INItaly opera is a tree which has sprung from a seed and grown swiftly in the course of centuries to an exuberant, perhaps an over-exuberant, maturity. It has been fertilised from other countries, but its trunk has kept one firm straight line by its own perfectly natural development. In England that tree has not flourished. Various attempts have been made to naturalize it, but for the most part the English cultivators never produced more than stunted and distorted growths. Even when they seemed to do well for a time they bore curiously little resemblance to their original parent. Other gardeners, observing how meagrely the tree prospered in the open ground, transplanted opera full-grown from Italy, and did their best to provide it artificially with its own soil and its own climate. It was an expensive amusement, and the more expensive it was the more successful its promoters proclaimed it to be. But it could not be called naturalization. The only course which has shown any signs of being practicable was to graft the foreign shoot on to a sturdy native growth, if a suitable stock could be found. But it is a process requiring careful handling and careful watching, for the tree takes a long time to become thoroughly acclimatized.
It is pretty generally agreed that English opera must be preceded by opera in English. Our public—our real public, that is to say, not the handful of people who concentrate a special attention on opera, both English and foreign—will not be ready to take new native operas to their hearts until they have got thoroughly into the habit of enjoying those popular works which form the international repertory. Those operas—Faust,Carmen,Il Trovatore, and the rest—are popular in England already, it will be said. Yes, as operas go, they are indeed popular; but only among those people, in whatever section of society, who have developed the opera habit. For even in what are called the popular theatres, where they are played in English to cheap and crowded audiences, they are almost always exotic still. If it were not that a large majority of operas are called by the names of their principal characters, we should see more significance in the fact that we speak of the others in nearly every case by their native titles, and do not translate them. We have learnt to talk ofThe Magic FluteandThe Flying Dutchman; but even at the "Old Vic." they keep the names ofIl Trovatore,La Traviata, andCavalleria Rusticana.
Wherever they are played by English singers in English theatres they remain, as it were, extra-territorial. To begin with, the translations of nearly all popular operas are abominable. This has been said many times before. But what has not been said so often is that, abominable as they are, there is hardly an opera-singer who is willing to learn a new translation, even when it is candidly admitted that the new translation is easier to sing than the old one. There are plenty of sound reasons for this apparent obstinacy. It is not due merely to laziness or to the vested interests of publishers. What is far more important is that a new translation, if it is really good, involves a new style of singing, a new style of acting, a new scheme for the entire production of the opera. The average opera-singer learns his parts in a spirit of routine. He cannot waste time over trying to find out the plot of the opera or to analyse the personalities of the characters. He learns the traditions and is ready to step into his part without rehearsal in any operatic company that may happen to engage him. It may sound very shocking to the reader that operas should be put on the stage without any rehearsal whatever; but it is nothing unusualin the world of actual fact. After all, it is not much more unreasonable that an opera company should singMaritanawithout rehearsing than that an orchestra of professionals should give an unrehearsed performance of the overture toWilliam Tellor the ballet music fromRosamunde.
Sir Thomas Beecham, when he first formed his opera company, sought out youth, intelligence and enthusiasm. He began in a brave and gallant spirit, and in his company there is still something of that spirit left. At the beginning it was hardly expected that he would do much better than the well-known provincial companies which used occasionally to give a season in London. But he aimed at storming Covent Garden. Covent Garden was inaccessible during the war, partly because no foreign singers were available to fill it, and partly because it was already filled with furniture. The war ended, the old Covent Garden exotic opera reappeared. Sir Thomas, however, did not leave its territory inviolate, and he is now in complete possession. But Covent Garden has been too strong for the invaders. Like the barbarians who invaded Italy, they are becoming Romanised. At Covent Garden there are boxes and box-holders who adore Melba, Caruso, and the rest. There is a splendid orchestra, there are fine singers, there is magnificent scenery. But the longer the company stays there the less chance there seems to be of their preparing the way for the real English opera of the future.
What English opera wants is an audience. And the best audience that I have ever seen in any opera-house in Europe is the audience at the "Old Vic." Italian audiences are reputed to be appreciative; but they are interested primarily in singing and in little else. They are critical of this only, and they have a certain tendency to be cruel. The "Old Vic." audience, if it is bored, lets the actors know it; but it is never cruel, and it is ready to appreciate other things besides mere singing. Once its attention has been secured there is no audience to equal it for quick intelligence and responsiveness to both tragedy and comedy. But Covent Garden has no pit, and its gallery is too small and too distant to assert itself.
