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lay morals-第22章

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ned  without exciting merriment; and when even the intimation of  his death bids fair to carry laughter into many a home。

So much for people who are badly named。  Now for people who  are TOO well named; who go top…heavy from the font; who are  baptized into a false position; and find themselves beginning  life eclipsed under the fame of some of the great ones of the  past。  A man; for instance; called William Shakespeare could  never dare to write plays。  He is thrown into too humbling an  apposition with the author of HAMLET。  Its own name coming  after is such an anti…climax。  'The plays of William  Shakespeare'? says the reader … 'O no!  The plays of William  Shakespeare Cockerill;' and he throws the book aside。  In  wise pursuance of such views; Mr。 John Milton Hengler; who  not long since delighted us in this favoured town; has never  attempted to write an epic; but has chosen a new path; and  has excelled upon the tight…rope。  A marked example of  triumph over this is the case of Mr。 Dante Gabriel Rossetti。   On the face of the matter; I should have advised him to  imitate the pleasing modesty of the last…named gentleman; and  confine his ambition to the sawdust。  But Mr。 Rossetti has  triumphed。  He has even dared to translate from his mighty  name…father; and the voice of fame supports him in his  boldness。

Dear readers; one might write a year upon this matter。  A  lifetime of comparison and research could scarce suffice for  its elucidation。  So here; if it please you; we shall let it  rest。  Slight as these notes have been; I would that the  great founder of the system had been alive to see them。  How  he had warmed and brightened; how his persuasive eloquence  would have fallen on the ears of Toby; and what a letter of  praise and sympathy would not the editor have received before  the month was out!  Alas; the thing was not to be。  Walter  Shandy died and was duly buried; while yet his theory lay  forgotten and neglected by his fellow…countrymen。  But;  reader; the day will come; I hope; when a paternal government  will stamp out; as seeds of national weakness; all depressing  patronymics; and when godfathers and godmothers will soberly  and earnestly debate the interest of the nameless one; and  not rush blindfold to the christening。  In these days there  shall be written a 'Godfather's Assistant;' in shape of a  dictionary of names; with their concomitant virtues and  vices; and this book shall be scattered broadcast through the  land; and shall be on the table of every one eligible for  godfathership; until such a thing as a vicious or untoward  appellation shall have ceased from off the face of the earth。



CRITICISMS CHAPTER I … LORD LYTTON'S 'FABLES IN SONG'



IT seems as if Lord Lytton; in this new book of his; had  found the form most natural to his talent。  In some ways;  indeed; it may be held inferior to CHRONICLES AND CHARACTERS;  we look in vain for anything like the terrible intensity of  the night…scene in IRENE; or for any such passages of massive  and memorable writing as appeared; here and there; in the  earlier work; and made it not altogether unworthy of its  model; Hugo's LEGEND OF THE AGES。  But it becomes evident; on  the most hasty retrospect; that this earlier work was a step  on the way towards the later。  It seems as if the author had  been feeling about for his definite medium; and was already;  in the language of the child's game; growing hot。  There are  many pieces in CHRONICLES AND CHARACTERS that might be  detached from their original setting; and embodied; as they  stand; among the FABLES IN SONG。

For the term Fable is not very easy to define rigorously。  In  the most typical form some moral precept is set forth by  means of a conception purely fantastic; and usually somewhat  trivial into the bargain; there is something playful about  it; that will not support a very exacting criticism; and the  lesson must be apprehended by the fancy at half a hint。  Such  is the great mass of the old stories of wise animals or  foolish men that have amused our childhood。  But we should  expect the fable; in company with other and more important  literary forms; to be more and more loosely; or at least  largely; comprehended as time went on; and so to degenerate  in conception from this original type。  That depended for  much of its piquancy on the very fact that it was fantastic:  the point of the thing lay in a sort of humorous  inappropriateness; and it is natural enough that pleasantry  of this description should become less common; as men learn  to suspect some serious analogy underneath。  Thus a comical  story of an ape touches us quite differently after the  proposition of Mr。 Darwin's theory。  Moreover; there lay;  perhaps; at the bottom of this primitive sort of fable; a  humanity; a tenderness of rough truths; so that at the end of  some story; in which vice or folly had met with its destined  punishment; the fabulist might be able to assure his  auditors; as we have often to assure tearful children on the  like occasions; that they may dry their eyes; for none of it  was true。

