3 JANUARY 1903, Page 24

Literary Studies of Poems New and Old. By Dorothea Beale.

(Bell and Sons. 4s.)—These studies of Dante, Spenser, Milton, and Browning, besides their general literary merit, have a special fitness for their educational purpose. Nothing, we take it, could be more effective in its way than the account of Britomart, so skilfully taken from the " Faery Queen." It is by "studies" of this kind that Miss Beale has achieved a position of influence which it would be difficult to parallel elsewhere. We can imagine an audience of girls moved to an enthusiasm which would not soon pass away by such a portrayal of an " Ideal of Woman." No teacher of boys could ever have quite the same opportunity. A most interesting and useful volume this.