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BELLES LETTRES.

CRAIK'S HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, AND OF THE EXGLISH LANGUAGE.*-The English language, as Professor Craik tells us, has been known by that name, and has been the national speech of the English people, at least since the middle of the fifth century. Of written remains in it we have a continuous succession of specimens since the seventh century; no two of which standing next to one another in the order of time, can possibly be pronounced to belong to different languages, but only at most to two successive stages of the same language. In other words, "we have a record or representation of the English language in which there is no gap, for much more than a thousand years, and this is what cannot be said of any other important existing European tongue, for nearly so great a length of time." Now the man who shall give us the history of the origin of this truly ancient language, and of the changes it has undergone during these fourteen centuries, will accomplish a work which will win for him the enduring gratitude of every English scholar. Such a work should unfold, in some worthy manner, the history of all those subtle influences which, at last, after so many years, have built up and given shape to this mother-tongue of ours, which is now confessed to have no superior, as a suitable vehicle for the expression of every variety of thought and feeling which a free, thoughtful, imaginative, and Christian people can have. Such a work has long been needed; and we have needed, no less, some proper history of the literature embodied in the language;-a history which should trace the connection between each successive age and the writers who have illustrated it; which should show us what have been the influences, in each age, which have called out the men of original thought, who, in turn, have stamped their influence upon their own and subsequent times: which should show us why, at one period, literature has been characterized by

* A Compendious History of English Literature, and of the English Language, from the Norman Conquest. With numerous specimens. By GEGRGE L. CRAIK, LL. D., Professor of History and of English Literature in Queen's College Belfast. In two volumes. 8vo. New York: Charles Scribner. 1863. pp. 620, 581. Price $7.00. New Haven: Judd & White.

all that is elevated, and ennobling, and why, at another, it has been degraded, artificial, and devoid of all healthy feeling.

Such a work as this we have never had, though many valuable contributions towards it have been made, in the way of criticisms of detached periods. Prominent among these, we will mention two volumes by the late Professor Henry Reed, of the University of Pennsylvania, who, as we have sometimes thought, if he had lived, might, perhaps, have succeeded in giving to the world what is so much desired. But the most comprehensive works which we have hitherto had, of which the best is the Cyclopædia of Chambers, can claim to furnish only an epitome of what is needed. With all the information that this last work contains, it is at best but a larger Index. It lacks the inspiration of a superintending mind, which should give life to all, and weave the story of the literature of all these thirteen centuries into one symmetrical whole.

Mr. Craik has had, then, almost an open field in which to work; and these two thick volumes, we do not hesitate to say, are a great advance upon all that has gone before. We welcome their appearance. They cannot fail to awaken new interest in one of the most fascinating of studies. Mr. Craik has made the attempt to give here, in one complete work, the history of both the English language and its literature, down to the present time, including what he calls the "Victorian era." He shows himself throughout to be well furnished with all the learning pertaining to his subject. His taste is catholic. His criticisms are appreciative and fair. His work everywhere bears the marks of wide reading and laborious study.

Mr. Craik commences with some account of the early Latin literature in Britain, in the period just subsequent to the Roman rule; and then, after speaking of the Celtic language, and its literature, he gives the story of the introduction of the English tongue into the British islands in the fifth century. He traces its history, the changes it slowly underwent, the effects of the Norman Conquest, the use of the French language in England, the results of the establishment of schools and universities, the introduction of Arabic and other new learning, the scholastic philosophy, the influence of the study of Hebrew and Greek. Mr. Craik has long been familiar with the results of the labors of all the different archæological societies in England, and of these re

sults he has everywhere made free use; so that in all that pertains to the bibliography of what he calls the Original English period, and the Second English period, down to the times of Geoffrey Chaucer, his work furnishes a great amount of minute detail, which has hitherto been almost entirely inaccessible to the public at large. He has succeeded, also, to a good degree, in enlivening his survey of this "nocturnal portion" of our literature, in such a way that even the most cursory reader cannot fail to find much to interest and amuse.

As an illustration of his style, we quote a single paragraph from the account which he gives of the hold which the Latin language still had upon the English people even in the Anglo-Norman period.

