Chronicle and Comment.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 9, 5 October 1907, Page 5

Chronicle and Comment.

A Blow to English MagazineG. English magazines, which are believed to, have been affected by .the flood of cheap reprints, havo now another obstacle in their way in Australia's neiv tariff. The effect of the now duty, which practically amounts to 6(1. per copy on'-all English magazines, -"would .undoubtedly be to diminish t-ho circulation," said Mr,

Smart, manager to Messrs. W. H. Smith and Sou, to a "Daily Mail" representative. "If tho Australian Government thought that, the imposition, of such a. duty would encourage tho publication of . magazine's in Australia of the same quality as the English ones, they would find outTthoir mistake, for the material was,not at hand The duty is 6d. a pound on all magn<. zincs, etc., "containing, advertisements being more than, one-fifth of printed matter contained within out-, side covers.".- The "Mail's" Sydney correspondent says that the price of the English sixpenny ; magazino will be about Is. 3d." High Book Prices. What London bibliophiles call "tho' .literary auction ■''■ year" ends with August. In a roviow of tho 1906-7 season tho "Pall Mall Gazette" notes the continuance bf.tne upward- tond- ■ ohcy of prices. Shakespeare ascended to tho highest pinuaclo of commercial value. A First Folio was sold to Mr. Quaritcb for £3600, and another m Juno for £2400. The nearest approach' to these sums was £680 last season! A Third Folio realised '£1550. Shakespeare quartos also climbed to high points. In June £1910 was given.for a first edition ol ■ tho foundation ■'■ play .of Henry VI,, Part 11. Mr. Quaritch gave £800 ■ for tho 1609 edition of. tho Sonnets. A "Compleat Tngler," in'the original .'. sheepskin, brought. £1290, a Kilmarnock Burns £700, and a Tare'copy of Browning's "Paulino" £225. Amongst autograph manuscripts there was a sensation. - This- wasa group ;of three, small note-books belonging to Shelley; containing rough jottings .in pencil or ink of a'-.few of -tho poet's .finest poems, including the "Ode to the West -Wind." They wont to America,; tho hammer falling at £3000! Tho original autograph manuscripts of Pope's "Essay : on Man," White's "Selborne"' and Walter Scott's "His- .-■ tory of' Scotland" brought-respect-ively. £895, £750 _. and £510. Two Tennyson ' manuscripts realised' £300 and £155. -,'■'." ; A Famous Poem. \' , The best known poom of tho late > Lully Prudhomnio' was his "Broken Vase.". Here is a translation recently contributed to "Transatlantic •Tales" :-V'.'■■;' ■:■■■:• -v' .-■"•■.■ ■■ • .Tho vase in which this flower died .Was cracked by just a gbntlotap •.From someone's fan, • who brushed beside; _..''. ■'~.-■'. No sound betrayed the slight mishap. The little wound, past hppo of cure, Eating the crystal day by day, 'Invisible and still and sure, ' ■ ■ -Around the bowl has mado its way. And/ one. by one, to shrink and'dry, The ebbing drops the flower forsake; And no ono knows the reason why; ' But touch it not, or it will breakl .Sometimes the hand that, most is, dear Will touch the heart in careless 1 wise; ,-' ' ■■. , : The small wound widens year on year, • And 'love's rare flower droops .and dies. . . "■.. ''•'.. ~..,',; Still fair a'noV whole to stranger gaze, It feels 'within it burn and wake Tho thin, deep wound that inly preys; , Oh, touch it riot, or it will breakl ■ 'Good News.. One of. the most hopeful things that has .ben,.published ' 'concerning ; tho modern flood of., mediocre. books is ; tho statement that most of them will . die,through, tho -.weakness of their ink and paper. ■ "It.- 'is . questionable,'' ■says the "Manchester. Guardian,". ; which prints the good news,'"whether in many cases the ink will'proye in-' d6liblo:and tho fibre of the,paper hold out 1 , permanently against .corrosion, arid it has been suggested that, some • of the inferior products of our press will not last much more than eighty' years. ■. If there is anything in that, it. suggests-..mingled reflections., Librarians maysecrotly rejoice. At any rate the head of tho British Museum Library would 'find his • cigTit-and- : thirty. miles of shelves less rapidly lengthening oxit if ad ho,-put up each year's-publications in their places lie took-.down at the same time a largo quantity; of' tho publications; of eighty years previous that had lapsed into'whito dust. Poets, on the other hand, would have to lay their count with tho, fact that'; if their audience did not find theni within eigthyyears their slender volumes yould pass' irrecoverably into Nirvana. The practice of collecting first editions would be much discouraged' if. all those beyond eighty,years of ' age,wero extinct and those already collected perished on attaining that age, whilo those literary who from time to time gladden the .'hearts of readers by discovering in the .dusty, heaps of. wasted time some forgoten masterpiece: would .find their occupation all but gone." Mark Twain's Humour. ■'■ Mark Twain has : suffered so> dreadfully from; the criticism of unintelligent adrnirers that ono welcomes a vory thoughtful . paper by Professor' W. L. Phelps in the."North American ■Roviow. 1 ' ■' A passage deserves quotation:— .'•. , ' ,- •;;■' •"Tho, ■' essence of.'Mark . Twain's humour is'incongruity. The jumping ■frog, is named Daniel Wobster; and, indeed, the . intense ~ gravity .of a . frog's face, with the droop at the corners of the mouth,, might well be envied .by ■ many .'an • American -senator. ''When 'the,, shotted 1 frog vainly attempted to leave tho' earth, ho shrugged his shoulders' 'like a Frenchman.'- Bilgewaturand the Dolphin on ;tho.raft are grotesquely'.'incongruous figures., The rescuing of Jim from his' prison cell isfull of the most incon■griious ideas, ilia, tude, toward tho whole .transaction contrasting /strangely with that of tho romiuitic Tom. Along with. the.conincongruity goes .tho element of suvpriso—which Professor . Beers has well 1 pointed out.. When one begins a sentence, in an apparently; serious, discussibnj one never knows how it will end. In discussing the peace that accompanies religious faith, .Mark Twain says that he has often been impressed with tho calm confidence of a Christian with. four aces. Exaggeration—deliberate, enormous hyperbole —is another feature Rudyard Kipling, who has been profoundly influenced, by Mark Twain, and has learned much from him, often emplovs the same device, as in 'Brugglcsmith.' Irrevorence is also a noteworthy quality.' In his travel-book's, we are given the attitude of tho typical Amorican j Philistine toward tho wonders and .sacred relics of tho Old World,'tho whole thing being a gigantic burlesque on the sentimental guide-books which' ■ wore-so much in vogue before the era of Baedeker. With so much continuous fun and mirth, satire and burlesque, it is no wonder that Mark Twain should not always ;be at'his best. Ho is doubtless sometimes flat, sometimes ooarso, as all humourists since Rabelais have been. The wonder is that his lovel has been so high." A Curious Report. "Tho newspaper Stockholm.? Tidningen states, on what it declares to bo good authority, that _Mr Rudyard Kipling has boon designated as'tho Nobel literary prize-winner for 1907. Mark Twain, it. says,' bad boßii suggested. The journal (the Stockholm correspondent of tho "Daily Mail" states) expresses satisfaction tha't an Englishman is the winner. Mr Kipling, to whom the abovo mcssiigo was communicated, replied that he bad received no intelligence of tho award mentioned." This curious piece of news is taken ' from English papers .inst to hand, ami the mystery remains still unexplained'