In so doing he was
following
life in many of those who reject all forms of
the powerful Pitt-Newcastle Ministry.
the powerful Pitt-Newcastle Ministry.
Athenaeum - London - 1912a
BALL," is really an encyclo-
whose · Alcestis' we noticed a fortnight
pædia and a Dictionary combined. "
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS.
while Mr. THEODORE WATTS-DUNTON describes the
ago, staged conjointly with it on the 3rd
New International' as “a monument of human
inst. the morality Jacob and Esau,'
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first printed in 1568. The
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anything. "
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PRICE THREEPENCE,
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6
PAOR
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ENO'S FRUIT SALT
LANE
soon
3
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SALES BY AUCTION
ܟܨܝܨܟܨܬܝܨ
was
. .
## p. 29 (#37) ##############################################
No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
33
THE ATHENÆUM
84
35
36-37
37
38
38-39
40
41
. .
. .
. .
43
47-49
5051
THE
AN IRISH THEATRE ;
52
a
lation of that profound humour that lies to some extent“ feminist,” hostile, at any
beneath the surface he neither practised nor
SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1912.
rate, to arrogant virility, it sounds in its
appreciated. Indeed, an interest in what ideas and arguments oddly familiar to
lies beneath the surface seemed tolerable modern ears. Political wisdom, like
CONTENTS.
only so long as it was reasonably insincere. human folly, seems to obey a law known
PAGE Truth, thought Voltaire, was too good for to men of science as “the Conservation of
“
THE LYSISTRATA OF ARISTOPHANES
lackeys; sincerity too coarse for the Energy ”- quantity and quality are per-
HENRY Fox, FIRST LORD HOLLAND
gentry. No great man ever feared coarse- manent, form alone changes. It is the
Miss STEPHEN'S VISION OF FAITH
BIOGRAPHY (A Duke and his Friends ; The Life Story
ness ; but little ones, however much they Aristophanic method that differs so greatly
of the Shareefa of Wazan; Sir Edward FitzGerald may relish indecency, cannot afford to be from that of most modern satirists. For
Law; Sir Edward Seymour's Naval Career)
found ill-bred.
Aristophanes does not confine himself
PHILOSOPHY (Bergson; William James, and other
Essays)
is
wit
TOLSTOY (Father Sergius ; Life of Count Tolstoy)
to know that he is on the side of Plato. rotten parts of a bad case ; he does not
OUR LIBRARY TABLE (The Harry Furniss Thackeray; Unfortunately, we are only just beginning score intellectual points only. His method
Stanley Weyman's Novels ; Life in Shakespeare's
England; Emily Brontë's Works; Persian Gram- to rub our eyes after a bout of prudery is more fundamental. A clever contro-
mar; The Story of Quamin ; Peerages ; Visitation that would have dumbfounded Plato and versialist can always find joints in the
of England and Wales)
THE BOOK SALES OF 1911
filled Voltaire with disgust. Even now, harness of his foe. When one popular
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
were Aristophanes alive and publishing, philosopher of to-day meets another, it is
LITERARY GOSSIP
his plays would be vetoed by the Censor sometimes hard to say which makes the
SCIENCE-THE CHEMISTRY OF THE RADIO-ELEMENTS ; and boycotted by the libraries probably, greater number of hits. Even harder is it
ST. ANDREWS UNIVERSITY SCIENTIFIC PAPERS;
RESEARCH NOTES ; SOCIETIES; MEETINGS NEXT
while a judge of the High Court could to say that the cause of truth has been
WEEK; GOSSIP
46–47 surely be found to sentence the author of much advanced. One may hold, fairly
FINE ARTS-WOOD SCULPTURE; ILLUSTRATIONS TO The Birds' to three months' hard labour enough, that both sides have been made
MEREDITH; MR. ROGER FRY'S PAINTINGS AND
DRAWINGS; OTHER EXHIBITIONS ; GOSSIP
for blasphemy. Mr. Rogers, therefore, ludicrous ; but it is still fairer to admit
MUSIC - STYLE IN MUSICAL ART; GOSSIP; PER- who made this translation, not in the that neither has been discredited. If
FORMANCES NEXT WEEK
Athens of Plato, but in the London of Aristophanes never succeeded in ruining
DRAMA-PLAYS FOR
Podsnap-in 1878, to be exact—is not to a party, at least he succeeded in dis-
FROGS OF ARISTOPHANES
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
be blamed for having allowed it to bear crediting some pestilent opinions. This
the mark of its age. Nevertheless, though he did, not so much by a brisk display of
pardonable, his compromise is deplorable, intellectual handiness, as by showing that
since it robs this translation of precisely a pompous superstructure was baseless.
that quality which gives to most of the He makes us feel a position to be absurd,
LITERATURE
others their high importance. For Mr. instead of merely thinking certain things
Rogers is in
last five-and-twenty years have been The superior, sneering official has not
busy awakening us to a new sense of the escaped shrewd knocks from the wits
The Lysistrata of Aristophanes, acted at possibilities of life. His share in that task of every age. There is a type of mind
Athens in the Year B. C. 411. The has been to express and restate, in a form which, under every form of government,
Greek Text Revised, with a Transla- appreciable by the modern mind, some pushes to the front by sheer lack of virtue.
tion into Corresponding Metres, Intro of the adventures and discoveries of the Wherever life has become sufficiently
duction, and Commentary, by Benjamin Hellenic genius. He is one of those mechanical to support a bureaucracy,
Bickley Rogers. (Bell & Sons. ) scholars who, consciously or unconsciously, there will the Poloniuses and Shallows
have joined hands with the boldest spirits gather, and, wherever there is an official
Ai Xúpites répevós to daßcîv Örepoúxi of the age, and, by showing what the caste, there will be satirists or torture-
πεσείται
Greeks thought and felt, have revealed chambers. Yet, though the self-com-
ζητούσαι ψυχήν εύρον 'Αριστοφάνους. to us new worlds of thought and feeling. placent magistrate has been the butt of the
Plato,
Now, to write like the sociologists, the ages, Aristophanes and Shakespeare, and
"Ce poète comique, qui n'est ni comique subject of 'The Lysistrata’ is the funda- perhaps Flaubert, have alone revealed his
ni poète, n'aurait pas été admis parmi nous mental nature and necessity of the essential nullity, because they alone have
à donner ses farces à la foire Saint-Laurent. '
-Voltaire.
interdependence of the sexes. But what looked for something essential beneath
Aristophanes thought and felt about the the accidental. Nothing could be simpler
Two quotations that illustrate more neatly matter, what Plato praised and Voltaire than the character of Polonius ; nothing
the difference between a great man and a misunderstood, is just what we shall not could be more subtle. A rap here, a stab
clever critic it would be hard to find. find in this translation. For instance, the there, and the soul of a minister is exposed.
