' **' '-*i 4W Hfcjjwtfcj THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF Professor Frederick Mason Carey GRYLL GRANGE J Sometimes, too, they ifanced the Minuet de la Cour. P. 177. GRYLL GRANGE BY THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK ILLUSTRATED BY F. II. TOWNSEND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY GEORGE SAINTSBURY MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. NEW YORK: MACMILLAN & CO. 1896 A II rights reserved College Library G92 \896 INTRODUCTION GRYLL GRANGE, the last and mellowest fruit from Pea- cock's tree, was, like most mellow fruit, not matured hastily. In saying this I do not refer to the long period exactly a generation in the conventional sense which intervened between Crotchet Castle of 1831 and this of 1861. For we know as a matter of fact, from the preface to the 1856 edi- tion of Melincourt) that Peacock was planning Gryll Grange at a time considerably nearer to, but still some years from, its actual publication. There might perhaps have been room for fear lest such a proceeding, on the part of a man of seventy-five who was living in retirement, should result in an ill-digested mass of detail, tempered or rather distempered by the grumbling of old age, and exhibiting the marks of failing powers. No anticipation could have been more happily falsified. The advance in good temper of Gryll Grange^ even upon Crotchet Castle itself, is denied by no one. The book, though long for its author, is not in the least overloaded ; and no signs of failure have ever been detected in it except by those who upbraid the still further severance between the line of Peacock's thought and the line of what is vulgarly accounted 'progress,' and who almost openly impute decay to powers no longer used on their side but against them. The only plausible pretext for this insinuation is that very vii a 1034652 GRYLL GRANGE advance in mildness and mellowness which has been noted that comparative absence of the sharper and cruder strokes of the earlier work. But since the wit is as bright as ever, though less hard, it seems unreasonable to impute as a defect what, but for very obvious reasons, would be admitted as an improvement. Except Brougham, who still comes in for some severe language, no one of Peacock's old favourite abominations undergoes personal chastisement. On the contrary, indirect but pretty distinct apology is tendered to Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge by appreciative citation of their work. Even among the general victims, Scotchmen and political economists have a still more direct olive-branch extended to them by the introduction of the personage of Mr. MacBorrowdale : there is no more blasphemy of Scott : and I do not at the present moment remember any very distinct slaps at paper money. Peace had been made long ago with the Church of England, through the powerful medium of Dr. Folliott; but it is ratified and cemented anew here not merely by the presentation of Dr. Opimian, but (in rather an odd fashion perhaps) by the trait of Falconer's devotion to St. Catharine. So also, as the fair hand of Lady Clarinda, despite some hard knocks admini- stered to her father and brother, had beckoned Peacock away from his cut-and-dried satire of the aristocracy, so now Lord Curryfin exhibits a further stage of reconciliation. In short, all those elements of society to which very young men, not wanting either in brains or heart, often take crude and fanciful objection, had by this time approved themselves (as they always do, with the rarest exceptions, to les dmes bien nets) at worst graceful if unnecessary ornaments to life, at best valuable to the social fabric as solid and all but in- dispensable buttresses of it. viii INTRODUCTION In all these 'reconciliations and forgivenesses of in- juries,' however, it is very important to observe that there is no mawkishness; and, whatever may have been some- times thought and said, there is no 'ratting' in the real sense. As must be obvious to any attentive reader of the novels, and as has been pointed out once or twice before in these introductions, Peacock had at no time been anything like an enrolled, much less a convinced, member of the Radical or any party. He may have been a Republican in his youth, though for my part I should like more trust- worthy evidence for it than that of Thomas Jefferson Hogg, a very clever but a distinctly unscrupulous person. If he was and it is not at all improbable that he had the Re- publican measles, a very common disease of youth, pretty early he certainly had never been a democrat. Even his earlier satire is double-edged; and, as must be constantly repeated and remembered, it was always his taste and his endeavour to shoot folly as it flew, to attack existent and not extinct forms of popular or fashionable delusion. Such follies, whether in 1860 or since, have certainly not as a rule been of the aristocratic, monarchical, or Tory order generally. He found plenty of these follies, however, in the other kind the kind which he had begun to satirise smartly in Crotchet Castle and he showed pretty decisively that his hand had not lost its cunning, nor his sword its sharpness. The satire, though partly, is not mainly political ; and it is an interesting detail (though it only refreshes the memory of those who knew the facts then or have studied them since) that barely six years before a far more sweeping reform than that of 1832, a very acute judge who disliked and resisted it spoke of 'another reform lunacy' as 'not likely to arise in his time.' And these words, it must be ix GRYLL GRANGE remembered, are put in the mouth of Mr. MacBorrowdale, who is represented as merely middle-aged. It is fortunate, however, for the interest of Gryll Grange that politics, in the strict sense, occupy so small a part of it ; for of all subjects they lose interest first to all but a very select number of readers. The bulk of the satiric comment of the book is devoted either to purely social matters, or to the debateable land between these and politics proper. A little but not very much of this is obsolete or obsolescent. American slavery is no more; and the ' Pantopragmatic Society ' (in official language the Social Science Congress) has ceased to exist as a single recognised institution. But there is not much about slavery here, and if pantopragmatics have lost their special Society they flourish more than ever as a general and fashionable subject of human attention. You shall not open a number of the Times twice, perhaps not once in a week, without finding columns of debate, harangue, or letter-writing purely pantopragmatical. Still more is this the case with another subject which has even more attention, and on which what some think the central and golden sentence of the book is laid down by Dr. Opimian in the often-quoted words, ' If all the nonsense which in the last quarter of a century [it is appalling to think that this quarter is getting on for three-quarters now] has been talked on all other subjects were thrown into one scale, and all that has been talked on the subject of Educa- tion alone were thrown into the other, I think the latter would preponderate.' Indeed it cannot be said that after nearly five-and-thirty years, up to and including the present moment, during which Competitive Examination has been a field of battle, much has been added to Peacock's attack on it, or anything said on the other side to weaken the cogency of that attack. No doubt he was to some extent x INTRODUCTION a prejudiced judge ; for, though few people would at any time of his youth have had less to fear from competitive examination, his own fortune had been made by the oppo- site system, and the competitive scheme must infallibly tend rather to exclude than to admit persons like him. But a wise criticism does not ask cut bono in cases of argument, it simply looks to see whether the advocacy is sound, not whether the advocate has received or expects his fee. And Peacock's advocacy is here not merely sound ; it is, in so far as it goes, inexpugnable. It is true there is a still more irrefragable rejoinder to it which has kept competition safe hitherto, though for obvious reasons it will very rarely be found openly expressed by the defenders of the system; and that is, that, under the popular jealousy resulting from wide or universal suffrage, there is no alternative but competitive ex- amination, or else the American system of alternating spoils to the victors, which is demonstrably worse for the public, and not demonstrably much better for private interests. As for table-turning, and lectures, and the 'excess of hurrying about,' and ' Siberian ' dinners and so forth, they are certainly not dead. Table-turning may have changed its name ; the others have not even adopted the well- known expedient of the alias, but appear just as they were thirty years ago in the social and satiric dictionaries of to-day. It would be odd if this comparative freshness and actuality of subject did not make Gryll Grange one of the lightest and brightest of Peacock's novels ; and I think it fully deserves that description. But it would be doing it extremely scant justice to allow any one to suppose that its attractions consist solely, or even mainly, in ' valuable thoughts ' and expressions of sense, satire, and scholarship (to combine Wordsworth with Warrington). In lighter respects, in respects of form xi GRYLL GRANGE and treatment of the kinds more usually associated with fiction, it need not hide its head with the best. Peacock gave himself more scope and verge in it than in any of his novels except Melincourt ; and in Melincourt he had unfor- tunately not yet outgrown the habit of putting into the mouth of his characters long dissertations on special points. This he had now entirely left behind him; while he still possessed not merely the satiric power, but the improved and remarkable style, and the faculty if not of constructing plot yet of creating and presenting character, which have been noted in other places as his successive acquisitions. He has displayed all these here. The merely labelled oddities who still appear in Crotchet Castle in the persons of Mr. Philpot, Mr. Toogood, and others, are here entirely absent. The convives of Gryll Grange the Squire, Dr. Opimian, Mr. Falconer, Lord Curryfin, Mr. MacBorrow- dale, Miss Ilex, Morgana, Alice are all real. As for the last, Niphetos is a beautiful rose, and the complexion which Peacock meant to indicate is the most beautiful of com- plexions, but I wish he had devised a prettier English surname than Niphet. I do not indeed love either of these young women quite so much as I love Lady Clarinda ; but they and the more elderly spinster have enabled Peacock to give what he had never attempted before, a somewhat elaborate picture, or set of pictures, of love itself. These matters are the very apices of the code of taste ; and it is very difficult to get any two persons, even of those qualified (for of course the vulgar judgment is hopelessly ' out ' here), to agree on what is and is not successful treatment of them. The triple dangers of an old man's handling over-luscious- ness, defect of passion, and mawkish sentimentality appear to me to be on the whole happily avoided. Of course if Peacock, incurs the reproach of any of the three it is that of INTRODUCTION the last; and his eighteenth-century models and reminis- cences may perhaps make him even here seem a very little namby-pamby to the nineteenth. But it must be a coarse taste, I think, which uses such a word with ' Love and Age ' presented to it ; and though both the Allegro of Morgana and the Penseroso of Alice have something just a little theatrical about them, the touch is not excessive and the conversation of both is delightfully crisp and of all time. Of course Falconer is rather an ass, and his clingings to the society of the ' vestals ' somewhat imperfectly motived ; while the carrying off of the whole batch is something of a return to those strokes, not merely of the theatre, but of the farce-theatre, in which Peacock had indulged during the earlier part of his career. But the whole scheme of these novels is ex hypothesi whimsical or nothing ; and I do not know that even this, which gives more coherence to the particular book than to most of the others, after all exceeds the limits of permitted whim. Falconer's rival, on the other hand, is extremely good. If there is any sign of ' senility ' it can only be in the fact that he is not better still, as with- out much difficulty he might have been. The elders are all satisfactory, though one might desiderate a little more colour in Mr. Gryll, and though Dr. Opimian is almost too sweetly reasonable, too provokingly right in all points. The occasionally outrageous prejudice of Dr. Folliott had certainly more savour in it ; though the earlier doctor's objections to Scott and to undraped statuary are entirely devoid of such justification as may be pleaded for the latter's strictures on Lord Tennyson and Sir John Millais. But he is wrong about halibut ; and I do not think that a person of Dr. Opimian's tastes in 1860 could possibly have known so little of the story of St. Catharine. He must have been at either Oxford or Cambridge after the beginning of the Oxford xiii GRYLL GRANGE Movement, and it is absolutely impossible that he should have been an Evangelical. We must not dismiss without some special mention the episode though it is not properly an episode, inasmuch as it has throughout an important connection with the working of the story of ' Aristophanes in London.' This has sometimes been adversely criticised as not sufficiently antique which seems to overlook the obvious retort that if it had been more so it could not by any possibility have been sufficiently modern. Those who know something of Aristophanes and something of London may doubt whether it could have established the nexus much better. I have elsewhere pointed out the curious connection with Mansel's Phrontisterion, which was considerably earlier in date, and with the sentiments of which Peacock would have been in the heartiest agreement. But it is extremely unlikely that he ever saw it His antipathy to the English universities appears to have been one of the most enduring of his crazes, probably because it was always the most unreasonable ; and though there is no active renewal of hostilities in this novel (or none of importance), it is noticeable there is also no direct or indirect palinode as there is in most other cases. As for the play itself, it seems to me very good. Miss Gryll must have looked delightful as Circe (we get a more distinct description of her personality here than anywhere else), Gryllus has an excellent standpoint, and the dialogue, though unequal, is quite admirable at the best. Indeed there is a Gilbertian tone about the whole piece which I should be rather more surprised at being the first to note, so far as I know, if I were not pretty well prepared to find that the study of the average dramatic critic is not much in Peacock. The choric trochees (which by the way is a tautology) are of the highest excellence, especially the piece beginning xiv INTRODUCTION ' As before the pike will fly ' in which Coeur-de-Lion's discomfiture of the ' septemvirate of quacks ' is hymned ; and the finale is quite Attic. I do not know whether the thing has ever been attempted as an actual show. Though rather exacting in its machinery, it ought to have been. The novel is rather full of other verse, but except ' Love and Age ' so often mentioned, but never to be mentioned enough for its strange and admirable commixture of sense and sentiment, of knowledge of the heart and knowledge of life this is not of the first class for Peacock, certainly not worthy to be ranked with the play. ' The Death of Philemon ' is indeed a beautiful piece in its first half; the second were better 'cut.' 'The Dappled Palfrey,' a very charming fabliau in the original, chiefly suggests the superiority of Lochinvar, to which it is a sort of counterpart and complement. ' The New Order of Chivalry ' with a good deal of truth has also a good deal of illiberality ; and, amusing as it is, is a relapse into Peacock's old vein of almost insolent personality. Sir Moses Montefiore and Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy did not deserve, though they might afford to despise, the sort of cheap rallying here applied to them ; and might have retaliated, not without point, on persons who drew large salaries at the India House, with frequent additional gratifications, and stood up for ' chivalry ' in their leisure moments. And ' The Legend of St. Laura ' is not first rate. But the Italian trans- lations make us wish for more of the same. On the whole, however, though we may like some things more and some less here, I cannot conceive the whole being otherwise than delightful to any person of knowledge, sense, and taste. And as we close Peacock's novels there is this interesting though rather melancholy thought that we ' close the book ' in more senses than one. They have never been xv GRYLL GRANGE imitated save afar off; and even the far-off imitations have not been very satisfactory. The English Muse seems to have set, at the joining of the old afad new ages, this one person with the learning and tastes of the ancestors, with the irreverent criticism of the moderns, to comment on the transition ; and, having fashioned him, to have broken the mould. GEORGE SAINTSBURY. xvi CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION . . vii CHAPTER I MISNOMERS ....... 3 CHAPTER II THE SQUIRE AND HIS NIECE .... 9 CHAPTER III THE DUKE'S FOLLY ... .17 CHAPTER IV THE FOREST A SOLILOQUY ON HAIR . . .24 CHAPTER V THE SEVEN SISTERS 35 CHAPTER VI THE RUSTIC LOVER .... 38 b xvii GRYLL GRANGE CHAPTER VII PAGE THE VICAR AND HIS WIFE FAMILIES OF LOVE THE NEWSPAPER ...... 44 CHAPTER VIII PANTOPRAGMATICS . ... * . .51 CHAPTER IX SAINT CATHARINE . . . . . . 54 CHAPTER X THE THUNDERSTORM . . , .62 CHAPTER XI ELECTRICAL SCIENCE THE DEATH OF PHILEMON . 67 CHAPTER XII THE FOREST DELL THE POWER OF LOVE THE LOTTERY OF MARRIAGE . . . . -73 CHAPTER XIII LORD CURRYFIN SIBERIAN DINNERS SOCIAL MONOTONY 84 CHAPTER XIV Music AND PAINTING JACK OF DOVER . . .90 CHAPTER XV EXPRESSION IN Music THE DAPPLED PALFREY LOVE AND AGE COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION . . 98 xviii CONTENTS CHAPTER XVI PAGE Miss NIPHET THE THEATRE THE LAKE DIVIDED AT- TRACTION INFALLIBLE SAFETY . . . 108 CHAPTER XVII HORSE-TAMING LOVE IN DILEMMA INJUNCTIONS SONO- ROUS VASES ...... 123 CHAPTER XVIII LECTURES THE POWER OF PUBLIC OPINION A NEW ORDER OF CHIVALRY ..... 134 CHAPTER XIX A SYMPOSIUM TRANSATLANTIC TENDENCIES AFTER- DINNER LECTURES EDUCATION . . .139 CHAPTER XX ALGERNON AND MORGANA OPPORTUNITY AND REPENT- ANCE THE FOREST IN WINTER . . . 148 CHAPTER XXI SKATING PAS DE DEUX ON THE ICE CONGENIALITY FLINTS AMONG BONES . . . . .157 CHAPTER XXII THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES A SOLILOQUY ON CHRISTMAS 167 CHAPTER XXIII THE TWO QUADRILLES POPE'S OMBRE POETICAL TRUTH TO NATURE CLEOPATRA . . . .176 xix GRYLL GRANGE CHAPTER XXIV PAGE PROGRESS OF SYMPATHY LOVE'S INJUNCTIONS ORLANDO INNAMORATO . . . . . .186 CHAPTER XXV HARRY AND DOROTHY . 199 CHAPTER XXVI DOUBTS AND QUESTIONS . . . 204 CHAPTER XXVII LOVE IN MEMORY ...... 207 CHAPTER XXVIII ARISTOPHANES IN LONDON . . .213 CHAPTER XXIX THE BALD VENUS INEZ DE CASTRO THE UNITY OF LOVE 229 CHAPTER XXX A CAPTIVE KNIGHT RICHARD AND ALICE . . 236 CHAPTER XXXI A TWELFTH- NIGHT BALL PANTOPRAGMATIC COOKERY MODERN VANDALISM A BOWL OF PUNCH . . 244 CHAPTER XXXII HOPES AND FEARS COMPENSATIONS IN LIFE ATHENIAN COMEDY MADEIRA AND Music CONFIDENCES . 250 xx CONTENTS CHAPTER XXXIII PAGE THE CONQUEST OF THEBES .... 265 CHAPTER XXXIV CHRISTMAS TALES CLASSICAL TALES OF WONDER THE HOST'S GHOST A TALE OF A SHADOW A TALE OF A BOGLE THE LEGEND OF ST. LAURA . . 270 CHAPTER XXXV REJECTED SUITORS CONCLUSION .... 284 xxi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Sometimes, too, they danced the Minuet de la Cour Frontispiece Was the young lady over fastidious ? . . . .12 The Reverend Doctor Opimian . . . .16 ' Seven young women as the establishment of one young bachelor is something new and strange ' . . .25 The doctor could not retire to rest without verifying his question touching the hair of the Vestals . . . .32 A doleful swain ...... 40 ' If you were a bachelor, and I were a maid, I should not trust myself to be your aga aga ' . . . .45 ' The saint whom I have chosen presents to my mind the most perfect ideality of physical, moral, and intellectual beauty ' ...... 60 The other horse had been prancing in terror . . .64 There he had sat for hours at a time, reading his favourite poets 76 In vain was pursuit, though some followed pell-mell . . 101 Mr. Pallet devoted every morning to the scenery . .no Found Lord Curryfin swinging over the stage on a seat sus- pended by long ropes . . . . .113 Found his lordship scrambling up the bank . . .117 ' That sail will never put you under the water again ' . . 119 A singularly refractory specimen . . . .122 xxiii GRYLL GRANGE PAGE ' I expected to find you killed' . . . .125 ' And from balloons,' she said. ' And from balloons,' he answered . . . . .131 He determined on trying if he could not outdo Mr. Tait . 156 He saw that she was an Atalanta on ice as on turf . .160 Mr. Falconer's Mercury . . . . .166 He heard a good deal of the family news . . .169 ' Here are six suitable parties to propose for her six sisters ' . 173 He noticed with extreme discomposure the swarm of moths who were fluttering in the light of her beauty. . . 183 'Then you may say, I have fallen in love' . . .190 He was recalled to himself by sinking up to his shoulders in a hollow . . . . . .194 Harry was indefatigable in his suit . . . .198 Harry encouraged his six allies to carry on the siege . . 202 ' I have been foolish enough to be constant all my life to a single idea ' . . . . ... 209 Richard flourished his battle-axe over the heads of the examiners 219 Miss Gryll was resplendent as Circe .... 227 Every movement developed some new grace . . . 234 My dear Alice, you are in love, and do not choose to confess it' 238 ' In the meantime, live in hope ; but live on beef and ale ' . 253 ' I observe,' said the doctor, ' that your handmaids always move in pairs ' .... . . 257 Discoursing of many things, but chiefly of Morgana . . 263 She appeared before him, blushing and trembling . . 267 ' You must have plenty of ghosts in Greek and Latin, doctor ' . 271 ' My dear Morgana, all's well that ends well ' . . 285 His saul abune the moon ..... 289 XXIV GRYLL GRANGE Opinion governs all mankind, Like the blind leading of the blind : And like the world, men's jobbernoles Turn round upon their ears the poles, And what they're confidently told By no sense else can be controll'd. BUTLER. IN the following pages the New Forest is always mentioned as if it were still unenclosed. This is the only state in which the Author has been acquainted with it. Since its enclosure, he has never seen it, and purposes never to do so. The mottoes are sometimes specially apposite to the chapters to which they are prefixed ; but more frequently to the general scope, or, to borrow a musical term, the motivo of the operetta. CHAPTER I MISNOMERS Ego sic semper et ubique vixi, ut ultimam quamque lucem, tamquam non redituram, consumerem. PETRONIUS ARBITER. Always and everywhere I have so lived, that I might consume the passing light as if it were not to return. ' PALESTINE soup ! ' said the Reverend Doctor Opimian, dining with his friend Squire Gryll ; ' a curiously complicated misnomer. We have an excellent old vegetable, the artichoke, of which we eat the head ; we have another of subsequent introduction, of which we eat the root, and which we also call artichoke, because it resembles the first in flavour, although, me judtce, a very inferior affair. This last is a species of the helianthus, or sunflower genus of the Syngenesia frustranea class of plants. It is therefore a girasol, or turn-to-the-sun. From this girasol we have made Jerusalem, and from the Jerusalem artichoke we make Palestine soup.' Mr. Gryll. A very good thing, doctor. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. A very good thing ; but a palpable misnomer. Mr. Gryll. I am afraid we live in a world of misnomers, and of a worse kind than this. In my little experience I have found that a gang of swindling bankers is a respectable old firm ; that men who sell their votes to the highest bidder, and want only ' the protection of the ballot ' to sell the promise of them to both parties, are a free and independent constituency ; that a man who successively betrays everybody that trusts him, and abandons every principle he ever professed, is a great statesman, and a Conservative, forsooth, a nil conservando; GRYLL GRANGE that schemes for breeding pestilence are sanitary improvements ; that the test of intellectual capacity is in swallow, and not in digestion ; that the art of teaching everything, except what will be of use to the recipient, is national education ; and that a change for the worse is reform. Look across the Atlantic. A Sympathiser would seem to imply a certain degree of benevolent feeling. Nothing of the kind. It signifies a ready- made accomplice in any species of political villainy. A Know- Nothing would seem to imply a liberal self-diffidence on the scriptural principle that the beginning of knowledge is to know that thou art ignorant. No such thing. It implies furious political dogmatism, enforced by bludgeons and revolvers. A Locofoco is the only intelligible term : a fellow that would set any place on fire to roast his own eggs. A Filibuster is a pirate under national colours ; but I suppose the word in its origin implies something virtuous : perhaps a friend of humanity. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. More likely a friend of roaring i\o(3(oo-Tfr>]<; in the sense in which roaring is used by our old dramatists ; for which see Middleton's Roaring Girl, and the commentators thereon. Mr. Gryll. While we are on the subject of misnomers, what say you to the wisdom of Parliament ? The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Why, sir, I do not call that a misnomer. The term wisdom is used in a parliamentary sense. The wisdom of Parliament is a wisdom sui generis. It is not like any other wisdom. It is not the wisdom of Socrates, nor the wisdom of Solomon. It is the wisdom of Parliament. It is not easily analysed or defined ; but it is very easily under- stood. It has achieved wonderful things by itself, and still more when Science has come to its aid. Between them they have poisoned the Thames, and killed the fish in the river. A little further development of the same wisdom and science will complete the poisoning of the air, and kill the dwellers on the banks. It is pleasant that the precious effluvium has been brought so efficiently under the Wisdom's own wise nose. Thereat the nose, like Trinculo's, has been in great indignation. The Wisdom has ordered the Science to do something. The Wisdom does not know what, nor the Science either. But the Wisdom has empowered the Science to spend some millions of money; and this, no doubt, the Science will do. When the MISNOMERS money has been spent, it will be found that the something has been worse than nothing. The Science will want more money to do some other something, and the Wisdom will grant it Redit labor actus in orbeml But you have got on moral and political ground. My remark was merely on a perversion of words, of which we have an inexhaustible catalogue. Mr. Gryll. Whatever ground we take, doctor, there is one point common to most of these cases : the word presents an idea which does not belong to the subject, critically considered. Palestine soup is not more remote from the true Jerusalem, than many an honourable friend from public honesty and honour. However, doctor, what say you to a glass of old Madeira, which I really believe is what it is called ? The Rev. Dr. Opimian. In -vino veritas. I accept with pleasure. Miss Gryll. You and my uncle, doctor, get up a discussion on everything that presents itself; dealing with your theme like a series of variations in music. You have run half round the world a propos of the soup. What say you to the fish ? The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Premising that this is a remark- ably fine slice of salmon, there is much to be said about fish : but not in the way of misnomers. Their names are single and simple. Perch, sole, cod, eel, carp, char, skate, tench, trout, brill, bream, pike, and many others, plain monosyllables : salmon, dory, turbot, gudgeon, lobster, whitebait, grayling, haddock, mullet, herring, oyster, sturgeon, flounder, turtle, plain dissyllables : only two trisyllables worth naming, anchovy and mackerel ; unless any one should be disposed to stand up for halibut, which, for my part, I have excommunicated. Mr. Gryll. I agree with you on that point ; but I think you have named one or two that might as well keep it company. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I do not think I have named a single unpresentable fish, Mr. Gryll. Bream, doctor : there is not much to be said for bream. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. On the contrary, sir, I think there is much to be said for him. In the first place, there is the authority of the monastic brotherhoods, who are universally admitted to have been connoisseurs in fish, and in the mode of preparing it ; and you will find bream pie set down as a 1 The labour returns, compelled into a circle. 5 GRYLL GRANGE prominent item of luxurious living in the indictments prepared against them at the dissolution of the monasteries. The work of destruction was rather too rapid, and I fear the receipt is lost. But he can still be served up as an excellent stew, provided always that he is full-grown, and has swum all his life in clear running water. I call everything fish that seas, lakes, and rivers furnish to cookery ; though, scientifically, a turtle is a reptile, and a lobster an insect. Fish, Miss Gryll I could discourse to you on fish by the hour : but for the present I will forbear : as Lord Curryfin is coming down to Thornback Bay, to lecture the fishermen on fish and fisheries, and to astonish them all with the science of their art. You will, no doubt, be curious to hear him. There will be some reserved seats. Miss Gryll. I shall be very curious to hear him, indeed. I have never heard a lecturing lord. The fancy of lords and gentlemen to lecture everybody on everything, everywhere, seems to me something very comical ; but perhaps it is some- thing very serious, gracious in the lecturer, and instructive to the audience. I shall be glad to be cured of my unbecoming propensity to laugh whenever I hear of a lecturing lord. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I hope, Miss Gryll, you will not laugh at Lord Curryfin : for you may be assured nothing will be farther from his lordship's intention than to say anything in the slightest degree droll. Mr. Gryll. Doctor Johnson was astonished at the mania for lectures, even in his day, when there were no lecturing lords. He thought little was to be learned from lectures, unless where, as in chemistry, the subject required illustration by experiment. Now, if your lord is going to exhibit experi- ments in the art of cooking fish, with specimens in sufficient number for all his audience to taste, I have no doubt his lecture will be well attended, and a repetition earnestly desired. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I am afraid the lecture will not have the aid of such pleasant adventitious attractions. It will be a pure scientific exposition, carefully classified, under the several divisions and subdivisions of Ichthyology, Entomology, Herpetology, and Conchology. But I agree with Doctor Johnson, that little is to be learned from lectures. For the most part those who do not already understand the subject will not understand the lecture, and those who do will learn 6 MISNOMERS nothing from it. The latter will hear many things they would like to contradict, which the biense"ance of the lecture- room does not allow. I do not comprehend how people can find amusement in lectures. I should much prefer a tenson of the twelfth century, when two or three masters of the Gat Saber discussed questions of love and chivalry. Miss Gryll. I am afraid, doctor, our age is too prosy for that sort of thing. We have neither wit enough, nor poetry enough, to furnish the disputants. I can conceive a state of society in which such tensons would form a pleasant winter evening amusement : but that state of society is not ours. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Well, Miss Gryll, I should like, some winter evening, to challenge you to a tenson, and your uncle should be umpire. I think you have wit enough by nature, and I have poetry enough by memory, to supply a fair portion of the requisite materials, without assuming an absolute mastery of the Gai Saber. Miss Gryll. I shall accept the challenge, doctor. The wit on one side will, I am afraid, be very shortcoming ; but the poetry on the other will no doubt be abundant. Mr. Gryll. Suppose, doctor, you were to get up a tenson a little more relative to our own wise days. Spirit-rapping, for example, is a fine field. Nee pueri credunt . . . Sed tu vera puta^ You might go beyond the limits of a tenson. There is ample scope for an Aristophanic comedy. In the contest between the Just and the Unjust in the Clouds, and in other scenes of Aristophanes, you have ancient specimens of something very like tensons, except that love has not much share in them. Let us for a moment suppose this same spirit- rapping to be true dramatically so, at least. Let us fit up a stage for the purpose : make the invoked spirits visible as well as audible : and calling before us some of the illustrious of former days, ask them what they think of us and our doings ? Of our astounding progress of intellect ? Our march of mind ? Our higher tone of morality ? Our vast diffusion of education ? Our art of choosing the most unfit man by competitive exami- nation ? The Rev. Dr. Opimian. You had better not bring on many of them at once, nor ask many similar questions, or the chorus of ghostly laughter will be overwhelming. I imagine the 1 Not even boys believe it : but suppose it to be true. 7 GRYLL GRANGE answer would be something like Hamlet's : ' You yourselves, sirs, shall be as wise as we were, if, like crabs, you could go backward.' It is thought something wonderful that uneducated persons should believe in witchcraft in the nineteenth century : as if educated persons did not believe in grosser follies : such as this same spirit-rapping, unknown tongues, clairvoyance, table-turning, and all sorts of fanatical impositions, having for the present their climax in Mormonism. Herein all times are alike. There is nothing too monstrous for human credulity. I like the notion of the Aristophanic comedy. But it would require a numerous company, especially as the chorus is indis- pensable. The tenson may be carried on by two. Mr. Gryll. I do not see why we should not have both. Miss Gryll. Oh pray, doctor ! let us have the comedy. We hope to have a houseful at Christmas, and I think we may get it up well, chorus and all. I should so like to hear what my great ancestor, Gryllus, thinks of us : and Homer, and Dante, and Shakespeare, and Richard the First, and Oliver Cromwell. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. A very good dramatis personae. With these, and the help of one or two Athenians and Romans, we may arrive at a tolerable judgment on our own immeasur- able superiority to everything that has gone before us. Before we proceed further, we will give some account of our interlocutors. CHAPTER II THE SQUIRE AND HIS NIECE FORTUNA SPONDET . MULTA MULTIS . PRAESTAT NEMINI VIVE . IN DIES - ET HORAS NAM PROPRIUM EST NIH1L. 1 Marmor vetus apud Feam, ad Hor. Epist. i. n, 23. Fortune makes many promises to many, Keeps them to none. Live to the days and hours, For nothing is your own. GREGORY GRYLL, Esq., of Gryll Grange in Hampshire, on the borders of the New Forest, in the midst of a park which was a little forest in itself, reaching nearly to the sea, and well stocked with deer, having a large outer tract, where a numerous light-rented and well-conditioned tenantry fattened innumerable pigs, considering himself well located for what he professed to be, Epicuri de grege porous?- and held, though he found it difficult to trace the pedigree, that he was lineally descended from the ancient and illustrious Gryllus, who maintained against Ulysses the superior happiness of the life of other animals to that of the life of man. 3 It might be seen that, to a man who traced his ancestry 1 This inscription appears to consist of comic senarii, slightly dislocated for the inscriptional purpose. Spondet Fortuna multa multis, praestat nemini. Vive in dies et horas : nam proprium est nihil. 2 A pig f rom tfie fard f Epicurus. The old philosophers accepted good-humouredly the disparaging terms attached to them by their enemies or rivals. The Epicureans acquiesced in the pig, the Cynics in the dog, and Cleanthes was content to be called the Ass of Zeno, as being alone capable of bearing the burthen of the Stoic philosophy. 3 PLUTARCH. Bruta animalia ratione uti. Gryllus in this dialogue seems to have the best of the argument. Spenser, however, did not think GRYLL GRANGE from the palace of Circe, the first care would be the con- tinuance of his ancient race ; but a wife presented to him the forethought of a perturbation of his equanimity, which he never could bring himself to encounter. He liked to dine well, and withal to dine quietly, and to have quiet friends at his table, with whom he could discuss questions which might afford ample room for pleasant conversation, and none for acrimonious dispute. He feared that a wife would interfere with his dinner, his company, and his after-dinner bottle of port. For the perpetuation of his name, he relied on an orphan niece, whom he had brought up from a child, who superintended his household, and sate at the head of his table. She was to be his heiress, and her husband was to take his name. He left the choice to her, but reserved to himself a veto, if he should think the aspirant unworthy of the honourable appellation. The young lady had too much taste, feeling, and sense to be likely to make a choice which her uncle would not approve ; so, when he introduced his Gryll, in the Paradise of Acrasia, reviling Sir Guyon's Palmer for having restored him to the human form. Streightway he with his virtuous staff them strooke, And streight of beasts they comely men became : Yet being men they did unmanly looke, And stared ghastly, some for inward shame, And some for wrath to see their captive dame : But one above the rest in speciall, That had an hog been late, hight Grylle by name, Repyned greatly, and did him miscall, That had from hoggish, forme him brought to naturall. Said Guyon : ' See the mind of beastly man, That hath so soon forgot the excellence Of his creation when he life began, That now he chooseth, with vile difference, To be a beast, and lacke intelligence.' Fairy Queen, book ii. canto 12. In Plutarch's dialogue, Ulysses, after his own companions have been restored to the human form, solicits Circe to restore in the same manner any other Greeks who may be under her enchantments. Circe consents, provided they desire it. Gryllus, endowed with speech for the purpose, answers for all, that they had rather remain as they are ; and supports the decision by showing the greater comfort of their condition as it is, to what it would probably be if they were again sent forth to share the common lot of mankind. We have unfortunately only the beginning of the dialogue, of which the greater portion has perished. 10 III the young lady truer fastidious ? THE SQUIRE AND HIS NIECE but time, as it rolled on, foreshadowed a result which the squire had not anticipated. Miss Gryll did not seem likely to make any choice at all. The atmosphere of quiet enjoy- ment in which she had grown up seemed to have steeped her feelings in its own tranquillity ; and still more, the affec- tion which she felt for her uncle, and the conviction that, though he had always premeditated her marriage, her departure from his house would be the severest blow that fate could inflict on him, led her to postpone what she knew must be an evil day to him, and might peradventure not be a good one to her. ' Oh, the ancient name of Gryll ! ' sighed the squire to him- self. ' What if it should pass away in the nineteenth century, after having lived from the time of Circe ! ' Often, indeed, when he looked at her at the head of his table, the star of his little circle, joyous herself, and the source of joy in others, he thought the actual state of things admitted no change for the better, and the perpetuity of the old name became a secondary consideration ; but though the purpose was dimmed in the evening, it usually brightened in the morning. In the meantime, the young lady had many suitors, who were permitted to plead their cause, though they made little apparent progress. Several young gentlemen of fair promise, seemingly on the point of being accepted, had been, each in his turn, suddenly and summarily dismissed. Why, was the young lady's secret. If it were known, it would be easy, she said, in these days of artificial manners, to counterfeit the presence of the qualities she liked, and, still more easy, the absence of the qualities she disliked. There was sufficient diversity in the characters of the rejected to place conjecture at fault, and Mr. Gryll began to despair. The uncle and niece had come to a clear understanding on this subject. He might present to her attention any one whom he might deem worthy to be her suitor, and she might reject the suitor without assigning a reason for so doing. In this way several had appeared and passed away, like bubbles on a stream. Was the young lady over fastidious, or were none among the presented worthy, or had that which was to touch her heart not yet appeared ? 13 GRYLL GRANGE Mr. Gryll was the godfather of his niece, and to please him, she had been called Morgana. He had had some thoughts of calling her Circe, but acquiesced in the name of a sister enchantress, who had worked out her own idea of a beautiful garden, and exercised similar power over the minds and forms of men. The Reverend Doctor Opimian. CHAPTER III THE DUKE'S FOLLY rtyye irve6/j.ovas otv(p' rb ybp Affrpov A 5' &pa xaXeird, ir6.VTO. 5 du/sq, virb ALCAEUS Moisten your lungs with wine. The dog-star's sway Returns, and all things thirst beneath his ray. FALERNUM OPIMIANUM ANNORUM CENTUM. Heu ! Heu ! inquit Trimalchio, ergo diutius vivit vinum quam homuncio ! Quare r^yye trveijfJLovas faciamus. Vita vinum est. PETRONIUS ARBITER. FALERNIAN OPIMIAN WINE AN HUNDRED YEARS OLD. Alas ! Alas ! exclaimed Trimalchio. This wine lives longer than man ! Wherefore let us sing, ' moisten your lungs. ' Wine is life. WORDSWORTH'S question, in his Poefs Epitaph, Art thou a man of purple cheer, A rosy man, right plump to see ? might have been answered in the affirmative by the Reverend Doctor Opimian. The worthy divine dwelt in an agreeably situated vicarage, on the outskirts of the New Forest. A good living, a comfortable patrimony, a moderate dowry with his wife, placed him sufficiently above the cares of the world to enable him to gratify all his tastes without minute calculations of cost. His tastes, in fact, were four : a good library, a good dinner, a pleasant garden, and rural walks. He was an athlete in pedestrianism. He took no pleasure in riding, either on horseback or in a carriage ; but he kept a brougham for the service of Mrs. Opimian, and for his own occasional use in dining out. Mrs. Opimian was domestic. The care of the doctor had supplied her with the best books on cookery, to which his own c 17 GRYLL GRANGE inventive genius and the kindness of friends had added a large, and always increasing manuscript volume. The lady studied them carefully, and by diligent superintendence left the doctor nothing to desire in the service of his table. His cellar was well stocked with a selection of the best vintages, under his own especial charge. In all its arrangements his house was a model of order and comfort ; and the whole establishment partook of the genial physiognomy of the master. From the master and mistress to the cook, and from the cook to the torn cat, there was about the inhabitants of the vicarage a sleek and purring rotundity of face and figure that denoted com- munity of feelings, habits, and diet ; each in its kind, of course, for the doctor had his port, the cook her ale, and the cat his milk, in sufficiently liberal allowance. In the morning while Mrs. Opimian found ample occupation in the details of her household duties and the care of her little family, the doctor, unless he had predestined the whole day to an excursion, studied in his library. In the afternoon he walked ; in the evening he dined ; and after dinner read to his wife and family, or heard his children read to him. This was his home life. Now and then he dined out ; more frequently than at any other place with his friend and neighbour, Mr. Gryll, who entirely sympathised with him in his taste for a good dinner. Beyond the limits of his ordinary but within those of his occasional range was a solitary round tower on an eminence backed with wood, which had probably in old days been a landmark for hunters ; but having in modern days no very obvious use, was designated, as many such buildings are, by the name of The Folly. The country people called it ' The Duke's Folly,' though who the Duke in question was nobody could tell. Tradition had dropped his name. One fine Midsummer day, with a southerly breeze and a cloudless sky, the doctor, having taken an early breakfast, in the progress of which he had considerably reduced the altitude of a round of beef, set out with a good stick in his hand and a Newfoundland dog at his heels for one of his longest walks, such as he could only take in the longest days. Arriving at the Folly, which he had not visited for a long time, he was surprised to find it enclosed, and having at the back the novelty of a covered passage, built of the same gray stone as the tower itself. This passage passed away into the 18 THE DUKE'S FOLLY wood at the back, whence was ascending a wreath of smoke which immediately recalled to him the dwelling of Circe. 1 Indeed, the change before him had much the air of enchant- ment ; and the Circean similitude was not a little enhanced by the antique masonry, 2 and the expanse of sea which was visible from the eminence. He leaned over the gate, repeated aloud the lines of the Odyssey, and fell into a brown study, from which he was aroused by the approach of a young gentle- man from within the enclosure. ' I beg your pardon, sir,' said the doctor, ' but my curiosity is excited by what I see here ; and if you do not think it impertinent, and would inform me how these changes have come about, I should be greatly obliged.' ' Most willingly, sir,' said the other ; ' but if you will walk in, and see what has been done, the obligation will be mine.' The doctor readily accepted the proposal. The stranger led the way, across an open space in the wood, to a circular hall, from each side of which a wide passage led, on the left hand to the tower, and on the right to the new building, which was so masked by the wood as not to be visible except from 1 teal r6r' eyuv i^bv yx os f^&v KO.I (5i> Kapira\lfJ.s irapd frjbs avfjiov 4s ircpiwjr/)v, e? TTWS l-pya tSoifJU fipar&v tvoirfy re irvOoifj.r)v. ZffTT)v 82 ffKOTriijv & iranra\6effffav dvf\6uv, Kdt /J.OL eelaa.ro Kairvbt airb "xdovbs fvpvoSelijs KlpKris tv fj.eydpoi.fft 8ia dpvfj.a irvuva Kail &\i)i>. fj.epfj.-/ipt!-a d' tireira Kara (fiptva Kal Kara &V/JL&V 4\6eiv riSt trvOfaOat, tirel tdov atBova garrir. Od. K 145-152. I climbed a cliff with spear and sword in hand, Whose ridge o'erlooked a shady length of land : To learn if aught of mortal works appear, Or cheerful voice of mortal strike the ear. From the high point I marked, in distant view, A stream of curling smoke ascending blue, And spiry tops, the tufted trees above, Of Circe's palace bosomed in the grove. Thither to haste, the region to explore, Was first my thought . . . 2 eSpov 5* tv ^-/iffffriffi. rtrvyidva SwfMra Kiptcip %ffrotffiv \deffffi, irepuTKtimp Ivl x&ptj}. Ib. 210, 211. The palace in a woody vale they found, High-raised of stone, a shaded space around. POPE. 19 GRYLL GRANGE within the glade. It was a square structure of plain stone, much in the same style as that of the tower. The young gentleman took the left-hand passage, and introduced the doctor to the lower floor of the tower. ' I have divided the tower,' he observed, ' into three rooms : one on each floor. This is the dining-room ; above it is my bedroom ; above it again is my library. The prospect is good from all the floors, but from the library it is most extensive, as you look over the woods far away into the open sea.' ' A noble dining-room,' said the doctor. ' The height is well proportioned to the diameter. That circular table well becomes the form of the room, and gives promise of a fine prospect in its way.' ' I hope you will favour me by forming a practical judgment on the point,' said his new acquaintance, as he led the way to the upper floor, the doctor marvelling at the extreme courtesy with which he was treated. ' This building,' thought he, ' might belong to the age of chivalry, and my host might be Sir Calidore himself.' But the library brought him back to other days. The walls were covered with books, the upper portion accessible by a gallery, running entirely round the apartment. The books of the lower circle were all classical ; those of the upper, English, Italian, and French, with a few volumes in Spanish. The young gentleman took down a Homer, and pointed out to the doctor the passage which, as he leaned over the gate, he had repeated from the Odyssey. This accounted to the doctor for the deference shown to him. He saw at once into the Greek sympathy. ' You have a great collection of books,' said the doctor. ' I believe,' said the young gentleman, ' I have all the best books in the languages I cultivate. Home Tooke says : " Greek, Latin, Italian, and French, are unfortunately the usual bounds of an English scholar's acquisition." I think any scholar fortunate whose acquisition extends so far. These languages and our own comprise, I believe, with a few rare exceptions, all the best books in the world. I may add Spanish for the sake of Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Calderon. 1 It 1 Mr. Buchanan says that Peacock learned Spanish at an advanced period of life, which ought to have been mentioned in our introductory 2O THE DUKE'S FOLLY was a dictum of Person, that " Life is too short to learn German " : meaning, I apprehend, not that it is too difficult to be acquired within the ordinary space of life, but that there is nothing in it to compensate for the portion of life bestowed on its acquirement, however little that may be.' l The doctor was somewhat puzzled what to say. He had some French and more Italian, being fond of romances of chivalry ; and in Greek and Latin he thought himself a match for any man ; but he was more occupied with speculations on the position and character of his new acquaintance than on the literary opinions he was enunciating. He marvelled to find a young man, rich enough to do what he here saw done, doing anything of the kind, and fitting up a library in a solitary tower, instead of passing his time in clubs and reunions, and other pursuits and pleasures of general society. But he thought it necessary to say something to the point, and rejoined : ' Person was a great man, and his dictum would have weighed with me if I had had a velleity towards German ; but I never had any. But I rather wonder you should have placed your library on the upper instead of the middle floor. The prospect, as you have observed, is fine from all the floors ; but here you have the sea and the sky to the greatest advantage ; and I would assign my best look-out to the hours of dressing and undressing ; the first thing in the morning, the last at night, and the half-hour before dinner. You can give greater attention to the views before you when you are following opera- tions, important certainly, but mechanical from repetition, and uninteresting in themselves, than when you are engaged in memoir. Scarcely a Spanish book, however, appears in the catalogue of his library. G. 1 Mr. Hayward's French hotel-keeper in Germany had a different, but not less cogent reason for not learning German. ' Whenever a dish attracts attention by the art displayed in its conception or preparation, apart from the material, the artist will commonly be discovered to be French. Many years ago we had the curiosity to inquire at the Hotel de France, at Dresden, to whom our party were indebted for the enjoyment they had derived from a supreme de volatile, and were informed the cook and the master of the hotel were one and the same person : a Frenchman, ci-devant chef of a Russian minister. He had been eighteen years in Germany, but knew not a word of any language but his own. " A quoi ban, messieurs," was his reply to our expression of astonishment ; " d quoi ban apprendre la langue d'un peuple qui ne posse de fas une cuisine?" ' Art of Dining, pp, 69, 70. 21 GRYLL GRANGE some absorbing study, which probably shuts out all perception of the external world.' ' What you say is very true, sir,' said the other ; ' but you know the lines of Milton ' Or let my lamp, at midnight hour, Be seen in some high lonely tower, Where I may oft outwatch the Bear, With thrice great Hermes. ' These lines have haunted me from very early days, and principally influenced me in purchasing this tower, and placing my library on the top of it. And I have another association with such a mode of life.' A French clock in the library struck two, and the young gentleman proposed to his visitor to walk into the house. They accordingly descended the stairs, and crossed the entrance-hall to a large drawing-room, simply but handsomely furnished ; having some good pictures on the walls, an organ at one end of the room, a piano and harp at the other, and an elegantly-disposed luncheon in the middle. ' At this time of the year,' said the young gentleman, ' I lunch at two, and dine at eight. This gives me two long divisions of the morning, for any in-door and out-door purposes. I hope you will partake with me. You will not find a precedent in Homer for declining the invitation.' ' Really,' said the doctor, ' that argument is cogent and conclusive. I accept with pleasure : and indeed my long walk has given me an appetite.' ' Now you must know,' said the young gentleman, ( I have none but female domestics. You will see my two waiting- maids.' He rang the bell, and the specified attendants appeared : two young girls about sixteen and seventeen ; both pretty, and simply, but very becomingly, dressed. Of the provision set before him the doctor preferred some cold chicken and tongue. Madeira and sherry were on the table, and the young attendants offered him hock and claret. The doctor took a capacious glass from each of the fair cup- bearers, and pronounced both wines excellent, and deliciously cool. He declined more, not to overheat himself in walking, and not to infringe on his anticipations of dinner. The dog, 22 THE DUKE'S FOLLY who had behaved throughout with exemplary propriety, was not forgotten. The doctor rose to depart. ' I think,' said his host, ' I may now ask you the Homeric question Tt's ; irodev is dvSpwi/ ; ' l ' Most justly,' said the doctor. ' My name is Theophilus Opimian. I am a Doctor of Divinity, and the incumbent of Ashbrook-cum-Ferndale. ' ' I am simply,' said the other, ' Algernon Falconer. I have inherited some money, but no land. Therefore, having the opportunity, I made this purchase to fit it up in my own fashion, and live in it in my own way.' The doctor preparing to depart, Mr. Falconer proposed to accompany him part of the way, and calling out another Newfoundland dog, who immediately struck up a friendship with his companion, he walked away with the doctor, the two dogs gamboling before them. 1 Who, and whence, are you ? CHAPTER IV THE FOREST A SOLILOQUY ON HAIR Mille hominum species, et rerum discolor usus : Velle suura cuique est, nee voto vivitur uno. PERSIUS. In mind and taste men differ as in frame : Each has his special will, and few the same. The Rev, Dr. Opimian. It strikes me as singular that, with such a house, you should have only female domestics. Mr. Falconer. It is not less singular perhaps that they are seven sisters, all the children of two old servants of my father and mother. The eldest is about my own age, twenty-six, so that they have all grown up with me in time and place. They live in great harmony together, and divide among them the charge of all the household duties. Those whom you saw are the two youngest. Tfie Rev. Dr. Opimian. If the others acquit themselves as well, you have a very efficient staff ; but seven young women as the establishment of one young bachelor, for such I presume you to be (Mr. Falconer assented), is something new and strange. The world is not over charitable. Mr. Falconer. The world will never suppose a good motive where it can suppose a bad one. I would not willingly offend any of its prejudices. I would not affect eccentricity. At the same time, I do not feel disposed to be put out of my way because it is not the way of the world Le Chemin du Monde, as a Frenchman entitled Congreve's comedy 1 but I 1 Congreve, le meilleur auteur comique d'Angleterre : ses pieces les plus estim^essont Le Fourbe, Le Vieux Garfon, Amour pour Amour, L' Epouse du Matin, Le Chemin du Monde. Manuel Bibliographique. Par G. Peignot. Paris, 1800. 24 ' Seven young -women as the establishment of one young bachelor is something new and strange.' THE FOREST assure you these seven young women live here as they might do in the temple of Vesta. It was a singular com- bination of circumstances that induced and enabled me to form such an establishment ; but I would not give it up, nor alter it, nor diminish it, nor increase it, for any earthly con- sideration. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. You hinted that, besides Milton's verses, you had another association of ideas with living in the top of a tower. Mr. Falconer. I have read of somebody who lived so, and admitted to his sanctum only one young person, a niece or a daughter, I forget which, but on very rare occasions would descend to speak to some visitor who had previously propitiated the young lady to obtain him an interview. At last the young lady introduced one who proposed for her, and gained the consent of the recluse (I am not sure of his name, but I always call him Lord Noirmont) to carry her off. I think this was associated with some affliction that was cured, or some mystery that was solved, and that the hermit returned into the every- day world. I do not know where I read it, but I have always liked the idea of living like Lord Noirmont, when I shall have become a sufficiently disappointed man. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. You look as little like a dis- appointed man as any I have seen ; but as you have neither daughter nor niece, you would have seven links instead of one between the top of your tower and the external world. Mr. Falconer. We are all born to disappointment. It is as well to be prospective. Our happiness is not in what is, but in what is to be. We may be disappointed in our every- day realities, and if not, we may make an ideality of the un- attainable, and quarrel with Nature for not giving what she has not to give. It is unreasonable to be so disappointed, but it is disappointment not the less. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. It is something like the dis- appointment of the men of Gotham, when they could not fish up the moon from the sea. Mr. Falconer. It is very like it, and there are more of us in the predicament of the men of Gotham than are ready to acknowledge the similitude. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I am afraid I am too matter-of-fact to sympathise very clearly with this form of asstheticism ; but 27 GRYLL GRANGE here is a charming bit of forest scenery. Look at that old oak with the deer under it ; the long and deep range of fern running up from it to that beech -grove on the upland, the lights and shadows on the projections and recesses of the wood, and the blaze of foxglove in its foreground. It is a place in which a poet might look for a glimpse of a Hamadryad. Mr. Falconer. Very beautiful for the actual present too beautiful for the probable future. Some day or other the forest will be disforested ; the deer will be either banished or destroyed ; the wood will be either shut up or cut down. Here is another basis for disappointment. The more we admire it now, the more we shall regret it then. The admiration of sylvan and pastoral scenery is at the mercy of an Enclosure Act, and, instead of the glimpse of a Hamadryad, you will some time see a large board warning you off the premises under penalty of rigour of law. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. But, my dear young friend, you have yourself enclosed a favourite old resort of mine and of many others. I did not see such a board as you speak of; but there is an effective fence which answers the purpose. Mr. Falconer. True ; but when the lot of crown land was put up for sale, it was sure to be purchased and shut up by somebody. At any rate, I have not interfered with the external picturesque ; and I have been much more influenced by an intense desire of shutting up myself than of shutting up the place, merely because it is my property. About half-way from their respective homes the two new friends separated, the doctor having promised to walk over again soon to dine and pass the night. The doctor soliloquised as he walked. ' Strange metamorphosis of the old tower. A good dining- room. A good library. A bedroom between them : he did not show it me. Good wine : excellent. Pretty waiting-maids, exceedingly pretty. Two of seven Vestals, who maintain the domestic fire on the hearth of the young Numa. By the way, they had something of the Vestal costume : white dresses with purple borders. But they had nothing on their heads but their own hair, very gracefully arranged. The Vestals had head-dresses, which hid their hair, if they had any. They were shaved on admission. Perhaps the hair was allowed to grow again. Perhaps not. I must look into the point. If 28 A SOLILOQUY ON HAIR not, it was a wise precaution. " Hair, the only grace of form," l says the Arbiter elegantiarum, who compares a bald head to a fungus. 