The San Francisco call., 1896-03-15

INCIDENTS in the career of King
Alfred the Great are the foundation
for four-act dramatic poem, Eng
lands Darling" which is Alfred Aus
tins first production in book form
since his appointment as poet laureate.
The poem is dedicated to the Princess of
Wales, daughter of vanished Vikings and
mother of English Kings to be-" In his
interesting preface Mr.. Austin says that in
the spacious gallery of commanding char
acters commemorated in English poetry
there is a strange and unaccountable
blank. Where we look for the most Illus
trious figure of all there is an empty niche.
The greatest of Englishmen has never
been celebrated by an English poet. Ex-
tolled by succession of prose historians
and deeply rooted in the affections of his
countrymen by an unbroken tradition,
which for thousand years has
designated him "England's Darling"
Alfred is forgotten by Chaucer, all
but ignored by Spenser, unnamed
by Shakespeare, and but fortuitously
alluded TO by the most eminent of their
successors. King Alfred has always been
Austln's s fayorite hero, the name and the
tales that clustered round it forming the
most enthralling pages of his nursery
erudition. The language of the characters
in the poem is mainly of Saxon origin
the natural utterance of English men and
women living in the ninth century OF our
era. The production is a notable one,
brilliant in many respects, and the poet
laureate has we'll begun the work of en-
balming Alfred's memory IN verse.
The first act relates the love-making of
Edward, son of Alfred, and Edgiva, the
Danish maiden. Then Alfred appears on
the scene, disguised as peasant, and the
poet tells the familiar old story of the King
sitting in the hut, studying his book and
allowing the cakes to scorch. In the Sec
ond act Alfred appears before the Saxon
Witanagemote at Athelney, noble and
heroic figure, surrounded by the lords and
ealdermen. He makes strong speech,
showing the necessity of war to rid Eng
land of the Danish heathens. The assem-
bled freemen join in striking their shields
with their spears and hailing the king
Alfred Alfred!
Lord OF Englandt
kngland's comfort!
England's shepherd!
England's DRrlngi
Alfred Alfred!
The King is next seen in his study, max
ing models of long-oared boats to cope
with the Danish esks. In the third act we
find Alfred addressing his son in view of
the approaching war, and then teaching
Edgiva to read in the forest. In the fourth
act he rises to the heights OF heCoism by
overcoming Guthrum, Oskytel and the
heather Jarls. In this act, before the bat
tie, King Arthur sings thus happily of the
origin of England:
In the Beginning
When out OF darkness,
The Earth, the Heaven,
The Stars, the Seasons,
The mighty mainland.
And whale plo ughed water,
By God the maker
Were formed and fashioned,
Then God made England
He made Ii shapely
With land-locked inlets,
With rivers roaming
From fabricated forests
through MINDLESS valleys,
Past plain and pasture,
To siopiDg shingle;
Thus God made England.
Having conquered mis- foes, the King de-
clares:
For me- have no other wish on earth,
Save to leave long remembrance after me
OF something done for England.
For genuine Saxon song, rich in dis
tinctively Saxon words, there is commend
able merit in that sung by the serfs in the
first scene of the second act. Here 1t is
reproduced:
Fetch me hunk Of salted fitch
And Jug of sweetened ale,
And of 1 trudge TO bank the ditch
Or bang about the fail.
Who recks of summer sweat and swink,
Or winters icy pangf
Tilt up the mug, my mates and drink,
And let the world 60 hang,
And let the world go hangi
Now, youngsters snap the fallen sticks
Now, hearthwfe, boil the pot,
For we have thatched the barley-rcks
And t,i0 xxaf he OafO nio
The shepherds star begins to wink
The she-woif whets her fang;
Up with the mead bowl mates, and drink,
And let the world go hang,
Go hang,
And let the world go hang!
The volume also contains the "Passing of
Merlin" originally published in the Lon
don Times, October Z, 1892, being the
authors tribute to his great predecessor,
Tennyson, on the occasion of the latter's
death. Here is a stanZa:
prli will blossom again, again will ring
With cuckoo's call and yaffeI's flying scream,
And in yelled sleep the nightingale will dream,
Warbling if awake. But what will bring
lis sweet note back? He mute, il scarcely will be
spring.
In "England's Darling" the new poet
laureate is generally admitted to be at his
best. New York: Macmillan d Co., pub
81 25.
THE NEW MAN.
eye Thoroughbred" is the title of the
initial volume of the Health Culture Ii
brary. 1t processes to be 1.-The brotherly
words of Briton to his fellow-men at
home and abroad, with special message
to his Brother Jonathan" The author
sails under the nom de plume of Novus
Homo. As the title implies, the book
maintains that the ''alpha" of all human
improvement is in the human bodily re-
generation" in the breeding and training
of true thoroughbred human animals and
1.-THE ultimate extirpation of low grades"
After showing mankind. as far as he is
able. how to attain the physical and intel
L. do s4o o-J fo,