From the poets Mr. Symonds passes to the painters:  not those great artists of Florence and Venice of whom he has already written, but the Eclectics of Bologna, the Naturalists of Naples and Rome.  This chapter is too polemical to be pleasant.  The one on music is much better, and Mr. Symonds gives us a most interesting description of the gradual steps by which the Italian genius passed from poetry and painting to melody and song, till the whole of Europe thrilled with the marvel and mystery of this new language of the soul.  Some small details should perhaps be noticed.  It is hardly accurate, for instance, to say that Monteverde’s Orfeo was the first form of the recitative-Opera, as Peri’s Dafne and Euridice and Cavaliere’s Rappresentazione preceded it by some years, and it is somewhat exaggerated to say that ’under the regime of the Commonwealth the national growth of English music received a check from which it never afterwards recovered,’ as it was with Cromwell’s auspices that the first English Opera was produced, thirteen years before any Opera was regularly established in Paris.  The fact that England did not make such development in music as Italy and Germany did, must be ascribed to other causes than ‘the prevalence of Puritan opinion.’

These, however, are minor points.  Mr. Symonds is to be warmly congratulated on the completion of his history of the Renaissance in Italy.  It is a most wonderful monument of literary labour, and its value to the student of Humanism cannot be doubted.  We have often had occasion to differ from Mr. Symonds on questions of detail, and we have more than once felt it our duty to protest against the rhetoric and over-emphasis of his style, but we fully recognise the importance of his work and the impetus he has given to the study of one of the vital periods of the world’s history.  Mr. Symonds’ learning has not made him a pedant; his culture has widened not narrowed his sympathies, and though he can hardly be called a great historian, yet he will always occupy a place in English literature as one of the remarkable men of letters in the nineteenth century.

Renaissance in Italy:  The Catholic Reaction.  In Two Parts.  By John Addington Symonds. (Smith, Elder and Co.)

A ‘JOLLY’ ART CRITIC

(Pall Mall Gazette, November 18, 1886.)

There is a healthy bank-holiday atmosphere about this book which is extremely pleasant.  Mr. Quilter is entirely free from affectation of any kind.  He rollicks through art with the recklessness of the tourist and describes its beauties with the enthusiasm of the auctioneer.  To many, no doubt, he will seem to be somewhat blatant and bumptious, but we prefer to regard him as being simply British.  Mr. Quilter is the apostle of the middle classes, and we are glad to welcome his gospel.  After listening so long to the Don Quixote of art, to listen once to Sancho Panza is both salutary and refreshing.