xt7qjq0stw34_3070 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/1997ms474.dao.xml unknown archival material 1997ms474 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center. Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. W. Hugh Peal manuscript collection Captain F. L. Pleadwell clippings text 43.94 Cubic Feet 86 boxes, 4 oversize boxes, 22 items Poor-Good Peal accession no. 11453. Captain F. L. Pleadwell clippings 2017 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/1997ms474/Box_30/Folder_40/Multipage10649.pdf 1929-1935, undated 1935 1929-1935, undated section false xt7qjq0stw34_3070 xt7qjq0stw34 A Correction

To the Editor of the Saturday Review:
Sir:

We note with interest Arthur Colton’s re-
view in the January 26th issue of The Sat-
urday Review of Literature of “Thomas
Lovell Beddoes, Eccentric and Poet,” by
Royal H. Snow, and also Mr. Colton’s
statement that the only edition now in print
seems to be the two-shilling series issued by
Routledge.

We thought it might be of interest to you
to know that there has just been issued a
new and complete edition of the works of
Thomas Beddoes edited with a new memoir
by Sir Edmund Gosse and decorated by
“The Dance of Death” pictures of Hans
Holbein by the Fanfrolico Press of London.
We are the American distributors of this
book which is in two volumes and is lim-
ited to seven hundred and ﬁfty sets for sale
at $17.50 each.

WALTER V. McKee, INC.

Beddoes Editions

To the Editor of The Saturday Review:
Siri

I was very much interested in the review
by Arthur Colton, of the life of Thomas
Lovell Beddoes, which appeared in your is-
sue of January 26th. Mr. Colton errone-
ously believes that the only edition of Bed-
does is in the two shilling Routledge series.
The Fanfrolico Press of London issued, a
few months ago, a very handsome edition
of the nineteenth century poet, limited to
750 copies and illustrated by the entire set
of Holbein’s “Dance of Death.” It was
edited by Sir Edmond Gosse and bears a
critical introduction by him.

The appearance of the set provoked a
seething retort to an unappreciative critic.
J. C. Squire dismissed Beddoes with the
irrelevant remark, “He has been called ‘The
Last of the Elizabethans.’ Is that not an
adverse criticism in itself?”

The militant editors of the Fanfrolico
Press replied: “This remark is a character-
istic self—exposure of Mr. Squire, who has
been called ‘The Last of the Quidnuncs.’
Every lover of imagic poetry must have a
Beddoes somewhere accessible. Beddoes alone
in all literature concerns himself vitally
with death. The comparison with modern
necrophilia (Beaudelaire and his deriva—
tives) is literally odious; for Beddoes’s
corpses have a lyrical, not a medical stink.
Hence the academic dislike, as mirrored in
Mr. Squire’s rhetorical question quoted
above.”

BARNET B. RUDER.

r — a, ,.._
~ {059 i ll‘fgfijx‘

_7,_ _..

New York.

5M“4:1. $441.74 Ewan]
CorreSpondence

'l'H( )MAS H )V I‘llil. BEDJJOES

'l‘t) ’l‘llltl EDITOR OF THE TIMES

Sir. I wish to ('orrcct a slight. crror ot‘ «talc in
Ihc latc Sir Edmund (los. ”s introduction to thc
l“ant'rolico [’1' vs cdition of tho "(.‘omplcto \Vorks
of Thomas Loyoll licddocs." (‘aptain I“. '1. Plcail-
wcll has giycn 1111‘. with [mi-mission to rcprodui'vY
thc copy (it~ a lf‘ttcr t'roni Kclsall to Browning
which is in his ('olh‘r‘t ion. This lcttcry scnt acconi~
panying thc manuscripts, is (latcd Novclnhcr lit.
H567. whilc Sir Edmund status that, it ms in tllo
*lJl’llll-i Ht tho ncxt. 3car that Kolsall took this
stop. ’l‘hc lcttcr runs as l'ollows:~ ‘

