[Transcriber's Note: Bold text is surrounded by =equal signs= and italic text is surrounded by _underscores_.] Chap-Book Essays [Illustration] ESSAYS _from the_ Chap-Book BEING A _MISCELLANY_ OF Curious and interesting Tales, Histories, &c; _newly composed by_ MANY CELEBRATED WRITERS and very delightful to read. _CHICAGO._ Printed for _Herbert S. Stone & Company_, and are to be sold by them at _The Caxton Building_ in _Dearborn Street_ 1896 COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY HERBERT S. STONE & CO. CONTENTS BOYESEN, H. H. PAGE IBSEN’S NEW PLAY 5 BURROUGHS, JOHN BITS OF CRITICISM 19 DEKOVEN, MRS. REGINALD VERLAINE: A FEMININE APPRECIATION 27 EARLE, ALICE MORSE DEGENERATION 37 THE PLEASURES OF HISTORIOGRAPHY 47 THE BUREAU OF LITERARY REVISION 59 GATES, LEWIS E. MR. MEREDITH AND HIS AMINTA 67 GOSSE, EDMUND THE POPULARITY OF POETRY 89 GUINEY, LOUISE IMOGEN CONCERNING ME AND THE METROPOLIS 101 “TRILBY” 109 HAPGOOD, NORMAN MODERN LAODICEA 119 THE INTELLECTUAL PARVENU 129 HIGGINSON, THOMAS WENTWORTH THE SCHOOL OF JINGOES 141 JERROLD, LAURENCE THE USES OF PERVERSITY 149 MABIE, HAMILTON WRIGHT A COMMENT ON SOME RECENT BOOKS 157 ONE WORD MORE 167 MOULTON, LOUISE CHANDLER THE MAN WHO DARES 177 SIMPSON, EVE BLANTYRE R. L. S. SOME EDINBURGH NOTES 195 STODDARD, RICHARD HENRY MR. GILBERT PARKER’S SONNETS 209 THOMPSON, MAURICE IS THE NEW WOMAN NEW? 223 THE RETURN OF THE GIRL 239 THE ART OF SAYING NOTHING WELL 253 Ibsen’s New Play _By_ H. H. Boyesen IBSEN’S NEW PLAY. NEVER has the great master written anything simpler and more human than “Little Eyolf.” The two fundamental chords which sound with varying force through all his earlier works are here struck anew with increased distinctness and resonance. The ennobling power of suffering, the educational value of pain,—that is the first lesson which the play conveys; and the second, which is closely akin to it, is the development of personality through the discipline of renunciation.