New-York tribune., 1900-05-17
THE ANARCHISTS OF LETTERS
POISONOUS CURIOSITY THAT EXPLODES
GRAVES AND OPENS COFFINs.
From Blackwood's Magazine.

From BlackWood's Magazine.
There is another class of lawbraakers, whose
evdoing is unredeemed even by an accloeht
Now these other Anarchists defy the rules not
only of letters but of life. They take upon
themselves the burden of irresponsible biogra-
phy Needless of an mperious, unwritten law,
they make attack upon the dead, and Win
the dynamite of poisonous curiosity they eX-
plode graves and open coffins. Their offence is
worse because it cannot be punished at the
Old Bailey. No law restrains the impious from
playing havoc with the dead, and the lmplous,
as if to aggravate their offence are wont to
choose victims to whom public revelation was
especially distasteful. AS the centuries roll on
even unauthorized biography may be justhed;
for with the extinction of friends and famllles
indiscretion disappears and eavesdroppng may
be elevated into scholarship. Where ingenuity
strives with oblivion worthy task OF resurrec-
ton may be accomplished To call Shakespeare
or Villon to life again is not pastlme Tor tne
foolish hack; the archives must be compelled to
surrender their secrets. and none but the seeing
eye can discover that which is writ IN parch-
ment. Besides, there is fine element OF sport
in wrestling fall with Time, in compelling the
old adversary to yield his treasures But to
write the life of poet still intimately remem-
bered the earth lies within the power of any
man who can hold pen and quiet his con- con-
have imposed silence upon the world. More
than Thackeray. more than any writer of his
generation, he hated the glitter of public ap-
probation. He never a man of letters in
the odious sense. He wrote for himself what he
chose to write. and he published it furtively, as
though he scorned to take the public into his
confidence Many of his friends did not
suspect the authorship Of the "Rubayat,' and
while he withheld his name from his own title
pages, he never trafficked with the advertisers
and ntervieWers of London In his grave, then,
he should before all men have been free from
intrusion No man has the right to force upon
dead man the foolish publicity which in his
life he eloquently condemned. Yet not even
Edward FitzGerald is safe, for here is Mr.. John
Clyde come to tell US all those irrelevant facts
which his victim resolute to suppress.
That he has told little enough is aSSuredly
not his fault. He has raked wherever he could;
avdj Ike as together
small heap Of dead leaves this scanty result is
not due to lack of ZEAL but to FitzGerald's de-
termination that he would leave as little as
possible for publicity's rake.
To criticise the book is idle and superfluous.
That it should be done i'll is nothing it is mon
Strous that 1t should have been done at all.
OF course Mr.. Clyde approaches the victim Of
his sacrifice with cap in hand of course, he
CARDS the poet, whose dearest wish he contemns,
with a reverential surprise: of course also. he
understands the man as little as he understands
his work. He has thrown into his ragbag few
anecdotes, and he has poured over the verse of
FitzGerald a sauce of stupid, irrelevant COM
mentary. Why should we have thrust upon us
the opinions of Messrs. Clodd, Asquth and Tai
cot Williams, when we can read the "Rubaiyat'
for ourselves? And why oh why, should we be
told that the friendship between Tennyson and
FITZGERALD reminds Mr.. Clyde of the tie which
bound Cicero to his friend Scipio? There Is
positive indelcacy in this ignorant muddle
headed patronage of great men. and Mr. CLYDE
would have been better employed in discovering
for his own edifcation that Scipio was not the
friend of Cicero, than in discovering for ours
He might also have noted that Tennyson never
wrote vile phrase
Il know version done
In English more distinctly WELL
However. his fiat pages Ito the number of some
3JO follow one another without accent and
without meaning; yet we would almost forgive
him If. having wasted a morning over Mr
Clyde Edward FitzGerald we could listen
for three minutes to Edward FitzGerald on MI
Clyde.
Mr.. Glydes indiscretion will be forgotten in a
month, and it is only interesting because It is a
symptom Of the ruling effrontery There is no
law to check the irresponsible bcgrapher and
we fear that there is chance of salutary iegis-
lation. The question Of copyright is now said to
engross the attention Of Parliament and II
would be easy to add such a clause as would
make the profession of the biographical pirate
dangerous. If not impossible. But Parliament
is not likely ever to do justice to the poor au-
thor. since the poor author cannot turn an
election nor hamper a Government And as
politics Is (and must be) a species of blackmail
nobody Will ever be protected by our Ministers
who cannot threaten those Ministers with ruin
Wherefore the Glydes of this earth will flourish
exceedingly, unless the good feeling of critics
and readers discourage their mpertinence.