fashion the brief epilogue that ends this delightful volume. The
difference between the classical and romantic spirits in art has often,
and with much over-emphasis, been discussed. But with what a light sure
touch does Mr. Pater write of it! How subtle and certain are his
distinctions! If imaginative prose be really the special art of this
century, Mr. Pater must rank amongst our century's most characteristic
artists. In certain things he stands almost alone. The age has produced
wonderful prose styles, turbid with individualism, and violent with
excess of rhetoric. But in Mr. Pater, as in Cardinal Newman, we find the
union of personality with perfection. He has no rival in his own sphere,
and he has escaped disciples. And this, not because he has not been
imitated, but because in art so fine as his there is something that, in
its essence, is inimitable.
Appreciations, with an Essay on Style. By Walter Pater, Fellow of
Brasenose College. (Macmillan and Co.)
PRIMAVERA
(Pall Mall Gazette, May 24, 1890.)
In the summer term Oxford teaches the exquisite art of idleness, one of
the most important things that any University can teach, and possibly as
the first-fruits of the dreaming in grey cloister and silent garden,
which either makes or mars a man, there has just appeared in that lovely
city a dainty and delightful volume of poems by four friends. These new
young singers are Mr. Laurence Binyon, who has just gained the Newdigate;
Mr. Manmohan Ghose, a young Indian of brilliant scholarship and high
literary attainments who gives some culture to Christ Church; Mr. Stephen
Phillips, whose recent performance of the Ghost in Hamlet at the Globe
Theatre was so admirable in its dignity and elocution; and Mr. Arthur
Cripps, of Trinity. Particular interest attaches naturally to Mr.
Ghose's work. Born in India, of purely Indian parentage, he has been
brought up entirely in England, and was educated at St. Paul's School,
and his verses show us how quick and subtle are the intellectual
sympathies of the Oriental mind, and suggest how close is the bond of
union that may some day bind India to us by other methods than those of
commerce and military strength.
There is something charming in finding a young Indian using our language
with such care for music and words as Mr. Ghose does. Here is one of his
songs:
Over thy head, in joyful wanderings
Through heaven's wide spaces, free,
Birds fly with music in their wings;
_And from the blue, rough sea
The fishes flash and leap_;
There is a life of loveliest things
O'er thee, so fast asleep.
In the deep West the heavens grow heavenlier,
Eve after eve; _and still
The glorious stars remember to appear_;
The roses on the hill
Are fragrant as before:
Only thy face, of all that's dear,
I shall see nevermore!
It has its faults. It has a great many faults. But the lines we have
set in italics are lovely. The temper of Keats, the moods of Matthew
Arnold, have influenced Mr. Ghose, and what better influence could a
beginner have? Here are some stanzas from another of Mr. Ghose's poems:
Deep-shaded will I lie, and deeper yet
In night, where not a leaf its neighbour knows;
Forget the shining of the stars, forget
The vernal visitation of the rose;
And, far from all delights, prepare my heart's repose.
'O crave not silence thou! too soon, too sure,
Shall Autumn come, and through these branches weep:
Some birds shall cease, and flowers no more endure;
And thou beneath the mould unwilling creep,
And silent soon shalt be in that eternal sleep.
'Green still it is, where that fair goddess strays;
Then follow, till around thee all be sere.
Lose not a vision of her passing face;
Nor miss the sound of her soft robes, that here
Sweep over the wet leaves of the fast-falling year.'
The second line is very beautiful, and the whole shows culture and taste
and feeling. Mr. Ghose ought some day to make a name in our literature.
Mr. Stephen Phillips has a more solemn classical Muse. His best work is
his Orestes:
Me in far lands did Justice call, cold queen
Among the dead, who, after heat and haste
At length have leisure for her steadfast voice,
That gathers peace from the great deeps of hell.
She call'd me, saying: I heard a cry by night!
Go thou, and question not; within thy halls
My will awaits fulfilment.
. . . . . .
