and Coleridge seems to have a special
the romantic inspiration of Chatterton
moves steadily to his inevitable doom.
the romantic inspiration of Chatterton
moves steadily to his inevitable doom.
Athenaeum - London - 1912a
the BISHOP OF OSSORY.
foolish, virtuoso Mr. Nestor. The comedy KNIGHT, FRANK & RUTLEY will SELL by
“One of the best annotated editions of any author that
we know. The notes are a treasury of information on all
throws out innumerable facets of droll view two days prior trom 10 to 5 o'clock. Catalogues free of Messrs.
points. . . . In short, we have here for tbe first time the
and reckless wit, and was acted with Street, end. Solicitors; or of the Auctioneers, at their offices, 20, promise of a complete edition of Swift's Correspondence,
Square
both to and from, arranged in chronological order, printed
rare abandon. It has not received the
from the purest texts, and annotated with a learning and
notice it deserved.
accuracy that cannot be surpassed. "-Athenæum.
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS.
Crown 8vo, 3s. Bd. net.
THE AGE OF ALFRED
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WEBSTER'S
our notice of July 15th, 1905, p. 91, the EXHIBITIONS
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:::
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PAGE
671
690
688
692
690
691
CATALOGUES
669
691
691
669
. .
IS
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::
690
690
670
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672
689
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No. 4417, JUNE 22, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
697
CONTENTS.
PAGE
697
. .
698
. .
699
700
701
702
702
704–708
LITERARY GOSSIP
NEXT MONTH'S MAGAZINES
710
ANCES NEXT WEEK
. .
was
of the properties of Rosa setigera, not character would be revealed clearly. The
SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1912.
forgetting to mention the urn-shaped subjects of his plays are often problems,
calyx-tube, the five imbricated lobes, or because he was interested in people who
the open corolla of five obovate petals. only when problems" arise are seen to
To an Ibsen or a Cézanne one account be essentially different from one another,
HENRIK IBSEN
would appear as irrelevant as the other, or, indeed, from the furniture with which
THE "RETURN TO NATURE” (The Treatment of since both omitted the thing that mattered, they live. There is no reason to suppose
Nature in English Poetry between Pope and Words-
worth)
what philosophers used to call “ the thing that Ibsen had any love for "problems
POETRY AND ITS ABSTRACT PRINCIPLES (Essentials in itself,” what now they would call “ the as such ; and we are tempted to believe
of Poetry)
essential reality":
that some modern" problems" are nothing
A GREAT PARLIAMENTARIAN (John Pym)
PYGMIES AND PAPUANS
more than situations from Ibsen's plays.
Solness. . . . . Do you read much ?
SOCIAL INSURANCE IN GERMANY
Ibsen's method is the true artist's method.
Hilda. No, never ! I have given it up. For
NOTES PROM CAMBRIDGE
it all seems so irrelevant.
The realist writing about people tends
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS (Theology-Law-Poetry- Solness. That is just my feeling.
to give an inventory of personal pecu-
Bibliography-History and Biography, 704; Geo.
graphy and Travel-Sports and Pastimes-Éduca.
It was just what the books left out that is said and done. The romantic hopes,
liarities, and a faithful report of all that
tion, 705;
Philology-School. Books, 708 ; Fiction-
General, 707 ; Foreign, 708)
Ibsen wanted to express.
He soon worked through the romantic
somehow, to
PROF. VERRALL; SHADWORTH HOLLWAY HODGSON;
create an atmosphere
* ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES'; THE AUTH
by suggesting what he once felt for some-
LIBRARY
709 tradition. It hampered him long enough thing not altogether unlike the matter in
710 to prevent 'Peer Gynt from becoming a hand. Ibsen sets himself to discover
SCIENCE-THE CHILD AND ITS AILMENTS (The Diseases
truly great poem; after that he found the halfpennyworth of significance in all
of Children; The Healthy Baby); SOCIETIES ;
himself on the threshold of a world where this intolerable deal of irrelevance. Which
MEETINGS NEXT WERK ; GOSSIP
709–712 everything mattered too much in itself is the word, which the gesture, that,
FINE ARTY-NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS; GOSSIP 712-718 for its associations to be of consequence. springing directly from the depths of one
MUSIC—'THE CHILDREN OF DON'; GOSSIP;PERFORM-
713–714 Attempting to analyze Ibsen's characters character, penetrates to the depths of
DRAMA PLAYS BY AUGUST STRINDBERG; FOUR used to be a pastime for fools ; to-day, we another ? What is the true cause of this
IRISH PLAYS; NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS ; GOSSIP
714—718 all know that they come from that world
hubbub of inconsequent words and con-
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
718 where everything has been reduced to an tradictory actions ? Nothing less remote
essence that defies analysis. There Ibsen than the true cause will serve, nothing else
never so completely at home as is firmly rooted in reality. Is that man
Cézanne; he lacked the imagination by expressing what he feels or what he thinks
LITERATURE
which alone one arrives and remains in he is expected to feel ? Have I pushed
the world of reality. His vision was more simplification as far as it will go? Are
uncertain, and so his faith was weaker. there no trappings, no over-tones, nothing
He was a less ferociously sincere artist. but what is essential to express my
When vision began to fail he took vision of reality? And, above all, is
IBSEN.
refuge in a catalogue of facts or in un- my vision absolutely sharp and sure?
Was it chance made Mr. Ellis Roberts convincing symbolism : Cézanne tossed These were the questions Ibsen had to
mention Cézanne on the fourth page of his picture into a bush. Perhaps that answer. When he succeeded he was a
a book about Ibsen ? We cannot
think is why a new generation, hungry for great great artist, not, as Mr. Roberts suggests,
80. Similarities in the work and cir- contemporary art, turns more hopefully to
in the manner of Shakespeare, but in the
cumstances of the two men can hardly painting than to literature.
manner of Æschylus.
have escaped him. Born within a dozen Thirty years ago it would have been
There is no more obvious proof of the
years of each other (Ibsen was born in misleading to say, what is undoubtedly greatness of Ibsen's art than the perfection
1828), both matured in a period when the true, that it is as an artist that Ibsen is of its form. To assert that fine form
professions of writing and painting were great. To call a man a good artist came always enfolds fine thought and feeling
laboriously cultivated at the expense of to much the same thing as calling him a would imply a knowledge of literature
art. Each, unguided except by his own good ping-pong player : it implied that to which it would be effrontery in a critic
sense of dissatisfaction with his surround- he was proficient in his own business ; to pretend. He may be allowed, how-
ings, found a way through the sloughs it did not imply that he was a great man ever, to advise any one who is ready with
of romance and the deserts of realism, to who affected life greatly. Therefore an instance of great form enclosing a void
the high country beyond them. Both many people who understood Ibsen and to verify his impressions : it was thus
sought and both found the same thing, were moved by his plays preferred to that the present writer came to appreciate
the thing above literature and painting, call him a political thinker or a social | Goldoni and Alfieri. In any case, this
the stuff out of which great literature reformer ; while
the is certain : a perfectly conceived idea
and painting are made.
