Son père était paien, Sa mere ne l'était pas. (bis) Son père la trouva. Ave, . . .' And so on, for seventeen verses. M. de Banville, in the Odes Fun ambulesques, the late Louisa Siefert in Rayons Perdus, and others, have written Pantoums serious and familiar. In Town (printed in Good Words for June, 1876) is an experiment in the latter vein, which any one may excel who will. NOTE 12, PAGE 189. A Loyall Ballade of the Armada. Assuming that the Ballade of François Villon had reached this country in 1588, such an English adaptation of the form is here attempted as some minor Elizabethan-say, for example, GERVASE MARKHAM-might in a moment of enthusiasm have addressed to "greatest Gloriana." For the orthography this writer's Tragedy of Sir Richard Grinuile has been followed. VIGNETTES IN RHYME AND VERS DE SOCIÉTÉ, Third Edition. Foolscap 8vo, Cloth, Price 5s. Some Opinions of the Press on "Vignettes in Rhyme." QUARTERLY REVIEW. "His (Mr. Dobson's) recent volume of collected poems is one of unusual promise . . . The general impression produced by these 'Vignettes' is very favourable to the writer's mental attitude. Their keen and sprightly criticism of men and manners is unspoilt by flippancy, their healthy appreciation of life's purest pleasures is tempered by kindly concern for the lot of those who miss them." EDINBURGH Review. The most promising of the younger writers of minor verse is Mr. Austin Dobson, whose 'Vignettes in Rhyme' betoken considerable poetic fancy." WESTMINSTER Review. "If there is any taste left in us for subtle wit, delicate humour, happy rhymes, and well-turned expressions, 'Vignettes in Rhyme' ought to be the most popular book of the day... There is not a piece in the book which is not graceful. We would gladly linger over such a delightful volume." SATURDAY REVIEW. "Even if his 'Vignettes in Rhyme' had come by itself we should have given it a kindly welcome. But we picked it up out of a pile of the most worthless among the Minor Poets, and we felt as grateful as ever feels a man who in the pocket of some garment among a heap of cast-away clothes finds a bright new shilling. Mr. Dobson, however, is more than a mere versifier. In two or three of his Poems he shows a skill in painting with his pen that might raise the envy of many of his rival artists with the brush." SPECTATOR. ... "Mr. Dobson gives us something more than the tone and manner of cultivated social life, with its vivid ripple of thought and feeling. . . . We were hardly prepared for the touches of genuine beauty which adorn so many of these little poems, and set the verses of 'society' in a framework of softer and more imaginative loveliness than the refined give-and-take of social intellect and sentiment usually suggest. What lovely bits of poetic feeling, for instance, gleam through the beautiful little poem on 'The Sick Man and the Birds.' . . . Tenderness when it is playful and playfulness when it is tender are both perfectly given in this charming little book, which contains also an exquisite sense of natural beauty." ATHENÆUM. ... "Of the books before us, that by Mr. Dobson takes quite the highest place. His 'Vignettes' are really clever, clear-cut, and careful. . . . The best poem in the bookand some three or four lines of it are strikingly fine and original-is 'The Dying of Tanneguy du Bois.' . . . Any man who could write the lines we have italicised may do still better things." EXAMINER. "As a writer of vers de société it is not too much to say that Mr. Dobson is almost, if not quite, unrivalled. . . . There is keener wit in the satire addressed 'To Q. H. F.' Of this poem, on which Mr. Dobson can well afford to build his fame, we quote a few exquisite stanzas."[Stanzas IV. V. VI. quoted.] ACADEMY. "His own words explain the limits of the excellence which may still be attained by writers of Vers de Société, of whom Mr. Dobson is among the best. . . . ‘Lydia Languish' is a not unworthy pendant to Praed's 'My own Araminta say No.' . . . 'The Virtuoso' is a neatly turned portrait of a sub-humorous egoist; 'An Autumn Idyll'is a really sprightly burlesque of the Eclogues, and there are a couple of Odes of Horace pleasantly diluted." ... MORNING POST. "Airily conceived, and with their graceful fancies and elegant expression in admirable harmony, these attractive little poems recall the fascinating verses of Praed, and all but match the matchless lines of Hood . . . . He |