prior to this incident,
and "_Madame Cigale's Birthday Party_" immediately afterwards. His
emulation of the Japanese never left him until the production of the
Savoy Magazine. In my view this was the only bad artistic influence
which ever threatened to endanger his originality, or permanently
vitiate his manner. The free use of Chinese ink, together with his
intellectual vitality, saved him from "succumbing to Japan," to use
Mr Pennell's excellent phrase.

[Illustration: THE BARON'S PRAYER
_From "The Rape of the Lock"_]

A series of grotesques to decorate some rather silly anthologies
produced in the same year as the "Morte d'Arthur" are marvels of
ingenuity, and far more characteristic. With them he began a new period,
throwing over the deliberate archaism and mediaevalism, of which he began
to tire. In the illustrations to "Salome," he reached the consummation
of the new convention he created for himself; they are, collectively,
his masterpiece. In the whole range of art there is nothing like them.
You can trace the origin of their development, but you cannot find
anything wherewith to compare them; they are absolutely unique. Before
commencing "Salome" two events contributed to give Beardsley a fresh
impetus and stimulate his method of expression: a series of visits
to the collection of Greek vases in the British Museum (prompted by
an essay of Mr D. S. McColl), and to the famous Peacock Room of Mr
Whistler, in Prince's Gate--one the antithesis of Japan, the other
of Burne-Jones. Impressionable at all times to novel sensations, his
artistic perceptions vibrated with a new and inspired enthusiasm.
Critical appreciation under his pen meant creation. From the Greek
vase painting he learned that drapery can be represented effectually
with a few lines, disposed with economy, not by a number of unfinished
scratches and superfluous shading. If the "Salome" drawings have any
fault at all, it is that the texture of the pictures suggests some other
medium than pen and ink, as Mr Walter Crane has pointed out in his other
work. They are wrought rather than drawn, and might be designs for the
panel of a cabinet, for Limoges or Oriental enamel. "The Rape of the
Lock" is, therefore, a more obvious example of black and white art.
Beardsley's second period lasted until the fourth volume of the Yellow
Book, in which the "_Wagnerites_" should be mentioned as one of the
finest. In 1896 Beardsley, many people think to the detriment o