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New Leader
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Cutting from issue dated192
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FROM OUR
B OOKSHELVES

C

A Neue Ed'tion of the Classie Poets—The Best That 1927
Can Do—Obscurities and Vacuities—Songs of a
K
Miner—Amende to Martin Luwrence
tion which one finds in the work of the great
AM pained with Mesers. Rontledge.
Renaissance goldsmiths, such as Cellini, a sort
When some years ago they took to print¬
of polished brilliance amounting almost to in¬
ing their books really well, they did it
solence. Aria da Capo?' is one of the most
+ with a will, and Lthere is more joy over
perfect things of its kind that 1 have read.
one sinnner,? etc. But now they send mie Pro¬
Prom Miss Millay's poctic drama I pass hy!
fessor Robertson'’s interesting little boolt on
natural transition to some of the new poetry K
Gocthe (6s. net), with äll the pages jumbled up
which is the distinctive sign, not, as tradition
and those bearing on“ Faust“’ and“ Hermann
wouid have it, of Spring, but of Autumn, whien
und Dorothea'’ completely missing. Oh, Rout¬
publishers publish and poets do not draw ##
ledge, Routledge, you of all people! Gocthe
royalties.
combined in himself the best qualities #f tie
classic and the romantie type ol mind. lietoct
the embryo German literature and imposed upon
it an acute sense of form, and that in itschf was
a worthy contribution. As a poet-dramatist he
will never rank as high as ihe Shakespeure
whom he so loved and revcred. As a philoso¬
pher, hie is beaten by many of his own fellow¬
countrymen; but taking him all round he consti¬
tutes a very signilicant ßgure, not only in Ger¬
man but in world literature. Professor Robert¬
son’s book cannot do otherwise than make his
signilicance clearer to English readers.
*
Gocthe, as poct-dramatist, natur¬
Three ally turns my thoughits to poetry
New Plays and drama. This weck has
scen the publication of new
plays by ihrec of the most important modern
dramatists, namely,“ Professor Bernhardi,? by
Arthur Schnitzler (Faber and Gwyer, 6s.),
by Karel Capek
* The. Macropulos Secret,
(Robert Helden, 5s.), and Marco Millions, *
by Eugene O’Neill (Cape, 5s.). Each of them
approaches perfection in the technicalities of
the dramatist’s craft, altheugh their treutment
is widely different. And each of them gives one
furiously to think.
Schnitzler’s play deals with pre-war Austria:
Dr. Bernbardi, thie principal of a hospital and
medical school, declines to admit a priest to the
bedside of a dring patient, who, owing to the
condition knoun to medicine as Euphoria, feels
perfectly well and conlidently anticipates getting
up and going home in à lew hours. The fact
that he is a Jew causes the Clerical Party in
Parliament to get up on its hind legs, and bis
case becomes a mutter of political discussion.
We##re shown tlie renctions of his colleagues
and friends, and we are asked to put to our¬
selves tie question: Was he riglt? That is
all.
Capek handles the same theme as Bernard
Shaw in" Back to Methuselah,? but in a dif¬
terent manner and from an altegether dilferent
point of view. Macropulos Seeret'' is
that of the Pelizir of lile,“ and Elina Macropu¬
los, to whem it was administered in 1597, still
survives in 1927. Inthe thrce centuries that
intereened she has had muny lovers und many