WILLIAM SHARP (FIONA MACLEOD) A MEMOIR COMPILED BY HIS WIFE ELIZABETH A. SHARP by ELIZABETH A. SHARP (best ebook reader ubuntu txt) đź“–
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an arrangement which made it possible for that particular Colleague
to publish three of his “F. M.” books under his immediate supervision
and from what was then one of the centres of the Celtic movement.
This post, naturally, necessitated frequent visits to Edinburgh. For
the month of August 1895 we took a flat in the neighbourhood of the
University settlement so that we might share actively in the Summer
Session.
It was an interesting experience. The students came from England,
Scotland, France, Italy, and Germany; among the lecturers in addition
to Professors Geddes and Arthur Thomson were Elisée Réclus the
geographer and his brother Elie Réclus, Edmond Demolins and Abbé Klein.
S. prepared his lectures in rough outline. His inexperience in such
work led him to plan them as though he were drafting out twelve books,
with far more material than he could possibly use in the time at his
disposal. His subject was “Art and Life” divided into ten lectures:
Life & Art: Art & Nature: Nature.
Disintegration: Degeneration: Regeneration.
III. The Return to Nature: In Art, in Literature. The
Literary Outlook in England & America.
The Celtic Renascence, Ossian, Matthew Arnold,
The Ancient Celtic Writers.
The Celtic Renascence. Contemporary. The
School of Celtic Ornament.
The Science of Criticism: What it is, what it is
not. The Critical Ideal.
VII. Ernest Hello.
VIII. The Drama of Life, and Dramatists.
The Ideals of Art—pagan, Mediæval, modern.
The Literary Ideal—Pagan, Mediæval. The Modern
Ideal.
One lecture only was delivered; for during it he was seized with a
severe heart attack and all his notes fell to the ground. It was with
the greatest effort that he was able to bring the lecture to a close:
and he realised that he must not attempt to continue the course; the
risk was too great. Therefore, while I remained in Edinburgh to keep
open house for the entertainment of the students, he went to the little
Pettycur Inn at Kinghorn, on the north side of The Firth of Forth, till
I was able to join him at Tighnabruaich in the Kyles of Bute where we
had taken a cottage with his mother and sisters for September.
Two volumes of short stories were published in the late Autumn. It
was the writer’s great desire that work should be issued by W. S.
and by F. M. about the same time; in part to sustain what reputation
belonged to his older Literary self, and in part to help to preserve
the younger literary self’s incognito. _Ecce Puella_ published by Mr.
Elkin Matthew for W. S. was a collection of stories &c. that had
been written at different times and issued in various magazines, and
prefaced by a revised and shortened version of the Monograph on “Fair
Women in Painting and Poetry.” It contained among other short stories
one entitled “The Sister of Compassion,” dedicated “to that Sister
of compassion for all suffering animals, Mrs. Mona Caird,” our dear
friend. The other volume contained the first series of barbaric tales
and myths of old Celtic days, “recaptured in dreams,” that followed in
quick succession from the pen of Fiona Macleod. _The Sin-Eater_ was
the first of the three F. M. books published by the new Scoto-Celtic
publishers. The Author was gratified by favourable reviews from
important journals, and by letters, from which I select two.
The first is from Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie:
THE OUTLOOK,
13 ASTOR PLACE,
May 23d, 1897.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
_The Sin-Eater_ came in holiday week and was one of my most welcome
remembrances. I have read it with deep pleasure, almost with envy; so
full is it of the stuff which makes literature. It has the vitality and
beauty of a rich and living imagination. The secrets of the spirit are
in it, and that fellowship with the profounder experiences which gets
at the heart of a race. I have not forgotten your kind words about my
own work; words which gave me new heart and hope. For you are the very
type of man to whose mind I should like to appeal. The judgment of Mrs.
Sharp, which you quote, gave me sincere pleasure. To get the attention
of the few for whose opinion one cares most is a piece of great good
fortune; to really find one’s way to their hearts is best of all. I
am looking forward to a good long talk with you. I wish you were here
today. This is a divine May; balmy, fragrant, fresh; as if it had never
been here before. There is enough _soul_ in Miss Macleod’s stories to
set up a generation of average novelists. The work of the real writer
seems to me a miracle; something from the sources of our life. I have
found, however, so few among all my good literary friends who feel about
literature as I do that I have felt at times as if I had no power of
putting into words what lies in my heart. This does not mean that I have
missed appreciation; on the contrary, I have had more than I deserve.
But most of the younger men here regard literature so exclusively as
a craft and so little as a revelation that I have often missed the
kind of fellowship which you gave me. The deeper feeling is, however,
coming back to us in the work of some of the newest men—Bliss Carman for
instance. There is below such a book as “Vistas” a depth and richness of
imagination which have rarely been disclosed here. I hope you will find
time to send me an occasional letter. You will do me a real service. I
am now at work on a book which I hope will be deeper and stronger than
anything I have done yet. There is the stir of a new life here, although
it may be long in getting itself adequately expressed.
Yours fraternally,
HAMILTON W. MABIE.
The second is from Sir George Douglas, poet, scholar, and keen critic:
SPRINGWOOD PARK, KELSO,
23:12:95.
