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diff --git a/old/fsomb10.txt b/old/fsomb10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b97ea0c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/fsomb10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10208 @@ +*The Project Gutenberg Etext of Familiar Studies of Men & Books* +#17 in our series by Robert Louis Stevenson + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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One +appeared in the NEW QUARTERLY, one in MACMILLAN'S, and the +rest in the CORNHILL MAGAZINE. To the CORNHILL I owe a +double debt of thanks; first, that I was received there in +the very best society, and under the eye of the very best of +editors; and second, that the proprietors have allowed me to +republish so considerable an amount of copy. + +These nine worthies have been brought together from many +different ages and countries. Not the most erudite of men +could be perfectly prepared to deal with so many and such +various sides of human life and manners. To pass a true +judgment upon Knox and Burns implies a grasp upon the very +deepest strain of thought in Scotland, - a country far more +essentially different from England than many parts of +America; for, in a sense, the first of these men re-created +Scotland, and the second is its most essentially national +production. To treat fitly of Hugo and Villon would involve +yet wider knowledge, not only of a country foreign to the +author by race, history, and religion, but of the growth and +liberties of art. Of the two Americans, Whitman and Thoreau, +each is the type of something not so much realised as widely +sought after among the late generations of their countrymen; +and to see them clearly in a nice relation to the society +that brought them forth, an author would require a large +habit of life among modern Americans. As for Yoshida, I have +already disclaimed responsibility; it was but my hand that +held the pen. + +In truth, these are but the readings of a literary vagrant. +One book led to another, one study to another. The first was +published with trepidation. Since no bones were broken, the +second was launched with greater confidence. So, by +insensible degrees, a young man of our generation acquires, +in his own eyes, a kind of roving judicial commission through +the ages; and, having once escaped the perils of the Freemans +and the Furnivalls, sets himself up to right the wrongs of +universal history and criticism. Now, it is one thing to +write with enjoyment on a subject while the story is hot in +your mind from recent reading, coloured with recent +prejudice; and it is quite another business to put these +writings coldly forth again in a bound volume. We are most +of us attached to our opinions; that is one of the "natural +affections" of which we hear so much in youth; but few of us +are altogether free from paralysing doubts and scruples. For +my part, I have a small idea of the degree of accuracy +possible to man, and I feel sure these studies teem with +error. One and all were written with genuine interest in the +subject; many, however, have been conceived and finished with +imperfect knowledge; and all have lain, from beginning to +end, under the disadvantages inherent in this style of +writing. + +Of these disadvantages a word must here be said. The writer +of short studies, having to condense in a few pages the +events of a whole lifetime, and the effect on his own mind of +many various volumes, is bound, above all things, to make +that condensation logical and striking. For the only +justification of his writing at all is that he shall present +a brief, reasoned, and memorable view. By the necessity of +the case, all the more neutral circumstances are omitted from +his narrative; and that of itself, by the negative +exaggeration of which I have spoken in the text, lends to the +matter in hand a certain false and specious glitter. By the +necessity of the case, again, he is forced to view his +subject throughout in a particular illumination, like a +studio artifice. Like Hales with Pepys, he must nearly break +his sitter's neck to get the proper shadows on the portrait. +It is from one side only that he has time to represent his +subject. The side selected will either be the one most +striking to himself, or the one most obscured by controversy; +and in both cases that will be the one most liable to +strained and sophisticated reading. In a biography, this and +that is displayed; the hero is seen at home, playing the +flute; the different tendencies of his work come, one after +another, into notice; and thus something like a true, general +impression of the subject may at last be struck. But in the +short study, the writer, having seized his "point of view," +must keep his eye steadily to that. He seeks, perhaps, +rather to differentiate than truly to characterise. The +proportions of the sitter must be sacrificed to the +proportions of the portrait; the lights are heightened, the +shadows overcharged; the chosen expression, continually +forced, may degenerate at length into a grimace; and we have +at best something of a caricature, at worst a calumny. +Hence, if they be readable at all, and hang together by their +own ends, the peculiar convincing force of these brief +representations. They take so little a while to read, and +yet in that little while the subject is so repeatedly +introduced in the same light and with the same expression, +that, by sheer force of repetition, that view is imposed upon +the reader. The two English masters of the style, Macaulay +and Carlyle, largely exemplify its dangers. Carlyle, indeed, +had so much more depth and knowledge of the heart, his +portraits of mankind are felt and rendered with so much more +poetic comprehension, and he, like his favourite Ram Dass, +had a fire in his belly so much more hotly burning than the +patent reading lamp by which Macaulay studied, that it seems +at first sight hardly fair to bracket them together. But the +"point of view" was imposed by Carlyle on the men he judged +of in his writings with an austerity not only cruel but +almost stupid. They are too often broken outright on the +Procrustean bed; they are probably always disfigured. The +rhetorical artifice of Macaulay is easily spied; it will take +longer to appreciate the moral bias of Carlyle. So with all +writers who insist on forcing some significance from all that +comes before them; and the writer of short studies is bound, +by the necessity of the case, to write entirely in that +spirit. What he cannot vivify he should omit. + +Had it been possible to rewrite some of these papers, I hope +I should have had the courage to attempt it. But it is not +possible. Short studies are, or should be, things woven like +a carpet, from which it is impossible to detach a strand. +What is perverted has its place there for ever, as a part of +the technical means by which what is right has been +presented. It is only possible to write another study, and +then, with a new "point of view," would follow new +perversions and perhaps a fresh caricature. Hence, it will +be, at least, honest to offer a few grains of salt to be +taken with the text; and as some words of apology, addition, +correction, or amplification fall to be said on almost every +study in the volume, it will be most simple to run them over +in their order. But this must not be taken as a propitiatory +offering to the gods of shipwreck; I trust my cargo +unreservedly to the chances of the sea; and do not, by +criticising myself, seek to disarm the wrath of other and +less partial critics. + +HUGO'S ROMANCES. - This is an instance of the "point of +view." The five romances studied with a different purpose +might have given different results, even with a critic so +warmly interested in their favour. The great contemporary +master of wordmanship, and indeed of all literary arts and +technicalities, had not unnaturally dazzled a beginner. But +it is best to dwell on merits, for it is these that are most +often overlooked. + +BURNS. - I have left the introductory sentences on Principal +Shairp, partly to explain my own paper, which was merely +supplemental to his amiable but imperfect book, partly +because that book appears to me truly misleading both as to +the character and the genius of Burns. This seems +ungracious, but Mr. Shairp has himself to blame; so good a +Wordsworthian was out of character upon that stage. + +This half apology apart, nothing more falls to be said except +upon a remark called forth by my study in the columns of a +literary Review. The exact terms in which that sheet +disposed of Burns I cannot now recall; but they were to this +effect - that Burns was a bad man, the impure vehicle of fine +verses; and that this was the view to which all criticism +tended. Now I knew, for my own part, that it was with the +profoundest pity, but with a growing esteem, that I studied +the man's desperate efforts to do right; and the more I +reflected, the stranger it appeared to me that any thinking +being should feel otherwise. The complete letters shed, +indeed, a light on the depths to which Burns had sunk in his +character of Don Juan, but they enhance in the same +proportion the hopeless nobility of his marrying Jean. That +I ought to have stated this more noisily I now see; but that +any one should fail to see it for himself, is to me a thing +both incomprehensible and worthy of open scorn. If Burns, on +the facts dealt with in this study, is to be called a bad +man, I question very much whether either I or the writer in +the Review have ever encountered what it would be fair to +call a good one. All have some fault. The fault of each +grinds down the hearts of those about him, and - let us not +blink the truth - hurries both him and them into the grave. +And when we find a man persevering indeed, in his fault, as +all of us do, and openly overtaken, as not all of us are, by +its consequences, to gloss the matter over, with too polite +biographers, is to do the work of the wrecker disfiguring +beacons on a perilous seaboard; but to call him bad, with a +self-righteous chuckle, is to be talking in one's sleep with +Heedless and Too-bold in the arbour. + +Yet it is undeniable that much anger and distress is raised +in many quarters by the least attempt to state plainly, what +every one well knows, of Burns's profligacy, and of the fatal +consequences of his marriage. And for this there are perhaps +two subsidiary reasons. For, first, there is, in our drunken +land, a certain privilege extended to drunkenness. In +Scotland, in particular, it is almost respectable, above all +when compared with any "irregularity between the sexes." The +selfishness of the one, so much more gross in essence, is so +much less immediately conspicuous in its results that our +demiurgeous Mrs. Grundy smiles apologetically on its victims. +It is often said - I have heard it with these ears - that +drunkenness "may lead to vice." Now I did not think it at +all proved that Burns was what is called a drunkard; and I +was obliged to dwell very plainly on the irregularity and the +too frequent vanity and meanness of his relations to women. +Hence, in the eyes of many, my study was a step towards the +demonstration of Burns's radical badness. + +But second, there is a certain class, professors of that low +morality so greatly more distressing than the better sort of +vice, to whom you must never represent an act that was +virtuous in itself, as attended by any other consequences +than a large family and fortune. To hint that Burns's +marriage had an evil influence is, with this class, to deny +the moral law. Yet such is the fact. It was bravely done; +but he had presumed too far on his strength. One after +another the lights of his life went out, and he fell from +circle to circle to the dishonoured sickbed of the end. And +surely for any one that has a thing to call a soul he shines +out tenfold more nobly in the failure of that frantic effort +to do right, than if he had turned on his heel with Worldly +Wiseman, married a congenial spouse, and lived orderly and +died reputably an old man. It is his chief title that he +refrained from "the wrong that amendeth wrong." But the +common, trashy mind of our generation is still aghast, like +the Jews of old, at any word of an unsuccessful virtue. Job +has been written and read; the tower of Siloam fell nineteen +hundred years ago; yet we have still to desire a little +Christianity, or, failing that, a little even of that rude, +old, Norse nobility of soul, which saw virtue and vice alike +go unrewarded, and was yet not shaken in its faith. + +WALT WHITMAN. - This is a case of a second difficulty which +lies continually before the writer of critical studies: that +he has to mediate between the author whom he loves and the +public who are certainly indifferent and frequently averse. +Many articles had been written on this notable man. One +after another had leaned, in my eyes, either to praise or +blame unduly. In the last case, they helped to blindfold our +fastidious public to an inspiring writer; in the other, by an +excess of unadulterated praise, they moved the more candid to +revolt. I was here on the horns of a dilemma; and between +these horns I squeezed myself with perhaps some loss to the +substance of the paper. Seeing so much in Whitman that was +merely ridiculous, as well as so much more that was +unsurpassed in force and fitness, - seeing the true prophet +doubled, as I thought, in places with the Bull in a China +Shop, - it appeared best to steer a middle course, and to +laugh with the scorners when I thought they had any excuse, +while I made haste to rejoice with the rejoicers over what is +imperishably good, lovely, human, or divine, in his +extraordinary poems. That was perhaps the right road; yet I +cannot help feeling that in this attempt to trim my sails +between an author whom I love and honour and a public too +averse to recognise his merit, I have been led into a tone +unbecoming from one of my stature to one of Whitman's. But +the good and the great man will go on his way not vexed with +my little shafts of merriment. He, first of any one, will +understand how, in the attempt to explain him credibly to +Mrs. Grundy, I have been led into certain airs of the man of +the world, which are merely ridiculous in me, and were not +intentionally discourteous to himself. But there is a worse +side to the question; for in my eagerness to be all things to +all men, I am afraid I may have sinned against proportion. +It will be enough to say here that Whitman's faults are few +and unimportant when they are set beside his surprising +merits. I had written another paper full of gratitude for +the help that had been given me in my life, full of +enthusiasm for the intrinsic merit of the poems, and +conceived in the noisiest extreme of youthful eloquence. The +present study was a rifacimento. From it, with the design +already mentioned, and in a fit of horror at my old excess, +the big words and emphatic passages were ruthlessly excised. +But this sort of prudence is frequently its own punishment; +along with the exaggeration, some of the truth is sacrificed; +and the result is cold, constrained, and grudging. In short, +I might almost everywhere have spoken more strongly than I +did. + +THOREAU. - Here is an admirable instance of the "point of +view" forced throughout, and of too earnest reflection on +imperfect facts. Upon me this pure, narrow, sunnily-ascetic +Thoreau had exercised a great charm. I have scarce written +ten sentences since I was introduced to him, but his +influence might be somewhere detected by a close observer. +Still it was as a writer that I had made his acquaintance; I +took him on his own explicit terms; and when I learned +details of his life, they were, by the nature of the case and +my own PARTI-PRIS, read even with a certain violence in terms +of his writings. There could scarce be a perversion more +justifiable than that; yet it was still a perversion. The +study indeed, raised so much ire in the breast of Dr. Japp +(H. A. Page), Thoreau's sincere and learned disciple, that +had either of us been men, I please myself with thinking, of +less temper and justice, the difference might have made us +enemies instead of making us friends. To him who knew the +man from the inside, many of my statements sounded like +inversions made on purpose; and yet when we came to talk of +them together, and he had understood how I was looking at the +man through the books, while he had long since learned to +read the books through the man, I believe he understood the +spirit in which I had been led astray. + +On two most important points, Dr. Japp added to my knowledge, +and with the same blow fairly demolished that part of my +criticism. First, if Thoreau were content to dwell by Walden +Pond, it was not merely with designs of self-improvement, but +to serve mankind in the highest sense. Hither came the +fleeing slave; thence was he despatched along the road to +freedom. That shanty in the woods was a station in the great +Underground Railroad; that adroit and philosophic solitary +was an ardent worker, soul and body, in that so much more +than honourable movement, which, if atonement were possible +for nations, should have gone far to wipe away the guilt of +slavery. But in history sin always meets with condign +punishment; the generation passes, the offence remains, and +the innocent must suffer. No underground railroad could +atone for slavery, even as no bills in Parliament can redeem +the ancient wrongs of Ireland. But here at least is a new +light shed on the Walden episode. + +Second, it appears, and the point is capital, that Thoreau +was once fairly and manfully in love, and, with perhaps too +much aping of the angel, relinquished the woman to his +brother. Even though the brother were like to die of it, we +have not yet heard the last opinion of the woman. But be +that as it may, we have here the explanation of the "rarefied +and freezing air" in which I complained that he had taught +himself to breathe. Reading the man through the books, I +took his professions in good faith. He made a dupe of me, +even as he was seeking to make a dupe of himself, wresting +philosophy to the needs of his own sorrow. But in the light +of this new fact, those pages, seemingly so cold, are seen to +be alive with feeling. What appeared to be a lack of +interest in the philosopher turns out to have been a touching +insincerity of the man to his own heart; and that fine-spun +airy theory of friendship, so devoid, as I complained, of any +quality of flesh and blood, a mere anodyne to lull his pains. +The most temperate of living critics once marked a passage of +my own with a cross ar d the words, "This seems nonsense." +It not only seemed; it was so. It was a private bravado of +my own, which I had so often repeated to keep up my spirits, +that I had grown at last wholly to believe it, and had ended +by setting it down as a contribution to the theory of life. +So with the more icy parts of this philosophy of Thoreau's. +He was affecting the Spartanism he had not; and the old +sentimental wound still bled afresh, while he deceived +himself with reasons. + +Thoreau's theory, in short, was one thing and himself +another: of the first, the reader will find what I believe to +be a pretty faithful statement and a fairly just criticism in +the study; of the second he will find but a contorted shadow. +So much of the man as fitted nicely with his doctrines, in +the photographer's phrase, came out. But that large part +which lay outside and beyond, for which he had found or +sought no formula, on which perhaps his philosophy even +looked askance, is wanting in my study, as it was wanting in +the guide I followed. In some ways a less serious writer, in +all ways a nobler man, the true Thoreau still remains to be +depicted. + +VILLON. - I am tempted to regret that I ever wrote on this +subject, not merely because the paper strikes me as too +picturesque by half, but because I regarded Villon as a bad +fellow. Others still think well of him, and can find +beautiful and human traits where I saw nothing but artistic +evil; and by the principle of the art, those should have +written of the man, and not I. Where you see no good, +silence is the best. Though this penitence comes too late, +it may be well, at least, to give it expression. + +The spirit of Villon is still living in the literature of +France. Fat Peg is oddly of a piece with the work of Zola, +the Goncourts, and the infinitely greater Flaubert; and, +while similar in ugliness, still surpasses them in native +power. The old author, breaking with an ECLAT DE VOIX, out +of his tongue-tied century, has not yet been touched on his +own ground, and still gives us the most vivid and shocking +impression of reality. Even if that were not worth doing at +all, it would be worth doing as well as he has done it; for +the pleasure we take in the author's skill repays us, or at +least reconciles us to the baseness of his attitude. Fat Peg +(LA GROSSE MARGOT) is typical of much; it is a piece of +experience that has nowhere else been rendered into +literature; and a kind of gratitude for the author's +plainness mingles, as we read, with the nausea proper to the +business. I shall quote here a verse of an old students' +song, worth laying side by side with Villon's startling +ballade. This singer, also, had an unworthy mistress, but he +did not choose to share the wages of dishonour; and it is +thus, with both wit and pathos, that he laments her fall:- + +Nunc plango florem +AEtatis tenerae +Nitidiorem +Veneris sidere: +Tunc columbinam +Mentis dulcedinem, +Nunc serpentinam +Amaritudinem. +Verbo rogantes +Removes ostio, +Munera dantes +Foves cubiculo, +Illos abire praecipis +A quibus nihil accipis, +Caecos claudosque recipis, +Viros illustres decipis +Cum melle venenosa. (1) + +(1) GAUDEAMUS: CARMINA VAGORUM SELECTA. Leipsic. Trubner. +1879. + +But our illustrious writer of ballades it was unnecessary to +deceive; it was the flight of beauty alone, not that of +honesty or honour, that he lamented in his song; and the +nameless mediaeval vagabond has the best of the comparison. + +There is now a Villon Society in England; and Mr. John Payne +has translated him entirely into English, a task of unusual +difficulty. I regret to find that Mr. Payne and I are not +always at one as to the author's meaning; in such cases I am +bound to suppose that he is in the right, although the +weakness of the flesh withholds me from anything beyond a +formal submission. He is now upon a larger venture, +promising us at last that complete Arabian Nights to which we +have all so long looked forward. + +CHARLES OF ORLEANS. - Perhaps I have done scanty justice to +the charm of the old Duke's verses, and certainly he is too +much treated as a fool. The period is not sufficiently +remembered. What that period was, to what a blank of +imbecility the human mind had fallen, can only be known to +those who have waded in the chronicles. Excepting Comines +and La Salle and Villon, I have read no author who did not +appal me by his torpor; and even the trial of Joan of Arc, +conducted as it was by chosen clerks, bears witness to a +dreary, sterile folly, - a twilight of the mind peopled with +childish phantoms. In relation to his contemporaries, +Charles seems quite a lively character. + +It remains for me to acknowledge the kindness of Mr. Henry +Pyne, who, immediately on the appearance of the study, sent +me his edition of the Debate between the Heralds: a courtesy +from the expert to the amateur only too uncommon in these +days. + +KNOX. - Knox, the second in order of interest among the +reformers, lies dead and buried in the works of the learned +and unreadable M'Crie. It remains for some one to break the +tomb and bring him forth, alive again and breathing, in a +human book. With the best intentions in the world, I have +only added two more flagstones, ponderous like their +predecessors, to the mass of obstruction that buries the +reformer from the world; I have touched him in my turn with +that "mace of death," which Carlyle has attributed to +Dryasdust; and my two dull papers are, in the matter of +dulness, worthy additions to the labours of M'Crie. Yet I +believe they are worth reprinting in the interest of the next +biographer of Knox. I trust his book may be a masterpiece; +and I indulge the hope that my two studies may lend him a +hint or perhaps spare him a delay in its composition. + +Of the PEPYS I can say nothing; for it has been too recently +through my hands; and I still retain some of the heat of +composition. Yet it may serve as a text for the last remark +I have to offer. To Pepys I think I have been amply just; to +the others, to Burns, Thoreau, Whitman, Charles of Orleans, +even Villon, I have found myself in the retrospect ever too +grudging of praise, ever too disrespectful in manner. It is +not easy to see why I should have been most liberal to the +man of least pretensions. Perhaps some cowardice withheld me +from the proper warmth of tone; perhaps it is easier to be +just to those nearer us in rank of mind. Such at least is +the fact, which other critics may explain. For these were +all men whom, for one reason or another, I loved; or when I +did not love the men, my love was the greater to their books. +I had read them and lived with them; for months they were +continually in my thoughts; I seemed to rejoice in their joys +and to sorrow with them in their griefs; and behold, when I +came to write of them, my tone was sometimes hardly courteous +and seldom wholly just. + +R. L. S. + + + +CONTENTS. + + +I. VICTOR HUGO'S ROMANCES +II. SOME ASPECTS OF ROBERT BURNS +III. WALT WHITMAN +IV. HENRY DAVID THOREAU: HIS CHARACTER AND OPINIONS +V. YOSHIDA-TORAJIRO +VI. FRANCOIS VILLON, STUDENT, POET, AND HOUSE-BREAKER +VII. CHARLES OF ORLEANS +VIII. SAMUEL PEPYS +IX. JOHN KNOX AND WOMEN + + + +CHAPTER I - VICTOR HUGO'S ROMANCES + + + +Apres le roman pittoresque mais prosaique de Walter Scott il +lestera un autre roman a creer, plus beau et plus complet +encore selon nous. C'est le roman, a la fois drame et +epopee, pittoresque mais poetique, reel mais ideal, vrai mais +grand, qui enchassera Walter Scott dans Homere. - Victor Hugo +on QUENTIN DURWARD. + + +VICTOR HUGO'S romances occupy an important position in the +history of literature; many innovations, timidly made +elsewhere, have in them been carried boldly out to their last +consequences; much that was indefinite in literary tendencies +has attained to definite maturity; many things have come to a +point and been distinguished one from the other; and it is +only in the last romance of all, QUATRE VINGT TREIZE, that +this culmination is most perfect. This is in the nature of +things. Men who are in any way typical of a stage of +progress may be compared more justly to the hand upon the +dial of the clock, which continues to advance as it +indicates, than to the stationary milestone, which is only +the measure of what is past. The movement is not arrested. +That significant something by which the work of such a man +differs from that of his predecessors, goes on disengaging +itself and becoming more and more articulate and cognisable. +The same principle of growth that carried his first book +beyond the books of previous writers, carries his last book +beyond his first. And just as the most imbecile production +of any literary age gives us sometimes the very clue to +comprehension we have sought long and vainly in contemporary +masterpieces, so it may be the very weakest of an author's +books that, coming in the sequel of many others, enables us +at last to get hold of what underlies the whole of them - of +that spinal marrow of significance that unites the work of +his life into something organic and rational. This is what +has been done by QUATRE VINGT TREIZE for the earlier romances +of Victor Hugo, and, through them, for a whole division of +modern literature. We have here the legitimate continuation +of a long and living literary tradition; and hence, so far, +its explanation. When many lines diverge from each other in +direction so slightly as to confuse the eye, we know that we +have only to produce them to make the chaos plain: this is +continually so in literary history; and we shall best +understand the importance of Victor Hugo's romances if we +think of them as some such prolongation of one of the main +lines of literary tendency. + +When we compare the novels of Walter Scott with those of the +man of genius who preceded him, and whom he delighted to +honour as a master in the art - I mean Henry Fielding - we +shall be somewhat puzzled, at the first moment, to state the +difference that there is between these two. Fielding has as +much human science; has a far firmer hold upon the tiller of +his story; has a keen sense of character, which he draws (and +Scott often does so too) in a rather abstract and academical +manner; and finally, is quite as humorous and quite as good- +humoured as the great Scotchman. With all these points of +resemblance between the men, it is astonishing that their +work should be so different. The fact is, that the English +novel was looking one way and seeking one set of effects in +the hands of Fielding; and in the hands of Scott it was +looking eagerly in all ways and searching for all the effects +that by any possibility it could utilise. The difference +between these two men marks a great enfranchisement. With +Scott the Romantic movement, the movement of an extended +curiosity and an enfranchised imagination, has begun. This +is a trite thing to say; but trite things are often very +indefinitely comprehended: and this enfranchisement, in as +far as it regards the technical change that came over modern +prose romance, has never perhaps been explained with any +clearness. + +To do so, it will be necessary roughly to compare the two +sets of conventions upon which plays and romances are +respectively based. The purposes of these two arts are so +much alike, and they deal so much with the same passions and +interests, that we are apt to forget the fundamental +opposition of their methods. And yet such a fundamental +opposition exists. In the drama the action is developed in +great measure by means of things that remain outside of the +art; by means of real things, that is, and not artistic +conventions for things. This is a sort of realism that is +not to be confounded with that realism in painting of which +we hear so much. The realism in painting is a thing of +purposes; this, that we have to indicate in the drama, is an +affair of method. We have heard a story, indeed, of a +painter in France who, when he wanted to paint a sea-beach, +carried realism from his ends to his means, and plastered +real sand upon his canvas; and that is precisely what is done +in the drama. The dramatic author has to paint his beaches +with real sand: real live men and women move about the stage; +we hear real voices; what is feigned merely puts a sense upon +what is; we do actually see a woman go behind a screen as +Lady Teazle, and, after a certain interval, we do actually +see her very shamefully produced again. Now all these +things, that remain as they were in life, and are not +transmuted into any artistic convention, are terribly +stubborn and difficult to deal with; and hence there are for +the dramatist many resultant limitations in time and space. +These limitations in some sort approximate towards those of +painting: the dramatic author is tied down, not indeed to a +moment, but to the duration of each scene or act; he is +confined to the stage, almost as the painter is confined +within his frame. But the great restriction is this, that a +dramatic author must deal with his actors, and with his +actors alone. Certain moments of suspense, certain +significant dispositions of personages, a certain logical +growth of emotion, these are the only means at the disposal +of the playwright. It is true that, with the assistance of +the scene-painter, the costumier and the conductor of the +orchestra, he may add to this something of pageant, something +of sound and fury; but these are, for the dramatic writer, +beside the mark, and do not come under the vivifying touch of +his genius. When we turn to romance, we find this no longer. +Here nothing is reproduced to our senses directly. Not only +the main conception of the work, but the scenery, the +appliances, the mechanism by which this conception is brought +home to us, have been put through the crucible of another +man's mind, and come out again, one and all, in the form of +written words. With the loss of every degree of such realism +as we have described, there is for art a clear gain of +liberty and largeness of competence. Thus, painting, in +which the round outlines of things are thrown on to a flat +board, is far more free than sculpture, in which their +solidity is preserved. It is by giving up these identities +that art gains true strength. And so in the case of novels +as compared with the stage. Continuous narration is the flat +board on to which the novelist throws everything. And from +this there results for him a great loss of vividness, but a +great compensating gain in his power over the subject; so +that he can now subordinate one thing to another in +importance, and introduce all manner of very subtle detail, +to a degree that was before impossible. He can render just +as easily the flourish of trumpets before a victorious +emperor and the gossip of country market women, the gradual +decay of forty years of a man's life and the gesture of a +passionate moment. He finds himself equally unable, if he +looks at it from one point of view - equally able, if he +looks at it from another point of view - to reproduce a +colour, a sound, an outline, a logical argument, a physical +action. He can show his readers, behind and around the +personages that for the moment occupy the foreground of his +story, the continual suggestion of the landscape; the turn of +the weather that will turn with it men's lives and fortunes, +dimly foreshadowed on the horizon; the fatality of distant +events, the stream of national tendency, the salient +framework of causation. And all this thrown upon the flat +board - all this entering, naturally and smoothly, into the +texture of continuous intelligent narration. + +This touches the difference between Fielding and Scott. In +the work of the latter, true to his character of a modern and +a romantic, we become suddenly conscious of the background. +Fielding, on the other hand, although he had recognised that +the novel was nothing else than an epic in prose, wrote in +the spirit not of the epic, but of the drama. This is not, +of course, to say that the drama was in any way incapable of +a regeneration similar in kind to that of which I am now +speaking with regard to the novel. The notorious contrary +fact is sufficient to guard the reader against such a +misconstruction. All that is meant is, that Fielding +remained ignorant of certain capabilities which the novel +possesses over the drama; or, at least, neglected and did not +develop them. To the end he continued to see things as a +playwright sees them. The world with which he dealt, the +world he had realised for himself and sought to realise and +set before his readers, was a world of exclusively human +interest. As for landscape, he was content to underline +stage directions, as it might be done in a play-book: Tom and +Molly retire into a practicable wood. As for nationality and +public sentiment, it is curious enough to think that Tom +Jones is laid in the year forty-five, and that the only use +he makes of the rebellion is to throw a troop of soldiers +into his hero's way. It is most really important, however, +to remark the change which has been introduced into the +conception of character by the beginning of the romantic +movement and the consequent introduction into fiction of a +vast amount of new material. Fielding tells us as much as he +thought necessary to account for the actions of his +creatures; he thought that each of these actions could be +decomposed on the spot into a few simple personal elements, +as we decompose a force in a question of abstract dynamics. +The larger motives are all unknown to him; he had not +understood that the nature of the landscape or the spirit of +the times could be for anything in a story; and so, naturally +and rightly, he said nothing about them. But Scott's +instinct, the instinct of the man of an age profoundly +different, taught him otherwise; and, in his work, the +individual characters begin to occupy a comparatively small +proportion of that canvas on which armies manoeuvre, and +great hills pile themselves upon each other's shoulders. +Fielding's characters were always great to the full stature +of a perfectly arbitrary will. Already in Scott we begin to +have a sense of the subtle influences that moderate and +qualify a man's personality; that personality is no longer +thrown out in unnatural isolation, but is resumed into its +place in the constitution of things. + +It is this change in the manner of regarding men and their +actions first exhibited in romance, that has since renewed +and vivified history. For art precedes philosophy and even +science. People must have noticed things and interested +themselves in them before they begin to debate upon their +causes or influence. And it is in this way that art is the +pioneer of knowledge; those predilections of the artist he +knows not why, those irrational acceptations and +recognitions, reclaim, out of the world that we have not yet +realised, ever another and another corner; and after the +facts have been thus vividly brought before us and have had +time to settle and arrange themselves in our minds, some day +there will be found the man of science to stand up and give +the explanation. Scott took an interest in many things in +which Fielding took none; and for this reason, and no other, +he introduced them into his romances. If he had been told +what would be the nature of the movement that he was so +lightly initiating, he would have been very incredulous and +not a little scandalised. At the time when he wrote, the +real drift of this new manner of pleasing people in fiction +was not yet apparent; and, even now, it is only by looking at +the romances of Victor Hugo that we are enabled to form any +proper judgment in the matter. These books are not only +descended by ordinary generation from the Waverley novels, +but it is in them chiefly that we shall find the +revolutionary tradition of Scott carried farther that we +shall find Scott himself, in so far as regards his conception +of prose fiction and its purposes, surpassed in his own +spirit, instead of tamely followed. We have here, as I said +before, a line of literary tendency produced, and by this +production definitely separated from others. When we come to +Hugo, we see that the deviation, which seemed slight enough +and not very serious between Scott and Fielding, is indeed +such a great gulph in thought and sentiment as only +successive generations can pass over: and it is but natural +that one of the chief advances that Hugo has made upon Scott +is an advance in self-consciousness. Both men follow the +same road; but where the one went blindly and carelessly, the +other advances with all deliberation and forethought. There +never was artist much more unconscious than Scott; and there +have been not many more conscious than Hugo. The passage at +the head of these pages shows how organically he had +understood the nature of his own changes. He has, underlying +each of the five great romances (which alone I purpose here +to examine), two deliberate designs: one artistic, the other +consciously ethical and intellectual. This is a man living +in a different world from Scott, who professes sturdily (in +one of his introductions) that he does not believe in novels +having any moral influence at all; but still Hugo is too much +of an artist to let himself be hampered by his dogmas; and +the truth is that the artistic result seems, in at least one +great instance, to have very little connection with the +other, or directly ethical result. + +The artistic result of a romance, what is left upon the +memory by any really powerful and artistic novel, is +something so complicated and refined that it is difficult to +put a name upon it and yet something as simple as nature. +These two propositions may seem mutually destructive, but +they are so only in appearance. The fact is that art is +working far ahead of language as well as of science, +realising for us, by all manner of suggestions and +exaggerations, effects for which as yet we have no direct +name; nay, for which we may never perhaps have a direct name, +for the reason that these effects do not enter very largely +into the necessities of life. Hence alone is that suspicion +of vagueness that often hangs about the purpose of a romance: +it is clear enough to us in thought; but we are not used to +consider anything clear until we are able to formulate it in +words, and analytical language has not been sufficiently +shaped to that end. We all know this difficulty in the case +of a picture, simple and strong as may be the impression that +it has left with us; and it is only because language is the +medium of romance, that we are prevented from seeing that the +two cases are the same. It is not that there is anything +blurred or indefinite in the impression left with us, it is +just because the impression is so very definite after its own +kind, that we find it hard to fit it exactly with the +expressions of our philosophical speech. + +It is this idea which underlies and issues from a romance, +this something which it is the function of that form of art +to create, this epical value, that I propose chiefly to seek +and, as far as may be, to throw into relief, in the present +study. It is thus, I believe, that we shall see most clearly +the great stride that Hugo has taken beyond his predecessors, +and how, no longer content with expressing more or less +abstract relations of man to man, he has set before himself +the task of realising, in the language of romance, much of +the involution of our complicated lives. + +This epical value is not to be found, let it be understood, +in every so-called novel. The great majority are not works +of art in anything but a very secondary signification. One +might almost number on one's fingers the works in which such +a supreme artistic intention has been in any way superior to +the other and lesser aims, themselves more or less artistic, +that generally go hand in hand with it in the conception of +prose romance. The purely critical spirit is, in most +novels, paramount. At the present moment we can recall one +man only, for whose works it would have been equally possible +to accomplish our present design: and that man is Hawthorne. +There is a unity, an unwavering creative purpose, about some +at least of Hawthorne's romances, that impresses itself on +the most indifferent reader; and the very restrictions and +weaknesses of the man served perhaps to strengthen the vivid +and single impression of his works. There is nothing of this +kind in Hugo: unity, if he attains to it, is indeed unity out +of multitude; and it is the wonderful power of subordination +and synthesis thus displayed, that gives us the measure of +his talent. No amount of mere discussion and statement, such +as this, could give a just conception of the greatness of +this power. It must be felt in the books themselves, and all +that can be done in the present essay is to recall to the +reader the more general features of each of the five great +romances, hurriedly and imperfectly, as space will permit, +and rather as a suggestion than anything more complete. + +The moral end that the author had before him in the +conception of NOTRE DAME DE PARIS was (he tells us) to +"denounce" the external fatality that hangs over men in the +form of foolish and inflexible superstition. To speak +plainly, this moral purpose seems to have mighty little to do +with the artistic conception; moreover it is very +questionably handled, while the artistic conception is +developed with the most consummate success. Old Paris lives +for us with newness of life: we have ever before our eyes the +city cut into three by the two arms of the river, the boat- +shaped island "moored" by five bridges to the different +shores, and the two unequal towns on either hand. We forget +all that enumeration of palaces and churches and convents +which occupies so many pages of admirable description, and +the thoughtless reader might be inclined to conclude from +this, that they were pages thrown away; but this is not so: +we forget, indeed, the details, as we forget or do not see +the different layers of paint on a completed picture; but the +thing desired has been accomplished, and we carry away with +us a sense of the "Gothic profile" of the city, of the +"surprising forest of pinnacles and towers and belfries," and +we know not what of rich and intricate and quaint. And +throughout, Notre Dame has been held up over Paris by a +height far greater than that of its twin towers: the +Cathedral is present to us from the first page to the last; +the title has given us the clue, and already in the Palace of +Justice the story begins to attach itself to that central +building by character after character. It is purely an +effect of mirage; Notre Dame does not, in reality, thus +dominate and stand out above the city; and any one who should +visit it, in the spirit of the Scott-tourists to Edinburgh or +the Trossachs, would be almost offended at finding nothing +more than this old church thrust away into a corner. It is +purely an effect of mirage, as we say; but it is an effect +that permeates and possesses the whole book with astonishing +consistency and strength. And then, Hugo has peopled this +Gothic city, and, above all, this Gothic church, with a race +of men even more distinctly Gothic than their surroundings. +We know this generation already: we have seen them clustered +about the worn capitals of pillars, or craning forth over the +church-leads with the open mouths of gargoyles. About them +all there is that sort of stiff quaint unreality, that +conjunction of the grotesque, and even of a certain bourgeois +snugness, with passionate contortion and horror, that is so +characteristic of Gothic art. Esmeralda is somewhat an +exception; she and the goat traverse the story like two +children who have wandered in a dream. The finest moment of +the book is when these two share with the two other leading +characters, Dom Claude and Quasimodo, the chill shelter of +the old cathedral. It is here that we touch most intimately +the generative artistic idea of the romance: are they not all +four taken out of some quaint moulding, illustrative of the +Beatitudes, or the Ten Commandments, or the seven deadly +sins? What is Quasimodo but an animated gargoyle? What is +the whole book but the reanimation of Gothic art? + +It is curious that in this, the earliest of the five great +romances, there should be so little of that extravagance that +latterly we have come almost to identify with the author's +manner. Yet even here we are distressed by words, thoughts, +and incidents that defy belief and alienate the sympathies. +The scene of the IN PACE, for example, in spite of its +strength, verges dangerously on the province of the penny +novelist. I do not believe that Quasimodo rode upon the +bell; I should as soon imagine that he swung by the clapper. +And again the following two sentences, out of an otherwise +admirable chapter, surely surpass what it has ever entered +into the heart of any other man to imagine (vol. ii. p. 180): +"Il souffrait tant que par instants il s'arrachait des +poignees de cheveux, POUR VOIR S'ILS NE BLANCHISSAIENT PAS." +And, p. 181: "Ses pensees etaient si insupportables qu'il +prenait sa tete a deux mains et tachait de l'arracher de ses +epaules POUR LA BRISER SUR LE PAVE." + +One other fault, before we pass on. In spite of the horror +and misery that pervade all of his later work, there is in it +much less of actual melodrama than here, and rarely, I should +say never, that sort of brutality, that useless insufferable +violence to the feelings, which is the last distinction +between melodrama and true tragedy. Now, in NOTRE DAME, the +whole story of Esmeralda's passion for the worthless archer +is unpleasant enough; but when she betrays herself in her +last hiding-place, herself and her wretched mother, by +calling out to this sordid hero who has long since forgotten +her - well, that is just one of those things that readers +will not forgive; they do not like it, and they are quite +right; life is hard enough for poor mortals, without having +it indefinitely embittered for them by bad art. + +We look in vain for any similar blemish in LES MISERABLES. +Here, on the other hand, there is perhaps the nearest +approach to literary restraint that Hugo has ever made: there +is here certainly the ripest and most easy development of his +powers. It is the moral intention of this great novel to +awaken us a little, if it may be - for such awakenings are +unpleasant - to the great cost of this society that we enjoy +and profit by, to the labour and sweat of those who support +the litter, civilisation, in which we ourselves are so +smoothly carried forward. People are all glad to shut their +eyes; and it gives them a very simple pleasure when they can +forget that our laws commit a million individual injustices, +to be once roughly just in the general; that the bread that +we eat, and the quiet of the family, and all that embellishes +life and makes it worth having, have to be purchased by death +- by the deaths of animals, and the deaths of men wearied out +with labour, and the deaths of those criminals called tyrants +and revolutionaries, and the deaths of those revolutionaries +called criminals. It is to something of all this that Victor +Hugo wishes to open men's eyes in LES MISERABLES; and this +moral lesson is worked out in masterly coincidence with the +artistic effect. The deadly weight of civilisation to those +who are below presses sensibly on our shoulders as we read. +A sort of mocking indignation grows upon us as we find +Society rejecting, again and again, the services of the most +serviceable; setting Jean Valjean to pick oakum, casting +Galileo into prison, even crucifying Christ. There is a +haunting and horrible sense of insecurity about the book. +The terror we thus feel is a terror for the machinery of law, +that we can hear tearing, in the dark, good and bad between +its formidable wheels with the iron stolidity of all +machinery, human or divine. This terror incarnates itself +sometimes and leaps horribly out upon us; as when the +crouching mendicant looks up, and Jean Valjean, in the light +of the street lamp, recognises the face of the detective; as +when the lantern of the patrol flashes suddenly through the +darkness of the sewer; or as when the fugitive comes forth at +last at evening, by the quiet riverside, and finds the police +there also, waiting stolidly for vice and stolidly satisfied +to take virtue instead. The whole book is full of +oppression, and full of prejudice, which is the great cause +of oppression. We have the prejudices of M. Gillenormand, +the prejudices of Marius, the prejudices in revolt that +defend the barricade, and the throned prejudices that carry +it by storm. And then we have the admirable but ill-written +character of Javert, the man who had made a religion of the +police, and would not survive the moment when he learned that +there was another truth outside the truth of laws; a just +creation, over which the reader will do well to ponder. + +With so gloomy a design this great work is still full of life +and light and love. The portrait of the good Bishop is one +of the most agreeable things in modern literature. The whole +scene at Montfermeil is full of the charm that Hugo knows so +well how to throw about children. Who can forget the passage +where Cosette, sent out at night to draw water, stands in +admiration before the illuminated booth, and the huckster +behind "lui faisait un peu l'effet d'etre le Pere eternel?" +The pathos of the forlorn sabot laid trustingly by the +chimney in expectation of the Santa Claus that was not, takes +us fairly by the throat; there is nothing in Shakespeare that +touches the heart more nearly. The loves of Cosette and +Marius are very pure and pleasant, and we cannot refuse our +affection to Gavroche, although we may make a mental +reservation of our profound disbelief in his existence. Take +it for all in all, there are few books in the world that can +be compared with it. There is as much calm and serenity as +Hugo has ever attained to; the melodramatic coarsenesses that +disfigured NOTRE DAME are no longer present. There is +certainly much that is painfully improbable; and again, the +story itself is a little too well constructed; it produces on +us the effect of a puzzle, and we grow incredulous as we find +that every character fits again and again into the plot, and +is, like the child's cube, serviceable on six faces; things +are not so well arranged in life as all that comes to. Some +of the digressions, also, seem out of place, and do nothing +but interrupt and irritate. But when all is said, the book +remains of masterly conception and of masterly development, +full of pathos, full of truth, full of a high eloquence. + +Superstition and social exigency having been thus dealt with +in the first two members of the series, it remained for LES +TRAVAILLEURS DE LA MER to show man hand to hand with the +elements, the last form of external force that is brought +against him. And here once more the artistic effect and the +moral lesson are worked out together, and are, indeed, one. +Gilliat, alone upon the reef at his herculean task, offers a +type of human industry in the midst of the vague "diffusion +of forces into the illimitable," and the visionary +development of "wasted labour" in the sea, and the winds, and +the clouds. No character was ever thrown into such strange +relief as Gilliat. The great circle of sea-birds that come +wanderingly around him on the night of his arrival, strikes +at once the note of his pre-eminence and isolation. He fills +the whole reef with his indefatigable toil; this solitary +spot in the ocean rings with the clamour of his anvil; we see +him as he comes and goes, thrown out sharply against the +clear background of the sea. And yet his isolation is not to +be compared with the isolation of Robinson Crusoe, for +example; indeed, no two books could be more instructive to +set side by side than LES TRAVAILLEURS and this other of the +old days before art had learnt to occupy itself with what +lies outside of human will. Crusoe was one sole centre of +interest in the midst of a nature utterly dead and utterly +unrealised by the artist; but this is not how we feel with +Gilliat; we feel that he is opposed by a "dark coalition of +forces," that an "immense animosity" surrounds him; we are +the witnesses of the terrible warfare that he wages with "the +silent inclemency of phenomena going their own way, and the +great general law, implacable and passive:" "a conspiracy of +the indifferency of things" is against him. There is not one +interest on the reef, but two. Just as we recognise Gilliat +for the hero, we recognise, as implied by this indifferency +of things, this direction of forces to some purpose outside +our purposes, yet another character who may almost take rank +as the villain of the novel, and the two face up to one +another blow for blow, feint for feint, until, in the storm, +they fight it epically out, and Gilliat remains the victor; - +a victor, however, who has still to encounter the octopus. I +need say nothing of the gruesome, repulsive excellence of +that famous scene; it will be enough to remind the reader +that Gilliat is in pursuit of a crab when he is himself +assaulted by the devil fish, and that this, in its way, is +the last touch to the inner significance of the book; here, +indeed, is the true position of man in the universe. + +But in LES TRAVAILLEURS, with all its strength, with all its +eloquence, with all the beauty and fitness of its main +situations, we cannot conceal from ourselves that there is a +thread of something that will not bear calm scrutiny. There +is much that is disquieting about the storm, admirably as it +begins. I am very doubtful whether it would be possible to +keep the boat from foundering in such circumstances, by any +amount of breakwater and broken rock. I do not understand +the way in which the waves are spoken of, and prefer just to +take it as a loose way of speaking, and pass on. And lastly, +how does it happen that the sea was quite calm next day? Is +this great hurricane a piece of scene-painting after all? +And when we have forgiven Gilliat's prodigies of strength +(although, in soberness, he reminds us more of Porthos in the +Vicomte de Bragelonne than is quite desirable), what is to be +said to his suicide, and how are we to condemn in adequate +terms that unprincipled avidity after effect, which tells us +that the sloop disappeared over the horizon, and the head +under the water, at one and the same moment? Monsieur Hugo +may say what he will, but we know better; we know very well +that they did not; a thing like that raises up a despairing +spirit of opposition in a man's readers; they give him the +lie fiercely, as they read. Lastly, we have here already +some beginning of that curious series of English blunders, +that makes us wonder if there are neither proof-sheets nor +judicious friends in the whole of France, and affects us +sometimes with a sickening uneasiness as to what may be our +own exploits when we touch upon foreign countries and foreign +tongues. It is here that we shall find the famous "first of +the fourth," and many English words that may be +comprehensible perhaps in Paris. It is here that we learn +that "laird" in Scotland is the same title as "lord" in +England. Here, also, is an account of a Highland soldier's +equipment, which we recommend to the lovers of genuine fun. + +In L'HOMME QUI RIT, it was Hugo's object to 'denounce' (as he +would say himself) the aristocratic principle as it was +exhibited in England; and this purpose, somewhat more +unmitigatedly satiric than that of the two last, must answer +for much that is unpleasant in the book. The repulsiveness +of the scheme of the story, and the manner in which it is +bound up with impossibilities and absurdities, discourage the +reader at the outset, and it needs an effort to take it as +seriously as it deserves. And yet when we judge it +deliberately, it will be seen that, here again, the story is +admirably adapted to the moral. The constructive ingenuity +exhibited throughout is almost morbid. Nothing could be more +happily imagined, as a REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM of the +aristocratic principle, than the adventures of Gwynplaine, +the itinerant mountebank, snatched suddenly out of his little +way of life, and installed without preparation as one of the +hereditary legislators of a great country. It is with a very +bitter irony that the paper, on which all this depends, is +left to float for years at the will of wind and tide. What, +again, can be finer in conception than that voice from the +people heard suddenly in the House of Lords, in solemn +arraignment of the pleasures and privileges of its splendid +occupants? The horrible laughter, stamped for ever "by order +of the king" upon the face of this strange spokesman of +democracy, adds yet another feature of justice to the scene; +in all time, travesty has been the argument of oppression; +and, in all time, the oppressed might have made this answer: +"If I am vile, is it not your system that has made me so?" +This ghastly laughter gives occasion, moreover, for the one +strain of tenderness running through the web of this +unpleasant story: the love of the blind girl Dea, for the +monster. It is a most benignant providence that thus +harmoniously brings together these two misfortunes; it is one +of those compensations, one of those afterthoughts of a +relenting destiny, that reconcile us from time to time to the +evil that is in the world; the atmosphere of the book is +purified by the presence of this pathetic love; it seems to +be above the story somehow, and not of it, as the full moon +over the night of some foul and feverish city. + +There is here a quality in the narration more intimate and +particular than is general with Hugo; but it must be owned, +on the other hand, that the book is wordy, and even, now and +then, a little wearisome. Ursus and his wolf are pleasant +enough companions; but the former is nearly as much an +abstract type as the latter. There is a beginning, also, of +an abuse of conventional conversation, such as may be quite +pardonable in the drama where needs must, but is without +excuse in the romance. Lastly, I suppose one must say a word +or two about the weak points of this not immaculate novel; +and if so, it will be best to distinguish at once. The large +family of English blunders, to which we have alluded already +in speaking of LES TRAVAILLEURS, are of a sort that is really +indifferent in art. If Shakespeare makes his ships cast +anchor by some seaport of Bohemia, if Hugo imagines Tom-Tim- +Jack to be a likely nickname for an English sailor, or if +either Shakespeare, or Hugo, or Scott, for that matter, be +guilty of "figments enough to confuse the march of a whole +history - anachronisms enough to overset all, chronology," +(1) the life of their creations, the artistic truth and +accuracy of their work, is not so much as compromised. But +when we come upon a passage like the sinking of the "Ourque" +in this romance, we can do nothing but cover our face with +our hands: the conscientious reader feels a sort of disgrace +in the very reading. For such artistic falsehoods, springing +from what I have called already an unprincipled avidity after +effect, no amount of blame can be exaggerated; and above all, +when the criminal is such a man as Victor Hugo. We cannot +forgive in him what we might have passed over in a third-rate +sensation novelist. Little as he seems to know of the sea +and nautical affairs, he must have known very well that +vessels do not go down as he makes the "Ourque" go down; he +must have known that such a liberty with fact was against the +laws of the game, and incompatible with all appearance of +sincerity in conception or workmanship. + +(1) Prefatory letter to PEVERIL OF THE PEAK. + +In each of these books, one after another, there has been +some departure from the traditional canons of romance; but +taking each separately, one would have feared to make too +much of these departures, or to found any theory upon what +was perhaps purely accidental. The appearance of QUATRE +VINGT TREIZE has put us out of the region of such doubt. +Like a doctor who has long been hesitating how to classify an +epidemic malady, we have come at last upon a case so well +marked that our uncertainty is at an end. It is a novel +built upon "a sort of enigma," which was at that date laid +before revolutionary France, and which is presented by Hugo +to Tellmarch, to Lantenac, to Gauvain, and very terribly to +Cimourdain, each of whom gives his own solution of the +question, clement or stern, according to the temper of his +spirit. That enigma was this: "Can a good action be a bad +action? Does not he who spares the wolf kill the sheep?" +This question, as I say, meets with one answer after another +during the course of the book, and yet seems to remain +undecided to the end. And something in the same way, +although one character, or one set of characters, after +another comes to the front and occupies our attention for the +moment, we never identify our interest with any of these +temporary heroes nor regret them after they are withdrawn. +We soon come to regard them somewhat as special cases of a +general law; what we really care for is something that they +only imply and body forth to us. We know how history +continues through century after century; how this king or +that patriot disappears from its pages with his whole +generation, and yet we do not cease to read, nor do we even +feel as if we had reached any legitimate conclusion, because +our interest is not in the men, but in the country that they +loved or hated, benefited or injured. And so it is here: +Gauvain and Cimourdain pass away, and we regard them no more +than the lost armies of which we find the cold statistics in +military annals; what we regard is what remains behind; it is +the principle that put these men where they were, that filled +them for a while with heroic inspiration, and has the power, +now that they are fallen, to inspire others with the same +courage. The interest of the novel centres about +revolutionary France: just as the plot is an abstract +judicial difficulty, the hero is an abstract historical +force. And this has been done, not, as it would have been +before, by the cold and cumbersome machinery of allegory, but +with bold, straightforward realism, dealing only with the +objective materials of art, and dealing with them so +masterfully that the palest abstractions of thought come +before us, and move our hopes and fears, as if they were the +young men and maidens of customary romance. + +The episode of the mother and children in QUATRE VINGT TREIZE +is equal to anything that Hugo has ever written. There is +one chapter in the second volume, for instance, called "SEIN +GUERI, COEUR SAIGNANT," that is full of the very stuff of +true tragedy, and nothing could be more delightful than the +humours of the three children on the day before the assault. +The passage on La Vendee is really great, and the scenes in +Paris have much of the same broad merit. The book is full, +as usual, of pregnant and splendid sayings. But when thus +much is conceded by way of praise, we come to the other scale +of the balance, and find this, also, somewhat heavy. There +is here a yet greater over-employment of conventional +dialogue than in L'HOMME QUI RIT; and much that should have +been said by the author himself, if it were to be said at +all, he has most unwarrantably put into the mouths of one or +other of his characters. We should like to know what becomes +of the main body of the troop in the wood of La Saudraie +during the thirty pages or so in which the foreguard lays +aside all discipline, and stops to gossip over a woman and +some children. We have an unpleasant idea forced upon us at +one place, in spite of all the good-natured incredulity that +we can summon up to resist it. Is it possible that Monsieur +Hugo thinks they ceased to steer the corvette while the gun +was loose? Of the chapter in which Lantenac and Halmalho are +alone together in the boat, the less said the better; of +course, if there were nothing else, they would have been +swamped thirty times over during the course of Lantenac's +harangue. Again, after Lantenac has landed, we have scenes +of almost inimitable workmanship that suggest the epithet +"statuesque" by their clear and trenchant outline; but the +tocsin scene will not do, and the tocsin unfortunately +pervades the whole passage, ringing continually in our ears +with a taunting accusation of falsehood. And then, when we +come to the place where Lantenac meets the royalists, under +the idea that he is going to meet the republicans, it seems +as if there were a hitch in the stage mechanism. I have +tried it over in every way, and I cannot conceive any +disposition that would make the scene possible as narrated. + +Such then, with their faults and their signal excellences, +are the five great novels. + +Romance is a language in which many persons learn to speak +with a certain appearance of fluency; but there are few who +can ever bend it to any practical