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diff --git a/2061-0.txt b/2061-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e1b1bc --- /dev/null +++ b/2061-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1575 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Shorter Prose Pieces, by Oscar Wilde + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Shorter Prose Pieces + + +Author: Oscar Wilde + + + +Release Date: August 11, 2019 [eBook #2061] +[This file was first posted June 2, 1999] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHORTER PROSE PIECES*** + + +Transcribed from the 1920 Methuen edition of _Art and Decoration_ by +David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.lorg + + [Picture: Public domain book cover] + + + + + + OSCAR WILDE—SHORTER PROSE PIECES + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE +PHRASES AND PHILOSOPHIES FOR THE USE OF THE YOUNG 1 +MRS. LANGTRY AS HESTER GRAZEBROOK 53 +SLAVES OF FASHION 56 +WOMAN’S DRESS 60 +MORE RADICAL IDEAS UPON DRESS REFORM 66 +COSTUME 80 +THE AMERICAN INVASION 83 +SERMONS IN STONES AT BLOOMSBURY 90 +L’ENVOI 119 + + + + +PHRASES AND PHILOSOPHIES FOR +THE USE OF THE YOUNG + + + (December 1894) + +THE first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the +second duty is no one has as yet discovered. + +Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious +attractiveness of others. + +If the poor only had profiles there would be no difficulty in solving the +problem of poverty. + +Those who see any difference between soul and body have neither. + +A really well-made buttonhole is the only link between Art and Nature. + +Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of +dead religions. + +The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves. + +Nothing that actually occurs is of the smallest importance. + +Dulness is the coming of age of seriousness. + +In all unimportant matters, style, not sincerity, is the essential. In +all important matters, style, not sincerity, is the essential. + +If one tells the truth one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out. + +Pleasure is the only thing one should live for. Nothing ages like +happiness. + +It is only by not paying one’s bills that one can hope to live in the +memory of the commercial classes. + +No crime is vulgar, but all vulgarity is crime. Vulgarity is the conduct +of others. + +Only the shallow know themselves. + +Time is waste of money. + +One should always be a little improbable. + +There is a fatality about all good resolutions. They are invariably made +too soon. + +The only way to atone for being occasionally a little overdressed is by +being always absolutely overeducated. + +To be premature is to be perfect. + +Any preoccupation with ideas of what is right or wrong in conduct shows +an arrested intellectual development. + +Ambition is the last refuge of the failure. + +A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it. + +In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer. + +Greek dress was in its essence inartistic. Nothing should reveal the +body but the body. + +One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art. + +It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man’s deeper nature is +soon found out. + +Industry is the root of all ugliness. + +The ages live in history through their anachronisms. + +It is only the gods who taste of death. Apollo has passed away, but +Hyacinth, whom men say he slew, lives on. Nero and Narcissus are always +with us. + +The old believe everything: the middle-aged suspect everything; the young +know everything. + +The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth. + +Only the great masters of style ever succeeded in being obscure. + +There is something tragic about the enormous number of young men there +are in England at the present moment who start life with perfect +profiles, and end by adopting some useful profession. + +To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance. + + + + +MRS. LANGTRY AS HESTER GRAZEBROOK + + + (_New York World_, November 7, 1882) + +IT is only in the best Greek gems, on the silver coins of Syracuse, or +among the marble figures of the Parthenon frieze, that one can find the +ideal representation of the marvellous beauty of that face which laughed +through the leaves last night as Hester Grazebrook. + +Pure Greek it is, with the grave low forehead, the exquisitely arched +brow; the noble chiselling of the mouth, shaped as if it were the +mouthpiece of an instrument of music; the supreme and splendid curve of +the cheek; the augustly pillared throat which bears it all: it is Greek, +because the lines which compose it are so definite and so strong, and yet +so exquisitely harmonized that the effect is one of simple loveliness +purely: Greek, because its essence and its quality, as is the quality of +music and of architecture, is that of beauty based on absolutely +mathematical laws. + +But while art remains dumb and immobile in its passionless serenity, with +the beauty of this face it is different: the grey eyes lighten into blue +or deepen into violet as fancy succeeds fancy; the lips become +flower-like in laughter or, tremulous as a bird’s wing, mould themselves +at last into the strong and bitter moulds of pain or scorn. And then +motion comes, and the statue wakes into life. But the life is not the +ordinary life of common days; it is life with a new value given to it, +the value of art: and the charm to me of Hester Grazebrook’s acting in +the first scene of the play last night was that mingling of classic grace +with absolute reality which is the secret of all beautiful art, of the +plastic work of the Greeks and of the pictures of Jean François Millet +equally. + +I do not think that the sovereignty and empire of women’s beauty has at +all passed away, though we may no longer go to war for them as the Greeks +did for the daughter of Leda. The greatest empire still remains for +them—the empire of art. And, indeed, this wonderful face, seen last +night for the first time in America, has filled and permeated with the +pervading image of its type the whole of our modern art in England. Last +century it was the romantic type which dominated in art, the type loved +by Reynolds and Gainsborough, of wonderful contrasts of colour, of +exquisite and varying charm of expression, but without that definite +plastic feeling which divides classic from romantic work. This type +degenerated into mere facile prettiness in the hands of lesser masters, +and, in protest against it, was created by the hands of the +Pre-Raphaelites a new type, with its rare combination of Greek form with +Florentine mysticism. But this mysticism becomes over-strained and a +burden, rather than an aid to expression, and a desire for the pure +Hellenic joy and serenity came in its place; and in all our modern work, +in the paintings of such men as Albert Moore and Leighton and Whistler, +we can trace the influence of this single face giving fresh life and +inspiration in the form of a new artistic ideal. + + + + +SLAVES OF FASHION + + +MISS LEFFLER-ARNIM’S statement, in a lecture delivered recently at St. +Saviour’s Hospital, that “she had heard of instances where ladies were so +determined not to exceed the fashionable measurement that they had +actually held on to a cross-bar while their maids fastened the +fifteen-inch corset,” has excited a good deal of incredulity, but there +is nothing really improbable in it. From the sixteenth century to our +own day there is hardly any form of torture that has not been inflicted +on girls, and endured by women, in obedience to the dictates of an +unreasonable and monstrous Fashion. “In order to obtain a real Spanish +figure,” says Montaigne, “what a Gehenna of suffering will not women +endure, drawn in and compressed by great _coches_ entering the flesh; +nay, sometimes they even die thereof!” “A few days after my arrival at +school,” Mrs. Somerville tells us in her memoirs, “although perfectly +straight and well made, I was enclosed in stiff stays, with a steel busk +in front; while above my frock, bands drew my shoulders back till the +shoulder-blades met. Then a steel rod with a semi-circle, which went +under my chin, was clasped to the steel busk in my stays. In this +constrained state I and most of the younger girls had to prepare our +lessons”; and in the life of Miss Edgeworth we read that, being sent to a +certain fashionable establishment, “she underwent all the usual tortures +of back-boards, iron collars and dumbs, and also (because she was a very +tiny person) the unusual one of being hung by the neck to draw out the +muscles and increase the growth,” a signal failure in her case. Indeed, +instances of absolute mutilation and misery are so common in the past +that it is unnecessary to multiply them; but it is really sad to think +that in our own day a civilized woman can hang on to a cross-bar