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022 - Beranger in England · Reviews

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty one of reviews by Oscar Wilde. This is
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  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more informational to volunteer, visit LibriVox dot org. This
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  Speaker 1: reading by Carl Manchester two thousand seven, Reviews by Oscar Wilde,
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  Speaker 1: edited by Robert Ross, twenty one Bernonjeer In England Palmal Gazette,
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  Speaker 1: April twenty first, eighteen eighty six, a philosophic politician once
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  Speaker 1: remarked that the best possible form of government is an
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  Speaker 1: absolute monarchy tempered by street ballads. Without at all agreeing
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  Speaker 1: with this aphorism, we still cannot but regret that the
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  Speaker 1: New democracy does not use poetry as a means for
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  Speaker 1: the expression of political opinion. The socialists, it is true,
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  Speaker 1: have been heard singing the later poems of mister William Morris.
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  Speaker 1: But the street ballad is really dead in England. The
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  Speaker 1: fact is that most modern poetry is so artificial in
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  Speaker 1: its form, so individual in its essence, and so literally
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  Speaker 1: in its style, that the people as a body a
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  Speaker 1: little moved by it, And when they have grievances against
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  Speaker 1: the capitalist or the aristocrat, they prefer strikes to Sonnets
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  Speaker 1: and rioting to Rondel's. Possibly, mister William Toynbe's pleasant little
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  Speaker 1: volume of translations from Berje may be the herald of
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  Speaker 1: a new school. Barone had all the qualifications for a
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  Speaker 1: popular poet. He wrote to be sung more than to
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  Speaker 1: be read. He preferred the pont Neuf to Parnassus. He
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  Speaker 1: was patriotic as well as romantic, and humorous as well
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  Speaker 1: as humane. Translations of poetry, as a rule are merely misrepresentations.
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  Speaker 1: But the muse of Berone is so simple and naive
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  Speaker 1: that she can wear our English dress with ease and grace.
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  Speaker 1: And mister Toynbe has kept much of the mirth and
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  Speaker 1: music of the original here and there. Undoubtedly the translation
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  Speaker 1: could be improved upon. Rapiers, for instance, is an abominable
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  Speaker 1: rhyme to forefathers the hated arms of Albion. In the
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  Speaker 1: same poem is a very feeble rendering of Leopards de Longuelais,
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  Speaker 1: and such a verse as mid France's miracles of Art,
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  Speaker 1: rare trophies one from Art's own land. I've lived to
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  Speaker 1: see with burning heart. The fog bred, poor triumphant stand
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  Speaker 1: reproduces very inadequately the charm of the original dong no
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  Speaker 1: balle u pre de la victoire brie lesarre du fru,
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  Speaker 1: de beau cuima jevous, dunard, les pauplad, Saint gloire de
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  Speaker 1: l'erre moneau siqui les frie mains on the whole. However,
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  Speaker 1: mister Toynbee's work is good. Les Champs, for example, is
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  Speaker 1: very well translated, and so are the two delightful poems
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  Speaker 1: Rosette and Mare Publique. And there is a good deal
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  Speaker 1: of spirit in La Marquis Carabas. Whom have we here
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  Speaker 1: in conqueror's role, Our grand old marquis, bless his soul,
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  Speaker 1: whose grand old charger mark his bone has borne him
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  Speaker 1: back to claim his own. Note if you please, the
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  Speaker 1: grand old style in which he nears his grand old pile,
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  Speaker 1: with what an air of grand old state. He waives
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  Speaker 1: that blade immaculate, hats off, hats off for my lord
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  Speaker 1: to pass the grand old Marquis of Carabas, though that
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  Speaker 1: blade immaculate has hardly got the sting of assabre Innaussan.
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  Speaker 1: And in the fourth verse of the same poem, Marquis
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  Speaker 1: you'll have the bedchamber does not very clearly convey the
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  Speaker 1: sense of the line La marquis a le taboures. The
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  Speaker 1: best translation in the book is the court suit l'a
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  Speaker 1: bid du cour. And if mister Toynbe will give us
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  Speaker 1: some more work as clever as this, we shall be
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  Speaker 1: glad to see a second volume his pen Baroney is
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  Speaker 1: not nearly well enough known in England, and though it
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  Speaker 1: is always better to read a poet in the original,
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  Speaker 1: still translations have their value as echoes have their music.
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  Speaker 1: A selection from the Songs of the Barone in English
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  Speaker 1: verse by William Toynbee Keegan Paul, end of section twenty
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  Speaker 1: one