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Dec 21, 1850.] \ ffiftlT OLWlXStt* 929
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PENDENNIS. The History of Pendennis. By ...
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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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The Dark Ages. Gliminerhu/S In The Dark ...
enereased rate of locomotion , is too obvious to be insisted on . On v / itehcraft and magic the world is tolerably well-informed ; yet Mr . Merry weather's chapters are not without novelty even thereon ; the chapters on Rewards of Literature and the Affluence of Auth , Q . j $ j in those times form a good supplement to the Curio- sities of Literature . The History of Relics might have been enlarged with advantage ; we will quote this
HISTORY OF THE CROSS . ' Helena , the mother of Constantine the Great , when nearly eighty years of age , undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem . It was the pious wish of her old age to rescue from oblivion , the cross upon which Jesus suffered on Mount Calvary . Helena was rich , and her zeal was such as seldom warmed the breast of one , who had seen the snows of eighty winters . A vision led to the discovery of the holy sepulchre , and the cross . The discovery was hailed with joy throughout the whole of Christendom . A church , called the New Jerusalem , was erected on the spot ; the principal portion of this sacred relic was gorgeously enshrined , ami left to adorn its altar ; the remainder was sent by Helena to Constantine , her son .
" For many years , the cross at Jerusalem became the object of numerous pilgrimages ; multitudes left their homes , and traversed perilous lands , to touch the silver case enclosing this precious relic , and obtain absolution of their sins . Bishops and abbots became emulous to obtain , for their respective churches and convents , a fragment of the sacred wood . Wealth , that would have bought a dukedom , was given for a mere fragment , and the new Church at Jerusalem waxed rich by the princely sums for which they sold these eagerly coveted treasures . A piece of the holy wood was considered a charm against all sickness , a preservative from all evil , and a security from all perils , on land or sea . When some , more
thoughtful than others , or less credulous than their brethren , began to wonder , in the course of years , how pieces of the cross became so numerous ; seeing that almost every church of note contained a piece ^ of holy wood , and monasteries had fragments in their reliquaries , and yet the cross at Jerusale / n diminished not ; their doubts and their reveries were set at rest by a grave authority of the Church . The cross , it was dexterously affirmed , was no ordinary relic ; it was true , that this sacred wood abounded among Christians ; it was true , that had all the fragments been collected together , there would have been sufficient timber to have built a ship of war . But , said an eminent saint , this is easily accounted for ; to supply the wants of Christendom , and to reward the zeal of pilgrims this cross is allowed to grow and vegetateso that the faithful may be fed , as Christ fed
, the multitude , with seven loaves and a few fishes . Thus , the holy cross , although every day divided into several parts , yet remained , as Paulinus testifies , without any diminution in size . It reposed in the church at Jerusalem , until the city was subdued in the beginning of the seventeenth century , by the fifty thousand golden spears of Khosru , King of Persia , when it was carried ofF in triumph , in company with the Bishop of the Church ; but it was restored fourteen years after , to Heraclius , peace having been proclaimed between the two monarchs . The Emperor , being divested of his purple and his diadem , carried the cross on his shoulders , in grand procession , to its former place , on Mount Calvary . The anniversary of this event is still solemnized , in the Greek Church , in the festival called the Exaltation of the Cross . "
The purchase of a wife is still not wholly gone out of fashion , but it is transacted with a little more regard for les bienseanres than in the clays of our Anglo-Saxon progenitors . — " By the Anglo-Saxon laws , every woman was unde the care of some man , who was termed her Mundbora » or guardian ; and no one could marry her without having first paid a sum of money as a compensation to her mundbora . The father , of course , was the guardian of his unmarrisd daughters ; the brother , if the father died ; and next to him the nearest male relative ; if , however , the female was friendless and alone , she found in the king her legal guardian . There were no runaway matches , no clandestine and romantic nuptials , among the Saxon peoplethey did everythingeven to their very love affairs in a
; , plain matter-of-fact way ; they estimated the value of the maid according to her rank in life , and the law fixed the sum which should be regarded as a legal tender to satisfy the avarice of her guardians . The first step in courtship , therefore , was to buy the consent of the mumlbora ; the lover was then admitted into the society of his mistress , and allowed to claim her in du ? course as his wife ; it , however , her personal charms , or her disposition , proved on better acquaintance unsatisfactory to her suitor , and he failed to complete the bargain ( wo are using fair readers to the terms employed by the Saxon wttan ) , he became immediately amenable- to the law . For this breach of a promise of marriage he hud to pay , not only the usual mund , or consideration fee to her { juunli :. n , but an additional compensation , besides a sum of money to tiwsc who had become sureties for the fulfilment of the
