26 DECEMBER 1908, Page 26

ART-BOOKS.

The Tempest. Illustrated by Paul Woodroffe. With Songs by Joseph Moorat. (Chapman and Hall. 10s. 6d. net.)—The figure of Ariel is disappointing. He is too thin and etiolated, and his atti- tudes are often ungainly. Nor can we feel that Prospero is a success. In one instance, however, the illustrator shows real imagination and power of design. This is in the frieze-like procession of "several strange shapes bringing in a banquet." Behind the long table stream a weird, half-human, half-animal crew with torches. musical iittle,children with their load of flowers and wine. In the whole picture the .artist shows so rare a sense of beauty that it is disappointing not to find anything else approaching the same level. The masque of the reapers is unhappily an academic failure. The settings of the songs are melodious and the composition scholarly. The part-writing of the accompaniment of "Where the bee sucks" is charming, even if the elements out of which it is compounded can be traced to their sources in Bach and the shepherd's pipe in Tristan.