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REVIEWS 205 is too well conducted. True, this is not closed history in that vicious sense in which everything is explained. All our questions are by no means answered. The real trouble is that they are rarely raised. A really good general history should surely leave one anxious to go onto go on thinking if not reading. It is on these grounds that this book is open to the most serious criticism. Less important, perhaps, is the lack of attention to what is generally known as Kulturgeschichte. The narrative keeps to the central theme of political and institutional development, with occasional pages devoted to literary, artistic, and intellectual history. One must be cautious with this criticism, however. Quite apart from the professed purpose of the book-which is to make available to a wider circle the learning of its greater namesake- it can be argued, I think convincingly, that Kulturgeschichte has not yet "arrived." For the student of a community or group of communities-their internal organization and development, their growth and decline-no substitute has yet been found for the close discipline of political and constitutional history. The historian of general culture tends to be a man of guess-work, speculation, or propaganda. Mr. Previte-Orton, one need hardly say, is none of these, and the Cambridge Medieval History would be a strange vehicle for him, if he were. Against the main burthen of this charge of narrowness, then, a strong defence can be made. Nevertheless , this absence of broad, cultural vistas is bound to lessen its attractiveness and usefulness in this modern age. Given all these qualifications, it is still true to say that at the price this is the best work available on the subject of Medieval Europe. Its high distinction of format, its authoritativeness and exactitude, its helpful tables and excellent index, all mean that it will bc useful to many besides professional historians. It is not likely to be satisfactory as a text-book, but there are many passages whicb students will be expected to read. Those with strong minds and staying power will read it through. But it is, above all, to the educated layman, as a kind of political Baedeker to medieval history, that this book will prove most useful. THE THEATRICAL RECORD ·REVIEWED" R. S. KNOX Professor Allardyce Nicoll is recognized as the authoritative historian of English dramatic literature during its course from the Restoration to the close of the nineteenth century. Thirty. years ago he *A History of English Drama 1660- 1900. Volume I, Restoration Drama, 1660- ]700 (4th ed.), pp. vi, 462; $6.75. Volume II, Early Eighteenth Century Drama (3rd ed.), pp. viii, 467; $7,50. Volume III, Latc Eighteenth Century Drama, 1750- 1800 (2nd ed.) , pp. vi, 423. By ALLARDYCE NICOLL. Cambridge: At the University Press [Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited]' 1952. 206 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY published his History of Restoration Drama, which was followed by volumes on the first and second halves of the eighteenth century. He has now brought out new editions of these books, each in varying degree revised and expanded; and revised editions of his volumes on the history of nineteenth-century drama are due to be published soon. Perhaps the most striking quality of Professor Nicoll's work has been its methodical thoroughness. The volumes are planned alike. For each period he initially considers the influence on the drama of the audience, the playhouse, and the acton; and actresses. Only by reference to these, he holds, can the nature of the drama be unden;tood. Each dramatic category-tragedy and comedy with their sub-types, and for the later periods such miscellaneous forms as opera, pantomime, and burlesque - is in turn examined, and the multitude of plays docketed and described. Professor Nicoll is, as he claims to be, primarily the historian rather than the critic. His own views and evaluations, by no means always orthodox, are given trenchantly if briefly, but his main aim has been to let the full theatrical record speak for itself and to chronicle the variations of fashion and taste within the period and from one age to the next. While the significant trends in drama...

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