Part 13 (1/2)

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ After dinner, my lord, after dinner. I work hard all the morning at serious things, sometimes till I get a headache, which, however, does not often trouble me. After dinner I like to crack my bottle and chirp and talk nonsense, and fit myself for the company of Jack of Dover.

_Lord Curryfin._ Jack of Dover! Who was he?

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ He was a man who travelled in search of a greater fool than himself, and did not find him.{1}

1 _Jacke of Dover His Quest of Inquirie, or His Privy Search for the Veriest Foote in England._ London, 1604. Reprinted for the Percy Society, 1842.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ He must have lived in odd times. In our days he would not have gone far without falling in with a teetotaller, or a decimal coinage man, or a school-for-all man, or a compet.i.tive examination man, who would not allow a drayman to lower a barrel into a cellar unless he could expound the mathematical principles by which he performed the operation.

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ Nay, that is all pragmatical fooling. The fooling Jack looked for was jovial fooling, fooling to the top of his bent, excellent fooling, which, under the semblance of folly, was both merry and wise. He did not look for mere unmixed folly, of which there never was a deficiency. The fool he looked for was one which it takes a wise man to make--a Shakespearian fool.{1}

1 OEuvre, ma foi, ou n'est facile atteindre: Pourtant qu'il faut parfaitement sage etre, Pour le vrai fol bien navement feindre.

EUTRAPEL, p. 28.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ In that sense he might travel far, and return, as he did in his own day, without having found the fool he looked for.

_Mr. MacBorrowdale_. A teetotaller! Well! He is the true Heautontimorumenos, the self-punisher, with a jug of toast-and-water for his Christmas wa.s.sail. So far his folly is merely pitiable, but his intolerance makes it offensive. He cannot enjoy his own tipple unless he can deprive me of mine. A fox that has lost his tail. There is no tyrant like a thoroughpaced reformer. I drink to his own reformation.

_Mr. Gryll._ He is like Bababec's faquir, who sat in a chair full of nails, _pour avoir de la consideration._ But the faquir did not want others to do the same. He wanted all the consideration for himself, and kept all the nails for himself. If these meddlers would do the like by their toast-and-water, n.o.body would begrudge it them.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Now, sir, if the man who has fooled the greatest number of persons to the top of their bent were to be adjudged the fittest companion for Jack of Dover, you would find him in a distinguished meddler with everything who has been for half-a-century the merry-andrew of a vast arena, which he calls moral and political science, but which has in it a dash of everything that has ever occupied human thought.

_Lord Curryfin._ I know whom you mean; but he is a great man in his way, and has done much good.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ He has helped to introduce much change; whether for good or for ill remains to be seen. I forgot he was your lords.h.i.+p's friend. I apologise, and drink to his health.

_Lord Curryfin_. Oh! pray, do not apologise to me. I would not have my friends.h.i.+ps, tastes, pursuits, and predilections interfere in the slightest degree with the fullest liberty of speech on all persons and things. There are many who think with you that he is a moral and political Jack of Dover. So be it. Time will bring him to his level.

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ I will only say of the distinguished personage, that Jack of Dover would not pair off with him. This is the true universal science, the oracle of _La Dive Bouteille._

_Mr. Gryll._ It is not exactly Greek music, Mr. Minim, that you are giving us for our Aristophanic choruses.

_Mr. Minim._ No, sir; I have endeavoured to give you a good selection, as appropriate as I can make it.

_Mr. Pallet._ Neither am I giving you Greek painting for the scenery. I have taken the liberty to introduce perspective.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Very rightly both, for Aristophanes in London.

_Mr. Minim._ Besides, sir, we must have such music as your young ladies can sing.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ a.s.suredly; and so far as we have yet heard them rehea.r.s.e, they sing it delightfully.

After a little more desultory conversation, they adjourned to the drawing-rooms.

CHAPTER XV

EXPRESSION IN MUSIC--THE DAPPLED PALFREY--LOVE AND AGE--COMPEt.i.tIVE EXAMINATION

(Greek pa.s.sage) Anthologia Palatina: v. 72.