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1002 THE LEADER. [Saturday ,
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THE THEATRES. Gossip report is busy. The...
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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 girl had " a fine breast of milk , " which is a marketable commodity ; and there was a demand for that article at Audley Hall . The custom in these cases is strange , and I should hardly have believed it , if I had not learned it from one who would not deceive and could not be mistaken . Even in the most respectable families , there is a preference for girls whose children are not easily accounted for ; because such mothers are not embarrassed with " followers . " If the woman be married , her husband may wish to see her , and thus a strange man might acquire a kind of moral right to intrude upon the household ; which is not thought convenient . Hence the
aristocratic Romulus is supplied with some she-wolf isolated from all tiesby having no recognized ties . The nutrix is well fed , and pampered into a capricious paltry animal , trained to make mere appetites the object and means of life . " My beer" is the best asserted right of the foster mother to the aristocratic little Romulus ; nay , the vilest of spirituous depravities , gin , often finds its way into the veins of gentle blood ; and thus democracy takes its revenge on the patrician order—but not thus only : for the outcasts of the people are a double Nemesis to the haughty contemners of the people .
An officious constable suspected so opportune a death ; the grandchild of poor Mrs . Johnson was raised from its grave , and vulgar fellows in coats edged with red cord , intruded a troublesome inquiry into the household of the outraged Audley . The master of the house was much offended that the constables had given him no warning , in order that Fanny Chetham might be conveyed to her cell without scandal to the house . Breakfast was deranged ! Moreover there was some unexplained cause of solicitude which I did not fathom , though it evidently included me in the anxiety to hush up the affair . We were all assembled in the breakfast room , the untasted meal upon
the table—one mouthful bitten out of Audley ' s toast , Audley sat in magisterial wrath at the intrusion of a warrant not his own . His wife , his d ujhters , the tutor , the servants around ; the police near the magistrate ; the culprit in the centre . I had never really seen her before ; but now I could not avoid it . I saw a figure really far from being ungraceful—it had at least the grace of youth about it . Although the face was downcast , I could see it—the fixed blush , the eye filled with the unfailing , tear , the sad abstracted look . To murder one ' s child is the act of a devil ; and yet that girl , too probably a murderess , was no devil . From that sad spectacle , which I only dared to look upon because my eyes were not seared with
hatred or contempt , I looked around , and saw no signs of pity anywhere . The children had been sent away ; but two of the elder daughters , besides the married one , remained forgotten . Curiosity , dislike , cold alienation from a " vulgar person" in disgrace , were the prevailing traits of the expression . The police-seigeant pursued his routine inquiries with an unflinching disregard of the good company around him ; and I could discern in all the educated bystanders—except Audley , who was supported by the inherent majesty of the law—a passing blush and an uneasy wincing as the rude interrogatory violated the rules of bienseance ; but curiosity was stronger than shame ; and there was no shuddering for the poor wretch who had heard all uncontradicting and unmoved .
And this , I said to myself , is a creature of the same kind as Yseult—as Yseult of our valley , as Yseult aux blanches mains , as Elena , as Margaret . She was suffering , and she could have loved ! "A spring of love gushed from my heart , " and , advancing to her , I said , " I do not know whether you are rightly accused or not ; but if you have to stand before the accuser , it shall not be quite without support . I will see that you are at least helped to justice . " The poor wretch fell on her knees as if struck , and burying her face in her hands , she cried , in a voice that seemed to writhe with agony , though her attitude was fixed , " O God , forgive me ! 1 am not innocent , Sir ; I did it—I killed it , and it shrieked in my face !" Just at that moment Stanhope broke in , to take me off .
I set off at once . Audley urged me to return soon ; and 1 promised poor Fanny Chetham , who listened in silence—she concealed her face from me—that I would not leave her long . " You are a strange fellow , " said Audley , as we shook hands ; " but we shall civilize you in time . " Strange in what ? Because I could not see that misery , or even crime , can dissolve the natural sympathy between fellow-creatures—especially the sympathy for helpless suffering ? Or strange , because I do not understand
how Englishmen can ignore so much that is passing around them ? asked Edwardes what Audley meant . " Oh , " lit ? answered , " he was amused at your interfering , or at your disposition to keep up the subject , instead of leaving it to the police . We , in England , hum ) these thing « well enough ; but we count them among the tucenda . There is no use in talking about them . " And thus , by favour of silence , each Englishman nurses the idea tluit his experience is " an exceptional case ; " by favour of the silence , more i . done ; by fiiyour of the silence , the causes of the universal disease me suffered to continue , to multiply unchecked , unrebuked ; by favour of th « silence , depravity enjoys the privilege of a presumptive necessity ; by favour of the silence , society divided by itself , submits to laws which each finds to > . vj «} 55 % bc impracticable , and disobeys for himself , though he tries to enforce them <* fc ^ ** ? LJ T " /^ " ^ 11 llis nei K our ; l ) V favour of the silence , society pretends to be what it / S ^ fTi V' H ^^ ' nntl lHwlmt ifc ablior 8 ; and whcn < letectiou teiir " ° th < - vei 1 ' Ljt- " ' ' i ' ' . \' : " . jfftnge » the shame by making the unfortunate a peace-offering to the idol fV ^ i l ^ XfrX ' 'TV . 'rfltespect & bility . It is that silence of the Englishman under the universal ^ W ^ f < - * v ¦ . ¦ ¦ . ¦ :. ¦ ; - J ' $ m ^ m if
tyranny , that coward submission not to speak out for the punished victim where all are accomplices , which is the crowning depravity . "When I Se S the social working of this hideous masquerade , I thank God that ^ am not a " good citizen , " but a vagabond , an outlaw , an alien from such a community . " And what would you have instead £ ' \ asked Edwardes . " You should not destroy until you are prepared to build . " ,
" What ! " I exclaimed , " would you not abandon and destroy the wretched wigwam reeking with smoke , with foulness , and with vermin ? Is it not better to break it up , and sleep under the broad sky , and the stars , or even the cloud and the wind ? Death itself is respectable , when it is the work of the free uncontaminated elements . " " But we must have faith in something—we must have some standard of conduct , imperfect though it be , till we get a better . " "And have you faith , " I said ; " have you any faith in the counterfeit which you know to be a counterfeit ? Which you only abstain from callinq so ?"
