Comparisons between Chrétien de Troyes' Erec et Enide, composed about 1160, and Hartmann von Aue's Êrec der Wunderaere, written soon after 1190, began in 1862 with Karl Bartsch's article, a few years after both romances had been made easily accessible in I. Bekker's edition of Chrétien's Erec (1856) and Moritz Haupt's edition of Hartmann's Erec (1839). Bartsch's pioneer work consists, however, mainly in paralleling the texts to show the more or less similar sequence of events.

Scholars are now fairly well agreed that the Latin preposition ab, far from dying out, has remained extremely active in France and that the French à, when denoting separation, origin, causation, manner, means, agent, and accompaniment, is its direct descendant. And yet the theory still persists that in Italy this same preposition disappeared completely in the eighth century after the emergence of da and that the Italian a, regardless of its meaning, always corresponds to Latin ad. E. Richter believed that the use of a in stereotyped phrases like a destra, a malizia, a causa, a bello studio, etc., was borrowed from French or Provençal and that modal a (stare a testa china) and instrumental a (pregare a mani giunte) descended from Latin ad. As Muller says nothing about a, I take it that he, too, sees in it only a representative of ad. Likewise Graur, after stating that apud and ab have not survived in Italian, declares that it is a<ad which, besides denoting locality, introduces the instrument and agent.

The present essay embodies a continuation of some previously published studies of the Middle English Seege (or Batayle) of Troye; it is therefore hardly necessary or advisable to present here a full summary of the large body of scholarly comment which this poem has aroused. Briefly, it has been established that the Seege of Troye is dependent on two principal sources: De Excidio Troiae of Dares Phrygius and the Roman de Troie of Benoit de Sainte-Maure; and that details from these two accounts are pretty thoroughly blended together in the English poem. There have been noted, however, a number of episodes—mostly concerned with the early lives of Paris and Achilles—which are not traceable either to Dares or to Benoit. At least one other source of some kind has therefore been regarded as a necessary postulate in order to account for the presence of these episodes in the Seege of Troye.

It is curious, in view of the strange fascination which the seventeenth Earl of Oxford has exercised on a whole school of modern critics, that perhaps the most crucial episode in his life has been glossed over or ignored completely. Yet this episode, however discreditable to the Earl, is of some literary interest.

Poesia Espanhola, a manuscript of sixty-seven folio pages, which forms part of the Gayangos Collection in the National Library at Madrid, was, as its title implies, compiled by a Portuguese. Further evidence of the nationality of the collector is furnished by two poems in Portuguese as well as the Portuguese captions added to several other compositions. From the authors included in it, it may be assumed that the manuscript belongs to the first quarter of the seventeenth century. It has come down to us virtually intact except for a single folio page (45r) containing one complete sonnet and the initial five verses of another. However, some notion of the contents of the missing poem may be gained from the caption at the bottom of folio 44v-Soneto de Diego de Mendoca a la muerte de su muger, while the last nine verses of the other composition (given on folio 45v fortunately make it possible for us to retrace them and the missing lines that go with them to a sonnet by Góngora beginning “Mientras por competir con tu cabello,” Obras Poeticas, I (New York, 1921), p. 30.

Two of the dominant motives in pastoral literature are the “come-live-with-me” theme, which offers to the loved one as inducements gifts generally of a pastoral nature, and the ideal of the “golden age,” which is based upon a personal desire for a patterned idyllic life. The former has been carefully traced by R. S. Forsythe, but the latter has lain neglected in spite of the fact that two of the best known lyrics in the language, Milton's L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, utilize this theme. It is the purpose of this paper to demonstrate that the description of the ideal day is a significant and deeply rooted theme which developed gradually during the whole course of the pastoral tradition. Milton's two days derive from this evolution rather than from a few scattered lyrics which immediately preceded his work, as is generally stated.

The etymologists of the various modern languages are practically agreed in tracing back the word for dragoon, usually through the medium of the French dragon, to Latin draco, draconem. The Deutsches Wörterbuch of the Grimms has the following definition of Dragoner:

leichter reiter, der ein feuergewehr hat und auch zu fuß fechten muß: ursprünglich ein fußsoldat der sich des pferds bloß zum schnellen fortkommen bedient. franz. dragon, ital. dragone, dän. dragon, böhm. dragon dragaun. ohne zweifel findet eine beziehung auf drache statt, die aber nicht bekannt ist. die draconarii des Vegetius, auf deren standarte sich ein drache befand, sollen anlaß zu der benennung gegeben haben ... als die ersten dragoner betrachtet man die landsknechte und fußsoldaten, welche der prinz von Parma, als er 1582 die schlacht bei Gent liefern wollte, auf packpferden mit der reiterei voraus gehen ließ, um die nachhut des feindes anzugreifen. andere glauben graf Ernst von Mansfeld habe sie im dreißigjährigen krieg erfunden . . .

