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166 Reviews which ignores the possibility of the semi-minima note-shape having the meaning of the triplet. Nor will they necessarily agree with the creative reconstruction offered in the Secunda pars of 'La Rotta' (p. 116). Where manuscript problems have demanded editorial latitude McGee has generally provided some creative solutions. For example, at the ninth bar of the Secunda pars of no. 22 'Salterello [1]' (p. 107) correction is made of the scribe's omission of indication of a section repeat. As another example, the conclusion of no. 25 'Salterello [4]' (p. 114) is cleverly restructured to incorporate the whole of the preceding Quinta pars. Both of these solutions are quite satisfactory but neither are noted in the editorial commentary. However, this rather modest approach creates more problems than it solves, for it unnecessarily constricts the performer's choices and there are real musical choices in both cases. This publication will be of real value to the early music performer for it presents all the medieval instrumental dances with a constant editorial style. I particularly like the hard card covers and the spiral binding which mean that the score stays open on the music stand freeing both hands to pay attention to the musical instrument. As a contribution to scholarship it serves best as a summary of the current state of knowledge on dance before 1430 and could best be used as a starting point for further research. Carol J. Williams Department of Music Monash University MacKenna, Steven R, ed., Selected essays on Scottish language and literature: a festschrift in honor ofAllan H. MacLaine, Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter, The Edward Mellon Press, 1992; cloth, pp. xii, 272; R.R.P. US$69.95. This tribute to Dr Allan H. MacLaine,fifteenessays on the literature and history of Scotland and England spanning ancient Brett and Pict to contemporary Scot is to be welcomed warmly. First comes a thoughtful and challenging essay on Aneirin by Matthew P. McDiarmid. He discusses the sixth-century context of the Gododdin, notes the later ignorance of medieval chroniclers, and re-examines some opinions of m o d e m scholars in the light of his own considerable geographic and linguistic local knowledge. Rosemary Greentree and Steven R. MacKenna look perceptively at Henryson's understanding and manipulation of his audience in the Moral Fables, and of the role of the narrator in this process. With meticulous translations from the Scots, David Parkinson examines Henryson's difficult 'Sum Practysis of Medecyne' within a more general, but not thereby unsubtle, consideration of the idea that 'language, especially burlesque versions of abuse and complaint is the Reviews 167 medicine that provokes release in laughter'. Joanne S. Norman argues that William Dunbar can be described best as a goliard, his diverse output as goliardic in its parodic and panegyric styles and in its court audience. James A. McGoldrick couples theflytingpoems of Dunbar and John Skelton to apply the notion, put forward by Steven Greenblatt for some later writers, that these poets also saw their status in terms of their position at court, relationship with the monarch, and role as defender of his authority against a perceived 'alien'. For McGoldrick, as Greenblatt this 'politicization of self is a sign of the new Renaissance age. Evelyn S. Newlyn continues the theme in her examination of the political nature of sexuality in four 'ballattis of luve' in the Bannatyne manuscript Newlyn draws with assurance on more Bannatyne poems than this implies. First-line 'titles', as well as the Tod Ritchie edition numbers, would be helpful, but this is a small criticism. Traditional attitudes towards women's role in society are also the focus of a comparative study of the nineteenth-century poets, father and daughter, Ebenezer and Joanna B. Picken, by Marilyn Malina. The illumination of current beliefs and values is central to two interesting studies by Richard L. Harris on witchcraft and scepticism in seventeenth-century Scotland and by Jules Seigel on Carlyle's idea of Ireland and the Irish. Such preoccupations are also present in A. M . Kinghom's account of William Walker and his popular literary history of Aberdeenshire-linked poets, 77ie Bards of BonAccord 1375-1860 (1887). Kinghorn touches on...

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