  c'est  long !  Mais  que  veux-tu  ?  Moi, 
Paris,  me  tient ;  eux,  c'est  le  grand  age.— 
Ils  sont  si  vieux,  s'ils  venaient  me  voir,  ils 
se  casseraient  en  route.  Heureusement,  tu 


es  la-bas,  mon  cher  meunier,  et  en  t'em- 
brassant,  les  pauvres  gens  croiront  ui'eni- 
brasser  un  peu  moi-meme. 

MAURICE. 

2.  (i)  Write  the  feminine  of  petit,  vieux, 

archivieux,  and  the  plural  of  mon 
cher  ami. 

(ii)  Give  the  2nd  person  plural  present 
subjunctive  of  rendre,  the  2nd 
person  plural  present  indicative 
of  aller,  the  1st  person  singular 
preterite  definite  of  s'en  aller, 
crier,  voir,  and  negatively,  the  1st 
person  singular  preterite  inde- 
finite of  rire. 

(iii)  Name  some  French  verbs  con- 
jugated with  etre,  not  avoir. 

(iv)  Which  past  tense  is  most  used  in 
ordinary  conversational  French, 
and  which  in  historic  writing  ? 

3.  (i)  Give  examples  of  the  disjunctive 

personal  pronouns. 

(ii)  What  is  the  order  of  pronouns 
before  the  verb  ? 

4.  What  is  the  rule  for  the  elision  of  the 
vowel  of  si  1 

5.  Write  out  in  French  words :  94,  658. 

6.  (Disconnected  English  sentences  to  be 
put  into  French.) 

PAPER  B. 

1.  Put  the  following  into  good  English  : 
Les  Vieux  (from  Daudet). 

Une  lettre,  pere  Azan  ? 

Oui,  monsieur — $a  vient  de  Paris. 

II  etait  tout  fier  que  £a  vient  de  Paris,  ce 
brave  pere  Azan.  Pas  moi.  Quelque  chose 
me  disait  que  cette  lettre  tombant  sur  ma 
table  de  si  grand  matin  allait  me  faire 
perdre  toute  ma  journ^e.  Je  ne  me  trom- 
pais pas,  voyez  plutdt : 

Mon  cher  ami, 

(a)  II  faut  que  tu  me  rendes  un  service. 
Tu  vas  fermer  ton  moulin  pour  un  jour  et 
t'en   aller   tout   de    suite    a    Eyguieres— 
Eyguieres   est   un   gros    bourg  a  trois  ou 
quatre  lieues  de  chez  toi — une  promenade. 

(b)  En  arrivant,  tu  demanderas  le  couvent 
des  Orphelines.     La  premiere  maison  apres 
le  couvent  est  une  maison  basse  a  volets 
gris  avec  un  jardinet  derriere.    Tu  entreras 
sans  frapper — la  porte  est  toujours  ouverte 
— et    en    entrant,    tu    crieras    bien    fort : 
'  Bonjour,  braves  gens !     Je  suis  1'ami  de 
Maurice.' 

(c)  Alors  tu  verras  deux  petits  vieux,  oh  ! 


REVIEWS 


129 


mais  vieux,  vieux,  archivieux,  te  tendre  les 
bras  du  fond  de  leurs  grands  fauteuils,  et 
tu  les  embrasseras  de  ma  part,  avec  tout 
ton  cosur,  comme  s'ils  etaient  a  toi. 

(d)  Puis  vous  causerez ;  ils  te  parleront 
de  moi,  rien  que  de  moi ;  ils  te  raconteront 
mille  folies  que  tu  ecouteras  sans  lire — Tu 
ne  riras  pas,  hein  t — Ce  sont  mes  grands- 
parents,  deux  etres  dont  je  suis  toute  la  vie 
et  qui  ne  m'ont  pas  vu  depuis  dix  ans.  Dix 
ans,  c'est  long  !  Mais  que  veux-tu  ?  Moi, 
Paris  me  tient ;  eux,  c'est  le  grand  age. — 
Ils  sont  si  vieux,  s'ils  venaient  me  voir,  ils 
se  casseraient  en  route.  Heureusement,  tu 
es  la-bas,  mon  cher  meunier,  et  en  t'embras- 
sant,  les  pauvres  gens  croiront  m'embrasser 
un  peu  moi-meme.  MAURICE. 

2.  If  the  above  letter  had  been  intended 


for   two   Frenchmen   instead  of  one,  what 
changes  would  you  make  in  paragraph  (a)  ? 

3.  Rewrite   (in    French)   paragraph    (c), 
supposing  that  Maurice's  friend  had   been 
asked  to  visit  the  grandmother  only. 

4.  Write  a  short  letter  in  French  (not 
more  than  ten  lines)  from  Maurice's  friend 
in  answer  to  Maurice,  saying  that  he  had 
done  all  that  he  had   been  asked  to  do  : 
that  he  had  gone  to  Eyguieres,  that  he  had 
found  the  house,  paid  the  visit,  etc.,  making 
use  of  the  words  in  the  letter. 

5.  94x7.     Do  this  multiplication   sum, 
writing  out  every  step  in  French  words. 

6.  Write  an  account  in  French  (about  ten 
lines)  of  what  you  hope  to  do  in  the  summer 
holidays. 

O.  A. 


ASSISTANT  TEACHERS  IN  FRENCH  LYCEES. 


THE  Board  of  Education  have  received  from 
the  French  Government  a  notification  of 
their  intention  to  attach  as  temporary 
assistants  to  certain  Lycees  a  number  of 
young  English  Secondary  Schoolmasters,  or 
intending  schoolmasters  who  have  under- 
gone an  approved  course  of  training  and 
hold  some  recognised  diploma  for  Second- 
ary Teachers. 

These  assistants  will  not  take  any  share 
in  the  regular  work  of  the  school,  but  will 
conduct  small  conversation  groups  under 
the  direction  of  the  Proviseur.  Two  hours' 
work  a  day  will  be  expected  of  them.  The 
rest  of  their  time  will  be  at  the  disposal  of 
the  assistants,  who  will  thus  be  able  to 


pursue  their  own  studies.  The  assistants 
will  receive  no  remuneration,  but  will  be 
boarded  and  lodged  at  the  institutions  to 
which  they  are  attached. 

Candidates  for  such  posts  should  forward 
their  application  to  the  Director  of  Special 
Inquiries  and  Reports,  St.  Stephen's  House, 
Cannon  Row,  S.W.,  enclosing  testimonials 
as  to  character,  capacity,  and  teaching 
experience,  and  a  medical  certificate  of 
health.  It  will  also  be  necessary  for  each 
candidate  to  have  a  personal  interview  with 
the  Director  at  his  Office,  and  should  any 
candidate  have  any  special  desire  as  to  date 
of  interview,  it  would  be  well  to  indicate 
it  when  forwarding  the  application. 


REVIEWS. 


Reeueil  de  Locutions  Francaises  Pro- 
verbiales,  Familieres,  Figures 
Traduites  par  leurs  Equivalents 
Anglais.  Par  A.-G.  BILLAUDEAU. 
Paris,  Boyveau  et  Chevillet.  1903. 

IF  assiduity  alone  deserved  praise,  we  could 
not  withhold  it  from  this  compilation  of 
about  50,000  idiomatic  phrases.  It  must 
represent  the  work  of  years.  In  spite  of 
this,  it  is  unsatisfactory.  It  is  possible 


that  a  Frenchman  might  produce  a  book 
of  this  kind  alone ;  but  he  would  be  well 
advised  to  consult  an  English  scholar  before 
publishing  it.  M.  Billaudeau's  book  has 
been  '  soigneusement  revu  par  A.  Antoine, 
Professeur  de  francais  a  1'Institut  scien- 
tifique  et  litteraire  Birkbeck  (de  Londres).' 
Professor  Antoine  is  known  to  us  as  a  very 
capable  teacher  of  French,  but  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  his  acquaintance  with  the 
difficulties  of  English  idiomatic  usages  is 
sufficiently  extensive  to  enable  him  to  revise 


130 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


the  proofs  submitted  to  him  by  M.  Billau- 
deau. 

The  Recueil  seems  to  have  been  taken 
from  dictionaries  old  and  new,  no  distinc- 
tion being  made  between  what  is  obsolete 
and  what  is  common  nowadays,  between 
literary  and  vulgar  language.  There  are 
no  explanations,  no  references,  no  quota- 
tions. It  therefore  lacks  the  scientific  value 
of  such  a  book  as  Mr.  Pay  en-Payne's,  of 
which  a  fourth  edition  is  now  in  the  press. 

In  order  to  justify  our  criticism,  we  add 
some  instances  from  the  book — the  result 
of  glancing  through  a  page  here  and  there. 
There  are  misprints,  such  as  '  to  wear  the 
stock'  for  clmusser  le  brodequin,  'ennemy,' 
'  mouster  (for  monster),'  put  (for  pu),  '  eat 
(for  eaten),'  etc.  Quaint  translations  abound : 
'  a  hellish  noise '  (for  an  infernal  row),  '  a 
logger-head '  (une  b&che),  '  a  hell-cat '  (line 
harpie),  'of  a  stretch'  (tout  d'une  haleine), 
'  he  lives,  God  knows  how '  (il  vit  de  In 
grdce  de  Dieu),  'genteelly'  (de  bonne  grdce), 
'  have  thy  fling '  (dis  ton  dire),  '  he  deserves 
the  discipline'  (il  merile  la  discipline),  'she 
is  but  an  antiquated  jilt '  (ce  n'est  plus 
qu'une  antiquailk),  'he  is  a  special  good 
fellow,  a  notable  blade,  a  hearty  cock,  a 
jovial  and  harmless  man '  (c'est  un  bon 
apotre),  'her  eyes  are  very  sprightly'  (elle 
a  les  yeux  lien  tvcilUs). 

We  could  fill  columns  with  similar  ex- 
amples. Our  readers  will  recognise  another 


case  of  misdirected  effort,  and  will  extend 
their  sympathy  to  the  author,  who  has  pro- 
duced a  work  which  testifies  to  his  industry 
no  less  than  to  his  lack  of  method.  The 
book  can  be  recommended  only  for  English 
readers  who  wish  for  half-an-hour's  mild 
amusement ;  French  readers  must  be  warned 
against  an  indiscriminate  use  of  the  alleged 
'  equivalents  anglais,'  for  the  book  contains 
much  that  is  obsolete,  and  omits  much  that 
is  currently  used. 


English  Synonyms  Explained  and 
Illustrated.  By  J.  H.  A.  GUNTHER. 
Groningen,  J.  B.  Wolters.  1904. 

THE  author  of  this  admirable  book  is 
English  Master  in  the  'Eerste  hoogere 
Burgerschool  met  driejarigen  Cursus,' 
Amsterdam  In  a  brief  preface  he  points 
out  the  reason  for  the  presence  of  synonyms 
in  the  English  language,  and  gives  a  list  of 
the  authors  from  whose  works  he  has  taken 
his  illustrative  sentences.  He  is  singularly 
successful  in  his  definitions  and  in  the  selec- 
tion of  quotations,  and  his  work  is  of  real 
value  to  the  student.  There  are  close  on 
2200  synonyms,  arranged  in  621  groups. 
The  printing  is  excellent,  and  the  proofs 
have  been  read  with  great  care.  It  affords 
genuine  pleasure  to  recommend  this  book. 


FROM  HERE  AND   THERE. 


PROFESSOR  WALTER  RALEIGH,  who  has  held 
the  Chair  of  English  Language  and  Litera- 
ture in  Glasgow  University  since  1900, 
has  been  appointed  Professor  of  English 
Literature  in  the  University  of  Oxford. 
***** 

Senor  Fernando  de  Arteaga  y  Pereira, 
the  Taylorian  Teacher  of  Spanish  at  Oxford 
(an  office  he  will  continue  to  hold)  has  been 
appointed  Lecturer  in  Spanish  and  Italian 
at  Birmingham  University. 

***** 

Mr.  C.  F.  Herdener,  chief  modern  lan- 
guage master  at  Berkhamsted  School,  has 
been  appointed  Lecturer  in  French  and 
German  at  Durham  University. 

***** 

Mr.  E.  Talbot  Baineshas  promised£10,000 


to  found  a  Chair  of  English  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Liverpool,  in  memory  of  his  late 
brother,  Mr.  T.  C.  Baines,  of  Alexandria. 

***** 

Mr.  C.  E.  Vaughan,  M.A.,  since  1899 
Professor  of  English  Language  and  Litera- 
ture in  the  Durham  College  of  Science, 
Newcastle-on-Tyne,  has  been  appointed 
Professor  of  English  Language  and  Litera- 
ture at  Leeds  University. 

***** 

Mr.  0.  H.  Fynes-Clinton,  M.A.  (Oxon.), 
has  been  appointed  Lecturer  in  French  at 
Bangor.  He  took  Classical  Honours  at 
Oxford,  obtained  the  Taylorian  Scholarship 
in  Spanish  in  1892,  and  aproxime  accessit  in 
Italian  (1893),  and  in  French  (1894).  From 
1899-1904  he  was  Assistant-Master  at  the 
Aston  Grammar  School,  Birmingham. 


COERESPONDENCE 


131 


Mr.  Thomas  Rea,  M.A.  and  Junior  Fellow 
of  the  Royal  University  of  Ireland,  B.A. 
(Cambridge  Research  degree),  has  been 
appointed  Lecturer  in  German  at  Bangor. 

***** 

The  University  of  Leeds  has  conferred 
an  honorary  degree  on  Dr.  Joseph  Wright, 
of  Oxford. 

***** 

Mr.  C.  D.  Linnell,  M.A.  (London),  B.A. 
(Cambridge  Advanced  Student),  has  been 
appointed  English  Lektor  at  the  Handels- 
Jwchschule  in  Cologne. 

***** 

Results  of  the  last  Modern  and 
Medieval  Languages  Tripos  at  Cambridge : 


Men. 

Women. 

Total. 

First  class, 

1 

4 

5 

Second  class 

4 

12 

16 

Third  class, 

8 

6 

14 

Failed, 

6 

1 

7 

^Egrotat, 

... 

1 

1 

19 


24 


43 


Total  entered, 

Results  of  the  Examination  for  1st  and 
2nd  year  students  of  Modern  and  Medieval 
Languages  at  Cambridge : 


First  class,    . 
Second  class, 
Third  class,  . 
Failed, 

Men. 
.     •  4 
4 
.       15 
.       11 

Women. 

10 
16 
17 
3 

Total. 
14 
20 
32 
14 

It  is  gratifying  to  see  from  these  statistics 
that  during  the  past  year  over  120  students 
have  been  working  for  our  Tripos. 

***** 

The  first  Holiday  Course  for  Foreigners 
organised  by  the  University  of  London 
proved  a  distinct  success.  About  one 
hundred  students  were  expected,  but  more 
than  twice  that  number  came.  The  fol- 
lowing statistics  may  be  of  interest :- — 


Men. 

Women. 

Total. 

Argentine  Republic,     2 

... 

2 

Austria,                          6 

6 

12 

Belgium, 

1 

1 

Denmark, 

is 

13 

31 

England, 

... 

1 

1 

Finland, 

3 

6 

9 

France, 

21 

8 

29 

Germany, 

44 

22 

66 

Holland, 

7 

6 

13 

Hungary, 

3 

3 

Italy,    . 

2 

1 

3 

Japan,  . 

1 

1 

Norway, 

2 

3 

5 

Spain,   . 

2 

... 

2 

Sweden, 

.  11 

16 

27 

Switzerland, 

4 

4 

126 


83 


209 


Total  entered, 


34 


46 


80 


It  seems  likely  that  the  authorities  of 
London  University  will  feel  justified  in 
making  the  Holiday  Course  an  annual 
institution.  The  experience  gained  on  this 
occasion  should  prove  very  valuable,  and  a 
still  greater  success  may  be  anticipated  in 
future  years. 


CORRESPONDENCE 


To  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  'MODERN   LAN- 
GUAGE QUARTERLY.' 

SIR, — Will  you  kindly  allow  me  to  correct 
one  sentence  of  my  speech  at  the  Christmas 
meeting  of  the  M.L.A.  1  It  has  been 
pointed  out  to  me  that,  even  when  (or  if) 
the  'set  books'  in  French  for  the  Higher 
Certificate  Examination  are  too  long  or 
hard,  the  teacher  cannot  strictly  be  called 
'  helpless '  in  the  matter,  since  his  pupils 
stand  exactly  the  same  chance,  by  the 
Board's  regulations,  of  obtaining  a  pass  of 
a  distinction  without  the  set  books  as  with 
them.  I  should  therefore  confess,  in  order 
to  correct  any  unintentional  injustice  to 
the  regulations  of  the  Joint  Board,  that  in 
speaking  of  the  teacher  as  '  helpless '  under 
these  circumstances,  I  was  using  language 


unjustified  by  the  facts,  since  he  has  the 
remedy  of  leaving  this  subject  alone. 

G.  G.  COULTON. 
EASTBOURNE,  July  5,  1904. 

To  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  '  MODERN 
LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY.' 

SIR, — As  one  of  the  two  individuals 
criticised  under  the  somewhat  ambiguous 
title  of  '  B.  &  S.,'  I  crave  the  right  to  make 
a  rejoinder  to  Professor  Rippmann's  remarks. 
I  do  not  quite  understand  why  my  paper, 
which  began  with  a  profession  of  faith  in 
the  direct  method,  should  be  criticised  under 
the  heading  of  '  Is  it  a  Reform  ? '  A  hasty 
reader  who  had  not  seen  my  paper  might 
well  imagine  that  I  am  an  arrant  disbeliever 
in  the  new  method,  more  especially  when 


132 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


he  comes  across  a  sentence  which  on  close 
inspection  really  refers  to  Mr.  Siepmann, 
'  We  view  with  some  suspicion  attempts  to 
discredit  the  reform.'  These  unintentional 
implications  strike  me  as  unfortunate. 

1  will  now  pass  to  the  four  or  five  points 
criticised  by  Professor  Rippmann.  I  am 
sorry  to  say  he  has  misunderstood  my  real 
meaning  in  every  instance.  The  fault  is 
possibly  mine.  It  is  difficult  always  to  make 
one's  points  clear  when  one  has  but  little 
time  to  make  them  in. 

His  first  criticism  is  contained  in  the 
sentence : 

'A  little  thought  will  show  that  many  of 
the  difficulties  pointed  out  in  B.  are  not 
really  peculiar  to  modern  language  teaching. 
Thus  the  importance  of  maintaining  the 
attention  of  the  pupils  is  universally  ac- 
knowledged ;  in  B.  this  is  done  in  a  strangely 
worded  sentence,  "Continuous  attention, 
while  essential  to  all  forms  of  teaching,  is 
absolutely  indispensable  in  the  case  of  the 
rigidly  direct  method."  I  do  not  know  what 
difference  there  is  between  "  essential "  and 
"absolutely  indispensable."' 

Any  one  who  reads  my  paper  carefully 
must  see  that  in  the  majority  of  cases  I 
have  never  pretended  the  difficulties  I  raised 
were  peculiar  to  modern  language  teaching 
alone.  I  presume  by  this,  Professor  Ripp- 
mann means  modern  language  teaching  on 
the  direct  method.  What  I  did  try  to 
prove  was  that  under  the  new  method  they 
became  intensified,  and  passed  from  (say) 
difficulties  of  the  third  or  second  to  the 
first  magnitude.  In  a  word,  the  difference 
in  difficulties  is  not  a  difference  in  kind  but 
in  degree,  a  distinction,  no  doubt,  Professor 
Rippmann  is  aware  of.  What,  therefore, 
was  meant  by  a  distinction  between  'essen- 
tial' and  'absolutely  indispensable'  was 
that  a  greater  degree  of  continuous  atten- 
tion is  necessary,  because  the  '  failure  of  a 
pupil  (whose  teacher  follows  the  direct 
method  in  its  strictest  sense)  to  understand 
a  single  expression  may  mean  he  may  lose 
ground'  that  he  never  can  make  up.  Except 
with  very  careful  teaching  these  losses  ac- 
cumulate, so  that  one  not  infrequently 
comes  across  a  pupil  not  merely  detached, 
but  completely  isolated — far  more  isolated 
than  a  backward  pupil  in  a  form  taught  on 
old-fashioned  lines.'  In  the  latter  case  the 
text-book  supplies  the  structure  of  the 
teaching,  in  the  former  each  lesson  becomes 
the  substructure  of  the  following  lesson. 
The  text-book  acts  somewhat  like  a  steel 
frame.  You  can  at  a  pinch  start  the  work  of 
the  second  story  before  the  first  is  finished  ; 


but  while  each  lesson  serves  as  a  foundation 
for  the  next,  it  is  quite  impossible.  Hence 
a  boy  who,  under  the  old-fashioned  teach- 
ing, is  absent  for  a  day  or  two  is  far  less 
'thrown  out'  when  he  comes  back  than  if 
he  were  being  taught  under  the  new.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  is  worth  a  ton  of  theory,  I 
may  mention  that  this  difficulty  has  been 
discussed  with  me  by  several  teachers. 

I  now  pass  to  Professor  Rippman's  second 
point.  'Another  alleged  difficulty  is  that 
"  the  teacher  has  necessarily  less  time  to 
devote  to  the  leaders  than  if  he  were 
teaching  on  other  lines."  If  this  means 
that  the  manner  of  teaching  necessitates  the 
chief  attention  being  given  to  the  middle,  i.e. 
the  bulk,  of  the  class,  it  is  surely  an  advan- 
tage.' My  criticism  here  again  was  based 
on  actual  facts.  Teachers  on  the  direct 
method  have  complained  to  me  of  the  extra 
marking  time  that  has  to  go  on  among  the 
leaders  while  they  are  bringing  up  the 
stragglers.  Hence  I  spoke  of  '  the  impera- 
tive need  of  keeping  the  form  together,' 
which  '  seems  to  imply  that,  if  some  pupils 
are  not  to  be  hopelessly  tailed  off",  the  pace 
must  be  not  so  much  the  pace  of  the  '•  middle 
markers"  as  of  "the  hindmost."'  This 
naturally  leaves  less  time  for  the  middle  of 
the  form  and  a  fortiori  for  the  leaders. 
Professor  Rippmann  apparently  had  not  read 
the  sentence  a  few  lines  above  the  one  he 
criticised,  in  which  I  distinctly  said  one 
should  go  for  the  middle  of  the  form. 

I  now  pass  to  the  fourth  point.  '  A  further 
statement  in  B.  which  seems  to  me  to  have 
no  special  bearing  on  modern  language 
teaching  is  this:  "The  teacher  being 
largely  dependent  on  the  goodwill  of  the 
class  for  their  attention,  is  compelled  to 
render  his  teaching  as  pleasant  and  as  at- 
tractive as  possible  "  ;  and  a  fear  is  expressed 
that  "  The  training  of  the  will,  which  teaches 
us  to  do  unpleasant  tasks  and  overcome 
obstacles,  and  which  is  the  bedrock  of 
English  education,  is  rather  neglected." 
To  my  mind  this  raises  questions  which 
apply  to  all  teaching.  The  attention  of  the 
pupils  depends  not  on  their  "  goodwill "  ; 
unless  we  take  that  to  be  equivalent  to 
"  interest."  Who  will  deny  that  all  teaching 
should  be  made  interesting  1  .  .  .  There  are 
illegitimate  ways  of  rendering  it  so.' 

What  person  unacquainted  with  my 
address,  from  reading  the  above,  could 
imagine  that  after  the  words  'as  pleasant 
and  attractive  as  possible'  I  had  written, 
'This  is  excellent  as  far  as  it  goes,  and  is 
helping  to  bring  into  English  teaching  a 
conception  of  the  real  doctrine  of  interest 


CORRESPONDENCE 


133 


as  understood  in  America.'  Not  being 
engaged  in  discussing  the  advantages  of  the 
direct  method,  I  naturally  passed  at  once 
to  those  forms  of  interest  which  I  considered 
'  illegitimate.'  The  temptation  to  play  down 
too  much  to  the  class,  the  avoidance  of '  the 
hard  and  distasteful,'  and  hence  at  times  a 
loss  of  the  disciplinary  influence  of  the 
school,  all  of  which  dangers  I  have  observed 
in  certain  classes. 

This  brings  me  then  directly  to  Professor 
Rippmann's  fourth  point.  '  "How  is  one  to 
get  behind  the  boy  who  refuses  to  work  and 
professes  not  to  understand? "  is  asked  in  B. ; 
and  again  I  would  point  out  that  the  modern 
language  teacher  is  not  alone  in  having  to 
face  this  problem.' 

Once  more  my  criticism  is  not  based  on  a 
difference  in  kind  but  in  degree.  The  con- 
trol of  the  fainlant  and  the  malingerer  must 
be  more  difficult  when  your  means  of  com- 
munication withhim  is  nothis  mother-tongue 
but  a  foreign  medium.  It  must  in  these 
circumstances  be  more  difficult  to  tell  where 
honest  ignorance  ends  and  idle  inattention 
begins.  Here  again  I  can  quote  chapter 
and  verse  from  teachers  who  have  found  this 
difficulty  a  very  serious  one. 

In  fact  I  feel  somewhat  surprised  that 
Professor  Rippmann  in  the  course  of  his  joint 
inspection  of  37  schools,  with  their  361 
classes,  206  teachers,  and  over  8200  pupils, 
has  not  come  across  these  difficulties.  It 
seems  more  probable  that  he  has,  and  that 
the  fault  really  lies  either  with  my  care- 
less writing  or  his  careless  reading  of  what 
I  had  written. 

With  the  greater  part  of  Professor  Ripp- 
man's  other  remarks  I  cordially  agree.  But  I 
must  still  profess  impenitence  in  my  dis- 
belief that  the  direct  method  is  the  better 
for  the  non-' fairly  capable  teacher,'  though 
even  here  I  would  make  an  exception  in  the 
practice  of  conversation  off  the  reader's  book. 
But  I  still  hold  that  such  a  teacher  should 
make  more  of  translation,  grammar,  and 
written  work,  because  I  know  from  personal 
experience  how  far  more  difficult  it  is  to 
unlearn  than  to  learn,  and  though  no  doubt 
the  pupils  taught  on  old-fashioned  lines  will 
attach  some  pronunciation  to  foreign  words, 
they  will  not  waste  so  much  time  in  prac- 
tising wrong  sounds,  nor  will  they  fancy, 
which  is  worse,  that  they  have  acquired  an 
approximately  correct  pronunciation. 

CLOUDESLEY  BRERETON. 

June  26,  1904. 

[If  the  carelessness  was  mine,  I  apologise. 
-W.  R.] 


To  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  'MODERN  LAN- 
GUAGE QUARTERLY.' 

SIR, — There  are  several  reasons  why  we 
should  like  to  reply  to  the  review  of  our 
Elementary  Phonetics  which  appeared  in 
the  last  number  of  the  M.L.Q.  To  begin 
with,  we  venture  to  submit  that  much  of 
the  reviewer's  censure  loses  its  point  if  it  is 
remembered  that  he  ignores  a  general  con- 
sideration which  was  kept  steadily  in  view 
in  the  preparation  of  the  book,  viz.  the 
present  attitude  of  most  of  the  teachers  of 
languages  (in  this  country  at  least)  towards 
phonetics.  That  attitude,  as  yet,  is  generally 
one  not  only  of  indifference  but  of  open 
hostility.  The  reasons  are  not  far  to  seek. 
Tlie  teacher  is  a  very  conservative  mortal, 
the  subject  is  not  only  new  but  intricate 
and  difficult,  and  most  existing  manuals — 
such  is  our  opinion — fail  to  prove  its 
practical  utility.  These  manuals,  whether 
elementary  or  advanced,  have  been  written 
mostly  by  specialists,  who  naturally  under- 
rate the  difficulties  the  beginner  has  to  con- 
tend with,  and  are  inclined  to  forget  that  to 
the  average  teacher  phonetics  can  be  a 
subject  of  only  secondary  importance — an 
auxiliary  subject,  for  which  he  can  spare 
but  a  limited  amount  of  his  time  and 
energy.  Further,  the  specialist  too  often 
refuses  to  sacrifice  the  strictly  scientific  to 
the  practical,  where  the  one  excludes  the 
other.  A  striking  example  of  this  is  to  be 
found  in  Sweet's  Primer,  to  which  the 
reviewer  makes  special  reference.  It  is  an 
admirable  book  for  the  more  advanced 
student  who  does  not  mind  the  trouble  of 
making  himself  acquainted  with  a  system 
of  phonetics  which  counts  at  present  but  a 
very  limited  number  of  adherents.  But  we 
differ  from  Mr.  Williams  entirely  when  he 
loftily  advances  the  opinion  '  that  the  teacher 
who  would  find  Sweet's  Primer  0/1  Phonetics  too 
elaborate  and  too  high  in  its  aims  is  either 
a  duffer  or  an  ass,  and  the  best  thing  we  can 
do  is  to  leave  him  to  himself.'  Our  ex- 
perience in  this  connection,  and  we  believe 
it  is  not  unique,  is  at  variance  with  such  a 
conclusion. 

Another  obstacle  to  the  popularisation  of 
phonetics  lies  in  the  somewhat  bewildering 
multiplicity  of  phonetic  systems  employed 
by  the  various  writers  on  the  subject. 
Uniformity  in  this  respect,  however,  is  in 
a  fair  way  to  be  realised  by  the  more  general 
adoption  of  the  'international'  system. 

And  now  a  few  remarks  about  the  book 
itself  which,  in  spite  of  its  modest  pre- 
tensions, has  aroused  the  jre  of  Mr.  R.  A. 


134 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


Williams.  Tantcene  animis  aeleslibus  irce? 
The  aim  of  the  book,  which  partly  he 
neglects  to  mention,  partly  he  distorts,  is 
briefly  this :  To  give  a  clear  idea  of  the 
fundamental  principles  of  sound  production, 
that  is,  in  particular  to  make  quite  plain  the 
functions  of  the  vocal  chords  and  the  all- 
importance  of  the  movements  and  various 
positions  of  the  tongue  in  this  production. 
As  a  considerable  experience  in  teaching 
phonetics  to  different  classes  of  learners, 
young  and  mature,  students  and  teachers, 
has  convinced  us  that  diagrams  are  neces- 
sary for  this  purpose,  we  have  inserted  a 
considerable  number  of  these  in  the  book. 
After  the  elements  of  sound  production — 
the  various  classes  of  vowels  and  con- 
sonants— have  been  dealt  with  in  the  most 
simple  manner,  we  add  in  special  paragraphs 
headed  '  General  Remarks '  such  facts  as 
the  beginner  should  know,  but  which,  if 
given  in  the  first  part,  would  have  tended 
to  interfere  with  the  clearness  of  the 
general  exposition.  (In  one  instance  tjiese 
remarks  have  been  unnecessarily  split  up.) 
It  is  in  connection  with  this  scheme  of 
arrangement  that  W.  speaks  of  our  helpless- 
ness and  unscientific  method.  According 
to  him  the  book  ought  to  have  started  with 
a  definition.  Sweet's  does  it,  he  says.  We 
dare  say  Sweet  is  quite  right,  but  we 
preferred  to  begin  with  facts.  He  waxes 
quite  indignant  because  we  speak  of  the 
'  Basis  of  Articulation  '  '  only  long  after  the 
sounds  of  English,  German,  and  French 
have  been  described  in  detail.'  This  re- 
mark is  characteristic  of  his  whole  attitude 
of  mind,  which  is  essentially  theoretic  and 
dogmatic.  How  any  sensible  man  could 
try  and  find  and  describe  a  common  basis 
for  the  articulation  of  the  various  sounds  of 
a  language  without  first  investigating  these 
sounds,  passes  our  understanding.  We 
even  considered  it  an  advantage  to  give 
this  definition  after  the  section  on  Quantity, 
Stress,  etc.,  had  been  dealt  with.  And 
then  we  thought  we  could  not  do  better 
than  borrow  this  definition,  which  is  an 
excellent  one,  from  Sweet.  For  this  we 
asked  and  received  his  permission.  The 
sneer  about  copying  is,  therefore,  somewhat 
out  of  place,  since  acknowledgment  is  duly 
made.  That  the  definition  was  incorrectly 
quoted  we  regret,  as  we  do  the  appearance 
of  several  other  misprints. 

What  W.  says  about  the  'glottal  stop,' 
the  German  y  and  0  sounds,  shows  that  he 
can  never  have  tried  to  teach  German  pro- 
nunciation phonetically  to  English-speakine; 
pupils;  while  his  remarks  on  our  definition 


of  vowels  and  consonants,  and  on  our 
description  of  the  German  j,  r,  and  I  sounds, 
prove  once  more  that  he  has  failed  to  see 
the  purpose  of  the  book,  and  to  discriminate 
between  what  is  practically  and  what  is 
strictly  scientifically  correct. 

It  seems  to  us  but  fair  to  expect  that  the 
reviewer  of  a  book  should  have  read  it  with 
sufficient  care,  and  should  call  attention  to 
what  is  new  in  it.  W.  does  not  quite  come 
up  to  these  expectations.  Though  we  dis- 
tinctly state  in  the  preface  that  the  subject 
of  phonetics  per  se  is  not  a  subject  for  school 
instruction,  his  strictures  are  here  and  there 
based  on  the  assumption  that  the  book 
was  intended  for  school  purposes.  That 
thought  never  entered  our  heads,  and  so, 
no  doubt,  W.  will  now  be  further  shocked 
to  learn  that  what  he  considers  simple 
enough  for  the  schoolboy  is  meant  for  the 
teacher  only.  But  that  is  just  one  of  those 
points  on  which  his  ideas  of  the  nature  and 
elementary  treatment  of  phonetics  are 
entirely  different  from  ours. 

If  we  gay  that  the  only  difference  be- 
tween b  and  p  lies  in  the  presence  of  voice 
in  the  one  case  and  its  absence  in  the 
other,  we  have  our  practical  reasons  for 
doing  so  in  that  particular  place.  If  W. 
had  read  the  last  sentence  of  the  paragraph 
headed  'Whispered  Sounds'  (p.  113),  he 
would  have  convinced  himself  that  we  are 
not  so  ignorant  as  he  thinks  of  the  dif- 
ference between  p  and  voiceless  b,  and 
have  saved  himself  some  unnecessary 
criticism. 

Again,  we  should  be  obliged  to  W.- — and 
in  return,  we  should  be  pleased  to  answer 
his  query  as  to  the  difference  between 
voiceless  i  and  j,  a  distinction  which 
seems  to  puzzle  him — if  he  would  kindly 
tell  us  what  practical  difference  there  is 
between  the  tongue  positions  which  we  call 
narrow  and  wide,  but  which  Sweet  calls 
high  and  low  ?  Can  his  obtuseness  in  this 
case  (other  things  point  to  such  a  possi- 
bility) be  due  to  the  fact  that  he  fails  to 
see  that  we  do  not  use  narrow  in  the  same 
sense  as  Sweet  t 

As  to  the  '  hints '  which  we  add  to  the 
theoretical  discussions  at  various  points 
throughout  the  book,  and  some  of  which 
are,  at  any  rate  to  our  knowledge,  new, 
and  the  outcome  of  personal  experience 
gleaned  in  the  classroom,  they  were  meant 
to  show  how  the  teacher  might  turn  his 
knowledge  of  phonetics  to  practical  account 
in  the  teaching  of  pronunciation,  more  par- 
ticularly in  French  and  German,  but  we 
nowhere  claim,  as  the  reviewer  says,  'not 


CORRESPONDENCE 


135 


only  to  teacli  phonetics,  but  also  how 
phonetics  are  to  be  taught.'  We  merely 
give  hints  how  to  teach  the  pronunciation 
of  vowels  and  consonants  phonetically. 
The  difference  seems  obvious.  The  intro- 
duction of  these  practical  hints,  which  is  a 
new  feature  in  the  book  as  compared  with 
other  text-books  on  phonetics,  is  disposed 
of  by  W.  in  the  remark  that  it  is '  not 
'scientific.' 

We  are  far  from  regarding  our  book  as  a 
model  of  perfection ;  it  has  its  faults,  more, 
alas,  than  W.  has  pointed  out.  We  are 
grateful  to  him  for  indicating  real  weak- 
nesses, but  we  confess  we  do  not  like,  nor  can 
we  quite  understand,  the  spirit  of  animosity 
in  which  the  whole  review  is  written.  If 
the  book  is  bad,  which  is  quite  possible, 
though  the  opinions  of  the  reviewers  differ 
apparently,  somebody  will  one  day  write 
a  better  one ;  but  we  are  absolutely  con- 
vinced of  one  thing,  namely,  that  the  only 
road  to  the  popularisation  of  phonetics  lies 
through  great  simplicity  of  treatment. 

One  more  remark.  Mr.  Williams  has 
commented  in  somewhat  severe  terms  on 
our  use  of  the  'split'  infinitive.  If,  in 
making  use  of  this  form,  we  have  sinned 
against  the  '  tradition- of  literary  usage,'  as 
grievously  as  the  reviewer  makes  out,  we 
have  done  so  in  the  company  of  much  more 
ancient  and  respectable  co-offenders  than 
he  is  apparently  aware  of. — We  are,  etc., 

W.  SCHOLLE. 
G.  SMITH. 

[The  '  spirit  of  animosity '  mentioned 
above  exists,  of  course,  only  in  the  heated 
imagination  of  the  two  authors,  who  are 
personally  quite  unknown  to  me.  Their 
reply  does  not  in  any  way  weaken  the 
force  of  my  strictures  in  the  review  re- 


ferred to.  Of  this  I  will  give  a  couple 
of  examples.  They  accuse  me  of  having 
said  that  they  ought  to  have  started  with 
a  definition.  What  I  really  said  was 
that  they  ought  to  have  started  from  first 
principles,  and  I  gave  Sweet's  method  as 
an  illustration.  The  beginning  (§  15)  of 
the  analysis  in  the  Primer  of  Phonetics 
(which  I  quoted)  may  be  a  definition,  but 
it  is  also  most  certainly  a  statement  of 
fact,  although  Messrs.  Scholle  and  Smith 
appear  to  infer  that  this  is  not  the  case. 
Farther  on  they  state,  '  How  any  sensible 
man  could  try  and  find  and  describe  a 
common  basis  for  the  articulation  of  the 
various  sounds  of  a  language  without  first 
investigating  these  sounds  passes  our  under- 
standing.' This  might  be  true  if  the  sounds 
of  English,  French,  and  German,  with  which 
languages  the  authors  were  dealing,  had  not 
already  been  investigated !  There  was  no 
necessity  for  them  to  '  try  and  find '  what 
was  already  known.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
they  were  only  concerned  with  giving  the 
results  of  investigations  long  since  carried 
out,  and  the  'sensible  man'  will  doubtless 
claim  accordingly,  as  I  have  already  done, 
that  the  basis  of  articulation  should  have 
come  first.  In  regard  to  the  'copying':  to 
copy  and  acknowledge  is  still  to  copy — to 
copy  without  acknowledgment  would  have 
merited  a  much  stronger  term.  The  authors 
make,  furthermore,  the  deduction  that  I 
can  never  have  '  tried  to  teach  German  pro- 
nunciation phonetically  to  English-speaking 
pupils  ' :  a  deduction  which,  like  many  other 
brilliant  things,  has  the  sole  fault  of  being 
— absolutely  wrong  !  I  will  not  waste  the 
reader's  nor  my  own  time  by  adding  any- 
thing further.  Messrs.  Scholle  and  Smith's 
reply  gives  me  no  cause  to  retract  any 
part  of  what  I  have  already  written. — 
R.  A.  WILLIAMS.] 


