Evening star., 1924-08-19
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
THE HISTORICAL NIGHTS ENTER
TAINMENT. Rafael Sabatini.

Houghton Mifflin Company.
There are certain moments out OF
| the past that, no matter when or
under what circumstances they step
forward into the present, stand as
sured or a welcome both warm and
ready. Not greatly considerable in
historic substance, these points to the
rear of us, but vital and PERSISTENT
nevertheless. in their grip on general
curiosity and interest. For here
drama is keyed to the top notch of
human emotion anu desire, human
motive and action. BY way of it
the low levels of our current life lift,
for the moment at least, to the up
lands of romance and adventure.
Through 1t the drab hues of routine
existence flame to gorgeous rainbows
| of promise. Under it's influence our
rutted fears and grooved timidities
reach, vicariously, toward the domain
OF daring and defiance. IIluminants,
these old hours, of the human OF
every age in his follies and weak
nesses and wick ednesses, in his fleet
| ing seconds of wisdom and strength
| and honor.
Rafael Sabatini renews our con-
| facts with certain outstanding men
| and women Of those other days, and
| identifies US again as a part Of their
essential human quality and behavior
| brilliant pagentry Of The Historical
| Nights Entertainment"
| Shadowy in the night light at first,
is this pageant out of the motley of
| old days and deeds. Yet here and
there well known face gle,ms
| white in the moving line, or some
storied event looks out that has
warmed a thousand succeeding years
| in tho glow Of it's human passion.
| Here, just abreast of us, waves the
| white plume of Navarro. Over yonder
| the noble figure Of Raleigh makes it's
| impressive way, Sir Judas stealthy
on his trail. These two approaching?
| That is none other than the great
Tudor queen, gallant courtier in
wooing homage at her side. He, the
| faithless lord Of Amy Robsart doomed
| to death that failed of its clear
intent of release for his sharing of
| the Tudor throne. That one? The
timelessly lovely Mary, shielding at
her side the shrinking Rizzio from
the murderous plot Of Darnley. who
| is himself to meet fate not different
from the one measured out to his
| victim.
Forward they move-kings and
their royal mistresses, queens and
their noble lovers, pretenders and
usurpers. murderers. adulturers cour-
tesans-lords and ladies, all. A sud-
den deeping of the gloom to mid
night blackness that is pierced by
sounding alarms and the clatter Of
| flight and the turmoil Of encounter
that is the night of st. Bar
| tholomew wherein the fierce and
Willy Medici turned religious fanati-
cism over to the uses of statecraft
Other figures and other events out of
the past press forward here. each to
its own place in the amazing pattern
or life that is wrought by the human
heart questing its own devious full
fllments. Now in uneasy assemblage
the shadowy throng drifts to and
FRO within its own borders, a dimly
| cleaning mosaic, vague in design,
monotone in hue as all history in its
remoteness is wont to be.
X **
For the purposes Of "The Historical
Nights Entertainment" Sabatin
| turns the searchlight Of historic in
! sight and sympathy upon these dead
and-gone men and events. picking
out the various groups, each in clear
definition Of its individual form and
! content and effect. Conscious that
history in any OF it's phases and
aspects possesses either lesson or en-
tertainment only as it comes into
immediate and vital contact with the
present, Sabatini moves each of these
groups up beside US on the current
OF that close kinship set by the uni
Versal and unchangfng human hum
gers-love and hate whose triumphs
| and defeats work in design and effect
| SO unchanging Is to identify with the
| present all the hours and ages OF the
! most remote past.
A romantic adventurer through the
crumbled kingdoms Of history, Sa-
| batini, "Scaramo striking ex-
ample of his prowess in the art of
revitalizing dead men and delivering
them over to the present, not in the
| bare sum OF their deeds alone, but
in the real savors of those deeds ana
| in the true tmospheres that created
and sustained them. "The Historical
! Nights Entertainment" gives fur
ther evidence of the re-creative gift
of Sabatini in this field. Ranging &
! here and there with no barriers of
time or place to check his progress,
with no restrictions upon the char
acter Of his choice. Sabatini has
| gathered here a company who have
! in about equal measure contributed
both fame and infamy to the long
| story that man is making about him
| self.
| X X x X
| Tragic Nights" these, in the main.
They would be. Romance and ad-
venture turn ever a cold shoulder
upon life in it's smiling moments of
| comedy Comedy laughs at the hu-
man. Tragedy ampIifies and glorif1es
him. So we meet here, death by dar-
assault. possession by captrue, dis
possession by plain murder.
| Here is Charlotte Corday making
away with Marat, the "tyrant" she
| called him. And here is Darnley
mysteriously. though clearly, mur-
dered. Now we come squareiy upon
| the assassination Of Henry w. The
out OF the Spanish inQuisition. This
is the pathetic affair of Herrenhausen
out of which Dorothea paid the long
and blighting penalty for over love
Of the konigsmark. So they come,
and go. A few lesser Nights" smile
wryly. through the passions and
| furies and follies of a kings mis-
tress out-worn and cast aside, or
| through the deSpairS that follow
some great mobiles weartness and
reputation of the delight OF other
and fresher days. More than 20 or
these "Nights" all searching in ap-
peal and vivid in effect, pass before
us by way of Sabatini's Historical
Entertainments"
| <
| Personal encounters, you see. Each
some man, or woman-no different
from you and me-gone wrong under the
urge OF his own desires and the
| impact of his own surroundings.
An old story. Glamoured by distance,
it is true. But not obscured by it,
for this is the point at which the
dramatic sense of Sabatini comes
into play. This is the point where
he 80 skillfully proportions the blend