The volume contains “first, introductory matter explaining the editor’s conception of the poem’s purpose and meaning; second, the poem itself divided into three parts, Prologue, Debate, and Epilogue; third, some pages of notes elucidating certain obscurities in the text; fourth, an appendix containing the speech of Elihu the Buzite; fifth, a list of commentaries consulted; and, finally, the ‘Illustrations of the Book of Job, invented and engraved by William Blake,’ and first published in 1825, by Blake himself. Job’s ‘heresy’ consisted not in a denial of God or a rejection of religion, but rather in a refusal to subscribe to the smug orthodoxy of his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.” (Dial.)
“Mr. Coutts has succeeded in properly emphasizing one important side of the argument of Job, but his error consists in mistaking a part for the whole.”
| − + | Ath. 1907, 2: 363. S. 28. 250w. |
“An attractive and useful volume.”
| + | Dial. 43: 255. O. 16, ’07. 320w. |
“Scholarly introduction.”
| + | N. Y. Times. 12: 542. S. 7, ’07. 120w. | |
| + | Outlook. 87: 133. S. 21, ’07. 220w. |
Coutts, Francis Burdett. Romance of King Arthur. *$1.50. Lane.
“The romance of King Arthur is here told in four parts—the poem of ‘Uther Pendragon,’ the plays of ‘Merlin’ and ‘Lancelot du Lake,’ and the poem of ‘The death of Lancelot.’ In his preface the author states that his ‘sole important variation from the accepted legend’ is to represent Mordred as the legitimate son of Morgan le Fay, and thus supply the enchantress with a purely human, and therefore, we may add, somewhat superfluous, motive for her malevolence towards Arthur.”—Ath.