,,ivory ,,apes ,,and ,,peacocks ,illustration3 ,,dosto,,evsky1 ,,by ,,valloton ,,ivory ,,apes ,,and ,,peacocks ,,joseph ,,conrad1 ,,walt ,,whitman1 ,,jules ,,laforgue1 ,,dosto,,evsky ,,and ,,tolstoy1 ,,schoenberg1 ,,wedekind1 ,,moussorgsky1 ,c,,zanne1 ,,vermeer1 ,,matisse1 ,,van ,,gogh1 ,,gauguin1 ,,italian ,,futurists1 ,,various ,,latter-,,day ,,poets1 ,,painters1 ,,composers ,,and ,,dramatists ,,by ,,james ,,huneker ,,new ,,york ,,charles ,,scribner',s ,,sons #aiag ,,copyright1 #aiae1 ,,by ,,charles ,,scribner',s ,,sons ,,published ,,september1 #aiae ,to ,,john ,,quinn ,every three years once came the ships of ,tarshish bringing gold and silver1 ivory and apes1 and peacocks4 --,,ii ,chronicles #i4 #ba4 ,,contents ,,page ,i4 ,,the ,,genius ,,of ,,joseph ,,conrad #a ,,ii4 ,a ,,visit ,,to ,,walt ,,whitman #bb ,,iii4 ,,the ,,buffoon ,,of ,,the ,,new ,,eternities3 ,,jules ,,laforgue #cb ,,iv4 ,,dosto,,evsky ,,and ,,tolstoy1 ,,and ,,the ,,younger ,,choir ,,of ,,russian ,,writers #eb ,v4 ,i4 ,,arnold ,,schoenberg #hi ,,ii4 ,,music ,,of ,,to-,,day ,,and ,,to-,,morrow #ajd ,,vi4 ,,frank ,,wedekind #aba ,,vii4 ,,the ,,magic ,,vermeer #ada ,,viii4 ,,richard ,,strauss ,,at ,,stuttgart #aec ,,ix4 ,,max ,,liebermann ,,and ,,some ,,phases ,,of ,,modern ,,german ,,art #agc ,x4 ,a ,,musical ,,primitive3 ,,modeste ,,moussorgsky #aij ,,xi4 ,,new ,,plays ,,by ,,hauptmann1 ,,sudermann1 ,,and ,,schnitzler #bjc ,,xii4 ,,kubin1 ,,munch1 ,,and ,,gauguin3 ,,masters ,,of ,,hallucination #bbb ,,xiii4 ,,the ,,cult ,,of ,,the ,,nuance3 ,,lafcadio ,,hearn #bdj ,,xiv4 ,i4 ,,the ,,melancholy ,,of ,,masterpieces #bdi ,,ii4 ,,the ,,italian ,,futurist ,,painters #bfb ,,xv4 ,,in ,,the ,,workshop ,,of ,,zola #bge ,,xvi4 ,a ,,study ,,of ,,de ,,maupassant #bhh ,,xvii4 ,,puvis ,,de ,,chavannes #cja ,,xviii4 ,,three ,,disagreeable ,,girls #caa ,,ivory ,,apes ,,and ,,peacocks ,i ,,the ,,genius ,,of ,,joseph ,,conrad ,i ,in these piping days when fiction plays the handmaid or prophet to various propaganda2 when the majority of writers are trying to prove something1 or acting as venders of some new-fangled social nostrums2 when the insistent drums of the ,great ,god ,rclame are bruising human tympani1 the figure of ,joseph ,conrad stands solitary among ,english novelists as the very ideal of a pure and disinterested artist4 ,amid the clamour of the market-place a book of his is a sea-shell which pressed to the ear echoes the far-away murmur of the sea2 always the sea1 either as rigid as a mirror under hard1 blue skies or shuddering symphonically up some exotic beach4 ,conrad is a painter doubled by a psychologist2 he is the psychologist of the sea--and that is his chief claim to originality1 his ,peak of ,darien4 ,he knows and records its every pulse-beat4 ,his genius has the rich1 salty tang of an ,elizabethan adventurer and the spaciousness of those times4 ,imagine a ,polish sailor who read ,flaubert and the ,english ,bible1 who bared his head under equatorial few large stars and related his doings in rhythmic1 sonorous1 coloured prose2 imagine a man from a landlocked country who midway in his mortal life began writing for the first time and in an alien tongue1 and1 added to an almost abnormal power of description1 possessed the art of laying bare the human soul1 not after the meticulous manner of the modern ,paul ,prys of psychology1 but following the larger method of ,flaubert1 who believed that actions should translate character--imagine these paradoxes and you have partly imagined ,joseph ,conrad1 who has so finely said that imagination1 and not invention1 is the supreme master of art as of life4 ,he has taken the sea-romance of ,smollett1 ,marryat1 ,melville1 ,dana1 ,clark ,russell1 ,stevenson1 ,becke1 ,kipling1 and for its well-worn situations has substituted not only many novel nuances1 but invaded new territory1 revealed obscure atavisms and the psychology lurking behind the mask of the savage1 the transpositions of dark souls1 and shown us a world of kings1 demagogues1 priests1 charlatans1 dukes1 giraffes1 cabinet ministers1 bricklayers1 apostles1 ants1 scientists1 ,kaffirs1 soldiers1 sailors1 elephants1 lawyers1 dandies1 microbes1 and constellations of a universe whose amazing spectacle is a moral end in itself4 ,in his ,reminiscences ,mr4 ,conrad has told us1 with the surface frankness of a ,pole1 the genesis of his literary dbut of ,almayer's ,folly1 his first novel1 and in a quite casual fashion throws fresh light on that somewhat enigmatic character--reminding me in the juxtaposition of his newer psychologic procedure and the simple old tale1 of ,wagner's ,venusberg ballet1 scored after he had composed ,tristan und ,isolde4 ,but1 like certain other great ,slavic writers1 ,conrad has only given us a tantalising peep into his mental workshop4 ,we rise after finishing the ,reminiscences realising that we have read once more romance1 in whose half-lights and modest evasions we catch fleeting glimpses of reality4 ,reticence is a distinctive quality of this author2 after all1 isn't truth an idea that traverses a temperament8 ,that many of his stories were in the best sense lived there can be no doubt--he has at odd times confessed it1 confessions painfully wrung from him1 as he is no friend of the interviewer4 ,the white-hot sharpness of the impressions which he has projected upon paper recalls ,taine's dictum3 les sensations sont des hallucinations vraies4 ,veritable hallucinations are the seascapes and landscapes in the ,south ,sea stories1 veritable hallucinations are the quotidian gestures and speech of his anarchists and souls sailing on the winds of noble and sinister passions4 ,for ,conrad is on one side an implacable realist4444 ,unforgetable are his delineations of sudden little rivers never charted and their shallow1 turbid waters1 the sombre flux of immemorial forests under the crescent cone of night1 and undergrowth overlapping the banks1 the tragic chaos of rising storms1 hordes of clouds sailing low on the horizon1 the silhouettes of lazy1 majestic mountains1 the lugubrious magic of the tropical night1 the mysterious drums of the natives1 and the darkness that one can feel1 taste1 smell4 ,what a gulf of incertitudes for white men is evoked for us in vivid1 concrete terms4 ,unforgetable1 too1 the hallucinated actions of the student ,razumov the night ,victor ,haldin1 after launching the fatal bomb1 seeks his room1 his assistance1 in that masterpiece1 ,under ,western ,eyes4 ,but realist as ,conrad is1 he is also a poet who knows1 as he says himself1 that the power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense4 7,reason is a poor halter with which to lead mankind to drink at the well of truth47 ,he woos the ear with his singing prose as he ravishes the eye with his pictures4 ,in his little-known study of ,henry ,james he wrote3 ,all creative art is magic1 is evocation of the unseen in forms persuasive1 enlightening1 familiar1 and surprising1 and finally1 ,fiction is history1 human history1 or it is nothing4 ,often a writer tells us more of himself in criticising a fellow craftsman than in any formal sthetic pronunciamiento4 ,we soon find out the likes and dislikes of ,mr4 ,conrad in this particular essay1 and also what might be described as the keelson of his workaday philosophy3 ,all adventure1 all love1 every success1 is resumed in the supreme energy of renunciation4 ,it is the utmost limit of our power4 ,no wonder his tutor1 half in anger1 half in sorrow1 exclaimed3 ,you are an incorrigible1 hopeless ,don ,quixote4 ,i suppose a long list might be made of foreigners who have mastered the ,english language and written it with ease and elegance1 yet ,i cannot recall one who has so completely absorbed native idioms1 who has made for himself an ,english mind 7without losing his profound and supersubtle ,slavic soul71 as has ,joseph ,conrad4 ,he is unique as stylist4 ,he first read ,english literature in ,polish translations1 then in the original2 he read not only the ,bible and ,shakespeare1 but ,dickens1 ,fenimore ,cooper1 and ,thackeray2 above all1 ,dickens4 ,he followed no regular course1 just as he belongs to no school in art1 except the school of humanity2 for him there are no types1 only humans4 7,he detests formul and movements47 ,his sensibility1 all ,slavic1 was stimulated by ,dickens1 who was a powerful stimulant of the so-called ,russian pity1 which fairly honeycombs the works of ,dostoevsky4 ,there is no mistaking the influence of the ,english ,bible on ,conrad's prose style4 ,he is saturated with its puissant1 elemental rhythms1 and his prose has its surge and undertow4 ,that is why his is never a painted ship on a painted ocean2 by the miracle of his art his water is billowy and undulating1 his air quivers in the torrid sunshine1 and across his skies--skies broken into new1 strange patterns--the cloud-masses either float or else drive like a typhoon4 ,his rhythmic sense is akin to ,flaubert's1 of whom ,arthur ,symons wrote3 ,he invents the rhythm of every sentence1 he changes his cadence with every mood1 or for the convenience of every fact2 444 he has no fixed prose tune4 ,nor1 by the same token1 has ,conrad4 ,he seldom indulges1 as does ,thophile ,gautier1 in the static paragraph4 ,he is ever in modulation4 ,there is ebb and flow in his sentences4 ,a typical paragraph of his shows what might be called the sonata form3 an allegro1 andante1 and presto4 ,for example1 the opening pages of ,karain 7one of his best stories1 by the way7 in ,tales of ,unrest3 ,sunshine gleams between the lines of those short paragraphs he is writing of the newspaper accounts of various native risings in the ,eastern ,archipelago--sunshine and the glitter of the sea4 ,a strange name wakes up memories2 the printed words scent the smoky atmosphere of to-day faintly1 with the subtle and penetrating perfume as of land-breezes breathing through the starlight of bygone nights2 a signal-fire gleams like a jewel on the high brow of a sombre cliff2 great trees1 the advanced sentries of immense forests1 stand watchful and still over sleeping stretches of open water2 a line of white surf thunders on an empty beach1 the shallow water foams on the reefs2 and green islets scattered through the calm of noonday lie upon the level of a polished sea like a handful of emeralds on a buckler of steel4 ,there is no mistaking the coda of this paragraph--selected at random--beginning at and2 it suggests the author of ,salammb1 and it also contains within its fluid walls evocations of sound1 odour1 bulk1 tactile values1 the colour of life1 the wet of the waves1 and the whisper of the wind4 ,or1 as a contrast1 recall the rank ugliness of the night when ,razumov visits the hideous tenement1 expecting to find there the driver who would carry to freedom the political assassin1 ,haldin4 ,scattered throughout the books are descriptive passages with few parallels in our language4 ,indeed1 ,conrad often abuses his gift1 forgetting that his readers do not possess his tremendously developed faculty of attention4 ,,ii ,invention he has to a plentiful degree1 notwithstanding his giving it second place in comparison with imagination4 ,his novels are the novels of ideas dear to ,balzac1 though tinged with romance--a ,stendhal of the sea4 ,gustave ,kahn called him un puissant rveur1 and might have added1 a wonderful spinner of yarns4 ,such yarns--for men and women and children6 ,at times yarning seemingly for the sake of yarning--true art-for-art1 though not in the precious sense4 ,from the brilliant melochromatic glare of the ,east to the drab of ,london's mean streets1 from the cool1 darkened interiors of ,malayan warehouses to the snow-covered alles of the ,russian capital1 or the green parks on the ,lake of ,geneva1 he carries us on his magical carpet1 and the key is always in true pitch4 ,he never saves up for another book as ,henry ,james once said of some author1 and for him1 as for ,mr4 ,james1 every good story is both a picture and an idea2 he seeks to interpret the uncomposed1 unrounded look of life with its accidents1 its broken rhythms4 ,he gets atmosphere in a phrase2 a verbal nuance lifts the cover of some iniquitous or gentle soul4 ,he contrives the illusion of time1 and his characters are never at rest2 even within the narrow compass of the short story they develop2 they grow in evil or wisdom1 are always transformed2 they think in character1 and ideality unites his vision with that of his humans4 ,consider the decomposition of the moral life of ,lord ,jim and its slow recrudescence2 there is a prolonged duel between the will and the intelligence4 ,here is the tesselation of mean and tragic happenings in the vast mosaic we call ,life4 ,and the force of fatuity in the case of ,almayer--a book which has for me the bloom of youth4 ,sheer narrative could go no further than in ,the ,nigger of the ,narcissus 7,children of the ,sea71 nor interior analysis in ,the ,return4 ,what ,i once wrote of ,henry ,james might be said of ,joseph ,conrad3 ,he is exquisitely aware of the presence of others4 ,and this awareness is illustrated in ,under ,western ,eyes and ,nostromo--the latter that astonishing rehabilitation of the humming life on a ,south ,american seaboard4 ,for ,nostromo nothing is lost save honour2 he goes to his death loving insensately2 for ,razumov his honour endures till the pressure put upon it by his love for ,haldin's sister cracks it1 and cracks1 too1 his reason4 ,for once the novelist seems cruel to the pathological point--,i mean in the punishment of ,razumov by the hideous spy4 ,i hope this does not betray parvitude of view-point4 ,i am not thin-skinned1 and ,under ,western ,eyes is my favourite novel1 but the closing section is lacerating music for the nerves4 ,and what a chapter6--that thunder-storm driving down the valley of the ,rhne1 the haggard1 haunted face of the ,russian student forced1 despite his convictions1 to become an informer and a supposed anarchist 7curious students will find the first hint of the leitmotiv of this monumental book in ,an ,anarchist--,a ,set of ,six2 as ,gaspar ,ruiz may be looked on as a pendant to ,nostromo74 ,under ,western ,eyes is a masterpiece of irony1 observation1 and pity4 ,i once described it as being as powerful as ,dostoevsky and as well written as ,turgenieff4 ,the truth is that it is ,conrad at his best1 although ,i know that ,i may seem to slight the ,eastern tales4 ,it has the colour and shape and gait of the marvellous stories of ,dostoevsky and ,turgenieff--with an absolutely original motive1 and more modern4 ,a magical canvas6 ,its type of narrative is in the later style of the writer4 ,the events are related by an ,english teacher of languages in ,geneva1 based on the diary of ,razumov4 ,it is a favourite device of ,conrad's which might be described as1 structurally progressing from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous4 ,his novel1 ,chance1 is a specific instance of his intricate and elliptical method4 ,several personages of the story relate in almost fugal manner1 the heroine appearing to us in flashes as if reflected by some revolving mirror4 ,it is a difficult and elusive method1 but it presents us with many facets of character and is swift and secular4 ,if ,flaubert in ,sentimental ,education originated a novel structure in fiction1 ,conrad may claim the same honour2 his edifice1 in its contrapuntal presentation of character and chapter suspensions1 is new1 tantalisingly1 bewilderingly1 refreshingly1 new4 ,the colour is toned down1 is more sober than the prose of the ,eastern stories4 ,sometimes he employs the personal pronoun1 and with what piquancy as well as poignancy may be noted in the volume ,youth4 ,this contains three tales1 the first1 which gives the title-key1 has been called the finest short story in ,english1 although it is difficult to discriminate4 ,what could be more thrilling1 with a well-nigh supernatural thrill 7and the colouring of ,baudelairian cruelty and blood-lust7 than ,the ,heart of ,darkness1 or what more pathetic--a pathos which recalls ,balzac's ,pre ,goriot and ,turgenieff's ,a ,lear of the ,steppe1 withal still more pity-breeding--than ,the ,end of the ,tether8 ,this volume alone should place ,conrad among the immortals4 ,that he must have had a long foreground we find after studying the man4 ,sailing a ship is no sinecure1 and for ,conrad a ship is something with human attributes4 ,like a woman1 it must be lived with to be understood1 and it has its ways and whims and has to be petted or humoured1 as in ,the ,brute--that monstrous personification of the treacherous sea's victim4 ,like all true artists1 ,conrad never preaches4 ,his moral is in suffusion1 and who runs may read4 ,we recognise his emotional calibre1 which is of a dramatic intensity1 though never over-emphasising the morbid4 ,of his intellectual grasp there is no question4 ,he possesses pathos1 passion1 sincerity1 and humour4 ,wide knowledge of mankind and nature he has1 and in the field of moral power we need but ask if he is a ,yes-,sayer or a ,no-,sayer1 as the ,nietzschians have it4 ,he says ,yes6 to the universe and of the eternal verities he is cognisant4 ,for him there is no other side of good and evil4 ,no writers of fiction1 save the very greatest1 ,flaubert1 ,tolstoy1 ,dostoevsky1 or ,turgenieff1 have so exposed the soul of man under the stress of sorrow1 passion1 anger1 or as swimming1 a midget1 in the immensities of sky1 or burrowing1 a fugitive1 in suffocating virgin forests4 ,the soul and the sea--they are the beloved provinces of this sailor and psychologue4 ,but he also recognises the relativity of things4 ,the ineluctable vastness and sadness of life oppress him4 ,in ,karain we read3 ,nothing could happen to him unless what happens to all--failure and death4 ,his heroes are failures1 as are heroes in all great poetry and fiction1 and their failure is recorded with muffled irony4 ,the fundamental pessimism of the ,slavic temperament must be reckoned with4 ,but this pessimism is implied1 and life has its large as well as its little ironies4 ,in ,chance1 which describes the hypertrophy of a dolorous soul1 he writes3 ,it was one of those dewy1 starry nights1 oppressing our spirit1 crushing our pride1 by the brilliant evidence of the awful loneliness1 of the hopeless1 obscure magnificence of our globe lost in the splendid revelation of a glittering1 soulless universe4444 ,daylight is friendly to man toiling under a sun which warms his heart2 and cloudy1 soft nights are more kindly to our littleness4 ,to match that one must go to ,thomas ,hardy1 to the eloquent passage describing the terrors of infinite space in ,two on a ,tower4 ,however1 ,conrad is not often given to such ,hamlet-like moods4 ,the shock and recoil of circumstances1 the fatalities of chance1 and the vagaries of human conduct intrigue his intention more than the night side of the soul4 ,yet1 how well he has observed the paralysis of will caused by fear4 ,in ,an ,outpost of ,progress is the following3 ,fear always remains4 ,a man may destroy everything within himself1 love and hate and belief1 and even doubt2 but as he clings to life he cannot destroy fear3 the fear1 subtle1 indestructible1 and terrible that pervades his being1 that lurks in his heart2 that watches on his lips the struggle of his last breath4444 ,,iii ,it has been said that women do not read him1 but according to my limited experience ,i believe the contrary4 7,where1 indeed1 would any novelist be if it were not for women87 ,he has said of ,woman3 ,she is the active partner in the great adventure of humanity on earth and feels an interest in all its episodes4 ,he does not idealise the sex1 like ,george ,meredith1 nor yet does he describe the baseness of the ,eternal ,simpleton1 as do so many ,french novelists4 ,he is not always complimentary3 witness the portrait of ,mrs4 ,fyne in ,chance1 or the mosaic of anti-feminist opinions to be found in that story4 ,that he succeeded better with his men is a commonplace of all masculine writers1 not that women always succeed with their sex1 but to many masters of imaginative literature woman is usually a poet's evocation1 not the creature of flesh and blood and bones1 of sense and sentiment1 that she is in real life4 ,conrad opens no new windows in her soul1 but he has painted some full-length portraits and made many lifelike sketches1 which are inevitable4 ,from the shining presence of his mother1 the assemblage of a few traits in his ,reminiscences1 to ,flora de ,barral in ,chance1 with her self-tortured temperament1 you experience that emotion of recognition described by ,mr4 ,james4 ,you know they live1 that some of them go on marching in your memory after the book has been closed4 ,their actions always end by resembling their ideas4 ,and their ideas are variegated4 ,in ,under ,western ,eyes we encounter the lovely ,natalie ,haldin1 a sister in spirit to ,helena1 to ,lisa1 to any one of the ,turgenieff heroines4 ,charm is hers1 and a valiant spirit4 ,her creator has not1 thus far1 succeeded in bettering her4 ,only once does he sound a false note4 ,i find her speech a trifle rhetorical after she learns the facts in the case of ,razumov 7p4 #ced74 ,two lines are superfluous at the close of this heart-breaking chapter1 and in all the length of the book that is the only flaw ,i can offer to hungry criticism4 ,the revolutionary group at ,geneva--the mysterious and vile ,madame de ,s----1 the unhappy slave1 ,tekla1 the much-tried ,mrs4 ,haldin1 and the very vital anarchist1 surely a portrait sur le vif1 ,sophia ,antonovna1 are testimonies of the writer's skill and profound divination of the human heart4 7,he has confessed that for him woman is a human being1 very much like myself47 ,the dialogue between ,razumov1 the spiritual bankrupt1 and ,sophia in the park is one of those character-revealing episodes that are only real when handled by a supreme artist4 ,its involutions and undulations1 its very recoil on itself as the pair face their memories1 he haunted1 she suspicious1 touch the springs of desperate lives4 ,as an etching of a vicious soul1 the ,eliza of ,chance is arresting4 ,we do not learn her last name1 but we remember her brutal attack on little ,flora1 an attack that warped the poor child's nature4 ,whether the end of the book is justified is apart from my present purpose1 which is chiefly exposition1 though ,i feel that ,captain ,anthony is not tenderly treated4 ,but there is a ,nemesis which overtakes generosity1 too1 like all the other imprudences of men who dare to be lawless and proud4444 ,and this sailor1 the son of the selfish poet1 ,carleon ,anthony1 himself sensitive1 but unselfish1 paid for his considerate treatment of his wife ,flora4 ,only ,hardy could have treated the sex question with the same tact as ,conrad 7he has done so in ,jude the ,obscure74 ,in his sea tales ,conrad is a belated romanticist2 and in ,chance1 while the sea is never far off1 it is the soul of an unhappy girl that is shown us2 not dissected with the impersonal cruelty of surgeon psychologists1 but revealed by a sympathetic interpreter who knows the weakness and folly and tragedy of humanity4 ,the truth is1 ,conrad is always an analyst2 that sets him apart from other writers of sea stories4 ,chance is different in theme1 but not as different in treatment as in construction4 ,his pattern of narration has always been of an evasive character2 here the method is carried to the pitch of polyphonic intricacy4 ,the richness of interest1 the startling variety1 and the philosophic largeness of view--the tale is simple enough otherwise for a child's enjoyment--are a few of its qualities4 ,coventry ,patmore is said to be the poet alluded to as ,carleon ,anthony1 and there are distinct judgments on feminism and the new woman1 some wholesome truths uttered at a time when man has seemingly shrivelled up in the glorified feminine vision of mundane things4 ,the moral is to be found on page #ddg4 ,of all the forms offered to us by life it is the one demanding a couple to realise it fully which is the most imperative4 ,pairing off is the fate of mankind4 ,and if two beings thrown together1 mutually attracted1 resist the necessity1 fail in understanding1 and stop voluntarily short 444 they are committing a sin against life4 ,the ,duel 7published in ,america under the title of ,a ,point of ,honor7 is a tour de force in story-telling that would have made envious ,balzac4 ,then there is ,winnie ,verloc in the ,secret ,agent1 and her cockney sentiment and rancours4 ,she is remarkably realised1 and is a pitiful apparition at the close4 ,the detective ,verloc1 her husband1 wavers as a portrait between reality and melodrama4 ,the minor female characters1 her mother and the titled lady patron of the apostle ,michaelis1 are no mere supernumeraries4 ,the husband and wife in ,the ,return are nameless but unforgetable4 ,it is a profound parable1 this tale4 ,the man discovered in his judgment of his foolish wife that morality is not a method of happiness4 ,the image in the mirrors in this tale produces a ghastly effect4 ,i enjoyed the amateur anarchist1 the ,english girl playing with bombs in ,the ,informer2 she is an admirable foil for the brooding bitterness of the ruined ,royalist's daughter in that stirring ,south ,american tale1 ,gaspar ,ruiz4 ,conrad knows this continent of half-baked civilisations2 life grows there like rank vegetations4 ,nostromo is the most elaborate and dramatic study of the sort1 and a wildly adventurous romance into the bargain4 ,the two women1 fascinating ,mrs4 ,gould and the proud1 beautiful ,antonia ,avellanos1 are finely contrasted4 ,and what a mob of cutthroats1 politicians1 and visionaries6 ,in real revolutions the best characters do not come to the front1 which statement holds as good in ,paris as in ,petrograd1 in ,new ,york1 or in ,mexico4 ,the ,nigger of the ,narcissus and ,nostromo give us the emotion of multitude4 ,a genuinely humorous woman is the ,german skipper's wife in ,falk1 and the niece1 the heroine who turns the head of the former cannibal of ,falk--this an echo1 doubtless1 from the anecdote of the dog-eating granduncle ,b---- of the ,reminiscences--is heroic in her way4 ,funniest of all is the captain himself4 ,falk is almost a tragic figure4 ,amy ,foster--in the same volume--is pathetic1 and ,bessie ,carvil1 of ,to-morrow1 might have been signed by ,hardy4 ,in ,youth the old sea-dog's motherly wife is the only woman4 ,as for the impure witch in ,the ,heart of ,darkness1 ,i can only say that she creates a new shudder4 ,how she appeals to the imagination6 ,the soft-spoken lady1 bereft of her hero in this narrative1 who lives in ,brussels1 is a specimen of ,conrad's ability to make reverberate in our memory an enchanting personality1 and with a few strokes of the brush4 ,we cannot admire the daughter of poor old ,captain ,whalley in ,the ,end of ,tether1 but she is the propulsive force of his actions and final tragedy4 ,for her we have that form of contempt which is called pity4 ,that particular story will rank with the best in the world's literature4 ,nina ,almayer shows the atavistic pull of the soil and opposes finesse to force1 while ,alice ,jacobus in ',twixt ,land and ,sea 7,a ,smile of ,fortune7 is half-way on the road back to barbarism4 ,but ,nina will be happy with her chief4 ,in depicting the slow decadence of character in mixed races and the nave stammerings at the birth of their souls1 ,conrad is unapproachable4 ,in the selection of his titles he is always happy2 how happy1 may be noted in his new book1 ,victory4 ,it is not a war book1 though it depicts in his most dramatic manner the warring of human instincts4 ,it was planned several years ago1 but not finished until the writer's enforced stay in his unhappy native land1 ,poland4 ,like ,goethe or ,stendhal1 ,conrad can write in the midst of war's alarums about the hair's-breadth 'scapes of his characters4 ,but1 then1 the ,polish is the most remarkable race in ,europe2 from leading forlorn hopes to playing ,chopin the ,poles are unequalled4 ,mr4 ,conrad has returned to his old habitat in fiction4 ,an ingenious map shows the reader precisely where his tragic tale is enacted4 ,it may not be his most artistic1 but it is an engrossing story4 ,compared with ,chance1 it seems a cast-back to primitive souls2 but as no man after writing such an extraordinary book as ,chance will ever escape its influence 7after his ,golden ,bowl1 ,mr4 ,james was quite another ,james71 so ,joseph ,conrad's firmer grasp on the burin of psychology shows very plainly in ,victory2 that is1 he deals with elemental causes1 but the effects are given in a subtle series of reactions4 ,he never drew a girl but once like ,flora de ,barral2 and1 till now1 never a man like the ,swede1 ,axel ,heyst1 who has been called1 most appropriately1 a ,south ,sea ,hamlet4 ,he has a ,hamletic soul1 this attractive young man1 born with a metaphysical caul1 which eventually strangles him4 ,no one but ,conrad would dare the mingling of such two dissociated genres as the romantic and the analytic1 and if1 here and there1 the bleak rites of the one1 and the lush sentiment of the other1 fail to modulate1 it is because the artistic undertaking is a well-nigh impossible one4 ,briefly1 ,victory relates the adventures of a gentleman and scholar in the ,antipodes4 ,he meets a girl1 a fiddler in a ,ladies' ,orchestra1 falls in love1 as do men of lofty ideals and no sense of the practical1 goes off with her to a lonely island1 there to fight for her possession and his own life4 ,the stage-setting is magnificent2 even a volcano lights the scene4 ,but the clear1 hard-blue sky is quite o'erspread by the black bat ,melancholia1 and the silence is indeed dazzling4 ,the villains are melodramatic enough in their behaviour1 but1 as portraits1 they are artfully different from the conventional bad men of fiction4 ,the thin chap1 ,mr4 ,jones1 is truly sinister1 and there is a horrid implication in his woman-hating1 which vaguely peeps out in the bloody finale4 ,the hairy servant might be a graduate from ,the ,island of ,doctor ,moreau of ,mr4 ,wells--one of the beast folk2 while the murderous henchman1 ,ricardo1 is unpleasantly put before us4 ,i like the girl2 it would have been so easy to spoil her with moralising2 but the ,baron is the magnet1 and1 as a counterfoil1 the diabolical ,german hotel keeper4 ,there is too much arbitrary handling at the close for my taste4 ,only in the opening chapters of ,victory does ,mr4 ,conrad pursue his oblique method of taletelling2 the pomp and circumstance of a lordly narrative style roll to a triumphant conclusion4 ,this ,polish writer easily heads the present school of ,english fiction4 ,his most buoyant and attractive girl is ,freya ,nelson 7or ,nielsen7 in the volume alluded to2 she1 however1 is pure ,caucasian1 and perhaps more ,american than ,european4 ,her beauty caresses the eye4 ,the story is a good one1 though it ends unhappily--another cause for complaint on the part of the sentimentalists who prefer molasses to meat4 ,but this is a tale which is also literature4 ,conrad will never be coerced into offering his readers sugar-coated tittle-tattle4 ,and at a period when the distaff of fiction is too often in the hands of men the voice of the romantic realist and poetic ironist1 ,joseph ,conrad1 sounds a dynamic masculine bass amid the shriller choir4 ,he is an aboriginal force4 ,let us close with the hearty affirmation of ,walt ,whitman3 ,camerado6 this is no book1 who touches this1 touches a man4 ,,ii ,a ,,visit ,,to ,,walt ,,whitman ,my edition of ,walt ,whitman's ,leaves of ,grass is dated #ahfg1 the third1 if ,i am not mistaken1 the first appearing in #ahee4 ,inside is pasted a card upon which is written in large1 clumsy letters3 ,walt ,whitman1 ,camden1 ,new ,jersey1 ,july1 #ahgg4 ,i value this autograph1 because ,walt gave it to me2 rather ,i paid him for it1 the proceeds1 two dollars 7,i think that was the amount71 going to some asylum in ,camden4 ,in addition1 the good grey poet was kind enough to add a woodcut of himself as he appeared in the #ahee volume1 hankering1 gross1 mystical1 nude1 and another of his old mother1 with her shrewd1 kindly face4 ,walt is in his shirt-sleeves1 a hand on his hip1 the other in his pocket1 his neck bare1 the pose that of a nonchalant workman--though in actual practice he was always opposed to work of any sort2 on his head is a slouch-hat1 and you recall his line3 ,i wear my hat as ,i please1 indoors or out4 ,the picture is characteristic1 even to the sensual mouth and ,bowery-boy pose4 ,you almost hear him say3 ,i find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones4 ,altogether a different man from the later bard1 the heroic apparition of ,broadway1 ,pennsylvania ,avenue1 and ,chestnut ,street4 ,i had convalesced from a severe attack of ,edgar ,allan ,poe only to fall desperately ill with ,whitmania4 ,youth is ever in revolt1 age alone brings resignation4 ,my favourite reading was ,shelley1 my composer among composers1 ,wagner4 ,chopin came later4 ,this was in #ahgf1 when the ,bayreuth apotheosis made ,wagner's name familiar to us1 especially in ,philadelphia1 where his empty1 sonorous ,centennial ,march was first played by ,theodore ,thomas at the ,exposition4 ,the reading of a magazine article by ,moncure ,d4 ,conway caused me to buy a copy1 at an extravagant price for my purse1 of ,the ,leaves of ,grass1 and so uncritical was ,i that ,i wrote a parallel between ,wagner and ,whitman2 between the most consciously artistic of men and the wildest among improvisators4 ,but then it seemed to me that both had thrown off the shackles of convention4 7,what prison-like similes we are given to in the heady1 generous impulses of green adolescence47 ,i was a boy1 and seeing ,walt on ,market ,street1 as he came from the ,camden ,ferry1 ,i resolved to visit him4 ,it was some time after the ,fourth of ,july1 #ahgg1 and ,i soon found his little house on ,mickle ,street4 ,a policeman at the ferry-house directed me4 ,i confess ,i was scared after ,i had given the bell one of those pulls that we tremblingly essay at a dentist's door4 ,to my amazement the old man soon stood before me1 and cordially bade me enter4 ,walt1 ,i said1 for ,i had heard that he disliked a more ceremonious prefix1 ,i've come to tell you how much the ,leaves have meant to me4 ,ah6 he simply replied1 and asked me to take a chair4 ,to this hour ,i can see the humble room1 but when ,i try to recall our conversation ,i fail4 ,that it was on general literary subjects ,i know1 but the main theme was myself4 ,in five minutes ,walt had pumped me dry4 ,he did it in his quiet1 sympathetic way1 and1 with the egoism of my age1 ,i was not averse from relating to him the adventures of my soul4 ,that ,walt was a fluent talker one need but read his memoirs by ,horace ,traubel4 ,witness his tart allusion to ,swinburne's criticism of himself3 ,isn't he the damnedest simulacrum8 ,but he was a sphinx the first time ,i met him4 ,i do recall that he said ,poe wrote too much in a dark cellar1 and that music was his chief recreation--of which art he knew nothing2 it served him as a sounding background for his pencilled improvisations4 ,i begged for an autograph4 ,he told me of his interest in a certain asylum or hospital1 whose name has gone clean out of my mind1 and ,i paid my few dollars for the treasured signature4 ,it is now one of my literary treasures4 ,if ,i forget the tenor of our discourse ,i have not forgotten the immense impression made upon me by the man4 ,as vain as a peacock1 ,walt looked like a ,greek rhapsodist4 ,tall1 imposing in bulk1 his regular features1 mild1 light-blue or grey eyes1 clear ruddy skin1 plentiful white hair and beard1 evoked an image of the magnificently fierce old men he chants in his book4 ,but he wasn't fierce1 his voice was a tenor of agreeable timbre1 and he was gentle1 even to womanliness4 ,indeed1 he was like a receptive1 lovable old woman1 the kind he celebrates so often4 ,he never smoked1 his only drink was water4 ,i doubt if he ever drank spirits4 ,his old friends say ,no1 although he is a terrible rake in print4 ,without suggesting effeminacy1 he gave me the impression of a feminine soul in a masculine envelope4 ,when ,president ,lincoln first saw him he said3 ,well1 he looks like a man6 ,perhaps ,lincoln knew1 for his remark has other connotations than the speech of ,napoleon when he met ,goethe3 ,voil un homme6 ,hasn't ,whitman asked in ,calamus1 the most revealing section of ,leaves3 ,do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man8 ,he also wrote of ,calamus3 ,here the frailest leaves of me4444 ,here ,i shade down and hide my thoughts4 ,i do not express them4 ,and yet they expose me more than all my other poems4 ,mr4 ,harlan1 ,secretary of the ,interior1 when he dismissed ,walt from his department because of ,leaves1 did not know about the ,calamus section--,i believe they were not incorporated till later--but ,washington was acquainted with ,walt and his idiosyncrasies1 and1 despite ,w4 ,d4 ,connor's spirited vindication1 certain rumours would not be stifled4 ,walt was thirty-six when ,leaves appeared2 forty-one when ,calamus was written4 ,i left the old man after a hearty hand-shake1 a ,so long6 just as in his book1 and returned to ,philadelphia4 ,full of the day1 ,i told my policeman at the ferry that ,i had seen ,walt4 ,that old gas-bag comes here every afternoon4 ,he gets free rides across the ,delaware1 and ,i rejoiced to think that a soulless corporation had some appreciation of a great poet1 though the irreverence of this powerful uneducated person shocked me4 ,when ,i reached home ,i also told my mother of my visit4 ,she was plainly disturbed4 ,she said that the writings of the man were immoral1 but she was pleased at my report of ,walt's sanity1 sweetness1 mellow optimism1 and his magnetism1 like some natural force4 ,i forgot1 in my enthusiasm1 that it was ,walt who listened1 ,i who gabbled4 ,my father1 who had never read ,leaves1 had sterner criticism to offer3 ,if ,i ever hear of you going to see that fellow you'll be sorry6 ,this coming from the most amiable of parents1 surprised me4 ,later ,i discovered the root of his objection1 for1 to be quite frank1 ,walt did not bear a good reputation in ,philadelphia1 and ,i have heard him spoken of so contemptuously that it would bring a blush to the shining brow of a ,whitmaniac4 ,yet dogs followed him and children loved him4 ,i saw ,walt accidentally at intervals1 though never again in ,camden4 ,i met him on the streets1 and several times took him from the ,carl ,gaertner ,string ,quartet ,concerts in the foyer of the ,broad ,street ,academy of ,music to the ,market ,street cars4 ,he lumbered majestically1 his hairy breast exposed1 but was a feeble old man1 older than his years2 paralysis had maimed him4 ,he is said to have incurred it from his unselfish labours as nurse in the camp hospitals at ,washington during the ,civil ,war2 however1 it was in his family on the paternal side1 and at thirty he was quite grey4 ,the truth is1 ,walt was not the healthy hero he celebrates in his book4 ,that he never dissipated we know2 but his husky masculinity1 his posing as the ,great ,god ,priapus in the garb of a ,bowery boy is discounted by the facts4 ,parsiphallic1 he was1 but not of ,pan's breed4 ,in the ,children of ,adam1 the part most unfavourably criticised of ,leaves1 he is the ,great ,bridegroom1 and in no literature1 ancient or modern1 have been the mysteries of the temple of love so brutally exposed4 ,with all his genius in naming certain unmentionable matters1 ,i don't believe in the virility of these pieces1 scintillating with sexual images4 ,they leave one cold despite their erotic vehemence2 the abuse of the vocative is not persuasive1 their raptures are largely rhetorical4 ,this exaltation1 this ecstasy1 seen at its best in ,william ,blake1 is sexual ecstasy1 but only when the mood is married to the mot lumire is there authentic conflagration4 ,then his barbaric yawp is heard across the roofs of the world2 but in the underhumming harmonics of ,calamus1 where ,walt really loafs and invites his soul1 we get the real man1 not the inflated hum-buggery of ,these ,states1 ,camerados1 or ,my ,message1 which fills ,leaves with their patriotic frounces4 ,his philosophy is fudge4 ,it was an artistic misfortune for ,walt that he had a mission1 it is a worse one that his disciples endeavour to ape him4 ,he was an unintellectual man who wrote conventionally when he was plain ,walter ,whitman1 living in ,brooklyn4 ,but he imitated ,ossian and ,blake1 and their singing robes ill-befitted his burly frame4 ,if1 in ,poe1 there is much rant and rococo1 ,whitman is mostly yawping and yodling4 ,he is destitute of humour1 like the majority of prophets and uplifters1 else he might have realised that a ,democracy based on the manly love of comrades is an absurdity4 ,not alone in ,calamus1 but scattered throughout ,leaves1 there are passages that fully warrant unprejudiced psychiatrists in styling this book the bible of the third sex4 ,but there is rude red music in the versicles of ,leaves4 ,they stimulate1 and1 for some young hearts1 they are as a call to battle4 ,the book is a capital hunting-ground for quotations4 ,such massive head-lines--that soon sink into platitudinous prose2 such robust swinging rhythms1 ,emerson told ,walt that he must have had a long foreground4 ,it is true4 ,notwithstanding his catalogues of foreign countries1 he was hardly a cosmopolitan4 ,whitman's so-called mysticism is a muddled echo of ,new ,england ,transcendentalism2 itself a pale dilution of an outworn ,german idealism--what ,coleridge called the holy jungle of ,transcendental metaphysics4 ,his concrete imagination automatically rejected metaphysics4 ,his chief asset is an extraordinary sensitiveness to the sense of touch2 it is his distinguishing passion1 and tactile images flood his work2 this1 and an eye that records appearances1 the surface of things1 and registers in phrases of splendour the picturesque1 yet seldom fuses matter and manner into a poetical synthesis4 ,the community of interest between his ideas and images is rather affiliated than cognate4 ,he has a tremendous1 though ill-assorted vocabulary4 ,his prose is jolting1 rambling1 tumid1 invertebrate4 ,an arrant artist1 as ,mr4 ,brownell calls him1 he lacks formal sense and the diffuseness and vagueness of his supreme effort--the ,lincoln burial hymn--serves as a nebulous buffer between sheer over-praise and serious criticism4 ,he contrives atmosphere with facility1 and can achieve magical pictures of the sea and the mad naked summer night4 ,his early poem1 ,walt ,whitman1 is for me his most spontaneous offering4 ,he has at times the primal gift of the poet--ecstasy2 but to attain it he often wades through shallow1 ill-smelling sewers1 scales arid hills1 traverses dull drab levels where the slag covers rich ore1 or plunges into subterrene pools of nocturnal abominations--veritable regions of the mother of dead dogs4 ,probably the sexlessness of ,emerson's1 ,poe's1 and ,hawthorne's writings sent ,whitman to an orgiastic extreme1 and the morbid1 nasty-nice puritanism that then tainted ,english and ,american letters received its first challenge to come out into the open and face natural facts4 ,despite his fearlessness1 one must subscribe to ,edmund ,clarence ,stedman's epigram3 ,there are other lights in which a dear one may be regarded than as the future mother of men4 ,walt let in a lot of fresh air on the stuffy sex question of his day1 but1 in demanding equal sexual rights for women1 he meant it in the reverse sense as propounded by our old grannies' purity leagues4 ,continence is not the sole virtue or charm in womanhood2 nor1 by the same token1 is unchastity a brevet of feminine originality4 ,but women1 as a rule1 have not rallied to his doctrines1 instinctively feeling that he is indifferent to them1 notwithstanding the heated homage he pays to their physical attractions4 ,good old ,walt sang of his camerados1 capons1 ,americanos1 deck-hands1 stagecoach-drivers1 machinists1 brakemen1 firemen1 sailors1 butchers1 bakers1 and candlestick makers1 and he associated with them2 but they never read him or understood him4 ,they prefer ,longfellow4 ,it is the cultured class he so despises that discovered1 lauded him1 believing that he makes vocal the underground world2 above all1 believing that he truly represents ,america and the dwellers thereof--which he decidedly does not4 ,we are1 if you will1 a commonplace people1 but normal1 and not enamoured of athletic love of comrades4 ,i remember a dinner given by the ,whitman ,society about twenty years ago1 at the ,st4 ,denis ,hotel1 which was both grotesque and pitiable4 ,the guest of honour was ,pete ,doyle1 the former car-conductor and young rebel friend of ,walt's1 then a middle-aged person4 ,john ,swinton1 who presided1 described ,whitman as a troglodyte1 but a cave-dweller he never was2 rather the avatar of the hobo4 ,as ,john ,jay ,chapman wittily wrote3 ,he patiently lived on cold pie1 and tramped the earth in triumph4 ,instead of essaying the varied1 expressive1 harmonious music of blank verse1 he chose the easier1 more clamorous1 and disorderly way2 but if he had not so chosen we should have missed the salty tang of the true ,walt ,whitman4 ,toward the last there was too much ,camden in his ,cosmos4 ,quite appropriately his dying word was le mot de ,cambronne4 ,it was the last victory of an organ over an organism4 ,and he was a gay old pagan who never called a sin a sin when it was a pleasure4 ,,iii ,,the ,,buffoon ,,of ,,the ,,new ,,eternities3 ,,jules ,,laforgue ,i ,jules ,laforgue3 ,quelle joie6 --,j4-,k4-,,huysmans4 ,all victories are alike2 defeat alone displays an individual profile4 ,and the case of ,jules ,laforgue wears this special aspect4 ,dying on the threshold of his twenty-seventh year1 coming too old into a world too young1 his precocity as poet and master of fantastic prose has yet not the complexion of a ,chatterton or a ,keats4 ,in his literary remains1 slender enough as to quantity1 there is little to suggest a fuller development if he had lived4 ,like his protagonist ,arthur ,rimbaud--surely the most extraordinary poetic apparition of the nineteenth century--,jules ,laforgue accomplished his destiny during the period when most poets are moulding their wings preparatory to flight4 ,he flew in youth1 flew moonward1 for his patron goddess was ,selene1 he her faithful worshipper1 a true lunalogue4 ,his transcendental indifferentism saved him from the rotten-ripe maturity of them that are born with a ray of moonlight in their brains1 as ,villiers de l',isle ,adam hath it4 ,and ,villiers has also written3 ,when the forehead alone contains the existence of a man1 that man is enlightened only from above his head2 then his jealous shadow1 prostrate under him1 draws him by the feet1 that it may drag him down into the invisible4 ,like ,watteau1 ,laforgue was condemned from the beginning to a green thought in a green shade4 ,the spirit in him1 the shadow1 devoured his soul1 pulverised his will1 made of him a ,hamlet without a propelling cause1 a doubter in a world of cheap certitudes and insolent fatuities1 but barred him proffering his pearls to pigs4 ,he came before ,nietzsche1 yet could he have said with ,zarathustra3 ,i love the great despisers because they are the great adorers1 they are arrows of longing for the other shore4 ,now ,laforgue was a great despiser4 ,but he made merry over the ivory1 apes1 and peacocks of existence4 ,he seems less ,french than he is in his self-mockery1 yet he is a true son of his time and of his country4 ,this young ,hamlet1 who doubted the constancy of his mother the moon1 was a very buffoon2 ,i am the new buffoon of dusty eternities1 might have been his declaration2 a buffoon making subtle somersaults in the metaphysical blue4 ,he was a metaphysician complicated by a poet4 ,von ,hartmann it was who extorted his homage4 ,all is relative1 was his war-cry on schools and codes and generalisations4 ,his urbanity never deserted him1 though it was an exasperated urbanity4 ,his was an art of the nerves4 ,arthur ,symons has spoken of his icy ecstasy and ,maurice ,maeterlinck described his laughter as laughter of the soul4 ,like ,chopin or ,watteau1 he danced on roses and thorns4 ,all three were consumptives and the aur of decay floats about their work2 all three suffered from the nostalgia of the impossible4 ,the morbid decadent aquafortist that is revealed in the corroding etchings of ,laforgue is germane to men in whom irony and pity are perpetually disputing4 ,we think of ,heine and his bitter-sweetness4 ,again with ,zarathustra1 ,laforgue could say3 ,i do not give alms4 ,i am not poor enough for that4 ,he possesses the sixth sense of infinity4 ,a cosmical jester1 his badinage is well-nigh dolorous4 ,his verse and prose form a series of personal variations4 ,the lyric in him is through some temperamental twist reversed4 ,fantastic dreams overflow his reality1 and he always dreams with wide-open eyes4 ,watteau's l',indifferent6 ,a philosophical vaudevillist1 he juggles with such themes as a metaphysical ,armida1 the moon and her minion1 ,pierrot2 with celestial spasms and the odour of mortality1 or the universal sigh1 the autumnal refrains of ,chopin1 and the monotony of love4 ,life is quotidian6 he has sung1 and women are the very symbol of sameness1 that is their tragedy--or comedy4 ,stability thy name is ,woman6 exclaims the ,hamlet of this most spiritual among parodists4 ,one never gets him with his back to the wall4 ,he vanishes in the shining cloud of a witty abstraction when cornered4 ,his prose is full of winged neologisms1 his poetry heavy with the metaphysics of ennui4 ,remy de ,gourmont speaks of his magnificent work as the prelude to an oratorio achieved in silence4 ,laforgue1 himself1 called it an intermezzo1 and in truth it is little more4 ,his intellectual sensibility and his elemental soul make for mystifications4 ,as if he knew the frailness of his tenure on life1 he sought azure and elliptical routes4 ,he would have welcomed ,maeterlinck's test question3 ,are you of those who name or those who only repeat names8 ,laforgue was essentially a namer--with ,gallic glee he would have enjoyed renaming the animals as they left the ,noachian ark2 yes1 and nicknaming the humans1 for he is a terrible disrespecter of persons and rank and of the seats of the mighty4 ,some one has said that a criticism is negative if it searches for what a writer lacks instead of what he possesses4 ,we should soon reach a zero if we only registered the absence of necessary traits in our poet4 ,he is so unlike his contemporaries--with a solitary exception--that his curious genius seems composed of a bundle of negatives4 ,but behind the mind of every great writer there marches a shadowy mob of phrases1 which mimics his written words1 and makes them untrue indices of his thoughts4 ,these shadows are the unexpressed ideas of which the visible sentences are only eidolons2 a cave filled with ,platonic phantoms4 ,the phrase of ,laforgue has a timbre capable of infinite prolongations in the memory4 ,it is not alone what he says1 nor the manner1 but his power of arousing overtones from his keyboard4 ,his sthetic mysticism is allied with a semi-brutal frankness4 ,feathers fallen from the wings of peri adorn the heads of equivocal persons4 ,cosmogonies jostle evil farceurs1 and the silvery voices of children chant blasphemies4 ,laforgue could repeat with ,arthur ,rimbaud3 ,i accustomed myself to simple hallucinations3 ,i saw1 quite frankly1 a mosque in place of a factory1 a school of drums kept by the angels2 post-chaises on the road to heaven1 a drawing-room at the bottom of a lake2 the title of a vaudeville raised up horrors before me4 ,then ,i explained my magical sophisms by the hallucination of words6 ,i ended by finding something sacred in the disorder of my mind translation by ,arthur ,symons4 ,but while ,laforgue with all his spiritual dislocation would not deny the sacred disorder1 he saw life in too glacial a manner to admit that his were merely hallucinations4 ,rather1 correspondences1 he would say1 for he was as much a disciple of ,baudelaire and ,gautier in his search for the hidden affinity of things as he was a lover of the antique splendours in ,flaubert's ,asiatic visions4 ,he1 too1 dreamed of quintessentials1 of the sheer power of golden vocables and the secret alchemy of art4 ,he1 too1 promenaded his incertitudes1 to use a self-revealing phrase of ,chopin's4 ,an aristocrat1 he knew that in the country of the idiot the imbecile always will be king1 and1 like many a one who turned away from life1 he only turned away from the rabble1 and cared not to share with them well and fire and fruit4 ,his ,kingdom of ,green was consumed and became grey by the regard of his coldly measuring eye4 ,for him modern man is an animal who bores himself4 ,laforgue is an essayist who is also a causeur4 ,his abundance is never exuberance4 ,without sentiment or romance1 nevertheless1 he does not suggest ossification of the spirit4 ,to dart a lance at mythomania is his delight1 while preserving the impassibility of a ,parnassian4 ,his travesties of ,hamlet1 ,lohengrin1 ,salom1 ,pan1 ,perseus enchant1 their plastic yet metallic prose denotes the unique artist2 above all they are modern1 they graze the hem of the contemporaneous4 ,from the sublime to the arabesque is but a semitone in his antic mind4 ,undulating in his desire to escape the automatic1 doubting even his own scepticism1 ,jules ,laforgue is a ,hamlet rebours4 ,old ,fletcher sings3 ,then stretch our bones in a still1 gloomy valley1 ,nothing's so dainty sweet as lovely melancholy4 ,,ii ,he seems to have been of an umbrageous character4 ,his life was sad and simple4 ,he was born ,august #bj1 #ahfj1 at ,montevideo--,ville en amphithtre1 toits en terrasses1 rues en daumiers1 rade enorme--of ,breton parentage4 ,he died at ,paris1 #ahhg4 ,gustave ,kahn1 the symbolist poet1 describes ,laforgue in his ,symbolistes and ,dcadents as a serious young man1 with sober ,english manners and an extreme rectitude in the matter of clothes4 ,not the metaphysical ,narcissus that was once ,maurice ,barrs--whose early books show the influence of ,laforgue4 ,he adored the philosophy of the ,unconscious as set forth by ,von ,hartmann1 was erudite1 collected delicate art1 thought much1 read widely1 and was an ardent advocate of the ,impressionistic painters4 ,i have a pamphlet by ,mdric ,dufour1 entitled ,etude sur l'thtique de ,jules ,laforgue3 une ,philosophie de l',impressionisme1 which is interesting1 though far from conclusive1 being an attack on the determinism of ,taine1 and a defence of ,monet1 ,pissarro1 and ,sisley4 ,but then we only formulate our preferences into laws4 ,the best thing in it is the phrase3 ,there are no types1 there is only humanity1 to the wisdom of which we must heartily subscribe4 ,from #ahhj to #ahhf ,laforgue was reader to the ,empress ,augusta at ,berlin and was admired by the cultivated court circle1 as his letters to his sister and ,m4 ,ephrussi1 his friend1 testify4 ,he was much at home in ,germany and there is no denying the influence of ,teutonic thought and spirit on his susceptible nature4 ,naturally prone to pessimism 7he has called himself a mystic pessimist7 as was ,amiel1 the study of ,hegel1 ,schopenhauer1 and ,hartmann solidified the sentiment4 ,he met an ,english girl1 ,leah ,lee1 by name1 and after giving her lessons in ,french1 fell in love1 and in #ahhg married her4 ,it is interesting to observe the sinister dandy in private life1 as a tender lover1 a loving brother4 ,this spiritual dichotomy is not absent in his poetry4 ,he holds back nothing in his self-revelations1 except the sad side1 though there is always an exquisite tremulous sensibility in his baffling art4 ,a few months after his marriage he was attacked by the fatal malady1 as was his unfortunate wife1 and he was buried on his twenty-seventh birthday4 ,gustave ,kahn notes that few followed him to the grave4 ,he was unknown except to some choice spirits1 the dozen superior persons of ,huysmans1 scattered throughout the universe4 ,his wife survived him only a short time4 ,little has been written of him1 the most complete estimate being that of ,camille ,mauclair1 with an introduction by ,maeterlinck--who calls his ,hamlet more ,hamlet than ,shakespeare's4 ,in addition to these1 and ,dufour1 ,kahn1 ,de ,gourmont and ,felix ,fneon1 we have in ,english essays by ,george ,moore1 ,arthur ,symons1 ,philip ,hale1 the critic of music1 and ,aline ,gorren4 ,mr4 ,moore introduced ,laforgue in company with ,rimbaud to the ,english reading world and ,mr4 ,symons devoted to him one of his sensitive studies in ,the ,symbolist ,movement in ,literature4 ,mr4 ,hale did the same years ago for ,american readers in a sympathetic article1 ,the ,fantastical ,jules ,laforgue4 ,he also translated with astonishing fidelity to the letter and spirit of the author1 his incomparable ,lohengrin1 ,fils de ,parsifal4 ,i regret having it no longer in my possession so that ,i might quote from its delicious prose4 ,as to the verse1 ,i know of few attempts to translate the untranslatable4 ,perhaps ,mr4 ,symons has tried his accomplished hand at the task4 ,how render the sumptuous assonance and solemn rhythms of ,marche ,funbre3 ,o convoi solennel des soleils magnifiques8 ,,iii ,je ne suis qu'un viveur lunaire ,qui faits des ronds dans les bassins ,et cela1 sans autre dessin ,que devenir un lgendaire4444 ,sings our poet in the silver-fire verse of ,l',imitation de ,notre-,dame la ,lune1 wherein he