Dear Mr. Browning, ~71 hawx now thc plcasurc ol‘
placing hcforc you, according.r to [)roinisc, sonic ot'
the Bcddocs MSS. and ot' anticipating tho gratifi-
cation tlwir inspcrtion will givc you. The. whole
of thosc MHH. are at, your sci-Vice, but 1 was un-
willing to stitln your enthusiastic rcgard for
'Boddocs under too great. a weight of MS. not yo 3’
casy to dccyphcr & partially ohlitcratcd. l hayo
thcrrforo connncnccd with only a, portion. sclcrtcd
so as to prcscnt, the writer .iu various attitudcs of
thought A: at, different timns of life. Tho packctv
is too bulky for thc post, & l thornl'orc commit it to
tho care of thc L. & Southwcstcrn railway autho-
rities, by whom. I trust, it will bu safcly dr-livcrcd
(to the address of this notc. furnished to Inc h)
Proctcrl nob ycry lonar at'tcr thc arrival of this.

The MES sent. comprise,

]. The complete copy of l,)t‘tttil\‘ Just Book lllt‘ll-

tioncd in my Incinoir' p. c s of No. ".

2. "'l‘hc cnlargi-d vcrsion " of thc , . Act.

3. A hook containing early pooms, a latcr trag-

meals.

4. Two chaptcrs t'rom tho lyory (talc tilting 5

rloscly packcd shccts of lcttcr Impl‘l‘.

All the altcrationR & comments madc on any
ol‘ thcsc in ink. & IIIUHL ol' lhosc, in pcucil. arc by
Buddocs himsclt hut Nos. 1 6‘; Z hayc, paSsctl thro’
the hands of Proctor & Uournc, who both pcncillod
in tht‘lll a. fur notcs ot' piaisc or hlainc. You will
ﬁnd many 1): ages. omitted in my publication. hcim:
almost, cut, (3 . i-Plativc to Mandrakcs 'I‘hh pcis-m-
ag'o ] w; ' anxious from various motiycs, to lump as
much as pt sihlc out oi siirht. I was: puhlisllg. a< ,
the inclination of the near i'olatiycs, & to thcsc I
know that, Mandrake & hi, lu-longings wd. as
wcll as to thc almost, uniyc sal public. hc most
distasteful. Neither did I much admire tlll‘lll in)—
sclf. 'l‘hcy sci-m lahourcd ti; artiticial é; (guita-
unwoilhy ot the- company thcy arc in. 'l‘hcy havc
neverthclcss strokes of wit, 1 , 6.: lhcr
i'ialt)’ in the omittcd sccnc, \\'hi h conuncnt
2nd. .\ct k :1 ycr; clcvm' lyrics: "The: Ncw
t‘ccili "' ti: “ yaiporous tailor,”~\\‘hich wcrc
couiso unpuhtishahlr, so "unpolitcf‘ You will
also tind his prufatory rcniarlw on thc drama, which
u’crc cxcludcd from my limitcd puhlication. On
all tho-c omissions & manipulations of ininc J
sliotl llliﬂ \‘cry much to haw: your opinion g\: \\'l]“l‘l‘,
\\ ho“. you cousidcr thcm faulty.

Such passagr or phrascs as .l h‘n'c printcd not
in accoidanci \xith thcsc )ISS. cyi in thc oldcst,
copy not now scent. S; \i'hcrc thcrc \\ a lair choice
I’ somctimcs consulted my own tas.c. 'l'hc littlc
hook contains at onc cnd apparcnll} sonic of his
carlii-st compositions hctwccn t‘hcstcr housc A:
Oxford, At noon al'tcrwtt. ’I‘hl-y have, littlc \‘aluc
in thcmsclvcs, hut arc \‘cry intcrcstinc; for his
s lu: & thcy are liar from (*t’nnnionplacc. 't‘hc
{ragino-nts at thc othcr cnd arc cyidcntly latvr A:

supcrior. Thc} hrcathc tho toncs of thc
Brillns 'l‘rag: 8.: oven of thc I).J.B. and as such I
publishud most. of thcm. The book came into my
posscssion in 1823, or a. little later, 8:, was soon
forgottcu h), lit‘tltl!!!‘,\'_
' l hayc liat't. “ith lhc i\l.\‘,\‘. a little artistic fancy,
slxctche-d hy our. of my sons. in boyhood. who had
sccn licddocs & ainn-d at a grolusquo llhf’l)(.‘>>‘.
Hold it. up bcl'orc tho light.