æsthetes, were very willing to call him
never fails to express itself in perfect
The Romantics and Realists were like a great artist, since by doing so they form. Ibsen did not shirk the labour
people quarrelling as to which is the more
themselves from paying the of making his conceptions as hard, and
important thing about an orange, the slightest attention to anything that he definite, and self-supporting as possible.
history of Spain or the number of pips. said. Ibsen was a reformer in the sense No matter how autobiographical some
The instinct of the romantic, invited to that all great artists are reformers; of his best plays may be, he is too good
say what he felt about anything, was to it is impossible to speak of reality without an artist to allow them to lean on his
recall its associations. A rose made him criticizing civilization. In the same way personal experience; they have to stand
think of quaint gardens and gracious he was a politician; it is impossible to firmly on their own feet. Ibsen, there-
ladies and Edmund Waller and sundials, care passionately about art without caring fore, worked his conceptions to such a
and a thousand pleasant things that, at about the fate of mankind. But Mr. degree of hardness and self-consistency
one time or another, had befallen him Roberts is certainly right in holding that that he could detach them from himself
or somebody else. A rose touched life to appreciate Ibsen we must consider him and study them impersonally. That is
at a hundred pretty points. A rose was
as an artist.
why his plays are models of form. And
interesting because it had a past. On Ibsen approached humanity in the if there be an Academy of Letters that
this the realist's comment was "Mush! ” spirit of an artist. He sought that takes its duties seriously, Rosmersholm
or words to that effect. In like predica- essential thing, in men and women by and Ghosts' are, we presume, in the
ment, he would give a detailed account which we should know them if the devil hands of every young person within its
came one night and stole away their sphere of influence. The students are
Henrils Ibsen: a Critical Study, By R. Ellis bodies ; we may call it character if we shown, we hope that Ibsen's form is
Roberts. (Secker. )
choose. He imagined situations in which superb, not because Ibsen paid any
## p. 698 (#520) ############################################
698
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4417, JUNE 22, 1912
8
particular attention to the precepts of he never doubted that there were such him from the one black note of senti-
Aristotle, but because, like Sophocles, things; and he went beneath the surface mentality in this book :
who had the misfortune to predecease to find them. It was Ibsen's revelation
the Stagirite, he knew precisely what of a new world, in which moral values “Ellida might be Solveig analysed—but
he wanted to say, and addressed himself were real and convincing, that thrilled analysed with how loving a touch, how
exclusively to the task of saying it. To the nineteenth century, and thrills us
unerring a kindness; it is as if a great
woman he
achieve great form is needed neither yet. Can any one read sedately that surgeon were operating on
science nor tradition, but intense feeling, scene in Ghosts' in which Mrs. Alving
vigorous thinking, and imagination. shows with bewildering simplicity that, Such things, we had imagined, could only
Formlessness is not a sign of spirited however respectable the Pastor's morality be said by members of the French Aca-
revolt against superstition; it is a mere may be, it is pure wickedness ?
demy.
indication of muddle-headedness.
Pastor Manders. You call it “ cowardice to
The subject matter of Ibsen's plays is
do your plain duty ? Have you forgotten that a
reality; unfortunately, his imagination son ought to love and honour his father and
mother?
was not always strong enough to keep a
THE “ RETURN TO NATURE. ”
sure hold on it. When the vision faded
Mrs. Alving. Do not let us talk in such general
terms. Let us ask: Ought Oswald to love and
he took refuge in symbolism or literality: honour Chamberlain Alving ?
A BOOK on nature in English poetry from
There was a commonplace background Manders. Is there no voice in your mother's Pope to Wordsworth is necessarily some-
to his mind, of which we see too much in heart that forbids you to destroy your son's what academic in texture. It has more
ideals ?
such plays as ' An Enemy of the People
limitations than the subject of our next
Mrs. Alving. But what about the truth ?
and “Pillars of Society. It is this com-
article, with its fund of potential specula-
Manders. But what about the ideals ?
monplace and rather suburban quality Mrs. Alving. Oh-ideals, ideals! If only I lecture room. A professor, after making
tion. It smells unmistakably of class and
that tempts us occasionally to explain were not such a coward !
Ibsen's popularity by the fact that he
a few more or less happy and spontaneous
Ibsen's social and political ideas follow suggestions, throws out a casual remark
represented the revolt of the supremely necessarily from the nature of his art. to the effect that it would be interesting
unimportant, of whom there happen to He knew too much about the depths of to develope such and such a subject which
be quite a number in the world. With character to suppose that people could writers and students so far have singularly
the symbolism of The Master-Builder'
be improved from without. He agreed neglected. The idea is taken seriously
no fault can be found.
It is a legitimate with our grandmothers that what men by one of his class, it germinates, and a
and effective means of expressing a sense
of reality. The theme is never lost. need are new hearts. It is good feeling professor - prompted book is eventually
that makes good men, and the sole check the result.
The artist who sacrifices his human
The transformation of the
bad feeling is conscience. Laws, classical framework of English letters into
relations, but dare not give all, dare not
customs, and social conventions he re-
give his vanity or his life to the ideal
, garded 'as ineffectual means to good.
and Coleridge seems to have a special
the romantic inspiration of Chatterton
moves steadily to his inevitable doom. There is no virtue in one who is restrained attraction for American students. Mr.
Whether he moves in the form of Halvard from evil by fear. He went further : he Beers has developed the whole subject
Solness, the cowardly architect of genius, regarded external restraints as means to in a more or less summarized form. Miss
in the form of the symbolical master- bad, since they come between a man and Reynolds is well qualified to work out
his conscience and blunt the moral sense. this particular chapter of the theme in
builder, the artist who tries to have the
So long as I keep to the rules,” says the detail, having devoted many years to an
best of both worlds, matters not a straw.
The medium of expression changes, but smug citizen," I am one of the righteous. ” elaborate monograph on Lady Winchilsea,
the theme is constant : the conception is virtues, its mean standards, its mediocrity, Chicago University Press. The result of
Ibsen loathed the State, with its negative which was published recently by the
whole. That is more than can be said of
and its spiritual squalor. He was
The Lady from the Sea,' where the
her labours was not calculated, in our
passionate individualist.
symbolism comes perilously near padding;
opinion, greatly to enhance the reputation
or of “When We Dead Awaken,' where it
Whether Ibsen was in the right is not of the poet of the 'Nocturnal Reverie. '
often expresses nothing relevant, merely for a reviewer to decide. Mr. Roberts The reputation of that lady is largely
standing picturesquely for commonplaces, has strong views on the subject, which due to the fact that Wordsworth,
and filling up gaps.
he is at no pains to conceal. For this we who knew very few of her poems, imagined
To read one of Ibsen's great plays is feel that the personal note imported by with his own. The resemblance was
are far from blaming him. Indeed, we that these had a kind of secret affinity
first time is an event. If a savage who the author's intellectual bias gives some slight enough, for Rousseau and his ideas
took locomotives and motor-cars for flavour to a book which, owing to the had intervened, supplying Wordsworth
granted, as inexplicable creatures of complete absence of charm or distinction, with a conception of nature to which
whim and fancy, suddenly were shown, petent, but woefully uninspiring, piece of stranger. But the lead of Wordsworth
would be otherwise insipid. It is a com- Lady Winchilsea had been altogether a
not by vague adumbration, but by work. " Above all things, Mr. Roberts
straightforward exposition, that they were
was sufficient to entangle several critical
expressions of intelligible laws controlled lacks humour—a quality indispensable in quidnuncs in an absurdly inflated vision
by comprehensible machinery, he could
a writer on Ibsen. For Ibsen, like other of a lady's influence and priority in a new
of genius, is slightly ridiculous. kind of appreciation of natural beauties-
teenth century by Ibsen. For Ibsen took Undeniably, there is something comic particularly when that lady happened
Now that we
about the picture of the Norwegian to be a countess.
nothing for granted. He saw little on
the surface of life that corresponded with dramatist,, spectacled and frock-coated, observe her poems in a collective edition,
reality ; but he did not cease to believe
looking,” Mr. Archer tells us,
we see that her one preoccupation was
in reality. That was where he differed distinguished diplomat,” at work amongst to imitate, with a certain small measure
both from the Philistines and the elect.
the orange-groves
of Sorrento on 'Ghosts. ' of success, two such convinced olassicists
He saw that the universe was something
as Prior and Pope. Her nature poems
Ibsen was keenly sensitive to place,
very different from what it was generally and if we would get the utmost feeling out
are few, enumerative in character, and
supposed to be : he saw the futility of of his plays we must remember how large a quaint rather than salient in quality.
popular morals and popular metaphysics ; part was played by fortunate or unfortunate One would willingly give all she ever
but he neither swallowed the conventions position and circumstances in contributing wrote for a couplet of Andrew Marvell.
to the wonderful
nor threw up his hands in despair, declaring
atmosphere' of the
dramas. "
The Treatment of Nature in English Poetry
the whole thing to be an idiotic farce.
between Pope and Wordsworth. By Myra
He knew that truth and goodness had That is what Mr. Roberts thinks. A Reynolds. Second Edition. (Chicago
nothing to do with law and custom ; but sense of humour would also have saved University Press. )
66
a
men
can
66
like a
## p. 699 (#521) ############################################
No. 4417, JUNE 22, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
699
corner.
