New-York tribune., 1920-10-17

"NHE author OF 1ho LUG %
Jennico has just died in
England. His death ends
career dating from that in
.,-.ssjng period which has been
'e.s~ ,sd ND in an apt phrase, "the
s'... ~.;.sonce of the eos" His was one
~. earliest successes of that
s.o,;sc time, and it was we'll main
i.;nsd If 1t is not remembered as
.v;aalv or apprecatively as 1t ought to
\. II is because of certain curious
,.,. which criticism has taken toward
49,. renaissance aforesaid. 1t has
...r,ifed some elements in complex
.n;so6e. at the expense OF some
o.Asrs and this not quite reasonably
Tn. renaissance of the '90s has in
-,.-osnect several droll aspects. 1t
,~on1dn't be altogether accurate to say
.bst "to be young then was very
heaven" for, as matter Of fact, q
fost;dious world-weariness was then
rour onlv wear. An ivory tower made
GOOD habitation, but there was moth
inc ante so cozy as the charnel house.
70 YOU had a cult for the "macabrc"
,.ou were well started. That was
uhere Aubrey Beardsley came in,
and since. as craftsman and de-
sicner. he had something like genius,
he is one of the few really vitalizcd
survivors of the period. | can re-
member literary gatherings in Lon
oon at which what we are now dis
,osed to call morbid" literature was
the only sympathetic topic. On the
slopes Of Vesuvius ! forgathcred with
French poet who was lite doubt
fu Of my status as a member Of the
writing tribe, when / confessed to an
unshaken fidelity TO Sainte-Beuve. He
pointed cut with mingled compassion
and fnality that Sainte-Beuve was
"old hat was little dubious
about that AZ the same time I was
half persuaded that to get Madame
Bovary by heart was the whole duty
o. man, and the ambition Of my life
wa, to master French we'll enough to
make an IDEAL translation of Salamm-
bo 1t took time and some accidents
to teach one not to tale the passions
ot those days too seriously.
Mad Over Verlalne
was mad then, as d good many
young writers were mad, over Verlainc
and his circle only learned to be d
little less intense about it through an
accident that had, strictly speaking.
nothing to do with the point at issue
In room in the Latin Quarter | used
% 90 to bed every night with ghostly
face giarng at me out Of a corner. the
face of Verlaine himself, in hideous
plaster bust left there by some previous
disciple. Bat the first time it occurred
to me to po!se silk hat on the top of
The bust the effect was more than funny.
and somehow after that whenever I
looked At the bust had the sensation Of
Dr.. Johnsons country philosopher
cheerfulness would come creeping in.
And that is where-very differently
from Beardsley-Egerton Castle came
ia
tie was one Of those in our renais-
sanee who pumped for romance. His
tanner was not, Of course, at any time
uhwelcome in the fray. Henley, who
was rearing yeritable nest Of sing
ing birds in The Scots Observer. was
the friend Of Stevenson and one of the
hFSt editors to prove hospitabls to
Joseph Conrad. Henry Harland, who
had so much to do with The Yellow Book
was also the author of The Cardinals
Shuf Box. Beardsley had rich streak
oi romaniicism in him. You would not
suspect it from the nature of sorns If
MS drawings for tho Morte d'Arthur.
pu' ne wouldn't have made them at all
" ne hadn't responded to the romantic
appeal Of Mallory. At the same time he
ID good type to keep In mind when Won
arc thinking of the romanticism Of the
period There WAS pathological tinge
about lot Of 1t.
A Sunny RomAnttcism
1t was the distinction of Egerton
O@stie to cultivate in the '90s a
'0"i"htlclsm as sunny, as wholesome.
as gallant as that Of old Dumas. He
,nfew IN his lot not with The Yellow
BOOK, but with writer's like weyman
ana hope, and, above all. Stevenson. I