JOURNAL of the National Literary Society of Ireland, Vol. 1, pt. 1-3. Dublin 1900-1902.

Vol. 1, pt. 2, pp. 112-132, contains a list of books and pamphlets by members of the Society, including productions by writers of the new school, and some works on the revival. The List of Lectures delivered before the

Society (part 3, pp. 183-193) include "Nationality and Literature," by W. B. Yeats and Hindrances to the revival of Irish literature at the present time," by John McGrath.

MCCARTHY, Justin. Revival of Irish language and literature. (Living Age, Vol. 230, 1901, pp. 190-193.)

Lays special stress on the preservation and translation of old Irish legends, romance and poetry.

MILLER, Joseph Dana. The Celtic renaissance. (The Era Magazine, Nov. 1903, pp. 415-419.)

Louise Imogen Guiney is cited as the "sole American representative of the Celtic School."

"Let us not mistake geographical Celticism for what is Celtic in spirit... The literature that is Celtic... is so by reason of a spiritual quality of its own.”

YEATS, W. B. Ideas of good and evil. 2d edition. London, 1903. 12°.

Some of the papers deal with the Anglo-Celtic movement. They are What is popular poetry?'" (touching on " Young Ireland Societies," and the mission of the new writers who write in Irish), "The Theatre," "The Celtic element in literature," "Ireland and the Arts" (urging Irish writers and artists to leave foreign subjects and dig in Ireland, the garden of the future "), and "The Galway Plains" (speaking of the legends of a people for whom "one could still, if one had the genius and had been born to Irish, write. . . plays and poems like those of Greece ").

CABINET of Irish Literature.

The 1893 edition, edited by C. A. Read, vols. 1-3, by T. P. O'Connor, vol. 4, was too early to recognize the new movement. But a "new and greatly enlarged edition," including the work of the new men, is reviewed in the Irish Monthly, vol. 31, 1903, PP. 335-340. The same magazine, vol. 27, 1899, has a list of Irish writers of the 19th century, in which we meet the prominent names of the revival.

MACM., S. The Irish language revival. (Good Words, Vol. 44, 1903, pp. 607-608.)

An optimistic view of the revival of the language.

FROTHINGHAM, Eugenia Brooks. An Irish poet and his work. (Critic, Vol. 44, Jan. 1904, pp. 26-31.)

A review of the movement.

MCMANUS, L. The Irish literary revival. (Living Age, Vol. 241, April 1904, pp. 189-190.)

Reprinted from the Academy.

KRANS, H. S. William Butler Yeats and the Irish literary revival. ("Contemporary Men of Letters" series.) New York, 1904. 12°.

"It is the aim of this book to give a sketch of the Irish literary revival that may serve as a background to the work of Mr. Yeats. . . The chief inspiration of the literary revival is the love of the legends and romances that belong to the Gaelic past of Ireland.”

YOUNG, Filson. Ireland at the crossroads. . . . 2d edition. London, 1904. 12°.

Chapter vii: "The Irish revival." The "Gaelic League . . . has no less tremendous an ambition than the restoration of the sense of pride and race to the Irish, and the rebuilding of a nationality which has been gradually becoming merged and lost amid the spreading influences of the Anglo-Saxon world... The ambition is splendid in its valour and insolence ... There is a great deal of what plain men call nonsense in the Celtic movement . . ." The author considers the movement rather in its political and social influence, and its relation to the Church.

IRISH Literature. Justin McCarthy, Editor-in-Chief. Associate editors, Douglas Hyde, Maurice F. Egan, James Jeffrey Roche, Lady Gregory. Managing editor, Charles Welsh. Philadelphia. 10 vols.

In progress.

The following two newspaper ex

forth coming works:

"The revival of interest in Celtic literature is making itself felt wherever the Celt still exists. The Gaels of Ireland publish three magazines dealing entirely with Gaelic and Celtic subjects. In France the Revue Celtique came into being a generation ago, and even Teutonic Germany issues two magazines devoted to Celtic research and learning. But hitherto the Gaelic scholars of Scotland have been without a special organ. They are, however, now about to remove this reproach by the publication of a quarterly Celtic Review." - Evening Sun, N.Y., July 12, 1904.

W. B. Yeats, Stephen Gwynn, Lady Gregory, D. G. O'Donoghue, and Jane Barlow are collaborating on a work to be called "Irish Voices."-London correspondence of the New York Times, July 9, 1904.

POETRY

A Book of Irish verse selected from modern writers with an introduction and notes by W. B. Yeats. London, 1895. 12°.