The  Modern  Language  Quarterly 

NOTICE  TO  CONTRIBUTORS.— The  Modern  Language  Quarterly  is  open  for  the  discus8ion 
of  all  questions  connected  with  the  study  and  teaching  of  Medieval  and  Modern  Languages  and 
Literatures.  Contributions  dealing  with  Germanic  should  be  sent  to  Dr.  BREUL,  10  Cranmer  Road, 
Cambridge ;  with  Romance,  to  Dr.  BRAUNHOLTZ,  37  Chesterton  Road,  Cambridge ;  with  Teaching,  to 
Prof.  WALTER  RIPPMANN,  72  Ladbroke  Grove,  Netting  Hill,  London,  W.,  to  whom  review  copies 
should  be  sent  ;  and  contributions  dealing  with  all  other  subjects,  to  Mr.  W.  W.  GREG,  Park  Lodge, 
Wimbledon  Park,  London,  S.W.  All  contributions  should  be  clearly  written,  and  should  bear  the 
name  and  address  of  the  author  on  the  last  page. 

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members  of  the  Modern  Language  Association  who  have  paid  their  subscription  for  the  current  year. 
Applications  for  membership  should  be  sent  to  the  Hon.  Sec.,  care  of  the  Hon.  Treasurer;  and 
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The 

Modern   Language 
Quarterly 

Edited  by 

WALTER  W.   GREG 

With  the  assistance  of 
E.  G.  W.  BRAUNHOLTZ,  K.  H.  BREUL,  and  W.  RIPPMANN 


Vol.  VII. 


December  1904 


SCHILLER  AS  AN  HISTORIAN. 


No.  3. 


DOWN  to  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century  historical  works  written  in  Ger- 
many were  little  more  than  mere  chronicles. 
The  events  were  told  in  due  order,  but  their 
inner  causation  was  not  investigated,  and 
no  distinction  was  made  between  facts  of 
first-rate  and  of  second-rate  importance. 
About  the  middle  of  the  century  the  in- 
fluence of  English  and  French  historians 
made  itself  felt,  but  the  German  writers 
were  still  far  from  attaining  to  any  high 
standard  of  their  art.  Frederick  the  Great, 
who  himself  wrote  a  valuable  history  of  his 
own  time,  bitterly  criticised  the  contem- 
porary German  histories,  and  reproached 
the  authors  with  giving  their  own  fancies 
instead  of  what  had  actually  happened. 
Some  improvement  was  effected  by  the 
writings  of  Herder  and  Kant.  The  former, 
in  his  Ideen  zur  Philosophie  der  Geschichle 
der  Menschheit  (1784  and  following  years), 
had  thrown  out  many  ideas  about  a  com- 
prehensive and  philosophical  treatment  of 
history,  which  bore  good  fruit,  although 
they  were  expressed  in  a  somewhat  aphor- 
istic and  not  altogether  scientific  form. 
But  his  catholic  spirit  and  broad  views  on 
all  historical,  philosophical,  and  poetical 
matters  did  not  fail  to  attract  a  kindred 

VOL,  VII, 


spirit  like  Schiller.  Kant  happily  sup- 
plemented Herder's  ideas  by  urging  the 
supreme  importance  of  a  thorough  study 
of  historical  facts  and  a  sound  criticism  of 
a  well-sifted  material.  Schiller  felt  the 
influence  of  both  these  great  men.  The 
former  pupil  of  Rousseau,  who  had  believed 
in  an  original  happy  state  of  humankind, 
won  for  himself  an  honourable  place  in  the 
great  intellectual  movement  which  marked 
the  transition  from  the  eighteenth  to  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  historians  of  the 
eighteenth  century  almost  all  wrote  to 
advocate  certain  theories  of  their  own ; 
those  of  the  nineteenth  strove  to  attain 
the  ideal  of  absolute  impartiality.  They 
endeavoured  to  understand  and  to  appre- 
ciate justly  all  stages  of  historical  life  and 
development.  Schiller  stands  in  the  middle 
between  the  old  school  of  subjective  writers, 
such  as  Rousseau  and  Voltaire,  and  the 
best  historians  of  modern  times.  He  did 
not  succeed  in  attaining  to  an  altogether 
unbiassed  judgment,  and  always  with  all 
his  heart  took  the  part  of  the  champions  of 
freedom ;  but  he  always  looked  on  history 
with  the  eye  of  the  philosopher,  and  appre- 
ciated the  various  epochs  according  to  his 
own  ideals  of  liberty. 


138 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


During  five  years  of  his  life  Schiller  gave 
himself  up  almost  exclusively  to  the  study 
6f  history  and  to  the  production  of  historical 
treatises  and  essays.  In  the  development 
of  his  poetical  genius,  this  period  of  sober 
and  calm  reflection  was  most  fruitful.  His 
historical  studies  were  begun  seriously 
about  the  middle  of  1787,  and  came  to  an 
end  in  September  1792,  with  the  conclusion 
of  the  history  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 
Before  that  time,  indeed,  he  had  occasionally 
studied  historical  works,  but  chiefly  with 
the  purpose  of  collecting  materials  for  his 
plays,  viz.  for  Fiesco  and  Don  Carlos.  For 
his  later  historical  plays,  e.g.  for  Wallenstein 
and  Wilhelm  Tell,  he  studied  the  available 
sources  most  accurately. 

The  reason  which  induced  Schiller  to  use 
his  studies  for  the  production  of  historical 
writings  was  twofold.  Having  left  the  hos- 
pitable home  of  his  Dresden  friend  Korner, 
and  having  migrated  to  Weimar  (July 
1787),  he  found  himself  in  straitened 
circumstances.  The  meagre  professorship 
which  he  obtained  in  1789  did  not  much 
improve  matters,  and  his  marriage  with  the 
highly  gifted  and  noble-minded  Lotte  von 
Lengefeld  entailed  increased  expenditure. 
It  was  not  till  the  end  of  1791,  when  he 
was  slowly  recovering  from  a  severe  illness, 
that  an  unexpected  gift  from  two  Danish 
admirers  of  his  genius,  the  Prince  of 
Augustenburg  and  Count  Schimmelmann, 
relieved  him  for  some  years  from  the 
necessity  of  writing  for  his  livelihood. 
Moreover,  Schiller  wished  to  produce  some- 
thing that  would  look  more  serious  and  im- 
portant to  the  general  public  than  poetical 
effusions  or  plays.  He  was  ambitious  of 
becoming  some  day  a  great  national  his- 
torian, and  did  not  see  why  he  should  not 
be  able  to  become  so  if  he  seriously  set 
himself  to  the  task.  (Letter  to  Korner  of 
November  26,  1790.)1  For  these  reasons  he 
undertook  to  write  several  works  which  did 
not  require  all  his  time  and  effort,  and 
would  yet  be  helpful  to  him  in  supplying 
both  means  for  his  present  subsistence  and 
material  for  future  literary  productions. 

One  of  his  earliest  schemes  was  to  com- 
pile a  history  of  the  most  remarkable  con- 
spiracies and  rebellions  of  the  Middle  Ages 
and  modern  times,  and  it  is  noteworthy 
that  we  find  conspiracies  and  rebellions  to 
be  the  mainspring  of  many  of  his  great 

1  See  Schillers  Briefe  herausgegeben  und  mit 
Anmerkungen  verxehen  von  Fritz  Jonas.  Kritixrhe 
Oe.mmmfausga.be.  Deutsche Verlagsanstalt.  Stutt- 
gart, Leipzig,  Berlin,  Wien,  Vol.  iii.  p.  117.  Letter 
550. 


works:  Fiesco,  Wallenstein,  the  rising  of 
the  Swiss  against  their  oppressors,  the 
revolt  of  the  Netherlanders  against  the 
King  of  Spain,  of  the  Liguists  against  the 
King  of  France.  Schiller,  being  essentially 
a  dramatic  poet,  was  chiefly  tempted  by 
those  stirring  epochs,  in  which  history 
itself  becomes  a  vast  drama,  and  in  which 
man  is  led  up  to  freedom  by  being  driven 
to  revolt  against  tyranny  and  despotism. 
He  was  inspired  by  the  great  struggles  of 
individuals  and  states,  the  final  issue  of 
which  was  to  be  the  victory  of  religious  or 
political  liberty.  The  motto  of  his  first 
juvenile  tragedy,  Die  Ifduber,  was  '  In 
'tyrannos' ;  the  watchword  of  Don  Carlos 
is  the  demand  of  the  Marquis  of  Posa : 
'  Geben  Sie  Gedankenfreihe.it  I '  the  vignette 
on  the  titlepage  of  the  Revolt  of  the  Nether- 
lands was  a  hat  on  a  pole,  the  symbol  of 
freedom;  and  'Freedom,'  in  its  highest 
conception,  is  the  watchword  which  re- 
sounds everywhere  through  the  scenes 
of  his  last  great  play,  Wilhelm  Tell.  In 
later  years,  when  his  judgment  was  more 
matured,  Schiller  became  more  dispas- 
sionate and  more  just  in  his  appreciation 
of  the  various  forces  which  influence  the 
course  of  history,  and  freely  acknowledged 
the  importance  of  the  strongly  conservative 
elements,  as  being  necessary  to  the  proper 
development  of  freedom.  At  the  same  time 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  even  in  his  last 
historical  work,  the  History  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  his  sympathies  were  with  the 
Protestants,  in  whom  he  saw  the  champions 
of  freedom  of  thought.  • 

When  Schiller  began  to  write  on  his- 
torical subjects  his  own  knowledge  was 
very  limited  and,  with  few  exceptions, 
modern  history-writing  was  still  in  its 
infancy.  He  had  hardly  any  writer  of 
acknowledged  merit  to  take  for  his  model, 
especially  in  his  own  country.  Of  the 
great  historians  he  knew  at  the  outset  only 
Plutarch,  Montesquieu,  Voltaire,  Rousseau, 
and  Robertson.  Subsequently  he  became 
acquainted  with  Gibbon  and  Hume.  We 
have  observed  before  that  among  the  Ger- 
mans he  was  chiefly  influenced  by  Herder 
and  Kant,  who  were  neither  of  them 
historians  by  profession.  There  existed 
very  few  trustworthy  investigations  of 
points  of  detail,  and  thus  Schiller  had  to 
be  his  own  mason  before  he  could  be  an 
architect.  He  had  to  read  all  the  sources, 
to  estimate  their  importance,  and  to  arrange 
all  details  for  himself.  Moreover,  there 
was  no  recognised  method  of  investigation  ; 
hence  he  had  to  follow  a  method  of  his  own. 


SCHILLER  AS  AN  HISTORIAN 


139 


And  in  another  respect  also  he  was  greatly 
hampered.  Very  few  State  documents 
were  readily  accessible  at  that  time;  very 
few  could  be  consulted  in  trustworthy 
publications.  Much  valuable  material  has 
come  to  light  only  quite  recently,  and,  if 
we  consider  the  difficulties  under  which 
Schiller  laboured,  the  wonder  is,  not  that 
he  made  mistakes,  but  that  he  made  so 
few.  With  very  scanty  material  he  often 
succeeded  in  drawing  historically  true 
pictures  of  great  men  and  events,  which 
have  been  fully  confirmed  by  modern  re- 
search. No  doubt  the  vivid  imagination 
of  the  dramatic  poet  was  here  of  the 
greatest  use  to  the  ingenious  historian. 
And,  after  all,  we  may  well  ask,  what  does 
it  matter  if  some  of  his  principal  characters 
have  been  painted  by  him  a  few  shades  too 
dark  or  too  light,  if  he  succeeded  in  his 
great  object,  to  establish  in  Germany  the 
true  art  of  writing  history  ?  Montesquieu, 
Gibbon,  Herder,  and  Kant  furnished  him 
with  scientific  and  philosophical  views,  and 
from  the  former  two  he  learned  a  great 
deal  with  regard  to  the  art  of  composition. 
His  aim  in  writing  was  an  artistic  repre- 
sentation of  facts  combined  with  accuracy 
of  detail.  If  the  latter  is  not  always  fully 
attained,  we  should  not  forget  that  Schiller 
was  hampered  by  many  difficulties  which 
no  longer  exist  for  modern  historians,  and 
moreover  that,  as  his  existence  depended 
on  the  earnings  of  his  pen,  he  was  obliged 
to  compose  too  quickly.  From  English 
and  French  models  he  learned  to  regard 
history  as  the  progress  of  humanity  towards 
freedom,  and  to  regard  universal  history  as 
the  highest  form  of  history.  By  '  universal 
history'  he  understood  not  only  the  history 
of  political  and  military  events,  but  history 
of  religion,  philosophy,  art,  customs,  com- 
merce, all  combined  into  one  for  mutual 
elucidation.  These  high  aims  of  the  philo- 
sophical historian,  as  they  were  formulated 
in  the  very  first  historical  lecture  which 
Schiller  delivered  at  Jena,  to  an  audience 
of  several  hundred  students,  could  not  be 
fulfilled  by  himself,  as  history  was  not  his 
chief  subject,  and  the  fulfilment  of  them 
requires  nothing  less  than  the  labour  of  a 
lifetime.  But  the  very  fact  that  he  set  up 
so  high  a  standard  at  the  time  must  be 
accounted  no  small  merit.  (See  his  letter 
to  Korner  of  March  26,  1789.) 1 

The  public  for  whom  his  historical  works 
were  destined  were  not  the  professional 
historians  or  any  small  circle  of  scholars, 

1  Sue  Schiller*  Brie/e,  ed.  Fritz  Jonas.  Vol.  ii. 
p.  260.  Utter  389. 


but  his  students  at  Jena,  and  especially  the 
educated  men  and  women  of  Germany.  By 
writing  in  the  style  of  Hume,  Robertson, 
and  Gibbon,  he  wished  above  all  to  attract 
the  better  class  of  general  readers,  and  to 
show  that  the  true  historian  must  practise 
the  art  of  an  epic  writer  and  must  combine 
science  with  art. 

Concerning  Schiller's  merits  and  demerits 
as  a  historian  there  can  be  little  doubt. 
Some  points  have  already  been  touched 
upon.  We  require  too  much  of  his  histori- 
cal writings  if  we  require  them  to  reach  as 
high  a  level  as  his  philosophical  treatises  or 
his  best  poems  and  plays.  We  must  neither 
forget  the  aims  of  the  author  nor  the  con- 
ditions under  which  the  works  and  essays 
were  composed.  Schiller  did  not  intention- 
ally misrepresent  facts  in  favour  of  a  certain 
preconceived  opinion.  He  studied  his 
sources  honestly  and  zealously,  though  not 
always  sufficiently,  and  did  as  much  as  was 
possible  for  him  under  the  given  circum- 
stances. He  diligently  strove  to  sift  and 
criticise  his  materials  and  to  obtain  the 
proper  point  of  view  from  which  he  could 
explain  the  events  and  show  how  their 
course  was  guided  by  the  minds  of  great 
men.  He  possessed  in  a  high  degree  the 
intellectual  power  to  survey  a  great  mass  of 
facts  at  a  time,  and  to  combine  the  various 
occurrences  into  a  true,  life-like  whole.  His 
writings  are  often  truly  dramatic,  the  events 
well  grouped,  the  principal  characters  placed 
in  the  foreground,  and  all  the  secondary 
personages  skilfully  grouped  around  them, 
while  the  intellectual  forces  of  the  time  are 
incorporated  and  represented  by  a  few  great 
leaders. 

With  regard  to  positive  knowledge  of 
historical  facts,  Schiller  did  not  fall  much 
behind  as  high  a  standard  as  was  attainable 
at  the  time.  It  is  true  that  no  great  pro- ' 
gress  was  made  by  him  in  the  scientific 
investigation  of  details.  He  did  not  dis- 
cover new  sources,  nor  criticise  the  old  ones 
more  accurately  than  the  better  historians 
of  his  age ;  but  he  made  use  of  the  material 
ready  at  hand  with  care  and  accuracy,  he 
represented  the  facts  with  the  consummate 
skill  of  the  great  artist,  he  showed  a  truly 
wonderful  insight  into  the  leading  motives 
of  great  deeds,  and  in  philosophical  reflec- 
tions he  clearly  laid  bare  the  great  and 
important  principles  which  underlay  the 
events  which  he  related.  He  was  the  first 
who  made  history  the  common  propertv  of 
the  nation,  of  all  educated  men  and  women 
desirous  of  obtaining  information  about 
great  periods  of  human  development.  Even 


140 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


the  professional  historians,  who  do  not  think 
much  of  his  use  of  the  sources  and  original 
authorities — as  Schiller  himself  did  not — 
were  obliged  to  admit  that  his  way  of  writ- 
ing history  was  better  suited  to  attract  and 
to  interest  his  readers  than  their  own  pro- 
ductions, which  were  perhaps  more  thorough, 
but  also  much  less  fertile  in  ideas.  Thus 
Schiller's  works  did  not  remain  without  a 
stimulating  effect  even  upon  professional 
students  of  history. 

If  Schiller  gave  much  to  history,  history 
in  its  turn  gave  much  to  Schiller.  The 
study  of  history  not  merely  enlarged  the 
circle  of  his  ideas,  and  the  extent  of  his 
knowledge,  but  it  transformed  and  deepened 
his  whole  nature.  It  gave  him  a  deeper 
insight  into  human  life  and  character,  it 
gave  him  critical  acumen  and  fairness  in 
judging  and  representing  men,  their  views 
and  their  deeds,  and  it  became  a  storehouse 
for  his  poetry.  Goethe  emerged  from  the 
'  storm  and  stress '  period  by  the  aid  of  the 
study  of  classical  art,  and  of  the  quiet 
harmony  and  invariable  laws  of  nature. 
Schiller  freed  himself  from  the  extrava- 
gances of  the  same  period  by  the  study  of 
history  and  philosophy.  He  never  forgot 
that  he  was  to  be  a  poet,  but  he  knew,  and 
has  himself  more  than  once  expressed  the 
conviction,  that  his  genius  had  to  be  puri- 
fied and  brought  to  a  higher  state  of  perfec- 
tion by  study  and  reflection,  by  deep  thought, 
and  letting  his  mind  range  freely  through 
all  the  great  epochs  of  the  history  of  the 
world.  The  ultimate  result  and  the  greatest 
success  of  his  historical  studies,  therefore, 
consisted  in  this :  they  helped  to  lead  him 
out  of  the  passionate  and  exaggerated  fer- 
vour of  his  youth  to  the  dispassionate 
contemplation  and  appreciation  of  historical 
_  development.  The  classical  period  of  his 
poetry  began  (in  1794)  after  he  had  gone 
through  this  self-imposed  course  of  training 
his  mind  by  historical  and  philosophical 
studies.  Schiller's  occupation  with  history 
arose  from  his  poetry,  and  it  led  ultimately 
back  to  it :  the  play  Don  Carlos  suggested 
his  study  of  the  Revolt  of  the  Netherlands, 
and  his  Thirty  Years'  War  induced  him  to 
write  the  greatest  of  all  his  dramas,  Wallen- 
stein. 

In  the  historical  field  Schiller  has  pro- 
duced two  great  works  and  a  number  of 
minor  essays,  extending  over  all  periods  of 
the  world's  history.  His  career  as  a  his- 
torian was  happily  inaugurated  by  his  Ge- 
schichte  des  Abfalls  der  vereinigten  Niederlande, 
which  appeared  in  1788,  but  unfortunately 
remained  a  fragment,  one-sixth  only  of  the 


original  plan  being  completed.  It  really 
narrates  the  events  only  as  far  as  the  arrival 
of  the  Duke  of  Alva  at  Brussels  and  the 
actual  outbreak  of  the  revolt.  The  leading 
idea  of  the  work  was  the  glorification  of  the 
first  victory  of  modern  freedom  of  thought 
over  the  medieval  darkness  and  the  intoler- 
ance of  a  narrow-minded  despotism.  Two 
historical  sketches,  referring  to  the  same 
subject  and  apparently  written  at  the  same 
time  as  the  Revolt  were  subsequently  pub- 
lished separately  under  the  titles,  Des  Grafen 
Lamoral  von  Egmont  Leben  und  Tod  (in 
Schiller's  periodical,  Thalia,  1789)  and 
Merkwiirdige  Belagerung  von  Antwerpen  in  den 
Jahren  1584  und  1585  (in  Schiller's  period- 
ical, Die  Horen,  1795).  Both  were  subse- 
quently admitted  into  his  collected  works  as 
appendices  to  his  greater  work. 

Schiller's  minor  essays,  which  cannot  be 
all  enumerated  here,  arose  partly  from  his 
studies  in  preparation  for  the  lectures  which 
he  delivered  at  Jena,  and  were  partly  written 
as  introductions  to  various  volumes  of  his 
collection  of  historical  memoirs.  All  of 
them  were  called  forth  by  outward  circum- 
stances, and,  as  they  were  usually  written 
under  the  necessity  and  pressure  of  the 
moment,  and  often  under  the  stress  of 
physical  pain,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that,  in  spite  of  some  fine  passages,  they  are 
Schiller's  weakest  productions.  It  would 
be  wrong  to  apply  to  them  the  standard  of 
his  greater  historical  works,  his  philosoph- 
ical essays,  or  his  poems  and  plays.  He 
tried  to  learn  from  Kant,  Montesquieu,  and 
Gibbon,  but  he  did  not  equal  them  in 
method  and  thoroughness.  Some  of  the 
minor  essays  were  adapted  from  the  works 
of  others,  and  contain  only  a  few  original 
ideas  of  Schiller.  The  most  interesting  of 
the  earlier  essays  is  no  doubt  his  famous 
inaugural  lecture  (1789)  at  Jena,  which  was 
published  under  the  title,  Was  heisst  und  zu 
welchem  Ende  studirt  man  Uniivrsalgeschichte  J 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  important  for 
Schiller's  conception  of  history.  Some 
essays  concerning  the  pre-Christian  times 
need  not  be  mentioned  here.  Of  the  essays 
which  refer  to  the  Middle  Ages,  by  far. the 
most  important  is  the  one  called  Uber 
Volkerwanderung,  Kreuzzuge,  und  MittdaUi-i', 
which  was  originally  connected  with  one 
which  follows  it  in  the  collected  works, 
Ubersicht  des  Zvstands  ran  Europa  zur  Zeit 
des  ersten  Kreuzzugs.  In  this  essay  the 
future  author  of  Die  Jungfrau  von  Orleans 
and  Die  Brant  von  Messina  shows  himself  to 
be  one  of  the  first  who,  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  paved  the  way  to  a  more  just 


SCHILLER  AS  AN  HISTORIAN 


HI 


appreciation  of  the  peculiar  character  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  This  appreciation  was 
at  the  beginning  of  our  century  exaggerated 
beyond  measure  by  the  so-called  Romanti- 
cists. We  may  pass  over  the  other  essays 
on  medieval  and  comparatively  modern 
events.  All  of  them  are  introductions  to 
his  collection  of  historical  memoirs,  and  are 
general  surveys  of  the  period  which  the 
special  memoir  served  to  illustrate.  Such 
memoirs  cannot,  of  course,  be  the  chief 
sources  for  the  historian,  but  they  may  be 
very  useful  to  him.  In  collecting  the 
accounts  of  eye-witnesses  or  persons  living 
during  great  historical  periods,  Schiller  has 
shown  unquestionably  true  tact  and  a 
proper  understanding  of  a  real  want. 

The  second  and  last  great  work  which 
Schiller  wrote  in  the  domain  of  history  was 
his  Geschichte  des  Dreissigjahrigen  Kriegs,  in 
five  books.  Taken  all  round,  it  is  the  most 
important  of  all.  The  leading  idea  of  it 
is  in  many  respects  allied  to  that  of  the 
Revolt  of  the  Netherlands.  Both  represent 
phases  of  the  great  struggle  between  the 
old  and  the  new  creed,  and  advocate  free- 
dom of  thought.  Schiller  made  plans  also 
for  a  third  great  historical  work,  on  Luther 
and  the  period  of  Reformation  in  Germany, 
which  would  have  fitted  in  splendidly  with 
the  two  others  (see  the  Archiv  fur  Litteratur- 
geschichtej  viii.  385,  xi.  413).  Unfortun- 
ately this  work,  which  was  intended  for 
Goschen's  Historischer  Calender  far  Damcn 
for  the  year  1794,  was  never  written. 
Partly  his  study  of  the  philosophy  of  Kant 
and  the  working  out  of  his  own  original 
essays  connected  with  the  aesthetic  educa- 
tion of  man,  partly  his  newly  awakened 
interest  in  and  desire  for  poetical  produc- 
tion, prevented  Schiller  from  writing  any 
more  historical  works.  But  what  the  his- 
torian had  found  in  annals  and  memoirs, 
the  poet  depicted  in  striking  scenes  and 
dramatic  characters,  instinct  with  real  life, 
which  appeal  with  thrilling  force  to  our 
feeling  and  our  imagination. 

The  following  books  and  articles  contain 
fuller  information  on  many  of  the  points 
contained  in  this  article : 

Karl  Tomaschek.  Schiller  in  seinem  Ver- 
hiiltnisse  zur  Wissenschaft.  Wien. 
1862.  Pp.  69-140.  Compare  the  Archiv 
fiir  Litteraturgeschichte,  iv.  58  sqq. 
(This  fine  book  contains  many  hints 
from  the  historian  Ottokar  Lorenz.) 

Carl  Twesten.  Schiller  in  seinem  Ver- 
haltnis  zur  Wissenschaft.  Berlin.  1863. 
Pp.  128-154. 


Friedrich    Uebenceg.      Schiller    als    His- 
toriker  und  Philosoph.   Leipzig.   1884. 
Pp.  104  sqq. 
A.  Kuhn.    Schillers  Geistesgang.    Berlin. 

1863.    Pp.  154-196. 

Joh.  Janssen.  Schiller  als  Historiker. 
Freiburg  i.  B.  1863.  21879.  (This 
book  is  not  free  from  prejudice.) 
Ottokar  Lorenz,  Zum  Gedachtiiis  von 
Schillers  historischem  Lehramt  in  Jena. 
Vorgetragen  am  26  Mai  1889.  Berlin. 
1889. 

The  best  German  edition  (with  Introduc- 
tion and  Notes)  of  Schiller's  historical 
writings  is  the  one  by  Theodor  Kilkdhaus,  in 
vols.  vi.,  vii.,  and  xiv.  of  Bellermann's 
edition  for  the  Leipzig  Bibliographical  In- 
stitute. In  vol.  vi.  Kiikelhaus  has  given 
a  general  discussion  of  Schiller  as  a  his- 
torian (pp.  167-179).  The  Cotta  Jubilee 
Edition  of  Schiller,  which  is  now  in  course 
of  publication,  does  not  yet  contain  any  of 
his  historical  writings. 

Some  portions  of  Schiller's  historical 
prose,  with  English  notes,  are  contained 
in  the  following  editions : 

Adolf  Buchheim.  Deutsche  Prosa,  vol.  i. 
(Schiller).  London.  41889. 

Adolf  Buchheim.  Schillers  Historische 
Skizzen  (Siege  of  Antwerp,  and  Trial 
and  Death  of  Count  Egmont).  Oxford, 
Clarendon  Press.  31885. 

Karl  Breul.  Geschichte  des  Dreissig- 
jahrigen Kriegs.  Book  in.  Cam- 
bridge, University  Press.  1892.  21905. 

Students  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  and 
Wallenstein  will  do  well  to  refer  to 
Kiikelhaus's  edition  throughout.  They 
will  also  find  some  valuable  information 
in  the  article  by  August  Kluckhohw, 
Zur  neuesten  Wallenstein -Litteratur, 
published  in  the  '  Deutsche  Rundschau,' 
vol.  Ixxi.  (1892),  434-50.  Some  other 
bibliographical  references  are  contained 
in  my  Pitt  Press  edition  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  Book  III.,  on  pp.  182-185. 

Among  the  more  recent  lives  of  Schiller, 
the  two  large  works  by  Minor  and  by 
Weltrich  do  not  yet  treat  of  Schiller's  his- 
torical writings.  A  good  account  is  given 
by  Otto  Brahm,  in  vol.  ii.  part  1  (1892),  pp. 
206-221  of  his  '  Schiller.'  Other  recent  bio- 
graphies worth  consulting  are  those  by  J. 
Wychgram  (Bielefeld  and  Leipzig,  1895); 
Otto  Harnack  (Berlin,  1898);  Ludwig 
Bellermann  (Leipzig -Berlin,  1901);  and 
Calvin  Thomas  (New  York,  1902).  The 
first  part  of  a  new  life  of  Schiller,  by  Karl 
Berger  (Miinchen,  1905),  has  just  appeared, 


142 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


but  does    not   yet   contain   a   chapter   on 
Schiller's  historical  writings. 

For  all  other  points  connected  with  this 
subject,  see  Max  Koch's  elaborate  article 
on  Schiller  in  vol.  v.  of  the  second  edition 
of  K.  Goedeke's  'Grundrisz  zur  Geschichte 
der  deutschen  Dichtung  '  (Dresden,  1893); 
and  also  the  excellent,  well-indexed  annual, 


'  Jahresberichte  fur  iicuere  deutsche  Littera- 
turgeschichte,'  discussing  the  more  recent 
publications  since  1890.1 

KARL  BREUL. 

1  This  essay  is  an  enlarged  and  slightly  modi- 
fied reprint  of  an  essay  originally  opatributed  U> 
the  National  Home  Reading  Union  Mayaziiie 
for  1897.— K.  B. 


WIELAND  AND  RICHARDSON. 


IN    the    evolution  of    the    modern    novel 
Richardson  plays  a  larger  role  in  Germany 
than  in  England,  or  in  any  other  country 
of  Europe.     His  works  enjoyed  an  enor- 
mous popularity  among  the  German  people, 
who  were  attracted  in  the  first  place  by 
the  sentimental  personality  of  the  author. 
Furthermore,  as  a  moralising  and  didactic 
writer,  Richardson  was    in   complete  har- 
mony with    German    literary    ideals,  and 
fitted  admirably  into  the  evolution  of  the 
oliler    German    novel  of    the  seventeenth 
century.    As  early  as  the  sixteenth  century 
the    didacticism,  which    is    so  marked    a 
characteristic  of  the  older  novel,  makes  its 
appearance  in  the  works  of  Jorg  Wickram, 
and  finds  still  fuller  expression  in  seven- 
teenth-century   fiction.     Bucholtz,  Weise, 
and  Abraham  a  Santa  Clara  have  all  clearly 
in  mind  the  moral  edification  of  the  reader, 
while  Grimmelshausen,  Lohenstein,  Philipp 
von  Zesen,  and  Duke  Anton  Ulrich  von 
Braunschweig,  in   giving    the    public   the 
benefit  of  their  fund  of  miscellaneous  know- 
ledge, are  all  eminently  didactic  in  their 
aim.     Richardson,  obviously,  cannot  claim 
to  have  revealed  to  Germany  the  didactic 
and    moralising    element  in    fiction.     But 
none  of  these  older  novelists  understood 
how  to  confine  himself  to  one  definite  moral 
lesson,  and  to  illustrate  this  by  means  of  a 
story.     They  are  all  of  them  indefinite  in 
their  moral   aims,  or  they  attempt  more 
than  they  can  carry  out.     Most  of  them 
wish  in  an  indefinite  kind  of  way  to  revive 
religious  feeling  in  their  readers,  or  to  in- 
culcate moral  instruction  ;  but  their  stories 
do  not  really  illustrate  their  teaching,  for 
the  reason  that  the  moral  lesson    is    not 
properly  incorporated  in  the  plot.    Richard- 
son may  with  perfect  right  claim  to  have 
introduced    into  fiction    a  real  unity  and 
singleness  of  moral  purpose.     At  the  same 
time,  for  his  didactic  purposes,  he  made  use 
of  a  form  of  story  which  was  quite  new  to 


his  contemporaries.  He  banished  the  old 
conventional  types  of  character  and  substi- 
tuted characters  of  flesh  and  blood,  drawn 
from  real  life.  He  did  away  with  the 
magic  element,  and  laid  the  scene  in  his 
own  country  and  in  his  own  time,  instead 
of  in  distant  lands  and  far-off  ages.  The 
novel  was  thus  brought  into  a  world  of 
reality  and  established  on  a  sure  foundation 
of  truth. 

In  another  respect  Richardson  was  a 
great  innovator  in  Germany.  The  older 
novel  possessed  practically  no  characteris- 
ation. Little  attempt  was  made  to  trace 
the  development  of  the  characters,  which 
were,  as  a  rule,  either  wholly  good  or 
wholly  bad.  Results  only  were  shown,  not 
the  steps  by  which  those  results  were 
obtained.  Richardson  introduced  the  psy- 
chological element  into  the  German  novel, 
and  this,  combined  with  the  old  didactic 
and  moralising  tendency,  gave  it  new  life 
and  power.  All  Germany  welcomed  the 
innovation  with  open  arms,  for  the  older 
novel  of  the  seventeenth  century  had,  early 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  lost  its  hold  on 
the  readers,  and  although  Robinson  Crusoe 
and  the  German  Robinsonaden,  with  their 
wonderful  adventures,  for  a  time  supplied 
the  want  felt  in  fiction,  yet  they  did  not 
altogether  satisfy  the  poetic  and  artistic 
demands  of  the  day.  This  want  was  finally 
supplied  by  Richardson  and  the  group  of 
imitators  which  arose  in  Germany,  chief 
among  whom  is  Wieland.  He  is  indeed  the 
only  member  of  the  school  who  was  of 
supreme  and  vital  importance  for  the 
development  of  the  German  novel. 

Wieland  made  the  acquaintance  of  Rich- 
ardson's novels  early  in  his  career.  He 
read  Pamela  in  a  French  translation  when  at 
school  in  Klosterbergen,  at  a  time  when  he 
knew  practically  nothing  of  the  French 
language ;  and  as  he  only  possessed  a  very 
poor  dictionary,  he  had  to  depend  largely 


WIELAND  AND  RICHARDSON 


143 


on  his  powers  of  guessing  at  the  meaning  of 
the  words.1  There  is  no  record  of  the  im- 
pression the  book  made  upon  his  mind. 
All  we  know  is  that  he  does  not  allude  to 
it  in  his  correspondence  as  one  of  the  books 
which  influenced  him  in  Klosterbergen. 
About  1750  Clarissa  fell  into  his  hands, 
and  he  is  reported  to  have  wept  himself 
'  fast  blind '  over  the  story.2  It  must  have 
been  again  a  translation  that  he  read,  for 
he  did  not  begin  to  study  English  till  two 
years  later.3  In  1754  he  read  Richardson's 
third  great  novel,  Sir  Charles  Grandison. 
His  enthusiasm  was  at  once  kindled  for  the 
hero,  and  his  verdict  on  the  book  was  pro- 
nounced in  three  words,  '  dieses  unschatz- 
bare  Buch.'4 

Wieland  very  early  in  his  career  came  to 
believe  firmly  that  reform  in  German  litera- 
ture could  only  be  effected  by  the  study  and 
imitation  of  English  authors.  As  early  as 
1752  he  writes:  'Ich  bin  den  Franzosen 
ihres  fliichtigen  und  affenmassigen  National- 
charakters  wegen  recht  gram,  und  noch 
mehrdenen  Deutschen  die  ihren  Geist  lieber 
nachdiesen  liicherlichen  Geschopfen  bilden 
wollen,  als  nach  den  denkenden  miinnlich 
schonen,  und  zuweilen  englischen  Britten.'5 
He  was  also  thoroughly  convinced  of  the 
importance  of  didactic  aims  in  literature, 
and  his  conception  of  the  duty  of  poetry 
was  to  sing  the  praises  of  God  and  virtue. 
Anacreontic  poets  seemed  to  him  the  cor- 
rupters  of  morals,0  for  according  to  his  ideas 
men  ought  not  to  write  to  amuse  but  to 
benefit  mankind.  Thus  it  is  not  difficult  to 
see  how  completely  Richardson  must  have 
satisfied  Wieland's  literary  ideals  at  this 
time.  Traces  of  his  enthusiastic  delight  in 
the  great  English  novelist  may  be  found  in 
most  of  his  early  writings.  As  early  as 
1752  there  is  a  reference  to  Pamela  in  his 
Anti-Ovid : 

So  reizt  noch  jetzt  statt  Liebe  zu  erwerben, 

Die  Unschuld  einer  Pamela, 

Ein  teuflich  Herz  sie  zu  verderben.7 

In  Erinnerungen  an  eine  Freundin  (1754), 
where  friendship  is  the  theme,  Anne  Howe 
and  Clarissa  Marlowe  are  held  up  to  the 
world  as  an  example  of  true  friendship  : 

'  Wielanclx  Lel>en,  Stimmtliche  Werke,  edited  by 
firnber,  vol.  I.  p.  21. 

*  lAUerarinclie  Zuntfintle  und  Zeitgenossen.  Leip- 
zig, 1838,  vol.  i.  p.  193. 

3  Ausgewahlte    Kriefe.     Ziirich,     1815,     vol.    i. 
p.  55. 

4  Ibid.,  p.  151. 
1  /'-('/.,  j,.  .-,(;. 

9   Widand,  /'roxaische  Schriflen.     Zurich,  1764. 
SympatMen,  p.  34. 
7  I'oetixrhr.  Xch>-if/f.n.  Ziirich,  1770,  vol.  ii.  p.  102. 


Eutziickeud  ist  fur  eiue  schijiie  Scelc 

Das  Gliick,  dem  holden  Buaen  einer  Freundin 

Sich  zu  vertraueu  ;  deiues  reinen  Herzens 

Geheimste  Neigungen  ihr  aufzudecken, 

Und  Sehmerz  und  Freude  stets  mit  ihr  zu  theilen. 


So  war  einst  Howes  und  Clarissas  Freundschaft 
Ein  ewig  Beyspiel  der  erstauuten  Nachwelt.8 

In  the  Sympathien  (1754)  Richardson's 
works  are  spoken  of  as  a  powerful  moral 
force  in  the  world.9  Henrietta  Byron  and 
Mrs.  Shirley  are  regarded  as  types  of  char- 
acter youth  and  age  would  do  well  to 
imitate,10  while  a  Clarissa  is  the  greatest 
ornament  of  creation.11  In  the  same  work 
a  graphic  description  is  given  of  Maja,  one 
of  Wieland's  imaginary  'sister-souls,'  weep- 
ing over  the  affecting  story  of  Clementina  of 
Porretta.  The  situation  offers  an  excellent 
opportunity  for  sententious  moralising; 
Clementina  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  un- 
happy, inasmuch  as  she  had  the  inner  con- 
sciousness of  virtue,  having  fulfilled  the 
greatest  of  all  duties  in  loving  God  above 
all  created  things.  She  is  a  character  to  bo 
reverenced,  admired,  imitated,  in  that  she 
crushed  all  earthly  passion,  renouncing  a 
man  '  dem  Cronen  keinen  mehrern  Wert 
geben  konnten.'12 

In  the  Ankimdigung  einer  Dunciade  fur  die 
Deutschen  (1755)  Wieland  speaks  of  Richard- 
son as  '  der  unvergleichliche  Richardson,' 13 
and  in  a  tirade  against  Gottsched  asks  if  it 
can  be  anything  else  but  inborn  folly  in  a 
man  that  makes  him  condemn  Clarissa 
and  other  moral  writings  of  Richardson  as 
'beliebte  Lappereien.'14  In  Unterredungcn 
zicischen  Lysias  und  Eubulus 15  mention  is 
made  of  Clarissa  and  Lovelace,  and  the 
latter  is  brought  forward  as  the  type  of 
a  loveable  villain,  'einen  wizzigen  und 
artigen  Bosewicht.'18  In  Don  Sylvio  von 
Rosalva  (1764)  Pamela  is  spoken  of  as 
'  weltberiihmt,'17  while  in  Agathon  the 
author  states  that  in  spite  of  the  many 
faults  his  hero  possesses,  he  loves  him  as 
much  as  if  he  were  a  Sir  Charles  Grandi- 
son.18 Reference  is  also  made  to  Richard- 

8  Ibid. ,  vol.  iii.  p.  95. 

11  Proxaische  Schriften.  Zurich,  1764,  vol.  i.  p.  12. 

">/«</.,  p.  14.     n /iid.,  p.  24.     u/6iW.,pp.  36ff. 

