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F.T.Prince, DRYPOINTS OF THE HASIDIM, The Menard Press, 23 Fitzwarren Gardens, London N19 3TR ; 24pp, 65p.

Drypoint is the art of etching without acid directly on to a plate with a needle, a rather limiting process. Hasidism was a Jewish mystical movement which grew up in Poland and the Ukraine round the beginning of the 18th Century, its distinguishing feature being that it was popular and turned its back on the dour and pessimistic rabbinical thinking of the time (though taking over some of the occult speculations for its own use), an affirmation of the joy of life very much in contrast to, say, the hell-fire ranting of the Methodist revival in contemporary England. Its withering during the course of the following century is typical of that of all such movements. New leaders grew more interested in power and prestige than in personal religion; rabbinical influence made itself felt, the organisation men took over.

     F.T.Prince recently retired from his professorship at Southampton University. His utput has always been limited but his superior craftmanship has earned him considerable distinction. The present poem of 400 lines does not impair that reputation, even though one must admit that its contents are hardly incisive and provide few new insights, even for those unacquainted with mystical forms of religion, It is, however, a moving meditation on the rise and fall of one of those moments in human history when certain men see beyond the wretchedness of their condition and find meaning and beauty in their lives and in the worlds and in doing so manage to communicate their wonder and excitement to those around them. They are all too rare.

     The poem is divided into five parts, these further subdivided into sections. The movement is roughly narrative, shifting from anecdote to anecdote illustrating the character of the Hasidic; much is culled from recent research into the subject. There are quotations, but only of the words of the men themselves. It rises above the level of mere commentary or documentary, however, by reason of the directing intelligence behind the scheme, the refusal to give way to garrulousness, the economy of means. There is also the wonderful, rhythmic language, of which Prince Is a master. Consider the control in the following paragraph, the way the rhythms rise and fall as they build towards the triumph (or rather the sorrowful turning away) of the final sentence:-

     For there are others
Others who will come close and say
     Like some from Lubavitch
                                              ‘I have a secret...’

And the secret is there is no secret
                                                      nothing -
     No true belief, no ecstasy, no way;
Nothing
            And those who know it but pretend,
                                              Put on a face
For reasons that are more or less unbeautiful.

     There is a sting to the poem’s tail, not apparent in the work itself but in Prince’s comment upon it in ‘Discovering the Hasidim’, an essay on its genesis for EUROPEAN JUDAISM (an offprint of which is obtainable free on request to purchasers of the book). In this he records that he saw a relevance for today In writing a poem on such an obscure subject in that he felt a parallel might be drawn with the movement to liberalize the Catholic Church after the second Vatican Council, and with the ‘poetry revival’ of the 60s (which has done so much for the world of small presses and little magazines).

     Both are the results of enthusiasms which, for all their shortcomings and occasionally weird side-effects, continue to bear fruit so far. The old guard in the Curia or the Arts Council take fright and resist stubbornly. But there are already signs of a new orthodoxy among the rebels, a growing disposition to condemn all who do not think or write like them. New mandarins are beginning to rise on the backs of those who organize for the defence. Will some survivor eventually be saying, as did one of the last true Hasidic, “I have heard the blowing of the horn/but not in this world” ?