Play right, Poet and Potentate.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVI, Issue 3, 18 January 1911, Page 2

Play right, Poet and Potentate.

THE NEW KING OF SIAM —THE ABLEST RULER OF ANY ASIATIC LAND.

J f 8 the only remaining independent y I sovereign of a purely Buddhist J land, his high Majesty, Chowfa Maha Vajiravudh, who has just succeeded to the throne of Siam, is the object of the worshipful deference of millions of Asiatics. Not even the ruler ov Japan bears title more glorious, nor can his diviiie attributes be forfeited through the medium of any such humiliation as was so recently inflicted upon the Dalai Xiama of Tibet. His Siamese Majesty enjoys a sovereignty that remains territorial over the fertile valley of the Me-

nani, but is indisputably spiritual in the sanctions it possesses for the pious. “Most divine master of immortal souls,” to quote one designation in his excessively long official role, the young King of Siam—to be crowned with a handful and one golden diadems—is to the faithful “sovereign god of the nine kinds of gods.” In personal appearance the sovereign is less awe-inspiring than these titles. Short, inclined to chubbiness, olive of complexion and possessed of a pair of eyes that twinkle with humour, according to the London “Mail,” his Majesty suggests a being of the artistic temperament. His essential characteristics are certainly those of the artistic temperament. For a Buddhist sovereign, his training has been paradoxical. He got his education in England, where the newspapers know him well and love him hugely. His biography reads like that of the eldest

son of some peer of Great Britain, suggesting, indeed, anything but the Orient, Years spent as a cadet at Sandhurst made him—for a Siamese —wonderfully like the average English army officer in personal habits and in point of view. To be sure, he boasted not so long ago that "in spite of his fifteen years in Europe he would return to Siam more Siamese, if possible, than when he left it,” but ho has, for all that, achieved many civilised feats. For example, he wrote, in a portly volume, a history of “The War of the Polish Succession.” He went to Christ

Church College, Oxford, and won a degree there. He founded in England a elub of undergraduates called “The Cosmopolitans,” of which, says the London “News,” "he proved the soul.” He wrote a little play under the pseudonym of Carlton H. Terriss, which a London publishing house gave to the world and which was widely read if not for its own sake at any ’ rate for the author’s. The wonderful youth who has just become King of Siam found time also to cultivate other light arts, we read in the same British daily. He was not only a great patron of the drama, taking keen interest in private theatricals as author, actor and stage manager. Ho painted pictures and wrote verse. For many a nymth to come, this 'bright Oriental, who is not yet thirty, will dwell immured within the three encircling waits which protect the royal palaeo at Bangkok and its multitude of attendant edifices, stables, outhouses.

pagodas and elephant yards, The palacq itself, within which his Majesty must apply himself for weeks to eome to th* unremitting exercise of piety, is an ‘enorjnous structure, erected in the fashion consecrated to royalty in that part of the world. Widely extended facades, of pillars, verandahs and galleries on either side of a huge double staircase leading to an advanced court flanked by a pair of high pavilions must be penetrated by those Oxford friends of the King’s whom he has so freely asked to Bangkok. Once inside the palace, the usual Oriental medley of furniture and ornament from east and west alike attests the peculiarities of the late sovereign’s taste. There will bQ little of this confusion in a short time, predict the British dailies. The new King of Siam has absorlied his westenV culture to lictter purpose. He reads the great periodicals of Europe in French. English, German and Italian. He knows! good music when lie hears it. His late father preferred the phonograph. The present ruler of the land plays liis own piano.