need, few who can ever be +said to express themselves in it. It has become abundantly +plain in the foregoing examination that Victor Hugo occupies +a high place among those few. He has always a perfect +command over his stories; and we see that they are +constructed with a high regard to some ulterior purpose, and +that every situation is informed with moral significance and +grandeur. Of no other man can the same thing be said in the +same degree. His romances are not to be confused with "the +novel with a purpose" as familiar to the English reader: this +is generally the model of incompetence; and we see the moral +clumsily forced into every hole and corner of the story, or +thrown externally over it like a carpet over a railing. Now +the moral significance, with Hugo, is of the essence of the +romance; it is the organising principle. If you could +somehow despoil LES MISERABLES OR LES TRAVAILLEURS of their +distinctive lesson, you would find that the story had lost +its interest and the book was dead. + +Having thus learned to subordinate his story to an idea, to +make his art speak, he went on to teach it to say things +heretofore unaccustomed. If you look back at the five books +of which we have now so hastily spoken, you will be +astonished at the freedom with which the original purposes of +story-telling have been laid aside and passed by. Where are +now the two lovers who descended the main watershed of all +the Waverley novels, and all the novels that have tried to +follow in their wake? Sometimes they are almost lost sight +of before the solemn isolation of a man against the sea and +sky, as in LES TRAVAILLEURS; sometimes, as in LES MISERABLES, +they merely figure for awhile, as a beautiful episode in the +epic of oppression; sometimes they are entirely absent, as in +QUATRE VINGT TREIZE. There is no hero in NOTRE DAME: in LES +MISERABLES it is an old man: in L'HOMME QUI RIT it is a +monster: in QUATRE VINGT TREIZE it is the Revolution. Those +elements that only began to show themselves timidly, as +adjuncts, in the novels of Walter Scott, have usurped ever +more and more of the canvas; until we find the whole interest +of one of Hugo's romances centring around matter that +Fielding would have banished from his altogether, as being +out of the field of fiction. So we have elemental forces +occupying nearly as large a place, playing (so to speak) +nearly as important a ROLE, as the man, Gilliat, who opposes +and overcomes them. So we find the fortunes of a nation put +upon the stage with as much vividness as ever before the +fortunes of a village maiden or a lost heir; and the forces +that oppose and corrupt a principle holding the attention +quite as strongly as the wicked barons or dishonest attorneys +of the past. Hence those individual interests that were +supreme in Fielding, and even in Scott, stood out over +everything else and formed as it were the spine of the story, +figure here only as one set of interests among many sets, one +force among many forces, one thing to be treated out of a +whole world of things equally vivid and important. So that, +for Hugo, man is no longer an isolated spirit without +antecedent or relation here below, but a being involved in +the action and reaction of natural forces, himself a centre +of such action and reaction or an unit in a great multitude, +chased hither and thither by epidemic terrors and +aspirations, and, in all seriousness, blown about by every +wind of doctrine. This is a long way that we have travelled: +between such work and the work of Fielding is there not, +indeed, a great gulph in thought and sentiment? + +Art, thus conceived, realises for men a larger portion of +life, and that portion one that it is more difficult for them +to realise unaided; and, besides helping them to feel more +intensely those restricted personal interests which are +patent to all, it awakes in them some consciousness of those +more general relations that are so strangely invisible to the +average man in ordinary moods. It helps to keep man in his +place in nature, and, above all, it helps him to understand +more intelligently the responsibilities of his place in +society. And in all this generalisation of interest, we +never miss those small humanities that are at the opposite +pole of excellence in art; and while we admire the intellect +that could see life thus largely, we are touched with another +sentiment for the tender heart that slipped the piece of gold +into Cosette's sabot, that was virginally troubled at the +fluttering of her dress in the spring wind, or put the blind +girl beside the deformity of the laughing man. This, then, +is the last praise that we can award to these romances. The +author has shown a power of just subordination hitherto +unequalled; and as, in reaching forward to one class of +effects, he has not been forgetful or careless of the other, +his work is more nearly complete work, and his art, with all +its imperfections, deals more comprehensively with the +materials of life than that of any of his otherwise more sure +and masterly predecessors. + +These five books would have made a very great fame for any +writer, and yet they are but one facade of the monument that +Victor Hugo has erected to his genius. Everywhere we find +somewhat the same greatness, somewhat the same infirmities. +In his poems and plays there are the same unaccountable +protervities that have already astonished us in the romances. +There, too, is the same feverish strength, welding the fiery +iron of his idea under forge-hammer repetitions - an emphasis +that is somehow akin to weaknesses - strength that is a +little epileptic. He stands so far above all his +contemporaries, and so incomparably excels them in richness, +breadth, variety, and moral earnestness, that we almost feel +as if he had a sort of right to fall oftener and more heavily +than others; but this does not reconcile us to seeing him +profit by the privilege so freely. We like to have, in our +great men, something that is above question; we like to place +an implicit faith in them, and see them always on the +platform of their greatness; and this, unhappily, cannot be +with Hugo. As Heine said long ago, his is a genius somewhat +deformed; but, deformed as it is, we accept it gladly; we +shall have the wisdom to see where his foot slips, but we +shall have the justice also to recognise in him one of the +greatest artists of our generation, and, in many ways, one of +the greatest artists of time. If we look back, yet once, +upon these five romances, we see blemishes such as we can lay +to the charge of no other man in the number of the famous; +but to what other man can we attribute such sweeping +innovations, such a new and significant presentment of the +life of man, such an amount, if we merely think of the +amount, of equally consummate performance? + + + +CHAPTER II - SOME ASPECTS OF ROBERT BURNS + + + +To write with authority about another man, we must have +fellow-feeling and some common ground of experience with our +subject. We may praise or blame according as we find him +related to us by the best or worst in ourselves; but it is +only in virtue of some relationship that we can be his +judges, even to condemn. Feelings which we share and +understand enter for us into the tissue of the man's +character; those to which we are strangers in our own +experience we are inclined to regard as blots, exceptions, +inconsistencies, and excursions of the diabolic; we conceive +them with repugnance, explain them with difficulty, and raise +our hands to heaven in wonder when we find them in +conjunction with talents that we respect or virtues that we +admire. David, king of Israel, would pass a sounder judgment +on a man than either Nathaniel or David Hume. Now, Principal +Shairp's recent volume, although I believe no one will read +it without respect and interest, has this one capital defect +- that there is imperfect sympathy between the author and the +subject, between the critic and the personality under +criticism. Hence an inorganic, if not an incoherent, +presentation of both the poems and the man. Of HOLY WILLIE'S +PRAYER, Principal Shairp remarks that "those who have loved +most what was best in Burns's poetry must have regretted that +it was ever written." To the JOLLY BEGGARS, so far as my +memory serves me, he refers but once; and then only to remark +on the "strange, not to say painful," circumstance that the +same hand which wrote the COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT should have +stooped to write the JOLLY BEGGARS. The SATURDAY NIGHT may +or may not be an admirable poem; but its significance is +trebled, and the power and range of the poet first appears, +when it is set beside the JOLLY BEGGARS. To take a man's +work piecemeal, except with the design of elegant extracts, +is the way to avoid, and not to perform, the critic's duty. +The same defect is displayed in the treatment of Burns as a +man, which is broken, apologetical, and confused. The man +here presented to us is not that Burns, TERES ATQUE ROTUNDUS +- a burly figure in literature, as, from our present vantage +of time, we have begun to see him. This, on the other hand, +is Burns as he may have appeared to a contemporary clergyman, +whom we shall conceive to have been a kind and indulgent but +orderly and orthodox person, anxious to be pleased, but too +often hurt and disappointed by the behaviour of his red-hot +PROTEGE, and solacing himself with the explanation that the +poet was "the most inconsistent of men." If you are so +sensibly pained by the misconduct of your subject, and so +paternally delighted with his virtues, you will always be an +excellent gentleman, but a somewhat questionable biographer. +Indeed, we can only be sorry and surprised that Principal +Shairp should have chosen a theme so uncongenial. When we +find a man writing on Burns, who likes neither HOLY WILLIE, +nor the BEGGARS, nor the ORDINATION, nothing is adequate to +the situation but the old cry of Geronte: "Que diable allait- +il faire dans cette galere?" And every merit we find in the +book, which is sober and candid in a degree unusual with +biographies of Burns, only leads us to regret more heartily +that good work should be so greatly thrown away. + +It is far from my intention to tell over again a story that +has been so often told; but there are certainly some points +in the character of Burns that will bear to be brought out, +and some chapters in his life that demand a brief rehearsal. +The unity of the man's nature, for all its richness, has +fallen somewhat out of sight in the pressure of new +information and the apologetical ceremony of biographers. +Mr. Carlyle made an inimitable bust of the poet's head of +gold; may I not be forgiven if my business should have more +to do with the feet, which were of clay? + + +YOUTH. + + +Any view of Burns would be misleading which passed over in +silence the influences of his home and his father. That +father, William Burnes, after having been for many years a +gardener, took a farm, married, and, like an emigrant in a +new country, built himself a house with his own hands. +Poverty of the most distressing sort, with sometimes the near +prospect of a gaol, embittered the remainder of his life. +Chill, backward, and austere with strangers, grave and +imperious in his family, he was yet a man of very unusual +parts and of an affectionate nature. On his way through life +he had remarked much upon other men, with more result in +theory than practice; and he had reflected upon many subjects +as he delved the garden. His great delight was in solid +conversation; he would leave his work to talk with the +schoolmaster Murdoch; and Robert, when he came home late at +night, not only turned aside rebuke but kept his father two +hours beside the fire by the charm of his merry and vigorous +talk. Nothing is more characteristic of the class in +general, and William Burnes in particular, than the pains he +took to get proper schooling for his boys, and, when that was +no longer possible, the sense and resolution with which he +set himself to supply the deficiency by his own influence. +For many years he was their chief companion; he spoke with +them seriously on all subjects as if they had been grown men; +at night, when work was over, he taught them arithmetic; he +borrowed books for them on history, science, and theology; +and he felt it his duty to supplement this last - the trait +is laughably Scottish - by a dialogue of his own composition, +where his own private shade of orthodoxy was exactly +represented. He would go to his daughter as she stayed +afield herding cattle, to teach her the names of grasses and +wild flowers, or to sit by her side when it thundered. +Distance to strangers, deep family tenderness, love of +knowledge, a narrow, precise, and formal reading of theology +- everything we learn of him hangs well together, and builds +up a popular Scotch type. If I mention the name of Andrew +Fairservice, it is only as I might couple for an instant +Dugald Dalgetty with old Marshal Loudon, to help out the +reader's comprehension by a popular but unworthy instance of +a class. Such was the influence of this good and wise man +that his household became a school to itself, and neighbours +who came into the farm at meal-time would find the whole +family, father, brothers, and sisters, helping themselves +with one hand, and holding a book in the other. We are +surprised at the prose style of Robert; that of Gilbert need +surprise us no less; even William writes a remarkable letter +for a young man of such slender opportunities. One anecdote +marks the taste of the family. Murdoch brought TITUS +ANDRONICUS, and, with such dominie elocution as we may +suppose, began to read it aloud before this rustic audience; +but when he had reached the passage where Tamora insults +Lavinia, with one voice and "in an agony of distress" they +refused to hear it to an end. In such a father and with such +a home, Robert had already the making of an excellent +education; and what Murdoch added, although it may not have +been much in amount, was in character the very essence of a +literary training. Schools and colleges, for one great man +whom they complete, perhaps unmake a dozen; the strong spirit +can do well upon more scanty fare. + +Robert steps before us, almost from the first, in his +complete character - a proud, headstrong, impetuous lad, +greedy of pleasure, greedy of notice; in his own phrase +"panting after distinction," and in his brother's "cherishing +a particular jealousy of people who were richer or of more +consequence than himself:" with all this, he was emphatically +of the artist nature. Already he made a conspicuous figure +in Tarbolton church, with the only tied hair in the parish, +"and his plaid, which was of a particular colour, wrapped in +a particular manner round his shoulders." Ten years later, +when a married man, the father of a family, a farmer, and an +officer of Excise, we shall find him out fishing in +masquerade, with fox-skin cap, belted great-coat, and great +Highland broadsword. He liked dressing up, in fact, for its +own sake. This is the spirit which leads to the extravagant +array of Latin Quarter students, and the proverbial velveteen +of the English landscape-painter; and, though the pleasure +derived is in itself merely personal, it shows a man who is, +to say the least of it, not pained by general attention and +remark. His father wrote the family name BURNES; Robert +early adopted the orthography BURNESS from his cousin in the +Mearns; and in his twenty-eighth year changed it once more to +BURNS. It is plain that the last transformation was not made +without some qualm; for in addressing his cousin he adheres, +in at least one more letter, to spelling number two. And +this, again, shows a man preoccupied about the manner of his +appearance even down to the name, and little willing to +follow custom. Again, he was proud, and justly proud, of his +powers in conversation. To no other man's have we the same +conclusive testimony from different sources and from every +rank of life. It is almost a commonplace that the best of +his works was what he said in talk. Robertson the historian +"scarcely ever met any man whose conversation displayed +greater vigour;" the Duchess of Gordon declared that he +"carried her off her feet;" and, when he came late to an inn, +the servants would get out of bed to hear him talk. But, in +these early days at least, he was determined to shine by any +means. He made himself feared in the village for his tongue. +He would crush weaker men to their faces, or even perhaps - +for the statement of Sillar is not absolute - say cutting +things of his acquaintances behind their back. At the church +door, between sermons, he would parade his religious views +amid hisses. These details stamp the man. He had no genteel +timidities in the conduct of his life. He loved to force his +personality upon the world. He would please himself, and +shine. Had he lived in the Paris of 1830, and joined his lot +with the Romantics, we can conceive him writing JEHAN for +JEAN, swaggering in Gautier's red waistcoat, and horrifying +Bourgeois in a public cafe with paradox and gasconnade. + +A leading trait throughout his whole career was his desire to +be in love. NE FAIT PAS CE TOUR QUI VEUT. His affections +were often enough touched, but perhaps never engaged. He was +all his life on a voyage of discovery, but it does not appear +conclusively that he ever touched the happy isle. A man +brings to love a deal of ready-made sentiment, and even from +childhood obscurely prognosticates the symptoms of this vital +malady. Burns was formed for love; he had passion, +tenderness, and a singular bent in the direction; he could +foresee, with the intuition of an artist, what love ought to +be; and he could not conceive a worthy life without it. But +he had ill-fortune, and was besides so greedy after every +shadow of the true divinity, and so much the slave of a +strong temperament, that perhaps his nerve was relaxed and +his heart had lost the power of self-devotion before an +opportunity occurred. The circumstances of his youth +doubtless counted for something in the result. For the lads +of Ayrshire, as soon as the day's work was over and the +beasts were stabled, would take the road, it might be in a +winter tempest, and travel perhaps miles by moss and moorland +to spend an hour or two in courtship. Rule 10 of the +Bachelors' Club at Tarbolton provides that "every man proper +for a member of this Society must be a professed lover of ONE +OR MORE of the female sex." The rich, as Burns himself +points out, may have a choice of pleasurable occupations, but +these lads had nothing but their "cannie hour at e'en." It +was upon love and flirtation that this rustic society was +built; gallantry was the essence of life among the Ayrshire +hills as well as in the Court of Versailles; and the days +were distinguished from each other by love-letters, meetings, +tiffs, reconciliations, and expansions to the chosen +confidant, as in a comedy of Marivaux. Here was a field for +a man of Burns's indiscriminate personal ambition, where he +might pursue his voyage of discovery in quest of true love, +and enjoy temporary triumphs by the way. He was "constantly +the victim of some fair enslaver " - at least, when it was +not the other way about; and there were often underplots and +secondary fair enslavers in the background. Many - or may we +not say most? - of these affairs were entirely artificial. +One, he tells us, he began out of "a vanity of showing his +parts in courtship," for he piqued himself on his ability at +a love-letter. But, however they began, these flames of his +were fanned into a passion ere the end; and he stands +unsurpassed in his power of self-deception, and positively +without a competitor in the art, to use his own words, of +"battering himself into a warm affection," - a debilitating +and futile exercise. Once he had worked himself into the +vein, "the agitations of his mind and body" were an +astonishment to all who knew him. Such a course as this, +however pleasant to a thirsty vanity, was lowering to his +nature. He sank more and more towards the professional Don +Juan. With a leer of what the French call fatuity, he bids +the belles of Mauchline beware of his seductions; and the +same cheap self-satisfaction finds a yet uglier vent when he +plumes himself on the scandal at the birth of his first +bastard. We can well believe what we hear of his facility in +striking up an acquaintance with women: he would have +conquering manners; he would bear down upon his rustic game +with the grace that comes of absolute assurance - the +Richelieu of Lochlea or Mossgiel. In yet another manner did +these quaint ways of courtship help him into fame. If he +were great as principal, he was unrivalled as confidant. He +could enter into a passion; he could counsel wary moves, +being, in his own phrase, so old a hawk; nay, he could turn a +letter for some unlucky swain, or even string a few lines of +verse that should clinch the business and fetch the +hesitating fair one to the ground. Nor, perhaps, was it only +his "curiosity, zeal, and intrepid dexterity" that +recommended him for a second in such affairs; it must have +been a distinction to have the assistance and advice of RAB +THE RANTER; and one who was in no way formidable by himself +might grow dangerous and attractive through the fame of his +associate. + +I think we can conceive him, in these early years, in that +rough moorland country, poor among the poor with his seven +pounds a year, looked upon with doubt by respectable elders, +but for all that the best talker, the best letter-writer, the +most famous lover and confidant, the laureate poet, and the +only man who wore his hair tied in the parish. He says he +had then as high a notion of himself as ever after; and I can +well believe it. Among the youth he walked FACILE PRINCEPS, +an apparent god; and even if, from time to time, the Reverend +Mr. Auld should swoop upon him with the thunders of the +Church, and, in company with seven others, Rab the Ranter +must figure some fine Sunday on the stool of repentance, +would there not be a sort of glory, an infernal apotheosis, +in so conspicuous a shame? Was not Richelieu in disgrace +more idolised than ever by the dames of Paris? and when was +the highwayman most acclaimed but on his way to Tyburn? Or, +to take a simile from nearer home, and still more exactly to +the point, what could even corporal punishment avail, +administered by a cold, abstract, unearthly school-master, +against the influence and fame of the school's hero? + +And now we come to the culminating point of Burns's early +period. He began to be received into the unknown upper +world. His fame soon spread from among his fellow-rebels on +the benches, and began to reach the ushers and monitors of +this great Ayrshire academy. This arose in part from his lax +views about religion; for at this time that old war of the +creeds and confessors, which is always grumbling from end to +end of our poor Scotland, brisked up in these parts into a +hot and virulent skirmish; and Burns found himself identified +with the opposition party, - a clique of roaring lawyers and +half-heretical divines, with wit enough to appreciate the +value of the poet's help, and not sufficient taste to +moderate his grossness and personality. We may judge of +their surprise when HOLY WILLIE was put into their hand; like +the amorous lads of Tarbolton, they recognised in him the +best of seconds. His satires began to go the round in +manuscript; Mr. Aiken, one of the lawyers, "read him into +fame;" he himself was soon welcome in many houses of a better +sort, where his admirable talk, and his manners, which he had +direct from his Maker, except for a brush he gave them at a +country dancing school, completed what his poems had begun. +We have a sight of him at his first visit to Adamhill, in his +ploughman's shoes, coasting around the carpet as though that +were sacred ground. But he soon grew used to carpets and +their owners; and he was still the superior of all whom he +encountered, and ruled the roost in conversation. Such was +the impression made, that a young clergyman, himself a man of +ability, trembled and became confused when he saw Robert +enter the church in which he was to preach. It is not +surprising that the poet determined to publish: he had now +stood the test of some publicity, and under this hopeful +impulse he composed in six winter months the bulk of his more +important poems. Here was a young man who, from a very +humble place, was mounting rapidly; from the cynosure of a +parish, he had become the talk of a county; once the bard of +rural courtships, he was now about to appear as a bound and +printed poet in the world's bookshops. + +A few more intimate strokes are necessary to complete the +sketch. This strong young plough-man, who feared no +competitor with the flail, suffered like a fine lady from +sleeplessness and vapours; he would fall into the blackest +melancholies, and be filled with remorse for the past and +terror for the future. He was still not perhaps devoted to +religion, but haunted by it; and at a touch of sickness +prostrated himself before God in what I can only call unmanly +penitence. As he had aspirations beyond his place in the +world, so he had tastes, thoughts, and weaknesses to match. +He loved to walk under a wood to the sound of a winter +tempest; he had a singular tenderness for animals; he carried +a book with him in his pocket when he went abroad, and wore +out in this service two copies of the MAN OF FEELING. With +young people in the field at work he was very long-suffering; +and when his brother Gilbert spoke sharply to them - "O man, +ye are no for young folk," he would say, and give the +defaulter a helping hand and a smile. In the hearts of the +men whom he met, he read as in a book; and, what is yet more +rare, his knowledge of himself equalled his knowledge of +others. There are no truer things said of Burns than what is +to be found in his own letters. Country Don Juan as he was, +he had none of that blind vanity which values itself on what +it is not; he knew his own strength and weakness to a hair: +he took himself boldly for what he was, and, except in +moments of hypochondria, declared himself content. + + +THE LOVE STORIES. + + +On the night of Mauchline races, 1785, the young men and +women of the place joined in a penny ball, according to their +custom. In the same set danced Jean Armour, the master- +mason's daughter, and our dark-eyed Don Juan. His dog (not +the immortal Luath, but a successor unknown to fame, CARET +QUIA VATE SACRO), apparently sensible of some neglect, +followed his master to and fro, to the confusion of the +dancers. Some mirthful comments followed; and Jean heard the +poet say to his partner - or, as I should imagine, laughingly +launch the remark to the company at large - that "he wished +he could get any of the lasses to like him as well as his +dog." Some time after, as the girl was bleaching clothes on +Mauchline green, Robert chanced to go by, still accompanied +by his dog; and the dog, "scouring in long excursion," +scampered with four black paws across the linen. This +brought the two into conversation; when Jean, with a somewhat +hoydenish advance, inquired if "he had yet got any of the +lasses to like him as well as his dog?" + +It is one of the misfortunes of the professional Don Juan +that his honour forbids him to refuse battle; he is in life +like the Roman soldier upon duty, or like the sworn physician +who must attend on all diseases. Burns accepted the +provocation; hungry hope reawakened in his heart; here was a +girl - pretty, simple at least, if not honestly stupid, and +plainly not averse to his attentions: it seemed to him once +more as if love might here be waiting him. Had he but known +the truth! for this facile and empty-headed girl had nothing +more in view than a flirtation; and her heart, from the first +and on to the end of her story, was engaged by another man. +Burns once more commenced the celebrated process of +"battering himself into a warm affection;" and the proofs of +his success are to be found in many verses of the period. +Nor did he succeed with himself only; Jean, with her heart +still elsewhere, succumbed to his fascination, and early in +the next year the natural consequence became manifest. It +was a heavy stroke for this unfortunate couple. They had +trifled with life, and were now rudely reminded of life's +serious issues. Jean awoke to the ruin of her hopes; the +best she had now to expect was marriage with a man who was a +stranger to her dearest thoughts; she might now be glad if +she could get what she would never have chosen. As for +Burns, at the stroke of the calamity he recognised that his +voyage of discovery had led him into a wrong hemisphere - +that he was not, and never had been, really in love with +Jean. Hear him in the pressure of the hour. "Against two +things," he writes, "I am as fixed as fate - staying at home, +and owning her conjugally. The first, by heaven, I will not +do! - the last, by hell, I will never do!" And then he adds, +perhaps already in a more relenting temper: "If you see Jean, +tell her I will meet her, so God help me in my hour of need." +They met accordingly; and Burns, touched with her misery, +came down from these heights of independence, and gave her a +written acknowledgment of marriage. It is the punishment of +Don Juanism to create continually false positions - relations +in life which are wrong in themselves, and which it is +equally wrong to break or to perpetuate. This was such a +case. Worldly Wiseman would have laughed and gone his way; +let us be glad that Burns was better counselled by his heart. +When we discover that we can be no longer true, the next best +is to be kind. I daresay he came away from that interview +not very content, but with a glorious conscience; and as he +went homeward, he would sing his favourite, "How are Thy +servants blest, O Lord!" Jean, on the other hand, armed with +her "lines," confided her position to the master-mason, her +father, and his wife. Burns and his brother were then in a +fair way to ruin themselves in their farm; the poet was an +execrable match for any well-to-do country lass; and perhaps +old Armour had an inkling of a previous attachment on his +daughter's part. At least, he was not so much incensed by +her slip from virtue as by the marriage which had been +designed to cover it. Of this he would not hear a word. +Jean, who had besought the acknowledgment only to appease her +parents, and not at all from any violent inclination to the +poet, readily gave up the paper for destruction; and all +parties imagined, although wrongly, that the marriage was +thus dissolved. To a proud man like Burns here was a +crushing blow. The concession which had been wrung from his +pity was now publicly thrown back in his teeth. The Armour +family preferred disgrace to his connection. Since the +promise, besides, he had doubtless been busy "battering +himself" back again into his affection for the girl; and the +blow would not only take him in his vanity, but wound him at +the heart. + +He relieved himself in verse; but for such a smarting affront +manuscript poetry was insufficient to console him. He must +find a more powerful remedy in good flesh and blood, and +after this discomfiture, set forth again at once upon his +voyage of discovery in quest of love. It is perhaps one of +the most touching things in human nature, as it is a +commonplace of psychology, that when a man has just lost hope +or confidence in one love, he is then most eager to find and +lean upon another. The universe could not be yet exhausted; +there must be hope and love waiting for him somewhere; and +so, with his head down, this poor, insulted poet ran once +more upon his fate. There was an innocent and gentle +Highland nursery-maid at service in a neighbouring family; +and he had soon battered himself and her into a warm +affection and a secret engagement. Jean's marriage lines had +not been destroyed till March 13, 1786; yet all was settled +between Burns and Mary Campbell by Sunday, May 14, when they +met for the last time, and said farewell with rustic +solemnities upon the banks of Ayr. They each wet their hands +in a stream, and, standing one on either bank, held a Bible +between them as they vowed eternal faith. Then they +exchanged Bibles, on one of which Burns, for greater +security, had inscribed texts as to the binding nature of an +oath; and surely, if ceremony can do aught to fix the +wandering affections, here were two people united for life. +Mary came of a superstitious family, so that she perhaps +insisted on these rites; but they must have been eminently to +the taste of Burns at this period; for nothing would seem +superfluous, and no oath great enough, to stay his tottering +constancy. + +Events of consequence now happened thickly in the poet's +life. His book was announced; the Armours sought to summon +him at law for the aliment of the child; he lay here and +there in hiding to correct the sheets; he was under an +engagement for Jamaica, where Mary was to join him as his +wife; now, he had "orders within three weeks at latest to +repair aboard the NANCY, Captain Smith;" now his chest was +already on the road to Greenock; and now, in the wild autumn +weather on the moorland, he measures verses of farewell:- + + +"The bursting tears my heart declare; +Farewell the bonny banks of Ayr!" + + +But the great master dramatist had secretly another intention +for the piece; by the most violent and complicated solution, +in which death and birth and sudden fame all play a part as +interposing deities, the act-drop fell upon a scene of +transformation. Jean was brought to bed of twins, and, by an +amicable arrangement, the Burnses took the boy to bring up by +hand, while the girl remained with her mother. The success +of the book was immediate and emphatic; it put 20 pounds at +once into the author's purse; and he was encouraged upon all +hands to go to Edinburgh and push his success in a second and +larger edition. Third and last in these series of +interpositions, a letter came one day to Mossgiel Farm for +Robert. He went to the window to read it; a sudden change +came over his face, and he left the room without a word. +Years afterwards, when the story began to leak out, his +family understood that he had then learned the death of +Highland Mary. Except in a few poems and a few dry +indications purposely misleading as to date, Burns himself +made no reference to this passage of his life; it was an +adventure of which, for I think sufficient reasons, he +desired to bury the details. Of one thing we may be glad: in +after years he visited the poor girl's mother, and left her +with the impression that he was "a real warm-hearted chield." + +Perhaps a month after he received this intelligence, he set +out for Edinburgh on a pony he had borrowed from a friend. +The town that winter was "agog with the ploughman poet." +Robertson, Dugald Stewart, Blair, "Duchess Gordon and all the +gay world," were of his acquaintance. Such a revolution is +not to be found in literary history. He was now, it must be +remembered, twenty-seven years of age; he had fought since +his early boyhood an obstinate battle against poor soil, bad +seed, and inclement seasons, wading deep in Ayrshire mosses, +guiding the plough in the furrow wielding "the thresher's +weary flingin'-tree;" and his education, his diet, and his +pleasures, had been those of a Scotch countryman. Now he +stepped forth suddenly among the polite and learned. We can +see him as he then was, in his boots and buckskins, his blue +coat and waistcoat striped with buff and blue, like a farmer +in his Sunday best; the heavy ploughman's figure firmly +planted on its burly legs; his face full of sense and +shrewdness, and with a somewhat melancholy air of thought, +and his large dark eye "literally glowing" as he spoke. "I +never saw such another eye in a human head," says Walter +Scott, "though I have seen the most distinguished men of my +time." With men, whether they were lords or omnipotent +critics, his manner was plain, dignified, and free from +bashfulness or affectation. If he made a slip, he had the +social courage to pass on and refrain from explanation. He +was not embarrassed in this society, because he read and +judged the men; he could spy snobbery in a titled lord; and, +as for the critics, he dismissed their system in an epigram. +"These gentlemen," said he, "remind me of some spinsters in +my country who spin their thread so fine that it is neither +fit for weft nor woof." Ladies, on the other hand, surprised +him; he was scarce commander of himself in their society; he +was disqualified by his acquired nature as a Don Juan; and +he, who had been so much at his ease with country lasses, +treated the town dames to an extreme of deference. One lady, +who met him at a ball, gave Chambers a speaking sketch of his +demeanour. "His manner was not prepossessing - scarcely, she +thinks, manly or natural. It seemed as if he affected a +rusticity or LANDERTNESS, so that when he said the music was +`bonnie, bonnie,' it was like the expression of a child." +These would be company manners; and doubtless on a slight +degree of intimacy the affectation would grow less. And his +talk to women had always "a turn either to the pathetic or +humorous, which engaged the attention particularly." + +The Edinburgh magnates (to conclude this episode at once) +behaved well to Burns from first to last. Were heaven-born +genius to revisit us in similar guise, I am not venturing too +far when I say that he need expect neither so warm a welcome +nor such solid help. Although Burns was only a peasant, and +one of no very elegant reputation as to morals, he was made +welcome to their homes. They gave him a great deal of good +advice, helped him to some five hundred pounds of ready +money, and got him, as soon as he asked it, a place in the +Excise. Burns, on his part, bore the elevation with perfect +dignity; and with perfect dignity returned, when the time had +come, into a country privacy of life. His powerful sense +never deserted him, and from the first he recognised that his +Edinburgh popularity was but an ovation and the affair of a +day. He wrote a few letters in a high-flown, bombastic vein +of gratitude; but in practice he suffered no man to intrude +upon his self-respect. On the other hand, he never turned +his back, even for a moment, on his old associates; and he +was always ready to sacrifice an acquaintance to a friend, +although the acquaintance were a duke. He would be a bold +man who should promise similar conduct in equally exacting +circumstances. It was, in short, an admirable appearance on +the stage of life - socially successful, intimately self- +respecting, and like a gentleman from first to last. + +In the present study, this must only be taken by the way, +while we return to Burns's love affairs. Even on the road to +Edinburgh he had seized upon the opportunity of a flirtation, +and had carried the "battering" so far that when next he +moved from town, it was to steal two days with this anonymous +fair one. The exact importance to Burns of this affair may +be gathered from the song in which he commemorated its +occurrence. "I love the dear lassie," he sings, "because she +loves me;" or, in the tongue of prose: "Finding an +opportunity, I did not hesitate to profit by it, and even +now, if it returned, I should not hesitate to profit by it +again." A love thus founded has no interest for mortal man. +Meantime, early in the winter, and only once, we find him +regretting Jean in his correspondence. "Because" - such is +his reason - "because he does not think he will ever meet so +delicious an armful again;" and then, after a brief excursion +into verse, he goes straight on to describe a new episode in +the voyage of discovery with the daughter of a Lothian farmer +for a heroine. I must ask the reader to follow all these +references to his future wife; they are essential to the +comprehension of Burns's character and fate. In June, we +find him back at Mauchline, a famous man. There, the Armour +family greeted him with a "mean, servile compliance," which +increased his former disgust. Jean was not less compliant; a +second time the poor girl submitted to the fascination of the +man whom she did not love, and whom she had so cruelly +insulted little more than a year ago; and, though Burns took +advantage of her weakness, it was in the ugliest and most +cynical spirit, and with a heart absolutely indifferent judge +of this by a letter written some twenty days after his return +- a letter to my mind among the most degrading in the whole +collection - a letter which seems to have been inspired by a +boastful, libertine bagman. "I am afraid," it goes, "I have +almost ruined one source, the principal one, indeed, of my +former happiness - the eternal propensity I always had to +fall in love. My heart no more glows with feverish rapture; +I have no paradisiacal evening interviews." Even the process +of "battering" has failed him, you perceive. Still he had +some one in his eye - a lady, if you please, with a fine +figure and elegant manners, and who had "seen the politest +quarters in Europe." "I frequently visited her," he writes, +"and after passing regularly the intermediate degrees between +the distant formal bow and the familiar grasp round the +waist, I ventured, in my careless way, to talk of friendship +in rather ambiguous terms; and after her return to - , I +wrote her in the same terms. Miss, construing my remarks +further than even I intended, flew off in a tangent of female +dignity and reserve, like a mounting lark in an April +morning; and wrote me an answer which measured out very +completely what an immense way I had to travel before I could +reach the climate of her favours. But I am an old hawk at +the sport, and wrote her such a cool, deliberate, prudent +reply, as brought my bird from her aerial towerings, pop, +down to my foot, like Corporal Trim's hat." I avow a carnal +longing, after this transcription, to buffet the Old Hawk +about the ears. There is little question that to this lady +he must have repeated his addresses, and that he was by her +(Miss Chalmers) eventually, though not at all unkindly, +rejected. One more detail to characterise the period. Six +months after the date of this letter, Burns, back in +Edinburgh, is served with a writ IN MEDITATIONE FUGAE, on +behalf of some Edinburgh fair one, probably of humble rank, +who declared an intention of adding to his family. + +About the beginning of December (1787), a new period opens in +the story of the poet's random affections. He met at a tea +party one Mrs. Agnes M'Lehose, a married woman of about his +own age, who, with her two children, had been deserted by an +unworthy husband. She had wit, could use her pen, and had +read WERTHER with attention. Sociable, and even somewhat +frisky, there was a good, sound, human kernel in the woman; a +warmth of love, strong dogmatic religious feeling, and a +considerable, but not authoritative, sense of the +proprieties. Of what biographers refer to daintily as "her +somewhat voluptuous style of beauty," judging from the +silhouette in Mr. Scott Douglas's invaluable edition, the +reader will be fastidious if he does not approve. Take her +for all in all, I believe she was the best woman Burns +encountered. The pair took a fancy for each other on the +spot; Mrs. M'Lehose, in her turn, invited him to tea; but the +poet, in his character of the Old Hawk, preferred a TETE-A- +TETE, excused himself at the last moment, and offered a visit +instead. An accident confined him to his room for nearly a +month, and this led to the famous Clarinda and Sylvander +correspondence. It was begun in simple sport; they are +already at their fifth or sixth exchange, when Clarinda +writes: "It is really curious so much FUN passing between two +persons who saw each other only ONCE;" but it is hardly safe +for a man and woman in the flower of their years to write +almost daily, and sometimes in terms too ambiguous, sometimes +in terms too plain, and generally in terms too warm, for mere +acquaintance. The exercise partakes a little of the nature +of battering, and danger may be apprehended when next they +meet. It is difficult to give any account of this remarkable +correspondence; it is too far away from us, and perhaps, not +yet far enough, in point of time and manner; the imagination +is baffled by these stilted literary utterances, warming, in +bravura passages, into downright truculent nonsense. +Clarinda has one famous sentence in which she bids Sylvander +connect the thought of his mistress with the changing phases +of the year; it was enthusiastically admired by the swain, +but on the modern mind produces mild amazement and alarm. +"Oh, Clarinda," writes Burns, "shall we not meet in a state - +some yet unknown state - of being, where the lavish hand of +Plenty shall minister to the highest wish of Benevolence, and +where the chill north wind of Prudence shall never blow over +the flowery field of Enjoyment?" The design may be that of +an Old Hawk, but the style is more suggestive of a Bird of +Paradise. It is sometimes hard to fancy they are not gravely +making fun of each other as they write. Religion, poetry, +love, and charming sensibility, are the current topics. "I +am delighted, charming Clarinda, with your honest enthusiasm +for religion," writes Burns; and the pair entertained a +fiction that this was their "favourite subject." "This is +Sunday," writes the lady, "and not a word on our favourite +subject. O fy 'divine Clarinda!' " I suspect, although +quite unconsciously on the part of the lady, who was bent on +his redemption, they but used the favourite subject as a +stalking-horse. In the meantime, the sportive acquaintance +was ripening steadily into a genuine passion. Visits took +place, and then became frequent. Clarinda's friends were +hurt and suspicious; her clergyman interfered; she herself +had smart attacks of conscience, but her heart had gone from +her control; it was altogether his, and she "counted all +things but loss - heaven excepted - that she might win and +keep him." Burns himself was transported while in her +neighbourhood, but his transports somewhat rapidly declined +during an absence. I am tempted to imagine that, womanlike, +he took on the colour of his mistress's feeling; that he +could not but heat himself at the fire of her unaffected +passion; but that, like one who should leave the hearth upon +a winter's night, his temperature soon fell when he was out +of sight, and in a word, though he could share the symptoms, +that he had never shared the disease. At the same time, amid +the fustian of the letters there are forcible and true +expressions, and the love verses that he wrote upon Clarinda +are among the most moving in the language. + +We are approaching the solution. In mid-winter, Jean, once +more in the family way, was turned out of doors by her +family; and Burns had her received and cared for in the house +of a friend. For he remained to the last imperfect in his +character of Don Juan, and lacked the sinister courage to +desert his victim. About the middle of February (1788), he +had to tear himself from his Clarinda and make a journey into +the south-west on business. Clarinda gave him two shirts for +his little son. They were daily to meet in prayer at an +appointed hour. Burns, too late for the post at Glasgow, +sent her a letter by parcel that she might not have to wait. +Clarinda on her part writes, this time with a beautiful +simplicity: "I think the streets look deserted-like since +Monday; and there's a certain insipidity in good kind folks I +once enjoyed not a little. Miss Wardrobe supped here on +Monday. She once named you, which kept me from falling +asleep. I drank your health in a glass of ale - as the +lasses do at Hallowe'en - 'in to mysel'.' " Arrived at +Mauchline, Burns installed Jean Armour in a lodging, and +prevailed on Mrs. Armour to promise her help and countenance +in the approaching confinement. This was kind at least; but +hear his expressions: "I have taken her a room; I have taken +her to my arms; I have given her a mahogany bed; I have given +her a guinea. . . . I swore her privately and solemnly never +to attempt any claim on me as a husband, even though anybody +should persuade her she had such a claim - which she has not, +neither during my life nor after my death. She did all this +like a good girl." And then he took advantage of the +situation. To Clarinda he wrote: "I this morning called for +a certain woman. I am disgusted with her; I cannot endure +her;" and he accused her of "tasteless insipidity, vulgarity +of soul, and mercenary fawning." This was already in March; +by the thirteenth of that month he was back in Edinburgh. On +the 17th, he wrote to Clarinda: "Your hopes, your fears, your +cares, my love, are mine; so don't mind them. I will take +you in my hand through the dreary wilds of this world, and +scare away the ravening bird or beast that would annoy you." +Again, on the 21st: "Will you open, with satisfaction and +delight, a letter from a man who loves you, who has loved +you, and who will love you, to death, through death, and for +ever. . . . How rich am I to have such a treasure as you! . . +. 'The Lord God knoweth,' and, perhaps, 'Israel he shall +know,' my love and your merit. Adieu, Clarinda! I am going +to remember you in my prayers." By the 7th of April, +seventeen days later he had already decided to make Jean +Armour publicly his wife. + +A more astonishing stage-trick is not to be found. And yet +his conduct is seen, upon a nearer examination, to be +grounded both in reason and in kindness. He was now about to +embark on a solid worldly career; he had taken a farm; the +affair with Clarinda, however gratifying to his heart, was +too contingent to offer any great consolation to a man like +Burns, to whom marriage must have seemed the very dawn of +hope and self-respect. This is to regard the question from +its lowest aspect; but there is no doubt that he entered on +this new period of his life with a sincere determination to +do right. He had just helped his brother with a loan of a +hundred and eighty pounds; should he do nothing for the poor +girl whom he had ruined? It was true he could not do as he +did without brutally wounding Clarinda; that was the +punishment of his bygone fault; he was, as he truly says, +"damned with a choice only of different species of error and +misconduct." To be professional Don Juan, to accept the +provocation of any lively lass upon the village green, may +thus lead a man through a series of detestable words and +actions, and land him at last in an undesired and most +unsuitable union for life. If he had been strong enough to +refrain or bad enough to persevere in evil; if he had only +not been Don Juan at all, or been Don Juan altogether, there +had been some possible road for him throughout this +troublesome world; but a man, alas! who is equally at the +call of his worse and better instincts, stands among changing +events without foundation or resource. (1) + +(1) For the love affairs see, in particular, Mr. Scott +Douglas's edition under the different dates. + + +DOWNWARD COURSE. + + +It may be questionable whether any marriage could have tamed +Burns; but it is at least certain that there was no hope for +him in the marriage he contracted. He did right, but then he +had done wrong before; it was, as I said, one of those +relations in life which it seems equally wrong to break or to +perpetuate. He neither loved nor respected his wife. "God +knows," he writes, "my choice was as random as blind man's +buff." He consoles himself by the thought that he has acted +kindly to her; that she "has the most sacred enthusiasm of +attachment to him;" that she has a good figure; that she has +a "wood-note wild," "her voice rising with ease to B +natural," no less. The effect on the reader is one of +unmingled pity for both parties concerned. This was not the +wife who (in his own words) could "enter into his favourite +studies or relish his favourite authors;" this was not even a +wife, after the affair of the marriage lines, in whom a +husband could joy to place his trust. Let her manage a farm +with sense, let her voice rise to B natural all day long, she +would still be a peasant to her lettered lord, and an object +of pity rather than of equal affection. She could now be +faithful, she could now be forgiving, she could now be +generous even to a pathetic and touching degree; but coming +from one who was unloved, and who had scarce shown herself +worthy of the sentiment, these were all virtues thrown away, +which could neither change her husband's heart nor affect the +inherent destiny of their relation. From the outset, it was +a marriage that had no root in nature; and we find him, ere +long, lyrically regretting Highland Mary, renewing +correspondence with Clarinda in the warmest language, on +doubtful terms with Mrs. Riddel, and on terms unfortunately +beyond any question with Anne Park. + +Alas! this was not the only ill circumstance in his future. +He had been idle for some eighteen months, superintending his +new edition, hanging on to settle with the publisher, +travelling in the Highlands with Willie Nichol, or +philandering with Mrs. M'Lehose; and in this period the +radical part of the man had suffered irremediable hurt. He +had lost his habits of industry, and formed the habit of +pleasure. Apologetical biographers assure us of the +contrary; but from the first, he saw and recognised the +danger for himself; his mind, he writes, is "enervated to an +alarming degree" by idleness and dissipation; and again, "my +mind has been vitiated with idleness." It never fairly +recovered. To business he could bring the required diligence +and attention without difficulty; but he was thenceforward +incapable, except in rare instances, of that superior effort +of concentration which is required for serious literary work. +He may be said, indeed, to have worked no more, and only +amused himself with letters. The man who had written a +volume of masterpieces in six months, during the remainder of +his life rarely found courage for any more sustained effort +than a song. And the nature of the songs is itself +characteristic of these idle later years; for they are often +as polished and elaborate as his earlier works were frank, +and headlong, and colloquial; and this sort of verbal +elaboration in short flights is, for a man of literary turn, +simply the most agreeable of pastimes. The change in manner +coincides exactly with the Edinburgh visit. In 1786 he had +written the ADDRESS TO A LOUSE, which may be taken as an +extreme instance of the first manner; and already, in 1787, +we come upon the rosebud pieces to Miss Cruikshank, which are +extreme examples of the second. The change was, therefore, +the direct and very natural consequence of his great change +in life; but it is not the less typical of his loss of moral +courage that he should have given up all larger ventures, nor +the less melancholy that a man who first attacked literature +with a hand that seemed capable of moving mountains, should +have spent his later years in whittling cherry-stones. + +Meanwhile, the farm did not prosper; he had to join to it the +salary of an exciseman; at last he had to give it up, and +rely altogether on the latter resource. He was an active +officer; and, though he sometimes tempered severity with +mercy, we have local testimony oddly representing the public +feeling of the period, that, while "in everything else he was +a perfect gentleman, when he met with anything seizable he +was no better than any other gauger." + +There is but one manifestation of the man in these last years +which need delay us: and that was the sudden interest in +politics which arose from his sympathy with the great French +Revolution. His only political feeling had been hitherto a +sentimental Jacobitism, not more or less respectable than +that of Scott, Aytoun, and the rest of what George Borrow has +nicknamed the "Charlie over the water" Scotchmen. It was a +sentiment almost entirely literary and picturesque in its +origin, built on ballads and the adventures of the Young +Chevalier; and in Burns it is the more excusable, because he +lay out of the way of active politics in his youth. With the +great French Revolution, something living, practical, and +feasible appeared to him for the first time in this realm of +human action. The young ploughman who had desired so +earnestly to rise, now reached out his sympathies to a whole +nation animated with the same desire. Already in 1788 we +find the old Jacobitism hand in hand with the new popular +doctrine, when, in a letter of indignation against the zeal +of a Whig clergyman, he writes: "I daresay the American +Congress in 1776 will be allowed to be as able and as +enlightened as the English Convention was in 1688; and that +their posterity will celebrate the centenary of their +deliverance from us, as duly and sincerely as we do ours from +the oppressive measures of the wrong-headed house of Stuart." +As time wore on, his sentiments grew more pronounced and even +violent; but there was a basis of sense and generous feeling +to his hottest excess. What he asked was a fair chance for +the individual in life; an open road to success and +distinction for all classes of men. It was in the same +spirit that he had helped to found a public library in the +parish where his farm was situated, and that he sang his +fervent snatches against tyranny and tyrants. Witness, were +it alone, this verse:- + + +"Here's freedom to him that wad read, +Here's freedom to him that wad write; +There's nane ever feared that the truth should be heard +But them wham the truth wad indite." + + +Yet his enthusiasm for the cause was scarce guided by wisdom. +Many stories are preserved of the bitter and unwise words he +used in country coteries; how he proposed Washington's health +as an amendment to Pitt's, gave as a toast "the last verse of +the last chapter of Kings," and celebrated Dumouriez in a +doggrel impromptu full of ridicule and hate. Now his +sympathies would inspire him with SCOTS, WHA HAE; now involve +him in a drunken broil with a loyal officer, and consequent +apologies and explanations, hard to offer for a man of +Burns's stomach. Nor was this the front of his offending. +On February 27, 1792, he took part in the capture of an armed +smuggler, bought at the subsequent sale four carronades, and +despatched them with a letter to the French Assembly. Letter +and guns were stopped at Dover by the English officials; +there was trouble for Burns with his superiors; he was +reminded firmly, however delicately, that, as a paid +official, it was his duty to obey and to be silent; and all +the blood of this poor, proud, and falling man must have +rushed to his head at the humiliation. His letter to Mr. +Erskine, subsequently Earl of Mar, testifies, in its turgid, +turbulent phrases, to a perfect passion of alarmed self- +respect and vanity. He had been muzzled, and muzzled, when +all was said, by his paltry salary as an exciseman; alas! had +he not a family to keep? Already, he wrote, he looked +forward to some such judgment from a hackney scribbler as +this: "Burns, notwithstanding the FANFARONNADE of +independence to be found in his works, and after having been +held forth to view and to public estimation as a man of some +genius, yet, quite destitute of resources within himself to +support his borrowed dignity, he dwindled into a paltry +exciseman, and shrunk out the rest of his insignificant +existence in the meanest of pursuits, and among the vilest of +mankind." And then on he goes, in a style of rhodomontade, +but filled with living indignation, to declare his right to a +political opinion, and his willingness to shed his blood for +the political birthright of his sons. Poor, perturbed +spirit! he was indeed exercised in vain; those who share and +those who differ from his sentiments about the Revolution, +alike understand and sympathise with him in this painful +strait; for poetry and human manhood are lasting like the +race, and politics, which are but a wrongful striving after +right, pass and change from year to year and age to age. The +TWA DOGS has already outlasted the constitution of Sieyes and +the policy of the Whigs; and Burns is better known among +English-speaking races than either Pitt or Fox. + +Meanwhile, whether as a man, a husband, or a poet, his steps +led downward. He knew, knew bitterly, that the best was out +of him; he refused to make another volume, for he felt that +it would be a disappointment; he grew petulantly alive to +criticism, unless he was sure it reached him from a friend. +For his songs, he would take nothing; they were all that he +could do; the proposed Scotch play, the proposed series of +Scotch tales in verse, all had gone to water; and in a fling +of pain and disappointment, which is surely noble with the +nobility of a viking, he would rather stoop to borrow than to +accept money for these last and inadequate efforts of his +muse. And this desperate abnegation rises at times near to +the height of madness; as when he pretended that he had not +written, but only found and published, his immortal AULD LANG +SYNE. In the same spirit he became more scrupulous as an +artist; he was doing so little, he would fain do that little +well; and about two months before his death, he asked Thomson +to send back all his manuscripts for revisal, saying that he +would rather write five songs to his taste than twice that +number otherwise. The battle of his life was lost; in +forlorn efforts to do well, in desperate submissions to evil, +the last years flew by. His temper is dark and explosive, +launching epigrams, quarrelling with his friends, jealous of +young puppy officers. He tries to be a good father; he +boasts himself a libertine. Sick, sad, and jaded, he can +refuse no occasion of temporary pleasure, no opportunity to +shine; and he who had once refused the invitations of lords +and ladies is now whistled to the inn by any curious +stranger. His death (July 21, 1796), in his thirty-seventh +year, was indeed a kindly dispensation. It is the fashion to +say he died of drink; many a man has drunk more and yet lived +with reputation, and reached a good age. That drink and +debauchery helped to destroy his constitution, and were the +means of his unconscious suicide, is doubtless true; but he +had failed in life, had lost his power of work, and was +already married to the poor, unworthy, patient Jean, before +he had shown his inclination to convivial nights, or at least +before that inclination had become dangerous either to his +health or his self-respect. He had trifled with life, and +must pay the penalty. He had chosen to be Don Juan, he had +grasped at temporary pleasures, and substantial happiness and +solid industry had passed him by. He died of being Robert +Burns, and there is no levity in such a statement of the +case; for shall we not, one and all, deserve a similar +epitaph? + + +WORKS. + + +The somewhat cruel necessity which has lain upon me +throughout this paper only to touch upon those points in the +life of Burns where correction or amplification seemed +desirable, leaves me little opportunity to speak of the works +which have made his name so famous. Yet, even here, a few +observations seem necessary. + +At the time when the poet made his appearance and great first +success, his work was remarkable in two ways. For, first, in +an age when poetry had become abstract and conventional, +instead of continuing to deal with shepherds, thunderstorms, +and personifications, he dealt with the actual circumstances +of his life, however matter-of-fact and sordid these might +be. And, second, in a time when English versification was +particularly stiff, lame, and feeble, and words were used +with ultra-academical timidity, he wrote verses that were +easy, racy, graphic, and forcible, and used language with +absolute tact and courage as it seemed most fit to give a +clear impression. If you take even those English authors +whom we know Burns to have most admired and studied, you will +see at once that he owed them nothing but a warning. Take +Shenstone, for instance, and watch that elegant author as he +tries to grapple with the facts of life. He has a +description, I remember, of a gentleman engaged in sliding or +walking on thin ice, which is a little miracle of +incompetence. You see my memory fails me, and I positively +cannot recollect whether his hero was sliding or walking; as +though a writer should describe a skirmish, and the reader, +at the end, be still uncertain whether it were a charge of +cavalry or a slow and stubborn advance of foot. There could +be no such ambiguity in Burns; his work is at the opposite +pole from such indefinite and stammering performances; and a +whole lifetime passed in the study of Shenstone would only +lead a man further and further from writing the ADDRESS TO A +LOUSE. Yet Burns, like most great artists, proceeded from a +school and continued a tradition; only the school and +tradition were Scotch, and not English. While the English +language was becoming daily more pedantic and inflexible, and +English letters more colourless and slack, there was another +dialect in the sister country, and a different school of +poetry tracing its descent, through King James I., from +Chaucer. The dialect alone accounts for much; for it was +then written colloquially, which kept it fresh and supple; +and, although not shaped for heroic flights, it was a direct +and vivid medium for all that had to do with social life. +Hence, whenever Scotch poets left their laborious imitations +of bad English verses, and fell back on their own dialect, +their style would kindle, and they would write of their +convivial and somewhat gross existences with pith and point. +In Ramsay, and far more in the poor lad Fergusson, there was +mettle, humour, literary courage, and a power of saying what +they wished to say definitely and brightly, which in the +latter case should have justified great anticipations. Had +Burns died at the same age as Fergusson, he would have left +us literally nothing worth remark. To Ramsay and to +Fergusson, then, he was indebted in a very uncommon degree, +not only following their tradition and using their measures, +but directly and avowedly imitating their pieces. The same +tendency to borrow a hint, to work on some one else's +foundation, is notable in Burns from first to last, in the +period of song-writing as well as in that of the early poems; +and strikes one oddly in a man of such deep originality, who +left so strong a print on all he touched, and whose work is +so greatly distinguished by that character of "inevitability" +which Wordsworth denied to Goethe. + +When we remember Burns's obligations to his predecessors, we +must never forget his immense advances on them. They had +already "discovered" nature; but Burns discovered poetry - a +higher and more intense way of thinking of the things that go +to make up nature, a higher and more ideal key of words in +which to speak of them. Ramsay and Fergusson excelled at +making a popular - or shall we say vulgar? - sort of society +verses, comical and prosaic, written, you would say, in +taverns while a supper party waited for its laureate's word; +but on the appearance of Burns, this coarse and laughing +literature was touched to finer issues, and learned gravity +of thought and natural pathos. + +What he had gained from his predecessors was a direct, +speaking style, and to walk on his own feet instead of on +academical stilts. There was never a man of letters with +more absolute command of his means; and we may say of him, +without excess, that his style was his slave. Hence that +energy of