"Giraldus Cambrensis tells us that, in a progress which he made through Wales in 1186, to assist Archbishop Baldwin in preaching a new crusade for the delivery of the Holy Land, he was always most successful when he appealed to the people in a Latin sermon; he asserts, indeed, that they did not understand a word of it, although it never failed to melt them into tears, and to make them come in crowds to take the cross. No doubt they were acted upon chiefly through their ears and their imaginations, and, for the most part, only supposed that they comprehended what they were listening to; but it is probable that their self-deception was assisted by their catching a word or phrase here and there, the meaning of which they really understood. The Latin tongue must in those days have been heard in common life on a thousand occasions, from which it has now passed away. It was the language of all the learned professions, of law, and physic, as well as of divinity, in all their grades. It was in Latin that the teachers at the Universities (many of whom, as well as of the ecclesiastics, were foreigners) delivered their prelections in all the sciences, and that all the disputations and other exercises among the students were carried on. It was the same at all the monastic schools and other seminaries of learning. The number of persons by whom these various institutions were attended was very great; they were of all ages, from boyhood to advanced manhood: and poor scholars must have been found in every village, mingling with every class of the people, in some one or other of the avocations which they followed in the intervals of their attendance at the Universities, or after they had finished their education, from parish priests down to wandering beggars."

About half of the first volume is taken up with the history of the English language and literature previous to the time of Chaucer. Of the subsequent, and by far the larger portion of the work, we have already expressed our opinion in general. Here Mr. Craik very properly confines himself, almost entirely, in his accounts of the different writers who pass under review, to giving such information only as will throw light upon his critical esti

mates of their writings. These criticisms are illustrated with sufficient fulness by appropriate quotations, but there is scarce anything of the nature of biography attempted. It is in the department of criticism, in connection with such interesting literary information as is naturally connected with it, that the excellence of the work is to be found. For this, by his natural qualities, and by his various acquisitions, the author is singularly well qualified, and, as far as he has gone, he has been as successful as perhaps can be expected of any one individual.

The defect of the book is in its very important omissions, and in a want of symmetry in its style of criticism. This defect is at once accounted for by a reference to the Preface, where it is stated that Mr. Craik in 1844-5, published a small work, "Sketches of the History of Literature and Learning in England;" and that, in the preparation of this new work, much of this smaller book has been directly incorporated into it without material alteration or enlargement. Mr. Craik says he did not undertake to prepare a new work, on an entirely original plan, but simply contented himself with re-writing some of the more important portions of the old book. His defense seems to be that "it is only great names and great works which make a literature;" and that of all those who do not take rank in the first class, he had already said everything that was important.

But this brings us to consider a defect of another kind, which must necessarily leave a work of this description very incomplete. Mr. Craik seems to have limited his fullest and most careful criticisms-with exceptions however-to the works of those writers who have distinguished themselves in what may be called the department of Belles Lettres. Of the great lights of theology, of social, ethical, mental, and political science, he has in comparison very little to say. Properly enough he has retained the "Summaries of Scientific Discovery in successive periods," which he had prepared for the earlier work, for the reason that they supply much that illustrates the history of the literature of each era. But of many of the great works in those other departments of science which have exerted the widest influence upon their own and subsequent times, his comments are of a most meagre description.

We might mention, also, that Mr. Craik's own style is not above criticism. We will give but a single example. On the very first page, we find this sentence: "No language has been

born a written language, any more than it was ever heard tell of that a boy had been born with breeches on." But to conclude, this work of Mr. Craik, notwithstanding these defects, is by far the best of the kind which we have in the language. It will undoubtedly meet with general favor, and we trust it will have a very wide circulation.

CORSON'S CHAUCER.*--We have long felt the need of editions of some of the English classics similar to those we possess of the Latin and Greek authors. We mean both variorum editions and smaller annotated editions for the use of younger students. Pupils in the classics have every facility for studying the derivations, dialectic forms, strange uses of words, azağ λsyoueva, and the geographical and mythological allusions. Students of early English literature have been so destitute of all kind of convenient help that they have usually studied it very little. It is therefore with no ordinary feeling of gratitude to the maker of a good book, that we take up this little volume. Prof. Corson has shown us of what use slight help may be, when that help is judicious. We recollect now but one book edited hitherto in this way, and that is Shakespear's "Julius Cæsar," by Craik. That was very good, but this is better. A few more such books and a good grammar, if studied, as they would not fail to be, would show their good influence on ordinary writing and conversation.

The Legend of Good Women is one of the best of Chaucer's smaller poems. There are numerous convenient editions of the Canterbury Tales, but the other poems have been hitherto only to be found in his collected works. Apart from the merit of the poem itself, the interest which it awakens, as being the source of Tennyson's "Dream of Fair Women," is enough to cause it to be selected.

The text used in this edition is that of Bell's London edition, which was formed on a collation of the only two manuscripts of the poem in existence; the Fairfax Manuscript, No. 16 in the Bodleian Library and the Arch. Seld. B. 24, following principally the former. For the purpose, perhaps, this is well enough,

* Chaucer's Legende of Good Women. Edited with an introduction and notes, glossarial and critical. By HIRAM CORSON. Philadelphia: Frederick Leypoldt. 1864. 18mo. pp. 145.

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