The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1903-02-15
Sidney Lanier'S - -
y SHAKESPEARE Book

edition has been issued this season by Double
day, Page & Co. Of New York
Tie authors aim is to present SHAKESPEARE as
the Growing glory and elimination OF the most
marvellous literary ethorescenee the world has
known. In order to do this adequately he gives
FIRST most suggestive survey OF the beginnings
OF English poetry and what It had become
when the glorious Esabethan Age carried 1T to
godlike heights, and then. after an elaborate
treatment OF the sonnet writer's from Surrey 70
SHAKESPEARE he takes up in detail the study OF the
man. William Shakespeare the social life which
surrounded him, and his mental and spiritual
evolution as shown by the growth of his art
Much Of the best prose work Mr. Lanier left
is contained in these two volumes In them he
clearly presents his plan for eodifying the laws
Of English verse; and his method has been adj
mitted BY most poets to be true discovery. In
substance it is something like this The con
ventional signs and oiphers should be replaced
by musical notes long syllable is crochet
Cor quarter note) short one a quaver IAN
eighth or sixteenth according TO durauon) he
system is sngularly ingenious and efficient be-
cause il admits Of rests (of varying lengths, OF
course like the notes) wherever the sense and
feeling OF phrase require pause, Rhythm IN
is nothing more nor less than muslcal
time and the connection between the two arts
is so close as to make II seem marvellous that
this method Of writing verse in the symbols OF
musical notation was not long ago discovered
and adopted. The system has been used with
brilliant success by prominent French professor
in explaining the shades and swing Of English
pronunciation 70 a Partisan audience in course
of popular lectures
Another point strongly set forth and ably ad-
vocated in these volumes on "Shakespere and His
Forerunners" is the relative Importance Of the
study of early English compared with the
pursuit Of Greek, Latin, French, German and all
other languages dead or living, The author be
walls the fact that in our schools provision IS
made TO study every language except Old m
gish; and yet without Old English no' man can
clearly grasp the genius Of modern English.
Hereafter no college library or university cur
rculum can be complete unless 1t includes this
work And this applies particularly to southern
schools Tor here in the South the recognition OF
Lanier's depth and briiauce as a scholar. TO say
nothing OF his genius as poet and musician came
with disressful hardness.
1t is the same oft-repeated history, OF prophets
without honor in their own country, that shows
Edgar Allen Poe and Sidney Lanier recognized
and appauded by Europeans and Yankees ere
ever the slightest sympathetic understanding OF
either was manifested by the people OF these
Southern States to whom they both belonged by
everv essential OF lineage and temperament
! In an article on Sidney Lanier, published IN
the Revue des Deux Mondes some years ago Poe
and Lanier are spoken of as the two geniuses
that brood over the charming city OF Baltimore,
and they are called the Ahriman and Ormuzd OF
the locality-the demon of pcrversity and the
angel of light for though Poe was a prey to the
| morbid passions which wrecked his career SD
ney Laner was unwaveringy faithful In his life
and in his works to the purest and highest Ideals
TIL Benton (Mme. Blanc), who is doubtless
! the best equipped French critic of foreign itera
! ture, has said that Poe and Lanier IN their dit
fercnt ways, with their points of likeness and IN
likeness, constitute the chief glory Of the South
| ern States of America"
for MANY reasons deserves Infinitely
more from the Southern people than Poe, an'
( until Of late has been much less popularity know
and appreciated among them than that errati
! Southern genius who happened TO be born II
| Boston.
Perhaps it will not be out Of place to reprin
here the verses to Lanier written some year
ago by Waitman Barbe of West Virginia. W.
take them from his little volume called 'Ashe
! and Incense
SIDNEY LANtER.
O Spirit TO a kingy holding bornl
I AS beautiful as any Southern morn
That wakes to WOO the willing hills
Thy life was hedged about by ills
/ AS pitiless as any Northern night;
Yet thou didst make it as thy Sunrise" bright
The seas we're not too deep for thee thine ey'
Was comrade with the fairest star on high,
The marsh burst into bloom for thee
And still aboom shall ever be
It's sluggish tide shall henceforth bear Away
A charm it did not hold until thy day.
And Life walks out upon the slipping sands
With more Of flowers In her trembling hands
Since thou didst suffer and didst sing
And so to thy dear grave bring
One little rose, in poor exchange for all
The flowers that from thy rich hand did fall,
We quote the following from Andrew Lang
article on Charles Dickens, published in the frs
issue Of The Booklover's Magazine, Philadsl
phia
Here is one practical reason for readin
Dickens Next TO Shakespeare, Dickens supple
most Of the current quotations, illusions, and u
lustration in the language. Not 10 know and un
derstand them is perpetualy TO be missing tn
point in conversation and in reading Dicken
is the source of these innumerabe illusions an
quotations because, after Shakespeare and IN com
pany with Scott he has been the most greatly
OF all writers in the language. He is the lathe
of the greatest number of delightful parsonage
in fiction and the inventor OF the greatest nun
Der of comic situations. We not in Low
with his women, to be sure, as we are wit
Rosalind and Beatrice with Diana Vernon an
Catherine Seyton with Beatrix Esmond and r,
becca Sharp but his men and boys and conf
women are simply delightful. Who can numbc
these dear old frends1 Mr.. Pickwick, the Wei
ers the Shepherd, the Red-Noscd Man, Mr.. SolC
mon Pell, Mr.. Jingle, all the Pickwekians. D
Slamner Captain Boldwig the Eatsnswill editor
and candidates, the people in the Fleet, the jude
and counsel in 'Bardell versus Pickwck,' h
/ attorneys, the Witnesses the jury Especially III
chemist), the Fat Boy, the keeper the crcketer
, Mr. Peter Magnus, the eabman who drove NJ
. Pekwick, the footmen at Bath, the Old Lad
, the cook at the school, Prufhe, the Scientif
Gentleman--one is only beginning TO reckon u
. the creations in single book, not 10 add Mr.
! Iii h. Iajt