13 DECEMBER 1902, Page 22

Mediaeval French Literature. By Gaston Paris. (J. M. Dent and

Co. is. net.)—This volume belongs to the series of "Temple Primers." M. Paris has the ease of exposition which comes from a thorough knowledge of his subject. It is no slight task to give a lucid and practically complete account of the literature of so long a period. M. Paris traces the origin of the poems about which he writes, and gives some valuable illustrations of history by setting forth the political tendencies of the works which he -describes. The English in which the primer is written is not unsusceptible of correction. "This poem in the vtilgar was sung by women dancing." This should be "in the vulgar tongue or dialect,"—" juxta rusticitatem" is the Latin, which might mean, only that the original is not given, "bordering on vulgarity." In the following, "they do not go so far as to deny sovereign rights, but they pretend to submit their exercises to the will of the Barons," pretend should be claim.