A Doryphore Complains
Sta,—Mr. Nicolson is less than just in his attitude towards the doryphore ; he exposes, scolds and finally threatens (" I challenge the doriphores "), and in so doing manages to spell the plural of this curious word twice with a y and once with an i. But let him consider the doryphore's problem. In the same issue of the Spectator is an announcement of a proposed recital of Debussy's Le Mer. On another page a famous publish- ing house announces one of its recent productions as a Succes Fou. The doryphore is filled with zeal and a desire to help; but in what quarter is his help to be offered ? Useless to help Sir Adrian Boult in the first instance and Mr. Leonard Woolf in the second, when the mistake was probably
perpetrated by any one of the myriad of printers, copy writers, tyfe. setters, &c., who interpose themselves between the manuscript and the printed page.
But even worse things can happen. In Mr. Maugham's Writa's Notebook (recently reviewed in your columns) the author recounts having met at St. Jena an old surveillant who related the episode " of how a doctor had arranged with a man who was to be guillotined to blink three times if he could after his head was cut off, and says that he saw him blink twice." This incident was actually the theme of a famous shell story by Villiers de l'Isle-Adam entitled Le Secret de l'Echafaud written at a• time when doubtless even the old surveillant was himself young enough to have been surveille. The doryphore, once more filled with zeal, waits for the reviewers to remark the fact. But is there a conspiracy of silence maintained against Villiers de l'Isle-Adam ? Is it possible that the reviewers have not even read Villiers de !'Isle-Adam ? (Reviewers normally give the impression of having read every book in the world, with the possible exception of the one which they are actually engaged in reviewing.) What must the doryphore do A post-card to Mr. Maugham ? It may never reach him. A post-card to Mr. Nioolson ? From his essay it appears that he would not receive it with sympathy. Little wonder that the doryphore comes, sooner or later, to hold the opinion expressed by Ronald Firbank: " The trouble with this world is that one does not know to whom to complain! "—Yours faithfully, Chalet Fowl, Leysin, Switzerland. DEREX LINDSAY.
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