epithet, so concise and telling, that a foreigner +is tempted to explain it by some special richness or aptitude +in the dialect he wrote. Hence that Homeric justice and +completeness of description which gives us the very +physiognomy of nature, in body and detail, as nature is. +Hence, too, the unbroken literary quality of his best pieces, +which keeps him from any slip into the weariful trade of +word-painting, and presents everything, as everything should +be presented by the art of words, in a clear, continuous +medium of thought. Principal Shairp, for instance, gives us +a paraphrase of one tough verse of the original; and for +those who know the Greek poets only by paraphrase, this has +the very quality they are accustomed to look for and admire +in Greek. The contemporaries of Burns were surprised that he +should visit so many celebrated mountains and waterfalls, and +not seize the opportunity to make a poem. Indeed, it is not +for those who have a true command of the art of words, but +for peddling, professional amateurs, that these pointed +occasions are most useful and inspiring. As those who speak +French imperfectly are glad to dwell on any topic they may +have talked upon or heard others talk upon before, because +they know appropriate words for it in French, so the dabbler +in verse rejoices to behold a waterfall, because he has +learned the sentiment and knows appropriate words for it in +poetry. But the dialect of Burns was fitted to deal with any +subject; and whether it was a stormy night, a shepherd's +collie, a sheep struggling in the snow, the conduct of +cowardly soldiers in the field, the gait and cogitations of a +drunken man, or only a village cockcrow in the morning, he +could find language to give it freshness, body, and relief. +He was always ready to borrow the hint of a design, as though +he had a difficulty in commencing - a difficulty, let us say, +in choosing a subject out of a world which seemed all equally +living and significant to him; but once he had the subject +chosen, he could cope with nature single-handed, and make +every stroke a triumph. Again, his absolute mastery in his +art enabled him to express each and all of his different +humours, and to pass smoothly and congruously from one to +another. Many men invent a dialect for only one side of +their nature - perhaps their pathos or their humour, or the +delicacy of their senses - and, for lack of a medium, leave +all the others unexpressed. You meet such an one, and find +him in conversation full of thought, feeling, and experience, +which he has lacked the art to employ in his writings. But +Burns was not thus hampered in the practice of the literary +art; he could throw the whole weight of his nature into his +work, and impregnate it from end to end. If Doctor Johnson, +that stilted and accomplished stylist, had lacked the sacred +Boswell, what should we have known of him? and how should we +have delighted in his acquaintance as we do? Those who spoke +with Burns tell us how much we have lost who did not. But I +think they exaggerate their privilege: I think we have the +whole Burns in our possession set forth in his consummate +verses. + +It was by his style, and not by his matter, that he affected +Wordsworth and the world. There is, indeed, only one merit +worth considering in a man of letters - that he should write +well; and only one damning fault - that he should write ill. +We are little the better for the reflections of the sailor's +parrot in the story. And so, if Burns helped to change the +course of literary history, it was by his frank, direct, and +masterly utterance, and not by his homely choice of subjects. +That was imposed upon him, not chosen upon a principle. He +wrote from his own experience, because it was his nature so +to do, and the tradition of the school from which he +proceeded was fortunately not oppose to homely subjects. But +to these homely subjects he communicated the rich commentary +of his nature; they were all steeped in Burns; and they +interest us not in themselves, but because they have been +passed through the spirit of so genuine and vigorous a man. +Such is the stamp of living literature; and there was never +any more alive than that of Burns. + +What a gust of sympathy there is in him sometimes flowing out +in byways hitherto unused, upon mice, and flowers, and the +devil himself; sometimes speaking plainly between human +hearts; sometimes ringing out in exultation like a peal of +beals! When we compare the FARMER'S SALUTATION TO HIS AULD +MARE MAGGIE, with the clever and inhumane production of half +a century earlier, THE AULD MAN'S MARE'S DEAD, we see in a +nutshell the spirit of the change introduced by Burns. And +as to its manner, who that has read it can forget how the +collie, Luath, in the TWA DOGS, describes and enters into the +merry-making in the cottage? + + +"The luntin' pipe an' sneeshin' mill, +Are handed round wi' richt guid will; +The canty auld folks crackin' crouse, +The young anes rantin' through the house - +My heart has been sae fain to see them +That I for joy hae barkit wi' them." + + +It was this ardent power of sympathy that was fatal to so +many women, and, through Jean Armour, to himself at last. +His humour comes from him in a stream so deep and easy that I +will venture to call him the best of humorous poets. He +turns about in the midst to utter a noble sentiment or a +trenchant remark on human life, and the style changes and +rises to the occasion. I think it is Principal Shairp who +says, happily, that Burns would have been no Scotchman if he +had not loved to moralise; neither, may we add, would he have +been his father's son; but (what is worthy of note) his +moralisings are to a large extent the moral of his own +career. He was among the least impersonal of artists. +Except in the JOLLY BEGGARS, he shows no gleam of dramatic +instinct. Mr. Carlyle has complained that TAM O' SHANTER is, +from the absence of this quality, only a picturesque and +external piece of work; and I may add that in the TWA DOGS it +is precisely in the infringement of dramatic propriety that a +great deal of the humour of the speeches depends for its +existence and effect. Indeed, Burns was so full of his +identity that it breaks forth on every page; and there is +scarce an appropriate remark either in praise or blame of his +own conduct, but he has put it himself into verse. Alas! for +the tenor of these remarks! They are, indeed, his own +pitiful apology for such a marred existence and talents so +misused and stunted; and they seem to prove for ever how +small a part is played by reason in the conduct of man's +affairs. Here was one, at least, who with unfailing judgment +predicted his own fate; yet his knowledge could not avail +him, and with open eyes he must fulfil his tragic destiny. +Ten years before the end he had written his epitaph; and +neither subsequent events, nor the critical eyes of +posterity, have shown us a word in it to alter. And, lastly, +has he not put in for himself the last unanswerable plea? - + + +"Then gently scan your brother man, +Still gentler sister woman; +Though they may gang a kennin wrang, +To step aside is human: +One point must still be greatly dark - " + +One? Alas! I fear every man and woman of us is "greatly +dark" to all their neighbours, from the day of birth until +death removes them, in their greatest virtues as well as in +their saddest faults; and we, who have been trying to read +the character of Burns, may take home the lesson and be +gentle in our thoughts. + + + +CHAPTER III - WALT WHITMAN + + + +OF late years the name of Walt Whitman has been a good deal +bandied about in books and magazines. It has become familiar +both in good and ill repute. His works have been largely +bespattered with praise by his admirers, and cruelly mauled +and mangled by irreverent enemies. Now, whether his poetry +is good or bad as poetry, is a matter that may admit of a +difference of opinion without alienating those who differ. +We could not keep the peace with a man who should put forward +claims to taste and yet depreciate the choruses in SAMSON +AGONISTES; but, I think, we may shake hands with one who sees +no more in Walt Whitman's volume, from a literary point of +view, than a farrago of incompetent essays in a wrong +direction. That may not be at all our own opinion. We may +think that, when a work contains many unforgettable phrases, +it cannot be altogether devoid of literary merit. We may +even see passages of a high poetry here and there among its +eccentric contents. But when all is said, Walt Whitman is +neither a Milton nor a Shakespeare; to appreciate his works +is not a condition necessary to salvation; and I would not +disinherit a son upon the question, nor even think much the +worse of a critic, for I should always have an idea what he +meant. + +What Whitman has to say is another affair from how he says +it. It is not possible to acquit any one of defective +intelligence, or else stiff prejudice, who is not interested +by Whitman's matter and the spirit it represents. Not as a +poet, but as what we must call (for lack of a more exact +expression) a prophet, he occupies a curious and prominent +position. Whether he may greatly influence the future or +not, he is a notable symptom of the present. As a sign of +the times, it would be hard to find his parallel. I should +hazard a large wager, for instance, that he was not +unacquainted with the works of Herbert Spencer; and yet +where, in all the history books, shall we lay our hands on +two more incongruous contemporaries? Mr. Spencer so decorous +- I had almost said, so dandy - in dissent; and Whitman, like +a large shaggy dog, just unchained, scouring the beaches of +the world and baying at the moon. And when was an echo more +curiously like a satire, than when Mr. Spencer found his +Synthetic Philosophy reverberated from the other shores of +the Atlantic in the "barbaric yawp" of Whitman? + + +I. + + +Whitman, it cannot be too soon explained, writes up to a +system. He was a theoriser about society before he was a +poet. He first perceived something wanting, and then sat +down squarely to supply the want. The reader, running over +his works, will find that he takes nearly as much pleasure in +critically expounding his theory of poetry as in making +poems. This is as far as it can be from the case of the +spontaneous village minstrel dear to elegy, who has no theory +whatever, although sometimes he may have fully as much poetry +as Whitman. The whole of Whitman's work is deliberate and +preconceived. A man born into a society comparatively new, +full of conflicting elements and interests, could not fail, +if he had any thoughts at all, to reflect upon the tendencies +around him. He saw much good and evil on all sides, not yet +settled down into some more or less unjust compromise as in +older nations, but still in the act of settlement. And he +could not but wonder what it would turn out; whether the +compromise would be very just or very much the reverse, and +give great or little scope for healthy human energies. From +idle wonder to active speculation is but a step; and he seems +to have been early struck with the inefficacy of literature +and its extreme unsuitability to the conditions. What he +calls "Feudal Literature" could have little living action on +the tumult of American democracy; what he calls the +"Literature of Wo," meaning the whole tribe of Werther and +Byron, could have no action for good in any time or place. +Both propositions, if art had none but a direct moral +influence, would be true enough; and as this seems to be +Whitman's view, they were true enough for him. He conceived +the idea of a Literature which was to inhere in the life of +the present; which was to be, first, human, and next, +American; which was to be brave and cheerful as per contract; +to give culture in a popular and poetical presentment; and, +in so doing, catch and stereotype some democratic ideal of +humanity which should be equally natural to all grades of +wealth and education, and suited, in one of his favourite +phrases, to "the average man." To the formation of some such +literature as this his poems are to be regarded as so many +contributions, one sometimes explaining, sometimes +superseding, the other: and the whole together not so much a +finished work as a body of suggestive hints. He does not +profess to have built the castle, but he pretends he has +traced the lines of the foundation. He has not made the +poetry, but he flatters himself he has done something towards +making the poets. + +His notion of the poetic function is ambitious, and coincides +roughly with what Schopenhauer has laid down as the province +of the metaphysician. The poet is to gather together for +men, and set in order, the materials of their existence. He +is "The Answerer;" he is to find some way of speaking about +life that shall satisfy, if only for the moment, man's +enduring astonishment at his own position. And besides +having an answer ready, it is he who shall provoke the +question. He must shake people out of their indifference, +and force them to make some election in this world, instead +of sliding dully forward in a dream. Life is a business we +are all apt to mismanage; either living recklessly from day +to day, or suffering ourselves to be gulled out of our +moments by the inanities of custom. We should despise a man +who gave as little activity and forethought to the conduct of +any other business. But in this, which is the one thing of +all others, since it contains them all, we cannot see the +forest for the trees. One brief impression obliterates +another. There is something stupefying in the recurrence of +unimportant things. And it is only on rare provocations that +we can rise to take an outlook beyond daily concerns, and +comprehend the narrow limits and great possibilities of our +existence. It is the duty of the poet to induce such moments +of clear sight. He is the declared enemy of all living by +reflex action, of all that is done betwixt sleep and waking, +of all the pleasureless pleasurings and imaginary duties in +which we coin away our hearts and fritter invaluable years. +He has to electrify his readers into an instant unflagging +activity, founded on a wide and eager observation of the +world, and make them direct their ways by a superior +prudence, which has little or nothing in common with the +maxims of the copy-book. That many of us lead such lives as +they would heartily disown after two hours' serious +reflection on the subject is, I am afraid, a true, and, I am +sure, a very galling thought. The Enchanted Ground of dead- +alive respectability is next, upon the map, to the Beulah of +considerate virtue. But there they all slumber and take +their rest in the middle of God's beautiful and wonderful +universe; the drowsy heads have nodded together in the same +position since first their fathers fell asleep; and not even +the sound of the last trumpet can wake them to a single +active thought. + +The poet has a hard task before him to stir up such fellows +to a sense of their own and other people's principles in +life. + +And it happens that literature is, in some ways, but an +indifferent means to such an end. Language is but a poor +bull's-eye lantern where-with to show off the vast cathedral +of the world; and yet a particular thing once said in words +is so definite and memorable, that it makes us forget the +absence of the many which remain unexpressed; like a bright +window in a distant view, which dazzles and confuses our +sight of its surroundings. There are not words enough in all +Shakespeare to express the merest fraction of a man's +experience in an hour. The speed of the eyesight and the +hearing, and the continual industry of the mind, produce, in +ten minutes, what it would require a laborious volume to +shadow forth by comparisons and roundabout approaches. If +verbal logic were sufficient, life would be as plain sailing +as a piece of Euclid. But, as a matter of fact, we make a +travesty of the simplest process of thought when we put it +into words for the words are all coloured and forsworn, apply +inaccurately, and bring with them, from former uses ideas of +praise and blame that have nothing to do with the question in +hand. So we must always see to it nearly, that we judge by +the realities of life and not by the partial terms that +represent them in man's speech; and at times of choice, we +must leave words upon one side, and act upon those brute +convictions, unexpressed and perhaps inexpressible, which +cannot be flourished in an argument, but which are truly the +sum and fruit of our experience. Words are for +communication, not for judgment. This is what every +thoughtful man knows for himself, for only fools and silly +schoolmasters push definitions over far into the domain of +conduct; and the majority of women, not learned in these +scholastic refinements, live all-of-a-piece and +unconsciously, as a tree grows, without caring to put a name +upon their acts or motives. Hence, a new difficulty for +Whitman's scrupulous and argumentative poet; he must do more +than waken up the sleepers to his words; he must persuade +them to look over the book and at life with their own eyes. + +This side of truth is very present to Whitman; it is this +that he means when he tells us that "To glance with an eye +confounds the learning of all times." But he is not unready. +He is never weary of descanting on the undebatable conviction +that is forced upon our minds by the presence of other men, +of animals, or of inanimate things. To glance with an eye, +were it only at a chair or a park railing, is by far a more +persuasive process, and brings us to a far more exact +conclusion, than to read the works of all the logicians +extant. If both, by a large allowance, may be said to end in +certainty, the certainty in the one case transcends the other +to an incalculable degree. If people see a lion, they run +away; if they only apprehend a deduction, they keep wandering +around in an experimental humour. Now, how is the poet to +convince like nature, and not like books? Is there no actual +piece of nature that he can show the man to his face, as he +might show him a tree if they were walking together? Yes, +there is one: the man's own thoughts. In fact, if the poet +is to speak efficaciously, he must say what is already in his +hearer's mind. That, alone, the hearer will believe; that, +alone, he will be able to apply intelligently to the facts of +life. Any conviction, even if it be a whole system or a +whole religion, must pass into the condition of commonplace, +or postulate, before it becomes fully operative. Strange +excursions and high-flying theories may interest, but they +cannot rule behaviour. Our faith is not the highest truth +that we perceive, but the highest that we have been able to +assimilate into the very texture and method of our thinking. +It is not, therefore, by flashing before a man's eyes the +weapons of dialectic; it is not by induction, deduction, or +construction; it is not by forcing him on from one stage of +reasoning to another, that the man will be effectually +renewed. He cannot be made to believe anything; but he can +be made to see that he has always believed it. And this is +the practical canon. It is when the reader cries, "Oh, I +know!" and is, perhaps, half irritated to see how nearly the +author has forestalled his own thoughts, that he is on the +way to what is called in theology a Saving Faith. + +Here we have the key to Whitman's attitude. To give a +certain unity of ideal to the average population of America - +to gather their activities about some conception of humanity +that shall be central and normal, if only for the moment - +the poet must portray that population as it is. Like human +law, human poetry is simply declaratory. If any ideal is +possible, it must be already in the thoughts of the people; +and, by the same reason, in the thoughts of the poet, who is +one of them. And hence Whitman's own formula: "The poet is +individual - he is complete in himself: the others are as +good as he; only he sees it, and they do not." To show them +how good they are, the poet must study his fellow-countrymen +and himself somewhat like a traveller on the hunt for his +book of travels. There is a sense, of course, in which all +true books are books of travel; and all genuine poets must +run their risk of being charged with the traveller's +exaggeration; for to whom are such books more surprising than +to those whose own life is faithfully and smartly pictured? +But this danger is all upon one side; and you may judiciously +flatter the portrait without any likelihood of the sitter's +disowning it for a faithful likeness. And so Whitman has +reasoned: that by drawing at first hand from himself and his +neighbours, accepting without shame the inconsistencies and +brutalities that go to make up man, and yet treating the +whole in a high, magnanimous spirit, he would make sure of +belief, and at the same time encourage people forward by the +means of praise. + + +II. + + +We are accustomed nowadays to a great deal of puling over the +circumstances in which we are placed. The great refinement +of many poetical gentlemen has rendered them practically +unfit for the jostling and ugliness of life, and they record +their unfitness at considerable length. The bold and awful +poetry of Job's complaint produces too many flimsy imitators; +for there is always something consolatory in grandeur, but +the symphony transposed for the piano becomes hysterically +sad. This literature of woe, as Whitman calls it, this +MALADIE DE RENE, as we like to call it in Europe, is in many +ways a most humiliating and sickly phenomenon. Young +gentlemen with three or four hundred a year of private means +look down from a pinnacle of doleful experience on all the +grown and hearty men who have dared to say a good word for +life since the beginning of the world. There is no prophet +but the melancholy Jacques, and the blue devils dance on all +our literary wires. + +It would be a poor service to spread culture, if this be its +result, among the comparatively innocent and cheerful ranks +of men. When our little poets have to be sent to look at the +ploughman and learn wisdom, we must be careful how we tamper +with our ploughmen. Where a man in not the best of +circumstances preserves composure of mind, and relishes ale +and tobacco, and his wife and children, in the intervals of +dull and unremunerative labour; where a man in this +predicament can afford a lesson by the way to what are called +his intellectual superiors, there is plainly something to be +lost, as well as something to be gained, by teaching him to +think differently. It is better to leave him as he is than +to teach him whining. It is better that he should go without +the cheerful lights of culture, if cheerless doubt and +paralysing sentimentalism are to be the consequence. Let us, +by all means, fight against that hide-bound stolidity of +sensation and sluggishness of mind which blurs and +decolorises for poor natures the wonderful pageant of +consciousness; let us teach people, as much as we can, to +enjoy, and they will learn for themselves to sympathise; but +let us see to it, above all, that we give these lessons in a +brave, vivacious note, and build the man up in courage while +we demolish its substitute, indifference. + +Whitman is alive to all this. He sees that, if the poet is +to be of any help, he must testify to the livableness of +life. His poems, he tells us, are to be "hymns of the praise +of things." They are to make for a certain high joy in +living, or what he calls himself "a brave delight fit for +freedom's athletes." And he has had no difficulty in +introducing his optimism: it fitted readily enough with his +system; for the average man is truly a courageous person and +truly fond of living. One of Whitman's remarks upon this +head is worth quotation, as he is there perfectly successful, +and does precisely what he designs to do throughout: Takes +ordinary and even commonplace circumstances; throws them out, +by a happy turn of thinking, into significance and something +like beauty; and tacks a hopeful moral lesson to the end. + + +"The passionate tenacity of hunters, woodmen, early risers, +cultivators of gardens and orchards and fields, he says, the +love of healthy women for the manly form, seafaring persons, +drivers of horses, the passion for light and the open air, - +all is an old unvaried sign of the unfailing perception of +beauty, and of a residence of the poetic in outdoor people." + + +There seems to me something truly original in this choice of +trite examples. You will remark how adroitly Whitman begins, +hunters and woodmen being confessedly romantic. And one +thing more. If he had said "the love of healthy men for the +female form," he would have said almost a silliness; for the +thing has never been dissembled out of delicacy, and is so +obvious as to be a public nuisance. But by reversing it, he +tells us something not unlike news; something that sounds +quite freshly in words; and, if the reader be a man, gives +him a moment of great self-satisfaction and spiritual +aggrandisement. In many different authors you may find +passages more remarkable for grammar, but few of a more +ingenious turn, and none that could be more to the point in +our connection. The tenacity of many ordinary people in +ordinary pursuits is a sort of standing challenge to +everybody else. If one man can grow absorbed in delving his +garden, others may grow absorbed and happy over something +else. Not to be upsides in this with any groom or gardener, +is to be very meanly organised. A man should be ashamed to +take his food if he has not alchemy enough in his stomach to +turn some of it into intense and enjoyable occupation. + +Whitman tries to reinforce this cheerfulness by keeping up a +sort of outdoor atmosphere of sentiment. His book, he tells +us, should be read "among the cooling influences of external +nature;" and this recommendation, like that other famous one +which Hawthorne prefixed to his collected tales, is in itself +a character of the work. Every one who has been upon a +walking or a boating tour, living in the open air, with the +body in constant exercise and the mind in fallow, knows true +ease and quiet. The irritating action of the brain is set at +rest; we think in a plain, unfeverish temper; little things +seem big enough, and great things no longer portentous; and +the world is smilingly accepted as it is. This is the spirit +that Whitman inculcates and parades. He thinks very ill of +the atmosphere of parlours or libraries. Wisdom keeps school +outdoors. And he has the art to recommend this attitude of +mind by simply pluming himself upon it as a virtue; so that +the reader, to keep the advantage over his author which most +readers enjoy, is tricked into professing the same view. And +this spirit, as it is his chief lesson, is the greatest charm +of his work. Thence, in spite of an uneven and emphatic key +of expression, something trenchant and straightforward, +something simple and surprising, distinguishes his poems. He +has sayings that come home to one like the Bible. We fall +upon Whitman, after the works of so many men who write +better, with a sense of relief from strain, with a sense of +touching nature, as when one passes out of the flaring, noisy +thoroughfares of a great city into what he himself has +called, with unexcelled imaginative justice of language, "the +huge and thoughtful night." And his book in consequence, +whatever may be the final judgment of its merit, whatever may +be its influence on the future, should be in the hands of all +parents and guardians as a specific for the distressing +malady of being seventeen years old. Green-sickness yields +to his treatment as to a charm of magic; and the youth, after +a short course of reading, ceases to carry the universe upon +his shoulders. + + +III. + + +Whitman is not one of those who can be deceived by +familiarity. He considers it just as wonderful that there +are myriads of stars, as that one man should rise from the +dead. He declares "a hair on the back of his hand just as +curious as any special revelation." His whole life is to him +what it was to Sir Thomas Browne, one perpetual miracle. +Everything is strange, everything unaccountable, everything +beautiful; from a bug to the moon, from the sight of the eyes +to the appetite for food. He makes it his business to see +things as if he saw them for the first time, and professes +astonishment on principle. But he has no leaning towards +mythology; avows his contempt for what he calls "unregenerate +poetry;" and does not mean by nature + + +"The smooth walks, trimmed hedges, butterflies, posies, and +nightingales of the English poets, but the whole orb, with +its geologic history, the Kosmos, carrying fire and snow, +that rolls through the illimitable areas, light as a feather +though weighing billions of tons." + + +Nor is this exhaustive; for in his character of idealist all +impressions, all thoughts, trees and people, love and faith, +astronomy, history, and religion, enter upon equal terms into +his notion of the universe. He is not against religion; not, +indeed, against any religion. He wishes to drag with a +larger net, to make a more comprehensive synthesis, than any +or than all of them put together. In feeling after the +central type of man, he must embrace all eccentricities; his +cosmology must subsume all cosmologies, and the feelings that +gave birth to them; his statement of facts must include all +religion and all irreligion, Christ and Boodha, God and the +devil. The world as it is, and the whole world as it is, +physical, and spiritual, and historical, with its good and +bad, with its manifold inconsistencies, is what he wishes to +set forth, in strong, picturesque, and popular lineaments, +for the understanding of the average man. One of his +favourite endeavours is to get the whole matter into a +nutshell; to knock the four corners of the universe, one +after another, about his readers' ears; to hurry him, in +breathless phrases, hither and thither, back and forward, in +time and space; to focus all this about his own momentary +personality; and then, drawing the ground from under his +feet, as if by some cataclysm of nature, to plunge him into +the unfathomable abyss sown with enormous suns and systems, +and among the inconceivable numbers and magnitudes and +velocities of the heavenly bodies. So that he concludes by +striking into us some sense of that disproportion of things +which Shelley has illuminated by the ironical flash of these +eight words: The desire of the moth for the star. + +The same truth, but to what a different purpose! Whitman's +moth is mightily at his ease about all the planets in heaven, +and cannot think too highly of our sublunary tapers. The +universe is so large that imagination flags in the effort to +conceive it; but here, in the meantime, is the world under +our feet, a very warm and habitable corner. "The earth, that +is sufficient; I do not want the constellations any nearer," +he remarks. And again: "Let your soul stand cool and +composed," says he, "before a million universes." It is the +language of a transcendental common sense, such as Thoreau +held and sometimes uttered. But Whitman, who has a somewhat +vulgar inclination for technical talk and the jargon of +philosophy, is not content with a few pregnant hints; he must +put the dots upon his i's; he must corroborate the songs of +Apollo by some of the darkest talk of human metaphysic. He +tells his disciples that they must be ready "to confront the +growing arrogance of Realism." Each person is, for himself, +the keystone and the occasion of this universal edifice. +"Nothing, not God," he says, "is greater to one than oneself +is;" a statement with an irreligious smack at the first +sight; but like most startling sayings, a manifest truism on +a second. He will give effect to his own character without +apology; he sees "that the elementary laws never apologise." +"I reckon," he adds, with quaint colloquial arrogance, "I +reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house +by, after all." The level follows the law of its being; so, +unrelentingly, will he; everything, every person, is good in +his own place and way; God is the maker of all and all are in +one design. For he believes in God, and that with a sort of +blasphemous security. "No array of terms," quoth he, "no +array of terms can say how much at peace I am about God and +about death." There certainly never was a prophet who +carried things with a higher hand; he gives us less a body of +dogmas than a series of proclamations by the grace of God; +and language, you will observe, positively fails him to +express how far he stands above the highest human doubts and +trepidations. + +But next in order of truths to a person's sublime conviction +of himself, comes the attraction of one person for another, +and all that we mean by the word love:- + + +"The dear love of man for his comrade - the attraction of +friend for friend, +Of the well-married husband and wife, of children and +parents, +Of city for city and land for land." + + +The solitude of the most sublime idealist is broken in upon +by other people's faces; he sees a look in their eyes that +corresponds to something in his own heart; there comes a tone +in their voices which convicts him of a startling weakness +for his fellow-creatures. While he is hymning the EGO and +commencing with God and the universe, a woman goes below his +window; and at the turn of her skirt, or the colour of her +eyes, Icarus is recalled from heaven by the run. Love is so +startlingly real that it takes rank upon an equal footing of +reality with the consciousness of personal existence. We are +as heartily persuaded of the identity of those we love as of +our own identity. And so sympathy pairs with self-assertion, +the two gerents of human life on earth; and Whitman's ideal +man must not only be strong, free, and self-reliant in +himself, but his freedom must be bounded and his strength +perfected by the most intimate, eager, and long-suffering +love for others. To some extent this is taking away with the +left hand what has been so generously given with the right. +Morality has been ceremoniously extruded from the door only +to be brought in again by the window. We are told, on one +page, to do as we please; and on the next we are sharply +upbraided for not having done as the author pleases. We are +first assured that we are the finest fellows in the world in +our own right; and then it appears that we are only fine +fellows in so far as we practise a most quixotic code of +morals. The disciple who saw himself in clear ether a moment +before is plunged down again among the fogs and complications +of duty. And this is all the more overwhelming because +Whitman insists not only on love between sex and sex, and +between friends of the same sex, but in the field of the less +intense political sympathies; and his ideal man must not only +be a generous friend but a conscientious voter into the +bargain. + +His method somewhat lessens the difficulty. He is not, the +reader will remember, to tell us how good we ought to be, but +to remind us how good we are. He is to encourage us to be +free and kind, by proving that we are free and kind already. +He passes our corporate life under review, to show that it is +upheld by the very virtues of which he makes himself the +advocate. "There is no object so soft," he says somewhere in +his big, plain way, "there is no object so soft but it makes +a hub for the wheel'd universe." Rightly understood, it is +on the softest of all objects, the sympathetic heart, that +the wheel of society turns easily and securely as on a +perfect axle. There is no room, of course, for doubt or +discussion, about conduct, where every one is to follow the +law of his being with exact compliance. Whitman hates doubt, +deprecates discussion, and discourages to his utmost the +craving, carping sensibilities of the conscience. We are to +imitate, to use one of his absurd and happy phrases, "the +satisfaction and aplomb of animals." If he preaches a sort +of ranting Christianity in morals, a fit consequent to the +ranting optimism of his cosmology, it is because he declares +it to be the original deliverance of the human heart; or at +least, for he would be honestly historical in method, of the +human heart as at present Christianised. His is a morality +without a prohibition; his policy is one of encouragement all +round. A man must be a born hero to come up to Whitman's +standard in the practice of any of the positive virtues; but +of a negative virtue, such as temperance or chastity, he has +so little to say, that the reader need not be surprised if he +drops a word or two upon the other side. He would lay down +nothing that would be a clog; he would prescribe nothing that +cannot be done ruddily, in a heat. The great point is to get +people under way. To the faithful Whitmanite this would be +justified by the belief that God made all, and that all was +good; the prophet, in this doctrine, has only to cry "Tally- +ho," and mankind will break into a gallop on the road to El +Dorado. Perhaps, to another class of minds, it may look like +the result of the somewhat cynical reflection that you will +not make a kind man out of one who is unkind by any precepts +under heaven; tempered by the belief that, in natural +circumstances, the large majority is well disposed. Thence +it would follow, that if you can only get every one to feel +more warmly and act more courageously, the balance of results +will be for good. + +So far, you see, the doctrine is pretty coherent as a +doctrine; as a picture of man's life it is incomplete and +misleading, although eminently cheerful. This he is himself +the first to acknowledge; for if he is prophetic in anything, +it is in his noble disregard of consistency. "Do I +contradict myself?" he asks somewhere; and then pat comes the +answer, the best answer ever given in print, worthy of a +sage, or rather of a woman: "Very well, then, I contradict +myself!" with this addition, not so feminine and perhaps not +altogether so satisfactory: "I am large - I contain +multitudes." Life, as a matter of fact, partakes largely of +the nature of tragedy. The gospel according to Whitman, even +if it be not so logical, has this advantage over the gospel +according to Pangloss, that it does not utterly disregard the +existence of temporal evil. Whitman accepts the fact of +disease and wretchedness like an honest man; and instead of +trying to qualify it in the interest of his optimism, sets +himself to spur people up to be helpful. He expresses a +conviction, indeed, that all will be made up to the victims +in the end; that "what is untried and afterward" will fail no +one, not even "the old man who has lived without purpose and +feels it with bitterness worse than gall." But this is not +to palliate our sense of what is hard or melancholy in the +present. Pangloss, smarting under one of the worst things +that ever was supposed to come from America, consoled himself +with the reflection that it was the price we have to pay for +cochineal. And with that murderous parody, logical optimism +and the praises of the best of possible words went +irrevocably out of season, and have been no more heard of in +the mouths of reasonable men. Whitman spares us all +allusions to the cochineal; he treats evil and sorrow in a +spirit almost as of welcome; as an old sea-dog might have +welcomed the sight of the enemy's topsails off the Spanish +Main. There, at least, he seems to say, is something obvious +to be done. I do not know many better things in literature +than the brief pictures, - brief and vivid like things seen +by lightning, - with which he tries to stir up the world's +heart upon the side of mercy. He braces us, on the one hand, +with examples of heroic duty and helpfulness; on the other, +he touches us with pitiful instances of people needing help. +He knows how to make the heart beat at a brave story; to +inflame us with just resentment over the hunted slave; to +stop our mouths for shame when he tells of the drunken +prostitute. For all the afflicted, all the weak, all the +wicked, a good word is said in a spirit which I can only call +one of ultra-Christianity; and however wild, however +contradictory, it may be in parts, this at least may be said +for his book, as it may be said of the Christian Gospels, +that no one will read it, however respectable, but he gets a +knock upon his conscience; no one however fallen, but he +finds a kindly and supporting welcome. + + +IV. + + +Nor has he been content with merely blowing the trumpet for +the battle of well-doing; he has given to his precepts the +authority of his own brave example. Naturally a grave, +believing man, with little or no sense of humour, he has +succeeded as well in life as in his printed performances. +The spirit that was in him has come forth most eloquently in +his actions. Many who have only read his poetry have been +tempted to set him down as an ass, or even as a charlatan; +but I never met any one who had known him personally who did +not profess a solid affection and respect for the man's +character. He practises as he professes; he feels deeply +that Christian love for all men, that toleration, that +cheerful delight in serving others, which he often celebrates +in literature with a doubtful measure of success. And +perhaps, out of all his writings, the best and the most human +and convincing passages are to be found in "these soil'd and +creas'd little livraisons, each composed of a sheet or two of +paper, folded small to carry in the pocket, and fastened with +a pin," which he scribbled during the war by the bedsides of +the wounded or in the excitement of great events. They are +hardly literature in the formal meaning of the word; he has +left his jottings for the most part as he made them; a homely +detail, a word from the lips of a dying soldier, a business +memorandum, the copy of a letter-short, straightforward to +the point, with none of the trappings of composition; but +they breathe a profound sentiment, they give us a vivid look +at one of the sides of life, and they make us acquainted with +a man whom it is an honour to love. + +Whitman's intense Americanism, his unlimited belief in the +future of These States (as, with reverential capitals, he +loves to call them), made the war a period of great trial to +his soul. The new virtue, Unionism, of which he is the sole +inventor, seemed to have fallen into premature unpopularity. +All that he loved, hoped, or hated, hung in the balance. And +the game of war was not only momentous to him in its issues; +it sublimated his spirit by its heroic displays, and tortured +him intimately by the spectacle of its horrors. It was a +theatre, it was a place of education, it was like a season of +religious revival. He watched Lincoln going daily to his +work; he studied and fraternised with young soldiery passing +to the front; above all, he walked the hospitals, reading the +Bible, distributing clean clothes, or apples, or tobacco; a +patient, helpful, reverend man, full of kind speeches. + +His memoranda of this period are almost bewildering to read. +From one point of view they seem those of a district visitor; +from another, they look like the formless jottings of an +artist in the picturesque. More than one woman, on whom I +tried the experiment, immediately claimed the writer for a +fellow-woman. More than one literary purist might identify +him as a shoddy newspaper correspondent without the necessary +faculty of style. And yet the story touches home; and if you +are of the weeping order of mankind, you will certainly find +your eyes fill with tears, of which you have no reason to be +ashamed. There is only one way to characterise a work of +this order, and that is to quote. Here is a passage from a +letter to a mother, unknown to Whitman, whose son died in +hospital:- + + +"Frank, as far as I saw, had everything requisite in surgical +treatment, nursing, etc. He had watches much of the time. +He was so good and well-behaved, and affectionate, I myself +liked him very much. I was in the habit of coming in +afternoons and sitting by him, and he liked to have me - +liked to put out his arm and lay his hand on my knee - would +keep it so a long while. Toward the last he was more +restless and flighty at night - often fancied himself with +his regiment - by his talk sometimes seem'd as if his +feelings were hurt by being blamed by his officers for +something he was entirely innocent of - said `I never in my +life was thought capable of such a thing, and never was.' At +other times he would fancy himself talking as it seem'd to +children or such like, his relatives, I suppose, and giving +them good advice; would talk to them a long while. All the +time he was out of his head not one single bad word, or +thought, or idea escaped him. It was remark'd that many a +man's conversation in his senses was not half so good as +Frank's delirium. + +"He was perfectly willing to die - he had become very weak, +and had suffer'd a good deal, and was perfectly resign'd, +poor boy. I do not know his past life, but I feel as if it +must have been good. At any rate what I saw of him here, +under the most trying circumstances, with a painful wound, +and among strangers, I can say that he behaved so brave, so +composed, and so sweet and affectionate, it could not be +surpassed. And now, like many other noble and good men, +after serving his country as a soldier, he has yielded up his +young life at the very outset in her service. Such things +are gloomy - yet there is a text, `God doeth all things +well,' the meaning of which, after due time, appears to the +soul. + +"I thought perhaps a few words, though from a stranger, about +your son, from one who was with him at the last, might be +worth while, for I loved the young man, though I but saw him +immediately to lose him." + + +It is easy enough to pick holes in the grammar of this +letter, but what are we to say of its profound goodness and +tenderness? It is written as though he had the mother's face +before his eyes, and saw her wincing in the flesh at every +word. And what, again, are we to say of its sober +truthfulness, not exaggerating, not running to phrases, not +seeking to make a hero out of what was only an ordinary but +good and brave young man? Literary reticence is not +Whitman's stronghold; and this reticence is not literary, but +humane; it is not that of a good artist but that of a good +man. He knew that what the mother wished to hear about was +Frank; and he told her about her Frank as he was. + + +V. + + +Something should be said of Whitman's style, for style is of +the essence of thinking. And where a man is so critically +deliberate as our author, and goes solemnly about his poetry +for an ulterior end, every indication is worth notice. He +has chosen a rough, unrhymed, lyrical verse; sometimes +instinct with a fine processional movement; often so rugged +and careless that it can only be described by saying that he +has not taken the trouble to write prose. I believe myself +that it was selected principally because it was easy to +write, although not without recollections of the marching +measures of some of the prose in our English Old Testament. +According to Whitman, on the other hand, "the time has +arrived to essentially break down the barriers of form +between Prose and Poetry . . . for the most cogent purposes +of those great inland states, and for Texas, and California, +and Oregon;" - a statement which is among the happiest +achievements of American humour. He calls his verses +"recitatives," in easily followed allusion to a musical form. +"Easily-written, loose-fingered chords," he cries, "I feel +the thrum of your climax and close." Too often, I fear, he +is the only one who can perceive the rhythm; and in spite of +Mr. Swinburne, a great part of his work considered as verses +is poor bald stuff. Considered, not as verse, but as speech, +a great part of it is full of strange and admirable merits. +The right detail is seized; the right word, bold and +trenchant, is thrust into its place. Whitman has small +regard to literary decencies, and is totally free from +literary timidities. He is neither afraid of being slangy +nor of being dull; nor, let me add, of being ridiculous. The +result is a most surprising compound of plain grandeur, +sentimental affectation, and downright nonsense. It would be +useless to follow his detractors and give instances of how +bad he can be at his worst; and perhaps it would be not much +wiser to give extracted specimens of how happily he can write +when he is at his best. These come in to most advantage in +their own place; owing something, it may be, to the offset of +their curious surroundings. And one thing is certain, that +no one can appreciate Whitman's excellences until he has +grown accustomed to his faults. Until you are content to +pick poetry out of his pages almost as you must pick it out +of a Greek play in Bohn's translation, your gravity will be +continually upset, your ears perpetually disappointed, and +the whole book will be no more to you than a particularly +flagrant production by the Poet Close. + +A writer of this uncertain quality was, perhaps, unfortunate +in taking for thesis the beauty of the world as it now is, +not only on the hill-tops but in the factory; not only by the +harbour full of stately ships, but in the magazine of the +hopelessly prosaic hatter. To show beauty in common things +is the work of the rarest tact. It is not to be done by the +wishing. It is easy to posit as a theory, but to bring it +home to men's minds is the problem of literature, and is only +accomplished by rare talent, and in comparatively rare +instances. To bid the whole world stand and deliver, with a +dogma in one's right hand by way of pistol; to cover reams of +paper in a galloping, headstrong vein; to cry louder and +louder over everything as it comes up, and make no +distinction in one's enthusiasm over the most incomparable +matters; to prove one's entire want of sympathy for the +jaded, literary palate, by calling, not a spade a spade, but +a hatter a hatter, in a lyrical apostrophe; - this, in spite +of all the airs of inspiration, is not the way to do it. It +may be very wrong, and very wounding to a respectable branch +of industry, but the word "hatter" cannot be used seriously +in emotional verse; not to understand this, is to have no +literary tact; and I would, for his own sake, that this were +the only inadmissible expression with which Whitman had +bedecked his pages. The book teems with similar +comicalities; and, to a reader who is determined to take it +from that side only, presents a perfect carnival of fun. + +A good deal of this is the result of theory playing its usual +vile trick upon the artist. It is because he is a Democrat +that Whitman must have in the hatter. If you may say +Admiral, he reasons, why may you not say Hatter? One man is +as good as another, and it is the business of the "great +poet" to show poetry in the life of the one as well as the +other. A most incontrovertible sentiment surely, and one +which nobody would think of controverting, where - and here +is the point - where any beauty has been shown. But how, +where that is not the case? where the hatter is simply +introduced, as God made him and as his fellow-men have +miscalled him, at the crisis of a high-flown rhapsody? And +what are we to say, where a man of Whitman's notable capacity +for putting things in a bright, picturesque, and novel way, +simply gives up the attempt, and indulges, with apparent +exultation, in an inventory of trades or implements, with no +more colour or coherence than so many index-words out of a +dictionary? I do not know that we can say anything, but that +it is a prodigiously amusing exhibition for a line or so. +The worst of it is, that Whitman must have known better. The +man is a great critic, and, so far as I can make out, a good +one; and how much criticism does it require to know that +capitulation is not description, or that fingering on a dumb +keyboard, with whatever show of sentiment and execution, is +not at all the same thing as discoursing music? I wish I +could believe he was quite honest with us; but, indeed, who +was ever quite honest who wrote a book for a purpose? It is +a flight beyond the reach of human magnanimity. + +One other point, where his means failed him, must be touched +upon, however shortly. In his desire to accept all facts +loyally and simply, it fell within his programme to speak at +some length and with some plainness on what is, for I really +do not know what reason, the most delicate of subjects. +Seeing in that one of the most serious and interesting parts +of life, he was aggrieved that it should be looked upon as +ridiculous or shameful. No one speaks of maternity with his +tongue in his cheek; and Whitman made a bold push to set the +sanctity of fatherhood beside the sanctity of motherhood, and +introduce this also among the things that can be spoken of +without either a blush or a wink. But the Philistines have +been too strong; and, to say truth, Whitman has rather played +the fool. We may be thoroughly conscious that his end is +improving; that it would be a good thing if a window were +opened on these close privacies of life; that on this +subject, as on all others, he now and then lets fall a +pregnant saying. But we are not satisfied. We feel that he +was not the man for so difficult an enterprise. He loses our +sympathy in the character of a poet by attracting too much of +our attention in that of a Bull in a China Shop. And where, +by a little more art, we might have been solemnised +ourselves, it is too often Whitman alone who is solemn in the +face of an audience somewhat indecorously amused. + + +VI. + + +Lastly, as most important, after all, to human beings in our +disputable state, what is that higher prudence which was to +be the aim and issue of these deliberate productions? + +Whitman is too clever to slip into a succinct formula. If he +could have adequately said his say in a single proverb, it is +to be presumed he would not have put himself to the trouble +of writing several volumes. It was his programme to state as +much as he could of the world with all its contradictions, +and leave the upshot with God who planned it. What he has +made of the world and the world's meanings is to be found at +large in his poems. These altogether give his answers to the +problems of belief and conduct; in many ways righteous and +high-spirited, in some ways loose and contradictory. And yet +there are two passages from the preface to the LEAVES OF +GRASS which do pretty well condense his teaching on all +essential points, and yet preserve a measure of his spirit. + + +"This is what you shall do," he says in the one, "love the +earth, and sun, and animals, despise riches, give alms to +every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, +devote your income and labour to others, hate tyrants, argue +not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the +people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to +any man or number of men; go freely with powerful uneducated +persons, and with the young, and mothers of families, read +these leaves (his own works) in the open air every season of +every year of your life; re-examine all you have been told at +school or church, or in any book, and dismiss whatever +insults your own soul." + +"The prudence of the greatest poet," he adds in the other - +and the greatest poet is, of course, himself - "knows that +the young man who composedly perilled his life and lost it, +has done exceeding well for himself; while the man who has +not perilled his life, and retains it to old age in riches +and ease, has perhaps achieved nothing for himself worth +mentioning; and that only that person has no great prudence +to learn, who has learnt to prefer real long-lived things, +and favours body and soul the same, and perceives the +indirect surely following the direct, and what evil or good +he does leaping onward and waiting to meet him again, and who +in his spirit, in any emergency whatever, neither hurries nor +avoids death." + + +There is much that is Christian in these extracts, +startlingly Christian. Any reader who bears in mind +Whitman's own advice and "dismisses whatever insults his own +soul" will find plenty that is bracing, brightening, and +chastening to reward him for a little patience at first. It +seems hardly possible that any being should get evil from so +healthy a book as the LEAVES OF GRASS, which is simply +comical wherever it falls short of nobility; but if there be +any such, who cannot both take and leave, who cannot let a +single opportunity pass by without some unworthy and unmanly +thought, I should have as great difficulty, and neither more +nor less, in recommending the works of Whitman as in lending +them Shakespeare, or letting them go abroad outside of the +grounds of a private asylum. + + + +CHAPTER IV - HENRY DAVID THOREAU: HIS CHARACTER AND OPINIONS + + + +I. + + +THOREAU'S thin, penetrating, big-nosed face, even in a bad +woodcut, conveys some hint of the limitations of his mind and +character. With his almost acid sharpness of insight, with +his almost animal dexterity in act, there went none of that +large, unconscious geniality of the world's heroes. He was +not easy, not ample, not urbane, not even kind; his enjoyment +was hardly smiling, or the smile was not broad enough to be +convincing; he had no waste lands nor kitchen-midden in his +nature, but was all improved and sharpened to a point. "He +was bred to no profession," says Emerson; "he never married; +he lived alone; he never went to church; he never voted; he +refused to pay a tax to the State; he ate no flesh, he drank +no wine, he never knew the use of tobacco and, though a +naturalist, he used neither trap nor gun. When asked at +dinner what dish he preferred, he answered, `the nearest.'" +So many negative superiorities begin to smack a little of the +prig. From his later works he was in the habit of cutting +out the humorous passages, under the impression that they +were beneath the dignity of his moral muse; and there we see +the prig stand public and confessed. It was "much easier," +says Emerson acutely, much easier for Thoreau to say NO than +YES; and that is a characteristic which depicts the man. It +is a useful accomplishment to be able to say NO, but surely +it is the essence of amiability to prefer to say YES where it +is possible. There is something wanting in the man who does +not hate himself whenever he is constrained to say no. And +there was a great deal wanting in this born dissenter. He +was almost shockingly devoid of weaknesses; he had not enough +of them to be truly polar with humanity; whether you call him +demi-god or demi-man, he was at least not altogether one of +us, for he was not touched with a feeling of our infirmities. +The world's heroes have room for all positive qualities, even +those which are disreputable, in the capacious theatre of +their dispositions. Such can live many lives; while a +Thoreau can live but one, and that only with perpetual +foresight. + +He was no ascetic, rather an Epicurean of the nobler sort; +and he had this one great merit, that he succeeded so far as +to be happy. "I love my fate to the core and rind," he wrote +once; and even while he lay dying, here is what he dictated +(for it seems he was already too feeble to control the pen): +"You ask particularly after my health. I SUPPOSE that I have +not many months to live, but of course know nothing about it. +I may say that I am enjoying existence as much as ever, and +regret nothing." It is not given to all to bear so clear a +testimony to the sweetness of their fate, nor to any without +courage and wisdom; for this world in itself is but a painful +and uneasy place of residence, and lasting happiness, at +least to the self-conscious, comes only from within. Now +Thoreau's content and ecstasy in living was, we may say, like +a plant that he had watered and tended with womanish +solicitude; for there is apt to be something unmanly, +something almost dastardly, in a life that does not move with +dash and freedom, and that fears the bracing contact of the +world. In one word, Thoreau was a skulker. He did not wish +virtue to go out of him among his fellow-men, but slunk into +a corner to hoard it for himself. He left all for the sake +of certain virtuous self-indulgences. It is true that his +tastes were noble; that his ruling passion was to keep +himself unspotted from the world; and that his luxuries were +all of the same healthy order as cold tubs and early rising. +But a man may be both coldly cruel in the pursuit of +goodness, and morbid even in the pursuit of health. I cannot +lay my hands on the passage in which he explains his +abstinence from tea and coffee, but I am sure I have the +meaning correctly. It is this; He thought it bad economy and +worthy of no true virtuoso to spoil the natural rapture of +the morning with such muddy stimulants; let him but see the +sun rise, and he was already sufficiently inspirited for the +labours of the day. That may be reason good enough to +abstain from tea; but when we go on to find the same man, on +the same or similar grounds, abstain from nearly everything +that his neighbours innocently and pleasurably use, and from +the rubs and trials of human society itself into the bargain, +we recognise that valetudinarian healthfulness which is more +delicate than sickness itself. We need have no respect for a +state of artificial training. True health is to be able to +do without it. Shakespeare, we can imagine, might begin the +day upon a quart of ale, and yet enjoy the sunrise to the +full as much as Thoreau, and commemorate his enjoyment in +vastly better verses. A man who must separate himself from +his neighbours' habits in order to be happy, is in much the +same case with one who requires to take opium for the same +purpose. What we want to see is one who can breast into the +world, do a man's work, and still preserve his first and pure +enjoyment of existence. + +Thoreau's faculties were of a piece with his moral shyness; +for they were all delicacies. He could guide himself about +the woods on the darkest night by the touch of his feet. He +could pick up at once an exact dozen of pencils by the +feeling, pace distances with accuracy, and gauge cubic +contents by the eye. His smell was so dainty that he could +perceive the foetor of dwelling-houses as he passed them by +at night; his palate so unsophisticated that, like a child, +he disliked the taste of wine - or perhaps, living in +America, had never tasted any that was good; and his +knowledge of nature was so complete and curious that he could +have told the time of year, within a day or so, by the aspect +of the plants. In his dealings with animals, he was the +original of Hawthorne's Donatello. He pulled the woodchuck +out of its hole by the tail; the hunted fox came to him for +protection; wild squirrels have been seen to nestle in his +waistcoat; he would thrust his arm into a pool and bring +forth a bright, panting fish, lying undismayed in the palm of +his hand. There were few things that he could not do. He +could make a house, a boat, a pencil, or a book. He was a +surveyor, a scholar, a natural historian. He could run, +walk, climb, skate, swim, and manage a boat. The smallest +occasion served to display his physical accomplishment; and a +manufacturer, from merely observing his dexterity with the +window of a railway carriage, offered him a situation on the +spot. "The only fruit of much living," he observes, "is the +ability to do some slight thing better." But such was the +exactitude of his senses, so alive was he in every fibre, +that it seems as if the maxim should be changed in his case, +for he could do most things with unusual perfection. And +perhaps he had an approving eye to himself when he wrote: +"Though the youth at last grows indifferent, the laws of the +universe are not indifferent, BUT ARE FOR EVER ON THE SIDE OF +THE MOST SENSITIVE." + + +II. + + +Thoreau had decided, it would seem, from the very first to +lead a life of self-improvement: the needle did not tremble +as with richer natures, but pointed steadily north; and as he +saw duty and inclination in one, he turned all his strength +in that direction. He was met upon the threshold by a common +difficulty. In this world, in spite of its many agreeable +features, even the most sensitive must undergo some drudgery +to live. It is not possible to devote your time to study and +meditation without what are quaintly but happily denominated +private means; these absent, a man must contrive to earn his +bread by some service to the public such as the public cares +to pay him for; or, as Thoreau loved to put it, Apollo must +serve Admetus. This was to Thoreau even a sourer necessity +than it is to most; there was a love of freedom, a strain of +the wild man, in his nature, that rebelled with violence +against the yoke of custom; and he was so eager to cultivate +himself and to be happy in his own society, that he could +consent with difficulty even to the interruptions of +friendship. "SUCH ARE MY ENGAGEMENTS TO MYSELF that I dare +not promise," he once wrote in answer to an invitation; and +the italics are his own. Marcus Aurelius found time to study +virtue, and between whiles to conduct the imperial affairs of +Rome; but Thoreau is so busy improving himself, that he must +think twice about a morning call. And now imagine him +condemned for eight hours a day to some uncongenial and +unmeaning business! He shrank from the very look of the +mechanical in life; all should, if possible, be sweetly +spontaneous and swimmingly progressive. Thus he learned to +make lead-pencils, and, when he had gained the best +certificate and his friends began to congratulate him on his +establishment in life, calmly announced that he should never +make another. "Why should I?" said he "I would not do again +what I have done once." For when a thing has once been done +as well as it wants to be, it is of no further interest to +the self-improver. Yet in after years, and when it became +needful to support his family, he returned patiently to this +mechanical art - a step more than worthy of himself. + +The pencils seem to have been Apollo's first experiment in +the service of Admetus; but others followed. "I have +thoroughly tried school-keeping," he writes, "and found that +my expenses were in proportion, or rather out of proportion, +to my income; for I was obliged to dress and train, not to +say think and believe, accordingly, and I lost my time into +the bargain. As I did not teach for the benefit of my +fellow-men, but simply for a livelihood, this was a failure. +I have tried trade, but I found that it would take ten years +to get under way in that, and that then I should probably be +on my way to the devil." Nothing, indeed, can surpass his +scorn for all so-called business. Upon that subject gall +squirts from him at a touch. "The whole enterprise of this +nation is not illustrated by a thought," he writes; "it is +not warmed by a sentiment; there is nothing in it for which a +man should lay down his life, nor even his gloves." And +again: "If our merchants did not most of them fail, and the +banks too, my faith in the old laws of this world would be +staggered. The statement that ninety-six in a hundred doing +such business surely break down is perhaps the sweetest fact +that statistics have revealed." The wish was probably father +to the figures; but there is something enlivening in a hatred +of so genuine a brand, hot as Corsican revenge, and sneering +like Voltaire. + +Pencils, school-keeping, and trade being thus discarded one +after another, Thoreau, with a stroke of strategy, turned the +position. He saw his way to get his board and lodging for +practically nothing; and Admetus never got less work out of +any servant since the world began. It was his ambition to be +an oriental philosopher; but he was always a very Yankee sort +of oriental. Even in the peculiar attitude in which he stood +to money, his system of personal economics, as we may call +it, he displayed a vast amount of truly down-East +calculation, and he adopted poverty like a piece of business. +Yet his system is based on one or two ideas which, I believe, +come naturally to all thoughtful youths, and are only pounded +out of them by city uncles. Indeed, something essentially +youthful distinguishes all Thoreau's knock-down blows at +current opinion. Like the posers of a child, they leave the +orthodox in a kind of speechless agony. These know the thing +is nonsense. They are sure there must be an answer, yet +somehow cannot find it. So it is with his system of economy. +He cuts through the subject on so new a plane that the +accepted arguments apply no longer; he attacks it in a new +dialect where there are no catchwords ready made for the +defender; after you have been boxing for years on a polite, +gladiatorial convention, here is an assailant who does not +scruple to hit below the belt. + +"The cost of a thing," says he, "is THE AMOUNT OF WHAT I WILL +CALL LIFE which is required to be exchanged for it, +immediately or in the long run." I have been accustomed to +put it to myself, perhaps more clearly, that the price we +have to pay for money is paid in liberty. Between these two +ways of it, at least, the reader will probably not fail to +find a third definition of his own; and it follows, on one or +other, that a man may pay too dearly for his livelihood, by +giving, in Thoreau's terms, his whole life for it, or, in +mine, bartering for it the whole of his available liberty, +and becoming a slave till death. There are two questions to +be considered - the quality of what we buy, and the price we +have to pay for it. Do you want a thousand a year, a two +thousand a year, or a ten thousand a year livelihood? and can +you afford the one you want? It is a matter of taste; it is +not in the least degree a question of duty, though commonly +supposed so. But there is no authority for that view +anywhere. It is nowhere in the Bible. It is true that we +might do a vast amount of good if we were wealthy, but it is +also highly improbable; not many do; and the art of growing +rich is not only quite distinct from that of doing good, but +the practice of the one does not at all train a man for +practising the other. "Money might be of great service to +me," writes Thoreau; "but the difficulty now is that I do not +improve my opportunities, and therefore I am not prepared to +have my opportunities increased." It is a mere illusion +that, above a certain income, the personal desires will be +satisfied and leave a wider margin for the generous impulse. +It is as difficult to be generous, or anything else, except +perhaps a member of Parliament, on thirty thousand as on two +hundred a year. + +Now Thoreau's tastes were well defined. He loved to be free, +to be master of his times and seasons, to indulge the mind +rather than the body; he preferred long rambles to rich +dinners, his own reflections to the consideration of society, +and an easy, calm, unfettered, active life among green trees +to dull toiling at the counter of a bank. And such being his +inclination he determined to gratify it. A poor man must +save off something; he determined to save off his livelihood. +"When a man has attained those things which are necessary to +life," he writes, "there is another alternative than to +obtain the superfluities; HE MAY ADVENTURE ON LIFE NOW, his +vacation from humbler toil having commenced." Thoreau would +get shelter, some kind of covering for his body, and +necessary daily bread; even these he should get as cheaply as +possible; and then, his vacation from humbler toil having +commenced, devote himself to oriental philosophers, the study +of nature, and the work of self-improvement. + +Prudence, which bids us all go to the ant for wisdom and +hoard against the day of sickness, was not a favourite with +Thoreau. He preferred that other, whose name is so much +misappropriated: Faith. When he had secured the necessaries +of the moment, he would not reckon up possible accidents or +torment himself with trouble for the future. He had no +toleration for the man "who ventures to live only by the aid +of the mutual insurance company, which has promised to bury +him decently." He would trust himself a little to the world. +"We may safely trust a good deal more than we do," says he. +"How much is not done by us! or what if we had been taken +sick?" And then, with a stab of satire, he describes +contemporary mankind in a phrase: "All the day long on the +alert, at night we unwillingly say our prayers and commit +ourselves to uncertainties." It is not likely that the +public will be much affected by Thoreau, when they blink the +direct injunctions of the religion they profess; and yet, +whether we will or no, we make the same hazardous ventures; +we back our own health and the honesty of our neighbours for +all that we are worth; and it is chilling to think how many +must lose their wager. + +In 1845, twenty-eight years old, an age by which the +liveliest have usually declined into some conformity with the +world, Thoreau, with a capital of something less than five +pounds and a borrowed axe, walked forth into the woods by +Walden Pond, and began his new experiment in life. He built +himself a dwelling, and returned the axe, he says with +characteristic and workman-like pride, sharper than when he +borrowed it; he reclaimed a patch, where he cultivated beans, +peas, potatoes, and sweet corn; he had his bread to bake, his +farm to dig, and for the matter of six weeks in the summer he +worked at surveying, carpentry, or some other of his numerous +dexterities, for hire. + +For more than five years, this was all that he required to do +for his support, and he had the winter and most of the summer +at his entire disposal. For six weeks of occupation, a +little cooking and a little gentle hygienic gardening, the +man, you may say, had as good as stolen his livelihood. Or +we must rather allow that he had done far better; for the +thief himself is continually and busily occupied; and even +one born to inherit a million will have more calls upon his +time than Thoreau. Well might he say, "What old people tell +you you cannot do, you try and find you can." And how +surprising is his conclusion: "I am convinced that TO +MAINTAIN ONESELF ON THIS EARTH IS NOT A HARDSHIP, BUT A +PASTIME, if we will live simply and wisely; AS THE PURSUITS +OF SIMPLER NATIONS ARE STILL THE SPORTS OF THE MORE +ARTIFICIAL." + +When he had enough of that kind of life, he showed the same +simplicity in giving it up as in beginning it. There are +some who could have done the one, but, vanity forbidding, not +the other; and that is perhaps the story of the hermits; but +Thoreau made no fetish of his own example, and did what he +wanted squarely. And five years is long enough for an +experiment and to prove the success of transcendental +Yankeeism. It is not his frugality which is worthy of note; +for, to begin with, that was inborn, and therefore inimitable +by others who are differently constituted; and again, it was +no new thing, but has often been equalled by poor Scotch +students at the universities. The point is the sanity of his +view of life, and the insight with which he recognised the +position of money, and thought out for himself the problem of +riches and a livelihood. Apart from his eccentricities, he +had perceived, and was acting on, a truth of universal +application. For money enters in two different characters +into the scheme of life. A certain amount, varying with the +number and empire of our desires, is a true necessary to each +one of us in the present order of society; but beyond that +amount, money is a commodity to be bought or not to be +bought, a luxury in which we may either indulge or stint +ourselves, like any other. And there are many luxuries that +we may legitimately prefer to it, such as a grateful +conscience, a country life, or the woman of our inclination. +Trite, flat, and obvious as this conclusion may appear, we +have only to look round us in society to see how scantily it +has been recognised; and perhaps even ourselves, after a +little reflection, may decide to spend a trifle less for +money, and indulge ourselves a trifle more in the article of +freedom. + + +III. + + +"To have done anything by which you earned money merely," +says Thoreau, "is to be" (have been, he means) "idle and +worse." There are two passages in his letters, both, oddly +enough, relating to firewood, which must be brought together +to be rightly understood. So taken, they contain between +them the marrow of all good sense on the subject of work in +its relation to something broader than mere livelihood. Here +is the first: "I suppose I have burned up a good-sized tree +to-night - and for what? I settled with Mr. Tarbell for it +the other day; but that wasn't the final settlement. I got +off cheaply from him. At last one will say: 'Let us see, how +much wood did you burn, sir?' And I shall shudder to think +that the next question will be, 'What did you do while you +were warm?'" Even after we have settled with Admetus in the +person of Mr. Tarbell, there comes, you see, a further +question. It is not enough to have earned our livelihood. +Either the earning itself should have been serviceable to +mankind, or something else must follow. To live is sometimes +very difficult, but it is never meritorious in itself; and we +must have a reason to allege to our own conscience why we +should continue to exist upon this crowded earth. + +If Thoreau had simply dwelt in his house at Walden, a lover +of trees, birds, and fishes, and the open air and virtue, a +reader of wise books, an idle, selfish self-improver, he +would have managed to cheat Admetus, but, to cling to +metaphor, the devil would have had him in the end. Those who +can avoid toil altogether and dwell in the Arcadia of private +means, and even those who can, by abstinence, reduce the +necessary amount of it to some six weeks a year, having the +more liberty, have only the higher moral obligation to be up +and doing in the interest of man. + +The second passage is this: "There is a far more important +and warming heat, commonly lost, which precedes the burning +of the wood. It is the smoke of industry, which is incense. +I had been so thoroughly warmed in body and spirit, that when +at length my fuel was housed, I came near selling it to the +ashman, as if I had extracted all its heat." Industry is, in +itself and when properly chosen, delightful and profitable to +the worker; and when your toil has been a pleasure, you have +not, as Thoreau says, "earned money merely," but money, +health, delight, and moral profit, all in one. "We must heap +up a great pile of doing for a small diameter of being," he +says in another place; and then exclaims, "How admirably the +artist is made to accomplish his self-culture by devotion to +his art!" We may escape uncongenial toil, only to devote +ourselves to that which is congenial. It is only to transact +some higher business that even Apollo dare play the truant +from Admetus. We must all work for the sake of work; we must +all work, as Thoreau says again, in any "absorbing pursuit - +it does not much matter what, so it be honest;" but the most +profitable work is that which combines into one continued +effort the largest proportion of the powers and desires of a +man's nature; that into which he will plunge with ardour, and +from which he will desist with reluctance; in which he will +know the weariness of fatigue, but not that of satiety; and +which will be ever fresh, pleasing, and stimulating to his +taste. Such work holds a man together, braced at all points; +it does not suffer him to doze or wander; it keeps him +actively conscious of himself, yet raised among superior +interests; it gives him the profit of industry with the +pleasures of a pastime. This is what his art should be to +the true artist, and that to a degree unknown in other and +less intimate pursuits. For other professions stand apart +from the human business of life; but an art has its seat at +the centre of the artist's doings and sufferings, deals +directly with his experiences, teaches him the lessons of his +own fortunes and mishaps, and becomes a part of his +biography. So says Goethe: + + +"Spat erklingt was fruh erklang; +Gluck und Ungluck wird Gesang." + + +Now Thoreau's art was literature; and it was one of which he +had conceived most ambitiously. He loved and believed in +good books. He said well, "Life is not habitually seen from +any common platform so truly and unexaggerated as in the +light of literature." But the literature he loved was of the +heroic order. "Books, not which afford us a cowering +enjoyment, but in which each thought is of unusual daring; +such as an idle man cannot read, and a timid one would not be +entertained by, which even make us dangerous to existing +institutions - such I call good books." He did not think +them easy to be read. "The heroic books," he says, "even if +printed in the character of our mother-tongue, will always be +in a language dead to degenerate times; and we must +laboriously seek the meaning of each word and line, +conjecturing a larger sense than common use permits out of +what wisdom and valour and generosity we have." Nor does he +suppose that such books are easily written. "Great prose, of +equal elevation, commands our respect more than great verse," +says he, "since it implies a more permanent and level height, +a life more pervaded with the grandeur of the thought. The +poet often only makes an irruption, like the Parthian, and is +off again, shooting while he retreats; but the prose writer +has conquered like a Roman and settled colonies." We may ask +ourselves, almost with dismay, whether such works exist at +all but in the imagination of the student. For the bulk of +the best of books is apt to be made up with ballast; and +those in which energy of thought is combined with any +stateliness of utterance may be almost counted on the +fingers. Looking round in English for a book that should +answer Thoreau's two demands of a style like poetry and sense +that shall be both original and inspiriting, I come to +Milton's AREOPAGITICA, and can name no other instance for the +moment. Two things at least are plain: that if a man will +condescend to nothing more commonplace in the way of reading, +he must not look to have a large library; and that if he +proposes himself to write in a similar vein, he will find his +work cut out for him. + +Thoreau composed seemingly while he walked, or at least +exercise and composition were with him intimately connected; +for we are told that "the length of his walk uniformly made +the length of his writing." He speaks in one place of +"plainness and vigour, the ornaments of style," which is +rather too paradoxical to be comprehensively, true. + +In another he remarks: "As for style of writing, if one has +anything to say it drops from him simply as a stone falls to +the ground." We must conjecture a very large sense indeed +for the phrase "if one has anything to say." When truth +flows from a man, fittingly clothed in style and without +conscious effort, it is because the effort has been made and +the work practically completed before he sat down to write. +It is only out of fulness of thinking that expression drops +perfect like a ripe fruit; and when Thoreau wrote so +nonchalantly at his desk, it was because he had been +vigorously active during his walk. For neither clearness +compression, nor beauty of language, come to any living +creature till after a busy and a prolonged acquaintance with +the subject on hand. Easy writers are those who, like Walter +Scott, choose to remain contented with a less degree of +perfection than is legitimately within the compass of their +powers. We hear of Shakespeare and his clean manuscript; but +in face of the evidence of the style itself and of the +various editions of HAMLET, this merely proves that Messrs. +Hemming and Condell were unacquainted with the common enough +phenomenon called a fair copy. He who would recast a tragedy +already given to the world must frequently and earnestly have +revised details in the study. Thoreau himself, and in spite +of his protestations, is an instance of even extreme research +in one direction; and his effort after heroic utterance is +proved not only by the occasional finish, but by the +determined exaggeration of his style. "I trust you realise +what an exaggerator I am - that I lay myself out to +exaggerate," he writes. And again, hinting at the +explanation: "Who that has heard a strain of music feared +lest he should speak extravagantly any more for ever?" And +yet once more, in his essay on Carlyle, and this time with +his meaning well in hand: "No truth, we think, was ever +expressed but with this sort of emphasis, that for the time +there seemed to be no other." Thus Thoreau was an +exaggerative and a parabolical writer, not because he loved +the literature of the East, but from a desire that people +should understand and realise what he was writing. He was +near the truth upon the general question; but in his own +particular method, it appears to me, he wandered. Literature +is not less a conventional art than painting or sculpture; +and it is the least striking, as it is the most comprehensive +of the three. To hear a strain of music to see a beautiful +woman, a river, a great city, or a starry night, is to make a +man despair of his Lilliputian arts in language. Now, to +gain that emphasis which seems denied to us by the very +nature of the medium, the proper method of literature is by +selection, which is a kind of negative exaggeration. It is +the right of the literary artist, as Thoreau was on the point +of seeing, to leave out whatever does not suit his purpose. +Thus we extract the pure gold; and thus the well-written +story of a noble life becomes, by its very omissions, more +thrilling to the reader. But to go beyond this, like +Thoreau, and to exaggerate directly, is to leave the saner +classical tradition, and to put the reader on his guard. And +when you write the whole for the half, you do not express +your thought more forcibly, but only express a different +thought which is not yours. + +Thoreau's true subject was the pursuit of self-improvement +combined with an unfriendly criticism of life as it goes on +in our societies; it is there that he best displays the +freshness and surprising trenchancy of his intellect; it is +there that his style becomes plain and vigorous, and +therefore, according to his own formula, ornamental. Yet he +did not care to follow this vein singly, but must drop into +it by the way in books of a different purport. WALDEN, OR +LIFE IN THE WOODS, A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK +RIVERS, THE MAINE WOODS, - such are the titles he affects. +He was probably reminded by his delicate critical perception +that the true business of literature is with narrative; in +reasoned narrative, and there alone, that art enjoys all its +advantages, and suffers least from its defects. Dry precept +and disembodied disquisition, as they can only be read with +an effort of abstraction, can never convey a perfectly +complete or a perfectly natural impression. Truth, even in +literature, must be clothed with flesh and blood, or it +cannot tell its whole story to the reader. Hence the effect +of anecdote on simple minds; and hence good biographies and +works of high, imaginative art, are not only far more +entertaining, but far more edifying, than books of theory or +precept. Now Thoreau could not clothe his opinions in the +garment of art, for that was not his talent; but he sought to +gain the same elbow-room for himself, and to afford a similar +relief to his readers, by mingling his thoughts with a record +of experience. + +Again, he was a lover of nature. The quality which we should +call mystery in a painting, and which belongs so particularly +to the aspect of the external world and to its influence upon +our feelings, was one which he was never weary of attempting +to reproduce in his books. The seeming significance of +nature's appearances, their unchanging strangeness to the +senses, and the thrilling response which they waken in the +mind of man, continued to surprise and stimulate his spirits. +It appeared to him, I think, that if we could only write near +enough to the facts, and yet with no pedestrian calm, but +ardently, we might transfer the glamour of reality direct +upon our pages; and that, if it were once thus captured and +expressed, a new and instructive relation might appear +between men's thoughts and the phenomena of nature. This was +the eagle that he pursued all his life long, like a schoolboy +with a butterfly net. Hear him to a friend: "Let me suggest +a theme for you - to state to yourself precisely and +completely what that walk over the mountains amounted to for +you, returning to this essay again and again until you are +satisfied that all that was important in your experience is +in it. Don't suppose that you can tell it precisely the +first dozen times you try, but at 'em again; especially when, +after a sufficient pause you suspect that you are touching +the heart or summit of the matter, reiterate your blows +there, and account for the mountain to yourself. Not that +the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make +it short." Such was the method, not consistent for a man +whose meanings were to "drop from him as a stone falls to the +ground." Perhaps the most successful work that Thoreau ever +accomplished in this direction is to be found in the passages +relating to fish in the WEEK. These are remarkable for a +vivid truth of impression and a happy suitability of +language, not frequently surpassed. + +Whatever Thoreau tried to do was tried in fair, square prose, +with sentences solidly built, and no help from bastard +rhythms. Moreover, there is a progression - I cannot call it +a progress - in his work towards a more and more strictly +prosaic level, until at last he sinks into the bathos of the +prosy. Emerson mentions having once remarked to Thoreau: +"Who would not like to write something which all can read, +like ROBINSON CRUSOE? and who does not see with regret that +his page is not solid with a right materialistic treatment +which delights everybody?" I must say in passing that it is +not the right materialistic treatment which delights the +world in ROBINSON, but the romantic and philosophic interest +of the fable. The same treatment does quite the reverse of +delighting us when it is applied, in COLONEL JACK, to the +management of a plantation. But I cannot help suspecting +Thoreau to have been influenced either by this identical +remark or by some other closely similar in meaning. He began +to fall more and more into a detailed materialistic +treatment; he went into the business doggedly, as one who +should make a guide-book; he not only chronicled what had +been important in his own experience, but whatever might have +been important in the experience of anybody else; not only +what had affected him, but all that he saw or heard. His +ardour had grown less, or perhaps it was inconsistent with a +right materialistic treatment to display such emotions as he +felt; and, to complete the eventful change, he chose, from a +sense of moral dignity, to gut these later works of the +saving quality of humour. He was not one of those authors +who have learned, in his own words, "to leave out their +dulness." He inflicts his full quantity upon the reader in +such books as CAPE COD, or THE YANKEE IN CANADA. Of the +latter he confessed that he had not managed to get much of +himself into it. Heaven knows he had not, nor yet much of +Canada, we may hope. "Nothing," he says somewhere, "can +shock a brave man but dulness." Well, there are few spots +more shocking to the brave than the pages of YANKEE IN +CANADA. + +There are but three books of his that will be read with much +pleasure: the WEEK, WALDEN, and the collected letters. As to +his poetry, Emerson's word shall suffice for us, it is so +accurate and so prettily said: "The thyme and majoram are not +yet honey." In this, as in his prose, he relied greatly on +the goodwill of the reader, and wrote throughout in faith. +It was an exercise of faith to suppose that many would +understand the sense of his best work, or that any could be +exhilarated by the dreary chronicling of his worst. "But," +as he says, "the gods do not hear any rude or discordant +sound, as we learn from the echo; and I know that the nature +towards which I launch these sounds is so rich that it will +modulate anew and wonderfully improve my rudest strain." + + +IV. + + +"What means the fact," he cries, "that a soul which has lost +all hope for itself can inspire in another listening soul +such an infinite confidence in it, even while it is +expressing its despair?" The question is an echo and an +illustration of the words last quoted; and it forms the key- +note of his thoughts on friendship. No one else, to my +knowledge, has spoken in so high and just a spirit of the +kindly relations; and I doubt whether it be a drawback that +these lessons should come from one in many ways so unfitted +to be a teacher in this branch. The very coldness and egoism +of his own intercourse gave him a clearer insight into the +intellectual basis of our warm, mutual tolerations; and +testimony to their worth comes with added force from one who +was solitary and obliging, and of whom a friend remarked, +with equal wit and wisdom, "I love Henry, but I cannot like +him." + +He can hardly be persuaded to make any distinction between +love and friendship; in such rarefied and freezing air, upon +the mountain-tops of meditation, had he taught himself to +breathe. He was, indeed, too accurate an observer not to +have remarked that "there exists already a natural +disinterestedness and liberality" between men and women; yet, +he thought, "friendship is no respecter of sex." Perhaps +there is a sense in which the words are true; but they were +spoken in ignorance; and perhaps we shall have put the matter +most correctly, if we call love a foundation for a nearer and +freer degree of friendship than can be possible without it. +For there are delicacies, eternal between persons of the same +sex, which are melted and disappear in the warmth of love. + +To both, if they are to be right, he attributes the same +nature and condition. "We are not what we are," says he, +"nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what +we are capable of being." "A friend is one who incessantly +pays us the compliment of expecting all the virtues from us, +and who can appreciate them in us." "The friend asks no +return but that his friend will religiously accept and wear +and not disgrace his apotheosis of him." "It is the merit +and preservation of friendship that it takes place on a level +higher than the actual characters of the parties would seem +to warrant." This is to put friendship on a pedestal indeed; +and yet the root of the matter is there; and the last +sentence, in particular, is like a light in a dark place, and +makes many mysteries plain. We are different with different +friends; yet if we look closely we shall find that every such +relation reposes on some particular apotheosis of oneself; +with each friend, although we could not distinguish it in +words from any other, we have at least one special reputation +to preserve: and it is thus that we run, when mortified, to +our friend or the woman that we love, not to hear ourselves +called better, but to be better men in point of fact. We +seek this society to flatter ourselves with our own good +conduct. And hence any falsehood in the relation, any +incomplete or perverted understanding, will spoil even the +pleasure of these visits. Thus says Thoreau again: "Only +lovers know the value of truth." And yet again: "They ask +for words and deeds, when a true relation is word and deed." + +But it follows that since they are neither of them so good as +the other hopes, and each is, in a very honest manner, +playing a part above his powers, such an intercourse must +often be disappointing to both. "We may bid farewell sooner +than complain," says Thoreau, "for our complaint is too well +grounded to be uttered." "We have not so good a right to +hate any as our friend." + + +"It were treason to our love +And a sin to God above, +One iota to abate +Of a pure, impartial hate." + + +Love is not blind, nor yet forgiving. "O yes, believe me," +as the song says, "Love has eyes!" The nearer the intimacy, +the more cuttingly do we feel the unworthiness of those we +love; and because you love one, and would die for that love +to-morrow, you have not forgiven, and you never will forgive, +that friend's misconduct. If you want a person's faults, go +to those who love him. They will not tell you, but they +know. And herein lies the magnanimous courage of love, that +it endures this knowledge without change. + +It required a cold, distant personality like that of Thoreau, +perhaps, to recognise and certainly to utter this truth; for +a more human love makes it a point of honour not to +acknowledge those faults of which it is most conscious. But +his point of view is both high and dry. He has no illusions; +he does not give way to love any more than to hatred, but +preserves them both with care like valuable curiosities. A +more bald-headed picture of life, if I may so express myself, +has seldom been presented. He is an egoist; he does not +remember, or does not think it worth while to remark, that, +in these near intimacies, we are ninety-nine times +disappointed in our beggarly selves for once that we are +disappointed in our friend; that it is we who seem most +frequently undeserving of the love that unites us; and that +it is by our friend's conduct that we are continually rebuked +and yet strengthened for a fresh endeavour. Thoreau is dry, +priggish, and selfish. It is profit he is after in these +intimacies; moral profit, certainly, but still profit to +himself. If you will be the sort of friend I want, he +remarks naively, "my education cannot dispense with your +society." His education! as though a friend were a +dictionary. And with all this, not one word about pleasure, +or laughter, or kisses, or any quality of flesh and blood. +It was not inappropriate, surely, that he had such close +relations with the fish. We can understand the friend +already quoted, when he cried: "As for taking his arm, I +would as soon think of taking the arm of an elm-tree!" + +As a matter of fact he experienced but a broken enjoyment in +his intimacies. He says he has been perpetually on the brink +of the sort of intercourse he wanted, and yet never +completely attained it. And what else had he to expect when +he would not, in a happy phrase of Carlyle's, "nestle down +into it"? Truly, so it will be always if you only stroll in +upon your friends as you might stroll in to see a cricket +match; and even then not simply for the pleasure of the +thing, but with some afterthought of self-improvement, as +though you had come to the cricket match to bet. It was his +theory that people saw each other too frequently, so that +their curiosity was not properly whetted, nor had they +anything fresh to communicate; but friendship must be +something else than a society for mutual improvement - +indeed, it must only be that by the way, and to some extent +unconsciously; and if Thoreau had been a man instead of a +manner of elm-tree, he would have felt that he saw his +friends too seldom, and have reaped benefits unknown to his +philosophy from a more sustained and easy intercourse. We +might remind him of his own words about love: "We should have +no reserve; we should give the whole of ourselves to that +business. But commonly men have not imagination enough to be +thus employed about a human being, but must be coopering a +barrel, forsooth." Ay, or reading oriental philosophers. It +is not the nature of the rival occupation, it is the fact +that you suffer it to be a rival, that renders loving +intimacy impossible. Nothing is given for nothing in this +world; there can be no true love, even on your own side, +without devotion; devotion is the exercise of love, by which +it grows; but if you will give enough of that, if you will +pay the price in a sufficient "amount of what you call life," +why then, indeed, whether with wife or comrade, you may have +months and even years of such easy, natural, pleasurable, and +yet improving intercourse as shall make time a moment and +kindness a delight. + +The secret of his retirement lies not in misanthropy, of +which he had no tincture, but part in his engrossing design +of self-improvement and part in the real deficiencies of +social intercourse. He was not so much difficult about his +fellow human beings as he could not tolerate the terms of +their association. He could take to a man for any genuine +qualities, as we see by his admirable sketch of the Canadian +woodcutter in WALDEN; but he would not consent, in his own +words, to "feebly fabulate and paddle in the social slush." +It seemed to him, I think, that society is precisely the +reverse of friendship, in that it takes place on a lower +level than the characters of any of the parties would warrant +us to expect. The society talk of even the most brilliant +man is of greatly less account than what you will get from +him in (as the French say) a little committee. And Thoreau +wanted geniality; he had not enough of the superficial, even +at command; he could not swoop into a parlour and, in the +naval phrase, "cut out" a human being from that dreary port; +nor had he inclination for the task. I suspect he loved +books and nature as well and near as warmly as he loved his +fellow-creatures, - a melancholy, lean degeneration of the +human character. + +"As for the dispute about solitude and society," he thus sums +up: "Any comparison is impertinent. It is an idling down on +the plain at the base of the mountain instead of climbing +steadily to its top. Of course you will be glad of all the +society you can get to go up with? Will you go to glory with +me? is the burden of the song. It is not that we love to be +alone, but that we love to soar, and when we do soar the +company grows thinner and thinner till there is none at all. +It is either the tribune on the plain, a sermon on the mount, +or a very private ecstasy still higher up. Use all the +society that will abet you." But surely it is no very +extravagant opinion that it is better to give than to +receive, to serve than to use our companions; and above all, +where there is no question of service upon either side, that +it is good to enjoy their company like a natural man. It is +curious and in some ways dispiriting that a writer may be +always best corrected out of his own mouth; and so, to +conclude, here is another passage from Thoreau which seems +aimed directly at himself: "Do not be too moral; you may +cheat yourself out of much life so. . . . ALL FABLES, +INDEED, HAVE THEIR MORALS; BUT THE INNOCENT ENJOY THE STORY." + + +V. + + +"The only obligation," says he, "which I have a right to +assume is to do at any time what I think right." "Why should +we ever go abroad, even across the way, to ask a neighbour's +advice?" "There is a nearer neighbour within, who is +incessantly telling us how we should behave. BUT WE WAIT FOR +THE NEIGHBOUR WITHOUT TO TELL US OF SOME FALSE, EASIER WAY." +"The greater part of what my neighbours call good I believe +in my soul to be bad." To be what we are, and to become what +we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life. It is +"when we fall behind ourselves" that "we are cursed with +duties and the neglect of duties." "I love the wild," he +says, "not less than the good." And again: "The life of a +good man will hardly improve us more than the life of a +freebooter, for the inevitable laws appear as plainly in the +infringement as in the observance, and" (mark this) "OUR +LIVES ARE SUSTAINED BY A NEARLY EQUAL EXPENSE OF VIRTUE OF +SOME KIND." Even although he were a prig, it will be owned +he could announce a startling doctrine. "As for doing good," +he writes elsewhere, "that is one of the professions that are +full. Moreover, I have tried it fairly, and, strange as it +may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my +constitution. Probably I should not conscientiously and +deliberately forsake my particular calling to do the good +which society demands of me, to save the universe from +annihilation; and I believe that a like but infinitely +greater steadfastness elsewhere is all that now preserves it. +If you should ever be betrayed into any of these +philanthropies, do not let your left hand know what your +right hand does, for it is not worth knowing." Elsewhere he +returns upon the subject, and explains his meaning thus: "If +I ever DID a man any good in their sense, of course it was +something exceptional and insignificant compared with the +good or evil I am constantly doing by being what I am." + +There is a rude nobility, like that of a barbarian king, in +this unshaken confidence in himself and indifference to the +wants, thoughts, or sufferings of others. In his whole works +I find no trace of pity. This was partly the result of +theory, for he held the world too mysterious to be +criticised, and asks conclusively: "What right have I to +grieve who have not ceased to wonder?" But it sprang still +more from constitutional indifference and superiority; and he +grew up healthy, composed, and unconscious from among life's +horrors, like a green bay-tree from a field of battle. It +was from this lack in himself that he failed to do justice to +the spirit of Christ; for while he could glean more meaning +from individual precepts than any score of Christians, yet he +conceived life in such a different hope, and viewed it with +such contrary emotions, that the sense and purport of the +doctrine as a whole seems to have passed him by or left him +unimpressed. He could understand the idealism of the +Christian view, but he was himself so unaffectedly unhuman +that he did not recognise the human intention and essence of +that teaching. Hence he complained that Christ did not leave +us a rule that was proper and sufficient for this world, not +having conceived the nature of the rule that was laid down; +for things of that character that are sufficiently +unacceptable become positively non-existent to the mind. But +perhaps we shall best appreciate the defect in Thoreau by +seeing it supplied in the case of Whitman. For the one, I +feel confident, is the disciple of the other; it is what +Thoreau clearly whispered that Whitman so uproariously bawls; +it is the same doctrine, but with how immense a difference! +the same argument, but used to what a new conclusion! +Thoreau had plenty of humour until he tutored himself out of +it, and so forfeited that best birthright of a sensible man; +Whitman, in that respect, seems to have been sent into the +world naked and unashamed; and yet by a strange consummation, +it is the theory of the former that is arid, abstract, and +claustral. Of these two philosophies so nearly identical at +bottom, the one pursues Self-improvement - a churlish, mangy +dog; the other is up with the morning, in the best of health, +and following the nymph Happiness, buxom, blithe, and +debonair. Happiness, at least, is not solitary; it joys to +communicate; it loves others, for it depends on them for its +existence; it sanctions and encourages to all delights that +are not unkind in themselves; if it lived to a thousand, it +would not make excision of a single humorous passage; and +while the self-improver dwindles towards the prig, and, if he +be not of an excellent constitution may even grow deformed +into an Obermann, the very name and appearance of a happy man +breathe of good-nature, and help the rest of us to live. + +In the case of Thoreau, so great a show of doctrine demands +some outcome in the field of action. If nothing were to be +done but build a shanty beside Walden Pond, we have heard +altogether too much of these declarations of independence. +That the man wrote some books is nothing to the purpose, for +the same has been done in a suburban villa. That he kept +himself happy is perhaps a sufficient excuse, but it is +disappointing to the reader. We may be unjust, but when a +man despises commerce and philanthropy alike, and has views +of good so soaring that he must take himself apart from +mankind for their cultivation, we will not be content without +some striking act. It was not Thoreau's fault if he were not +martyred; had the occasion come, he would have made a noble +ending. As it is, he did once seek to interfere in the +world's course; he made one practical appearance on the stage +of affairs; and a strange one it was, and strangely +characteristic of the nobility and the eccentricity of the +man. It was forced on him by his calm but radical opposition +to negro slavery. "Voting for the right is doing nothing for +it," he saw; "it is only expressing to men feebly your desire +that it should prevail." For his part, he would not "for an +instant recognise that political organisation for HIS +government which is the SLAVE'S government also." "I do not +hesitate to say," he adds, "that those who call themselves +Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their +support, both in person and property, from the government of +Massachusetts." That is what he did: in 1843 he ceased to +pay the poll-tax. The highway-tax he paid, for he said he +was as desirous to be a good neighbour as to be a bad +subject; but no more poll-tax to the State of Massachusetts. +Thoreau had now seceded, and was a polity unto himself; or, +as he explains it with admirable sense, "In fact, I quietly +declare war with the State after my fashion, though I will +still make what use and get what advantage of her I can, as +is usual in such cases." He was put in prison; but that was +a part of his design. "Under a government which imprisons +any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. +I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if +ten men whom I could name - ay, if ONE HONEST man, in this +State of Massachusetts, CEASING TO HOLD SLAVES, were actually +to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the +county gaol therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in +America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem +to be; what is once well done is done for ever." Such was +his theory of civil disobedience. + +And the upshot? A friend paid the tax for him; continued +year by year to pay it in the sequel; and Thoreau was free to +walk the woods unmolested. It was a FIASCO, but to me it +does not seem laughable; even those who joined in the +laughter at the moment would be insensibly affected by this +quaint instance of a good man's horror for injustice. We may +compute the worth of that one night's imprisonment as +outweighing half a hundred voters at some subsequent +election: and if Thoreau had possessed as great a power of +persuasion as (let us say) Falstaff, if he had counted a +party however small, if his example had been followed by a +hundred or by thirty of his fellows, I cannot but believe it +would have greatly precipitated the era of freedom and +justice. We feel the misdeeds of our country with so little +fervour, for we are not witnesses to the suffering they +cause; but when we see them wake an active horror in our +fellow-man, when we see a neighbour prefer to lie in prison +rather than be so much as passively implicated in their +perpetration, even the dullest of us will begin to realise +them with a quicker pulse. + +Not far from twenty years later, when Captain John Brown was +taken at Harper's Ferry, Thoreau was the first to come +forward in his defence. The committees wrote to him +unanimously that his action was premature. "I did not send +to you for advice," said he, "but to announce that I was to +speak." I have used the word "defence;" in truth he did not +seek to defend him, even declared it would be better for the +good cause that he should die; but he praised his action as I +think Brown would have liked to hear it praised. + +Thus this singularly eccentric and independent mind, wedded +to a character of so much strength, singleness, and purity, +pursued its own path of self-improvement for more than half a +century, part gymnosophist, part backwoodsman; and thus did +it come twice, though in a subaltern attitude, into the field +of political history. + + +NOTE. - For many facts in the above essay, among which I may +mention the incident of the squirrel, I am indebted to +THOREAU: HIS LIFE AND AIMS, by J. A. Page, or, as is well +known, Dr. Japp. + + + +CHAPTER V - YOSHIDA-TORAJIRO + + + +THE name at the head of this page is probably unknown to the +English reader, and yet I think it should become a household +word like that of Garibaldi or John Brown. Some day soon, we +may expect to hear more fully the details of Yoshida's +history, and the degree of his influence in the +transformation of Japan; even now there must be Englishmen +acquainted with the subject, and perhaps the appearance of +this sketch may elicit something more complete and exact. I +wish to say that I am not, rightly speaking, the author of +the present paper: I tell the story on the authority of an +intelligent Japanese gentleman, Mr. Taiso Masaki, who told it +me with an emotion that does honour to his heart; and though +I have taken some pains, and sent my notes to him to be +corrected, this can be no more than an imperfect outline. + +Yoshida-Torajiro was son to the hereditary military +instructor of the house of Choshu. The name you are to +pronounce with an equality of accent on the different +syllables, almost as in French, the vowels as in Italian, but +the consonants in the English manner - except the J, which +has the French sound, or, as it has been cleverly proposed to +write it, the sound of ZH. Yoshida was very learned in +Chinese letters, or, as we might say, in the classics, and in +his father's subject; fortification was among his favourite +studies, and he was a poet from his boyhood. He was born to +a lively and intelligent patriotism; the condition of Japan +was his great concern; and while he projected a better +future, he lost no opportunity of improving his knowledge of +her present state. With this end he was continually +travelling in his youth, going on foot and sometimes with +three days' provision on his back, in the brave, self-helpful +manner of all heroes. He kept a full diary while he was thus +upon his journeys, but it is feared that these notes have +been destroyed. If their value were in any respect such as +we have reason to expect from the man's character, this would +be a loss not easy to exaggerate. It is still wonderful to +the Japanese how far he contrived to push these explorations; +a cultured gentleman of that land and period would leave a +complimentary poem wherever he had been hospitably +entertained; and a friend of Mr. Masaki, who was likewise a +great wanderer, has found such traces of Yoshida's passage in +very remote regions of Japan. + +Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no +preparation is thought necessary; but Yoshida considered +otherwise, and he studied the miseries of his fellow- +countrymen with as much attention and research as though he +had been going to write a book instead of merely to propose a +remedy. To a man of his intensity and singleness, there is +no question but that this survey was melancholy in the +extreme. His dissatisfaction is proved by the eagerness with +which he threw himself into the cause of reform; and what +would have discouraged another braced Yoshida for his task. +As he professed the theory of arms, it was firstly the +defences of Japan that occupied his mind. The external +feebleness of that country was then illustrated by the +manners of overriding barbarians, and the visit of big +barbarian war ships: she was a country beleaguered. Thus the +patriotism of Yoshida took a form which may be said to have +defeated itself: he had it upon him to keep out these all- +powerful foreigners, whom it is now one of his chief merits +to have helped to introduce; but a man who follows his own +virtuous heart will be always found in the end to have been +fighting for the best. One thing leads naturally to another +in an awakened mind, and that with an upward progress from +effect to cause. The power and knowledge of these foreigners +were things inseparable; by envying them their military +strength, Yoshida came to envy them their culture; from the +desire to equal them in the first, sprang his desire to share +with them in the second; and thus he is found treating in the +same book of a new scheme to strengthen the defences of Kioto +and of the establishment, in the same city, of a university +of foreign teachers. He hoped, perhaps, to get the good of +other lands without their evil; to enable Japan to profit by +the knowledge of the barbarians, and still keep her inviolate +with her own arts and virtues. But whatever was the precise +nature of his hope, the means by which it was to be +accomplished were both difficult and obvious. Some one with +eyes and understanding must break through the official +cordon, escape into the new world, and study this other +civilisation on the spot. And who could be better suited for +the business? It was not without danger, but he was without +fear. It needed preparation and insight; and what had he +done since he was a child but prepare himself with the best +culture of Japan, and acquire in his excursions the power and +habit of observing? + +He was but twenty-two, and already all this was clear in his +mind, when news reached Choshu that Commodore Perry was lying +near to Yeddo. Here, then, was the patriot's opportunity. +Among the Samurai of Choshu, and in particular among the +councillors of the Daimio, his general culture, his views, +which the enlightened were eager to accept, and, above all, +the prophetic charm, the radiant persuasion of the man, had +gained him many and sincere disciples. He had thus a strong +influence at the provincial Court; and so he obtained leave +to quit the district, and, by way of a pretext, a privilege +to follow his profession in Yeddo. Thither he hurried, and +arrived in time to be too late: Perry had weighed anchor, and +his sails had vanished from the waters of Japan. But +Yoshida, having put his hand to the plough, was not the man +to go back; he had entered upon this business, and, please +God, he would carry it through; and so he gave up his +professional career and remained in Yeddo to be at hand +against the next opportunity. By this behaviour he put +himself into an attitude towards his superior, the Daimio of +Choshu, which I cannot thoroughly explain. Certainly, he +became a RONYIN, a broken man, a feudal outlaw; certainly he +was liable to be arrested if he set foot upon his native +province; yet I am cautioned that "he did not really break +his allegiance," but only so far separated himself as that +the prince could no longer be held accountable for his late +vassal's conduct. There is some nicety of feudal custom here +that escapes my comprehension. + +In Yeddo, with this nondescript political status, and cut off +from any means of livelihood, he was joyfully supported by +those who sympathised with his design. One was Sakuma- +Shozan, hereditary retainer of one of the Shogun's +councillors, and from him he got more than money or than +money's worth. A steady, respectable man, with an eye to the +world's opinion, Sakuma was one of those who, if they cannot +do great deeds in their own person, have yet an ardour of +admiration for those who can, that recommends them to the +gratitude of history. They aid and abet greatness more, +perhaps, than we imagine. One thinks of them in connection +with Nicodemus, who visited our Lord by night. And Sakuma +was in a position to help Yoshida more practically than by +simple countenance; for he could read Dutch, and was eager to +communicate what he knew. + +While the young Ronyin thus lay studying in Yeddo, news came +of a Russian ship at Nangasaki. No time was to be lost. +Sakuma contributed "a long copy of encouraging verses and off +set Yoshida on foot for Nangasaki. His way lay through his +own province of Choshu; but, as the highroad to the south lay +apart from the capital, he was able to avoid arrest. He +supported himself, like a TROUVERE, by his proficiency in +verse. He carried his works along with him, to serve as an +introduction. When he reached a town he would inquire for +the house of any one celebrated for swordsmanship, or poetry, +or some of the other acknowledged forms of culture; and +there, on giving a taste of his skill, he would be received +and entertained, and leave behind him, when he went away, a +compliment in verse. Thus he travelled through the Middle +Ages on his voyage of discovery into the nineteenth century. +When he reached Nangasaki he was once more too late. The +Russians were gone. But he made a profit on his journey in +spite of fate, and stayed awhile to pick up scraps of +knowledge from the Dutch interpreters - a low class of men, +but one that had opportunities; and then, still full of +purpose, returned to Yeddo on foot, as he had come. + +It was not only his youth and courage that supported him +under these successive disappointments, but the continual +affluence of new disciples. The man had the tenacity of a +Bruce or a Columbus, with a pliability that was all his own. +He did not fight for what the world would call success; but +for "the wages of going on." Check him off in a dozen +directions, he would find another outlet and break forth. He +missed one vessel after another, and the main work still +halted; but so long as he had a single Japanese to enlighten +and prepare for the better future, he could still feel that +he was working for Japan. Now, he had scarce returned from +Nangasaki, when he was sought out by a new inquirer, the most +promising of all. This was a common soldier, of the Hemming +class, a dyer by birth, who had heard vaguely (1) of +Yoshida's movements, and had become filled with wonder as to +their design. This was a far different inquirer from Sakuma- +Shozan, or the councillors of the Daimio of Choshu. This was +no two-sworded gentleman, but the common stuff of the +country, born in low traditions and unimproved by books; and +yet that influence, that radiant persuasion that never failed +Yoshida in any circumstance of his short life, enchanted, +enthralled, and converted the common soldier, as it had done +already with the elegant and learned. The man instantly +burned up into a true enthusiasm; his mind had been only +waiting for a teacher; he grasped in a moment the profit of +these new ideas; he, too, would go to foreign, outlandish +parts, and bring back the knowledge that was to strengthen +and renew Japan; and in the meantime, that he might be the +better prepared, Yoshida set himself to teach, and he to +learn, the Chinese literature. It is an episode most +honourable to Yoshida, and yet more honourable still to the +soldier, and to the capacity and virtue of the common people +of Japan. + +(1) Yoshida, when on his way to Nangasaki, met the soldier +and talked with him by the roadside; they then parted, but +the soldier was so much struck by the words he heard, that on +Yoshida's return he sought him out and declared his intention +of devoting his life to the good cause. I venture, in the +absence of the writer, to insert this correction, having been +present when the story was told by Mr. Masaki. - F. J. And +I, there being none to settle the difference, must reproduce +both versions. - R. L. S. + +And now, at length, Commodore Perry returned to Simoda. +Friends crowded round Yoshida with help, counsels, and +encouragement. One presented him with a great sword, three +feet long and very heavy, which, in the exultation of the +hour, he swore to carry throughout all his wanderings, and to +bring back - a far-travelled weapon - to Japan. A long +letter was prepared in Chinese for the American officers; it +was revised and corrected by Sakuma, and signed by Yoshida, +under the name of Urinaki-Manji, and by the soldier under +that of Ichigi-Koda. Yoshida had supplied himself with a +profusion of materials for writing; his dress was literally +stuffed with paper which was to come back again enriched with +his observations, and make a great and happy kingdom of +Japan. Thus equipped, this pair of emigrants set forward on +foot from Yeddo, and reached Simoda about nightfall. At no +period within history can travel have presented to any +European creature the same face of awe and terror as to these +courageous Japanese. The descent of Ulysses into hell is a +parallel more near the case than the boldest expedition in +the Polar circles. For their act was unprecedented; it was +criminal; and it was to take them beyond the pale of humanity +into a land of devils. It is not to be wondered at if they +were thrilled by the thought of their unusual situation; and +perhaps the soldier gave utterance to the sentiment of both +when he sang, "in Chinese singing" (so that we see he had +already profited by his lessons), these two appropriate +verses: + + +"We do not know where we are to sleep to-night, +In a thousand miles of desert where we can see no human +smoke." + + +In a little temple, hard by the sea-shore, they lay down to +repose; sleep overtook them as they lay; and when they awoke, +"the east was already white" for their last morning in Japan. +They seized a fisherman's boat and rowed out - Perry lying +far to sea because of the two tides. Their very manner of +boarding was significant of determination; for they had no +sooner caught hold upon the ship than they kicked away their +boat to make return impossible. And now you would have +thought that all was over. But the Commodore was already in +treaty with the Shogun's Government; it was one of the +stipulations that no Japanese was to be aided in escaping +from Japan; and Yoshida and his followers were handed over as +prisoners to the authorities at Simoda. That night he who +had been to explore the secrets of the barbarian slept, if he +might sleep at all, in a cell too short for lying down at +full length, and too low for standing upright. There are +some disappointments too great for commentary. + +Sakuma, implicated by his handwriting, was sent into his own +province in confinement, from which he was soon released. +Yoshida and the soldier suffered a long and miserable period +of captivity, and the latter, indeed, died, while yet in +prison, of a skin disease. But such a spirit as that of +Yoshida-Torajiro is not easily made or kept a captive; and +that which cannot be broken by misfortune you shall seek in +vain to confine in a bastille. He was indefatigably active, +writing reports to Government and treatises for +dissemination. These latter were contraband; and yet he +found no difficulty in their distribution, for he always had +the jailor on his side. It was in vain that they kept +changing him from one prison to another; Government by that +plan only hastened the spread of new ideas; for Yoshida had +only to arrive to make a convert. Thus, though he himself +has laid by the heels, he confirmed and extended his party in +the State. + +At last, after many lesser transferences, he was given over +from the prisons of the Shogun to those of his own superior, +the Daimio of Choshu. I conceive it possible that he may +then have served out his time for the attempt to leave Japan, +and was now resigned to the provincial Government on a lesser +count, as a Ronyin or feudal rebel. But, however that may +be, the change was of great importance to Yoshida; for by the +influence of his admirers in the Daimio's council, he was +allowed the privilege, underhand, of dwelling in his own +house. And there, as well to keep up communication with his +fellow-reformers as to pursue his work of education, he +received boys to teach. It must not be supposed that he was +free; he was too marked a man for that; he was probably +assigned to some small circle, and lived, as we should say, +under police surveillance; but to him, who had done so much +from under lock and key, this would seem a large and +profitable liberty. + +It was at this period that Mr. Masaki was brought into +personal contact with Yoshida; and hence, through the eyes of +a boy of thirteen, we get one good look at the character and +habits of the hero. He was ugly and laughably disfigured +with the smallpox; and while nature had been so niggardly +with him from the first, his personal habits were even +sluttish. His clothes were wretched; when he ate or washed +he wiped his hands upon his sleeves; and as his hair was not +tied more than once in the two months, it was often +disgusting to behold. With such a picture, it is easy to +believe that he never married. A good teacher, gentle in +act, although violent and abusive in speech, his lessons were +apt to go over the heads of his scholars and to leave them +gaping, or more often laughing. Such was his passion for +study that he even grudged himself natural repose; and when +he grew drowsy over his books he would, if it was summer, put +mosquitoes up his sleeve; and, if it was winter, take off his +shoes and run barefoot on the snow. His handwriting was +exceptionally villainous; poet though he was, he had no taste +for what was elegant; and in a country where to write +beautifully was not the mark of a scrivener but an admired +accomplishment for gentlemen, he suffered his letters to be +jolted out of him by the press of matter and the heat of his +convictions. He would not tolerate even the appearance of a +bribe; for bribery lay at the root of much that was evil in +Japan, as well as in countries nearer home; and once when a +merchant brought him his son to educate, and added, as was +customary, (1) a little private sweetener, Yoshida dashed the +money in the giver's face, and launched into such an outbreak +of indignation as made the matter public in the school. He +was still, when Masaki knew him, much weakened by his +hardships in prison; and the presentation sword, three feet +long, was too heavy for him to wear without distress; yet he +would always gird it on when he went to dig in his garden. +That is a touch which qualifies the man. A weaker nature +would have shrunk from the sight of what only commemorated a +failure. But he was of Thoreau's mind, that if you can "make +your failure tragical by courage, it will not differ from +success." He could look back without confusion to his +enthusiastic promise. If events had been contrary, and he +found himself unable to carry out that purpose - well, there +was but the more reason to be brave and constant in another; +if he could not carry the sword into barbarian lands, it +should at least be witness to a life spent entirely for +Japan. + +(1) I understood that the merchant was endeavouring +surreptitiously to obtain for his son instruction to which he +was not entitled. - F. J. + +This is the sight we have of him as he appeared to +schoolboys, but not related in the schoolboy spirit. A man +so careless of the graces must be out of court with boys and +women. And, indeed, as we have all been more or less to +school, it will astonish no one that Yoshida was regarded by +his scholars as a laughing-stock. The schoolboy has a keen +sense of humour. Heroes he learns to understand and to +admire in books; but he is not forward to recognise the +heroic under the traits of any contemporary man, and least of +all in a brawling, dirty, and eccentric teacher. But as the +years went by, and the scholars of Yoshida continued in vain +to look around them for the abstractly perfect, and began +more and more to understand the drift of his instructions, +they learned to look back upon their comic school-master as +upon the noblest of mankind. + +The last act of this brief and full existence was already +near at hand. Some of his work was done; for already there +had been Dutch teachers admitted into Nangasaki, and the +country at large was keen for the new learning. But though +the renaissance had begun, it was impeded and dangerously +threatened by the power of the Shogun. His minister - the +same who was afterwards assassinated in the snow in the very +midst of his bodyguard - not only held back pupils from going +to the Dutchmen, but by spies and detectives, by imprisonment +and death, kept thinning out of Japan the most intelligent +and active spirits. It is the old story of a power upon its +last legs - learning to the bastille, and courage to the +block; when there are none left but sheep and donkeys, the +State will have been saved. But a man must not think to cope +with a Revolution; nor a minister, however fortified with +guards, to hold in check a country that had given birth to +such men as Yoshida and his soldier-follower. The violence +of the ministerial Tarquin only served to direct attention to +the illegality of his master's rule; and people began to turn +their allegiance from Yeddo and the Shogun to the long- +forgotten Mikado in his seclusion at Kioto. At this +juncture, whether in consequence or not, the relations +between these two rulers became strained; and the Shogun's +minister set forth for Kioto to put another affront upon the +rightful sovereign. The circumstance was well fitted to +precipitate events. It was a piece of religion to defend the +Mikado; it was a plain piece of political righteousness to +oppose a tyrannical and bloody usurpation. To Yoshida the +moment for action seemed to have arrived. He was himself +still confined in Choshu. Nothing was free but his +intelligence; but with that he sharpened a sword for the +Shogun's minister. A party of his followers were to waylay +the tyrant at a village on the Yeddo and Kioto road, present +him with a petition, and put him to the sword. But Yoshida +and his friends were closely observed; and the too great +expedition of two of the conspirators, a boy of eighteen and +his brother, wakened the suspicion of the authorities, and +led to a full discovery of the plot and the arrest of all who +were concerned. + +In Yeddo, to which he was taken, Yoshida was thrown again +into a strict confinement. But he was not left destitute of +sympathy in this last hour of trial. In the next cell lay +one Kusakabe, a reformer from the southern highlands of +Satzuma. They were in prison for different plots indeed, but +for the same intention; they shared the same beliefs and the +same aspirations for Japan; many and long were the +conversations they held through the prison wall, and dear was +the sympathy that soon united them. It fell first to the lot +of Kusakabe to pass before the judges; and when sentence had +been pronounced he was led towards the place of death below +Yoshida's window. To turn the head would have been to +implicate his fellow-prisoner; but he threw him a look from +his eye, and bade him farewell in a loud voice, with these +two Chinese verses:- + + +"It is better to be a crystal and be broken, +Than to remain perfect like a tile upon the housetop." + + +So Kusakabe, from the highlands of Satzuma, passed out of the +theatre of this world. His death was like an antique +worthy's. + +A little after, and Yoshida too must appear before the Court. +His last scene was of a piece with his career, and fitly +crowned it. He seized on the opportunity of a public +audience, confessed and gloried in his design, and, reading +his auditors a lesson in the history of their country, told +at length the illegality of the Shogun's power and