TRIVIA.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20250, 30 May 1931, Page 13

TRIVIA.

(i) Irritation. Mr Henry de Halsalle, whose name may or may not be spoken with reverence at Sotheby's, ha 3 written a book 011 book-collecting." It contains many pleasant stories about books and collectors, and excites the blood with the hope of miracles—such, for example, as Charles Edmunds's discovery of the unknown "Venus and Adonis," 1599 —"lm prip Led at London for "William Lcalco,. dwelling in Paulo's Churchyard at the Signe of tho Greyhound"—in the lumber-room of Lamport Hall. Bound up with it were "The Passionate Pilgrim," previously known, only in the Gapell Collection at Cambridge, and another unrecorded edition, of Davics's and Marlowe's "Epigrams and Elegies." The "Venus and Adonis" was sold in 1919 to Mr Huntington for £15,100, then the highest price ever paid for a book. Bueh, too, is the story of the barber's wife in Derby. Being ill one day, she asked her husband for something to read. Rummaging among some old books, inherited with his shop, he brought her one. The doctor found her struggling with tile queer print of "Pilgrim's Progress" in the f it edition and prescribed a visit to Sotheby's. It was sold in tho famous rooms for £2500. Nobody who is touched with the dear madness of tho biblidfolo can hear too many of these or hear the best of them too often; but in his later chapters Mr do Halsalle writes so as to justify ono in feeling fretful as any porpentine. Tho pages are 'spattered with titles and prices of Victorian and modern first editions. Who? over wants this information can flnd it from month to month in the bookseller's catalogues, and need only expend a few pence on postcards to bo sure of getting them. As a tipster, Mr de Hal* ealle advises the novice to back almost anything. Dozens of the Victorian a?id later writers are dealt with separately; but as if this wero not enough he adds a list of perhaps two hundred names, amoug whom the hopeful founder of a fortune iii books "cannot go far wrong, and may go far right." Max Beerbohni Stands between Rex Beach and Reginald Berkeley, Bernard Capoa between Roy Campbell and Willa Gather; and I. Compton-Burnett comes simpering after. Mr Freeman. Wills Crofts, who writes detective stories, is there, with Mr R. W. Service, who pounded out poetry, and Mr Leonard \Voolf, whose wife is Virginia Woqlf. Tho compliment to Mr Crofts is not incrcasod by the mis-spelling of his name, but he is not alone in suffering this indignity; for among others present are King Lardner, Harold Monroe, John Davison (twice), and W. B. Ycates. Mr Hueffer, howover, enjoys the. triumph of a double recommendation —as Ford Madox Ford and as Ford H. Madox Hueffer. But this advice to go and buy pretty well anything, in order to "get together a valuable collection of books," is only a mild irrlt tanf, compared with some Of Mr de Halsalle 's literary remarks. Examples follow: I heard thp other day that 'tt certain wealthy, collector Has just paid one hundred pounds tor a first edition of that tedious yarn "Treasure Island." Although we have hardly a singer to-day seriously to be compared with him who passed away from us. iu April, 1909——1 roeftn Alger? non Charles Swinburne—wo should remember that in poetry, as in the prize-ring, rarely does more than one truly great artist nutkfe his appearance during a century. Since Swinburne we have heard somo pretty piping, and the sound of the lute, but seldom a deeper noto from a theorbo. Mr William Butler Yeats must be .considered an Irish poet, though perhaps his poetry is not quite so Keltic as many of his admirers believe it to be. Much of i| has charm, and a lover of good Verse who likes the vague, tho mystical, and the unreal, will find them delightfully dwelt upon by Mr Yeats. Especially a town-dweller who loves the handiwork of Nature unspoiled or untouched by the befouling hand of Industrialism, th*t creator of the Hideous, \vjll welcome lines such as; — I will arise and go now, for always night and I water lapping with low sounds by the shore; , While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in the deep heart's core. [I will arise and scream now, for always night ano day . One gets sick of hearing people mumbling the moony musie or seats a "Inrtisfree," . , As if ho had never had anything better or anything other to say Than that marvel of Fiddlededee. ft; jg. impossible to be disgusted in proper rhythm.] s&x S will findseveral of Bridge's .volumes worthy of acquisition. Many of his poems r »r e beauty; and Ins experiments m classical metres applied to English verse are fi n tprestinfr. One of Bridges more exfeiislve itiStns is His Poems, 1873, for which abo.it £6 inust ba paid. A few pounds might be Profitably expeuded upon two or three ?? ki. .nrttfeeding volumes, wherein our poetic collector is Sure to find enjoyable, unconventlonai, -and first-class verse. If you. admire Mr Squire's foems, jon will admire Mr Laurence Binyon s. Artistically clever, [D. H.] li#w*e»ce, unfortunately, was sexually cracked. * * (ti) Mollification. The finds of the Week: (L) In George Baintsbury's intrciduction to the plSys of Moliere. Mollßro %vM not oid; he was almost exiictly the ago of Bhftkespoare when he, toq. diod—-"ii-.iffi<>ftlly as they say; but also Sth a narcel of work done such as inakes it, Wml 1. almost ftbSurd to wish tatAS for tho "tragedy," there was, it eeom to a sober and not too obtuso iudgmen't, little for toars here, llttlo to Wail, except in so far as "the end" is always s?d. •if God has siveii you braias, and coufage, and the' upward coiintenancoi if yo« have foVbd; if you have had iovuui >» more do you waiiti Moliere hid'and done ill this. And as for Stlni his vocation,' NMsftn he mi that faintly I Wo •«« -fcotrov *-bo elfictfd debout el dsns son. rang," my jpowibly together to «, tribunal which doe* Puritan and the Pharisee. fii.) Lines bv Miss Peggy Bacon, entitled "Concert.'' They are nob intended as an afterthought on the visit of Joseph Hislon, Christohurch audiences being so musical as to have risen, almost to the last fafcot and "without effort, to the rare altitude ©t his, art. ■ Tho really appreciative people who adoi'e musie strlko sueh wonderful po?«; they stick their noses aspiring Steeple, and wilt, like ropturous rolcS ; the breath fails, the eye cl?? es ' ... . the program trails. Meanwhile the siglit of their oxalted, rare. almost unduly drodling deliglit, makes the herds . of really uiiapprficlatlvc people simply too sick * for words. - (iii) The rhyme of Ml' Bon Marquis's cat. Mehitabel: i once nn innocent kit wotthelieli Wottheheli with a ribbon toy neiSk to lit and belli fjid 60tb it o wotthihili, ¥*6ttbelie)l . but a maltese cat by .With a come hither look In Ws eye arid a'song tfiat soared to the sky and ivotthehell wotthehell * and i followed adown tiia ptreet the pad of nis rhythmical feet o permit me Sgttin to repeat wotthehell ' wotthehell

