第 21 节
作者:两块      更新:2021-02-18 22:15      字数:9322
  amazing and indomitable insular pride; which animates my
  lord in his travelling…carriage as well as John in the
  rumble。
  If you read the old Chronicles of the French wars; you
  find precisely the same character of the Englishman; and
  Henry V。's people behaved with just the cool domineering
  manner of our gallant veterans of France and the
  Peninsula。  Did you never hear Colonel Cutler and Major
  Slasher talking over the war after dinner? or Captain
  Boarder describing his action with the 'Indomptable?'
  'Hang the fellows;' says Boarder; 'their practice was
  very good。  I was beat off three times before I took
  her。'  'Cuss those carabineers of Milhaud's;' says
  Slasher; 'what work they made of our light cavalry!'
  implying a sort of surprise that the Frenchman should
  stand up against Britons at all: a good…natured wonder
  that the blind; mad; vain…glorious; brave poor devils
  should actually have the courage to resist an Englishman。
  Legions of such Englishmen are patronizing Europe at this
  moment; being kind to the Pope; or good…natured to the
  King of Holland; or condescending to inspect the Prussian
  reviews。  When Nicholas came here; who reviews a quarter
  of a million of pairs of moustaches to his breakfast
  every morning; we took him off to Windsor and showed him
  two whole regiments of six or eight hundred Britons a…
  piece; with an air as much as to say;'There; my boy;
  look at THAT。  Those are ENGLISHMEN; those are; and your
  master whenever you please;' as the nursery song says。
  The British Snob is long; long past scepticism; and can
  afford to laugh quite good…humouredly at those conceited
  Yankees; or besotted little Frenchmen; who set up as
  models of mankind。  THEY forsooth!
  I have been led into these remarks by listening to an old
  fellow at the Hotel du Nord; at Boulogne; and who is
  evidently of the Slasher sort。  He came down and seated
  himself at the breakfast…table; with a surly scowl on his
  salmon…coloured bloodshot face; strangling in a tight;
  cross…barred cravat; his linen and his appointments so
  perfectly stiff and spotless that everybody at once
  recognized him as a dear countryman。  Only our port…wine
  and other admirable institutions could have produced a
  figure so insolent; so stupid; so gentleman…like。  After
  a while our attention was called to him by his roaring
  out; in a voice of plethoric fury; 'O!'
  Everybody turned round at the 'O;' conceiving the Colonel
  to be; as his countenance denoted him; in intense pain;
  but the waiters knew better; and instead of being
  alarmed; brought the Colonel the kettle。  'O;' it
  appears; is the French for hot…water。  The Colonel
  (though he despises it heartily) thinks he speaks the
  language remarkably well。  Whilst he was inhausting his
  smoking tea; which went rolling and gurgling down his
  throat; and hissing over the 'hot coppers' of that
  respectable veteran; a friend joined him; with a wizened
  face and very black wig; evidently a Colonel too。
  The two warriors; waggling their old heads at each other;
  presently joined breakfast; and fell into conversation;
  and we had the advantage of hearing about the old war;
  and some pleasant conjectures as to the next; which they
  considered imminent。  They psha'd the French fleet; they
  pooh…pooh'd the French commercial marine; they showed
  how; in a war; there would be a cordon ('a cordong; by…
  ') of steamers along our coast; and 'by …;' ready at a
  minute to land anywhere on the other shore; to give the
  French as good a thrashing as they got in the last war;
  'by …'。  In fact; a rumbling cannonade of oaths was
  fired by the two veterans during the whole of their
  conversation。
  There was a Frenchman in the room; but as he had not been
  above ten years in London; of course he did not speak the
  language; and lost the benefit of the conversation。
  'But; O my country!' said I to myself; it's no wonder
  that you are so beloved!  If I were a Frenchman; how I
  would hate you!'
