I
immediately
seized the end of one of
these coils, and flung it into the boat, telling them to drop clear
of the wreck astern; and when they had backed as far as the
length of the line permitted, I bent on the end of the other coil,
and paid that out until the boat was some fathoms astern.
these coils, and flung it into the boat, telling them to drop clear
of the wreck astern; and when they had backed as far as the
length of the line permitted, I bent on the end of the other coil,
and paid that out until the boat was some fathoms astern.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v21 - Rab to Rus
»
"I have never had to wait for orders to encourage a crew. "
"Mind what you are about, sir! " he exclaimed, in a voice.
tremulous with rage. I see through your game, and I'll put a
stopper upon it that you won't like. "
"What game, sir? Let me have your meaning. "
"An infernal mutinous game! " he roared. "Don't talk to me,
sir! I know you! I've had my eye upon you! You'll play false
if you can, and are trying to smother up your d-d rebel mean-
ings with genteel airs! Get away, sir! " he bellowed, stamping
## p. 12568 (#628) ##########################################
12568
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
his foot. "Get away aft! You're a lumping, useless incumbrance!
But by thunder! I'll give you two for every one you try to give
me! So stand by! "
And apparently half mad with his rage, he staggered away in
the very direction in which he had told me to go, and stood near
the wheel, glaring upon me with a white face, which looked
indescribably malevolent in the fur cap and ear-protectors that
ornamented it.
I was terribly vexed by this rudeness, which I was powerless
to resist, and regretted my indiscretion in entering the forecastle
after the politic resolutions I had formed. However, Captain
Coxon's ferocity was nothing new to me; truly I believed he was
not quite right in his mind, and expected, as in former cases,
that he would come round a bit by-and-by when his insane tem-
per had passed. Still his insinuations were highly dangerous, not
to speak of their offensiveness. It was no joke to be charged,
even by a madman, with striving to arouse the crew to mutiny.
Nevertheless I tried to console myself as best I could by reflect-
ing that he could not prove his charges; that I need only to
endure his insolence for a few weeks, and that there was always
a law to vindicate me and punish him, should his evil temper
betray him into any acts of cruelty against me.
The gale, at times the severest that I was ever in, lasted three
days; during which the ship drove something like eighty miles
to the northwest. The sea on the afternoon of the third day was
appalling: had the ship attempted to run, she would have been
pooped and smothered in a minute; but lying close, she rode
fairly well, though there were moments when I held my breath
as she sunk in a hollow like a coal-mine, filled with the astound-
ing noise of boiling water,-really believing that the immense
waves which came hurtling towards us with solid, sharp, trans-
parent ridges, out of which the wind tore lumps of water and
flung them through the rigging of the ship, must overwhelm the
vessel before she could rise to it.
The fury of the tempest and the violence of the sea, which
the boldest could not contemplate without feeling that the ship
was every moment in more or less peril, kept the crew subdued;
and they eat as best they could the provisions, without com-
plaint. However, it needed nothing less than a storm to keep
them quiet: for on the second day a sea extinguished the galley
fire, and until the gale abated no cooking could be done; so that
## p. 12569 (#629) ##########################################
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
12569
the men had to put up with the cold water and biscuit. Hence
all hands were thrown upon the ship's bread for two days; and
the badness of it, therefore, was made even more apparent than
heretofore, when its wormy moldiness was in some degree quali-
fied by the nauseousness of bad salt pork and beef and the sickly
flavor of damaged tea.
round a little a few
I think his temper
Like others of his
My character was
As I had anticipated, the captain came
hours after his insulting attack upon me.
frightened him when it had reference to me.
breed, he was a bit of a cur at the bottom.
a trifle beyond him; and he was ignorant enough to hate and
fear what he could not understand. Be this as it may, he made
some rough attempts at a rude kind of politeness when I went
below to get some grog, and condescended to say that when I
had been to sea as long as he, I would know that the most
ungrateful rascals in the world were sailors; that every crew he
had sailed with had always taken care to invent some grievance
to growl over: either the provisions were bad, or the work too
heavy, or the ship unseaworthy; and that long ago he had made
up his mind never to pay attention to their complaints, since
no sooner would one wrong be redressed than another would be
coined and shoved under his nose.
I took this opportunity of assuring him that I had never
willingly listened to the complaints of the men, and that I was
always annoyed when they spoke to me about the provisions, as
I had nothing whatever to do with that matter; and that so far
from my wishing to stir up the men into rebellion, my conduct
had been uniformly influenced by the desire to conciliate them
and represent their conditions as very tolerable, so as to repress
any tendency to disaffection which they might foment among
themselves.
To this he made no reply, and soon we parted; but all the
next day he was sullen again, and never addressed me save to
give an order.
On the evening of the third day the gale broke; the glass had
risen since the morning; but until the first dog-watch the wind
did not bate one iota of its violence, and the horizon still re-
tained its stormy and threatening aspect. The clouds then broke
in the west, and the setting sun shone forth with deep crimson
light upon the wilderness of mountainous waters. The wind fell
quickly, then went round to the west and blew freshly; but
## p. 12570 (#630) ##########################################
12570
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
there was a remarkable softness and sweetness in the feel and
taste of it.
A couple of reefs were at once shaken out of the maintopsail,
and a sail made. By midnight the heavy sea had subsided into
a deep, long, rolling swell, still (strangely enough) coming from
the south; but the fresh westerly wind held the ship steady, and
for the first time for nearly a hundred hours we were able to
move about the decks with comparative comfort. Early the next
morning the watch were set to wash down and clear up the
decks; and when I left my cabin at eight o'clock, I found the
weather bright and warm, with a blue sky shining among heavy,
white, April-looking clouds, and the ship making seven knots
under all plain sail. The decks were dry and comfortable, and
the ship had a habitable and civilized look, by reason of the row
of clothes hung by the seamen to dry on the forecastle.
It was half past nine o'clock, and I was standing near the
taffrail looking at a shoal of porpoises playing some hundreds of
feet astern, when the man who was steering asked me to look
in the direction to which he pointed-that was, a little to the
right of the bowsprit- and say if there was anything to be seen
there; for he had caught sight of something black upon the hori
zon twice, but could not detect it now.
I turned my eyes toward the quarter of the sea indicated,
but could discern nothing whatever; and telling him that what
he had seen was probably a wave, which, standing higher than
his fellows, will sometimes show black a long distance off, walked
to the fore part of the poop.
The breeze still held good; and the vessel was slipping easily
through the water, though the southerly swell made her roll
and at times shook the wind out of the sails. The skipper had
gone to lie down,- being pretty well exhausted, I daresay; for he
had kept the deck for the greater part of three nights running.
Duckling was also below. Most of my watch were on the fore-
castle, sitting or lying in the sun, which shone very warm upon
the decks; the hens under the long-boat were chattering briskly,
and the cocks crowing, and the pigs grunting, with the comfort
of the warmth.
Suddenly, as the ship rose, I distinctly beheld something
black out away upon the horizon, showing just under the foot of
the foresail. It vanished instantly; but I was not satisfied, and
went for the glass which lay upon the brackets just under the
## p. 12571 (#631) ##########################################
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
12571
companion. I then told the man who was steering to keep her
away a couple of points for a few moments; and resting the
glass against the mizzen-royal backstay, pointed it toward the
place where I had seen the black object.
For some moments nothing but sea or sky filled the field of
the glass as the ship rose and fell; but all at once there leaped
into this field the hull of a ship, deep as her main-chains in the
water, which came and went before my eye as the long seas lifted
or dropped in the foreground. I managed to keep her sufficiently
long in view to perceive that she was totally dismasted.
"It's a wreck," said I, turning to the man: "let her come to
again and luff a point. There may be living creatures aboard of
her. »
Knowing what sort of man Captain Coxon was, I do not think
that I should have had the hardihood to luff the ship a point out
of her course had it involved the bracing of the yards; for the
songs of the men would certainly have brought him on deck, and
I might have provoked some ugly insolence. But the ship was
going free, and would head more westerly without occasioning
further change than slightly slackening the weather-braces of the
upper yards. This I did quietly; and the dismantled hull was
brought right dead on end with our flying jib-boom. The men
now caught sight of her, and began to stare and point; but did
not sing out, as they saw by the telescope in my hand that I
perceived her. The breeze unhappily began to slacken somewhat,
owing perhaps to the gathering heat of the sun; our pace fell
off and a full hour passed before we brought the wreck near
enough to see her permanently,- for up to this she had been
constantly vanishing under the rise of the swell. She was now
about two miles off, and I took a long and steady look at her
through the telescope. It was a black hull with painted ports.
The deck was flush fore and aft, and there was a good-sized
house just before where the mainmast should have been. This
house was uninjured, though the galley was split up, and to star-
board stood up in splinters like the stump of a tree struck by
lightning. No boats could be seen aboard of her. Her jib-boom
was gone, and so were all three masts,-clean cut off at the
deck, as though a hand-saw had done it; but the mizzen-mast was
alongside, held by the shrouds and backstays, and the port main
and fore shrouds streamed like serpents from her chains into the
water. I reckoned at once that she must be loaded with timber,
## p. 12572 (#632) ##########################################
12572
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
for she never could keep afloat at that depth with any other kind
of cargo in her.
