LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3105, 17 September 1913, Page 86

LITERATURE.

BOOK NOTICES

“ Louis XI and Charles the Bold.” By Lieutenant-colonel Andrew C. P• Haggard, D.S.O. London: Stanley Paul and Co. (doth, 15 illustrations, chiefly' portraits, and map; 10s net.) In a previous work by Colonel Haggard, entitled “ Two Great Rivals, he depicted the condition of European unrest resulting from the constant jealousies of Francis I and the great Emperor Charles V. In the present book is set forth the circumstances which led to the rivalry of those potentates. “ Throughout several centuries of the Middle Ages France vas almost as imuch English as French. There was a constant coming and going of monarchs from France to England, and vice versa. William the Norman, Eleanoi of Aquitaine, the Plantagenets, Edward 11, and Henry V are examples of this see-saw movement between the countries of Princes with French blood in their veins and French rights, which they desired to push. In the groat Duchy of Aquitaine Edward the Black Prince was regarded by the people as their rightful ruler, while nearly 100 years after his death the final stiuggle between France and England was fought out chiefly by the people of Bordeaux and the surrounidng country', who were determined to remain English. During tins period France was a Catholic and feudal country, with a monarch at its head, but it could scarcely be called French. The country was at that time cut up into great provinces, duchies, princedoms, etc., which wore always quarrelling among themselves, and with their liege lord, to whom they yielded a very nominal obedience. Of these great fiefs Burgundy' was probably the most important. In wealth and power, everything but name, the Dukes of Burgundy were the equals of the ruling monarchs of France. It was to Philip of Burgundy that Louis, while still Dauphin, fled from the persecutions of his father and his father's mistress. Philip received him royally, protected and supported him foi many years. These pages tell of the base ingratitude of Louis XI to the House of Burgundy, which had so befriended him when a rebel to his father’s authority, and they' make clear the hatred and constant rivalry between the ever-scheming French King and Philip’s son, Charles the Bold, showing how, by the malignant scheming of Louis, he caused his rival s death by' the hands of the Swiss at the the battle of Nancy, and then proceeded to despoil Charles’s daughter and his own godchild, Mary' of Burgundy, of all her French possessions. Louis Al was one of the cleverest and most astute rascals who ever lived. All Iris intrigues and deeplylaid schemes were practical, and tended to his own benefit. “He loved so much as to put his adversaries at cross purposes with one another and to profit by their dissensions.” He was' superstitious, cruel, and merciless, but he managed to draw together the disjointed members of his great kingdom, so that what had been on his accession a congeries of independent States was at his death a fairly homogeneous State, which, upon the marriage of his son .Charles VIII with Anne, the heiress of Brittany, attained nearly the same boundaries as those of the present day. Colonel Haggard describes Louis XI as*the “Universal Spider,” and tells how he drew one fly after another into his net, sucked them dry, and threw away their corpses. “ His persistency was great. When rebuffed the Universal Spider never despaired, and in the end, by money, flattery, or false promises, he gained his object.” He had no pity, no scruples, no conscience. He took the part of t’he common people against the nobles, set the nobles like dogs at each other’s throats; then turned on the commoners with a rod of iron. No offence was too small or insignificant to call forth condign vengeance. His diplomacy was amazing, and he always preferred fraud to force. Of such a man his historian may well say: —“This true tale is more thrilling than any fiction.

. . It is the record of one who was at once the hero and the villain of the story, one whose brain was ever plotting and weaving, who knew how to bring round his enemies to his interest, how to show cold ingratitude to his friends

. who, no matter by what evil and tortuous channels he sought his goal, yet knew by patience and perseverance how to find it. and thus managed to leave a noble inheritance to his successors.” Colonel Haggard has the rare gift of clothing the dry facts of history in an emotional and realistic garment of many colours. His principal characters are living men and women. The rival Princes, their consorts, their mistresses, their courtiers are verv real personages, and the dramatic parts which thev play on the great stage of French politics cannot fail to Interest the intelligent reader.