And she lies there,
My mother! ay, my mother now; O hair
That once I play'd with in these halls! O eyes
That for a moment knew me as I came,
And lighten'd up, and trembled into love;
The next were darkened by my hand! Ah me!
Ye will not look upon me in that world.
Yet thou, perchance, art happier, if thou go'st
Into some land of wind and drifting leaves,
To sleep without a star; but as for me,
Hell hungers, and the restless Furies wait.
Milton, and the method of Greek tragedy are Mr. Phillips's influences,
and again we may say, what better influences could a young singer have?
His verse is dignified, and has distinction.
* * * * *
Mr. Cripps is melodious at times, and Mr. Binyon, Oxford's latest
Laureate, shows us in his lyrical ode on Youth that he can handle a
difficult metre dexterously, and in this sonnet that he can catch the
sweet echoes that sleep in the sonnets of Shakespeare:
I cannot raise my eyelids up from sleep,
But I am visited with thoughts of you;
Slumber has no refreshment half so deep
As the sweet morn, that wakes my heart anew.
I cannot put away life's trivial care,
But you straightway steal on me with delight:
My purest moments are your mirror fair;
My deepest thought finds you the truth most bright
You are the lovely regent of my mind,
The constant sky to the unresting sea;
Yet, since 'tis you that rule me, I but find
A finer freedom in such tyranny.
Were the world's anxious kingdoms govern'd so,
Lost were their wrongs, and vanish'd half their woe!
On the whole Primavera is a pleasant little book, and we are glad to
welcome it. It is charmingly 'got up,' and undergraduates might read it
with advantage during lecture hours.
Primavera: Poems. By Four Authors. (Oxford: B. H. Blackwell.)
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND BOOKS REVIEWED
AITCHISON, JAMES: The Chronicle of Mites
ANONYMOUS: An Author's Love
Annals of the Life of Shakespeare
Miss Bayle's Romance
Rachel
Sturm und Drang
The Cross and the Grail
The Judgment of the City
Warring Angels
ARMSTRONG, GEORGE FRANCIS: Stories of Wicklow
ARNOLD, SIR EDWIN: With Sa'di in the Garden
ASHBY-STERRY, J.: The Lazy Minstrel
AUSTIN, ALFRED: Days of the Year
Love's Widowhood
Author of Flitters, Tatters, and the Counsellor: Ismay's Children
Author of Lucy: Tiff
Author of Mademoiselle Mori: A Child of the Revolution
Under a Cloud
Author of The White Africans: AEonial
BALZAC, HONORE DE: Cesar Birotteau
The Duchess of Langeais and Other Stories
BARKER, JOHN THOMAS: The Pilgrimage of Memory
BARR, AMELIA: A Daughter of Fife
BARRETT, FRANK: The Great Hesper
BAUCHE, EMILE: A Statesman's Love
BAYLISS, WYKE: The Enchanted Island
BEAUFORT, RAPHAEL LEDOS DE: Letters of George Sand
BELLAIRS, LADY: Gossips with Girls and Maidens
BLUNT, WILFRID SCAWEN: In Vinculis
BOISSIER, GASTON: Nouvelles Promenades Archeologiques
BOWEN, SIR CHARLES: Virgil in English Verse. Eclogues and AEneid I.-VI.
BOWLING, E. W.: Sagittulae
BRODIE, E. H.: Lyrics of the Sea
BROUGHTON, RHODA: Betty's Visions
BROWNE, PHYLLIS: Mrs. Somerville and Mary Carpenter
BUCHAN, ALEXANDER: Joseph and His Brethren
BUCHANAN, ROBERT: That Winter Night
BURNS, DAWSON: Oliver Cromwell
CAINE, HALL: Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
CAIRNS, WILLIAM: A Day after the Pair
CALDECOTT, RANDOLPH: Gleanings from the Graphic
CAMERON, MRS. HENRY LOVETT: A Life's Mistake
CARNARVON, EARL OF: The Odyssey of Homer. Books I.-XII.
