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.. ¦¦¦ ¦ . i . . .- ¦ SEPflEMBfeR 10, 18...
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T H E THEATRES. I have little to say thi...
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A SIGHT TO HE SEEN! (Dit Kaiin's Museum....
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Basvff&T&S- ©F & Wmim>®53!£U Xvi.* (Sdvo...
How much more important is the way in which we take events , than the inherent effect of the events themselves ! Edwardes had rejoined Yseult , who kep t her room that night ; and it was from Margaret that I learned what had passed . She was leaning against a tree in the park , wrapped up in a shawl , for it is still cold , but with head uncovered ; and the wind dashed as wildly amid her black hair , as it did amid the black boughs above , or the black specks of cloud that swept across the moon like the locks that beat against Margaret's pure forehead . Could I but paint that stedfast
countenance , as she pursued her story , I might tell you what she is ; for not the moon that shone steadily through the transparent storm , not the dark wood , not the heavy curve of the sea horizon , was more simply true to itself , to nature , and to life , than she whose voice sustained its strong low music against the jarring wind . I cannot tell you all I learned , nor need I ; for much you may know already ; much might be told in the reverent tones of a loving voice which cannot be trusted to cold wandering paper , which strays into strange hands ; and the rest was not said at all , by either of us .
I told you how Yseult , not for the first time , had given utterance to a doctrine which you , Elena befia , have sustained—and which you , Giorgio mio , would defend as you would Elena ' s beauty against all comers—that woman should never yield herself save to a real love . The question had more than once started , as it might do between people in the full bloom of life , not forgetful of such questions . Edwardes , as you know , is a practical Englishman ; opposed to the romantic ; uncertain of reality until it becomes homely , stripped of some of its beauty , and rather impatient to hasten to the indisputable—that unattainable residuum of human analysis
which gratifies the English love of " realizing . " He rejects " love" as a youthful delusion ; and prefers to regard matrimony as a utility— -reciprocally a convenience and a duty . Yseult maintained her own doctrine . I verily believe that in this controversy , Edwardes , as many a " practical " Englishman does , sacrificed the real " reality" to an imaginary one , the fruit of his own preconceived doctrine of necessity . Be that as it may , he is the man to act according to a conscious principle . It was evident that
Yseult felt irritated beyond repression whenever the controversy arose through the blindness of others—how blind people are to the effects of their own tongues!— and that Edwardes also was irritated at the estrangement which evidently existed on Yseult ' s part . The controversy was a practical one . Preferring to be " the friend , " Edwardes was accepted only in that light ; and his chagrin refuted the genuineness of his theory . He had "right" on his side ; but authority itself is humbled by an absolute submissiveness which is unequivocally that and nothing else .
There is a power in strong , sincere minds , and in them alone , which makes them value even the truths that are forced upon them , and prize even the enforcer of the resisted truth . The coward who has injured another follows that other with dislike ; but to the generous an unhealing wound in a sweet nature , like the best fruit , is but a way through which its sweetness is the more keenly tasted . To the manly mind , embarrassment , hazard , trouble , danger , are but so manv claims . Although harder
on the surface , and slower to apprehend a truth than Yseult , Edwavdes could thoroughly solve the problem upon which his path of life had stumbled so unexpectedly ; his manly courage was not of a stuff to yield to the difficulty ; as soon as he recognised the insuperable and the inevitable , his plain , kindly intellect threw aside his own interest , and busied itself solely to shield Yseult from all pain that his faithful skill could save to Ier « I believe none so eagerly watched over her as he ; none valued him so much as she did .
After their angry words—for in theory the controversy survived , chiefly uough an intellectual mauvaise honte in Edwardes , which often makes him yield in act what he will not admit in argument—he followed Yseult , ° , . ask I ) lu'don for pursuing her with the question , arid she met him by as ing pardon , and by explaining that her irritation had been increased by other causes . What those causes were surprised me as much as it can you ; but you will » ot understand Edwardes ' s absence if I do not tell you . For all his hardy
ex pansion of shirt front , that fellow , King , took seriously to heart my outrageous behaviour" in telling Mrs . Hnrtnell n . truth which it so much oncemed her to know ; and he sought revenge . I am surprised that his prmo thoug ht it worth while to circumvent the paltry retaliation , which lie t ] " " at t' 1 ° C ° St ° ^ S roat P ftins . He followed my movements ; he was uiU 1 Kentlcmnn" wll ° came to Seven Hills , and who had seen Yseul * before ; 10 brought a tale—which his malicious and suspecting instinct taught im " j » 1 ? ^ k ' wncrc ifc could do most harm—how the man who had to llu ; "'* l him—but lie never told that part of the story—had appropriated y ^] * tll ° ** n " * * ty whom hri pretended to rescue ; and how that sanio
O "( 'U ( l IlJlM Vao / tlirwi \\* r c * lrilfa * l .,., 1 ^ , ^ ... ! ,. f * „ T .. J . * l . ,. .,. nil . n » nrnrd ¦ l ' escuei 1 ' y sltilful suborning of evidence , , the mother-Jn t < 'll ? ° llia ° *" 1 ( lp 'Ystmlt disbelieved with her heart and her wit !! ] * ' " SCnt Ki " aW < iy With sllnmo on llis l > r <> w ; but hIic believed she ' * tiIUS IUl < l JKU l ) assi < ms ' nlu * w « c " King Cftnie again ho saw that 8 U (><> VnS "f ! ? troiIK ono " gl » to ' «» " * his tale , and he taunted her with bis ess . Thin she told to Edwardes—so much , neither more nor loss . mm T iVul Edwimlt ! S d <>—tho " l > rn « ticul" Englishman , the imroniantie He s , v reftSont ! r » tllc «» i" » p « lHivc pIiiloMophcr 7 What did he do 7 a cuit , l ) tisterc ( 1 uu < * tormented by a lower ahinml ; a creature with * auu a cowardly advantage of convention iu his hand : he saw Yaculfc
