LITERATURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18547, 6 May 1922, Page 2

LITERATURE

GILBERT AND SULLIVAN* MEMORIES OF A MERRYMAN. Bt Constant Reader. “The present trouble about Gilbert and Sullivan is twofold,” writes Mr Clennell Wilkinson in the London Mercury: “(1) They have no successors; (2) we do not hear enough of them/’ Speaking of the D'Oyly Carte touring companies Mr Wilkinson adds: “I have not space to praise the excellent work ! that they have done, and are doing still; but it would be an act of personal ingratij tude not to mention the names of Walter : Passmore, 0- H. Workman, and that most ; valuable recent acquisition, Leo Sheffield, j whose playing of the Archdeacon jn the present revival of ‘The Sorcerer’ would 1 surely have-rejoiced Gilbert’s heart. For j the moment the point to notice about these touring companies, as about the numerous London revivals, is that they have always paid. . . . The conclusion is irresistible, and it is that the Gilbert and Sullivan operas are to-day the most popular plays in the language.” What follows merits quotation in full: — It cannot even be maintained with certainty that they appeal only to the English, though they are the most English thing that was ever put on the operatic .stage. Mr Lytton, in the book of reminiscences which he has just published, brackets the D.ublin and Belfast audiences with'those of Oxford and Cambridge as the most' enthusiastic that the touring companies encounter. They do not clap; tl]ev cheer. The opening line of the son(j; in “lolanthe” “When Britain Really Ruled the Waves,” once drew a protest from a Dublin Ariglophobe, but He was silenced by cries of “No politics hqre.” Australia has - taken kindly to them. “The Pirates” became very popular in America when it was produced there, as a- business precaution, contemporaneously with its London production; but with “Pinaj fore” New York was frankly .bored; and Gilbert obstinately refused to entertain • the suggestion of an American friend that I ho should rewrite this opera, substituting J American slang for English, the Stars and Stripes for the Union Jack, and a I few other minor alterations of that kind, j According to Mr Lytton, “Pinafore” was equally inexplicable to the Germans, but another authority, Mr Isaac Goldberg, asserts that at one time no. leas than . forty companies were performing “Amor am Eord” (os they called it) in different parts of the Fatherland. Anyhow, only “Pinafore” and “The Mikado” went to the Continent, and the latter was far the more popular of the two; it is best travelled of the operas, having been performed in all parts of the world, including Valeria Harbour, Malta, and even Japan—which seems to' suggest that the Admiralty were unduly severe when they prohibited its revival in London some years ago because we were expecting a visit frorn the Japanese Fleet. What must have added «,piquancy to the performance of • the opera in Japan is the fact —if Mr Walsh is to be believed, which I sometimes doubt—that the chorus which marks the entrance of the Mikado is really the tune of a well-known and disreputab’e tea-house ditty, palmed off on Sullivan as the Japanese National Anthem, by a friend who pretended to know all about the East. To return to. England, I am afraid it is. no longer true to say that the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, however popular, supply any large number of “tags ’ for ordinary conversation. Thqy are _ not heard often enough for that. The wit of ’ the family can no, longer bo relied upon, as he could in the ’eighties to exclaim, “What, never? Well hardly ever!” on every possible occasion; but the same opera (“Pinafore”) has given us the fairly well-known expression “A big, big D.” Olclrfashiohed gentlemen are still sometimes heard referring to “pale young curates” (“The Sorcerer”) to whom they would like . t,o administer" “something lingering, with boiling oil in it” (“The * Mikado”); and there is one saying of the, immortal Pooh-Bah . that is in quite common use. He is being blamed by Koko for having added unnecessary embroideries about the antics of a head without a bodv to Koko’s already untruthful account of a public execution. “Mere corroborative detail,” he* explains loftily, ‘intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.” I can think of no more. But after all. in the word “Gilbertian .beloved of political leader-writers. Gilbert s own name has passed into our, language. He surely should be satisfied with that. Last week I was privileged do hear a lecture, delivered under the auspices of the ' W.E.A., by Miss King, r principal' of the Otago Girls’ High School,. on “Literature and Life: the Heritage 'of the English Classics.” The lecture, which was admirably delivered and illustrated by a nuihber of i telling extracts from great _ English writers, struck a high note of idealism, which could not fail to awaken enthusiastic response. Miss King’s estimate of the English classics as essential factors in a rightly conceived. scheme of education was a masterly piece of exposition. In this estimate her eulogy of Shakespeare occupied the most prominent place. If only the boys and girls of to-day were steeped in the spirit o! Shakespeare’s plays there would be little need for sermons;—such was Miss King’s deliberate conclusion. Carrying the thought a little further, a point will be reached at which any Education Department worthy of the name will consider the provision of the means for the proper presentation of Shakespeare’? plays as essential to a sound English education. And a further pursuit of the same policy must presently involve periodical