She made a most mournful and piteous object in the sunlight,
sluggishly rolling to the swell which ran in transparent volumes
over her sides and foamed around the deck-house. Once when
her stern rose, I read the name Cecilia in broad white letters.
I was gazing at her intently, in the effort to witness some
indication of living thing on board, when, to my mingled con-
sternation and horror, I witnessed an arm projecting through the
window of the deck-house and frantically waving what resembled
a white handkerchief. As none of the men called out, I judged
the signal was not perceptible to the naked eye; and in my ex-
citement I shouted, "There's a living man on board of her, my
lads! " dropped the glass, and ran aft to call the captain.
I met him coming up the companion ladder. The first thing
he said was, "You're out of your course," and looked up at the
sails.
"There's a wreck yonder! " I cried, pointing eagerly, "with a
man on board signaling to us. "
"Get me the glass," he said sulkily; and I picked it up and
handed it to him.
He looked at the wreck for some moments; and addressing
the man at the wheel, exclaimed, making a movement with his
hand, "Keep her away! Where in the devil are you steering to? "
"Good heaven! " I ejaculated: "there's a man on board-
there may be others! "
Damnation! " he exclaimed between his teeth: "what do
you mean by interfering with me? Keep her away! " he roared
out.
During this time we had drawn sufficiently near to the wreck
to enable the sharper-sighted among the hands to remark the
signal, and they were calling out that there was somebody flying
a handkerchief aboard the hull.
"Captain Coxon," said I, with as firm a voice as I could com-
mand, for I was nearly in as great a rage as he, and rendered
insensible to all consequences by his inhumanity,- "if you bear
away and leave that man yonder to sink with that wreck when
he can be saved with very little trouble, you will become as
much a murderer as any ruffian who stabs a man asleep. "
When I had said this, Coxon turned black in the face with
His eyes protruded, his hands and fingers worked as
passion.
-
## p. 12573 (#633) ##########################################
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
12573
though he were under some electrical process, and I saw for the
first time in my life a sight I had always laughed at as a bit
of impossible novelist description, a mouth foaming with rage.
He rushed aft, just over Duckling's cabin, and stamped with all
his might.
"Now," thought I, "they may try to murder me! " And with-
out a word I pulled off my coat, seized a belaying-pin, and stood
ready; resolved that happen what might, I would give the first
man who should lay his fingers on me something to remember
me by while he had breath in his body.
The men, not quite understanding what was happening, but
seeing that a "row" was taking place, came to the forecastle
and advanced by degrees along the main-deck. Among them I
noticed the cook, muttering to one or the other who stood near.
Mr. Duckling, awakened by the violent clattering over his
head, came running up the companion-way with a bewildered,
sleepy look in his face. The captain grasped him by the arm,
and pointing to me, cried out with an oath that "that villain was
breeding a mutiny on board, and he believed wanted to murder
'him and Duckling. "
I at once answered, "Nothing of the kind! There is a man
miserably perishing on board that sinking wreck, Mr. Duckling,
and he ought to be saved. My lads! " I cried, addressing the
men on the main-deck, "is there a sailor among you all who
would have the heart to leave that man yonder without an effort
to rescue him? "
"No, sir! " shouted one of them. "We'll save the man; and
if the skipper refuses, we'll make him! "
"Luff! " I called to the man at the wheel.
"Luff at your peril! " screamed the skipper.
"Aft here, some hands," I cried, "and lay the main-yard aback.
Let go the port main-braces! "
The captain came running toward me.
"By the living God! " I cried in a fury, grasping the heavy
brass belaying-pin, "if you come within a foot of me, Captain
Coxon, I'll dash your brains out! "
My attitude, my enraged face and menacing gesture, produced
the desired effect. He stopped dead, turned a ghastly white, and
looked round at Duckling.
"What do you mean by this (etc. ) conduct, you (etc. ) muti-
nous scoundrels? " roared Duckling, with a volley of foul lan-
guage.
## p. 12574 (#634) ##########################################
12574
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
"Give him one for himself if he says too much, Mr. Royle! "
sung out some hoarse voice on the main-deck; "we'll back yer! "
And then came cries of "They're a cursed pair o' murderers! "
"Who run the smack down? ” "Who lets men drown? " "Who
starves honest men? " This last exclamation was followed by a
roar.
The whole of the crew were now on deck, having been
aroused by our voices. Some of them were looking on with a
grin, others with an expression of fierce curiosity. It was at
once understood that I was making a stand against the captain
and chief mate; and a single glance at them assured me that by
one word I could set the whole of them on fire to do my bid-
ding, even to shedding blood.
In the mean time, the man at the wheel had luffed until the
weather leeches were flat and the ship scarcely moving. And
at this moment, that the skipper might know their meaning, a
couple of hands jumped aft and let go the weather main-braces.
I took care to keep my eyes on Coxon and the mate, fully pre-
pared for any attack that one or both might make on me.
Duckling eyed me furiously but in silence, evidently baffled by
my resolute air and the position of the men. Then he said
something to the captain, who looked exhausted and white and
haggard with his useless passion. They walked over to the lee
side of the poop; and after a short conference, the captain to
my surprise went below, and Duckling came forward.
-
"There's no objection," he said, "to your saving the man's
life, if you want. Lower away the starboard quarter-boat; — and
you go along in her," he added to me, uttering the last words in
such a thick voice that I thought he was choking.
"Come along, some of you! " I cried out, hastily putting on
my coat; and in less than a minute I was in the boat with the
rudder and thole-pins shipped, and four hands ready to out oars
as soon as we touched the water.
Duckling began to fumble at one end of the boat's falls.
"Don't let him lower away! " roared out one of the men
in the boat. "He'll let us go with a run. He'd like to see us
drowned! "
Duckling fell back, scowling with fury; and shoving his head
over as the boat sunk quietly into the water, he discharged a
volley of execrations at us, saying that he would shoot some of
us, if he swung for it, before he was done, and especially apply-
ing a heap of abusive terms to me.
## p. 12575 (#635) ##########################################
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
12575
The fellow pulling the bow oar laughed in his face; and
another shouted out, "We'll teach you to say your prayers yet,
you ugly old sinner! »
We got away from the ship's side cleverly, and in a short
time were rowing fast for the wreck. The excitement under
which I labored made me reckless of the issue of this adventure.
The sight of the lonely man upon the wreck, coupled with the
unmanly, brutal intention of Coxon to leave him to his fate, had
goaded me into a state of mind infuriate enough to have done
and dared anything to compel Coxon to save him. He might
call it mutiny, but I called it humanity; and I was prepared to
stand or fall by my theory. The hate the crew had for their
captain and chief mate was quite strong enough to guarantee me
against any foul play on the part of Coxon; otherwise I might
have prepared myself to see the ship fill and stand away, and
leave us alone on the sea with the wreck. One of the men
in the boat suggested this; but another immediately answered,
"They'd pitch the skipper overboard if he gave such an order,
and glad o' the chance. There's no love for 'em among us, I
can tell you; and by! there'll be bloody work done aboard
the Grosvenor if things aren't mended soon, as you'll see. "
They all four pulled at their oars savagely as these words
were spoken; and I never saw such sullen and ferocious expres-
sions on men's faces as came into theirs, as they fixed their eyes
as with one accord upon the ship.
She, deep as she was, looked a beautiful model on the mighty
surface of the water, rolling with marvelous grace to the swell,
the strength and volume of which made me feel my littleness
and weakness as it lifted the small boat with irresistible power.
There was wind enough to keep her sails full upon her graceful,
slender masts, and the brass-work upon her deck flashed brill-
iantly as she rolled from side to side.
Strange contrast, to look from her to the broken and desolate
picture ahead! My eyes were riveted upon it now with new and
intense emotion, for by this time I could discern that the person
who was waving to us was a female,—woman or girl I could not
yet make out,— and that her hair was like a veil of gold behind
her swaying arm.
"It's a woman! " I cried in my excitement; "it's no man at
all. Pull smartly, my lads! pull smartly, for God's sake! "
The men gave way stoutly, and the swell favoring us, we
were soon close to the wreck. The girl, as I now perceived she
## p. 12576 (#636) ##########################################
12576
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
was, waved her handkerchief wildly as we approached; but my
attention was occupied in considering how we could best board
the wreck without injury to the boat. She lay broadside to us,
with her stern on our right, and was not only rolling heavily
with wallowing, squelching movements, but was swirling the
heavy mizzenmast that lay alongside through the water each
time she went over to starboard; so that it was necessary to
approach her with the greatest caution to prevent our boat from
being stove in. Another element of danger was the great flood
of water which she cook in over her shattered bulwarks, first
on this side, then on that, discharging the torrent again into the
sea as she rolled. This water came from her like a cataract,
and in a second would fill and sink the boat, unless extreme care
were taken to keep clear of it.
I waved my hat to the poor girl, to let her know that we
saw her and had come to save her, and steered the boat right
around the wreck, that I might observe the most practical point
for boarding her.
She appeared to be a vessel of about seven hundred tons.