Goldsmith's extensive borrowings from other writers, especially from French writers, have long been known. It has been established that he was heavily indebted to Buffon, Voltaire, Marivaux, Montesquieu, D'Argens, and the Encyclopédie. To these French sources of Goldsmith should be added La Spectacle de la Nature of the Abbé Pluche, published in eight volumes in Paris between 1732 and 1751. La Spectacle de la Nature is a medley of popularized scientific knowledge, presented in dialogue form. It includes material on zoology, botany, physics, and astronomy, with a strong teleological motivation. Its popularity in England may be seen in the fact that the English translation appeared in 1733, almost immediately after the first Paris edition, and went into an eighth edition between 1754 and 1763. To the English sources of Goldsmith, moreover, should be added William Derham's Physico-Theology, first published in London in 1713, which includes astronomy, physics, and natural history, and which, like La Spectacle de la Nature, promulgates the argument from design.

The problem of Burke's anonymous writings in Dodsley's Annual Register has baffled biographers and critics for nearly a century and a half. Since Burke himself never acknowledged any of these writings, and since no conclusive evidence exists to fix their authorship, it is impossible to make use of them with any sense of security. On the other hand, since the Register must contain, even at a low estimate, some thousands of pages of Burke's writing, important both intrinsically and as our principal record of the early development of his mind, we cannot ignore it. Burke's biographers have about evenly divided themselves into those who were willing to take the risk of asserting on their own authority that specific parts of the magazine had been written by Burke, and those who preferred to make no use whatever of the dubious material. Thus Murray boldly assumes that Burke wrote all parts of the magazine from 1758 to 1791, and constantly quotes expressions of opinion in the magazine as Burke's personal expressions. Magnus on the contrary makes no direct use of the Register's contents in his biography. Neither those who have assumed Burke's authorship, nor those who have rejected it, have ever informed the public concerning the grounds of their judgment. But, admitting that certainty is impossible, such evidence as exists to make probable Burke's authorship of parts of the magazine deserves to be carefully weighed and analyzed.

The phenomenon of synaesthesia has been much studied in recent years, both on its psychological and on its literary side. In the strict scientific sense, it consists in the arousing, by the stimulation of one sense, a concomitant sensation in another. Thus the man who always felt a pain in a certain tooth when a soprano sang off-key was a genuine synaesthetic. In such simple forms, modern investigators have shown, synaesthesia is a psychological “Urphänomen” and can be traced back to prehistoric times, though it became an object of scientific attention only with Newton's Opticks in 1704.

Although the relationship of Shelley and Southey has several times been traced, it has not been sufficiently emphasized that Shelley's attitude toward the older poet went through two fairly distinct successive stages: a period from 1811 to 1817 of mild friendship and regard in spite of strong differences in opinion; and a period from 1817 to Shelley's death of an almost unmixed dislike and mistrust. It is the purpose of this article to outline this change in Shelley's attitude toward Southey, to advance a hitherto unnoted reason for it, and finally to speculate upon its bearing on Adonais.

It is probable that much yet remains to be understood about Poe's interest in science, in the South Pole, and in stories of the cosmic-voyage type, an interest manifested as early as “Hans Pfaal” and as late as Eureka. The sources proposed in this article throw light on this interest.

One of the most interesting chapters in the literary career of Leopoldo Alas (Clarín) deals with his advocacy of naturalism and the creation and defense of his most famous original work, La Regenta. Early in his literary life Alas placed himself in the forefront of the Spanish followers of Emile Zola and for many years was one of the most vigorous advocates of naturalism in Spain. He came to the movement with abundant enthusiasm, defended it in many fiery polemics, but maintained throughout his life very definite reservations which reveal a Leopoldo Alas scarcely ever recognized by his contemporaries.

Weder Kunst noch Leben werden unbedingt positiv bewertet.“ Mit diesem von ”Tonio Kröger“ und ”Der Tod in Venedig“ gewonnenen Urteil mindert Obenauer Manns Lebensleistung. Nicht nur in Obenauers ernstem und umfassendem Werk sondern auch im landläufigen literarhistorischen Urteil erscheint Mann als Dichter der Décadence, des Impressionismus, des Aesthetizismus. Als Obenauer die zitierten Zeilen schrieb, konnte man den Weg Manns noch nicht überschauen. ”Die Geschichten Jaakobs“ waren noch nicht erschienen. Der folgende Versuch—in seiner Art der erste und darum sicherlich nicht erschöpfend—soll den Ort des Josephromans im Gesamtwerk des Dichters finden und die übrigen Werke vom ”Joseph“ aus in einen entwicklungsgeschichtlichen Zusammenhang bringen.