No More Learning

The officer who carried century. In these days of State Socialism the evidence of an accused person, he or
the dispatch which decided the destiny it is interesting to study the attempts she has a better chance before a French
of the Spanish royal family was Capt. made to remedy the Elizabethan system of than before an English jury, the inter-
Danencourt, and any other fictions with poor relief and to see that in Pitt's time a rogatory by the French presiding judge
which Marbot embroidered this story are contributory scheme of Old-Age Pensions being usually less severe than the cross-
of relatively small importance.
was proposed. Of the other essays, the best examination by an English counsel for
Certain passages or incidental allusions are, we think, British Rule in Corsica 'and the prosecution. Other advantages en-
in the book suggest that the author \ Napoleon’s Conception of the Battle of ! joyed by the French prisoner, as shown
gar
, is
poleas
iteru
minte
t of a
APS
ܬܐ
olar
berdiri
ofaut
Rose says :-
66
41
Hir
lukte
她​是
​6
!


## p. 490 (#370) ############################################

480
No. 4409, APRIL 27, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
Τ
HOME UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY OF MODERN
KNOWLEDGE
LEATHER
CLOTH.
2
6
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2
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
belief in Mr. Hoffe's rather ugly little fairy-
INotice in these columns does not preclude longer
tale. Fortunately there is one droll cha-
reviow. )
racter in the play, which Mr. Frederick Kerr
Hardy (Harold), Tak TRAGEDY OF Amy for impropriety, whose every speech, thanks
impersonates, a politician on the look-out
ROBSART, in Five Acts, 2/6 net. Banks largely to the actor's dry manner, is pro-
Mr. Hardy has dramatized the story of vocative of laughter. Other attempts at
Amy Robsart with some care and dignity humour are dragged in with no more artistry
of utterance, and without lapses of taste.
His blank verse, though resonant, melli- / does not mean that we failed to admire Mr.
than is customary on the variety stage--this
Editors :
NET.
Herbert Fisher, M. A.
fluous, and full of agreeable word-pictures, James Carew's cameo of a Yankee character.
F. B. A.
is too sedate and monotonous to kindle any
256
256
Prof. Gilbert Murray,
D. Litt. LL. D. F. B. A.
but slight fires in the reader. Nor is the THE French players, who inaugurated their
PAGES,
PAGES
Prof. J. Arthur
characterization more than shadowy. But season at the Little Theatre on Wednesday
Thomson, M. A.
2/6 NET.
the play is sincere and praiseworthy, and night, if they stimulated us with their
Prof. Wm. T. Browstor.
reminiscent of the more quietistic Eliza- acting, did not captivate us by their choice
bethan manner.
It is engaging rather than of play. 'La Casaque' was Molière bowd- THE FIFTH TEN VOLUNES NOW RBADY.
powerful.
lerized, wrenched into a shape congenial 11. CONSERVATISM. LORD HUGH CECIL, M. A. M. P.
for histrionic tours de force. Of M. Tra-
26. AGRICULTURE.
Kerr (Mina), INFLUENCE OF BEN JONSON ON
Prof. W. SOMERVILLE, F. L. S.
ENGLISH COMEDY, 1598–1642.
rieux's 'Un Soir, the less said the better. 43. ENGLISH LITERATURE, MEDIÆVAL.
Prof. W. P. KER, M. A.
Its theme is the calculation of & woman,
University of Pennsylvania who, thanks to the generosity of her husband,
44. THE PRINCIPLES OF PHYSIOLOGY.
Prof. J. G. MCKENDRICK, M. D.
A monograph of insatiable industry, but decides to forego elopement with the fiancé
45. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
hardly one that is likely to stimulate interest of her stepdaughter and to abide by the
J. PEARSALL SMITH, M. A.
in the subject. The author is too much ad marital respectabilities. The characters do
46. MATTER AND ENERGY
F. SODDY, M. A F. R. S.
dicted to pigeon-holing the subject matter, not step out from their automatic sheaths, 47. BUDDHISM.
MRS. Rurs DAVIDS.
crowding the thesis with superabundant and the play is grotesque in its unreality and
48. THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR With Maps.
allusion, and discovering points of identity lame conjuring of a situation.
Prof. F. L. PAXSON.
between Ben Jonson, and his dramatic con-
49. PSYCHOLOGY. The study of Behaviour.
temporaries and descendants, the existence of
What interested us was the capability of
Prof. W. McDOUGALL, M. B.
the actors. What they cando in circumstances
50. NONCONFORMITY.
which most students of English literature are
Its Origin and
Progress.