Perhaps no one has felt so surely as Plato scene between Cinesias and Myrrhina is We have come to see, we scarcely know
the significance of the universe, or per essential to a perfect understanding of the how, that, if he ever had one, he has lost it.
ceived so clearly that no parts of it, not play, but the latter part of it (11. 905-60) Some idea of the simplicity and subtlety
even the great facts of life and the simple is not so much as paraphrased here. And
And of the Aristophanic method may be
emotions, are common or unclean. To so the spirit languishes; it could flourish gathered from the following scene, but
him, therefore, it seemed that the Graces, only in the body created for it by the to illustrate the extravagance and beauty
seeking an imperishable temple, discovered poet, and that body has been mutilated. of the form, or the profundity of the
the soul of Aristophanes. To Plato, This version, then, fails to bring out the conception, no quotation can suffice.
who knew that there is essential comedy profound, comic conception that gives Lysistrata has unfolded her famous scheme
just as there is essential tragedy, and that unity and significance to the original ; for stopping the war : there is to be a
both are roads by which men come at nevertheless, it has something more than sympathetic strike; the women of all
truth, these plays were full of beauty and literary interest. The comic poet offers the combatant states, principals and
significance ; whereas to Voltaire, who matter worthy of the consideration of allies, are to withhold their services until
never perceived the essential beneath politicians and political controversialists, the war has been stopped :-
the accidental, they were stupid
and vulgar and this the translator has rendered
farces. Life, for him, was an affair of the fearlessly and well. For The Lysis- Lysistrata (ending a speech). Then shall bhe
intellectman affair of intellectual rela- trata' is a political play, and cannot be
people revere us and honour us,
givers of Joy, and givers of Peace.
tions controlled by intellectual conventions. discussed profitably apart from its political Magistrale
. Tell us the mode and the means of
Life was Society; and comedy the mirror ideas and arguments. It can no more your doing it.
Lys. First we will stop the disorderly
up to Society by talent. Humour be treated as pure literature than the
meant wit--the bedecking of superficial poetry of Tennyson can be treated as
Soldiers in arms promenading and marketing.
things with brain-spun finery. The reve- 1 anything else. Frankly“ pacifist," and
Stratyllis (leader of the chorus of women)
Yea, by divine Aphrodite, 'tis true.
6
held
crew,
## p. 30 (#38) ##############################################
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4394, JAN. 13, 1912
Heni
limite
d kail.
題意晉写
IT
Tabule
66
cities.
skein.
TATT
à
?
po
ani
Bred
66
13
cause
e Cory- Democrats, who clamoured daily for a we would suggest to those whose Greek
of mail.
dozen Dreadnoughts, conscription, and has grown a little rusty that a literal
ockery, the head of Mr. Keir Hardie on a charger, translation in French or German would
and yet spent his leisure warning readers be a suitable companion for the English
be sol-
of the daily papers against the danger of paraphrase. Without it, they will hardly
us jest, admitting to any share of power å sex understand what provoked Plato's splen-
in the notorious for its panic-fearfulness, in- did compliment or the nervous indignation
d with tolerance, and lack of humour; such a of Voltaire.
one would indeed merit admission to the
χορός γερόντων, would be a proper fellow
regular,
boot;
to take his stand εξής 'Αριστογείτονι,
of him, beside the brave Aristogiton, and matátau
interity mode ypads tnv yvábov, beat down this Henry Fox, First Lord Holland : a Study
rn : monstrous regiment of women. ”
of the Career of an Eighteenth Century
Aristophanes was a staunch conser-
Politician. By Thad W. Riker. 2 vols.
permit
vative, but he disliked a stupid argument
(Oxford, Clarendon Press. )
erity, wherever he found it. He cared intensely MR. RIKER's sub-title judiciously indicates
about politics, but he could not easily
of his able book. With Henry
doubt forget that he was an artist. Neither the scope of his able book.
the men nor the women are tied up and Fox the affectionate husband, the fond if
spindles peppered with the small shot of his wit ; injudicious parent, the cordial friend and
they are allowed to betray themselves. host, the enthusiastic art collector and
The art consists in selecting from the gardener, he is but little concerned. In
politics
mass of their opinions and sentiments his account of the politician's private life
- fleece!
what is most significant, and making the he virtually follows Sir George Trevelyan,
,
adence, magistrate, who speaks for the party, and he has missed a significant passage in
he war, deliver himself of judicious commonplaces: the Journal' of Elizabeth, Lady Holland,
“
.
ashing. The chorus of wiseacres, the bar-parlour which implies that Henry Fox, in his old
,
ch that politicians, whom chance or misfortune age, did not accept the extravagance of
has led to favour one side rather than the his son Charles with the complacency that
- talks other, are less cautious without
being is commonly attributed to him. This
; and less platitudinous. Their talk is all of piece of evidence was worth giving, because
titude
“ inevitable war” and “ stripping for the
it gets rid of the contradiction that a man
arried fray," "vindicating rights, tyranny
who was rapacious in the acquiring of
and traitors, spoliation,” * innova- money should have been absolutely indif-
tion,” and “striking good blows for the ferent as to what became of it. Lady Hol-
; at least it was twenty-three
land did not love Charles Fox, but there is
그
hundred years ago.
no reason to doubt her statement that his
parents were grieved by his indebtedness.
ead.
Men Chorus.
It must have been a bitter thing for the
rificial
This is not a time for slumber;
aged placeman, as he was nearing his end,
now let all be bold and free,
lets to Strip to meet the great occasion,
to have to provide no less than 140,0001.
ourial.
vindicate our rights with me.
to save his favourite son from ruin.
I can'smell a deep, surprising
eaven
Tide of Revolution rising,
Within the limits he has imposed upon
sulted Odour as of folk devising
himself, Mr. Riker has been conspicuously
cerves,
g. Hippias's tyranny.
And I feel a dire misgiving,
successful. He has delved deeply and
nbling Lest some false Laconians, meeting
intelligently into eighteenth-century
in the house of Cleisthenes,
Have inspired these wretched women
politics, and one of their most typical
since
all our wealth and pay to seize.
characters appears, as the result of his
-,' but
Pay from whence I get my living.
labours, in a far more satisfactory present-
Gods! to hear these shallow wenches
ment than had previously been given to
taking citizens to task,
notion Prattling of a brassy buckler,
history. We do not get a new Henry
e who
jabbering of a martial casque !
Fox, for Mr. Riker is far too truthful a
Gods ! to think that they have ventured
s still
with Laconian men to deal,
writer to attempt a refurbishing of that
d the
Men of just the faith and honour
somewhat dingy career, but we get to
ns he
that a ravening wolf might feel!
know ever so much more about him. In
Plots they ’re hatching, plots contriving,
plots of rampant Tyranny;
fact, despite Mr. Riker's honest admission
and it But o'er US they shan't be Tyrants,
that he has been unable to obtain access
of old
no, for on my guard I'll be,
to the Holland House manuscripts, it may
And I 'll dress my sword in myrtle,
were
and with firm and dauntless hand, well be the case that but little more
ad no
Here beside Aristogeiton
remains to be known. Was an astute
resolutely take my stand,
were. Marketing in arms beside him.
person such as Henry Fox likely to leave
This the time and this the place undestroyed the evidence of the means
d the
When my patriot arm must deal a
by which he became so rapidly rich, when
blow upon that woman's face.
