1 FEBRUARY 1919, Page 23

University of Wisconsin Studies in Language and Literature. (Madison. $1.)—This

volume of essays by members of the Department of English in Wisconsin University.deals with a wide range of subjects from Beowulf to Henry James. " A History of Costuming on the English Stage between 1660 and 1823," by Miss Lily Campbell, is an interesting piece of research j apparently Garrick has been over-praised for his efforts to ire. prove stage costumes, but De Louthorbourg, the Alsatia I painter, whom Garrick brought to Drury Lane, did much to reform costumes and scenery, and the Kembles did more, though they- were afraid of being thought pedantic. The mathematical. literary critic is an odd person, but Mr. Warner Taylor'e elaborate analysis of "The Prose Style of Johnson," based on word. counting, is somewhat more fruitful than such exercises moistly are. He shows that the Doctor as he advan-ed in years sim- plified his style by curtailing his lengthy sentences, but that he took greater pains with the balancing of his phrases. Every reader of the Lives of the Poeta who has also dipped into the earlier Rambler must have been conscious of these differences. Johnson, like other authors, adapted his style to his subject.