LITERARY NEWS.
It is stated that the Duke of Devonshire has permitted four eminent Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries to make a careful investigation of the Collier folio of Shakespeart in order to settle finally the question of its genuineness. The book is at present withdrawn from the British Museum, and in the hands of his Grace's solicitor.
Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, the well-known linguist, has just
issued from his Bayswater press a catalogue of the works edited and printed by him in the various dialects of Europe. Among the more re- cent of these are the Canticles in Basque ; the Gospel of St. Matthew in the patois of Venetia, Milan, Naples, and Bergamo ; and the Song of Solomon in the dialects of the Septa Lowlands, Cumberland, Newcastle,. and Westmorelaud.
A reissue of the beautiful octavo edition of the English Dramatists, originally published by the late Mr. Edward' Meson, is announced by Messrs. Routledge and Co., to whom the remaining stock and copyright of the series has lately been sold.
A work of great interest., Mr. Otto Wenkstern's History of the War in Hungary in 1848 and 1849, is announced by Messrs. Parker and Son for immediate publication. We have reason to believe that in this work justice will at last be done to the memory of the brave and unfortunate General Guyon. Several New York papers mention the rumour of an expected visit of our Poet Laureate to America, in the course of next autumn. It is stated, has Mr. Tennyson's health is latterly been feeble, and that his medienl advisers have counselled a voyage across the Atlantic.
A new Literary Institution has been lately started under the name of --
"The London Arabic Literary Fund," with the object of establishing an Arabic newspaper in London and of printing Arabic books for gratuitous distribution. The originator of this project, Mr. Antonius Ameuney, a Syrian gentleman who has studied at King's College, is sanguine that by means of his undertaking the influence of the English in Arabia, which has laterly given way to that .of the French, may be successfully re- established.
A new edition of the collected works of Frederick the Great of Prussia, "revised by a commission of the Royal Academy of Berlin," and pub- lished by order of the Prince Regent, has just appeared at Berlin. This edition is in thirty volumes 8vo., and contains several new letters of Frederick, making the sum total of these 308'9. The work is published by R. Decker and Co., at the price of fifty-five tamers.
A translation into French of the songs of Heinrich Heine, by M. Nancey, has just appeared in Berlin under the title of " Poosies Choisies de Henri Heine." The mother of Heine died on the 3d of September at Hamburg, in the arms of her son, Gustavus Heine, editor and proprietor of the l'renwlenblatt. She was nearly ninety years old, and not only celebrated on account of her son's fame, but as being herself one of the most eminent " femmes d'esprit " of Germany.
The Berlin rolkezeituoly denies the statement made by many German
and English newspapers, of the library of Alexander von Humboldt having been sold to Lord Bloomfield on account of the trustees of the British Museum. The paper adds that several gentlemen are still busy making a catalogue of the library, which will not be finished before the end of December, the books turning out to be much more numerous than was at first believed.
M. Charles Blanc, brother of Louis Blanc, has just issued the first part of a magnificent work, edited by him, and entitled " L'CEuvre complet de Rembrandt." It contains some forty engravings, in the highest style of art, of the chef d'oeuvres of the great Flemish painter, besides a bio- graphical and critical commentary and a complete catalogue of all his works.
A book has just been published by Amyot, Paris, under the title of "La
Croatie et la Confederation Italienne," which tries to draw the attention of the public of Western Europe to the state of the countries on the lower Danube. It is asserted that unless the races of these regions be united under some political form like the proposed Italian Confederation, a general European war will be the consequence. The work, of which M. Le6uzon Le Dec is said to be the author, is very ably written.
M. Emile de Girardin has come forth with a new pamphlet, entitled "Le Desarmement European." The only chances of preserving peace, according to the author, lie in a general and immediate disarmament of all the nations of Europe. But how this is to be brought about, he ab- stains from saying, "Napoleon III. en Italie; deux Mois de Campagne," is the title of a volume of history, by M. Jules Richard, which appeared this week at Paris. It pretends to be nothing more than an exact diary of the Italian campaign, the facts of which the author gathered from the best available sources, Austrian as well as French. It is a "sign of the times " worth mentioning that a "Revue Spiritet" containing reports of table-turning, spirit-rapping, and other like mani- festations, has been recently established at Paris. Another "sign of the times," but of a far more cheerful nature, is that the works of the Polish poet ifickiewiez the mere reading of which was formerly prohibited under penalty of exile to Siberia, have just been re- printed at a St. Petersburg press, under the very eyes of the Czar. The well-known Flemish poet, Pruden van Dupe, has published a new epic poem in eight cantos, the hero of which is Jacob van Artevelde, the Cromwell of the Netherlands.
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