downcast , and without defence . And he , the man of common sense , bidding her good night , as if he merely made friends after a pardonable misunderstanding , set off there and then , with a big heart , pursued King through some of his holiday wanderings , made him cross the Channel , and - broke the fellow ' s arm with a pistol bullet . ,. , > : " But how did he defend that illogical escapade , Margaret ? " I asked . "I do not think that Yseult required him to make any defence , or that any of us can taunt him with his reason , when he has served truth so well in making meanness know its responsibility and its place . "
Did I avow a- certain meanness , which made me uneasy that Edwardes should have snatched more than one vengeance into his own hand ? Yes , I did avow it . " Come , " said Margaret , ' I have told you all ; it is getting colder ; and if you are capable of unworthy thoughts at such a time , where shall we leave off ? Walter may be the next—getting jealous perhaps . " " Forgive me , as you would forgive him ; for appearances would excuse him . "
"Appearances ! Yes , the appearances of an hour , a day , a month , are taken to undo all that we know of a truthful nature " , and to belie our own capacity for knowing what is true : even acts , indisputable acts , are not evidence against a better knowledge . Appearances , Tristan ! If a man can never know more , can never know anything- better , than that which can be contradicted by appearances , he will carry his ignorance to his tomb . If Walter But see how I am yielding to the phantom I rail at ; appearances make me take the idle words which the baffled mind utters after being stupefied , as real expressions of a feeling in your heart ; and in scolding you I show how I want teaching myself . "
.. ¦¦¦ ¦ . I . . .- ¦ Sepflembfer 10, 18...
.. ¦¦¦ ¦ . i . . .- ¦ SEPflEMBfeR 10 , 1853 . ] T H E LEADER . 885
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T H E Theatres. I Have Little To Say Thi...
T H E THEATRES . I have little to say this week ; the only event being a small one , though announced magnificently , —I mean the commencement of the Drury Lane season with G . V . Brooke as star . He has recovered Jiis splendid voice , consequently he has regained something of his lost empire over audiences , and his success on Monday night was uproarious . There is a grace and power about Brooke which must always carry by storm an audience not very critical as to intelligence and poetry . Ho has great physical qualities , and they make half the greatness of an actor .
My dear friend Charles Kean lias closed his long successful season , and a cruelly kind critic in the Times heaped coals of fire on his head by a long laudation of his sagacity in converting himself into a showman , and his Theatre into a Gallery of Illustration . Fancy a man bearing the name of Kean , and devoutly believing himself to be an actor , a tragic actor , a Shaksperian actor , and to be told by his friendly critic that he owes his success not to acting , but to spectacle ! Mr . llobson still draws audiences to tlio formerly forlorn , and now prosperous Olympic . In a few days the season will be over , and then the theatre passes into the hands of tho accomplished Wigan , who reopens it on the 10 th of October , with Mrs . Stirling , Miss P . Horfcon , Emery , Eobson , & c . Vivian .
A Sight To He Seen! (Dit Kaiin's Museum....
A SIGHT TO HE SEEN ! ( Dit Kaiin ' s Museum . ) Tjteke is in London at this moment an exhibition which of all others is best worth its shilling entrance fee , and we are doing the reader a good turn by directing his attention to i (; . Tho name is not attractive , therefore let us be a little explicit . It is called J ) r . Kahns Anatomical Museum , and its locale is the Portland Gallery in . Regent-street . The word " anatomical" makes-sensitive persons shudder ; to the uninslrucled it presents no definite attraction . Anatomy , tlic noblest of sciences , has still to conquer the ancient prejudice , which was briefly expressed in our hearing the oilier day by a very clover man— " Thank God , 1 know nothing whatever of my own body ! " Yet ; surely a , monienl ; 'H reflection , would suflico to show that nothing could be so well worth knowing , its dominant importance , and its wondrous complexity of mechanism taken
into consideration . Be that as it may , lei ; anatomy l > o regarded as a superior kind of butcher ' s work , tlio objection will not apply to Dr . Knhn ' s Museum . That is an exhibition where scientific- minds will find curious material , where ordinary minds may bo brought to consider moat extraordinary fjicts . There is also an Anatomical Museum now open in Leicester-square to which we can advise no one to pay a visit ; it is a vulgar ad captandiini affair , containing very little of interest to any one . JNot so Dr . Kalin h . Tho most delicate susceptibility will see nothing there to alarm it a separate room being provided for certain pathological and obstetric specitiu ! ft
mens , intowhicli only-medical visitors noed enter . Every . Friday a »< <* "' apart for the visit of ladies , the wife of Dr . Leach being present to lecture and explain . There they may learn pleasantly much of what must be intensely interesting to them ' , —tho progress and development of tlio child in " the womb . There they may see tho process of digestion illustrated , and tlio dangers of tight' lnciiig demonstrated . There Uiey may turn their reading of popular works on physiology to account ; , by seeing the structure nndrolations of organs . There they may tf «« n some definite idea of tho brain and nervous system . And this they ca , u loam pleasantly , if superficially , without the" drudgerv and disagreeables attending difmoctioiiH : nuroly a . very desirable result F Wo earnestly recommend both our malo and female readers to avail themselves of this opportunity . It is worth coming up to London to upend two duya in that Museum .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 10, 1853, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10091853/page/21/
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