Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-19
LITERARY LONDON
GOSSIP OF BOOKS AND AUTHORS
ACROSS THE SEAS

Special Correspondence Of The Star.
LONDON. May g. 1907.
John Davidson's new play, 1.-THE Triumph
Of Mammon." is the maddest thing this
indisputably highly gifted poet has yet pro-
duced. Its scenes are laid in a highly civil
liked state Of the present day, but in physical
horrors It far outdoes Titus Andronicus.''
The crimes Of the Servian regfcides are mild
and Intellectual beside the ehambles which
Mr.. Davidson presents in act after act at the
Court Of Thule. It is glorlfed blood and
thunder In blank verse.
He set before us q hero from whose eyes
when he wept There spouted jets Of brine
that Missed upon my hand" He shows US a
princess. who, seeing her prince start OF In
a steamer. jumps into the water to swim
after him; an aged monarch who chases his
eldest son around the stage trying to make
mince meat Of him; an heir apparent who
cuts his fathers throat; an elderly courtier
who Is burned alive upon a bier; prince
who dashes into his brothers bridal cham
Der and hacks him to death until he looks
like butchers block" princess who is SO
enchanted by this horrible deed that. she
Immediately trainers her caresses to the
cowardly assassin. And yet this lurid COM
blnation OF gore and combat abounds in
passages of singular power and beauty.
That Is what makes John Davidson one of
the paradoxes OF modern literature He is
both one of the best and one of the worst of
living verse writers. And he insists on
mixing the good and the bad together and
ning1ng them at the public. He will gang
ms own gait to the end. THE Triumph OF
Mammon' Is only the first Of triology Of
plays entitled God and Mammon."
I0hn
Of view. is failure, and he glories in II.
II is the world that Is wrong, and not he.
He has more exalted opinion of himself
than Bernard Shaw affects. In the epilogue
to his latest volume he presents this picture
of himself:
'Nine-tenths Of my time, and that which
is more precious, have been wasted in the
endeavor to earn a livelihood. In world
of my own making 1 should have been writ
ing only what should be written
For half century / have survived In a
world entirely untitled for me- and having
known both the heaven and the hell thereof
and being without a revenue and an army
and navy to compel the nations 1 begin
definitely in my testaments and ira getiies to
destroy this unfit world and make 1t over
again in my own image"
Genius is to madness close allied" One
is tempted to think that John Davidson
has crossed the border line.
Convict Literature.
Ex-convicts have lately been among the
most pampered and best paid contributors
to sensational weekly journals. Judging from
the results. 1t is simply amazing how a long
term Of imprisonment with hard labor tends
to develop a facile IL rather fiamboyant.
literary style in persons who have had no
previous experience in authorship. An en-
terprising Sicilian editor, however, has gone
his English brethren lone better" He has
secured series of Specials from a bril-
gand still in active service This male
malefactions and thus earns an honest and
a dishonest living simultaneously.
German Literary Morality.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is not among
those authors who affect to belittle fame
But when recognition of 1t takes the form
Of attributing to him books and plays which
he has never written he objects. There
have recently appeared merlin two plays
called Sherlock Holmes and 1.-The Hound
of the Baskervilles," which he has neither
written nor authorized. Worse still several
books have been published in Germany
with his name upon the cover but with no
word of his within them. Wherefore Sir
Arthur concludes that both in literature
and the drama Germany appears to have a
very low commercial morality" He Is
bringing a law suit in Germany to put a
stop. If possible, to this species Of trading
on his reputation.
Relic Of Burns.
Every authentic relic of Burns has inter-
est--and value-nowadays. His seal of
Scotch pebble. engraved with a coat of
arms Of his own invention and mounted
-ttl,
literary sale last week. 1t was knocked
down to Scotsman for $105O. Cunning
ham, in his Life of the poet, says that 1t
hung at his watch for several years. The
seal passed from Burns to his son Robert
thence to his daughter Eliza. who mar
ried DR.. Everett, and from her to the late
Mrs. Martha Burns. who beQueathed 1t to
her cousin. the seller.