his course he attained a uniform proficiency, taking perhaps a special interest in lan guages. In his Junior year he won a Bowdoin first prize with a dissertation on the theme, "How far may political ignorance in the people be relied on for the security of absolute government in Europe?" And his Commencement part was an "oration" on "The Character of Lord Bacon." ingdon, now Bishop of Central New York. we cannot see what profitable use Miss Ingelow makes of it. Mrs. Burnett's last story needs no words of introduction from us. In the pages of Scribner's Monthly it has already reached The memoir proper, written by Judge Cur- its hundred thousand readers, and its repu tis's brother, Mr. George Ticknor Curtis, tation is made. It is in the same vein as occupies the first volume, and includes a That Lass o' Lowrie's, and in some respects considerable proportion of correspondence, is a more powerful work than that, its power After leaving college Mr. Curtis moved with a few professional papers- - decisions, being of the same dense, dark, lowery char forward with steady strides. He was at opinions, and the like. The second volume acter. To say that it is a pleasant story is once appointed Proctor in the University, is made up of miscellaneous writings, such another thing; but its strength is unmistakand he entered the Law School the Septem- as college dissertations, one or two public ad-able. The reading of it is like a sail up the ber following his graduation. Peculiar cir- dresses, and some of the more important of Saguenay; upon whose current one is fasci. cumstances led to an interruption of his his arguments, charges, and opinions. His nated by surroundings that are almost awful. course, and to his entering an office at dissenting opinion in the Dred Scott case is The pages of fiction hold few more striking Northfield, Mass., where he was admitted to here; also his argument in defense of Presi- figures than the Lancashire group which the bar in 1832, and where he spent three dent Johnson. A portrait on steel prefaces stands before us here; and though they are years. Here he at once took a foremost po- each volume, showing a man of impressive, all depicted with a force and intensity which sition, and acquired a large practice, but at though not imposing presence, with a coun- surpass nature, yet it is with a truthfulness the same time pursued his studies. In 1834 tenance of singular strength and sweetness. of proportion, an evenness of touch, and a he removed to Boston to associate himself One or two wood-cut vignettes adorn the lifelikeness of manner which save the total with a relative, Mr. Charles Pelham Curtis. first volume. Viewed as a whole there is effect from any suggestion of exaggeration. His reputation had preceded him, and by the less in this memoir than in some others to And perhaps there is sunshine enough in the time he was forty-two he had reached a posi- entertain; we do not look to the story of piety of Mrs. Haworth, in the homely sintion second to that of no New England law- such a severe and straightforward life for cerity of little Janey, in the imbecile goodyer of his time. While possessing the qual- gossip, anecdote, and picturesque reminis- nature of Mr. Briarley, and in the better ities, and many of the tastes of the states- cence; but it is full of solid materials which side of even brutal Jem Haworth himself to man, he yet resolutely withheld himself from either yield instruction or have a place in his- offset the clouds which overhang the picture. political life. The first of his public honors tory; and as a tribute raised to a noble name Nevertheless the book is one that requires fell upon him in 1845 in his election as a by filial hands, it has its true emblem in some some nerve in the reader. member of the Corporation of Harvard Col- granite shaft, which impresses the beholder lege; the second in 1851 in his appointment by its large outlines and massive proporby President Fillmore to be an Associate tions, and by the simple and truthful inscripJustice of the Supreme Court. The times tion upon its face. were trying. The anti-slavery excitement was rising to its hight. The famous rescue cases under the Fugitive Slave Law were coming forward, and in some of these it fell to the young judge to take part. He was upon the Supreme Bench at the time of the Dred Scott decision, and delivered a dissentriage of a country editor furnish the theme of the book, with the object of showing that ing opinion, an incidental result of which the fondest of lovers do not always make was a rather disagreeable correspondence the most loving and patient husbands and with Chief Justice Taney. In 1857 