BEHIND PRISON BARS

Evening Star, Issue 19792, 16 February 1928, Page 9

BEHIND PRISON BARS

GREAT WORKS WRITTEN IN CAPTIVITY Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage; Minds innocent and quiet take That for an hermitage. The truth of these familiar lines has been demonstrated again and again. The author of them himself, Sir itidiard Lovelace, wrote the poem by which he will always be best remembered—--1 To Althea From Prison ’—while serving a term of imprisonment which had been enforced upon him because on behalf of Charles 1. he had presented a petition to Parliament from the loyalists of Kent. On many occasions stone walls have proved no effective barrier to minds innocent and quiet. Some of the greatest classics of the world’s literature, indeed, have been written from a prison cell. PUNY AN IN PRISON. There is a popular tradition that ‘ Don Quixote 1 was written in prison, but the evidence in support of the statement can hardly be considered satisfactory. Concerning ‘ The Pilgrim’s Progress,’ however, there can be no possible doubt. We shall be celebrate mg the tercentenary of the birth of John Bunyan this year, and it is well to remember that the greatest allegory in our literature was written at a time w'hen its author was a prisoner in the town gaol on Bedford Bridge. Imprisonment could not disturb the cheerful serenity of Bunyan’s faith, or lessen his indomitable courage, as is evidenced by the words of one of his most famous hymns : He who would valiant be ’Gainst all disaster, Let him in constancy Follow the Master. There’s no discouragement Shall make him once relent His first avowed intent To be a pilgrim. IN THE TOWER.

An eminent prisoner of the seveS® teenth century was Sir Walter Raleigh. In 160_3 Raleigh was charged with plotting against James I. and favoring the cause of Arabella Stuart. He was subjected to an absurd trial, found guilty, and sentenced to death. The death sentence was, however, commuted to one of imprisonment in the Tower—it was his second experience as a prisoner, by the way—and here he remained for thirteen years with his wife and son.

Raleigh was not entirely unfitted to lead such a life as that which now opened up before him. As one of his biographers has written:— His love of study, his varied mental resources, the stores of observations he had laid up in his travels, and his experience of the variety and fickleness of the world—all prepared him to enjoy retirement and contemplation. “ His mind to him a kingdom was” —a noble -possession stored with moral and intellectual riches, which rendered him to a great degree independent of society and liberty. Those hours which before he had to steal from business or sleep, to enjoy his books, or his studies, were now all his own; no court intrigues; no unreasonable interruptions; no summonses from royalty; no busy progresses or brilliant pageants; no deliberations at the council or discussions in the parliament; nothing of the excitement of war, or discovery, or peril broke the even and tranquil tenor or his existence. In this remoteness from his accustomed pursuits he made the most of his enforced leisure by writing his His* tory of the World.’ LUNATIC AND GENIUS. No account of great works wriiten irt captivity would be complete which failed to contain a reference to the ‘Song to David.’ This poein is right!? classed among the finest of its period. Three stanzas’may perhaps he quoted— For Adoration seasons change, And order, truth, and beauty rangej Adjust, attract, and fill: The grass the polyanthus cheques: The polish’d porphyry reflects, By the descending rill. Rich almonds color to the prime For Adoration; tendrils climb, And fruit trees pledge their gems? Ami Iris with her gorgeous vest Builds for her eggs her cunning nest, And hill-flowers bow their stems. With vinous syrup cedars spout; From rocks pure honey gushing out, For Adoration springs: All scenes of painting crowd the map of Nature; to the mermaid’s pap The scaled infant clings. Who would have thought that the author of this quality wns ft Hinti "who had twice been confined in a madhouse—where, indeed, the poem was written —and had - died in a debtor s prison? Such, however, was the unhappy fate of Christopher Smart, lunatic and genius. JOHNSON ON SMART. Smart possesses an added interest on account of his 'association with Dr Johnson. In 1756 Johnson was contributing to the ‘Universal Visiter, a periodical with which Smart was at that time connected. The two men appear to have been on friendly terms, and the kindliness of Johnson to his old colleague is manifested m a conversation which he had with Dr Burney at the time that Smart was confined to an asylum. After admitting that Smart, adore being removed to the mad-house, used to walk for exercise to the ale house, hut “was carried back again.” Johnson proceeded: “ I did nob think he ought to be shut up. His infirmities were not noxious to society. He insisted on people praying with him; and I’d as lief pray with Kit Smart as anyone else. Another charge was, that he'did not love clean linen; and I have no passion for it,’ a characteristic confession on the part of the doctor. In conclusion, the present century has witnessed the publication of at least one remarkable poem written in prison —‘The Ballad of Reading Jail. — ‘John o’ London.’