PHINEAS FLETCHER.
The Spenser of his Age : being Selected Poetry from the Works of Phineas Fletcher. With an Introduction by Walter Jerrold. (J. R. Tutin, Cottingham, near Hull. 2s. 6d. net.)—Collections of "beauties" do not, as a rule, achieve any very wide popularity with that large but vague section of the community who are credited with an intelligent appreciation of literature ; while, on the other hand, they seldom fail to evoke the wrath of the special student who knows the author as a whole. There is, after all, a certain impertinence in picking the plums out of a work which the author meant to be read continuously, and packing them, carefully dried and arranged, in a paper-frilled bonbonniere. It must be admitted, however, that the monstrous subject and treatment of " The Purple Island" would appear to preclude the possibility of any beauties except incidental ones, which aro, indeed, not lacking. But to students the present selection is useless ; while were we to see an ordinary reader devoting himself to Phineas Fletcher—or to either Giles for the matter of that—we should be strongly tempted to imagine that he was doing so to the neglect of something a good deal more worthy of attention. Had Mr. Jerrold, who signs the short but appreciative introduc- tion, seen fit to give us a reprint of the minor poems, and, if possible, the " Sicelides," together with such quotations from the more ambitious works as suited his fancy, we should have been able to accord a much more hearty welcome to his volume. We could dispense alike with the title and the illustrations.
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