STUDIES IN THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE DRAMA.
Edited by Josephine W.Bennett, Oscar Cargill, and Vernon HallJr. New York: New York University Press,1959• 368 pp. $6.00.
This is a sample of the vaudeville scholars put on to honor an admired deceased or retired colleague, here Karl J. Holzknecht of N.Y.U. The customary descriptive adjective, of course, is "uneven," but I read the book with almost unflagging interest. I think it deserves purchase by all libraries and most Renaissance scholars.
Two articles will have special interest for Dartmouth alumni. Professor Hall, of Comparative Literature, writes about Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. As I remember a lecture on the play by Professor Hall several years ago, he then had trouble, like many before him, deciding who was its hero. The article in this book shows he has found the hero; but it is not Caesar or Brutus, it is Roman virtus. And Julius Caesar, he says, has no political meaning; it is neither pronor anti-monarchical. Though perhaps this makes the play seem duller than if it is viewed as an argument, Professor Hall states his case ably.
Prof. Frederick W. Sternfeld, formerly of Music here, now of Oxford, England, contributes an article about Volpone's song in Ben Jonson's comedy, showing its Latin origins, its relation with contemporary parallels, and its musical form.
Besides, this volume contains discussions of Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, Romeo andJuliet, Falstaff, acting, A Chaste Maid inCheapside, A Woman Killed with Kindness, and many more. Who, interested in English Renaissance Drama, could resist these topics?
