"REVERENTIAL NEGLECT."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1054, 18 February 1911, Page 9

"REVERENTIAL NEGLECT."

Chancing to road the Into Mr. I D. Traill'n "Sterno" in' "English Me of . Letters," a series of volumes edit cd by Lord-'Morloy, I was infinite], pleased by/ somo otsorvations at th end of tho book. Up to the last pap; but 0116 Mr. Traill liad discharged hi task ; with■'•energy, with appreciation and.with his singular wit. Ho did no protoiid to liko everything in tin works or character'of. tho Hev. Laiir encoStorno ouito without <iualifica tioh.', Ho ratlier nioro than suspectei Mr. Sterno' of' having blackmailed i bishop, 'iho famous Warburton,: a 'dilli cult man to.blackmail. On tlio appear anco; of tho; first part of "Tristran Slmndy,**-■ Stern?; received "tho Strang S resent of a purso of ga!d" from tin ishop, of ''Gloucester,- win afterward spoko of him'as!"aa irrovoeahio scimn drel." ,AVo - aro not ■ told that; Storm had discovered tlio bishop's guilty con duct in any:sort (Jacobitism, for . ex ample), rather it'looks a's if tiic bisboj feared,that Sterne .would caricature bin in his vast and wandering book; maki hiiu tho foolish tutor , of Iris:.-a 11, foi example . Thackor i/, wli> sincoroli detested Sterno, does not mention tliii affair, in tho indictment; drawn up it his" ".Euglish Humo.irists." Mr. 1 rail cnisfossedHhat he';'felt far less confi dent of tho groundlessness of this rathei unpleasant story than could bo wished,' adding that Sterno "was not at r.U ii advance of tho morality of his time.' "A nico marality, stan my vital*, 1 ': a: Lord'Fbppingtoii .says, if it rccogiliset tho'prbpnotv of' tho . blackmailing ol bishops \v tho country clergy! ; I prefer to suppose tho learner prelate," wishing tq reward genius it Sterne, aiidfcelinp.incapable' of .conscientiously procuring for him.ccclesiastical preferment,goffered him a purst of gold. . , 1 -. V. However that may be, Mr. Traill fol lowed Sterno.dutifully to tho bitter end as it becomes 1 tho biographer to folloy a great" classic of.- our English litora turo.'' Then ho suoko his real mint iipo'n-moro'subjects than one. "Hanked as ho still is, among English classics, ho undergoes, I' cuspcct, even more than ni\ English classic's ordinary sliart Df reverential neglect." It is wel! worth whilo'to bo an English-classic, a doom'which yo.i incur, 1 think, ifyci: lied bofbro,1800; whilo by dying aftci that dato you escape being a classic.' "Among thoso- who . talk about him lie has, 1 should , imagine, fewer readies than Feilding, and very much fewei thaj Swift." Bo you eve;', hear anyino.talk about Sterno? I confess thai [ ueyer do, thojgh ho is preserved - ii: rhackcray's picklo, and somp research >rs may. havo tasted him - with; that sauco' piquanto.. asi perhaps, sonic pco ilo try your piko or.jack with Walton'; ;auco of port and other riph ingredi <nts. But' t-hgso amateurs even aro few, or Thackeray's criticisms aro regarded is obsolete! by tho new school of literiry thinkers. ; JJr.yi'raill 'distinguished hrco distinct categories in tho deenj if an English classic. . Some,like Swift and - Fielding-antU imith, "aro. still read in a. cortain noasure, though . ill a' much smaller neasuro than is pretended, by-tho groat iady of ordinarily well educated men." 3ut tliisfjwas' "li-ritfeu nearly; thirty ■ears 1 ago,■ - and .the- body of' tr\en who low read. Fielding and Swift' (except n expurgated -"Gulliver's Travels'.''. in !hildhood)~must bo far from great. 1 lavo tried "Tho Talo of a Tub" 'again, atoly, with cxtromo dissatisfaction; ind that is better than "Tho Battlo of ;ho Books." Swift "had not found n ongth'-'; ho often found a length later, incf camo; to possess : much.>• greater ;onius than when lib' vfrbte -''Tho 'l'ajo if a Tub." Mr. . Traill's second cate;ory includes' Sterno, Addison, and Dc--00, and Smollett. These authors "the irdinary well-educated , public, whatovcr thoy may protend, read ,' really. , vory littlo or not at all."- Yet it is well .rortli whilc: to writo littlo books about teo English lieu' of Letters; whom iobo<ly r?ads. y Edgar, Poo said, 'con;eruing ihis'pA'ii,count rymcn, : "as a lit;rary people ivo are a vast perambulatng humbug." , So aro wo, if wo read ittlo. books alnut Addison,' and ,donot •ead at all an ; author :wh'6so essays' aro 1 perpjtual 'delight.' As , to'. Smollett, ,-ou have to sit down to him with resoution, I confess (exoant to "Humphrey linker"), and, when you havo finished, foa do not feel anxious to botjin afjain it once. .Of Defoe, I can read, with mthusiasm, his many books 011' psychi:al research (incldding,Mrs. Vealo, that jhantasm who confessed.to wearing a icoured silk); her. story, a? Mr. Aitkcn liscovered. is a triu story- It really vas told by Mrs.' Bargrave,- tho per:ipierit, beforo sho knew - that . . Mrs. i f calo was dead. / "Robinson Crusoo" is readablo by all who' esn' rend lt. 1.. Stevenson; his pupil, who conscientiousy follows hire in Jim's voyage round lie island in tlio" most homc-mado of «racles.' - Why. Cru'fioo made' : ;a boat :apablo of holding thirty men', and in:apablo of bqing' launched' when'.lie night havo mado a'caiioo, I never could But, as you lead,' ybu sen low much' amused Defoo was, though i man of sixty, when'lie* wroto "Itobin--011 Crusoe." Novcr did author enjoy limself moro. ' His letters to Harley, rom Scotland, in 1707, whilo the Union ras a-making,.ara alsj delightful lite) a•ure. Defoe was humbugging a .whole iconic, with jntenso pleasure,. ind was lealing with a charming, impudent, idroit rogu-i, ~"Mr. Tcarco" (K'or of Cersland) whom ho ought to havo put nto a novcr | But as to reading "Moll Handera,'" for human pleasure, I have ried to do it in vain,' and must rank i-ith "tlio .ordinary well-educated pubic." . ,' . • -The'last of tho classic, into I'hich Mr. .Traill, siispcctcd that Storno s falling,'"is .scarcely read by even tho ritic, the connoisseur," or tho historian if lite'riture, 'and . scarccly even b.i hem, except .from curiosity, or in the ray. of bii3ine';s." : ,'n this class is, to U own oxtreino surprise, 'Mr. Samuel lichardson. . Ho is, to 111 c, I admit, lopclcss; tnlv in a Highland inn with 10 -other books,.could 1 give It'.eliard--011 a fair chaiice.. In a Highland 11111 1 ound, and road witl: ranturo, (lie 'Joseph" - of Bit.iube, Joseph the licro ,f a romance of. Mr. Kidcr Haggard s avourito and niystic Land of Chein. lut Bitauhe did not seo tho Egypt of ho Hamossids with the eyes ol Mr. laggard. Noiib tho less, as to ilichrdson, I kno.v a lady who has read 'Sir Charles Grandisoi." thrice. W<\ emcmbor witu what fury Macaul'.'.v s opv of "Clarissa" was borrowed and ead at an Indian station. As for myalf, "lUchardson," I read, "founried he novel of analysis and feeling," and think ho'might have been better cmiloyod. After all. I cannot hcliovo that a uunorist liko Sterna is to bo loft with {ichardson alone 011 a dusty ton shelf, f ho isl not a humorist as well as a lulfoon, who:is? Tlio linglisli classics, t admit, arti ougli! Of Fielding, though* an 011lmsiast for that great genius, I novcr ead ''Jonathan Wild" till the day boons yesterday. I was terribly tlisiipminted.. ' livery critic calls it "a masorpiece of irony." It is r. commonilace to nraiw it at tho expense of "hackcray's."Barry Lyndon," which is

