A NOTE ON THE PANTOUM

The only pantoums known to this writer were obviously manufactured deliberately, as experiments, and intended merely as bagatelles.

The pantoum may have any number of stanzas of four lines each, the first and third, the second and fourth rhyming. The second and the fourth of each stanza must be the first and the third of the following stanza, and in the last quatrain the last line must be the line with which the pantoum began. The third line of the first must be the second line of the closing stanza.

In the Malay "pantun" the first two lines have no connection with the meaning of the last two, their office being to furnish rhymes. Cultured Malays quote these detached lines more frequently than we do proverbs, and the hearer is supposed to be sufficiently well informed to discover the significance.

"Capping" pantun is a common pastime. It is said that Malays will enjoy such contests for hours without once repeating a stanza, often improvising quatrains when their stock runs out. They recite such rhymes as a game in alternate contest until one of the parties is vanquished.

Victor Hugo introduced the pantoum (French and English spelling) into France in 1829. In a note to Les Orientales he gives a prose translation of a Malay pantun. Numerous French writers later experimented with it, among them Gautier, de Banville, and Leconte de Lisle.

In 1876 Austin Dobson published in a volume called Proverbs In Porcelain a pantoum entitled "In Town," which is supposed to buzz like flies. In 1878 Brander Matthews perpetrated one called "En Route," which really does remind one of railway travel of that period.

So far as the writer is aware this very charming vehicle has never been considered seriously either in England or America, and the accompanying verses are perhaps the first expression towards rescue of a pretty and unusual form from the obscurity and neglect to which English prosody has hitherto consigned it.--L. 'S. V.

V. BLASCO IBANEZ AND HIS WORK

BY CLYDE CHEW GLASCOCK

I

The Valencian Period. Regional Novels

For half a century Spanish fiction has by reason of its excellence attracted more and more the attention of the world. Eminent writers such as Valera, de Pereda, Pérez Goldós, Pardo Bazán, Palacio Valdés have achieved renown inside and outside of Spain. But it was reserved for V. Blasco Ibáñez of Valencia in Southern Spain to become the most popular master of fiction in the world today with his brilliant novel of the great war, "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Los cuartro jinetes del Apocalipsis)." Fabulous numbers of this book have gone forth in English version throughout our own country; its sales over the world in the original Spanish and in translations in varied languages are almost beyond computation. Fame and honor from pole to pole are heaped upon its author, and streams of gold are now pouring into the hands of this man who was once an unknown, comparatively poor boy, the son of a storekeeper in the far off Spanish city of Valencia.

We may rightfully inquire what manner of man is he to whom the entire world is listening. To what are his enor mous success and popularity due? What is the character of his work? Why has he wielded such sway over the hearts and minds of men?

One would correctly surmise that he is a man of indomitable will, of superabundant strength, of unflagging energy; but add to this the fire, dash and passion of his race, the daring fearlessness of his Valencian stock, a soaring and exuberant imagination that sometimes sweeps too far, immeasurably beyond the ordinary range, these are among the preeminent

characteristics of the Spaniard who has raised himself almost unaided, by his own sheer force, to so stupendous a height in literary annals, not merely of Spain, but of the world. Few men have had so unerring instinct for seizing hold of problems with which the great masses of the people are grappling and in which they are vitally interested. Experience as a journalist and as an essayist prior to writing novels aided him much in this. Gifted in telling a story and endowed with remarkable powers of observation, spurred on by hatred of institutions that imprisoned and tortured him, that exiled him and threatened him with death, he developed a power of propaganda and of invective that has rarely if ever been excelled. Years of successful political activity and of widely extended travel in the Orient, in Europe, and in America have given him breadth and knowledge of men and of affairs seldom found before in men of letters.

