24 JANUARY 1914, Page 22

SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.

[Tinder We heading sae native ems% Books of the auk as haws not ton swerved for review in other forms.] Elizabethan Rogues and Vagabonds. By Frank Aydelotte. (Clarendon Press. 7s. 6d. net.)—This extremely readable essay forms the first volume of a new series of "Oxford Historical and Literary Studies," under the general editorship of Sir Walter Raleigh and Professor C. H. Firth. Mr. Aydelotte, who is a Rhodes Scholar, pays a gratifying tribute in his preface to the "generous help which makes England one great university for the student who is pursuing any historical or literary investigation." He has made admirable nse of his opportunities, and his study of sharpers and con- fidence tricksters in the sixteenth century is very amusing. The arts of the " hawk " and the sufferings of the " pigeon" remained essentially the same from Petronius to Thackeray, and Mr. Aydelotte draws a lively picture of their local and temporary variations in the London of Shakespeare. His work is a satisfactory proof of the usefulness of the Rhodes Foundation, as well as a valuable contribution to social history.