SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Unisr heeding a. 1.10fi. such Books of the week as have woe lees enema' for renew in other 'onus.] The Book of Matt-inflations and Degrees, 1544-1659. Com- piled by John Venn and J. A. Venn. (Cambridge University Press. 45s. net.)—This laborious and serviceable volume is a catalogue of those who matriculated or were admitted to any degree in the University of Cambridge from 1544 to 1659. It is based on the College admission lists, the Matriculation Register, the ordo senioritatis, the graces and subscriptions for degrees, &c. The editors have had a difficult task to trace their thousands of names through these various authorities, owing to the carelessness with which proper names were spelt in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. " George Ring is called Bing in the grace and King in the ordo. Peter Dillander appears thus in the matriculation book ; is reduced to Dillan at his degree, and sinks to Dill in the ordo. . . . One who matriculates as Frick (his praelector rightly calling him Prick) takes his B.A. as Parke and his M.A. as Pricker." Such are the troubles of the historian. Who was the John Milton, of King's, who matriculated in 1594 and took his B.A. in 1598-9 ? Can this possibly relate to a hitherto unknown episode in the life of the poet's father ?
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