Each scene is so bewilderingly surcharged with color that,
as in the case of a Gobelin tapestry, one has to be at a distance before
one discovers the design. There is something almost wearisome in the
far-fetched words with which he piles up picturesque effects, returning
every now and then to put in an extra touch--to tip a feather with
light, to brighten the sheen of his satins, to polish the steely lustre
of swords and armors. Yet, if one takes the time to linger over these
unusual words and combinations of words, one is likely to find that they
are strong and appropriate. All conventional shop-work he disdained; the
traditional phrases for eyes, lips, brow, and hair were discarded, not
necessarily because they were bad, but because by much use they have
lost their freshness. They have come to be mere sounds, and no longer
call up vivid conceptions. An author who has the skill and the courage
to undertake this repolishing and resharpening of the tools of language
is, indeed, a public benefactor; but it requires the finest linguistic
taste and discrimination to do it with success.
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