Professor Söderhjelm who bas made some most significant contributions to comparative literature in various studies on the sources of Jehan de Paris, and the works of Antoine de la Sale and Martial d'Auvergne, in which he has also added to our knowledge of the life and art of the known authors, undertakes, in his La nouvelle française au XV siécle, to complete his survey of the literary genre to which these works belong, by tracing its evolution, and its place in French literature and narrative style. For his task he has aIl the requisite qualities; writing out of a full knowledge of his subject, he shows a power of subtle and broad synthetic treatment, a well-balanced a perception of the delicate shades of style

Hamilton, George L.

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~M for pues, 333-334que but in archaic negative formulas, 343querer, use of, 3389Mo<MO<fo> como, 343Ruy Diaz, 336s, pronunciationof, 335M&MMo, sagueso, 334se8orforse8ora,339si, treatment of, 337sin, used with nouns' to form adjectives and nouns, 344-345.fOf~M~340todos, 'both', 341'too'==6f<'MMMM~o, how expressed, 343~338trey, treyde, 338u for ue, 333ué for u, 333«j~ 337usted, 337v, pronunciation of, 336caysMto~ for vayâmos, etc., 337~Mtf~ treinta. formation of, 341Verbal forms, analogical, 337, 338, Galician, 338, short-forms, 336, 338vo > go, 337Vocalism, Spanish, 333vuestra merced, ~~MOffe:, contractions of, 337yantar, s. fem. use of, 340pronunciation of, 335-336YALE UNIVERSITY.La nouvelle française au XVe siècle (Bibliothèque du XV° siècle, T. XII).WERNER SÔDERHiELM~ Paris, Champion, 1910. Pp. xii-j-237.Professor Soderhje!m who bas made some most significant contributions tocomparative literature in various studies on the sources of Jehan de Paris, andthe works of Antoine de la Sale and Martial d'Auvergne, in which he has alsoadded to our knowledge of the life and art of the known authors, undertakes,in his La MOMM'<?française au XF~ siècle, to complete his survey of the literarygenre to which these works belong, by tracing its evolution, and its place inFrench literature and narrative style. For his task he has aIl the requisitequalities; writing out of a full knowledge of his subject, he shows a power ofsubtie and broad synthetic treatment, a well-balanced judicial temperament anda perception of the delicate shades of style.After an introductory chapter on the type prior to the fifteenth cehtury, hetakes up in succession Les Quinze joyes de ~aWs~c, the authentic works ofAntoine de la Sale, the Cent Nouvelles nouvelles, Les arrests ~MOM~, Jehan deParis and the Nouvellesde Sens. He finds thé beginnings of that mode of story-telling, which in its setting, its spirit and its art is typically French in two genresof medieval literature. The lais have the simple dîrectness and conciseness ofH. R. LANG.style, with too, a touch of realism m the details of the setting of theif wonder-stories, and thé fableaux have realistic themes and settings, pitiless detineationsof scenes of contemporary life, if told in a style bare of artistic distinction.That the formai collections in French of stories pointing a moral, of Orientalorigin, played no part in the formation of the novel except in furnishing thématerial of a story, now and then, is évident. The suggestion that the change frot]iverse to prose in these collections pointed the way to a similar evolution in thénovel is unnecessan'; equally so is the assumption of thé influence of thé prosechronicles, records of actual events, with which the authors of Imaginative workswould wish to assimilate their own productions. Beginning with the early partof the thirteenth century, the author of certain histories, didactic works, andromances in prose, justined the vehicle of their expression by emphasizing itsgreater exactitude and précision.* The exceptions became the practice in atlgenres of narrative Itterature its appearance in thé iMve! is only a point ofchronological interest, which needs investigation. Only in the case of the Dit def.EtM~M' C'o«~~H< and the Contes doti Mt Coustant ~'BM~Ff~Mf is it possible toshow thé stylistic restilts of this transition of form. After the author's delicateanalysis of ~«ca~MM et A~'co~M~ (8-ig) which brings out thé way in which theunique personal tone is combined with essentially medieval attributes, it is un-fortunate that he eisewhere (223) accepts as possible Pater's paradox whichmakes of it a precursor of the Renaissance. As is pointed out (24), there is nooccasion for a discussion of the story of A.MM~&, which was published byd'Héricault and Moland as one of their Nouvelles françaises ~t ~'o~~ ~M X'~<cc~. It is oniy a trahsiatiofiof Vincent de Beauvais's textual reproductionof the version of a Jewish rabbinical legend, found in thé ~t~o~M .yc/M~M~cc ofPierre le Mangeur, who died in 1179.One can foïlow the author in refusing to attribute thé paternity of Les Q'MM~yo3'M to Antoine de la Sale, because-to voice thé thought he does nof express inso many words–Antoinewas not capable of writing it: "un ouvrage de la plushaute originalité le plus ancien chef-d'oeuvre en prose, au sens moderne dumot, qu'offre la littérature française" (71). But of thé external evidence againstthis attribution, two of thé three proofs in favor of a date earlier than thé periodof Antoine's activity, thé allusions to a peculiar style of dress, and to the titleof the Dauphin (30 B.). can be shown to be untannded by further studies in théhistory of costume, and in diplomaties. It Is surprising that Professor Soder-hjelm bas not seen in Antoine's story of the "Chaperons" (81~-3) the well-known historical episode of thé e<~«cM<t (1182-4), which bas been treated moatfully, in recent years, by Luehaire~ Antoine has adopted the version of thesceptical anonymous ehroniclerof Laon.