NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 508, 15 May 1909, Page 9

NOTES.

. In, tho current "■ Cornhill" tlioro is a short poem by. Thomas Hardy entitled " Let Mo iinjoy." We quote three of the stanzas. ' Let me enjoy the Earth no less Because the all-enacting Might That fashioned forth'its loveliness . Had other, aims than iny delight. Abont mjf.path there flits a.l'nir ' '; ' Who throws' me-nbt a word or sign; " I will find charm in her. loth air, . And laud those lips not meant for mine!:

Prom manuscripts of tender song Inspired by scenes and souls unknown, I'll pour out, raptures that belong' ' To. othors, as they were my own.

In the course of an interview in tho April " Pall Mall Magazineon tho question of happy endings to plays,- Lady Bancroft says:—"lf tho matter were in my hands I would simply ond a play in a sad or happy way according to tho argument of it. If the play is intended ,to -point a moral—if, for instance, -it ends to'.show the consequences which ensue when one does what one should not do—then in its denouement 'I should, as .Sir William : Gilbert puts it, 'let tho punishment-. .fit the . crime.' Otherwise the lesson, would.-not bo driven home." " Then you'regard ,tho theatre as a serious educational force." "Certainly. The stage, in my opinion, should not only interest but teach in.more .ways,than one.. And it does do so." Many a story could, Lady Bancroft added, be told of a* evid deed which has been contemplated, but which has been prevented ■by-a lesson set forth in a play, the story of which has strangely' coincided with' the inclinations of ono of its spectators.

- Many lovers of poetry will' welcome a collected edition, of the "Poeitia and Sonnets" of Mrs. Chandler Moulton, whose poems were read by Rob:rt Browning (as he wrote in a' letter to the author), " with flowers before his eyes, music in his ears, and thoughts across his brain." ; The book will be issued by Mesrs. Macmillan and Co., and will contain the poems which -havo previously only appeared in separate volumes entitled "Swallow Flights." "In the Garden of Dreams," and "At the Wind's Will."

Whilo the judgment ■ of the "Greenock Advertiser" on Campbell'sHohenlinden" must be ranked among tho curiosities of criticism, equally so must be placed' the othez; contemporaneous pronouncement of John Leyden on Campbell and his famous ballad. Scott lias preserved this for us in his Journal for June 9, 182G, whero he writes: "'When I repeated ' Hohenlinden-''td Leyden, he said, .'Dashit, man, tell the fellow that I hate him; but, dash'him, lie lias written' the finest'verses that have been published these, fifty years.'" Scott adds that ho conveyed th'o message, and had for answer: " Tell Leyden , that I detest him, but .1 .know the valuo of his critical approbation." ' , - l \ \ The first and second series of. Palgrave's "Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Poems in the English Language" aro to be issued in one complete volume. No edition of the. first , series, except thoso bearing the Macmillan imprint, is complete as Palgrave left tho.book, and as .it lias been sold for many years.lt may be of interest to many to recall the fact that Tennyson suggested the preparation of the work to Palgrave, and there can be no doubt that tho advico and assistance of the poet in its compilation have had their cffect in placing "The Golden Treasury" so high among selections of English poetry.

The publication of the now pocket edition of the "English-Men of Letters", scries.began on April 2 by the issue, of. the first five volumes—viz., Addison, Bacon, Beutley, Banyan, and -Burke* Five volumes will be published in each succeeding month until the list of'thirty-nine volumes 'is'completed. The books are neatly bound in green cloth, with gilt lettering, and aro published at Is. not each, :