EDWARD II. AT BERKELEY CASTLE.
FTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—In the all too flattering and appreciative notice of my
book, "Orpheus in Mayfair" (in your issue of September 18th), your reviewer notes the glaring historical inaccuracies as well as the deliberate anachronisms in the paper on Edward II. May I point out that this sketch was in no way intended to be an historical study ? It is simply a parody of Mr. H. Belloc's style as manifested in that author's admirable book of historical studies, "The Eye-Witness." This being so, I took the first historical figure that occurred to me, and wrote without any knowledge or references with the sole object of imitating Mr. Helloes work with the exaggeration permissible to parody. But I overstepped my limits. To parody Mr. Belloc's historical essays I should have strictly observed historical accuracy, since Mr. Belloc's sketches are funda- mentally accurate. I was to a certain extent carried away from the style of Mr. Belloc's historical pictures in particular to that of his essay-writing in general. Hence the lyrical outbursts with impossible references to Drake, &c.
But with regard to the King recalling his splendid achieve- ments in the lists, I have high poetical, if no historical, authority. For Marlowe puts into the mouth of the doomed King the following splendid lines :—
"Tell Isabel the Queen, I looked not thus, When for her sake I ran at tilt in France,
And there unhorsed the Duke of Cleremont."
Hy sole excuse for thus wasting your space is that I may possibly be the means of introducing these fine lines to some of your readers who are hitherto unacquainted with them.—
Sosnofka, Tambov, Russia.
Previous page
