The record-union., 1899-02-26
REGENT LITERARY NEWS.
Historic Matters-New Works
Bookmen Of the World
Critical Comment.

A correspondent of 1.-The Scotsman"
says that he saw the other day in a
private collection an interesting bit of
Thackeray's handwork. 1t is q PEN
and-ink drawing showing Queen Vic
toria and the Prince Consort walking
arm in arm, followed by a procession
of members of the royal family. In the
background looms Windsor Castle.
There are twelve figures in ALL and
their design is most ingenious Thack-
cray has taken dozen stamps, the red
penny ones of our early days, cut out
the heads, slightly altered them to suit
the person sketched, and drawn under
Meath a figure. Each figure is num-
bered, and a note in Thackeray's hand
writing contains "a humorous descrip-
ton. BY the drawing hangs a pretty
tale. Thackeray was staying down at
Folkestone in company with some
friends. including Lady Knighton. At
luncheon he offered the lady some cham
payne. She declined it, saying she
never drank wine. Thackeuay offered
her the bride of a shilling if she would
break through her usage. She accord
ingly drank a glassful. A day or two
after Thackerays shilling was paid in
the delightful form of this drawing.
A second novel by Mr. Watts-Dunton
is making ready for print, and the au-
thor's friends are no doubt in despair
because they have USED up all the
fattering adjectives in the language
apropos of "Aylwin."
y -
tMr. Zangwill," says the "Bookman,'
was passing up Fifth avenue one Sun
day afternoon recently and his strik-
ing appearance made him the cynosure
of many eyes. 1t seemed to us that
there could be no mistaking his
identity. But imagine our amusement
upon hearing the information conveyed
by a -complacent looking young
woman to her companion, who was evil
IDENTIFY curious but baffied: Why, dear,
don't you know said the knowing one.
It's Filipino"
The recent Bismarck books offer
cOrrOborative testimony to the truth of
an observation made by the late En-
press of Austria and quoted in the just
published memoir of her. Il think"
she said, Bismarck was also a disciple
of Schopenhauer. He could not bear
women, perhaps with the single excep-
ton of his wife. He disliked Queens
The first time I saw him he was ex-
ceedingly stiff. He would have liked
to say (here she smiled), THE ladies
had better remain in their apartments"
l think all his hatred of England is
on account of the Queen. The poor
Empress Frederick also had to suf-
fer
NJ. lola while in England has been so
completely recluse that a messenger
from his own lawyer was once unable
to find him. This solitude has given
the novelist an excellent opportunity
for hard writing, and he has made great
progress in his new novel, to be called
''F'ruitfulness.
The American edition OF Eighteenth
Century Letters" prepared under the
general editorship Of r. Brimley John
son, is to be brought out Immediately.
The volume containing the letters of
Swift, Addison and Steele has been ar
ranged and provided with an introduce
ton by Stanley Lane Poole, and Pro-
fessor George Birbeck Hill is respons-
ible for the volume containing the
epistles Of Johnson and Lord Chester
field.
Would not the late Lewis Carroll.
asks the New York Tribune" turn in
in his grave if he knew that for not one
but actually two biographies of him his
own family is responsible? 1t is an
nounceG that Mr.. Collingwood's book
is tic be followed by another memoir.
London Literature: The little
book, "Shelley's Newly Discovered
Poems" is curiosity. Shelley's poetic
fame can neither be increased nor in
Jured by the appearance of few insig-
nificant productions of his boyhood
And as for his sister, whom DIR. Garnet
shows to have been the joint author of
the volume. few things can be less i'm
portant to the reading public to-day
than to know that she could write
verses of the sort that many clever
schoolgirls send to their friends. The
proof that she was Shedley's coadjutor
is that the second poem in the volume
is addressed to a girl by her cousin
and FRIEND" and that of the two cous-
ms plainly in question the writer must
not be Harriet Grove, but Elizabeth
Shelley, as is shown by the wonderful
couplet
For they're all alike, take them one with
another,
Begging pardon-with the exception of
my brother,
Which can only refer to the engage
ment between Shelley and Harriet The
volume consists of two epistles in the
style of Anstey's Bath Guide" clearly
by Elizabeth Shelly; a cycle of little
love poems, evidently addressed by
Shelley to Harriet Grove in 1910: four
tales of terror in the style of Monk
Lewis, and four miscellaneous
pieces, two of which are
TRANSACTIONS. In fact, Shelly's part of
the book may be said TO range in merit
from the level of the Monk Lewis, Anne
Radcliffe pieces, where we get such
verse as
1 must. dearest Agnes, the night is far
1 must wander this evening to strasburg
alone
1 must seek the drear tomb of my an
I must dig their remains from beneath
the cold stones.
to that of the love poems. of which
this is a fairly typical stanza:
Come (Harriet), sweet is the hour,
Soft zephyrS breathe gently around,
The anemones nightboding flower
Has sunk it's pale head on the ground
There is nothing very striking here, no
doubt, but it has just begun to be
poetry, which the other has not ap-
preached. In fact, we find the love
pieces a little more characteristic of
Shelley than Dr. Garnett would allow