own:
Miss Reynolds has incurred a somewhat not by abstract reasoning, but by the down of tall hedges, the opening up of
similar penalty in developing her present provision of substitutes. Moreover, among vistas, was
vistas, was another symptom of the
thesis. As
& generality the idea is the new and increasingly defined class of growing revolt against boundaries, the
sound enough. În detail it does not work brain - workers romantic travel and the deepening love of the wilderness. Hence-
out well. The starting - point and the wilderness were gradually becoming a forth new images of nature rapidly
goal can be indieated fairly satisfactorily, more and more indispensable means of multiplied—to reach the acme of minute-
but the process evades definite analysis. recuperation. Dr. Johnson himself, who ness in Tennyson, and an almost Shake-
Many of the links prove illusive upon professed to regard a mountain as no spearian pith and economy of expression
investigation. You can sum up a cha- more than a considerable protuberance, in the nature poems of George Meredith.
racteristic attitude towards nature as
as conceived a passion for travelling, by pre-
dislike of grandeur and mystery; affection ference apparently in isolated and pictur-
for tame, domestic kinds of scenery, for esque regions. The reaction against the POETRY AND ITS ABSTRACT
formal gardens and parks; generalized old exaggerated contempt for uninhabited
PRINCIPLES.
descriptions; abhorrence of local colour ; places felt by dwellers in a sparsely popu- PROF. NEILSON has written a book which
and queer affectations and paraphrases, lated country reached its climax in our
such as “gelid cistern” for cold tub. eyes, not in the current of English poetry reveals him as a very sympathetic judge
But you cannot limit the nature poetry at all, but in the movements inaugurated of poetry, both by temperament and by
of the classical period within the bounds by Rousseau and Gilbert White. These two study of the best criticism : few books
of such a definition. The exceptions are between them were the major prophets could better justify the position of Pro-
too destructive. One of the special cha- of the simple life, back to the land, nature fessor of English which he holds at Har-
racteristics of the classical period is study, and curse of civilization movements. vard University. As well as temperament
narrow and uninterested observation of The new attitude towards nature in and a wide knowledge of poetry and
nature.
English poetry is therefore just merely one criticism, he has a clear mind, eager for
stretches the poet Gray, one of the small strand in the great rope of resent- lucidity and for the tasks of analysis,
With
minutest and most sympathetic observers ment against the accumulating artificiality simplification, and definition.
of nature and natural beauty that our of the new conditions which the eighteenth Bacon's division of human learning, in
literature has ever produced. There is, century was industriously weaving. Miss which history “has reference to the
too, the exquisite Collins. Another serious Reynolds may have felt that the narrow- Memory, poesy to the Imagination, and
difficulty is invited by narrowing the ness of her investigation somewhat limited philosophy to the Reason,” he proceeds
area of inquiry to England. Thomson the area of her appeal. At any rate, to consider“ imagination, reason, and the
and Dyer may in some respects have been when in 1909 she revised her original elements of poetry. He makes admirable
the evangels of the new nature poetry; essay of 1899 she added two illustrative elements of poetry. He makes admirable
but it is fatal to neglect the power of chapters on gardening and landscape use of this threefold foundation. For
Rousseau, who acted as focusser and painting. These will probably now be example, he illustrates the familiar terms
transmitter of the whole school of forces, regarded as two of the most interesting Romanticism, Classicism, and Realism
of which nature poetry occupied a mere chapters in the book. Nothing enables by showing how they correspond with his
us better to appreciate the formation in
Miss Reynolds hardly seems to realize England of a special taste for picturesque "If a correspondence between them and
what an enormous amount of work has and romantic scenery than the growth
threefold division of the faculties
been done in development of this par- of the great water-colour and topographical employed in poetry can be discerned, we
shall have made some progress towards
ticular field by students of Thomson and school. When men and mountains meet, definite conceptions. Such a correspond-
Rousseau, such as Léon Morel and Joseph great things frequently emerge. Miss ence is revealed by the theory that each
Texte. This enthusiasm for nature and Reynolds tells us a good many things of these three tendencies is definable as
the picturesque was called Anglomania that are worth hearing about the early the predominance of one of the faculties
by students of the gaiety and social ease landscape-painters; and their work is
over the other two. Romanticism is the
of our Gallic neighbours. Landscape was exhibited in some capital illustrations. tendency characterized by the predomin-
an aristocratic fetish. The French bor- She rightly attaches great importance sense of fact. Classicism is the tendency
rowed it, and experimented in country to Richard Wilson, of whom Ruskin characterized by the predominance of reason
house life under the encouraging glances wrote :
over imagination and the sense of fact.
of Rousseau. The English garden was
Realism is the tendency characterized by
deemed a school of virtue, the innocence who has got away out of all the camere, imagination and reason. "
Here at last is an honest Englishman the predominance of the sense of fact over
of flower - culture a corrective to the and the Loggie, and the Stanze, and
natural malignity of man. Thomson and the Schools, and the Disputas. . . . and has In coming to this conclusion he is moved
Gessner had a whole salon of French laid himself down with his own poor eyes chiefly by a desire for truth, hardly at
imitators. The attractions of town and and heart, and the sun casting his light all_by debating skill.
country became “inverted to students between ruins possessor he of so much of Excellent also is his examination of
of Cowper and Ossian. The mountains the evidently
blessed peace of things. . . Heine's conception of Romanticism as
and sea became magnets. Voltaire him he and the poor lizard in the cranny of the Mediævalism, and his conclusion that
self felt the solicitations of the nature
“ the elements in mediæval life and art that
school to be getting so powerful that he We also have an appreciative aceount of have provided stimulus to modern romantic
talked of abandoning the upright posture the earlier men in this landscape and writers have been those which, whether
altogether and going to grass on all marine medium, such as Monamy, Taverner, secular or religious, were marked by a high
fours.
Bellers, the Smiths, and the Cozenses: degree of ideal aspiration ; in other words,
Miss Reynolds is too partial, and These men and their compeers may be by ruling conceptions, in which the dominant
;
perhaps too timid in the handling of her said to a large extent to have discovered
and,
theme, to have recourse to anything like a the beauties of rural England, of Derby-
broad and ultimate analysis. In an age shire, Cumberland, Westmorland (Miss by virtue of this, the revival of certain
of rapid urbanization men at all out of Reynolds levels a dire affront at Appleby aspects of Mediævalism, when genuinely
the common conceive a passion for the by calling it a village), and Wales, and sympathetic and not merely external and
eclogue and the pastoral
. At first it the joy of their discovery is reflected in imitative, may be regarded as a true phase
of Romanticism. ''
may take them no further than the their work. One of the characteristics
Georgics and fables of Gay or the gravel of the love of nature which these men
Yet this lucidity is deceptive, and in the
paths of Shenstone. But the spirit of fostered is the new delight in wide end almost wearisome, and certainly dis-
man in its craving for poetical refreshment views such as those from the Castle at
Essentials of Poetry. By William Allan
is in a state of perpetual unrest. The Edinburgh, the Beacon at Malvern, the Neilson. Lowell Lectures, 1911, (Con-
hollowness of old phrases is discovered, Reservoir at Launceston. The cutting stable & Co. )
our
## p. 700 (#522) ############################################
700
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4417, JUNE 22, 1912
as a
appointing. We might consent to ignore
tion of the Islands of Providence, Hen-
the fact that Prof. Neilson's threefold
A GREAT PARLIAMENTARIAN.
rietta, and the Adjacent Islands ” (in the
essentials are essentials in some degree of
Bahamas)-in which Pym had large
all prose that is not purely occasional and MR. WADE is amply warranted in holding holdings and was Treasurer, and, towards
informing, though that is a weakness not that there has been no more vivid period the end, Deputy-Governor. As the period
atoned for by many vague, if respectful, of English history than that of which for of the Company's operations was 1628-40,
references to the importance of rhythm. several years John Pym was one of the the summary record of its board-meetings
His real weakness is in the treatment of central figures. The warmer welcome and business throws light on Pym’s inter-
imagination. His lucid method is such as should be assured to a book which aims at ests and personal associations during the
not to excuse him when he comes to say “setting before the general reader a clear eleven years when there was no t'arlia-
that Coleridge's line about icicles,
account of a great man who has been too ment. To Mr. Wade these pe sonal
Quietly shining in the quiet Moon,
much forgotten. " Unfortunately, in associations are of thrilling interest and
though, “taken word by word, it seems
achieving the work the author has lost sinister significance. For in the roll-call
sight of his aim, and the result is an
of the Adventurers he finds the names of
to be perfectly literal, yet, taken as a line, interesting disappointment. The book Saye and Fiennes, Hampden and Croma
touches us imaginatively in a fashion too
subtle for analysis. ”. The words taken obligations to, the erudite, sane, and Mandeville
, Pym and Rous-braces of
shows knowledge of, and confesses full well, Holland and Rich, Warwick and
line are a testimony to his feeling ; broad-minded' historian who devoted kindred, it will be observed, and most of
but touches us imaginatively,” if suffi-
cient in conversation, is not so in his book.