“ The Honey-Star.” By Tickner Edwardes. London; Hntchiason and Co. (3,3 6d, 2s 6d.) Mr Edwardes’s interest in, and knowledge of. liees and hoe culture have been, well established by his previous works — especially “ The Lore of the Honey-bee.” His present book, although avowedly a novel, touches on the same subject, and the rival merits of the old and new systems of bee-farming are set before the reader on the sentimental as well as the practical side, and the special knowledge displayed, though never 100 technical, gives a very acceptable touch of reality to an extremely pleasing rural tale. The scene of the story is laid in Sussex, and in the presentation of the Sussex rustics, their quaint superstitions and peculiarities of dialect, the author has been exceedingly happy, reminding us more than once of Mr 'ibomas Hardy’s inimitable portraiture. In Mrs Larrie, the buxom landlady of the ‘ Three Shearers’ Inn,” who cannot deny that “ There be a power o’ wickedness among ye; but like as not the very Archangel, if a’set up bee-stalls i‘ Whinbury, ’ud soon a’fouud hisself

foul o’ some o’ t’ pore old bee maisters,” we find a type of sharp-tongued, kindly country' innkeeper who is becoming every year more and more rare; while the two ty'pical bachelors of the district in their shy, belated love-making afford occasion for many semi-humorous scenes. It is indeed a story of Sussex life by a Sussex man, who loves and understands the place and the people of which he writes, and makes his reader know and love them too. The breezy downs, the rich vales of the Weald, live in his pages. The picturesquo'y Bohemian bee-barn, so cleverly converted into a dwelling-house by the back-woods skill of its inhabitants, which forms the centre of the bee industry of the up-to-date hero, and the exquisitely' picturesque overgrown .orchard-garden of the old-fashioned but youthful heroine, can almost be recognised by those who know that countryside. The attractive title. “ The Honey-Star. ’ is reminiscent of the old astronomical faith in the stars and their influences immortalised by Pliny, who called Sirius ‘the star that rains down all honey out of heaven,” and the. superstition (?) of the country beekeepers who believe that the honey harvest is largely dependent on the favourable or unfavourable aspect of this star. For, “When the star goes away red i’ tIT spring ‘tis allers a token o’ fine times i’ store for bee folk.” In love affairs a

“ red star gooin ” is the best of all possible signs, while other aspects betoken death or misfortune, and many an old beernaster “ goes to ’is long hoame jest i’ front o' th’ star,” following it into the kingdom of all sweetness and light.

“Colombine at. the Fair.” By Kate Horn. London : Stanley Paul and Co. (3s 6d, 2s 6d.)

This is tho story of the daughter of a country parsonage who, wearied with the monotony of village life, the constant nagging of an uncongenial mother, and the gentle indifference of a weak but kindly father, takes her life into her own hands, and, ’following tho advice of a vulgar, selfmade admirer, goes to London —the World’s Fair—in order to have a “good time.” Effio is not a bad girl, but she is ignorant of real life, is selfish and self-centred, and she has had no training, moral or religious. At first she takes all the good things offered to her without question. Then she becomes doubtful of Granatc’s intentions; finally, the suspicions become certainty; and she flies from his house. Almost penniless in tho streets of London she is fortunate enough to meet with kind people, who shelter her and find her employment as nursery governess to a sweet, neglected child, who at once falls in love with her new attendant. Hero tho miserable, shamed girl finds rest to her soul, and once more is to be seen the “ leading ” of the “little child.’’ Effie saves Trottie’s life at the risk of her own, and this brings her once more into touch with her own people, and having learned the lesson appointed, she returns to her village home ready to see love and beauty in the duties which she had once despised.

