I do not think Mr. Masefield has received sufficient credit for his
prose fiction. In 1905 he published _A Mainsail Haul_, which
contained a number of short stories and sketches, many of which had
appeared in the Manchester _Guardian_. It is interesting to
recall his connection with that famous journal. These are the results
partly of his experiences, partly of his reading. It is plain that he
has turned over hundreds of old volumes of buccaneer lore. And humour
is as abundant here as it is absent from his best novels, _Captain
Margaret_ and _Multitude and Solitude_. These two books,
recently republished in America, met with a chilling reception from
the critics. For my part, I not only enjoyed reading them, I think
every student of Mr. Masefield's poetry might read them with
profitable pleasure. They are romances that only a poet could have
written. It would be easier to turn them into verse than it would be
to turn his verse-narratives into prose, and less would be lost in the
transfer. In _Multitude and Solitude_, the author has given us
more of the results of his own thinking than can be found in most of
the poems. Whole pages are filled with the pith of meditative thought.
In _Captain Margaret_, we have a remarkable combination of the
love of romance and the romance of love.

In response to a question asked him by the _Tribune_ interviewer,
as to the guiding motive in his writing, Mr. Masefield replied: "I
desire to interpret life both by reflecting it as it appears and by
portraying its outcome. Great art must contain these two attributes.
Examine any of the dramas of Shakespeare, and you will find that their
action is the result of a destruction of balance in the beginning. It
is like a cartful of apples which is overturned. All the apples are
spilled in the street. But you will notice that Shakespeare piles them