Half-way between the "Old Vic." and Covent Garden stands the new enterprise of Messrs. Miln and Fairbairn, at the Surrey. The Surrey has secured its audience. It has begun with the old familiar favourites, but it has also included in its repertoryThe Flying DutchmanandDon Giovanni, both of which have drawn full houses. Very wisely the management has not wasted its money on elaborate scenery, though it is in a position to stage theFlying Dutchmanquite adequately, and that is no small matter. There is an orchestra which, if not large, is at least complete. It began by being rather rough, and even inDon Giovanni, for which it is just exactly balanced in proportion of wind and strings, it only too forcibly recalled the criticisms made by Mozart's contemporaries on his overpowering orchestration. It is in their singers that Messrs. Miln and Fairbairn have been peculiarly successful. Youth, intelligence, and enthusiasm are certainly well represented here.
Mr. Fairbairn, who is responsible for the production of the operas, has in this company a wonderful opportunity, if he will only seize it. Here is a splendid house that combines the dignity of an eighteenth-century design with the practical convenience of an interior recently remodelled; an audience with no critical and social pretensions to keep up, but unsophisticated, appreciative, and alert; and a company of young singers keen to learn and ready to throw themselves generously into their work. Starting on such abasis, the Surrey has every chance to develop into a great and flourishing school of English opera. But to develop such a school needs more than average courage, initiative, intelligence, and hard work. It means that gradually, one by one, the translations of all the standard operas must be thoroughly revised. Along with this revision there must be a thorough-going revision and reconsideration from the beginning of the system on which each opera is produced. Tradition must be abandoned if it cannot be justified by common sense. Each opera must be worked out afresh from the beginning, as if it had never been put on the stage before. And the director of such a school must be prepared to face possible hostility towards his revisions. There will always be some among his audience who prefer the old tradition, good or bad, simply because they like to hear what they have always heard. Such people have got to be convinced and converted. That is not impossible. Even operatic audiences have a certain amount of common sense, and it is to common sense that an operatic producer must not be afraid of appealing. The plots of most operas are generally admitted to be nonsense, but that is no reason why one should not make a vigorous effort to put sense into them. Few plots could be more absurd than that ofIl Trovatore; but if Verdi succeeded in writing music that, by virtue of its persistent directness, its unswerving pursuit of its dramatic end, has madeIl Trovatoreone of the greatest operas ever composed, surely it is worth a producer's while to concentrate attention on making the libretto as clear and as sure of its dramatic intention as the music is. The translator of an opera must not rest satisfied with merely translating each line as singably and as reasonably as he can, just as it happens to come along. He must regard the libretto as a literary whole, must endeavour to attain some unity of style, and still more to achieve a cumulative dramatic effect by little touches, significant phrases to fit important musical phrases; he must in each recitative or aria see at once where the climax is and fit it with a telling point, to which the rest of the movement will lead up. He must differentiate his characters, giving each its own literary individuality. If his original text is a bad one he must improve upon it. There are many cases in which a librettist has had a good idea but has failed to express it adequately. Sometimes the composer has understood the idea and has clothed the wretched words with music that lifts them on to a higher plane. The translator here finds his opportunity, and must do his best to find English words which may express the poet's intention rather than his actual achievement.
The singer who meets with a good translation is no longer uncomfortable, nervous, and ashamed about his part. He finds that he can bring home his songs to his audience in a way that he never could before; he learns to realise his part as a personality, he may even get as far as beginning to imagine what the character in question might have said or done when he was not on the stage. In this way the double appeal to the audience can be made, the appeal that is irresistible, the appeal to their own common sense, coupled with the overwhelming appeal of real personality in the actor.
If all operatic directors insisted resolutely on good translations and insisted that their singers should sing them like real natural English, we might develop a really English school of opera. Our own poets and composers could watch and listen, and possibly learn something which would guide them in the construction of their own original librettos and music. They would gradually come to find out what even our song-writers have only very partially discovered, namely, what are the true dramatic possibilities of English voices singing English poetry.
