Literature.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2110, 16 January 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

Literature.

— Mr Leslie Stephen will write the 'arcount of Cmlylp, and Mr John Moorloy that of Cobdon, for tho <( Dictionary of National Biography." — Mi«» Annie Longfellow, youngest daughter of tlio poet, was recently married, in the old Longfellow house at Cambridge, to Mr Joseph G. Thorpe, bother to Mrs Ole Bull, the violinist. — Signor Silvagnj's "Rome: Its Prince, Priests and People," a translation of which wis recently is-uiod by Mr EUiot Stock, has just been placed ou the Roman " Index Expurgntoriom." — We learn th.it Mr Robert Browning will contribute a poem to the now work which Mcs^m C.'s>-ell and Company arc about to publish eutitled, " Why I am a Liberel." — It has been stated that the late Colonel Burnaby left behind him the M.S. of a novel. A. certain publisher'^ most skillful decipherist was unable to mako heart or tail of it, nnd tlio intention of publishing it hai therefore been abandoned.

— Mr Ralph Waldo Emerson's family warn tho public that a number of his letters to Carlylo havo been stolen, and caution buyers against invcoting in thorn. But horn little such a thief would trouble Mr Emerson himself wore he alive !

— Siovor Svlvini jlikes the character of Coriolanus bo well that ho " can hardly believe that Shakespeare did not know me when he wrote it." Ho thinks that at bottom Coriolnnnfl was an Italian, beinc: 11 proud, strong, and a little pretentious." — The new venture, The Bank Magazine, was published on Monday. It is intended, we learn, for private circulation only. The first number waa written, illustrated, engraved, and edited entirely by gentlemen in the Bank of England ; but the columns of future numbers will be opened to contributors in any of the Lon. don banks.

— A French novelist, M. Chinchollie, called one of his characters by the name Desroseaux. It is so happened that the name was borne by a very worthy family in France, and tho novelist was compelled to substitute another for it in his next edition. A similar exporience has fallen to the lot of at least three other French novelists— MM. Zola, Ponson dv Terrail and Georges Pradel. — Lieutenant Greely's forthcoming volume, called "Threo Years of Arctic Research : an Account of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881-4, and the Attainment of tue Furthest North," will be published by Messrs Scribner, in two volumes octavo, with a steel portrait, with nearly 100 illustrations made from photograph* taken by the party, and with the official maps and charts. —Mr J. G. Swift Macnoil, M.A , barrister-at-law, and Professor at Constitutional and Ciiminal Law in tho Honourable Society of the King's-inne, Dublin, has written a work, entitled "The Irish Parliament: "What It Was nnd What It Did," in which he gives an account of the Iri>h Constitution as it existed before tho union of the Parliaments of England and Ireland. The book will be published, in a few days, by Messrs Cassell and Company. — A disgraceful meshod of levying blackmnil on dramatic authors has boon brought to light by a letter to Tho Times. On the second night of the performance of "Alone in London," a band of twenty persons assembled at the stage door of the theatre, and, affirming that they had been ecnt to oppose the cabal which hart been formed against the piece, offered their pugilistic and vocal services for a pecuniary consideration. — The following verso, from Matthew ii. 13, is given an a specimen of " Pasilingua," a universal language just invented by a German, of which English is said to be the dominant principle :—: — "Et quando ils partitef er schire to angclo deode apparifer Jsoephobi in una trauma trauma augano: Arisia, takare tou jungon childon et torn matren et fliehire in Egypta ct ore ibis, quoad mi bringar tiibi wordas, car tl erodes seekarar ton childillon pro 'lon detruar." — In his new capacity of Professor of Belles- Lettres, at Ilarvard University, Mr Rufcsell Lowell is about to deliver one course of lectures on Cervantes, and another on Dante. He will be chosen tho President of the council of tho American Copyright League, which is pledged to support tho new bill proi iding for international reciprocity, without any referenco to questions of tariff, inanufacturo, time, limit, &o. The council includes John Bigelow, Erander Matthews, Bishop Pottor, C. B. Warner, Mark Twain, E. L. Youmansj and others. — "The Blot Upon the Brain ; Studies in the History of Pnychology," is the title of a work by Dr. William \V. Ireland, which is soon to be published in London. It treats of tho Hallucinations of Mohammed, Luthor, Joan of Arc, and Swedenborg, the insanity of tho Caesars and of Ivan the Terrible, and the hereditary neurosis of tho Spanish Royal Family. — A copy of the suppressed love letters of Lord Lytton appears in the catalogue of a Bath (England) bookseller. It is an extra illustrated copy, and a note declares that it is " one of two only that got into circulation beforo the ordor was issued to suppress them." This, of course, is an error. Probably twenty-five copiea would not be an overestimate «f the number circulated. — Mr Austin Dobsons volume of poems, "At the Sign of the Lyre," which was published in America in March, was issued in October by Messrs Kegan, Paul and Co. Ot the lareje paper edition twenty-five copies more than usual were printed, but they had been subscribed for at once twice over, and the publishers are unable to supply the demand of the trade. — The new volume which Messrs Macmillan and Co. will publish for Lord Tennyson, will, it is said, consist, contrary to what some newspapers have said, almost entirely of new poems, several of them of considerable length. The most important are " Tireaias," with a dedicatory epistle to the late Mr Edward Fitzgerald ; " The Ancient Mystic,' "The Wreck," "To-morrow," a poem in Irish brogue; "The Spinster's Sweet-Arts," in Lincolnshire dialect ; and "Balm and Balan," a new " Idyll of the King." —Mrs Pattison (Lady Dilke), the editor of the momoirs of her husband, says sho has been under his strict directions not to alter a word of the manuscript. Tho most she has been ablo to do others is to substitute asterisks for omissions " in the present edition," when tho words wero likely to hurt tho fee v ngs of the living. "It will be a pleasant consideration for the l'Ving," says the Saturday Review, " that as coon as they die a fresh edition will set free some moro of their late relative's or friend's candid opinions of them " — The facsimile edition of the "Vicar of Wakefitld" which Mr Elliot Stock has in the press is accompanied by an interesting preface by Mr Austin Dobson, in which the history of tho writing and publication of tho book is told, and also the seriously comic circumstances under the MS. wa3 brought to light and disposed of by Dr Johnson, to the roliof of bis much harassed friend. Some dates, hitherto doubtful, have been definitely settled by Mr Dobson, and the slight variations in the text which arose in subsequent editions are also pointed out. Following tho preface is a bibliography of the " Vicar of Wakefield," in which it is believed that all the editions issued in this country are recorded, as well as the chief translations which have been issued abroad. Special interest has been given to ten copies of the ordinary edition, and ten copies of the large paper edition, by their helng bound in wood from the panels of Dolly's Chop-house, pulled down in 1884, where Goldsmith, Johnson, and Garrick wore accustomed to meet. The " Vicar of Wakefield" was originally printed at Salisbury by Collins, and issued by Francis Newborry in two volumes small fop. Bvo,