Notes and Queries articles from March 1998

Notes and Queries archives from March 1998

The half-line 'Grendeles Maegum' (Beowulf 2353B).
March 1, 1998... From line 2200 onwards Beowulf(1) deals with the final stage in the hero's life: in a concise way we are told about his becoming king and ruling for fiftig wintra (line 2209a), a period prosperous for his nation in every respect. Towards the...

St Caedmon.
March 1, 1998... Bede's account of Caedmon's saintly life and death (Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, IV, xxiv [xxii]) is reflected in John Wilson's compilation, The English Martyrologe, first in the second edition, [St. Omer] 1640 [STC 25772], p. 36,...

Swallows and barnacle geese.
March 1, 1998... In the earliest Life of Edward the Confessor(2) is a poem comparing the children of Earl Godwin to birds. The birds fall into two groups, differing in birth, body, voice, movement. The first group flies, the second swims. 'This group ascends...

A note on Robinson's 'Rewards of Piety.'.(essay by author Fred C. Robinson in his book 'The Editing of Old English')
March 1, 1998... In an essay first published in 1989 but updated and reprinted in his 1994 collection, The Editing of Old English, Fred C. Robinson re-examined the 'most immediate context' of what Dobbie (and, indeed, editors and commentators dating back to...

Aethelflaed's fortification of 'Weardburh.'.
March 1, 1998... The purpose of this note is to propose identifications for two unelucidated place-names recorded in the dative case in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, namely Weardbyrig and Waestbyrig. The 'Mercian Register' incorporated into version C of the...

Another Old English text of the 'Passio Petri et Pauli.'.(narrative about the martyrdom of the Christian saints Peter and Paul)
March 1, 1998... The Passio Apostolorum Petri et Pauli, an apocryphal narrative relating the actions and martyrdom of the apostles Peter and Paul in Rome, is described in Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture (SASLC): A Trial Version as extant in two Old...

What type of treasure is kept in a 'Goldhordhus'?(Old English word supposedly meaning 'privy')
March 1, 1998... In a recent article in Notes and Queries, David Porter supports the definition of the Old English word goldhordhus as 'privy'.(1) The word is found only in the Antwerp Glossary(2) in the following entry Ypodromum, goldhordhus uel...

The 'Index of Middle English Verse': some corrections and additions towards the next edition.
March 1, 1998... The announcement that a new edition of the Index of Middle English Verse is to be prepared by Professors Boffey, Edwards, and Meale, is very welcome news to all of us who work in the field of Middle English literature, and the fact that this...

A note on 'The Owl and the Nightingale,' line 1342.(Middle English poem)
March 1, 1998... Caligula MS: thane awet hire copenere Jesus MS: than on other hire copinere In his edition of the poem, Eric Stanley described awet as 'meaningless'.(1) Yet it would make perfect sense as a syncopated variant of awedeth, 'goes mad',...

The dates of the reading calendar and the summer canon.
March 1, 1998... The famous canon 'Sumer Is Icumen In' on fo. [11.sup.v] of British Library MS Harley 978 is generally dated 1240-65. This dating rests on an argument first advanced by Sir Frederick Madden, who believed the calendar on fos [15.sup.v] to...

The sense of 'Directe' in Chaucer's 'Troilus' V.1856: a correction.(medieval poet)
March 1, 1998... O moral Gower, this book I directe To the and to the, philosophical Strode, To vouchen sauf, ther nede is, to correcte, Of youre benignites and zeles goode. (V. 1856-9) At least since Skeat's Glossary (Oxford, 1894) to his edition of...

A liturgical allusion in 'Guy of Warwick.'.(legendary Middle English knight and warrior)
March 1, 1998... I The twofold career of the legendary Guy of Warwick is epitomised by two great combats. As a warrior seeking worldly fame, his exploits conclude with the heroic battle against the Northumbrian dragon; as a pilgrim-knight seeking...

The translation of Boccaccio's 'De Mulieribus Claris' in British Library MS additional 10304 and 'The Forty-Six Lives Translated from Boccaccio by Henry Parker, Lord Morley.'.(14th century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio)
March 1, 1998... British Library MS Additional 10304 contains selections from Boccaccio's De Mulieribus Claris translated into Middle English verse in seven-line stanzas. Two errors, probably originating in a common confusion, have persisted in published...