the crimes +by which its exercise was sullied. So, having said his say +for once, he was led forth and executed, thirty-one years +old. + +A military engineer, a bold traveller (at least in wish), a +poet, a patriot, a schoolmaster, a friend to learning, a +martyr to reform, - there are not many men, dying at seventy, +who have served their country in such various characters. He +was not only wise and provident in thought, but surely one of +the fieriest of heroes in execution. It is hard to say which +is most remarkable - his capacity for command, which subdued +his very jailors; his hot, unflagging zeal; or his stubborn +superiority to defeat. He failed in each particular +enterprise that he attempted; and yet we have only to look at +his country to see how complete has been his general success. +His friends and pupils made the majority of leaders in that +final Revolution, now some twelve years old; and many of them +are, or were until the other day, high placed among the +rulers of Japan. And when we see all round us these brisk +intelligent students, with their strange foreign air, we +should never forget how Yoshida marched afoot from Choshu to +Yeddo, and from Yeddo to Nangasaki, and from Nangasaki back +again to Yeddo; how he boarded the American ship, his dress +stuffed with writing material; nor how he languished in +prison, and finally gave his death, as he had formerly given +all his life and strength and leisure, to gain for his native +land that very benefit which she now enjoys so largely. It +is better to be Yoshida and perish, than to be only Sakuma +and yet save the hide. Kusakabe, of Satzuma, has said the +word: it is better to be a crystal and be broken. + +I must add a word; for I hope the reader will not fail to +perceive that this is as much the story of a heroic people as +that of a heroic man. It is not enough to remember Yoshida; +we must not forget the common soldier, nor Kusakabe, nor the +boy of eighteen, Nomura, of Choshu, whose eagerness betrayed +the plot. It is exhilarating to have lived in the same days +with these great-hearted gentlemen. Only a few miles from +us, to speak by the proportion of the universe, while I was +droning over my lessons, Yoshida was goading himself to be +wakeful with the stings of the mosquito; and while you were +grudging a penny income tax, Kusakabe was stepping to death +with a noble sentence on his lips. + + + +CHAPTER VI - FRANCOIS VILLON, STUDENT, POET, AND HOUSEBREAKER + + + +PERHAPS one of the most curious revolutions in literary +history is the sudden bull's-eye light cast by M. Longnon on +the obscure existence of Francois Villon. (1) His book is +not remarkable merely as a chapter of biography exhumed after +four centuries. To readers of the poet it will recall, with +a flavour of satire, that characteristic passage in which he +bequeaths his spectacles - with a humorous reservation of the +case - to the hospital for blind paupers known as the +Fifteen-Score. Thus equipped, let the blind paupers go and +separate the good from the bad in the cemetery of the +Innocents! For his own part the poet can see no distinction. +Much have the dead people made of their advantages. What +does it matter now that they have lain in state beds and +nourished portly bodies upon cakes and cream! Here they all +lie, to be trodden in the mud; the large estate and the +small, sounding virtue and adroit or powerful vice, in very +much the same condition; and a bishop not to be distinguished +from a lamp-lighter with even the strongest spectacles. + +(1) ETUDE BIOGRAPHIQUE SUR FRANCOIS VILLON. Paris: H. Menu. + +Such was Villon's cynical philosophy. Four hundred years +after his death, when surely all danger might be considered +at an end, a pair of critical spectacles have been applied to +his own remains; and though he left behind him a sufficiently +ragged reputation from the first, it is only after these four +hundred years that his delinquencies have been finally +tracked home, and we can assign him to his proper place among +the good or wicked. It is a staggering thought, and one that +affords a fine figure of the imperishability of men's acts, +that the stealth of the private inquiry office can be carried +so far back into the dead and dusty past. We are not so soon +quit of our concerns as Villon fancied. In the extreme of +dissolution, when not so much as a man's name is remembered, +when his dust is scattered to the four winds, and perhaps the +very grave and the very graveyard where he was laid to rest +have been forgotten, desecrated, and buried under populous +towns, - even in this extreme let an antiquary fall across a +sheet of manuscript, and the name will be recalled, the old +infamy will pop out into daylight like a toad out of a +fissure in the rock, and the shadow of the shade of what was +once a man will be heartily pilloried by his descendants. A +little while ago and Villon was almost totally forgotten; +then he was revived for the sake of his verses; and now he is +being revived with a vengeance in the detection of his +misdemeanours. How unsubstantial is this projection of a +man's existence, which can lie in abeyance for centuries and +then be brushed up again and set forth for the consideration +of posterity by a few dips in an antiquary's inkpot! This +precarious tenure of fame goes a long way to justify those +(and they are not few) who prefer cakes and cream in the +immediate present. + + +A WILD YOUTH. + + +Francois de Montcorbier, ALIAS Francois des Loges, ALIAS +Francois Villon, ALIAS Michel Mouton, Master of Arts in the +University of Paris, was born in that city in the summer of +1431. It was a memorable year for France on other and higher +considerations. A great-hearted girl and a poor-hearted boy +made, the one her last, the other his first appearance on the +public stage of that unhappy country. On the 30th of May the +ashes of Joan of Arc were thrown into the Seine, and on the +2d of December our Henry Sixth made his Joyous Entry dismally +enough into disaffected and depopulating Paris. Sword and +fire still ravaged the open country. On a single April +Saturday twelve hundred persons, besides children, made their +escape out of the starving capital. The hangman, as is not +uninteresting to note in connection with Master Francis, was +kept hard at work in 1431; on the last of April and on the +4th of May alone, sixty-two bandits swung from Paris gibbets. +(1) A more confused or troublous time it would have been +difficult to select for a start in life. Not even a man's +nationality was certain; for the people of Paris there was no +such thing as a Frenchman. The English were the English +indeed, but the French were only the Armagnacs, whom, with +Joan of Arc at their head, they had beaten back from under +their ramparts not two years before. Such public sentiment +as they had centred about their dear Duke of Burgundy, and +the dear Duke had no more urgent business than to keep out of +their neighbourhood. . . . At least, and whether he liked it +or not, our disreputable troubadour was tubbed and swaddled +as a subject of the English crown. + +(1) BOUGEOIS DE PARIS, ed. Pantheon, pp. 688, 689. + +We hear nothing of Villon's father except that he was poor +and of mean extraction. His mother was given piously, which +does not imply very much in an old Frenchwoman, and quite +uneducated. He had an uncle, a monk in an abbey at Angers, +who must have prospered beyond the family average, and was +reported to be worth five or six hundred crowns. Of this +uncle and his money-box the reader will hear once more. In +1448 Francis became a student of the University of Paris; in +1450 he took the degree of Bachelor, and in 1452 that of +Master of Arts. His BOURSE, or the sum paid weekly for his +board, was of the amount of two sous. Now two sous was about +the price of a pound of salt butter in the bad times of 1417; +it was the price of half-a-pound in the worse times of 1419; +and in 1444, just four years before Villon joined the +University, it seems to have been taken as the average wage +for a day's manual labour. (1) In short, it cannot have been +a very profuse allowance to keep a sharp-set lad in breakfast +and supper for seven mortal days; and Villon's share of the +cakes and pastry and general good cheer, to which he is never +weary of referring, must have been slender from the first. + +(1) BOURGEOIS, pp. 627, 636, and 725. + +The educational arrangements of the University of Paris were, +to our way of thinking, somewhat incomplete. Worldly and +monkish elements were presented in a curious confusion, which +the youth might disentangle for himself. If he had an +opportunity, on the one hand, of acquiring much hair-drawn +divinity and a taste for formal disputation, he was put in +the way of much gross and flaunting vice upon the other. The +lecture room of a scholastic doctor was sometimes under the +same roof with establishments of a very different and +peculiarly unedifying order. The students had extraordinary +privileges, which by all accounts they abused +extraordinarily. And while some condemned themselves to an +almost sepulchral regularity and seclusion, others fled the +schools, swaggered in the street "with their thumbs in their +girdle," passed the night in riot, and behaved themselves as +the worthy forerunners of Jehan Frollo in the romance of +NOTRE DAME DE PARIS. Villon tells us himself that he was +among the truants, but we hardly needed his avowal. The +burlesque erudition in which he sometimes indulged implies no +more than the merest smattering of knowledge; whereas his +acquaintance with blackguard haunts and industries could only +have been acquired by early and consistent impiety and +idleness. He passed his degrees, it is true; but some of us +who have been to modern universities will make their own +reflections on the value of the test. As for his three +pupils, Colin Laurent, Girard Gossouyn, and Jehan Marceau - +if they were really his pupils in any serious sense - what +can we say but God help them! And sure enough, by his own +description, they turned out as ragged, rowdy, and ignorant +as was to be looked for from the views and manners of their +rare preceptor. + +At some time or other, before or during his university +career, the poet was adopted by Master Guillaume de Villon, +chaplain of Saint Benoit-le-Betourne near the Sorbonne. From +him he borrowed the surname by which he is known to +posterity. It was most likely from his house, called the +PORTE ROUGE, and situated in a garden in the cloister of St. +Benoit, that Master Francis heard the bell of the Sorbonne +ring out the Angelus while he was finishing his SMALL +TESTAMENT at Christmastide in 1546. Towards this benefactor +he usually gets credit for a respectable display of +gratitude. But with his trap and pitfall style of writing, +it is easy to make too sure. His sentiments are about as +much to be relied on as those of a professional beggar; and +in this, as in so many other matters, he comes towards us +whining and piping the eye, and goes off again with a whoop +and his finger to his nose. Thus, he calls Guillaume de +Villon his "more than father," thanks him with a great show +of sincerity for having helped him out of many scrapes, and +bequeaths him his portion of renown. But the portion of +renown which belonged to a young thief, distinguished (if, at +the period when he wrote this legacy, he was distinguished at +all) for having written some more or less obscene and +scurrilous ballads, must have been little fitted to gratify +the self-respect or increase the reputation of a benevolent +ecclesiastic. The same remark applies to a subsequent legacy +of the poet's library, with specification of one work which +was plainly neither decent nor devout. We are thus left on +the horns of a dilemma. If the chaplain was a godly, +philanthropic personage, who had tried to graft good +principles and good behaviour on this wild slip of an adopted +son, these jesting legacies would obviously cut him to the +heart. The position of an adopted son towards his adoptive +father is one full of delicacy; where a man lends his name he +looks for great consideration. And this legacy of Villon's +portion of renown may be taken as the mere fling of an +unregenerate scapegrace who has wit enough to recognise in +his own shame the readiest weapon of offence against a prosy +benefactor's feelings. The gratitude of Master Francis +figures, on this reading, as a frightful MINUS quantity. If, +on the other hand, those jests were given and taken in good +humour, the whole relation between the pair degenerates into +the unedifying complicity of a debauched old chaplain and a +witty and dissolute young scholar. At this rate the house +with the red door may have rung with the most mundane +minstrelsy; and it may have been below its roof that Villon, +through a hole in the plaster, studied, as he tells us, the +leisures of a rich ecclesiastic. + +It was, perhaps, of some moment in the poet's life that he +should have inhabited the cloister of Saint Benoit. Three of +the most remarkable among his early acquaintances are +Catherine de Vausselles, for whom he entertained a short- +lived affection and an enduring and most unmanly resentment; +Regnier de Montigny, a young blackguard of good birth; and +Colin de Cayeux, a fellow with a marked aptitude for picking +locks. Now we are on a foundation of mere conjecture, but it +is at least curious to find that two of the canons of Saint +Benoit answered respectively to the names of Pierre de Vaucel +and Etienne de Montigny, and that there was a householder +called Nicolas de Cayeux in a street - the Rue des Poirees - +in the immediate neighbourhood of the cloister. M. Longnon +is almost ready to identify Catherine as the niece of Pierre; +Regnier as the nephew of Etienne, and Colin as the son of +Nicolas. Without going so far, it must be owned that the +approximation of names is significant. As we go on to see +the part played by each of these persons in the sordid +melodrama of the poet's life, we shall come to regard it as +even more notable. Is it not Clough who has remarked that, +after all, everything lies in juxtaposition? Many a man's +destiny has been settled by nothing apparently more grave +than a pretty face on the opposite side of the street and a +couple of bad companions round the corner. + +Catherine de Vausselles (or de Vaucel - the change is within +the limits of Villon's licence) had plainly delighted in the +poet's conversation; near neighbours or not, they were much +together and Villon made no secret of his court, and suffered +himself to believe that his feeling was repaid in kind. This +may have been an error from the first, or he may have +estranged her by subsequent misconduct or temerity. One can +easily imagine Villon an impatient wooer. One thing, at +least, is sure: that the affair terminated in a manner +bitterly humiliating to Master Francis. In presence of his +lady-love, perhaps under her window and certainly with her +connivance, he was unmercifully thrashed by one Noe le Joly - +beaten, as he says himself, like dirty linen on the washing- +board. It is characteristic that his malice had notably +increased between the time when he wrote the SMALL TESTAMENT +immediately on the back of the occurrence, and the time when +he wrote the LARGE TESTAMENT five years after. On the latter +occasion nothing is too bad for his "damsel with the twisted +nose," as he calls her. She is spared neither hint nor +accusation, and he tells his messenger to accost her with the +vilest insults. Villon, it is thought, was out of Paris when +these amenities escaped his pen; or perhaps the strong arm of +Noe le Joly would have been again in requisition. So ends +the love story, if love story it may properly be called. +Poets are not necessarily fortunate in love; but they usually +fall among more romantic circumstances and bear their +disappointment with a better grace. + +The neighbourhood of Regnier de Montigny and Colin de Cayeux +was probably more influential on his after life than the +contempt of Catherine. For a man who is greedy of all +pleasures, and provided with little money and less dignity of +character, we may prophesy a safe and speedy voyage downward. +Humble or even truckling virtue may walk unspotted in this +life. But only those who despise the pleasures can afford to +despise the opinion of the world. A man of a strong, heady +temperament, like Villon, is very differently tempted. His +eyes lay hold on all provocations greedily, and his heart +flames up at a look into imperious desire; he is snared and +broached-to by anything and everything, from a pretty face to +a piece of pastry in a cookshop window; he will drink the +rinsing of the wine cup, stay the latest at the tavern party; +tap at the lit windows, follow the sound of singing, and beat +the whole neighbourhood for another reveller, as he goes +reluctantly homeward; and grudge himself every hour of sleep +as a black empty period in which he cannot follow after +pleasure. Such a person is lost if he have not dignity, or, +failing that, at least pride, which is its shadow and in many +ways its substitute. Master Francis, I fancy, would follow +his own eager instincts without much spiritual struggle. And +we soon find him fallen among thieves in sober, literal +earnest, and counting as acquaintances the most disreputable +people he could lay his hands on: fellows who stole ducks in +Paris Moat; sergeants of the criminal court, and archers of +the watch; blackguards who slept at night under the butchers' +stalls, and for whom the aforesaid archers peered about +carefully with lanterns; Regnier de Montigny, Colin de +Cayeux, and their crew, all bound on a favouring breeze +towards the gallows; the disorderly abbess of Port Royal, who +went about at fair time with soldiers and thieves, and +conducted her abbey on the queerest principles, and most +likely Perette Mauger, the great Paris receiver of stolen +goods, not yet dreaming, poor woman! of the last scene of her +career when Henry Cousin, executor of the high justice, shall +bury her, alive and most reluctant, in front of the new +Montigny gibbet. (1) Nay, our friend soon began to take a +foremost rank in this society. He could string off verses, +which is always an agreeable talent; and he could make +himself useful in many other ways. The whole ragged army of +Bohemia, and whosoever loved good cheer without at all loving +to work and pay for it, are addressed in contemporary verses +as the "Subjects of Francois Villon." He was a good genius +to all hungry and unscrupulous persons; and became the hero +of a whole legendary cycle of tavern tricks and cheateries. +At best, these were doubtful levities, rather too thievish +for a schoolboy, rather too gamesome for a thief. But he +would not linger long in this equivocal border land. He must +soon have complied with his surroundings. He was one who +would go where the cannikin clinked, not caring who should +pay; and from supping in the wolves' den, there is but a step +to hunting with the pack. And here, as I am on the chapter +of his degradation, I shall say all I mean to say about its +darkest expression, and be done with it for good. Some +charitable critics see no more than a JEU D'ESPRIT, a +graceful and trifling exercise of the imagination, in the +grimy ballad of Fat Peg (GROSSE MARGOT). I am not able to +follow these gentlemen to this polite extreme. Out of all +Villon's works that ballad stands forth in flaring reality, +gross and ghastly, as a thing written in a contraction of +disgust. M. Longnon shows us more and more clearly at every +page that we are to read our poet literally, that his names +are the names of real persons, and the events he chronicles +were actual events. But even if the tendency of criticism +had run the other way, this ballad would have gone far to +prove itself. I can well understand the reluctance of worthy +persons in this matter; for of course it is unpleasant to +think of a man of genius as one who held, in the words of +Marina to Boult- + + +"A place, for which the pained'st fiend +Of hell would not in reputation change." + + +But beyond this natural unwillingness, the whole difficulty +of the case springs from a highly virtuous ignorance of life. +Paris now is not so different from the Paris of then; and the +whole of the doings of Bohemia are not written in the sugar- +candy pastorals of Murger. It is really not at all +surprising that a young man of the fifteenth century, with a +knack of making verses, should accept his bread upon +disgraceful terms. The race of those who do is not extinct; +and some of them to this day write the prettiest verses +imaginable. . . . After this, it were impossible for Master +Francis to fall lower: to go and steal for himself would be +an admirable advance from every point of view, divine or +human. + +(1) CHRONIQUE SCANDALEUSE, ed. Pantheon, p. 237. + +And yet it is not as a thief, but as a homicide, that he +makes his first appearance before angry justice. On June 5, +1455, when he was about twenty-four, and had been Master of +Arts for a matter of three years, we behold him for the first +time quite definitely. Angry justice had, as it were, +photographed him in the act of his homicide; and M. Longnon, +rummaging among old deeds, has turned up the negative and +printed it off for our instruction. Villon had been supping +- copiously we may believe - and sat on a stone bench in +front of the Church of St. Benoit, in company with a priest +called Gilles and a woman of the name of Isabeau. It was +nine o'clock, a mighty late hour for the period, and +evidently a fine summer's night. Master Francis carried a +mantle, like a prudent man, to keep him from the dews +(SERAIN), and had a sword below it dangling from his girdle. +So these three dallied in front of St Benoit, taking their +pleasure (POUR SOY ESBATRE). Suddenly there arrived upon the +scene a priest, Philippe Chermoye or Sermaise, also with +sword and cloak, and accompanied by one Master Jehan le +Mardi. Sermaise, according to Villon's account, which is all +we have to go upon, came up blustering and denying God; as +Villon rose to make room for him upon the bench, thrust him +rudely back into his place; and finally drew his sword and +cut open his lower lip, by what I should imagine was a very +clumsy stroke. Up to this point, Villon professes to have +been a model of courtesy, even of feebleness: and the brawl, +in his version, reads like the fable of the wolf and the +lamb. But now the lamb was roused; he drew his sword, +stabbed Sermaise in the groin, knocked him on the head with a +big stone, and then, leaving him to his fate, went away to +have his own lip doctored by a barber of the name of Fouquet. +In one version, he says that Gilles, Isabeau, and Le Mardi +ran away at the first high words, and that he and Sermaise +had it out alone; in another, Le Mardi is represented as +returning and wresting Villon's sword from him: the reader +may please himself. Sermaise was picked up, lay all that +night in the prison of Saint Benoit, where he was examined by +an official of the Chatelet and expressly pardoned Villon, +and died on the following Saturday in the Hotel Dieu. + +This, as I have said, was in June. Not before January of the +next year could Villon extract a pardon from the king; but +while his hand was in, he got two. One is for "Francois des +Loges, alias (AUTREMENT DIT) de Villon;" and the other runs +in the name of Francois de Montcorbier. Nay, it appears +there was a further complication; for in the narrative of the +first of these documents, it is mentioned that he passed +himself off upon Fouquet, the barber-surgeon, as one Michel +Mouton. M. Longnon has a theory that this unhappy accident +with Sermaise was the cause of Villon's subsequent +irregularities; and that up to that moment he had been the +pink of good behaviour. But the matter has to my eyes a more +dubious air. A pardon necessary for Des Loges and another +for Montcorbier? and these two the same person? and one or +both of them known by the ALIAS OF Villon, however honestly +come by? and lastly, in the heat of the moment, a fourth name +thrown out with an assured countenance? A ship is not to be +trusted that sails under so many colours. This is not the +simple bearing of innocence. No - the young master was +already treading crooked paths; already, he would start and +blench at a hand upon his shoulder, with the look we know so +well in the face of Hogarth's Idle Apprentice; already, in +the blue devils, he would see Henry Cousin, the executor of +high justice, going in dolorous procession towards +Montfaucon, and hear the wind and the birds crying around +Paris gibbet. + + +A GANG OF THIEVES. + + +In spite of the prodigious number of people who managed to +get hanged, the fifteenth century was by no means a bad time +for criminals. A great confusion of parties and great dust +of fighting favoured the escape of private housebreakers and +quiet fellows who stole ducks in Paris Moat. Prisons were +leaky; and as we shall see, a man with a few crowns in his +pocket and perhaps some acquaintance among the officials, +could easily slip out and become once more a free marauder. +There was no want of a sanctuary where he might harbour until +troubles blew by; and accomplices helped each other with more +or less good faith. Clerks, above all, had remarkable +facilities for a criminal way of life; for they were +privileged, except in cases of notorious incorrigibility, to +be plucked from the hands of rude secular justice and tried +by a tribunal of their own. In 1402, a couple of thieves, +both clerks of the University, were condemned to death by the +Provost of Paris. As they were taken to Montfaucon, they +kept crying "high and clearly" for their benefit of clergy, +but were none the less pitilessly hanged and gibbeted. +Indignant Alma Mater interfered before the king; and the +Provost was deprived of all royal offices, and condemned to +return the bodies and erect a great stone cross, on the road +from Paris to the gibbet graven with the effigies of these +two holy martyrs. (1) We shall hear more of the benefit of +clergy; for after this the reader will not be surprised to +meet with thieves in the shape of tonsured clerks, or even +priests and monks. + +(1) Monstrelet: PANTHEON LITTERAIRE, p. 26. + +To a knot of such learned pilferers our poet certainly +belonged; and by turning over a few more of M. Longnon's +negatives, we shall get a clear idea of their character and +doings. Montigny and De Cayeux are names already known; Guy +Tabary, Petit-Jehan, Dom Nicolas, little Thibault, who was +both clerk and goldsmith, and who made picklocks and melted +plate for himself and his companions - with these the reader +has still to become acquainted. Petit-Jehan and De Cayeux +were handy fellows and enjoyed a useful pre-eminence in +honour of their doings with the picklock. "DICTUS DES +CAHYEUS EST FORTIS OPERATOR CROCHETORUM," says Tabary's +interrogation, "SED DICTUS PETIT-JEHAN, EJUS SOCIUS, EST +FORCIUS OPERATOR." But the flower of the flock was little +Thibault; it was reported that no lock could stand before +him; he had a persuasive hand; let us salute capacity +wherever we may find it. Perhaps the term GANG is not quite +properly applied to the persons whose fortunes we are now +about to follow; rather they were independent malefactors, +socially intimate, and occasionally joining together for some +serious operation just as modern stockjobbers form a +syndicate for an important loan. Nor were they at all +particular to any branch of misdoing. They did not +scrupulously confine themselves to a single sort of theft, as +I hear is common among modern thieves. They were ready for +anything, from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter. Montigny, for +instance, had neglected neither of these extremes, and we +find him accused of cheating at games of hazard on the one +hand, and on the other of the murder of one Thevenin Pensete +in a house by the Cemetery of St. John. If time had only +spared us some particulars, might not this last have +furnished us with the matter of a grisly winter's tale? + +At Christmas-time in 1456, readers of Villon will remember +that he was engaged on the SMALL TESTAMENT. About the same +period, CIRCA FESTUM NATIVITATIS DOMINI, he took part in a +memorable supper at the Mule Tavern, in front of the Church +of St. Mathurin. Tabary, who seems to have been very much +Villon's creature, had ordered the supper in the course of +the afternoon. He was a man who had had troubles in his time +and languished in the Bishop of Paris's prisons on a +suspicion of picking locks; confiding, convivial, not very +astute - who had copied out a whole improper romance with his +own right hand. This supper-party was to be his first +introduction to De Cayeux and Petit-Jehan, which was probably +a matter of some concern to the poor man's muddy wits; in the +sequel, at least, he speaks of both with an undisguised +respect, based on professional inferiority in the matter of +picklocks. Dom Nicolas, a Picardy monk, was the fifth and +last at table. When supper had been despatched and fairly +washed down, we may suppose, with white Baigneux or red +Beaune, which were favourite wines among the fellowship, +Tabary was solemnly sworn over to secrecy on the night's +performances; and the party left the Mule and proceeded to an +unoccupied house belonging to Robert de Saint-Simon. This, +over a low wall, they entered without difficulty. All but +Tabary took off their upper garments; a ladder was found and +applied to the high wall which separated Saint-Simon's house +from the court of the College of Navarre; the four fellows in +their shirt-sleeves (as we might say) clambered over in a +twinkling; and Master Guy Tabary remained alone beside the +overcoats. From the court the burglars made their way into +the vestry of the chapel, where they found a large chest, +strengthened with iron bands and closed with four locks. One +of these locks they picked, and then, by levering up the +corner, forced the other three. Inside was a small coffer, +of walnut wood, also barred with iron, but fastened with only +three locks, which were all comfortably picked by way of the +keyhole. In the walnut coffer - a joyous sight by our +thieves' lantern - were five hundred crowns of gold. There +was some talk of opening the aumries, where, if they had only +known, a booty eight or nine times greater lay ready to their +hand; but one of the party (I have a humorous suspicion it +was Dom Nicolas, the Picardy monk) hurried them away. It was +ten o'clock when they mounted the ladder; it was about +midnight before Tabary beheld them coming back. To him they +gave ten crowns, and promised a share of a two-crown dinner +on the morrow; whereat we may suppose his mouth watered. In +course of time, he got wind of the real amount of their booty +and understood how scurvily he had been used; but he seems to +have borne no malice. How could he, against such superb +operators as Petit-Jehan and De Cayeux; or a person like +Villon, who could have made a new improper romance out of his +own head, instead of merely copying an old one with +mechanical right hand? + +The rest of the winter was not uneventful for the gang. +First they made a demonstration against the Church of St. +Mathurin after chalices, and were ignominiously chased away +by barking dogs. Then Tabary fell out with Casin Chollet, +one of the fellows who stole ducks in Paris Moat, who +subsequently became a sergeant of the Chatelet and +distinguished himself by misconduct, followed by imprisonment +and public castigation, during the wars of Louis Eleventh. +The quarrel was not conducted with a proper regard to the +king's peace, and the pair publicly belaboured each other +until the police stepped in, and Master Tabary was cast once +more into the prisons of the Bishop. While he still lay in +durance, another job was cleverly executed by the band in +broad daylight, at the Augustine Monastery. Brother +Guillaume Coiffier was beguiled by an accomplice to St. +Mathurin to say mass; and during his absence, his chamber was +entered and five or six hundred crowns in money and some +silver plate successfully abstracted. A melancholy man was +Coiffier on his return! Eight crowns from this adventure +were forwarded by little Thibault to the incarcerated Tabary; +and with these he bribed the jailor and reappeared in Paris +taverns. Some time before or shortly after this, Villon set +out for Angers, as he had promised in the SMALL TESTAMENT. +The object of this excursion was not merely to avoid the +presence of his cruel mistress or the strong arm of Noe le +Joly, but to plan a deliberate robbery on his uncle the monk. +As soon as he had properly studied the ground, the others +were to go over in force from Paris - picklocks and all - and +away with my uncle's strongbox! This throws a comical +sidelight on his own accusation against his relatives, that +they had "forgotten natural duty" and disowned him because he +was poor. A poor relation is a distasteful circumstance at +the best, but a poor relation who plans deliberate robberies +against those of his blood, and trudges hundreds of weary +leagues to put them into execution, is surely a little on the +wrong side of toleration. The uncle at Angers may have been +monstrously undutiful; but the nephew from Paris was upsides +with him. + +On the 23d April, that venerable and discreet person, Master +Pierre Marchand, Curate and Prior of Paray-le-Monial, in the +diocese of Chartres, arrived in Paris and put up at the sign +of the Three Chandeliers, in the Rue de la Huchette. Next +day, or the day after, as he was breakfasting at the sign of +the Armchair, he fell into talk with two customers, one of +whom was a priest and the other our friend Tabary. The +idiotic Tabary became mighty confidential as to his past +life. Pierre Marchand, who was an acquaintance of Guillaume +Coiffier's and had sympathised with him over his loss, +pricked up his ears at the mention of picklocks, and led on +the transcriber of improper romances from one thing to +another, until they were fast friends. For picklocks the +Prior of Paray professed a keen curiosity; but Tabary, upon +some late alarm, had thrown all his into the Seine. Let that +be no difficulty, however, for was there not little Thibault, +who could make them of all shapes and sizes, and to whom +Tabary, smelling an accomplice, would be only too glad to +introduce his new acquaintance? On the morrow, accordingly, +they met; and Tabary, after having first wet his whistle at +the prior's expense, led him to Notre Dame and presented him +to four or five "young companions," who were keeping +sanctuary in the church. They were all clerks, recently +escaped, like Tabary himself, from the episcopal prisons. +Among these we may notice Thibault, the operator, a little +fellow of twenty-six, wearing long hair behind. The Prior +expressed, through Tabary, his anxiety to become their +accomplice and altogether such as they were (DE LEUR SORTS ET +DE LEURS COMPLICES). Mighty polite they showed themselves, +and made him many fine speeches in return. But for all that, +perhaps because they had longer heads than Tabary, perhaps +because it is less easy to wheedle men in a body, they kept +obstinately to generalities and gave him no information as to +their exploits, past, present, or to come. I suppose Tabary +groaned under this reserve; for no sooner were he and the +Prior out of the church than he fairly emptied his heart to +him, gave him full details of many hanging matters in the +past, and explained the future intentions of the band. The +scheme of the hour was to rob another Augustine monk, Robert +de la Porte, and in this the Prior agreed to take a hand with +simulated greed. Thus, in the course of two days, he had +turned this wineskin of a Tabary inside out. For a while +longer the farce was carried on; the Prior was introduced to +Petit-Jehan, whom he describes as a little, very smart man of +thirty, with a black beard and a short jacket; an appointment +was made and broken in the de la Porte affair; Tabary had +some breakfast at the Prior's charge and leaked out more +secrets under the influence of wine and friendship; and then +all of a sudden, on the 17th of May, an alarm sprang up, the +Prior picked up his skirts and walked quietly over to the +Chatelet to make a deposition, and the whole band took to +their heels and vanished out of Paris and the sight of the +police. + +Vanish as they like, they all go with a clog about their +feet. Sooner or later, here or there, they will be caught in +the fact, and ignominiously sent home. From our vantage of +four centuries afterwards, it is odd and pitiful to watch the +order in which the fugitives are captured and dragged in. + +Montigny was the first. In August of that same year, he was +laid by the heels on many grievous counts; sacrilegious +robberies, frauds, incorrigibility, and that bad business +about Thevenin Pensete in the house by the cemetery of St. +John. He was reclaimed by the ecclesiastical authorities as +a clerk; but the claim was rebutted on the score of +incorrigibility, and ultimately fell to the ground; and he +was condemned to death by the Provost of Paris. It was a +very rude hour for Montigny, but hope was not yet over. He +was a fellow of some birth; his father had been king's +pantler; his sister, probably married to some one about the +Court, was in the family way, and her health would be +endangered if the execution was proceeded with. So down +comes Charles the Seventh with letters of mercy, commuting +the penalty to a year in a dungeon on bread and water, and a +pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James in Galicia. Alas! the +document was incomplete; it did not contain the full tale of +Montigny's enormities; it did not recite that he had been +denied benefit of clergy, and it said nothing about Thevenin +Pensete. Montigny's hour was at hand. Benefit of clergy, +honourable descent from king's pantler, sister in the family +way, royal letters of commutation - all were of no avail. He +had been in prison in Rouen, in Tours, in Bordeaux, and four +times already in Paris; and out of all these he had come +scatheless; but now he must make a little excursion as far as +Montfaucon with Henry Cousin, executor of high justice. +There let him swing among the carrion crows. + +About a year later, in July 1458, the police laid hands on +Tabary. Before the ecclesiastical commissary he was twice +examined, and, on the latter occasion, put to the question +ordinary and extraordinary. What a dismal change from +pleasant suppers at the Mule, where he sat in triumph with +expert operators and great wits! He is at the lees of life, +poor rogue; and those fingers which once transcribed improper +romances are now agonisingly stretched upon the rack. We +have no sure knowledge, but we may have a shrewd guess of the +conclusion. Tabary, the admirer, would go the same way as +those whom he admired. + +The last we hear of is Colin de Cayeux. He was caught in +autumn 1460, in the great Church of St. Leu d'Esserens, which +makes so fine a figure in the pleasant Oise valley between +Creil and Beaumont. He was reclaimed by no less than two +bishops; but the Procureur for the Provost held fast by +incorrigible Colin. 1460 was an ill-starred year: for +justice was making a clean sweep of "poor and indigent +persons, thieves, cheats, and lockpickers," in the +neighbourhood of Paris; (1) and Colin de Cayeux, with many +others, was condemned to death and hanged. (2) + +(1) CHRON. SCAND. ut supra. +(2) Here and there, principally in the order of events, this +article differs from M. Longnon's own reading of his +material. The ground on which he defers the execution of +Montigny and De Cayeux beyond the date of their trials seems +insufficient. There is a law of parsimony for the +construction of historical documents; simplicity is the first +duty of narration; and hanged they were. + + +VILLON AND THE GALLOWS. + + +Villon was still absent on the Angers expedition when the +Prior of Paray sent such a bombshell among his accomplices; +and the dates of his return and arrest remain undiscoverable. +M. Campaux plausibly enough opined for the autumn of 1457, +which would make him closely follow on Montigny, and the +first of those denounced by the Prior to fall into the toils. +We may suppose, at least, that it was not long thereafter; we +may suppose him competed for between lay and clerical Courts; +and we may suppose him alternately pert and impudent, humble +and fawning, in his defence. But at the end of all +supposing, we come upon some nuggets of fact. For first, he +was put to the question by water. He who had tossed off so +many cups of white Baigneux or red Beaune, now drank water +through linen folds, until his bowels were flooded and his +heart stood still. After so much raising of the elbow, so +much outcry of fictitious thirst, here at last was enough +drinking for a lifetime. Truly, of our pleasant vices, the +gods make whips to scourge us. And secondly he was condemned +to be hanged. A man may have been expecting a catastrophe +for years, and yet find himself unprepared when it arrives. +Certainly, Villon found, in this legitimate issue of his +career, a very staggering and grave consideration. Every +beast, as he says, clings bitterly to a whole skin. If +everything is lost, and even honour, life still remains; nay, +and it becomes, like the ewe lamb in Nathan's parable, as +dear as all the rest. "Do you fancy," he asks, in a lively +ballad, "that I had not enough philosophy under my hood to +cry out: 'I appeal'? If I had made any bones about the +matter, I should have been planted upright in the fields, the +St, Denis Road" - Montfaucon being on the way to St. Denis. +An appeal to Parliament, as we saw in the case of Colin de +Cayeux, did not necessarily lead to an acquittal or a +commutation; and while the matter was pending, our poet had +ample opportunity to reflect on his position. Hanging is a +sharp argument, and to swing with many others on the gibbet +adds a horrible corollary for the imagination. With the +aspect of Montfaucon he was well acquainted; indeed, as the +neighbourhood appears to have been sacred to junketing and +nocturnal picnics of wild young men and women, he had +probably studied it under all varieties of hour and weather. +And now, as he lay in prison waiting the mortal push, these +different aspects crowded back on his imagination with a new +and startling significance; and he wrote a ballad, by way of +epitaph for himself and his companions, which remains unique +in the annals of mankind. It is, in the highest sense, a +piece of his biography:- + + +"La pluye nous a debuez et lavez, +Et le soleil dessechez et noirciz; +Pies, corbeaulx, nous ont les yeux cavez, +Et arrachez la barbe et les sourcilz. +Jamais, nul temps, nous ne sommes rassis; +Puis ca, puis la, comme le vent varie, +A son plaisir sans cesser nous charie, +Plus becquetez d'oiscaulx que dez a couldre. +Ne soyez donc de nostre confrairie, +Mais priez Dieu que tous nous vueille absouldre." + + +Here is some genuine thieves' literature after so much that +was spurious; sharp as an etching, written with a shuddering +soul. There is an intensity of consideration in the piece +that shows it to be the transcript of familiar thoughts. It +is the quintessence of many a doleful nightmare on the straw, +when he felt himself swing helpless in the wind, and saw the +birds turn about him, screaming and menacing his eyes. + +And, after all, the Parliament changed his sentence into one +of banishment; and to Roussillon, in Dauphiny, our poet must +carry his woes without delay. Travellers between Lyons and +Marseilles may remember a station on the line, some way below +Vienne, where the Rhone fleets seaward between vine-clad +hills. This was Villon's Siberia. It would be a little warm +in summer perhaps, and a little cold in winter in that +draughty valley between two great mountain fields; but what +with the hills, and the racing river, and the fiery Rhone +wines, he was little to be pitied on the conditions of his +exile. Villon, in a remarkably bad ballad, written in a +breath, heartily thanked and fulsomely belauded the +Parliament; the ENVOI, like the proverbial postscript of a +lady's letter, containing the pith of his performance in a +request for three days' delay to settle his affairs and bid +his friends farewell. He was probably not followed out of +Paris, like Antoine Fradin, the popular preacher, another +exile of a few years later, by weeping multitudes; (1) but I +daresay one or two rogues of his acquaintance would keep him +company for a mile or so on the south road, and drink a +bottle with him before they turned. For banished people, in +those days, seem to have set out on their own responsibility, +in their own guard, and at their own expense. It was no joke +to make one's way from Paris to Roussillon alone and +penniless in the fifteenth century. Villon says he left a +rag of his tails on every bush. Indeed, he must have had +many a weary tramp, many a slender meal, and many a to-do +with blustering captains of the Ordonnance. But with one of +his light fingers, we may fancy that he took as good as he +gave; for every rag of his tail, he would manage to indemnify +himself upon the population in the shape of food, or wine, or +ringing money; and his route would be traceable across France +and Burgundy by housewives and inn-keepers lamenting over +petty thefts, like the track of a single human locust. A +strange figure he must have cut in the eyes of the good +country people: this ragged, blackguard city poet, with a +smack of the Paris student, and a smack of the Paris street +arab, posting along the highways, in rain or sun, among the +green fields and vineyards. For himself, he had no taste for +rural loveliness; green fields and vineyards would be mighty +indifferent to Master Francis; but he would often have his +tongue in his cheek at the simplicity of rustic dupes, and +often, at city gates, he might stop to contemplate the gibbet +with its swinging bodies, and hug himself on his escape. + +(1) CHRON. SCAND., p. 338. + +How long he stayed at Roussillon, how far he became the +protege of the Bourbons, to whom that town belonged, or when +it was that he took part, under the auspices of Charles of +Orleans, in a rhyming tournament to be referred to once again +in the pages of the present volume, are matters that still +remain in darkness, in spite of M. Longnon's diligent +rummaging among archives. When we next find him, in summer +1461, alas! he is once more in durance: this time at Meun- +sur-Loire, in the prisons of Thibault d'Aussigny, Bishop of +Orleans. He had been lowered in a basket into a noisome pit, +where he lay, all summer, gnawing hard crusts and railing +upon fate. His teeth, he says, were like the teeth of a +rake: a touch of haggard portraiture all the more real for +being excessive and burlesque, and all the more proper to the +man for being a caricature of his own misery. His eyes were +"bandaged with thick walls." It might blow hurricanes +overhead; the lightning might leap in high heaven; but no +word of all this reached him in his noisome pit. "Il +n'entre, ou gist, n'escler ni tourbillon." Above all, he was +fevered with envy and anger at the freedom of others; and his +heart flowed over into curses as he thought of Thibault +d'Aussigny, walking the streets in God's sunlight, and +blessing people with extended fingers. So much we find +sharply lined in his own poems. Why he was cast again into +prison - how he had again managed to shave the gallows - this +we know not, nor, from the destruction of authorities, are we +ever likely to learn. But on October 2d, 1461, or some day +immediately preceding, the new King, Louis Eleventh, made his +joyous entry into Meun. Now it was a part of the formality +on such occasions for the new King to liberate certain +prisoners; and so the basket was let down into Villon's pit, +and hastily did Master Francis scramble in, and was most +joyfully hauled up, and shot out, blinking and tottering, but +once more a free man, into the blessed sun and wind. Now or +never is the time for verses! Such a happy revolution would +turn the head of a stocking-weaver, and set him jingling +rhymes. And so - after a voyage to Paris, where he finds +Montigny and De Cayeux clattering, their bones upon the +gibbet, and his three pupils roystering in Paris streets, +"with their thumbs under their girdles," - down sits Master +Francis to write his LARGE TESTAMENT, and perpetuate his name +in a sort of glorious ignominy. + + +THE LARGE TESTAMENT. + + +Of this capital achievement and, with it, of Villon's style +in general, it is here the place to speak. The LARGE +TESTAMENT is a hurly-burly of cynical and sentimental +reflections about life, jesting legacies to friends and +enemies, and, interspersed among these many admirable +ballades, both serious and absurd. With so free a design, no +thought that occurred to him would need to be dismissed +without expression; and he could draw at full length the +portrait of his own bedevilled soul, and of the bleak and +blackguardly world which was the theatre of his exploits and +sufferings. If the reader can conceive something between the +slap-dash inconsequence of Byron's DON JUAN and the racy +humorous gravity and brief noble touches that distinguish the +vernacular poems of Burns, he will have formed some idea of +Villon's style. To the latter writer - except in the +ballades, which are quite his own, and can be paralleled from +no other language known to me - he bears a particular +resemblance. In common with Burns he has a certain rugged +compression, a brutal vivacity of epithet, a homely vigour, a +delight in local personalities, and an interest in many sides +of life, that are often despised and passed over by more +effete and cultured poets. Both also, in their strong, easy +colloquial way, tend to become difficult and obscure; the +obscurity in the case of Villon passing at times into the +absolute darkness of cant language. They are perhaps the +only two great masters of expression who keep sending their +readers to a glossary. + +"Shall we not dare to say of a thief," asks Montaigne, "that +he has a handsome leg?" It is a far more serious claim that +we have to put forward in behalf of Villon. Beside that of +his contemporaries, his writing, so full of colour, so +eloquent, so picturesque, stands out in an almost miraculous +isolation. If only one or two of the chroniclers could have +taken a leaf out of his book, history would have been a +pastime, and the fifteenth century as present to our minds as +the age of Charles Second. This gallows-bird was the one +great writer of his age and country, and initiated modern +literature for France. Boileau, long ago, in the period of +perukes and snuff-boxes, recognised him as the first +articulate poet in the language; and if we measure him, not +by priority of merit, but living duration of influence, not +on a comparison with obscure forerunners, but with great and +famous successors, we shall instal this ragged and +disreputable figure in a far higher niche in glory's temple +than was ever dreamed of by the critic. It is, in itself, a +memorable fact that, before 1542, in the very dawn of +printing, and while modern France was in the making, the +works of Villon ran through seven different editions. Out of +him flows much of Rabelais; and through Rabelais, directly +and indirectly, a deep, permanent, and growing inspiration. +Not only his style, but his callous pertinent way of looking +upon the sordid and ugly sides of life, becomes every day a +more specific feature in the literature of France. And only +the other year, a work of some power appeared in Paris, and +appeared with infinite scandal, which owed its whole inner +significance and much of its outward form to the study of our +rhyming thief. + +The world to which he introduces us is, as before said, +blackguardly and bleak. Paris swarms before us, full of +famine, shame, and death; monks and the servants of great +lords hold high wassail upon cakes and pastry; the poor man +licks his lips before the baker's window; people with patched +eyes sprawl all night under the stalls; chuckling Tabary +transcribes an improper romance; bare-bosomed lasses and +ruffling students swagger in the streets; the drunkard goes +stumbling homewards; the graveyard is full of bones; and away +on Montfaucon, Colin de Cayeux and Montigny hang draggled in +the rain. Is there nothing better to be seen than sordid +misery and worthless joys? Only where the poor old mother of +the poet kneels in church below painted windows, and makes +tremulous supplication to the Mother of God. + +In our mixed world, full of green fields and happy lovers, +where not long before, Joan of Arc had led one of the highest +and noblest lives in the whole story of mankind, this was all +worth chronicling that our poet could perceive. His eyes +were indeed sealed with his own filth. He dwelt all his life +in a pit more noisome than the dungeon at Meun. In the moral +world, also, there are large phenomena not cognisable out of +holes and corners. Loud winds blow, speeding home deep-laden +ships and sweeping rubbish from the earth; the lightning +leaps and cleans the face of heaven; high purposes and brave +passions shake and sublimate men's spirits; and meanwhile, in +the narrow dungeon of his soul, Villon is mumbling crusts and +picking vermin. + +Along with this deadly gloom of outlook, we must take another +characteristic of his work: its unrivalled insincerity. I +can give no better similitude of this quality than I have +given already: that he comes up with a whine, and runs away +with a whoop and his finger to his nose. His pathos is that +of a professional mendicant who should happen to be a man of +genius; his levity that of a bitter street arab, full of +bread. On a first reading, the pathetic passages preoccupy +the reader, and he is cheated out of an alms in the shape of +sympathy. But when the thing is studied the illusion fades +away: in the transitions, above all, we can detect the evil, +ironical temper of the man; and instead of a flighty work, +where many crude but genuine feelings tumble together for the +mastery as in the lists of tournament, we are tempted to +think of the LARGE TESTAMENT as of one long-drawn epical +grimace, pulled by a merry-andrew, who has found a certain +despicable eminence over human respect and human affections +by perching himself astride upon the gallows. Between these +two views, at best, all temperate judgments will be found to +fall; and rather, as I imagine, towards the last. + +There were two things on which he felt with perfect and, in +one case, even threatening sincerity. + +The first of these was an undisguised envy of those richer +than himself. He was for ever drawing a parallel, already +exemplified from his own words, between the happy life of the +well-to-do and the miseries of the poor. Burns, too proud +and honest not to work, continued through all reverses to +sing of poverty with a light, defiant note. Beranger waited +till he was himself beyond the reach of want, before writing +the OLD VAGABOND or JACQUES. Samuel Johnson, although he was +very sorry to be poor, "was a great arguer for the advantages +of poverty" in his ill days. Thus it is that brave men carry +their crosses, and smile with the fox burrowing in their +vitals. But Villon, who had not the courage to be poor with +honesty, now whiningly implores our sympathy, now shows his +teeth upon the dung-heap with an ugly snarl. He envies +bitterly, envies passionately. Poverty, he protests, drives +men to steal, as hunger makes the wolf sally from the forest. +The poor, he goes on, will always have a carping word to say, +or, if that outlet be denied, nourish rebellious thoughts. +It is a calumny on the noble army of the poor. Thousands in +a small way of life, ay, and even in the smallest, go through +life with tenfold as much honour and dignity and peace of +mind, as the rich gluttons whose dainties and state-beds +awakened Villon's covetous temper. And every morning's sun +sees thousands who pass whistling to their toil. But Villon +was the "mauvais pauvre" defined by Victor Hugo, and, in its +English expression, so admirably stereotyped by Dickens. He +was the first wicked sansculotte. He is the man of genius +with the moleskin cap. He is mighty pathetic and beseeching +here in the street, but I would not go down a dark road with +him for a large consideration. + +The second of the points on which he was genuine and emphatic +was common to the middle ages; a deep and somewhat snivelling +conviction of the transitory nature of this life and the pity +and horror of death. Old age and the grave, with some dark +and yet half-sceptical terror of an after-world - these were +ideas that clung about his bones like a disease. An old ape, +as he says, may play all the tricks in its repertory, and +none of them will tickle an audience into good humour. +"Tousjours vieil synge est desplaisant." It is not the old +jester who receives most recognition at a tavern party, but +the young fellow, fresh and handsome, who knows the new +slang, and carries off his vice with a certain air. Of this, +as a tavern jester himself, he would be pointedly conscious. +As for the women with whom he was best acquainted, his +reflections on their old age, in all their harrowing pathos, +shall remain in the original for me. Horace has disgraced +himself to something the same tune; but what Horace throws +out with an ill-favoured laugh, Villon dwells on with an +almost maudlin whimper. + +It is in death that he finds his truest inspiration in the +swift and sorrowful change that overtakes beauty; in the +strange revolution by which great fortunes and renowns are +diminished to a handful of churchyard dust; and in the utter +passing away of what was once lovable and mighty. It is in +this that the mixed texture of his thought enables him to +reach such poignant and terrible effects, and to enchance +pity with ridicule, like a man cutting capers to a funeral +march. It is in this, also, that he rises out of himself +into the higher spheres of art. So, in the ballade by which +he is best known, he rings the changes on names that once +stood for beautiful and queenly women, and are now no more +than letters and a legend. "Where are the snows of yester +year?" runs the burden. And so, in another not so famous, he +passes in review the different degrees of bygone men, from +the holy Apostles and the golden Emperor of the East, down to +the heralds, pursuivants, and trumpeters, who also bore their +part in the world's pageantries and ate greedily at great +folks' tables: all this to the refrain of "So much carry the +winds away!" Probably, there was some melancholy in his mind +for a yet lower grade, and Montigny and Colin de Cayeux +clattering their bones on Paris gibbet. Alas, and with so +pitiful an experience of life, Villon can offer us nothing +but terror and lamentation about death! No one has ever more +skilfully communicated his own disenchantment; no one ever +blown a more ear-piercing note of sadness. This unrepentant +thief can attain neither to Christian confidence, nor to the +spirit of the bright Greek saying, that whom the gods love +die early. It is a poor heart, and a poorer age, that cannot +accept the conditions of life with some heroic readiness. + +* * * * + +The date of the LARGE TESTAMENT is the last date in the +poet's biography. After having achieved that admirable and +despicable performance, he disappears into the night from +whence he came. How or when he died, whether decently in bed +or trussed up to a gallows, remains a riddle for foolhardy +commentators. It appears his health had suffered in the pit +at Meun; he was thirty years of age and quite bald; with the +notch in his under lip where Sermaise had struck him with the +sword, and what wrinkles the reader may imagine. In default +of portraits, this is all I have been able to piece together, +and perhaps even the baldness should be taken as a figure of +his destitution. A sinister dog, in all likelihood, but with +a look in his eye, and the loose flexile mouth that goes with +wit and an overweening sensual temperament. Certainly the +sorriest figure on the rolls of fame. + + + +CHAPTER VII - CHARLES OF ORLEANS + + + +FOR one who was no great politician, nor (as men go) +especially wise, capable or virtuous, Charles of Orleans is +more than usually enviable to all who love that better sort +of fame which consists in being known not widely, but +intimately. "To be content that time to come should know +there was such a man, not caring whether they knew more of +him, or to subsist under naked denominations, without deserts +or noble acts," is, says Sir Thomas Browne, a frigid +ambition. It is to some more specific memory that youth +looks forward in its vigils. Old kings are sometimes +disinterred in all the emphasis of life, the hands untainted +by decay, the beard that had so often wagged in camp or +senate still spread upon the royal bosom; and in busts and +pictures, some similitude of the great and beautiful of +former days is handed down. In this way, public curiosity +may be gratified, but hardly any private aspiration after +fame. It is not likely that posterity will fall in love with +us, but not impossible that it may respect or sympathise; and +so a man would rather leave behind him the portrait of his +spirit than a portrait of his face, FIGURA ANIMI MAGIS QUAM +CORPORIS. Of those who have thus survived themselves most +completely, left a sort of personal seduction behind them in +the world, and retained, after death, the art of making +friends, Montaigne and Samuel Johnson certainly stand first. +But we have portraits of all sorts of men, from august Caesar +to the king's dwarf; and all sorts of portraits, from a +Titian treasured in the Louvre to a profile over the grocer's +chimney shelf. And so in a less degree, but no less truly, +than the spirit of Montaigne lives on in the delightful +Essays, that of Charles of Orleans survives in a few old +songs and old account-books; and it is still in the choice of +the reader to make this duke's acquaintance, and, if their +humours suit, become his friend. + + +I. + + +His birth - if we are to argue from a man's parents - was +above his merit. It is not merely that he was the grandson +of one king, the father of another, and the uncle of a third; +but something more specious was to be looked for from the son +of his father, Louis de Valois, Duke of Orleans, brother to +the mad king Charles VI., lover of Queen Isabel, and the +leading patron of art and one of the leading politicians in +France. And the poet might have inherited yet higher virtues +from his mother, Valentina of Milan, a very pathetic figure +of the age, the faithful wife of an unfaithful husband, and +the friend of a most unhappy king. The father, beautiful, +eloquent, and accomplished, exercised a strange fascination +over his contemporaries; and among those who dip nowadays +into the annals of the time there are not many - and these +few are little to be envied - who can resist the fascination +of the mother. All mankind owe her a debt of gratitude +because she brought some comfort into the life of the poor +madman who wore the crown of France. + +Born (May 1391) of such a noble stock, Charles was to know +from the first all favours of nature and art. His father's +gardens were the admiration of his contemporaries; his +castles were situated in the most agreeable parts of France, +and sumptuously adorned. We have preserved, in an inventory +of 1403, the description of tapestried rooms where Charles +may have played in childhood. (1) "A green room, with the +ceiling full of angels, and the DOSSIER of shepherds and +shepherdesses seeming (FAISANT CONTENANCE) to eat nuts and +cherries. A room of gold, silk and worsted, with a device of +little children in a river, and the sky full of birds. A +room of green tapestry, showing a knight and lady at chess in +a pavilion. Another green room, with shepherdesses in a +trellised garden worked in gold and silk. A carpet +representing cherry-trees, where there is a fountain, and a +lady gathering cherries in a basin." These were some of the +pictures over which his fancy might busy itself of an +afternoon, or at morning as he lay awake in bed. With our +deeper and more logical sense of life, we can have no idea +how large a space in the attention of mediaeval men might be +occupied by such figured hangings on the wall. There was +something timid and purblind in the view they had of the +world. Morally, they saw nothing outside of traditional +axioms; and little of the physical aspect of things entered +vividly into their mind, beyond what was to be seen on church +windows and the walls and floors of palaces. The reader will +remember how Villon's mother conceived of heaven and hell and +took all her scanty stock of theology from the stained glass +that threw its light upon her as she prayed. And there is +scarcely a detail of external effect in the chronicles and +romances of the time, but might have been borrowed at second +hand from a piece of tapestry. It was a stage in the history +of mankind which we may see paralleled, to some extent, in +the first infant school, where the representations of lions +and elephants alternate round the wall with moral verses and +trite presentments of the lesser virtues. So that to live in +a house of many pictures was tantamount, for the time, to a +liberal education in itself. + +(1) Champollion-Figeac's LOUIS ET CHARLES D'ORLEANS, p. 348. + +At Charles's birth an order of knighthood was inaugurated in +his honour. At nine years old, he was a squire; at eleven, +he had the escort of a chaplain and a schoolmaster; at +twelve, his uncle the king made him a pension of twelve +thousand livres d'or. (1) He saw the most brilliant and the +most learned persons of France, in his father's Court; and +would not fail to notice that these brilliant and learned +persons were one and all engaged in rhyming. Indeed, if it +is difficult to realise the part played by pictures, it is +perhaps even more difficult to realise that played by verses +in the polite and active history of the age. At the siege of +Pontoise, English and French exchanged defiant ballades over +the walls. (2) If a scandal happened, as in the loathsome +thirty-third story of the CENT NOUVELLES NOUVELLES, all the +wits must make rondels and chansonettes, which they would +hand from one to another with an unmanly sneer. Ladies +carried their favourite's ballades in their girdles. (3) +Margaret of Scotland, all the world knows already, kissed +Alain Chartier's lips in honour of the many virtuous thoughts +and golden sayings they had uttered; but it is not so well +known, that this princess was herself the most industrious of +poetasters, that she is supposed to have hastened her death +by her literary vigils, and sometimes wrote as many as twelve +rondels in the day. (4) It was in rhyme, even, that the +young Charles should learn his lessons. He might get all +manner of instruction in the truly noble art of the chase, +not without a smack of ethics by the way, from the +compendious didactic poem of Gace de la Bigne. Nay, and it +was in rhyme that he should learn rhyming: in the verses of +his father's Maitre d'Hotel, Eustache Deschamps, which +treated of "l'art de dictier et de faire chancons, ballades, +virelais et rondeaux," along with many other matters worth +attention, from the courts of Heaven to the misgovernment of +France. (5) At this rate, all knowledge is to be had in a +goody, and the end of it is an old song. We need not wonder +when we hear from Monstrelet that Charles was a very well +educated person. He could string Latin texts together by the +hour, and make ballades and rondels better than Eustache +Deschamps himself. He had seen a mad king who would not +change his clothes, and a drunken emperor who could not keep +his hand from the wine-cup. He had spoken a great deal with +jesters and fiddlers, and with the profligate lords who +helped his father to waste the revenues of France. He had +seen ladies dance on into broad daylight, and much burning of +torches and waste of dainties and good wine. (6) And when +all is said, it was no very helpful preparation for the +battle of life. "I believe Louis XI.," writes Comines, +"would not have saved himself, if he had not been very +differently brought up from such other lords as I have seen +educated in this country; for these were taught nothing but +to play the jackanapes with finery and fine words." (7) I am +afraid Charles took such lessons to heart, and conceived of +life as a season principally for junketing and war. His view +of the whole duty of man, so empty, vain, and wearisome to +us, was yet sincerely and consistently held. When he came in +his ripe years to compare the glory of two kingdoms, England +and France, it was on three points only, - pleasures, valour, +and riches, - that he cared to measure them; and in the very +outset of that tract he speaks of the life of the great as +passed, "whether in arms, as in assaults, battles, and +sieges, or in jousts and tournaments, in high and stately +festivities and in funeral solemnities." (8) + +(1) D'Hericault's admirable MEMOIR, prefixed to his edition +of Charles's works, vol. i. p. xi. +(2) Vallet de Viriville, CHARLES VII. ET SON EPOQUE, ii. 428, +note 2. +(3) See Lecoy de la Marche, LE ROI RENE, i. 167. +(4) Vallet, CHARLES VII, ii. 85, 86, note 2. +(5) Champollion-Figeac, 193-198. +(6) Champollion-Figeac, 209. +(7) The student will see that there are facts cited, and +expressions borrowed, in this paragraph, from a period +extending over almost the whole of Charles's life, instead of +being confined entirely to his boyhood. As I do not believe +there was any change, so I do not believe there is any +anachronism involved. +(8) THE DEBATE BETWEEN THE HERALDS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND, +translated and admirably edited by Mr. Henry Pyne. For the +attribution of this tract to Charles, the reader is referred +to Mr. Pyne's conclusive argument. + +When he was no more than thirteen, his father had him +affianced to Isabella, virgin-widow of our Richard II. and +daughter of his uncle Charles VI.; and, two years after (June +29, 1406), the cousins were married at Compiegne, he fifteen, +she seventeen years of age. It was in every way a most +desirable match. The bride brought five hundred thousand +francs of dowry. The ceremony was of the utmost +magnificence, Louis of Orleans figuring in crimson velvet, +adorned with no less than seven hundred and ninety-five +pearls, gathered together expressly for this occasion. And +no doubt it must have been very gratifying for a young +gentleman of fifteen, to play the chief part in a pageant so +gaily put upon the stage. Only, the bridegroom might have +been a little older; and, as ill-luck would have it, the +bride herself was of this way of thinking, and would not be +consoled for the loss of her title as queen, or the +contemptible age of her new husband. PLEUROIT FORT LADITE +ISABEAU; the said Isabella wept copiously. (1) It is fairly +debatable whether Charles was much to be pitied when, three +years later (September 1409), this odd marriage was dissolved +by death. Short as it was, however, this connection left a +lasting stamp upon his mind; and we find that, in the last +decade of his life, and after he had remarried for perhaps +the second time, he had not yet forgotten or forgiven the +violent death of Richard II. "Ce mauvais cas" - that ugly +business, he writes, has yet to be avenged. + +(1) Des Ursins. + +The marriage festivity was on the threshold of evil days. +The great rivalry between Louis of Orleans and John the +Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, had been forsworn with the most +reverend solemnities. But the feud was only in abeyance, and +John of Burgundy still conspired in secret. On November 23, +1407 - in that black winter when the frost lasted six-and- +sixty days on end - a summons from the king reached Louis of +Orleans at the Hotel Barbette, where he had been supping with +Queen Isabel. It was seven or eight in the evening, and the +inhabitants of the quarter were abed. He set forth in haste, +accompanied by two squires riding on one horse, a page, and a +few varlets running with torches. As he rode, he hummed to +himself and trifled with his glove. And so riding, he was +beset by the bravoes of his enemy and slain. My lord of +Burgundy set an ill precedent in this deed, as he found some +years after on the bridge of Montereau; and even in the +meantime he did not profit quietly by his rival's death. The +horror of the other princes seems to have perturbed himself; +he avowed his guilt in the council, tried to brazen it out, +finally lost heart and fled at full gallop, cutting bridges +behind him, towards Bapaume and Lille. And so there we have +the head of one faction, who had just made himself the most +formidable man in France, engaged in a remarkably hurried +journey, with black care on the pillion. And meantime, on +the other side, the widowed duchess came to Paris in +appropriate mourning, to demand justice for her husband's +death. Charles VI., who was then in a lucid interval, did +probably all that he could, when he raised up the kneeling +suppliant with kisses and smooth words. Things were at a +dead-lock. The criminal might be in the sorriest fright, but +he was still the greatest of vassals. Justice was easy to +ask and not difficult to promise; how it was to be executed +was another question. No one in France was strong enough to +punish John of Burgundy; and perhaps no one, except the +widow, very sincere in wishing to punish him. + +She, indeed, was eaten up of zeal; but the intensity of her +eagerness wore her out; and she died about a year after the +murder, of grief and indignation, unrequited love and +unsatisfied resentment. It was during the last months of her +life that this fiery and generous woman, seeing the soft +hearts of her own children, looked with envy on a certain +natural son of her husband's destined to become famous in the +sequel as the Bastard of Orleans, or the brave Dunois. "YOU +WERE STOLEN FROM ME," she said; "it is you who are fit to +avenge your father." These are not the words of ordinary +mourning, or of an ordinary woman. It is a saying, over +which Balzac would have rubbed his episcopal hands. That the +child who was to avenge her husband had not been born out of +her body, was a thing intolerable to Valentina of Milan; and +the expression of this singular and tragic jealousy is +preserved to us by a rare chance, in such straightforward and +vivid words as we are accustomed to hear only on the stress +of actual life, or in the theatre. In history - where we see +things as in a glass darkly, and the fashion of former times +is brought before us, deplorably adulterated and defaced, +fitted to very vague and pompous words, and strained through +many men's minds of everything personal or precise - this +speech of the widowed duchess startles a reader, somewhat as +the footprint startled Robinson Crusoe. A human voice breaks +in upon the silence of the study, and the student is aware of +a fellow-creature in his world of documents. With such a +clue in hand, one may imagine how this wounded lioness would +spur and exasperate the resentment of her children, and what +would be the last words of counsel and command she left +behind her. + +With these instancies of his dying mother - almost a voice +from the tomb - still tingling in his ears, the position of +young Charles of Orleans, when he was left at the head of +that great house, was curiously similar to that of +Shakspeare's Hamlet. The times were out of joint; here was a +murdered father to avenge on a powerful murderer; and here, +in both cases, a lad of inactive disposition born to set +these matters right. Valentina's commendation of Dunois +involved a judgment on Charles, and that judgment was exactly +correct. Whoever might be, Charles was not the man to avenge +his father. Like Hamlet, this son of a dear father murdered +was sincerely grieved at heart. Like Hamlet, too, he could +unpack his heart with words, and wrote a most eloquent letter +to the king, complaining that what was denied to him would +not be denied "to the lowest born and poorest man on earth." +Even in his private hours he strove to preserve a lively +recollection of his injury, and keep up the native hue of +resolution. He had gems engraved with appropriate legends, +hortatory or threatening: "DIEU LE SCET," God knows it; or +"SOUVENEZ-VOUS DE - " Remember! (1) It is only towards the +end that the two stories begin to differ; and in some points +the historical version is the more tragic. Hamlet only +stabbed a silly old councillor behind the arras; Charles of +Orleans trampled France for five years under the hoofs of his +banditti. The miscarriage of Hamlet's vengeance was +confined, at widest, to the palace; the ruin wrought by +Charles of Orleans was as broad as France. + +(1) Michelet, iv. App. 179, p. 337. + +Yet the first act of the young duke is worthy of honourable +mention. Prodigal Louis had made enormous debts; and there +is a story extant, to illustrate how lightly he himself +regarded these commercial obligations. It appears that +Louis, after a narrow escape he made in a thunder-storm, had +a smart access of penitence, and announced he would pay his +debts on the following Sunday. More than eight hundred +creditors presented themselves, but by that time the devil +was well again, and they were shown the door with more gaiety +than politeness. A time when such cynical dishonesty was +possible for a man of culture is not, it will be granted, a +fortunate epoch for creditors. When the original debtor was +so lax, we may imagine how an heir would deal with the +incumbrances of his inheritance. On the death of Philip the +Forward, father of that John the Fearless whom we have seen +at work, the widow went through the ceremony of a public +renunciation of goods; taking off her purse and girdle, she +left them on the grave, and thus, by one notable act, +cancelled her husband's debts and defamed his honour. The +conduct of young Charles of Orleans was very different. To +meet the joint liabilities of his father and mother (for +Valentina also was lavish), he had to sell or pledge a +quantity of jewels; and yet he would not take advantage of a +pretext, even legally valid, to diminish the amount. Thus, +one Godefroi Lefevre, having disbursed many odd sums for the +late duke, and received or kept no vouchers, Charles ordered +that he should be believed upon his oath. (1) To a modern +mind this seems as honourable to his father's memory as if +John the Fearless had been hanged as high as Haman. And as +things fell out, except a recantation from the University of +Paris, which had justified the murder out of party feeling, +and various other purely paper reparations, this was about +the outside of what Charles was to effect in that direction. +He lived five years, and grew up from sixteen to twenty-one, +in the midst of the most horrible civil war, or series of +civil wars, that ever devastated France; and from first to +last his wars were ill-starred, or else his victories +useless. Two years after the murder (March 1409), John the +Fearless having the upper hand for the moment, a shameful and +useless reconciliation took place, by the king's command, in +the church of Our Lady at Chartres. The advocate of the Duke +of Burgundy stated that Louis of Orleans had been killed "for +the good of the king's person and realm." Charles and his +brothers, with tears of shame, under protest, POUR NE PAS +DESOBEIR AU ROI, forgave their father's murderer and swore +peace upon the missal. It was, as I say, a shameful and +useless ceremony; the very greffier, entering it in his +register, wrote in the margin, "PAX, PAX, INQUIT PROPHETA, ET +NON EST PAX." (2) Charles was soon after allied with the +abominable Bernard d'Armagnac, even betrothed or married to a +daughter of his, called by a name that sounds like a +contradiction in terms, Bonne d'Armagnac. From that time +forth, throughout all this monstrous period - a very +nightmare in the history of France - he is no more than a +stalking-horse for the ambitious Gascon. Sometimes the smoke +lifts, and you can see him for the twinkling of an eye, a +very pale figure; at one moment there is a rumour he will be +crowned king; at another, when the uproar has subsided, he +will be heard still crying out for justice; and the next +(1412), he is showing himself to the applauding populace on +the same horse with John of Burgundy. But these are +exceptional seasons, and, for the most part, he merely rides +at the Gascon's bridle over devastated France. His very +party go, not by the name of Orleans, but by the name of +Armagnac, Paris is in the hands of the butchers: the peasants +have taken to the woods. Alliances are made and broken as if +in a country dance; the English called in, now by this one, +now by the other. Poor people sing in church, with white +faces and lamentable music: "DOMINE JESU, PARCE POPULO TUO, +DIRIGE IN VIAM PACIS PRINCIPES." And the end and upshot of +the whole affair for Charles of Orleans is another peace with +John the Fearless. France is once more tranquil, with the +tranquillity of ruin; he may ride home again to Blois, and +look, with what countenance he may, on those gems he had got +engraved in the early days of his resentment, "SOUVENEZ-VOUS +DE - " Remember! He has killed Polonius, to be sure; but +the king is never a penny the worse. + +(1) Champollion-Figeac, pp. 279-82. +(2) Michelet, iv. pp. 123-4. + + +II. + + +From the battle of Agincourt (Oct. 1415) dates the second +period of Charles's life. The English reader will remember +the name of Orleans in the play of HENRY V.; and it is at +least odd that we can trace a resemblance between the puppet +and the original. The interjection, "I have heard a sonnet +begin so to one's mistress" (Act iii. scene 7), may very well +indicate one who was already an expert in that sort of +trifle; and the game of proverbs he plays with the Constable +in the same scene, would be quite in character for a man who +spent many years of his life capping verses with his +courtiers. Certainly, Charles was in the great battle with +five hundred lances (say, three thousand men), and there he +was made prisoner as he led the van. According to one story, +some ragged English archer shot him down; and some diligent +English Pistol, hunting ransoms on the field of battle, +extracted him from under a heap of bodies and retailed him to +our King Henry. He was the most important capture of the +day, and used with all consideration. On the way to Calais, +Henry sent him a present of bread and wine (and bread, you +will remember, was an article of luxury in the English camp), +but Charles would neither eat nor drink. Thereupon, Henry +came to visit him in his quarters. "Noble cousin," said he, +"how are you?" Charles replied that he was well. "Why, +then, do you neither eat nor drink?" And then with some +asperity, as I imagine, the young duke told him that "truly +he had no inclination for food." And our Henry improved the +occasion with something of a snuffle, assuring his prisoner +that God had fought against the French on account of their +manifold sins and transgressions. Upon this there supervened +the agonies of a rough sea passage; and many French lords, +Charles, certainly, among the number, declared they would +rather endure such another defeat than such another sore +trial on shipboard. Charles, indeed, never forgot his +sufferings. Long afterwards, he declared his hatred to a +seafaring life, and willingly yielded to England the empire +of the seas, "because there is danger and loss of life, and +God knows what pity when it storms; and sea-sickness is for +many people hard to bear; and the rough life that must be led +is little suitable for the nobility:" (1) which, of all +babyish utterances that ever fell from any public man, may +surely bear the bell. Scarcely disembarked, he followed his +victor, with such wry face as we may fancy, through the +streets of holiday London. And then the doors closed upon +his last day of garish life for more than a quarter of a +century. After a boyhood passed in the dissipations of a +luxurious court or in the camp of war, his ears still stunned +and his cheeks still burning from his enemies' jubilations; +out of all this ringing of English bells and singing of +English anthems, from among all these shouting citizens in +scarlet cloaks, and beautiful virgins attired in white, he +passed into the silence and solitude of a political prison. +(2) + +(1) DEBATE BETWEEN THE HERALDS. +(2) Sir H. Nicholas, AGINCOURT. + +His captivity was not without alleviations. He was allowed +to go hawking, and he found England an admirable country for +the sport; he was a favourite with English ladies, and +admired their beauty; and he did not lack for money, wine, or +books; he was honourably imprisoned in the strongholds of +great nobles, in Windsor Castle and the Tower of London. But +when all is said, he was a prisoner for five-and-twenty +years. For five-and-twenty years he could not go where he +would, or do what he liked, or speak with any but his +gaolers. We may talk very wisely of alleviations; there is +only one alleviation for which the man would thank you: he +would thank you to open the door. With what regret Scottish +James I. bethought him (in the next room perhaps to Charles) +of the time when he rose "as early as the day." What would +he not have given to wet his boots once more with morning +dew, and follow his vagrant fancy among the meadows? The +only alleviation to the misery of constraint lies in the +disposition of the prisoner. To each one this place of +discipline brings his own lesson. It stirs Latude or Baron +Trenck into heroic action; it is a hermitage for pious and +conformable spirits. Beranger tells us he found prison life, +with its regular hours and long evenings, both pleasant and +profitable. THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS and DON QUIXOTE were +begun in prison. It was after they were become (to use the +words of one of them), "Oh, worst imprisonment - the dungeon +of themselves!" that Homer and Milton worked so hard and so +well for the profit of mankind. In the year 1415 Henry V. +had two distinguished prisoners, French Charles of Orleans +and Scottish James I., who whiled away the hours of their +captivity with rhyming. Indeed, there can be no better +pastime for a lonely man than the mechanical exercise of +verse. Such intricate forms as Charles had been used to from +childhood, the ballade with its scanty rhymes; the rondel, +with the recurrence first of the whole, then of half the +burthen, in thirteen verses, seem to have been invented for +the prison and the sick bed. The common Scotch saying, on +the sight of anything operose and finical, "he must have had +little to do that made that!" might be put as epigraph on all +the song books of old France. Making such sorts of verse +belongs to the same class of pleasures as guessing acrostics +or "burying proverbs." It is almost purely formal, almost +purely verbal. It must be done gently and gingerly. It +keeps the mind occupied a long time, and never so intently as +to be distressing; for anything like strain is against the +very nature of the craft. Sometimes things go easily, the +refrains fall into their place as if of their own accord, and +it becomes something of the nature of an intellectual tennis; +you must make your poem as the rhymes will go, just as you +must strike your ball as your adversary played it. So that +these forms are suitable rather for those who wish to make +verses, than for those who wish to express opinions. +Sometimes, on the other hand, difficulties arise: rival +verses come into a man's head, and fugitive words elude his +memory. Then it is that he enjoys at the same time the +deliberate pleasures of a connoisseur comparing wines, and +the ardour of the chase. He may have been sitting all day +long in prison with folded hands; but when he goes to bed, +the retrospect will seem animated and eventful. + +Besides confirming himself as an habitual maker of verses, +Charles acquired some new opinions during his captivity. He +was perpetually reminded of the change that had befallen him. +He found the climate of England cold and "prejudicial to the +human frame;" he had a great contempt for English fruit and +English beer; even the coal fires were unpleasing in his +eyes. (1) He was rooted up from among his friends and +customs and the places that had known him. And so in this +strange land he began to learn the love of his own. Sad +people all the world over are like to be moved when the wind +is in some particular quarter. So Burns preferred when it +was in the west, and blew to him from his mistress; so the +girl in the ballade, looking south to Yarrow, thought it +might carry a kiss betwixt her and her gallant; and so we +find Charles singing of the "pleasant wind that comes from +France." (2) One day, at "Dover-on-the-Sea," he looked +across the straits, and saw the sandhills about Calais. And +it happened to him, he tells us in a ballade, to remember his +happiness over there in the past; and he was both sad and +merry at the recollection, and could not have his fill of +gazing on the shores of France. (3) Although guilty of +unpatriotic acts, he had never been exactly unpatriotic in +feeling. But his sojourn in England gave, for the time at +least, some consistency to what had been a very weak and +ineffectual prejudice. He must have been under the influence +of more than usually solemn considerations, when he proceeded +to turn Henry's puritanical homily after Agincourt into a +ballade, and reproach France, and himself by implication, +with pride, gluttony, idleness, unbridled covetousness, and +sensuality. (4) For the moment, he must really have been +thinking more of France than of Charles of Orleans. + +(1) DEBATE BETWEEN THE HERALDS. +(2) Works (ed. d'Hericault), i. 43. +(3) IBID. 143. +(4) Works (ed. d'Hericault), i. 190. + +And another lesson he learned. He who was only to be +released in case of peace, begins to think upon the +disadvantages of war. "Pray for peace," is his refrain: a +strange enough subject for the ally of Bernard d'Armagnac. +(1) But this lesson was plain and practical; it had one side +in particular that was specially attractive for Charles; and +he did not hesitate to explain it in so many words. +"Everybody," he writes - I translate roughly - "everybody +should be much inclined to peace, for everybody has a deal to +gain by it." (2) + +(1) IBID. 144. +(2) IBID. 158. + +Charles made laudable endeavours to acquire English, and even +learned to write a rondel in that tongue of quite average +mediocrity. (1) He was for some time billeted on the unhappy +Suffolk, who received fourteen shillings and fourpence a day +for his expenses; and from the fact that Suffolk afterwards +visited Charles in France while he was negotiating the +marriage of Henry VI., as well as the terms of that +nobleman's impeachment, we may believe there was some not +unkindly intercourse between the prisoner and his gaoler: a +fact of considerable interest when we remember that Suffolk's +wife was the granddaughter of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer. (2) +Apart from this, and a mere catalogue of dates and places, +only one thing seems evident in the story of Charles's +captivity. It seems evident that, as these five-and-twenty +years drew on, he became less and less resigned. +Circumstances were against the growth of such a feeling. One +after another of his fellow-prisoners was ransomed and went +home. More than once he was himself permitted to visit +France; where he worked on abortive treaties and showed +himself more eager for his own deliverance than for the +profit of his native land. Resignation may follow after a +reasonable time upon despair; but if a man is persecuted by a +series of brief and irritating hopes, his mind no more +attains to a settled frame of resolution, than his eye would +grow familiar with a night of thunder and lightning. Years +after, when he was speaking at the trial of that Duke of +Alencon, who began life so hopefully as the boyish favourite +of Joan of Arc, he sought to prove that captivity was a +harder punishment than death. "For I have had experience +myself," he said; "and in my prison of England, for the +weariness, danger, and displeasure in which I then lay, I +have many a time wished I had been slain at the battle where +they took me." (3) This is a flourish, if you will, but it +is something more. His spirit would sometimes rise up in a +fine anger against the petty desires and contrarieties of +life. He would compare his own condition with the quiet and +dignified estate of the dead; and aspire to lie among his +comrades on the field of Agincourt, as the Psalmist prayed to +have the wings of a dove and dwell in the uttermost parts of +the sea. But such high thoughts came to Charles only in a +flash. + +(1) M. Champollion-Figeac gives many in his editions of +Charles's works, most (as I should think) of very doubtful +authenticity, or worse. +(2) Rymer, x. 564. D'Hericault's MEMOIR, p. xli. Gairdner's +PASTON LETTERS, i. 27, 99. +(3) Champollion-Figeac, 377. + +John the Fearless had been murdered in his turn on the bridge +of Montereau so far back as 1419. His son, Philip the Good - +partly to extinguish the feud, partly that he might do a +popular action, and partly, in view of his ambitious schemes, +to detach another great vassal from the throne of France - +had taken up the cause of Charles of Orleans, and negotiated +diligently for his release. In 1433 a Burgundian embassy was +admitted to an interview with the captive duke, in the +presence of Suffolk. Charles shook hands most affectionately +with the ambassadors. They asked after his health. "I am +well enough in body," he replied, "but far from well in mind. +I am dying of grief at having to pass the best days of my +life in prison, with none to sympathise." The talk falling +on the chances of peace, Charles referred to Suffolk if he +were not sincere and constant in his endeavours to bring it +about. "If peace depended on me," he said, "I should procure +it gladly, were it to cost me my life seven days after." We +may take this as showing what a large price he set, not so +much on peace, as on seven days of freedom. Seven days! - he +would make them seven years in the employment. Finally, he +assured the ambassadors of his good will to Philip of +Burgundy; squeezed one of them by the hand and nipped him +twice in the arm to signify things unspeakable before +Suffolk; and two days after sent them Suffolk's barber, one +Jean Carnet, a native of Lille, to testify more freely of his +sentiments. "As I speak French," said this emissary, "the +Duke of Orleans is more familiar with me than with any other +of the household; and I can bear witness he never said +anything against Duke Philip." (1) It will be remembered +that this person, with whom he was so anxious to stand well, +was no other than his hereditary enemy, the son of his +father's murderer. But the honest fellow bore no malice, +indeed not he. He began exchanging ballades with Philip, +whom he apostrophises as his companion, his cousin, and his +brother. He assures him that, soul and body, he is +altogether Burgundian; and protests that he has given his +heart in pledge to him. Regarded as the history of a +vendetta, it must be owned that Charles's life has points of +some originality. And yet there is an engaging frankness +about these ballades which disarms criticism. (2) You see +Charles throwing himself headforemost into the trap; you hear +Burgundy, in his answers begin to inspire him with his own +prejudices, and draw melancholy pictures of the misgovernment +of France. But Charles's own spirits are so high and so +amiable, and he is so thoroughly convinced his cousin is a +fine fellow, that one's scruples are carried away in the +torrent of his happiness and gratitude. And his would be a +sordid spirit who would not clap hands at the consummation +(Nov. 1440); when Charles, after having sworn on the +Sacrament that he would never again bear arms against +England, and pledged himself body and soul to the unpatriotic +faction in his own country, set out from London with a light +heart and a damaged integrity. + +(1) Dom Plancher, iv. 178-9. +(2) Works, i. 157-63. + +In the magnificent copy of Charles's poems, given by our +Henry VII. to Elizabeth of York on the occasion of their +marriage, a large illumination figures at the head of one of +the pages, which, in chronological perspective, is almost a +history of his imprisonment. It gives a view of London with +all its spires, the river passing through the old bridge and +busy with boats. One side of the White Tower has been taken +out, and we can see, as under a sort of shrine, the paved +room where the duke sits writing. He occupies a high-backed +bench in front of a great chimney; red and black ink are +before him; and the upper end of the apartment is guarded by +many halberdiers, with the red cross of England on their +breast. On the next side of the tower he appears again, +leaning out of window and gazing on the river; doubtless +there blows just then "a pleasant wind from out the land of +France," and some ship comes up the river: "the ship of good +news." At the door we find him yet again; this time +embracing a messenger, while a groom stands by holding two +saddled horses. And yet further to the left, a cavalcade +defiles out of the tower; the duke is on his way at last +towards "the sunshine of France." + + +III. + + +During the five-and-twenty years of his captivity, Charles +had not lost in the esteem of his fellow-countrymen. For so +young a man, the head of so great a house, and so numerous a +party, to be taken prisoner as he rode in the vanguard of +France, and stereotyped for all men in this heroic attitude, +was to taste untimeously the honours of the grave. Of him, +as of the dead, it would be ungenerous to speak evil; what +little energy he had displayed would be remembered with +piety, when all that he had done amiss was courteously +forgotten. As English folk looked for Arthur; as Danes +awaited the coming of Ogier; as Somersetshire peasants or +sergeants of the Old Guard expected the return of Monmouth or +Napoleon; the countrymen of Charles of Orleans looked over +the straits towards his English prison with desire and +confidence. Events had so fallen out while he was rhyming +ballades, that he had become the type of all that was most +truly patriotic. The remnants of his old party had been the +chief defenders of the unity of France. His enemies of +Burgundy had been notoriously favourers and furtherers of +English domination. People forgot that his brother still lay +by the heels for an unpatriotic treaty with England, because +Charles himself had been taken prisoner patriotically +fighting against it. That Henry V. had left special orders +against his liberation, served to increase the wistful pity +with which he was regarded. And when, in defiance of all +contemporary virtue, and against express pledges, the English +carried war into their prisoner's fief, not only France, but +all thinking men in Christendom, were roused to indignation +against the oppressors, and sympathy with the victim. It was +little wonder if he came to bulk somewhat largely in the +imagination of the best of those at home. Charles le +Boutteillier, when (as the story goes) he slew Clarence at +Beauge, was only seeking an exchange for Charles of Orleans. +(1) It was one of Joan of Arc's declared intentions to +deliver the captive duke. If there was no other way, she +meant to cross the seas and bring him home by force. And she +professed before her judges a sure knowledge that Charles of +Orleans was beloved of God. (2) + +(1) Vallet's CHARLES VII., i. 251. +(2) PROCES DE JEANNE D'ARC, i. 133-55. + +Alas! it was not at all as a deliverer that Charles returned +to France. He was nearly fifty years old. Many changes had +been accomplished since, at twenty-three, he was taken on the +field of Agincourt. But of all these he was profoundly +ignorant, or had only heard of them in the discoloured +reports of Philip of Burgundy. He had the ideas of a former +generation, and sought to correct them by the scandal of a +factious party. With such qualifications he came back eager +for the domination, the pleasures, and the display that +befitted his princely birth. A long disuse of all political +activity combined with the flatteries of his new friends to +fill him with an overweening conceit of his own capacity and +influence. If aught had gone wrong in his absence, it seemed +quite natural men should look to him for its redress. Was +not King Arthur come again? + +The Duke of Burgundy received him with politic honours. He +took his guest by his foible for pageantry, all the easier as +it was a foible of his own; and Charles walked right out of +prison into much the same atmosphere of trumpeting and bell- +ringing as he had left behind when he went in. Fifteen days +after his deliverance he was married to Mary of Cleves, at +St. Omer. The marriage was celebrated with the usual pomp of +the Burgundian court; there were joustings, and +illuminations, and animals that spouted wine; and many nobles +dined together, COMME EN BRIGADE, and were served abundantly +with many rich and curious dishes. (1) It must have reminded +Charles not a little of his first marriage at Compiegne; only +then he was two years the junior of his bride, and this time +he was five-and-thirty years her senior. It will be a fine +question which marriage promises more: for a boy of fifteen +to lead off with a lass of seventeen, or a man of fifty to +make a match of it with a child of fifteen. But there was +something bitter in both. The lamentations of Isabella will +not have been forgotten. As for Mary, she took up with one +Jaquet de la Lain, a sort of muscular Methody of the period, +with a huge appetite for tournaments, and a habit of +confessing himself the last thing before he went to bed. (2) +With such a hero, the young duchess's amours were most likely +innocent; and in all other ways she was a suitable partner +for the duke, and well fitted to enter into his pleasures. + +(1) Monstrelet. +(2) Vallet's CHARLES VII., iii. chap. i. But see the +chronicle that bears Jaquet's name: a lean and dreary book. + +When the festivities at Saint Omer had come to an end, +Charles and his wife set forth by Ghent and Tourney. The +towns gave him offerings of money as he passed through, to +help in the payment of his ransom. From all sides, ladies +and gentlemen thronged to offer him their services; some gave +him their sons for pages, some archers for a bodyguard; and +by the time he reached Tournay, he had a following of 300 +horse. Everywhere he was received as though he had been the +King of France. (1) If he did not come to imagine himself +something of the sort, he certainly forgot the existence of +any one with a better claim to the title. He conducted +himself on the hypothesis that Charles VII. was another +Charles VI. He signed with enthusiasm that treaty of Arras, +which left France almost at the discretion of Burgundy. On +December 18 he was still no farther than Bruges, where he +entered into a private treaty with Philip; and it was not +until January 14, ten weeks after he disembarked in France, +and attended by a ruck of Burgundian gentlemen, that he +arrived in Paris and offered to present himself before +Charles VII. The king sent word that he might come, if he +would, with a small retinue, but not with his present +following; and the duke, who was mightily on his high horse +after all the ovations he had received, took the king's +attitude amiss, and turned aside into Touraine, to receive +more welcome and more presents, and be convoyed by torchlight +into faithful cities. + +(1) Monstrelet. + +And so you see, here was King Arthur home again, and matters +nowise mended in consequence. The best we can say is, that +this last stage of Charles's public life was of no long +duration. His confidence was soon knocked out of him in the +contact with others. He began to find he was an earthen +vessel among many vessels of brass; he began to be shrewdly +aware that he was no King Arthur. In 1442, at Limoges, he +made himself the spokesman of the malcontent nobility. The +king showed himself humiliatingly indifferent to his +counsels, and humiliatingly generous towards his necessities. +And there, with some blushes, he may be said to have taken +farewell of the political stage. A feeble attempt on the +county of Asti is scarce worth the name of exception. +Thenceforward let Ambition wile whom she may into the turmoil +of events, our duke will walk cannily in his well-ordered +garden, or sit by the fire to touch the slender reed. (1) + +(1) D'Hericault's MEMOIR, xl. xli. Vallet, CHARLES VI., ii. +435. + + +IV. + + +If it were given each of us to transplant his life wherever +he pleased in time or space, with all the ages and all the +countries of the world to choose from, there would be quite +an instructive diversity of taste. A certain sedentary +majority would prefer to remain where they were. Many would +choose the Renaissance; many some stately and simple period +of Grecian life; and still more elect to pass a few years +wandering among the villages of Palestine with an inspired +conductor. For some of our quaintly vicious contemporaries, +we have the decline of the Roman Empire and the reign of +Henry III. of France. But there are others not quite so +vicious, who yet cannot look upon the world with perfect +gravity, who have never taken the categorical imperative to +wife, and have more taste for what is comfortable than for +what is magnanimous and high; and I can imagine some of these +casting their lot in the Court of Blois during the last +twenty years of the life of Charles of Orleans. + +The duke and duchess, their staff of officers and ladies, and +the high-born and learned persons who were attracted to Blois +on a visit, formed a society for killing time and perfecting +each other in various elegant accomplishments, such as we +might imagine for an ideal watering-place in the Delectable +Mountains. The company hunted and went on pleasure-parties; +they played chess, tables, and many other games. What we now +call the history of the period passed, I imagine, over the +heads of these good people much as it passes over our own. +News reached them, indeed, of great and joyful import. +William Peel received eight livres and five sous from the +duchess, when he brought the first tidings that Rouen was +recaptured from the English. (1) A little later and the duke +sang, in a truly patriotic vein, the deliverance of Guyenne +and Normandy. (2) They were liberal of rhymes and largesse, +and welcomed the prosperity of their country much as they +welcomed the coming of spring, and with no more thought of +collaborating towards the event. Religion was not forgotten +in the Court of Blois. Pilgrimages were agreeable and +picturesque excursions. In those days a well-served chapel +was something like a good vinery in our own, an opportunity +for display and the source of mild enjoyments. There was +probably something of his rooted delight in pageantry, as +well as a good deal of gentle piety, in the feelings with +which Charles gave dinner every Friday to thirteen poor +people, served them himself, and washed their feet with his +own hands. (3) Solemn affairs would interest Charles and his +courtiers from their trivial side. The duke perhaps cared +less for the deliverance of Guyenne and Normandy than for his +own verses on the occasion; just as Dr. Russell's +correspondence in THE TIMES was among the most material parts +of the Crimean War for that talented correspondent. And I +think it scarcely cynical to suppose that religion as well as +patriotism was principally cultivated as a means of filling +up the day. + +(1) Champollion-Figeac, 368. +(2) Works, i. 115. +(3) D'Hericault's MEMOIR, xlv. + +It was not only messengers fiery red with haste and charged +with the destiny of nations, who were made welcome at the +gates of Blois. If any man of accomplishment came that way, +he was sure of an audience, and something for his pocket. +The courtiers would have received Ben Jonson like Drummond of +Hawthornden, and a good pugilist like Captain Barclay. They +were catholic, as none but the entirely idle can be catholic. +It might be Pierre, called Dieu d'amours, the juggler; or it +might be three high English minstrels; or the two men, +players of ghitterns, from the kingdom of Scotland, who sang +the destruction of the Turks; or again Jehan Rognelet, player +of instruments of music, who played and danced with his wife +and two children; they would each be called into the castle +to give a taste of his proficiency before my lord the duke. +(1) Sometimes the performance was of a more personal +interest, and produced much the same sensations as are felt +on an English green on the arrival of a professional +cricketer, or round an English billiard table during a match +between Roberts and Cooke. This was when Jehan Negre, the +Lombard, came to Blois and played chess against all these +chess-players, and won much money from my lord and his +intimates; or when Baudet Harenc of Chalons made ballades +before all these ballade-makers. (2) + +(1) ChampoIlion-Figeac, 381, 361, 381. +(2) Champollion-Figeac, 359,361. + +It will not surprise the reader to learn they were all makers +of ballades and rondels. To write verses for May day, seems +to have been as much a matter of course, as to ride out with +the cavalcade that went to gather hawthorn. The choice of +Valentines was a standing challenge, and the courtiers pelted +each other with humorous and sentimental verses as in a +literary carnival. If an indecorous adventure befell our +friend Maistre Estienne le Gout, my lord the duke would turn +it into the funniest of rondels, all the rhymes being the +names of the cases of nouns or the moods of verbs; and +Maistre Estienne would make reply in similar fashion, seeking +to prune the story of its more humiliating episodes. If +Fredet was too long away from Court, a rondel went to upbraid +him; and it was in a rondel that Fredet would excuse himself. +Sometimes two or three, or as many as a dozen, would set to +work on the same refrain, the same idea, or in the same +macaronic jargon. Some of the poetasters were heavy enough; +others were not wanting in address; and the duchess herself +was among those who most excelled. On one occasion eleven +competitors made a ballade on the idea, + + +"I die of thirst beside the fountain's edge" +(Je meurs de soif empres de la fontaine). + + +These eleven ballades still exist; and one of them arrests +the attention rather from the name of the author than from +any special merit in itself. It purports to be the work of +Francois Villon; and so far as a foreigner can judge (which +is indeed a small way), it may very well be his. Nay, and if +any one thing is more probable than another, in the great +TABULA RASA, or unknown land, which we are fain to call the +biography of Villon, it seems probable enough that he may +have gone upon a visit to Charles of Orleans. Where Master +Baudet Harenc, of Chalons, found a sympathetic, or perhaps a +derisive audience (for who can tell nowadays the degree of +Baudet's excellence in his art?), favour would not be wanting +for the greatest ballade-maker of all time. Great as would +seem the incongruity, it may have pleased Charles to own a +sort of kinship with ragged singers, and whimsically regard +himself as one of the confraternity of poets. And he would +have other grounds of intimacy with Villon. A room looking +upon Windsor gardens is a different matter from Villon's +dungeon at Meun; yet each in his own degree had been tried in +prison. Each in his own way also, loved the good things of +this life and the service of the Muses. But the same gulf +that separated Burns from his Edinburgh patrons would +separate the singer of Bohemia from the rhyming duke. And it +is hard to imagine that Villon's training amongst thieves, +loose women, and vagabond students, had fitted him to move in +a society of any dignity and courtliness. Ballades are very +admirable things; and a poet is doubtless a most interesting +visitor. But among the courtiers of Charles, there would be +considerable regard for the proprieties of etiquette; and +even a duke will sometimes have an eye to his teaspoons. +Moreover, as a poet, I can conceive he may have disappointed +expectation. It need surprise nobody if Villon's ballade on +the theme, + +"I die of thirst beside the fountain's edge," + +was but a poor performance. He would make better verses on +the lee-side of a flagon at the sign of the Pomme du Pin, +than in a cushioned settle in the halls of Blois. + +Charles liked change of place. He was often not so much +travelling as making a progress; now to join the king for +some great tournament; now to visit King Rene, at Tarascon, +where he had a study of his own and saw all manner of +interesting things - oriental curios, King Rene painting +birds, and, what particularly pleased him, Triboulet, the +dwarf jester, whose skull-cap was no bigger than an orange. +(1) Sometimes the journeys were set about on horseback in a +large party, with the FOURRIERS sent forward to prepare a +lodging at the next stage. We find almost Gargantuan details +of the provision made by these officers against the duke's +arrival, of eggs and butter and bread, cheese and peas and +chickens, pike and bream and barbel, and wine both white and +red. (2) Sometimes he went by water in a barge, playing +chess or tables with a friend in the pavilion, or watching +other vessels as they went before the wind. (3) Children ran +along the bank, as they do to this day on the Crinan Canal; +and when Charles threw in money, they would dive and bring it +up. (4) As he looked on at their exploits, I wonder whether +that room of gold and silk and worsted came back into his +memory, with the device of little children in a river, and +the sky full of birds? + +(1) Lecoy de la Marche, ROI RENE, II. 155, 177. +(2) Champollion-Figeac, chaps. v. and vi. +(3) IBID. 364; Works, i. 172. +(4) Champollion-Figeac, 364: "Jeter de l'argent aux petis +enfans qui estoient au long de Bourbon, pour les faire nonner +en l'eau et aller querre l'argent au fond." + +He was a bit of a book-fancier, and had vied with his brother +Angouleme in bringing back the library of their grandfather +Charles V., when Bedford put it up for sale in London. (1) +The duchess had a library of her own; and we hear of her +borrowing romances from ladies in attendance on the blue- +stocking Margaret of Scotland. (2) Not only were books +collected, but new books were written at the court of Blois. +The widow of one Jean Fougere, a bookbinder, seems to have +done a number of odd commissions for the bibliophilous count. +She it was who received three vellum-skins to bind the +duchess's Book of Hours, and who was employed to prepare +parchment for the use of the duke's scribes. And she it was +who bound in vermilion leather the great manuscript of +Charles's own poems, which was presented to him by his +secretary, Anthony Astesan, with the text in one column, and +Astesan's Latin version in the other. (3) + +(1) Champollion-Figeac, 387. +(2) NOUVELLE BIOGRAPHIE DIDOT, art. "Marie de Cleves." +Vallet, CHARLES VII, iii. 85, note 1. +(3) Champollion-Figeac, 383, 384-386. + +Such tastes, with the coming of years, would doubtless take +the place of many others. We find in Charles's verse much +semi-ironical regret for other days, and resignation to +growing infirmities. He who had been "nourished in the +schools of love," now sees nothing either to please or +displease him. Old age has imprisoned him within doors, +where he means to take his ease, and let younger fellows +bestir themselves in life. He had written (in earlier days, +we may presume) a bright and defiant little poem in praise of +solitude. If they would but leave him alone with his own +thoughts and happy recollections, he declared it was beyond +the power of melancholy to affect him. But now, when his +animal strength has so much declined that he sings the +discomforts of winter instead of the inspirations of spring, +and he has no longer any appetite for life, he confesses he +is wretched when alone, and, to keep his mind from grievous +thoughts, he must have many people around him, laughing, +talking, and singing. (1) + +(1) Works, ii. 57, 258. + +While Charles was thus falling into years, the order of +things, of which he was the outcome and ornament, was growing +old along with him. The semi-royalty of the princes of the +blood was already a thing of the past; and when Charles VII. +was gathered to his fathers, a new king reigned in France, +who seemed every way the opposite of royal. Louis XI. had +aims that were incomprehensible, and virtues that were +inconceivable to his contemporaries. But his contemporaries +were able enough to appreciate his sordid exterior, and his +cruel and treacherous spirit. To the whole nobility of +France he was a fatal and unreasonable phenomenon. All such +courts as that of Charles at Blois, or his friend Rene's in +Provence, would soon be made impossible; interference was the +order of the day; hunting was already abolished; and who +should say what was to go next? Louis, in fact, must have +appeared to Charles primarily in the light of a kill-joy. I +take it, when missionaries land in South Sea Islands and lay +strange embargo on the simplest things in life, the islanders +will not be much more puzzled and irritated than Charles of +Orleans at the policy of the Eleventh Louis. There was one +thing, I seem to apprehend, that had always particularly +moved him; and that was, any proposal to punish a person of +his acquaintance. No matter what treason he may have made or +meddled with, an Alencon or an Armagnac was sure to find +Charles reappear from private life, and do his best to get +him pardoned. He knew them quite well. He had made rondels +with them. They were charming people in every way. There +must certainly be some mistake. Had not he himself made +anti-national treaties almost before he was out of his +nonage? And for the matter of that, had not every one else +done the like? Such are some of the thoughts by which he +might explain to himself his aversion to such extremities; +but it was on a deeper basis that the feeling probably +reposed. A man of his temper could not fail to be impressed +at the thought of disastrous revolutions in the fortunes of +those he knew. He would feel painfully the tragic contrast, +when those who had everything to make life valuable were +deprived of life itself. And it was shocking to the clemency +of his spirit, that sinners should be hurried before their +judge without a fitting interval for penitence and +satisfaction. It was this feeling which brought him at last, +a poor, purblind blue-bottle of the later autumn, into +collision with "the universal spider," Louis XI. He took up +the defence of the Duke of Brittany at Tours. But Louis was +then in no humour to hear Charles's texts and Latin +sentiments; he had his back to the wall, the future of France +was at stake; and if all the old men in the world had crossed +his path, they would have had the rough side of his tongue +like Charles of Orleans. I have found nowhere what he said, +but it seems it was monstrously to the point, and so rudely +conceived that the old duke never recovered the indignity. +He got home as far as Amboise, sickened, and died two days +after (Jan. 4, 1465), in the seventy-fourth year of his age. +And so a whiff of pungent prose stopped the issue of +melodious rondels to the end of time. + + +V. + + +The futility of Charles's public life was of a piece +throughout. He never succeeded in any single purpose he set +before him; for his deliverance from England, after twenty- +five years of failure and at the cost of dignity and +consistency, it would be ridiculously hyperbolical to treat +as a success. During the first part of his life he was the +stalking horse of Bernard d'Armagnac; during the second, he +was the passive instrument of English diplomatists; and +before he was well entered on the third, he hastened to +become the dupe and catspaw of Burgundian treason. On each +of these occasions, a strong and not dishonourable personal +motive determined his behaviour. In 1407 and the following +years, he had his father's murder uppermost in his mind. +During his English captivity, that thought was displaced by a +more immediate desire for his own liberation. In 1440 a +sentiment of gratitude to Philip of Burgundy blinded him to +all else, and led him to break with the tradition of his +party and his own former life. He was born a great vassal, +and he conducted himself like a private gentleman. He began +life in a showy and brilliant enough fashion, by the light of +a petty personal chivalry. He was not without some tincture +of patriotism; but it was resolvable into two parts: a +preference for life among his fellow-countrymen, and a barren +point of honour. In England, he could comfort himself by the +reflection that "he had been taken while loyally doing his +devoir," without any misgiving as to his conduct in the +previous years, when he had prepared the disaster of +Agincourt by wasteful feud. This unconsciousness of the +larger interests is perhaps most happily exampled out of his +own mouth. When Alencon stood accused of betraying Normandy +into the hands of the English, Charles made a speech in his +defence, from which I have already quoted more than once. +Alencon, he said, had professed a great love and trust +towards him; "yet did he give no great proof thereof, when he +sought to betray Normandy; whereby he would have made me lose +an estate of 100,000 livres a year, and might have occasioned +the destruction of the kingdom and of all us Frenchmen." +These are the words of one, mark you, against whom Gloucester +warned the English Council because of his "great subtility +and cautelous disposition." It is not hard to excuse the +impatience of Louis XI., if such stuff was foisted on him by +way of political deliberation. + +This incapacity to see things with any greatness, this +obscure and narrow view was fundamentally characteristic of +the man as well as of the epoch. It is not even so striking +in his public life, where he failed, as in his poems, where +he notably succeeded. For wherever we might expect a poet to +be unintelligent, it certainly would not be in his poetry. +And Charles is unintelligent even there. Of all authors whom +a modern may still read and read over again with pleasure, he +has perhaps the least to say. His poems seem to bear +testimony rather to the fashion of rhyming, which +distinguished the age, than to any special vocation in the +man himself. Some of them are drawing-room exercises and the +rest seem made by habit. Great writers are struck with +something in nature or society, with which they become +pregnant and longing; they are possessed with an idea, and +cannot be at peace until they have put it outside of them in +some distinct embodiment. But with Charles literature was an +object rather than a mean; he was one who loved bandying +words for its own sake; the rigidity of intricate metrical +forms stood him in lieu of precise thought; instead of +communicating truth, he observed the laws of a game; and when +he had no one to challenge at chess or rackets, he made +verses in a wager against himself. From the very idleness of +the man's mind, and not from intensity of feeling, it happens +that all his poems are more or less autobiographical. But +they form an autobiography singularly bald and uneventful. +Little is therein recorded beside sentiments. Thoughts, in +any true sense, he had none to record. And if we can gather +that he had been a prisoner in England, that he had lived in +the Orleannese, and that he hunted and went in parties of +pleasure, I believe it is about as much definite experience +as is to be found in all these five hundred pages of +autobiographical verse. Doubtless, we find here and there a +complaint on the progress of the infirmities of age. +Doubtless, he feels the great change of the year, and +distinguishes winter from spring; winter as the time of snow +and the fireside; spring as the return of grass and flowers, +the time of St. Valentine's day and a beating heart. And he +feels love after a fashion. Again and again, we learn that +Charles of Orleans is in love, and hear him ring the changes +through the whole gamut of dainty and tender sentiment. But +there is never a spark of passion; and heaven alone knows +whether there was any real woman in the matter, or the whole +thing was an exercise in fancy. If these poems were indeed +inspired by some living mistress, one would think he had +never seen, never heard, and never touched her. There is +nothing in any one of these so numerous love-songs to +indicate who or what the lady was. Was she dark or fair, +passionate or gentle like himself, witty or simple? Was it +always one woman? or are there a dozen here immortalised in +cold indistinction? The old English translator mentions gray +eyes in his version of one of the amorous rondels; so far as +I remember, he was driven by some emergency of the verse; but +in the absence of all sharp lines of character and anything +specific, we feel for the moment a sort of surprise, as +though the epithet were singularly happy and unusual, or as +though we had made our escape from cloudland into something +tangible and sure. The measure of Charles's indifference to +all that now preoccupies and excites a poet, is best given by +a positive example. If, besides the coming of spring, any +one external circumstance may be said to have struck his +imagination, it was the despatch of FOURRIERS, while on a +journey, to prepare the night's lodging. This seems to be +his favourite image; it reappears like the upas-tree in the +early work of Coleridge: we may judge with what childish eyes +he looked upon the world, if one of the sights which most +impressed him was that of a man going to order dinner. + +Although they are not inspired by any deeper motive than the +common run of contemporaneous drawing-room verses, those of +Charles of Orleans are executed with inimitable lightness and +delicacy of touch. They deal with floating and colourless +sentiments, and the writer is never greatly moved, but he +seems always genuine. He makes no attempt to set off thin +conceptions with a multiplicity of phrases. His ballades are +generally thin and scanty of import; for the ballade +presented too large a canvas, and he was preoccupied by +technical requirements. But in the rondel he has put himself +before all competitors by a happy knack and a prevailing +distinction of manner. He is very much more of a duke in his +verses than in his absurd and inconsequential career as a +statesman; and how he shows himself a duke is precisely by +the absence of all pretension, turgidity, or emphasis. He +turns verses, as he would have come into the king's presence, +with a quiet accomplishment of grace. + +Theodore de Banville, the youngest poet of a famous +generation now nearly extinct, and himself a sure and +finished artist, knocked off, in his happiest vein, a few +experiments in imitation of Charles of Orleans. I would +recommend these modern rondels to all who care about the old +duke, not only because they are delightful in themselves, but +because they serve as a contrast to throw into relief the +peculiarities of their model. When de Banville revives a +forgotten form of verse - and he has already had the honour +of reviving the ballade - he does it in the spirit of a +workman choosing a good tool wherever he can find one, and +not at all in that of the dilettante, who seeks to renew +bygone forms of thought and make historic forgeries. With +the ballade this seemed natural enough; for in connection +with ballades the mind recurs to Villon, and Villon was +almost more of a modern than de Banville himself. But in the +case of the rondel, a comparison is challenged with Charles +of Orleans, and the difference between two ages and two +literatures is illustrated in a few poems of thirteen lines. +Something, certainly, has been retained of the old movement; +the refrain falls in time like a well-played bass; and the +very brevity of the thing, by hampering and restraining the +greater fecundity of the modern mind, assists the imitation. +But de Banville's poems are full of form and colour; they +smack racily of modern life, and own small kindred with the +verse of other days, when it seems as if men walked by +twilight, seeing little, and that with distracted eyes, and +instead of blood, some thin and spectral fluid circulated in +their veins. They might gird themselves for battle, make +love, eat and drink, and acquit themselves manfully in all +the external parts of life; but of the life that is within, +and those processes by which we render ourselves an +intelligent account of what we feel and do, and so represent +experience that we for the first time make it ours, they had +only a loose and troubled possession. They beheld or took +part in great events, but there was no answerable commotion +in their reflective being; and they passed throughout +turbulent epochs in a sort of ghostly quiet and abstraction. +Feeling seems to have been strangely disproportioned to the +occasion, and words were laughably trivial and scanty to set +forth the feeling even such as it was. Juvenal des Ursins +chronicles calamity after calamity, with but one comment for +them all: that "it was great pity." Perhaps, after too much +of our florid literature, we find an adventitious charm in +what is so different; and while the big drums are beaten +every day by perspiring editors over the loss of a cock-boat +or the rejection of a clause, and nothing is heard that is +not proclaimed with sound of trumpet, it is not wonderful if +we retire with pleasure into old books, and listen to authors +who speak small and clear, as if in a private conversation. +Truly this is so with Charles of Orleans. We are pleased to +find a small man without the buskin, and obvious sentiments +stated without affectation. If the sentiments are obvious, +there is all the more chance we may have experienced the +like. As we turn over the leaves, we may find ourselves in +sympathy with some one or other of these staid joys and +smiling sorrows. If we do we shall be strangely pleased, for +there is a genuine pathos in these simple words, and the +lines go with a lilt, and sing themselves to music of their +own. + + + +CHAPTER VIII - SAMUEL PEPYS + + + +IN two books a fresh light has recently been thrown on the +character and position of Samuel Pepys. Mr. Mynors Bright +has given us a new transcription of the Diary, increasing it +in bulk by near a third, correcting many errors, and +completing our knowledge of the man in some curious and +important points. We can only regret that he has taken +liberties with the author and the public. It is no part of +the duties of the editor of an established classic to decide +what may or may not be "tedious to the reader." The book is +either an historical document or not, and in condemning Lord +Braybrooke Mr. Bright condemns himself. As for the time- +honoured phrase, "unfit for publication," without being +cynical, we may regard it as the sign of a precaution more or +less commercial; and we may think, without being sordid, that +when we purchase six huge and distressingly expensive +volumes, we are entitled to be treated rather more like +scholars and rather less like children. But Mr. Bright may +rest assured: while we complain, we are still grateful. Mr. +Wheatley, to divide our obligation, brings together, clearly +and with no lost words, a body of illustrative material. +Sometimes we might ask a little more; never, I think, less. +And as a matter of fact, a great part of Mr. Wheatley's +volume might be transferred, by a good editor of Pepys, to +the margin of the text, for it is precisely what the reader +wants. + +In the light of these two books, at least, we have now to +read our author. Between them they contain all we can expect +to learn for, it may be, many years. Now, if ever we should +be able to form some notion of that unparalleled figure in +the annals of mankind - unparalleled for three good reasons: +first, because he was a man known to his contemporaries in a +halo of almost historical pomp, and to his remote descendants +with an indecent familiarity, like a tap-room comrade; +second, because he has outstripped all competitors in the art +or virtue of a conscious honesty about oneself; and, third, +because, being in many ways a very ordinary person, he has +yet placed himself before the public eye with such a fulness +and such an intimacy of detail as might be envied by a genius +like Montaigne. Not then for his own sake only, but as a +character in a unique position, endowed with a unique talent, +and shedding a unique light upon the lives of the mass of +mankind, he is surely worthy of prolonged and patient study. + + +THE DIARY. + + +That there should be such a book as Pepys's Diary is +incomparably strange. Pepys, in a corrupt and idle period, +played the man in public employments, toiling hard and +keeping his honour bright. Much of the little good that is +set down to James the Second comes by right to Pepys; and if +it were little for a king, it is much for a subordinate. To +his clear, capable head was owing somewhat of the greatness +of England on the seas. In the exploits of Hawke, Rodney, or +Nelson, this dead Mr. Pepys of the Navy Office had some +considerable share. He stood well by his business in the +appalling plague of 1666. He was loved and respected by some +of the best and wisest men in England. He was President of +the Royal Society; and when he came to die, people said of +his conduct in that solemn hour - thinking it needless to say +more - that it was answerable to the greatness of his life. +Thus he walked in dignity, guards of soldiers sometimes +attending him in his walks, subalterns bowing before his +periwig; and when he uttered his thoughts they were suitable +to his state and services. On February 8, 1668, we find him +writing to Evelyn, his mind bitterly occupied with the late +Dutch war, and some thoughts of the different story of the +repulse of the Great Armada: "Sir, you will not wonder at the +backwardness of my thanks for the present you made me, so +many days since, of the Prospect of the Medway, while the +Hollander rode master in it, when I have told you that the +sight of it hath led me to such reflections on my particular +interest, by my employment, in the reproach due to that +miscarriage, as have given me little less disquiet than he is +fancied to have who found his face in Michael Angelo's hell. +The same should serve me also in excuse for my silence in +celebrating your mastery shown in the design and draught, did +not indignation rather than courtship urge me so far to +commend them, as to wish the furniture of our House of Lords +changed from the story of '88 to that of '67 (of Evelyn's +designing), till the pravity of this were reformed to the +temper of that age, wherein God Almighty found his blessings +more operative than, I fear, he doth in ours his judgments." + +This is a letter honourable to the writer, where the meaning +rather than the words is eloquent. Such was the account he +gave of himself to his contemporaries; such