A POINT OF WORKMANSHIP IN TENNYSON.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1067, 4 March 1911, Page 9

A POINT OF WORKMANSHIP IN TENNYSON.

• ; Dr. Entile Laurricrc returns, to a. sub' s ject that has occupied him before in* "Repetition and Parallelism in Tennyson." a little book published by the Oxford University Press. Every writer of note'would provide a mass of interesting statistics to a faithful compiler, and though Swinburne's scorn of tho critic who would measure Shakespeare with his thumb' cannot bs forgotten, dogged observations may certainly bo made into a critical instrument in the study of literature. M. Lauvriero's compilations will be of increasing, value as corresponding ones are made from tho vorsq of other writers. Thesimplo example of repetition is in such a line as "The merry, lXirry' bells of Yule" and of what is called parallelism in "Mingle madness, mingle scorn," but these are only the primitive forms of what may becomo highly complex. In Tennyson the effects obtained from forms both simple and complex are astonishingly numerous, and it would be interesting to have a comparison on tha one hand with Swinburne and Poo and on tho other, say, with. Wordsworth or Keats. It is pointed out that catches and refrains are the survivals of mere iterations, and that Tennyson, one of the most subtle ,of poets, owes more than almost any other to the primitive impulses, though'lio "prefers the'wandering melody of irregular repetends to the dull stiffness of perfectly regular burdens." It is the -unexpected'within tho expected that he gives us with extraordinary variety of effect, and M. Lauvriere seeks for tho origin of tho technical accomplishment, and finds it in a combination of influences and habits. Tennyson had an parly delight in ballads, and from them' he derived tho-inclination to dwell on a refrain. Hallam Tennyson has said that his father's .poems were commonly based 011 somo single phrase such as "Someone had blundered," and that they wero [ "rolled about, so to speak, 111 his head ! before ho w'rote them down." Tho poet's ruminating ,habit was a potent influence on the form of his and it is recorded that when 110 was accused of being "studiously alliterative" he declared that he had no end of trouble to get rid of the excessive alliteration that came by l habit. It was*.part of Tennyson's art to take the simple emphasis of repetition and 'transmuto it into an instrument for the expression of ■ subtle ■, emotions.—"Manchester Guardian." '

THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH,

'A-circular issued. by .tho Board of Education;. 011 the teaching of. English (says the "Manchester Guardian") has attracted not a littlo attention, mainly because it says that thero is 110 such thing as English grammar. That, of course, is an exaggeration of . tho truth. Thero is an English grammar in exactly the same sense as there is French or German or even Latin grammar; the Board of Education's circular is certainly .in error when it says that only dead languages, like Latin can havo a grammar. The truth, of course, is that tho grammatical rules of a language aro only another word for its logic or its common sense; the exceptions are its. grammar as distinguished from its logic, and in English these aj'e learnfd so easily by' the English boy that 'it is quite true to say that thero is 110 grammar as wo used to understand tho word. "Undoubtedly the wrong way to teach English is by grimmar, which is an advanced logical exorcise whole rules are only to be comprehended, if at all, by voting men and women ripe for scholarships at the universities—by which time they ought certainly to be able to write their own languago intelligibly. What, then, do wo mean by tho teaching of English? Not the internal structure of a language, which, as wo havo said, is a branch of logic and metaphysic. Nor yet a number of facts about the history of English literature. A schoolboy may know every note to Aldis Wright's editions of Shakespeare's plays off by heart, and still bo a very bad English scholar. Tho teaching of English is t-o be carefully distinguished both from

logic and from literary history. It implies tlio power to handle and express ideas in a form readily intclligiblo In thoso who have not maris, it spccia 1 study of them. How is this power best imparted? Tho Education Office circular answers this all-important question by a string of negatives— not liy a study of grammatical rules or of tho facts of literary history or of philology. But it gives very little positive instruction, and perhaps rightly. For tho teaching of English in schools is like tho teaching of morality. It should pervade every lesson rather than bo tiio subject of any ono lesson. Like morality, English may be taught in a lesson on algebra, or domestic economy, or 1 even French. What one means by a good English scholar is ono who has tho power to express himself clearly m tho English language. This power is very largely derived from a mind well stored with knowledge; tho fuller a man is of his subject the easier ho should find it to express his views on any -department of it. Hut tliero is a seienco or art of expression which does not depend so much on knowledge of tho subject matter as on the capacity to find words that express tho thought or knowledge that is in a man. And that is what we mean by English scholarship. It is to bo acquired not by knowledge of the facts of English literature but by a constant and steady soaking in its writers. Most of this soaking must take place out of school hours. All that a schoolmaster-can do is to inspire and giiirio. taste in reading "and to test the. facility that is being acquired. And this test should not be made bv means of formal essays only. It .should be continuous throughout instruction in all subjects. English is the medium of instruction, and the teaching of English is' therefore tho test of the efficiency , ofthe teacher of other subjects. No classical master, for example, would bo worth his salt if in the proccss of teaching his boys to construo Caesar or Euripides he (lid .not also teach them something of tho subtleties of the English jjnguagc. ' . ■