Margaret Paston's 'Grene a Lyere.'.(married woman's letter dating roughly to 1441)
March 1, 1998... Writing to John Paston I on 14 December, probably of 1441, the newly married Margaret Paston complains she has nothing to wear. She asks him to send from London material of 'mustyrddevyllers' (grey woollen cloth from 'Mouster de Villers' in...

Skelton's 'Why Come Ye Not to Court'?, 210.(15th century English poet John Skelton)
March 1, 1998... And Asmodeus of hell Maketh his membres swell With Dalyda to mell, That wanton damosell (209-12) 'Swell' (210) is the reading of the best editions, Dyce and Scattergood, and appears all the early printings. Scattergood's note, the only...

The field-name 'Palmerwang.'.(Middle English term)
March 1, 1998... An early field-name Palmerwang' has recently come to light in an edition of a charter recording a grant of land at Barnston in Nottinghamshire dating from between 1223 and 1229.(1) The second element is the Middle English reflex of Old Norse...

Gerald of Wales's 'Itinerary of Wales' in medieval Exeter.
March 1, 1998... In his Itineraries, William Worcestre (1415-82) made notes on a visit to Exeter in 1478, including one 'de libro doctoris Ewen qui vocatur Itinerarium Wallie', and others on 'certain islands of North Wales, from the book of the Itinerary of...

St Winifred of Wales and 'The Duchess of Malfi.'.(play by 16th-century English dramatist John Webster)
March 1, 1998... A surprising allusion to a Welsh saint occurs at I.ii.312 of John Webster's Duchess of Malfi (c. 1613), in the scene of the duchess's courtship by her steward Antonio Bologna. Antonio: Begin with that first good deed, begin i' th' world,...

Donne's debt to Petrarch in his 'Sonnet 17.'.(16th-century English poet John Donne; anglicized name of 14th-century Italian poet Francesco Petrarca)
March 1, 1998... Since she whome I lovd, hath payed her last debt To nature, and to hers, and my good is dead, And her soule early into heaven ravished, Wholy in heavenly things my mind is sett. Here the admyring her my mind did whett 5 To seeke thee God; so...

A 'Biathanathos' presentation inscription recovered.(manuscript of work by 16th-century English poet John Donne)
March 1, 1998... In his edition of the manuscript copy of Biathanatos that Donne sent to Sir Edward Herbert (Bodleian MS. e Museo 131) E. W. Sullivan printed the text of all the inscriptions by John Donne junior when he sent copies of the printed text in 1647...

Fulke Greville's 'Caelica' LVIII.(sonnet by English poet)
March 1, 1998... The sonnet 'The tree in youth proud of his leaves, and springs' is numbered LVIII in Geoffrey Bullough's edition of the Poems and Dramas (2 vols, Edinburgh, 1939), LVII in Greville's Workes (1633), and 56 in the Warwick MS (Additional MS...

William Browne, Britannia's pastorals I.5.185-6.(English poet)
March 1, 1998... Britain (Idya) sings a dirge on the occasion of the death of Henry, Prince of Wales.(1) Early on we read, 'who would not do it when/ No grave befits him but the hearts of men?' This may sound like a commonplace, but it is not. The contrast is...

Carew's boar and panther.(16th-17th-century English poet Thomas Carew)
March 1, 1998... Various explanations have been suggested for the significance of the opening lines of Carew's 'SONG. Celia singing': Harke how my Celia, with the choyce Musique of her hand and voyce Stills the loude wind,' and makes the wilde Incensed...

Christ as the philosopher's stone in George Herbert's 'The Elixir.'.(poet)
March 1, 1998... Herbert's 'The Elixir' has long been recognized as the most remarkable example of his successful revision.(1) The principal change was the added alchemical figure of the elixir or philosopher's stone as a metaphor illuminating how a religious...

Learning as wine-press in George Herbert's 'The Pearl.'.(English poet)
March 1, 1998... 'The pearl' opens with a reference to learning imaged as a wine-press: I know the wayes of Learning; both the head And pipes that feed the presse, and make it runne(1) In the parable alluded to by the title, Christ compares the...

