28 Yeats and Bernard Shaw [1902 



been in that, his reply was that a Dutch Government would have been 

 a corrupt one, after the fashion of the South American Republics. I 

 walked back with him as far as Hyde Park Corner. 



' 10th June. — A lecture by Yeats at the Clifford's Inn Hall in ex- 

 planation of his theory of recitation. As an entertainment it was excel- 

 lent, as he had got three ladies who recited admirably to the accom- 

 paniment of the psaltery invented by Dolmetsch, who himself took the 

 chair at the meeting and explained everything musically. Yeats, how- 

 ever, was far from convincing me that the method was either new or 

 good as a way of reading poetry, indeed it reduced the verse to the 

 position it holds in an opera libretto. It was impossible to distinguish 

 whether the words were sense or only sound, and the whole effect de- 

 pended on the reciter. 



" nth June. — With Neville to another lecture to hear Bernard 

 Shaw defend his position as a Socialist (especially as to the part he had 

 taken against the Boers in the late war). It was a very clever per- 

 formance, for he is a brilliant and ready speaker full of paradox and 

 ingenious jesting, but it was clear his socialist audience was not much 

 with him, and it was impossible to take his doctrines seriously. To 

 me the Fabian position has nothing to recommend it. It is socialism 

 without the few humanitarian virtues which commonly go with it, 

 without romance and without honesty of principle, only opportunism. 



" 15th June (Sunday). — Newbuildings. Yeats is here with others, 

 and we had an afternoon of poetry, but all agreed that Yeats' theories 

 of recitation were wrong, useful only for concealing indifferent verse. 

 When he recites it is impossible to follow the meaning, or judge whether 

 the verse is good or bad. All the same he is a true poet, more than 

 his work reveals him to be, and he is full of ideas, original and true, 

 with wit into the bargain. We all like him. 



" I am trying to dramatize one of the Cuchulain episodes for Yeats 

 to bring out next year in his Cuchulain cycle of plays at Dublin 

 ['Fand']. 



" 23rd June. — The whole of London is decorated for the Corona- 

 tion, the line of the processions being barricaded with stands for spec- 

 tators, covered with red cloth. Though the decorations are not gen- 

 erally in the best taste, the general effect is gay, and the grime of 

 London is clothed and put out of sight. Very few modern buildings 

 are not improved by being faced with scaffolding. Immense crowds 

 parade the streets, and traffic is blocked. 



" 24th June. — A bolt has fallen from the blue. The King is ill, 

 has undergone an operation, and the Coronation is postponed." [So 

 little was the misfortune expected that the King and Queen had been 

 photographed, robed and crowned in anticipation. I have one of these 

 photographs by me still. There never was so dramatic a misfortune.] 