But this benefit of fiction becomes lost with more  sophisticated hearers and authors: a man is no longer the  dupe of his own artifice; and cannot deal playfully with  truths that are a matter of bitter concern to him in his  life。  And hence; in the progressive centralisation of modern  thought; we should expect the old form of fable to fall  gradually into desuetude; and be gradually succeeded by  another; which is a fable in all points except that it is not  altogether fabulous。  And this new form; such as we should  expect; and such as we do indeed find; still presents the  essential character of brevity; as in any other fable also;  there is; underlying and animating the brief action; a moral  idea; and as in any other fable; the object is to bring this  home to the reader through the intellect rather than through  the feelings; so that; without being very deeply moved or  interested by the characters of the piece; we should  recognise vividly the hinges on which the little plot  revolves。  But the fabulist now seeks analogies where before  he merely sought humorous situations。  There will be now a  logical nexus between the moral expressed and the machinery  employed to express it。  The machinery; in fact; as this  change is developed; becomes less and less fabulous。  We find  ourselves in presence of quite a serious; if quite a  miniature division of creative literature; and sometimes we  have the lesson embodied in a sober; everyday narration; as  in the parables of the New Testament; and sometimes merely  the statement or; at most; the collocation of significant  facts in life; the reader being left to resolve for himself  the vague; troublesome; and not yet definitely moral  sentiment which has been thus created。  And step by step with  the development of this change; yet another is developed: the  moral tends to become more indeterminate and large。  It  ceases to be possible to append it; in a tag; to the bottom  of the piece; as one might write the name below a caricature;  and the fable begins to take rank with all other forms of  creative literature; as something too ambitious; in spite of  its miniature dimensions; to be resumed in any succinct  formula without the loss of all that is deepest and most  suggestive in it。

Now it is in this widest sense that Lord Lytton understands  the term; there are examples in his two pleasant volumes of  all the forms already mentioned; and even of another which  can only be admitted among fables by the utmost possible  leniency of construction。  'Composure;' 'Et Caetera;' and  several more; are merely similes poetically elaborated。  So;  too; is the pathetic story of the grandfather and grandchild:  the child; having treasured away an icicle and forgotten it  for ten minutes; comes back to find it already nearly melted;  and no longer beautiful: at the same time; the grandfather  has just remembered and taken out a bundle of love…letters;  which he too had stored away in years gone by; and then long  neglected; and; behold! the letters are as faded and  sorrowfully disappointing as the icicle。  This is merely a  simile poetically worked out; and yet it is in such as these;  and some others; to be mentioned further on; that the author  seems at his best。  Wherever he has really written after the  old model; there is something to be deprecated: in spite of  all the spirit and freshness; in spite of his happy  assumption of that cheerful acceptation of things as they  are; which; rightly or wrongly; we come to attribute to the  ideal fabulist; there is ever a sense as of something a  little out of place。  A form of literature so very innocent  and primitive looks a little over…written in Lord Lytton's  conscious and highly…coloured style。  It may be bad taste;  but sometimes we should prefer a few sentences of plain prose  narration; and a little Bewick by way of tail…piece。  So that  it is not among those fables that conform most nearly to the  old model; but one had nearly said among those that most  widely differ from it; that we find the most satisfactory  examples of the author's manner。

In the mere matter of ingenuity; the metaphysical fables are  the most remarkable; such as that of the windmill who  imagined that it was he who raised the wind; or that of the  grocer's balance ('Cogito ergo sum') who considered himself  endowed with free…will; reason; and an infallible practical  judgment; until; one fine day; the police made a descent upon  the shop; and find the weights false and the scales unequal;  and the whole thing is broken up for old iron。  Capital  fables; also; in the same ironical spirit; are 'Prometheus  Unbound;' the tale of the vainglorying of a champagne…cork;  and 'Teleology;' where a nettle justifies the ways of God to  nettles while all goes well with it; and; upon a change of  luck; promptly changes its divinity。

In all these there is still plenty of the fabulous if you  will; although; even here; there may be two opinions  possible; but there is another group; of an order of merit  perhaps still higher; where we look in vain for any such  playful liberties with Nature。  Thus we have 'Conservation of  Force'; where a musician; thinking of a certain picture;  improvises in the twilight; a poet; hearing the music; goes  home inspired; and writes a poem; and then a painter; under  the influence of this poem; paints another picture; thus  lineally descended from the first。  This is fiction; but not  what we have been used to call fable。  We miss the incredible  element; the point of audacity with which the fabulist was  wont to mock at his readers。  And still more so is this the  case with others。  'The Horse and the Fly' states one of the  unanswerable problems of life in quite a realistic and  straightforward way。  A fly startles a cab…horse; the coach  is overset; a newly…married pair within and the driver; a man  with a wife and family; are all killed。  The horse continues  to gallop off in the loose traces; and ends the tragedy by  running over an only child; and there is some little pathetic  detail here introduced in the telling; that makes the  reader's indignation very white…hot against some one。  It  remains to be seen w

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