Shorter Notices
Restoration Love Songs. I dited by John Hadfield. (Cupid Press. Limited Edition.
2 gns.)
THIS is a beautifully produced and printed book. The selection is good, the text is sound and the notes are scholarly. It is embellished with designs by Rex Whistler, some of them in his very best manner, though the frontispiece may seem to some to strike a slightly false note. It was a good idea to repeat the experiment Bullen made in Musa Proterva some sixty years ago, and separate out the Restoration love songs to see what they contribute to the canon. In his preface Mr. Hadfield would seem to be searching for some distinctive quality, with- out being able to find it ; but he very rightly draws attention to the fact that these songs are more varied, and deeper in emotion, than is usually supposed. His statement with regard to Dryden's astonishingly diverse con. tribution is much to be welcomed, though he does not illustrate it as fully as Bullen ; but, surely, it is time to stop talking about Congreve's cynicism. The Restoration poets to some extent continued the metaphysical tradition, but perhaps the link connecting these poets with the past is Jonson rather than Donne. This is made especially clear by his inclusion of poems by Broome and the Duke of Newcastle, the latter of which he excuses himself for including by resting on the date of its printing and the charm of its imagery. (Bullen has the same Broome though a different Newcastle.) But both were really sealed of the tribe of Ben, as was the anonymous author of No. 35
Many thousand follys are The unhappy lover's share ...
and if you are going to include these poets you might as well let in Suckling, Carew and Herrick. At the other end, since Mr. Hadfield has included Prior, Fenton, and Henry Carey, it is a pity he did not give at least one example of Lady Winchelsea. He includes " Ephelia," so it is some slur on " Ardelia " to leave her out.
There is in many of the writers a curious kind of vigour, and one wonders whether Mr. Hadfield's interesting insistence upon the continuation of the Lutenist- tradition into this age quite carries conviction, in view of th.! very strong rhythmic quality of these poets. Compare them with Dowland or Campion, or with Philip tyres, here represented (as in Bullen) by poems " made in imitation of the Italian," and they seem to belong to a different tradition. But, perhaps, the most interesting thing about this collection is the fact that Restoration love songs are not confined to one special mode, and that there is still a great deal to be thought and said about them.
BONAMY DOME&
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