asks--,mais o sont les ,lunes d',antan4 ,this ,pierrot lunaire1 this buffoon of new and dusty eternities1 wrote a sort of vers libres1 which1 often breaking off with a smothered sob1 modulates into prose and sings the sorrows and complaints of a world peopled by fantastic souls1 clowns1 somnambulists1 satyrs1 poets1 harlots1 dainty girls1 ,chret posters1 pierrots1 kings of pyschopathic tastes1 blithe birds1 and sad-coloured cemeteries4 ,the poet is a mocking demon who rides on clouds dropping epigrams earthward1 the earth that grunts and sweats beneath the sun or cowers and weeps under the stellar prairies4 ,he mockingly calls himself ,the ,grand ,chancellor of ,analysis4 ,like ,nietzsche he dances when his heart is heavy1 and trills his roundelays and his gamut of rancorous flowers with an enigmatic smile on his lips4 ,it is a strange and disquieting music1 a pageantry of essences1 this verse with its resonance of emerald4 ,appearing in fugitive fashion1 it was gathered into a single volume through the efforts of friends and with the ,moralits lgendaires comprises his life-work1 for we can hardly include the ,mlanges posthumes1 which consist of scraps and fragments 7published in #aijc7 together with some letters1 not a very weighty addition to the dead poet's fame4 ,his translations of ,walt ,whitman ,i've not seen4 ,perhaps his verse is doomed2 it was born with the hectic flush of early dissolution1 but it is safe to predict that as long as lovers of rare literature exist the volume of prose will survive4 ,it has for the gourmet of style an unending charm1 the charm en sourdine of its creator1 to whom a falling leaf or an empire in dissolution was of equal value4 ,his work1 wrote ,mr4 ,symons1 has the fatal evasiveness of those who shrink from remembering the one thing which they are unable to forget4 ,coming as he does after ,rimbaud1 turning the divination of the other into theories1 into achieved results1 he is the eternally grown-up nature to the point of self-negation1 as the other is the eternal enfant terrible4 ,tout tait pour le vieux dans le meilleur des mondes1 ,laforgue would have cried in the epigram of ,paul ,bourget4 ,the prose of ,jules ,laforgue recalls to me his description of the orchestra in ,salom1 the fourth of the ,moralits lgendaires4 ,sur un mode allgre et fataliste1 un orchestre aux instruments d'ivoire improvisait une petite overture unanime4 ,that his syllables are of ivory ,i feel1 and improvised1 but his themes are pluralistic1 the immedicable and colossal ennui of life the chiefest4 ,woman--the ,eternal ,madame1 as ,baudelaire calls her--is a being both magical and mediocre2 she is also an escape from the universal world-pain4 ,la fin de l'homme est proche 444 ,antigone va passer du mnage de la famille au mnage de la plante 7prophetic words74 ,but when lovely woman begins to talk of the propagation of the ideal she only means the human species4 ,with ,lessing he believes3 ,there is1 at most1 but one disagreeable woman in the world2 a pity then that every man gets her for himself4 ,it is rather singular to observe in the writings of ,marinetti1 the self-elected leader of the so-called ,futurists1 the hopeless deliquescence of the form invented by ,louis ,bertrand in his ,gaspard de la ,nuit1 and developed with almost miraculous results in ,baudelaire and terminating with ,huysmans1 ,maeterlinck1 and ,francis ,poictevin 7,paysages74 ,rimbaud had intervened4 ,in his ,illuminations we read that so soon as the ,idea of the ,deluge had sunk back into its place1 a rabbit halted amid the sainfoin and the small swinging bells1 and said its prayers to the rainbow through the spider's web4 ,oh6 ,the precious stones in hiding1 the flowers already looking out 444 ,madame ,x established a piano in the ,alps4444 ,the caravans started4 ,and the ,splendid ,hotel was erected upon the chaos of ice and night of the ,pole 7from the translation by ,aline ,gorren74 ,this1 apparently mad sequence of words and dissociation of ideas1 has been deciphered by ,m4 ,kahn1 and need not daunt any one who has patience and ingenuity4 ,i confess ,i prefer ,laforgue1 who at his most cryptic is never so wildly tantalising as ,rimbaud4 ,moralits lgendaires contains six sections4 ,i don't know which to admire the most1 the ,hamlet or the ,lohengrin1 the ,salom or the ,perse et ,andromde4 ,le ,miracle des ,roses is of an exceeding charm1 though dealing with the obvious1 while ,pan et la ,syrinx has a quality which ,i can recall nowhere else in literature2 perhaps in the cadences charged with the magic and irony of ,chopin1 or in the half-dreams of ,watteau1 colour and golden sadness intermingled1 may evoke the spiritual parodies of ,laforgue1 but in literature there is no analogue1 though ,pan is of classic flavour despite his very modern ,weltanschauung4 ,syrinx is a woodland creature nebulous and exquisite4 ,pursued by ,pan--the ,eternal ,male in rut--she does not succumb to his pipes1 and after she has vanished in the lingering wind1 he blows sweeter music through his seven reeds4 ,the symbol is not difficult to decipher4 ,and who would not succumb to the languorous melancholy of ,andromde1 not chained to a rock but living on the best of terms with her monster1 who calls her ,bb6 ,the sea bores her profoundly4 ,she looks for ,perseus1 who doesn't come2 the sea1 always the sea without a moment's weakness2 in brief1 not the stuff of which friends are made6 ,when the knight appears and kills her monster1 he loses his halo for ,andromde1 who cherishes her monstrous guardian4 ,perseus1 a prig disgusted by the fickleness of the ,young ,person1 flees1 and the death of the monster brings to life a lovely youth--put under the spell of malignant powers--who promptly weds his ward4 ,in ,lohengrin1 ,son of ,parsifal1 the whole machinery of the ,wagner opera is transposed to the key of lunar parody4 ,what ambrosia from the ,walhalla of topsyturvy is this ,elsa with her eyes hymeneally illumined as she awaits her saviour4 ,he appears and they are married4 ,alas6 ,the pillow of the nuptial couch becomes a swan that carries off ,lohengrin weary of the tart queries made by his little bride concerning love and sex and other unimportant questions of daily life4 ,this ,elsa is a sensual goose4 ,she is also a stubborn believer in the biblical injunction3 ,crescite et multiplicamini1 and she would willingly allow the glittering stranger ,knight to bris le sceau de ses petites solitudes1 as the ,vicar of ,diane-,artemis phrases it4 ,the landscapes of these tales are fantastically beautiful1 and scattered through the narrative are fragments of verse1 vagrant and witty1 that light up the stories with a glowworm phosphorescence4 ,salom and her celebrated eyebrows is a spiritual sister of ,flaubert's damsel1 as ,elsa is nearly related to his ,salammb4 ,she dwells in the far-off ,iles ,blanches ,esotriques1 and she1 too1 is annoyed by the stupidity of the sea1 always new1 always respectable6 ,she is the first of the ,saloms since ,flaubert who has caught some of her prototype's fragrance4 7,oscar ,wilde's attempt proved mediocre4 ,he introduced a discordant pathological note1 but the music of ,richard ,strauss may save his pasticcio4 ,it interprets the exotic prose of the ,irishman with tongues of fire2 it laps up the text1 encircles it1 underlines1 amplifies1 comments1 and in nodules of luminosity1 makes clear that which is dark1 ennobles much that is vain1 withal it never insists on leading2 the composer appears to follow the poet47 ,laforgue's ,salom tries to sport with the head of ,john the ,baptist1 stumbles1 loses her footing1 and falls from the machicolated wall on jagged rocks below1 as the head floats out to sea1 miraculously alight4 ,there are wit and philosophy and the hint of high thoughts in ,salom1 though her heart like glass is cold1 empty1 and crystalline4 ,the subtitle of ,hamlet1 which heads the volume1 is--,or1 the ,results of ,filial ,devotion--and the story1 as ,mr4 ,hale asserts1 is ,laforgue's masterpiece4 ,here is a ,hamlet for you1 a prince whose antics are enough to disturb the dust of ,shakespeare and make the angels on high weep with hysterical laughter4 ,not remotely hinting at burlesque1 the character is delicately etched4 ,by the subtle withdrawal of certain traits1 this ,hamlet behaves as a man would who has been trepanned and his moral nature removed by an analytical surgeon4 ,he is irony personified and is the most delightful company for one weary of the ,great ,good ,game around and about us1 the game of deceit1 treachery1 politics1 love1 social intercourse1 religion1 and commerce4 ,laforgue's ,hamlet sees through the hole in the mundane millstone and his every phrase is like the flash of a scimitar4 ,it is the irony of his position1 the irony of his knowledge that he is ,shakespeare's creation and must live up to his artistic paternity2 the irony that he is au fond a cabotin1 a footlight strutter1 a mouther of phrases metaphysical and a despiser of ,ophelia 7chre petite glu he names her7 that are all so appealing4 ,intellectual braggart1 this ,hamlet resides after his father ,horwendill's irregular decease in a tower hard by the ,sound1 from which ,helsingborg may be seen4 ,an old1 stagnant canal is beneath his windows4 ,in his chamber are waxen figures of his mother1 ,gerutha1 and his uncle-father1 ,fengo4 ,he daily pierces their hearts with needles after a bad old-fashioned medival formula of witchcraft4 ,but it avails naught4 ,with a fine touch he seeks for his revenge by having enacted before their ,majesties of ,denmark his own play4 ,they incontinently collapse in mortal nausea1 for they are excellent critics4 ,such a play scene1 withal ,shakespearian6 ,stability thy name is woman6 he exclaims bitterly1 for he fears love with the compromising domesticity of marriage4 ,it is his rigorous transvaluation of all moral values and conventionalities that proclaims this ,hamlet a man of the future4 ,no half-way treaties with the obvious in life1 no crooking the pregnant hinges of his opinions to the powers that be4 ,an anarch1 pure and complex1 he despises all methods4 ,what soliloquies1 replete with the biting1 cynical wisdom of a disillusionised soul6 ,ah1 he sighs1 there are no longer young girls1 they are all nurses4 ,ophelia loves me because1 as ,hobbes claims3 ',nothing is more agreeable in our ownership of goods than the thought that they are superior to the goods of others4' ,now ,i am socially and morally superior to the 'goods' of her little friends4 ,she wishes to make me1 ,hamlet1 comfortable4 ,ah1 if ,i could only have met ,helen of ,narbonne6 ,a ,hamlet who quotes the author of ,the ,leviathan is a ,hamlet with a vengeance4 ,to him enter the players ,william and ,kate4 ,he reads them his play4 ,kate's stage name is ,ophelia4 ,comment6 cries ,hamlet1 encore une ,ophelia dans ma potion6 ,william doesn't like the play because his part is not sympathetic4 ,after they retire ,hamlet indulges in a passionate outburst reproaching the times with its hypocrisy and des hypocrites et routinires jeunes filles4 ,if women but knew they would prostrate themselves before him as did the weeping ones upon the body of the dead ,adonis6 ,the key of this discourse is high-pitched and cutting4 ,laforgue1 a philosopher1 a pessimist1 makes his art the canvas for his ironic temperament4 ,the ,prince's interview with ,ophelia is full of soundless mirth4 ,and how he lavishes upon his own deranged head offensive abuse3 ,piteous provincial6 ,cabotin6 ,pdicure6 ,this last is his topmost term of contempt4 ,his parleying with the grave-diggers is another stroke of wit4 ,one of them tells him that ,polonius is carried off by apoplexy--a bust has been erected to his memory bearing the inscription1 ,words6 ,words6 ,words6 ,he also learns that ,yorick was his half-brother1 the son of a gipsy woman4 ,ophelia dies--he hears this with mixed feelings--and he is informed that the young ,prince ,hamlet is quite mad4 ,the grave-digger is a philosopher1 he thinks that ,fortinbras is at hand1 that the best investment for his money will be in ,norwegian bonds4 ,the funeral cortge approaches4 ,hamlet hides4 ,his soliloquy upon the skull of ,yorick has been partly done into ,english by ,mr4 ,symons4 ,alas1 poor ,yorick6 ,as one seems to hear in this little shell1 the multitudinous roar of the ocean1 so ,i hear the whole quenchless symphony of the universal soul1 of whose echoes this box was its cross-roads4 ,there's a solid idea6444 ,perhaps ,i have twenty or thirty years to live1 and ,i shall pass away like the others4 ,like the others8 ,o ,totality1 the misery of being there no longer6 ,ah6 ,i would like to set out to-morrow and search all through the world for the most adamantine processes of embalming4 ,they1 too1 were the little people of ,history1 learning to read1 trimming their nails1 lighting the dirty lamp every evening1 in love1 gluttonous1 vain1 fond of compliments1 handshakes1 and kisses1 living on bell-town gossip1 saying1 ',what sort of weather shall we have to-morrow8 ,winter has really come4444 ,we have had no plums this year4' ,ah6 ,everything is good1 if it would not come to an end4 ,and thou1 ,silence1 pardon the earth2 the little madcap hardly knows what she is doing2 on the day of the great summing-up before the ,ideal1 she will be labelled with a piteous idem in the column of the miniature evolutions of the ,unique ,evolution1 in the column of negligible quantities4444 ,to die6 ,evidently1 one does without knowing it1 as1 every night1 one enters upon sleep4 ,one has no consciousness of the passing of the last lucid thought into sleep1 into swooning1 into death4 ,evidently4 ,but to be no more1 to be here no more1 to be ours no more6 ,not even to be able1 any more1 to press against one's human heart1 some idle afternoon1 the ancient sadness contained in one little chord on the piano6 ,and this secular sadness pursues the heartless ,hamlet to the cemetery2 he returns after dark in company with the buxom actress ,kate4 ,they have eloped4 ,but the fatal irresolution again overtakes him4 ,he would see ,ophelia's tomb for the last time1 and as he attempts to decipher its inscription1 ,laertes--idiot d'humanit1 the average sensible man--approaches and the pair hold converse4 ,it is a revelation of the face of foolishness4 ,laertes reproaches ,hamlet4 ,he has by his trifling with ,ophelia caused her death4 ,laertes calls him a poor demented one1 exclaims over his lack of moral sense1 and winds up by bidding the crazy ,prince leave the cemetery4 ,quand on finit par folie1 c'est qu'on a commenc par le cabotinage4 7,which is a consoling axiom for an actor47 ,hamlet with his nave irony calmly inquires3 ,and thy sister6 ,this is too much for the distracted brother1 who poignards the ,prince4 ,hamlet expires with ,nero's cry on his lips3 ,ah6 ,ah6 ,qualis 444 artifex 444 pereo6 ,and1 as the author remarks3 ,he rendered to immutable nature his ,hamletic soul4 ,william enters and1 discovering his ,kate1 gives her a sound beating2 not the first or the last1 as she apprises us4 ,the poem ends with this motto3 ,un ,hamlet de moins2 la race n'en est pas perdue1 qu'on se le dise6 ,which is chilly truth4 ,the artistic beauty of the prose1 its haunting assonance1 its supple rhythms make this ,hamlet impossible save in ,french4 ,nor can the fine edge of its wit1 its multiple though masked ironies1 its astounding transposition of ,shakespearian humour and philosophy be aught else than loosely paraphrased4 ,laforgue's ,hamlet is of to-morrow1 for every epoch orchestrates anew its own vision of ,hamlet4 ,the eighteenth century had one2 the nineteenth had another2 and our generation a fresher4 ,but we know of none so vital as this fantastic thinker of ,laforgue's4 ,he must have had his ear close to the ,time ,spirit1 so aptly has he caught the vibrations of his whirring loom1 so closely to these vibrations has he attuned the key-note of his twentieth-century ,hamlet4 ,,iv ,,dosto,,evsky ,,and ,,tolstoy ,,and ,,the ,,younger ,,choir ,,of ,,russian ,,writers ,i ,it is terrible to watch a man who has the ,incomprehensible in his grasp1 does not know what to do with it1 and sits playing with a toy called ,god4 --,letter to his brother ,michael4 ,in his ,criticism and ,fiction1 ,mr4 ,howells wrote3 ,it used to be one of the disadvantages of the practice of romance in ,america1 which ,hawthorne more or less whimsically lamented1 that there were few shadows and inequalities in our broad level of prosperity2 and it is one of the reflections suggested by ,dostoevsky's novel1 ,the ,crime and the ,punishment1 that whoever struck a note so profoundly tragic in ,american fiction would do a false and mistaken thing--as false and as mistaken in its way as dealing in ,american fiction with certain nudities which the ,latin peoples seem to find edifying4 ,who cares nowadays for the hard-and-fast classifications of idealist1 realist1 romanticist1 psychologist1 symbolist1 and the rest of the phrases1 which are only so much superfluous baggage for literary camp-followers4 ,all great romancers are realists1 and the converse may be true4 ,you note it in ,dumas and his gorgeous1 clattering tales--improbable1 but told in terms of the real4 ,for my part1 ,i often find them too real1 with their lusty wenches and heroes smelling of the slaughter-house4 ,turn now to ,flaubert1 master of all the moderns2 you may trace the romancer dear to the heart of ,hugo1 or the psychologist in ,madame ,bovary1 the archological novel in ,salammb1 or cold1 grey realism as in ,l',education ,sentimentale1 while his very style1 with its sumptuous verbal echoes1 its resonant1 rhythmic periods--is not all this the beginning of that symbolism carried to such lengths by ,verlaine and his followers8 ,shakespeare himself ranged from gross naturalism to the quiring of cherubim4 ,walter ,scott was a master realist if you forget his old-fashioned operatic scenery and costumes4 ,it is to ,jane ,austen we must go for the realism admired of ,mr4 ,howells1 and justly4 ,her work is all of a piece4 ,the ,russians are realists1 but with a difference2 and that deviation forms the school4 ,taking ,gogol as the norm of modern ,russian fiction--,leo ,wiener's admirable anthology surprises with its specimens of earlier men--we see the novel strained through the rich1 mystic imagination of ,dostoevsky2 viewed through the more equable1 artistic1 and pessimistic temperament of ,turgenieff1 until it is seized by ,leo ,tolstoy and passionately transformed to serve his own didactic purposes4 ,realism8 ,yes1 such as the world has never before seen1 and yet at times as idealistic as ,shelley4 ,it is not surprising that ,mr4 ,john ,m4 ,robertson wrote1 as far back as #ahia3 ,in that strange country where brute power seems to be throttling all the highest life of the people 444 there yet seems to be no cessation in the production of truthful literary art 444 for justice of perception1 soundness and purity of taste1 and skill of workmanship1 we in ,england1 with all our freedom1 can offer no parallel4 ,perhaps freedom is the reason4 ,and what would this critic have said of the ,de ,profundis of ,maxim ,gorky8 ,are there still darker depths to be explored8 ,little wonder ,mr4 ,robertson calls ,kipling's the art of a great talent with a cheap culture and a flashy environment4 ,therefore1 to talk of such distinctions as realism and romance is sheer waste of time4 ,it is but a recrudescence of the old classic vs4 romantic conflict4 ,stendhal has written that a classicist is a dead romanticist4 ,it still holds good4 ,but here in ,america1 the colourless shadow land of fiction1 is there no tragedy in ,gilead for souls not supine8 ,some years ago ,mr4 ,james ,lane ,allen1 who cannot be accused of any hankerings after the flesh-pots of ,zola1 made an energetic protest against what he denominated the feminine principle in our fiction4 ,he did not mean the books written by women--in sooth1 they are for the most part boiling over with the joy of life--but he meant the feminism of so much of our novel writing put forth by men4 ,the censor in ,russia by his very stringency caused a great fictional literature to blossom1 despite his forbidding blue pencil4 ,in ,america the sentiment of the etiolated1 the brainless1 the prudish1 the hypocrite is the censor4 7,though something might be said now about the pendulum swinging too far in the opposite direction47 ,not that ,mr4 ,howells is strait-laced1 prudish1 narrow in his views--but he puts his foot down on the expression of the tragic1 the unusual1 the emotional4 ,with him1 charming artist1 it is a matter of temperament4 ,he admires with a latitude quite foreign to ,english-speaking critics such diverse genius as ,flaubert1 ,tolstoy1 ,turgenieff1 ,galdos1 ,jane ,austen1 ,emilia ,pardo ,bzan1 ,mathilde ,serao--greater than any modern woman writer of fiction--,henry ,james1 and ,george ,moore4 ,but he admires each on his or her native heath4 ,that their particular methods might be given universal application he does not admit4 ,and when he wrote the above about ,dostoevsky ,new ,york was not so full of ,russians and ,poles and people from southeastern ,europe as it is now4 ,dostoevsky1 if he were alive1 would find plenty of material1 tragedy and comedy alike1 on our ,east ,side4 ,the new translation of ,dostoevsky in ,english by ,constance ,garnett is significant4 ,a few years ago ,crime and ,punishment was the only one of his works well known4 ,the ,possessed1 that extraordinary study of souls obsessed by madness and crime1 ,the ,brothers ,karamazov1 ,the ,house of the ,dead1 and ,the ,idiot are to-day in the hands of ,american readers who indorse what ,nietzsche said of the ,russian master3 ,this profound man 444 has perceived that ,siberian convicts1 with whom he lived for a long time 7capital criminals for whom there was no return to society71 were persons carved out of the best1 the hardest and the most valuable material to be found in the ,russian dominions4444 ,dostoevsky1 the only psychologist from whom ,i had anything to learn4 ,george ,moore once had dubbed the novelist1 ,gaboriau with psychological sauce4 ,since then1 ,mr4 ,moore has contributed a charming introduction to ,poor ,folk1 yet there is no denying the force and wit of his hasty epigram4 ,dostoevsky is often melodramatic and violent2 his psychology vague and tortuous4 ,and in the letters exchanged between ,nietzsche and ,georg ,brandes1 the latter writes of ,dostoevsky after his visit to ,russia3 ,he is a great poet but a detestable fellow1 altogether ,christian in his emotions1 and quite sadique at the same time4 ,all his morality is what you have christened ',slave's' morality4444 ,look at ,dostoevsky's face3 half the face of a ,russian peasant1 half the physiognomy of a criminal1 flat nose1 little penetrating eyes1 under lids trembling with nervousness1 the forehead large and well-shaped1 the expressive mouth telling of tortures without count1 of unfathomable melancholy1 of morbid desires1 endless compassion1 passionate envy4 ,an epileptic genius whose very exterior speaks of the stream of mildness that fills his heart1 of the wave of almost insane perspicuity that gets into his head1 finally the ambition1 the greatness of endeavour1 and the envy that small-mindedness begets4444 ,his heroes are not only poor and crave sympathy1 but are half imbeciles1 sensitive creatures1 noble drabs1 often victims of hallucinations1 talented epileptics1 enthusiastic seekers after martyrdom1 the very types that we are compelled to suppose probable among the apostles and disciples of the early ,christian era4 ,certainly no mind stands further removed from the ,renaissance4 ,of all ,dostoevsky's portraits after ,sonia1 the saintly prostitute1 that of ,nastasia ,philipovna in ,the ,idiot is the most lifelike and astounding4 ,the career of this half-mad girl is sinister and tragic2 she is half-sister in her temperamental traits to ,paulina in the same master's admirable story ,the ,gambler4 ,grushenka in ,the ,brothers ,karamazov is another woman of the demoniac type to which ,nastasia belongs4 ,then there are high-spirited1 hysterical girls such as ,katarina in ,karamazov1 ,aglaia ,epanchin in ,the ,idiot1 or ,liza in ,the ,possessed 7,besi74 ,the border-land of puberty is a favourite theme with the ,russian writer4 ,and consider the splendidly fierce old women1 mothers1 aunts1 grandmothers 7,granny in ,the ,gambler is a full-length portrait worthy of ,hogarth7 and befuddled old men--retired from service in state and army2 ,dostoevsky is a masterly painter of drunkards1 drabs1 and neuropaths4 ,prince ,mushkin 7or ,myshkin7 the semi-idiot in ,the ,idiot is depicted with surpassing charm4 ,he is half cracked and an epileptic1 but is one of the most lovable young men in fiction4 ,thinking of him1 you recall what ,nietzsche wrote of ,christ3 ,one regrets that a ,dostoevsky did not live in the neighbourhood of this most interesting decadent1 ,i mean some one who knew just how to perceive the thrilling charm of such a mixture of the sublime1 the sickly1 and the childish4 ,here is a moral landscape of the dark ,russian soul1 and an exemplification in the ,prince ,myshkin of ,the ,idiot1 who is evidently an attempt to portray a latter-day ,christ4 ,raskolnikov in ,crime and ,punishment1 like ,rogozhin in ,the ,idiot1 ,stavrogin in ,the ,possessed were supermen before ,nietzsche1 but all half mad4 ,a famous alienist has declared that three-fourths of ,dostoevsky's characters are quite mad4 ,this is an exaggeration1 though there are many about whom the aura of madness and melancholy hovers4 ,dostoevsky himself was epileptic2 poverty and epilepsy were his companions through a life crowded with unhappiness4 7,born #ahbb1 died #ahha47 ,he was four years in ,siberia1 condemned though innocent as a member of the ,ptrachevsky group4 ,he tells us that the experience calmed his nerves4 ,his recollections of his ,dead ,house are harrowing1 and make the literature of prison life1 whether written by ,hugo1 ,zola1 ,tolstoy1 or others1 like the literary exercise of an amateur4 ,it is this sense of reality1 of life growing like grass over one's head1 that renders the novels of ,dostoevsky human documents4 ,calling himself a proletarian of letters this tender-hearted man denied being a psychologist--which pre-eminently he was3 ,they call me a psychologist2 it is not true4 ,i am only a realist in the highest sense of the word1 i4 e41 ,i depict all the soul's depths4 ,if he has shown us the soul of the madman1 drunkard1 libertine1 the street-walker1 he has also exposed the psychology of the gambler4 ,he knew4 ,he was a desperate gambler and in ,baden actually starved in company with his devoted wife4 ,these experiences may be found depicted in ,the ,gambler4 ,he has been called the ,bossuet of the dtraqus1 but ,i prefer that other and more appropriate title1 the ,dante of the ,north4 ,his novels are infernos4 ,how well ,nietzsche studied him2 they were fellow spirits in suffering4 ,all ,dostoevsky is in his phrase3 ,there are no ugly women--put in the mouth of the senile1 debauched ,karamazov1 a companion portrait to ,balzac's ,baron ,hulot4 ,his love for women has a pathological cast4 ,his young girls discuss unpleasant matters4 ,even ,frank ,wedekind is anticipated in his ,spring's ,awakening by the ,russian in ,the ,brothers ,karamazov3 ,how can ,katarina have a baby if she isn't married8 cries one of the youngsters1 a question which is the very nub of the ,wedekind play4 ,two parallel lines may meet in eternity1 which sounds like ,ibsen's query3 ,two and two may make five on the planet ,jupiter4 ,he was deeply pious1 nevertheless a questioner4 ,his books are full of theological wranglings4 ,consider the prose-poem of the ,grand ,inquisitor and the second coming of ,christ4 ,or such an idea as the craving for community of worship is the chief misery of man1 of all humanity from the beginning of time4 ,we recognise ,nietzsche in ,dostoevsky's the old morality of the old slave man1 and a genuine poet in the secret of the earth mingles with the mystery of the stars4 ,his nave conception of eternity as a chamber something like a bathhouse1 long neglected1 and with spider's webs in its corners reminds us of ,nietzsche when he describes his doctrine of the ,eternal ,recurrence4 ,the ,russian has told us in memorable phrases of the blinding1 intense happiness1 a cerebral spasm1 which lasts the fraction of a second at the beginning of an epileptic attack4 ,for it he declares1 for that brief moment during which paradise is disclosed1 he would sacrifice a lifetime4 ,little wonder in the interim of a cold1 grey1 miserable existence he suffered from what he calls mystic fear1 the fear of fear1 such as ,maeterlinck shows us in ,the ,intruder4 ,as for the socialists he says their motto is3 ,don't dare to believe in ,god1 don't dare to have property1 fraternity or death1 two millions of heads6 ,the foundational theme of his work is an overwhelming love for mankind1 a plea for solidarity which too often degenerates into sickly sentimentalism4 ,he imitated ,dickens1 ,george ,sand1 and ,victor ,hugo--the ,hugo of ,les ,misrables4 ,he hated ,turgenieff and caricatured him in ,the ,possessed4 ,it is true that in dialogue he has had few superiors2 his men and women talk as they would talk in life and only in special instances are mouthpieces for the author's ideas--in this quite different from so many of ,tolstoy's characters4 ,merejkowski has said without fear of contradiction that ,dostoevsky is like the great dramatists of antiquity in his art of gradual tension1 accumulation1 increase1 and alarming concentration of dramatic action4 ,his books are veritably tragic4 ,in ,russian music alone may be found a parallel to his poignant pathos and gloomy imaginings and shuddering climaxes4 ,what is more wonderful than ,chapter ,i of ,the ,idiot with its adumbration of the entire plot and characterisation of the book1 or ,chapter ,,xv and its dramatic surprises4 ,his cardinal doctrine of non-resistance is illustrated in the following anecdote4 ,one evening while walking in ,st4 ,petersburg1 evidently in meditation a beggar asked for alms4 ,dostoevsky did not answer4 ,enraged by his apparent indifference1 the man gave him such a violent blow that he was knocked off his legs4 ,on arising he picked up his hat1 dusted his clothes1 and walked away2 but a policeman who saw the attack came running toward the beggar and took him to the lock-up4 ,despite his protest ,dostoevsky accompanied them4 ,he refused to make a charge1 for he argued that he was not sure the prisoner was the culpable one2 it was dark and he had not seen his face4 ,besides1 he might have been sick in his mind2 only a sick person would attack in such a manner4 ,sick1 cried the examining magistrate1 that drunken good-for-nothing sick6 ,a little rest in jail would do him good4 ,you are wrong1 contradicted the accused1 ,i am not drunk but hungry4 ,when a man has eaten1 he doesn't believe that another is starving4 ,true1 answered ,dostoevsky1 this poor chap was crazy with hunger4 ,i shan't make a complaint4 ,nevertheless the ruffian was sentenced to a month's imprisonment4 ,dostoevsky gave him three roubles before he left4 ,now this kind man was1 strange as it may seem1 an anti-,semite4 ,his diary revealed the fact after his death4 ,in life he kept this prejudice to himself4 ,i always think of ,dostoevsky as a man in shabby clothes mounting at twilight an obscure staircase in some ,st4 ,petersburg hovel1 the moon shining dimly through the dirty window-panes1 and cobwebs and gloom abounding4 ,i love to hear singing to a street organ2 ,i like it on cold1 dark1 damp autumn evenings1 when all the passers-by have pale1 green1 sickly faces1 or when wet snow is falling straight down2 the night is windless 444 and the street lamps shine through it1 said ,raskolnikov4 ,here is the essential ,dostoevsky4 ,and his tenacious love of life is exemplified in ,raskolnikov's musing3 ,where is it ,i've read that some one condemned to death says or thinks an hour before his death1 that if he had to live on some high rock1 on such a narrow ledge that he would only have room to stand1 and the ocean1 everlasting darkness1 everlasting solitude1 everlasting tempest around him1 if he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life1 a thousand years1 eternity1 it were better to live than to die at once4 ,we feel the repercussion of his anguish when death was imminent for alleged participation in a nihilistic conspiracy4 ,or1 again1 that horrid picture of a boxed eternity3 ,we always imagine eternity as something beyond our conception1 something vast1 vast6 ,but why must it be vast8 ,instead of all that1 what if it's one little room1 like a bath-house in the country1 black and grimy and spiders in every corner1 and that's all eternity is8 ,i sometimes fancy it is that4 ,the grotesque and the sinister often nudge elbows in these morbid1 monstrous pages4 ,his belief in the unchanging nature of mankind is pure fatalism4 ,afterwards ,i understand 444 that men won't change and that nobody can alter it and that it's not worth wasting efforts over it4444 ,whoever is strong in mind and spirit will have power over them4 ,he who despises most things will be a lawgiver among them1 and he who dares most of all will be most in right4 ,any one who is greatly daring is right in their eyes4 ,so it has been till now1 and so it always will be4 ,thus ,rodion1 the student to the devoted ,sonia4 ,it sounds like ,nietzsche avant la lettre4 ,or the cynicism of3 ,every one thinks of himself1 and he lives most gaily who knows best how to deceive himself4 ,he speaks of his impending exile to ,siberia3 ,but ,i wonder shall ,i in those fifteen or twenty years grow so meek that ,i shall humble myself before people and whimper at every word that ,i am a criminal4 ,yes1 that's it1 that's it1 that's what they are sending me there for1 that's what they want4 ,look at them running to and fro about the streets1 every one of them a scoundrel and a criminal at heart1 and worse still1 an idiot4 ,but try to get me off and they'd be wild with righteous indignation4 ,oh1 how ,i hate them all6 7,the above excerpts are from the admirable translation by ,constance ,garnett47 ,as for his own mental condition1 ,dostoevsky gives us a picture of it in ,injury and ,insult3 ,as soon as it grew dusk ,i gradually fell into that state of mind which so often overmasters me at night since ,i've been ill1 and which ,i shall call mystic fear4 ,it is a crushing anxiety about something which ,i can neither define nor even conceive1 which does not actually exist1 but which perhaps is about to be realised1 at this very moment1 to appear and rise up before me like an inexorable1 horrible misshapen fact4 ,this frenzied anguish is a familiar stigma of epilepsy4 ,its presence denotes the approach of an attack4 ,but the sacred malady had1 in the case of ,dostoevsky1 its compensations4 ,through this fissure in the walls of his neurotic soul he peered and saw its strange perturbations1 divined their origins in the very roots of his being1 and recorded--as did ,poe1 ,baudelaire1 and ,nietzsche--the fluctuations of his sick will4 ,with this ,russian1 his ,hamlet-like introspection becomes vertigo1 and life itself fades into a dream compounded of febrile melancholy or blood lust4 ,it was not without warrant that he allows ,rogoszin1 in ,the ,idiot1 to murder ,nastasia ,philipovna1 because of her physical charms4 ,the aura of the man foredoomed to morbid crime is unmistakable4 ,the letters of ,fyodor ,michailovitch ,dostoevsky came as a revelation to his admirers4 ,we think of him as overflowing with sentiment for his fellow man1 a socialist1 one who went to the people long before ,tolstoy dreamed of the adventure1 a man four years in prison in ,siberia1 and six more in that bleak country under official inspection2 truly1 a martyr to his country1 an epileptic and a genius4 ,you may be disappointed to learn from these telltale documents--translated by ,ethel ,colburn ,mayne--that the ,russian writer while in exile avoided his fellow convicts1 was very unpopular with them1 and that throughout his correspondence there are numerous contemptuous references to socialism and going to the people4 ,he preferred solitude1 he asserts more than once1 to the company of common folk or mediocre persons4 ,he gives ,tolstoy at his true rating1 but is cruel to ,turgenieff--who never wished him harm4 ,the ,dostoevsky caricature portrait of ,turgenieff--infinitely the superior artist of the two--in ,the ,possessed is absurd4 ,turgenieff forgave1 but ,dostoevsky never forgave ,turgenieff for this forgiveness4 ,another merit of these letters is the light they shed on the true character of ,tolstoy1 who is shown in his proper environment1 neither a prophet nor a heaven-storming reformer4 ,dostoevsky invented the phrase3 land-proprietor literature1 to describe the fiction of both ,tolstoy and ,turgenieff4 ,he was abjectly poor1 gambled when he got the chance 7which was seldom71 hated ,western ,europe1 ,france and ,germany in particular1 but admired the novels of ,george ,sand1 ,victor ,hugo1 and ,charles ,dickens4 ,he tells us much of his painful methods of writing 7what do ,i want with fame when ,i'm writing for daily bread8 he bitterly asks his brother71 and the overshadowing necessity that compelled him to turn in copy when he lacked food1 fire1 friends4 ,no wonder this private correspondence shows us anything but a lover of mankind1 no matter how suffused in humanitarianism are his books1 with their drabs1 tramps1 criminals1 and drunkards4 ,turgenieff divined in him ,sadistic predispositions2 he was certainly a morbid man2 while ,tolstoy wrote of him3 ,it never entered my head to compare myself with him4444 ,i am weeping now over the news of his death 444 and ,i never saw the man4 ,dostoevsky was a profound influence on the art and life of ,tolstoy4 ,it may interest musical persons to learn that it was through the efforts of ,adolphe ,henselt1 piano virtuoso and composer1 that ,dostoevsky was finally allowed to leave ,siberia and publish his writings4 ,henselt1 who was at the time court pianist and teacher of the ,czarina1 appealed to her1 and thus the ball was set rolling that ended in the clemency of the ,czar4 ,to ,henselt1 then1 ,russian literature is indebted for the greater ,dostoevsky4 ,why he was ever sent to ,siberia is still a mystery4 ,he had avowed his disbelief in the teachings of the ,ptrachevsky group1 and only frequented their meetings because advanced ,european literature was read aloud4 ,dostoevsky was never a nihilist1 and in his open letter to some ,st4 ,petersburg students he gives them sound advice as to the results of revolution4 ,poor man6 ,he knew from harsh experience4 ,,ii ,thanks to the ,count ,melchoir de ,vog1 who introduced ,tolstoy to the ,french in ,le ,roman ,russe 7containing studies of ,pushkin1 ,gogol1 ,turgenieff1 ,dostoevsky7 literary ,paris was for a time saturated in ,russian mysticism1 and what the clear-headed ,alphonse ,daudet called ,russian pity4 ,it was ,count de ,vog1 member of the ,academy and ,neo-,catholic 7as the group headed by ,ernest ,lavisse elected to style itself71 who compressed all ,tolstoy in an epigram as having 7the mind of an ,english chemist in the soul of a ,hindoo ,buddhist7 ,on dirait l'esprit d'un chimiste anglais dans l'me d'un buddhiste hindou4 ,the modulation of a soul1 at first stagnant1 then plunged into the gulf of hopelessness1 and at last catching a glimpse of light1 is most clearly expressed by ,leo ,nikolaievitch in his ,resurrection4 ,that by throwing yourself again into the mire you may atone for early transgressions--the muddy sins of your youth--is one of those deadly ideas born in the crazed brain of an ,east ,indian jungle-haunting fanatic4 ,it possibly grew out of the barbarous custom of blood sacrifices4 ,waiving the tales told of his insincerity by ,frau ,anna ,seuron1 we know that ,tolstoy wrestled with the five thousand devils of doubt and despair1 and found light1 his light1 in a most peculiar fashion4 ,but he is often the victim of his own illusions4 ,that1 ,vog1 a great admirer1 pointed out some years ago4 ,turgenieff understood ,tolstoy2 so did ,dostoevsky1 and so does latterly the novelist ,dmitri ,merejkowski4 ,turgenieff's appeal to ,tolstoy is become historic1 and all the more pathetic because written on the eve of his death4 ,dear and beloved ,leo ,nikolaievitch3 ,i have not written to you for a long time1 for ,i lie on my deathbed4 ,i cannot get well2 that is not to be thought of4 ,but ,i write in order to tell you how glad ,i am to have been your contemporary1 and to make my last earnest request4 ,my friend1 return to literary work4 ,this talent of yours has come from where all else comes4 ,oh1 how happy ,i should be could ,i believe that my entreaty would prevail with you4 ,my friend1 our great national writer1 grant my request4 ,this may be found1 if we remember aright1 in the ,halperine-,kaminsky memoir4 ,turgenieff1 who was the greater artist of the pair1 knew that ,tolstoy was on the wrong path with his crack-brained religious and social notions2 knew that in his becoming the writer of illogical tracts and pamphlets1 ,russia was losing a great artist4 ,what would he have said if he had lived to read the sad recantation and artistic suicide of ,tolstoy3 ,i consign my own artistic productions to the category of bad art1 except the story1 ,god ,sees the ,truth1 which seeks a place in the first class1 and ,the ,prisoner of the ,caucasus1 which belongs to the second4 ,also sprach ,tolstoy in that madman's book called ,what is ,art8 a work wherein he tried to outvie ,nordau's abuse of beautiful art4 ,the ,ninth ,symphony of ,beethoven1 ,hamlet1 ,macbeth1 ,dante1 and ,goethe1 are all consigned to the limbo of bad art2 bad because not understanded of the people4 ,the peasant1 the moujik1 is to be the criterion of art1 an art which1 in that case1 ought to be a cross between fireworks and the sign-writing of the ,aztecs4 ,vog declared that ,tolstoy had1 like an intrepid explorer1 leaped into an abysm of philosophical contradictions4 ,even the moderate ,french critic ,faguet becomes enraged at the puerilities of the ,russian4 ,he wrote3 ,tolstoy1 comme crateur1 comme romancier1 comme pote pique1 pour mieux dire1 est un des quatre ou cinq plus grands gnies de notre sicle4 ,comme penseur1 il est un des plus faibles esprits de l',europe4 ,not all that1 replies ,remy de ,gourmont2 ,tolstoy may be wildly mistaken1 but he is never weak-minded4 ,we think it is his strength1 his intensity that sends him caracoling on a dozen different roads in search of salvation4 ,how a man lacking the critical faculty may be misled is to be seen in ,what is ,art8 ,to master his subject the deluded novelist read all the essays1 disquisitions1 and works he could find on the theme of sthetics4 ,this as a preparation for clear thinking4 ,it reminds one of that comical artist ,pellerin1 in ,flaubert's ,l',education ,sentimentale1 who devoured all the sthetic treatises1 ancient and modern1 in search of a true theory of the beautiful before he painted a picture2 and he had so thoroughly absorbed the methods of various painters that he could not sit down at his easel in the presence of his model without asking himself3 ,shall ,i do her la ,gainsborough1 or1 better still1 in the romantic and mysterious manner of ,m4 ,delacroix1 with fierce sunsets1 melting moons1 guitars1 bloodshed1 balconies1 and the cries of them that are assassinated for the love of love8 ,tolstoy reaches1 after many hundred pages of his essay1 the astoundingly original theory that art is to establish brotherly union among men1 which was better said by ,aristotle1 and probably first heard by him as a ,socratic pearl of wisdom4 ,it remained for ,merejkowski to set right the ,western world in its estimate of ,tolstoy as man and artist4 ,in his frank study1 the facts in the case are laid bare by a skilled1 impartial hand4 ,what he writes is well known among ,russians2 it may shock ,english-speaking worshippers1 who do not accept ,tolstoy as a great artist1 but as the prophet of a new dispensation--and it may be said1 without beating about the bush1 he rather liked the niche in which he was placed by these uncritical zealots4 ,the fate of the engineer hoist by his own petard is ,tolstoy's4 ,the peasants of his country understand him as little as they understand ,beethoven1 that ,beethoven he so bitterly1 so unjustly assailed in ,the ,kreutzer ,sonata4 7,poor ,beethoven4 ,why did not ,tolstoy select ,tristan and ,isolde if he wished some fleshly music1 some sensualistic caterwauling1 as ,huxley phrased it8 ,but a melodious violin and piano sonata67 ,tolstoy may go barefoot1 dig for potatoes1 wear his blouse hanging outside1 but the peasantry will never accept him as one of their own4 ,he has written volumes about going to the people1 and the people do not want him1 do not comprehend him4 ,and that is ,tolstoy's tragedy1 as it was the tragedy of ,walt ,whitman4 ,curious students can find all they wish of ,tolstoy's psychology in ,merejkowski's book4 ,one thing we cannot forbear dwelling upon--,dostoevsky's significance in any discussion of ,tolstoy4 ,dostoevsky was a profounder nature1 greater than ,tolstoy1 though he was not the finished literary artist4 ,all that ,tolstoy tried to be1 ,dostoevsky was4 ,he did not go to the people 7that pose of dilettantish anarchy7--he was born of them2 he did not write about ,siberian prisons from hearsay1 he lived in them2 he did not attempt to dive into the deep1 social waters of the submerged tenth1 because he himself seldom emerged to the surface4 ,in a word1 ,dostoevsky is a profounder psychologist than ,tolstoy2 his faith was firmer2 his attacks of epilepsy gave him glimpses of the underworld of the soul1 terrifying visions of his subconscious self1 of his subliminal personality4 ,and he had the courage of his chimera4 ,tolstoy feared art as being too artificial1 and1 as ,merejkowski shows3 ,from the dread mask of ,caliban peeps out the familiar and by no means awe-inspiring physiognomy of the obstinate ,russian democrat squire1 the gentleman ,positivist of the sixties4 ,he never took writing as seriously as ,dostoevsky2 in ,tolstoy there is a strong leaven of the aristocrat1 the man who rather despises a mere pen worker4 ,contrast ,dostoevsky's attitude before his work1 recall the painful parturition of books1 his sweating1 remorseful days and nights when he could not produce4 ,and now ,tolstoy tells us that ,uncle ,tom's ,cabin is greater than ,shakespeare4 ,is it any wonder ,turgenieff remonstrated with him8 ,is it any wonder if1 after reading one of his latter-day tracts1 we are reminded of ,the ,washerwoman of ,finchley ,common1 that classic in the polemics of sniffling piety8 ,the truth is that ,tolstoy1 a wonderful artist in plastic portraiture1 consciously or unconsciously fashioned the ,tolstoy legend1 as did ,richard ,wagner the ,wagner legend1 ,victor ,hugo the ,hugo legend4 ,men of genius and imagination are nearly all play-actors in matters autobiographical4 ,it is to ,dostoevsky1 once the despised outcast1 that we must go for the human documents of misery1 the naked soul1 the heart of man buffeted by fate4 ,if you think ,resurrection strong1 then read ,dostoevsky's ,the ,house of the ,dead4 ,if ,anna ,karenina has wooed you--as it must--take up ,the ,idiot2 and if you are impressed by the epical magnitude of ,war and ,peace1 study that other epic of souls1 ,the ,brothers ,karamazov1 which illuminates1 as if with ghastly flashes of lightning1 the stormy hearts of mankind4 ,tolstoy wrote of life2 ,dostoevsky lived it1 drank its sour dregs--for he was a man accursed by luck and1 like the apocalyptic dreamer of ,patmos1 a seer of visions denied to the robust1 ever fleshly ,tolstoy4 ,his influence on ,tolstoy was more than ,stendhal's--,stendhal whom ,tolstoy called his master4 ,tolstoy denies life1 even hates it after having enjoyed it to the full4 ,his religion in the last analysis is nihilism1 and if carried to its logical conclusion would turn the civilised world into a desert4 ,our great man1 after his family was in bed1 sometimes ate forbidden slices of beef1 and he had been seen enjoying a sly cigarette1 all of which should endear him to us1 for it proves his unquenchable humanity4 ,yet that roast-beef sandwich shook the faith of thousands4 ,no--it will not do to take ,tolstoy seriously in his attempts at evolving a parody of early ,christianity4 ,he is doubtlessly sincere1 but sincerity is often the cloak for a multitude of errors4 ,his ,katusha--,maslova1 as she is more familiarly known in ,resurrection--is a far less appealing figure than the street-walker ,sonia in ,dostoevsky's ,crime and ,punishment4 ,the latter lives1 while poor ,maslova1 a crude silhouette in comparison1 as soon as she begins the march to ,siberia is transformed into a clothes-horse upon which ,tolstoy drapes his moral platitudes4 ,she is at first much more vital than her betrayer1 who is an unreal bundle of theories2 but in company with the rest of the characters she soon goes up in metaphysical smoke4 ,walizewski asserts that all ,tolstoy's later life was a regrettable pose4 ,but this is the usual price of every kind of human greatness1 and in the case of this very great man1 it is an atavistic feature of the national 444 education1 which in his case was originally of the most hasty and superficial description4 ,in ,as the ,hague ,ordains1 the anonymous author attacks our great reformer and humbug1 ,count ,leo ,tolstoy4 ,she claims that there was hardly a village in ,china so abounding in filth and ignorance as the ,tula village of ,yasnaya ,polyana1 beside ,tolstoy's country home4 ,i wonder1 she writes1 why the procession of foreign visitors who go to ,yasnaya ,polyana1 who lavish adulation and hysterical praises upon that crass socialist and mischief-maker of his day1 never think to look around them and use their reasoning powers4 ,would it not be the logical thing for ,yasnaya ,polyana to be the model village of ,russia8 ,something cleaner than ,edam or ,marken8 ,a little of his magnificent humanitarianism and benevolence poured upon that unsanitary village on his own estate would be more practical1 it seems to me1 than the thin treacle of it spread over the whole universe4 ,talk is cheap in ,yasnaya ,polyana1 and the ,grand ,poseur plays his part magnificently4 ,every visitor goes away completely hypnotised1 especially the ,americans1 with their frothing about equality and the universal brotherhood of man4 ,universal grandmother6 ,all men are just as equal as all noses or all mouths are equal4 ,the world gets older1 but learns nothing1 and it cherishes delusions1 and the same ones1 just as it did in the time of the ,greek philosophers4 ,leo ,tolstoy might well have lived in a tub or carried a lantern by day1 like the most sensational and theatrical of the ancients4 ,he is only a past master of rclame1 of the art of advertising4 ,the ,moujik blouse and those delightful tableaux of a real nobleman shoemaking and haymaking make his books sell4 ,that is all4 ,and1 under the unsuspecting blouse of the humanitarian is the fine and perfumed linen of the dandy4 ,leo ,tolstoy1 the ,beau ,brummel of his corps in my father's day--the dandy in domino to-day4 ,,iii ,tolstoy the artist6 ,when his vagaries are forgotten1 when all his books are rags1 when his very name shall be a vague memory1 there will live the portrait of ,anna ,karenina4 ,how dwarfed are his other achievements compared with the creation of this woman1 and to create a living character is to be as the gods4 ,tolstoy has painted one of the three women in the fiction of the nineteenth century4 ,if the roll-call of the century is ever sounded1 these three women shall have endured the drums and tramplings of many conquests1 and the contiguous dust of those fictional creatures not built for immortality4 ,balzac's ,valrie ,marneffe1 the ,emma ,bovary of ,flaubert1 and the ,russian's ,anna ,karenina are these daughters of earth--flesh and blood1 tears and lust1 and the pride of life that killeth4 ,despite ,tolstoy's religious mania1 ,i have never doubted his sincerity for a moment4 ,it is a mysterious yet potent factor in the psychology of such an artist as he that whatever he did he did with tremendous sincerity4 ,that is the reason his fiction is nearer reality than all other fictions1 and the reason1 too1 that his realities1 i4 e41 his declarations of faith1 are nearer other men's fictions4 ,when he writes of his conversion1 like ,john ,bunyan1 he lets you see across the very sill of his soul4 ,and he does it artistically4 ,he is not conscious that art enters into the mechanism of this spiritual evisceration2 but it does4 ,st4 ,augustine1 ,john ,bunyan1 ,john ,henry ,newman wrote of their adventures of the spirit in letters of fire1 and in all three there is a touch of the sublime navet of childhood's outpourings4 ,i agree with the estimate of ,tolstoy by ,merejkowski4 ,the main points of this study have been known to students who followed ,tolstoy's extraordinary career for the past quarter of a century4 ,ibsen's individualism appeals4 ,better his torpedo exploding a thousand times under the social ark than the ,oriental passivity of the ,russian4 ,there is hope in the message of ,brand2 none in ,tolstoy's nihilism4 ,one glorifies the will1 the other denies1 rejects it4 ,no comparison can be made between the two wonderful men as playwrights4 ,yet ,tolstoy's ,powers of ,darkness is brutal melodrama when compared to ,ibsen's complex dramatic organisms4 ,but what a nerve-shattering revelation is ,the ,death of ,ivan ,ilyitch4 ,this is the real ,tolstoy4 ,how amateurish is the attitude of the ,tolstoy disciple who cavils at his masterpieces4 ,what is mere art compared to the message6 ,and ,i say3 what are all his vapourings and fatidical croonings on the tripod of pseudo-prophecy as compared to ,anna ,karenina8 ,there is implicit drama1 implicit morality in its noble pages1 and a segment of the life of a nation in ,war and ,peace4 ,with preachers and saviours with quack nostrums the world is already well stocked4 ,great artists are rare4 ,every day a new religion is born somewhere--and it always finds followers4 ,but art endures1 it outlives dynasties1 religions1 divinities4 ,it is with ,tolstoy the artist we are enamoured4 ,he may deliver his message of warning to a careless world--which only pricks up its ears when that message takes on questionable colour1 as in the unpalatable ,kreutzer ,sonata4 7,yes2 that was eagerly devoured for its morbid eroticism47 ,we prefer the austerer ,ibsen1 who presents his men and women within the frame of the drama1 absolutely without personal comment or parti pris--as before his decadence did ,tolstoy in his novels4 ,ibsen is the type of the philosophical anarch1 the believer in man's individuality1 in the state for the individual1 not the individual for the state4 ,it is at least more dignified than the other's flood of confessions1 of hysterical self-accusations1 of penitential vows1 and abundant lack of restraint4 ,yet no one doubts ,tolstoy's repentance4 ,like ,verlaine's it carried with it its own proofs4 ,but why publish to the world these intimate soul processes1 fascinating as they are to laymen and psychologists alike8 ,why not keep watch with his ,god in silence and alone8 ,the reason was 7only complicated with a thousand other things1 for ,tolstoy was a complex being and a ,slav71 the plain reason was1 we repeat1 because ,leo ,nikolaievitch was an artist4 ,he obeyed that demon known to ,socrates and ,goethe1 and minutely recorded his mental and emotional fluctuations4 ,and with ,richard ,wagner and ,dostoevsky1 ,tolstoy is one of the three most emotional temperaments of the nineteenth century4 ,unlike ,ibsen or ,nietzsche1 he does not belong to the twentieth century2 his religion1 his social doctrines are atavistic1 are of the past4 ,tolstoy is what the ,french call un crbral1 which1 as ,arthur ,symons points out1 is by no means a man of intellect4 ,un crbral is a man who feels through his brain1 in whom emotion transforms itself into idea1 rather than in whom idea is transformed by emotion4 ,how well that phrase fits ,tolstoy--the fever of the soul6 ,he has had the fever of the soul1 has subdued it1 and his recital of his struggles makes breathless reading4 ,they are depicted by an artist1 an emotional artist1 and1 despite his protestations1 by one who will die an artist and be remembered1 not as the pontiff of a new dispensation1 but as a great world artist4 ,an admirer has said of him that confession has become his second nature2 rather it was a psychological necessity4 ,the voice that cried from the comfortable wilderness of ,yasnaya ,polyana furnished unique copy for newspapers4 ,alas6 the pity of it all4 ,the moral dyspepsia that overtook ,carlyle in middle life was the result of a lean1 spoiled1 half-starved youth2 the moral dyspepsia that seized the soul of the wonderful ,tolstoy was the outcome of a riotous youth1 a youth overflowing with the joy of life4 ,ibsen1 like ,carlyle1 battled in his early days with poverty2 but his message--if you will have a definite message 7,oh1 these literal1 unimaginative folk of the ,gradgrind sort1 who would wring from the dumb mysterious beauty of nature definite meanings--as if sheer existence itself is not its own glorious vindication67--may be a hopeful one4 ,the individual is all in all2 he is the evangel of the future2 his belief is buoyant and ,northern2 whereas ,tolstoy's