AN ANTHOLOGY OF MADONNA-WORSHIP.
Carmine Mariana : an English Anthology in Verse. In Honour of and in Relation to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Second Series. Col- lected and arranged by Orby Shipley, M.A. (Burns and Oates. 75. 6.4.) —Of this very beautiful and unusual book it would be impossible to speak adequately within the limits of any newspaper review. In a short notice one can do no more than indicate the scope of its contents. It is the second volume in a series—that will not be complete until a third book has appeared—of poetry written by Englishmen of all periods of the Christian Church in honour, direct or indirect, of the Virgin Mary. Edited by Mr. Orby Shipley, bearing the imprimatur of Cardinal Vaughan, Carmine Mariana is a Catholic publication in the strictest ecclesiastical intention of the words. But it is also Catholic in the looser modern, or lay, sense. It is an interesting and significant sign of the times we live in that this collection includes one or two poems by writers avowedly not Roman Catholics, and several by writers of undefined theological position which only a strained interpretation can construe as laud of the mother of Christ. Among such pieces we should include Mr. Bridges's exquisite poem on "Spring," beginning— "I saw the Virgin-Mother clad in green,"
and the group of classical Elizabethan love-songs gathered from Shakespeare, Spenser, Habington, Wyatt, Philip Sidney, and the Earl of Surrey. The underlying idea of this inclusiveness is explained in prefatory notes. Such poems—celebrating the grace and attractiveness of spiritual beauty—and especially the grace of virgin purity in combination with maternal tenderness ancl under- standing, are claimed as the outcome of the Roman Catholic tradition of Madonna-worship, and therefore rightfully belonging to a collection of "Songs of Mary." And the literary value of the book is incalculably increased by its recognition of the allegorical and mystical developments of the sentiment of Mary-worship. The extraordinary variety of fancy and imagery, the high level of conception and expression, and the delicate purity of devotional feeling represented by the collection are extremely impresaive. It is a book that tempts one at every page to quote, and yet the nature of the contents puts quotation out of the question.
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