Table talk
Sir: Please forgive me for this delay in writing to you about Sir Denis Brogan's re- view on 25 April of G. K. Chesterton's place in English literature, but I could not write to you before.
Although Professor Brogan was generous and fair in many things, I do not think that he is fully qualified to assess Chesterton. There is no mention anywhere in his article of the fine biographies of Chaucer, Brown- ing, Dickens, Shaw, St. Francis of Assisi and, amazingly, no reference to those great `fantasy novels', The Flying Inn, The Napoleon of Notting Hill and The Man Who Was Thursday—perhaps the most amazing allegory written in modern litera- ture and most typical of Chesterton at his best.
But his most astonishing admission is that he knows very little about the one, indis- puted poetic masterpiece of GKC, The Bal- lad of the White Horse'. This great poem is the only truly great ballad of the top class written in English this century. It is full of brilliant and moving and memorable poetry: only Chesterton could have written it.
Professor Brogan is, I suggest, not truly competent to assess this masterpiece since he is neither a critic of poetry nor a poet himself.
As a poet, myself, I would feel honoured to have written a work so evidently a masterpiece: I admire the Father Brown tales as much as anyone and agree with Professor Brogan as to their excellence: but it is as a poet that Chesterton will prove an immortal: the White Horse proved his title. Alan Smithies Wilfred Keene Clinic, Carlton Hayes Hos- pital, Narborough, Leics.
Sir: 'How small, of all that human hearts endure, - That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!'
Denis Brogan (28 June) says these lines 'are, as most people know, the work of Samuel Johnson'.
Most people know that Johnson copied them from Goldsmith's The Traveller for the purpose of adding to them some lines of his own.
To quote the title of Sir Denis's article: `Always verify your references'.
Douglas Brown The Sunday Telegraph, Fleet Street, Lon- don EC4
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