Max's Fantastic Erudition

[Max Beerbohm to the Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette]

30 May 1898

48 Upper Berkeley Street

Shakespeare's Sonnets

Dear Sir, I am sorry that serious men have been taking me seriously as a commentator on Shakespeare, and I hasten to admit that my theory of the heraldic metaphor was but an essay in fantastic erudition, or, as Mr Tyler rather crudely conjectures, "a practical joke". To Dr Furnivall I have already confessed, receiving a genial absolution.* To the others I apologise also. But have I really wasted anyone's time? The true scholar loves research for its own sake. The exhilaration is in the chase itself rather than in the "kill". That is a metaphor drawn from fox-hunting. It can be verified in the Badminton Library.

I am your obedient servant

Max Beerbohm

*On condition that Max should subscribe ten shillings to the Esperance Girls' Rowing Club at Hammersmith in which Furnivall took "a very human interest" (Men and Memories, Vol. I, by William Rothenstein, 1931). There is a splendid photograph of Furnivall with a buxom eight in Caught in the Web of Words by K. M. Elizabeth Murray (1977). [R. Hart-Davis]

-from Letters of Max Beerbohm 1892-1956 edited by Rupert Hart-Davis (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988) p. 15-16.

Heraldrie in Question

[Thomas Tyler* to the Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette]

May 1898

5 Thornhill Square, N

Shakespeare's Sonnets

Sir, A letter signed "Max Beerbohm" in the Pall Mall Gazette for May 7 has come under my notice. The letter mentions a line in Shakespeare's sixtieth sonnet which certainly presents some difficulty:

Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth

According to Mr Beerbohm the line contains a metaphor borrowed from heraldic usage. "Flourishes" were appendages to coats-of-arms indicating honours attained. Misconduct might be punished by a line "transfixing" the flourish. An alleged case in point is that of "the Earl of Forde", for information concerning which we are referred to "Hort's Compleat Booke of Antient Heraldrie and the Devices, published in 1653". Mr Beerbohm's suggestion would have been not without value if verification had been possible. Unfortunately this is not the case. No such work as that mentioned is to be found in the British Museum catalogue, or in that of the Bodleian or of the Huth Library, or in Moule's Bibliotheca Heraldica, or in other well-known lists. Dr Furnivall, who has taken a good deal of trouble in the matter, wrote to a friend of his, a distinguished member of the Heralds' College; but this gentleman knew nothing of "the Earl of Forde", and did not believe in "transfixed flourishes". I do not like to come to the conclusion that Mr Beerbohm's letter was a practical joke; but if so, it can scarcely be regarded as other than very objectionable. Appearing in a journal so well known and so influential as the Pall Mall Gazette, it may, as Dr. Furnivall points out, crop up again fifty years hence; and even now it may lead astray German or American students, who are unable to consult the great libraries of this country.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant

Thomas Tyler*

*Thomas Tyler: Shakespearean scholar (1826-1902), who produced the theory that the Dark Lady of the Sonnets was Mary Fitton. Shaw in the preface to his play The Dark Lady of the Sonnets described Tyler as "a gentleman of such astonishing and crushing ugliness that no one who had once seen him could ever therafter forget him". [R. Hart-Davis editor]; Edited an edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets (London: David Nutt, 1890).[Pepys].

-from Letters of Max Beerbohm 1892-1956 edited by Rupert Hart-Davis (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988) p. 14-15.

Shakespeare's Time

[Max Beerbohm to the Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette]

5 May 1898

48 Upper Berkeley Street

Shakespeare's Sonnets

Dear Sir,

Your reviewer complains that in Mr. George Wyndham's edition of the sonnets there is no note upon that much-debated line:

Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth.

Various editors have sought to elucidate this line in various ways, but so far as I know, none has hit upon the following explanation, which seems to me to be the only one that is quite plausible. In all ancient books of heraldry one finds that the chief escutcheons bear on either side certain wing-like appendages, which are technically called "flourishes". Each of these appendages signified "a noble Place or Poste under the Crowne". The tenure of a Royal seal or charter, for example, or admission to the Privy Council, entitled a nobleman to add one of these flourishes to his arms. But if for any misdemeanour he forfeited his privilege the heralds caused a line to be drawn through his flourish, which was thenceforth described by them as a "flourish transfix". Thus in Hort's Compleat Booke of Antient Heraldrie and the Devices, published in 1653, one finds that the arms of the Earl of Forde had as many as nine flourishes, two of which were crossed--one "transfix in the yeare 1540 for Rebellion". All flourishes were abolished by Charles II, soon after the Restoration, when it was found that many noblemen had contrived to embellish their arms with flourishes to which they had no right.

