New-York tribune., 1911-01-07
INTERESTING PEOPLE
Literary History and Literary
Biography.

Andrew Lang, IN The London Morning
Post
1T is the writer's conviction" says
Professor Schelling, Of the University
Of PENNSYLVANIA, in a new book, that
until the history Of literature cuts loose
from the tyranny Of biography, as his
tory at large has long since cut loose,
little progress can be made toward the
realism of the higher aims Of literary
study" Now l want TO know how
many people wish to realize the higher
aims of literary study" whatever these
aims may be The highest aim of lit
erary study. think, is TO enjoy the best
literature, to take pleasure in II, to have
IL. az they say, at ones finger ends How
far this is from being widely felt want.
The public has little use for dead au-
thors. But there is also great deal OF
pleasure (and the whole affair OF liter
ature is 10 give pleasure) IN knowing
about the lives Of the men and women
who wrote the good books. They were
interesting people l do not want to
peer over the wall Of private life. The
rows between the amiable historian Of
Frederick the Great and his angelic wife;
the letters of the dying Keats to Miss
Frances Brawne; the bequest Of only
the second best bed to Mrs. Shake
speare (nee Hathaway or WhateleO, the
love letters of the Brownings. are eX-
amples of what we can do without. But
II is highly interesting to know how a
great author lived and thought; what
sort Of man he was among other men;
what sort Of boy he was; what sort Of
sportsman he was. what books he liked /;
and all about the making of him. If It
were not interesting why should so many
men OF genius have told us SO much
thav,galyagD fp plaptian
Rousseau twho told us what we by no
means want to know. and see little rea-
son for believing, not to mention st.
Augustine (and / wish he had told as
much more, Thackeray is always de-
lightful when he COnfesses; so Is X. IL.
Stevenson; SO is Scott, who only began
his autobiography; and it is much to be
regretted that If Homer ever wrote his
autobiography, IL is lost. OF course ne
never did. nobody knows anything ABOUT
his life and adventures.
The memoirs which Shakespeare did
not write would have been worth more
than several Of his early plays. The
lives Of Dr. Johnson. Scott and Macau-
lay are monuments of the best literature
in the world. The great Samuel. except
I'm the Lives of the Poets" biography
againO. never wrote anything worth n
hundred pages Of BozZy's immortal blos-
raphy. Nobody reads any OF the doctor
works, except the aforesaid Lives or
the Poets" "Rasselas" and The vanity
OF Human Wishes" The life of Dickens,
though rather dsenchanting, Is an In
valuable commentary on his works and
is worth a wilderness of Little Dorrits.
We can read Izaak Waton's nVes or
men whose works we are usually content
10 skip. A thoroughly well INFORMED
life Of Swift cannot be written; 80
much the better. but his autobiographlcal
fragment. The Journal TO Stella out
weighs a number of Conducts OF the
Allies" which / think DR.. johnson said
that Tom Davies could have written.
do not pine for an autobiography or Will
lam Wordsworth; We have quite enough
OF that In blank verse. No Ire or Smell
ley could be true, because Shelley him
self did not know the facts-nobody knew
them; and there will never be an au-
thentic life OF Byron. But what Hogg
wrote ABOUT Shelley is possession Tor
ever--a veridical record Of the Eternal
Undergraduate. A true biography OF the
author of Piers Plowman' would be
very like a true biography OF Mr.. Car
lyle; the history Of literature wants and
cannot get IT, Professor Manley believes
In, / think five Piers Plowmen. ! admit
that any man who "abandons hls mind
to IT" could continue Piers, but agree
NTH MoQsiollr Z Insnnraud thai Ythege T84