The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-05-03
Gossip
At "High Tea in the Boston Transcript
ONCE.

The Literary World is of opinion that we
have no genuine women of letters. ''The
woman of letters it says, ''must have some
museulinity in her composition; her finer
metal must be streaked with iron ore; she
must carry the sledge hammer in her hand
as well as wear the flower at her throat. She
must be Miriam, a Deborah, a prophecies
as well as poet; woman who fathoms phil
osophies as we'll as fashions; who can thun-
der as well as lighten.n
Fine as is the description, we sincerely
hope no such ideal woman will arrive while
the present tumult of masculine logic is at
Its height. lest even she might get somewhat
befogged about finding her proper sphere.
just such woman has, to be sure shed her
radiance many times upon this benighted
earth. France and England have recently
buried one apiece. But though the world
might have wondered at her it seems in its
sheer ignorance to have let such woman
pretty much alone to follow her own devil
GUS course. Not so the present. Such Is
the pitch of preternatural illumination
reached by some few men regarding brainy
women that many good people appear TO
have suspended Judgment and await to see
these men evolve some means of circumvent-
ing Nature and putting stop to her produc-
ing such monstrosties in future.
WELL exclaimed Jolly matron the 9TH
er day, maybe it's only because I'm wo-
man and historical, but l can't get angry
bit; only laugh TO see men go mad on the
woman question. To hear them pirate, Law
and clerical, professional and non-profes-
sional, about woman's wants and abilities
and tastes and aspirations, and constitutions
al idiosyncrasies, mental, moral and physi-
cal, when, according to their own theorizing,
Nature so reversed their whole makeup that
they have no conscious basis from which to
reason about things so occult. And all this
theorizing, forsooth, is to be set against the
living conscious experience of each indiyidu-
al womanr'
"Pshawr' exclaimed a bright girl, swho
cares for their opinions? The greatest mind
of tile world held different ones Every able
critic admits that Shakspeare's men are in
ferior to his women"
An, it's essaying too much to get at a
dramatists private opinions through the
mouth of his characters" observed the ma
iron. Portals, however, were not impossi-
bic IN the Italian Republic, which allowed
NNAASA " 9O NoQSdlCu CQutA W lLc men. DuI
for all that, my dear, our highest idaaliza-
ton of Shakespeare himself may be due to
the more than probable fact that Mrs. Shak-
speare couldn't write, and therefore kept no
diary, aud that her neighbors were in the
same predicament Don't look shocked
Heaven forbid that should pluck a laurel
from the great Williams brow; but even he
might have been quite human at times"
The fault-tnding with Froude's publIca-
ton of the Carlyle letters recalls the fault
finding with the Earl of Orrery for giving to
the world his unfavorable record Of that 9th
er inspired bear, Swift. We have not now,
however, any literary arbitrator like DIR.
johnson to settle it all by saying to the adj
verse side, mo, sir, not wrong when a man
is dead, for then il is done historically.' y
Now the smallest toad in the puddle has his
literary say as well as a johnson Delaney at
once gave to the world the good side OF
Swift; who will do this for Carlyle? Not
even the reflected geniality of Emerson ac-
complished much in that line. Swift's feroc-
ity always enlisted itself on the side of the
oppressed Cariyle.s always stamped upon
them with ironclad heels.
1t is really amusing to the readers who
have followed Henry James's literary career
from the first TO notice the average newspa-
per just waking up to the necessity of pro-
claiming his un-American predictions. Is
it regard for his sensibilities that has made
the newspapers keep their observations to
themselves until the gentleman got ready to
publicly reveal his sentiments, as he so nat
urally and honestly did in his last paper?
But is 1t fair to blame a man for the bias
With which he is born? People who were in
too great hurry to see great national nov
elist in Mr.. James have only themselves to
blame. He never deceived them. Any
readers of natural acumen who read his
short stories as they appeared in the Allan
tic years ago have only had their first i'm
pressions OF his Old World mental quality
strengthened by his subsequent career. All
that they have had to regret Is that he
turned his attention from the romantic
form which he first naturally chose to the
ANALYTICAL novel; DE-, James does not !, li Iyy,ss
own or any other country, to become a pow
erful novelist
His intellect is as purely retrospective as
was Hawthorne's; only, instead of being
moral and imaginative. it is plastic and ar.
tistie. Hawthorne knew he could not write
novels, so he stuck to romance. under main
of never becoming popular until after he was
dead. The romance is still more out OF
vogue these days than It was in Hawthorne,s
People want to see themselves, not their
grandfathers, in story. Mr.. James has
| probably discovered this, SO writes novels
too nne spun for the general public, and
| saved only by rare descriptive conceits, cpl
| grammatic fancies, and the charm of a die
| ton seldom approached. But those who dis
| covered new and rare talent in such sbort
tales as "a Passionate Pilgrim HI,ast d
| the Valerii, !" ''The Madonna of the Future. .
| ETC., have always regretted that he turned
his back upon the romance.