Ronsard

THE Oxford Press says truly that this is a book tor escapists; yet, granting this, there is much more that the severest critic would be obliged to say for it. Mr. Bishop’s knowledge is large, his scholarship accurate, his critical sense is reliable, his book is well organized, his style is easy and attractive. His metrical translations in particular are delightfully good. The book is highly fanciful, imaginative, but not over-particularized, save in one or two spots. It is not thin, not meretricious, not precisely jaunty. One who knows Ronsard well can read it with attention, with respect, and with considerable profit; but unfortunately it has not the high seriousness which would enable him to read it with satisfaction or with pleasure. In the very best sense of the word it is a vulgarization, and it deserves well of the large public towards which it is directed.