New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-04-25
LITERARY NOTES. :

Ssome Massachusetts, amateurs are piaFins %i
Eov,el,s,s little comedy 1.-The Sleeping Car" otner
amateurs will no doubt find Mr. Osgooas neat ou'-
Gon of the play useful and entena'"'hs'
The Round ROBIN novel "Fancbette Is AZ
tributed to Mr.. John Esten Cooke. IL u 10 nars
the work Of the virginlan wr,,ef. % VIE nas
made a total change In his literary y'e'
h.sn iustly said that of one set of persons
nj. kipsfoIk-Carlyle always speaks char'taby but
,rhot seems to HIM virtue m them he Is
ont 10 look upon as fault IN others, Mrs
Cor,vle IN one of her letters mentions
a melody as dying away into uniDtehgioie
WINNER and Carlyle compacentiy explains tna'
The phrase was used by his father in. descrehS
"precentor," who, having lost his tnne' desper-
ately tried several Others" Later on In the same
xolume the phrase occurs again. This time CaLiyie
does not remember his fathsrs connect on WIN ~,
and so lls ex laaation Is, oonio iooi 'p0 "
me forget whose"
The life of Benjamin Franklin in the American
Men of Letters series is TO be written by Professor
MoMaster. of Princeton, author of tho new history
of the American people
Mr.. Robert Grant. the author of that fippant nut
pounlar trife. the Frivolous Girl" has nearly
completed another mover.
Mr. Ruskin is at present a very busy man. in0
new edition of the second volume Oh o"0
Painters" has left its English press IL contains 'o'
only new preface and critical notes ou' "'so o.
"epiogue with photographed accouu' " 49,
authors early ART studies" A new eui.'on VI wy
Soysn Iamns of Architectural is also Forthcoming.
The recent Oxford lecture on hossctu "u' NV
man Huutn is to be published immediately anG
Vii bs followed by others TO be delivered next
term under the general title of "The Arts OF Eng
land.n The beautiful story of Florentlne gii'
from which Mr. Ruskiu read some extracts In Ills
Oxford lecture. is 10 he published this month, WIN
a preface by Mr. Ruskln himself. THESE new laoors
have fortunately not mterfered with the progress
IS so,,a of the MANY other books which Mr.. Ruskln
has had on hand for several years and fresh chap
ters are TO be Forthcoming this month 10 Deuo"-
lion. or Collected Studies Of the Lapse or waves
and Life of StOnesn to "0ur Fathers have told us
or Sketches OF the History of for boys
and Girs who have been held at Its fonis'" ahu 10
"Fors Clavigeran that collection of fierce light
ning-boltsp winch Carlyle recommended 30 ear
nestly to Emerson. A +" Ruskin Birthday book" is
also promised.
Somebody mentioned as ga well-known Bos-
tonlan {" has written "societv novel" called y ME-
and Mrs. Morton" and the book is 10 be brought
out Immediately by the new Boston firm OF Cuppies'
Upham e. Co.. formerly A 5. Williams q TO-
One of Turgonefl's latest tales has shrewd
touch of humor. lie recounts how GIafar, the re-
nowned yiz,er of Haroun Alraschid, while yet
old man from assassi and afserward visited this
cid nan at his request. The old man
took GIafar by the hand aud LED him into garden
enclosed by high walls, in the midst of which
grew n strange tree in semblance like cy-
npess only its leaves were of an azure hue. Up4n
this tree hung three apples: one of lonelsh
shape and white as milk the second round ana req;
the third little, shrivelled, and yellow. Youth"
sand the old man, "pluck and eat one of these
appies IL thou eatest the white, thou wilt be the
wisest of men; il the red. thou wilt be the richest
if the yellow thou wilt be smgularly accountable to
all old women. But make speed; the charm loses
Ito virtue within an hourp Giafar rumnaJed with
much perplexity If know everything" thought
he 81 snail know more than is good for me; II L
become too rich other will envy me. will eat
the yellow applen And he did so. The old man
laughed with his toothless mouth, and exclaimed:
GOOD y0uthl in sooth thou hast chosen the better
part What need hast thou of the white apple
thou art already wiser than Solomon. Nor needest
thou the red APPLE ether thou wilt be rich enough
without it, and none will envy thee" Venerable
sagep responded Giafar, "deign to indicate to me
the dwelling of the august mother of the Com
mander of the Faithful" The old man bowed to
the ground and showed the way. And Giafar is the
greatest subject In Bagdad.
Mr. Austin Dobson has been enabled, in his biogra-
ply of Fielding to make some definite additions to
our knowledge of the novests career. He gives for
the first time the date and place of Feldings second
marriage and the baptismal dates Of all the chill
dren of that marriage except the oldest. lie has
ascertained the exact sum paid for Joseph An
drews," and he gives extracts from an interesting
correspondence between IA ron Hill, his daughters
and Richardson respecting ION jones'
The last literary work performed by the late Rev.
Derwent Coleridge-the last surviving child of the
poet-was the petion of the edition OF his faith
er's poems which his sister had begun. Though a
writer of taste and 15ility his contributions to
literature were few.
The amusing and scandalous memoirs of the
Comte de VEL Castel, recently published in Paris,
give this comical picture of the Court of the Sec
ord Empire: "1he life Her Majesty leads is mo-
notonous in the extreme. She rarely goes out; she
does not employ her tine In work such as ladies in
high places usually find to do. and she reads but
little Her Court is curiously composed. The funny
person is no one less than the First Chamberlain.
Count de Tascher In the midst of the con-
yersation between the Empress and the Prin-
cess Matbilde, the Chamberlain is heard to play
the buffo in the ante-ro0m, and he IS asked
TO come and amuse the Princess. Initiate q tur-
key-cock' the Empress asks and. would you be-
lieye it, the fellow actually begins to cackle and
mt ON airs as if he wanted to Ontdo peacock.
Make the sum- continues the Empress. and with
the aid of some imbecile grimaces the Chamberlain
turns into sun. DO the NOON and he cuts some
foolish capers distorts his already sufficiently ugly
features into still greater uginess and says: This
is the NOON He then foli,ws with the storm and
more of such fooleries which belong to bis office.
He is miserable wretch! How can a forty-eight-
year-old nobleman play the role of TrIboulet and
allow himself to become tho laughing stock of every
honest lsic) mani am sorry for Court which has
sunk so low and ask myself how 1t is possible that
the Emperor could have surrounded himself 9Th
such queer people,"
Mem nm biicdilous'