Forman sale at the Anderson Galleries, New York, reach us. They
emphasize the present flourishing condition of what the late owner of
the books in question once, in an unguarded moment, called "The Keats
and Shelley" business. Two copies of books by Keats, which belonged to
Fanny Braune (afterwards Mrs. Lindon), were included in the first day's
sale. The _Poems_ (1817), inscribed with her name, "Frances Lindon,"
and presumed to be a presentation copy from the poet, and a first
edition of _Lamia_, _Isabella_, _The Eve of St. Agnes_, etc. (1820),
inscribed on the title-page "to F. B. from J. K." These two books
fetched $1750 and $4000, and, at the normal rate of exchange, £350
and £800 respectively. Even a series of eighteen letters from George
Keats sold for $1800. Apparently it is better to be a poet's brother
than oneself a poet, for an eight-page autograph manuscript of William
Blake's poem _Genesis_, which is still unpublished, was bought by the
Rosenbach Company, of Philadelphia, for $1350.
* * * * *
Other items in this sale were Browning's _Pauline_, first edition
(1833), an uncut copy with the original boards and paper label intact
($2560) and the MS. of _Colombe's Birthday_, title and fifty-nine folio
pages ($1200). Eight hundred dollars, normally the equivalent of £160,
was the price paid for a copy of the first edition of _Adam Bede_
(1859), presented by George Eliot to Thackeray.
A. L. H. and I. A. W.
CORRESPONDENCE
AMERICAN COPYRIGHT
(_To the Editor of_ THE LONDON MERCURY)
SIR,--I trust you will find room to insert this letter after the space
you have given to Mr. G. H. Putnam. We are all grateful for the work
that Mr. Putnam has done, but--to use an American phrase, which no
doubt he will appreciate--"there are others" who have worked equally
hard, and not infrequently with a more satisfactory result. We must
thank you, therefore, for your brief Editorial Note in the March issue.
The real reason, however, for this letter is to correct some of the
statements made by Mr. Putnam. He glorifies the new American Act
because of its liberal allowance of 120 days' "interim" copyright.
He has understated his own case. The Act gives sixty days from the
publication abroad in which to deposit a copy at Washington, and four
months from the date of deposit in which to take up the copyright,
subject to the numerous harassing technicalities of the Act. An author,
therefore, has 180 instead of 120 days.
In Mr. Putnam's second statement he tries to score a point against
Great Britain. As in the former paragraph he understated his case, in
this he would overstate it.
He complains that American authors have to make a _bona-fide_
publication in Great Britain within fourteen days of the publication in
the United States. He italicises _bona fide_. He must have overlooked
the fact that _publication_ is an essential part of copyright in the
States just as much as it is in Great Britain. This item then can be
ruled out.
He contrasts, however, the meagre allowance of fourteen days under the
British Act against the liberal allowance of 180 (not 120) days under
the American Act. It must be pointed out with due emphasis that when
the author is not hampered by typesetting clauses, printed copyright
notices, and filing difficulties, time in the matter of publication is
really of little account. The American publisher has merely to ship off
a consignment before he publishes the book in the States and to await
instructions from the London house that the consignment has arrived.
There is no difficulty in this step. So long as the technicalities of
United States Act still stand we are sick of these counter-irritants,
which, now the war is over, "cut no ice."
We have heard that the Typesetters' Union--of which Mr. Putnam seems
unduly alarmed--could be made to understand from statistics supplied
that they are standing in their own light. But, perhaps, if they are
still obdurate on the practical side, they might be influenced by
the argument of the idealist "that it is a disgrace to a civilised
nation to stand outside the intellectual Union of other civilised
Nations." The Americans have had the opportunity of joining the revised
Convention of Berne for many years, but have neglected to do so.
It is not astonishing, therefore, that President Wilson cannot
influence them to follow him into the League of Nations under the Peace
Treaty.
For the last paragraph of Mr. Putnam's letter--his ἀπολογία {apologia}
for American authors and publishers--all authors in Great Britain are
grateful. If British authors have not followed with appreciation the
efforts of their brothers in the States, they should have done so. We
gladly now pay tribute to the work of those who so long and earnestly,
yet unsuccessfully, have struggled to bring the United States to join
the ranks of other civilised nations.--Yours, etc.,
G. HERBERT THRING.
March 11th.
