Evening star., 1928-10-21
IDA GILBERT MYERS.

Translated by J. U. Nicholson. IL
Illustrated by Alexander King. Two
volumes. New York: Covici Friede.
A MAN sourced in pagan times, with
out doubt, J. u. Nicholson. His
poetry tells this about him. And. NOV
ing forward out of that distant day, he
came to medieval France the France
of Louis xI, Jeanne Dare and Francois
Villon. 1t is in company with the last
of these that Mr.. Nicholson has ad-
vanced upon the present in compre-
hending and sympathetic interpreta-
ton OF Francois Villon. father of
French poetry" These two men. so
separated In time and circumstance and
achievement, are nevertheless united
in a single bond of deep kinsf1ip. Both
old age, decay, death, the shuf1ing
stumble toward that horrific black hole
in the ground. Both bitterly resent as
a shabby plan the passing of youth,
the fading Of beauty, the treason of ro-
nance, the dull ashes of old fires.
Nicholson Is stole, as the modern has
to be. Villon is frankly scared, as
child might be. screaming his fears,
turning wastral to cover them with
drink and ttievery, with women AMI
crime and vagrancy of every stripe.
But at bottom there is this unity which
makes of Mr.. Nicholson the under
standing student as we'll as the devoted
and scholarly one. So, in great patience
he uncovers the life of Villon. throwing
away the lies and false reports that
gather around greatness everywhere.
testing for the truth at each step. and
Welding such truth into consistent.
believable and most interesting study
of the man himself and of the period
which produced him. Beyond this
comes the great point in this impress
sive achievement. Here. through The
Little Testament" and The Big Testa-
mert," poem by poem, in ballad and
lay. In rondeau and rondelle. there
stand face to face on every page a
Villon poem and the translation in
poetry of modern technic by Mr..
Nicholson. A stupendous undertaking,
provided it advanced no farther than
that. But to accomplish it in so much
and spirit becomes pretty close to be-
ing a good deal of marvel Leading
to the translation itself is poem by
this translator, one whose refrain is
"Villon is drinking deep tonight" Here
Is "Paris-l456." A beautiful thing
alive as life itself. haunting song of
Villon and old Paris.
Well, here are two big volumes,
sumptuous in appearance and cer-
tainly deeply valuable as a contribu-
ton to the better appreciation of a
man who threw his life away Well,
did he? Many are ready to say that
the poetry left by Villon, heritage to
the world for all time, is worth the
destruction of the man himself. Here
is what Francois Villon Is said to have
thought about this matter:
when Paris had need Of a singer
Fate made the man. To kings courts
she lifted him; to thieves novels she
thrust him down, and past Lutetia's
palaces and abbeys and taverns and
cutters and prisons and its very gall
lows--past each in turn the man was
dragged, that he might make the song
OF Paris. So the song was made. and
as long as Paris endures Francois Villon
will be remembered. Villon the singer
Fate fashioned as was needful. and in
this fashioning Villon the man was
ruined in body and soul. And the song
was worth it,
COWBOY. BY Ross Santee. Illus
trated by the author. New York:
Cosmopolitan Book Corporation.
Il
bow of his dreams. Just as we all
do as long as we are able to set one foot
ahead of the other. Adventure was the
lure-this being boy. Away off In the
cow-hills OF Arizona there seemed to be
to this youngster from Eastern Texas
the very pattern of that which went to
bed with him at night and got up with
him in the morning. So, just naturally,
the boy ran away when a good time
seemed to be at hand. Not such a good
time, after all, for he had to go back
horne-twice, think, before his father
helped him to make a success of the
next time. Don't forget that father,
for he is of the right stripe. And you
viii love him, for his patience and good
sense and his remembering how boy
feels about any number of things. Well,
finally on his way, the boy hits the cow
country OF Arizona. A magical place,
they say, this Arizona is in its peculiar
makeup of sand-reaches and colorS
shifting to all shades and back again.
OF Its skies with stars ready to be picked
just over ones head. This is all in the
story. But mostly it is a slow-spoken
report of what happened to the boy
who ran away to learn the business of
cow-punching. A hard job, and it is
only at the very end that the boy speaks
up like this: 1T was my first time out
as cow-puncher an the Fall work had
begun" Leading up to that was work and
work and new lookout into life which
Is pretty much what all the boys want.
A beautiful story. beautiful in the spirit
OF the writer as we'll as in his art. His
art. by the way. includes little sketches
scattered along. saying hundreds of
things that the pen has to give up.
Ross Santee has been a cowboy himself.
OF course, you can see this lust as YOU
can see that he knows how to make pic
lures and how to tell first-class tale
OF adventure for everybody, not Just
for boys.
IRISIRAM SHANDY. BY Laurence
Sterne. New York: The Modern
Library.
1T is likely that everybody has read
"Tristram Shendv," but in case that
not quite everybody has. here 1t is in the