The
the City was railing at him “ as the public
E, and
One is tempted to quote Mr. Rogers defaulter of unaccounted millions, ” and
their indefinitely ; indeed, there are a score he was living in constant apprehension of
horus of good things to which we would gladly having to disgorge? It does not, some-
them, call attention. Having warned readers how, seem the sort of thing he would have
smuts that this version is not a translation done. If a weakness in treatment must
and in the sense that the versions of 'The be pointed out, it is that no idea is given
ellows Frogs' and The Birds' are, we can, by Mr. Riker of Fox's capacity as a writer
ziliza- with a clear conscience, urge all to of dispatches when Secretary of State.
tastic read it who care for good literature “ War and Foreign Office Papers (passim),
ep at or are interested in political ideas. Public Record Office,” figure in the biblio-
Social They will not be disappointed; only, 'graphy, but they are infrequently cited.
TE
al
ith a
25
Lys of
man.
9
>
?
9
## p. 31 (#39) ##############################################
No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
35
66
66
" no
one
66
Henry Fox's career is a melancholy ambition in Henry Fox's breast. He was Caroline Stephen's outlook, the present
example of a decline in worth and content, thenceforth, to grow rich on the reviewer gets from her the impression of
dignity as the years went on. Up to a pickings of the Pay Office, with but little a “self-made creed,” of a point of view
certain point he lay open, though with voice in affairs, except during the autumn which has — not rejected indeed, since
,
some qualification, to Chesterfield's sar- of 1762, when he was His Majesty's we cannot reject what we have never
casm that
he had not the least notion Minister in the House of Commons” for had — but has failed to grasp the real
or regard for the public good or constitu- the corruption of Parliament and the essence of
essence of “the Church"; of that
tion," but he was a creditable specimen extermination of the Whigs and their Church so careful, as Baron von Hügel
of the vigorous party man. He followed dependents. Mr. Riker's estimate of showed, of the respective elements
Walpole faithfully, and cherished his Henry Fox's venality is, one unfortunate in religion, the institutional, the intel-
memory. Under the laxer direction of word excepted, a just and moderate lectual, and the mystical. Miss Stephen
Henry Pelham he allowed himself much reckoning. He amassed wealth much as pays tribute to the second, and high
greater latitude; but as he avowedly his father, old Stephen Fox, whom Evelyn honour to the third, but passes by the
belonged to the Duke of Cumberland's praised without stint, had lined his first. Yet, for many minds, the institu-
party, and as ministerial homogeneity pockets before him. The auditing of his tional has been, and still is, the necessary
was far from a recognized principle, his accounts, according to the haphazard casket of the other two. .
displays of independence by no means custom of those days, being years in
amounted to a scandal. They earned for arrear, he played with the balances,
It is happily true that
him, it is true, the icy hostility of Hard- investing and selling out with much
can now fail to recognize the
wicke, a timorous politician whom_Mr. astuteness; and he profited by a long existence of a very high degree of goodness
Riker sums up with much insight. Then run of his office while war contracts and great beauty of character and purity of
came the welter of politics whence emerged abounded.
In so doing he was following life in many of those who reject all forms of
the powerful Pitt-Newcastle Ministry. precedent, ignoring the fact that Pitt, religious expression, and who deny the
Our author tells the story with much while at the Pay Office, had broken away
documentary detail ; he clears up several from the evil tradition. Mr. Riker But this passage, and the following,
disputed points, and he does substantial inserts a “perhaps,” but that is surely a
justice to individuals, with the exception mistake. Pitt's disinterestedness stands
“the more fully the idea of faithfulness or
of Pitt. Later on, when he draws the above all cavil, and it is just because he sincerity, as distinguished from mere correct-
inevitable contrast between the two rivals, elevated political ideals that his rival, who that saves, the more cautious shall we be in
ness of theory, enters into our idea of the faith
he perceives clearly enough why Pitt stuck to the old system, became the best- the use of either words or symbols to repre-
was great and Henry Fox a good deal less hated man in the country.
sent our faith without being quite sure that
than great. But, in commenting on his Mr. Riker does not bring much fresh they do so accurately. "
documents, Mr. Riker allows himself too evidence to bear on the purchase and pro-
short a perspective ; and we hear far too scription of the Whigs by means of which
seem to suggest that there is some almost
much about Pitt's “arrogance, his Fox forced through the Peace, but his necessary opposition between a “right
faith
" somewhat tyrannical nature," and his account of that comprehensive revenge is
and a “good life. ” As a matter
egotism. ” All that may be more or less written with spirit.
of fact, some of the greatest saints of
We agree with him
true, but Pitt's pride was in his country. that "His Majesty's Minister" did not
the world are, as again Matthew Arnold
reached the crisis of his career in the of a strong kingship, for directly his The fact is, perhaps, that very many
As Mr. Riker well remarks, Henry Fox regard himself as a conscientious adherent pointed out, to be found in that body
where faith is defined most rigidly.
autumn of 1755, when he became Secre- vengeance was sated he began urging for
tary of State for the Southern Depart. retirement with a peerage. He knew, of people, not markedly original or specu-
lative, have found it easier to profess a
ment, an office he had previously refused. course, that Bute was contemplating a
right faith than to live a consistently
He seemed the ideal man for the post. similar step, and his own health was
beautiful life. So men, watching them,
In the management of the Commons he unequal to the strain which events put have put down their failure to their
was incomparable. He held his own in upon it. What he did not foresee was
debate, his superior judgment, as he was that, having consigned himself to the strictures on the orthodox, as, e. g. , where
orthodoxy--an odd cause indeed. In her
thoroughly aware, making up for Pitt's shelf, his claims would fall on unresponsive she speaks of the Athanasian Creed, Miss
advantage in oratory. The reports of his
When Grenville made it one of the
speeches are fragmentary, yet we can conditions of a continuance in office that Stephen writes as if unaware of the
doctrine of the soul of the Church. ”
catch the aptness of his retort on the Holland should be dismissed from the
" Cousinhood," that "the clamours of one Pay Office, the King merely remarked, The longest paper, The Vision of
family will never pass for the voice of the 1 don't much like turning him out
, but Faith, seems to have been delivered to
nation. " After that debate Speaker with all my heart, Mr. Grenville. " His
Onslow told Fox that, “ if Pitt. . . . did not repeated pleadings for an earldom went speaks of “ that which is crumbling and
provide better matter to make his fine unregarded ; on one occasion he “left passing away. ” In the learned circles of
speeches upon, he would soon grow as London, much dissatisfied with the Court, Cambridge all things may seem to partake
insignificant as any man in the House. ' and the Court with him. ” There is some of the Heraclitean Aux. But there is a
But Fox risked all on one throw; he force in Horace Walpole's contention that great world outside curiously ignorant of
must, as Horace Walpole observed, be Holland had well earned promotion in academic arrangements; and there are
, ,
“ First Minister"
ruined. ” The the peerage, but, after all, George III. signs in that bigger world that the stir
crafty Newcastle took care that he should had summed up the value of his instru- and fret of thought are really sorting out
be isolated in the Conciliabulum ments in corruption not unfairly when he those whom Miss Stephen calls“ believers
inner ring of the Cabinet ; and his repre- said, “We must call in bad men to govern
and unbelievers ” ; that it is a process
sentations for a more vigorous war policy, bad men. ”
rather of separation than of destruction.
notably in the relief of Minorca, went
The nineteenth century proclaimed loudly
unheeded. He was compelled, in short,
that certain elements in life had “ gone
to defend failures in public which in the Vision of Faith, and other Essays. By Of all the eras which most of us mis-
for ever,” but they are with us still
.
private he had done his best to prevent.
