No More Learning

like their system, are a ship without a rudder, scribing the city and its history, the author Judged simply as “ morceau painting,
turning this way and that. Of the destruc- adopts the classification of periods suggested Mr. Lambert's
portrait has
passages
tive and disintegrating forces of the day, by Prof. Mau. The drawings are shown on which are superior to anything in Mr.
Mr. Cox singles out photography as the twenty-five plates. They represent frag. Philpot's picture. We cannot refrain from
most disastrous, one only of the encroachments of decoration on columns and walls, a craftsman's relish at the sight of a hand
ments of science on the realm of art. To pavements and ceilings, fountains and furni. and arm painted so frankly and deftly as
him the Pre-Raphaelites stand for an ture. A few are from treasures now the left hand and arm of Miss Eve Balfour.
æsthetic movement established at the cost safely housed in the Naples Museum. Each There is a certain magic in the way in which
of the destruction of the older English plate is faced by some words of explanation the impasto gives the very substance of the
School, of which Etty is cited as or comment.
flesh. “It would be illusive but that it is
comes
worse.
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No. 4399, FEB. 17, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
201
an
plastered on to a figure designed in a pseudo-
Person of the Trinity, holding up the cross, on
Florentine rhythmic line, which reduces the
Mr. Shepperson, in the next room, displays which is the form of the crucified Saviour, while
rendering of projection to a minimum, and illustrator's difficulty in setting down any
extreme technical facility, but finds the the Dove is seen over the Saviour's head; on
the left is St. John the Baptist, on the right St.
leaves the too solid head and arms hanging detail not intrinsically exciting either by Mary of Egypt; small figures in the foreground
in empty space.
Mr. Lambert is also
repre-
of Tobias and the angel, 9971. Anonymous,
sented by some drawings, of which the most oddity or emphasis. The attempt to give Florentine School, The Madonna and Child, the
academic (88) is the best. His later draw.
his designs a structure vehement enough Madonna, in red dress, long blue cloak, and white
ings show a brilliant sureness of hand, but to carry this constant titillation of minute headdress, kneels adoring the Infant Saviour,
who is holding a miniature cross, 3151. Luca
tend to express the empty perfection of points of interest makes his work restless,
Longhi, The Madonna and Child, with St. Eliza-
dolls rather than to suggest the unattain and we doubt if he will ever be able to do a
beth and St. John, signed, and dated 1578, 2311.
able infinity of nature. Yet, after all, there quiet design based on natural structure J. Marieschi, The Church of Santa Maria della
is a gulf between a powerful rendering of without touching it up for purposes of pic. Salute, and The Doge's Palace, Venice, with
numerous gondolas and figures (a pair), 4511,
dolls such as this and the measure of turesquenoss.
Bernardino Pinturicchio, The Madonna and
capacity which Mr. Ivan Lindhe brings to a
The exhibition of water - colours by in reá dress with green robe, holding the Infant
Child, with Saints, in the centre the Madonna,
similar ideal in Nos. 112-115, which repre-
sent probably the popular portraiture of George S. Elgood at the Fine Art Society Saviour on her knee, on the left is St. Anthony,
the day.
Mr. Alexander Jamieson's Hon.
is tolerably representative of
Sir Charles Parsons (20), while executed in a whose executive delicacy outran his intel. side St. John the Baptist, holding a cross two
monotonously clumsy impasto which is lectual development. There is pleasure to angels appear behind, 4411.
Dutch School. -N. Berchem, A Grand Moun-
in itself undesirable, deserves mention for be derived from the deftness of drawing in
almost
tainous Landscape, represented under the effect
of such a work as No. 65,
any passage
its spontaneity and look of life.
of departing day; in the foreground, on the left,
Madonna Lily, Knockwood, and this, while
a group of peasants and cattle which have just
perhaps the best, is only a superlative passed a fordable stream, 3671. A. Cuyp, A
Although undistinguished by any, high instance of qualities more or less present in Sportsman, with three dogs and dead game, in a
degree of unity of vision, all the painters most of the drawings. While they thus, and Pigeons, in a landscape, 2671. G. Metsu,
with whom we have mainly been concerned however, reward piecemeal examination, The Poultry-Seller, a woman holding out a hare
in dealing with the above exhibition may there is no drawing in the collection which, to an old woman, who is seated before a stall,
claim some natural sense of the proper use as a whole, is not cloying in colour and weak 2201. ; An Interior, with a lady paying a visit
of paint. The more recent school of paint- in design.
to a family, who are seated round a fireplace; a
ing displayed in the exhibition of the Friday
woman serving on the right, 1991. 108. Sir A.
