The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1903-09-13

-'Idylls of the King'-the story of what
he considers Wagner's masterpiece He
has followed the opera as closely as was
consistent with his epic plan.
The legend Of the Holy Grail, in which
Parsifal plays his part, took many forms
during the Middle Ages. 1t was told in
slightly varying ways in the twelfth cen
fury by the French writer's, Robert de
Boron and Chrestien de Troyes, and in
the early thirteenth century by Wolfram
Won Eschenbach in the strong German
speech of Thuringia. The substance of
these legends was that the precious cup
used for the wine at the Last Supper
and also used to receive the Savior
blood at the cross was forever after cher
ished as the Holy Grail. 1t was carried
from the Holy Land by Joseph of Ari-
mathea and taken first to Gaul and later
to Spain to a special sanctuary among the
mountains which was named Monsalvat.
Here it was to be cherished and guarded
by holy band of Knights of the Grail
The same legend appears In the chron-
icles of Sir Thomas Mallory. but instead
of Gaul early Britain is the place to
which the Grail is taken. Tennyson's
THE Holy Grail in his 'Idylls of the
King" largely follows Sir Thomas NAL
ory's chronicles.
Wagner, on the other hand, followed
more closely in the steps of Wolfram Won
Eschenbach. The present version, there
lore. Is MdRneTlan STORY, InOuRn ZEN
nysonian in style
1t is so painstaking and scholarly per-
Torrance that one hates TO say to Mr.
Huckel what Jeffrey said to Wordsworth,
This will never do" Perhaps Mr.. HuckeI
may console himself with the thought
that the world has decided that Jeffrey
was wrong.
From the opening lines of his work the
world may judge for itself whether this
carefully polished but quite uninspired
verse Will do as paraphrase of Wagner
or imitation of Tennyson:
Within a noble stretch of mountain woods,
Primeval forest deep and dark and grand.
There rose a glorious castle towering high.
And at its foot smiling shimmering lake
Lay in the still lap of a verdant glade.
Twas daybreak, and the arrows of the dawn
Were shot in golden glory through the trees,
And from the castle came trumpet blast
To waken life in all the sumbering host
Warriors and yeomen in the castle halls.
One announcement which is already ere
ating interest in social as well as Jour
nalistic circles is that a book is being
prepared dealing with Eye Ancient So
ciety Of Cogers." which celebrates its
150th year in January next All these
years without a break "Ye Ancient So
ciety' has met every Saturday night for
debate and other things in a room in
Salisbury Square. This record will con-
tain unpuDllSned legends or the Society'S
heroes. eye Ancient Society" is the sole
] survivor of the debating societies of the
I seventeenth and eighteenth centuries One
/ of the oldest members was the famous
Mayor Sir Richard Glynn. Then Curran
Keogh and O'Brien were among its Irish
/ debaters. Lord Denman, Lord Russell of
Killowen, Lord Halsbury, Sir Edmund W
| Byrne and Sir Edward Clark, K c.. have
! been or are among its lawyers. In litera-
/ ture the membership roll has contained
/ or contains Charles Dickens, James Han
nay and T. P. O'Connor, and in oratorv
Father William Burke.
Should the citizens of Dublin decide 70
accept Mr.. Andrew Carnegic's Offer Of
] s2S,OO0 (S140. 0OO) for free library it will
/ be interesting to watch the experiment
of turning Dublin into a reading commu-
nifty. From the booksellers point of view
Dublin for its size is the worst city in the
] United Kingdom. Leaving out the second
/ hand bookshops which cling to the streets
near the quays, the bookshops in Dublin
where good current literature can be OBJ
| tanned have to be searched for, so lament
ably few in number are they. The enter
prising managers who push the sale of a
! certain encyclopedia had to confess in
print not long ago that their trip to Dub
lin was practically a failure. Oddly
enough, while Dubliners do not buy books
they support four morning and three
evening papers, besides a host of misceI-
laneous weeklies.