13  A  nkiindiyuny  einer  Dunciade  fur  die  Deutschen. 
Frankfurt  und  Leipzig,  1755,  p.  50. 

14  Ibid.,  p.  28. 

15  The  date  of  the  work  is  not  given.    It  appeared 
in  the  collection  of  Wieland's  prose  works,  pub- 
lished in  Ziirich,  1764. 

18  Ibid.,  p.  92. 

17  Die  Ahenthener  den  Don  Sylvio  von  /?o.v</™. 
Leipzig,  1795,  vol.  ii.  p.  122. 

n  !>},•  <!<  .,•///</,/<•  ihn  Aijalhonx.  Frankfurt  und 
Leip/.ig,  1766-67,  I'art  2,  pp.  287-88. 


144 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


son  and  his  novels  in  Wieland's  correspond- 
ence of  this  period.1  These  references  are 
of  themselves  of  no  great  literary  import- 
ance, but  they  serve  to  show  his  intimate 
acquaintance  with  Richardson  and  his  in- 
tense admiration  for  him  as  a  moralist. 

The  first  important  manifestation  of 
Richardson's  influence  on  Wieland  is  to  be 
found  in  Araspes  und  Panlhea,  eine  moralische 
Geschichte  in  einer  Reihe  von  Unterredungen 
(1758),  founded  on  an  episode  related 
by  Xenophon  in  his  Cyropcedia.  The  bare 
outlines  of  the  story  are  as  follows  :— 
Araspes,  full  of  admiration  for  Panthea,  a 
beautiful  princess  taken  prisoner  in  the 
Persian  wars,  refuses  to  be  warned  by 
Cyrus  that  his  admiration  will,  by  daily 
intercourse  with  her,  be  turned  to  love. 
The  captive  is  thereupon  entrusted  to  his 
charge.  Things  fall  out  exactly  as  Cyrus 
had  foreseen,  and  Araspes  in  the  end  has 
to  acknowledge  the  wisdom  of  the  Great 
King,  at  the  same  time  asking  pardon  for 
betraying  his  trust. 

Even  in  his  school-days  Wieland  had 
been  attracted  by  this  story,  and  he  relates 
that  at  Klosterbergen  he  read  it  again  and 
again.2  In  1756  he  began  to  make  it  the 
subject  of  a  drama  in  which  the  develop- 
ment of  Araspes's  passion  should  form  the 
main  idea  of  the  plot.3  The  story  is  quite 
capable  of  dramatic  treatment,  but  Wieland, 
when  he  set  to  work,  seems  to  have  dis- 
covered that  his  talents  lay  in  the  direction 
of  the  novel  rather  than  of  the  drama. 
He  therefore  converted  his  work  into  a 
moralising  story  in  dialogue  form.  Traces 
of  the  original  intention,  however,  are  to 
be  found  in  the  device  of  dialogues,  and  in 
the  division  of  the  book  into  five  parts, 
corresponding  to  the  division  into  five 
acts.  But  the  dialogues  are  by  no  means 
dramatic;  there  is  very  little  action,  and 
the  important  situations  are  only  related, 
not  enacted,  before  our  eyes.  The  work 
may  really  be  regarded  as  Wieland's  first 
attempt  at  a  novel  of  character  with  a 
moral  aim,  and  is  at  the  same  time  one  of 
the  earliest  successful  attempts  to  imitate 
the  Richardson  novel  in  Germany.  Wieland 
frankly  avows  that  he  re-read  Clarissa 
while  engaged  in  writing  Araspes  und 
Pantl/ea,*  and  on  close  examination  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  methods  are  almost 

1  AnsyewaUte  £riefe,  vol.  i.  pp.  151.  161,  195, 
22fi,  242,  etc. 

2  Gruber,   Widanda  Sammlliche   Werke,  vol.  1 
p.  26. 

3  Araspes  und  Paiithea.      Zurich,    1760.      Zu- 
schrift,  p.  4. 

4  AnngetcShlte  Briefe,  vol.  i.  p.  242. 


entirely  Richardson's.  The  didactic  aim 
is  very  much  in  evidence,  and  the  reader 
is  given  quite  as  much  opportunity  of 
improvement  as  of  amusement.  In  the 
preface  one  is  involuntarily  reminded  of 
Richardson  when  Wieland  speaks  of  the 
irresistible  impulse  he  felt  to  work  out  in 
the  form  of  dialogue  '  diesen  eben  so  lehr- 
reichen  als  unterhaltenden  Beytrag  zur 
Geschichte  des  menschlichen  Herzens.'  He 
sets  out  with  the  intention  of  teaching  a 
definite  moral  lesson,  which  the  story  is  to 
illustrate.  In  his  own  words  the  intention 
is  thus  expressed  : — '  Meine  vornehmste 
Lehre  sollte  diese  seyn:  man  konne  nota- 
bene  in  gewissen  Fallen  die  Gewalt  der 
Liebe  nur  durch  die  Flucht  entrinnen.' 5 

At  the  same  time  he  did  not  omit  to 
scatter  moral  reflections  in  the  dialogue, 
and  it  was  his  endeavour  to  give  Arasambes 
in  particular  plenty  of  opportunity  for 
moralising.6  Like  Richardson,  and  in  true 
eighteenth-century  style,  he  could  not  trust 
to  the  direct  impression  a  poetically  re- 
presented situation  makes  of  itself. 

The  great  merit  of  the  work,  however, 
lies  in  the  minute  pyschological  description 
of  Araspes'  character.  His  passion  is 
traced  from  its  origin,  through  the  different 
stages  of  development,  till  it  finally  reaches 
its  culminating-point  in  open  declaration. 
In  monologues  and  conversation  Araspes 
reveals  himself  to  the  reader.  His  actions 
are  shown  to  be  the  natural  outcome  of  his 
character,  and  the  strife  of  conflicting  feel- 
ings is  well  displayed.  He  falls  before  the 
irresistible  force  of  his  passion.  But  as 
Wieland  distinctly  states,  Araspes  is  no 
villain  like  Richard  Lovelace."  Panthea,  on 
the  other  hand,  proves  to  be  in  most  respects 
a  reproduction  of  Clarissa.  In  Xenojihon 
there  is  no  characterisation  of  her  what- 
ever ;  she  is  simply  a  virtuous  and  a 
beautiful  captive.  Wieland  has  given  her 
character  and  individuality,  transforming 
her  into  a  heroine  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Like  Clarissa,  '  she  was  a  wonderful  creature 
from  her  infancy.'  Araspes  is  attracted  by 
her  beauty,  innocence,  and  virtue.  The 
majesty  of  her  bearing  and  the  perfections 
of  her  mind  and  character  alike  impress 
him.  Typical  of  Clarissa,  and  in  fact  of  all 
Richardson's  heroines,  is  her  extreme  sensi- 

6  Ibid.,  p.  243. 
I  I'M.,  p.  242. 

7  Iliid.     '  Ich  wollte  aber  aus  guten  Griindcn  der 
Krziihlung  des  Xenophon  in  alien  Stiicken  gctreu 
bleiben.      Ich  musste   deswegen  den   Araspes  in 
seiner  Leidenschaft  aufs  iiusserste  steigen  lassen, 
aber  ich  musste  ilm  dcnnoch  zu  keinem  niutwilligen 
Lovelace  machen.' 


WIELAND  AND  RICHARDSON 


145 


bility.  She  remarks  :  '  Selbst  dieSchmerzen 
eines  Thieres,  die  Kriimmungen  eines 
Wurmes,  riihrea  mich.' l  Tears  of  sympathy 
flow  when  Araspes  relates  the  virtue  and 
valour  of  the  great  Cyrus.  He  stops  short 
in  his  discourse  :  '  Du  staunest,  Panthea  ? 
dein  Gesicht  gliinzt  von  tugendhafter 
Entziickung,  sanfte  Thriiuen  gleiten  deine 
gliihenden  Wangen  hinab  ?  Was  fiir  Riih- 
rungen!'3  But  like  Clarissa,  in  spite  of 
her  sensibility,  she  is  unmoved  by  Araspes' 
passion.  As  Lovelace  deplores  the  '  cold- 
ness' of  his  'goddess'  and  'enchantress,' 
so  does  Araspes  cry  out  against  the  '  Kalt- 
sinii'  of  his  'Gottin'  and  'Zaubrerin.'3 

\Vieland  has  also  adopted  Richardson's 
device  of  giving  the  hero  and  heroine  each 
a  confidante  of  their  own  sex.  These  two 
secondary  characters,  Arasambes  and  Man- 
dane,  are  not  to  be  found  in  Xenophon ; 
they  are  Wieland's  own  addition  to  the 
dramatis  persona.  On  the  one  hand,  Araspes 
discusses  Panthea  with  Arasambes  in  much 
the  same  way  as  Lovelace  in  his  correspon- 
dence confides  in  Belford.  On  the  other, 
Mandane  warns  and  advises  Panthea,  just 
as  Anne  Howe  gives  Clarissa  warning  and 
advice.  The  tone  of  the  whole  work  is 
that  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

In  1759  Wieland  planned  a  magazine 
which,  among  other  things,  was  to  contain 
'  Briefe  von  Carl  Grandison  an  seine  Pupille 
Emilia  Jervois.4  This  plan  was  never 
carried  out,  but  in  1760  he  again  turned  to 
Sir  Charles  Grandison  for  inspiration,  and 
wrote  a  dramatic  version  of  the  story  of 
Clementina  of  Porretta.  This  was  not  the 
first  time  a  Richardson  heroine  had  been 
made  the  subject  of  a  drama.  Goldoni  had 
previously  adapted  Pamela  for  the  Italian 
stage  with  great  success,  and  the  play  had 
been  translated  into  German  in  1756. 
This  it  was  that  gave  Wieland  the  idea  of 
dramatising  the  story  of  Clementina.  If  it 
were  a  success,  he  proposed  writing  a  Clarissa 
drama.5  However,  on  completion  of  his 
Clementina  drama,  he  realised  that  he  had 
not  been  altogether  successful,  and  aban- 
doned the  idea  of  writing  a  tragedy  on 

1  Araspes  und  Panthea,  p.  153. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  70  and  71.  «*>'* 
'  See  also  Clarinxa,  7th  edition.     London,  1774, 

vol.  i.  p.  201.  'Such  a  constant  glow  upon  her 
lovely  features,  youth  so  blooming,  air  so  animated 
— to  have  a  heart  so  impenetrable.  How  can  it 
be  ? '  Cf.  Aranpts  nnd  Panthea,  pp.  177-78.  '  Nein, 
eine  so  bliihende.Iugend,  eine  so  belebte,  gefiihl- 
volle  liebathmende  Schiinheit,  kann  nicht  unbe- 
zwingbar  aeyn.' 

4  Ausrjeieahlle  Briefe,  vol.  i.  p.  371. 

6  Clementina  von  Porrelta.  Zurich,  1760. 
Preface. 


Clarissa.  The  leading  idea  of  the  play  is 
the  triumph  of  religion  over  love.  The 
dialogue  mainly  consists  of  a  more  or  less 
direct  translation  of  sentences  scattered 
about  in  Richardson's  lengthy  account  of 
the  story.  Even  the  stage  directions  are 
adopted  almost  directly  from  the  novel. 

A  chapter  in  Wielaud's  life  closes  with 
Clementina  von    Porretta,   and    a    new  one 
opens  with  Don  Sylvio.     From  1761  onwards 
there  is  a  change  in   the  character  of  his 
literary  work,  brought  about  by  alteration 
in  his  mode  of  thought.     He  began  to  see 
more  clearly  in  what  direction  his  talents 
lay,  and  no  longer  wasted  time  in  writing 
tedious  heroic  poems,  or  in  pouring  out  his 
soul   in  ecstatic,    extravagant  prose.      He 
began  to  live  more  in  a  world  of  reality, 
and  in  consequence  became  less  Platonic, 
mystic,  and  ascetic.     This  dividing  line  of 
1760-1,  however,  is  a  purely  arbitrary  divi- 
sion,  for   there  was  no  real  break  in  the 
continuity  of  Wieland's  thought.    His  ideas 
had  for  some  time  past  been  undergoing 
modification  brought  about  by  a  perfectly 
natural    process    of   development.      To   a 
close  observer  it  was  clear  from  the  very 
beginning   that,    in   the   natural   order   of 
things,  the  period  of  extreme  piety  could 
not  last.     As  early  as  1752  a  work  such  as 
the  Erzahlungen  indicates  this  unmistake- 
ably.     There  is  a  discrepancy  between  the 
Platonic  pietistic  intention  and  the  carrying 
out   of    the    intention.      An    Anacreontic 
element  creeps  in  now  and  again,  quite  out 
of  keeping  with  the  whole  tone  of  the  work. 
But  Lessing  does  Wieland  an  injustice  in 
suggesting  that  he  played  a  double  role.0 
He  was  perfectly  sincere  in  his  early  works, 
only  his  true  nature,  as  yet  undeveloped, 
would  assert  itself  from  time  to  time  and 
rise  above  the  snrfaceof  religious  mysticism. 
By  1761  his  whole  attitude  to  religion  and 
morality  had  undergone  a  change.     He  had 
now  come  to  know  Shakespeare,  and  what 
is  of  still  greater  importance,  he  had  become 
a  zealous  reader  of  Lord  Shaftesbury.     It 
was  Shaftesbury's  works  that  were  chiefly 
instrumental  in  bringing  the  religious  en- 
thusiast and  day-dreamer  into  a  world   of 
utility.     The  Advice  to  an  Author  alone  must 
have  told  Wieland  many  home  truths.     His 
high  opinion  of  the  merits  of  this  book  is 
expressed  in  a  letter  to  Zimmermann  dated 
1758.     'Sie  kennen  Shaftesbury's  Advice  to 
an  Author.    Dieser  erschopft  meines  Bediin- 
kens  alles  was  sich  davon  sagen  liisst.'7     At 

6  Lessing,  Briefe  die  neueste  LiUeratur  betre/end. 
(1759),  Letter  7. 

7  Autgewcihlte  Briefe,  vol.  i.  p.  282. 


146 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


first  he  could  not  get  beyond  the  idea  that 
an  author  must  be  didactic  at  every  step, 
and  continually  praise  God  and  extol  virtue. 
According  to  iShaftesbury,  the  best  way  to 
instruct  mankind  was '  in  a  way  of  pleasantry 
and  mirth.'  This  was  also  the  method  of 
Cervantes  and  Fielding,  and  the  study  of 
these  methods  soon  helped  to  broaden  con- 
siderably Wieland's  mind  and  literary 
horizon. 

But  in  spite  of  the  change  in  Wieland's 
ideas,  his  faith  in  the  good  influence  of  the 
moralising  novel  was  unshaken.  In  October 
1763  he  writes  that  it  is  absurd  of  the 
people  of  Zurich  to  entrust  the  criticism  of 
new  works  to  a  certain  Herr  Antistis,  a 
man  'der  oft'entlich  wider  die  Philosophie 
und  Moral,  wider  die  Romane,  wider  den 
Carl  Grandison  prediget,  der  alles  das  fiir 
unniitze  Wort-  und  Narrendeutung  halt." l 
Wieland  is  still  resolved  to  be  a  moralist  in 
his  works,  and  in  a  letter  of  that  same 
year  repudiates  the  idea  that  Don  Sylvia  is 
a  book  unworthy  of  coming  from  the  pen 
of  a  'Lehrer  der  Tugend.'2  His  aims  were 
still  essentially  moral,  but  his  method  of 
enforcing  a  moral  lesson  had  undergone  a 
change.  In  his  own  words,  '  Ich  liebe  die 
Tugend  um  deswillen  nicht  weniger,  weil 
sich  meine  Metaphysik  geiindert  hat,  und 
ich  billige  um  deswillen  keine  Ausschwei- 
fungen,  wenn  ich  schon  nicht  im  Prediger- 
Tone  dagegen  eifere.' 3 

Although,  at  first  sight,  Don  Sylvia  does 
not  appear  to  be  a  novel  of  the  Richardson 
type,  it  does,  in  reality,  follow  the  new 
lines  laid  down  by  Richardson.  Wieland 
appropriates  English  methods  and  applies 
them  to  the  older  form  of  the  German 
novel.  There  is,  to  begin  with,  the 
definite  moral  lesson  to  be  taught  and 
illustrated  by  means  of  the  story,  which 
was  to  edify  as  well  as  amuse.  The 
author  avowedly  concealed  his  philosophic 
teaching  under  an  appearance  of  levity,4 
but  the  full  title  of  the  book,  Der  Sieg  der 
Natur  tiber  die  Schwarmerey,  oder  die  Aben- 
theuer  des  Don  Sylvia  von  Rosalva,  already 
states  the  particular  moral  lesson  intended 
to  be  conveyed.  Moralising  reflections  are 
scattered  about  in  the  course  of  the  story, 
and  there  are  many  discussions  on  abstract 
subjects  such  as  virtue  and  friendship. 
The  characters  are  true  to  nature,  and  they 

1  Denkwiirdige  Briefe,  herausgegeben  von 
Ludwig  Wieland.  Wien,  1815,  p.  3. 

•J  //,»/.,  p.  5.  s  Ibid.,  p.  7. 

4  Aungewdhlte  Briefe,  vol.  ii.  p.  291.  '  Es  ist 
eine  Art  von  Satyr-Roman,  der  unter  dem  Schein 
der  Frivolitat  philosophisch  genug  ist.' 


are  German,  although  the  scene,  after  the 
manner  of  so  many  of  the  older  novels,  is 
laid  in  a  foreign  country.  A  romantic 
background  is  given  to  a  story  of  German 
contemporary  life  and  thought.  A  psycho- 
logical interest  is  also  introduced  to  enable 
the  reader  to  see  the  various  stages  of 
development  in  the  character  of  the  hero. 
The  author  endeavours  to  account  for  Don 
Sylvio's  curious  hallucinations,  and  attempts 
to  show  how  he  came  to  be  cured  of  his 
day-dreaming.  Unfortunately,  the  argu- 
ments do  not  appear  convincing;  never- 
theless, at  least  an  attempt  is  made  at 
psychological  characterisation,  which  had 
hitherto  been  practically  unknown  in  the 
history  of  the  German  novel.  The  want  of 
success  in  portraying  the  hero's  character 
is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the  story 
was  carelessly  written  in  great  haste,  so 
that  the  plot  was  never  properly  worked 
out.  The  whole  work  was  merely  under- 
taken as  a  recreation  to  the  mind  of  the 
author  after  completion  of  the  first  part  of 
Agathon.b  Notwithstanding,  Don  Sylvia  is 
an  advance  on  Araspes  und  Panthea,  and 
when  compared  with  older  novels,  especially 
with  Don  Quixote,  on  which  the  story  is 
modelled,6  it  shows  a  great  advance  both  in 
respect  of  characterisation  and  unity  of 
plot.  The  one  definite  moral  aim  in  the 
novel,  of  course,  naturally  tended  to  pro- 
mote unity. 

But  it  is  in  Agathon  that  Wieland  as  a 
Richardsonian  novelist  reaches  the  highest 
point  of  his  art.  Although  begun  in  1761, 
this  novel  was  not  finished  and  published 
till  1766-67.  It  is  a  work  of  great  import- 
ance in  the  history  of  German  fiction, 
standing,  as  it  does,  midway  between  the 
old  traditional  novel  of  the  seventeenth 
century  and  the  modern  novel  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  It  is  in  every  respect  a 
more  finished  work  of  art  than  Don  Sylrio. 
Richardson's  methods  are  more  carefully 
applied,  unconsciously  though  this  may 
have  been  done.  The  one  definite  moral 
aim  is  kept  more  strictly  in  view,  and 
developed  with  more  care  and  in  greater 
detail.  The  author  proposed  to  show 
'  quid  virtus  et  quid  sapientia  possit,  utile 
proposuit  nobis  exemplum ' ;  and,  after  the 
manner  of  Richardson,  states  this  clearly 
on  the  titlepage,  adding  further  explana- 
tion of  his  purpose  in  a  preface. 

Neither  Richardson  nor  Wieland  aimed 

5  Ibid.,  p.  220. 

6  'Wieland's  Don  Sylrio  and  Cervantes's  Don 
(Jtiixote,  von  S.  Tropsch  (Euphorion,  Ergiinzungs- 
heft,  1899,  pp.  32  S.). 


WIELAND  AND  RICHAEDSON 


147 


at  drawing  perfect  characters :  they  both 
endeavoured  to  be  true  to  nature.1  The 
character  of  Agathon  is  drawn  '  aus  dem 
unerschopflichen  Vorrathe  der  Natur,' 2 
and  is  placed  before  the  reader  not  as  a 
'  vollkommenes  Muster,'  but  as  a  'lehrreiches 
Bey  spiel.'3  Clarissa,  too,  is  'purposed  for 
an  examplar  to  her  sex,  nor  is  it  any  objec- 
tion to  her  being  so  that  she  is  not  in  all 
respects  a  perfect  character.  It  was  not 
only  natural  but  it  was  necessary  that  she 
should  have  some  faults.' 4  Certainly,  how- 
ever, Clarissa  approached  much  nearer  to 
perfection  than  Agathon. 

Wieland,  in  the  introductory  chapter, 
'Ueber  das  Historische  in  Agathon,'  likens 
his  story  to  Fielding's  Tom  Jones,  but  the 
methods  of  the  two  authors  in  describing 
their  hero  are  entirely  different.  Fielding 
describes  Tom  Jones  after  the  manner  of 
the  Picaresque  novel,  relating  his  adven- 
tures rather  than  the  effect  the  adventures 
produced  upon  his  character.  Wieland 
adopts  Richardson's  psychological  method, 
and  allows  no  secret  impulse  of  the  heart 
to  pass  unnoticed.  The  development  of 
Agathon's  character  is  followed  step  by  step, 
and  the  true  springs  of  his  actions  are 
traced  to  their  source.  •  The  author  makes 
it  a  rule  '  die  Leser  dieser  Geschichte  nicht 
bloss  mit  den  Begebenheiteh  und  Thaten 
unsers  Helden  zu  unterhalten,  sondern 
ihnen  auch  von  dem,  was  bey  den  wichti- 

fern  Abschnitten  seines  Lebens  in  seinem 
nnern  verging,  alles  mitzutheilen.'5  Before 
his  true  character  is  formed,  Agathon  is  in 
turn  a  young  religious  enthusiast,  a  disciple 
of  Plato,  a  zealous  patriot,  an  Epicurean, 
and  a  Stoic.  Each  phase  represents  a  stage 
of  development,  and  is  shown  to  leave 
behind  a  permanent  mark  on  the  character 
of  the  hero.  The  very  headings  of  the 
chapters  indicate  Wieland's  minute  psycho- 
logical methods,  e.g.  'Ein  Selbstgesprach,' 
'  Was  die  Nacht  dnrch  im  Gemuthe  der 
Hauptpersonen  vorgegangen,'  '  Betrachtun- 
gen  iiber  das  Betragen  Agathons,'  'Damah- 
ligen  Gemiithszustand  unsers  Helden, >(i 
etc.  Numerous  chapters  are  devoted  to 
describing  the  general  characteristics  of 
the  different  characters,  and  there  are  many 

1  Of.  titlepage  to  Pamela,  London,  1740,  Pre- 
f;iw  lo  Clariwa,  and  Postoript  to  same  work,  pp. 
378  and  887;  also  Aynthon  (Giischen's  edition  of 
Wieland's  collected  works:  Leipzig,  1794),  vol.  i. 
p.  251. 

2  Af/atlion.     Preface  to  first  edition,  p.  xii. 

3  /!M. ,  vol.  iii.  p.  42,  Bk.  xi.  chap.  6. 

4  Clariiwa.     Preface. 

•"'  Ar/athon,  vol.  iii.  p.  127. 

11  (hid.,   vol.   i.   pp.   51,   216;  vol.  ii.    p.   217; 
vol.  iii.  pp.  41,  127. 


digressions  to  give  the  author  an  oppor- 
tunity of  expressing  his  views  on  different 
subjects.  The  additions  to  the  story  for 
the  revised  edition  of  Agathon  (1773)  were 
for  the  most  part  made  in  order  to  show 
more  clearly  the  absolute  continuity  in  the 
psychological  development  of  Agathon  and 
Danae.  The  new  edition  was  to  present  a 
clear  and  connected  account  of  their  '  Seelen- 
geschichte,'  and  Wieland  hoped  thus  '  das 
Ganze  in  die  moglichste  Uebereinstimmung 
mit  der  ersten  Idee  derselben  zu  bringen, 
um  es  der  Welt  mit  dem  innigsten  Bewusst- 
seyn  hinterlassen  zu  konnen,  dass  er  wenigs- 
tens  sein  Moglichstes  gethan  habe,  es  der 
Aufschrift  "quid  virtus  et  quid  sapientia 
possit "  wiirdig  zu  machen.' 7  The  finishing 
touch  to  the  essentially  moral  character  of 
the  whole  work  was  intended  to  be  given 
by  the  addition  of  the  dialogue  between 
Agathon  and  Archytas,  which  makes  up 
the  greater  part  of  Book  xn.8 

One  of  the  points  in-Wieland's  method  of 
characterisation  is  that  his  characters  appear 
in  a  variety  of  lights.  The  reader  is  not 
restricted  to  one  point  of  view  only,  as  was 
usually  the  case  with  the  older  novelists. 
This  method  of  the  all-round  point  of  view 
was  undoubtedly  learnt  from  Richardson. 
It  belongs  to  the  technique  of  the  novel  of 
letters,  and  was  more  or  less  of  an  innova- 
tion in  the  German  novel.  But  Wieland 
has  by  no  means  introduced  it  skilfully,  for 
he  has  adopted  it  for  a  novel  written  in 
ordinary  narrative  form  without  any  modifi- 
cation. The  clumsiness  of  it  is  very  marked 
in  the  characterisation  of  Danae.  Her 
character  is  described  at  great  length  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  author,  Agathon, 
Hippias,  and  herself,  involving  much  repeti- 
tion, and  greatly  impeding  the  progress  of 
the  story.  With  regard  to  Agathon  him- 
self, Wieland  sets  forth  clearly  in  the 
Preface  that  it  was  his  intention  to  present 
the  character  'in  einem  mannigfaltigen 
Lichte,'  in  order  to  let  it  be  viewed  from 
all  sides.9 

To  sum  up,  we  may  say  that  in  all 
essentials  Wieland  accepted  Richardson's 
theory  of  the  novel.  He  only  later  in  life 
condemned  the  author  of  Pamela,  Clarissa, 
and  Sir  Charles  Grandison  for  allowing  his 
characters  to  approach  too  near  to  perfec- 
tion. From  1761  onwards  Richardson's 
perfect  characters  came  to  please  him  less 
and  less.  He  began  to  find  a  hero  like 
Fielding's  Tom  Jones  more  to  his  liking, 

7  Ibid.,  Preface  to  the  new  edition,  p.  xxviii. 

8  Ibid. 

9  Ibid.,  Preface  to  first  edition,  p.  xiii. 


148 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


than  an  almost  faultless  man  like  Sir  Charles 
Grandison.  Not  until  1770,  however,  is 
there  any  direct  confession  of  his  altered 
opinion  regarding  Richardson.  In  that  year 
he  writes  to  Sophie  von  la  Roche :  '  Je  ne 
vous  ai  jamais  cache  que  je  ne  pense  pas 
tout-a-fait  comme  vous  sur  bien  des  choses 
relatives  a  la  partie  morale  de  notre  etre ; 
p.e.  que  je  n'aime  pas  les  Clarisses,  les 
Charles  Grandisons,  les  Henriettes  Byrons, 
pour  la  seule  raison  qu'ils  sont  trop  parfaits 
pour  moi.  J'ai  peut-etre  tort;  au  moins 
je  n'ai  pas  assez  de  loisir  pour  justifier  a 
present  cette  mienne  £39011  de  penser. 
Mais  dussai-je  avoir  raison  (comme  en  effet 
je  le  crois)  je  ne  blame  pas  la  votre.'1  Later 
in  the  same  year  he  speaks  disparagingly  of 
Richardson's  style.  '  Tout  le  monde  trouve 
a  redire  aux  details  trop  minutieux  et  a 
la  prolixity  assommante  de  1'histoire  de 
Grandison.'2  But  although  he  might  find 
fault  with  Richardson  for  making  his 

1  Wieland's  Brlefe  an  Sophie  von  la  Roche,  edited 
by  Horn.     Berlin,  1820,  p.  119. 
-  Ibid.,  p.  139. 


characters  paragons  of  virtue,  and  call  him 
tedious  and  prolix,  Wieland  never  found 
fault  with  the  didactic  aims  of  the  Richard- 
son novel.  In  1771,  in  the  Preface  to  the 
Fraulein  von  Sternheim,  by  Sophie  von  la 
.Roche,  he  speaks  in  high  terms  of  moral- 
ising novels  of  the  Richardsonian  type.3 
To  the  end  of  his  life  Wieland  seems  to 
have  been  unable  to  give  up  the  idea  that 
it  is  the  duty  of  fiction  to  point  a  moral. 
He  continued  all  his  life  to  write  novels 
with  a  purpose ;  Der  Goldene  Spiegel, 
Die  Abderiten,  Peregrinus  Proteus,  Agatho- 
diimon,  and  Aristipp,  have  every  one  of 
them  in  view  the  moral  edification  of  the 
reader.  But  it  is  as  the  author  of  Agathon 
that  Wieland  has  most  influenced  the 
German  novel,  and  it  is  on  the  merits  of 
this  work  that  he  takes  the  foremost  place 
in  the  ranks  of  the  imitators  of  the  moralis- 
ing, psychological  novel  of  Richardson. 
CONSTANCE  BRUCE  Low. 

3  Geschichte      des     Frduleins     von     Sternheim. 
Leipzig,  1771.     Vorrede. 


A  DRAMATIC  FRAGMENT. 


THE  British  Museum  MS.,  classed  as 
'Egerton  2623,'  is  described  in  the  official 
catalogue  as 

'A  Collection  of  papers  chiefly  relating 
to  the  English  drama,  temp.  Hen.  VII. — 
1778;  formed  by  John  Payne  Collier,  who 
has  inserted  a  brief  description  of  each 
article.' 

The  official  description  of  article  22, 
forming  folios  37  and  38  of  the  collection, 
runs  as  follows  : — • 

'  Fragment  of  a  play  in  which  the  char- 
acters are,  Ethelbert,  the  Duchess  (his 
wife),  Oswald  (their  son,  conveyed  to 
Northumberland  in  his  infancy  to  escape 
his  uncle,  and  newly  discovered),  Orina, 
Count  Coell,  Sir  Ingram,  Mouse-trap,  etc. : 
late  xvith  cent.  The  fragment,  which  is 
in  two  different  hands,  ends,  "  Nay  my  lord, 
He  speak  thus  much  in  his  praise  to  his 
face,  tho'  hee  bee  as  fell  a  mastiue  as  euer 
rann  vpon  a  gentleman :  yett  the  curre  is 
of  a  good  breede,  and  to  one  hee  knowes  will 
shalf  his  tayl" ;  but  the  words  in  italics, 
which  are  intended  to  convey  a  covert 
allusion  to  Will.  Shake-speare,  are  a  modern 
fabrication.' 

Collier's  own  description  is  briefer : 


'  Dramatic  Manuscripts.  Fragments  of 
two  old  Plays,  apparently  of  about  the 
time  of  Shakespeare.  They  are  in  a  very 
bad  state  from  damp,  and  must  have  been 
used  as  fly-leaves.  Portions  in  each  are 
illegible.' 

Collier  was,  of  course,  wrong  in  supposing 
the  fragments  to  belong  to  different  plays. 
The  oversight  is  all  the  more  curious  since 
one  would  suppose  that  he  must  have  read 
the  MS.,  so  far  as  he  could  at  least,  with 
some  care  before  venturing  upon  the  inser- 
tion of  an  original  addition.  Such  atten- 
tion, however,  as  he  may  have  bestowed 
upon  the  curious  relic,  the  history  of  which 
he  has  not  recorded,  did  not  prevent  his 
sticking  the  leaves  into  his  scrap-book  the 
wrong  way  round,  so  that  in  each  case 
the  text  begins  on  the  verso.  The  ex- 
tent of  the  damage  which  the  two  leaves 
has  suffered — a  large  damp-mark,  namely, 
in  the  upper  part  of  each  page,  and  a 
frayed  margin — will  be  easily  seen  in  the 
type  facsimile  which  I  append.  I  have 
indicated  the  illegible  or  missing  portions 
by  dots,  each  of  which  corresponds,  very 
roughly  of  course,  to  the  average  space 
(Continued  on  page  153.) 


