Macaronic Poetry creates but little interest in these days, though there are still students who appreciate some of its qualities.
If "A. L. H." is interested, I am sure that an article on the subject would be read with very great appreciation even if that quality be confined to very few in number.—Yours, etc.,
B. Bagnall.
43 Chancery Lane, London, W.C.2.
(To the Editor of The London Mercury)
Sir,—What does "A. L. H." mean by "no" author's name is given? The editor's of the book—or the author's of Mr. Andro Kennedy?
The latter is, of course, my compatriot, William Dunbar, but neither of my editions of him mentions this poem's having been printed in that particular book.
Also, your reviewer of Wilde, on page 91, begins, quite in error, saying that the book has no indication of how it came into existence or who chose them for republication. The wrapper, cover, and title-page, all three, say, "Being extracts from Reviews and Miscellanies" (one of those large white volumes on hand-made paper that smelt so of bad paste, published by Methuen in 1912); while behind the title-page is, "This selection has been made by Mr. E. V. Lucas." The best thing in it is, I think, the charming paragraph on Balzac, "A steady course of Balzac reduces our living friends to shadows and our acquaintances to the shadows of shades"—Yours, etc.,
C. K. S. M.