The falling of her masts had crushed her port bulwarks level
with the deck, and part of her starboard bulwarks was also
smashed to pieces. Her wheel was gone, and the heavy seas
that had swept her deck had carried away capstans, binnacle,
hatchway gratings, pumps-everything, in short, but the deck-
house and the remnants of the galley. I particularly noticed a
strong iron boat's-davit twisted up like a corkscrew.
She was
full of water, and lay as deep as her main-chains; but her bows
stood high, and her fore-chains were out of the sea. It was mi-
raculous to see her keep afloat as the long swell rolled over her
in a cruel, foaming succession of waves.
Though these plain details impressed themselves upon my
memory, I did not seem to notice anything, in the anxiety that
possessed me to rescue the lonely creature in the deck-house. It
would have been impossible to keep a footing upon the main-
deck without a life-line or something to hold on by; and seeing
this, and forming my resolutions rapidly, I ordered the man in
the bow of the boat to throw in his oar and exchange places
with me, and head the boat for the starboard port-chains. As
we approached I stood up with one foot planted on the gunwale
ready to spring; the broken shrouds were streaming aft and
alongside, so that if I missed the jump and fell into the water
there was plenty of stuff to catch hold of.
## p. 12577 (#637) ##########################################
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
12577
Gently-'vast rowing-ready to back astern smartly! " I
cried as we approached. I waited a moment: the hull rolled
toward us, and the succeeding swell threw up our boat; the deck,
though all aslant, was on a line with my feet. I sprung with all
my strength, and got well upon the deck, but fell heavily as I
reached it. However, I was up again in a moment, and ran for-
ward out of the water.
«<
Here was a heap of gear,- stay-sail, and jib-halyards, and
other ropes, some of the ends swarming overboard. I hauled in
one of these ends, but found I could not clear the raffle; but
looking round, I perceived a couple of coils of line-spare stun'-
sail tacks or halyards I took them to be-lying close against
the foot of the bowsprit.
I immediately seized the end of one of
these coils, and flung it into the boat, telling them to drop clear
of the wreck astern; and when they had backed as far as the
length of the line permitted, I bent on the end of the other coil,
and paid that out until the boat was some fathoms astern. I
then made my end fast, and sung out to one of the men to
get on board by the starboard mizzen-chains, and to bring the
end of the line with him. After waiting a few minutes, the boat
being hidden, I saw the fellow come scrambling over the side
with a red face, his clothes and hair streaming, he having fallen
overboard. He shook himself like a dog, and crawled with the
line, on his hands and knees, a short distance forward, then
hauled the line taut and made it fast.
"Tell them to bring the boat round here," I cried, "and lay
off on their oars until we are ready. And you get hold of this
line and work yourself up to me. "
Saying which, I advanced along the deck, clinging tightly
with both hands. It very providentially happened that the door
of the deck-house faced the forecastle within a few feet of where
the remains of the galley stood. There would be, therefore,
less risk in opening it than had it faced beamwise: for the
water, as it broke against the sides of the house, disparted clear
of the fore and after parts; that is, the great bulk of it ran clear,
though of course a foot's depth of it at least surged against the
door.
I called out to the girl to open the door quickly, as it slid
in grooves like a panel, and was not to be stirred from the out-
side. The poor creature appeared mad; and I repeated my request
three times without inducing her to leave the window. Then,
XXI-787
## p. 12578 (#638) ##########################################
12578
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
not believing that she understood me, I cried out, "Are you
English? "
"Yes," she replied.
"For God's sake, save us! "
"I cannot get you through that window," I exclaimed. "Rouse
yourself and open that door, and I will save you. "
She now seemed to comprehend, and drew in her head. By
this time the man out of the boat had succeeded in sliding along
the rope to where I stood, though the poor devil was nearly
drowned on the road; for when about half-way, the hull took in
a lump of swell which swept him right off his legs, and he was
swung hard a-starboard, holding on for his life. However, he
recovered himself smartly when the water was gone, and came
along hand over fist, snorting and cursing in wonderful style.
Meanwhile, though I kept a firm hold of the life-line, I took
care to stand where the inroads of water were not heavy, wait-
ing impatiently for the door to open. It shook in the grooves,
tried by a feeble hand; then a desperate effort was made, and it
slid a couple of inches.
"That will do! " I shouted. "Now then, my lad, catch hold
of me with one hand, and the line with the other. "
a
The fellow took a firm grip of my monkey-jacket, and I made
for the door. The water washed up to my knees, but I soon
inserted my fingers in the crevice of the door and thrust it
open.
The house was a single compartment, though I had expected
to find it divided into two. In the centre was a table that trav-
eled on stanchions from the roof to the deck. On either side
were a couple of bunks. The girl stood near the door. In a
bunk to the left of the door lay an old man with white hair.
Prostrate on his back, on the deck, with his arms stretched
against his ears, was the corpse of a man, well dressed; and in
a bunk on the right sat a sailor, who, when he saw me, yelled
out and snapped his fingers, making horrible grimaces.
Such, in brief, was the coup d'œil of that weird interior as it
met my eyes.
I seized the girl by the arm.
"You first," said I. "Come; there is no time to be lost. "
But she shrunk back, pressing against the door with her hand
to prevent me from pulling her, crying in a husky voice, and
looking at the old man with the white hair, "My father first!
my father first! "
## p. 12579 (#639) ##########################################
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
12579
"You shall all be saved, but you must obey me. Quickly,
now! " I exclaimed passionately; for a heavy sea at that moment
flooded the ship, and a rush of water swamped the house through
the open door and washed the corpse on the deck up into a
corner.
Grasping her firmly, I lifted her off her feet, and went stag-
gering to the life-rope, slinging her light body over my shoul-
der as I went. Assisted by my man, I gained the bow of the
wreck, and hailing the boat, ordered it alongside.
"One of you," cried I, "stand ready to receive this lady when
I give the signal. "
I then told the man who was with me to jump into the fore-
chains, which he instantly did. The wreck lurched heavily to
port. "Stand by, my lads! " I shouted. Over she came again,
with the water swooping along the main-deck. The boat rose
high, and the fore-chains were submerged to the height of the
man's knees. "Now! " I called, and lifted the girl over. She
was seized by the man in the chains, and pushed toward the
boat; the fellow standing in the bow of the boat caught her,
and at the same moment down sunk the boat, and the wreck
rolled wearily over. But the girl was safe.
"Hurrah, my lad! " I sung out. "Up with you,- there are
others remaining;" and I went sprawling along the line to the
deck-house, there to encounter another rush of water, which
washed as high as my thighs, and fetched me such a thump in
the stomach that thought I must have died of suffocation.
I was glad to find that the old man had got out of his bunk,
and was standing at the door.
"Is my poor girl safe, sir? " he exclaimed, with the same.
huskiness of voice that had grated so unpleasantly in the girl's
tone.
"Quite safe: come along. "
"Thanks be to Almighty God! " he ejaculated, and burst into
tears.
I seized hold of his thin cold hands, but shifted my fingers
to catch him by the coat collar, so as to exert more power over
him; and handed him along the deck, telling my companion to
lay hold of the seaman and fetch him away smartly. We man-
aged to escape the water, for the poor old gentleman bestirred
himself very nimbly, and I helped him over the fore-chains; and
when the boat rose, tumbled him into her without ceremony. I
## p. 12580 (#640) ##########################################
12580
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
saw the daughter leap toward him and clasp him in her arms;
but I was soon again scrambling on to the deck, having heard
cries from my man, accompanied with several loud curses, min-
gled with dreadful yells.
"He's bitten me, sir! " cried my companion, hauling himself
away from the deck-house. "He's roaring mad. "
"It can't be helped," I answered. "We must get him out. ”
He saw me pushing along the life-line, plucked up heart, and
went with myself through a sousing sea to the door. I caught
a glimpse of a white face glaring at me from the interior: in a
second a figure shot out, fled with incredible speed toward the
bow, and leaped into the sea just where our boat lay.
"They'll pick him up," I exclaimed. "Stop a second;" and
I entered the house and stooped over the figure of the man on
the deck.
I was not familiar with death, and yet I knew it was here. I
cannot describe the signs in his face; but such as they were, they
told me the truth. I noticed a ring upon his finger, and that
his clothes were good. His hair was black, and his features
well shaped, though his face had a half-convulsed expression, as
if something frightful had appeared to him, and he had died of
the sight of it.
"He is a corpse.
"This wreck must be his coffin," I said.
We can do no more. "
We scrambled for the last time along the life-line and got
into the fore-chains; but to our consternation, saw the boat row-
ing away from the wreck. However, the fit of rage and terror
that possessed me lasted but a moment or two; for I now saw
they were giving chase to the madman, who was swimming stead-
ily away. Two of the men rowed, and the third hung over the
bows, ready to grasp the miserable wretch. The Grosvenor stood
steady, about a mile off, with her mainyards backed; and just as
the fellow over the boat's bows caught hold of the swimmer's
hair, the ensign was run up on board the ship and dipped three
times.
