tion>John Galsworthy
The Complete Essays of John Galsworthy
Published by Good Press, 2021
EAN 4057664621849
Table of Contents
THE GRAND JURY—IN TWO PANELS AND A FRAME
SOME PLATITUDES CONCERNING DRAMA
REFLECTIONS ON OUR DISLIKE OF THINGS AS THEY ARE
“Je vous dirai que l'exces est toujours un mal.”
—ANATOLE FRANCE
CONCERNING LIFE
THE INN OF TRANQUILLITY
Under a burning blue sky, among the pine-trees and junipers, the cypresses and olives of that Odyssean coast, we came one afternoon on a pink house bearing the legend: “Osteria di Tranquillita,”; and, partly because of the name, and partly because we did not expect to find a house at all in those goat-haunted groves above the waves, we tarried for contemplation. To the familiar simplicity of that Italian building there were not lacking signs of a certain spiritual change, for out of the olive-grove which grew to its very doors a skittle-alley had been formed, and two baby cypress-trees were cut into the effigies of a cock and hen. The song of a gramophone, too, was breaking forth into the air, as it were the presiding voice of a high and cosmopolitan mind. And, lost in admiration, we became conscious of the odour of a full-flavoured cigar. Yes—in the skittle-alley a gentleman was standing who wore a bowler hat, a bright brown suit, pink tie, and very yellow boots. His head was round, his cheeks fat and well-coloured, his lips red and full under a black moustache, and he was regarding us through very thick and half-closed eyelids.
Perceiving him to be the proprietor of the high and cosmopolitan mind, we accosted him.
“Good-day!” he replied: “I spik English. Been in Amurrica yes.”
“You have a lovely place here.”
Sweeping a glance over the skittle-alley, he sent forth a long puff of smoke; then, turning to my companion (of the politer sex) with the air of one who has made himself perfect master of a foreign tongue, he smiled, and spoke.
“Too-quiet!”
“Precisely; the name of your inn, perhaps, suggests——”
“I change all that—soon I call
