In a moment, in a flash, my
scheme took shape. 'He shall write it, or rather re-write it,' I said
to myself, and I have already submitted to this eminent man of letters
my rough _scenario_ of the lines on which FIELDING'S novel should
be brought home to the Georgian mind. In reply he has made a
counter-suggestion that the characters should be rearranged on a
Victorian basis, CHARLOTTE BRONTE replacing _Sophia_, THACKERAY _Mr.
Allworthy_, while the title-role should be assigned to an enterprising
publisher. But I am not without hope that he will adopt my plan.

"The revival of interest in the works of RICHARDSON, the other great
eighteenth-century novelist, is, I think I may safely say, a foregone
conclusion. Miss DOROTHY RICHARDSON has enthusiastically welcomed
the proposition that she should reconstruct the romances of her
illustrious namesake, and confidently expects, on the basis of the
method employed by her in _The Tunnel_, that she will be able to
excavate at least a hundred volumes from the materials supplied in
_Sir Charles Grandison_ and _Clarissa Harlowe_.

"Nor shall we overlook the earlier masters. Professor CHAMBERLIN,
whose thrilling lectures on QUEEN ELIZABETH and Lord LEICESTER
have been the talk of the town for the last fortnight, has kindly
undertaken to organise a new _variorum_ version of the Plays of
SHAKSPEARE, with the assistance of Mr. LOONEY, the writer of the
recently-published and final work on the authorship of the plays.
MILTON will be presented in both verse and prose, Mr. MASEFIELD having
promised to re-write his epic in six-lined rhymed stanzas, shorn of
Latinisms; while a famous novelist, who does not wish her name to
appear at present, has consented to recast it in the form of a romance
under the title of _The Miseries of Mephistopheles_.

"Returning to the eighteenth century, I am glad to be able to say
that a brilliant reconstruction of POPE'S _Dunciad_ is promised by
the SITWELL family, in which the milk-and-water school is held up to
ridicule, with TENNYSON in the place of dishonour formerly occupied by
THEOBALD. With a magnanimity that cannot be too highly commended, the
staff of _The Times_ has undertaken to adapt another forgotten work
under the title of _Grey's Eulogy_, with special reference to the work
of the League of Nations.

"I confess to feeling rather doubtful as to the possibility of
reviving any interest in the works of SCOTT, DICKENS and THACKERAY.
They are at on