Evening star., 1934-05-05
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY SARAH C.. BOWERMAN.

THE OUTBREAK OF WAR, 1914. BY
E. F. Benson. Illustrated. Great
Occasions Series. New York: G. P.
/ Putnam's Sons.
| On August S, 1914, the London
Times issued a poster bearing the
fateful words in large black letters:
Britain at War" OF those early
days when all England was bewildered.
! including the statesmen, not at FIRST
realizing the significance of that
murder at Serajevo, nor that a treaty
would become scrap OF paper" Mr..
Benson writes in an entirely personal
manner which makes his small book
! different from many others covering
this brief, congested period. Mr.. Ben
son was lOafing and swimming ut
Capri. where he and q friend had
taken the Villa Cercola, when he read
In q newspaper that the heir to the
Austrian throne has been shot at a
place he had never heard OF in Bosnia
| The Balkan states were always STIR
ring up some kind OF trouble, so he
gave the news item little though and
settled to = game of piquet for the
evening.
! He had been about to return to
England and shortly found himself
at his mothers home in Sussex. His
two brothers, Arthur c. and Msgr
Hugh Benson, were there and every
thing wore an air of unrufied pros
perity, as did Cambridge where he
went with Arthur, for a week end
Things drifted along pleasantly
through July tor Mr. Benson and he
was planning a trip t. the Wagner
festival at Bayreuth. which he never
took He was really annoyed when
the Austrian government declared wal
on Serbia, as he often was when he
missed a train or found it showing
when he wished to play golf. During
the next week. the end OF which found
England at war, Mr. Benson and his
friends awoke from their happy
dreams in a tranquil England to q
nightmare OF reality. All his memo
ries are now a part Of history; at the
time he did not realize that a day
Of wrath was about to dawn His story
tells nothing OF what went on in the
British cabinet or in the minds of
statesmen; it tells how the events OF
one Summer month affected the intel
ligent English public and only grady
ally assumed the importance Of danger
signals, Just before the crash came.
THE SPANISH ARMADA BY Lorna
Rea. Great Occasions Series. New
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
The mingling Of national pride
naval aspirations and religious zealotry
in the spectacular expedition, in 1888
OF the Spanish Armada. is a superla-
tive example of the mixed motives in
history, whose relative Importance is
so dificult to weigh accurately. When
on May 19, 1888. the 1877 craft OF
many types, carrying 27,0o0 secular
souls, with l80 friars to guard their
welfare. sailed from Lisbon Htrbor-
the great armada Of Philip 1.-THE
Somber King himself knelt in the
escorial and prayed for victory for
his lovely ships Probably at about
the same time the red-haired Queen
OF England distraught by the de-
mands of her lord admiral for more
money for defense was praying for
victory for her seamen in their fight
against the invading Spaniards
lllIly JNdlS vi ltLSOlldl. lNIelOuS
and political complications led up to
the War Of the Spanish Armada:
failing to secure Elizabeth as a wife
Philip finally made of her an enemy
Elizabeth was not averse to the role
and neglected to reprimand Sill
Francis Drake and his fellow buc-
cancers for their raids on Spanish
galleons laden with treasure from the
Indies. in fact, graciously accepted
from them tokens of diamonds and
bullion. To Europe, England's naval
battle with the Armada was more
than a conflict of two hostile, am
bilious, secular powers; it was the
crisis which was to decide whether
or not England was to remain Prot
estant. An England conquered by
Spain would be restored to the
Catholic Church. The result of the
battle in the English Channel. from
Plymouth to Calais. is well known:
how the numbering Spanish galleons
were no match for the swift, waspish
English vessels, under Lord Howard
Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher. Lorna
Rea has employed all her novelist's
art in telling the story in this recent
volume of the Great Occasions Sc
ries. The illustrations, from old
paintings and engravings include por-
traits of Philip II. Elizabeth. Drake
Hawkins and Frobisher and pictures
OF the Elizabethan ships. which. COM
pared with modern battleships. look
like toys for child to float in a
pool.
TWO LOVES HAVE. The Romance
OF William Shakespeare. BY Clara
Longworth de Chambrun. Philadel-
phia: J. B. Lppincott Co.
So little is known about the actual
life OF Shakespeare that we are al
ways grateful to any Shakespeare STU
dent with the requisite imagination
who attempts to reconstruct a part
or a whole Of that life for us. Sir
Sidney Lee drew many conclusions
about what might have been III his
Life OF William Shakespeare most
OF them quite plausible In the form
Of fiction the Countess de Cham
brun depicts the probable life OF
Shakespeare from his boyhood as a
country lad in the village of STRAIT
ford-On-Avon until his fateful SD
birthday, when he insisted upon join
ing his old companions, Ben Jonson
and Michael Drayton, at the tavern
where, so tradition has it, their merry
meeting resulted in his death. The
two loves" of Shakespeare were
Anne Hathaway. whom he married
rather reluctantly, when his heart
was far more with a company of
strolling players with whom he longed
to foot it to London. and Nan Dave
nant, wife of an Oxford innkeeper,
whom the Countess de Chambrun
Identifies as the Dark Lady of the
SonnetS. The atmosphere of STRAIT
ford-on-Avon and London of the six
teenth century, the action CT the
story, the conversation of the char
acters, whether or not true. create the
illusion of truth. which is all that is
necessary in fiction. The Countess de
Chambrun has been for many years
a keen student of Shakespeare ma
terlal and she says that under the
form OF fiction she has been able to