The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-08
THE |Lu|TERACY OF AMBROSE BIERCE,



Mr.. Bierce has posed these many years
as the "bad man. in literature. Even a
bad man cannot be expected to smile on
his own de6dcle. In Mr.. Bierce's case the
smash-up is emphasized because toy pis-
toll did it.
Let me explain myself to Mr.. Bierce.
He has been the Bogie Man of San Fran
cisco for quite number of years; he has
frightened great many people: he has
destroyed some people; he has brought
tears to many woman's eyes, and he
has brought the indignant oath to many
an honest mans lips, and so he has been
terror. have discovered him to be
stuffed man.
Daniel OConnell, the Liberator, thought
it necessary to silence notorious scold-a
coarse, vulgar tishwife of Dublin-and he
did so by calling her a rectangular hy-
potenuse. Mr.. Bierce is vulgar frac-
ton.
lie does not answer my criticism be-
cause he cannot. Instead he hides be-
meath woman's skirts, and thrusts Ma
dame Ferrier before him as a protection
against the thrashing which he deserved
for the use OF the words 'proselyting,"
"porrect, 'affined," ''impaction." And
how silly he is about Madame Ferrier. AS
written by myself in plain English, the
line nights be said to be metrical. As
written by Mr.. B1erce it is very common
place prose. The line will scan whether
Madame has an "e'' or has none, and,
as Mr.. Bierce did not write Madame
Ferrter with French dressing, he cannot
complain if it is read in ordinary English.
So he may as well come from under
Madame Terriers skirts.
Bierce is the victim of imperfect sym
pathies. Not understanding others he is
himself generally misunderstood. 1 am
explaining him. His knowledge is greater
than his ability to use il. Therefore.
when he writes we have an ill-digested
mass, heavy, coarse and vulgar. Occa-
sionally this mass is lighted up by a
clever twisting of words or distortion of
phrases, but the general result is nauseous.
Mr.. Bierce says that l will not again
indulge in a couplet at the beginning of
blank verse passage. He is quite mis-
taken. I am writing poem, dedicated to
him, and will begin it with a couplet.
Meanwhile here is another kind OF couplet:
AMBROSE BIERCE.
he utters and mutters and sputters
The filth that belongs to the cutters.
This isa pretty little trlsyllabic which 1
give him as q Thanksgiving offering, and
here is Christmas gift for him:
Immortal Bierce knocked at the gates of hell.
Knocked at the gates and rang the brazen bell.
Charon, once boatman on the river Styx,
Now porter to his Grace, the courtly Nix,
Hearing the clangor of the guarded door,
.fur.- nj
Then, through the wicket peering, questioned
why
Him thus aroused a disembodied fly.
Bierce answered, with grunt, pray, let me IN /;
This is the home of all who dared to SIM
Then Charon answered, Here all men may come,
Save Bierce, whose prattle IS but tweedledum.''
This is very poor little poem; indeed q,
it is very bad but it is quite as good as, if
not better than, anything Bierce has
written.
Bierce denies that he is an authority in
literature. He does not claim to be poet
he is certainly not a critic; what is he,
then? The answer is obvious. He made
an attack upon the Celtic Prince be-
cause That gentleman spoke in a
variety l1f measures, and now, with an
effronteTy that is sublime, and an i'm
pudence that is amusing, he claims the
right to vary measures, create new words,
or change the meaning of old ones. He
has in hand stock OF hexameters, penta-
meters, spondees, trochees, dactyls and
other things in the nature of tin cans. He
amuses himself tying these to the tail of
his neighbours dog, but when they are tied
to his own tail he bowls.
Nh Bierce proclaims his gross ignorance
in charging me with falsehood when l said
that Shakespeare frequently opened a
passage of blank verse with rhyming
couplet Apparently he has never read
Shakespeare, but doubtless his readers
have. The following passages will be of
interest to them, and in reading them they
will see how utterly false Ambrose
Bierce is.
In all the quoted passages Shakespeare
uses a rhyming couplet introducing his
blank verse:
1.-TWO Gentlemen of Verona" act 2, scene
Z, Julia begins blank-Verse passage with
q couplet:
"Counsel. Lucetta: gentle girl, assist me,
And even in kind love do coniure thee"
1.-THE Comedy of Errors" act 4, scene 1,
opens with couplet preceding blank
verse:
You know since Pentecost the sum ID que,
And since have not much importuned you."
Richard the H." act 2, scene 1, King
Richard opens blank passage with coup
let, and is Immediately followed by York,
who does the same thing:
THE ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he
His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be-"
How long shall L be patient? All. how long
Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong"
In act 4, same play, scene 1, King Rich
ard again opens blank-yerse passage with
a couplet:
cay no! No. ayi For must nothing be;
Therefore, no, no, for 1 resign to thee"
"Henry the W." part 1, act 3, scene 3,
La Pucelle opens a blank-verse passage
with couplet:
Besides, all French and France exclaims on thee,
Doubling thy birth and lawful progeny"
Henry the VI" part 2, act 3, scene 2,
Warwick begins blank-verse passage with
a couplet:
But that the guilt of murder bucklers thee
And should rob the deathsman OF his fee.
Julius Caesar" act 1, scene L, Marullus
IIo,,I- ,,sroa ~ eco on with ron rInt.