REWARDS AND FAIRIES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 984, 26 November 1910, Page 13

REWARDS AND FAIRIES.

N .! In this keenly wrought and delightgiving book Mr. Kipling provides an- ;. other\ series of the,, history pictures v which "i "Puck of Pook's.HiU"- showed to tho children who were happy enough -. • 'to have won liis confidence,• and to ..';.!• Lave come, under tho spell.of "Oak, ■■'-. land; Ash .and Thorn." Though wo do ■'■v'-'Bot' meet' tho Roman Centurion again, l " , or. see. the Emperor overshadow the \ line of legionaries'.like, a cloud, we see V oric'o more that noble Saxon knight, Sir .Hugh, and his Norman -friend Apuila. 'But for tho most part in-the new vol---.''■■.'■nine wo either look upon England "''■'.. peopled;"by "its. old inhabitants,' , , tho wolves "and tho men of tho stono N axes, '■ or else-.witness such'later lnauifesta- ■ ■;-■'■ tions as Queen Elizabeth in.her glory, ■■-".' ah astrqlogerrdoctor curing : a .'•.plas-ae--.-':j stricken village by killing tho. rats, a ■ girl- of Miss Austen's.period curtsying ; :t6 Sir, Arthur "Wellesley, or Talleyrairl among/.the Red Indians of .Pennsylvania. '"' : " : . ■

,v,W.o. have only mentioned half the phenomena of the book, but'what an ;; astonishing .record .it is 1 ; of 'historic , . imagination! In the abstract it sounds "like pure Midsummer madness for any- . : one : to try to make an offectivo story ■ for boys and girls out of the hatred .. between an Italian craftsman, a ,fol- : 'lower of. Torrigiano—the man who: cast- ■ 'Henry Yll's tomb and broke Michel- ; angelo's nose—and an English stone- • , mason; or, again, to show us, through ..the eyes of ji. Sussex smuggler lad temporarily turned Iroquois, Georgo ' fWaehington with his hack to the wall ;'.resisting the men, who. .desired -to S plunge" on. the'.'French side in the evolutionary ■ wax : between . England. . '' and France. : Yet.Mr..Kipling performs' " these; miracles, and leaves. a. thoroughly 1 'good child's < story, or' of interesting grown-iip people/ with subtle , pieces: of ■' historical analysis and character delineation. In truth, ho is the wizard of . .thei ago. .When he. holds before our V- - eyes his crys'taUball.vrand.'bids ("as look' ,*3itnereouV he. caii old ' to see famous '■men and[our fathers that /Jbegbfc us. in their.Jiabits as they lived, : . ;and can show "us - too how their minds ~'-.: ■". .worked, and what explains and'excuses ']■>"_ their actions,'"arid-why and how thej ■'■ ledor bled.or fed the.world. ■' ' : Though-'.it,.iß-> not tho story we liko , best in the book, wo must admit that t ;; is "an. extraordinary tour do i. force.. Here Queen' Elizabeth speaks .- for.b.erself, and shows us how she usea !. 'up'flesh and blood, , .the young, the joy- '■] ous, and , the brave', in- her- intrigues ; :"pf .■ war and., diplomacy,', intrigues by . 'which she humbled, tho Spaniard and '. advanced the might of England. But "' it inust/be. read to be understood. ; As ; ;ia his way, Mr. Kipling■ adds to each '. . story, or perhaps wo should say each . pinhole ,peep into.the,heart, of history a p'oem.of explanation r and apology. -That which follows "Gloriana".. and is entitled "The l Looking-CSlass" is al- .'■ most uncanny in the fascina.tion of its .;attack. : Hero are some of thb verses:—

•"The Queen was in her chamber, and she was middling old, Her petticoat was satin and her stomach- ' : • er was, gold. ... . ' . :Backwards and-.forwards' and sideways ; '■: did she pass, ' Making up her' mind to face the cruel looking-glass. ... . ' Iho' cruel looking-glass that will never ■show a.lass . , :' ;: '!4s' comely or as kindly or as young .as onco she was!, ,'"■■■ .' .:

Tho Queen was in her chamber, a-comb-uig.of her hair, ' . Thero came Queen Mary's spirit and it stood behind her chair, . Singing, 'Backwards ' and forwards 'and sideways -may you pass. But I will" stand behind you till you face the looking-glass. • '.■ The cruel looking-glass, that will never ■■■ ;' show a lass - v iAsilovely or unlucky or as lonely as I !' ■ : was! i. .-■■'-. .:.■'..-.■.'