Club at the Alpine Club Gallery sees things
Far more important is the collection of old three-quarter face to 'right, holding a bow in his
More, St. Sebastian, half-length nude figure,
more consistently and of a piece, but suffers stained glass in an adjoining room, which right hand and an arrow in his left, 3781. A. van
from a horror of doing anything like nice deserves a visit from every one interested der Neer, A River Scene, Moonlight, a church,
painting. We have in turn seen painting in the subject. Particularly to be com- buildings, and windmill on the further bank ;
imitate Turkey carpets, stained glass, and mended are a superb panel of thirteenth-
a horse towing a barge, and a man with a dog in
woolwork. The latest thing is to imitate century Salisbury glass, No. 1 (in a silvery them two horsemen, 9451. Rembrandt, The
the foreground ; on the left two cows, and beyond
mosaic, and Mr. Frederick Etchell's three grisaille of unsurpassable beauty, with one
Falconer, a young man holding a hooded hawk
works (5–7) are at a little distance very like or two small bands of extremely deep ruby on his gloved hand; wooded background, 3151.
old mosaics, even down to certain spaces in and blue), and a part of à Crucifixion P. Rubens, The Repose of the Holy Family, on the
No. 7, where the mosaic has broken off and subject (6), described as English Fifteenth left, under a tree, the Virgin Mary, in red and
blue dress, seated, holding the Infant Christ;
reveals the cement below. Miss Helen Century," wherein one of the heads is
St. Joseph behind ; on the right St. Elizabeth,
Saunders's Rocks, North Devon (111), is again strongly reminiscent in type of Flemish presenting the infant St. John ; Zacharias holds
almost illusive, and would, indeed, be quite painting of Memlinc's school.
out an apple-branch to the Infant Saviour,
good mosaic in its modest way. *Mr.
1,5221. ; The Infanta Isabella, Archduchess of
Duncan Grant's Red Sea (91), not so Mr. Tooth's show of paintings by Josef Austria, in rich white satin dress with lace ruff,
seated, holding a fan, 3251. F. Snyders, The
close a copy, shows great promise, the Israëls does not lead us to revise our estimate
Interior of a Larder, with a dead peacock, swan,
central figure being particularly good. We of him as a much overrated artist. Most deer, boar, and other game; in the foreground
must confess to seeing no advantage in of the different types of work by which he a spaniel with five puppies, 4621. Van Dyck,
the choice of the colour attributed to the is known ar present. No. 11 is a fair Portrait of a Lady, in white satin dress edged
ocean, and to be in doubt whether the strip instance of the neat, pretty little picture, and standing on a terrace, 5041.
of green-blue along the top of the picture rather small in its handling of form, which
The total of the sale amounted to 18,6061.
denotes sky or the light on the top of the represents one extreme of his practice;
wave to which the magenta red is the while the large Friendly Visit (7) shows
shadow. In No. 11 Mrs. Clive Bell's use of a him in his more usual aspect as the apostle
ROWLANDSON DRAWINGS.
strong green as flesh tint in the shadow of technical untidiness, with a kind of
MESSRS. CHRISTIE sold on Monday last the
against a red sky is more plausible than this half-spurious largeness of vision as its re-
following drawings by Rowlandson : Smithfield
red sea, which seems too near in tone to the deeming quality.