while +her maid laces her waist into a fifteen-inch circle. To begin with, the +waist is not a circle at all, but an oval; nor can there be any greater +error than to imagine that an unnaturally small waist gives an air of +grace, or even of slightness, to the whole figure. Its effect, as a +rule, is simply to exaggerate the width of the shoulders and the hips; +and those whose figures possess that stateliness which is called +stoutness by the vulgar, convert what is a quality into a defect by +yielding to the silly edicts of Fashion on the subject of tight-lacing. +The fashionable English waist, also, is not merely far too small, and +consequently quite out of proportion to the rest of the figure, but it is +worn far too low down. I use the expression “worn” advisedly, for a +waist nowadays seems to be regarded as an article of apparel to be put on +when and where one likes. A long waist always implies shortness of the +lower limbs, and, from the artistic point of view, has the effect of +diminishing the height; and I am glad to see that many of the most +charming women in Paris are returning to the idea of the Directoire style +of dress. This style is not by any means perfect, but at least it has +the merit of indicating the proper position of the waist. I feel quite +sure that all English women of culture and position will set their faces +against such stupid and dangerous practices as are related by Miss +Leffler-Arnim. Fashion’s motto is: _Il faut souffrir pour être belle_; +but the motto of art and of common-sense is: _Il faut être bête pour +souffrir_. + +Talking of Fashion, a critic in the _Pall Mall Gazelle_ expresses his +surprise that I should have allowed an illustration of a hat, covered +with “the bodies of dead birds,” to appear in the first number of the +_Woman’s World_; and as I have received many letters on the subject, it +is only right that I should state my exact position in the matter. +Fashion is such an essential part of the _mundus muliebris_ of our day, +that it seems to me absolutely necessary that its growth, development, +and phases should be duly chronicled; and the historical and practical +value of such a record depends entirely upon its perfect fidelity to +fact. Besides, it is quite easy for the children of light to adapt +almost any fashionable form of dress to the requirements of utility and +the demands of good taste. The Sarah Bernhardt tea-gown, for instance, +figured in the present issue, has many good points about it, and the +gigantic dress-improver does not appear to me to be really essential to +the mode; and though the Postillion costume of the fancy dress ball is +absolutely detestable in its silliness and vulgarity, the so-called Late +Georgian costume in the same plate is rather pleasing. I must, however, +protest against the idea that to chronicle the development of Fashion +implies any approval of the particular forms that Fashion may adopt. + + + + +WOMAN’S DRESS + + + (_Pall Mall Gazette_, October 14, 1884) + + MR. OSCAR WILDE, who asks us to permit him ‘that most charming of all + pleasures, the pleasure of answering one’s critics,’ sends us the + following remarks:— + +THE “Girl Graduate” must of course have precedence, not merely for her +sex but for her sanity: her letter is extremely sensible. She makes two +points: that high heels are a necessity for any lady who wishes to keep +her dress clean from the Stygian mud of our streets, and that without a +tight corset the ordinary number of petticoats and etceteras’ cannot be +properly or conveniently held up. Now, it is quite true that as long as +the lower garments are suspended from the hips a corset is an absolute +necessity; the mistake lies in not suspending all apparel from the +shoulders. In the latter case a corset becomes useless, the body is left +free and unconfined for respiration and motion, there is more health, and +consequently more beauty. Indeed all the most ungainly and uncomfortable +articles of dress that fashion has ever in her folly prescribed, not the +tight corset merely, but the farthingale, the vertugadin, the hoop, the +crinoline, and that modern monstrosity the so-called “dress improver” +also, all of them have owed their origin to the same error, the error of +not seeing that it is from the shoulders, and from the shoulders only, +that all garments should be hung. + +And as regards high heels, I quite admit that some additional height to +the shoe or boot is necessary if long gowns are to be worn in the street; +but what I object to is that the height should be given to the heel only, +and not to the sole of the foot also. The modern high-heeled boot is, in +fact, merely the clog of the time of Henry VI., with the front prop left +out, and its inevitable effect is to throw the body forward, to shorten +the steps, and consequently to produce that want of grace which always +follows want of freedom. + +Why should clogs be despised? Much art has been expended on clogs. They +have been made of lovely woods, and delicately inlaid with ivory, and +with mother-of-pearl. A clog might be a dream of beauty, and, if not too +high or too heavy, most comfortable also. But if there be any who do not +like clogs, let them try some adaptation of the trouser of the Turkish +lady, which is loose round the limb and tight at the ankle. + +The “Girl Graduate,” with a pathos to which I am not insensible, entreats +me not to apotheosize “that awful, befringed, beflounced, and bekilted +divided skirt.” Well, I will acknowledge that the fringes, the flounces, +and the kilting do certainly defeat the whole object of the dress, which +is that of ease and liberty; but I regard these things as mere wicked +superfluities, tragic proofs that the divided skirt is ashamed of its own +division. The principle of the dress is good, and, though it is not by +any means perfection, it is a step towards it. + +Here I leave the “Girl Graduate,” with much regret, for Mr. Wentworth +Huyshe. Mr. Huyshe makes the old criticism that Greek dress is unsuited +to our climate, and, to me the somewhat new assertion, that the men’s +dress of a hundred years ago was preferable to that of the second part of +the seventeenth century, which I consider to have been the exquisite +period of English costume. + +Now, as regards the first of these two statements, I will say, to begin +with, that the warmth of apparel does not depend really on the number of +garments worn, but on the material of which they are made. One of the +chief faults of modern dress is that it is composed of far too many +articles of clothing, most of which are of the wrong substance; but over +a substratum of pure wool, such as is supplied by Dr. Jaeger under the +modern German system, some modification of Greek costume is perfectly +applicable to our climate, our country and our century. This important +fact has already been pointed out by Mr. E. W. Godwin in his excellent, +though too brief handbook on Dress, contributed to the Health Exhibition. +I call it an important fact because it makes almost any form of lovely +costume perfectly practicable in our cold climate. Mr. Godwin, it is +true, points out that the English ladies of the thirteenth century +abandoned after some time the flowing garments of the early Renaissance +in favour of a tighter mode, such as Northern Europe seems to demand. +This I quite admit, and its significance; but what I contend, and what I +am sure Mr. Godwin would agree with me in, is that the principles, the +laws of Greek dress may be perfectly realized, even in a moderately tight +gown with sleeves: I mean the principle of suspending all apparel from +the shoulders, and of relying for beauty of effect not on the stiff +ready-made ornaments of the modern milliner—the bows where there should +be no bows, and the flounces where there should be no flounces—but on the +exquisite play of light and line that one gets from rich and rippling +folds. I am not proposing any antiquarian revival of an ancient costume, +but trying merely to point out the right laws of dress, laws which are +dictated by art and not by archæology, by science and not by fashion; and +just as the best work of art in our days is that which combines classic +grace with absolute reality, so from a continuation of the Greek +principles of beauty with the German principles of health will come, I +feel certain, the costume of the future. + +And now to the question of men’s dress, or rather to Mr. Huyshe’s claim +of the superiority, in point of costume, of the last quarter of the +eighteenth century over the second quarter of the seventeenth. The +broad-brimmed hat of 1640 kept the rain of winter and the glare of summer +from the face; the same cannot be said of the hat of one hundred years +ago, which, with its comparatively narrow brim and high crown, was the +precursor of the modern “chimney-pot”: a wide turned-down collar is a +healthier thing than a strangling