TURNBULL LIBRARY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 117, 13 November 1926, Page 15

TURNBULL LIBRARY

EXTREME RARITIES

LYRIC SPLENDOUR

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE

(Specially written i'or "The Post" by

Johannes C. Andersen.)

The publication, in 18G0, of "The Queen Mother. Eosamund, two plays," produced little effect on the general public; but it resulted in a prize for collectors. The book was printed by Pickering, but no more than twenty (mostly review) copies had been issued when the book was withdrawn; the sheets were handed to a new publisher, Moxon, the first title-page was cancelled and a new one with Moxon as publisher inserted. One of the twenty copies is in the library, but there is something peculiar in. this very first issue; for whereas, according to T. G. Wise, Picketing's title-page is as above, the library copy of Pickering's titlepage reads, "The Queen Mother and Rosamund," and- the words "two plays" are omitted. The date, is correct (1860), and other • details differ, so that from the very first Swinburne affords material both for bibliographer and bibliomaaiac, besides his primary product, poetry. No notice was taken of his second published book, a little prose pamphlet, "Dead Love," published in 1854. ATALANTA AND THE HOUNDS OF SPAING. These two volumes contained little prognostication of his third, published in 1865. This was the marvellous "At-: alanta in Calydon," with which "his dawn came up like thunder." The lyric splendour of this poem surpassed any-

thing that had ever appeared in English, and nothing in English or anything else has surpassed it since. It is the nearest approach that haa been made to the best Greek lyric masterpieces. Two at least of tho choruses are well known to readers, even if they are not familiar with the whole poem: "When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces, The mother of months in meadow or plain Tills the shadows and windy places With lisp of leaves and ripplo of rain; . And the brown bright nightingale amorous Is half assuaged for ItyJus; For the Thraclan ships and the foreign faces. The tongueless vigil, and all the pain." .And the more restrained lyric: ■ • ■ "Before the beginning of years ■ Thtro came to the making of mail Time, with a gift of tears; Grief, witli a glass that ran; Pleasure, with pain for leaven; Summer, with flowers that fell; Remembrance fallen from heaven. And madness risen from hell; Strength without hands to smite; Love that endures for a breath; Night, the shadow of light, And life, the shadow of death." Where had the like appeared Tiefore? He had a fellow-lyrist in Shelley/ and "Atalanta in Calydon" and "Prometheus Unbound" have much lyric I ecstasy in common. There is a beautiful passage in the latter: "Chorus: Once the hungry hours were hounds, Which chased the day like a bleeding deer. And it limped and stumbled with many wounds Through the nightly dells of the desert,1 year. But now, oh weavo the mystic measure Of music, and dance, and shapes of light, let the hours, and the spirits of might and pleasure Like the clouds and ' sunbeams, unite. A Voice: . Unite." This was published in 1820; and in 1865, Althaea, In "Atalanta," sings! Night, a black hound, follows the white fawn day, Swifter than dreams the white flown feet of sleep; The two poets were akin in thought and expression. Both poems are most beautiful, but Swinburne in "Atalanta" rose to a more pulsing and burning splendour, a wilder, if less noble, grandeur, than Shelley in "Prometheus." Yet one turns more often to the "Prometheus" than to the "Atalanta"; the sympathy is more human; the, emotion more tender, SENSATIONAL POEMS AND BALLADS. j On the whole, the appeal of "Ata' lanta" was intellectual rather than emotional; but in the very next year, I 1866, appeared "Poems and Ballads,"

/It. A PORTION OF A SWINBURNE MANUSCRIPT.

whose appeal, or repulsion, was almost entirely emotional. Two of the poems included had already been published separately; "Faustine" in the "Spectator," and "Lavs "Venoris" in a

pamphlet, of which very few copies wore issued, and those mostly among friends. This pamphlet wsue, which

