Image TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage Tile
Image size: 6656x9216 Scale: 35% - PanoJS3
Page overview thumbnail

Article text

MR. WILLIAM WATSON
A New York, telegram to an English'
paper on December 'M stated-"'1 he papers
here to-day all print a remarkable statement
said to have been made to an interviewer
in Montreal by Mr. Robinson Watson,
the brother of the poet Mr. William
Watson, in which the former declares that
his brother is not responsible for the mental
condition in which he now is, and in
which he was when he wrote the poem
entitled "The Woman with the Serpent's
Tongue." Mr. Watson declares that his
brother is suffering from a mental malady
which attacked him once before in 1892,
when he conceived a similar hostility to
persons of exalted position in England, and
he talked against them then as he now
speaks and writes against this other distinguished
family, who for some unknown
reason have excited his aversion. In 1892,
when the attack had passed over, the poet,
declares his brother, became again the
devoted friend of the people he had
maligned. The same thing is happening
now. Mr. R. Watson asks the public not
to judge his brother, but to wait until his
mental balance is restored, when he himself
will be the first to condemn and regret
what he has said. He also states that Mr.
Richard le Gallienne was well aware of the
facts of the poet's condition and should
have remained wisely silent. Mr. Watson !
explains the loss of the poet's mental,
soundness in 1892 as the result of pecuniary
relief after years of adversity relief which
came immediately after a great mental
strain. The poet had been asked to write
a poem commemorative of the death of
Lord Tennyson, and in order to do this
adequately he shut himself up for 50 hours
and worked without proper nourishment or
sleep. During all this time he was on a
high tension, and the result was the production
of "Lachrymo Muaarum," which
aroused the admiration of the literary
world, and drew commendation from Mr.
Gladstone, who at once made him a grant
of £200 from the Royal Bounty Fund and
declared his intention of recommending him
for a Civil list pension. "This good for-
tune," says the statement attributed to the
poet's brother, was too much for him,
coming when he was physically feeble and
mentally unstrung by prolonged nervous
concentration at his task. Only a week
later it was evident that the sudden success
and joy had destroyed his mental
balance. At the present moment he _ is
dominated by. a belief that he has a mission
of hostility to certain people, and he has
said terrible things about them which have
no manner of justification or defence. He,
however, is not responsible for these statements,
which are alien to his nature. They
are the outcome of a mental malady which
it is painful to speak about." Mr. William
Watson and his" wife have left New York,
and no one here at present knows where
they are. Comments on his brother's
statement are mainly sympathetic. The
poet is highly esteemed on this side of the
water.
$