2 A head without hair, says Ovid, is as a field without grass, and a shrub without leaves. 3 Venus herself, if she had appeared with a bald head, would not have tempted Apuleius : 4 and I am of his mind. A husband, in Menander, 5 in a fit of jealous madness, shaves his wife's head; and when he sees what he has made of her, rolls at her feet in a paroxysm of remorse. He was at any rate safe from jealousy till it grew again. And here is a subtlety of Euripides, which none of his commentators have seen into. >Egisthus has married Electra to a young farmer, who cultivates his own land. He respects the Princess from magnanimity, and restores her a pure virgin to her brother Orestes. " Not probable," say some critics. But I say highly probable : for she comes on with her head shaved. There is the talisman, and the consummate artifice of the great poet. It is ostensibly a symbol of grief; but not the less a most efficient ally of the aforesaid magnanimity. " In mourning," says Aristotle, "sympathising with the dead, we deform ourselves by cutting off our hair." And truly, it is 1 Quod solum formae decus est, cecidere capilli. PETRONIUS, c. 109. 2 ... laevior . . . rotundo Horti tubere, quod creavit unda. Ibid. ' A head, to speak in the gardener's style, is a bulbous excrescence, growing up between the shoulders. ' G. A. STEEVENS : Lecture on Heads. 3 Turpe pecus mutilum ; turpe est sine gramine campus ; Et sine fronde frutex ; et sine crine caput. OVID : Artis Amatorice, iii. 249. 4 At vero, quod nefas dicere, neque sit ullum hujus rei tam dirum exemplum : si cujuslibet eximiae pulcherrimaeque fceminas caput capillo exspoliaveris, et faciem nativa specie nudaveris, licet ilia ccelo dejecta, mari edita, fluctibus educata, licet, inquam, Venus ipsa fuerit, licet omni Gratiarum choro stipata, et toto Cupidinum populo comitata, et balteo suo cincta, cinnama fragrans, et balsama rorans, calva processerit, placere non poterit nee Vulcano suo. APULEIUS : Metamorph. ii. 25. But, indeed, what it is profanation to speak, nor let there be hereof any so dire example, if you despoil of its hair the head of any most transcendent and perfectly beautiful woman, and present her face thus denuded of its native loveliness, though it were even she, the descended from heaven, the born of the sea, the educated in the waves, though, I say, it were Venus herself, attended by the Graces, surrounded by the Loves, cinctured with her girdle, fragrant with spices, and dewy with balsams, yet, if she appeared with a bald head, she could not please even her own Vulcan. 5 irfpiKfipofj^vrj. 2 9 GRYLL GRANGE sympathy in approximation. A woman's head shaved is a step towards a death's head. As a symbol of grief it was not necessary to the case of Electra ; for in the sister tragedies of ^Eschylus and Sophocles her grief is equally great, and she appears with flowing hair ; but in them she is an unmarried maid, and there is no dramatic necessity for so conspicuous an antidote to her other charms. Neither is it according to custom ; for in recent grief the whole hair was sacrificed, but in the memory of an old sorrow only one or two curls were cut off. 1 Therefore, it was the dramatic necessity of a counter- charm that influenced Euripides. Helen knew better than to shave her head in a case where custom required it. Euripides makes Electra reproach Helen for thus preserving her beauty ; 2 which further illustrates his purpose in shaving the head of Electra where custom did not require it. And Terence showed his taste in not shaving the head of his heroine in the Phormio, though the severity of Athenian custom would have required it. Her beauty shone through her dishevelled hair, but with no hair at all she would not have touched the heart of Antipho. dAAa TIT] //.oi ravTa. [\.opa.ivf irat, 56$' rb yap fidapts dirav TOUT' 4 8 re yefaeTai ^5&>s otvov, ffrvyvbv de^on^vr)3 diroffeifferai OJKOV Where wine is not, no mirth the banquet knows : Where wine is not, the dance all joyless goes. The man, oppressed with cares, who tastes the bowl, Shall shake the weight of sorrow from his soul. BACCHUS, on the birth of the vine, predicting its benefits : in the twelfth book of the Dionysiaca of NONNUS. THE conversation at dinner turned on the occurrences of the morning and the phenomena of electricity. The physician, who had been a traveller, related many anecdotes from his own observation : especially such as tended to show by similarity that the injury to Miss Gryll would not be of long duration. He had known, in similar cases, instances of ap- parent total paralysis ; but he had always found it temporary. Perhaps in a day or two, but at most in a very few days, it would certainly pass away. In the meantime, he recommended absolute repose. Mr. Falconer entreated Mr. Gryll to con- sider the house as his own. Matters were arranged accord- ingly ; and it was determined that the next morning a messenger should be despatched to Gryll Grange for a supply of apparel. The Rev. Dr. Opimian, who was as fond as the Squire him- self of the young lady, had been grievously discomposed by the accident of the morning, and felt that he should not thoroughly recover his serenity till he could again see her in her proper character, the light and life of her society. He quoted Homer, ^Eschylus, Aristotle, Plutarch, Athenaeus, 67 GRYLL GRANGE Horace, Persius, and Pliny, to show that all which is practi- cally worth knowing on the subject of electricity had been known to the ancients. The electric telegraph he held to be a nuisance, as disarranging chronology, and giving only the heads of a chapter, of which the details lost their interest before they arrived, the heads of another chapter having inter- vened to destroy it. Then, what an amount of misery it in- flicted, when, merely saying that there had been a great battle, and that thousands had been wounded or killed, it maintained an agony of suspense in all who had friends on the field, till the ordinary channels of intelligence brought the names of the sufferers. No Sicilian tyrant had invented such an engine of cruelty. This declamation against a supposed triumph of modern science, which was listened to with some surprise by the physician, and with great respect by his other auditors, having somewhat soothed his troubled spirit, in conjunction with the physician's assurance, he propitiated his Genius by copious libations of claret, pronouncing high panegyrics on the speci- men before him, and interspersing quotations in praise of wine as the one great panacea for the cares of this world. A week passed away, and the convalescent had made good progress. Mr. Falconer had not yet seen his fair guest. Six of the sisters, one remaining with Miss Gryll, performed every evening, at the earnest request of Mr. Gryll, a great variety of music, but always ending with the hymn to their master's saint. The old physician came once or twice, and stayed the night. The Reverend Doctor Opimian went home for his Sunday duties, but took too much interest in the fair Morgana not to return as soon as he could to the Tower. Arriving one morning in the first division of the day, and ascending to the library, he found his young friend writing. He asked him if he were working on the Aristophanic comedy. Mr. Falconer said he got on best with that in the doctor's company. ' But I have been writing,' he said, ' on something connected with the Athenian drama. I have been writing a ballad on the death of Philemon, as told by Suidas and Apuleius.' The doctor expressed a wish to hear it, and Mr. Falconer read it to him. 68 THE DEATH OF PHILEMON THE DEATH OF PHILEMON l CLOSED was Philemon's hundredth year : The theatre was thronged to hear His last completed play : In the mid scene, a sudden rain Dispersed the crowd to meet again On the succeeding day. He sought his home, and slept, and dreamed. Nine maidens through his door, it seemed, Passed to the public street. He asked them, ' Why they left his home ? ' They said, ' A guest will hither come We must not stay to meet.' He called his boy with morning light, Told him the vision of the night, And bade his play be brought. 'His finished page again he scanned, Resting his head upon his hand, Absorbed in studious thought. He knew not what the dream foreshowed : That nought divine may hold abode Where death's dark shade is felt : And therefore were the Muses nine Leaving the old poetic shrine, Where they so long had dwelt. The theatre was thronged once more, More thickly than the day before, To hear the half-heard song. The day wore on. Impatience came. They called upon Philemon's name, With murmurs loud and long. Some sought at length his studious cell, And to the stage returned, to tell What thousands strove to ask. ' The poet we have been to seek Sate with his hand upon his cheek, As pondering o'er his task. 1 SUIDAS : sub voce $i\-ti/j.uv. APULEIUS : Florid. 16. 69 GRYLL GRANGE ' We spoke. He made us no reply. We reverentially drew nigh, And twice our errand told. He answered not. We drew more near The awful mystery then was clear : We found him stiff and cold. ' Struck by so fair a death, we stood Awhile in sad admiring mood : Then hastened back, to say That he, the praised and loved of all, Is deaf for ever to your call : That on this self-same day, ' When here presented should have been The close of his fictitious scene, His life's true scene was o'er : We seemed, in solemn silence awed, To hear the " Farewell and applaud," Which he may speak no more. ' Of tears the rain gave prophecy : The nuptial dance of comedy Yields to the funeral train. Assemble where his pyre must burn : Honour his ashes in their urn : And on another day return To hear his songs again.' The Rev. Dr. Opimian. A beautiful fiction. Mr. Falconer. If it be a fiction. The supernatural is con- fined to the dream. All the rest is probable ; and I am willing to think it true, dream and all. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. You are determined to connect the immaterial with the material world, as far as you can. Mr. Falconer. I like the immaterial world. I like to live among thoughts and images of the past and the possible, and of the impossible, now and then. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Certainly, there is much in the material world to displease sensitive and imaginative minds ; but I do not know any one who has less cause to complain of it than you have. You are surrounded with all possible com- forts, and with all the elements of beauty, and of intellectual enjoyment. Mr. Falconer. It is not my own world that I complain of. 70 THE DEATH OF PHILEMON It is the world on which I look ' from the loopholes of retreat.' I cannot sit here, like one of the Gods of Epicurus, who, as Cicero says, was satisfied with thinking, through all eternity, ' how comfortable he was.' l I look with feelings of intense pain on the mass of poverty and crime ; of unhealthy, unavail- ing, unremunerated toil, blighting childhood in its blossom, and womanhood in its prime ; of ' all the oppressions that are done under the sun.' The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I feel with you on all these points ; but there is much good in the world ; more good than evil, I have always maintained. They would have gone off in a discussion on this point, but the French cook warned them to luncheon. In the evening the young lady was sufficiently recovered to join the little party in the drawing-room, which consisted, as before, of Mr. Falconer, Mr. Gryll, Doctor Anodyne, and the Reverend Doctor Opimian. Miss Gryll was introduced to Mr. Falconer. She was full of grateful encomium for the kind attention of the sisters, and expressed an earnest desire to hear their music. The wish was readily complied with. She heard them with great pleasure, and, though not yet equal to much exertion, she could not yet refrain from joining in with them in their hymn to Saint Catharine. She accompanied them when they retired. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I presume those Latin words are genuine old monastic verses : they have all the air of it. Mr. Falconer. They are so, and they are adapted to old music. Dr. Anodyne. There is something in this hymn very solemn and impressive. In an age like ours, in which music and pictures are the predominant tastes, I do not wonder that the forms of the old Catholic worship are received with increas- ing favour. There is a sort of adhesion to the old religion, which results less from faith than from a certain feeling of poetry ; it finds its disciples ; but it is of modern growth ; and has very essential differences from what it outwardly resembles. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. It is, as I have frequently had occasion to remark, and as my young friend here will readily 1 Comprehende igitur animo, et propone ante oculos, deum nihil aliud in omni aeternitate, nisi, Mihi pulchre est, et, Ego beatus sum, cogitantem. CICERO ; De natura deorvm, 1. i. c. 41. 7 1 GRYLL GRANGE admit, one of the many forms of the love of ideal beauty, which, without being in itself religion, exerts on vivid imagina- tions an influence that is very often like it. Mr. Falconer. An orthodox English Churchman was the poet who sang to the Virgin : ' Thy image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween, Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend, As to a visible Power, in which did blend All that was mixed and reconciled in thee, Of mother's love with maiden purity, Of high with low, celestial with terrene.' 1 The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Well, my young friend, the love of ideal beauty has exercised none but a benignant influence on you, whatever degree of orthodoxy there may be in your view of it. The little party separated for the night. 1 WORDSWORTH : Ecclesiastical Sonnets, Lai CHAPTER XII THE FOREST DELL THE POWER OF LOVE THE LOTTERY OF MARRIAGE ri del yip 6vra Ovrfrbv, t/cereyw, iroteiv, TOV fiiov K0. eh aCpiov dt fiySe tppovTlffUt 8 TI Iffrai . . . PHILETAERUS : Cynagis. I pray you, what can mortal man do better Than live his daily life as pleasantly As daily means avail him ? Life's frail tenure Warns not to trust to-morrow. THE next day Mr. Falconer was perfectly certain that Miss Gryll was not yet well enough to be removed. No one was anxious to refute the proposition ; they were all so well satisfied with the place and the company they were in, that they felt, the young lady included, a decided unwillingness to go. That day Miss Gryll came to dinner, and the next day she came to breakfast, and in the evening she joined in the music, and, in short, she was once more altogether herself; but Mr. Falconer continued to insist that the journey home would be too much for her. When this excuse failed, he still entreated his new friends to remain ; and so passed several days. At length Mr. Gryll found he must resolve on departing, especially as the time had arrived when he expected some visitors. He urgently invited Mr. Falconer to visit him in return. The invitation was cordially accepted, and in the meantime con- siderable progress had been made in the Aristophanic comedy. Mr. Falconer, after the departure of his visitors, went up into his library. He took down one book after another, but they did not fix his attention as they used to do ; he turned 73 GRYLL GRANGE over the leaves of Homer, and read some passages about Circe ; then took down Bojardo, and read of Morgana and Falerina and Dragontina ; then took down Tasso and read of Armida. He would not look at Ariosto's Alcina, because her change into an old woman destroyed all the charm of the previous picture. He dwelt on the enchantress who remained in un- altered beauty. But even this he did only by fits and starts, and found himself continually wandering away towards a more enchanting reality. He descended to his bedroom, and meditated on ideal beauty in the portraits of Saint Catharine. But he could not help thinking that the ideal might be real, at least in one instance, and he wandered down into his drawing-room. There he sat absorbed in thought, till his two young handmaids appeared with his luncheon. He smiled when he saw them, and sat down to the table as if nothing had disturbed him. Then, taking his stick and his dog, he walked out into the forest. There was within moderate distance a deep dell, in the bottom of which ran a rivulet, very small in dry weather, but in heavy rains becoming a torrent, which had worn itself a high-banked channel, winding in fantastic curves from side to side of its narrow boundaries. Above this channel old forest trees rose to a great height on both sides of the dell. The slope every here and there was broken by promontories which during centuries the fall of the softer portions of the soil had formed ; and on these promontories were natural platforms, covered, as they were more or less accessible to the sun, with grass and moss and fern and foxglove, and every variety of forest vegetation. These platforms were favourite resorts of deer, which imparted to the wild scene its own peculiar life. This was a scene in which, but for the deeper and deeper wear of the floods and the bolder falls of the promontories, time had made little change. The eyes of the twelfth century had seen it much as it appeared to those of the nineteenth. The ghosts of departed ages might seem to pass through it in succession, with all their changes of faith and purpose and manners and costume. To a man who loved to dwell in the past, there could not be a more congenial scene. One old oak stood in the centre of one of the green platforms, and a portion of its gnarled roots presented a convenient seat. Mr. 74 There he had sat far hours at a time, reading his favourite poets. THE FOREST DELL Falconer had frequently passed a day here when alone. The deer had become too accustomed to him to fly at his approach, and the dog had been too well disciplined to molest them. There he had sat for hours at a time, reading his favourite poets. There was no great poet with some of whose scenes this scenery did not harmonise. The deep woods that sur- rounded the dwelling of Circe, the obscure sylvan valley in which Dante met Virgil, the forest depths through which Angelica fled, the enchanted wood in which Rinaldo met the semblance of Armida, the forest -brook by which Jaques moralised over the wounded deer, were all reproduced in this single spot, and fancy peopled it at pleasure with nymphs and genii, fauns and satyrs, knights and ladies, friars, foresters, hunters, and huntress maids, till the whole diurnal world seemed to pass away like a vision. There, for him, Matilda had gathered flowers on the opposite bank ; l Laura had risen from one of the little pools resting-places of the stream to seat herself in the shade ; 2 Rosalind and Maid Marian had peeped forth from their alleys green ; all different in form, in feature, and in apparel ; but now they were all one ; each, as she rose in imagination, presented herself under the aspect of the newly- known Morgana. Finding his old imaginations thus disturbed, he arose and walked home. He dined alone, drank a bottle of Madeira, as if it had been so much water, summoned the seven sisters to the drawing-room earlier and detained them later than usual, till their music and its old associations had restored him to something like tranquillity. He had always placed the summum bonum of life in tranquillity, and not in excitement. He felt that his path was now crossed by a disturbing force, and determined to use his utmost exertions to avoid exposing himself again to its influence. In this mood the Reverend Doctor Opimian found him one morning in the library reading. He sprang up to meet the Divine, exclaiming, ' Ah, dear doctor, I am very glad to see you. Have you any special favourite among the Odes of Pindar?' 1 DANTE : Purgatorio, c. 28. 3 Or in forma di Ninfa o d' altra Diva, Che del piii chiaro fondo di Sorga esca, E pongasi a seder in sulla riva. PETRARCA : Sonetto 240. 77 GRYLL GRANGE The doctor thought this an odd question for the first saluta- tion. He had expected that the first inquiry would have been for the fair convalescent. He divined that the evasion of this subject was the result of an inward struggle. He thought it would be best to fall in with the mood of the questioner, and said, ' Charles Fox's favourite is said to have been the second Olympic ; I am not sure that there is, or can be, anything better. What say you ? ' Mr. Falconer. It may be that something in it touches a peculiar tone of feeling ; but to me there is nothing like the ninth Pythian. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I can understand your fancy for that ode. You see an image of ideal beauty in the nymph Cyrene. Mr. Falconer. ' Hidden are the keys of wise persuasion of sacred endearments,' 1 seems a strange phrase in English; but in Greek the words invest a charming sentiment with singular grace. Fit words to words as closely as we may, the difference of the mind which utters them fails to reproduce the true semblance of the thought. The difference of the effect produced, as in this instance, by exactly corresponding words, can only be traced to the essential difference of the Greek and the English mind. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. And indeed, as with the words, so with the image. We are charmed by Cyrene wrestling with the lion ; but we should scarcely choose an English girl so doing as the type of ideal beauty. Mr. Falconer. We must draw the image of Cyrene, not from an English girl but from a Greek statue. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Unless a man is in love, and then to him all images of beauty take something of the form and features of his mistress. Mr. Falconer. That is to say, a man in love sees every- thing through a false medium. It must be a dreadful calamity to be in love. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Surely not when all goes well with it. Mr. Falconer. To me it would be the worst of all mis- chances. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Every man must be subject to 1 Kf>\nrra,l K\af5 ivrl i\OTd.rui>. PINDAR? 7 8 THE LOTTERY OF MARRIAGE Love once in his life. It is useless to contend with him. ' Love,' says Sophocles, ' is unconquered in battle, and keeps his watch in the soft cheeks of beauty.' 1 Mr. Falconer. I am afraid, doctor, the Morgana to whom you have introduced me is a veritable enchantress. You find me here, determined to avoid the spell. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Pardon me. You were introduced, as Jupiter was to Semele, by thunder and lightning, which was, happily, not quite as fatal. Mr. Falconer. I must guard against its being as fatal in a different sense ; otherwise I may be myself the triste tridental? I have aimed at living, like an ancient Epicurean, a life of tranquillity. I had thought myself armed with triple brass against the folds of a three -formed Chimaera. What with classical studies, and rural walks, and a domestic society peculiarly my own, I led what I considered the perfection of life : 'days so like each other they could not be remembered.' 3 The Rev. Dr. Opimian. It is vain to make schemes of life. The world will have its slaves, and so will Love. Say, if you can, in what you cannot change. For such the mind of man, as is the day The Sire of Gods and men brings over him. 4 Mr. Falconer. I presume, doctor, from the complacency with which you speak of Love, you have had no cause to complain of him. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Quite the contrary. I have been an exception to the rule that ' The course of true love never did run smooth.' Nothing could run more smooth than mine. I was in love. I proposed. I was accepted. No crossings before. No bickerings after. I drew a prize in the lottery of marriage. Mr. Falconer. It strikes me, doctor, that the lady may say as much. 1 "E/jwj dvlxare /j.dxo.v, K.T.\. Antigone. 2 Bidental is usually a place struck by lightning : thence enclosed, and the soil forbidden to be moved. Persius uses it for a person so killed. 3 WORDSWORTH : The Brothers. 4 Quid placet aut odio est, quod non mutabile credas ? Totos y&p v&os Iffrlv tirtxOovluv dvOpuvwr, olov fir ^fJMp AyTjffi variip dvdpuv re Oe&v re. These two quotations form the motto of Knight's Principles of Taste. 79 GRYLL GRANGE The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I have made it my study to give her cause to say so. And I have found my reward. Mr. Falconer. Still, yours is an exceptional case. For, as far as my reading and limited observation have shown me, there are few happy marriages. It has been said by an old comic poet that ' a man who brings a wife into his house, brings into it with her either a good or an evil genius.' J And I may add from Juvenal : ' The Gods only know which it will be.' 2 The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Well, the time advances for the rehearsals of our Aristophanic comedy, and, independently of your promise to visit the Grange, and their earnest desire to see you, you ought to be there to assist in the preliminary arrangements. Mr. Falconer. Before you came, I had determined not to go ; for, to tell you the truth, I am afraid of falling in love. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. It is not such a fearful matter. Many have been the better for it. Many have been cured of it. It is one of those disorders which every one must have once. Mr. Falconer. The later the better. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. No ; the later the worse, if it falls into a season when it cannot be reciprocated. Mr. Falconer. That is just the season for it. If I were sure that it would not be reciprocated, I think I should be content to have gone through it. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Do you think it would be re- ciprocated ? Mr. Falconer. Oh no. I only think it possible that it might be. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Well, there is a gentleman doing his best to bring about your wish. Mr. Falconer. Indeed ! Who ? The Rev. Dr. Opimian. A visitor at the Grange, who 1 &TO.V yhp &\oxov fls 86fiovs Ayy 7r6l\os, 6s Kparripi ira ve'iKfa Ka.1 7r6\efj.ov 6aKpv6evra \tyei, dXX" &ms, Mouo^wj' re ical dyXad. 5&p' 'ApoSlrr)S ffv/j.fj.iffyuv, tparrjs fwfiff Keren evijt. ANACREON. I love not him, who o'er the wine-cup's flow Talks but of war, and strife, and scenes of woe : But him who can the Muses' gifts employ, To mingle love and song with festal joy. THE dinner and dessert passed away. The ladies retired to the drawing-room : the gentlemen discoursed over their wine. Mr. MacBorrowdale pronounced a eulogium on the port, which was cordially echoed by the divine in regard to the claret. Mr. Falconer. Doctor, your tastes and sympathies are very much with the Greeks ; but I doubt if you would have liked their wine. Condiments of sea -water and turpentine must have given it an odd flavour ; and mixing water with it, in the proportion of three to one, must have reduced the strength of merely fermented liquor to something like the smallest ale of Christophero Sly. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I must say I should not like to put either salt water or turpentine into this claret : they would not improve its bouquet ; nor to dilute it with any portion of water : it has to my mind, as it is, just the strength it ought to have, and no more. But the Greek taste was so exquisite in all matters in which we can bring it to the test, as to justify a strong presumption that in matters in which we cannot test 90 MUSIC AND PAINTING it, it was equally correct. Salt water and turpentine do not suit our wine : it does not follow that theirs had not in it some basis of contrast, which may have made them pleasant in combination. And it was only a few of their wines that were so treated. Lord Curryfin. Then it could not have been much like their drink of the present day. ' My master cannot be right in his mind,' said Lord Byron's man Fletcher, ' or he would not have left Italy, where we had everything, to go to a country of savages ; there is nothing to eat in Greece but tough billy- goats, or to drink but spirits of turpentine.' l The Rev. Dr. Opimian. There is an ambiguous present, which somewhat perplexes me, in an epigram of Rhianus, ' Here is a vessel of half-wine, half-turpentine, and a singularly lean specimen of kid : the sender, Hippocrates, is worthy of all praise.' 2 Perhaps this was a doctor's present to a patient. Alcasus, Anacreon, and Nonnus could not have sung as they did under the inspiration of spirit of turpentine. We learn from Athenaeus, and Pliny, and the old comedians, that the Greeks had a vast variety of wine, enough to suit every variety of taste. I infer the unknown from the known. We know little of their music. I have no doubt it was as excellent in its kind as their sculpture. Mr. Minim. I can scarcely think that, sir. They seem to have had only the minor key, and to have known no more of counterpoint than they did of perspective. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Their system of painting did not require perspective. Their main subject was on one fore- ground. Buildings, rocks, trees, served simply to indicate, not to delineate, the scene. Mr. Falconer. I must demur to their having only the minor key. The natural ascent of the voice is in the major key, and with their exquisite sensibility to sound they could not have missed the obvious expression of cheerfulness. With their three scales, diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic, they 1 Trelawny's Recollections. 2 TJ/J.KTV /dv wlffffrf: Kwvlrtdos, TJ/JLHTV 8' atvov, ' A/>xV*. drpeK^ws ijde \ayvvos tx fl ' XeTTTOT^wjs 5* OVK ol8' (piipov Kp^as' ir\T]v 5 *ye irtfjL^as aiveiffOcu irdvrwv Atoj 'IwiroKpaTys. Anthologia Palatina : Appendix: 72. 91 GRYLL GRANGE must have exhausted every possible expression of feeling. Their scales were in true intervals ; they had really major and minor tones ; we have neither, but a confusion of both. They had both sharps and flats : we have neither, but a mere set of semitones, which serve for both. In their enharmonic scale the fineness of their ear perceived distinctions which are lost on the coarseness of ours. Mr. Minim. With all that they never got beyond melody. They had no harmony, in our sense. They sang only in unisons and octaves. Mr. Falconer. It is not clear that they did not sing in fifths. As to harmony in one sense, I will not go so far as to say with Ritson that the only use of the harmony is to spoil the melody ; but I will say, that to my taste a simple accom- paniment, in strict subordination to the melody, is far more agreeable than that Niagara of sound under which it is now the fashion to bury it. Mr. Minim. In that case, you would prefer a song with a simple pianoforte accompaniment to the same song on the Italian stage. Mr. Falconer. A song sung with feeling and expression is good, however accompanied. Otherwise, the pianoforte is not much to my mind. All its intervals are false, and tempera- ment is a poor substitute for natural intonation. Then its incapability of sustaining a note has led, as the only means of producing effect, to those infinitesimal subdivisions of sound, in which all sentiment and expression are twittered and frittered into nothingness. