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Page Six

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THE COLLEGE NEWS





Nicholas Poussin Was
A Great Story-Teller

Continued from Page One

life in Rome, where he died in 1665.
After his death the academicians
studied his great and ponderous com-
positions with energy and today he is
primarily known as a moralist and a
rationalist painter. “But his power
of imagination and richness of inven-
tive power is best- observed in the
sketches and drawings rather than in
the large pictures. His religious com-
positions tend to be dry and overfull
of construction, but as a narrator of
mythological stories and poetic tales
he executed some of his most beauti-
ful work.
sculptor, Bernini, who in Paris in
1665 looked attentively at a collection
of Poussin’s work and cried:” ‘What
a great story teller and narrator of
“heroic deeds.’ ”

Dr. Friedlander brought. here for
his lecture reproductions of many
sketches and drawings which are prac-
tically unknown. Among them were
slides of the so-called Marino draw-
ings, mentioned by a contemporary
and long believed lost. They are the
only works of Poussin’s youth before
he went to Rome, and were created
in Paris in 1620 for the Italian poet,
Marino, who',befriended the. young
artist and gave him the money. to go
to’ Rome, the goal. of Poussin’s desire.
These illustrations of the Metamor-
phoses of Ovid show at what an early
age Poussin’s imagination was filled
with the classic tales which he used
as subjects time and time again. The
drawings are very heavily inked and
closely composed for illustration and
in this way differ from the master’s
usual drawing style.

In his first Rome period Poussin
executed numerous drawings and
paintings of the Metamorphoses, In



It. was the great Italian |



one of the most beautiful» he united
all the tales of human beings turned
into flowers in one large composition,
The Kingdom of Flowers.

The Perseus and Andromeda shows
one of the most typical inventions of
Poussin, with its graceful group of
naiads at one side of the main group,
Perseus stooping to wash his hands
of Medusa’s blood while Victory be-
hind him plucks a leaf from a palm
tree. On the left another graceful
group adds to the decoration as well
as to the literary sense. This type
of composition was particularly fa-
vored by Poussin as a narrator.



Current Events

Continued. from Page Two

and the Minister of the Navy a vice-
admiral. The Army and Navy are re-
sponsible to no one but the Emperor
himself, and lately the Japanese capi-
talists have been trying to put the
brakes on the army, claiming that the
vast expenditures of the campaign in
Manchuria have: not been repaid by
increased trade. The recent “coup”
was a movement brought about by dis-
affected elements in the Army and was
designed to free the Emperor from
certain “baneful influences’ which
surrounded him. A small detachment
of soldiers assassinated several of the
high officials who were known to be re-
straining military expenditures. .The
rebels then seized one of the public
buildings and held it as a fortress,
while they bargained for peace. They
agreed to surrender if the Emperor
would dismiss the “liberal”
and appoint army officers in their
places. The question has_ been:
would the military get into complete
control? Now is the time, the militar-
ists hold, for Japan to push her con-
quest of China and strike at Russia
before the Soviets grow in strength.



officials’



However, though it is too soon to tell,
it looks as if this were only a passing
eruption which will not have such
disastrous results.



Richards Lectures

On Choice of Words |



Continued from Page One

can be better applied to the doctrine
of usage than to new words. At
present the English language is
growing more than at any other time
since the Elizabethan era.

The ‘complaints of authorities
against new words throw light on
current theories of language which
are concerned with whether a word
is good or bad. The complaints
against new scientific words which
have been taken over for general
use are that they are awkward, too
long, difficult to pronounce, or com-
pressed descriptions, rather than plain
labels. The prejudice against these
words is sometimes ‘so strong that

even the lexicographers succumb. |
The indispensable words “introver-
sion” and “extraversion” are not

present in the small Oxford Diction-
ary in the Jungian senses.

The doctrine of usage makes the
conduct. of language a branch of
manners, as _ some _lexicographers
would have it. It is the “join a
club” idea in the use of language,
that is, the entering into a select com-
pany of correct users of the language
in which any deviation from their
particular custom is considered in-
correct. This social control of. pro-
nunciation is vigorous and extensive,
for it is applicable throughout the
whole field of language, to pronunci-
ation and to all divergencies of mean-
ing which the new rhetoric must
question. Snobistic, “club spirit” con-
trol was useful to the whole com-



munity in the past while now it is

useful ,ofly to “members of. the club.”
The tise of verbal differences as
weapons in the class war dates from
the middle of the 17 century. . Be-
cause of the new stratification of so-
ciety, the early 18 century began to
notice how niceties of expression or
certain intonations constituted the dif-
ference between master and valet.
Grammaticians were obsessed with the
idea of correctness. But the 18 cen-
tury showed the worthier side of the
“club spirit” .for it gave a reliable
idea of the culture of the age. Now
when the depth of culture is no
longer indicated by speech, and edu-
cation is no longer of a piece, the
powers :of rule of the “club. spirit”
are over-extended. . Length may be
the merit of a word, particularly with
scientific words in which tl meaning
is often complex. The answér to the
complaint that words like ‘‘introver-
sion” are descriptions, not labels, is
affirmative if familiar words are ac-
cepted as labels. Words like “mind”
and “thought” are considered neat and
concise, while a world like “psychol-
ogy” is considered cumbrous and un-
couth. The question arises: is the
complaint against the calling of the
word . “psychology” or against. its
usage? Some derivative uses are ob-
jectionable because. they are am-
biguous. Typical vagaries are appar-
ent in the title “Shakespeare’s Psy-
chology.” Does this mean Shakes-
peare’s theory of mind, the assump-
tions which Shakespeare unconsciously
makes, or inferences derived from
Shakespeare’s own mind? Such an
extensive use of a word endangers
discourse and brings discredit on him
who employs a word in this way.
The cumbrousness of a word may
be the taint of its association with
unhappy uses. This 4s often the case
with new words. The word “colorful”’
has been taboo in many places since
1890. It is considered hybrid and vul-



gar. We do not say “soundful,’’:or
“lightful”’; therefore thege is no ex-
cuse for using “colorful.” Yet there
are other well-established hybrids, for
example, “Beautiful” or “graceful,”
which involve the same strain as
“colorful.” Other objections to the
word are drawn from analogies which,
if pursued, expose the fact that words
are “backed up” by the words about
which one is thinking.

The objection raised that. “color-
ful” is vulgar is one often made
against new words. The objectors
prefer to think that those who use
it are vulgar. The word must be
popular in order to be successful and
the objectors consider anything which
is popular, vulgar. A new word
cannot be judged without thinking
of the usage required from it. The
utilities of a word like “colorful” often
have ironical implications attached
to them in the same way in which
the phrase “means well” has. To
call a prose style or a dramatic pro-
duction colorful is to damn it with
faint praise. The straight use of
“colorful” to describe a thing as full
of color involves with this straight
primary quality a secondary or ob-
lique quality which gives the word a
peculiar subtlety. This mixture of
qualities and the danger of confusion
are the sources of the distaste for
the word. If used in straight mean-
ing, the ironical implications suggest
a lack of discrimination in the user.
“Colorful” has here been taken as a
type word. Its peculiar temporary
and local problems, if pursued, would
lead eventually to-the general prob-
lems of how a language works and
also to most of the problems of
aesthetics. It is a long step to the
aesthetics of language; yet this dis-
cussion of the reason for the choice
of words can become an introduction
to all aesthetics—to a knowledge of
what words mean in our lives.





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