convic- A new novel by Jean Ingelow is sure of a wives. The affection of Anna Bayard for tions of duty impelled him to resign his seat, cordial reception, and there are many read- Tom Griggs is described in a very gushing and to return to private practice in Boston, ers who will open Sarah de Berenger with manner, and the moral hidden away between which he resumed with a national reputation, the pleasantest anticipations. We cannot the lines deserves the reflective appropriaand continued with most distinguished suc- truthfully say that we think their anticipa- tion of many a married man. A refining cess for an unbroken period of seventeen tions will be rewarded. The story is without process would not, however, hurt the book years. His last great plea was the defense any very positive character. Its Frenchy as a tract for general circulation; as there of President Johnson at the impeachment title is a misnomer in two senses, for the are some things in it both coarse and silly. trial, and he died in September, 1874. English woman who is the chief figure in it, The "toils" which are made the subject CURRENT FICTION. The "Danbury News Man" is one of those writers who is expected to be funny, but in his story of Mr. Phillips' Goneness he has been sensible rather than funny, though not always so choice in his style, both of thought and language, as some of Sarah de Berenger. By Jean Ingelow. Rob- his readers will wish. The title is absurd erts Brothers. $1.50. and meaningless, and was probably selected By Frances Hodgson Burnett. for that reason. The courtship and mar Haworth's. $1.50. Lee & Shepard. $1.00. Judge Curtis was an ardent and intelligent and whose fortunes afford its material, is not of Mrs. Paddock's tale are the entanglelover of nature, and in 1851 he purchased a Sarah de Berenger, but Mrs. Hannah Dill, a ments of Mormonism, as suffered by a large estate in Pittsfield, Mass., where he rather weak woman but devoted mother, sep-woman around whom they were thrown "farmed it" very successfully for several arated from an unworthy husband by his through the infatuation of her husband with years, softening the labors of his profession crimes. She inherits a small fortune from the system. The book is a study of the real with the relaxations of agriculture. His an uncle, and in order that it may be kept life which for years has debased Utah, and later residence in Boston was marked by an from the clutch of greedy relatives and pre- ought to have its due effect on public opinimportant ecclesiastical step, namely, his served to her children, she hides herself ion. That it is either strongly or finely withdrawal from the Unitarian body to the away, and attempts to conceal the identity written we could not say, but its motive is Episcopal Church, into whose communion he of the latter by giving them assumed names. excellent and its spirit good, and coarse and was led by careful study and profound convic- This ruse ends in the children being parted needlessly demoralizing aspects of the subtion, and of which he ever remained a de- from her altogether, nor does any effectual ject are carefully excluded. Without being of vout and useful member. This change was reconciliation ever ensue between their fath- commanding interest or importance, it fairly contemporaneous with, and in some measure er and mother. It is an unhappy experience deserves a place on the shelf of American connected with, that of the Rev. Dr. Hunt- all through, with some unnatural points, and local fiction. "And pity 'tis, 'tis true." MINOR NOTICES. Harper & Brothers' reissue of Motley's histories, in the fine new library edition, is completed in John of Barneveld. There are two volumes of it, and a very handsome pair they are, with their beautiful paper and type, and plum colored binding. This work, though separate by itself, is a natural sequel to the others, as well as a prelude to his intended but never finished history of the Thirty Years' War. John of Barneveld was the founder of the Commonwealth of the United Netherlands, and few men have sustained a more important relation to the history of their time than he. the trusted friend or respected counsellor of are accustomed to consider unquestioned. No man then living [says Mr. Motley], was so accustomed as he was to sweep the political horizon, and to estimate the signs and portents of the times. No statesman was left in Europe during the epoch of the Twelve Years' Truce to An eleventh edition, revised and enlarged, compare with him in experience, breadth of vision, political tact, or administrative sagacity. of Mr. Parkman's Discovery of the Great Imbued with the grand traditions and familiar