Mr. W. E. Henley and Mr. R. L. Stevenson which Mr. Beerbohm Tree promised to the world long ago. But each of these pieces is worked with sufficient skill round one conspicuous central figure, and that conspicuous figure is in each case of a kind that allows Mr. Irving to display his natural gifts and the skill of training and experience to their very highest power. In Matthias, in Dubosc, in Loys Onze, in Macaire, the actor has to present various forms of villainy; all the men are crafty, all secret, all dangerous, almost diabolic. To make such characters live and move and thrill requires very rare gifts of expression and of repression. They do not "act themselves," to use the conventional phrase; in the hands of an unworthy actor they would be laughable or tedious. But in Mr. Irving's hands they become great dramatic creations; they prove that Mr. Irving is at his best a great actor. It has been Mr. Irving's fortune, the fortune of most successful men, to be extravagantly praised, and no less extravagantly abused, and very often he has been most loudly praised where he least deserved it, and most roundly abused where disapproval was undeserved. He has had splendid scenic successes; he has had the inevitable successes of the popular actor; these will not be, should not be remembered. His glories are the triumphs due to his own unaided genius rightly employed, and no better example of such a triumph can be found than his creation of "Louis XI."

JUSTIN HUNTLY MCCARTHY.

TABLE TALK.

THE

THE BOOK-STALLS OF PARIS.

HE book-lover who visits Paris is but too well aware of the attractions of a prowl by the Quais on the left bank of the Seine. From the Pont Royal to the Pont Notre Dame stretch, and have stretched for generations, the stalls of the al fresco dealers in old books. Not without difficulty has the right of these dealers to monopolise this space been maintained. Regular booksellers have complained of the competition of those who had no rent to pay, just as the London small shopkeeper complains of the opposition of the costermonger. Jealous and insecure governments feared the dissemination of literature subversive of authority or morals. Once, indeed, under the Second Empire, their banishment was all but decreed, and it is a feather in the cap of that delightful antiquary and book-lover, Bibliophile Jacob, that he made personal application to the Emperor, and obtained for them a further lease of life. Within the last few years their privileges have been extended. Under the present régime any person can address himself to the Préfet de la Seine and obtain, under easy conditions, an allotment of ten yards space, which is the utmost allowed to any individual. As a consequence, the right bank of the Seine is now largely assigned to the book-dealers, who are also permitted to secure and leave the cases containing their books, instead of having, as before, to cart them away every night and return with them every morning.

THE

PHYSIOLOGY OF THE PARISIAN QUAIS.

HESE bouquinistes, as they are called, have found at length. their historian. Innumerable are the authors and journalists who have referred to them and their occupation, and depicted some aspects of this curious phase of Parisian life. One of the newest, most elegant, and most interesting books that Paris has sent us is the "Physiologie des Quais des Paris" of M. Octave

Uzanne,' a work wholly devoted to the bouquinistes and their customers. To the English book-lover M. Uzanne is known as editor of "Le Livre," "Le Livre Moderne," and "L'Art et l'Idée,” and author of "Les Caprices d'un Bibliophile" and numerous other works, to some of which I have drawn attention. An ardent booklover, a bouquineur, a lounger over the stalls, a brilliant writer, endowed with a close knowledge of Paris, he has written on the subject a book the attractions of which are not easily overrated. Beginning with a history of the growth of the book-stall, he describes its establishment and progress, depicts the dealers of past and present days, and gives a series of most interesting and characteristic portraits. An account of the trade, of the sources of supply, and the amount of the earnings follows; the sales by auction of books are described, and a lively sketch is given of the risks that are run, especially of the system of plunder to which they are continually subject-not seldom, it would appear, at the hands of women, whose muffs form a convenient receptacle for the stolen volume. Scenes and types are illustrated in a series of admirable cuts by M. Émile Mas, whose designs add greatly to a book issued in a limited edition, and sure before long to be as rare as other works of its author.

R

A CURIOUS DINNER-PARTY,

ELATIONS between the bookseller and the book-buyer are not seldom pleasant and familiar, and a gossip with an intelligent dealer in books is one of the attractions of a book-hunting expedition. Not too affable or polished are always the stall-keepers of the Paris Quais. They have found, however, many friends and admirers, and their praises have been sung by the most distinguished writers of yesterday and to-day. One tribute paid them is, however, so signal that it deserves to be recorded. I take the facts, of course, from M. Uzanne. So fond of these worthies was M. Xavier Marmier, the Academician, that he left the sum of one thousand francs to pay for a dinner to be given them. On November 20 last, accordingly, after his death, a banquet, to which ninety-five sat down, was given them at the famous Restaurant Véfour. A sufficiently appetising menu is given in the volume; in which also is quoted the very touching speech to the memory of the founder of the feast by the chairman, M. A. Choppin d' Arnouville. Very pleasing and thoroughly French is the whole proceeding.

