BOOKS.

ROBERT BURNS.* " DON'T be afraid," said Burns a few days before his death, "I'll be more respected a hundred years after I am dead than I am at present." The poet was a true prophet, and already there are numerous indications of the enthusiasm with which the centenary of the death of the greatest of Scottish singers is likely to be celebrated. Several new editions of the poems, as well as biographies and criticisms, appeared early in the year; others have been more recently issued, and a reviewer

might readily load his table with volumes dedicated to a poet whose fame, despite the astounding opinion of Sir Henry Taylor that it did not deserve to last twenty years, is now universally acknowledged.

One indication of this is to be seen in the very curious col- lection of foreign versions of Burns's most popular songs and poems which has been formed with infinite Is 'amt. by Mr. Jacks. It was the poet's ambition to sing a song for "auld Scotia's sake," and little could he have anticipated that this song of his would have what may be called without much exaggeration a world-wide reputation. Mr. Jacks' volume contains translations in sixteen languages, and although it is almost impossible that lyrical verse can be transferred into another tongue without losing more than half its charm, yet the attempt to honour the poet's memory in this way shows how widely his genius is recognised. The two editions of the poetry of Burns which have suggested this article are both designed to be published in four volumes, and may be regarded perhaps as rival competitors for public favour. Although it either case a single volume only is as yet issued, it is possible to form a fair estimate of the aim and method of the editors. The "Life and Works" originally edited by Dr. Robert Chambers, and now revised on an extensive scale by Mr. Wallace, is, from the publisher's point of view, wholly satisfactory. No fault can be found with either letterpress or paper, and the illustrations do credit to the artists employed. We think, too, that Mr. Wallace has done hit portion of the task with appreciation and thoroughness, and doubt not that he will exhibit similar merits in the volumes which are forthcoming. He has cleared up many obscure points, he has added largely in many ways to the • (I.) The Life and Worts of Robert Burns. Fclited by Robert Chambers. Revised by William Wallace. 4 vole. Vole. I. and II. L ndon and Edinburgh. W. and IL Chambers. —(2.) Do Centenary Berne. Edited by William Ernest Henley and TM,roas F. Henderson. To% I. Edinburgh : T. 0. ant R. 0. Jack. 1498. —(3.) Robert Burns in other Trnves. By William Jacks. Edinburgh : Mao. Idiom and Fons.—(4.) In Memory of Robert Berm: Selected Poems and Bones. W."5 an Introduot'on by Richard is Galhentie. London: Ma one Wald and Co. reader's knowledge of the poet and of his family, and his notes show the genial care of an Editor who loves his subject tao well to brink from laborious investigations. In our

judgment, however, the scheme of the work as originally designed five-and-forty years ago was a false one, and its radical defect is made all the more conspicuous by Mr.

Wallace's attempt to add new features to the original plan :-

" It occurred to me," Dr. Chambers wrote, "that if the various compositions were strung in strict chronological order upon the memoir, they might be made to render up the whole light which they are qualified to throw upon the history of the life and mental progress of Burns, at the same time that a new significancy was given to them by their being read in connection with the current of events and emotions which led to their production."

One obvious objection to this suggestion of stringing the poems upon the memoir is that it cannot be done with certainty. Again and again the biographer and editor are left to conjecture, and the reader frequently comes upon such statements as the following :—" The poem ap- pears to have been written about this period." " To this period is generally ascribed," " One of Barns's songs may here be introduced, although with hesitation."

"It was probably at this time that he composed," &c. It is evident, therefore, that the "strict chronological order" is impossible, and that the idea of Dr. Chambers can be very imperfectly carried out. Is this a subject for regret ? To our thinking the plan is as inartistic as it is impracticable. The story of the Life is broken into fragments ; the reader forgets the course of events after reading many consecutive pages of verse, and even when the order is broken less obtru- sively he is often painfully conscious of a flaw in the narrative.

No lover of Barns will care, we think, to read his wonderful poems when fixed in such a framework of prose, and few readers wishing to know the poet's history will seek for the details in an edition of the works published in four large volumes.

We say this without the slightest wish to detract from the service rendered to students by the elaborate researches of Dr. Chambers, and by the large additions made to them by Mr.

