LITERARY NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 122, 15 February 1908, Page 13

LITERARY NOTES.

Mr. Henry Frowde,,tho Oxford publisher, lias' brought out a nbw , edition (in: a form so comely that the author would probably hive flung'.the , book out of. his window;) of Cobbett's "English Grammar," the only entertaining: work'.'eyer ,written.,on that sub'ject.■;! Of course .(says .'"Elzevir" in the "Argus") it' is _iiot by 'His' "Grammar", that Cobhett lives; it is by his delightful "Rural Rides." -Still,-the "Grammar"- has had a •very; remarkable; history ; : new- editions Of it havo, never ceased to appear; .it has even been translated into French. When it first appeared, in 1817, ton -thousand copies were: sold in a few weeks ;■ arid'a third edition was needed in less, than three months. Thank Heaven, that-sort, of ; thing-docs not happen .to grammars nowadays; the world , does really seem /to -move. .'And yet, : if, another grammarian like shoul J arise, . perhaps/ the .wonder. migh't', be. repeated. To the general reader,, of. course, tho. entertain'ment consists in watching Cobhett illustrate .his grammatical'' .rulesin such .a way 'as. to' bring out -his political opinions. For m'stance) to illustrate tlie . tenses.'. of, a' verb ■'•Tho Queen defies the tyrants; the Queen defied the tyrants; tho-Queen will defy the tyrants." iYou have to know your, history to se'e'l tiie' point,'..but: Cobbett's' contemporaries must. havo ; enjoyed.. Uoing , taught grammar by a' radical: politician.;' Nouns of number, 'again, i"such as Mob, Parliament, House 1 of Commons, Reßiment, Court of King's Bench; Den of Tluevesl"• In- fact, the same; kind of fun is: to, be got, ont-.ct Cobbett's ."Grammar".: as :0ui,..0f Johnson's

"Dictionary.".; For Johnson; .also, was: lrrcprossibly a politicians,■ - 1 ,

■ The .statistics .-collected.-.in ■ the "Publishers' t Circular", show,. that - nearly . 110,000 books; were issued during-tho past year in tho fluted "Kingdom. This, represents 'an mcreaso of more than 20, per cent. on. 1906. This, . of coursoj includes new cditions. of old books', - and this - branch of the .publishers', business' . Ms.-. been „>• remarkably . prolific, especially in regard to very cheap yot serviceable reprints of classics or books- that may. hayo; "some /chauce ■of v, obtaining - thatrank; • ..V./.-;. ■ •Tho unsigned verses that appear-amongst-the "Pall Mall / Gazette's • ."Occasional Notes" aro of ten. charming, and sometimes distinguished. >.• Hero are threo',, pleasant' stanzas on "King Timon" .— i:; , ln:'ia-isea?)?lu^f^p^<jand>a, ? jAir.;(jpf.-:.,:Scanet •.">' shoes, ' ■■r ;':j ■■ ' King Timon-wore' a hat ;of beaver, brown, ' And buckles of a green stone; as a king niay; choose.... ... ...... t King Timon; came iback (hush.!)-.from. London Town, ,„Iri.'a' little.bed asleeping, with lilies gold and white, ■ ': ; King Timori;lay with lilies' for his crown— ■ '. • But- hot a word' of, greeting !lie said to'us that ■. ■ night. - Kim; Timon comes ; now,.when the sun .is low, ;>. We see)him. iiif.his,' scarlet/shoes, : . and, hat of. beaver brown; ■ .: - .... ■■ And ho sings us of a land wo do not. know ;■. . V.But it's far'awaj-'ifroni'Londoii Town.'

