On this page
-
Text (2)
-
1216 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
-
CIVIL LAW. Manual of Civil Law. By Patri...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Chauceh. Poetical Works Of Gaoffmj Cjimt...
the Canterbury Tales ( illustrated on every page by explanatory notes ) , the whole published in the form of a book which can be carried in the pocket , when it is not wanted , and read by the fireside , when it is . This experiment is so unique , and so honestly and thoroughly deserves success , that we should be failing in our duty to our readers if we neglected to point out to them , plainly and impartially , some of the special merits which claim for the popular edition of Chaucer the people ' s hearty welcome . Of Chaucer ' s life nobody must hope to know much . If we are reduced , for the most part , to guesswork about Shakspeare , how much further into the dark must we expect to go . when we are groping after biographical facts in relation to a poet who lived and wrote two hundred years before the [ Elizabethan period ! Mr . Bell takes us carefully and skilfully by the hand , but all his experience and intelligence does not avail to lead us verv far .
We estimate our advance principally by the number of doubts we stumble over . We doubt about the year of Chaucer ' s birth—it may be 1328 , or it may be 1344 . We cannot find out for certain whether he was born in London or not . We wander in a perfect labyrinth of conflicting opinions the moment we try to find out who his father was . Leland tells us he was a nobleman , Speght thinks he was a vintner , Pitts says he was a knight , Hearne declares he was a merchant—we are on the verge of distraction , and begin to execrate Leland , Speght , Pitts , and Hearne , when Mr . Bell comes to the rescue , and takes us to our first certainty . We ascertain it for a fact that Chaucer received the education of a scholar and a gentleman—infer consequently that his famil y must at least have been , respectable—and are so far perfectly satisfied . Going on to general discoveries , and still following
Mr . Bell , we find out that Chaucer and John of Graunt , Duke of Lancaster , married sisters—that the poet was a fast friend and adherent of the duke's «—4 hat his patron ' s influence procured for him a whole list of lucrative and important government appointments— -that he lost these at one period of his life , and recovered equivalents for them at another—that he was a member ofParliament—and last , though not least interesting , that " the father of English poetry" was by no means one of the " poor poets ; " " His pensions , " Mr . Bell tells us , " exclusive of his offices , ranged for many years with the salaries of the Chief Baron of the Exchequer and the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas . " Of the day and place of his death we may be certain . He expired on the 25 th of October , 1400 , in a house in Westminster , situated almost on the same spot where Henry the VHth ' s chapel now stands . His
age was seventy-two , and he was buried in , Westminster Abbey . From Chaucer himself let us pass for a moment to Chaucer ' s poetry . Most truly does Mr . Bell describe it as especially interesting to the modern reader " from the singularly clear and full idea which it conveys of a state of society for which modern experience furnishes no parallel . . . . „ . Prom Chaucer ' s poetry may be learned much more satisfactorily than from the chronicles of his contemporaries , or the more elaborate compilations of later historians , the modes of thought , habits , and manners which prevailed in the reigns of Edward III . and his immediate successors ; the era in which the Norman arid Saxon races became fused , and our language and social institutions assumed forms that have descended with some modifications to the present time . " Every page © f the Canterbury Tales—to go no further than the present volume—attests the Justness of this view of the great
historical value of Chaucer ' s poetry—history , be it remembered , of that best , truest , and most deeply-interesting kind , which records the manners and habits of the people at large . As to the intrinsic merits of Chaucer ' s poetry , we ourselves , are mainly impressed and delighted , in readin g him , by his wonderful ease , and his exquisite humour . His peculiar graces of metre and his varied beauties of expression flow from him so easily , that we know him for a born Poet , the moment we get acquainted with him . There is no strain in the manly , inexhaustible force of his writing—there is nothing laboured , nothing unnatural in his rich , quaint , exquisitely sly and suggestive humour . But , after all , when everything that can be said and written critically about Chaucer has been said and written , there remains one indisputable proof of the greatness of his genius which is worth all the opinions in the world . He wrote five hundred years ago , and his poetry lives and lasts still in our day .
