Journey with Lear
ONFINED fore and aft by nonsense verses which Lear himself would not have shuddered to acknowledge, "The Pilgrimage of Mr. Lear" was the outstanding event of my last week’s listening. The only thing that in my opinion struck an incongruous note was the last line of the broadcast: "How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!" It rhymed I think with ginger beer, which, in view of the harrowing three-quarters of an hour we had just been through showed an underestimation of the programme’s impact. For Mr, Lear’s pilgrimages were forced upon him by the demon always at his elbow, the demon who advanced upon him from the shadows whenever he was in touching distance of personal happiness. His nonsense verses, to those who have undergone the pilgrimage, seemed but the froth thrown up in the struggles of his subconscious mind, or the products of the evanescent gaiety that succeeds his temporary victories over the Horror. The writer did not make it clear whether Mr. Lear’s demon got him in the end -or whether Lear was permitted to anchor in the calm waters of old age unmolested. I feel grateful that I am at least permitted to hope for a happy ending. And though I realise that no price is too heavy to pay for Truth (I suvpose this is Truth since it bears the’ BBC hallmark) I cannot but regret the sad sea-change that has transmuted my innocent delight in Lear into something sadder and wiser.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 508, 18 March 1949, Page 10
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248Journey with Lear New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 508, 18 March 1949, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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