EDWARD J. DENT
SELECT LIST OF PUBLICATIONSARTJOHN ZOFFANY, R.A.: HIS LIFE AND WORKS, 1735–1810. ByLady Victoria MannersandDr. G. C. Williamson. John Lane. £7 7s.BELLES-LETTRESSHAKESPEARE IDENTIFIED IN EDWARD DE VERE, THE SEVENTEENTH EARL OF OXFORD. ByJ. Thomas Looney. Cecil Palmer. 21s.THE ENGLISH ODE TO 1660. An Essay in Literary History. ByRobert Shafer. Princeton: University Press. London: Milford. 3s.6d.SOME MODERN NOVELISTS. By H. T. andW. Follett.Allen & Unwin. 7s.6d.BOOKS IN GENERAL. Second Series. BySolomon Eagle. Secker, 7s.6d.BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIRSTHE PRIME MINISTER. ByHarold Spender. Hodder & Stoughton. 10s.6d.FROM AUTHORITY TO FREEDOM: THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIMAGE OF CHARLES HARGROVE. ByL. P. Jacks. Williams & Norgate. 12s.6d.THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF GEORGE ALFRED LEFROY, D.D., BISHOP OF CALCUTTA AND METROPOLITAN. ByH. H. Montgomery, sometime Bishop of Tasmania, late Secretary of the S.P.G. Longmans. 14s.LORD GREY OF THE REFORM BILL. ByG. M. Trevelyan. Longmans. 21s.SILVANUS PHILLIPS THOMPSON: HIS LIFE AND LETTERS. ByJane Smeal ThompsonandHelen G. Thompson. Fisher Unwin. 21s.CLASSICALSAPPHO AND THE VIGIL OF VENUS. Translated byArthur S. Way. Macmillan 3s.6d.THE TREES, SHRUBS, AND PLANTS OF VIRGIL. ByJohn Sargeaunt. Oxford Blackwell. 6s.DRAMAA LITTLE DRAMA OF THE CRUCIFIXION. Being a modernisation of the "Crucifixion" in the Towneley Mystery Plays,circaA.D.1400. ByDr. Ernest J. B. Kirtlan. Epworth Press, 1s.3d.WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE STAGE? ByWilliam Poel. Allen & Unwin. 2s.PROBLEMS OF THE PLAYWRIGHT. ByClayton Hamilton. Allen & Unwin. 7s.6d.FICTIONAN IMPERFECT MOTHER. ByJ. D. Beresford. Collins. 7s.6d.THE BLACK CURTAIN. ByDouglas Goldring. Chapman & Hall. 7s.6d.MISER'S MONEY. ByEden Phillpotts. Heinemann. 7s.6d.PIRATES OF THE SPRING. ByForrest Reid. Dublin: Talbot Press. London: Fisher Unwin. 7s.THE TRIUMPHS OF SARA. ByW. E. Norris. Hutchinson. 7s.6d.ADVENTURES IN MARRIAGE. ByWard Muir. Simpkin, Marshall. 6s.MARY-GIRL. ByHope Merrick. Collins. 7s.UNCLE LIONEL. By S. P. B.Mais. Grant Richards. 7s.6d.THE HOUSE OF BALTAZAR. ByWilliam J. Locke. John Lane. 7s.THE WHITE POPE. By S. R.Crockett. Liverpool: Books Limited. 6s.ROAST BEEF, MEDIUM. ByEdna Ferber. Methuen. 6s.RACHEL FITZPATRICK. ByLady Poore. John Lane. 7s.TATTERDEMALION. ByJohn Galsworthy. Heinemann. 7s.6d.ADMIRAL TEACH. By C. J.Cutcliffe Hyne. Methuen. 7s.THE GODS OF MARS. ByEdgar Rice Burroughs. Methuen. 6s.HISTORYMEDIÆVAL FORGERS AND FORGERIES. By T. F.Tout. Manchester: University Press. London: Longmans. 1s.A HISTORY OF THE VENERABLE ENGLISH COLLEGE, ROME. By His EminenceCardinal Gasquet. Longmans. 15s.ERASMUS AND LUTHER. ByRobert H. Murray. S.P.C.K. 25s.THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. By J. H.Pollen. Longmans. 21s.NAVAL AND MILITARYMY CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA. ByMajor-General Sir Charles V. F. Townshend, K.C.B.Thornton Butterworth. 28s.NAVAL OPERATIONS: VOL. I. TO THE BATTLE OF THE FALKLANDS, DECEMBER, 1914. BySir Julian S. Corbett. Longmans. 17s.6d.THE AMERICAN ARMY IN THE EUROPEAN CONFLICT. ByColonel de ChambrunandCaptain de Marenches. The Macmillan Co. 18s.REALITIES OF WAR. ByPhilip Gibbs. Heinemann. 15s.THE SOUTH AFRICAN FORCES IN FRANCE. ByLieut.