The Arbor of Amorous Devices 1597 by Nicholas Breton; Hyder Edward RollinsReview by: Kathleen TillotsonThe Modern Language Review, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Oct., 1937), p. 609Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3715271 .

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The Arbor of Amorous Devices 1597. By Nicholas Breton and others. Edited by HYDER EDWARD ROLLINS. (Huntington Library Pub- lications.) Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: H. Milford. 1936. xx+52 pp. 12s. 6d.

The Arbor was included in Dr Grosart's edition of Breton's works, but it was there printed from the only copy then known, which has many leaves missing or mutilated. The perfect Britwell copy which reached the Huntington Library in 1919 has now been reproduced in collotype facsimile and is issued with an introduction but (unlike its predecessor in this series, Brittons Bowre of Delights) without notes or variants.

In his introduction to the Bowre Dr Rollins suggested that the Arbor was first published in 1594, and in the present introduction he sets out in detail the entirely convincing evidence for this date. The title of the Arbor and the use of Breton's initials on the title-page show that it was intended by the none too scrupulous Richard Jones as a companion volume to the Bowre; but it is by no means of equal interest. Only about a third of its contents are now claimed for Breton; this includes six more acrostic poems to Court ladies (compare the Bowre), but not, apparently, the two best and best-known poems in the collection- 'Come little babe' and the 'Pastorell of Phillis and Coridon'. The latter was attributed to Breton by Dr Rollins on p. 81 of his notes to the Bowre; here (p. xv) he includes it in a group of ten poems also in the Bowre, and dissociates Breton's name from them all, but without ex- planation. Of the remaining poems, two are from Tottel, one from the Arcadia, and one from Richard Edwards's lost play Palamon and Arcite. The unclaimed poems bear no signs of individuality. Dr Rollins thinks that the verses 'seem a bit old-fashioned for the year 1597'; perhaps they were permanently old-fashioned. It is time to distinguish between the poetry and the album-verse of the Elizabethan as of the Victorian age; and while it is right that all the miscellanies of the period should be made accessible, the Arbor really adds more to our knowledge of the methods of Elizabethan anthologist-publishers than to that of the Elizabethan lyric.

KATHLEEN TILLOTSON. LONDON.

Shakespeare-Jahrbuch. Edited by WOLFGANG KELLER. Band 72. Weimar: Hermann Bohlaus Nachfolger. 1936. viii+262 pp. 16 M.

The Jahrbuch for 1936 once more shows us how Shakespearian scholar- ship holds its own in Germany. The German Shakespeare Society has indeed lost the services of Professor Hans Hecht as editor, but the veteran Dr Wolfgang Keller still carries on his task with his well-known ability and enthusiasm and the Society's Weimar Meeting in April was again very successful. In Professor W. Deetjen's presidential address reference was made to the new translation of Shakespeare by Hans Rothe on which the opinion of savants had been asked by Dr Gobbels, but which the Shakespeare Society had found unworthy to displace the established

The Arbor of Amorous Devices 1597. By Nicholas Breton and others. Edited by HYDER EDWARD ROLLINS. (Huntington Library Pub- lications.) Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: H. Milford. 1936. xx+52 pp. 12s. 6d.

The Arbor was included in Dr Grosart's edition of Breton's works, but it was there printed from the only copy then known, which has many leaves missing or mutilated. The perfect Britwell copy which reached the Huntington Library in 1919 has now been reproduced in collotype facsimile and is issued with an introduction but (unlike its predecessor in this series, Brittons Bowre of Delights) without notes or variants.

In his introduction to the Bowre Dr Rollins suggested that the Arbor was first published in 1594, and in the present introduction he sets out in detail the entirely convincing evidence for this date. The title of the Arbor and the use of Breton's initials on the title-page show that it was intended by the none too scrupulous Richard Jones as a companion volume to the Bowre; but it is by no means of equal interest. Only about a third of its contents are now claimed for Breton; this includes six more acrostic poems to Court ladies (compare the Bowre), but not, apparently, the two best and best-known poems in the collection- 'Come little babe' and the 'Pastorell of Phillis and Coridon'. The latter was attributed to Breton by Dr Rollins on p. 81 of his notes to the Bowre; here (p. xv) he includes it in a group of ten poems also in the Bowre, and dissociates Breton's name from them all, but without ex- planation. Of the remaining poems, two are from Tottel, one from the Arcadia, and one from Richard Edwards's lost play Palamon and Arcite. The unclaimed poems bear no signs of individuality. Dr Rollins thinks that the verses 'seem a bit old-fashioned for the year 1597'; perhaps they were permanently old-fashioned. It is time to distinguish between the poetry and the album-verse of the Elizabethan as of the Victorian age; and while it is right that all the miscellanies of the period should be made accessible, the Arbor really adds more to our knowledge of the methods of Elizabethan anthologist-publishers than to that of the Elizabethan lyric.

KATHLEEN TILLOTSON. LONDON.

Shakespeare-Jahrbuch. Edited by WOLFGANG KELLER. Band 72. Weimar: Hermann Bohlaus Nachfolger. 1936. viii+262 pp. 16 M.

The Jahrbuch for 1936 once more shows us how Shakespearian scholar- ship holds its own in Germany. The German Shakespeare Society has indeed lost the services of Professor Hans Hecht as editor, but the veteran Dr Wolfgang Keller still carries on his task with his well-known ability and enthusiasm and the Society's Weimar Meeting in April was again very successful. In Professor W. Deetjen's presidential address reference was made to the new translation of Shakespeare by Hans Rothe on which the opinion of savants had been asked by Dr Gobbels, but which the Shakespeare Society had found unworthy to displace the established

Reviews Reviews 609 609

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.20 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 04:15:34 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions