LITERARY GOSSIP.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14686, 7 June 1913, Page 9

LITERARY GOSSIP.

The death of Mr J. C. Ross, leaderwriter to "The Times," is another interesting example of the great English tradition of anonymous journalism (says a writer in tho "Evening Standard"). "Although," writes "The Times." "Mr Ross was unknown outside a small circle of personal and professional friends, yet by his death a journalistic forco of much power and originality is lost to the world." hor the last thirty-two years, the world now learns, he has dealt night after night with current questions. For a generation the voice of the "Thunderer" on pressing matters of public

concern has been the voice of Mr Ross, ami no ono except his co.leagues aim his private friends ever .noaru. of -Ui Ro;s. His name is not even in that singularly catholic and accommodating handbook to fame, "Who's Who."

Apropos of the death of England's Pool Laureate, Mr Alfred — ustin, it may be interesting to recall the origin and history of that curious institution, tho Laureatoship. The earliest reference to anything of the kind is probably to bo found in the Domesday Book, where we find one Berdic described as "Joeidator Regis," a certain Roger or Raherus, King's minstrel, is said to havo founded the monastery of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield under Henry I. Richard I. took William the Foreigner to Palestine with him to sing his exploits, and Edward I. took a Carmelite friar, Robert Buston, to Sentl.ird in 130-1 for a similar purpose. Robert Bast on is also said to have accompanied Edward 11. to Banrockburn. apparently in the same capacity, but ho was captured by the Scottish soldiers and forced to celebrate their prowess '"nstead, as the price of his freedom. The badness of his verse (rhymed hexameters) was humorously ascribed by later writers to the unwillingness of his conscience. Edward IV. had a "vorsificator" attached to his court, and beforo this wo meet the term "laureate" applied not only to university students who had earned the laurel wreath for rhetoric and Latin versification, but also to any poet of surpassing merit. The first Poet Laureate in the modern sense was Spenser, who received a pension of £'50 from Queen Elizabeth iv 1591, but tho first to receive the office by formal letters-patent was Ben Jonson. His salary was 100 marks, raised by Charles 1. to 100 pounds sterling, with tho addition of a tierco of Canary wine. James 11. cut off the supply of wine, which was afterwards, however, resumed, until at a later date it was commuted for £27 a year- Many of the names of the Poets-Laureate have long since been forgotten, but tho more notable poets who havo occupied tho position were Spenser, Ben Jonson, Dryden, Sou they, Wordsworth, and Tennyson.

Admirers of Mr Arnold Bennett will bo interested in the following from the "Century," by Professor Phelps, of Yale:—"Mr Arnold Bennett, who had made a number of short flights! without * attracting much attention, produced "Tho Old Wives' Tale," giving tho complete life history of two sisters. Emboldened by the great and well-de-served "success of this history, ho launched a trilogy, of which two huge sections aro already in tho hands of a wide public. No details are omitted in theso vast structures; even a cold in tho head is elaborately described. But thousands and thousands of persons seem to havo the time and the patience to read these volumes. Why? Boca uso the story is in intimate relation with life. A gifted Frenchman appears on tho scene with a novel of ten volumes, "Jean Christophe," dealing with tho life of thus hero from the cradle to the grave. Although the last sections have not yet appeared, the earlier ones are bcing_ translated into all the languages of Europe, so intense is the curiosity of the world regarding this particular book of life. Somo may ask. Why should the world bo burdened with this enormous mass of trivial detail in rather uneventful lives? The answer may be found in Fra Lippo Lippi's spirited defence of his art, which differed from the art of Fra Angelico in sticking close to reality:— For, don't you mark? we're made bo that we love First when we sec them painted, things wo have passed Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see. "I find in tho contemporary life' novel a sincere, dignified, and successful effort to substitute reality for the former rather narrow realism. For it is an attempt to represent life as a whole." Mr Harold Munro, founder and editor of tho "Poetry Review," gives expression in "T.IVs Weekly" to the faith that has moved him to his enterprise:—"l think I only know one thing about myself for quite certain, which, amounts to this: that if anyone can imagine an earth without poetry he need not imagine m© ono of its inhabitants. I have never been happy, partly because I have never been able to read as much or write nearly as well as I havo desired; but only .lately 1 have discovered that reading is not nearly so necessary as I thought it. I have now reached the point ot my life that most actually resembles a beginning. Having walked about Europe, lived a year or two absolutely alone on tho Swiss mountains, another year or two in different crank settlements, I came to England at the end of 1911, and, at the suggestion of the Poetry Society, almost immediately foundod the 'Poetry Review.' I soon discovered that there are many untried ways in which a community may be reminded of poetry, the least effective being, of course, the accredited one known by many terms, which I may designate under the general term 'popularisation.' Poetry cannot be forced into popularity, but it can at least be given v chance; and I conceived the ambition of providing the public an opportunity for testing, without difficulty and of its own initiative, this extraordinary thing it pretends to despise, and then 1 suddenly found myself "in a, largo house with a Poetry Bookshop, a room for reading poetry aloud, and a periodical at my disposal for writing about it. But the less written about it the better; and the less of it printed tho better; and the more it is carried in the memory and conveyed by the voice, much, much the better."

