versifier, with a genuine gift of expression, a light and dexterous
touch, and a grace that is really individual."
_The World._--"Sweet and musical. His musical melodies are set in an
appropriately dainty shrine."
_Daily Telegraph._--"'The Lazy Minstrel' commends itself both by outward
form and inward merit to the lover of choice and dainty literature."
_Daily News._--"Mr. Ashby-Sterry is a merry bard. He very seldom brings
'the eternal note of sadness in.'"
_Punch._--"The first edition of his 'Lays' went off with a bang that
must have astonished His Laziness."
G. A. S. in the _Illustrated London News_.--"Emphatically 'nice' in the
nicest--the old-fashioned sense of the word.... A delicate little
tome.... Graceful and, on occasion, tender."
_The Globe._--"The bard not only of the lazy but the leisured.... Mr.
Ashby-Sterry is a humourist, too, who sees the ludicrous as well as the
pleasant side of life, and describes it with much gusto.... There is as
much variety in his rhythms as there is ingenuity in his rhymes."
_The Queen._--"One of the most facile writers of light and pleasant
rhyme."
_Vanity Fair._--"He is the Laureate of the Upper Thames, and no one has
so completely seized as he has the sentiment of the lovely river."
_Observer._--"There are few cultivated tastes for which 'The Lazy
Minstrel' does not provide in his characteristic way."
_The Bookbuyer_ (NEW YORK).--"Mr. Sterry has the lightness and sureness
of touch, without which this kind of verse is of all verse the flattest,
stalest, and most unprofitable. He has a keen eye for those significant
details which make up a picture, an easy indolence which excludes all
appearance of labour, and the self-possession of a man of the world who
amuses himself with the making of verse."
_Court Circular._--"He is one of the foremost writers of _vers de
société_ of the day, and his productions are distinguished by poetic
fancy and neat workmanship."
_Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News._--"One of the most welcome of
the lighter singers."
_The Theatre._--"There never was such a songster."
_Morning Advertiser._--"He is always in tune with his subject, and knows
how to rhyme with facility and expression."
_Court Journal._--"Whether witty or pathetic, the lays and carols are
equally well written and entertaining."
_Newcastle Chronicle._--"Few writers can impart so much grace to
everything he touches, and none have so light and aerial a muse as Mr.
Sterry."
_North British Daily Mail._--"For fluency of expression, ready command
of the fitting epithet at all times, tender grace and gentle humour, Mr.
Ashby-Sterry is indeed a marvel; and the public are under heavy
obligations to the man who furnishes such a pleasant feast of
mirth-provoking rhymes."
_Liverpool Daily Post._--"The humour of them is the airy, well-bred
humour of the man of the world."
_Sheffield Weekly Telegraph._--"Quaint and droll, perfect in design and
diction, light, bright, and musical, these poems are the most cheerful
verses we can meet with in latter-day literature."
_Liverpool Mercury._--"A delightful little book, delightful to read and
not less delightful to look upon."
_Brighton Herald._--"Mr. J. Ashby-Sterry is past-master in the art of
manufacturing dainty verses, little bubbles of song that, like bubbles
of another kind, are delightful because they are so fragile and pretty."
_Liverpool Courier._--"It is a pleasure to meet with verses so
vivacious; to come in contact with a humorous fancy so fresh and
individual."
_Publishers' Circular._--"It lightens and brightens one's heart to read
Mr. Sterry's charming songs and carols; their good humour and delicious
style, so free from anything like care or worldly taint, seems to be
infectious."
_Yorkshire Post._--"Here and there 'The Lazy Minstrel' becomes
sentimental, but there is always a touch of gay insouciance about his
sentiment, and a consistent absence of the mawkishness too often found
in the drawing-room ballad."
_Sheffield Independent._--"Quaint, melodious, finished with marvellous
care, and full of unexpected oddities of form and expression."
_Liverpool Review._--"He infuses a sunshine and breeziness into his
descriptions of scenes and people which make them live before us. His
laziness never degenerates into languor, or his sentiment into
insipidity."
_Wakefield Free Press._--"The Lazy one is master of his art--he chooses
all that is fair, serene, and summer-like for his subjects, and treats
them with a soft colour and a musical rhythmic flow that leaves nothing
to be desired."
_New York Times._--"The metre is perfect, the music of the verse well
sustained, and there is that fun and merry quip in 'The Lazy Minstrel'
which becomes _vers de société_."
* * * * *
LONDON:
T. FISHER UNWIN, 26, PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
Corrections.
The first line indicates the original, the second the correction.
p. 25:
A LOVER'S LULLABY
A LOVER'S LULLABY.
p. 26:
I'll wear my Tam o' Shanter,
I'll wear my Tam o' Shanter!
p. 46:
Her ebony-stick with a crutch.
Her ebony-stick with a crutch
p. 98:
Or oves, like dogs, to bark and bite,
Or loves, like dogs, to bark and bite,
p. 134:
(_'Twill rain, I'm sure, before the night!_
(_'Twill rain, I'm sure, before the night!_)
p. 148:
The good ship she steers, like a clever young "cox.,"
The good ship she steers, like a clever young "cox,"
End of Project Gutenberg's The Lazy Minstrel, by Joseph Ashby-Sterry