stock, and a short cloak much more +comfortable than a sleeved overcoat, even though the latter may have had +“three capes”; a cloak is easier to put on and off, lies lightly on the +shoulder in summer, and wrapped round one in winter keeps one perfectly +warm. A doublet, again, is simpler than a coat and waistcoat; instead of +two garments one has one; by not being open also it protects the chest +better. + +Short loose trousers are in every way to be preferred to the tight +knee-breeches which often impede the proper circulation of the blood; and +finally, the soft leather boots which could be worn above or below the +knee, are more supple, and give consequently more freedom, than the stiff +Hessian which Mr. Huyshe so praises. I say nothing about the question of +grace and picturesqueness, for I suppose that no one, not even Mr. +Huyshe, would prefer a maccaroni to a cavalier, a Lawrence to a Vandyke, +or the third George to the first Charles; but for ease, warmth and +comfort this seventeenth-century dress is infinitely superior to anything +that came after it, and I do not think it is excelled by any preceding +form of costume. I sincerely trust that we may soon see in England some +national revival of it. + + + + +MORE RADICAL IDEAS UPON DRESS REFORM + + + (_Pall Mall Gazette_, November 11, 1884) + +I HAVE been much interested at reading the large amount of correspondence +that has been called forth by my recent lecture on Dress. It shows me +that the subject of dress reform is one that is occupying many wise and +charming people, who have at heart the principles of health, freedom, and +beauty in costume, and I hope that “H. B. T.” and “Materfamilias” will +have all the real influence which their letters—excellent letters both of +them—certainly deserve. + +I turn first to Mr. Huyshe’s second letter, and the drawing that +accompanies it; but before entering into any examination of the theory +contained in each, I think I should state at once that I have absolutely +no idea whether this gentleman wears his hair long or short, or his cuffs +back or forward, or indeed what he is like at all. I hope he consults +his own comfort and wishes in everything which has to do with his dress, +and is allowed to enjoy that individualism in apparel which he so +eloquently claims for himself, and so foolishly tries to deny to others; +but I really could not take Mr. Wentworth Huyshe’s personal appearance as +any intellectual basis for an investigation of the principles which +should guide the costume of a nation. I am not denying the force, or +even the popularity, of the ‘’Eave arf a brick’ school of criticism, but +I acknowledge it does not interest me. The gamin in the gutter may be a +necessity, but the gamin in discussion is a nuisance. So I will proceed +at once to the real point at issue, the value of the late +eighteenth-century costume over that worn in the second quarter of the +seventeenth: the relative merits, that is, of the principles contained in +each. Now, as regards the eighteenth-century costume, Mr. Wentworth +Huyshe acknowledges that he has had no practical experience of it at all; +in fact he makes a pathetic appeal to his friends to corroborate him in +his assertion, which I do not question for a moment, that he has never +been “guilty of the eccentricity” of wearing himself the dress which he +proposes for general adoption by others. There is something so naive and +so amusing about this last passage in Mr. Huyshe’s letter that I am +really in doubt whether I am not doing him a wrong in regarding him as +having any serious, or sincere, views on the question of a possible +reform in dress; still, as irrespective of any attitude of Mr. Huyshe’s +in the matter, the subject is in itself an interesting one, I think it is +worth continuing, particularly as I have myself worn this late +eighteenth-century dress many times, both in public and in private, and +so may claim to have a very positive right to speak on its comfort and +suitability. The particular form of the dress I wore was very similar to +that given in Mr. Godwin’s handbook, from a print of Northcote’s, and had +a certain elegance and grace about it which was very charming; still, I +gave it up for these reasons:—After a further consideration of the laws +of dress I saw that a doublet is a far simpler and easier garment than a +coat and waistcoat, and, if buttoned from the shoulder, far warmer also, +and that tails have no place in costume, except on some Darwinian theory +of heredity; from absolute experience in the matter I found that the +excessive tightness of knee-breeches is not really comfortable if one +wears them constantly; and, in fact, I satisfied myself that the dress is +not one founded on any real principles. The broad-brimmed hat and loose +cloak, which, as my object was not, of course, historical accuracy but +modern ease, I had always worn with the costume in question, I have still +retained, and find them most comfortable. + +Well, although Mr. Huyshe has no real experience of the dress he +proposes, he gives us a drawing of it, which he labels, somewhat +prematurely, “An ideal dress.” An ideal dress of course it is not; +“passably picturesque,” he says I may possibly think it; well, passably +picturesque it may be, but not beautiful, certainly, simply because it is +not founded on right principles, or, indeed, on any principles at all. +Picturesqueness one may get in a variety of ways; ugly things that are +strange, or unfamiliar to us, for instance, may be picturesque, such as a +late sixteenth-century costume, or a Georgian house. Ruins, again, may +be picturesque, but beautiful they never can be, because their lines are +meaningless. Beauty, in fact, is to be got only from the perfection of +principles; and in “the ideal dress” of Mr. Huyshe there are no ideas or +principles at all, much less the perfection of either. Let us examine +it, and see its faults; they are obvious to any one who desires more than +a “Fancy-dress ball” basis for costume. To begin with, the hat and boots +are all wrong. Whatever one wears on the extremities, such as the feet +and head, should, for the sake of comfort, be made of a soft material, +and for the sake of freedom should take its shape from the way one +chooses to wear it, and not from any stiff, stereotyped design of hat or +boot maker. In a hat made on right principles one should be able to turn +the brim up or down according as the day is dark or fair, dry or wet; but +the hat brim of Mr. Huyshe’s drawing is perfectly stiff, and does not +give much protection to the face, or the possibility of any at all to the +back of the head or the ears, in case of a cold east wind; whereas the +bycocket, a hat made in accordance with the right laws, can be turned +down behind and at the sides, and so give the same warmth as a hood. The +crown, again, of Mr. Huyshe’s hat is far too high; a high crown +diminishes the stature of a small person, and in the case of any one who +is tall is a great inconvenience when one is getting in and out of +hansoms and railway carriages, or passing under a street awning: in no +case is it of any value whatsoever, and being useless it is of course +against the principles of dress. + +As regards the boots, they are not quite so ugly or so uncomfortable as +the hat; still they are evidently made of stiff leather, as otherwise +they would fall down to the ankle, whereas the boot should be made of +soft leather always, and if worn high at all must be either laced up the +front or carried well over the knee: in the latter case one combines +perfect freedom for walking together with perfect protection against +rain, neither of which advantages a short stiff boot will ever give one, +and when one is resting in the house the long soft boot can be turned +down as the boot of 1640 was. Then there is the overcoat: now, what are +the right principles of an overcoat? To begin with, it should be capable +of being easily put on or off, and worn over any kind of dress; +consequently it should never have narrow sleeves, such as are shown in +Mr. Huyshe’s drawing. If an opening or slit for the arm is required it +should be made quite wide, and may be protected by a flap, as in that +excellent overall the modern Inverness cape; secondly, it should not be +too tight, as otherwise all freedom of walking is impeded. If the young +gentleman in the drawing buttons his overcoat he may succeed in being +statuesque, though that I doubt very strongly, but he will never succeed +in being swift; his _super-totus_ is made for him on no principle +whatsoever; a _super-totus_, or overall, should be capable of being worn +long or short, quite loose or moderately tight, just as the wearer +wishes; he should be able to have one arm free and one arm covered or +both arms free or both arms covered, just as he chooses for his +convenience in riding, walking, or driving; an overall again should never +be