Belts English Poets. Songs of the Dramatists. Samuel Butler's Poems.
Vol L (Griffin and Co.)—Two more volumes of this excellent series have reached us, of which the first seems to deserve something more than a merely formal notice. The songs to be found in the long series of English dramatists are among the most distinctive portions of our lite- rature, and we know no other publication than this in which they have been collected into a single volume. Of course it contains only a selec- tion, but the choice has been made with much judgment. Whether Shakespeare's songs might not without injury have been omitted, so as to gain greater space, seems questionable. Every one possesses those who is at all likely to desire to add this volume to his library. But their presence certainly makes the progress of our song writers more percep- tible. From the serving man's song in " Ralph Roister Doister," and the splendid drinking song in " Gammer Gorton's Needle," there is a gradual advance in refinement of thought and delicacy of expression until perfection is reachedin the age of Elizabeth. Thenceforth the songs gradually decline, until we come to the Restoration, after which there is always something unreal about their sentiment and cold about their glittering wit. Sheridan, however, had something of the old, hearty, rollicking tone in his drinking songs, and Gay in the Beggars' Opera some relic of the old delicacy. Mr. Bell, however, excludes all the operatic songs—rather narrowly, for surely "dramatist " is a term wide enough to include the writers of the best of the English operas. Also he might have made an exception for the beautiful song in Shelley's Cenci, worthy even of the Elizabethan age.
Previous page
