RUSKIN AND HIS FRIENDS

Evening Star, Issue 14035, 16 April 1909, Page 1

RUSKIN AND HIS FRIENDS

[From Our Special Correspondent.] ! LONDON, March 5. I Tn the sumptuous library edition of the ' works of John Ruskin, published this week, i are two volumes of correspondence, which I contain the test, of practically all Ruskin's I letters.' The distinguished author had a I brilliant circle of friends and a wide range i of interests. Amongst his literary friends ] he numbered the Brownings. Dr John Brown, Carlyle, Charles Eliot, Norton ' Lovell, Rossetti, and Froude. Among j painters, were George Richmond, Holman Hunt, Burne-Jones, and Watts. ! When 'Aurora Leigh' appeared in 1856, I Ruskin wrote to Browning a letter of rap- , turous congratulation on his wife's triumph : I think 'Aurora Leigh' the greatest poem in the English language, unsurpassed by anything but Shakespeare—not surpassed by Shakespeare's Sonnets, and, therefore, the greatest poem in the language. I write this, you see, very deliberately, straight, or nearly so, which is not common with me, for I am taking, pains that you may not think (nor anybody else) that I am writing in a state of excitement. ' i At another time he wrote -even more ecstatically in Mrs Browning's praise : ~ Your poems make me feel fresh "again. They-.-are- just-, like what I-'suppose- the dew'" and honey are, mixed, when the' bees are out; early, iri : -the bottoms of the cup-shaped flowers, and coming out of this- daily work"to them" lsTjust like leaving a room full.of gaslights and ugly people—and plunging-..into the'-spray of a hill cascade and lying down to sleep among the alpine roses. The "Brownings.Vwefejdelightedr-Robert Browning-especially. :..'.' When has. a. letter given me so much pleasure?" he. exclaimed: after reading it. - - ~ ; . If Ruskin could. rush to - sueh-extremes of praise, he was. .also capable of absurd excess in the opposite direction/ '-'■ -To the present generation,: with ears' accustomed to the Wagnerian music, which seemed so "tuneless" to Ruskin, his denunciation of Die Meistersinger' appears simply puerile and ridiculous. It seems that ne went to Uie opera, in 18?2 and heard 'The Meistersinger.' Here is his comment on the performance;— "'■."".'•" Of all the bete, clumsy, blundering, boggling, baboon-headed stuff Lever saw, on a Human stage, that, thing last night beat—as far, as tlie' story and acting went; and of all the affected, sapless, soulless/vjjbegihnirigiess, endless, topless, . bottomless,' topsy-turviest, : tuneless,' scrannelpipiest, tongs; and boniest dog- 1 gerel oi:sounds I ever endured the "deadthat eternity of-nothing was ths deadliest, as far as its sound went. I never-was so relieved, so far'as I can remember, in my life, by the stopping of esceptiiof TaiMiiy wliistlei;"

~_a* T was by the cessation of the cobbler's bellowing; even the serenader's caricatured twangle was a rest after it. As for the great 'Lied,' I never made out where it began or where it ended, except by the fellow coming off the horse block. Ruskin delighted in children, but not in. babies. He could not, take anv interest even in his friends' infants. For' example he wrote to Mrs Allen Harker in 1886 : Indeed, I am so sorrv to have grieved you and Allen. I knew I should, but couldn't help it. I can't pretend to .• care for things I don't care for. I don't care lor babies Rather have an objection to them. Have no respect for them whatever. Like little pigs ever so much better. The closest friendships of his later years were with women, and many were' the \r tte ru j hlcl ' lle wrote to the daughters of Mr Gladstone, to Miss Susan Beever, and Kate Greenaway. What could be prettier ™;, hls birthday wish to the latter in iooo ? And it is your birthday! And 'my letter was no good, and I dout knowhow to give you any wish that vou would care to come true; but 1 will wish you, every birthday, some new ' Jove of lovely things, and some new forgetfulness of the teasing things, and some higher pride in the praising things and some sweeter peace from the hurrying tlnngs, and some closer fence from the worrying things. And longer stay ot time when you are happy, and lighter flight of days that are unkind. Ruskin cared nothing for conventions, and useo to refuse to go to funerals. I am naturally of sad disposition (he wrote), and I simply cannot go to funcrais. I was not at Turner's. I differ from everyone nearly in my dealings with the living and the dead. Most thwart, malign, distress, and dishoiiou the hving-and then build fine tombs lor the dead. I try to honor the livun* as best I may. Once lost, it is a matter ot indifference to me how manv plumes are at the grave. '