Jottings.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 3, Issue 6, 13 March 1914, Page 4

Jottings.

MASTERPIECES WRITTEN IN PRISON. Byron’s famous poem, “The Prisoner of Ghillon” is supposed to have been written by Bonnivard, the Genevan patriot, whilsthe was incarcerated in the Chateau of Ckillon, on the shores of the lake. But the poem was really written at lightning speed whilst Byron was imprisoned by inelement weather for a night and a day in the neighbourhood. Nevertheless, some notable literary achievements have been really written in goal undoubtedly the most outstanding being two of the world’s greatest classics “Tile Adventures of Don Quixote” and “The Pilgrims Progress. ” If only those books had belonged to the literature of captivity they would have been sufficient to make that literature distinguished and immortal. Thomas Cooper, the Chartist whose life reads like a romance, and whose name is held in reverence by modern reformers, wrote a remarkable poem whilst he was lying in prison oil account of liis political agitation. This poem bears the remarkable title of “ The Purgatory of Suicides, ” and when it was published it created a very considerable stir in the literary world, for it had emanated from the brain of a man who had begun life as a, cobbler and had made himself master of the Greek language and literature. Another remarkable poem written in prison is “ The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” by Oscar Wilde, whose remarkable and most sombre book, “ De Profundis, ” was also written there. These two books are amongst the saddest records in the history of literature. It ought not to be forgotten (says Tit-Bits) that one of the greatest letters ever written was penned in a dungeon in Rome, This is the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians, a piece of literature, Hite apart from its sacred character, which is very bad to beat. It is very seldom that a newspaper has been edited from the inside of a cell, but even this feat was accomplished by the late lamented W. T. Stead, who, during the two months he spent in prison for an offence which many people condoned. and which a number admired, wrote scores of articles and practically conducted his paper. WHERE THE FAIRY TALES COME FROM. It is rather suprising to discover how few of the fairy-tales j which are now being put upon the stage can be claimed as British. Some of the most popular —“ Bluebeard” and “Cinderella,” for instance—are translations from the French; “Puss in Boots ” comes to us from Italy; “Jack and the Beanstalk ” is German; “Jack the GiantKiller ” is derived from the old Norwegian sagas ; whilst “ Aladdin ” and “ Sinbad ", come of course, from the ‘Arabian Nights.’ "The Babes in the Wood, ”, however, is a purely English story, being, in fact, a popular perversion of the murder of the young Princes in the Tower. “ Little Red Riding Hood ”, too, is English, though its exact origin is uncertain. The story of “ Dick Whittington," which most people would unhesitatingly claim as English, is common to Italy, France, Norway and Russia and is even to be found in a book by a Persian writer of the thirteenth century.