high thinking,'-of very plain living, and of very lofty thought, imagination, and feeling. They were the best possible commentary on the poems belonging to that period; because they showed the manner of life of the brother and the sister, the character of their daily work, the influences of Nature to which they were subjected, the homeliness of their ways, and the materials on which the poems were based, as well as the sources of their inspiration. . . . Miss Wordsworth's delineations of Nature in these daily jottings were quite as subtle and minute, quite as delicate and ethereal, as anything in her brother's poems. Above all, there was in these records a most interesting disclosure of Dorothy Wordsworth's friendship with Coleridge; and a very remarkable friendship it was." The editor has been allowed to use such portions only of these journals as serve the same general purposes of illustration as do the Fenwick notes; from a line or two indicating a date or locality, to a page of exquisite description of some scene, the essence of which was fixed on the spot or afterwards by the poet's art. It is to be hoped that these extracts, like those which were given in the Memoirs from Miss Wordsworth's Recollections of the Tour in Scotland, are only the precursors of the appearance of the complete record. We are glad to have many descriptive passages from these Scotch journals, also reprinted here, in connection with the poems which they illustrate; and Professor Knight, who is himself a chief authority on topographical matters connected with Wordsworth, has embodied in additional notes much of the information contained in his delightful book, The Lake District as Interpreted in the Poems of Wordsworth.'

Certainly nothing more could well be asked for in the way of illustration than has been provided in these volumes. They give us the opportunity of studying the poet's mind and work in a way which he himself approved and encouraged; and if it should seem to us at first that poetry which deals, as Wordsworth's does, so simply and directly with the heart of nature and the inner life of human thought and affections, needs no such elaborate apparatus for its interpretation and enjoyment, we shall still find that there is scarcely a poem which has not been enriched by having some fresh and interesting association connected with it, and some more personal significance imparted to it.

We are promised, in the preface, "several poems or fragments of poems, hitherto unpublished." It is not mentioned what these are to be, and we can only hope that now at last we are to have that book of The Recluse, from which a quotation was made thirty-one years ago in the Memoirs, but which has been hitherto so unaccountably withheld from publication. It is not to be supposed that anything else of importance is still in manuscript; and among the pieces which had been dropped out of the later editions, or had been printed elsewhere and never included in them, perhaps the only ones of any real interest are the quaintly characteristic picture of Andrew Jones,' the pest of the village, which we may smile at, but be rather glad to recover; and the stanzas on the Glowworm, which, though less perfect than the others of the group of

poems referring to 'Lucy,' to which they belong, are not unworthy to be restored to the place from which they were unceremoniously dismissed, after appearing in one issue only.

The editor promises us a new Life of Wordsworth, and he is also preparing a bibliography of criticism, or critical estimates of the poet, which will, we hope, not be a mere index or reference list, but will briefly indicate, if possible, the character of such criticisms as are of any special interest. We hope also that all discoverable traces of the study of Wordsworth on the Continent will be registered; and specimens of any translations of his poems into other languages would be very welcome.

The two volumes already published (to be followed by six othe s) will require a careful list of additions to the various readings in the foot-notes, with a few other corrections, the possible sources of error in the collation not having been sufficiently guarded against. Fortunately the editor is now forewarned as regards the greater part of his task, and we may confidently reckon on the accuracy of what has yet to be done. In every point requiring judgment, discrimination, and an intimate knowledge of his subject, Professor Knight seems to us to have done his work as well as it could be done; and when it is completed it will be a worthy monument of the pure and lofty genius in whose honour it has been undertaken.

ΑΝ

THE FACSIMILE REPRINT OF THE TEMPLE.' *

6

N Introductory Essay by the author of John Inglesant' was enough to ensure the popularity of Mr. Unwin's facsimile of the original edition of George Herbert's Poems, even if the quaint and pretty little volume had not deserved success on its own account. It is reproduced as nearly as possible in the exact form in which it was given to the world, two centuries and a half ago, by the author's friend and brother, Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, of whom readers of John Inglesant' are not ignorant; a form which nearly resembles what is perhaps, as far as externals are concerned, the most desirable of the modern editions, the one printed at the Chiswick Press, and published by Mr. Pickering in 1850. The only fault to be found with it is that the binding, in imitation of the original "sprinkled sheep," is an ingenious counterfeit made of paper, which soon gives premature signs of wear at the edges and in the hinges. It is, however, an uncommonly good imitation of the oldfashioned style of cover; and the little book is altogether a very dainty quaint image of the original.

The few preparatory pages of Mr. Shorthouse's most delicate and

*The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations. By Mr. GEORGE HERBERT. A New Edition, with Introductory Essay by J. HENRY SHORTHOUSE, Author of 'John Inglesant.' London: T. Fisher Unwin. 1882.

harmonious prose are very pleasant to read, and are suggestive of many thoughts which might carry us some distance from George Herbert. He has less to say in the way of literary criticism of the poet's work than he has of certain matters concerning religion and culture which suggest themselves to him in this connection. He writes of George Herbert, "the ascetic priest, who was also a fine gentleman, with his fine cloth, his cambric fall, and his delicate hands," as the type of that "exquisite refinement" which he considers to be "the peculiar gift and office of the Church" [of England]. "Just as George Herbert, when on his way to the music meeting in the Close of Sarum, hesitated not to soil his hands and clothes, usually so neat and clean,' in helping the man with the cart that had broken down, so this exquisite Church, delicate with the scent of violet and Lent-lily, and with the country places which God made and not man-eschewing alike the gaudiness of one ritual and the excitement and noise of other appeals to the uncultivated-still holds forth in town precincts and back alleys and courts this Gospel of refinement and sacred culture, apparently so alien to the people among whom its lot is cast."

This is very charmingly put, and there is much truth as well as beauty in it. But we should say that the Church does really preach first to the uncultivated a robuster if a less " exquisite" Gospel than this, where it wins its way to any good purpose,-a Gospel of purity and decency of living, of common honesty, of "righteousness, temperance and judgement to come." The refinement and culture which characterise the English Church are certainly not her exclusive possession. Those who are open to the influences of refinement and culture in all their workings in literature, art, and life, will be attracted to the Church which has assimilated so much that is gracious and beautiful and of fine literary and artistic quality. But it is claiming rather too much to say of the Church of England that she "has produced a culture unequalled in the world beside."

In the essayist's critical remarks on The Temple, there is much that is true and discriminating, as when he finely observes that Herbert's poetry is "the spiritual instinct of a human life consecrated to God amid the pleasures, the temptations, the pains, of the world's courts and cities.” He seems to us, however, to be inclined to underrate its literary quality, only allowing that "here and there you meet with three or four lines of great felicity and melody of rhythm," and even this "seems the result of chance." Those "three or four" happy lines certainly occur a good deal oftener than is implied in the phrase "here and there." At the same time we may share Mr. Shorthouse's doubt whether The Temple will ever be popular again; while recognising in it "a strength of expression and a reality of feeling which will always ensure for it an audience fit, if few." His genial and thoughtful Introduction will be sure to send his readers to the Poems in the right mood to enjoy them and to find in them a new interest and charm.

