THE BOOKFELLOW.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 71, 26 March 1910, Page 9

THE BOOKFELLOW.

Wiitton for The Post, by A. G. Stephens. (Copyright. — All Rights Reserved.) NGAURUHOE. Cloud comforted ; though every wind may blow, Reverberations from tliee like deipair For fiery sacrifice amid tho snow To the immortal spirits of tho air. Pierced with thy torment through the years unnumbered, Thou never shalt havo respite: even the sea, With tho eternal storm with dead encumbered, Is not so voxt as thec. Cloud-shadowed ; if th}' solitary hour Hath awe for ono who may not como again, How snail tho riven plain revero try now er Enduring its unquenchable slow pain' Thou wilt nor, like the sea, make any moan ; Strength it thy heritage, thy joy, fhy soul ; Oh, pitiablo tho might that utters groan A» if tho very earth wore rent with dole. Strongth is tho majesty of God; And Silence, where our feet have trod Through chastisement and pain, has lent To that sad cup a tmcriunent. Cloud-winnower, the sun breaks through. Bohold ! Tho darkness, it a. light. The world boneath Shines for thy sober majesty unrolled; Tho orcck: tho bush, tho wild net of tho hoath. About rhco they rejoice With thoir primeval voice. Thou art triumphant through the oloud: Thy melancholy was « shroud, Ordained to be v mist, A film, invisiblo when pissed By the nil-charitable sun who turns The darkling springs to warmth uskep within their urns. Thanks to thy teaching, though I pass beyond Thy shadow and may never ite theo more, I road thy parable* aright — Despond, And life is fled. This ib the inner core Of suffering, that man through pain Shall win to righteousness again. Then if tho day be dark his heart is bold, And if the day be fair his heart will borrow The joyous light of faith, that Time unrolled Will be the same to-morrow. —Hubert Church. GRANVILLE BARKER'S PLAYS. H. G. Barker, for whom "Three Plays" are published by Sidgwick and Jacktou, may be called the leading figure in the new English dramatic movement associated with the Stage Society and the Court Theatre. The Court- Theatre, in 1904-7, was an equivalent of Antoine'a Theatre Libre in Paris. The Ve-drenne-Barker management, now translated to the Savoy, sought artistic novelties and dramatic essence* rather than profitable fatuities; yet.it keot its heads above water, and Charles Frohmanu'g Repertory Theatre continues the appeal Barker and Dion Boucicault are producers for Frohmann, and ist>ue an attractive programme of modern drama to be played presently. Vedrenne is a manager ; Barker is .•at her actor and plnyui-igtit, born to the f-tage, and now nge<l 36. As nuthor, he collaborated with Beite Thomas in "The Weather lien," and with Laurent* Housmun in "Prunella." Hi 8 own "three playu" are "The Marrying of Ann Leete," "The Voysey Inheritance, ' and "Waste." Ho is likely to write more and better. It wa« possibly the earnest promise shown in Barker's plays that led a competent critic in the English Review to place him recently at the head of hulf-a-dozen meritorious* writers for tho EnglUh stage to-day. At this distance one regard* tlic performance, and it seems clear that in "Three Ploys" there are rather the elements of goodness than the achievement of greatness. And Australasia may give in some sort a posterity's judgment : the distance in space, like the distance in time, should keep the critical heavens free from local fogs and temporary clouds. Barker's work is good distinctly: it js interesting mid troubling, jitating some of our modern riddles and suggesting an answer. Yet it is work of Ulent only, not of genius ; it is rather clever and subtl-p than strong and deep, it is scarcely thrilling, never dominating. Nevertheless it is intelligent drama, to be prized in thews days of theatrical weariness of spirit and flesh. Perhaps Us greatest defect is the English limitimon, seen especially in "Waste," where English politics occupy bo much space that the piece would have to be re* modelled for a foreign stage. Wo can smile at the Americans who asked Galeworthy to localise tfis "Strife" for presentation in New York, because "Strife" contains a typical industrial conflict, with typical human individuals. Much our P. aild mai| y of tlie figures of Waste are so exclusively English that in Australasia their local virtue becomes a dramatic vice. "THE MARRYING OF ANN LEETE.". Subject to a stage presentation, "The Marrying of Ann Leete," Barker's earliest play seems at present his best. It is comedy trembling into tragedy, satire touched with tears. Generally, it represents the return of artifice to nature, with a woman's instinct leading; it symbolises in the life of an eighteenth-cen-tury country family tho nineteenth century s revolution in English social conditions. The scene is Carnaby's Leete'a country houße, near Reading. Leete is a cynical politician who has lost faith, broken faith, and failed with both Tories and Whigs. Two of his children exhibit xn character and actiou his degeneracy from the old ideals of love, hononr, and religion. Ann revolts, and marries her father's gardener, a dull and healthy animal. Fearing, uncomprehending, loath to break the convention of her class, the ties of her family, she is compelled by tho power within her to return to earth and revive her race. A fine idea this; and Ann Leete is perhaps the finest and truest character that Barker has conceived. For all his characters he makes good acting parts, but to Ann he gives a deeply human part. The action of the piece is energetic, and time and place permit the speeches to glitter. "I have always held that to colour in the world-picture is the greatest privilege of the husband." "Man educates woman in his own good time." "When one world fails take another." "We've all been in too great a hurry getting civilised. False dawn. I mean to go back." "THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE." "The Voysey Inheritance* studies today's middle class in London. It is a drama of character. Voysey, alive, is a respectable citizen, a good father, a genial host, and v buccaneer solicitor. He speculates with his clients' trust moneys ; und dies leaving to his conscientious paitner-son an inheritance of dishonour. Disclosure, in the end, is unavoidable; but the struggle to bear the burden turns a tolerable prig into a tolerable man, and he is rewarded with an honest girl and a fair prospect of happiness. The virtue of the play is on the realistic portrayal of one kind of English home and the family who fill it. It is a transcription of life, giving the actors an excellent field for the representation of decided individualities. As a character-piece, it is admirable ; but the action seems slow, and the utterances seem woicly. In effect the work is well done ; but it does not matter lufficiently when it it dou», its merit is rather too UctaiceJ.

