Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-10-31

] and has supervised their seiection. nv
| has been before the public Tor some
years. as a composer OF both prose anu
verse. Tennyson is said TO have APP
proved and enjoyed some OF his noveis'
| we wish we knew what that Laureate
| thought of his poems. We do not mo
much, IL any, poetry In them. we nave
seen ii stated that Mr.. r. IL. Stoddaro
| declared that George Meredith was
noet with one poem. and that was Love
| in the valley" That is rather more ins
| telligible than many Of the others. But
there Is, even I'm II, no afflatus. no In
| spiration. no stirring-you have 10 piod
through II. He finds his love like Tityrus,
sub tegmine patulae fagi, asleep under q
single beech-tree, her "knees and tresses
folded to slip and ripple idly" and he
wonders
Had I the heart to slide an arm be-
meath her,
Press her parting lips, as her waist
l gather slow;
| Waking in amaZement, she could Out
embrace me;
Then would she hold me. and never
let me go?"
He does not make the experiment, put
goes on to describe her:
"shy as the squirrel and hayward as
the swallow"
and says:
"FIeeter she seems in her stay than
in her flight"
How could that be so? Afterwards, he
says
when, from bed she rises, clothed from
neck to ankle,
In her long nlghtgown, sweet as
boughs. of May;
Beautiful she looks, IKE a tall garden
lily,
Pure from the night, and splendid for
the day"
What? Splendid for the day in her
Ions nightgown? And yet several stan
zas before that he had represented her
mother as both disrobing and arraying
her. and wishing "the wild thing were
welded" and then she would nave more
love and less care. There might have
been love in that valley, but not much
poetry.
Perhaps "the nuptials Of Attila"
made as much impression on US as any
Of these alleged poems. Mr.. Meredith
seems to be fond of classic lore, but
his inspiration from that source Is not
clear and is not impaired to his read
ers. You have to study his versions. lie
has one characteristic which he carries
almost to the extent Of premeditated al
fectation. 1t is the employment OF
hyphenated words. On many or MS
pages land they are not long,, there are
from four to nine Of these words, and
we feel inclined to dub him the poet or
the hyphen.
one of the most ineligible Of his YER
sifcations is Juggling Jerry" in which
he makes Jerry give England's Prime
Minister a good hit, which is particular
ly appropriate I'm view of recent per-
formances of the British Government in
Southern Africa. Jerry i'm the fifth or
the thirteen stanzas, is made to say:
"JuggIing's no sin, for we must have
victual.
Nature allows us to bait for the fool;
Holding ones own makes us Juggle no
little.
But to increase It, hard juggling's
tho rule.
You that are sneering at my profession,
Haven't you juggled a vast amount?
There's the Prime Minister, in one ses-
sion
Juggles more games than my sins'n
e'er count"
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND
ENGLISH LITERATURE: Lectures De-
livered in Connection with the Sesqui-
Centennial Celebration Of Princeton
University. By Edward Dowden, LIZ
D., d. c. L., &c., Professor Of English
Literature In the University OF Dublin
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
1897. The j. w. Randolph Company,
Richmond, Va. Pages 2S5. Price, $l.25.
This is one Of the handsome and learn
,s,.fW, oil
by seven very distinguished foreign profess
sors during the late grand celebration Of
the great University Of Princeton, once
modest Nassau Hall. Whoever goes
through this neat and convenient volume
and its fellows will get the benefit Of a
vast deal Of research and erudition judi
ciously condensed and admirably present
ed by authors and publishers. Profess
sor Felix Klein, of Gottingen, discusses
in four lectures 1.-THE Mathematical
Theory of the Top" DR.. Dowden con-
siders the generally more inviting sub
ject of his six in the following order:
l., Precursors Of Revolution; H., Theo-
rists of Revolution; Ill, Anti-Revolu
ton: Edmund Burke; w., Early Revolu
tionary Group and Antagonists; ", Re-
covery and Reaction; VI, Renewed Revo-
lutionary Advance. He says: II have
tried to let the meanings Of the French
Revolution, as they entered into English
literature, expound themselves; TO pre-
sent some important figures on the back
ground Of history-history of ideas. rather
than Of eyents-has been my aim"
WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE |
QUARTERLY HISTORICAL MAGA- |
ZINE. Editor: Lyon C. Tyler, NJ. A., |
IL. D., President of William and Mary |
College.
Table of Contents: Education in Co
lonial Virginia, Part III. free schools. |
Charles Sayer's Account at College, 1863.
County Marriage Bonds.
Letter from Mungo Ingles, First Master
Of the Grammar School; The Cavalier
Matthew's Family-showng
inter marriages with Braxton, Smith,
Battaley Bagley, Micou, etc. Howard.
Wood, Baker, Gilmer. and Mark. Genea-
logy OF the Armistead Family (con-
tinued). Lancaster County Marriage
Bonds, 177-17i7. The Thornton Family
Continued. Genealogy OF General j..
J. Il. Stuart and Collateral Families
Pannil Strother, Banks, Bruce, etc.
Record of General William Madisons
Family Sale Of Negro by John Indi-
cott of Boston. Servants Protected.
Execution Of an Indian, 1869. The Browne
Family Of James City. Historical and
Notes: Cobbs, Pinkethman,
Allen, Richardson. Weldon; Weldon;
Batess Family; The Fresh of III;
Dawson, Bassett; Bassett,
,tith; Kingsmill; Brooke, Prentis,
Waters; Hyde; President William Stith's
James's Family. OF James
'ity; Minor Family; Munford Family;
'oats-of-Arms OF Miller, Holiday,
read; Bacon's Place of Death; Emigrants