BOOKS AND WRITERS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14453, 27 May 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

BOOKS AND WRITERS.

PAN-PIPES. Pan—<liil you eay he was dead, that lio'd gone, and lor good—' Genu With, tin.- Dryads and all oi tho shy I'oresi. faces!" Jft'hi was it, thou, plucked your sleeve. as you came tiirongh the wot;!, JYkit of tihe whisper that waili itho oddest of place.;.' Pan of the garden, the fold. Pan of the bud and the bt-as*, Kindly, ho lives as of old, Ho isn't dead in the least 1 STes, you may Hud him to-day (how the reeds'twitter on. Tuneful, as once when ho followed young Bacchus's leopards); Btiffer he may be, perhaps, sinoo ;OUr moonligiit lias shone Centuries long on lu's goat-iom.s—old Pan. of tne shepherds i IBrown aro his tatters, Hs tan " Roughened from tillage and toil. Pagan and homely, but Pan— Pan of the sap and tlie soiU Find him, in fact, in the Park when the first crocus cowers; Cockney is he when it suits him, I know that he knocks his Crook at my window at times o'er sixpenn'orth of flowers, ' : Gives me his blessing anew with my fresh window-boxes I Piping the leaf on the larch. Piping the nympjjs (in the Bow), Pipilif; a magic of Jlareh, Jobs m he did long ago! —"Punch."' DBEAMS. My aon is in America, Away beyont the sea, But in his dreams he comes hack horn*. And looks out towards Knockree. He sees "the ribbon of white road Go winding towards Glenchree, And he knocks with his stick on the open door To call herself and me. All day he's working in the toivn, And moidered with the street, But in his dreams he feels the grass— The grass beneath his feet; He-wanders up the green hill-side, The elder bloom smells sweet, T\hen he praises God for the Irish! air Audi reek of burning peat. Tha wonders of the West he se«s 3 • For men of wealth live there, In houses reaching to tlie stars, With everything that's fair. "Bat octl" says he, "tho hUI for ms. Trio sight of grouse or haro, Bio cry of the curlews over the boor Tha breath of Irish air." •—W. Jt. Letts, in the "Nation." THE REAL "DORA" OF DICKER'S. LIFE." Sir Eobertson.Nicoll, in the. "British ■Weekly," publishes a chapter of literary' and biograpnukl interest cf tho ti)>-t order—qiscicsjiu intimate, details with, regard to the original of Dora, in "David. Copperfield," one of Churlea Dickens's "most beloved of wcinwri,' 5 and revealing to us at the same time tha "heart secrets" of Dickens himself at the age of eighteen. The Dora in real hie was a Jliss Maria Beadnell, •an even younger party of nineteen," despite fha "allowance" of aa additional jiear'to her .age. Dickens at that time was keenly intelligent and most ambitious. He was reading assiduously m t ] le British Museum. He had an extensive and peculiar and hardly gained knowledge cf London. He wiid himself, "I looked ->t .nothing in particular, but nothin1, ff? m f ** m ba e » that with I s natural genius he must have shone v hieh he found himself. At that fine 1™ scarcely determined his life's But e was hardly likely to l>e ,ouneligible l-y a .prosperous C, : manager, clever, handsome, and roL7 afnl ,. c «>«ette, and though Dickeis m .-™ with her*: she L": *?r d ' i . so "ietimes responding, and at other t.mes becoming drill. At the fove m*H„% ih t! e Jo\e-mak ng with amused tolerance «.d sordid Jlana, The parents sent Maria to school in p ar . s l betv . c * autumn of 1831 and ]W lv i gerishetl his SSf-fff-*"?, * tllC iem«l to have E-Srf if 1 ' 6 °, f liin '" She behaved J i-=teha behaved to Pip "She makes use of me 11 t<.,'. u *- admirers, and has turned *?L? -°*^ faauliarK, between heraolf and me to the account of puttin.r , Jl - *-m on my devotion" "Tier maddened 'me™ * that * almost *uioh though llTvt, Ki ¥ t his *"'"»; for M"y AmieTeiVb'^Vn 1 3md a f ™"««. b«n much h. Kve Zm, n"? to , ilavs never waveiwl "f ' .Diekens." be Wo." AMrv'T" 1 , 1 « «« Jiaria hotter She did no* k„i'i? at '""^ wn.it Has in the 1-irJ « i V, Dickens ivastnn,^b, tel .^^ v full of desolation n'd t;"i B ," ness. butconsidered otha 0 that I bihad^ contempt tlie next white ]* '!!"' M 1 ™- D ™ in »«'r t with rein-r -.l.iiin. excused he:>-elf bv some -n= s '» a'-tnit Marv Anno 1.=,"<»1," n 1 p Hared that he had" been WtolTv 8 -md entirely mm,ncler3to.,d : t ,,„",> ) endured more from bis swcnhe,r+ + .-.ny creature 1,,-cotliingerer bore' f.-l," a woman before: that his love won he Jesting'. Like other prom] W. d he went on ]„ s kIIPP , nt ]s!st . I)ut ~s ; ( 1; nil pnde, and mated f.,.- ~ response. Alnrii return'-;! o lr ,k of ; ■"„ letters, but kent couvs cf S peculiar; but in "the end. 'ahe' cere

