LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2203, 21 May 1896, Page 53

LITERARY NOTES.

• . ■ Messrs Macmillan and Co. have in the press " Old Melbourne Memories," by Rolf Btt'^rewood. • . ; The charming peckefc edition of Charles X"" g ley's works is completed by the issue of "Tiie Herveys." This contains the an thor's illustration?, and is the twentieth reprint of the work. • . • A rumour reaches us that the author of "Beside the Bonnie Brier Bueh " 1b to' be made a D.D. of St. Andrews. We wonder if 11 D nintochty did it " would be a fair commeut. — Literary World. • . • Miss Florence Marryat has nearly ready for publication a new novel dealing with Bpiiitualism, which will shortly be issued through Messrs Hu'chinson and Co. under the title of "The Strange Transfiguration of Hiuinfih Kfcubbß." *. ■ Aj»oj>os of the "King's Own" edition of Captain Marryat's novels which Messrs BiutleHge are issuing, with prefaces by Mr W. L. Courtney, it may be interesting to state that the copyrights, in these novels were purchased in the year 1855, at the auctionroom of Mr Hodgson in Chancery lane, by the late Mr George Rout ledge for the earn of £3200. '• . • We (Literary World) welcome a cheap edition of "John Halifax, > Gentleman," and hope the wide area of its popularity will thereby be extended further. Such novels are never out cf date, and are perhaps especially wanted at the present time. It is included in Messrs Hurst and Blac^ett's 3j 6d geriesva&d now, we believe for the first time, bears the name of Mrs Oraik as its author. * . (■ An interesting sale of books and MSS. took place at Soiheby's recently at which seme large prices were realised. A copy of Amer's " Typographical Antiquities " (17851790) went for £2<i«, the " Tyluey Book of Hours " realised £106, a less celebrated " Book of Hours " was disposed of for £101, Herrick's " Hesperides 'Wretched £44, Byron's "Bride of Abydos" £10, and Coleridge's "Aids to Reflection " £17. • . •Mr Richard Ashe King, the clever author of " The wearing of the green," who has for long written the pointed but goodhumoured literary criticism in Truth, under the signature of " Desmond O'Brien," has left Dublin and settled permanently in London, where he will undertake fresh literary work. Before leaving Dublin, Mr Ashe King was entertained to dinner by his friends. A large company assembled, and the chair was occupiui by Dr Sigerson. • . • Mifrs Clo Graves, who is undoubtedly one of the cleverest women writers of the day, has written a new novel entitled "A Wellmeanir g Woman," which ie running in the G.uilewoman. It is full of merit, and will rank among the best works this lady has done. ' Fortunately for her readers Miss Graves, unlike many other novelists of her own sex, has not been fascinated by the allurements of the " problem " story, but adheres to a healthy style of fiction. • . • Mr Fisher Unwin will publish, aa the for>y second volume in his series "The Story of the Nations," " The West Indies and the j Spmish Main," by Mr James Rodway. As the author truly fays, VThe story . . . Is one to stir the hearts of many nations." The volume is unique in its way, as " theehores of the Caribbean Sea have been the scene of marvellous adventures, of intense struggles between races and people?, of pain, trouble, and disaster of almost every description." • . • In Mr Andrew Lang's revised edition of Lcckhart's " Life of Scott," as well as in his life of the biographer of the eminent novelist, there will be some fresh matter Incorporated; in earlier editions the time would have been premature for the publication of Borne facts. Besides, as Mr Lang had access to all the manuscripts in Abbotsford House in prosecution of his work as editor of the Border Edition of the Waverley Novels, he is in possession of new material which he Will be able to turn to good account. ■ . • Messrs Bliss, Sands, and Foster are about to issue a new series of classical reprints, the first volume, which will appear next week, being a facsimile reprint of the expensive 1843 edition of the "Vicar of Wakefield," with the whole of the 32 illustrations by William Mnlready, R.A. The second volume will be a reprint' of the first edition of " Gulliver's Travels," and will be published early next month. • . ■ The offer of Cowper's garden and gnrnmerhouse, and the " guinea orchard " adjoining, situate at Olney, for sale by auction, has aroused a correspondent of The limes to extract some references in the poet's works to his landed property. Cowper, It leems, hated sales, and wrote : — '■ Estates are landscapes, gated upon awhile, Thea advertised, and auctionear'd away.

