[_17 Dec. '08_]
The Mrs. Humphry Ward of France, M. René Bazin, has visited these shores,
and has been interviewed. In comparing him to Mrs. Humphry Ward, I am
unfair to the lady in one sense and too generous in another. M. Bazin
writes perhaps slightly better than Mrs. Humphry Ward, but not much. _Per
contra_, he is a finished master of the art of self-advertisement, whereas
the public demeanour of Mrs. Humphry Ward is entirely beyond reproach. M.
Bazin did not get through his interview without giving some precise
statistical information as to the vast sale of his novels. I suppose that
M. Bazin, Academician and apostle of literary correctitude, is just the
type of official mediocrity that the Alliance Française was fated to
invite to London as representative of French letters. My only objection to
the activities of M. Bazin is that, not content with a golden popularity,
he cannot refrain from sneering at genuine artists. Thus, to the
interviewer, he referred to Stéphane Mallarmé as a "fumiste." No English
word will render exactly this French slang; it may be roughly translated
a practical joker with a trace of fraud. There may be, and there are, two
opinions as to the permanent value of Mallarmé's work, but there cannot be
two informed and honest opinions as to his profound sincerity. It is
indubitable that he had one aim--to produce the finest literature of which
he was capable, and that to this aim he sacrificed everything else in his
career. A charming spectacle, this nuncio of mediocrity and of the
Académie Française coming to London to assert that a distinguished writer
like Mallarmé was a "fumiste"! If any one wishes to know what is thought
of Mallarmé by the younger French school, let him read the Mallarmé
chapter in André Gide's "Prétextes." In this very able book will be found
also some wonderful reminiscences of Oscar Wilde.
* * * * *
Speaking of the respect which ought to be accorded to a distinguished
artist, there is an excellent example of propriety in Dr. Levin
Schücking's review of Swinburne's "The Age of Shakespeare," which brings
to a close the extraordinarily fine first number of the _English Review_.
Dr. Schücking shows that he is quite aware of the defects of manner which
mark the book, but his own manner is the summit of courteous deference
such as is due to one of the chief ornaments of English literature, and to
a very old man. "A Man of Kent" (_British Weekly_), in commenting on the
article, regrets its timidity, and refers to Swinburne as the "howling
dervish" of criticism. This is the kind of lapse from decorum which causes
the judicious not to grieve but to shrug their shoulders. Probably "A Man
of Kent" would wish to withdraw it. I trust he is aware that "The Age of
Shakespeare" is packed full of criticism whose insight and sensitiveness
no other English critic could equal.