BOOKS OP THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2468, 22 May 1915, Page 9

BOOKS OP THE DAY.

A FAMILY HISTORY. In writing "The History of the Eve}yn Family, With a Special Memoir of iWilliam John Evelyn, M.P." (London, iEveleigh Nash), Miss (or Mrs.) Helen iEvelyn has not only performed -what, in most reviews of family histories, it is customary to call a "pious task," but has enriched tho world with a volume which throws many curious, interesting, and valuable. sidelights upon English social and political progress. To most readers the name of Evelyn is chiefly, if not solely, associated with 'John Evelyn, the friend of Pepys, and author of a "Diary" strangely different from that of the garrulous gossiper .whose pictures of Court lifo in tho days of the "Merry Monarch" are so delightfully, if indiscreetly, entertaining. In most private libraries "Evelyn's Diary" occupies an honoured place besides that of Mr. Samuel Popys, but its .pages, 1 fear, too often go unopened by those who find in Pepys one of the best ■"dipping" books in English literature. Of the diarist, aud author, too. of one of tho most famous books on forestry, tho "Sylva," Miss Evelyn has naturally much to say, but it is interesting to read of other Evelyns. The founder of the house of Evelyns of Wottons, one George Evelyn, made a fortune in Elizabeth's reign out of a gunpowder monopoly—this commodity had, -it_ ap-. pears, previously been imported. from Flanders. John Evelyn, the diarist, inherited tho beautiful estate of Cotton in his old age. Of him the . immortal Samuel wrote on oue occasion: •"By water to Deptford and there made a visit to Mr: J5. (who showed-me many rarities); in fine a most excellent person he is; aud must be allowed a little for his conceitedness. . . . The truth is that John Evelyn was tainted by a certain priggishness which crops out now aiid again in the "Diary, and although, when he'died, 1 his life was described by a contemporary _ as •"an eighty-six years' course of inquiry, study, ■ curiosity, instruction, and ■benevolence," it is safe to say that ,very human person, the equally curious and studious Mr. Pepys, was vastly better company for the average.man. As the narrative proceeds we get glimpses of other Evelyns. One was killed in a skirmish in the American •war, leading his company .in the 4th King's .Own; another went to India and returned home with'a, fortune and a. liver, ■ and a consequent tendency to play the domestic tyrant.' Yet another was badly wounded at Waterloo, but lived on until 1827. An Irish strain, through the Massy Dawson family, was introduced into tho Evelyns towards the close of the eighteenth century; and is probably accountable for a certain tinge of eccentricity which afterwards crops up, now and again," in the men of the family. . The second part of the book is devoted to what is practically a biography of the late William John Evelyn, for some years M.P. for Deptford. A Conservative in politics,, he was. a ; man of strong.nidiyidual .views,'andjhis .iiidependehce must at times bave'vbeen'"a-sore*trial to th© party Whip®. ■ As High Sheriff of Surrey he liad a vigorous passage-alarms ■■with a Judge] whom'he considered' interfered privileges, and. he was hot- onljya;- warm opponent of • the Irish coercion policy, •but was;-an. ardent. '.'Stop, the,war" advocate during'the South African trouble. This did: not, however, prevent his only son joining the Imperial Yeomanry, and seeing service in South, Africa, where he was' taken prisoner at Barberton. ,The first chapter'in the section relating to "William John Evelyn is written by Mr. W. Scawen Blunt, with whose views on Ireland, Egypt, and South Africa those of Mr. Evelyn were very largely in sympathy. The record of this later Evelyn's Parliamentary career might well havo been cut down a little, and the speeches on the Mitchelsitown Affair might also have been sensibly abbreviated. A number of "family pedigrees" are given in the appendices,' and there are separate chapters dealing with various branches of the main family. Tho illustrations include a large number of portraits of the Evelyn family, tbe frontispiece being a photogravure reproduction of Kneller's painting ' of John Evelyn, thediarist. (Price, 165.) MAETERLINCK'S POEMS. To the vast majority of his English and American readers, Maurice Maeterlinck is known only as a dramatist, essayist, and philosopher. Up to the present no satisfactory English translation of the Belgian author's poems has : appeared, and a hearty welcome is therefore due to a volume entitled .'. "Poems by Maurice Maeterlinck," just by Messrs. Methuen and Co. [Maeterlinck's poetic output has been relatively small, being confined, i'lTthe main, to two small volumes, entitled respectively "Serres Cbaudes" and I ■"Quinze Chansons," tho-first published ui 1889. the second in 1896. Tne poems (contained in these two volumes are now presented in an English translation by 'Mr. Bernard Miall, under the titles of '"Hot Houses" and "Fifteen Songs." ■In each collection, but more notably in tho first, is a strong suggestion of the French "Symbolists'" influences, especially of the work of Verlaine and his friend. Arthur Rimbaud, and of Stephen Mallarme; and, so Mr. Miall tells , us, "of English-speaking poets, Emer--1 son, Poe, perhaps Rossetti, and above all Whitman." Most -of the poems were written in Paris, whither the young Belgian went 'at the age of -twenty-four, nominally to study law, bufc. as a matter of fact, to find in tha artistic and literary atmosphere of the French capital a stimulus to his natural bent for literature. Returning to Belgium, he published, in 1889, "Serres Chaudes," and was soon hailed by his countrymen as ono of the leaders of the great literary movement known as the Belgian Renaissance, in connection with •which the names of Eekhoud, Elskamp, Rodenbach. and Emilo Vcrhaoren—especially the latter —havo since becomo so well known to students of French literature. Mr. Miall is at some pains, in his interesting preface, to explain wherein Maeterlinck's symbolism differs from that of his friendly rivals. Many of these latter have exhibited, ho says, "a tendency to put music beforo matter, and beauty beforo sense," and ho quotes certain well-known lines of Verlaine's in exemplification of this. Maeterlinck, however, never lets us doubt what ho says. "His statements aro concrete and lucid; it is the inner meaning, the soul of his verse, that sometimes threatens to elude us." That this latter statement ts only too correct, not a few readers of these translations will at once admit, but tiiero is no gainsaying the haunting beauty of some of tho poems. Space limits, unfortunately, forbid, on tho present occasion at least, any lengthy extracts. I content myself with quoting ono of the shorter poems, in which Mr. Miall has, so it seems to mo, reproduced tho very aroma of tho original lines. The title is "Wintry Desires": X mourn the lips of yesterday, Lips whose kisses aro yet unborn, And the old desires outwornaway.

Always Tain in the faT sky-lino, Always snow on the beaches steams, While by the bolted gate of dreams Crouching wolves in the grasses whine. Into my listless sonl I gaze! With clouded eyes I search the past, At all the long-spilt blood aghast Of lambs that died in wintry ways. Only the moon its mournful fires Enkindles, and a desolate light Palls where the autumn frosts are .white Over my famishing desires. The excessive symbolism of the title poem, "Tho Hot House," and' of tho somewhat similar "Bell Glasses,' may b9 found somewhat difficult to grasp by many of Maeterlinck's English readers, but in the lyrics this obstacle does not prominently present itself. That Maeterlinck's poetry will ever , attain the same popularity as that achieved by his exquisite "Life of the Bee,' lus ossays and his plays, may well be doubted. But it is interesting to have them in English form, if only for the purpose of comparing his literary methods. (New Zealand price 65.)