Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-16
POET BUILDS
HIS OWN TOMB
Special Correspondence Of rbe star.

Special Correspondents of The star
LONDON, July 5.-Frederic Mistral.
the great French poet. is bussiy engaged at
present In experimenting the construction
or his own tomb. A literary acquaintance
OF mine. who has just returned from
France, paid visit to MIstral and found
him hard at work on the dsigns for his last
resting place. which Is TO be OF marble and
is being made under his direction by one OF
the most skillful sculptors In the Provence
district
Not that Frederic Mistral Is expecting q
speedy release" On the contrary though
now nearly eighty. the distinguished COM
rade of Daudct and iamartine is surpr sing
ly active still, 1 shall require tomb
some day he said to my friend. and It 10
my desire to have an imposing one. After
all. the tomb s the house In which we re-
main longest. and II should be as beautiful
possible" So MstraI is having his
mausoieum copied from the famous "favil-
Hon de la Refine Jeanne at Baux-though
with some variations which have occurred
to him-and when finished IL will be put up
In the cemetery of Maillane. near his house.
Meanwhile the extraordinary pains he Is
taking with II are the wonder and admra-
ton of all the surrounding peasantry.
Mistral, however. Is not SO busy with his
tomb that he cannot find time to write and
he confded to his caller that his long
promised Memoirs were finished and
would be published IN few weeks. Last
year. 1T will be remembered, ne shared the
Nobel prize for literature with Echexaray.
the Spanish writer. and since that time be-
sides completing his "reminiscences and
translating the book of Genesis into Pro-
vencal. he has written two long poems.
which VIII also be published shortly.
-
Mistral was born-as writer's on literature
soon will be recalling-in 1880 in the same
village az the foot of the Applies where he
now resides and at seventeen was sent to
AK to study law His father, however,
seems to have been liberal minded, for when
Mistral tad taken his diplomas he was told
TO choose his own career, and the poet
himself has recorded how he threw his
lawyers gown to the winds and gava
himself up to the contemplation of his
tive Provence Moreover, he leaped into
fame practically at bound, for his poem
"Mireio. which he wrote at twenty-five.
was the talk of all France and caused him
to be described by Lamartine "a true
Homeric poet in our own time" Soon after
Mistral went to Paris, intending 10 make
the capital his home. but nostalgia soon
overlook him and he returned to the scenes
which he has never quilted since.
The companion from boyhood of Aiphonse
Daudet, with whom he had many a youth
full escapade Mistrai kept in close touch
TOO much to say that the revival of the
Provenc;i language a literary medium
grew our of their acquaintance. 1t rs need
less to enumerate Mistrals works, many OF
which hive been crowned by the french
Academy but all lovers of poetry Will hope
that the handsome tomb he is preparing
for himself will not have to be used for
many day.
Speaking OF the French Academy reminds
me that Cardinal Matthew who succeeds to
the vacant chair of that illustrious assem-
bly,, is reported not to be persona grata at
the Vatican for two reasons. 1t happened
at the last conclave that the cardinal sat
next to a stranger who spoke no French
a language which popes are. as a rule, ex-
pected to know. You do not speak French7
Therefore you are not eligible for the
papacy. said Cardinal Matthew in Latin
to his neighbor. who replied in the same
language: 1T is true, eminent domino,
am not eligible. God be thanked Deo
gratfaD But the stranger who returned this
answer is now Plus X, and is said to resent
intensely the affront thus put upon him.
Moreover, Cardinal Matthew, who has been
elected to the academy for his literary abil
fty alone, wrote for the Revue des DeuN
Mondes about two years ago an article on
the conclave. in which he denounced the
Austrian interference with the election and
declared in no measured terms that the
upon Cardinal Rompolla.
Oddly enough. there seems to be Gallo
tinge &c most of this weeks literary gossip
for booSish folk in London have just learn
ed for the first time that Robert Browning,
besides being the author of some notable
poetic works, once wrote a French gram
mar. This fact is revealed by Miss Agnes
Adams In the English Bookman. and It
seems that even the late DR.. Garnett, whose
knowledge of literature was encyclopaedia.
had not heard Of this early venture of tho
poets. His surprise was great, Miss Adams
says, when a refeA1nce to the work in
question by Browning himself was pointed
out to him. 1t occurs on page 2b3 of the
first volume of Brownings letters to his
wife: Thus. in more than one of the re-
views and magazines that laughed my
Paracelsus' to scorn ten years ago in the
same column often of these reviews would
follow most laudatory notice Of an ele-
mentary French book. on a new plan, which
l did for my old French master and he
published: That was really useful
work "
Returned With Thanks is the novel and
suggestive title of a collection of short
stories which is being issued this week
It-a I