MARCH REVIEWS
M. Henry Davray; the distinguished French critic who knows our modern literature better than most Englishmen, contributes a thoughtful and witty appreciation of George Moore to the current Mercure de France. He first knew Moore many years ago when they were both engaged as dramatic critics in London and frequented a literary rendez- vous near Soho, and he recalls Moore's absorbing passion for k snot juste and for violent controversy over Irish Home Rule. M. Davray maintains that Moore was much more than a great stylist, and that Esther Waters, the first of the realistic novels of contemporary life, is still unrivalled. The current number of the British Museum Quarterly records and illustrates a large and varied assortment of new additions to the national treasure house. Early painted pottery frcm Persia, early Chinese bronzes, a very rare gold coin from Roman Richborough, Roman silver from Cordova, a gold badge commemorating Rodney's naval victory of 1782, and a Rembrandt drawing are among the objects described. Over 300 volumes of the papers of the Lord Aberdeen who Unwittingly brought on the Crimean war and reports of Coleridge's unpublished lectures on philosophy (1818-19) have come to the Museum. Moreover, the Lord Chamberlain has transferred to its keeping the• copies of plays submitted for approval during the years 1824-52, bound up in 174 volumes. Diligent students there may perhaps find that the official Reader of plays stilled some budding Shakespeare, but it is doubtful.
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