Evening star., 1925-06-08
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES L. TRACEWELL.

Dan chaucer. the first warbler. whose sweet
.r,p Prscluasd those melodious bursts. tha. fill
me spaefous times of great Elizabeth
win sounds that echo still
So said Tennysor,, in his Dream
or Fair Women" giving credit to
the great bard of the Middle Ages, at
the same time pointing out that
shakespeare and the other poets of
the Elizabethtan era far surpassed
him.
1t is extremely doubtful If Henry
Howard, Early of Surrey, can be
said to rival Chaucer in any way,
and yet 1t Is true that this immediate
forerunner of the great poets of the
great age TO follow is much more
easily read today
Henry, Earl of Surrey, whose name
Is immortahzed by the four wheeled,
two-seated pleasure carriage known
by that name. has many poems in
which the most up-to-date person
OF this very up-to-d date century can
take genuine pleasure
Henry was two -fisted fighting
man, yet some of his poems breathe
a sweet sentleness that would do
credit TO more refined age. The
times OF old Henry VIII We're scarce
ly polite. That crowned monster
drew some of hts wfckedness from
the spirit of the age, undoubtedly.
Even king of old could not far
surpass, either In goodness or wicked
ness, the sum total of the decency
or evil of his own people. II Nero
seemed to outdo the rest of the
Romans. he probably did not, but
SIMPLY summed up, in one person.
the iniquities of them all.
Similarly IL 10
pears, TO our eyes, to nave been far
In advance of his age. probably he
was not. but just focused the many
good points of many similar minds
In that state of Roman culture
Henry the Eighth was fit for
treason. stratagem and spoils him
self not only because he combined
In his inelegant person vices pecu-
liar to himself. but also because he
did what thousands of others would
nave liked to do il they had had the
power to carry out their designs.
The Earl of Surrey, who wrote
sweet love poems, was suspected by
Henry VIII of aiming at the throne
and was cast into prison, along with
his father. While there he took ad
vantage of the enforced leisure tc
compose a few doleful lines.
These did not save him, however
He was tried-at least that was what
they called it-condemned-n
enough-and executed in due time
Thus ended a curiousIy woven exis
tence. one that ran from battlefield to
court, from poetry to prose, both fig
uratively and literally.
Surrey. who was the grandson OF
the famous earl who won the victory
at Flodden land who was created Duke
of Norfolk for it. was born in 1911
and died at the hands of the execu.
toner In 1547.
He is given credit for being the
first to write the so-called blank verse
in English. translating in that meter
the second and fourth books of Vir.
gil's "Aeneid." Personally, I wish he
had never done 1t.
Blank verse Is one OF my pet aver.
sfons, and l believe thousands of 9th.
ers harbor a secret dislike for it Not
that We would gainsay the greatness
of Shakespeare, or any of the other
users of this meter
Blank verse, however, is difficult to
read, requiring a sort of sustaining OF
the mental faculties that is extremely
wearying, to say nothing of being
plain difficult. If Shakespeare's plays
were printed in prose form, am con.
vinced they would be read much more
than they are.
A few of them of course, such as
"Coriolanus," ought not to be printed