agreement on his part . U a u \» n ventured tn marry without first having bought and paid for his wife , he w . is gmlryof the crime of m ' iind-breuch , the rousequoners of which were both disastrous and vexatious . The husband in such , a case possessed no legal authority over his spouse ; he was a husband , in fact , without a wife ; he hud upright to her property ; he could recover no compensation lor uny insult which another man should dare to offer her ; she had not been paid for , the guardian had received no consideration ; and all damages , or fines inflicted for such an insult , were payable to the woman ' s mundbora . If a man wished to take his wife into a foreign part , or into another
thane ' s land , he had to enter into a compact with , her guardian , that no wrong should be done to her , but that she should receive every mark of attention and kindness . If a man bought a maid for her , no other could negotiate for her purchase ; but if any fraud had been committed on her part , or on the part of her friends , she was returned home , and the man demanded back his money . By the Saxon law a maiden and a widow were of separate value ; the latter could be purchased for one-half the sum which the guardian of a maid was entitled to demand ;
the man , therefore , who could not afford to purchase a maid , might , perhaps , be able to purchase a widow . The laws relating to the marriage of widows are curious , and seem to discountenance second nuptials . The widow was compelled by a law of Canute ' s , to continue husbandless for twelve months , at least ; if she married within that time , she forfeited all her marriage gifts ; and all the property which she acquired by her first marriage was claimed by her nearest kinsman ; Henry the First confirmed this decorous law .
"So fully was the idea ofpurchasmgawife carried out , and so little were the affections regarded in the matter , that if a freeman seduced the wife of a freeman , he was to pay his full weregeld , buy another wife for the injured husband , and to bring her to his home . Nor was it till the reign of Canute that the marriage laws received any modification ; that king decreed that no guardian should compel a maiden to marry one whom she disliked , and that the money paid for her should be a voluntary gift , and not a compulsory payment . " There is a great variety of topics in this pleasant volume ; but we cannot afford more space to them , for the volume itself is very slight , and our table is crowded .
Dec 21, 1850.] \ Ffiftlt Olwlxstt* 929
Dec 21 , 1850 . ] \ ffiftlT OLWlXStt * 929
Pendennis. The History Of Pendennis. By ...
PENDENNIS . The History of Pendennis . By W . M . Thackeray . 2 vols . Bradbury and Evans . ** No age , " says Carlyle , "is romantic to itself , " and no age thinks its writers equal to those who have gone before'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view ; and we turn from the " superficial trash" of our age to the grander thews and sinews of those who wrote the superficial trash " of their time . The history
of Literature is full of such complaints . Old Nestor , speaking to the illustrious host before Troy could see nothing in Achilles , Ajax , Diomed , and the King of Men , equal to the heroes who had nourished in Ids youth . Tacitus , in the opening of his Dialogue on the Orators ( if it be is ) speaks of the sterile epoch when the name of orator could not be applied to any living man , " for our men are dissertators , gabblers , lawyers , everything , in short , but orators—Iiorum antem temporttm diserti causidici et advocati , et patroni ct quidvis potkis gxiam oratorcs vocantur .
That the men of our day should think slightingly of tht ; ir contemporaries in comparison with the writers of former times , is no more than natural , and we are prepared for uplifted eyebrows when we gravely assert that England has at no time produced a writer of fiction with whom Thackeray may not stand in honourable comparison . Others have
surpassed him in particular qualities , but taking the sum total of his powers , as the only fair means of comparison , we are prepared to maintain our position . But will he live as they have lived ? That is another question , and one which no amount of present popularity can affect ; for popularity , as Victor Hugo admirably says , is the vulgarization of
fame" La popularity 1 C ' est la gloire en gros sous . " He has the two great qualities which embalm a reputation—truth and style . But he is to be separated from the great writers of other days by one peculiarity of our own , and one that endangers the durability of his renown— we mean a want of respect for his art , a want of respect for his public . In the cure with which former writers , however , pressed by poverty , planned and executed their works , we see something wholly different from that nonchalance and eusy confidence in his own powers , which makes
Thackeray ( nor is he alone in this ) sacrifice the artist to the improvisators . JIow greatly his writings suffer from this it is impossible to calculate ; our marvel is that they are so remarkable in spite of it . To gossip with tho reader , to wander from the path into pleasant digressions and sketches of society , is a facile method of discharging his monthly task ; and with knowledge so abundant and a style so grucol ' ul and winning , the success is great enough to foster the temptation . But that which is written for the hour is apt to perish with the hour ; and he is capable of enduring works .
