The San Francisco call., 1896-11-01

TURts IN CRITICISM. By Brander Mat
thews. New York, Harper & Bros. For sale by
s. s. IS s. ~ $50 i''' street. o''s price
This is q collection OF critical essays by
Brander Matthews, written or delivered by
him at various periods and now issued in book
form for the frsi time. A study of the con-
tents page will give the reader some idea of
the scope OF the work: American Literature,
Two Studies of the South. The Penalty of
Humor, On Pleasing the Taste OF the Public,
On Certain Parallelisms Between the Ancient
Drama and the Modern. Two Seotsmen of Let
ters tAndrew Lang and Robert Louis Steven
SOM, Asp ects of Fiction, !. The Gift OF Story
telling; IL. Cervantes, Zola, Kipling d Co.;
III. The Prose Tales of NJ. Francois Coppee;
~. The Short Stories of Ludovic Halevy; v.
Mr.. Charles Dudley Warner as Writer OF Fic-
ton: VI. Text Books of Fiction.
While some of these essays are necessarily OF
a fugitive or evanescent character, there are
several in this collection which amply serve to
sustain Mr.. Matthews reputation as one of the
foremost critics of the day. One of these is
that entitled "The Penalty of Humor,'' where
in have been set forth the Disadvantages at
tendant upon the writer of a humorous work.
That the author OF such q book is handicapped
in his future efforts is an axiom not to be dis
puted. We took occasion several weeks ago,
in these columns, to instance a case in point
that of Mark Twain, whose "Joan of Arc was
a financial failure simply on account of the
fact that Mr.. Clemens reputation was made as
the producer of humorous books, and an un-
appreciative public declined to recognize him
in the capacity OF a competitor with William
Harrison Ainsworth.
Mr.. Matthews advances the theory that the
writing of the Declaration of Independence
was intrusted TO Thomas Jefferson rather than
TO Benjamin Franklin because the latter was
known 10 be poss essed of luxuriant sense of
humor. Notwiths tanding the fact that Frank
Inns reputation was worldwide, not merely
local, as was that of jefferson, it was feared
that, TO use colloquiaiism, he might "make
a break and so the honor was accorded to the
Virginian.' The American lack OF reverence.
noted by Matthew Arnold when he visited this
country, was largely present in the compost
tion of the author of "Poor Richards Alma
mack" and it was not accounted a virtue in
him by the leaders of the Continental Con-
gress.
AS it was with Franklin SO was it with Lin
coin. Says Mr.. Matthews:
Because Lincoln was swift to seize upon an
incongruity and because he sought relief for
his abiding melancholy in playfulness there
were not few who refused TO take him seri-
ously. Even after his death there were hon.
est folk who held the shrewdest and loftiest of
our statesmen to have been little better than
a buffoon. OF the three greatest Americans,
1Franklin, Washington and Lincoln, two were
humorists, and it is, perhaps, his deficiency of
humor which makes Washington seem more
remote from us and less friendly than either
of the others"
OF authors who have to paw the penalty of
humor Mr.. Matthews cites the case of James
Russell Lowell. 1t will doubtless appear
strange to Americans to learn that before
he was appointed Minister to the Court OF st.
James Lowell was known to the English read
~ 1-s~s
the scholar, but s'rather as the rival of Josh
Bilhngsi" And this little misunderstanding
simply arose from the fact that in the Biglow
Papers "the dialect of Hosea was phonetcslly
represented with artistic feeling and scientific
precision
The author of the present Ventures IN
Criticism" endeavors to find an explanation
for that feeling of condescension manifested
toward the humorist. Admitting that there
is no feeling of animosity in this attitude OF
conscious superiority he utters a note OF
warning against ga certain kind of wit, OF
which it is we'll to be distrustful, for it is dan
gerous." This he calls the "scofing. girding
wit" and touching it he makes remark that
will doubtless strike home-thrust to some
American journalists. "The persiflage oi
Voltaire was often inspired by honest convic-
tions; but there are writer's cn the newspapers
OF New York who have cultivated wit not
unlike Voltaire's, but with even less of sim
cerity in it, soiling whatever it touches-cor-
roding and disintegrating."
In his essay entitled 1.-TWO Scotsmen OF Let.
ters" Mr.. Matthews has chosen for considera-
ton two literary notabflities-Andrew Lang
and Robert Louis Stevenson. For the first he
appears in the character of apologist and, to
speak the truth, the subject of his sketch is
sadly in need of Interpretation to readers on
this side of the Atlantic, where he has, upon
numerous occasions, been endowed with the
attributes of spitfre
Comparing the two, Lang and Stevenson,
Mr.. Matthews says:
sin differing degrees each was poe and
each was master of a prose than which no
better was written in our language nowadays.
Mr.. Lang's style has not the tortured felicity
of Steyenson's; its happiness is easier and less
willful. The author of Letters to Dead Au-
thors' is not an artifcer of cunning phrase
like the author of Memoirs and Portraits
his style is not handmade nor the result of
taking thought: it grows more of its own
accord. The style of each is transparent, but
while Stevenson's is as hard as crystal, Mr..
Lapgs is fluid like water; il flows and some
times il sings it flows, like the beautiful
brooks he longs TO linger beside, changing
with the sky and the rocks and the trees, but
always nmpid and delightful
We have said that among American journal
lists Andrew Lang is generally recognized as
the spitfre of the British press. His antipathy
to American literature and to its makers is