A SUPERIOR TENDERNESS. .
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GREAT men, M. Andre Mauroii Ibinks, are nice, but 'rather
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laughable. And so we had from him i eharniing and gracefill biogiaphy-of Sgelley ; and we all felt most sympathetic arid most tenderly ironic about' Shelley.' • There was a good 'deal
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omitted in the portrait ; for Shelley could be cold and inhuman in the most "surprising fashion. It was really not by chance that Moore and his friends nicknamed " the snake." Yet, after all, M. Maurois 'was writing a romance Besides, he had good authority for the conception of Shelley as a beautiful, ineffectual angel. We could read and eifjoy his easy wit with an easy conscience. But to try the sane method upon Goethe,. of all people I - ' • - First, however, 'the' title of M. Maitiois'i new-book inuiefie explained. It is a playful title, and springs from a plakftil view of creative writing. Francoise; we are told, go-cid; stolid, and vegetative child while her first nurse was with her. The nurse was friendly and capable ; everything went so smoothly that Franeoise had no need for dreatris and fantasies. But when nurses succeeded who were bad-tempered or mischievous or incompetent then Frangolie became capricious and disorderly, and to solace herself for the mis- fortunes of her life, she invented a country which was entirely under her own control. 'She called it Mape. In Mape, "when you buy'a picture book von nay -is penny and the book-seller. gives you a hundred thousand pennies change." All great artists live in Mape, M. Maurois thinks.
The habit of being playful and tender can be carried too far for comfort. There have been artists who tried most bitterly and ungrudgingly to live in no other world than the real world, this actual, omnipresent world. Opinions differ over what the real world is like ; men have even been found to, bold that the real world was not composed of chemistry, or of hard-headed business. Great art is not most profitably conceived as an escape from life, but quite literally, in the essential meaning, as an imitation of life. And Goethe above all other artists managed to stand firm, with his two feet upon the ground. It is a little hard to succumb to M. Maurois's blandishments and regard Goethe as an ardent, confused, idealistic young man, an unconscious egotist, conducting a remarkable, pure love affair with remarkable ineptitude.
Once our protest is over, however, we must admit that M. Maurois's hand is as light as ever ; and, if we are content to forget his hero, we can very well enjoy the artificial pastoral he sets before us in his first story. The second, the tale of a man who tried to live like a character from Balzac, is more commonplace. Best of the three is the account of Mrs. Siddons and her two daughters. The " languishing for love ". is not here out of place or extravagant : we have only to consult the novelists of the time, or Sheridan's play, to realize how ladies fell into declines through unfortunate affairs. Then, too, there is not so much reason to feel angry if M. Maurois does take his responsibilities easily : no one will complain if he misrepresents Mrs. Siddons in order to round,off his tale ; and few people would come passionately to the defence of Lawrence.
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