Brown and White Vol. 5 no. 31

              the time of caxton was not solely occupied by his printing lie was a scholar and an author of no mean merit his writings consisted mainly of translations from the french his press was brought to westminster borough and there established in a small house close to the famous monastery even after his death the partner of his labors continued to cater to the wants of the people at the same place the number of volumes from the press is not known but the first one is worth literally its weight in gold the majority of the writers of the succeeding period were from scotland prominent among whom were william dunbar and gawin douglass dunbar was a powerful and original genius who produced many poetical compositions chief among which is his " the dance of the seven deadly sins this is a terrible and fantastic impersonation with the intense reality of dante and the picturesque inventiveness of callot gawin douglass was a voluminous and miscellaneous poet whose example did much to regularize the national dialect and to enrich the national literature he is now chiefly remembered as the translator of the " aeneids of virgil " into scottish verse in this as well as his original com positions the reader will notice the greater preponderance of french and latin words in the dialect of scotland than in contemporary en lish writings kobert henryson a monk or schoolmaster of dum ferline wrote in imitation of chau cer the " testamant of faire cre seide these writers laid the foundation of the school of scot tish poets of which burns was the leader it is remarked that everything that was written during this period was modelled after the writings of chaucer the meter he used to gether with the style of plot were faithfully reproduced so that while there were numbers of works written the majority failed by lack of originality all men who played on the chemist and mettalurgist foot ball teams be at flickinger's studio thursday feb 10 at 12.30 p m becerra capt meeting of the e e society thursday feb 17 at 7.15 p m in the physical laboratory lacrosse and baseball drills mon days thursdays and fridays at 5 p m junior class meeting a meeting of the junior class was called to order by president jackson on tuesday eeb 8 at 12.30 in christmas hall the principal business of the meeting was to elect two members to serve on the new honor court keddig and dornin were elected han num spoke briefly of the junior promenade to be held in the gym nasium on friday evening feb 11 all upper classmen were urged to attend there being no further business the meeting was ad journed freshman class meet ing the regular monthly meeting of the freshman class was held in the physical laboratory on saturday morning gilbert was elected to represent the class on the honor court several samples of class cuts were exhibited and after consider able discussion it was finally de cided to leave the selection to a committee composed of the follow ing men clark gilbert whit ridge armstrong and garman there being no other business the meeting adjourned all men in the sophomore class below 4 in calculus are admitted to class on probation several of these have been absent from sec tion 111 attend promptly if you desire to attend my 4 p m class c l thornburg tuition fees are now due and must be paid before the end of this week w a kobinson on friday evening feb 11 the junior class will give its annual promenade at the gymnasium all upper classmen are invited without further notice subscription 2 chairman the catalogue of the university of pennsylvania shows a total en rollment of 2886 students the yale whist club has sent a challenge to harvard for a match to be played the latter end of feb ruary there will be an important meet ing of the honor court tuesday at 7.15 p m christmas hall professor thayer's lecture the last of the series of english lectures was given on tuesday evening by professor thayer in saucon hall he had for his sub ject the " barren period between the fourteenth and sixteenth cen turies the following is the sub stance of the lecture : the time from the death of chau cer to the beginning of the eliza bethan era was marked rather by a lack of originality than by a lack of production after chaucer's death gower his contemporary wrote but very little there were however a number of lesser lights who patterned after the " father of english literature " and who pro duced some works of varying merit many of these were of an indifferent quality and are only valuable as being among the first attempts to produce any literary works in the english language among the few who produced anything of merit are occleve barbour dunbar and king james i of scotland these writers came from the north of the tweed and laid the foundation for the national poetry of scotland king james i must be ranked as among the foremost of his time taken prisoner by the english when a child he was kept a state prisoner for eighteen years although he was educated as became a prince of the blood while a prisoner he became enamored of lady jane and on being freed he espoused her hand and assumed his throne he was assassinated by a party of nobles because he endeavored to elevate the common people and free them from the oppression of their lords his bequest to litera ture is a collection of love verses under the title of the " king's quhair written in purest english and full of the romantic and ele gant grace which the great popu larity of petrarch had at that time made the universal pattern through out europe another writer of scarcely less merit was john lydgalt he was a monk of suffolk who travelled on the continent and was well ac quainted with european litera ture he wrote a number of poems chief of which are his translation of boccaccio's fall of the princes his story of thebes from statius and the history of troy or the troy book gray formed a high opinion of his poetical powers and ranks him first among chaucer's contemporaries the work of making copies of books was extremely laborious as all the copying was done by hand it was probably owing to this fact that so few literary efforts had been mads with the introduction of printing in england by caxton the work of multiplying copies though still laborious was lightened and the standard of literature increased lehigh university south bethlehem pa thursday february 10 1898 vol y no 31 the brown and white calendar thursday feb 10 — a meeting of the agora in saucon hall meeting of forum at 7 i m friday feb 11 meeting of 99 banquet committee at christ mas hall at 12.30 junior prom in gym nasium sunday feb 12 meeting of y m c a evening tuesday feb 14 trial mustard and cheese at 7.15 p m thursday feb 17 — meeting of e e society physical laboratory at 7.15 p m mustard and cheese the mustard and cheese dra matic association has decided to present this season william gil let's farce comedy all the com forts of home the play is particularly well adapted to the club there being seventeen char acters in all including seven girl parts the play will be given as usual on the second saturday after easter which comes this year on april 23 the prospects for an out of-town trip were never brighter and there is also much talk of repeating the performance during commencement week all college men are urged to hand in their names at once so that a representative cast may be selected rehearsals will begin next week and will be held in christmas hall copies of the play will be distributed later ; and fur ther information will appear on the mustard and cheese bulletin board notices meeting of forum thursday feb 10 at 7 p m all members are urged to attend as it is cus tomary to reconsider the night for meeting at the beginning of each term members of the agora are requested to be present as several important intercollegiate matters must be settled at once all men with any athletic or gymnastic ability are urged to at tend the practice every afternoon until feb 19 in order to make the contest with lafayette on the 22d a success firs trials for mustard and cheese dramatic association will be held monday evening at 7.15 in christmas hall books will be distributed later professor franklin meets a class for special review in physics at 7.30 a m on mondays and fri days professor thornburg has a spec ial class in calculus that he meets five times a week a new handbook john p brooks who left lehigh university to fill the chair of civil engineering in state college of kentucky is about to publish a handbook of street railroad lo cation as the author says the book is designed to present to the student and engineer that part of the subject of street railroad con struction which is to be performed by the civil rather than by the electrical engineer especial at tention is called to the presentation of the subject of compound curves and the use of them as transition curves the book is issued by john wiley & sons and is similar in appearrnce and arrangement to merriman & brooks " handbook for surveyors " and godwin's " eailroad engineer's field book the advance sheets have been issued and the finished edition will soon be ready