LITERARY GOSSIP.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14901, 14 February 1914, Page 9

LITERARY GOSSIP.

At Horsell, in Surrey, there still lives Dr. Isaac Gregory Smith, who was at Rugby in Dr. Arnold's time, and who had for schoolfellows Dean Stanley and Matthew Arnold and Tom Hughes and Arthur Hugh Clough, and others of that -/riiliant band who were to spread the fame of Rugby the wide world over (says the "Morning Post"). It is no less than seventy-twee years ago that Dr. Gregory Smith went to Rugby. In referring to this part of his career he waxes enthusiastic over Dr. Arnold, like most men who ever came under the influence of that remarkable man. "Ho was indeed a king of men," he said. For some time, however, I had little to do with him. I was put in the Middle Fifth Form, because 1 was rather advanced, out I was only fourteen years old, and when I had to go and see him in his room I was terribly afraid of the great man. Not that he really inspired awe, tor he was of a most gentle and kindly disposition, but to my youthful mind, he was invested with the attributes of a demi-god."

With the Sixth Form boys, among whom were Stanley, Matthew Arnold, and the others, he was on the most cordial terms. "I remember that one day Arnold came to examine my Form — the Middle Fifth —and we had to construe a passage in Virgil about Fame blowing a trumpet. Arnold, who was very fond of illustrating the old by the new, asked whether any of us boys recollected a passage in an English poet which resembled in any way that on which we were engaged. For a moment or two there was dead silence. I was dreadfully nervous, and at first could say nothing, but I plucked up courage and said. 'Yes, sir. there is the convent bell in "Marmion." I then recited:

' "So far was hoard that mighty knell, The stag leaped up on Cheviot Fell." ' Immediately tho stern face of the great man was irradiated with a sunny smile, and he said, very graciously, 'Thank you.' You can imagino my feelings just at that moment, having regard to the reverence and affection we all had for our chief.' "

An interesting interview with Dr. Henry Bradley, one of the editors of tho Oxford Dictionary, is published by the "Morning Post." "At tho moment of the interview Dr. Bradley was be l ginning to revise for printing the article on the word 'shoulder,' prepared by one of bis assistants. The material awaiting his revision formed a pile of about three hundred slips of paper, on which, for the most part, quotations are given illustrative of the various forms and senses which the word has had since the Eighth Century. Tho arrangement of these quotations and the definitions based upon them having been provisionally made by Dr. Bradley's abb* staff of assistants, it now remains for him to examine them editorially. 'Sometimes I winnow out a quantity of quotations, and then, if I think an awkward blank has been left. I cause a search to be made in the rejected material. My assistants usually send to"'me more quotations ihan they suppose likely .to be wanted, so that I may have a sufficiency of evidence on any given point.

" 'Perhaps the most troublesome part of the work (Dr. Bradley added) is to ascertain the historical differences of sense in a particular word and arrange in that order. We have.to be most watchful lest in the quotations sent to us by "readers" the sense of a word may be totally misunderstood or mistakpn by a quotation being garbled or inaccurately given. I may say that we verify a great deal more now than in the earlier portions of the Dictionary. •We could do with more readers, for there are important books as yet unread. What I most sorely miss are

those outside scholars and critics who were wont to enrich the proof-sheets ■'with, their wealth of learning.] Dr. Bradley is nearing the end of the uoriis beginning with oh, and his colleague. Dr. is completing tho .-.i- portion, so that*-when this work is done a continuous piece <*£ tionary from a- to siir. jfiU-have been Through the prc&i. Jji#"tfnmes Murray is busy with tr_ l>r. Bradley said that difficult wore leh altogether to him for a solution."

"The appearance of Professor Morris Jones's 'Welsh Grammar! is an event in tne literary history of Males (says the "South Wales Daily -News'"). live bciok is perhaps the most important achievement in the .renaissance of the Welsh language wniehMias aroused so much enthusiasm in recent years. .So oiu\ can live in w ai*?s in "these days without soon discovering that, instead or declining, fine \\ ek-h language is more widely, spoken tnan ever. Whether its commercial value be comparable to i-jiiglisii or rTenon does not atfect the plain tact that the Welsh (iconic themselves prize it more highly, "and wit" never let it die. It will always be the language of the Welsh home.. What is needed now is work of the kind wnich Professor Morris Jones ba.> done so well in his 'Grammar.' lie has laid a new foundation for the study of Welsh and provided au authoritative, and reliable text-book such as we havo not had before. No one can rise from the reading of it without feeling that the mine iv which he has delved is •richer ♦> precious things than is vet known. He will find that the Wc'lsh language is something more than a mere patois or dialect. It shows a steady, consist-ent growth."