preceded the volume by some months, was not intended as publication; in fact," says Swinburne, "it was more an experiment to ascertain the public t as te—and forbearance! —than anything else. Moxon" (as represented by J. B. Payne, for Mosou himself was dead), "I well remember, was terribly nervous in those days, and it was only the wishes of mutual good friends coupled with his own liking for the Ballads that finally induced him to publish the book." It was published; "and very soon the storm broke," says W. Robertson Nieoll; "and Moxon, who' some twenty years before had been heavily fined for publishing Shelley's 'Queen Mab,' resigned his commission as Mr. Swinburne's publisher. The sheets passed into the hands of Mr. John Camden Hotten. Mr. Swinburne was attacked fiercely, and responded still more fiercely in a pamphlet entitled 'Notes on Poems and Reviews.' " The effect produced by the book was sensational; much more sensational than can be realised by people nowadays, accustomed as they are to books and picture-plays and dramas based on sex motives, to treatises such as Freud s on sex instincts. It was the older generation that was scandalised; the younger generation^ was ..raituer rhapsodised, and hailed Swinburne as the usherer-in of a new era. As a matter of fact, Swinburne "■did" no' :more than carry on the. torch received from- £&-, ron, and Shelley,, and,,Landor, .and the young Wordsworth—or,' it"' 'might be said/ he' urged on tuft-rocket infusedby - them, ■ and. in., .him. it,,,, reached, its^ height, and burst with tho startling detonation of the signal rocket and the brilliant showering of the display rocket in one. . Then all was over; he was not the fiery start of "anew era, but the explosive ending of an old one. He simply represented . the. .revolt,;, as Gosse says, '' against the concessions and the hypocrisies of ' the1 mid-Vic-torian era." ■ '■' - , ' ••■-.■■' - AUTOGRAPH CORRECTIONS. „■ Again, "Poems and Ballads" is..*?., collector's book. One 'of "the first; copies made up by the binders was sub* mitted to the author, who detected numerous misprints which had escaped his notice, or saw words he would like to alter, and the book was marked with about twenty corrections in his handwriting. The result was that nine pages had to be reprinted and inserted in the books, the replaced pages being removed. Few unaltered copies got into circulation, and such copies are extreme rarities. When the stock of "Poems and Ballads " vras handed over by Moxon and Co. to J.C Hotten, at least one unaltered bound copy was among them, and this copy was used for setting-up the second edition, so that many of the old errors were repeated, and four of these elusive errors have been carried on to the 6 vol. edition of 1904, and the 'Golden Pino edition of 1917. It is gratifying to know that the volume with Swinburne s autograph corrections is in the library, and that beside it stands the other volume from which the printer set up the second edition, copiously adorned with thumb-marks, sufficient for the identification of the P.D. who did the setting. Another complete copy is in the library of T. J. Wise. Writing of the former volume in his "Bibliography of Swinburne," Mr. Wise says: "The identical copy in question passed, some years ago, through the hands of Bernard Quaritch, by whose courtesy I wa3 afforded the opportunity of examining it. . . ." The book from Bernard Quaritch is in the library. In the library are two copies of "Atalanta in Calydon," of which only one hundred copies were printed, one of them in the original cream-coloured buckram, the gold ornaments stamped on the cover being the design of D. G. Eos-

setti. ■■„ One of his several critics was -an-. chanan, tho poet," who wrote "The Fleshly School of Poetry"; Swinburne retorted with "Under the Microscope an d his'retorts always went one bettor than the torts he received; this pamphlet, rare in its unexpurgated form, has already been referred to in connection with remarks in it concerning Tennyson. Despite all criticisms, however, the popularity of "Poems and Ballads" was very great; up till 1916 it had run into forty-five editions. ..' MEETS TENNYSON. Swinburne was asked to dine with Tennyson early in 1858,-when he was but twenty-one, and Tennyson's opinion of him is gleaned from the P.S. of a letter to Dr. Mann:-'"I rjay tell you. however, that young Swinburne called here the other day with a college friend of his, and we asked him to dinner, and I thought him a very modest and intelligent young fellow. Moreover,.! read him what you vindicated, but what I particularly admired in him was that he did not press upon me any verses of his own. . '„ ." The poem

vindicated was "Maud," of which Swinburne later wrote: " 'Maud' is the poem of the deepest cfiarm and fullest delight, pathos, and melody ever written, even by Mr. Tennyson." No doubt he said so at the time; and hence Tennyson's appreciation of his intelligence. Later, too, he said of Swinburne: "He is a reed through which . all things, blow into, music." There is a story, too, though I cannot remember where I saw it, that Tennyson had finished a poem on a subject requiring sbine 'delicacy in handling. Having read it to a friend ho was complimented on tho" jvay in which he had succeeded. He accepted his meed, and remarked, "What a moss little Swinburne would' have inado of it." He complimented'Jrim, though, on the "Atalanta," writing:'". . . it is many a long day since I have read anything so fine; for it is not only carefully

written, but it has both strength and -splendour, and shows, moreover, that you have a fine metrical invention which I envy you." ADMIRES LANDOR. In 1871 appeared "Songs Before Sunrise," ami this volume shows Swia-

