Part 17 (2/2)
With all this there is much in the hich can never be obsolete, or cease to interest and charm He himself is always near at hand, someti of a te and uncured He does not repress, he hails, opportunities for sallying outside his subject He is easily tempted to tell of the tactics by which the Arht have had another issue had Howard been nant fools that found fault He recollects hoon Fayal He pauses in his narrative of Alexander's victories to glorify English courage He does hoht to all its rewards, if she would 'but not hinder the like virtue in others' The story suddenly gleaht Nowhere is there stagnation
His characters are very hu a manly look when half a mile off, till the Greeks, for whole, and drew rudely near Queen Jezebel is visible and audible, with her paint, which ue troubled the ears of Jehu, struggling in vain with base grooms, who contumeliously did hale and thrust her There Deth in luxurious captivity the happiness he had convulsed the world with travail and bloodshed to attain Pyrrhus is painted to the life, flying from one adventure to another, which was indeed the disease he had, whereof not long after he died in Argos Characters are draith an astonishi+ng breadth, depth, and decision Nothing in Tacitus surpasses the epitaph on Epaminondas, the worthiest man that ever was bred in that nation of Greece Everywhere are happy expressions, isdom beneath
It is a history for the nurture of virtuous citizens and generous kings, for the confusion of sensuality and selfishness
[Sidenote: _The Moral_]
The narrative rises and falls with the occasion; it is always bright and apt Charles Jah, and Hooker, as the three writers of prose who e in the period between 1588 and 1640 The diction of the History establishes Ralegh's title to the praise It is clear, flowing, elastic, and racy, and laudably free, as Hallam has testified, from the affectation and passion for conceits, the snare of contemporary historians, preachers, and essayists If Pope, as Spence represents, rejected Ralegh's works as 'too affected' for one of the foundations of an English dictionary, heat randoment deliberately expressed in authentic verse For style, for wit,sense that the reader is in the presence of a sovereign spirit, the _History of the World_ will, to students now as to students of old, vindicate its rank as a classic
But its true grandeur is in the scope of the conception, which exhibits a reat conquerors, and other troublers of the world,' rioting in their wantonness and savagery, as if Heaven cared not or dared not interpose, yet eance They are paraded paying it often in their own persons, wrecked, ruined, humiliated; and always in those of their descendants At times it has seemed as if God saw not In truth 'He is more severe unto cruel tyrants than only to hinder thes, Alexander, the infuriate and insatiable conqueror, May-game monarchs like Darius, Rehoboaenerous King Ja at once, in the inexplicable desire of repugnancies, which is a disease of great and overswelling fortunes,' Consul aeour, down to Henry the Eighth, 'pattern of a merciless prince,' none of them escaped without penalties in their households; none elude their condemnation and sentences, sometimes, as in the case of Alexander, it may be deemed, a little too austere, before the tribunal of posterity
On eant; noly and soh the doical pitfalls at every step for the reputed free-thinker; now, as Greek and Roman confines are reached, with more ease and animation; always under the conduct as if of a Heaven-coe to rulers, that no 'cords have ever lasted long but those which have been twisted by love only' Throughout are found an instinct of the spirit of events and their doers, a sense that they are to be judged as breathing beings, and not as mummies, an affection for nobility of aim and virtuous conduct, a scorn of rapacity, treachery, selfishness, and cruelty, which account better for the rapture of contelect of the _History of the World_ in the present century
[Sidenote: _Popular Favour_]
It was hailed enthusiastically both by a host of illustrious persons and by the general public The applause rolled thundering on The as for Cromwell a library of the classics He recommended it with enthusiasm in a letter to his son Richard Hah's other writings It was a text-book of Puritans, in whose nuue with a Jesuit_ be his, he was reckoned, though unjustly They had forgotten or forgiven under James his enmity to their old idol Essex The admiration of Nonconfor it