not ironical enough, or not ironical in tho right way. Hut "Jonathan Wild," besides being much nastier than Smollett at his worst, is not ironical at all. Tho author keeps on shouting in every page, "liow ironical 1 am!' 1 Ido not call that the ironical mothod, the method of Swift in his doubts about the' propriety and necessity (as things stand) of abolishing Christianity. Look at Mrs. Meartfreo'a ad\enturcs in "Jnna» than Wild." Did any heroine of a lato Greek romance ever incur bo "ninny dangers to her Ilcartfrco's peace ofiniud?. Yo\i only wish to have Jonathan liaiigod and to be dono with him. His lovo adventures make you ill. .Now tho adventures of Barry Lyndon nro given with brilliant variety—a squireen in Irehnd, a rake jn Dublin, a soldier of Frederic the Great, a.gambler at, a dozen brilliant Courts, a, figuve among tho Saint Gcrmnina and passionate princesses, among tragedies and rogueries, with his uncle, the inimitable Chovalior—vuu have in Barry an amusing nirrator >f a highly detestable' character. But there ' aro when 1 rather like :nd odroire Barry; it is, of coarse, a peculiar taste. Ho does not bore me, or not till near the end, ivliilo Jonathan is infinitely less amusing than Smollett's "Ferdinand Count Fathom." /mong our tough classics Jonathan is tougher to me than anything, even than the most of tho would-be comic writers of our sta«c under James and tho two Charles's and William 111. Charles Lamb did ill to. make tlnm into objccts of enthusiasm. I hopefully suspect that'by all but specialists thc.v "arc ever, more neglected tln.1 1 -tho author of "Pamela;" or tho endless "Grand Exemplar" of. Jeremy Taylor.

'-.Having, written;thus; freely ronccrning Sterne," I consult an American "Introduction !to English Literature" (1907) by Mr. Pancoast.' Ho finds room for ■ classics lilcn • Shenstone, Skeltou, Tiptoffc (Jolm Ea.'l of Worcester), Traherno (Thomas), but of -Laurence Sterno tho liamo is not so much as mentioned in tho index!' "Alas, poor Yorick," or "Alas, Mn Pancoast," as you please.— Andrew Lang in tho "Morning Post.'!