LITERARY LOBBY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 4 June 1923, Page 13

LITERARY LOBBY.

Dear Reader.—-We have been called to account for calling “Jenny Kissed Me ” .by Leigh Hunt, a “slight rondeau.” ' . . • “H isn’t,’’^retorts Frank, “even a alight rondeau. . . . Well, at that, Frank, we know it isn t. . But turn to page 368 of the Oxford Press’s newly issued “Poetical Works of Leigh Hunt,” and you will see the poem 1 leaded “Rondeau. ... Slavishly—too slavishly, alas! wo “followed copy.” • • - Which raises the question as to whether Leigh Hunt headed his poem “Rondeau” when it was first published in Ihe Monthly Chronicle.-*- . - • We think he must have . • It’s a funny world. “Figaro: The Life of Beaumarchais,” by John Rivers, looks to ns like a fascinating tome. The young Caron, the journeyman watchmaker with the witty tongue what a romantic history was his! . . • From the peddling of watchers at the Court of La Grande Monarque, through the chapters of a marvellous life, to . a death just before the dawn of the nineteenth century—the victim of the ingratitude of two republics! . . . John Rivers, Beaumarchais’s biographer, is also the author of a book on Louvet and Greuze and His Models. Between 1860 and 1870 P.T.B. was probably the most widely known American. Here is related, among other matters of interest, the story of Jeinny Lind’s marriage and of the wooing of General Tom Thumb. The book is most pleasantly illustrated. Doran is to bring out in America—probably in the late summer, as the manuscript is not completed—a book that; Jonathan Cape intends to publish about that time in England, ilus is “The Valley of the Kings,” by Percy Edward Newberry. . . It is a full and exact history of the exploration or the royal Egyptian tombs, which culminated in Lord Carnarvon’s recent discoveries. . . . The author is an expert Egyptologist. He lias been associated with important discoveries m Ep r vpt since 1890. . . • bave received The Nautilus: A Magazine of New Thought. Some ten years ago we remember being addicted to Jne Nautilus. We always liked the ecutorials about William and I. . . . • We are glad to see that those editorials are still going strong. . . n 4 r , seems that Elizabeth lowne and William, the editors, have each been choosing the ten books they would like best to take with them upon a desert island. ‘William lias struck out pretty boldly for Wells’s “Outline of History and 'Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass. • He favours Emerson s "Essays,” divagates into Hugo’s “Les M movables,” and the. “Blmgavad Gitaand includes Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary and Smith’s “Plain and Solid Geometry,” two books wo would fly to any desert island to avoid. . . We would fly even further to evade two other of William’s choices namely Lay’s hook on “Man’s Unconscious Conflict” and “Science and Health ” by Mary Baker Eddy. Have you read Locke’s Tale of Triona 1 J No! Well. do. Good night. II-