Volume II Part 50 (1/2)
But his verdict was ently taking notes:--”Loh theht have done worse Take thes for you:”
MEDIA--And as Pollo?
BABBALANJA--Probably some one who lived in Lombardo's time, and went by that name He is incidentally mentioned, and cursorily immortalized in one of the posthumous notes to the Koztanza
MEDIA--What is said of him there?
BABBALANJA--Not much In a very old transcript of the work--that of Aldina--the note alludes to a brave line in the text, and runs thus:-- ”Diverting to tell, it was this passage that an old prosodist, one Pollo, clai of it to Los are yet extant of this Pollo, who died soo He sees if they could; but are content to coined, that the precedence of authors he had established in his library, was their Mardi order of merit He condemned the subliht he, 'hoe library princes, lord it over these beggarly authors!' Well read in the history of their woes, Pollo pitied them all, particularly the famous; and wrote little essays of his ohich he read to hiood friends of his,-- Zenzori, Hanto, and Roddi?
BABBALANJA--Nothing Taking ho three corrections
ABRAZZA--And what then?
BABBALANJA--Then, your Highness, he thought to try a conclave of professional critics; saying to himself, ”Let them privately point out to me, now, all my blemishes; so that, what time they come to review me in public, all will be well” But curious to relate, those professional critics, for thea work yet unpublished And, with soue, learned way, betrayed such base, beggarly notions of authorshi+p, that Lorief, he ground his teeth Muttered he, ”They are fools In their eyes, bindings not brains make books They criticise er He is the great author, think they, who drives the best bargain with his wares: and no bargainer am I Because he is old, they worshi+p so prophet with the live coal on his lips They are at thes they have none: and their very opinions they borrow They can not say yea, nor nay, without first consulting all Mardi as an Encyclopedia And all the learning in thenity of being damned, I would damn them; but they are not Critics?--asses! rather mules!--so eht Like ardens of roses: and deerance their own--Oh! that all round the doed, for such cattle to uproot! Oh! that an eagle should be stabbed by a goose-quill! But at best, the greatest reviewers but prey on s For I am critic and creator; and as critic, in cruelty surpass all critics ht of eon I cut right and left; I probe, tear, and wrench; kill, burn, and destroy; and what's left after that, the jackals are welcohts, ere hatched; I that pull doall and tower, rejecting materials which would make palaces for others Oh! could Mardi but see hoork, it would marvel ing It wouldheaven; marvel at the hills of earth, banked all round our fabrics ere corand silence, so intense, pierced by that pointed mass,--could ten thousand slaves have ever toiled? ten thousand ha kin withpiecemeal built?--It was Piecemeal?--atom by atom it was laid The world is _)--It is even so
ABRAZZA--Lombardo was severe upon the critics; and they as much so upon hihness, Lombardo never presumed to criticise true critics; who aresatraps; but pretenders are thick as ants, striving to scale a pal theeese, stuck full of quills, of which they rob each other
ABRAZZA (_to Media_)--Oro help the victim that falls in Babbalanja's hands!
MEDIA--Ay, ht a falling tower that whelms! But resume, philosopher--what of Lo,” said he, ”I have agonized over it enough--I can wait no more It has faults--all er The beings knit to o--let it go--and Oro with it Sohty heart---_that_ struck, all the isles shall resound!”
ABRAZZA--Poor devil! he took the world too hard
MEDIA-As most of these mortals do, my lord That's the load, self- imposed, under which Babbalanja reels But now, philosopher, ere Mardi saw it, what thought Lo out of hied it
BABBALANJA--Hard to answer Soely of it, asht him of those parts, written with full eyes, half blinded; te; and pain at the heart--
ABRAZZA--Pooh! pooh!
BABBALANJA--He would say to hiain, when he bethought him of the hurry and bustle of Mardi, dejection stole over hiht he; ”what care these fops and brawlers for ious coxcoes--twenty-five lines each--every line ten words--every word ten letters That's two million five hundred thousand _a_'s, and _i_'s, and _o_'s to read! How many are superfluous? Am I not mad to saddle Mardi with such a task?
Of all men, am I the wisest, to stand upon a pedestal, and teach the mob? Ah, my own Kortanza! child of many prayers!--in whose earnest eyes, so fathohts and silent agonies-thou may'st prove, as the child of some fond dotard:-- beauteous tomerits that thou should'st not die; it has not been intense, prolonged enough, for the high s immortal have been written; and by men as ues like mine Ah, Oro! how enius any stamp and imprint, obvious to possessors? Has it eyes to see itself; or is it blind? Or do we delude ourselves with being Gods, and end in grubs?