"Bring him along! " I shouted. "They'll be off without us if
we don't bear a hand. "
They nearly capsized the boat as they dragged the lunatic,
streaming like a drowned rat, out of the water; and one of the
sailors tumbled him over on his back, and knelt upon him, while
he took some turns with the boat's painter round his body, arms
## p. 12581 (#641) ##########################################
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
12581
and legs.
The boat then came alongside; and watching our
opportunity, we jumped into her and shoved off.
I had now leisure to examine the persons whom we had saved.
They-father and daughter, as I judged them by the girl's
exclamation on the wreck-sat in the stern-sheets, their hands
locked. The old man seemed nearly insensible; leaning backward
with his chin on his breast and his eyes partially closed. I feared
he was dying, but could do no good until we reached the Gros-
venor, as we had no spirits in the boat.
The girl appeared to be about twenty years of age; very fair,
her hair of golden straw color, which hung wet and streaky down
her back and over her shoulders, though a portion of it was held
by a comb. She was deadly pale, and her lips blue; and in her
fine eyes was such a look of mingled horror and rapture as she
cast them around her,- first glancing at me, then at the wreck,
then at the Grosvenor,—that the memory of it will last me to
my death.
Her dress, of some dark material, was soaked with
salt water up to her hips, and she shivered and moaned inces-
santly, though the sun beat so warmly upon us that the thwarts
were hot to the hand.
The mad sailor lay at the bottom of the boat, looking straight
into the sky. He was a horrid-looking object, with his streaming
hair, pasty features, and red beard, his naked shanks and feet
protruding through his soaking, clinging trousers, which figured
his shin-bones as though they clothed a skeleton. Now and again
he would give himself a wild twirl and yelp out fiercely; but he
was well-nigh spent with his swim, and on the whole was quiet
enough.
I said to the girl, "How long have you been in this dreadful
position ? »
"Since yesterday morning," she answered, in a choking voice
painful to hear, and gulping after each word. "We have not had
a drop of water to drink since the night before last. He is mad
with thirst, for he drank the water on the deck;" and she pointed.
to the man in the bottom of the boat.
"My God! " I cried to the men, <<
do you
hear her? They
have not drunk water for two days! For the love of God, give
way! "
They bent their backs to the oars, and the boat foamed over
the long swell. The wind was astern and helped us. I did
not speak again to the poor girl; for it was cruel to make her
I
## p. 12582 (#642) ##########################################
12582
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
talk, when the words lacerated her throat as though they were
pieces of burning iron.
After twenty minutes, which seemed as many hours, we
reached the vessel. The crew pressing round the gangway
cheered when they saw we had brought people from the wreck.
Duckling and the skipper watched us grimly from the poop.
"Now then, my lads," I cried, "up with this lady first. Some
of you on deck get water ready, as these people are dying of
thirst. "
In a few minutes, both the girl and the old man were handed
over the gangway. I cut the boat's painter adrift from the ring-
bolt so that we could ship the madman without loosening his
bonds, and he was hoisted up like a bale of goods. Then four
of us got out of the boat, leaving one to drop her under the
davits and hook on the falls.
At this moment a horrible scene took place.
The old man, tottering on the arms of two seamen, was be-
ing led into the cuddy, followed by the girl, who walked unaided.
The madman, in the grasp of the big sailor named Johnson,
stood near the gangway; and as I scrambled on deck, one of the
men was holding a pannikin full of water to his face. The poor
wretch was shrinking away from it, with his eyes half out of
their sockets: but suddenly tearing his arm with a violent effort
from the rope that bound him, he seized the pannikin and bit
clean through the tin; after which, throwing back his head, he
swallowed the whole draught, dashed the pannikin down, his face
turned black, and he fell dead on the deck.
The big sailor sprung aside with an oath, forced from him by
his terror; and from every looker-on there broke a groan. They
all shrunk away and stood staring with blanched faces. Such
a piteous sight as it was, lying doubled up, with the rope pin-
ioning the miserable limbs, the teeth locked, and the right arm
uptossed!
"Aft here and get the quarter-boat hoisted up! " shouted Duck-
ling, advancing on the poop; and seeing the man dead on the
deck, he added, "Get a tarpaulin and cover him up, and let him
lie on the fore-hatch. "
"Shall I tell the steward to serve out grog to the men who
went with me? " I asked him.
He stared at me contemptuously, and walked away without
answering.
## p. 12583 (#643) ##########################################
12583
RUSSIAN LYRIC POETRY
BY PRINCE SERGE WOLKONSKY
OTHER branch of literature is better fitted than lyric poetry
to affirm the two principles which seem to constitute the
chief acquisition of our modern culture: individualism and
cosmopolitism. In no other kind of poetry do the great variety of
individuals and the great equality of mankind find more concise nor
more simultaneous expression. The two apparently contradictory ele-
ments are combined: the endless variety of feeling and expression is
covered by the unchangeable eternity of the subject, of that "old
story which is always new," - the story of man's inner life. The
poets of the world are, as it were, the irradiation of the universal
human soul; the poetry of every one of them is the irradiation of
the poet's individuality; yet every single poem, though itself the
result of individualism, is a focus which gathers all other individuali-
ties and makes them meet on the common ground of their identity
and similitude. Passing over all barriers erected by national distinc-
tions, a Frenchman, for instance, and an Englishman will recognize
in a German poem their identity and similitude with the author,
hence with each other, consequently with all mankind. The cosmo-
politan importance of the most individual of all arts appears clearly
enough, and the circumference of its humanitarian influence stands
in exact proportion with the depth of the poet's individualism. If
measured by this standard, Russian lyricism will count among the
most precious contributors to universal poetry: the human soul in our
lyric songs, like a harp with palpitating chords, vibrates and responds.
to every touch of life.
The blossoming of Russian lyric poetry was sudden, and devel-
oped with a wonderful rapidity, if we consider that its beginning and
its finest bloom are contained in the first eighty years of the present
century. The eighteenth century, or, as it is more specifically called
in the history of Russian literature, the "century of Catherine the
Great," struck in fact no lyrical chords; and this is comprehensible.
Lyricism is not possible without genuine feeling nor without genuine.
ways of expressing it: Russian literature of the eighteenth century
was, per contra, all imitative. Under the impulse of Peter the Great's
reform, the Russian intellect awakens to literary interests; at the
touch of French literature and philosophy of the time, a number of
## p. 12584 (#644) ##########################################
12584
RUSSIAN LYRIC POETRY
poets and writers arise and bring forth that imitative literature which
is known as "Russian pseudo-classicism»: Russian subjects, draped
in the mantle of Greek and Roman antiquity, seen through French
spectacles, and sung in Russian verses. The latter, we must acknowl-
edge, attain a wonderful sonority; and however artificial the whole
gait of that pompous and often ridiculous poetry, the beauty of the
language it had worked out constitutes its everlasting merit for
Russian poetry. But with the exception of the language there was
scarcely anything genuine; for even genuine subjects seemed to lose
their reality through being forced into unsuitable foreign forms.
Poets did not compose because they felt a psychological necessity of
doing so their productiveness was stimulated not by inner inspi-
ration, but by the simple desire of living up to patterns created by
foreign writers, consecrated by public opinion. Our poetry of the
eighteenth century is not so much the result of feeling, as the result
of a deliberate decision on the part of writers to possess a Russian
literature because other nations possessed theirs: it is imbued rather
with a spirit of international competition than with that of national
expression. It is easy to conceive that such conditions could offer no
propitious ground for the blossoming of lyricism. In the first years
of our century the Russian intellect emancipates itself from its pass-
ive acceptance of European influences. The seeds of foreign culture
had germinated in the national soil; writers apply themselves to the
study of national questions, they give up their attitude of confiding
pupils, and consciously and deliberately join the great stream of uni-
versal literature. Russian poetry gives up its spirit of competition;
poets begin to sing because they want to sing, and not because they
want to sing as well as others.
This was just at the time when the romantic flood which inun-
dated Europe stood at its highest. The romantic stream makes irrup-
tion into our country, and fructifies the virgin soil which had been
slumbering for so many centuries. Among the brilliant pleiad of
poets who brought about the vigorous offspring of Russian poetry in
the twenties and thirties of our century, three figures arise, though
with different literary importance, yet each with strong individual
coloring. These are Zoukovsky, the poet of romantic melancholy;
Poushkin, the poet of romantic epicurism; and Lermontov, the poet
of romantic pessimism. Zoukovsky (1783-1852) was the first among
Russian poets who made the human soul the object of poetry, not
without a certain exaggeration and one-sidedness. After the cold
stiffness of the French pseudo-classical style, the new romantic breeze
which came from Germany and England entirely took hold of the
young poet, who seemed by nature the most fitted man to navigate
on the waves of sentimental and fantastic romanticism. His ballads,
## p. 12585 (#645) ##########################################
RUSSIAN LYRIC POETRY
12585
either original, or translated from German and English, became the
funnel through which romanticism inundated Russian poetry. The
main tonality of his lyre is elegy. Simplicity, genuineness, a quiet
melancholy, a serene resignation to the troubles of real life, belief
and hope in the future, a constant thought of death and compensa-
tion in eternity, are, with the extreme charm of their musical fasci-
nation, the chief characteristics of Zoukovsky's poems. In his verses
did for the first time those gentle chords resound which Christianity
made to vibrate in the human soul. "His romantic lyre," says a
critic, "gave soul and heart to Russian poetry: it taught the mys-
tery of suffering, of loss, of mystic relations, and of anxious strivings
towards the mysterious world which has no name, no place, and yet
in which a young soul feels its sacred native land. " This "striving"
towards unknown, unreachable regions is what communicates to Zou-
kovsky's poetry its exaggeratedly idealistic character: earth and real
life to him are but a starting-point; reality seems to present no
interest by itself, to possess no other capacity but that of provoking
sorrow, no other value but that of contrasting with the happiness
which exists somewhere- which cannot be attained in this life, and
undoubtedly will be reached some day.
