cousin to kings of France, was captured at Agincourt in 1415, and kept prisoner in England for twenty-five years. He had a pretty skill in lyric verse and was a great patron of poets.

P. 675 a. The date of the "Large Testament," etc. Since the essay was written, a few more facts have been discovered; but they are sordid details of two more arrests, the second ending in a sentence of death by hanging, which was afterward lightened to banishment from Paris for ten years. In this case, an unprovoked assault on a notary and his scribes, Villon seems to have been entirely innocent; but he was punished for being in bad company, and because his career was notorious. In 1463, then, he left Paris, and no more is known of him. He was broken in health, and without means of subsistence; and the sentence against him must have kept him continually exposed to danger. He was dead in 1489 when his works were first published.

POEMS

Pp. 675 f. Versatility, charm, and an evergrowing mastery of technique are the most obvious traits of Stevenson as a writer. Richly endowed with powers of intellect and emotion, he was from childhood obliged to contend against physical weakness. But such was his strength of will and of mind that he transformed even his weaknesses into the stuff of literature. His first public appeal as a poet was made with a volume of verses woven from the dreams and imaginations of a weak and sickly child. Some of these are among the best poetry yet written for children. Others, unintelligible to the average child, make a strong appeal to the adult conception of childhood's thoughts and fancies. Representative of these is the poem called “Windy Nights.”

Stevenson's consciousness of art and his unceasing efforts towards its mastery have caused many to think of him merely as a craftsman, but the seriousness of his thought and the intensity of his feelings are suggested by such poems as "My Wife," "If This Were Faith," and "Requiem," and by the many prose pieces called forth by his concern with the realities of life. He was ever aware of the "sink of the mire," but he never lost sight of the

Veins of glory and fire

[That] run through and transpierce and transpire;

and was ever ready to

Contend for the shade of a word and a thing not seen with the eyes.

SAMUEL BUTLER

Pp. 676 ff. There are few more striking evidences of the changes in ideas and attitudes that have occurred during the past half-century than the reputation of Samuel Butler. For the greater part of his lifetime he felt himself to be a heretic and outlaw in religion, in science, and in art, and he was so regarded by the public of his day. Now his ideas and attitudes have lost their power to surprise and shock. Some of them have been definitely rejected as harmless vagaries, but the most important of them have been incorporated into the commonplaces of contemporary thinking. From his own notebooks - not published until 1917, fifteen years after his death and then only in part we know that he was conscious both of his own leavening effect and of its comparative failure. By the publication of The Fair Haven a pretended defense of the miraculous elements in Christianity, an elaborate piece of irony comparable with Defoe's Shortest Way with the Dissenters, he had humiliated and covered with ridicule the churchmen who had taken it seriously. By his attacks upon Darwin and Darwinism he had seriously offended men of science and established a reputation for ignorance and superficiality. By his satire on the social, intellectual, and religious life of nineteenth-century England in Erewhon and Erewhon Revisited he had done little more than demonstrate an incurable fondness for paradoxes. By his efforts to prove that Homer's Odyssey was written by a Sicilian woman he had merely aroused the scornful amusement of scholars; and if his charming accounts of certain disregarded forms of Italian art in Alps and Sanctuaries and Ex Voto displayed discernment, freshness of feeling, and creative power, they gave him little better standing as an art critic than his paintings had given him as an artist. At the time of his death he hardly seemed more than an able but erratic and meddlesome amateur. But when in 1903 his one novel, The Way of All Flesh, — begun in 1872 and labored on through many years, — was published, it made the kind of stir that would have given him, had he been alive, the greatest satisfaction. It was extravagantly praised, fought over, and finally became one of the main sources of inspiration of the autobiographical novelists of the present day, especially Walpole, Cannan, and Beresford.

Meanwhile his criticism of the organization of society and of current views on evolution had attracted the attention of a few powerful thinkers and writers, conspicuous among them George Bernard Shaw; and the general developments in

sociology and in science caused his ideas which were formerly regarded as so radical and heretical to be reexamined and appraised as important contributions to human thinking.

The selection on machines is taken from Erewhon (1872) and affords a fair illustration of the style and manner as well as the ideas of Butler.

His most interesting books are Erewhon or Over the Range (1872), continued in Erewhon Revisited (1901), Unconscious Memory (1880), Alps and Sanctuaries (1881), Ex Voto (1888), and The Way of All Flesh (1903).