heavy, and should always be warm: lastly, it should be capable of +being easily carried if one wants to take it off; in fact, its principles +are those of freedom and comfort, and a cloak realizes them all, just as +much as an overcoat of the pattern suggested by Mr. Huyshe violates them. + +The knee-breeches are of course far too tight; any one who has worn them +for any length of time—any one, in fact, whose views on the subject are +not purely theoretical—will agree with me there; like everything else in +the dress, they are a great mistake. The substitution of the jacket for +the coat and waistcoat of the period is a step in the right direction, +which I am glad to see; it is, however, far too tight over the hips for +any possible comfort. Whenever a jacket or doublet comes below the waist +it should be slit at each side. In the seventeenth century the skirt of +the jacket was sometimes laced on by points and tags, so that it could be +removed at will, sometimes it was merely left open at the sides: in each +case it exemplified what are always the true principles of dress, I mean +freedom and adaptability to circumstances. + +Finally, as regards drawings of this kind, I would point out that there +is absolutely no limit at all to the amount of “passably picturesque” +costumes which can be either revived or invented for us; but that unless +a costume is founded on principles and exemplified laws, it never can be +of any real value to us in the reform of dress. This particular drawing +of Mr. Huyshe’s, for instance, proves absolutely nothing, except that our +grandfathers did not understand the proper laws of dress. There is not a +single rule of right costume which is not violated in it, for it gives us +stiffness, tightness and discomfort instead of comfort, freedom and ease. + +Now here, on the other hand, is a dress which, being founded on +principles, can serve us as an excellent guide and model; it has been +drawn for me, most kindly, by Mr. Godwin from the Duke of Newcastle’s +delightful book on horsemanship, a book which is one of our best +authorities on our best era of costume. I do not of course propose it +necessarily for absolute imitation; that is not the way in which one +should regard it; it is not, I mean, a revival of a dead costume, but a +realization of living laws. I give it as an example of a particular +application of principles which are universally right. This rationally +dressed young man can turn his hat brim down if it rains, and his loose +trousers and boots down if he is tired—that is, he can adapt his costume +to circumstances; then he enjoys perfect freedom, the arms and legs are +not made awkward or uncomfortable by the excessive tightness of narrow +sleeves and knee-breeches, and the hips are left quite untrammelled, +always an important point; and as regards comfort, his jacket is not too +loose for warmth, nor too close for respiration; his neck is well +protected without being strangled, and even his ostrich feathers, if any +Philistine should object to them, are not merely dandyism, but fan him +very pleasantly, I am sure, in summer, and when the weather is bad they +are no doubt left at home, and his cloak taken out. _The value of the +dress is simply that every separate article of it expresses a law_. My +young man is consequently apparelled with ideas, while Mr. Huyshe’s young +man is stiffened with facts; the latter teaches one nothing; from the +former one learns everything. I need hardly say that this dress is good, +not because it is seventeenth century, but because it is constructed on +the true principles of costume, just as a square lintel or pointed arch +is good, not because one may be Greek and the other Gothic, but because +each of them is the best method of spanning a certain-sized opening, or +resisting a certain weight. The fact, however, that this dress was +generally worn in England two centuries and a half ago shows at least +this, that the right laws of dress have been understood and realized in +our country, and so in our country may be realized and understood again. +As regards the absolute beauty of this dress and its meaning, I should +like to say a few words more. Mr. Wentworth Huyshe solemnly announces +that “he and those who think with him” cannot permit this question of +beauty to be imported into the question of dress; that he and those who +think with him take “practical views on the subject,” and so on. Well, I +will not enter here into a discussion as to how far any one who does not +take beauty and the value of beauty into account can claim to be +practical at all. The word practical is nearly always the last refuge of +the uncivilized. Of all misused words it is the most evilly treated. +But what I want to point out is that beauty is essentially organic; that +is, it comes, not from without, but from within, not from any added +prettiness, but from the perfection of its own being; and that +consequently, as the body is beautiful, so all apparel that rightly +clothes it must be beautiful also in its construction and in its lines. + +I have no more desire to define ugliness than I have daring to define +beauty; but still I would like to remind those who mock at beauty as +being an unpractical thing of this fact, that an ugly thing is merely a +thing that is badly made, or a thing that does not serve it purpose; that +ugliness is want of fitness; that ugliness is failure; that ugliness is +uselessness, such as ornament in the wrong place, while beauty, as some +one finely said, is the purgation of all superfluities. There is a +divine economy about beauty; it gives us just what is needful and no +more, whereas ugliness is always extravagant; ugliness is a spendthrift +and wastes its material; in fine, ugliness—and I would commend this +remark to Mr. Wentworth Huyshe—ugliness, as much in costume as in +anything else, is always the sign that somebody has been unpractical. So +the costume of the future in England, if it is founded on the true laws +of freedom, comfort, and adaptability to circumstances, cannot fail to be +most beautiful also, because beauty is the sign always of the rightness +of principles, the mystical seal that is set upon what is perfect, and +upon what is perfect only. + +As for your other correspondent, the first principle of dress that all +garments should be hung from the shoulders and not from the waist seems +to me to be generally approved of, although an “Old Sailor” declares that +no sailors or athletes ever suspend their clothes from the shoulders, but +always from the hips. My own recollection of the river and running +ground at Oxford—those two homes of Hellenism in our little Gothic +town—is that the best runners and rowers (and my own college turned out +many) wore always a tight jersey, with short drawers attached to it, the +whole costume being woven in one piece. As for sailors, it is true, I +admit, and the bad custom seems to involve that constant “hitching up” of +the lower garments which, however popular in transpontine dramas, cannot, +I think, but be considered an extremely awkward habit; and as all +awkwardness comes from discomfort of some kind, I trust that this point +in our sailor’s dress will be looked to in the coming reform of our navy, +for, in spite of all protests, I hope we are about to reform everything, +from torpedoes to top-hats, and from crinolettes to cruises. + +Then as regards clogs, my suggestion of them seems to have aroused a +great deal of terror. Fashion in her high-heeled boots has screamed, and +the dreadful word “anachronism” has been used. Now, whatever is useful +cannot be an anachronism. Such a word is applicable only to the revival +of some folly; and, besides, in the England of our own day clogs are +still worn in many of our manufacturing towns, such as Oldham. I fear +that in Oldham they may not be dreams of beauty; in Oldham the art of +inlaying them with ivory and with pearl may possibly be unknown; yet in +Oldham they serve their purpose. Nor is it so long since they were worn +by the upper classes of this country generally. Only a few days ago I +had the pleasure of talking to a lady who remembered with affectionate +regret the clogs of her girlhood; they were, according to her, not too +high nor too heavy, and were provided, besides, with some kind of spring +in the sole so as to make them the more supple for the foot in walking. +Personally, I object to all additional height being given to a boot or +shoe; it is really against the proper principles of dress, although, if +any such height is to be given it should be by means of two props; not +one; but what I should prefer to see is some adaptation of the divided +skirt or long and moderately loose knickerbockers. If, however, the +divided skirt is to be of any positive value, it must give up all idea of +“being identical in appearance with an ordinary skirt”; it must diminish +the moderate width of each of its