The absolute intrinsic value of Zoukovsky's poems is not of an
everlasting character, yet his merits toward national poetry are
great: for those qualities of his lyre we mentioned above, he is the
founder of Russian lyricism; for the beauty of his language and the
simplicity of means by which he obtained it, he is the precursor of
Poushkin. His influence was great on the generation, in the first
decades of our century, when Byronism pervaded our literary life: the
serene tranquillity of Zoukovsky's elegy was enforced by the storm
and gloom of the British poet, and this combined influence produced
that kind of poetry which we characterized as romantic pessimism,
and which found its final intensified expression in Lermontov. In the
minor harmony of these poetical lamentations, the powerful lyre of
Poushkin strikes the chords of the major triton in all its plenitude.
Poushkin (1799-1837) is among our poets the most difficult figure
to be retraced; for the sublime excellency of his poetry comes just
from the fact that he has no predominating coloring. Every poet
has his favorite element, his beloved subjects, his own particular
moods: this makes it easy for the critic,-as a matter of fact, the
more one-sided a poet the easier it is to retrace his portrait. Poush-
kin has no predominating element: his chief particularity is that he
The most many-chorded responsiveness, the greatest vari-
ety of moods and expressions, are fused in a general harmony; if we
may say so, of a "spherical" equilibrium. In another place we charac-
terized Poushkin's lyricism as "pouring rain with brilliant sunshine. "
has none.
## p. 12586 (#646) ##########################################
12586
RUSSIAN LYRIC POETRY
>>
We find no other words for expressing its completeness: the whole
scale of feelings has been touched by the poet, from the abysses of
sorrow to the summits of joy; and yet none of his lyrical poems can
be classified into one of these extremes, for in his artistic contempla-
tion of life, human happiness and human misery are to him so equal,
that even in the given moment when he depicts one of them, the
other is present to his mind. Thus never does a feeling appear
single in his verses: joy never goes without regret, sorrow without a
ray of hope; a vague idea of death floats in the background of those
poems which give way to the most boundless gayety, and a smile is
shining from behind the bitterest of his tears. The striking differ-
ence from Zoukovsky's poetry is the absence of sterile strivings in
unreal regions, and a vigorous healthy love of real life: our greatest
romanticist was at the same time our first realist. This combination
is the very quality which assigns to Poushkin's poetry its individual
place in the concert of the poets of the world. Prosper Mérimée
could not conceive how it was possible to make such beautiful poetry
with every-day-life subjects, nor to write such beautiful verses with
words taken from the very heart of every-day-life speech; and the
French writer envies the language which can raise its "spoken
speech to such a degree of beauty as to introduce it into the high-
est regions of poetry. Zoukovsky had proclaimed that "poetry and
life are one" yet in his verses he did not live up to this principle;
his romantic aspirations drew him away from life into a world of
dreams. Poushkin proves and realizes that which Zoukovsky pro-
claimed his is the real "poetry of life. " "It is not a poetical lie
which inflames the imagination," says the critic Belinsky, "not one
of those lies which make man hostile at his first encounter with
reality, and exhaust his forces in early useless struggle. " Life and
dream, real and ideal, are combined and fused into each other in that
poetry which the same critic characterizes as "earth imbued with
heaven. » Poushkin's place in Russian literature is unique. He
marks the culminating point in the ascending curve of our poetical
evolution, and at the same time he is the literary contemporary of
all those writers who came after him: for not only are all kinds of
our poetry contained in his, but all branches of prose, all shadow-
ings of style. He marks the central point of our literature: the pre-
ceding writers converge towards Poushkin, those who come after
radiate from Poushkin. Of no less importance than his literary
influence was Poushkin's personal prestige: he had become a sort of
literary ferment amidst his generation. A pleiad of talented poets
group themselves round their young leader, and cast over the first
four decades of the present century a quite peculiar charm of roman-
tic youthfulness.
## p. 12587 (#647) ##########################################
RUSSIAN LYRIC POETRY
12587
Among these poets, who are all more or less a reflection of Poush-
kin, only one is powerful enough to stand as an independent individ-
uality: this is the already mentioned Lermontov (1814-1841). It is
hard for a critic to speak of Lermontov's poetry without mentioning
the poet's age; it is almost impossible for a Russian to consider as
an accomplished cycle the work of a man who died at the age of
twenty-seven.
"I have never had to wait for orders to encourage a crew. "
"Mind what you are about, sir! " he exclaimed, in a voice.
tremulous with rage. I see through your game, and I'll put a
stopper upon it that you won't like. "
"What game, sir? Let me have your meaning. "
"An infernal mutinous game! " he roared. "Don't talk to me,
sir! I know you! I've had my eye upon you! You'll play false
if you can, and are trying to smother up your d-d rebel mean-
ings with genteel airs! Get away, sir! " he bellowed, stamping
## p. 12568 (#628) ##########################################
12568
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
his foot. "Get away aft! You're a lumping, useless incumbrance!
But by thunder! I'll give you two for every one you try to give
me! So stand by! "
And apparently half mad with his rage, he staggered away in
the very direction in which he had told me to go, and stood near
the wheel, glaring upon me with a white face, which looked
indescribably malevolent in the fur cap and ear-protectors that
ornamented it.
I was terribly vexed by this rudeness, which I was powerless
to resist, and regretted my indiscretion in entering the forecastle
after the politic resolutions I had formed. However, Captain
Coxon's ferocity was nothing new to me; truly I believed he was
not quite right in his mind, and expected, as in former cases,
that he would come round a bit by-and-by when his insane tem-
per had passed. Still his insinuations were highly dangerous, not
to speak of their offensiveness. It was no joke to be charged,
even by a madman, with striving to arouse the crew to mutiny.
Nevertheless I tried to console myself as best I could by reflect-
ing that he could not prove his charges; that I need only to
endure his insolence for a few weeks, and that there was always
a law to vindicate me and punish him, should his evil temper
betray him into any acts of cruelty against me.
The gale, at times the severest that I was ever in, lasted three
days; during which the ship drove something like eighty miles
to the northwest. The sea on the afternoon of the third day was
appalling: had the ship attempted to run, she would have been
pooped and smothered in a minute; but lying close, she rode
fairly well, though there were moments when I held my breath
as she sunk in a hollow like a coal-mine, filled with the astound-
ing noise of boiling water,-really believing that the immense
waves which came hurtling towards us with solid, sharp, trans-
parent ridges, out of which the wind tore lumps of water and
flung them through the rigging of the ship, must overwhelm the
vessel before she could rise to it.
The fury of the tempest and the violence of the sea, which
the boldest could not contemplate without feeling that the ship
was every moment in more or less peril, kept the crew subdued;
and they eat as best they could the provisions, without com-
plaint. However, it needed nothing less than a storm to keep
them quiet: for on the second day a sea extinguished the galley
fire, and until the gale abated no cooking could be done; so that
## p. 12569 (#629) ##########################################
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
12569
the men had to put up with the cold water and biscuit. Hence
all hands were thrown upon the ship's bread for two days; and
the badness of it, therefore, was made even more apparent than
heretofore, when its wormy moldiness was in some degree quali-
fied by the nauseousness of bad salt pork and beef and the sickly
flavor of damaged tea.
round a little a few
I think his temper
Like others of his
My character was
As I had anticipated, the captain came
hours after his insulting attack upon me.
frightened him when it had reference to me.
breed, he was a bit of a cur at the bottom.
a trifle beyond him; and he was ignorant enough to hate and
fear what he could not understand. Be this as it may, he made
some rough attempts at a rude kind of politeness when I went
below to get some grog, and condescended to say that when I
had been to sea as long as he, I would know that the most
ungrateful rascals in the world were sailors; that every crew he
had sailed with had always taken care to invent some grievance
to growl over: either the provisions were bad, or the work too
heavy, or the ship unseaworthy; and that long ago he had made
up his mind never to pay attention to their complaints, since
no sooner would one wrong be redressed than another would be
coined and shoved under his nose.
I took this opportunity of assuring him that I had never
willingly listened to the complaints of the men, and that I was
always annoyed when they spoke to me about the provisions, as
I had nothing whatever to do with that matter; and that so far
from my wishing to stir up the men into rebellion, my conduct
had been uniformly influenced by the desire to conciliate them
and represent their conditions as very tolerable, so as to repress
any tendency to disaffection which they might foment among
themselves.
