The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-07-02

produce colorado imitation OF HIM OF
course he could be buylesqued that was easy
enough any OF us could so that; but. however
great and sincere might be our admiration for
his poetry. the most genuine admiration did
not help us much to turn out lines which even
our own self-conceit could enable us TO think
at all like his measure and his melody"
Mr.. McCarthys personal acquaintance with
Tennyson was but slight; he met him. how
ever. several times. and can easily UNDER
stand" he says. the kind OF personal worship
which those felt for him who knew him better
than did. But. somehow. he always seemed
to me like man involved in a cloud; like .
man. at all events. who belonged to q cloud
land kind OF world. quite different from the
chattcring. busting. rapid life OF society and
Parliament and public meetings with which I
was better acquainted" Robert Browning. ON
the other hand. the author Of these reminis-
cences came. in later years. to know we'll. He
had always been. he tells us. devoted admireR
OF BrowninG's genius. His iron harpstrinG
sounded n chord that spoke to my mind and
heart rs no other poet OF the day
could have done. If. before seeing either
man. were to have evolved from my moral
consciousness an idea of Tennyson and OF
Browning. I think / should have evolved
Browning for Tennyson and Tennyson for
Browning. should have pictured Browning
the man withdrawn into the clouds. and
Tennyson as tie Frightening figure which came
into every household and appealed to every
sonsibility" Mr.. Mccarthy thinks that the de-
scription given Of Browning in some memoirs
! lately published BY an English authoress
I evinces q strange interpretation OF the mans
nature and conversation. Tho writer exc
presses her astonishnent that such man
/ could be the hero OF his wife's "Sonnets from
4 the Portuguese" and describes him a mere
chatterer in society. and the devoted OF
! rank and fashion. AS to Brownings
manner OF talk. our author observes that
I he has met great many brilliant
) takers in different countries in my tmet
: do not know that have ever met talker
| more brilliant. or who could when he pleased.
go more deeply into the heart of n subject than
, Robert Browning. y / can say without
the slightest eXaEgeration that never knew
Browning to touch any subject in CONVERSE
| ton which he did not adorn. His talk ran
along and sparkled pleasantly like bright
stream on a CHEEKY autumnal day. It was not
! talk for the sake Of talking: it was not social
/ speechmaking: 1t was entirely spontaneous.
I entirely natural. not a carefully balanced sem
: tence or poised period in it, 1t was chatter II
! you like to call 1t SO: and. If the thoughts Of
genius broken into sparkling conversational
talk can properly be called chatter. then let
! chatter thrive. and the more we have OF it tho
more happy and the better cultured shall We
! be
| In a chapter Of the second volume bearing
the caption OF "A Fitzroy Square Bohemia"
/ the author discusses the aesthetic movement,
which he describes as sort OF unwhoesome
| afterbIth OF the pre-Raphaelite movement.
Dante Rossett and Swinburnc had found new
channels for English poetry. as Dante Rossetu
had for English painting. and the unknown
| followers OF these masters thought they had
only to initiate their mannerisms in order to
become masters themselves. "Swinburne had
astonished the world by some OF his more au-
dacious poems, which were. indeed. the splen-
did. startling paradoxes OF man OF genius
I The imitators who professed to belong to his
school, seemed To think that the true bust
ness OF art was to shock and to startle"
10 apply Burkes familiar saying. they had
the contortons Of the sby without her Inspl.
ration. Most OF the younger poets who imi-
tated Swinburne went in at last for shock
ing and for startling and for nothing else"
Those who thought they could be Swinburnes
simply by trying to work miracles Of convul-
sion and hysteria only gave to the world
verses which succeeding days have declined to
recognize as works of art. Some OF Swim
burne's poems undoubtedly shocked the ord-
nary reader but the young men who tried
to initiate swim burne seem to have got 10
into their heads that. In order to be like
him. they had no need to do anything more
than simply to shock the ordinary reader.
SO they went on shocking and shocking tho
ordinary reader more and more until at
last. the usual effect was produced. and the Or
binary reader got tired OF being shock ed. soon
ceased to get shocked at all. and. before long,
ceased to read "One used to meet young men
OF good character and blameleas life whose am
biton it seemed to be TO make themselves out
In verse as the predetermined breakers Of
every sort OF recognized human law. Some Of
these young fellows who. in their homes were
recognized as exemplary sons and brothers,
whose parents had no fault to find with their
ordinary gongs on. whose sisters regarded
them with affcctiOnate confidence went ram-
paging about in their verse US though the sole
divinities OF their worship were lust and cruel
~. OF course. the preposterous craze wore
itself out at last. and society went along its old
ways unheedng but am sorry to say that tie
craze did not wear itself out before it had eaten
into and worn out the modest part of some
lives that might. hut for it. have been fruitful
and honored Bohemia. said Henri Murger,
is not an institution. but malady That
peculiar species OF nsthetcism to which am
now abiding was not institution, but a
maady." 1t was curious to note, Mr. Me-
Carthy says. how little even al the time tho
aesthetic mania affected the general bulk OF
social life even in London, In certain circles
you met 1t everywhere. but the higher and
graver regions OF art were little troubled by its
presence. and in the more solemn and convene
tional drawing rooms OF the higher society the
aesthetics made no show at all Our author ra-
calls that when the movement was at its high
est. he heard 81 noble Duke" who is a mem
Der OF the present Government. declare that he
had never seen one solitary specimen OF the
aesthetic woman pictured so often In tho
pages OF Punch. He had been longing to meet
her. he SAID because he had seen her 40 often
pictured in those lively pages. but his wish had
never been gratiled by single glimpse OF her
In all the Intercourse Of his daily life.
We close this extended notice OF a delightful
book with a reference to the pages In which
are set down tho authors recoectlons OF
James Russell Lowell. whom he had known
both when the poet was professor at Harvard
and, afterward, when he became American
Minister To the Court NJ ST. JameSs. II seems
to have heen tinker TINT lowell WIS mnst