THE COMIC MUSE

The Comic Muse. By J. C. Squire. (Collins. 66. net.)

ONE man's wit is another man's poison, and there can be no more hazardous, and therefore courageous, undertaking than to attempt, as Mr. Squire has attempted in this volume, an anthology of the best jokes in verse. For humour and the response to it are of all things in the world of letters the most chancy, and the most impossible to fix. It is

absolutely true to say that one-half of the world doesn't know why the other half laughs and doesn't want to. Indeed

in the matter of jokes, with rare exceptions, men attain to a quite unusual honesty of individual appreciation. You may persuade a whole generation to pretend to like fourth- rate verse or pictures, but you will never make them laugh unless they really are amused. The sensitiveness to the funny has almost the integrity of the palate. It will not be deceived, and it knows what it wants. But like the palate this sensitiveness is variable. Not only does it vary from generation to generation, but from decade to decade. It would almost seem that there is no canon of the laughable. It is a part of universal chaos, or at least a defiance of the causal relation.

But in spite of all these difficulties Mr. Squire has actually succeeded in collecting poems at least a third of which do fulfil his own test of making this particular reader laugh aloud. This is especially true of the earlier part of the book, in which a number of quite first-rate jokes are restored to circulation. Nothing, for example, could be more wickedly funny than Lord Erskine's epigram on Scott's " The Field of Waterloo " •

" On Waterloo's ensanguined plain Lie tens of thousands of the slain ; But none by sabre or by shot Fell half so flat as Walter Scott."

and Coleridge's " The Desired Swan Song " :-

"Swans sing before they die—'twere no bad thing

Should certain persons die before they sing."

Whether, on the other hand, the inclusion of the long " Vision of Judgment " by Byron is justified is open to doubt. That it is witty is certain, that the hitting is uncommon hard is sure, but it appears to me to lack the essential quality of a 'true joke, which is as sudden and as unmistakable as the striking of a match.

In his selection of the wits of last century, Mr. Squire is squally fortunate, though necessarily more obvious. There are perhaps other poems of Calverley's that are more imme-

diately funny than the " Lovers and a Reflection," but he has got all the.right Lewis Carroll, including " The White Knight's Song," ;Inch:must be the funniest thing that happened before Charlie Chaplin (to whom, incidentally, the White Knight has a quite definite family likeness).

In contemporary verse one is naturally inclined to be more critical, but, before uttering complaints, one may at least thank Mr. Squire-for having resurrected the marvellous

" New Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens " by Sir Arthur Quiller7 Couch, which begins magnificently with

" The.king site in Dunfermline toun, Drinking the blude-red wine :

' 0 who will rear me an equilateral trisngle

Upon a given straight line ? ' "

But, on the other hand, while adequate space is given to G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, E. V. Knox and A. P.

Herbert are almost ignored, and yet they are, in my view, the absolute expression of the humour of 1925-1930. The two poor little things quoted by Mr. Squire do not even suggest their quality.

Finally, in the matter of music-hall songs, I cannot feel that Mr. Squire has really got the best or even representative ditties. I recognize the difficulty of isolating songs which will bear reprinting, or are actually funny apart from their singer. But surely there must be discoverable two better efforts than " Nature's made a big mistake " and " More work for the undertaker." I admit that I have searched my memory in vain for a long poem, but as a short one I present Mr. Squire with this jewel :—

" It's an old Bass bottle comes floating from the sea, It's an old Bass bottle comes floating unto me. And inside is a message with these words written on : ' Whoever finds this bottle, finds the beer all gone.' "

No I didn't write it. I only wish I had.

HUMBERT WOLFE.