Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-14

hshed of Bayard Taylor and his work.
ANDREW MAXWELL. By Augustine Bir-
rell. ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS.
Edited by John Morley. New York:
The Macmillan Company. London:
Macmillan 81 Co, Ltd Washington:
Brentano's.
There could be no better interpreter of
this last of the Elizabethan lyricists than
Augustine Birrell. But it was no easy task
that was assigned to the author of ''Obiter
Dicta," for the personality of Andrew Mar
veil can be constructed only by effort and
with infinite pains from the scanty records
of the past For while he left fairly large
body of poetry and prose, while he was
politically prominent during both the COM
monwealth and the restoration, while he
was the friend of Milton and an active
member of parliament for eighteen years
he was so objective In his literary work and
so impersonal in his records of political
events that it is only from what he actu-
ally did that we may infer what manner of
man he was Thus it is that Mr.. Birrell
has followed the chronological order in his
book; that what the man did and what he
wrote may interpret each other.
The parallelism to the career of his great
er friend, Milton, is striking. Both were
men of classic education and culture both
spent years of their youth in travel, both
were affected by Italian literature, which
was all aglow with the renaissance, and
both spent the years of their manhood in
political activity and controversy. In both
we find significant development in liter
airy achievement, from lyric poetry, through
rhymed satire, into controversial prose
In his estimate of Marvell's rank as a
writer of prose and poetry Mr.. Birrell is
both conservative and happy: THAT Mar
veil is never tiresome l will not assert. But
he too has his glorious moments, and they
are all his own. In the whole compass of
our poetry there is nothing quite like Mar
wells love of gardens and woods, of meads
and rivers and birds 1t is a love not learnt
from books, not gathered from brother
poets. 1t is not INDUCED in to prove any,
thing. 1t Is all sheer enjoyment
Among the masters of English prose 1t
would be rash to rank MARVEL, who was
neither Hooker nor a Taylor. None the
less he was the master Of a prose style
which some think the best prose style of
all-that of honest men who have some
thing to say"
II we, in turn, were to estimate Mr. Biz
relIs work on MARVEL we could find moth
ing better to say than to quote the same
sentence-if we added to it an appreciation
of the later authors own especial felicity
of phrase
TIME, THE COMEDIAN. By Kate Jordan,
author of "A Circle in the Sand" New
York: D. Appleton & Co
1t is not small thing to have built upon
theme so inherently unpleasant as the
rivalry of mother and daughter story
which is both charming and sane The at
mosphere of comedy in which Nora Dakon
moves saves the book from being either
tragic or decadent
Mrs. Dakon appears to her audience on a
lovely May morning. 1t is one of her bad
days. She is passionately weary of Bates
Crossing where her husband has found his
niche after the loss of his fortune. She has
no money and money is necessary to her.
1t represents everything she finds worth
while. Into her mood of revolt comes the
opportunity to escape to New York-the
epitOme of all she has lost. She will make
the most of her short tenure of Paradise
With the appearance of Lawrence Brun-
dage. the club man of fiction, poor Noras
story begins. Brundage finds, when Nora
is tragicaly freed. that he has no taste
for a tether. 1t is when the years have
passed and Brundage's love for Nora's
clear-eyed daughter is frustrated because
of the old sin, that he meets a Nemesis
that he can understand. But the final place
Is given to the fine rapture of young love
and the palm to Ruth's art-student lover
Tom who is rewarded because he is young
and honest and because his heart is cean'
The dramatis personae of the little drama
are well conceived. The psychology of
Nora's development is admirable The
shock of events brings about just the sub
tie hardening and coarsening of fiber that
one would expect in a woman of her type;
yet there Is no melodrama. Ruth is thor
oughly realized and Tom is distinct type
of young American. But Brundage is
somewhat vague. In the latter part the
Paris of the Americans is well suggested.
JUNGLE TRAILS AND JUNGLE PEO-
PIE. Travel Adventure and Obserya-
ton in the Far East. BY Casper Whit
ney, author of "On Snow Shoes to the
Barren Grounds" Hawaiian Amer
lea" "A Sporting Pilgrimage" &c.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
Washington: William Ballantyne &
Sons.
Mr.. Whitney is possessed by the wander
lust. Fortunately for him, since he is a
chronicler of his travels he possesses
also sense of style and a sense of hui
NOR. He states very frankly to those to
whom the message of the book is mean
ingless, that the underlying motive"
which prompted the journey was flight of
a spirit that would be free from the cry
ing newsboys and the pressure of con-
yentions This is, of course, only a new
way of expressing the world-old urge
which drove Odysseus from the safe hill