Part 33 (2/2)

76. 1st Vol. Supplemental Nights, 1st December 1886. 6th Vol. 1st August 1888.

152. Meeting with Mr. Swinburne and others, 18th July 1888-15th October 1888.

Burton's health continuing weak, he again endeavoured to induce the Government to release him from his duties. Instead of that, they gave him what he calls ”an informal sick certificate,” and from the following letter to his sister (26th May 1888) we may judge that it was not given gracefully.

”Yesterday,” he says, ”I got my leave accompanied by some disagreeable expressions which will be of use to me when retiring. We leave Trieste in June and travel leisurely over the St. Gothard and expect to be in England about the 10th.... The meteorologists declare that the heat is going to equal the cold. Folky [554] folk are like their neighbours, poor devils who howl for excitement--want of anything better to do. The dreadful dull life of England accounts for many British madnesses. Do you think of the Crystal Palace this year? We have an old friend, Aird, formerly the Consul here, who has taken up his abode somewhere in Sydenham. I don't want cold water bandages, the prospect of leave makes me sleep quite well. With love and kisses to both, [555] Your affectionate brother, R. F. B.”

Burton and his wife reached Folkestone on July 18th. Next day they went on to London, where they had the pleasure of meeting again Commander Cameron, Mr. Henry Irving, M. Du Chaillu, Mr. A. C. Swinburne, and Mr.

Theodore Watts[-Dunton]. What Burton was to Mr. Swinburne is summed up in the phrase--”the light that on earth was he.” [556]

153. H. W. Ashbee.

His princ.i.p.al place of resort, however, during this visit was the house of Mr. H. W. Ashbee, 54, Bedford Square, where he met not only Mr.

Ashbee, but also Dr. Steinga.s.s, Mr. Arbuthnot, Sir Charles Wingfield and Mr. John Payne, all of whom were interested, in different ways, in matters Oriental. Ashbee, who wrote under the name of Pisa.n.u.s Fraxi (Bee of an ash), was a curiously matter-of-fact, stoutish, stolid, affable man, with a Maupa.s.santian taste for low life, its humours and laxities.

He was familiar with it everywhere, from the sordid purlieus of Whitechapel to the bazaars of Tunis and Algiers, and related Haroun Al-Raschid-like adventures with imperturbably, impa.s.sive face, and in the language that a business man uses when recounting the common transactions of a day. This unconcernedness never failed to provoke laughter, even from those who administered rebukes to him. Of art and literature he had absolutely no idea, but he was an enthusiastic bibliophile, and his library, which included a unique collection or rare and curious books, had been built up at enormous expense.

Somebody having described him as ”not a bad old chap,” Mr. Payne added characteristically, ”And he had a favourite cat, which says something for him.”

154. A Bacon Causerie.

The serenity of these gatherings, whether at Mr. Ashbee's or at Mr.

Arbuthnot's, was never ruffled unless somebody happened to introduce politics or the Shakespere-Bacon Question. Arbuthnot the Liberal was content to strike out with his back against the wall, so to speak, when attacked by the Conservative Burton, Ashbee and Payne; but Arbuthnot the Baconian frequently took the offensive. He would go out of his way in order to drag in this subject. He could not leave it out of his Life of Balzac even. These controversies generally resolved themselves into a duel between Mr. Arbuthnot and Mr. Payne--Burton, who loved a fight between any persons and for any reasons, looking on approvingly. Mr.

Ashbee and Dr. Steinga.s.s were inclined to side with Mr. Payne. On one of these occasions Mr. Payne said impatiently that he could not understand ”any sensible man taking the slightest interest in the sickening controversy,” and then he pointed out one by one the elements that in his opinion made the Baconian theory ridiculous.

”But,” followed Mr. Arbuthnot, ”Shakespere had no education, and no person without an extremely good education could have written the play erroneously published under the name of William Shakespere.”

”If,” retorted Mr. Payne, ”Shakespere had been without education, do you think the fact would have escaped the notice of such bitter and unscrupulous enemies as Nash, Greene, and others, who hated him for his towering superiority?”

Upon Mr. Arbuthnot admitting that he studies Shakespere merely from a ”curio” point of view, and that for the poetry he cared nothing, Mr.

Payne replied by quoting Schopenhauer: ”A man who is insensible to poetry, be he who he may, must be a barbarian.”

Burton, who regarded himself as a poet, approved of the sentiment; Dr.

Steinga.s.s, who wrote execrable verses in English which neither rhymed nor scanned, though they were intended to do both, was no less satisfied; Mr. Ashbee, who looked at matters solely from a bibliographical point of view, dissented; and Mr. Arbuthnot sweetly changed the conversation to Balzac; with the result, however, of another tempest, for on this subject Burton, who summed up Balzac as ”a great repertory of morbid anatomy,” could never see eye to eye with Balzac's most enthusiastic English disciple.

At Oxford, Burton met Professor Sayce, and did more literary work ”under great difficulties” at the Bodleian, though he escaped all the evil effects; but against its wretched accommodation for students and its antediluvian methods he never ceased to inveigh. Early in August he was at Ramsgate and had the amus.e.m.e.nt of mixing with a Bank Holiday crowd.

But he was amazingly restless, and wanted to be continually in motion.

No place pleased him more than a day or two.

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