New-York tribune., 1899-07-18


his possession every argument used against shei'
lev would prove to be calumny. At last, how
ever, Lady Shelley was imprudent enough 10
hiring her theories to the test, and handed over
all the letters and documents to Professor Do"
den The result was fatal. for the book sho"eu
how little in the way OF reply to the most SERIOUS
| charges of sober minded students Professor
| Dowden. in spite of his zeal and aoiii'y' was
able to urge. The theory that Shelley was a
fautless hero Of romance was. In fact. des'royeu
! by Lady Shelley's frankness. and, aithouSh III
| trepidly maintained by DR.. Garnett In the Dio-
tionary Of National Biography has been aoah
doned by all unprejudiced investigators Inc
/ whole matter forms q curious episode In literary
| history"
The most popular novelist Of Great Britain ap-
pears TO be Mr.. sas Hooking. His puohsners
aver that for the twenty years during winch
he has been writing the sale OF his noveis mas
averaged one thousand copies a week. MI
Hooking is a minister Of the Methodist free
Church. and 1t is the great public Of Dissenting
England which reads his works.
| clever paper In the current Lons1ihh
vigorously attacks the fashion In which the
composers Of musical settings play havoc WIN
the Immortal verse" Of great poets. tampering
|
Of the verse by repetition omission of words
and extension Of the natural metrioal value OF
sentences It must be admitted that the authors
illustrations are as conclusive they are anus
ing "If the composer" ne says, cannot con-
! form TO the conditions of the material upon
which he works IT, in fact. he cannot write q
| song without mutilating or rendering ridiculous
the verses which ne employs, would he not DO
| well to confine himself to songs without words!
| II he must have words. let him take some that
| are frankly nonsenstcal. such as the time nom
! ored fa-lal-la' and the more modern tooral-
! looral' Or. again. let him make a selection from
| the works Of the poets who supply the rour-
! penny box, but let him at any rate spare from
his experiments the works Of those whom the
world has agreed to honor as poets Let the
! composer consider what his own feelings would
| be If the process were revereed Let MIN imagine
that he the musician. has written a melody ana
that the poet undertakes to set II to words Let
him further suppose that the poet, IN order TO
make things At, repeats phrase Of the melody
here and there, omits an occasional note ana
extends another to ten times the length assigned
to 1t by the composer Could the average musl-
clan find language adequate to express his opin-
ion OF s,ich a proceedingT'
On the urn at woking which contains the
Va
the author are inscribed in brass these lines:
Precious the box that Mary brake
OF spikenard for her Masters sake.
But ahl II held nought half so dear
AS the sweet dust that whitens here
The great wonder who shall say
To make 30 white a shell Of clay,
Prom clay to win a face so falr
Those strange. great eyes, that sunht hair
A-ripple Ger her witty brain,
Or turn all back to dust again?
Who knows-but In some happy hour
The God whose strange alchemic power
Wrought her Of dust again may turn
To woman this immortal urn
Four editions Of "A Solitary Summer''-the
new book by the author of elizabeth and her
German Garden"-have appeared in England;
and second American edition will appear I'M
mediately Both these books while not I'M
portant, are emphaticaly good literature and
conducive to right thinking and 1t Is pleasure
to chronicle their success
Mr.. c. ]. Moulton- Barrett, the brother of Mrs
Browning has written another letter to Ihe
London Standard" concerning his statement In
the former letter that his sister never left her
room"-a statement intended to emphasize the
secrecy with which Browning conducted his
courtship and utterly ignoring the drives. the
hours in the drawing room. and even the walk
mentioned in the Letters" Another corre-
s1ondent charged him with inaccuracy and this
is his queer answer: ut happened many years
ago I recollected the treatment Of Dr. Cham
bers and. excepting the short drives on days
that permitted It. II continued to the end The
carriage exercise forgot. Nor does it matter.
II must have been for a very short period. L
repeat my sister never left her room. Members
of the family and her friends her only there.
And passing to and from the carriage she only
rested a minute or two in the drawing room.
where she one.
Mr. Tillard is surprised that my father never
met Mr.. Browning. He must surely have avoid
ed doing So The more natural surprise would
be that, with his marriage In preparation. Mr..
Robert Browning had not anxiously sought an
introduction TO my father and his sons. who
were then at home, two of them barrfsters. The
cousin who, Mr.. Tillard says. resided with my
father In 1S46 must have been a child. My
! father was over seventy. His objections to mar
riage only extended to those he conceived would
prove unhappy. In this case not only his con-
| sent but his person, contemptuously
| treated
Mrs. Ritchie, In her Records also tells
story OF a cousin remembering a certain ode.
cited by a little girl to her father his birth
day; as he listened shading his eyes. the young
cousin was wondering why the tears came fall
ing along his cheek The little girl was my sis
| ter"
The lady went out driving. but she never left
her room'-what an extraordinary state of
things!
CHESS.