Have You Read This?

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 531, 7 December 1928, Page 14

Have You Read This?

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s Selections From English Classics

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Professor of English Literature, recently selected for “The Daily Mail” a series of short passages, the "purple patches” of English prose. It is hoped that the series, reprinted here, will pleasantly refresh the memories of some and stir the fresh interest of others.

; CHARACTER OF LORD FALKLAND. EDWAitD HYDE. —From “A History of the Rebellion.*' Edward Hyde (1609-1674) was one of the very few Englishmen who have both made history and written it. I'nder Charles I. he was the most moderate of the Royalist leaders: he did more than any other man to make the Restoration possible, and for the first eight years of Charles 11. he practically ruled England as Lord Chancellor. His **History of the Great Rebellion I’* 1 ’* is both a masterpiece of narrative prose and an authority of the first rank for the period , and especially for the personalities , with which it deals . AS HE was of a most incomparable gentleness, application, and even a demissness and submission to good, and worthy, and entire Men, so he was naturally (which could not but be more evident in his Place, which objected him to another conversation and intermixture, than his own election had done) “adversus malos injucundos”; and was so ill a dissembler of his dislike and disinclination to ill men, that It was not possible for Such not to discern it. There was once, in the House of Commons, such a declared acceptation of the good service an eminent member had done to them, and, as they said, to the whole Kingdom, that it was moved, he being present, “that the Speaker might, in the name of the whole House, give him thanks; and then, that every Member might, as a testimony to his particular acknow-

NO. 1 MISS JESSIE MACKAY Although in the strict sense not belonging to the contemporary movement, Miss Mackay must be considered as the living leader of the New Zealand poet band. Her first poems were published toward the end of last century; but her freshness of touch has been preserved, and the quality of her work has been generally recognised abroad. She is represented in all the Kmpire anthologies that have been published and her poems have appeared in New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain and America. Country-born, and for many years resisting the call of the city, she was able to collect impressions that have been felicitously transmuted into verse A pleasant memory is recalled in “October in New Zealand” . . . October will ride in a mantle o’ the vair, ‘ With the flower o’ the quince in her dewwet hair : October will ride to the gates of the day, IV’if/i the blue-bells ringing on her maiden For October, October's the lady o’ the year. Readily responsive to the influence of country scenes, she has the gift of making picturesque record of the things she saw. This, of a fire on hill slopes, is typical . . . The quiet bloom of haze on the Canterbury hills: The *rc. it is the moth that is winging to the snow. O pure red moth, but the sweet white kills! And we thrill again to watch you, but we know, but we know! With the imaginative sympathy that endows a writer with lyric gift. Miss Mackay has sung the sweet, sad music of regret in “The Lonely Faring” . . . | O my dear, my dear! ff we were talking. If we were walking The old, old ways by the wizard stone ! j But it’s one comes only; ’Tis / go lonely Walking and talking with myself alone / O my dear, my dear! / .«»ee with your eyes, J hear as it flies Your song go round by the old hearth stone ! But you come never By loch or by river; For out I am faring alone , alone! This and other poems have been •w ritten a little under the influence of the Celtic Revival, but there is no more than a suggestion of the influence, and she is too vigorous a thinker to be completely held by the j misty-magic poets. It is the ballad form that has won her steadfast allegiance, and neither .Australia nor New Zealand has pro-1 duced a writer who can surpass her in the art of simple verse narrative. : Charming examples of her skill in the form are contained in all her books and even in her last published book. I The Bride of The Rivers,” there is proof that the hand has lost no i cunning: for "The Lily of Touraiue” - and “Ivan the Black" are as strong \ and sparse as any that have gone before.

ledgment stir or mov e his hat towards him”; the which (though not ordered) when very many did, the Lord Falkland (who believed the Service itself not to be of that moment, and that an honourable and Generous Person could not have stooped to it for any flecompence) instead of moving his hat, stretched both his Arms out, and clasped both his hands to- i gether upon the crown of his hat, and ’ held it close down to his head; that all Men might see how odious that flattery was to him. and the very approbation of the Person, though at that time most popular. When there was any Overture, or hope of Peace he would be more erect and vigorous, and exceedingly sollicitous to press anything which she thought might promote it; and sitting? amongst his Friends, often, after a deep silence and frequent sighs, would with a shrill and sad accent, ingeminate the word Peace, Peace; and would passionately profess “that the very agony of War, and the view of the calamities and desolation the Kingdom did. and must endure, took his sleep from him. and would shortly break his heart.” This made some think, or pretend to think, “that he was so much enamoured on Peace that he would have been glad, the King should have bought it at any price,” which was a most unreasonable Calumny. As if a Man that was himself the most punctual and precise in every circumstance that might reflect upon Conscience or Honour, could have wished the King t» have committed a trespass against either. It is the quality of simplicity that sets Miss Mackay’s work apart; she reduces things to their simplest terms and yet sets no curb on her imagination. When the first chronicle of New Zealand literature is written, hers will be an honoured name, for she is the leader of the pioneers. —IAN DONNELLY. BIBLIOGRAPHY “Land of tlie Morning,” Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd, 1910. “The Bride of the Rivers,” Simpson and Williams, Christchurch, 1926.