The Queen was in her chamber, a-weep- ■ very sore, ' . . There came Lord Leicester's spirit and : it scratched upon the door, Singing. 'Backwards' and forwards and sideways may you pass, '. ...- But I will walk beside- you till you face the looking-glass. .The cruel looking-glass that will never show a lass 'As hard and unforgiving or as wicked : ■ as you was!'

Tho Queen was in her chamber; her sins were on,her head;l \ Bho looked tho spirits up and down and ■' 'statelily she said: ■ " and forwards and sideways ■■ . . though I've been, ■'~ Set I am Harry's daughter, and I am England's Queen!', 'And ..sho faced ,the looking-glass (and whatever else thero was), . And she . saw. her. day over and sho saw her beauty pass In the cruel looking-glass that can always hurt a lass . ■ . . Moro hard than any ghost there is or . any man there was!" Ono may liko or dislike the manner of the poem or the talo, but no honest reader or critic-who" will take the trouble to understand there can say that they do not deeply movo him, or ■deny..that-they-have in them an astonishing power of interpreting Elizabeth's history. '"Backwards and forwards and sideways"—could there be a better epitome of Elizabeth's statecraft? In the pooiri, indeed, lie heaped together all the si>ns and symbols, hints and whispers, by which wo may understand how "tho great Queen of happy memory" did her service to her country, and fulfilled, tho greatest-Iloyal tragedies, though no blood of hers was spilt, and no cry of her anguish heard. To put it brutally—Mr. Kipling-shows no such coarseness of expression—it is as if Elizabeth wero made to stand haforo the world and say:—"l loved England and I longed to help her, and so I brought what I had, without stint, or thought of the (ionsequences. What I had was tho power to movo men by intrigue. I knew all tho lures of tho harlot, tho cunning of tho usurer, tho black treachery of the bravo, tho wiles of tho hunter, and tho smooth pipings of tho fowler. I fathomed every crooked turn in tho human heart and every k-ailty of human nature. I could lie.

