LITERARY GOSSIP.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 5199, 13 February 1904, Page 10

LITERARY GOSSIP.

A new edition foi\ schools of tho first book of “Palgravo’s Golden Treasury of Songs an,:! Lyrics,” covering the "Elizabethan period, with introduction and explanatory and critical notes by .Mr J. H. Fowler, of Clifton College, will shortly be issued by Messrs Macmillan and Co. Messrs Macmillan will also publish “Tho Divine Vision,” a volume of lyrics by the Irish poet and mystic known as “JE.”

“My Debut as a Literary Person” will be the titles of Mark Twain's next volume. It will contain essays and stories, some of which bavo not hitherto appeared in book lorm.

Messrs Longmans have in the press a work that should prove interesting. It is entitled “Duchess Sarah: Doing tho Social History of tho Times of Sarah Jennings. Duchess of Marlborough, with Glimpses of Her Life and Anecdotes of Her Contemporaries in tho Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.” It has boon compiled and arranged by one of her descendants, Mrs Arthur Colville. A volume of “Cambridge Theological Essays” is in preparation, and will bo published by Messrs Macmillan and Co. The essays will bo contributed by Cambridge residents, and a few other graduates who aro in touch with the life and thought of tho University. Tho book will represent tho views of scholars who aro responsible for the theological teaching of Cambridge upon some of tho greater questions connected with theology and religion.

Amobg other forthcoming books of Messrs Longmans’ are: _ “Tho Gorman Emperor’s Speeches: Being a selection from tho Speeches, Edicts, Letters and Telegrams of tho Emperor William II.,” translated hy Louis Elkind, M.D.

A farthing damages was tho verdict of a special jury at the Birmingham Assizes in tho action for libel brought by Miss Mario Corelli, tho author of “Tho Sorrows of Satan” and other works, against, first, a tailor and draper of Stratford-on-Avon who had dared to insinuate against her a charge of acting from haso and petty, motives in her defence of Shakespeare’s birthplace, and against., secondly, tho proprietor of tho local “Herald,” in which the latter appeared. Tho writer had had the audacity to hint that there was a time when Miss Corelli was in favour of a free library in Henley street, “but it would have been a Corelli instead of a Carnegie library.” Yet her counsel asked only for moderate damages, and tho jury awarded a farthing, with the intimation that they in tended it not to carry costs! When asked by the judge if they would have liked to say, “Six of one and half-a-dozon of the other.” their foreman answered, “Exactly”! Common prudence suggests extreme caution in commenting upon a quarrel of this delicate description. It certainly affords an opportunity for remarks, but tho old adage, 'least said soonest mended” seems to apply. From a communication in another journal wo gather that Miss Corelli is notdissatisfied with the result of the litigation, and that at least is something to the good.

An interesting feature of Sir TVlmund Gesso’s monograph on O'eremy Taylor (to bo issued shortly in Messrs Macmillan s “English Mon of Letters Series”).is his rejection of Ladr Wray's reminiscences of the Bishop, said to bare been yritton in 1732, and more or less utilised by

every previous "biographer. Mr Gosse has arrived at the conclusion that the reminiscences are apocryphal, “Tho Dynasts: a Drama of tlio Napoleonic "Wars.” is, according to ‘‘The Times,” tho title of Mr Thomas Hardys new poetical drama. Mr Hardy explains that tho work is intended for the study and not for the stage. Among the “machinery” of the drama aro “phantom intelligences,” “recording angels,” “spirits sinister and ironic,” and Napoleon, Nelson, George HI., Josephine and Queen Charlotte arc among the characters. There are three parts, nineteen acts, a hundred and thirty scenes, and more than -a hundred characters. In Mr John Long’s series of “Modern Classics” we have, following up Anthony Trollope’s ‘Three ' ‘ Clerks,” Charles Koades “Cloister and the Hearth. ■’ This, as our readers are probably aware, is a novel of unusual length. Anyhow, it occupies here six hundred and seven-ty-two pages; not far off three hundred thousand words, wo imagine. Add to this amount of typo sixteen goc-d illustration and a portrait of the author, and it must bo allowed that 3s not for the volume bound in leather and 2s in cloth, is a marvel cf cheapness.