to Pym's period the labour of a life. Yet them men who were to come into promi-
it presents a reversion to a degree of sheer nence on the Parliamentary side in the
Conscious, perhaps, of this weakness, he antipathy for the great Parliamentarian years ahead. To Mr. Wade their associa-
has to add a fourth fundamental,“ pecu- which is blind rather than old. It is tion during this historic recess is an
liarly related to the imagination,” which
he calls Intensity, the fire that “ melts and written by a man of ability, with the ominous conjuncture of disastrous stars,
fuses the other three. In this chapter
confident intelligence which legal training and one wonders, after a time, that the
business, with its
on ‘Intensity' he is able to introduce gives. But the personal note is so sub- whole “Plantation
on ‘Intensity,' he is able to introduce ordinated to the reactionary tune of the meetings now in Brooke House, now. in
power of preparing the reader to realize time that we soon find ourselves taking an Warwick House, and now in the lodging
the content of the poem more intensely. " interest in the book as a social symptom of Mr. Pym, is not explained outright as
Thus he ends by convincing us that, had rather than as a contribution to its subject. a curtain for a conspiracy. At any rate,
he been more patient, he would have done Nevertheless, Mr. Wade does bring they are all conspirators for Mr. Wade
without Intensity, except as a quality of contributions of some value. Regarding henceforth. He sees them at work every-
where : partly a revolutionary secret
Imagination, in which he would have seen Pym's career after 1602, when he was
the fire that “melts and fuses” memories called to the Bar, we know nothing,
society, partly the managers of a vast and
and impressions into poetry.
says S. R. Gardiner, “till he entered the vague political machine having Pym for
We should have gladly seen him using House of Commons as member for Calne its“ boss," a “ boss” whose only scruples
more intensity in his cultivation of the in 1614. ” Mr. Wade proves that he was
are supplied by his fanaticism. If we
not in that Parliament, and does some-
would take Mr. Wade's view of it, the
chosen field. He might have taken a
single poem, and by intensive cultivation thing to fill the gap between 1602 and entire series of events leading on to the
have produced a more nourishing wrop. He has also dug into the Commons' is but the intended outcome of the sinister
Pym's appearance in the House in 1621. Civil War and the execution of the King
seldom met a critic more likely to be Journals” for traces of Pym's activity in machinations of these Adventurers. Yet
successful in a study of the power to the six Parliaments preceding the Long it must be added at once that Pym's own
humanize many things which are incon one, and has deposited the skeleton record single capacity in that regard is great
gruous to the mind and to make poetry in an appendix. The entries make dis- enough to absorb, and, we should have
of them—the power shown in 'Lycidas continuous reading, but emit flashes of thought, to have dispensed with, that of
all his colleagues.
and in Swinburne's Ave atque Vale. ' interest and even awe. For instance :-
He might have shown us why we do not
On what a flimsy foundation such a
-
object to an atheist, who regarded life commendeth Mr. Pymme's Speech and charge is built can be quickly shown.
after death as an entirely incognizable Advice yesterday to do Things nicely and Peers and other persons who were influ-
matter, writing a memorial poem full of temperately and not tumultuarily. " ential enough to secure for themselves and
fantastic surmises, and beginning :
“ June 25, 1629. Pym to bring in and friends a colonial Patent were fairly likely
Shall I strew on theo rose or rue or laurel. . . . . .
leave with the Clerk To-morrow morning, to play a part of some consequence in the
all the Writings he has concerning Religion. great national events of their time. Also,
He might have shown how “Ave atque
they would consider themselves fortunate
Vale,' to those who can become “ all ear,'
But more characteristic of the man and in being able to secure the directive and
is a perfect poem, unless they pause where the time
are many passages of this organizing assistance of a man with Pym's
the poet speaks of laying on the tomb, description :
great-probably at that time unmatched
Orestes-like, a curl of severed hair. " “ April 28, 1629. Reports from the Com- knowledge of business and finance; or
With what Prof. Neilson has given us mittee for Religion concerning Montague the co-operation of a gentleman of Hamp-
we cannot be content. At the same time, and Burgess, Vicar of Witney, and Com. den’s urbanity, persuasiveness, and wealth.
we must praise the pervading combination [= on a committee to go to the Archbishop Likewise, it was merely natural that the
of sympathy and lucidity, of which it is of Canterbury and ask him about Popish initiators of the project and the first Ad-
impossible to give adequate examples, expressing the Substance of the Statutes of venturers should have brought into the
though the lucidity has been too easily Magna Charta, and of the other Statutes, concern relations of their own, both for
content with new names, and the sym- and of the Resolutions made in this House the sake of the capital they would provide
pathy with old ones. It is not enough concerning the Liberty of the Subjects in and that they might share in the expected
that a professor of English can their Persons and Estates appointed upon advantages. Thus Hampden accounts for
thoroughly prove his judgment and the Question without one negative.
his cousin Cromwell, Pym for Rous,
power to stimulate, but the circumstance
New matter of more importance is Holland for Fiennes, and so on. Further,
is sufficiently rare to be recorded with drawn from vol. i. of the Calendar of that a group of eight or ten public men,
pleasure. His “ imagination, reason, and State Papers (Colonial),' issued so long engaged for some years in a common
sense of fact” will become little better ago as 1860. This is the story of a char business enterprise, should afterwards be
than cudgels in the hands of lesser tered company—“The Governors and found working on the same side in politics
critics ; because they are so like cudgels, Company of Adventurers for the Planta- (as some of them had been working before)
they are likely to have few attractions
is nothing intrinsically mysterious. For,
for the greater.
John Pym. By C. E. Wade. (Pitman & Sons. ) besides the fact that kinship would imply
6
66
)
66
SO
## p. 701 (#523) ############################################
No. 4417, JUNE 22, 1912
THE ATHEN ÆUM
701
fain to cry
accuser.
kindred minds in most cases, there is the Additional Instruction” on November They obtained plenty of birds as well-
more comprehensive fact that over a 5th, yet passed it in amended form 2,200 skins, representing about 235 species,
great part of the period here treated on November 8th-our author turns aside of which ten proved to be new to science.
until emphasis thrown on the religious to discover a reason more congruent with But they did not get the phonix; whereas
question brought the sundering hour and the notion of Pym as a man of mystery, what the phenix would be amongst
gave Charles a party at last-practically dark and arid, going in and out of Parlia- birds, that, or very nearly that, is the
all thinking England and both Houses of ment with a supply of scares in his pocket Pygmy amongst the types and races of
Parliament were on that side, the side of to herd the members whither he would mankind. Somewhat unkindly, Mr. Wil-
an historic nation against a despotic king, have them go.
foolish, virtuoso Mr. Nestor. The comedy KNIGHT, FRANK & RUTLEY will SELL by
“One of the best annotated editions of any author that
we know. The notes are a treasury of information on all
throws out innumerable facets of droll view two days prior trom 10 to 5 o'clock. Catalogues free of Messrs.
points. . . . In short, we have here for tbe first time the
and reckless wit, and was acted with Street, end. Solicitors; or of the Auctioneers, at their offices, 20, promise of a complete edition of Swift's Correspondence,
Square
both to and from, arranged in chronological order, printed
rare abandon. It has not received the
from the purest texts, and annotated with a learning and
notice it deserved.
accuracy that cannot be surpassed. "-Athenæum.
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS.
Crown 8vo, 3s. Bd. net.
THE AGE OF ALFRED
ALLEN & CO.
Dramatic Gossip.