THOMAS HARDY

Pp. 679 ff. The greatness of Hardy's genius is attested by a bare outline of his career. Of Wessex ancestry and himself living in Wessex most of his life, he has yet managed to give, through the medium of material largely drawn from Wessex life, a deeper and more universal interpretation of human life than almost any other writer of today. After beginning a career as architect, he turned to the writing of fiction and in twenty-five years produced more than a dozen novels, besides several groups of short stories, which made him one of the foremost English novelists. Throughout these years, and before, he had been writing verse, and in 1898 he published his first volume of poems, some of which had been written more than thirty years before. Since 1898 he has continued to write poems which are ranked very high in contemporary work. And finally, between 1904 and 1908, he published in three volumes The Dynasts, an epic-drama upon which he had been engaged for some years, which in scope, in philosophy, in pictorial representation of a great era of human experience, and in technique and style is one of the master achievements of our age.

Of the selections here printed the description of Egdon Heath (the introductory chapter of The Return of the Native) has been chosen because it is characteristic of Hardy's prose at a high level and presents a characteristic Hardy scene.

The passages from The Dynasts show both Hardy's way of presenting armies as choruses for the drama of his individual heroes, and also the philosophical framework in which the human drama is set.

Nearly all the short poems are either melancholy or satirical, but they have an austere beauty of phrasing, an intensity of passion, and a technical skill which set them apart from most other poetry of the time.

The most notable of his novels are Far from

the Madding Crowd (1874), The Return of the Native (1878), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1896). For his minor poems the reader may consult Collected Poems (1923). A one-volume edition of The Dynasts was published in 1910.

WILLIAM HENRY HUDSON

Pp. 686 ff. Hudson, like Conrad, belongs to English literature by his own choice. He was born of New England parents and lived to manhood in South America, but England he adopted as his home.

He wrote for nearly twenty years without success or any sort of recognition; but in his work there is no trace of the hardships that he lived through during this long time of poverty, or of their effect upon his mind. Although he wrote both novels and stories of distinction, his most enduring work is undoubtedly the numerous Nature studies in which he takes the reader with him to a particular countryside, studying the wild life and the simple human life that belong there until the impression of the whole is almost as deep and vivid as if the experiences had been actually lived through. This result is due in part to Hudson's complete naturalness and simplicity, and in part to his keen eye for interesting detail. Although his style rises at times to a kind of lyric beauty, it is, for the most part, no more than a pleasant medium for his always interesting observations and comments, moving with an ample, easy swing that carries the attention on and on. He is usually at his happiest when writing of birds, having for them an extraordinary affinity.

His two romances, The Purple Land (1885) and Green Mansions (1904) are well worth reading.

Among the best of his other books are A Shepherd's Life (1910) and Far Away and Long Ago: History of My Early Life (1918).

CHARLES MONTAGU DOUGHTY

Pp. 689 ff. It is now almost certain that Doughty's Travels in Arabia Deserta, first published in 1888 and reissued in 1921, will live long as one of the monumental works of our time. The author wandered alone among the Arabs in different parts of Arabia, speaking their language and adapting himself to their customs to such an extent that he came to know the land and the people as perhaps no one else has ever done. Unlike Sir Richard Burton, he did not attempt

disguise but everywhere admitted that he was a Christian and an Englishman.

His book is difficult to read because of the large number of Arabic expressions used; but it is interesting, not only for its intimate interpretation of a part of the world to us almost unknown, but for the strange Oriental quality of the style, which seems to be the result of deliberate intention to write of the Arabs as nearly as possible in their own idioms and modes of thought.

Mr. Doughty has written also a group of epics, highly manneristic in style, which have not the unique value of his great prose work.

ROBERT BRIDGES

Pp. 691 ff. The poet-laureate, Robert Bridges, is known for his skill in metrical experimentation and for certain delicate beauties of detail in thought and expression. As the result, perhaps, of his scholarly training and interests, his poems have a classical perfection of form. His most individual work is written in conscious illustration of his own theories of rhythm as based upon the accumulation and distribution of stresses in the line, with a certain range of variation in the number of unstressed syllables that may attach themselves to one that is stressed. This theory is presented in an appendix to his essay on Milton's Prosody (1893, latest ed. 1921).

Mr. Bridges is still publishing actively, and his latest work is both interesting and important. A good selection of all but the very latest is given in the single-volume edition published by the Oxford University Press.