Principal W. B. SELBIE, M. A.
aware of. Jonson's influence is discussed that require depth, insight, and tragic
chiefly in relation to his “
sons,
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Shakespeare, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF about them, but they are so jaunty and
KING JOHN, edited by Henry M. sprightly that they allure by their sheer particulars of the volumes published, and of a large
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the Notes,
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author
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and journalist. His weird and flamboyant
stories, of which Dracula' is the best
Edited by CHARLES WENDELL TOWNSEND, M. B.
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known, had a considerable vogue; but he
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by the Cambridge Repertory Company, and affection in days alike of stress and
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The simplification of Shakespeare appears
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Principal Contents of APRIL Number. NOW READY.
Little Damozel,' but in ‘Iinproper Peter'
THE RIGHT TO STRIKE AND LOCK-OUT. By Robert
A. Duff, D. Phil.
Mr. Monckton Hoffe has not mixed his
THE JESUS OF "Q"-the Oldest Source in the Gospels.
ingredients so adroitly as before. Perhaps
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS.
By George Holley Gilbert.
THE GREAT QUESTION. By William Dillon, Chicago,
his choice of setting has something to do
BRAHMA. An Account of the Central Doctrine of Hindu
with his smaller degree of success. Fantastic
Theology as understood in the East and misunderstood
in the West. By Prof. S. A. Desai, Holkar College,
situations and types seem more appropriate
Indore, Central India.
in the atmosphere of a Bohemian restaurant
BAGSTER & SONS
THE ESSENTIALS OF A UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.
than on a yacht moored off Cowes. The
By Principal W. M. Childs, University College,
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Reading.
strange ingenuousness of his heroine has CATALOGUES
IS CIVILISATION IN DANGER? A Reply. By Joseph
also to be taken into account. Innocence
CHATTO & WINDUS
M'Cabe.
COBDEN-SANDERSON
FRESH LIGHT ON THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM.
at the mercy of disreputable associates is EDUCATIONAL
a satisfactory enough formula for drama,
ENGLISH REVIEW
Matthew a Lucan Source. By Robinson Smith, M. A.
THE OCCULT OBSESSIONS OF SCIENCE
with
ENO'S FRUIT SALT
Descartes as an Object-Lesson. By Louis T. More,
provided the innocence be not too incredible. EXHIBITIONS
But Mr. Hoffe's heroine, after following a
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LANE
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## p. 491 (#371) ############################################

No. 4410, MAY 4, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
491
was
ROBERT BROWNING
PITT AND NAPOLEON
MADAME STRINHEIL'S MEMORIES
PAGR
491
492
LANGUAGE
496
AUTOGRAPH SALE
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS
FORTHCOMING BOOKS
LITERARY GOSSIP
497
498
503
504
>
MEETINGS NEXT
505--507
507--509
PERFORMANCES NEXT WEEK
509510
. .
511-512
512
a
came
6
born in Scotland. Doubtless it • The Ring and the Book,' with its
SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1912.
from her that he derived his love of music. exquisite invocation to his wife :-
He was, we are told, when an infant,
CONTENTS.
O lyric Love, half angel and half bird,
hushed to sleep by his father to the
And all a wonder and a wild desire.
words of an ode by Anacreon; as a child
of five, he was interested in the tale of Just before its publication Messrs. Smith
493 Troy.
His schooldays were
unsatis- & Elder issued a uniform edition of the
ENOLISH MEDIEVAL LITERATURE AND THE ENGLISH factory, and were soon over. It is sig- poems to that date. This may be said,
nificant, just at this period in the history with the appearance of his masterpiece, to
THE CANON LAW IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
of the University of London, to note that mark Browning's full public recognition
FLERT STREET AND THE STRAND
496 497
the elder Browning was one of the early as a poet. The Athenceum, which had
shareholders who subscribed 1001. towards not hesitated to criticise some of his work
the foundation of University College. severely, rendered unstinted praise to
Robert's name was among the first entered · The Ring and the Book. ' In a sense,
SCIENCE-THE DOCTOR AND THE PEOPLE; NOTICES on the register of students, but he left Browning's genius had sprung early to
OF NEW BOOKS; SOCIETIES;
WEEK; GOSSIP
with what must have been disconcerting maturity. Some passages in ‘Paracelsus
FINE ARTS-NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS; MR. WALTER abruptness. It was in the home, in his are as fine as anything he ever wrote,
SICKERT AT THE CARFAX GALLERY; THE ROYAL
father's library, that he received his but the dramatic treatment of the story
ACADEMY ; SALES ; GOSSIP
true education, and he speaks of
of Pompilia marks it out as supreme.
Music-BROWNING AS THE POET OF Music; GOSSIP ;
In attempting to estimate the genius
My first dawn of life,
DRAMA - SHAKESPEARE AND SOME ACTORS; GOSSIP
Which passed alone with wisest ancient books,
of Browning, it is useless to ignore the
All halo-girt with fancies of my own.
much-vexed question about which
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS.
