xistence as it
really is, not as it may be under exceptionally revolting
circumstances."

His own favourite dramatist and writer is Shakespeare, whom, however, he
only knows by translation, and _Hamlet_ and _Desdemona_ are his
favourite hero and heroine in the fiction of the world, although he
considered Balzac his literary master.

M. Daudet will seldom be beguiled into talking on politics. Like all
Frenchmen, the late Panama scandals have profoundly shocked and
disgusted him, as revealing a state of things discreditable to the
Government of his country. But the creator of Desiree Dolobelle has a
profound belief in human nature, and believes that, come what may, the
novelist will never lack beautiful and touching models in the world
round and about him.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

_The Dismal Throng._

BY ROBERT BUCHANAN.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY GEO. HUTCHINSON.

(_Written after reading the last Study in Literary Distemper._)

-----

The Fairy Tale of Life is done,
The horns of Fairyland cease blowing,
The Gods have left us one by one,
And the last Poets, too, are going!
Ended is all the mirth and song,
Fled are the merry Music-makers;
And what remains? The Dismal Throng
Of literary Undertakers!

[Illustration: THOMAS HARDY.]

Clad in deep black of funeral cut,
With faces of forlorn expression,
Their eyes half open, souls close shut,
They stalk along in pale procession;
The latest seed of Schopenhauer,
Born of a Trull of Flaubert's choosing,
They cry, while on the ground they glower,
"There's nothing in the world amusing!"

[Illustration: ZOLA.]

There's Zola, grimy as his theme,
Nosing the sewers with cynic pleasure,
Sceptic of all that poets dream,
All hopes that simple mortals treasure;
With sense most keen for odours strong,
He stirs the Drains and scents disaster,
Grim monarch of the Dismal Throng
Who bow their heads before "the Master."

There's Miss Matilda[1] in the south,
There's Valdes[2] in Madrid and Seville,
There's mad Verlaine[3] with gangrened mouth.
Grinning at Rimbaud and the Devil.
From every nation of the earth,
Instead of smiling merry-makers,
They come, the foes of Love and Mirth,
The Dismal Throng of Undertakers.

[Illustration: TOLSTOI.]