Sharpers, 1787, 315l. The Faro-Table at Devon-
blue to recoil from it as shadow. While we
shire House, 1791, 4831. The Prize-Fight, 1787,
2101.
believe that these experiments will leave the
art of painting better than they found it,
MR. LESSER LESSER'S OLD MASTERS.
in that artists cannot again be so blind as
they were to the demands of rhythm and
MESSRS. CHRISTIE sold last Saturday the
Fine Art Gossip.
co-ordination of masses, yet we shall be pictures by Old Masters belonging to the late
glad when, as a craze, this sort of thing Mr. Lesser Lesser of New Bond Street :
French School. -J. B. Greuze, Head of a Young
THE UNITED ARTS CLUB, Dublin, propose
ceases to attract imitators.
Boy, with blue and black dress, in the attitude of to hold a Spring Exhibition of works by
devotion, 2101.
contemporary French painters of the schools
At the Leicester Galleries Mr. Alfred
Spanish School. -Murillo, Portrait of a Gentle commonly known as Post-Impressionist.
man, in grey dress with black and white sleeves,
Rich's drawings show no falling off from his and white stockings, wearing a sword; he stands
The painters represented will include Herbin,
customary dexterity and compact arrange- on a terrace, holding his hat in his left hand, and
Picasso, Van Rysselberg, Emile Charmy,
ment of familiar material. We should select a glove in his right, 2671.
Derain, Flandrin, Friesz, Manquin, and
No. 47, Ambersham Common, Sussex, as
English School. -J. Crome, A Woody Land- others.
the best of all, and on the whole prefer bridge on the left, cattle in a pool on the right,
scape, with a peasant-woman crossing a rustic
An exhibition of pictures by Francis
this and similar designs to the
5771. Lely, Miss Constance Weston (afterwards O'Donohoe, the young Irish artist who
centralized compositions which he so often | Mrs. Cracroft), in grey dress with white sleeves,
was killed a few weeks ago in a motor
affects--A Stormy Evening (27) is a good and blue cloak, 2201. Reynolds, Elizabeth,
accident, is now open in Dublin. The
examplo—which, when seen in numbers, Lothian), in pink dress, trimmed with fur, qver pictures, which number about two hundred,
become wearisome by constant emphasis. a grey bodice; her hair powdered, and bound include some portraits in oil and many water.
Designs less furiously wrought together, with a pink ribbon, 6721. Romney, Lady Hamil- colour studies of County Dublin scenery.
in which each leaves, as it were, a quiet, ton as Nature, 4621. G. Streetes, Portraits of
sustained note to be carried on by the
Three Children: two boys, in yellow slashed
M. PAUL SIGNAC has been re-elected
next, so as to maintain the continuity of holding a guinea-pig, 4411.
doublets; and a girl, in rich dress with lace ruff, President of the Société des Artistes In-
the intervening wall rather than make a
dépendants, whose twenty-eighth annual
Italian School. - Correggio, The Madonna and
series of holes in it, are certainly more decora- Child, with St. John, the Madonna, in red and
exhibition will open at the Quai d'Orsay
on March 15th.
tive when hung in a group, and we find the blue robes, seated, holding on her lap the Infant
artist most delightful when he does not
Saviour, who stretches out His arms toward the
THE financial report of the New Salon
force his rather narrow means to attract holds a lamb, 2101. Florentine School, Anony.
infant St. John, who is dressed in green, and
(Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts) for the
the maximum of attention.
mous, The Holy Trinity, in the centre the First 'past year shows a distinct falling-off in the
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THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4399, FEB. 17, 1912
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skil]
PERFORMANCES NEXT WEEK.
Concert, s, Albert Hall.
Sunday League Concert, 7, Queen's Hall.
(Matinée also on
Saturday. )
Mos. Herr Egon Petri's Pianoforte Recital, 8. 15, Bechstein Hall.
TUES. F. 9. Kelly's Pianoforte Recital, 3, Æolian Hall.
Carl Flesch's Violin Recital, 3. 15, Bechstein Hall.
WED. Classical Concert Society, 3, Bechstein Hall.
Dr, Dezső Szanto's Pianoforte Recital, 8. 15, Bechstein Hall.
