THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18425, 4 July 1925, Page 11

THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

HALF HOURS IN A LIBRARY. Imbciali-t warms tob "th* pbbsi.") By A. H. Gsinxixg. CXX.—OX SOME MODERX DRAMATISTS (2). T have cited the plays of John Drinkwater and Cordon Bottomley as proof that the unnatural divorce between the poets and the theatre, for so long the reproach of British Drama, is in the process of being healed. Mr Drinkwater has been well in the public eye for at least fourteen years; his first published book of verse, "Lyrical and Other Poems," was issued in 1908; but it was the first book of "Georgian Poetry" which on its appearance in December, 1912, caused so great a flutter in the poetical dovecotes, that introduced him to a larger public. With the immense success on both sides of the Atlantic of "Abraham Lincoln." Mr Drinkwater. definitely took front rank among modern dramatists; and he has well held the position gained witb "Cromwell," "Mary Stuart," and "Robert E. Lee." It has been remarked that "Cromwell" and "Lincoln" furnish illustration of what may be called "the matriarchal tendency of modern drama," a return to a new-old fashion, described by Piuskin when he wrote: — Shakespeare has no heroes: he has onlyheroines. . . . The catastrophe of every play is caused always by the folly or fault of a man; the redemption, if there be any, is by the wisdom and virtue of a woman. Infallibly faithful and wise counsellors, incorruptibly just and pure examples, strong always to sanctify even where they cannot save. Though we must not attempt to apply the aphorism too generally, the figures of Mrs Lincoln and Mrs Cromwell stand out as two of the finest characters Mr Drinkwater has created. Mr Gordon Bottomley, while not nearly so well known as Mr Drinkwater, is one of the modern dramatists who call for attention. Mr Bottomley published his first play, "The Crier by Night," in 1902; but for many years, it and several subsequent plays and poems, including "The Crier by Night," "Midsummer Eve," and "The Riding to Lithend," were wrapped up in small and expensive editions, some, of which were limited to 120 copies. Despite the fact that critics of tho calibre of Dixon Scott, Edward Thomas, Arthur Waugh, ami Lascelles Abercrombie were lauding Mr Bottomley's plays, tho general public declined to grow enthusiastic over writings which they had not the opportunity to read or even to see staged. Gradually there .grew up one of those mysterious legends which occasionally attach themselves to inaccessible works of art. Once 'again the first book of "Georgian Poetry" came to the rescue bv publishing from "Chambers of Imagerv"—two 'books 6f. verse issued in 1007" and 1912 respectively—a couple of Mr Bottomley's poems, " The End of the World" and "Babel: The Gate of God." Even these, however, did not arrest the attention of readers eager to make the acquaintance of the verso of Rupert Brooke, W. H. Da vies, Walter de la Mare, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, and James Stephens. And it %vas not until the second book of "Georgian Poetry" came out in 1915 with "King Lear's Wife" that it began to dawn on the public, mind that a dramatist worthy of the name had arisen and was writing in their midst.

As long ago as 1909 I came into possession of a little bundle of those unblushing ''pirates," the "Mosher Books," including three issues of "The Bibelot," containing Mr Bottomley's "The Crier by Night" and "The Biding to Lithend." From these little books I learned that Gordon Bottomley was born in February, 1874, at Keighley, one of the smaller manufacturing towns in the commercial district of the West Biding of Yorkshire, and that in 1896 he published privately 150 copies of a book of poems called "The Mickle Drede and Other Verses,", following this three years later with another volume, "Poems at White-Nights." At the time of its publication in 1902, "The Crier by Night" elicited the following review in the "Academy," a review which is significant as illustrating the ideas current about the drama twenty years ago:—

It is in many ways a singular poem. Though the stage-directions seem to imply it is designed for the ■ stage, we cannot conceive its being effective as a play. In its whole style and conception it is a direct, imitation of Mr. W. B. Yeats. One can even name the play of Mr Yeats's that has suggested it—"The Land of Heart's Desire." And yet, despite all this, there is in it a strong ' originality—originality in expression, originality even in conception—though that may seem a contradiction. It is very simple; an Irish thrall in the hands of a Northern couple, of whom the wife is a fiendish tyrant, while with the husband, who befriends her, the girl-serf is in love. A demoniacal visitant (the "Crier by Night" of the title) approaches the hut at midnight, and the thrall sells her soul to him in return for the death of the man: that she may have vengeance on the wife and secure the husband to herself in the other world. The originality lies in the details and working out of the conception. There is not a human character in the poem; the wife is a mere she-devil, the man a lay figure, the girl half of the other world. Yet, it is strangely impressive: one feels the sorcery.

