LITERARY GOSSIP

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18461, 15 August 1925, Page 11

LITERARY GOSSIP

Discussing Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan Professor J. van Kan says m the " Ttnightly" that it is the "first serious attempt to give a dramatic rendering of the figure of Franco's sublime heroine based upon a truly historical foundation. For as such none of the early or later French dramatic —wo might even add epic a"d lyric—renderings of this marvellous matciial can be reckoned. They are all, without exception, products of an imnelnation has refused to be brid'ed by n'eid facts; which alwavs interweaves real events with t ,- o dreaming* of the writer, and which frequently, for tho sake of harmonising comhi'-"tv->n. has even invented the events themselves Shakespeare reproduces the English of the maid of bis osvn ilav; and tbat was no other than the obstinate echo of tho renresontatinn that Ivul boon lu-cd -d to lend its great political significance to the trial of Joan of Arc. and nt tho same time to tender thp abominable legalised murder a-ceotabV to those in svmpathv with Englnml and Burgundy. Tho only ground foi what was ofrercd as history was tradition ; and this tradition itself was drawn from political sources and also-hut in a much smaller degree—from hat<j and vengef ulness." '"Schiller's creation," tho article proceeds. "can lay as littlo clain. to being historical. iSchillor approaches his heroine with love and reverence—for which we shall always bear him gratitude after the atrocious coarseness of Voltaire—but his representation rangos so freely through the realms of fantasy that tho portrait ho created of her whom he has christ-ened for all time, and especially in Germany the 'Maid of Orleans' has often nothing more in common with historical actuality than the unhistorical title. ... It is very striking that tho first attempt to mould the imposing tragedy of the Sublime Maiden into dramatic form, with material that is borrowed from history itself, should com© from across the Channel—from th© land that was once the land of Warwick, and which aspired to the dual kingship, but which has now long been the land of Southey and Andrew Lang; the country that in its oldest and in its newest cathedral

seeks out beautiful spots in which to honour tho memory of her against whom its forefathers perpetrated the most cruel of injustices." A correspondent sends the following to a leading London daily: It is recorded of Senator La Follette that in thirty years he had made no one laugh. Still, ho might not have endorsed the great Lord Chesterfield's indictment of laughter as "a low and unbecoming thing, not to mention tho disagreeable noise that it makes and the shocking oontortion of the face that it occasions. . . I am sure that since I have had the full use of my reason nobody has ever heard mo Jaugh." Charles Sumner, the American statesman, could make a similar boast, and Moltke came very near to achieving a laughterless existence. Moltke is said to have laughed only twice after attaining years of discretion : once, when he received the news of his mother-in-law's death, and again when someone told him that a military construction just outside Stockholm was considered by the Swedes to bo a strong fortress. Samuel Pepys is tho grey glory of Magdalene College, which has just lost a versatile and prolific writer by the death of Mr A. C. Benson, who had been Master since 1915. Though his "Diary" reminded in the library undeciphered until 1825, Pepys always retained a loyal affection for his old college, of which he was a liberal benefactor, and which he frequently visited. There are numerous references to Magdalene in the famous "Diaryy" notably of "a very handsome supper at Mr Hill's chambers," after they had "drunk pretty hard and healths to the King" at the Three Tuns. A favourable opinion of Magdalene beer, "which pleased me, as the best I ever drank," is recorded as the result of a surreptitious visit which he paid "as a stranger" to the buttery.

There was reprinted lately in this column what was thought at the time to be the most ferocious army order in history. But the estimate was wrong. Feng Yu-Hsiang, the Chinese "Christian" General, a huge, sinewy man of about six-feet three, published this order, so a "Morning Post" correspondent says, during the recent disturbances: "Shoot the enemy at long range until your ammunition is exhausted; then use you bayonet till it breaks. After that hammer them .over the head with the butt of tout rifle. When that splits bite their ears off"! H. A. Morgan, who later became Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, had at one time been a pupil of the famous Dr. Kennedy, professor of Greek and Dean of Ely. H. A. M., as he was called, had endless stories, all affectionate and appreciative, but amusing, of his old master, who was warm-hearted, irascible, explosive, easily bursting into sudden rages about nothing, and as easily appeased. One of his favourites related to an old friend, who had* actually written a Latin Grammar himself (Dr. Kennedy was the author of a Latin Grammar which he considered unapproachable in excellence and believed that everyone else knew by heart), and had the temerity to send a copy of it to Dr. Kennedy. By return of mail came the book back to its writer with this note: "I setod you back your Grammar, which you have not hesitated in the depths of your impertinence to send me." But a few mails lator came another letter: "Dear So-and-so, I am afraid I wrote you a hasty note yesterday. The stupid servant posted it; but it was never intended to be posted. My daughter Julia generally sees to these things, but unfortunately she was out," etc.