THURS. 12 O'Clock Chamber Concert, Eoliau Hall.
Mario Lorenzi's Concert, 3. 15, Broadwood's.
Maurice Jeffes's Vocal Renital, 3. 15, Æolian Hall.
Philharmonic Society, 8, Queen's Hall.
May Harrison's Violin Recital, 8. 15, Bechstein Hall.
Josef Holbrooke's Chamber Concert, 8. 45, Eolian Hall.
FRI.
Broadwood Concert, 8. 30. Æolian Hall.
Madame Helene Martini's Song Recital. 8. 30, Bechstein Hall.
Sat.
Chappell Ballad Concert, 2. 30, Queen's Hall.
Norman Wilks's Pianoforte Recital, 3. Bechstein Hall.
6
6
!
total of receipts. M. Roll, the President of
by Mrs. George Cornwallis-West in support
the Society, attributes this diminution to
Under
of the Shakespeare Memorial Fund.
Musical Gossip.
the competition of an ever-increasing number
the conductorship of Sir Henry J. Wood,
of minor exhibitions, which distract atten.
Last Saturday afternoon M. Egon Petri orchestral concerts will be given every
tion from the larger Salons. In order to
combat this decrease in visitors and sales, gave the first of three pianoforte recitals Saturday. There will also be sixteenth-
. Liszt wrote three century concerts in the “ Fortune Theatre,
M. Roll is convinced that it is now necessary sets of pieces entitled * Les Années de under the combined leadership of Miss
to discourage as strongly as possible those Pélerinages, and all are
to be given. Chaplin and Mr. Groell.
individual exhibitions which have proved so
The first contains nine numbers, some of
inimical to what he contends are the more
which, such as the “ Pastorale,' Au bord
democratic interests of collective Salons.
d'une source,' and 'Eglogue,' are delight. Sun.
Sunday Concert Society, 3. 30, Queen's Hall.
M. LÉON BÉRARD, the new French Underful, and were performed with rare
taste.
Secretary for Fine Arts, has announced his and
Tuxs. , WED. Fri. , Sar. London Opera House.
Others, however, proved
intention of opening the collections of the less interesting. The pianist has a fine
Louvre more freely to the public, and his touch, masterly technique, and full under-
opposition to the institution of any paying standing of all he interprets; but his Royal Choral Socioty, 8. Albert Hall.
days. ". M. Bérard has also expressed his fortes are at times overpowering, and this
hope that the Luxembourg Museum may was particularly the case in No. 5, 'Orage,'
be transferred to its new home in the
CA
a piece in which forte up to a high degree is
Seminary of St. Sulpice at an early date, naturally permissible. But in loud passages
Thomas Dunhill's Concert, 3. 16, Steinway Hall.
and proposes to approach the Municipality generally M. Petri seemed to lose
all
of Paris with a view to the creation of a control over his fingers and feelings. Of
worthier and more complete museum of Weber's romantic and seldom heard Šonata
decorative art.
in a flat he gave a rendering instinct with
life and poetry.
On Friday evening next Mr. William
Archer is to deliver the third Conway
THE fourth concert of the 100th season
DRAMA
Memorial Lecture at South Place Chapel, of the Philharmonic Society, took place
Finsbury, his subject being · Art and the last Thursday week at Queen's Hall. Mr.
Commonweal. ' Ńr. Israel Zangwill will Percy Pitt's Symphony in G minor, originally
preside, and admission will be free.
produced at the Birmingham Festival of
1906, was, unfortunately, placed right at
* THE EASIEST WAY' AT THE
The projected Danish Art Exhibition at the end of a very long programme. It
GLOBE.