Poulfsnnis hns , perhaps , even more of this fault than Vanity Fair , and it flags occasionally in consequence . But it is , nevertheless , a great , a masterly work , weighty with knowledge , luminous with
beautiful thoughts , caustic , subtle , pathetic , varied with unrivalled pictures of human life and character , and incomparable in style . A loving spirit moves throughout the book , taking from its satire all the bitterness of misanthropy , making human nature loveable amidst all its infirmities . As everyone must have read or will read it , we need occupy no space by an exposition of its contents ; a few remarks on his general characteristics , as therein exhibited , will suffice .
First let us mention the beauty of his style . For clearness , strength , idiomatic ease , delicacy , and variety , there is no one since Goldsmith to compare with him . It is not a style in the vulgar sense of the -word ; that is to say , it is not a trick . It is the flowing garment which robe 3 his thoughts , and moves with every movement of his mind into different and appropriate shapes , simple in narrative , terse and
glittering in epigram , playful in conversation or digression , rising into rhythmic periods when the mood is of more sustained seriousness , and becoming indescribably affecting in its simplicity when it utters pathetic or solemn thoughts . It is devoid of trick though , not devoid of art . Somebody said of it that it was essentially the style of a gentleman . We wish gentlemen would write so .
Then as to knowledge . The endless charm of his writing for men and women who have experience cannot be divined by those who as yet know nothing ( though their hairs be grey ) . It is the same with Horace . No schoolboy , no young poet cares a straw for Horace . Men who have lived like him better as they grow older . In Thackeray we see many resemblances to Horace : both have outlived their illusions , and yet look back with fondness on them , so that their laughter is rather sad than bitter . It seems as if most of the various scenes of the drama of life
had been acted in Thackeray s breast , and he laughs as we laugh at our youthful follies , with a certain regret that those follies are past , and a respect for the ingenuousness which committed them . It is a great mistake to suppose Thackeray ' s experience to lie only on the surface , and that the life he depicts is merely the movement of society . Although he knows that better , and depicts it more truly than any one else , he is separated from the fashionable novelists by the power they have little claim to—the power of
representing human life . Take Disraeli for example , and compare any sketch of fashionable life by him with one by Thackeray , and the difference is at once apparent . Disraeli sees society—not very clearly , but he sees it ; Thackeray sees it , and sees through it , sees all the human feelings , all the motives , high and low , simple and complicated , which make it what it is . Observe Major Pendennis , Warrington , Laura , Blanche Amory , Old Costigan , or even one of the minor persons , and on examination you will find that
he seizes characters where other writers seize only characteristics ; he docs not give you a peculiarity for the man , he places the man himself , that " bundle of motives , " before you . To test how true this is , you have only to ask yourself " Can I describe one of his characters truly in a phrase ? " Or you may test it thus : In Becky Sharp and in Blanche Amory he has drawn the same class of woman ; did that ever
strike you ? did you ever think he was repeating himself ? Is Blanche more like Becky than Iago is like Edmund ? Yet the two women belong to one type , and so marvellously true to nature , so minutely and profoundly true , that we who know one who might have sat for the portraits ( but did not ) are puzzled to say which of the two is most like her . Blanche does not play the same important part in Pendennis that Becky does in Vanity Fair , but the
Artist ' s power is equally apparent to a connoisseur . By knowledge then we mean not merely the familiarity with the modes of life from Gaunt House to tho 14 nek Kitchen , but familiarity also with the realities of life as they move in human breasts . Another peculiarity he has , and one which makes critics remonstrant , viz ., that of mercilessly pointing out tho skeleton which is in ( -very closet . He passes
among illusions only to show them to be follies ; ho turns round uj : oti you while the tears are standing in your eyes , only to laugh at your emotion ; he stands at the i ' w . vt only to declare its vanity ; ho recites a noble sentiment only to connect it with some ignoble motive . A mocking Mephistopheles , he will not suffer you to bo deceived . ; he ! augbs at you , at everybody , at himself . There is some truth in this ; but , as respects Fendcnnis , it is overstated , and the cause , we tako
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 21, 1850, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21121850/page/17/
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