NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 520, 29 May 1909, Page 9

NOTES.

■ Professor Fitemaurice-Kelly conies in for many congratulation? on iiis now book, "Chapters on Spanish Literature." His criticism of Cervantes' works shows real insight. Thus, when ho comes to speak of the point hi "Don Quixote" where "Cervantes perceives the subject broadening out, and the landlord, accordingly .impresses on Don Quixote tho necessity of providing himself with a squire," he writes of Sancho Panza: "It is a momentous passage: there and then tho image of Sancho Panza first flashed intothe author's mind, but not with any definition of outline. Cervantes does not venture to introduce Sancho Panza in person till near the end of the seventh chapter, and'ho is visibly ill at ease over his new creation. It is quito plain that at this stage Cervantes knew very little about Sancho Panza, and his first remark is that the squire was an honest man (if : any poor man can bo called honest) ' but with very little sense in his pate.' ' This is not tho Sancho who has survived ; honesty is not the most pre-eminent quality of the.'squire,.and if anybody thinks Sancho Panza a born fool he must have a high standard of ability. In the ninth chapCervantes goes but of his way to deiscribe Sancho Panza as a long-legged man;, obviously up to this point ho had never seen tho squire at close quarters, and was as. yet riot nearly so well acquainted with him as you and I are. Ho was soon to know him more intimately. Perceiving his mistake,, ho hustled tho long-logged . ■ scarecrow out of sight, observed the real Sancho with minute •fidelity, and created the most richly humorous character in modern literature. 'The only possible rival to Sancho Panza is Sir John Falstaffj but Falstaff is emphatically English,; whereas Sancho Panza is a' citizen of tho I world, stamped with tho seal of universality."

King Victor Emmanuel inaugurated on April 3 the. Keats-Shelley memorial, instituted in tho" house where Keats lived and died. Among those present were the British Ambassador, Sir Itonuell Hodd, who, when Secretary at,,tho. Kmbassy. here, was among those who'started the movement for the purchase of Keats's house; . Mr. G-risconi, tho American , Ambassador; Air. Harold Boulton-. Secretary of the British Qommitteo;' Mr. and Mrs. : Rudyard 'Kipling;' "'Mr:'■,' Nelson' Gay, seoretary. and treasurer -of tho Exectuive Committee; Mr. Arthur Severn, son of Keats's friend;-the Rev. W. Esdaitej a relative of Shelley:;' Professor Reginald J. E. Tiddy, of Trinity College,-' Oxford; tho Hon. Alexander Hood;'.'' Donna Laura Minghetti, widow of .the great Italian statesman and mother of Princess Bulow; Mme. Barrere, wife of the French Ambassador; Mrs. Nelson Gay, Mr. Wy'ndham, Councillor of tho British Embassy, and. Miss Wyndham. • The King stood in;tho largest room of the.house,' arranged as a conference hall, surrounded by tho guests; and Sir Rennell Rodd welcomed him in the name of the Executive Committee, and read a telegram from King Edward expressing sympathy with tho object of tho memorial., Tho committee hopo to have sufficient funds gradually to transform Keats's house into a centre of Italo-Anglo-American literature and culture, and to keep in good preservation the tombs of Keats and Shelley, and their companions,, Severn and Trolawuey, all buried .in the pretty Protestant, cemetery at Testaccio, adjoining tho walls of tho city, near tho gate leading to tho Basilica of' St. Paul. • -

Mr. Ralph Thomas tells in "Notes and Queries" the curious story of the two-Tenny-son Concordances. Mr. Brightwell, who was making a living •in "London by teaching and journalistic work,.was a great admirer of the Laureate's!poetry,'and submitted'■ the plan of bis Concordance to Tennyson's .publisncr, Moxon/ in thespring 'of. 1888.' Mr:, Thomas! thinks'that'''there-'is;no doubt Moxqn. obtained Tennyson!s approval, before entering, on so. expensive -a publication.'. .Unfortunately, . some, timo after Tennyson changed his publishers; ..••-Whither, any. notice was given to Brigbtwell is, not 'known j.biit eventually his great and only,,work, "A Concordance to3ho Entiro Works of Alfred Tennyson," was published by "E. Moxon, Son, and Co./'in 1869. Tho. book lias a/good portrait of the Poet Laureate; at all events, it is nicely etched from, a photograph, and has a facsimilo of Tennyson s signaturo underneath. Tennyson, however, had set his face against the thing, and would have nothing to do with Moxon or his book, and he stigmatised the portrait as a caricature. It is needless to say bitter was Brightwell's disappointment at this,' and to find his work of years fall almost stillborn from tho press. After changing his publisher, Tennyson, Mr. Thomas thinks, must, have started a concordance under his own superintendence: Accordingly, tho following year there appeared; "A Concordance to the Works of Alfred Tennyson," published by "Strahan, Sou and C 0.," in 1870. To have got this out in the time a staff of workers must, have been employed. The book is anonymous. Brightwell's reward, Mr. Thomas adds, has come, but too late. His book stands on the shclveu of tho Reference Library in the RcadingHoorn of our National Library, to the exclusion of Tennyson's, thus proving its superiority to its competitor in tho opinion of our .great experts iu books.

Mr. Thomas Hardy, though his earlier appearalices in print were all proso fiction, liogan by writing, though Hot publishing, lyrical vers,e,, and tho poems from his pen which have of lato been finding their way into'the monthly reviews scon,'in some cases at least, to ho carly_ work. His new poems in the "English Review" and the "Cornhill" remind us that a very considerable and steadily increasing number of his lyrics havo appeared in periodicals during tho past decade, and many will hope that they may soon ho collected. Some line poonis by Mr. Hardy arising out-of incidents connected with the South African war .arc now difficult to find (says tho "Westminster Gazette"), though in ono or two cases they have been deservedly included in recent anthologies; others, too, such as the imprcssivo "New Year's Poem," that appeared in tho "Fortnightly lloview" ovor thrco,years ago, would bo seen to better advantago in such a collection. For Mr.. Hardy's work, by its aloofness of thought and its distinction of manner, seems in a senso out of placo in periodicals, and gains in imprcssiveness when brought together and considered in its consistency and unity as tho expression of his inind and art.