West [Little, Brown & Co. $2.50], has been with the great personages of a most heroic epoch; occasioned by the opening to the author's William the Silent, Henry IV, Elizabeth and use of a considerable quantity of valuable the sages and soldiers on whom they leaned; hav-material which he knew to exist but could ing been employed during a long lifetime in the administration of greatest affairs, he stood alone not obtain access to at the time of the orig. after the deaths of Henry of France and the Sec-inal publication. This material consisted of ond Cecil, and the retirement of Sully, among documents relating to La Salle and other the natural leaders of mankind. French explorers, belonging to M. Pierre Margry, director of the Archives of the Marine and Colonies at Paris, the result of more than thirty years of research; "a collection of extraordinary richness," Mr. Parkman calls it. Three volumes devoted to La Salle have now been printed at Paris, partly through the aid of an appropriation by the Congress of the United States. It is to be hoped that this instructive study in political history will find a fresh host of readers in the new and attractive - form it has now received. The index to Mr. Edward A. Freeman's History of the Norman Conquest of England is bound up by itself, making a sixth volume of that work, numbering nearly three hundred pages. This generous provision of space allows an unusually elaborate analysis of topics and clearness of arrangement, as well as a large type. [Macmillan & Co. $2.50.] Of the papers contained in them which I had mander, Beaujeu. 66 as History of the English Language. By T. R. Lounsbury. [Henry Holt & Co. $1.00.] Professor Lounsbury, of Yale College, is known as the editor of a text of Chaucer's Parlement of Foules, and as a literary critic who wields a very sharp pen. He gives in this volume a history of our language and an Much of his work Mr. Parkman has acoutline of the history of the inflections of cordingly rewritten in the light of this new our words. He goes over the ground trav- material, and occasion has been taken to add ersed by Professor Hadley in his "Brief a map. The name of La Salle, too, has been History of the English Language," in Web-placed at the head of the title-page ster's Dictionary, which is also treated by seems to be demanded by his increased Dr. Morris in his Historical Outlines of prominence in the narrative of which he is English Accidence, published by Macmillan. the central figure." Of the value and charm The same subject is likewise the staple of The Sources of Standard English, by Oliphant. Mr. Lounsbury is ampler than Professor Hadley was able to be in the limits assigned him. He is less ample than Dr. Morris, but his work is better for ordinary use. He is by no means so diffuse and scattering as Mr. Oliphant. He presents the subject in a clear and pleasant way, and in general agrees with the authorities that we the treatment is masterful. A COLUMN OF LITERARY ABCs. [From Adams's Dictionary of English Literature ] Advocate's Library, The. Founded at Edinburgh by Sir G. Mackenzie, King's Advocate, in 1680, is one of the five libraries which, under the Copyright Act (5 and 6 Victoria, cap. 45, 1842), are entitled to a copy of every book published in Great Britain and Ireland, free of charge. Agnes, the Eve of St. A poem by John Keats (1796-1821). It is characterized by Leigh Hunt as "the most delightful and complete specimen of his genius, . . . exquisitely loving. young, but full-grown poetry of the rarest description; graceful as the beardless Apollo; glowing and gorgeous with the colors of romance." St. dom in the reign of Diocletian. Agnes was a Roman virgin who suffered martyr Anider. The chief river of Utopia, in Sir Thomas More's great work; from the Greek avvopos "waterless,' and apparently intended for the Thames. "Astolat, the Lily Maid of." Elaine, in Tennyson's Idylls of the King. Astolat is Guilford, in Surrey. "Awake, Æolian Lyre, Awake." First line of Gray's Pindaric ode, The Progress of Poesy. Bacon, Delia. An American writer (b. 1811, d. 1859), who published in 1857, The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded, the preface to which was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this work the authoress endeavours to prove that Lord Bacon was the author of the plays. known saying on this subject, generally ascribed to Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, may be found in a letter from Fletcher to the Marquis of Montrose and others, where he says:-"I knew a very wise man that believed that, if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he did not care who should make