Evening star., 1937-12-05

29 when he died. And that Is all
that we know.
Hours upon hours have gone into
finding that much out for us-ar
immensity of toll. And yet--how little
1t is! He was scholar, swordsman,
a poet, freethinker. Conjecture,
then, says that he was a hot-tempered
and violent man as well. Conjecture
says, too. since 1t was by the Queens
own orders that he was given his
degree. that he must have been en-
gagged, IN his absence from the uni
versity. on secret service for Her
Majesty. Conjecture says, likewise,
that his death, following so closely
on his arrest by the Privy Council.
was not a mere accident incidental
to disagreement over tavern reck-
oning; more particularly is this urged
since the men who killed him were
government agents of shady quality.
But on those points nobody really
knows. Marlowe remains living in his
poetry.
His name, it should be said, is
cleared here of the stigma cast on
it by generations of puritan haters
of the theater. But-who ever cared
about that anyway?
| Well, it can be said that as much
of him as is known is contained here
in this book, and an excellent job
it is, well-reasoned, clear and spirited.
And for the rest of him, why there
probably are scholars searching even
now. But he still remains in his COL
lected works. Who will discover why
any man is genius?
CHINESE WOMEN YESTERDAY
AND TODAY. BY Florence Ays-
cough. Boston: Houghton Miff1in
Co.
THIS is a fine, intelligent study of
the presently changing status of
Chinese women. Miss Ayscough is one
of the foremost Chinese scholars of
the day: she has lived long in China,
has translated many Chinese classics
and is the author of several books on
China. Her knowledge must needs be
respected.
Her book contrasts the ancient ira
ditional position of woman in China
with the legal equality with men which
women have today. She is at some
pains to explain to us the reasoning
back of the old status. which she sees
not as subjection, but rather as
| formal division of responsibilities. She
disagrees, too, with the notion pOpu-
larly held in the West that the Chi
nese have no love for their girl chill
dren, saying that the first concern of
any family is to have male heir, but
that after that little girls are cherished
a i petted much as they are in the
| West. And certainly the poems which
she includes in her work. expressive of
fathers grief at the death of little
daughter, are indicative of the truth
of this contention.
| She says that today the Chinese
woman, having achieved equal rights
with the Chinese man before the law,
| is anxious chiefly to learn, and that
women regard their new freedom as
an opportunity to educate themselves
before everything else. That they
needed freedom for more workaday
purposes she does not believe, for she
says that the wife dominated her
husband. even under the old traditions,
just about as often as wives do in any
society. This, apparently, is not
matter which can be regulated by law.
The book contains some chapters on
| famous heroines of Chinese history
warrior women, artists. poets, seers.
BY this means Miss Ayscough shows
us that the part played by them in
the public affairs of the oldest king
dom has not been negligible, as we
are apt to believe. She also devotes
a chapter to the three Soong sisters
that is, Mrs H. H. Kung, Mrs. Sun
Yat-sen and Mrs. Chang Kai-shih,
who, she says, carry on, in modern
garb, the true tradition of the older
heroines.
The book inclines one to believe al
most that China's destiny is in the
hands of its women. Certainly, Miss
Ayscough is an enthusiast.
CLEOPATRA. BY Emil Ludwig.
Translated from the German by
Bernard Mall. New York: Viking
Press.
HAVING lightly tossed of a history
of the worlds most historic river,
the ingenious Herr Ludwig now gives
us, as sort of by-product to his in
comparable industry, a history of the
worlds most historic queen. Indefat-
igable Herr Ludwig! How few of us
could write such fat books so quickly,
to be sure!
Well, this Cleopatra" is to be rec
commended to everybody who does not
already know the story as it is put
down in Plutarch, Shakespeare and
ordinary school texts. It tells the old,
threadbare tale and no more. 1t tells
1t with great air, to be sure; it never
lets us forget that Master of Biog-
raphy is the narrator. But about
Egypt's great queen there is nothing
which is not to be found in the pages
OF the authorities listed above. The
rest-and it makes quite LOTS not
Cleopatra. 1t is Herr Ludwig. The
reviewer leaves it to you to remember
what happens when two prima donnas
meet on single stage.
sLoGUM HOUSE. BY Mari sandoz.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
THIS very long, slow-moving novel
has been variously described as a
saga of the seamy side of pioneer
life" and panorama of American
society" What stock terms there are
to the book-reviewing trade, to be
sure!
Actually, the book is the story of
family of assorted degenerates who,
IN the early days of the century, set
up sort of fortress on the Nebraska
plains from which they preyed on the
neighboring countryside, using mur-
der, theft, blackmail and about every
other kind of terrorization known as
| their weapons, A tale of more I'M