Fortune, moreover, was favorable to him in the early environment with which it girdled him. Valencia is in one of the most romantic garden spots, its soil is supremely rich, its flowers are famed for their loveliness, its women, many of them at least, are among the most beautiful, its men are brave and daring, the people have all the advantages that are derived from an admixture of races, for Iberians, Phonicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans, Germans, Jews, and Moors have come and gone in Valencia, leaving, all of them, some contribution to the blood and to the character of the people dwelling there. This mingling of varied nationalities is accountable for the strong contrasts revealed in Spanish character, for many European types are found in Spain.

Valencia is in the midst of one of the world's great battlegrounds, and the romance of thrilling history extending over ages has left an indelible impress on the character of its people.

Those of us who feel the thrill of native pride in thinking of the history of our several states whose birth was but yesterday, or the day before, can surely understand how inspir

ing it is for a young author to grow up in an atmosphere charged with the memories of grand and far-off deeds, in a beautiful country every foot of whose ground has soaked again and again in heroic blood. Now Blasco Ibáñez is a product of this fair land and of its ardent race, and one can feel something of its character throughout his work.

Like many of the Valencians that went before him, he is a warrior by nature, and his fighting spirit early led him into militant politics. He fearlessly represented the republican party of his district that waged relentless warfare on the monarchy that he believed effete, and on what he considered the stagnant, stifling institutions of the established church in Spain. He fought for liberty, equality, and fraternity among men in Spain, things known to the French as liberté, égalité, fraternité, which our own Mark Twain so jocosely translated as "liberty, licentiousness, and frivolity." Blasco Ibáñez's political campaigns procured him immense popularity among progressives in Spain, but persecution also; as a result of his attacks on the monarchy, his defense of Cuban independence, his share in popular agitations, he was sentenced several times to exile and to imprisonment. But he went on undauntedly defending democratic ideals; he was elected six times consecutively a member of the Cortes, the Spanish legislative body, and his ardent oratory so kindled the enthusiasm of the masses that he became a sort of popular hero among the liberals of Spain. A periodical founded by him, El Pueblo, combated reactionary forces, a publishing house which he founded and inspired, diffused in popular form the advanced thought of modern Europe. His repeated participation in political contests in Valencia brought out his extraordinary qualifications as a leader of men. Among the ardent Valencians, prestige could only be maintained by great personal valor and indifference to danger. Political contests in Valencia involved the daily risk of life in street fights and duels too, but Blasco Ibáñez came out of them all safe and triumphant. It was after the fulness of exciting political and public trials that

he wrote many of his longer works of fiction that are reminiscent of his own real life and his extraordinary experiences, at times like those of veritable romance. He had achieved success and distinction in political life, as a journalist and publisher as well, he had suffered exile and imprisonment, he had traveled extensively, he had tasted the joys of gratified ambition, he had suffered the bitterness of two years in prison and the threat of execution.

In the midst of the first or Valencian period of his political activity Blasco Ibáñez began to turn his hand to novel writing, after the production of journalistic work, short stories, books on travel, essays, etc. With artistic purpose he painted the animated life and scenes of his own Valencia. This is what one would have expected, for "regional novels" had been popular in Spain, where every province has its distinctive landscape, dialect, manners, customs, dress, people, and history. Few countries are in fact so diversified and so interesting as Spain.

The great masters of modern Spanish fiction were then in the fulness of their fame and honor, and it was not easy to gain a place in so brilliant a galaxy. But Blasco Ibáñez promptly did so by writing some novels on Valencian life. The young author of Flor de Mayo (The Mayflower) and La barranca (The Cabin) soon attained with these books more praise and prestige than his political activity had brought him. So in 1903 he devoted himself to the more glorious career, abandoning rough political strife for the refined work of literature. As he perceived a greater opportunity for proclaiming his liberal ideas and ideals for the amelioration of society, in time his novels became more and more the agents and instruments of propaganda for the correction of evils as he saw them.

He traveled extensively in Spain, in foreign countries too, making a careful study of types and their environment.

In the year 1909 he journeyed through South America, where he delivered lectures, strengthening the bond of sympa