Wallace, who has even attempted to define the poet's theo- logical position. With both men we doubt not the toil ex- pended was a labour of love, and it is impossible not to regret that the form in which the work is presented should CO

lessen its value. Moreover, seeing that the original biography and general arrangement of the book was due to Dr. Chambers as author and editor, it seems to us very question- able whether his reputation should be risked, or perhaps raised, as Mr. Wallace no doubt hopes, by the issue of a work with his name attached, which has been partially "recast as well as rewritten and presents several new features." It is evident from the title-page that Mr. Wallace has acted with the sanction of the well-known firm of which Robert Chambers and his brother were the original founders, but none the less do we protest against this kind of trans- formation. A biography is, or ought to be, a work of art, and Chambers had a literary reputation, but the book as it now stands belongs neither to him nor to Mr. Wallace. The reader gains many additional facts which might have been stated in an appendix, and loses whatever individuality the original narrative possessed. We think Dr. Chambers's plan

a bad one; Mr. Wallace thinks that the forty-five years that

have passed since it was projected have signally proved its wisdom ; but whether good or bad, we are sure that the original text, if a reprint was called for, ought not to have be-n thus tampered with. It would be comparing small things with great to place Chambers's Burns in juxtaposition with Boswell's Johnson, but there is one unfortunate point of similarity between them. Croker, as all the world knows, edited Boswell and destroyed the unity of the work by his interpolations; Mr. Wallace has performed the same office for Dr. Chambers, and has done it with ample knowledge and ability, but the reader who appreciates what is due to literature will not thank him for the task.

The "Centenary Edition" of Burns will consist of his poetry alone, with an essay in the final volume on " The Life

and Genius of Burns " by Mr. W. E. Henley. It is intended to be a highly scholarly edition, so scholarly, indeed, that the ordinary reader is likely to consider the work far too elabo-

rate. In the volume before us, which contains the `' Poems published at Kilmarnock, 17SG," and "Additional Poems, Edin- burgh,1787-1793," there are about one hundred and fifty pages of notes to illustrate three hundred pages of letterpress. The reason for this abundant commentary is said to be not far to seek :—

" Burns borrowed largely from his predecessors ; he lived a hundred years ago; first and last he was what is called a local poet. Indeed, it is fair to say of him that he was the satirist and singer of a parish ; so that even in his own time much of his verse, though it survives as verse of genius, was intelligible through all its niceties of meaning to his fellow-parishioners alone. In these days, therefore, it has appeared the safer as well as the more serviceable course rather to err on the score of too much commentary than on that of not enough."

The excuse is a valid one for an edition of the poet which is primarily addressed to students, but when the editors observe that while one, and that the larger, division of Burns's. verse appeals to the world in general, since that world is rich in sentiment, but lacks the literary sense, while the other, being a lasting contribution to literature, is the concern of comparatively few, we find it difficult to follow them. Of course if they mean that the finest qualities of all noble verse are not the qualities which enchain the ordinary

readers of poetry, the statement is indisputable. The witch- craft of poets like Spenser or Coleridge or Keats has but a small charm for those who have not "drunk the milk of Paradise:' But of all great poets Barns is, we think, the least esoteric, the least dependent on the "literary sense."

When the fourth volume of the Centenary Burns appears, Mr. Henley's essay on the poet's life and genius may suggest interesting comment. Meanwhile it will suffice to add that the editors both of this edition and of Dr. Chambers's " Burns" have endeavoured to produce a text as carefully revised as collation with MSS. will permit. There is no poet whose reputation has been more injured by foisting upon him verses which he never wrote, and still more perhaps by the publication of pieces without his sanction and unworthy of his genius. The fear that " every scrap of his writing would be revived against him" troubled his dying days, and he expressed it with strong emphasis to his friend Mrs. RiddeL There is small remedy for the evil now, but we are glad to see that in the " Centenary " edition care will be taken to separate the chaff from the grain by distinguishing " between the pieces on which Burns set and those on which he did not set his imprimatur."

The twenty-seven lyrics chosen in memory of Burns from his wonderful volume of song are perhaps the best that could have been selected for the purpose. The little book, with its pretty binding and illustrations, is intended, we suppose, for the drawing-room table, and may find a fitting place on it.

It will scarcely be made more welcome by Mr. Le Gallienne's somewhat arrogant preface, which bristles with irrelevant statements and questionable assertions. Shakespeare, we are told, " is like an Established Church, to be reverenced as a noble superstition," and the humanity of Barns rather than

diversity is "the study which brings a man nearest to the

kingdom of heaven." Humanity at large, says Mr. Le Gallienne, " resents ecclesiastical interference with its plea- sures, is apt to look with cynical scepticism upon the superior claims of priests and presbyters," and "here humanity and Burns are at one." Still harping on the Church the author makes the flippant remark, intended no doubt for smartness, that a man "may not be both a poet and a chnrchwarden," and "must decide which of the two high callings he will

choose." After this one is not surprised to find the well-worn excuses put forward once more for failings which Burns was

far too wise and too honest to make for himself. "If," says Mr. Le Gallienne, "we would have a poet love much, we must not be surprised at his loving many; and perhaps it is neces- sary to break some hearts to heal others. After all it must have been something great to have been loved by Robert Burns whatever sorrow attached to it." Happily the editor's introduction is brief, and the reader will find rest and refresh- ment upon turning to the poems.