The poems selected are practically all drawn from the preceding periods of the 19th century, but the introduction strikes a note of hope for the future.

Same. Revised. London, 19c0. Reviewed in the Academy, vol. 58, 1900, pp. 235-236: These Irish poets do not seem to come to Nature with eyes, they seem to be dwelling with her in spirit . . . If we came gingerly to this book, and did not at once put away the smile of incredulity, we lodge it on our shelves with gratitude and respect.

SHARP, Elizabeth A., editor. Lyra Celtica: an anthology of representative Celtic poetry; with an introduction and notes by William Sharp. (Celtic Library.) Edinburgh, 1896. 12°.

A large portion of the book is devoted to "modern and contemporary" Anglo-Celtic

BROOKE, Stopford A., and ROLLESTON, T. W., editors. A treasury of Irish New poetry in the English tongue. York, London, 1900. 12°.

Brooke, in an introduction, sketches the history of Irish poetry in the 19th century, and outlines its characteristics and tendencies. The anthology covers the same period, and to each poet represented there is devoted a signed critical estimate and a short biographical sketch.

DRAMA

BELTAINE. Edited by W. B. Yeats. Dublin and London, 1899-1900. 8°. Organ of the Irish Literary Theatre.

SAMHAIN. Edited for the Irish Literary Theatre by W. B. Yeats. Published in October, 1901. [Dublin, London.] 8°.

SAMHAIN: an occasional review edited by W. B. Yeats, October 1902; edited for the National Theatrical Company, September 1903. [Dublin, London.] 8°.

Organ of the National Irish Theatre Society, Belsuccessor of the Irish Literary Theatre. taine and Samhain form a record of the dramatic activity of the Anglo-Celtic school.

GWYNN, Stephen. The Irish literary theatre and its affinities. (Fortnightly Review, Vol. 70, 1901, pp. 1050-1062.)

Not exactly hopeful in tone. Author does not find that the sympathies of the public have been quite reached.

SAMPSON, Martin W. The Irish literary theatre. (Nation, Vol. 73, 1901, pp. 395-396.)

Mainly a review of plays produced.

TH

*

HIS book, which has just been delivered to subscribers, has received high praise from English, German, and Japanese reviewers, and is a monument to the painstaking care and erudition of the author and his collaborator. A Japanese says of it: "The most picturesque chapter of our national history is that covering the hundred years that lie between A. D. 1540 and 1640. All that we as a nation were for two hundred and fifty years, and much that we are still, had its inception in that fruitful period. Then, too, began that intercourse with foreign countries which, interrupted for a season, has been resumed in our day. Christianity and gunpowder were introduced together (as into so many other countries!) and both were at first made equally welcome. A new history of the century in question has just been issued by Mr. James Murdock, a British savant in the employ of the Educational Department, in collaboration with Mr. Isoh Yamagata. His book is founded on original documents, both European and Japanese, and the result is such that we have no hesitation in recommending the volume to the notice of our compatriots as well as of foreign readers. Everyone must feel that he has here to do with a fresh and original mind, and one bent on being fair at all hazards. Thus, from many converging reasons, we welcome the appearance of this book, as marking an epoch in Japanese historical research: and we trust that it will find its way, not only to the shelves of college and other

libraries throughout the Empire, but into the hands of individual students and into their memories."

When it is added that Mr. Basil Hall Chamberlain, Emeritus Professor of Japanese in the Tokyo Imperial University, who is recognized as being the authority, par excellence, on all Japanese literary, linguistic, and historical subjects, bestows upon the book unstinted praise as history, although he justly finds some minor faults with it as literature, because of some unimportant slips of the pen, vagaries of style, and curious editing: and when we say that Dr. Papellier, in Deutsche Japan-post, who is likewise a careful student of things Japanese, is convinced that everyone will finish the book with regret that the following volume is yet far distant, it must be evident that a most valuable contribution has been made to the hitherto too meagre history of Japan.