sour outlook1 his constant girding at the vanities of life 7after he had1 ,solomon-like1 tasted of them to the full7 is ,eastern2 his is the ,oriental fatalism1 the hopeless doctrine of determinism4 ,he discovers a new sin every day4 ,better one hour of ,nietzsche's dancing madness than a cycle of ,tolstoy's pessimistic renunciations4 ,and all his ethical propaganda does not shake in the least our conviction of the truth and grandeur of ,tolstoy's art4 ,of the disciples the son of ,tolstoy1 ,count ,ilya1 tells us in no uncertain accents3 ,my father had good reason for saying that the ,tolstoyites were to him the most incomprehensible sect and the furthest removed from his way of thinking that he had ever come across4 ,i shall soon be dead1 he sadly predicted1 and people will say that ,tolstoy taught men to plough and reap and make boots2 while the chief thing that ,i have been trying so hard to say all my life1 the thing ,i believe in the most important of all1 they will forget4 ,,iv ,,the ,,younger ,,choir ,let us believe that ,gogol1 ,pushkin1 ,lermontov1 ,nekrasov1 ,dostoevsky1 ,turgenieff1 and ,tolstoy are classics4 ,as long as ,russian1 sonorous and beautiful tongue1 is spoken1 they will never die4 ,and their successors8 ,what is the actual condition of ,russian literature at the present time8 ,it is the bare truth to say that a period of stagnation set in during the decade after ,turgenieff's death4 ,emigration carried with it the best brains of the land4 ,we need not dwell upon the publicists1 nor yet stir the muddy stream of agitation4 ,it has been the misfortune of ,russian literary men to be involved in dangerous political schisms and revolutionary movements2 their misfortune1 and perhaps their good luck4 ,for dramatic material they have never been at a loss1 though their art has suffered1 and depth of feeling has been gained at a sad waste of other qualities4 ,that grand old humourist ,gogol has had no successors4 ,humour in ,russia is a suspected thing4 ,even if there were a second ,gogol he would never be allowed to put on the boards a second ,revizor4 ,we do not mean to assert that humour has died out altogether in literature1 but it is not the special gift of those who write nowadays4 ,since ,gogol or coeval with him1 only men of secondary importance have been humourists3 ,uspenski1 ,ostrovski1 ,saltykov 7,chtchdrine71 or the author of the novel ,oblomov1 ,gontcharov by name4 ,maikov1 ,nadsohn1 ,polonski1 ,garchin1 ,korolenko1 ,tchekov were all men of talent2 the last in particular1 preceptor and friend to ,gorky in his days of want1 was a novelist of high artistic if morbid powers4 ,he is dead4 ,it is when we turn to the living that we realise what a flatland is ,russian literature now4 ,a writer and critic1 ,madame ,z4 ,hippius1 attempted in the ,paris ,mercure de ,france to give an idea of the situation4 ,she admitted the inadequacy of her sketch4 ,the troubled political map of ,russia has not been conducive to ripe artistic production4 ,as she says1 even the writers who refused to meddle with politics are marked men2 politics in the shape of the secret police comes to them4 ,madame ,hippius makes the assertion that literature in ,russian has never existed in the sense of a literary milieu1 as an organic art possessing traditions and continuity2 for her1 ,tolstoy1 ,dostoevsky1 and ,turgenieff are but isolated men of genius4 ,a glance back at the times and writings of such critics as ,bielinski1 ,dobroliubov1 and ,nekrasov--a remarkable poet--disproves this statement4 ,without a ,gogol the later novelists would be rather in the air4 ,he first fashioned the bricks and mortar of native fiction4 ,read ,kropotkin1 ,osip-,luri1 ,e4 ,semenov1 ,walizewski1 ,melchior de ,vog1 and ,leo ,wiener if you doubt the wealth and variety of this literature4 ,among living prose writers two names are encountered3 ,maxim ,gorky and ,lonide ,andreiev4 ,of the neurotic ,gorky there is naught to be said that is encouraging4 ,he was physically ill when in ,america and as an artist in plain decadence4 ,he had shot his bolt in his tales about his beloved vagabonds4 ,he had not the long-breathed patience or artistic skill for a novel4 ,his novels1 disfigured by tirades and dry attempts at philosophical excursions1 are all failures4 ,when his tramps begin to spout ,nietzsche on their steppes the artificial note is too apparent4 ,his plays are loose episodes without dramatic action or climax1 sometimes moving1 as in the case of ,nachtasyl1 and discordant in ,the ,children of the ,sun4 ,gorky had a natural talent2 in his stories a submerged generation became eloquent4 ,and he became a doctrinaire4 ,nietzsche finished the ruin that ,marx had begun2 his art1 chiefly derived from ,dostoevsky and ,tchekov1 succumbed to a sentimental socialism4 ,andreiev is still strong1 though enveloped in mystic anarchism4 ,he is as naturally gifted as ,gorky and a thinker of more precision4 ,his play1 ,les ,tnbres1 reveals the influences of ,dostoevsky and ,tolstoy4 ,it is a shocking arraignment of self-satisfied materialism4 ,a young revolutionary is the protagonist4 ,the woman in the case belongs to the same profession as ,dostoevsky's ,sonia4 ,not encouraging1 this4 ,yet high hopes are centred upon ,andreiev4 ,for the rest there is ,vladimir ,soloviev1 who is a poet-metaphysician with a following4 ,he has mystic proclivities4 ,scratch a ,russian writer and you come upon a mystic4 ,he is against clericalism and believes in an anti-clerical church6 ,there is a little circle at ,moscow1 where a ,muscovite review1 ,la ,balance 7founded #aijc71 is the centre of the young men4 ,v4 ,brusoff1 a poet1 is the editor4 ,balmont and ,sologub write for its pages1 as do ,rosanow and ,merejkowski4 ,in #ahih there was a review started called ,mir ,iskousstva4 ,its director was ,serge ,diaghilev1 and it endured until #aijd4 ,sologub is one of the most promising poets4 ,block1 ,remisov1 ,ivanov are also poets of much ability4 ,there are romancers such as ,zensky1 ,kuzmin1 ,ivanov1 ,ropshin1 ,chapygin1 ,serafimovitch1 ,zaitzeff1 ,volnoff2 some of these wrote on risky themes4 ,but when the works of these new writers are closely scrutinised their lack of originality and poverty of invention are noticeable4 ,the poisonous honey of ,french decadents and symbolists has attracted one party2 and the others are being swallowed up in the pessimistic nebula of mystic anarchy and fatalism4 ,russian pity suffuses their work4 ,there is without doubt a national sentiment and a revolt against western ,european culture1 particularly the ,french4 ,russia for the ,russians is the slogan of this group4 ,but thus far nothing in particular has come of their patriotic efforts2 no overwhelming personality has emerged from the rebellious froth of new theories4 ,if ever the man on horseback does appear in ,russia1 it is very doubtful if he will bestride a ,pegasus4 ,of bigger and sterner calibre than any of the productions of the others is ,sanine1 a novel by ,michael ,artzibaschev1 that is being widely read not only in ,russia but in all the world4 ,it was written as long ago as #aijc the author tells us4 ,he is of ,tartar origin1 born #ahgh1 of parents in whose veins flowed ,russian1 ,french1 ,georgian1 and ,polish blood4 ,he is of humble origin1 as is ,gorky1 and being of a consumptive tendency1 he lives in the ,crimea4 ,he began as a journalist4 ,his photograph reveals him as a young man of a fine1 sensitive type1 truly an apostle of pity and pain4 ,he passionately espouses the cause of the poor and downtrodden1 as his extraordinary revolutionary short stories--,the ,millionaire among the rest--show4 ,since ,turgenieff's ,fathers and ,sons1 no tale like ,metal ,worker ,schevyrjow has appeared in ,european literature4 ,in it the bedrock of ,slavic fatalism1 an anarchistic pessimism is reached4 ,it has been done into ,french by ,jacques ,povolozky4 ,the ,russian author reveals plentiful traces of ,tolstoy1 ,turgenieff1 ,dostoevsky1 and ,gorky in his pages2 ,tchekov1 too1 is not absent4 ,but the new note is the influence of ,max ,stirner4 ,michael ,artzibaschev calmly grafts the disparate ideas of ,dostoevsky and ,max ,stirner in his ,sanine1 and the result is a hero who is at once a superman and a scoundrel--or are the two fairly synonymous8 ,this clear-eyed1 broad-shouldered ,sanine passes through the little town where he was born1 leaving behind him a trail of mishaps and misfortunes4 ,he is depicted with a marvellous art1 though it is impossible to sympathise with him4 ,he upsets a love-affair of his sister's1 he quarrels with and insults her lover1 who commits suicide2 he also drives to self-destruction a wretched little ,hebrew who has become a freethinker and can't stand the strain of his apostasy2 he is the remote cause of another suicide1 that of a weakling1 a student full of modern ideas1 but whose will is quite sapped4 ,turgenieff's ,fathers and ,sons is recalled more than once1 especially the character of ,bazarov1 the nihilist4 ,furthermore1 when this student fails to reap the benefit of a good girl's love1 ,sanine steps in and ruins her4 ,even incest is hinted at4 ,all this sounds incredible in our bare recital1 but in the flow and glow of the richly coloured narrative everything is plausible1 nay1 of the stuff of life4 ,as realists the ,russians easily lead all other nations in fiction4 ,there are descriptions of woodlands that recall a little scene from ,turgenieff's ,sportsman's ,sketches2 there are episodes1 such as the bacchanal in the monastery1 a moonlit ride in the canoe with a realistic seduction episode1 and the several quarrels that would have pleased both ,tolstoy and ,dostoevsky2 there is an old mujik who seems to have stepped out of ,dostoevsky1 yet is evidently a portrait taken from life4 ,the weak mother1 the passionate sister1 the sweet womanly quality of the deceived girl1 these are portraits worthy of a master4 ,sanine is not the ,rogoszin1 and his sister is not the ,nastasia ,philipovna1 of ,dostoevsky's ,the ,idiot2 for all that they are distinct and worthy additions to the vast picture-gallery of ,russian fiction4 ,sanine himself hardly appeals to our novel readers1 for whom a golf-stick and a motor-car are symbols of the true hero4 ,in a word1 he is real flesh and blood4 ,he goes as mysteriously as he came4 ,the novel that followed1 ,breaking ,point1 is a lugubrious orgy of death and erotic madness1 a symphony of suicide and love and the disgust of life4 ,artzibaschev is now in ,english garb4 ,thus far ,sanine is his masterpiece4 ,v ,,arnold ,,schoenberg ,i ,two decades ago1 more or less1 ,john ,m4 ,robertson published several volumes chiefly concerned with the gentle art of criticism4 ,mr4 ,robertson introduced to the ,english-reading world the critical theories of ,emile ,hennequin1 whose essays on ,poe1 ,dostoevsky1 and ,turgenieff may be remembered4 ,it is a cardinal doctrine of ,hennequin and ,robertson that1 as the personal element plays the chief rle in everything the critic writes1 he himself should be the first to submit to a grilling2 in a word1 to be put through his paces and tell us in advance of his likes and dislikes1 his prejudices and passions4 ,naturally1 it doesn't take long to discover the particular bias of a critic's mind4 ,he writes himself down whenever he puts pen to paper4 ,for instance1 there is the historic duel between ,anatole ,france1 a free-lance among critics1 and ,ferdinand ,brunetire1 intrenched behind the bastions of tradition1 not to mention the ,revue des ,deux ,mondes4 ,that discussion1 while amusing1 was so much threshing of academic straw4 ,m4 ,france disclaimed all authority--he1 most erudite among critics2 ,m4 ,brunetire praised impersonality in criticism--he1 the most personal among writers--not a pleasing or expansive personality1 be it understood2 but1 narrow as he was1 his personality shone out from every page4 ,now1 says ,mr4 ,robertson1 why not ask every critic about to bring forth an opinion for a sort of chart on which will be shown his various qualities of mind1 character2 yes1 and even his physical temperament2 whether sanguine or melancholic1 bilious or eupeptic1 young or old1 peaceful or truculent2 also his tastes in literature1 art1 music1 politics1 and religion4 ,this reminds one of an old-fashioned game4 ,and all this long-winded preamble is to tell you that the case of ,arnold ,schoenberg1 musical anarchist1 and an ,austrian composer who has at once aroused the ire and admiration of musical ,germany1 demands just such a confession from a critic about to hold in the balance the music or unmusic 7the ,germans have such a handy word7 of ,schoenberg4 ,therefore1 before ,i attempt a critical or uncritical valuation of the art of ,arnold ,schoenberg let me make a clean breast of my prejudices in the manner suggested by ,hennequin and ,robertson4 ,besides1 it is a holy and unwholesome idea to purge the mind every now and then4 ,first3 ,i place pure music above impure1 i4 e41 instrumental above mixed4 ,i dislike grand opera as a miserable mishmash of styles1 compromises1 and arrant ugliness4 ,the moment the human voice intrudes in an orchestral work1 my dream-world of music vanishes4 ,mother ,church is right in banishing1 from within the walls of her temples the female voice4 ,the world1 the flesh1 and the devil lurk in the larynx of the soprano or alto1 and her place is before the footlights1 not as a vocal staircase to paradise4 ,i say this1 knowing in my heart that nothing is so thrilling as ,tristan and ,isolde1 and my memory-cells hold marvellous pictures of ,lilli ,lehmann1 ,milka ,ternina1 and ,olive ,fremstad4 ,so1 ,i'm neither logical nor sincere2 nevertheless1 ,i maintain the opinion that absolute music1 not programme1 not music-drama1 is the apogee of the art4 ,a ,beethoven string quartet holds more genuine music for me than the entire works of ,wagner4 ,there's a prejudiced statement for you6 ,second3 ,i fear and dislike the music of ,arnold ,schoenberg1 who may be called the ,max ,stirner of music4 ,now1 the field being cleared1 let us see what the music of the new man is like4 ,certainly1 he is the hardest musical nut to crack of his generation1 and the shell is very bitter in the mouth4 ,early in ,december1 #aiab1 the fourth performance of a curious composition by ,schoenberg was given at the ,choralionsaal in the ,bellevuestrasse1 ,berlin4 ,the work is entitled ,lieder des ,pierrot ,lunaire1 the text of which is a fairly good translation of a poem cycle by ,albert ,guiraud4 ,this translation was made by the late ,otto ,erich ,hartleben1 himself a poet and dramatist4 ,i have not read the original ,french verse1 but the idea seems to be faithfully represented in the ,german version4 ,this moon-stricken ,pierrot chants--rather declaims--his woes and occasional joys to the music of the ,viennese composer1 whose score requires a reciter 7female71 a piano1 flute 7also piccolo71 clarinet 7also bass clarinet71 violin 7also viola71 and violoncello4 ,the piece is described as a melodrama4 ,i listened to it on a ,sunday morning1 and ,i confess that ,sunday at noon is not a time propitious to the mood musical4 ,it was also the first time ,i had heard a note of ,schoenberg's4 ,in vain ,i had tried to get some of his scores2 not even the six little piano pieces could ,i secure4 ,instead1 my inquiries were met with dubious or pitying smiles--your music clerk is a terrible critic betimes1 and his mind oft takes upon it the colour of his customer's orders4 ,so there ,i was1 to be pitched overboard into a new sea1 to sink or float1 and all the while wishing myself miles away4 ,a lady of pleasing appearance1 attired in a mollified ,pierrot costume1 stood before some ,japanese screens and began to intone--to cantillate1 would be a better expression4 ,she told of a monstrous moon-drunken world1 then she described ,columbine1 a dandy1 a pale washer-woman--,eine blasse ,wscherin wscht zur ,nachtzeit bleiche ,tcher--and always with a refrain1 for ,guiraud employs the device to excess4 ,a valse of ,chopin followed1 in verse1 of course 7poor suffering ,frederic671 and part one--there are seven poems1 each in three sections--ended with one entitled ,madonna1 and another1 the ,sick ,moon4 ,the musicians were concealed behind the screens 7dear old ,mark ,twain would have said1 to escape the outraged audience71 but we heard them only too clearly6 ,it is the decomposition of the art1 ,i thought1 as ,i held myself in my seat4 ,of course1 ,i meant decomposition of tones1 as the slang of the ateliers goes4 ,what did ,i hear8 ,at first1 the sound of delicate china shivering into a thousand luminous fragments4 ,in the welter of tonalities that bruised each other as they passed and repassed1 in the preliminary grip of enharmonics that almost made the ears bleed1 the eyes water1 the scalp to freeze1 ,i could not get a central grip on myself4 ,it was new music 7or new exquisitely horrible sounds7 with a vengeance4 ,the very ecstasy of the hideous6 ,i say exquisitely horrible1 for pain can be at once exquisite and horrible2 consider toothache and its first cousin1 neuralgia4 ,and the border-land between pain and pleasure is a territory hitherto unexplored by musical composers4 ,wagner suggests poetic anguish2 ,schoenberg not only arouses the image of anguish1 but he brings it home to his auditory in the most subjective way4 ,you suffer the anguish with the fictitious character in the poem4 ,your nerves--and remember the porches of the ears are the gateways to the brain and ganglionic centres--are literally pinched and scraped4 ,i wondered that morning if ,i were not in a nervous condition4 ,i looked about me in the sparsely filled hall4 ,people didn't wriggle2 perhaps their souls wriggled4 ,they neither smiled nor wept4 ,yet on the wharf of hell the lost souls disembarked and wept and lamented4 ,what was the matter with my own ego8 ,my conscience reported a clean bill of health1 ,i had gone to bed early the previous night wishing to prepare for the ordeal4 ,evidently ,i was out of condition 7critics are like prize-fighters1 they must keep in constant training else they go stale74 ,or was the music to blame8 ,schoenberg is1 ,i said to myself1 the crudest of all composers1 for he mingles with his music sharp daggers at white heat1 with which he pares away tiny slices of his victim's flesh4 ,anon he twists the knife in the fresh wound and you receive another horrible thrill1 all the time wondering over the fate of the ,lunar ,pierrot and--hold on6 ,here's the first clew4 ,if this new music is so distractingly atrocious what right has a listener to bother about ,pierrot8 ,what's ,pierrot to him or he to ,pierrot8 ,perhaps ,schoenberg had caught his fish in the musical net he used1 and what more did he want1 or what more could his listeners expect8--for to be hooked or netted by the stronger volition of an artist is the object of all the seven arts4 ,how does ,schoenberg do it8 ,how does he pull off the trick8 ,it is not a question to be lightly answered4 ,in the first place the personality of the listener is bound to obtrude itself2 dissociation from one's ego--if such a thing were possible--would be intellectual death2 only by the clear1 persistent image of ourselves do we exist--banal psychology as old as the hills4 ,and the ear1 like the eye1 soon accommodates itself to new perspectives and unrelated harmonies4 ,i had felt1 without clearly knowing the reason1 that when ,albertine ,zehme so eloquently declaimed the lines of ,madonna1 the sixth stanza of part one1 beginning ,steig1 o ,mutter aller ,schmerzen1 auf den ,altar meiner ,tne6 that the background of poignant noise supplied by the composer was more than apposite1 and in the mood-key of the poem4 ,the flute1 bass clarinet1 and violoncello were so cleverly handled that the colour of the doleful verse was enhanced1 the mood expanded2 perhaps the ,hebraic strain in the composer's blood has endowed him with the gift of expressing sorrow and desolation and the abomination of living4 ,how far are we here from the current notion that music is a consoler1 is joy-breeding1 or should1 according to the ,aristotelian formula1 purge the soul through pity and terror4 ,i felt the terror1 but pity was absent4 ,blood-red clouds swept over vague horizons4 ,it was a new land through which ,i wandered4 ,and so it went on to the end1 and ,i noted as we progressed that ,schoenberg1 despite his ugly sounds1 was master of more than one mood2 witness the shocking cynicism of the gallows song ,die drre ,dirne mit langen ,halse4 ,such music is shameful--and that's the precise effect ,i was after--could the composer triumphantly answer1 and he would be right4 ,what kind of music is this1 without melody1 in the ordinary sense2 without themes1 yet every acorn of a phrase contrapuntally developed by an adept2 without a harmony that does not smite the ears1 lacerate1 figuratively speaking1 the ear-drums2 keys forced into hateful marriage that are miles asunder1 or else too closely related for aural matrimony2 no form1 that is1 in the scholastic formal sense1 and rhythms that are so persistently varied as to become monotonous--what kind of music1 ,i repeat1 is this that can paint a crystal sigh1 the blackness of prehistoric night1 the abysm of a morbid soul1 the man in the moon1 the faint sweet odours of an impossible fairy-land1 and the strut of the dandy from ,bergamo8 7,see the ,guiraud poem47 ,there is no melodic or harmonic line1 only a series of points1 dots1 dashes1 or phrases that sob and scream1 despair1 explode1 exalt1 blaspheme4 ,i give the conundrum the go-by2 ,i only know that when ,i finally surrendered myself to the composer he worked his will on my fancy and on my raw nerves1 and ,i followed the poems1 loathing the music all the while1 with intense interest4 ,indeed1 ,i couldn't let go the skein of the story for fear that ,i might fall off somewhere into a gloomy chasm and be devoured by chromatic wolves4 ,i recalled one extraordinary moment at the close of the composition when a simple major chord was sounded and how to my ears it had a supernal beauty2 after the perilous tossing and pitching on a treacherous sea of no-harmonies it was like a field of firm ice under the feet4 ,i told myself that it served me right1 that ,i was too old to go gallivanting around with this younger generation1 that if ,i would eat prickly musical pears ,i must not be surprised if ,i suffered from aural colic4 ,nevertheless1 when certain of the ,schoenberg compositions reached me from ,vienna ,i eagerly fell to studying them4 ,i saw then that he had adopted as his motto3 ,evil1 be thou my good6 ,and that a man who could portray in tone sheer ugliness with such crystal clearness is to be reckoned with in these topsyturvy times4 ,i have called ,arnold ,schoenberg a musical anarchist1 using the word in its best estate--anarchos1 without a head4 ,perhaps he is a superman also1 and the world doesn't know it4 ,his admirers and pupils think so1 however1 and several of them have recorded their opinion in a little book1 published at ,munich1 #aiab1 by ,r4 ,piper ,co4 ,the life of ,arnold ,schoenberg1 its outer side1 has thus far been uneventful1 though doubtless rich in the psychical sense4 ,he is still young1 born in ,vienna1 ,september #ac1 #ahgd4 ,he lived there till #aija1 then in the ,december of that year he went to ,berlin1 where he was for a short time conductor in ,wolzogen's ,bunten ,theatre1 and also teacher of composition at ,stern's ,conservatory4 ,in #aijc he returned to ,vienna1 where he taught--he is pre-eminently a pedagogue1 even pedantic as ,i hope to presently prove--in the ,k4 ,k4 ,akademie fr ,musik4 ,in #aiaa ,berlin again beckoned to him1 and as hope ever burns in the bosom of composers1 young and old1 he no doubt believes that his day will come4 ,certainly1 his disciples1 few as they may be1 make up by their enthusiasm for the public and critical flouting4 ,i can't help recalling the ,italian ,futurists when ,i think of ,schoenberg4 ,the same wrath may be noted in the galleries where the young ,italian painters exhibit4 ,so it was at the end of the concert4 ,one man1 a sane person1 was positively purple with rage 7evidently he had paid for his seat71 and swore that the composer was verrckt4 ,his compositions are not numerous4 ,schoenberg appears to be a reflective rather than a spontaneous creator4 ,here is an abridged list3 ,opus #a1 #b1 and #c 7composed1 #ahih-aijj72 ,opus #d1 string sextet1 which bears the title1 ,verklrte ,nacht 7#ahii72 ,gurrelieder1 after ,j4 ,p4 ,jacobsen1 for solos2 chorus and orchestra 7#aijj71 published in the ,universal ,edition1 ,vienna2 ,opus #e1 ,pellas et ,mlisande1 symphonic poem for orchestra 7#aijb71 ,universal ,edition aforesaid2 ,opus #f1 eight lieder 7about #aije72 ,opus #g1 ,e string quartet1 ,d minor 7#aije72 ,opus #h1 six orchestral lieder 7#aijd72 ,opus #i1 ,kammersymphonie 7#aijf72 two ballads for voice and piano 7#aijg72 ,peace on ,earth1 mixed chorus capella 7#aijh71 manuscript2 ,opus #aj1 ,,ii1 string quartet1 ,f-sharp minor 7#aijg-h72 fifteen lieder1 after ,stefan ,george1 a talented ,viennese poet1 one of the ,jung-,wien group 7#aijh71 manuscript2 ,opus #aa1 three piano pieces 7#aijh72 five pieces for orchestra 7#aiji7 in the ,peters ,edition2 monodrama1 ,erwartung 7#aiji72 ,glckliche ,hand1 drama with music1 text by composer1 not yet finished 7#aiaj72 and six piano pieces 7#aiaa74 ,his book on harmony appeared in #aiaj and was universally treated as the production of a madman1 and1 finally1 as far as this chronicle goes1 in #aiaa-ab he finished ,pierrot ,lunaire1 which was first produced in ,berlin4 99 99 99 99 99 ,one thing is certain1 and this hardly need assure my musical readers1 the old tonal order has changed for ever2 there are plenty of signs in the musical firmament to prove this4 ,moussorgsky preceded ,debussy in his use of whole-tone harmonies1 and a contemporary of ,debussy1 and an equally gifted musician1 ,martin ,loeffler1 was experimenting before ,debussy himself in a dark but delectable harmonic region4 ,the tyranny of the diatonic and chromatic scales1 the tiresome revolutions of the major and minor modes1 the critical ,canutes who sit at the seaside and say to the modern waves3 ,thus far and no farther2 and then hastily abandon their chairs and rush to safety else be overwhelmed1 all these things are of the past1 whether in music1 art1 literature1 and--let ,nietzsche speak--in ethics4 ,even philosophy has become a plaything1 and logic a dodge1 as ,professor ,jowett puts it4 ,every stronghold is being assailed1 from the divine rights of property to the common chord of ,c major4 ,with ,schoenberg1 freedom in modulation is not only permissible1 but is an iron rule2 he is obsessed by the theory of overtones1 and his music is not only horizontally and vertically planned1 but1 so ,i pretend to hear1 also in a circular fashion4 ,there is no such thing as consonance or dissonance1 only imperfect training of the ear 7,i am quoting from his ,harmony1 certainly a bible for musical supermen74 ,he says3 ,harmonie fremde ,tne gibt es also nicht--and a sly dig at the old-timers--sondern nur dem ,harmoniesystem fremde4 ,after carefully listening ,i noted that he too has his mannerisms1 that in his chaos there is a certain order1 that his madness is very methodical4 ,for one thing he abuses the interval of the fourth1 and he enjoys juggling with the chord of the ninth4 ,vagabond harmonies1 in which the remotest keys lovingly hold hands1 do not prevent the sensation of a central tonality somewhere--in the cellar1 on the roof1 in the gutter1 up in the sky4 ,the inner ear tells you that the ,d-minor quartet is really thought1 though not altogether played1 in that key4 ,as for form1 you must not expect it from a man who declares3 ,i decide my form during composition only through feeling4 ,every chord is the outcome of an emotion1 the emotion aroused by the poem or idea which gives birth to the composition4 ,such antique things as the cyclic form or community of themes are not to be expected in ,schoenberg's bright lexicon of anarchy4 ,he boils down the classic form to one movement and1 so it seemed to my hearing1 he begins developing his idea as soon as it is announced4 ,such polyphony1 such interweaving of voices--eleven and twelve and fifteen are a matter of course--as would make envious the old tonal weavers of the ,netherlands6 ,there is1 literally1 no waste ornament or filling in his scores2 every theme1 every subsidiary figure1 is set spinning so that you dream of fireworks spouting in every direction1 only the fire is vitriolic and burns the tympani of the ears4 ,seriously1 like all complex effects1 the ,schoenberg scores soon become legible if scrutinised without prejudice4 ,the string sextet1 if compared to the later music1 is sunny and ,mozartian in its melodic and harmonic simplicity4 ,they tell me that ,schoenberg once wrote freely in the normal manner1 but finding that he could not attract attention he deliberately set himself to make abnormal music4 ,i don't know how true this may be2 the same sort of thing was said of ,mallarm and ,paul ,czanne and ,richard ,strauss1 and was absolutely without foundation4 ,schoenberg is an autodidact1 the lessons in composition from ,alexander von ,zemlinsky not affecting his future path-breaking propensities4 ,his mission is to free harmony from all rules4 ,a man doesn't hit on such combinations1 especially in his acrid instrumentation1 without heroic labour4 ,his knowledge must be enormous1 for his scores are as logical as a highly wrought mosaic2 that is1 logical1 if you grant him his premises4 ,he is perverse and he wills his music1 but he is a master in delineating certain moods1 though the means he employs revolt our ears4 ,to call him crazy1 is merely amusing4 ,no man is less crazy1 few men are so conscious of what they are doing1 and few modern composers boast such a faculty of attention4 ,concentration is the key-note of his work2 concentration--or condensation formal1 concentration of thematic material--to the vanishing-point2 and conciseness in treatment1 although every license is allowed in modulation4 ,every composer has his aura2 the aura of ,arnold ,schoenberg is1 for me1 the aura of subtle ugliness1 of hatred and contempt1 of cruelty1 and of the mystic grandiose4 ,he is never petty4 ,he sins in the grand manner of ,nietzsche's ,superman1 and he has the courage of his chromatics4 ,if such music-making is ever to become accepted1 then ,i long for ,death the ,releaser4 ,more shocking still would be the suspicion that in time ,i might be persuaded to like this music1 to embrace1 after abhorring it4 ,as for ,schoenberg1 the painter--he paints1 too6--,i won't take even the guarded praise of such an accomplished artist as ,kandinsky as sufficient evidence4 ,i've not seen any of the composer's purple cows1 and hope ,i never shall see them4 ,his black-and-white reproductions look pretty bad1 and not nearly as original as his music4 ,the portrait of a lady 7who seems to be listening to ,schoenbergian harmonies7 hasn't much colour1 a critic tells us1 only a sickly rose in her dress4 ,he also paints grey-green landscapes and visions1 the latter dug up from the abysmal depths of his subconsciousness4 ,schoenberg is1 at least1 the object of considerable curiosity4 ,what he will do next no man may say2 but at least it won't be like the work of any one else4 ,the only distinct reminiscence of an older composer that ,i could discover in his ,pierrot was ,richard ,wagner 7toujours ,wagner1 whether ,franck or ,humperdinck or ,strauss or ,debussy71 and of him1 the first page of the ,introduction to the last act of ,tristan und ,isolde1 more the mood than the actual themes4 ,schoenberg is always atmospheric4 ,so is a tornado4 ,he is the poet whose flowers are evil2 he is the spirit that denies2 never a realist1 like ,strauss1 ingeniously imitating natural sounds1 he may be truthfully described as a musical symbolist4 ,,ii ,,music ,,of ,,to-,,day ,,and ,,to-,,morrow ,despite the fact that he played the flute and ranked ,rossini above ,wagner1 ,arthur ,schopenhauer said some notable things about music4 ,art is ever on the quest1 is a wise observation of his1 a quest1 and a divine adventure2 though this restless search for the new often ends in plain reaction1 progress may be crab-wise and still be progress4 ,i fear that progress as usually understood is a glittering general idea that blinds us to the truth4 ,reform in art is not like reform in politics2 you can't reform the ,st4 ,matthew ,passion or the ,fifth ,symphony4 ,is ,parsifal a reformation of ,gluck8 ,this talk of reform is only confusing the historic with the sthetic4 ,art is a tricksy quantity and like quicksilver is ever mobile4 ,as in all genuine revolutions the personal equation counts the heaviest1 so in dealing with the conditions of music at the present time one must study the temperament of our music-makers and let prophecy sulk in its tent as it may4 ,if ,ruskin had written music-criticism1 he might have amplified the meaning of his once-famous phrase1 the pathetic fallacy1 for ,i consider it a pathetic fallacy--though not in the ,ruskinian sense--in criticism to be over-shadowed by the fear that1 because some of our critical predecessors misjudged ,wagner or ,manet or ,ibsen1 we should be too merciful in criticising our contemporaries4 ,here is the pathos of distance run to sentimental seed4 ,the music of to-day may be the music of to-morrow1 but if it is not1 what then8 ,it may satisfy the emotional needs of the moment1 yet to-morrow be a stale formula4 ,but what does that prove8 ,though ,bach and ,beethoven built their work on the bases of eternity 7employing this tremendous term in a limited sense71 one may nevertheless enjoy the men whose music is of slighter texture and modern4 ,nor is this a plea for mediocrity4 ,mediocrity we shall always have with us3 mediocrity is mankind in the normal1 and normal man demands of art what he can read without running1 hear without thinking4 ,every century produces artists who are forgotten in a generation1 though they fill the eye and the ear for a time with their clever production4 ,this has led to another general idea1 that of transition1 of intermediate types4 ,after critical perspective has been attained1 it may be seen that the majority of composers fall into this category not a consoling notion1 but an unavoidable4 ,richard ,wagner has his epigones2 the same is the case with ,haydn1 ,mozart1 ,beethoven4 ,mendelssohn was a delightful feminine variation on ,bach1 and after ,schumann came ,brahms4 ,the ,wagner-,liszt tradition of music-drama1 so-called1 and the symphonic poem have been continued with personal modifications by ,richard ,strauss2 ,max ,reger has pinned his faith to ,brahms and absolute music1 though not without a marked individual variation4 ,in considering his ,sinfonietta1 the ,serenade1 the ,hiller ,variations1 the ,prologue to a ,tragedy1 the ,lustspiel ,overture1 the two concertos respectively for pianoforte and violin1 we are struck not as much by the easy handling of old forms1 as by the stark emotional content of these compositions4 ,reger began as a ,brahmsianer1 but he has not thus far succeeded in fusing form and theme as wonderfully as did his master4 ,there is a ,dionysian strain in his music that too often is in jarring discord with the intellectual structure of his work4 ,but there is no denying that ,max ,reger is the one man in ,germany to-day who is looked upon as the inevitable rival of ,richard ,strauss4 ,their disparate tendencies bring to the lips the old query1 ,under which king8 ,some think that ,arnold ,schoenberg may be a possible antagonist in the future1 but for the present it is ,reger and ,strauss1 and no third in opposition4 ,the ,strauss problem is a serious one4 ,in ,america much criticism of his performances has contrived to evade the real issue4 ,he has been called hard names because he is money-loving1 or because he has not followed in the steps of ,beethoven1 because of a thousand and one things of no actual critical value4 ,that he is easily the greatest technical master of his art now living there can be no question4 ,and he has wound up a peg or two the emotional intensity of music4 ,whether this striving after nerve-shattering combinations is a dangerous tendency is quite beside the mark4 ,let us register the fact4 ,beginning in the path made by ,brahms1 he soon came under the influence of ,liszt1 and we were given a chaplet of tone-poems1 sheer programme-music1 but cast in a bigger and more flexible mould than the thrice-familiar ,liszt pattern4 ,whatever fate is reserved for ,death and ,transfiguration1 ,till ,eulenspiegel1 ,also ,sprach ,zarathustra1 ,hero's ,life1 and ,don ,quixote1 there is no denying their significance during the last decade of the nineteenth century4 ,for me it seemed a decided step backward when ,strauss entered the operatic field4 ,one so conspicuously rich in the gift of music-making 7for the titles of his symphonies never prevented us from enjoying their colouring and eloquence7 might have avoided the more facile triumphs of the stage4 ,however1 ,elektra needs no apology1 and the joyous ,rosenkavalier is a distinct addition to the repertory of high-class musical comedy4 ,strauss is an experimenter and no doubt a man for whom the visible box-office exists1 to parody a saying of ,gautier's4 ,but we must judge him by his own highest standard1 the standard of ,elektra1 ,don ,quixote1 and ,till ,eulenspiegel1 not to mention the beautiful songs4 ,ariadne on ,naxos was a not particularly successful experiment1 and what the ,alp ,symphony will prove to be we may only surmise4 ,probably this versatile tone-poet has said his best4 ,he is not a second ,richard ,wagner1 not yet has he the charm of the ,lizst personality1 but he bulks too large in contemporary history to be called a decadent1 although in the precise meaning of the word1 without its stupid misinterpretation1 he is a decadent inasmuch as he dwells with emphasis on the technique of his composition1 sacrificing the whole for the page1 putting the phrase above the page1 and the single note in equal competition with the phrase4 ,in a word1 ,richard ,strauss is a romantic1 and flies the red flag of his faith4 ,he has not followed the advice of ,paul ,verlaine in taking eloquence by the neck and wringing it4 ,he is nothing if not eloquent and expressive1 magnifying his ,bavarian song-birds to the size of ,alpine eagles4 ,the newer choir has avoided the very things in which ,strauss has excelled1 for that way lie repetition and satiety4 ,since writing the above1 ,strauss has given the world his ballet ,the ,legend of ,joseph1 in which he has said nothing novel1 but has with his customary skill mixed anew the old compound of glittering colours and sultry1 exotic harmonies4 99 99 99 99 99 ,however1 ,strauss is not the only member of the post-,wagnerian group1 but he is the chief one who has kept his individual head above water in the welter and chaos of the school4 ,where are ,cyrill ,kistner1 ,hans ,sommer1 ,august ,bungert1 and the others8 ,humperdinck is a mediocrity1 even more so than ,puccini4 ,and what of the banalities of ,bruckner8 ,his ,wagnerian cloak is a world too large for his trifling themes4 ,siegfried ,wagner does not count1 and for anything novel we are forced to turn our eyes and ears toward the direction of ,france4 ,after ,berlioz1 a small fry1 indeed1 yet not without interest4 ,the visit made by ,claude ,debussy to ,russia in #ahgi and during his formative period had consequences4 ,he absorbed ,moussorgsky1 and built upon him1 and he had ,wagner at his finger-ends2 like ,charpentier he cannot keep ,wagner out of his scores2 the ,bayreuth composer is the ,king ,charles's head in his manuscript4 ,tristan und ,isolde in particular must have haunted the composers of ,louise1 and ,pellas et ,mlisande4 ,the ,julien of ,charpentier is on a lower literary and musical level than ,louise1 which1 all said and done1 has in certain episodes a picturesque charm2 the new work is replete with bad symbolism and worse music-spinning4 ,debussy has at least a novel1 though somewhat monotonous1 manner4 ,he is precious1 and in ideas as constipated as ,mallarm1 whose ,afternoon of a ,faun he so adequately set4 ,nevertheless1 there is1 at times1 magic in his music4 ,it is the magic of suggestiveness1 of the hinted mystery which only ,huysmans's superior persons scattered throughout the universe may guess4 ,after ,debussy comes ,dukas1 ,ravel1 ,florent ,schmitt1 ,rogier-,ducasse1 men who seem to have caught anew the spirit of the eighteenth-century music and given it to us not through the poetic haze of ,debussy1 but in gleaming1 brilliant phrases4 ,there is promise in ,schmitt4 ,as to ,vincent d',indy1 you differ with his scheme1 yet he is a master1 as was ,csar ,franck a master1 as are masters the two followers of ,d',indy1 ,albert ,roussel and ,theodat de ,svrac4 ,personally ,i admire ,paul ,dukas1 though without any warrant whatever for placing him on the same plane with ,claude ,debussy1 who1 after all1 has added a novel nuance to art4 ,but they are all makers of anxious mosaics2 never do they carve the block2 exquisite miniaturists1 yet lack the big brush work and epical sweep of the preceding generation4 ,above all1 the entire school is minus virility2 its music is of the distaff1 and has not the masculine ring of crossed swords4 ,it is hardly necessary to consider here the fantastic fashionings of ,erik ,satie1 the newest ,french composer4 ,he seems to have out-,schoenberged ,schoenberg in his little piano pieces bearing the alluring titles of ,embryons desschs1 preludes and pastorales4 ,apart from the extravagant titles1 the music itself is ludicrous qua music1 but not without subtle irony4 ,that trio of ,chopin's ,funeral ,march played in ,c and declared as a citation from the celebrated mazurka of ,schubert does touch the rib risible4 ,there are neither time signature nor bars4 ,all is gentle chaos and is devoted to the celebration1 in tone1 of certain sea-plants and creatures4 ,this sounds like ,futurism or the passionate patterns of the ,cubists1 but ,i assure you ,i've seen and tried to play the piano music of ,satie4 ,that he is an arch-humbug ,i shall neither maintain nor deny4 ,after ,schoenberg anything is possible in this vale of agonising dissonance4 ,i recall with positive satisfaction a tiny composition for piano by ,rebikoff1 which he calls a setting of ,the ,devil's ,daughters1 a mural design by ,franz von ,stuck of ,munich4 ,to be sure1 the bass is in ,c and the treble in ,d flat1 nevertheless the effect is almost piquant4 ,the humour of the new composers is melancholy in its originality1 but ,gauguin has said that in art one must be either a plagiarist or a revolutionist4 ,satie is hardly a plagiarist1 though the value of his revolution is doubtful4 ,the influence of ,verdi has been supreme among the ,verdists of young ,italy1 though not one has proved knee-high to a grasshopper when compared with the composer of that incomparable ,falstaffo4 ,ponchielli played his part1 and under his guidance such dissimilar talents as ,puccini1 ,mascagni1 and ,leoncavallo were fostered4 ,puccini stopped with ,la ,bohme1 all the rest is repetition and not altogether admirable repetition4 ,that he has been the hero of many phonographs has nothing to do with his intrinsic merits4 ,cleverness is his predominating vice1 and a marked predilection for time-serving2 that is1 he1 like the excellent musical journalist that he is1 feels the public pulse1 spreads his sails to the breeze of popular favour1 and while he is never as banal as ,humperdinck or ,leoncavallo1 he exhibits this quality in suffusion4 ,above all1 he is not original4 ,if ,mascagni had only followed the example of ,single-,speech ,hamilton1 he would have spared himself many mortifications and his admirers much boredom4 ,the new men1 such as ,wolf-,ferrari1 ,montemezzi1 ,giordano1 and numerous others are eclectics2 they belong to any country1 and their musical cosmopolitanism1 while affording agreeable specimens1 may be dismissed with the comment that their art lacks pronounced personal profile4 ,this does not mean that ,l',amore dei ,tre ,re is less delightful4 ,the same may be said of ,ludwig ,thuille and also of the ,neo-,belgian group4 ,sibelius1 the ,finn1 is a composer with a marked temperament4 ,among the ,english ,delius shows strongest4 ,he is more personal and more original than ,elgar4 ,not one of these can tie the shoe-strings of ,peter ,cornelius1 the composer of short masterpieces1 ,the ,barber of ,bagdad--the original1 not the bedevilled version of ,mottl4 ,in ,germany there is an active group of young men3 ,ernest ,boehe1 ,walter ,braunfels1 ,max ,schillings1 ,hans ,pfitzner1 ,f4 ,klose1 ,karl ,ehrenberg1 ,dohnny--born ,hungarian--,h4 ,g4 ,noren4 ,the list is long4 ,fresh1 agreeable1 and indicative of a high order of talent is a new opera by ,franz ,schreker1 ,das ,spielwerk und die ,prinzessin 7#aiac74 ,schreker's earlier opera1 ,der ferne ,klang1 ,i missed1 but ,i enjoyed the later composition1 charged as it is with fantasy1 atmosphere1 bold climaxes1 and framing a legendary libretto4 ,the influence of ,debussy is marked4 ,curiously enough1 the ,russian ,moussorgsky1 whose work was neglected during his lifetime1 has proved to be a precursor to latter-day music4 ,he was not affected in his development by ,franz ,liszt1 whose influence on ,tschaikovsky1 ,borodin1 ,rimsky-,korsakof1 ,glazounof--he less than the others--was considerable4 ,like ,dostoevsky1 ,moussorgsky is ur-,russian1 not a polished production of ,western culture1 as are ,turgenieff1 ,tschaikovsky1 ,tolstoy1 or ,rubinstein4 ,he is not a romantic1 this ,russian bear2 the entire modern school is at one in their rejection of romantic moods and attitudes4 ,now1 music is pre-eminently a romantic art4 ,i once called it a species of emotional mathematics1 yet so vast is its kingdom that it may contain the sentimentalities of ,mendelssohn1 the ,old ,world romance of ,schumann1 the sublimated poetry of ,chopin1 and the thunderous epical accents of ,beethoven4 ,moussorgsky ,i have styled a primitive1 and ,i fancy it is as good an ascription as another4 ,he is certainly as primitive as ,paul ,gauguin1 who accomplished the difficult feat of shedding his ,parisian skin as an artist and reappearing as a modified ,tahitian savage4 ,but ,i suspect there was a profounder sincerity in the case of the ,muscovite4 ,little need now to sing the praises of ,boris ,godunoff1 though not having seen and heard ,ohaliapine1 ,new ,york is yet to receive the fullest and sharpest impression of the rle notwithstanding the sympathetic reading of ,arturo ,toscanini4 ,khovanchtchina is even more rugged1 more ,russian4 ,hearing it after ,tschaikovsky's charming1 but weak1 setting of ,eugen ,onegin1 the forthright and characteristic qualities of ,moussorgsky are set in higher relief4 ,all the old rhetoric goes by the board1 and sentiment1 in our sense of the word1 is not drawn upon too heavily4 ,stravinsky is a new man not to be slighted1 nor are ,kodaly and ,bartok4 ,i mention only the names of those composers with whose music ,i am fairly familiar4 ,probably ,stravinsky and his musical fireworks will be called a ,futurist1 whatever that portentous title may mean4 ,however1 the music of ,tschaikovsky1 ,rimsky-,korsakof1 ,rachmaninof1 and the others is no longer revolutionary1 but may be considered as evolutionary4 ,again the theory of transitional periods and types comes into play1 but ,i notice this theory has been applied only to minor masters1 never to creators4 ,we don't call ,bach or ,handel or ,mozart or ,beethoven intermediate types4 ,perhaps some day ,wagner will seem as original to posterity as ,beethoven does to our generation4 ,wasn't it ,george ,saintsbury who once remarked that all discussion of contemporaries is conversation1 not criticism8 ,if this be the case1 then it is suicidal for a critic to pass judgment upon the music-making of his day1 a fact obviously at variance with daily practice4 ,yet it is a dictum not to be altogether contravened4 ,for instance1 my first impressions of ,schoenberg were neither flattering to his composition nor to my indifferent critical acumen4 ,if ,i had begun by listening to the comparatively mellifluous ,d-minor string quartet1 played by the ,flonzaley ,quartet1 as did my ,new ,york colleagues1 instead of undergoing the terrifying aural tortures of ,lieder des ,pierrot ,lunaire1 ,i might have been as amiable as the critics4 ,the string sextet has been received here with critical cordiality4 ,its beauties were exposed by the ,kneisel ,quartet4 ,but circumstances were otherwise1 and it was later that ,i heard the two string quartets--the latter in ,f-sharp minor 7by courtesy1 this tonality71 with voices at the close--the astounding ,gurrelieder and the piano pieces4 ,the orchestral poem of ,pellas et ,mlisande ,i have yet to enjoy or execrate2 there seems to be no middle term for ,schoenberg's amazing art4 ,if ,i say ,i hate or like it that is only a personal expression1 not a criticism standing foursquare4 ,i fear ,i subscribe to the truth of ,mr4 ,saintsbury's epigram4 ,it may be considered singular that the most original new music hails from ,austria1 not ,germany4 ,no doubt that ,strauss is the protagonist of the romantics1 dating from ,liszt and ,wagner2 and that ,max ,reger is the protagonist of the modern classicists1 counting ,brahms as their fount 7did you ever read what ,wagner1 almost a septuagenarian1 wrote of ,brahms3 ,der jdische ,czardas-,aufspieler874 ,but they are no longer proclaimed by those ultramoderns who dare to call ,strauss an intermediate type4 ,so rapidly doth music speed down the grooves of time4 ,from ,vienna comes ,schoenberg2 in ,vienna lives and composes the youthful ,erich ,korngold1 whose earlier music seems to well as if from some mountain spring1 although with all its spontaneity it has no affinity with ,mozart4 ,it is distinctively modern1 employing the resources of the new harmonic displacements and the multicoloured modern orchestral apparatus4 ,korngold is so receptive that he reveals just now the joint influences of ,strauss and ,schoenberg4 ,yet ,i think the path lies straight before this young genius1 a straight and shining path4 ,the little ,erich ,korngold--in reality a plump1 good-looking boy--presents few problems for the critic4 ,i know his piano music1 replete with youthful charm1 and ,i heard his overture produced by the ,berlin ,philharmonic ,orchestra 7the fifth concert of the season7 under the leadership of ,arthur ,nikisch4 ,whether or not the youth is helped by his teacher1 as some say1 there can be no doubt as to his precocious talent4 ,his facility in composition is ,mozartian4 ,nothing laboured1 all as spontaneous as ,schoenberg is calculating4 ,he scores conventionally1 that is1 latter-day commonplaces are the rule in his disposition and treatment of the instrumental army4 ,like ,mozart1 he is melodious1 easy to follow1 and1 like ,mozart1 he begins by building on his immediate predecessor1 in his case ,strauss4 ,debussy is not absent1 nor is ,fritz ,delius4 ,i heard not a little of ,der ,rosenkavalier4 ,but who would suspect a lad of such a formal sense--even if it is only imitative--of such clear development1 such climaxes1 and such a capital coda6 ,the chief test of the music--would you listen to it if you did not know who composed it8--is met4 ,the overture is entertaining1 if not very original4 ,truly a wonder child4 ,hugo ,wolf was a song writer who perilously grazed genius1 but he rotted before he was ripe4 ,need we consider the respective positions of ,bruckner or ,mahler1 one all prodigality and diffuseness1 the other largely cerebral8 ,and ,mahler without ,bruckner would hardly have been possible4 ,those huge tonal edifices1 skyscrapers in bulk1 soon prove barren to the spirit4 ,a mountain in parturition with a mouse6 ,nor need we dwell upon the ecstatic ,scriabine who mimicked ,chopin so deftly in his piano pieces1 going ,liszt and ,strauss one better--or ten1 if you will--and spilt his soul in swooning1 roseate vibrations4 ,withal1 a man of ability and vast ambitions4 7,he died in #aiae47 ,more than two years ago ,i heard in ,vienna ,schoenberg's ,gurrelieder1 a setting to a dramatic legend by ,jens ,peter ,jacobsen4 ,this choral and orchestral work was composed in #aijb1 but it sounds newer than the quartets or the sextet4 ,in magnitude it beats ,berlioz4 ,it demands five solo singers1 a dramatic reader1 three choral bodies1 and an orchestra of one hundred and forty1 in which figure eight flutes1 seven clarinets1 six horns1 four ,wagner tubas4 ,little wonder the impression was a stupendous one4 ,there were episodes of great beauty1 dramatic moments1 and appalling climaxes4 ,as ,schoenberg has decided both in his teaching and practice that there are no unrelated harmonies1 cacophony was not absent4 ,another thing3 this composer has temperament4 ,he is cerebral1 as few before him1 yet in this work the bigness of the design did not detract from the emotional quality4 ,i confess ,i did not understand at one hearing the curious dislocated harmonies and splintered themes--melodies they are not--in the ,pierrot ,lunaire4 ,i have been informed that the ear should play a secondary rle in this new music2 no longer through the porches of the ear must filter plangent tones1 wooing the tympanum with ravishing accords4 ,it is now the inner ear1 which is symbolic of a higher type of musical art4 ,a complete disassociation of ideas1 harmonies1 rhythmic life1 architectonic is demanded4 ,to quote an admirer of the ,vienna revolutionist3 ,the entire man in you must be made over before you can divine ,schoenberg's art4 ,perhaps his sthetik embraces what the metaphysicians call the ,langley-,james hypothesis2 fear1 anxiety1 pain are the content1 and his hearers actually suffer as are supposed to suffer his characters or moods or ideas4 ,the old order has changed1 changed very much1 yet ,i dimly feel that if this art is to endure it contains1 perhaps in precipitation1 the elements without which no music is permanent4 ,but his elliptical patterns are interesting1 above all bold4 ,there is no such thing as absolute originality4 ,even the individual ,schoenberg1 the fabricator of nervous noises1 leans heavily on ,wagner4 ,wagner is the fountainhead of the new school1 let them mock his romanticism as they may4 ,is all this to be the music of to-morrow8 ,frankly1 ,i don't know1 and ,i'm sure ,schoenberg doesn't know4 ,he is said to be guided by his damon1 as was ,socrates2 let us hope that familiar may prompt him to more comprehensible utterances4 ,but he must be counted with nowadays4 ,he is significant of the reaction against formal or romantic beauty4 ,i said the same more than a decade ago of ,debussy4 ,again the critical watchmen in the high towers are signalling ,schoenberg's movements1 not without dismay4 ,cheer up1 brethren6 ,preserve an open mind4 ,it is too soon to beat reactionary bosoms1 crying aloud1 ,nunc dimittis6 ,remember the monstrous fuss made over the methods of ,richard ,strauss and ,claude ,debussy4 ,i shouldn't be surprised if ten years hence ,arnold ,schoenberg proves quite as conventional a member of musical society as those other two anarchs of art4 ,,vi ,,frank ,,wedekind ,a very deceptive mask is literature4 ,here is your ,nietzsche with his warrior pen slashing away at the conventional lies of civilisation1 a terrific figure of outraged manhood1 though in private life he was the gentlest of men1 self-sacrificing1 lovable1 modest1 and moral to a painful degree4 ,but see what his imitators have made of him4 ,and in all the tons of rubbish that have been written about ,tolstoy1 the story told by ,anna ,seuron is the most significant4 ,but a human being is better than a half-god4 ,bearing this in mind ,i refused to be scared in advance by the notorious reputation of ,frank ,wedekind1 whose chief claim to recognition in ,new ,york is his ,spring's ,awakening1 produced at the ,irving ,place ,theatre seasons ago4 ,i had seen this moving drama of youth more than once in the ,kammerspielhaus of the ,deutsches ,theatre1 ,berlin1 and earlier the same poet's drama ,erdgeist 7in the summer1 #aijc71 and again refused to shudder at its melodramatic atrocities4 ,wedekind wore at that time the mask ,mephistophelian1 and his admirers1 for he had many from the beginning1 delighted in what they called his spiritual depravity--forgetting that the two qualities cannot be blended4 ,now1 while ,i have termed ,frank ,wedekind the naughty boy of the modern ,german drama1 ,i by no means place him among those spirits like ,goethe's ,mephisto1 who perpetually deny4 ,on the contrary1 he is one of the most affirmative voices in the new ,german literature4 ,he is always asserting4 ,if he bowls away at some rickety ninepin of a social lie1 he does it with a gusto that is exhilarating4 ,to be sure1 whatever the government is1 he is against it2 which only means he is a rebel born1 hating constraint and believing with ,stendhal that one's first enemies are one's own parents4 ,no doubt1 after bitter experience1 ,wedekind discovered that his bitterest foe was himself4 ,that he is a tricky1 ,puck-like nature is evident4 ,he loves to shock1 a trait common to all romanticists from ,gautier down4 ,he sometimes says things he doesn't mean4 ,he contradicts himself as do most men of genius1 and1 despite his poetic temperament1 there is in him much of the lay preacher4 ,i have noticed this quality in men such as ,ibsen and ,strindberg1 who cry aloud in the wilderness of ,philistia for freedom1 for the free1 unhampered life and then devise a new system that is thrice as irksome as the old1 that puts one's soul into a spiritual bondage4 ,wedekind is of this order2 a moralist is concealed behind his shining ambuscade of verbal immoralism4 ,in ,germany every one sports his ,weltanschauung1 his personal interpretation of life and its meanings4 ,in a word1 a working philosophy--and a fearsome thing it is to see young students with fresh sabre cuts on their honest countenances demolishing ,kant1 ,schopenhauer1 or ,nietzsche only to set up some other system4 ,always a system1 always this compartmentising of the facts of existence4 ,scratch the sentimentalism and stheticism of a ,german1 and you come upon a pedant4 ,wedekind has not altogether escaped this national peculiarity4 ,but he writes for to-morrow1 not yesterday2 for youth1 and not to destroy the cherished prejudices of the old4 ,his admirers speak of him as a unicum1 a man so original as to be without forerunners1 without followers4 ,a monster8 ,for no one can escape the common law of descent1 whether physical or spiritual4 ,wedekind has had plenty of teachers1 not excepting the most valuable of all1 personal experience4 ,the sinister shadow cast by ,ibsen fell across the shoulders of the young poet1 and he has read ,max ,stirner and ,nietzsche not wisely1 but too well4 ,he is as frank as ,walt ,whitman 7and as shameless7 concerning the mysteries of life1 and as healthy 7and as coarse7 as ,rabelais4 ,furthermore1 ,strindberg played a marked rle in his artistic development4 ,without the hopeless misogyny of the ,swede1 without his pessimism1 ,wedekind is quite as drastic4 ,and the realism of the ,antoine ,theatre should not be omitted4 ,he exhibits in his menagerie of types--many of them new in the theatre--a striking collection of wild animals4 ,in the prologue to one of his plays he tells his audience that to ,wedekind must they come if they wish to see genuine wild and beautiful beasts4 ,this sounds like ,stirner4 ,he lays much stress on the fact that literature1 whether poetic or otherwise1 has become too literary--hardly a novel idea2 and boasts that none of his characters has read a book4 ,the curse of modern life is the multiplication of books4 ,very true1 and yet ,i find that ,wedekind is literary1 that he could exclaim with ,stephan ,mallarm3 ,la chair est triste1 hlas6 et j'ai lu tous les livres4 ,regarding the modern stage he is also positive4 ,he believes that for the last twenty years dramatic literature is filled with half-humans1 men who are not fit for fatherhood1 women who would escape the burden of bearing children because of their superior culture4 ,this is called a problem play1 the hero or heroine of which commits suicide at the end of the fifth act to the great delight of neurotic1 dissatisfied ladies and hysterical men4 ,weak wills--in either sex--have been the trump card of the latter-day dramatist2 not a sound man or woman who isn't at the same time stupid1 can be found in the plays of ,ibsen or ,hauptmann or the rest4 ,wedekind mentions no names1 but he tweaks several noses prominent in dramatic literature4 ,he is the younger generation kicking in the panels of the doors in the old houses4 ,there is a hellish racket for a while1 and then when the dust clears away you discern the revolutionist calmly ensconced in the seats of the bygone mighty and passionately preaching from the open window his version of ,new ,life2 he is become reformer himself and would save a perishing race--spiritually speaking--from damnation by the gospel of beauty1 by shattering the shackles of love--especially the latter2 love to be love must be free1 preaches ,wedekind2 love is still in the swaddling clothes of ,oriental prejudice4 ,george ,meredith once said the same in ,diana of the ,crossways1 although he said it more epigrammatically4 ,for ,wedekind religion is a symbol of our love of ourselves2 nevertheless1 outside of his two engrossing themes1 love and death1 he is chiefly concerned with religion1 not alone as material for artistic treatment1 but as a serious problem of our existence4 ,a ,lucifer in pride1 he tells us that he has never made of good evil1 or vice versa2 he1 unlike ,baudelaire1 has never deliberately said3 ,evil1 be thou my good6 ,that he has emptied upon the boards from his ,pandora-box imagination the greatest gang of scoundrels1 shady ladies1 master swindlers1 social degenerates1 circus people1 servants1 convicts1 professional strong men1 half-crazy idealists1 irritable rainbow-eaters--the demi-monde of a subterranean world--that ever an astonished world saw perform their antics in front of the footlights is not to be denied1 but it must be confessed that his criminal supermen and superwomen usually get their deserts4 ,like ,octave ,mirbeau1 he faces the music of facts1 and there are none too abhorrent that he doesn't transform into something significant4 ,on the technical side ,strindberg has taught him much2 he prefers the one-act form1 or a series of loosely joined episodes4 ,formally he is not a master1 nor despite his versatility is he objective4 ,with ,strindberg he has been called ,shakespearian--fatal word--but he is not2 that in the vast domain of ,shakespeare there is room for them both ,i do not doubt2 room in the vicinity of the morbid swamps and dark forests1 or hard by the house of them that are melancholy mad4 ,the oftener ,i see or read ,wedekind the more ,i admire his fund of humour4 ,but ,i feel the tug of his theories4 ,the dramatist in him is hampered by the theorist who would reform all life--he is neither a socialist nor an upholder of female suffrage--and when some of his admiring critics talk of his ideals of beauty and power1 then ,i know the game is up--the prophet1 the dogmatist1 the pedant1 not the poet1 artist1 and witty observer of life1 are thrust in the foreground4 ,there is ,hermann ,sudermann1 for example1 the precise antipodes of ,wedekind--,sudermann1 the inexhaustible bottle of the ,german theatre1 the conjurer who imperturbably pours out any flavour1 colour1 or liquid you desire from his bottle2 presto1 here is ,ibsen1 or ,dumas1 or ,hauptmann1 or ,sardou2 comedy1 satire1 tragedy1 farce1 or the marionettes of the fashionable world6 ,frank ,wedekind is less of the stage prestidigitator and more sincere4 ,we must1 perforce1 listen to his creatures as they parade their agony before us1 and we admire his clever rogues--the never-to-be-forgotten ,marquis of ,keith heads the list--and smile at their rough humour and wisdom4 ,for me1 the real ,frank ,wedekind is not the prophet1 but the dramatist4 ,as there is much of his stark personality in his plays1 it would not be amiss to glance at his career4 ,he has a long foreground1 as ,emerson said of ,walt ,whitman4 ,he was born at ,hanover1 ,july #bd1 #ahfd1 and consequently was only twenty-seven years old when1 in #ahia1 he wrote his most original1 if not most finished1 drama1 ,spring's ,awakening4 ,he studied law four terms at ,munich1 two at ,zurich3 but for this lawless soul jurisprudence was not to be2 it was to fulfil a wish of his father's that he consented to the drudgery4 ,a little poem which has been reproduced in leaflet form1 ,felix and ,galathea1 is practically his earliest offering to the muse4 ,like most beginnings of fanatics and realists1 it fairly swims and shimmers with idealism4 ,his father dead1 a roving existence and a precarious one began for the youthful ,frank4 ,he lived by his wits in ,paris and ,london1 learned two languages1 met that underworld which later was to figure in his vital dramatic pictures1 wrote advertisements for a canned soup--in ,hauptmann's early play1 ,friedensfest1 ,wedekind is said to figure as ,robert1 who is a rclame agent--was attached to circuses1 variety theatres1 and fairs1 was an actor in tingletangles1 cabarets1 and saw life on its seamiest side1 whether in ,germany1 ,austria1 ,france1 or ,england4 ,such experiences produced their inevitable reaction--disillusionment4 ,finally in #aije ,director ,reinhardt engaged him as an actor and he married the actress ,tilly ,niemann-,newes1 with whom he has since lived happily1 the father of a son1 his troubled spirit in safe harbour at last1 but not in the least changed1 to judge from his play1 ,franziska1 a ,modern ,mystery4 ,personally1 ,wedekind was never an extravagant1 exaggerated man4 ,a sorrowful face in repose is his1 and when he appeared on ,hans von ,wolzogen's ,ueberbrettl1 or sang at the ,munich cabaret called the ,eleven ,hangmen1 his songs--he composes at times--,ilse1 ,goldstck1 ,brigitte ,b1 ,mein ,liebchen1 to the accompaniment of his guitar1 there was a distinct individuality in his speech and gesture very attractive to the public4 ,but as an actor ,wedekind is not distinguished1 though versatile4 ,i've only seen him in two rles1 as ,karl ,hetman in his play of ,hidalla 7now renamed after the leading rle71 and as ,ernest ,scholtz in ,the ,marquis of ,keith4 ,as ,jack the ,ripper in ,the ,box of ,pandora ,i am glad to say that ,i have not viewed him1 though he is said to be a gruesome figure during the few minutes that he is in the scene4 ,his mimetic methods recalled to me the simplicity of ,antoine--who is not a great actor1 yet1 somehow or other1 an impressive one4 ,naturally1 ,wedekind is the poet speaking his own lines1 acting his own creations1 and there is1 for that reason1 an intimate note in his interpretations1 an indescribable sympathy1 and an underscoring of his meanings that even a much superior actor might miss4 ,he is so absolutely unconventional in his bearing and speech as to seem amateurish1 yet he secures with his naturalism some poignant effects4 ,i shan't soon forget his ,karl ,hetman1 the visionary reformer4 ,wedekind1 like ,heine1 has the faculty of a cynical1 a consuming self-irony4 ,he is said to be admirable in ,der ,kammersnger4 ,it must not be forgotten that he has1 because of a witty lampoon in the publication ,simplicissimus1 done his little bit as they say in penitentiary social circles4 ,these few months in prison furnished him with scenic opportunities2 there is more than one of his plays with a prison set4 ,and how he does lay out the system4 ,he1 like ,baudelaire1 ,flaubert1 and ,de ,maupassant1 was summoned before the bar of justice for outraging public morals by the publication of his play1 ,the ,box of ,pandora1 the sequel to ,erdgeist4 ,he had to withdraw the book and expunge certain offensive passages1 but he escaped fine and imprisonment1 as did his publisher1 ,bruno ,cassirer4 ,he rewrote the play1 the second act of which had been originally printed in ,french1 the third in ,english1 and its republication was permitted by the sensitive authorities of ,berlin4 ,if a critic can't become famous because of his wisdom he may nevertheless attain a sort of immortality1 or what we call that elusive thing1 by writing himself down an ass4 ,the history of critical literature would reveal many such4 ,think of such an accomplished practitioner as the late ,m4 ,brunetire1 writing as he did of ,flaubert and ,baudelaire4 ,and that monument to critical ineptitude1 ,degeneration1 by ,max ,nordau4 ,a more modern instance is the judgment of ,julius ,hart in the publication1 ,tag 7#aija71 concerning our dramatist4 ,he wrote3 ,in ,german literature to-day there is nothing as vile as the art of ,frank ,wedekind4 ,fearing this sparkling gem of criticism might escape the notice of posterity1 ,wedekind printed it as a sort of motto to his beautiful poetic play 7#aijb71 ,such ,is ,life4 ,however1 the truth is that our poet is often disconcerting4 ,his swift transition from mood to mood disturbs the spectator1 especially when one mood is lofty1 the next shocking4 ,he has also been called the clown of the ,german stage1 and not without reason1 for his mental acrobatics1 his grand and lofty tumblings from sheer transcendentalism to the raw realism1 his elliptical style1 are incomprehensible even to the best trained of audiences4 ,as ,alfred ,kerr rightfully puts it1 you must learn to see anew in the theatre of ,wedekind4 ,all of which is correct1 yet we respectfully submit that the theatre1 like a picture1 has its optics3 its foreground1 middle distance1 background1 and foreshortening4 ,destroy the perspective and the stage is transformed into something that resembles staring post-,impressionist posters4 ,the gentle arts of development1 of characterisation1 of the conduct of a play may not be flouted with impunity4 ,the author more than the auditor is the loser4 ,wedekind works too often in bold1 bright primary colours2 only in some of his pieces is the modulation artistic1 the character-drawing summary without being harsh4 ,his climaxes usually go off like pistol-shots4 ,frhlings ,erwachen 7#ahia71 the touching tale of ,spring's ,awakening in the heart of an innocent girl of fourteen1 a child1 ,gretchen1 doomed to tragic ending1 set all ,germany by the ears when it was first put on in the ,kammerspielhaus1 ,berlin1 by ,director ,reinhardt at the end of #aijf4 ,during fifteen years two editions had been sold1 and the work was virtually unknown till its stage presentation4 ,mr4 ,shaw is right in saying that if you wish to make swift propaganda seek the theatre1 not the pulpit1 nor the book4 ,with the majority ,wedekind's name was anathema4 ,a certain minority called him the new ,messiah1 that was to lead youth into the promised land of freedom4 ,for a dramatist all is grist that makes revolve the sails of his advertising mill1 and as there is nothing as lucrative as notoriety1 ,wedekind must have been happy4 ,he is a hard hitter and dearly loves a fight--a ,hibernian trait--and his pen was soon transformed into a club1 with which he rained blows on the ribs of his adversaries4 ,that he was a fanatical moralist was something not even the broadest-minded among them suspected2 they only knew that he meddled with a subject that was hitherto considered tacenda1 and with dire results4 ,nowadays the thesis of ,spring's ,awakening is not so novel4 ,in ,england ,mr4 ,h4 ,g4 ,wells was considerably exercised over the problem when he wrote in ,the ,new ,machiavelli such a startling sentence as ,multitudes of us are trying to run this complex1 modern community on a basis of 'hush1' without explaining to our children or discussing with them anything about love or marriage4 ,i find in ,spring's ,awakening a certain delicate poetic texture that the poet never succeeded in recapturing4 ,his maiden is a dewy creature2 she is also the saddest little wretch that was ever wept over in modern fiction4 ,her cry when she confesses the worst to her dazed mother is of a poignancy4 ,as for the boys1 they are interesting4 ,evidently1 the piece is an authentic document1 but early as it was composed it displayed the principal characteristics of its author3 ,freakishness1 an abnormal sense of the grotesque--witness that unearthly last scene1 which must be taken as an hallucination--and its swift movement2 also a vivid sense of caricature--consider the trial scene in the school2 but created by a young poet of potential gifts4 ,the seduction scene is well managed at the ,kammerspielhaus4 ,we are not shown the room1 but a curtain slightly divided allows the voices of the youthful lovers to be overheard4 ,a truly moving effect is thereby produced4 ,since the performance of this play1 the world all over has seen a great light4 ,aside from the prefaces of ,mr4 ,shaw on the subject of children and their education1 plays1 pamphlets1 even legislation have dealt with the theme4 ,a reaction was bound to follow1 and we do not hear so much now about sex initiation and coeducation4 ,suffice it to say that ,frank ,wedekind was the first man to put the question plumply before us in dramatic shape4 ,a favourite one-act piece is ,der ,kammersnger 7#ahii71 which might be translated as ,the ,wagner ,singer1 for therein is laid bare the soul of the ,wagnerian tenor1 ,gerardo1 whose one week visit to a certain city results in both comedy and tragedy4 ,he has concluded a brilliantly successful ,gastspiel1 singing several of the ,wagnerian rles1 and when the curtain rises we see him getting his trunks in order1 his room at the hotel filled with flowers and letters4 ,he must sing ,tristan the next night in ,brussels1 and has but an hour to spare before his train departs4 ,if he misses it his contract will be void1 and in ,europe that means business1 tenor or no tenor4 ,he sends the servant to pack his costumes1 snatches up the score of ,tristan1 and as he hums it1 he is aware that some one is lurking behind one of the window-curtains4 ,it is a young miss1 presumably ,english--she says3 ,oh1 yes--and she confesses her infatuation4 ,vain as is our handsome singer he has no time for idle flirtations4 ,he preaches a tonic sermon1 the girl weeps1 promises to be good1 promises to study the music of ,wagner instead of his tenors1 and leaves with a paternal kiss on her brow4 ,the comedy is excellent1 though you dimly recall a little play entitled3 ,frderic ,lematre4 ,it is a partial variation on that theme4 ,but what follows is of darker hue4 ,an old opera composer has sneaked by the guard at the door and begs with tears in his eyes that the singer will listen to his music4 ,he is met with an angry refusal4 ,gradually1 after he has explained his struggles of a half-century1 he1 the friend of ,wagner1 to secure a hearing of his work1 the tenor1 who is both brutal and generous1 consents1 though he is pressed for time4 ,then the tragedy of ill luck is unfolded4 ,the poor musician doesn't know where to begin1 fumbles in his score1 while the tenor1 who has just caught another woman behind a screen1 a piano teacher--here we begin to graze the edge of burlesque--grows impatient1 finally interrupts the composer1 and in scathing terms tells him what art really means to the world at large and how useless has been his sacrifice to that idol art with a capital ,a4 ,i don't know when ,i ever enjoyed the exposition of the musical temperament4 ,the ,concert1 by ,bahr1 is mere trifling in comparison1 all sawdust and simian gestures4 ,we are a luxury for the bourgeois1 the tenor tells his listener1 who do not care for the music or words we sing4 ,if they realised the meanings of ,walkre they would fly the opera-house4 ,we singers1 he continues1 are slaves1 not to our art1 but to the public2 we have no private life4 ,he dismisses the old man4 ,then a knock at the door1 a fresh interruption4 ,this time it is surely serious4 ,a young1 lovely society woman enters4 ,she has been his love for the week1 the understanding being that the affair is to terminate as it began1 brusquely1 without arrire-pense4 ,but she loves ,gerardo4 ,she clamours to be taken to ,brussels4 ,she will desert husband1 children1 social position1 she will ruin her future to be with the man she adores4 ,she is mad with the despair of parting4 ,he is inexorable4 ,he gently reminds her of their agreement4 ,his contract does not permit him to travel in company with ladies1 nor may he scandalise the community in which he resides4 ,tenors1 too1 must be circumspect4 ,she swears she will kill herself4 ,he smiles and bids her remember her family4 ,she does shoot herself1 and he sends for a policeman1 remembering that an arrest by superior force will but temporarily abrogate his contract4 ,no policeman is found by the distracted hotel servants1 and1 exclaiming3 ,to-morrow evening ,i must sing ,tristan in ,brussels1 the conscientious artist hurries away to his train1 leaving the lifeless body of his admirer on the sofa4 ,played by a versatile actor1 this piece ought to make a success in ,america1 though the biting irony of the dialogue and the cold selfishness of the hero might not be sympathetic to our sentiment-loving audiences4 ,the poet has protested in print against the alteration of the end of this little piece1 i4 e41 one acting version made the impassioned lady only a pretended suicide1 which quite spoils the motivation4 ,ibsen must have felt sick when such an artist as ,duse asked him to let her make ,nora in ,doll's ,house return to her family4 ,but he is said to have consented4 ,wedekind consented1 because he was ill1 but he made his protest1 and justly so4 ,the ,marquis of ,keith is a larger canvas4 ,it is a modern rogues' comedy4 ,barry ,lyndon is hardly more entertaining4 ,the marquis is the son of an humble tutor in the house of a count whose son later figures as ,ernest ,scholtz4 ,the marquis is a swindler in the grand manner4 ,he is a ,get-,rich-,quick ,wallingford1 for he has lived in the ,united ,states1 but instead of a lively sketch is a full-length portrait painted by a master4 ,you like him despite his scampishness4 ,he is witty4 ,he has a heart--for his own woes--and seems intensely interested in all the women he loves and swindles4 ,he goes to ,munich1 where he invents a huge scheme for an exhibition palace and fools several worthy and wealthy brewers1 but not the powerful ,consul ,casimir1 the one man necessary to his comprehensive operation4 ,when his unhappy wife tells him there is no bread in the house for the next day1 he retorts3 ,very well1 then we shall dine at the ,hotel ,continental4 ,nothing depresses his mercurial spirits4 ,he borrows from ,peter to pay ,paul1 and an hour later borrows from ,paul to pay himself4 ,his boyhood friend he simply plunders4 ,this ,ernest1 in reality the ,graf von ,trautenau1 is an idealist of the type that ,wedekind is fond of delineating4 ,he would save the world from itself1 rescue it from the morass of materialism1 but he relapses into a pathological mysticism which ends in a sanitarium for nervous troubles4 ,the marquis is a ,mephisto2 he is not without a trace of idealism2 altogether a baffling nature1 ,faust-like1 and as chock-full of humour as an egg is full of meat4 ,he goes to smash4 ,his plans are checkmated4 ,his beloved deserts him for the enemy4 ,his wife commits suicide4 ,his life threatened1 and his liberty precarious1 he takes ten thousand marks from ,consul ,casimir1 whose name he has forged in a telegram1 and with a grin starts for pastures new4 ,will he shoot himself8 ,no6 ,after all1 life is very much like shooting the chutes4 ,the curtain falls4 ,this stirring and technically excellent comedy has never been a favourite in ,germany4 ,perhaps its cynicism is too crass4 ,it achieved only a few performances in ,berlin to the accompaniment of catcalls1 hisses1 and derisive laughter4 ,i wonder why8 ,it is entertaining1 with all its revelation of a rascally mean soul and its shady episodes4 ,space1 ,i am sorry to say1 forbids me from further exposition of such strong little pieces as ,musik1 a heart-breaking drama of a betrayed girl studying singing who goes to jail while the real offender1 the man1 remains at liberty 7#aijg71 or of ,die ,zensur1 with its discussion of art and religion--the poet intrudes--and its terrible cry at the close3 ,oh1 ,god6 why art thou so unfathomable8 ,or of the so-called ,lulu tragedy 7,erdgeist and ,the ,box of ,pandora7 of which ,i like the first act of the former and the second act of the latter--you are reminded at this point of the gambling scene in ,sardou's ,fernande--but as ,i do not care to sup on such unmitigated horrors1 ,i prefer to let my readers judge for themselves from the printed plays4 ,karl ,hetman is an absorbing play in which a man loses the world but remains captain of his soul2 actually he ends his life rather than exhibit himself as motley to the multitude4 ,as a foil for the idealist ,hetman--who is a sort of inverted ,nietzsche2 also a self-portrait in part of the dramatist--there is the self-seeking scamp ,launhart who succeeds with the very ideas which ,hetman couldn't make viable1 ideas in fact which brought about his disaster4 ,they are two finely contrasted portraits1 and what a grimace of disgust is aroused when ,launhart tells the woman who loves ,hetman3 ,o ,fanny1 ,fanny1 a living rascal is better for your welfare than the greatest of dead prophets4 ,what ,dead-,sea-fruit wisdom6 ,the pathos of distance doesn't appeal to the contemporary soul of ,wedekind4 ,he writes for the young1 that is1 for to-morrow4 ,the caprice1 the bizarre1 the morbid in ,wedekind are more than redeemed by his rich humanity4 ,he loves his fellow man even when he castigates him4 ,he is very emotional1 also pragmatic4 ,the second act of his ,franziska1 a ,karnevalgroteske1 was given at the ,dresden ,pressfestival1 ,february #g1 #aiac1 with the title of ,matrimony in the ,year #bjjj1 the author and his wife appearing in the leading rles with brilliant success4 ,it contains in solution the leading motives from all his plays and his philosophy of life4 ,it is fantastic1 as fantastic as ,strindberg's ,dream ,play1 but amusing4 ,in #aiad his biblical drama1 ,simson 7,samson71 was produced with mixed success4 ,translated ,wedekind would lose his native wood-note wild1 and doubtless much of his dynamic force--for on the ,english stage he would be emasculated4 ,and ,i wonder who would have the courage to produce his works4 ,musik1 for example1 if played in its entirety might create a profound impression4 ,it is pathetically moving and the part of the unhappy girl1 who is half crazy because of her passion for her singing-master1 is a rle for an accomplished actress4 ,if the public can endure ,brieux's ,damaged ,goods1 why not ,musik8 ,the latter is a typical case and is excellent drama2 the ,french play is neither4 ,for me all the man is summed up in the cry of one of his characters in ,erdgeist3 ,who gives me back my faith in mankind1 will give me back my life4 ,an idealist1 surely4 ,the last time ,i saw him was at the ,richard ,strauss festival in ,stuttgart1 ,october1 #aiab4 ,he had changed but little and still reminded me of both ,david ,belasco and an ,irish ,catholic priest4 ,in his eyes there lurked the dancing-madness of which ,robert ,louis ,stevenson writes4 ,a latter-day pagan1 with touches of the perverse1 the grotesque1 and the poetic2 thus seems to me ,frank ,wedekind4 ,,vii ,,the ,,magic ,,vermeer ,i ,who owns the thirty-fifth canvas by ,jan ,vermeer of ,delft8 ,and are there more than thirty-five works by this master of cool1 clear daylight8 ,i have seen nearly all the pictures attributed to the too little known ,dutchman1 and as far as was in my power ,i have read all the critical writings by such experts as ,havard1 ,obreen1 ,bredius1 ,hofstede de ,groot 7,jan ,vermeer van ,delft en ,carel ,fabritius1 #aijg71 ,doctor ,bode1 ,wauters1 ,arsne ,alexandre1 ,g4 ,geoffroy1 ,brger1 ,taine1 ,john ,smith1 ,gustave ,vanzype1 and several others4 ,doctor ,a4 ,bredius has printed an article entitled3 ,a ,pseudo-,vermeer in the ,berlin gallery1 which ,i have not been able to procure1 but then the same worthy authority has contested the authenticity of the portrait of a young man in the ,brussels ,museum4 ,it is not signed1 this beautiful head1 and at one time it was in the ,english collections of ,humphry ,ward and ,peter ,norton1 and later in the ,collection ,otlet at ,brussels4 ,smith catalogued it as a ,rembrandt2 indeed1 it had the false signature of the great master4 ,much later it was accredited to ,jan ,victoors1 a ,rembrandt pupil1 and to ,nicolas ,maes1 and under this name was sold in ,paris in #aijj4 ,a4 ,j4 ,wauters finally declared it a ,vermeer1 though neither ,bredius nor ,hofstede de ,groot are of his opinion4 ,and now we hear the question3 ,who owns the thirty-fifth ,vermeer1 ,vermeer of the magical blue and yellow8 ,first let us ask3 ,who was ,jan ,vermeer1 or ,van der ,meer8 ,what songs did the sirens sing8 puzzled good old ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 and we know far more about ,william ,shakespeare or ,sappho or ,memling than we do of the enigmatic man from ,delft who died a double death in #afge2 not only the death of the body1 but the death of the spirit1 of his immortal art4 ,for several centuries he was not accorded the paternity of his own pictures4 ,to ,terburg1 ,pieter de ,hooch1 ,nicolas ,maes1 ,metsu they were credited4 ,even the glorious ,letter ,reader of the ,dresden gallery has been attributed to ,de ,hooch1 and by no less an authority than ,charles ,blanc4 ,fromentin1 of all men1 does not mention his name in his always admirable book on the art of the ,low ,countries2 no doubt one cause for his neglect4 ,this is precisely what we know of ,jan ,vermeer of ,delft1 in which city--oddly enough--there is not a single canvas of his4 ,in #afcb he was born there4 ,in #afec he married ,catherine ,bolnes2 he was just twenty-one years old4 ,his admission to the corporation of painters as a master occurred the same year1 as the books attest4 ,in #affb he was elected dean of the corporation1 and again in #afgj4 ,in #afge he died1 in his forty-third year1 and at the apogee of his powers4 ,when he became a member of the corporation of painters at ,delft he could not pay in full the initiation fee1 six florins1 and he gave on account one florin ten cents--the entry in the books attests this astounding fact4 ,he was poor1 but he had youth and genius1 and he loved4 ,he had also eight or ten children and lived happily--as do most people without a history--on the ,oude ,langendyck1 where he became at least a local celebrity1 according to a mention of him in the ,journal des ,voyages1 by ,balthazar de ,moncouys 7published #affe74 ,moncouys also recorded another interesting fact4 ,at ,delft ,i saw the painter ,vermeer1 he writes1 but none of his works were at his atelier2 at a baker's ,i saw a figure--for which was paid six hundred livres4 ,at a bakeshop6 ,vermeer1 then1 literally painted for his bread4 ,in #afif1 twenty years after his death1 certain of his works 7forty in the catalogue7 brought only #ajj florins1 pictures that to-day are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars4 ,and in #agai the superb ,milk ,girl1 now in the ,rijks ,museum1 formerly from the ,six ,collection1 was sold for #abf florins 7it brought #ajj1jjj when ,mr4 ,six sold it to the museum71 while at the same sale the mediocre ,gerard ,dou fetched #f1jjj florins for a canvas4 ,even nowadays the public has not been converted to the idea of the greatness of ,vermeer4 ,go any time of the day into the ,mauritshuis at ,the ,hague and you will always discover a crowd before that clumsy1 stupid bull with the wooden legs1 by no means ,paul ,potter's masterpiece1 while the gem of ,the ,hague gallery1 the ,view of ,delft1 with its rich pte1 its flowing rhythms1 its clear daylight1 seldom draws a large audience4 ,and ,i do not doubt that only the propinquity of ,rembrandt's ,young ,saskia to ,vermeer's ,merry ,company 7otherwise known as ,the ,courtesan7 in the ,dresden gallery attracts an otherwise indifferent public4 ,in #afif there were #ba pictures of ,vermeer sold at public auction in ,amsterdam4 ,of these #ba the experts claim to have discovered #af4 ,but the bother of the question is that #ajj other pictures were also sold at the same time2 furthermore1 the sale is said to have taken place after the death of a venerable mediocrity1 also named ,vermeer1 but hailing from ,haarlem4 7,he died in #afia47 ,this confusion of names may have had something to do with the obscuring of the great ,vermeer4 ,but he had no vogue in #afif1 as the prices at the sale prove only too well4 ,vanzype gives the list1 and its importance in any research of the ,vermeer pictures is paramount4 ,here are the #ba canvases that are extant1 and the prices paid3 ,no4 #a--;,a young woman weighing gold1 #aee florins2 #b--;,a milk girl1 #age florins2 #c--,the portrait of the painter in his studio1 #de florins2 #d--;,a young woman playing the guitar1 #gj florins2 #e--;,a gentleman in his chamber1 #ie florins2 #f--;,a young lady playing the clavecin1 with a gentleman who listens1 #cj florins2 #g--;,a young woman taking a letter from her servant1 #gj florins2 #h--;,a servant who has drunk too much asleep at a table1 #fb florins2 #i--;,a merry company1 #gc florins2 #aj--;,a young lady and a gentleman making music1 #ha florins2 #aa--;,a soldier with a laughing girl1 #dd florins2 #ab--;,a young lacemaker1 #bh florins2 #ac--,view of ,delft1 #bjj florins2 #ad--;,a house at ,delft1 #gb florins2 #ae--;,a view of some houses1 #dh florins2 #af--;,a young woman writing1 #fc florins2 #ag--;,a young woman1 #cj florins2 #ah--,young woman at a clavecin1 #db florins2 #ai--;,a portrait in antique costume1 #cf florins2 #bj and #ba--,two pendants1 #cd florins4 ,the subsequent history of these pictures1 while too copious for transcription here1 may be skeletonised4 ,this may answer the question posed at the beginning of this little story4 ,gustave ,vanzype asks3 ,what has become of the young woman weighing gold1 which reappeared at a sale in the year #agja1 which ,brger thought he had found in the canvas1 ,the ,weigher of ,gold4 ,and the ,intoxicated ,servant8 ,the latter is in the ,altman collection2 the former at ,philadelphia1 in ,mr4 ,widener's gallery4 ,but let us see how the wise doctors of paint dispute among themselves4 ,how many ,vermeers are there in existence1 that is1 known to the world1 for there may be others1 for all we know1 hidden in the cabinets of collectors or sporting other names8 ,brger1 who called ,vermeer the ,sphinx among artists1 has generously attributed to him #gf pictures4 ,this was in #ahff1 and since then a more savant authority has reduced the number to #dj4 ,havard admits #ef4 ,the ,vermeer of ,haarlem was to blame for this swollen catalogue4 ,bredius and ,de ,groot have attenuated the list4 ,the ,morgan ,vermeer in the ,metropolitan ,museum1 a ,vermeer of first-class quality1 is not in some of the catalogues1 nor is the ,woman ,weighing ,pearls1 now in the possession of ,p4 ,a4 ,b4 ,widener1 of ,philadelphia1 to be found accredited to ,vermeer in ,smith's ,catalogue ,raisonn4 ,but not much weight can be attached to the opinions of the earlier critics of ,vermeer4 ,for them he was either practically unknown or else an imitator of ,terburg1 ,de ,hooch1 or ,mieris1 he whose work is never tight1 hard1 or slippery4 ,the following list of thirty-four admittedly genuine ,vermeers may clear up the mystery of the #afif sale at ,amsterdam4 ,remember that the authenticity of these works is no longer contested4 ,in ,holland at ,the ,hague there are four ,vermeers3 ,the ,toilette of ,diana1 the ,head of a ,young ,girl1 ,an ,allegory of the ,new ,testament1 and the ,view of ,delft4 ,at the ,rijks ,museum1 ,amsterdam1 there are four3 ,the ,milk ,girl1 ,the ,reader1 ,the ,letter1 and ,a ,street in ,delft4 7,this latter is the ,house in ,delft1 which sold for seventy-two florins in #afif47 ,in ,great ,britain in the ,coats collection at ,castle ,skalmorlie 7,scotland7 there is ,christ at the ,house of ,martha and ,mary4 ,in the ,national ,gallery1 a young woman standing in front of her clavecin4 ,in the ,beit collection1 ,london1 a young woman at her clavecin4 ,collection ,salting1 ,london1 ,the ,pianist4 ,windsor ,castle1 ,the ,music ,lesson4 ,beit collection1 ,a ,young ,woman ,writing4 ,in the ,joseph collection1 ,a ,soldier and a ,laughing ,girl4 ,and the ,sleeping ,servant1 formerly of the ,kann collection1 ,paris1 then in ,london1 and later sold to ,mr4 ,altman4 ,in ,germany we find the following3 ,at the ,berlin ,museum1 ,the ,pearl ,collar4 ,the ,drop of ,wine1 in the same museum1 ,berlin4 ,the ,coquette1 ,brunswick ,museum4 ,the ,lady and ,her ,servant1 in the private collection of ,james ,simon1 ,berlin4 ,the ,merry ,company and ,the ,reader in the ,dresden gallery4 ,the ,geographer at the ,window1 in the ,stdel ,institute1 ,frankfort4 ,in ,france1 ,the ,astronomer of the ,a4 de ,rothschild collection at ,paris1 and the little ,lacemaker1 in the ,louvre ,gallery4 ,in ,belgium1 there was at ,brussels the portrait of a girl1 which was formerly in the ,arenberg gallery4 ,when ,i tried to see it ,i was told that it had been sold to some one in ,germany4 ,its type1 judging from the head of a girl at ,the ,hague1 is not unlike ,the ,geographer1 in the collection of ,viscount ,du ,bus de ,gisegnies1 ,brussels4 ,a ,young ,girl1 collection of ,jonkheer de ,grez1 ,brussels4 ,this last was discovered by ,doctor ,bredius in #aijf1 and is at the present writing in ,new ,york at the gallery of ,mr4 ,knoedler4 ,in ,austria-,hungary there are two noble ,vermeers2 one in the private gallery of ,count ,czernin1 the portrait of the painter1 the other in the ,museum of ,budapest1 the portrait of a woman1 the latter as solidly modelled as any ,hals ,i ever viewed4 ,the ,czernin ,vermeer is the only one in ,vienna 7the other ,vermeer in this gallery is by ,rensse74 ,it is a masterpiece4 ,in it he grazes perfection4 ,the ,united ,states is1 considering the brevity of the list1 well off in ,vermeers4 ,there is at ,philadelphia the ,mandoliniste of ,john ,g4 ,johnson 7without doubt1 as ,m4 ,vanzype points out1 the ,young ,woman ,playing the ,guitar of the #afif sale74 ,at ,boston ,mrs4 ,john ,gardner owns ,the ,concert4 ,at the ,metropolitan ,museum there is the ,woman with the ,jug 7,marquand72 and the ,morgan ,letter ,writer2 ,h4 ,c4 ,frick boasts ,the ,singing ,lesson 7probably known at the #afif sale as ,a ,gentleman and ,young ,lady ,making ,music74 ,so the importance of the #afif catalogue is indisputable4 ,and now1 after wading through this dry forest of figures and dates and haphazard or dogmatic attributions1 we are at the fatal number1 thirty-four--only thirty-four authentic ,vermeers in existence4 ,some one must be mistaken4 ,who owns the thirty-fifth ,vermeer8 ,i again ask4 ,,ii ,the works attributed only to our master in the list compiled by ,m4 ,vanzype are but six3 ,portrait of a ,man1 at the ,brussels ,museum2 ,view of ,delft1 in the collection of ,michel ,van ,gelder1 at ,uccle1 ,brussels2 ,the ,lesson1 at the ,national ,gallery1 ,london2 the ,sleeping ,servant1 ,widener collection1 ,philadelphia--another version1 according to ,brger-,thor2 ,portrait of a ,young ,man1 in the same collection2 two interiors1 collection ,werner ,dahl at ,dsseldorf and collection ,matavansky at ,vienna1 respectively4 ,there is also to be accounted a small landscape in the ,dresden gallery1 a ,distant ,view of ,haarlem 7probably by ,vermeer of ,haarlem71 the ,morgan and the ,widener ,vermeers4 ,to deny the authenticity of either of these compositions would be to fly into the face of ,vermeer himself4 ,i have enjoyed the privilege and pleasure of viewing the ,widener ,vermeers1 and ,i believe that the ,sleeping ,servant--she may not be intoxicated1 a jug on the table being the only evidence2 certainly her features are placid enough2 besides1 ,vermeer did not indulge in paintings of low life as did ,teniers1 ,ostrade1 or ,jan ,steen--is about the same period as ,the ,merry ,company1 in the ,dresden gallery1 that is1 if paint1 texture1 and arrangement of still-life be any criterion4 ,as for the ,woman ,weighing ,gold1 it is superb ,vermeer4 ,there is little danger nowadays of any other painter being saddled with the name of ,vermeer4 ,it is usually the other way around1 as we have seen4 ,as was the case with ,diaz and ,monticelli1 so has it been with ,vermeer and ,de ,hooch1 ,vermeer and ,terburg 7or ,ter ,borch74 ,i have the highest admiration for the vivacious and veracious work of these two other men--possibly associates of ,vermeer4 ,their surfaces are impeccably rendered4 ,the woman playing a bass viol in the ,berlin gallery and a certain interior in the ,national ,gallery display the art of representation raised to the highest pitch2 realism can go no further4 ,the psychology of a painter's household is revealed in the ,count ,czernin example 7l',atelier du ,peintre74 ,an artist sits with his back to us and on his canvas he broiders the image of his good wife4 ,again the miracle is repeated1 ,let there be light6 ,here is not only the subtle equilibrium between man and the things that surround him1 but the things themselves--flesh-tints1 drapery1 garbs1 polished floor1 chairs1 table1 and wall tapestry--are saturated with light2 absorbed by the inert matter which nevertheless vibrates and1 like the flesh-tones1 remains puissant and individual4 ,humanity is the central and sounding note of his art4 ,he is neither a pantheist in his worship of sunshine1 nor is he a mystic in his pursuit of shadows4 ,he is always virile1 always tender1 never trivial1 nor coarse--an aristocrat of art4 ,in the ,dresden ,merry ,company1 and a large canvas it is--he comes to grips with ,rembrandt in the matter of the distribution of lights and shades4 ,the cavalier at the left of the picture--facing it--with the cynical smile1 is marvellously depicted4 ,there is a certain shadow on his wide-margined collar which also touches the lower part of his face--but now we are nearing the region of transcendental virtuosity4 ,i always convince myself when in the presence of the other ,dresden ,vermeer1 and the greater of the two1 that this young ,dutch lady reading a letter at an open window is my favourite4 ,and now it's high time to answer my question3 ,who owns the thirty-fifth ,vermeer8 ,we stopped1 you may recall1 at the thirty-fourth1 ,the ,singing ,lesson1 belonging to ,mr4 ,frick4 ,that would give the thirty-fifth to the ,portrait of a ,man in the ,brussels ,museum4 ,but that is a contested canvas1 while the ,lesson in the ,national ,gallery 7not the young woman at her clavecin1 a genuine ,vermeer7 is also doubtful1 say the experts4 ,setting aside the two interiors and the second ,view of ,delft as not being in the field of the authentic1 there remain the ,morgan and the ,widener ,vermeers4 ,which of the pair is the thirty-fifth ,vermeer8 ,they are both masterpieces1 though the ,morgan is blacker and has been overcleaned4 ,since writing the above ,i had on my return to ,america the pleasure of reading ,philip ,l4 ,hale's wholly admirable study of ,vermeer1 and many dark places were made clear2 especially concerning the place in the catalogue of #afif of the ,widener picture1 ,lady ,weighing ,gold1 often called ,lady ,weighing ,pearls1 because there are pearls on the table about to be weighed4 ,mr4 ,hale1 who1 as a painter1 knows whereof he speaks1 styles ,vermeer as the greatest painter who ever lived1 and meets all the very natural objections to such a bold statement4 ,certainly with ,velasquez and ,da ,vinci1 ,vermeer 7the three ,v's7 is the one of the supreme magicians of paint in the history of art4 ,who doubts this should visit ,berlin1 ,dresden1 ,vienna1 and ,amsterdam1 and for ever after hold his peace4 ,,viii ,,richard ,,strauss ,,at ,,stuttgart ,i ,after a week of ,richard ,strauss at ,stuttgart one begins to entertain a profound respect for the originality of ,richard ,wagner4 ,and ,wagner during his embattled career was liberally accused of plagiarism1 of drawing heavy drafts upon the musical banking houses of ,beethoven1 ,weber1 ,marschner1 ,schubert1 and how many others6 ,indeed1 one of the prime requisites of success for a composer is to be called a borrower of other men's ideas4 ,the truth is that there are only thirty-six dramatic situations and only seven notes in the scale1 and all the possible permutations will not prevent certain figures1 melodic groups1 or musical moods from recurrence4 ,therefore1 to say that ,richard ,strauss is a deliberate imitator of ,wagner would be to restate a very common exaggeration4 ,he is inconceivable without ,wagner2 nevertheless1 he is individual4 ,all his musical life he has been dodging ,wagner and sometimes he succeeds in whipping his devil so far around the stump that he becomes himself1 the glorious ,richard ,strauss of ,don ,quixote1 of ,till ,eulenspiegel1 of ,hero's ,life1 and ,elektra4 ,but it may be confessed without much fear of contradiction that for him ,wagner is his model--even in ,salome1 where the head of ,john the ,baptist is chanted to the tune of ,donner's motive from ,rheingold4 ,at the ,stuttgart festival1 in #aiab1 which endured a week1 ,i was struck by the ,wagner obsession in the music of his only legitimate successor4 ,to alter an old quotation1 we may say3 ,he who steals my ideas steals trash3 ideas are as cheap and plentiful as potatoes in season2 but he who steals my style takes from me the only true thing ,i possess4 ,now1 ,richard ,strauss in addition to being a master of form1 rather of all musical forms1 is also the master-colourist of the orchestra4 ,no one1 not even ,wagner1 o'ertops him in this respect1 though ,wagner and ,berlioz and ,liszt showed him the way4 ,why1 then1 does he lean so heavily on ,wagner1 not alone on his themes--for ,strauss is1 above all1 a melodist--but on his moods2 in a word1 the ,wagnerian atmosphere8 ,i noted that wherever a situation analogous to one in the ,wagnerian music-drama presented itself the music of the protean younger ,richard was coloured by memories of the elder composer4 ,for example1 in ,ariadne at ,naxos1 the heroine is discovered outstretched on her island in the very abandonment of despair4 ,we hear faint echoes of the last pages of ,tristan and ,isolde2 no sooner do three women begin to sing than is conjured up a vision 7aural1 of course7 of the ,rhine maidens4 ,in ,feuersnot the legendary tone was unavoidable1 yet there is too much of ,die ,meistersinger in this early work4 ,does a duenna appear with the heroine1 at once you are reminded of ,eva and ,magdalena2 and in the balcony scene1 so different in situation from ,lohengrin1 ,elsa nevertheless peers from behind the figure of ,diemut4 ,as for the lovers1 ,kunrad and ,diemut1 they1 taking advantage of the darkness1 as ,mr4 ,henderson once remarked of another opera1 ,azrael1 appropriated the musical colour--let me put the case mildly--of the duo of ,walther and ,eva4 ,wagner dead remains the imperious tyrant1 a case of musical mortmain1 the lawyers would put it2 a hand reaching from his grave dictating the doings of the living4 ,the great chorus in ,feuersnot1 after the fires are extinguished1 because of the ,alberich-like curse of ,kunrad1 is not without suggestions from the street fight in ,die ,meistersinger1 and the wild wailings of the ,walkyrie brood4 ,thus1 if you are looking for reminiscences1 ,i know of few composers whose work1 vast and varied as it is1 will afford such chances of spearing a ,wagner motive as it appears for a moment on the swift and boiling stream of the ,strauss orchestral narration4 ,but if you have attained the age of discretion you will not ask too much1 forget such childish and sinister play1 and enjoy to the full the man's extraordinary gift of music-making4 ,for ,richard ,strauss is an extraordinary musician4 ,to begin with1 he doesn't look like a disorderly genius with rumpled hair1 but is the mildest-mannered man who ever scuttled another's score and smoked ,munich cigars or played skat4 ,and then he loves money6 ,what other composer1 besides ,handel1 ,haydn1 ,mozart--yes1 and also ,beethoven--,gluck1 ,meyerbeer1 ,verdi1 ,puccini1 so doted on the box-office8 ,why shouldn't he8 ,why should he enrich the haughty music publisher or the still haughtier intendant of the opera-house8 ,as a matter of fact1 if ,r4 ,strauss were in such a hurry to grow rich1 he would write music of a more popular character4 ,it would seem1 then1 that he is a millionaire malgr lui1 and that1 no matter what he writes1 money flows into his coffers4 ,indeed1 an extraordinary man4 ,despite his spiritual dependence upon ,wagner1 and in his ,tone-,poems1 upon ,liszt and ,berlioz1 he has a very definite musical personality4 ,he has amplified1 intensified the ,liszt-,wagner music1 adding to its stature1 also exaggerating it on the purely sensuous side4 ,that he can do what no other composer has done is proved by the score of his latest opera ,ariadne at ,naxos1 given for the first time in ,stuttgart4 ,here1 with only thirty-six in the orchestra1 a grand pianoforte and a harmonium included1 he produces the most ear-ravishing tones1 thus giving a negative to those who assert that without a gigantic orchestral apparatus he is ineffectual4 ,strauss received a sound musical education2 he could handle the old symphonic form1 absolute music1 before he began writing in the vein modern2 his evolution has been orderly and consistent4 ,he looked before he leaped4 ,his songs prove him to be a melodist1 the most original since ,brahms in this form4 ,otherwise1 originality is conditioned4 ,he is1 for instance1 not as original as ,claude ,debussy1 who has actually said something new4 ,strauss1 a rhetorician with enormous temperamental power1 modifies the symphonic form of ,liszt1 boils down the ,wagnerian trilogy into an hour and thirty minutes of seething1 white-hot passion1 and paints all the moods1 human and inhuman1 with incomparable virtuosity4 ,it is a question of manner rather than matter4 ,he is even a greater virtuoso than ,hector ,berlioz1 and infinitely more tender2 he is ,meyerbeer in his opportunism1 but there the comparison may be dropped1 for old ,meyerbeer could shake tunes out of his sleeve with more facility than does ,strauss--and that is saying a lot4 ,no1 the style of ,strauss is his own1 notwithstanding his borrowings from ,liszt and ,wagner4 ,he is not as original as either one1 for he employs them both as his point of departure2 but when you begin to measure up the power1 the scope1 and the versatility of his productions you are filled with a wholesale admiration for the almost incredible activity of the man1 for his ambitions1 his marvellous command of every musical form1 above all1 for his skill as a colourist4 ,sometimes he hits it and sometimes he doesn't4 ,after two hearings of ,ariadne at ,naxos in the smaller of the two new royal opera-houses at ,stuttgart1 ,i came to the conclusion that both composer and librettist1 while greatly daring1 had attempted the impossible1 and therefore their work1 despite its many excellencies1 missed fire4 ,in the first place1 ,herr ,hugo von ,hofmannsthal1 the poet of ,elektra and ,der ,rosercavalier1 conceived the unhappy idea that ,molire's ,le ,bourgeois ,gentilhomme might be butchered to make a ,straussian holiday and serve merely as a portico for the one-act opera that follows4 ,but the portico turned out to be too large for the operatic structure4 ,the dovetailing of play and music is at best a perilous proceeding4 ,every composer knows that4 ,to give two acts of spoken ,molire 7ye gods6 and spoken in ,german7 with occasional interludes of music1 and then top it off with a mixture of opera seria and commedia del arte1 is to invite a catastrophe4 ,to be sure1 the unfailing tact of ,strauss in his setting of certain episodes of the ,molire play averted a smash-up1 but not boredom4 ,in the second place1 the rather heavy fooling of the actors1 excellent artists all1 made ,molire as dull as a ,london fog4 ,the piece is over two hundred and fifty years old2 it must be played by ,french actors1 therefore in the ,german version sadly suffers4 ,i hear that it has been still further cut down1 and at the present writing there is some gossip to the effect that ,ariadne will be sung some day without the truncated version of ,molire by the ingenious ,herr ,hofmannsthal4 ,,ii ,at the general rehearsal1 the night before the opening1 which was attended by the musical lite of ,europe 7whatever that may mean71 poets1 critics1 managers1 composers1 princely folk1 musical parasites1 and other east winds1 as ,nietzsche has it1 the performance went on leaden feet4 ,the acting of ,victor ,arnold 7,berlin7 as prosy old ,jourdain just bordered on the burlesque2 ,camilla ,eibenschtz1 not unknown to ,new ,york1 cleared the air with her unaffected merriment4 ,strauss1 after a delightful overture in the rococo manner of ,grtry1 contributes some fascinating dance measures1 a minuetto1 a polonaise1 a gavotte1 and a march4 ,the table-music is wholly delightful4 ,a brilliant episode is that of the fencing-master1 who is musically pictured by a trumpet and pianoforte 7with ,max von ,pauer at the keyboard74 ,nothing could be more dazzling4 ,you hear the snapping of the foil in the hand of the truculent bully4 ,the music that accompanies the tailor is capital1 as are also the two dances--parodies of the dances in ,salome and ,elektra--for the kitchen boy1 who leaps out of a huge omelette 7like the pie-girl years ago in naughty ,new ,york71 and for a tailor's apprentice4 ,these were both danced with seductive charm by the youthful ,grete ,wiessenthal 7,vienna71 and were the bright particular spot of the play4 ,after a transition1 not particularly well done1 the curtains part and disclose a stage upon a stage1 a problematic question under the most favourable conditions4 ,herr ,jourdain makes by-remarks and interrupts the mimic opera4 ,it is all as antique as the clown at the circus4 ,finally the opera gets under way and ,ariadne publishes her views4 ,von ,hofmannsthal's figure of the deserted lady is not a particularly moving one4 ,naturally1 much must be allowed for the obviously artificial character of the piece4 ,max ,reinhardt1 maker of stagecraft and contriver of atmosphere1 has caught the exact shades4 ,in the dinner scene of the play his stage was chastely beautiful4 ,in the gaudy foliage of the exotic island1 with the three chandeliers of a bygone epoch1 the sharp dissonance of styles is indicated4 ,aubrey ,beardsley would have rejoiced at this mingling of genres2 at the figures of ,harlequin1 ,scaramuccio2 at the quaint and gorgeous costuming2 at the ,dryad1 ,naiad1 ,echo1 and all the rest of seventeenth-century burlesque appanage4 ,and yet things didn't go as they should have gone4 ,the music is sparkling for the minor characters1 and for ,zerbinetta ,strauss has planned an aria1 the coloratura of which was to have made ,mozart's famous aria for the ,queen of ,night seem like thirty cents4 7,i quote the exact phrase of an over-seas admirer47 ,well1 if ,mozart's music is worth thirty cents1 then the ,zerbinetta aria is worth five2 that is the proportion4 ,the fact is the composer burlesques the old-fashioned scene and air with trills and other vocal pyrotechnics1 but overdoes the thing4 ,frieda ,hempel was to have sung the part and did not4 ,margarethe ,siems 7,dresden7 could not4 ,she was as spiritless as corked champagne4 ,to give you an idea of the clumsy humour of the aria it is only necessary to relate that in the middle of the music the singer comes down to the footlights1 points to her throat1 tells the conductor that she is out of breath1 that she must have breathing time if she is to go on4 ,at the general rehearsal this vaudeville act found no favour and the singer was without doubt vocally distressed4 ,an ominous noise from the direction of the conductor's desk 7,strauss himself7 caused her some embarrassment4 ,she eventually got under way1 leaving the audience in doubt as to the success of the experiment--the score shows that it is all in deadly earnest4 ,but the foot-stamping of ,strauss and his remarks reminded me of ,gumprecht's description of ,liszt's ,b-minor ,sonata as the ,invitation to ,hissing and ,stamping4 ,zerbinetta's vocal flower-garden must be shorn of many roses and lilies before it will be shapely4 ,mizzi ,jeritza 7what ingratiating names they have in ,vienna67 was the first ,ariadne4 ,in addition to being heartbroken over the perfidy of ,theseus she was scared to death4 ,it took some time before her voice grew warm1 her acting less stiff4 ,her new wooer1 ,hermann ,jadlowker 7,vienna71 was the ,bacchus4 ,as you have seen and heard him in ,new ,york1 ,i need hardly add that he didn't look the part1 though he sang with warmth4 ,the three ,rhine maidens on dry land were shrill and out of tune4 ,but for the life of me ,i couldn't become interested in the sorrow and ecstasy1 chiefly metaphysical1 of this pair4 ,the scheme is too remote from our days and ways4 ,these young persons were make-believe1 after all1 and while they sonorously declaimed their passion--hers for a speedy death1 his for the new life--under a canopy with mother-of-pearl lining 7,reinhardt1 too1 can be very ,teutonic71 ,i didn't believe in them1 and1 ,i fear1 neither did ,strauss4 ,he has written sparkling music1 ,offenbachian music1 rainbow music and music sheerly humouristic1 yet the entire production reminded one of a machine that wouldn't work at every point4 ,there were three performances besides the general rehearsal given at the low price of fifty marks 7twelve dollars and fifty cents7 a performance4 ,one of the jokes of ,strauss is to make music-critics pay for their seats4 ,screams of agony were heard all over the ,continent as far north as ,berlin1 as far south as ,vienna4 ,a music-critic dearly hates to pay for a ticket4 ,hence the ,till ,eulenspiegel humour of ,r4 ,strauss4 ,hence the numerous roasts all his new works receive4 ,he is the most unpopular composer alive with the critical confraternity4 ,no wonder4 ,i simply glory in him4 ,talk about blood from a stone6 ,strauss always makes money1 even when his operas do not4 ,stuttgart1 most charming of residency cities 7it holds over two hundred and fifty thousand souls71 was so crowded when ,i arrived that ,i was glad ,i had taken the hint of a friend and engaged a room in advance4 ,the place simply overflowed with strangers4 ,certainly1 ,i thought1 they order these things better in ,germany1 and was elated because of the enthusiasm openly displayed over ,strauss and the two noble opera-houses4 ,all for ,strauss8 ,alas6 no4 ,the ,gordon ,bennet balloon contest had attracted the majority1 and until it was fought and done for there was no comfort to be had in caf1 restaurant1 or hotel4 ,,iii ,the