Tho perennial problem of tho relation between Art and Morality cropped up again some time ago in the course of Lord Alfred Douglas's libel action against "The Times" Book Club and Mr Arthur Ransomo, author of "Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study." Mr Justice Darling delivered himself of somo rather interesting observations on tho much-debated subject of what should be printed and what should not. He put the matter in this way:—"lf a young girl went to 'The Times' circulating library and said 'Give mc Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,"' 1 should say that probably the proprietor of the library would say, 'Well, if your father comes for it I will give it to him. but I am not going to take the responsibility.' The same if she asked for a book by Lecky. The right people to look after young girls are fathers and mothers, and they are the people who should ask for the book. If they ask for a book containing improper passages and leave it about they must .not complain. Could a circulating library go on if a book such as this was not allowed to be put in circulation at all? If this book is not fit to be put into circulation at all it comes within an Act of Parliament, and the person who publishes it can be prosecuted. When that was being discussed one of the counsel for the deiendant mentioned the nanio of Rabelais. Rabelais is a classic, which, I am bound t<% say, never appealed to mc. It is a fault of my own, no doubt, but I cannot read a chapter of it without being bored to death. But a great many people who read Rabelais are happy in a sense. A person was onto prosecuted for publishing a translation of Rabelais—l forget what happened, but it was submitted to a jury. That is the tribunal that decides the matter, and in this book, or any other book, if indecent ami unfit for publication to the public at large, there is an Act of Parliament by which the author and publisher and circulating library can be prosecuted."

"Does anyone pretend that there is anything in this book which brings it within the A**-?" the Judge

continued. "If they did, it would ,be suppressed. It relates to the life iof a very bad man or genius. Are you not to read about him? Are you not to read his part because his moral character was had? If thnt is so. we would not bo allowed to rend the Acts of Parliament of Charles II. —(laughter) —and not to look at the works of art, pictures cr statues, of a man of a bad life. If you road the life of Benvenuto Cellini, you will find that ho was described as a most consummate blackguard. Ho was making a brooch for the Pope, and asked the Pope to give hi in absolution for a murder which he had committed. The Pope gave it him. and then lie asked the Pope for absolution in advance for any murders he might commit in defence of the Church, and tho Pope gave it him. (Laughter.) You will find on other pages that the Pope was no better than himself. Aro you not then, to study tho life of Benvenuto Cellini —are you not to look at the Perseus and Medusa of Florence? Are you not to read one of the most horrible stories in the history of Art? Aro you not to consider tho character of artists because they were bad men? It is imposrible to sayso. What- would 'The Times' Book Club do if it did not circulate the history of Benvenuto Cellini and say he was such a wicked man that when you put it down one's daughter might pick it up and 'The Times' must be made to pay damages? This book was published beennse, it is admitted on all hands—and no ono proclaims it more, loudly than tho plaintiff—that Wide was a great literary artist and a exeat manager of words. ' Whether yon think his paradoxes are very cheap—one taking all the merning to elaborate —he was undoubtedly a great artist in words. He wrote plays which are played over and over again. Therefore Mr Ransome did a very natural thing when ho said tho work was a critical study."