divisions, and sacrifice its foolish +frills and flounces; the moment it imitates a dress it is lost; but let +it visibly announce itself as what it actually is, and it will go far +towards solving a real difficulty. I feel sure that there will be found +many graceful and charming girls ready to adopt a costume founded on +these principles, in spite of Mr. Wentworth Huyshe’s terrible threat that +he will not propose to them as long as they wear it, for all charges of a +want of womanly character in these forms of dress are really meaningless; +every right article of apparel belongs equally to both sexes, and there +is absolutely no such thing as a definitely feminine garment. One word +of warning I should like to be allowed to give: The over-tunic should be +made full and moderately loose; it may, if desired, be shaped more or +less to the figure, but in no case should it be confined at the waist by +any straight band or belt; on the contrary, it should fall from the +shoulder to the knee, or below it, in fine curves and vertical lines, +giving more freedom and consequently more grace. Few garments are so +absolutely unbecoming as a belted tunic that reaches to the knees, a fact +which I wish some of our Rosalinds would consider when they don doublet +and hose; indeed, to the disregard of this artistic principle is due the +ugliness, the want of proportion, in the Bloomer costume, a costume which +in other respects is sensible. + + + + +COSTUME + + +ARE we not all weary of him, that venerable impostor fresh from the steps +of the Piazza di Spagna, who, in the leisure moments that he can spare +from his customary organ, makes the round of the studios and is waited +for in Holland Park? Do we not all recognize him, when, with the gay +_insouciance_ of his nation, he reappears on the walls of our summer +exhibitions as everything that he is not, and as nothing that he is, +glaring at us here as a patriarch of Canaan, here beaming as a brigand +from the Abruzzi? Popular is he, this poor peripatetic professor of +posing, with those whose joy it is to paint the posthumous portrait of +the last philanthropist who in his lifetime had neglected to be +photographed,—yet he is the sign of the decadence, the symbol of decay. + +For all costumes are caricatures. The basis of Art is not the Fancy +Ball. Where there is loveliness of dress, there is no dressing up. And +so, were our national attire delightful in colour, and in construction +simple and sincere; were dress the expression of the loveliness that it +shields and of the swiftness and motion that it does not impede; did its +lines break from the shoulder instead of bulging from the waist; did the +inverted wineglass cease to be the ideal of form; were these things +brought about, as brought about they will be, then would painting be no +longer an artificial reaction against the ugliness of life, but become, +as it should be, the natural expression of life’s beauty. Nor would +painting merely, but all the other arts also, be the gainers by a change +such as that which I propose; the gainers, I mean, through the increased +atmosphere of Beauty by which the artists would be surrounded and in +which they would grow up. For Art is not to be taught in Academies. It +is what one looks at, not what one listens to, that makes the artist. +The real schools should be the streets. There is not, for instance, a +single delicate line, or delightful proportion, in the dress of the +Greeks, which is not echoed exquisitely in their architecture. A nation +arrayed in stove-pipe hats and dress-improvers might have built the +Pantechnichon possibly, but the Parthenon never. And finally, there is +this to be said: Art, it is true, can never have any other claim but her +own perfection, and it may be that the artist, desiring merely to +contemplate and to create, is wise in not busying himself about change in +others: yet wisdom is not always the best; there are times when she sinks +to the level of common-sense; and from the passionate folly of those—and +there are many—who desire that Beauty shall be confined no longer to the +_bric-à-brac_ of the collector and the dust of the museum, but shall be, +as it should be, the natural and national inheritance of all,—from this +noble unwisdom, I say, who knows what new loveliness shall be given to +life, and, under these more exquisite conditions, what perfect artist +born? _Le milieu se renouvelant_, _l’art se renouvelle_. + + + + +THE AMERICAN INVASION + + + (March 1887) + +A TERRIBLE danger is hanging over the Americans in London. Their future +and their reputation this season depend entirely on the success of +Buffalo Bill and Mrs. Brown-Potter. The former is certain to draw; for +English people are far more interested in American barbarism than they +are in American civilization. When they sight Sandy Hook they look to +their rifles and ammunition; and, after dining once at Delmonico’s, start +off for Colorado or California, for Montana or the Yellow Stone Park. +Rocky Mountains charm them more than riotous millionaires; they have been +known to prefer buffaloes to Boston. Why should they not? The cities of +America are inexpressibly tedious. The Bostonians take their learning +too sadly; culture with them is an accomplishment rather than an +atmosphere; their “Hub,” as they call it, is the paradise of prigs. +Chicago is a sort of monster-shop, full of bustle and bores. Political +life at Washington is like political life in a suburban vestry. +Baltimore is amusing for a week, but Philadelphia is dreadfully +provincial; and though one can dine in New York one could not dwell +there. Better the Far West with its grizzly bears and its untamed +cowboys, its free open-air life and its free open-air manners, its +boundless prairie and its boundless mendacity! This is what Buffalo Bill +is going to bring to London; and we have no doubt that London will fully +appreciate his show. + +With regard to Mrs. Brown-Potter, as acting is no longer considered +absolutely essential for success on the English stage, there is really no +reason why the pretty bright-eyed lady who charmed us all last June by +her merry laugh and her nonchalant ways, should not—to borrow an +expression from her native language—make a big boom and paint the town +red. We sincerely hope she will; for, on the whole, the American +invasion has done English society a great deal of good. American women +are bright, clever, and wonderfully cosmopolitan. Their patriotic +feelings are limited to an admiration for Niagara and a regret for the +Elevated Railway; and, unlike the men, they never bore us with Bunkers +Hill. They take their dresses from Paris and their manners from +Piccadilly, and wear both charmingly. They have a quaint pertness, a +delightful conceit, a native self-assertion. They insist on being paid +compliments and have almost succeeded in making Englishmen eloquent. For +our aristocracy they have an ardent admiration; they adore titles and are +a permanent blow to Republican principles. In the art of amusing men +they are adepts, both by nature and education, and can actually tell a +story without forgetting the point—an accomplishment that is extremely +rare among the women of other countries. It is true that they lack +repose and that their voices are somewhat harsh and strident when they +land first at Liverpool; but after a time one gets to love those pretty +whirlwinds in petticoats that sweep so recklessly through society and are +so agitating to all duchesses who have daughters. There is something +fascinating in their funny, exaggerated gestures and their petulant way +of tossing the head. Their eyes have no magic nor mystery in them, but +they challenge us for combat; and when we engage we are always worsted. +Their lips seem made for laughter and yet they never grimace. As for +their voices they soon get them into tune. Some of them have been known +to acquire a fashionable drawl in two seasons; and after they have been +presented to Royalty they all roll their R’s as vigorously as a young +equerry or an old lady-in-waiting. Still, they never really lose their +accent; it keeps peeping out here and there, and when they chatter +together they are like a bevy of peacocks. Nothing is more amusing than +to watch two American girls greeting each other in a drawing-room or in +the Row. They are like children with their shrill staccato cries of +wonder, their odd little exclamations. Their conversation sounds like a +series of exploding crackers; they are exquisitely incoherent and use a +sort of primitive, emotional language. After five minutes they are left +beautifully breathless and look at each other half in amusement and half +in affection. If a stolid young Englishman is fortunate enough to be +introduced to them he is amazed at their extraordinary vivacity, their +electric quickness of repartee, their inexhaustible store of curious +catchwords. He never really