Unparliamentary papers and other diversions

Unparliamentary papers and other diversions

I happen to frequent Captain Berkeleys company on the cricket field. When he is there, and the wicket is bumpy, it might suitably be called a stricken field. He bowls very fast and very straight. As his publisher usually keeps wicket for him, I dare not suggest that the crooked ones go for four byes. In any event that parallel would not be necessary here; but the general characteristics of Captain Berkeleys bowling are certainly in evidence. He goes direct at his object, and when he hits it the middle stump whirls rapidly in the air. He is all for hitting the wicket; slip catches and cunningly arranged chances to cover are not for him. This blunt going for the main point it is that gives his parodies their greatest charm. I like it when I see a reference to Count Puffendorff Seidlitz, the Megalomanian Minister: if we are being funny, why not laugh aloud instead of merely tittering? Lord Miasma pleases me as a coinage full of meaning in these days; there is a refreshing lack of compromise about the name of the Galsworthy parson, The Rev. Hardy Heavyweight; and how better could one name two of Sir James Barries minor characters than by the twin appellations of McVittie and Price, who here take, as they elsewhere give, the biscuit? This agreeable couple appear in one of the mock plays which, to one reader at least,[Pg x] seem to be the very best part of this very miscellaneous volume. Captain Berkeley is himself a successful playwright, and dog has here very entertainingly eaten dog. Mr. Galsworthys passion for abstract titles; his hostile preoccupation with the normal sporting man; his agonised sympathy with maltreated women; his determination to load the dice against his heroines: all these things are made clear in language very like his own, and yet in a way that suggests (to return to our imagery) that the bowler, however fast and determined, has a respect for the batsman. I dont know that it is quite fair to ascribe the Manchester Drama especially to Mr. St. John Ervine or even to Manchester; but we know the type, and if a few more blows like this will kill it, so much the better. It is well enough to be harrowed in the theatre, but not to be made to feel as though we had chronic dyspepsia. The Russian Drama is beautifully apt; and The Slayboy of the Western World also. They reproduce idioms and mannerisms perfectly, and exhibit limitations unanswerably. Perhaps the most refreshing thing about this book is its diversity. It is an age (excluding the merely vulgarly versatile) of specialists and specialist labels. A man is not expected to see life whole, much less steadily; he is encouraged to describe himself as poet,[Pg xi] parodist, politician, business man or what not; and it is regarded as almost improper that a person who takes an interest in Synge should so much as admit a knowledge of Mr. Winston Churchills existence. Captain Berkeley refuses to subject himself to any such limitations. He surveys everything around him, and where he sees anything he thinks funny, he has a go at it. This should not be regardedany more than Cannings squibs were regardedas militating against his trustworthiness as a politician. Rather the reverse. A knowledge of humanity and the humanities is serviceable in legislation and administration, and a sense of humour usually goes with the sense which is called common. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 68876
Author: Berkeley, Reginald
Release Date: Aug 31, 2022
Format: eBook
Language: English
Publisher: Cecil Palmer
Publication Date: 1924
Publisher Country: United Kingdom

Contributors

Illustrator: Lynch, Bohun, 1884-1928