In the spring of 1829, when
great deal of nonsense has been talked
he
left college, Robert Browning definitely of poetry that would separate the sub-
and written. It is altogether a false view
chose poetry as his vocation. In 1833
stance and the form. A philosopher may
LITERATURE
Pauline' was published, of which the
Athenæum remarked that “fine things
be hailed as great because of his ideas,
abound; there is no difficulty in finding placed before the student be crabbed
although the mode in which they are
passages to vindicate our praise. . . . To and halting. But in true poetry thought
ROBERT BROWNING.
one who sings so naturally, poetry must
be as easy as music is to a bird. ” Para-
and its expression cannot be thus severed.
The century which has elapsed since celsus,'
which followed, caused the judg-evitable form, and neither can be con-
The content moulds for itself the in-
Robert Browning's birth probably owes ment of the latter sentence to be some-
as much to his influence as to that of any what revised, and we can hardly wonder separable substance,” to quote Dr. A. C.
sidered separately. The "heresy of the
other modern poet. This is not because at this; but there was much that was
admiration for his work can, as yet, be splendid in the poem. Next
Bradley's Oxford Lectures on Poetry,
is untenable. It is therefore beside the
called general; but the intensity of the Strafford,' Sordello,' due to the study
appreciation, in his case, may be said of Dante, and series after series of Bells mark to plead, in defence of the art of
to make up for its lack of extent. In and Pomegranates. '
Browning, that although the expression
his character, triple and indivisible, of
may be clumsy and repellent, the ideas
prophet, philosopher, and singer, he has Meanwhile a Miss Barrett had been are admirable. He satirized this criticism
laid such hold upon those who love him, writing in The Athenceum a series of himself in 'The Inn Album':
that their devotion amounts to something
articles on the early Greek Christian poets,
That bard 's a Browning; he neglects the form :
like a religion.
and it is interesting to note that it was But ah, the sense, ye gods, the weighty sense !
The oft-quoted sentence of Hegel that into touch with Browning, who was,
through these that she was first brought
The Saturday Review of November 24th,
A great man condemns the world to
a set purpose to
the task of explaining him,” has been
she writes to Mr. Boyd, “not behind in 1855, accused him of
repeated once again with regard to is said to be learned in Greek, especi jingle of Hudibrastic rhyme. " "If this
approbation. ” Moreover, " Mr. Browning be obscure, and an idiot captivity to the
Browning. And when was“ task. more ally in the dramatists. " Everyone
sort of thing be true of anything that he
conscientiously undertaken ? Critical,
knows the wonderful details of the romance
has written, it is out of accord with the
metaphysical, biographical volumes of
that followed. Life in Italy after the
root conception of poetry. In all his
Browning apologetics” constitute
literature in themselves. A society, re-
marriage in 1846 had a deep influence work, but especially in later years, the
garded with half - humorous recognition and Easter - Day' appeared in 1850,
on the poet's genius. Christmas-Eve love of dialectic, 'intellectual analysis,
by the poet, was founded in his lifetime
and Easter - Day' appeared in 1850. and brutal frankness sometimes got the
better of him.
to elucidate his works. The very phrase Mrs. Browning's appointment to
In the same year The Athenæum urged
No author who put forth such a vast
the
“ Browning student,” is significant. Who Laureateship,
then vacant through the quantity, of work as Browning did,
talks about a Tennyson student,” a
“ Matthew Arnold student” ?
death of Wordsworth. It was suggested writing for upwards of fifty years on all
Accord
that the choice of a woman would be a manner of subjects, can invariably be at
ingly his genealogy and youthful environ-
his best. But one feels occasionally that
ment have been scrutinised with the graceful compliment to Queen Victoria.
he did not want to be at his best ; that
view of explaining his individuality.
The two volumes of' Men and Women
he was disdainful of the beauty which is
Camberwell - Dissent - Middle Class ! were Browning's next achievement, and part of the ultimate secret of all true
This “study of origins
sounds more
the last poem here is · One Word More
poetry; that he gloried in the harshness
unpromising than it is. In 1812 Camber- to E. B. B.
to E. B. B. In 1861 Mrs. Browning died. and obscurity which tend to destroy it.
well
virtually in the
the country,
The Athenæum, with which she had long
The Athenæum spoke of the “ music”
and from Southampton Street, where
been intimately connected, and which
of Pauline,' and it seems extraordinary
Browning lived as a child, he could hear
was the indirect means of introducing that the poem should long have been
the nightingales call one to another.
her and her husband to one another, 1 excluded by its author from the collection
The religious influences of his home happened to be almost the last printed of his works. Crude, boyish, unequal,
made for earnestness and independence page she looked upon.
