This report was accepted, the committee was continued, and enlarged by the additional appointment of Professors James W. Bright, C. H. Grandgent, T. Atkinson Jenkins, W. S. Currell, and L. E. Menger. The Secretary then read the following communication relating to the Thousandth Anniversary of King Alfred the Great: To the Modern Language Association of America :— The Thousandth Anniversary of the death of King Alfred the Great will be observed as an International Commemoration of the King in the summer of the year 1901. All English-speaking men, without distinction of creed, nation, or party, will unite in doing honor to the memory of the King under whose administration the first great impulse was given to those forces which have produced English, or more broadly Anglo-Saxon, nationality, character, and culture. The Celebration will consist chiefly in (1) the erection of a statue of the King in the City of Winchester. The site for the statue has been granted by the Corporation of Winchester, and the execution of the statue (which will be in bronze) has been committed to Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, the eminent English sculptor. (2) A Public Hall will perhaps be erected in the City of Winchester to serve as a Museum of Early English History and English Antiquities. The Committee hope to acquire a portion of the grounds of Wolvesey Palace as an adjunct to the site for the museum, and with a view to preserve forever the beautiful ruins of Wolvesey Castle. (3) At the time of the Commemoration a meeting of scholars representing the Learned Societies of the English-speaking world will be held in the City of Winchester. The programme of this meeting will embrace papers and addresses of high scientific character on subjects relating to Alfred and his period, and to Anglo-Saxon national development dating from his time. The Honorary Secretary of the Committee for America, on behalf of the Committee and of the Royal Societies of England, hereby respectfully invites the coöperation of The Modern Language Association of America in suggesting subjects appropriate to the programme of this meeting, and by appointing three or more of its members to prepare papers on the selected subjects, and as delegates to represent the Association at the meeting. The time for this meeting will probably be fixed in the first week of July, 1901. It is also hoped that The Modern Language Association of America will give further token of coöperation by contributing in money to the funds of the memorial. Private contributions from the members of the Association are also earnestly requested. A complete list of all the contributors will finally be published. All communications should be directed to the American Honorary Secretary of the Memorial. Very respectfully, JAMES W. BRIGHT, American Honorary Secretary. JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, As one of the Honorary Secretaries for America of the Early English Text Society, the Secretary also invited the attention of the Association to the proposed commemoration of Dr. F. J. Furnivall's seventy-fifth birthday. The President appointed the following committee to consider the Association's literary contributions to the King Alfred memorial programme: Professors J. W. Bright, Albert S. Cook, George Hempl, G. L. Kittredge, J. B. Henneman, W. E. Mead, and J. M. Manly. On motion of Professor Calvin Thomas the contribution in money to be made by the Association to the King Alfred Memorial and to Dr. Furnivall's celebration was left to be determined by the Executive Council of the Association. By a unanimous vote Dr. F. J. Furnivall, of London, was elected an Honorary Member of the Association. On motion of Professor Fonger De Haan, which was seconded by Professor C. C. Marden, the Association elected to honorary membership Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, of Madrid, Spain. In accordance with resolutions offered by Professors George Hempl, J. B. Henneman, and James W. Bright, the Association passed a vote of deep regret at the death, during the year 1899, of the following members of the Association: W. M. Baskerville, Vanderbilt University. A. N. van Daell, Mass. Inst. of Technology. George A. Hench, University of Michigan. J. Luquiens, Yale University. The reading of papers was resumed. 13. "A study of Pope's Imitations of Horace." By Professor James W. Tupper, of Western University, London, Ont. [Printed in Publications, xv, 181 f.] 14. "Germanic elements in King Horn." By Professor George H. McKnight, of Ohio State University. [Printed in Publications, xv, 221 f.] 15. "The present status of Rhetorical theory." By Dr. Gertrude Buck, of Vassar College. [Printed in Modern Language Notes, March, 1900.] 