Brighton will be opened on April 1st, the is a work on which he has evidently
pictures being selected by the Danish Com spent much thought, so that one would
THE author of "Paid in Full’ has
mittee, consisting of the artists Willumsen, like to hear it again under more favourable earned the right to an attentive hearing;
Skovgaard, Dorph, and others.
conditions. The music is cleverly scored. on the strength of that interesting work
WE regret to have to record the death M. Cortot played the piano part of Beet- we have learnt to anticipate from Mr.
of Charles William Sherborn, the engraver,
hoven's Concerto in E flat. He is a brilliant Eugene Walter drama of some ideas, and
who died last Sunday night. His eldest performer, but we have heard more emo-
drama also which is rather violent and
son will issue in due course a sketch of tional readings of the work. _An exceedingly
explosive. There is no lack of intelligence
his father's life, and an authentic list of his fine performance of Sir Edward Elgar's
plates.
'Enigma' Variations was given under the in his new Globe play, though its "psy-
direction of the composer.
chology” is of the cut-and-dried sort,
THE BOARD OF EDUCATION announce that
the Queen has presented to the Indian On Monday evening the programme of and its unconventionality has its amusingly
Section o the Victoria and Albert Museum the London Symphony Orchestra at Queen's stern conventions ; his study of a frail
a series of examples of Moghul, Rajput, and
Hall included Mr. Joseph Holbrooke's woman's frailty is carried through with
Tibetan industrial art of considerable beauty its production at the Crystal Palace twelve obviously devoted much attention to
symphonic poem 'The Raven,' which, since a grim if shallow consistency, and he has
and interest, The most important among
them is the toilet-tray of a Moghul princess,
years ago, has been revised.
It was con analysis of the temperament and weak-
of rock crystal, exquisitely carved and
ducted by the composer. On account of
nesses of her type.
the mournful character of Edgar Poe's
But the note of his
drilled with repetitions of a flowering plant
poem,
motive; the sunk decoration was originally
it is difficult to illustrate by music without piece is one of unrestrained and almost
jewelled in the approved Moghul manner,
the risk of becoming monotonous. Mr. tempestuous energy. His men and women
that is to say, the hollows were inlaid or
Holbrooke, by impressive moments and by seem always at a fever heat of intensity ;
filled in with soft gold, set with cabochon clever orchestration, avoids to some extent when they are not storming at each other
rubies and emeralds. This tray was made in
that danger. Sir Edward Elgar, who in bursts of passion, they are bubbling
Delhi during the sixteenth or seventeenth appeared for the last time this season,
over with exuberance and must shout at
conducted Brahms's Tragic Overture and
century, and was evidently the work of one Schumann's Symphony in c.
of the celebrated jewellers attached either
Mr. Jules the top of their voices. Their diction, too,
to the Court of Akbar the Great or that of Wertheim's rendering of the pianoforte is correspondingly vigorous—full of strange
one of his immediate successors. A depres-
part of Saint-Saëns's Concerto in G minor American idioms, taken from the tap-
sion in the centre marks the place where the
was very good, but it lacked the brightness room or the warehouse, piquant to the
Begum's toilet-box, also of jewelled crystal, and elasticity of tone which the music point of harshness, expressive in the very
would have rested.
imperatively demands,
crudity of its metaphors, and enormously
The gift comprises, among other beautiful
The concert of the London Choral Society alive. Thus 'The Easiest Way' may be
things, two perfume-boxes (attardán), silver at Queen's Hall on Wednesday evening began said to leave two different impressions
gilt,
decorated with translucent enamelling, with Bach's short Mass in F, which is not in
made in Lucknow during the seventeenth
on the mind-one of boisterous restless-
his grand style. Next
Brahms's
century, and formerly the personal pro- Rhapsody' for contralto solo and male ness, which is only vital force in excess ;
the other of a complacent disregard of the
perty of Wajid Ali Shah, the last King of chorus, and finally Beethoven's Mass in D.
Oudh. The one has a floral-diaper design The performances, especially the last one, subtleties of art or insight.
filled in with cobalt-blue enamel; the other showed goodwill on the part of soloists and Laura Murdock, like the heroine of
is decorated with animals and floral motives choir, but as regards ensemble, intonation, Sir. A. W. Pinero's Iris,' is a woman whose
in cobalt-blue, copper-green,
and
manganese-
and light and shade, much was wanting.
slavery to luxury will not permit her the
purple enamels.
