(23.) The Examiner, December 11th, 1875, p. 1388. THE DEVIL'S DUE. A letter (signed "Thomas Maitland," and dated "St. Kilda December 28, 1875") regarding Mr. Robert Buchanan's pseudonymous attack in The Fleshly School of Poetry [then not yet reissued under its author's name], and the Earl of Southesk's Jonas Fisher. It is said that concurrently with its appearance in the columns of The Examiner, The Devil's Due was printed in pamphlet form for private distribution, but was rigidly suppressed in consequence of the unexpected result of the action for libel brought by Mr. Robert Buchanan against Mr. P. A. Taylor, M.P., the Proprietor of The Examiner. If such a pamphlet does exist it must be of the utmost rarity, as no copy is known to the Editors of Literary Anecdotes, who have instituted a lengthy search in the hopes of finding a stray example. In any case if printed at all it must have been distributed at the instance of the Editor of The Examiner, as it was certainly not issued upon Mr. Swinburne's initiative. (24.) The Athenæum, No. 2516, January 15th, 1876, p. 87. A DISCOVERY. A note, signed, ridiculing Mr. F. G. Fleay's article Who wrote "Henry VI."? (25.) The Academy, January 15th, 1876, pp. 53–55. "KING HENRY VIII.," AND THE ORDEAL BY METRE. A letter, signed and dated, addressed to the Editor of The (26.) The Academy, January 29th, 1876, p. 98. SIR HENRY TAYLOR'S LYRICS. A letter, signed and dated, addressed to the Editor of The (27.) The Examiner, April 1st, 1876, pp. 381-383. REPORT OF THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE (28.) The Athenæum, No. 2533, May 13th, 1876, p. 664. CHARLES LAMB'S LETTERS TO GODWIN. A letter, signed, addressed to the Editor of The Athenæum, and (29.) Joseph and his Brethren. A Dramatic Poem, By Charles Wells, London, 1876. AN INTRODUCTION, BY A. C. SWINBURNE. Reprinted from The Fortnightly Review, for February, 1875. (30.) The Academy, November 25th, 1876, p. 520. MR. FORMAN'S EDITION OF SHELLEY. [Prose article.] (31.) The Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, 1876, Vol. v, pp. 396-397. GEORGE CHAPMAN. [Prose article.] (32.) The Athenæum, No. 2570, January 27th, 1877, p. 117. THE "ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE." A letter, signed, but not dated, addressed to the Editor of The (33.) The Athenæum, No. 2574, February 24th, 1877, p. 257. VICTOR HUGO: "LA SIESTE DE JEANNE." A letter, signed, to the Editor of The Athenæum, dated "February 17th, 1877." (34.) The Athenæum, No. 2576, March 10th, 1877, pp. 319-320. "BALLADS AND POEMS." A letter, signed, refuting the statement that any of the pieces originally published in the first edition of the first series of Poems and Ballads had been suppressed. [See ante, pp. 312-313, where this very decisive letter is given at length.] (35.) The Athenæum, No. 2578, March 24th, 1877, p. 383. "POEMS AND BALLADS." A second letter, signed, upon the same subject as the foregoing. (36.) The Athenæum, April 14th, 1877, pp. 481-482. "THE COURT OF LOVE." A letter, signed and dated, addressed to the Editor of The (37.) The Athenæum, No. 2590, June 16th, 1877, p. 768. NOTE ON A QUESTION OF THE HOUR. A signed protest against the publication of Zola's L'Assommoir in La République des Lettres. (38.) Edgar Allan Poe: A Memorial Volume. By Sara Sigourney Rice. 4to. Baltimore, 1877. A letter, signed and dated, addressed to Miss Sara S. Rice. (39.) The Pall Mall Gazette, July 15th, 1877. NOTE ON THE WORDS “irremeable” AND “perdurable.” (40.) The Tatler, Vol. 2, August 25th, to December 29th, 1877, pp. 13-15, 37-38, 61-63, 85-86, 109-111, 133-135, 157-160, 181-183, 205-207, 229-231, 253-256, 277-280, 301-303, 325-327, 349-351, 373-376, 397-400, 421-425, 445-447. A YEAR'S LETTERS. BY MRS. HORACE MANNERS. A novel in Thirty Chapters (the story being related in the form of Letters), together with a Prologue of Five Chapters. The whole preceded by a prefatory letter "To the Author," the ironical tone of which may be gathered from the following extract : Dear Madam, I have read your manuscript with due care and attention, and regret that I cannot but pass upon it a verdict anything but favourable. A long sojourn in France, it appears to me, has vitiated your principles and confused your judgment. Whatever may be the case abroad, you must know that in England marriages are usually prosperous; that among us divorces are unknown, and infidelities incomprehensible. The wives and mothers of England are exempt, through some inscrutable and infallible law of nature, from the errors to which women in other countries are but too fatally liable. If I understand aright the somewhat obscure drift of your work, you bring upon the stage at least one married Englishwoman who prefers to her husband another man. This may happen on the Continent: in England it cannot happen. You are not, perhaps, aware that some years since it was proposed to establish among us a Divorce Court. In a very few months it collapsed, amid the jeers and hoots of a Christian and matrimonial people. There were no cases to be tried. England passed through the furnace of this experiment, and came out pure. Tested by the final and inevitable verdict of public opinion, the Divorce Court was found superfluous and impertinent. Look in the English papers and you will see no reports, no trials, no debates on this subject. Marriage in England is indissoluble, is sacred, is fortunate in every instance. Only a few perverse and fanciful persons still venture to imagine or suggest that a British household can be other than the chosen home of constancy and felicity. I recommend you, therefore, to suppress, or even to destroy, this book, for two reasons: it is a false picture of domestic life in England, because it suggests as possible the chance that a married lady may prefer some stranger to her husband, which is palpably and demonstrably absurd. It is also, as far as I can see, deficient in purpose and significance. Morality, I need not add, is the soul of art; a picture, a poem, or story must be judged by the lesson it conveys. If it strengthens our hold upon fact, if it heightens our love of truth, if it rekindles our ardour for the right, it is admissible as good; if not, what shall we say of it? I remain Madam, yours sincerely, ** Buried in Chapter xx (p. 326 of The Tatler) is the following set of verses, not elsewhere printed : |