STEVENSON ON HIS OWN WORK Stevenson told mc (writes Mr. H. J. Moors in his new book "With Stevenson in Samoa") that when he set about writing a story lie had to do it ,as a 'carpenter seis about a building. First of- all ho would map out a plan, with a sketch of the plot and main incidents, and lay out the chapters. Then, when he was satislied that lie had made a solid foundation, ho would proceed with the superstructure. Such side issues as • suggested themselves he would de-velop-as ho went on. He would often depart from his original plans; the unfolding of the various incidents would quite spontaneously lead up to new and unexpected situations. No man, ho said, could faithfully adhere to his original intentions in the writing of a work of fiction. As for himself, how ideas would keep crowding oil him as ho-wrote, and new developments would spring up, as it were, of their own accord, so that sometimes it seemed that, instead of being the real author of the story, lie was but thd puppet of some- -unseen force at his elbow, some microbo in his brain.

It was his usual practice to keep two or three books going at the same time, so when ho got tired of working 011 ono he'found .it something in the nature of a relaxation to turn to another. Often have I heard him wonder whether any of his books would live. "I think 'Kidnapped' will, anyway," 110 said. Ho seemed very anxious to leave something permanent 011 tho scroll of literature; and I know,that at that time he .Ijeljeved "Kipnapped" to be tho bast book ho had written, though I have since heard that ho regarded "Weil' of Herniiston" as his finest effort. It is a thousand pities that he did not live to complete that work. I can, however, only speak of what lie told me. "I

think," said ho, "that if I liatl written nothing more than 'Kidnapped' and 'Thrawn Janet-.' I would bo worthy of a placo among men of letters." 1 To some it may seem surprising that Stevenson did not think very highly of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr.. . Hyde,". that "strange case" which made him famous. -And yet Dr. Japp says that the fault of that story is that " wo scorn to hear Stevenson chuckling to himself, 'Ah. now won't they all say at last how clover I' am!' " To be sure, ho felt greatly indebted to it for having brought him fame, but ho was unable to understand why. Within a week's time he was regretting having published the book at a [shilling a copy; it .is..unnecessary to state what the feelings of the publisher wore. Within a fortnight the sales in. England wore enormous; and when the--book was pirated in the United States, the printing press for a time was hardly able to keep up with the demand. Not a penny rcached him 011 account of it from the States; but it made his' reputation thero, and that, spelt money. It was, indeed, from the States that in the. future he drew most 'of .his money. Ho had come there to stay.; the public wanted as. much as,, and more than, it could get from this man. •'

THE BIBLE. The chief anniversary of 1911 (says an lingljsh writer) is tho third centenary of the translation of the Bible, and no doubt we shall be hearihs soon a great deal about the literary excellence of tho Authorised Version. It- is a trito subject, and perhaps the wisest thing that can be said about it is that perhaps there is no body of literature in the world from which can bo drawn instances' more in number, and moro varied in kinit, of tho sublime. That it combines humour with sublimity can hardly bo affirmed, but it at times achieves .something resembling humour by sheer truthfulness of portraiture. .Thus the conception of Samson as a good-natured giant ■ for whom the throttling of a lion or tho slaying of two hundred Philistines is a mere trifle but tho making of the most foolish little riddle in the world a thing to .chuckle over. for..hours together.js in tho' true spirit of comedy, while thedescription" of Elihu, tho son -of Barachel • tlujBuzite, exasperated at tho persistency of Job, and tho platitudes of his counsellors, and only with difficulty' restraining himself from intervention, is so vivid a picture of a young man watching an argument and burning to plunge into tho thick of it,, that a reader smiles at the picture as ho would at the original. But if thero is not humour there are many kinds of beauty. Tho formula of self-introduction, for example, with which Balaam prefaces each of his messages is curiously felicitous atul wizard-like:—"Balaam, tho son of Beor, hath said, and-the man whose eyes aro open hath said, lie hath said who heard the words of God, which saw the vision of tho Almighty, falling into a trance and having his eyes open. . . Then let it be noted how tho more dwelling upon the details of a fact heightens the note of barbarous exultation in the verso of tho song of Deborah: —"At her feet lie bowed, ho fell, lie lay down; at her feet lie bowed, 110 fell; where lie bowed, thero lie fell down dead." Moreover, thero arc dazzling glimpses of pastoral or desert imagery, and phrases 'Av.rth n Jew's eye, while for magical visual beauty tho staff of tho Pone which blossomed in token of the pardon of Tannhauscr is bettered by its prototype, Aaron's rod, which, in a single night, "budded and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms and yielded almonds." Indeed, he who ranges the pages of the Bible, oven if only for literary beauty, will eat tho fat and drink the sweet, and Gheyue's remark is not an overstatement—that tho very reasons which, make it worth a scholar's while to master a play of Shakespeare's make it worth, his while also to master a book of the Old Testament.' '