Saints Legend

By GORDON HALL GEROULD ('99)., Professor of English in Princeton University. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1916. Pp. 393.

The series Types of English Literature, in which Professor- Gerould's volume is the fifth to appear, is a notable undertaking by a number of American scholars who have set themselves the task of narrating the history of the different genres in English literature, as for example the popular ballad, tragedy, the lyric, the allegory, the novel.

The present work is the first study of saints' legends to be made for any of the European literatures. The author, who studied at Oxford as the first incumbent of the Dartmouth Parker Fellowship, is already known for his publications in this field. His general attitude towards his subject may be shown by a quotation from the preface of the book: "My one desire is that others may come, through reading this book, to see the nobility of the impress that saints' legends have made on our literature, as I have come to see it. The story is, for the most part, of a day long past, but its significance remains,"

In whatever way the legends of the saints arose, once in existence they furnished fruitful themes for literary treatment and were potent influences in thought and life. Should we have the Canterbury Tales if it had not been for the legends and devoutly believed miracles of St. Thomas? Do we not read how the spirit of Joan of Arc, now Beata in the process of her canonization, is abroad on the battlefields of France ? It is this kind of truth that the investigator of saints' lives in literature, which reflects life, must consider.

In the first two chapters of the book we find discussed such matters fundamental for an understanding of hagiology as the definition of the term "saint's legend," the use of saints' lives in the service of the church, and their later emergence as independent literary products, followed by an account of the varied origins and the propagation of these narratives of the heroes and heroines of the faith, some of whom were real persons, others of doubtful authenticity, while still others, as we now know, never existed at all.

The chapter on the Epic Legend in Old English is a unified and thoroughly independent piece of work. By reference to and comparison with other types a presentation of Old English poetry beyond the limits of saints' legends is made possible. From the point of view of the genre under consideration the author essays an esthetic re-valuation of Cynewulf's poems with results which, though highly appreciative, are in the opinion of the present reviewer at least, sound and just. A consideration of prose legends, the writing of which in the vernacular hardly began before the secone half of the tenth century, brings the Old English epoch to a close.

An historical chapter on the new influences which came from France and on the cult of the Virgin forms an introduction to the complex period between the Conquest and the Reformation, to which two long chapters, giving abundant evidence of painstaking research, are devoted. The author manages his somewhat difficult material very skilfully. Clear description, apt characterization, and a keen sense for genuine religious inspiration as well as for literary excellences maintain interest in this extended and productive period. The saints' legends of the later Middle Ages present many problems of source, date, authorship, and relationship tempting to the scholar. In reading this part of Professor Gerould's book one has at times the feeling that these special investigations are obtruding themselves at the cost of sustained narration. On the other hand rather more attention to the Kulturgeschichte of this period might have been welcome.

The chronological order of treatment is properly interrupted to consider Saints' Lives in Drama of which we have so relatively few that only nineteen pages are allotted to them.

By the end of the fifteenth century forces which were to result in the Reformation had already caused a virtual cessation in the writing of legends of the saints. A gradual revival followed, culminating in Alban Butler's encyclopedic Lives of the Saints, "the great classic of modern English Catholicism," at the middle of the eighteenth century. A changed attitude on the part of Protestants towards these memorials of the past as well as zeal for historical studies have brought about the writing of a number of works of varied character belonging to the present time. A selective bibliography as an aid to further study and an index complete the volume.

Commendable alike for scholarship and literary craftsmanship, Professor Gerould's book fills a gap in the history of English letters in a way which will be of service to students in various fields and bring no less pleasure than profit to the educated general reader.

A. K. H.

"Songs of the Hills and Home," by Wallace Irving Coburn '82 has recently appeared from the press of Sherman, French & Co., Boston! This little volume of eighty-two pages contains a variety of lyrics dealing with the simpler affections of home, nature, and friendship, and is marked throughout with a spirit of optimism and good cheer.

Charles Loomis Dana '72 and John Cotton Dana '78 are the editors of "A Book of Satires by Q. Horatius Flaccus," issued from the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vermont. This is another specimen of the beautiful typography for which this press is noted. The volume contains sixteen half-tone reproductions of old engravings. Six of the satires of Horace are here printed with brief introductory notes and with prose English translations by the editors on the opposite pages.

"Fur Farming as a Side Line," is the title of Separate Leaflet 693 from the United States Department of Agriculture Year Book 1916, by Ned Dearborn '91.

Wilbur L. Taylor 'lO is the author of "Science and the Age of Things," reprinted from the Educational Review for January.