LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10009, 21 December 1895, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

Mr. E. T. Reed's "Prehistoric Peeps," which delighted readers of Punch, arc about to be published in book form. Only a limited edition will be issued, and this, we understand, will be in au elaborate dress. Two pictures, small, bub of great value, hare been stolen from the gallery at Mans. One is an " Adoration of the Mngi," a 16th century Florentine work, and tho other is an exquisite littlo work on copper by Franz Franck, a Flemish painter of the 17th century. There is to be a new English edition of Byron in ten beautiful volume*, arranged by W. E. Henley. This publication is undertaken upon the conviction that the public " has had oncugh of fluent minor lyrists, and hide-bound (if suporior) sonneteers," and is ready logo back to a really groat poet. Two more Blubs of atone, inscribed with words and music, have been found in the treasury of the Athenians at Delphi by the French. By using some of the fragments previously disoovered, a second hymn to Apollo, with its notes, has boon put together. The date is after the conquest of Greece by the Romans. The Greeks seem to have used twenty-one notes in their musical notation, where wauso only twelve The Dundee Advertiser announces that discoveries of the first importance to biographical literature have just boon made in Dundee. They consist in the unearthing of a packet of letters, which, among others of proat intrinsic value, include a missing and long-sougbtfor letter written by Sir Walter Scott to his biographer, Lockhart, and another from the pen of Lord Tennyeon to Professor Wilson. The letters are in the possession of Mr. James Falccnor, 142, Nefchergate, brother of Mr. C. M. Falconer, and a well known antiquarian Do a literary man's politics affect tho circulation of his books? Mr. Justin McCarthy, in an "interview" with him in the Young Man, declares that he " became extremely unpopular" after allying himself with tho Nationalist cause:—" The circulation of my books went down rapidly, and for a long time ray literary position was seriously affected. 1 had not counted on this; it has, however, passed away now." A curious fact is mentioned by Mr. McCarthy, connected with, his first appearance in print:—"lt was a love-story, and tho scene was laid in the Black Water. I forget) the titlo of the story, and I forgot what became of the lovers, but 1 romomber that one of the characters in the book was ' Mr. Parnell.' Ido not know why I chose that name, and I think of it now us a singular coincidence." 1 Mr. George Red way's littlo book, entitled " How to Write Fiction," has a somej what interesting history. It seems that the > author received from a lady with literary aspirations a requosb for helpful advice. Somothint/ in her letter attracted him, and for the sake of a whim he offored to give her a course of instruction on certain conditions. She aocepted his offer; he wrote a series of letter?, and to his surprise tho effect upon her work was so marvellous that when she offered her first contribution to the editor of ono of our great magazines it was eagerly accepted. This opened the jesting author's eyes -he began to gain confidence in his own ability to instruct; so with his pupil's co-operation he elaborated tho letters into a book, which is the one shortly to be published for the benefit of other aspirants. In a critical notice of Mr. Harrison S. Morris' "Madonna and Other Pooms," the Atbensoum says:—"Few affinities are there here to Italian, none to religious art; the inspiration is rather of Greece, as Greece presented itself to the poetic eyes of Keats, Keats, indeed, is tho formative inlluenco throughout [he book ; here are his ecstasies and his languors, his softly-rounded melody, his opulence of sensuouß epithet. Of philosophy or reflection thero is but littlo in Mr. Morris' moods— enough, perhaps, to edge emotion and givo a keener pang to sense. It is a pagan muse, singing of faun and hamadryad, of green oaks and greener grass, lingering over tho raft forms of clouds and the flush of sunset, amorous of the year in all its seasons of fluting spring and moaning autumn. The more meditative poems are fall of dainty transcripts from nature, of ft Music toWmuw de< liMfcly.".