St Ignatius College - Ignatian Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

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.Anhrrm lang HE British literary world sustained a heavy A5 loss in the sudden death, on July 20, of 'Qf Andrew Lang, the litterateur and scholar. The deepest interest of the cultivated pub- lic throughout the English speaking world attaches to the life and name of this im- mortal Scotsman. gr! Qi Born at Selkirk on March 31, 1844, Andrew Lang was educated at Edinburgh Academy, at St. Andrews University, and finally at Balliol College, Oxford. He evidenced in his academic life the predilection for the classics which influenced so notably his future ideals. His translation of the Odyssey first brought him into the prominence en- hanced by his later translations of Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, the Iliad and the Homeric Hymns. He always ar- dently defended Homeric unity. The dust and awful treasures of the dead, Hath Learning scattered wide, but vainly thee Homer, she meteth with her tool of lead, And strives to rend thy songs, too blind to see The Crown that burns on thine immortal head, Of indivisible supremacy. Lang was an earnest Scotsmang critics have traced even his affection for things French, in particular for the Blessed Jeanne d'Arc, to Scottish history. In Almae Matres, among Rhymes a la Mode, he frankly ex- presses his loyalty to St. Andrew's: All these hath Oxfordg all are dear, But dearer far the little town The drifting surf, the wintry year The college of the scarlet gown- St. Andrew's by the Northern Sea. I 7

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IGNATIAN That Christ has made for fallen man To join the glorious caravan! Ye peaks bend low before the Lord, By all his faithful ones adored! Valley and golden Autumn field, A precious boon to jesus yield! Ye flowers, lend your perfume sweet! Ye birds, with carols jesus greet! Come, ye seraphs, forth, and sing, For Christ is come, and Christ is King! In holy awe the concourse sees, In holy awe sinks to its knees, Nor cares for rain, nor drenched streets But joyous hymns of praise repeats. And then as if in contrast great, The earthly prince, in earthly state, Rides slowly by, in humbled pride Adoring his Almighty Guide. He seems a tiny grain of sand, Compared to some tall mountain grand. They all forget his regal lot,- He passes, but they heed him not. 214 lk Dis Let all rejoice with gladsome praiseg The Lord His heavenly sceptre sways, While Hell's grim despot's bound in chains For Jesus-sweetest jesus reigns. Thos. H Foster

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26 IGNA TIAN To his having been nursed on the knees of the hills of the north fBallade of his own Countryj, as well as to his excursions into French literature was due, also, no doubt, the distinguishing grace of his writings. While chiefly occupied as scholar, translator, journalist, critic, Lang was a master of metrical forms. His .Ballades in Blue China won for him recognition, and his subsequent works in this line made him a worthy rival of Austin Dobson in his light, neat verses. Versatile and equally voluminous, he was ever about Hunresting and nomadic pursuits of new fields in letters fAthenaeumj. A new vogue for French forms had been set by Dobson, and here especially the influence of French, the mainspring of the dexterity and diversity of all of Lang's writings, is particularly seen. Besides the pleasant ease of his expression, Lang as a versiiier has embued with the same rare imagery that he summoned at will into his prose, such lines as these from The New Millennium in Rhymes a la Modev: Till slowly from the wrinkled skies, The fireless, frozen Sun shall wane, Nor summer come with golden grain, Till men be glad, mid frost and snow To live such equal lives of pain As now the hutted Eskimo. As a critic Andrew Lang was one of an illustrious trio, together with Edmund Gosse and Austin Dobson, whose services to belle-letters were immeasurable. Criticism in their hands was a means of keeping flying the colors of the highest literature, of all that makes and records the flower of civilization QI-Iomer and the Epicj. Any one of Lang's essays on our late masters, as Stev- enson, Dickens, Scott, or Thackeray, should persuade the reader to peruse, as well, its subject, or, if so fortunate, to peruse again, for who could fail to be caught in the