the laws of a nation!" It was therefore "a very wise man," and not Fletcher himself, who was the real author of this famous "Ballads of a Nation, The." The well dictum. Bibliomania: "or, Book Madness; a Bibliographical Romance in Six Parts," by Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1770-1847), published in 1811, and written in dialogues or conversations, the lectors of the author's acquaintance. Among characters introduced being well-known book colthese Aurelius stands for George Chalmers, Atticus for Richard Heber, Bernardo for Joseph Haslewood, Marcellus for Edmund Malone, Menander for Thomas Warton, Prospero for Francis Douce, Sir Tristram for Sir Walter Scott, Sycorax for Joseph Ritson, and Lysander and Rosicrucius for the author himself. The great value of the work, however, lies in the notes, which are full of curious information about books and book men. Cadwallader, Mrs. The rector's wife in George Eliot's novel of Middlemarch. Caxton Society, The. Was established in London in 1845, and became extinct in 1854. Its object was the publication of the chronicles and literature of the Middle Ages; and sixteen works were published during its existence. A complete list will be found in the supplement to Bohn's edition of Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual. Cervantes. Among the leading translations into English of Don Quixote are those by Skelton, Motteaux, Smollett, Jarvis, and Wilmot. Cockney School, The. Was a name given to the London literary coterie of which Shelley, Keats, Leigh Hunt, Hazlitt, and others were members, and whose writings were characterized as consisting of “the most incongruous ideas in the most uncouth language." of the great historical series in which this The Literary World. good books, and will do what it can to bring decreasing, its list has been steadily increas BOSTON, SEPTEMBER 27, 1879. All new subscribers to the LITERARY WORLD, between now and January 1, 1880, will be credited from the latter date; the sup ply of the paper beginning of course with the receipt of the order. New subscribers taking immediate advantage of this offer will virtually receive the paper three months for nothing. Having purchased the title, good will, and subscription list of Robinson's Epitome of Literature, Philadelphia, the LITERARY WORLD will be sent to all subscribers to that journal for the unexpired period of their subscriptions. All correspondence for either the editorial or the business departments of the LITERARY WORLD should be addressed to E. H. HAMES & Co., THE LITERARY WORLD, P. O. Box 1183, BOSTON, MASS. See an important notice on page 317 with respect to commissions for new subscribers. GOING AHEAD. them before the people. The Literary World is edited upon broadly Thomas Wentworth Higginson, of Cambridge, Justin Winsor, of Harvard College Library. ing, until now it is more than double what it was two years ago. The regular circulation of the Literary World now extends to nearly every State and Territory of the United States; to all the British Provinces in America; to England, France, Spain, Germany, Denmark, China, Japan, India, Turkey, Cuba and New Zealand. We want, however, more subscribers still, and an inducement to our readers to procure them is held out in another column. MR. HIGGINSON'S "SHORT STUDIES." MR. T. W. HIGGINSON'S "Short Studies of American Authors" have Prof. Francis Wharton, LL.D., of the Episco- been a feature of the Literary World the pal Theological School, Cambridge. Prof. P. H. Steenstra, do., do. lege. "John Avery, of Bowdoin College. 66 S. V. Cole, do., do. N. P. Gilman, of Antioch College. L. S. Potwin, of Western Reserve Col Prof. J. K. Hosmer, of University of St. Louis. Prof. J. E. Vose, of Ashburnham, Mass. The above list is not exhaustive, but is THE a The Literary World was founded in June, 1870, by the late Samuel R. Crocker, as a monthly of sixteen pages, at fifty cents a year. At the beginning of its second year its success warranted its enlargement to twenty pages, with an increase of the subscription price to one dollar. In this form, in November, 1875, the price was raised to dollar and a half. The paper was continued by Mr. Crocker until March, 1877, when his failing health compelled him to surrender it, and it passed into the hands of the present proprietors. At the beginning of this year the paper was changed from a monthly to a fortnightly, and the price raised to two dollars. The Literary World is an absolutely independent journal of all literature, and literature only. Its mission is to give information and criticism respecting books, authors, and related topics, and it aims to be a medium of