thoughts he chose +to utter, and in such language: giving himself out for a +grave and patriotic public servant. We turn to the same date +in the Diary by which he is known, after two centuries, to +his descendants. The entry begins in the same key with the +letter, blaming the "madness of the House of Commons" and +"the base proceedings, just the epitome of all our public +proceedings in this age, of the House of Lords;" and then, +without the least transition, this is how our diarist +proceeds: "To the Strand, to my bookseller's, and there +bought an idle, rogueish French book, L'ESCHOLLE DES FILLES, +which I have bought in plain binding, avoiding the buying of +it better bound, because I resolve, as soon as I have read +it, to burn it, that it may not stand in the list of books, +nor among them, to disgrace them, if it should be found." +Even in our day, when responsibility is so much more clearly +apprehended, the man who wrote the letter would be notable; +but what about the man, I do not say who bought a roguish +book, but who was ashamed of doing so, yet did it, and +recorded both the doing and the shame in the pages of his +daily journal? + +We all, whether we write or speak, must somewhat drape +ourselves when we address our fellows; at a given moment we +apprehend our character and acts by some particular side; we +are merry with one, grave with another, as befits the nature +and demands of the relation. Pepys's letter to Evelyn would +have little in common with that other one to Mrs. Knipp which +he signed by the pseudonym of DAPPER DICKY; yet each would be +suitable to the character of his correspondent. There is no +untruth in this, for man, being a Protean animal, swiftly +shares and changes with his company and surroundings; and +these changes are the better part of his education in the +world. To strike a posture once for all, and to march +through life like a drum-major, is to be highly disagreeable +to others and a fool for oneself into the bargain. To Evelyn +and to Knipp we understand the double facing; but to whom was +he posing in the Diary, and what, in the name of +astonishment, was the nature of the pose? Had he suppressed +all mention of the book, or had he bought it, gloried in the +act, and cheerfully recorded his glorification, in either +case we should have made him out. But no; he is full of +precautions to conceal the "disgrace" of the purchase, and +yet speeds to chronicle the whole affair in pen and ink. It +is a sort of anomaly in human action, which we can exactly +parallel from another part of the Diary. + +Mrs. Pepys had written a paper of her too just complaints +against her husband, and written it in plain and very pungent +English. Pepys, in an agony lest the world should come to +see it, brutally seizes and destroys the tell-tale document; +and then - you disbelieve your eyes - down goes the whole +story with unsparing truth and in the cruellest detail. It +seems he has no design but to appear respectable, and here he +keeps a private book to prove he was not. You are at first +faintly reminded of some of the vagaries of the morbid +religious diarist; but at a moment's thought the resemblance +disappears. The design of Pepys is not at all to edify; it +is not from repentance that he chronicles his peccadilloes, +for he tells us when he does repent, and, to be just to him, +there often follows some improvement. Again, the sins of the +religious diarist are of a very formal pattern, and are told +with an elaborate whine. But in Pepys you come upon good, +substantive misdemeanours; beams in his eye of which he alone +remains unconscious; healthy outbreaks of the animal nature, +and laughable subterfuges to himself that always command +belief and often engage the sympathies. + +Pepys was a young man for his age, came slowly to himself in +the world, sowed his wild oats late, took late to industry, +and preserved till nearly forty the headlong gusto of a boy. +So, to come rightly at the spirit in which the Diary was +written, we must recall a class of sentiments which with most +of us are over and done before the age of twelve. In our +tender years we still preserve a freshness of surprise at our +prolonged existence; events make an impression out of all +proportion to their consequence; we are unspeakably touched +by our own past adventures, and look forward to our future +personality with sentimental interest. It was something of +this, I think, that clung to Pepys. Although not sentimental +in the abstract, he was sweetly sentimental about himself. +His own past clung about his heart, an evergreen. He was the +slave of an association. He could not pass by Islington, +where his father used to carry him to cakes and ale, but he +must light at the "King's Head" and eat and drink "for +remembrance of the old house sake." He counted it good +fortune to lie a night at Epsom to renew his old walks, +"where Mrs. Hely and I did use to walk and talk, with whom I +had the first sentiments of love and pleasure in a woman's +company, discourse and taking her by the hand, she being a +pretty woman." He goes about weighing up the ASSURANCE, +which lay near Woolwich underwater, and cries in a +parenthesis, "Poor ship, that I have been twice merry in, in +Captain Holland's time;" and after revisiting the NASEBY, now +changed into the CHARLES, he confesses "it was a great +pleasure to myself to see the ship that I began my good +fortune in." The stone that he was cut for he preserved in a +case; and to the Turners he kept alive such gratitude for +their assistance that for years, and after he had begun to +mount himself into higher zones, he continued to have that +family to dinner on the anniversary of the operation. Not +Hazlitt nor Rousseau had a more romantic passion for their +past, although at times they might express it more +romantically; and if Pepys shared with them this childish +fondness, did not Rousseau, who left behind him the +CONFESSIONS, or Hazlitt, who wrote the LIBER AMORIS, and +loaded his essays with loving personal detail, share with +Pepys in his unwearied egotism? For the two things go hand +in hand; or, to be more exact, it is the first that makes the +second either possible or pleasing. + +But, to be quite in sympathy with Pepys, we must return once +more to the experience of children. I can remember to have +written, in the fly-leaf of more than one book, the date and +the place where I then was - if, for instance, I was ill in +bed or sitting in a certain garden; these were jottings for +my future self; if I should chance on such a note in after +years, I thought it would cause me a particular thrill to +recognise myself across the intervening distance. Indeed, I +might come upon them now, and not be moved one tittle - which +shows that I have comparatively failed in life, and grown +older than Samuel Pepys. For in the Diary we can find more +than one such note of perfect childish egotism; as when he +explains that his candle is going out, "which makes me write +thus slobberingly;" or as in this incredible particularity, +"To my study, where I only wrote thus much of this day's +passages to this *, and so out again;" or lastly, as here, +with more of circumstance: "I staid up till the bellman came +by with his bell under my window, AS I WAS WRITING OF THIS +VERY LINE, and cried, `Past one of the clock, and a cold, +frosty, windy morning.'" Such passages are not to be +misunderstood. The appeal to Samuel Pepys years hence is +unmistakable. He desires that dear, though unknown, +gentleman keenly to realise his predecessor; to remember why +a passage was uncleanly written; to recall (let us fancy, +with a sigh) the tones of the bellman, the chill of the +early, windy morning, and the very line his own romantic self +was scribing at the moment. The man, you will perceive, was +making reminiscences - a sort of pleasure by ricochet, which +comforts many in distress, and turns some others into +sentimental libertines: and the whole book, if you will but +look at it in that way, is seen to be a work of art to +Pepys's own address. + +Here, then, we have the key to that remarkable attitude +preserved by him throughout his Diary, to that unflinching - +I had almost said, that unintelligent - sincerity which makes +it a miracle among human books. He was not unconscious of +his errors - far from it; he was often startled into shame, +often reformed, often made and broke his vows of change. But +whether he did ill or well, he was still his own unequalled +self; still that entrancing EGO of whom alone he cared to +write; and still sure of his own affectionate indulgence, +when the parts should be changed, and the Writer come to read +what he had written. Whatever he did, or said, or thought, +or suffered, it was still a trait of Pepys, a character of +his career; and as, to himself, he was more interesting than +Moses or than Alexander, so all should be faithfully set +down. I have called his Diary a work of art. Now when the +artist has found something, word or deed, exactly proper to a +favourite character in play or novel, he will neither +suppress nor diminish it, though the remark be silly or the +act mean. The hesitation of Hamlet, the credulity of +Othello, the baseness of Emma Bovary, or the irregularities +of Mr. Swiveller, caused neither disappointment nor disgust +to their creators. And so with Pepys and his adored +protagonist: adored not blindly, but with trenchant insight +and enduring, human toleration. I have gone over and over +the greater part of the Diary; and the points where, to the +most suspicious scrutiny, he has seemed not perfectly +sincere, are so few, so doubtful, and so petty, that I am +ashamed to name them. It may be said that we all of us write +such a diary in airy characters upon our brain; but I fear +there is a distinction to be made; I fear that as we render +to our consciousness an account of our daily fortunes and +behaviour, we too often weave a tissue of romantic +compliments and dull excuses; and even if Pepys were the ass +and cowardly that men call him, we must take rank as sillier +and more cowardly than he. The bald truth about oneself, +what we are all too timid to admit when we are not too dull +to see it, that was what he saw clearly and set down +unsparingly. + +It is improbable that the Diary can have been carried on in +the same single spirit in which it was begun. Pepys was not +such an ass, but he must have perceived, as he went on, the +extraordinary nature of the work he was producing. He was a +great reader, and he knew what other books were like. It +must, at least, have crossed his mind that some one might +ultimately decipher the manuscript, and he himself, with all +his pains and pleasures, be resuscitated in some later day; +and the thought, although discouraged, must have warmed his +heart. He was not such an ass, besides, but he must have +been conscious of the deadly explosives, the gun-cotton and +the giant powder, he was hoarding in his drawer. Let some +contemporary light upon the journal, and Pepys was plunged +for ever in social and political disgrace. We can trace the +growth of his terrors by two facts. In 1660, while the Diary +was still in its youth, he tells about it, as a matter of +course, to a lieutenant in the navy; but in 1669, when it was +already near an end, he could have bitten his tongue out, as +the saying is, because he had let slip his secret to one so +grave and friendly as Sir William Coventry. And from two +other facts I think we may infer that he had entertained, +even if he had not acquiesced in, the thought of a far- +distant publicity. The first is of capital importance: the +Diary was not destroyed. The second - that he took unusual +precautions to confound the cipher in "rogueish" passages - +proves, beyond question, that he was thinking of some other +reader besides himself. Perhaps while his friends were +admiring the "greatness of his behaviour" at the approach of +death, he may have had a twinkling hope of immortality. MENS +CUJUSQUE IS EST QUISQUE, said his chosen motto; and, as he +had stamped his mind with every crook and foible in the pages +of the Diary, he might feel that what he left behind him was +indeed himself. There is perhaps no other instance so +remarkable of the desire of man for publicity and an enduring +name. The greatness of his life was open, yet he longed to +communicate its smallness also; and, while contemporaries +bowed before him, he must buttonhole posterity with the news +that his periwig was once alive with nits. But this thought, +although I cannot doubt he had it, was neither his first nor +his deepest; it did not colour one word that he wrote; and +the Diary, for as long as he kept it, remained what it was +when he began, a private pleasure for himself. It was his +bosom secret; it added a zest to all his pleasures; he lived +in and for it, and might well write these solemn words, when +he closed that confidant for ever: "And so I betake myself to +that course which is almost as much as to see myself go into +the grave; for which, and all the discomforts that will +accompany my being blind, the good God prepare me." + + +A LIBERAL GENIUS. + + +Pepys spent part of a certain winter Sunday, when he had +taken physic, composing "a song in praise of a liberal genius +(such as I take my own to be) to all studies and pleasures." +The song was unsuccessful, but the Diary is, in a sense, the +very song that he was seeking; and his portrait by Hales, so +admirably reproduced in Mynors Bright's edition, is a +confirmation of the Diary. Hales, it would appear, had known +his business; and though he put his sitter to a deal of +trouble, almost breaking his neck "to have the portrait full +of shadows," and draping him in an Indian gown hired +expressly for the purpose, he was preoccupied about no merely +picturesque effects, but to portray the essence of the man. +Whether we read the picture by the Diary or the Diary by the +picture, we shall at least agree that Hales was among the +number of those who can "surprise the manners in the face." +Here we have a mouth pouting, moist with desires; eyes +greedy, protuberant, and yet apt for weeping too; a nose +great alike in character and dimensions; and altogether a +most fleshly, melting countenance. The face is attractive by +its promise of reciprocity. I have used the word GREEDY, but +the reader must not suppose that he can change it for that +closely kindred one of HUNGRY, for there is here no +aspiration, no waiting for better things, but an animal joy +in all that comes. It could never be the face of an artist; +it is the face of a VIVEUR - kindly, pleased and pleasing, +protected from excess and upheld in contentment by the +shifting versatility of his desires. For a single desire is +more rightly to be called a lust; but there is health in a +variety, where one may balance and control another. + +The whole world, town or country, was to Pepys a garden of +Armida. Wherever he went, his steps were winged with the +most eager expectation; whatever he did, it was done with the +most lively pleasure. An insatiable curiosity in all the +shows of the world and all the secrets of knowledge, filled +him brimful of the longing to travel, and supported him in +the toils of study. Rome was the dream of his life; he was +never happier than when he read or talked of the Eternal +City. When he was in Holland, he was "with child" to see any +strange thing. Meeting some friends and singing with them in +a palace near the Hague, his pen fails him to express his +passion of delight, "the more so because in a heaven of +pleasure and in a strange country." He must go to see all +famous executions. He must needs visit the body of a +murdered man, defaced "with a broad wound," he says, "that +makes my hand now shake to write of it." He learned to +dance, and was "like to make a dancer." He learned to sing, +and walked about Gray's Inn Fields "humming to myself (which +is now my constant practice) the trillo." He learned to play +the lute, the flute, the flageolet, and the theorbo, and it +was not the fault of his intention if he did not learn the +harpsichord or the spinet. He learned to compose songs, and +burned to give forth "a scheme and theory of music not yet +ever made in the world." When he heard "a fellow whistle +like a bird exceeding well," he promised to return another +day and give an angel for a lesson in the art. Once, he +writes, "I took the Bezan back with me, and with a brave gale +and tide reached up that night to the Hope, taking great +pleasure in learning the seamen's manner of singing when they +sound the depths." If he found himself rusty in his Latin +grammar, he must fall to it like a schoolboy. He was a +member of Harrington's Club till its dissolution, and of the +Royal Society before it had received the name. Boyle's +HYDROSTATICS was "of infinite delight" to him, walking in +Barnes Elms. We find him comparing Bible concordances, a +captious judge of sermons, deep in Descartes and Aristotle. +We find him, in a single year, studying timber and the +measurement of timber; tar and oil, hemp, and the process of +preparing cordage; mathematics and accounting; the hull and +the rigging of ships from a model; and "looking and improving +himself of the (naval) stores with" - hark to the fellow! - +"great delight." His familiar spirit of delight was not the +same with Shelley's; but how true it was to him through life! +He is only copying something, and behold, he "takes great +pleasure to rule the lines, and have the capital words wrote +with red ink;" he has only had his coal-cellar emptied and +cleaned, and behold, "it do please him exceedingly." A hog's +harslett is "a piece of meat he loves." He cannot ride home +in my Lord Sandwich's coach, but he must exclaim, with +breathless gusto, "his noble, rich coach." When he is bound +for a supper party, he anticipates a "glut of pleasure." +When he has a new watch, "to see my childishness," says he, +"I could not forbear carrying it in my hand and seeing what +o'clock it was an hundred times." To go to Vauxhall, he +says, and "to hear the nightingales and other birds, hear +fiddles, and there a harp and here a Jew's trump, and here +laughing, and there fine people walking, is mighty +divertising." And the nightingales, I take it, were +particularly dear to him; and it was again "with great +pleasure that he paused to hear them as he walked to +Woolwich, while the fog was rising and the April sun broke +through. + +He must always be doing something agreeable, and, by +preference, two agreeable things at once. In his house he +had a box of carpenter's tools, two dogs, an eagle, a canary, +and a blackbird that whistled tunes, lest, even in that full +life, he should chance upon an empty moment. If he had to +wait for a dish of poached eggs, he must put in the time by +playing on the flageolet; if a sermon were dull, he must read +in the book of Tobit or divert his mind with sly advances on +the nearest women. When he walked, it must be with a book in +his pocket to beguile the way in case the nightingales were +silent; and even along the streets of London, with so many +pretty faces to be spied for and dignitaries to be saluted, +his trail was marked by little debts "for wine, pictures, +etc.," the true headmark of a life intolerant of any joyless +passage. He had a kind of idealism in pleasure; like the +princess in the fairy story, he was conscious of a rose-leaf +out of place. Dearly as he loved to talk, he could not enjoy +nor shine in a conversation when he thought himself +unsuitably dressed. Dearly as he loved eating, he "knew not +how to eat alone;" pleasure for him must heighten pleasure; +and the eye and ear must be flattered like the palate ere he +avow himself content. He had no zest in a good dinner when +it fell to be eaten "in a bad street and in a periwig-maker's +house;" and a collation was spoiled for him by indifferent +music. His body was indefatigable, doing him yeoman's +service in this breathless chase of pleasures. On April 11, +1662, he mentions that he went to bed "weary, WHICH I SELDOM +AM;" and already over thirty, he would sit up all night +cheerfully to see a comet. But it is never pleasure that +exhausts the pleasure-seeker; for in that career, as in all +others, it is failure that kills. The man who enjoys so +wholly and bears so impatiently the slightest widowhood from +joy, is just the man to lose a night's rest over some paltry +question of his right to fiddle on the leads, or to be "vexed +to the blood" by a solecism in his wife's attire; and we find +in consequence that he was always peevish when he was hungry, +and that his head "aked mightily" after a dispute. But +nothing could divert him from his aim in life; his remedy in +care was the same as his delight in prosperity; it was with +pleasure, and with pleasure only, that he sought to drive out +sorrow; and, whether he was jealous of his wife or skulking +from a bailiff, he would equally take refuge in the theatre. +There, if the house be full and the company noble, if the +songs be tunable, the actors perfect, and the play diverting, +this odd hero of the secret Diary, this private self-adorer, +will speedily be healed of his distresses. + +Equally pleased with a watch, a coach, a piece of meat, a +tune upon the fiddle, or a fact in hydrostatics, Pepys was +pleased yet more by the beauty, the worth, the mirth, or the +mere scenic attitude in life of his fellow-creatures. He +shows himself throughout a sterling humanist. Indeed, he who +loves himself, not in idle vanity, but with a plenitude of +knowledge, is the best equipped of all to love his +neighbours. And perhaps it is in this sense that charity may +be most properly said to begin at home. It does not matter +what quality a person has: Pepys can appreciate and love him +for it. He "fills his eyes" with the beauty of Lady +Castlemaine; indeed, he may be said to dote upon the thought +of her for years; if a woman be good-looking and not painted, +he will walk miles to have another sight of her; and even +when a lady by a mischance spat upon his clothes, he was +immediately consoled when he had observed that she was +pretty. But, on the other hand, he is delighted to see Mrs. +Pett upon her knees, and speaks thus of his Aunt James: "a +poor, religious, well-meaning, good soul, talking of nothing +but God Almighty, and that with so much innocence that +mightily pleased me." He is taken with Pen's merriment and +loose songs, but not less taken with the sterling worth of +Coventry. He is jolly with a drunken sailor, but listens +with interest and patience, as he rides the Essex roads, to +the story of a Quaker's spiritual trials and convictions. He +lends a critical ear to the discourse of kings and royal +dukes. He spends an evening at Vauxhall with "Killigrew and +young Newport - loose company," says he, "but worth a man's +being in for once, to know the nature of it, and their manner +of talk and lives." And when a rag-boy lights him home, he +examines him about his business and other ways of livelihood +for destitute children. This is almost half-way to the +beginning of philanthropy; had it only been the fashion, as +it is at present, Pepys had perhaps been a man famous for +good deeds. And it is through this quality that he rises, at +times, superior to his surprising egotism; his interest in +the love affairs of others is, indeed, impersonal; he is +filled with concern for my Lady Castlemaine, whom he only +knows by sight, shares in her very jealousies, joys with her +in her successes; and it is not untrue, however strange it +seems in his abrupt presentment, that he loved his maid Jane +because she was in love with his man Tom. + +Let us hear him, for once, at length: "So the women and W. +Hewer and I walked upon the Downes, where a flock of sheep +was; and the most pleasant and innocent sight that ever I saw +in my life. We found a shepherd and his little boy reading, +far from any houses or sight of people, the Bible to him; so +I made the boy read to me, which he did with the forced tone +that children do usually read, that was mighty pretty; and +then I did give him something, and went to the father, and +talked with him. He did content himself mightily in my +liking his boy's reading, and did bless God for him, the most +like one of the old patriarchs that ever I saw in my life, +and it brought those thoughts of the old age of the world in +my mind for two or three days after. We took notice of his +woolen knit stockings of two colours mixed, and of his shoes +shod with iron, both at the toe and heels, and with great +nails in the soles of his feet, which was mighty pretty; and +taking notice of them, 'Why,' says the poor man, 'the downes, +you see, are full of stones, and we are faine to shoe +ourselves thus; and these,' says he, 'will make the stones +fly till they ring before me.' I did give the poor man +something, for which he was mighty thankful, and I tried to +cast stones with his horne crooke. He values his dog +mightily, that would turn a sheep any way which he would have +him, when he goes to fold them; told me there was about +eighteen score sheep in his flock, and that he hath four +shillings a week the year round for keeping of them; and Mrs. +Turner, in the common fields here, did gather one of the +prettiest nosegays that ever I saw in my life." + +And so the story rambles on to the end of that day's +pleasuring; with cups of milk, and glowworms, and people +walking at sundown with their wives and children, and all the +way home Pepys still dreaming "of the old age of the world" +and the early innocence of man. This was how he walked +through life, his eyes and ears wide open, and his hand, you +will observe, not shut; and thus he observed the lives, the +speech, and the manners of his fellow-men, with prose +fidelity of detail and yet a lingering glamour of romance. + +It was "two or three days after" that he extended this +passage in the pages of his journal, and the style has thus +the benefit of some reflection. It is generally supposed +that, as a writer, Pepys must rank at the bottom of the scale +of merit. But a style which is indefatigably lively, +telling, and picturesque through six large volumes of +everyday experience, which deals with the whole matter of a +life, and yet is rarely wearisome, which condescends to the +most fastidious particulars, and yet sweeps all away in the +forthright current of the narrative, - such a style may be +ungrammatical, it may be inelegant, it may be one tissue of +mistakes, but it can never be devoid of merit. The first and +the true function of the writer has been thoroughly performed +throughout; and though the manner of his utterance may be +childishly awkward, the matter has been transformed and +assimilated by his unfeigned interest and delight. The gusto +of the man speaks out fierily after all these years. For the +difference between Pepys and Shelley, to return to that half- +whimsical approximation, is one of quality but not one of +degree; in his sphere, Pepys felt as keenly, and his is the +true prose of poetry - prose because the spirit of the man +was narrow and earthly, but poetry because he was delightedly +alive. Hence, in such a passage as this about the Epsom +shepherd, the result upon the reader's mind is entire +conviction and unmingled pleasure. So, you feel, the thing +fell out, not otherwise; and you would no more change it than +you would change a sublimity of Shakespeare's, a homely touch +of Bunyan's, or a favoured reminiscence of your own. + +There never was a man nearer being an artist, who yet was not +one. The tang was in the family; while he was writing the +journal for our enjoyment in his comely house in Navy +Gardens, no fewer than two of his cousins were tramping the +fens, kit under arm, to make music to the country girls. But +he himself, though he could play so many instruments and pass +judgment in so many fields of art, remained an amateur. It +is not given to any one so keenly to enjoy, without some +greater power to understand. That he did not like +Shakespeare as an artist for the stage may be a fault, but it +is not without either parallel or excuse. He certainly +admired him as a poet; he was the first beyond mere actors on +the rolls of that innumerable army who have got "To be or not +to be" by heart. Nor was he content with that; it haunted +his mind; he quoted it to himself in the pages of the Diary, +and, rushing in where angels fear to tread, he set it to +music. Nothing, indeed, is more notable than the heroic +quality of the verses that our little sensualist in a periwig +chose out to marry with his own mortal strains. Some gust +from brave Elizabethan times must have warmed his spirit, as +he sat tuning his sublime theorbo. "To be or not to be. +Whether 'tis nobler" - "Beauty retire, thou dost my pity +move" - "It is decreed, nor shall thy fate, O Rome;" - open +and dignified in the sound, various and majestic in the +sentiment, it was no inapt, as it was certainly no timid, +spirit that selected such a range of themes. Of "Gaze not on +Swans," I know no more than these four words; yet that also +seems to promise well. It was, however, on a probable +suspicion, the work of his master, Mr. Berkenshaw - as the +drawings that figure at the breaking up of a young ladies' +seminary are the work of the professor attached to the +establishment. Mr. Berkenshaw was not altogether happy in +his pupil. The amateur cannot usually rise into the artist, +some leaven of the world still clogging him; and we find +Pepys behaving like a pickthank to the man who taught him +composition. In relation to the stage, which he so warmly +loved and understood, he was not only more hearty, but more +generous to others. Thus he encounters Colonel Reames, "a +man," says he, "who understands and loves a play as well as +I, and I love him for it." And again, when he and his wife +had seen a most ridiculous insipid piece, "Glad we were," he +writes, "that Betterton had no part in it." It is by such a +zeal and loyalty to those who labour for his delight that the +amateur grows worthy of the artist. And it should be kept in +mind that, not only in art, but in morals, Pepys rejoiced to +recognise his betters. There was not one speck of envy in +the whole human-hearted egotist. + + +RESPECTABILITY. + + +When writers inveigh against respectability, in the present +degraded meaning of the word, they are usually suspected of a +taste for clay pipes and beer cellars; and their performances +are thought to hail from the OWL'S NEST of the comedy. They +have something more, however, in their eye than the dulness +of a round million dinner parties that sit down yearly in old +England. For to do anything because others do it, and not +because the thing is good, or kind, or honest in its own +right, is to resign all moral control and captaincy upon +yourself, and go post-haste to the devil with the greater +number. We smile over the ascendency of priests; but I had +rather follow a priest than what they call the leaders of +society. No life can better than that of Pepys illustrate +the dangers of this respectable theory of living. For what +can be more untoward than the occurrence, at a critical +period and while the habits are still pliable, of such a +sweeping transformation as the return of Charles the Second? +Round went the whole fleet of England on the other tack; and +while a few tall pintas, Milton or Pen, still sailed a lonely +course by the stars and their own private compass, the cock- +boat, Pepys, must go about with the majority among "the +stupid starers and the loud huzzas." + +The respectable are not led so much by any desire of applause +as by a positive need for countenance. The weaker and the +tamer the man, the more will he require this support; and any +positive quality relieves him, by just so much, of this +dependence. In a dozen ways, Pepys was quite strong enough +to please himself without regard for others; but his positive +qualities were not co-extensive with the field of conduct; +and in many parts of life he followed, with gleeful +precision, in the footprints of the contemporary Mrs. Grundy. +In morals, particularly, he lived by the countenance of +others; felt a slight from another more keenly than a +meanness in himself; and then first repented when he was +found out. You could talk of religion or morality to such a +man; and by the artist side of him, by his lively sympathy +and apprehension, he could rise, as it were dramatically, to +the significance of what you said. All that matter in +religion which has been nicknamed other-worldliness was +strictly in his gamut; but a rule of life that should make a +man rudely virtuous, following right in good report and ill +report, was foolishness and a stumbling-block to Pepys. He +was much thrown across the Friends; and nothing can be more +instructive than his attitude towards these most interesting +people of that age. I have mentioned how he conversed with +one as he rode; when he saw some brought from a meeting under +arrest, "I would to God," said he, "they would either +conform, or be more wise and not be catched;" and to a Quaker +in his own office he extended a timid though effectual +protection. Meanwhile there was growing up next door to him +that beautiful nature William Pen. It is odd that Pepys +condemned him for a fop; odd, though natural enough when you +see Pen's portrait, that Pepys was jealous of him with his +wife. But the cream of the story is when Pen publishes his +SANDY FOUNDATION SHAKEN, and Pepys has it read aloud by his +wife. "I find it," he says, "so well writ as, I think, it is +too good for him ever to have writ it; and it is a serious +sort of book, and NOT FIT FOR EVERYBODY TO READ." Nothing is +more galling to the merely respectable than to be brought in +contact with religious ardour. Pepys had his own foundation, +sandy enough, but dear to him from practical considerations, +and he would read the book with true uneasiness of spirit; +for conceive the blow if, by some plaguy accident, this Pen +were to convert him! It was a different kind of doctrine +that he judged profitable for himself and others. "A good +sermon of Mr. Gifford's at our church, upon 'Seek ye first +the kingdom of heaven.' A very excellent and persuasive, +good and moral sermon. He showed, like a wise man, that +righteousness is a surer moral way of being rich than sin and +villainy." It is thus that respect. able people desire to +have their Greathearts address them, telling, in mild +accents, how you may make the best of both worlds, and be a +moral hero without courage, kindness, or troublesome +reflection; and thus the Gospel, cleared of Eastern metaphor, +becomes a manual of worldly prudence, and a handybook for +Pepys and the successful merchant. + +The respectability of Pepys was deeply grained. He has no +idea of truth except for the Diary. He has no care that a +thing shall be, if it but appear; gives out that he has +inherited a good estate, when he has seemingly got nothing +but a lawsuit; and is pleased to be thought liberal when he +knows he has been mean. He is conscientiously ostentatious. +I say conscientiously, with reason. He could never have been +taken for a fop, like Pen, but arrayed himself in a manner +nicely suitable to his position. For long he hesitated to +assume the famous periwig; for a public man should travel +gravely with the fashions not foppishly before, nor dowdily +behind, the central movement of his age. For long he durst +not keep a carriage; that, in his circumstances would have +been improper; but a time comes, with the growth of his +fortune, when the impropriety has shifted to the other side, +and he is "ashamed to be seen in a hackney." Pepys talked +about being "a Quaker or some very melancholy thing;" for my +part, I can imagine nothing so melancholy, because nothing +half so silly, as to be concerned about such problems. But +so respectability and the duties of society haunt and burden +their poor devotees; and what seems at first the very +primrose path of life, proves difficult and thorny like the +rest. And the time comes to Pepys, as to all the merely +respectable, when he must not only order his pleasures, but +even clip his virtuous movements, to the public pattern of +the age. There was some juggling among officials to avoid +direct taxation; and Pepys, with a noble impulse, growing +ashamed of this dishonesty, designed to charge himself with +1000 pounds; but finding none to set him an example, "nobody +of our ablest merchants" with this moderate liking for clean +hands, he judged it "not decent;" he feared it would "be +thought vain glory;" and, rather than appear singular, +cheerfully remained a thief. One able merchant's +countenance, and Pepys had dared to do an honest act! Had he +found one brave spirit, properly recognised by society, he +might have gone far as a disciple. Mrs. Turner, it is true, +can fill him full of sordid scandal, and make him believe, +against the testimony of his senses, that Pen's venison pasty +stank like the devil; but, on the other hand, Sir William +Coventry can raise him by a word into another being. Pepys, +when he is with Coventry, talks in the vein of an old Roman. +What does he care for office or emolument? "Thank God, I +have enough of my own," says he, "to buy me a good book and a +good fiddle, and I have a good wife." And again, we find +this pair projecting an old age when an ungrateful country +shall have dismissed them from the field of public service; +Coventry living retired in a fine house, and Pepys dropping +in, "it may be, to read a chapter of Seneca." + +Under this influence, the only good one in his life, Pepys +continued zealous and, for the period, pure in his +employment. He would not be "bribed to be unjust," he says, +though he was "not so squeamish as to refuse a present +after," suppose the king to have received no wrong. His new +arrangement for the victualling of Tangier he tells us with +honest complacency, will save the king a thousand and gain +Pepys three hundred pounds a year, - a statement which +exactly fixes the degree of the age's enlightenment. But for +his industry and capacity no praise can be too high. It was +an unending struggle for the man to stick to his business in +such a garden of Armida as he found this life; and the story +of his oaths, so often broken, so courageously renewed, is +worthy rather of admiration that the contempt it has +received. + +Elsewhere, and beyond the sphere of Coventry's influence, we +find him losing scruples and daily complying further with the +age. When he began the journal, he was a trifle prim and +puritanic; merry enough, to be sure, over his private cups, +and still remembering Magdalene ale and his acquaintance with +Mrs. Ainsworth of Cambridge. But youth is a hot season with +all; when a man smells April and May he is apt at times to +stumble; and in spite of a disordered practice, Pepys's +theory, the better things that he approved and followed +after, we may even say were strict. Where there was "tag, +rag, and bobtail, dancing, singing, and drinking," he felt +"ashamed, and went away;" and when he slept in church, he +prayed God forgive him. In but a little while we find him +with some ladies keeping each other awake "from spite," as +though not to sleep in church were an obvious hardship; and +yet later he calmly passes the time of service, looking about +him, with a perspective glass, on all the pretty women. His +favourite ejaculation, "Lord!" occurs but once that I have +observed in 1660, never in `61, twice in '62, and at least +five times in '63; after which the "Lords" may be said to +pullulate like herrings, with here and there a solitary +"damned," as it were a whale among the shoal. He and his +wife, once filled with dudgeon by some innocent freedoms at a +marriage, are soon content to go pleasuring with my Lord +Brouncker's mistress, who was not even, by his own account, +the most discreet of mistresses. Tag, rag, and bobtail, +dancing, singing, and drinking, become his natural element; +actors and actresses and drunken, roaring courtiers are to be +found in his society; until the man grew so involved with +Saturnalian manners and companions that he was shot almost +unconsciously into the grand domestic crash of 1668. + +That was the legitimate issue and punishment of years of +staggering walk and conversation. The man who has smoked his +pipe for half a century in a powder magazine finds himself at +last the author and the victim of a hideous disaster. So +with our pleasant-minded Pepys and his peccadilloes. All of +a sudden, as he still trips dexterously enough among the +dangers of a double-faced career, thinking no great evil, +humming to himself the trillo, Fate takes the further conduct +of that matter from his hands, and brings him face to face +with the consequences of his acts. For a man still, after so +many years, the lover, although not the constant lover, of +his wife, - for a man, besides, who was so greatly careful of +appearances, - the revelation of his infidelities was a +crushing blow. The tears that he shed, the indignities that +he endured, are not to be measured. A vulgar woman, and now +justly incensed, Mrs. Pepys spared him no detail of +suffering. She was violent, threatening him with the tongs; +she was careless of his honour, driving him to insult the +mistress whom she had driven him to betray and to discard; +worst of all, she was hopelessly inconsequent, in word and +thought and deed, now lulling him with reconciliations, and +anon flaming forth again with the original anger. Pepys had +not used his wife well; he had wearied her with jealousies, +even while himself unfaithful; he had grudged her clothes and +pleasures, while lavishing both upon himself; he had abused +her in words; he had bent his fist at her in anger; he had +once blacked her eye; and it is one of the oddest particulars +in that odd Diary of his, that, while the injury is referred +to once in passing, there is no hint as to the occasion or +the manner of the blow. But now, when he is in the wrong, +nothing can exceed the long-suffering affection of this +impatient husband. While he was still sinning and still +undiscovered, he seems not to have known a touch of penitence +stronger than what might lead him to take his wife to the +theatre, or for an airing, or to give her a new dress, by way +of compensation. Once found out, however, and he seems to +himself to have lost all claim to decent usage. It is +perhaps the strongest instance of his externality. His wife +may do what she pleases, and though he may groan, it will +never occur to him to blame her; he has no weapon left but +tears and the most abject submission. We should perhaps have +respected him more had he not given way so utterly - above +all, had he refused to write, under his wife's dictation, an +insulting letter to his unhappy fellow-culprit, Miss Willet; +but somehow I believe we like him better as he was. + +The death of his wife, following so shortly after, must have +stamped the impression of this episode upon his mind. For +the remaining years of his long life we have no Diary to help +us, and we have seen already how little stress is to be laid +upon the tenor of his correspondence; but what with the +recollection of the catastrophe of his married life, what +with the natural influence of his advancing years and +reputation, it seems not unlikely that the period of +gallantry was at an end for Pepys; and it is beyond a doubt +that he sat down at last to an honoured and agreeable old age +among his books and music, the correspondent of Sir Isaac +Newton, and, in one instance at least the poetical counsellor +of Dryden. Through all this period, that Diary which +contained the secret memoirs of his life, with all its +inconsistencies and escapades, had been religiously +preserved; nor, when he came to die, does he appear to have +provided for its destruction. So we may conceive him +faithful to the end to all his dear and early memories; still +mindful of Mrs. Hely in the woods at Epsom; still lighting at +Islington for a cup of kindness to the dead; still, if he +heard again that air that once so much disturbed him, +thrilling at the recollection of the love that bound him to +his wife. + + + +CHAPTER IX - JOHN KNOX AND HIS RELATIONS TO WOMEN + + + +I. - THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT FEMALE RULE. + + +WHEN first the idea became widely spread among men that the +Word of God, instead of being truly the foundation of all +existing institutions, was rather a stone which the builders +had rejected, it was but natural that the consequent havoc +among received opinions should be accompanied by the +generation of many new and lively hopes for the future. +Somewhat as in the early days of the French Revolution, men +must have looked for an immediate and universal improvement +in their condition. Christianity, up to that time, had been +somewhat of a failure politically. The reason was now +obvious, the capital flaw was detected, the sickness of the +body politic traced at last to its efficient cause. It was +only necessary to put the Bible thoroughly into practice, to +set themselves strenuously to realise in life the Holy +Commonwealth, and all abuses and iniquities would surely pass +away. Thus, in a pageant played at Geneva in the year 1523, +the world was represented as a sick man at the end of his +wits for help, to whom his doctor recommends Lutheran +specifics. (1) The Reformers themselves had set their +affections in a different world, and professed to look for +the finished result of their endeavours on the other side of +death. They took no interest in politics as such; they even +condemned political action as Antichristian: notably, Luther +in the case of the Peasants' War. And yet, as the purely +religious question was inseparably complicated with political +difficulties, and they had to make opposition, from day to +day, against principalities and powers, they were led, one +after another, and again and again, to leave the sphere which +was more strictly their own, and meddle, for good and evil, +with the affairs of State. Not much was to be expected from +interference in such a spirit. Whenever a minister found +himself galled or hindered, he would be inclined to suppose +some contravention of the Bible. Whenever Christian liberty +was restrained (and Christian liberty for each individual +would be about coextensive with what he wished to do), it was +obvious that the State was Antichristian. The great thing, +and the one thing, was to push the Gospel and the Reformers' +own interpretation of it. Whatever helped was good; whatever +hindered was evil; and if this simple classification proved +inapplicable over the whole field, it was no business of his +to stop and reconcile incongruities. He had more pressing +concerns on hand; he had to save souls; he had to be about +his Father's business. This short-sighted view resulted in a +doctrine that was actually Jesuitical in application. They +had no serious ideas upon politics, and they were ready, nay, +they seemed almost bound, to adopt and support whichever +ensured for the moment the greatest benefit to the souls of +their fellow-men. They were dishonest in all sincerity. +Thus Labitte, in the introduction to a book (2) in which he +exposes the hypocritical democracy of the Catholics under the +League, steps aside for a moment to stigmatise the +hypocritical democracy of the Protestants. And nowhere was +this expediency in political questions more apparent than +about the question of female sovereignty. So much was this +the case that one James Thomasius, of Leipsic, wrote a little +paper (3) about the religious partialities of those who took +part in the controversy, in which some of these learned +disputants cut a very sorry figure. + +(1) Gaberel's EGLIST DE GENEVE, i. 88. +(2) LA DEMOCRATIE CHEZ LES PREDICATEURS DE LA LIGUE. +(3) HISTORIA AFFECTUUM SE IMMISCENTIUM CONTROVERSIAE DE +GYNAECOCRATIA. It is in his collected prefaces, Leipsic, +1683. + +Now Knox has been from the first a man well hated; and it is +somewhat characteristic of his luck that he figures here in +the very forefront of the list of partial scribes who trimmed +their doctrine with the wind in all good conscience, and were +political weathercocks out of conviction. Not only has +Thomasius mentioned him, but Bayle has taken the hint from +Thomasius, and dedicated a long note to the matter at the end +of his article on the Scotch Reformer. This is a little less +than fair. If any one among the evangelists of that period +showed more serious political sense than another, it was +assuredly Knox; and even in this very matter of female rule, +although I do not suppose any one nowadays will feel inclined +to endorse his sentiments, I confess I can make great +allowance for his conduct. The controversy, besides, has an +interest of its own, in view of later controversies. + +John Knox, from 1556 to 1559, was resident in Geneva, as +minister, jointly with Goodman, of a little church of English +refugees. He and his congregation were banished from England +by one woman, Mary Tudor, and proscribed in Scotland by +another, the Regent Mary of Guise. The coincidence was +tempting: here were many abuses centring about one abuse; +here was Christ's Gospel persecuted in the two kingdoms by +one anomalous power. He had not far to go to find the idea +that female government was anomalous. It was an age, indeed, +in which women, capable and incapable, played a conspicuous +part upon the stage of European history; and yet their rule, +whatever may have been the opinion of here and there a wise +man or enthusiast, was regarded as an anomaly by the great +bulk of their contemporaries. It was defended as an anomaly. +It, and all that accompanied and sanctioned it, was set aside +as a single exception; and no one thought of reasoning down +from queens and extending their privileges to ordinary women. +Great ladies, as we know, had the privilege of entering into +monasteries and cloisters, otherwise forbidden to their sex. +As with one thing, so with another. Thus, Margaret of +Navarre wrote books with great acclamation, and no one, +seemingly, saw fit to call her conduct in question; but +Mademoiselle de Gournay, Montaigne's adopted daughter, was in +a controversy with the world as to whether a woman might be +an author without incongruity. Thus, too, we have Theodore +Agrippa d'Aubigne writing to his daughters about the learned +women of his century, and cautioning them, in conclusion, +that the study of letters was unsuited to ladies of a +middling station, and should be reserved for princesses. (1) +And once more, if we desire to see the same principle carried +to ludicrous extreme, we shall find that Reverend Father in +God the Abbot of Brantome, claiming, on the authority of some +lord of his acquaintance, a privilege, or rather a duty, of +free love for great princesses, and carefully excluding other +ladies from the same gallant dispensation. (2) One sees the +spirit in which these immunities were granted; and how they +were but the natural consequence of that awe for courts and +kings that made the last writer tell us, with simple wonder, +how Catherine de Medici would "laugh her fill just like +another" over the humours of pantaloons and zanies. And such +servility was, of all things, what would touch most nearly +the republican spirit of Knox. It was not difficult for him +to set aside this weak scruple of loyalty. The lantern of +his analysis did not always shine with a very serviceable +light; but he had the virtue, at least, to carry it into many +places of fictitious holiness, and was not abashed by the +tinsel divinity that hedged kings and queens from his +contemporaries. And so he could put the proposition in the +form already mentioned: there was Christ's Gospel persecuted +in the two kingdoms by one anomalous power plainly, then, the +"regiment of women" was Antichristian. Early in 1558 he +communicated this discovery to the world, by publishing at +Geneva his notorious book - THE FIRST BLAST OF THE TRUMPET +AGAINST THE MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN. (3) + +(1) Oeuvres de d'Aubigne, i. 449. +(2) Dames Illustres, pp. 358-360. +(3) Works of John Knox, iv. 349. + +As a whole, it is a dull performance; but the preface, as is +usual with Knox, is both interesting and morally fine. Knox +was not one of those who are humble in the hour of triumph; +he was aggressive even when things were at their worst. He +had a grim reliance in himself, or rather in his mission; if +he were not sure that he was a great man, he was at least +sure that he was one set apart to do great things. And he +judged simply that whatever passed in his mind, whatever +moved him to flee from persecution instead of constantly +facing it out, or, as here, to publish and withhold his name +from the title-page of a critical work, would not fail to be +of interest, perhaps of benefit, to the world. There may be +something more finely sensitive in the modern humour, that +tends more and more to withdraw a man's personality from the +lessons he inculcates or the cause that he has espoused; but +there is a loss herewith of wholesome responsibility; and +when we find in the works of Knox, as in the Epistles of +Paul, the man himself standing nakedly forward, courting and +anticipating criticism, putting his character, as it were, in +pledge for the sincerity of his doctrine, we had best waive +the question of delicacy, and make our acknowledgments for a +lesson of courage, not unnecessary in these days of anonymous +criticism, and much light, otherwise unattainable, on the +spirit in which great movements were initiated and carried +forward. Knox's personal revelations are always interesting; +and, in the case of the "First Blast," as I have said, there +is no exception to the rule. He begins by stating the solemn +responsibility of all who are watchmen over God's flock; and +all are watchmen (he goes on to explain, with that fine +breadth of spirit that characterises him even when, as here, +he shows himself most narrow), all are watchmen "whose eyes +God doth open, and whose conscience he pricketh to admonish +the ungodly." And with the full consciousness of this great +duty before him, he sets himself to answer the scruples of +timorous or worldly-minded people. How can a man repent, he +asks, unless the nature of his transgression is made plain to +him? "And therefore I say," he continues, "that of necessity +it is that this monstriferous empire of women (which among +all enormities that this day do abound upon the face of the +whole earth, is most detestable and damnable) be openly and +plainly declared to the world, to the end that some may +repent and be saved." To those who think the doctrine +useless, because it cannot be expected to amend those princes +whom it would dispossess if once accepted, he makes answer in +a strain that shows him at his greatest. After having +instanced how the rumour of Christ's censures found its way +to Herod in his own court, "even so," he continues, "may the +sound of our weak trumpet, by the support of some wind (blow +it from the south, or blow it from the north, it is of no +matter), come to the ears of the chief offenders. BUT +WHETHER IT DO OR NOT, YET DARE WE NOT CEASE TO BLOW AS GOD +WILL GIVE STRENGTH. FOR WE ARE DEBTORS TO MORE THAN TO +PRINCES, TO WIT, TO THE GREAT MULTITUDE OF OUR BRETHREN, of +whom, no doubt, a great number have heretofore offended by +error and ignorance." + +It is for the multitude, then, he writes; he does not greatly +hope that his trumpet will be audible in palaces, or that +crowned women will submissively discrown themselves at his +appeal; what he does hope, in plain English, is to encourage +and justify rebellion; and we shall see, before we have done, +that he can put his purpose into words as roundly as I can +put it for him. This he sees to be a matter of much hazard; +he is not "altogether so brutish and insensible, but that he +has laid his account what the finishing of the work may +cost." He knows that he will find many adversaries, since +"to the most part of men, lawful and godly appeareth +whatsoever antiquity hath received." He looks for +opposition, "not only of the ignorant multitude, but of the +wise, politic, and quiet spirits of the earth." He will be +called foolish, curious, despiteful, and a sower of sedition; +and one day, perhaps, for all he is now nameless, he may be +attainted of treason. Yet he has "determined to obey God, +notwithstanding that the world shall rage thereat." Finally, +he makes some excuse for the anonymous appearance of this +first instalment: it is his purpose thrice to blow the +trumpet in this matter, if God so permit; twice he intends to +do it without name; but at the last blast to take the odium +upon himself, that all others may be purged. + +Thus he ends the preface, and enters upon his argument with a +secondary title: "The First Blast to awake Women degenerate." +We are in the land of assertion without delay. That a woman +should bear rule, superiority, dominion or empire over any +realm, nation, or city, he tells us, is repugnant to nature, +contumely to God, and a subversion of good order. Women are +weak, frail, impatient, feeble, and foolish. God has denied +to woman wisdom to consider, or providence to foresee, what +is profitable to a commonwealth. Women have been ever +lightly esteemed; they have been denied the tutory of their +own sons, and subjected to the unquestionable sway of their +husbands; and surely it is irrational to give the greater +where the less has been withheld, and suffer a woman to reign +supreme over a great kingdom who would be allowed no +authority by her own fireside. He appeals to the Bible; but +though he makes much of the first transgression and certain +strong texts in Genesis and Paul's Epistles, he does not +appeal with entire success. The cases of Deborah and Huldah +can be brought into no sort of harmony with his thesis. +Indeed, I may say that, logically, he left his bones there; +and that it is but the phantom of an argument that he parades +thenceforward to the end. Well was it for Knox that he +succeeded no better; it is under this very ambiguity about +Deborah that we shall find him fain to creep for shelter +before he is done with the regiment of women. After having +thus exhausted Scripture, and formulated its teaching in the +somewhat blasphemous maxim that the man is placed above the +woman, even as God above the angels, he goes on triumphantly +to adduce the testimonies of Tertullian, Augustine, Ambrose, +Basil, Chrysostom, and the Pandects; and having gathered this +little cloud of witnesses about him, like pursuivants about a +herald, he solemnly proclaims all reigning women to be +traitoresses and rebels against God; discharges all men +thenceforward from holding any office under such monstrous +regiment, and calls upon all the lieges with one consent to +"STUDY TO REPRESS THE INORDINATE PRIDE AND TYRANNY" OF +QUEENS. If this is not treasonable teaching, one would be +glad to know what is; and yet, as if he feared he had not +made the case plain enough against himself, he goes on to +deduce the startling corollary that all oaths of allegiance +must be incontinently broken. If it was sin thus to have +sworn even in ignorance, it were obstinate sin to continue to +respect them after fuller knowledge. Then comes the +peroration, in which he cries aloud against the cruelties of +that cursed Jezebel of England - that horrible monster +Jezebel of England; and after having predicted sudden +destruction to her rule and to the rule of all crowned women, +and warned all men that if they presume to defend the same +when any "noble heart" shall be raised up to vindicate the +liberty of his country, they shall not fail to perish +themselves in the ruin, he concludes with a last rhetorical +flourish: "And therefore let all men be advertised, for THE +TRUMPET HATH ONCE BLOWN." + +The capitals are his own. In writing, he probably felt the +want of some such reverberation of the pulpit under strong +hands as he was wont to emphasise his spoken utterances +withal; there would seem to him a want of passion in the +orderly lines of type; and I suppose we may take the capitals +as a mere substitute for the great voice with which he would +have given it forth, had we heard it from his own lips. +Indeed, as it is, in this little strain of rhetoric about the +trumpet, this current allusion to the fall of Jericho, that +alone distinguishes his bitter and hasty production, he was +probably right, according to all artistic canon, thus to +support and accentuate in conclusion the sustained metaphor +of a hostile proclamation. It is curious, by the way, to +note how favourite an image the trumpet was with the +Reformer. He returns to it again and again; it is the Alpha +and Omega of his rhetoric; it is to him what a ship is to the +stage sailor; and one would almost fancy he had begun the +world as a trumpeter's apprentice. The partiality is surely +characteristic. All his life long he was blowing summonses +before various Jerichos, some of which fell duly, but not +all. Wherever he appears in history his speech is loud, +angry, and hostile; there is no peace in his life, and little +tenderness; he is always sounding hopefully to the front for +some rough enterprise. + +And as his voice had something of the trumpet's hardness, it +had something also of the trumpet's warlike inspiration. So +Randolph, possibly fresh from the sound of the Reformer's +preaching, writes of him to Cecil:- "Where your honour +exhorteth us to stoutness, I assure you the voice of one man +is able, in an hour, to put more life in us than six hundred +trumpets continually blustering in our ears." (1) + +(1) M'Crie's LIFE OF KNOX, ii. 41. + +Thus was the proclamation made. Nor was it long in wakening +all the echoes of Europe. What success might have attended +it, had the question decided been a purely abstract question, +it is difficult to say. As it was, it was to stand or fall, +not by logic, but by political needs and sympathies. Thus, +in France, his doctrine was to have some future, because +Protestants suffered there under the feeble and treacherous +regency of Catherine de Medici; and thus it was to have no +future anywhere else, because the Protestant interest was +bound up with the prosperity of Queen Elizabeth. This +stumbling-block lay at the very threshold of the matter; and +Knox, in the text of the "First Blast," had set everybody the +wrong example and gone to the ground himself. He finds +occasion to regret "the blood of innocent Lady Jane Dudley." +But Lady Jane Dudley, or Lady Jane Grey, as we call her, was +a would-be traitoress and rebel against God, to use his own +expressions. If, therefore, political and religious sympathy +led Knox himself into so grave a partiality, what was he to +expect from his disciples? + +If the trumpet gave so ambiguous a sound, who could heartily +prepare himself for the battle? The question whether Lady +Jane Dudley was an innocent martyr, or a traitoress against +God, whose inordinate pride and tyranny had been effectually +repressed, was thus left altogether in the wind; and it was +not, perhaps, wonderful if many of Knox's readers concluded +that all right and wrong in the matter turned upon the degree +of the sovereign's orthodoxy and possible helpfulness to the +Reformation. He should have been the more careful of such an +ambiguity of meaning, as he must have known well the lukewarm +indifference and dishonesty of his fellow-reformers in +political matters. He had already, in 1556 or 1557, talked +the matter over with his great master, Calvin, in "a private +conversation;" and the interview (1) must have been truly +distasteful to both parties. Calvin, indeed, went a far way +with him in theory, and owned that the "government of women +was a deviation from the original and proper order of nature, +to be ranked, no less than slavery, among the punishments +consequent upon the fall of man." But, in practice, their +two roads separated. For the Man of Geneva saw difficulties +in the way of the Scripture proof in the cases of Deborah and +Huldah, and in the prophecy of Isaiah that queens should be +the nursing mothers of the Church. And as the Bible was not +decisive, he thought the subject should be let alone, +because, "by custom and public consent and long practice, it +has been established that realms and principalities may +descend to females by hereditary right, and it would not be +lawful to unsettle governments which are ordained by the +peculiar providence of God." I imagine Knox's ears must have +burned during this interview. Think of him listening +dutifully to all this - how it would not do to meddle with +anointed kings - how there was a peculiar providence in these +great affairs; and then think of his own peroration, and the +"noble heart" whom he looks for "to vindicate the liberty of +his country;" or his answer to Queen Mary, when she asked him +who he was, to interfere in the affairs of Scotland:- "Madam, +a subject born within the same!" Indeed, the two doctors who +differed at this private conversation represented, at the +moment, two principles of enormous import in the subsequent +history of Europe. In Calvin we have represented that +passive obedience, that toleration of injustice and +absurdity, that holding back of the hand from political +affairs as from something unclean, which lost France, if we +are to believe M. Michelet, for the Reformation; a spirit +necessarily fatal in the long run to the existence of any +sect that may profess it; a suicidal doctrine that survives +among us to this day in narrow views of personal duty, and +the low political morality of many virtuous men. In Knox, on +the other hand, we see foreshadowed the whole Puritan +Revolution and the scaffold of Charles I. + +(1) Described by Calvin in a letter to Cecil, Knox's Works, +vol. iv. + +There is little doubt in my mind that this interview was what +caused Knox to print his book without a name. (1) It was a +dangerous thing to contradict the Man of Geneva, and doubly +so, surely, when one had had the advantage of correction from +him in a private conversation; and Knox had his little flock +of English refugees to consider. If they had fallen into bad +odour at Geneva, where else was there left to flee to? It +was printed, as I said, in 1558; and, by a singular MAL-A- +PROPOS, in that same year Mary died, and Elizabeth succeeded +to the throne of England. And just as the accession of +Catholic Queen Mary had condemned female rule in the eyes of +Knox, the accession of Protestant Queen Elizabeth justified +it in the eyes of his colleagues. Female rule ceases to be +an anomaly, not because Elizabeth can "reply to eight +ambassadors in one day in their different languages," but +because she represents for the moment the political future of +the Reformation. The exiles troop back to England with songs +of praise in their mouths. The bright accidental star, of +which we have all read in the Preface to the Bible, has risen +over the darkness of Europe. There is a thrill of hope +through the persecuted Churches of the Continent. Calvin +writes to Cecil, washing his hands of Knox and his political +heresies. The sale of the "First Blast" is prohibited in +Geneva; and along with it the bold book of Knox's colleague, +Goodman - a book dear to Milton - where female rule was +briefly characterised as a "monster in nature and disorder +among men." (2) Any who may ever have doubted, or been for a +moment led away by Knox or Goodman, or their own wicked +imaginations, are now more than convinced. They have seen +the accidental star. Aylmer, with his eye set greedily on a +possible bishopric, and "the better to obtain the favour of +the new Queen," (3) sharpens his pen to confound Knox by +logic. What need? He has been confounded by facts. "Thus +what had been to the refugees of Geneva as the very word of +God, no sooner