understands them, for their thoughts flutter +about with the sweet irresponsibility of butterflies; but he is pleased +and amused and feels as if he were in an aviary. On the whole, American +girls have a wonderful charm and, perhaps, the chief secret of their +charm is that they never talk seriously except about amusements. They +have, however, one grave fault—their mothers. Dreary as were those old +Pilgrim Fathers who left our shores more than two centuries ago to found +a New England beyond the seas, the Pilgrim Mothers who have returned to +us in the nineteenth century are drearier still. + +Here and there, of course, there are exceptions, but as a class they are +either dull, dowdy or dyspeptic. It is only fair to the rising +generation of America to state that they are not to blame for this. +Indeed, they spare no pains at all to bring up their parents properly and +to give them a suitable, if somewhat late, education. From its earliest +years every American child spends most of its time in correcting the +faults of its father and mother; and no one who has had the opportunity +of watching an American family on the deck of an Atlantic steamer, or in +the refined seclusion of a New York boarding-house, can fail to have been +struck by this characteristic of their civilization. In America the +young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the +full benefits of their inexperience. A boy of only eleven or twelve +years of age will firmly but kindly point out to his father his defects +of manner or temper; will never weary of warning him against +extravagance, idleness, late hours, unpunctuality, and the other +temptations to which the aged are so particularly exposed; and sometimes, +should he fancy that he is monopolizing too much of the conversation at +dinner, will remind him, across the table, of the new child’s adage, +“Parents should be seen, not heard.” Nor does any mistaken idea of +kindness prevent the little American girl from censuring her mother +whenever it is necessary. Often, indeed, feeling that a rebuke conveyed +in the presence of others is more truly efficacious than one merely +whispered in the quiet of the nursery, she will call the attention of +perfect strangers to her mother’s general untidiness, her want of +intellectual Boston conversation, immoderate love of iced water and green +corn, stinginess in the matter of candy, ignorance of the usages of the +best Baltimore Society, bodily ailments, and the like. In fact, it may +be truly said that no American child is ever blind to the deficiencies of +its parents, no matter how much it may love them. + +Yet, somehow, this educational system has not been so successful as it +deserved. In many cases, no doubt, the material with which the children +had to deal was crude and incapable of real development; but the fact +remains that the American mother is a tedious person. The American +father is better, for he is never seen in London. He passes his life +entirely in Wall Street and communicates with his family once a month by +means of a telegram in cipher. The mother, however, is always with us, +and, lacking the quick imitative faculty of the younger generation, +remains uninteresting and provincial to the last. In spite of her, +however, the American girl is always welcome. She brightens our dull +dinner parties for us and makes life go pleasantly by for a season. In +the race for coronets she often carries off the prize; but, once she has +gained the victory, she is generous and forgives her English rivals +everything, even their beauty. + +Warned by the example of her mother that American women do not grow old +gracefully, she tries not to grow old at all and often succeeds. She has +exquisite feet and hands, is always _bien chaussée et bien gantée_ and +can talk brilliantly upon any subject, provided that she knows nothing +about it. + +Her sense of humour keeps her from the tragedy of a _grande passion_, +and, as there is neither romance nor humility in her love, she makes an +excellent wife. What her ultimate influence on English life will be it +is difficult to estimate at present; but there can be no doubt that, of +all the factors that have contributed to the social revolution of London, +there are few more important, and none more delightful, than the American +Invasion. + + + + +SERMONS IN STONES AT BLOOMSBURY + + + THE NEW SCULPTURE ROOM AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM + + (October 1887) + +THROUGH the exertions of Sir Charles Newton, to whom every student of +classic art should be grateful, some of the wonderful treasures so long +immured in the grimy vaults of the British Museum have at last been +brought to light, and the new Sculpture Room now opened to the public +will amply repay the trouble of a visit, even from those to whom art is a +stumbling-block and a rock of offence. For setting aside the mere beauty +of form, outline and mass, the grace and loveliness of design and the +delicacy of technical treatment, here we have shown to us what the Greeks +and Romans thought about death; and the philosopher, the preacher, the +practical man of the world, and even the Philistine himself, cannot fail +to be touched by these “sermons in stones,” with their deep significance, +their fertile suggestion, their plain humanity. Common tombstones they +are, most of them, the work not of famous artists but of simple +handicraftsmen, only they were wrought in days when every handicraft was +an art. The finest specimens, from the purely artistic point of view, +are undoubtedly the two _stelai_ found at Athens. They are both the +tombstones of young Greek athletes. In one the athlete is represented +handing his _strigil_ to his slave, in the other the athlete stands +alone, _strigil_ in hand. They do not belong to the greatest period of +Greek art, they have not the grand style of the Phidian age, but they are +beautiful for all that, and it is impossible not to be fascinated by +their exquisite grace and by the treatment which is so simple in its +means, so subtle in its effect. All the tombstones, however, are full of +interest. Here is one of two ladies of Smyrna who were so remarkable in +their day that the city voted them honorary crowns; here is a Greek +doctor examining a little boy who is suffering from indigestion; here is +the memorial of Xanthippus who, probably, was a martyr to gout, as he is +holding in his hand the model of a foot, intended, no doubt, as a votive +offering to some god. A lovely _stele_ from Rhodes gives us a family +group. The husband is on horseback and is bidding farewell to his wife, +who seems as if she would follow him but is being held back by a little +child. The pathos of parting from those we love is the central motive of +Greek funeral art. It is repeated in every possible form, and each mute +marble stone seems to murmur _χαîρε_. Roman art is different. It +introduces vigorous and realistic portraiture and deals with pure family +life far more frequently than Greek art does. They are very ugly, those +stern-looking Roman men and women whose portraits are exhibited on their +tombs, but they seem to have been loved and respected by their children +and their servants. Here is the monument of Aphrodisius and Atilia, a +Roman gentleman and his wife, who died in Britain many centuries ago, and +whose tombstone was found in the Thames; and close by it stands a _stele_ +from Rome with the busts of an old married couple who are certainly +marvellously ill-favoured. The contrast between the abstract Greek +treatment of the idea of death and the Roman concrete realization of the +individuals who have died is extremely curious. + +Besides the tombstones, the new Sculpture Room contains some most +fascinating examples of Roman decorative art under the Emperors. The +most wonderful of all, and this alone is worth a trip to Bloomsbury, is a +bas-relief representing a marriage scene, Juno Pronuba is joining the +hands of a handsome young noble and a very stately lady. There is all +the grace of Perugino in this marble, all the grace of Raphael even. The +date of it is uncertain, but the particular cut of the bridegroom’s beard +seems to point to the time of the Emperor Hadrian. It is clearly the +work of Greek artists and is one of the most beautiful bas-reliefs in the +whole Museum. There is something in it which reminds one of the music +and the sweetness of Propertian verse. Then we have delightful friezes +of children. One representing children playing on musical instruments +might have suggested much of the plastic art of Florence. Indeed, as we +view these marbles it is not difficult to see whence the Renaissance +sprang and to what we owe the various forms of Renaissance art. The +frieze of the Muses, each of whom wears in her hair a feather plucked +from the wings of the vanquished sirens, is extremely fine; there is a +lovely little bas-relief of two cupids racing in