communication between authors, publishers, and readers, in the interest always of the higher culture. It is the organ of no school, clique, or party. It caters to no low It detests bad books-bad both intellectually and morally, and will do what it can to put them out of the way; it loves taste. present year. Four have already been published: on Hawthorne, Poe, Thoreau, and Howells. Two more are to follow onguess whom! Our readers will learn with pleasure, we are sure, that this instructive series of critical papers is to go into book form at the end of the year under the imprint of Lee & Shepard. If the first, we do not expect that it will be the last, book made up from the columns of the Literary World. Our readers will also be glad to know, we are sure, that Mr. Higginson will continue his occasional contributions to our columns on other topics. ... TABLE TALK. The Author of "Signor Monaldini's Niece." Her name is not "Harriet," but Mary Agnes; and not "Tinker," but Tincker. That she went to Rome to live about six years ago, is earnest of what may be expected of it in the true; but that "she was there converted to the future. Our readers may depend that no Roman Catholic Church," is hardly correct. The pains will be spared to bring to the strength- change in her religious views took place more ening of our columns the widest possible va- than twenty years ago, about the time of the riety of scholarship and culture. In partic- Know Nothing excitement, while she was living ular we may now add that we have made in Ellsworth, Maine. For a little while after arrangements with MR. WILLIAM J. ROLFE, that, until a permanent teacher could be found, she taught a school of Catholic children whom to edit our department of Shakespeareana, and with MR. FREDERIC B. PERKINS to citement of the time had caused to be ill-used in their parents thought the politico-religious extake similar charge of our Notes and Queries. the public schools. Upon the death of her father, This provision our readers will please to her mother being already dead, Miss Tincker understand as simply an earnest of our pur-fell to writing for a livelihood, and some of her pose to broaden and develop the Literary early stories were published in Harper's and PutWorld at every possible point. The depart-nam's Magazines. Much of her work appeared ment of critical reviews will continue to oc- under a pseudonym. During the war she was cupy, of course, the leading place in our col- sent to Washington by Gov. Andrew, of Massaumns, and the fullness, freshness, and fair-chusetts, and there she nursed the soldiers in the ness of the whole journal will be promoted Columbia Hospital and at the Barracks in Judiby every means in our power. It has not been our habit to promise great things, but rather to rest on actual performance, and we prefer now to point to what the Literary World has been as a token of what, more and better, it is to be. The success which the Literary World has met with seems the best proof of the correctness of its aim. While other journals started upon the same path have been given up, and while the circulation of others of somewhat similar character has been steadily ciary Square. Several of her works which preceded Signor Monaldini's Niece have appeared in book form, among which are The House of Months. Referring to her literary work, the folYorke, Grapes and Thorns, and Six Sunny lowing extract is of interest. It is from a letter written by Miss Tincker at Assisi, Italy, July 18, 1879, to a friend in this city: My chief encouragement to write came from an editor of the Atlantic when it was published by Phillips, Sampson & Co. I do not know who he was, but I can yet repeat almost all his letter by He rejected the article I sent — it was in tended as the initial one of a series-telling me heart. that I was on the wrong track, but he encouraged me to write. "You cannot fail to win success, he said. I have often wished that I might be able to thank him for that note, for I was young, poor, helpless, and discouraged, when it came to me, and it helped me then and afterward. Through all the trash that I have had to write for bread, and which I repudiate as my real work, I have always had a vision of something worthier to be done if ever the time should come when I could stop to do it. The time has never come. Signor Monaldini's Niece was written under the same desperate pressure, and half of it was not copied at all. As for the criticisms of it, I almost agree with them; the praises astonish nie. The episode of Miss Conroy is unpleasant, but I am not sure that I did wrong in writing it, though perhaps I did. I have always thought that poor ladies who