The dctachcd MRS are fragincntary in'uu» last,
:togrce. as Bl was very stingy of paper, KL generally
juttotl down his cmu-uptns. on the hacks of letters~
or an) scrap of \rilct, papcr. I enclose :3 speci-
nmns, “h h you may permanently rctain as memo-
rials. Is not, the “Dream—Podlary" a charming
composition? The fragment, of Bournu's lcttcr
shows his cstimam 0t" Buddors. Ho rightly rcgrots
tho long suppression of the ILLB. Ho and
Proctcr wcre agSt- publication with great, amend-
mtf-t T was for prompt; publication with such
aim -ndm1>t as might he readily ohtaincd: but the

'it y prvvailed.

3.1m need he in no hurry to return thc M53].
keep thorn for months, or longt-r.

1 must ask for a tow arty lincs alter rccf- of thc
parcel, as I shall he anxious for its salt-t)- & her
after you will perhaps oblige me with your ido .
about the unpublished portions. Can they in any
way in} made use of in maintcnancc ol‘ the writer‘s
fame“! or shall we do wisely to let) it rest on what
is pululishet ’

- Moxon has long promised the public :1:
atom ” selrtction from Shelley's poems. with a.
critical estillln'tt by R.B., and my hook cllur has
niorc than once inquired for it,» but in vain. (‘an
you not, cheer Inc with some good tidings of it?
May I. presume to put to you another pcrsonal
question, suggested partly by the last, hut more by
your onco contemplated ()xonian lecture on
Beddocs‘. Is a selection of his poems an attainahlo
rle‘ d 'ratiuni, under the same auspices as tho
proi ed selection from Shelley? Thcro is of
comm no copyright, in the way 4&3 your nanw wit.
wm purchascrs. Surcly with you it, wd- h:- a
labour of love .56 the publication wd- have a l'rcsh-
U935 ”0‘1 attaching to the more cclchratcd authors.
I ontr‘eut you to entertain tho idea. ()f coursc \‘(iu
wd. )1‘0 ly command all the MSS. N Knowlcdgc in

my in, .sn- or powcr.

Bl‘llPVC mc.

Dcarﬁ' Browning,
Yours \‘cry faithfully.

Flu-ham. H a a v, ,

D'm'. 13, lRti'i. “m“ 1' ""‘J"‘“""‘
Milli-Hm houst, is oi Loursc an crrnr tor (.‘hartcr-
1 remain yours l'aitht'ully,

I!“ . l“ , _. ) , " JACK LIVI)S.\Y.

ﬂ .Intiolno Ire“ I‘H'C .Bloomslnlry-sqn
K

ill‘(‘.

t
t
t
t
t
t

LOSES SUIT T0 VOID
V OWN TRUST FUND

Daughter - in - Law of Robert
Browning Gave Up $325,000
Forever, Court Holds.

UNDUE INFLUENCE HINTED

Judge Says New Companion
of Plaintiff Over 80 Might
Have Suggested Action.

Special to Tar. NEW You}: TIMES.

MINEOLA, L. I., March 17.—-The
story of how Mrs. Fannie Codding-
ton Browning, daughter-in-law of
Robert Browning, the poet, placed
$325,000 irrevocably beyond her
reach three years ago, was revealed
here today in a, Supreme Court rul-
ing denying her the right to use
the principal of the fund.

Mrs. Browning, a resident of Hay—
ward Heath, London, is more than
80 years old. In 1931, just before
she returned to England to live, she
signed a deed of trust containingi
an irrevocable clause and providing l
for the disposition of her estate‘
after her death. Last Summer shei
changed her mind about the trust
fund and sought to regain control
of the money.

Action Ruled Irrevocable.

Supreme Court Justice Henry G.
VVenzel ruled today that Mrs. '
Browning had signed away all right

‘ to everything but, the interest on
the money which she had inherited
from three sisters. In his opinion,
Justice W'enzel suggested that the
elderly woman’s change of heart
might have been inspired by a Miss
Dorothy Ivatt, who supplanted Miss
Louise Vincent, her companion for
twenty years. ‘

The case was referred to the court
after Mrs. Browning notified the
two trustees, Percy S. Weeks of
Oyster Bay, and Schuyler Meyer, a
nephew of Huntington, L. I., that
she wished to abrogate the trust.