performances of earlier ,strauss works were in the main well attended4 ,oddly enough the poorest house--and it was far from empty--was that of ,the ,rosecavalier4 ,possibly because the composer had gone over to ,tbingen to conduct a concert there 7he always makes hay while the ,strauss shines71 there was so little enthusiasm displayed2 possibly also because ,max ,schillings conducted4 ,he is an excellent composer1 a practical conductor1 but he couldn't extract the ginger in the score--and it's full of it1 full of fire1 of champagne1 of dreamy sentiment and valses that would turn gray with envy the hair of ,johann ,strauss if he hadn't thought of them before his namesake ,richard4 ,i didn't grow enthusiastic over the ,stuttgart production1 mainly a local affair4 ,the honours of the evening rightfully belonged to ,alwin ,swoboda1 who looked like ,de ,wolf ,hopper1 but sang a trifle better4 ,a favourite there is ,iracema-,brgelmann2 another1 ,erna ,ellmenreich4 ,one can sing1 but acts amateurishly2 the other screams1 but is a clever actress4 ,in ,salome she was wonderful1 singing out of tune as she often did4 ,her pose was hieratic as a sphinx when she watched the antics of the neurasthenic ,herod4 ,and her dance was one of the best ,i have yet seen1 though ,aino ,act's is said to rank them all4 ,wittich1 ,krull1 ,destinn1 ,rose1 ,walther1 ,act1 not one of them ever sang as sang ,olive ,fremstad at that memorable dress rehearsal of a certain ,sunday morning in the ,metropolitan ,opera-,house4 ,vocally she was the ,salome of ,richard ,strauss1 and she was lovely to behold4 ,salome herself should be a slight1 cynical young person--half ,flaubert1 half ,laforgue4 ,under ,strauss the ,salome is neither impossible nor vulgar4 ,very intense1 an apparition rather than a human1 she sounds the violet rays of eroticism 7if ,i may be forgiven such a confusion of terms1 of such a mixed metaphor74 ,another thing3 the tempi were different from ,campanini's--i4 e41 the plastic quality of the reading gave us new colours1 new scents1 new curves4 ,strauss is careless when he directs the works of others1 but with his own he is all devotion4 ,take ,elektra1 for instance4 ,but ,i must finish my ,salome budget4 ,the ,herod was not the actor that was ,karl ,burrian1 but he sang better4 ,his name is ,josef ,tyssen4 ,the ,john was ,herman ,weil4 ,salome was preceded by ,feuersnot1 the folks-tone of which is an admirable foil to the overladen tints of ,salome4 7,by the way1 the sky in the latter opera showed the dipper constellation1 ,charles's ,wain4 ,now1 will some astronomer tell us if such a thing is possible in ,syrian skies87 ,herman ,weil was the chief point of attraction4 ,as for the so-called immoral ending of the composition1 discovered by amateur critical prudes1 to be forthright in my speech1 it is all nonsense3 it doesn't exist4 ,but ,wolzogen doesn't follow the lines of the ,famine of ,fire4 ,his is a love scene with a joke for relief4 ,the music is ultra-,wagnerian1 the finale genuine ,strauss1 with its swelling melos1 its almost superhuman forcing of the emotional line to the ecstatic point4 ,in ,elektra1 with the composer conducting1 ,i again marvelled at the noisy1 ineffective reading of a ,hammerstein conductor1 whose name ,i've forgotten4 ,yet ,new ,york has seen the best of ,elektras1 ,mme4 ,mazarin--would that she had sung and danced here in ,stuttgart6 ,she might have surprised the composer--but ,new ,york is yet to hear ,elektra as music-drama4 ,thus far ,i think 7and it's only one man's opinion7 that ,strauss will endure because of his ,till ,eulenspiegel1 ,don ,quixote1 and ,elektra4 ,the mists are gathering over the other works2 ,salome is too theatrical1 ,feuersnot a pasticcio of ,wagner1 ,guntram is out of the question 7for ten years ,i've used it to sit on when ,i played ,bach's ,c-major invention71 and even the mighty major-minor opening of ,also ,sprach ,zarathustra begins to pall4 ,but not ,don ,quixote1 so full of irony1 humour1 and pathos2 not ,elektra1 in the strictest sense of the word a melodrama1 and certainly not the prankish and ever inimitable ,till ,eulenspiegel4 ,these abide by one1 whereas the head in ,salome has become vieux chapeau4 ,when ,ellmenreich sang to it that night it might have been a succulent boar's head on a platter for all the audience cared4 7,i fancy they would have preferred the boar to the saint--deadliest of all operatic bores1 for ever intoning a variant of the opening bars of the ,fidelio overture47 ,but the ,stuttgart ,elektra performance will live long in my memory1 but not because of the lady who assumed the title rle1 ,idenka ,fassbender1 of ,munich4 7,she is not to be compared with the epileptic ,mazarin for a moment4 ,she is not ,elektra vocally or histrionically47 ,the artiste of the evening was ,anna von ,mildenburg 7,vienna71 the wife of ,herman ,bahr1 novelist and playwright1 best known to ,america as the author of ,the ,concert1 one of ,david ,belasco's productions4 ,the ,mildenburg is a giantess1 with a voice like an organ4 ,she is also an uneven singer1 being hugely temperamental4 ,the night in question she was keyed up to the occasion1 and for the first time ,i realised the impressiveness of the part of ,klytemnestra1 its horrid tragic force1 its abnormal intensity1 its absolute revelation of the abomination of desolation4 ,mildenburg played it as a mixture of ,lady ,macbeth and ,queen ,gertrude1 ,hamlet's mother4 ,and when she sang fortissimo all the ,strauss horses and all the ,strauss men were as supine1 tonally speaking1 as ,humpty ,dumpty4 ,her voice is of a sultry tonal splendour4 ,the two new opera-houses--also theatres--are set in a park1 as should be art and opera houses4 ,facing the lake is the larger1 a building of noble appearance1 with a capacity for #a1djj persons seated4 ,the smaller building only holds #hjj1 but it looks as big as the old ,new ,york ,sub-,treasury1 and is twice as severe4 ,max ,reinhardt calls the ,hof-,oper the most beautiful in ,europe4 ,he is not exaggerating4 ,a round #g1jjj1jjj marks 7about #a1gej1jjj7 was the cost of the buildings4 ,his ,majesty ,wilhelm ,,ii1 a liberal and enlightened monarch1 dipped heavily into his private bank account4 ,stuttgart1 according to the intendant1 ,graf zu ,putlitz1 must become the leading operatic and art city in ,germany4 ,the buildings are there1 but not yet the singers4 ,dresden boasts its opera1 and ,berlin has better singers4 ,nevertheless1 the pretty city1 surrounded by villa-crowned hills1 is to be congratulated on such classic temples of music and drama4 ,,iv ,standing at the window of my hotel in ,stuttgart1 ,i watched a crowd before the ,central railway station4 ,evidently something important was about to take place4 ,what6 ,only the day previous all ,stuttgart had strained its neck staring at a big ,zeppelin air-ship4 ,it was the week of the ,gordon ,bennett balloon race and every hotel1 every lodging-house was full4 ,it was also the ,richard ,strauss festival week1 with the formal inauguration of the two magnificent opera-houses in the ,schlossgarten4 ,so it was not difficult to guess that an important visitor was due at the station4 ,hence the excitement1 which increased when the ,king of ,wrtemberg dashed up in an open carriage1 the royal livery and all the rest making a brave picture for his loyal subjects4 ,i've seen several kings and kaisers1 but ,i've never seen one that looked every inch a king4 ,the ,german ,kaiser outwardly is a well-groomed ,englishman2 ,franz ,josef of ,austria--,i've not met him since #aijc1 when our carriage wheels locked and he1 a lovable old man1 gallantly saluted my companion--he is everything but kingly2 the late ,king ,edward when at ,marienbad was very much the portly type of middle-aged man you meet in ,wall ,street at three o'clock in the afternoon2 while ,william ,,ii of ,wrtemberg is a pleasant gentleman1 with merchant written over him4 ,it is true he is an excellent man of affairs1 harder working than any of his countrymen4 ,he is also more democratic1 and with his beloved ,queen daily promenades the streets1 lifting his hat half the time in response to the bowings and scrapings of patriotic ,swabians4 ,the train arrived4 ,the crowd grew denser4 ,zealous policemen intercepted passers-by from coming too close to the royal equipage2 an old peasant woman carrying a market-basket was nearly guillotined by the harsh reproaches of the officers4 ,she stumbled1 but was shunted into the background just as the ,king reappeared in company with ,prince ,august1 greeted with wild cheering4 ,the crowd1 its appetite increasing by what it had fed on1 remained4 ,what next8 ,ah6 ,the personal servants and valets of the youthful aristocrat from ,berlin emerged from the station and entered a break4 ,no baggage as yet4 ,drat the folk6 ,i exclaimed1 why don't they clear out and leave the way for pedestrians4 ,but it was not to be4 ,a murmur arose when finally a baggage-wagon decked by the royal colours appeared4 ,trunks were piled on it1 and only when it disappeared did the crowd melt4 ,i thought of ,gessler's cap on the pole and ,william ,tell4 ,curiosity is perhaps the prime root of patriotism4 ,finally1 as too much ,strauss palls1 also too much ,stuttgart4 ,i first visited the pretty city in #ahif en route to ,bayreuth1 and on my return to ,new ,york ,i remember chiding ,victor ,herbert for leaving the place where he had completed his musical education4 ,he merely smiled4 ,he knew4 ,so do ,i4 ,a ,residenzstadt finally ends in a half-mad desire to escape2 anywhere1 anywhere1 only let it be a big town where the inhabitants don't stare at you as if you were a wild animal4 ,stuttgart is full of stare-cats 7as is ,berlin for that matter74 ,and those hills that at first are so attractive--they hem in the entire city1 which is bowl-shaped1 in a valley--become monotonous4 ,they stifle you4 ,to live up there on the heights is another thing2 then the sky is an accomplice in your optical pleasures1 but below--especially when the days are rainy and the nights doleful1 as they are in ,november--oh1 then you cry3 ,let me see once more summer-sunlit ,holland and its wide plains punctuated only by church spires and windmills6 ,otherwise ,stuttgart is an easy-going spot4 ,it's cheaper than ,dresden or ,munich 7though it was expensive during the ,strauss week72 the eating at the restaurants is about one-half the price of first-rate establishments in ,new ,york 7and not as good by a long shot72 lodgings are also cheap1 and often nasty--,germany is not altogether hygienic1 notwithstanding her superiority over ,america in matters musical2 but the motor-cars are simply miraculous to the ,new ,yorker accustomed to the bullies1 bandits1 and swindlers who pretend to be chauffeurs in our metropolis4 ,for twenty-five cents you can ride nearly a half-hour in ,stuttgart in cars faultlessly conducted4 ,a two and a half hours' trip round the town--literally--in the hills1 through the park cost seven marks 7one dollar and seventy-five cents7--and even then the driver was distinctly apologetic when he showed his register4 ,stuttgart1 oddly enough1 is a centre for all the engraving1 etching1 and mezzotint sales4 ,i say1 oddly1 because the art museum contains the worst collection of alleged old masters ,i ever encountered off ,fifth ,avenue4 ,hardly an original in the whole lot1 and then a third-rate specimen at that4 ,but the engraving cabinets and the ,rembrandt original drawings are justly celebrated4 ,and now with the two new theatres1 or opera-houses1 ,stuttgart ought soon to forge to the front as an art centre in ,germany4 ,thanks to its energetic ,king and cultivated ,queen4 ,the question with which ,i began this little talk--is ,richard ,strauss retrograding in his art8--may be answered by a curt negative4 ,one broadside doesn't destroy such a record as ,richard's4 ,like that sublime bourgeois ,rubens1 like that other sublime bourgeois ,victor ,hugo1 like ,bernini1 to whose rococo marbles the music of ,richard ,,ii is akin1 he has essayed every department of his art4 ,so expressive is he that he could set a mince-pie to music4 7,why not1 after that omelette in ,ariadne87 ,so powerful is his imagination that he can paint the hatred of his epical ,elektra or the half-mad dreams of ,don ,quixote4 ,he is easily the foremost of living composers1 and after he is dead the whirligig of fortune which has so favoured him may pronounce him dead for ever4 ,but ,i doubt it4 ,,ix ,,max ,,liebermann ,,and ,,some ,,phases ,,of ,,modern ,,german ,,art ,i ,the importance of ,max ,liebermann in any critical consideration of modern ,german art is prime4 ,meister ,max1 no longer as active as he was1 for he was born in #ahdg1 is still a name to conjure with not only in ,berlin1 his birthplace and present home1 but in all ,germany1 and1 for that matter1 the wide world4 ,he is intensely national4 ,he is a ,hebrew1 and proud of his origin4 ,he is also cosmopolitan4 ,in a word1 he is versatile4 ,some years ago1 through the enthusiasm and enterprise of the late ,hugo ,reisinger and several other art lovers1 ,new ,york had an opportunity of enjoying a peep at ,german paintings in the ,metropolitan ,museum4 ,it was rather a disappointing exhibition1 principally because the men shown were not represented at their best4 ,lenbach was not1 nor ,boecklin1 nor a dozen others1 though ,menzel was4 ,that is1 we admired one of ,menzel's least characteristic efforts but his most brilliant of canvases1 the stage of the ,thtre ,gymnase1 ,paris4 ,never before nor since that pictorial performance did the wonderful ,kobold of ,german art attain such mellowness4 ,just as he had been under the influence of ,courbet when he painted his big iron forge picture--which1 with the ,french theatre subject1 hangs in the ,national ,gallery1 ,berlin--so he felt in the latter the impact of the new ,impressionistic school with its devotion to pure colour1 air1 and rhythm4 ,max ,liebermann was best seen in his ,flax ,spinners of ,laren1 an early work1 ,dutch in spirit and execution1 and not without traces of the influence of his friend ,josef ,israels4 ,but of the real ,liebermann1 his scope1 originality1 versatility1 ,america1 ,i think1 has not yet had an adequate idea4 ,versatility is commonly regarded as an indication of superficiality4 ,how1 asks ,mr4 ,worldly ,wiseman1 can that fellow ,admirable ,crichton do so many things so well when it takes all my time to do one thing badly8 ,therefore he must be regarded suspiciously4 ,now1 there are no short cuts in the domain of the arts2 ,gradus ad ,parnassum is always steep4 ,but1 given by nature a certain kind of temperament in which curiosity is doubled by mental energy1 and you may achieve versatility4 ,versatility is often mainly an affair of energy1 of prolonged industry4 ,the majority of artists do one thing well1 and for the remainder of their career repeat themselves4 ,when ,flaubert wrote ,madame ,bovary his admirers demanded a replica and were disappointed with ,salammb1 with ,sentimental ,education1 above all1 with ,the ,temptation of ,st4 ,anthony and ,bouvard and ,pcuchet4 ,being a creative genius1 ,flaubert taught himself to be versatile4 ,only through self-discipline1 did he achieve his scheme1 beside which the writing of the ,human ,comedy cannot be compared4 ,there is more thought-stuff packed in his five masterpieces1 apart from the supreme art1 than in whole libraries3 quality triumphing over quantity4 ,greatly endowed by nature1 by reason of his racial origin1 and because of his liberal education1 ,liebermann was bound to become a versatile artist4 ,that doesn't mean he is a perfectionist in many things1 that he etches as well as he paints1 that he composes as well as he draws4 ,as a matter of fact he is not as accomplished a master of the medium as is ,anders ,zorn2 many a smaller man1 artistically speaking1 handles the needle with more deftness than ,liebermann4 ,but as a general impression counts as much as technique1 your little etcher is soon forgotten when you are confronted with such plates as the self-portraits1 the various beer-gardens1 the houses on the dunes 7with a hint of the ,rembrandt magic71 or the bathing boys4 ,his skill in black and white is best seen when he holds a pencil1 charcoal1 or pen in his hand4 ,the lightness1 swiftness1 elasticity of his line1 the precise effect attained and the clarity of the design prove the master at his best and unhampered by the slower technical processes of etching or lithography4 ,i studied ,liebermann's work from ,amsterdam to ,vienna1 and out of the variety of styles set forth ,i endeavoured to disentangle several leading characteristics4 ,the son of a well-known ,berlin family1 his father a comfortably situated manufacturer1 the young ,max was brought up in an atmosphere of culture and family affection4 ,his love for art was so pronounced that his father1 like the father of ,mendelssohn1 let him follow his bent1 and at fourteen he was placed under the tutelage of ,steffeck1 an old-timer1 whose pictures nowadays seem a relic from some nightmare of art4 ,steffeck had studied under ,schadow1 another of the prehistoric ,dinosaurs of ,germany1 and boasted of it4 ,he once told ,liebermann that ,adolf ,menzel only made caricatures1 not portraits4 ,you rub your eyes and wonder4 ,liebermann has said that this rigid training did him good4 ,but he soon forgot it in actual practice4 ,some good angel must have protected him1 for he came under the influence of ,munkaczy and1 luckily for him1 escaped the evil paint of that overrated mediocrity4 ,but perhaps the ,hungarian helped him to build a bridge between the antique formula of ,steffeck and the modern ,french--that is1 the ,impressionists4 ,max had to burn many bridges behind him before he formed a style of his own4 ,individuality is not always born1 it is sometimes made1 despite what the copy-books assure us to the contrary4 ,the wit and irony of the man and painter come both from ,berlin and from his ,jewish ancestry4 ,he looks like a benevolent ,mephistopheles1 and is kindness personified to young artists4 ,subjecting himself to the influence of ,courbet1 ,millet1 ,rousseau1 ,corot1 ,troyon1 he went to ,holland1 and there fell captive to the genius of ,rembrandt4 ,the mystic in ,liebermann is less pronounced than one might expect4 ,his clear picture of the visible world holds few secret1 haunted spots4 ,i do not altogether believe in his biblical subjects1 in the ,samson and ,delilah1 in the youthful ,christ and the ,doctors of the ,law--the latter is of more interest than the former--they strike one as academic exercises4 ,nevertheless1 the lion's paw of ,rembrandt left its impress upon his art4 ,the profounder note which the ,french painters sometimes miss is not missing in ,liebermann4 ,he has avoided both the pomp and rhetoric of the academic school and the sentimentality of the latter-day ,germans4 ,liebermann is never sentimental1 though pity for the suffering of life is easily detected in his canvases1 particularly in his ,old ,men's ,home1 ,the ,orphans1 ,the ,widower1 and a dozen masterpieces of the sort4 ,in ,frans ,hals ,liebermann found a congenial spirit and made many copies of his pictures to train his hand and eye4 ,his portraits reveal the broad brush work of ,hals4 ,they are also psychological documents4 ,associated with ,josef ,israels1 he was in sympathy with him1 but never as sentimental as the ,dutchman4 ,both reverenced ,rembrandt and interpreted him1 each after his own temperament4 ,when ,liebermann first knew ,manet1 ,monet1 ,pissarro1 ,renoir1 and ,degas 7particularly ,degas7 he had experimented in every key4 ,master of his materials1 master of himself1 a cultured man of the world and a sincere artist1 the ,french group showed him the way to liberty1 to a deliverance from the ruddy tones of ,munich1 from the dulness of ,dsseldorf1 from the bitter angularities of ,german draughtsmanship and its navet which is supposed to stand for innocence of spirit--really the reverse1 a complete poverty of spirit--and with it all the romantic mythology of ,german art1 the bloated fighting fauns1 leering satyrs1 frogmen1 fishwomen1 monkeys1 and fairies1 imps1 dryads1 and nymphs4 ,liebermann discovered the glories of light1 of spacing1 of pure colour1 and comprehended the various combinations by which tonalities could be dissociated and synthesised anew4 ,he went back to ,germany a painter of the first rank and an ardent colourist1 and he must have felt lonely there--there were no others like him4 ,menzel was a master draughtsman1 ,leibl an admirable delineator of character1 and to name these three is to name all4 ,henceforward1 ,liebermann's life task was to correlate his cosmopolitan art with ,german spirit1 and he has nobly succeeded4 ,to-day he is still the commanding figure in ,german art4 ,no one can compete with him in maestria1 in range1 or as a colourist4 ,and at last ,i have reached the goal of my discourse4 ,,ii ,a visit to the ,national ,gallery of ,berlin makes me gnash my teeth4 ,the sight of so much misspent labour1 of the acres of canvases deluged with dirty1 bad paint1 raises my bile4 ,we know that all things are relative1 and because ,germany has produced few painters worthy of the name that after all it doesn't much matter--there is ,italy and ,holland to fall back on2 not to mention the ,spain of ,el ,greco1 ,velasquez1 ,goya1 and the great ,frenchmen4 ,but there is something singularly exasperating in ,german painting1 whether old or new1 that sets us to wondering whether such museums as the ,national ,gallery1 ,berlin2 the new ,pinakothek1 ,munich1 and other repositories of ugly colour and absurd mythologies do not cause a deterioration in public taste4 ,it is almost pathetic to see not only the general visitor but also students gazing admiringly at the monstrous art of ,kaulbach1 ,schadow1 ,cornelius 7the ,nazarene school71 or at the puerilities of the ,swiss1 ,arnold ,boecklin and his follower1 ,franz von ,stuck1 of ,munich1 who has simply brutalised the eternal ,boecklin themes4 ,it is all very well to say that these galleries1 like the modern collection upstairs in the ,dresden gallery 7with its wonderful ,rembrandts and ,vermeers down-stairs7 serve to preserve the historical art chain4 ,but bad art should have no significance1 history or no history--let such history appeal to the professors of sthetics and other twaddlers4 ,furthermore1 the evil example of ,boecklin and the rest1 shows in ,german contemporary painting4 ,i don't mean the ,cubists and other freaks1 but in current art1 the art that sells1 that receives respectful critical treatment4 ,we are continually forced to look at the menagerie1 mermaids1 and frogs1 and fauns1 painted in imitation of the hard1 violent tones of ,boecklin1 himself a scene-painter1 but not a great painter4 ,the critics in ,germany don't bother themselves over paint quality1 beautiful surfaces1 or handling1 but with books about the philosophy of the painter1 his weltanschauung1 his ethics2 you all the while wondering why he uses such muddy paints1 why he is blind to the loveliness of atmosphere1 pure colours1 and sheer pictorial quality4 ,style and quality are1 ,i believe1 suspected in ,germany as evidences of superficiality1 of a desire to add ornament where plain speech should suffice4 ,like ,german prose and ,german singing--oh1 how acrid is the ,teutonic tone-production1 a lemon in the larynx6--,german painting limps heavily4 ,nietzsche is right2 in certain matters the ,germans are the ,chinese of ,europe2 they refuse to see the light of modern discoveries in art4 ,here is a violent instance3 ,on the top floor of the ,national ,gallery1 ,berlin1 there is a room with fourteen masterpieces on its walls4 ,nothing in the galleries below--not even ,zorn's ,maja--nothing in all ,berlin1 excepting the old masters in the ,kaiser ,friedrich ,museum1 can be mentioned in the same breath with these beautiful compositions1 condemned to perpetual twilight4 ,they were secured by the late and lamented ,von ,tschudi1 who left the ,national ,gallery after their purchase and retired to ,munich1 where he bought a great example of ,el ,greco for the old ,pinakothek1 the ,laocoon1 a service1 ,i fancy1 not quite appreciated by the burghers of ,munich4 ,the masters who have thus fallen under the ban of official displeasure are ,manet1 ,monet1 ,pissarro1 ,renoir1 ,sisley1 and ,czanne--the latter represented by two of the most veracious fruit-pieces ,i ever saw4 ,the ,manet is the famous ,hothouse1 and in the semi-darkness 7not a ray of artificial light is permitted7 ,i noted that the canvas had mellowed with the years4 ,the ,monets are of rare quality4 ,altogether a magnificent object-lesson for young ,germany1 in which tender colour1 an exquisite vision 7poetic without being sloppy-sentimental7 of the animate and inanimate world4 ,what a lesson for those rough daubers who growl at the dandyism of the ,frenchmen1 whose landscapes look like diagrams1 surveyors' maps1 or what-not2 painters who1 if they were told that they are not knee-high to a grasshopper when their pictures are set side by side with ,american landscapists1 would roar as if at a good joke2 and a lesson that will never be learned by the present generation1 which believes that ,max ,klinger is a great etcher1 a great sculptor 7only think of that terrifying ,beethoven statue in ,leipsic71 that ,boecklin is a great poet as well as a marvellous painter1 that--oh1 what's the use6 ,the nation that produced such world masters as ,albrecht ,drer1 ,hans ,holbein1 ,lucas ,cranach1 and the ,german ,primitives has seemingly lost its lien in sound art4 ,remember1 ,i am not arguing with you1 as ,jemmy ,whistler puts it1 ,i'm just telling you2 these things are not a matter of taste1 but a matter of fact1 of rotten bad paint4 ,what ,royal ,cortissoz wrote of the ,german ,exhibition and of the ,scandinavians when in ,new ,york fits into this space with appositeness3 444 an insensitiveness to the genius of their medium4 ,they do not love paint and caress it with a sensuous instinct for its exquisite potentialities4 ,they know nothing of the beauty of surface4 ,nor1 by the same token1 have they awakened to the lesson which ,manet so admirably enforced of the magic that lies in pure colour for those who really know how to use it4 ,i can hear our ,german friend discoursing on the subject of surface beauty6 ,for him the underlying philosophic idea1 whatever that has to do with paint1 is his shibboleth1 and behold the result4 ,moreover1 the ,german has not naturally a colour sense4 ,it is only such a man as ,reinhardt1 with the ,oriental feeling for sumptuous hues1 that has succeeded in emancipating the ,german theatre from its garish taste4 ,some day the ,richard ,wagner music-drama will be renovated on the scenic side--,roller in ,vienna has made a decided step in the right direction--and the old ,munich travesties1 which ,wagner thought he wanted1 will be relegated to the limbo of meretricious art4 ,,iii ,fancying1 perhaps1 that ,i had not been quite fair to modern ,german painters--later ,i may consider the ghastly sculpture which1 like that cemetery of stone dolls and idols1 the ,siegesallee in the ,berlin ,tiergarten1 has paralysed plastic art in that country--,i determined early in the autumn of #aiab to visit again the principal cities1 going as far down as ,vienna and ,budapest4 ,i do not mind confessing that the thought of the glorious ,jan ,vermeer in the ,national ,museum in the ,magyar capital greatly tempted me4 ,and to get an abiding pictorial flavour in my mind ,i began visiting ,the ,hague1 ,haarlem1 and ,amsterdam4 ,any one who can admire modern ,german art after a course of ,rembrandt1 ,hals1 ,vermeer1 ,josef ,israels1 and the brothers ,maris 7all three melting colourists71 must have the powerful if somewhat uncritical stomach of an ostrich4 ,leaving ,holland1 ,i found myself in ,london1 and there1 to add further to my distraction1 ,i spent weeks at the ,national ,gallery and the ,wallace ,collection4 ,so ,i was ripe for revolt when ,i began at ,stuttgart4 ,while still in the rich tonal meshes of the ,richard ,strauss music1 ,i wandered one grey afternoon into an exhibition of the ,stuttgarter ,knstlerbund4 ,there were plenty of new names1 but1 alas6 no new talent1 only a sea of muddy paint1 without nuance1 clumsy drawing1 harsh flesh-tints1 and landscapes of chemical greens4 ,why mention names8 ,not even mediocrity was attained1 though the next day ,i read in the papers that ,professor ,this and ,professor ,that were exhibiting masterpieces full of profound ideas4 ,ah6 these paint professors1 these philosophy-soaked critics1 and that profound idea6 ,not1 however1 a word about the pictorial image4 ,in ,munich1 beside the standard galleries1 ,i visited the ,secession ,gallery1 and there ,i saw pictures by ,becker-,gundhal1 ,louis ,corinth1 ,paul ,crodel1 ,josef ,damberger1 ,julius ,diez1 ,eichfeld1 ,von ,habermann 7a portraitist of distinction71 ,herterich 7with much decorative ability71 ,von ,heyden 7deceased1 and a capital delineator of chickens71 ,von ,keller1 ,landenberger1 ,arthur ,langhammer 7deceased71 ,pietzsch1 ,bruno ,piglhein 7also deceased1 ,i am sorry to say1 for he had genuine ability71 ,leo ,samberger 7an interesting portraitist1 monotonous in his colour-gamut71 ,schramm-,zitau1 the inevitable ,von ,stuck 7whose productions look like melodramatic posters71 the late ,fritz von ,uhde1 ,w4 ,volz1 and others1 mostly dead1 and but recently4 ,the portrait of ,conrad ,ansorge1 a former ,liszt pupil1 by ,louis ,corinth1 was not without character1 the tempo slow1 as is the tempo of ,ansorge himself4 ,corinth1 like ,von ,uhde1 ,leopold von ,kalckreuth1 ,o4 ,h4 ,engel1 ,skarbina1 ,bantzer1 ,slevogt1 ,waldemar ,rsler1 is a follower of ,max ,liebermann1 whose influence is easily discernible in the work of these younger men4 ,to be sure1 there are no landscapists in ,germany1 such as ,davies1 ,ernest ,lawson1 ,alden ,weir1 ,childe ,hassam1 ,metcalf--,i mention a few at random--but the younger chaps are getting away from the sentimental panoramas of ,hans ,thoma and other idealists who ought to be writing verse or music1 not painting1 as too many ideas1 like too many cooks1 spoil the pictorial broth4 ,grant the ,germans fertility of fancy1 invention1 science in building up a figure1 force1 humour1 sentiment1 philosophy1 and artistic ability generally1 yet they have a deficiency in the colour sense and an absence of a marked personal style4 ,an exhibition of new art on the ,odeonplatz1 ,munich1 did not give me much hope4 ,there were some pictures so bad as to be humorous2 a dancer by the ,holland-,parisian1 ,kees van ,dongen1 had the merit at least of sincerity4 ,erbslh has joined the extremists1 ,kirchner1 ,guimi1 ,kanoldt1 ,kandinsky1 ,utrello--a good street effect2 ,werefkin and several ,frenchmen were in evidence4 ,the modelling was both grotesque and indecent4 ,the human figure as an arabesque is well within the comprehension of the average observer1 but obscenity is not art--great art is never obscene4 ,the blacks and whites that ,i saw in ,munich at this particular show were not clever1 only bestial4 ,i only wish that ,german art of the last decade had not gone over1 bag and baggage1 to the side of vulgar license4 ,certainly ,matthew ,arnold could say of it1 as he once said of ,paris1 that the great goddess ,lubricity reigned in state4 ,in the ,moderne ,galerie--,i am still in ,munich--,i was reassured2 ,i saw ,israels1 ,gauguin1 ,van ,gogh--what masters6--,trbner1 ,hodler1 ,zgel1 ,von ,uhde1 ,max ,slevogt--a fine view of ,frankfort--and some children at the seashore by my favourite1 ,max ,liebermann4 ,then there were ,langhammer and ,reumaini1 the clever ,max ,mayrshofer1 ,bechler of the snow scenes1 ,obwald1 ,tooby1 ,leibl1 ,mares1 and a very strongly conceived and soundly modelled nude by the ,munich artist1 ,ernest ,liebermann1 one of the most gifted of the younger men and no relation of ,meister ,max of the same name4 ,local art in ,vienna did not give me a thrill4 ,i attended a retrospective exhibition of two half-forgotten mediocrities1 ,carl ,rahl and ,josef ,hasslwander1 and also the autumn exhibition in the ,knstlerhaus4 ,there1 amid miles of glittering1 shiny1 hot paint1 ,i found the best manipulator of paint to be a man bearing the slightly ,american name of ,john ,quincy ,adams1 whose residence is given in the catalogue as ,vienna4 ,he has studied ,john ,sargent to advantage and knows how to handle his medium1 knows values1 an unknown art in ,germany and ,austria except to a few painters4 ,the glory of ,vienna art is in her museums and in the private collections of ,prince ,liechtenstein and ,count ,czernin4 ,despite his patchwork of colour1 ,ignacio ,zuloaga's exhibition at ,dresden 7on the ,pragerstrasse7 gave me the modern thrill ,i missed both at ,vienna and ,prague 7though in the ,bohemian city ,i saw some remarkable engravings by the native engraver ,wencelaus ,hollar74 ,several of the ,zuloagas have been seen in ,new ,york when ,archer ,m4 ,huntington invited the ,spanish artist to exhibit at the ,hispanic ,museum4 ,not1 however1 his ,lassitude1 two half-nudes1 nor his powerful but unpleasant ,bleeding ,christ4 ,what a giant ,zuloaga seems when matched against the insipidity and coarseness of modern ,german art4 ,the recent art of ,arthur ,kampf1 who is a painter of more force than distinction1 a one-man show in ,unter den ,linden1 ,berlin1 did not impress me2 nor did the third jury-free art show in ,rudolph ,lepkes's new galleries in the ,potsdamerstrasse1 except that it was much less objectionable than the one in #aiaa1 then held across the street4 ,therefore ,i don't think ,i exaggerate the claims of ,max ,liebermann1 who is1 for me1 the most important of living ,german artists1 and one of the few great painters of to-day in any land4 ,his boys bathing1 his peaceful ,holland interiors1 his sympathetic presentment of poor folk1 superannuated survivals awaiting death1 his spirited horses and horsemen1 polo pony players1 race-course1 his vivid transcription of ,berlin out-of-door life1 the concert gardens1 the ,zoo1 the crowded streets1 his children1 his portraits1 his sonorous1 sparkling colour1 his etchings and drawings--the list is large2 all these various aspects of the world he has recorded with a fresh1 unfailing touch4 ,his horses are not as rhythmic as those of ,degas1 his landscapes are not as sun-flooded as those of ,monet1 nor are his ,holland bits so charged with homely sentiment as those of ,josef ,israels4 ,but ,liebermann is ,liebermann1 with a supple1 flowing1 pregnant line1 his condensed style a versatile conception1 a cynical1 at times1 outlook upon the life about him2 enfin--a colourist4 ,my admiration for ,liebermann's draughtsmanship shown in the ,berlin ,secession ,gallery in the ,kurfrstdam was reproved by a ,german friend1 who remarked that ,anselm ,feuerbach was a sounder draughtsman4 ,no doubt1 but ,i prefer ,liebermann's more nervous graphic line1 also more eloquent1 for ,feuerbach1 who is still called a master in ,munich--he made grey cartoons--is as frigid and academic as a painted nude in a blizzard4 ,x ,a ,,musical ,,primitive3 ,,modeste ,,moussorgsky ,one need not be a ,slavophile to admire ,russian patriotism4 ,the love of the ,russian for his country is a passion4 ,and from lips parched by the desire of liberty--though persecuted1 exiled1 imprisoned--this passion is still voiced with unabated intensity4 ,what eloquent apostrophes have been addressed ,russia by her great writers6 ,how ,turgenieff praised her noble tongue6 ,the youngest among the ,european nations1 herself a nation with genius1 must possess a mighty power thus to arouse the souls of her children4 ,russia right or wrong6 seems to be the slogan1 even of those whom injustice and cruelty have driven to desperation4 ,it is the land of neuroses1 and the form that patriotism assumes there may be one other specimen4 ,yet the ,russian is a cosmopolitan man2 he is more ,french than the ,parisian1 and a willing dweller in the depths of ,german thought4 ,the most artistic of ,russia's novelists1 ,turgenieff1 was cosmopolitan2 and it was a frequent reproach made during his lifetime that the music of ,tschaikovsky was too ,european1 not sufficiently national4 ,naturally1 ,anton ,rubinstein suffered the same criticism2 too ,german for the ,russians1 too ,russian for the ,germans4 ,it was altogether different in the case of ,modeste ,moussorgsky4 ,to enter into sympathy with ,russian music we must remember one thing3 that the national spirit pervades its masterpieces4 ,even the so-called cosmopolitanism of ,peter ,ilitch ,tschaikovsky is superficial4 ,to be sure1 he leaned on ,liszt and the ,french1 but booming melancholy and orgiastic frenzy may be found in some of his symphonies4 ,according to the judgment of the ,rubinsteins he was too much the ,kalmuck2 ,nicolas ,rubinstein severely criticised him for this trait4 ,but of all the little group that gathered about ,mila ,balakirev fifty years ago there was no one so ,russian as a certain young officer named ,modeste ,petrovitch ,moussorgsky 7born #ahci1 died #ahha74 ,not ,rimsky-,korsakof1 ,borodine1 ,cesar ,cui were so deeply saturated with love of the ,russian soil and folk-lore as this pleasant young man4 ,he played the piano skilfully1 but as amateur1 not virtuoso4 ,he came of good family1 little nobles1 and received an excellent but conventional education4 ,a bit of a dandy1 he was the last person from whom to expect a revolution1 but in ,russia anything may happen4 ,moussorgsky was like other well-nurtured youths who went to ,siberia for a mere gesture of dissent4 ,with ,emerson he might have agreed that whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist4 ,with him rebellion against law and order revealed itself in an abhorrence of text-books1 harmony1 and scholastic training4 ,he wished to achieve originality without the monotonous climb to the peak of ,parnassus1 and this was his misfortune4 ,two anarchs of music1 ,richard ,strauss and ,arnold ,schoenberg1 reached their goals after marching successfully through the established forms3 and the prose versicles of ,walt ,whitman were achieved only after he had practised the ordinary rules of prosody4 ,not so with ,moussorgsky1 and while few youthful composers have been so carefully counselled1 he either could not1 or would not1 take the trouble of mastering the rudiments of his art4 ,the result almost outweighs the evil--his opera1 ,boris ,godounow4 ,the rest of his music1 with a few notable exceptions1 is not worth the trouble of resuscitating4 ,i say this although ,i disagree with the enthusiastic ,pierre d',alheim--whose book first made me acquainted with the ,russian's art--and disagree1 too1 with ,colvocoressi1 whose study is likely to remain the definitive one4 ,i've played the piano music and found it banal in form and idea1 far less individual than the piano pieces of ,cui1 ,liadow1 ,stcherbatchef1 ,arensky1 or ,rachmaninof4 ,the keyboard did not make special appeal to ,moussorgsky4 ,with his songs it is another matter4 ,his lyrics are charming and characteristic4 ,liszt warmly praised ,la ,chambre des ,enfants1 one of his most popular compositions4 ,moussorgsky would not study the elements of orchestration1 and one of the penalties he paid was that his friend1 ,rimsky-,korsakof edited ,boris ,godounow 7in #ahif a new edition appeared with changes1 purely practical1 as ,colvocoressi notes1 but the orchestration1 clumsy as it is1 largely remains the work of the composer7 and ,la ,khovanchtchina was scored by ,rimsky-,korsakof1 and no doubt edited1 that is1 revised1 what picture experts call restored4 ,so the musical baggage which is carried by ,moussorgsky down the corridor of time is not large4 ,but it is significant4 ,he was much influenced by ,dargomyjski1 particularly in the matter of realism4 ,i insist that the tone will directly translate the word1 was an axiom of this musician4 ,his friend and follower often carries this precept to the point of caricature4 ,there are numerous songs which end in mere mimicry1 parody1 a pantomime of tone4 ,the realism so much emphasised by the critic ,stassow and others is really an enormous sincerity1 and the reduction to an almost bare simplicity of the musical idea4 ,his vigorous rhythmic sense enabled ,moussorgsky to express bizarre motions and unusual situations that are at first blush extramusical4 ,many of his reforms are not reforms at all1 rather the outcome of his passion for simplification4 ,the framework of his opera--,boris ,godounow--is rather commonplace1 a plethora of choral numbers the most marked feature4 ,in the original draught there was an absence of the feminine element1 but after much pressure the composer was persuaded to weave several scenes into the general texture1 and let it be said that these are the weakest in the work4 ,the primal power of the composition carries us away1 not its form1 which1 to tell the truth1 is rather old-fashioned4 ,his stubbornness is both a failure and a virtue4 ,his sincerity covers a multitude of ineptitudes1 but it is a splendid sincerity4 ,his preference for unrelated tones in his melodic scheme led to the dissociated harmonies of his operatic score1 and this same ,boris ,godounow has much influenced ,french music1--as ,i have pointed out earlier in this volume--a source at which ,claude ,debussy drank--not to mention ,dukas1 ,ravel1 and others--whose more sophisticated scores prove this4 ,of ,moussorgsky1 ,debussy has remarked that he reminded him of a curious savage who at every step traced by his emotions discovers music4 ,and ,boris ,godounow is virgin soil4 ,that is why ,i have called its creator a ,primitive4 ,he has achieved the nave attitude toward music which in the plastic arts is the very essence of the ,flemish ,primitives4 ,nature made him deaf to other men's music4 ,in his savage craving for absolute originality--the most impossible of all absolutes--he sought to abstract from the art its chief components4 ,he would have it in its naked innocence3 rhythmic1 undefiled by customary treatment1 and never swerving from the truth of the poem4 ,his devotion to the verbal text and dramatic action out-,wagners ,wagner4 ,moussorgsky did not approve of ,wagner's gigantic orchestral apparatus2 he wished to avoid all that would distract the spectator from the stage--for him ,wagner was too much symphonist1 not enough dramatist4 ,action1 above all1 no thematic development in the academic sense1 were the ,russian's watchwords4 ,paul ,czanne is a ,primitive among modern painters1 inasmuch as he discards the flamboyant rhetoric and familiar points d'appui of the schools and achieves a certain navet4 ,the efforts of ,moussorgsky were analogous4 ,he employed leading motives charily1 and as he disliked intricate polyphony1 his music moves in massive blocks1 following the semi-detached tableaux of the opera4 ,but a man is never entirely the master of his genius1 and while ,moussorgsky fought the stars in their courses1 he nevertheless poured out upon paper the richest colours and images1 created human characters and glorified the people4 ,he went to the people1 to the folk-melody1 and in ,pushkin he found the historical story of ,czar ,boris1 neuropathic1 criminal1 and half crazy1 which he manipulated to serve his purpose4 ,the chorus is the protagonist1 despite the stirring dramatic scenes allotted to ,boris4 ,after all1 the people1 that mystic quantity in ,russian art1 must have a spokesman4 ,notwithstanding this every tune to be found in ,pratsch's ,russian anthology1 and utilised by the new men1 was composed by an individual man4 ,art is never democratic1 but it is all the stronger when it incarnates the woes and joys of the people--not quite the same thing as being composed by the people4 ,the tree is rooted in the soil1 but the tree stands alone in the forest4 ,the moujik dominates the stage1 even after the generous lopping from the partition of some of the choruses4 ,the feeling for comedy which is to be found in many of the songs is not missing in the stage work4 ,moussorgsky loved ,gogol1 set his ,le ,mariage to music 7only one act7 and savoured the salty humour of the great writer4 ,but the composer has his tragic side1 and therein he reminds me of ,dostoevsky--both men died during the same year--who but ,dostoevsky1 if he had been a composer1 could have written the malediction scene in ,boris8 ,as a matter of fact he did write a play on the same historical subject1 but it has disappeared4 ,there are many other contacts with ,dostoevsky--intense ,slavophilism1 adoration of ,russia2 its very soil is sacred2 carelessness as to the externals of their art--a ,chinese asymmetry is present in their architectonic2 they both excel in portraying humour1 broad1 vulgar1 uproarious1 outrageous1 reckless humour2 and also in exposing the profundities of the ,russian soul1 especially the soul racked by evil and morbid thoughts4 ,dostoevsky said3 ,the soul of another is a dark place1 and the ,russian soul is a dark place4444 ,the obsession of the abnormal is marked in novelist and composer4 ,they are revolutionists1 but in the heaven of the insurgent there are many mansions4 7,beethoven--a letter to ,zmeskell--wrote3 ,might is the morality of men who distinguish themselves above others4 ,it is my morality1 anyhow47 ,dostoevsky and ,moussorgsky were not unlike temperamentally4 ,dostoevsky always repented in haste only to sin again at leisure2 with ,moussorgsky it was the same4 ,both men suffered from some sort of moral lesion4 ,dostoevsky was an epileptic1 and the nature of ,moussorgsky's mysterious nervous ailment is unknown to me2 possibly it was a mild or masked epilepsy4 ,moussorgsky was said to have been a heavy drinker--his biographer speaks of him as being ravaged by alcohol--a failing not rare in ,russia4 ,the inspissated gloom of his work1 its tenebrous gulfs and musical vertigoes are true indices of his morbid pathology4 ,he was of a pious nature1 as was ,dostoevsky2 but he might have subscribed to the truth of ,remy de ,gourmont's epigram3 ,religion est l'hpital de l'amour4 ,love1 however1 does not play a major rle in his life or art1 yet it permeates both1 in a sultry1 sensual manner4 ,boris ,godounow was successfully produced ,january #bd1 #ahgd1 at the ,st4 ,petersburg ,opera with a satisfactory cast4 ,at once its native power was felt and its appalling longueurs1 technical crudities and minor shortcomings were recognised as the inevitable slag in the profusion of rich ore4 ,a ,russian opera1 more ,russian than ,glinka6 ,it was the high noon1 as ,nietzsche would say1 of the composer--the latter part of whose career was clouded by a morose pessimism and disease4 ,there is much ugly music1 but it is always characteristic4 ,despite the ecclesiastical modes and rare harmonic progressions the score is ,muscovite1 not ,oriental--the latter element is a stumbling-block in the development of so many ,russian composers4 ,the melancholy is ,russian1 the tunes are ,russian1 and the inn-scene1 apart from the difference of historical periods1 is as ,russian as ,gogol4 ,no opera ever penned is less literary1 less operatic1 or more national than this one4 ,rimsky-,korsakof1 who died only a few years ago1 was the junior of ,moussorgsky 7born #ahdd71 and proved during the latter's lifetime1 and after his death1 an unshaken friendship4 ,the pair dwelt together for some time and criticised each other's work4 ,if ,balakirev laid the foundation of ,moussorgsky's musical education 7in composition1 not piano-playing7 ,rimsky-,korsakof completed it2 as far as he could4 ,the musical gift of the latter was more lyrical than any of his fellow students' at ,balakirev's4 ,without having a novel message1 he developed as a master-painter in orchestration4 ,he belongs in the category of composers who are more prolific in the coining of images than the creation of ideas4 ,he played the sedulous ape to ,berlioz and it was natural1 with his fanciful imagination and full-blooded temperament1 that his themes are clothed in shining orchestration1 that his formal sense would work to happier ends within the elastic form of the ,liszt symphonic poem4 ,he wrote symphonies and a symphoniette on ,russian themes1 but his genius is best displayed in freer forms4 ,his third symphony1 redolent of ,haydn1 with a delightful scherzo1 his fugues1 quartet1 ballets1 operas--he composed fifteen1 some of which are still popular in ,russia--prove him a past master in his technical medium2 but the real engaging and fantastic personality of the man evaporates in his academic work4 ,he is at his top notch in ,sadko1 with its depiction of both a calm and stormy sea2 in ,antar1 with its evocation of vast1 immemorial deserts2 in ,scheherazade1 and its background of ,bagdad and the fascinating atmosphere of the ,arabian ,nights4 ,the initial ,sunday in ,december1 #ahgh1 at ,paris1 was a memorable afternoon for me4 7,i was then writing special stories to the ,philadelphia ,evening ,bulletin1 and the rereading of my article in print has refreshed my memory47 ,i heard for the first time the music of ,rimsky-,korsakof1 also the name of ,modeste ,moussorgsky4 ,the symphonic poem1 ,sadko1 was hissed and applauded at a ,pasdeloup concert in the ,cirque d',hiver1 for the new music created1 on the whole1 a disturbing impression4 ,to quiet the rioting in the audience--it came to shouts and fisticuffs--the conductor1 ,jacques ,pasdeloup 7whose real name was ,jacob ,wolfgang7 played ,weber's ,invitation to the ,valse1 arranged by ,berlioz1 which tribute to a national composer--neglected when alive1 glorified after death--put the huge gathering of musical chauvinistes into better humour4 ,sitting next to me and rather amused1 ,i fancy1 because of my enthusiasm for ,sadko1 was a young ,russian1 a student at the ,sorbonne4 ,he liked ,rimsky-,korsakof and understood the new music better than ,i1 and explained to me that ,sadko was too ,french1 too much ,berlioz1 not enough ,tartar4 ,i didn't1 at the time1 take all this in1 nor did ,i place much credence in his declaration that ,russia had a young man living in ,st4 ,petersburg1 its greatest composer1 a truly national one1 as national as ,taras ,boulba1 or ,dead ,souls4 ,moussorgsky was his name1 and despite his impoverished circumstances1 or probably because of them1 he was burning the candle at both ends and in the middle4 ,he had finished his masterpieces before #ahgh4 ,i was not particularly impressed and ,i never saw the ,russian student again though ,i often went to the ,sorbonne4 ,i was therefore interested in #ahif when ,pierre d',alheim's monograph appeared and ,i recalled the name of ,moussorgsky1 but it was only several seasons ago and at ,paris ,i heard for the first time both his operas4 ,in #ahhi ,rimsky-,korsakof directed two concerts of ,russian music at the ,trocadero and ,paris fell in love with his compositions4 ,he not only orchestrated the last opera of his friend ,moussorgsky1 but also ,dargomyjski's ,the ,stone ,guest1 and with the assistance of his pupil1 ,glazounow1 completed the score of ,prince ,igor1 by ,borodine4 ,he was an indefatigable workman1 and his fame will endure because of handling of gorgeous orchestral tints4 ,he is an impressionist1 a stylist1 the reverse of ,moussorgsky1 and he has the conscience of the ear which his friend lacked4 ,praised by ,liszt1 admired by ,von ,blow1 he revealed the influence of the ,hungarian4 ,profound psychologist he was not2 an innovator1 like ,moussorgsky he never would have been2 the tragic eloquence vouchsafed ,tschaikovsky was denied him4 ,but he wielded a brush of incomparable richness1 he spun the most evanescent and iridescent web1 previous to the arrival of ,debussy3 he is the ,berlioz of ,russia1 as ,moussorgsky is its greatest nationalist in tone4 ,i make this discursion because1 for a period1 the paths of the two composers were parallel4 ,tschaikovsky did not admire ,moussorgsky1 spoke slightingly of his abilities1 though he conceded that with all his roughness he had power of a repellent order4 ,turgenieff did not understand him4 ,the opera ,la ,khovanchtchina1 notwithstanding the preponderance of the chorus--in ,russia choral singing is the foundation of musical culture--,i found more operatic than ,boris ,godounow4 ,the ,old ,believers become as much of a bore as the ,anabaptists in ,meyerbeer2 the intrigue of the second plan not very vital2 but as a composition it is more finished than its predecessor4 ,the women are more attractive1 the lyric elements better developed1 but the sense of barbaric grandeur of ,boris is not evoked2 nor is its dark stream of cruelty present4 ,doubtless the belief that ,modeste ,moussorgsky is a precursor of much modern music is founded on truth1 and while his musical genius is not to be challenged1 yet do ,i believe that he has been given too lofty a position in art4 ,at the best his work is unachieved1 truncated1 a torso of what might have been a noble statue4 ,but it will endure4 ,it is difficult to conceive a time when1 for ,russia1 ,boris ,godounow will cease to thrill4 ,,xi ,,new ,,plays ,,by ,,hauptmann1 ,,sudermann1 ,,and ,,schnitzler ,i ,in the present volume ,i have examined1 more out of curiosity than interest1 the figures of ,zola's book sales4 ,to my astonishment1 not to say chagrin1 ,i noted that ,nana and ,the ,downfall had bigger sales than the other novels2 ,nana probably because of its unpleasant coarseness1 and ,the ,downfall because of its national character4 ,now1 neither of these books gives ,zola at his best4 ,huysmans had not only preceded ,nana by two years1 but beat his master1 with ,marthe--the ,paris edition was quickly suppressed--as it is a better-written and truer book than the story of the big blonde girl1 who was later so wonderfully painted by ,edouard ,manet as she stood in her dressing-room at the theatre4 ,how far we are away from the powerful but crass realism of #ahhj ,i thought as ,i sat in the ,lessing ,theatre1 ,berlin1 and waited for the curtain to rise on ,gerhart ,hauptmann's latest play1 ,the ,flight of ,gabriel ,schilling 7,gabriel ,schilling's ,flucht74 ,and yet how much this poet and mystic owes to the ,french naturalistic movement of thirty odd years ago4 ,it was ,arno ,holz and the young ,hauptmann who stood the brunt of the battle in ,germany for the new realism4 ,sudermann1 too1 joined in the fight1 though later4 ,arthur ,schnitzler was then a medical student in ,vienna1 and it was not till #ahhh that he modestly delivered himself in a volume of verse1 while ,frank ,wedekind1 was just beginning to stretch his poetical limbs and savour life in ,paris and ,london4 7,eleven years later 7#ahia7 he gave us his most pregnant drama1 young as he was1 ,spring's ,awakening47 ,it is only fair1 then1 to accord to the recent winner of the ,nobel ,prize1 ,gerhart ,hauptmann1 the credit due him as a path breaker in ,german literature1 for if ,arno ,holz showed the way1 ,hauptmann filled the road with works of artistic value2 even at his lowest ebb of inspiration he is significant and attractive4 ,but ,hauptmann is something more than a realist2 if he were only that ,i should not have begun my story with a reference to the ,zola book sales4 ,there were published a short time ago the complete works of ,gerhart ,hauptmann--poems1 social plays1 novels1 and tales in six stately volumes4 ,in glancing at the figures of his sales ,i could not help thinking of ,zola4 ,whereas ,nana stands high on the list1 ,the ,sunken ,bell 7,die ,versunkene ,glocke1 translated by ,charles ,henry ,meltzer1 and played in ,english by ,julia ,marlowe and ,edward ,sothern71 has reached its eightieth edition1 and remember that the ,german editions are sometimes two thousand or three thousand an edition4 ,what the translation figures are ,i have no idea4 ,the next in number to ,the ,sunken ,bell is ,the ,weavers1 forty-three editions4 ,its strong note of pity1 its picture of poignant misery1 and its eloquent cry for social justice1 had much to do with the large sales4 ,hannele is number three in the order of sales1 twenty-three editions being assigned to it4 ,the same number stands for ,der ,arme ,heinrich1 not the best ,hauptmann1 and for that most moving human play1 ,rose ,bernd--so marvellously enacted by ,else ,lehmann at the ,lessing ,theatre--there are eighteen editions4 7,these are #aiac figures47 ,you can't help contrasting ,parisian and ,berlin taste1 though the ,german capital is in the grip of pornographic literature and art4 ,but it does indicate that a nation has not lost its idealism when it reads such a beautiful work1 a work of such imagination as ,the ,sunken ,bell1 does it not8 ,i wish ,i could admire other of ,hauptmann's work1 such as ,michael ,kramer1 ,der ,biberpalz1 or the depressing ,fuhrmann ,henschel4 ,and ,i also wish that ,i could include among his big works his latest1 ,the ,flight of ,gabriel ,schilling 7written in #aijf74 ,it is a drama1 the story of slender interest1 because the characters do not particularly interest--the misunderstood humbug of a woman--but in an original setting1 a little island on the east coast of ,germany1 called ,fischmeisters ,oye1 the scenic side is very effective4 ,the piece plays in five acts1 one act too many1 and is slow in action1 and unusually wordy1 even for the ,german stage1 where the public likes dialogues a half-hour at a stretch4 ,i shall not bore you with more than a glance at the chief situations4 ,gabriel ,schilling is a young ,berlin painter who is too fond of the ,friedrichstrasse caf life1 which means wine1 wenches1 and an