Opinions of the Press on the Previous Editions (cont.).
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 Half the old verses have been withdrawn and their place taken by fresh matter, and the book greatly bettered thereby."
