New-York tribune., 1905-01-29
gbe Nem'Dork Gribm,ts
ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT.
SUNDAY, JANUARY %, 1905.

ComDlaint Is made that the year recently
ended was bad one for the poets According
to 1.-The London Standard 'the reading public
is still very family interested in their wares,
and it is added that this is "a curious phenone-
Don" 1t all depends upon the point OF view
Our bewildered complainant protests that the
standard of poetical production is extaord1na-
rily high just now, and he is right if he looks
snDlv TO technique But when he talks about
the depth of thought which he finds in many
of the volumes of the day we begin to marvel
at him; and we marvel still more at his con-
clusion that this "can hardly be called an un-
DOetical age justifying his optimism with a
list embracing the names of Mr.. w. B. Yeats,
Mrs Alice Meynell, Mr. Stephen Phillips and
dozen other equally unimportant Verslners.
Now and then they have written some beautl-
ful little things But at the best there is not
one of them whom we can take seriously as
pOetical figure. Apparently there are few
critics who have grasped the truth in this mat
ter, but the public, which is so often made to
pay for the faults of the literati, is wiser. That
is why the year 1904 was "a bad one for the
poets" The public saw no reason for purchas-
ing poetry which had everything to recommend
it save the poetic spark. To the reader who
thinks that something might be said for the
modern rhymSter' we would remark that this
question of the true character of poetry is, after
ALL Il very simple one. Hundreds OF master
pieces are there to show the yeriest tyro just
what the real thing is like.
In the February number Of 'fMcClure's" there
is n beguiIing article by Mr. Eugene Wood
called 1.-The Old Red School House" 1t Is
vivid page from American life, one Of those
little studies in which our magazines are so
rich-studies from which the social historian in
the future might perhaps draw better material
than he would find in many a formal treatise
Turning the pages Of this sketch we nave re-
membered with amusement the solemn way in
which people used to talk about the certain ad-
vent of 1.-THE great American novel" 1t was
bound to come we were told Only the right
author was needed. AS a matter of fact, the
great American novel is being written every
day in chapters like this one of Mr.. Woods,
chapters absolutely innumerable, and all so racy
of the soil that it seems impossible that any
one of them should be left out. People talk
about the commonplace level of modern life.
American civilization, the most modern of all,
is so rich in material for the novelist that even
a Balzac would despair of putting into book
anything more than the mereSt segment of the
stuff at his disposal The author of the Com
edie Humane" wrote prodigious number of
great books, without writing the Great French
Novel. The whole character Of his work goes
I
of pretending to create any such thing. Little
by little we are learning the same lesson.
Scholars everywhere are positively excited
over the discovery in Sweden of the 1894 quartO
Of Titus AndrOnicus." No copy of this first
edition has hitherto been known to exist The
famous entry in the Registers of StatiOners
of London" has inspired little or no confidence
among photographers. Now comes this Swed-
ish discovery, and for all that it means simply
an old classic in a new form, which may or
may not throw light on teXtual minuti9, the
worlds interest in Shakespeare is such that it
is almost as though something wholly new
about him had been vouchsafed to his students
We should not be in the least surprised if the
book, when put up at auction, were to fetch
several thousand dollars, and we certainly hope
that an American may be the lucky bidder. The
days of Ireland that resourceful forger, are no
more, so it is fair 10 suppose that this is not
plant" that no one has fabricated the quarto
and ingeniously worked up its discovery. We
prefer to take this as one more testimony to the
perennial vitality of romance in the sphere of
book collecting. 1t is often remarked that all
the literary treasures, all the pictures and sim