rrespondent MR.
SINGER (p. 105.) supposes Malherbe the poet to have been "ready at an
impromptu." But, to say the least, this is rather doubtful, unless the
extemporaneous effusions of Malherbe were of that class which Voiture
indulged in with so much success at the Hotel de Rambouillet--sonnets and
epigrams leisurely prepared for the purpose of being fired off in some
fashionable "_ruelle_" of Paris. Malherbe is known to have been a very slow
composer; he used to say to Balzac that ten years' rest was necessary after
the production of a hundred lines: and the author of the _Christian
Socrates_, himself rather too fond of the file, after quoting this fact,
adds in a letter to Consart:

"Je n'ai pas besoin d'un si long repos apres un si petit travail. Mais
aussi d'attendre de moi cette heureuse facilite qui fait produire des
volumes a M. de Scudery, ce serait me connaitre mal, et me faire une
honneur que je ne merite pas."

Malherbe certainly had a most happy influence on French poetry; he checked
the ultra-classical school of Ronsard, and began that work of reformation
afterwards accomplished by Boileau.

As I have mentioned Voiture's name, I shall add a very droll "_soi-disant_"
impromptu of his, composed to ridicule Mademoiselle Chapelain, the sister
of the poet. Like her brother, she was most miserly in her habits, and not
distinguished by that virtue which some say is next to godliness.

"Vous qui tenez incessamment
Cent amans dedans votre manche,
Tenez-les au moins proprement,
Et faites qu'elle soit plus blanche.

"Vous pouvez avecque raison,
Usant des droits de la victoire,
Mettre vos galants en prison;
Mais qu'elle ne soit pas si noire.

"Mon coeur, qui vous est bien devot,
Et que vous reduisez en cendre,
Vous le tenez dans un cachot
Comme un prisonnier qu'on va pendre.

"Est-ce que, brulant nuit et jour,
Je remplis ce lieu de fumee,
Et que le feu de mon amour
En a fait une cheminee?"

GUSTAVE MASSON.

Hadley, near Barnet.

* * * * *

KONGS-SKUGG-SIO.

(Vol. ii., p. 298.)

The author of the _Kongs-skugg-sio_ is unknown, but the date of it has been
pretty clearly made out by Bishop Finsen and others. (_V._ Finsen,
_Dissertatio Historica de Speculo Regali_, 1766.) There is only one
complete edition of this remarkable work, viz. that published at Soroee in
1768, in 4to. Bishop Finsen maintains the _K