JUNE 107 



actual conversation as he can conveniently gather 

 together. Our Laureate, as we who read our 

 Times know well, is nothing if not articulate. He 

 gives us poems to fit our many imperial moods, 

 and we are secure of the enjoyment at first hand 

 of the inspiring afflatus, because we are assured 

 that we receive them just as they come to him. 

 I suppose, therefore, that the mere man does not 

 venture to correct, to add to, or to take from the 

 heaven-sent beauties bestowed on the poet's pen. 



In the Garden that I Love there is a consider- 

 able amount of Mr. Austin's verse. It is difficult 

 to know how much, for both he and Shakespeare 

 are alike without quotation marks. This is a great 

 pity. The original verse might have stood un- 

 supported, but surely Shakespeare and other similar 

 writers should have been propped by quotation 

 marks. How else can we distinguish between them 



o 



and him ? The situation even disarms criticism, 

 if any criticism were possible, for how could the 

 mere ordinary person venture to take exception to 

 a passage which might turn out to be Milton's ? 

 It is obvious that the only thing to be done by 

 the wary reader is to ignore the poetical portions 

 of the book, and to enjoy that part which describes 

 the garden and its inhabitants ; even so there is 

 much still left us. 



Four persons inhabit the Garden that I Love 

 the writer, who is also the gardener, his sister 

 Veronica, and his friends the poet and Lamia. At 

 least we are artfully persuaded that there are four 

 persons ; in reality there are only two Veronica, 

 and the gardener-poet rolled with Lamia into one. 