V They sought the court’s advice. In

' a deposition, taken in England,

‘ Mrs. Browning alleged that Mr.
Meyer, who was a. legatee under the
trust, had concealed from .Iher the
fact that the deed of trust con-
tained an irrevocable clause.

Justice VVenzel thrust this allega-

tion aside together with Mrs.
Browning’s statement that her
mental and physical faculties had
been impaired by an operation she
underwent in 1929. In his opinion,
Justice Wenzel said:
3 f‘I-Ier memory is never at fault,
.[except on cross examination] and
she evidences more than the aver-
age woman’s asp of business af-
fairs. Yet, wi h all this, it is ap-
parent that she is dominated by the
will and personality of another. Re-
cent history is not without example
of such a complete mental and spir-
itual dominance. But that other is
not Schuyler Meyer."

Friend of 20 Years Discharged.

Miss Vincent, who has been Mrs.
Browning’s friend and companion
since before 1914, when Mrs. Brown-
ing became a resident of VVashing—
ton, D. C., was discharged in 1931
after MissIvatt, formerly an em-
ploye of the Hayward Heath Hos-
pital became a member of the
household. Miss Vincent’s annuity
of $50 a month was protected by
Justice VVenzel’s decision.

Regarding Miss Vincent and Miss
Ivatt, Justice VVenzel said:

“It must be apparent to any one
from the reading of the record
what has caused this dear old lady
in a few short months to discharge
her devoted companion of twenty
years [Miss Vincent], dispense with
the services of her London solici-
tor, impugn to her dear friend and
religious counselor, Father Powell,
the morals of a libertine, brand her
nurses and doctors as liars and at-
tack the professional reputation
and honesty of her favorite
nephew, whom she loved so well.

“The fine Italian hand of Miss
Ivatt stands out boldly. Here lies
matter for the pen of a Dickens.
Miss Vincent had to go because she
was too loyal and old a friend of
Mrs. Browning, and Miss Ivatt
wanted her—alone. So Miss Vin-
cent was sent to Oberammergau,
and while she was gone the plan
by which she was to live with Mrs.
Browning at the English Anchor-
hold’ was changed because, for-
sooth, Miss Ivatt’s social position
forbade her living in the same

with a ‘plumber’s daugh—

, Mrs. Browning was married to
lRobert W'idemann Barrett Brown-
!ing, an artist, son of Robert
Browning, and Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, in 1887. She is a daugh-
ter of the late Henry Coddington,
American manufacturer of railroad
steel. Mrs. Browning and her hus—
band separated after six years. He
is dead.

To be obtained in the United State: qf America

from

WALTER V. MCKEE

(INCORPORATED)

32 UNIVERSITY PLACE
NEW YORK CITY

BEDDOES

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF BEDDOES,
edited, with a new memoir and an unpublished
portrait, by the late Sir Edmund Gosse. \Vith
the complete set of Hans Holbein’s Dance of Death
woodcuts as decorations. In two volumes, Royal
8vo, pp. xxxv, 590, printed in Scotch type on
Dutch mould/made paper, the binding in quarter
buckram and stout Japanese floral paper; the
edition limited to 725 sets for subscription at
$17.00; also an edition de luxe on English
hand/made paper, in one volume, bound in goatz
skin, 75 copies only, fully subscribed.

This (deﬁnitive) edition of the complete poetry and prose of Thomas Lovell
Beddoes was the last editorial tasle undertaken by Sir Edmund Gosse, to whom
the original manuscripts of Beddoes were transmitted by Robert Browning, for
Gosse’s edition of the ’9o’s, now very scarce. For the present edition, Sir
Edmund Gosse collected new biographical and some unpublished material,

including the only known portrait of the poet, which is described as a “ very
good likeness.” With this dig/Wed and beautiful production, Beddoes will now
come into his own as one of the foremost imagic poets of the language, whose
blank verse, as Sir Edmund Gosse says, is “ wonderful, although all his writing
prose or verse, seems a threnody to be chanted in procession to the graveyard.” 1

ON OTHER PAGES
A Huxley Diary

The Failure of Radicalism
Chinese Culture

English Medieval Costume

Full List of Contents
On Back Page

No.1,763 (34thYear) LONDON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 16 1935

R 0gb term] I” (I Ne u'rprlprr
POSTAGE: lnlaud and
Canada ld.; Abroad 11d.

