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120 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY NEW LIGHT ON LIONEL JOHNSON* E. K. BROWN The, first book on Lionel Johnson appears thirty-seven years after his death: it is a doctoral thesis presented to the Sqrbonne by a young Canadian scholar. Despite the many references to Johnson in contemporary memoirs, Mr Patrick has added richly to knowledge of his life and character. Miss Isabella Johnson, the poet's sister and the custodian of his papers, generously allowed a very free use of unpublished material, among which were the manuscripts of poems, undergraduate speeches and essays, addresses given in later years to such different groups as the Dublin National Literary Society and the students of the Roman Catholic diocese of Southwark, letters to and from such friends as Walter Pater, Arthur Galton Uohnson's intimate as an undergraduate and, as we now learn, a principal influence in his development), and Katherine Tynan. From such a wealth of new material (some of which he might wisely have printed in full in an appendix) Mr Patrick has been able to correct in some essentials the conception of Johnson which is getting into the literary histories. Many of the peculiarities of Johnson's sty1e, for example his punctuation, are shown to have derived from the eighteenth century. His standards of aesthetic judgment, like his standards of conduct, were an individual blending of classical and catholic ideals. His conversion to Roman Catholicism is shown to have been from motives utterly unlike those which animated Dowson and other more crapulous characters of the time:-whom Johnson knew._ To Johnson gorgeous ceremonies and elaborate rites made little appeal: religion was to him much too grave and torturing a reality to be clothed in romantic trappings. Apart from his besetting vice-drunkenness, not a roistering drunkenp.ess but a searing secret dipsomania-his life had in growing measure a classical regularity and poise. In approaching his character. it is to be steadily remembered that he was the son and grandson of soldiers: he may have disliked his family and their mode of life but he bore conspicuously and profoundly the impress of their *Lionel johnson (J867-1902) poele et critique, by Arthur W. Patrick, Paris, Librairie L. Rodstein, 1939, 25 francs. 120 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY NEW LIGHT ON LIONEL JOHNSON* E. K. BROWN The, first book on Lionel Johnson appears thirty-seven years after his death: it is a doctoral thesis presented to the Sqrbonne by a young Canadian scholar. Despite the many references to Johnson in contemporary memoirs, Mr Patrick has added richly to knowledge of his life and character. Miss Isabella Johnson, the poet's sister and the custodian of his papers, generously allowed a very free use of unpublished material, among which were the manuscripts of poems, undergraduate speeches and essays, addresses given in later years to such different groups as the Dublin National Literary Society and the students of the Roman Catholic diocese of Southwark, letters to and from such friends as Walter Pater, Arthur Galton Uohnson's intimate as an undergraduate and, as we now learn, a principal influence in his development), and Katherine Tynan. From such a wealth of new material (some of which he might wisely have printed in full in an appendix) Mr Patrick has been able to correct in some essentials the conception of Johnson which is getting into the literary histories. Many of the peculiarities of Johnson's sty1e, for example his punctuation, are shown to have derived from the eighteenth century. His standards of aesthetic judgment, like his standards of conduct, were an individual blending of classical and catholic ideals. His conversion to Roman Catholicism is shown to have been from motives utterly unlike those which animated Dowson and other more crapulous characters of the time:-whom Johnson knew._ To Johnson gorgeous ceremonies and elaborate rites made little appeal: religion was to him much too grave and torturing a reality to be clothed in romantic trappings. Apart from his besetting vice-drunkenness, not a roistering drunkenp.ess but a searing secret dipsomania-his life had in growing measure a classical regularity and poise. In approaching his character. it is to be steadily remembered...

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