From The Academy “From Crowded Shelves”: Review of The Savoy, Vol. 8

    The Savoy. (Leonard Smithers.)— To the
last number of The Savoy, which is entirely
written by Mr. Arthur Symons, and illus-
trated (if that is the word) by Mr. Beardsley,
the editor appends a literary causerie by
way of the epilogue. In this he reviews the
life of his magazine, from its birth a year
ago to its present cessation “upon the
mightnight with no pain.” Mr. Symons
claims to have carried out, in the main,
his inital programme, although certain
obstacles, such as the refusal of Messrs.
Smith & Co. to place The Savoy on their
bookstalls, were disheartening. In future
Mr. Arthur Symons will be associated with
a periodical which will make no attempt to
be popular, and will appear in a leisurely
manner twice a year. Looking back on
The Savoy, we cannot consider it a very
remarkable literary or artistic feat. From
avowed decadents, however, one must not
expect much that is vital. The Savoy has
given its reader some sound criticism—Mr.
Yeats, we remember, wrote finely of Blake
—but it has done little constructively. The
ideal of beauty set up by the editor for
worship was a little over-weary from the first.
Mr. Beardsley never, we think, has been at
his best in The Savoy. The texture of the
paper was out of sympathy with his delicate
line, and his hand has lost much of its
grace. In this the last number he is now
and then hideous—nothing less. There is
no reason why Mr. Beardsley should not
make such a drawing as that entitled
“Erda” if he likes; but there is every
reason why the editor of a magazine
avowedly artistic should decline to publish
it.