Essays in the Arts

It is interesting to read criticism on the arts from well-known individuals who lived during the early part of the last century.
Lord Dunsany, asks, “…what is it to be a poet?” His answer is very clear: “It is to see at a glance the glory of the world, to see beauty in all its forms and manifestations, to feel ugliness like a pain, to resent the wrongs of others as bitterly as one's own, to know mankind as others know single men, to know Nature as botanists know a flower, to be thought a fool, to hear at moments the clear voice of God.”
In speaking about the secrets on the visual arts such as those produced by Picasso, Cezanne, Boccioni, and Severini, W. A. Sinclair make the following observation: “Art—the Joyous One—[is] the praise of perfection. There never was a picture with the taint of pessimism in it, nor will there ever be one, because the painter is he who lifts the tangled throbbing veil, behind which glows forever the golden heart of time.”
In the history of cinema, one actor stands out above all others past and present. He is Charlie Chaplin, and for good reasons. He was a great talent who silently spoke to all of the people of the world—thus his acclaim. “I have heard”, writes Elie Faure, “that Chaplin is never without his Shakespeare, but whether it is true or not he has had no need of him. For without knowing it one may wear the feature of a most remote ancestor. In any case, it is the modern spirit, like Shakespeare’s, like Montaigne’s, that has guided Chaplin and has illumined him with the light of dawn: this man, drunk with intelligence, dancing on the summits of despair.”