The ugly feature in his conduct is his
Caroline Émelia Stephen. (Cambridge, understand, our own may surely rank
persistency in drawing the net, as Mr.
Heffer. )
facile princeps.
Riker puts it, about the hapless Byng. MATTHEW ARNOLD, in the Preface to Many readers will turn to the 'Essay
There must have been a spice of cruelty - Culture and Anarchy,' used the phrase on Pain. Here again, except in one
'
about him-possibly of cowardice as well. - the members of a non-conforming or short passage where it is recognized that
“
His bitter experience as Newcastle's self - made religious community. ” In “ the Light of Revelation has shone in
distrusted underling killed the honourable I spite of the insight and fragrance of the darkness,” the sense of self-made"
>
ears.
6
>
or
or
## p. 32 (#40) ##############################################
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4393, Jan. 6, 1912
all
of the play. The acting and the stage
setting, on the other hand, seemed too choice
and eclectic for the raw and almost boorish
achievement of the Elizabethan play-
wright. A special tribute is due to the
exponents of the cunning Rebecca and the
huffing, brutal Esau; while Jacob, a kind
of Biblical Blifil, was rendered with fine
START THE
NEW YEAR
WELL.
1
in los
H
reserve.
AGET
HO"
be
Books
A PARIS CORRESPONDENT writes:-
“There is every prospect of Paris having a
Bernard Shaw season this spring, and Mr. Shaw
is expected to visit Paris as the guest of the
Municipality during the year. Meanwhile, not
COW many times during the year which is
only is the publication of a French translation
now drawing to its close has the dictionary
of certain of his plays announced for March, but
already the Théâtre des Arts has in active re-
on which you rely failed to meet your
hearsal · Widowers' Houses,' which will be pro-
needs? In its day—especially if it is an earlier
duced this month under the title “L'Argent n'a
edition of Webster's International Dictionary-it
pas d'odeur. ' It is also reported that a trans- has no doubt rendered you yeoman service : but
lation of ' Arms and the Man' will be played at does it chronicle all the tremendous growth of the
the Odéon early this year. ”
English language during the past two decades ?
THIS WEEK has seen the 900th perforin- unless, of course, you are the fortunate possessor of
Most probably it has failed you frequently of late,
ance of ‘Peter Pan,' the 600th of The Blue
Bird,' by the Haymarket company at the
Queen's Theatre, and the 300th of ‘Fanny's
First Play, now moved to the Kingsway
Theatre.
2 3XX
6
Dhule?
TO CORRESPONDENTS. -E. S. -G. N. -A. C. -E. G. -
C. G. -Received.
A. W. --Not suitable for us.
No notice can be taken of anonymous communications.
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No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
33
ear3.
PAGE
33
34
35
36-37
37
38
38-39
. .
40
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
41
43
ST. ANDREWS UNIVERSITY SCIENTIFIC PAPERS;
MEREDITH ;
MR. ROGER FRY'S PAINTINGS AND
47-49
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50-51
THE
51-52
FROGS OF ARISTOPHANES
52
lation of that profound humour that lies / to some extent “feminist,” hostile, at any
SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1912.
beneath the surface he neither practised nor rate, to arrogant virility, it sounds in its
appreciated. Indeed, an interest in what ideas and arguments oddly familiar to
lies beneath the surface seemed tolerable modern
Political wisdom , like
CONTENTS.
only so long as it was reasonably insincere. human folly, seems to obey a law known
Truth, thought Voltaire, was too good for to men of science as “ the Conservation of
THE LYSISTRATA OF ARISTOPHANES
lackeys; sincerity too coarse for the Energy ”- quantity and quality are per-
HENRY Fox, FIRST LORD HOLLAND
MISS STEPHEN'S VISION OF FAITH
gentry: No great man ever feared coarse manent, form alone changes. It is the
BIOGRAPHY (A Duke and his Friends ; The Life Story
ness; but little ones, however much they Aristophanic method that differs so greatly
of the Shareefa of Wazan ; Sir Edward FitzGerald may relish indecency, cannot afford to be from that of most modern satirists. For
Law; Sir Edward Seymour's Naval Career)
found ill-bred.
Aristophanes does not confine himself
PHILOSOPHY (Bergson ; William James, and other
Essays)
To have read Mr. Rogers's translations is to driving the blade of his wit into the
TOLSTOY (Father Sergius ; Life of Count Tolstoy)
to know that he is on the side of Plato. rotten parts of a bad case; he does not
OUR LIBRARY TABLE (The Harry Furniss Thackeray; Unfortunately, we are only just beginning score intellectual points only. His method
Stanley Weyman's Novels ; Life in Shakespeare's
England; Emily Brontë's Works ; Persian Gram- to rub our eyes after a bout of prudery is more fundamental. A clever contro-
mar; The Story of Quamin; Peerages ; Visitation that would have dumbfounded Plato and versialist can always find joints in the
of England and Wales)
THE BOOK SALES OF 1911
filled Voltaire with disgust. Even now, harness of his foe. When one popular
were Aristophanes alive and publishing, philosopher of to-day meets another, it is
LITERARY GOSSIP
his plays would be vetoed by the Censor sometimes hard to say which makes the
SCIENCE-THE CHEMISTRY OF THE RADIO-ELEMENTS; and boycotted by the libraries probably, greater number of hits. Even harder is it
RESEARCH NOTES; SOCIETIES; MEETINGS NEXT
while a judge of the High Court could to say that the cause of truth has been
WEEK ; GOSSIP
46–47 surely be found to sentence the author of much advanced. One may hold, fairly
FINE ARTS—WOOD SCULPTURE ; ILLUSTRATIONS TO The Birds' to three months' hard labour enough, that both sides have been made
DRAWINGS; OTHER EXHIBITIONS ; GOSSIP
for blasphemy. Mr. Rogers, therefore, | ludicrous ; but it is still fairer to admit
DIUSIC - STYLE IN MUSICAL ART; GOSSIP; PER- who made this translation, not in the that neither has been discredited. If
Athens of Plato, but in the London of Aristophanes never succeeded in ruining
DRAMA-PLAYS FOR AN IRISH THEATRE ;
Podsnap-in 1878, to be exact—is not to a party, at least he succeeded in dis-
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
be blamed for having allowed it to bear crediting some pestilent opinions. This
the mark of its age. Nevertheless, though he did, not so much by a brisk display of
pardonable, his compromise is deplorable, intellectual handiness, as by showing that
since it robs this translation of precisely a pompous superstructure was baseless.
that quality which gives to most of the He makes us feel a position to be absurd,
LITERATURE
others their high importance. For Mr. instead of merely thinking certain things
Rogers is one of those who during the in it silly.
last five-and-twenty years have been The superior, sneering official has not
busy awakening us to a new sense of the escaped shrewd knocks from the wits
The Lysistrata of Aristophanes, acted at possibilities of life. His share in that task of every age. There is a type of mind
Athens in the Year B. C. 411. The has been to express and restate, in a form which, under every form of government,
Greek Text Revised, with a Transla- appreciable by the modern mind, some pushes to the front by sheer lack of virtue.
tion into Corresponding Metres, Intro- of the adventures and discoveries of the Wherever life has become sufficiently
duction, and Commentary, by Benjamin Hellenic genius. He is one of those mechanical to support a bureaucracy,
Bickley Rogers. (Bell & Sons. )
scholars who, consciously or unconsciously, there will the Poloniuses and Shallows
have joined hands with the boldest spirits gather, and, wherever there is an official
Ai Xúpites tépevós to daßtîv Örep ovxl of the age, and, by showing what the caste, there will be satirists or torture-
πεσείται
Greeks thought and felt, have revealed chambers. Yet, though the self-com-
ζητούσαι ψυχήν εύρον 'Αριστοφάνους.
to us new worlds of thought and feeling. placent magistrate has been the butt of the
Plato.
