The Washington herald., 1907-10-27


coigne's treatise.
The Verlaine OF fact and the Verlaine
Of popular fancy are not differences OF
kind but only of degree according to
the London Times. Verlaine had the
courage, and even the vanity, Of his
vices. and, when he was thoroughly
drunk and had young and reverentiaI
! audience. was apt TO confess more sins
than he had ever had the opportunity
Of committing He was at such times the
"fanfaron' Of vice. just as Victor Hugo
was always the "fanfaron" of virtue
But he did not lie or invent He only
! exaggerated. raising the frail fictionaI su-
! IpersTucture upon a solid foundation of
/ fact, with the result that points which
/ his biographer makes on his behalf hard
/ ly seem worth making. No doubt, as NJ
/ Lepelletier suggests, there was IN his case
la bourgeois underneath the Bohemian
1 there generally is But the Bohemian
/ layer was always thick and got thicker
as life advanced. No doubt. again. there
We're times in Verlaine's life when he not
only repented Of his potations. but sus-
/ pended them. but it cannot be said that
/ the essential Verlaine was the Verlalne
/ of the sober interludes.
! The net impression remains unpieas-
ant-far more so than the net impression
/ left by the biographers OF, say. Alfred
de Musset, a man OF genius. who was
equally victim of the green demon of
absinthe. For Musset retained the in
stincts Of a gentleman even when ne
was drunk, and Verlaine never acquired
such instincts even when he was sober.
Whatever we may think of his genius. his
weaknesses We're repulsive, and the mani
festations OF his dipsomania deStable.
A Tudor Fac-Simile Text, which IS nearly
ready for delivery, IS the reproduction
Of the only Ms. OF an Elizabethan play
which survives IN the authors own hand
writing This is Massinger's Believe as
Ye List" This play was first printed
from the Ms in 1874 It is recorded that
the manuscripts of eight Massinger's
PLAYS We're i'm the middle Of the eigh-
teenth century, used 70 light a kitchen
/ fire by tie ignorant servant Of the out
rageously careless John Warburton.
Summerset Herald.
The second volume Of the Humanists
Library. the Against War" Of Erasmus.
comes from the Merrymount Press this
week, with a preface by Mr.. J. w. Mac
kali. the author OF a History Of Latin
Literature and the blographer Of VII
liam Morris. With the exception OF its
title page. which IS printed from a new
design by Mr.. Herbert 2. Horne, the
book is uniform with the first volume Of
the series. Da VineIs Thought and
Life, which is out Of print Mr.. Updike
announces that November viii bring the
third volume or the series. "Peuarch
and the Ancient World" by Pierre de
Nolhac, curator Of the Palace Of Yer
sailles.
A new English edition Of the poems Of
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, arranged In
chronological order. makes il possible 20
trace the development Of this poets gift
for versiication. Walter Pater said or
Rossetu that his poems had IN them a
sort Of mystic isolation" and we have
the poets own testimony as 10 the diff
hculties under which he lab0red I'm the
construction of verse. Il am the reverse
OF Swinburne' he once said. for his
method of production, inspiration is in
deed the word. with me the case Is DIFF
feTent. I lie on the couch the racked
and tortured medium, never permitted
an instant's surcease Of agony until the
thing in hand is finished Once when
he sent a sonnet TO his sister Christina
IL was accompanied with the grim com
ment, with me sonnets mean insomnia" ."
4 writer IN the current Hsrper's Week
" brings TO light an interesting anecdote
of Tennyson, which well illustrates the
singular habits Of the great laureate in
his Intercourse with his friends. The
poet was not only brusque and rough.
but he was domineering and exacting.
and most other men were afraid Of him.
But an American schoolmaSter who for
many years maintained a great intimacy
with him had no fear In his heart and
sat and smoked on an equality with the
sovereign singer by the Farringford FIRE
side
'One evening" says the writer. when
the two were thus together. Tennvson
said that he would depart from his Gus
tom and Harrate a personal experience:
| but he had suffered a good deal from
repetitons Of his tales by those to whom
he had told them. and he would be
what he was about to hear.
THE American smoked on for a few
seconds, while Tennyson waited for the
promise. and then he said.
My lord. in MY country a gentleman
would never make that request of an
other gentleman
'H-h-m" said the poet. and looked
out OF eyes that wondered II the quiet
smoker opposite knew how much he'd
said. Then he told the story
The forthcoming volume of Sidney
Laniers poems, "Hymns Of the Marshes"
is TO be realistically illustrated with
photographs taken in the marshes of
Glynn. They will be in harmony with
the text. for Ianiers verse. while if
often breathes forth Imagination and
wild music, has still, much that is thor
oughly unpOetic.
The anonymous author of The Martvr-
dom of an Empress" and now Of EN-
erald and Ermine." again refuses her
name TO the title page Of her novels II
is noteworthy that this author has re-
mained anonymous for an unusual space
OF time. Some seven or eight books have
come from her pen 90 the Harpers during
as many years. ana the secret of her
identity is still undisclosed.
The letters Of the Poet Carducci will
probably be published soon. They deal
more or less with political subjects as
well as with literature
There remain in existence a number Of /
unpublished letters from the pen of Vol
taire. and these. or some of them. are tn
appear in Prof. Churton Collins naw
book on the visits to England of Voltaire
MOntesquieu, and Rousseau.