(A. D. 664-1154).
Bell & SONS
By F. J. SNELL, M. A.
A TUMULTUOUS RECEPTION was accorded | BLACKWOOD & SONS
New Volume in “ Handbooks of English Literature. "
by a crowded theatre to Sir Herbert Tree's
revival of ‘Oliver Twist' at His Majesty's | CONSTABLE & Co.
on Tuesday evening. As we intimated in EDUCATIONAL
669
WEBSTER'S
our notice of July 15th, 1905, p. 91, the EXHIBITIONS
NEW INTERNATIONAL
grim sordidness and melodrama of the HAM-SMITH
piece overshadow its comedy and love- HEINEMANN
DICTIONARY
making. The suggestions of the murder of LECTURES :
Nancy are horrible, though, of course, it
MACMILLAN & 00.
672, 689
takes place off the stage. The play could MAGAZINES, &c.
THE MOST UP-TO-DATE,
MISCELLANEOUS . .
scarcely have been better cast, Sir Herbert
THE MOST COMPLETE,
SALES BY AUCTION
being at his best as Fagin. Mr. Lyn Harding,
THE MOST AUTHORITATIVE, and
SHIPPING
690
Mr. Frank Stanmore, Mr. Basil Gill, and
SIDGWICK & JACKSON
THE MOST POPULAR
Miss Constance Collier gave finished per-
SITUATIONS VACANT
formances as Bill Sikes, The Artful Dodger,
Encyclopædic Dictionary on the Market.
SITUATIONS WANTED
Harry Maylie, and Nancy respectively. The
SOCIETIES . .
Write for Illustrated Prospectus and Specimen Pages.
introduction of a boy as Oliver was a marked TYPE-WRITERS, &c.
improvement, Master Alfred Willmore play- UNWIN
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ing the part well.
YosT TYPEWRITER
York House, Portugal Street, London, W. C.
Executors of the late Mrs. KSTHER MARSDEN, The Confession,
. .
AUTHORS' AGENTS
:::
i: : : :
PAGE
671
690
688
692
690
691
CATALOGUES
669
691
691
669
. .
IS
. .
::
690
690
670
. .
. .
672
689
690
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690
672
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No. 4417, JUNE 22, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
697
CONTENTS.
PAGE
697
. .
698
. .
699
700
701
702
702
704–708
LITERARY GOSSIP
NEXT MONTH'S MAGAZINES
710
ANCES NEXT WEEK
. .
was
of the properties of Rosa setigera, not character would be revealed clearly. The
SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1912.
forgetting to mention the urn-shaped subjects of his plays are often problems,
calyx-tube, the five imbricated lobes, or because he was interested in people who
the open corolla of five obovate petals. only when problems" arise are seen to
To an Ibsen or a Cézanne one account be essentially different from one another,
HENRIK IBSEN
would appear as irrelevant as the other, or, indeed, from the furniture with which
THE "RETURN TO NATURE” (The Treatment of since both omitted the thing that mattered, they live. There is no reason to suppose
Nature in English Poetry between Pope and Words-
worth)
what philosophers used to call “ the thing that Ibsen had any love for "problems
POETRY AND ITS ABSTRACT PRINCIPLES (Essentials in itself,” what now they would call “ the as such ; and we are tempted to believe
of Poetry)
essential reality":
that some modern" problems" are nothing
A GREAT PARLIAMENTARIAN (John Pym)
PYGMIES AND PAPUANS
more than situations from Ibsen's plays.
Solness. . . . . Do you read much ?
SOCIAL INSURANCE IN GERMANY
Ibsen's method is the true artist's method.
Hilda. No, never ! I have given it up. For
NOTES PROM CAMBRIDGE
it all seems so irrelevant.
The realist writing about people tends
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS (Theology-Law-Poetry- Solness. That is just my feeling.
to give an inventory of personal pecu-
Bibliography-History and Biography, 704; Geo.
graphy and Travel-Sports and Pastimes-Éduca.
It was just what the books left out that is said and done. The romantic hopes,
liarities, and a faithful report of all that
tion, 705;
Philology-School. Books, 708 ; Fiction-
General, 707 ; Foreign, 708)
Ibsen wanted to express.
He soon worked through the romantic
somehow, to
PROF. VERRALL; SHADWORTH HOLLWAY HODGSON;
create an atmosphere
* ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES'; THE AUTH
by suggesting what he once felt for some-
LIBRARY
709 tradition. It hampered him long enough thing not altogether unlike the matter in
710 to prevent 'Peer Gynt from becoming a hand. Ibsen sets himself to discover
SCIENCE-THE CHILD AND ITS AILMENTS (The Diseases
truly great poem; after that he found the halfpennyworth of significance in all
of Children; The Healthy Baby); SOCIETIES ;
himself on the threshold of a world where this intolerable deal of irrelevance. Which
MEETINGS NEXT WERK ; GOSSIP
709–712 everything mattered too much in itself is the word, which the gesture, that,
FINE ARTY-NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS; GOSSIP 712-718 for its associations to be of consequence. springing directly from the depths of one
MUSIC—'THE CHILDREN OF DON'; GOSSIP;PERFORM-
713–714 Attempting to analyze Ibsen's characters character, penetrates to the depths of
DRAMA PLAYS BY AUGUST STRINDBERG; FOUR used to be a pastime for fools ; to-day, we another ? What is the true cause of this
IRISH PLAYS; NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS ; GOSSIP
714—718 all know that they come from that world
hubbub of inconsequent words and con-
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
718 where everything has been reduced to an tradictory actions ? Nothing less remote
essence that defies analysis. There Ibsen than the true cause will serve, nothing else
never so completely at home as is firmly rooted in reality. Is that man
Cézanne; he lacked the imagination by expressing what he feels or what he thinks
LITERATURE
which alone one arrives and remains in he is expected to feel ? Have I pushed
the world of reality. His vision was more simplification as far as it will go? Are
uncertain, and so his faith was weaker. there no trappings, no over-tones, nothing
He was a less ferociously sincere artist. but what is essential to express my
When vision began to fail he took vision of reality? And, above all, is
IBSEN.
refuge in a catalogue of facts or in un- my vision absolutely sharp and sure?
Was it chance made Mr. Ellis Roberts convincing symbolism : Cézanne tossed These were the questions Ibsen had to
mention Cézanne on the fourth page of his picture into a bush. Perhaps that answer. When he succeeded he was a
a book about Ibsen ? We cannot
think is why a new generation, hungry for great great artist, not, as Mr. Roberts suggests,
80. Similarities in the work and cir- contemporary art, turns more hopefully to
in the manner of Shakespeare, but in the
cumstances of the two men can hardly painting than to literature.
manner of Æschylus.
have escaped him. Born within a dozen Thirty years ago it would have been
There is no more obvious proof of the
years of each other (Ibsen was born in misleading to say, what is undoubtedly greatness of Ibsen's art than the perfection
1828), both matured in a period when the true, that it is as an artist that Ibsen is of its form. To assert that fine form
professions of writing and painting were great. To call a man a good artist came always enfolds fine thought and feeling
laboriously cultivated at the expense of to much the same thing as calling him a would imply a knowledge of literature
art. Each, unguided except by his own good ping-pong player : it implied that to which it would be effrontery in a critic
sense of dissatisfaction with his surround- he was proficient in his own business ; to pretend. He may be allowed, how-
ings, found a way through the sloughs it did not imply that he was a great man ever, to advise any one who is ready with
of romance and the deserts of realism, to who affected life greatly. Therefore an instance of great form enclosing a void
the high country beyond them. Both many people who understood Ibsen and to verify his impressions : it was thus
sought and both found the same thing, were moved by his plays preferred to that the present writer came to appreciate
the thing above literature and painting, call him a political thinker or a social | Goldoni and Alfieri. In any case, this
the stuff out of which great literature reformer ; while
the is certain : a perfectly conceived idea
and painting are made.
