Village books

As to the music, each piece bears the initials of the one
who actually composed it. As to the words, it was necessary first
to settle some general scheme and this, in the case of Narcissus,
grew in the course of conversation. The scheme of Ulysses was
constructed in a more formal way and Butler had perhaps rather less
to do with it. We were bound by the Odyssey, which is, of course,
too long to be treated fully, and I selected incidents that
attracted me and settled the order of the songs and choruses. For
this purpose, as I out-Shakespeare Shakespeare in the smallness of
my Greek, I used The Adventures of Ulysses by Charles Lamb, which we
should have known nothing about but for Ainger's book. Butler
acquiesced in my proposals, but, when it came to the words
themselves, he wrote practically all the libretto, as he had done in
the case of Narcissus; I did no more than suggest a few phrases and
a few lines here and there.
We had sent Narcissus for review to the papers, and, as a
consequence, about this time, made the acquaintance of Mr.


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