The Benison of Laughter
Strained Relations. By Harry Graham. Illustrated by
net.)
IN true humour there lurks no measure of offence. It is not distortion, but interpretive caricature ; it comes nearer to a benison than to a cuff ; and though it may provoke a smile at human foibles, it makes them appear more endearing than contemptible. It is just these qualities that make Mr. Knox's verses so delightful. Even in his most political vein, the humour never grows less kind. And when he turns the searchlight of his wit upon the common round and trivial task, lifting the irk of everyday things on to a happier plane, he is indeed a merry master : " We had a cook, but she has gone away, She was too good, too beautiful to stay—
Beautiful in her art, I mean to say. There is no book That can expound the sorrow of the thing When a light hand with pastry taketh wing ; We can but sit and weep, remembering How could she cook . . . "
And he stands almost alone, among contemporary literary humorists, in the aptness with which he loads his rhymes with sly literary echoes. He is good company, a never unwelcome
guest. Mr. Graham's humour is a little broader. In his new book
he has painted, with a fantastic touch, a gallery of familY portraits. Though his caricature may hardly be interpretive, it hides no hint of malice, and achieves its effects with a real cunning. The reader's favourites, in this galaxy, will naturally depend upon his private experience ; personally, we favour his delineation of Uncles :— " They alone of all relations Know how sweet a kinship is That involves no obligations, No responsibilities . . ."
There is no need to apologise here for introducing Mr, Stephens as 'a literary humorist ; the separate books new collected into this one rich volume have all been reviewed before. His humour is of the delicatest kind. He has all the simplicity of a child, with all the advantage of adult experience. His laughter is like an inward glow of health. And his carica- ture is, in the fullest sense, interpretive :- " I have looked him round and looked him through,
Know everything that he will do In such a case, and such a case ; And when a frown comes on his face I dream of it, and when a smile I trace its sources in a while.
He cannot do a thing but I -Peep to find the reason why For I.love him, and I seek, Every evening of the week, To peep behind his frowning eye With little query, little pry,
And.make him, if a woman can
Happier than any man.
—Yesterday he gripped her tight And cut her throat. And serve her right "
1, This is virtue," sings Mr. Stephens, " to be gay." But underneath his laughter lies revealed, ever so faintly, a tear for loneliness's sake—" for all that is, is lonely ! " And what is true humour, after all, but a kind of shield against the tehnsucht of exile ?
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