CARPENTER, EDWARD: Chants of Labour
CATTY, CHARLES: Poems in the Modern Spirit
CESARESCO, COUNTESS EVELYN MARTINENGO: Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs
CHAPMAN, ELIZABETH RACHEL: The New Purgatory
CHETWYND, HON. MRS. HENRY: Mrs. Dorriman
CHRISTIAN, H. R. H. PRINCESS: Memoirs of Wilhelmine, Margravine of
Baireuth
COCKLE, J.: Guilt (Mullner)
COLE, ALAN: Embroidery and Lace (Ernest Lefebure)
COLERIDGE, HON. STEPHEN: Demetrius
COLLIER, HON. JOHN: A Manual of Oil Painting
COLVIN, SIDNEY: Keats
CONWAY, HUGH: A Cardinal Sin
COOPER, ELISE: The Queen's Innocent
CORKRAN, ALICE: Margery Morton's Girlhood
Meg's Friend
CRAIK, MRS.: Poems
CRANE, WALTER: Flora's Feast
CRAWFORD, JOHN MARTIN: The Kalevala, the Epic Poem of Finland
CUMBERLAND, STUART: The Vasty Deep
CURTIS, ELLA: A Game of Chance
CURZON, G.: Delamere
DALZIEL, GEORGE: Pictures in the Fire
DAVIS, CORA M.: Immortelles
DAY, RICHARD: Poems
DENMAN, HON. G.: The Story of the Kings of Rome in Verse
DENNING, JOHN RENTON: Poems and Songs
DILKE, LADY: Art in the Modern State
DIXON, CONSTANCE E.: The Chimneypiece of Bruges
DOBELL, MRS. HORACE: In the Watches of the Night
DOUDNEY, SARAH: Under False Colours
DOVETON, F. B.: Sketches in Prose and Verse
DUFFY, BELLA: Life of Madame de Stael
DURANT, HELOISE: Dante: a Dramatic Poem
DYER, REV. A. SAUNDERS: The Poems of Madame de la Mothe Guyon
EDMONDS, E. M.: Greek Lays, Idylls, Legends, etc.
Mary Myles
EVANS, W.: Caesar Borgia
EVELYN, JOHN: Life of Mrs. Godolphin
FANE, VIOLET: Helen Davenant
FENN, GEORGE MANVILLE: A Bag of Diamonds
The Master of the Ceremonies
FIELD, MICHAEL: Canute the Great
FITZ GERALD, CAROLINE: Venetia Victrix
FOSKET, EDWARD: Poems
FOSTER, DAVID SKAATS: Rebecca the Witch
FOUR AUTHORS: Primavera
FROUDE, J, A.: The Two Chiefs of Dunboy
FURLONG, ATHERTON: Echoes of Memory
GALLENGA, A.: Jenny Jennet
GIBERNE, AGNES: Ralph Hardcastle's Will
GILES, HERBERT A: Chuang Tzu
GLENESSA: The Discovery
GOODCHILD, JOHN A.: Somnia Medici. Second Series
GORDON, ADAM LINDSAY: Poems
GRANT, JOHN CAMERON: Vanclin
GRAVES, A. P.: Father O'Flynn and Other Irish Lyrics
GRIFFIN, EDWIN ELLIS: Vortigern and Rowena
GRIFFITHS, WILLIAM: Sonnets and Other Poems
HAMILTON, IAN: The Ballad of Hadji
HARDINGE, W. M.: The Willow Garth
HARDY, A. J.: How to be Happy Though Married
HARRISON, CLIFFORD: In Hours of Leisure
HARTE, BRET: Cressy
HAYES, ALFRED: David Westren
HEARTSEASE: God's Garden
HENLEY, WILLIAM ERNEST: A Book of Verses
HEYWOOD, J. C.: Salome
HOLE, W. G.: Procris
HOPKINS, TIGHE: 'Twixt Love and Duty
HOUSTON, MRS.: A Heart on Fire
HUNT, MRS. ALFRED: That Other Person
IRWIN, H. C.: Rhymes and Renderings
KEENE, H. E.: Verses: Translated and Original
