“All in his train de luxe
Reading selected books,
Including Conan Doyle’s ingenious fiction
And popular quota-
Tions, verses by the way
For which he has a curious predilection,
And Mr. Werther’s work
Called ‘England shall not shirk,’
Or ‘The Cape to Cairo, Kairouan and Cadiz,’
And ‘Burke,’ and ‘Who is Who,’
And ‘Men and Women’ too,
And ‘Etiquette for Gentlemen and Ladies,’”
Et cetera, et cetera.
All that lyric depends entirely for its effects upon the little
Venetian air taken from Sullivan, who himself took it from Verdi,
who got it from a Gondolier. The words by themselves have no beauty
whatsoever.
Indeed, I think in the whole Ode there is but one exception to the
rule I have laid down, and that is at the very end, where they sing
of the accomplished task and, in a fine hyperbole, of the “Great
story that shall shake the affrighted years.”
The last five lines are such good music and such good verse that I
cannot dissociate one from the other:--