Have You Read This?

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 548, 28 December 1928, Page 12

Have You Read This?

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's Selections From Eng lish C lassies

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.

THE TYRANNY OF LICENSING, j JOHN MILTON. —“Arcopagitica.” John Millon (1608-167-1), the greatest < of English non-dramatic poets, was j Latin Secretary to Oliver Cromwell, in j whose time Latin was still the language : of diplomacy. After Dante he is the most learned of poets, and his •*Paradise Lost’' did for Puritanism what Dante's 44 Commedia” did for Catholicism. His chief English prose work, the “Areopagiliea" is a defence of the freedom of the Press. Like Homer, he was blind. IV WE THINK to regulate Printing, thereby to rectify manners, we must regulate all recreations, and pastimes, all that is delightful to man. No musick must be heard, no song be set or sung, but what is grave and Dorick. There must be licensing dancers, that no gesture, motion, or deportment, be taught, our youth, ebut what by their allowance shall be thought honest; for such Plato was

) provided of. It will ask more than the | work of 20 licencers to examine all i the lutes, the violins, and the guitars { in every house; they must not be sufi fered to prattle us they do, but must j be licensed what they may say. And i who shall silence all the airs and j madrigals that whisper softness in j chambers? The Windows also, and the Balconies must be thought on; ! there ere shrewd books with dangerj ous Frontispieces set to sale; who | shall prohibit them? shall 20 licencers? | The villages also must have their visij tors to inquire what lectures the bagpipe and the rebeck reads, even to the I balladry and the gamut of every ' municipal fidler, for these are the ! Countryman's Arcadia’s and his Monte ■ Mayors. . . To sequester oirt of the world into Atlantick and Eutopian polities which never can be drawn into ; use, will not mend our condition but : to ordain wisely as in this world of : evil, in the midst whereof God hath ■ I placed us unavoidably.

I have been challenged, and in every specific case where an English critic has thrown doubt on the authenticity of any incident in the book I have routed him with chapter and verse, usually in Charles Dickens’s own Words.

The publication of the book In England has stirred up the idolators of Dickens. The incautious ones have challenged me on facts, and been answered. The more cautious egged on Sir Henry Dickens, the novelist’s son. to announce that he would issue a seriatim “answer” to my book. Thumping his desk, he told reporters that he was determined to "stamp It out.” I at once challenged him to remove his ban on the publication of documents which he knew to exist, and by which I undertook to substantiate every main statement of fact In my novel. Whereupon, he thought better of his purpose and retired precipitately from the field. But it is preposterous to suppose that these letters, the existence of Which is known to many, and which many of us possess or have read, can be Irrevocably withheld. When at last they are made public, as some day they must be, I am satisfied that my picture of Charles Dickens will be shown to be correct. I may be asked why anyone should wish to write another life of Dickens, and to expose the true nature of the man. Surely, when scores of official and semi-official biographies, volumes of his (selected) letters, and innumerable petty details of his alleged saintly character have been ladled out year after year to a credulous public, it is right and timely that the truth about him should be told. If this truth is unpalatable the idolators have only themselves to blame. Most idols have feet of clay, but Dickens was, as a man, nearly all clay. The Dickens of “This Side Idolatry” is my portrait of the man, painted neither hastily nor without deep reflection and careful checking of facts. I have been accused by one idolator of collecting mere scandalous gossip about Dickens. Why, if I had put into “This Side Idolatry” all that 1 know on unimpeachable evidence about Dickens, the crash of the fallen idol would have silenced all further criticism. Assuming then that I was entitled to paint my portrait of Dickens, there arises the further question whether I ought to have done so while his sod. Sir Henry Dickens, remains alive. I say emphatically, yes. Sir Henry Dickens has devoted a large portion of his long life to promoting the legend of his father’s personal saintliness: he admits, too. that he forbids publication of material essential for a real biography. Must a fantastic personal idolatry be above criticism, because its chief priest lives After all. I need hardly trouble to justify myself on this count, for Charles Dickens set himself forever beyond the pale by caricaturing during their lifetime such men as Leigh Hunt (“Harold Skimpole”), such intimate friends as Maria Beadnell (“Flora Finching”), and most shameless crime of ail. his own parents as Mrs Nicklebv and Mr Micawber. Remembering this, who will dare to say that I am not entitled to describe incidents which happened more than 70 years ago and to tell the real story of a man who died in 1870 and has ever since been falsely represented as a paragon of personal perfection? C. E. BECHHOFER ROBERTS, London, September 14. 1928.