A  DEAMATIC  FRAGMENT  149 


F.  37".  .  now  not  at  my  returne  what  dore  to  knock  at 

.  or  where  my  parents  dwell,  nor  whom  to  ask  for 

ood  hart 

ray  tell  ye  duchesse  this  &  that  I  p  . .  t  out  my  last  last 

.  arewell  to  her  5 

is  I  shall  doe  &  w k  which  He  exercize 

.  ind  out  the  misle her  Change 

will  you,  y'are  m angell  &  with  all  ...  ause  of 

not  bee  [         ] h  the  shadow  of  any  thing 

that  euer  shee pray  lett  her  haue  10 

this  Cloke  & t d  plometts 

hanging  at  my will  as  they  are  lett  downe 

keepe  a  1 . .  d to  tell  me  how  y"  day  goes, 

:  giue  mee thou  partst  not  hence  yett  wind 

vp  all  thy elles  shall  fill  thine  eares,  15 

a  chyme  of Exeunt 

.  mis          Enter thelbert  •  orina  •  Sibert  Ardeia 

Clerimond  Adrian . .  rtrand  •  bracy  •  Ranulph  ' 
le  beau 

.  thel :  the  sunn  to  heare  this  story  has  gon  slowly  as  wondr ...  20 

&  delighting  in  yc  Change,  of  this  yor  Oswalds  fortune 

:  all  (I  sweare  by  my  best  hopes)  being  true  that  I 

related, 

. . .  er :  in  her  discoursing  on  your  Cheeke  I  noted  the 

battaile  of  a  palenes  and  a  redd  fighting  together  25 

often 

-  -  twas  lonate 

.  thel :  vmh .  vmh .   A   nothing  but  a  selfe-feeling,  &  Compass 
sharing  of  Oswalds  loy  or  sorrowes 

Enter  ye  duchesse  &  Oswald  hand  in  hand 

Duch :  before  my  voice  aduance  it  self  to  heigth  30 

my  lord,  deere  husband,  husband 

.  thel :  whats  the  matter 

Duch :  looke  on  theis  Jewells — looke  vpon  vm  well 
rownd  turne  vm  rownd — duke  gerard — noble 

madame,  siberte  princely  sibert — girle, — vpon  35 

my  blessing  shoote  at  his  face  fixd  lookes — cast 
all  your  eyes  on  this  young  man  &  wonder — wond . . 

at  him 
osum:  what  owle  am  I  now  made 


Duch :  know  you  thes  toyes  40 

.  thel :  I  doe — &  if  ye  god  of  scilence  please  to  lay  his 
finger  on  each  lippe  but  myne.  I  with  strange 
musick,  will  fill  etiery  eare,  whilst  I  am  rapt 
to  tell  what  you  shall  heare 

,  r    pray  sr  goc  on  and  scilence  45 


150  THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 

F.  37*.    Ethel :  6  you  fates  how  suttle  are  your  winding 

when,  my  father  (taking  his_last  leaue  of  me)  left 

A  dukedome  I  was  boe'th  young  &  sickly —  s 

in  bodey.  that  it  shiuerd  euen  my  mynde  &  w 

that  too — I  had  then  an  vncle  in  plotts  for 

Cunning — and  to  strong,  for  me  or  any ..... 

to  wrastle  with,  the  opinion  of  his  vallor  wis 

worth,  aw'de  all  my  dukedome — twas  he  ru 

not  I, 
Duch :  hee  had  or  glory,  wee misery, 

Ethel :  my  wife  had  alirst ...  n .  but  my  lewd 

(should  I  dye  heireles)  thinking  myne  his  owne . . . 

poisond  that  Childe ...  a  second  blest  her  w . . . 

that  to  was  markd  for . .  eath.  ere  it  knew  life . . 

hee  meeting  with  the  w . .  Id  was  in  one  night . .  '5 

secretly  in  the  swathing  Clathes  Convayd  into 

nwthumberland  out  of  mercea.  to  mock  the 

tirant  shee  gaue  out  it  dyd.  the  nurse  that  kept 

it.  likewise  liued  not  long . . .  how  nurse  lugled 

how  my  boy  was  lost  Im'e  sure,  this  Coke  &  Crucifix 

A 

I  tyed  to  a  small  Chayne  of  gold  about  his  neck 
with  my  owne  fingers 

osw :  mother, — madame, — duchesse 
how  Came  you  by  theis  tokens 

mi :  haue  I  not  tould  thee, 

this  owald  (how  soere  at  first  you  namde  him . . 
is  that  lost  sonne.  gott  (as  you  heard  my  lord)  for 
money  from  his  nurse,  lust  when  she  dyed, 

Duch :  6  my  dere  Eldred,  for  tha  name  I  gaue  thee 

name 

osw :  I  Care  not  how  you  [Call]  me  so  I  haue  a  [ 
mother  but  a  peice  of  a  mother 

Ethel :  if  hee  bee  myne.  theres  on  his  neck  the  print 
of  a  ripe  mulberry 

osw :  mulberry-ripe  looke  madame  looke,  Im'e 

your  owne  boy  I  warrant  you,  els  chop  my  nee. .  35 

of 

Duch :  yes  tis  here  o  let  me  kisse  this  lewell, 

osw :  [  ]  kisse  for  kisse.  then  mother,  (new  mother 
now)  lett  mee  kisse  you,  for  hansell  sake 

Ethel :  he  has  besides  the  tallon  of  an  eagle  on  4° 

this  arme 
i 
osw :  a  whole  arry  of  eagles,  soe  soe  sire,  tis  here 

thi  ethcei  Aquila.  boeth  hee  &  shee 
Duch  :  neuer  on  mee  tell  now  shon  beanies  so  cle . . . 

nor  on  me  neither  farewell  father  adeiu  (^ 

mother,  blessing  father  blessing  mother 
brother  I  am  glad  you  Cozind  me  of  a  w ... 
sister  I  am  glad  you  calld  me  not  husban . . 
I  knew  there  was  noble  blood  in  mee 


A  DRAMATIC  FRAGMENT  151 


F.  381".  for  I  am  in  debt.  &  full  of  other  such  noble 

qualities,  can  drink  hard  spend  brauely  &  loue 
a  sweete  girle 


Enter  Sr  Inyram.  Toogood.  Count  Coell 

m 
genissa  malfrida.  mouse  trappe  &  ihu\n\ 


. .  ar :  I  Come  (my  lords)  for  Justice 

. . .  g :  I  Come  for  no  Justice  but  a  wench.  &  shoul . 
be  sorry  to  find  any  Justice  in  her 

:  lay  by  distracted  lookes  &  moody  language  speake  one 

attonce  &  mildely  10 

. .  bar :  mildely  :  shees  my  daughter, 

Ing :  &  [I]  this  daughter  &  I  are  all  one 
.r  bar  ;'\  ha  promist  her  to  this  knight  mongrell 

Ing :  &  I  ha  promist  her  a  lady-shippe 

ger :  giue  way  to  one  another — say  what  hinders  ye  mariage  [twix]          15 
twixt  theis  to 

Thu :  this  &  please  your  grace  :  shee  will  not  haue  my  mT 
sr  bar :  this  beggerly  mercian.  Count  Coell.  sayes  shees  his  wife 
ger :  how  say  you  lady, 
gen :  yes  my  lord  I  am  20 

Ing :  art  tho",  what  mortall  taylors  yard  Can  measure  the 
mockado  hart  of  a  woman,  giue  me  a  wench  thats 
pure  perpetuanai  for  thy  sake,  all  thy  gum-tjift'aty 
sex  shalbe  to  mee  no  more  than  that  base  stuff 
Calld  stand  farder  of  25 

Ethel :  that  beggerly  poore  mercian  :  meaning  him.  that  beggerly 
poore  mercian  is  my  kinseman.  your  banishment  from 
merca.  noble  Coell.  Count.  &  my  honord  Cozen,  the 
king  or  ma'ster  Calls  in.  &  you  shall  home  toth  Court 
with  mee.  &  hold  your  place  &  offices  30 

Ing :  howes  this,  howes  this.  Count.  &  Cozen  Count.  I  am 
Cozind  too 


Ethel :  nor  neede  you  scorne  to  Call  him  sonn  in  law 
sr  bar :  how  shall  I  know  that 


Ing :  [sh]  search  him  3S 

.  ler :  I  sur  was  at  his  wedding 
.  ra :  &  I 


.  r :  yes  &  I.  &  many  other,  boeth  mercians  &  northumbrions 

,  g:  how  came  troy  burnt,  by  a  woman,  how  are  men  drunck. 

to  the  healthes  of  women  :  how  men  killd  about  brittle  40 

glassy  woman.  I  wud  draw  if  I  durst 


152  THE  MODEEN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 

F.  38".      Thu  :  &  I  too.  if  it  wud  Come  out 

i 

get :  restrayne  there  furies 

A 

Ing :  furies :  He  ron  madde 
ori :  how  :  madde 


Ing :  yes  madde.  tis  the  onely  Custard  my  tee  — 

water  at  for  when  Ime  madde  He  rayle  vpon  . . . 
roare  at  men.  I  will  stampe  in  verse.  &  sta  . . . 
prose.  I  will  leere  at  the  players,  mew  at  th . . . 
poetts,  swagger  at  the  dores,  sweare  they  are . . 
false  gatherers.  &  kick  the  women 


gen: 
Ing: 
gen: 
Ing  : 

sr  bar  : 
Thu: 

ger  : 
Coell  : 
malf  : 
ger: 

youle  be  more  wise  Sr  Ingram,      farweii 

no.  I  scorne  it,  <fe  scorne  thee  :  [fro,  foh,  as  the  .  .  .] 

why  farewell 

I  will  hawnt  thee  longer  yet  A  butter  box.  loue 
not  bacon  &  pickle-herring,  as  I  hate  thes  westphali 
gammons  of  thy  Cheekes.  farwell  for  euer  —  Exit 

&  farwell.  for  euer 

for  euer  &  an  acre  of  tyme  longer  —  Exit 

so  so.  tis  well  wee  are  quiett  :  whats  this  officer 

my  lord  a  friend  of  myne 

yes  [my]  his  back  frend  my  lord 

[is  th]  oh  malfreda 

15 


ori :  is  this  hee  mall  you  had  my  lords  warrant  for 

malf:  the  very  same,  (madame,  because  I  wud 

haue  such  a  long-tayld  rat  know,  what  &  whos 
Cheese  hee  is  to  gnaw  :  all  ye  whole  ging  of  gudgeon- 
eaters  (the  anthropophagi  sergeants)  had  not  yc 
way  .  the  witt  to  arrest  Count  Coell,  but  this 
fas  it  nefas  :  hee  goes  by  the  name  of  mouse- 

trappe.  &  a  Curious  snapping  dispatching  3° 

mouse-trappe  he  is 

mous :  what  I  did.  I  did  fairly  (tho  not  honestly 

I  did  not  Coble  it  vp  nor  dangle  my  worke  as  if 
I  had  bin  but  a  botcher  in  my  trade, 

Coell    no  in  troth  thou  didst  it  well  &  I  loue  thee  for  it  35 

mous :  I  handled  you  softly,  tenderly  &  gingerly,  because 
you  were  my  patient :  my  first  dressing  went  I 
know  a  little  to  the  heart,  but  I  had  my  glasse 
of  balme  which  I  powrde  into  your  wound  :  your 
blow  on  ye  showlder  is  nothing,  a  Cup  of  Canary  4° 

in  a  tauerne  heales  it.  besides  I  Calld  not  to  you 
nor  pulld  out  your  throat  for  my  houres  of  mercy 
as  I  doe  to  others,  my  staying  with  you  I  meane 

Coell :  no  indeede  thou  didst  not, 

sr  bar :  nay  my  lord  He  speake  thus  much  in  his  praise  to  his  f . . .  45 

tho  hee  bee  as  fell  a  mastiue  as  euer  rann  vpon  a  gentle 
man,  yet  the  Curre  is  of  a  good  breede  &  to  one  he  knowes 

will  shake  his  tayl 


A  DKAMATIC  FRAGMENT 


153 


occupied  by  one  letter.  I  must  confess 
that  in  my  endeavour  to  decipher  the 
stained  part  I  may  possibly  have  seen 
rather  more  traces  of  writing  than  are 
really  there,  but  I  do  not  think  that  any 
one  who  examines  the  MS.  carefully  by  a 
good  light  will  have  any  very  important 
deductions,  or  indeed  additions,  to  make. 
All  the  same  I  should  not  like  to  stake 
very  much  upon  the  absolute  correctness 
of  every  letter  I  have  printed  in  those 
parts. 

With  regard  to  the  statement  in  the  cata- 
logue that  the  MS.  is  written  in  two  hands 
I  must,  with  all  deference  to  authority, 
express  my  belief  that,  except  for  the  for- 
gery, there  is  only  one.  There  are,  however, 
three  different  inks  and  two  pens.  As  far 
as  F.  37a,  1.  31,  the  MS.  is  in  a  dark-brown 
ink  which  has  suffered  very  much  where 
the  damp  has  attacked  it ;  then  to  F.  381', 
1.  8,  it  is  in  a  rather  lighter  coloured  ink, 
but  the  difference  is  not  very  noticeable. 
From  here  to  the  end  a  dead  black  ink  has 
been  used  and  also  a  finer  pen,  which  gives 
a  rather  different  character  to  the  hand. 
This  ink  has  been  absolutely  unaltered  by 
the  damp,  even  where  this  has  almost  de- 
stroyed the  paper  itself.  Finally,  there  is 
the  forgery,  which  is  similar  to  this  last 
portion  in  ink  and  style,  except  that  it  is 
cramped  up  in  a  corner.  It  is.  cleverly 
executed,  and  I  must  admit  that  I  doubt 
whether  I  should  have  detected  it  if  I  had 
not  already  known  of  its  existence. 

So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover, 
the  fragment  does  not  belong  to  any  known 
play.  The  main  plot  is  evidently  the  same 
as  that  of  A  Knack  to  knoiv  a  Knave,  printed 
in  1594,  but  the  actual  scene  does  not 
belong  to  that  play.  There  are  many 
plays  of  a  later  date  on  the  same  story,  but 
the  earliest  of  these  is  Kavencroft's  King 
Edward  and  Alfredo,,  printed  in  1667  (see 
Ward  II.  6102),  which  is,  of  course,  more 
than  half  a  century  later  than  the  MS.  It 
is  chiefly  in  hopes  of  obtaining  further 
information  on  the  subject  that  I  have 
reprinted  the  fragment  here. 

I  have  added  a  transcript  in  modernised 
spelling,  giving  my  reading  of  the  original 
so  far  as  I  can  make  that  out.  I  have, 
however,  decided  not  to  add  any  notes. 
There  are  several  interesting  words  and 
phrases,  and  some  difficulties,  but  I  have  no 
particular  suggestions  to  make.  I  should, 
however,  mention  three  points,  (i)  F.  37", 
1.  34,  there  is  a  mark  something  like  an 
italic  rafter  ripe,  to  which  I  can  assign  no 
meaning  :  (ii)  F.  38",  1.  6,  a,  small  fragment 

VOL.  VII. 


of  the  first  letter  of  the  last  word  is  visible  ; 
it  might  be  a  w  but  hardly  an  <&,  so  that  I 
road  woman  and  not  and,  as  the  narrow  space 
would  tempt  one  to  do;  there  is,  I  think, 
just  room  for  the  longer  word :  (iii)  1.  29, 
the  second  word  is  clearly  it,  but  there  is 
nothing  to  show  whether  it  is  intended  to 
be  in  italic  or  not.  The  hand  of  the  MS. 
is  English,  italic  script  being  used  for 
names,  etc. 

In  the  facsimile,  square  brackets  indicate 
deletions;  in  the  transcript,  hiatus  or  con- 
jectural restorations. 

W.  W.  GREG. 


TEXT. 

Know  not  at  my  return  what  door  to 

knock  at, 
Nor  where  my  parents  dwell,  nor  whom 

to  ask  for. 

J.  Good  heart ! 
.  Pray,  tell  the  duchess  this,  and  that 
I  pant  out  my  last  last  farewell  to  her.       5 
].  This  I  shall  do  and  [with  k], 

which  I  '11  exercize,  find  out  the  [misl 
of]  her  change. 

J.  Will  you?   y'are  my   [good]   angel 

and  with  all  [        ause  of]  not  be  [  h] 

the    shadow   of    anything   that    ever    she 

]  pray  let  her  have  this  cloak  and 

]  plummets  hanging  at  my 

]  will  as  they  are  let  down,  keep 

a  [1     d  ]  to  tell  me  how  the  day 

goes.  16 

].  Give  me  [  ]  thou  part'st  not 

hence  yet.      Wind  up  all  thy  [  ] 

else  shall  fill  thine  ears  a  chime  of  [  ]. 

[Exeunt. 

Enter  [GERARD],  ETHELBERT,  ORINA,  SI- 
BERT,  ARDEIA,  CLERIMOND,  ADRIAN, 
BERTRAND,  BRACY,  EANULPH  LE  BEAU. 

Ethd.  The  sun  to  hear  this  story  has  gone 
slowly  20 

As  wond'ring  and  delighting  in  the  change 

Of  this  your  Oswald's  fortune. 

].  All,  I  swear 

By  my  best  hopes,  being  true  that  I  re- 
lated. 

~\&r.  In  her  discoursing,  on  your  cheek  I 
noted 

The  battle  of  a  paleness  and  a  red          25 

Fighting  together  often. 
Ethel.  Hum,  hum,  'twas  nothing 

But    a    self-feeling    and    compassionate 
sharing 

Of  Oswald's  joy  or  sorrowes. 


154 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


Enter  the  DUCHESS  and  OSWALD  hand  in 
hand. 

Duch.  Before   my  voice   advance   itself  to 

height, 

My  lord — dear  husband — husband  ! 
Ethel.  What 's  the  matter  ? 

Duch.  Look  on  these  jewels,  look  upon  'em 

well ;  31 

Round,  turn  'em  round— Duke  Gerard — 

noble  madam — 
Sibert,   princely  Sibert — girl,   upon  my 

blessing, 
Shoot  at  his  face  fixed  looks — cast   all 

your  eyes 
On  this  young  man,  and  wonder,  wonder 

at  him.  35 

Osw.  What  owl  am  I  now  made  ? 
Duch.  Know  you  these  toys  1 

Ethel.  I  do ;  and  if  the  god  of  silence  please 
To  lay  his  finger  on  each  lip  but  mine 
I  with  strange  music  will  fill  every  ear 
Whilst  I  am  rapt  to  tell  what  you  shall 

hear.  40 

er\.  Pray,  sir,  go  on — and  silence  ! 
Ethel.  Oh,  you  fates, 

How  subtle  are  your  windings !     When 

my  father, 

Taking  his  last  leave  of  me,  left  a  duke- 
dom, 
I  was  both  young  and  sickly,  [s        ]  in 

body, 
That  it  shiver'd  even  my  mind  and  [w     ] 

that  too ;  45 

I  had  then  an  uncle  in  plots  for  [ 

cunning 
And  too  strong  for  me  or  any  to  wrastle 

with ; 

The  opinion  of  his  valour,  wisdom,  worth 
Aw'd  all  my  dukedom ;  'twas  he  ruled, 

not  I. 

Duch.  He  had  our  glory,  we  [        ]  misery. 
Ethel.  My  wife   had  a  first   son,  but  my 

lewd  [uncle],  51 

Should  I  die  heirless,  thinking  mine  his 

own, 
Poison'd  that  child;  a  second  blest  her 

womb; 
That  too  was  marked  for  death  ere  it 

knew  life ; 
He  meeting  with  the  world  was  in  one 

night  ss 

Secretly  in  the  swathing  clathes  conveyed 
Into  Northumberland  out  of  Mercia ; 
To  mock  the  tyrant  she  gave  out  it  died, 
The  nurse  that  kept  it  likewise  lived  not 

long, 
But  how  nurse  jugled,  how  my  boy  was 

lost,  60 

I  'm  sure  this  cock  and  crucifix  I  tied 


To  a  small  chain  of  gold  about  his  neck 
With  my  own  fingers. 
Osw.  Mother — madam — duchess  ! 

How  came  you  by  these  tokens  1 

Ori.  Have  I  not  told  tbee  ? 

This  Oswald,  howsoe'er  at  first  you  named 

him,  65 

Is  that  lost  son,  got,  as  you  heard,  my 

lord, 
For  money  from  his  nurse  just  when  she 

died. 
Duch.  Oh,  my  dear.Eldred,  for  that  name  I 

gave  thee. 

Osw.  I  care  not  how  you  name  me  so  I  have 

A  mother — but  a  piece  of  a  mother !      70 

Ethel.  If  he  be  mine  there 's  on  on  his  neck 

the  print 

Of  a  ripe  mulberry. 

Osw.  Mulberry  ripe  !  look,  madam ; 

Look,  I  'm  your  own  boy,  I  warrant  you, 

else  chop 
My  neck  off. 

Duch.  Yes  'tis  here ;  oh,  let  me  kiss  this 

jewel !  75 

Osw.  Kiss    for    kiss    then,    mother  —  new 

mother  now — 

Let  me  kiss  you,  for  hansel  sake. 
Ethel.  He  has  besides 

The  talon  of  an  eagle  on  this  arm. 
Osw.  A  whole  eiry  of  eagles  !     So,  so,  sire  ; 

'tis  here, 

Thi  ethcei  aquila,  both  he  and  she  !  80 

Duch.  Never  on  me  till  now  shone  beams  so 

clear. 

[Osw.]  Nor  on  me  neither  :  farewell,  father  ; 
adieu,  mother  ;  blessing,  father ;  blessing 
mother;  brother  I  am  glad  you  cozen'd 
me  of  a  wife ;  sister  I  am  glad  you  call'd 
me  not  husband.  I  knew  there  was  noble 
blood  in  me,  for  I  am  in  debt,  and  full  of 
other  such  noble  qualities,  can  drink  hard, 
spend  bravely,  and  love  a  sweet  girl. 

Enter  SIR  INGRAM,  TOOGOOD,  COUNT  COELL, 
GENISSA,  MALFRIDA,  MOUSE-TRAP,  and 
THUM. 

Sir  Bar.  I  come,  my  lords,  for  justice.       90 

Ing.  I  come  for  no  justice,  but  a  wench; 
and  should  be  sorry  to  find  any  Justice 
in  her. 

[Ger].  Lay  by  distracted  looks  and  moody 
language  :  speak  one  at  once  and  mildly. 

Sir  Bar.  Mildly,  she 's  my  daughter. 

Ing.  And  this  daughter  and  I  are  all  one. 

Sir  Bar.  I  ha'  promis'd  her  to  this  knight- 
mongrel.  99 

Ing.  And  I  ha'  promis'd  her  a  ladyship. 

Ger.  Give  way  to  one  another:  say  what 
hinders  the  marriage  twixt  these  two. 


JERSEY  FRENCH 


155 


Thu.  This,  and  please  your  grace ;  she  will 
not  have  my  master. 

Sir  Bar.  This  beggarly  Mercian,  Count 
Coell,  says  she 's  his  wife. 

Ger.  How  say  you,  lady  ? 

Gen.  Yes,  my  lord,  I  am.  108 

Ing.  Art  thou  ?  What  mortal  tailor's  yard 
can  measure  the  mockado  hart  of  a 
woman  1  Give  me  a  wench  that 's  pure 
perpetuani  for  thy  sake;  all  thy  gum- 
taffety  sex  shall  be  to  me  no  more  than 
that  base  stuff  called  stand-farder-off. 

Ethel.  That  beggarly  poor  Mercian,  meaning 
him — that  beggarly  poor  Mercian  is  my 
kinsman.  Your  banishment  from  Mercia, 
noble  Coell,  count  and  my  honour'd 
cousin,  the  king  our  master  calls  in, 
and  you  shall  home  to  th'  court  with 
me,  and  hold  your  place  and  offices.  121 

Ing.  How's  this?  how's  this?  'Count' 
and  '  cousin  count ' !  I  am  cozen'd  too  ! 

Ethel.  Nor  need  you  scorn  to  call  him 
son-in-law. 

Sir  Bar.  How  shall  I  know  that  ? 

Ing.  Search  him. 

Cler.  I,  sir,  was  at  his  wedding. 

Bra.  And  I.  129 

[Ger].  Yes,  and  I,  and  many  other,  both 
Mercians  and  Northumbrians. 

Ing.  How  came  Troy  burnt  ?  by  a  woman  ; 
how  are  men  drunk?  to  the  healths  of 
women ;  how  men  killed  1  about  brittle 
glassy  woman  :  I  would  draw  if  I  durst. 

Thu.  And  I,  too,  if  it  would  come  out. 

Ger.  Restrain  their  furies. 

Ing.  Furies  !     I  '11  run  mad. 

Ori.  How,  mad  ?  139 

Ing.  Yes,  mad ;  'tis  the  only  costard  my 
teeth  water  at,  for  when  I  'm  mad  I  '11 
rail  upon  women,  roar  at  men,  I  will 
stamp  in  verse  and  stamp  in  prose,  I  will 
jeer  at  the  players,  mew  at  the  poets, 
swagger  at  the  doors,  swear  they  are 
false  gatherers,  and  kick  the  women. 

Gen.  You  '11  be  more  wise,  Sir  Ingram. 

Ing.  No ;  I  scorn  it,  and  scorn  thee ; 
farewell. 


Gen.  Why,  farewell.  150 

Ing.  I  will  haunt  thee  longer  yet :  a  Butter- 
box  loves  not  bacon  and  pickle-herring 
as  I  hate  these  Westphalian  gammons  of 
thy  cheeks  :  farewell  for  ever.  [Exit. 

Sir  Bar.  And  farewell  for  ever.  155 

Thu.  For  ever  and  an  acre  of  time  longer. 

[Exit. 

Ger.  So,  so ;  'tis  well  we  are  quiet ;  what 's 
this  officer  ? 

Coell.  My  lord,  a  friend  of  mine. 

Half.   Yes,  his  back  friend,  my  lord. 

Ger.  Oh,  Malfrida !  161 

Ori.  Is  this  he,  Mai,  you  had  my  lord's 
warrant  for  ? 

Malf.  The  very  same,  madam ;  because  I 
would  have  such  a  long-tail'd  rat  know 
what  and  whose  cheese  he  is  to  gnaw  : 
all  the  whole  ging  of  gudgeon-eaters, 
the  anthropophagi  sergeants,  had  not  the 
way,  the  wit,  to  arrest  Count  Coell,  but 
this  fas  et  nefas :  he  goes  by  the  name  of 
mouse-trap,  and  a  curious,  snapping,  dis- 
patching, mouse-trap  he  is.  172 

Mous.  What  I  did,  I  did  fairly,  though  not 
honestly;  I  did  not  cobble  it  up,  nor 
dangle  my  work  as  if  I  had  been  a 
botcher  in  my  trade. 

Coell.  No,  in  troth,  thou  didst  it  well,  and 
I  love  thee  for  it.  178 

Mous.  I  handled  you  softly,  tenderly,  and 
gingerly,  because  you  were  my  patient; 
my  first  dressing  went,  I  know,  a  little 
to  the  heart,  but  I  had  my  glass  of  balm, 
which  I  poured  into  your  wound ;  your 
blow  on  the  shoulder  is  nothing,  a  cup 
of  Canary  in  a  tavern  heals  it ;  besides 
I  call'd  not  to  you  nor  pull'd  out  your 
throat  for  my  hours  of  mercy  as  I  do  to 
others,  my  staying  with  you  I  mean. 

Coell.  No,  indeed,  thou  didst  not.  189 

Sir  Bar.  Nay,  my  lord,  I'll  speak  thus 
much  in  his  praise  to  his  face:  though 
he  be  as  fell  as  a  mastiff  as  ever  ran  upon 
a  gentleman,  yet  the  cur  is  of  a  good 
breed  [and  to  one  he  knows  Will  Shake  his 
tail],  195 


JERSEY  FRENCH. 


THE  Annual  Dinner  of  the  Jersey  Society 
took  place  on  December  13  last,  and  after- 
wards were  sung  some  songs  in  patois  of 
which  the  following  is  a  transcription.  Sir 
Frederick  Pollock,  in  replying  for  the 
visitors,  regretted  that  there  was  no  mono- 
graph on  such  an  interesting  dialect. 


MARGOT  MAEGOTTON. 

(Dialecte  de  Jersey.) 

Margot  Margotton,  qu'  oulle  est  belle, 
J'n'en  connais  pon  qui  saient  comme  Hi ; 
Oulle  a  des  yiers  comme  des  etelles, 
Et  san  p'tit  r'gard  est  doux  comme  mii ; 


156 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


Ses  levres  sont  couleur  de  rose, 

Et  san  p'tit  nez  est  ertroussai. 

Nou'  1'embrachothait  sinonqu'nou'  n'ose — 

Ou'  n'avez  veu  jamais  d'itai. 

D'autres  vrainment  je  n'connais  pon 

Qui  saient  eomme  Margot  Margotton. 

Je  la  demand!  en  mathiage, 

Mais  ou'  me  dit :  je  n'te  veur  pon. 

— Ah  !  qtie  les  filles  sont  volages  ! 

J'  voulus  saver  si  ch'tait  tout  d'  bon. 

J'  1'i  dis  que  j'  1'i  sathais  fidule, 

Ou'  n'  voulit  pon  oui'  rein  d'  itai — 

Ou'  m'  dit  q'  j'  fthais  mus  '  d'paqui  mes 

velles ' ; 

Et  m6  j'  m'en  fus  comme  tchan  fouott6. 
Avec  tout  chla  j'  n'en  connais  pon 
D'autres  comme  Margot  Margotton. 

Pourtant,  pourtant ;  j't'^thais  aimaie, 

Ma  belle  Margot  Margotton — 

Les  herpins  par  t6  pref6thaient 

Au  tendre  amour  ne  donnenont  pon 

Bonheur  et  jouaie  a  tan  menage — 

Ov  des  sous  nou'  pent  mouothi'  d'faim. 

Je  cherchethai  fille  pus  sage  ; 

'  'y  a  d'autres  meftniers  que  Jean  Le  Dain.' 

Et  accouo,  accouo,  n'y  en  a  pon 

Comme  t6,  ma  Margot  Margotton. 

Paroles  defeu  Af.  le  Jure  Justicier 

A.  A.  Le  Gros. 
Musique  de  M.  Alfred  Amy,  L.R.A.M. 

LA  CHANSON  DU  PRINSEUR. 

(Dialecte  de  Guernesey.) 
A  1'honneur  du  mais  d'Octobre  ! 
Not'  Jame,  qu'est  bragi  comme  un  sac, 
Hurle  en  puchant  dans  1'entrebac  : 
Honneur  es  ouvriers  sobres  ! 

Allans!  seit  (ranquille,  el  M — 
Vive  la  cuve  I  et  vim  I'dmet  I 

J'o  1'cidre  qui  pure  dans  1'auge ; 

L'affaire  craque, — m'est  avis. 

Mes  bouans  viers  ga^ons,  q'est  a  dit : 

Q'  nou'  s'abeurve  ou  q'nou'  s'enauge  ! 
Allans  !  seit  tmnquille,  et  bd — 
Five  la  cuve  1  et  vive  I'dmel ! 

J'avons  trop  suai  a  la  barre 

Pour  nous  enf'ir  a  maintchi  plliens. 


He !    '  Qu'est    qu'une    barrique    pus    ou 

mains'?' 
S'fait  1'vieill  houme  de  la  Poumare. 

A  lions!  seit  tranquille,  et  Id- 
Five  la  cuve  !  et  vive  I'dmel  I 

Q'  nou'  vaie  sorti  les  fliaumeques 

D'nos  yiers,  comme  des  siens  d'un  nier 

cat — 

Accouare  un  p'tit  d'  fortificat ! 
A  la  sant6  de  toute  la  peque  ! 

Allans  I  seit  tranquille,  et  bd— 
Five  la  cuve !  et  vive  I'dmel ! 

Paroles  defeu  M,  Georijes  Metivier. 
Musique  de  M.  Alfred  Amy,  L.R.A.M. 


LE  BOUON  VIER  TEMS. 
(Avid  Lang  Syne.) 

Oubliierons-je  nos  viers  acquaints, 

Not'  coin  d'feu,  nos  pathens? 
Oubliierons-je  nos  viers  acquaints, 

Not'  bouon  vier  terns  1 
•    Au  bouon  vier  terns,  aliens  : 

Au  bouon  vier  terns  ! 

Un  p'tit  fortificat,  buvons : 

Au  bouon  vier  terns  ! 

The  following  quotation  from  the  son  of 
Victor  Hugo,  who  lived  for  nearly  twenty 
years  in  the  Channel  Isles,  war  appended 
to  the  text  of  the  songs : — 

'  0  vous  tons  !  braves  Normands  des  iles 
de  la  Manche,  .  .  .  sachez  le :  votre  patois 
est  venerable ;  votre  patois  est  sacrd ;  car 
c'est  de  votre  patois  qu'est  sortie,  comme  la 
fleur  de  la  racine,  la  langue  franchise.  .  .  . 
Votre  patois,  vos  peres  de  Normandie  sont 
morts  pour  le  r6pandre  en  Angleterre,  en 
Sicile,  en  Judee,  a  Londres,  a  Naples  et 
jusque  sur  le  tombeau  du  Christ.  Car  ils 
savient  que  perdre  sa  langue  c'est  perdre  sa 
nationality,  et  qu'en  apportant  leur  idiome, 
ils  portaient  avec  eux  leur  patrie.  Oui, 
votre  patois  est  v^n^rable,  car  le  premier 
poete  qui  1'a  par!6  a  6t6  le  premier  des 
poetes  francais : — 

'  Je  di  e  dirai  ke  je  sui 
Wace,  de  1'isle  de  Gersui, 

Charles  Hugo. 

DE  V.  PAYEN-PAYNE. 


OBSERVATIONS 


157 


OBSERVATIONS 


NOTES   ON    'QUEEN    HESTER.' 

A  NEW  edition  of  the  interlude  of  Godly 
Queen  Hester  having  recently  appeared, 
edited  by  Mr.  Greg,  in  Dr.  Bang's  Materi- 
alien  zur  Kunde  des  iilteren  Englischen  Dramas, 
though  forbidden  to  praise  the  work  as  I 
should  like  to  do  in  these  pages,  I  venture 
to  submit  the  following  notes  : — - 

I.  203.  Stage  direction.    Here  Aman  metythe 

them,  in  ye  place.—  The  editor  writes, 
'"Place"  "would  apparently  mean 
merely  "stage."'  So  interpreted,  the 
statement  would  surely  be  rather  super- 
fluous, if  the  whole  performance  took 
place  on  a  stage.  The  word  must  be 
taken,  I  think,  in  a  dramatic  sense. 
Does  it  mean  '  the  open  space  before 
the  palace,'  or  the  palace  or  royal 
residence  itself?  For  the  latter  sense, 
cp.  Chaucer's  Sir  Thopas,  1.  9,  '  Y-born 
he  was  in  fer  contree,  ...  At  Poper- 
ing,  in  the  place ' ;  and  Schmidt,  place, 
subs.  4. 

II.  f.42-544. 

As  lie  that  from   steylyng,  goth  to  sent 
thomas    watryng    (=goes    to    the 
gallows)  .  .  . 
So  they  from  pytter  pattour,  may  cume  to 

tytter  totur. 

The  last  line  is  explained  to  mean  '  Their 
crafty  talk  will  in  the  end  make  their 
position  shaky.'  I  think  the  last  words 
have  a  more  definite  sense,  viz.  (once 
more)  '  may  come  to  the  gallows.' 
The  word  totter  was  frequently  used 
of  swinging  on  a  rope.  Cp.  Trevisa, 
Polychronimn,  (Rolls  edition,  ii.  387), 
'  men  of  Athene  heng  vp  ropes  in  pe 
ayer  and  men  totrede  ]>erou  and  meued 
hider  and  j>ider';  Spanish  Tragedy, 
('Temple  Dramatists,'  p.  90),  'behold 
a  man  hanging  and  tottering  and  tot- 
tering as  you  know  the  wind  will  wave 
a  man ' ;  Aschain,  Toxophilus  (ed.  Arber, 
p.  47),  '  the  pastyme  that  boys  vse  in 
the  churche  ...  to  swinge  and  totter 
in  a  belrope ' ;  Fletcher  and  Shirley, 
Nightwalker,  m.  3,  'I  would  lose  a 
limb  to  see  their  rogueships  totter';  and 
Skelton,  Magnyfycence,  1.  1936  : 

'And  some  I  make  in  a  rope  to  totter  and 

waiter, 

And   some  for  to  hange  themaelfo  in  a 
halter.' 


1.  718.  none  my  vertues. — Rightly  explained, 
'no  virtues  of  mine,'  by  the  editor, 
who  goes  on  to  give  examples  of  the 
attributive  use  of  none.  The  chief 
point  in  the  phrase  seems  to  me  the 
use  of  the  possessive  adjective,  and  I 
should  illustrate  by  1.  909,  'any  my 
requeste.' 

1.  739-743. 

They  wyll  in  no  wise  Hue  vnder  awe  .  .  . 

And  occasion  is  as  I  do  feare  me 

Your  subiectes  to  rebell  in  hope  of  lyke 

liberte. 

'This  appears  to  be  nonsense  as  it 
stands.  Probably  we  should  insert,  or 
understand,  "  to "  at  the  beginning  of 
the  line:  "and  is'  an  occasion  to  your 
subjects  to  rebel,"  i.e.  "  offers  them  an 
opportunity  [or  more  likely  a  cause] 
for  rebellion. '  Or  possibly  we  should 
read  "do  rebell,"  i.e.  "is  the  occasion 
(that)  your  subjects  do  rebel " — but  I 
do  not  think  this  likely.'  It  does  not 
seem  to  me  that  the  words  present 
much  difficulty.  I  take  '  occasion  is ' 
as  parallel  to  '  time  was '  in  All 's  Well, 
IV.  iv.  5,  '  Time  was,  I  did  him  a  desired 
office,'  and  the  infinitive  construction 
after  it  seems  to  me  of  the  same  kind 
as  in  Chaucer,  Prologue,  502,  'No 
wonder  is  a  lowed  man  to  ruste,'  or 
Spanish  Tragedy,  I.  iv.  73 : 

'  For  what  was 't  else  but  raurd'rous  cow- 
ardice 
So  many  to  oppress  one  valiant  knight  ? ' 

11.  744-746. 

And  youre  grace  knoweth  it  is  expedienle, 
Theyr  mallyce  to  increace  thus  by  suffer- 

aunce, 
For  by  that  may  chaunce  greate  incon- 

tienience  .  .  . 

'Collier  conjectured  "inexpedient," 
which  would  restore  the  sense  but  not 
the  rime.  I  suggest  "  its  inexpedi- 
ence,"  i.e.  "the  inexpediency  of  [1. 
745]."'  Both  emendations  are  alike 
open  to  the  criticism  that  they  intro- 
duce words  '  inexpedient,'  '  inexpedi- 
ence,'  which  are  not  known  to  have 
been  in  use  at  this  date.  The  earliest 
date  for  both  in  the  N.E.D.  is  1608. 
In  addition,  the  present  editor,  in  a 
moment  of  forgetfulness,  introduces 
the  pronominal  form  'its,'  of  which 
the  earliest  example  in  the  N.E.D. 


158 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


dates  from  1598.  I  should  suggest 
'[if]  it  is  expedient,'  and  to  improve 
the  rime,  if  that  is  necessary,  alter 
'  inconuenience '  to  '  inconuenient. '  Cp. 
Chaucer,  Boethius,  v.  prose  III.  1.  121 
(Skeat),  'And  yit  therfolwethan-other 
inconvenient.'  The  substantive  incon- 
venient survived  till  1645  (N.E.D.). 
On  the  other  hand,  if  we  alter  expedient 
to  expedience,  we  introduce  a  word  not 
attested  at  all  before  1593,  and  not  in 
this  sense  before  1608  (N.E.D.). 

\.  766.  Much  of  our  people  and  ientile  nation. 
—'Whether  "gentle"  or  "gentile"  is 
intended  it  is  not  easy  to  say.'  I  feel 
sure  that  the  meaning  is  'gentile.' 
Cp.  733,  etc.,  'And  eke  draw  vnto 
theyr  conuersation  ...  Of  our  people 
as  many  as  may  be,  Intendyng  to  sub- 
dew  all  gentilite.' 

1.  848.  And  when  he  •  hath  all,  he  shall  be  new 
to  begynne. — -The  last  phrase  might  be 
illustrated  by  Chaucer,  Prologue,  428, 
'Hir  frendshipe  nas  nat  newe  to 
biginne ' ;  Ascham,  Toxophilus  (ed. 
Arber,  p.  158),  'the  marke  for  the 
most  parte  new  to  begyn  agayne ' ;  and 
Brinsley,  Gmmmar  Schoole  (1612),  p. 
303,  'the  younger  schollars  are  new 
to  begin.' 

1.  985,  etc. 

'  the  merite  of  thys  is  belter 
And  God  it  more  accepteth  a  thousands 

fold 

Agaynst  whome  the  offence  is  greater 
And  of  them  that  of  iniurie  amide  not 

tell  me 
Wherefore  to  speake  somewhat  it  makes 

me  bolde. 

The  editor  says  that  tell  me  is  '  obviously 
corrupt.  The  rime  word  should  pro- 
bably be  "told"  (1  "could  not  have 
told"),  unless  by  chance  it  was 
"  coulde."  The  most  probable  inter- 
pretation appears  to  me  to  be :  "  the 
merit  of  [forgiveness]  is  the  greater, 
God  accepts  it  the  more  willingly  [on 
the  part  of  one]  against  whom  the 
offence  is  greater,  and  [extended  to- 
wards one]  who  could  not  counter- 
charge an  injury.'"  I  should  rather 
say  :  '  As  the  wrong  you  have  suffered 
at  my  hands  is  greater,  so  the  merit  of 
your  forgiving  me  is  greater,  and  more 
acceptable  to  God  [than  would  be 
similar  forgiveness  on  the  part  of  those 
who  could  not  charge  me  with  wrong].' 
L.  988 — which  does  not  rime — is  perhaps 
an  insertion  to  add  point  to  the  con- 


trast. In  this  interpretation  I  take 
'  and  '= '  than.'  Cp.  Henry  7.,  II.  iii.  10, 
'  A  made  a  finer  end  and  went  away 
and  it  had  been  any  christom  child ' ; 
Coke  Lorells  Bote  (c.  1500),  7,  '  Fayrer 
and  euer  the  halfe  strete  was,'  and 
other  examples  in  the  N.E.D.  under 
'  And,  conj.  V 

1.  1012. 

A  syr  besyde  belles,  bacon  and  somewhat  els, 
Must  nedes  haue  hanging?. 
I  believe  Grosart  to  have  been  right  in 
interpreting  the  lines,  'Ah,  sir,  besides 
bells,  bacon  and  something  else  needs 
hanging.'  The  present  editor,  who 
takes  'A  syr'  as  the  subject,  meaning 
'  a  lord,'  says  that  Grosart's  interpreta- 
tion '  makes  nonsense  of  the  passage ; 
"  besyde "  must  govern  the  whole 
phrase  "belles,  bacon  and  somewhat 
els." '  But  what  is  the  point  of  '  some- 
what els '  according  to  this  view  ? 
Take  it  as  Grosart  does,  and  we 
have  a  characteristic  piece  of  popular 
humour.  As  the  present  editor  reads 
the  lines,  'a  sir,  besides  bells,  bacon 
and  something  else,  must  needs  have 
hanging  '  —  they  are  somewhat  flat. 
And  such  a  use  of  'a  sir '  seems  to 
need  some  authority  to  render  it 
plausible. 

G.  C.  MOORE  SMITH. 


HOBSON. 

[THE  following  verses  are  here  reprinted 
from  the  well-known  collection  of  Wit 
Bestw'd,  published  in  1658.  Professor 
Masson  (in  the  '  Globe  '  edition  of  Milton's 
Works,  p.  408)  states  that  '  Several  such 
copies  of  verses  [i.e-  on  Hobson]  have  been 
recovered,'  but  does  not  specify  further. 
So  far  as  we  are  aware,  the  first  of  the 
pieces  given  below  has  not  been  reprinted 
since  its  original  appearance ;  the  second 
and  third  are,  of  course,  those  which  were 
published  in  the  first  instance  in  Milton's 
Poems  of  1645,  though  they  both  present 
important  variations.  This  is  particularly 
the  case  with  the  one  here  printed  second, 
but  which  appears  last  in  the  Poems.  It 
there  consists  of  34  lines,  of  which  only 
14  appear  in  JFit  Reslmjd,  where  it  was 
therefore  presumably  printed  from  an 
independent  source.  These  correspond  to 
11.  1-12  and  27-28  of  the  longer  version, 
with  numerous  small  differences  of  reading. 
The  other  poem  corresponds  line  for  line  in 
the  two  versions,  but  likewise  presents  a 


OBSERVATIONS 


159 


number  of  variants.  The  most  interesting 
is  in  1.  8,  which  in  the  1645  version  (and 
also  in  that  of  1672)  reads  : 

'  Dodg'd  with  him,  betwixt  Cambridge  and  the 
InlL" 

Here  the  IVil  reading  is  in  some  ways 
preferable,  for  dodged  with  is  not  a  very 
lucid  expression ;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  queer  spelling  Dog'dd  is  suspicious,  and 
almost  certainly  indicates  a  compositor's 
emendation.  The  verses  are  not  in  the 
Trinity  MS.] 