it may be ; but the mystical description
of thought. As to his parentage, his It was characteristic of Browning that of music itself, for example, is beautiful.
father was a clerk in the Bank of England; | in his deep anguish he resolved still to We deal elsewhere to-day with that
his mother, “a divine woman " to her live and work and write. " After the special feeling for music which is so
son, was of German extraction, though 'publication of Dramatis Personæ'came strong in Browning's work.
a
was
66


## p. 492 (#372) ############################################

492
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4410, MAY 4, 1912
a
Wherein lies the compelling splendour
Paracelsus, the model of intellectual
of Browning's art? First, in his dra- egotism, is misled by vain confidence, Pitt and Napoleon : Essays and Letters.
matic power, and secondly in his idealism. but in the end he discerns the truth. By J. Holland Rose. (Bell & Sons. )
“ My stress lay on the incidents in the Bishop Blougram, worldly and selfish The title of this volume—“Pitt and
development of a soul; little else is materialist, says :-
Napoleon'— may mislead. It suggests
worth study,” he says in the introduc- Just when we are safest, there 's a sunset-touch, an exposition of the policy of the British
tion to Sordello. '
A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death,
A chorus-ending from Euripides,--
minister with regard to Bonaparte, but the
Since Shakespeare, there has been no
And that 's enough for fifty hopes and fears book contains nothing of the sort. It is
such dramatic poet; no one, that is, as old and new at once as nature's self, composed of nine essays and of several
with so much of the stuff of drama in To rap and knock and enter in our soul.
his work.
collections of correspondence and other
Shakespeare revealed his Browning's steadily optimistic concep-documents of the period, regarding either
characters by action; Browning reveals tion of the world, as Sir Henry Jones says, Pitt or Napoleon; but very few pages
them chiefly by the study of motive. infused new vigour into English ethical in the volume touch upon 'Pitt's policy
The greater part of what he discerned thought. Men felt they could reasonably with respect to Napoleon, or juxtapose
in man was not adapted for action behind trust him. It is the poet who must take the two great names in any relation what-
the footlights. In his Dramatic Lyrics the leap forward ; the philosopher must
ever. Indeed, most of those concerning
and in The Ring and the Book,' follow. Intuition and perception must Pitt belong to the time when Bonaparte
he places himself at the heart of his come first ; but Browning loved to argue, was only a general of the Republic, whose
characters, and endeavours to think to justify his own conclusions, as in
military qualities alone interested Euro-
their thoughts, to look through their · Rabbi Ben Ezra' and ' A Grammarian's
pean statesmen; while those in which
eyes. This it is which makes him, not Funeral. '
Napoleon is the chief figure are of the
only a religious poet, but also the greatest In 'Pauline' he avows himself
period long after the death of Pitt. This
poetic apologist for Christianity that the disciple of Plato. In his noblest work will be seen from an analysis of the con-
age has known.
the conviction appears that there exists a
tents of the volume. Of its 340 pages
To turn from this aspect of Browning's world of invisible realities, of which the the essays occupy 160. In the first, on
art, the learning shown in the selection of consummate expression on earth must be The
Oratory of Pitt,' there is only one
recondite corners of history, and out-of-the- inadequate.
way personages for dramatic treatment, is He has made a firm faith in the ultimate one repite and a smart Fitzwilliam Wand mon
simply bewildering, while technical know- spiritual destiny of mankind seem reason-
The Quiberon Disaster,' Napoleon is
ledge of one subject after another
con- able, enabling his disciples to do more not mentioned. In the fourth, entitled
stantly appears in their delineation. than “ trust
British Rule in Corsica,' an interesting
Browning himself was anything but un-
that somehow good
essay of 19 pages, there are not 30 lines
conventional in his
appearance and habits.
Will be the final goal of ill.
relating to the great Corsican. The
He was sturdy and outspoken, it is true. This is no light thing for any writer fifth, on the 'Relief of the Poor,' treats
“I was ever a fighter,” he says truthfully, to accomplish. His method of achieving of a domestic question. In the sixth,
and there is significance in the furious his aim may, to many, appear open to the longest in the book, entitled Did
lines he fired off to The Athenaeum on criticism. But it has strengthened men Napoleon intend to Invade England ? ' the
reading a thoughtless expression published for the battle of life, and encouraged all name of Pitt appears on five only of its 33
in Edward FitzGerald's Letters' re- brave and noble virtues.
pages.
In the three other essays, on
garding his wife's work.
Next Tuesday the centenary of the The True Significance of Trafalgar,' on
But the greatest hold that Browning poet is to be celebrated in Westminster Marbot's Memoirs,' and on Napoleon's
has upon the present age undoubtedly Abbey. Another tribute to the occasion Conception of the Battle of Waterloo,
comes from his idealism.