'Gravedo' and 'Thermae': the meaning of Milton's warning to More at 'Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio Secunda' 182.24-184.3.(English poet; Alexander More)
March 1, 1998... At Defensio Secunda 182.22-184.1-4, Milton attacks Alexander More for his garritiones febriculosas quas nemo bis legat, his 'feverish babblings which no one can read twice'.(1) Milton them addresses More directory and warns him with these...

Authors 'not unknown' in Milton's 'Tetrachordon.'.(English poet John Milton)
March 1, 1998... Towards the end of Tetrachordon (March 1645), Milton reluctantly supplies some sixteen pages of 'testimony' from a range of classical, patristic and renaissance sources which support his case for divorce. This, he insists, is strictly for the...

Early Christian authors and the prologue to 'Paradise Lost.'.(work of English poet John Milton)
March 1, 1998... Sing, Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed In the beginning how the heaven and earth Rose out of Chaos; or if Sion hill Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook...

'Paradise Lost' II.4 and Seneca's 'Hercules Furens.'.(poem by English author John Milton; ancient Roman statesman and writer)
March 1, 1998... The opening of Book II of Paradise Lost shows Satan enthroned in splendour: High on a throne of a royal state, which far Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Showers on her kings barbaric...

Milton in Poole's 'Parnassus.'.(English poet John Milton; editor Joshua Poole's 1657 compendium of selections of English poetry called 'The English Parnassus')
March 1, 1998... In a note published in Modern Language Notes in 1943 Alfred Farrell listed thirty-one quotations from some of Milton's minor poetry which were included in Josua Poole's The English Parnassus (1657) - a large florilegium of selections of...

William Wycherley in Spain: some new evidence.(English dramatist of the Restoration period)
March 1, 1998... The identification of the Restoration dramatist William Wycherley (16407-1716) with the 'Mr Wycherly' mentioned by Ann Lady Fanshawe in her memoirs(1) as one of the gentlemen who served her husband Sir Richard Fanshawe during his diplomatic...

County feasts.(social gatherings)
March 1, 1998... By 'County Feasts' are meant gatherings of the natives of one place dwelling elsewhere who meet together for a social occasion, usually in London, but also in other cities. The subject has been mentioned in this journal more than once.(1) An...

John Oldham and the Smithfield crickets.(17th-century poet)
March 1, 1998... In his volume Some New Pieces, published in 1681, John Oldham included a virulent poetic attack 'Upon a Printer, that expos'd him by Printing a Piece of his grosly mangled, and faulty'. In his autograph manuscript, the attack, dated Christmas...

The John Wine canon.(analysis of a reference in verse by English poet John Dunton)
March 1, 1998... The Living Elegy: or, Dunton's Letter to his Few Creditors, appended to Dunton's Whipping-Post: or, A Satyr upon Every Body (London: B. Bragg, 1706) provides the key for a few changes to The Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue. Although...

The source of Robinson Crusoe's 'sudden joys.'.(character in novel by Daniel Defoe)
March 1, 1998... Soon after washing up on the shore of his Caribbean island, Robinson Crusoe thanks God for his deliverance 'out of the very Grave'. So transported is he with joy that the animal spirits are nearly driven from his heart, causing him later to...

A contemporary source for the 'Yahoos' in 'Gulliver's Travels.'.(characters in a novel by English author and satirist Jonathan Swift)
March 1, 1998... Among the targets in Gulliver's Travels (1726) seems to be the British policy of plantation in Ireland. In the eighteenth century the Irish peasantry came to be regarded in much the same way as black slaves on West Indian plantations. They...

Johnson, politian, and editorial method.(English lexicographer Samuel Johnson)
March 1, 1998... The originality of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary and his Shakespeare edition was for a long time overstated: his was widely called the first English dictionary, and his the first modern critical edition of Shakespeare. A number of scholars in...

Dr. Johnson's etymology of 'gibberish.'.(18th-century English lexicographer Samuel Johnson)
March 1, 1998... Discussing 'orthography' in his Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language (1747), Samuel Johnson says: The present usage of spelling, where the present usage can be distinguished, will therefore in this work [his Dictionary] be...