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I quite agree with you. The other day a band passed my gate playing ' The Campbells are coming ' ; but instead of the fine old Scotch lilt, and the emphasis on ' Oho ! oho ! ' what they actually played was, 4 The Ca-a-a-a-ampbells are co-o-o-o-ming, Oh-o-ho-o-o ! Oh-o- ho-o-o ' ; I thought to myself, There is the essence and quint- essence of modern music. I like the old organ-music such as it was, when there were no keys but C and F, and every note responded to a syllable. The effect of the prolonged and sustained sound must have been truly magnificent : ' Where, through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, The pealing anthem swelled the note of praise.' Who cares to hear sacred music on a piano ? 92 MUSIC AND PAINTING Mr. Minim. Yet I must say that there is a great charm in that brilliancy of execution which is an exclusively modern and very modern accomplishment. Mr. Falconer. To those who perceive it. All things are as they are perceived. To me music has no charm without expression. LORD CURRYFIN (who, having observed Mr. MACBORROW- DALE'S determination not to be drawn into an argument, amused himself with asking his opinion on all subjects'). What is your opinion, Mr. MacBorrowdale ? Mr. MacBorrowdale. I hold to the opinion I have already expressed, that this is as good a glass of port as ever I tasted. Lord Curryfin. I mean your opinion of modern music and musical instruments. Mr. MacBorrowdale. The organ is very good for psalms, which I never sing, and the pianoforte for jigs, which I never dance. And if I were not to hear either of them from January to December, I should not complain of the privation. Lord Curryfin. You are an utilitarian, Mr. MacBorrowdale. You are all for utility public utility and you see none in music. Mr. MacBorrowdale. Nay, not exactly so. If devotion is good, if cheerfulness is good, and if music promotes each of them in proper time and place, music is useful. If I am as devout without the organ, and as cheerful without the piano, as I ever should be with them, that may be the defect of my head or my ear. I am not for forcing my tastes or no-tastes on other people. Let every man enjoy himself in his own way, while he does not annoy others. I would not deprive you of your enjoyment of a brilliant symphony, and I hope you would not deprive me of my enjoyment of a glass of old wine. The Rev. Dr. 1 Ties mihi convivae prope dissentire videntur, Poscentes vario multum diversa palato. ' * Mr. Falconer. Nor our reverend friend of the pleasure of a classical quotation. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. And the utility, too, sir : for I 1 Three guests dissent most widely in their wishes : With different taste they call for different dishes. 93 GRYLL GRANGE think I am indebted to one for the pleasure of your acquaint- ance. Mr. Falconer. When you did me the honour to compare my house to the Palace of Circe. The gain was mine. Mr. Pallet. You admit, sir, that the Greeks had no knowledge of perspective. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Observing that they had no need of it. Their subject was a foreground like a relievo. Their background was a symbol, not a representation. ' No know- ledge ' is perhaps too strong. They had it where it was essential. They drew a peristyle, as it appeared to the eye, as accurately as we can do. In short, they gave to each distinct object its own proper perspective, but to separate objects they did not give their relative perspective, for the reason I have given, that they did not need it Mr. Falconer. There is to me one great charm in their painting, as we may judge from the specimens in Pompeii, which, though not their greatest works, indicate their school. They never crowded their canvas with figures. They presented one, two, three, four, or at most five persons, preferring one and rarely exceeding three. These persons were never lost in the profusion of scenery, dress, and decoration. They had clearly-defined outlines, and were agreeable objects from any part of the room in which they were placed. Mr. Pallet. They must have lost much in beauty of detail. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Therein is the essential difference of ancient and modern taste. Simple beauty of idea in poetry, of sound in music, of figure in painting was their great characteristic. Ours is detail in all these matters, overwhelm- ing detail. We have not grand outlines for the imagination of the spectator or hearer to fill up : his imagination has no play of its own : it is overloaded with mznutice and kaleido- scopical colours. Lord Curryfin. Detail has its own beauty. I have admired a Dutch picture of a butcher's shop, where all the charm was in detail. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I cannot admire anything of the kind. I must take pleasure in the thing represented before I can derive any from the representation. Mr. Pallet. I am afraid, sir, as our favourite studies all 94 JACK OF DOVER lead us to extreme opinions, you think the Greek painting was the better for not having perspective, and the Greek music for not having harmony. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I think they had as much per- spective and as much harmony as was consistent with that simplicity which characterised their painting and music as much as their poetry. Lord Curryfin. What is your opinion, Mr. MacBorrow- dale? Mr. MacBorrowdale. I think you may just buz that bottle before you. Lord Curryfin. I mean your opinion of Greek perspective? Mr. MacBorrowdale. Troth, I am of opinion that a bottle looks smaller at a distance than when it is close by, and I prefer it as a full-sized object in the foreground. Lord Curryfin. I have often wondered that a gentleman so well qualified as you are to discuss all subjects should so carefully avoid discussing any. Mr. MacBorrowdale. After dinner, my lord, after dinner. I work hard all the morning at serious things, sometimes till I get a headache, which, however, does not often trouble me. After dinner I like to crack my bottle and chirp and talk nonsense, and fit myself for the company of Jack of Dover. Lord Curryfin. Jack of Dover ! Who was he ? Mr. MacBorrowdale. He was a man who travelled in search of a greater fool than himself, and did not find him. 1 Ttie Rev. Dr. Opimian. He must have lived in odd times. In our days he would not have gone far without falling in with a teetotaller, or a decimal coinage man, or a school-for-all man, or a competitive examination man, who would not allow a drayman to lower a barrel into a cellar unless he could expound the mathematical principles by which he performed the operation. Mr. MacBorrowdale. Nay, that is all pragmatical fooling. The fooling Jack looked for was jovial fooling, fooling to the top of his bent, excellent fooling, which, under the semblance of folly, was both merry and wise. He did not look for mere unmixed folly, of which there never was a deficiency. The 1 Jacke of Dover His Quest of Inquirie, or His Privy Search for the Veriest Foole in England. London , 1 604. Reprinted for the Percy Society, 1842. 95 GRYLL GRANGE fool he looked for was one which it takes a wise man to make a Shakespearian fool. 1 The Rev. Dr. Opimian. In that sense he might travel far, and return, as he did in his own day, without having found the fool he looked for. Mr. MacBorrovudale. A teetotaller ! Well ! He is the true Heautontimorumenos, the self-punisher, with a jug of toast -and -water for his Christmas wassail. So far his folly is merely pitiable, but his intolerance makes it offensive. He cannot enjoy his own tipple unless he can deprive me of mine. A fox that has lost his tail. There is no tyrant like a thorough- paced reformer. I drink to his own reformation. Mr. Gryll. He is like Bababec's faquir, who sat in a chair full of nails, pour avoir de la consideration. But the faquir did not want others to do the same. He wanted all the consideration for himself, and kept all the nails for himself. If these meddlers would do the like by their toast-and- water, nobody would begrudge it them. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Now, sir, if the man who has fooled the greatest number of persons to the top of their bent were to be adjudged the fittest companion for Jack of Dover, you would find him in a distinguished meddler with everything who has been for half-a-century the merry-andrew of a vast arena, which he calls moral and political science, but which has in it a dash of everything that has ever occupied human thought. Lord Curryfin. I know whom you mean ; but he is a great man in his way, and has done much good. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. He has helped to introduce much change ; whether for good or for ill remains to be seen. I forgot he was your lordship's friend. I apologise, and drink to his health. Lord Curryfin. Oh ! pray, do not apologise to me. I would not have my friendships, tastes, pursuits, and predilec- tions interfere in the slightest degree with the fullest liberty of speech on all persons and things. There are many who think with you that he is a moral and political Jack of Dover. So be it. Time will bring him to his level. 1 OEuvre, ma foi, oil n'est facile atteindre: Pourtant qu'il faut parfaitement sage fitre, Pour le vrai fol bien naivement feindre. EUTRAPEL, p. 28. 96 JACK OF DOVER Mr. Mac Borrow dale. I will only say of the distinguished personage, that Jack of Dover would not pair off with him. This is the true universal science, the oracle of La Dive Bouteille. Mr. Gryll. It is not exactly Greek music, Mr. Minim, that you are giving us for our Aristophanic choruses. Mr. Minim. No, sir ; I have endeavoured to give you a good selection, as appropriate as I can make it. Mr. Pallet. Neither am I giving you Greek painting for the scenery. I have taken the liberty to introduce perspective. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Very rightly both, for Aristophanes in London. Mr. Minim. Besides, sir, we must have such music as your young ladies can sing. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Assuredly ; and so far as we have yet heard them rehearse, they sing it delightfully. After a little more desultory conversation, they adjourned to the drawing-rooms. H 97 CHAPTER XV EXPRESSION IN MUSIC THE DAPPLED PALFREY LOVE AND AGE COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION roOro ptos, TOUT' afrrfc rpvT] yS/or Upper' (War 0177$ avOp&irois 6\lyos xpAvos' &pri Atfaios, dpTL "xopol, ffrtyavot re . Anthologia Palatina : v. 72. This, this is life, when pleasure drives out care. Short is the span of time we each may share. To-day, while love, wine, song, the hours adorn, To-day we live : none know the coming morn. LORD CURRYFIN'S assiduities to Miss Gryll had discomposed Mr. Falconer more than he chose to confess to himself. Lord Curryfin, on entering the drawing-rooms, went up immediately to the young lady of the house ; and Mr. Falconer, to the amazement of the reverend doctor, sat down in the outer drawing-room on a sofa by the side of Miss Ilex, with whom he entered into conversation. In the inner drawing-room some of the young ladies were engaged with music, and were entreated to continue their performance. Some of them were conversing, or looking over new publications. After a brilliant symphony, performed by one of the young visitors, in which runs and crossings of demisemiquavers in tempo prestissimo occupied the principal share, Mr. Falconer asked Miss Ilex how she liked it. Miss Ilex. I admire it as a splendid piece of legerdemain ; but it expresses nothing. Mr. Falconer. It is well to know that such things can be 98 EXPRESSION IN MUSIC done ; and when we have reached the extreme complications of art, we may hope to return to Nature and simplicity. Miss Ilex. Not that it is impossible to reconcile execution and expression. Rubini identified the redundancies of orna- ment with the overflowings of feeling, and the music of Donizetti furnished him most happily with the means of developing this power. I never felt so transported out of myself as when I heard him sing Tu che al del spiegasti F alt. Mr. Falconer. Do you place Donizetti above Mozart ? Miss Ilex. Oh, surely not. But for supplying expressive music to a singer like Rubini, I think Donizetti has no equal ; at any rate no superior. For music that does not require, and does not even suit, such a singer, but which requires only to be correctly interpreted to be universally recognised as the absolute perfection of melody, harmony, and expression, I think Mozart has none. Beethoven perhaps : he composed only one opera, Fidelia ; but what an opera that is ! What an effect in the sudden change of the key, when Leonora throws herself between her husband and Pizarro : and again, in the change of the key with the change of the scene, when we pass from the prison to the hall of the palace ! What pathos in the songs of affection, what grandeur in the songs of triumph, what wonderful combinations in the accompaniments, where a perpetual stream of counter-melody creeps along in the bass, yet in perfect harmony with the melody above ! Mr. Falconer. What say you to Haydn ? Miss Ilex. Haydn has not written operas, and my principal experience is derived from the Italian theatre. But his music is essentially dramatic. It is a full stream of perfect harmony in subjection to exquisite melody ; and in simple ballad-strains, that go direct to the heart, he is almost supreme and alone. Think of that air with which every one is familiar, ' My mother bids me bind my hair ' : the graceful flow of the first part, the touching effect of the semitones in the second : with true intonation and true expression, the less such an air is accompanied the better. Mr. Falconer. There is a beauty and an appeal to the heart in ballads which will never lose its effect except on those with whom the pretence of fashion overpowers the feeling of Nature. 1 1 Braham said something like this to a Parliamentary Committee on Theatres, in 1832. 99 GRYLL GRANGE Miss Ilex. It is strange, however, what influence that pretence has, in overpowering all natural feelings, not in music alone. ' Is it not curious,' thought the doctor, ' that there is only one old woman in the room, and that my young friend should have selected her for the object of his especial attention ? ' But a few simple notes struck on the ear of his young friend, who rose from the sofa and approached the singer. The doctor took his place to cut off his retreat. Miss Gryll, who, though a proficient in all music, was par- ticularly partial to ballads, had just begun to sing one. THE DAPPLED PALFREY 1 ' MY traitorous uncle has wooed for himself : Her father has sold her for land and for pelf : My steed, for whose equal the world they might search, In mockery they borrow to bear her to church. ' Oh ! there is one path through the forest so green, Where thou and I only, my palfrey, have been : We traversed it oft, when I rode to her bower To tell my love tale through the rift of the tower. ' Thou know'st not my words, but thy instinct is good : By the road to the church lies the path through the wood : Thy instinct is good, and her love is as true : Thou wilt see thy way homeward : dear palfrey, adieu. ' They feasted full late and full early they rose, And church- ward they rode more than half in a doze : The steed in an instant broke off from the throng, And pierced the green path, which he bounded along. In vain was pursuit, though some followed pell-mell : Through bramble and thicket they floundered and fell. On the backs of their coursers some dozed as before, And missed not the bride till they reached the church door. The knight from his keep on the forest-bound gazed : The drawbridge was down, the portcullis was raised : And true to his hope came the palfrey amain, With his only loved lady, who checked not the rein. 1 Founded on Le Vair Palefroi : among the Fabliaux published by Barbazan. 100 In vain was pursuit, tJiough some followed pell-mell. LOVE AND AGE The drawbridge went up : the portcullis went down : The chaplain was ready with bell, book, and gown : The wreck of the bride-train arrived at the gate, The bride showed the ring, and they muttered ' Too late ! ' ' Not too late for a feast, though too late for a fray ; What's done can't be undone : make peace while you may ' : So spake the young knight, and the old ones complied ; And quaffed a deep health to the bridegroom and bride. Mr. Falconer had listened to the ballad with evident pleasure. He turned to resume his place on the sofa, but find- ing it preoccupied by the doctor, he put on a look of disap- pointment, which seemed to the doctor exceedingly comic. ' Surely,' thought the doctor, ' he is not in love with the old maid.' Miss Gryll gave up her place to a young lady, who in her turn sang a ballad of a different character. LOVE AND AGE I PLAYED with you 'mid cowslips blowing, When I was six and you were four ; When garlands weaving, flower-balls throwing, Were pleasures soon to please no more. Through groves and meads, o'er grass and heather, With little playmates, to and fro, We wandered hand in hand together ; But that was sixty years ago. You grew a lovely roseate maiden, And still our early love was strong ; Still with no care our days were laden, They glided joyously along ; And I did love you very dearly, How deariy words want power to show ; I thought your heart was touched as nearly ; But that was fifty years ago. Then other lovers came around you, Your beauty grew from year to year. And many a splendid circle found you The centre of its glittering sphere. 103 GRYLL GRANGE I saw you then, first vows forsaking, On rank and wealth your hand bestow ; Oh, then I thought my heart was breaking, But that was forty years ago. And I lived on, to wed another ; No cause she gave me to repine ; And when I heard you were a mother, I did not wish the children mine. My own young flock, in fair progression Made up a pleasant Christmas row : My joy in them was past expression, But that was thirty years ago. You grew a matron plump and comely, You dwelt in fashion's brightest blaze ; My earthly lot was far more homely ; But I too had my festal days. No merrier eyes have ever glistened Around the hearthstone's wintry glow, Than when my youngest child was christened, But that was twenty years ago. Time passed. My eldest girl was married, And I am now a grandsire gray ; One pet of four years old I've carried Among the wild-flowered meads to play. In our old fields of childish pleasure, Where now, as then, the cowslips blow, She fills her basket's ample measure, And that is not ten years ago. But though first love's impassioned blindness Has passed away in colder light, I still have thought of you with kindness, And shall do, till our last good-night. The ever-rolling silent hours Will bring a time we shall not know, When our young days of gathering flowers Will be an hundred years ago. Miss Ilex. That is a melancholy song. But of how many first loves is it the true tale ! And how many are far less happy ! The Rev. Dr. Opimian. It is simple, and well sung, with a distinctness of articulation not often heard. Miss Ilex. That young lady's voice is a perfect contralto. 104 COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION It is singularly beautiful, and I applaud her for keeping within her natural compass, and not destroying her voice by forcing it upwards, as too many do. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Forcing, forcing seems to be the rule of life. A young lady who forces her voice into altissimo, and a young gentleman who forces his mind into a receptacle for a chaos of crudities, are pretty much on a par. Both do ill, where, if they were contented with attainments within the limits of natural taste and natural capacity, they might both do well. As to the poor young men, many of them become mere crammed fowls, with the same result as Hermogenes, who, after astonishing the world with his attainments at seventeen, came to a sudden end at the age of twenty-five, and spent the rest of a long life in hopeless imbecility. Miss Ilex. The poor young men can scarcely help them- selves. They are not held qualified for a profession unless they have overloaded their understanding with things of no use in it ; incongruous things too, which could never be combined into the pursuits of natural taste. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Very true. Brindley would not have passed as a canal-maker, nor Edward Williams * as a bridge-builder. I saw the other day some examination papers which would have infallibly excluded Marlborough from the army and Nelson from the navy. I doubt if Haydn would have passed as a composer before a committee of lords like one of his pupils, who insisted on demonstrating to him that he was continually sinning against the rules of counterpoint ; on which Haydn said to him, ' I thought I was to teach you, but it seems you are to teach me, and I do not want a preceptor,' and thereon he wished his lordship a good-morning. Fancy Watt being asked how much Joan of Naples got for Avignon when she sold it to Pope Clement the Sixth, and being held unfit for an engineer because he could not tell. Miss Ilex. That is an odd question, doctor. But how much did she get for it ? The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Nothing. He promised ninety thousand golden florins, but he did not pay one of them : and that, I suppose, is the profound sense of the question. It is true he paid her after a fashion, in his own peculiar coin. He 1 The builder of Pont-y-Pryd. GRYLL GRANGE absolved her of the murder of her first husband, and perhaps he thought that was worth the money. But how many of our legislators could answer the question ? Is it not strange that candidates for seats in Parliament should not be subjected to competitive examination ? Plato and Persius l would furnish good hints for it. I should like to see honourable gentlemen having to answer such questions as are deemed necessary tests for government clerks, before they would be held qualified candidates for seats in the legislature. That would be something like a reform in the Parliament. Oh that it were so, and I were the examiner ! Ha, ha, ha, what a comedy ! The doctor's hearty laugh was contagious, and Miss Ilex joined in it. Mr. MacBorrowdale came up. Mr. MacBorrowdale. You are as merry as if you had discovered the object of Jack of Dover's quest. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Something very like it. We have an honourable gentleman under competitive examination for a degree in legislative wisdom. Mr. MacBorrowdale. Truly, that is fooling competition to the top of its bent. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Competitive examination for clerks, and none for legislators, is not this an anomaly ? Ask the honourable member for Muckborough on what acquisitions in history and mental and moral philosophy he founds his claim of competence to make laws for the nation. He can only tell you that he has been chosen as the most conspicuous Grub among the Moneygrubs of his borough to be the repre- sentative of all that is sordid, selfish, hard-hearted, unintel- lectual, and antipatriotic, which are the distinguishing qualities of the majority among them. Ask a candidate for a clerkship what are his qualifications ? He may answer, ' All that are requisite : reading, writing, and arithmetic.' ' Nonsense,' says the questioner. ' Do you know the number of miles in direct distance from Timbuctoo to the top of Chimborazo ? ' ' I do not,' says the candidate. ' Then you will not do for a clerk,' says the competitive examiner. Does Moneygrub of Muckborough know ? He does not ; nor anything else. The clerk may be able to answer some of the questions put to him. Moneygrub could not answer one of them. But he is very fit for a legislator. 1 PLATO : Alcibiades, \. ; PERSIUS : Sat. iv. 106 COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION Mr. MacBorrowdale. Eh ! but he is subjected to a pretty severe competitive examination of his own, by what they call a constituency, who just put him to the test in the art of conjuring, to see if he can shift money from his own pocket into theirs, without any inconvenient third party being aware of the transfer. 107 CHAPTER XVI MISS NIPHET THE THEATRE THE LAKE DIVIDED ATTRACTION INFALLIBLE SAFETY Amiam : che non ha tregua Con gli anni umana vita, e si dilegua. Amiam : che il sol si muore, e poi rinasce ; A noi sua breve luce S'asconde, e il sonno eterna notte adduce. TASSO : Aminta. Love, while youth knows its prime, For mortal life can make no truce with time. Love : for the sun goes down to rise as bright ; To us his transient light Is veiled, and sleep comes on with everlasting night. LORD CURRYFIN was too much a man of the world to devote his attentions in society exclusively to one, and make them the subject of special remark. He left the inner drawing-room, and came up to the doctor to ask him if he knew the young lady who had sung the last ballad. The doctor knew her well. She was Miss Niphet, the only daughter of a gentleman of fortune, residing a few miles distant. Lord Curryfin. As I looked at her while she was singing, I thought of Southey's description of Laila's face in Thalaba : A broad light floated o'er its marble paleness, As the wind waved the fountain fire. Marble paleness suits her well. There is something statuesque in her whole appearance. I could not help thinking what an admirable Camilla she would make in Cimarosa's Orazii. Her features are singularly regular. They had not much play, 1 08 Mr. Pallet devoted every morning to the scenery. MISS NIPHET but the expression of her voice was such as if she felt the full force of every sentiment she uttered. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I consider her to be a person of very deep feeling, which she does not choose should appear on the surface. She is animated in conversation when she is led into it. Otherwise, she is silent and retiring, but obliging in the extreme ; always ready to take part in anything that is going forward. She never needs, for example, being twice asked to sing. She is free from the vice which Horace ascribes to all singers, of not complying when asked, and never leaving off when they have once begun. If this be a general rule, she is an exception to it. Lord Curryfin. I rather wonder she does not tinge her cheeks with a slight touch of artificial red, just as much as would give her a sort of blush-rose complexion. Miss Ilex. You will not wonder when you know her better. The artificial, the false in any degree, however little, is impossible to her. She does not show all she thinks and feels, but what she does show is truth itself. Lord Curryfin. And what part is she to take in the Aristophanic comedy ? The Rev. Dr. Opimian. She is to be the leader of the chorus. Lord Curryfin. I have not seen her at the rehearsals. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. So far, her place has been supplied. You will see her at the next. In the meantime, Mr. Falconer had gone into the inner drawing-room, sat down by Miss Gryll, and entered into con- versation with her. The doctor observed them from a distance, but with all the opportunity he had had for observation, he was still undetermined in his opinion of the impression they might have made on each other. ' It is well,' he said to himself, ' that Miss Ilex is an old maid. If she were as young as Morgana, I think she would win our young friend's heart. Her mind is evidently much to his mind. But so would Morgana's be, if she could speak it as freely. She does not ; why not ? To him at any rate. She seems under no restraint to Lord Curryfin. A good omen, perhaps. I never saw a couple so formed for each other. Heaven help me ! I cannot help harping on that string. After all, the Vestals are the obstacle.' in GRYLL GRANGE Lord Curryfin, seeing Miss Niphet sitting alone at the side of the room, changed his place, sate down by her, and entered into conversation on the topics of the day, novels, operas, pictures, and various phenomena of London life. She kept up the ball with him very smartly. She was every winter, May, and June, in London, mixed much in society, and saw every- thing that was to be seen. Lord Curryfin, with all his Protean accomplishments, could not start a subject on which she had not something to say. But she originated nothing. He spoke, and she answered. One thing he remarked as singular, that though she spoke with knowledge of many things, she did not speak as with taste or distaste of any. The world seemed to flow under her observation without even ruffling the surface of her interior thoughts. This perplexed his versatile lordship. He thought the young lady would be a subject worth studying : it was clear that she was a character. So far so well. He felt that he should not rest satisfied till he was able to define it. The theatre made rapid progress. The walls were com- pleted. The building was roofed in. The stage portion was so far finished as to allow Mr. Pallet to devote every morning to the scenery. The comedy was completed. The music was composed. The rehearsals went on with vigour, but for the present in the drawing-rooms. Miss Niphet, returning one morning from a walk before breakfast, went into the theatre to see its progress, and found Lord Curryfin swinging over the stage on a seat suspended by long ropes from above the visible scene. He did not see her. He was looking upwards, not as one indulging in an idle pastime, but as one absorbed in serious meditation. All at once the seat was drawn up, and he disappeared in the blue canvas that represented the sky. She was not aware that gymnastics were to form part of the projected entertainment, and went away, associating the idea of his lordship, as many had done before, with something like a feeling of the ludicrous. Miss Niphet was not much given to laughter, but whenever she looked at Lord Curryfin during breakfast she could not quite suppress a smile which hovered on her lips, and which was even the more forced on her by the contrast between his pantomimic disappearance and his quiet courtesy and remark- ably good manners in company. The lines of Dryden 112 found Lord Curryfin swinging over the stage on a seat suspended by long ropes. THE LAKE A man so various, that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome, passed through her mind as she looked at him. Lord Curryfin noticed the suppressed smile, but did not apprehend that it had any relation to himself. He thought some graceful facetiousness had presented itself to the mind of the young lady, and that she was amusing herself with her own fancy. It was, however, to him another touch of character, that lighted up her statuesque countenance with a new and peculiar beauty. By degrees her features resumed their accustomed undisturbed serenity. Lord Curryfin felt satisfied that in that aspect he had somewhere seen something like her, and after revolving a series of recollections, he remembered that it was a statue of Melpomene. There was in the park a large lake, encircled with varieties of woodland, and by its side was a pavilion, to which Miss Niphet often resorted to read in an afternoon. And at no great distance from it was the boat-house, to which Lord Curryfin often resorted for a boat, to row or sail on the water. Pass- ing the pavilion in the afternoon, he saw the young lady, and entering into conversation, ascertained what had so amused her in the morning. He told her he had been trying severally by himself, and collectively with the workmen the strength of the suspending lines for the descent of the Chorus of Clouds in the Aristophanic comedy. She said she had been very ungrateful to laugh at the result of his solicitude