LITERARY NOTES. To the making of words there is no. end. The first dictionaiy of English words was published 361 years ago, and wa-s little else than a select vocabulary. John Bnllokar produced what he termed a “complcat dictionary” in 1616, and it contained 5080 words. Thomas Blount followed in 1656 with a slightly increased vocabulary, and then came Edward Phillips's “New World of English Words,” with 15,000 words. That was really the beginning of the English dictionary as we know it But what it has become may bo gathered from the fact that Funk and Wagnal.'s are about to publish a Now Standard Dictionary with 450,000 words. The Balkan war has taken a heavy toll of modern Greek poets. “They have not only given their songs but their lives to the cause,” writes M. Demetrius Asteriotis, in the Mercure de France. Among the poets who have been killed are Kostas Gounaris, the writer of peasant eongs and berceuses, Christos Makris (who wrote under tho name of Perasikos), Georges Skipis, Fifikos Mateos, and finally Laurent Mavilis, of Corfu, who fell at the battle of Driskos, in Epirus. Mavilis, who had volunteered for service at the ago of 52, was an active partisan of cosmopolitan culture. lie had published translations of Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound,” Browning’s “Saul,” and had written a number of beautiful poems His dying words were noble: “I never dreamed that I should have the glory of dying for my country.” His death is a national disaster. tho American historian, has just published the “Retrospection.” This is how he describes bis early home life in Ohio (1852-52)’’At the age of five years tho farm demanded my services to the exclusion of cchool in summer. T remember one day riding the horse to plough between the rows under the hot sun, my bare legs chafed by the harness _ and smarting from the animal s sweat. I burst out crying, for I was but a baby. My father kindly inquired the cause, for he was by no means a harsh man. T think it, is pretty hard work for a little boy bore all day.’ I said. T think so, too. my son,’ was the reply, and straightway I was released.” He was but little older (seven or eight) when a very dark midnight found him “driving a big two-horse waggon filled with straw on the vto Frcdonia.” Fredonla- was six mics o' 4 wav towards Canada, and that sliaw w=>* alive, with runaways from Kentucky who were being mercifully passed along. It bad apparentlybeen decided that, m tho event of the pursue) s evert aking the cortege, the charioteer’s infancy would increase his chances of surviving the meeting. Sixteen well-known churchmen, including such names as Dr Horton. Archdeacon Sinclair, Rev. Silvester Horne, and Monsignor R. 11. Benson, contribute to the symposium. “Is There a He’D” published by Cassell and Co. Without exception each authority gives “Yes” for hte reply, and the same agreement marks the reason offered—“ Because there is a heaven.” A modern breadth of view characterises the finding of most contributors that hell is not a place not a state, not a more loca’ily, hut a condition. Dr Charles Brown voices fills opinion when he writes; “A man himself is hell, and if a ru.m loves what is had, the presence of God will bo bell to him. It will !>o the greatest terror to him to think ibat Cod is near.” On tho question of eternal punishment, a few of tho eon-

tributore are unwilling to expires any decided opinion, but Rev. Frank Sadard takes up a strong attitude towards the belief that hell must end with the sinner’s repentance. As a whole th* book is an interest in g illustration of the marked advance that has taken place in theological thought within recent years, and the wide, humanitarian views of modern religious leaders.