MR. GRANVILLE BANTOCK'S ' Omar Khay- gratification of an honest love that
dán), or box to hold the writer's equipment, Musikfreunde, Vienna, last Wednesday under and, just as the theme of the two writers
There is also a Moghul kalamdán (oalam- yam' was performed at the Gesellschaft der involves poverty and personal discomfort,
of ivory carved in low relief with rosette the direction of Herr Franz Schalk. The
medallions, conventional flowers and leaf German text was the work of the secretary-
is similar, so is the solution of their
motives in long panels. It was made in Delhi general of the society. A cordial reception problem. But there is a world of differ-
early in the seventeenth century, probably was accorded both to the composer and his
was accorded both to the composer and his ence between the elaborate painstaking
in the reign of Shah Jahan, and is a
clever work.
magni-
of the English dramatist and the rough-
ficent specimen of the refined low-relief style Music will be a special feature of “Shake. and-ready methods of his American col-
which dominated throughout the Moghul speare's England," the forthcoming exhibi- league. Every mood of Iris, every refine-
period.
tion at Earl's Court, which is being organized ment of feeling or hesitation of judgment,
came
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No. 4399, FEB. 17, 1912
203
THE ATHENÆUM
66
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was laid before us ; Mr. Walter's light player possessed, and the gift which all who was he willing to get the Englishman new
women never take long in making their met him acknowledged he had, of changing
met him acknowledged he had, of changing lamps or dancers, sign contracts for him,
decisions, for they always follow the his face to suit the character he was repre- soothe neglected correspondents, dispatch
line of least resistance. The one woman
senting, Dr. Hedgcock suggests that in engravings and new French plays, and act
early days there
is dissected nerve by nerve, the other is emphatic and theatrical in Garrick’s gestures he also kept Mrs. Garrick coached in the
was something over- as cicerone to his comrade's acquaintances ;
more or less externally observed and
and business," and concludes that the latest Paris fashions, and secured for her
portrayed, with the result that Sir increase of ease and distinction noticeable laces and petticoats; and he even stopped a
Arthur provides a true tragedy, whereas in his style after his sojourn in France flirtation of one of Garrick's nieces with an
Mr. Walter's play must be described, must not be put down to the influence of ineligible French officer, and packed the
notwithstanding the vitality of its charac-
the French comedians he saw, unless it is little miss off to England and safety. The
Monnet
ters, as problem-melodrama:
to be described as a negative influence, nay, letters of both men do them credit.
In order to prove that the conventions
a revolt from their bombast and attitudiniz. is the most obliging of “universal providers,”
ing.
to quote Dr. Hedgcock's term, and Garrick,
of the new melodrama are as rigid in their
Dr. Hedgcock has an amusing section amid all the pressure of professional and
fashion as those of the old, it is only neces- on Garrick as a devotee of Shakespeare, and social engagements, reveals himself as
sary to point out how Brockton, the points out that, while the admiration was grateful, kind-hearted, generous, and lavish
actress's protector-lover, can pardon in- genuine enough, and helped largely to give in return for services and hospitality.
fidelity in the woman, but not her making the English actor his vogue in France,
him a liar or a falsifier of his word in the coming there as he did in a moment of An Actor's Hamlet. By Louis Calvert.
eyes of his rival. Madison, her journalist Anglomania and reaction from the classical Edited by Metcalfe Wood. (Mills & Boon. )
traditions of the drama, yet the autocrat -Mr. Calvert's study of the character and
husband, again, has ideals about of Drury Lane was too much in sympathy mental condition of Hamlet is founded
chastity, and knows Laura's “ past,” but with the average tone of criticism in France solely upon consideration of what Hamlet
cannot forgive her a second lapse which not to accept some of its dicta as to Shake says and does. From this examination he
has, after all, only been brought about speare's barbarism. ” Indeed, it was in concludes and attentive readers must agree
by the old conditions and privations obedience to canons of art formulated first with him—that it is an error to suppose
recurring. Both men ultimately abandon by French savants, and adopted generally Hamlet drawn as the irresolute man of
her, and she is left, after a futile threat by eighteenth-century "intellectuals,” that thought, contrasted with Fortinbras, the
ho tried to correct the English poet's sup- man of action. Indeed, the idea of a
of suicide, ordering her maid to paint her posed lapses of taste, and so botched Ham division between thought and action is one
face and deck her out for further excur- let,'* Romeo and Juliet,'' The Tempest,' and not at all likely to have presented itself to the
sions along “ the easiest way. ”
A Midsummer Night's Dream in a way mind of an Elizabethan. When, however, Mr.
