THE ROMANCE OF REDISCOVERED BOOKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3455, 1 June 1920, Page 59

THE ROMANCE OF REDISCOVERED BOOKS.

The region of re-discovered books is naturally that in which there has been actual loss or temporary oblivion. _ The general rule is that books have their day and cease to be —a few survive, the legion disappear—"to dumb forgetfulness a prey." Sometimes the rule is reversed. There is first neglect; then discovery and appreciation; or there is at first an overlooking of merit, even contempt, followed by reconsideration and aocep-a-nce. Time is the greatest enemy always, but when worth exists we strive to brush the dust away. Some of our most valued volumes are those that were once lost and now are found.

The re-discovery of books takes us back to ancient history. Aristotle's works, according to Strabo, were nearly lost to the world, the illiterate people, into whose possession they fell, actually burying them in the earth. They were rescued eventually by Apellion, a collector, who, however, wrought a new injury by corrupting the text when he gave it publicity. The strange story finds its paralleel in that of Leonardo da Vinci, whose manuscripts were left neglected in a garret, where, said the owner,, "they have lain many years if the rats have not destroyed them." Happily -the rats had done less mischief than men. Leaping over the centuries we learn also that the relatives of Lady Mary Montague (relations usually being the last to appreciate family genius) intercepted many of her letters and hid them in a chest; only years after the writer's death were her wit, her humour, and her chronicle's of the times made to scintillate anew.

Misfortunes of Needless Reading'.—

Sir Thomas Browne said he had heard some people with deep sighs lament the lost lines of Cicero, and others with as many deep groans deplore the combustion of the library of Alexandria; hut for himself he could with patience behold the urn and ashes of the Vatican if he could only recover the perished leaves of Solomon or procured copy of "Enoch's Pillars." These are among, the lamented bereavements for which there is seemingly no consolation. But it is doubtful whether the mourner has much sympathy, and we remember that it is the sad fate of some re-discoveries not to be valued; and many curious readers, after having their attention directed to them, may be prone to remark like De Quincey that one of the misfortunes of life is to read a book only to find that one need not-have read it. Such was the case with George Eliot's re-discovery of what she called "that wonderful bit of autobiography, the life of the Polish JeAV, Salomon <Maimon"; such was the case (in my opinion, at least) of Mr E. V. Lucas's re-discovery of Charles Lamb's "Prince Dorus," and such was the case (T regret to. say) with Mr F. G. Kitton's re-discovery of Dickens's lost ghost story, "To Be Read at Dusk."' But to provide a chance of retaliation, may I in all honesty mention that some twenty years ago, when Mr Rider Haggard's "She" was at the height of its popularity, I myself made a re-discovery, which I almost think was worth while. I found a long-forgotten novel by Thomas Moore, who had scarcely been suspected of the deed, entitled "The Epicurean." and it seemed to me that it contained some parallels to Mi- Haggard's romance. _ I called attention to the apparent coincidences in a couple of articles in a London journal, with the result that an enterprising newspaper forthwith began to run "The Epicurean" as a serial story, and a firm of publishers re-issued it as a classic. Another re-discovery I look forward to—but I make a present of the suggestion to others—is of Alexander Smith's "Alfred Hagarth's Household," his one novel of which I have heard enthusiastic accounts, but never vet had the opportunity of finding. Perchance the pages have long since served "to bind a book, to line a box," or "served to curl a maiden's locks"—which passing allusion serves to remind us that "In Memoriam" itself was something of a re-discovered book after it had lain for many years hidden in the poet's cupboard. A Momentous Re-discovery.—

One of the most momentous re-dis-coveries in literary historv was that of Robert Browning in 1860, when, entering the Piazza of San Lorenzo "crammed with books, buzzing and blaze, noontide and market-time" ho happed upon a soiled vellum-covered volume found it told the story of a crime committed three centuries back, and bought it for a lira. It was the "Old Yellow Book" which he pared on all night. It related the tragedy of Pompilia,

and it provided the poet with the theme for his masterpiece, "The Ring and the Book" —of which, by the way,, an admirable cheap (2s 6d) edition has just been published bv Messrs Nelson in their nonfiction library. The "Old Yellow Book" itself, though only the raw material, has enjoyed a second life and secured permanent celebrity as "pure, crude fact, restorative i' the touch and sight," the inspiration of Browning's profound utterance. We owe it almost to accident that during the past half-century the lovers of philosophic poetry have enjoyed Fitzgerald's "Omar Khayyam." Completed in 1857, it appeared in modest pamphlet form two years later, issued reluctantly by, an indifferent publisher. At five shillings it found no purchasers, and it declined to the ignominy of the penny box. Here Rosetti found it; here Swinburne got a copy; the breath of their praise revived the apparently dead. No re-dis-covered work of modern times has had a greater welcome and a larger vogue ; publishers vie with each other to produce choice editions, and artists to illustrate them; and the "Rubaiyat" is offered to the classes in luxurious style for guineas, and to the masses in homespun for pence. A notable re-discovery was that in 1903, when arf anonymous romance in Latin, "Nova Solyma," the "Ideal City," was brought to light by the Rev. Walter Begley, who attributed it to none other than John Milton. The internal evidence .bore out the assumption to such extent that this long-lost work is now definitely placed in Milton's catalogue. Some 80 years previously there had been another Milton find, and it was made the occasion of Macaulay's famous essay— "DiTDoctrma Christiana' - '—a treatise which the critic prophesied would soon be lost a second time, as it was only worthy of a few minutes' chat, in the'drawing-room. The prophecy has been fulfilled: our drawingrooms do not now resound with conversation on Christian doctrine as Milton expounded it. Percy's Reliques.— In no field has re-discovery been so extensive as in that of Elizabethan and post-Elizabethan poetry. The lyrists of that period were careless, and publication was full of hazard. It has been the task of modern researchers to rake assiduously the neglected garden of the muses, and many a rich anthology has been the result. But" among the labourers we must count patient gleaners like Percy and Ritson, who gave themselves a specially difficult task, the bringing to the surface of those ancient ballads which had long been buried under the dust. Percy was started by the' chance-finding of a collection of book-leaves, brown with age, lying on the floor of a parlour in a Shropshire house. The paper was being used. by maids to light the fire. He rushed to the rescue, , and on investigation found that the old parchments contained poems dating from 1500. The Percy Reliques, one of our most cherished treasuries of verse,' was epochal; no discovery, in its way, exrecised so great an influence in reproducing the magic of the past and teaching us what real balladry was. Diaries have a prominent place among re-discoveries, as might be expected, inasmuch as those like Pepys's ana Evelyn's, for example, could scarcely be expected to be published during the lifetime of the authors. Put aside, they were liable to be forgotten, and in the case of Pepys his secret code made early publication . impossible. His diary was in all respects a re-discovery. Biographies and anniversaries play their Eart in helping to the re-discovery of ooks. The issue recently of the "Life of Samuel Butler" has set many reading "The Way of All Flesh" and "Erewhon," whereas they were formerly read but by the few. This is but one example out of a multitude—people even read "Ten Thousand a Year" once again, a few years ago, when the egregious Dr Warren's name was recalled by the solemn observers of centenaries. And what of the cinema? Is it not likely to resurrect many and many a dead tome? The present generation, to its sorrow, knew nothing of "Little Women" until the cinema with necromantic art suddenly recalled it to .life. Who can say where this is to end? Perhaps before long we shall be crying, laughing, or shuddering over the book-j that passed away with our grandmothers s—the 5 —the novels of .Mrs Gore and Mrs Radclyffe among them, —J. Cuming Walters in Weekly Glasgow Herald.