—lt is said that Mark Twain once started to write a romantic serial story, but, having got his principal characters into so complicated a situation that he saw no means of extricating them, had to give it up at the end of the second chapter. Obviously, he had not the heart to adopt the methods of the modern novelist, and, like Max Rittenbcrg, in “Swirling Waters” (London : Methuen), remorselly slay all who stood between him and a happy ending to the book. Clifford Mathicson, a financier with a conscience, who is the hero of Mr Rittcnbcrg’s new novel, is cast, by circumstances and good intentions, into the most complicated situations. Perplexity upon perplexity leaves him (and the reader) totally nonplussed. Then the North Sea, a foggy night, a water-logged derelict, and a sudden collision come to the author’s aid, the corner stone of all the complication dies a heroic death, and Clifford Mathicson finds his way to happiness. “Swirling Waters” is a tale of O’ytnpians in the world of finance; of men who interest themselves in nothing loss than £5.000,000 deals, and who 'sign cheques for £20,000 without a second thought. Every character is drawn big, and, if any arc lovable at all, it is Lars Larsscn, the villain of the piece, whose faults are the faults of a Napoleon. HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. A new set of five volumes of “The Heme University Library” is to hand from Messrs Williams and Norgate, London. The titles of the additional volumes, which, like their predecessors, are published at Is each, are:—“Germany of To-day,” by Charles Tower; “Plant L’fe (Illustrated),” Professor J. B. Farmer; “The Writing of English,” Professor W. T. Brewster; “A History of Freedom of Thought.” Professor J. B. Bury; “Ancient Art and Ritual,” Miss Jane E. Harrison. The publishers announce that instead of the former issues of 10 volumes at one time, a smaller number will be pub'ished in each set at shorter intervals. This arrangement wiil probably be found more convenient by both readers and booksellers. This remarkable shilling series now includes 75 books, many of which have been declared to be important contributions to current knowledge of history, science, and literature. In the present set, for instance, “A History of I 1 recdom of Thought.” by Professor Bury is hailed ao one of the works of the season. SALE OF OLD BOOKS. MR WINKELMANN’S COLLECTION. (Faou Ucr Own Correspondent i AUCKLAND, September 11. Oid books, some gay in leataer anil ttio majority PuC.eri.cl, irayeU, clogs-earcd, and ycl.ow with age, brougat a remarkable gathering of book-lovers to the auction rooms ox Messrs Artnur and Co., in Elliott street, on Wednesday evening. -these books and papers represented the library of rare and valuable cany works, newspapers, and pamphie.s on New Zealand laboriously collected by Mr Jtl. Winkeimann during the past 60 or 4U years. -Vlr Winkelmaun’s enthusiasm as a collector ltd him far and wide after rare specimens and editions, and some of his books hud long been coveted by other collectors. The announcement tnut ho had decided to sell his collection aroused the interest of bibliophiles all over New Zealand, and Wellington and Christchurch buye;s were represented in the auction room. Mr Wilson, the Government librarian, was pnsent, and took advantage of numerous opportunities of adding valuable and useful books to the Assembly Library. There was a sharp contest when four copies of the Auckland Times of lt’43 were ottered Mr Shillmgton wanted Mr Winkelniann's copies to add to the copies already in the Auckland Library, and Mr Wilson wanted them for Wellington. The bidding ran up rapidly from a few shillings, and eventually the papers went to the Wellington man for £5 7s 6d. The same gentleman went enthusiastically after a copy of To llokio of April 26, 1863. To Hokio was a newspaper printed by a tribe of turbulent Natives, and its principal purpose was to ine.te the tribes to rebellion. At To Awamutu was a Maori-Eugliah paper published by Sir John Gorst in the interests of friendliness and peace. Gorst bitterly attacked the sentiments expressed by To Hokio, and the proprietors of that production dealt summarily with the mutter, but not through the columns of the paper. They descended in force, chased the staff into the bash, smashed the printing press, threw it into an adjacent creek, and out of the type made bullets, with which they prosecuted their attack upon the Europeans. This one copy of To Hokio was bought by Mr Wilson for £1 Ss. Three sets of “ Cook's Voyages bought £3, £9 12s (this set contained eight beautifully bound volumes), and £3 ss. Prices obtained for other books published before 1840 ranged from £1 10s per %-olume downwards. C. Terry’s “ New Zealand ” brought £2 2s, Dieffcnbach’s “ Travels in New Zealand ” £1 15s, and “ Adventure in New Zealand £2 14s “Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand, containing 64 very fine steel engravings, was keenly competed for, and brought £2 7s 6d. An undent, frayed, cheaply bound 'ittlo book, “ Letters from the Bishop,” by Bishop Sclwyn, published in 1847, t brought 10s. An author’s copy of Webster’s “Last Cruise of the Wanderer” set every booklover bidding sharply, but the invincible Mr Wilson secured it for £2 2s 6d. A number of Sir George Grey’i works were offered and met a keen demand, principally from the Auckland buyers. Sir J. Richardson’s “First Christian Martyr of the New Zealand Church” was responsible for a ‘-harp contest between Mr Wilson and a southern buyer, hut the Government representative’s 19s was the best bid. Davis’s “ Maori Mementoes, Reading Logons” minted at St. John’s College m 1353; “Auckland,” by W. Swamston; John White’s “Maori Superstitions'; I*. D Fenton’s '‘lmportant Judgments”; .no “Reminiscences of liar in New Zealand, bv T W Gudgeon,” were all captured by the Government librarian under competition at prices satisfactory to the vendor.