To this he made no reply, and soon we parted; but all the
next day he was sullen again, and never addressed me save to
give an order.
On the evening of the third day the gale broke; the glass had
risen since the morning; but until the first dog-watch the wind
did not bate one iota of its violence, and the horizon still re-
tained its stormy and threatening aspect. The clouds then broke
in the west, and the setting sun shone forth with deep crimson
light upon the wilderness of mountainous waters. The wind fell
quickly, then went round to the west and blew freshly; but
## p. 12570 (#630) ##########################################
12570
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
there was a remarkable softness and sweetness in the feel and
taste of it.
A couple of reefs were at once shaken out of the maintopsail,
and a sail made. By midnight the heavy sea had subsided into
a deep, long, rolling swell, still (strangely enough) coming from
the south; but the fresh westerly wind held the ship steady, and
for the first time for nearly a hundred hours we were able to
move about the decks with comparative comfort. Early the next
morning the watch were set to wash down and clear up the
decks; and when I left my cabin at eight o'clock, I found the
weather bright and warm, with a blue sky shining among heavy,
white, April-looking clouds, and the ship making seven knots
under all plain sail. The decks were dry and comfortable, and
the ship had a habitable and civilized look, by reason of the row
of clothes hung by the seamen to dry on the forecastle.
It was half past nine o'clock, and I was standing near the
taffrail looking at a shoal of porpoises playing some hundreds of
feet astern, when the man who was steering asked me to look
in the direction to which he pointed-that was, a little to the
right of the bowsprit- and say if there was anything to be seen
there; for he had caught sight of something black upon the hori
zon twice, but could not detect it now.
I turned my eyes toward the quarter of the sea indicated,
but could discern nothing whatever; and telling him that what
he had seen was probably a wave, which, standing higher than
his fellows, will sometimes show black a long distance off, walked
to the fore part of the poop.
The breeze still held good; and the vessel was slipping easily
through the water, though the southerly swell made her roll
and at times shook the wind out of the sails. The skipper had
gone to lie down,- being pretty well exhausted, I daresay; for he
had kept the deck for the greater part of three nights running.
Duckling was also below. Most of my watch were on the fore-
castle, sitting or lying in the sun, which shone very warm upon
the decks; the hens under the long-boat were chattering briskly,
and the cocks crowing, and the pigs grunting, with the comfort
of the warmth.
Suddenly, as the ship rose, I distinctly beheld something
black out away upon the horizon, showing just under the foot of
the foresail. It vanished instantly; but I was not satisfied, and
went for the glass which lay upon the brackets just under the
## p. 12571 (#631) ##########################################
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
12571
companion. I then told the man who was steering to keep her
away a couple of points for a few moments; and resting the
glass against the mizzen-royal backstay, pointed it toward the
place where I had seen the black object.
For some moments nothing but sea or sky filled the field of
the glass as the ship rose and fell; but all at once there leaped
into this field the hull of a ship, deep as her main-chains in the
water, which came and went before my eye as the long seas lifted
or dropped in the foreground. I managed to keep her sufficiently
long in view to perceive that she was totally dismasted.
"It's a wreck," said I, turning to the man: "let her come to
again and luff a point. There may be living creatures aboard of
her. »
Knowing what sort of man Captain Coxon was, I do not think
that I should have had the hardihood to luff the ship a point out
of her course had it involved the bracing of the yards; for the
songs of the men would certainly have brought him on deck, and
I might have provoked some ugly insolence. But the ship was
going free, and would head more westerly without occasioning
further change than slightly slackening the weather-braces of the
upper yards. This I did quietly; and the dismantled hull was
brought right dead on end with our flying jib-boom. The men
now caught sight of her, and began to stare and point; but did
not sing out, as they saw by the telescope in my hand that I
perceived her. The breeze unhappily began to slacken somewhat,
owing perhaps to the gathering heat of the sun; our pace fell
off and a full hour passed before we brought the wreck near
enough to see her permanently,- for up to this she had been
constantly vanishing under the rise of the swell. She was now
about two miles off, and I took a long and steady look at her
through the telescope. It was a black hull with painted ports.
The deck was flush fore and aft, and there was a good-sized
house just before where the mainmast should have been. This
house was uninjured, though the galley was split up, and to star-
board stood up in splinters like the stump of a tree struck by
lightning. No boats could be seen aboard of her. Her jib-boom
was gone, and so were all three masts,-clean cut off at the
deck, as though a hand-saw had done it; but the mizzen-mast was
alongside, held by the shrouds and backstays, and the port main
and fore shrouds streamed like serpents from her chains into the
water. I reckoned at once that she must be loaded with timber,
## p. 12572 (#632) ##########################################
12572
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
for she never could keep afloat at that depth with any other kind
of cargo in her.
She made a most mournful and piteous object in the sunlight,
sluggishly rolling to the swell which ran in transparent volumes
over her sides and foamed around the deck-house. Once when
her stern rose, I read the name Cecilia in broad white letters.
I was gazing at her intently, in the effort to witness some
indication of living thing on board, when, to my mingled con-
sternation and horror, I witnessed an arm projecting through the
window of the deck-house and frantically waving what resembled
a white handkerchief. As none of the men called out, I judged
the signal was not perceptible to the naked eye; and in my ex-
citement I shouted, "There's a living man on board of her, my
lads! " dropped the glass, and ran aft to call the captain.
I met him coming up the companion ladder. The first thing
he said was, "You're out of your course," and looked up at the
sails.
"There's a wreck yonder! " I cried, pointing eagerly, "with a
man on board signaling to us. "
"Get me the glass," he said sulkily; and I picked it up and
handed it to him.
He looked at the wreck for some moments; and addressing
the man at the wheel, exclaimed, making a movement with his
hand, "Keep her away! Where in the devil are you steering to? "
"Good heaven! " I ejaculated: "there's a man on board-
there may be others! "
Damnation! " he exclaimed between his teeth: "what do
you mean by interfering with me? Keep her away! " he roared
out.
During this time we had drawn sufficiently near to the wreck
to enable the sharper-sighted among the hands to remark the
signal, and they were calling out that there was somebody flying
a handkerchief aboard the hull.
"Captain Coxon," said I, with as firm a voice as I could com-
mand, for I was nearly in as great a rage as he, and rendered
insensible to all consequences by his inhumanity,- "if you bear
away and leave that man yonder to sink with that wreck when
he can be saved with very little trouble, you will become as
much a murderer as any ruffian who stabs a man asleep. "
When I had said this, Coxon turned black in the face with
His eyes protruded, his hands and fingers worked as
passion.
-
## p. 12573 (#633) ##########################################
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
12573
though he were under some electrical process, and I saw for the
first time in my life a sight I had always laughed at as a bit
of impossible novelist description, a mouth foaming with rage.
He rushed aft, just over Duckling's cabin, and stamped with all
his might.
"Now," thought I, "they may try to murder me! " And with-
out a word I pulled off my coat, seized a belaying-pin, and stood
ready; resolved that happen what might, I would give the first
man who should lay his fingers on me something to remember
me by while he had breath in his body.
The men, not quite understanding what was happening, but
seeing that a "row" was taking place, came to the forecastle
and advanced by degrees along the main-deck. Among them I
noticed the cook, muttering to one or the other who stood near.
Mr. Duckling, awakened by the violent clattering over his
head, came running up the companion-way with a bewildered,
sleepy look in his face. The captain grasped him by the arm,
and pointing to me, cried out with an oath that "that villain was
breeding a mutiny on board, and he believed wanted to murder
'him and Duckling. "
I at once answered, "Nothing of the kind! There is a man
miserably perishing on board that sinking wreck, Mr. Duckling,
and he ought to be saved. My lads! " I cried, addressing the
men on the main-deck, "is there a sailor among you all who
would have the heart to leave that man yonder without an effort
to rescue him? "
"No, sir! " shouted one of them. "We'll save the man; and
if the skipper refuses, we'll make him! "
"Luff! " I called to the man at the wheel.
"Luff at your peril! " screamed the skipper.
"Aft here, some hands," I cried, "and lay the main-yard aback.
Let go the port main-braces! "
The captain came running toward me.
"By the living God! " I cried in a fury, grasping the heavy
brass belaying-pin, "if you come within a foot of me, Captain
Coxon, I'll dash your brains out! "
My attitude, my enraged face and menacing gesture, produced
the desired effect. He stopped dead, turned a ghastly white, and
looked round at Duckling.
"What do you mean by this (etc. ) conduct, you (etc. ) muti-
nous scoundrels? " roared Duckling, with a volley of foul lan-
guage.
## p. 12574 (#634) ##########################################
12574
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
"Give him one for himself if he says too much, Mr. Royle! "
sung out some hoarse voice on the main-deck; "we'll back yer! "
And then came cries of "They're a cursed pair o' murderers! "
"Who run the smack down? ” "Who lets men drown? " "Who
starves honest men? " This last exclamation was followed by a
roar.
The whole of the crew were now on deck, having been
aroused by our voices. Some of them were looking on with a
grin, others with an expression of fierce curiosity. It was at
once understood that I was making a stand against the captain
and chief mate; and a single glance at them assured me that by
one word I could set the whole of them on fire to do my bid-
ding, even to shedding blood.
