LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13307, 13 October 1906, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

John* Skki-TO.v, born in 1460, became the youngest- poet laureate at the age of' 29. -• Mr. 'Maarten Maartens is bringing out a new book of short stories under the title "The Woman's Victory." It is said that • his latest novel, The Healers," has had a notable success. Mr. K. V. Lucas' first novel, " Listener's Lure, an Oblique Narration," will be published 'this month. . Mr. Lucas has tried a dangerous experiment in putting his story in the form of letters. It is a narrative of modem life. . The highest price paid during the season just past for a single sign manual was £450. for that of King Edward VI. It was attached to letters patent creating a mint and assay office in the archiepiscopal city of Westminster. It bore the- great seal of England. In a new book entitled "The Poacher's Wife" Mr. Eden Phillpotts will tell a story of love, adventure and' sport. lie scene, is laid in England and lie West Indies. The tale turns upon the struggle of a bride to relieve her husband from a charge of murder which a rival had fixed upon him. The mother-in-law, that much abused type, provides the main source of interest in Mrs. Mary Mann's next novel, " The Eg--1 a more Portraits." Mr. Arnold Bennett has written a story around the familiar problem of marriage and divorce. It will appear under the title of "Whom (led Hath Joined —." Mr. Max Pemberton has two novels in hand. One, "The Diamond Ship." a story of' romantic adventure, he will bring out next autumn. The other, a story of modern life portraying a hero suddenly transported from squalid poverty into glittering prosperity, will be printed as a serial during the coming summei. It is reported that Mr. Thomas Hardy, after temporarily abandoning fiction . for' verse, is again at work on a, novel, which will, of course, be the book of its season. It is remarkable that the personality of the man who shares with M'i\ George Meredith the position of Britain's greatest living novelist should be so little known, but Mr. Hardy was, and always will be, a recluse. The author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden" has composed a new volume which will have to show all of her charming lightness of touch if it is to triumph over the cumbrous title she has bestowed upon it. This title runs, "Fraulcin Schmidt and Mr. Anstruther, Being the Letters of an Independent Woman." The story will be printed serially before appearing in book form. Some people are never happy unless they 'j are f,idling into public notice oft the skirts ! of a great man. It "is proposed in London . that there shall be a "Thackeray Club." The best Comment on the scheme is bluntly.: made by Mr. Frederick Greenwood, who j expresses the opinion that- Thackeray would | not have liked it. But imagine that making any difference to the people who want the club! The Academy gives the following choice example of misquotation. Everyone knows Longfellow's " Resignation : " — There is no flock, however watched and tended, But one dead lamb is there. This teas given in a recent examination paper, obviously without intent to parody, as: — Their i« no flock. ln»\ vfi- watched and tended, But one black sheep is there. A new society, called the Malotie Society, has just been formed tor the printing of ..old. plays in .strict, conformity with the most authentic texts, and also for the publishing of documents and information which may be of interest to students of the old English drama. It i; hoped to issue eight or ten plays a year. The society is named after Edmund Malone, the celebrated critic, who in 1790, published an edition of Shakespere'« works, and in 1795 exposed in an octavo volume, the Shakespen-ttn imposture of the Ireland family. At a meeting of a society of " Intellectuals" in Russia the presence of a Times writer induced fiery but a courteous orator to introduce some English into his speech, and I was (says the correspondent) not a, little amazed to hear him conclude a wild tirade with a quotation from Omar Khayyam : — Would but some winged mgel, ere too late, Arrest the yet unfolded Roll of fate. And make the stern Recorder otherwise Enregister or quite obliterate! Ah love! could thou and I with Fate conspire To grasp this sorry te.heme of things entire. Would not wo shatter it to bite—and then j Remould it neater to the heart's desire! • Another portentous " find" is recorded, i The book of household expenses kept it Longwood, the scene of Napoleon's captivity, has been brought to light, and from it Mr. V. K. Shorter has gathered that eggs cost 5s a dozen at St. Helena at that time. The great man would place his initial on the page after he had reduced the pounds to francs. Mr. Shorter's soul is deeply stirred. "Altogether," he exclaims, "'tis a far cry from the victories of Austerlitz and Jena. That the greatest master of detail the modern world has known should have devoted his mind to considering the price of eggs and chickens and to turning shillings into francs surely has in it an abundance of food for reflection." It was clever of Mr. Shorter to think of that. P|-o?c»u»r ester's complaint that .science Is to-day ''.'regarded for the sake of the insidious cult of amusement suggests to the Pail Mall Gazette that it is fair to ask the scientist if he and his brethren have played their own inseparable and necessary part in raising their pursuit to its proper place in the economy of civilisation: — " Science and art and every other influence, on human life must in the main fight their own battles; i'aeir destiny can never be achieved under Uw cloak of patronage and external enhancsiy,- 1 '! The golden age of popular interest hi the pursuit of knowledge was realised not through any high tide of popular virtue, but under the impetus of great expositors from within the ranks of science itself. Is it not the case that scientific men have lost sight of that department of their mission which should bring the fruits of research vividly home to the unlettered and the unlearned, as was done with such magnificent power by Huxley and his contemporaries? A story is nothing to the world until it is- told, "and science has somewhat lost its b >'d upon the art of narrative. How many presidential addresses to the British Association, for instance, have been marked by the power, or even the desire, to emulate' Professor Lankesters brilliant and moving synopsis of. the tale which has neither beginning nor end?"