Here the meaning is obscured, possibly because the device referred to had passed out of use in the translator's time. Compare with what Addison wrote: Lumina passim Angustos penetrant aditus, qua plurima visum Fila secant, ne, cum vacuo datur ore fenestra, Pervia fraus pateat. What Powell really did was to cover the proscenium opening of his little stage with open-meshed wire latticework, a very effective method of hiding the shining wires with which he worked the puppets. Proof that this was his method, as likewise proof that Addison was describing his show, is to be found in the forty-fourth Tatler, wherein Steele, in the heat of a pretended controversy with the elder showman, writes: But I would have him to know that I can look beyond his wires and know very well the whole trick of his art; and that it is only by these wires that the eye of the spectator is cheated and hindered from seeing that there is a thread on one of Mr. Punch's chops, which draws it up, and lets it fall at the discretion of the said Powell, who stands behind and plays him, and makes him speak saucily of his betters. Still sticking to the belated translation of his poem, we next find Addison discussing the idiosyncrasies of the seventeenth-century Punch: The chief of all the troupe, and first in fame, An hoarse-voiced droll appears, and Punch his name, Him, large and waggish rolling eyes denote, He dares, with jest obscene and action rude, His boist'rous hug the daintiest dames prophane, And maids of wood are coy and cold in vain. Powell's headquarters in the reign of Queen Anne were on the little Piazza of Covent Garden, where 'Punch's Theatre,' as his show was called, was neatly fitted up with pit and boxes, and where there was great resort of youth and age, despite the fact that the entertainment was seldom virginibus puerisque. But the Powells strove valiantly to cater for all tastes, and steadily amassed an extensive repertory of plays and operas on subjects both sacred and profane. For the adult mind, however, the chief attraction of the show lay in the topicality and sly allusiveness of Mr. Punch's wit. In this he established a precedent which has been notably followed by that other great Aristophanic institution, the Punch of the Press. One of the original notes to 'The Dunciad' reveals to us that contemporary poetasters were in the habit of writing mordacious epilogues on the scandals and follies of the hour for Powell's show, not to speak of squibs for due explosion in the main entertainment. Even the government bowed to the authority of Mr. Punch as censor morum. When the French prophets gravely disturbed the credulous by their sensational pronouncements in Moorfields, the Ministry, foreseeing that direct action would only fan the flame, adopted a tactful method. of quelling their fanaticism. They instructed Mr. Punch to turn prophet, 'which he did so well,' as Lord Chesterfield afterward related, 'that it soon put an end to the prophets and their prophecies.' It was as yet a far cry to the immortal drama of Punch and Judy, but some of the elements of that masterpiece had already crystallized. Punch had begun to be plagued by a scolding wife, but he knew her as Joan, not Judy. 'Gone, gone To my room; and a pool of twilight 'I will live here no more, I swear it! And yet . . . when the dusk falls still, Will the voices, the footsteps, lure me To the house on Heartbreak Hill?' 'LIKE THEE' Translated from the book of Spanish poems entitled Verses and Utterances of a Wayfarer of León-Felipe, by Albert F. S. Rowe. SUCH is my life, Like thee; like thee, Like thee, A pebble rolling Humble stone of the highway; Who on stormy days Liest deep, In the mire, And under the wheels; Like thee, who wast not made To be a stone A wandering stone; Who perchance wast made A small stone THE LIVING AGE Founded by E.LITTELL in 1844 JANUARY 29, 1921 A WEEK OF THE WORLD WRANGLING OVER TURKEY 'JOURNAL DES DEBATS,' discussing French policy toward Greece, observes that the friendship between the Bolsheviki and the Turkish Nationalists dates back for a longer period than is generally assumed. "The talk of taking away the territories given the Greeks overlooks the fact that the Turks who would recover them were the Allies of the Germans and the Bulgarians from 1914 to 1918, and the willing agents of Ludendorff.' Many Greek patriots fear that the country will not be able to defend both Thrace and Asia Minor and are not averse to withdrawing from the latter region. Should that action be taken the Allies would probably be called upon to garrison all Asia Minor in order to prevent a recurrence of Christian massacres. Le Temps, representing the preponderant sentiment in France, of hostility to Greece and friendliness to a revision of the Turkish Treaty which would satisfy the insurgents in Anatolia and detach them from their Bolshevist Allies, observes: "The Greece of Constantine is doubly under English protection. England is shielding Constantine from France, and simultaneously shielding from both France and Italy the treaty, which has alloted to the Greeks Smyrna, Gallipoli, and Adrianople.' After discussing Great Britain's efforts to come to an understanding with both the Bolsheviki and the Turkish Nationalists, this paper continues: 'Bringing together all the elements of the picture, we have revealed England's Near Eastern policy in its entirety: a protectorate over the Greece of Constantine, control of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Straits, the Zionist state in Palestine, the encouragement of Emir Feisul and the Hedjaz rulers, using the Greeks against the Turks, making the government at Constantinople a tool against the government at Angora, partition of Mohammedan Asia with the Bolsheviki, occupation of Mesopotamia, political and military control of Persia these are the different features of the vast programme which aims to incorporate within the British Empire practically all the former Ottoman Empire.' Meantime the London Nation adds the following suggestive comment: There is one advantage in a soldier's expositions of policy. They are frank. Here, for ex ample, is General Gouraud's exposition at Mar seilles of French policy in Syria, taken from La Democratie Nouvelle: 'Nous sommes en Syrie pour garantir l'execution du mandat français, et nous resterons en Copyright, 1921, by The Living Age Co, |