The acting at the Globe is as strenuously that is remembered now only to be laughed Calvert begins to dwell insistently upon the
earnest as the play. Mr. Guy Standing's at.
reality of Hamlet's madness, we are obliged
Brockton combines effectively brutality
About his first trip to Paris Garrick to remember that madness is a state subject
and cynicism, and has a fine masterful always preserved a discreet silence, due, to great differences of definition, and that
Dr. Hedgcock seems to think, to the visitor's everything turns upon the interpretation of
way with him. Mr. Godfrey Tearle's
attempting to draw away dancers from the the term. The rough-and-ready classifica-
Madison has the right air of good-natured Opera, and so in all innocence being guilty tion of the law courts reckons no man insane
egotism, and a vocabulary that is enter- of a political crime. However that may be, who can distinguish between right and wrong.
taining and picturesque. Miss Nelson this visit brought about his association with By this criterion, Hamlet was assuredly sane.
Hall offers a very full - blooded portrait a distinguished, if flighty ballet-master, whose Mr. Calvert himself acknowledge the conduct
of a courtesan past her prime; and Mr.
att Fétes Chinoises produced anti-French riots of the prince in the last scene to be rational,
0. B. Clarence's showman, and Miss
at Drury Lane, and whose art owed much and has to explain this condition as an
Violet Rand's negress attendant-though example. Noverre, the person in question, shock. That Hamlet, in
as to its later developments to Garrick’s instance of mental recovery after a second
a position of
both persons are unnecessary to the plot was the creator of the ballet pantomime, in singular horror, fell into a state of extreme
afford diversion at their every appearance. which dancers tell a story by means of nervous tension is plain, and that only a
Miss Sarah Brooke plays the heroine's gestures and movements, as distinct from narrow line divides such a state from
scenes with the requisite vehemence of the
divertissement, and Dr. Hedgcock madness may be conceded. But, surely,
is little in Hamlet's behaviour
declamation, but she conveys the idea — insists that it was from watching Garrick there
which
that the Frenchman learnt the possibilities that goes beyond that of a highly strung
may
be the author's—that Laura's
of dumb show, and therefore of “choreo- nature in a condition of strong emotional
emotions are largely on the surface.
graphic ” drama.
disturbance; and some of Mr. Calvert's con-
Garrick would seem, during his Paris stay, firmatory circumstances are not very good
to have cultivated mainly the society of the evidence. When, for example, Hamlet fails
OUR LIBRARY TABLE.
philosophers and Encyclopædists, and among to kill the King, are we really to see in this
them, of course, was Diderot. Dr. Hedg- omission the hesitancy of impaired will ?
In David Garrick and his French Friends cock argues that the change which came
Is it not rather the truth that Hamlet,
(Stanley Paul), a work written
over the author of 'Le Paradoxe sur le incapable of killing in cold blood, is clever
thesis for its author's Paris University Comédien,' as marked in the difference of enough to appease himself with specious
degree, and now translated from the French point of view to be seen in his early writings reasons ? __Nor is it just to assume that
and enlarged by certain attractive digres. on the art of acting and in this far-famed because, Hamlet is not shown discussing
sions, Dr. Frank A. Hedgcock contributes document, may well be put down to the Ophelia's death with Horatio, he must
a welcome because really scholarly addition impact of Garrick’s personality, and that have forgotten all about it. Even, however,
to the biography of England's greatest
actor. the final pronouncements may echo chats if Mr. Calvert carries his theory too far, he
His aim has been to tap Garrick's French he had with Diderot on stagecraft.
does a service to lovers of 'Hamlet' by
correspondence, hardly used hitherto; to Of the French correspondents of Garrick, setting them to consider afresh the amazing
describe his friendships with such players perhaps the most interesting were Madame depth and richness of its central character.
as Le Kain and Préville, such authors or Riccoboni and Monnet. The former, an
journalists as Favart, Suard, and De la ex-actress and novelist in the Rousseau Three Comedies. By Ludvig Holberg.