PRICE 3t)

Run/y on Monday

ENGLAND
SPEAKS

By SIR I’IIILII’ GIBBS

Being talks with liarliers, road
sweepers, cab-drivers. major—gen-
erals and all manner of folk with a
panorama of the English scene in
this Year of Grace. 85.6(11.

BALKAN
HOLIDAY

By D.\\'II) I“(,)(,)T;\IAN

:\ witty account of travels in 1111-
frequented parts by one whom
Vernon 1 - . :q ~ ~ " -

_ in the detailed form now available.

ON THE TRAIL OF

BEDDOES

SECRETS FROM THE VANISHED BROWNING BOX

N immense literature has been and is
still being inspired by the English
poets who, early in the nineteenth

century, left their own country and passed
the rest of their days on the Con-
tinent. It is not the wildest of fancies
which suggests that their number might easily
have been increased. Wordsworth. as we all
know in 1935, had at one time quite a
vigorous chance of making his home over the
Channel. There was that in Coleridge which
could have turned his visit to Germany into
a permanent residence “without our special
wonder." Thomas Campbell. who died at
Boulogne, had been very near expressing his
passion for the regeneration of Poland by
accepting a professorship at Wilna. Thomas
Hood, although 'on a march to Berlin, with
the 19th Prussian Infantry. he could never suc-
ceed in passing himself off as anything but
the Regimental Chaplain." became almOst a
Rhinelandcr. But of all the poetical exiles
who were or who might have been. a century
or more ago, the most drastic and versatile
was probably Thomas Lovell Beddoes.
>14 =tc >1:

The facts of Beddoes's life. particularly in
its later stages. form one of the curiosities of
biography. A man who. having revealed tin-
common powers and attracted valuable
admirers in his own land. seeks out another
country and shapes his ., ': 'tncw there.
with at least notorious resu .5. Can hardly fail
to provide the chronicler with picturesque
opportunity. At the same time. he adds con-
siderably to the difﬁculty of the chronicler, so
far as the recovery of accurate and coherent
information is. concerned. Beddoes. naturally
a difﬁcult man to keep in sight. moved mazily
about the Continent during the last half of his
life; and it has been only a long and laborious
series of inquiries, from his own time almost
until now, which enables us to read his story
His old
friends in England did much to collect it, and
felt that some things were not to be divulged
in their day. Sir Edmund Gosse had access
to their records while they were in the keeping
of Robert Browning. and published memoirs
of Beddoes which, whatever their faults may
have been, were long our main authority.
Latterly there has been much punctilious in-
vestigation, which, it may safely be said, has
culminated in the work of Mr. Donner. With
his name it is proper to mention that of. Pro-
fessor Weber. to whose discoveries of docu-
ments on Beddoes still extant in Germany
Mr. Donner acknowledges his important
obligation.

Literary detectives are above all their fellow-
men a hopeful race, and no doubt others
will follow in the footsteps of T. L. Beddoes
and Mr. Donner. We cannot anticipate that
anything of consequence awaits them. Mr.
Donner has clearly done nothing to encourage
them in‘ the way of omission or careless
observation. With his volumes before us, it
seems entirely proved that we can know
nothing further of Beddoes's life, and that
what is therein stated is correct. And. since
the previous accounts of this strange poet are
superseded, it is time to gather in brief outline
the passages of experience which Mr. Donner
has narrated in a study of the poet's mind and
work. beginning. of course. with Dr. Beddoes
the elder. Some think him the bigger man of
the two. He did not write the poems. at all
events, nor did be live to see his son Thomas

THOMAS Loveu. BEoDoEs: the Making of a Poet.
By H. W. DONNER. Oxford: Blackwell, 185.
THE BROWNING Box, or. the Life and Works of
Thomas Lovell Beddoes Js reﬂected in letters by
his friends and admirers. Edited with an introduc-
tion by H. W. DONNER. Oxford University Press.