[p.  83.] 

On  the  death  of  Hobson,  the 
Cambridge-Carrier. 

HEre  Hobson  lies,  amongst  his  many  bet- 
ters, 

A  man  not  learned,  yet  of  many  Letters  ; 
The  Sohollers  well  can  justifie  as  much, 
Who  have  receiv'd  them  from  his  pregnant 

pouch, 
[p.  84.] 

His  carriage  is  well  known,  oft  has  he  gone 
An  Embassie,  'twixt  father  and  the  son. 
In  Cambridge  few  (in  good  time  be  it  spoken) 
But  will  remember  him  by  some  good  token. 
From  thence  to  London  rode  he  day  by  day, 
Till  death  benighting  him,  he  lost  his  way. 
Nor  wonder  is  it,  that  he  thus  is  gone, 
•Since  most  men  know,  he  long  was  drawing 

on. 

His  Team  was  of  the  best,  nor  could  he  have 
Them  mir'd  in  any  ground,  but  in  the  grave  ; 
And  there  he  sticks  indeed,  still  like  to  stand, 
Untill  some  Angell  lend  his  helping  hand. 
So  rests  in  peace  the  ever  toiling  Swain, 
And  supream  Waggoner,  next  Charts  hi* 

wain. 

Another  on  the  same. 

HEre  lieth  one,  who  did  most  truely  prove, 
That  he  could  never  die,  whilst  he  could 

move. 

So  hung  his  destiny,  never  to  rot, 
Whilst  he  could  but  jogg  on,  and  keep  his 

trot. 

Made  of  Sphear  mettall ,  never  to  decay, 
Untill  his  resolution  made  of  stay. 
Time  numbers  motion,  yet  without  a  crime, 
'Gainst  old  truth,  motion  numbered  out  his 

time, 
[p.  85.] 
And  like  some  Engine  mov'd,  with  wheeles 

and  weight, 

His  principles  once  ceas'd,  he  ended  streight. 
Rest,  that  gives  all  men  life,  gave  him  his 

death, 
And  too  much  breathing  put  him  out  of 

breath. 

For  had  his  doings  lasted  as  they  were 
He  had  been  an  immortall  Carrier. 

Another. 

HEre  lies  old  Hobson  !    Death  hath  his  desire, 
And  here  (alasse)  hath  left  him  in  the 

mire  ; 

Or  else  the  waies  being  foul,  twenty  to  one, 
He's  here  stuck  in  a  slough,  and  overthrown. 


'Twas  such  a  shifter,  that  if  truth  were  known, 
Death  was  half  glad  that  he  had  got  him  down. 
For  he  hath  any  time  this  ten  years  full, 
Dog'dd  him  'twixt  Cambridge  and  the  London- 
Bull. 

And  surely  death  could  never  have  prevail'd, 
Had  not  his  weekly  course  of  carriage  fail'd. 
But  lately  finding  him  so  long  at  home, 
And  thinking  now  his  journey's  end  was 

come  ; 

And  that  he  had  tane  up  his  latest  Inne, 
Death  in  the  likenesse  of  a  Chamberlin, 

[p.  86.] 
Shew'd  him  his  room,  where  he  must  lodge 

that  night, 

PulI'd  off  his  boots,  and  took  away  the  light. 
If  any  ask  for  him,  it  shall  be  sed, 
Hob.ion  has  supt,  and  newly  gon  to  bed. 

W.  BANG. 


SCATTERED  NOTES. 

Milton,  I 'Allegro,  45,  46.  It  has  been 
thought  so  strange  that  Milton  should 
make  the  lark  come  to  1'Allegro's  window 
to  bid  him  good -morrow  that  Professor 
Maason  has  tried  to  make  out  that  it  is 
not  the  lark,  but  1'Allegro  himself  who  is 
spoken  of  in  this  couplet.  Has  it  been 
noticed  that  Davenant  (whether  with 
Milton  in  mind  or  not)  makes  his  lark 
act  in  the  same  manner  as  his  prede- 
cessor's ? 

'  The  lark  now  leaves  his  watery  nest 

And  climbing,  shakes  his  dewy  wings. 
He  takes  this  window  for  the  east 

And  to  implore  your  light  he  sings, 
"  Awake,  awake  !  "  ' 

Milton,  Sonnet  viii.  13.  'Sad  Electra's 
poet.'  Mr.  Bell  remarks,  'The  adjective 
"  sad "  is  sometimes  taken  as  qualifying 
poet.'  It  is  worth  while  then  to  refer  to  a 
line  of  Drummond's  Tears  on  the  death  of 
Mceliades  (i.e.  Prince  Henry),  c.  1613,  which 
perhaps  suggested  Milton's  own  line  : 

'And  sad   Electra's  sisters   who   still  weep 
Mocliades.' 

The  following  passage  in  Joseph  Swet- 
nam's  Araignment  of  Women,  1615,  ch.  iii., 
seems  to  be  suggested  by  Hamlet  I.  iv. 
19-38:  'like  as  when  men  talke  of  such 
a  man  or  such  a  man  he  is  an  excellent 
good  workeman,  or  he  is  a  good  Chirurgian, 
or  a  good  Phisition,  or  he  is  a  pretty 
fellowe  of  his  hands,  but  if  they  conclude 
with  this  word,  but  it  is  a  pitty  he  hath 
one  fault,  which  commonly  in  some  men 
is  drunkennesse,  then  I  say,  if  he  were 
endued  with  all  the  former  quallities,  yet 
they  cannot  gaine  him  so  much  credit  to 
counterpoise  the  discredite  that  commeth 
thereby.'  G.  C.  MOORE  SMITH. 


160 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


REVIEWS 


A  History  of  Criticism  and  Literary 
Taste  in  Europe  from  the  Earliest 
Times  to  the  Present  Day.  By 

GEORGE  SAINTSBURY.  Vol.  III.  Modern 
Criticism.  Edinburgh  :  W.  Blackwood 
and  Sons.  1904.  [20s.net.]1 

WITH  an  industry  which  cannot  be  too 
warmly  appreciated,  Professor  Saintsbury 
has  brought  his  monumental  task  to  a  con- 
clusion within  four  years  of  the  appearance 
of  the  first  volume.  Whatever  attitude  we 
may  take  up  to  the  work,  we  must  frankly 
admit  that,  of  books  dealing  in  a  compre- 
hensive way  with  the  literature  of  Europe 
as  a  whole,  this  is  the  most  ambitious  that 
has  appeared  in  England  for  some  years. 
Professor  Saintsbury  has  brought  together 
a  vast  amount  of  valuable  material  which 
had  never  before  been  collected — never, 
certainly  in  a  single  work — and  has  given 
us  a  clearly  defined  personal  judgment  on 
that  material.  This  is  something  to  be 
grateful  for  in  these  days  of  second-hand 
scholarship,  and  of  what  in  this  volume  is 
called  '  shoddy ing-up.' 

Professor  Saintsbury  has  already  had 
bouts  with  his  critics  as  to  the  definition 
and  scope  of  his  work ;  but  in  volumes  i. 
and  ii.  he  so  often  gave  us  more  than  he 
promised  that  it  has  been  somewhat  diffi- 
cult to  keep  in  view  what  that  promise  was. 
The  clearest  idea  of  the  scope  of  the  book 
is,  I  think,  to  be  gained  from  the  chapter,  in 
the  centre  of  which  stands  Coleridge,  a 
writer  whom  Professor  Saintsbury  boldly 
places  beside  Aristotle  and  Longinus  as  one 
of  the  greatest  critics  in  the  world's  litera- 
ture. '  The  critic,'  says  Mr.  Saintsbury  in 
connection  with  Coleridge  (p.  221),  'does 
his  best  work,  not  in  elaborating  theories 
which  will  constantly  break  down  or  lead 
him  wrong  when  they  come  into  contact 
with  the  myriad-sided  elusiveness  of  art 
and  humanity,  but  in  examining  individual 
writers  or  groups  of  work,  and  in  letting 
his  critical  steel  strike  the  fire  of  mediate 
axioms  and  aper^is  from  the  flint  of  these.' 
Obviously  it  is  just  this  particular  type  of 
the  critical  ingenium,  of  which  Coleridge  is 
a  brilliant  example,  that  is  the  subject  of 

1  Reviews  of  volumes  i.  anrl  ii.  appeared  in  the 
Modern  Language  Quarterly,  vol.  iv.  p.  7,  and 
vol.  vi.  p.  67. 


this  work.  This  is  a  history,  not  of  criti- 
cism in  the  wide  application  of  the  word, 
but  of  the  critical  aperfu,  in  other  words, 
of  criticism  as  a  manifestation  or  function 
of  the  poetic  rather  than  the  philosophic  or 
scientific  genius.  It  is  an  account  of  those 
representatives  of  critical  opinion  who  have 
had  the  art  of  giving  pregnant  and  ingeni- 
ous expression  to  their  individual  thoughts 
about  poets  and  poetry,  not  of  the  men  of 
scientifically  trained  minds  or  historically 
moulded  judgment;  it  is  a  history  of  criti- 
cism which  gives  a  higher  place  to  Joubert 
and  Novalis  than  to  Taiue  and  Schlegel. 

It  is,  of  course,  futile  to  quarrel  with  the 
author  for  not  having  done  what  he  had  no 
intention  of  doing,  but  the  book  suffers  in 
more  ways  than  one  from  its  restrictions. 
It  is  a  big  book  on  a  big  subject,  but,  by 
excluding  all  consideration  of  'philosophical' 
criticism  or  aesthetic  theory,  ProfessorSaints- 
bury  cuts  himself  off  from  the  possibility  of 
treating  the  subject  in  a  big  way.  He  is 
obliged  to  restrict  himself  to  heaping  up 
details;  he  gives  us  studies  on  hundreds  of 
individual  critics ;  but  we  miss  that  wide 
'  philosophic '  outlook,  which  is  the  best 
antidote  to  the  'grubbing'  methods  our 
author  abhors ;  he  ignores  the  background 
of  aesthetic  ideas,  of  poetic  theory,  by 
which  alone  the  intricate  relationships  of 
the  individual  phenomena  of  criticism  are 
made  clear.  Professor  Saintsbury's  method 
does  not  profess  to  be  either  historical  in 
the  modern  significance  of  the  word  or 
scientific,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  does  he 
aim  at  'characterising,'  in  the  sense  in 
which  the  Schlegels  used  the  expression. 
He  approaches  his  subject  rather  in  the 
spirit  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  he  sets 
up,  just  as  the  critics  of  that  age  did,  his 
own  standard  of  what  criticism  is  or  ought 
to  be,  and  makes  no  allowance  for  the 
varying  definitions  of  criticism  and  literary 
taste  in  past  centuries.  If  the  facts  do  not 
fit  into  his  Procrustean  bed,  so  much  the 
worse  for  the  facts.  He  is  no  friend  of 
modern  conceptions  of  literary  evolution, 
of  the  influence  of  race  and  milieu,  of  the 
interdependence  of  ideas,  and  prefers  rather 
to  judge  each  author  purely  on  his  own 
merits.  Admirable  is  Professor  Saints- 
bury's constant  insistence  on  a  faee-to-face 
knowledge  of  the  sources,  but  he  limits 


REVIEWS 


1G1 


himself  too  much  to  these  first  documents. 
He  refuses  to  accept  aid  from  fellow-workers 
in  the  field ;  he  puts  himself,  in  other  words, 
in  the  position  of  an  inventor  who  wishes 
to  improve  upon  the  steam-engine  or  the 
telegraph,  but  declines  to  avail  himself  of 
the  knowledge  which  has  resulted  in  the 
existing  state  of  perfection  of  these  inven- 
tions. Take,  for  instance,  his  pages  on 
Lessing.  If  there  is  any  critic  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  on  whom  modern  scholarship 
has  attained  something  approaching  finality 
of  judgment,  it  is  surely  Lessing;  no  other 
writer  of  that  age  has  been  so  well  and  so 
exhaustively  written  about.  But  Mr.  Saints- 
bury  ignores  all  this ;  he  takes  his  Lessing 
down  from  the  shelves  and  allows  no  third 
person  to  interpose  between  himself  and 
the  object  of  his  study  or,  at  most,  he  con- 
sults Kant's  Lessing  et  I'AntiquiU.  The 
result  is  that  much  of  what  he  has  to  tell  us 
about  Lessing  is  platitudinous,  and  still 
more  has  been  rendered  meaningless  by  the 
labours  of  other  scholars. 

The  present  volume  on  modern  criticism 
suffers  more  than  its  predecessors  from  the 
author's  refusal  to  take  account  of  the  general 
testhetic  movement — using  the  term,  of 
course,  in  its  widest  "signification.  Indeed, 
the  very  men  who  stand  out  as  landmarks  in 
the  evolution  of  the  modern  attitude  to- 
wards poetry  are  ruled  out  of  court,  because 
Mr.  Saintsbury  will  have  nothing  to  do  with 
'  philosophic '  criticism.  In  the  two  or  three 
pages,  for  instance,  which  are  devoted  to 
Vico  and  Herder,  there  is  nothing  to  indi- 
cate that  these  pioneers,  with  whom  one 
might  reasonably  expect  a  volume  on  modern 
criticism  to  begin,  were  forces  of  the  first 
order  in  moulding  'literary  criticism 
and  taste.'  Instead,  we  read  :  '  The  argu- 
ments against  any  very  full  treatment  of 
Herder  in  such  a  book  as  this  are  twenty- 
legion  strong,'  and  the  influence  of  the 
Sdenza  nuova,  on  the  form  of  criticism  to 
which  Professor  Saintsbury  limits  himself, 
is  dismissed  as  '  malign  or  null.'  What 
has  been  said  of  Professor  Saintsbury's 
ignoring  of  historical  development  is  further 
exemplified  by  the  fact  that  not  merely 
Hamann  and  Herder,  but  also  the  brothers 
Schlegel  are  all  huddled  together  in  a 
chapter  which  follows,  instead  of  preceding, 
that  on  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge  and  the 
French  tcole  romantique.  That  the  Schlegels 
inaugurated  a  new  epoch  in  literary  criti- 
cism by  revolutionising  the  standpoint  of 
the  critic  towards  the  criticised,  there  is 
not  a  hint,  and  instead,  Novalis,  who  might 
reasonably  have  been  left  out  altogether,  is 


pinnacled  as  a  master.  The  consideration 
of  Hegel's  influence  on  the  general  European 
attitude  towards  poetry  lay,  needless  to 
say,  beyond  Professor  Saintsbury's  province, 
but  had  he  taken  count  of  it,  it  would  have 
helped  to  bring  a  certain  order  into  his 
rather  chaotic  grouping  of  the  earlier  nine- 
teenth century  ;  he  has  equally  little  to  say 
of  the  rise  of  individualism  and  the  stimulus 
it  gave  to  criticism  at  the  end  of  his  period, 
although  actual  phenomena  due  to  the 
movement  are  discussed  by  him  with  warm 
personal  sympathy.  Even  Taine,  to  whom 
most  historians  of  criticism  would  be 
disposed  to  give  the  chief  place  in  this 
latter  period,  is  summarily  dismissed  in 
some  four  pages ;  he  also  is  no  critic  accord- 
ing to  the  definition  of  the  work. 

Professor  Saintsbury  has  laboured  hard  to 
be  just  to  his  old  bugbears,  the  Germans;  and 
an  improvement  is  noticeable  between  the 
close  of  volume  ii.,  where  the  Gottsched- 
Bodmer  controversy  was  dismissed  with  a 
few  flippant  words,  and  the  beginning  of  the 
present  volume,  where  he  returns  again  to 
the  same  theme  in  a  more  serious  mood. 
But  Professor  Saintsbury  has  too  essentially 
the  Latin  bent  of  mind  to  appreciate  the 
Teutonic  spirit,  and  I  cannot  help  thinking 
that  his  work  would  have  gained  in  weight 
had  it  been  possible  to  have  excluded 
Germany  altogether  from  consideration. 
Here,  however,  his  frank  confession  on 
page  563  disarms  criticism. 

In  matters  of  detail  there  is  much  in  this 
history  that  is  admirable ;  Mr.  Saints- 
bury's judgments,  whether  we  agree  with 
them  or  not,  are  always  stimulating;  and 
dull  the  book  is  not.  But  his  method  is 
against  him,  and  I  am  afraid  he  has  brought 
us  after  all  but  a  little  way  towards  the 
comprehensive  survey  of  European  criticism, 
which  is  still  a  desideratum. 

J.  G.  ROBERTSON. 


Elizabethan  Critical  Essays.  Edited 
with  an  Introduction  by  G.  GREGORY 
SMITH.  Oxford :  Clarendon  Press. 
1904.  2  vols. 

IN  the  two  volumes  before  us  Mr.  Gregory 
Smith  gives  a  very  useful  collection  of 
Critical  Essays  published  in  England  within 
the  years  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  Ho 
prefaces  the  collection  with  an  Introduction, 
and  completes  it  with  Notes  and  an  Index. 
Comparing  Mr.  Gregory  Smith's  work 
with  Hasle  wood's  Ancient  Critical  Essays  upon 
English  Poets  and  Poesy,  London,  1811-15, 


162 


THE  MODEEN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


we  find  that  it  includes  all  the  essays  pub- 
lished by  Haslewood  which  fall  within  the 
period  named,  and  in  addition  contribu- 
tions by  Sir  Philip  Sidney  (Haslewood  ex- 
cused himself  for  not  reprinting  Sidney's 
Apology  on  the  ground  that  it  had  been 
lately  edited  by  Lord  Thurlow),  Ascham, 
Willes,  Whetstone,  Lodge,  Gabriel  Harvey 
(from  the  Letter-book  and  Four  Letters], 
'  E.  K.,'  Stanyhurst,  Abraham  Fraunce, 
Nashe,  Hoby,  Carew,  Chapman,  Vaughan, 
Ben  Jonson,  and  the  authors  of  the  Return 
from  Parnassus.  The  new  collection  is  there- 
fore far  more  complete  than  the  old  one. 
Against  this  we  have  only  to  say  that 
whereas  Haslewood  prints  his  works  in  full, 
Mr.  Gregory  Smith  occasionally  makes  large 
omissions,  e.g.  in  the  case  of  Puttenham's 
Arte  of  English  Poesie,  which  we  should  have 
been  glad  to  have  in  its  entirety.  Mr. 
Gregory  Smith  also  modernizes  the  punc- 
tuation, and  occasionally  emends  the  lan- 
guage of  his  texts.  This  is  no  doubt  an 
advantage  to  the  general  reader,  but  it 
prevents  his  essays  having  the  character  of 
facsimiles  to  the  same  extent  as  those 
published  by  Haslewood. 

The  matter  of  the  omissions  is  more 
serious.  It  is  perfectly  true  that  consider- 
able portions  of  the  essays  in  question  do 
not  strictly  conform  to  the  editor's  notion 
of  literary  criticism,  and  from  one  point  of 
view  therefore  he  is  justified  in  the  course 
he  has  adopted.  If  his  task  had  been 
either  the  compilation  of  an  anthology  of 
the  '  Beauties  of  Criticism,'  or  the  collection 
of  such  a  series  of  critical  documents  as 
Professor  Saintsbury's  admirable  Loci  Critici, 
this  argument  would  have  been  final.  But 
Mr.  Gregory  Smith  would,  we  fancy,  be  the 
first  to  admit  that  his  task  was  not  that, 
but  the  editing  of  certain  critical  texts. 
We  were  therefore  justified  in  expecting 
that  his  edition,  produced  with  all  the 
advantages  of  modern  scholarship  by  an 
editor  of  quite  undoubted  ability,  would 
supersede  the  earlier  ones  of  the  works  it 
included.  Owing  to  the  omissions,  it  does 
no  such  thing,  but  only  takes  a  place 
alongside  of  the  works  of  Haslewood,  Arber, 
etc.  This  fact  detracts  to  a  very  serious 
degree,  indeed,  from  the  value  of  the  pub- 
lication. 

In  assigning  the  Arte  of  English  Poesie  to 
George  Puttenham,  Mr.  Gregory  Smith 
apparently  ignores  the  strong  argument  by 
which  Mr.  Sidney  Lee  in  the  D.N.B.  sup- 
ports the  claim  of  the  elder  brother  Richard 
Puttenham  to  the  authorship  of  this  anony- 
mous treatise.  In  this  he  is  at  one  with 


Professor  Saintsbury,  who  in  his  History  of 
Criticism  (ii.  176)  states  that  the  work  '(on 
rather  weak  evidence,  but  with  no  counter- 
claimant)  is  usually  attributed  to  George 
Puttenham.'  Has  it  been  noticed  that  a 
copy  of  the  work  in  the  British  Museum 
(1077  f.  3)  has  on  the  titlepage — in  a  hand 
which  may  be  contemporary — 'putenham  '  ? 
Unfortunately  the  anonymous  writer  does 
not  say  which  Puttenham  he  held  to  be 
the  author. 

Mr.  Gregory  Smith's  Introduction  is  an 
able  attempt  to  find  the  One  in  the  Many, 
that  is,  to  obtain  from  the  rather  mis- 
cellaneous essays  general  conclusions  on 
the  sources,  the  tendencies,  and  character 
of  Elizabethan  critical  thought.  It  cannot 
be  said  that  the  Introduction  is  easy  read- 
ing—  the  expression  is  perhaps  a  little 
laboured,  and  sometimes  ambiguous — but 
the  essay  is  the  unmistakable  work  of  a 
scholar  well  equipped  with  the  learning  and 
insight  necessary  to  his  task,  and  it  will 
well  repay  careful  study. 

The  author  shows  that  the  moving  cause 
of  much  of  the  literature  with  which  he 
deals  was  the  Puritan  attack  on  poets  and 
poetry.  He  ingeniously  suggests  that  the 
prevalent  '  classical '  spirit  of  the  apologists 
was  in  part  due  to  the  necessity  laid  upon 
them  of  justifying  poetry  on  moral  grounds. 
To  do  so  they  were  led  to  throw  over  the 
romances  and  popular  poetry  of  modern 
times,  and  to  affirm  that  the  truest  poetry 
was  that  of  the  ancients.  Further,  the  need 
of  justifying  poetry  took  them  back  to  the 
ancient  critical  writers — Aristotle,  Horace, 
Quintilian,  etc.  From  them  they  deduced 
the  importance  of  'Decorum'  as  an  element 
in  a  literary  work,  and,  especially  in  their 
application  of  the  '  Decorum  theory  '  to  the 
drama,  set  up  a  literary  code  which  re- 
mained at  variance  with  literary  practice 
till  it  saw  its  day  of  triumph  with  the 
coming  of  Dryden  and  the  '  correct '  school. 
In  pointing  out  this  connexion  of  Dryden's 
movement  with  the  earlier  critical  move- 
ment, Mr.  Gregory  Smith  seems  to  us  to 
have  stated  a  truth  not  so  clearly  expressed 
before.  The  classical  temper  of  the  apolo- 
gists was  again  shown  in  the  sympathy 
accorded  by  many  of  them  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  classical  prosody  and  the  banishment 
of  rime.  Mr.  Gregory  Smith's  chapter  on 
this  phase  is  excellent,  especially  his  clear 
statement  of  Gabriel  Harvey's  position  as  a 
'  moderate '  in  the  movement,  who  insisted 
that  however  much  one  scans  by  quantity, 
the  natural  accent  of  English  words  is  not 
to  be  ignored.  Mr.  Gregory  Smith  clearly 


REVIEWS  163 


sees  that  the  common  designation  of  Harvey 
as  a  mere  pedant  carries  with  it  a  great 
injustice  to  him.  After  a  chapter  in  which 
the  author  deals  with  what  may  be  called 
the  'romantic'  elements  in  Elizabethan 
criticism,  he  concludes  with  an  examination 
of  the  debts  incurred  by  the  critics  to 
their  classical,  Italian,  French,  and  English 
predecessors. 

Before  leaving  the  Introduction,  we  will 
only  ask  if  '  Mysomousoi '  (p.   xv)  should 
not  be  '  Misomousoi,'  and  suggest  a  doubt  if 
Mr.   Gregory  Smith   has  correctly  under- 
stood two  passages  which  he  quotes.     One 
(p.  xxxvii)   is  in   a  letter  of   Harvey    to 
Spenser,  '  as  if  the  world  had  nothing  else 
for  us  to  do,  or  we  were  born  to  be  the 
only  Nonproficients  and  Nihilagents  of  the 
world.'     We  do  not  think  Harvey  is  here 
merely  confessing  that  their  metrical  dis- 
cussions were  only  experimental :  he  seems 
to   us   to   be  contrasting  all  literary  dis- 
cussion unfavourably  with  action.    Harvey's 
marginalia  in  many  of  his  books  show  that 
this  was  a  constant  thought  with  him.     He 
had   drunk  to  the  full  the   Machiavellian 
doctrine  of  rertu.     The  other  point  is  the 
interpretation  put  by  Mr.  Gregory  Smith 
on  some  words  of  Nashe— '[Harvey]  is  less 
severe  in  his  attack  on  rhyme  than  on  the 
loose  rhythm  of  the  line :   and  this  gives 
some  point  to  Nashe's  taunt  that  he  was 
clapped  in  the  Fleet  for  a  rhymer.'    Nashe, 
I  believe,  had  no  intention  here  of  entering 
into  the  controversy  on  the  merits  of  rime 
and  classical  verse :  he  used  '  rimer '  as  a 
contemptuous   term  for  a  bad  poet.     Cp. 
Du   Bellay,   Defense,    chap,    xi.,    (et    vous 
autres  si  mal  equippez,  dont  1'ignorance  a 
donn6  le  ridicule  nom  de  Rymeurs  a  nostre 
langue  (comme  les  Latins  appellent  leurs 
mauvais  poiites  versificateurs).'      We  may 
remark,    by    the    way,    that    Du    Bellay 's 
Defense  in  clearness  and  strength  of  thought 
seems  to  us  on  a  higher  level  than  any  of 
the  English  essays  here  collected.     Finally, 
we  must  draw  attention  to  an   oversight 
on    page    I,    where    the    'Complaint    of 
Cadwallader,'  in  the  Mirrw  for  Magistrates, 
is  said  to  be  composed  in  accentual  hexa- 
meters.     The   poem   is   in  unrimed   alex- 
andrines. 

Note  6  on  page  Ixxvi  should  read  '  See 
notes  to  i.  68  (not  168),  25,  and  80  (not 
180),  7.' 

To  touch  on  n  few  points  in  the  rest  of 
the  book. 

I.  107,  1.  19.  The  original  edition,  we  must 
suppose,  reads  '  Tuscanisme.'     But  is 


it  not  probable  that  both  here  and  in 
the  passage  given,  II.  p.  250,  1.  11, 
Harvey  wrote  '  Tuscanismo '  ?  Cp. 
II.  p.  430,  1.  8. 

I.  358.  Mr.  Gregory  Smith  has  done  very 
happily  in   printing  in   his   notes   to 
Gascoigne's  Notes    of   Instruction    the 
marginalia      contained      in      Gabriel 
Harvey's   copy,  now  in  the  Bodleian 
Library.      He   discriminates  them  in 
the  following  manner :   '  The  notes  in 
Gabriel  Harvey's  hand  are  here  marked 
(H) :  others  on  the  same  copy,  which 
appear  to  be  in  a  hand  rather  older 
than  Harvey's,   are  marked  (N).'      If 
there   is  any  doubt  whether   all   the 
notes  are  in  the  same  hand,  the  course 
taken   is   the   best   possible.     At  the 
same  time,  having  twice  examined  the 
book,    and    seen    other    books     with 
Harvey's  marginalia,  we  believe  that 
all   the  notes  are   in  his   hand.      He 
obtained  the   book  in    1577,  and   he 
lived  till  1631.      It  would,  therefore, 
be  not  surprising  if  his  handwriting 
differed  somewhat  at  different  dates — 
and  it  was  certainly  his  habit  to  add  to 
his   marginalia  on   a   second   reading. 
We  nuiy  note  that  as  the  book  was  not 
published  till  1575,  and  Harvey  came 
into    possession    'Cal.     Sept.     1577,' 
there  was  not  much  time  for  a  previous 
owner  to  have  had  it,  and  of  such  an 
owner  there   is,  we   believe,  no   real 
trace.     It  will  be  seen  that  the  notes 
marked  'N'  are  just  as  characteristi- 
cally Harvey's  as  those  marked   'H,' 
e.g.    p.    360,    top,    '  The    natural!  and 
ordinary  Emphasis  of  euery  word,  as 
uio!6ntly,  not  uiolently.'    We  take  it, 
moreover,  that  the  '  H  '  note  given  on 
p.    360,    'Sir   Philip   Sidney   and   M. 
Spenser,  of  mie  opinion,'  refers  to  the 
preceding  'N'  note,  'A  greater  grace 
and   Maiesty   in   longer  wordes,  etc.' 
If  this  is  so,  of  course  the  identity  of 
the  two  hands  is  proved.     (On  p.  350, 
middle,  '  Bartesius '  should,  I  think,  be 
'  Bartasi'.is '  (i.e.   Du   Bartas),  and  on 
p.  360,  middle,  '  Gobling,'  '  hobling '). 

I.  376,  412,  II.  435.  The  Saffron  Walden 

Registers  show  that  Richard  Harvey 
was  born  in  1560,  and  John  Harvey 
early  in  1564,  and  that  Gabriel  Harvey 
was  buried  llth  Feb.  1631  (not  1630, 
the  year  commonly  given  for  his  death.) 

II.  170,  6  lines  from  bottom.  '  The  Glorious.' 

Should  be  '  The  Gorgions.' 


164 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


II.  p.  442.  '  William  Chaderton  of  Pem- 
broke College,  Cambridge.'  More 
correctly  '  of  Pembroke  Hall.'  Before 
he  had  taken  his  M.A.,  however,  he 
became  a  Fellow  of  Christ's  (1558),  and 
ten  years  later,  President  of  Queens'. 

These  points  are  very  trifling,  and  we 
have  pleasure  in  congratulating  Mr.  Gregory 
Smith  on  his  very  thorough  and  pains- 
taking editing  of  his  well-chosen  texts. 
He  has  provided,  moreover,  an  excellent 
Index.  [It  is  unfortunate  that  we  cannot 
extend  our  congratulations  to  the  Clarendon 
Press  on  their  share  in  the  production. 
The  volumes  have  the  appearance  of  being 
intended  as  companions  to  those  of  Pro- 
fessor Ker's  Essays  of  Dnjden,  with  which 
they  do  not,  however,  exactly  range  either 
in  size  or  style.  The  volumes,  moreover, 
are  far  too  thick  for  their  size,  and  the 
boards  far  too  thin  for  the  thickness  of 
the  volumes.  Lastly,  the  binder  has  been 
allowed  to  '  split '  the  head  and  tail  at  the 
back  in  sewing,  which  means  that  no  copy 
which  receives  the  use  the  book,  as  a  critical 
and  literary  work,  undoubtedly  deserves,  will 
be  fit  to  be  used  at  all  at  the  end  of  a  few 
years.  This  is  a  practice  which  the  Oxford 
Press  has  recently  allowed  in  a  number  of 
its  works,  and  in  the  case  of  a  firm 
which  is  justly  proud  of  the  appearance 
of  the  books  it  turns  out,  it  is  par- 
ticularly to  be  regretted.  No  lovers  of 
good  workmanship  can  have  anything  but 
unqualified  condemnation  for  the  produc- 
tions of  the  University  of  Oxford,  until 
those  whom  it  places  in  authority  over  its 
publishing  business  reform  altogether  this 
wanton  and  pernicious  habit. — Ed.] 

G.  C.  M.  S. 


The  Literature  of  the  French  Re- 
naissance. By  ARTHUR  TILLEY, 
M.A.,  Fellow  and  Lecturer  of  King's 
College,  Cambridge.  Two  vols.  Cam- 
bridge, at  the  University  Press.  1904. 

IT  is  human  to  be  vexed  at  the  un- 
finished ;  and  perhaps  there  is  no  incom- 
pleteness that  a  man  oftener  wishes  com- 
pleted than  that  of  an  unfinished  book. 
Therefore  it  was  a  good  hearing  that  Mr. 
Tilley's  Literature  of  the  French  Renaissance, 
the  pilot  volume  of  which  appeared  long 
ago,  was  at  last,  'late  in  the  twentieth 
year,'  to  become  an  accomplished  fact ;  and 
it  was  all  the  more  so  that  the  original  in- 


stalment or  specimen  was  of  high  promise 
and  of  no  low  substantive  performance. 

The  author  (perhaps  of  necessity,  for  the 
format  of  the  '  Introductory  Essay  '  would 
have  been  rather  inconveniently  small  for 
the  completed  work)  has  changed  the  out- 
ward shape  of  his  book.  Whether  his  general 
plan  has  undergone  any  modifications  we 
do  not  know ;  but  he  would  be  an  excep- 
tional person  if  it  had  not  done  so  in  a 
couple  of  decades.  Yet  there  is  no  neces- 
sity even  in  this.  That  the  Essay  should 
have  been  of  a  more  general  and  sweeping 
character,  the  work  itself  more  '  compart- 
mented,'  more  divided  into  separate  though 
interdependent  handlings  of  individuals, 
schools,  and  kinds,  is  in  no  way  surprising. 
Perhaps — for  it  is  almost  inevitable  that 
the  reader  should  wish  that  his  author  had 
given  him  something  more,  though  it  is 
questionably  competent  for  him  to  demand 
something  else — we  could  desire  a  fuller 
Conclusion — something  more  on  the  scale 
of  the  Introduction  itself.  But,  after  all, 
this  is  unreasonable,  for  all  the  materials  of 
such  a  conclusion  are  amply  supplied  in  the 
body  of  the  book,  and  it  is  only  idleness, 
want  of  interest,  or  want  of  intelligence 
that  can  fail  to  draw  them. 

For  the  fact  is  that  Mr.  Tilley  has  here 
provided  an  example  of  literary  history 
most  thoroughly  done,  and  very  decidedly 
wanted  and  wanting  hitherto.  As  he  justly 
allows,  nothing  could  have  been  better  as 
far  as  it  went  than  Darmesteter  and  Hatz- 
feld's  volume  of  five-and-twenty  years  ago. 
But  the  scheme  of  that  volume  necessitated 
the  devoting  of  by  far  the  greater  part  of 
its  space  to  illustrative  extracts  and  to 
purely  linguistic  matter :  the  literature 
proper,  though  admirably,  was  not  quite 
adequately,  treated.  And  he  is  not  less 
just,  though  less  complimentary,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  large  volume  devoted  to  the  six- 
teenth century  in  M.  Petit  de  Julleville's 
great  co-operative  History.  With  certain 
excellent  exceptions,  which  Mr.  Tilley  does 
not  fail  to  make,  that  volume  is  a  con- 
spicuous example  of  the  general  fault  of  the 
book— the  failure  to  '  join  flats '  completely 
on  the  part  of  the  different  contributors— 
and  of  its  too  frequent  neglect  of  those  minor 
figures,  without  due  consideration  of  whom 
literary  histories  can  never  be  written 
satisfactorily.  On  the  other  hand,  a  con- 
nected and  adequate  survey  of  the  matter 
was  very  much  wanted,  and  nowhere  more 
than  in  England.  Spasmodic  attempts 
have,  indeed,  at  different  times  during  the 
last  half-century,  been  made  to  enlighten 


REVIEWS 


165 


English  darkness  on  parts  of  the  subject — 
Marot,  the  Pleiade,  and  a  few  others — 
where  it  previously  existed ;  while  there  has 
been  a  very  fair  knowledge  amongst  us  of 
the  greatest  authors,  Rabelais  and  Mon- 
taigne. But  this  knowledge  has  been 
much  unco-ordinated ;  and  while  French 
literature  is  notoriously  the  literature  of 
Europe  which  has  always  proceeded  by 
schools,  and  kinds,  and  periods,  and  which 
therefore  insists  upon  being  treated  by 
periods,  and  kinds,  and  schools,  if  it  is  to  be 
understood,  there  is  perhaps  no  period  in 
the  whole  eight  hundred  years  of  the  story 
which  demands  this  co-ordinated  attention 
so  persistently  and  inexorably  as  that  of  the 
Renaissance.  Rabelais  himself  pretty  ob- 
viously, even  Montaigne  more  insidiously 
but  as  certainly,  require  knowledge  of  what 
the  lesser  men  around  and  before  them 
were  doing  and  thinking.  Take  them  with 
confident  ignorance  as  writers  for  all  time, 
whom  any  time  can  automatically  under- 
stand, and  you  will  certainly  fail  to  under- 
stand them  fully;  you  will  be  extremely 
clever  and  extremely  lucky  if  you  do  not 
fatally  misunderstand  them. 

Now  this  necessary  provision  of  know- 
ledge of  the  whole  Mr.  Tilley  has  given 
with  thorough  industry  and  patience,  with 
excellent  clearness,  and  with  an  apparatus 
of  documentary  and  bibliographical  learning 
which  ought  to  satisfy  the  veriest  Dryas- 
dust. Many  of  the  minor  authors  here 
dealt  with  are  by  no  means  easy  of  access 
— the  inestimable  adventure  of  the  Biblio- 
thl'que  EMviricnne  in  the  third  quarter  of 
the  nineteenth  century  not  having  met  with 
support  enough,  apparently,  to  justify  per- 
severance to  the  end.  And  the  second-hand 
literature — the  writing  '  about  them  and 
about  them  ' — multiplies  in  its  usual  appal- 
ling fashion  from  year  to  year.  But  Mr. 
Tilley  has  grappled  with  all,  and  his  treat- 
ment and  digestion  are  so  thorough  that  we 
do  not  think  anything  more  than  an  easily 
added  Appendix,  of  accruing  discussion  and 
discovery  from  time  to  time,  can  be  wanted 
to  keep  the  book  a  standard. 