Any reference to the number of centuries which have passed since Chaucer wrote , necessarily brings us to the consideration of the phraseology in which he expressed himself . lt The English language , " says Mr . Bell , " like everything _ else at this period , was exhibiting signs of change . " French forms and idioms were beginning to be grafted on the original Saxon , and were adopted by Chaucer as part of the language of the good society in which he lived . What was the new talk , the mew style , and the new spelling five hundred years ago , is necessarily in many respects sufficiently obsolete now . Hence the apparent difficulty , at first sight , of reading Chaucer ; and hence also the many obstacles which Mr . Boll has had to clear away for the public in preparing the present edition . Attempts have been made at various periods , in a fragmentary and incomplete way , to familiarise the general reader with Chaucer by means of specimens . Sometimes these specimens have been presented with a prose paraphrase—sometimes the old poet's spelling has been modernised—sometimes his peculiarities of metre have boon pedantically distinguished by classical marks for long and short feet , placod over every syllable . The
result or those various proceedings has been to present the public with several ingenious interpretations of Chaucer , but not with Chaucer himself . Mr . Bell has avoided this mistqko . Having set himself to the work , he has done it boldly in a genuine , straightforward way . Being determined to give the whole of Chaucer to the public—as Mr . Tyrwhitt and Mr . Wvight before him had given Chaucer to the antiquarians , students , and reading men in general—Mr . Boll has made it his business , in the first instanco , to aeeuro the greatest possible purity of text 5 and in the second place , to print that text word for word and letter for letter , exactly ns his own researches and the labours of othors informed lu ' ni that Chaucer wrote it . The result is that the old minsjtrol sings to us his own full ivnd glorious song , in his own way , just as ho sang it to listening knights and ladies five centuries ago . But what if wo aro unable to follow the song ? asks the general reader . I ^ earn , -with very little exertion , ono or two preliminary lessons—we answer —and you must be careless indeed if you cannot follow it with perfect ease . Besides the Qlossaiy , which will terminate the last volume of Chaucer , Mr .
Bell gives us an Introduction to the Poems which explains philological difficulties , and smooths down metrical obstacles so clearly and so skilfully that any reader of average intelligence , who will pay proper attention to the Editor when he opens the book , may feel assured of reading it easily , as well as usefully , to the end . Besides this Introduction to the Poems , the Poems themselves are illustrated by preliminary " arguments , " and by full explanatory notes at the bottom of every page . In snort , all has been done that can be done for Chaucer in the first place , and for Chaucer's readers in the second . We have already had occasion in these columns honestly to express our high sense of Mr . Bell ' s qualifications for the arduous literary undertakin g to which lie is now devoted . That favourable impression has been greatly
strengthened and increased "by a very careful examination of the volume now under notice . Proof on proof accumulates , from the first page to the last , of Mr . Bell ' s conscientious industry and excellent good sense . He has wrought at his task intelligently , earnestly , and modestly , as a scholar and a gentleman should ; placing the results of his learning and research unreservedly at the reader ' s service ; and never coming forward in his own person but to help and explain . In closing this notice—necessarily a very imperfect one , from the small space to which it is limited—it is only common justice to Mr . Bell to say that , in every respect in which the prosperity of the present experiment has depended upon his knowledge , industry , and good taste , the conditions of success have been fairly and fully complied with .
1216 The Leader. [Saturday,
1216 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Civil Law. Manual Of Civil Law. By Patri...
