Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-01-10
"BABBLING OF GREEN FIELDS"
4 Commentary Upon the Commenta-
tors.
Bowling Green, Va

Bowling Green, va.
To the Editor Of the Dispatch
I belong TO the large number of people
who have sighting opinion Of all those
second-rate professional critics ana guides
whose miserable occupation it is to eX-
hibit the masterpieces Of literature Tor
hire and who live, like maggots, on dead
mems brains.
These parlous gentry occupy bad emil
nence in their field of uselessness similar
10 that occupied by chattering guides IN
a gallery Of fine pictures. Both classes
are often bores, commonly dull, and III
variably spoilers OF the enjoyment OF
those who 20 to see fine pictures ana
read good books because they love Them
and not TO make a living out Of them.
When man visits a picture gallery, not
to fiji his soul with those ideals that have
lifted other men above the earth, but mas
no higher motive than TO sell his emo
tions al tho current rate Of lecture tickets
when he gets back home, even the soluble
adjectves of Mark Twain's famous gulue
might help him fill his notebook. And
when man reads Shakespeare, not LOT
the beauty and eternal truth that 1--we
mon his page, but for the sordid motive
of trading on a spurious knowledge, the
cancellations and conjectures Of the
! Shakespearian critic may his tribe de-
crease. might help him on his way. but
to the lover OF pictures and TO the lover
Of books these chatteIeTs are as congenlal
as Linnaeus would have been 10 Sir
Thomas Overburys mik-maid, or Mr..
Gradgrind to a man touched by beggaf
woe or Mr.. Venus tc a signing lover
9 L linz f,-tr NJ
pliments some years ago 10 one of these
sapes who mad convinced himself that DR..
Goldsmith must have known mighty
funny story about old grouse in the gum
room. I believe that critic has retired
from business. But there is a stir among
them now almost as wild as the furor In
dudedom when IT is announced that Cholly
has smoked a cgaTwette with some veal
tobacco in IL.
one of the clan has discovered that
when Shakespeare makes Falstaf Dab
BILE of green fields as he lay dying. the
poet designed a reference TO the green
pastures" In the 23d Psalm. The brother
hood is shaken from centre TO circum-
ference by the weight of the event. II Is
true that one critic has serious doubts
but another compensates the author or
the brilliant stroke for this bereavement
by promising to blow blast Of honor 10
the exploit in hearing Of all and several.
Were the sound from the "Wast' instead
of the North. it would contain matter
more TO the purpose.
The artistic argument is all against the
supposition. OF course, any comment on
the passage Is a fly in the ointment. but
| In dealing with gentlemen who must gloze
or die, one may be pardoned some re-
marks.
II we suppose that the English poet
borrowed his phrase from his Hebrew
brother. we do no more than move the
difficulty one step into the past. From
whom did David get the phrase? We are
| forced TO own that somewhere there was
a poet near enough 10 natures heart 10
| feel for himself the fitness OF the concept
| of green fields as David uses IL. and as
| Shakespeare uses IL. Green pastures
| and still waters" are no more perfect
and natural I'm the picture of a shepherd
caring for his sheep than are the playing
! with flowers and the smiling al his
fingers and the babbling OF green fields"
in the picture OF Falstaff's death.
| The effort to Identify the fields that