MEDIEVAL FRANCE.*

Of all the literary works-and they are many-which the industry of the late M. Gustave Masson has given us, none perhaps will find so wide a range of readers as the volume which he contributed to that exceedingly valuable series "The Story of the Nations. Though he was better known as a student of literature and grammar than as a historian, M. Masson possessed many of the qualities which are especially necessary in a writer of popular history. style is clear, his knowledge for the most part exact, and his facts well marshalled. He has given us an eminently readable account of a period little known to Englishmen, studded with the quaint sayings of contemporary chronicles, and lighted up by those occasional touches of humour for which Harrovians had so keen an appreciation.

His

"Medieval France" is taken to begin with the reign of Hugues Capet, and to end with the death of Louis XII. It was not before the end of the tenth century that the kingdom of France, as such, Icould be said to exist. Even then it was confined to the part north of the Loire, or Langue d'oïl, as it was called, from the affirmative "oïl" used by the people. In contradistinction to this was the

*The Story of the Nations: Mediæval France." By GUSTAVE MASSON, B.A., Univ. Gallic. London: T. Fisher Unwin. 1888.

country of Aquitaine and Provence, or Languedoc, which had a language, a literature, kings, and customs of its own. The crusade of Louis VIII. against the Albigenses was a death-blow to the independence of the South. Languedoc ceased to exist as a political unit, and the beautiful language of Provence disappeared, only to survive in the humble patois of the present day. Then follow the reign of Saint Louis, his unsuccessful attempts to revive the enthusiasm of the First Crusade, and his failure to wrest the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the Infidels. M. Masson sketches lightly the main features of the rather dreary hundred years of warfare between England and France, which are as much a part of our own as of our neighbours' history. This brings us down to the Treaty of Cambrai and the beginning of the sixteenth century; the death of Pope Alexander VI. and the birth of Calvin; the dawn of the Renaissance and Reformation.

In addition to the strictly political part of his story, M. Masson devotes considerable space to the literature of France, north and south, the songs of Trouvères and Troubadours, the old romans de gestes, the chronicles of Froissart and Philippe de Comines; and this is by no means the least interesting part of his work. It is, of course, impossible in the course of a notice like the present one to attempt any discussion of points on which the author's conclusions

seem open to criticism. His treatment of Southern literature is slight for so important a subject; but, properly speaking, it lay beyond his limits. It may be noted that on page 41 the name of Diez, the great Romance philosopher, is incorrectly spelled, and on page 122 Tousons should be Tensons.

The book is got up in the same luxurious style as the rest of the series. The illustrations are many and good, notably those of French Cathedrals, and that of Joan of Arc, with her girlish figure and intellectual face. There are two maps, to illustrate the beginning and end of the period; and the author has increased the value of his book to the student by prefixing a list of the authorities on the history of France, from Hugues Capet to Louis XII., a chronological list of the chancellors, full genealogies of the Capetian kings, and a tabular view of the StatesGeneral from their commencement.

THOMAS POOLE'S

BIOGRAPHY.*

IN itself a noteworthy book, and dealing with the life of a man worthy of some more permanent record than the memory of his friends and family circle could supply, Mrs. Sandford's biography will be chiefly valued as a serious contribution to the literary history of this century, as far as that history is bound up with the lives of S. T. Coleridge and Wordsworth. Indeed, to the lover of Coleridgiana the book will prove delightful reading. Thomas Poole himself was a man of character, and of real, if not particularly striking, intellectual power. He was born and spent the greater part of his life in the little country town of Nether Stowey, in

*Thomas Poole and his Friends." By MRS. HENRY SANDFORD. In two vols. London: Macmillan & Co. 1888.

Somersetshire, where the family tanyard was situated. His father was a stern, practical man, with but few interests outside his business. He considered book-learning unnecessary, if not actually harmful, for a tanner; he kept no accounts: things were right enough so long as there was money in the stocking. Tom was thus compelled to educate himself, and, like many another in a similar case, profited by the necessity. The story of his early efforts is of the deepest interest, and it is gratifying to find that his endeavour to escape from the mere material objects of existence was crowned with success. There was little of romance, or even of tenderness, in his nature. Beyond a boyish love affair with a charming cousin, his life seems to have been little influenced by women.

Tom Poole first met Coleridge in 1794, at a meeting of the Book Society in Nether Stowey. In an extremely interesting letter he gives his first impressions of Coleridge and Southey, who were at that time proposing to emigrate to America, with the object of carrying out their Pantisocratic Scheme. He describes Coleridge as a man of "splendid abilities" and a "shining scholar."

"He speaks with much elegance and energy, and with uncommon facility.. In religion he is a Unitarian, if not a Deist; in politics a Democrat, to the utmost extent of the word."

Southey, he considered, was

"without the splendid abilities of Coleridge, though possessing much information, particularly metaphysical, and is more violent in his principles than even Coleridge himself. In religion, shocking to say in a mere boy as he is, I fear he wavers between Deism and Atheism." His account of the pantisocratic freak is a particularly full one.

