o one could have wished him to live on in pain and suffering. I think
the only trials of his life were the periods in which he was unfitted
for work. His remarkable career was not darkened by any struggle for
recognition. Few artists have been so fortunate as Aubrey Beardsley.
His short life was remarkably happy--at all events during the six years
he was before the public. Everything he did met with success--a success
thoroughly enjoyed by him. He seemed indifferent to the idle criticism
and violent denunciation with which much of his art was hailed. I never
heard of anyone of importance who disliked him personally; on the other
hand, many who were hostile and prejudiced about his art ceased to
attack him after meeting him. This must have been due to the magnetism
and charm of his individuality, exercised quite unconsciously, for he
never tried to conciliate people, or "to work the oracle," but rather
gloried in shocking "the enemy," a boyish failing for which he may be
forgiven.

[Illustration: THE WAGNERITES]

He had considerable intellectual vanity, but it never relapsed into
common conceit. He was generous in recognizing the talent and genius of
others, but was singularly perverse in some of his utterances. He said
once that only four of his contemporaries interested him. He bore with
extraordinary patience the assertions of foolish persons who calmly
asserted that both in America and England other artists had anticipated
the peculiarities of his style and methods. I have seen the works of
these Lambert Simnels and Perkin Warbecks, and they proved, one and all,
crows in peacocks' feathers. Beardsley's style, nevertheless, influenced
(unfortunately, I think) many excellent artists both younger and older
than himself. In France his work was accepted without question: he was
always gratified by the cordiality which greeted him in a country where
he was more generally understood than in his own. He has illustrious
precedents in Constable and Bonnington. Italy, Austria, and Germany
recognized in him a master some time before his death. At Berlin his
picture of _Mrs Patrick Campbell_, the actress, is now in a place of
honour in the Museum. A portrait study of himself is in the British
Museum Print Room; a few examples are at South Kensington; but all his
important work is in private collections; much of it is in America and
Germany. In England, putting aside the notoriety and sensation caused
by his posters and the Yello