BOOKS.
THIS WEEK'S BOOKS.
TuE halcyon days between the autumn and spring publishing seasons are now upon us. Were it not for Dr. E. K. Cham- bers's monumental study, The Elizabethan Stage (Oxford : Clarendon Press) in four volumes, there would be almost nothing to ruffle the calm. Dr. Chambers, whose important book, The Mediaeval Stage, was published twenty years ago, treats his subject from a comprehensive point of view which includes the Elizabethan court, the settlement of the players in London and their conflicts with Puritanism, the histories of individual companies and theatres, and the surviving plays of the period considered as historical documents. It promises to be a work of profound interest.
A book so delightful that it increases rather than ruffles the calm is the Nonesuch Press's edition of Cowley's trans- lations from Anacreon. The book is bound in gold and has a parchment back ; it is embellished with exquisite copper plate engravings by Mr. Stephen Gooden (nothing could be more appropriately beautiful than his title-page), and, needless to say, it is superbly printed.
Lacquer Work, by G. Koizumi (Pitman), is, as its sub-title describes it, A Practical Exposition of the Art of Lacquering together with Valuable Notes for the Collector. It is copiously illustrated. From Messrs. Methuen and Co. comes a revised edition, with a new introduction, of Mr. Arthur M. Hind's valuable Catalogue of Rembrandt's Etchings which has long been out of print.
Sarah Bernhardt as I Knew Her : Being Madame Therese Berton's Intimate Reminiscences of the Bernhardt Circle, as told to Basil Woon (Hurst and Blackett), should provide easy and entertaining reading.
Childhood in Verse and Prose (Oxford University Press) is an anthology chosen by Miss Susan Miles. Her selection, judged by a brief glance, covers a wide field and is remarkably good. A small pocket volume, Drinks : flow to Mix and How to Serve (Stanley Paul and Co.), is a topical and convivial work which, however, it would be tactless to present to an American friend.
It is announced that at the Olympic Games to be held in Paris next year prizes are to be offered for literary composi- tions relating to sport, games, and physical culture. Verse must not exceed 1,000 lines, prose 20,000 words. A dis- tinguished literary jury will make the awards. Compositions must reach the lion. Secretary, British Olympic Association, 166 Piccadilly, marked " Literature Committee," not later
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