Bishop Hall, in his _Consolations_, writes of 'an eed, besides many philosophical experiments, for that noble _History of the World_ The Tower reformed the courtier in hireat deeds Unless for a few prejudiced and narrowhistory known of asley has described it, swept away the old calumny of its author's scepticism All ranks welcomed it as a classic That Princess Elizabethcompanion is proved by the history of the British Museue captured by the Spaniards at Prague in 1620, and recovered by the Swedes in 1648 With the King alone it found no favour
Conteh's literary ability and fame Causes rather less base for his distaste for the book uard in his preface against a suspicion that, in speaking of the Past, he pointed at the Present, and taxed the vices of those that are yet living in their persons that are long since dead He had interspersed encoeless, liberal, wise, and just,' though 'he may err' His doctrine was, as he has written in his _Cabinet Council_, that 'all kings, the bad as well as the good, must be endured' by their subjects The murder even of tyrants is deprecated, as 'followed by inconveniences worse than civil war' But posterity he did not think was debarred fro worthless rulers; and he tried them in his History In the eyes of Jah, was _lese majeste_ An explanation by himself of his ill-will to the book, which has been handed down by Osborn, has an air of verisi Jah's History, the King, being modestly demanded what fault he found, answered, as one surprised, that Ralegh had spoken irreverently of King Henry the Eighth' He would beHenry, against whom, saysobrn, 'none ever exclaimed more than usually himself' James discovered his own features in the outlined face of Ninias, 'esteeether feminine, and subjected to ease and delicacy,' the successor of valiant Queen Seh held, to have been vicious
[Sidenote: _Threatened Suppression_]
Co's sympathy with his caste provoked him to the monstrosity of an attempt to stifle its censor's volume Chamberlain wrote to Carleton at Venice on January 5, 1615: 'Sir Walter Ralegh's book is called in by the King's co too saucy in censuring princes I hear he takes it ht he had won his spurs, and pleased the King extraordinarily' The author of the _Observations on Sanderson's History_ in 1656 writes to the same effect, but so Jaes in it which offended the Spaniards, and for being too plain with the faults of princes in his preface' There is no other evidence, and the raphers have simply accepted the fact on the authority of Chamberlain's assertion Yet it is alative, carried out against so remarkable a work, should have been suffered to pass without popular protests
Ralegh and his wife never co in silence Copies of the first edition are extant in an abundance which, though not absolutely contradictory to the tale, renders it unlikely Dr Brushfield, who has made the history of the publication his especial study, conjectures that a compromise with the royal censorshi+p was effected on the tere, which he thinks the first, like all subsequent editions, originally contained, should be re the voluenious; but it is very hard to believe that such an arrangement, if e, moreover, implies that the book was already in circulation It would be exceedingly strange if its previous purchasers had the docility to elie from their copies, in deference to an order certainly not very eated The readiest explanation is that Chaive his correspondent early information, reported to him a rumour, and perhaps a threat, upon which James happily had not the hardihood to act
[Sidenote: _Successive Editions_]
[Sidenote: _Two Fables_]
At all events, the book weathered the storm of royal displeasure, however manifested A second edition appeared in 1617 Down to the standard Oxford collection of Ralegh's works in 1829, which includes it, eight have been published since The last folio edition appeared, with a biography by the editor, Oldys, in 1736 Gibbon coh it is open to charges of gross carelessness in the printer, and of arbitrary alterations by the editor, to the injury of the sense The as popular enough to attract epitomists Alexander Ross, in 1650, condensed it into his _Marrow of History_, which is rather its dry bones Philip Ralegh, Sir Walter's grandson, in 1698 printed an abridgment The _Tubus Historicus_, or _Historical Perspective_, published in 1631, a brief sureat ancient Eests rather the hand of a book-inal issue it was an accepted classic
No folio of the period, it has been said, approached it in circulation
Its success tempted Alexander Ross to put forth in 1652 a second part, BC 160 to AD 1640 The popular favour was enough to have encouraged the author to continue his own design Two explanations of his interruption of it have been invented For the first, the eldest authority is W Winstanley's _English Worthies_, published in 1660
