14 MAY 1904, Page 25

Nsw EDITIONS.—In the "Library of English Classics" (Macmillan and Co.,

3s. 6d. net per vol.), we have Milton's Poetical Works, 2 vols., with a Bibliographical Note by A. W. Pollard. Milton's first printed verse was a copy of Latin verses written at Cambridge for the customary distribution at the Philosophical Act (1628). Mr. Pollard remarks that if any one should light on these verses—probably in the inside of an old binding—he would have made a" very exciting find." His first extant writing was among the testimonia in the Second Folio Shake- speare. Alter this we have " Comus " (1637), " Lycidas" (1638), " Poems " (1645), with a portrait about which an amusing story is told, "Paradise Lost" (1667), "Paradise Regained" and "Samson Agonistes " (1671). This is a bare outline of a note which contains many interesting details.—New India. By Sir H. J. S. Cotton. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co. 3s. 6d. net.)—In the "Flowers of Parnassus" (John Lane, ls. and ls. 6d. net), The Tomb of Burns, by William Watson.—The Lion-Hunter of South Africa. By Roualeyn Gordon Cumming. (John Murray. 2s. 6d. net.)—A very remarkable half-a-crown's- worth, we may say, with its five hundred pages of exciting reading and its sixteen illustrations. The Lion-Hunter was pub- lished in 1850, reached a second edition in August of the same year, and a third in January, 1851. The fourth edition of 1856 was twice reprinted. Since that time there have been seven new editions and reprints, the present volume making an eighth.

In the series of "The Boys' Classics" (Grant Richards, ls. net per vol.), The Captain of the Guard, by James Grant, a tale of the early Stuart Kings ; and Midshipman Easy, by Captain Marryat.