[Perhaps Major Putnam will reply.--EDITOR.]
FLAUBERT AND MR. STURGE MOORE
(_To the Editor of_ THE LONDON MERCURY)
SIR,--Mr. H. W. Crundell thinks that I should explain the absence of
a note to my poem _Micah_; the presence of the one he suggests would
have appeared to me an impertinence. Did Gray and Arnold call attention
by notes when they adapted a few lines from Pindar? Did Tennyson thus
docket what he owed to Homer and Virgil? To me the explanation seems
rather due from Mr. Crundell: why he wrote his letter, and from you,
why you printed it. However, obviously you think differently, so this
occasion may as well serve me to allay an innocent curiosity that I
neither intended to provoke nor to baffle. Besides Mr. Crundell's find
there is a longer passage from _Salammbo_ in my _Mariamne_. I put a
line from Goldsmith's _She Stoops to Conquer_ into my _Rout of the
Amazons_, a phrase from Myers' translation of Pindar into _At Bethel_,
and a phrase from Milton into _Love's First Communion_. Excepting the
usual array from the Bible, I believe these to be all my verbal and
literal appropriations.--Yours, etc.,
T. STURGE MOORE.
P.S.--I have forgotten an unintentional one, a line from Keats in
_Mariamne_.
[By printing Mr. Crundell's letter we didn't mean to suggest that we
agreed with his argument; we were merely interested in the derivation
of a beautiful passage in a beautiful poem.--EDITOR.]
* * * * *
"MANSOUL"
(_To the Editor of_ THE LONDON MERCURY)
SIR,--Your review of Mr. Doughty's _Mansoul_ reveals an attitude
somewhat similar to that of Jeffrey towards Wordsworth. May a humble
reader hesitatingly retort the phrase--This will never do? Your
reviewer does not think Mr. Doughty should be ignored, but he finds
Chaucer easier and more modern, and considers this poetry at best a
thing of tough shreds and purple patches.
With this opinion I do not contend, for I do not clearly understand
upon what principle of criticism your reviewer is acting; but I should
like to suggest that his opinion springs from a misconception which
ought not to be nourished by the LONDON MERCURY. He seems to think that
Mr. Doughty's "guttural obscurity of speech," his style in general,
is a vital fault. I submit that he assumes rather than proves such
a degree of obscurity, and that he puts an excessive value upon the
merely formal and conventional graces of English blank verse. He does
not recognise that Mr. Doughty is making not only his own poem, but his
own style, and that the poetry is to be judged not exclusively by its
conformity with traditional verse--the false standard of the eighteenth
century--but by the success with which its style empowers and lucidly
presents the author's conception. Casual wrynesses, unaccustomed
inversions, idiosyncratic punctuation (forgive, dear Cobbett, the long
words) do not affect this central question. Your reviewer admits the
greatness of the poet's conception, admits that it has the substantial
elements of noble poetry--I mean such elements as we find in _Paradise
Lost_ and _The Dynasts_--but is unwilling to admit that his form is his
natural form, the form that expresses not only his explicit intention
but his implicit character, and, therefore, a good form. I submit that
Mr. Doughty's style in poetry is the inevitable expression of his mind
at work upon imaginative themes. I submit that a true poet does not
and cannot choose his style, and that the test of his style is not
its degree of conformity with Chaucer's simplicity, Milton's lofty
sweetness, Tennyson's effusive delicacy, but the fullness with which
it expresses his own imaginative vision. Mr. Doughty has written,
not a few miscellaneous lyrics, but a vast body of poetry in which
a perfectly clear apprehension of past and future is presented. His
themes are unfolded with such fullness as enables us to judge whether
the expression of them, unusual as it may seem, ruins them or preserves
them unspoiled, sustains or dulls their brightness. With extreme
diffidence I suggest that your reviewer has not addressed himself to
this proposition, and that this proposition remains an elementary
principle of criticism. And I would remark that Mr. Doughty's own
observations upon his style (note to _The Dawn in Britain_, Volume 6)
might suitably be referred to for a precise statement of his attitude
towards the English language.