~ If it is necessary to go back to classicalantiquity to find a pendant to the pathetic nobitity of la dame de Chastel" inthe R<?MMjf<M-~ (94), the anecdote of the mourning mother whose tears weigheddown the dress of her son in the after-world, was a favorite with medieval~Cf. P. Meyer, RoM., VI, 495; XIV, 66; A~. et E. XXXIII, Part i, 22,3l E. Brugger, 2'ft~. /ffC~. ~~cA~ XXIX, 75-7.~5'~OMCf~ travaux de Mcc~MM des sciences morales <?{ ~S&'tt~WM (lOOo),LIV,283 H.; G'fM~ .Eg!K~, XIII (1900), 317 S.; La ~o< jft'aM~a.tM a-K- ~m~~PM:<tgM~<'(iooQ),i3n.Bouquet, XVIII, 705 ff.storiologists. If there are any parts of the book which call for particular com-mendation it is the treatment of the Cent Nouvelles and the Nouvellesde Sens.In the one case the characteristics of the author's methods and style, with themultiple chances of variety, are brought out most strikingly, especially in thecomparison of the French work with the Decamerone. In the other case theauthor has held the just balance between the over-enthusiastic tone of Vossler,natural, perhaps, in the first discussion of the work as a whole, and the curttone of censure, with which Langlois judges it in his edition in his Nouvellesfrançaises wMttM ~M X! siècle. The chapter on the Arrests c!<Mo~r iswelcome as it is unexpected particularly because the work of Martial d'Auvergneis not accessible in modern reprints as are the other works discussed. Taken as awhole the book adds a new chapter to literary history, on a subject which hasbeen hitherto dismissed with a summary judgment, stated in vague generalities.For its merits, both of scholarship and of criticism, it at once keeps up thestandard, and adds to the reputationof the collection of which it forms a part, theBibliothèque du XV siècle, due to the enterprise, perspicacityand patriotism ofits publisher.GEORGE L. HAMILTON.CORNELL UNIVERSITY.GK ~~<ft ~ot~M~K in Italia nel .Ct~Mcc~M~o~di Santorre Debenedetti. Torino,Loescher, 1011, in 8vo., pp. 3o4.Although Mussafia, Rajna, Crescini and De Lollis have made special contri-butions to the history of Provençal studies in Italy, there has been hitherto nowork, analytic and synthetic at the same time, elucidatingthe thousand details ofthis theme, arranging them, estimating them for their individual worth, andputting them into relation with the culture of the age. There was lacking aboveail a good history of the Provençal MSS. of Italy, dealing with that centurywhen they were collected and preserved with such a great solicitude. This isthe subject dealt with by Debenedetti in this volume.After showing the deep interest aroused by Provençal literature in Italyin the early centuries, the author passes to an Introduction of thé scholars, whoin the sixteenth century renewed thèse studies. Pietro Bembo is characterisedas a keen observer of the linguistic phenomena; then cornes Colocci, to whomthe A. dedicates several pages full of important information: he stands out asone of the most genial minds among these philologists. Equicola and Vellutelloare also studied in their relation to one another; and a new light is thrown uponthe characteristic figure of Onorato Drago. The A. passes then in review Bar-bieri and Castelvetro, scrupulous scholars both, Beccadelli and Giganti, JacopoCorbinelli, the impenitent forger Jean de Nostre-Dame, Gianvincenzo Pinelli,Fulvio Orsini, Pietro di Simon del Nero.The first part deals particularlywith the philological studies of these scholarsof the sixteenth century. In spite of the scarce number of grammars and dic-tionaries, we may observe how deeply these keen and quick minds succeeded incommanding the Provençal language. Drago's phonetical studies are minutelyanalyzed, and the evidence given by Bembo, in his Prose, by Barbieri, Giganti,Beccadelli and Varchi, undergoes a careful examination, which sifts the elementsderived from other .authors from the original ideas of thé penetrating minds of

La nouvelle française au XV siècle (Bibliothèque du XV° siècle, T. XII). Werner Söderhielm, Paris, Champion, 1910. Pp. xii + 237.

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La nouvelle française au XV siècle (Bibliothèque du XV° siècle, T. XII). Werner Söderhielm, Paris, Champion, 1910. Pp. xii + 237.

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