LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2690, 4 October 1905, Page 77

LITERARY NOTES.

—It has long been an open secret ihat Mr Laurence Housman wrote that muchdiscussed book, "An Englishwoman's Love Letters." That fact will be sure to obtain widespread attaation for a new novel 'from the same pen entitled "The Cloak of Friendship," whicl- is being brought put by Mr John Murray

— . The Liitiie Masterpieces Library of Prose, nublished on June 14 by the Masterpieces Press, 14- Temple House, Temple avenue, London, consists of 12 reat volumes ia a cloth-covered wooden bookcase, 11 of which are devoted to the best v/ork of each of the following' writers: — Bacon, Addison, Johnson, Lamb, De Quincey, Emor3on, Carlyle, Macaulay, Foe, Hawthorno, «,nd living. The editor is Mr William Stead, jun. The first volume is entitled, " Books and How to Read Them," and contains a special chapter by Mr John Morley on the " Great Commonplaces of Reading." — "A Midsummer NighF's Dream" is the' latest edition to the Arden Shakespeare, issued by Messrs Methuen and Co., at 2s 6d per volume. This edition of the great classical comedy is edited by Mr Henry Cuningham, who has written a very full and scholarly introduction, in which he claims that its characteristic features are, " first, an attempt to produce a text in advance of anything which has hitherto been published; and, secondly, am attempt to elucidate some of the long-standing difficulties connected with the interpretation of well-known passages in the play." The notes to the text are often very full : and it is evident from these, as well as from the introduction, that Mr Cuningham has spared no effort to make this a standard volume on this most interesting of the Shakespearean comedies.

—Mr John Fyvie presents what he calls " A Georgian Galaxy"' in the volume published by the Messrs Constable of biographical studies of ladies more or less famous in history, entitled "Some Famous "Women of Wit and Beauty." Mrs FitzHerbort. whom the Morning Herald in 1784 referred to as "a new constellation of the fashionable hemisphere," shines forth' (says the Westminster Gazette) In the place of honour in Mr Fyvie'e gallery. The rest, hewever, are all worthy of a place by her side. They include Lady Hamilton, Mrs Montagu — the bluest of blue-stockings, — Lady Blessington, Mrs Grote, Lady Eastlake, and the Hon. Mrs Norton, who figxires as " the real ' Diaraa of the Crossways.' " One other lady there is — a literary lady— less known to the general public, yet highly rated by Dr Johnson, who thought her superior to Mrs Carter. Miss Fanny BurTioy, and Miss Hannah More. This is Mrs Lennox, "the female Qnrxote."

—In no age have books of descriptive travel been more appreciated than during the last 30 years ; but their tone has gradually changed. Tht writers of the seventies — Pater, Symonds, or Montegut — loved a landscape chiefly for its suggestion of the past, and filled their phrases with historical reminiscences; to read them was a liberal education. The word-painters of the eighties (of whom the greatest was and remains Pierre Loti) aimed at evoking a scene, and attempted to produce an almost physical impression of a foreign country. Younger travellers, following in the wake, of Unskin (himself earlier than any we have named), look in the country they visit for a revelation of Nature, the stones and the streams interest them even more than the vegetation or the colour: they study the lie of the land, the watershed, the constitution of the soil, and the effect of these upon the history and inhabitants of a region. They examine raiher, §yokft

or recall. The firse batch of trayellei. were historians, the second scene painters or magicians ; those arc geographers. — Times.

— .Beyond editing the report of a law case, Lord Coleridge, who is bringing out a work on Ottery St. Mary and its associa lions with hi? family, has mot hitherto, as fa- as we are aware (says the Westminster Gazette), made any incursion into the domain of authorship. But it is certainly in accordance with the traditions -of his family that he hould devote some of his energies to literature. Both his father, the first Lord Coleridge, and- his grandfather, Sir John Taylor Coleridge, were copious contributors to the periodical press — the latter, indeed, was for a time editor of the Quarterly, although, better remembered as tho biographer of Keble. Lord Coleridge's brothers are also well known in ;he literary %\orld. Than the Coleridge family, probably none has given so many contributors to literature. Of coursa the poefc dwarfs tho others to a large extent, but it is astonishing to look through the list of members of tho familj and to observe how many of them hav<? achieved distinction in letters. The poet's sons, Hartley and Derwent, his daughter^ Sara, his nephew and son-in-law Henry Nelson Colaridge, his grandchildren, Miss Christabel Coleridge and Mr Ernest Hartley Colerid.yo — the editor of Byron's poetical works, and the .biographer of V.ie late Lord Chief J,usticc — are only a few of those who have well maintained the literary traditions of the family. Is there any other family able to show such a record ?

— Speaking at Llangollen, in connection with the formal opening of the mew Town Hall and Public Library, Sir TheodoreMartin said that on the directors of (he library there rested a heavy responsibility in the selection of books. Care was especially needtul in these days when so mm h that was crude, worthless, and pernicio is was being daily issued from the press, gi - ing false views of life, false views of scci J economy, falso theories of so-called phi] )- sophy, tha;; sapped the foundations of a hopeful faith in the here and the her?after, books that in no way helped, as all great books did, to make men strong i ) faro the trials and difficulties of life, to make them truthful, honest, generous, .considerate, hopeful, and forbearing in judgment and in act one to another. To the reader he would say that when he read for amusement he should learn beforehand, if he could, what the books were by which he might be worthily amused. Amusement was all very well, but reading should not be all amusc-raent. Such reading was apt to become both an excuse and an incentive to the idleness that, as had been said by an eighteenth-oentury satin's:. " Sleeps over books, and leaves mankind slona." The mind should be kept alerh and receptive. Poetry should be read with attention ; biography and history should, above all, be studied. To the young he would especially say, in Milton's words, "Let learning inflame you with the admiration of virtue, and stir you up with high hopes of living! to be brave and worthy patriots, dear to God and famous to all ages."

— Between Stevenson and Henley, as all those who are interested mi literature are aware, a lengthened and close, and even affectionate, friendship gfrew uu. Eaoh friend had complete confidence in the other. Advice was sought and given on both sides. • When Henley wrote a poem he submitted it to Stevenson — his "Puck," his "Ariel," his "Antony," his "Hamlet"; when Stevenson proposed to enter into a new undertaking it was before Henley that he- laid the proposal. By-and-bye, however, their ways fell apart. In the dispositions of both there was a large dash of vanity, and this vanity naturally developed and grew stronger as success attended their various books. Eventually they separated, never to meet again. Perhaps Stevenson grew to belittle Henley; perhaps Henley became soured by the name and fame acquired by Stevenson. When the not very judicious " Life of Stevenson." by his cousin, Graham Balfour, appeared in 1901, it was followed by the famous — Sfcevensonians termed it infamous — paper in the Pall Mall Magazine, in which Henley summed up the shortcomings of his onetime friend : Alas! they hnd been friends in youth, But whispering tongues can poison truth, And constancy lives m realms above, And life is thorny and youth is vain, And to be wroth with one we love Doth work like madness in the brain. — Glasgow Weekly Citizen.