æsthetes, were very willing to call him
never fails to express itself in perfect
The Romantics and Realists were like a great artist, since by doing so they form. Ibsen did not shirk the labour
people quarrelling as to which is the more
themselves from paying the of making his conceptions as hard, and
important thing about an orange, the slightest attention to anything that he definite, and self-supporting as possible.
history of Spain or the number of pips. said. Ibsen was a reformer in the sense No matter how autobiographical some
The instinct of the romantic, invited to that all great artists are reformers; of his best plays may be, he is too good
say what he felt about anything, was to it is impossible to speak of reality without an artist to allow them to lean on his
recall its associations. A rose made him criticizing civilization. In the same way personal experience; they have to stand
think of quaint gardens and gracious he was a politician; it is impossible to firmly on their own feet. Ibsen, there-
ladies and Edmund Waller and sundials, care passionately about art without caring fore, worked his conceptions to such a
and a thousand pleasant things that, at about the fate of mankind. But Mr. degree of hardness and self-consistency
one time or another, had befallen him Roberts is certainly right in holding that that he could detach them from himself
or somebody else. A rose touched life to appreciate Ibsen we must consider him and study them impersonally. That is
at a hundred pretty points. A rose was
as an artist.
why his plays are models of form. And
interesting because it had a past. On Ibsen approached humanity in the if there be an Academy of Letters that
this the realist's comment was "Mush! ” spirit of an artist. He sought that takes its duties seriously, Rosmersholm
or words to that effect. In like predica- essential thing, in men and women by and Ghosts' are, we presume, in the
ment, he would give a detailed account which we should know them if the devil hands of every young person within its
came one night and stole away their sphere of influence. The students are
Henrils Ibsen: a Critical Study, By R. Ellis bodies ; we may call it character if we shown, we hope that Ibsen's form is
Roberts. (Secker. )
choose. He imagined situations in which superb, not because Ibsen paid any
## p. 698 (#520) ############################################
698
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4417, JUNE 22, 1912
8
particular attention to the precepts of he never doubted that there were such him from the one black note of senti-
Aristotle, but because, like Sophocles, things; and he went beneath the surface mentality in this book :
who had the misfortune to predecease to find them. It was Ibsen's revelation
the Stagirite, he knew precisely what of a new world, in which moral values “Ellida might be Solveig analysed—but
he wanted to say, and addressed himself were real and convincing, that thrilled analysed with how loving a touch, how
exclusively to the task of saying it. To the nineteenth century, and thrills us
unerring a kindness; it is as if a great
woman he
achieve great form is needed neither yet. Can any one read sedately that surgeon were operating on
science nor tradition, but intense feeling, scene in Ghosts' in which Mrs. Alving
vigorous thinking, and imagination. shows with bewildering simplicity that, Such things, we had imagined, could only
Formlessness is not a sign of spirited however respectable the Pastor's morality be said by members of the French Aca-
revolt against superstition; it is a mere may be, it is pure wickedness ?
demy.
indication of muddle-headedness.
Pastor Manders. You call it “ cowardice to
The subject matter of Ibsen's plays is
do your plain duty ? Have you forgotten that a
reality; unfortunately, his imagination son ought to love and honour his father and
mother?
was not always strong enough to keep a
THE “ RETURN TO NATURE. ”
sure hold on it. When the vision faded
Mrs. Alving. Do not let us talk in such general
terms. Let us ask: Ought Oswald to love and
he took refuge in symbolism or literality: honour Chamberlain Alving ?
A BOOK on nature in English poetry from
There was a commonplace background Manders. Is there no voice in your mother's Pope to Wordsworth is necessarily some-
to his mind, of which we see too much in heart that forbids you to destroy your son's what academic in texture. It has more
ideals ?
such plays as ' An Enemy of the People
limitations than the subject of our next
Mrs. Alving. But what about the truth ?
and “Pillars of Society. It is this com-
article, with its fund of potential specula-
Manders. But what about the ideals ?
monplace and rather suburban quality Mrs. Alving. Oh-ideals, ideals! If only I lecture room. A professor, after making
tion. It smells unmistakably of class and
that tempts us occasionally to explain were not such a coward !
Ibsen's popularity by the fact that he
a few more or less happy and spontaneous
Ibsen's social and political ideas follow suggestions, throws out a casual remark
represented the revolt of the supremely necessarily from the nature of his art. to the effect that it would be interesting
unimportant, of whom there happen to He knew too much about the depths of to develope such and such a subject which
be quite a number in the world. With character to suppose that people could writers and students so far have singularly
the symbolism of The Master-Builder'
be improved from without. He agreed neglected. The idea is taken seriously
no fault can be found.
It is a legitimate with our grandmothers that what men by one of his class, it germinates, and a
and effective means of expressing a sense
of reality. The theme is never lost. need are new hearts. It is good feeling professor - prompted book is eventually
that makes good men, and the sole check the result.
The artist who sacrifices his human
The transformation of the
bad feeling is conscience. Laws, classical framework of English letters into
relations, but dare not give all, dare not
customs, and social conventions he re-
give his vanity or his life to the ideal
, garded 'as ineffectual means to good.
and Coleridge seems to have a special
the romantic inspiration of Chatterton
moves steadily to his inevitable doom. There is no virtue in one who is restrained attraction for American students. Mr.
Whether he moves in the form of Halvard from evil by fear. He went further : he Beers has developed the whole subject
Solness, the cowardly architect of genius, regarded external restraints as means to in a more or less summarized form. Miss
in the form of the symbolical master- bad, since they come between a man and Reynolds is well qualified to work out
his conscience and blunt the moral sense. this particular chapter of the theme in
builder, the artist who tries to have the
So long as I keep to the rules,” says the detail, having devoted many years to an
best of both worlds, matters not a straw.
The medium of expression changes, but smug citizen," I am one of the righteous. ” elaborate monograph on Lady Winchilsea,
the theme is constant : the conception is virtues, its mean standards, its mediocrity, Chicago University Press. The result of
Ibsen loathed the State, with its negative which was published recently by the
whole. That is more than can be said of
and its spiritual squalor. He was
The Lady from the Sea,' where the
her labours was not calculated, in our
passionate individualist.
symbolism comes perilously near padding;
opinion, greatly to enhance the reputation
or of “When We Dead Awaken,' where it
Whether Ibsen was in the right is not of the poet of the 'Nocturnal Reverie. '
often expresses nothing relevant, merely for a reviewer to decide. Mr. Roberts The reputation of that lady is largely
standing picturesquely for commonplaces, has strong views on the subject, which due to the fact that Wordsworth,
and filling up gaps.
he is at no pains to conceal. For this we who knew very few of her poems, imagined
To read one of Ibsen's great plays is feel that the personal note imported by with his own. The resemblance was
are far from blaming him. Indeed, we that these had a kind of secret affinity
first time is an event. If a savage who the author's intellectual bias gives some slight enough, for Rousseau and his ideas
took locomotives and motor-cars for flavour to a book which, owing to the had intervened, supplying Wordsworth
granted, as inexplicable creatures of complete absence of charm or distinction, with a conception of nature to which
whim and fancy, suddenly were shown, petent, but woefully uninspiring, piece of stranger. But the lead of Wordsworth
would be otherwise insipid. It is a com- Lady Winchilsea had been altogether a
not by vague adumbration, but by work. " Above all things, Mr. Roberts
straightforward exposition, that they were
was sufficient to entangle several critical
expressions of intelligible laws controlled lacks humour—a quality indispensable in quidnuncs in an absurdly inflated vision
by comprehensible machinery, he could
a writer on Ibsen. For Ibsen, like other of a lady's influence and priority in a new
of genius, is slightly ridiculous. kind of appreciation of natural beauties-
teenth century by Ibsen. For Ibsen took Undeniably, there is something comic particularly when that lady happened
Now that we
about the picture of the Norwegian to be a countess.
nothing for granted. He saw little on
the surface of life that corresponded with dramatist,, spectacled and frock-coated, observe her poems in a collective edition,
reality ; but he did not cease to believe
looking,” Mr. Archer tells us,
we see that her one preoccupation was
in reality. That was where he differed distinguished diplomat,” at work amongst to imitate, with a certain small measure
both from the Philistines and the elect.
the orange-groves
of Sorrento on 'Ghosts. ' of success, two such convinced olassicists
He saw that the universe was something
as Prior and Pope. Her nature poems
Ibsen was keenly sensitive to place,
very different from what it was generally and if we would get the utmost feeling out
are few, enumerative in character, and
supposed to be : he saw the futility of of his plays we must remember how large a quaint rather than salient in quality.
