Evening star., 1930-05-24

By the Bookloper

A name of the Victorian period which
stands for subtlety, distinction, delicacy
and enigmatic quality, If not actual
greatness, Is that of Alice Meynell.
Viola Meynell has written a memoir
Of her mother. Alice MeyneIl. A
Memoir" in which that personality so
compounded of sensitiveness, cultural
enthusiasms, religious mysticism, re-
served aloofness, and devotion to
friends and family, Is made to seem
very real-far more so than most
biographers have succeeded in doing.
Much of the youth of Mrs. Meynell
was spent in Italy. and Italy, its cul-
ture and its atmosphere impressed itself
upon her for life. Italy permeates
many Of her essays and poems. At the
beginning OF young womanhood, she and
her sister, a year older, were brought
to England and for time led the
usual life OF healthy girls interested
in other young people, in sports, dane
ing and parties of various kinds. The
diary Of Alice relates that at one ball
she wore "a ravishing yellow tarlatan
Of the palest possible tint by night,
made exquisitely, with plaid echarpe
over one shoulder, a red rose with its
waist" But even at 18 Alice Meynell
was more absorbed in the writing of
reflective, often sad. verses and in re-
ligious contemplation than in balls.
When she was 20 she became Catho-
lie. Recording her youthful poetic en-
thusiasms for Wordsworth, Tennyson,
Keats and Shelley in turn, she saws:
1T was by no sudden counter-revolu-
ton. but slowly and gradually, that I
returned to the hard old common path
OF submission and self-diScipline which
soon brought me to the gates of the
Catholic Church" Her daughter COM
ments: Already ardently Christian.
iE Catholicism she saw the logical
administration of the Christian moral
law; and as that she adopted it with a
deliberate rational choice, and with
what earthly judgment she possessed,
more than as a key to the unseen. And
never surely was so rational choice
as hers more absolutely embraced in its
furthest implications. No single act of
hers in life or literature was not
pledged and bound by her when she
chose that law" ..-.. ...
Alice Thompson was 80 when she
was married to Wilfrid Meynell, young
journalist, who had first been attracted
to her through reading her volume Of
poems, "Preludes." Their long and
happy married life was one in which
no allowance was ever made for idle
ness, or even, it seems, for needed
leisure. Eight children were born to
them and each child was at an early
age admitted to q share of RESPONSE
bility in the busy family life. Viola
Meynell says: Journalism was the
pleasant and consistant occupation of
both my parents; at the time of her
marriage 1t committed its act Of con-
fiscation forever of leisure from my
mothers life. In the interests Of bread
winning the worker at will became the
worker at every demand--a thing no
writer can deplore who knows how pos
sible 1t is to sit down to pot-boiling and
to rise from authorship" Wilfrid Mey-
nell became the editor Of various jour-
mails, to all of which his wife contrib
uted. Chief of these was 1.-THE Weekly
Register" Catholic periodical, the
editorship of which was undertaken at
the request of Cardinal Manning. Mrs.
Meynell also wrote for the Spectator,
the Saturday Review, the National OBJ
server, the Pail Mall Gazette and the
Daily Chronicle. Volumes Of her essays
and poems were published from time
to time. Essays, 1.-THE Rhythm Of Life"
"The Colour of Life" 1.-THE Children, +"
London Impressions" "The Spirit of
Place. Children of the Old Masters" :"
"Ceres' Runaway" MARY, the Mother
of Jesus" Collected Essays" Child
hood" Hearts of Controversy" "The
Second Person Singular; poems, "Pre-
ludes," Poems, ," "Sister Songs" Later
Poemsy Collected Poems" "A Father
of Women, and Other Poems" Max
Beerbohm, writing rather satirically,
Meynen will have become a sort of
substitute for the English sabbath" be-
cause her style was considered by so
many critics "the one and only way in
which fine English could possibly be
written"
During all the years of constant, IN
teilsive Journalism, with most OF the
writing done at home, the Meynell
home was the center of many other
activities as well. Children were every
where, mixed with the papers. Everard
Meynell, a son, wrote: "The pencnling
mamma would sit at her work, the chill
dren at scrap-books on the moor or
table, Viola Meynell says: Our
parents had no immunity from US, for
we were not nursery children. We mad
our nurses, generally French; but not
beyond the stage of most helpless m
fancy did we remain the property OF
the nursery: we sidled into the grown
nm surroundings. not because our
parents were willing or able to adapt
their conditions to US, but because we
lust managed to be sufficiently adapt
able ourselves" Among the. lntlmate
friends of the Meynells were Coventry
Patmore, whose devotion to MRS. Mey-
over her other friendships: George
Meredith. who estimated that there
was a time, lost because not recognized,
when he was a widower before sne was
married. when they might nave met'
and Francis Thompson, to wnom, VIC
fin, Of drugs and disease, the Meynells
were veritable rescuing angels. Aito-
oether. a very rich life was ended wnen
Mrs. Meynell died, November 27' 1szz.
r. II r X
The little Bavarian village OF Ober-
an,merrau is described by Janet II. M:
swift in her book, "The Passion flay Oh
Oberammergau: Its History ana Slg-
nificance.' and the people or tne WI
lage, in the past and present VINO nave 1a,i
created and carried on the great Ten-
0ious nlav are characterized. The MS
fnrv of the origin of 1.-THE Passion Play
il, a religious vow and of the various
performances during the years since Is
an interesting story. The devoted IN
terest of the actors in the religious mar.
rative and their imaginative living OF
their parts has, the author says, a
great influence upon the characters OF
the villagers.
The religion Of the early Puritans OF
New England, on accounI OF Wnicn
and faced the hardships and terrors OF
an unknown wilderness, is likened to
"a Candle in the wilderness" by Irving
Racheller in his novel of that title.
The plot concerns the fortunes OF two
Young men, william Heydon and Rob-