A source for Smart's 'Stigand.'.(English author Christopher Smart; reference to Archbishop of Canterbury in Smart's 'The Genuine speech of Stigand at the Head of the Men of Kent, to William the Conqueror')
March 1, 1998... Robert Mahony and Betty Rizzo's excellent Bibliography of Christopher Smart finds no source for 'The Genuine speech of Stigand at the Head of the Men of Kent, to William the Conqueror'.(1) They write of this contribution by Smart to The...

'Humani Nihil' and Shakespeare's 1598 'Henry IV.'.(phrase contained in a 1757 letter; English dramatist William Shakespeare)
March 1, 1998... This is by way of a minor correcting note to entry 1042 in The Garrick Collection of Old English Plays (1982) by George M. Kahrl and Dorothy Anderson, which quarto is The History of Henrie the Fourth; With the battell of Shrewsburie, betweene...

The authorship of the 'Universal Magazine' review of 'Humphrey Clinker.'.(periodical 'Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure'; novel 'The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker')
March 1, 1998... Smollett's last novel, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, was published in June 1771. It was sufficiently successful for reviews of it to appear even in periodicals which noticed very few books; one such was the Universal Magazine of...

On the miscellaneous works of John Hope (1739-1785).(English author)
March 1, 1998... Most of what is known about the literary life of John Hope has been discovered by tracing first appearances in print of the essays and poems in his Occasional Attempts at Sentimental Poetry (1769) and the Thoughts in Prose and Verse (1780)....

Mariana Starke and Millecent Thomas: early translators of Genlis's 'Le Theatre a L'Usage des jeunes personnes' (1779-1780).(French author, the Comtesse S.F. Ducrest de Saint Aubin de Genlis)
March 1, 1998... The translations in the 1780s of S. F. Ducrest de Saint Aubin, Comtesse, de Genlis's Le Theatre a l'usage des jeunes personnes include the octavo, 4-volume Theatre of Education. Translated from the French of the Countess de Genlis (London:...

Richard Clarke and the Royal literary fund.(18th-century Anglican preacher and theologian)
March 1, 1998... Richard Clarke (1723-1802) is known to historians of eighteenth-century England and her American colonies as a highly controversial Anglican preacher and theologian. The best and most recent account of Clarke is Lyon G. Tyler's article of...

Dictionary of Old English Fascicle E.(Review)
March 1, 1998... ANTONETTE DIPAOLO HEALEY, JOAN HOLLAND, DAVID MCDOUGALL, IAN MCDOUGALL, NANCY SPIERS, PAULINE THOMPSON, using the materials assembled by ANGUS CAMERON, Pp. 6 + microfiche. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of...

Traditionen der klassischen Rhetoric im angelsachsischen England.(Review)
March 1, 1998... GABRIELE KNAPPE, Pp. xx + 573 [+ 2 pp. of advertisements]. Anglistische Forschungen, 236. Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1996. Paperbound DM 128.00 (ISBN 3-8253-0333-0). G. Knappe's fundamental study of the use made in Anglo-Saxon England of...

Trinity and Incarnation in Anglo-Saxon Art and Thought.(Review)
March 1, 1998... BARBARA C. RAW, Pp. x + 221 (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 21). Cambridge, New York, Oakleigh: Cambridge University Press, 1997. [pounds]37.50 (ISBN 0-521-55371-7). In Trinity and Incarnation in Anglo-Saxon Art and Thought...

Old English Biblical Verse.(Review)
March 1, 1998... PAUL G. REMLEY, Pp. xvii + 476 (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 16). Cambridge, New York, Oakleigh: Cambridge University Press, 1996. [pounds]45.00 (ISBN 0-521-47454-X). Despite the inclusiveness of the title, this study is...

Anglo-Saxon England.(Review)
March 1, 1998... MICHAEL LAPIDGE, MALCOLM GODDEN, and SIMON KEYNES (eds), 25. Pp. viii + 341. Cambridge, New York, Oakleigh: Cambridge University Press, 1996. [pounds]65.00 (ISBN 0-521-57147-2) The latest volume of Anglo-Saxon England marks twenty-five...

