i 9 o ENGLISH LITERATURE 



filled by able disciples and students of pure literature such as Edward Thomas (on Hearn, 

 Swinburne and Borrow), Arthur Ransome (on E. A. Poe) and Darrell Figgis. Systematic 

 criticism of the motived, scientific school has not made very much headway, though 

 works of erudition, enthusiasm and co-ordinated speculation have been completed by 

 Prof. W. J. Courthope 1 ( History of English Poetry) and Prof. George Saintsbury 2 (Eng- 

 lish Prosody and Prose Rhythm). Prof. Oliver Elton (b. 1861) has achieved a book of 

 arduous critical chronicling on the English Literary period, 1780-1830, and Sir Sidney 

 Lee 3 has successfully continued his researches into the cross currents of French and 

 English literature in his book on England and the French Renaissance. Prof. Sir Walter 

 Raleigh, in his two short studies on Johnson and Halifax, has confirmed his unique 

 position as a humorous professor who is at the same time a scholar and a wit. Specially 

 good work either editorial, biographical or commentary has been done on Herrick (De- 

 lattre), Suckling, Thomas Deloney, Ruskin, Morris, Swift, T. L. Peacock, Scott, Gold- 

 smith, Boswell, Borrow and George Gissing (The Private Life of Henry Maitland by 

 Morley Roberts is a pastel of G. G.). Some valuable monograph series have been set 

 on foot to chronicle the fluctuating fame of recent reputations (Seeker's Critical 

 Studies, Constable's Modern Biographies), and some suggestive chapters and papers 

 have been contributed to the Cambridge History of English Literature, which has now 

 been brought down to Dr. Johnson, and to collected papers by the English Association. 

 History. In history and biography the years 1910-12 have seen a good many im- 

 portant works already well under way brought a stage or two nearer completion. The 

 Hon. J. W. Fortescue (b. 1859) thus brought his monumental history of the British 

 Army down to the verge of the Peninsular War, in other words to within eight years 

 of its concluding point, and he accompanied it by a volume of hardly less importance, 

 vindicating the Statesmen of the Great War. His championship of Portland, Perceval 

 and Castlereagh, which goes far to destroy the ex parte indictment of Napier, receives 

 valuable confirmation in the History of the Peninsular War by Prof. C. W. Oman (b. 

 1860), whose fourth volume brings the narrative down to Salamanca. Sir George Tre- 

 velyan 4 completed his History of the American Rewlutionin a fourth volume, the scene 

 of which is laid mainly in the court and capital of England; it brings the writer home 

 from America to the commerce of the contemporaries of Fox and North, a subject in 

 which he has few rivals and certainly no superiors. This last volume takes us back by 

 a most happy reversion to the author of The Early History of Charles James Fox. Sir 

 George's historically gifted son, Mr. G. M. Trevelyan (b. 1876), has added another 

 excellent volume to his series on Garibaldi, Ney's successor to the proud title " bravest 

 of the brave." His history of Garibaldi and the Making of Italy may not quite achieve 

 the vital interest of the history of Garibaldi and the Tttousand, but this is owing to no 

 declension of style, but merely to the fact that the subject is inferior in dramatic interest. 

 Here, at any rate, there is little justification for the prehistoric lament "Lcs grands talents 

 oieillissent, rien ne se presente pour les rcmplacer." Another work of signal historical 

 value is the completion or continuation of Gardiner's Protectorate by his old ally, Prof. 

 C. H. Firth, 6 who brings the narrative down from 1657 to the death of Cromwell. Mr. 

 Firth writes no less minutely, but interprets history in a wider sense than his predecessor. 

 He exhibits, some may complain, a certain lack of temperament, but his two volumes 

 are worthy in every way of an historical erudition and equipment second to that of no 

 living historian. Since death has removed the four Academic historians, Sorel, Vandal, 

 Houssaye and Monod, and the great Philadelphian, H. C. Lea, it may be doubted whether 

 any universities are so happily provided in this respect as are Oxford and Cambridge. 

 Pursuing his former Byzantine explorations, Prof. J. B. Bury 6 of Cambridge has produced 

 his History of the Eastern Empire from Irene to Basil I, a work of absolutely the highest 

 rank both as regards rcse'arch and presentation. Another Oxford historian, in the very 

 front rank, Mr. Herbert Fisher (b. 1865), not content with an able edition of his kinsman 



1 B. 1842; see E. B. vii, 327. 4 B. 1838; see E. B. xxvii, 255: 



2 B. 1845; see E. B. xxiv, 45. 5 B. 1857; see E. B. x, 425. 



3 B. 1859; see E. B. xvi, 363. B. 1861 ; see E. B. iv, 867. 