1 Paris Ancienne Maison Quantin.

THE

GEORGE MACDONALD'S POEMS.

HE Collected Poems of George MacDonald at length see the light in the shape of two handsome octavo volumes. Though principally known as a prose writer, George MacDonald has won warm and, as the event will prove, lasting recognition as a poet. His present collection, which, after all, is not exhaustive, since I fail to find in it the "Lyrics from Heine" of Phantastes, which are my special favourites, prove that he has wooed the muse in earnest. A very serviceable and prolific muse she is, and if she sometimes condescends to Ply

The sampler, and to tease the housewife's wool,

she is none the less a goddess. It is indeed in the realms of fancy and imagination, the latter especially, that she is at her best. Her wings are made for the empyrean, and she soars more pleasantly than she dips. In the present collection my favourites are the ballads. These are as happy and as significant as those of Rossetti. Nothing can be finer, in its way, than the "Legend of Corrievrechan," vol. ii. pp. 120-122. In this the didactic purpose is not felt, yet its lesson is as fine as its execution. Every form of poetry George MacDonald has essayed, from the poetic and imaginative drama in "Within and Without," to "Sonnets" and "Songs for Children." It was time that a collected edition was accessible, and it could not well come in more attractive guise. The two volumes will suffice to convey to a much wider circle the fact that we have in our great novelist a genuine and an original poet.

O

THE RESTORATION DRAMATISTS.

NE by one the Dramatists of the Restoration are being set before the present generation. Not very successful was the effort made, a few years ago, by Messrs. Maidment & Logan to reprint the whole en bloc.2 An injudicious opening was made. Men who attempted to wade through the ponderous plays of Killigrew and D'Avenant found the task too hard, the series was arrested, and the books, for the present at least, are at a heavy discount. Colley Cibber, in whom abundant vitality, combined with knowledge of stage effect, does duty for higher qualities, remains unrepresented An edition of Shadwell is as yet only contemplated, and Durfey Ravenscroft, Motteux, and others of the tribe, including even Nahum Tate, are not likely to be lugged forth as yet. Mrs. Behn and 'Chatto & Windus. 2 Edinburgh: Paterson.

Mrs. Centlivre—it will be seen that I am giving the term Restoration an elastic significance-have been reprinted, as has, of course, Dryden, in the edition of his copyright works. Those to whom our thoughts turn when the term Restoration Dramatists is used are Wycherly, Farquhar, Congreve, and Vanbrugh, the four producers of comedy, included by Leigh Hunt in one volume of a series that did much to familiarise the general reader with the early drama. Of these Congreve holds an undisputed place. He is a classic, and the fine editions of his works by Baskerville command, in a good state, a high price in the book market. Until recent days, however, men have hesitated before representing in library editions the works of his associates. Now, however, the task is being accomplished, and the editions of Farquhar and Vanbrugh and of Etherege1 that have recently seen the light, will be followed by editions of Congreve, and perhaps of Otway.

REPUBLICATION OF THESE WORKS.

HE question as to the expediency of reprinting the works of

on a different footing from those of Rabelais and Cervantes, which a society a few years ago sought vainly to suppress. They bear, naturally, some resemblance to the Memoirs of Hamilton against which our very busy and somewhat squeamish association also protested. They are, however, more dangerous and immoral. When the republication of these works is permitted, it can only be said on the subject of liberty of printing, cadit quæstio. Except in the designedly prurient work, which is issued and circulates in secret, nothing so unclean as their comedies is known in literature after the revival of letters, until we come to the court orgies of the Orleans regency, or the excesses of the succeeding Revolution. It is not that these dramatists openly encourage or counsel vice. I know few books of any class in which this is done. They present, however, as estimable beings, with names such as Worthy or Manly, men whose only aim in life is to corrupt women, and depict for us maids and matrons ignorant of any form of love except animalism, and discussing masculine attractions with a candour that might perplex the Japanese or the Polynesian.

A

SIR JOHN VANBRUGH.

MONG these dramatists Vanbrugh, whose works have just seen the light, is, after Wycherly, the worst offender. Hi "Relapse; or, Virtue in Danger," is probably the most genuinely

Laurence & Bullen; Nimmo.