Old English Poetic Metre.(Review)
March 1, 1998... B. RAND HUTCHESON, Pp. xv + 351. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1995. [pounds]49.50 (ISBN 0-85991-435-6). B. R. Hutcheson could not have achieved what he has achieved without the well-programmed computer sorting the material on which he...

The Metrical Organization of Beowulf, Prototype and Isomorphism.(Review)
March 1, 1998... SEIICHI SUZUKI, In WERNER WINTER (gen. ed.), Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs, 95. Pp. xxiv + 537. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1996. DM 278.00 (ISBN 3-11-015134-0). In this important book Seiichi Suzuki adumbrates...

Quantitatsproblematik und Metrik.(Review)
March 1, 1998... HANS FIX (ed.). Pp. [viii +] 279 (Amsterdamer Beitrage zur alteren Germanistik, 42). Amsterdam and Atlanta, Georgia: Rodopi, 1995 (ISBN 90-5183-889-1). There are many interesting contributions, in German and English, in this volume of...

Frisian Runes and Neighbouring Traditions.(Review)
March 1, 1998... TINEKE LOOIJENGA and AREND QUAK (eds). Pp. [xii +] 246 [+ 14 pp. of advertisements] (Amsterdamer Beitrage zur alteren Germanistik, 45). Amsterdam and Atlanta, Georgia: Rodopi, 1996 (ISBN 90-5183-951-0). A wide range of connections between...

The Book of Cerne: Prayer, Patronage and Power in Ninth-Century England.(Review)
March 1, 1998... MICHELLE P. BROWN. Pp. 252 (British Library Studies in Medieval Culture). London: British Library; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996. $85.00 (ISBN 0-7123-0486-X and 0-8020-4113-2). The Book of Cerne (Cambridge University Library,...

The Hymms of the Anglo-Saxon Church.(Review)
March 1, 1998... INGE B. MILFULL (ed.). Pp. x + 500 (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England, 17). Cambridge, New York, Oakleigh: Cambridge University Press, 1996. [pounds]65.00 (ISBN 0-521-46252-5). Inge B. Milfull (whose name is twice misspelt with...

Facsimile of Oxford, Bodleian Library.(Review)
March 1, 1998... JUDITH TSCHANN and M. B. PARKES (intro.), MS Digby 86. Pp. lxii + facsimile (EETS, s.s. 16). Oxford: Oxford University Press, for The Early English Text Society, 1996. [pounds]60.00 (ISBN 0-19-722417-2). This book - a welcome addition to...

Rereading Middle English Romance: Manuscript Layout, Decoration, and the Rhetoric of Composite Structure.(Review)
March 1, 1998... MURRAY J. EVANS. Pp. xxviii + 203. Montreal and Kingston, London, Buffalo: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996. [pounds]30.00 (ISBN 0-7735-12373). This book epitomizes current holistic approaches to medieval texts, bringing topics in...

Individuality and Achievement in Middle English Poetry.(Review)
March 1, 1998... O. S. PICKERING (ed.). Pp. xi + 227. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1997. [pounds]29.95 (ISBN 0-85991-424-0). Oliver pickering's justification for this new collection of essays is a belief that the recent growth of theoretical,...

Lies, Slander, and Obscenity in Medieval English Literature: Pastoral Rhetoric and the Deviant Speaker.(Review)
March 1, 1998... EDWIN D. CRAUN. Pp. xiii + 255 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 31). Cambridge, New York, Oakleigh: Cambridge University Press, 1997. [pounds]35.00 (ISBN 0-521-49690-X). The immoral or sinful use of the gift of language, sign of...

The Medieval Medea.(Review)
March 1, 1998... RUTH MORSE. Pp. xvi + 267. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1996. [pounds]35.00 (ISBN 0-85991-459-3). Psychoanalysis has not thus far defined a Medea-complex, but the evidence of Ruth Morse's study of Medea's many medieval incarnations suggests...

English Wycliffite Sermons, vols. 4-5.(Review)
March 1, 1998... PAMELA GRADON and ANNE HUDSON (eds). Pp. xv + 333; xiii + 443. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. [pounds]60.00 (ISBN 0-19-812775-8); [pounds]70.00 (0-19-813005-8). Pamela Gradon and Anne Hudson here conclude their monumental edition of the...

