The hitherto unpublished English version of the Trojan war entitled The Sege of Troye exists in the unique Oxford ms., Rawlinson D 82. The Sege of Troye occupies second position in the manuscript, being preceded by a brief prose redaction of Statius’Thebaid and followed by an extract from Gower's Confessio Amantis. The version in question is an anonymous prose text of the fifteenth century, written in the Southern dialect. The story, which is told in simple, almost naive, language, and in a brisk, lively fashion, opens with the Argonautic Expedition and ends with the Destruction of Troy.

Early in 1659, when the poet was twenty-seven years old, appeared Dryden's first serious contribution to English literature, the Heroic Stanzas consecrated to the Memory of His Highness, Oliver, late Lord Protector of this Commonwealth. In the very next year, he hailed the restoration of Charles as a return of the Golden Age in the poem entitled Astræa Redux, and in the year following published a Panegyric on his Coronation. In November, 1682, he published Religio Laici, a carefully reasoned defense of the English Church. Less than five years later, in April, 1687, in the Hind and the Panther, we find him ardently espousing the cause of Rome; and during these five years a Roman Catholic sovereign had succeeded to the throne of England. James II had become king in February, 1685; and, if we may trust an entry in Evelyn's Diary, Dryden was already a Roman Catholic in the following January.

What is the importance of De Quincey in comparison with Carlyle in introducing German literature and thought into England? In dealing with this question I shall speak of the field of German writing from which De Quincey drew the material that he presented to his English audience; of the value of that material; of his method of presenting it; and of his attitude toward his work.

Considered with regard to the author's intention, nearly all of Schiller's dramas have established their right to be ranked among the most successful achievements in German literature. They were written for representation on the stage before a popular audience; and throughout the nineteenth century, in spite of the vagaries of literary fashion and the frequent hostility of literary men, the German people as such remained true to its admiration of Wallenstein, and Wilhelm Tell. No student of the drama can fail to perceive that Schiller is an indispensable presupposition to all dramatic production in Germany since his time; or can underestimate the value of his example in all that pertains to the architectonics of the drama; or ought to suppose that Schiller will not continue to speak from the stage to the twentieth century and beyond.

The main view which I shall here present was formulated about the time of the last meeting of this Association in New Haven, when Professor Price, of Columbia University, read his paper before the Association on Troilus and Criseyde. In that year, 1895—6, I was giving an undergraduate course in Chaucer, and found, on coming to Troilus and Criseyde, that a majority of the men in the course felt that a great change for the worse had come over Criseyde's character after her departure for Troy. This led me to look with more care into the poem, both to see how far there might be a basis for such a view, and to discover items of evidence tending to modify this impression. The opinion which I then came to entertain was communicated to my graduate seminary in Chaucer in the academic year 1899–1900, and in various other years. In the present paper, this view is supported by some additional considerations.

Concerning Homer, Lessing makes in the twelfth chapter of Laokoon the rash generalization, “Unsichtbar seyn, ist der natürliche Zustand seiner Götter.” Herder, in chapter xiii of his Erstes kritisches Wäldchen, has an easy task to disprove this proposition; but he cites in support of his case some witnesses of exceedingly doubtful credibility. The story of Pallas and Tiresias, which he tells after Callimachus, is good evidence that gods can be surprised by mortals. Having given, however, only the vague reference, “Callim. hymn, in Pallad. Dianam &c.,” Herder goes on to say:—“Wie der Pallas: so gieng es auch der badenden keuschen Diana. Kalydon sah sie, ebenfalls wider seinen und der Göttin Willen, und ward zu Steine. So gieng es selbst dem Jupiter, da er in seinem liebsten Vergnügen einmal seine Wolke vergessen hatte. Er ward, da er bei der Rhea schlief, von Haliakmon, wider Willen seiner, und seiner geliebten Beischläferin, und seines Überraschers, in seiner Schäferstunde gestört—wie das? wenn ‘unsichtbar seyn, der natürliche Zustand der Götter wäre.‘ —Ich will solche gestörte Schäferstunden der Götter und Göttinnen nicht aufzälen. Meine Muse ist diesmal nicht so, wie die Schwester des Amors, die

One or two generations ago, when every novel was in two volumes and serious works filled a shelf or so, our fathers or grandfathers may have read Chateaubriand. To-day the Americans who read French works usually confine themselves to writers earlier or later than he. Yet Chateaubriand was the first European author to make America the scene, and the Indian the subject of his romances. Moreover, he claims to have seen a large part of the territory east of the Mississippi; he asserts that he lived in the huts of the savages; and he describes the aborigines, flora, and fauna of the country from Niagara to Natchez.

The influence of the Romance of the Rose upon Chaucer has been generally recognized, Chaucer scholars differ, however, concerning the extent and the time of this influence. The relatively older view (represented by Mr. E. G. Sandras in his Étude sur Chaucer, Paris, 1859) that Chaucer is an imitator of the Romance of the Rose who has never freed himself sufficiently from this influence to appreciate the greater art of his Italian model, seems now generally put aside by those who, following the lead of Mr. ten Brink, bring the English poet before us as having not only fully grasped the value of his Italian models, but as having actually surpassed at least some of them.