New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-07-02

amiable persons might have
iele Tor admitting that they wera onlv
Jusc hearing Of Ronald Firbank and
arthur Machen, has so philosophical
~ oeeh playing at least Amerigo YES
puccl to these two gentlemen. it can
Dc only question of time until he he.
comes at least the John Sebastian
Cabot OF Louis Wilkinson-or. ratber.
OF 'The Buffoon"-a tale which has all
inc trinity of erudition, brilliant wit
and delicate indecency to commend il.
IN the remote intra-bellum year 1916,
"hen 1t was published, Borzoi Books.
still incunabula, were quite as exotic
inside as they have remained outside
Inc buffoon," indeed, charminglv re-
paid complete confidence in the leapinp
wolfhound by being a much ripper lit
erary olive than its dark green cloth
ana only slightly askew title promised
The plot is not, however, narticu-
larly exotic. "Cinderella" and "Man
ana Superman" and "Du Cote de Chez
swami In their respective excellent
ways have the same dome. Mr.. Nor
man Douglas, annoyed by those critics,
who infest England as snakes do Ice-
land, and who found no plot in South
Wind,' retorted, in that delightfullv
peevlsh travellers tale, Alone" "How
to make murder justifable to bishop:
that Is the plot" The plot Of "The
buffoon" is how to make marriage
Justifiable to bachelor of thirty-five-
not an ordinary bachelor, but such an
exquisite, comp1eat bachelor as the
first Earl Balfour of Whittinghame or
Mr.. Hugh Walpole or Leonardo da
Vinci or Mr.. George Jean Nathan: q
bachelor whose bath is luxuriouslv
Petronian, not mere incident between
bed and office, whose choice Of tie
is as ceremonious as the choice of a
Whitsunstide stole, whose broiled kid
neys are scarcely less than pascal
lambs. But the epicurean Edward
Haynes, unlike Leonardo da Vinci and
the first Earl Balfour Of Whittinghame
and Mr.. Walpole and Mr.. Nathan, but
like Michael Fame and Amory Blaine
and all of those other unfortunate
young men who are created in their
and then denied the gift Of expression,
suffered the same difficulty lately the
portion of Mr., Aldous Huxley's Oxon-
ian Denis Edward would not humilate
himself again by trying to write; he
would produce no dinmed reflection of
Henry James Con the fourth reading it
will be an amusing exercise to compile
all Mr.. Wilkinson's references to Henry
James and all the shadows his nobly
Roman profile has casD would wake no
forlorn echoes Of Meredith in prose or
Swinburne in verse. "Silver Shock"
came to his mind as he turned on his
bath. Why no phrase Of his own
Still, he consoled himself, if he could
be only a literary necrophiliast, he
could put himself into his life, manage
it thoroughly and harm oniously, with
out definite energy.
But Edward, though as perfect q
bachelor cat as Mr.. James, was not a
celibate bachelor cat He threw sops
to the fesh-aud a magnificent sop,
nights In the society of an uncertain
Tom Fielding, certain Jack Welsh,
who had no soul and hardly any
stomach, who made about a thousand
pounds month lecturing in America,
who was possessed of the everlasting
spirit of the Marquis de SADIE, and who
is said to be just sufficiently unlike
Mr.. ohm Cowper Powys, of phthysical
pretty lady called Ethelle, a Rosa
whose husband was away placing orders
in Leeds or Huddersfeld, or one of
those places created solely for hus-
bands to go off to, and Betty, who
was not quite an honest working girl.
The evening was not entirely social
success: to Mr.. Powys's establishment,
Nine. Bovary rather shrank from Sonia.
But the evening faded into the night
and the night into Edwards return to
London, and Eunice, with literary
dexterity that should make conscious
asterisk blush for it's badness. Mr..
Wilkinson's smolletries have always
an architectural significance.
IF THE Liverpool night had been
l. more read in 1915 mere petting par
ties would have been no more exciting
than ice cream soda after Scotch and
soda. If Mrs. van Spless's evening had
been more read, Ronnie Walkers tea,
at which Sylvia Scarlet first heard
Hezekiah Penny's distinguished name
and Edith Dale's more recent salon Of
Bill Haywoods and Lee Simonsons and
Edwin Arlington Robinsons would
H. IL oF