Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-07-26
New Books S n
80 In ReWeMzA

Wnlcn ne mas written. IL is success
full, as all his fiction has been, and
his bank account, now expressed in
five figures, as he admits, is corre-
spondingly increased. Mr.. Hornblow
returned from Paris some years an
bankrupt in pocket and hope. He
obtained the editorship of The The
atre, then just started by the Meyer
Brothers, French book sellers, and
at once made 1t a success. His en-
ergy is exhaustless, he has a keen
eye for effect and his passion for
accuracy is marked. One of his first
literary efforts was a translation of
one of D'Annunzio's most erotic
novels. He did not understand Ital-
ian, SO he used a French translation.
He was complimented for his work.
He has always in his mind the
scenario of a play, but he finds that
the market for fiction is more. re-
munerative than that of the drama.
Mr.. Hornblow often asserts that he
was the real discoverer of William
J. Bryan.
Clara Schumann owed some of her
fame to her alliance with the Great
Schumann, but not all. She was of
too admirable a personality and gen.
ius not to gain and keep circle or
her own. Speaking of her to WELL
known musician of Newark, the other
day, she expressed doubt as to the re-
port that she had given her heart to
Brahms after the death of Robert
Schumann 1t is certain that her
friendship for Brahms was lifelong,
but she had as great an esteem for
Joachim and for other of her hus-
bands friends. The life of the singer
or musician is generally full of in
trigues and jealousies and even where
there is no basis for these malign
rumor is sure to invent the occa-
sion for them. Half of the misery
of Go1nod was caused not so much
by his relations with Georgina We'll
don as by the lying reports of scandal
mongers, who infest the musician.
only too easy a victim through the
nervous tension of the musical tenn
permanent. Berthold Litzman has
written a book about Clara Schu-
mann which fully tells the story of
her life and her triumphs as a
pianist. The effect of her teaching
is best described in the work of Amy
Fay.
Franklin P. Adams, who writes the
Good Humor' column of the New
York Evening Mail, gains some of
his inspiration from the use of green
ink. When I told him that he fol-
lowed the example of Schiller in this
respect he admitted that he did not
know it, but was pleased to be in
formed that he had the wit to initiate
so illustrious an author. Mr.. Adams
has, perhaps, never done better work
than in his adaptations from Horace.
In these he is inimitable. 1t is suffi-
cient praise to say that these metri-
cal paraphrases are as great in their
way as Hookham Frere's translations
of some of the comedies of Aris-
tophanes.
Much attention has been given in
England to the fact that in Germany
the revival of the drama there today
is acknowledged to be due entirely to
the influence of Shakespeare This
modern revival is notable enough tof
make the German stage at preesnt one
of the most powerful, intellectual and
dramatic influences in Europe. Espe-
cially is this true in a political sense,
and Shakespeare's plays are used by
the German politician as the surest
way of reaching the heart of the Ger
man people.
This, at time when the greatest
critics in England are mourning the
barrenness of the British drama,
when they can find none to praise ex-
TOl Tnrhad- p nharf
has stirred a murmur of discomfort
1t is, say British journalists fact to
be reckoned with that Englishmen
worship Shakespeare, but Germans
read him. Shakespeare, indeed, was
the clarion note of the romanticist re-
vival in Europe The eulogies OF
Goethe in Germany and of Vic
tor Hugo in France sounded this call
when Englishmen were silent about
their mighty poet. The only transla-
ton of Shakespeare which is worthy
the name is that of Tieck, in German,
and the greatest commentators upon
the text of Shakespeare are Ger
mans.
This recalls. a lecture I once heard
in New York by a German, now
teacher ofrvoice culture in Newark.
1t was of peculiar significance apro->
pos of the German political appeal to
popular sympathy through the resist
less tragic strength of Shakespeare's
words, which come at his bidding like
fairies of the air, awaiting the signal
of their master. the hall in whichk
the lecture was given was large and
it was crowded. The subject was
~ chaLasnaara h,,t tha mastery of
vocal effect, a vast asset in human
affairs, ebut generally employed only
by the practised orator or the cleo
ton "spellbinder."
The lecturer, to illustrate his theme,
took. as an example, Mark Antony, In
"Julius Caesar" in the scene wherein
that character faced the Roman mob
after the murder of the man who had
made the Roman world illimitable in
extent and it's people forever men,
orable. He described the scene, the
market place filed with a turbulent
Roman throng, ready to tear the
friend of the dead Caesar in pieces;
eloouently he told how the victim
Law at the foot of the steps of the
Capitol in the Forum. the body COW
cred with the imperial mantle, the
whilom leader of unconquerable le-
eions a lifeless corpse flung from the
Senate into the arena with as little
Then. with true dramatic instinct,
the lecturer described the entrance
of Mark Antony, his flashing eyes as
he looked down upon the sea of con-
vulsed faces. his defiance of their