The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review

BOOK REVIEWS 418·both-'historical and theological correspondence. His· analysis of a variety of texts leads him to conclude to an authentic use of types by Jesus in perfect continuity with the Old Testament, but manifesting revolutionary features. The treatment of Jonah as basically a type- of one snatched from death is cogent. Next follows a study of Jesus' use of prediction. Here the author notes his heavy emphasis on present fulfillment-clearly exemplified in Luke 4:21, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled." Dr. France opts for what may be called a moderate eschatology on the part of Jesus: for him, the Kingdom of God is already partially realized, with a distinctive future aspect yet to 'be realized. This emphasis on the " already " aspect is taken by the author to constitute Jesus' most original contribution (over and above the fact. of course, that he identifies himself as the Messiah!) . A final chapter probes Jesus' use of Daniel 7 and Second Zechariah to support the claim of originality. Dr. France notes several thrusts in the Lord's citation of these texts. And, lastly, some examples are adduced to illustrate how the early Church (including the Evangelists) followed the pattern set by Jesus with few exceptions. All of these insights plus three appendices and a table of references add up to a truly worthwhile book. University of St. Thomas Houston, Texas MARTIN HoPKINS, O.P. Il Moro: EUis Heywood's Dialogue in Memory of Thomas More. Translated and Edited by RoGER LEE DEAKINS. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1972. Pp. 155. $10.00. Ellis Heywood (1530-1578) was a child when· his granduncle Tnomas More was executed in 1535. His portrait of More is not arecollection of the historical personality' of the author of Utopia; it is, as Deakins says: " ... a figure of myth, not df history, a figura of that moral and 'and spiritual idealism that animated Roman Catholic art in its post-Tridentine phase. Heywood's More is a baroque figure who turns easily from abstract discussions of moral philosophy to elaborately self-conscious word plays, and just as easily from puns to the ecstatic contemplation of God. " Indeed ll Moro is an: ·exotic creation. Apparently written originally in Italian for reasons which must remain speculative, the dialogue appeared in print in 1556 in a 'mood of R6man Catholic optimism when Queen Mary reigned and Reginald Pole w~ 'her Cardi~al Archbishop of Canterbury. The optimistic bubble burstbquickly, for within two years after the 414 BOOK REVIEWS publication date of Heyw-ood's Italianate effort Elizabeth was queen and Cardinal ·Pole-to whom Il Moro was dedicated-was dead. · Although the Stationera Registera for 1601 has an entry regarding a projected printing of an English· translation of Il Moro, there is no evidence that it was actually published. Ellis Heyw-ood's tribute to More simply was forgotten. As for its author, he Ieft England in 1564 and became a Jesuit. Mr. Deakins' scholarly edition of what surely is a work that achieved a well-deserved obscurity is itself evidently something of a labor of love. It provides a footnote to the mass of More scholarship, but it is a footnote that has been prepared well. The critical introduction of some thirty-seven pages is in some ways more attractive than the dialogue itself. and the inclusion of the 1556 Italian text complete will, no doubt, prove useful to a limited number of readers. There is, of course, nothing especially remarkable about Il Moro, except that it is so remarkably an example of the observance of certain Renaissance conventions in literature and philosophy. The dialogue as a literary genre had a life in the Middle Ages, as those who know the work of Gregory the Great or Anselm will recall. But the Renaissance revival of Platonism also saw a proliferation of dialogues, of which Aretino and Castiglione were notable among a long list of practitioners. Ellis Heyw-ood's distinguished father John Heywood himself wrote plays for the court of Henry VID which were little more than dramatized debates over such topics as the best way to find contentment. His son followed the Italian models even in the language in...