In  reviewing  such  a  book  there  is  always 
the  difficulty  of  steering  between  mere 
generality  and  a  descent  into  details  which 
the  reader  cannot  follow,  and  may  justly 
find  unappetising.  Mr.  Tilley's  criticism 
appears  as  generally  sane  and  just  as  his 
knowledge  is  exhaustive.  Some  might  per- 
haps desiderate  a  little  more  summing-up  of 
the  general  literary  features  of  individuals, 
books,  and  kinds.  Now  this  is,  of  course,  very 
much  a  matter  of  taste ;  and  the  element 


is  by  no  means  wanting,  while  what  there  is 
of  it  is  very  good.  But  we  should,  to 
give  an  instance,  have  liked  a  fuller  and 
more  definite  treatment  of  that  curious 
kind,  the  sixteenth-century  fatmsie,  from  its 
apotheosis  in  Garganlua  and  Panlagruel  to 
its  apotheriosis  (if  anybody  likes  to  put  it 
that  way)  in  Le  Moyen  de  Parvenir.  It  is 
not  that  Mr.  Tilley  in  the  least  fails  to 
appreciate  Rabelais  as  a  prophet  of  the 
great  god  Nonsense  ;  on  the  contrary,  he 
relishes  him  thoroughly  in  this  phase,  and 
one  of  the  best  and  most  sensible  passages 
of  the  book  is  a  protest  against  the  modern 
tendency  to  see  in  Master  Francis  a  sort  of 
Marcus  Aurelius  in  motley,  with  the  motley 
entirely  detachable  and  extraneous.  _  Still, 
we  do  not  find  (though  we  may  have  missed) 
a  discussion  of  this  fatrasie,  this  fantastic 
miscellany,  this  apparently  and,  in  part, 
really  nonsense-composition,  which  sticks  at 
no  buffoonery,  no  extravagance,  no  coarse- 
ness, as  a  thing  which  even  Rabelais  him- 
self rather  exemplifies  than  invents,  as  an 
important  and  widely  pervading  phase 
of  the  literature  of  the  time,  and  as  some- 
thing which  made  a  permanent  niche  for 
itself  in  all  literature,  and  has  served  as  a 
pattern  to  writers  of  very  different  ages 
and  characters  to  the  present  day. 

But  we  are  slipping  into  that  sin  which 
doth  so  easily  beset  the  reviewer,  and  talk- 
ing of  what  is  not  here  instead  of  what  is. 
What  is,  is  abundant  in  quantity,  scholarly 
in  arrangement,  amply  satisfactory  in 
quality  and  kind.  All  students  of  the 
greater  and  better -known  men  and 
things  of  the  time  must  reckon  with  Mr. 
Tilley  for  his  additions,  original  and  col- 
lected, to  the  treatment  of  these  matters; 
they  must  go  to  him  (and  can  do  so  almost 
for  the  first  time  in  English)  to  learn  the 
atmosphere,  the  general  conditions,  the 
minor  details  and  features  of  the  subject. 
Not  a  few  attempts  have  been  made  lately 
to  remove  the  reproach  that  England,  not 
content  with  having  only  one  sauce  in 
melted  butter,  was  content  to  have  only  one 
historian  in  literature  in  Hallam.  But  no 
one  has  made  his  own  attempt  more  solidly, 
more  systematically,  and  more  successfully 
than  Mr.  Tilley  has  done  in  this  book. 

GEORGE  SAINTSBUKY. 


The     Nibelungenlied     and     Gudrun 
in    England    and   America.      By 

FRANCIS  E.  SANDBACH.    London :  D. 
Nutt.     1903.     Pp.  vi  +  200.     10s.  6d. 


166 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


ALL  students  of  medieval  German  litera- 
ture owe  Mr.  Sandbach  a  great  debt  of 
gratitude  for  the  production  of  this  most 
useful  book.  During  its  compilation  the 
libraries  of  London,  Oxford,  and  Cambridge 
have  been  laid  under  contribution  by  the 
writer,  who  was  granted  a  Certificate  of 
Original  Research  by  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge on  its  completion.  Its  main  purpose 
is  '  to  make  a  contribution  of  material  to  the 
future  historian  of  the  literary  relations 
between  the  English  and  German  speaking 
peoples,  by  placing  on  record  exactly  what 
attention  has  been  paid  in  England  and 
America  to  the  two  great  national  epics  of 
Germany.'  Incidentally  Mr.  Sandbach  hopes 
to  afford  'some  help  and  guidance  both  to 
students  and  to  intending  workers  in  a  field 
as  yet  more  or  less  neglected.'  With  these 
objects  in  view  the  material  collected  has 
been  divided,  in  the  case  of  each  poem, 
into  four  sections,  dealing  respectively  with 
translations,  reprints  of  the  Old  German 
text,  miscellaneous  accounts  and  essays, 
and  influence  on  literature  proper.  In  each 
of  these  sections  chronological  order  has 
been  followed,  and  careful  estimates  have 
been  made  of  the  value  of  all  translations, 
essays,  etc.,  worthy  of  detailed  notice.  To 
avoid  undue  repetition  in  criticising  so 
many  publications  of  similar  contents, 
introductory  sections  have  been  prefixed 
containing  detailed  abstracts  of  the  two 
poems,  brief  accounts  of  the  more  important 
facts  and  theories  connected  with  them  (in- 
cluding the  results  of  recent  research),  and 
select  bibliographies.  In  the  course  of  each 
abstract,  a  few  striking  passages  are  quoted 
from  the  original,  and  rendered  into  simple 
prose  for  comparison  with  the  translations. 

In  dealing  with  his  subject,  Mr.  Sandbach 
has  made  use  of  the  best  German  editions, 
and  has  availed  himself  of  the  most  recent 
investigations  on  all  questions  connected 
with  his  subject.  The  book  before  us  bears 
evidence  of  his  complete  mastery  of  the 
wide  literature  on  the  Nibelungen  and 
Gudnin  in  English,  French  and  German. 
A  work  of  this  kind  was  sadly  wanted  in 
this  country ;  it  is  gratifying  to  find  that 
Mr.  Sandbach's  treatment  of  the  subject  is 
exhaustive,  clear,  up  to  date,  and,  so  far 
as  can  be,  final.  A  book  of  this  descrip- 
tion must  necessarily  be  somewhat  dry. 
Many  parts  of  it  are  mainly  intended  for 
easy  reference,  and  one  of  its  avowed 
objects  is  to  save  other  people's  time.  It 
will,  however,  prove  a  most  useful  first 
guide  to  English  students  of  the  Nibrlungen- 
lied  and  Gudriin.  It  can  be  safely  recom- 


mended to  all  who  are  reading  for  univer- 
sity examinations,  to  teachers  of  German 
anxious  to  obtain  a  brief  and  reliable  survey 
of  the  present  state  of  research  with  regard  to 
these  poems,  to  students  of  medieval  litera- 
ture generally,  to  students  of  comparative 
literature,  and  finally  to  all  future  English 
translators  and  commentators  of  the  two 
great  epics.  It  is  not  probable  that  much 
will  have  to  be  added  to  the  book  from 
sources  overlooked  by  its  painstaking 
and  conscientious  author.  Mr.  Sandbach 
has  supplied  an  introduction  to  the  Nibe- 
lungenlied which  can  for  critical  purposes 
now  take  the  place  of  Carlyle's,  which  he 
has  himself  discussed  in  his  book  on  pp.  62, 
84  sqq.,  and  in  the  Modern  Language  Quarterly, 
in.  (1 900),  pp.  131  sqq.  There  can  be  nothing 
but  praise  for  his  clear  and  judicious  survey 
of  the  literature  of  his  subject.  To  the 
works  on  the  origin  of  the  Nibelungensage 
enumerated  there  should  now  be  added  (on 
pp.  23  sqq.,  or  on. p.  36)  the  recent  essay 
by  Wilhelm  Wilmanns,  Der  Untergang  der 
Nibelunge  in  alter  Sage  und  Dichtung.  Berlin, 
Weidmann,  1903,  from  the  '  Abhandlungen 
der  konigl.  Gesellschaft  der  Wissenschaften 
zu  Gottingen.' 

A  very  useful  feature  of  the  book  is  the 
quotation  of  many  carefully  selected  pas- 
sages from  the  German  originals,  with 
English  renderings  by  Mr.  Sandbach,  as 
well  as  other  translators.  His  own  prose 
translation  is  invariably  a  careful  and  trust- 
worthy rendering,  and  the  numerous  Middle 
High  German  passages  in  the  book  are  free 
from  misprints. 

The  Nibelungenlied  is  treated  on  pages 
1-135,  Gudrun  on  pages  139-195,  and  there 
is  a  general  index  (on  pages  196-200). 
The  select  bibliography — often  with  a  short 
characterisation  of  the  books  and  articles 
enumerated — is  very  useful.  In  quoting 
important  articles  from  periodicals  (e.g.  on 
p.  36)  it  would,  however,  have  been  a 
welcome  addition  if  not  only  the  number 
of  the  volume  in  the  series  had  been  given, 
but  also  the  year  of  publication.  In  dis- 
cussing the  different  manuscripts  of  the 
Nibelungenlied  (pp.  28-30),  a  reference  might 
have  been  given  to  the  second  edition  of 
G.  Konnecke's  excellent  Bilderatlas  zur 
Geschichte  der  deufschen  Nationallittii'ntiir 
(Marburg,  1895),  which  gives  reproductions 
of  the  various  manuscripts,  occupying  thir- 
teen large  pages  (pp.  31-43). 

In  discussing  the  work  produced  by 
English  translators,  Sandbach  rightly  points 
out  their  insufficient  acquaintance  with  the 
idioms  of  Middle  High  German,  and  some- 


REVIEWS 


167 


times  even  with  the  elements  of  Modern 
German.  They  very  often  give  the  Modern 
instead  of  the  Old  German  meaning  of  many 
common  words  such  as  cdel,  inilte,  rkhe,  suit, 
tugent,  liebe,  etc.  The  specimen  pages  from 
the  various  English  translations  are  well 
chosen  and  the  renderings  judiciously  criti- 
cised. The  positive  result  obtained  by 
these  close  investigations  is  to  show  what 
is  good  in  the  best  existing  translations, 
and  where  improvements  are  still  possible 
(see  p.  72).  The  author  rightly  insists 
(on  p.  79)  that  '  the  existence  of  good  an- 
notated editions  and  dictionaries  should 
now  make  a  seriously  faulty  prose  transla- 
tion impossible.'  In  criticising  Carlyle's 
essay  on  the  Nibelungcnlied  he  shows  that 
in  spite  of  its  great  merit  in  other  respects, 
'both  accuracy,  to  some  extent,  and  scientific 
treatment  of  the  subject,  are  wanting,'  and 
justly  adds  :  '  For  the  student,  so  generally 
neglected  in  the  introductions  to  English 
books,  both  are  indispensable ;  and  even 
the  "general  reader"  will  accept  what  is 
correct  and  well  ordered  at  least  as  willingly 
as  what  is  not.' 

Another  very  useful  portion  of  the  book 
is  the  list  (on  p.  192)  of  certain  English 
books  and  articles  which,  in  spite  of  most 
attractive  and  promising  titles,  have,  as  the 
writer  points  out,  no  connection  whatever 
with  either  the  Nibelungenlied  or  Gudrun. 

I  should  like  to  notice  a  few  very  small 
points  where  an  addition  or  correction 
seems  called  for — none  of  them,  however, 
of  any  great  importance.  On  p.  37  the 
verse  translation  by  G.  Legerlotz  (Bielefeld 
und  Leipzig  :  Velhagen  mid  Klasing)  might 
have  been  mentioned  along  with  that  by 
L.  Freytag.  The  interesting  book  by  K. 
Rehorn  quoted  in  note  2  on  the  same  page 
is  on  the  Sage,  not  Saga,  von  den  Nibelungen. 
On  p.  64  Magnusson  should  be  Magnusson, 
and  on  p.  108  Vigfusson  should  be  Vigfus- 
son.  On  p.  117  read  under  90,  M(ary) 
Bentinck  Smith.  See  also  p.  185,  under 
43.  Should  not  (p.  125)  line  525  of  'Sir 
Degravant'  read  'Y  hade  lever  she  were 
mync '  1  In  the  last  line  of  p.  143  it  would 
be  better  to  say  '  In  truth  he  knew  how  to 
make  use  of  his  skill'  (J&  kunde  er  siner 
vuoge  wol  gcniezeri).  On  p.  144  Sandbach 
says, '  In  course  of  time,  Hilde  gave  birth  to 
twins.'  I  do  not  think  that  the  reading  of 
stanza  573  of  Gudrum  justifies  us  in  assum- 
ing (with  Hildebrand)  that  Ortwin  and 
Gudrun  were  twins.  Apparently  the  poet 
considered  Ortwin  to  be  much  younger 
than  Gudrun.  Martin  (in  the  second 
edition  of  the  poem,  p.  133)  and  Piper 


(p.  153)  both  reject  the  idea  that  Hilde 
gave  birth  to  twins.  On  p.  176,  'By 
Hagen's  advice'  should  be  'By  Wate's 
advice '  (see  Gudrun,  stanza  826).  On  p. 
157  read  1291  of  the  1705  strophes) 
(Mullenhoff  only  allowed  414  out  of  1705 
to  be  genuine  strophes).  On  p.  161,  Paul 
Piper's  edition  of  Gudrun  (Kudrun  in 
Kurschner's  Deutsche  National-Litteratur,  vi.  1 , 
Stuttgart,  1895)  ought  to  have  been  quoted. 
Its  omission  is  probably  due  to  an  over- 
sight. With  regard  to  translations  of 
Gudrun  Sandbach  would  have  done  better 
to  refer  to  Piper,  pp.  lii-lv,  than  to  Bartsch's 
edition,  which  is  now  out  of  date.  Page  170, 
line  4,  read  geleren.  Page  171,  line  6,  read 
'  Mrs.  Conybeare's  translation  of  Scherer's 
History  of  German  Literature.'  The  trifling 
nature  of  these  corrections  and  additions 
shows  clearly  how  very  carefully  the  book 
has  been  written  and  seen  through  the 
press. 

Owing  to  a  fire  at  the  binders  by  which 
part  of  the  sheets  were  destroyed  and  had 
to  be  reprinted,  the  book  did  not  appear 
in  1903  (as  stated  on  the  titlepage),  but 
only  in  January  1904.  The  preface  is 
dated  May  16,  1903,  and  the  book  was 
expected  to  appear  in  the  summer  of  that 
year. 

For  many  years  it  has  been  the  present 
reviewer's  wish  to  undertake  some  day  the 
task  of  writing  a  comprehensive  work  on 
the  literary  relations  of  Germany  and 
England,  as  shown  in  the  direct  and  indirect 
influences  of  German  literature  on  English. 
The  influence  of  English  writers  on  the 
literature  of  Germany  has  been  much  more 
fully  investigated,  mainly  by  German 
scholars  in  Germany.  Not  much  has  been 
done  so  far  with  regard  to  the  influence 
of  German  writers  on  English  literature. 
Up  to  now  there  are  only  Professor 
Herford's  masterly  Studies  in  the  Literary 
Relations  of  England  and  Germany  in  the 
Sixteenth  Century  (Cambridge,  University 
Press,  1886),  and  some  interesting  minor 
essays  on  single  points  by  various  authors, 
some  of  which  have  appeared  in  the  pages 
of  the  Modern  Language  Quarterly.  There  is 
also  Th.  Rea's  thesis  (not  yet  printed)  on 
the  reception  of  Schiller's  poetry  in  England, 
for  which  a  Certificate  of  Research  has  been 
granted  by  the  University  of  Cambridge ; 
and  again,  E.  Oswald's  useful  bibliography, 
GoetheinEnglandandAmerica(London,1899). 
Some  other  contributions  will  be  found 
mentioned  in  Louis  P.  Betz's  La  Literature 
Comparde :  Essai  bibliographique  (Strasbourg, 
Triibner,  1900,  pp.  45  sqq.)  and  elsewhere,  e.g. 


168 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


in  the  Goethe  Jahrbuch,  in  the  Zeitschrift  fur 
vergleichende  Litleraturgeschichte,  and  in  the 
American  Modern  Language  Notes.  But 
much  remains  to  be  done ;  a  number  of 
special  investigations  must  be  completed 
before  the  larger  and  more  comprehensive 
work  can  be  successfully  undertaken.  A 
book  of  this  kind  should  be  to  some  extent 
a  counterpart  to  Th.  Siipfle's  Geschichte  des 
deutschen  Kultureinftusses  auf  Frankreich,  mil 
besonderer  Beriicksichligung  der  litterarischen 
Einwirkung,  i.-ii.  (Gotha,  1886-1890).  The 
investigations  should  be  undertaken  in 
England  by  English  scholars  who  have  more 
ready  access  to  the  older  English  magazines 
and  editions,  and  greater  facilities  for  con- 
sulting the  treasures  of  the  British  Museum 
and  of  the  great  Cambridge  and  Oxford 
libraries.  In  the  long  chain  of  contributions 
to  the  study  of  the  literary  relations  of 
England  and  Germany,  which  we  hope  to 
see  completed  in  the  future,  Mr.  Sand- 
bach's  book  will  always  be  a  very  valuable 
link.  K.  B. 


A  History  of  Theatrical  Art.  By  KARL 
MANTZIUS.  Authorised  translation  by 
LOUISK  VON  COSSEL.  Vol.  III.  The 
Shakespearian  Period  in  England. 
Duckworth.  1904. 

IT  is  not  as  a  history  of  theatrical  art 
but  as  a  history  of  theatres  and  theatrical 
conditions  that  the  present  work  has  a 
claim  upon  the  attention  of  literary  students. 
It  is  a  claim  based  upon  the  filling  of  a  very 
real  want.  Between  those  who  abandon 
themselves  passively  to  the  acceptance  in 
their  entirety  of  all  the  various  and  in- 
genious theories  and  conjectures  of  Mr. 
Fleay,  and  those  who  give  up  the  whole 
subject  in  despair,  there  are  perhaps  few 
who  have  arrived  at  a  satisfactory  idea  of 
early  stage  history  in  this  country.  For 
those  few  the  present  work  will  probably 
contain  little  that  is  novel,  since  it  makes 
no  pretence  to  being  the  result  of  original 
research.  But  for  the  great  majority  it  is 
invaluable.  It  is,  namely,  the  only  general 
account,  of  a  logical  and  reliable  nature, 
of  the  outer  history  of  the  early  English 
theatres  that  we  possess,  put  forward 
lucidly  and  concisely. 

Since  the  volumes  of  the  History  are  sold 
separately  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
the  present  will  be  exhausted  sooner  than 
the  rest.  Should  this  prove  the  case  we 
should  like  to  make  a  suggestion.  We 
should,  namely,  like  to  see  this  volume  re- 


issued in  a  student's  edition  at  about  half  the 
present  price.  The  majority  of  the  illustra- 
tions are  staled  with  constant  reproduction, 
and  could  be  omitted  without  loss.  Those 
which  help  to  elucidate  the  subject  (say  1 
and  3-7)  could,  if  the  book  were  printed  on 
ordinary  paper,  be  inserted  into  the  text  as 
in  the  original.  To  make  the  work  com- 
plete, the  section  on  the  stage  in  vol.  ii. 
should  be  reprinted  in  an  appendix,  with 
such  modifications  as  recent  research  has 
rendered  necessary,  and  illustrations  39  and 
40  of  that  volume  reproduced.  Such  a  re- 
issue would  also  give  an  opportunity  for 
the  correction  of  rather  a  large  number  of 
minor  errors. 

The  subject  of  the  present  History 
hardly  falls  sufficiently  within  the  scope 
of  this  journal  to  justify  a  detailed  review. 
We  regard  the  work,  however,  as  of  sufficient 
importance  to  justify  our  giving  a  list  of  cer- 
tain corrections  which  should  be  made  in  any 
further  issue.  The  great  majority  of  these, 
it  may  be  remarked,  are  due  to  errors  not 
of  the  author  himself  but  of  the  translator. 
It  is  certainly  to  be  regretted  that  the 
publishers  did  not  either  select  a  translator 
who  had  some  acquaintance  with  the  sub- 
ject of  the  work,  or  else  arrange  that  the 
translation  should  be  revised  by  the  author 
himself.  The  latter  would,  no  doubt,  have 
been  the  more  satisfactory  course.  As  it 
is,  the  direct  translation  from  the  original 
has  led  to  many  absurdities,  especially  in 
the  form  of  titles  of  plays  occurring  in  the 
work. 

P.  14,  note.     Plegahus,  read  pleghus. 
P.   21,  1.   17.     7V(e  Prophecy  of  the  Cobbler, 
read  The  Cobbler's  Proplwcy. 
„       1.   19.     (he  Miller's  Daughter  from 

Manchester,  read  of  Manchester. 
,,       note    1.       '  Burlay,'  read   '  Burby.' 
Cuthbert  always  used  the  form  '  Burby ' 
or  'Burbey'   in   his  imprints,  as  Dr. 
Mantzius,  but  not  his  annotator,  was 
aware.      Indeed,  the  former  explicitly 
states  the  fact  on  p.   225,  note  1,  in 
spite  of  whch  the  translator  was  not 
'  able  to  find  the  variant '  elsewhere ! 
P.  22,  1.  3.     Catilina,  read  Catiline. 
P.  34,  11.  26-8.     In  English  a  public-house 
does  not   have  a   private   and   public 
' room,'  but  a  private  and  public  'bar.' 
P.  43,  1.  14.     Few  of  the  Unirersity  men  play 
well,  read  Few  of  the  University  men  pen 
plays  well. 

„    1.  18.     7,  read  aye. 
„       1.  20.     giving  the  gods  a  pill,  read 
giving  the  poets  a  pill. 
„    1.  21.    Berag,  read  beray. 


REVIEWS 


169 


Four  absurdities  in  one  short  quotation 

is  surely  rather  bad. 

P.  .57,  1.  13.  It  appears,  to  judge  from  the 
Diary,  that  from  1577  to  1578  he  [Hens- 
lowe]  occupied  himself  with  forest  exploita- 
tion and  the  timber  trade.  The  entries 
in  question  are  by  John,  not  Philip, 
Henslowe.  Dr.  Mantzius  has  mis- 
understood Dr.  Warner's  remarks. 
,,  1.  17.  His  [Henslowe's]  theatrical 
accounts  do  not  begin  till  1592,  but  before 
that  lime  there  are  entries  which  prove  that 
he  lent  money  on  interest.  This  is  in- 
correct. The  pawn-accounts  which 
seem  to  be  meant  are  all  subsequent  to 
the  earliest,  dramatic  entries. 
„  note  1.  A  reference  to  a  foreign 
edition  of  Malone's  Shakespere,  dated 
1800,  is  absurd  in  an  English  book. 
Either  the  1790  or  1821  '  Variorum' 
edition  must  be  quoted.  Also  the  fact 
of  Baxil  being  the  Danish  form  of  Basel 
or  Bale  does  not  excuse  its  appearance 
here. 

P.  65,  1.  2.     Calilina,  read  Catiline. 

P.  69,  note  1, 1.  6.    '  Fortunu,'  read  '  Fortune.' 

P.  80,  note  3.  Here  the  word  Boghandler- 
registeret  in  the  original  has  been 
rendered  bookseller's  catalogue  ;  it  should, 
of  course,  be  Stationers'  Register. 

P.  84,  1.  3.     culers,  read  cutlers. 

P.  87,  1.  5.  'In  God's  name,  Amen.'  Hens- 
lowe's formula  is  '  In  the  name  of  God, 
Amen.' 

P.  110,  1.  2-t.    the  scrivener,  read  a  scrivener. 

P.  Ill,  note  2.  There  is,  we  believe,  every 
reason  to  suppose  that  prices  at  first 
performances  were  doubled  in  Shake- 
speare's time. 

P.  115,  1.  14,  etc.  There  is  evidence  of 
some  plays  at  any  rate  being  cut  down 
for  performance  at  the  original  pro- 
duction. 

P.  119,  1.  26.  galleries  opposite  to  the  stage. 
To  any  one  acquainted  with  the  struc- 
ture of  the  old  theatres  the  absurdity 
of  this  will  be  obvious.  The  word 
rendered  opposite,  however,  is  in  the 
original  ovenover,  which  simply  means 
above. 

P.  121,  note  2.  This  is  evidently  wrong; 
the  'gentlemen'  were,  of  course,  the 
audience, 

P.  127,  1.  20.  One  does  not  in  English 
usually  speak  of  the  incumbent  of  the 
office  of  Master  of  the  Revels. 

P.   128,  1.   7.      Gsh.  8d.  (which  is  not  an 
English    abbreviation).      The    charge 
was  more  commonly  7s. 
„      1.  9,  etc.     This  is  a  receipt  for  the 

VOL.  VII. 


monthly   payment,   not   for   licensing 
fees. 

P.  132,  1.  6.     We  do  not  jind  the  speech 
quoted  in  The  King  and  the  Subject,  for 
the  play  is  not  extant. 
P.  133,  1.  25.     Burke,  read  Bucke. 

„      1.  27.     thog,  read  though. 
P.  140,  1.  11.     Thomas,  read  Philip  (original 

Ph.  Henslowe). 

P.  150,1.  18.    esquire  (possessor  of  an  estate). 

It  would  be  obviously  unnecessary  to 

explain  esquire  to  English  readers,  even 

were  the  explanation  correct.  • 

P.  151,  1.  4.     country,  read  country. 

P.  152,  1.  22.     It  is  quite  fantastic  to  see  in 

Henslowe's  mention  of  'French  hose 

and    Spanish    doublet'   any   evidence 

that  Attention  was  paid  to  the  different 

fashions    of  civilised    countries,   in    the 

stage  costumes.     They  merely  refer  to 

current  fashions  of  the  London  tailors. 

P.   164,  1.   17.      There  is  an  entr'acte.     It 

seems  doubtful  whether  entr'actes  were 

usual.  Sometimes,  however,  jigs  seem  to 

have  been  performed  between  the  acts. 

P.  171,  note  3.     Lord  Wilson  (ft ,  read  lioberl 

Wilson  (original  Rob.  Wilson). 
P.  194,  1.  17.     do  saw,  read  do  not  saw. 
P.  196, 1.  9.    The  suggestion  that  Tambercam 
stands  for  Termagant  appears  very  un- 
likely. 
P.  204, 1.  15.    The  letters  are  in  Henslowe's 

hand. 

P.  220.    The  top  line  of  the  page  has  some- 
how got  transferred  to  the  bottom,  an 
unpardonable  piece  of  carelessness  for 
which  all  concerned  thoroughly  deserve 
such  literary  pillory  as  we  can  supply. 
P.  228, 1.  20.     grene,  read  greue  (i.e.  grew). 
The  reference  for  the  second  quotation 
has  been  omitted ;  it  shonld   be  Out- 
lines, p.  585. 
P.  236,  1.  10.     Woman  is  a  Weathercock,  read 

A  Woman,  etc. 
P.  239, 1.  24.     Spectacles  of,  read  Spectacles  of 

pleasure. 

P.  240,  note.      The  document  is  reprinted 
in  Hazlitt's  English  Drama  and  Stage, 
Roxburghe  Library,  1869,  and  there  is 
also  a  separate  facsimile  reprint.     It  is 
therefore  perfectly  accessible. 
In  view  of  the  many  petty  absurdities 
which  have  been  introduced  by  the  trans- 
lator,  we   sincerely  hope  that   the   future 
volumes  will  receive  revision  by  the  author 
before  publication.     So  revised,  the  work 
could  be  welcomed  with  very  few  reserva- 
tions, for  from  the  literary  point  of  view 
the  translation  is  very  far  from  being  a  bad 
one.  W.  W.  G. 

M 


170 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


The  Life  and  Repentaunee  of  Marie 
Magdalene.  By  LEWIS  WAGER. 
Edited  by  F.  I.  CARPENTER.  New  and 
revised  edition.  [Decennial  Publica- 
tions of  the  University  of  Chicago.] 
Chicago  University  Press.  1904. 

WE  have  received  a  second  impression  of 
Professor  Carpenter's  edition  of  Wager's 
morality,  which  has  been  '  completely  re- 
vised,' an  operation  of  which  it  stood  emi- 
nently in  need.  As  we  can  hardly  suppose 
the  work,  as  originally  issued,  to  have  met 
with  so  enthusiastic  a  reception  as  to  sell  oft' 
the  whole  impression,  we  conclude  that  Pro- 
fessor Carpenter  has  adopted  the  unques- 
tionably judicious,  however  unpleasant, 
course  of  withdrawing  it  as  soon  as  a  cor- 
rected impression  was  ready  to  take  its 
place.  We  welcome  the  fact  particularly 
as  showing  that  the  editor  realises  the 
serious  nature  of  the  errors  in  his  former 
volume,  and  also  the  high  standard  of  accur- 
acy now  rightly  demanded  in  such  work,  for 
it  must  be  confessed  that  some  doubts  were 
raised  in  our  mind  upon  these  points,  when 
we  received  a  list  of  corrigenda  admitting  a 
want  of  '  exact  trustworthiness '  in  a  tran- 
script which  bodily  omitted  seventeen  lines 
of  its  original !  We  sincerely  trust  that  we 
have  seen  the  last  of  editions  of  old  plays 
made  from  transcripts  without  reference  to 
the  originals.  On  the  vagaries  of  individual 
editors  there  is,  of  course,  no  curb  possible, 
but  it  should  in  future  be  impossible  for 
such  editions  to  appear  with  the  imprimatur 
of  a  self-respecting  university. 

We  have  intentionally  spoken  out  strongly 
on  this  point,  since,  as  those  who  have  read 
our  reviews  will  be  aware,  there  have  re- 
cently been  published  a  number  of  editions 
of  early  plays  of  which  the  least  that  can  be 
said  is  that  they  are  grossly  inaccurate. 
Now  there  is  no  question  to-day  as  to 
what  the  standard  of  accuracy  to  be  expected 
of  such  work  is.  But  the  original  is  in 
many  cases  more  or  less  difficult  of  access, 
and  if  an  editor  makes  a  sufficient  show  of 
critical  paraphernalia,  he  may  usually  count 
on  his  work  being  taken  at  his  own  valua- 
tion. We  have  consequently  thought  it  our 
duty  to  compare  such  editions  carefully  with 
the  originals,  and  to  show  no  mercy  to  any- 
thing that  appeared  to  us  to  be  of  the  nature 
of  slovenly  editing.  We  need  hardly  add 
that  in  this  we  have  been  wholly  uninflu- 
enced by  the  personality  of  the  editor,  who 
in  the  majority  of  cases  was  entirely  un- 
known to  us,  while  in  others,  as  in  that  we 


are  now  concerned  with,  he  was  a  scholar 
for  whose  abilities  we  have  the  sincerest 
respect.  « . 

If,  however,  we  have  to  express  our  satis- 
faction at  the  disappearance  of  the  first  im- 
pression of  the  present  work,  we  can  at  the 
same  time  most  heartily  congratulate  Pro- 
fessor Carpenter  upon  the  appearance  of 
the  second.  One  of  the  most  welcome 
results  of  the  publication  of  his  edition  was 
the  discovery  of  the  whereabouts  of  the 
edition  of  1566,  which  now  appears  to  be 
in  the  hands  of  Mr.  W.  A.  White  of  New 
York.  This  edition,  recorded  by  Mr.  Hazlitt, 
had  been  lost  sight  of,  but  it  was  commonly 
assumed  that  it  was  merely  a  different  issue 
of  the  edition  of  1567.  This  view  is  now 
amply  substantiated,  and  a  good  facsimile 
of  the  1566  titlepage  in  the  present  edition 
enables  us  further  to  state  that  the  two 
were  printed  from  the  same  setting  up,  the 
single  figure  of  the  date  alone  being  altered. 
The  only  error — if  it  be  one — which  we  have 
noticed  as  remaining  in  the  text,  is  in  1.  423, 
where  '  Maidens  (quod  she) ! '  is  in  the 
original  'Maides  (quod  she?).'  The  editor 
reserves  the  right  of  altering  the  punctua- 
tion where  he  sees  fit,  but  in  the  present 
instance  we  can  imagine  no  sufficient  ground 
for  change. 

The  introduction  has  been  somewhat  ex- 
panded in  view  of  criticisms  passed  on  the 
first  impression,  and  gives  a  full  and  lucid 
exposition  of  the  literary  history  of  the 
piece.  A  pleasant  feature  is  the  absence 
of  any  attempt  to  discover  transcendent 
merits  in  the  work  discussed,  and  in  general 
the  soberness  of  the  editor's  judgment  on 
all  questions  on  which  he  has  occasion  to 
touch. 

W.  W.  G. 


Sir    Philip    Sidneys    Arcadia     und 

ihre  Nachlaufer.  Literarhistorische 
Studie  von  K.  BRUNHUBER.  M. 
Edelmann,  Ntirnberg.  1903. 

IT  is  to  be  regretted  that  writers  of  dis- 
sertations do  not  always  take  the  trouble 
to  possess  themselves  of  a  general  acquaint- 
ance with  the  subjects  which  they  propose  to 
treat.  Here  is  an  elaborate  essay,  nominally 
on  the  subject  of  Sidney's  Arcadia,  by  a 
writer  who  is  obviously  ignorant  of  the 
most  elementary  facts  concerning  the  history 
of  the  work.  On  page  9  we  read:  'Die 
erste  Ausgabe  vom  Jahre  1590  wurde  von 
det  Grafiu  Pembroke  besorgt.'  The  author 


REVIEWS 


171 


is  apparently  unaware  that  this  edition 
contained  only  about  half  the  complete 
work.  Further,  the  edition  in  question  was 
certainly  not  supervised  by  Sidney's  sister. 
Issued  most  likely  under  the  editorship,  if 
any,  of  Fulke  Greville,  it  was  considered 
unsatisfactory  by  the  Countess,  who  in  con- 
sequence undertook  the  preparation  of  the 
complete  text  first  published  in  1593.  All  this 
would,  of  course,  have  been  known  to  the 
author,  had  he  consulted  the  introduction  to 
Dr.  0.  Sommer's  facsimile  of  the  first  edition, 
which  is  conspicuous  for  its  absence  among 
the  large  and  rather  singular  selection  of 
works  referred  to.  If  the  facsimile  in 
question  was  not  within  the  author's  reach 
— and  his  resources  appear  to  have  been  some- 
what restricted — itis  perhapsunfair  to  blame 
him  for  not  being  acquainted  with  it,  but 
it  may  nevertheless  be  remarked  that  the 
study  of  literature  is  hardly  likely  to  be 
advanced  by  dissertations  written  in  ignor- 
ance of  the  ordinary  works  of  reference. 

Perhaps  the  author's  chief  mistake  was 
in  giving  his  -essay  too  wide  a  title.  Had 
he  indicated  that  it  was  with  the  sources 
only  and  not  with  the  history  of  the  Arcadia 
that  he  was  concerned,  and  refrained  from 
any  remarks  upon  the  latter  subject,  there 
would  have  been  little  to  find  fault  with. 
Indeed,  within  this  limit,  the  work  is  of 
distinct  merit.  A  careful  investigation  has 
revealed  borrowings  on  Sidney's  part  from 
Sannazzaro,  Montemayor,  Amadis,  Helio- 
dorus,  Achilles  Tatius,  and  Chariton.  The 
importance  of  the  Amadis  is  brought 
out  strongly,  and  the  two  last-mentioned 
romanciers  are  added,  we  believe,  for  the 
first  time.  In  these  points  lies  the  positive 
merit  of  the  work,  and  if  the  points  are 
small  we  nevertheless  welcome  them  grate- 
fully. A  search  among  the  other  popular 
romances  of  chivalry  might  possibly  reveal 
other  sources.  Sannazzaro,  as  has  long 
been  known,  yields  little  but  the  name,  and 
the  incidental  parallel  here  recorded  is 
obviously  fortuitous.  Montemayor  yields 
fewer  points  of  similarity  than  might  have 
been  expected,  and  the  author  is  inclined  to 
minimise  his  influence.  There  can,  how- 
ever, in  our  opinion,  be  no  doubt  that, 
though  Sidney's  romance  was  no  doubt 
modified  by  the  influence  of  the  Greek 
writers,  it  belongs  essentially  to  the  Spanish 
chivalresque-pastoral  school,  of  which 
Montemayor  was  the  chief  exponent.  The 


failure  to  recognise  this,  in  spite  of  the 
paucity  of  direct  parallels  with  the  Diana, 
is  the  most  serious  blemish  of  this  portion 
of  the  present  work.  Among  minor  in- 
accuracies may  be  mentioned  the  fact  that 
the  edition  of  1655,  the  only  one  apparently 
which  the  author  has  seen,  is  a  folio  and 
not  a  quarto  as  stated ;  that  Book  VI.  was 
added  in  1627-8,  not  in  1624,  there  being 
no  edition  of  that  year ;  and  that  Dorus  and 
Pamela  are  not  captured  by  the  soldiers  of 
Philanax  but  by  rebel  outlaws. 

The  second  part  of  the  dissertation 
consists  of  an  analysis  of  certain  works — 
all  plays — founded  on  the  Arcadia.  They 
are  mostly  well  known — Day's  Isle  of  Gulls, 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Cupid's  Revenge, 
Glapthorne's  Argalus  and  Parthenia,  Shirley's 
Arcadia,  and  J.  S.'s  Andromana,  besides 
one  or  two  foreign  pieces.  The  author 
further  gives  a  list  of  seven  works  reputed  to 
be  founded  on  the  romance,  but  which  were 
not  accessible  to  him'.  Their  absence  need 
not,  for  the  most  part,  be  regretted.  They 
include,  however,  such  commonly  accessible 
works  as  Quarles'  Argalus  and  Parthenia 
and  Richardson's  Pamela.  The  latter,  of 
course,  owes  nothing  but  its  title  to  Sidney. 
For  the  former  a  reference  to  J.  J.  Jusse- 
rand's  Roman  Anglais  au  temps  de  Shakespeare 
might  have  been  given.  The  anonymous 
Mucedorus  is  disposed  of  with  a  reference 
to  J.  Bolte's  edition  of  Tieck's  translation. 
The  author  is,  of  course,  ignorant  of  all 
MS.  work.  The  accounts  of  the  plays  here 
given  are  of  small  value  or  interest.  We 
have  noted  two  errors :  Argalus  and  Par- 
thenia is  a  tragedy,  not  a  tragi-comedy  ;  and 
there  is  no  ground  whatever  for  saddling 
Shirley  with  the  composition  of  Andromana. 

Finally  we  would  suggest  that  writers  of 
dissertations  such  as  the  present  would  do 
well  to  abstain  from  expressing  any  judg- 
ment upon  the  poetic  value  of  verses  in  a 
language  not  their  own.  The  two  passages 
here  selected  for  praise  are  eminently  un- 
fortunate. 

We  still  lack  a  detailed  and  trustworthy 
account  of  Sidney's  romance,  its  allusions, 
literary  history,  and  influence.  That  we 
should  do  so  is  no  credit  to  English  scholar- 
ship. Such  a  work  was,  we  believe,  pre- 
sented as  a  doctoral  dissertation  a  good 
many  years  ago,  but  has  unfortunately  not 
vet  found  its  way  into  print. 

W.  W.  G. 


Modern  Language  Teaching 


Edited  by 

WALTER   RIPPMANN 


MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION. 


THE  Proceedings  of  the  39th  Meeting  of 
the  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE  at  the  College 
of  Preceptors  on  Saturday,  May  25th,  1904, 
when  there  was  no  quorum. 

There  were  present— Messrs.  Rippmann 
(Chairman),  Longsdon,  Hon.  Treasurer  (de 
V.  Payen-Payne),  and  Hon.  Secretary  (E.  R. 
Edwards)  (4). 

The  following  seventeen  memhers  were 
recommended  for  election : — 

Miss  E.  O'Brien  ;  Miss  H.  E.  Palmer;  N. 
G.  Brownrigg ;  E.  C.  Kittson,  B.A. ;  Miss 
M.  S.  Miller ;  Miss  A.  D.  Scott ;  H.  G.  C. 
Salmon,  M.A. ;  H.  G.  Wilson,  B.Sc. ;  J.  W. 
Schopp,  M.A. ;  J.  J.  Pinches,  B.A. ;  Miss  E. 
L.  Perry;  MissC.  C.  H.  Bagnall;  G.  Readdie, 
M.A. ;  W.  H.  Huddleston,  M.A. ;  A.  E. 
Turton,  B.A. ;  Miss  F.  H.  Johnstone;  H. 
Cullimore,  B.A. 

