第 3 节
作者:竹水冷      更新:2021-02-20 05:38      字数:9322
  o me a now famous lady who as  a girl had known Mrs。 Procter well; 〃made friendly company  yesterday to a lonely meal; and brought back memories of Mr。  Kinglake's kind spoiling of a raw young woman; and of the wit; the  egregious vanity; the coarseness; the kindness; of that hard old  worldling our Lady of Bitterness。〃  In the presence of one man;  Tennyson; she laid aside her shrewishness: 〃talking with Alfred  Tennyson lifts me out of the earth earthy; a visit to Farringford  is like a retreat to the religious。〃  A celebrity in London for  fifty years; she died; witty and vigorous to the last; in 1888。   〃You and I and Mr。 Kinglake;〃 she says to Lord Houghton; 〃are all  that are left of the goodly band that used to come to St。 John's  Wood; Eliot Warburton; Motley; Adelaide; Count de Verg; Chorley;  Sir Edwin Landseer; my husband。〃  〃I never could write a book;〃 she  tells him in another letter; 〃and one strong reason for not doing  so was the idea of some few seeing how poor it was。  Venables was  one of the few; I need not say that you were one; and Kinglake。〃
  Kinglake was called to the Chancery Bar; and practised apparently  with no great success。  He believed that his reputation as a writer  stood in his way。  When; in 1845; poor Hood's friends were helping  him by gratuitous articles in his magazine; 〃Hood's Own;〃 Kinglake  wrote to Monckton Milnes refusing to contribute。  He will send 10  pounds to buy an article from some competent writer; but will not  himself write。  〃It would be seriously injurious to me if the  author of 'Eothen' were AFFICHED as contributing to a magazine。  My  frailty in publishing a book has; I fear; already hurt me in my  profession; and a small sin of this kind would bring on me still  deeper disgrace with the solicitors。〃
  Twice at least in these early years he travelled。  〃Mr。 Kinglake;〃  writes Mrs。 Procter in 1843; 〃is in Switzerland; reading Rousseau。〃   And in the following year we hear of him in Algeria; accompanying  St。 Arnaud in his campaign against the Arabs。  The mingled interest  and horror inspired in him by this extra…ordinary man finds  expression in his 〃Invasion of the Crimea〃 (ii。 157)。  A few; a  very few survivors; still remember his appearance and manners in  the forties。  The eminent husband of a lady; now passed away; who  in her lifetime gave Sunday dinners at which Kinglake was always  present; speaks of him as SENSITIVE; quiet in the presence of noisy  people; of Brookfield and the overpowering Bernal Osborne; liking  their company; but never saying anything worthy of remembrance。  A  popular old statesman; still active in the House of Commons;  recalls meeting him at Palmerston; Lord Harrington's seat; where  was assembled a party in honour of Madame Guiccioli and her second  husband; the Marquis de Boissy; and tells me that he attached  himself to ladies; not to gentlemen; nor ever joined in general  tattle。  Like many other famous men; he passed through a period of  shyness; which yielded to women's tactfulness only。  From the first  they appreciated him; 〃if you were as gentle as your friend  Kinglake;〃 writes Mrs。 Norton reproachfully to Hayward in the  sulks。  Another coaeval of those days calls him handsome … an  epithet I should hardly apply to him later … slight; not tall;  sharp featured; with dark hair well tended; always modishly dressed  after the fashion of the thirties; the fashion of Bulwer's  exquisites; or of H。 K。 Browne's 〃Nicholas Nickleby〃 illustrations;  leaving on all who saw him an impression of great personal  distinction; yet with an air of youthful ABANDON which never quite  left him: 〃He was pale; small; and delicate in appearance;〃 says  Mrs。 Simpson; Nassau Senior's daughter; who knew him to the end of  his life; while Mrs。 Andrew Crosse; his friend in the Crimean  decade; cites his finely chiselled features and intellectual brow;  〃a complexion bloodless with the pallor not of ill…health; but of  an old Greek bust。〃
  CHAPTER II … 〃EOTHEN〃