To the. "Liverpool Courier" of October Ist, 1909, Mr Lascelles Abercrombie contributed a critical estimate of "The Biding to Lithend," which commences by saying, "It would not be worth while drawing attention to this play of Mr Gordon Bottomley if it belonged to the ordinary run of poetic drama whereof we see such plenty these days —in print . . . But this is the sort of play for which many of us are looking, some consciously and some, perhaps more, unconsciously." After pointing out the functions and the limitations of a prose play, Mr Abercrombie continues:—■

A successful prose play provides us ■with some criticism of life; but a successful poetic play provides us, as a symphony does, with a symbol of life. There is an upper and a lower house of art. ... In these democratic days most modern works of art sit in the lower house, and they perform a very healthy office. But they must not pretend, however it may be in the corresponding politicat state of affairs, to the dignity and importance of those that are born to a seat in the upper house, Mr Bottomley's "Riding to Lithend" is one of these latter. It is not a representation of life; it is a symbol of life. In it life is entirely fermented into rhythm, by which wo mean not only rhythm of words but rhythm of outline also; the beauty and impressiveness of the play do not depend only on the subject, the diction, and the metre, but on the fact that it has distinct and most ardent form, in the musician's sense of the word. It is one of those plays that reach the artist's ideal condition of muse in fact. . . .

"The Riding to Lithend" is an Icelandic play taken out of the noblest of the sagas. It is in one unbroken act, following the example of Mr Yeats; but it aims at a very much more bold expression of passion, at very much less shadowiness of character, than those subtle, delicious Irish plays. "The Riding to Lithend" is a fight; one'of the greatest fights in legend, which ends in the death of Gunnar, the outlaw. The subject is stirring, and Mr Bottomley takes it into a very high region of tragedy, giving it a purport beyond that of the original teller of the tale. But the events themselves of the play are so moving, the play itself leads up to the climax in such a forthright and exciting manner, that we cannot doubt that it would make a mors

powerful seizure on the attentions of an audience at the theatre. . . .

Mr Bottomley is a poet who certainly ought to be much better known than he is. "The Riding- to Lithend" does not belong to any ordinary species of composition; and it is the sort of tragedy that our stage needs perhaps more than anything else—if only our actor-managers conld be persuaded of it. If Mr Bottomley were a German, he would not have to wait long to 6ee this play produced.

"With tliis verdict Mr Harold Monro, writing ten years later, fully concurs. "Gordon Bottomley," he writes, "is Dot solely a dramatic poet. . . . But it is chiefly as a dramatic poet that he is conspicuous among the moderns. Doubtless a reformed stage will soon discover him." To which he adds: "Bottomley's plays are more definitely suited to the modem stage than any that the younger contemporary poets have written. But they need such a reformed stage as Craig and others have dreamed, but not had the executive power to create." Mrs A. WilliamsEllis, poetry editor of the "Spectator," has some equally pertinent comments on the plays of" Gordon Bottomley in her book on the "Anatomy of Poetry." Sir Gordon Bottomley is the only serious English exponent of the verse-drama. and in his best productions he follows the lead neither of Maeterlinck nor of the Irish school. ... In bad examples of the Celtic school we get a kind of stark, tremendous heroism all about nothing, and both schools are apt to suffer from that levelling trouble of the poetic-drama, a lack of vigour. Mr Gordon Bottomley has his faults, but in two or three' play.s he has avoided these pitfalls. The best of his dramas have a s';ren»th and a v;gour whi.-h are immediately striking to the reader, and—in the only one that I have had the pleasure of seeing acted, "King Lear's Wife"—these qualities were equally apparent to a theatre audience. . It is significant that Mr Bottomley in two of his plays, "King Lear's Wife" and "Gruach," attempts to reconstruct the part of certain Shakespearean characters. King Lear is portrayed as a vigorous, middle-aged man; while the Queen, his wife, is dying. The opening scene of the play reveals a great bed, mounted on a, platform, its head against the back of the stage with six or eight steps on three sides leading to this couch. This stage setting is intended to symbolise the isolation of the Queen, who, left alone, still dominates the situation. The King is in love with one of the young_ waiting women, who should be nursing the Queen; but King Lear continually lures Gormtlaith from her sleeping mistress's side.- The Queen, while not fully alive to all that is going on, yet has her suspicions and _ the despair she feels is strikingly depicted through the mouth of the doctor in attendance. There are admirable portraits of Goneril and Regan; the contrast between the characters of the two eldest daughters is brought out in a reply of Goneril's to a question by Queen Hygd, "Where have you been, my falcon ? " I dreamt that I was swimming, shoulder up, And drove the bed-clothes spreading to the

floor: Coldness awoke me; through the waning

I heard far hounds srive shiverinjf aery tongue. Remote, withdrawing, suddenly faint and

near; , I leapt and saw a pack of stretching weasels Hunt a pale coney in a soundloss rush. Their elfin and thin yelping pierced my heart As with an unseen beauty long awaited; Wolf-skin and cloak I buckled over this night-

