BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17127, 23 April 1921, Page 9

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

MR BRIDGES AND THE BOTTOMLEYS.

(grtcuM.* "th* hubs."*

[By "Georgian."]

Mc Horatio Bottomley asks periodically in the House of Commons why Mr Robert Bridges is kept in his post as Poet Laureate. He has the poorest Opinion of Mr Bridges, a fact which, when one knows what Mr Bottomley is/is not surprising, and not unp'leasing." Most people had supposed that Mr Bottomley was alone alike in his contempt for the Laureate and in his courage in expressing it. He is not, after aIL, unique" for the writer of a weekly column in a Dunedin newspaper reveals the surprising fact that he is Mr Bottomley's soul-mate. Apropos of nothing he has. a note on Bridges fn a recent number of the paper, putting into words what poor Mr Bottomley has been striving to say: "What has Roberc Bridges written or said that entitles him to the laurel? There exists a volume of Bridges' poetry, meritorious in its kind, though nobody . can quote a line of it. ... The poet laureate's honorarium is, or used to ■ be,- a tierce of sherry, annually from \ the royal cellar. In my view, the merit of Robert Bridges as laureate would be sufficiently acknowledged by a keg of beer." This writer is believed to be a man of some attainments, writing-in a good paper for a community wnich i»'sometimes praised—generally, it is rieht to say, by its own members—as humane and cultured in a degree unrivalled elsewhere in the Dominion. Perhaps "The Press' ' may be willing some day to give a little space to .a discussion of the work of Mr Bridges. In the meantime, the portent of the Dunedin Bottomley suggests that the Laureate is not so well known' and appreciated in the southern town as might have been supposed. And if insufficiently appreciated in Dunedin, why'not in Chnstchurch alsoP Except, perhaps, in a final paragraph. it \will be unnecessary to refer., again to the Dunedin writer. He serves by existing: he supplies a reason for noting iWhat some men who would not feel atTiome at Mr Bottomley's dinner-table have, said about Bridges. One can turn at .random to almost any critic of repute, and, it is ten to one that in the firefc of his book* you take from the . abidf you will find him treating Bridges as the best "of modern poets, with the exception,; of course, of Mr Hardy. Perhaps as good a criticism as can be secured is the joint judgment of the best of the mqdern English poets. We halve this short, unspoken,' but eloquent judgment in the fact that the (jrst : volume of "Georgian Verse" printed" <in 1912, before Mr Bridges was Laureate, was dedicated to him urianiJradusly by tha x represented poets. :Oie of them, Mr J. C. Squire, has ■# recently written at length of Mr ■Bridges in the London "Mercury." He '■i quotes abundantly, what any lover of /j'pdWry knows by heart, from that vol--utie' of verse, "meritorious in its I kuid." ■which neither Mr Bottomley nor Si his'^Dunedin'twin has heard of, or can g .remember. Two of the many:— ?|'T)»ily thy life shortens, the grave's dark ■-. '■::' 'ws Dpiweth surely nigh,'v? V ■ •fyWlm good-night i» goo&bye;- • XFor.ihe sleeping ehaJl'not'oeas*. • • .'.

"Fight, to be found fighting, not far away Deem, nor strong* thy doom; Like this sorrow 'twill com©, > \ And the day will be to-day."

