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OBITUARIES

W. H. FRASER

By reason of the recent death of Professor W. H. Fraser of the University of Toronto, Spanish studies have lost a staunch friend. Professor Fraser was born at Bond Head, Simcoe Co., Ont., in 1853. He prepared for the university at Bradford High School, and then, after several years of teaching in country schools, entered the University of Toronto. He was graduated in 1880 and soon after became master of French and German at Upper Canada College, Toronto. After a year of study passed abroad in 1886, Professor Fraser was appointed head of the department of Italian and Spanish in the University of Toronto. He had nearly completed 30 years of faithful and brilliant service in his alma mater when death called him, December 28, 1916.

Professor Fraser is best known in the United States as one of the authors of several very successful French and German grammais. It will therefore surprise many to learn that he had taught neither of these languages for over 30 years previous to his death. While his name was familiar to all Romance scholars, few in this country knew him intimately. He seldom attended the meetings of the Modern Language Association, and never contributed to technical journals. His interests were broad rather than specialized.

Teachers of Spanish should never forget that Professor Fraser was the first departmental head on this continent to organize a four year course in Spanish. This is the more remarkable because to this day no other Canadian university includes Spanish in its curriculum; the same is true, I believe, of all Canadian high schools. As an administrator his career was one long struggle, characterized by many disappointments, but rewarded with many conspicuous successes. His first task was to engage in newspaper propaganda to gain for his university adequate financial support from unwilling legislatures. Next he embarked in a campaign to secure for the modern languages their rightful place of equality with the traditional classic subjects. To the end of his life he was forced to contend to ensure a dignified status for the two "minor" languages which he professed. Education in Canada is bureaucratic, state-controlled. Admirable as this system is in many respects, it makes very difficult the task of the educational reformer. Entrenched conservatism is buttressed with acts of parliament. Only a popular demand can readily effect a change. Happily there are many signs of such a demand in Canada at present. Canada is experiencing a reflex of the vast interest in things Spanish now felt south of the line. Newspapers and politicians are beginning to clamor for more instruction in Spanish. Teachers' meetings frequently discuss the question. Everything now indicates that Spanish has a bright future in

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Canada. It will soon be taught in many secondary schools and then universities can no longer ignore it. The growing importance of Spanish in the mother country, too, works to the same end. (Leeds and the University of London have recently founded chairs of Spanish.) And when this result is brought to pass, no small part of it will be due to the life work of Professor Fraser. Professor Fraser has many claims to gratitude on the part of modern language teachers. Teachers of Spanish will remember him as the pioneer of the Spanish movement in Canada.

University of Chicago

G. T. NORTHUP

ALBERT FREDERICK KUERSTEINER

Albert Frederick Kuersteiner, Professor of Romance Languages in Indiana University, died on June 9, 1917, after a long illness. Professor Kuersteiner was born in New Orleans, November 9, 1865, received his A. B. degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1888 and his Ph. D. from Johns Hopkins in 1904. As a teacher he served in Wabash College, the Hughes High School of Cincinnati, and Indiana University, and was best known in the field of French and Spanish. The salient characteristics of his teaching were thoroughness, accuracy and enthusiasm.

While his published work touches the broader field of pedagogy (School Review, 1911), and his death left completed a French grammar in manuscript, his chief contributions were in the domain of Spanish. Several articles on French and Spanish phonetics (Maître Phonétique, X and XI), and reviews of Traub's "Spanish Verb" and Colton's "Phonétique Castillane" (Mod. Lang. Notes, XVIII and XXVII) were but accessories to his real life work, which was a study of the "Rimado de Palacio" of Pero López de Ayala. The doctoral dissertation on the use of the "Relative Pronoun in the Rimado de Palacio" (Revue Hispanique, 1911) is a study of permanent value. The edition of Ayala's first "Cantica sobre el Fecho de la Yglesia" (Studies in Honor of A. Marshall Elliott, 1911) foreshadows the method to be employed in the edition of the "Rimado de Palacio." The edition, now in press, will appear as one of the volumes น of the Bibliotheca Hispanica, and will inevitably prove the definitive version of this important old Spanish poem.

The death of Professor Kuersteiner is a severe loss not only to those who knew and loved him but also to the cause of scholarship and education. His critical work shows surety of method and accuracy of detail, while his labors in the field of teaching have left a lasting imprint, especially on the colleges and secondary schools of Indiana.

Princeton University

C. C. MARDEN

BIBLIOGRAPHY II. SCHOOL TEXTS

Books published in 1915-1916.

Elementary Spanish Grammar

by Professors Aurelio M. Espinosa and Clifford G. Allen of Leland Stanford Junior University.

367 pages. Contains practical exercises for reading, conversation and composition. Despite the title, the book is complete enough for most high schools and many colleges. Illustrated.

1915-American Book Co. $1.25

A Spanish Grammar

by M. A. De Vitis of the Frank Louis Soldan High School, St. Louis.

352 pages. Elaborate exercises in conversation and composition, frequent reviews, treatment of Spanish letter-writing and commercial correspondence. Illustrated.

1916-Allyn and Bacon. $1.25

Spanish Commercial Correspondence

by Professor Arthur F. Whittem of Harvard University and Manuel J. Andrade.

322 pages (146 text). Reading material, composition exercises, questions on the first ten letters, table of abbreviations, vocabulary and index.

1916 D. C. Heath & Co. $1.25

A Trip to South America

Exercises in Spanish Composition

by Professor Samuel M. Waxman of Boston University.

104 pages (69 text and exercises). Appendix of irregular verbs, SpanishEnglish and English-Spanish vocabularies. The style is colloquial through

out.

