NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 532, 12 June 1909, Page 9

NOTES.

A lively correspondence is going on in the "Bookseller" as to tho publication of sevenpenny copyright novels. , Messrs. Macmillan recently announced that they are to enter the field, and the trade generally appear to be offering considerable opposition. At a meeting of publishers of novels, held in Stationers' Hall in November last, it was resolved to take steps to stop tho "Sevenpenny" movement. A small committeo was appointed to meet a committeo of tho Authors' Society, and the matter is still under consideration by the latter body.'Messrs. Macmillan state that they have been compelled to bring out "Sevenpennies," owing : to tho pressure brought to Dear upon them by their authors. How should the name of "Pepys" bo pronounced P It has always been a vexed point, and Mr. Percy Lubbock, the latest bio.grapher of the famous diarist, refers to tho matter in the preface to his book just issued. There is, ho tells us, no authority whatever fo"r "Peps," the form generally used: "The diarist himself almost certainly pronounced his name as 'Peeps'; it is still bo. pronounced by the family of Pepys Cockerell, who descend from his sister, and this form is traditional at Magdalene. On the other hand, it is probablo that different pronunciations wore also in use in the seventeenth century. Other branches call themselves 'Peppis,' and Mr. Wheatley shows that there is some- evidence for the form 'Paypis.'" But Mr. Lubbock, who, it may bo romarked, was Pepysian Librarian at Magdalene, declares for "Peeps." . Tho following sonnet on Swinburne by Mr. Eden Phillpotts appeared in "The Athenaeum,. — , "Children and lovers and the clond-robed sea Shall mourn him first; and then the motherland, . ' ' Weeping in silence by his empty hand And fallen sword, that flashed for Liberty. ; • Soug-bringer of a glad new minstrelsy, Ho came and found joy sleeping and swift fanned Old pagan fires, then snatched an altar brand • And wrote, 'The fearless only shall bo free!' "Oh, by the flamo that made thy heart a home, • By the wild surges of thy silver song, Seer before the sunrise,' may there couio Spirits'of dawn to light this aching wrong Called Earth! Thou saw'st them in the foreglow roam; But wo still wait and watch, still 1 thirst and long." „ ■ i . ■. • -.. .-. . A notable literary: centenary is'that of tho "Quarterly lleview," celobratcd in the current issue of that famous publication by a long special article.' Tho first editor of the "Qua-rWrly" was William Gifford,'son of a scapegrace- father, whoso fashioning of' his own fortunes'is one of tho romances of-.litera-ture. Scott was one of the earliest of tho writers for the review; rlis'most.remarkablo feat, probably, was his criticism of his unsuspected self as tho author of "Talcs of My Landlord." Other early contributors were Southcy, who used to complain bitterly of the sub-cdiiors and the omission of what he considered tho best portions of his articles; Canning, George Ellis, Sir John Barrow, and John Willaim Crokcr, tho ardent politician whom Macaulay described as "that impudent, leering Croker." Croker's notico of Kcats's "Endymion," a. short essay of only four pages, is, perhaps, tho most notorious article that ever appeared in the review. Koats's death has been attributed to tho effects of tho attack.

Mr. H. G. Wells, wlio replied to the toast of "Literature- and Drama, at the banquet of the Society of Authors the other day, said literature- was the greatest thing in human life, and ho would rather leave a living book than die rich or rtio honoured. They were threatened with a terrible Hood of cheiip literature, and as far as ho could seo authors would have- to face tho probability of very bad times in tho immediate future