Prophets Abroad: The Reception of Continental Holy Women in Late-Medieval England.(Review)
March 1, 1998... ROSALYNN VOADEN (ed.). Pp. xiii + 197. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1996. [pounds]35.00 (ISBN 085991-425-9). The thirteenth-century Continental Frauenbewegung was early flagged as an important area of influence for insular culture in the...

Omne Bonum: A Fourteenth-Century Encyclopedia of Universal Knowledge, British Library MSS Royal 6 E VI-6 E VIII, 2 vols.(Review)
March 1, 1998... LUCY FREEMAN SANDLER. Pp. 208 (plus 118 plates on unnumbered pages) + 272. London: Harvey Miller, 1996. [pounds]120.00 (ISBN 1-872501-75-3). As the title of this handsome two-volume study indicates, the Omne Bonum is a collection of...

An Interpolated Middle English Version of the Anatomy of Guy de Chauliac, Part I, Text; Part II, Introduction, Notes Glossary.(Review)
March 1, 1998... BJORN WALLNER (ed.), Pp. xvi + 92 + 66 (Publications of the New Society of Letters at Lund 87). Lund University Press, 1996. Paper-bound (ISBN 91-7966-294-3 and 91-7966-354-0). _____, The Middle English Translation of Guy de Chauliac's...

Regaining Paradise Lost.(Review)
March 1, 1998... THOMAS N. CORNS, Pp. x + 151 (Longman Medieval and Renaissance Library). London and New York: Longman, 1994. Hardbound [pounds]30.00 (ISBN 0-582-06621-2); paperbound [pounds]9.99 (0-582-06620-4). I Perhaps the most apt admonition for the...

Spokesperson Milton: Voices in Contemporary Criticism.(Review)
March 1, 1998... CHARLES W. DURHAM and KRISTIN PRUITT MCCOLGAN (eds), Pp. xv + 284. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1994. [pounds]37.50 (ISBN 0-945636-65-2). I Perhaps the most apt...

Words that Matter: Linguistic Perception in Renaissance English.(Review)
March 1, 1998... JUDITH H. ANDERSON, Pp. xi + 338. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press (distrib. outside N. America by Cambridge University Press), 1997. [pounds]30.00 (ISBN 0-8047-2631-0) The chief merit of this book is the question it raises and...

Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs and Ballads, Now Extant, Relative to that Celebrated English Outlaw, 2 vols.(Review)
March 1, 1998... JOSEPH RITSON, Pp. cxviii + 400. London: Routledge and Thoemess Press, 1997. [pounds]125.00 (ISBN 0-415-15383-2). This is a handsome facsimile of the 1887 Nimmo edition; that was printed from the one published in 1832 which had been...

The Movement Towards Subversion: The English History Play from Skelton to Shakespeare.(Review)
March 1, 1998... ERIC STERLING, Pp. xix + 229. Lanham, New York, London: University Press of America, 1996. Hardbound $49.00 (ISBN 0-7618-0448-X); paperbound $29.50 (ISBN 0-7618-0449-8). These books share an intention to engage closely with the texts of...

Shakespeare's English Histories: A Quest for Form and Genre.(Review)
March 1, 1998... JOAN W. VELZ (ed.), Pp. viii + 270 (MRTS 133). Binghampton: Medieval Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1996. $25.00 (ISBN 0-86698-140-3). These books share an intention to engage closely with the texts of history plays with a view to...

Thomas Arden in Faversham: The Man Behind the Myth.(Review)
March 1, 1998... PATRICIA HYDE, Pp. xii + 616. Faversham: The Faversham Society, 1996 (limited edition of 1000). [pounds]37.50 (ISBN 0-900532-85-8). Thomas Arden has previously been famous for the fact that the story of his murder at the hands of his...

An Introduction to Shakespeare: The Dramatist in His Context.(Review)
March 1, 1998... PETER HYLAND, Pp. vii + 215. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1996. Paperbound [pounds]10.99 (ISBN 0-333-59880-6). Peter Hyland's book is exactly what its title says it is, an introduction to the various contexts - historical, social,...

Shakespeare at Work.(Review)
March 1, 1998... JOHN JONES, Pp. viii + 293. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. [pounds]35.00 (ISBN 0-19-811966-6). This study is founded on arguments, especially those put forward in the last twenty years, that Shakespeare revised his own plays. But, as the...

