LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1981, 11 February 1892, Page 43

LITERARY NOTES.

Mr Froude's new book on "The Divorce of Catherine of Arragon "gives " the story as told by the Imperial Ambassadors resident at the court of Henry VIII, in vsum laioorum." It is intended, be says, to serve as a supplementary volume to his "History of England." Mark Twain's works have long been translated into the German language. The humourist is popular in the Fatherland, ai d no people appreciate more deeply and sincerely his essay upon the German language than Germans familiar with the English tongue. Professor Salmone, who has lately been travelling in the East, is going to bring out a work on "Mohammedan Dominion, Pdst and Present.' 1 It will be in two parts, the first treating of the character, customs, and folk-lore of the Arab-speaking subjec's of Turkey, and the second of the government and condition of the country in the past and present. — Athenaeum. The friends at Cambridge of " compulsory Greek" have been rallying their forces during the Long Vacation. They had a meeting at Profes3or Jebb'g house, where they-de-cided that tbe study of Greek literature would languish if Greek were made a subject ojjiioriMl for the pollmarj, and they have since ishued an appeal to 81l members of the Senate whom they conbider likely to favour their view. — Athenteam.

Mr Murray, the well-known Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the Biituh Museum, has written an illustrated "Handbook of Greek Archaeology," in which le deals with sculptures, paintings, gem«, va°es, bronzes, and architecture. The handbook is founded on Mr Murray's very able lecture^ on Greek archaeology which he delivered at Edinburgh last year, but they have been so much enlarged that they are practically quite a new work. Mr Arch. Grove a few months ago purchased two hitherto unpublished M V S. of Carlylc's which had been given by him to a former eecretary, and which are believed to be genuine. The one is an unfinished novel

or story, the characters in which can mostly be recognised as contemporaries or acquaintances of Carljle's; the other is a short account of an " Excursion to Paris "in 1851. The latter paper will be published in the New Review for October and November, and the novel later on.— Atbenasum. More than 30 editions have appeared of Dean Ramsay's " Scottish Reminiscences," the success and popularity of which may be reckoned among the "cariosities of literature." The book was first issued in a cheap form, being the report of two lectures, delivered at the request of the late Catherine Sinclair, at a benevolent institution. The sale was very slow, probably because the lecture had been fully reported in the local newspaperp, but gradually the edition was sold. It bad been well advertised, and the other expenses of production were co large that the publication did not bring much profit. The publisher, (Afr David Douglas (editor of "Sir Walter Scott's Private Journal"), brought out a 3econd edition, also^at a cheap price, and with every advantage of printing and external appearance. This edition remained on the shelves unsold, and, in fact, proved a dead failure. The publisher, having faith in the book, and ..unwilling that so interesting a series of persoml recollections of old times should^be lost, determined to enlarge the book, and to bring out an edition at 6s. He himself gave many additional anecdotes, and others were supplied by Robert Chalmers, a generous act in bin:, inasmuch as a somewhat similar book by his brother, William Chalmers, had not proved a [ successful venture. The patriotic spirit of Mr Douglas was amply rewarded. At once the | book become popular. Anecdotes of Scottish wit and humour, as well as the personal reminiscences of past times, were spread through the world under the name of Dean Ramsay. The genial and honoured dean lived to enjoy the success of the book ; and he used to tell of his delight in getting hia first honorarium for literary work, when the author and publisher divided one guinea each as the "profits" of the first edition of "Scottish Reminiscences." I IMPROVING SHAKESPEARE. After the Restoration every fop thought he could mend Shakespeare. Good poets, bad poets, and men who were no poets at all, dressed Shakespeare's plajs afresh to make them what the shallow poetasters of their own age — the French classical Midases and clever rakes — considered to be passable. These men had no power over the real strength of the English people, which was as marked in the reign of Charles II as in the years befere. They could not stop John Milton from 1 writing "Paradise Lost," or John Bunyan from writing •' The Pilgrim's Progress"; bub they did susceed in putting down the English drama. Sir William Davenant thought that I Shakespeare's " Tempest " would be much improved if there were added to it a character of a woman who had never seen a man, another character of a man who had never seen a woman. He suggested this fine notion to Dryden, then a younger man, who actually worked it out, and found it necessary to include another woman who had never seen a man, to be paired at the end of the play with the man who had never seen a woman, because among Shakespeare's characters there was nobody who would serve as a wife for him. Otway laid his hands upon Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," and gave it the "classical" turn then in fashion, by transforming it into •' The History and Fall of 1 Caius Marius," where Romeo was transformed into a Marius Junior, and Juliet into a Lavinia. Shad well recast " Timon of AtheDS," which he said " has the inimitable hand of Shakespeare in it, which never made more masterly strokes than in this. Yet I can truly say, I have made it into a play " 1 Nahum Tate altered " King Lear " and 11 Coriolanus." " Macbeth ' was furnished by Sir William Davenant with new soogs, Locke's music, and a liberal display of ballet dancers ; and Dryden, who altered " Troilus and Cressida " and " The Tempest," spent some of his best work on a new version of Shakespeare ! s " Antony and Cleopatra," which he understood so little — readiDg it according to the sensual fashion of his day— that he called it "All for Love, or the World Well Lost," when Shakespeare meant the direct opposite 10 that— "All for Lusr, or the World 111 Lost."— From " CasselFs Library of English Literature."

— Your frier ds may not know m i h, but they know what they would do if ihty were in your pla^e.

— Kctind Business Man : "I' a -a ich at last, and I'm going to find a peif. ct; climate to live in." Great, Traveller : "Giod idei! I've always held that when a nr.n retires from business he shouMionmed'a'cly 'ake ip something that will kcej) ln'm (ciuped £>r the rest of his life."

— It; is 'rue that man is the architect of h^own fortune; but he canno' got the turns in cvt.r> - room.

— Merely a Detail.— Miss Meddl»: "So you don't a lo c your husband to worry about household expenses?" Mrs Plunger : "No ; he inTd'y pays the bill?."

— It is estimated that there are now about 150,000 Mormons iv the United States, but many are only nominally so.