EDWARD CARPENTER

Pp. 694 f. Edward Carpenter is a curious combination of metaphysician, practical socialist, and poet. His metaphysics he derives partly from the Orient, partly from Whitman, and partly from Bucke's Cosmic Consciousness; but to the ideas of these he has added distinct developments of his own. Beginning as a University man trained for the Church and with abundant means, he first renounced the ministry to become a University Extension lecturer on science, and later so distributed his money that he was able to carry out his theory of living by the labor of his hands as he evolved his theories and wrote his poetry. Although he lives by choice among working people, he is a man of wide cultivation and knows something of science, art, and music, as well as literature and philosophy. He has writ

ten many prose volumes embodying various aspects of his theory of life, but its most famous expression is in the long poem "Towards Democracy," begun in 1881 and continued by successive accretions over a period of twenty-one years. It was inspired by the work of Whitman, whose various kinds of literary license it freely adopts, adding freedoms of its own. Its main value lies in a passionate expression of human life in its innumerable aspects and of ideals for the human race. Its great inequality admitted, passages of high poetry will be found.

The best introduction to Carpenter's work as a whole is Edward Lewis's Edward Carpenter: an Exposition and an Appreciation, New York, 1915. His most characteristic prose may be found in Civilization: its Cause and Cure (1889) and The Art of Creation: Essays on the Self and its Powers (1904).

WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

Pp. 695 f. Although Henley's greatest usefulness was doubtless in his stimulating effect upon the work of other poets, he himself made some interesting metrical experiments before free verse had come to be recognized as a form. His Hospital Sketches, from which "Operation" is taken, is a good illustration of the experimental attitude of the nineties, which went so far as to attempt to introduce into poetry methods derived from the naturalism of Zola.

Henley's best single volume of verse is London Voluntaries and Other Verses (1893). His poetry was, however, the occasional recreation of a life mainly devoted to criticism and editing. His most brilliant and suggestive criticism may be found in the introductions and notes to his various editions, such as those of the poetry of Robert Burns and Byron's letters and verse. A selection of his criticism is given in a little volume called Views and Reviews (1890).

THE NEW AGE

Very rarely is it possible to establish sharply defined boundaries in literary history. New tendencies often appear so imperceptibly that no absolute date can be assigned for their beginnings, and even when there has been a definite change in the main stream at a definite date, old writers continue their accustomed themes and methods; the old stream continues to flow and mingle with the new. There can be no doubt that during the

last decade of the nineteenth century and of the reign of Queen Victoria new attitudes toward life and art and new ideals of literature began to manifest themselves which have become dominant in the literature of the present day.

It seems worth while, therefore, to mark this fact by a new subdivision of our material; but it must be remembered that some of the most characteristic writers of the new age began their work while Victorian ideals and accomplishments were at their height, and that at least two writers who achieved little recognition until after the turn of the century actually produced their most important work before 1890. Samuel Butler, one of the most characteristic influences of the new age, began to write in the seventies, and had actually written all his most important books before 1890, though one remained unpublished until 1903 and the others were little known. Charles M. Doughty's masterpiece was published in 1888, but did not gain popular recognition until 1923. Thomas Hardy had published thirteen novels before 1890 and was already prominent, but his most important and characteristic work both in prose and in verse has been done since that date. On the other hand, although the new ideals and new methods have long since become dominant, the older ideals and methods were pursued long after 1890, even by writers of first-rate ability.

ALICE MEYNELL

Pp. 697 f. A writer of but narrow range and scant productivity in prose and in verse, Mrs. Meynell has in her best poetry achieved a delicate perfection and in her essays a distinction of manner that warrant her inclusion in a collection of the best work of modern times. Her principal contributions in verse and prose are contained in Collected Poems (1913) and Selected Essays (1914); a complete edition of her poems was published in 1923.

GEORGE MOORE

Pp. 698 ff. In reading George Moore, it is necessary to bear in mind that he is an Irishman of a highly individualistic type who can be judged by no standard except that which he himself has set up in the sight of the world to be measured by. He recognizes no law but that of his own caprice; and his main contribution to literature has been the full presentation to the world of his unique personality. But he has contacts with many of the leaders of the literary and artistic world of

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his day; and his comments on them are, perhaps, as interesting as his exposition of George Moore. In addition to the sidelights upon human nature - his own and that of others- which he has, voluntarily or involuntarily, contributed to our sum of understanding, he must be credited with the transformation of a style originally unlovely into one that is recognized as masterly for its ease, flexibility, and charm.

It is difficult to make a choice from George Moore's voluminous output, but his most famous novels are A Mummer's Wife (1884), Esther Waters (1894; revised, 1920), and Evelyn Innes (1896). Of special interest for sketches of his contemporaries and for its autobiographical significance is the series Hail and Farewell: Ave (1911), Salve (1912), Vale (1914). The Brook Kerith (1916) is the attempt of an unbeliever to reconstruct sympathetically the events and background of the life of Christ.