And took my honoured spear from my bed-

side ■Where none but I may touch its purity, And sped as lightly down the dewy bank As any mo+hy owl that hunts quick mice. They, went crying, crying, but I lost them Before I slept, with the first tips of light, On Raven Crag near by tho Druid stones; So I paused there, and stooping, pressed my

hand Against tho stony bed of the clear stream; Then entered I the circle and raised up My shining hand in cold stern adoration , Even as the first great gleam went up the sky.

To which Queen Hygd returns, "Ay, you do well to worship on that height": concluding with another question, "Where sped you from that height? Did RpgrJi join you there?" Goneril's scorn for her sordid sister is magnificently shown in the quick retort. Goneril, pure, cold, and ruthless, exclaims: —

Rid Regan worship anywhere at dawn? ■ The sweaty half-clad cook-maids render lard Out in the scullery, after pig killing, And Regan sidles among their greasy skirts, Smeary and hot as they, for craps to suck. 1 lost my thoughts before the giant stones. . . . And when anew the earth assembled round me I swung out on the heath and woke a hare And speared it at a cart and shouldered it.

In "Gruach" Mr Bottomley essays to reconstruct the early life of Lady Macbeth. She is a girl, and is to be married to the Thane of Fortingall, owner of "a small black-stone castle in the north of .Scotland." The lands of the two families adjoin, and the-bridegroom is an oaf, but good-natured withal. Gruach, on the eve of her wedding, views the entire proceeding with the same contempt with which she regards her future husband. As the play opens, it is seen that the question whether the man and woman are fitted the one for the other is quite forgotlfcn among the far more important matters — ! the number'of guests, the preparations for the feast, and the bride's wedding gown. Tired out by these things, the family are on the point of retiring for the night when an envoy of the King, on the road to Inverness, knocks and asks stable for his sfteed and a lodging for himself. It is the young Macbeth, who falls in love with Gruach at first sight. The love is returned, and in a sleep-walking seene.it is declared. At once the girl, who afterwards is to develop into the mature determined woman drawn by Shakespeare, dominates the fiery but impressionable Mac--beth. He carries her away with him, but not before she has made lnm swear that one day he will return and burn down the home that has sheltered her, because in that home she so nearly allowed her will to be bent to the will of her family.

In "Britain's Daughter." another powerful play, Mr Bottomley re-tells m part the story of "The Trojan Women,' although he does not stress the moral so strongly as did Euripides. The Britons, under their Queen, hare risen against the Soman rule and defeated and slain Nest, the Queen's daughter, and the Ireroino of the play alone survives. Nest is a primitive fighter, and her character is ennobled by a real patriotic flame. This patriotism is the cause of much misery inflicted by the Komau conquerors upon the common people; old women are left childish, the young girls are driven off to be the prey 'of the soldiers, the children are starving, and the stage is illuminated by the light of burning buildings. Ihe play enforces the moral that primitive virtues are occasions for heavy penalties, and the interest is almost entirely psychological. Critics and ''Britain's Daughter" after "King Lear's Wife" in point of merit; but before "The Biding to Lithend and "Midsummer Eve." All these plays have grfeat interest for students or the contemporary drama in that they help to.elucidate the problems presented by the poetic drama. "Mr Bottomley s work is valuable," says Mrs WiHiamsEllis, "not only for its positive merits, but as a standing proof that it is possible in poetic drama to avoid the duet faults of the Irish and Maeterhnckian schools. Mr Squire has pointed out that essentially what Maeterlinck dia was to invent a dramatic version of the 'Fin de siecle' lyric. The Irish school have something of the same taking trick of method, the same triviality ot matter. Both are rather oppressed by the solution of problems of technique and grow self-conscious in the performance of -what they foel to be acrobatic feats. Mr Bottomley seems to take the writing of poetic drama quite naturally as a perfectly obvious form of human activity,"