Mr. Murdock writes without prejudice, either religious or political, and is exceptionally fortunate in his subject, "woven as it is of two main threads, one, Christian missionary enterprise, which is of perennial interest; the other, the foundation of that centralized Japanese Government by three great rulersNobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Iyeyasuwhich in our day has blossomed forth into a world-power and whose origines have therefore become more than ever worthy of investigation." We have not yet read any critique written by an active member of a Missionary Society, but it can hardly be possible that such a one, unless steeped in bigotry, can take exception to Mr. Murdock's treatment of his subject, or fail to endorse the opinions of the competent laymen who are unanimous in their praise

The make-up of the book deserves great praise; the type is clear, the presswork is neat, and the whole thing shows that the printers and publishers are prepared to undertake any job of the kind. that may be entrusted to them. This in itself marks a great advance in Japan, for hitherto authors have often suffered seriously through the disadvantage of having to send their manuscripts to Europe or America, and be deprived of the necessary opportunity for thorough proof-reading, While Mr. Murdock is to be congratulated on his subject, it is no little thing to be able to congratulate him on his publisher. As the first edition is limited, and is not, we believe, in plates, it behooves those who wish to secure copies to stir themselves.

The recently published book by Mr. John W. Davidson, United States Consul at Tamsui, is the most encyclopædic work that has ever been written about the interesting island of Formosa, and will probably remain without a rival as the source from which all will draw information concerning the island from the middle of the fifteenth century, when the first authentic records indicate that Chinese traders from the mainland began to visit the place, down to the present time. Prior to the former time there is nothing but myth-and very unsatisfactory myth at that to tell us even the

*FORMOSA UNDER THE DUTCH. Described from Contemporary Records. With Explanatory Notes and a Bibliography of the Island. By Rev. William Campbell, F.R.G.S., English Presbyterian Mission, Tainar. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd. 1903.

most impossible tales about the island. Mr. Campbell's work* deals with a limited period, 1624 to 1661, and chiefly relates to the early efforts to Christianize the aborigines; but beyond this, it is a valuable historical book of reference, for its information on the topography, the manners and customs of the inhabitants, the nature and volume of Dutch trade, and the religion of the island, could not be set forth more lucidly or with more exactness than in Mr. Campbell's translations of the Dutch originals. From its nature, the book must appeal most forcibly to a limited number of readers, yet those who are directly or indirectly interested in evangelistic work -but it has more reading that is satisfactory to the general reader than the majority of books dealing with China, and for this reason should command a ready sale among all earnest students of history and ethnology. history and ethnology. Here may be learned at first hand the trials and tribulations of the pioneer traders and missionaries in a hostile land. We are apt to forget the part that has been played by Portuguese, Spaniard, and Dutch in the Far East, and though we may disapprove of their methods, we must not forget that we follow in their footsteps with advantages which they did not possess, and in an age of general enlightenment, mechanical invention, and scientific government, conditions that are not altogether favorable to a just appreciation of the difficulties those pioneers encountered and the methods with which they met their difficulties.

(1) We are not antiquary enough to answer this question. We conjecture that the simile is not intended to be ironical, but rather is based on a fancied resemblance in the curled ends of the chips where the axe struck.

(2) We do not know of any more recent-certainly not any better-than Eugene Schuyler's, in two volumes, published twenty years ago. The most thorough work on the condition of Russia is one published by the Ministry of Finance for the Columbian Exposition in 1893. It is entitled "The Industries, Manufactures, and Trade of Russia," and was translated into English by J. M. Crawford, our Consul General in Russia. In the same year appeared "The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians," translated by Z. A. Ragozin. Bazan's "Russia: its People and Literature," was published in Chicago in 1890, and Stepniak's "Underground Russia in New York in 1888. Charles A. Stoddard published his "Across Russia" in 1891. Makenzie Wallace's "Russia is older, but is still good.

869.-(1) Among Robert Browning's poems that puzzle me most is "Rudel to the Lady of Tripoli." Who was Rudel? and who was the lady?

(2) I have long owned a little book entitled "Conceits and Caprices," made up entirely of epigrams in prose, published in New York in 1869. It is anonymous, and is so bright on nearly every page that I should be glad to learn the name of the author.

(3) I have an imperfect memory of a poem that struck me as fine when I read it years ago. The refrain was "Not as I used to do," the stanzas ending with such lines as

D. C. F.

Can you tell me where to find it? Geoffrey de Rudel was a troubadour of the twelfth century. From crusaders he learned of the surpassing beauty and virtues of the Countess of Tripoli, and fell violently in love with her before he had seen her. He left the court of England for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but became very ill on the voyage, and when he arrived at Tripoli he had lost the power of speech. The Countess, hearing his story, and that he was dy. ing, visited him on shipboard. He recovered enough to declare his love for her, and almost immediately died. The Countess raised a beautiful tomb to his memory. The story is told by Sismondi.

(3) Eliza Cook wrote such poem, which may be found in the volume of her collected work.

870. I have been reading with entertainment