1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Review

REVIEW (Fr. revue, from revoir, to see again, Lat. re and videre), an inspection or critical examination; it is chiefly used as a military or naval term for an inspection on a large or formal scale of a fleet or body of troops by the sovereign or other person holding a high official position, or for a critical account of a recently published literary work in a magazine or periodical. The earliest use of the word for the title of such a periodical was in the paper begun by Defoe in 1704, the full title of which was A Review of the Affairs of France and of all Europe, as influenced by that Nation (see Periodicals and Newspapers). In France there is a particular application of the term revue or, more fully, revue de fin d'année to a form of dramatic performance, acted or sung, in which the chief events of the past year, and the personages who have been prominently before the public, are satirically and critically passed under review. Attempts have been made to trace such performances to an early origin. In their modern form, however, they date from the reign of Louis Philippe. L'An 1841 et l'an 1941, by the brothers Cogniard, was one of the earliest.