New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-11-17
MAJOR AND MINOR IN ENGLAND.

T. "rrba Comnlete Poetic and Dramatic Norks
| % Robert Browning" G1oughton, Mlillih ~No'''
rho fine type and the thin paper required u! 'nc
connression Of all that work INTO the lo"'
nares of one large octave seem shshtS "e
;e at first Exactly the same observation
applies to THE Poetical Works OF Sr Na'te'
SOFT" Macmillan & Coz, edited discreetly by
Mr. / Logic Robe rtson, and published also III
ore volume. Here also the paper is thin' the
49,. daenerateIv small book larger than
The Lyrical Poems of Sir Philip sidney
brought ont by the same publishers under the
editorship of Ernest Rnys. but In the same dress
of thick white paper and clear type. would nave
boen far more welcome. And yet, with all their
mechanical shortcomings. these reprints are very
stimulating Browning fell short of his aim, but
there is bone and sinew hidden in the great buik
Of his poetry. and it is refreshing to ma MN al
last in one compact volume. well printed la'riy
indexed and accessible, in just the shape FOR the
moment in which the mood rises for contact
with his strenuous muse
Scott too comes like blast of strong cool
wind athwart our recent poetry and though we
find it necessary To notice every year some new
edition or editions of his verse, the task Is never
wearisome No charm Of recent could
take ANYTHING from the delight of finding In the
two little booklets which the Macmillans call
Lady of Shalott" with other poems like THE
Palace OF Art" and THE Lotus Eaters" then
the interesting "Juvena." The volume Of Sid
ney introduced by Mr.. Rhys is a small. gayly
made book AS an edition of Sidney 1t Is not
readily taken seriously, but to dip into it is to
be lost at once in the tenderness and quaint sim
plictv of one of the most charming Of the old
WRISTS
In fact. one is tempted to conhne oneself to
the reprints, and let contemporaneous produc-
tons blush in the obscurty Of the shelf. Mr..
Comyns Cars king Arthur" (Macmian Coz
is remote enough in motive and sentiment but
the execution has the defects of our day. AS a
drama its shortcomings have already been
pointed in The Tribune. Its exclusively
poetic merits are few. the lines lacking elasticity
and charm of dction. On the stage they may
here and there possess force. and the lyrics.
dantily sung, may daintiy written. No
where does the play read sympatheticay The
style Is inert and the songs have real music
in them; they have merely hint Of melody.
The spirit of the subject is not revived in these
pages Written for an actor with all the
of his genius and his stage at command,
1t leaves much to those agencies in the persua-
sion of the audience that these truly scenes
Of Arthur's time. peopled beyond the shadow Of
doubt by Arthur and his knights. Briefly.
can find no literature in this work.
We do not find it, either. in "A Song Of the
Sea, Ny Lady Of Dreams and Other Poems
(Stone & KimbalD. by Mr. Eric Mackay. That
energetic versiner. however, has lost nothing Of
his vim, his eagerness his quickness Of utter
ance. his bumptousness. The spirited address to
Shelley which begins at page 26 might have
been a good poem had 1t not hit upon too loud a
key. AS it is. there is vitality in this book
of ,o
belong to so buoyant and passionate a nature
Mr. Mackay wins sympathy for his muse in
spite OF, her failure to command admiration. In
subtitle to his Robert Louis Stevenson an
Elegy and Other Poems" copeland & Day,
Mr.. Richard lie Gallienne describes the contents
Of the volume as mainly personal" This being
the case t would have been wiser, perhaps to
have left the various performances here so ex-
qusitely printed In the keeping OF those friends
10 whom they originally addressed The
public can have small interest In the elegy on
Stevenson, which in its seventh line talks about
the "s!lken secret smile" Of the Pacific Ocean,
has II any patience with a fragment like the
following:
But see how yOnder goes,
Dew-drunk, with giddy slant,
Yon Shelley-lark,
And bark,
Him on the giddy brink
or pearly Heaven.
His fairy anvil cnk
Hark indeed. II is pleasant enough to listen
to Mr.. Mckenzie Bell the author Of Springs
Immortality Ward. Lock & Bowden). when
he keeps mere sing-song out OF his verses
but as he is not often able to do this his volume
Is easily laid down. His narrative poems are
clever. though they perhaps the most often
sive OF ell in measure. That the present edition
Is the second must be due to the entertaining
turn which NJ. Bell gives to his episodes Of
travel and history. Mr.. Hedley Peek whose
Skeleton Leaves" Q-ongmans. Green & Coz
reaches us In a new edition, suffers from an
aitihcally almost Mr.. Bells
There Is suggestion OF sympathy for human
nature IN the book but the series Of poems which,
under the title u Leaves from the Diary of a
Suicide, fills nearly all Of Mr Peek's pages,
N rs "a l,ho AID