In the mean time, the man at the wheel had luffed until the
weather leeches were flat and the ship scarcely moving. And
at this moment, that the skipper might know their meaning, a
couple of hands jumped aft and let go the weather main-braces.
I took care to keep my eyes on Coxon and the mate, fully pre-
pared for any attack that one or both might make on me.
Duckling eyed me furiously but in silence, evidently baffled by
my resolute air and the position of the men. Then he said
something to the captain, who looked exhausted and white and
haggard with his useless passion. They walked over to the lee
side of the poop; and after a short conference, the captain to
my surprise went below, and Duckling came forward.
-
"There's no objection," he said, "to your saving the man's
life, if you want. Lower away the starboard quarter-boat; — and
you go along in her," he added to me, uttering the last words in
such a thick voice that I thought he was choking.
"Come along, some of you! " I cried out, hastily putting on
my coat; and in less than a minute I was in the boat with the
rudder and thole-pins shipped, and four hands ready to out oars
as soon as we touched the water.
Duckling began to fumble at one end of the boat's falls.
"Don't let him lower away! " roared out one of the men
in the boat. "He'll let us go with a run. He'd like to see us
drowned! "
Duckling fell back, scowling with fury; and shoving his head
over as the boat sunk quietly into the water, he discharged a
volley of execrations at us, saying that he would shoot some of
us, if he swung for it, before he was done, and especially apply-
ing a heap of abusive terms to me.
## p. 12575 (#635) ##########################################
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
12575
The fellow pulling the bow oar laughed in his face; and
another shouted out, "We'll teach you to say your prayers yet,
you ugly old sinner! »
We got away from the ship's side cleverly, and in a short
time were rowing fast for the wreck. The excitement under
which I labored made me reckless of the issue of this adventure.
The sight of the lonely man upon the wreck, coupled with the
unmanly, brutal intention of Coxon to leave him to his fate, had
goaded me into a state of mind infuriate enough to have done
and dared anything to compel Coxon to save him. He might
call it mutiny, but I called it humanity; and I was prepared to
stand or fall by my theory. The hate the crew had for their
captain and chief mate was quite strong enough to guarantee me
against any foul play on the part of Coxon; otherwise I might
have prepared myself to see the ship fill and stand away, and
leave us alone on the sea with the wreck. One of the men
in the boat suggested this; but another immediately answered,
"They'd pitch the skipper overboard if he gave such an order,
and glad o' the chance. There's no love for 'em among us, I
can tell you; and by! there'll be bloody work done aboard
the Grosvenor if things aren't mended soon, as you'll see. "
They all four pulled at their oars savagely as these words
were spoken; and I never saw such sullen and ferocious expres-
sions on men's faces as came into theirs, as they fixed their eyes
as with one accord upon the ship.
She, deep as she was, looked a beautiful model on the mighty
surface of the water, rolling with marvelous grace to the swell,
the strength and volume of which made me feel my littleness
and weakness as it lifted the small boat with irresistible power.
There was wind enough to keep her sails full upon her graceful,
slender masts, and the brass-work upon her deck flashed brill-
iantly as she rolled from side to side.
Strange contrast, to look from her to the broken and desolate
picture ahead! My eyes were riveted upon it now with new and
intense emotion, for by this time I could discern that the person
who was waving to us was a female,—woman or girl I could not
yet make out,— and that her hair was like a veil of gold behind
her swaying arm.
"It's a woman! " I cried in my excitement; "it's no man at
all. Pull smartly, my lads! pull smartly, for God's sake! "
The men gave way stoutly, and the swell favoring us, we
were soon close to the wreck. The girl, as I now perceived she
## p. 12576 (#636) ##########################################
12576
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
was, waved her handkerchief wildly as we approached; but my
attention was occupied in considering how we could best board
the wreck without injury to the boat. She lay broadside to us,
with her stern on our right, and was not only rolling heavily
with wallowing, squelching movements, but was swirling the
heavy mizzenmast that lay alongside through the water each
time she went over to starboard; so that it was necessary to
approach her with the greatest caution to prevent our boat from
being stove in. Another element of danger was the great flood
of water which she cook in over her shattered bulwarks, first
on this side, then on that, discharging the torrent again into the
sea as she rolled. This water came from her like a cataract,
and in a second would fill and sink the boat, unless extreme care
were taken to keep clear of it.
I waved my hat to the poor girl, to let her know that we
saw her and had come to save her, and steered the boat right
around the wreck, that I might observe the most practical point
for boarding her.
She appeared to be a vessel of about seven hundred tons.
The falling of her masts had crushed her port bulwarks level
with the deck, and part of her starboard bulwarks was also
smashed to pieces. Her wheel was gone, and the heavy seas
that had swept her deck had carried away capstans, binnacle,
hatchway gratings, pumps-everything, in short, but the deck-
house and the remnants of the galley. I particularly noticed a
strong iron boat's-davit twisted up like a corkscrew.
She was
full of water, and lay as deep as her main-chains; but her bows
stood high, and her fore-chains were out of the sea. It was mi-
raculous to see her keep afloat as the long swell rolled over her
in a cruel, foaming succession of waves.
Though these plain details impressed themselves upon my
memory, I did not seem to notice anything, in the anxiety that
possessed me to rescue the lonely creature in the deck-house. It
would have been impossible to keep a footing upon the main-
deck without a life-line or something to hold on by; and seeing
this, and forming my resolutions rapidly, I ordered the man in
the bow of the boat to throw in his oar and exchange places
with me, and head the boat for the starboard port-chains. As
we approached I stood up with one foot planted on the gunwale
ready to spring; the broken shrouds were streaming aft and
alongside, so that if I missed the jump and fell into the water
there was plenty of stuff to catch hold of.
## p. 12577 (#637) ##########################################
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
12577
Gently-'vast rowing-ready to back astern smartly! " I
cried as we approached. I waited a moment: the hull rolled
toward us, and the succeeding swell threw up our boat; the deck,
though all aslant, was on a line with my feet. I sprung with all
my strength, and got well upon the deck, but fell heavily as I
reached it. However, I was up again in a moment, and ran for-
ward out of the water.
«<
Here was a heap of gear,- stay-sail, and jib-halyards, and
other ropes, some of the ends swarming overboard. I hauled in
one of these ends, but found I could not clear the raffle; but
looking round, I perceived a couple of coils of line-spare stun'-
sail tacks or halyards I took them to be-lying close against
the foot of the bowsprit.
I immediately seized the end of one of
these coils, and flung it into the boat, telling them to drop clear
of the wreck astern; and when they had backed as far as the
length of the line permitted, I bent on the end of the other coil,
and paid that out until the boat was some fathoms astern. I
then made my end fast, and sung out to one of the men to
get on board by the starboard mizzen-chains, and to bring the
end of the line with him. After waiting a few minutes, the boat
being hidden, I saw the fellow come scrambling over the side
with a red face, his clothes and hair streaming, he having fallen
overboard. He shook himself like a dog, and crawled with the
line, on his hands and knees, a short distance forward, then
hauled the line taut and made it fast.
"Tell them to bring the boat round here," I cried, "and lay
off on their oars until we are ready. And you get hold of this
line and work yourself up to me. "
Saying which, I advanced along the deck, clinging tightly
with both hands. It very providentially happened that the door
of the deck-house faced the forecastle within a few feet of where
the remains of the galley stood. There would be, therefore,
less risk in opening it than had it faced beamwise: for the
water, as it broke against the sides of the house, disparted clear
of the fore and after parts; that is, the great bulk of it ran clear,
though of course a foot's depth of it at least surged against the
door.
I called out to the girl to open the door quickly, as it slid
in grooves like a panel, and was not to be stirred from the out-
side. The poor creature appeared mad; and I repeated my request
three times without inducing her to leave the window. Then,
XXI-787
## p. 12578 (#638) ##########################################
12578
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
not believing that she understood me, I cried out, "Are you
English? "
"Yes," she replied.
"For God's sake, save us! "
"I cannot get you through that window," I exclaimed. "Rouse
yourself and open that door, and I will save you. "
She now seemed to comprehend, and drew in her head. By
this time the man out of the boat had succeeded in sliding along
the rope to where I stood, though the poor devil was nearly
drowned on the road; for when about half-way, the hull took in
a lump of swell which swept him right off his legs, and he was
swung hard a-starboard, holding on for his life. However, he
recovered himself smartly when the water was gone, and came
along hand over fist, snorting and cursing in wonderful style.
Meanwhile, though I kept a firm hold of the life-line, I took
care to stand where the inroads of water were not heavy, wait-
ing impatiently for the door to open. It shook in the grooves,
tried by a feeble hand; then a desperate effort was made, and it
slid a couple of inches.
"That will do! " I shouted. "Now then, my lad, catch hold
of me with one hand, and the line with the other. "
a
The fellow took a firm grip of my monkey-jacket, and I made
for the door. The water washed up to my knees, but I soon
inserted my fingers in the crevice of the door and thrust it
open.
