LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1994, 12 May 1892, Page 38

LITERARY NOTES.

" Uncle Tom'a Cabin" still finds readers. An American publishing company are abouo to issue an edition of 160,000.

Mrs Humphry Ward (according to the Bookman) has already received in all from various sources something like LIB,OOO for "Divid Grieve."

Mrs Jalia A. Carney, of Galesburg, 111., is not widely known in the world of letters, and yet she is the author of that interesting little poetical morceau beginning " Little drops of water, little grains of sand,' &c. Lord Tennyson, is said to be greatly angered at the book in which Mr Cburron Collins seems, at any rate, to bring against bim a charge of plagiarism. Th:s is a charge which has always bad the most irritating effect upon the poet. "These writer*," he said to a friend, on the occasion when he was last made the subject of a similar charge — " these writers are the lice on the locks of literature."

Mr W. C. Hazlitt his jusi completed for Messrs Swaq.Sonnenscbein and Co. a volume of " Tales and Legends," which may be considered national either by origin or naturalisation. Ey reducing the narratives to a uuif^rm p r ose form, and clothing them in characteristic diction, he has endeavoured to piistiiit many favourite stories of our ancestors in a more readable and attractive shape. In all c.ises ho has embodied, a< far as possible, the latest information on each subject, and the version of Robin Hood, it is believcf3, now presents; to the general reader for the first time in its true light the outlines of the career of that famous ballad hero.

Miss Amyc R j a<le, who has for some time past devoted her attention to the condition of young girls who arc being trained for acrobats, gymnasts, and circus life, has just completed a new novel, entitled " Slaves of the Sawdust," dedicated by permission to the poet laureate, Lord Tennyson. Ie deals with the same subject as her last novel, " Ruby," which created sufficient interest to cause a meeting of some 50 or 60 members of Parliament to be held in one of the committee rooms of the House of Commonp, when Miss Reade produced evidence and explained the whole subject. In is probiMe that gome measure may be introduced this session "dealing wiui the people who are " waxing fat" upon child labour in the show bu?ine<B.

Mr A S. Coi'iy. as an American, informs us, in a letter addressed to the editor of The Times, that '• the mass of England's nineteenth oentury literature will be dead and buried within two centuries, unless we Americans rescue it from the mass of vagueness and verbiage in which it already languishes,' If by "literature" Mr Cody means printed books be may take it for

granted that be .need not wait for two centuries to witness the death and banal of " the mass of England's nineteenth cantury literature " ; it is already dead, and decently buried, and wo earnestly beg of him to let it rest in peace. But the gems that survive will need no artificial sustenance on either side of the broad Atlantic.

QUEEN ELIZABETH AND QUEEN MAHY.

The book of last week (says a Homo paper) which is attracting the largest measure of attention is "Queen Klizibe-h." by Professor Beesly, the eminent Poxit vis% .which is published as one of tho scries of •'Twelve English Statesmen," odircd by Mr John Morley, and published by ihiMessis Mtomillan. The profescor, in his monograph, draws a sharp distinction between Elizabeth the queen and Elizabeth the woman. „

The former, to his mind, was the incarnation of good scqsc and cautious patriotism. Ho will have it. that siie was wiser than all her wise counsellors, and in her whole career of s-titesmauship he hardly acknowledges a mistake.

" Her coolne.s?," he says, " her intrepidity, her correct estimate of the forces with which she had to deal, her magnificent c mfidence in her own judgmsn', saved England from the endless expenditure of blood and treasure into which her advisers would have plunged, and prolonged the formal peace with her three principal neighbours — a peaceof already unexampled duration, and of incalculable advantage to her country."

A* a woman, on t 1 c other hand, Professor Beetlv tells us that good Queen Bess was " habitually regardless of- truth," " not troubled with a tender conscience," " did not care to cultivate close personal relations with her God," wa3 " ridiculous and impulsive" in her assumed coquetry with Algenou and others.

Writing of the Queen's shuffling with her "villainously ugly "suitor, after inciting him to attack Parma at Cam bray, the professor says : — " All this is very unscrupulous, very shameless, even for that, shameless age. Hardened liars like Henry and Alengon thought it too bad. They were ready for violence as well as fraud, and availed themselves, of whichever method came handiest. Elizabeth also used the weapon which Nature had given her. Being constitutionally adverse from any but peaceful methods, she made up for it by a double dose of fraud. She was a masculine woman, simulating, when it suited her purpose, a feminine character. The. men agaiubt whom phe was matched were never sure whether they were dealing with a crafty or determined politician, or a vain, flighty, amorous woman. This uncertainty was constantly putting them out in their catoulations."

In a masterly sketch of Mary Queen of Scots, Professor Beeslry says : — " In ability and information she was not at all inferior to Elizabeth; in promptitude and energy she was her superior. Elizabeth had only likes and dislikes, and therefore played the cooler game. When Mary really loved, which .was once only, all selfish calculations were flung to the winds. When she hated, which was often, rancour was apt to get the better of her prudence. Here was a woman indeed. And if for that reason she lost the battle of life, for that reason too she still disputes it from the tomb. She has always had, and always will have, the ardent symathy of a host of champions to whom the 'fair vestal throned by the west,' is a mere politician, sexlesp, cold-blooded, and repulsive."