THE 'NINETIES
Ma. BuanErr has something of the zeal of the Jews in the Gospel, who would compass heaven and earth to make one proselyte. In order to justify the " decadent " writers and artists of the 'nineties, by showing them to us " in perspective," he covers nearly four centuries of social and literary history. If we would understand Aubrey Beardsley-, Oscar Wilde, and Ernest Dowson, we must, he says, carry our minds back to the year 1555, when the Council of Trent failed to stem the Refor- mation, and modern thought began to disrupt " the pride and happiness of the mediaeval mind." The discovery of America, and the breakdown of the ancient theories of astronomy, were among the first " inconvenient facts " that disturbed the old unity of outlook, and the ensuing mood was one of a gathering disillusion, in which began the warfare of private judg- ment, often leading to no conclusions. The spirit of man had lost its sheet-anchor, and became at the mercy of con- flicting currents.
The eighteenth century, it is true, fashioned " a synthesis of its own, a convenient compromise between the reformed religion and the new humanism, a point of rest in the process of that disillusion which the Reformation came to involve. Philosophy and religion found a temporary accommodation of their differences, and the morals and manners of the time reflected a compromise between the natural man and Christian ethics." The French Revolution and the Industrial Revolu- tion, however, renewed and quickened the disintegration of common standards and ideas, and at last there followed the Victorian " complacency," bringing with it, as a cloak for inner disorders, a " uniformity of pretention " :-
'This happened to become incarnate in the young princess who ascended the throne in 1837, and was as much revolted at the conduct of her uncles as Mr. Dombey would have been in her place. The middle classes were in power, and for the first time the throno was occupied by one who shaied their mental outlook. At first sight the Victorian convention is inexplicable till we see it on its moral side to have been a reaction from the Regency, and on its intellectual side the flattery of the triumphant middle - classes whose money required a mask of virtue. This the new conception of respectability provided."
During the long years of peace and prosperity that culmin- ated in the Jubilee of 1887, lip service continued to be paid to ideals and principles that were not sincerely held. But " the seed of disillusion, the worm in the blossom of the Victorian rose," was at work ; and, though men sought to hide the fears and doubts that assailed them, and the natural instincts which convention had now decreed to be unmention- able, those fears and doubts and passions inevitably began to recoil from the repression to which they were subjected. " It was apparent to all who paused to reflect that the instincts of men had not become so orderly as the society in which they lived, and that though the major part of their lives, of their days even, was a routine of repeated action, there lay behind the old passions, weaknesses, desires." So it was that, as the century wore on, " the search for the unmentionable " became increasingly the imaginative impulse of minorities. Darwin's Origin of Species seemed to offer a sanction for this search " in the rise of the scientific spirit and the accompanying appetite for facts." Then came the bombshell of Swinburne, and the milder rebellion of the Pre-Raphaelites. And then, in the fullness of time, inspired by French influences which Mr. Btirdett examines in some detail, the school of Beardsley arose, giving adequate expression at last to the disillusion of the modern world. Society, because it had refused for so long to face uncomfortable facts, had, as a corollary, lost all vital contact with good. Beardsley and Isis associates, by present- ing the vision of evil again to the human mind, restored to it also the power of comprehending virtue.
Such, in baldest outline, is the main argument of Mr. Burdett's " essay in perspective." It is an ingenious theory, and is worked out, through the first half of the book, with able and pleasant insinuation. It breaks down rather lament- ably, however, at the crucial point, when the actual work of the " decadents " comes to be considered. In his early chapters, Mr. Burdett, with a charm and vigour which carry all before them, leads us breathlessly on as to some approach- ing grand climax. But not even his skill can invest the drawings of Beardsley or the poems of Dowson with enough , vitality to bring the climax off. Indeed, the magnificent stage which Mr. Beardsley has erected only serves to emphasize the essentially minor artistry of the players themselves, when at last they appear upon the boards. " Behold," says the stage manager, " the housebreakers demolishing the long Victorian hypocrisy." But the musical whinings of Dowson, the exquisite perversion of Beardsley, and the self-con.sCious posturings of Wilde fall very flat. We admire Mr. Burdett's ingenuity and courage, but we remain unconvinced..
After all, Beardsley and his troupe exercised little influence outside the, narrow bounds of the coteries. To represent them as " housebreakers " of the great Victorian. structure is to make absurd claims for them. The most that can be said for " The :Yellow Book " school, apart from any justi- • fication that sympathizers with it may make on the ground of , " art for art's sake," is that it was a minor symptom of the - disease of complacency which did in some measure afflict the Victorian repose. But, though a symptom may help towards diagnosis, and may therefore fulfil an indirectly healthful function, there is no glory in symptoms as such ;' and a morbid preoccupation with them • will only aggravate . the disorder they reveal. Of any healing or creative art the Beardsley school was quite barren, and Dowson wrote a fitting epitaph for himself and his colleagues when he said :--
" Vain things alone
Have driven our perverse and aimless band."
If, however, Mr. Burdett fails to establish his case, it is due to its own inherent weakness, and not to any lack of skill. in presenting it. A manner more agreeable -or 'subtly per- suasive it would be difficult to imagine, and a book so lively,. and original cannot fail to give pleasure even to those who dissent most thoroughly from its point of view.
GILBERT THOMAS.
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