have neither husbands nor homes are cruelly treated by the world. My experience as a member of that society is full of examples of coarseness, reaching almost to brutality, in people calling themselves "ladies," "gentlemen," and "Christians," examples which I shall never forget, and which I recall with an almost incredulous astonishment. Of course I have had beautiful examples of opposite characteristics, but they have been as rare as carbone bianco. My idea in Miss Conroy was to show what such cir cumstances might lead to with some persons, and those not the worst in the world, and I wanted her to speak for herself. Of course she will be condemned by most. I only pity her. As to the ending of the story that the majority of readers are responsible for. I I knew that Camilla should die. She was and is dead in my mind. In my first sketch of the last chapter she was carried down to the Duomo at midnight, and she never came back. But, as my pen in copying reached that point, I recollected people like a story to end well, they don't like to be made sad-the publishers, if I find any, will say, etc., etc. My clamorous rent came in, all my needs of money found voice and threatened me: "You will fail if you leave the readers with tears in their eyes." Well, I sighed, and submitted. I galvanized an image of my poor, pretty Camilla and sat a company of shadowy monks saying a Te Deum for her, and a shadowy lover embracing her; while, slipping out into the moonlight, my real Cappucini went bearing their burden down between the olive trees and murmuring a De profundis, which no one heard but Don Filippo and me. It was the mournfulness of that true ending that made me call the story "The Hall of Cypresses," which the publishers changed to its present title. EMERSON AND CHAUCER.-There are many who believe that Ralph Waldo Emerson is the greatest of living sages. And certainly his career has been calm and sedate enough, and there is real penetration in his glance. But though he has never thrown much of emotional excitement into his teaching, his philosophy means nothing, if it does not mean that you get a truer view of life by standing on intellectual tiptoe and straining at a universal truth that is not quite within your reach, than you do by humbly putting to gether what you may really be said to understand. There is no greater contrast between intellectual men than there is between the sedate calm of Emerson, and the transcendental exultation or anguish of Victor Hugo. But on a purely intellectual theme, the one reminds us curiously of the other.-Spectator. SONNETS. TO THE POET, T B. A. I. Sonnets do not spring up like wild-wood flowers, strewed, In fair perfection, when the cold and rude Snow-storms give place to Ver's reviving showers. Artfully-framed, they tax a poet's powers, And are no product of a lucky mood, But slowly-wrought as nests are, where the brood Bides long ere its full music thrills the bowers. To accident and sudden inspiration They owe no more than do the lovely chimes Rung on accordant bells; nor in a twinkling Grows into birth their tuneful modulation Labor, skill, patience, mastery over rhymes — From there proceed they, pranked and finely-tinkling. II. All these have you, 66 enamored architect Of airy rhyme," accomplished sonneteer You whom I sometimes think without a peer In framing sonnets free from all defect, So seeming artless one would not suspect Your art in hiding art, while the ear Charm as with music of some heavenly sphere, By the melodious words which you select. Polished as Grecian epigrams are they; you Sparkling as gems the patient toil of man Makes fitting ornament for beauty's breast; Faultless as flowers that strew the path of May: No poet in the land Italian Thought in this garb more richly ever dressed. W. L. SHOEMAKER. Georgetown, D. C. SELECTED PERIODICAL READING. AUTHORS, BOOKS, AND LITERARY TOPICS. Charles Tennyson Turner. James Sped- The Political Novels of Lord Beaconsfield. The Prize French Novel. Mr. Froude's Cæsar. Prof. W. Y. Sellar. The Story of the Registers. An Editor's Troubles. Wm. Minto. The Present State of China. Herbert History and Politics. Prof. Seeley. October. Blackwood's. Macmillan's. Contemporary. World Biographics. Hubert Howe Bancroft. Mr. Bancroft belongs to the New England family whose first American ancestor, John Bancroft, arrived, in 1632, in the ship "James " from London. The intermediate branches strove and throve in various avocations and professions, and spread over the land, even to the extreme West, where, in the beginning of this century, Hubert's grandparents, Azariah Bancroft and Curtis Howe, found themselves settled on adjoining farms