(iv.) Mr Logan Pcarsall Smith's cat; "O Joyl" sings a bird ih the h?art, ••0 Joy!" another bird answers; while tho world, like a largo, thoughtful cat, sits by find watches. (v.) From the Savoury Conference which the Dutchess and lifer Women Held with Saftejio fanlsa. But Sir, said the Dutchess, I have another Scruple m this Affair no less unaccountable than the formpr; for I think I hear eOmethin# whisper me in the Ear, and say, if Don Quixote ile In Manoha be sufcU a Shallowbrains, why does B#nch6 JPania, who knows him to be so, wait upon this Mndn)ttn, end relj? thus upon his vain estrayagiint Promisef)?, ••• By g a K>. qiioth Baueho, ytrur Scruple comes in Fuading-time. But it, need trot whisper m your Eir, it may o'en speak plain, And is loud as it wiil. I am a Fool, that's MMain, for if I <1 been vise, I had left toy Mastpi' m#ny » fair Day since; but it wis "J? Tl le E "antry, and that's a " . f on J- X must follow him through Thick and Thin. We ore both Townsbdrn Children j I have eaten his Bread, J ,° v ® ' al *d there's no Love lost between us. He pays me very well, ho has B »ri e ! f°lV e ' and 1 »® bo vcy true and trusty to him, that nothing but Death con pftft us. —J.H.E.S.