The new Poet Laureate's first poem as Laureate appeared in "The Times" on the day bet ore Christmas, called "Christinas Eve.". "Like his remote ancestor, the Versificator Regis, Mr lindges (says N "fhe Times") has availed himself of his right to address the Sovereign not on a State occasion, but at a time of Christian festival. To the period of his first predecessor, whom we hear of-as early as 1340., he appears to have reverted for the form ot the poem. It is not improbable that tho Court Minstrel of the oarlv fourteenth century would have u<=ed the same Germanic rhythm, based upon alliteration and tho. central pause, winch is best known to us now from <m •_',•"£•-- of Picns Plowman.' "• J üblic Opinion" asks:—"Why was not this 'official' poem sent to all the papers? The Laureate is a public oiucial."

..}. Vr -t"'"S. "i the "Daily Citizen" Mr -Miles Lnderby reduces the romance and I profits ot novel-writing to very prosaic terms. He says:—"One of "the mast tantastic delusions of an incurably romantic public is that nearly all novelists earn gorgeous incomes/live exotically in Italy or Egypt, and do a minimum of work in the intervals of enjoying a maximum of play. Such, however, is very-far from being the case. Some few novelists, it is true, do earn incomes of five figures, and I calculate that there are some twenty or thirty writers of Action who contrive to make about £1000 a year. But even these few prosperous -writers: do not live exotically, nor do they earn their money without working extremely hard for it; while the ordinary rank-and-file novelist lives somewhere in the suburbs, and is just as anxious about his rent, rates, and taxes, as you or I. .It is not very long ago that Mr Hall Came told mc that, though his books brought him'in a good deal of money, the amount ho earned by them was nothing like so large as that which he obtained from his plays. Like Miss Mario Corelli, "Mr Arnold Bennett and Mrs Humphry Ward, he usually recedes a royalty of 25 per cent, on the Gs editions of, his novels—that is to say, for .e\*ery copy sold he receives Is 6dl An edition of a thousand copies, therefore,. means £75; as The Woman Thou Gayest Me' has already sold more than 200,000 copies, it will be seen that within a few months of. publication Mr Came has already made £15,000 out of this book. No doubt as large a sum was obtained for the' serial rights in England and America; moreover, the author is now busy dramatising his novel, and, if lie repeats his former successes on the stage there will, shortly bo seven or eight different companies touring it in various parts of the world, each of which will send him in royalties anything from £50 t-6 £150 a week."

But, Mr Enderby points out, Mr Hall Came belongs to a very small class. "When tho public has such prosperous writers as these before them, it is scarcely to be wondered at that there is a general belief that all novelists are rich. But the great majority of novels, of course, do not reach the second edition; their sale stops somewhere in the seven or eight hundreds, and if the authors receive a 15 per ceut. royalty (a quite usual price for those who do not command a large sale), they will reap only about £30 from each,book, or, say, 3s 6d per thousand words. Ninety, per cent, of novel writers do not live on tho proceeds of their books; if they did they would haunt workhouses for nine months of the year. Many of them are journalists, business men, doctors, lawyers, etc. Having grown tired of the routine of their ordinary work, or hoping to emulate the achievements of their more famous colleagues, they turn to fiction writing with eagerness, only to discover that it is tho worst paid profession in the world. The ordinary man believes that it is a very simple matter to write a novel; he has never tried to do it himself, but he is quite sure that if he did try he would experience little difficulty. But only those who have tried and succeeded have any conception of the enormous difficulty of the task, of the grit that is required to nursue work of which one has grown most heartily sick, and of the hard thinking and constant whipping of the imagination that are required in order to invent characters, situations, and incidents. The mere physical labour, of writing 100,000 words is enormous. Tn one of his essays fetevenson says that even the man who has written a very bad novel has certain outstanding qualities possessed by but few of his fellows, for he at least has indomitable pluck and determination. In reeent'years the writing of serial stories has developed into an industry. Most of these, after having run their course in a weekly or daily newspaper, are never re-published iv book form ; constructed to a most definite, and rigid pattern, with a 'curtain' at tho end of each three thousand words or so, they are written solely for the purpose of being presented to their readers in instalments. These are paid for at anything between 10s and £3 per thousand words, and there are .several brilliant journalists in Fleet 6treet who can write one of these in ten days or .a fortnight. I know one such journalist. When writing against time he shuts himself up in his rooms, refuses to see any callers, never goes out even for an hour, and writes all the day and all the night. In this way he produces ten thousand words a day. and produces at the same rate until the serial is completed. Only a man of enormously strong r>hysique nnd endurance, and blessed with a rich profusion of ideas, could hope to do this."