New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-01-21
CRITICISM. No LESSl

We are all critics; most of us uncommon good
ones. But let us take counsel together, and see
if knowing what one likes is the best basis on
which to establish final Judgments. Following
the humane principle that you should remove
the beam from your brothers eye before you
dream of expelling the mote from your own, we
may open the inquiry with a reference to the
critical potentates lower the water"
They have been smitten by the poetics of Mr.
Stephen Phillips. In his work, according TO
"Blackwood," you shall find passages that
move with the football of the immOrtals" Mr.
J. Churton Collins, in THE Saturday Review"
characterizes ;Paolo and Francesca as "a mas
''terpece of dramatic art which has at once the
severe restraint of SOphoclean tragedy, the
elasticity, passion and colour of our own roman
"tic tragedy" and divers other transcendent
merits. In the course of a dithyrambc article
in THE Nineteenth Century" Mr.. Sidney Colyin
declares that for the sacred fire and the illu-
''minating vision, for originality and virility of
imaginative power, for CLEANS of the diviner
'charm and tenderness which belong to and are
''inseparabe from impassioned strength, Mr..
"Phillipss work has stood, to my thinking at
'least, alone in its generation" The Moses of
1.-The Spectator says of "Paolo and Francesca"
that passion is aglow on every page" He says
much more, but despairs of defining 1.-The essen
tal mark of true poetry" as he finds it in the
play, and so simply floors us with superb cres-
cendo, thus: HE mfr. Phillipsl does not imi-
tate but inherits the best ElzabethaD tradi-
''tions in the matter of the iambic decasyllabOn.
Now, the reader may take our word for it that
this is all nonsense. Lest he should put his
tongue in his cheek we hasten to inform him
that in 1.-THE Athenaum" and THE Pail Mall
Gazette" there have lately appeared judgments
In
from our own on all essential points. There are
wise men left in Israel. But with the ultimate
fate of the play we are not concerned that is
settled What is worth consideration Is the
astounding faulty of the critics who know
what they like" but have not the smallest con-
ceptiOn of what they to literature. PAS
sages that move with the football of the i'm
mOrtals"! One recalls Mr.. Whistler on the
critics who sing the praises of medocrity, IN
'rhapsodieS that leave nothing for the National
Gallery" If "Blackwood ought to know
better-can say this sort of thing about Mr..
Stephen Phillips, what Is left to be said about
the poets?
At this point enter Mr.. Augustine Birrell, Q. c.,
NJ. P. what have we to do with PosterityT'
he asks, scornful of those who dare to speculate
about Stevenson's future fame. He wrote for
''us What difference will 1t make TO us
IN the cola grave WneJDer q nunQfeu years
thence the publishers are making money by the
sale of the books we loved?" This is genial
The man who invented "Birrelling" did so when
he set about making genial propositions But
taste as he well knows, is one-half matter of
instinct. one-half matter of discipline; and
when we begin to flout POsterity discipline goes
by the board. Hang the Public! l will write
for Posterityw said Lamb, and time was when
the critic said, Hang the Public! l will read
for Posterity!" We have changed all that. We
know what we like" and we tell Posterity to
go hang
The footballs of the immortals, of Shake
speare, of Sophocles, of Dante, are unmistak-
able as the thunderbOlts of the gods, SCATTERING
the everlasting hills, or the play of lightning on
n summer sea But we recognize them Tor pre-
tend tor in the works of the first poet of the
day who happens to strike our fancy In pri-
vate life this does no great harm. Anywhere in
print such practice is pernlcious, debasng the
currency of thought. The influence is more
malign, the disgrace ought to be heavier, when
the guilty gahblers are found among the very
men to whom criticism In high places is In
trusted. "He Is a troublesome vexer of the
dead" says old John Earle of the critic He can
be sorely troublesome vexer of the living.