The  next  meeting  was  fixed  for  Saturday, 
July  2nd. 

The  40th  Meeting  of  the  EXECUTIVE 
COMMITTEE  was  held  at  the  College  of 
Preceptors  on  Saturday,  July  2nd,  1904, 
when  there  was  no  quorum. 

There  were  present — Messrs.  Somerville 
(Chairman),  Rippmann,  Hon.  Treasurer  (de 
V.  Payen-Payne),  and  the  Hon.  Secretary 
(E.  R.-Edwards)  (4). 

The  Hon.  Sec.  reported  the  election  of 
the  following  HONORARY  MEMBERS  after  the 
Easter  Meeting  in  Paris : — 

M.  Liard,  Vice-Recteur  de  1' Academic  de 
Paris;  M.  Bayet,  Directeur  de  1'enseigne- 
ment  sup6rieur ;  M.  Beljame,  Professeur 
en  Sorbonne;  M.  Hovelaque,  Inspecteur 
G6ne>al ;  M.  Pelissier,  Professeur  au  Lycee 
Janson,  Paris;  M.  Seignohos,  Professeur 
en  Sorbonne. 

The  Hon.  Sec.  read  a  letter  from  Mr. 


Ritchie,  Secretary  to  the  Moderators  of  the 
Board  of  Management  of  Public  School 
Entrance  Examinations,  promising  to  put 
the  letter  from  the  Modern  Language 
Association  before  his  Committee. 

The  Hon.  Sec.  was  directed  to  answer 
communications  from  the  Teachers'  Guild 
to  the  effect  that  the  Modern  Language 
Association  did  not  contemplate  at  present 
renting  a  place  wherein  to  deposit  their 
archives. 

A  letter  was  read  from  Mr.  Powell  of 
Brussels  saying  that  he  would  be  pleased 
to  act  as  Local  Secretary  of  the  Association 
for  Belgium. 

Letters  were  read  from  Mr.  Clark  and 
Mr.  Wilson  offering  to  give  information  to 
other  members  of  the  Association  about 
Canada  and  Holland  respectively. 

Letters  were  read  from  Mr.  Lipscomb 
and  Professor  Findlay  to  say  that  the  Vice- 
Chancellor  of  the  Victoria  University  of 
Manchester  was  going  to  propose  to  the 
University  to  invite  the  Modern  Language 
Association  to  hold  its  Annual  Meeting  in 
Manchester. 

The  Hon.  Sec.  reported  that  he  had 
already  sent  lists  of  members  and  other 
printed  information  to  be  laid  before  the 
Senate  of  the  University. 

The  second  week  in  January  had  been 
suggested  as  a  convenient  date  for  the 
meeting. 

The  following  Sub-Committee  was  ap- 
pointed and  given  authority  to  accept  the 
invitation,  and,  if  necessary,  to  make  pre- 
liminary arrangements  before  the  holi- 
days : — 


MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION 


173 


(1)  Chairman  of  Committee. 

(2)  Hon.  Treasurer. 

(3)  Hon.  Secretary. 

Professor  Kippmann's  proposal  that  the 
Association  should  take  some  steps  to  wel- 
come the  foreign  teachers  attending  the 
Holiday  Course  at  the  University  of  London 
during  July  and  August  was  referred  to 
the  same  Sub-Committee. 

The  following  eight  members  were  re- 
commended for  election : — 

Miss  E.  M.  Weekes;  J.  D.  Anderson,  B.  A.; 
P.  J.  A.  Broadbent,  B.  A. ;  A.  E.  Baker,  B.A, ; 
Miss  Marie  Anceau ;  J.  L.  Andr6  Barbier, 
L.-es-L. ;  Rev.  J.  C.  Fry,  D.D. ;  J.  Parsons, 
B.A. 


The  46th  Meeting  of  the  GENERAL  COM- 
MITTEE of  the  Modern  Language  Association 
was  held  at  the  College  of  Preceptors  on 
Saturday,  September  17th,  1904. 

There  were  present — the  Chairman  of 
Committee  (Mr.  Storr),  Miss  Purdie,  Miss 
Williams,  Messrs.  Allpress,  Brereton,  Breul, 
Bridge,  Cruttwell,  Eve,  Fiedler,  Greg,  Longs- 
don,  Milner-Barry,  Rippmann,  Twentyman, 
the  Hon.  Treasurer  (de  V.  Payen-Payne), 
and  the  Hon.  Secretary  (E.  It.  Edwards) 
(17). 

The  Hon.  Sec.  reported  the  steps  that 
had  been  taken  since  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee Meeting  of  July  2nd  in  the  matter 
of  the  Annual  Meeting,  which  the  Associa- 
tion had  been  invited  to  hold  in  Manchester. 

The  correspondence  with  the  Vice-Chan- 
cellor of  the  Manchester  University,  Prof. 
Findlay,  the  President  of  the  Association 
(Mr.  Sadler),  and  Mr.  Lipscomb,  was  read. 

The  dates  suggested  for  the  Annual 
Meeting  were  January  12th  and  13th. 

After  some  discussion  it  was  decided  to 
refer  the  arrangements  for  the  Annual 
Meeting  to  the  Executive  Committee. 

Dr.  Breul  proposed  that  the  Deutscher 
Neuphilologen  Verband  be  asked  to  send 
a  representative  to  the  Annual  Meeting  of 
the  Modern  Language  Association. 

This  was  agreed  to,  and  the  Hon.  Sec. 
was  instructed  to  send  a  formal  invitation. 

Professor  J.  J.  Findlay,  University  of 
Manchester,  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
Association. 

The  Hon.  Sec.  was  instructed  to  write  to 
the  President  of  Magdalen,  asking  him  to 
be  President  of  the  Association  for  1905. 


The  question  of  holding  an  Easter  Meet- 
ing to  return  the  Paris  hospitality  of  1904 
was  referred  to  the  Executive  Committee. 

Mr.  Twentyman  reported  the  steps  that 
had  been  taken  so  far  by  the  Quarterly 
Sub-Committee. 

It  was  decided  to  call  a  special  meeting 
of  the  General  Committee  when  necessary. 

The  Consultative  Committee's  Report  on 
School  Certificates  was  referred  to  the 
Executive  Committee. 


The  41st  Meeting  of  the  EXECUTIVE 
COMMITTEE  was  held  at  the  College  of  Pre- 
ceptors on  Saturday,  October  29th,  1904. 

There  were  present — Mr.  Storr  (the 
Chairman  of  Committee),  Messrs.  All- 
press,  Atkins,  Brereton,  Longsdon,  the 
Hon.  Treasurer  (Mr.  de  V.  Payen-Payne), 
and  the  Hon.  Secretary  (E.  R.  Edwards). 

The  Minutes  of  March  26th,  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  May  28th  and  July  2nd,  were 
confirmed. 

The  Hon.  Sec.  reported  that  he  had 
written  to  the  President  for  the  coming 

year,  and  a  letter  from  Mr.  Warren  was 

j 
read. 

Arrangements  for  the  Annual  Meeting  : — 
Letters  were   read  from   Mr.   Lipscomb 

showing  the  steps  that  were  being  taken 

in  Manchester. 

The  date  of  the  General  Meeting  to  be 
held  in  Manchester  was  fixed  for  January 
12th  and  January  13th. 

The  following  programme  was  sug- 
gested : — 

THURSDAY,  January  \'2th. 

2 — 2.30.  Business. 
2.30—3.30.  President's  Address. 
3.30 — 4.30.  A  Paper  on  a  school  sub- 
ject,  followed   by   dis- 
cussion. 
4.30 — 5.        Tea  interval. 

5 — 6.        A  Paper  on  a  literary  sub- 
ject. 

FRIDAY,  January  13th. 

10 — 11.  Address   by    a  distinguished 

Frenchman. 

11 — 12.  A  Paper  on  English  teaching. 
12 — 1.     A  Paper  on  a  school  subject. 

The  Hon.  Sec.  reported  that  he  had  sent 
an  invitation,  in  accordance  with  instruc- 


174 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


tions,  to  the  President  of  the  Deutscher 
Neuphilologen  Verband. 

The  arrangements  for  an  Easter  Meeting, 
to  which  the  Guilde  Internationale  and 
the  Societ6  des  Professeurs  de  Langues 
Vivantes  should  be  invited,  were  discussed, 
and  the  following  Sub-Committee  was 
appointed  to  make  the  necessary  arrange- 
ments : — 

The  Chairman  of  Committee. 

Mr.  Twentyman. 

The  Hon.  Treasurer  and  the  Hon. 
Secretary. 

The  Consultative  Committee's  Report  on 
School  Certificates  was  considered,  and  the 
Hon.  Sec.  was  instructed  to  reply  to  the 
effect  that  the  Modern  Language  Associa- 
tion heartily  approved  of  the  attempt  to 
unify  examinations,  and  particularly  ex- 
pressed its  approval  of  Section  15,  which 
recommended : 

'That  in  language  examinations  no 
special  books  should  be  prescribed, 
but  that  passages  should  be  included 
from  the  books  used  in  the  school,  as 
well  as  unseen  passages.  That  an  oral 
examination  should  always  be  held  in 
the  case  of  Modern  Languages.' 

A  letter  from  Mr.  Bridge  was  read,  re- 
ferring to  the  last  sentence  of  Section  4 
in  the  Regulations  for  secondary  schools 
issued  by  the  Board  of  Education. 

The  report  of  the  Sub-Committee  ap- 
pointed to  confer  with  the  Public  Schools 
Common  Entrance  Examination  Board  was 
put  before  the  Committee  and  approved. 

The  Hon.  Treasurer  suggested  that  the 
Association  should  ask  some  of  its  members 
in  South  Africa  to  attend  the  meeting  of 
the  British  Association  in  Cape  Town  in 
1905. 

The  Hon.  Sec.  was  instructed  to  write  to 
South  African  members  of  the  Association. 

A  letter  was  read  from  Mr.  Beak  saying 
that  he  was  leaving  the  Orange  River 
Colony,  and  must,  therefore,  resign  his 
office  of  Local  Secretary,  but  that  he  would 
be  pleased  to  act  in  that  capacity  in  West 
Africa. 

The  Hon.  Sec.  was  instructed  to  convey 
the  thanks  of  the  Committee  to  Mr.  Beak, 
and  to  accept  his  offer  of  continued  help. 

The  following  new  members  were 
elected :  — 

Captain  J.  E.  E.  Woodman;  D.  Cator; 
Gaston  Berg6 ;  Miss  M.  Atkinson,  B.A. ; 


R.  Brandt ;  T.  Keen,  M.A. ;  Miss  J.  Bain 
L.L.A. 

A  special  meeting  of  the  GENERAL  COM- 
MITTEE was  held  at  the  College  of  Pre- 
ceptors on  Saturday,  November  12th,  1904. 

There  were  present — Mr.  Storr  (Chair- 
man of  Committee),  Messrs.  Allpress,  Breul, 
Greg,  Milner-Barry,  Miss  Partington,  the 
Hon.  Treas.(Mr.Payen-Payne),  MissPurdie, 
Messrs.  Rippmann,  Robertson,  Twentyman, 
Whyte,  and  the  Hon.  Sec.  (E.  R.  Edwards). 

The  meeting  was  called  to  consider  the 
first  Report  of  the  Modern  Language  Qmr- 
terly  Sub-Committee. 

After  some  discussion  the  Report  was 
adopted  in  the  form  in  which  it  appears  in 
another  column. 

It  was  decided  to  call  a  General  Meeting 
of  the  Association  on  December  3rd  at  4.30 
to  receive  the  Report. 

The  following  new  members  were 
elected : — 

Rev.  H.  Ellershaw,  M.A. ;  and  Miss 
L.  F.  Althaus. 

The  following  is  the  Programme  of  the 
Annual  General  Meeting,  to  be  held  at  the 
University  of  Manchester,  on  January  12th 
and  13th,  1905:— 

THURSDAY,  January  12th. 
2.— Hon.     Secretary's    Report  ;     Hon. 
Treasurer's  Report;  Publication; 
and  other  business. 

2.30.— The  President's  Address  (Professor 
M.  E.  Sadler,  M.A.,  Victoria  Uni- 
versity of  Manchester). 
3.15.—'  The  Place  of  Philology  in  Modern 
Language  Teaching.'  A  Paper  by 
Miss  M.  K.  Pope,  Resident  Tutor, 
Somerville  College,  Oxford. 
4.— E.  L.  Milner-Barry,  Mill  Hill  School, 
will  move:  'That  this  Meeting 
of  the  Modern  Language  Associa- 
tion welcomes  the  Report  of  the 
Cambridge  Examinations  and 
Studies  Syndicate,  and  pledges 
itself  to  make  every  effort  to 
further  the  carrying  of  this  Re- 
port.' 

5.—'  Schiller  after  a  Century.'  A  Paper 
by  Professor  J.  G.  Robertson, 
M.A.,  B.Sc.,  Ph.D.,  University  of 
London. 

7.15.— Dinner  at  the  Midland  Hotel.     Pro- 
fessor Sadler  will  preside. 


EEPORT  OF  'MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY'  SUB-COMMITTEE      175 


FRIDAY,  January  13th. 

10. — '  The  Teaching  of  French  Literature 
in  English  Schools.'  A  Paper  by 
Monsieur  S.  Barlet,  Mercers' 
School. 

10.45. — 'Some  Considerations  of  Time  in 
Modern  Language  Teaching.'  A 
Paper  by  M.  P.  Andrews,  M.A., 
Bolton  Grammar  School. 

11.30.— 'The  Teaching  of  English.'  A 
Paper  by  J.  W.  Headlam,  M.A., 
Staff  Inspector  of  Secondary 


Schools  for  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion. 

12.15.— 'The  Place  of  French  Teaching 
from  an  historical  point  of  view.' 
A  Paper  by  the  Rev.  H.  J.  Chaytor, 
M.A.,  Merchant  Taylors'  School, 
Crosby. 

Visit  to  the  Rylands  Library  in 
the  Afternoon. 

5. — French  Address.  It  is  hoped  that 
a  distinguished  Frenchman  will 
attend. 


FIRST  REPORT   OF  THE  'MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 

SUB-COMMITTEE.1 


THE  Sub-Committee  appointed  by  the 
General  Committee  of  the  Association  at 
their  meeting  in  January  to  consider  the 
question  of  the  publication  of  the  Quarterly 
beg  to  submit  their  first  Report. 

The  Sub-Committee  feel  that  the  char- 
acter of  the  Report  and  the  delay  in  its 
presentation  call  for  some  remark.  They 
desire  to  point  out  that  the  numerous 
inquiries  which  they  found  themselves 
called  upon  to  make  occupied  such  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  time  that  they  were 
unable  to  draw  up  a  Report  before  the 
beginning  of  the  Summer  holiday.  Certain 
information  of  material  importance  was 
only  conveyed  to  them  after  the  majority 
of  the  members  had  left  London.  It  will 
further  be  seen  from  the  Report  that  the 
Sub-Committee  are  not  yet  in  a  position 
to  submit  that  complete  and  reasoned 
scheme  which  they  were  instructed  to  frame, 
because  it  is  only  on  the  basis  of  the  accept- 
ance of  certain  suggestions  now  offered 
that  the  future  negotiations  and  inquiries 
contemplated  by  the  Sub-Committee  and 
necessary  for  the  successful  completion  of 
their  present  proposals  can  be  prosecuted. 

At  the  opening  meeting  Dr.  Heath  was 
elected  Chairman. 

At  their  first  meeting  the  Sub-Committee 
had  under  their  consideration  criticisms  of 
the  existing  Journal  from  various  quarters. 
It  was  evident  that  the  present  publication, 
for  opposing  reasons,  failed  to  give  satis- 
faction to  many  members  of  the  Association. 
These  complaints  and  the  difficulties  which 
had  for  some  time  past  been  felt  in  the 
conduct  of  the  Quarterly,  led  the  Sub-Com- 
mittee to  adopt  as  their  recommendation  to 


the  General  Committee,  and  as  the  basis  for 
all  subsequent  discussion,  the  publication  of 
two  organs — one  dealing  more  exclusively 
with  matters  connected  with  the  Teach- 
ing of  Modern  Languages  in  Schools,  the 
other  more  scholarly  in  character  and  the 
medium  of  Modern  Language  Scholarship 
in  England. 

In  coming  to  this  decision,  the  Sub- 
Committee  were  influenced  by  the  regret- 
table, though  obvious,  fact  that  some 
members  of  the  Association  who  are  teachers 
in  schools  or  similar  institutions  are  not  in- 
terested in  scholarship  (an  extreme  party 
even  regarding  it  as  a  hindrance  to  their 
work),  while  some  of  the  scholars  and  pro- 
fessors who  have  joined  the  Association 
have  but  little  sympathy  with  the  needs 
and  problems  of  secondary-school  teaching. 
Until  such  a  time  as  these  two  elements 
can  be  persuaded  to  take  a  proper  view  of 
their  mutual  interdependence,  and  are  con- 
vinced that  their  cordial  co-operation  is 
essential  to  the  attainment  of  the  aims 
which  they  both  have  in  view — viz.  the 
improvement  of  the  status  of  modern  lan- 
guages in  this  country — until  this  happens, 
it  was  felt  that  a  single  organ  would  fail  to 
satisfy  demands  which,  from  the  narrower 
standpoint  of  either  section,  might  be  con- 
sidered legitimate.  It  was  only  with  a  very 
strong  feeling  of  regret  that  some  members 
of  the  Committee  accepted  this  conclusion 
as  the  policy  to  be  adopted  under  present 
conditions,  while  they  still  adhere  to  their 

1  Dr.  Heath  (Chairman),  Dr.  Braunholtz,  Dr. 
Edwards,  Prof.  Fiedler,  Mr.  Greg,  Prot.  Ripp- 
mann,  Prof.  Robertson,  Mr.  Storr  ;  Hon.  Sec.,  Mr. 
Twentyman. 


176 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


old  principle  that  the  single  organ  is  the 
proper  ideal  of  the  Association  as  a  body. 
It  was,  therefore,  with  no  small  satisfaction 
that  they  listened  to  Prof.  Robertson,  who 
came  to  this  Committee  fresh  to  the  Asso- 
ciation's work,  and,  necessarily,  ignorant  of 
the  past  internal  history  of  the  Journal,  as 
he  outlined  a  scheme  for  a  publication  which 
approximated  closely  in  its  aims  to  the 
principles  upon  which  the  old  Quarterly  had 
been  conducted — however  imperfectly — in 
the  past. 

As  a  corollary  to  the  separation  of  the 
two  sections  of  the  Quarterly,  it  was  assumed 
by  your  Committee  in  all  their  subsequent 
deliberations  that  the  financial  support 
which  the  Association  now  devotes  to  the 
Quarterly  should  be  divided  equally  between 
the  two  publications.  If  any  other  propor- 
tion were  adopted,  it  was  felt  that  the 
amount  of  financial  support  would  be  inter- 
preted by  some  as  an  index  of  the  respective 
importance  of  the  two  Journals  to  the 
Association,  whereas,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
Committee,  they  are  co-equal.  Moreover, 
no  other  basis  of  division  than  that  suggested 
could  be  accepted  at  the  outset  without 
alienating  some  goodwill. 

After  these  preliminaries  had  been  settled, 
the  Sub-Committee  proceeded  to  consider 
the  question  of  the  publication  which  is  to 
replace  the  teaching  section  of  the  present 
Quarterly.  Prof.  Rippmann,  who  has  for 
some  time  sustained  the  main  responsibility 
for  this  share  of  the  editorial  work,  placed 
the  results  of  his  experience  before  the  Sub- 
Committee.  It  was  unanimously  resolved 
to  recommend  to  the  Committee  that  a 
publication  appealing  more  directly  to 
teachers  in  secondary  schools  should  be 
issued  about  eight  or  nine  times  a  year,  and 
should  contain  articles  on  method  and  school 
practice,  notes  on  current  topics,  and  re- 
views of  books.  Such  a  Journal  appearing 
with  this  frequency  would,  it  is  hoped, 
become  a  real  medium  for  the  exchange  of 
thought  and  experience  between  teachers 
to  a  much  greater  degree  than  has  been 
possible  with  the  Quarterly. 

Along  these  lines  negotiations  were  en- 
tered into  with  Messrs.  Blackie  &  Son,  of 
Glasgow,  and  a  representative  of  the  firm 
had  an  interview  with  the  Committee. 
Subsequently,  however,  the  firm  wrote  that, 
having  regard  to  other  engagements  into 
which  they  had  entered,  they  were  unable 
favourably  to  entertain  the  suggestions  of 
the  Sub-Committee.  Application  was  then 
made  to  Messrs.  Longmans,  Green  &  Co. ; 
but  they  did  not  regard  the  proposed  Jour- 


nal as  a  promising  commercial  speculation. 
Finally,  the  Committee  approached  Messrs. 
A.  &  C.  Black,  of  Soho  Square.  This  firm 
have  given  a  very  favourable  consideration 
to  the  Sub-Committee's  proposals,  and  have 
shown  themselves  prepared  to  take  the 
matter  up  with  zeal.  The  Sub-Committee 
recommend  that  Prof.  Rippmann  be  ap- 
pointed editor  of  the  Modern  Language 
Teaching,  and  that  he  be  instructed  to  pre- 
pare with  Messrs.  Black  a  draft  memoran- 
dum of  agreement,  which  would  contain 
among  others  the  following  conditions : — 

(1)  That    the   contribution    of    the 
Association   be   fixed   at    2s.    9d.   per 
member,  in  return  for  which  the  pub- 
lishers will  deliver  to  each  member  one 
copy  of  each  number  of  the  Journal. 
(The  cost  of  postage  and  distribution 
to  be  borne  by  the  publishing  firm.) 

(2)  That  a  first  charge  upon  the  con- 
tribution   of    the   Association    be   an 
allowance  of  £25  to  the   editor  for 
clerical  and  other  assistance. 

(3)  That  eight  numbers  at  least  be 
published  each  year. 

(4)  That  the  copyright  in  the  title 
rest  jointly  with  the  Association  and 
the  publishing  firm,  and  that  the  agree- 
ment be   terminable   at    six    months' 
notice  on  either  side. 

Turning  their  attention  to  the  scholarly 
publication,  the  Sub-Committee  were  at 
once  confronted  with  the  difficulty  of  de- 
termining its  character.  Various  proposals 
were  considered,  but  a  Journal  appearing 
at  stated  times  was  almost  unanimously 
preferred  to  a  series  of  papers  issued  at 
irregular  intervals  and  not  homogeneous  in 
the  subject  and  treatment.  The  chief  cause 
of  the  Sub-Committee's  hesitation  in  not 
adopting  at  once  a  proposal  which  corn- 
commended  itself  on  all  sides  was  the 
alleged  difficulty  in  securing  a  sufficient 
quantity  of  material.  Though  the  Com- 
mittee felt  they  could  only  pronounce  de- 
finitely on  this  point  when  they  have 
prosecuted  those  further  inquiries  alluded 
to  in  the  opening  paragraph  of  this  Report, 
they  held  that  there  was  sufficient  reason- 
ableness in  their  expectation  of  support  to 
permit  them  to  place  their  suggestions  in 
a  tentative  manner  before  some  of  the 
Syndics  of  the  Cambridge  University  Press. 
The  Sub-Committee  were  assured  that  the 
Press  Syndicate  would  be  quite  prepared  to 
consider  the  proposals  of  the  Association  ; 
only  they  desired  to  have  the  scheme  for 


REPORT  OF  'MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY'  SUB-COMMITTEE      177 


the  Journal  fully  set  out.    This  involves  the 
selection  of  the  editor. 

The  question  of  the  editorship  occupied 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  Sub-Com- 
mittee's attention.  At  an  early  meeting, 
after  some  discussion,  it  was  unanimously 
agreed  that  there  should  be  one  sole  re- 
sponsible editor,  who  should  be  assisted  by 
a  body  of  advisers  nominated  by  the  editor 
and  appointed  by  the  Executive  Committee. 
It  was  thought  that  possibly  the  Syndics  of 
the  Press  might  be  influenced  in  their  judg- 
ment of  the  scheme  by  the  personality  of 
the  editor,  and  might  be  willing  informally 
to  give  the  Sub-Committee  some  indication 
as  to  the  direction  to  which  they  should 
turn  for  their  choice.  The  Syndics — per- 
haps not  unnaturally — declared  themselves 
unprepared  to  offer  any  suggestions.  The 
Sub-Committee,  after  carefully  weighing 
various  possibilities,  agreed  to  recommend 
to  the  General  Committee  that  Professor 
Robertson  be  asked  to  undertake  the  editor- 
ship. It  should  be  stated  that,  owing  to  a 
strong  desire  to  retain  for  the  advantage  of 
the  Association  the  services  of  Mr.  W.  W. 
Greg,  a  proposal  was  made  that,  notwith- 
standing the  earlier  resolution,  Mr.  Greg 
and  Professor  Robertson  be  asked  to  act  as 
joint  editors.  This  motion  was  rejected  by 
the  casting-vote  of  the  Chairman.  It  was 
also  pointed  out  that,  if  any  departure  were 
made  from  the  terms  of  the  previous  resolu- 
tion, the  only  logical  course  would  be  to 
have  three  editors — representing  English, 
Germanic,  and  Romance  scholarships  re- 
spectively. But  such  a  proposal  to  place 
the  editorship  in  commission  did  not  com- 
mend itself  to  the  Sub- Committee,  and  they 
adhere  to  their  recommendation  of  Professor 
Robertson.  They  do,  however,  desire  to 
place  on  record  their  high  appreciation  of 
Mr.  Greg's  generous  spirit  which  led  him 
to  place  himself  unreservedly  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  Committee. 

It  is  suggested  that  the  title  Modern 
Language  (Quarterly  be  retained,  and  that  not 
less  than  three  numbers  be  issued  in  a  year. 
The  Journal  should  contain  original  articles, 
if  not  too  long ;  reviews  of  carefully  selected 
books  ;  notes  as  to  the  progress  of  learning  ; 
lists  of  books. 

The  financial  position  of  the  new  Modern 
Lunrtuage  Quarterly  was  also  considered  by 
the  Sub-Committee.  Its  prospects  appeared 
less  favourable  than  those  of  a  sister- journal, 
Modern  Language  Teaching,  inasmuch  as  its 
circulation  would  no  doubt  be  considerably 
less,  and  the  cost  of  its  production  probably 
much  higher.  In  the  opinion  of  the  Sub- 


Committee,  the  future  of  the  new  Journal 
can  only  be  regarded  as  assured  if  support 
be  obtained  for  it  outside  the  Association. 
The  contribution  of  the  Association,  on  the 
basis  of  its  present  membership,  is  but 
barely  £70,  and  this  sum  cannot  be  re- 
garded as  a  satisfactory  provision  for  the 
publication  of  a  Journal  which,  it  is  hoped, 
will  one  day  take  its  place  among  the 
learned  periodicals  of  the  world.  It  was 
necessary,  therefore,  to  find  some  means  of 
securing  additional  support  which  should 
be  both  constant  and  sufficient.  The  readiest 
method,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Sub-Com- 
mittee, was  the  establishment  of  a  guarantee 
fund.  It  did  not  seem  to  be  a  reasonable 
expectation  to  hope  that  the  required  sup- 
port would  be  given  unconditionally  in  the 
form  of  donations  to  the  extent  and  for 
such  period  as  would  secure  real  financial 
stability  to  the  new  publication.  The  out- 
side contributors  might  justly  demand  some 
recognised  place  in  the  councils  of  the 
Quarterly,  and  claim  some  share  in  its 
management.  The  argument  which  has 
been  advanced  that  it  was  derogatory  to 
the  Association  to  admit  such  a  partnership 
may  be  met  by  a  consideration  of  the  fact 
that,  with  its  present  composition,  the 
Association  cannot  hope  to  establish  the 
Journal  while  relying  solely  on  its  own 
resources.  It  would  seem  rather  to  be  an 
act  of  statesmanlike  policy  to  make  use  of 
the  present  opportunity  to  secure  the  co- 
operation, and  possibly  the  adhesion,  of  all 
the  prominent  modern  language  scholars  in 
the  kingdom.  Such  a  result  could  only 
strengthen  the  Association,  and  place  it  in 
a  stronger  position  and  enable  it  to  give 
to  the  national  reform  of  our  educational 
system  which  the  country  is  now  endeavour- 
ing to  carry  out  such  counsel  as  would  be 
accepted,  because  it  would  be  an  authori- 
tative expression  of  opinion  from  the  body 
best  qualified  to  give  it  by  virtue  of  its 
collective  experience. 

They  therefore  suggest  that  a  guarantee 
fund  be  established,  and  all  contributors  of 
£5  for  a  period  of  three  years  be  entitled 
to  vote  for  the  election  of  three  representa- 
tives, who,  together  with  three  members 
appointed  by  the  Association,  will  form  a 
Committee  of  Management  for  the  new 
Journal. 

The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  re- 
commendations of  the  Sub-Committee  : ' — 

1  The  recommendations  are  printed  in  their 
final  form  as  agreed  to  at  a  General  Meeting  of 
the  Modern  Language  Association  on  December 
3rd. 


178 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


1.  That  the  existing  organ  of  the  Associa- 
tion,  the   Modern  Language    Quarterly,   be 
replaced  by  two  separate  publications — one 
of  which,  entitled  Modern  Language  Teaching, 
should  deal  with  the  problems  of  modern 
language   teaching  ;    the    other — retaining 
the  title  Modern  Language  Quarterly — should 
aim  at  becoming  the  representative  organ 
of    English   scholarship  in   modern   philo- 
logical and  literary  study. 

2.  That  Professor  Rippmann  be  invited 
to    undertake    the    editorship   of   Modern 
Language  Teaching,  and  Professor  Robertson 
that  of  the  new  Modern  Language  Quarterly. 

3.  That  Professor  Rippmann  be  assisted 
by  a  small  advisory  Committee  nominated 
by  himself  and  appointed  by  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Association. 

4.  That  Professor  Robertson  be  assisted 
by  an  advisory  Committee  nominated  by 
himself  and  appointed   by  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Association. 

5.  That  the  financial  support  now  given 
by  the   Association    to    the    Quarterly  be 
divided  equally  between  the  two  publica- 
tions. 

6.  That  a  guarantee  fund  be  established 
in  connection  with   the   Modern  Language 
Quarterly. 

7.  That  a  Committee  be  appointed  con- 
sisting of  representatives  of  the  Association 
and  of  such  persons  as  may  be  willing  to 


guarantee  not  less  than  £5  per  annum  for 
a  period  of  three  years,  on  condition  that 
the  Association  continue  to  contribute  not 
less  than  2s.  9d.  per  annum  per  member. 

8.  That   the   Committee   consist   of  six 
members — three  to  be  elected  by  the  Asso- 
ciation, and  three  by  the  body  of  guarantors. 
The  agreement  for  the  publication  of  the 
Journal  to  be  between  this  Committee  and 
the  publishing  firm. 

9.  That  the  representatives  of  the  Asso- 
ciation  on   the   above   Committee   be   the 
following : — 

The  Chairman  of  Committee. 
The  Hon.  Secretary. 
The  Hon.  Treasurer. 

10.  That    Professor    Robertson    be    re- 
quested to  draft  a  circular  setting  forth  the 
aim  and  scope  of  the  Quarterly  for  considera- 
tion of  the  Quarterly  Sub-Committee;  and 
that,   after   he   has   obtained    promises   of 
literary  and  financial  support  from  some  of 
the   leading  modern  language  scholars   in 
this  country  and  abroad,  the  circular  with 
the  list  of  contributors  be  submitted  by  the 
Sub-Committee  to  the  publishing  firm  as 
the  basis  of  negotiations  for  the  publication 
of  the  Quarterly. 

11.  That  the  Quarterly  Sub-Committee  be 
empowered  to  act  for  the  Association  on 
the  lines  indicated  above. 


SUPPLEMENTARY  REGISTERS   FOR  TEACHERS. 


IN  September  1902  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion referred  to  the  Consultative  Committee 
the  question  of  drafting  Regulations  for  the 
establishment  of  Supplemental  Registers  for 
teachers  of  Special  Subjects.  The  Com- 
mittee has  given  very  prolonged  and  earnest 
consideration  to  this  matter,  and,  after  a 
conference  with  the  Teachers'  Registration 
Council,  a  Joint  Sub-Committee,  including 
representatives  in  equal  numbers  of  these 
two  bodies,  was  appointed  to  consider  pro- 
posals for  draft  regulations  for  these  Sup- 
plemental Registers.  The  Report  of  this 


Sub-Committee  was  recently  received  and 
considered,  and,  as  a  result,  the  Consulta- 
tive Committee,  at  their  last  meeting  before 
the  recess,  resolved  to  recommend  to  the 
Board  of  Education,  that  the  establishment 
of  Supplemental  Registers  be  postponed 
until  the  teaching  of  the  subjects  proposed 
for  the  Supplemental  Registers  has  been 
further  organised  in  connection  with  general 
education.  The  Board  of  Education  have 
accepted  this  recommendation,  and,  for  the 
present,  no  further  steps  will  be  taken  to 
establish  such  Supplemental  Registers. 


DE  LA  LITTERATURE  DANS  LES  ECOLES 


179 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  PHONETIC  ASSOCIATION. 


WE  welcome  the  issue  of  a  handy  pamphlet 
dealing  with  the  aim  and  principles  of  an 
Association  which  has  done  much  good 
work  since  its  foundation  in  1886,  and  is 
likely  to  become  more  and  more  influential 
as  its  aim  and  principles  become  better 
knowu. 

Already  it  may  be  said  that  the  alphabet 
drawn  up  in  1888  has  gained  a  firm  footing 
in  England;  for  in  1898  the  first  book  in 
accordance  with  the  reform  method  intro- 
duced this  alphabet  to  English  teachers,  and 
since  then  no  French  beginners'  book  aspir- 
ing to  be  '  up  to  date '  has  failed  to  make 
use  of  this  mode  of  transcription.  There 
is  even  a  First  Latin  Book  with  a  phonetic 
representation  of  part  of  the  text. 

From  'Aims  and  Principles  of  the  I. P. A.' 
we  gather  that  of  the  839  members  no  less 
than  132  are  in  England,  a  number  ex- 
ceeded only  by  Germany  (183).  Denmark 
has  104  members,  and  France  90;  probably 
this  number  will  soon  be  increased,  now 


that  the  reform  method  is  making  such 
headway  in  France. 

To  the  officers  of  the  Association  England 
contributes  the  Honorary  President  (Dr. 
Sweet  of  Oxford),  one  of  the  two  Vice- 
Presidents  (Dr.  Lloyd  of  Liverpool),  and  a 
Member  of  Committee  (Professor  Baker  of 
Sheffield). 

The  pamphlet  contains  a  brief  history  of 
the  Association,  an  account  of  its  constitu- 
tion and  management,  the  principles  of  the 
Association  as  regards  the  teaching  of 
foreign  languages,  a  description  of  the 
phonetic  alphabet,  and  a  number  of  speci- 
mens in  various  languages,  viz.  Southern, 
American  and  Northern  English,  German, 
Dutch,  French,  Italian,  Spanish,  Portuguese, 
Norwegian,  Danish,  Japanese,  and  Hebrew. 

Copies  of  the  pamphlet  can  be  obtained 
of  Dr.  Baker,  Dr.  Lloyd,  Prof.  Rippmann, 
and  of  the  Secretary,  20  Madeleine,  Bourg- 
la-Reine,  Seine  (France). 


DE  LA  LITTERATURE  DANS  LES  ECOLES. 


UN  grand  professeur,  et  un  savant  qui  a 
si  bien  compris  1'esprit  et  le  g6nie  anglais, 
disait:  '  j'ai  peu  d'estime  pour  le  mot"lit- 
t6rature."  Ce  mot  me  semble  de'nne'  de 
sens ;  il  est  6clos  d'nne  depravation  intel- 
lectuelle.' 

Philar6te  Chasles,  il  faut  le  dire,  revait 
'  1'histoire  de  la  pens6e  humaine,  de  ses 
progres  et  de  ses  influences^  C'6tait  beau- 
coup  demander.  Toutefois,  si  le  mot  "lit- 
t6rature"  n'est  pas  d6nuc  de  sens,  Ton 
conviendra  assur<Sment  qu'il  est  souvent 
pris  dans  1'acception  la  plus  fausse.  II 
y  en  a  qui  y  cherchent  1'expression  d'un 
patriotisme  born6  et  aveugle  pour  1'eleva- 
tion,  croient-ils,  du  sentiment  national ;  a 
d'autres  il  ne  rappelle  qu'un  'Cimetiere  oil 
d6terrer  des  gloires  pass^es ' ;  plusieurs  ne 
demandent  au  g6nie  que  des  '  r6gulateurs 
du  style  et  des  dictateurs  de  la  phrase ' ; 
un  plus  grand  nombre  semblent  s'imaginer 
que  la  literature  se  rtaont  en  una  espece 
'd'existence  mn^monique.'  Mais  quiconque 
6tudie  1'ame  des  livres  dira,  ce  me  ?emble, 
de  la  litte>ature  que  c'est  la  plus  belle  ex- 


pression tantot  vraie,  tantot  errone'e  de  nos 
jouissances  et  de  nos  souffrances,  de  nos 
joies  et  de  nos  tristesses. 

Aussi,  si  Ton  accepte  cette  definition, 
n'est-il  de  tache  plus  delicate  et  plus  diffi- 
cile que  de  faire,  pour  les  jeunes,  un  choix 
d'auteurs  tels  qu'a  un  age  oil  les  impressions 
ont  le  dessus  de  la  raison,  les  inclinations 
restent  dans  les  bornes  honnetes.  C'est  la 
d'abord  la  s6rieuse  difficultc.  II  s'en  pr£- 
sente  une  autre  sinon  tout  aussi  grave,  du 
moins,  tout  aussi  grande :  par  oil  com- 
mencer  et  par  oil  finir]  En  effet,  y  a-t-il 
rien  de  plus  inconside>6  que  de  donner  aux 
enfants  '  Colornba.'  Dans  ce  livre  qui  est 
'  a  little  masterpiece  of  psychological  truth, 
of  temperate  local  colour,  of  faultless  narra- 
tive, of  pure  objective  art,' l  la  p6n6 tration 
et  la  finesse  y  sont  bien  trop  profondes  pour 
1'entendement  naturellement  peu  ouvert  des 
enfants  'of  the  junior  course.'2  Ce  n'est 
pas  parce  que  Prosper  Me'rime'e  est  '  le 

1  Professor  Dowden. 

2  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Twelve  of  the 
Modern  Language  Association  of  America. 


180 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


premier  des  novellistes  frangais  'l  qu'on  doive 
le  choisir  pour  les  jeunes.  On  ne  le  ferait 
pas  si  d'abord  Ton  se  souvenait  que  '  toute 
1'imagination  de  cet  auteur  est  employ^  a 
tivoquer  des  etats  d'ame,  et  a  combiner  des 
evenements  qui  mettent  en  jour  6clatant  les 
demarches  des  passions.' l  Non  plus,  si  Ton 
r6alisait  toujours  qu'il  faut  tenir  compte  du 
style  de  1'auteur,  et  que,  dans  '  Colomba,'  il 
est  tres  concis,  travaill^,  et  par  consequent 
difficile  a  traduire. 

