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"Five Nations published. Reviews favourable except political enemies. A better appreciation of the aim of the volume than R had hoped for."
I e-mailed our member Mary Hamer who annotated the
volume for the NRG saying:
"I thought I would see if
there was, anywhere on the Internet, a readily
available copy or copies of any of the reviews. I
tried for The Times, but that paper had
initiated the Times Literary Supplememnt (TLS) only
the year before, and the review of The Five
Nations was published therein on 2 October.
Unfortunately, the archive of the TLS is not
available to individuals, and my County Library
doesn't subscribe (though it does to The Times).
But I did find, and now attach for your interest, I hope, a review dated 1 December 1903 in the Atlantic Monthly, written by its editor, one Bliss Perry, who was a well-known American literary critic (forgive me - you may know of him - I didn't)
Some time soon, I will get hold of the relevant copy of Punch
who, I bet, reviewed it from a throroughly middle-class point
of view."
So earlier thia week I got hold of the relevant copy of Punch
(some of our younger overseas members may not be aware
that Punch magazine was the great mirror of the
British middle classes from 1841 until it finally gave up the
ghost after a long decline in 1992), and now reproduce what Punxh
wrote. It wasn't in the normal run of their book reviews
(a regular feature, and usually serious, though brief and
pretty superficial), but appeared as a separate article - the
author was not identified.
LOST
MASTERPIECES
(Mr.
Punch’s own Collection)
(from Punch,
October 11, 1903)
The
appearance of Mr. KIPLINGs
new volume of poems entitled THE
FIVE
NATIONS
has of course directed
public attention to his work
at the moment. Any
hitherto unpublished
fragments of verse from his pen will therefore be
particularly interesting just
now. Fortunately,
Mr. Punch’s collection of Lost
Masterpieces includes two of these. The history of
these fragments is so
interesting that it is worth relating in detail.
It
will be remembered that when ‘Recessional’
(which, by the by, is now republished in The
Five Nations) was first printed and at once
achieved the widest popularity,
a story went the round of the Press that Mr. KIPLING
himself had so
entirely failed to gauge the merit of the poem that
he had actually thrown it
into the waste paper basket. From this
it was rescued by chance by one of the poet’s
family, who at once recognised
its merit and urged its publication. But
for that rescuing hand, ‘Recessional’ might have
been lost to the world for ever.
Spurred
to energetic action by this
story, and determined to prevent the possible loss
of further masterpieces to
the world, Mr.
Punch has recently
employed a trusty agent to ferret from time to time
in Mr. KIPLING’s
waste paper basket.
He had not, alas,
been fortunate enough to salvage another
‘Recessional’, but he has secured two interesting
and characteristic fragments which might well have
been intended to appear in
THE FIVE
NATIONS.
One
of them is part of a barrack
room ballad in Mr. KIPLING’s
most rollicking vein.
The chorus is
written in italics, why, it is impossible to say,
but Mr. KIPLING’s
verse very often does start off in italics for
no very clear reason.
Here is the fragment.
MARCHIN’
ORDERS
‘Ere’s luck to the bloomin’ reg’ment! ‘Ere’s luck to the ‘ole
brigade!
‘Ere’s luck to the British
Army! Fix bay’nits. ‘Oo’s afraid?
Up boys, off boys. Fourteen thousan’
strong,
Fourteen
thousan’, ‘orse an’ foot,
singin’ this ghastly song!
‘Tisn’t a
bloomin’ anthim. ‘T’ain’t
what you’d call refined.
But
Tommy’s all right. ‘E’s
tipsy tonight.
An’ ‘e don’t mind!
Why
Mr.
KIPLING decided
against
including this spirited stave in his new volume
will never be known.
Perhaps it did not fit in with the
generally
sombre character of most of its contents.
The second fragment is more serious
in tone, and from internal evidence Mr. Punch
is inclined to think that it was originally intended
to be cabled to the Times.
It may be about Mr. BRODRICK’s Army
scheme, but it may only be a plea for
Preferential Tariffs for the Colonies.
It is always difficult to see what KIPLING’s
Muse is really driving at:-
None
shall arise to help you, none shall come to your
aid,
When
your Princes pale for terror and the People are sore
afraid.
Ye
shall be slaves and bondmen, ye shall be bought
and sold,
Yea
in the open market they shall buy your sons for
gold.
Tempests
shall sink your shipping, founder it far and wide,
From
Land’s End to the Orkneys, from Portland Bill to
the Clyde
Ye
shall hide your bloodless faces, ye shall tremble
and turn to flight,
When
the Star of War, like a comet, flares full on your
fields by night.
Riddled
with all diseases, wrecked past hope shall ye be,
Ruined
beyond
redemption unless ye listen to ME!
I thought it was all rather fun, so Ithought I'd share it
with the mailbase.
Alastair Wilson
(Sorry if the founts and type size are a bit erratic -
my computes has gone all independent on me!