KELLY, JAMES: Poems
K. E. V.: The Circle of Saints
The Circle of Seasons
KINGSFORD, DR. ANNA.: Dreams and Dream-Stories
KNIGHT, JOSEPH: Life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti
KNIGHT, WILLIAM: Wordsworthiana
LAFFAN, MRS. DE COURCY: A Song of Jubilee
LANGRIDGE, REV. FREDERICK: Poor Folks' Lives
LAUDER, SIR THOMAS: The Wolfe of Badenoch
LEE, MARGARET: Faithful and Unfaithful
LE GALLIENNE, RICHARD: Volumes in Folio
LEVY, AMY: The Romance of a Shop
LINDSAY, LADY: Caroline
LINTON, W. J.: Poems and Translations
LLOYD, J. SALE: Scamp
LYALL, EDNA: In the Golden Days
MACEWEN, CONSTANCE: Soap
MACK, ROBERT ELLICE: Treasures of Art and Song
MACKENZIE, GEORGE: Highland Daydreams
MACQUOID, KATHERINE S.: Louisa
MAHAFFY, J. P.: Greek Life and Thought
The Principles of the Art of Conversation
MARTIN, FRANCES: Life of Elizabeth Gilbert
MARZIALS, FRANK T.: Life of Charles Dickens
MASSON, GUSTAVE: George Sand (Elme Caro)
MATTHEWS, BRANDER: Pen and Ink
MCKIM, JOSEPH: Poems
MOLESWORTH, MRS.: A Christmas Posy
The Third Miss St. Quentin
MONTGOMERY, FLORENCE: The Fisherman's Daughter
MORINE, GEORGE: Poems
MORRIS, WILLIAM: A Tale of the House of the Wolfings
The Odyssey of Homer done into English Verse
MOULTON, LOUISE CHANDLER: Ourselves and Our Neighbours
MULHOLLAND, ROSA: Gianetta
Marcella Grace
MUNSTER, LADY: Dorinda
NADEN, CONSTANCE: A Modern Apostle
NASH, CHARLES: The Story of the Cross
NESBIT, E.: Lays and Legends
Leaves of Life
NOEL, HON. RODEN: Essays on Poetry and Poets
NOEL, LADY AUGUSTA: Hithersea Mere
OLIPHANT, MRS.: Makers of Venice
OLIVER, PEN: All But
OUIDA: Guilderoy
OWEN, EVELYN: Driven Home
OXONIENSIS: Juvenal in Piccadilly
PATER, WALTER: Appreciations, with an Essay on Style
Imaginary Portraits
PEACOCK, THOMAS BOWER: Poems of the Plain and Songs of the Solitudes
PERKS, MRS. J. HARTLEY: From Heather Hills
PFEIFFER, EMILY: Women and Work
PHILLIMORE, MISS: Studies in Italian Literature
PIERCE, J.: Stanzas and Sonnets
PIMLICO, LORD: The Excellent Mystery
PLEYDELL-BOUVERIE, EDWARD OLIVER: J. S.; or, Trivialities
PRESTON, HARRIET WATERS: A Year in Eden
PREVOST, FRANCIS: Fires of Green Wood
QUILTER, HARRY: Sententiae Artis
RAFFALOVICH, MARK ANDRE: Tuberose and Meadowsweet
RISTORI, MADAME: Etudes et Souvenirs
RITCHIE, DAVID: Darwinism and Politics
ROBERTSON, ERIC S.: Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Children of the Poets
ROBERTSON, J. LOGIE: Poems by Allan Ramsay
ROBINS, G. M.: Keep My Secret
ROBINSON, A. MARY F.: Poems, Ballads, and a Garden Play
ROBINSON, MABEL: The Plan of Campaign
RODD, RENNELL: The Unknown Madonna
ROSS, JAMES: Seymour's Inheritance
The Wind and Six Sonnets
