Lapsus Calami (Aug 1891)/Adverts
Now ready, Fourth Edition (Third Thousand).
Price 2s. 6d.
LAPSUS CALAMI
BY
J. K. S.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON THE PREVIOUS EDITIONS.
SCOTSMAN.—"It is light verse, and it is as good as anything of the kind that has appeared since the Fly Leaves of C. S. C. The 'Drinking Song,' in particular, is worthy of Calverley. . . . It will be enough by way of recommendation to say that the pieces quoted are not the best in the volume."
SCOTSMAN (July 27).—"A new edition of Lapsus Calami (Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes), by J. K. S., deserves a cordial welcome. These exceedingly bright and witty verses were not originally written for the general public, but when they became accessible to the public they were seized upon with avidity for the delicious freshness which marked all of them, and the genuine wit that gave point to not a few. The author, whose identity is no secret, appears to have thought the original book hardly worthy of its fortune, and he has omitted many of the pieces from the new edition, while adding new ones that make the book-though still a tiny one-larger than at first. He is modest enough to say that 'if every one who bought an original Lapsus Calami buys a revised Lapsus Calami, and if every one who did not buy the old one buys a new one,' he will be satisfied.But the public will not. They will still call for more verses of this kind."
SPECTATOR.—"Parodies of moderate merit are so easy, that we seldom enjoy parodies, but 'J. K. S.'s' parodies are of more than moderate merit. They do not merely make one smile, and then regret that one has smiled from the sense of emptiness which follows; they make one almost think that the parody must have been written by the poet parodied in a moment of amused self-ridicule. . . . Take it all in all, the Lapsus Calami will be a favourite wherever it is read."
JOHN BULL.—"There is plenty in it to show that its writer can do much greater things in the future, if the schoolboy wit and undergraduate fancy are ripening into their full-grown brilliance. Meanwhile, Lapsus Calami well deserves the success which it has, we believe, already attained."
JOHN BULL (Aug. 8).—"It is not many weeks since we noticed the first edition of Lapsus Calami. The third is now in our hands, with omissions which we do not regret and additions which we welcome. 'The new book is longer than the old, and the old book was costlier than the new. If everyone who bought an original Lapsus Calami buys a revised Lapsus Calami, and if everyone who did not buy the old one buys the new one,' J. K. S. will not unnaturally be satisfied. Lapsus Calami is a success, and it deserves to be one. Those who remember the first edition will naturally turn to the Novi Lapsus, and the best service we can do our readers is to quote two of these poems as samples of the rest. Together they compose 'the retort courteous.' . . . J. K. S. has achieved a distinct success. When he writes lines like these he earns that success."
TIMES.—"No one will be in doubt as to the identity of 'J. K. S.,' whose fugitive trifles are preserved in this booklet. Nor will many be disposed to question the audacity and cleverness of some of these skits upon others and himself."
LITERARY WORLD.—"Eulogy is superfluous. Those who may read this volume will look forward with keen interest and expectation to the future, and the gifts which it may bring."
DAILY GRAPHIC.—"Few books of verse are fortunate enough to win a third edition in three months; yet such is the fate of 'Lapsus Calami,' by J. K. S. Nor has the author been idle during the brief space which separates the third from the first edition. Half the old verses have been withdrawn and their place taken by fresh matter, and the book greatly bettered thereby."
MANCHESTER COURIER.—"Praed and Calverley find a fit successor in the poet whose rhymes have so mellow and musical a ring. There are both wit and humour in many of the lines, and graver touches, as in the dedicatory poem to 'C. S. C.,' are gracefully put. The parodies, notably those of R. Browning's 'Last Ride Together,' and the lines commencing 'Birthdays, yes, in a general way' are admirable. In the 'Hundred Yards Race' Sir Walter's tone, and his rare art of usage of names, are well caught, and Austin Dobson might give an approving smile to 'The Ballade of the incompetent Ballade Monger."
SPEAKER.—"J. K. S., whoever he may be, clearly adds to some of the cunning of a poet much of the craft of the author. His 'Lapsus Calami' is not four months old, yet the infant Muse, so precocious is it, thus early boasts a bibliography. The path of the purchaser is already strewn with difficulties akin to those which beset the way of the young collector of Dickens or of Thackeray. . . . J. K. S. continues pleasantly the succession of Cambridge poets. May that succession never be broken, and may no too hasty consecration at the 'Bull' or the 'Lion' ever enable any envious Oxonian to make out even the semblance of a case against it!" A. B.
QUEEN.—"Buyers of the first edition of 'Lapsus Calami' need not hug themselves, for the second is a far more precious thing. A new edition it is called; but in fact it is hardly the same book. The first issue was over-weighted with nonsense, whilst this is full of fun. Looking along the line of our poets, it will be difficult to place J. K. S. He has studied and can affect the graces of the Calverley-cum-Dobson school; but he shuffles in this harness, and seems to laugh at himself the while. He is stronger than the bars of his cage."
GLOBE.—"J. K. S., we observe, does not 'claim to wield a poet's pen;' but there are signs in this new volume that he is something more than a persifleur, and that he might, if he liked, earn reputation in a higher and more serious calling. It remains to be seen whether he will make the best use of his literary powers."
SATURDAY REVIEW.—"The new Lapsus preserves the best examples of the old. Among the additions, the verse in praise of Tennis is excellent, and nothing of the old is more characteristic than those bright and terse examples of the new, 'England and America.'"
CAMBRIDGE: MACMILLAN AND BOWES.
In preparation.
BY
J. K. S.
AUTHOR OF LAPSUS CALAMI.
Lapsus Calami Ultimi will be an entirely new collection of verse mostly of a more serious character than that comprised in the recent editions of Lapsus Calami. Many of the pieces which it comprises have appeared in the Saturday Review, Spectator, Observer, St James's Gazette, Pall Mall Gazette and other papers.
CAMBRIDGE: MACMILLAN AND BOWES.