for the safety of herself and her young friends. He said that in having moved her to smile, even at his expense, he considered himself amply repaid. From this time they often met in the pavilion, that is to say, he often found her reading there on his way to a boat, and stopped awhile to converse with her. They had always plenty to say, and it resulted that he was always sorry to leave her, and she was always sorry to part with him. By degrees the feeling of the ludicrous ceased to be the predominant sentiment which she associated with him. L'amour vient sans qtton y pense. The days shortened, and all things were sufficiently advanced to admit of rehearsals in the theatre. The hours from twelve to two from noon to luncheon were devoted to this pleasant pastime. At luncheon there was much merriment "5 GRYLL GRANGE over the recollections of the morning's work, and after luncheon there was walking in the park, rowing or sailing on the lake, riding or driving in the adjacent country, archery in a spacious field ; and in bad weather billiards, reading in the library, music in the drawing-rooms, battledore and shuttlecock in the hall ; in short, all the methods of passing time agreeably which are available to good company, when there are ample means and space for their exercise ; to say nothing of making love, which Lord Curryfin did with all delicacy and discretion directly to Miss Gryll, as he had begun, and indirectly to Miss Niphet, for whom he felt an involuntary and almost unconscious admiration. He had begun to apprehend that with the former he had a dangerous rival in the Hermit of the Folly, and he thought the latter had sufficient charms to console even Orlando for the loss of Angelica. In short, Miss Gryll had first made him think of marriage, and whenever he thought his hopes were dim in that quarter, he found an antidote to despair in the contemplation of the statue-like damsel. Mr. Falconer took more and more pleasure in Miss Gryll's society, but he did not declare himself. He was more than once on the point of doing so, but the images of the Seven Sisters rose before him, and he suspended the intention. On these occasions he always went home for a day or two to fortify his resolution against his heart. Thus he passed his time between the Grange and the Tower, ' letting I dare not wait upon I would.' Miss Gryll had listened to Lord Curryfin. She had neither encouraged nor discouraged him. She thought him the most amusing person she had ever known. She liked his temper, his acquirements, and his manners. She could not divest herself of that feeling of the ludicrous which everybody seemed to associate with him ; but she thought the chances of life presented little hope of a happier marriage than a woman who would fall in with his tastes and pursuits which, notwith- standing their tincture of absurdity, were entertaining and even amiable- might hope for with him. Therefore she would not say No, though, when she thought of Mr. Falconer, she could not say Yes. Lord Curryfin invented a new sail of infallible safety, which resulted, like most similar inventions, in capsizing the inventor on the first trial. Miss Niphet, going one afternoon, later than 116 Found his lordship scrambling up tJu bank. INFALLIBLE SAFETY usual, to her accustomed pavilion, found his lordship scramb- ling up the bank, and his boat, keel upwards, at some little distance in the lake. For a moment her usual self-command forsook her. She held out both her hands to assist him up the bank, and as soon as he stood on dry land, dripping like a Triton in trousers, she exclaimed in such a tone as he had never before heard, ' Oh ! my dear lord ! ' Then, as if con- scious of her momentary aberration, she blushed with a ' That sail -will never put you under the water again.' deeper blush than that of the artificial rose which he had once thought might improve her complexion. She attempted to withdraw her hands, but he squeezed them both ardently, and exclaimed in his turn, like a lover in a tragedy ' Surely, till now I never looked on beauty.' She was on the point of saying, ' Surely, before now you have looked on Miss Gryll,' but she checked herself. She was content to receive the speech as a sudden ebullition of gratitude for sympathy, and disengaging her hands, she insisted on his 119 GRYLL GRANGE returning immediately to the house to change his ' dank and dripping weeds.' As soon as he was out of sight she went to the boat-house, to summon the men who had charge of it to the scene of the accident. Putting off in another boat, they brought the capsized vessel to land, and hung up the sail to dry. She returned in the evening, and finding the sail dry, she set it on fire. Lord Curryfin, coming down to look after his tackle, found the young lady meditating over the tinder. She said to him ' That sail will never put you under the water again.' He was touched by this singular development of solicitude for his preservation, but could not help saying something in praise of his invention, giving a demonstration of the infallibility of the principle, with several scientific causes of error in work- ing out the practice. He had no doubt it would be all right on another experiment. Seeing that her looks expressed unfeigned alarm at this announcement, he assured her that her kind interest in his safety was sufficient to prevent his trying his invention again. They walked back together to the house, and in the course of conversation she said to him ' The last time I saw the words Infallible Safety, they were painted on the back of a stage-coach which, in one of our summer tours, we saw lying by the side of the road, with its top in a ditch, and its wheels in the air.' The young lady was still a mystery to Lord Curryfin. ' Sometimes,' he said to himself, ' I could almost fancy Melpomene in love with me. But I have seldom seen her laugh, and when she has done so now and then, it has usually been at me. That is not much like love. Her last remark was anything but a compliment to my inventive genius.' 120 A singularly refractory specimen. CHAPTER XVII HORSE-TAMING LOVE IN DILEMMA INJUNCTIONS SONOROUS VASES O gran contrasto in giovenil pensiero, Desir di laude, ed impeto d'amore ! ARIOSTO : c. 25. How great a strife in youthful minds can raise Impulse of love, and keen desire of praise. LORD CURRYFIN, amongst his multifarious acquirements, had taken lessons from the great horse-tamer, and thought himself as well qualified as his master to subdue any animal of the species, however vicious. It was therefore with great pleasure he heard that there was a singularly refractory specimen in Mr. Gryll's stables. The next morning after hearing this, he rose early, and took his troublesome charge in hand. After some preliminary management he proceeded to gallop him round and round a large open space in the park, which was visible from the house. Miss Niphet, always an early riser, and having just prepared for a walk, saw him from her chamber window engaged in this perilous exercise, and though she knew nothing of the peculiar character of his recalcitrant disciple, she saw by its shakings, kickings, and plungings, that it was exerting all its energies to get rid of its rider. At last it made a sudden dash into the wood, and disappeared among the trees. It was to the young lady a matter of implicit certainty that some disaster would ensue. She pictured to herself all the contingencies of accident ; being thrown to the ground and kicked by the horse's hoofs, being dashed against a tree, or suspended, like Absalom, by the hair. She hurried down and 123 GRYLL GRANGE hastened towards the wood, from which, just as she reached it, the rider and horse emerged at full speed as before. But as soon as Lord Curryfin saw Miss Niphet, he took a graceful wheel round, and brought the horse to a stand by her side ; for by this time he had mastered the animal, and brought it to the condition of Sir Walter's hunter in Wordsworth Weak as a lamb the hour that it is yeaned And foaming like a mountain cataract. 1 She did not attempt to dissemble that she had come to look for him, but said ' I expected to find you killed.' He said, 'You see, all my experiments are not failures. I have been more fortunate with the horse than the sail.' At this moment one of the keepers appeared at a little distance. Lord Curryfin beckoned to him, and asked him to take the horse to the stables. The keeper looked with some amazement, and exclaimed ' Why, this is the horse that nobody could manage ! ' 'You will manage him easily enough now,' said Lord Curryfin. So it appeared ; and the keeper took charge of him, not altogether without misgiving. Miss Niphet's feelings had been over-excited, the more so from the severity with which she was accustomed to repress them. The energy which had thus far upheld her suddenly gave way. She sat down on a fallen tree, and burst into tears. Lord Curryfin sat down by her, and took her hand. She allowed him to retain it awhile ; but all at once snatched it from him and sped towards the house over the grass, with the swiftness and lightness of Virgil's Camilla, leaving his lordship as much astonished at her movements as the Volscian crowd, attonitis inhians arn'mzs, 2 had been at those of her prototype. He could not help thinking, ' Few women run gracefully ; but she runs like another Atalanta.' When the party met at breakfast, Miss Niphet was in her place, looking more like a statue than ever, with, if possible, more of marble paleness. Lord Curryfin's morning exploit, of which the story had soon found its way from the stable to the 1 Hartleap Well. 3 Gaping with wondering minds. 124 ' / expected to find you killed? LOVE IN DILEMMA hall, was the chief subject of conversation. He had received a large share of what he had always so much desired applause and admiration ; but now he thought he would willingly sacri- fice all he had ever received in that line, to see even the shadow of a smile, or the expression of a sentiment of any kind, on the impassive face of Melpomene. She left the room when she rose from the breakfast -table, appeared at the rehearsal, and went through her part as usual ; sat down at luncheon, and departed as soon as it was over. She answered, as she had always done, everything that was said to her, frankly, and to the purpose ; and also, as usual, she originated nothing. In the afternoon Lord Curryfin went down to the pavilion. She was not there. He wandered about the grounds in all directions, and returned several times to the pavilion, always in vain. At last he sat down in the pavilion, and fell into a meditation. He asked himself how it could be, that having begun by making love to Miss Gryll, having, indeed, gone too far to recede unless the young lady absolved him, he was now evidently in a transition state towards a more absorbing and violent passion, for a person who, with all her frankness, was incomprehensible, and whose snowy exterior seemed to cover a volcanic fire, which she struggled to repress, and was angry with herself when she did not thoroughly succeed in so doing. If he were quite free he would do his part towards the solution of the mystery, by making a direct and formal proposal to her. As a preliminary to this, he might press Miss Gryll for an answer. All he had yet obtained from her was, 'Wait till we are better acquainted.' He was in a dilemma between Morgana and Melpomene. It had not entered into his thoughts that Morgana was in love with him ; but he thought it nevertheless very probable that she was in a fair way to become so, and that even as it was she liked him well enough to accept him. On the other hand, he could not divest himself of the idea that Melpomene was in love with him. It was true, all the sympathy she had yet shown might have arisen from the excitement of strong feelings, at the real or supposed peril of a person with whom she was in the habit of daily intercourse. It might be so. Still, the sympathy was very impassioned ; though, but for his rashness in self-exposure to danger, he might never have known it. A few days ago, he 127 GRYLL GRANGE would not press Miss Gryll for an answer, because he feared it might be a negative. Now he would not, because he was at least not in haste for an affirmative. But supposing it were a negative, what certainty had he that a negative from Morgana would not be followed by a negative from Melpomene ? Then his heart would be at sea without rudder or compass. We shall leave him awhile to the contemplation of his perplexities. As his thoughts were divided, so were Morgana's. If Mr. Falconer should propose to her, she felt she could accept him without hesitation. She saw clearly the tendency of his feelings towards her. She saw, at the same time, that he strove to the utmost against them in behalf of his old associa- tions, though, with all his endeavours, he could not suppress them in her presence. So there was the lover who did not propose, and who would have been preferred ; and there was the lover who had proposed, and who, if it had been clear that the former chance was hopeless, would not have been lightly given up. If her heart had been as much interested in Lord Curryfin as it was in Mr. Falconer, she would quickly have detected a diminution in the ardour of his pursuit ; but so far as she might have noticed any difference in his conduct, she ascribed it only to deference to her recommendation to ' wait till they were better acquainted.' The longer and the more quietly he waited, the better it seemed to please her. It was not on him, but on Mr. Falconer, that the eyes of her observance were fixed. She would have given Lord Curryfin his liberty instantly if she had thought he wished it. Mr. Falconer also had his own dilemma, between his new love and his old affections. Whenever the first seemed likely to gain the ascendency, the latter rose in their turn, like Antaeus from earth, with renovated strength. And he kept up their force by always revisiting the Tower, when the contest seemed doubtful. Thus, Lord Curryfin and Mr. Falconer were rivals, with a new phase of rivalry. In some of their variations of feeling, each wished the other success ; the latter, because he struggled against a spell that grew more and more difficult to be re- sisted ; the former, because he had been suddenly overpowered by the same kind of light that had shone from the statue of Pygmalion. Thus their rivalry, such as it was, was entirely 128 INJUNCTIONS without animosity, and in no way disturbed the harmony of the Aristophanic party. The only person concerned in these complications whose thoughts and feelings were undivided, was Miss Niphet. She had begun by laughing at Lord Curryfin, and had ended by forming a decided partiality tor him. She contended against the feeling ; she was aware of his intentions towards Miss Gryll ; and she would perhaps have achieved a conquest over herself, if her sympathies had not been kept in a continual fever by the rashness with which he exposed himself to accidents by flood and field. At the same time, as she was more interested in observing Morgana than Morgana was in observing her, she readily perceived the tatter's predilection for Mr. Falconer, and the gradual folding around him of the enchanted net. These observations, and the manifest pro- gressive concentration of Lord Curryfin's affections on herself, showed her that she was not in the way of inflicting any very severe wound on her young friend's feelings, or encouraging a tendency to absolute hopelessness in her own. Lord Curryfin was pursuing his meditations in the pavilion, when the young lady, whom he had sought there in vain, presented herself before him in great agitation. He started up to meet her, and held out both his hands. She took them both, held them a moment, disengaged them, and sat down at a little distance, which he immediately reduced to nothing. He then expressed his disappointment at not having previously found her in the pavilion, and his delight at seeing her now. After a pause, she said : ' I felt so much disturbed in the morning, that I should have devoted the whole day to recovering calmness of thought, but for something I have just heard. My maid tells me that you are going to try that horrid horse in harness, and in a newly-invented high phaeton of your own, and that the grooms say they would not drive that horse in any carriage, nor any horse in that carriage, and that you have a double chance of breaking your neck. I have disregarded all other feelings to entreat you to give up your intention.' Lord Curryfin assured her that he felt too confident in his power over horses, and in the safety of his new invention, to admit the possibility of danger : but that it was a very small sacrifice to her to restrict himself to tame horses and low K 129 GRYLL GRANGE carriages, or to abstinence from all horses and carriages, if she desired it. 'And from sailing-boats,' she added. ' And from sailing-boats,' he answered. ' And from balloons,' she said. ' And from balloons,' he answered. ' But what made you think of balloons ? ' ' Because,' she said, ' they are dangerous, and you are inquiring and adventurous.' ' To tell you the truth,' he said, ' I have been up in a balloon. I thought it the most charming excursion I ever made. I have thought of going up again. I have invented a valve ' ' O heavens ! ' she exclaimed. ' But I have your promise touching horses, and carriages, and sails, and balloons.' ' You have,' he said. ' It shall be strictly adhered to.' She rose to return to the house. But this time he would not part with her, and they returned together. Thus prohibited by an authority to which he yielded implicit obedience from trying further experiments at the risk of his neck, he restricted his inventive faculty to safer channels, and determined that the structure he was superintending should reproduce, as far as possible, all the peculiarities of the Athenian Theatre. Amongst other things, he studied attentively the subject of the ecketa, or sonorous vases, which, in that vast theatre, propagated and clarified sound ; and though in its smaller representative they were not needed, he thought it still possible that they might produce an agreeable effect. But with all the assistance of the Reverend Doctor Opimian, he found it difficult to arrive at a clear idea of their construction, or even of their principle ; for the statement of Vitruvius, that they gave an accordant resonance in the fourth, the fifth, and the octave, seemed incompatible with the idea of changes of key, and not easily reconcilable with the doctrine of Harmonics. At last he made up his mind that they had no reference to key, but solely to pitch, modified by duly -pro- portioned magnitude and distance ; he therefore set to work assiduously, got a number of vases made, ascertained that they would give a resonance of some kind, and had them disposed at proper intervals round the audience part of the building. This being done, the party assembled, some as 130 1 And from bailoons^ she said. ' And 'from balloons? he aiawertd. SONOROUS VASES audience, some as performers, to judge of the effect. The first burst of choral music produced a resonance, like the sound produced by sea- shells when placed against the ear, only many times multiplied, and growing like the sound of a gong : it was the exaggerated concentration of the symphony of a lime-grove full of cockchafers, 1 on a fine evening in the early summer. The experiment was then tried with single voices : the hum was less in itself, but greater in proportion. It was then tried with speaking : the result was the same : a powerful and perpetual hum, not resonant peculiarly to the diatessaron, the diapente, or the diapason, but making a new variety of continuous fundamental bass. ' I am satisfied,' said Lord Curryfin, ' the art of making these vases is as hopelessly lost as that of making mummies.' Miss Niphet encouraged him to persevere. She said : ' You have produced a decided resonance : the only thing is to subdue it, which you may perhaps effect by diminishing the number and enlarging the intervals of the vases.' He determined to act on the suggestion, and she felt that, for some little time at least, she had kept him out of mischief. But whenever anything was said or sung in the theatre, it was necessary, for the time, to remove the echeia. 1 The drone of the cockchafer, as he wheels by you in drowsy hum, sounds his corno di bassetto on F below the line. GARDINER'S Music of Nature. 133 CHAPTER XVIII LECTURES THE POWER OF PUBLIC OPINION A NEW ORDER OF CHIVALRY si, Mimnermus uti censet, sine amore jocisque nil est jucundum, vivas in amore jocisque. HOR. Epist. I. vi. 65, 66. If, as Mimnermus held, nought else can move Your soul to pleasure, live in sports and love. THE theatre was completed, and was found to be, without the echeia, a fine vehicle of sound. It was tried, not only in the morning rehearsals, but occasionally, and chiefly on afternoons of bad weather, by recitations, and even lectures ; for though some of the party attached no value to that mode of dogmatic instruction, yet with the majority, and especially with the young ladies, it was decidedly in favour. One rainy afternoon Lord Curryfin was entreated to deliver in the theatre his lecture on Fish ; he readily complied, and succeeded in amusing his audience more, and instructing them as much, as any of his more pretentious brother lecturers could have done We shall not report the lecture, but we refer those who may be curious on the subject to the next meeting of the Pantopragmatic Society, under the presidency of Lord Facing -both -ways, and the vice -presidency of Lord Michin Malicho. At intervals in similar afternoons of bad weather some others of the party were requested to favour the company with lectures or recitations in the theatre. Mr. Minim delivered a lecture on music, Mr. Pallet on painting ; Mr. Falconer, though not used to lecturing, got up one on domestic life in the Homeric age. Even Mr. Gryll took his turn, and ex- 134 LECTURES POWER OF PUBLIC OPINION pounded the Epicurean philosophy. Mr. MacBorrowdale, who had no objection to lectures before dinner, delivered one on all the affairs of the world foreign and domestic, moral, political, and literary. In the course of it he touched on Reform. ' The stone which Lord Michin Malicho who was the Gracchus of the last Reform, and is the Sisyphus of the present has been so laboriously pushing up hill, is for the present deposited at the bottom in the Limbo of Vanity. If it should ever surmount the summit and run down on the other side, it will infallibly roll over and annihilate the franchise of the educated classes ; for it would not be worth their while to cross the road to exercise it against the rabble preponderance which would then have been created. Thirty years ago, Lord Michin Malicho had several cogent arguments in favour of Reform. One was, that the people were roaring for it, and that there- fore they must have it. He has now in its favour the no less cogent argument, that the people do not care about it, and that the less it is asked for the greater will be the grace of the boon. On the former occasion the out-of-door logic was irresistible. Burning houses, throwing dead cats and cabbage- stumps into carriages, and other varieties of the same system of didactics, demonstrated the fitness of those who practised them to have representatives in Parliament. So they got their representatives, and many think Parliament would have been better without them. My father was a staunch Reformer. In his neighbourhood in London was the place of assembly of a Knowledge -is -Power Club. The members at the close of their meetings collected mending-stones from the road, and broke the windows to the right and left of their line of march. They had a flag on which was inscribed, " The power of public opinion." Whenever the enlightened assembly met, my father closed his shutters, but, closing within, they did not protect the glass. One morning he picked up, from where it had fallen between the window and the shutter, a very large, and consequently very demonstrative, specimen of dialectical granite. He preserved it carefully, and mounted it on a handsome pedestal, inscribed with " The power of public opinion." He placed it on the middle of his library mantelpiece, and the daily contemplation of it cured him of his passion for Reform. During the rest of his life he never talked, as he had used to do, of "the people" : he always said "the rabble," and delighted 135 GRYLL GRANGE in quoting every passage of Hudibras in which the rabble- rout is treated as he had come to conclude it ought to be. He made this piece of granite the nucleus of many political disquisitions. It is still in my possession, and I look on it with veneration as my principal tutor, for it had certainly a large share in the elements of my education. If, which does not seem likely, another reform lunacy should arise in my time, I shall take care to close my shutters against "The power of public opinion." ' The Reverend Doctor Opimian being called on to contri- bute his share to these diversions of rainy afternoons, said ' The sort of prose lecture which I am accustomed to deliver would not be exactly appropriate to the present time and place. I will therefore recite to you some verses, which I made some time since, on what appeared to me a striking specimen of absurdity on the part of the advisers of royalty here the bestowing the honours of knighthood, which is a purely Christian institution, on Jews and Paynim ; very worthy persons in themselves, and entitled to any mark of respect befitting their class, but not to one strictly and exclusively Christian ; money-lenders, too, of all callings the most anti- pathetic to that of a true knight. The contrast impressed it- self on me as I was reading a poem of the twelfth century, by Hues de Tabaret L'Ordtnede Chevalerte and I endeavoured to express the contrast in the manner and form following : A NEW ORDER OF CHIVALRY SIR MOSES, Sir Aaron, Sir Jamramajee, Two stock -jobbing Jews, and a shroffing Parsee, Have girt on the armour of old Chivalrie, And, instead of the Red Cross, have hoisted Balls Three. Now fancy our Sovereign, so gracious and bland, With the sword of Saint George in her royal right hand, Instructing this trio of marvellous Knights In the mystical meanings of Chivalry's rites. ' You have come from the bath, all in milk-white array, To show you have washed worldly feelings away, And, pure as your vestments from secular stain, Renounce sordid passions and seekings for gain. 136 A NEW ORDER OF CHIVALRY ' This scarf of deep red o'er your vestments I throw, In token, that down them your life-blood shall flow, Ere Chivalry's honour, or Christendom's faith, Shall meet, through your failure, or peril or scaith. ' These slippers of silk, of the colour of earth, Are in sign of remembrance of whence you had birth ; That from earth you have sprung, and to earth you return, But stand for the faith, life immortal to earn. ' This blow of the sword on your shoulder-blades true Is the mandate of homage, where homage is due, And the sign that your swords from the scabbard shall fly When " St George and the Right " is the rallying cry. ' This belt of white silk, which no speck has defaced, Is the sign of a bosom with purity graced, And binds you to prove, whatsoever betides, Of damsels distressed the friends, champions, and guides. ' These spurs of pure gold are the symbols which say, As your steeds obey them, you the Church shall obey, And speed at her bidding, through country and town, To strike, with your falchions, her enemies down.' Now fancy these Knights, when the speech they have heard, As they stand, scarfed, shoed, shoulder-dubbed, belted and spurred, With the cross-handled sword duly sheathed on the thigh, Thus simply and candidly making reply : ' By your Majesty's grace we have risen up Knights, But we feel little relish for frays and for fights : There are heroes enough, full of spirit and fire, Always ready to shoot and be shot at for hire. ' True, with bulls and with bears we have battled our cause ; And the bulls have no horns, and the bears have no paws ; And the mightiest blow which we ever have struck Has achieved but the glory of laming a duck. 1 1 In Stock Exchange slang, Bulls are speculators for a rise, Bears for a fall. A lame duck is a man who cannot pay his differences, and is said to waddle off. The patriotism of the money-market is well touched by Ponsard, in his comedy La Bourse : Acte iv. Scene 3 137 GRYLL GRANGE ' With two nations in arms, friends impartial to both, To raise each a loan we shall be nothing loth ; We will lend them the pay, to fit men for the fray ; But shall keep ourselves carefully out of the way. ' We have small taste for championing maids in distress : For State we care little : for Church we care less : To Premium and Bonus our homage we plight : " Percentage ! " we cry : and " A fig for the right ! '' ' 'Twixt Saint George and the Dragon we settle it thus : Which has scrip above par is the Hero for us : For a turn in the market, the Dragon's red gorge Shall have our free welcome to swallow Saint George. ' Now, God save our Queen, and if aught should occur To peril the crown or the safety of her, God send that the leader, who faces the foe, May have more of King Richard than Moses and Co. Quand nous sommes vainqueurs, dire qu'on a baiss<5 ! Si nous e"tions battus, on aurait done hausse' ? DELATOUR On a craint qu'un succes, si brillant pour la France, De la paix qu'on rfivait n'e"loignat I'esp6rance. Cette Bourse, morbleu ! n'a done rien dans le coeur ! Ventre aflame" n'a point d'oreilles . . . pour 1'honneur ! Aussi je ne veux plus jouer qu'apres ma noce Et j' attends Waterloo pour me mettre a la hausse. 138 CHAPTER XIX A SYMPOSIUM TRANSATLANTIC TENDENCIES AFTER- DINNER LECTURES EDUCATION TRINCQ est ung mot panomphee, ce'le'bre' et entendu de toutes nations, et nous signifie, BEUUEZ. Et ici maintenons que non rire, ains boyre est le propre de 1'homme. Je ne dy boyre simplement et absolument, car aussy bien boyvent les bestes ; je dy boyre vin bon et fraiz. RABELAIS : 1. v. c. 45. SOME guests remained. Some departed and returned. Among these was Mr. MacBorrowdale. One day after dinner, on one of his reappearances, Lord Curryfin said to him ' Well, Mr. MacBorrowdale, in your recent observations, have you found anything likely to satisfy Jack of Dover, if he were prosecuting his inquiry among us ? ' Mr. MacBorrowdale. Troth, no, my lord. I think, if he were among us, he would give up the search as hopeless. He found it so in his own day, and he would find it still more so now. Jack was both merry and wise. We have less mirth in practice ; and we have more wisdom in pretension, which Jack would not have admitted. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. He would have found it like Juvenal's search for patriotic virtue, when Catiline was every- where, and Brutus and Cato were nowhere. 1 Lord Curryfin. Well, among us, if Jack did not find his superior, or even his equal, he would not have been at a loss for company to his mind. There is enough mirth for those 1 Et Catilinam quocumque in populo videos, quocumque sub axe : sed nee Brutus erit, Bruti nee avunculus usquam. Juv. Sat. xiv. 41-43. 139 GRYLL GRANGE who choose to enjoy it, and wisdom too, perhaps as much as he would have cared for. We ought to have more wisdom, as we have clearly more science. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Science is one thing, and wisdom is another. Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers. If you look at the results which science has brought in its train, you will find them to consist almost wholly in elements of mischief. See how much belongs to the word Explosion alone, of which the ancients knew nothing. Explosions of powder-mills and powder-magazines ; of coal-gas in mines and in houses ; of high-pressure engines in ships and boats and factories. See the complications and refinements of modes of destruction, in revolvers and rifles and shells and rockets and cannon. See collisions and wrecks and every mode of disaster by land and by sea, resulting chiefly from the insanity for speed, in those who for the most part have nothing to do at the end of the race, which they run as if they were so many Mercuries speed- ing with messages from Jupiter. Look at our scientific drain- age, which turns refuse into poison. Look at the subsoil of London, whenever it is turned up to the air, converted by gas leakage into one mass of pestilent blackness, in which no vegetation can flourish, and above which, with the rapid growth of the ever-growing nuisance, no living thing will breathe with impunity. Look at our scientific machinery, which has de- stroyed domestic manufacture, which has substituted rottenness for strength in the thing made, and physical degradation in crowded towns for healthy and comfortable country life in the makers. The day would fail, if I should attempt to enumerate the evils which science has inflicted on mankind. I almost think it is the ultimate destiny of science to exterminate the human race. Lord Curryfin. You have gone over a wide field, which we might exhaust a good bin of claret in fully discussing. But surely the facility of motion over the face of the earth and sea is both pleasant and profitable. We may now see the world with little expenditure of labour or time. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. You may be whisked over it, but you do not see it. You go from one great town to another, where manners and customs are not even now essentially different, and with this facility of intercourse become pro- 140 A SYMPOSIUM TRANSATLANTIC TENDENCIES gressively less and less so. The intermediate country which you never see, unless there is a show mountain, or waterfall, or ruin, for which there is a station, and to which you go as you would to any other exhibition the intermediate country contains all that is really worth seeing, to enable you to judge of the various characteristics of men and the diversified objects of Nature. Lord Curry/in. You can suspend your journey if you please, and see the intermediate country, if you prefer it. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. But who does prefer it ? You travel round the world by a hand-book, as you do round an exhibition-room by a catalogue. Mr. Mac Borrow dale. Not to say that in the intermediate country you are punished by bad inns and bad wine ; of which I confess myself intolerant. I knew an unfortunate French tourist, who had made the round of Switzerland, and had but one expression for every stage of his journey : Mauvaise auberge ! Lord Curryfin. Well, then, what say you to the electric telegraph, by which you converse at the distance of thousands of miles ? Even across the Atlantic, as no doubt we shall yet do. Mr. Gryll. Some of us have already heard the doctor's opinion on that subject. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I have no wish to expedite com- munication with the Americans. If we could apply the power of electrical repulsion to preserve us from ever hearing any- thing more of them, I should think that we had for once derived a benefit from science. Mr. Gryll. Your love for the Americans, doctor, seems something like that of Cicero's friend Marius for the Greeks. He would not take the nearest road to his villa, because it was called the Greek Road. 1 Perhaps if your nearest way home were called the American Road, you would make a circuit to avoid it. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I am happy to say I am not put to the test. Magnetism, galvanism, electricity, are 'one form of many names.' 2 Without magnetism we should never have 1 Non enim te puto Graecos ludos desiderare : praesertim quum Graecos ita non ames, ut ne ad villam quidem tuam via Graeca ire soleas. CICERO : Ep. ad Div. vii. i. 3 ToXXwj' dvofidruf (*opr) fiia. AESCHYLUS : Prometheus. 141 GRYLL GRANGE discovered America ; to which we are indebted for nothing but evil ; diseases in the worst forms that can afflict humanity, and slavery in the worst form in which slavery can exist. The Old World had the sugar-cane and the cotton-plant, though it did not so misuse them. Then, what good have we got from America ? What good of any kind, from the whole continent and its islands, from the Esquimaux to Patagonia ? Mr. Gryll. Newfoundland salt-fish, doctor. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. That is something, but it does not turn the scale. Mr. Gryll. If they have given us no good, we have given them none. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. We have given them wine and classical literature ; but I am afraid Bacchus and Minerva have equally Scattered their bounty upon barren ground. On the other hand, we have given the red men rum, which has been the chief instrument of their perdition. On the whole, our intercourse with America has been little else than an inter- change of vices and diseases. Lord Curryfin. Do you count it nothing to have substituted civilised for savage men ? The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Civilised. The word requires definition. But looking into futurity, it seems to me that the ultimate tendency of the change is to substitute the worse for the better race ; the Negro for the Red Indian. The Red Indian will not work for a master. No ill-usage will make him. Herein he is the noblest specimen of humanity that ever walked the earth. Therefore, the white man exterminates his race. But the time will come when by mere force of numbers the black race will predominate, and exterminate the white. And thus the worse race will be substituted for the better, even as it is in St. Domingo, where the Negro has taken the place of the Caraib. The change is clearly for the worse. Lord Curryfin. You imply that in the meantime the white race is better than the red. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I leave that as an open question. But I hold, as some have done before me, that the human mind degenerates in America, and that the superiority, such as it is, of the white race, is only kept up by intercourse with 142 TRANSATLANTIC TENDENCIES Europe. Look at the atrocities in their ships. Look at their Congress and their Courts of Justice ; debaters in the first ; suitors, even advocates, sometimes judges, in the second, settling their arguments with pistol and dagger. Look at their extensions of slavery, and their revivals of the slave-trade, now covertly, soon to be openly. If it were possible that the two worlds could be absolutely dissevered for a century, I think a new Columbus would find nothing in America but savages. Lord Curryfin, You look at America, doctor, through your hatred of slavery. You must remember that we introduced it when they were our colonists. It is not so easily got rid of. Its abolition by France exterminated the white race in St. Domingo, as the white race had exterminated the red. Its abolition by England ruined our West Indian colonies. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Yes, in conjunction with the direct encouragement of foreign slave labour, given by our friends of liberty under the pretext of free trade. It is a mockery to keep up a squadron for suppressing the slave-trade on the one hand, while, on the other hand, we encourage it to an extent that counteracts in a tenfold degree the apparent power of suppres- sion. It is a clear case of false pretension. Mr. Gryll. You know, doctor, the Old World had slavery throughout its entire extent ; under the Patriarchs, the Greeks, the Romans ; everywhere in short. Cicero thought our island not likely to produce anything worth having, excepting slaves; 1 and of those none skilled, as some slaves were, in letters and music, but all utterly destitute of both. And in the Old World the slaves were of the same race with the masters. The Negroes are an inferior race, not fit, I am afraid, for anything else. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Not fit, perhaps, for anything else belonging to what we call civilised life. Very fit to live on little, and wear nothing, in Africa ; where it would have been a blessing to themselves and the rest of the world if they had been left unmolested ; if they had had a Friar Bacon to surround their entire continent with a wall of brass. 1 Etiam illud jam cognitum est, neque argent! scripulum esse ullum in ilia insula, neque ullam spem prasdae, nisi ex mancipiis : ex quibus nullos puto te literis aut musicis erudites expectare. CICERO : ad Atlicum, iv. 16. A hope is expressed by Pomponius Mela, 1. iii, c. 6 (he wrote under Claudius), that, by the success of the Roman arms, the island and its savage inhabitants would soon be better known. It is amusing enough to peruse such passages in the midst of London. GIBBON : c. i. 143 GRYLL GRANGE Mr. Falconer. I am not sure, doctor, that in many instances, even yet, the white slavery of our factories is not worse than the black slavery of America. We have done much to amend it, and shall do more. Still, much remains to be done. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. And will be done, I hope and believe. The Americans do nothing to amend their system. On the contrary, they do all they can to make bad worse. Whatever excuse there may be for maintaining slavery where it exists, there can be none for extending it into new territories ; none for reviving the African slave-trade. These are the crying sins of America. Our white slavery, so far as it goes, is so far worse, that it is the degradation of a better race. But if it be not redressed, as I trust it will be, it will work out its own retribution. And so it is of all the oppressions that are done under the sun. Though all men but the red men will work for a master, they will not fight for an oppressor in the day of his need. Thus gigantic empires have crumbled into dust at the first touch of an invader's footstep. For petty, as for great oppressions, there is a day of retribution growing out of themselves. It is often long in coming. Ut sit magna, tamen certe lenta ira Deorum est. 1 But it comes. Raro antecedentem scelestum Deseruit pede Poena claudo. 2 Lord Curryfin. I will not say, doctor, ' I've seen, and sure I ought to know.' But I have been in America, and I have found there, what many others will testify, a very numer- ous class of persons who hold opinions very like your own : persons who altogether keep aloof from public life, because they consider it abandoned to the rabble ; but who are as refined, as enlightened, as full of sympathy for all that tends to justice and liberty, as any whom you may most approve amongst ourselves. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Of that I have no doubt. But I look to public acts and public men. Lord Curryfin. I should much like to know what Mr. MacBorrowdale thinks of all this. Mr. MacBorrowdale. Troth, my lord, I think we have 1 The anger of the Gods, though great, is slow. 2 The foot of Punishment, though lame, O'ertakes at last preceding Wrong. 144 AFTER-DINNER LECTURES strayed far away from the good company we began with. We have lost sight of Jack of Dover. But the discussion had one bright feature. It did not interfere with, it rather promoted, the circulation of the bottle : for every man who spoke pushed it on with as much energy as he spoke with, and those who were silent swallowed the wine and the opinion together, as if they relished them both. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. So far, discussion may find favour. In my own experience I have found it very absorbent of claret. But I do not think it otherwise an incongruity after dinner, provided it be carried on, as our disquisitions have always been, with frankness and good humour. Consider how much instruction has been conveyed to us in the form of conversa- tions at banquet, by Plato and Xenophon and Plutarch. I read nothing with more pleasure than their Symposia : to say nothing of Athenaeus, whose work is one long banquet. Mr. MacBorrowdale. Nay, I do not object to conversation on any subject. I object to after-dinner lectures. I have had some unfortunate experiences. I have found what began in conversation end in a lecture. I have, on different occasions, met several men, who were in that respect all alike. Once started they never stopped. The rest of the good company, or rather the rest which without them would have been good company, was no company. No one could get in a word. They went on with one unvarying stream of monotonous desolating sound. This makes me tremble when a discussion begins. I sit in fear of a lecture. Lord Curryfin. Well, you and I have lectured, but never after dinner. We do it when we have promised it, and when those who are present expect it. After dinner, I agree with you, it is the most doleful blight that can fall on human enjoyment. Mr. MacBorrowdale. I will give you one or two examples of these postprandial inflictions. One was a great Indian reformer. He did not open his mouth till he had had about a bottle and a half of wine. Then he burst on us with a declamation on all that was wrong in India, and its remedy. He began in the Punjab, travelled to Calcutta, went south- ward, got into the Temple of Juggernaut, went southward again, and after holding forth for more than an hour, paused for a moment. The man who sate next him attempted to speak : but GRYLL GRANGE the orator clapped him on the arm, and said : ' Excuse me : now I come to Madras.' On which his neighbour jumped up and vanished. Another went on in the same way about currency. His first hour's talking carried him just through the Restriction Act of ninety-seven. As we had then more than half -a- century before us, I took my departure. But these were two whom topography and chronology would have brought to a close. The bore of all bores was the third. His subject had no beginning, middle, nor end. It was education. Never was such a journey through the desert of mind : the Great Sahara of intellect. The very recollection makes me thirsty. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. If all the nonsense which, in the last quarter of a century, has been talked on all other subjects were thrown into one scale, and all that has been talked on the subject of education alone were thrown into the other, I think the latter would preponderate. Lord Curryfin. We have had through the whole period some fine specimens of nonsense on other subjects : for instance, with a single exception, political economy. Mr. MacBorrowdale. I understand your lordship's polite- ness as excepting the present company. You need not except me. I am ' free to confess,' as they say ' in another place,' that I have talked a great deal of nonsense on that subject myself. Lord Curryfin. Then, we have had latterly a mighty mass on the purification of the Thames. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Allowing full weight to the two last-named ingredients, they are not more than a counterpoise to Competitive Examination, which is also a recent exotic belonging to education. Lord Curryfin. Patronage, it used to be alleged, considered only the fitness of the place for the man, not the fitness of the man for the place. It was desirable to reverse this. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. True : but ' dum vitant stulti vitium, in contraria currunt. ' l Questions which can only be answered by the parrotings of a memory crammed to disease with all sorts of heterogeneous 1 When fools would from one vice take flight, They rush into its opposite. HOR. Sat. i. 2, 24. 146 EDUCATION diet can form no test of genius, taste, judgment, or natural capacity. Competitive Examination takes for its nornia : 'It is better to learn many things ill than one thing well ' ; or rather : ' It is better to learn to gabble about everything than to understand anything.' This is not the way to discover the wood of which Mercuries are made. I have been told that this precious scheme has been borrowed from China : a pretty fountain-head for moral and political improvement : and if so, I may say, after Petronius : ' This windy and monstrous loquacity has lately found its way to us from Asia, and like a pestilential star has blighted the minds of youth otherwise rising to greatness.' x Lord Curryfin. There is something to be said on behalf of applying the same tests, addressing the same questions, to everybody. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I shall be glad to hear what can be said on that behalf. Lord Curryfin (after a pause). ( Mass,' as the second grave-digger says in Hamlet^ ' I cannot tell.' A chorus of laughter dissolved the sitting. 1 Nuper ventosa isthaec et enormis loquacitas Athenas ex Asia com- migravit, animosque juvenum, ad magna surgentes, veluti pestilenti quodam sidere afflavit. 147 CHAPTER XX ALGERNON AND MORGANA OPPORTUNITY AND REPENTANCE THE FOREST IN WINTER Les violences qu'on se fait pour s'empScher d'aimer sont souvent plus cruelles que les rigueurs de ce qu'on aime. LA ROCHEFOUCAULD. THE winter set in early. December began with intense frost. Mr. Falconer, one afternoon, entering the inner drawing-room, found Miss Gryll alone. She was reading, and on the entrance of her visitor, laid down her book. He hoped he had not interrupted her in an agreeable occupation. ' To observe romantic method,' we shall give what passed between them with the Christian names of the speakers. Morgana. I am only reading what I have often read before, Orlando Innamorato ; and I was at the moment occu- pied with a passage about the enchantress from whom my name was borrowed. You are aware that enchantresses are in great favour here. Algernon. Circe and Gryllus, and your name, sufficiently show that And not your name only, but 1 should like to see the passage, and should be still better pleased if you would read it to me. Morgana. It is where Orlando, who had left Morgana sleeping by the fountain, returns to seek the enchanted key, by which alone he can liberate his friends. II Conte, che d' intrare havea gran voglia, Subitamente al fonte ritornava : Quivi trov6 Morgana, che con gioglia Danzava intorno, e danzando cantava. Ne piii leggier si move al vento foglia Come ella sanza sosta si voltava, 148 ALGERNON AND MORGANA Mirando hora a la terra ed hora al sole ; Ed al suo canto usava tal parole : ' Qualonque cerca al mondo haver thesoro, Over diletto, o segue onore e stato, Ponga la mono a questa chioma d' oro, Ch' io porto in fronte, e quel faro beato. Ma quando ha il destro a far cotal lavoro, Non prenda indugio, che '1 tempo passato Piii non ritorna, e non si trova mai ; Ed io mi volto, e lui lascio con guai.' Cosi cantava d' intorno girando La bella Fata a quella fresca fonte ; Ma come gionto vide il Conte Orlando, Subitamente rivolto la fronte : II prato e la fontana abbandonando, Prese il viaggio suo verso d' un monte, Qual chiudea la Valletta picciolina : Quivi fuggendo Morgana cammina. 1 1 BOJARDO : 1. ii. c. 8. Ed. Vinegia; 1544. With earnest wish to pass the enchanted gate, Orlando to the fount again advanced, And found Morgana, all with joy elate, Dancing around, and singing as she danced. As lightly moved and twirled the lovely Fate As to the breeze the lightest foliage glanced, With looks alternate to the earth and sky, She thus gave out her words of witchery : ' Let him, who seeks unbounded wealth to hold, Or joy, or honour, or terrestrial state, Seize with his hand this lock of purest gold, That crowns my brow, and blest shall be his fate. But when time serves, behoves him to be bold, Nor even a moment's pause interpolate : The chance, once lost, he never finds again : I turn, and leave him to lament in vain. ' Thus sang the lovely Fate in bowery shade Circling in joy around the crystal fount ; But when within the solitary glade Glittered the armour of the approaching Count, She sprang upon her feet, as one dismayed, And took her way towards a lofty mount That rose the valley's narrow length to bound : Thither Morgana sped along the ground. I have translated Fata, Fate. It is usually translated Fairy. But the 149 GRYLL GRANGE Algernon. I remember the passage well. The beautiful Fata, dancing and singing by the fountain, presents a delightful picture. Morgana. Then, you know, Orlando, who had missed his opportunity of seizing the golden forelock while she was sleeping, pursues her a long while in vain through rocky deserts, La Penitenza following him with a scourge. The same idea was afterwards happily worked out by Machiavelli in his Capitolo delF Occasione. Algernon. You are fond of Italian literature ? You read the language beautifully. I observe you have read from the original poem, and not from Berni's rifacciamento. Morgana. I prefer the original. It is more simple, and more in earnest. Berni's playfulness is very pleasant, and his exordiums are charming ; and in many instances he has improved the poetry. Still, I think he has less than the original of what are to me the great charms of poetry, truth and simplicity. Even the greater antiquity of style has its peculiar appropriateness to the subject. And Bojardo seems to have more faith in his narrative than Berni. I go on with him with ready credulity, where Berni's pleasantry interposes a doubt. Algernon. You think that in narratives, however wild and romantic, the poet should write as if he fully believed in the truth of his own story. Morgana. I do ; and I think so in reference to all narra- tives, not to poetry only. What a dry skeleton is the history of the early ages of Rome, told by one who believes nothing that the Romans believed ! Religion pervades every step of the early Roman history ; and in a great degree down at least to the Empire ; but, because their religion is not our religion, we pass over the supernatural part of the matter in idea differs essentially from ours of a fairy. Amongst other things there is no Fato, no Oberon to the Titania. It does not, indeed, correspond with our usual idea of Fate, but it is more easily distinguished as a class ; for our old acquaintances the Fates are an inseparable three. The Italian Fata is independent of her sisters. They are enchantresses ; but they differ from other enchantresses in being immortal. They are beautiful, too, and their beauty is immortal : always in Bojardo. He would not have turned Alcina into an old woman, as Ariosto did ; which 1 must always consider a dreadful blemish on the many charms of the Orlando Furioso, OPPORTUNITY AND REPENTANCE silence, or advert to it in a spirit of contemptuous incredulity. We do not give it its proper place, nor present it in its proper colours, as a cause in the production of great effects. There- fore, I like to read Livy, and I do not like to read Niebuhr. Algernon. May I ask if you read Latin ? Morgana. I do ; sufficiently to derive great pleasure from it. Perhaps, after this confession, you will not wonder that I am a spinster. Algernon. So far, that I think it would tend to make you fastidious in your choice. Not that you would be less sought by any who would be worthy your attention. For I am told you have had many suitors, and have rejected them all in succession. And have you not still many, and among them one very devoted lover, who would bring you title as well as fortune ? A very amiable person, too, though not without a comic side to his character. Morgana. I do not well know. He so far differs from all my preceding suitors that in every one of them I found the presence of some quality that displeased me, or the absence of some which would have pleased me : the want, in the one way or the other, of that entire congeniality in taste and feeling which I think essential to happiness in marriage. He has so strong a desire of pleasing, and such power of acquisition and assimilation, that I think a woman truly attached to him might mould him to her mind. Still, I can scarcely tell why, he does not complete my idealities. They say, Love is his own avenger : and perhaps I shall be punished by finding my idealities realised in one who will not care for me. Algernon. I take that to be impossible. Morgana blushed, held down her head, and made no reply. Algernon looked at her in silent admiration. A new light seemed to break in on him. Though he had had so many opportunities of forming a judgment on the point, it seemed to strike him for the first time with irresistible conviction that he had never before heard such a sweet voice, nor seen such an expressive and intelligent countenance. And in this way they continued like two figures in a tableau vivant, till the entrance of other parties broke the spell which thus had fixed them in their positions. A few minutes more, and their destinies might have been irrevocably fixed. But the interruption gave Mr. Falconer the GRYLL GRANGE opportunity of returning again to his Tower, to consider, in the presence of the seven sisters, whether he should not be in the position of a Roman, who was reduced to the dilemma of migrating without his household deities, or of suffering his local deities to migrate without him ; and whether he could sit comfortably on either of the horns of this dilemma. He felt that he could not. On the other hand, could he bear to see the fascinating Morgana metamorphosed into Lady Curryfin ? The time had been when he had half wished it, as the means of restoring him to liberty. He felt now that when in her society he could not bear the idea ; but he still thought that in the midst of his domestic deities he might become re- conciled to it. He did not care for horses, nor keep any for his own use. But as time and weather were not always favourable to walking, he had provided for himself a comfortable travelling- chariot, without a box to intercept the view, in which, with post-horses after the fashion of the olden time, he performed occasional migrations. He found this vehicle of great use in moving to and fro between the Grange and the Tower ; for then, with all his philosophy, Impatience was always his companion : Impatience on his way to the Grange, to pass into the full attraction of the powerful spell by which he was drawn like the fated ship to the magnetic rock in the Arabian Nights : Impatience on his way to the Tower, to find himself again in the ' Regions mild of pure and serene air,' in which the seven sisters seemed to dwell, like Milton's ethereal spirits ' Before the starry threshold of Jove's court.' Here was everything to soothe, nothing to irritate or disturb him : nothing on the spot : but it was with him, as it is with many, perhaps with all : the two great enemies of tranquillity, Hope and Remembrance, would still intrude : not like a bubble and a spectre, as in the beautiful lines of Coleridge : l Who late and lingering seeks thy shrine, On him but seldom, Power divine, Thy spirit rests. Satiety, And sloth, poor counterfeits of thee, Mock the tired worldling. Idle Hope, And dire Remembrance, interlope, And vex the feverish slumbers of the mind : The bubble floats before : the spectre stalks behind. COLERIDGE'S Ode to Tranquillity. THE FOREST IN WINTER for the remembrance of Morgana was not a spectre, and the hope of her love, which he cherished in spite of himself, was not a bubble : but their forces were not less disturbing, even in the presence of his earliest and most long and deeply cherished associations. He did not allow his impatience to require that the horses should be put to extraordinary speed. He found something tranquillising in the movement of a postilion in a smart jacket, vibrating on one horse upwards and downwards, with one invariable regulated motion like the cross-head of a side-lever steam-engine, and holding the whip quietly arched over the neck of the other. The mechanical monotony of the move- ment seemed less in contrast than in harmony with the profound stillness of the wintry forest : the leafless branches heavy with rime frost and glittering in the sun : the deep repose of nature, broken now and then by the traversing of deer, or the flight of wild birds : highest and loudest among them the long lines of rooks : but for the greater part of the way one long deep silence, undisturbed but by the rolling of the wheels and the iron tinkling of the hoofs on the frozen ground. By degrees he fell into a reverie, and meditated on his last dialogue with Morgana. 'It is a curious coincidence,' he thought, ' that she should have been dwelling in a passage, in which her namesake enchantress inflicted punishment on Orlando for having lost his opportunity. Did she associate Morgana with herself and Orlando with me ? Did she intend a graceful hint to me not to lose my opportunity ? I seemed in a fair way to seize the golden forelock, if we had not been interrupted. Do I regret that I did not ? That is just what I cannot determine. Yet it would be more fitting, that whatever I may do should be done calmly, deliberately, philosophically, than suddenly, passionately, impulsively. One thing is clear to me. It is now or never : this or none. The world does not contain a second Morgana, at least not of mortal race. Well : the op- portunity will return. So far, I am not in the predicament in which we left Orlando. I may yet ward off the scourge of La Penitenza? But his arrival at home, and the sight of the seven sisters, who had all come to the hall-door to greet him, turned his thoughts for awhile into another channel. 