I am your obedient servant,

Max Beerbohm

-from Letters of Max Beerbohm 1892-1956 edited by Rupert Hart-Davis (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988) p. 14.

"The Incomparable Max"

To Bernard Shaw*

12 April 1898

48 Upper Berkeley Square, W.

My Dear G. B. S.,

I was very much pleased, as you may imagine, to receive your letter and the great compliment it implied. But your decision to retire from dramatic criticism rather depresses me--and I hope that you will reconsider it. You may be tired of the job, but "stale" you certainly are not--you are a weekly marvel of freshness and agility--and you certainly don't repeat yourself, though I am sure you would bear repetition.

Whether I could succeed you, I am by no means certain. There would be several difficulties. My mind is not very fertile, and any success I may have had is due to my own shrewdness in not doing much. I am afraid I might come an early and a nasty cropper off the hebdomadal tightrope. Also, I have no enthusiasm for the theatre--in fact I don't care a damn about the theatre. This would handicap me for decent criticism. Also, I have a big brother at Her Majesty's, and he would be rather compromised by my position, and I by his. Also I am an amiable person, and might be unable to speak ill of any bad actors, except those whom I have never met. And I have met so many, so many!

However, the position of dramatic critic to the Saturday is a dignified position--and regular emolument must be very nice. And I will wait and see what Frank Harris says--and whether you remain adamant.

The most obvious difficulty for me would be in following you. You have done so much in dramatic criticism, and I should be always tripping up in your large and deep footprints.

Meanwhile I am sincerely yours

Max Beerbohm.

*Shaw (1856-1950) had been dramatic critic of the Saturday Review since 1895. He was now preparing to retire and in his final article on 21 May 1898 he wrote: "The younger generation is knocking at the door; and as I open it there steps sprightly in the incomparable Max", whose first dramatic criticism appeared on 28 May 1898. Frank Harris had bought the paper in 1894, and had enlisted many leading writers as contributors.

--from Letters of Max Beerbohm 1892-1956 edited by Rupert Hart-Davis (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988) p. 13.

Max's Little Monster

To Edmund Gosse

Monday [8] June, 1896

19 Hyde Park Place, W.

Dear Mr. Gosse,

I send you a copy of my first book, and my excuse is that you, unconsciously, suggested the title of it. One afternoon of last summer, in the garden of a certain club, you were complaining of the folly of journalists, and you declared that, next time they asked you what works you had found most "helpful", you would say, "The Works of Max Beerbohm". So I send you the little monster that has been born of your mot, hoping you will be one of its keepers.

Yours very truly

Max Beerbohm

-from Letters of Max Beerbohm 1892-1956 edited by Rupert Hart-Davis (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988) p. 10.

Max Beerbohm's Worthing Friends

To Ada Leverson
[Late September 1894]
19 Hyde Park Place, W.

Dearest Mrs. Leverson, I am not surprised that our Worthing* friends think anything so witty as The Green Carnation must have been written by you. Probably too they are anxious to believe it comes from one of the rival sex. I hope you won't be able to make them believe you just yet. The whole thing is very piquant. Of course they are not offended.

It is sweet of you to ask me to come and see you tomorrow. If they have arrived I will bring you the proofs of my literary guilt which have strayed from the Bodley Head to Broadstairs and are I believe on their hither way. What agitated discussions Bosie and Osie must have had over the authorship of that book. I wonder if they thought of Hichens at all?
Till tomorrow.

Yours ever,
Max Beerbohm.

I hope this will catch the post.

*Oscar Wilde spent August and September 1894 at 5 Esplanade, Worthing, where he wrote the greater part of The Importance of Being Earnest.

-from Letters of Max Beerbohm 1892-1956 edited by Rupert Hart-Davis (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988) p. 5.