16. "An incident in the Poema de Fernan Gonzalez." By Professor C. C. Marden, of the Johns Hopkins University. [Printed in Revue Hispanique, VII (1900), p. 22 f.] The primary object of the paper was to establish the relation between certain portions of the Spanish epic poem and the corresponding chapters of the Prose Chronicle of Alfonso the Wise, both of which were written in the thirteenth century. The Count of Castille, Fernan Gonzalez, is one of the most interesting figures in old Spanish literature, and the poem written in his honor contains the earliest known version of many legends of Christian Spain. One of these legends relates how the maiden La Cava was wronged by the Gothic King Roderick, and how her father, Count Julian, avenged his daughter's disgrace by bringing the Arabs into Spain and overthrowing the Gothic monarchy. In another portion of the poem we are told how the vassal, Count Fernan Gonzalez, sold to King Sancho a horse and a hawk; by an ingenious trick, however, the price was made so exorbitant that the king was glad to settle the account by granting independence to Castille. A third legend tells how the same count killed King Sancho of Navarre in battle, and how a French relative of the dead king came into Spain with a large army in order to avenge his kinsman's death. The invader was slain, however, and his body was sent back to France together with sufficient money to pay the funeral accessories. Now, this last mentioned story was copied, almost word for word, by Alfonso the Wise when he composed his Prose Chronicle of the World, and the same story is preserved, likewise, in a fifteenth-century copy of the original Poem of Fernan Gonzalez, though the copyist did not hesitate to alter and expand the original legend. Professor Marden then proceeded to discuss these three versions of the story, showed how the many divergencies had crept in, and, finally, established the date of the original poem. 17. "The curse-idea in Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris." By Dr. C. A. Eggert, of Chicago, Ill. 18. "Problematical characters in German fiction." By Professor A. B. Faust, of Wesleyan University. Goethe has defined problematical natures as such "who can never master the situation into which they are placed, yet to whom no situation in life is adequate" (for the exercise of their talents). They are persons of great endowments, yet they fail to seize the opportunities that present themselves, and grow resentful because the great opportunity commensurate with their abilities has never arrived. Though generally they have themselves to blame, nevertheless their failure is pathetic, for the ornamental gifts that nature has bestowed upon them are but a weak defense against a cruel fate, or a useless weapon for the performance of a solemn duty. Gifted fools of fortune, elegant misfits, titans (as Jean Paul expresses it) "that would make a cross-bow of the milky-way, yet lack the bow-string to span the distance," they consume their lives in a hopeless struggle against opposing forces. Examples of the problematical character are abundant in all literatures, the one of which Goethe has given such a masterly exposition is Shakespeare's Hamlet, "the oak planted in a flower-pot," the scholar called upon to avenge a monstrous crime. An instance in recent literature is furnished by the works of Henrik Ibsen, whose dramas teem with problematical personages. It is the purpose of this paper to show that, beginning with the wavering heroes of Goethe's works and extending to the present time, the problematical character has never been absent from German fiction. It has exerted a baneful influence on the works of Jean Paul, Spielhagen, Keller (der grüne Heinrich), Sudermann, and though the type has sometimes been skillfully wrought, the defect lies in its moral deformity, and its proximity to falseness and unreality. President and Mrs. Seth Low received the members of the Association at their residence, corner of 64th Street and Madison Avenue, on Thursday evening at 9 o'clock. FOURTH SESSION, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29. The fourth session began at 9.30 a. m. Friday, December 29. 19. "The appositive participle in Anglo-Saxon." By Professor Morgan Callaway, Jr., of the University of Texas. This paper was discussed by Professor J. W. Bright. 20. "The Lambeth version of Havelok." By Mr. E. K. Putnam, of Harvard University. [Printed in Publications, xv, 1 f.] This paper was discussed by Professors W. E. Mead and J. W. Bright. 21. "On Modern English Dictionaries." By Miss Julia Pauline Leavens, of Brooklyn, N. Y. This paper was discussed by Professors H. E. Greene, J. M. Hart, H. A. Todd, O. F. Emerson, J. W. Bright, and F. H. Stoddard. 22. "Figurative elements in the terminology of English Grammar." By Professor F. N. Scott, of the University of Michigan. The paper called attention to the singular futility of most teaching of English grammar in the primary and secondary schools, and attempted to account for it, in part, on the ground that the figurative or imaginative influence of grammatical terminology has not been sufficiently taken into account by the teacher. Children cannot think abstractly. It is impossible for them at the start to grasp the abstract meaning of highly general terms like 'case,' 'object,' 'government,' and the like. Consequently, when these terms are first presented, unless there is some counteracting influence, children attach to them all sorts of absurd and incongruous images. Investigations show that 'case,' for example, is commonly interpreted by the child as a box, or chest of drawers; it has even been connected with the covering of sausages. 'Government' suggests the relation of a king and his subject. 'Parts of speech' is often taken to mean the lips, the tongue and the palate. An 'irregular verb' is conceived of as 'naughty.' These images being often extremely vivid and persistent, give a false color to the entire subject of grammar, confuse and dishearten the beginner, and nullify the efforts of the conscientious teacher. |