The Sword of Song

THE SWORD OF SONG 48 Putney) in their newly-demonstated capacity as “unnatural” sons, daughters, fathers, and so on. But I leave it. I am content—my work will have been well done—if this trifling essay be accepted as a just instalment towards a saner criticism of our holiest writers, a j uster appre- ciation of the glories of our greatest poet, a possibly jejune yet assuredly historic attempt to place of the first time William Shakespeare on his proper pedastal as an early disciple of Mr. George Bernard Shaw ; and by conse- quence to carve myself a little niche in the same temple : the smallest contributions will be thank- fully received. NOTES TO ASCENSION DAY 1. I flung out of chapel.1—Browning, Xmas Eve, III. last line. 3. Venus’ Bower and Osiris’ Tomb.2— Crowley, Tannhaäuser. 5. God.3—Hebrew, \yhla, Gen. iii. 5. 5. gods.4— Hebrew, \yhla, Gen. iii. 5. The Revisers, seeing this most awkard juxtaposition, have gone yet one step lower and translated both words by “God.” In other passages, however, they have been compelled to disclose their own dishonesty and translate \yhla by “gods.” For evidence of this the reader may look up such passages as Ex. xviii. 11; Deut . xxxii. 17; Ps. lxxxii. [in particular w here the word appears twice, as also the word la. But the revisers twice employ the word “God” and once the word “gods.” The A.V. has “mighty” in one case] ; Gen. xx. 13, where again the verb is plural; Sam. xxviii. 13, and so on. See the Hebrew Dictionary of Gesenius (trans. Tregelles), Bagster, 1859, s.v., for proof that the A uthor is on the w ay to the true in- terpretation of these conflicting facts, as now established—see Huxley, H. Spencer, Kuenen, Reuss, Lippert, and others—and his orthodox translator’s infuriated snarls (in brackets) when he suspects this tendency to accept facts as facts. 6. Soul went down.5—The Questions of King Milinda, 40-45, 48, 67, 86-89, 111, 132. 7. The metaphysical lotus-eyed.6—Gautama Buddha. 10. Childe Roland.7—Browning, Dramatic Romances. 11. Two hundred thousand Trees.8—Brown- ing wrote about 200,000 lines. 13. Your Reverence.9—The imaginary Aunt Sally for the poetic cocoanut.* 16. “God’s right use of it.”10—“And many an eel, though no adept In God’s right reason for it, kept Gnawing his kidneys half a year.”—Shelley, Peter Bell the Third. 17. One Tree.11—Note the altered value of * C rowley c onfuses tw o common pastoral amuse- ments—throwing wooden balls a t c ocoanuts a nd sticks at Aunt Sally. the metaphor, such elasticity having led Prof. Blümengarten to surmise them to be india- rubber trees. 27. “ Truth, that’s the gold.”12—Two Poets of Croisic, clii. 1, and elsewhere. 28. “ I, you, or Simpkin.”13—Inn Album, l. 143. “Simpkin” has nothing to do with the foaming grape of Eastern France. 36. Aischulos.14—See Agamemnon (Brown- ing’s translation), Preface. 40. Aristobulus.15—May be scanned e lsehow by pedants. Cf. Swinburne’s curious scansion Ārǐstŏphānēs. But the scansion adopted here gives a more credible rhyme. 42. Batracomuomacia.16—Aristophanes Bat- rachoi. 46. Mine of so many pounds—pouch even pence of it?17—This line was suggested to me by a large holder of Westralians. 47. Something easier.18—Christmas Eve and Easter Day. 51. Newton.19—Mathematician and physicist of repute. 51. Faraday.20—See Dictionary of National Biography. 64. I, of the Moderns, have let alone Greek.21— As far as they would let me. I know some. 74. Beard.22—“150. A Barba Senioris Sanc- tissimi pendet omnis ornatus omnium : & in- fluentia ; nam omnia appellantur ab illa barba, Influentia. “151. Hic est ornatus omnium ornatuum : Influentie superiores & inferiores omnes respi- ciunt istam Influentiam. “152. A b ista influentia dependet vita om- nium. “153. A b hac influentia dependet cœ li & terra ; pluviæ beneplaciti ; & alimenta omnium. “154. Ab hac influentia venit providentia ommnium. Ab hac influentia dependent omnes exercitus superiores & inferiores. “155. Tredecim fontes olei magnificentiæ boni, dependent a barba hujus influentiæ glori- osæ ; & omnes emanant in Microprosopum. “156. Ne dicas omnes ; sed novem ex iis inveniuntur ad inflectenda judicia. “157. Et quando hæc influentia æqualiter pendet usque ad præ cordia omnes Sanctitates Sanctitatum Sanctitatis ab illa dependent.