■■■It-has been officially announced—as, howover,, had pretty! woll leaked -out before — that tho. American contribution , to tho Keats-Shelley Memorial Fund is two and a half times- as largo as that of England. To tho reasons which have been, adduced ,to account for the disconcerting inferiority in tlie English' contribution—that; the American is ' richer thaa:the Englishman,; that hp is habitually ;.a more liberal giver,' arid that lie is '"more ambitious'! (whatever that may mean) —may perhaps be added (says a writer in the,' ''Manchester. Guardian") the,, .' fact that the American- surrenders himself most frankly l to tho poetry of local; association. Tho'American tourist' at whom :the comic papers poke their fun, who in an incredibly brief time rushes: over an immense region rich in varied-historic interest is only, a, parody of.. a type ■< into whose'.' passion - for Europo. there enters'the conception of it as a. vast roofless museum crowded: with antiquities, curiosities, and - objects of; vertu. Some sentiment'of this sort, it . may be .'guessed, may account for at least:'some fractibn' ofithe £2500 that lias been so promptly forthcoming/ v Johii ' Bull is no doubt as richly furnished with this feeling as his cousm across .'thej-wa'ter,, but it is'part of his pose that ho is 'not.,'.,', Ho has "common sense" instead. '~He; plumes himself on his "practicality," and ,hence .that lopk 'of "scornful wonder!', with ,which, when! ho is demolishing slum property in order to widen tho domain of tho goddess of Hygione, lie groets the thin and too often ineffectual voices that ljid spare tho. house of Pjndarus. 'Insensibility to tliis'phaso of aesthetic sentiment,''real or 'assumed, crops up in unexpected place3.-,-ll6ssettii although Iluskin was pleased to dofino him as "an Italian tormented in. the Inferno of ;London," was in many . ways; .as his personal friends were wont < to remark, almost typically English,, and was sometimes , verymuch tho Englishman in this. One .would not have expected, at any rate,' tho poot who, wrote tho magnificent aonnet on-tho : cutting down of tho .mulberry' treo - planted by. Shakespeare, where ho' apostrophised' tho perpetrator (who' had-been-dead - a hundred years) as "the supremo unhung," to'make this comment on the pootic piety 'of Allingham: "Fancy carrying, about grasses for hours and days from the , field where Burns ploughed up the daisy! ,Good God! If I found the daisy'itself'there,' I would swallow it than bo;troubled to carry it twenty yards."

■ ' ..'A! notablo item jn tho January "Pall Mall" is tho poem,' "From Lady Byron to Hor Lord!" communicated by the Duko of Argyll, and hitherto, it is believed, unpublished. It would appear to -have been .written in 0110 of Lady Byron's; "half-relenting'? moods, and though cramped iu expression and devoid of 'music' or ; any olcvated pocfcic, merit it breathes sincerity at least. . It consists of thirteen stanzas; of which wo quote five: — No, grief is thine, ho moody madness In that mysterious bosom found; 'Tis but the" cry of savage'gladness' That'strikes, then/revels o'er the\wound.

If then, one. fonder look was given That bade mo all my hopes resume, , A meteor in the wintry heaven, 1 It marked, the, deepness of tho gloom,

Then iiko n' reptile wouldst thou spurn mo, That crossed, thy path with - 'blighting power, Nor smiles or tears 'availed to turn thee— 'Twas then the bitter cup ran o'er. .

For this mv early faith,.was plighted, For this I left a mother's eare; When scarce'the .bridal torch was lighted It sank, extinguished by despair.

Farewell! .to meet on earth—no, never 'May'(hat unhallowed wish bo prest; But let the memory pass for ever Of that fond heart that loved thee best.

NEW BOOKS AND EDITIONS. "The Cambridgo History of English Literature." Vol. I. Edited by Dr. A. W. Ward and A. R. Waller. 9s. Cain-: bridge: University Press. (Upton and Co., Auckland.)

