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158 Reviews the licit prayers of St Bernardino and liturgical formulae for the illicit purpose of exorcism, indicating the 'circularity', to use Carlo Ginzburg's term, of therelationshipbetween high and low culture. A recurrent element in most of the trials was the Roman heightened sense of honour, which was a cause of much violence and other 'deviant' behaviour. Included in the introduction is 'A note for teachers and students'. Instead of the students' re-enactment of the trials as suggested by the Cohens, a better pedagogical use of the material would be to provide students with the transcripts and ask them to provide the commentary, that is, to make sense of the trials and the testimony. A valuable lesson for students attempting this comes from Thomas Kuehn's article, 'Reading microhistory: the example of Giovanni and Lusanna', that appeared in volume 61 of The journal of modern history. According to Kuehn, legal documents such as these transcripts permit historians to reconstruct a narrative of the trials but not a narrative of what really happened. The Cohens are aware of this lesson and they likewise issue warnings: 'the truth behind those words is another matter. Suspects and witnesses had every reason to shape then versions of an event tofitthe politics of the moment'. The only criticism to be made of this book is that on occasion the Cohens fati to heed then own warnings and accept as truth matters that seem unproven. However, part of the joy and the fun of this book is the way i t permitsreadersto come to then own conclusions. A. Lynn Martin Department of History University of Adelaide Cousins, Anthony D., The Catholic religious poets from Southwell to Crashaw: a critical history, London, Sheed and Ward, 1991; cloth; pp. xiii, 204; 1figure;R.R.P. £19.95. The final sentence of Anthony Cousins' The Catholic religious poets from Southwell to Crashaw best summarizes his text: ' . . . none of the other Catholic religious poets couldrival[Crashaw] in the study of sacred love's intensity and power to transform human life and art. Crashaw's religious verse virtually sums up and perfects the works of his Catholic fellows from Southwell onwards' (p. 176). This short study investigates the work of Robert Southwell, Henry Constable and William Alabaster, John Beaumont and William Habington, Reviews 159 Richard Crashaw and such minor figures as Jasper Hey wood, Richard Verstegan, John Brereley, Henry Hawkins, and Patrick Cary. But the main focus of the book is on how then work is apothesized in the poetry of Crashaw. Cousins shows throughout how native English poetic theory and practice and Counter-Reformation devotional literary traditions organized then poems and communicated then perceptions of experience. And he states that his intention is to give these Catholic poets a 'closer examination and higher valuation' than they have previously been given (p. 1). Certainly he gives many of these minor figures a 'closer examination' than they are usually given, but not even the purest academic intentions can justify a 'higher valuation' for the poets between Southwell and Crashaw. And, when put to thetest,even Cousins' efforts produced only faint praise. For example, Constable is described as 'no insignificant religious poet'. Then, after a delirious moment when he ranks Alabaster and Constable among 'the few duly outstandingreligiouspoets of Tudor times', he clears his head and backtracks: 'Perhaps that view may be too generous, yet, even so, its main implication seems easily defensible: that they were among the prominent contributors to what remains of interest in sixteenth-century English religious verse' (p. 101). Of John Beaumont he states that although his achievement is spotty and at tunes 'unimpressive', 'the poems best celebrate God and analyse sppiritual issues with an epigrammatic, graceful, and sophisticated wit' (p. 102). Of William Habington: 'In contemplating the litdeness of mankind and the insignificance of the world, he became one of the few cavalier poets to write interestingly on sacred as well as on secular themes' (p. 123). And, though he devotes litde more than two pages to a discussion offivesub-minor poets, Jasper Heywood, Richard Verstegan, John Brerely, Henry Hawkins and Patrick Cary, he warns us nonetheless that ' i t would be wrong to ignore them...

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