London: Milford. 15s.

THE WORKS or THOMAS LOVELL Benoocs.
with an introduction by H. W. Dessert.
University Press. London: Milford. 255.

BRISTOLS BEDEUTUNG FUR DIE ENGUSCHE ROMANTIK
UND DIE DEUTSCH—ENGLISL‘HEN BELIEHLNGEN. Von
CARL Auousr WEBER, Halle: Max Niemeyer.
RM.12.50.

Edited
Oxford

Lovell write them. This son was born at
Clifton on June 30 (not July 20), 1303. A
daughter had preceded him, and she outlived
him nearly half a century. The death of
Dr. Beddoes in 1808 left Thomas Lovell and
the other children to the guardianship of their
mother and of Davies Gilbert. sometime
President of the Royal Society. This excel-
lent man sent the boys to Charterhouse School
in 1817. T. L. Beddoes promptly showed
some tendencies towards literature, and pub-
lished some verses in the Morning Post of
July 6. 1819; and yet he distinguished himself
in otlieial studies, was a prize—winner, and
left the school in something like glory for
Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1820.

s >t< >l<

At Oxford the poets, if not encouraged by
statute. encourage one another: and the
following March Beddoes published a Volume
of wise called " The lmprovisatore." In 1822
he did better : he published The Brides"
Tragedy; and it struck a good many en-
thusiasts that a new genius was arriving.
Beddoes was not dazzled by praise: he stuck
to his business as a strident. and when he had
completed his course at Oxford his mind was
set upon studies elsewhere. He had already
conceived a work, Dem/1's Jest-Bonk, but
that and similar visions did not lure him aside
:rom preparations for a medical career. On
‘_ 2‘. 1825. he iti.tti‘it:ti.~.eted in a“: Leia
\crsit} of Gottittgcn. If anyone doubts
whether the young and bold poet was realistic
in this matter, the simplest answer is the list
of books borrowed by him from the University
library (a list brought to light by Professor
\Veber). When (in 1829) Beddoes was sent
down from Gottingen for an outburst of wild
behaviour. he promptly entered himself as a
student of medicine at W‘Lirzburg; and that
Lniversity gave him his degree in 1831. it
was not poetry but politics which derailed
him next. His radical speeches and activities
led to a deportation order against him : and in
spite of his appeals to his University and the
British Ambassador at Munich that order
took effect on July 21, 1832. The following
April he matriculated at the new University
of Zurich.

Probably the dominant misfortune for
Beddoes occurred when, in 1835. he came
near a professorship and was rejected on a
technicality. Mr. Donner speaks of the “ sur—
feit of leisure" which thus seemed to force
itself on Beddoes—a political refugee from
Germany, and spiritually and habitually sun-
dered from England. He had property enough
in England to supply his needs. Deaf/1's
Jar—Book, that already ancient scheme, went
on growing, but there was a danger in it: it
should have been done and published long
before. Beddoes was beginning to publish
German poems. His Ztirich life was shattered
in 1840, something political being the cause.
He reappeared in London, and even lectured
ton "Dramatic Poetry of the Caucasian Race
in Europe ") at the Polytechnic Institution.
But he was. like another English poet of that
era. “ homeless at home and we see him
going more or less as we should expect. back
to Germany and to Switzerland. Still a
strident, he attended medical lectures in Berlin
from November I, 1840. to March 8. 18—12.
He travelled often, in very much resembling
that other scholar-gipsy, Hartley Coleridge.
Once again. in 18-16. he came to England. "I
believe I have all the dulness, if not the other
qualities—of your British respectability.”
Escaping afresh he remained a year or so in
Frankfort, or with some sort of headquarters
there. He went to Basle in May. 1848. and
now his sense of failure aroused him : he asked
himself Byron‘s question, “ Why live ? " The
attempt to end his life, by opening an artery
in his leg, was not successful. The leg was
amputated in October, and possibly Beddoes
thought awhile that he would face his dis-
enchanted life again. An artiﬁcial leg was

being made. But on January 26, 1849, Beddoes
died in Basle Hospital, and the evidence is
almost certain that he died of a poison found
in his possession.

