Current Literature
SECOND ESSAYS ON LITERATURE. By Edward Shanks. (Collins. . 16s.)—Mr. Shanks looks. at literature with a detached sobriety which makes the reader at first enviou and then somewhat impatient. For if sobriety be persii- tently maintained, it can often become an obstinacy which defeats the purpose of temperance. So with Mr. Shanks. In his judgments on the lesser people, his cultivated detach: ment serves him in good stead, and we have, for example. an excellent and interesting article on Tennyson. But when he approaches Shelley with this same slightly superior con- descension, he is not so comfortable. He has to force his argument by distorting facts. He puts forward a theory as to the immaturity of Shelley's character, and claims that the poet suffered from a sort of cretinism of the -mind. To colour this argument, the critic collects evidence to prove Shelley suffered from persecution mania. He says that the famous shooting incident at Tremadoc was purely a figment of Shelley's imagination. It is singular, however, that Mrs, Shelley could write a detailed account of the incident, and that, years afterwards, the surly farmer who attacked the pt-wt should confess his part in it. Mr. Shanks adds nothing to hi: reputation as a literary connoisseur by indulging in :sperii'd pleading.
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