Humanities: Literary Studies

396 LETTERS IN CANADA: 1965 (though Professor Barker's choices make the latter unlikely), the consensus will probably be that the editor has exercised excellent judgment , especially in excluding "certifiable eccentriCities." We are reminded that from "On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough" (examined by Hugh N. Maclean) to Samson Agonistes (considered by A. S. P. Woodhouse and John M. Steadman) is a long and hard but perpetually rewarding way. We are also reminded that just as great critics of our day-Lewis, Bush, Hughes, Tuve-have followed the giants of other days and surpassed them, so there are younger but no less able critics- A. B. Chambers, Thomas Wheeler- writing today and carrying on the "increasingly knowledgeable and perceptive character of commentary on Milton" observed by Professor Barker in his career. Professor Barker's valuable editorial notes point the reader to studies too recent to have been cited in the essays; spot checking shows that he carefully chose these citations for their relevance to the essay at hand and not (as one sometimes suspects an editor of doing) for their impres- - siveness as a list of "see also." The total result is thirty-three essays, of which twenty-five w.ere originally journal articies, four are excerpts from books, and four are from special collections of essays. Among journals carrying essays on Milton deemed by Professor Barker worthy of inclusion , PMLA leads with five essays; UTQ, PQ, ELH, and JEGP first published three each; MP two; and SP, RES, MLN, Anglia, The Yale Review, and College English one each. This book will prove.most valuable as a supplement to undergraduate Milton courses in colleges where library periodicals are in short supply or long demand or both. Graduate students, however, will find it almost as valuable because of its range and depth. The essays cover Milton's poetic and critical theory, theology, music, religious and ethical principles , dramaturgy, typology, prosody, style, even his treatment by illustrators. The notes, especially the editor's, provide a guide to deeper waters, higher altitudes, and fresh perspectives on the general topic of each essay. (JAMES H. SIMs) Professor R. M. Wiles's Freshest Advices: Early Provincial Newspape1·s in England (Ohio State University Press, pp. xvi, 555, $10.00) is the second detailed study to appear recently of the English provincial newspaper during its first sixty years. It therefore inevitably covers much the same ground as G. A. Cranfield's admirable work, published by the Clarendon Press in 1962. Yet the story of these early provincial news- HUMANITIES 397 papers, shedding light, as they do, on many aspects of eighteenth-century life, is arguably worth retelling, and Wiles has at least succeeded in giving his version a different emphasis. Whereas Cranfield's is primarily an historical study, showing a keen awareness of the political views and influence of the provincial newspaper, Wiles's approach is rather literary and bibliographical. He provides us with some intimate glimpses of the provincial editor at work and of his special problems, such as the difficulty of obtaining from the capital not only the 'freshest advices" for his readers, but also (especially after the later Stamp Acts of 1725 and 1757) the necessary supply of stamped paper on which to print his news. Moreover, Wiles's ample quotations, which (one hopes) may be an incentive to some future anthologist, convince us that the newspapers themselves made far from dull reading. Bibliographers and scholars alike will welcome the author's useful appendixes, especially the last, which, including North American locations, supersedes in its comprehensiveness all existing hand-lists and finding-lists of early provincial newspapers. In respect of this completeness the author enjoys the advantage of coming last to the field, and deserves credit for his exemplary thoroughness. (JoHN HARDY) William .0. Raymond's The Infinite Moment and Other Essays in Robert Browning ( University of Toronto Press, 2nd ed., pp. x, 264, $7.50, paper $2.50) first appeared in 1950 and did much to consolidate Pro- . fessor Raymond's reputation as one of the most perceptive, appreciative yet judicious of Browning scholars. However, it was as early as 1928 that Professor Raymond, with his essays...