While it might seen like flattery to aver that the Siamese potentate is a genius, observes the Paris “Figaro, it is nevertheless beyond dispute that “he is the ablest ruler of any Asiatic land.” He inherits the marked capacity he has shown in so many directions. The first King of Siam of the present dynasty", says Frederick Verney of the British diplomatic service—who was long at thq Icg-’tion'in Bangkok—was a successful soldier who in the eighteenth century repelled a formidable Burmese invasion, restoring his country's freedom and independence after a long and severe struggle. “One of the King’s immediate predecessors was a remarkably successful student of languages, ancient and modern, eastern and western. Another was a skilled mathematical!. The King who so lately passed away had a know* ledge of English which astonished most Englishmen who eame in contact with' him.”. In no respect is the sovereign now reigning behind the standard set for him by his ancestors. He has tire personal charm for which his grandfather! was famed together with the keenness of perception. the subtlety of humor and the breadth of mind which distinguished his late father. ' Tlhose whose personal acquaintance with the Siamese potentate is most intimate insist that had not a freak of destiny set him upon an Oriental throne, he would have made his fortune’ as a. comje actor. He is, the London “News” thinks, a comedian born. The inconceivable drollery of his facial expression never failed to make .1 hit with the audiences of young people who so often saw him act at Oxford. He was generally to be found at one of the London theatres during his stays in that metropolis. His facility in imitating the voice, the manner and the gestures of anyone he has studied for even the briefest period is deemed miraculous. He has a round musical voice to which he can impart any intonation. He can roll all about the stage in paroxysms of inimitable grief or laughter. His short, stout, but well-set-up figure and the slight swagger in his walk might have been envied, our authority thinks, by the elder Coquelin himself. So clever ■was he in make-up that on more than one occasion he concealed his identity from his audience for a whole act. The dancing of a jig and the singing of a comic song pleased him as mightily as it pleased the spectators.

Civilized as is the King of Siam in our western sense, there is not the least likelihood, the “Figaro” says, that he will risk his throne, as did the Sulton of Morocco, by innovations shocking to the pious native mind. His Majesty eari be trusted to seat himself for purposes of audience upon that gilded seat, much like the familiar lion throne of Mandalay, which his late father adorned with sueh sedate gray ity. For the young ruler of Buddhist Siam is informed in every fibre of his being with the national faith. He has made a careful study of its theology. He adheres with the same fidelity to its dogma as the Amir of Afghanistan displays in the •practice of Mohammedanism. A monarch who trifled with the teachings of the national religion would not be tolerated in Siam for a moment. Buddhism has in practice long ceased to sway state policy, but there is ho doubt, says the French daily, that the nibn; arch’s position as the only royal head among the millions of southern Asiatic

Buddhists endows him with a sancity: Which he could not lay aside if he would. He will fast and pray and keep the holy Seasons with unaffected zeal. There seems not even a tinge of heterodoxy in him.

As regards taste in personal beauty, the young King of Siam remains as Oriental as when he was born. His preference for feminine types of the short and plump variety amused a French sculptor whose studio he visited during One of his many tours on the continent. His Majesty professed himself unable to comprehend the admiration inspired in the western mind by the figure of the Medicean Venus or even the Venus de Milo. Women, to lovely, acording to him, should be short —say four feet high—'and the fatter they are the more exquisite is the appeal to the esthetic instinct. The young King, who, besides painting and' poetizing upon occasion, can model fairly well, shaped a statue in accordance with this theory. It remains in the Paris studio still, says the ‘‘Figaro.” The figure is grotesquely fat and squat and awkward with immensely long arms. His Majesty is an intense admirer of large hands which, as he believes, demonstrates intelligence and Amiability in their possessor. Another esthetic preference of his is for trousers Iti'pon the feminine form. Skirts, he contends, are hideous and no woman of taste should consent to wear them. His mother wears trousers.

Few princes have inspired such enthusiasm among other princes. The late King Oscar of Sweden was especially friendly to the young man who reigns in Siam. “This Oriental gentleman and scholar,” the late Swedish monarch is quoted as having said, “is an artist as well as statesman. I believe he will make his country a great empire.” Something to the same effect was said Iby former President Louibet, of France, who entertained the youth in the Elysee on more than one occasion. “If there is a Ood,” he remarked to the whilom ruler of the third republic, “he must Ibe French.” “That,” replied the President, “is a most delicate compliment to my nation.” “It is also,” replied the Siamese, “a very nice thing to say of God.” Pious as is this enlightened potentate, he can, when inspired, be witty at the expense of the superstitions of the Orient. He read a paper on the sacred elephant at Oxford in which the drolleries for which he is so beloved Were afforded full scope. He imitated the walk of that quadruped with a positively side splitting effect upon all spectators. His Majesty can spuawk like a parrot, howl like a tiger and scream like an English lady in effects so life-like that the mere announcement of his appearance at any social function while he. lived in England brought on a “icrush.”

To serious business the King applies himself with all the energy he exploits in exercising his historic powers. There is not a pupil at Sandhurst, the London ‘‘Mail” verily believes, who could show a finer record for proficiency in acquiring the art of war. He longed to serve in the Boer War. but that the British government would not hear of it.