Wo do not suppose that this valuable work will have any great number of patrons in New Zealand. But oven-in New Zealand tlie first volumo of what aims at . being, and probably will be, the greatest English Literary History, cannot be passed without notice." Tho volume under review consists of nineteen Ahapters dealing-with the period extending from the beginnings to the cycles of romance; each chapter being by. a differentwriter. The second volume,, to lie published oarly this year, will deal, the editors tell us, with 1 "Piers Plowman,'-' Richard Rollc, Wyclif and minor poetry and prose; Gower, Chaucer and the Chaucerian school; the beginnings of - English prose land Scots literature; the work of tho-Westminster Pres3, etc. Volume 111 will deal with the literature of the Tudor reigns. A fine beginning has been mado with the work, which, it should be

noted, was one of Lord ' Acton's projects. The principal dannior of Acton's very liberal doctrine that .entire freedom should be permitted to each contributor was not the risk of 'inconsistencies of tho certainty that there could bo no real unity'.of'-view,' but the probability that there might bo overlapping and wasteful confusion. .-In the days of "the beginnings" the landmarks are so clear, the country, so open,.,tho . literary,, scenery so sparse,; and perhaps, so bleak, 1 that the risk of overlapping is small..': ; At'any ; rate -it has been, avoided. :: Nobody to'whom'tho English tongue is-a splendid and living thing can resist the charm of exploration in the mists in .which' it took birth.; In'the first .'volume of this great history there'is' exploration indeed.' Not much can you see of the'process of growth—vivid and lyrically. hot' as some of thaso old poems remain, they, are still '110 more than the .uneasy stirrings of the protoplasm. In our space wb can do little 1 moro than direct all students ami lovers, of our English tongue 't'o| live a while in the faint far 'days which' this volunip traverses.; For curiosity, we. quote-f-one-of a 'thousand arresting things, amongst tho, ruins—a ' verse .from "Luve Hon," a lyric 1 ; probably written befciro 1240 A.D.: The verse (we have'modernised some'of the characters for the linotype) may bo compared with Villon's "Ballad of Ladies of Past .Time":-; : : 1

: Hwer is Paris : That were.n so br.vlit and feyre.on bleo; Aniadiis, Tristram' and Diddyne .. Yseude'and alio yeo: . " ' . . Ector with 'his' scharpe meyne • ,: ■ And Cesar.'riolip .of worldes feo? : : ! . Heo-beoth :iglyden. ut of-'ye. reyne, ■ ■ 'So ye schef is of .ye cleo; Particularly valuable-are tlie eriormpusly extensive bibliographies in ' appendix. • '

"Tho Fruit of tho Treo." Bv Edith Wharton. 2s. C'.l. Macmillan's Colonial Library. (Upton arid Co., Auckland,.) ' In her -latest .novel Mrs. .Wharton is loss successful than in her "House of Mirth." In the first placo, tho book is wanting in. homogeneity : it is three stories instead of one, and three storios, not'interwoven.into one strand, but joined to each'other, end to end. The boginning isconventional onough.. John. Amherst,. assistant .manager 'of,',an. American factory/ ardently .'hates tho . profit-making cruelty'. of tlio, conditions, imposed on tho workers, arid sets out to convince.Mrs.,Westhope, tlio. young owner of,. tho worlcs,' of tho - necessity' for' reform. : . In -tho. courso: of his advocacy, Ariiherst arid Mrs; Westhope' fall in love, and 'aro married. They _ are later 'estranged, and tragedy comes in with an. accident in which Mrs. AYosthopo is fatally injured., . Sho is attended, by. a professional nurse who is. a friend of -herself ■ and her hus-. band, arid who, ' yielding to tho entreaties' of tho sufferer, administers- an ovordoso .of' riiorphia. . She is in love with Amhert and marries' him, but sho has indiscreetly r, confessed : what-she has done in .tho matter of the ( rnpr-.; phia to': a' dissolute .doctor, who begins a 'campaign of blackmail. We must riot anticipate tlic deiiouoment. Thero is ; thus a want of "unity" in the noyelj but it'contains much: of Mrs;' Wharton's best work. It is a red-' sonablc complaint that a novelist should not so'ek to fill.in n;itlrpages.of'analysis,\vhat tho , : coriduct'- and conversation jof. the, characters shoiild' supply.'! But' if'tho analysis -is/to;bo' done, it derives a valid defence from quality.' And Mrs. Wharton's quality .'is boyond question. _.Thosow'ho delight in her incisivo ob-' .sorvation will welcome, her new: work. . "Tho Woman m tho Way." • By William Lo • Quoux. 2s; - 6d. ■, Unwin's - Colonial •-. Library. .. ■ >Ms: . ■ -". ' This book is .a chaos of' sensational events which acsumulato and involve' :: t-hemselvcs with a rapidity that keeps thq reader's mind' ■in a constant whirl/ The keynote is struck in tho first sentence: "I wonder if thiit mystery:'will ever bo solved? -But—ball!—what does i.it really matter now ?' . Another halfhour—and T shall furnish an obscuro paragraph- for ' to-morrow's papers drowned!"' Instead . Mr; Reginald Black : is . persuaded, for'a wage of : £24,000, to impersonate a certain man who is 'afterwards apparently found 1 foully murdored. Four men who we are continually told, and can easily believe," aro h'd ordinary criniirials, coriimit outrages and-riiiirders riurriberleiss, arid bring about complications in 'which tho hero Reginald, his friond; and his friend's aristocratio .sweetheart all'find their dives in [constant'- jeopardy. Naturally, virtue triuriiptis at -the. last against almost hopeless odds. ; t