MY DEAR SHARP,
Many thanks for your interesting letter and enclosures. I am very glad
to find that you think I have understood Miss Macleod’s work, and I
think it very good of her to have taken my out-spoken criticisms in
such good part. Certainly if she thinks I can be of any use to her
in reading over the proofs of “The Washer of the Ford,” it will be a
great pleasure to me. I shall probably be in Italy by the time she
names—the end of Feb. but in these days of swift posts I hope that need
not matter. What you tell me of Fiona’s admirer is very interesting,
and from my recollection of the way in which books and the fancied
personality of their authors possessed my mind when I was a youth, I can
well enter into his infatuation. Fortunately there were no women among
my “influences,” or I might have been in as bad a case as he! Would not
this be a case for telling the secret, under pledges of course, if it
were only to prevent mischief? By the way the whole incident seems to me
to afford excellent material for literary treatment—not by you perhaps,
nor yet by me (for the literary element in the material puts it outside
your province, and makes it not quite the theme I like for my own use
either) but say, for W.
Yours ever sincerely,
GEORGE DOUGLAS.
I do not quite agree with you as to the inception of Miss Macleod,
and possibly this is a matter in which you are not the best possible
judge. At any rate, without going into the matter, I fancy that I could
establish the existence in works earlier than the Poems of Phantasy of
a certain mystical tendency, (German perhaps rather than Celtic in its
colouring at that time) but none the less akin to the mysticisms of F.
M.
But I may be mistaken....
* * * * *
Our friend, Sir George Douglas, had followed the literary career of
William Sharp with careful interest, and gave the same heed to the
writings of “Fiona Macleod.” After perusal of _The Sin-Eater_ he made
a careful study of the two methods of work, and wrote to the author to
tell him he was finally convinced from internal evidence that William
Sharp was the author of these books under discussion. He did not
ask for confirmation but wished the author to know his conclusions.
The latter, who valued not only the friendship but the critical
appreciation of his correspondent, made no denial, but begged that the
secret might be guarded. In Sir George Douglas’ answer is a reference
to a curious incident which had happened while we were at Rudgwick.
A letter came from an unknown correspondence containing a proposal
of marriage to Fiona Macleod. Whether it was intended as a “draw” or
not we could not decide. The proposal was apparently written in all
seriousness. Similarities of taste, details of position, profession
etc., were carefully given. Acceptance was urged with all appearance of
seriousness; therefore the refusal was worded with gravity befitting
the occasion.
PART II ( FIONA MACLEOD ) cHAPTER XVI ( THE WASHER OF THE FORD )
Owing to the publication of _The Sin-Eater_ by a firm identified with
the Scoto-Celtic movement the book attracted immediate attention. Dr.
Douglas Hyde voiced the Irish feeling when he wrote to my husband:
“I think Fiona Macleod’s books the most interesting thing in the new
Scoto-Celtic movement, which I hope will march side by side with our
own.” This movement was according to William Sharp “fundamentally
the outcome of Ossian, and immediately of the rising of the sap in
the Irish nation.” Following on the incentive given by such scholars
as Windische, Whitly Stokes, Kuno Meyer, and the various Folklore
societies, a Gaelic League had been formed by enthusiasts in Ireland,
and in Scotland, for the preservation and teaching of the old Celtic
tongue; for the study of the old literatures of which priceless
treasures lay untouched in both countries, and for the encouragement
of natural racial talent. Wales had succeeded in recovering the use of
her Cymric tongue; and the expression in music of racial sentiment had
become widespread throughout that country. Ireland and the Highlands
looked forward to attaining to a similar result; and efforts to
that end were set agoing in schools, in classes, by means of such
organisations as the Irish Feis Ceoil Committee, the Irish Literary
Society and the Irish National Theatre. Their aim was to preserve some
utterance of the national life, to mould some new kind of romance, some
new element of thought, out of Irish life and traditions. Among the
most eager workers were Dr. Douglas Hyde, Mr. W. B. Yeats, Mr. Standish
O’Grady, Mr. George Russell (A.E.), Dr. George Sigerson, and Lady
Gregory.
In Scotland much valuable work had been done by such men as Campbell
of Islay, Cameron of Brodick, Mr. Alexander Carmichael; by the Gaelic
League and the Highland Mod and its yearly gatherings. There were
writers and poets also who used the old language and were consequently
known within only a small area. No conspicuous modern Celtic work had
hitherto been written in the English tongue until the appearance of the
writings of Fiona Macleod, and later of Mr. Neil Munro. _The Sin-Eater_
was therefore warmly welcomed on both sides of the Irish Channel, and
Fiona Macleod, acclaimed as the leading representative of the Highland
Gael, “our one and only Highland novelist.” _The Irish Independent_
pronounced her to be “the poet born,” “her work is pure romance—and she
strikes a strange note in modern literature, but it has the spirit of
the Celt, and is another triumph for the Celtic genius.”
In consequence of this reception, and of a special article in _The
Bookman_, speculations began to be made concerning the unknown and
unseen authoress. _The Highland News_ in pursuance of its desire to
awake in the Highlands of Scotland an active sympathy with the growing
Scoto-Celtic movement, was anxious to give some details concerning the
new writer. To that end Mr. John Macleay wrote to William Sharp to ask
if “considering
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