SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEX.
[Under this heading , „we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for M410 in other forms.]
The Poetical Works of Mrs. Horace Dobell. (Smith, Elder, and Co. 10s. 6d. net.)—Mrs. Horace Dobell wrote, it is evident, with great facility. She published eighteen volumes, containing, it may be reckoned, some forty thousand lines, in the course of six years, and left unpublished twenty-six more, making a total of nearly a hundred thousand. The whole output must con- siderably exceed that which Tennyson accomplished in a somewhat longer life. As the volume has been submitted to us for criticism, we must frankly say that the quality is very poor. Here is a specimen from an early poem, written h the year 1848 :—
" I would not seek to argue with thee, France I
The sophist's triumph never lit my brow; And, if it had, how small would be the chance 'Gainst one renowned for subtlety as thou. But to thy feelings, to thy heart would.
Appeal, even in thy present angry mood:
For thou bast pinch within thee true and good, Mixed with the recklessness of thy half-southern blood."
And here is another taken at random from a poem written more than thirty years later:— "Through the vexed pathways of this world, the heart
Knows its own burden : few may break the seal Of its dark secrets therein to take part, Or for its deepest griefs can ever feel l"
The third line here cannot be easily scanned. But it is needless to point out this or that detail. The whole is deplorably weak, and we have not lit upon anything substantially better.
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