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The Wanton, The Weird, The Wonderful
 
The Wanton Muse (Argo ZDA 85, 42s. 9d.).
Comus and Samson Agonistes, by John Milton (Argo ZRG 544/5, L4 5s. 6d.).
The Ginsbergs at the I.C.A. (Saga PSY 30002, 30s.).
Alen and Women of Shakespeare (R.C.A. Victor, 42s. 9d.).
The Pre-Raphaelites,(Argo RG 534, 42s. 9d.).
Poetry and Song (Argo DA 56/63, 36s. 8d. each).
The Long Harvest, V and VI (Argo ZDA 70/71, 36s. 8d.).

The Wanton Muse is, in a sense, not a record of poetry at all; and yet in another sense, is a record of poetry at its very source—the human memory and the great unconscious. Here are nineteen old ballads of England, collected sometimes from old texts, and sometimes from 'the singer's father, William Miller', or from 'Jeannie Robertson, Aberdeen', or from 'Anne O'Neill, Belfast tinker woman, N. Ireland'.

Sung by Ewan Maccoll with the greatest enthusiasm, they all have the tang of earth-poetry about them: and include such classics of English pub ribaldry as The Thrashing Machine and The Bird in the Bush, rough and lewd and beautiful. Rambling Sid Rumpo never did as well as this—neither in slyness nor, certainly, in that robust beauty which is at the heart of country matters. A lovely record.

Nobility, the strong suit of John Milton, is certainly to be heard in the new Argo recording of Comus, with Ian Holm in the title-role, William Squire as the Attendant Spirit, and Barbara Jefford as The Lady; and with the original music of Henry Lawes, sung by Robert Tear, Margaret Neville and Susan Longfield under the direction of Raymond Leppard. This, too, is magnificent : it is impossible not to get caught up in the drama of the piece; and as impossible not to relish the mighty lines as well as Holm relishes them. I am not an enthusiastic Miltonian; but this would convert the foolish; and there are too, fragments of Samson Agonistes (Tony Church as Samson).

On the Saga disc, Allen and Louis Ginsberg, father and son, recite their poetry at the I.C.A. (the recording is of the recital on 22nd August last year). There is a pious introduction by Allen Ginsberg of his father; Allen then reads from Poem in these States and chants an invocation to Saraswati, Goddess of Learning, Poetry and Music. Louis Can antique poet', says Allen) then talks a bit, and reads a bit. The disc is almost unbelievably tedious; but then, I believe that Allen went to pieces very soon after Howl, as a poet; and that Louis' poetry, while pleasant enough, is indeed antique.

So of course is Shakespeare: but also eternal. And Sir John Gielgud and Irene Worth give full value to such scenes as the murder scene from Macbeth, the balcony scene from Romeo, and the closet scene from Hamlet. Not, I think, absolutely marvellous; but who, one asks, could do it better? The recording should be played over every morning, before rehearsals, to the members of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company, who have taken to reciting, lately, almost as badly as Paul Schofield.

The Pre-Raphaelites is an interesting, if oddly-selected, record in Argo's continuing series of English poets. The scores are strange, indeed: eight poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ten by Christina Rossetti, five by William Morris, and only three by Swinburne (who as a poet cannot seriously be mentioned in the same breath as the other three, around whom he runs rings as colourful and giant as the sun around the moon). Gary Watson reads the first chorus from Atalanta in Calydon beautifully, and Flora Robson almost makes Eve and The Heart Knoweth its own Bitterness immortal.

In Poetry and Song we now have fourteen volumes of poems and songs, in recordings directed by Harvey Usill, and with the attendant texts hand-somely printed issued by Macmillan (at 8s. 6d. for books one and two, 9s. 6d. and 1 1 s. 6d. for the remaining two). The poems and the songs are excellently chosen, and the recordings admirable in every way. I remain unconvinced of their value in schools—the whole point of the issue—except in the hands of quite exceptionally talented teachers; remembering the class reactions to B.B.C. schools, broadcasts her entirely dissimilar. But of course the venture is infinitely well meant, and deserves a success commensurate with the care with which it has been planned and executed.

Finally, two more volumes of The Long Harvest, in which Peggy Seegar and Ewan Maccoll continue their investigation into the various versions of traditional folksongs. Fascinating, of course, with cruelty and violence perhaps somewhat in pride of place in these two discs. (Interesting, by the way, that Lord Lovel, in an American version, began: 'Abe Lincoln stood at the White House gate. . .'.)