The principles of criticism do not change, but may be eclipsed
or clouded. They are familiar, yet need constant reassertion and
illustration. Difficult as it may be to reduce these abstractions to
clear and useful formulæ, I think it would be a service to letters
if you, Sir, would state and clarify them afresh. Wanting definition
and illustration, creation and criticism may become discordant, with
unhappy results for each. It is my suspicion of a faint discord that
must form the apology for the length of this letter.--Yours, etc.,
S. E.
[We did not dispute that Mr. Doughty's style is natural to him. We
merely said that that is his and our misfortune.--EDITOR.]
* * * * *
JOHN DONNE
(_To the Editor of_ THE LONDON MERCURY)
SIR,--After reading the most interesting paper on _John Donne_ in the
last number of THE LONDON MERCURY, I wonder whether Browning had not
him in mind when he wrote _The Grammarian's Funeral_. "An hydroptic
immoderate desire of human learning and languages" consumed the "soul
by-droptic" grammarian no less than Donne; like Donne even to the
crumbs he'd "fain eat up the feast, Aye, nor feel quaesy." He knew
nothing, it is true, of "the quaesy pain Of being beloved and loving";
his was a passion of mind only, though, like Donne, he knew the
sickness of the body overwrought. The analogy could be traced further.
For more reasons than the tracing of remembrance of Donne in one poem
it would be interesting to know how "longe" Browning "hadde ygo" to the
earlier poet.--Yours, etc.,
J. R. RACKHAM.
Queen Mary High School for Girls, Anfield Road, Liverpool, February
13th.
* * * * *
A POINT IN SHERIDAN
(_To the Editor of_ THE LONDON MERCURY)
SIR,--In one of the scenes of Sheridan's _School for Scandal_ occurs
the following passage: "You may see her on a little squat pony _with
her hair plaited up behind like a drummer's_...." (Act 2, sc. 2.)
I presume that the underlined words, which have often puzzled me, are
an allusion to the manners of the time, with which I am insufficiently
acquainted. As none of the editions I have been able to consult give
any explanation on the point, perhaps one of your readers would oblige
me by throwing some light on the matter.--Yours, etc.,
F. PELLISIER.
Remiremont, Vosges, February 16th.
LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC.
THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES
Vandalism in Egypt is deplored in London, but in the present
circumstances we cannot throw stones. Rubbish-heaps are often romantic,
and those of Fostât (Old Cairo) contain masses of mediæval pottery
and other treasures well worth preserving; but the local authorities
propose to create a new suburb by erecting workmen's dwellings all over
them. Systematic excavation cannot be hurried, and careful search might
throw light on the origin of maiolica.
For the first time perhaps in its long history, the Society has devoted
an ordinary meeting to the discussion of Ways and Means. The following
are the principal alternatives: (i) To raise the subscription and
invite donations; (ii) to extend the franchise and popularise the
Society; and (iii) to economise further and lower the output. The
argument that thousands are waiting to join in the work of the Society
is not convincing; and as about ninety per cent. of the Fellows do
not attend the meetings, the publications are their only tangible
reward. If the standard is to be maintained, few would expect the same
return for half the subscription they paid on joining, but to double
the annual levy would be a drastic reform; yet the Society is further
committed to field-work of considerable public interest. The rich we
have always with us, but their presence is not felt so much here as in
America.
THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS
During the last few weeks the restoration of the Lady Chapel of
Worksop Priory has been in progress. It was a roofless ruin, retaining
much fine thirteenth-century work. It is being re-roofed, the fallen
portions rebuilt, and missing parts renewed in the style of the
original building, the new work being made to resemble as nearly as may
be what the old is believed to have been.
This on the face of it _sounds_ reasonable enough, but experience has
shown that in practice the result of such treatment is the reverse of
satisfactory. It is exactly what the restorers of the last century
did, and what people with any knowledge or love of old buildings
deplore to-day, whenever it comes to their notice. It is just such a
case as this which goes to the root of the matter in which the Society
interests itself, and its customary ruling thereon may be stated in the
following way:
1. The ruin should be subjected only to repairs needed for its upkeep.
2. If the site is absolutely necessary to the community for the
purposes of its daily life, it has a right to use such ruins and even
in extremity to demolish them.
3. Confronted by a similar necessity it may be justifiable to
incorporate an old building in a new one. The danger in this case
lies, however, in the fact that the desire to restore for the sake of
restoration may outrun the actual need of a new building designed to
fulfil some special purpose.