representations of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. It is by such agencies, rather than by compulsory oathtaking and flag saluting and the mechanical repetition of the National Anthem, that real patriotism ’will be inculcated and loyalty be inspired and maintained. Just as some preliminary acquaintance with Shakespeare’s plays is.essential to an appreciation of the stage-performance, so is it with the allusions in which the Gilbert and Sullivan operas abound. During the recent revival of some of those operas in Dunedin it was irritating to notice how the audience neglected to take up point after point, the result of what Dr Johnson has dubbed "ignorance, sheer ignorance” of the Gilbert and Sullivan) tradition. This. can only be remedied, so far as residents in the dominion are concerned, by careful study of the considerable body of literature which relates to the Savoy Opera, and to which Mr Henry A. Lytton’s “The' Secrets of) a Savoyant” is the most recent and notable addition. Mr Lytton dedicates his book “To Rupert D’Oyly Cagle: the upholder of a great tradition,” and in a foreword Mr Carte says of Mr Lytton:— Lytton represents a distinct type on our musical comedy' stage. . . . Certainly it was fortunate both tq, him and to us that circumstances, in the romantic manner this book itself describes, first turned his early steps towards Hubert and Sullivan, and thus opened a career that was to make him one of the greatest, as he is now the last, of the Savoyards, . . . Lytton in Gilbert and Sullivan is the ■'true embodiment of everything that is excellent.” tie was made for these parts, just as they, might have been made for him, and no man could have carried into the outei* world more of the wholesome charms of the characters he depicts on the stage. He himself tells us on these pages how his own outlook on life has been coloured by his long association with these beautiful plays. Reminiscences covering thirty-eight years on the stage, of which a considerable part was spent with Gilbert. and Sullivan, make matter for this-entertaining and instructive book. “It is my melancholy distinction to be the last of the Savoyards,” writes Mr Lytton. “Numbers of my old comrades, of course, are playing elsewhere or living in their well-earned retirement, but, I alone remain actively in Gilbert and Sullivan. In all I have played thirty parts in the operas—no other artiste connected with them ever played so many.” Detailing his operatic Experiences, Mr Lytton says: — My connection with the D’Oyly Carle Company falls into three periods. The first of these was in 1884 and 18.85, when I went on tour for 12 months with “Princess Ida,” to be followed by the heartbreaking time T have recorded in the “Vagabondage of the Commonwealth.” Then in 1887 I rejoined it to win ray first success as George Grossmith’s understudy in “Ruddigore.” That period was destined to continue almost without interruption until 1901. For most of the time I was touring in the provinces, though I was in London for many of the revivals, as well as for several of the plays not by Gilbert and Sullivan produced by Mr D’Oyly Carte. Eventually this latter enterprise was brought to ail end by the death of Sir Arthur Sullivan in 1900, and by that of Mr Carte himself

four months later in 1901. London saw the Gilbert and Sullivan works no more until 1906, though the suburban theatres - were sometimes visited by the provincial company, which in the country kept alight the flickering torch that was to burn once more with all its accustomed brightness. Shortly after my old chief had passed away I closed my second period with the company in order to throw in my lot with the musical comedy stage, and it was my good fortune to play leading comedy parts under several successful managements.' Looking back on these years, I regard them as amongst the most prosperous and happy in my career, and yet it is no affectation to say that all other, parts seem shallow and superficial when one has played so long m Gilbert and Sullivan. Shall I say I was anxious to return to them? Certainly the yearning was there—if not the opportunity. Then in 1909 Sir William Gilbert earnestly invited me to rejoin *be company, and I relinquished a very profitable engagement in order to play once more the parts I loved so well. Thus began my third period with the operas, this period has still to be finished. Sir William, I ought to say, was at that time an ageing man, and he had retired with a comfortable fortune; Grim h | Dyke and its beautiful grounds gave him j all the enjoyment he wanted, and to the i end he had the solace and companionship i of his devoted wife, Lady Gilbert. Ho j died in 1911. Following a visit to town, j lie had gone to bathe in the lake in his ; grounds and had a heart seizure whilst . swimming. He was rescued from the . water and carried to his room, but there j life was found to be extinct, ihe curtain i had fallen. “The Secrets of a Savoyard’’ is both entertaining -and instructive. There is an abundance of amusing stories as well as a multitude of interesting facts relating to the production of the operas and Mr Lytton s impersonations. Not tbeieast useful features of the book are “The Stones of the Operas” and “A Savoyard Bibliography. It'may confidently be anticipated that Mr Lytton’s reminiscences, will have the effect of creating a keen for a return performance of Gilbert and Sullivan. ' THREE FAMOUS ESSAYS* ON 'POETRY AND THE POETS. By. Constant Rbadib. There is always room for reprints of rare and half-forgotten books and when an enterprising ' publisher arranges with a .competent ,editor and embarks, upon