Now, to write like the sociologists, the ages, Aristophanes and Shakespeare, and
“Ce poète comique, qui n'est ni comique subject of 'The Lysistrata ' is the funda- perhaps Flaubert, have alone revealed his
ni poète, n'aurait pas été admis parmi nous mental nature and necessity of the essential nullity, because they alone have
à donner ses farces à la foire Saint-Laurent. ” interdependence of the sexes. But what looked for something essential beneath
-Voltaire.
Aristophanes thought and felt about the the accidental.
whose · Alcestis' we noticed a fortnight
pædia and a Dictionary combined. "
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No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
33
THE ATHENÆUM
84
35
36-37
37
38
38-39
40
41
. .
. .
. .
43
47-49
5051
THE
AN IRISH THEATRE ;
52
a
lation of that profound humour that lies to some extent“ feminist,” hostile, at any
beneath the surface he neither practised nor
SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1912.
rate, to arrogant virility, it sounds in its
appreciated. Indeed, an interest in what ideas and arguments oddly familiar to
lies beneath the surface seemed tolerable modern ears. Political wisdom, like
CONTENTS.
only so long as it was reasonably insincere. human folly, seems to obey a law known
PAGE Truth, thought Voltaire, was too good for to men of science as “the Conservation of
“
THE LYSISTRATA OF ARISTOPHANES
lackeys; sincerity too coarse for the Energy ”- quantity and quality are per-
HENRY Fox, FIRST LORD HOLLAND
gentry. No great man ever feared coarse- manent, form alone changes. It is the
Miss STEPHEN'S VISION OF FAITH
BIOGRAPHY (A Duke and his Friends ; The Life Story
ness ; but little ones, however much they Aristophanic method that differs so greatly
of the Shareefa of Wazan; Sir Edward FitzGerald may relish indecency, cannot afford to be from that of most modern satirists. For
Law; Sir Edward Seymour's Naval Career)
found ill-bred.
Aristophanes does not confine himself
PHILOSOPHY (Bergson; William James, and other
Essays)
is
wit
TOLSTOY (Father Sergius ; Life of Count Tolstoy)
to know that he is on the side of Plato. rotten parts of a bad case ; he does not
OUR LIBRARY TABLE (The Harry Furniss Thackeray; Unfortunately, we are only just beginning score intellectual points only. His method
Stanley Weyman's Novels ; Life in Shakespeare's
England; Emily Brontë's Works; Persian Gram- to rub our eyes after a bout of prudery is more fundamental. A clever contro-
mar; The Story of Quamin ; Peerages ; Visitation that would have dumbfounded Plato and versialist can always find joints in the
of England and Wales)
THE BOOK SALES OF 1911
filled Voltaire with disgust. Even now, harness of his foe. When one popular
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
were Aristophanes alive and publishing, philosopher of to-day meets another, it is
LITERARY GOSSIP
his plays would be vetoed by the Censor sometimes hard to say which makes the
SCIENCE-THE CHEMISTRY OF THE RADIO-ELEMENTS ; and boycotted by the libraries probably, greater number of hits. Even harder is it
ST. ANDREWS UNIVERSITY SCIENTIFIC PAPERS;
RESEARCH NOTES ; SOCIETIES; MEETINGS NEXT
while a judge of the High Court could to say that the cause of truth has been
WEEK; GOSSIP
46–47 surely be found to sentence the author of much advanced. One may hold, fairly
FINE ARTS-WOOD SCULPTURE; ILLUSTRATIONS TO The Birds' to three months' hard labour enough, that both sides have been made
MEREDITH; MR. ROGER FRY'S PAINTINGS AND
DRAWINGS; OTHER EXHIBITIONS ; GOSSIP
for blasphemy. Mr. Rogers, therefore, ludicrous ; but it is still fairer to admit
MUSIC - STYLE IN MUSICAL ART; GOSSIP; PER- who made this translation, not in the that neither has been discredited. If
FORMANCES NEXT WEEK
Athens of Plato, but in the London of Aristophanes never succeeded in ruining
DRAMA-PLAYS FOR
Podsnap-in 1878, to be exact—is not to a party, at least he succeeded in dis-
FROGS OF ARISTOPHANES
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
be blamed for having allowed it to bear crediting some pestilent opinions. This
the mark of its age. Nevertheless, though he did, not so much by a brisk display of
pardonable, his compromise is deplorable, intellectual handiness, as by showing that
since it robs this translation of precisely a pompous superstructure was baseless.
that quality which gives to most of the He makes us feel a position to be absurd,
LITERATURE
others their high importance. For Mr. instead of merely thinking certain things
Rogers is in
last five-and-twenty years have been The superior, sneering official has not
busy awakening us to a new sense of the escaped shrewd knocks from the wits
The Lysistrata of Aristophanes, acted at possibilities of life. His share in that task of every age. There is a type of mind
Athens in the Year B. C. 411. The has been to express and restate, in a form which, under every form of government,
Greek Text Revised, with a Transla- appreciable by the modern mind, some pushes to the front by sheer lack of virtue.
tion into Corresponding Metres, Intro of the adventures and discoveries of the Wherever life has become sufficiently
duction, and Commentary, by Benjamin Hellenic genius. He is one of those mechanical to support a bureaucracy,
Bickley Rogers. (Bell & Sons. ) scholars who, consciously or unconsciously, there will the Poloniuses and Shallows
have joined hands with the boldest spirits gather, and, wherever there is an official
Ai Xúpites répevós to daßcîv Örepoúxi of the age, and, by showing what the caste, there will be satirists or torture-
πεσείται
Greeks thought and felt, have revealed chambers. Yet, though the self-com-
ζητούσαι ψυχήν εύρον 'Αριστοφάνους. to us new worlds of thought and feeling. placent magistrate has been the butt of the
Plato,
Now, to write like the sociologists, the ages, Aristophanes and Shakespeare, and
"Ce poète comique, qui n'est ni comique subject of 'The Lysistrata’ is the funda- perhaps Flaubert, have alone revealed his
ni poète, n'aurait pas été admis parmi nous mental nature and necessity of the essential nullity, because they alone have
à donner ses farces à la foire Saint-Laurent. '
-Voltaire.
interdependence of the sexes. But what looked for something essential beneath
Aristophanes thought and felt about the the accidental. Nothing could be simpler
Two quotations that illustrate more neatly matter, what Plato praised and Voltaire than the character of Polonius ; nothing
the difference between a great man and a misunderstood, is just what we shall not could be more subtle. A rap here, a stab
clever critic it would be hard to find. find in this translation. For instance, the there, and the soul of a minister is exposed.
