The title of this little volume was chosen because it seems to indicate a characteristic possessed in common by the otherwise unrelated essays here brought together. They may all be described in a general way as holiday tasks—the results of many hours of quiet but rather aimless browsing among books, and not of special investigations, undertaken with a view to definite scholastic ends. They are, moreover, as will readily be seen, completely unacademic in style and intention. Three of the papers were originally put into shape as popular lectures. The remaining one—that on the Restoration novelists—was written for a magazine which appeals not to a special body of students, but to the more general reading public. The title, hit upon after some little searching, will, I believe, therefore be accepted as fairly descriptive, and will not, I hope, be condemned as overfanciful.
A word or two of more detailed explanation may, perhaps, be permitted. Of the essays on Pepys’s Diary and the “Scenes of Bohemian Life,” I would simply say that they may be taken to testify to the unfailing sources of unalloyed enjoyment I have found in these delightful books; and I should be pleased to think that, while they may renew for some readers the charm of old associations, they may perhaps send others here and there for the first time to the works themselves—in which case I shall be sure of the gratitude of some at least of those into whose hands this little volume may chance to fall. I can scarcely say as much as this for the study of Mrs. Behn and Mrs. Manley—for most readers will be quite as well off if they leave the lucubrations of these two ladies alone. But in these days we all read novels; and it has seemed to me, therefore, that my brief account of some of the early experiments in English fiction may not be altogether lacking in interest and suggestiveness. Thus, after some hesitation, I decided to find a place for the authors of “Oroonoko” and “The New Atalantis” in these pages. So far as the chapter on Shakspere’s London is concerned, it is needless to do more than indicate the way in which it came to be written. A number of years ago, while engaged for other purposes in the study of Elizabethan popular literature, and more especially of the drama of the period, I began, for my own satisfaction, to jot down, as I lighted upon them, the more striking references and allusions to manners, customs, and the social life of the time. I presently found that I had thus gathered a good deal of miscellaneous material; and it then occurred to me that, properly organized, my memoranda might be made into an interesting popular lecture. The lecture was presently prepared, and was frequently delivered, both in England and in this country. Naturally enough, the paper can lay no claim to exhaustiveness; it is scrappy, formless, and sometimes superficial. But the reader of Shakspere may find it of some value, so far as it goes.
The essay on the Restoration novel is reproduced, greatly changed and somewhat amplified, from the English magazine, “Time.” The remainder of the volume has not before been in print.
In such a book as this, it would be pedantic to make a display of authorities and references, though I hope that any direct indebtedness has always been duly recorded in the proper place. But I must do myself the pleasure of adding, that here, as elsewhere in my work, I have gained more than I can say from the help and encouragement of my wife.
Stanford University, California, 1897