Having made this concession to a genuine demand, the Society still
stands out against restoration. The new work should be good and in
harmony with the old, but it should also be living architecture and not
a study in dead style.
As Professor Lethaby expressed it, "Architecture is a current speech,
it is not an art of classical quotation."
But the Lady Chapel of Worksop Priory is actually being restored.
So, though much more might be said, the case ends here, save for the
thought that with better guidance different conclusions would have been
reached.
The promoters of the scheme, having so far determined to make
use of the ruin, might have asked the advice of a selected group
representative of our best men--a group which should include within it
one real authority versed in the building methods of the same period as
that of the ruin, an acknowledged authority on modern architecture, a
representative both of the Society of Antiquaries and the Society for
the Protection of Ancient Buildings. To these one would add a local
architect or builder conversant with the local conditions and material.
To such an advisory board would be committed the task of choosing an
architect, whose plans would be submitted for approval before being
recommended to the promoters.
The scheme may seem to savour too much of the ideal which has no part
in actual life, yet it is worth consideration, for from it, one might
say almost inevitably, good work must result.
As a matter of fact the Committee does comprise within itself the
qualities of such an advisory board, but the above suggestion is made
for those who may prefer, for one reason or another, to ask advice
elsewhere.
THE EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND
The work of this Society has two main branches: the first is the
excavation of Egypt's buried treasures and the publication of careful
records of the finds; the second is the preservation and translation
of the inscriptions, including papyri found in the course of
excavation. The Society has already published hundreds of papyri, the
most important being included in the _Oxyrhynchus Papyri_ edited by
Professors Grenfell and Hunt.
In a lecture given at the rooms of the Royal Society, Burlington House,
on Friday, February 20th, on "The Historical Value of Greek Papyri,"
Mr. H. Idris Bell, a member of the staff of the British Museum, gave
a scholarly review of the work already done in the publication of
papyri, both in this and in other countries, and laid stress on the
necessity for further work in this direction. He pointed out that,
although this country was holding its own in the matter of publication
of fresh material, it was falling behind other countries in the work of
comparing and computing results and the tabulation of the information
thus obtained.
The lecturer said papyri help to correct the false perspective in which
we see history. We tend to see it as a succession of dramatic events
and of great personalities, and economic processes attain a precision
and clearness which is not obvious to contemporaries. But this is not
our attitude towards our own time, and documents show us that it was
not that of our predecessors. Great events of history occur but seldom,
and when they do they are recorded from the purely personal point of
view. The historian cannot chronicle minor interests, but the papyri
serve as the "acid test" of the objectivity of his narrative, and for
this reason it is well that the student should supplement his reading
of history by some study of documents, and for no department of ancient
history have we a body of documentary evidence comparable to the papyri.
Papyri make us acquainted with the ordinary man, his style of living,
his domestic relations, and his family life; it thus becomes possible
to study the popular psychology of Græco-Roman Egypt, and so, by
analogy, to some extent, the Græco-Roman world.
With regard to administration papyri show us the actual working, not
the theory, of administration, and the two rarely exactly coincide. So
too with law; the practice of the law usually differs from the theory
of law, and papyri reveal the practice and show us the applied law.
Turning to religion, papyri mostly illustrate the popular attitude
towards religion; there is not much on mystery cults, but they show
the attitude of the individual towards the deity. It is also possible
from them to trace the borrowings of Christianity from Paganism and to
contrast the Christian and the pagan attitude.
The lecturer gave many interesting illustrations from papyri, including
letters from parents to children and children to parents, letters of
condolence, letters from men engaged upon business or war to their
wives and families, which give a vivid picture of the life of the time.
Sir Frederic Kenyon, K.C.B., who was in the chair, in thanking the
lecturer emphasised the importance of the study of papyri and the
scope this branch of research opened for original work. Here is a vast
field of labour, at present only superficially worked; the harvest is
plentiful, but the labourers are few; certainly they are indefatigable,
but more workers are needed if the full value is to be extracted from
these papyri. Other countries are alive to the importance of the work,
but our own Universities are somewhat apathetic and need arousing.