Winstanley, whoh, a few days before his execution, asked Burre how that work of his had sold So slowly, answered Burre, that it had undone hi to his desk, took the other unprinted part of his work into his hand with a sigh, saying 'Ah, my friend, hath the first part undone thee? The second volurateful world is unworthy of it' Then i to the fireside, he threw it in, and set his foot on it till it was consumed The story is impossible, if only for the circumstance that the publication notoriously was not a failure At the period to which the fable is assigned a second edition had been printed
So rapid was its sale, furthered, it may be admitted, by the circumstances of the author's death, that a third edition appeared in 1621 As, moreover, has been with prosaic coes would have taken very long to burn
The other story is still more complicated, and, if possible,under the name of Robert Heron, Esq, in 1785, in his eccentric _Letters on Literature_, is its source According to hih, who had just co from hisinto a court-yard, saw a man strike an officer near a raised stone The officer drew his sword, and ran his assailant through The man, as he fell, knocked the officer down, and died His corpse and the stunned officer were carried off
Next day Ralegh mentioned the affray to a visitor of known probity and honour His acquaintance infor officer, he said, a servant of the Spanish Ambassador, struck the first blow The other snatched out the servant's sword, and with it slew hiner in the crowd struck down the ners bore off their coh's assurances that he could not be mistaken, since he had witnessed the whole affair as it happened round the stone, replied that neither could he be, for he was the bystander, and on that very stone he had been standing He showed Ralegh a scratch on the cheek he had received in pulling away the sword Ralegh did not persist in his version As soon as his friend was gone, he cast his manuscript into the fire If he could not properly esti human acts done thousands of years before he was born 'Truth!' he cried, 'I sacrifice to thee' Pinkerton, whose judg, led astray both Guizot and Carlyle Carlyle talks of 'the old story, still a true lesson for us'
[Sidenote: _The Fact_]
Of the extent to which Ralegh had proceeded in the continuation of his work he had himself informed the public In his preface he 'forbears to promise a second or third voluood acceptance; for that which is already done h and too much' At the conclusion he wrote: 'Whereas this book calls itself the first part of the _General History of the World_, i a second and third volume, which I also intended, and have hewn out; besideslorious prince out of the world, to whoe points evidently to the collection of 'apparatus for the second volume,' as Aubrey says It elory of the printed voluht have the honour of disinterring and reuniting some of them No less clearly he indicates that he had not advanced beyond the preliminary processes of inquiry and ative of Parliaments_]
The h realization of his plan was probably a co causes, disappointment, hope, and rival occupations Prince Henry's favour had brought liberty and restitution very close With a nature like his the abrupt catastrophe did not benumb; it even stimulated; but it took the flavour out of e in learned ease, and trust for his rehabilitation to spontaneous respect and sympathy The near breath of freedo too vehemently for him to be able to settle down, as if for an eternity of literary leisure, to tasks like the _History of the World_, or the _Art of War by Sea_ He began working ht toor by the nation With the sanguine elasticity which no failures could damp, he tried to storm his way as a politician into the royal confidence a few months after he is said to have experienced as a scholar an effect of the King's invincible prejudice At some period after May, 1615, he wrote, and dedicated to Jaue between a Counsellor of State and a Justice of the Peace Under the title of _The Prerogative of Parlialand_ it was published first posthu In his lifetime it circulated in manuscript copies
[Sidenote: _Hallam's Misconception_]
A conspicuous instance of the misconceptions of which he was the habitual victiernon Sidney, and by the judicious and fair- to call a Parliaative was, it must be admitted and remembered, that of a Tudor courtier It was very different froht But it was liberal for his own day, according to a Tudor standard of liberalism It was too liberal for the taste of the Court of Jaht at some phrases couched in the adulatory style, 'so e, that the want of it passed for rudeness'