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yaygttBBit 29,1856.] TUB ' LSji^-B. Bu'-...
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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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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Aukora Leigh. Aurora Leigh. By Elizabeth...
the Excursion , that the story ,. as a story , is poor , and n « fc very natural ; but everyone feels that the story- of Orlando Funoso is a part of its . enchantment , and was meant to . be so ; everyone -will feel that the story & £ Aurora Leigh js something more than-a vehicle for exquisite verse , and was meant to be so—meant to shadow forth truths of life and character . Now if we consider the story of Aurora Leigh—apart from its musical utterance—we must admit that , although it draws . us onyrardsL , fillin g the eyes with Jeaxs-and the heart with sudden beatings of noble emotion , it does nevertheless in several particulars jar and distress the judgment , ' and , as a novel , is but second-rate . It wants invention . The conduct of , the story is such . as we have followed in hundreds of novels , not being a wit the truer for its commonplace ; and were Aurora Leigh written in . prose , or in verse less Alftuent , and musical , and tender , we should throw it aside with no more commendation than is bestowed on second-rate novels .
We propose in this article to tell the story ; in a second article our criticism of the poem may be resumed . Aurora Leigh is the child of an Englishman of family , and An Italian girl of beauty , who died when Aurora was four years old : — She could jaot bear tiUejoy of giving lijfe ~—The mother's xajxtuxe stew her . If herkjss Had left a longer weight vipon my lips , It might have steadied the uneasy . breath , And reconciled and fraternized my . soul With the new order . Aj 3 it was , indeed , I felt amother-want about the world , And stHI went seeking , like a bleating lamb left out at night , in shutting up the fold , — - As restless as a nest-deserted bird Grown chill through something being away , thongh what It knows not . I , Aurora Leigh , was born To make my father sadder , and myself Not overjoyous , truly . Women know The way to rear up children ( to be just ) , They know a simple , merry , tender knack Of tying Bashe 3 , fitting ¦ b aby-shoes , \ And stringing pretty words that make no sense , : . And kissing full sense into empty words ; ! Which things are corals to cut life upon , Although such trifles : children learn by such , Love ' s holy earnest iu a pretty play , And get not over-early solemaized , — But seeing , as in a rose-bush , Lcve ' s Divine , Which burns and hurts not , —not a single bloom ,- — Become aware and unafraid of Love . Such good do mothers . Fathers love as well —Minedid , I know , —but still -with heavier brains , And wills more consciously responsible , ' And not as wisely , since less -foolishly ; - ' .. So mothers have God ' s license to be missed . ¦ Her father * : . Whom love had unmade from a common man , .- ' .. ' . But not completed to an xiucommon man .. ( how subtle that !) , reared and educated her in solitude , till , when she was about thirteen , he died . The child was shipped to England , which thus appeared to her Italian eyes : — Then , land !—then , England ! oh , the frosty cliffs Looked cold upon me . Could I iind a home Among those mean red houses through the fog ? And wlien I heard my father ' s language first From alien lips which had no kiss for mine , . I wept aloud , then laughed , then wept , then wept , — ' And sonic one near me said the child was mad Through much sea-sickness . The train swept us on . Was this my father ' s England ? the great isle ? The ground seemed cut up from the fellowship Of verdure , field from field , as man from man ; The skies themselves looked low and positive , As almost you could touch them with a hand , And dared to do it , they were so far off Prom God ' s celestial crystals ; all things , blurred And dull and vague . Did Shakspearc and his mates , Absorb the light here ?—not a hill or stone With heart to strike a radiant colour up Or active outline on the indifferent air ! I think I see my father ' s sister stand Upon the hall-step of her country-houso To give me welcome . She stood straight and calm , Her somewhat narrow forehead braided tight As if for taming accidental thoughts Prom possible pulses ; browix liair pricked with grey By frigid use of life ( she was not old , Although my father ' s elder by a year ) ; A nose drawn sharply , yet in delicate lines ; A close , mild mouth , a little soured about The ends , through speaking unrequited lovca , Or peradvcntvnc niggardly half-truths ; Eyes of no colour , —once they might have smiled , But never , never have forgot "themselves In smiling ; cheeks , in which was j'ct a roso Of perished summers , like a rose in a book , Kept more for ruth tbun pleasure , —if past bloom , Past fading nho , She had lived , we'll say , A harmless life , ahc called a virtuous life , A quiet life , which was not life at all •( But that she had not lived enough to know ) , Between the vicar and the county squires , The lord-lieutenant looking down sometimes From the empyreal , to assure their soula Against chance-vulgarisms , nnd , in the abyss , The apothecary looked on once a year , To prove their soundness of humility .