1916-Heath & Co. 50c

Elementary Spanish Reader

by Professor Aurelio M. Espinosa of Leland Stanford Junior University.

208 pages (124 text). Contains easy, practical selections from both popular and learned sources in prose and poetry, with exercises for conversation. Illustrated.

1916-Benj. H. Sanborn & Co. 90c

First Spanish Reader

by Erwin W. Roessler and Alfred Remy,

both of New York High School of Commerce.

248 pages (155 text). The Spanish material consists of both prose and verse. A few songs are given with music. Thirty pages of questions follow the text. The first part of the book is very simple and easy.

1916-American Book Co. 68c

The Spanish-American Reader

by Ernesto Nelson.

380 pages (320 text). Elaborate foot notes, incomplete vocabulary.

An

exceedingly interesting and valuable reader, suitable in its present form for

advanced pupils.

1916-Heath & Co. $1.25

First Spanish Book

by James H. Worman.

A slightly improved edition of a well known text book, 126 pages (98 text). Four pages of class room Spanish have been added.

1916-American Book Co. 48c

Lecturas Fáciles con Ejercicios.

by Lawrence A. Wilkins and Max A. Luria,

both of the De Witt Clinton High School, New York.

266 pages (171 text and exercises). An elementary reader with abundant exercises for conversation and composition. Contains an appendix of verbs, combined vocabulary.

1916 Silver Burdett & Co. $1.00

Short Stories for Oral Spanish

by Anna Woods Ballard, Teachers College, Columbia, and Charles

O. Stewart, University School, Oakland, Cal.

155 pages. Anecdotes, stories, questions, suggested exercises, notes, exercises on verbs, lists of verb forms, vocabulary.

1916 Charles Scribner's Sons. 80c

Pedro Sanchez

by José Ma. de Pereda.

Edited with introduction, notes and vocabulary by Ralph Emerson Bassett. lxxix-379 pages (184 text). Reissue of edition published in 1907.

1916-Ginn & Co. 90c

Doña Clarines y Mañana de Sol.

by Serafín y Joaquín Alvarez Quintero.

Edited with introductory notes and vocabulary by

Professor S. Griswold Morley of the University of California.

152 pages (98 text).

1915-Heath & Co. 55c.

Gil y Zárate, Guzmán el Bueno.

Edited with introduction, notes, synopsis of the subjunctive, vocabulary and index by

Professor Sylvester Primer of the University of Texas.

181 pages (135 text). Revision of edition published in 1901.

1916-Ginn & Co. 75c

Moratin, el Sí de las Niñas.

Edited with introduction, notes and vocabulary by Professor J. D. M. Ford

of Harvard University.

126 pages (74 text). Reissue of the edition published in 1899.

1916-Ginn & Co. 50c

REVIEWS

CANTAR DE GESTA RONCESVALLES.

Fragmento de Roncesvalles. Un nuevo cantar de gesta español del siglo XIII.

La Revista de Filología Española, tomo IV, cuaderno 2, trae un estudio de capital importancia por Don Ramón Menéndez Pidal: un estudio de unas 204 páginas sobre un fragmento de cien versos de un cantar de gesta español del siglo XIII, últimamente descubierto en el Archivo Provincial de Pamplona por el P. Fernando de Mendoza.

Con la sana crítica y vasta erudición que le conocemos estudia Menéndez Pidal: 1. El Manuscrito, 2. El Lenguaje, 3. La Métrica, 4. La Leyenda de Roncesvalles.

I. Se dan cuatro láminas (fototipias) que reproducen los dos folios del manuscrito. Sigue la transcripción paleográfica (con algunas lecciones dudosas, porque las páginas I y 4 del manuscrito están muy estropeadas), y finalmente publica Menéndez Pidal una edición crítica del fragmento, donde regulariza el uso de las letras i, j, y, v, u, suprime las grafías navarras, hace algunas correcciones, y separa las series asonantadas.

2. El Lenguaje. Presenta el manuscrito una confusión muy interesante entre la grafía y las formas dialectales, pero cree Menéndez Pidal que el lenguaje en parte corresponde geográficamente al carácter de la letra del escriba; que ofrece rasgos navarro-aragoneses. Las formas navarro-aragonesas propiamente dichas son muy pocas, y hay formas castellanas con grafía más bien navarro-aragonesa, v. g., muychos 38. Dada la breve extensión del fragmento no se puede llegar a una conclusión definitiva con respeto al lenguaje original, pero no creemos, y Menéndez Pidal parece ser de la misma opinión, que se trate de un dialecto navarroaragonés. Fundamentalmente los cien versos del fragmento presentan los rasgos característicos del lenguaje de Castilla. La única particularidad notable es el imperfecto de la segunda conjugación, que en los casos que ocurre termina siempre en ia (en 26 seguramente iá, que también se encuentra en Berceo). Menéndez Pidal pone iá en todos estos casos en la edición crítica. En la clasificación de erratas del copista hay algunas interesantes, v. g., terera, 9, y con chocante insistencia en treras, 74, 93 (según observa Menéndez Pidal mismo), fabalare, 59, viodo II. Terera, trera, fabalar, pueden muy bien ser dialectismos lo mismo que los bien conocidos corónica, Ingalaterra (frecuente en el Quijote). Viodo debe ser analógico. La forma vi es antigua (Reyes Magos, 23), y de vi, vide, vio podría muy bien resultar vi, vide, vio, viodo. Claro es que también puede haber confusión con vido.

3. La Métrica. "Desde luego puede decirse en primer término que nos hallamos en presencia de un metro de irregular número de sílabas. ¡Adiós, pues, las ilusiones de los partidarios de la regularidad métrica del

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