THE ROYAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY
At the monthly meeting of the Royal Numismatic Society on February
19th, Mr. Percy H. Webb exhibited a portion of a find of late Roman
coins from Egypt. The find covered the period A.D. 298-313, Domitius
Domitianus--Maximinus Daza, and was, said to have comprised nearly two
bushels of coins. The coins which Mr. Webb had been able to examine
belonged to the last five years of the period, and were of three
rulers only, Galerius Maximian, Galeria Valeria, and Daza. The bulk
of the coins were of the Alexandria mint, although Antioch, Cyzicus,
and Nicomedia were also represented. The find presented a number of
interesting features and afforded an interesting opportunity of testing
M. Jules Maurice's work, which it supported in every detail.
Mr. G. C. Brooke read a paper by Mr. R. C. Lockett on "The Coinage of
Offa." The most reasonable suggestion for the date of the beginning
of the Mercian coinage was after the battle of Otford in 774, but it
might be as late as the Council of Chelsea, 786. The mint was probably
Canterbury, as seven of his moneyers struck coins for Coenwulf, and
three of these worked for Eadberht, Cuthred, and Baldred. Coins bearing
the name Eadberht were probably to be attributed to Eadberht, Bishop
of London, 772-787. Another penny with the name hitherto not read
satisfactorily should probably be attributed to Higberht, Bishop of
Lichfield, who was made Archbishop in 787. Cynethrith's coinage was
evidently struck in Offa's lifetime, either as a complimentary issue,
or in a period of regency during Offa's absence. A classification
of the pennies of Offa was proposed, based on their affinity to the
coinage of Jaenberht and Æthilheard.
BOOKS OF THE MONTH
POETRY
FLOWERS IN THE GRASS. By MAURICE HEWLETT. Constable. 5_s._ net.
In recent years Mr. Hewlett, who earned his first fame as a romancer,
has been devoting himself most seriously to verse. And he has done a
very remarkable thing. Two or three years ago, with perhaps twenty
novels and several books of poems behind him, he brought out a long
poem--_The Song of the Plow_--which was a new thing in poetry,
and which was indisputably the finest thing he had done in either
"harmony," an epical poem, which was as easy to read as an excellent
novel, and as good to read the third time as the first. There were
lovely detachable things in it, but it was most striking when taken as
a whole, racy, muscular, original. He followed it with _The Village
Wife's Lament_, a tragedy of the war, only less striking in so far as
it was less long. We have here a collection of his recent lyrics. They
have not the outstanding merit of those works on the larger canvas, but
they are far superior to his early lyrics, and bear new witness after
their manner to his late poetic flowering.
The poems are all rural: mainly Wiltshire, the ancient downs, the
valleys, the villages, the spire of Salisbury. But, save for a few
delicious fancies about flowers, they all contain the human too.
Landscape for Mr. Hewlett, however beautiful, however forbidding,
is always a background for human character and human history. On
that great hill the ledges were planted with corn by primitive men;
on that other the Roman sentries stood; in that field there is a
ploughman whose eyes and hair and thews are Saxon. Quotation from him
is difficult, because of the very largeness of his imagination; his
details are so subordinate that, though he usually gets the phrase
right in its context, he seldom gets the phrase arresting out of its
context. Now and then he is gentler, his language more honeyed, his
rhythms less rugged, and in poems like _Summer Night_ he falls into a
beautiful and a very "contemporary" music.
That, and _Jacob's Ladder_, and _The Cedar_, and the uncanny and
impressive _Chelsbury_ are among the best things in the book; the last
two show his historic imagination at its best, economical though the
expression is. But the best of all, we think, is _In the Fire_.
The fire burns low;
Now the dying embers
Twinkle and glow
Like village lights,
Seen from the heights
In dark Decembers.
There's the foggy gleam
From the Horse and Groom,
Where topers dream
In front of their liquor,
And candles flicker
As pipes allume ...
The whole village passes across the vision: the smithy, a pair in
a farm, an amber blind with girls' shadows on it, a candle and one
reading in a loft: the lights go out one by one till all is dark. It is
a charming picture, and the stanza is beautifully suited to it. It is a
pity that Mr. Hewlett mars it in places with a stumbling-block word or
rhyme.
COUNTRY SENTIMENT. By ROBERT GRAVES. Martin Secker. 5_s._