Perhaps no one has felt so surely as Plato scene between Cinesias and Myrrhina is We have come to see, we scarcely know
the significance of the universe, or per essential to a perfect understanding of the how, that, if he ever had one, he has lost it.
ceived so clearly that no parts of it, not play, but the latter part of it (11. 905-60) Some idea of the simplicity and subtlety
even the great facts of life and the simple is not so much as paraphrased here. And
And of the Aristophanic method may be
emotions, are common or unclean. To so the spirit languishes; it could flourish gathered from the following scene, but
him, therefore, it seemed that the Graces, only in the body created for it by the to illustrate the extravagance and beauty
seeking an imperishable temple, discovered poet, and that body has been mutilated. of the form, or the profundity of the
the soul of Aristophanes. To Plato, This version, then, fails to bring out the conception, no quotation can suffice.
who knew that there is essential comedy profound, comic conception that gives Lysistrata has unfolded her famous scheme
just as there is essential tragedy, and that unity and significance to the original ; for stopping the war : there is to be a
both are roads by which men come at nevertheless, it has something more than sympathetic strike; the women of all
truth, these plays were full of beauty and literary interest. The comic poet offers the combatant states, principals and
significance ; whereas to Voltaire, who matter worthy of the consideration of allies, are to withhold their services until
never perceived the essential beneath politicians and political controversialists, the war has been stopped :-
the accidental, they were stupid
and vulgar and this the translator has rendered
farces. Life, for him, was an affair of the fearlessly and well. For The Lysis- Lysistrata (ending a speech). Then shall bhe
intellectman affair of intellectual rela- trata' is a political play, and cannot be
people revere us and honour us,
givers of Joy, and givers of Peace.
tions controlled by intellectual conventions. discussed profitably apart from its political Magistrale
. Tell us the mode and the means of
Life was Society; and comedy the mirror ideas and arguments. It can no more your doing it.
Lys. First we will stop the disorderly
up to Society by talent. Humour be treated as pure literature than the
meant wit--the bedecking of superficial poetry of Tennyson can be treated as
Soldiers in arms promenading and marketing.
things with brain-spun finery. The reve- 1 anything else. Frankly“ pacifist," and
Stratyllis (leader of the chorus of women)
Yea, by divine Aphrodite, 'tis true.
6
held
crew,
## p. 30 (#38) ##############################################
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4394, JAN. 13, 1912
Heni
limite
d kail.
題意晉写
IT
Tabule
66
cities.
skein.
TATT
à
?
po
ani
Bred
66
13
cause
e Cory- Democrats, who clamoured daily for a we would suggest to those whose Greek
of mail.
dozen Dreadnoughts, conscription, and has grown a little rusty that a literal
ockery, the head of Mr. Keir Hardie on a charger, translation in French or German would
and yet spent his leisure warning readers be a suitable companion for the English
be sol-
of the daily papers against the danger of paraphrase. Without it, they will hardly
us jest, admitting to any share of power å sex understand what provoked Plato's splen-
in the notorious for its panic-fearfulness, in- did compliment or the nervous indignation
d with tolerance, and lack of humour; such a of Voltaire.
one would indeed merit admission to the
χορός γερόντων, would be a proper fellow
regular,
boot;
to take his stand εξής 'Αριστογείτονι,
of him, beside the brave Aristogiton, and matátau
interity mode ypads tnv yvábov, beat down this Henry Fox, First Lord Holland : a Study
rn : monstrous regiment of women. ”
of the Career of an Eighteenth Century
Aristophanes was a staunch conser-
Politician. By Thad W. Riker. 2 vols.
permit
vative, but he disliked a stupid argument
(Oxford, Clarendon Press. )
erity, wherever he found it. He cared intensely MR. RIKER's sub-title judiciously indicates
about politics, but he could not easily
of his able book. With Henry
doubt forget that he was an artist. Neither the scope of his able book.
the men nor the women are tied up and Fox the affectionate husband, the fond if
spindles peppered with the small shot of his wit ; injudicious parent, the cordial friend and
they are allowed to betray themselves. host, the enthusiastic art collector and
The art consists in selecting from the gardener, he is but little concerned. In
politics
mass of their opinions and sentiments his account of the politician's private life
- fleece!
what is most significant, and making the he virtually follows Sir George Trevelyan,
,
adence, magistrate, who speaks for the party, and he has missed a significant passage in
he war, deliver himself of judicious commonplaces: the Journal' of Elizabeth, Lady Holland,
“
.
ashing. The chorus of wiseacres, the bar-parlour which implies that Henry Fox, in his old
,
ch that politicians, whom chance or misfortune age, did not accept the extravagance of
has led to favour one side rather than the his son Charles with the complacency that
- talks other, are less cautious without
being is commonly attributed to him. This
; and less platitudinous. Their talk is all of piece of evidence was worth giving, because
titude
“ inevitable war” and “ stripping for the
it gets rid of the contradiction that a man
arried fray," "vindicating rights, tyranny
who was rapacious in the acquiring of
and traitors, spoliation,” * innova- money should have been absolutely indif-
tion,” and “striking good blows for the ferent as to what became of it. Lady Hol-
; at least it was twenty-three
land did not love Charles Fox, but there is
그
hundred years ago.
no reason to doubt her statement that his
parents were grieved by his indebtedness.
ead.
Men Chorus.
It must have been a bitter thing for the
rificial
This is not a time for slumber;
aged placeman, as he was nearing his end,
now let all be bold and free,
lets to Strip to meet the great occasion,
to have to provide no less than 140,0001.
ourial.
vindicate our rights with me.
to save his favourite son from ruin.
I can'smell a deep, surprising
eaven
Tide of Revolution rising,
Within the limits he has imposed upon
sulted Odour as of folk devising
himself, Mr. Riker has been conspicuously
cerves,
g. Hippias's tyranny.
And I feel a dire misgiving,
successful. He has delved deeply and
nbling Lest some false Laconians, meeting
intelligently into eighteenth-century
in the house of Cleisthenes,
Have inspired these wretched women
politics, and one of their most typical
since
all our wealth and pay to seize.
characters appears, as the result of his
-,' but
Pay from whence I get my living.
labours, in a far more satisfactory present-
Gods! to hear these shallow wenches
ment than had previously been given to
taking citizens to task,
notion Prattling of a brassy buckler,
history. We do not get a new Henry
e who
jabbering of a martial casque !
Fox, for Mr. Riker is far too truthful a
Gods ! to think that they have ventured
s still
with Laconian men to deal,
writer to attempt a refurbishing of that
d the
Men of just the faith and honour
somewhat dingy career, but we get to
ns he
that a ravening wolf might feel!
know ever so much more about him. In
Plots they ’re hatching, plots contriving,
plots of rampant Tyranny;
fact, despite Mr. Riker's honest admission
and it But o'er US they shan't be Tyrants,
that he has been unable to obtain access
of old
no, for on my guard I'll be,
to the Holland House manuscripts, it may
And I 'll dress my sword in myrtle,
were
and with firm and dauntless hand, well be the case that but little more
ad no
Here beside Aristogeiton
remains to be known. Was an astute
resolutely take my stand,
were. Marketing in arms beside him.
person such as Henry Fox likely to leave
This the time and this the place undestroyed the evidence of the means
d the
When my patriot arm must deal a
by which he became so rapidly rich, when
blow upon that woman's face.
