MEMORIES OF RUPERT BROOKE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19941, 30 May 1930, Page 10

MEMORIES OF RUPERT BROOKE.

INTERVIEW WITH MR MAURICE BROWNE.

It was a small lunch party, writes "G.W.8." in the "Observer," and someone raised the question of the Rupert Brooke memorial. Should it be the heroic figure in stone on Skyrosf Why not a living memorial in the form of a Bupert Brooke scholarship! The charming idea put forward by a correspondent that the church clock at Grantchcster should always stand "at ten to three'' was mentioned. Then Mr Maurice Browne said that he was a member of the committee, and he felt that a monument on the island where Rupert Brooke was buried was more than a memorial to the genius of one poet; it was an international recognition of British poetry. "Did you know Rupert Brooke intimately f" Mr Browne was asked. His reply gave me such a clear, vivid living impression of the poet that I asked him if he would let me record some of his memories.

"Many people, of course, knew him for a -much longer time than I did, but from early in 1914 until the boginning of the war wo were very intimate friends. Somebody in my presence the other day talked about the Rupert Brooke 'myth.' His charm is not a legend as far as I am concerned. He remains in my memory as the most extraordinarily attractive young man I have ever known—in mind as well as in body. His vigour and his keenness were so remarkable that I cannot adequately express what I feel, although I wrote my 'Recollections' in a little book that was issued in a small limited edition in Chicago." Ten Days in Chicago.

"How did you come to meet himf" I asked.

"We had many mutual friends, but I was running the Little Theatre, in Chicago, and we never met until early in 1914. One morning I found a note from him to say that he was staying at the hotel next door. I telephoned at once, and in a few minutes he was in the theatre. The next ten days we were together most of the day and half the night. I remember that we were playing 'Hedda Gabler,' and Brooke spent most of his time in the theatre. Then we used to go to my studio and he read to us almost everything he had written, including the South Sea poems and 'Lithuania ' which were in manuscript. With great vividness I can see him sitting on the floor, his arms around his hunched-up knees, blushing with pleasure if any of us became peculiarly inarticulate over the loveliness'of some special passage. I picture him walking down Michigan avenue, swinging his hat, talking as °5 y .t. f° uld talk « l uite unconscious of the fact that every woman and every other man who passed stopped and looked round at the lithe and radiant young creature. The Russian Ballet.

In May, 1914, we sailed together for Europe, and on the voyage he was in wild spirits at the thought of seeing England again. I remember his excitement when he found out that the Russian Ballet was in London. We parted for a few days, after landing, but he wrote to me a letter in which he suggested a visit to the ballet. It ended: Go to Boris Godunov, Go to Whitechapel, Go to Prinz Igor, Go to Hell,

.... . , Britannically, R.B. At the bottom of the letter is a drawing of a Union Jack rampant. "I was in Europe on a special visit to study the art theatres in England and on the Continent, and in the middle of June I left for Berlin armed with letters of introduction to his friends in Gonnany. He wrote to me from Rugby on June 16th. 'We shall meet again either in this world, or in the next world, or in America. If in this world, we will drink and argue, and your wife shall writ* us some of

her delightful bout-rime' sonnets. If in the next world—why, I've little hope of drink, but there'll surely be argument; and whether there are boutsrimfis or not, the wise disagree. But we can plan superb light effects with a Fortuny apparatus in the Empyrean, and God Himself will work innumerable dimmers for us, and never a hitch. I had fun in Chicago, on the Atlantic, and in London. I hope you did. When you 're safe in Italy, and at peace, send me a card . . .' Brooke as Dramatist. "We met once more before my departure, and talked far into the night; but by the time we were 'safe in Italy' peace had left the world. I had several letters from him after the outbreak of the war. One just after he had returned from Antwerp—'just too late'—and another when he was in training in - Dorset—'We march through thousand year old English villages. England! England I I'm very happy.' The following May I was at Columbus, Ohio, and the curtain was about to ring up on a performance *of 'The Trojan Women,' and I received a letter to say that he was dead." "You were the first person to produce his play, 'Lithuania,' were you not!" I asked. "Yes; he sent me the MS. in the autumn ef IM4* *»4 S» JiMPd *l §§-,

the Chicago Little Theatre in October, 1915. A small edition of the play in paper wrappers was published. The copies were sold at thirty-five cents, and 1 wonder what they are fetching in America to-day. It was the first publication of the play." "If he had lived would Rupert Brooke have become a dramatist, do you think t" "Any answer must be more or less speculative. He talked to me and to Miss Ellen van Volkenburg a good deal about 'Lithuania,' which was for him a highly significant experiment. He felt that it was an important stepping-stone towards tragedy. The simplicity, directness, and power of 'Lithuania' are evidence that his genius might have developed into drama. It is an 'acting' play from beginning to end, and there is no doubt in my own mind that, had he lived, his chief work would have ultimately been dramatic. In one of his last letters he said: 'ln the end, those of us who come back will start writing great war plays,' but it must be borne in mind, of course, that it was written to someone whose whole life was wrapped up in the Iheatre. Apart from that and the fact that he wrote 'Lithuania,' all of his work, his intense interest in people and dramatic method of expression showed that he was a potenI tial dxamafist,"