Current Literature
A' FIRST-BATE book on a very remarkable man—such is Frederick the Second (1194-1250), by Ernst Kantorowicz, With which Messrs. Constable inaugurate • a new series of "'Makers of the Middle Ages." The Emperor who dominated Germany and Italy -and defied the Papacy, who held at' Palermo a brilliant court where East and West, Moslem and Christian, mingled in amity, and who took the liveliest interest in philosophy and art, was for contemporaries " Stupor Mundi," the marvel of his age, and he remains so still. The author's narrative, as picturesque as it is scholarly, runs to seven hundred pages, but Frederick's career was so dramatic and surprising that the story never flags. No earthly forces could stand against him ; even his brief crusade, undertaken in defiance of the Pope, was a distinct success. He died " in the full glory of imperial power," the greatest of the Hohenstaufen, little knowing that within a few years his Empire would be broken up and his family humbled. Dr. Kantorowicz is fortunate in his translator, Mr. E. 0. Lorimer, who writes good English.
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