"Wanton with long delay the gay spring leaping cometh; I The blackthorn etarreth sow his bough on j. the ewe of Hay; 'All day in the sweet box-tree the* bee for v pleasure hummeth; # ' ' ■The ouckoo sends afloat hie note oa the air , •ttaay. "NOV dewy nights tfgoin and rain in gentle ' shower ' < At*root of tree and flower hare quenched the r t winter's drouth; * Qn high the, hot *sun smiles, and banks of cloud uptower '1 la bulging heads that crowd for miles the ; } i dazzling wroth." 'J*'"An artist," Mr Squire says, "as 1 j careful and skilful as any poet who MN.has ever written; as a man he has lied, never posed. . . . Nocould be less like an apostle, but JEwrenity, delight, cleanliness, and honare in hnn—-and courage." Upon that he is 'less well-known to $Sm public that roads Mr Kipling than whs will be to the public that will one Sday have forgotten 'ithe people's Lau'gSloate,'' there is an interesting comSnient in one of the late Edward ThosUtfß lotteis ia W. H. Hudson: "He! very perfect poet. His practice \Js: influential. ... I should be in-' 'jciuied to call hint the chief oi living ujwets. . . . I am sure quite ''indifferent to his new position, unless „he nas a taste for sack. ... I admit that, as most journalists now firslf , make their acquaintance with him, and /Ntake'dips in the'collected poems, it is very extraordinary he hasn't been 'more attacked." u ""But there is,little excuse for those • who, maintaining any kind of relation id letters, do. not know Bridges well, few anthologies of poetry have been , more 1 widely circulated than ."Poets s attd Poetry of the Nineteenth Cen* The final volume contains a vide selection from Bridges, and an ~ article on his work by Sir Herbert. which concluded with this just estimate: ''lf, then, he is Ehza;bnhan and Miltbmc, if he, is a scholar' and/.'love* the old models, he is also 'eminently of his own day, of our own ' latest, most modern, age, of thought tad He is a true poet, but ataoja new both m matter Of this, the surest tt : M that he has. been able to form; ! wtae|hing of a School, and that his -inguenee may be clearly seen in the' i ■■ JW*. «f the younger men/' •' yuhUjis no more than a note upon a 1 great poet for the benefit of those who , may have encountered mute inglorious in their own circle, and- , may wish to. knpw whether it-is safe to Mr Bridges only "a keg of beer."' „ Mr Bottomley's last protest against M* Bridges was made on December 9th: hfct, and "The Timeß" said all that at the moment needed to be said in reply; v to" that "robust connoisseur of the' direct and the heartfelt." "Against' ontics of Mr Bottomley's type," it; observed, "it would be' idle to defend > either the quantity oi the quality of the Poet Laureate's verse." Probab'ly # it Uj but sometimes these critics; mislead innocent people as the Bottom-' leys of Keats's day strove to do, .and they may be admonished, as Htyeir originals were admonished hr.the article on Keate in the "New Monthly" of May, ,1821: ''His poemt. • V« ■ "will still be'read when Hhe utters of ephemeral critics shall have , - long- expired on the gross lips which , impudently arrayed themselves against - acknowledged truth, and the whole _ suffrage or the literary world." v NEW BOOKS. ,d' AET IN 'AUSTBALIA. ' [Afha editors of "Art in Australia" go steadily on their way, producing dozen beautiful books u- year, Pis latest volume is the eighth nuraI pgr of their regular publication, "~ and hardly necessary at this time of '/W to repeat the praise that is due . Ift the fine printing and admirable col"i in this series. The most .oteportant contribution to the- new 'dumber-is the introduction by the ;ioitcl:B. They point out that the;

main thing to be noted in a studyjof Australian art is the flight of the good men, few of whom have returned. Australia can take some pride in the fact that some of her. brightest sons have made notable contributions to European art, but this fact is not of great value to Australia. "If there had I been .sufficient inducement for the ar- | tiste to return -and remain there, .tttey •might have exercised a continuous influence for good upon those who do not ■ travel to, the other side or the ■world." As there is no means of inducing these men to return, the argument runs, it becomes the more necessary to secure the recurring stimulus of good pictures from abroad. Masterpieces like Corot's "Bent Tree" cannot be bought very often, but the Government, it is suggested, should arrange for the loan of representative collections of modern European pictures. Something might be done, also, towtfrds removing the duty upon pictures. . This duty operates to the detriment of Australian art, by punisaing or preventing ex-Australians, such as Roberta, Fulhvood, Lambert, Qumn, and others whoyhave been absent for five (years, from returning to their native land with their -work. . Tne ™ are biographical and critical notices or Quinn, Moore, Fullwood, and Roberts, who are amongst the men who fled abroad and made their there are articles upon men still in Australia, including Albert Collins, formerly of Napier. One of the mysteries of Australian art is a painting of wood-duck by W. Dexter, the only work by that unknown artist whioh anyone knows "about. Mr Hardy Wilson has an interesting article upon this obscure worker, which only heightens the mystery. Mr Wilson , also contributes an amusing story. Drj Strong makes a plea tor an Australian National Theatre, and the number concludes with • a provocative article appealing for something like, a return to ''smooth" painting. (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, Ltd.) THE SOCIAL EVIL." A good many, people believe that far tod much has been made in recent years of the social ravages of venereal disease. While they may be right, there is a growing tendency amongst medical men to ascribe to this disease many of the common ills of humanity, and the risk of neglecting a serious danger is so great that criticism must remain dumb before the increasing output of works dealing with the subject. Dr. Marie Stopes has issued a .useful little handbook, "Truth About Veneis eal Disease,""(London: Putnam's), and Messrs Williams and Nprgate publish a large volume containing the report and evidence submitted by the Venereal Disease Committee of the Birthrate Commission, appointed by the British Government. The committee found that these diseases have greatly increased since 1914. Its recommendations will be of value to all Governments Beeking to deal with a great evil. •