chariots; and the frieze +of recumbent Amazons has some splendid qualities of design. A frieze of +children playing with the armour of the god Mars should also be +mentioned. It is full of fancy and delicate humour. + +We hope that some more of the hidden treasures will shortly be catalogued +and shown. In the vaults at present there is a very remarkable +bas-relief of the marriage of Cupid and Psyche, and another representing +the professional mourners weeping over the body of the dead. The fine +cast of the Lion of Chæronea should also be brought up, and so should the +_stele_ with the marvellous portrait of the Roman slave. Economy is an +excellent public virtue, but the parsimony that allows valuable works of +art to remain in the grim and gloom of a damp cellar is little short of a +detestable public vice. + + + + +L’ENVOI + + +An introduction to _Rose Leaf and Apple Leaf_ by Rennell Rodd, published +by J. M. Stoddart and Co., Philadelphia, 1882. + +AMONGST the many young men in England who are seeking along with me to +continue and to perfect the English Renaissance—_jeunes guerriers du +drapeau romantique_, as Gautier would have called us—there is none whose +love of art is more flawless and fervent, whose artistic sense of beauty +is more subtle and more delicate—none, indeed, who is dearer to +myself—than the young poet whose verses I have brought with me to +America; verses full of sweet sadness, and yet full of joy; for the most +joyous poet is not he who sows the desolate highways of this world with +the barren seed of laughter, but he who makes his sorrow most musical, +this indeed being the meaning of joy in art—that incommunicable element +of artistic delight which, in poetry, for instance, comes from what Keats +called “sensuous life of verse,” the element of song in the singing, made +so pleasurable to us by that wonder of motion which often has its origin +in mere musical impulse, and in painting is to be sought for, from the +subject never, but from the pictorial charm only—the scheme and symphony +of the colour, the satisfying beauty of the design: so that the ultimate +expression of our artistic movement in painting has been, not in the +spiritual vision of the Pre-Raphaelites, for all their marvel of Greek +legend and their mystery of Italian song, but in the work of such men as +Whistler and Albert Moore, who have raised design and colour to the ideal +level of poetry and music. For the quality of their exquisite painting +comes from the mere inventive and creative handling of line and colour, +from a certain form and choice of beautiful workmanship, which, rejecting +all literary reminiscence and all metaphysical idea, is in itself +entirely satisfying to the æsthetic sense—is, as the Greeks would say, an +end in itself; the effect of their work being like the effect given to us +by music; for music is the art in which form and matter are always +one—the art whose subject cannot be separated from the method of its +expression; the art which most completely realizes for us the artistic +ideal, and is the condition to which all the other arts are constantly +aspiring. + +Now, this increased sense of the absolutely satisfying value of beautiful +workmanship, this recognition of the primary importance of the sensuous +element in art, this love of art for art’s sake, is the point in which we +of the younger school have made a departure from the teaching of Mr. +Ruskin,—a departure definite and different and decisive. + +Master indeed of the knowledge of all noble living and of the wisdom of +all spiritual things will he be to us ever, seeing that it was he who by +the magic of his presence and the music of his lips taught us at Oxford +that enthusiasm for beauty which is the secret of Hellenism, and that +desire for creation which is the secret of life, and filled some of us, +at least, with the lofty and passionate ambition to go forth into far and +fair lands with some message for the nations and some mission for the +world, and yet in his art criticism, his estimate of the joyous element +of art, his whole method of approaching art, we are no longer with him; +for the keystone to his æsthetic system is ethical always. He would +judge of a picture by the amount of noble moral ideas it expresses; but +to us the channels by which all noble work in painting can touch, and +does touch, the soul are not those of truths of life or metaphysical +truths. To him perfection of workmanship seems but the symbol of pride, +and incompleteness of technical resource the image of an imagination too +limitless to find within the limits of form its complete expression, or +of love too simple not to stammer in its tale. But to us the rule of art +is not the rule of morals. In an ethical system, indeed, of any gentle +mercy good intentions will, one is fain to fancy, have their recognition; +but of those that would enter the serene House of Beauty the question +that we ask is not what they had ever meant to do, but what they have +done. Their pathetic intentions are of no value to us, but their +realized creations only. _Pour moi je préfère les poètes qui font des +vers_, _les médecins qui sachent guérir_, _les peintres qui sanchent +peindre_. + +Nor, in looking at a work of art, should we be dreaming of what it +symbolises, but rather loving it for what it is. Indeed, the +transcendental spirit is alien to the spirit of art. The metaphysical +mind of Asia may create for itself the monstrous and many-breasted idol, +but to the Greek, pure artist, that work is most instinct with spiritual +life which conforms most closely to the perfect facts of physical life +also. Nor, in its primary aspect, has a painting, for instance, any more +spiritual message or meaning for us than a blue tile from the wall of +Damascus, or a Hitzen vase. It is a beautifully coloured surface, +nothing more, and affects us by no suggestion stolen from philosophy, no +pathos pilfered from literature, no feeling filched from a poet, but by +its own incommunicable artistic essence—by that selection of truth which +we call style, and that relation of values which is the draughtsmanship +of painting, by the whole quality of the workmanship, the arabesque of +the design, the splendour of the colour, for these things are enough to +stir the most divine and remote of the chords which make music in our +soul, and colour, indeed, is of itself a mystical presence on things, and +tone a kind of sentiment . . . all these poems aim, as I said, at +producing a purely artistic effect, and have the rare and exquisite +quality that belongs to work of that kind; and I feel that the entire +subordination in our æsthetic movement of all merely emotional and +intellectual motives to the vital informing poetic principle is the +surest sign of our strength. + +But it is not enough that a work of art should conform to the æsthetic +demands of the age: there should be also about it, if it is to give us +any permanent delight, the impress of a distinct individuality. Whatever +work we have in the nineteenth century must rest on the two poles of +personality and perfection. And so in this little volume, by separating +the earlier and more simple work from the work that is later and stronger +and possesses increased technical power and more artistic vision, one +might weave these disconnected poems, these stray and scattered threads, +into one fiery-coloured strand of life, noting first a boy’s mere +gladness of being young, with all its simple joy in field and flower, in +sunlight and in song, and then the bitterness of sudden sorrow at the +ending by Death of one of the brief and beautiful friendships of one’s +youth, with all those unanswered lodgings and questionings unsatisfied by +which we vex, so uselessly, the marble face of death; the artistic +contrast between the discontented incompleteness of the spirit and the +complete perfection of the style that expresses it forming the chief +element of the æsthetic charm of these particular poems;—and then the +birth of Love, and all the wonder and the fear and the perilous delight +of one on whose boyish brows the little wings of love have beaten for the +first time; and the love-songs, so dainty and delicate, little +swallow-flights of music, and full of such fragrance and freedom that +they might all be sung in the open air and across moving water; and then +autumn, coming with its choirless woods and odorous decay and ruined +loveliness, Love lying dead; and the sense of the mere pity of it. + +One might stop there, for from a young poet one should ask for no deeper +chords of life than those that love and friendship make eternal for us; +and the best poems in the volume belong clearly to a later time, a time +when these real experiences become absorbed and gathered up into a form +which seems from such real experiences to be the most alien and the most +remote; when the simple expression of joy or sorrow suffices