572 



The Review of Reviews. 



another, representing mountains to climb or 

 ramparts to storm. The costumes are of silk 

 or gold and silver brocade for an Emperor, a 

 general, or other high personage. The people 

 are dressed as in real life. All the parts are 

 played by men, women's parts being taken by 

 boys. It is only during the last century or so 

 that women might go to the theatre. The plays 

 may be military and historical in character, or 

 they may have to do with everyday life. The 

 writer analyses several of them. 



MR. BERNARD SHAW IN FRANCE. 



Recently two of Mr. Bernard Shaw's plays 

 have been performed in Paris, but his work is 

 still little known in France. M. Charles Cestre 

 has now pubhshed a study of Mr. Shaw, and in 

 the first October number of La Revue M. Emile 

 Faguet " talks about Mr. Shaw with M. 

 Cestre." 



Neither writer knows what to make of Mr. 

 Shaw. To M. Cestre his plays appear pro- 

 foundly philosophical. Though the paradox is 

 his medium M. Cestre finds him profound and 

 serious. M. Faguet, on the other hand, sees 

 nothing but paradox pure and simple in the 

 plays. Mr. Shaw, he says, has not the tran- 

 quillity, the calm, the moderation of Ibsen. His 

 personages are not solid, they have no pleni- 

 tude; everything is on the surface. In Ibsen 

 one feels this plenitude. One feels why Nora 

 leaves husband and children to recover her soul, 

 and that there is foolish vanity but also some 

 remorse in her determination. It is seldom one 

 feels anything like that in Mr. Shaw's plays. 

 He is not sincere in the real sense of the word. 

 He amuses himself; he is a Swift. He is both a 

 clown and a preacher, but M. Cestre thinks he 

 is a preacher dressed as a clown, while M. 

 Faguet is inclined to believe he is a clown 

 dressed as a preacher. He is consumed with 

 humour ; humour has made him its eternal prey. 

 M. Faguet doubts whether there is anyone in 

 Europe with more wit. The plays performed at 

 Paris were not a success. The French are 

 hlasd as to paradox, and the plays are too Eng- 

 lish. Mr. Shaw depicts only what he sees. 

 Shakespeare and Moli^re depicted much more 

 than they saw and became European in conse- 

 quence. Mr. Shaw's plays might be described 

 as paradox versus hypocrisy, humour versus 

 cant. 



It was not an easy matter to arrange, but finally 

 with the aid of M. Stolypin, himself a lover of 

 music and national songs, he was enabled to 

 undertake his quest. In La Revue of October 

 I St L^onie Si^nicka gives an account of his 

 enterprise. 



Arrived at Tobolsk, the exiles declared they 

 knew no songs, but the governor of the prison 

 explained to M. Hartfeld that songs, other than 

 those of the Church, were prohibited in all the 

 prisons. It needed the most categorical declara- 

 tion on the part of the governor that they would 

 not be punished this time if they sang for the 

 visitor before any of the prisoners would admit 

 their ability to sing and play. Finally, under 

 a conductor chosen from their number, they per- 

 formed a whole series of songs of the most 

 diverse character. During his travels in Siberia 

 M. Hartfeld collected and transcribed 120 songs 

 and melodies, some as sung by the convicts and 

 others as sung by the people of foreign races 

 who inhabit different parts of the country. In 

 the prisons musical instruments are forbidden, 

 but the prisoners used combs to play their 

 accompaniments, marking the rhythm by clank- 

 ing their fetters. 



SONGS OF RUSSIAN EXILES. 



A Swedish musician, William Hartfeld, con- 

 ceived the idea of visiting the prisons of Siberia 

 ro collect the songs of the people who furnish 

 their contingent to these "houses of death.'- 



TWO WANDERING MINSTRELS. 



The master of all the Minnesingers, Walther 

 von der Vogelweide, is the subject of an interest- 

 ing article by Mr. Henry Bett in the October 

 number of the London Quarterly Review. 



THE MASTER MINNESINGER. 



During the last half century there has been a 

 remarkable renewal of interest in the lyrical 

 poetry of the Middle Ages and Walther von der 

 Vogelweide (about 11 70-1 230) has been acclaimed 

 afresh the greatest Minnesinger of South Ger- 

 many. Many of his poems have been modernised 

 and translations have made them accessible, 

 though the translators are compelled to admit 

 that reproduction of the original is almost a 

 hopeless undertaking. As a minstrel Walther 

 wandered from castle to castle and court to 

 court, and passed his life depending on the fickle 

 patronage of princes. One of these castles was 

 the famous castle of the Wartburg, the home of 

 St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Legend makes him 

 play a prominent part in the Sangerkrieg, or 

 poetic contest, of 1206, when Landgraf Hermann 

 summoned the best-known poets of the day to a 

 trial of skill at this castle. 



Apart from the politics of his time, many of 

 Walther's poems are diflficult to understand. 

 But it may be said he always denounced the 

 Papacy and took the side of the Empire and 

 German nationality and his poems exercised a 



