The Letters of Sir Walter Raleigh (1879–1922)

Abstract

IN this selection from his private letters we have a portrait drawn by his own hand of the late Sir Walter Raleigh, well known in academic circles as a distinguished critic and man of letters, and among his intimate friends as one of the most engaging and delightful companions. To have read Raleigh's books was not enough. He had a side not to be found there, in some ways still more interesting and attractive. Admirable as his writings were, many of his acquaintances prized them less highly than his conversations, when he was wholly himself, less weighted with a sense of responsibility, and accustomed to give a free and joyous vein to his whimsical humour. For Raleigh's social gifts were such that, though he preferred light to serious subjects, his hearers were too content with the fare he provided to ask for any other. So delicate was its flavour that his brand of nonsense was, for so long as he cared to distribute it, better than any sense. Nor was this surprising, for it was a nonsense sparkling with intelligence, and far removed from that ‘silliness’ which he disliked in man and books. It was his way to approach truth by way of humour, and to judge even of his own writings by the standard of good sense, the standard of things able to survive all humorous assaults upon them, as when he said of his “Shakespeare,” “I don't want to write anything that William himself would have thought rot.”

The Letters of Sir Walter Raleigh (1879–1922).

Edited by Lady Raleigh. Vol. 1. Pp. xxix + 272 + 4 plates. Vol. 2. Pp. xv + 273–579 + 5 plates. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1926.) 30s. net.