at Granville, Ohio. Their children, Ashley and Lucy, also took rank soon after as possessors of substantial homesteads, in the vicinity, with six merry children around them, the fourth of whom was Hubert Howe, born May 5, 1832, exactly two centuries after the founder had made his appearance in the New World. The stern, yet good-hearted and self-denying, Christian character of the home circle, the free life in the country, and the inspiring scenery of Central Ohio, must all have had their influence on the mind of the future historian, although it required a more genial surrounding than that of a Western frontier to give it the necessary intellectual bend. While preparing for college, Hubert received the offer to enter the Buffalo book store of Mr. Derby, his brother-in-law, and having by this time lost the salutary companionship of his cousin, the later Judge Hillyer, he readily listened to the promptings of independence and a longing to see the world. At the end of 1848 he accordingly found himself started in life as a clerk. His energy and business capacity won golden opinions on the one hand, while his ambitious ideas were, on the other, regarded as a presumption to be repressed. The head of the firm had, nevertheless, a strong affection for his brother-in-law, and when it was determined, in 1852, to establish a branch in the promising field Nineteenth Cent. of California, the latter was sent out to superintend the arrangements. The sudden death of Fraser's. Mr. Derby broke up the project before it had fairly started, and Mr. Bancroft, being now free, turned his attention from the over-crowded trade centers of the Pacific to the rising town of Crescent City, in the northern part of California. Success attended him, and very soon he found Fraser's. himself able to carry out, with his own means, Cornhill. the cherished plan of the Derbys, of establishing a first-class book depot in the leading city on the coast. Arrangements were made with Eastern firms, and, with the further pecuniary aid of a sister, the firm of H. H. Bancroft & Company opened its store in San Francisco in 1856. With prudent management the business escaped the financial troubles which then culminated in the young State, and was borne onward by the returnAtlantic. ing tide of prosperity. Despite the repeated Cath. World. extension of the store, its limits had been entirely Lippincott's. outgrown by the now leading publishing and book-selling business on the Pacific, and in 1869 was begun the erection of the colossal five-story building which, at present, includes the various departments of the firm, as wholesale and shipAtlantic. ping, retail, publishing, law, stationery, and music; steam printing, engraving, and bookLippincott's. binding; each in charge of its chief and assistants. During one of his visits to the Atlantic side, Harper's. connected with the enlargement of operations, Scribner's. Mr. Bancroft formed the acquaintance of, and in 1859 married Miss Emily Ketchum, daughter of a prominent citizen of Buffalo, and a Nineteenth Cent. Fortnightly. Macmillan's. BOOKS, AUTHORS, AND LITERARY TOPICS. Scribner's. highly cultivated lady of great wit and brilliant SHAKESPEAREANA. Mr. Bancroft's first wife died in 1869, leaving even if Othello's usual quarters were at the Ar- "The Sagittary" in Othello. It was the residence at the arsenal of the com- The accumulation of the library which lay at the foundation of this undertaking has been an enterprise of Californian proportions, which we should be glad to describe in detail had we space for even an outline. It must suffice to say that agents were procured at London, Paris, Vienna, Leipsic, Madrid, Mexico; through whose assiduous efforts, directed by Mr. Bancroft, a collection now amounting to about 20,000 volumes, and still steadily growing, has been gathered in the I have not been able to find any evidence that fifth story of the Bancroft building in San Fran- the Arsenal at Venice was ever called "the Sagitcisco. Many unique manuscripts and rare pam-tary;" probably this is a mere conjecture of phlets are included; with old Mexican parch- Knight's. When I was in Venice last March, ments and early prints; Spanish collections and relations; engravings, public documents, reports, and newspaper cuttings and files; the whole of which is catalogued, or rather indexed, on the card system. Twenty assistants divide the mechanical part of Mr. Bancroft's work among them. The cost of the library has already reached $75,000. During the early progress of his labors, Mr. Bancroft was frequently visited by sympathizing travelers, and he received the most flattering encouragement and assurances of