We have received copies of three dissertations upon subjects connected
with English literature, written for the degree of doctor in the Swedish universities. The Language of Swinburne's Lyrics and Epics, by Gunnar Serner (W. Helfer and Sons, Cam- bridge. 2s. 6d. net), has all the qualities of exhaustiveness and minuteness that are to be expected in such a thesis. It must be added, however, that it is not altogether without interest from the purely literary standpoint. The principal theme upon which the author dwells is that Swinburne was excessively archaistic both in grammar and vocabulary_ He tend to exaggerate, no doubt, as when he says, " Take at random a poem of Swinburne's and you must be struck by the old-time breath that issues from it." At the same time he succeeds in showing some interesting examples of the way in which Swinburne was in- fluenced by the language of the Authorized Version and the Elizabethan drama. The Language. of Robinson Crusoe, by G. L. Lannert (same publishers and price), is devoted to a comparison between Defoe's language and that of his contemporaries. Its interest for the general reader cannot be described as great. Equally painstaking, though of somewhat greater interest to the layman, is Names of Places in a Transferred Sense in, English, by Carl Efvergren (same publishers and price). In future editions we [shall doubtless find the verb "to limehouse " included.
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