Reading and Writing in Shakespeare.(Review)
March 1, 1998... DAVID M. BERGERON (ed.), Reading and Writing in Shakespeare. Pp. 289. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1996. [pounds]32.50 (ISBN 0-87413-557-5). This collection of twelve essays is based upon...

Ceremony and Text in the Renaissance.(Review)
March 1, 1998... DOUGLAS F. RUTLEDGE (ed.), Pp. 233. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1996. [pounds]28.50 (ISBN 0-87413-573-7). This collection of twelve papers, drawn from three separate (but thematically...

English Catholic Books: 1641-1700.(Review)
March 1, 1998... THOMAS H. CLANCY, SJ, A Bibliography, rev. edn. Pp. xviii + 215. Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1996. [pounds]39.50 (ISBN 1-85928-329-2). First published in 1974, Clancy's bibliography has been invaluable for those working in the resurgent area...

The Secret Malady: Venereal Disease in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France.(Review)
March 1, 1998... LINDA E. MERIANS (ed.), Pp. viii + 269. Lexington: The University of Kentucky, 1996. Hardbound $39.95 (ISBN 0-8131-1989-8); paperbound $19.95 (0-8131-0888-8). 'I was indiscreet enough to desire the enjoyment of Miss Sally Clerk, a young...

The Piozzi Letters: Correspondence of Hester Lynch Piozzi, 1784-1821 (formerly Mrs Thrale), vol 4, 1805-1810.(Review)
March 1, 1998... HESTER LYNCH PIOZZI, ed. EDWARD A. BLOOM and LILLIAN D. BLOOM. Pp. 358. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London: Associated London Presses, 1996. [pounds]45.00 (ISBN 0-87413-393-9). Poor Mrs Piozzi! 1805 saw her living at Brynbella,...

Literature and the Marketplace: Romantic Writers and Their Audiences in Great Britain and the United States.(Review)
March 1, 1998... WILLIAM G. ROWLAND Jr, Pp. xv + 230. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1996. [pounds]38.00 (ISBN 0-8032-3918-1). For much of the nineteenth century, Professor Rowland argues, British and American writers were struggling to...

Novels and Selected Works of Mary Shelley, vols. 1-8.(Review)
March 1, 1998... MARY SHELLEY, Frankinstein or The Modern Prometheus, ed. NORA CROOK, intro. BETTY T. BENNETT. Pp. ci + 240 (ISBN 1-85196-077-5); The publication of these eight volumes follows Charles Robinson's edition of Collected Tales (1976), Betty...

Poems of the Middle Period: 1822-1837, 2 vols.(Review)
March 1, 1998... JOHN CLARE, ed. E. ROBINSON, D. POWELL, and P. M. S. DAWSON. Pp. xxix + 376; xiv + 402. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. [pounds]60.00 each vol. (ISBN 0-19-812340-X and 0-19-812387-6). In 1964 Eric Robinson and the late Geoffrey Summerfield...

The Complete Works of Robert Browning, 2 vols.(Review)
March 1, 1998... ROBERT BROWNING, vol. VI, Men and Women, Volume II; Ben Karshook's Wisdom; Eurydice to Orpheus; Dramatis Personae; Deaf and Dumb, ed. JOHN C. BERKEY, ALLAN C. DOOLEY, and SUSAN F. DOOLEY. Pp. xxvii + 472. Waco, Texas: Baylor University;...

The English Novel in History: 1840-1895.(Review)
March 1, 1998... ELIZABETH DEEDS ERMATH, Pp. x + 246 (The Novel in History). London and New York: Routledge, 1996. Hardbound [pounds]40.00 (ISBN 0-415-01499-9); paperbound [pounds]12.99 (0-41501500-6). What is one to make of a book, ostensibly on the...

The Blithedale Romance.(Review)
March 1, 1998... NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, ed. WILLIAM E. CAIN. Pp. xvi + 512 (Bedford Cultural Editions). Boston: Bedford Books of St Martin's Press, 1996. Paperbound [pounds]7.50 (ISBN 0-312-11803-1). This edition of The Blithedale Romance in the Bedford...