31 DECEMBER 1898, Page 26

Keats' "Isabella ; or, The Pot of Basil" (Kegan Paul

and Co., 10s. 6c1.) ; and Fitzgerald's "Bubiiiydt of Omar R7tayydm (Mac- millan and Co., 12s. 6d.) Both Illustrated by W. B. Macdougall. —When Mr. Macdougall can restrain his pencil to comparative simplioity of line, his patterns are pleasing ; but some of the so-called decorations are as hard to unravel as Omar's knot of human fate. He has also carried the fashion of elongating the human figure (in the illustrations to Isabella) to an absurd length. Many of the illustrations show a great deal of imagina- tive power, but are spoilt by the artist's failure to realise the construction of the human figure. The text of the Rubdiyat is not that which embodies Fitzgerald's last corrections, but the differ- ences are not great.