Place and such whole-hearted admirers manner, maintained in her letters a sort of Translated by Lieut. -Col. H. W. L. Hime.
of his as the Abbé Morellet, Madame Ricco- platonic ardour for the busy actor-manager, | (Longmans. Holberg wrote several valu-
boni, and Jean Monnet; and to give (for and wrote an extraordinarily spasmodic able and laborious works in addition to the
the first time) adequate details of the and exuberant, not to say hysterical, style. thirty-three comedies,” says his translator.
"English Roscius's two visits to Paris. Three only of Garrick's replies have been Several other laborious works
He has also estimated briefly, but interest- preserved, and these, which the biographer inclined to say. A close intrigue, com-
ingly from a French point of view, the various quotes, exhibit the recipient of such enthu pounded of crabbed fathers, melting heroines
aspects of Garrick's activity, throwing here siasm striving gallantly to respond to the and equally melting heroes, subtle maids and
and there fresh light on the subject of his lady's effusiveness, but finding the task valets, villains balked by disguises which
appreciation. Urging, as others have, that increasingly difficult as they grew older. are resolved in the last act by a simple
not a little of the actor's sprightliness and Monnet's friendship was of more practical recognition, and frustrated by marriages
vivacity sprang from his Gallic blood, he seeks value. A retired manager with time on arranged and legally performed with a speed
to disprove the noble birth of Garrick's his hands, he seems to have been ready to which leaves imagination toiling breath.
French ancestors. Dwelling on the versa- do
any sort of errand for Garrick, and acted lessly behind-what is there comic in it
tility and wonderful mimetic power the as his general factotum in Paris. Not only'all ? We admire the ingenious artifice, but
as
>
we are


## p. 204 (#168) ############################################

204
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4399, FEB. 17, 1912
for a little more Molière and a little less Saga. Both plays were produced under The De La More Press List
6
6
6
78. 6d. net.
!
we yawn. Holberg, wo
are told, took Booth's one-act verse play, Unseen Kings,' FROM
Plautus and Molière for his models. We sigh which
a
Plautus. We look in vain for
the quick
the direction of Count Markievicz.
and light perception of folly," the incisive
speech, and the delicate play of fancy,
A NEW version of 'Edipus Rex,' by Mr.
JUST PUBLISHED.
Types take the place of characters, and Theatre, Dublin, at the end of this month. Commercial, and Political
W. B. Yeats, will be produced at the Abbey SIAM: a Handbook of Practical,
blows of repartee; but the types which
Mr. Yeats's adaptation
Plautus knew, or borrowed from his Greek
written in prose Information.
originals,
bear very ill their transplantation unabbreviated. Mr. Gordon Craig's scenery
of the most direct kind, and is practically By A. W. GRAHAM, M. R. A. S. (Adviser to His Siamese
,
Majesty's Minister of Lands and Agriculture) Witha
to eighteenth-century Denmark, and the
99 Illustrations, a Map, and Appendices containing
thwackings sound hollow across the centuries.
will be used for the production.
Lists of Fauna, Flora, &c. Crown 8vo, cloth, with
Scatterbrains
special Cover Desiga, 108. 6d. net.
is the best of the three
Mr. Yeats has also rewritten his 'Land of
plays in this volume, for it has at least
Heart's Desire,' and this revision will shortly popular source of reference, so far as Siam is concerned, for
“Profusely illustrated, and likely to prove the most
high spirits, the proper seasoning of farce. be given at the Abbey Theatre.