  〃EOTHEN〃 appeared in 1844。  Twice; Kinglake tells us; he had  essayed the story of his travels; twice abandoned it under a sense  of strong disinclination to write。  A third attempt was induced by  an entreaty from his friend Eliot Warburton; himself projecting an  Eastern tour; and to Warburton in a characteristic preface the  narrative is addressed。  The book; when finished; went the round of  the London market without finding a publisher。  It was offered to  John Murray; who cited his refusal of it as the great blunder of  his professional life; consoling himself with the thought that his  father had equally lacked foresight thirty years before in  declining the 〃Rejected Addresses〃; he secured the copyright later  on。  It was published in the end by a personal friend; Ollivier; of  Pall Mall; Kinglake paying 50 pounds to cover risk of loss; even  worse terms than were obtained by Warburton two years afterwards  from Colburn; who owned in the fifties to having cleared 6;000  pounds by 〃The Crescent and the Cross。〃  The volume was an octavo  of 418 pages; the curious folding…plate which forms the  frontispiece was drawn and coloured by the author; and was compared  by the critics to a tea…tray。  In front is Moostapha the Tatar; the  two foremost figures in the rear stand for accomplished Mysseri;  whom Kinglake was delighted to recognize long afterwards as a  flourishing hotel keeper in Constantinople; and Steel; the  Yorkshire servant; in his striped pantry jacket; 〃looking out for  gentlemen's seats。〃  Behind are 〃Methley;〃 Lord Pollington; in a  broad…brimmed hat; and the booted leg of Kinglake; who modestly hid  his figure by a tree; but exposed his foot; of which he was very  proud。  Of the other characters; 〃Our Lady of Bitterness〃 was Mrs。  Procter; 〃Carrigaholt〃 was Henry Stuart Burton of Carrigaholt;  County Clare。  Here and there are allusions; obvious at the time;  now needing a scholiast; which have not in any of the reprints been  explained。  In their ride through the Balkans they talked of old  Eton days。  〃We bullied Keate; and scoffed at Larrey Miller and  Okes; we rode along loudly laughing; and talked to the grave  Servian forest as though it were the Brocas clump。〃 (9)  Keate  requires no interpreter; Okes was an Eton tutor; afterwards Provost  of King's。  Larrey or Laurie Miller was an old tailor in Keate's  Lane who used to sit on his open shop…board; facing the street; a  mark for the compliments of passing boys; as frolicsome youngsters  in the days of Addison and Steele; as High School lads in the days  of Walter Scott; were accustomed to 〃smoke the cobler。〃  The Brocas  was a meadow sacred to badger…baiting and cat…hunts。  The badgers  were kept by a certain Jemmy Flowers; who charged sixpence for each  〃draw〃; Puss was turned out of a bag and chased by dogs; her chance  being to reach and climb a group of trees near the river; known as  the 〃Brocas Clump。〃  Of the quotations; 〃a Yorkshireman  hippodamoio〃 (p。 35) is; I am told; an OBITER DICTUM of Sir Francis  Doyle。  〃Striving to attain;〃 etc。 (p。 33); is taken not quite  correctly from Tennyson's 〃Timbuctoo。〃  Our crew were 〃a solemn  company〃 (p。 57) is probably a reminiscence of 〃we were a gallant  company〃 in 〃The Siege of Corinth。〃  For 〃'the own armchair' of our  Lyrist's 'Sweet Lady'〃 Anne'〃 (p。 161) see the poem; 〃My own arm… chair〃 in Barry Cornwall's 〃English Lyrics。〃  〃Proud Marie of  Anjou〃 (p。 96) and 〃single…sin … 〃 (p。  121); are unintelligible; a  friend once asked Kinglake to explain the former; but received for  answer; 〃Oh! that is a private thing。〃  It may; however; have been  a pet name for little Marie de Viry; Procter's niece; and the CHERE  AMIE of his verse; whom Eothen must have met often at his friend's  house。  The St。 Simonians of p。 83 were the disciples of Comte de  St。 Simon; a Parisian reformer in the latter part of the eighteenth  century; who endeavoured to establish a social republic based on  capacity and labour。  Pere Enfantin was his disciple。  The 〃mystic  mother〃 was a female Messiah; expected to become the parent of a  new Saviour。  〃Sir Robert once said a good thing〃 (p。 93); refers  possibly to Sir Robert Peel; not famous for epigram; whose one good  thing is said to have been bestowed upon a friend before Croker's  portrait in the Academy。  〃Wonderful likeness;〃 said the friend;  〃it gives the very quiver of the mouth。〃  〃Yes;〃 said Sir Robert;  〃and the arrow coming out of it。〃  Or it may mean Sir Robert  Inglis; Peel's successor at Oxford; more noted for his genial  kindness and for the perpetual bouquet in his buttonhole at a date  when such ornaments were not worn; than for capacity to conceive  and say good things。  In some mischievous lines describing the  Oxford election where Inglis supplanted Peel; Macaulay wrote
  〃And then said all the Doctors sitting in the Divinity School; Not this man; but Sir Robert' … now Sir Robert was a fool。〃
  But in the fifth and later editions Kinglake altered it to 〃Sir  John。〃
  By a curious oversight in the first two editions (p。 41) JOVE was  made to gaze on Troy from Samothrace; it was rightly altered to  Neptune in the third; and 〃eagle eye of Jove〃 in the following  sentence was replaced by 〃dread Commoter of our globe