popular morals and popular metaphysics ; part was played by fortunate or unfortunate One would willingly give all she ever
but he neither swallowed the conventions position and circumstances in contributing wrote for a couplet of Andrew Marvell.
to the wonderful
nor threw up his hands in despair, declaring
atmosphere' of the
dramas. "
The Treatment of Nature in English Poetry
the whole thing to be an idiotic farce.
between Pope and Wordsworth. By Myra
He knew that truth and goodness had That is what Mr. Roberts thinks. A Reynolds. Second Edition. (Chicago
nothing to do with law and custom ; but sense of humour would also have saved University Press. )
66
a
men
can
66
like a
## p. 699 (#521) ############################################
No. 4417, JUNE 22, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
699
corner.
own:
Miss Reynolds has incurred a somewhat not by abstract reasoning, but by the down of tall hedges, the opening up of
similar penalty in developing her present provision of substitutes. Moreover, among vistas, was
vistas, was another symptom of the
thesis. As
& generality the idea is the new and increasingly defined class of growing revolt against boundaries, the
sound enough. În detail it does not work brain - workers romantic travel and the deepening love of the wilderness. Hence-
out well. The starting - point and the wilderness were gradually becoming a forth new images of nature rapidly
goal can be indieated fairly satisfactorily, more and more indispensable means of multiplied—to reach the acme of minute-
but the process evades definite analysis. recuperation. Dr. Johnson himself, who ness in Tennyson, and an almost Shake-
Many of the links prove illusive upon professed to regard a mountain as no spearian pith and economy of expression
investigation. You can sum up a cha- more than a considerable protuberance, in the nature poems of George Meredith.
racteristic attitude towards nature as
as conceived a passion for travelling, by pre-
dislike of grandeur and mystery; affection ference apparently in isolated and pictur-
for tame, domestic kinds of scenery, for esque regions. The reaction against the POETRY AND ITS ABSTRACT
formal gardens and parks; generalized old exaggerated contempt for uninhabited
PRINCIPLES.
descriptions; abhorrence of local colour ; places felt by dwellers in a sparsely popu- PROF. NEILSON has written a book which
and queer affectations and paraphrases, lated country reached its climax in our
such as “gelid cistern” for cold tub. eyes, not in the current of English poetry reveals him as a very sympathetic judge
But you cannot limit the nature poetry at all, but in the movements inaugurated of poetry, both by temperament and by
of the classical period within the bounds by Rousseau and Gilbert White. These two study of the best criticism : few books
of such a definition. The exceptions are between them were the major prophets could better justify the position of Pro-
too destructive. One of the special cha- of the simple life, back to the land, nature fessor of English which he holds at Har-
racteristics of the classical period is study, and curse of civilization movements. vard University. As well as temperament
narrow and uninterested observation of The new attitude towards nature in and a wide knowledge of poetry and
nature.
English poetry is therefore just merely one criticism, he has a clear mind, eager for
stretches the poet Gray, one of the small strand in the great rope of resent- lucidity and for the tasks of analysis,
With
minutest and most sympathetic observers ment against the accumulating artificiality simplification, and definition.
of nature and natural beauty that our of the new conditions which the eighteenth Bacon's division of human learning, in
literature has ever produced. There is, century was industriously weaving. Miss which history “has reference to the
too, the exquisite Collins. Another serious Reynolds may have felt that the narrow- Memory, poesy to the Imagination, and
difficulty is invited by narrowing the ness of her investigation somewhat limited philosophy to the Reason,” he proceeds
area of inquiry to England. Thomson the area of her appeal. At any rate, to consider“ imagination, reason, and the
and Dyer may in some respects have been when in 1909 she revised her original elements of poetry. He makes admirable
the evangels of the new nature poetry; essay of 1899 she added two illustrative elements of poetry. He makes admirable
but it is fatal to neglect the power of chapters on gardening and landscape use of this threefold foundation. For
Rousseau, who acted as focusser and painting. These will probably now be example, he illustrates the familiar terms
transmitter of the whole school of forces, regarded as two of the most interesting Romanticism, Classicism, and Realism
of which nature poetry occupied a mere chapters in the book. Nothing enables by showing how they correspond with his
us better to appreciate the formation in
Miss Reynolds hardly seems to realize England of a special taste for picturesque "If a correspondence between them and
what an enormous amount of work has and romantic scenery than the growth
threefold division of the faculties
been done in development of this par- of the great water-colour and topographical employed in poetry can be discerned, we
shall have made some progress towards
ticular field by students of Thomson and school. When men and mountains meet, definite conceptions. Such a correspond-
Rousseau, such as Léon Morel and Joseph great things frequently emerge. Miss ence is revealed by the theory that each
Texte. This enthusiasm for nature and Reynolds tells us a good many things of these three tendencies is definable as
the picturesque was called Anglomania that are worth hearing about the early the predominance of one of the faculties
by students of the gaiety and social ease landscape-painters; and their work is
over the other two. Romanticism is the
of our Gallic neighbours. Landscape was exhibited in some capital illustrations. tendency characterized by the predomin-
an aristocratic fetish. The French bor- She rightly attaches great importance sense of fact. Classicism is the tendency
rowed it, and experimented in country to Richard Wilson, of whom Ruskin characterized by the predominance of reason
house life under the encouraging glances wrote :
over imagination and the sense of fact.
of Rousseau. The English garden was
Realism is the tendency characterized by
deemed a school of virtue, the innocence who has got away out of all the camere, imagination and reason. "
Here at last is an honest Englishman the predominance of the sense of fact over
of flower - culture a corrective to the and the Loggie, and the Stanze, and
natural malignity of man. Thomson and the Schools, and the Disputas. . . . and has In coming to this conclusion he is moved
Gessner had a whole salon of French laid himself down with his own poor eyes chiefly by a desire for truth, hardly at
imitators. The attractions of town and and heart, and the sun casting his light all_by debating skill.
country became “inverted to students between ruins possessor he of so much of Excellent also is his examination of
of Cowper and Ossian. The mountains the evidently
blessed peace of things. . . Heine's conception of Romanticism as
and sea became magnets. Voltaire him he and the poor lizard in the cranny of the Mediævalism, and his conclusion that
self felt the solicitations of the nature
“ the elements in mediæval life and art that
school to be getting so powerful that he We also have an appreciative aceount of have provided stimulus to modern romantic
talked of abandoning the upright posture the earlier men in this landscape and writers have been those which, whether
altogether and going to grass on all marine medium, such as Monamy, Taverner, secular or religious, were marked by a high
fours.
Bellers, the Smiths, and the Cozenses: degree of ideal aspiration ; in other words,
Miss Reynolds is too partial, and These men and their compeers may be by ruling conceptions, in which the dominant
;
perhaps too timid in the handling of her said to a large extent to have discovered
and,
theme, to have recourse to anything like a the beauties of rural England, of Derby-
broad and ultimate analysis. In an age shire, Cumberland, Westmorland (Miss by virtue of this, the revival of certain
of rapid urbanization men at all out of Reynolds levels a dire affront at Appleby aspects of Mediævalism, when genuinely
the common conceive a passion for the by calling it a village), and Wales, and sympathetic and not merely external and
eclogue and the pastoral
. At first it the joy of their discovery is reflected in imitative, may be regarded as a true phase
of Romanticism. ''
may take them no further than the their work. One of the characteristics
Georgics and fables of Gay or the gravel of the love of nature which these men
Yet this lucidity is deceptive, and in the
paths of Shenstone. But the spirit of fostered is the new delight in wide end almost wearisome, and certainly dis-
man in its craving for poetical refreshment views such as those from the Castle at
Essentials of Poetry. By William Allan
is in a state of perpetual unrest. The Edinburgh, the Beacon at Malvern, the Neilson. Lowell Lectures, 1911, (Con-
hollowness of old phrases is discovered, Reservoir at Launceston. The cutting stable & Co. )
our
## p. 700 (#522) ############################################
700
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4417, JUNE 22, 1912
as a
appointing. We might consent to ignore
tion of the Islands of Providence, Hen-
the fact that Prof. Neilson's threefold
A GREAT PARLIAMENTARIAN.