Such, very brieﬂy, is the story of one who,
to several very able men. appeared the poten-
tial leader of English poetry after Keats and
Shelley had gone. His death, “doubtful ” as
it was, did not command general attention.
The Gentleman’s Magazine necessarily regis-.
tered it. But there was to be a sequel. in its
way almost as remarkable as the life-story
of Beddoes, and even now (as this article itself
evidences) in progress. A lawyer named
Woodhouse was the chief agent in preserving
many of Keats‘s writings for posterity: a
lawyer named Kelsall. a quick man and him-
self a poet, played the same part for Beddoes.
At an early date he undertook the collection
of all that related to the poet‘s life and work;
and in 1850 he succeeded in publishing, from
three versions in his possession, a text of
Deal/7’s Jest-Book. In his enterprise he had
the initial support of at least one well—known
writer—“ Barry Cornwall,” or B. W. Procter.
He had also the opposition of the poet’s
brother, Captain Beddoes, R.N.; but this was
converted into gratitude and ﬁnancial backing
when the Captain had read Deaf/1’s Jerr-
Brwk as Kelsall had edited it. In 1851
Kelsall added. again through William Picker-
ing as publisher. a second volume, containing
what Procter called “ Beddoes‘s Remains."

The next important chapter of the Kelsall
history is that which has given Mr. Donner
his title, “The Browning Box." Browning,
who had some genius for discovering poets,
was an admirer of Beddoes: it came about
that Procter gave him Kelsall‘s edition, and
that Kelsall and Browning became acquainted
in 1867. After Kelsall's death in 1872, and
in accordance with his wish. Mrs. Kelsall sent
the Beddoes archives to Browning in “ the
Box,” with a letter in which she disclosed the
fact, which “ the family have evidently wished
to conceal,” that Beddoes had taken his own
life. It was surely not this information which
prevented Browning from editing Beddoes
himself, but rather his own poetical labours
and his lack of the editorial bacillus; at all
events, after a delay of ten years. he sent for
his friend Gosse, already busy about Beddoes.

Will you look in here next Sunday morning—after
your “ early ” wont 1’ 1 mean to make a thorough
examination of the contents of that dismal Box—
[dismaL onc supposes, because it had got on Brown-
ing's nerves]——and see how much of them I can give
you with a free conscience: all I " can give ":—for
the particular fact about which you enquire is painful
enough.

The Box provided Gosse with the chief
means to bring out his editions of Beddoes—
and vanished. When and how nobody knows,
not even Mr. Donner. Sir Edmund Gosse used
to refer darkly to some malignant Italian ser-
vants, paying off old scores against Pen Brown—
ing. But this is not the end of the matter, nor
was Gosse the only person who had been per-
mitted to explore the Box during its better
days. Another was that accomplished literary
worker Dykes Campbell. Well may Mr.
Donner call him “ a patient transcriber." It
was in 1886 that Browning gave him the free—
dom of the Box, although Gosse was of
course left responsible for publishing
Beddoes; and Dykes Campbell proceeded
with extreme industry and minutcness to copy
everything that seemed in the least degree
signiﬁcant. After the death of this transcriber,
his labours on the Box were practically for-
gotten—'in fact, they passed into the library
of the late H. T. Butler, and the generosity of
that collector at length enabled Mr. Donner
to do what many would have declared im<
possible—to edit Beddoes as though from the
Browning Box itself.

* * ‘3

His work has shaped itself into a triptych.
One division, which he calls “ The Browning

