Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/110

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. VL A, s, 1 912.

Seventh Day of January, in the Fifty-second Year of the Reign of His Majesty Kins? George the Third, Annoque Domini One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twelve. Vol. XXI. Com- prising the Period between the 7th of January

.and the 16th of March, 1812. London : Printed by T. C. Hansard, Peterborough-Court, Fleet-

-fUfrreet; For Longman, Hunt, Res, Orme, and Browne; J. Richardson; Black, Parry, and Kingsbury ; J. Hatchard ; J. Ridgway ; J. Booker ; J. Rod well ; Cradock and Joy ; E.

.Jeffery; R. H. Evans; J. Booth; J. BudJ : and T. C. Hansard. 1812.

Svo, vol. xxi. pp. xiv-1316 columns, and 4 pp. Indices.

Vol xxiii. contains an "Advertisement,"

dated 17 Sept., 1812, which begins : " Mr

-Cobbett having disposed of his interest in this Work, the future Volumes will be published under the General Title of ' The Parliamentary Debates, from the Year 180,3 down to the Present Time.' "

LEWIS MELVILLE.
 * 8alcombe, Harpenden, Herts.

( To be continued. )

ANDREW LANG.

(See ante, p. 80.)

.ALTHOUGH I do not think that Mr. Andrew Lang was ever enrolled as a con- tributor to ' N. & Q.,' I was glad to see an appreciative notice of him in these columns. .As one of the older correspondents of this journal, I would ask to be permitted to add a word or two.

My acquaintance with the works of Andrew Lang began in 1881, when my old 'friend Bernard Quaritch sent me at Cal- cutta a large-paper copy of ' The Library,' with the remark that he thought I should enjoy it. I enjoyed it so much that I gave a standing order for all the books of Mr. Lang to be forwarded to me as soon ^as] they were published, and the conse- quence is that my " Lang Library " prob- ably rivals in extent that which was formed by the master's devoted admirer, the late Mr. C. M. Falconer of Dundee. Foremost among my treasures rank, I think, the original proof-sheets of ' The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche,' with many corrections iby Mr. Lang and the introductory poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, of which only one -other copy was inserted before cancellation in the large -paper set belonging to the publisher, David Nutt.

Talking over Andrew Lang one day in the " eighties " with Joseph Knight, I was told by my old friend that he would admire Lang more if he were not so much of a petit maitre. I am afraid the qualities that my

friend deprecated were those that placed Lang highest in my estimation. If we take the words in their literal sense, Lang un- doubtedly ranks in the first row of the Little Masters of English literature. I notice that in the excellent article on him published in The Athenceum for 27 July, it was observed that his ' Helen of Troy ' showed him to be lacking in the qualities of a poet. I will admit that I find it difficult to read ' Helen of Troy ' at a stretch, just as it is somewhat of a task to read Lang's few attempts at lengthy fiction, though no one is more fortunate in a brief story where wit, and not invention, is the leading element. Nothing can be happier in this respect than ' A Bookman's Purgatory,' which far excels in irony the original narra- tive by Asselineau from which it was adapted. But that Lang possessed some of the best, if not the highest, qualities of a poet can scarcely, I think, be disputed. It is only necessary to read the sections headed ' Deeds of Men ' and ' Ave ' in ' Grass of Parnassus ' to realize the depth of serious poetic feeling by which his soul was moved on adequate occasions. Nor could his romantic type of mind be other than that of a poet. A woman in distress a Helen of Troy, a Joan of Arc, a Mary Stuart always appealed to the chivalry that lay at the bottom of his heart. The champion of a lost cause Montrose, Claver- house, Charles Edward awakened all his sympathies. There is not a mean or an unworthy thought to be found in all his writings. And though his industry and versatility were so great as to give rise to the joke that Andrew Lang was not a man, but a syndicate, he never swerved from the courtesy of replying to a request for information or advice, as I can attest from personal experience.

Though no one could differ more in many respects from Macaulay than Andrew Lang, the two men had some points of similarity. Both were adepts at light verse ; both as essayists and critics possessed a style whose brilliancy acted as a lamp rather than, as with some writers, a camera obscura to the reader ; both were historians who, striving after accuracy, were yet not free from the errors produced by a rigid adherence to a point of view. Macaulay, by force of circumstances, was drawn into politics ; to Lang the higgling and the huckstering of the political market-place was intolerable, and revolted his fastidious sense ; but even in this direction the two men were not so far apart, for the happiest day of Macaulay's