New-York tribune., 1922-05-21


Lewis's new review, "The Tyro,"
there is an article by T. S. Eliot
entitled "The Three Provincial
ties" which 10 interesting for its own
faliacies. ~ we'll So being symptomatic
Of sta&s VI mind peculiar to certain
younger American writer's. That condi-
tion can best describe as provincial
cosmopolitanism, form Of provincial
ity not included in r. S. Eliot's article
though written ali over it. Mr.. Eliots
argument is that there are three Eng
lish literatures--"that written by Irish
men. that written by Americans and
that composed by the English them.
selves"
He regrets this differentiation, ror
which he blames the lack Of vitality IN
English literature during recent years
and appeals to all concerned to throw
Of their complacent admiration for the
second best, which Is the inevitable
product of this literary nationalism
"The best writers will produce work
which will not be American, or Irish OK
English, but which will take its pre-
destined place in English literature
The one hopeful phenomenon which
T. S. Eliot salutes is James Joyce, for
he, it appears. will "arrest the separate
Irish current" because his work is "the
first Irish work since that of Swift to
possess ahsoluts European signifcance.'
In future Irish writers must be meas
ured by that standard or Confess that
they write solely for an Irish, not for
a European public"
In other words, Mr.. Eliot rings the
changes on Valery Larbauds rash
phrase: with the work of James Joyce,
and particularly ULYSSES Ireland
makes her sensational re-entry into
great European literature" In his
ecstasy Mr.. Eliot cries: "No more
comic peasants, epic heroes, banshees
little people, Deirdres. Mr.. Joyce has
shown them up"
So far as this has any meaning, be-
yond perhaps some sneer at James
Stephens, it seems to imply that be-
cause James Joyce has described
Stephen Daedalus the whole vast epic
literature of Ireland is abolished, and
the stage Irish fctioneers. whose
clients are all English and American,
must go out of business. Well, it hap
hot M; yA al
Of Troy. and as for the comic peas
ants Ireland has devoted the last
thirty years to getting them out of
her literature. They still survive in
the affections of the English speaking
world, that anonymous conglomeration
in which Mr.. Eliot apparently places
his curious hopes for the future.
LIE HAS so thoroughly naive faith
in this form of linguistic imperial
ism that he does not shrink from any
of the absurdities of the imperialist
manner. The Irish language is dis
missed by Mr.. Eliot as "barbarous,"
own French poems, which are written
in lingo with no more than a super
fetal resemblance to the French in
which the great literature of France
(and of Europe also) is written. 1t is
actually the language of ripe civilza-
tion, with literature which flourished
when English was as yet unborn.
Surely critic, whose view of pro-
vincialism is SO harsh, should beware
of the parish pump standpoint tow
ard the unfamiliar.
T. S. Eliots qualifications for decid-
ing what the status of Irish is are en-
titrely imaginary. Just as his notion
that literary nationalism fosters the
second best is based upon nothing
more substantial than his own fancy
The greatest masters of English -four
ished during the period Of England S
most intense national life, when the
little island Of England was every.
thing and the politicians claptrar
about the English-speaking world was
unknown. Dante and Cervantes anc
Racine are European figures, and worlc
figures, but they are about as cosmo O
politan as William Jennings Bryan
They are intensely and enthusiastically
of their own time and country. The
forgotten writers, the second -raters
are precisely those who aimed at being
international.
Men of genius always have this dis
concerting faculty of failing to fit into