The poor-cluj ) exercised her Cbxis & iajx , % m » Ofknitting stockings , stitching pettaeoatfl , Because w . e are of , one flesh after all And need one flannel ( with a proper jseuse Of difference in the quality ) ., —and . still The book-club , . guarded from your modern trick Of shaking dangerous questions from the crease , Preserved her intellectual . * 5 he had lived A sort of cage-bird life , born in a cage , Accounting that to leap from perch to pesoa Was act and joy enough for . any bird . Dear heaven , how silly are the things'feat live In thdcketfi , and eat terries ! The humorous and satirical touches of this passage ^ give indication that the music isiiot to be wholly in one key ; here is another-passage from the long and satirical account of her education under tike cars otf rthis aunt : ¦ I drew . . costumes From French engravinge , nereids neatly draped , With smirks of simmering godship , —I washed , tn From nature , landscapes ( rather 8 aywasied out ) . I danced the polka and Cellarius , Spun glass , stuffed birds , and modelled flowers in ffias . Because she liked accomplishments in , girla . I read a score of books on womanhood To prove , if women do not think at aD , They may teach thinking ( to a maiden-aunt Or else the author )—books demonstrating Their right of comprehending husband ' s talk When not too deep , and even of answering With pretty ' may it please you , ' ox ' so it is , — Their rapid insight and fine aptitude , Particular worth and general missionarlness , As long as they keep quiet by the fire And never say c no' when the world says t ay , ' For that is Sfatal , —their angelic reach Of virtue , cshiefly used to sit and darn , And fatten household sinners , —^ their , in brief , Potential faculty in everything Of abdicating power in it : she owned She liked a woman to be womanly , And Englisi women , she thanked God and sighed ( Some people always sigh in thanking God ) , Were models to the universe . In spite of this , her young and eager soul finds out its proper nourishment ; in secret she reads all the better books , and in secret begins to write poetry to which she feels the irresistible vocation . Her cousin Romney Leigh , heir to the Leigh estates , loves her , and she loves him , but when he tells her e of his love , lie does it with tlie arrogance and infelicity of youth , ¦ whi ch stings her pride , and she refuses him . The fact is , he has given his soul to philanthropic schemes ; to ameliorate the social condition of his age has become the dream and passion of his life , and although he loves his cousin , he lets her plainly see he wants her as a helper in . hjs work , even more than as a ¦ wife . This is very subtly conceived . It is just the sort of pedantic error to which yoiith is liable . It is just the sort of error to offend a woman ' s pride . But although we think the situation finely conceived , it is iniperfectly pi-esented ; and the tone of the conversation on both sides is not like truth—we do not mean the literal truth of daily tali , but ideal truth of passion and poetry . Tie reader has a sense of the whole being , as in novels , a mere device of the writer to separate hero and heroine in order that the story may take its course ; not as the inevitable utterance of two human souls . She rejects her cousin , and is resolved to dedicate tier life to poetry . Her aunt is furious with ' her for such folly ; but she is resolute ; and the life she led in consequence is thus graphically hinted : — - The next week passed hi silence , so the next , And several after : Romney did not come , Nor my aunt chide me . I lived on and on , As if my heart were kept beneath a glass , And everybody stood , all eyes and ears , To see and hear it tick . I could not sit , Nor walk , nor take a book , nor lay it down , Not sew on steadily , nor drop a stitch And a sigh -with it , but I felt her looks Still cleaving to me , like the sucking asp To Cleopatra ' s breast , persistently Through the intermittent pantings . Being observed , When observation is not sympathy , Is j ust being tortured ; If she said a word , A * thank you , ' or an ' if it please you , dear , ' She meant a commination , or at best , An exorcism against the devildom . Which plainly held me . So with all tlie house . Susannah could not stand and twist my hair , Without such glancing at the lookLng-glaas To see my face there , that she missed the plait : And John , —I never sent my plate for soup , Or did not send it , but the foolish John Resolved the problem , 'twixt his napkined thumbSi Of what -was signified by taking soup Or choosing mackerel . Neighbours , who dropped in On morning visits , feeling a joint wrong , Smiled admonition , sate uneasily , And talked with measured , emphasised reserve , Of parish news , like doctors to the nick , When not called in , —as if , with leave to speak , They might say something . Nay , the very dog Would w / itch me from his sun-patch on the floor , In alternation with the largo black fly Not yet in reach of snapping . So I lived . And one morning , some weeks after : — Then , suddenly , a singlo ghastly shriek Tore upwards from the bottom of the house . Like one who wakens in a grave and ahxioks ,
Yaygttbbit 29,1856.] Tub ' Lsji^-B. Bu'-...
yaygttBBit 29 , 1856 . ] TUB ' LSji ^ -B . Bu ' - . 1143
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 29, 1856, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29111856/page/15/
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