"Twelve gentlemen of good education and liberal principles are to embark with twelve ladies in April next. Previous to their leaving this country they are to have as much intercourse as possible, in order to ascertain each other's disposi

tions, and firmly to settle every regulation for the government of their future conduct."

The little community was to be ruled on purely socialistic lines. There were to be no idlers, and the leisure thus gained was to be devoted to books,

"liberal discussions, and the education of their children. The regulations relating to the females strike them as most difficult; whether the marriage contract shall be dissolved if agreeable to one or both parties, and many other circumstances, are not yet determined. Every one is to enjoy his own religious and political opinions, provided they do not encroach on the rules previously made."

It was in connection with the scheme that Coleridge and Southey visited Bristol and made Poole's acquaintance at Nether Stowey. Sad to say, the scheme came to nothing; but it is possible that it was in some degree the cause of Coleridge's early marriage. The unconventional manner in which he and Southey walked about Bristol with the Misses Fricker gave rise to some scandal, on which the two poets promptly got married. Southey left his bride at the church door until such time as he should have some prospect of earning a settled income. Coleridge, larger hearted and perhaps less wise, took his bride home to his cottage at Clevedon. He afterwards, at Poole's suggestion, went to live at Stowey. After this the lives of the two men are intimately bound up. Their intercourse was broken for a time by Coleridge's visit to Germany, and, with the exception of occasional visits, came to an end when he retired to his new home in the Lake District.

Mrs. Sandford has done her work well. She has produced a bright and very readable book. Further, she has some good stories to tell, and knows how to tell them.

THE PAGEANT OF LIFE.*

HERE is one of those examples of men writing not so much "for halfpence as for fame." The number of persons in the present day who can read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest an epic poem in five books is comparatively small, and so learned a gentleman as the author proves himself to be must have been quite well aware of this fact when he sat down to fill his bulky volume. He is good enough to inform us in a slightly verbose and hugely pompous preface that Jesus Christ was only a very clever Jew, and that there was not a trace of the Godhead about Him. He writes Mother and Godhead in small letters, and, contrary to the usual custom, does not append capitals to any pronoun he uses in connection with our Lord's name. In fact, Mr. George Barlow assumes somewhat the position of Sir Oracle, and at the same time produces his original views and ideas of life in a scholarly and complete fashion. If he reminds us somewhat of those persons who refuse to go into mourning for their nearest and dearest because it is against their principles, the fact does not detract from his position as a man of letters, or that he has poured his whole soul into "The Pageant of Life," which he clothes in entirely new guise.

ART: A COMMODITY.† THE late Lord Beaconsfield, when asked for a definition of a critic, made answer, "Critics are those who have failed in literature and art." The failure has embittered their lives instead of making them more lenient to those who have triumphed over the difficulties which

"The Pageant of Life. An Epic Poem in Five Books." By GEORGE BARLOW. Swan Sonnenschein & Co.

"Art: A Commodity." By SHERIDAN FORD. New York. 1888.

proved their stumbling blocks. From a perusal of Mr. Sheridan Ford's brochure, we are led to the forcible conclusion that he is a disappointed artist. He writes thus of Sir John Millais, a man whom the world at large and public opinion delight to honour:

"Sir John Millais is an Englishman who has produced nothing for a decade or more worthy the promise of his earlier years. With a mediocre talent he unites the income of a prince and the pretensions of a Horace Vernet, and paints sublime pot-boilers for a British public that is pleased to pay as high as eight thousand guineas apiece for them."

And if what Mr. Ford says be true, and Sir John has not fulfilled the promise of his earlier years, no one can gainsay his marvellous success nor his brilliant career which the "eight thousand guineas" are a proof of; and surely it is better in this work-a-day world to be in a position to demand and get such sums for our work than to spend our days in making paper balls to throw at men who have succeeded where we have failed, for want of the talent or luck which actuated our rivals? Mrs. Carlyle, so long ago as 1843, wrote:

"There seems to be no longer any genuine heart-felt mirth in writers of books; they sing and dance still vigoureusement, but one sees always too plainly that it is not voluntary but only for halfpence'

And yet she had not read "Art : A Commodity."

fied with the "Great Cryptogram" until Mr. Nicholson took it to pieces and proved where it was faulty. His work is careful, elaborate, and complete; but with this pamphlet before us, and a remembrance of Mr. Donnelly's "Cryptogram" in our minds, we are no nearer the main fact of the case, as to whether the world-famed plays were written by Bacon or by Shakespeare, or by both of them? anymore than arguments on the life hereafter reveal to us aught of the mysteries attendant on death. But so long as the world lasts men must argue, and no man's argument, however able, will shake the other man's firm convictions.

maps out a most excellent tour through Holland and Germany, as the title implies, and it is most profusely and artistically illustrated. On nearly every page there is an exquisite pen-and-ink sketch, and the book as a whole is a sensible and valuable addition to the best literature of the day.

*"Sketches from a Tour through Holland and Germany." By J. P. MAHAFFY and J. E. ROGERS. Macmillan & Co.