The
the City was railing at him “ as the public
E, and
One is tempted to quote Mr. Rogers defaulter of unaccounted millions, ” and
their indefinitely ; indeed, there are a score he was living in constant apprehension of
horus of good things to which we would gladly having to disgorge? It does not, some-
them, call attention. Having warned readers how, seem the sort of thing he would have
smuts that this version is not a translation done. If a weakness in treatment must
and in the sense that the versions of 'The be pointed out, it is that no idea is given
ellows Frogs' and The Birds' are, we can, by Mr. Riker of Fox's capacity as a writer
ziliza- with a clear conscience, urge all to of dispatches when Secretary of State.
tastic read it who care for good literature “ War and Foreign Office Papers (passim),
ep at or are interested in political ideas. Public Record Office,” figure in the biblio-
Social They will not be disappointed; only, 'graphy, but they are infrequently cited.
TE
al
ith a
25
Lys of
man.
9
>
?
9
## p. 31 (#39) ##############################################
No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
35
66
66
" no
one
66
Henry Fox's career is a melancholy ambition in Henry Fox's breast. He was Caroline Stephen's outlook, the present
example of a decline in worth and content, thenceforth, to grow rich on the reviewer gets from her the impression of
dignity as the years went on. Up to a pickings of the Pay Office, with but little a “self-made creed,” of a point of view
certain point he lay open, though with voice in affairs, except during the autumn which has — not rejected indeed, since
,
some qualification, to Chesterfield's sar- of 1762, when he was His Majesty's we cannot reject what we have never
casm that
he had not the least notion Minister in the House of Commons” for had — but has failed to grasp the real
or regard for the public good or constitu- the corruption of Parliament and the essence of
essence of “the Church"; of that
tion," but he was a creditable specimen extermination of the Whigs and their Church so careful, as Baron von Hügel
of the vigorous party man. He followed dependents. Mr. Riker's estimate of showed, of the respective elements
Walpole faithfully, and cherished his Henry Fox's venality is, one unfortunate in religion, the institutional, the intel-
memory. Under the laxer direction of word excepted, a just and moderate lectual, and the mystical. Miss Stephen
Henry Pelham he allowed himself much reckoning. He amassed wealth much as pays tribute to the second, and high
greater latitude; but as he avowedly his father, old Stephen Fox, whom Evelyn honour to the third, but passes by the
belonged to the Duke of Cumberland's praised without stint, had lined his first. Yet, for many minds, the institu-
party, and as ministerial homogeneity pockets before him. The auditing of his tional has been, and still is, the necessary
was far from a recognized principle, his accounts, according to the haphazard casket of the other two. .
displays of independence by no means custom of those days, being years in
amounted to a scandal. They earned for arrear, he played with the balances,
It is happily true that
him, it is true, the icy hostility of Hard- investing and selling out with much
can now fail to recognize the
wicke, a timorous politician whom_Mr. astuteness; and he profited by a long existence of a very high degree of goodness
Riker sums up with much insight. Then run of his office while war contracts and great beauty of character and purity of
came the welter of politics whence emerged abounded.
In so doing he was following life in many of those who reject all forms of
the powerful Pitt-Newcastle Ministry. precedent, ignoring the fact that Pitt, religious expression, and who deny the
Our author tells the story with much while at the Pay Office, had broken away
documentary detail ; he clears up several from the evil tradition. Mr. Riker But this passage, and the following,
disputed points, and he does substantial inserts a “perhaps,” but that is surely a
justice to individuals, with the exception mistake. Pitt's disinterestedness stands
“the more fully the idea of faithfulness or
of Pitt. Later on, when he draws the above all cavil, and it is just because he sincerity, as distinguished from mere correct-
inevitable contrast between the two rivals, elevated political ideals that his rival, who that saves, the more cautious shall we be in
ness of theory, enters into our idea of the faith
he perceives clearly enough why Pitt stuck to the old system, became the best- the use of either words or symbols to repre-
was great and Henry Fox a good deal less hated man in the country.
sent our faith without being quite sure that
than great. But, in commenting on his Mr. Riker does not bring much fresh they do so accurately. "
documents, Mr. Riker allows himself too evidence to bear on the purchase and pro-
short a perspective ; and we hear far too scription of the Whigs by means of which
seem to suggest that there is some almost
much about Pitt's “arrogance, his Fox forced through the Peace, but his necessary opposition between a “right
faith
" somewhat tyrannical nature," and his account of that comprehensive revenge is
and a “good life. ” As a matter
egotism. ” All that may be more or less written with spirit.
of fact, some of the greatest saints of
We agree with him
true, but Pitt's pride was in his country. that "His Majesty's Minister" did not
the world are, as again Matthew Arnold
reached the crisis of his career in the of a strong kingship, for directly his The fact is, perhaps, that very many
As Mr. Riker well remarks, Henry Fox regard himself as a conscientious adherent pointed out, to be found in that body
where faith is defined most rigidly.
autumn of 1755, when he became Secre- vengeance was sated he began urging for
tary of State for the Southern Depart. retirement with a peerage. He knew, of people, not markedly original or specu-
lative, have found it easier to profess a
ment, an office he had previously refused. course, that Bute was contemplating a
right faith than to live a consistently
He seemed the ideal man for the post. similar step, and his own health was
beautiful life. So men, watching them,
In the management of the Commons he unequal to the strain which events put have put down their failure to their
was incomparable. He held his own in upon it. What he did not foresee was
debate, his superior judgment, as he was that, having consigned himself to the strictures on the orthodox, as, e. g. , where
orthodoxy--an odd cause indeed. In her
thoroughly aware, making up for Pitt's shelf, his claims would fall on unresponsive she speaks of the Athanasian Creed, Miss
advantage in oratory. The reports of his
When Grenville made it one of the
speeches are fragmentary, yet we can conditions of a continuance in office that Stephen writes as if unaware of the
doctrine of the soul of the Church. ”
catch the aptness of his retort on the Holland should be dismissed from the
" Cousinhood," that "the clamours of one Pay Office, the King merely remarked, The longest paper, The Vision of
family will never pass for the voice of the 1 don't much like turning him out
, but Faith, seems to have been delivered to
nation. " After that debate Speaker with all my heart, Mr. Grenville. " His
Onslow told Fox that, “ if Pitt. . . . did not repeated pleadings for an earldom went speaks of “ that which is crumbling and
provide better matter to make his fine unregarded ; on one occasion he “left passing away. ” In the learned circles of
speeches upon, he would soon grow as London, much dissatisfied with the Court, Cambridge all things may seem to partake
insignificant as any man in the House. ' and the Court with him. ” There is some of the Heraclitean Aux. But there is a
But Fox risked all on one throw; he force in Horace Walpole's contention that great world outside curiously ignorant of
must, as Horace Walpole observed, be Holland had well earned promotion in academic arrangements; and there are
, ,
“ First Minister"
ruined. ” The the peerage, but, after all, George III. signs in that bigger world that the stir
crafty Newcastle took care that he should had summed up the value of his instru- and fret of thought are really sorting out
be isolated in the Conciliabulum ments in corruption not unfairly when he those whom Miss Stephen calls“ believers
inner ring of the Cabinet ; and his repre- said, “We must call in bad men to govern
and unbelievers ” ; that it is a process
sentations for a more vigorous war policy, bad men. ”
rather of separation than of destruction.
notably in the relief of Minorca, went
The nineteenth century proclaimed loudly
unheeded. He was compelled, in short,
that certain elements in life had “ gone
to defend failures in public which in the Vision of Faith, and other Essays. By Of all the eras which most of us mis-
for ever,” but they are with us still
.
private he had done his best to prevent.
