New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-12-27
LONDON NOTES.
WEBSTERESE ONCE MORE-MR. BEERBOllM
TREE. Mr.. BSEN, AND NJ. MAETERLINK
THE VICTORIAN EXHIBITION AND
THE QUEEN.
THE QUEEN

THE QUEEN.
London December 8.
The professors and partisans of Websterese are
restless under the exposure OF their errors
| do not observe, however, that any OF them nave
given us the names of the English publishers VINO
print in Websterese. of any newspaper In this
country which diversifes its columns with the
barbarous vacaries of the great photographed
crank whom these belated disciples delight to honor
They once tried to bolster him up in America oy
asserting that he was an authority in England
and this they sought to maintain by quotations TO
which it seemed necessary to apply the word
garbled." l thereupon proposed the practcal 1esO
above named The challenge has remained un-
answered. not even the interested and not too
scrupulous ingenuity of Mr.. Walter Allen has
enabled him to compose an answer which he thinks
may pass muster with the careless reader on whose
verdict he seems to set the highest value Per-
haps therefore, the contention that English usage
lends support to the photographed heresies OF
Webster may be regarded as abandoned.
Abandoned also, Judge, is the more plausible
but entirely unsonnd pretence that Websterese is
an American way of spelling the English Ian
guage / began by saying it was not American.
wished to defend my country against those who
from motives not uncOnnected with business de-
sired to fasten this stigma on the American Ma
ton. i am cheered and cOmf0rted by the uneX-
pected but not unwecome, aid of Mr.. Walter
Allen. If he does not adopt the whole of my con-
tention he adopts it in part He admits, nay, he
asserts, that Webster :" is not narrowly and en-
| clusively American in its photography, but com.
progressively English and broadly International"
| am very much obliged to him. His claim
that Webster is English has been disposed of,
but the claim disposes also of the more
dangerous faIlacy that he is American. If he is
not exclusively American he is not American at
all The appeal of the Websterans has been
hitherto 10 the patriotic feeling at home TO the
pride of the American in what he was taught TO
suppose an American spelling of the English Ian
| guage 1t can be made no longer. The appeal
was TO a spurious patriotism it is quite time that
| a true patriotism came to the rescue: time that
| eccentricities should be called by their right
| name and that the errors into which some Ameri-
| GANG have fallen should not bring Americanism
I itself into disrepute
7 But Mr.. Allen advances one more assertion In
| support of his claim that there is in England a
valid or practical acceptance OF Websterese as a
| standard or even as method, OF spelling Some
| Of Websters provinciaslns are, he says, given IN
the New English Dictionary. lie says given as
| correct forms in current use VIII he be so
good as 10 supply us with some evidence for that
|
Gent TO deal with the first the answer TO which
is decisive The New English Dictionary is a
Thesaurus Rightly or wrongly. its editor re-
| nounced the aim Of making it an authority. lie
| resolved to register, not 70 legislate The book
| is filled, every page of it, with the record or
! violated laws Of the English language; oA sole
cisms, barbarities, unsuccessful ncol0glsms,
| ignorant usages, unidionatic and ungrammatical
| phrases unscentifc etymologiesc and SO on.
/ Among them the slovenly spelling of Webster finds
conpenial home. But 10 argue that because the
| editor chronicles these caprices he recommends
! them, is to argue in disregard of the known plan,
plainly set forth by DR.. Murray himself, on which
he has proceeded in the compilation of book
avowedly storehouse of the most heterogeneous
materials; kind of photographed Pantechnicoh'
| Dr. Murray has thought it right to emoaim the
linguistic fallaces and fOllies which have at'ehueu
the progress Of the English tongue from ns
earliest time down 10 the present. lie mas en-
balmed the fallacies and follies OF webster WIN
| the rest but he has done nothing TO deserve ohe
accusation of having adopted them
Mr. Irvings plainepoken protest against losen-
ism has been reinforced by that of another actor
manager-a vile phraSe-Mr. Beerbohm Tree Mr.
| Tree also is entitled TO be heard. lie III "a much
younger man and much younger manager than
| Mr.. Irving, but has done goOd WORK, Oouh d.
actor and as manager at the Haymarket Theatre
| lie is coming presently into direct rivalry Will
his elder comrade, for he is to bring out the play
of Hamlet at the IIaymarket, and is himself to act
! the Prince of Denmark. II is not Mr. Trees irs'
adventure in the Shakespcarean drama. lie has
played Falstaf before now. From Fastaf, OF
from the wicked Duke in that entirely modern
and strangely popular piece, The Dancing Girl, t.
| the part of Hamlet, the step is a long one Bu'
| Mr. TIRE has shown that he has courage. lie
did rot shrink from comparison with NJ CoqueH
in Gringoire and he does not shrink now iron
challenging public opinion in part which Mr.
Irving played for 200 nights in succession an ex
ploit without parallel, believe. In the history Of
the stage.
When the IIaymarlSet passed into Mr.. Trees
hands. il was after run of ill-luck lie redeemed
the fortunes OF the theatre, established himself II
uublio favor, enlarged his fame an actor anc
is now looked to as Of those managers able ant
willing TO do good things. His predecessor-no
his immediate predecessor-Mr. Bancroft, has pro
nounced friendly encomum Mr.. Beerbohu
Trees splendid versatility" and on the brill
liant rapidity with which he has placed himself
in tho front rank OF theatrical managers The
panegyric is pitched in high key, but Mr. Tree
deserves 80 we'll, on the whole, of the publ,
and OF his profession, that the adjectives neet
not be toe closely scrutinized. Like all successfp
performers, he has been much praised, and thu
press in this country s not sparing Of superlatives
rrl- Il liam and ka