  That brutal; ignorant; peevish bully of an Englishman is
  showing himself in every city of Europe。  One of the
  dullest creatures under heaven; he goes travelling Europe
  under foot; shouldering his way into galleries and
  cathedrals; and bustling into palaces with his buck…ram
  uniform。  At church or theatre; gala or picture…gallery;
  HIS face never varies。  A thousand delightful sights pass
  before his bloodshot eyes; and don't affect him。
  Countless brilliant scenes of life and manners are shown
  him; but never move him。  He goes to church; and calls
  the practices there degrading and superstitious: as if
  HIS altar was the only one that was acceptable。  He goes
  to picture…galleries; and is more ignorant about Art than
  a French shoeblack。  Art; Nature pass; and there is no
  dot of admiration in his stupid eyes: nothing moves him;
  except when a very great man comes his way; and then the
  rigid; proud; self…confident; inflexible British Snob can
  be as humble as a flunkey and as supple as a harlequin。
  CHAPTER XXIII
  ENGLISH SNOBS ON THE CONTINENT
  'WHAT is the use of Lord Rome's telescope?' my friend
  Panwiski exclaimed the other day。  'It only enables you
  to see a few hundred thousands of miles farther。  What
  were thought to be mere nebulae; turn out to be most
  perceivable starry systems; and beyond these; you see
  other nebulae; which a more powerful glass will show to
  be stars; again; and so they go on glittering and winking
  away into eternity。'  With which my friend Pan; heaving a
  great sigh; as if confessing his inability to look
  Infinity in the face; sank back resigned; and swallowed a
  large bumper of claret。
  I (who; like other great men; have but one idea); thought
  to myself; that as the stars are; so are the Snobs:the
  more。  you gaze upon those luminaries; the more you
  beholdnow nebulously congregatednow faintly
  distinguishablenow brightly defineduntil they twinkle
  off in endless blazes; and fade into the immeasurable
  darkness。  I am but as a child playing on the sea…shore。
  Some telescopic philosopher will arise one day; some
  great Snobonomer; to find the laws of the great science
  which we are now merely playing with; and to define; and
  settle; and classify that which is at present but vague
  theory; and loose though elegant assertion。
  Yes: a single eye can but trace a very few and simple
  varieties of the enormous universe of Snobs。  I sometimes
  think of appealing to the public; and calling together a
  congress of SAVANS; such as met at Southamptoneach to
  bring his contributions and read his paper on the Great
  Subject。  For what can a single poor few do; even with
  the subject at present in hand?  English Snobs on the
  Continentthough they are a hundred thousand times less
  numerous than on their native island; yet even these few
  are too many。  One can only fix a stray one here and
  there。  The individuals are caughtthe thousands escape。
  I have noted down but three whom I have met with in my
  walk this morning through this pleasant marine city of
  Boulogne。
  There is the English Raff Snob; that frequents ESTAMINETS
  and CABARETS; who is heard yelling; 'We won't go home
  till morning!' and startling the midnight echoes of quiet
  Continental towns with shrieks of English slang。  The
  boozy unshorn wretch is seen hovering round quays as
  packets arrive; and tippling drains in inn bars where he
  gets credit。  He talks French with slang familiarity: he
  and his like quite people the debt…prisons on the
  Continent。  He plays pool at the billiard…houses; and may
  be seen engaged at cards and dominoes of forenoons。  His
  signature is to be seen on countless bills of exchange:
  it belonged to an honourable family once; very likely;
  for the English Raff most probably began by being a
  gentleman; and has a father over the water who is ashamed
  to hear his name。  He has cheated the old 'governor'
  repeatedly in better days; and swindled his sisters of
  their portions; and robbed his younger brothers。  Now he
  is living on his wife's jointure: she is hidden away in
  some dismal garret; patching shabby finery and cobbling
  up old clothes for her childrenthe most miserable and
  slatternly of women。
  Or sometimes the poor woman and her daughters go about
  timidly; giving lessons in English and music; or do
  embroidery and work under…hand; to purchase the means for
  the POT…AU…FEU; while Raff is swaggering on the quay; or
  tossing off glasses of cognac at the CAF?。  The
  unfortunate creature has a child still every year; and
  her constant hypocrisy is to try and make her girls
  believe that their father is a respectable man; and to
  huddle him out of the way when the brute comes home
  drunk。
  Those poor ruined souls get together and have a society
  of their own; the which it is very affecting to watch
  those tawdry pretences at gentility; those flimsy
  attempts at gaiety: those woful sallies: that jingling
  old piano; oh; it m