ROSS, JANET: Three Generations of English Women
ROSSETTI, WILLIAM MICHAEL: Life of John Keats
RUETE, PRINCESS EMILY: Memoirs of an Arabian Princess
SAFFORD, MARY J.: Aphrodite (Ernst Eckstein)
SAINTSBURY, GEORGE: George Borrow
SARASVATI, PUNDITA RAMABAI: The High-Caste Hindu Woman
SCHWARTZ, J. M. W.: Nivalis
SHARP, ISAAC: Saul of Tarsus
SHARP, MRS. WILLIAM: Women's Voices
SHARP, WILLIAM: Romantic Ballads and Poems of Phantasy
SHERIDAN, RICHARD BRINSLEY: Here's to the Maiden of Bashful Fifteen
SHORE, ARABELLA: Dante for Beginners
SKIPSEY, JOSEPH: Carols from the Coal Fields
SLADEN, DOUGLAS B. W.: Australian Poets, 1788-1888
SMITH, ALEXANDER SKENE: Holiday Recreations
SOMERSET, LORD HENRY: Songs of Adieu
SPEIGHT, T. W.: A Barren Title
STAPFER, PAUL: Moliere et Shakespeare
STILLMAN, W. J.: On the Track of Ulysses
STOKES, MARGARET: Early Christian Art in Ireland
STREETS, FAUCET: A Marked Man
STUTFIELD, HUGH: El Magreb: Twelve Hundred Miles' Ride through Morocco
SWINBURNE, ALGERNON CHARLES: Poems and Ballads. Third Series
SYMONDS, JOHN ADDINGTON: Ben Jonson
Renaissance in Italy: The Catholic Reaction
THORNTON, CYRUS: Voices of the Street
TODHUNTER, JOHN: The Banshee
TOMSON, GRAHAM R.: The Bird Bride
TOYNBEE, WILLIAM: A Selection from the Songs of De Beranger in English
Verse
TURNER, C. GLADSTONE: Errata
TWO TRAMPS: Low Down
TYLOR, LOUIS: Chess: A Christmas Masque
TYRRELL, CHRISTINA: Her Son (E. Werner)
VEITCH, JOHN: The Feeling for Nature in Scottish Poetry
VEITCH, SOPHIE: James Hepburn
VON LAUER, BARONESS: The Master of Tanagra (Ernst von Wildenbruch)
WALFORD, MRS.: Four Biographies from Blackwood
WALWORTH, REV. CLARENCE A.: Andiatorochte
WANDERER: Dinners and Dishes
WHISHAW, FREDERICK: Injury and Insult (Fedor Dostoieffski)
WHITMAN, WALT: November Boughs
WILLIAMS, F. HARALD: Women Must Weep
WILLIAMSON, DAVID R.: Poems of Nature and Life
WILLIS, E. COOPER: Tales and Legends in Verse
WILLS, W. G.: Melchior
WILMOT, A.: The Poetry of South Africa
WINTER, JOHN STRANGE: That Imp
WOODS, MARGARET L.: A Village Tragedy
WOTTON, MABEL: Word Portraits of Famous Writers
YEATS, W. B.: Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry
The Wanderings of Oisin
YONGE, CHARLOTTE M., and others: Astray
Footnotes:
{119} See A 'Jolly' Art Critic, page 112.
{189} Shairp was Professor of Poetry at Oxford in Wilde's undergraduate
days.
{198} The Margravine of Baireuth and Voltaire. (David Stott, 1888.)
{289} February 1888.
{334a} September 1888.
{334b} See The Picture of Dorian Gray, chapter XI., page 222.
{374} The Queen, December 8, 1888.
{411} From Lady Wilde's Ancient Legends of Ireland.
{437} See page 406.
{452} See Australian Poets, page 370.