A DELVE INTO THE BOOK-BAG

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 15 June 1935, Page 14

A DELVE INTO THE BOOK-BAG

London newspapers praise Mr Jqck Lipdsay’s novel, "Last Plays With Cleopatra,” which has been published by Ivor Nicholson. The author is the eldest son of 3Tr Norman Lindsay, the artist. •

The hells of the ancient church of St. Oswald,; in Grasmere, Westmoreland (where Wordsworth spent fifty years of his life), were heard in n broadcast to America on April 7, the anniversary of the poet’s birthday.

The vear 1935 marks the fourth centenary of the appearance in print of the first complete Bible in English. This was Coverdale’s translation of 1535, sometimes known as The Treacle Bible on account of its rendering ‘‘l's there no treacle in Gilead.” The Bug Bible is another name or it, from the translation in the Psalms, "Ihou slialt not nede to f>e afrayed for eny bugges by night,” though it is at the "treacle” rendering a copy lies open in the church of Minister in Kent.

Soane years ago (says a- contributor to tile "Illustrated Sporting and 1 Dramatic News”) a, correspondence school of journalism achieved a brief notoriety by publishing the remark that "a preposition is a very bad' word to end a sentence with.” The writer, however, must now pale his ineffectual fires beside the small girl who said to her nurse on seeing that the latter had brought a very dull book for the evening’s reading: "Oh, Nanny, what did you want to bidng that book to read to me out of from for?”

Eighty Americans, representing varied fields of endeavour, have formed themselves into a national committee to honour the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mark Twain, which falls on November 30. The committee is under the honorary chairmanship of Pi’esident Roosevelt. Among the observances which the committee will promote during the year is a nation-wide school programme, leading up to a "Mark Twain Day” on November 1. Mr Rudyard Kipling is expected to head a British committee.

Mr Stephen Leacock has completed a book telling how it is done. In "Humour and Its Theoiy and Technique,” the author maintains that the first joke known to mankind was the ono which is still a favourite with the comic strip artists and the slapstick comedians. He says that the primitive man who first cracked the enemy over the head with a club and shouted "Ha! Ha!” was the first humorist. Having- thus disposed of tile first joke, Mr Leacock goes on to say that the end of the world will he the last one. "All ends with the cancellation of forces and comes to nothing, and our universe will expire with one vast, silent, unappreciated joke.”

A. great theatrical controversy has arisen over the performance of a modernised version of “Hamlet” at the Betty Nansen Theatre, Copenhagen (says the London “Daily Telegraph”). Mr Kaj Munk, a young Danish dramatist, who is the clergyman of a small village in Jutland, has remodelled Shakespeare’s play very freely, introducing a number of references to the present political situation. The main idea is “Something is rotten in the State of Denmark.” Hamlet’s father is represented to be a Prime Minister, and Claudius, who killed his brother through jealousy, instead of poison uses electrical murder weapons or Press attacks. Fortinbras is a Fascist, who arrives in an aeroplane to save Denmark from the failure of democracy and the Parliamentary system.

Hans Fallada, author of “Little Man, What Now?” and “Who Once Eats Out of the Tin Bowl,” has finished another novel, as yet without a title. This new book will not be published until 1930, but Erie Sutton’s translation of “Once We Had a Child,” the successor to “Who Once Eats Out of the Tin Bowl,” will be ready for autumn publication this year.

A MONUMENTAL WORK Soon will appear the first instalment of a monumental work, which will be the most important publishing enterprise of its kind since the Dictionary of National Biography.” This instalment will consist of three of the 40 volumes to be issued at intervals during the next ten years which, when completed, will constitute a history of the British Parliament and of British democratic institutions for the period between 1264 and 1918. The responsibility for the whole undertaking rests with a distinguished committee, on which members of all the political parties are serving under the chairmanship of the Lord Chancellor. The publication will be official, and the Treasury has insisted that the committee must have £15,000 in hand towards the total cost of £40,000 before publishing begins, Of this sum more than £II,OOO has been raised by subscriptions, mainly from peers and present and former members of the House of Commons. The editor of the first three volumes is Colonel Josiah Wedgwood, M.P., who has been engaged for 30 years on research work in preparation for this enterprise.

The primary purpose of this .great history will be to supply lists and biographies, as far as possible, of all persons who have ever sat in parliament from its beginning until the end of the World War. The eomplaition of such lists has been difficult, for in many cases records are not complete or even non-existant. One of the first three volumes will consist of biographies of the 2GOO known members of the Parliaments that met between

'1439 and 1509—the important period that covers the Wars of the Roses. It is believed that there were 3800 members during that period, but particulars have not been discovered of more than 2000. The scope of the work will also include an exhaustive account of the electorate, the methods adopted at elections, changes in parliamentary procedure, methods of legislation, the growth and decline in the power of both Houses, and other matters of importance to the student of constitutional history.