Studies and Appreciations. By Darrell Tiggis. (Dent and Sons' Ss.
net.)—Mr. Figgie's collection of critical essays will please many who disagree with some of his opinions. He always expresses himself well, even if uncompromisingly. A series of essays upon contemporary poets occupies a large part of the book. He also writes eulogies upon Synge and upon Samuel Butler. He discusses Thackeray and Dickens, Browning and Meredith. In a paper upon "The Vitality of Drama," he lays the blame for the weakness of the contemporary theatre upon Irving and Mr. Bernard Shaw. With the greatest spirit he attacks Theobald and his famous "babbled of green fields" emendation, and with equal spirit defends a dubious reading of his own. On all these different subjects Mr. Figgis is entertaining, though, as we have suggested, some of his views—such as that Shelley is a greater poet than Keats—seem strange to the orthodox.
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