interest, by word, letter, and press, so much so that he began to gain confidence in the favorable reception of his work; but when, after a four years' preparation, the initial volume of the introductory series appeared, the Native Races of the Pacific States, its success far exceeded his most sanguine expectations. Scientists and scholars hastened to express their warm approval, and compliments were showered upon the author from every quarter. All were unanimous in acknowledging the value of the work as a standard authority on American ethnology, antiquities, and ancient history, and in applauding the immense research, thoroughness and judgment manifested, as well as the clear, concise style. Upon the completion of the Native Races, Mr. Bancroft applied himself with renewed zeal to the main portion of his work, the history of the Pacific States from the discovery of the continent to the present day. Owing to the immensity of the scale on which this has been planned, the additional investigation of state and church archives, and the greater depth of research and thought demanded on a subject which is destined to enter the field with such writers as Hume, Gibbon, Macaulay, Robertson, and Prescott, the work has as yet covered but a small portion of the field. and engaged in finishing up my edition of Othello, I visited the Arsenal, but on looking for Knight's archer "over the gates," I found that the figure was the lion of St. Mark; and if the reader will refer to the cut of the gate in the Pictorial Shak spere, he will see that the sculpture there looks more like a lion than anything else. He will also see that in front of the gate are four statues on pedestals; and one of these represents a man holding a bow (not "drawn") in his hand. The figure is no more conspicuous than any one of its companions, and would not be likely to give the name to the building. The gateway was built in 1460, though the upper part was not added until 1581; and if Shakespeare was ever in Venice he probably saw it. If the statues are as old as the gateway (they do not look so old, but they may have been "restored"), he probably saw those also; but I cannot imagine why the one with the bow should suggest to him to call the place "the Sagittary." That word means, not an ordinary archer, but a Centaur with a bow, as in the common representations of the Zodiacal sign Sagittarius in the almanacs. This is its sense in the only other passage in which the poet uses it, T. and C. v. 5. 14: the dreadful Sagittary That "the Sagittary" in Othello cannot be the Ancient, conduct them; you best know the place. have reached had he lived to attain perfect manhood I cannot *To what a pitch of greatness Marlowe's genius might tell. All I know is, that when he died at the age of thirty years he was the greatest dramatic poet whom England had yet seen (a greater poet, I dare to say, than Shakspere was of thought, in depth of passionate feeling, he excelled all at the same date); and that in power of imagery, in majesty who had written before him, and all (even Shakspere) who of greatness remind me of the story told of the stranger wrote during his lifetime. His short life and brief period athlete who-when the men of Greece were assembled to view the game of quoits, and were watching with delight and admiration the feats of strength achieved by their youth — strode down from the mountains, and taking the quoit, flung it without effort further than it had yet been thrown by any man; and then, while old and young turned and gazed on was seen no more.-New Sh. Soc.'s Trans. 1875-6, 23 him with wonder and with envy, turned and left them and This so pleasant enthusiastic praise hides all Marlowe's faults, his rant and tawdriness, his strain, and want of nat teacher in tragedy and blank verse. uralness, humour, etc. But he was no doubt Shakspere's MINOR NOTICES. Mr. Charles D. Deshler, the author o introduces himself to his readers leaning, as Afternoons With the Poets [Harpers. $1.75], it were, upon the arm of his friend, Mr. H. M. Alden, the editor of Harper's Monthly. His book is made up of familiar conversations, ostensibly between a "Professor" and a learner, who are enjoying a vacation in the country, upon English poetry-the sonnet in particular. It might indeed be called a history of the English sonnet, illustrated by upwards of two hundred examples, from Wyatt and Surrey to Oliver Wendell Holmes and the late Charles Tennyson Turner. The seven "Afternoons" of conversation, suffice to cover the whole field. The "Professor" impresses us as an amateur rather than an expert, and we presume he would not expect to be considered an original, or even an espe |