-Colonel John Buchan. Nelson. 15s.WITH THE "DIE-HARDS" IN SIBERIA. ByColonel John Ward, C.B.Cassell. 10s.6d.POETRYCOUNTRY SENTIMENT. ByRobert Graves. Secker. 5s.THE WHITE ROAD. ByEva Martin. Philip Allan. 3s.6d.MORE TRANSLATIONS FROM HEINE. ByPhilip G. L. Webb, C.B.Allen & Unwin. 3s.6d.FLOWERS IN THE GRASS. ByMaurice Hewlett. Constable. 5s.ULSTER SONGS AND BALLADS. ByPadric Gregory. Dublin: Talbot Press. London: Fisher Unwin. 2s.6d.THE WELL OF BEING. ByHerbert Jones. Lane. 5s.POLITICS, ECONOMICS, etc.FLEET STREET AND DOWNING STREET. ByKennedy Jones. Hutchinson. 16s.SOCIAL THEORY. ByG. D. H. Cole. Methuen. 5s.THE UNSOLVED RIDDLE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE. ByStephen Leacock. John Lane. 5s.THE SOCIAL WORKER. ByC. R. Attlee. (The Social Service Library.) Bell. 6s.COAL MINING AND THE COAL MINER. ByH. F. Bulman. Methuen. 12s.6d.ECONOMICS FOR TO-DAY. An Elementary View. ByAlfred Milnes. Dent. 3s.6d.THE EVOLUTION OF SINN FEIN. ByRobert Mitchell Henry. Dublin: Talbot Press. London: Fisher Unwin. 5s.ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY. ByMajor C. H. Douglas. Cecil Palmer. 5s.THE NEW GERMANY. ByGeorge Young. Constable. 8s.INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PROBLEMS. ByDr. G. Vissering. Macmillan. 4s.RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHYTHE EUCHARISTIC SACRIFICE. ByDarwell Stone. Robert Scott. 3s.6d.THE RE-MAKING OF A MIND. A Soldier's Thoughts on War and Reconstruction. Allen & Unwin. 7s.6d.MORNING KNOWLEDGE. ByAlastair Shannon. Longmans. 14s.THE SWORD OF JUSTICE. ByJohn Eyre Winstanley Wallis, Brasenose College, Oxford; Vicar of Whalley. With an Introduction byErnest Barker, Fellow and Tutor of New College, Oxford. Oxford: Blackwell. 5s.SCIENCEAN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF CYTOLOGY. ByL. Doncaster, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge; Derby Professor of Zoology in the University of Liverpool. Cambridge University Press. 21s.THE FOUNDATIONS OF EINSTEIN'S THEORY OF GRAVITATION. ByErwin Freundlich. Cambridge University Press. 5s.THE THEORY OF THE IMAGINARY IN GEOMETRY. ByJ. L. S. Hatton, Professor of Mathematics and Principal of East London College. Cambridge University Press. 18s.THE PRINCIPLES OF AEROGRAPHY. ByAlexander McAdie. Harrap. 21s.COLLECTED SCIENTIFIC PAPERS. ByJohn Henry Poynting. Cambridge University Press. 37s.6d.
JOHN ZOFFANY, R.A.: HIS LIFE AND WORKS, 1735–1810. ByLady Victoria MannersandDr. G. C. Williamson. John Lane. £7 7s.
SHAKESPEARE IDENTIFIED IN EDWARD DE VERE, THE SEVENTEENTH EARL OF OXFORD. ByJ. Thomas Looney. Cecil Palmer. 21s.
THE ENGLISH ODE TO 1660. An Essay in Literary History. ByRobert Shafer. Princeton: University Press. London: Milford. 3s.6d.
SOME MODERN NOVELISTS. By H. T. andW. Follett.Allen & Unwin. 7s.6d.
BOOKS IN GENERAL. Second Series. BySolomon Eagle. Secker, 7s.6d.
THE PRIME MINISTER. ByHarold Spender. Hodder & Stoughton. 10s.6d.
FROM AUTHORITY TO FREEDOM: THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIMAGE OF CHARLES HARGROVE. ByL. P. Jacks. Williams & Norgate. 12s.6d.
THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF GEORGE ALFRED LEFROY, D.D., BISHOP OF CALCUTTA AND METROPOLITAN. ByH. H. Montgomery, sometime Bishop of Tasmania, late Secretary of the S.P.G. Longmans. 14s.
LORD GREY OF THE REFORM BILL. ByG. M. Trevelyan. Longmans. 21s.
