I have already enumerated the articles in this volume which appeared originally in Cope's Tobacco Plant. As for the rest, the articles on Shelley (with the exception of the review of Symonds' "Life of Shelley," which appeared in Cope) and on William Blake first appeared in the National Reformer; the "Notes on the Genius of Robert Browning" in the Transactions of the Browning Society, Part I.; the article on "The Ring and the Book" in the Gentleman's Magazine; and the notice of "Pacchiarotto" in the Secularist. I have to thank the editors or proprietors of these various papers and periodicals for the permission kindly given to reproduce the various articles.

BERTRAM DOBELL.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND

CRITICAL STUDIES

RABELAIS

I

FRANÇOIS RABELAIS was born about 1483 (the date is not certain), at Chinon, in Touraine, that fat and quiet province of subtle-witted, easy-going people, whose character has been so sympathetically described by the great Balzac (as in L'Illustre Gaudissart); for Balzac, like Descartes and Paul Louis Courier, was a son of the same soil, and, like Rabelais and Paul Louis, copiously illustrated his native province. Rabelais calls Touraine the garden of France, and Chinon a most famous, noble, and ancient town, the first in the world; and in Book v., chap. xxxv. of his great work, we read: "This made me say to Pantagruel that this entry put me in mind of the painted cellar, in the oldest city in the world, where such paintings are to be seen, and in as cool a place. 'Which is the oldest city in the world?' asked Pantagruel. It is Chinon, sir, or Cainon, in Touraine,' said I. 'I know,' returned Pantagruel, where Chinon

A