occasional song4 ,his friend the sculptor1 ,professor ,marer1 has persuaded ,gabriel to leave ,berlin during the dog-days1 leave what the text calls the hot1 stinking asphalt1 and join him at the seaside4 ,gabriel has a wife1 to whom he is not exactly nice1 being fond of a ,vienna lady1 who bears the name of ,hanna ,elias4 ,this ,hanna ,elias has played1 still plays1 the chief rle in his miserable existence4 ,he has promised to give her up1 she has promised to go back to her husband and child 7the latter supposed to be the offspring of ,gabriel74 ,so his flight to the east coast is a genuine attempt to gain his liberty2 besides1 his health is bad1 he suffers from heart trouble4 ,the play opens with the sculptor talking of ,schilling in the ears of a young violinist1 a dear friend1 who is summering with him4 ,unconventional folk1 all of them4 ,hauptmann gets his character relief by setting off the town visitors with a background of natives1 fishermen1 working people4 ,i wish there had been more of them1 for with their uncouth accent1 salt speech1 and unconscious humour they are more refreshing than the city folk4 ,gabriel arrives4 ,he looks sadly in need of sea air4 ,i suppose ,theodore ,loos1 who played the part1 was coached by the dramatist1 so ,i dare not criticise the validity of his interpretation4 ,i only know that he did not make the character sympathetic2 perhaps that were an impossibility4 ,in a word1 with his mixture of vapid idealism and old-fashioned fatalism1 he proved monotonous to me4 ,the sculptor is a formidable bore1 the antique raisonneur of ,french drama1 preaching at every pore every chance he has4 ,the actor who played him1 ,hans ,marr1 made up as a mixture of ,lenbach the painter--when he was about forty-five--and the painter1 etcher1 and sculptor1 ,max ,klinger4 ,the violinist was ,lina ,lossen1 and excellent in the part4 ,act ,,ii is a capitally arranged interior of the inn1 with the wooden shoes of the servant maid clopping around1 where the inevitable happens4 ,hanna ,elias1 accompanied by a young ,russian girl--whose ,german accent furnishes mild humour--promptly swoops down on the anmic painter4 ,there is brief resistance on his part4 ,she tells him she can't1 can't live without him--oh1 thrice-familiar feminine music6--and with a double sob that shakes you in your seat the pair embrace4 ,curtain4 ,the next act is frittered away in talk1 the principal object seemingly to show how much the sculptor hates ,hanna4 ,in ,act ,,iv ,gabriel is ill4 ,he has had a fall1 but it is really a heart attack4 ,a doctor1 an old friend1 is summoned from a neighbouring island4 ,unfortunately ,mrs4 ,schilling1 the neglected wife is informed by the not very tactful doctor that her husband is ill4 ,she rushes up from ,berlin1 and the best1 indeed the only1 dramatic scene then ensues4 ,she is not permitted to see the sick man4 ,she demands the reason4 ,she is naturally not told1 for ,hanna is nursing him4 ,she can't understand1 and it is the difficult task of ,lucie ,heil1 the violinist1 to get her away before the fat is in the fire4 ,unfortunately1 at that critical moment1 ,hanna ,elias walks calmly from ,gabriel's sleeping chamber4 ,the row is soon on4 ,hanna was enacted by an emotional actress1 ,tilla ,durieux1 whose personality is forthright1 whose methods are natural4 7,her ,hedda ,gabler is strong47 ,she dressed the character after the approved ,friedrichstrasse style4 ,you must know that the artistic ,bohemienne wears her hair plastered at the sides of her head la ,merode4 ,the eyes are always done up1 the general expression suggested1 if the lady is dark1 being that of ,franz von ,stuck's picture1 ,sin4 ,to look mysterious1 sinister1 exotic1 ah6 that appeals to the stout1 sentimental ,german beer heroes of the opera1 theatre1 and studio4 ,frulein ,durieux is entirely successful in her assumption of a woman who is emancipated1 who has thrown off the shackles of matrimony1 who drinks beer in the morning1 tea in the afternoon1 coffee at night1 and smokes cigarettes all the time4 ,it is a pronounced type in ,berlin4 ,she talks art1 philosophy1 literature1 and she daubs or plays or models4 ,she is the best portrait in the play1 though a thrice-familiar one4 ,the poet showed this misunderstood woman in one of his early works1 ,before ,sunrise4 ,hanna ,elias stands the reproaches and berating of ,evelin ,schilling until her patience fades4 ,then the two women1 despite the warning of the doctor that his patient must not be disturbed1 as it might prove fatal1 go for each other like a pair of fishwives4 ,it is exciting1 though hardly edifying4 ,if you have ever seen two chickens1 two hens1 fight over the possession of a shining slug in a barnyard1 then you will know what kind of a quarrel this is between the outraged wife1 a feeble creature1 and the bold1 strong-willed ,hanna4 ,and the disputed booty is about as worthless as the slug4 ,gabriel appears4 ,he is half dead from the excitement4 ,a plague on both the women1 he cries1 and the scene closes with his whispered request to the doctor for poison to end his life4 ,you remember ,oswald ,alving and his cry3 ,the sun1 mother1 give me the sun6 ,act last shows the first scene1 the beach1 and a figurehead from a brig which had stranded during a storm some years before4 ,this carved head and bust of a woman with streaming hair serves as a symbol4 ,gabriel is attracted by the wooden image1 as is ,lucie4 ,the painter is fascinated by the tale of the shipwreck4 ,he has escaped the nurse and is out on the dunes watching the figure as it is intermittently illuminated by the gleam of a revolving lighthouse further up the coast4 ,he is in an exalted mood4 ,there is some comic relief in the grave-digger manner between him and a joiner1 who is also the undertaker of the island1 a well-conceived character4 ,a storm is rising4 ,gabriel1 after many wild and whirling words1 leaves a message for his friends4 ,he is bathing4 ,and so he makes by suicide his last flight1 his escape from the horns of the dilemma1 too weak to decide one way or the other4 ,the ending is ineffective1 and the sudden repentance of the middle-aged sculptor 7fat men with forty-five-inch waists never do seem wicked71 who promises to marry his ,lucie1 the fiddle player1 is very flat4 ,nor does the storm strike terror as it should4 ,what the moral8 ,i don't know1 except that it is dangerous to keep late hours on the ,friedrichstrasse4 ,a clock can't always strike twelve1 and ,the ,flight of ,gabriel ,schilling1 notwithstanding some striking episodes and at moments poetic atmosphere1 is not a masterpiece of ,hauptmann4 ,,ii ,ever since ,i heard and saw ,agnes ,sorma in ,liebele1 ,i have admired the dramatic writings of ,arthur ,schnitzler1 and1 remember1 that charming1 withal sad1 little play was written in #ahie4 ,i haven't seen all his works1 but ,i have read many4 ,the latest adapted into ,english for the ,american stage is the ,anatol one-act cyclus 7#ahic71 and his new play ,i witnessed at the ,kleines ,theatre1 ,berlin4 ,it bears the singularly unpromising title ,professor ,bernhardi1 and is a five-act comedy4 ,its performance was interdicted in ,vienna4 ,the reason given by the ,austrian authorities seems a simple one1 though it is specious3 for fear of stirring up religious animosities ,professor ,bernhardi was placed on the black books of the censor4 ,the ,jewish question1 it appears1 is still a live one in ,austria1 and this new play of ,schnitzler's1 himself of ,semitic descent1 is the very frank discussion of a certain incident which occurred in ,vienna in which a ,roman ,catholic clergyman and a ,jewish doctor were embroiled4 ,the dramatist is fair1 he holds the scales evenly4 ,at the end of the piece both priest and surgeon stand alike in your regard4 ,that the incident hardly suggests dramatic treatment is beside the mark2 ,schnitzler1 with his invariable deftness of touch1 has painted a dozen vital portraits2 the priest is superb1 the character values of exquisite balance4 ,the hero1 if hero he be1 ,professor ,bernhardi1 is carved out of a single block and the minor personalities are each and every one salient4 ,i can't altogether believe in the thesis4 ,any one who has lived in ,vienna must know that1 except in certain restricted circles1 there is no ,judenhetz1 no social ostracism for ,hebrews4 ,at the eleven-o'clock high mass in ,st4 ,stefan's ,cathedral1 the numbers of ,oriental faces that one sees would be surprising if we did not hear of so many conversions4 ,it is considered rather fashionable in ,vienna to join the ,christian fold4 ,and on the score of business certainly the ,austrian ,hebrews have little to complain of1 as they are said to be the leading factors in commerce4 ,however1 ,henry ,james has warned us not to question too closely the theme of an artist2 that is his own affair2 his treatment should concern us4 ,has ,schnitzler succeeded in making a play of heterogeneous material8 ,i don't think he has altogether1 yet ,i enjoyed several acts and enjoyed still more the reading of it in book form4 ,professor ,bernhardi is the professor of a medical institute in ,vienna known as the ,elizabethinum4 ,a patient1 a young woman1 is dying in one of the wards1 the victim of malpractice4 ,but her passing away will be painless4 ,she is happy because she believes that she is on the road to recovery1 that she will live to marry her beloved young man4 ,euphoria1 the doctor calls her condition4 ,to tell her the truth would be in his eyes criminal4 ,she would die in anguish4 ,why not let her go out of the world in bliss8 ,but a female nurse1 a conscientious ,roman ,catholic1 thinks differently4 ,with the aid of a budding student she sends for ,father ,franz ,reder in the near-by ,church of the ,holy ,florian4 ,the priest obeys the summons1 anxious to shrive a sinning soul1 and to send her out of the world if not to ,paradise1 at least to ,purgatory4 ,in the office he encounters ,professor ,bernhardi1 who tells him politely but firmly that he won't allow his patient to be disturbed4 ,the priest1 without excitement but painfully impressed1 argues that1 even if there are a few moments of sorrow1 the saving of the girl's immortal soul is of paramount importance4 ,the physician shrugs his shoulders4 ,his business is with the body1 not the soul1 and he continues to bar the way4 ,the priest makes one last appeal1 uselessly2 but1 unperceived1 the nurse has slipped out1 and going to the bedside of the dying woman announces the advent of the holy man4 ,the patient screams in agony3 ,i am dying6 and she does die1 from fright4 ,bernhardi is enraged1 though he never loses his air of sardonic politeness4 ,the act ends4 ,the result of the incident1 magnified by a partisan press1 is serious4 ,a great lady1 an archduchess1 refuses to head the list of the ,elizabethinum annual charity ball4 ,she also snubs the wife of an aristocratic doctor4 ,the politicians make fuel for their furnace1 and presently the institution finds itself facing a grave deficit1 perhaps ruin1 for the minister of instruction does not favour further subventions1 though he is a school friend of ,bernhardi2 worse follows1 the board of directors is split1 some of its ,jewish members going so far as to say that ,bernhardi should not have refused the consolations of religion to the dying4 ,wasn't the ,elizabethinum ,roman ,catholic1 after all8 ,there can be no doubt that the reason ,arthur ,schnitzler enjoyed handling the difficulties of such a theme is because his father was a well-known laryngologist of the ,university of ,vienna1 and he himself studied medicine and was an assistant doctor from #ahhf to #ahhh in the principal hospital of ,vienna4 ,with his father he helped to write a book entitled3 ,the ,clinical ,atlas of ,laryngology 7#ahie74 ,hence his opportunity of studying the various types of ,viennese professors in a little world must have been excellent4 ,the veracity of his characters seems unimpeachable4 ,there are all kinds of ,jews--in ,europe there is no such false sensitiveness if a ,jewish type is portrayed on the boards1 so long as it is not offensive2 for example1 there is the ,jew who believes himself the victim of anti-,semitism1 and1 while the dramatist makes him sympathetic1 nevertheless he is funny with his mania of persecution4 ,then there is ,doctor ,goldberg1 the lawyer1 the counsel for ,professor ,bernhardi1 in the prosecution case for insulting religion4 ,he sends his boy to a ,catholic college1 his wife has ,christian friends1 and in his zeal not to seem friendly to ,bernhardi1 he loses the case4 ,there are several others1 all carefully sketched and with a certain wit that proves ,schnitzler is as fair to his coreligionists as to the ,gentiles4 ,let me hasten to add that there is nothing that would cause offence to either race throughout the piece4 ,its banning in ,austria is therefore a mystery to me1 as it must have been to the author4 ,what is more serious is the absence of marked dramatic movement in the play4 ,it reads much like a short story made long in its dramatic garb4 ,fancy a play all men1 chiefly bewhiskered2 one woman in ,act ,i1 and only for ten minutes2 fairly long-winded arguments for and against the ethics of the case4 ,not for more than one act would this capitally written work be tolerated on the ,english or ,american stage4 ,until ,act ,,iv there is hardly one genuine dramatic episode1 though ,bernhardi at a directors' meeting is forced to resign and is eventually sent to prison for two months4 ,but in the penultimate act the priest calls on him1 and for fifteen minutes the situation is strong and splendidly conceived4 ,the conscience of the ecclesiastic brings him to ,bernhardi1 not to confess1 but to explain4 ,at the trial he positively insisted that he did not believe ,bernhardi had wished to insult religion1 but that he followed the dictates of his conscience2 he believed that he was doing his duty in sparing the girl the pain of discovery4 ,but this statement was of no avail1 for the nurse swore that the professor had employed physical violence to prevent the priest from entering the hospital ward4 ,later she confesses her perjury4 ,bernhardi is pardoned1 is convoyed home in triumph by enthusiastic medical students1 but is so disgusted by the perfidy of some of his friends and associates that he returns to his private practice4 ,his argument with the priest throws light on his obstinate character2 in reality neither man retreats a jot from his original position4 ,i must add that the priest1 because of his honest attitude1 although pressure had been put upon him1 was relieved of his duties at ,st4 ,florian's and sent to a little village on the ,polish border4 ,he had displeased the powers that be4 ,again ,i must admire this portrait of a sincere man1 obsessed by his sense of duty1 a fanatic1 if you will1 but upheld by his supreme faith4 ,the acting throughout was artistic1 ,professor ,bernhardi impersonated by ,bruno ,decarli1 and ,father ,reder by ,alfred ,abel1 the latter a subtle characterisation4 ,the team play of the ,kleines ,theatre company was seen at its best in the third act1 where the directors hold a stormy meeting4 ,it was the perfection of ensemble work4 ,the creator of ,das ,ssse ,mdel type of ,vienna has painted a large canvas and revealed a grip on the essentials of characterisation4 ,to ,ibsen's ,an ,enemy of the ,people he is evidently under certain obligations2 ,professor ,bernhardi is a variation of ,doctor ,stockmann1 plus not a little irony and self-complacency4 ,but the thesis of ,ibsen is less academic1 sounder1 of more universal interest than ,schnitzler's4 ,there is no metaphysical hair-splitting in ,an ,enemy of the ,people1 nor sentimental talk about euphoria and going happily to death4 ,grim old ,daddy ,ibsen told us that people were being poisoned by impure spring water1 and1 as ,alan ,dale said1 was the first man to write a drama around a drain-pipe4 ,arthur ,schnitzler1 shedding for the nonce his accustomed ,viennese charm and nonchalance1 has written a comedy about a very grave subject1 and has not uttered a single word that can be construed as disrespectful to either religion1 ,jewish or ,roman ,catholic4 ,he is a genre painter almost to the point of perfection4 ,,iii ,once upon a time ,i called ,hermann ,sudermann the ,klingsor of the ,german stage1 meaning thereby that he was a master of black magic4 ,of course1 like most comparisons1 this was a far-fetched one4 ,yet ,sudermann is a master of theatrical machinery4 ,with a pressure of his little finger he can set the wheels whirring and make their noise attractive if not precisely significant4 ,this is the case with his latest offering1 ,der gute ,ruf 7,good ,reputation71 which captured ,berlin at the ,deutsches ,schauspielhaus on the ,friedrichstrasse4 ,the play1 in four acts1 is a variation on its author's early theme1 ,honour4 ,it is also a variant of his ,joy of ,life 7,es lebe das ,leben71 translated by ,edith ,wharton1 but with the difference that the motive of ,honour was more malleable for the purpose of dramatic treatment1 and also truer to life1 while in ,reputation 7as ,i suppose it will be called when translated7 the thesis is too incredible for belief2 hence the magician1 wily as he is1 scrambles about aimlessly in the last two acts1 sparring for wind1 and seemingly anxious to escape from a blind alley of situations4 ,that he does it so well is a tribute to his technical prowess4 ,he knows how to write a play4 ,this play would succeed in foreign countries where the ,hauptmann and ,schnitzler plays would fall down4 ,the reason is because of the strong theatrical quality of the piece1 and the grateful rle for the heroine1 a rle that might have been written in ,paris2 indeed1 the entire work1 despite its local flavour1 recalls the modern ,parisian theatre of ,bernstein ,co41 because of its cynical satire1 its mysterious intrigue1 its doors and bells1 its numerous exits and entrances4 ,a woman1 rather a superwoman1 the ,baroness von ,tanna1 sacrifices her name--not of the best because she flirts--to save the good1 nay1 spotless reputation of her dearest friend1 a millionaire's wife--who1 in a mad moment 7,aha67 becomes the beloved of a certain fascinating ,max1 a young and handsome ne'er-do-well4 ,to add to the piquancy of the situation1 the baroness1 a beautiful woman1 and not1 like her friend1 the mother of children1 is entangled in the same net2 she1 too1 adores ,max the heart crusher1 though she will not cross the ,rubicon for his silly sake4 ,the usual triangle becomes star-shaped1 for a new feminine presence appears1 a girl who is matched to marry the fatal ,max4 ,that makes five live wires2 two husbands1 two wives1 a nave virgin1 with ,max as inaccessible as a star4 ,but after a capital exposition1 ,sudermann gets us in a terrible state of mind by making the lady with the good reputation go off in a hysterical crisis1 and almost confess to her stiff1 severe husband--who is a maniac on the subject of his house being above suspicion4 ,the charming1 reckless baroness intervenes at the crucial point1 becomes a lightning-rod that draws the electric current1 and pretends to be the real culprit4 ,her husband1 a sinister baron and ex-lieutenant in the ,hussars1 is present4 ,a duel with ,max is the result4 ,in the last act1 after she has been subjected to all kinds of ignominy1 ,baroness ,dorrit von ,tanna1 without confessing1 is socially rehabilitated4 ,skim-milk in this instance has passed for cream1 the prudish millionaire's wife1 her honour saved for the world at large1 is now revealed as a hypocrite to her astounded and snobbish husband4 ,the curtain falls on a maze of improbabilities1 with the baroness in the centre4 ,for people who don't take their theatre seriously1 i4 e41 neither as a fencing ground for propagandists nor for puling poets1 this new ,sudermann piece will please4 ,it has triumphed in ,berlin and ,munich4 ,its people are portraits taken from fashionable ,west ,end ,berlin1 while the dialogue1 witty1 incisive1 and also characteristic1 is one of the consolations of a play that does not for a moment produce any illusion4 ,there are plenty of striking episodes1 but logic is lacking1 not only the logic of life1 but the logic of the theatre4 ,no living playwright knows better how to arouse suspense than ,sudermann1 and he can't make us believe in his false theme1 consequently his motivation in the last two acts is false and disappointing4 ,but there is the old ,sudermann pyrotechnical virtuosity1 the fireworks dazzle with their brilliancy1 and you think of ,paris1 and also that some drama may be divorced from life and literature and yet be interesting4 ,insincere as is the dnouement1 the note of insincerity was absent in the acting of the cast4 ,the honours were easily borne away by a pretty ,viennese actress from the ,volks ,theatre there1 ,elsa ,galafrs by name1 whose methods are ,gallic1 whose personality is charming4 ,critical ,berlin has taken her to itself1 and her theatrical fortune is made4 ,it may be confessed that her part1 despite its artificiality1 is one that any actress in the world would jump at4 ,sudermann is a conjurer4 ,his puppets are all agreeable1 and1 in one instance1 vital3 the father of the baroness1 a financier1 who could be easily turned into a heavy conventional father1 but1 as played by ,hermann ,nissen1 is a positively original characterisation4 ,max the butterfly 7,ernst ,dumcke7 was wholly admirable4 ,i shall be very much surprised if ,der gute ,ruf does not soon appear on the stage of other lands4 ,its picture of manners1 its mundane environment1 its epigrams and dramatic bravoura will make it welcome everywhere4 ,sudermann is still ,klingsor1 the evoker of artificial figures1 not the poet who creates living men and women4 ,,xii ,,kubin1 ,,munch1 ,,and ,,gauguin3 ,,masters ,,of ,,hallucination ,i ,because it is a simpler matter to tell the truth than casuists admit ,i shall preface this little sermon on three hallucinated painters by a declaration of my artistic faith4 ,i believe in ,velasquez1 ,vermeer1 and ,rembrandt2 the greatest harmonist1 the greatest painter of daylight1 and the profoundest interpreter of the human soul--,rembrandt as pyschologist is as profound as ,beethoven4 ,the selection of this triune group of genius1 one ,spaniard and two ,dutchmen1 doesn't mean that ,i'm insensible to the purity of ,raphael1 the rich colouring of ,titian1 or the giant power of ,michael ,angelo4 ,botticelli is probably1 so ,mr4 ,berenson thinks1 the most marvellous draughtsman thus far produced by ,european art 7we can still go to old ,china and ,japan for his masters71 and who shall say him nay8 ,ruskin1 on the strength of one picture1 averred that ,tintoretto was the greatest of painters4 ,for ,william ,blake1 ,england's visionary painter1 ,rubens was an emissary from ,satan let loose on this sinful globe to destroy art4 ,and ,leonardo da ,vinci--what of that incomparable genius8 ,after ,haarlem and ,frans ,hals you may realise that ,manet and ,sargent had predecessors2 after a visit to ,the ,hague the ,view of ,delft may teach you that ,vermeer was an ,impressionist long before the ,french ,impressionists2 also that he painted clear light as it never before was painted1 nor since4 ,as for ,rembrandt1 the last word will never be said4 ,he is the eternal ,sphinx of art1 whether as portraitist1 landscape painter1 etcher1 or revealer of the night side of life1 of its bestiality1 madness1 cruelty1 and terrific visions4 ,but ,velasquez and ,vermeer are more sane4 ,anything ,i may write of ,kubin1 ,munch1 and ,gauguin should be read in the light of my artistic credo4 ,these three names do not swim in main currents1 rather are they to be found in some morbid morass at the equivocal twilight hour1 not the hour exquisite1 but that indeterminate moment when the imagination recoils upon itself and creates shadows that flit1 or1 more depressing1 that sit2 the mood of exasperated melancholy when all action seems futile1 and life a via crucis4 ,nor is this mood the exclusive possession of perverse poets2 it is an authentic one1 and your greengrocer around the corner may suffer from its presence2 but he calls it the blues and resorts to alcohol1 while the artist1 ever conscious of the values of such a psychic state of soul1 resorts to ink or colour or tone 7not always despising wine74 ,this ,alfred ,kubin has done2 with his etching-needle he has aroused images from the plate that alternately shock and exalt2 occasionally he opens the valves of laughter for he can be both witty and humorous4 ,his ,slavic blood keeps off the encroaching danger of himself taking his own work too seriously4 ,i wish his ,german contemporaries boasted such gifts of irony4 ,kubin is a ,bohemian1 born in #ahgg1 the son of an ,austrian ,army officer4 ,his boyhood was given over to caprice1 and he appears to have passed through the various stages familiar in the career of romantic pathological temperaments4 ,disillusionment succeeded disillusionment2 he even contemplated ,werther's end4 ,he found himself in ,munich at the beginning of this century with a slender baggage of ideals1 much scorn of life1 and a determination to express his tortured and complicated personality in art4 ,no matter what comical old women professors 7in trousers7 tell you of objective art and the superior advantage of drawing from plaster casts1 that is the ultimate aim of an artist 7naturally ,i don't refer to fashionable face painters1 who make a lucrative trade of their slippery paint74 ,nevertheless1 a more rigid discipline might have smoothed the way for ,kubin1 who has not yet mastered the tools of his art4 ,he has always practised his scales in public4 ,a man's reading proclaims the man4 ,kubin's favourite authors for years were ,schopenhauer and ,mainlnder1 the latter a disciple of the mighty ,arthur and one who put into practice a tenet of his master1 for he attained ,nirvana by his own hand4 ,now1 a little ,schopenhauer is an excellent thing to still restless1 egotistic spirits1 to convince them of the essential emptiness of life's coveted glories2 but a surfeit of ,schopenhauer is like a surfeit of lobster--mental indigestion follows and the victim blames the lobster 7i4 e41 life7 instead of his own inordinate appetite4 ,throughout ,kubin's work ,i detect traces of spleen1 hatred of life1 delight in hideous cruelty1 a predisposition to obscurity and a too-exclusive preoccupation with sex2 indeed1 sex looms largest in the consciousness of the new art4 ,to burlesque the human figure1 to make of it a vile arabesque1 a shameful sight1 is the besetting temptation of the younger generation4 ,naturally1 it is good to get away from the saccharine and the rococo1 but vulgarity is always vulgarity and true art is never vulgar4 ,however1 ,kubin has plenty of precedents4 ,a ramble through any picture-gallery on the ,continent will prove that human nature was the same five hundred years ago as it was in the ,stone ,age1 as it is to-day1 as it always will be4 ,some of ,rembrandt's etched plates are unmentionable1 and ,goya even went to further lengths4 ,now1 ,kubin is a lineal descendant of this ,spaniard1 minus his genius1 for our young man is not a genius1 despite his cleverness4 ,he burlesques the themes of ,goya at times1 and in him there is more than a streak of the cruelty which causes such a painful impression when viewing the ,proverbs or the ,disasters of ,war4 ,kubin has chosen to seek earlier than ,goya for his artistic nourishment4 ,he has studied the designs of the extraordinary ,pieter ,breughel1 and so we get modern versions of the bizarre events in daily life so dear to old ,pieter4 ,on one plate ,kubin depicts a hundred happenings4 ,cruelty and broad humour are present and not a little ingenuity in the weaving of the pattern4 ,he1 too1 like ,breughel1 is fond of trussing up a human as if he were a pig and then sticking him with a big knife4 ,every form of torture from boiling oil to retelling a stale anecdote is shown4 ,the elder ,teniers1 ,hieronymus ,bosch1 ,breughel1 ,goya1 and among later artists1 ,rops1 ,toulouse-,lautrec1 and ,aubrey ,beardsley1 are apparent everywhere in ,kubin's work4 ,neither is ,rembrandt missing4 ,beardsley is1 perhaps1 the most marked influence1 and not for the best1 though the ,bohemian designer is a mere tyro when compared to the ,englishman1 the most extraordinary apparition in nineteenth-century art4 ,kubin has illustrated ,poe--notably ,berenice2 of course the morbid grimace of that tale would attract him--,gerard de ,nerval's ,aurelia1 ,mrchen by ,w4 ,hauff1 and his own volume of short stories entitled1 ,die andere ,seite1 written in the fantastic ,poe key and with literary skill4 ,the young artist is happy in the use of aquatint1 and to judge from his colour combinations one might call him a rich colourist4 ,singularly enough1 in his woodcuts he strangely resembles ,cruikshank1 and ,i suppose he never saw ,cruikshank in his life1 though if he has read ,dickens he may have4 ,in his own short stories there are many illustrations that--with their crisp simplicity1 their humour and force--undoubtedly recall ,cruikshank1 and a more curious combination than the ,english delineator of broad humour and high animal spirits and the ,bohemian with his predilection for the interpretation in black and white of lust1 murder1 ghosts1 and nightmares would be hard to find4 ,like ,rops1 ,kubin is a devil-worshipper1 and his devils are as pleasant appearing as some of the ,belgian's female ,satans4 ,i've studied the ,sansara ,bltter1 the ,weber ,mappe1 and ,hermann ,esswein's critical edition of various plates1 beginning with one executed when ,alfred was only sixteen2 but in it may be found his principal qualities4 ,even at that age he was influenced by ,breughel4 ,quaint monsters that never peopled our prehistoric planet are being bound in captivity by dwarfs who fire cannon1 stab with lances1 and attack enemies from the back of impossible elephants4 ,the portrait of what ,kubin calls his muse looks like a flamingo in an ermine skirt posing previous to going to jail4 ,then we see the shadow1 a monstrous being pursuing through a lonely street at night a little burgher in a hurry to reach his bed4 ,the shudder is there4 ,kubin has read ,baudelaire4 ,his ,adventure resembles a warrior in ,no ,man's ,land confronted by a huge white boa-constrictor with the head of a blind woman1 and she has a head upon which is abundant white hair4 ,puerile1 perhaps1 yet impressive4 ,i shall skip the numerous devil's laboratories wherever people are being stewed or sawn asunder1 also the scenes of men whipped with leather thongs or broken on the rack4 ,one picture is called ,the ,finger4 ,an aged man in night-dress cowers against the wall of his bedroom and gazes with horror at an enormous index-finger which1 with the hand to which it is attached1 has crawled across the floor as would a devilfish1 or some such sort of monster4 ,the finger threateningly points to the unhappy person4 ,unquestionably it symbolises a guilty conscience4 ,franz von ,stuck has left his impression on ,kubin4 ,he portrays mounds of corpses1 the fruit of war1 which revolt the spectator1 both on account of the folly and crime suggested and the morbid taste of the artist4 ,kubin's ,salome is the last word in the interpretation of that mellifluous damsel4 ,it is a frank caricature of ,beardsley1 partially nude1 the peculiar quality of the plate being the bestial expression of the face4 ,no viler ugliness is conceivable4 ,and1 according to ,flaubert1 who created the modern ,salome1 she was fascinating in her beauty4 ,i fancy foul is fair nowadays in art4 ,never before in its history has there been paid such a tribute to sheer ugliness4 ,never before has its house been so peopled by the seven devils mentioned in the ,good ,book4 ,in the domain of fantasy ,kubin is effective4 ,a lonely habitation set in nocturnal gloom with a horde of rats deserting it1 is atmospheric2 two groups of men quarrelling in sinister alleys1 monks of the ,inquisition extinguishing torches in a moonlit corridor1 or a white nightmare nag wildly galloping in a circular apartment2 these betray fancy1 excited perhaps by drugs4 ,when in #aijj or thereabouts the decadence movement swept artistic ,germany1 the younger men imitated ,poe and ,baudelaire1 and consumed opium with the hope that they might see and record visions4 ,but a commonplace brain under the influence of opium or hasheesh has commonplace dreams4 ,to few is accorded by nature 7or by his satanic majesty7 the dangerous privilege of discerning l-bas1 those visions described by ,de ,quincey1 ,poe1 or ,de ,nerval4 ,alfred ,kubin has doubtless experienced the rapture of the initiate4 ,there is a certain plate in which a figure rushes down the secret narrow pathway zigzagging from the still stars to the bottommost pit of hell1 the head crowned as if by a flaming ecstasy1 the arms extended in hysteria1 the feet of abnormal size4 ,a thrilling design with ,blake-like hints--for ,blake was master of the flaming door and the ecstasy that consumes4 ,a design that attracts is a flight of steps feebly lighted by a solitary light1 hemmed in by ancient walls2 on the last step lurks an anonymous person4 ,a fine bit of old-fashioned romance is conjured up2 also memories of ,piranesi4 ,the drowning woman is indescribable1 yet not without a note of pathos4 ,buddha is one of the artist's highest flights4 ,the ,oriental mysticism1 the ,kef1 as ecstasy is called in the ,east1 are admirably expressed4 ,his studies of deep-sea life border on the remarkable4 ,i have seldom encountered such solicitude for exact drawing1 such appreciation of the beauties of form and surface colouring1 as these pictures of shells1 sea flora1 and exotic pearls4 ,the ,cardinal series must not be forgotten1 those not easily forgotten portraits of a venerable ecclesiastic4 ,it is difficult to sum up in a brief article all the characteristics of this versatile ,bohemian1 as it is difficult to find a picture that will give a general idea of his talent4 ,i select the ,nero1 not because it exhibits any technical prowess 7on the contrary1 the arms are of wood71 but because it may reveal a tithe of the artist's fancy4 ,nero has reached the end of a world that he has depopulated2 there remains the last ship-load of mankind which he is about to destroy at one swoop4 ,the design is large in quality1 the idea altogether in consonance with the early emotional attitude of ,kubin toward life4 ,,ii ,edvard ,munch1 the ,norwegian1 is a much bigger man and artist4 ,the feminine note1 despite his sensibility1 is missing4 ,he has control of his technical forces and he never indulged in such nervous excesses as ,kubin4 ,besides1 he is sincere1 while the other is usually cynical4 ,he deals with the same old counters1 love and death1 debauchery and consequent corruption4 ,he is an exponent of feverish visions1 yet you never feel that he is borne down by his contact with dwellers on the threshold4 ,a border-lander1 as is ,maurice ,maeterlinck1 ,munch has a more precise vision2 in a word he is a mystic1 and a true mystic always sees dreams as sharp realities4 ,it was ,mr4 ,saintsbury who first called attention to the clear flame of ,flaubert's visions as exemplified by his ,temptation of ,st4 ,anthony4 ,so ,munch1 who pins to paper with almost geometrical accuracy his personal adventures in the misty mid-region of ,weir4 ,and a masculine soul is his4 ,i can still recall my impressions on seeing one of his early lithographs entitled1 ,geschrei4 ,as far as ,america is concerned1 ,edvard ,munch was discovered by ,vance ,thompson1 who wrote an appreciation of the ,norwegian painter1 then a resident of ,berlin1 in the pages of ,m'lle ,new ,york 7since gathered to her forefathers74 ,the cry of the picture is supposed to be the infinite cry of nature as felt by an odd-looking individual who stands on a long bridge traversing an estuary in some ,norwegian harbour4 ,the sky is barred by flaming clouds1 two enigmatic men move in the middle distance4 ,to-day the human with the distorted skull who holds hands to his ears and with staring eyes opens wide a foolish mouth looks more like a man overtaken by seasickness than a poet mastered by cosmic emotion4 ,in #aija ,i visited ,munich and at the ,secession exhibition at the ,glass ,palace ,i saw a room full of ,munches4 ,it was nicknamed the ,chamber of ,horrors1 and the laughter and exclamations of disgust indulged in by visitors recalled the history of ,manet's ,djeuner sur l'herbe and the treatment accorded it by ,parisians 7an incident utilised by ,zola in ,l',oeuvre74 ,but nowadays1 in company with the ,neo-,impressionists1 the ,lampost ,impressionists1 ,cubists1 and ,futurists1 ,munch might seem tame1 conventional2 nevertheless he was years ahead of the new crowd in painting big blocks of colour1 juxtaposed1 not as the early ,impressionists juxtaposed their strokes of complementary colour to gain synthesis by dissociation of tonalities1 but by obvious discords thus achieve a brutal optical impression4 ,his landscapes were those of a visionary in an ,arcadia where the ugly is elevated to the tragic4 ,tragic1 too1 were his representations of his fellow men4 ,such every-day incidents as a funeral became transfigured in the sardonic humour of this pessimist4 ,no one had such a quick eye in detecting the mean souls of interested mourners at the interment of a relative4 ,i possess an original signed lithograph called1 ,the ,curious ,ones1 which shows a procession returning afoot from a funeral4 ,daumier1 himself1 could not beat the variety of expressions shown in this print4 ,the silk hat 7and ,goya was the first among modern artists to prove its value as a motive7 plays a rle in the ,munch plates4 ,his death-room scenes are unapproachable in seizing the fleeting atmosphere of the last hour4 ,the fear of death1 the very fear of fear1 ,maeterlinck has created by a species of creeping dialogue4 7,the ,intruder is an example71 but ,edvard ,munch working in an art of two dimensions where impressions must be simultaneous1 is more dynamic4 ,the shrill dissonance in his work is instantly reflected in the brain of the speaker4 ,in his best work--not his skeletons dancing with plump girls1 or the youthful macabre extravagances after the manner of ,rops1 ,rethel1 ,de ,groux1 or ,james ,ensor--he does invoke a genuine thrill4 ,psychologic1 in the true sense of that much-abused word1 are his portraits2 indeed1 ,i am not sure that his portraits will play second fiddle to his purely imaginative work in the future4 ,there is the ,strindberg1 certainly the most authoritative presentment of that strange1 unhappy soul4 ,the portraits of ,hans ,jger1 the poet 7in oil71 the etched head of ,doctor ,a41 the etched head of ,sigbjorn ,obstfelder1 poet who died young1 as well as the self-portraits and the splendidly constructed figure and eloquent expression in the portrait of a woman1 an oil-painting now in the ,national ,gallery1 ,christiania1 these and many others serve as testimony to a sympathetic divination of character4 ,his etched surfaces are never as silvery as those of ,anders ,zorn1 who is a virtuoso in the management of the needle4 ,not that ,munch disdains good craftsmanship1 but he is obsessed by character2 this is the key-note of his art4 ,how finely he expresses envy1 jealousy1 hatred1 covetousness1 and the vampire that sometimes lurks in the soul of woman4 ,an etching1 ,hypocrisy1 with its faint leer on the lips of a woman1 is a little masterpiece4 ,his sick people are pitiful1 that is1 when they are not grotesque2 the entire tragedy of blasted childhood is in his portrait of ,the ,sick ,child4 ,as a rule he seldom condescends to sound the note of sentimentality4 ,he is an illustrator born1 and as such does not take sides1 letting his parable open to those who can read4 ,and his parable is always legible4 ,he distorts1 deforms1 and with his strong1 fluid line modulates his material as he wills1 but he never propounds puzzles in form1 as do the rest of the experimentalists4 ,the human shape does not become either a stovepipe or an orchid in his hands4 ,his young mothers are sometimes dithyrambic 7as in ,madonna7 or else despairing outcasts4 ,one plate of his which always affects me is his ,dead ,mother1 with the little daughter at the bedside1 the cry of agony arrested on her lips1 the death chamber exhaling poverty and sorrow4 ,by preference ,munch selects his themes among the poor and the middle class4 ,he can paint an empty room traversed by a gleam of moonlight and set one to thinking a half day on such an apparently barren theme4 ,he may suggest the erotic1 but never the lascivious4 ,a thinker doubled by an artist he is the one man north who recalls the harsh but pregnant truths of ,henrik ,ibsen4 ,,iii ,every decade1 or thereabouts1 a revolution occurs in the multicoloured world of the ,seven ,arts2 in ,paris1 at least a half dozen times in the year1 a new school is formed on the left bank of the ,seine or under some tent in the provinces4 ,without variety--as well as vision--the people perish4 ,hence the invention known as a new art1 which always can be traced back to a half-forgotten one4 ,after the hard-won victories of ,impressionism there was bound to ensue a reaction4 ,the symbolists crowded out the realists in literature and the ,neo-,impressionists felt the call of ,form as opposed to ,colour4 ,well1 we are getting form with a vengeance1 and seldom has colour been so flouted in favour of cubes1 cylinders1 and wooden studio models and muddy paste4 ,paul ,gauguin1 before he went to the equator1 saw the impending change4 ,he was weary of a ,paris where everything had been painted1 described1 modelled1 so he sailed for ,tahiti1 landing at ,papeete4 ,even there he found the taint of ,european ideas1 and after the funeral of ,king ,pomar and an interlude of flirtation with an absinthe-drinking native princess1 niece of the departed royalty 7he made a masterly portrait of her71 he fled to the interior and told his experiences in ,noa ,noa1 ,the ,land of ,lovely ,scents4 ,this little book1 illustrated with appropriate sketches by the author-painter1 is a highly important contribution to the scanty literature dealing with ,gauguin4 ,i've read ,charles ,morice and ,emil ,bernard1 but beyond telling us details about the ,pont-,aven ,school and the art and madness of gifted ,vincent ,van ,gogh1 both are reticent about ,gauguin's pilgrimage to the ,south ,seas4 ,we knew why he went there1 now we know what he did while he was there4 ,the conclusion of the book is illuminating4 ,i returned to ,paris two years older than when ,i left1 but feeling twenty years younger4 ,the cause of this rejuvenation was a complete change in his habits4 ,with an extraordinary frankness1 not at all in the perfumed manner of that eternal philanderer1 ,pierre ,loti1 this one-time sailor before the mast1 this explosive1 dissipated1 hard-living ,paul ,gauguin became as a child1 simulating as well as could an artificial civilised ,parisian with sick nerves the childlike attitude toward nature that he observed in his companions1 the gentle ,tahitians4 ,he married a ,maori1 a trial marriage1 oblivious of the fact that he had left behind him in ,france a wife and children1 and1 clothed in the native girdle1 he roamed the island naked1 unashamed1 free1 happy4 ,with the burden of ,european customs from his shoulders1 his almost moribund interest in his art revived4 ,gauguin there experienced visions1 was haunted by exotic spirits4 ,one picture is the black goddess of evil1 whom he has painted as she lies on a couch with a white background1 a colour inversion of ,manet's ,olympe4 ,with the cosmology of the islanders the ,frenchman was familiar4 ,he has1 in addition to portraying the natives1 made an agreeable exposition of their ways and days1 and their nave blending of ,christian and ,maori beliefs4 ,his description of the festival called ,areosis is startling4 ,magical practices1 with their attendant cruelties and voluptuousness1 still prevail in ,tahiti1 though only at certain intervals4 ,very superstitious1 the natives see demons and fairies in every bush4 ,the flowerlike beauty of the brown women comes in for much praise1 though to be truthful1 the ladies on his canvases seem far from beautiful to prejudiced ,occidental eyes4 ,this ,noa ,noa is a refreshing contribution to the psychology of a painter who1 in broad daylight dreamed fantastic visions1 a painter to whom the world was but a painted vision1 as the music of ,richard ,wagner is painted music overheard in another world4 ,a painter is either a revolutionist or a plagiarist1 said ,paul ,gauguin4 ,but the tricksy god of irony has decreed that1 if he lasts long enough1 every anarch will end as a conservative1 upon which consoling epigram let us pause4 ,if ,i were to write a coda to the foregoing1 loosely heaped notes1 ,i might add that beauty and ugliness1 sickness and health1 are only relative terms4 ,the truth is the normal never happens in art or life1 so whenever you hear a painter or professor of sthetics preaching the gospel of health in art you will know that both are preaching pro domo4 ,the kingdom of art contains many mansions1 and in even the greatest art there may be found the morbid1 the feverish1 the sick1 or the mad4 ,such a world-genius as ,albrecht ,drer had his moment of ,melencolia1 and what can't you detect in ,da ,vinci or ,michael ,angelo if you are overcurious8 ,beauty1 like that other deadly phrase1 beautiful drawing1 is ever the shibboleth of the mediocre1 of imitators1 in a word1 of the academy4 ,these men of narrow vision pin their faith to ,ingres 7which is laudable enough71 but groan if the mighty line of ,degas is mentioned2 yet ,degas1 a pupil of ,ingres1 has continued his master's tradition in the only way tradition should be continued1 i4 e41 by further development and by adding an individual note4 ,therefore1 when ,i register my overwhelming admiration for ,velasquez1 ,vermeer1 and ,rembrandt ,i do not bind myself to close my eyes to originality1 personal charm1 or character in the newer men4 ,there is no such thing as schools of art2 there are only artists4 ,,xiii ,,the ,,cult ,,of ,,the ,,nuance ,,lafcadio ,,hearn ,lafcadio ,hearn1 shy1 complex1 sensuous1 has in ,elizabeth ,bisland a sympathetic biographer4 ,in her two volumes1 the major portion is devoted to the letters of this exotic and extraordinary writer2 he was both1 without being either a great man or a great artist4 ,the dominant impression made by his personality1 so much and often so unhappily discussed1 is itself impressionistic4 ,curiously enough1 as he viewed the world1 so has he been judged by the world4 ,his life1 fragmentary1 episodic1 restless1 doubtless the result of physical and psychical limitations1 is admirably reflected in his writings with their staccato phrasing1 overcoloured style1 their flight from anything approaching reality1 their uneasy apprehension of sex1 and their flittings among the folk-lore of a half dozen extinct civilisations4 ,his defective eyesight was largely the cause of his attitude toward life and art--for with our eyes we create our world--and his intense sufferings and consequent pessimism must be set down to the inevitable tragedy of a soul that greatly aspired1 but a soul that had the interior vision though not the instrument with which to interpret it4 ,lafcadio ,hearn was a poetic temperament1 a stylist1 but an incomplete artist4 ,his biographer1 ,miss ,bisland1 speaks of him as a stylist4 ,unfortunately this is not far from the truth2 he was a stylist1 though not always with an individual style4 ,the real ,hearn had superimposed upon him the dbris of many writers1 usually ,frenchmen4 ,he began his literary life as a worshipper and translator of ,thophile ,gautier and died in the faith that ,pierre ,loti had said the last word of modern prose4 ,gautier attracted him by his sumptuousness of epithet1 the perfectly realised material splendours of gold1 of marble1 of colour4 ,to the neurasthenic ,hearn1 his brain big with glorious dreams1 the ,parisian pagan must have seemed godlike in his half-smiling1 half-contemptuous mastery of language1 a mastery in its ease not outrivalled even by ,flaubert4 ,gautier was a gigantic reflector of the visible world1 but without genuine sympathy for humanity1 and he boasted that his periods1 like cats1 always fell on their feet1 no matter how high or carelessly he tossed them4 ,and then he was ,greek in his temperament1 ,greek grafted upon a ,parisian who loved form and hue above all else1 and this appealed to ,hearn1 whose mother was ,greek1 whose tastes were exotic4 ,it was only after he had passed the half-century mark and when he was the father of three sons that some apprehension of the gravity of ,occidental ethical teaching was realised by him4 ,when ,m4 ,loti-,viaud1 that most exquisite of ,french prose artists and sentimental sensualists1 made his appearance1 ,lafcadio was ravished into the seventh heaven4 ,here was what he had sought to do1 what he never would do--the perfection of impressionism1 created by an accumulation of delicate details1 unerringly presented1 with the intention of attacking the visual 7literary7 sense1 not the ear4 ,you can't read a page of ,loti aloud2 hearing is never the final court of appeal for him4 ,nor is the ear regarded in ,hearn's prose4 ,he is not auditive2 like ,loti and the ,goncourts1 he writes for the eye4 ,fr4 ,paulhan calls writers of this type rich in the prdominance des sensations visuelles4 ,disconnected by his constant abuse of the dash--he must have studied ,poe not too wisely--infinitesimal strokes of colour supplying the place of a large-moulded syntax1 this prose has not unity1 precision1 speed1 euphony4 ,its rhythms are choppy1 the dabs of paint1 the shadings within shadings1 the return upon itself of the theme1 the reticent1 inverted sentences1 the absence of architectonic and the fatal lack of variety1 surprise1 or grandeur in the harmonic sense1 these disbar the prose of ,lafcadio ,hearn from the exalted position claimed for it by his admirers4 ,yet it is a delicate prose2 the haunted twilight of the soul has found its notations in his work4 ,with ,amiel he could say of a landscape that it was a state of soul4 ,his very defects became his strength4 ,with normal eyesight we should not have had the man of ghostly reveries1 the patient1 charming etcher on a miniature block of evanescent prose1 the forger of tiny chords1 modulating into ,chopin-like mist4 ,his mania for the word caused him to neglect the sentence2 his devotion to the sentence closed for him any comprehensive handling of the paragraph2 he seldom wrote a perfect page2 never an entire chapter or book4 ,at his best he equals ,loti in his evocation of the mystery that encompasses us1 a mystery that has been sounded in music1 seldom in language4 ,his cast of mind was essentially romantic4 ,hearn does not mention the name of ,goncourt in his letters1 and yet it is a certain side of the brothers1 the impressionistic side1 that his writings resemble4 ,but he had not their artistry4 ,nor could he1 like ,maupassant1 summon tangible spirits from the vasty deep1 as did the ,norman master in ,le ,horla4 ,when ,rodin was told by ,arthur ,symons that ,william ,blake saw visions1 the sculptor1 after looking at the drawings1 replied3 ,yes1 he saw them once2 he should have seen them three or four times4 ,hearn seldom pinned down to the paper his dreams1 though he had a gift of suggestion1 of spiritual overtones1 in a key of transcendentalism1 that1 in certain pages1 far outshines ,loti or ,maupassant4 ,disciple of ,herbert ,spencer--he was forced because of his feminine fluidity to lean on a strong1 positive brain--hater of social conventions1 despiser of ,christianity1 a proselyte to a dozen creeds1 from the black magic of ,voodooism to ,japanese ,shintoism1 he never quite rid himself of the spiritual deposits inherited from his ,christian ancestry4 ,this strain1 this contradiction1 to be found in his later letters1 explains much of his psychology1 all of his art4 ,a man after nearly two thousand years of ,christianity may say to himself3 ,lo6 ,i am a pagan4 ,but all the horses from ,dan to ,beersheba cannot drag him back to paganism1 cannot make him resist the pull of his hereditary faith4 ,the very quality ,hearn most deplored in himself gives his work an exotic savour2 he is a ,christian of ,greek and ,roman ,catholic training1 a half ,greek1 half ,celt1 whole gipsy1 masquerading as an ,oriental4 ,the mask is an agreeable one1 the voice of the speaker sweet1 almost enticing1 but one more mask it is1 and therefore not the real ,hearn4 ,he was ,goth1 not ,greek2 he suffered from the mystic fear of the ,goth1 while he yearned for the great day flame of the classics4 ,even his ,japonisme was skin-deep4 ,miss ,bisland relates the uneventful career of ,hearn in an unaffected manner4 ,he was loved by his friends1 while he often ran away from them4 ,solitary1 eccentric1 ,hearn was an unhappy man4 ,he was born ,june #bg1 #ahej1 on one of the ,ionian ,isles1 ,santa ,maura1 called in modern ,greek1 ,leokus1 or ,lafcada1 the ,sappho ,leucadia1 promontory and all4 ,his father was ,charles ,bush ,hearn1 of an old ,dorsetshire family--,hearn1 however1 is a ,romany name--and an ,irishman4 ,his mother was ,rosa ,cerigote1 a ,greek1 whose brothers1 it is said1 stabbed their sister's suitor1 but she1 ,isolde-like1 nursed him1 and he married her4 ,the marriage was not a happy one4 ,young ,lafcadio drifted to ,ireland1 was adopted by a rich aunt of ,doctor ,hearn's1 a ,mrs4 ,brenane1 and went with her to ,wales4 ,he is said to have been educated in the north of ,france at a ,jesuit college4 ,he learned the language there4 ,later he was at ,ushan1 the ,roman ,catholic college of ,durham4 ,his life long he hated this religion1 hated it in a superstitious fashion1 and seemed to have suffered from a sort of persecution mania--he fancied ,jesuits were plotting against him4 ,at school he lost the sight of one eye through an accident while at play4 ,in #ahfi ,hearn was five feet three inches tall1 weighed one hundred and thirty-seven pounds1 and had a chest measurement of thirty-six and three-fourths inches4 ,disappointed of an expected inheritance--his grandaunt left him nothing--he went to ,london with his head full of dreams1 but his pockets were empty4 ,in #ahfi he landed in ,new ,york1 penniless1 poor in health1 half blind1 friendless1 and very ambitious4 ,in this biography you may follow him through the black and coiling poverty1 a mean and bitter life compared with which the career of ,robert ,louis ,stevenson was the triumphal procession of a ,prince ,charming of letters4 ,he landed finally in ,cincinnati1 where he secured an unimportant position on ,the ,enquirer4 ,his friends at that time were ,h4 ,e4 ,krehbiel1 ,joseph ,tunison1 and ,h4 ,f4 ,farney1 the artist4 ,his letters1 printed in this volume1 and ranging from #ahgg to #ahhi1 addressed to ,mr4 ,krehbiel1 are the most interesting for the students of ,hearn the literary aspirant4 ,he envies the solid architecture of that music-critic's prose1 but realises that it is not for him--lack of structure is his chief deficiency4 ,but he passionately admired that quality in others wherein he felt himself wanting4 ,he was generous to others1 not to himself4 ,it is unfortunate that he studied the prose of the seventeenth century4 ,mr4 ,krehbiel evidently knew of his tone-deafness4 ,hearn wrote him that he could listen to ,patti after he had read ,krehbiel4 ,this proves him to be of the literary type of music lover2 music must first be a picture before it makes a tonal image in the cortical cells4 ,the most remarkable thing in the ,hearn case is his intensity of vision without adequate optical organs4 ,with infinite pains he pictured life microscopically4 ,he was for ever excited1 his brain clamouring for food1 starving for the substance denied it by lack of normal eyesight4 ,hearn sickened of newspaper work1 he loathed it1 he often declared1 and slipped away to ,new ,orleans4 ,there he found much material for his exotic cravings4 ,he accumulated an expensive and curious library1 for his was the type of talent that must derive from art1 not life4 ,at ,martinique we find him hypnotised by the scenery1 the climate1 and the colourful life4 ,he abhorred the cold1 he always shivered in ,new ,york1 and this tepid1 romantic island1 with its dreamy days and starry nights1 filled him with languid joy4 ,but he soon discovered that the making of literature was not possible in such a luxurious atmosphere1 as he did later in ,japan1 and he returned to the ,united ,states4 ,in #ahij he left for the ,east1 never to return4 ,he died at ,tokio1 ,september #bf1 #aijd4 ,hearn had an amazing acquaintance with the folk-lore of many nations4 ,he was perpetually raving over the ,finnish1 the ,voodoo1 the ,hindu4 ,if he had gone to ,paris instead of to ,japan1 we should have missed the impressionism of his ,japanese tales1 yet he might have found the artistic solace his aching heart desired4 ,there his style would have been better grounded2 there he would have found solid weapons fashioned for his ethnical1 archological1 and sthetical excursions4 ,folk-lore is a treacherous byway of literature1 and ,hearn always worked in it with old-fashioned tools4 ,as versatile in range as were his researches1 the results are meagre1 for he was not a trained observer nor thinker in any domain4 ,so is it that in his later rovings among the metaphysics of ,spencer and modern thought there is