The ugly feature in his conduct is his
Caroline Émelia Stephen. (Cambridge, understand, our own may surely rank
persistency in drawing the net, as Mr.
Heffer. )
facile princeps.
Riker puts it, about the hapless Byng. MATTHEW ARNOLD, in the Preface to Many readers will turn to the 'Essay
There must have been a spice of cruelty - Culture and Anarchy,' used the phrase on Pain. Here again, except in one
'
about him-possibly of cowardice as well. - the members of a non-conforming or short passage where it is recognized that
“
His bitter experience as Newcastle's self - made religious community. ” In “ the Light of Revelation has shone in
distrusted underling killed the honourable I spite of the insight and fragrance of the darkness,” the sense of self-made"
>
ears.
6
>
or
or
## p. 32 (#40) ##############################################
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4393, Jan. 6, 1912
all
of the play. The acting and the stage
setting, on the other hand, seemed too choice
and eclectic for the raw and almost boorish
achievement of the Elizabethan play-
wright. A special tribute is due to the
exponents of the cunning Rebecca and the
huffing, brutal Esau; while Jacob, a kind
of Biblical Blifil, was rendered with fine
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## p. 33 (#41) ##############################################
No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
33
ear3.
PAGE
33
34
35
36-37
37
38
38-39
. .
40
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
41
43
ST. ANDREWS UNIVERSITY SCIENTIFIC PAPERS;
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MR. ROGER FRY'S PAINTINGS AND
47-49
FORMANCES NEXT WEEK
50-51
THE
51-52
FROGS OF ARISTOPHANES
52
lation of that profound humour that lies / to some extent “feminist,” hostile, at any
SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1912.
beneath the surface he neither practised nor rate, to arrogant virility, it sounds in its
appreciated. Indeed, an interest in what ideas and arguments oddly familiar to
lies beneath the surface seemed tolerable modern
Political wisdom , like
CONTENTS.
only so long as it was reasonably insincere. human folly, seems to obey a law known
Truth, thought Voltaire, was too good for to men of science as “ the Conservation of
THE LYSISTRATA OF ARISTOPHANES
lackeys; sincerity too coarse for the Energy ”- quantity and quality are per-
HENRY Fox, FIRST LORD HOLLAND
MISS STEPHEN'S VISION OF FAITH
gentry: No great man ever feared coarse manent, form alone changes. It is the
BIOGRAPHY (A Duke and his Friends ; The Life Story
ness; but little ones, however much they Aristophanic method that differs so greatly
of the Shareefa of Wazan ; Sir Edward FitzGerald may relish indecency, cannot afford to be from that of most modern satirists. For
Law; Sir Edward Seymour's Naval Career)
found ill-bred.
Aristophanes does not confine himself
PHILOSOPHY (Bergson ; William James, and other
Essays)
To have read Mr. Rogers's translations is to driving the blade of his wit into the
TOLSTOY (Father Sergius ; Life of Count Tolstoy)
to know that he is on the side of Plato. rotten parts of a bad case; he does not
OUR LIBRARY TABLE (The Harry Furniss Thackeray; Unfortunately, we are only just beginning score intellectual points only. His method
Stanley Weyman's Novels ; Life in Shakespeare's
England; Emily Brontë's Works ; Persian Gram- to rub our eyes after a bout of prudery is more fundamental. A clever contro-
mar; The Story of Quamin; Peerages ; Visitation that would have dumbfounded Plato and versialist can always find joints in the
of England and Wales)
THE BOOK SALES OF 1911
filled Voltaire with disgust. Even now, harness of his foe. When one popular
were Aristophanes alive and publishing, philosopher of to-day meets another, it is
LITERARY GOSSIP
his plays would be vetoed by the Censor sometimes hard to say which makes the
SCIENCE-THE CHEMISTRY OF THE RADIO-ELEMENTS; and boycotted by the libraries probably, greater number of hits. Even harder is it
RESEARCH NOTES; SOCIETIES; MEETINGS NEXT
while a judge of the High Court could to say that the cause of truth has been
WEEK ; GOSSIP
46–47 surely be found to sentence the author of much advanced. One may hold, fairly
FINE ARTS—WOOD SCULPTURE ; ILLUSTRATIONS TO The Birds' to three months' hard labour enough, that both sides have been made
DRAWINGS; OTHER EXHIBITIONS ; GOSSIP
for blasphemy. Mr. Rogers, therefore, | ludicrous ; but it is still fairer to admit
DIUSIC - STYLE IN MUSICAL ART; GOSSIP; PER- who made this translation, not in the that neither has been discredited. If
Athens of Plato, but in the London of Aristophanes never succeeded in ruining
DRAMA-PLAYS FOR AN IRISH THEATRE ;
Podsnap-in 1878, to be exact—is not to a party, at least he succeeded in dis-
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
be blamed for having allowed it to bear crediting some pestilent opinions. This
the mark of its age. Nevertheless, though he did, not so much by a brisk display of
pardonable, his compromise is deplorable, intellectual handiness, as by showing that
since it robs this translation of precisely a pompous superstructure was baseless.
that quality which gives to most of the He makes us feel a position to be absurd,
LITERATURE
others their high importance. For Mr. instead of merely thinking certain things
Rogers is one of those who during the in it silly.
last five-and-twenty years have been The superior, sneering official has not
busy awakening us to a new sense of the escaped shrewd knocks from the wits
The Lysistrata of Aristophanes, acted at possibilities of life. His share in that task of every age. There is a type of mind
Athens in the Year B. C. 411. The has been to express and restate, in a form which, under every form of government,
Greek Text Revised, with a Transla- appreciable by the modern mind, some pushes to the front by sheer lack of virtue.
tion into Corresponding Metres, Intro- of the adventures and discoveries of the Wherever life has become sufficiently
duction, and Commentary, by Benjamin Hellenic genius. He is one of those mechanical to support a bureaucracy,
Bickley Rogers. (Bell & Sons. )
scholars who, consciously or unconsciously, there will the Poloniuses and Shallows
have joined hands with the boldest spirits gather, and, wherever there is an official
Ai Xúpites tépevós to daßtîv Örep ovxl of the age, and, by showing what the caste, there will be satirists or torture-
πεσείται
Greeks thought and felt, have revealed chambers. Yet, though the self-com-
ζητούσαι ψυχήν εύρον 'Αριστοφάνους.
to us new worlds of thought and feeling. placent magistrate has been the butt of the
Plato.
Now, to write like the sociologists, the ages, Aristophanes and Shakespeare, and
“Ce poète comique, qui n'est ni comique subject of 'The Lysistrata ' is the funda- perhaps Flaubert, have alone revealed his
ni poète, n'aurait pas été admis parmi nous mental nature and necessity of the essential nullity, because they alone have
à donner ses farces à la foire Saint-Laurent. ” interdependence of the sexes. But what looked for something essential beneath
-Voltaire.
Aristophanes thought and felt about the the accidental.