were they back in England than, behold! it was +the word of the devil." (4) + +(1) It was anonymously published, but no one seems to have +been in doubt about its authorship; he might as well have set +his name to it, for all the good he got by holding it back. +(2) Knox's Works, iv. 358. +(3) Strype's AYLMER, p. 16. +(4) It may interest the reader to know that these (so says +Thomasius) are the "ipsissima verba Schlusselburgii." + +Now, what of the real sentiments of these loyal subjects of +Elizabeth? They professed a holy horror for Knox's position: +let us see if their own would please a modern audience any +better, or was, in substance, greatly different. + +John Aylmer, afterwards Bishop of London, published an answer +to Knox, under the title of AN HARBOUR FOR FAITHFUL AND TRUE +SUBJECTS AGAINST THE LATE BLOWN BLAST, CONCERNING THE +GOVERNMENT OF WOMEN. (1) And certainly he was a thought more +acute, a thought less precipitate and simple, than his +adversary. He is not to be led away by such captious terms +as NATURAL AND UNNATURAL. It is obvious to him that a +woman's disability to rule is not natural in the same sense +in which it is natural for a stone to fall or fire to burn. +He is doubtful, on the whole, whether this disability be +natural at all; nay, when he is laying it down that a woman +should not be a priest, he shows some elementary conception +of what many of us now hold to be the truth of the matter. +"The bringing-up of women," he says, "is commonly such" that +they cannot have the necessary qualifications, "for they are +not brought upon learning in schools, nor trained in +disputation." And even so, he can ask, "Are there not in +England women, think you, that for learning and wisdom could +tell their household and neighbours as good a tale as any Sir +John there?" For all that, his advocacy is weak. If women's +rule is not unnatural in a sense preclusive of its very +existence, it is neither so convenient nor so profitable as +the government of men. He holds England to be specially +suitable for the government of women, because there the +governor is more limited and restrained by the other members +of the constitution than in other places; and this argument +has kept his book from being altogether forgotten. It is +only in hereditary monarchies that he will offer any defence +of the anomaly. "If rulers were to be chosen by lot or +suffrage, he would not that any women should stand in the +election, but men only." The law of succession of crowns was +a law to him, in the same sense as the law of evolution is a +law to Mr. Herbert Spencer; and the one and the other +counsels his readers, in a spirit suggestively alike, not to +kick against the pricks or seek to be more wise than He who +made them. (2) If God has put a female child into the direct +line of inheritance, it is God's affair. His strength will +be perfected in her weakness. He makes the Creator address +the objectors in this not very flattering vein:- "I, that +could make Daniel, a sucking babe, to judge better than the +wisest lawyers; a brute beast to reprehend the folly of a +prophet; and poor fishers to confound the great clerks of the +world - cannot I make a woman to be a good ruler over you?" +This is the last word of his reasoning. Although he was not +altogether without Puritanic leaven, shown particularly in +what he says of the incomes of Bishops, yet it was rather +loyalty to the old order of things than any generous belief +in the capacity of women, that raised up for them this +clerical champion. His courtly spirit contrasts singularly +with the rude, bracing republicanism of Knox. "Thy knee +shall bow," he says, "thy cap shall off, thy tongue shall +speak reverently of thy sovereign." For himself, his tongue +is even more than reverent. Nothing can stay the issue of +his eloquent adulation. Again and again, "the remembrance of +Elizabeth's virtues" carries him away; and he has to hark +back again to find the scent of his argument. He is +repressing his vehement adoration throughout, until, when the +end comes, and he feels his business at an end, he can +indulge himself to his heart's content in indiscriminate +laudation of his royal mistress. It is humorous to think +that this illustrious lady, whom he here praises, among many +other excellences, for the simplicity of her attire and the +"marvellous meekness of her stomach," threatened him, years +after, in no very meek terms, for a sermon against female +vanity in dress, which she held as a reflection on herself. +(3) + +(1) I am indebted for a sight of this book to the kindness of +Mr. David Laing, the editor of Knox's Works. +(2) SOCIAL STATICS, p. 64, etc. +(3) Hallam's CONST. HIST. OF ENGLAND, i. 225, note m. + +Whatever was wanting here in respect for women generally, +there was no want of respect for the Queen; and one cannot +very greatly wonder if these devoted servants looked askance, +not upon Knox only, but on his little flock, as they came +back to England tainted with disloyal doctrine. For them, as +for him, the accidental star rose somewhat red and angry. As +for poor Knox, his position was the saddest of all. For the +juncture seemed to him of the highest importance; it was the +nick of time, the flood-water of opportunity. Not only was +there an opening for him in Scotland, a smouldering brand of +civil liberty and religious enthusiasm which it should be for +him to kindle into flame with his powerful breath but he had +his eye seemingly on an object of even higher worth. For +now, when religious sympathy ran so high that it could be set +against national aversion, he wished to begin the fusion +together of England and Scotland, and to begin it at the sore +place. If once the open wound were closed at the Border, the +work would be half done. Ministers placed at Berwick and +such places might seek their converts equally on either side +of the march; old enemies would sit together to hear the +gospel of peace, and forget the inherited jealousies of many +generations in the enthusiasm of a common faith; or - let us +say better - a common heresy. For people are not most +conscious of brotherhood when they continue languidly +together in one creed, but when, with some doubt, with some +danger perhaps, and certainly not without some reluctance, +they violently break with the tradition of the past, and go +forth from the sanctuary of their fathers to worship under +the bare heaven. A new creed, like a new country, is an +unhomely place of sojourn; but it makes men lean on one +another and join hands. It was on this that Knox relied to +begin the union of the English and the Scotch. And he had, +perhaps, better means of judging than any even of his +contemporaries. He knew the temper of both nations; and +already during his two years' chaplaincy at Berwick, he had +seen his scheme put to the proof. But whether practicable or +not, the proposal does him much honour. That he should thus +have sought to make a love-match of it between the two +peoples, and tried to win their inclination towards a union +instead of simply transferring them, like so many sheep, by a +marriage, or testament, or private treaty, is thoroughly +characteristic of what is best in the man. Nor was this all. +He had, besides, to assure himself of English support, secret +or avowed, for the reformation party in Scotland; a delicate +affair, trenching upon treason. And so he had plenty to say +to Cecil, plenty that he did not care to "commit to paper +neither yet to the knowledge of many." But his miserable +publication had shut the doors of England in his face. +Summoned to Edinburgh by the confederate lords, he waited at +Dieppe, anxiously praying for leave to journey through +England. The most dispiriting tidings reach him. His +messengers, coming from so obnoxious a quarter, narrowly +escape imprisonment. His old congregation are coldly +received, and even begin to look back again to their place of +exile with regret. "My First Blast," he writes ruefully, +"has blown from me all my friends of England." And then he +adds, with a snarl, "The Second Blast, I fear, shall sound +somewhat more sharp, except men be more moderate than I hear +they are." (1) But the threat is empty; there will never be +a second blast - he has had enough of that trumpet. Nay, he +begins to feel uneasily that, unless he is to be rendered +useless for the rest of his life, unless he is to lose his +right arm and go about his great work maimed and impotent, he +must find some way of making his peace with England and the +indignant Queen. The letter just quoted was written on the +6th of April 1559; and on the 10th, after he had cooled his +heels for four days more about the streets of Dieppe, he gave +in altogether, and writes a letter of capitulation to Cecil. +In this letter, (2) which he kept back until the 22d, still +hoping that things would come right of themselves, he +censures the great secretary for having "followed the world +in the way of perdition," characterises him as "worthy of +hell," and threatens him, if he be not found simple, sincere, +and fervent in the cause of Christ's gospel, that he shall +"taste of the same cup that politic heads have drunken in +before him." This is all, I take it, out of respect for the +Reformer's own position; if he is going to be humiliated, let +others be humiliated first; like a child who will not take +his medicine until he has made his nurse and his mother drink +of it before him. "But I have, say you, written a +treasonable book against the regiment and empire of women. . +. . The writing of that book I will not deny; but to prove it +treasonable I think it shall be hard. . . . It is hinted that +my book shall be written against. If so be, sir, I greatly +doubt they shall rather hurt nor (than) mend the matter." +And here come the terms of capitulation; for he does not +surrender unconditionally, even in this sore strait: "And yet +if any," he goes on, "think me enemy to the person, or yet to +the regiment, of her whom God hath now promoted, they are +utterly deceived in me, FOR THE MIRACULOUS WORK OF GOD, +COMFORTING HIS AFFLICTED BY MEANS OF AN INFIRM VESSEL, I DO +ACKNOWLEDGE, AND THE POWER OF HIS MOST POTENT HAND I WILL +OBEY. MORE PLAINLY TO SPEAK, IF QUEEN ELIZABETH SHALL +CONFESS, THAT THE EXTRAORDINARY DISPENSATION OF GOD'S GREAT +MERCY MAKETH THAT LAWFUL UNTO HER WHICH BOTH NATURE AND GOD'S +LAW DO DENY TO ALL WOMEN, then shall none in England be more +willing to maintain her lawful authority than I shall be. +But if (God's wondrous work set aside) she ground (as God +forbid) the justness of her title upon consuetude, laws, or +ordinances of men, then" - Then Knox will denounce her? Not +so; he is more politic nowadays - then, he "greatly fears" +that her ingratitude to God will not go long without +punishment. + +(1) Knox to Mrs. Locke, 6th April 1559. Works, vi. 14. +(2) Knox to Sir William Cecil, 10th April 1559. Works, ii. +16, or vi. 15. + +His letter to Elizabeth, written some few months later, was a +mere amplification of the sentences quoted above. She must +base her title entirely upon the extraordinary providence of +God; but if she does this, "if thus, in God's presence, she +humbles herself, so will he with tongue and pen justify her +authority, as the Holy Ghost hath justified the same in +Deborah, that blessed mother in Israel." (1) And so, you +see, his consistency is preserved; he is merely applying the +doctrine of the "First Blast." The argument goes thus: The +regiment of women is, as before noted in our work, repugnant +to nature, contumely to God, and a subversion of good order. +It has nevertheless pleased God to raise up, as exceptions to +this law, first Deborah, and afterward Elizabeth Tudor - +whose regiment we shall proceed to celebrate. + +(1) Knox to Queen Elizabeth, July. 20th, 1559. Works, vi. +47, or ii. 26. + +There is no evidence as to how the Reformer's explanations +were received, and indeed it is most probable that the letter +was never shown to Elizabeth at all. For it was sent under +cover of another to Cecil, and as it was not of a very +courtly conception throughout, and was, of all things, what +would most excite the Queen's uneasy jealousy about her +title, it is like enough that the secretary exercised his +discretion (he had Knox's leave in this case, and did not +always wait for that, it is reputed) to put the letter +harmlessly away beside other valueless or unpresentable State +Papers. I wonder very much if he did the same with another, +(1) written two years later, after Mary had come into +Scotland, in which Knox almost seeks to make Elizabeth an +accomplice with him in the matter of the "First Blast." The +Queen of Scotland is going to have that work refuted, he +tells her; and "though it were but foolishness in him to +prescribe unto her Majesty what is to be done," he would yet +remind her that Mary is neither so much alarmed about her own +security, nor so generously interested in Elizabeth's, "that +she would take such pains, UNLESS HER CRAFTY COUNSEL IN SO +DOING SHOT AT A FURTHER MARK." There is something really +ingenious in this letter; it showed Knox in the double +capacity of the author of the "First Blast" and the faithful +friend of Elizabeth; and he combines them there so naturally, +that one would scarcely imagine the two to be incongruous. + +(1) Knox to Queen Elizabeth, August 6th, 1561. Works, vi. +126. + +Twenty days later he was defending his intemperate +publication to another queen - his own queen, Mary Stuart. +This was on the first of those three interviews which he has +preserved for us with so much dramatic vigour in the +picturesque pages of his history. After he had avowed the +authorship in his usual haughty style, Mary asked: "You +think, then, that I have no just authority?" The question +was evaded. "Please your Majesty," he answered, "that +learned men in all ages have had their judgments free, and +most commonly disagreeing from the common judgment of the +world; such also have they published by pen and tongue; and +yet notwithstanding they themselves have lived in the common +society with others, and have borne patiently with the errors +and imperfections which they could not amend." Thus did +"Plato the philosopher:" thus will do John Knox. "I have +communicated my judgment to the world: if the realm finds no +inconvenience from the regiment of a woman, that which they +approve, shall I not further disallow than within my own +breast; but shall be as well content to live under your +Grace, as Paul was to live under Nero. And my hope is, that +so long as ye defile not your hands with the blood of the +saints of God, neither I nor my book shall hurt either you or +your authority." All this is admirable in wisdom and +moderation, and, except that he might have hit upon a +comparison less offensive than that with Paul and Nero, +hardly to be bettered. Having said thus much, he feels he +needs say no more; and so, when he is further pressed, he +closes that part of the discussion with an astonishing sally. +If he has been content to let this matter sleep, he would +recommend her Grace to follow his example with thankfulness +of heart; it is grimly to be understood which of them has +most to fear if the question should be reawakened. So the +talk wandered to other subjects. Only, when the Queen was +summoned at last to dinner ("for it was afternoon") Knox made +his salutation in this form of words: "I pray God, Madam, +that you may be as much blessed within the Commonwealth of +Scotland, if it be the pleasure of God, as ever Deborah was +in the Commonwealth of Israel." (1) Deborah again. + +(1) Knox's Works, ii. 278-280. + +But he was not yet done with the echoes of his own "First +Blast." In 1571, when he was already near his end, the old +controversy was taken up in one of a series of anonymous +libels against the Reformer affixed, Sunday after Sunday, to +the church door. The dilemma was fairly enough stated. +Either his doctrine is false, in which case he is a "false +doctor" and seditious; or, if it be true, why does he "avow +and approve the contrare, I mean that regiment in the Queen +of England's person; which he avoweth and approveth, not only +praying for the maintenance of her estate, but also procuring +her aid and support against his own native country?" Knox +answered the libel, as his wont was, next Sunday, from the +pulpit. He justified the "First Blast" with all the old +arrogance; there is no drawing back there. The regiment of +women is repugnant to nature, contumely to God, and a +subversion of good order, as before. When he prays for the +maintenance of Elizabeth's estate, he is only following the +example of those prophets of God who warned and comforted the +wicked kings of Israel; or of Jeremiah, who bade the Jews +pray for the prosperity of Nebuchadnezzar. As for the +Queen's aid, there is no harm in that: QUIA (these are his +own words) QUIA OMNIA MUNDA MUNDIS: because to the pure all +things are pure. One thing, in conclusion, he "may not +pretermit" to give the lie in the throat to his accuser, +where he charges him with seeking support against his native +country. "What I have been to my country," said the old +Reformer, "What I have been to my country, albeit this +unthankful age will not know, yet the ages to come will be +compelled to bear witness to the truth. And thus I cease, +requiring of all men that have anything to oppone against me, +that he may (they may) do it so plainly, as that I may make +myself and all my doings manifest to the world. For to me it +seemeth a thing unreasonable, that, in this my decrepit age, +I shall be compelled to fight against shadows, and howlets +that dare not abide the light." (1) + +(1) Calderwood's HISTORY OF THE KIRK OF Scotland, edition of +the Wodrow Society, iii. 51-54. + +Now, in this, which may be called his LAST BLAST, there is as +sharp speaking as any in the "First Blast" itself. He is of +the same opinion to the end, you see, although he has been +obliged to cloak and garble that opinion for political ends. +He has been tacking indeed, and he has indeed been seeking +the favour of a queen; but what man ever sought a queen's +favour with a more virtuous purpose, or with as little +courtly policy? The question of consistency is delicate, and +must be made plain. Knox never changed his opinion about +female rule, but lived to regret that he had published that +opinion. Doubtless he had many thoughts so far out of the +range of public sympathy, that he could only keep them to +himself, and, in his own words, bear patiently with the +errors and imperfections that he could not amend. For +example, I make no doubt myself that, in his own heart, he +did hold the shocking dogma attributed to him by more than +one calumniator; and that, had the time been ripe, had there +been aught to gain by it, instead of all to lose, he would +have been the first to assert that Scotland was elective +instead of hereditary - "elective as in the days of +paganism," as one Thevet says in holy horror. (1) And yet, +because the time was not ripe, I find no hint of such an idea +in his collected works. Now, the regiment of women was +another matter that he should have kept to himself; right or +wrong, his opinion did not fit the moment; right or wrong, as +Aylmer puts it, "the BLAST was blown out of season." And +this it was that he began to perceive after the accession of +Elizabeth; not that he had been wrong, and that female rule +was a good thing, for he had said from the first that "the +felicity of some women in their empires" could not change the +law of God and the nature of created things; not this, but +that the regiment of women was one of those imperfections of +society which must be borne with because yet they cannot be +remedied. The thing had seemed so obvious to him, in his +sense of unspeakable masculine superiority, and his fine +contempt for what is only sanctioned by antiquity and common +consent, he had imagined that, at the first hint, men would +arise and shake off the debasing tyranny. He found himself +wrong, and he showed that he could be moderate in his own +fashion, and understood the spirit of true compromise. He +came round to Calvin's position, in fact, but by a different +way. And it derogates nothing from the merit of this wise +attitude that it was the consequence of a change of interest. +We are all taught by interest; and if the interest be not +merely selfish, there is no wiser preceptor under heaven, and +perhaps no sterner. + +(1) BAYLE'S HISTORICAL DICTIONARY, art. Knox, remark G. + +Such is the history of John Knox's connection with the +controversy about female rule. In itself, this is obviously +an incomplete study; not fully to be understood, without a +knowledge of his private relations with the other sex, and +what he thought of their position in domestic life. This +shall be dealt with in another paper. + + +II. - PRIVATE LIFE. + + +TO those who know Knox by hearsay only, I believe the matter +of this paper will be somewhat astonishing. For the hard +energy of the man in all public mattress has possessed the +imagination of the world; he remains for posterity in certain +traditional phrases, browbeating Queen Mary, or breaking +beautiful carved work in abbeys and cathedrals, that had long +smoked themselves out and were no more than sorry ruins, +while he was still quietly teaching children in a country +gentleman's family. It does not consist with the common +acceptation of his character to fancy him much moved, except +with anger. And yet the language of passion came to his pen +as readily, whether it was a passion of denunciation against +some of the abuses that vexed his righteous spirit, or of +yearning for the society of an absent friend. He was +vehement in affection, as in doctrine. I will not deny that +there may have been, along with his vehemence, something +shifty, and for the moment only; that, like many men, and +many Scotchmen, he saw the world and his own heart, not so +much under any very steady, equable light, as by extreme +flashes of passion, true for the moment, but not true in the +long run. There does seem to me to be something of this +traceable in the Reformer's utterances: precipitation and +repentance, hardy speech and action somewhat circumspect, a +strong tendency to see himself in a heroic light and to place +a ready belief in the disposition of the moment. Withal he +had considerable confidence in himself, and in the +uprightness of his own disciplined emotions, underlying much +sincere aspiration after spiritual humility. And it is this +confidence that makes his intercourse with women so +interesting to a modern. It would be easy, of course, to +make fun of the whole affair, to picture him strutting +vaingloriously among these inferior creatures, or compare a +religious friendship in the sixteenth century with what was +called, I think, a literary friendship in the eighteenth. +But it is more just and profitable to recognise what there is +sterling and human underneath all his theoretical +affectations of superiority. Women, he has said in his +"First Blast," are, "weak, frail, impatient, feeble, and +foolish;" and yet it does not appear that he was himself any +less dependent than other men upon the sympathy and affection +of these weak, frail, impatient, feeble, and foolish +creatures; it seems even as if he had been rather more +dependent than most. + +Of those who are to act influentially on their fellows, we +should expect always something large and public in their way +of life, something more or less urbane and comprehensive in +their sentiment for others. We should not expect to see them +spend their sympathy in idyls, however beautiful. We should +not seek them among those who, if they have but a wife to +their bosom, ask no more of womankind, just as they ask no +more of their own sex, if they can find a friend or two for +their immediate need. They will be quick to feel all the +pleasures of our association - not the great ones alone, but +all. They will know not love only, but all those other ways +in which man and woman mutually make each other happy - by +sympathy, by admiration, by the atmosphere they bear about +them - down to the mere impersonal pleasure of passing happy +faces in the street. For, through all this gradation, the +difference of sex makes itself pleasurably felt. Down to the +most lukewarm courtesies of life, there is a special chivalry +due and a special pleasure received, when the two sexes are +brought ever so lightly into contact. We love our mothers +otherwise than we love our fathers; a sister is not as a +brother to us; and friendship between man and woman, be it +never so unalloyed and innocent, is not the same as +friendship between man and man. Such friendship is not even +possible for all. To conjoin tenderness for a woman that is +not far short of passionate with such disinterestedness and +beautiful gratuity of affection as there is between friends +of the same sex, requires no ordinary disposition in the man. +For either it would presuppose quite womanly delicacy of +perception, and, as it were, a curiosity in shades of +differing sentiment; or it would mean that he had accepted +the large, simple divisions of society: a strong and positive +spirit robustly virtuous, who has chosen a better part +coarsely, and holds to it steadfastly, with all its +consequences of pain to himself and others; as one who should +go straight before him on a journey, neither tempted by +wayside flowers nor very scrupulous of small lives under +foot. It was in virtue of this latter disposition that Knox +was capable of those intimacies with women that embellished +his life; and we find him preserved for us in old letters as +a man of many women friends; a man of some expansion toward +the other sex; a man ever ready to comfort weeping women, and +to weep along with them. + +Of such scraps and fragments of evidence as to his private +life and more intimate thoughts as have survived to us from +all the perils that environ written paper, an astonishingly +large proportion is in the shape of letters to women of his +familiarity. He was twice married, but that is not greatly +to the purpose; for the Turk, who thinks even more meanly of +women than John Knox, is none the less given to marrying. +What is really significant is quite apart from marriage. For +the man Knox was a true man, and woman, the EWIG-WEIBLICHE, +was as necessary to him, in spite of all low theories, as +ever she was to Goethe. He came to her in a certain halo of +his own, as the minister of truth, just as Goethe came to her +in a glory of art; he made himself necessary to troubled +hearts and minds exercised in the painful complications that +naturally result from all changes in the world's way of +thinking; and those whom he had thus helped became dear to +him, and were made the chosen companions of his leisure if +they were at hand, or encouraged and comforted by letter if +they were afar. + +It must not be forgotten that Knox had been a presbyter of +the old Church, and that the many women whom we shall see +gathering around him, as he goes through life, had probably +been accustomed, while still in the communion of Rome, to +rely much upon some chosen spiritual director, so that the +intimacies of which I propose to offer some account, while +testifying to a good heart in the Reformer, testify also to a +certain survival of the spirit of the confessional in the +Reformed Church, and are not properly to be judged without +this idea. There is no friendship so noble, but it is the +product of the time; and a world of little finical +observances, and little frail proprieties and fashions of the +hour, go to make or to mar, to stint or to perfect, the union +of spirits the most loving and the most intolerant of such +interference. The trick of the country and the age steps in +even between the mother and her child, counts out their +caresses upon niggardly fingers, and says, in the voice of +authority, that this one thing shall be a matter of +confidence between them, and this other thing shall not. And +thus it is that we must take into reckoning whatever tended +to modify the social atmosphere in which Knox and his women +friends met, and loved and trusted each other. To the man +who had been their priest and was now their minister, women +would be able to speak with a confidence quite impossible in +these latter days; the women would be able to speak, and the +man to hear. It was a beaten road just then; and I daresay +we should be no less scandalised at their plain speech than +they, if they could come back to earth, would be offended at +our waltzes and worldly fashions. This, then, was the +footing on which Knox stood with his many women friends. The +reader will see, as he goes on, how much of warmth, of +interest, and of that happy mutual dependence which is the +very gist of friendship, he contrived to ingraft upon this +somewhat dry relationship of penitent and confessor. + +It must be understood that we know nothing of his intercourse +with women (as indeed we know little at all about his life) +until he came to Berwick in 1549, when he was already in the +forty-fifth year of his age. At the same time it is just +possible that some of a little group at Edinburgh, with whom +he corresponded during his last absence, may have been +friends of an older standing. Certainly they were, of all +his female correspondents, the least personally favoured. He +treats them throughout in a comprehensive sort of spirit that +must at times have been a little wounding. Thus, he remits +one of them to his former letters, "which I trust be common +betwixt you and the rest of our sisters, for to me ye are all +equal in Christ." (1) Another letter is a gem in this way. +"Albeit" it begins, "albeit I have no particular matter to +write unto you, beloved sister, yet I could not refrain to +write these few lines to you in declaration of my remembrance +of you. True it is that I have many whom I bear in equal +remembrance before God with you, to whom at present I write +nothing, either for that I esteem them stronger than you, and +therefore they need the less my rude labours, or else because +they have not provoked me by their writing to recompense +their remembrance." (2) His "sisters in Edinburgh" had +evidently to "provoke his attention pretty constantly; nearly +all his letters are, on the face of them, answers to +questions, and the answers are given with a certain crudity +that I do not find repeated when he writes to those he really +cares for. So when they consult him about women's apparel (a +subject on which his opinion may be pretty correctly imagined +by the ingenious reader for himself) he takes occasion to +anticipate some of the most offensive matter of the "First +Blast" in a style of real brutality. (3) It is not merely +that he tells them "the garments of women do declare their +weakness and inability to execute the office of man," though +that in itself is neither very wise nor very opportune in +such a correspondence one would think; but if the reader will +take the trouble to wade through the long, tedious sermon for +himself, he will see proof enough that Knox neither loved, +nor very deeply respected, the women he was then addressing. +In very truth, I believe these Edinburgh sisters simply bored +him. He had a certain interest in them as his children in +the Lord; they were continually "provoking him by their +writing;" and, if they handed his letters about, writing to +them was as good a form of publication as was then open to +him in Scotland. There is one letter, however, in this +budget, addressed to the wife of Clerk-Register Mackgil, +which is worthy of some further mention. The Clerk-Register +had not opened his heart, it would appear, to the preaching +of the Gospel, and Mrs. Mackgil has written, seeking the +Reformer's prayers in his behalf. "Your husband," he +answers, "is dear to me for that he is a man indued with some +good gifts, but more dear for that he is your husband. +Charity moveth me to thirst his illumination, both for his +comfort and for the trouble which you sustain by his +coldness, which justly may be called infidelity." He wishes +her, however, not to hope too much; he can promise that his +prayers will be earnest, but not that they will be effectual; +it is possible that this is to be her "cross" in life; that +"her head, appointed by God for her comfort, should be her +enemy." And if this be so, well, there is nothing for it; +"with patience she must abide God's merciful deliverance," +taking heed only that she does not "obey manifest iniquity +for the pleasure of any mortal man." (4) I conceive this +epistle would have given a very modified sort of pleasure to +the Clerk-Register, had it chanced to fall into his hands. +Compare its tenor - the dry resignation not without a hope of +merciful deliverance therein recommended - with these words +from another letter, written but the year before to two +married women of London: "Call first for grace by Jesus, and +thereafter communicate with your faithful husbands, and then +shall God, I doubt not, conduct your footsteps, and direct +your counsels to His glory." (5) Here the husbands are put +in a very high place; we can recognise here the same hand +that has written for our instruction how the man is set above +the woman, even as God above the angels. But the point of +the distinction is plain. For Clerk-Register Mackgil was not +a faithful husband; displayed, indeed, towards religion a +"coldness which justly might be called infidelity." We shall +see in more notable instances how much Knox's conception of +the duty of wives varies according to the zeal and orthodoxy +of the husband. + +(1) Works, iv. 244. +(2) Works, iv. 246. +(3) IB. iv. 225. +(4) Works, iv. 245. +(5) IB. iv. 221. + +As I have said, he may possibly have made the acquaintance of +Mrs. Mackgil, Mrs. Guthrie, or some other, or all, of these +Edinburgh friends while he was still Douglas of Longniddry's +private tutor. But our certain knowledge begins in 1549. He +was then but newly escaped from his captivity in France, +after pulling an oar for nineteen months on the benches of +the galley NOSTRE DAME; now up the rivers, holding stealthy +intercourse with other Scottish prisoners in the castle of +Rouen; now out in the North Sea, raising his sick head to +catch a glimpse of the far-off steeples of St. Andrews. And +now he was sent down by the English Privy Council as a +preacher to Berwick-upon-Tweed; somewhat shaken in health by +all his hardships, full of pains and agues, and tormented by +gravel, that sorrow of great men; altogether, what with his +romantic story, his weak health, and his great faculty of +eloquence, a very natural object for the sympathy of devout +women. At this happy juncture he fell into the company of a +Mrs. Elizabeth Bowes, wife of Richard Bowes, of Aske, in +Yorkshire, to whom she had borne twelve children. She was a +religious hypochondriac, a very weariful woman, full of +doubts and scruples, and giving no rest on earth either to +herself or to those whom she honoured with her confidence. +From the first time she heard Knox preach she formed a high +opinion of him, and was solicitous ever after of his society. +(1) Nor was Knox unresponsive. "I have always delighted in +your company," he writes, "and when labours would permit, you +know I have not spared hours to talk and commune with you." +Often when they had met in depression he reminds her, "God +hath sent great comfort unto both." (2) We can gather from +such letters as are yet extant how close and continuous was +their intercourse. "I think it best you remain till the +morrow," he writes once, "and so shall we commune at large at +afternoon. This day you know to be the day of my study and +prayer unto God; yet if your trouble be intolerable, or, if +you think my presence may release your pain, do as the Spirit +shall move you. . . . Your messenger found me in bed, after a +sore trouble and most dolorous night, and so dolour may +complain to dolour when we two meet. . . . And this is more +plain than ever I spoke, to let you know you have a companion +in trouble." (3) Once we have the curtain raised for a +moment, and can look at the two together for the length of a +phrase. "After the writing of this preceding," writes Knox, +"your brother and mine, Harrie Wycliffe, did advertise me by +writing, that our adversary (the devil) took occasion to +trouble you because that I DID START BACK FROM YOU REHEARSING +YOUR INFIRMITIES. I REMEMBER MYSELF SO TO HAVE DONE, AND +THAT IS MY COMMON ON CONSUETUDE WHEN ANYTHING PIERCETH OR +TOUCHETH MY HEART. CALL TO YOUR MIND WHAT I DID STANDING AT +THE CUPBOARD AT ALNWICK. In very deed I thought that no +creature had been tempted as I was; and when I heard proceed +from your mouth the very same words that he troubles me with, +I did wonder and from my heart lament your sore trouble, +knowing in myself the dolour thereof." (4) Now intercourse of +so very close a description, whether it be religious +intercourse or not, is apt to displease and disquiet a +husband; and we know incidentally from Knox himself that +there was some little scandal about his intimacy with Mrs. +Bowes. "The slander and fear of men," he writes, "has +impeded me to exercise my pen so oft as I would; YEA, VERY +SHAME HATH HOLDEN ME FROM YOUR COMPANY, WHEN I WAS MOST +SURELY PERSUADED THAT GOD HAD APPOINTED ME AT THAT TIME TO +COMFORT AND FEED YOUR HUNGRY AND AFFLICTED SOUL. GOD IN HIS +INFINITE MERCY," he goes on, "REMOVE NOT ONLY FROM ME ALL +FEAR THAT TENDETH NOT TO GODLINESS, BUT FROM OTHERS SUSPICION +TO JUDGE OF ME OTHERWISE THAN IT BECOMETH ONE MEMBER TO JUDGE +OF ANOTHER," (5) And the scandal, such as it was, would not +be allayed by the dissension in which Mrs. Bowes seems to +have lived with her family upon the matter of religion, and +the countenance shown by Knox to her resistance. Talking of +these conflicts, and her courage against "her own flesh and +most inward affections, yea, against some of her most natural +friends," he writes it, "to the praise of God, he has +wondered at the bold constancy which he has found in her when +his own heart was faint." (6) + +(1) Works, vi. 514. +(2) IB. iii. 338. +(3) IB. iii. 352, 353. +(4) Works, iii. 350. +(5) IB. iii. 390, 391. +(6) Works, iii. 142. + +Now, perhaps in order to stop scandalous mouths, perhaps out +of a desire to bind the much-loved evangelist nearer to her +in the only manner possible, Mrs. Bowes conceived the scheme +of marrying him to her fifth daughter, Marjorie; and the +Reformer seems to have fallen in with it readily enough. It +seems to have been believed in the family that the whole +matter had been originally made up between these two, with no +very spontaneous inclination on the part of the bride. (1) +Knox's idea of marriage, as I have said, was not the same for +all men; but on the whole, it was not lofty. We have a +curious letter of his, written at the request of Queen Mary, +to the Earl of Argyle, on very delicate household matters; +which, as he tells us, "was not well accepted of the said +Earl." (2) We may suppose, however, that his own home was +regulated in a similar spirit. I can fancy that for such a +man, emotional, and with a need, now and again, to exercise +parsimony in emotions not strictly needful, something a +little mechanical, something hard and fast and clearly +understood, would enter into his ideal of a home. There were +storms enough without, and equability was to be desired at +the fireside even at a sacrifice of deeper pleasures. So, +from a wife, of all women, he would not ask much. One letter +to her which has come down to us is, I had almost said, +conspicuous for coldness. (3) He calls her, as he called +other female correspondents, "dearly beloved sister;" the +epistle is doctrinal, and nearly the half of it bears, not +upon her own case, but upon that of her mother. However, we +know what Heine wrote in his wife's album; and there is, +after all, one passage that may be held to intimate some +tenderness, although even that admits of an amusingly +opposite construction. "I think," he says, "I THINK this be +the first letter I ever wrote to you." This, if we are to +take it literally, may pair off with the "two OR THREE +children" whom Montaigne mentions having lost at nurse; the +one is as eccentric in a lover as the other in a parent. +Nevertheless, he displayed more energy in the course of his +troubled wooing than might have been expected. The whole +Bowes family, angry enough already at the influence he had +obtained over the mother, set their faces obdurately against +the match. And I daresay the opposition quickened his +inclination. I find him writing to Mrs. Bowes that she need +no further trouble herself about the marriage; it should now +be his business altogether; it behoved him now to jeopard his +life "for the comfort of his own flesh, both fear and +friendship of all earthly creature laid aside." (4) This is +a wonderfully chivalrous utterance for a Reformer forty-eight +years old; and it compares well with the leaden coquetries of +Calvin, not much over thirty, taking this and that into +consideration, weighing together dowries and religious +qualifications and the instancy of friends, and exhibiting +what M. Bungener calls "an honourable and Christian +difficulty" of choice, in frigid indecisions and insincere +proposals. But Knox's next letter is in a humbler tone; he +has not found the negotiation so easy as he fancied; he +despairs of the marriage altogether, and talks of leaving +England, - regards not "what country consumes his wicked +carcass." "You shall understand," he says, "that this sixth +of November, I spoke with Sir Robert Bowes" (the head of the +family, his bride's uncle) "in the matter you know, according +to your request; whose disdainful, yea, despiteful, words +hath so pierced my heart that my life is bitter to me. I +bear a good countenance with a sore troubled heart, because +he that ought to consider matters with a deep judgment is +become not only a despiser, but also a taunter of God's +messengers - God be merciful unto him! Amongst others his +most unpleasing words, while that I was about to have +declared my heart in the whole matter, he said, `Away with +your rhetorical reasons! for I will not be persuaded with +them.' God knows I did use no rhetoric nor coloured speech; +but would have spoken the truth, and that in most simple +manner. I am not a good orator in my own cause; but what he +would not be content to hear of me, God shall declare to him +one day to his displeasure, unless he repent." (5) Poor +Knox, you see, is quite commoved. It has been a very +unpleasant interview. And as it is the only sample that we +have of how things went with him during his courtship, we may +infer that the period was not as agreeable for Knox as it has +been for some others. + +(1) IB. iii. 378. +(2) LB. ii. 379. +(3) Works, iii. 394. +(4) Works, iii. 376. +(5) Works, iii. 378. + +However, when once they were married, I imagine he and +Marjorie Bowes hit it off together comfortably enough. The +little we know of it may be brought together in a very short +space. She bore him two sons. He seems to have kept her +pretty busy, and depended on her to some degree in his work; +so that when she fell ill, his papers got at once into +disorder. (1) Certainly she sometimes wrote to his +dictation; and, in this capacity, he calls her "his left +hand." (2) In June 1559, at the headiest moment of the +Reformation in Scotland, he writes regretting the absence of +his helpful colleague, Goodman, "whose presence" (this is the +not very grammatical form of his lament) "whose presence I +more thirst, than she that is my own flesh." (3) And this, +considering the source and the circumstances, may be held as +evidence of a very tender sentiment. He tells us himself in +his history, on the occasion of a certain meeting at the Kirk +of Field, that "he was in no small heaviness by reason of the +late death of his dear bed-fellow, Marjorie Bowes." (4) +Calvin, condoling with him, speaks of her as "a wife whose +like is not to be found everywhere" (that is very like +Calvin), and again, as "the most delightful of wives." We +know what Calvin thought desirable in a wife, "good humour, +chastity, thrift, patience, and solicitude for her husband's +health," and so we may suppose that the first Mrs. Knox fell +not far short of this ideal. + +(1) Works, vi. 104. +(2) IB. v. 5. +(3) IB. vi. 27. +(4) IB. ii. 138. + +The actual date of the marriage is uncertain but by September +1566, at the latest, the Reformer was settled in Geneva with +his wife. There is no fear either that he will be dull; even +if the chaste, thrifty, patient Marjorie should not +altogether occupy his mind, he need not go out of the house +to seek more female sympathy; for behold! Mrs. Bowes is duly +domesticated with the young couple. Dr. M'Crie imagined that +Richard Bowes was now dead, and his widow, consequently, free +to live where she would; and where could she go more +naturally than to the house of a married daughter? This, +however, is not the case. Richard Bowes did not die till at +least two years later. It is impossible to believe that he +approved of his wife's desertion, after so many years of +marriage, after twelve children had been born to them; and +accordingly we find in his will, dated 1558, no mention +either of her or of Knox's wife. (1) This is plain sailing. +It is easy enough to understand the anger of Bowes against +this interloper, who had come into a quiet family, married +the daughter in spite of the father's opposition, alienated +the wife from the husband and the husband's religion, +supported her in a long course of resistance and rebellion, +and, after years of intimacy, already too close and tender +for any jealous spirit to behold without resentment, carried +her away with him at last into a foreign land. But it is not +quite easy to understand how, except out of sheer weariness +and disgust, he was ever brought to agree to the arrangement. +Nor is it easy to square the Reformer's conduct with his +public teaching. We have, for instance, a letter by him, +Craig, and Spottiswood, to the Archbishops of Canterbury and +York, anent "a wicked and rebellious woman," one Anne Good, +spouse to "John Barron, a minister of Christ Jesus his +evangel," who, "after great rebellion shown unto him, and +divers admonitions given, as well by himself as by others in +his name, that she should in no wise depart from this realm, +nor from his house without his license, hath not the less +stubbornly and rebelliously departed, separated herself from +his society, left his house, and withdrawn herself from this +realm." (2) Perhaps some sort of license was extorted, as I +have said, from Richard Bowes, weary with years of domestic +dissension; but setting that aside, the words employed with +so much righteous indignation by Knox, Craig, and +Spottiswood, to describe the conduct of that wicked and +rebellious woman, Mrs. Barron, would describe nearly as +exactly the conduct of the religious Mrs. Bowes. It is a +little bewildering, until we recollect the distinction +between faithful and unfaithful husbands; for Barron was "a +minister of Christ Jesus his evangel," while Richard Bowes, +besides being own brother to a despiser and taunter of God's +messengers, is shrewdly suspected to have been "a bigoted +adherent of the Roman Catholic faith," or, as Know himself +would have expressed it, "a rotten Papist." + +(1) Mr. Laing's preface to the sixth volume of Knox's Works, +p. lxii. +(2) Works. vi. 534. + +You would have thought that Know was now pretty well supplied +with female society. But we are not yet at the end of the +roll. The last year of his sojourn in England had been spent +principally in London, where he was resident as one of the +chaplains of Edward the Sixth; and here he boasts, although a +stranger, he had, by God's grace, found favour before many. +(1) The godly women of the metropolis made much of him; once +he writes to Mrs. Bowes that her last letter had found him +closeted with three, and he and the three women were all in +tears. (2) Out of all, however, he had chosen two. "GOD," he +writes to them, "BROUGHT US IN SUCH FAMILIAR ACQUAINTANCE, +THAT YOUR HEARTS WERE INCENSED AND KINDLED WITH A SPECIAL +CARE OVER ME, AS A MOTHER USETH TO BE OVER HER NATURAL CHILD; +and my heart was opened and compelled in your presence to be +more plain than ever I was to any." (3) And out of the two +even he had chosen one, Mrs. Anne Locke, wife to Mr. Harry +Locke, merchant, nigh to Bow Kirk, Cheapside, in London, as +the address runs. If one may venture to judge upon such +imperfect evidence, this was the woman he loved best. I have +a difficulty in quite forming to myself an idea of her +character. She may have been one of the three tearful +visitors before alluded to; she may even have been that one +of them who was so profoundly moved by some passages of Mrs. +Bowes's letter, which the Reformer opened, and read aloud to +them before they went. "O would to God," cried this +impressionable matron, "would to God that I might speak with +that person, for I perceive there are more tempted than I." +(4) This may have been Mrs. Locke, as I say; but even if it +were, we must not conclude from this one fact that she was +such another as Mrs. Bowes. All the evidence tends the other +way. She was a woman of understanding, plainly, who followed +political events with interest, and to whom Knox thought it +worth while to write, in detail, the history of his trials +and successes. She was religious, but without that morbid +perversity of spirit that made religion so heavy a burden for +the poor-hearted Mrs. Bowes. More of her I do not find, save +testimony to the profound affection that united her to the +Reformer. So we find him writing to her from Geneva, in such +terms as these:- "You write that your desire is earnest to +see me. DEAR SISTER, IF I SHOULD EXPRESS THE THIRST AND +LANGUOR WHICH I HAVE HAD FOR YOUR PRESENCE, I SHOULD APPEAR +TO PASS MEASURE. . . YEA, I WEEP AND REJOICE IN REMEMBRANCE +OF YOU; but that would evanish by the comfort of your +presence, which I assure you is so dear to me, that if the +charge of this little flock here, gathered together in +Christ's name, did not impede me, my coming should prevent my +letter." (5) I say that this was written from Geneva; and +yet you will observe that it is no consideration for his wife +or mother-in-law, only the charge of his little flock, that +keeps him from setting out forthwith for London, to comfort +himself with the dear presence of Mrs. Locke. Remember that +was a certain plausible enough pretext for Mrs. Locke to come +to Geneva - "the most perfect school of Christ that ever was +on earth since the days of the Apostles" - for we are now +under the reign of that "horrible monster Jezebel of +England," when a lady of good orthodox sentiments was better +out of London. It was doubtful, however, whether this was to +be. She was detained in England, partly by circumstances +unknown, "partly by empire of her head," Mr. Harry Locke, the +Cheapside merchant. It is somewhat humorous to see Knox +struggling for resignation, now that he has to do with a +faithful husband (for Mr. Harry Locke was faithful). Had it +been otherwise, "in my heart," he says, "I could have wished +- yea," here he breaks out, "yea, and cannot cease to wish - +that God would guide you to this place." (6) And after all, +he had not long to wait, for, whether Mr. Harry Locke died in +the interval, or was wearied, he too, into giving permission, +five months after the date of the letter last quoted, "Mrs. +Anne Locke, Harry her son, and Anne her daughter, and +Katherine her maid," arrived in that perfect school of +Christ, the Presbyterian paradise, Geneva. So now, and for +the next two years, the cup of Knox's happiness was surely +full. Of an afternoon, when the bells rang out for the +sermon, the shops closed, and the good folk gathered to the +churches, psalm-book in hand, we can imagine him drawing near +to the English chapel in quite patriarchal fashion, with Mrs. +Knox and Mrs. Bowes and Mrs. Locke, James his servant, +Patrick his pupil, and a due following of children and maids. +He might be alone at work all morning in his study, for he +wrote much during these two years; but at night, you may be +sure there was a circle of admiring women, eager to hear the +new paragraph, and not sparing of applause. And what work, +among others, was he elaborating at this time, but the +notorious "First Blast"? So that he may have rolled out in +his big pulpit voice, how women were weak, frail, impatient, +feeble, foolish, inconstant, variable, cruel, and lacking the +spirit of counsel, and how men were above them, even as God +is above the angels, in the ears of his own wife, and the two +dearest friends he had on earth. But he had lost the sense +of incongruity, and continued to despise in theory the sex he +honoured so much in practice, of whom he chose his most +intimate associates, and whose courage he was compelled to +wonder at, when his own heart was faint. + +(1) Works, iv. 220. +(2) IB. iii. 380. +(3) IB. iv. 220. +(4) Works, iii. 380. +(5) Works, iv. 238. +(6) Works, iv. 240. + +We may say that such a man was not worthy of his fortune; and +so, as he would not learn, he was taken away from that +agreeable school, and his fellowship of women was broken up, +not to be reunited. Called into Scotland to take at last +that strange position in history which is his best claim to +commemoration, he was followed thither by his wife and his +mother-in-law. The wife soon died. The death of her +daughter did not altogether separate Mrs. Bowes from Knox, +but she seems to have come and gone between his house and +England. In 1562, however, we find him characterised as "a +sole man by reason of the absence of his mother-in-law, Mrs. +Bowes," and a passport is got for her, her man, a maid, and +"three horses, whereof two shall return," as well as liberty +to take all her own money with her into Scotland. This looks +like a definite arrangement; but whether she died at +Edinburgh, or went back to England yet again, I cannot find. + +With that great family of hers, unless in leaving her husband +she had quarrelled with them all, there must have been +frequent occasion for her presence, one would think. Knox at +least survived her; and we possess his epigraph to their long +intimacy, given to the world by him in an appendix to his +latest publication. I have said in a former paper that Knox +was not shy of personal revelations in his published works. +And the trick seems to have grown on him. To this last +tract, a controversial onslaught on a Scottish Jesuit, he +prefixed a prayer, not very pertinent to the matter in hand, +and containing references to his family which were the +occasion of some wit in his adversary's answer; and appended +what seems equally irrelevant, one of his devout letters to +Mrs. Bowes, with an explanatory preface. To say truth, I +believe he had always felt uneasily that the circumstances of +this intimacy were very capable of misconstruction; and now, +when he was an old man, taking "his good night of all the +faithful in both realms," and only desirous "that without any +notable sclander to the evangel of Jesus Christ, he might end +his battle; for as the world was weary of him, so was he of +it;" - in such a spirit it was not, perhaps, unnatural that +he should return to this old story, and seek to put it right +in the eyes of all men, ere he died. "Because that God," he +says, "because that God now in His mercy hath put an end to +the battle of my dear mother, Mistress Elizabeth Bowes, +before that He put an end to my wretched life, I could not +cease but declare to the world what was the cause of our +great familiarity and long acquaintance; which was neither +flesh nor blood, but a troubled conscience upon her part, +which never suffered her to rest but when she was in the +company of the faithful, of whom (from the first hearing of +the word at my mouth) she judged me to be one. . . . Her +company to me was comfortable (yea, honourable and +profitable, for she was to me and mine a mother), but yet it +was not without some cross; for besides trouble and fashery +of body sustained for her, my mind was seldom quiet, for +doing somewhat for the comfort of her troubled conscience." +(1) He had written to her years before, from his first exile +in Dieppe, that "only God's hand" could withhold him from +once more speaking with her face to face; and now, when God's +hand has indeed interposed, when there lies between them, +instead of the voyageable straits, that great gulf over which +no man can pass, this is the spirit in which he can look back +upon their long acquaintance. She was a religious +hypochondriac, it appears, whom, not without some cross and +fashery of mind and body, he was good enough to tend. He +might have given a truer character of their friendship, had +he thought less of his own standing in public estimation, and +more of the dead woman. But he was in all things, as Burke +said of his son in that ever memorable passage, a public +creature. He wished that even into this private place of his +affections posterity should follow him with a complete +approval; and he was willing, in order that this might be so, +to exhibit the defects of his lost friend, and tell the world +what weariness he had sustained through her unhappy +disposition. There is something here that reminds one of +Rousseau. + +(1) Works, vi. 513, 514. + +I do not think he ever saw Mrs. Locke after he left Geneva; +but his correspondence with her continued for three years. +It may have continued longer, of course, but I think the last +letters we possess read like the last that would be written. +Perhaps Mrs. Locke was then remarried, for there is much +obscurity over her subsequent history. For as long as their +intimacy was kept up, at least, the human element remains in +the Reformer's life. Here is one passage, for example, the +most likable utterance of Knox's that I can quote:- Mrs Locke +has been upbraiding him as a bad correspondent. "My +remembrance of you," he answers, "is not so dead, but I trust +it shall be fresh enough, albeit it be renewed by no outward +token for one year. OF NATURE, I AM CHURLISH; YET ONE THING +I ASHAME NOT TO AFFIRM, THAT FAMILIARITY ONCE THOROUGHLY +CONTRACTED WAS NEVER YET BROKEN ON MY DEFAULT. THE CAUSE MAY +BE THAT I HAVE RATHER NEED OF ALL, THAN THAT ANY HAVE NEED OF +ME. However it (THAT) be, it cannot be, as I say, the +corporal absence of one year or two that can quench in my +heart that familiar acquaintance in Christ Jesus, which half +a year did engender, and almost two years did nourish and +confirm. And therefore, whether I write or no, be assuredly +persuaded that I have you in such memory as becometh the +faithful to have of the faithful." (1) This is the truest +touch of personal humility that I can remember to have seen +in all the five volumes of the Reformer's collected works: it +is no small honour to Mrs. Locke that his affection for her +should have brought home to him this unwonted feeling of +dependence upon others. Everything else in the course of the +correspondence testifies to a good, sound, down-right sort of +friendship between the two, less ecstatic than it was at +first, perhaps, but serviceable and very equal. He gives her +ample details is to the progress of the work of reformation; +sends her the sheets of the CONFESSION OF FAITH, "in quairs," +as he calls it; asks her to assist him with her prayers, to +collect money for the good cause in Scotland, and to send him +books for himself - books by Calvin especially, one on +Isaiah, and a new revised edition of the "Institutes." "I +must be bold on your liberality," he writes, "not only in +that, but in greater things as I shall need." (2) On her +part she applies to him for spiritual advice, not after the +manner of the drooping Mrs. Bowes, but in a more positive +spirit, - advice as to practical points, advice as to the +Church of England, for instance, whose ritual he condemns as +a "mingle-mangle." (3) Just at the end she ceases to write, +sends him "a token, without writing." "I understand your +impediment," he answers, "and therefore I cannot complain. +Yet if you understood the variety of my temptations, I doubt +not but you would have written somewhat." (4) One letter +more, and then silence. + +(1) Works, vi. ii. +(2) Works, vi. pp. 21. 101, 108, 130. +(3) IB. vi. 83. +(4) IB. vi. 129. + +And I think the best of the Reformer died out with that +correspondence. It is after this, of course, that he wrote +that ungenerous description of his intercourse with Mrs. +Bowes. It is after this, also, that we come to the unlovely +episode of his second marriage. He had been left a widower +at the age of fifty-five. Three years after, it occurred +apparently to yet another pious parent to sacrifice a child +upon the altar of his respect for the Reformer. In January +1563, Randolph writes to Cecil: "Your Honour will take it for +a great wonder when I shall write unto you that Mr. Knox +shall marry a very near kinswoman of the Duke's, a Lord's +daughter, a young lass not above sixteen years of age." (1) +He adds that he fears he will be laughed at for reporting so +mad a story. And yet it was true; and on Palm Sunday, 1564, +Margaret Stewart, daughter of Andrew Lord Stewart of +Ochiltree, aged seventeen, was duly united to John Knox, +Minister of St. Giles's Kirk, Edinburgh, aged fifty-nine, - +to the great disgust of Queen Mary from family pride, and I +would fain hope of many others for more humane +considerations. "In this," as Randolph says, "I wish he had +done otherwise." The Consistory of Geneva, "that most +perfect school of Christ that ever was on earth since the +days of the Apostles," were wont to forbid marriages on the +ground of too great a disproportion in age. I cannot help +wondering whether the old Reformer's conscience did not +uneasily remind him, now and again, of this good custom of +his religious metropolis, as he thought of the two-and-forty +years that separated him from his poor bride. Fitly enough, +we hear nothing of the second Mrs. Knox until she appears at +her husband's deathbed, eight years after. She bore him +three daughters in the interval; and I suppose the poor +child's martyrdom was made as easy for her as might be. She +was extremely attentive to him "at the end, we read and he +seems to have spoken to her with some confidence. Moreover, +and this is very characteristic, he had copied out for her +use a little volume of his own devotional letters to other +women. + +(1) Works, vi. 532. + +This is the end of the roll, unless we add to it Mrs. +Adamson, who had delighted much in his company "by reason +that she had a troubled conscience," and whose deathbed is +commemorated at some length in the pages of his history. (1) + +(1) Works, i. 246. + +And now, looking back, it cannot be said that Knox's +intercourse with women was quite of the highest sort. It is +characteristic that we find him more alarmed for his own +reputation than for the reputation of the women with whom he +was familiar. There was a fatal preponderance of self in all +his intimacies: many women came to learn from him, but he +never condescended to become a learner in his turn. And so +there is not anything idyllic in these intimacies of his; and +they were never so renovating to his spirit as they might +have been. But I believe they were good enough for the +women. I fancy the women knew what they were about when so +many of them followed after Knox. It is not simply because a +man is always fully persuaded that he knows the right from +the wrong and sees his way plainly through the maze of life, +great qualities as these are, that people will love and +follow him, and write him letters full of their "earnest +desire for him" when he is absent. It is not over a man, +whose one characteristic is grim fixity of purpose, that the +hearts of women are "incensed and kindled with a special +care," as it were over their natural children. In the strong +quiet patience of all his letters to the weariful Mrs. Bowes, +we may perhaps see one cause of the fascination he possessed +for these religious women. Here was one whom you could +besiege all the year round with inconsistent scruples and +complaints; you might write to him on Thursday that you were +so elated it was plain the devil was deceiving you, and again +on Friday that you were so depressed it was plain God had +cast you off for ever; and he would read all this patiently +and sympathetically, and give you an answer in the most +reassuring polysyllables, and all divided into heads - who +knows? - like a treatise on divinity. And then, those easy +tears of his. There are some women who like to see men +crying; and here was this great-voiced, bearded man of God, +who might be seen beating the solid pulpit every Sunday, and +casting abroad his clamorous denunciations to the terror of +all, and who on the Monday would sit in their parlours by the +hour, and weep with them over their manifold trials and +temptations. Nowadays, he would have to drink a dish of tea +with all these penitents. . . . It sounds a little vulgar, as +the past will do, if we look into it too closely. We could +not let these great folk of old into our drawing-rooms. +Queen Elizabeth would positively not be eligible for a +housemaid. The old manners and the old customs go sinking +from grade to grade, until, if some mighty emperor revisited +the glimpses of the moon, he would not find any one of his +way of thinking, any one he could strike hands with and talk +to freely and without offence, save perhaps the porter at the +end of the street, or the fellow with his elbows out who +loafs all day before the public-house. So that this little +note of vulgarity is not a thing to be dwelt upon; it is to +be put away from us, as we recall the fashion of these old +intimacies; so that we may only remember Knox as one who was +very long-suffering with women, kind to them in his own way, +loving them in his own way - and that not the worst way, if +it was not the best - and once at least, if not twice, moved +to his heart of hearts by a woman, and giving expression to +the yearning he had for her society in words that none of us +need be ashamed to borrow. + +And let us bear in mind always that the period I have gone +over in this essay begins when the Reformer was already +beyond the middle age, and already broken in bodily health: +it has been the story of an old man's friendships. This it +is that makes Knox enviable. Unknown until past forty, he +had then before him five-and-thirty years of splendid and +influential life, passed through uncommon hardships to an +uncommon degree of power, lived in his own country as a sort +of king, and did what he would with the sound of his voice +out of the pulpit. And besides all this, such a following of +faithful women! One would take the first forty years gladly, +if one could be sure of the last thirty. Most of us, even +if, by reason of great strength and the dignity of gray +hairs, we retain some degree of public respect in the latter +days of our existence, will find a falling away of friends, +and a solitude making itself round about us day by day, until +we are left alone with the hired sick-nurse. For the +attraction of a man's character is apt to be outlived, like +the attraction of his body; and the power to love grows +feeble in its turn, as well as the power to inspire love in +others. It is only with a few rare natures that friendship +is added to friendship, love to love, and the man keeps +growing richer in affection - richer, I mean, as a bank may +be said to grow richer, both giving and receiving more - +after his head is white and his back weary, and he prepares +to go down into the dust of death. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Familiar Studies of Men & Books +by Robert Louis Stevenson + |