LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2370, 3 August 1899, Page 58

LITERARY NOTES.

—Mr Edmund Gosse is to edit for the Appletons, the welLknown New- York publishing firm, a series of translations of the great French romancists of. this century. ' The work of Hugo, Dumas, Daudet, and Zola will be laid tinder tribute. — Aju Anglo-Spanish romance that deals with the most exciting days of Elizabeth, and tells for the first time the life-story of Sir AValter Raleigh,, has been engaging the attention of Sir Joseph Hatton. It will be published by Messrs Hutchinson aoid Co., under the title of " The "White I&nK of Manoa." • [ — The. two great New York publishing companies — the Harpers and M'Cyure's — are about to amaigamact'e in the production of magazines and other enterprises." Mr M'Clure founded his company in> 1892, and by.the great success of his magazine and getting the publication of Mr Kipling's works in America, ho has become one of the most houses in the States. — Dr Jame3 Burgess has in preparation an enlarged English edition of Grunwedel's " Buddhistisohe Kunst" — ant outline of the history and development of early Buddhisfc art, as illustrated in the remains at Sanchi. Bharhut, Amaravati. and in the so-called GrEeco-Bactrian, or Gandhara sculptures — for publication by Air Bernard Quaritch. The Royal Asiatic Society recommended the trans^ lation of this work in their journal, and the auth'OT has consented to this (a version being prepared by Dr Burgess) and to the use of the illustrations. — " The Social Life of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century," by the Rsv. H. Grey Graham, which will shortly be published by Messrs A. and C. Black, a<3 its aim to describe the condition of the country and its people in their most characteristic aspectsLeaving aside the political history, it picturea those phases of social life and progress which the historian passeß by. The manners and ways of various classes oi the people, from the gentry in their country houses to the peasantry in their homes,' are desoribed, as well as the old. quaint fashion's of life in towns, especially in Edinburgh. Chapters deal with the rural state of the country, the modes of agriculture, the condition of the poor, the peculiar state and modes of education in schools and universities. — The minister as novelist is becoming very familiar. Dr Reuen Thomas, a distinguished Congregational minister of Boston, Mass., who was formerly pastor of a London Congregational Chxirch, and who is still popular as a preacher at- the' City Temple during his summer vacations, is the latest in the 'field • with a ljook entitled " The Kinship of Soult."" It is published hy Messrs Jam 63 Clarke and Co. The story is of theolqgical and literary interest, but there is also a lovtv interest which. • is well worked out in the. course of the stu-dent-hero's pleasant trip to Europe. Tsmene Lucilla Norton is a really charming heroine, with a pretty wit. Most of the scenfis are placed along the Rhine, where Dr Thomas is obviously thoroughly at home. — Miss E. M. Clerke, who contributed some of the translations contained in Dr Garnett's recent work on Italian literature, has now in Ihe press a- volume entitled ' Fable and Song in Italy," tracing out the evolution of the Chivalric Poems from the street ba-Hade. The transformation, of the classical myths into mediaeval fairy tales forms another branch of the same subject, and "Boiardo's poem, rescued from unmerited oblivion by Sir Antonio* Paniazi, is shown to be the great storehouse of legendary lore drawn from the most various source.?. Later chapters treat of Manzoni and Guisti, especially in their relation to the development of modern Ltalia.n as a literarylanguage. The subject is illustrated by verso translations from the works referred to as well as from the folk-songs of the Italian peasantry in all parts of the Peninsula. — Few authors can claim so large an output as 120 books — a. small library in itself. Fer»-pr still can boast of having restored a ohurob. contributed £2000 to a missionary college, and fitted out a missionary ship. This, however, is what Miss' Charlotte Yonge is said by Black and White to have done. She is now, accord-, ing to the same authority, in her 76th year, and lives in an ivy-clad "imttision .at Otterbourne, near Winchester, jvhere she has speiifc the betfor part of her life. It is not stated 1 . j although it is left to be inferred, that Miss I Yonge has been enabled to live and do ail ' this good work from the proceeds of her books, and if it be true it should be encouraging to writers of fiction who wonder if they will and their days in the workhouse. Bufc Miss Ybr,f?e's earnings were obtained in the clays of the stately three-decker, and these ! arc the days of sixpenny paper-covered novels. — A writer in the Journal dcs Debate ccm- | plains of the nrocees of degradation which ia going on in the French language. The peasantry, for instance, frequently speak of the ass. a humble wartner in their daily toil, aa " the minister," and other words of dignified; import are applied to equally humble, if not actually base, uses. The same tendency, however, appears to be showing itself in Germany, where the title " monarch " passes current in' modern slang as a designation fop trampn and footpads." The other day a. noncommissioned officer in charge of barracks at Danzig addressed this term to a troublesome private just as a captain happened to be passing. The latter at once reported the incident, and the barrack-master was brought before the magistrates on a charge of "lese-majeste." ! Evidence was adduced to prove that in East Prussia rascal and monarch were convertible* terms, so that the court acquitted the prisoner, although he lose? his rank and his penj sion. — Chronicle.

It happened every night when father fell asleep _ His little kid awoke lo cough, and sneeze, and weep. Then father swore out loud and wished his kid was dead, And tore his new pyjamas jumping out of bed ; He damned— the cold linoleum stuck to his feet like glue, As in his arms the child was howling all he knew. But mother found a charm to make their reafc secure, The kid now thrives and sleeps on WooaVt Pepjoermint Owen