LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1758, 24 May 1913, Page 9

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

The Sale of the Browning Letters, I had meant to have alluded last week to the sale of this Brownings' lovo Letters, but had no spare space. A corespondent ("E.F.J."), who asks if "Liber" does not consider the sale "a perfect outrage," will acccpt this explanation. As a matter of fact, seeing that those famous letters were, printed and published by the special permission of, and, we may assume, for the financial benefit of the late Mr. Barrett Browning, it matters little that the originals should have found their way into a sale room. I can see no outrage in the sale of the originals, when once the contents had been made public, but Mr. Barrett Browning was, I think, just as much to blame for making money out of correspondence he ought to have considered sacitd, as was Mr. Buxton Foreman, who edited and first made public property the love letters, of Keats to 'his sweetheart, Fanny Brawne; letter?, like those of the Brownings, which found their way, later on; to an. auction room. The sale of the Keats Letters suggested' a once famous sonnet by Oscar Wilde, which, as a literary curiosity, some of my readers might care to se,s. The sonnet is entitled "On the Sale by Auction of Iveats's Love Letters" : These are the letters which Endymion wrote To one ho loved in scerct, and apart. And now the brawlers of the auction mart Bargain and bid for each poor blotted note. ' . _ Ay! for each separate pulse of passion quote The merchant's price. ' I think they love not art Who break th© crystal of a poet's heart, That small and. sickly eyes may glare and gloat.

Is it not said that many years ago, In a, far Eastern town, some soldiers ran With torches through the midnight, and began To wrangle for mean raiment, and to throw Dice for the garments of a wretched man, Not knowing the God's wonder, or Ilis woe? By the fact that Mr. William Sabin was the purchaser of most of tlio lots at the Browning sale, we may assume the letfcsrs have gone to adorn the collection of some Yankee millionaire, for Mr. Sabin specialises as an agent for American collectors. When in London a few years ago "Liber" saw, at Mr. Sabin's famous shop, a collection of first editions of Dickens's works, in the original parts, for which an astoundingly large Sum was asked. "They will go to .America in the long run," said Sir. Sabin, and across the Atlantic have been sent long before this, I expect, the Browning-Let-ters. But, as I said before, seeing that they have been printed and made public, it matters little where the originals go, and doubtless the lato Mr. Barrett Brcwning's children will be all the happier for the sale, for the poefs son, so a correspondent of the London "'fimes>' lias recently declared, died in debt. The same correspondent tells us that before the poet died—he outlived his wife by hventycisht years—ho went through all his correspondence. destroying large masses of it, and only keeping letters which te considered suitable for publication. Loubtless, his son thought he was quite right in printing the letters, but, all the some, I cannot admit that even a son is justified in making public the love letters of his parents.

John Jonathan and Co. Quite a number of really good books never seem to find their way into the Colonial Libraries. . One such bock is Mr. James Milne's "Cousin Jonathan and Co," a copy of which has been lent me by a friend, and with which I recently passed a very pleasant evening. Mr. Milno is a clever London journalist, who edits that useful little magazine, "The Book Monthly," a periodical not so well known to New Zealand book-lovers as it might be. Mr. Milno wrote a chatty little book on Sir George Grey—The Gicat Pro-Consul—and a year or so ago published a charming book, "A Summer in London."' His new book is tho -eeord of a brief tour in America, and is a very pleasantly-written and readable volume. Years ago, our old friend, the late Max O'Rell, published a book on his American lecturing experiences, entitled, if 1 remember aright, "Cousin Jonathan at Home." The Frenchman was a professional humourist, and his book was decidedly funny in parts, although, sj I believe, "many Americans considered the fun rather forced, and tho satire sometimes not a little ill-natured. _ Mr. Milne is not a professional humourist —he must not, by the way, be confounded with Mr. A. A. • Milno, who writes for "Punch" and other papers—and his point of view is n.tlier that of a shrewd and good-natured observer than a critic and satirist. I have found his book most entertaining, and am surprised that no colonial edition has yet |been published, for New Zealanders and Australians aro very fond' of nading about their American cousins and their ways.

A Florentine Tragady. lih view of the fact that "A Florentine Tragedy" has ben staged this v<eck in Wellington, it may be of interest to somo of my readers to recall the fact that tho opening scene of the play, as far as the entrance of Simone, was not written by Oscar Wilde, but by Mr. Sturge Mcore, tho well-known poet. In his prefaco to the volume (in tho Mcthuen Complete Edition—the five shilling edition), which' contains "Salome" , and "A Florentine Tragedy," Robert lioss, Wilde's faithful friend and literary executor, tells iww ho came across the lost manuscript (a fragment) of tho play, when going through some loose papers rescued from the house Wilde occupied in Tite Street at tho time of his downfall. Mr. Ross at first imagined that "tho opening scene, though onco extant, had disappeared." 'One day, however," ho said, "Mr. Willard wrote that he possessed a type-written fragment of a play which Wilde had submitted to him. ... It agreed in almost tvery particular with what I had taken so much trouble to put together. This suggests that the opening seeno had never been written, as Mr. Willard's version began' where mine ,did." In 1906, the Literary Theatre Society produced 'Salome," and asked Mr. Ross for some other short drama by Wilde, to present at tho same time, as "Salome" did not take very long to play. Mr. Ross says! I offered them tho fragment of "A Florentine Tragedy," By a fortunate coincidence, the poet and dramitist, Mr. Thomas Sturge Moore, happened to be on the committee of the soriety, and to him was entrusted the (ask of writing an opening scene, to mako the play complete. It is not for wio to criticise his work, but there is justification for saying that Wilde himself would have envied, with an artist's envy, such lines as We will sup with the moon, Like Persian princes that in Babylon Sup in the hanging gardens of the King. Mr. Sturge Monro'-; works nclmle, 1 may <-;iy. "The Vinedresser and Other Poenii" "Absalom, A Chronicle

Play" (1903); aud "The Centaur's Booty" (1903). Mr. Moore is also an art critic of distinction. "The Weaker Vessel." In Mr. H. E. P. Benson's latest novel, "The Weaker Vessel"—the acthor of "Dodo" is now a regular "two-a-ycar man"—the central figure is a tippling author, whose muse, as ono critics puts it, "is merely jog-trot without whisky." Two women influence him—ono for good, the other for evil. Scenes of clerical life alternate with episodes with a theatrical background. Prom all accounts a strong book. Bohn's Library in a Shilling Reissue. Thero is to be, I read, a reissue, at the popular shilling, of a large number of volumes in the once-famous Bohn's Libraries. How many Englishmen will remember using Bohn's translation of the clasiscs as "cribs." Many of tho standard authors published in Bolm's Libraries were well edited, and some were not. A complete set runs into over 800 volumes. An Edinburgh bookseller, John Grant, advertises, I see, in his February catalogue, received by last mail, a full set for —at the published price the value would be close on XI7O. A few of the Bohn "extra volumes," including "Rabelais," "Tho Decameron'," "The Satyricon of Petronius," and "The Grammont Memoirs" were once greatly sought after by collectors, and brought high prices. But later and better editions, at reasonable prices, must have greatly lessened the demand by this time.