C'est,  je  crois,  dans  cet  esprit  critique 
qu'il  faut  dresser  une  liste  d'ceuvres  'for 
the  junior  and  intermediate  and  advanced 
courses.'2  Ce  qui  veut  dire  le  rejet  d'un 
certain  guide-ane  venu  d'Amerique,2  et  qui 
malheureusement  fait  loi  dans  des  e'coles  ici, 
en  Aiigleterre. 

II  arrive,  et  a  beaucoup  d'entre  nous, 
d'entendre  dire  en  classe :  'foreign  authors 
do  write  twaddle ! '  Eh  bien,  dans  un 
certain  sens,  les  61feves  qui  s'expriment  ainsi 
ont  raison,  car  si  nous  examinons  de  pres  les 
livres  qu'on  leur  met  g6n6ralement  entre  les 
mains,  Ton  s'ape^oit  bien  vite  qu'avant  de 
faire  un  choix,  on  n'a  term  aucun  compte, 
non  pas  de  1'intelligence,  mais  de  Pentende- 
ment  de  la  jeunesse  a  tel  ou  tel  age.  Lo- 
giquement  comment  peut-on  espeYer  que 
des  enfants  de  douze  a  quatorze  ans  saisis- 
sent  et  puissent  apprecier  meme  un  peu 
au  hasard  ou  'Colomba'  ou  'La  Poudre 
aux  Yeux'  ou  'Le  Voyage  de  M  Perri- 
chon '  qu'ils  ne  comprendraient  pas  du  point 
de  vue  litteVaire  (et  c'est  la  pourtant  1'ex- 
cuse)  dans  la  langue  maternelle  parce  que 
psychologiquement  ils  ne  le  pourraient  n'a- 
yant  pas  1'expe'rience  voulue.  L'on  peut 
en  dire  autant,  et  encore  plus,  des  e'leves 
de  seize  ans  auxquels  on  donne  indifferem- 
ment  soit  'La  Canne  de  Jonc,'2  soit  'Her- 
nani ! '  -  De  meme  aussi,  des  plus  ag6s 
encore,  mais  toujours  6coliers  tant  qu'il 
s'agit  d'une  langue  etrangere,  qui  doivent 
lire  tantot  <  Graziella,' 2  tantot  'Ruy  Bias,'2 
et  pour  changer  les  proverbes  et  les  poemes 
de  Musset ! 2 

A  coup  sur,  la  faute  que  Ton  a  toujours 
faite  dans  1'enseignement  des  langues  vi- 
vantes,  et  que  1'on  fait  encore,  c'est  d'ou- 
blier  que  les  enfants,  et  la  jeunesse  ne 
comprennent  qu'en  raison  de  Pexperience 
qu'ils  ont  de  la  vie,  et  que  Ton  force  in- 
consciemment  leur  entendement.  C'est  ce 
qui  fait  dire  a  1'eleve  '  foreign  authors  do 
write  twaddle ! ' 

Le  g6nie  d'un  peuple,  chose  immaterielle, 

1  E.  Faguot. 

2  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Twelve  of   the 
Modern  Language  Association  of  America. 


done  si  difficile  a  saisir,  devrait  nous  faire 
hesiter.  Eu  tenons-nous  toujours  compte 
dans  notre  choix  1 

L'on  peut  dire  avec  assez  de  verite  (je 
ne  decide  pour  ou  centre)  que  la  subtilite 
de  1'intelligence,  1'  'acies  mentis'  de  la  jeu- 
nesse en  Angleterre,  a  cause  d'un  enseigne- 
ment  qui,  peut-etre,  convient  au  g6nie  du 
pays,  se  developpe  plus  tard  que  sur  le 
continent.  Si  cela  est,  on  ne  peut  donner, 
ainsi  qu'on  nous  le  recommande,  de  la 
critique  litteraire  a  nos  e'leves  suivraient- 
ils  meme  'the  advanced  course.'2  Ce  ne 
serait  que  se  tromper  soi-meme  ou  jeter 
de  la  poudre  aux  yeux.  De  1'enseignement 
ainsi  compris  n'est  pas  litte>aire  ou  meme 
utilitaire,  car,  je  le  repete,  on  ne  doit  s'at- 
tendre  h,  ce  que  l'6leve  puisse  faire  avant 
un  certain  age  ce  que  la  nature  aidee  de 
1'education  et  de  1'instruction  ne  lui  per- 
mettra  que  graduellement,  et  surtout  quand 
il  est  oblige1  de  plicr  son  esprit  a  un  nou- 
veau  tour. 

Puisqu'il  -est  du  devoir  de  tout  maltre 
d'enrayer  les  instincts,  et  de  diriger  les 
penchants,  tout  en  elargissant  les  id6es,  il 
faut  condamner  pour  1'e'cole,  et  remettre  a 
plus  tard,  tout  livre,  toute  ceuvre  qui  a  pour 
these  la  tristesse,  la  haine,  le  d6sespoir,  et, 
autant  que  possible,  1 'am our  comme  passion. 
II  faudrait,  au  contraire,  rechercher  ces 
livres  qui  mettent  en  jour  les  penchants  du 
bien,  du  vrai,  et  du  beau.  Devons-nous 
alors,  reflexion  faite,  donner  a  nos  eleves  les 
chansons  de  Beranger  1 2 

Beaucoup  des  ceuvres  qui  entrent  dans  la 
liste  du  '  Committee  of  Twelve '  ne  devraient 
done  etre  raises  entre  les  mains  d'6coliers. 
Je  ne  dis  pas,  d'e'tudiants.  Ce  qui  frappe 
aussi,  c'est  1'incompre'hensible  salmigondis 
qu'on  y  trouve :  des  chefs-d'oeuvre  Iitt6- 
raires  avec  des  Merits  'qui  sont  a  vrai  dire, 
hors  de  la  litte>ature.'3  II  n'y  a  aucun  plan, 
soit  pour  donuer  un  aper<ju  de  la  litWra- 
ture,  soit  pour  pr^parer  des  6tudiants  qui 
devront  un  jour  suivre  les  cours  sup^rieurs 
aux  universit6s. 

Avant  de  faire  un  choix  quelconque,  sou- 
venons-nous  premierement  que  les  poetes  et 
tous  les  penseurs  adressent  'le  r6sult<at 
complexe  et  me!6  de  toutes  leurs  idees ' 
non  pas  a  la  jeunesse,  mais  a  I'exp6rience  : 
aux  hommes.  Cela  6tant,  il  nous  faut,  si 
nous  voulons  etre  logiques,  faire  notre  choix 
d'aprts  les  dictees  et  de  la  psychologic  et  de 
la  morale. 

Enfin,  si  les  guide-anes  sont  n^cessaires, 
demandons  a  nos  a!n6s  de  fairo  un  autre 

3  R.  Doumic. 


COMMON  FAULTS  IN  METHOD,  WITH  SOME  SUGGESTIONS         181 


choix,  un  autre  '  Kanon '  que  celui  du  '  Com- 
mittee of  Twelve.' 

Imiterons-nous  toujours  pour  ne  retomber 
souvent  que  dans  de  vieilles  erreurs  1  Qui 
ne  se  souvient  du  temps  oil  Ton  donnait 
'  Picciola '  et  cetera  pour  faire  passer  des 


examens  elemental  res  ?  L'on  se  flattait  alors 
de  faire  de  la  litterature  fra^aise,  car  on 
avait  uu  profond  mepris  pour  le  vilain  cote 
utilitaire  des  langues  vivantes.  Aussi,  quel 
resultat  ?  zero,  dans  les  ecoles. 

VICTOR  E.  KASTNKR  (Junr.). 


COMMON  FAULTS  IN  METHOD,   WITH  SOME  SUGGESTIONS. 


NOTE. —  We  have,  already  referred  to  the  Report 
on  Modern  Language  Reading  in  thirty-eight 
schools  supiiorled  by  the  London  County  Council. 
As  it  is  not  generally  accessible,  we  think  our  readers 
will  be  interested  in  t/te  following  reprint  of  that 
part,  of  Appendix  A,  which  deals  with  faults  of 
method. 

THE  laws  which  govern  all  true  teaching 
naturally  hold  good  for  language  study.  A 
sympathetic  teacher  handling  a  class  firmly 
and  intelligently,  skilled  to  make  the  sub- 
ject interesting  and  suggestive,  will  do 
better  work  with  a  limited  knowledge  of 
the  foreign  language  than  the  learned  but 
untrained  specialist,  although  in  no  subject 
perhaps  is  special  training  more  necessary 
for  the  teacher  than  in  modern  languages. 

Careless  and  inaccurate  work  in 
modern  languages  is  harmful  to  the 
mind,  just  as  all  slipshod  work  is 
harmful.  A  mere  smattering  of  a 
language  or  the  acquisition  of  a  few 
disconnected  linguistic  facts,  the 
supposed  minimum  required  for  a 
particular  examination,  can  have 
little  educational  value  •  and  no 
subject  should  find  a  place  in  the 
school  curriculum  which  is  not 
carried  to  a  useful  point. 

A  good  lesson  in  French  or  German  has 
much  in  common  with  any  other  good 
lesson.  A  general  plan  of  work  must  be 
laid  down,  each  lesson  forming  a  part. 
There  must  be  correlation  of  subjects,  and 
each  division  and  subdivision  of  the  sub- 
ject must  have  the  right  proportions. 
There  must  be  careful  preparation  of  the 
material  for  each  lesson;  the  proper  leading 
up  to  new  points;  readiness  in  supplying 
illustrations  and  comparisons,  and  a  judici- 
ous use  of  the  blackboard ;  constant 
repetition  without  monotony. 

Questions  and  answers  should  be  spoken 
in  a  clear  voice ;  mumbling  is  as  often  a 
cloak  for  ignorance  as  it  is  a  sign  of  slack- 
ness. A  few  minutes'  phonetic  drill  at  the 


beginning  of  all  elementary  classes,  and 
occasional  breathing  exercises,  would  help 
to  correct  the  indistinct  utterance  common 
to  many  children  who  have  failed  to  learn 
in  their  English  classes  how  to  speak 
properly. 

When  the  teachers  neglect  the 
pronunciation,  pupils  are  wont  to 
content  themselves  with  an  approx- 
imation, hoping  that  the  teacher 
will  accept  as  the  right  word  their 
intermediate  between  two  sounds. 
In  some  of  the  classes  visited  it  was 
often  impossible  to  say  whether  le 
or  la  was  used  before  a  French 
noun.  Even  teachers  were  heard 
to  say  something  suspiciously  like  le 
faute,  le  question. 

The  even  more  serious  defects  of  sight 
and  hearing  are  not  sufficiently  observed. 
Eye  and  ear  inspection  should  be  frequent 
and  regular,  and  the  most  suitable  places 
should  be  allotted  to  defective  children. 
Another  matter  often  neglected  is  the 
attitude  of  the  pupils,  especially  the  way 
they  hold  themselves  in  writing. 

Again,  many  faults  of  character  and 
demeanour  are  not  peculiar  to  those  who 
teach  French  and  German.  A  teacher  who 
is  languid  or  fussy,  or  whose  nerves  are 
always  on  edge,  or  who  loses  his  temper  or 
becomes  sarcastic  on  the  slightest  provoca- 
tion, has  no  business  to  be  teaching. 

For  sarcasm  there  is  absolutely  no 
excuse,  it  is  sheer  bullying;  but  irritability 
or  dulness  is  sometimes  accounted  for  by 
overwork.  There  are  still  school  authori- 
ties who  seem  to  regard  teaching  as  un- 
skilled labour  entailing  little  mental  or 
nervous  strain  :  still  less  do  they  recognise 
the  necessity  of  preparation  for  each  lesson 
on  the  part  of  the  teacher.  Now  that 
better  methods  of  modern  language  teach- 
ing are  steadily  making  their  way,  princi- 


182 


THE  MODEKN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


pals  of  schools  do  well  to  bear  in  mind  that 
trained  teaching  generally,  and  oral  work 
in  particular,  does  involve  a  strain  on  the 
teacher,  and  that  anything  like  30  hours' 
modern  language  teaching  in  a  week  will  be 
disastrous  to  the  teacher  if  he  be  conscien- 
tious ;  or  if  he  be  prudent,  to  the  teaching. 
Here  also  the  fault  may,  to  some  extent, 
lie  with  the  teachers  themselves.  There  is 
often  an  excessive  and  unnecessary  expen- 
diture of  energy  on  the  part  of  painstaking 
but  inexperienced  teachers ;  they  make  the 
serious  mistake  of  trying  to  do  all  the 
work,  forgetting  that  the  pupils  must  have 
not  merely  a  share  but  the  most  important 
share  in  it,  that  they  must  be  led  to  think 
and  act  for  themselves.  Many  a  conscien- 
tious teacher  is  also  inclined  to  take  infinite 
trouble  over  the  individual,  leaving  the  rest 
of  the  class  unoccupied.  One  cannot  urge 
too  strongly  the  importance  of  work  which 
keeps  the  attention  and  necessitates  the  co- 
operation of  the  whole  class :  chorus  work, 
blackboard  work,  etc. 

Some  teachers  continue  the  prac- 
tice handed  down  from  the  older 
public  schools  of  remaining  in  their 
seats  on  the  platform  throughout 
the  lesson  ;  this  custom  has  many 
disadvantages.  The  traditional 
system  of  putting  questions  to  the 
pupils  in  turn  instead  of  indiscrim- 
inately (but  with  discretion)  is  also 
to  be  condemned,  except  in  very 
small  classes. 

Teachers  too  often  correct  the  pupil, 
when  they  should  rather  lead  him  to  find 
out  where  he  has  gone  wrong  and  to  correct 
himself;  a  common  fault  also  consists  in 
dwelling  on  the  mistake  and  in  placarding 
it  in  such  a  way  as  to  impress  it  more 
firmly  on  the  learner's  mind  than  the  right 
word.  It  is  unwise,  too,  to  leave  things 
written  on  the  blackboard  when  they  are 
no  longer  required ;  this  distracts  the 
attention  of  the  pupils  and  leads  to  con- 
fusion in  their  mind.  It  was  also  fre- 
quently observed  that  teachers  had  to 
correct  mistakes  which  should  never  have 
been  allowed  to  occur. 

Thus  in  the  early  stages  it  is  often 
pure  waste  of  time  to  make  a  pupil 
read  first,  and  then  for  the  teacher  to 
correct  the  numerous  blunders.  If 
the  teacher  had  read  the  sentence 
before  the  beginner  made  his 
attempt,  a  great  many  of  the 
mistakes  would  probably  not  have 
been  made. 


Some  matters  specially  connected  with 
the  teaching  of  modern  languages  will  now 
be  considered. 

The  view  is  gaining  general  acceptance 
that  in  the  beginning  we  should  follow  the 
order  in  which  the  child  learns  its  own 
language,  though  naturally  in  a  quicker 
and  more  systematic  way :  starting  with 
the  spoken  language,  learning  the  com- 
monest variations  which  can  be  made  with 
a  useful  and  limited  vocabulary,  and  leaving 
the  archaic  forms  of  the  written  language 
for  a  later  stage.  The  elementary  stage  is 
not  to  be  omitted  or  hurried  over,  the  new 
sounds  must  be  carefully  practised,  the 
significant  differences  between  kindred 
English  and  foreign  sounds  being  specially 
brought  out.  With  an  intelligent  method 
the  beginner  feels  his  power  very  soon,  the 
new  material  is  understood  and  enjoyed  as 
well  as  learned,  and  the  forces  of  interest 
and  curiosity  are  on  the  side  of  the  teacher. 

The  effect  of  the  'mental  discip- 
line '  nightmare,  and  of  examinations 
set  on  old-fashioned  lines  with  no 
oral  test,  has  been  to  teach  too  early 
the  more  difficult  parts  of  the  new 
language,  and  to  give  an  exaggerated 
importance  to  rare  and  exceptional 
forms. 

Unsound  methods  are  often  perpetuated 
by  unsatisfactory  books  which  are  retained 
for  economical  reasons  (in  schools  where 
the  pupils'  books  are  provided  for  them), 
long  after  their  bad  features  have  been 
recognised ;  and  the  less  qualified  the 
teacher  is,  the  more  he  has  to  depend  on 
the  book  for  all  his  material  and  for  all  his 
method.  In  the  older  books  the  language 
alone  was  considered,  not  the  learner,  and 
the  book  became  all-important ;  now  the 
centre  of  interest  is  transferred  to  the 
teacher,  who  acts  as  chief  mediator  between 
the  foreign  language  and  the  learner. 
There  is  all  the  more  necessity  for  serious 
preparation  on  the  part  of  those  who  under- 
take modern  language  teaching,  and  they 
should  embrace  every  opportunity  for 
qualifying  themselves  to  do  good  work. 

Such  opportunities  are  fortunately 
becoming  more  and  more  common. 
Reference  may  be  made  to  the 
courses  of  lectures  arranged  by  the 
Teachers'  Guild,  the  College  of 
Preceptors,  etc. ;  and  an  example  of 
recent  endeavours  to  supply  lin- 
guistic and  literary  training  is  the 
provision  made  for  the  study  of 
German  by  the  University  of  Lon- 


COMMON  FAULTS  IN  METHOD,  WITH  SOME  SUGGESTIONS          183 


dou,  with  every  facility  for  post- 
graduate work  and  courses  arranged 
to  suit  those  who  are  engaged  in 
teaching  during  the  day. 

A  teacher  should  not  undertake  oral 
work  until  he  has  a  useful  working  know- 
ledge of  spoken  French  or  German,  and  has 
some  training  in  phonetics.  It  is  not  only 
necessary  for  the  teacher  to  pronounce 
correctly  ;  he  should  also  be  able  to  tell  the 
pupil  where  the  fault  lies  and  how  the 
sound  is  produced. 

That  the  mere  utterance  of  the 
right  sound  is  insufficient  is  clearly 
shown  by  the  united  criticism  of  the 
inspectors  that  the  worst  pronunci- 
ation was  heard  in  certain  classes 
taught  by  foreigners.  From  the 
foreigner's  pronunciation  of  English 
it  is  generally  possible  to  infer,  almost 
with  certainty,  his  pupils'  pronun- 
ciation of  French  or  German. 

Slovenly  and  inaccurate  pronunci- 
ation means  an  unsafe  foundation, 
and  its  consequences  are  far-reach- 
ing; otherwise  useful  adjuncts  to 
modern  language  teaching  (such  as 
chorus  work,  learning  by  heart, 
singing)  instead  of  doing  good  only 
serve  to  confirm  mistakes  ;  and  dic- 
tation becomes  mere  guesswork. 

The  teacher  should  endeavour  from  the 
very  outset  to  arouse  interest  in  the  lan- 
guage learnt,  and  to  encourage  a  kindly 
feeling  towards  the  foreign  nation.  A 
class  loses  interest  as  well  as  respect  for  a 
subject,  when  it  is  necessary  for  the  teacher 
to  apologise  to  his  pupils  for  the  silliness  of 
the  sentences  in  the  book  they  are  using  or 
for  the  impossible  English  found  there. 
Literal  translation,  producing  nonsense  in 
English,  in  another  cause  for  contempt ; 
sometimes,  too,  the  faulty  English  of  the 
foreign  teacher.  All  this  can  be  avoided  by 
teaching  the  foreign  language  by  means  of 
the  foreign  language.  This  is  the  rule  in 
many  of  the  classes  visited,  and  the  results 
are  best  when  the  teacher  does  not  make 
a  fetish  of  the  foreign  language,  but  uses 
the  mother  -  tongue  when  circumstances 
demand  it. 

It  was  observed  that  several 
teachers,  probably  from  analogy  with 
the  German  custom  of  employing  the 
second  person  singular  in  addressing 
a  pupil,  made  use  of  tu  in  French 
classes,  although  the  custom  in 
France  is  for  masters  in  secondary 
schools  to  address  a  boy  as  vous. 


Another  point  in  French  oral  work 
was  the  regular  employment  of  the 
French  passt  dejini,  e.g.  je  fis,  nous 
parldmes,  instead  of  the  conversa- 
tional tense,  fai  fait,  nous  avons 
parU. 

A  bad  habit  with  some  teachers  is 
the  excessive  repetition  of  a  pet 
word  or  phrase,  e.g.  maintenant,  puis, 
n'est-ce  pas,  also,  nicht  wahr.  In  some 
cases  qu'est-ce  que  c'est  que  ca?  had 
been  worn  down  to  qu'est-ce  que  c'est 
fa  ?  and  even  to  qu'est-ce  que  d  ? 

Questions  and  answers  in  the  foreign 
language,  based  on  the  text  read,  rightly 
form  an  important  part  of  the  class  work. 
Unless  the  teacher  has  had  long  experience, 
the  questions  should  be  carefully  prepared 
beforehand.  All  texts  do  not  lend  them- 
selves equally  well  to  this  form  of  exercise, 
and  the  questions  may  become  far-fetched, 
so  that  the  pupil  is  at  a  loss  what  to 
answer. 

Young  teachers  are  apt  to  ask  not  only 
unnatural  questions,  but  illegitimate  ones, 
probably  with  the  idea  of  bringing  out  the 
critical  faculty  of  the  class. 

An  instance  is  the  question  :  '  How 
would  flocon  be  pronounced  if  it  were 
spelled  flocon  ? '  (instead  of  giving  a 
real  example  for  comparison,  e.g. 
rjarqori).  Another  example  is  '  Ce 
soir :  if  soir  were  feminine,  what 
would  you  say  instead  of  ce  1 ' 

Teachers  fresh  from  college  who  still 
think  and  work  in  a  plane  too  high  for 
children  are  inclined  to  '  relieve  the  mono- 
tony '  of  instruction  in  the  simple  facts  of 
language  by  making  digressions  into  his- 
torical grammar  and  philology  generally. 

Historical  grammar  used  judic- 
iously is  helpful,  and  the  youngest 
classes  can  be  interested  in  observing 
a  regular  change  like  ecole,  school ; 
Mat,  state.  Good  use  can  also  be 
made  of  derivation  ;  the  vocabulary 
is  strengthened  and  increased  by  the 
association  of  words  and  their  deri- 
vatives (e.g.  grand,  grandir,  grandeur, 
etc.). 

The  matter  becomes  even  more  serious 
when  teachers  with  no  real  knowledge  of 
the  science  of  language  parade  the  sup- 
posed higher  work  simply  to  impress  their 
audience. 

One  teacher  was  heard  to  saj  that 
dimanche  was  so  called  because  it 
meant  the  '  great  day,'  and  came 


184 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


from  dies  magnus ;  and  more  than 
one  class  was  given  to  understand 
that  beau  was  the  older  form  which 
had  become  bel  for  the  sake  of 
euphony. 

Among  many  other  points  suggested  by 
the  work  inspected  are  the  following : — 

The  best  results  in  modern  language 
work  are  obtained  if  the  teaching  in  the 
early  stages  is  intensive,  a  short  lesson  every 
day  being  advisable.  There  is  danger  of 
confusion  in  the  pupils'  minds  if  a  second 
foreign  language  be  started  too  soon  ;  an 
interval  of  at  least  two  years  should  be 
allowed  to  elapse. 

In  the  early  stages  the  pupils  should  hear 
and  say  a  new  word  several  times  before 
they  see  it. 

With  regard  to  grammar,  the  method 
should  be  to  give  the  examples  before  the 
rules  (the  reverse  of  the  older  practice). 

Good  work  is  being  done  with  pictures  of 
various  kinds,  the  class  being  led  very 
quickly  to  connect  the  new  words  directly 
with  the  objects  pointed  out,  without  going 
through  a  process  of  translation. 

A  useful  exercise  consists  in  telling  a 
short  story  and  causing  the  pupils  to  repeat 
it  in  their  own  words,  viva  voce,  and  then  in 
writing. 

Plays  read  aloud  or  acted  by  the  class 
arouse  much  interest,  and  form  a  conven- 
ient means  of  helping  the  pronunciation. 
With  little  ones  the  drilling  may  also  be 
drawn  into  the  service  of  modern  lan- 
guages :  the  children  hear  the  commands,  and 
say  what  they  do,  in  French  or  German. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  use  text-books  which 
are  too  difficult;  a  large  number  of  un- 
known words  is  simply  discouraging,  and 
necessitates  dreary  dictionary  work,  whereas 
an  unknown  word  in  a  context  of  known 
ones  makes  the  discovery  of  its  meaning 
a  pleasure.  There  is  a  great  advantage 
in  having  two  reading  -  books,  one  for 


detailed   work  and  an  easier  one  for   cur- 
sory reading. 

The  home-work  should  contain  nothing 
new,  but  consist  of  revision  and  application. 
The  learning  of  good  prose  and  poetry  may 
also  be  recommended  ;  the  prose  piece 
should  be  a  short  story  or  a  description 
forming  a  complete  whole. 

In  the  higher  work  there  was  less  to 
criticise,  partly  because  it  is  only  in  excep- 
tional cases  that  the  pupils  are  brought  to 
the  stage  of  appreciating  the  foreign  litera- 
ture, and  partly  because  it  is  still  often  the 
custom  to  have  a  well-qualified  teacher  for 
the  senior  pupils  and  to  starve  the  rest 
of  the  school.  It  must  be  insisted  upon 
again  and  again  that,  if  the  beginners  are 
neglected,  their  work  in  the  following 
years  will  certainly  suffer. 

Some  of  the  difficulties  in  language 
teaching  are  beyond  the  control  of  the 
teacher.  In  many  schools  the  staff  is  too 
small.  Classes  of  forty  and  forty-five  make 
the  correction  of  written  work  a  very  heavy 
task,  while  the  oral  teaching  must  almost 
be  confined  to  work  in  chorus.  In  other 
schools  the  accommodation  is  bad,  and  two 
classes  use  the  same  room  with  no  partition, 
or  with  one  which  is  not  by  any  means 
sound-proof ;  this  leads  either  to  shouting 
or  to  whispering,  and  in  both  cases  the 
oral  work  becomes  more  difficult.  The 
pressure  of  other  subjects  in  the  school 
curriculum,  especially  the  demands  of  science, 
makes  it  difficult  to  assign  sufficient  time  to 
modern  language  work  to  produce  good 
results.  This  renders  it  all  the  more 
necessary  for  the  teacher  to  make  the  best 
use  of  the  time  at  his  disposal,  and  this  he 
can  only  do  if  he  has  had  the  proper  train- 
ing. Indeed,  on  no  feature  of  this  report 
do  the  inspectors  lay  greater  weight  than  on 
the  emphatic  demand  that  you  should  learn 
to  teach,  before  you  set  about  teaching 
modern  languages. 


EXAMINATIONS. 


COMPETITION  FOR  FIRST-CLASS 
CLERKSHIPS  IN  THE  HOME 
CIVIL  SERVICE,  AND  FOR  THE 
INDIA  CIVIL  SERVICE  (August 
1904). 

ENGLISH. — On  the  whole,  these  are  more 


interesting  papers  than  any  that  have  been 
set  in  the  Civil  Service  Examination  for 
some  years  past.  The  first,  or  general  paper, 
is  particularly  good.  It  may  be  doubted, 
however,  whether  too  wide  a  choice  has  not 
been  left  to  the  candidates.  There  are  four- 
teen questions,  of  which  only  six  are  to  be 


EXAMINATIONS 


185 


answered;  and  the  first  two  are  obligatory. 
This  leaves  the  candidate  to  select  four  out 
of  twelve.  All  the  twelve  carry  equal 
marks,  and  pains  seem  to  have  been  taken 
to  make  them  equally  searching ;  but  to  do 
so  is  almost  impossible. 
The  seventh  question  runs  thus  : — 

Trace  the  development  of  English  Prose,  with 
special  reference  to  the  following  names :— Ascham, 
Milton,  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  Cowley,  Dryden, 
Sir  William  Temple,  Addison,  Johnson. 

Now,  on  the  one  hand,  the  answers  must 
be  intolerably  long ;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  names  mentioned  give  too  plain  a  clue 
to  any  one  who  is  not  intolerably  ignorant. 
Again,  the  eighth  question  reads : — 

Discuss,  with  quotations  and  illustrations  from 
English  literature,  one  of  the  following  dicta  : — 
(a)  The  language  of  the  age  is  never  the  language 
of  poetry.  (6)  The  poetry  of  Dryden  and  Pope 
is  the  poetry  of  the  builders  of  an  age  of  prose  and 
reason,  (c)  Etc. 

Here,  plainly,  (b)  is  a  very  broad  hint 
toward  the  answering  of  (a). 

The  second  paper,  on  the  period  from 
1360  to  1600,  is  much  less  satisfactory. 
Here,  again,  only  six  questions  are  to  be 
answered  out  of  thirteen,  and  the  first  two 
are  obligatory ;  but  the  eleven,  from  which 
four  may  be  chosen,  are  by  no  means  equally 
weighted.  For  example,  Toxophilus  was  one 
of  the  books  prescribed ;  and  the  eleventh 
question  is  as  follows  : — 

What  does  Ascham  say  of  the  study  of  Greek  at 
Cambridge?  On  what  grounds  does  he  recom- 
mend the  use  of  archery  ? 

That  Aschatn's  remarks  upon  the  study  of 
Greek  at  Cambridge  are  much  fuller  in  The 
Scholemaster  than  in  Toxophilus,  may  be  no 
great  objection ;  but  it  is  a  serious  objection 
that  the  whole  question  is  upon  the  level  of 
a  '  Junior  Local '  examination. 

The  sixth  question  is  too  long,  and  asks 
for  little  else  than  book-work. 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  fourth  ques- 
tion ?— 

The  good  and  bad  points  of  the  Age  of  Chivalry, 
as  exhibited  in  The  Morle  d' Arthur  and  the  Fairy 
Queen  [»«>]. 


In  my  judgment  nothing  of  the  sort  is 
'  exhibited '  in  The  Faerie  Queene. 

Last  year  it  was  necessary  to  complain  of 
grave  omissions  from  the  special  paper,  and 
now  the  case  is  worse.  The  works  of  Wyatt 
and  Surrey  were  in  the  list,  but  upon  these 
most  significant  poets  there  is  no  question 
at  all.  For  the  history  of  our  literature,  it 
is  not  too  much  to  say  that  Wyatt  and 
Surrey  are  as  important  as  Spenser.  How 
VOL.  VII. 


much   more    interesting  than  Toxophilus's 
reasons  for  the  use  of  archery  ! 

But — worse  still— whereas  from  Chaucer 
The  Prioresses  Tale,  The  Nonne  Preestes,  The 
Wif  of  Bathes,  and  The  Chanonns  Yemannes 
were  appointed  by  the  Commissioners, 
there  is  not  a  single  direct  question  upon 
any  one  of  them.  This  is  an  abuse  of  the 
examiner's  discretion. 

FRENCH  (95  Candidates). — Last  year  we 
thought  it  our  duty  to  dwell  at  length  on 
the  wholly  unsatisfactory  nature  of  the 
French  paper.  It  almost  appears  as  though 
our  criticism  had  been  taken  to  heart.  The 
paper  set  this  year  is  infinitely  superior ; 
it  is,  indeed,  perhaps  the  best  that  has  yet 
been  set. 

The  morning  paper  is  still  too  long, 
and  it  is  almost  inconceivable  that  any  one 
could  do  it  justice  in  three  hours.  Three 
fairly  difficult  passages  for  translation  into 
English,  two  quite  difficult  ones  for  transla- 
tion into  French,  and  an  essay.  The 
passages  and  the  essay  subjects  were  well 
chosen. 

The  afternoon  paper  was  very  good. 
The  questions  on  language  were  perfectly 
straightforward,  and  served  as  a  test  of 
knowledge;  they  were  evidently  not  in- 
spired by  a  perverse  desire  to  trip  up 
candidates.  For  once,  prosody  is  greatly 
favoured,  three  of  the  ten  questions  in  the 
language  section  being  devoted  to  it.  The 
questions  on  literature  were  also  highly  to 
be  commended.  They  are  at  once  straight- 
forward, and  not  easily  to  be  answered  by 
one  who  has  been  crammed. 

It  is  sincerely  to  be  hoped  that  this  paper 
will  be  regarded  as  a  model  for  future 
examiners ;  the  only  change  we  would 
suggest  is  that  the  translation  of  some  old 
French  passages  should  be  made  compul- 
sory, so  as  to  ensure  that  candidates  have 
some  first-hand  knowledge  of  the  older 
language,  without  which  the  study  of 
philology  must  be  unsatisfactory. 

GERMAN  (49  Candidates}. — The  criticism 
as  to  the  length  of  the  morning  paper 
applies  to  German  just  as  much  as  to 
French.  It  is  ridiculous  to  expect  so  much. 
The  passages  are  tolerably  well  chosen ; 
the  selection  of  essay  subjects  is  less  happy. 

The  afternoon  paper  is  very  poor.  In 
the  language  section  the  only  compulsory 
question  requires  a  passage  of  Platffleutsch 
to  be  put  into  Schriftsprache.  Are  candi- 
dates to  make  a  special  study  of  all  German 
dialects  1  Any  three  questions  of  the  re 

N 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  QUARTERLY 


186 

maining  seven  are  to  be  answered;  they 
should,  of  course,  have  been  of  approxi- 
mately the  same  difficulty.  On  this  point 
we  let  our  readers  judge  for  themselves  : 

2.  State  the  laws  of  the  second  sound  shifting. 

6.  Give  a  short  definition  of  each  of  the  follow- 
ing Middle  High  German  words  -,—leich,  btspel, 
tageliet,  dventiure. 

7.  Explain  the  original  meaning  of  the  word 
tipiessbiirger,  and   state  its  present  application. 
Also  explain  the  word  Pfahlbiirger. 

Question  4  demands  that  the  formation 
of  the  preterite  of  weak  verbs  should  be 
explained.  To  balance  the  evidence  in 
favour  of  the  various  explanations  put 
forward  would  require  some  time,  and  the 
answer  would  have  to  be  a  very  long  one. 
Question  5  runs  as  follows  : — 

Discuss  the  question  of  the  existence  of  a  Modern 
High  German  Schriftsprache. 

It  is  not  likely  that  the  examiner  really 
meant  this ;  to  deny  the  existence  of  a 
modern  German  literary  language  would 
be  a  sign  of  offensive  ignorance.  If  the 
examiner  meant  Middle  High  German,  the 
question  is  legitimate,  but  then  there 
has  been  deplorable  carelessness  in  proof- 
reading. 

We  note  that  there  is  no  question  on 
Modern  German  Syntax,  and  that  Prosody 
also  is  neglected. 

As  for  the  paper  in  literature,  we  prefer 
to  say  nothing  about  it.  A  more  complete 
travesty  of  the  right  thing  we  have  never 
met,  in  an  experience  of  examinations 
extending  over  twenty  years.  It  is  even 
worse  than  the  paper  in  French  literature 
set  last  year;  and  what  that  implies  may 
be  gathered  from  the  remarks  we  made  at 
the  time.  The  present  paper  we  simply 
cannot  criticise. 


Once  more — though  it  seems  hopeless — 
we  would  ask  the  Civil  Service  Commis- 
sioners to  appoint  moderators.  The  Uni- 
versity of  London  has  wisely  taken  this 


step  in  the  case  of  its  Matriculation"  ex- 
amination. Surely  the  deplorable  results 
of  the  absence  of  moderators  in  the  very 
important  examination  we  have  been  con- 
sidering should  arouse  the  authorities  to  a 
sense  of  responsibility.  The  present  lack 
of  system  and  variation  of  standard  is  an 
educational  scandal. 

***** 
On  October  20th  the  Committee  of  Man- 
agement of  the  Common  Examination  for 
Entrance  to  Public  Schools  received  a 
deputation  of  the  Modern  Language  Asso- 
ciation, consisting  of  Prof.  Kippmann  and 
Mr.  Payen-Payne.  While  expressing  gen- 
eral approval  of  the  first  papers  in  French 
and  German  that  were  set  last  June,  the 
deputation  drew  attention  to  certain  am- 
biguities in  the  grammar  questions  and  to 
the  undesirability  of  introducing  into  the 
paper  idioms  that  may  be  crammed.  While 
acknowledging  the  difficulty  at  present  of 
having  an  oral  examination,  the  deputation 
expressed  their  opinion  that  no  examination 
of  young  boys  could  be  satisfactory  that 
did  not  include  an  oral  test.  They  sug- 
gested as  a  beginning,  that  a  piece  of 
dictation  might  be  given  by  the  modern 
language  master  of  the  school  where  the 
examination  was  held.  It  is  clear  that,  if 
the  teaching  of  modern  languages  is  to  be 
improved,  the  start  must  be  made  in  the 
preparatory  school,  If  those  masters  who 
teach  on  the  new  lines  are  to  be  examined 
on  the  old  lines,  they  will  be  unfairly  handi- 
capped. The  committee  accorded  a  most 
courteous  hearing  to  the  deputation,  and 
agreed  with  the  majority  of  their  represent- 
ations. 

***** 
The  Cambridge  Local  Examinations  and 
Lectures  Syndicate  announce  that  after  the 
present  year  the  arrangements  made  for 
examining  Senior  Candidates  in  the  Local 
Examinations  in  Spoken  French  and  Spoken 
German  will  be  extended  to  Junior  Candi- 
dates. 


FROM  HERE  AND  THERE. 


THE  Burns  Federation  has  set  aside  £100 
as  nucleus  of  a  fund  for  the  foundation  of 
a  Chair  of  Scottish  Literature  in  one  of  the 
Scottish  Universities. 


Prof.  W.  MACNEILE  DIXON,  LittD.,  Pro- 
fessor of  English  Literature  in  Birmingham 
University,  succeeds  Prof.  Raleigh  in  the 
Chair  of  English  Literature  in  Glasgow. 


FEOM  HERE  AND  THERE 


187 


Mr.  D.  NICOL  SMITH  has  been  appointed 
to  the  Chair  of  English  Language  and 
Literature  in  the  Durham  College  of 
Science,  Newcastle-on-Tyne.  Since  1902 
he  has  been  assistant  to  the  Professor  of 
Literature  at  Glasgow  University.  Prof. 
Smith  has  published  a  volume  entitled 
Eighteenth-Century  Essays  on  Shakespeare, 
and  contributed  to  Chambers's  Encydo- 
pcedia  of  English  Literature. 

***** 

Mr.  HENKY  CECIL  WYLD,  B.Litt.  (Oxon.), 
Lecturer  in  English  at  Liverpool  University, 
has  been  appointed  to  the  Baines  Chair  of 
English  Language  in  the  University. 


M.  A.  DEBAILLEUL,  Agr6ge  de  l'Universit6 
de  Paris,  has  been  appointed  Lector  in 
French  at  Gonville  and  Caius  College, 
Cambridge. 


Mr.  F.  J.  EAHTZ,  M.A.,  B.Sc.,  has  been 
appointed  Assistant  Lecturer  in  English 
and  Latin  at  the  Merchant  Venturers' 
Technical  College,  Bristol. 


Mr.  J.  CHURTON  COLLINS,  M.A.,  has 
been  appointed  Professor  of  English  Litera- 
ture in  the  University  of  Birmingham. 


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M64. 
v.7 


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