LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8162, 25 January 1890, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

Professor Alfred Holder is going to publish a thesaurus of old Celtic. _ Madame Potnmery, of Rheims, has purchased Millet's "Glaneuses" from M. Bischoffsheiin for 300,000f., and intends to send it to the Louvre as a consolation for the loss of the " Angelus." The " Pilgrim's Progress" has just been translated into the language of Abyssinia by a young man of Florence. This is the eighty-fourth distinct language in which the immortal work is now read. The historian Professor K. Biedermann seems to write the history of Germany backward. Some time ago he published a work entitled "Dreissig Jahro Deutscher Geschichte,lß4obislß7l," and the Athenaeum understands that he will issue shortly another work, under the title of " Funfundzwanzig Jahre Deutscher Geschichte, 1815 bis 1840. ' ? A niece of the late Charles Reado is shortly to bring out a novel which will have for its main object the exposure of many trials and temptations that beset the ordinary circus girl. Miss A. Read© is said to inherit a huge share of her uncle's remarkable talent, and the new version of "Slaves of tho Ring" is likely to make its mark in the literary world. It is rumoured (writes tho London correspondent of the Manchester Courier) that among the papers of the late Mr. Matthew Arnold a large number of poems have been found, many of which are of such excellence and finish that in the opinion of his literary executors they ought to be given to the world. It is certainly to be hoped that any posthumous works which may be issued will not detract in any way from the fame o' tho author, and that nothing will be published which he himself would have regarded as crude and immature. Professor Lubke gives in the Allgemeine Zeitung an account of the little picture lately " bought for a song" at Gunzburg, in Swabia,and since acquiredby thePiuakothek at Munich, under the idea that it is a genuine early Leonurdo. The Madonna, a figure in three-quarters length, a trifle under life-size, sits in a room, holding the naked Child in her lap. The Infant grasps with both hands at a carnation which His Mother is offering Him with her left. Through the window is seen an Alpine landscape. On the left of tho Madonna is a flower-glass. The original manuscript of the " Voyage of Captain Popanilla," the second of Lord Beaconstield's early stories, was (says the Manchester Guardian) recently discovered among the papers of Mrs. Austen, who died in June of last year. Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Austen were friends of Isaac Disraeli, and tho future Premier confided to Mrs. Austen his hopes and ambitions as a novelist. She was a woman of decided literary ability, and was accustomed to correct the proofs of the earlier romances of " Disraeli the younger." The manuscript of " Captain Popanilla" is entirely in the autograph of Lord BoHCon?ti«ld, and consists of nineteen chapters. It was written in 1828. Sir John Willoughby's volume, "East Africa and its Big Game," which Messrs. Longman are going to publish, is the narrative of a sporting trip from Zanzibar to the borders of the Masai, made on the invitation of Sir Robert G. Harvey 1886-87. It is illustrated by Mr. G. D. Giles, and Mrs. Gordon Hake has furnished sketches from photographs taken by the author. The volume is dedicated to the Prince of Wales.

A translation of the new edition of Professor Franz Delitzsch's "Commentary on Isaiah" will shortly be issued by Messrs T. and T. Clark, of Edinburgh. This edition, dedicated to Professors Cheyne and Driver, has been thoroughly revised throughout. The translation will be executed by tho Rev. W. Hastie, B. D.

Amongst the recent additions to the collections in the South Kensington Museum is an embroidered cope, English work of the commencement of tho fourteenth century, representing the genealogy of Christ. In the centre, at the f' ot, .Jesse is portrayed lying asleep; from his side springs a tree, the main steins of which encircle figures of David, Solomon, and the Blessed Virgin and Child. Branches from these spread over tho entire vestment,encircling with their foliage figures of other kings, patriarchs, and prophets. The embroidery is executed in point refundu, the faces beintr worked in circular lines starting from the centre ; hence an apparent indentation in the cheeks, which has often been said, quite erroneously, to have been produced by the use of an iron.