730

Box,” is an array of documents illustrating
the life and after—fame of Beddoes in the
actual words of his friends and contemporaries
and those subsequently connected with the
story. It begins with the poet‘s mother'writing
about some rents: and among the letters of
latest date is one from Beddoes’s cousin Zoe
King (1874). concluding with some exquisite
stanzas about her by Sara Coleridge. All that
we can hear of the devoted Zoe asserts that
she deserved such a poem, and mingles with a
melancholy beauty in the troubled life of
Beddoes. Had he only been able to feel to-
wards her something of what she felt for him,
then the episode at Basle Hospital could not
have been dreamed of. Among other corre-
spondents in “The Browning Box.” there is
Wordsworth—but not quite directly. He is
found answering a request from Kelsall to send
him the then unpublished “Yarrow Re-
visited.” He sends it in a transcript, and com-
ments generally on the tricks played upon him
as a “Public Man” by entire strangers. Not
the least attractive offering in Mr. Donner's
book is the specimen of Kelsall‘s own blank
verse, and a truly appropriate example it is;
for it records his visit in 1868 to the grave of
Beddoes, and a journey to Ztirich. The verse
is characteristic of the accomplished writing
which ﬁne personalities practised when Words-
worth was pre-eminent; but there is something
more than that 2.—

But o‘er this lonely nook in alien ground

Silence and darkness cower, and make their own

Its dust, and that dissolving brain which once
Streamed light and music with creative power;
'And with magnetic inﬂuence, even now.

Through shroud, and coﬁin, and o'cr-cumbcring earth,
Reaches and sways the sympathetic chords

Which string, to finest touch, poetic minds.

.. This volume then assembles much of the
information onwhich is founded Mr. Donner's
own biography of the poet; but not all, for he
has carried out such investigations as were
required in Germany and Switzerland, and as
Professor Weber has also undertaken for his
:very learned book on the literary traditions of
,Bristol. (To that monograph we can only
direct, in this place, besides the lover of
Beddoes, those who seek more light on Chatter-
ton, Coleridge and the Romantic movement
at large.) In his sub-title, “ The Making of a
Poet,” Mr. Donner indicates the extensive
passages of interpretation which this second
section of his work has demanded. Where shall
we ﬁnd, not the Browning Box but the central
point of this extraordinary poet Beddoes, this

THE TIMES

insatiable student and indefatigable innovator
in poetry 2’ What was the objective which
lured so strongly, which called forth so many
and so many endeavours, and which ﬁnally
mocked and defeated a man of very great
courage ? Was it that indefinite demon who
almost reveals his rem effigies in Wordsworth‘s
lines,

We poets in our youth begin our gladness,

But thereof comes in the end despondency and

madness 1’
* >i< *

In the short biographical summary above
allusion was made to a material disappoint-
ment suffered by Beddoes in 1835 as a pro—
bable turning-point whence the path began to
slope rather steeply. Something deeper is
suggested in Mr. Donner‘s contemplations,
and strengthened by one of Beddoes's letters
of 1825 specifying the intention underlying his
medical studies.

It is evident er. Donner writes] that in the mechan-

ism of the body he hoped to ﬁnd a clue to the origin
of life itself. It is more than likely fhat the ambitious
youth dreamt of ﬁnding, as Goethe had done before
him, some hitherto unknown bone or organ, the func-
tion of which might explain the very phenomenon of
life. Only the search for such an organ of immortality
can completely explain Beddoes‘s attitude to medicine
and the development he underwent in the course of
his studies.
This, then, was the knot. The ambitious
youth found that time and circumstance
were more than a match for his intellectual
passion. Matthew Arnold has described
the case as it affects a great many youths and
menﬁbut he did not quite visualize so intense
a hope, so grey a failure, as belonged to T. L.
Beddoes.

The failure existed within Beddoes: for,
after all, at a period made exceedingly formid-
able for the new poets by the originality and
abundance of the recent masters, Beddoes
created a province in our literature which is
inalienably his, and remains fascinating. It
is not there for comparisons, of the “ major”
and “ minor” kind. To use the language of
the tourist advertisement, we have among
others the Beddoes Country; and the third
part of Mr. Donner‘s achievement is the com«
plete access to that country which in “ The
Works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes" he has
arranged. Of this immaculate labour the most
conspicuous portion is a variorum edition of
Dear/1's Jest-Book. Much as his more
popular contemporary P. J. Bailey used his
Farms as a kind of poetic amphitheatre.

CHINA

A Cultural History
By C. P. FITZGERALD

“Afr. Fitzgerald’s book on China appears at an opportune moment and
will supply the needed historical and cultural background to the subject

of Chinese art.

He has succeeded in producing a story, not only Clear

and dependable but absorbingly interesting, out of amass of material
which IS often obscure and co