no longer, +and lives rather in the stateliness of the cadenced metre, in the music +and colour of the linked words, than in any direct utterance; lives, one +might say, in the perfection of the form more than in the pathos of the +feeling. And yet, after the broken music of love and the burial of love +in the autumn woods, we can trace that wandering among strange people, +and in lands unknown to us, by which we try so pathetically to heal the +hurts of the life we know, and that pure and passionate devotion to Art +which one gets when the harsh reality of life has too suddenly wounded +one, and is with discontent or sorrow marring one’s youth, just as often, +I think, as one gets it from any natural joy of living; and that curious +intensity of vision by which, in moments of overmastering sadness and +despair ungovernable, artistic things will live in one’s memory with a +vivid realism caught from the life which they help one to forget—an old +grey tomb in Flanders with a strange legend on it, making one think how, +perhaps, passion does live on after death; a necklace of blue and amber +beads and a broken mirror found in a girl’s grave at Rome, a marble image +of a boy habited like Erôs, and with the pathetic tradition of a great +king’s sorrow lingering about it like a purple shadow,—over all these the +tired spirit broods with that calm and certain joy that one gets when one +has found something that the ages never dull and the world cannot harm; +and with it comes that desire of Greek things which is often an artistic +method of expressing one’s desire for perfection; and that longing for +the old dead days which is so modern, so incomplete, so touching, being, +in a way, the inverted torch of Hope, which burns the hand it should +guide; and for many things a little sadness, and for all things a great +love; and lastly, in the pinewood by the sea, once more the quick and +vital pulse of joyous youth leaping and laughing in every line, the frank +and fearless freedom of wave and wind waking into fire life’s burnt-out +ashes and into song the silent lips of pain,—how clearly one seems to see +it all, the long colonnade of pines with sea and sky peeping in here and +there like a flitting of silver; the open place in the green, deep heart +of the wood with the little moss-grown altar to the old Italian god in +it; and the flowers all about, cyclamen in the shadowy places, and the +stars of the white narcissus lying like snow-flakes over the grass, where +the quick, bright-eyed lizard starts by the stone, and the snake lies +coiled lazily in the sun on the hot sand, and overhead the gossamer +floats from the branches like thin, tremulous threads of gold,—the scene +is so perfect for its motive, for surely here, if anywhere, the real +gladness of life might be revealed to one’s youth—the gladness that +comes, not from the rejection, but from the absorption, of all passion, +and is like that serene calm that dwells in the faces of the Greek +statues, and which despair and sorrow cannot touch, but intensify only. + +In some such way as this we could gather up these strewn and scattered +petals of song into one perfect rose of life, and yet, perhaps, in so +doing, we might be missing the true quality of the poems; one’s real life +is so often the life that one does not lead; and beautiful poems, like +threads of beautiful silks, may be woven into many patterns and to suit +many designs, all wonderful and all different: and romantic poetry, too, +is essentially the poetry of impressions, being like that latest school +of painting, the school of Whistler and Albert Moore, in its choice of +situation as opposed to subject; in its dealing with the exceptions +rather than with the types of life; in its brief intensity; in what one +might call its fiery-coloured momentariness, it being indeed the +momentary situations of life, the momentary aspects of nature, which +poetry and painting new seek to render for us. Sincerity and constancy +will the artist, indeed, have always; but sincerity in art is merely that +plastic perfection of execution without which a poem or a painting, +however noble its sentiment or human its origin, is but wasted and unreal +work, and the constancy of the artist cannot be to any definite rule or +system of living, but to that principle of beauty only through which the +inconstant shadows of his life are in their most fleeting moment arrested +and made permanent. He will not, for instance, in intellectual matters +acquiesce in that facile orthodoxy of our day which is so reasonable and +so artistically uninteresting, nor yet will he desire that fiery faith of +the antique time which, while it intensified, yet limited the vision; +still less will he allow the calm of his culture to be marred by the +discordant despair of doubt or the sadness of a sterile scepticism; for +the Valley Perilous, where ignorant armies clash by night, is no +resting-place meet for her to whom the gods have assigned the clear +upland, the serene height, and the sunlit air,—rather will he be always +curiously testing new forms of belief, tinging his nature with the +sentiment that still lingers about some beautiful creeds, and searching +for experience itself, and not for the fruits of experience; when he has +got its secret, he will leave without regret much that was once very +precious to him. “I am always insincere,” says Emerson somewhere, “as +knowing that there are other moods”: “_Les émotions_,” wrote Théophile +Gautier once in a review of Arsène Houssaye, “_Les émotions_, _ne se +ressemblent pas_, _mais être ému_—_voilà l’important_.” + +Now, this is the secret of the art of the modern romantic school, and +gives one the right keynote for its apprehension; but the real quality of +all work which, like Mr. Rodd’s, aims, as I said, at a purely artistic +effect, cannot be described in terms of intellectual criticism; it is too +intangible for that. One can perhaps convey it best in terms of the +other arts, and by reference to them; and, indeed, some of these poems +are as iridescent and as exquisite as a lovely fragment of Venetian +glass; others as delicate in perfect workmanship and as single in natural +motive as an etching by Whistler is, or one of those beautiful little +Greek figures which in the olive woods round Tanagra men can still find, +with the faint gilding and the fading crimson not yet fled from hair and +lips and raiment; and many of them seem like one of Corot’s twilights +just passing into music; for not merely in visible colour, but in +sentiment also—which is the colour of poetry—may there be a kind of tone. + +But I think that the best likeness to the quality of this young poet’s +work I ever saw was in the landscape by the Loire. We were staying once, +he and I, at Amboise, that little village with its grey slate roofs and +steep streets and gaunt, grim gateway, where the quiet cottages nestle +like white pigeons into the sombre clefts of the great bastioned rock, +and the stately Renaissance houses stand silent and apart—very desolate +now, but with some memory of the old days still lingering about the +delicately-twisted pillars, and the carved doorways, with their grotesque +animals, and laughing masks, and quaint heraldic devices, all reminding +one of a people who could not think life real till they had made it +fantastic. And above the village, and beyond the bend of the river, we +used to go in the afternoon, and sketch from one of the big barges that +bring the wine in autumn and the wood in winter down to the sea, or lie +in the long grass and make plans _pour la gloire_, _et pour ennuyer les +Philistins_, or wander along the low, sedgy banks, “matching our reeds in +sportive rivalry,” as comrades used in the old Sicilian days; and the +land was an ordinary land enough, and bare, too, when one thought of +Italy, and how the oleanders were robing the hillsides by Genoa in +scarlet, and the cyclamen filling with its purple every valley from +Florence to Rome; for there was not much real beauty, perhaps, in it, +only long, white dusty roads and straight rows of formal poplars; but, +now and then, some little breaking gleam of broken light would lend to +the grey field and the silent barn a secret and a mystery that were +hardly their own, would transfigure for one exquisite moment the peasants +passing down through the vineyard, or the shepherd watching on the hill, +would tip the willows with silver and touch the river into gold; and the +wonder of the effect, with the strange simplicity of the material, always +seemed to me to be a little like the quality of these the verses of my +friend. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHORTER PROSE PIECES*** + + +******* This file should be named 2061-0.txt or 2061-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/6/2061 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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