CIVIL LAW . Manual of Civil Law . By Patrick Cumin , M . A ., Balliol College , Oxori , Barristerat-Law . London . Stevens and Norton . The above work is at once well-timed and well-executed . It was to "be expected that the revival of systematic legal studies , in connexion with our Inns of Court , would create a demand for a good modern commentary on the Institutes , as the great text-book in the Elements of Civil LaiV . For , however inapplicable many of the dicta of the old Kornan civilians may be in the present state of society , and however repugnant " their quiddits and their quillets , their cases , their tenures , and their tricks" may be to the spirit with which modern authorities approach , not merely the practice , but the very principles of jurisprudence , still the importance of the civil law in its
bearing on the study of ancient literature , as well as in its relation to the principles of moral and political science , will ever secure to it many lay students , in addition to those professionally interested in acquiring a knowlegde of one of the great bases of many of the institutions of our own day . In accordance with the general law of supply , this demand has been met by 'Mr . ' Cumin with a Manual , which commends itself to acceptance by its reasonable bulk , the general fidelity of its execution , and a completeness of detail which raises it far above the standard of that very useful class of works of which , by its title , it professes to be one . For although the learned civilian will 1 'u . nge in bis book-shelves many works of greater pretence , to which our author acknowledges his obligations , we are bound to state that we know of no volume which we would "with
greater confidence place in the hands either of the professional tyro or of the more general scholar . Mr . Cumin commences with a short , but very comprehensive , history of Roman law , from the time when the convergence of three neighbouring tribes to a common centre laid the foundation of that mi g hty empire whose influence was to be felt in the institutions of all civilised nations to the end of time . He shows how the whole history of their law is interwoven with that of their political being , so that the " Corpus Juris Civilis " is essentially an historical document , the best commentary on which is supplied by a knowledge of the ordinary history of the people . At the same time , he recites the more immediate sources to which Tribonian and Ms fellow-labourers had to turn when employed in this great work of codification .
The body of the work itself , like that of Lagrange , on which it is based , is printed in the form of questions and answers ; but the former serve less for purposes of self-examination than as headings to indicate the subject of small sections of commentary corresponding to the ordinary sub-divisions of the text , 35 ach of these divisions is taken in its order ; everything approaching to a difliculty in the original is translated , while the obscurities arising from extreme condensation are cleared away by careful paraphrase , as well as by the introduction of explanatory matter from Gaius and other authorities ; the notes being enriched by references to the pandects and code , as well as to mediaeval and modern commentators . Of tlic latter Mr , Cumin seems
chiefly to have consulted the valuable works of Ortolan and Ducaussoy , though , aa sin indication of the scrupulous industry with which he has laboured , wo may mention that he frequently refers to Mr . Saundor ' edition of the Institutcs-r—n . work which could only , have appoared wlion his own volume was on the very eve of being issued from the press . Wo find a difficulty in selecting a passage of a , length such as our limited space would admit , and which would do justice to the author . The ample index will furnish the gonoral reader with a clue to any topic whoso treatment will tost Mr . Cumin ' s powers ; but wo would refer the student to the following sections , as fully justifying nil that wo have advanced in behalf of this work : —Book I ,, tit . x ., Of Marriage ; tit . xix ., 01 TuteUi Fiduciaria . Book II ., tit . v ., Of Usu Capio ; tit . xx ., Of Logacies . Book III ., tit . xiii ,, Of Obligations ; tit . xxv . Of Partnership .
, Having unintentionally omitted to notice this volume on its first publication , wo are glad to find that the favourable impression which wo then formed of it has been ratified by the verdict of competent authority . It has been placed on the liat of works recommended for the aspirants to honours in the examination instituted by the sovernl Inns of Court ; wlnlo in Scotland it lms been adopted as the principal toxt-book in the classes of the present eminent Professor .- ) of Civil Law it * Edinburgh . Fora member of the English liar , and a Scotchman , which we beliovo Mr . Cumin is , this is a flattering distinction ; but it ia one which ia well merited by the ability , industry , and research evinced by every section of his w ° y There aro many laurels still to be gathered in the sumo field , and wo shall gladly learn that an author has girt himself to win them . , , „
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 23, 1854, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23121854/page/16/
-