Part 22 (1/2)

The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine, With cowslips wan, that hang the pensive head, And every flower that sad embroidery wears: Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, And daffodillies fill their cups with tears, To deck the laureat hea.r.s.e where Lycid lies.

And at the same time he plucks the berries of the myrtle and the ivy.

_Miss Ilex._ Very beautiful, if not true to English seasons: but Milton might have thought himself justified in making this combination in Arcadia. Generally, he is strictly accurate, to a degree that is in itself a beauty. For instance, in his address to the nightingale--

Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among, I woo to hear thy even-song, And missing thee, I walk unseen, On the dry smooth-shaven green.

The song of the nightingale ceases about the time that the gra.s.s is mown.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ The old Greek poetry is always true to Nature, and will bear any degree of critical a.n.a.lysis. I must say I take no pleasure in poetry that will not.

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ No poet is truer to Nature than Burns, and no one less so than Moore. His imagery is almost always false. Here is a highly-applauded stanza, and very taking at first sight--

The night-dew of heaven, though in silence it weeps, Shall brighten with verdure the sod where he sleeps; And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls, Shall long keep his memory green in our souls.

But it will not bear a.n.a.lysis. The dew is the cause of the verdure: but the tear is not the cause of the memory: the memory is the cause of the tear.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ There are inaccuracies more offensive to me than even false imagery. Here is one, in a song which I have often heard with displeasure. A young man goes up a mountain, and as he goes higher and higher, he repeats _Excelsior_: but _excelsior_ is only taller in the comparison of things on a common basis, not higher, as a detached object in the air. Jack's bean-stalk was _excelsior_ the higher it grew: but Jack himself was no more _celsus_ at the top than he had been at the bottom.

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ I am afraid, doctor, if you look for profound knowledge in popular poetry, you will often be disappointed.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ I do not look for profound knowledge. But I do expect that poets should understand what they talk of. Burns was not a scholar, but he was always master of his subject. All the scholars.h.i.+p of the world would not have produced _Tarn o' Shanter_: but in the whole of that poem there is not a false image nor a misused word. What do you suppose these lines represent?

I turning saw, throned on a flowery rise, One sitting on a crimson scarf unrolled: A queen, with swarthy cheeks and bold black eyes, Brow-bound with burning gold.

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ I should take it to be a description of the Queen of Bambo.

The Rev. Dr, Opimian, Yet thus one of our most popular poets describes Cleopatra: and one of our most popular artists has ill.u.s.trated the description by a portrait of a hideous grinning aethiop. Moore led the way to this perversion by demonstrating that the aegyptian women must have been beautiful, because they were 'the countrywomen of Cleopatra.'

{1} 'Here we have a sort of counter-demonstration, that Cleopatra must have been a fright because she was the countrywoman of the aegyptians.

But Cleopatra was a Greek, the daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, and a lady of Pontus. The Ptolemies were Greeks, and whoever will look at their genealogy, their coins, and their medals, will see how carefully they kept their pure Greek blood uncontaminated by African intermixture.

Think of this description and this picture applied to one who Dio says --and all antiquity confirms him--was 'the most superlatively beautiful of women, splendid to see, and delightful to hear.'{2} For she was eminently accomplished: she spoke many languages with grace and facility. Her mind was as wonderful as her personal beauty. There is not a shadow of intellectual expression in that horrible portrait.

1 Dc Pauw, the great depreciator of everything aegyptian, has, on the authority of a pa.s.sage in Aelian, presumed to affix to the countrywomen of Cleopatra the stigma of complete and unredeemed ugliness.--Moore's _Epicurean_, fifth note.

2 (Greek phrase)--Dio,.vlii. 34.

The conversation at the quadrille-table was carried on with occasional pauses, and intermingled with the technicalities of the game.

Miss Gryll continued to alternate between joining in the quadrille-dances and resuming her seat by the side of the room, where she was the object of great attention from some young gentlemen, who were glad to find her unattended by either Lord Curryfin or _Mr.

Falconer._ Mr. Falconer continued to sit as if he had been fixed to his seat, like Theseus. The more he reflected on his conduct, in disappearing at that critical point of time and staying away so long, the more he felt that he had been guilty of an unjustifiable, and perhaps unpardonable offence. He noticed with extreme discomposure the swarm of moths, as he called them to himself, who were fluttering in the light of her beauty: he would gladly have put them to flight; and this being out of the question, he would have been contented to take his place among them; but he dared not try the experiment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Moths fluttering in the light of her beauty 214-182]

Nevertheless, he would have been graciously received. The young lady was not cheris.h.i.+ng any feeling of resentment against him. She understood, and made generous allowance for, his divided feelings. But his irresolution, if he were left to himself, was likely to be of long duration: and she meditated within herself the means of forcing him to a conclusion one way or the other.

CHAPTER XXIV

PROGRESS OF SYMPATHY--LOVE'S INJUNCTIONS--ORLANDO INNAMORATO