153 GRYLL GRANGE He dined at his usual hour, and his two Hebes alternately filled his glass with Madeira. After which the sisters played and sang to him in the drawing-room ; and when he had retired to his chamber, had looked on the many portraitures of his Virgin Saint, and had thought by how many charms of life he was surrounded, he composed himself to rest with the reflection : ' I am here like Rasselas in the Happy Valley : and I can now fully appreciate the force of that beautiful chapter : The wants of him who wants nothing* 154 He determined on trying if lie could not out-do Mr. Tait. CHAPTER XXI SKATING PAS DE DEUX ON THE ICE CONGENIALITY FLINTS AMONG BONES Ubi lepos, joci, risus, ebrietas decent, Gratiae, decor, hilaritas, atque delectatio, Qui quaerit alia his, malum videtur quserere. PLAUTUS : In Pseudolo. Where sport, mirth, wine, joy, grace, conspire to please, He seeks but ill who seeks aught else than these. THE frost continued. The lake was covered over with solid ice. This became the chief scene of afternoon amusement, and Lord Curryfin carried off the honours of the skating. In the dead of the night there came across his memory a ridiculous stave : There's Mr. Tait, he cuts an eight, He cannot cut a nine : and he determined on trying if he could not out-do Mr. Tait. He thought it would be best to try his experiment without witnesses : and having more than an hour's daylight before breakfast, he devoted that portion of the morning to his purpose. But cutting a nine by itself baffled his skill, and treated him to two or three tumbles, which, however, did not abate his ardour. At length he bethought him of cutting a nine between two eights, and by shifting his feet rapidly at the points of difficulty, striking in and out of the nine to and from the eights on each side. In this he succeeded, and exhibiting his achievement in the afternoon, adorned the surface of the ice with successions of 898, till they amounted to as many sextillions, with their homogeneous sequences. He then en- 157 GRYLL GRANGE closed the line with an oval, and returned to the bank through an admiring circle, who, if they had been as numerous as the spectators to the Olympic games, would have greeted him with as loud shouts of triumph as saluted Epharmostus of Opus. 1 Among the spectators on the bank were Miss Niphet and Mr. MacBorrowdale, standing side by side. While Lord Curryfin was cutting his sextillions, Mr. MacBorrowdale said : ' There is a young gentleman who is capable of anything, and who would shine in any pursuit, if he would keep to it. He shines as it is, in almost everything he takes in hand in private society : there is genius even in his failures, as in the case of the theatrical vases ; but the world is a field of strong com- petition, and affords eminence to few in any sphere of exertion, and to those few rarely but in one.' Miss Niphet, Before I knew him, I never heard of him but as a lecturer on Fish ; and to that he seems to limit his public ambition. In private life, his chief aim seems to be that of pleasing his company. Of course, you do not attach much value to his present pursuit. You see no utility in it. Mr. MacBorrowdale. On the contrary, I see great utility in it. I am for a healthy mind in a healthy body : the first can scarcely be without the last, and the last can scarcely be without good exercise in pure air. In this way, there is nothing better than skating. I should be very glad to cut eights and nines with his lordship : but the only figure I should cut would be that of as many feet as would measure my own length on the ice. Lord Curryfin, on his return to land, thought it his duty first to accost Miss Gryll, who was looking on by the side of Miss Ilex. He asked her if she ever skated. She answered in the negative. ' I have tried it,' she said, ' but unsuccessfully. I admire it extremely, and regret my inability to participate in it.' He then went up to Miss Niphet, and asked her the same question. She answered : ' I have skated often in our grounds at home.' ' Then why not now ? ' he asked. She answered : ' I have never done it before so many witnesses.' ' But what is the objection?' he asked. 'None that I know of,' she answered. ' Then,' he said, ' as I have done or left undone some things to please you, will you do this one thing to please me ? ' 1 drfpxrro KVK\OV Sffffq, /3o. PlND. Olymp. ix. With what a clamour he passed through the circle. 158 He saw tfiat she was an Atalanta on ice as on turf. SKATING PAS DE DEUX ON THE ICE ' Certainly,' she replied : adding to herself : ' I will do any- thing in my power to please you.' She equipped herself expeditiously, and started before he was well aware. She was half round the lake before he came up with her. She then took a second start, and completed the circle before he came up with her again. He saw that she was an Atalanta on ice as on turf. He placed himself by her side, slipped her arm through his, and they started together on a second round, which they completed arm-in-arm. By this time the blush-rose bloom which had so charmed him on a former occasion again mantled on her cheeks, though from a different cause, for it was now only the glow of health- ful exercise ; but he could not help exclaiming, ' I now see why and with what tints the Athenians coloured their statues.' ' Is it clear,' she asked, ' that they did so ? ' ' I have doubted it before,' he answered, ' but I am now certain that they did.' In the meantime, Miss Gryll, Miss Ilex, and the Reverend Doctor Opimian had been watching their movements from the bank. Miss Ilex. I have seen much graceful motion in dancing, in private society and on the Italian stage ; and some in skat- ing before to-day ; but anything so graceful as that double- gliding over the ice by those two remarkably handsome young persons, I certainly never saw before. Miss Gryll. Lord Curryfin is unquestionably handsome, and Miss Niphet, especially with that glow on her cheeks, is as beautiful a young woman as imagination can paint. They move as if impelled by a single will. Ft is impossible not to admire them both. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. They remind me of the mytho- logical fiction, that Jupiter made men and women in pairs, like the Siamese twins ; but in this way they grew so powerful and presumptuous, that he cut them in two ; and now the main business of each half is to look for the other ; which is very rarely found, and hence so few marriages are happy. Here the two true halves seem to have met. The doctor looked at Miss Gryll, to see what impression this remark might make on her. He concluded that, if she thought seriously of Lord Curryfin, she would show some M 161 GRYLL GRANGE symptom of jealousy of Miss Niphet ; but she did not. She merely said ' I quite agree with you, doctor. There is evidently great congeniality between them, even in their respective touches of eccentricity.' But the doctor's remark had suggested to her what she herself had failed to observe ; Lord Curryfin's subsidence from ardour into deference, in his pursuit of herself. She had been so undividedly ' the cynosure of neighbouring eyes,' that she could scarcely believe in the possibility of even temporary eclipse. Her first impulse was to resign him to her young friend. But then appearances might be deceitful. Her own indifference might have turned his attentions into another channel, without his heart being turned with them. She had seen nothing to show that Miss Niphet's feelings were deeply engaged in the question. She was not a coquette ; but she would still feel it as a mortification that her hitherto unques- tioned supremacy should be passing from her. She had felt all along that there was one cause which would lead her to a decided rejection of Lord Curryfin. But her Orlando had not seized the golden forelock ; perhaps he never would. After having seemed on the point of doing so, he had disappeared, and not returned. He was now again within the links of the sevenfold chain, which had bound him from his earliest days. She herself, too, had had, perhaps had still, the chance of the golden forelock in another quarter. Might she not subject her after-life to repentance, if her first hope should fail her when the second had been irrevocably thrown away ? The more she contemplated the sacrifice, the greater it appeared. Possibly doubt had given preponderance to her thoughts of Mr. Falconer; and certainly had caused them to repose in the case of Lord Curryfin ; but when doubt was thrown into the latter scale also, the balance became more even. She would still give him his liberty, if she believed that he wished it ; for then her pride would settle the question ; but she must have more conclusive evidence on the point than the Reverend Doctor's metaphorical deduction from a mythological fiction. In the evening, while the party in the drawing-room were amusing themselves in various ways, Mr. MacBorrowdale laid a drawing on the table, and said, ' Doctor, what should you take that to represent ? ' 162 FLINTS AMONG BONES The Rev. Dr. Opimian. An unformed lump of I know not what. Mr. Mac Bar row dale. Not unformed. It is a flint forma- tion of a very peculiar kind. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Very peculiar, certainly. Who on earth can have amused himself with drawing a misshapen flint ? There must be some riddle in it ; some aenigma, as in- soluble to me as Aelia Laelia Crispts. 1 Lord Curryfin, and others of the party, were successively asked their opinions. One of the young ladies guessed it to be the petrifaction of an antediluvian mussel. Lord Curryfin said petrifactions were often siliceous, but never pure silex ; which this purported to be. It gave him the idea of an ass's head ; which, however, coald not by any process have been turned into flint. Conjecture being exhausted, Mr. MacBorrowdale said, ' It is a thing they call a Celt. The ass's head is somewhat ger- mane to the matter. The Artium Societatis Syndicus Et Socii have determined that it is a weapon of war, evidently of human manufacture. It has been found, with many others like it, among bones of mammoths and other extinct animals, and is therefore held to prove that men and mammoths were con- temporaries.' The Rev. Dr. Opimian. A weapon of war ? Had it a handle ? Is there a hole for a handle ? Mr. MacBorrowdale. That does not appear. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. These flints, and no other traces of men, among the bones of mammoths ? Mr. MacBorrowdale. None whatever. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. What do the Artium Societatis Syndicus Et Socii suppose to have become of the men who produced these demonstrations of high aboriginal art ? Mr. MacBorrowdale. They think these finished specimens of skill in the art of chipping prove that the human race is of greater antiquity than has been previously supposed ; and the fact that there is no other relic to prove the position they con- sider of no moment whatever. 1 This senigma has been the subject of many learned disquisitions. The reader who is unacquainted with it may find it under the article ' .(Enigma ' in the Encyclopaedia Britannica ; and probably in every other encyclopaedia. 163 GRYLL GRANGE The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Ha ! ha ! ha ! This beats the Elephant in the Moon, 1 which turned out to be a mouse in a telescope. But I can help them to an explanation of what became of these primaeval men -of- arms. They were an ethereal race, and evaporated. 1 See Butler's poem, with that title, in his Miscellaneous Works. 164 CHAPTER XXII THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES A SOLILOQUY ON CHRISTMAS Over the mountains, And over the waves ; Under the fountains, And under the graves ; Under floods that are deepest, Which Neptune obey ; Over rocks that are steepest, Love will find out the way. Old Song in PERCY'S Reliques. HARRY HEDGEROW had volunteered to be Mr. Falconer's Mercury during his absences from the Tower, and to convey to him letters and any communications which the sisters might have to make. Riding at a good trot, on a horse more dis- tinguished for strength than grace, he found the shortest days long enough for the purpose of going and returning, with an ample interval for the refreshment of himself and his horse. While discussing beef and ale in the servants' hall, he heard a good deal of the family news, and many comments on the visitors. From these he collected that there were several young gentlemen especially remarkable for their attention to the young lady of the mansion : that among them were two who were more in her good graces than the others : that one of these was the young gentleman who lived in the Duke's Folly, and who was evidently the favourite : and that the other was a young lord, who was the life and soul of the company, but who seemed to be very much taken with another young lady, who had, at the risk of her own life, jumped into the water and picked him out, when he was nearly being drowned. This story had lost nothing in travelling. Harry, deducing 167 GRYLL GRANGE from all this the conclusion most favourable to his own wishes, determined to take some steps for the advancement of his own love-suit, especially as he had obtained some allies, who were willing to march with him to conquest, like the Seven against Thebes. The Reverend Doctor Opimian had finished his breakfast, and had just sat down in his library, when he was informed that some young men wished to see him. The doctor was always accessible, and the visitors were introduced. He recog- nised his friend Harry Hedgerow, who was accompanied by six others. After respectful salutations on their part, and benevolent acceptance on his, Harry, as the only one previously known to the doctor, became spokesman for the deputation. Harry Hedgerow. You see, sir, you gave me some comfort when I was breaking my heart ; and now we are told that the young gentleman at the Folly is going to be married. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Indeed ! you are better informed than I am. Harry Hedgerow. Why, it's in everybody's mouth. He passes half his time at Squire GrylFs, and they say it's all for the sake of the young lady that's there : she that was some days at the Folly ; that I carried in, when she was hurt in the great storm. I am sure I hope it be true. For you said, if he married, and suitable parties proposed for her sisters, Miss Dorothy might listen to me. I have lived in the hope of that ever since. And here are six suitable parties to propose for her six sisters. That is the long and the short of it. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. The short of it, at any rate. You speak like a Spartan. You come to the point at once. But why do you come to me ? I have no control over the fair damsels. Harry Hedgerow. Why, no, sir ; but you are the greatest friend of the young gentleman. And if you could just say a word for us to him, you see, sir. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I see seven notes in the key of A minor, proposing to sound in harmony with the seven notes of the octave above ; but I really do not see what I can do in the matter. Harry Hedgerow. Indeed, sir, if you could only ask the young gentleman if he would object to our proposing to the young ladies. 168 He heard a good deal of tltt family news. THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Why not propose to them your- selves ? You seem to be all creditable young men. Harry Hedgerow. I have proposed to Miss Dorothy, you know, and she would not have me ; and the rest are afraid. We are all something to do with the land and the wood ; farmers, and foresters, and nurserymen, and all that. And we have all opened our hearts to one another. They don't pretend to look above us ; but it seems somehow as if they did, and couldn't help it. They are so like young ladies. They daze us, like. Why, if they'd have us, they'd be all in reach of one another. Fancy what a family party there'd be at Christmas. We just want a good friend to put a good foot foremost for us ; and if the young gentleman does marry, perhaps they may better themselves by doing likewise. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. And so you seven young friends have each a different favourite among the seven sisters ? Harry Hedgerow. Why, that's the beauty of it. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. The beauty of it ? Perhaps it is. I suppose there is an agistor l among you ? Harry Hedgerow (after looking at his companions, who all shook their heads). I am afraid not. Ought there to be ? We don't know what it means. The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I thought that among so many foresters there might be an agistor. But it is not indispensable. Well, if the young gentleman is going to be married, he will tell me of it. And when he does tell me, I will tell him of you. Have patience. It may all come right. Harry Hedgerow. Thank ye, sir. Thank ye, sir, kindly. Which being echoed in chorus by the other six, they took their departure, much marvelling what the reverend doctor could mean by an agistor. ' Upon my word,' said the doctor to himself, 'a very good- looking, respectable set of young men. I do not know what the others may have to say for themselves. They behaved like a Greek chorus. They left their share of the dialogue to the coryphaeus. He acquitted himself well, more like a 1 An agistor was a forest officer who superintended the taking in of strange cattle to board and lodge, and accounted for the profit to the sovereign. I have read the word, but never heard it. I am inclined to think that in modern times the duty was earned on under another name, or merged in the duties of another office. 171 GRYLL GRANGE Spartan than an Athenian, but none the worse for that. Brevity, in this case, is better than rhetoric. I really like that youth. How his imagination dwells on the family party at Christmas. When I first saw him, he was fancying how the presence of Miss Dorothy would gladden his father's heart at that season. Now he enlarges the circle, but it is still the same predominant idea. He has lost his mother. She must have been a good woman, and his early home must have been a happy one. The Christmas hearth would not be so upper- most in his thoughts if it had been otherwise. This speaks well for him and his. I myself think much of Christmas and all its associations. I always dine at home on Christmas Day, and measure the steps of my children's heads on the wall, and see how much higher each of them has risen since the same time last year, in the scale of physical life. There are many poetical charms in the heraldings of Christmas. The halcyon builds its nest on the tranquil sea. " The bird of dawning singeth all night long." I have never verified either of these poetical facts. I am willing to take them for granted. I like the idea of the Yule-log, the enormous block of wood carefully selected long before, and preserved where it would be thoroughly dry, which burned on the old-fashioned hearth. It would not suit the stoves of our modern saloons. We could not burn it in our kitchens, where a small fire in the midst of a mass of black iron, roasts, and bakes, and boils, and steams, and broils, and fries, by a complicated apparatus which, whatever may be its other virtues, leaves no space for a Christmas fire. I like the festoons of holly on the walls and windows ; the dance under the mistletoe ; the gigantic sausage ; the baron of beef; the vast globe of plum-pudding, the true image of the earth, flattened at the poles ; the tapping of the old October ; the inexhaustible bowl of punch ; the life and joy of the old hall, when the squire and his household and his neighbourhood were as one. I like the idea of what has gone, and I can still enjoy the reality of what remains. I have no doubt Harry's father burns the Yule-log, and taps the old October. Perhaps, instead of the beef, he produces a fat pig roasted whole, like Eumaeus, the divine swineherd in the Odyssey. How Harry will burn the Yule-log if he can realise this day-dream of him- self and his six friends with the seven sisters ! I shall make myself acquainted with the position and characters of these 1/2 Here are six suitable parties to propose for her six sisters.' A SOLILOQUY ON CHRISTMAS young suitors. To be sure, it is not my business, and 1 ought to recollect the words of Cicero : " Est enim difficilis cura rerum alienarum : quamquam Terentianus ille Chremes humani nihil a se alienum putat." l I hold with Chremes too. I am not without hope, from some symptoms I have lately seen, that rumour, in the present case, is in a fair way of being right ; and if, with the accordance of the young gentleman as key-note, these two heptachords should harmonise into a double octave, I do not see why I may not take my part as fundamental bass.' 1 It is a hard matter to take active concern in the affairs of others ; although the Chremes of Terence thinks nothing human alien to himself. De Officiis : i. 9. 175 CHAPTER XXIII THE TWO QUADRILLES POPE'S OMBRE POETICAL TRUTH TO NATURE CLEOPATRA tyvwica. 8' otv . . . robs fwj'Tai &fi/Jievovs K rov BO.VO.TOV Kal rov tr/c6roi/$ fls rrjv diaTpi{)r)v els rb vyri trtpducos &ypa. p68ov dvOeuv dvdffffei' p65oi> v fci/xus Mu/)/XXa. ANACREON. See, youth, the nymph who charms your eyes ; Watch, lest you lose the willing prize. As queen of flowers the rose you own, And her of maids the rose alone. WHILE light, fire, mirth, and music were enlivening the party within the close-drawn curtains, without were moonless night and thickly-falling snow ; and the morning opened on one vast expanse of white, mantling alike the lawns and the trees, and weighing down the wide-spreading branches. Lord Curryfin, determined not to be baulked of his skating, sallied forth immediately after breakfast, collected a body of labourers, and swept clear an ample surface of ice, a path to it from the house, and a promenade on the bank. Here he and Miss Niphet amused themselves in the afternoon, in company with a small number of the party, and in the presence of about the usual number of spectators. Mr. Falconer was there, and contented himself with looking on. Lord Curryfin proposed a reel, Miss Niphet acquiesced, but it was long before they found a third. At length one young gentleman, of the plump and rotund order, volunteered to supply the deficiency, and was soon deposited on the ice, where his partners in the ice-dance would have tumbled over 186 PROGRESS OF SYMPATHY him if they had not anticipated the result, and given him a wide berth. One or two others followed, exhibiting several varieties in the art of falling ungracefully. At last the lord and the lady skated away on as large a circuit as the cleared ice permitted, and as they went he said to her 'If you were the prize of skating, as Atalanta was of running, I should have good hope to carry you off against all competitors but yourself.' She answered, ' Do not disturb my thoughts, or I shall slip.' He said no more, but the words left their impression. They gave him as much encouragement as, under their peculiar circumstances, he could dare to wish for, or she could venture to intimate. Mr. Falconer admired their ' poetry of motion ' as much as all the others had done. It suggested a remark which he would have liked to address to Miss Gryll, but he looked round for her in vain. He returned to the house in the hope that he might find her alone, and take the opportunity of making his peace. He found her alone, but it seemed that he had no peace to make. She received him with a smile, and held out her hand to him, which he grasped fervently. He fancied that it trembled, but her features were composed. He then sat down at the table, on which the old edition of Bojardo was lying open as before. He said, ' You have not been down to the lake to see that wonderful skating.' She answered, ' I have seen it every day but this. The snow deters me to-day. But it is wonderful. Grace and skill can scarcely go beyond it.' He wanted to apologise for the mode and duration of his departure and absence, but did not know how to begin. She gave him the occasion. She said, ' You have been longer absent than usual from our rehearsals. But we are all tolerably perfect in our parts. But your absence was re- marked by some of the party. You seemed to be especially missed by Lord Curryfin. He asked the reverend doctor every morning if he thought you would return that day.' Algernon. And what said the doctor ? Morgana. He usually said, ' I hope so.' But one morning he said something more specific. Algernon. What was it ? Morgana. I do not know that I ought to tell you. 187 GRYLL GRANGE Algernon. Oh, pray do. Morgana. He said, ' The chances are against it.' ' What are the odds ? ' said Lord Curryfin. ' Seven to one,' said the doctor. ' It ought not to be so,' said Lord Curryfin, ' for here is a whole Greek chorus against seven vestals.' The doctor said, ' I do not estimate the chances by the mere balance of numbers.' Algernon. He might have said more as to the balance of numbers. Morgana. He might have said more, that the seven out- weighed the one. Algernon. He could not have said that. Morgana. It would be much for the one to say that the balance was even. Algernon. But how if the absentee himself had been weighed against another in that one's own balance ? Morgana. One to one promises at least more even weight. Algernon. I would not have it so. Pray, forgive me. Morgana. Forgive you ? For what ? Algernon. I wish to say, and I do not well know how, without seeming to assume what I have no right to assume, and then I must have double cause to ask your forgiveness. Morgana. Shall I imagine what you wish to say, and say it for you ? Algernon. You would relieve me infinitely, if you imagine justly. Morgana. You may begin by saying with Achilles, My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirred ; And I myself see not the bottom of it. 1 Algernon. I think I do see it more clearly. Morgana. You may next say, I live an enchanted life. I have been in danger of breaking the spell ; it has once more bound me with sevenfold force ; I was in danger of yielding to another attraction ; I went a step too far in all but declaring it ; I do not know how to make a decent retreat. Algernon. Oh ! no, no ; nothing like that. Morgana. Then there is a third thing you may say ; but before I say that for you, you must promise to make no reply, not even a monosyllable ; and not to revert to the subject for four times seven days. You hesitate 1 Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 3. 188 ' Tlten you may say, I have fallen in love ' LOVE S INJUNCTIONS Algernon. It seems as if my fate were trembling in the balance. Morgana. You must give me the promise I have asked for. Algernon. I do give it. Morgana. Repeat it then, word for word. Algernon. To listen to you in silence ; not to say a syllable in reply ; not to return to the subject for four times seven days. Morgana. Then you may say, I have fallen in love ; very irrationally (he -was about to exclaim, but she placed her finger on her lips) very irrationally ; but I cannot help it. I fear I must yield to my destiny. I will try to free myself from all obstacles ; I will, if I can, offer my hand where I have given my heart. And this I will do, if I ever do, at the end of four times seven days : if not then, never. She placed her finger on her lips again, and immediately left the room, having first pointed to a passage in the open pages of Orlando Innamorato. She was gone before he was aware that she was going ; but he turned to the book, and read the indicated passage. It was a part of the continuation of Orlando's adventure in the enchanted garden, when, himself pursued and scourged by La Penitenza, he was pursuing the Fata Morgana over rugged rocks and through briery thickets. Cosi diceva. Con molta rovina Sempre seguia Morgana il cavalliero : Fiacca ogni bronco ed ogni mala spina, Lasciando dietro a se largo il sentiero : Ed a la Fata molto s' avicina E gia d' averla presa e il suo pensiero : Ma quel pensiero e ben fallace e vano, Pero che presa anchor scappa di mano. O quante volte gli dette di piglio, Hora ne' panni ed hor nella persona : Ma il vestimento, ch' e bianco e vermiglio Ne la speranza presto 1" abbandona : Pur una fiata rivoltando il ciglio, Come Dio volse e la ventura buona, Volgendo il viso quella Fata al Conte Ei ben la prese al zuffo ne la fronte. Allor cangiosse il tempo, e 1' aria scura Divenne chiara, e il ciel tutto sereno, E 1' aspro monte si fece pianura ; IQI GRYLL GRANGE E dove prima fu di spine pieno, Se coperse de fiori e de verdura : E '1 flagellar dell' altra venne meno ; La qual, con miglior viso che non suole, Verso del Conte usava tal parole. Attenti, cavalliero, a quella chioma. . . - 1 1 BOJARDO, Orlando Innamorato, 1. ii. c. 9. Ed. di Vinegia ; 1544. So spake Repentance. With the speed of fire Orlando followed where the enchantress fled, Rending and scattering tree and bush and brier, And leaving wide the vestige of his tread. Nearer he drew, with feet that could not tire, And strong in hope to seize her as she sped. How vain the hope ! Her form he seemed to clasp, But soon as seized, she vanished from his grasp. How many times he laid his eager hand On her bright form, or on her vesture fair ; But her white robes, and their vermilion band, Deceived his touch, and passed away like air. But once, as with a half-turned glance she scanned Her foe Heaven's will and happy chance were there No breath for pausing might the time allow He seized the golden forelock of her brow. Then passed the gloom and tempest from the sky ; The air at once grew calm and all serene ; And where rude thorns had clothed the mountain high. Was spread a plain, all flowers and vernal green. Repentance ceased her scourge. Still standing nigh, With placid looks, in her but rarely seen, She said : ' Beware how yet the prize you lose ; The key of fortune few can wisely use. ' In the last stanza of the preceding translation, the seventh line is the essence of the stanza immediately following ; the eighth is from a passage several stanzas forward, after Orlando has obtained the key, which was the object of his search : Che mal se trova alcun sotto la Luna, Ch' adopri ben la chiave di Fortuna. The first two books of Bojardo's poem were published in 1486. The first complete edition was published in 1495. The Venetian edition of 1544, from which I have cited this passage, and the preceding one in chapter xx. , is the fifteenth and last complete Italian edition. The original work was superseded by the Rifacciamenti of Berni and Domenichi. Mr. Panizzi has rendered a great service to literature in reprinting the original. He collated all accessible editions. Verum ofere in longofas est obrepere somnum. He took for his standard, 192 He -was recalled to himself by sinking up to his shoulders in a, hollcw. ORLANDO INNAMORATO ' She must have anticipated my coming,' said the young gentleman to himself. ' She had opened the book at this passage, and has left it to say to me for her Choose between love and repentance. Four times seven days ! That is to ensure calm for the Christmas holidays. The term will pass over Twelfth Night. The lovers of old romance were sub- jected to a probation of seven years : Seven long years I served thee, fair one, Seven long years my fee was scorn. ' But here, perhaps, the case is reversed. She may have feared a probation of seven years for herself ; and not without reason. And what have I to expect if I let the four times seven days pass by ? Why, then, I can read in her looks and they are interpreted in the verses before me I am assigned to repentance, without the hope of a third as I think unfortunately, the Milanese edition of 1539. With all the care he bestowed on his task, he overlooked one fearful perversion in the concluding stanza, which in all editions but the Milanese reads thus : Mentre ch' io canto, ahime Dio redentore, Veggio 1" Italia tutta a fiamma e a foco, Per questi Galli, che con gran furore Vengon per disertar non so che loco. Per6 vi lascio in questo vano amore Di Fiordespina ardente a poco a poco : Un' altra fiata, se mi fia concesso, Racconterovi il tutto per espresso. Even while I sing, ah me, redeeming Heaven ! I see all Italy in fire and flame, Raised by these Gauls, who, by great fury driven, Come with destruction for their end and aim. The maiden's heart, by vainest passion riven, Not now the rudely-broken song may claim ; Some future day, if Fate auspicious prove, Shall end the tale of Fiordespina's love. The Milanese edition of 1539 was a reprint of that of 1513, in which year the French, under Louis XII., had reconquered Milan. The Milan- ese editions read valore for furore. It was no doubt in deference to the conquerors that the printer of 1513 made this substitution ; but it utterly perverts the whole force of the passage. The French, under Charles VIII., invaded Italy in September 1494, and the horror with which their devastations inspired Bojardo not only stopped the progress of his poem, but brought his life prematurely to a close. He died in December 1494. The alteration of this single word changes almost into a compliment an expression of cordial detestation. 