ENGLISH LITERATUBE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18495, 4 September 1923, Page 5

ENGLISH LITERATUBE.

THE EFFECT , OF REACTION.

CONTRAST WITH VICTORIAN AGE.

.'A most interesting lecture on "Kevolfc ;; and Reaction in Modern Literature," was . delivered by Mr. J.. W. Shaw,' M.A., at a, meeting of the Auckland Institute last ; evening. The Mayor. Mr. J. ;H. Gunson, presided. In,. literature, said .the lecturer, almost';. every age was a ; reaction against ;;the \ principles of the,previous age. ~' The Victorian : age deserved ', to be placed alongsidev... ']'■ the Elizabethan age, for it: was a.', '.' supreme flowering time of English]; liter- r: V ature.. It was a time of energy, high ideals,-power, and efficiency. . The nation j v was' able to see what" it ::wanted/; and;, it'; got it. To-day 'i there was a tendency to■■.•■; decry the Victorian era -as : standing;. for ':. everything that was old-fashioned and musty, but Victorianism. had far too long , been'discredited. i There was first : th<» -± ;; Victorian' smugness and self-satisfaction. ; . / They had good reason to be pleased with ;L themselves, ,• but/* there was ho need •'■ to " show it so much. > Humility, of course, was not, as far ias'he could 'see. our special vice at ■ the "present time. (Laugh- ,■ - ; ,p ter.) '• . . ■-, • -.-." :-.-" Tha Victorian v era was a time : of : ultra-respectability; Conduct was ; clearly. ;■;,. '} classified, ami Mrs. ""'"''v niWd the . 010 community. What she said had to , go. '(Laughter;; A suoijjj reaction was inevitable ;as soon as, man got ; to; grips ■;•"■;; with 1 reality. When the reaction came it went too far. Mrs- Grundy -was "shunted" altogether.,; and . had not been able to lift up her head in the last ten years:. . But. she. would come backhand - would be the "old man of the sea," if ;;; she s could' be called that. (Laughter.) -V' A great change came over the scene when,;';; Charles Darwin i transformed the whole j attitude toward life, ; and dealt a death-;: blow at complacency. The Victorian y drama was smug, com- - - placent <> and artificial.'- :' The scenes .were ' all" faked," and. were so absurdly arti- v, ficial that one,could hear the machinery creak. Darwin came right across -'.that artificiality. He insisted on\ looking'; at " facts' -as : they :really were and : not as they ought ■; to be. So strong ; was- ; the -'reaction that the drama became. simply ;- a; ?: grim picture of reality. .; This ; realism ;;-, [ found expression in Ibsen. In later days'.";.. we had Bernard Shaw ; and ; John; Gals-; ; I worthy, who were wedded to' the . drama".; lof ideas. The stage took " the .; place •;.. of ;.',, the pulpit, arid • almost of the leading v ; article of th« -press. A play must set out, to settle some social, political, or even medical"; problem. ;' Nowadays #ii had ;;<;;-; become merely ■ the vehicle of' social^'or moral ' instruction,; That was all because ;;; the Victorian drama did not preach.,. -If it hud -we would have struck right at- it. ' ; Against the 'realistic dram* of Ibsen there ;;; came the delightful, fantastic, whimsical,;•' play of J. 'M. '■ Barrie, and on the same •:-_••; fines were ; the mystical ■ works of Maeter- : linck. I ' ' ' ' •■'"'; * ■'**. "■■/ The Victorian novel took -upon itself the .same' spirit of realism. ■' There was not an adequate conception of life as it rtally is. . The Victorian novelists i re- ; fused 'to acknowledge that ;:there-.'".were;■•;.'• ,' sewers, but the modern.:realists refused = • to acknowledge anything there was'the dissecting of souls. Some novel- • ists spent a while book in trying, to issect one man's I soul. It was morbid, and camij from Russia really. ..(Laughter.). There - were, however, more .men writing ■ good, stuff to-day than at any other ; .;; period, but the modern miotic novel tod. .;:, little to commend itself against the great 1 Victorian : ' works. ' ' ' * '■ > The Victorian era produced the greatest ' number of high-class poets, an extraordinary, galaxy .of talent. The result ■ was an exhaustion of the . poetical vocabulary. ' .■' • A number of interesting selections were ..; read-by Mr. Shaw, who was heartily ap- , plauded at the close.:. t s>'". '" ' .== '"'"', ' ' ' -— ~ -