SILVANUS PHILLIPS THOMPSON: HIS LIFE AND LETTERS. ByJane Smeal ThompsonandHelen G. Thompson. Fisher Unwin. 21s.
SAPPHO AND THE VIGIL OF VENUS. Translated byArthur S. Way. Macmillan 3s.6d.
THE TREES, SHRUBS, AND PLANTS OF VIRGIL. ByJohn Sargeaunt. Oxford Blackwell. 6s.
A LITTLE DRAMA OF THE CRUCIFIXION. Being a modernisation of the "Crucifixion" in the Towneley Mystery Plays,circaA.D.1400. ByDr. Ernest J. B. Kirtlan. Epworth Press, 1s.3d.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE STAGE? ByWilliam Poel. Allen & Unwin. 2s.
PROBLEMS OF THE PLAYWRIGHT. ByClayton Hamilton. Allen & Unwin. 7s.6d.
AN IMPERFECT MOTHER. ByJ. D. Beresford. Collins. 7s.6d.
THE BLACK CURTAIN. ByDouglas Goldring. Chapman & Hall. 7s.6d.
MISER'S MONEY. ByEden Phillpotts. Heinemann. 7s.6d.
PIRATES OF THE SPRING. ByForrest Reid. Dublin: Talbot Press. London: Fisher Unwin. 7s.
THE TRIUMPHS OF SARA. ByW. E. Norris. Hutchinson. 7s.6d.
ADVENTURES IN MARRIAGE. ByWard Muir. Simpkin, Marshall. 6s.
MARY-GIRL. ByHope Merrick. Collins. 7s.
UNCLE LIONEL. By S. P. B.Mais. Grant Richards. 7s.6d.
THE HOUSE OF BALTAZAR. ByWilliam J. Locke. John Lane. 7s.
THE WHITE POPE. By S. R.Crockett. Liverpool: Books Limited. 6s.
ROAST BEEF, MEDIUM. ByEdna Ferber. Methuen. 6s.
RACHEL FITZPATRICK. ByLady Poore. John Lane. 7s.
TATTERDEMALION. ByJohn Galsworthy. Heinemann. 7s.6d.
ADMIRAL TEACH. By C. J.Cutcliffe Hyne. Methuen. 7s.
THE GODS OF MARS. ByEdgar Rice Burroughs. Methuen. 6s.
MEDIÆVAL FORGERS AND FORGERIES. By T. F.Tout. Manchester: University Press. London: Longmans. 1s.
A HISTORY OF THE VENERABLE ENGLISH COLLEGE, ROME. By His EminenceCardinal Gasquet. Longmans. 15s.
ERASMUS AND LUTHER. ByRobert H. Murray. S.P.C.K. 25s.
THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. By J. H.Pollen. Longmans. 21s.
MY CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA. ByMajor-General Sir Charles V. F. Townshend, K.C.B.Thornton Butterworth. 28s.
NAVAL OPERATIONS: VOL. I. TO THE BATTLE OF THE FALKLANDS, DECEMBER, 1914. BySir Julian S. Corbett. Longmans. 17s.6d.
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN THE EUROPEAN CONFLICT. ByColonel de ChambrunandCaptain de Marenches. The Macmillan Co. 18s.
REALITIES OF WAR. ByPhilip Gibbs. Heinemann. 15s.
THE SOUTH AFRICAN FORCES IN FRANCE. ByLieut.-Colonel John Buchan. Nelson. 15s.
WITH THE "DIE-HARDS" IN SIBERIA. ByColonel John Ward, C.B.Cassell. 10s.6d.
COUNTRY SENTIMENT. ByRobert Graves. Secker. 5s.
THE WHITE ROAD. ByEva Martin. Philip Allan. 3s.6d.
MORE TRANSLATIONS FROM HEINE. ByPhilip G. L. Webb, C.B.Allen & Unwin. 3s.6d.
FLOWERS IN THE GRASS. ByMaurice Hewlett. Constable. 5s.
ULSTER SONGS AND BALLADS. ByPadric Gregory. Dublin: Talbot Press. London: Fisher Unwin. 2s.6d.
THE WELL OF BEING. ByHerbert Jones. Lane. 5s.
FLEET STREET AND DOWNING STREET. ByKennedy Jones. Hutchinson. 16s.
SOCIAL THEORY. ByG. D. H. Cole. Methuen. 5s.
THE UNSOLVED RIDDLE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE. ByStephen Leacock. John Lane. 5s.
THE SOCIAL WORKER. ByC. R. Attlee. (The Social Service Library.) Bell. 6s.