Grein and WÜLCKER'S CORPUS OF ANGLO-SAXON POETRY. *

YOMPARATIVELY few Englishmen have at all an adequate con

COME

ception of the strength and grandeur of early English civilisation; and probably nothing but a more widespread study of the Anglo-Saxon literature will finally dispel that strange illusion under the influence of which many otherwise intelligent persons still practically remain—that English history begins with the Norman Conquest! What presented itself to us when children as a kind of chaotic preface which we wanted to skip (Alfred hanging in an unattached way in the middle of it, without antecedents or consequents) was in truth "the making of England," and the more we become acquainted with the noble literature, so long and so unaccountably neglected by us, the more shall we become convinced that all the best and all the most permanent characteristics of the English character are already reflected there. We have no small satisfaction, then, in welcoming the first instalment of the long-expected new edition of Grein's Bibliothek of Anglo-Saxon poetry, and sincerely hope that it will be largely circulated and diligently studied in England as well as in Germany. It is in reality a new work, and, although the original Bibliothek bore in every part that unmistakable stamp of genius which never wears out, yet the progress made in Anglo-Saxon studies during the last quarter of a century is so great, and the opportunities of consulting the original MSS. which Wülcker has enjoyed are so extended, that the new work ought to mark a great advance upon the old one. present, however, we can hardly judge of its execution, and it will doubtless be many years before the completion of the "glossary" will enable competent judges to form a definitive estimate of its merits. The present half-volume contains a few short poems, to which it may be inferred the editor assigns a high antiquity, and an accurate transcription of the MS. of Béowulf. The edited text of Beowulf, together with a number of minor but important poems and (presumably short) literary notices, will make up the second half-volume. Only those who have reached an advanced stage of proficiency-indeed, hardly any but experts-can read Beowulf in the text here provided, which makes it all the more to be regretted that the progress of the work is so extremely slow. When the restored text is published, we may, perhaps, be allowed to call attention to some of the claims of the great Anglo-Saxon epic upon the attention of modern English readers; meanwhile we cannot resist the temptation of citing the passage in which the poet relieves by his gentle simile the horror of the scene when the giant sword, with which Béowulf has slain the monster, Grendel's mother, is eaten away by the hot and poisonous blood, and melts down to the hilt," most like an icicle, when

At

* Bibliothek der Angeläschsischen Poesie... Von CHRISTIAN W. M. GREIN. Neu bearbeitet von RICHARD PAUL WULCker. 1 Band. 1 Hälfte.

Kassel. 1881.

that the Father loosens the frost-band, unwinds the wave-ropes-He who has power o'er times and o'er seasons, the true Creator."

P. H. W.

E

EWALD'S BOOK OF JOB.'

WALD'S Commentary on Job, with translation,* well deserved to be included in the series of translations of the most important books on the Bible, which are given us by the Theological Translation Fund. The ingenuity of interpretation, so conspicuous and never-failing, and the clear head and systematising faculty required to trace the general scope of the argument of this difficult book, all possessed in so high a degree by Ewald, make this one of the most successful of his labours. That it is so may be seen by a glance at most of the writings on Job that have appeared since his, such as Hirzel, Renan (who says, "Il serait injuste d'oublier qu'après Schultens, c'est M. Ewald qui a le plus contribué aux progrès de l'exégèse du livre de Job"), Kuenen, and Samuel Cox. As an early work it is marvellous in boldness and novelty, and, perhaps, most of its new ideas have stood the test of time.

Mr. J. Frederick Smith has been engaged so long on the translation of Ewald's translations that he could safely be entrusted with this; and his work is generally well, sometimes surprisingly well done. At the same time, I cannot but say that some of his accepted rules of translation are, in my judgment, to be regretted, and differ considerably from Ewald's own. At the outset, the title is unfortunate. The book is not, in the intention of its author, a "a commentary with translation," but a "translation with a commentary" (das Buch Ijob übersetzt und erklärt). The fastidious care bestowed on the language, rhythm, and strophes of the translation, shows this to be the essential text of the work; it is intended to be self-sufficient, and the explanation (rather than "commentary") consists mainly of pièces justificatives. Mr. Smith says in his preface, "The translator has considered it his duty. . . to faithfully observe the fundamental principles on which the great interpreter of the Hebrew Scriptures performed his task of reproducing as closely as possible the minutest peculiarities of his Hebrew authors, even at the cost of German grammar and idiom. Real students of Ewald would not thank an English translator for the attempt to improve upon him." I cannot understand this, or if I do I think it the reverse of the truth. Nothing is more conspicuous in Ewald's Hebrew grammar and Biblical translations than his constant endeavour to rise above mere literal renderings, and to show what in idiomatic German is the sense of each Hebrew phrase. Thus here, in I. 1, "Ein Mann war in Lande Uss,

Commentary on the Book of Job, with Translation. By the late Dr. G. H. A. VON EWALD. Translated from the German by J. Frederick Smith. (Theological Translation Fund Library. Vol. xxviii.) Williams and Norgate. 1882.