something feverishly shallow4 ,his judgments of ,english writers were amateurish4 ,he called ,kipling a great poet1 presumably on the strength of his exotic tang4 ,sir ,edwin ,arnold he rated above ,matthew ,arnold for the same reason4 ,in ,japan1 delicious1 malodorous ,japan1 we leave him to the reader1 who will find in these letters to ,henry ,edward ,krehbiel1 ,ball1 ,w4 ,d4 ,o',connor1 ,gould1 ,elizabeth ,bisland1 ,page ,m4 ,butler1 ,basil ,hall ,chamberlain1 ,ellwood ,hendrick1 and ,mitchell ,mc,donald the most entertaining1 self-revealing literary correspondence published since the death of ,robert ,louis ,stevenson4 ,he interpreted the soul of old ,japan at the critical moment when a new ,western one was being assumed like a formidable carapace4 ,he also warned us of ,japan1 the new ,japan--though not in a friendly way2 he would have been glad to see ,western civilisation submerged by the yellow races4 ,shy1 complex1 sensuous1 ,hearn is the real ,lafcadio ,hearn in these letters4 ,therein we discover the tenderness1 the passion1 the capacity for friendship1 the genuine humanity absent in his books4 ,his life1 his art1 were sadly misfitted with masks--though ,nietzsche says3 ,all that is profound loves the mask2 and the symbolism of the ,orient completed the disintegration of his baffling personality4 ,,xiv ,,the ,,melancholy ,,of ,,masterpieces ,i ,possibly it is a purely subjective impression1 but ,i seldom face a masterpiece in art without suffering a slight melancholy1 and this feeling is never influenced by the subject4 ,the pastoral peace that hovers like a golden benison about ,giorgione's ,concert at the ,louvre1 the slow1 widowed smile of the ,mona ,lisa1 the cross-rhythms of ,las ,lanzas1 most magnificent of battle-pieces1 in the ,velasquez ,sala at the ,prado1 even the processional poplars of ,hobbema at the ,national ,gallery1 or the clear cool daylight which filters through the window of the ,dresden ,vermeer--these and others do not always give me the buoyant sense of self-liberation which great art should4 ,it is not because ,i have seen too often the bride ,saskia and her young husband ,rembrandt1 in ,dresden1 that in their presence a tinge of sadness colours my thoughts4 ,i have endeavoured to analyse this feeling4 ,why melancholy8 ,is great art always slightly morbid8 ,is it because of their isolation in the stone jails we call museums8 ,or that their immortality yields inch by inch to the treacherous and resistless pressure of the years8 ,or else because their hopeless perfection induces a species of exalted envy8 ,and isn't it simply the incommensurable emotion evoked by the genius of the painter or sculptor8 ,one need not be hypersthetic to experience something akin to muffled pain when listening to certain pages of ,tristan and ,isolde1 or while submitting to the mystic ecstasy of ,jan ,van ,eyck at ,ghent4 ,the exquisite grace of the ,praxiteles ,hermes or the sweetness of life we recognise in ,donatello may invade the soul with messages of melancholy1 and not come as ministers of joy4 ,one can't study the masters too much--,i mean1 from the amateur's view-point2 in the case of an artist it depends on the receptivity of his temperament4 ,velasquez didn't like ,raphael1 and it was ,boucher who warned ,fragonard1 when he went to ,rome1 not to take the ,italian painters too seriously4 ,imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery1 but it sometimes stifles individuality4 ,i think it is probably the belief that never again will this planet have another golden age of painting and sculpture that arouses in me the melancholy ,i mention4 ,music has passed its prime and is now entering the twilight of perfections past for ever4 ,so is it with the ,seven ,arts4 ,nevertheless1 there is no need of pessimism4 ,even if we could1 it would not be well to repeat the formulas of art accomplished1 born as they were of certain conditions1 social as well as technical4 ,other days1 other plays4 ,and that is the blight on all academic art4 ,traditional art1 says ,frank ,rutter1 is the art of respectable plagiarism1 a slight variation on ,paul ,gauguin's more revolutionary axiom4 ,no fear of any artist being too original4 ,there is no isolated truth1 exclaimed ,millet2 but ,constable wrote3 ,a good thing is never done twice4 ,best of all1 it was ,r4 ,a4 ,m4 ,stevenson who said in effect that after studying ,velasquez at the ,prado he had modified his opinions as to the originality of modern art4 ,let us admit that there is no hope of ever rivalling the dead2 yet a new beauty may be born1 a new vision1 and with it necessarily new technical procedures4 ,when ,i say new1 ,i mean a new variation on the past4 ,to-day the ,chinese and ,assyrian are revived4 ,it is the denial of these very obvious truths that makes academic critics slightly ridiculous4 ,they obstinately refuse to see the sunlight on the canvases of the ,impressionists just as they deny the sincerity and power of the so-called post-,impressionists4 ,the transvaluation of critical values must follow in the trail of revolutions4 ,it is a pity that ,new ,york as yet has not had an opportunity of viewing the best ,czannes1 ,gauguins1 and ,van ,goghs4 ,i did not see the exhibition several years ago at the ,armory1 which was none the less an eye-opener4 ,but ,i have been told by those whose opinion and knowledge are incontrovertible that this trinity of the modern movement was inadequately represented2 furthermore1 ,henri ,matisse1 a painter of indubitable skill and originality1 did not get a fair showing4 ,it would be a superfluous and thankless task to argue with critics or artists who refuse to acknowledge ,manet1 ,monet1 ,degas4 ,these men are already classics4 ,go to the ,louvre and judge for yourself4 ,impressionism has served its purpose2 it was too personal in the case of ,claude ,monet to be successfully practised by every one4 ,since him many have hopelessly attempted the bending of his bow4 ,manet is an incomplete ,velasquez2 but he is a great colourist1 and interpreted in his fluid1 nervous manner the modern spirit4 ,degas1 master designer1 whose line is as mighty as ,ingres his master1 is by courtesy associated with the ,impressionistic group1 though his methods and theirs are poles asunder4 ,it seems that because he didn't imitate ,ingres in his choice of subject-matter he is carped at4 ,to-day the newest vision has reverted to the sharpest possible silhouettes and1 to add confusion1 includes rhythms that a decade ago would not have been thought possible4 ,,ii ,i can't agree with those who call ,paul ,czanne the ,nietzsche of painting1 because ,nietzsche is brilliant and original while the fundamental qualities of ,czanne are sincerity1 a dogged sincerity1 and also splendid colouring--the value of the pigment in and for itself1 the strength and harmony of colour4 ,his training was in the classics4 ,he knew ,manet and ,monet1 but his personal temperament did not incline him to their forms of ,impressionism4 ,a sober1 calculating workman1 not a heaven-storming genius1 yet a painter whose procedure has served as a point of departure for the younger tribe4 ,like ,liszt1 ,czanne is the progenitor of a school1 for ,wagner founded no great school as much as he influenced his contemporaries2 he was too complete in himself to leave artistic descendants1 and ,liszt1 an intermediate type1 influenced not only ,wagner but the ,russians and the ,neo-,frenchman4 ,the greatest disciples of ,czanne are ,gauguin and ,van ,gogh4 ,mr4 ,brownell once wrote3 ,we only care for facts when they explain truths1 and the facts of ,czanne have that merit4 ,he is truthful to the degree of eliminating many important artistic factors from his canvases4 ,but he realises the bulk and weight of objects2 he delineates their density and profile4 ,his landscapes and his humans are as real as ,manet's2 he seeks to paint the actual1 not the relative4 ,there is strength if not beauty--the old canonic beauty--and in the place of the latter may be found rich colour4 ,a master of values1 ,czanne4 ,after all1 paint is thicker than academic culture4 ,i saw the first ,paul ,gauguin exhibition at ,durand-,ruel's in ,paris years ago4 ,i recall contemporary criticism4 ,the figures are outlined in firm strokes and painted in broad1 flat tints on canvas that has the texture of tapestry4 ,many of these works are made repulsive by their aspect of multicoloured crude and barbarous imagery4 ,yet one cannot but acknowledge the fundamental qualities1 the lovely values1 the ornamental taste1 and the impression of primitive animalism4 ,since that rather faint praise ,gauguin is aloft with the ,olympians4 ,his art is essentially classic4 ,again his new themes puzzled critics4 ,a decorative painter born1 he is fit for the company of ,baudry the eclectic1 ,moreau the symbolist1 ,puvis de ,chavannes1 greatest of modern mural painters1 and the starlit ,besnard4 ,a rolling stone was ,gauguin1 one that gathered no stale moss4 ,he saw with eyes that at ,tahiti became innocent4 ,the novelty of the flora and fauna there should not be overlooked in this artistic recrudescence4 ,his natural inclination toward decorative subjects rekindled in the presence of the tropical wilderness2 at every step he discovered new motives4 ,the very largeness of the forms about him1 whether human1 vegetable1 or floral1 appealed to his bold brush1 and ,i think that critics should take this into consideration before declaring his southern pictures garish4 ,they often seem so1 but then the sunset there is glaring1 the shadows ponderous and full of harsh complementary reflects1 while humanity wears another aspect in this southern island where distance is annihilated by the clarity of the atmosphere4 ,no1 ,paul ,gauguin is certainly not a plagiarist4 ,clive ,bell has written3 ,great artists never look back4 ,i believe the opposite2 all great artists look back and from the past create a new synthesis4 ,wells has said3 ,better plunder than paralysis1 the obverse of ,gauguin's teaching1 and if ,vincent ,van ,gogh plundered in his youth it was not because he feared paralysis4 ,he merely practised his scales in private before attempting public performance4 ,remember that none of these revolutionary artists jumped overboard in the beginning without swimming-bladders4 ,they were all1 and are all1 men who have served their technical apprenticeship before rebellion and complete self-expression4 ,the gods of ,van ,gogh were ,rembrandt1 ,delacroix1 ,daumier1 ,monticelli1 and ,millet4 ,the latter was a veritable passion with him4 ,he said of him1 and the remark was a sign-post for his own future3 ,rembrandt and ,delacroix painted the person of ,jesus1 ,millet his teaching4 ,this preoccupation with moral ideas lent a marked intensity to his narrow temperament4 ,ill-balanced he was2 there was madness in the family2 both his brother and himself committed suicide4 ,his adoration of ,monticelli and his jewelled style led him to ,impressionism4 ,but colour for colour's sake or optical illusion did not long hold him4 ,the overloaded paint in his earlier works soon gave way to flat modelling4 ,his effects are achieved by sweeping contours instead of a series of planes4 ,there are weight1 sharp silhouettes1 and cruel analysis4 ,his colour harmonies are brilliant1 dissociated from our notions of the normal4 ,he is a genuine realist as opposed to the decorative classicism of ,gauguin4 ,his work was not much affected by ,gauguin1 though he has been classed in the same school4 ,czanne openly repudiated both men4 ,a sun in his head and a hurricane in his heart1 was said of him1 as it was first said of ,delacroix by a critical contemporary4 ,vincent ,van ,gogh is1 to my way of thinking1 the greatest genius of the trio under discussion4 ,after them followed the ,uglicists and the passionate patterns and emotional curves of the ,cubists4 ,henri ,matisse has science1 he is responsive to all the inflections of the human form1 and has at his finger-tips all the nuances of colour4 ,he is one of those lucky men for whom the simplest elements suffice to create a living art4 ,with a few touches a flower1 a woman1 grow before your eyes4 ,he is a magician1 and when his taste for experimenting with deformations changes we may expect a gallery of masterpieces4 ,at present1 pushed by friends and foes1 he can't resist the temptation to explode fire-crackers on the front stoop of the ,institute4 ,but a master of line1 of decoration1 of alluring rhythms4 ,whistler went to ,japan on an artistic adventure4 ,matisse has gone to ,china1 where rhythm1 not imitation1 is the chiefest quality in art4 ,such men as ,matisse1 ,augustus ,john1 and ,arthur ,b4 ,davies excel as draughtsmen4 ,the sketches of the first-named are those of a sculptor1 almost instantaneous notations of attitudes and gestures4 ,the movement1 not the mass1 is the goal sought for by all of them4 ,the usual crowd of charlatans1 camp-followers1 hangers-on may be found loudly praising their own wares in this ,neo-,impressionist school--if school it be--but it is only fair to judge the most serious and gifted painters and sculptors of the day4 ,already there are signs that the extremists1 contortionists1 hysterical humbugs1 ,zonists1 ,futurists1 and fakers generally are disappearing4 ,what is good will abide1 as is the case with ,impressionism2 light and atmosphere are its lessons2 the later men have other ideals3 form and rhythm1 and a more spiritual interpretation of facts4 ,,iii ,the ,comparative ,exhibition in ,new ,york over ten years ago proved that it is dangerous to mix disparate schools and aims and personalities4 ,and while the undertaking was laudable1 seeking as it did to dissipate our artistic provinciality1 it but emphasised it--proved beyond the peradventure of a doubt ,american dependence on foreign art4 ,technically1 to-day1 the majority of our best painters stem from ,france1 as formerly they imitated ,english models or studied at ,dsseldorf and ,munich4 ,when the ,barbizon group made their influence felt our landscapists immediately betrayed the impact of the new vision1 the new technique4 ,our younger men are just as progressive as were their fathers and grandfathers4 ,every fresh generation uses as a spring-board for its achievements the previous generation4 ,they have a lot to put on canvas1 new sights that only ,america can show4 ,what matter the tools if they have1 these young chaps1 individuality8 ,must they continue to peer through the studio spectacles of their grandfathers8 ,they make mistakes1 as did their predecessors4 ,they experiment2 art is not a fixed quantity1 but a ceaseless experimenting4 ,they are often raw1 crude1 harsh2 but they deal in character and actuality4 ,they paint their environment--the only true historic method--and they do this with a modern technique4 ,manet1 ,goya1 ,renoir1 ,monet1 ,pissarro1 ,toulouse-,lautrec1 ,degas1 ,whistler1 and others may be noted in the technical schemes of nine out of ten native-born ,american artists4 ,the question at issue is whether our new men have anything to say1 and do they say it in a personal manner4 ,i think the answer is a decided affirmative4 ,we can't compete with the great names in art1 but in the contemporary swim we fairly hold our own4 ,consider our recent ,academy exhibitions--and ,i prefer to take this stronghold of antiquated art and prejudices as a starting-point rather than the work of the out-and-out insurgents--consider1 ,i repeat1 the ,academy1 and then try to recall1 say1 ten years ago and the pictures that then hung on the line4 ,decidedly1 as ,zola would say1 there has been a cleaning up of dirty old palettes1 an inrush of fresh air and sunshine4 ,in landscape we excel1 easily leading the ,english painters4 ,of ,germany ,i do not care to speak here3 the sea of mud that passes for colour1 the clumsiness of handling1 and the general heavy self-satisfaction discourage the most ardent champion of the ,teutonic art4 ,in ,england1 ,burlington ,house still sets the fashion4 ,at one ,royal ,academy ,i attended ,i found throngs before a melodramatic anecdote by ,john ,collier1 entitled ,the ,fallen ,ideal4 ,it had the rigidity of a tinted photograph4 ,but it hit the gallery1 which dearly loves a story in paint4 ,the two ,sargent landscapes did not attract1 yet they killed every picture within optical range4 ,nor was ,collier's the worst offence in an enormous gathering of mediocre canvases4 ,one must go1 nowadays1 to the ,new ,english ,art ,club to see the fine flower of new ,english art4 ,there ,augustus ,john reigns1 but he is not to be confined in parochial limits2 he is a ,european event1 not merely ,welsh4 ,he dominates the club as he dominates ,english art4 ,what's one man's paint may be another's poison4 ,i never saw so many examples of his except in ,mr4 ,john ,quinn's collection--who has the largest gathering in ,america of the work of this virile painter and draughtsman4 ,his cartoon--,the ,flute of ,pan 7the property of ,mr4 ,quinn7--hanging in the winter show of the ,english ,art ,club1 reveals the artist's impulse toward large decorative schemes4 ,at first the composition seems huddled1 but the cross-rhythms and avoidance of facile pose are the reason for this impression4 ,the work is magisterial4 ,it grows upon one1 though it is doubtful whether it will ever make the appeal popular4 ,john's colour spots are seductive4 ,he usually takes a single model and plays with the motive as varyingly as did ,brahms in his variations on a theme by ,paganini4 ,but with all his transcendental virtuosity the ,welsh painter is never academic2 he is often rank in his expression of humanity1 human1 all-too-human1 as ,nietzsche would have said4 ,a great personality 7with greater potentialities7 is that of ,augustus ,john4 ,but aside from his powerful personality and remarkable craftsmanship1 who is there that can't be matched by our own men8 ,there are no landscapists like ours--is it necessary to count them off name by name8 ,neither are our figure-painters excelled4 ,i know comparisons are not courteous1 and ,i forbear particularising4 ,john ,s4 ,sargent1 our greatest painter of surfaces1 of the mundane scene1 was not even born here1 though he is of ,american parentage4 ,nevertheless1 we claim him4 ,then there is ,whistler1 most elusive of our artists4 ,is he ,american8 ,that question has been answered4 ,he is1 even if he deals with foreign subject-matter4 ,wonderfully wrought1 magically coloured1 rich and dim1 are his pictures1 and one1 to employ the phrase of an ,english critic1 is fain to believe that his brush was dipped in mist1 not pigment4 ,let us be catholic4 ,let us try to shift anew the focus of criticism when a fresh personality swims into our ken4 ,let us study each man according to his temperament and not insist that he should chime with other men's music4 ,the ,beckmesser style of awarding good and bad marks is obsolete4 ,to miss modern art is to miss one of the few thrills that life holds4 ,your true decadent copies the past and closes his eyes to the insistent vibrations of his day4 ,i know that it is not every one who can enjoy ,botticelli and ,monet1 ,drer and ,manet1 ,rembrandt and ,matisse4 ,ready-made admiration is fatal to youthful minds2 nevertheless1 we should1 all of us1 old as well as young--particularly the academic elderly--cultivate a broader comprehension of the later schools and personalities4 ,art is protean4 ,but will1 ,i ask myself1 posterity sit before the masterpieces of ,matisse1 ,picasso1 and ,van ,dongen1 and experience that nostalgia of the ideal of which ,i wrote at the beginning of these desultory notes8 ,why not8 ,there may be other ideals in those remote times1 ideals that may be found incarnate in some new-fangled tremendous ,gehenna4 ,but nature will always remain modern4 ,,ii ,,the ,,italian ,,futurist ,,painters ,because ,i had strolled over to buy a newspaper at a kiosk hard by the ,rijks ,museum in ,amsterdam1 ,i discovered an announcement that the ,italian ,futurists were holding an exhibition in ,de ,roos ,gallery on the ,rokindam4 ,this was early in ,september1 #aiab4 ,what a chance1 ,i thought1 to compare the new with the old4 ,after that glorious trinity1 ,rembrandt1 ,frans ,hals1 and ,vermeer1 hanging in the ,rijks1 what a piquant contrast to study the new-fangled heresies and fantastic high-kicking of the ,futurists6 ,this group1 consisting of five ,italian painters in company with the poet ,marinetti as a self-constituted chef d'cole1 is perfectly agreed that all the old conventions of pictorial art have outlived their usefulness2 that drawing1 colour1 perspective1 harmonious composition must walk the plank as far as they are concerned2 in a word1 classic1 romantic1 impressionistic art is doomed2 only symbolism will endure2 for symbolism only is there a future4 ,signor ,marinetti1 who coined the hideous word1 ,futurism1 goes still further4 ,literature1 too1 must throw off the yoke of syntax4 ,the adjective must be abolished1 the verb of the infinite should be always employed2 the adverb must follow the adjective2 every substantive should have its double2 away with punctuation2 you must orchestrate your language 7this outrivals ,ren ,ghil72 the personal pronoun is also to disappear with the rest of the outmoded literary baggage1 which was once so useful to such moribund mediocrities 7the phrase is of ,marinetti's making7 as ,dante1 ,petrarch1 ,tasso1 ,alfieri2 even ,d',annunzio is become a moss-covered reactionary4 ,i purposely mention ,marinetti and his manifesto for the reason that this movement in painting and sculpture is decidedly literary1 the very accusation of which makes the insurgents mightily rage4 ,for example1 ,i came across in ,de ,kunst1 a ,dutch art publication in ,amsterdam1 a specimen of ,marinetti's sublimated prose1 the one page of which is supposed to contain more suggestive images and ideas than a library written in the old-fashioned manner4 ,here are a few lines 7,battle is the title and the prose is in ,french73 ,bataille4 ,poids-odeur4 ,midi #c_/d flutes glapissement embrasement toumb toumb alarme gargaresch raquement rpitation marche1 etc4 ,this parrot lingo1 a mere stringing together of verbs and nouns1 reminds one of the way the little ,african child was taught to say1 dog1 man1 horse1 cow1 pump4 ,when at ,turin in ,march1 #aiaj1 they threw rotten eggs at ,marinetti1 in the ,chiarella ,theatre1 the audience was but venting its feelings of indignation because of such silly utterances4 ,baudelaire1 patterning after ,poe and ,bertrand1 fashioned poems in prose and created images of beauty2 following him ,huysmans added a novel nuance and made the form still more concentrated4 ,but ,signor ,marinetti--there are no ideas in his prose and his images are nil--writes as if he were using a cable code1 a crazy one at that4 ,how far he is responsible for the sthetic of the ,futurist art ,i don't know4 ,if he is responsible at all then he has worked much mischief1 for several of the five painters are men of unquestionable ability1 skilled brush workers and of an artistic sincerity that is without suspicion4 ,mind you1 ,i don't say all of the groups2 there are charlatans who hang on to the coat-tails of every talented man or are camp-followers in every movement4 ,these five painters3 ,umberto ,boccioni 7,milan72 ,carlo ,d4 ,carra 7,milan72 ,luigi ,russolo 7,milan72 ,giacomo ,balla 7,rome71 and ,gino ,severini 7,paris7 do not paint for money4 ,the pictures in this exhibition are not for sale2 indeed1 ,i doubt if the affair pays expenses1 for it has travelled far2 from ,turin and ,milan and ,rome1 to ,paris1 ,london1 ,berlin1 ,amsterdam4 ,it will be in ,new ,york soon1 and then look out for a repetition of the ,playboy of the ,western ,world scandal4 ,some of the pictures are very provocative4 ,naturally the antithesis of old and new was unescapable the chilly ,september afternoon that ,i entered the ,roos gallery4 ,fresh from ,the ,milk ,jug1 that miracle in paint by ,vermeer 7formerly of the ,jan ,six ,collection72 from the ,rembrandt ,night ,watch 7which was not much damaged by the maniac who slashed the right knee of the principal figure72 from the two or three splendid portraits by ,frans ,hals2 from the ,elizabeth ,bas and the ,stallmeesters by ,rembrandt--from all these masterpieces of great paint1 poetry1 humour1 humanity1 ,i confess the transition to the wild and whirling kaleidoscopes called pictures by these ferocious ,futurists was too sudden for my eyes and understanding4 ,it was some time before ,i could orient myself optically4 ,if you have ever peered through one of those pasteboard cylinders dear to childhood1 you will catch a tithe of my early sensations4 ,all that ,i had read of the canvases was mere colourless phrase-making4 ,after the first shudder had passed1 the magnetism1 a hideous magnetism1 drew you to the walls1 the lunatic patterns began to yield up vague meanings2 arabesques that threatened one's sanity became almost intelligible4 ,the yelling walls seemed to sing more in tune1 the flaring tones softened a trifle1 there was method in all this madness and presently you discovered that there was more method than madness1 and that way critical madness lay4 ,you are not in the least converted to this arbitrary and ignominious splashing of raw tints1 but you are interested--you linger1 you study and then you fall to reading the philosophy of the movement4 ,it is the hour of your apritive1 l'heure exquise1 when you take your departure1 and out on the noisy ,rokindam1 not far from the ,central railway station1 you rub your eyes and then note that the very chaos you resented in the canvases of the ,futurists is in the streets--which are being repaved4 ,snorting motor-cars and rumbling busses go by1 people seem to be walking up inclined planes1 the houses lean over and their windows leer and beckon to you2 the sky is like a stage cloth and sweeps the roofs2 you hurry to your hotel and in strong tea you drown your memories of the ,italian ,futurists4 ,it is only fair to give their side of the case4 ,this ,i shall condense1 as the exuberant lyricism and defiant dithyramb soon became monotonous4 ,they write like very young and enthusiastic chaps1 and they are for the most part mature men and experienced painters4 ,luckily for their public1 ,signor ,marinetti and his friends did not adopt his ,siamese telegraphic style in their printed programme4 ,they begin by stating that they will sing the love of danger1 the habit of energy and boldness4 ,the essential elements of their poetry will be courage1 daring1 and rebellion4 ,literature has hitherto glorified serene immobility1 ecstasy1 and sleep2 they will extol aggressive movement1 feverish insomnia1 the double-quick step1 the somersault1 the box on the ear1 the fisticuff4 ,they declare that the world's splendour has been enriched by a new beauty3 the beauty of speed4 ,a racing car1 its frame adorned by great pipes1 like snakes with explosive breath1 a roaring motor-car1 which looks as though running on shrapnel1 is more beautiful than the ,winged ,victory of ,samothrace in the ,louvre4 ,note just here the speed-mania motive4 ,there is no more beauty except in strife4 ,no masterpiece without aggressiveness4 ,poetry must be a violent onslaught upon the unknown forces1 commanding them to bow before man4 ,now there is nothing particularly new in this4 ,great poetry is dynamic as it is also reflective 7the ,futurists call the latter static74 ,they say they stand on the extreme promontory of the centuries4 ,why1 they ask1 should we look behind us1 when we have to break into the mysterious portals of the impossible8 ,time and space died yesterday4 ,already we live in the absolute1 since we have already created speed1 eternal and ever present4 ,this rigmarole of metaphysics betrays the influence of the ,henri ,bergson philosophy1 the philosophy of rhythm and rhythmic motion4 ,it is just as original2 i4 e41 not original at all4 ,mother ,earth is still spinning through space at the gait originally imparted to her by the sun's superior force4 ,mankind on her outer rind spins with her4 ,because we have invented steam and electric cars1 we must not arrogate to ourselves the discovery of speed4 ,what has speed to do with painting on a flat surface1 painting in two dimensions of space8 ,wait a bit6 ,we are coming to the application of rhythm to paint4 ,the ,futurists wish to glorify war--the only health-giver of the world--militarism1 patriotism1 the destructive arm of the anarchist1 the beautiful ideas that kill1 the contempt for woman4 ,they wish to destroy the museums1 the libraries 7unlucky ,mr4 ,carnegie671 to fight moralism1 feminism1 and all opportunistic and utilitarian measures4 ,museums are for them cemeteries of art2 to admire an old picture is to pour our sensitiveness into a funeral urn1 instead of casting it forward in violent gushes of creation and action4 ,so set fire to the shelves of libraries6 ,deviate the course of canals to flood the cellars of museums6 ,seize pickaxes and hammers6 ,sap the foundations of the antique cities6 ,we stand upon the summit of the world and once more we cast our challenge to the stars4 ,thus ,f4 ,t4 ,marinetti1 editor of ,poesia4 ,the manifesto of the new crowd is too lengthy to reproduce2 but here are a few of its tenets3 #ast3 ,that imitation must be despised1 and all originality glorified4 7,how novel67 #b;d3 ,that it is essential to rebel against the tyranny of the terms harmony and good taste as being too elastic expressions1 by the help of which it is easy to demolish the works of ,rembrandt1 of ,goya1 and of ,rodin4 #c;d3 ,that the art-critics are useless or harmful4 #dth3 ,that all subjects previously used must be swept aside in order to express our whirling life of steel1 of pride1 of fever1 and of speed4 #eth3 ,that the name of madman with which it is attempted to gag all innovators1 should be looked upon as a title of honour4 #fth3 ,that innate complementariness is an absolute necessity in painting1 just as free metre in poetry or polyphony in music4 ,oh1 ass who wrote this6 ,polyphony is not a modern invention4 ,a man named ,bach1 ,johann ,sebastian ,bach1 wrote fugues of an extraordinary beauty and clearness in their most complicated polyphony4 ,but polyphony 7or many voices7 is new in painting1 and to the ,futurists must be conceded the originality of attempting to represent a half dozen different things at the same time on canvas--a dog's tail1 a woman's laughter1 the thoughts of a man who has had a hard night1 the inside of a motor-bus1 and the ideas of its passengers concerning its bumping wheels1 and what-not6 #gth3 ,that universal dynamism must be rendered in painting as a dynamic sensation4 #hth3 ,that in the manner of rendering nature1 the essential is sincerity and purity 7more copy-book maxims for us674 #ith3 ,that movement and light destroy the materiality of bodies 7a truism in art well known to ,watteau1 ,rembrandt1 ,turner1 and latterly1 to ,claude ,monet and the earlier group of ,impressionists74 ,and now for the milk in the cocoanut4 ,we fight1 concludes the manifesto3 #ast3 ,against the bituminous tints by which it is attempted to obtain the patina of tone upon modern pictures4 7,the chief objection against this statement is its absolute superfluousness4 ,the ,impressionists forty years ago attacked bituminous painting and finally drove it out2 now it is coming back as a novelty4 ,the ,futurists are gazing backward47 #b;d3 ,against the superficial and elementary archaism founded upon flat tints1 which1 by imitating the linear technique of the ,egyptians1 reduces painting to a powerless synthesis both childish and grotesque4 #c;d3 ,against the false claims of belonging to the future put forward by the ,secessionists and the ,independents1 who have installed new academies no less trite and attached to routine than the preceding ones4 #dth3 ,we demand for ten years the total suppression of the nude in painting4 ,there are thirty-four pictures in the show1 the catalogue of which is a curiosity4 ,boccioni's ,the ,street ,enters the ,home has a note in the catalogue which points out that the painter does not limit himself to what he sees in the square frame of the window as would a simple photographer1 but he also reproduces what he would see by looking out on every side from the balcony4 ,isn't this lucid8 ,but you ought to see the jumble in the canvas caused by the painter casting aside the chief prerogative of an artist1 the faculty of selection1 or1 rather1 as ,walter ,pater puts it1 the tact of omission4 ,there is the motion of moonlight in one canvas and in ,no4 #bd1 by ,russolo1 entitled ,rebellion1 there is an effort to delineate--better say express1 as the art of delineation is here in abeyance--the collision of two forces1 that of the revolutionary element made up of enthusiasm and red lyricism against the force of inertia and reactionary resistance of tradition4 ,the angles are the vibratory waves of the former force in motion4 ,the perspective of the houses is destroyed just as a boxer is bent double by receiving a blow in the wind 7refined image674 ,as this picture is purely symbolical1 it is not open to objections2 but isn't it rather amusing8 ,memory of a ,night1 by ,russolo 7,no4 #bc71 is a fantastic impression produced not by line but by colour4 ,an elongated insect or snail--is it a man or a grasshopper8--is in the first plane2 back of him is a girl's face with pleading eyes2 an explosion of light in the background is evidently intended for an electric lamp2 the rest is chaos4 ,the ,milliner 7,no4 #cb7 by ,severini1 the painter calls3 ,an arabesque of the movement produced by the twinkling colours and iridescence of the frills and furbelows on show2 the electric light divides the scene into defined zones4 ,a study of simultaneous penetration4 ,the deathly grin of the modiste is about the only simultaneous penetration that ,i could see in the canvas4 ,as confused as is ,no4 #bg1 ,the ,pan-,pan ,dance at the ,monico1 by ,severini1 there are some vital bits1 excellent modelling1 striking detail1 though as a whole1 it is hard to unravel2 the point d'appui is missing2 the interest is nowhere focussed1 though the dancer woman soon catches the eye4 ,no doubt a crowded supper room in a ,continental caf1 the white napery1 variegated colours of the women's attire1 the movement and blinding glare of the lights are a chaotic blur when you first open your eyes upon them2 but the human eye with its almost infinite capacity for adaptation soon resolves disorder into order1 formlessness into form4 ,the trouble with the ,futurist is that he catches the full force of the primal impression1 then later loads it with his own subjective fancies4 ,the outcome is bound to be a riddle4 ,i confess without hesitation there are several pictures in the exhibition which impressed me4 ,power is power1 no matter the strange airs it may at times assume4 ,browning's ,sordello1 despite its numerous obscure passages1 is withal a work of high purpose1 it always stirs the imagination4 ,i found myself staring at ,carr's ,funeral of the ,anarchist ,galli and wondering after all whether a conflict shouldn't be represented in a conflicting manner4 ,zola reproached both ,de ,goncourt and ,flaubert for their verbal artistry4 ,vulgar happenings1 he said1 should be presented in the bluntest fashion4 ,and then he contradicted himself in practice by attempting to write like ,hugo and ,flaubert4 ,signor ,carr1 who probably witnessed the street row at the funeral of ,galli between the students and the police1 sets before us in all its vivacity or rhythm--or rhythms--the fight4 ,it is a real fight4 ,and while ,i quite agree with ,edgar ,degas1 who said he could make a crowd out of four or five figures in a picture1 it is no reflection on ,carr's power to do the same with a dozen or more4 ,a picture as full of movement and the clash of combatants as is the battle section of the ,richard ,strauss ,symphony1 ,a ,hero's ,life4 ,realism is the dominating factor in both works4 ,the cane and club swinging sympathisers of the anarchist are certainly vital4 ,in what then consists the originality of the ,futurists8 ,possibly their blatant claim to originality4 ,the ,primitives1 ,italian and ,flemish1 saw the universe with amazing clearness2 their pictorial metaphysics was clarity itself2 their mysticism was never muddy2 all nature was settled1 serene1 and brilliantly silhouetted4 ,but mark you6 they1 too1 enjoyed depicting a half-dozen happenings on the same canvas4 ,fresh from a tour through the galleries of ,holland1 ,belgium1 and ,france1 after a special study of the ,primitives1 ,i quite understand what the ,futurists are after4 ,they emulate the innocence of the eye characteristic of the early painters1 but despite their strong will they cannot recover the blitheness and sweetness1 the native wood-note wild1 nor recapture their many careless moods4 ,they weave the pattern closer1 seeking to express in paint a psychology that is only possible in literature4 ,and they endeavour to imitate music with its haunting suggestiveness1 its thematic vagueness1 its rhythmic swiftness and splendour of tonalities4 ,in vain4 ,no picture can spell many moods simultaneously1 nor paint soul-states successively within one frame4 ,these painters have mistaken their vocation4 ,they should have been musicians or writers1 or handle the more satisfactory1 if less subtle1 cinematograph4 ,will there ever be a new way of seeing as well as representing life1 animate and inanimate8 ,who shall say8 ,the ,impressionists1 working on hints from ,watteau1 ,rembrandt1 ,turner1 gave us a fresh view of the universe4 ,rhythm in art is no new thing4 ,in the figures of ,el ,greco as in the prancing horses of ,gricault1 rhythm informs every inch of the canvas4 ,the ,futurists are seeking a new synthesis1 and their work is far from synthetic2 it is decomposition--in the painter's sense of the word--carried to the point of distraction4 ,doubtless each man has a definite idea when he takes up his brush1 but all the king's horses and all the king's men can't make out that idea when blazoned on the canvas4 ,the ,futurists may be for the future1 but not for to-day's limited range of vision4 ,,xv ,,in ,,the ,,workshop ,,of ,,zola ,taine once wrote3 ,when we know how an artist invents we can foresee his inventions4 ,as to ,zola1 there is little need now for critical judgments on his work4 ,he is definitely placed2 we know him for what he is--a romancer of a violent idealistic type masquerading as an implacable realist2 a lyric pessimist at the beginning of his literary career1 a sonorous optimist at the close1 with vague socialistic views as to the perfectibility of the human race4 ,but he traversed distances before he finally found himself a field in which stirred and struggled all human animality4 ,and he was more ,zola when he wrote ,thrse ,raquin than in his later trilogies and evangels4 ,as an artist it is doubtful if he grew after #ahhj2 repetition was his method of methods1 or1 as he once remarked to ,edmond de ,goncourt3 ,firstly1 ,i fix my nail1 and then with a blow of the hammer ,i send it a centimetre deep into the brain of the public2 then ,i knock it in as far again--and the hammer of which ,i make use is journalism4 ,and a tremendous journalist to the end was ,zola1 despite his books and naturalistic theories4 ,again1 and from the diary of the same sublimated old gossip1 ,goncourt1 ,zola speaks3 ,after the rarefied analysis of a certain kind of sentiment1 such as the work done by ,flaubert in ,madame ,bovary2 after the analysis of things1 plastic and artistic1 such as you have given us in your dainty1 gemlike writing1 there is no longer any room for the younger generation of writers2 there is nothing left for them to do1 444 there no longer remains a single type to portray4 ,the only way of appealing to the public is by strong writing1 powerful creations1 and by the number of volumes given to the world4 ,theory-ridden ,zola's polemical writings1 like those of ,richard ,wagner's1 must be set down to special pleading4 ,certainly ,zola gave the world a number of volumes1 and1 if the writing was not always strong--his style is usually mediocre--the subjects were often too strong for polite nostrils4 ,as ,henri ,massis1 the author of an interesting book1 ,how ,zola ,composed ,his ,novels1 says1 he founded his work on a theory which is the most singular of mistakes4 ,the experimental novel is now a thing as extinct as the dodo1 yet what doughty battles were fought for its shapeless thesis4 ,the truth is that ,zola invented more than he observed4 ,he was myopic1 not a trained scrutiniser1 and ,huysmans1 once a disciple1 later an opponent of the naturalistic documents1 maliciously remarked that ,zola went out carriage riding in the country1 and then wrote ,la ,terre4 ,turgenieff declared that ,zola could describe sweat on a human back1 but never told us what the human thought4 ,and in a memorable passage1 ,huysmans couches his lance against the kind of realism ,zola represented1 admitting the service performed by that romancer3 ,we must1 in short1 follow the great highway so deeply dug out by ,zola1 but it is also necessary to trace a parallel path in the air1 another road by which we may reach the ,beyond and the ,afterward1 to achieve thus a spiritualistic naturalism4 ,mr4 ,massis has had access to the manuscripts of ,zola deposited by his widow in the ,national ,library1 ,paris4 ,they number ninety volumes2 the dossier alone of ,germinal forms four volumes of five hundred pages4 ,such industry seems fabulous4 ,but1 if it did not pass ,zola through the long-envied portals of the ,academy1 it has won for his ashes such an honourable resting-place as the ,panthon4 ,there is irony in the pranks of the ,zeitgeist4 ,zola1 snubbed at every attempt he made to become an ,immortal 7unlike his friend ,daudet1 he openly admitted his candidature1 not sharing with the author of ,sapho his sovereign contempt for the fauteuils of the ,forty72 ,zola1 in an hour becoming the most unpopular writer in ,france after his memorable ,j'accuse1 a fugitive from his home1 the defender of a seemingly hopeless cause2 ,zola dead1 ,dreyfus exonerated1 and the powdered bones of ,zola in the ,panthon1 with the great men of his land4 ,few of his contemporaries who voted against his admission to the ,academy will be his neighbours in the eternal sleep4 ,his admission to the dead ,immortals must be surely the occasion for much wagging of heads1 for reams of platitudinous writing on the subject of fate and its whirligig caprice4 ,this stubborn1 silent man of violent imagination1 copious vocabulary1 and a tenacity unparalleled in literature1 knew that a page a day--a thousand words daily put on paper every day of the year--and for twenty years1 would rear a huge edifice4 ,he stuck to his desk each morning of his life from the time he sketched the ,plan gnral2 he made such terms with his publishers that he was enabled to live humbly1 yet comfortably1 in the beginning with his dear ones1 his wife and his mother4 ,in return he wrote two volumes a year1 and1 with the exception of a few years1 his production was as steady as water flowing from a hydrant4 ,this comparison was once applied to herself by ,george ,sand1 ,zola's only rival in the matter of quantity4 ,but ,madame ,sand was an improviser2 with notes she never bothered herself2 in her letters to ,flaubert she laughed over the human documents of ,zola1 the elaborate note taking of ,daudet1 for she was blessed with an excellent memory and a huge capacity for scribbling4 ,not so ,zola4 ,each book was a painful parturition1 not the pain of a stylist like ,flaubert1 but the ,sisyphus-like labor of getting his notes1 his facts1 his characters marshalled and moving to a conclusion4 ,like ,anthony ,trollope1 when the last page of a book was finished he began another4 ,he was a workman1 not a dilettante of letters4 ,in #ahfh he had blocked out his formidable campaign4 ,differing with ,balzac in not taking ,french society as a whole for a subject1 he nevertheless owes1 as do all ,french fiction writers since #ahcj--,stendhal alone excepted--his literary existence to ,balzac2 ,balzac1 from whom all blessings1 all evils1 flow in the domain of the novel2 ,balzac1 realist1 idealist1 symbolist1 naturalist1 humourist1 tragedian1 comedian1 aristocrat1 bourgeois1 poet1 and cleric2 ,balzac1 truly the ,shakespeare of ,france4 ,the ,human ,comedy attracted the synthetic brain of ,zola as he often tells us 7see ,l',oeuvre1 where ,sandoz1 the novelist1 ,zola himself1 explains to ,claude his scheme of a prose epic74 ,but he was satisfied to take one family under the ,second ,empire1 the ,rougon-,macquarts--these names were not at first in the form we now know them4 ,a friend and admirer of ,flaubert1 he followed1 broadly speaking1 his method of proceeding and work2 though an admirer of the ,goncourts1 he did not favour their preference for the rare case or the chiselled epithet4 ,every-day humanity described in every-day speech was ,zola's ideal4 ,that he more than once achieved this ideal is not to be denied4 ,l',assommoir remains his masterpiece1 while ,germinal and ,l',oeuvre will not be soon forgotten4 ,l',oeuvre is mentioned because its finished style is rather a novelty in ,zola's vast vat of writing wherein scraps and fragments of ,victor ,hugo1 of ,chateaubriand1 of the ,goncourts1 and of ,flaubert boil in terrific confusion4 ,zola never had the patience1 nor the time1 nor perhaps the desire to develop an individual style4 ,he built long rows of ugly houses1 all looking the same1 composed of mud1 of stone1 brick1 sand1 straw1 and shining pebbles4 ,like a bird1 he picked up his material for his nest where he could find it4 ,his faculty of selection was ill-developed4 ,everything was tossed pell-mell into his cellar2 nothing came amiss and order seldom reigns4 ,his sentences1 unlike ,tolstoy's1 for example1 are not closely linked2 to read ,zola aloud is disconcerting4 ,there is no music in his periods1 his rhythms are sluggish1 and he entirely fails in evoking with a few poignant phrases1 as did the ,goncourts1 a scene1 an incident4 ,never the illuminating word1 never the phrase that spells the transfiguration of the spirit4 ,among his contemporaries ,tolstoy was the only one who matches him in the accumulation of details1 but for the ,russian every detail modulates into another1 notwithstanding their enormous number4 ,the story marches1 the little facts1 insignificant at first1 range themselves into definite illuminations of the theme1 just as a traveller afoot on a hot1 dusty road misses the saliency of the landscape1 but realises its perspective when he ascends a hill4 ,there is always perspective in ,tolstoy2 in ,zola it is rare4 ,yet he masses his forces as would some sullen giant1 confident in the end of victory through sheer bulk and weight4 ,his power is gloomy1 cruel1 pitiless2 but indubitable power he has4 ,after the rather dainty writing of his ,contes ,ninon1 ,zola never reached such compression and clarity again until he wrote ,l',attaque au ,moulin1 in ,les ,soires de ,medan4 ,to be quite frank1 he rewrote ,flaubert and the ,goncourts in many of his books4 ,he was1 using the phrase in its real sense1 the grand vulgariser of those finished1 though somewhat remote artists4 ,to the ,goncourts fame came slowly2 it was by a process of elimination rather than through the voluntary offering of popular esteem4 ,and it is not to be denied that ,madame ,bovary owed much of its early success to the fact that its author was prosecuted for an outrage against public morals--poor ,emma ,bovary whose life1 as ,henry ,james once confessed1 might furnish a moral for a ,sunday-school class4 ,thus fashions in books wax and wane4 ,zola copied and vulgarised ,charles de ,mailly1 ,manette ,salomon1 ,germinie ,lacerteux 7,charles ,monselet saluted the book with the amiable title sculptured slime71 ,madame ,gervasais--for his ,roman story---,soeur ,philomne1 all by ,goncourt1 and he literally founded his method on ,madame ,bovary and ,l',education ,sentimentale1 particularly upon the latter1 the greatest1 and one is tempted to say the most genuine realistic novel ever written4 ,its grey colouring1 its daylight atmosphere1 its marvellous description of ,fontainebleau1 of masquerades1 of dinners and duels in high and low life1 its lifelike characters1 were for ,zola a treasure-trove4 ,he took ,rosanette1 the most lifelike cocotte in fiction1 and transformed her into ,nana1 into a symbol of destruction4 ,zola saw the world through melodramatic eyes4 ,mr4 ,massis has noted ,zola's method of literary travail1 the formation of his style1 the labour of style1 the art of writing1 the pain of writing1 and his infinitely painstaking manner of accumulating heaps of notes1 and building his book from them4 ,the ,massis study1 the most complete of its kind1 may interest the student1 not alone of ,zola1 but of literature in general4 ,not1 however1 as a model1 for ,zola1 with all his tiresome preparations1 never constructed an ideal book--rather1 to put it the other way1 no one of his books reveals ideal construction4 ,the multiplicity of details1 of descriptions weary the reader4 ,a coarse spirit his1 he revelled in scenes of lust1 bloodshed1 vileness1 and cruelty4 ,his people1 with a few exceptions1 are but agitated silhouettes4 ,you close your eyes after reading ,la ,bte ,humaine and think of ,eugne ,sue1 a ,sue of #ahhj4 ,yet a master of broad1 symphonic descriptions4 ,there is a certain resemblance to ,richard ,wagner2 indeed1 he patterned after ,wagner in his use of the musical symbol3 there is a leading motive in each of ,zola's novels4 ,and like ,wagner he was a sentimental lover of mankind and a hater of all forms of injustice4 ,from the conception of the work1 with its general notes on its nature1 its movement1 its physiology1 its determination1 its first sketches of the personages1 the milieu--he was an ardent adherent of ,taine in this particular--the occupations of the characters1 the summary plan with the accumulated details1 thence to the writing1 the entire method is exposed in this ingenious and entertaining book of ,massis4 ,he has no illusions about ,zola's originality or the destiny of his works4 ,zola has long ceased to count in literary evolution4 ,but ,emile ,zola is in the ,panthon4 ,,zola ,,as ,,best ,,seller ,the publication of the number of books sold by a young ,american novelist previous to his untimely taking off does not prove that a writer has to be alive to be a best seller4 ,if that were the case1 what about ,dickens and ,thackeray as exceptions8 ,the publishers of ,dickens say that their sales of his novels in #aiaj were #be per cent more than in #aiji1 and #gej1jjj copies were sold in #aiaa4 ,in many instances a dead author is worth more than a live one4 ,with ,zola this is not precisely so1 though his books still sell2 the only interregnum being the time when the ,dreyfus affair was agitating ,france4 ,then the source of ,zola's income dried up like a rain pond in a desert4 ,later on he had his revenge4 ,the figures for the sale of ,zola up to the end of #aiaa are very instructive4 ,his collected works number forty-eight volumes4 ,of the ,rougon-,macquart series #a1ifd1jjj have been sold2 other novels1 #gfd1jjj2 essays and various works bring the total to #b1gej1jjj1 approximately4 ,in a word1 a few years hence ,zola will easily pass #c1jjj1jjj4 ,nana still holds its own as the leader of the list1 #bae1jjj2 ,la ,terre1 #afb1jjj2 ,l',assommoir1 #afb1jjj4 ,this would seem to prove what the critics of the ,french novelist have asserted3 that books in which coarse themes are treated with indescribable coarseness have sold and continue to sell better than his finer work1 ,l',oeuvre1 for example1 which has only achieved #ga1jjj4 ,but ,l',assommoir is ,zola at his best2 besides1 it is not such a vile book as ,la ,terre4 ,and then how about ,la ,dbcle1 which has #bbi1jjj copies to its credit8 ,the answer is that patriotism played a greater rle in the fortune of this work than did vulgar curiosity in the case of the others4 ,another popular book1 ,germinal1 shows #acb1jjj4 ,on the appearance of ,la ,terre in #ahhg 7it was first published as a feuilleton in ,gil ,blas1 from ,may #bh to ,september #ae71 five of ,zola's disciples1 ,paul ,bonnetain1 ,j4 ,h4 ,rosny1 ,lucien ,descaves1 ,paul ,margueritte1 and ,gustave ,guiches1 made a public protest which is rather comical if you remember that several of these writers have not turned out ,sunday-school literature2 ,paul ,margueritte in particular has in ,l',or and an earlier work beaten his master at the game4 ,but a reaction from ,zola's naturalism was bound to come4 ,as ,remy de ,gourmont wrote3 ,there has been no question of forming a party or issuing orders2 no crusade was organised2 it is individually that we have separated ourselves1 horror stricken1 from a literature the baseness of which made us sick4 ,havelock ,ellis1 otherwise an admirer of the genius of ,emile ,zola1 has said that his soul seems to have been starved at the centre and to have encamped at the sensory periphery4 ,blunt ,george ,saintsbury calls ,zola the naturalist ,zeus1 ,jove the ,dirt-,compeller1 and adds that as ,zola misses the two lasting qualities of literature1 style1 and artistic presentation of matter1 he is doomed2 for the first he probably could not have attained1 except in a few passages1 if he would2 the second he has deliberately rejected1 and so the mother of dead dogs awaits him sooner or later4 ,yet ,zola lives despite these predictions1 as the above figures show1 notwithstanding his loquacity in regard to themes that should be tacenda to every writer4 ,but in this matter of forbidden subjects ,zola is regarded by the present generation as a trifle old-fashioned4 ,when alive he was grouped with ,aretino and the ,marquis de ,sade1 or with ,restif de la ,bretonne4 ,to-day ,paris has not only ,paul ,margueritte1 who when writing in conjunction with his brother ,victor gave much promise1 but also ,octave ,mirbeau4 ,with ,zola1 the newer men assert that their work makes for morality1 exposing as it does public and private abuses1 an excuse as classic as ,aristophanes4 ,in #ahic the figures for the principal novels of ,zola stood thus3 ,nana1 #afj1jjj2 ,l',assommoir1 #abg1jjj2 ,la ,dbcle1 #adc1jjj2 ,germinal1 #hh1jjj2 ,la ,terre1 #ajj1jjj2 ,la ,bte ,humaine1 #hc1jjj2 the same number for ,le ,rve2 ,pot-,bouille1 #hb1jjj2 whereas ,l',oeuvre only counted #ee1jjj2 ,la ,conqute de ,plassans1 #be1jjj2 ,la ,cure1 #cf1jjj1 and ,la ,joie de ,vivre1 #dd1jjj4 ,la ,terre1 then1 the most unmentionable story of them all1 has jumped since #ahic to the end of #aiaa from #ajj1jjj to #bae1jjj1 whereas ,l',oeuvre moved only from #ee1jjj to #ga1jjj in fourteen years4 ,but a ,vulgarian can understand ,la ,terre while ,l',oeuvre would be absolutely undecipherable to him4 ,zola always knew his market2 even knew it after ,dreyfus had intervened4 ,of the series called ,les ,trois ,villes1 ,rome is the best seller1 #aba1jjj2 and it is as profound a vilification of the ,eternal ,city as was ,la ,terre of the ,french peasants1 as ,pot-,bouille of the ,french bourgeois4 ,indeed1 all ,zola reads like the frenzied attack of a pessimist to whom his native land is a hideous nightmare and its inhabitants criminals or mad folk4 ,his influence on a younger generation of writers1 especially in ,america1 has been baneful1 and he has done much with his exuberant1 rhapsodical style to further the moon-madness of socialism2 of a belief in a coming earthly paradise1 where no one will labour 7except the captive millionaires7 and from whose skies roasted pigeons will fall straightway into the mouths of its foolish inhabitants4 ,zola as a money-maker need not be considered now2 his gains were enormous2 suffice to say that he was paid large sums for the serial rights4 ,nana1 in ,voltaire1 brought #bj1jjj francs2 ,pot-,bouille1 in ,gaulois1 #cj1jjj francs2 ,bonheur des ,dames1 ,la ,joie de ,vivre1 ,germinal1 ,l',oeuvre1 ,la ,terre1 in ,gil ,blas1 each #bj1jjj francs2 ,l',argent1 in the same journal1 #cj1jjj francs2 ,le ,rve1 in the ,revue ,illustre1 #be1jjj francs2 ,la ,bte ,humaine1 in ,vie ,populaire1 #be1jjj francs2 ,la ,dbcle1 in the same1 #cj1jjj francs1 and ,docteur ,pascal in ,revue ,hebdomadaire1 #ce1jjj francs4 ,that amounts to about #cjj1jjj francs4 ,each novel cost from #bj1jjj to #be1jjj francs for rights of reproduction1 and to all this must be added about #ejj1jjj francs for the theatrical works1 making a total of #a1fjj1jjj francs4 ,and it was in #ahid that these figures were compiled by ,antoine ,laporte in his book on ,naturalism1 which contains a savage attack on ,zolaism4 ,truly1 then1 ,zola may be fairly called one of the best sellers among all authors1 dead or living4 ,,xvi ,a ,,study ,,of ,,de ,,maupassant ,in #ahha ,turgenieff gave ,tolstoy a book by a young ,frenchman1 telling him that he would find it amusing4 ,this book was ,la ,maison ,tellier4 ,tolstoy revolted at the theme1 but could not deny the freshness and power of the author4 ,he found ,maupassant deficient in the moral sense2 yet he was interested and followed the progress of ,flaubert's pupil4 ,when ,une ,vie appeared1 the ,russian novelist pronounced it incomparably the best work of its author--perhaps the best ,french novel since ,hugo's ,les ,misrables4 ,he wrote this in an article entitled ,guy de ,maupassant and the ,art of ,fiction4 ,it was doubtless the ,norman's clear1 robust vision that appealed to ,tolstoy1 who1 at that period was undergoing a change of heart2 