COAL MINING AND THE COAL MINER. ByH. F. Bulman. Methuen. 12s.6d.
ECONOMICS FOR TO-DAY. An Elementary View. ByAlfred Milnes. Dent. 3s.6d.
THE EVOLUTION OF SINN FEIN. ByRobert Mitchell Henry. Dublin: Talbot Press. London: Fisher Unwin. 5s.
ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY. ByMajor C. H. Douglas. Cecil Palmer. 5s.
THE NEW GERMANY. ByGeorge Young. Constable. 8s.
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PROBLEMS. ByDr. G. Vissering. Macmillan. 4s.
THE EUCHARISTIC SACRIFICE. ByDarwell Stone. Robert Scott. 3s.6d.
THE RE-MAKING OF A MIND. A Soldier's Thoughts on War and Reconstruction. Allen & Unwin. 7s.6d.
MORNING KNOWLEDGE. ByAlastair Shannon. Longmans. 14s.
THE SWORD OF JUSTICE. ByJohn Eyre Winstanley Wallis, Brasenose College, Oxford; Vicar of Whalley. With an Introduction byErnest Barker, Fellow and Tutor of New College, Oxford. Oxford: Blackwell. 5s.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF CYTOLOGY. ByL. Doncaster, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge; Derby Professor of Zoology in the University of Liverpool. Cambridge University Press. 21s.
THE FOUNDATIONS OF EINSTEIN'S THEORY OF GRAVITATION. ByErwin Freundlich. Cambridge University Press. 5s.
THE THEORY OF THE IMAGINARY IN GEOMETRY. ByJ. L. S. Hatton, Professor of Mathematics and Principal of East London College. Cambridge University Press. 18s.
THE PRINCIPLES OF AEROGRAPHY. ByAlexander McAdie. Harrap. 21s.
COLLECTED SCIENTIFIC PAPERS. ByJohn Henry Poynting. Cambridge University Press. 37s.6d.
Transcribers' NotesGreek transliterations provided by transcribers are enclosed in {curly braces}. Greek letters and special symbols that cannot be displayed with simple text have been omitted from some versions of this eBook, and may be displayed as question marks on some mobile devices.Footnotes have been moved to immediately follow the paragraphs or headings that refer to them.Since this eBook contains text written by many authors, inconsistencies in spelling and punctuation have not been changed.Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.Inconsistent hyphenation and ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.Text uses both "Newdigate" and "Newdegate".Page53: "God bless your Majesty" is missing ending punctuation.Page65: "the corn of the crocus" perhaps should be "corm".Page201: "rallying-point or the new" perhaps should be "of".Page202: "an" was added by Transcribers to "a familiar thing from an unfamiliar angle", as there was empty space where a short word belonged.Page243: "Les Précieuses Ridicules" was printed without the acute accent.Page262: "Keatsiam" probably should be "Keatsian".Page367: Unclear whether the punctuation after "Ramsay Macdonald" is a comma or period.Page388: "rake-hells" was printed that way.Page388: "with a priceless gift" had blank space where the "a" has been added in this eBook.Page560: "as the authors' record" was printed with the apostrophe.Page608: "deeplier" was printed that way.Page714: The printing of "twenty more he lover's" was defective.
Greek transliterations provided by transcribers are enclosed in {curly braces}. Greek letters and special symbols that cannot be displayed with simple text have been omitted from some versions of this eBook, and may be displayed as question marks on some mobile devices.
Footnotes have been moved to immediately follow the paragraphs or headings that refer to them.
Since this eBook contains text written by many authors, inconsistencies in spelling and punctuation have not been changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.
Inconsistent hyphenation and ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
Text uses both "Newdigate" and "Newdegate".
Page53: "God bless your Majesty" is missing ending punctuation.
Page65: "the corn of the crocus" perhaps should be "corm".
Page201: "rallying-point or the new" perhaps should be "of".
Page202: "an" was added by Transcribers to "a familiar thing from an unfamiliar angle", as there was empty space where a short word belonged.
Page243: "Les Précieuses Ridicules" was printed without the acute accent.
Page262: "Keatsiam" probably should be "Keatsian".
Page367: Unclear whether the punctuation after "Ramsay Macdonald" is a comma or period.
Page388: "rake-hells" was printed that way.
Page388: "with a priceless gift" had blank space where the "a" has been added in this eBook.
Page560: "as the authors' record" was printed with the apostrophe.
Page608: "deeplier" was printed that way.
Page714: The printing of "twenty more he lover's" was defective.