Essays of an Er Librarian. By Richard Garnett. (W. Heine-
mann. 7s. 6d.)—All these essays have already appeared in print, and some, having served as introductions to popular editions of English classics, must have been widely read. Of these there are six, being appreciations of Coleridge (as a poet), Thomas. Moore, Thomas Love Peacock, Matthew Arnold, R. W. Emerson, and Beckford's " Vathek." Of the rest, we should be inclined to- give the first place to the paper on the date of Shakespeare's Tempest. The theory that this play was written and acted on the occasion of the marriage of the Prince Palatine to Elizabeth, daughter of James I., is not of Dr. Garnett's own invention, but it is defended in an almost convincing way. Now and then we are startled—the identification of King James himself with Prospero takes away one's breath—but, on the whole, it is a very subtle piece of Shakespearian criticism. "Shelley and Lord Beaconsfield," a paper read before the Shelley Society, will be a novelty to most readers. There is certainly a remarkable transcript from Shelley's history in " Venetia" ; unfortunately, very few people have read "Venetia," and still fewer are likely to do so in the future. "The Story of Gycia," a narrative taken from the "De Administrando Imperio " of the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and "The Love Story of Luigi Tansillo," are curious excursions into byways of literature. Tausillo was a Neapolitan poet of the fifteenth century; the Gycia story Dr. Garnett refers to the first century B.C.,—the Imperial author put it four centuries later. Another paper is on " Shelley's Views of Art." There remains the essay- to which the author has given the place of honour, "On Trans- lating Homer," and this is, to our mind,the least satisfactory in the volume. Dr. Garnett prefers the loosely knit heroic verse which Leigh Hunt wrote with considerable effect, and of which William Morris was the most famous exponent in recent times. To us it seems absolutely. un-Homeric; there is no swing, no rhythmical force in it; Dr. Garnett's specimens, we feel bound to say, do not remove our theoretical objection. We still should choose either the fourteen-syllabled verse, or the dactylic hex- ameter (scanned by accent, not quantity).
Previous page