'The Lone Hand." February, ipOS. "Bui letin" Publishing Co.

The February number of the "Lone ,Hand" is the'p'oorest'-to'date. 'The-Verses 1 a're' less, good than usual, and the stories are quite, feeble. Mr. Arthur Adams's contribution is, incredibly, amateurish, and thoroughly, abBurd. Even ■ Mr.' Edward Dyson is flagging. His "Battlers, and a Bear" are this time engaged in a dull riot that does not ovon amuse/, and lie. even makes, absent-minded, mistakes,over names. A feature of the issue is .a cold re-hasli of 'tho, newspaper, accounts of thp. Dundoriakl wreck: A useful'article is contributed, by "Nationalist" on the position of the. Federal High Court in relation to tho Constitution.-

Tho School Journal. Vol. 11, No. 1, Parts I • to 111. Wellington : Governmont Printer. ' These little pamphlets, the'latest product of an .undertaking lately tho subject of much criticism, are obviously sent to tho Press for independent review. Briefly, they aro made. •up of poor stuff. Poorly written, ,dull<fbr the' most part,' and greatly, inferior:in: every way to the ' standard "Readers," they seem to represent a great waste of paper arid energy. Unless children have.changed of late, we cannot conceive a little; tot of oight' or nine feeling any love forth©-plain 16 pages of Part I. Was it not tho immprtal Alice who could not conceivo tlie uao of'a book' without , pictures and conversations? Part 111- iB composed of stiff'and stilted 'addresses,■ by whom written wo do not know, :on very stodgy subjects: | : "But the Baltic rivers cut out a channel between .'Denmark 'and Scandinavia,'arid then, turning northwards,' scooped out an estuiry which was close to tho south-west of Norwiiyj and occupied tho North Sea valltsy already referred to." Our hopes of a great New Zealand nation in tho future forbid us to believe that any child likes such juioeloss faro as this, or can greatly profit by it.-

"Lisheen; or the Test of the Spirits." By Canon Shcohan.V 2s. ' 6d. Longman's Colonial Library. (Upton and Co., Auckland.) • • . .

This is another of Canon Sheehan's Irish novels, in which the author winds his sympathetic knowledge of the Irish peasant and tho prieat round a corc of religious purpose, Tho story is of the experiences of a young Irish landlord who has been driven by his study of Tolstoi into the experiment of ibecoming a labourer; upon his own estate; The author has a pleasant, stylo, and the storytelling faculty; but lie has not tho brilliance of imaginative characterisation that ■ distinguishes, tho author whom ho necessarily suggests for comparison, Father Benson. His ■treatment of Smart" Society is by no.means so' successful' as his tender 'drawing of tho peasants of his country.