New-York tribune., 1907-11-30
PRECIOUS NARGINALIA.
Glim pses of Lord Macauldy IN HIS
Library.

MARGINAL NOTES BIT LORD MACAUI-AY.
Selected and Arranged by sir George DUO QUO
4 Co CO. an --'''' '''
Charles Lamb a little rueful hut on the
whole we'll pleased when Coeridge borrowed
one of his books He knew that if it re-
turned to him at all It would come back en-
riched with margna!ia made of the pure gold
of the poets mind. Lord Macaulay was just
such benefcent annotator. He could not read
anything without Immediately pencilling beside
the text precisely what he thought of it, and
so full Of energy his thought that even
trash emerged from his hands with a certain
interest communicated to il. His library con-
tanned, ms his nephew observes in the present
essay many books Of no great intrinsic value
of themselves; but these, told. "are
readable, from the first page to the last. for the
sake of his manuscript notes inscribed in i'm
mense profusion down their margins He
could extort amusement even from the six vol
umes of the Swan Of Lichheld's Letters. supply
ing them with a running commentary which
Sir George Trevelyan likens to "the breaking Of
a butterfly beneath the impact of cheerful
steam hammer" The bibliG.G-bibliG, the books
which are no books. in Lambs phrase. had no
terrors for him. At least they stimulated him
to sarcasm 10 a mood Of correction. and that
luminous comment on the subject mistreated by
the Ounce whose work lay open before him II
was a capital idea Of Sir George Trevelyan's 10
collect a handful Of the casual remarks
left by one OF the most accomplished readers in
the history Of literature.
They are amusing when they are concerned
with pompous medocrities. They are much
moro than amusing when they refer 10 good
books These he illustrated and enlivened by
,f.sl, Varnliy
pontIess or dull; while interest and admiration
arc expressed by lines drawn down the sides of
the text" He never tagged. Sir George quotes
a remark on the constant alcrtness of Macau-
lays mind once made to him by Frederic
Myers: He seems habtualy TO have read
! read only during my first half hour with
great author" He read. too, not simply as a
scholar and a critic but as a passionate lover
Of letters one to whom the exposure of an error
or the recording Of dissent was no more i'm
portant than was tho notation Of his pleasure
in fine thing Here is his characterization of
the Seventh Idyi Of Thcocritus
This is yery good ; Ldyii Indeed it is more m9gq
poem in any language. II was my favorite at COL
about it which I hnd nowhere else 1t opens a
scene Of rural plenty and comfort which quite fills
soft goalskins old win. singh singns 6rdS 5%yous US
reality which is more interesting than the conven-
tlonal world which Virgil has placed in Arcadia.
His enthusiasm comes out on nearly every
page Of his Shakespeare, and, with it, fine
scorn for the ireotitudes of this that COM
mentator He is no respecter of persons. Or.
Johnson, coming to the passage in Hamlet"
To groan and sweat under weary life?
was moved to. write this note "AG the old
bayra ia Is nm
doubtedy the true reading, but scarcely be
borne by modern ears That is not the way it
strikes Macaulay. we want Shakespeare" he
says, mot your fine modern English 1t is
interesting to know that he believed Hamlet" to
be the only play which Shakespeare really
bestowed much care and attention" His
nephew says that he devoted much time and
thought TO the minute study of that drama
If it had been his intention to edit it. "Othello"
he reckoned the best play extant in any Ian
guage"
After the notes on Shakespeare come many
of his remarks on the Greek and Latin authors.
for whom Macauay had veritablc passion. His
nephew deplores the fact that we have only
few pages as the visible fruit of 'the thousands
of hours which he spent over the classical
writer's during the last twenty years OF his life,
and he speaks wstfully of a Life of Perices
and Life of Cicero which among the
written biographies which We're buried with
him" Some idea OF the brilliant character they
would have possessed is given by the notes on
Cicero and Plato which are here rescued from
Oblivion. They show how for Macaulay. the
antique world was a living thing. about which
he would have written with profound knowl-
edge and with the keenest feeling for its purely
human interest. Indeed, this little volume is
not only entertaining through the scattered ex-
amples it brings together of Macaulay's thought:
il is useful inasmuch it deepens
Of the whole broad character of his mind The
legend of the great historian and talker "a
book in breeches" is sufficiently corrected, of
course, by the familiar Life and Letters" but
it is well to have also this further proof OF the
essential warmth vivacity, and sympathetic
quality OF his intellect.