NEWS AND NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15521, 31 January 1914, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS AND NOTES.

At, Sotheby's recently the Burns . manuscript! folio of/The Three Beggars," was offered, and .the highest bid was £200. About two years ago this M.S. realised £490. one of; the, Huth sales. -It bad been purchased by Mr. Henry Huthfor £12 in the -'sixties. '- • ; '. , / 'On.the face of* No.. ,56 Groat, Queen Street, London,. there is a ■ tablet announcingfthafc'Bbswell once"lived there. Tradition has it that 1 many other" famous'peoplehaye' lived there too; including Hudson the master,of Joshua "Reynolds; Perdita (Mrs. Robinson],' R: Brinsley Sheridan. and Kitty OTrVe.-.Tnc-house, with the one adjoining, was •'acguired" by the • Freemasons • some yoarsago, and'when, the lease expires next yearit'Tsintended.toipull it down and put lip hew''. buildings. ■ 1 Another 'loss 1 to the bookloyer's London. . •--' • ... The late > Stanley. Houghton, . author of "Hindie Wakes," was 1 born in J. 881; and was : son of'a Manchester merchant. Ha Was; educated at .Wilmsldw College, gained honours in the Cambridge Locals, and then went to Bowden College, and the Manchester Grammar SchooL He was a deli-cate-boy, and during enforced absence from school,' wrote a sort of "Treasure Is-land-Story.'.'. He also ran a household newspaper in which, matters, as the arrival of the , greengrocer, baker, and'butcher were*recorded; in the commercial columns. For a/.time he' was,on,the-Manchester Exchange, but. never liked business. He was an .amateur actor, -and quite early on he collaborated in; two plays with Mr. Frank Nasmyth. .One was played by the Athenaeum Society,, and the ether was produced by Mr. Flanagan. He wrote the librettos </f amateur comic operas. Then ho took to dramatic, criticism for the Manchester Cit) News, and later was a critic of the Manchester Guardian, For that paper he wrote articles from time to time, "Hawthorn Lodge," and "Other People's Windows," being. well worth reading. In November 19Q8. his real career as a play-writer began with. "The. Dear Departed" at the Gaiety Theatre, and so was launched on a successful career as a dramatist. Byron's famous poem, "The Prisoner of Chillon," is supposed to be written by Bonnivard, the Genevan patriot, whilst he was incarcerated in the Chateau of Chillon, on the shores of the lake. But the poem was really written at ' lightning ' speed whilst Byron was imprisoned by inclement weather for a, nisrht and a day in the neighbourhood. Nevertheless, some notable literary achievements have been really written in jail, undoubtedly the. most outstanding being two of the world's greatest classics, "The Adventures of Don Quixote," and the "Pilgrim's Progress." Thomas Cooper, the Chartist, whose life reads like a romance, and whose.name is held in reverence 'by modern reformers, wrote a remarkable poem while he wa3 laying in prison, on account of his political agitation. This poem bears the remarkable title of "The Pureatory of Suicides," and when it..was published it created a very considerable stir in the literary world, for it had emanated from the brain of a man who had, begun life as a cobler;and had made himself. master pf the Greek language and literature. .. Another remarkable poem.-written in prison is "The Ballad of Reading. JaiJ." by Oscar Wilde, 1 whose remarkable and most sombre book. "De Prof.undis," was.also written there. These two hooks are . amongst the saddest records in the history of- literature. . It ought not to Hi-, forgotten that one of the greatest' let tjrs.,_eye'r written was penned in a dungeon m\Rome....This Epistle of St.; Paul to,"the' C6Jossians,,'a. piece of literature, quite apart' from . its , sacred : character, which is very j hard"- to'ljeat. ' ,' '' '