25 AUGUST 1866, Page 22

7'. Hazel Plauti Aulularia. With Notes, critical and exegetical, and

an introduction on Plantian prosody. By Wilhelm Wagner, Ph.D. (Bell and Daldy ; Deighton and Bell, Cambridge.)—This is a genuine specimen of Teuton work. We imagine that the English mind was tolerably well satisfied with Mr. Hildyard's able and amplitudinous edition of the Aulularia. But to the laborious German that gentleman doubtless appears little better than a trifler. At all events Herr Wagner has gone to work in a way that leaves nothing for any future editor to do. He has "read and studied all the commentaries ever written " on the subject-matter of his toil, and is entitled to say that there is nothing of importance which will not be found in his notes. The edition includes an exhaustive history of the text, a critical com- mentary, and what it seems the editor considers a brief, but what we should call a voluminous, treatise on the Plantian prosody. B

will be thoroughly appreciated by the lovers of honest work who are really interested in the subject treated, and do not object to the minuteness of the scrutiny, which is only significant to those who are acquainted with the character of German scholarship. We ought to add that the notes are in English, and that the editor; as a foreigner whose acquaintance with the English language is not of very long stand- ing, appeals to the forbearance of his readers. We can only say that- this forbearance is very lightly taxed, and that the care with which Herr Wagner handles the novel instrument that he is compelled to use is a striking proof of his ability, and increases the confidence that we should be disposed to place in him on other grounds.