OSCAR WILDE

Pp. 701 ff. The most varied and spectacular literary career of modern times is probably that of Oscar Wilde. While still an undergraduate at Oxford he became a figure of national interest by his caustic wit, his brilliance as a classical student, and his creation of the cult of "Art for Art's sake," of which he became the chief apostle. Caricatured by Punch and by Gilbert and Sullivan, he became internationally notable and toured the United States (1882), preaching æstheticism and the beauty of peacocks' feathers, sunflowers, lilies, dados, old blue china, long hair, and velvet breeches, to the hilarious disgust of the American public, which thought him a clever fool, and greatly to his own profit. For a few years after his return from America, he remained quiet and comparatively obscure; but from 1888 until the collapse of his career in 1895, he produced in rapid succession essays, novels, and plays of the most astonishing brilliancy. Not since Sheridan - perhaps not even since Congreve - had the English stage heard such dialogue as crisped and sparkled in Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). No less sensational were the successes of the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), subtle and highly colored but full of repulsive suggestiveness, and of the play Salomé (1893), written in French, and staged in Paris in 1896 — later the basis of an opera by Strauss. But at the very top of his career Wilde was tried and found guilty of criminal immorality and sentenced to

two years in prison. Ruined in reputation and in fortune he lived, mainly in France, for three years after his release. Brilliant as were his early successes, none of them can be compared with the profound sympathy and admiration evoked by the prose apology for his life entitled De Profundis, written while in prison and published posthumously in 1905, and by the powerful "Ballad of Reading Gaol," written in France after his release and published anonymously in 1898.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

Pp. 704 f. Now that Mr. Shaw's work is almost finished, we can look back and see how useful he has been in helping to clear the world of an accumulation of cant and hypocrisy carried over from the nineteenth century. How far his views have been right and important it is not now necessary to say; right or wrong, he has irritated people into looking for themselves at ideas inherited without question from earlier generations and into trying to form conclusions about life on the basis of fact rather than of feeling.

Even when Shaw's plays were at the height of their popularity, it was often said that his prefaces were more entertaining than the plays for which they were written. And as Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant (1898) was his first notable collection, it is from the preface to this volume that an extract has been chosen.

Mr. Shaw's publications number about fifty volumes. Of these the most characteristic are Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant (1898), Man and Superman (1903), Back to Methusaleh (1920), and St. Joan (1924). The prefaces to these plays contain his most characteristic ideas. The student who reads them can perhaps afford to neglect the more formal treatises.

GEORGE GISSING

Pp. 705 f. It is probable that George Gissing got more satisfaction out of the writing of The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft (1903) than from the invention of any of his little-appreciated and now almost forgotten novels. And the Ryecroft book is interesting both for its revelation of the temperament of its unfortunate author and for its unconscious explanation of the sources of Gissing's failure. It is, indeed, the only work of Gissing's into which he was able to infuse something of the vital quality that transforms mere constructions of ideas and fancies into the more or less durable stuff of literature. And it is for

FRANCIS THOMPSON

Pp. 706 ff. Curiously, tragically similar were the lives of James Thomson, author of the City of Dreadful Night, and Francis Thompson, who is best known for his long poem, "The Hound of Heaven." Physical weakness and pain led both of them to the use of opium, and opium dreams furnished to both much of their characteristic imagery. The poetry of both is rich in mysterious suggestiveness; but while James Thomson found no solution for the dark riddles of his painful life, Francis Thompson saw in the doctrines and rites of the Church his salvation and yielded his soul to the Divine Love that had sought it so long and so far. Perhaps The Hound of Heaven is the one poem of Francis Thompson that is secure of a permanent place in anthologies but almost equally beautiful and powerful are "The Anthem of Earth" and "The Mistress of Vision."

His first volume was Poems (1893); there followed Sister Songs (1895) and New Poems (1807). A collected edition of his poetry was published in 1913.

SIR HENRY NEWBOLT

Pp. 708 f. Lawyer, editor, critic, Sir Henry Newbolt is best known for his vigorous ballads of the sea. But he should be remembered also for his New Study of English Poetry (1917), which is a sound piece of criticism and for the student a useful introduction to the study of poetry. His best verse is contained in Collected Poems (1910).

RUDYARD KIPLING

Pp. 709 ff. Of Kipling as balladist there is little to say. By some amalgamation of his own, which has proved inimitable, in the ballads here printed and a few others, he wrought that perfect fitness of content and words and metrical form which gives to writing on any subject an appeal to all classes of men.