A short time back we (Literary World) heard that Shenstone's famous place, " The Leasowes," near Halesowen, was in the market, and was actually going to rack and ruin for want of a tenant. • . • James Thomson, the author of " The City of Dreadful Night," died in deplorable wretchedness in a metropolitan hospital 14 years ago at the age of 46, after a life which he himself summed np as " one long defeat." He was at war with the universe because be was at war with himself, and drink and despair killed him. He possessed a stubborn, defiant temper, led a morose and, for the most part, a solitary life, and being of too fine and deep a temperament to be content with negation, found not peace, but a sword through his quarrel with the creeds. Charles Eingsley saw the possibilities of the man, and so did Dante Rossetti ; but how to help so wayward and reckless a genius to beat his music out was another matter. — Speaker. • . ■ That distinguished critic, Mr Edmund G-osse, to whom we owe— thanks to his visit to Scandinavia more than 20 years ago — the introduction of Ibsen to English readers and playgoers, has a new volume of essays in the press. This book, which is entitled " Oriticsl KU-Kats," discasses Keato, Walt Whitman, Tolstoi, Christina Rossetti, Walter Patsr, R. L. Stevenson, and other recent writers. Mr Goese, who is a Londoner, born in 1849, is, of course, not bo much a poet, though 11 Ferdausi in Exile " and "On Viol and Fluta " are favourite volumes of pretty verse, as a prose writer who affects poetry. His best essays are " Gossip in a Library " and 'Seventeenth Century Studies." * . • Mr George B*rlow, who gained considerable distinction eight years ago by his remarkable poem, " The Pugeant .of Life " (miscalled an epic, and really a series of lyrics),and followed this up with another, and perhaps hiß best, volume of verse, "From Dawn to Sunset," has published nothing of late save a rather remarkable and strenuous novel. Wo shall, however, shortly see a new work of his issued from the Roxburghe Press, the title of which will be " Jesu3 of Nazareth : a Tragedy." Mr Barlow has now reached the age of 4S, and has been a poet for a qaarter of a century. He was born at Westminster, and educated at Harrow and Exeter College, Oxford. Indeed, his initial book of verse, " Poems and 'Sonnetp," was published while he was still at college. Since then several more than a dozen booklets of poetry have issued from his fertile pen. • .* In introducing Professor W. Hall Griffin to a large and appreciative audience who gathered at the Conservatoire, Hampstead, to listen to a lecture on Browning's "The Ring and the Book,"' Mr Edmund Gosse delivered himself of some felicitous stories concerning the late laureate. "Of the two greatest poets of our century," said Mr Gosse, " Tennyson was possessed with the instinct of picturesque singularity. His extraordinary face, bis gait-, his Jong hair, everything, even to his dress, added to the individual effect. Tennyson was once staying in town with some friends of mine, and came in complaining that people were horribly rude — that everybody stared at fi him. The grown-up people of tbs house 'were most sympathetic, when a little boy suddenly asked, "If you don't like to be stared at, why do you wear a purple cloak ? " • . ■ In his fascinating book, " The Crimea in 1854," Sir Evelyn Wood, VC, relates the following thrilling anecdote : " I was makings for a place where the parapet had been worn down by men running over it, in order to avoid the exertion of mounting up even 4ft, when a young soldier passed me on my left side, and, doubtless not noticing I. was wounded, knocked my arm heavily, saying, •Move on, sir, please.' As he passed over the parapet with his rifle at the trail, I caught it by the small of the butt to pull myself up. He turned round angrily, asking, • What are you doing ? ' And while his face waß bent on mine, a roundshot, passing my ear, struck him full between the shoulder?, and I stepped over his body bo exhausted as to be strangely indifferent to the preservation of my own life, saved by the soldier having jostled me out of my turn at tbe gap'" • ; • Gray, the poet, actually omitted two four-line stanzas from the " Elegy." According to Mason, the staDzas were omitted by the poet (just before the epitaph) because "be thought it was too long a parenthesis." Of the first stanzi Jame3 Eussell Lowell affirmed that " Gray might run his pen through this, but he conld not obliterate it from the memory of men. Surely Wordsworth himself," continued the American critic, " never achieved a simplicity of language so pathetic in suggestion, so musical in movement, as this." The two verses are as follows : — There scattered oft, the earliest of the year, By hands unseen, are showers of violets found ; The redbreast loves to build and warble there. And little footsteps lightly print the ground. Him have we seen the greenwood side along While o'er the heath we hied, our labour done ; Oft as the woodlark piped her farewell song, With wistful eyes pursue the setting sun. • . • The first volume of a new edition of Poe's complete works, the "Fordham" edition, has just been published by the Messrs Routledga. It was once something of a grievance among the Americans tbat ( tbe Britishers appreciated one of their men of genius better than they did themselves. Poe, the Pope of the American Dnnciad, as Mr Stoddart has called him, was naturally cot loved in literary America, which identified itself with the dunces. And then camo Griswold's uncharitable and, in the circumstances, very unhandsome biography to justify recriminations and an answering contempt. That an English biographer ia the

person of Mr Ingram should come to the resone was an added offence. America, however, has now accepted Poe. A fine definitive edition of bis works, the first of the three referred to, has been edited by Mr Woodberry and Mr Stedman. Poe's genius, cays tbe St. James's Gazette, was thin, morbid, and coldly and consciously elaborated ; but genius it was, indisputable and unique. And if unwholesome in itself, his influence was eminently medicinal for tbe literary America of bis day, and he is almost the only American writer who has exercised a wide and potent influence on literature generally. The influence on latter - day France through Baudelaire, and now through M. Mallarme, is patent. The influence on our own latest story-tellers, with Louis Stevenson at their head, 13 no less demonstrable. Each one of hia more famous stories is responsible for a large family.