And why , I asked him , do downright practical Englishmen aim at all their most precious objects by indirect means , where simple and direct means are possible ? It is not for me , an unlettered man , an alien to society , a Vagabond , to devise laws . However , I have promised him to say what the facts which I observe may suggest to me , as they would probably to him , if he could venture to look freely at the subject . But I have not yet quite probed the disease .
1002 The Leader. [Saturday ,
1002 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
€\X Ms.
€ \ x Ms .
The Theatres. Gossip Report Is Busy. The...
THE THEATRES . Gossip report is busy . The Princess ' s , the Adelphi , and the Olympic , are running a race in the production of the new drame larmoyant now playing at the Ambigu , under the title of Marie Simon—and as the question of copyright will here come into play , I am curious about the issue . Mr . Farren has bought the piece , and has rehearsed it fora fortnight . Mr . Webster started for Paris to see it . Mr . Kean , eager for a part for Mrs . Kean , has also employed a dramaturge to " do" the piece for him . And now for tlie neck and neck race ! While retailing this gossip , let me add that Marston ' s new play is in active rehearsal at the Princess ' s , and is highly spoken of . The Lyceum opens on Monday with a revival of the Golden Fleece , a new farce , and a new comedy liy Planche . Dkuey Lane awaits another " enterprising" manager . At Sadler's Wells novelty follows quick on novelty—the last being Planche ' s adaptation of Eowley ' s Woman Never Vext . At the Haymarketwg have had two new farces . The Woman I Adore is a translation of L'Idee Fixe , badly done , and not worth the doing . Buckstone , as an amatory clerk , who falls in love with a countess , and is invited to her ball by his hoaxing fellow clerks , was occasionally laughable , as Buckstone cannot fail to be ; but the piece itself is a very poor affair . I see the dialogue is praised in the Times for its " oddity ; " to me the only " oddity seemed to lie in the fact of a man deliberately writing it , and a public occasionally laughing at it . There waa but one joke that rose above the mechanical commonplace facetiousness of the style , and that was the description of the high-trotting horse , " as if his legs were oi different lengths . " I don ' t often criticise the style of farces—a ?*?* bon ? but tho Times calling attention to this dialogue , I could not pass it
over . , , -, On Thursday , Sterling Coyne , with gay audacity , ventured on » perilous attempt of trying tk « public with a continuation of Box ami Lor . Continuation *) are' proverbially failures . At least the public wont accept them . Intrinsically I think the Odyssey a . finer poem than tho Iliad , mu the former carries off the palm . Paradise Regained no one pluces doskh , Paradise Lost , in spite of Milton ' s paternal preference . Iho second paxi of Don Quixote is many degrees less popular than the first ; it coni * liner philosophic touches , but it is less amusing . Dumas , it is " * ut ' i nages to keep up the interest in his interminable continuations ; Due u should ho ever stop , or readers ever tire P There is one very good re a . t » against continuations , oven if we supposo the author ' s vigour not ™ . » his primal freshness of interest in his own creations to Y emal " £ either he must repeat the first part , or he must do something unu If he repeat himself , the reader is apt to be wearied ; if he do soimjt" , j , unlike his commencementtins render is disappointed . . 1 no i < i
, ; fact , makes this ivnpracticable demand : Me the smne—be dillereiii .. ^ This unreasonable demand Sterling Coyne braves ui Jlox ana . - Married and SeUlful-iuul . Fortune , woman that . she ih , is <' m \ \ cri , embrace the brave ! The huowhs was immense . Jiox ami < oequal l , o the demand made on them , and the dialogue was rioioii » fun and oddity . That is gem . ir . o farce dialogue , with laughter 1 » u » h ^ l , he checks of extravagance , « ml " holding both its Hides . uuiii . Y . ^ is in that piece , not of the inoclumical and dreary kind to ' . " : / '" V rclll tho Woman I Adore , but of l . ho kind which animal . spirits aim humour fling into careless convocation , certain of huccch . s . n , ; ,, g " Of tho piece itself , expect no description from me . . 1 " »¦ » . . ftI 1 ( i effective would pointless when nail ;» h ellective wouiu |«
farce , the most points neem ;(( , r > farce , tho most poinm Heem » |» - , ,-, , „<• l , m . » lit «* , this is an extravagance which needn all the willing eredulity oi ln „ ^ all the oddity of Xeeley and Backbone , and a I the <> tl < iit ,. y oi ^ ^ logue , Jo carry it through : they carry it ; , and by storm . - ^ excessively funny ; his appearance after a " stand-up li tf H tjn i | j ( r for his gingham umbrella " convulsed" the house-to 'is » M f ^ ,. phrase . Uiiekstono was indifferent . Mrs . Huckmgham and ; VU ^ ,, nd field were the wives of Box and Cox , and very good wives loO yivuN . HCO it .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 16, 1852, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16101852/page/22/
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