rietta, and the Adjacent Islands ” (in the
essentials are essentials in some degree of
Bahamas)-in which Pym had large
all prose that is not purely occasional and MR. WADE is amply warranted in holding holdings and was Treasurer, and, towards
informing, though that is a weakness not that there has been no more vivid period the end, Deputy-Governor. As the period
atoned for by many vague, if respectful, of English history than that of which for of the Company's operations was 1628-40,
references to the importance of rhythm. several years John Pym was one of the the summary record of its board-meetings
His real weakness is in the treatment of central figures. The warmer welcome and business throws light on Pym’s inter-
imagination. His lucid method is such as should be assured to a book which aims at ests and personal associations during the
not to excuse him when he comes to say “setting before the general reader a clear eleven years when there was no t'arlia-
that Coleridge's line about icicles,
account of a great man who has been too ment. To Mr. Wade these pe sonal
Quietly shining in the quiet Moon,
much forgotten. " Unfortunately, in associations are of thrilling interest and
though, “taken word by word, it seems
achieving the work the author has lost sinister significance. For in the roll-call
sight of his aim, and the result is an
of the Adventurers he finds the names of
to be perfectly literal, yet, taken as a line, interesting disappointment. The book Saye and Fiennes, Hampden and Croma
touches us imaginatively in a fashion too
subtle for analysis. ”. The words taken obligations to, the erudite, sane, and Mandeville
, Pym and Rous-braces of
shows knowledge of, and confesses full well, Holland and Rich, Warwick and
line are a testimony to his feeling ; broad-minded' historian who devoted kindred, it will be observed, and most of
but touches us imaginatively,” if suffi-
cient in conversation, is not so in his book.
to Pym's period the labour of a life. Yet them men who were to come into promi-
it presents a reversion to a degree of sheer nence on the Parliamentary side in the
Conscious, perhaps, of this weakness, he antipathy for the great Parliamentarian years ahead. To Mr. Wade their associa-
has to add a fourth fundamental,“ pecu- which is blind rather than old. It is tion during this historic recess is an
liarly related to the imagination,” which
he calls Intensity, the fire that “ melts and written by a man of ability, with the ominous conjuncture of disastrous stars,
fuses the other three. In this chapter
confident intelligence which legal training and one wonders, after a time, that the
business, with its
on ‘Intensity' he is able to introduce gives. But the personal note is so sub- whole “Plantation
on ‘Intensity,' he is able to introduce ordinated to the reactionary tune of the meetings now in Brooke House, now. in
power of preparing the reader to realize time that we soon find ourselves taking an Warwick House, and now in the lodging
the content of the poem more intensely. " interest in the book as a social symptom of Mr. Pym, is not explained outright as
Thus he ends by convincing us that, had rather than as a contribution to its subject. a curtain for a conspiracy. At any rate,
he been more patient, he would have done Nevertheless, Mr. Wade does bring they are all conspirators for Mr. Wade
without Intensity, except as a quality of contributions of some value. Regarding henceforth. He sees them at work every-
where : partly a revolutionary secret
Imagination, in which he would have seen Pym's career after 1602, when he was
the fire that “melts and fuses” memories called to the Bar, we know nothing,
society, partly the managers of a vast and
and impressions into poetry.
says S. R. Gardiner, “till he entered the vague political machine having Pym for
We should have gladly seen him using House of Commons as member for Calne its“ boss," a “ boss” whose only scruples
more intensity in his cultivation of the in 1614. ” Mr. Wade proves that he was
are supplied by his fanaticism. If we
not in that Parliament, and does some-
would take Mr. Wade's view of it, the
chosen field. He might have taken a
single poem, and by intensive cultivation thing to fill the gap between 1602 and entire series of events leading on to the
have produced a more nourishing wrop. He has also dug into the Commons' is but the intended outcome of the sinister
Pym's appearance in the House in 1621. Civil War and the execution of the King
seldom met a critic more likely to be Journals” for traces of Pym's activity in machinations of these Adventurers. Yet
successful in a study of the power to the six Parliaments preceding the Long it must be added at once that Pym's own
humanize many things which are incon one, and has deposited the skeleton record single capacity in that regard is great
gruous to the mind and to make poetry in an appendix. The entries make dis- enough to absorb, and, we should have
of them—the power shown in 'Lycidas continuous reading, but emit flashes of thought, to have dispensed with, that of
all his colleagues.
and in Swinburne's Ave atque Vale. ' interest and even awe. For instance :-
He might have shown us why we do not
On what a flimsy foundation such a
-
object to an atheist, who regarded life commendeth Mr. Pymme's Speech and charge is built can be quickly shown.
after death as an entirely incognizable Advice yesterday to do Things nicely and Peers and other persons who were influ-
matter, writing a memorial poem full of temperately and not tumultuarily. " ential enough to secure for themselves and
fantastic surmises, and beginning :
“ June 25, 1629. Pym to bring in and friends a colonial Patent were fairly likely
Shall I strew on theo rose or rue or laurel. . . . . .
leave with the Clerk To-morrow morning, to play a part of some consequence in the
all the Writings he has concerning Religion. great national events of their time. Also,
He might have shown how “Ave atque
they would consider themselves fortunate
Vale,' to those who can become “ all ear,'
But more characteristic of the man and in being able to secure the directive and
is a perfect poem, unless they pause where the time
are many passages of this organizing assistance of a man with Pym's
the poet speaks of laying on the tomb, description :
great-probably at that time unmatched
Orestes-like, a curl of severed hair. " “ April 28, 1629. Reports from the Com- knowledge of business and finance; or
With what Prof. Neilson has given us mittee for Religion concerning Montague the co-operation of a gentleman of Hamp-
we cannot be content. At the same time, and Burgess, Vicar of Witney, and Com. den’s urbanity, persuasiveness, and wealth.
we must praise the pervading combination [= on a committee to go to the Archbishop Likewise, it was merely natural that the
of sympathy and lucidity, of which it is of Canterbury and ask him about Popish initiators of the project and the first Ad-
impossible to give adequate examples, expressing the Substance of the Statutes of venturers should have brought into the
though the lucidity has been too easily Magna Charta, and of the other Statutes, concern relations of their own, both for
content with new names, and the sym- and of the Resolutions made in this House the sake of the capital they would provide
pathy with old ones. It is not enough concerning the Liberty of the Subjects in and that they might share in the expected
that a professor of English can their Persons and Estates appointed upon advantages. Thus Hampden accounts for
thoroughly prove his judgment and the Question without one negative.
his cousin Cromwell, Pym for Rous,
power to stimulate, but the circumstance
New matter of more importance is Holland for Fiennes, and so on. Further,
is sufficiently rare to be recorded with drawn from vol. i. of the Calendar of that a group of eight or ten public men,
pleasure. His “ imagination, reason, and State Papers (Colonial),' issued so long engaged for some years in a common
sense of fact” will become little better ago as 1860. This is the story of a char business enterprise, should afterwards be
than cudgels in the hands of lesser tered company—“The Governors and found working on the same side in politics
critics ; because they are so like cudgels, Company of Adventurers for the Planta- (as some of them had been working before)
they are likely to have few attractions
is nothing intrinsically mysterious. For,
for the greater.
John Pym. By C. E. Wade. (Pitman & Sons. ) besides the fact that kinship would imply
6
66
)
66
SO
## p. 701 (#523) ############################################
No. 4417, JUNE 22, 1912
THE ATHEN ÆUM
701
fain to cry
accuser.
kindred minds in most cases, there is the Additional Instruction” on November They obtained plenty of birds as well-
more comprehensive fact that over a 5th, yet passed it in amended form 2,200 skins, representing about 235 species,
great part of the period here treated on November 8th-our author turns aside of which ten proved to be new to science.
until emphasis thrown on the religious to discover a reason more congruent with But they did not get the phonix; whereas
question brought the sundering hour and the notion of Pym as a man of mystery, what the phenix would be amongst
gave Charles a party at last-practically dark and arid, going in and out of Parlia- birds, that, or very nearly that, is the
all thinking England and both Houses of ment with a supply of scares in his pocket Pygmy amongst the types and races of
Parliament were on that side, the side of to herd the members whither he would mankind. Somewhat unkindly, Mr. Wil-
an historic nation against a despotic king, have them go.