"WASTE." "Waste" is Barker's most ambitions Cicce, and half succeeds. The idea is ig enough for Ibsen ; but the presentation is a little confused, and the conclusion does not seem inevitable. Trebell is an English politician of the Chamberlain class, whose sheer brains have won him Cabinet rank. He is about to carry through Parliament his great measuio disestablishing the Church of England. Ho is unmarried — ho has "no time for women." A seductive woman, an ordinary creature of flesh, unhappily married, meets him during a week-end in the country, and their acquaintance of scarcely more than a day ends in ruin. The whole affair is an accident : It means little to Trebell beyond v. momentary yielding to the senses. Tragedy enters, nnd the woman's death comes suddenly. The inquest threatens the exposure of Trebell, and there is a Cabinet meeting to decide what action is made necessary in view of the possible publicity. It is found that Trebell can be conveniently dropped ; he is dropped — his political career is over. He phoots himself, and his secretary suggests the moral of the piece :—: — Walter : No, I don't know why he did it, and I don't care, and grief is no use. I'm angry— just angry at the waste of a good man. Look at the work undone — think of it! Who is to do it? Oh — the waste ! "Waste" has not the finish of "Ann Leete," and is subject to limitations previously noted ; yet it is a telling drama, conceived on a high plane, and abounding in excellent characterisation that involves » real criticism of life. English politics and conventions furnish matter for a satire that is merely expressed, not added ; and behind there in the strife between the individual and the race. The piece may not be the best, but it is the biggest of Barker's "Three Plays," and the one that brings greatest conviction of his power. He has ample art. The representation of modern woman is effective. "Till I was forty," says Frances Trebell, "I never realised the fact that women must express themselves through men." Throughout Barker is earnest ; he has no trace of Shaw's self-consciousness, and fo the edge of his weapon is never hl'interl upon the armour of distrubt. His art comes in the choice and emphasis of the images he sees in a mirror held to Nature. TOLSTOY. Tolstoy should be 82 thi* year. He had a critical illness two years ago; that having passed, there is no explicit reason why he should not live till 90. Kecent observers, however, represent his hold upon life as frail. He seems to have perforce relinquished what his family are said to call "father's fads" of diet and labour; and in nursed and cosseted aa an old man ought to be. Possibly he stfil talks of lying down on a bako-oven to die like a peasant; but actually he geta good poup and cordials to sustain him an a spectacle for tourists. Tolstoy is still a great asset for Russia and mysticiain, and his books are sold by the hundred thousand. He takes no money for them ; but his wife does, and is reputed to drive an excellent bargain with a publisher. The family income from his works is considerable. Not one of the family has followed in Tolstoy's footsteps of faith : all are as mundane as Tolstoy used to be in his days of wrath. This is reasonable enough, seeing that Tolstoy waited till: fifty to find the true path, and has done very well with both worlds. The girls gave hope of grace until they were married ; now they cling to earthly husbands and children. Nevertheless, Tolstoy has many disciples, and the Russian Government' occasionally imprisons one or two of the most aggressive. Tolstoy yearned to be imprisoned too, but tho Government discreetly refused the crown of martyrdom. A good account is "Tolstoy, The Man and nis Message," by E. A. Steiner, published by the Fleming Revell Co. it contains many portraits and illustrations b*y the Russian artist Pasternak, who really seems to deserve the title "great." Steiner holds that Tolstoy hau become "the chief religious person of this religion-hungry age." He describes Tolstoy some time ago as very thin, with a weak voice, and a handclasp without warmth or strength, "struggling with approaching death." Since th^n it appears that Tolstoy's health ha 6 improved with the abolition of his own wilful way of life : he does what his wifo tolls him, and is better for it. Yet "the artistocratic peasant has become an aristocratic invalid, and v the man who struggled for years against the conditions in which ho was born will die in the came condition, a prisoner to environment. He deplores it, mourns I over it, and laments over an unrealised ! ideal." NOTES. Love i» vain, So are you. Which is vainer, You or Love? Ah, but I can't undo You from Jove Or love from you. -M. It is decided that poets should have Government billet*, like Edmund Gosse and Austin Dobson — when they deserve them. To write poetry, after all, is not an intellectual disqualification for writing letters or even for adding figures ; unless the poet is hag-ridden by the Muse to an extent rare in our own comfortable minor days. Britain, whose "Philistine" complacency is the butt of bright wits, still provides for her poetical personages better than wo do; and Britain draws a very fair lino between poets and journalists. The Commonwealth Government spends about £500 a year in literary doles; but it would be bettor to give poetical people a chance of earning an income if they can — and there are some fields of public labour where the bounty might be earned, in some ca&es. The reference is not to writers like Lawson, who has had an income of some £200 a year from his books; but to finer spirits — and to one in particular whose talent is co good that it is practically unsaleable and who is personally meritorious. There are others whose characteristic defects put them beyond the pale of sympathy, though not of compassion ; and these present a problem to which no solution can be found in any form of aid. For, as they ajje, necessity becomes their only spur to industry, and the first effect of a pension might be to destroy the pension s warrant. Ths poet may have been born in a golden clime ; but he never seems able to stay thero. In fact, it is "Count n:> poet happy till he is dead" — and then tre are kept busy grieving over the "might have beens." Possibly the lady poets are unhappy too, but they generally contrive to look happy in their photographs. The gentlemenpoets generally look haughty.