such a literary' enterprise, he bestows a boon upon multitudes of book lovers. “The Percy Reprints” are the joint eflort of Mr Basil Blackwell, of Oxford, and Mr H. F-Brett-Smith! and the ftfst two issues—viz., Thomas Nashe’s “The Unfortunate Traveller and Stevenson’s “Gammea Gurton s Needle both 16th Century, productions—have received great commendation for the taithful rendering of the original text. The third issue of the series comes down to more modern times and includes in the one volume Peacock’s “Four Ages,of Poetry ; Shelley’s “Defence of Poetry and Browning’s ’‘Essay on Shelley” together with a scholarly introduction and notes by Mr Brett-Smith 1 . ■ , Thomas Love Peacock is a. writer whose work merits greater attention; to-day than it ordinarily receives. Born in 1785 and the intimate of Shelley, he forms a link with the present ip the fact that he was also .the friend of Meredith, and that his daughter was Meredith’s first wife. “The Four Ages of Poetry” was first published in Ollier s Literary Miscellany—a new periodical—m 1820 and it proved so' provocative as to draw from Shelley his “Defence of Poetry. In a day when the whole echeme atod method of poetry is in the melting pot and when verse libre flourishes on every hand it is interesting to study Peacock s attack on the contemporary English poetry of his day as representing an age of brass, and following successive ages of iron, gold; and silver. Peacock- lauds Milton, as the greatest of English poets; he is severe on “that egregious confraternity of rhymesters, known by the name of the Lake poets,, and especially hard on Wordsworth, as witness the following:— The descriptive poetry of _ the present day has been called by its .'cultivators a ' return to nature. Nothing is more impertinent than this pretension. Poetry can ; not' travel out. of the regions of its birth, , the uncultivated lands of semi-civilised men. Mr Wordsworth, the great leader of the returners to nature, cannot describe a scene, under his own-eyes without putting into it the shadow ■of a Danish boy or the living ghost of Lucy Gray, or some similar phantasticah.parturition fif the moods of, his own mind. Peacock argues that “in the. origin and perfection of poetry, all the associations of life were comprised of poetical materials. ... . . Barbaric manners and supernatural ’ intervention are essential, to poetry . Either in the scene, or in the time, or in both 1 , it must he remote from our ordinary nerceptions.” This leads up to a sample of the sort of criticism popular enough in Peacock’s day but to which the modern critic is strongly and strangely adverse:— While the historian and the philosopher are advancing in and accelerate® the progress of knowledge, the poet is. wallowing in the' rubbish of departed ignorance, and raking up the ashes of dead savages to find gewgaws and rattles for the grown babies of the age. Mr Scott digs up the poachers and cattle-stealers of the ancient border. Lord Byron cruises for thieves and pirates on the shores of the Morea and among the Greek Islands Mr Southey wades through ponderous volumes of travels and old chronicles, from which he carefully selects all that is false, useless and absurd, as being essentially poetical; and when he; has a commonplace book full of monstrosities, strings them into an eipio. Mr Wordsworth picks up village legends from old women and sextons; and Mr Coleridge, to the valuable information acquired from similar sources, simeradds the dreams of qrazy theologians," and. the mystricisms of German metaphysics, and favours the world with visions in verse in which the quadruple elemehts of sexton, old woman, Jeremy Taylor, and Emanuel Kant, are harmonised into a delicious poetical compound. Mr Moore presents us with a Persian, and Mr Campbell with a Pennsylvanian tale both formed on the same principle as Mr Southey’s epics, .by extracting from a perfunctory .and desultory perusal of a collection' of voyages and travels, all that useful investigation would not. seek for and that common sense would reject. These disjointed relics of. tradition and fragments of second-hand observation being woven into a tissue of verse, constructed on what Mr Coleridge calls a new principle (that is, no principle at all, compose a modern-antique compound of' frippery and barbarism, in which the puling sentimentality, of the present time is grafted on the misrepresented ruggedneas of the past into a heterogeneous congeries of unannalgainating manners, sufficient to impose on the common readers of poetry, over whose understanding the poet of this class possess that/ commanding advantage, which, in all circumstances and conditions of life, a man who knows something. however little, always possesses over one who knows nothing. Although Shelley was provoked to his “Defence of Poetry” by Peacock’s essay: the “Defence” has been handed down as a general treatise on poetry, shorn of every reference to Peacock and his essay., Shelley’s opinion, says Mr Brett-Smith; “whatever their source, are intensely held and .enthusiastically conveyed. There is- nothing boldly judicial in this piece; its failures and 'successes alike owe their existence to the vigour and the speed of a creative mind.” “The Defence” is a great poet s confession of faith” ; as such it inspired Brownjpg’g essay, despite the fact that if was originally written os a foreword to a collection of spurious letters. The essay nevertheless remains as the finest and most important piece of prose penned by Browning. These throe notable essays, contained in one cover, constitute a book which no lover of poets and poetry will willingly be without.