Current Literature
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH -ACA;DEMY- The title of the Proceedings of the British Academy, 1980 (II. Milford, 30s.) sounds peculiarly unattractive, but this volume, like its predecessors, abounds in good writing and sound scholarship. Professor .1. L. Lowes' paper on "The Art of Geoffrey Chaucer" is a brilliant study of the poet's development, showing how he gradually freed himself from imitation of his French and Italian models and drew upon his own wide reading and great experience of life for the Troilus and, of course, the Canterbury Tales. Professor Macneill Dixon gives a sympathetic appreciation of Chatterton, torn out of due time in an unromantic age, and ends with an all too brief note on the clash between logic and beauty. Professor Laseelles Abercrombie's "Plea for the liberty of Interpreting Shakespeare" will shock the pedants and delight the plain man. -Professor Ferdinand Lot, writing in French, discusses the dark age of Britain after the Romans left and, strangely enough, lends the weight of his authority to the old theory that the Britons were wiped out by the Saxon invaders. Specially topical and stimulating is Dr. Rushbrook Williams' paper on "The Cultural Significance of the Indian States," in which he emphasizes the fact that decentralization with a multiplicity of small semi-autonomous kingdoms has been the characteristic feature of Indian history through the ages. MARK TWAIN
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