and I could feign tears and laughter and love, to deceive the very angels of heaven. That I used my 2ifts not for myself .but for England—my life is my witness. I gave what I. had. What could I do more? Let the man or the woman who has. never tried to use such levers for advancement cast the first stono at me." Wo cannot dwell upon "The Wrong Thing" except to point out that it will bo specially pleasant to those who know Chichestor Cathedral and tho pieco of Italian fresco on tho walls. In this story Henry VIII is. delightfully depicted; 'Of the stories of primitive man and tho mysterious world in which he lived, wo like'best "The Knife and tho Naked Chalk." This study is not' only a moving pieco of romance, but incidentally brines out the moral and physical differences between tho Weald and its trees and the bare wind-swept Downs with their flowers and sunlight and sweet airs. We have also sot beforo us • the tragic _ struggle of tho shepherds to. keep their flocks from tho wolves, and the contrast between theso siriiplo folk and.the men of the Weald who hasp learned the-use. of iron. ; Wo have alluded already to the literary daring of Mr. Kiplins in brinßJnp; Talleyrand, whilo an exile in Pliila"dolphia, into contact with an Iroquois Indian. The teller: of the tale is a Sussex smuggler,: taken by accident to Philadelphia■' on board a French Revolutionary man-of-war. Ho lays Talleyrand under . an obligation, and when ho comes to' got a discharge in Paris, and is actually brought into the preseneo of tho First Consul, ho w not djsarjpointcd." In Mr. Kipling's stories the characters always' do tho unexpected thins, and yet without violating history,. and therefore wo seo Talleyrand paying a debt of gratitudo, or rather forcing the First. Consul to pay it for hini— for that is in truth the cream of thojoko.' Attached'to 'this story is a charming smuggling ballad of "Poor Honest Men," from'which wb may extract, theso stanzas: — "With no h«art for fight, ■-' Wo take refuge ..in flight, But firo as we run, our retreat to defend, ; -.'. : . Until our stern-chasers Cut up her fore-braces, And she flies off the;wind from us . poor honest.men! . .','■ Twix , the Forties and Fifties, South-eastward the drift is, And so, when we think we are making' Land's End, ' Alas, it is Ushant : . With half the' King's Navy, '■'■' Blockading French ports against poor hoaest. men! ' But they'.may not.quit station (Which. is .our salvation), : So swiftly wo stand to the Ivorard again; And finding the tail of ' A homeward-bound convoy, . Wo slip past ■ the' Scillies'like poor honest men. Twix' the Lizard and Dover, We had our stuff over, . Though I may not inform how we do it, nor when; " - . •. But &• light on each quarter TjOW down on the water . ' Is well understood by poor honest * men!" , ',; ,■ ■ . Wo have . said enough to show how full of delight is Mr.- Kipling's book, and wo could well wish that , ho would let Una and Dan have further insight into the dark-places of. history.; Mr. Pecksniff in an immortal passage told the world that. he should -'like to seo Mrs. Todgers's idea of a wooden leg. Wo confess that we should Very'. much like to. seo Mr. Kipling's ideas of seve-, ral things .in ' English".history, for wo know how ingenious and suggestive they would be. -For'example,, be.mi.ght make a- relic-seller- on tho Pilgrim's Way' describe how he once saw a particularly gay ■ aiid'^. , antnsing. party of mounted pilgrims' 'r,ff)e|'bj $j;.,.pirtha's Chapel—tho group 'in which Chaucer himself J kept watch and made notes. Then how exciting it would bo to meet one of Cromwell's Ironsides, and hear, the truo history of that '.'lovely' company,", as the General himself called them. Why should we not be told how they fought under the oyo of the groat Turcnno himself, and showed him, among tho Dune and on tho glacis of Dunkirk, how true was. the boast that they never charged the- enemy but they broke him, or sat down beforo a town, -or a castlo but they stormed it? Could not Mr. Kipling also letthe children meet some Wiltshire shepherd who had seen Marlborqugh riding on his way to join William, and learn something of .that subtle brain, smooth tongue, and beautiful face?Again; to go back to tho Roman mood, how delightful would be: the prattlo of a fat Roman doctor at-the hot baths at Bath, or the .talk of ono of tho engineers who ; laid but tho Watliilg Street. '_ If wo.-could chooso another story, of primitive, man, wo should like to have some record of tho design and method.of. those who heaped the groat earth pyramid of;Silbury Hill. To bo moro specific, what a splendid story Mr. Kipling . might weave round tho episode of . the monkey related in Bacon's "Life of Henry' VII." The King's pet monkey, to the infinite delight of the courtiers, seized tho notebook in which the King had entered tho dossier of each of his' courtiers, and scattered to tho' four winds tho book that made them all tremble. But perhaps best of all tho present writer would like to be moved, as no ono but Mr. Kipling can move us, over that splendid story in tho lifo of thepoet Campbell. We can tell it hero but badly. Mr. Kipling would put. not only in a frame of gold, but hand _us a perspective glass which would bring tho dead tale to life. When Campbell, as a young man, returned from his travels in Germany, tho journey during which ho saw tho battle oi Hohenlindeu, Pitt's spies arrested him, seized his baggage, and brought him beforo a magistrate as a person reasonably suspected of treasonable intentions. Tho magistrate went through Campbell's papers, and among them ho discovered tho manuscript of "Yβ Mariners of England." Ho at once ordered Campbell's release. What bettor proof, bo asked, could there We of a man's loyalty to his nativo land than siich a poem? Truly, no man ever wrote himself a nobler certificate of character. But we fear there is no cbanco of Mr. Kipling telling us how the Muses and Britannia once- wont bail for their favourite child. Poets must chooso their own subjects, and cannot bo controlled. Perhaps, after all," wo" ought "not to wish Mr. Kipling to pick more flowers by tho waysides of history. It may bo that it is best that ho should pass on and interpret for us not , tho dead but tho living, not tho men of old timo but tho men of our own ago—tho men of the aeroplane and the submarine, not of the flint axo or of tho bronzo sword. —"Spectator."