LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1935, 26 March 1891, Page 32

LITERARY NOTES.

" Ten Years at the Equator, and My return with Emm Pasha " is to be the title of the work in which Major Casati, the Italian companion of Emm Pasha in Central Africa, is to defend the Pasha and belabour Stanley. The premises taken by Messrs A. and C. Black, of Edinburgh, in Nos. 4, 5, and 6, Soho square, were used, says the Athenseum, as a commissary store during the Peninsular war, and at the subsequent peace they were turned into a bazaar, the first of its kind in London, where the widows and orphans of deceased officers were provided with the means of earning an independent livelihood. The block of buildings is extensive, and well suited to a large business. George R. Sims, the favourite writer of melodramas, has confessed that during the 1 past 10 years he has received for only one of his numerous plays £4357 for the London rights, £6720 for provincial rights, £12,000 for America, and £600 from Australia. Against this may be set the fact that Henry - Irving alone received, without asking, about 300 so-called plays from dramatic aspirants' —chiefly amateur, of course.

It is not generally realised to what an extent newspaper work is done by women in" England. In London alone there are said to be over 18,000 newspaper women, and the Ladies' School of Journalism turns out fresh workers at the rate of 200 a term. There are 22 press clubs where these ladies meet and read, lunch, and exchange notes. Under ■ these circumstances it is a foregone conclusion that successes aie few, and that' salaries are for the most part very small.

The history of the first navigation of the globe and the life of its hero have just been narrated, with ample research, by F. H. H." Guillemard in " The Life of Ferdinand' Magellan," a recent addition to Messrs Philip and Son's excellent series, "The World's' Great Explorers and Explorations/ This is, the first ' English biography of Magellan, and is worthy of its subject. There are 17 very good illustrations, and, what are even better,. 18 carefully-executed maps. Nothing has been omitted that could prove of service to' the reader, for even the index is on an' unusually complete scale.

Lord Melbourne's letters to his mother as' a young man constantly contain oaths and' phrases which, however excusable in youth, are unnatural in a son's correspondence with his mother. His wife complained that "he never treated her seriously." What he was as son and husband he proved as Minister: The Oriental precept, "When you are in 1 doubt whether an action is good or bad,' abstain from it," was raised by him into a policy. His eternal question, " Cannot you leave it alone ? " disposed of every project of reform or improvement ; while his reflection' that " Nobody ever did anything very foolish? except from strong principle " seemed to^ make those reforms which justice the most* required the most inexpedient. — Speaker.

In the Fortnightly Mr Edmund Gosse does his best to maintain and extend the Ibsen craze by an article on the Norwegian drama' tist's new drama, entitled " Hedda Gabler." The heroine does not seem to be a very preJ possessing sort of character, but probably, represents a feminine type not altogether incredible, if we consider the influences that/ are now at work. In her we see the religious idea violently suppressed under the pretext of a longing for liberty. Instead of religion, morality, and philosophy, her head is peevishly stuffed with an amalgam of Buddhism and Schopenhauer. Even the beautiful conventions of manners are broken down, and the suppression of all rules of conduct seems the sole road to happiness. Mr Mounteney Jephson proposes to tell " the trath about Stanley and Emm Pasha," in reply to Dr Peters' recent article in the Contemporary. There is some melodious verse by Mr Swinburne, which it is possible to read without catching one's breath and going through other vocal gymnastics ; and an admirably suggestive article (by Mr, E. M; Bowden) on "Scientific Sins," which certain scientists might profitably study. Mr, Meredith continues to puzzle bis readers with cryptic language in his new novel; " One of Our Conquerors."