352 



Monthly Review of Literature. 



[SEPT. 



old, sprung up, suddenly and indepen- 

 dently, Minerva-like, in panoply com- 

 plete. They were, all of them, only the 

 best of their class. Nature in her works 

 proceeds by steps and not by leaps ; and 

 the results of modern researches all tend 

 to shew that the career of intellectual and 

 literary cultivation, in every branch and 

 department, observes the same slow and 

 progressive law of gradation. Even 

 Newton is no exception. 



Gammer Gurton's Needle, written by 

 Still, who towards the close of life was 

 made Bishop of Bath and Wells, and 

 first performed, apparently, at Christ's 

 College, Cambridge, in 1566, was long 

 considered to be the oldest English 

 drama, that " looked like regular," ex- 

 tant. Ralph Royster Doyster, a piece 

 discovered about ten years ago, how- 

 ever, must take precedence by some 

 years, and is even more " like a regular" 

 comedy. An extract from it of some 

 length appears in Wilson's Art of Logic, 

 printed by Grafton in 1551. The ex- 

 tract is given in illustration of opposite 

 meanings, obtainable by varying the 

 punctuation, and is introduced by Wil- 

 son with these words "an example of 

 such doubtful writing, which, by reason 

 of pointing, may have a double sense 

 and contrary meaning, taken out of an 

 interlude by Nicholas Udall." Udall 

 was born about 1506, and is supposed to 

 have died in 1557, after having been 

 master successively of Eton and West- 

 minster Schools. Of course the original 

 piece was known before 1551, though 

 allusion is made to our noble queen, by 

 whom no doubt Elizabeth is meant the 

 allusion was an accommodation to the 

 times on some after performance. The 

 only copy known to be in existence, be- 

 fore the present reprint, is without a 

 title page ; but it appears, from Ames, 

 that Hacket, the pnnter, had a licence 

 for a play, entitled Rauf Ruyster Dus- 

 ter, in 1566. The plav was no doubt a 

 popular one, for allusions to the cha- 



racter of Ralfe Royster are frequent in 

 many publications throughout the reign 

 of Elizabeth. " It is even better en- 

 titled," says the editor, " to be ranked 

 as a comedy than Gammer Gurton's 

 Needle ; it is divided into five actt> and 

 scenes, and it possesses a peculiar claim 

 to attention as a picture ot ancient man- 

 ners, inasmuch as it represents the ha- 

 bits and modes of thinking and acting 

 at the date when it was written in Lon- 

 don, and is not, like Gammer Gurton's 

 Needle, merely a coarse delineation of 

 country life." Coarse enough it still is, 

 but not filthy, like Gammer Gurton's 

 Needle, though of Gammer Gurton we 

 must still say, with all its breadth, it is 

 irresistibly comic, and, with a little rub- 

 bing and scrubbing, would even now 

 make a laughable and popular farce. 



Elements of Analytical Geometry, by 

 J. R. Young, Author of " Treatises on 

 Algebra, Geometry," fyc. Any attempt 

 to discuss the specific merits of this lit- 

 tle volume would be sadly out of place 

 here. Mr. Young is known to us, by 

 his publications we mean, as a geometri- 

 cian very capable of simplifying demon- 

 strations, and successful in detecting 

 sundry fallacies lurking in the reason- 

 ings of some mathematicians of cele- 

 brity. Algebraic analysis applied to 

 geometry, is comparatively a recent 

 study in this country, and certainly 

 there has been a miserable deficiency 

 of elementary books on the subject. Till 

 within these ten years, indeed, there 

 was no English book at all exclusively 

 directed to the matter. Dr. Lordlier 

 has since published a portion of his pro- 

 jected work, and another volume has 

 appeared at Cambridge, but neither 

 of them will render superfluous Mr. 

 Young's performance, which is strictly 

 elementary, and, as far as we have 

 glanced over it, clear and simple. It 

 is a welcome accession to our introduc- 

 tory books of science. 



