New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-07-31

Is iSnown to be the original of Du Siaurers Postle-
ftcaite, and is easily recognized also in The Baa-
torse of w. S. Giberts Patience" is entitled to
respectful notice. Postetliwaite and Bunthorne
represent something than individual eccen-
trieity. The ANGULAR aesthetic who lunches upon the
contemplation of a lily
most lntense young man.
a soplfuieyed young man; 54,o.,
An ultra-poetca snper.esthetic%'
Is the symptom of social disorder which tho
cvnic and the laughing philosopher alike
may consider worthy of attention. Mr.. Oscar
Wilde was not the inventor of the follIcs with
which his fame is associated, nor Is it at all
hl1ely that he has d0nc much to prolong
their vogue. He has ma u success in that frivo-
Ions soclety which runs mad after all the extrava-
ganees of preRaphaelitsm and misses all its truth
because he has bad the daring to push the aitecta-
tons of the school to "a length which appears, per-
haps "not supreme, but oh, quite too all-but !"
original, and the adrotness to disguise his gross
trayesty of enthusiasm that il may pass with the
deyOtees of fashionable culture for the real thing
He is the product, in short, of his environments and
such he may claim study which we should
never think OF besowing upon his personal achieve
ments
1t should be understood, however, at the start
that Mr.. Oscar Wilde is not an idiot, az those who
know him only by the burlesques of Punch and the
Gilbert and Sullivan opera might believe There
Is soiutthng III MS verses; ana he lndulgeS much
less in the jargon of the aesthetics than do other
members of the Brotherhood who have placed VOL
ures OF poetry upon the world. He is not one of
those who only despair droopingly and are limp
and who cling; and if he is
fond of uttering platitudes
ln Stllned-glass attitudes,
If he stufs his lines with asphodel iacinth
pomegranates, dafodillies all in bloom, noony
pearls oozy gold, argent foreheads sapphire.
violet, verInilion, AZURE manhood, passion
ate lustlhead, high-tuniced limbs. Already,
amorOus peasaunce. kisses on the mouth
the unvintageable sea, swinked shepherds,
and empery, and paints lily in almost every third
or fourth stanza, il must be acknowledged that his
far-fetched words usually significant and that
they are combined with due regard to some
thing like sense. Mr.. Wilde has, appar-
emily, sought to copy both the sensu-
GUS charm of Keats and the sensuaty
of Swinb Irne. OF the later poet he succeeds in
making, so far of his characteristics is con-
cerned, startling copy and of the other he pro-
duces provoking travesty. Like Bunthone, he is "a
feshly poet rather than an idylc and like Bun
thorne, he never tires of bidding remark the hor
of his tortured inside He assures us that he has
surrendered himself to sweet sad SINS" and that he
writes for those who have easted as he has on the lows
that KILL He would not have missed these lows for
ANYTHING. He is desperately wicked in an amorous
way aud he thinks it is than probable that he
has lost his SOUL which makes him particularly pic
turesque and after all does not much matter to one
who can console himself by fondling lily. "Ohw
exclaims Bunthorne in the play, "Oh | am cursed
thing. And he adds Don't be frightened it's only
poetry" With Mr.. Wilde, too it's only poetry
His volume opens with a sort of prelude in italic
type, entitled Helasp and beginning with the fol-
lowing lines:
To drift with every passion till my soul
isa s sur ute on which ali winds play,
hiine ancient wisdom and austere controls
This indicates the sense in which he wishes to be
taken-as poet under the sway of tremendous
emotions, always spontaneous and generally i'm
proper and i'll carrying ont the idea he is careful TO
commit himself to the most contradictory sent-
ments. Milton and Swinburne Cromwell the
"divine William Morris, Napoleon ~. the mon
of the barbados, Plus TX. and Diana, are by
turns the subjects of his passionate eulopy
Through one whole division Of his book he is a
superheated Catholic, and few minutes
later he is the most infamed of MAJ
zinians. He is a pantheist. He is a pagan
He worships humanity. He worships the soul Of
the universe. He worships the Saints. He worshps
the grand white feet of Juno and the argent splen
dor of white limbs of the other divinites of Rome
He would be the Piccadilly Tannhauser who has
tarried in the Venusberg and has knelt at the
shrine of the Madonna, and who breaks in upon the
pure chant of the minstres with wild songs of fever
ish delight
dear profaner of great mysteries,
An ardent amorous idOlater.
The New Heen," one of the poems which ne
prints under the general title of Rosa Mystico y
Is a remarkable specimen of his audacity in min
Cling the pseudodevotional with the pseudo-erotic
But there is no reality In it. We cannot help put-
ting into Mr.. Wllde's mouth the famous words of
the Fat Boy, - wants to make your flesh creepD II
Is SO interesting to be wicked it is mark of such
rare culture to be on intimate terms with Pan and
Aphrodite, and Fauns and Dryads and to celebrate
the ancient rites in Nuneham Wood and ON the
posky banks OF Thames; it so piques feminine Gu
riosity to declare that you will
walk from fire unto fire.
From passionate pain to deadlier delight
without explaining precisely what it is YOU mean To
do.
And everyone will say, you walk your mystic wov
ts young man expresses himself in terms deep
"ny' what very singular deep young this deep
we cannot find note of true feeling in Mr.
Wiide's book, from the first page to the last. We
cannot believe him when he boasts of his creed re-
publican, nor " hen he assures Liberty in sonnet
that he loves her only because her reiens of terror
her great anarches, and the roar of her democra.
cies, mirror his widest passions and give his
rage brother. We do not believe that he has any
wiid passions or any RACES, any fixed beliefs We
do not even trust the sincerity of his aesthetic nro
LESSONS. There is no true ring in these verses:
Spirit Of Beauty tarry still awhile
Ihey are NOT dead, thine ancient votaries.
Some few there are to whom thy radiant smile
Is better than thousand victories,
Though all the noDly slain OF Waterloo
Rise up In wrath against them tarry STILL there are
afew ~
VINO Tor thy sake would give their manhood
And consecrate their being, at least
ty Iat g.