I burne at his lyric height. He wrote a great deal, of prose, his best being probably "William Blako, a Critical Study," 1868. He expressed a great admiration for Landor's prose; lie dedicated "Atalanta in Calydon" to Landor, saying, "It is always a thorn in my .flesh, and a check to any satisfaction which I might feel in .writing prose, to reflect that probably I havo never written, nor shall ever write, one single page that Landor would have deigned to sign. Nothing of this sort, or indeed of any sort whatever, troubles me for a moment when writing verso, but this always does haunt me when 1 am at work on prose." He admired Landor's pugnacity, too; and whilst he himself1 had a ready weapon of invective and vituperation which he was not slow to use, his mock irascibility he modelled on Landor. He had been reading to his friend Edmund Gosse part of his manuscript on "Georgo Chapman," the dramatist; and after the reading was over, and they had passed to other things, he asked, "Did you notice, just now some pages of rather Landoriau character? Don't you think I was rather like the old lion, when he was using teeth and claws, in my rending of the stage licensers and our crazy English censorial system?" COMMENT ON BROWNING. His prose was good on the whole, but he was too much swayed by likes and dislikes to make a good critic; he saw too many red rags, and could never resist their provocativeness. His remarks on Robert Browning are good, and his appreciation afforded Browning great delight. "If there is any great quality more perceptible than another in Mr. Browning's intellect it is his decisive and incisive faculty of thought, his sureness and intensity of perception, his rapid and trenchant resolution of aim. To charge him with obscurity is about as accurate as to . . . complain of the sluggish action

of the telegraph wire. He is something too much the reverse of obscure; he is too brilliant and subtle for the ready reader of a ready writer. . .' . He never thinks but at full speed; and the rate of "his thought is to that of another man's as the speed of a railway is to that of a wagon. . . ." POSTHUMOUS LIMITED EDITIONS. Swinburne was only about five foot four in height, slight of build, with drooping shoulders, and a huge head with orange tawny mop of hair poised on a long neck. He never seemed to ! tire, never seemed, to suffer from the common ills of man, exfeept as a result of his one overpowering weakness. Ho was an excellent swimmer though not physically strong, and indulged very much in sea-bathing, remaining long in the water through his power of floating rather than his power of swimming, and in 1868 he was very nearly drowned when on a visit to Etretat,' in France, being carried out to sea on a strong current. .

He wrote a very great deal that was not published during his lifetime, and on his death in 1909 Theodore Watts Dunton, who had befriended him to the last, and, T. J. Wise, went through his papers, and published such material as was considered worthy of preservation. It was published from time to time, privately printed, however, in little volumes of limited editions; of most there were no more than twenty or thirty copies printed, so that they were rarities from the beginning. There were about fifty volumes so published, in blue paper covers, and the late Mr. Turnbull, having a friend at court, secured copies of these, which he had beautifully bound in sealskin. Amongst them was once "Juvenilia," containing poems supposed to have been written by Swinburne in early youth. Just as the copies were about to be distributed, however, it was discovered that 'some of the poems were not Swinburne's, so the issue was recalled. Mr. Turnbull Js copy had, however, been posted, so that he possessed a rarity among the rarities. Altogether in the Turnbull collection of Swinburne there are about 150 volumes, a splendidly representative set. Besides the first edition of "Poems and Ballads," with the author's autograph alterations, there is a copy of the second edition of "Poems and Ballads," also with autograph alterations, and the complete manuscript of one of his poems, "At a Dog's Grave," the close of which is reprbduced herewith.

POETRY AND MUSIC. Swinburne has been called the most musical of our poets, but ( he is not a musical poet, and he is not a great poet. "He had no taste whatever- for. science," says Gosse, "and his lack of musical ear was a byword among his acquaintances A lady, having taken the rest of the company into her confidence, told Swinburne that she would render on the piano a very ancient Florentine ritornello, which had just been discovered. She then played "Three Blind Mice," and Swinburne was enchanted. He found that it reflected to perfection the cruel beauty of the Medicis—which perhaps it does." What is called music in Swinburne is Ms sense of rhythm; in this.he is perfect; but it will be found that the poets who show the most perfect . rhythm, such as Swinburne, Byron, Scott, and in a less degree Shelley, have the least appreciation of music; very different from Christina Eossetti, as in her beautifully modulated "Dream Love," and Meredith in his exquisite "Love in a Valley." Then, whilst he has splendid images, especially of the sea, which lie loved, Swinburne's rhythm carries him away until his thought becomes tenuous and his phrases meaningless. His emotion is largely simulated; true passion could not continue stanza after stanza; but Swinburne, once started, was apparently able to continue indefinitely. From his sea of poetry one little casket of pure pearls could be won, gems to adorn his Atalanta for ever.