195 GRYLL GRANGE opportunity. She is not without a leaning towards Lord Curryfin. She thinks he is passing from her, and on the twenty-ninth day, or perhaps in the meantime, she will try to regain him. Of course she will succeed. What rivalry could stand against her ? If her power over him is lessened, it is that she has not chosen to exert it. She has but to will it, and he is again her slave. Twenty-eight days ! twenty-eight days of doubt and distraction.' And starting up, he walked out into the park, not choosing the swept path, but wading knee-deep in snow where it lay thickest in the glades. He was recalled to himself by sinking up to his shoulders in a hollow. He emerged with some difficulty, and retraced his steps to the house, thinking that, even in the midst of love's most dire perplexities, dry clothes and a good fire are better than a hole in the snow. 196 Harry was indefatigable in his sitit. CHAPTER XXV HARRY AND DOROTHY 8' 6/JMS-^crav HOMERUS in Odyssca. The youthful suitors, playing each his part, Stirred pleasing tumult in each fair one's heart. Adapted not translated. HARRY HEDGEROW had found means on several occasions of delivering farm and forest produce at the Tower, to introduce his six friends to the sisters, giving all the young men in turn to understand that they must not think of Miss Dorothy ; an injunction which, in the ordinary perverse course of events, might have led them all to think of no one else, and produced a complication very disagreeable for their introducer. It was not so, however. ' The beauty of it,' as Harry said to the reverend doctor, was that each had found a distinct favourite among the seven vestals. They had not, however, gone beyond giving pretty intelligible hints. They had not decidedly ventured to declare or propose. They left it to Harry to prosecute his suit to Miss Dorothy, purposing to step in on the rear of his success. They had severally the satisfaction of being assured by various handsome young gipsies, whose hands they had crossed with lucky shillings, that each of them was in love with a fair young woman, who was quite as much in love with him, and whom he would certainly marry before twelve months were over. And they went on their way rejoicing. Now Harry was indefatigable in his suit, which he had unbounded liberty to plead ; for Dorothy always listened to him complacently, though without departing from the answer 199 GRYLL GRANGE she had originally given, that she and her sisters would not part with each other and their young master. The sisters had not attached much importance to Mr. Falconer's absences ; for on every occasion of his return the predominant feeling he had seemed to express was that of extreme delight at being once more at home. One day, while Mr. Falconer was at the Grange, receiving admonition from Orlando Innamorato, Harry, having the pleasure to find Dorothy alone, pressed his suit as usual, was listened to as usual, and seemed likely to terminate without being more advanced than usual, except in so far as they both found a progressive pleasure, she in listening, and he in being listened to. There was to both a growing charm in thus ' dallying with the innocence of love,' and though she always said No with her lips, he began to read Yes in her eyes. Harry. Well, but, Miss Dorothy, though you and your sisters will not leave your young master, suppose somebody should take him away from you, what would you say then ? Dorothy. What do you mean, Master Harry ? Harry. Why, suppose he should get married, Miss Dorothy ? Dorothy. Married ! Harry. How should you like to see a fine lady in the Tower, looking at you as much as to say, This is mine ? Dorothy. I will tell you very candidly, I should not like it at all. But what makes you think of such a thing ? Harry. You know where he is now ? Dorothy. At Squire GrylFs, rehearsing a play for Christmas. Harry. And Squire Gryll's niece is a great beauty, and a great fortune. Dorothy. Squire Gryll's niece was here, and my sisters and myself saw a great deal of her. She is a very nice young lady ; but he has seen great beauties and great fortunes before ; he has always been indifferent to the beauties, and he does not care about fortune. I am sure he would not like to change his mode of life. Harry. Ah, Miss Dorothy ! you don't know what it is to fall in love. It tears a man up by the roots, like a gale of wind. Dorothy. Is that your case, Master Harry ? Harry. Indeed it is, Miss Dorothy. If you didn't speak Harry encouraged his six allies to carry on the siege. HARRY AND DOROTHY kindly to me, I do not know what would become of me. But you always speak kindly to me, though you won't have me. Dorothy. I never said won't, Master Harry. Harry. No, but you always say can't, and that's the same as won't, so long as you don't. Dorothy. You are a very good young man, Master Harry. Everybody speaks well of you. And I am really pleased to think you are so partial to me. And if my young master and my sisters were married, and I were disposed to follow their example, I will tell you very truly, you are the only person I should think of, Master Harry. Master Harry attempted to speak, but he felt choked in the attempt at utterance ; and in default of words, he threw himself on his knees before his beloved, and clasped his hands together with a look of passionate imploring, which was rewarded by a benevolent smile. And they did not change their attitude till the entrance of one of the sisters startled them from their sympathetic reverie. Harry having thus made a successful impression on one of the Theban gates, encouraged his six allies to carry on the siege of the others ; for which they had ample opportunity, as the absences of the young gentleman became longer, and the rumours of an attachment between him and Miss Gryll ob- tained more ready belief. 203 CHAPTER XXVI DOUBTS AND QUESTIONS KaKoicri Bvfwv t irpoi<6\l/o/j.fi' yap oiibtv, u Ttaicxl' tpdpfiaKOv d' apiffrov olvov dveLKa/j-tvois /j.0v(r6ai. AL.CJEVS. Bacchis ! 'Tis vain to brood on care, Since grief no remedy supplies ; Be ours the sparkling bowl to share, And drown our sorrows as they rise. MR. FALCONER saw no more of Miss Gryll till the party assembled in the drawing-rooms. She necessarily took the arm of Lord Curryfin for dinner, and it fell to the lot of Mr. Falconer to offer his to Miss Niphet, so that they sat at remote ends of the table, each wishing himself in the other's place ; but Lord Curryfin paid all possible attention to his fair neigh- bour. Mr. Falconer could see that Miss Gryll's conversation with Lord Curryfin was very animated and joyous : too merry, perhaps, for love : but cordial to a degree that alarmed him. It was, however, clear by the general mirth at the head of the table, that nothing very confidential or sentimental was passing. Still, a young lady who had placed the destiny of her life on a point of brief suspense ought not to be so merry as Miss Gryll evidently was. He said little to Miss Niphet ; and she, with her habit of originating nothing, sat in her normal state of statue-like placidity, listening to the conversation near her. She was on the left hand of Mr. Gryll. Miss Ilex was on his right, and on her right was the Reverend Doctor Opimian. These three kept up an animated dialogue. Mr. MacBorrow- 204 DOUBTS AND QUESTIONS dale was in the middle of the table, and amused his two immediate fair neighbours with remarks appertaining to the matter immediately before them, the preparation and arrange- ment of a good dinner : remarks that would have done honour to Francatelli. After a while, Mr. Falconer bethought him that he would try to draw out Miss Niphet's opinion on the subject nearest his heart. He said to her : ' They are very merry at the head of the table.' Miss Niphet. I suppose Lord Curryfin is in the vein for amusing his company, and he generally succeeds in his social purposes. Mr. Falconer. You lay stress on social, as if you thought him not successful in all his purposes. Miss Niphet. Not in all his inventions, for example. But in the promotion of social enjoyment he has few equals. Of course, it must be in congenial society. There is a power of being pleased, as well as a power of pleasing. With Miss Gryll and Lord Curryfin, both meet in both. No wonder that they amuse those around them. Mr. Falconer. In whom there must also be a power of being pleased. Miss Niphet. Most of the guests here have it. If they had not they would scarcely be here. I have seen some dismal persons, any one of whom would be a kill-joy to a whole company. There are none such in this party. I have also seen a whole company all willing to be pleased, but all mute from not knowing what to say to each other : not knowing how to begin. Lord Curryfin would be a blessing to such a party. He would be the steel to their flint. Mr. Falconer. Have you known him long ? Miss Niphet. Only since I met him here. Mr. Falconer. Have you heard that he is a suitor to Miss Gryll ? Miss Niphet. I have heard so. Mr. Falconer. Should you include the probability of his being accepted in your estimate of his social successes ? Miss Niphet. Love affairs are under influences too cap- ricious for the calculation of probabilities. Mr. Falconer. Yet I should be very glad to hear your opinion. You know them both so well. 205 GRYLL GRANGE Miss Niphet. I am disposed to indulge you, because I think it is not mere curiosity that makes you ask the question. Otherwise I should not be inclined to answer it. I do not think he will ever be the affianced lover of Morgana. Perhaps he might have been if he had persevered as he began. But he has been used to smiling audiences. He did not find the exact reciprocity he looked for. He fancied that it was, or would be, for another. I believe he was right. Mr. Falconer. Yet you think he might have succeeded if he had persevered. Miss Niphet. I can scarcely think otherwise, seeing how much he has to recommend him. Mr. Falconer. But he has not withdrawn. Miss Niphet. No, and will not. But she is too high- minded to hold him to a proposal not followed up as it com- menced ; even if she had not turned her thoughts elsewhere. Mr. Falconer. Do you not think she could recall him to his first ardour if she exerted all her fascinations for the purpose ? Miss Niphet. It may be so. I do not think she will try. (She added, to herself:) I do not think she would succeed. Mr. Falconer did not feel sure she would not try : he thought he saw symptoms of her already doing so. In his opinion Morgana was, and must be, irresistible. But as he had thought his fair neighbour somewhat interested in the subject, he wondered at the apparent impassiveness with which she replied to his questions. In the meantime he found, as he had often done before, that the more his mind was troubled, the more Madeira he could drink without disordering his head. 206 CHAPTER XXVII LOVE IN MEMORY II faut avoir aime" une fois en sa vie, non pour le moment oil Ton aime, car on n'e"prouve alors que des tourmens, des regrets, de la jalousie : mais peu a peu ces tourmens-l& deviennent des souvenirs, qui charment notre arriere saison : . . . et quand vous verrez la vieillesse douce, facile et tole'rante, vous pourrez dire comme Fontenelle : L' amour a passe" par-la. SCRIBE : La Vieille. Miss GRYLL carefully avoided being alone with Mr. Falconer, in order not to give him an opportunity of speaking on the forbidden subject. She was confident that she had taken the only course which promised to relieve her from a life of in- tolerable suspense ; but she wished to subject her conduct to dispassionate opinion, and she thought she could not submit it to a more calmly-judging person than her old spinster friend, Miss Ilex, who had, moreover, the great advantage of being a woman of the world. She therefore took an early opportunity of telling her what had passed between herself and Mr. Falconer, and asking her judgment on the point. Miss Ilex. Why, my dear, if I thought there had been the slightest chance of his ever knowing his own mind sufficiently to come to the desired conclusion himself, I should have advised your giving him a little longer time ; but as it is clear to me that he never would have done so, and as you are decidedly partial to him, I think you have taken the best course which was open to you. He had all but declared to you more than once before ; but this ' all but ' would have continued, and you would have sacrificed your life to him for nothing. Miss Gryll. But do you think you would in my case have done as I did ? Miss Ilex. No, my dear, I certainly should not ; for, in a 207 GRYLL GRANGE case very similar, I did not. It does not follow that I was right. On the contrary, I think you are right, and I was wrong. You have shown true moral courage where it was most needed. Miss GrylL I hope I have not revived any displeasing recollections. Miss Ilex. No, my dear, no ; the recollections are not displeasing. The day-dreams of youth, however fallacious, are a composite of pain and pleasure : for the sake of the latter the former is endured, nay, even cherished in memory. Miss GrylL Hearing what I hear you were, seeing what I see you are, observing your invariable cheerfulness, I should not have thought it possible that you could have been crossed in love, as your words seem to imply. Miss Ilex. I was, my dear, and have been foolish enough to be constant all my life to a single idea ; and yet I would not part with this shadow for any attainable reality. Miss GrylL If it were not opening the fountain of an ancient sorrow, I could wish to know the story, not from idle curiosity, but from my interest in you. Miss Ilex. Indeed, my dear Morgana, it is very little of a story : but such as it is, I am willing to tell it you. I had the credit of being handsome and accomplished. I had several lovers ; but my inner thoughts distinguished only one ; and he, I think, had a decided preference for me, but it was a preference of present impression. If some Genius had com- manded him to choose a wife from any company of which I was one, he would, I feel sure, have chosen me ; but he was very much of an universal lover, and was always overcome by the smiles of present beauty. He was of a romantic turn of mind : he disliked and avoided the ordinary pursuits of young men : he delighted in the society of accomplished young women, and in that alone. It was the single link between him and the world. He would disappear for weeks at a time, wandering in forests, climbing mountains, and descending into the dingles of mountain-streams, with no other companion than a Newfoundland dog ; a large black dog, with a white breast, four white paws, and a white tip to his tail : a beautiful affec- tionate dog : I often patted him on the head, and fed him with my hand. He knew me as well as Bajardo * knew Angelica. 1 Rinaldo's horse : he had escaped from his master, and had revelled Sacripante with his heels : 208 ' / have been foolish enough to be constant all my lift to a single idea. ' LOVE IN MEMORY Tears started into her eyes at the recollection of the dog. She paused for a moment. Miss Gryll. I see the remembrance is painful. Do not proceed. Miss Ilex. No, my dear. I would not, if I could, forget that dog. Well, my young gentleman, as I have said, was a sort of universal lover, and made a sort of half-declaration to half the young women he knew : sincerely for the moment to all : but with more permanent earnestness, more constant return, to me than to any other. If I had met him with equal earnestness, if I could have said or implied to him in any way, 'Take me while you may, or think of me no more,' I am persuaded I should not now write myself spinster. But I wrapped myself up in reserve. I thought it fitting that all advances should come from him : that I should at most show nothing more than willingness to hear, not even the semblance of anxiety to receive them. So nothing came of our love but remembrance and regret. Another girl, whom I am sure he loved less, but who understood him better, acted towards him as I ought to have done, and became his wife. Therefore, my dear, I applaud your moral courage, and regret that I had it not when the occasion required it. Miss Gryll. My lover, if I may so call him, differs from yours in this : that he is not wandering in his habits, nor versatile in his affections. Miss Ilex. The peculiar system of domestic affection in which he was brought up, and which his maturer years have confirmed, presents a greater obstacle to you than any which my lover's versatility presented to me, if I had known how to deal with it. Miss Gryll. But how was it, that, having so many admirers as you must have had, you still remained single ? Miss Ilex. Because I had fixed my heart on one who was not like any one else. If he had been one of a class, such as most persons in this world are, I might have replaced the first Indi va mansueto alia donzella, Con umile sembiante e gesto umano : Come intorno al padrone il can saltella, Che sia due giorni o tre stato lontano. Bajardo ancora avea memoria d' ella, Che in Albracca il servia gi& di sua mano. Orlando Furioso, c. i. s. 75. 211 GRYLL GRANGE idea by another ; but ' his soul was like a star, and dwelt apart.' Miss Gryll. A very erratic star, apparently. A comet, rather. Miss Ilex. No. For the qualities which he loved and admired in the object of his temporary affection existed more in his imagination than in her. She was only the framework of the picture of his fancy. He was true to his idea, though not to the exterior semblance on which he appended it, and to or from which he so readily transferred it. Unhappily for myself, he was more of a reality to me than I was to him. Miss Gryll. His marriage could scarcely have been a happy one. Did you ever meet him again ? Miss Ilex. Not of late years, but for a time occasionally in general society, which he very sparingly entered. Our intercourse was friendly ; but he never knew, never imagined, how well I loved him, nor even, perhaps, that I had loved him at all. I had kept my secret only too well. He retained his wandering habits, disappearing from time to time, but always returning home. I believe he had no cause to complain of his wife. Yet I cannot help thinking that I could have fixed him and kept him at home. Your case is in many respects similar to mine ; but the rivalry to me was in a wandering fancy : to you it is in fixed domestic affections. Still, you were in as much danger as I was of being the victim of an idea and a punctilio : and you have taken the only course to save you from it. I regret that I gave in to the punctilio : but I would not part with the idea. I find a charm in the recollection far preferable to The waveless calm, the slumber of the dead which weighs on the minds of those who have never loved, or never earnestly. 212 CHAPTER XXVIII ARISTOPHANES IN LONDON Non duco contentionis funem, dum constet inter nos, quod fere lotus mundus exerceat histrioniam. PETRONIUS ARBITER. I do not draw the rope of contention, 1 while it is agreed amongst us, that almost the whole world practises acting. All the world's a stage. SHAKESPEARE. En el teatro del mundo Todos son representantes. CALDERON. Tous les come"diens ne sont pas au theatre. French Proverb. RAIN came, and thaw, followed by drying wind. The roads were in good order for the visitors to the Aristophanic comedy. The fifth day of Christmas was fixed for the performance. The theatre was brilliantly lighted, with spermaceti candles in glass chandeliers for the audience, and argand lamps for the stage. In addition to Mr. Gryll's own houseful of company, the beauty and fashion of the surrounding country, which comprised an extensive circle, adorned the semicircular seats ; which, however, were not mere stone benches, but were backed, armed, and padded into comfortable stalls. Lord Curryfin was in his glory, in the capacity of stage-manager. The curtain rising, as there was no necessity for its being 1 A metaphor apparently taken from persons pulling in opposite direc- tions at each end of a rope. I cannot see, as some have done, that it has anything in common with Horace's Tortum digna sequi potius quam ducere funem : ' More worthy to follow than to lead the tightened cord ' : which is a metaphor taken from a towing line, or any line acting in a similar manner, where one draws arid another is drawn. Horace applies it to money, which he says should be the slave, and not the master of its possessor. 213 GRYLL GRANGE made to fall, 1 discovered the scene, which was on the London bank of the Thames, on the terrace of a mansion occupied by the Spirit-rapping Society, with an archway in the centre of the building, showing a street in the background. Gryllus was lying asleep. Circe, standing over him, began the dialogue. CIRCE Wake, Gryllus, and arise in human form. GRYLLUS I have slept soundly, and had pleasant dreams. CIRCE I, too, have soundly slept. Divine how long. GRYLLUS Why, judging by the sun, some fourteen hours. CIRCE Three thousand years. GRYLLUS That is a nap indeed. But this is not your garden, nor your palace. Where are we now ? Three thousand years ago, This land was forest, and a bright pure river Ran through it to and from the Ocean stream. Now, through a wilderness of human forms, And human dwellings, a polluted flood Rolls up and down, charged with all earthly poisons, Poisoning the air in turn. GRYLLUS I see vast masses Of strange unnatural things. 1 The Athenian theatre was open to the sky, and if the curtain had been made to fall it would have been folded up in mid air, destroying the effect of the scene. Being raised from below, it was invisible when not in use. 214 ARISTOPHANES IN LONDON CIRCE Houses, and ships, And boats, and chimneys vomiting black smoke, Horses, and carriages of every form, And restless bipeds, rushing here and there For profit or for pleasure, as they phrase it. GRYLLUS Oh, Jupiter and Bacchus ! what a crowd, Flitting, like shadows without mind or purpose, Such as Ulysses saw in Erebus. But wherefore are we here ? CIRCE There have arisen Some mighty masters of the invisible world, And these have summoned us. With what design ? CIRCE That they themselves must tell. Behold they come, Carrying a mystic table, around which They work their magic spells. Stand by, and mark. Three spirit-rappers appeared, carrying a table, which they placed on one side of the stage : 1. Carefully the table place, Let our gifted brother trace A ring around the enchanted space 2. Let him tow'rd the table point With his first fore-finger joint, And with mesmerised beginning Set the sentient oak-slab spinning. 3. Now it spins around, around, Sending forth a murmuring sound, By the initiate understood As of spirits in the wood. ALL. Once more Circe we invoke. Here : not bound in ribs of oak, Nor, from wooden disk revolving, 215 GRYLL GRANGE In strange sounds strange riddles solving, But in native form appearing, Plain to sight, as clear to hearing. THE THREE Thee with wonder we behold. By thy hair of burning gold, By thy face with radiance bright, By thine eyes of beaming light, We confess thee, mighty one, For the daughter of the Sun. On thy form we gaze appalled. CIRCE Gryllus, too, your summons called. THE THREE Him of yore thy powerful spell Doomed in swinish shape to dwell : Yet such life he reckoned then Happier than the life of men. Now, when carefully he ponders All our scientific wonders, Steam-driven myriads, all in motion, On the land and on the ocean, Going, for the sake of going, Wheresoever waves are flowing, Wheresoever winds are blowing ; Converse through the sea transmitted, Swift as ever thought has flitted ; All the glories of our time, Past the praise of loftiest rhyme ; Will he, seeing these, indeed, Still retain his ancient creed, Ranking, in his mental plan, Life of beast o'er life of man ? Speak, Gryllus. GRYLLUS It is early yet to judge But all the novelties I yet have seen Seem changes for the worse. 2l6 ARISTOPHANES IN LONDON THE THREE If we could show him Our triumphs in succession, one by one, 'Twould surely change his judgment : and herein I low might'st thou aid us, Circe ! CIRCE I will do so : And calling down, like Socrates, of yore, The clouds to aid us, they shall shadow forth. In bright succession, all that they behold, From air, on earth and sea. I wave my wand : And lo ! they come, even as they came in Athens, Shining like virgins of ethereal life. The Chorus of Clouds descended, and a dazzling array of female beauty was revealed by degrees through folds of misty gauze. They sang their first choral song : CHORUS OF CLOUDS CLOUDS ever-flowing, conspicuously soaring, From loud-rolling Ocean, whose stream 2 gave us birth To heights, whence we look over torrents down-pouring To the deep quiet vales of the fruit-giving earth, As the broad eye of ./Ether, unwearied in brightness, Dissolves our mist-veil in glittering rays, Our forms we reveal from its vapoury lightness, In semblance immortal, with far-seeing gaze. Shower-bearing Virgins, we seek not the regions Whence Pallas, the Muses, and Bacchus have fled, But the city, where Commerce embodies her legions, And Mammon exalts his omnipotent head. 1 The first stanza is pretty closely adapted from the strophe of Aristo- phanes : dtvaoi Ne6poi. 2 In Homer, and all the older poets, the ocean is a river surrounding the earth, and the seas are inlets from it. 217 GRYLL GRANGE All joys of thought, feeling, and taste are before us, Wherever the beams of his favour are warm : Though transient full oft as the veil of our chorus, Now golden with glory, now passing in storm. Reformers, scientific, moral, educational, political, passed in succession, each answering a question of Gryllus. Gryllus observed, that so far from everything being better than it had been, it seemed that everything was wrong and wanted mending. The chorus sang its second song. Seven competitive examiners entered with another table, and sat down on the opposite side of the stage to the spirit- rappers. They brought forward Hermogenes l as a crammed fowl to argue with Gryllus. Gryllus had the best of the argument ; but the examiners adjudged the victory to Hermo- genes. The chorus sang its third song. Circe, at the request of the spirit-rappers, whose power was limited to the production of sound, called up several visible spirits, all illustrious in their day, but all appearing as in the days of their early youth, 'before their renown was around them. 5 They were all subjected to competitive examination, and were severally pronounced disqualified for the pursuit in which they had shone. At last came one whom Circe recommended to the examiners as a particularly promising youth. He was a candidate for military life. Every question relative to his profession he answered to the purpose. To every question not so relevant he replied that he did not know and did not care. This drew on him a reprimand. He was pronounced disqualified, and ordered to join the rejected, who were ranged in a line along the back of the scene. A touch of Circe's wand changed them into their semblance of maturer years. Among them were Hannibal and Oliver Cromwell ; and in the foreground was the last candidate, Richard Cceur- de-Lion. Richard flourished his battle-axe over the heads of the examiners, who jumped up in great trepidation, overturned their table, tumbled over one another, and escaped as best they might in haste and terror. The heroes vanished. The chorus sang its fourth song. 1 See chapter xv. 218 Richard flourished his battle-axe over the heads of the examiners ARISTOPHANES IN LONDON CHORUS As before the pike will fly Dace and roach and such small fry : As the leaf before the gale, As the chaff beneath the flail ; As before the wolf the flocks, As before the hounds the fox ; As before the cat the mouse, As the rat from falling house ; As the fiend before the spell Of holy water, book, and bell ; As the ghost from dawning day, So has fled, in gaunt dismay, This septemvirate of quacks From the shadowy attacks Of Cceur-de- Lion's battle-axe. Could he in corporeal might, Plain to feeling as to sight, Rise again to solar light, How his arm would put to flight All the forms of Stygian night That round us rise in grim array, Darkening the meridian day : Bigotry, whose chief employ Is embittering earthly joy ; Chaos, throned in pedant state, Teaching echo how to prate ; And ' Ignorance, with looks profound, ' Not ' with eye that loves the ground,' But stalking wide, with lofty crest, In science's pretentious vest. in And now, great masters of the realms of shade, To end the task which called us down from air, We shall present, in pictured show arrayed, Of this your modern world the triumphs rare, That Gryllus's benighted spirit May wake to your transcendent merit, And, with profoundest admiration thrilled, He may with willing mind assume his place In your steam-nursed, steam-borne, steam-killed, And gas-enlightened race. 221 GRYLL GRANGE CIRCE Speak, Gryllus, what you see. GRYLLUS I see the ocean, And o'er its face ships passing wide and far ; Some with expanded sails before the breeze, And some with neither sails nor oars, impelled By some invisible power against the wind, Scattering the spray before them. But of many One is on fire, and one has struck on rocks And melted in the waves like fallen snow. Two crash together in the middle sea, And go to pieces on the instant, leaving No soul to tell the tale, and one is hurled In fragments to the sky, strewing the deep With death and wreck. I had rather live with Circe Even as I was, than flit about the world In those enchanted ships, which some Alastor Must have devised as traps for mortal ruin. CIRCE Look yet again. GRYLLUS Now the whole scene is changed. I see long chains of strange machines on wheels, With one in front of each, puffing white smoke From a black hollow column. Fast and far They speed, like yellow leaves before the gale, When autumn winds are strongest. Through their windows I judge them thronged with people ; but distinctly Their speed forbids my seeing. SPIRIT-RAPPER This is one Of the great glories of our modern time, ' Men are become as birds,' and skim like swallows The surface of the world. GRYLLUS For what good end ? SPIRIT-RAPPER The end is in itself the end of skimming The surface of the world. 222 ARISTOPHANES IN LONDON GRYLLUS If that be all, I had rather sit in peace in my old home : But while I look, two of them meet and clash, And pile their way with ruin. One is rolled Down a steep bank ; one through a broken bridge Is dashed into a flood. Dead, dying, wounded, Are there as in a battle-field. Are these Your modern triumphs ? Jove preserve me from them. SPIRIT-RAPPER These ills are rare. Millions are borne in safety Where one incurs mischance. Look yet again. GRYLLUS I see a mass of light brighter than that Which burned in Circe's palace, and beneath it A motley crew, dancing to joyous music. But from that light explosion comes, and flame ; And forth the dancers rush in haste and fear From their wide-blazing hall. SPIRIT-RAPPER Oh, Circe ! Circe ! Thou show'st him all the evil of our arts In more than just proportion to the good. Good without evil is not given to man. Jove, from his urns dispensing good and ill, Gives all unmixed to some, and good and ill Mingled to many good unmixed to none. 1 Our arts are good. The inevitable ill That mixes with them, as with all things human, Is as a drop of water in a goblet Full of old wine. 1 This is the true sense of the Homeric passage : Soiol yap re iridoi Ka.Ta.Kcla.Tai tv At6j oCdei dtbpuv oTet SlSuffi, KO.K&V Irepoj 5^ r' eatav pove6vr