n s. ix. APRIL is, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
319
known in his use of selection and emphasis, ant
his sense of dramatic fitness. He perceived the
purely human interest of history, and, after
making due allowance for Providence and
Fortune, interpreted events through the charac-
ters of the persons who, in his opinion, brought
them to pass. Prof. Briggs, however, insists
very rightly, we think that Shakespeare and
Marlowe had no conception of the philosophy
of history in the modern sense. For them
" history was a series of inexplicable catastrophic
processes, except in so far as the motives and the
characters of particular men shed a dim and
wavering light over the turbulent stream of
human life."
There are a hundred pages of notes to the text of the play, in which full extracts are given from Holinshed, Fabyan, and Marlowe's other authorities for ' Edward II.' These careful notes and the scholarly Introduction should prove of great value to the student of Elizabethan drama.
The Divine Right of Kings. By John Neville Figgis. Second Edition. (Cambridge Univer- sity Press, 6s. net.)
THIS book is a "reprint of the essay with which the writer won the Prince Consort Prize in 1892, which was expanded and published in 1892. To it three additional essays have been appended. Very naturally this second edition is ushered in with an apologetic preface, acknowledging that the study is incomplete, and in what respects, and also stating that on the theory of sovereignty and the relation of small groups to the State the writer's views have undergone change as, indeed, those acquainted with his more recent work will not need to be told.
These considerations prepare the reader's mind suitably enough, but they need not detract from the proper value of the book, which is that not of a textbook, but of an historical thesis. The " Divine Bight of Kings," as presented by nineteenth-century historians, is apt to appear an uncommonly musty and impossible theory. Even those who incline to favour it have to galvanize it into vitality by the application of antiquarian or doctrinaire enthusiasm of some kind ; have to explain or justify its " Erastian- ism," and to excuse or ignore what seems to modern thought the arrant futility of the con- temporary arguments used in its support. But, in its day, it formed the guise under which what men conceived of as advance and liberty stood opposed to what they had come to take for oppression, and also for an outworn mistake and a practical inconvenience. It was a species of revolt ; and it occupied the foremost thinkers of the time in confirming, elaborating, and apply- ing it, with the same sort of zest and sentiment of intellectual adventurousness as animated the adherents of the theory of natural selection in the last century.
The Papacy put forth the claim to be the supreme authority in Christendom and that by right divine. Nay, said the adherents of the Emperor, the king has his sphere of authority in which he is supreme, and he also exercises his power therein, no less than the Pope himself, by divine right. It was to the ancient contention of the Empire against the Papacy that the seven- teenth-century writers on the divine right of kings who, it must be remembered, were much nearer than ourselves to the days of Papal
domination, and felt no such certainty as we do
that it could not be renewed had, with some
practical modifications, succeeded a contention
which had been sharp and well-defined to English
thought already in the fourteenth century.
Although one might have wished it enlarged,
we cannot but think Dr. Figgis did well to leave
his account unchanged. It is characteristically
young work, eagerly handled, and it has recovered
even for what may seem so depressing a doctrine
as that of obedience much of its original vigour
and attraction as held by those who fii-st embraced
or who revived it. This quality, especially in
what may be used as a first introduction to a line
of thought, is of great importance. Further
study will readily accumulate needful facts and
supply correctives.
Of the three additional essays, that on ' Erastus and Erastianism ' and that on ' Bartolus ' may be particularly recommended to the notice of the general reader. The latter is a valuable study of a personage little more than a name to all but specialists in fourteenth-century history and yet a name that must often have aroused curiosity -concerning whom almost nothing has till now been easily accessible* The former is on a subject which all -who are interested in ecclesiastical matters are likely to wish just now to be accurately informed upon, and though we notice the writer chides himself for having pro- duced it " beneath the shadow of the Austinian idol," it should not be overlooked by students of the question.
The paper on ' Aaron's Rod Blossoming ' repre- sents Dr. Figgis's present views. It cannot be said that the uncertainties occasioned by recog- nition of these changes of mind make exactly for comfort in the reader, who is most at ease when either allowed straightforwardly to agree or to disagree with his author ; but this does not prevent the book from being well worth reading, nor diminish its stimulating quality.
Book-Prices Current. Vol. XXVIII. Part II.
(Elliot Stock, 11. 5s. Qd. per annum.) WE have in this part a record of sales from the 24th of November last to Jamiary 30th of the )resent year. They include the libraries of W. Hale White ("Mark Rutherford") John Pearson's (which fetched 4,646Z.), and the second antiquarian portion of Dr. Dowden's (2,592Z.), the total realized being 31,730Z. 17s.
Among first editions sold were Blake's ' Gates of Paradise,' from the Beckford Library, a present from Henry Bohn (it has a note in Beckford's writing), 91Z. ; the " Aldine Poets," Pickering, 53 vols., morocco, 1830-45, 56Z. ; and ' Jane Eyre,' 3 vols., original cloth, uncut, 33Z. First editions of Goldsmith include ' The Haunch of Venison,' morocco by Riviere, 13?. 15s. ; ' History of England,' 2 vols., old calf, 31Z. ; and ' Mystery revealed respecting the Cock- Lane Ghost,' 22Z. 10s. The first illustrated edition of ' Cranford,' an autograph presentation copy in the original cloth, 1860, fetched 317. ; a copy of the first London Directory, 1677, 22Z. ; and the fifth edition of ' English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,' 15Z. (the only copy known). There are a number of choice Hora?. Under Thackeray is ' Flore et Zephyr,' pictured wrapper, and 8 plates slightly tinted as issued, a fine copy, 205Z. Among Wordsworth items are ' Grace Darling,' privately printed, with autograph, 211. ; ' Evening W T alk,*