else how could he call ,les ,misrables the greatest novel of ,france1 he the writer of ,anna ,karenina--the antipodes of that windy apotheosis of vapid humanitarianism1 the characteristic trait of ,hugo's epic of pity and unreality4 ,but ,maupassant affected ,tolstoy as he had affected ,turgenieff4 ,guy has told us of his first meeting with the latter1 an artist superior to ,tolstoy4 ,the first time ,i saw ,turgenieff was at ,gustave ,flaubert's--a door opened2 a giant came in1 a giant with a silver head1 as they would say in a fairy tale4 ,this must have been in #ahgf1 for in a letter dated ,january #bd1 #ahgg1 ,turgenieff writes3 ,poor ,maupassant is losing all his hair4 ,he came to see me4 ,he is as nice as ever1 but very ugly just at present4 ,in #ahhj the young man published a volume of poetry1 ,des ,vers4 ,he was thirty years old 7born ,august #e1 #ahej74 ,the literary apprenticeship of ,guy to ,gustave ,flaubert is a thrice-told tale1 and signifies only this3 ,if the pupil had not been richly endowed all the lessons of ,flaubert would have availed him little4 ,perhaps the anecdote has been overdone2 ,maupassant has related it in the preface to ,pierre et ,jean1 and in the introduction to the ,george ,sand-,flaubert correspondence--now at the head of the edition of ,bouvard et ,pcuchet4 ,there are letters of ,flaubert to his disciple full of his explosive good nature1 big heart1 irascibility and generous outpouring on the subject of his art4 ,the thing that surprises a close student of this episode and its outcome is that ,maupassant was in reality so unlike his master4 ,and when ,i further insist that the younger man appropriated whole scenes from ,flaubert for his longer stories1 especially from ,l',education ,sentimentale1 ,i feel that ,i am uttering a paradox4 ,what ,i mean is this3 ,maupassant's temperament was utterly different from ,flaubert's4 ,they were both prosecuted for certain things they wrote1 ,guy for a poem in #ahhj1 at ,estampes2 there had been a dtraqu nervous system in both cases4 ,yet1 similar in ideals and physical peculiarities as were these two men1 there was a profound psychical gulf between their temperaments4 ,flaubert was a great genius1 a path breaker1 a philosophic poet1 and the author of ,la ,tentation de ,st4 ,antoine1 the nearest approach that ,france can show to a prose epic1 and a book of beauty and originality4 ,maupassant was a great talent1 and a growing one when disease cut him down4 ,he imitated the externals of ,flaubert1 his irony1 his vivid power of picture-making2 even his pessimism he developed--though that was personal1 as we shall soon see4 ,and yet his work is utterly unlike ,flaubert1 probably unlike what ,flaubert had hoped for--the old man died in #ahha and therefore did not live to enjoy ,maupassant in full bloom4 ,if it did not sound quite heretical ,i should be tempted to assert that the writer ,maupassant most patterned after1 was ,prosper ,mrime1 an artist detested by ,flaubert because of his hard style4 ,it is this precise style that ,maupassant exhibits but coupled with a clarity1 an ease1 and a grace that ,mrime could not boast4 ,of ,flaubert's harmonious and imaginatively coloured manner1 ,maupassant shows no trace in his six novels and his two hundred and odd tales4 ,maupassant was not altogether faithful to ,flaubert's injunctions regarding the publication of his early attempts4 ,he made many secret flights under different pen-names1 though ,boule de ,suif was the first prose signed by him4 ,it appeared in ,les ,soires de ,medan1 and its originality quite outshone the more solid qualities of ,zola's ,l',attaque au ,moulin1 and a realistic tale of ,huysmans's1 ,sac au dos4 ,it was this knapsack of story1 nevertheless1 that opened the eyes of both ,zola and ,goncourt to the genuine realism of ,huysmans as opposed to the more human but also more sentimental surface realism of ,maupassant4 ,huysmans proved himself devoid of the story-telling gift1 of dramatic power2 yet he has1 if compared to ,maupassant1 without an iota of doubt1 the more vivid vision of the two2 the intensest vision of the modern world1 says ,havelock ,ellis4 ,pictorial1 not imaginative vision1 be it understood4 ,in his mystic latter-day rhapsodies it is the realist who sees1 the realist who makes those poignant1 image-breeding phrases4 ,take up ,maupassant and in his best tales and novels1 such as ,la ,maison ,tellier1 ,boule de ,suif1 ,une ,vie1 ,fort ,comme la ,mort1 to mention a few1 you will be surprised at the fluidity1 the artful devices to elude the harshness of reality1 the pessimistic poetry that suffuses his pages after reading ,huysmans's immitigable exposition of the ugly and his unflinching attitude before the unpleasant4 ,and ,huysmans's point of departure is seldom from an idea2 facts furnish him with an adequate spring-board4 ,maupassant is more lyric in tone and texture4 ,edmond de ,goncourt1 jealous of the success of the newcomer1 wrote in his diary that ,maupassant was an admirable conteur1 but a great writer1 never4 ,zola admitted to a few intimates that ,guy was not the realist that ,huysmans was4 ,all of which is interesting1 but proves nothing except that ,maupassant wrote a marvellous collection of short stories1 real1 hyphenated short-stories1 as ,mr4 ,brander ,matthews makes the delicate distinction1 while ,huysmans did not4 ,edouard ,maynial's ,la ,vie et l',oeuvre de ,guy de ,maupassant is the most recent of the biographical studies devoted to our subject1 though ,baron ,albert ,lumbroso1 who escapes by a single letter from being confounded with the theory-ridden ,turin psychiatrist1 has given us1 with the approval of ,guy's mother1 the definitive study of ,maupassant's malady and death4 ,it is frequently quoted by ,maynial2 there is a careful study of it which appeared in ,mercure de ,france1 ,june1 #aije1 by ,louis ,thomas4 ,and there is that charming volume1 ,amiti amoureuse1 in which ,guy is said to figure as the ,philippe1 by ,henri ,amic and ,madame ,lecomte du ,nouy4 ,here we get another ,maupassant1 not the taureau triste of ,taine1 but a delightful1 sweet-tempered1 unselfish1 and altogether lovable fellow4 ,what was the cause of his downfall8 ,dissipation8 ,mental overwork--which is the same thing8 ,disease8 ,maynial1 ,lumbroso1 and ,thomas offer us such a variety of documents that there can be no doubt as to the determining element4 ,from #ahhj to his death in #ahic ,guy de ,maupassant was a candidate for general paralysis4 ,these are the words of his doctor1 later approved by ,doctor ,blanche1 to whose sanitarium in ,paris he was taken1 ,january #g1 #ahic4 ,the father of ,guy was ,gustave de ,maupassant1 of an ancient ,lorraine family4 ,this family was noble4 ,his mother was of ,norman extraction1 ,laure de ,poittevin1 the sister of ,alfred de ,poittevin1 ,flaubert's dearest friend1 a poet who died young4 ,there is no truth in the gossip that ,guy was the son of ,flaubert4 ,flaubert loved both the ,poittevins2 hence his lively interest in ,guy4 ,there was a younger brother1 ,herv de ,maupassant1 who died of a mental disorder4 ,his daughter1 ,simone1 is the legatee of her uncle4 ,the marriage of the elder ,maupassants proved a failure4 ,they are both dead now1 and the subject may be discussed to the point of admitting that the father was not a domestic man2 ,guy inherited his taste for ,bohemian life1 and ,madame ,laure de ,maupassant1 after separating from her husband1 was subject to nervous crises in which she attempted her life by swallowing laudanum and by strangling herself with her own hair4 ,she was rescued both times1 but she was an invalid to the last4 ,a loving mother1 she overlooked the education of ,guy1 and let it be said that no happier child ever lived4 ,his early days were passed at ,etretat1 at the ,villa ,verguies1 and generally in the open air4 ,the future writer adored the sea2 he has written many tales of the water1 of yachts and river sports4 ,he went to the seminary at ,yvetot and the lyceum of ,rouen1 but his education was desultory1 his reading principally of his own selection--like most men of individual character4 ,he was a farceur1 fond of mystifications1 of rough practical jokes1 of horseplay4 ,his physique was more ,flemish than ,french--a deep chest1 broad shoulders1 heavy muscular arms and legs1 a small head1 a bull-neck4 ,he looked like the mate of a deep-sea ship rather than a literary man4 ,add to this a craze for rowing1 canoeing1 swimming1 boxing1 fencing1 and running4 ,an all-round athlete1 as the phrase goes1 ,guy1 it is related1 once paid a hulking chap to let himself be kicked4 ,so hard was ,guy's kick1 done in an experimental humour1 that the victim became enraged and knocked the kicker off his pins4 ,flaubert1 the apostle of the immobile1 objected4 ,too many flirtations1 too much exercise6 he admonishingly cried4 ,a writer must cultivate repose4 ,in sooth ,maupassant went a terrific pace4 ,he abused his constitution from the beginning1 seemingly tormented by seven restless devils4 ,he spent five hours a day at his office in the ,ministry1 in the afternoon he rowed on the ,seine1 in the evening he wrote4 ,after he had resigned as a bureaucrat he worked from seven until twelve every morning1 no matter the excesses of the previous night2 the afternoon he spent on the river1 retiring very late4 ,toujours les femmes1 petit cochon1 wrote ,flaubert in #ahgf1 il faut travailler4 ,but it was precisely work that helped to kill the man4 ,those six pages a day1 while they seldom showed erasures1 were carefully written1 and not until after much thought4 ,guy was the type of the apparently spontaneous writers4 ,his manuscripts are free from the interlineations of ,flaubert4 ,he wrote at one jet2 but there was elaborate mental preparation4 ,toward the last began the ether inhalations1 the chloroform1 hasheesh1 the absinthe1 cocaine1 and the odour symphonies--,huysmans's des ,esseintes1 and his symphonic perfume sprays were not altogether the result of invention4 ,on his yacht ,bel ,ami ,guy never ceased his daily travail4 ,it was ,taine who called him un taureau triste4 ,paul ,bourget relates that when he told ,maupassant of this epigram1 he calmly replied3 ,better a bull than an ox4 ,his output--as they say in publishing circles--was breath-catching4 ,it is whispered that he worked all the better after a hard night4 ,now there can be but one end to such an expenditure of nervous energy1 and that end came1 not suddenly1 but with the treacherous1 creeping approach of paralysis4 ,literary criticism of the ,nordau type is usually a foolish thing2 yet in ,maupassant's case one does not need to be a skilled psychiatrist to follow and note the gradual palsy of the writer's higher centres4 ,such stories as ,qui ,sait8 ,lui1 ,le ,horla--a terrifying conception that beats ,poe on his own chosen field--,fou1 ,un ,fou1 and several others show the nature of his malady4 ,guy de ,maupassant came fairly by his cracked nervous constitution1 and instead of dissipation1 mental and physical1 being the determining causes of his shattered health1 they were really the outcome of an inherited predisposition to all that is self-destructive4 ,the ,french alienists called it une hrdit charge4 7,no doubt the dread ,spirochta pallida47 ,he never relaxed his diligence1 even writing criticism4 ,he saluted the literary debuts of ,paul ,hervieu and ,edouard ,rod in an article which appeared in ,gil ,blas4 ,at the time of his death he was contemplating an extensive study of ,turgenieff4 ,edmond de ,goncourt did not like him1 suspecting him of irreverence because of some words ,guy had written in the preface to ,pierre et ,jean about complicated exotic vocabularies2 meaning the ,goncourts1 of course4 ,it is to be believed that ,flaubert also had some quiet fun with the brothers and with ,zola regarding their mania for note taking2 read ,bouvard et ,pcuchet for confirmation of this idea of mine4 ,maupassant was paid one franc a line for his novels in the periodicals1 and #ejj francs for the newspaper rights of publication only2 good prices twenty-five years ago in ,paris4 ,his annual income was about #bh1jjj to #ce1jjj francs1 and it kept up for at least ten years4 ,a table shows us that to ,december1 #ahia1 the sale of his books was as follows3 short stories1 #afi1jjj2 novels1 #ahj1jjj2 travel1 #bd1jjj2 in all #cgc1jjj volumes4 ,maupassant was even for these days of swollen figures a big seller4 ,his mother had an income of #e1jjj francs1 but she far excelled the amount in her living expenses4 ,guy was an admirable son--tender1 thoughtful1 and generous4 ,he made her an allowance1 and at his death left her in comfort1 if not actually wealthy4 ,she died at ,nice1 ,december #h1 #aijd1 his father surviving him until #ahii4 ,and that death was achieved by the most hideous route--insanity4 ,restless1 travelling incessantly1 fearful of darkness1 of his own shadow1 he was like an ,oriental magician who had summoned malignant spirits from outer space only to be destroyed by them4 ,not in ,corsica or ,sicily1 in ,africa nor the south of ,france1 did ,guy fight off his rapidly growing disease4 ,he worked hard1 he drank hard1 but to no avail2 the blackness of his brain increased4 ,melancholia and irritability supervened2 he spelled words wrong1 he quarrelled with his friends1 he instituted a lawsuit against a ,new ,york newspaper1 ,the ,star2 then the persecution craze1 folie des grandeurs1 frenzy4 ,the case was classic from the beginning1 even to the dilated pupils of his eyes1 as far back as #ahhj4 ,the #ast of ,january1 #ahib1 he had promised to spend with his mother at ,villa de ,ravenelles1 at ,nice4 ,but he went1 instead1 against his mother's wishes1 to ,ste4-,marguerite in company with two sisters1 society women1 one of them said to have been the heroine of ,notre ,coeur4 ,the next day he arrived1 his features discomposed1 and in a state of great mental excitement4 ,he was tearful and soon left for ,cannes with his valet1 ,franois4 ,what passed during the night was never exactly known1 except that ,guy attempted suicide by shooting1 and with a paper-knife4 ,the knife inflicted a slight wound2 the pistol contained blank cartridges--,franois had suspected his master's mood1 and told the world later of it in his simple loving memoirs--and his forehead was slightly burned4 ,some months previous he had told ,doctor ,frmy that between madness and death he would not hesitate2 a lucid moment had shown him his fate1 and he sought death4 ,after a week1 during which two stout sailors of his yacht1 ,bel ,ami1 guarded him1 as he sadly walked on the beach regarding with tear-stained cheeks his favourite boat1 he was taken to ,passy1 to ,doctor ,blanche's institution4 ,one of his examining physicians there was ,doctor ,franklin ,grout1 who later married ,flaubert's niece1 ,caroline ,commanville4 ,july #f1 #ahic1 ,maupassant died1 as a lamp is extinguished for lack of oil4 ,but the year he spent at the asylum was wretched2 he became a mere machine1 and perhaps the only pleasure he experienced was the hallucination of bands of black butterflies that seemed to sweep across his room4 ,monsieur ,maynial does not tell of the black butterflies1 the truth of which ,i can vouch for1 as ,i heard the story from ,lassalle1 the ,french barytone1 a friend of ,maupassant's4 ,it may be interesting to the curious to learn that the good-hearted1 brave heroine of ,boule de ,suif was a certain ,adrienne ,legay of ,rouen1 and that she heartily reprobated the writer for giving her story to the world4 ,she even went so far as to say that ,guy did it in a spirit of revenge4 ,madame ,laure de ,maupassant made inquiries about the patriotic little sinner so as to help her4 ,it was too late4 ,she had died in extreme poverty4 ,the heroine of ,mademoiselle ,fifi was a brunette1 ,rachel by name2 the hero was a young ,german officer1 ,baron ,william d',eyrick4 ,would ,maupassant have reached the sunlit heights1 as ,tolstoy believed8 ,who may say8 ,truth lies not at the bottom of a well1 but in suffering2 suffering alone reveals the truth of himself1 of his soul to man1 and ,guy had suffered as few2 he had passed into the ,inferno that later ,nietzsche entered1 passed into though not through it4 ,turgenieff1 for whom ,guy entertained a profound regard1 had influenced him more than he1 with his doglike fidelity for ,flaubert1 would have cared to acknowledge4 ,paul ,bourget gives us chapter and verse for this statement2 furthermore1 the same authority1 has described--in his ,etudes et ,portraits--the enormous travail of ,maupassant in pursuit of style--he1 seemingly1 the most spontaneous writer of his generation4 ,his books offend1 delight1 startle1 and edify thousands of readers4 ,that they have done absolute harm we are not prepared to say2 book wickedness is1 after all1 an academic1 not a vital question4 ,if all the wicked books that have seen the light of publication had wrought the evil predicted of them the earth would be an abomination4 ,in reality1 we discuss with varying shades of enthusiasm or detestation such frank literature--naturally when it is literature--and after the hullabaloo of the moral bell-boys has ceased1 the book is quietly forgotten on its shelf4 ,flaubert once wrote of the vast fund of indifference possessed by society4 ,dramas1 books1 pictures1 statues have never ruined our overmoral world4 ,the day for such things--if there ever was such a day--has passed4 ,besides1 among the people of most nations1 the hatred of art and literature is pushed to the point of lecturing boastfully about that same hatred4 ,,xvii ,,puvis ,,de ,,chavannes ,although he has been dead since ,october #bd1 #ahih1 critical battles are still fought over the artistic merits of ,puvis de ,chavannes4 ,whether you agree with ,huysmans and call this mural painter a pasticheur of the ,italian ,primitives1 or else the greatest artist in decoration since ,paolo ,veronese1 depends much on your critical temperament4 ,there are many to whom ,henri ,martin's gorgeous colour--really the methods of ,monet applied to vast spaces--or the blazing originality of ,albert ,besnard make more intimate appeal than the pallid poetry1 solemn rhythms1 and faded moonlit tonal gamut of ,puvis4 ,because the names of ,gustave ,moreau and ,puvis were often associated1 ,huysmans1 ab irato1 cries against the obsequious heresy of the conjunction1 forgetting that the two men were friends4 ,marius ,vauchon1 despite his excessive admiration for ,puvis has rendered a service to his memory in his study1 because he has shown us the real1 not the legendary man4 ,with ,vauchon1 we are far from ,huysmans1 and his succinct1 but disagreeable1 epigram3 ,c'est un vieux rigaudon qui s'essaie dans le requiem4 ,the truth is1 that some idealists were disappointed to find ,puvis to be a sane1 healthy1 solidly built man1 a bon vivant in the best sense of the phrase1 without a suggestion of the morbid1 vapouring pontiff or haughty ,olympian4 ,personally he was not in the least like his art1 a crime that sentimental persons seldom forgive4 ,a ,burgundian--born at ,lyons1 ,december #ad1 #ahbd--;he possessed all the characteristics of his race4 ,asceticism was the last quality to seek in him4 ,a good dinner with old vintage1 plenty of comrades1 above all the society of his beloved ,princess ,cantacuzene1 whose love of her husband was the one romance in his career2 these1 and twelve hours' toil a day in his atelier made up the long life of this distinguished painter4 ,he lived for a half-century between his two ateliers1 on the ,place ,pigalle1 and at ,neuilly4 ,notwithstanding his arduous combat with the ,institute and public indifference1 his cannot be called an unhappy existence4 ,he had his art1 in the practice of which he was a veritable fanatic2 he was rich through inheritance1 and he was happy in his love2 affluence1 art1 love1 a triad to attain1 for which most men yearn1 came to ,puvis4 ,yet the gadfly of ambition was in his flesh4 ,he was a visionary1 even a recluse1 like his friend ,moreau1 but a fighter for his ideas2 and those ideas have shown not only ,french artists1 but the entire world1 the path back to true mural tradition4 ,it is not an exaggeration to say that ,puvis created modern decorative art4 ,his father was chief engineer of mines1 a strong-willed1 successful man4 ,like father1 like son1 was true in this case1 though the young ,de ,chavannes1 after some opposition1 elected painting as his profession4 ,he had fallen ill1 and a trip to ,italy was ordained4 ,there he did not1 as has been asserted1 linger over ,pompeii1 or in the ,roman ,catacombs1 but saved his time and enthusiasm for the ,quattrocentisti4 ,he admired the old ,umbrian and ,tuscan masters1 he was ravished by the basilica of ,st4 ,francis at ,assisi1 and by ,santa ,maria ,novella1 ,florence4 ,titian1 ,tintoretto1 finally ,veronese1 riveted his passion for what has been falsely styled the archaic4 ,returning to ,paris he was conducted by his friend ,beauderon to the studio of ,delacroix1 whom he adored4 ,he remained just fifteen days1 when the shop was closed4 ,delacroix1 in a rage because of the lack of talent and funds among his pupils1 sent them away4 ,puvis had been under the tuition of ,henri1 the brother of ,ary ,scheffer1 and for years spoke with reverence of that serious but mediocre painter4 ,he next sought the advice of ,couture1 and remained with him three months1 not1 however1 quarrelling with the master1 as did later another pupil1 ,edouard ,manet4 ,puvis was tractable enough2 he had one failing--not always a sign of either talent or the reverse--he refused to see or paint as he was told by his teachers1 or1 indeed1 like other pupils4 ,because of this stubbornness1 his enemies1 among whom ranked the most powerful critics of ,paris1 declared that he had never been grounded in the elements of his art1 that he could not draw or design1 that his colour-sense only proved colour-blindness4 ,to be sure1 he does not boast a fulgurant brush1 and his line is often stiff and awkward2 but he had the fundamentals of decorative art well in hand4 ,after his death thousands of sketches1 designs1 pencilled memoranda1 and cartoons were found1 and then there was whistled another tune4 ,his draughtsmanship is that of a decorative artist1 as the ,rodin drawings are those of a sculptor1 not of a painter4 ,considering the rigid standard by which the work of ,puvis was judged1 criticism was not altogether wrong1 as was claimed when the wave of reaction set in4 ,his easel pictures are not ingratiating4 ,he does not show well in a gallery4 ,he needs huge spaces in which to swim about2 there he makes the compositions of other men seem pigmy4 ,it is the case of ,wagner repeated1 though there is little likeness between the ideas of the ,frenchman and the ,german1 except an epical bigness4 ,judged by the classical concert-room formulas1 ,wagner must not be compared with the miniaturist ,mendelssohn4 ,his form is the form of the music-drama1 not the symphonic form4 ,puvis adhered to one principle3 ,a wall is a wall1 and not an easel picture2 it is flat1 and that flatness must be emphasised1 not disguised2 decoration is the desideratum4 ,he contrived a schematic painting that would harmonise with the flatness1 with the texture and the architectural surroundings1 and1 as ,george ,moore has happily said3 ,no other painter ever kept this end so strictly before his eyes4 ,for this end ,chavannes reduced his palette almost to a monochrome1 for this end he models in two flat tints1 for this end he draws in huge undisciplined masses4444 ,mural decoration1 if it form part of the wall1 should be a variant of the stonework4 ,one might take exception to the word undisciplined--,puvis was one of the most calculating painters that ever used a brush1 and one of the most cerebral4 ,his favourite aphorism was3 ,beauty is character4 ,his figures have been called immobile1 his palette impoverished2 the unfair sex abused his lean1 lanky female creatures1 and finally he was named a painter for ,lent--for fast-days4 ,even the hieratic figures of ,moreau were pronounced opulent in comparison with the pale moonlighted spectres of the ,puvis landscapes4 ,courbet1 in ,paris1 was known as the furious madman2 ,puvis1 as the tranquil lunatic4 ,nine of his pictures were refused at the ,salon1 though in #ahei he exhibited there his ,return from ,hunting1 and1 in #ahfa1 even received a second-class medal4 ,his fecundity was enormous4 ,his principal work comprises the ,life of ,ste4 ,genevive 7the saint is a portrait of his princess71 at the ,panthon2 ,summer and ,winter at the ,htel de ,ville1 the decorations for the amphitheatre of the ,sorbonne1 the decorations at ,rouen1 ,inter ,artes et ,naturam2 at ,rouen1 ,the ,sacred ,wood1 ,vision ,antique1 ,the ,rhone1 ,the ,sane2 the decorations at ,amiens1 ,war1 ,peace1 ,rest1 ,labour1 ,ave ,picardia ,nutrix1 and two smaller grisailles1 ,vigilance and ,fancy2 at ,marseilles1 the ,marseilles1 ,porte d' ,orient1 and ,marseilles1 the ,greek ,colony2 the decorations for the ,boston ,public ,library1 and his easel picture1 ,the ,poor ,fisherman1 now in the ,luxembourg4 ,as to this latter1 the painter explained that he had found the model in the person of a wretchedly poor fisherman at the estuary of the ,seine2 the young girl is a sister1 and the landscape is that of the surroundings1 though1 as is the case with ,puvis1 greatly generalised4 ,the above is but a slender list4 ,new ,york has at the ,metropolitan ,museum at least one of his works1 and in the collection here of ,john ,quinn1 ,esq41 there is the brilliant masterpiece1 ,the ,beheading of ,john the ,baptist1 and two large mural decorations1 ,the ,river and ,the ,vintage4 ,they were painted in #ahff4 ,they are magnificent museum pictures4 ,all his frescoes are applied canvases4 ,he didn't worry much over antique methods1 nor can it be said that his work is an attempt to rehabilitate the ,italian ,primitives4 ,on the contrary1 ,puvis is distinctly modern1 and that is his chief offence in the eyes of official ,french art2 while the fact that his modernity was transposed to decorative purposes1 and appeared in so strange a guise1 caused the younger men to eye him suspiciously4 7,just as some recalcitrant music-critics refuse to recognise in certain compositions of ,johannes ,brahms the temperamental romantic47 ,thus in the estimation of rival camps ,puvis fell between two stools4 ,he has been styled a latter-day ,domenico ,ghirlandajo1 but this attribution rings more literary than literal4 ,mr4 ,brownell with his accustomed sense of critical values has to our notion definitely summed up the question3 ,his classicism is absolutely unacademic1 his romanticism unreal beyond the verge of mysticism and so preoccupied with visions that he may almost be called a man for whom the actual world does not exist--in the converse of ,gautier's phrase4 ,his distinction is wholly personal4 ,he lives evidently on a high plane1 dwells habitually in the delectable highlands of the intellect4 ,the fact that his work is almost wholly decorative is not at all accidental4 ,his talent1 his genius1 if one chooses1 requires large spaces1 vast dimensions4 ,there has been a good deal of profitless discussion as to whether he expressly imitates the ,primitives or reproduces them sympathetically2 but really he does neither1 he deals with their subjects occasionally1 but always in a completely modern as well as a thoroughly personal way4 ,his colour is as original as his general treatment and composition4 ,his men and women are not precisely pagan1 nor are they biblical4 ,but they reveal traits of both strained through a drastic modern intellect4 ,they are not abstractions2 the men are virile1 the women maternal4 ,there is the spirit of humanity1 not of decadence4 ,puvis1 like ,moreau1 did not turn his back to the rising sun4 ,he admired ,degas1 ,manet1 ,monet4 ,at first he patterned after his friend ,chasseriau1 a fine and too-little-known painter1 and at one time a mural decorator before he became immersed in ,oriental themes4 ,the lenten landscapes of ,puvis are not merely scenic backgrounds1 but integral parts of the general decorative web1 and they are not conceived in ,no ,man's ,land1 but selected from the vicinity of ,paris4 ,puvis is by no means a virtuoso4 ,his pace is usually andante2 but he knows how to evoke a mood1 summon the solemn music of mural spaces4 ,his is a theme with variations4 ,the wall or ceiling is ever the theme4 ,his crabbed fugues soon melt into the larger austere music of the wall4 ,his choral walls are true epopes4 ,he is a master harmonist4 ,he sounds oftener the symphonic than the lyric note4 ,he gains his most moving effects without setting in motion the creaking allegorical machinery of the academy4 ,he shows the simple attitudes of life transfigured without rhetoric4 ,he avoids frigid allegory1 yet employs symbols4 ,his tonal attenuations1 elliptical and syncopated rhythms1 his atmosphere of the remote1 the mysterious--all these give the spectator the sense of serenity1 momentary freedom from the feverishness of every-day life1 and suggest the lofty wisdom of the classic poets4 ,but the serpent of futile melancholy1 of the brief cadence of mortal dreams1 and of the vanishing seconds that defile down the corridor of time1 has stolen into this ,garden of the ,hesperides4 ,puvis de ,chavannes1 no more than ,gustave ,moreau1 could escape the inquietude of his times4 ,he is occasionally ,parisian and often pessimist4 ,the inability of his contemporaries to understand his profound decorative genius1 his tact in the handling of the great problem of lighting--the key is always higher because of the different or softer light of public buildings and the gloom of churches--and his feeling for the wall1 purely as wall1 a flat space1 not to be confounded with the pseudo art that would make the picture like an open window in the wall1 but based on the flatness of the material and the aerial magic of his spacing1 sorely troubled him for half a century4 ,doubtless it was his refusal to visit ,boston and study there the architectural conditions of the ,public ,library that resulted in the hang-fire of his decorations1 though they are of an exalted order4 ,one at least served as a spring-board for the decorative impulse of ,besnard1 as may be noted in his frescoes on the ceiling at the ,htel de ,ville1 ,paris4 ,that ,puvis de ,chavannes was not an unfeeling ,bonze of art1 but a man of tender heart and warm affections was proved after the death of his much-loved ,princess ,marie ,cantacuzene4 ,two months later sorrow over her loss killed him4 ,he had painted the thousand and one expressive moments in the life of our species as a hymn to humanity1 and their contours are eternal4 ,eternal8 ,a vain phrase2 but eternal till the canvas fades and the walls decay1 that is nearer the truth4 ,art is long and appreciation sometimes a chilly consolation4 ,let us stick to the eternal verities4 ,as ,d',annunzio has it3 ,quella musica silenziosa delle linee immobili era cos possente che creava il fantasma quasi visibile di una vita pi ricca e pi bella4 ,,xviii ,,three ,,disagreeable ,,girls ,i ,,hedda ,hazlitt tells us in a delightful essay about the whimsical notion of ,charles ,lamb that he would rather see ,sir ,thomas ,browne than ,shakespeare4 ,a pleasant recreation is this same picking out of persons one would wish to have seen4 ,causing great annoyance to ,ayrton at an evening party1 ,lamb rejected the names of ,milton and ,shakespeare1 selecting those of ,browne and ,fulke ,greville--the friend of ,sir ,philip ,sidney4 ,for the prince of essayists there was mystery hovering about the personalities of this pair4 ,i have often wondered if the most resounding names in history are the best beloved4 ,or in fiction4 ,what is the name of your favourite heroine8 ,whom should you like to meet in that long corridor of time leading to eternity1 the walls lined with the world's masterpieces of portraiture8 ,i can answer for myself that no ,shakespearian lovely dame or ,balzacian demon in petticoats would ever be taken off the wall by me4 ,they are either too remote or too unreal1 though a word might be said for ,valrie ,marneffe4 ,in the vasty nebula of the ,henry ,james novel there are alluringly strange women1 but if you summon them they fade and resolve themselves into everlasting phrases4 ,in a word1 they are not tangible enough to endure the change of moral climate involved in such a game as that played by ,charles ,lamb and his friends4 ,but ,emma ,bovary might come if you but ardently desired4 ,and the fascinating ,anna ,karenina4 ,or ,becky ,sharp with her sly graces4 ,perhaps some of ,dostoevsky's enigmatic1 bewildering girls should be included in the list1 for they brim over with magnetism1 very often a malicious magnetism1 and their glances are eloquent with suffering1 haunt like the eyes one sees in a gallery of old masters4 ,i do not speak of ,sonia1 but of the passionate ,natasia ,philipovna in ,the ,idiot1 or ,aglaya ,epanchin1 in the same powerful novel1 or ,paulina in ,the ,gambler4 ,however1 we cannot allow ourselves the luxury of so many favourites1 even if they are only made of paper and ink4 ,i confess ,i am an admirer of ,emma ,bovary4 ,to the gifted young critics of to-day the work1 and its sharply etched characters1 has become a mere stalking horse for a new-fangled philosophy of ,jules ,gaultier1 called ,bovarysme1 but for me it will always be the portrait of that unhappy girl with the pallid complexion1 velvety dark eyes1 luxuriant hair1 and languid charm4 ,anna ,karenina is more aristocratic2 above all1 she knew what happiness meant2 its wing only brushed the cheek of ,emma4 ,her death is more lamentable than ,anna's--one can well sympathise with ,flaubert's mental and physical condition after he had written that appalling chapter describing the poisoning of ,emma4 ,no wonder he thought he tasted arsenic1 and couldn't sleep4 ,balzac1 ,dickens1 and ,thackeray were thus affected by their own creations1 yet ,flaubert is to this day called impersonal1 cold1 because he never made concessions to sentimentalism1 never told tales out of his workshop for gaping indifferents4 ,as for ,becky ,sharp1 that kittenish person seldom arouses in me much curiosity4 ,i agree with ,george ,moore that ,thackeray1 in the interests of mid-,victorian morality1 suppressed many of her characteristics1 telling us too little of her amatory temperament4 ,possibly1 ,mr4 ,moore may err1 ,becky may have had no temperament1 notwithstanding her ability to twist men around her expressive digits4 ,that she was disagreeable when she set herself out to be ,i do not doubt2 in fact1 she is the protagonist of a whole generation of disagreeable heroines in ,english fiction4 ,bernard ,shaw did not overlook her pertness and malevolence1 though all his girls are disagreeable1 even--pardon the paradox--his agreeable ones4 ,but they are as portraiture far too papery1 to borrow a word from painters' jargon1 for my purpose4 ,they are not alive1 they only are mouthpieces for the author's rather old-time ideas4 ,i mention the four heroines of a former period1 ,valrie1 ,becky1 ,emma1 ,anna1 not because they are all disagreeable1 but because they are my pets in fiction4 ,thoroughly disagreeable girls are ,hedda ,gabler1 ,mildred ,lawson1 and ,undine ,spragg4 ,of course1 in a certain sense old ,wotan ,ibsen is the father of the latter-day ,valkyrie brood4 ,the feminist movement is not responsible for them2 there were disagreeable females before the flood1 yet somehow the latter part of the last and the beginning of the present century have produced a big flock in painting1 music 7,richard ,strauss's operas71 drama1 and literature4 ,hedda boldly carved out of a single block stands out as the very ,winged ,victory of her species4 ,in her there is a hint of ,emma ,bovary2 both are incorrigible romanticists1 snobs1 girls for whom the present alone exists4 ,she is decadent inasmuch as her nerves rule her actions1 and at the rising of the curtain her nerves are in rags4 ,henry ,james finds in ,ibsen a charmless fascination1 but by no means insists on the point that ,hedda is disagreeable4 ,nor is he so sure that she is wicked1 though he admits her perversity4 ,the late ,grant ,allen once said to ,william ,archer that ,hedda was nothing more nor less than the girl we take down to dinner in ,london1 nineteen times out of twenty1 which1 to put it mildly1 is an exaggeration4 ,the truth is1 ,hedda is less a type than a rare case1 but to diagnose her as merely neurasthenic is also to go wide of the mark4 ,doubtless her condition may have added bitterness to her already overflowing cup2 nevertheless ,hedda is not altogether a pathological study4 ,approaching motherhood is not a veil for her multitude of sins4 ,how soon are we shown her cruel nature in the dialogue with devoted ,thea ,rysing1 whose hair at school had aroused envy in ,hedda6 ,she pulled it whenever she got a chance1 just as she pulled from its hiding-place the secret of the timid ,thea4 ,simply to say that ,hedda is the incarnation of selfishness is but a half-truth4 ,she is that and much more4 ,charmless never1 disagreeable always1 she had the serpent's charm1 the charm that slowly slays its victim4 ,her father succumbed to it1 else would he have permitted her to sit in corners with poet ,eiljert ,lvborg and not only hold hands but listen to far from edifying discourses8 ,not a nice trait in ,hedda--though a human1 therefore not a rare one--is her curiosity concerning forbidden themes4 ,she was sly4 ,she was morbid4 ,last of all she was cowardly4 ,yes1 largely cerebral was her interest in nasty things1 for when ,eiljert attempted to translate his related adventures into action she promptly threatened him with a pistol4 ,a demi-vierge before ,marcel ,prvost4 ,not as admirable as either ,emma ,bovary or ,anna ,karenina1 ,hedda ,gabler married ,george ,tesman for speculation4 ,he had promised her the ,falk villa--the scene plays up in ,christiania--and he expected a professorship2 these1 with a little ready money and the selflessness of ,aunt ,julia1 were so many bribes for the anxious ,hedda1 whose first youth had been heedlessly danced away without matrimonial success4 ,mark what follows3 ,ibsen1 the sternest moralist since old ,john ,knox1 doesn't spare his heroine4 ,he places her between the devil of ,justice ,brack1 libertine and house friend1 and the deep sea of the debauched genius1 ,lvborg4 ,to make a four-square of ineluctable fate she is flanked on either side by her mediocre husband and the devoted bore1 ,thea ,rysing--,elvsted4 ,like a high-strung ,barbary mare--she was of good birth and breeding--her nerves tugging in their sheaths1 her heart a burnt-out cinder1 ,hedda saw but one way to escape--suicide4 ,she took that route and really it was the most profound and significant act of her life1 cowardly as was the motive4 ,she was discontented1 shallow1 the victim of her false upbringing4 ,in a more intellectual degree ,eiljert1 her first admirer1 is her counterpart4 ,both could have consorted with ,emma ,bovary and found her ideals sympathetic4 ,emil ,reich has called ,hedda ,gabler the tragedy of msalliance4 ,it is a memorial phrase4 ,george ,tesman and ,charles ,bovary are brothers in misfortune4 ,they belong to those husbands predestined to betrayal1 as ,balzac puts it4 ,councillor ,karenin completes the trio and ,anna hated his large ears2 but before ,karenin1 ,charles ,bovary was despised by ,emma because of his clumsy feet and inexpressive bearing1 and his habit of breathing heavily during dinner4 ,george ,tesman with his purblind faculties1 amiable ways1 and semi-idiotic exclamations will go down in the history of fiction with ,georges ,dandin1 ,bovary1 and ,karenin4 ,as for ,hedda1 her psychological index is clear reading4 ,in ,peer ,gynt one of the characters is described thus3 ,he is hermetically sealed with the bung of self1 and he tightens the staves in the wells of self4 ,each one shuts himself in the cask of self1 plunges deep down in the ferment of self4 ,imperfect sympathies1 misplaced egoism--for there is a true as well as a false egoism--a craze for silly pleasures1 no matter the cost1 and a mean little vanity that sacrificed lives when not appeased4 ,she is the most disagreeable figure in modern drama4 ,were it not for her good looks and pity for her misspent life and death she would be absolutely unendurable4 ,the dramatic genius of ,ibsen makes her credible4 ,but what was the matter with ,george ,tesman8 ,we cannot help noting that wherever the feminine preponderates1 whether in art1 politics1 religion1 society1 there is a corresponding diminution of force in the moral and physical character of the ,eternal ,masculine4 ,in the ,ibsen dramas this is a recognised fact4 ,therefore1 ,strindberg called ,ibsen an old corrupter4 ,what is the matter with the men nowadays8 ,hadn't they better awaken to the truth that they are no longer attractive1 or indispensable8 ,isn't it time for the ruder sex to organise as a step toward preserving their fancied inalienable sovereignty of the globe8 ,in ,thus ,spake ,zarathustra1 ,nietzsche wrote3 ,thou goest to women4 ,remember thy whip4 ,but ,nietzsche1 was he not an old bachelor1 almost as censorious as his master1 that squire of dames1 ,arthur ,schopenhauer8 ,,ii ,,mildred ,while ,hedda ,gabler is cerebral without being intellectual1 you feel that she is more a creature of impulse than ,mildred ,lawson1 who for me is ,george ,moore's masterpiece in portraiture4 ,hedda is chilly enough1 ,mildred is distinctly frigid1 yet such is the art of her creator that she comes to us invested with warmer colours2 withal1 about as disagreeable a girl as you may encounter in the literature of to-day4 ,now ,mr4 ,moore is an outspoken defender of the few crumbling privileges of man at a time when the ladies are claiming the earth and adjacent planets4 ,yet ,i don't believe he wrote ,mildred ,lawson 7in the volume entitled ,celibates7 with malice prepense4 ,too great an artist to use as a dialectic battering-ram one of his characters1 for all that he makes ,mildred very modern4 ,she doesn't despise men1 nor does she care much for the ideas of her dowdy friend the advanced ,mrs4 ,fargus2 on the contrary1 she makes fun of her clothes and ideas1 though secretly regretting that she hadn't been sent by her parents to ,girton ,college4 ,like ,hedda she is ambitious to outshine any circle in which she finds herself4 ,modern she is1 not because of her petty traits1 but simply because ,mr4 ,moore has painted a young woman of the day1 rich1 and so selfish that at the end her selfishness strangles the little soul she possesses4 ,her brother ,harold1 a sedate business man1 is also a celibate whose ambition in life seems to be the catching of the #i3aj ,a4,m4 train to ,victoria ,station and the return to his suburban home on the #f ,p4,m4 7,he is not unlike a fussy little man1 ,willy ,brooks1 in the same ,irish writer's early novel1 ,spring ,days47 ,a rejected but ever hopeful suitor of ,mildred's about comprises her domestic entourage4 ,she is ambitious4 ,she hates the stuffy life of a hausfrau1 but marriage makes no appeal1 since the breaking of her engagement with ,alfred--who is also a man with punctual business habits4 ,she despises conventional men1 and is herself compact of conventionality4 ,in her most rebellious moods the leaven of ,philistia 7or the ,british equivalent1 ,suburbia7 comes to the surface4 ,she dares1 but doesn't dare enough4 ,it needs both force and earnestness to sin4 ,as in the case of ,hedda ,gabler1 it is her social conscience that keeps her from throwing her bonnet over the moon1 not her sense of moral values2 in a word1 virtue by snobbish compulsion4 ,one thinks of ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti and the searing irony of his sonnet1 ,vain ,virtues4 ,the virtue of ,mildred ,lawson is vanity of vanities and the abomination of desolation4 ,she often argued that it was not for selfish motives that she desired freedom4 ,her capacity for self-illuding is enormous4 ,she didn't love her drawing-master1 the unfortunate ,mr4 ,hoskin1 who had a talent for landscape1 but no money1 yet she allowed the man to think she did care a little and it sent him into bad health when he found she had fooled him4 ,the scene in the studio1 where the dead painter lies in his coffin1 between ,mildred and his mistress--a model from the lower ranks of life--is one of the most stirring in modern fiction4 ,the lady comes off second-best2 when she begins to stammer that she hoped the dead man hadn't suggested improper relations1 the unhappy girl turns on her3 ,i dare say you were virtuous more or less1 as far as your own body is concerned4 ,faugh6 women like you make virtue seem odious4 ,mildred1 indignant at such low conversation1 makes her escape1 slightly elated at the romantic crisis4 ,a real man has died for her sake4 ,after all1 life is not so barren of interest4 ,she goes to ,paris4 ,studies art4 ,returns to ,london4 ,again to ,paris and the forest of ,fontainebleau1 where she joins a student colony and flirts with a young painter2 but it all comes to nothing1 just as her work in the ,julian ,studio has no artistic result4 ,mr4 ,moore1 who is a landscape-painter1 has drawn a capital picture of the forest1 though not with the fulness of charm to be found in ,flaubert's treatment of the same theme in ,sentimental ,education4 ,the little tale is a genuine contribution to fiction in which art is adequately dealt with4 ,when ,celibates appeared1 ,henry ,harland said that ,mildred ,lawson was worthy of ,flaubert if it had been written in good ,english1 which is a manifest epigram4 ,the volume is a perfect breviary of selfishness4 ,tiring of art1 ,mildred takes up society1 though she gets into a rather dubious ,paris set4 ,a socialist deputy and his wife protect her and she becomes a brilliant contributor--at least so she is made to believe--to a publication in which is eventually sunk a lot of her money4 ,her brother has warned her1 but to no avail4 ,at this juncture the tale becomes slightly mysterious4 ,mildred flirts with the deputy1 his wife is apparently willing--having an interest elsewhere--and suddenly the bottom drops out of the affair1 and ,mildred poorer1 also wiser1 returns to her home in ,england4 ,she has embraced the ,roman ,catholic religion1 but you do not feel she is sincerely pious4 ,it is one more gesture in her sterile career4 ,at the end we find her trying to evade the inevitable matrimony1 for she is alone1 her brother dead1 and she an heiress4 ,suspicious of her suitor's motives--it is the same faithful ,alfred--she wearily debates the situation3 ,her nerves were shattered1 and life grows terribly distinct in the insomnia of the hot summer night4444 ,she threw herself over and over in her burning bed1 until at last her soul cried out in lucid misery3 ',give me a passion for god or man1 but give me a passion4 ,i cannot live without one4' ,for her mad and sane are the same misprint4 ,and on this lyric note the book closes4 ,i believe if ,hedda ,gabler had hesitated and her father's pistol hadn't been hard by1 she would have recovered her poise and deceived her husband4 ,i believe that if ,emma ,bovary had escaped that snag of debt she would have continued to fool ,charles4 ,and ,i believe ,mildred ,lawson married at last and fooled herself into the belief that she had a superior soul1 misunderstood by the world and her husband4 ,there is no telling how vermicular are the wrigglings of mean souls4 ,mildred was a snob1 therefore mean of soul2 and she was a cold snob1 hence her cruelty4 ,that she was an eminently disagreeable girl ,i need hardly emphasise4 ,nevertheless the young chaps found her dainty and her poor girl friends1 the artists1 envied her pretty frocks4 ,she had small shell-like ears1 ears that are danger-signals to experienced men4 ,when ,i reread her history ,i was reminded of the princess in the allegory of ,ephraim ,mikhal1 called ,the ,captive4 ,she was the cold princess held captive in the hall with the wall of brass4 ,wherever she turns or walks she sees a welcome visitor3 it is always her own insolent image in the mirrors on the walls4 ,these mirrors make of herself her own eternal jailer4 ,when she gazes from the window of her prison tower she sees no one4 ,no conquering lover comes to deliver her from the bondage of self4 ,in the slave who offers rare fruits and precious wines in cups of emerald she sees only a mockery of herself1 the words of consolation remind her of her own voice4 ,and that is why the sorrowful ,princess drives away the beautiful loving slave1 more cruel even than the mirrors4 ,egotist to the end1 both ,mildred and the ,princess see naught in the universe save the magnified image of themselves4 ,,iii ,,undine ,perhaps there is more than a nuance of caricature in the choice of such a name as ,undine ,spragg for the heroine of ,edith ,wharton's ,the ,custom of the ,country4 ,throughout that book1 with its brilliant enamel-like surfaces1 there is a tendency to make sport of our national weakness for resounding names4 ,undine ,spragg--hideous collocation--is not the only offence4 ,there is ,indiana ,frusk of ,apex ,city1 and ,millard ,binch1 a combination in which the ,dickens of ,american ,notes would have found amusement4 ,hotels with titles like ,the ,stentorian are not exaggerated4 ,miss ,spragg's ancestor had invented a hair waver2 hence the name ,undine3 from undoolay1 you know1 the ,french for crimping1 as the simple-hearted mother of the girl explained to a suitor4 ,mrs4 ,wharton has been cruel1 with a glacial cruelty1 to her countrywomen of the ,spragg type4 ,but they abound4 ,they come from the ,north1 ,east1 ,south1 ,west to conquer ,new ,york1 and thanks to untiring energy1 a handsome exterior1 and much money1 they arrive sooner or later4 ,with all her overaccentuated traits and the metallic quality of technique in the handling of her portrait1 ,undine ,spragg is both a type and an individual--she is the newest variation of ,daisy ,miller--and compared with her brazen charmlessness the figures of ,hedda ,gabler and ,mildred ,lawson seem melting with tenderness1 aglow with subtle charm and muffled exaltation4 ,undine--shades of ,la ,motte ,fouqu--is quite the most disagreeable girl in our fiction4 ,she has been put under a glass and subjected to the air-pump pressure of ,mrs4 ,wharton's art4 ,she is a much more viable creature than the author's earlier ,lily ,bart1 the heroine of ,the ,house of ,mirth4 ,at least ,undine is not sloppy or sentimental1 and that is a distinct claim on the suffrages of the intelligent reader4 ,furthermore1 the clear hard atmosphere of the book is tempered by a tragic and humorous irony1 a welcome astringent for the mental palate4 ,in ,apex ,city ,undine made up her mind to have her own way4 ,she elopes and marries a vulgar hustler1 but is speedily divorced4 ,she is very beautiful when she reaches ,new ,york4 ,no emotional experience would leave a blur on her radiant youth1 because love for her is a sensation1 not a sentiment4 ,by indirect and cumulative touches the novelist evokes for us her image4 ,truly a lovely apparition1 almost mindless1 with great sympathetic eyes and a sweet mouth4 ,she exists1 does ,undine4 ,she is not the barren fruit of a satirical pen4 ,foreigners1 both men and women1 puzzle over her freedom1 chilliness1 and commercial horse-sense4 ,she doesn't long intrigue their curiosity1 her brain is poorly furnished and conversation with her is not a fine art4 ,she is temperamental in the sense that she lives on her nerves2 without the hum and glitter of the opera1 fashionable restaurants1 or dances she relapses into a sullen stupor1 or rages wildly at the fate that made her poor4 ,she1 too1 like ,hedda and ,emma1 lives in the moment1 a silly moth enamoured of a millionaire4 ,mildred ,lawson is positively intellectual in comparison1 for she has a go at picture-making1 while the only pictures ,undine cares for are those produced by her own exquisitely plastic figure4 ,no wonder ,ralph ,marvell fell in love with her1 or1 rather1 in love with his poetic vision of her4 ,he was1 poor man1 an idealist1 and his fine porcelain was soon cracked in contact with her brassy egotism4 ,he is of the old ,washington ,square stock1 as antique--and as honourable--as ,methuselah4 ,undine soon tires of him2 above all1 tires of his family and their old-fashioned social code4 ,for her the rowdy joys of ,peter ,van ,degen and his set4 ,the ,odyssey of ,undine is set forth for us by an accomplished artist in prose4 ,we see her in ,italy1 blind to its natural beauties1 blind to its art1 unhappy till she gets into the hurrah of ,st4 ,moritz4 ,we follow her hence1 note her trailing her petty misery--boredom because she can't spend extravagantly--through modish drawing-rooms2 then a fresh hegira1 ,europe1 a divorce1 the episode with ,peter ,van ,degen and its profound disillusionment 7she has the courage to jump the main-travelled road of convention for a brief term7 and her remarriage4 ,that1 too1 is a failure1 only because ,undine so wills it4 ,she has literally killed her second husband because she wins from him by legal means their child1 and in the end she again marries her divorced husband1 ,elmer ,moffatt1 now a magnate1 a multimillionaire4 ,she has at last followed the advice of ,mrs4 ,heeny1 her adviser and masseuse4 ,go steady1 ,undine1 and you'll get anywheres4 ,we leave her in a blaze of rubies and glory at her ,french chateau1 and she isn't happy1 for she has just learned that1 being divorced1 she can never be an ambassadress1 and that her major detestation1 the ,jim ,driscolls1 had been appointed to the ,english court as ambassador from ,america4 ,the novel ends with this coda3 ,she could never be an ambassador's wife2 and as she advanced to welcome her first guests1 she said to herself1 that it was the one part she was really made for4 ,the truth is she was bored as a wife1 and like ,emma ,bovary1 found in adultery all the platitudes of marriage4 ,you ask yourself1 after studying the play1 and the two novels1 if the new woman is necessarily disagreeable4 ,to my way of thinking1 it is principally the craving for novelty in characterisation that has wrought the change in our heroines of fiction1 although new freedom and responsibilities have evolved new types4 ,naturally the pulchritudinous weakling we shall always have with us1 ugly girls with brains are a welcome relief from the eternal purring of the popular girl with the baby smile4 ,but it would be a mistake to call ,hedda1 or ,mildred1 or ,undine1 new women4 ,mildred is the most advanced1 ,hedda the most dangerous--she pulled the trigger far too early--and ,undine the most selfish of the three4 ,the three are disagreeable1 but the trio is transitional in type4 ,each girl is a compromiser1 ,undine being the boldest2 she did a lot of shifting and indulged in much cowardly evasion4 ,vulgarians all1 they are yet too complex to be pinned down by a formula4 ,old wine in these three new bottles makes for disaster4 ,undine ,spragg is the worst failure of the three4 ,she got what she wanted for she wanted only dross4 ,ibsen's ,button-,moulder will meet her at the ,cross-,roads when her time comes4 ,hedda1 like ,strindberg's ,julia1 may escape him because1 coward as she was when facing harsh reality1 she had the courage to rid her family of a worthless encumbrance4 ,if she had been a robust egoist1 and realised her nature to the full1 she would have been a ,hedda ,gabler reversed1 in a word1 the ,hilda ,wangel of ,the ,master ,builder4 ,but with ,mildred she lacked the strength either to renounce or to sin4 ,and ,undine ,spragg hadn't the courage to become downright wicked2 the game she played was so pitiful that it wasn't worth the poor little tallow-dip4 ,what is her own is the will-to-silliness4 ,as ,princess ,estradina exclaimed in her brutally frank fashion3 ,my dear1 it's what ,i always say when people talk to me about fast ,americans3 you're the only innocent women left in the world4444 ,this is far from being a compliment4 ,no1 ,undine is voluble1 vulgar1 and catty1 but she isn't wicked4 ,it takes brains to be wicked in the grand manner4 ,she is only disagreeable and fashionable2 and she is as impersonal and monotonous as a self-playing pianoforte4 ,,books ,,by ,,james ,,huneker ,,published ,,by ,,charles ,,scribner',s ,,sons ,ivory ,apes and ,peacocks4 #abmo4 net1 #a4ej ,new ,cosmopolis4 #abmo4 net1 #a4ej ,the ,pathos of ,distance4 #abmo4 net1 #b4jj ,franz ,liszt4 ,illustrated4 #abmo4 net1 #b4jj ,promenades of an ,impressionist4 #abmo4 net1 #a4ej ,egoists3 ,a ,book of ,supermen4 #abmo4 net1 #a4ej ,iconoclasts3 ,a ,book of ,dramatists4 #abmo4 net1 #a4ej ,overtones3 ,a ,book of ,temperaments4 #abmo4 net1 #a4ej ,mezzotints in ,modern ,music4 #abmo4 net1 #a4ej ,chopin3 ,the ,man and ,his ,music4 ,with ,portrait4 #abmo4 net1 #b4jj ,visionaries4 #abmo4 net1 #a4ej ,melomaniacs4 #abmo4 net1 #a4ej ,,transcriber',s ,,notes #a4 ,passages in italics are surrounded by underscores4 #b4 ,passages in bold are surrounded by bold4 #c4 ,certain words 7,l',oeuvre1 ,soeur1 ,coeur7 use oe ligature in the original4 #d4 ,the following misprints have been corrected3 ,missing period added at sentence end a cosmopolitan4 7page #bi7 ,turgeneiff corrected to ,turgenieff 7page #fi7 ,missing period added at sentence end his admirers4 7page #bdb7 #e4 ,other than the corrections listed above1 printer's inconsistencies in spelling1 punctuation1 hyphenation and ligature usage have been retained4