Or consider the fanciful melody of the Fairies' song in _An Unhistorical Pastoral_-- "Weave the dance and sing the song; _Subterranean depths prolong The rainy patter of our feet;_ Heights of air are rendered sweet By our singing. Let us sing, Breathing softly, fairily, Swelling sweetly, airily, Till earth and sky our echo ring. Rustling leaves chime with our song: Fairy bells its close prolong Ding-dong, ding-dong." --Or the closely-packed wit in such passages as these-- _Brown_: "This world, This oyster with its valves of toil and play, Would round his corners for its own good ease, And make a pearl of him if he'd plunge in. * * * * * _Jones_: And in this matter we may all be pearls. _Smith_: Be worldlings, truly. I would rather be A shred of glass that sparkles in the sun, And keeps a lowly rainbow of its own, Than one of these so trim and patent pearls With hearts of sand veneered, sewed up and down The stiff brocade society affects." I have opened the book at random for these quotations. Its pages are stuffed with scores as good. Nor will any but the least intelligent reviewer upbraid Mr. Davidson for deriving so much of his inspiration directly from Shakespeare. Mr. Davidson is still a young man; but the first of these plays, _An Unhistorical Pastoral_, was first printed so long ago as 1877; and the last, _Scaramouch in Naxos; a Pantomime_, in 1888. They are the work therefore of a very young man, who must use models while feeling his way to a style and method of his own. Lack of "Architectonic" Quality.