LITERARY REVS AND ROTES.

a cold and reproachful reply and m May, lt>B3, Dickens went his way, and Hie rcluuous Between Uw two were broken off for more- than tweuty years." lt:'lt>3o JJkk»u6 became ci:ga.ge<i to Miss Catheriuo Hoguith, wuom lie married on April 2, lciilo. Ho. st.il • LiiiL'L'iod keenly," but liiid sulfiiitnt 0.,V!-ago to strive to forgot tho past by o.::it of much hard wurls. And s-u mi IS'-iT ho began to pr.nt, in Tho Old Mouihly Magazine, the first of l*it= •'Sketcncs by Boa." which wore so «i:.tessfully published i» book form m IS3IS.

"It is easy to see.Unit ho took many hints from .the Beaduell gruiip fur th-» figures in "Sketches." TL-e Milit.i.y Young Gent, Miss Julia Mills, and Mr Tupple are among tham. But tlu •wound was not healed." '"Dickens recovered from the blow/' but it-did not leave liiin the saniu mar., nor did be ever forget; and marriage couid make Lira but happy for a time.

"He began to feci a aeiue of 'one liappinesi lutve I missed in my life, arid om> friend and I have never made.' He began to write his autobiography, but whoa 1".B arrived at the period of his early iau&ucd to which his infatuation to Maria Beaduell belonged, he 'lost courage and burned the rest.' Thou lie set himself to tho writing of 'David Copperfield,' into which he put his own soul. This was the hook of all his books which lie liked best. He had in his hearts of hearts-a farotirite child, and his name wa& David Copperfield. As he was writing his principal liesitation occurred in connection with tlio child-wife, Bora, who was drawn from Maria. Beudnell as he remembered and imagined her.

On February 25, 1845, Maria Beadnoil was married to Henry Louis AViuter. By this time she had reaehrd tlie 'comfortable ags' of thirty-four, and there had passed no communication between her and Dickens for many years.

"But ten passed by, and in February, 1885, Jlrs Winter wrote to Dickens. Her letter arrived along with a handful of others.*, Dickens suddcnly remembered, opened it, and was delighted. He reiilied warmly, if n.it exuberantly. Ho recalled their old tyrstiug-places, her green cloak, his happiness, his misery. He proposed that Jlrs Dickens should call on Maria and arrange a day for a quiet meeting. Later on he confessed that whatever of fancy, romance, energy, passion aspiration, and determination belonged to him, lie could never be separated from heir for whom ho would have died with the greatest alacrity. He said that he had never heard the name Maria without, starting, and blinking of the deep love he once bestowed upon her. He referred her to 'David Copperfield,' and told her she would see, the touches of herself in Dora. People had praised him for the pretty love making in 'David Copperfield,' not knowing that it was the truth, neither men e" or les?. He ttsked-her to read, the book, and to tliink 'How dearly that boy must have loved me. and how vividly this man remembers it.' "

Condn Doyle'u new book in not n. novel, but a collection of "Impressions and Tales," all possessing an h:storieal interest, and entitled "Tho .Last Galley." The subjecte include tlie last sea fight of the Carthaginians, the landing of the Saxons in England, the invasion of the Huns, and other great crises in history. Elliot Stock announces "The Otheri Mr Graham," a new iiorel of New Zealand life, by Mis Frank Clapperton. The story deals with the life of the mind's in Centr-d Otago. A formal ofncinl biography of Twain is bedrie prepared bv Alliert Eigelow Pairie. who acted as 'Mr Clemens: s private secretary for some vears and was with him when he died "