The house was a single compartment, though I had expected
to find it divided into two. In the centre was a table that trav-
eled on stanchions from the roof to the deck. On either side
were a couple of bunks. The girl stood near the door. In a
bunk to the left of the door lay an old man with white hair.
Prostrate on his back, on the deck, with his arms stretched
against his ears, was the corpse of a man, well dressed; and in
a bunk on the right sat a sailor, who, when he saw me, yelled
out and snapped his fingers, making horrible grimaces.
Such, in brief, was the coup d'œil of that weird interior as it
met my eyes.
I seized the girl by the arm.
"You first," said I. "Come; there is no time to be lost. "
But she shrunk back, pressing against the door with her hand
to prevent me from pulling her, crying in a husky voice, and
looking at the old man with the white hair, "My father first!
my father first! "
## p. 12579 (#639) ##########################################
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
12579
"You shall all be saved, but you must obey me. Quickly,
now! " I exclaimed passionately; for a heavy sea at that moment
flooded the ship, and a rush of water swamped the house through
the open door and washed the corpse on the deck up into a
corner.
Grasping her firmly, I lifted her off her feet, and went stag-
gering to the life-rope, slinging her light body over my shoul-
der as I went. Assisted by my man, I gained the bow of the
wreck, and hailing the boat, ordered it alongside.
"One of you," cried I, "stand ready to receive this lady when
I give the signal. "
I then told the man who was with me to jump into the fore-
chains, which he instantly did. The wreck lurched heavily to
port. "Stand by, my lads! " I shouted. Over she came again,
with the water swooping along the main-deck. The boat rose
high, and the fore-chains were submerged to the height of the
man's knees. "Now! " I called, and lifted the girl over. She
was seized by the man in the chains, and pushed toward the
boat; the fellow standing in the bow of the boat caught her,
and at the same moment down sunk the boat, and the wreck
rolled wearily over. But the girl was safe.
"Hurrah, my lad! " I sung out. "Up with you,- there are
others remaining;" and I went sprawling along the line to the
deck-house, there to encounter another rush of water, which
washed as high as my thighs, and fetched me such a thump in
the stomach that thought I must have died of suffocation.
I was glad to find that the old man had got out of his bunk,
and was standing at the door.
"Is my poor girl safe, sir? " he exclaimed, with the same.
huskiness of voice that had grated so unpleasantly in the girl's
tone.
"Quite safe: come along. "
"Thanks be to Almighty God! " he ejaculated, and burst into
tears.
I seized hold of his thin cold hands, but shifted my fingers
to catch him by the coat collar, so as to exert more power over
him; and handed him along the deck, telling my companion to
lay hold of the seaman and fetch him away smartly. We man-
aged to escape the water, for the poor old gentleman bestirred
himself very nimbly, and I helped him over the fore-chains; and
when the boat rose, tumbled him into her without ceremony. I
## p. 12580 (#640) ##########################################
12580
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
saw the daughter leap toward him and clasp him in her arms;
but I was soon again scrambling on to the deck, having heard
cries from my man, accompanied with several loud curses, min-
gled with dreadful yells.
"He's bitten me, sir! " cried my companion, hauling himself
away from the deck-house. "He's roaring mad. "
"It can't be helped," I answered. "We must get him out. ”
He saw me pushing along the life-line, plucked up heart, and
went with myself through a sousing sea to the door. I caught
a glimpse of a white face glaring at me from the interior: in a
second a figure shot out, fled with incredible speed toward the
bow, and leaped into the sea just where our boat lay.
"They'll pick him up," I exclaimed. "Stop a second;" and
I entered the house and stooped over the figure of the man on
the deck.
I was not familiar with death, and yet I knew it was here. I
cannot describe the signs in his face; but such as they were, they
told me the truth. I noticed a ring upon his finger, and that
his clothes were good. His hair was black, and his features
well shaped, though his face had a half-convulsed expression, as
if something frightful had appeared to him, and he had died of
the sight of it.
"He is a corpse.
"This wreck must be his coffin," I said.
We can do no more. "
We scrambled for the last time along the life-line and got
into the fore-chains; but to our consternation, saw the boat row-
ing away from the wreck. However, the fit of rage and terror
that possessed me lasted but a moment or two; for I now saw
they were giving chase to the madman, who was swimming stead-
ily away. Two of the men rowed, and the third hung over the
bows, ready to grasp the miserable wretch. The Grosvenor stood
steady, about a mile off, with her mainyards backed; and just as
the fellow over the boat's bows caught hold of the swimmer's
hair, the ensign was run up on board the ship and dipped three
times.
"Bring him along! " I shouted. "They'll be off without us if
we don't bear a hand. "
They nearly capsized the boat as they dragged the lunatic,
streaming like a drowned rat, out of the water; and one of the
sailors tumbled him over on his back, and knelt upon him, while
he took some turns with the boat's painter round his body, arms
## p. 12581 (#641) ##########################################
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
12581
and legs.
The boat then came alongside; and watching our
opportunity, we jumped into her and shoved off.
I had now leisure to examine the persons whom we had saved.
They-father and daughter, as I judged them by the girl's
exclamation on the wreck-sat in the stern-sheets, their hands
locked. The old man seemed nearly insensible; leaning backward
with his chin on his breast and his eyes partially closed. I feared
he was dying, but could do no good until we reached the Gros-
venor, as we had no spirits in the boat.
The girl appeared to be about twenty years of age; very fair,
her hair of golden straw color, which hung wet and streaky down
her back and over her shoulders, though a portion of it was held
by a comb. She was deadly pale, and her lips blue; and in her
fine eyes was such a look of mingled horror and rapture as she
cast them around her,- first glancing at me, then at the wreck,
then at the Grosvenor,—that the memory of it will last me to
my death.
Her dress, of some dark material, was soaked with
salt water up to her hips, and she shivered and moaned inces-
santly, though the sun beat so warmly upon us that the thwarts
were hot to the hand.
The mad sailor lay at the bottom of the boat, looking straight
into the sky. He was a horrid-looking object, with his streaming
hair, pasty features, and red beard, his naked shanks and feet
protruding through his soaking, clinging trousers, which figured
his shin-bones as though they clothed a skeleton. Now and again
he would give himself a wild twirl and yelp out fiercely; but he
was well-nigh spent with his swim, and on the whole was quiet
enough.
I said to the girl, "How long have you been in this dreadful
position ? »
"Since yesterday morning," she answered, in a choking voice
painful to hear, and gulping after each word. "We have not had
a drop of water to drink since the night before last. He is mad
with thirst, for he drank the water on the deck;" and she pointed.
to the man in the bottom of the boat.
"My God! " I cried to the men, <<
do you
hear her? They
have not drunk water for two days! For the love of God, give
way! "
They bent their backs to the oars, and the boat foamed over
the long swell. The wind was astern and helped us. I did
not speak again to the poor girl; for it was cruel to make her
I
## p. 12582 (#642) ##########################################
12582
WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
talk, when the words lacerated her throat as though they were
pieces of burning iron.
After twenty minutes, which seemed as many hours, we
reached the vessel. The crew pressing round the gangway
cheered when they saw we had brought people from the wreck.
Duckling and the skipper watched us grimly from the poop.
"Now then, my lads," I cried, "up with this lady first. Some
of you on deck get water ready, as these people are dying of
thirst. "
In a few minutes, both the girl and the old man were handed
over the gangway. I cut the boat's painter adrift from the ring-
bolt so that we could ship the madman without loosening his
bonds, and he was hoisted up like a bale of goods. Then four
of us got out of the boat, leaving one to drop her under the
davits and hook on the falls.
At this moment a horrible scene took place.
The old man, tottering on the arms of two seamen, was be-
ing led into the cuddy, followed by the girl, who walked unaided.
The madman, in the grasp of the big sailor named Johnson,
stood near the gangway; and as I scrambled on deck, one of the
men was holding a pannikin full of water to his face. The poor
wretch was shrinking away from it, with his eyes half out of
their sockets: but suddenly tearing his arm with a violent effort
from the rope that bound him, he seized the pannikin and bit
clean through the tin; after which, throwing back his head, he
swallowed the whole draught, dashed the pannikin down, his face
turned black, and he fell dead on the deck.
The big sailor sprung aside with an oath, forced from him by
his terror; and from every looker-on there broke a groan. They
all shrunk away and stood staring with blanched faces. Such
a piteous sight as it was, lying doubled up, with the rope pin-
ioning the miserable limbs, the teeth locked, and the right arm
uptossed!
"Aft here and get the quarter-boat hoisted up! " shouted Duck-
ling, advancing on the poop; and seeing the man dead on the
deck, he added, "Get a tarpaulin and cover him up, and let him
lie on the fore-hatch. "
"Shall I tell the steward to serve out grog to the men who
went with me? " I asked him.
He stared at me contemptuously, and walked away without
answering.
## p. 12583 (#643) ##########################################
12583
RUSSIAN LYRIC POETRY
BY PRINCE SERGE WOLKONSKY
OTHER branch of literature is better fitted than lyric poetry
to affirm the two principles which seem to constitute the
chief acquisition of our modern culture: individualism and
cosmopolitism. In no other kind of poetry do the great variety of
individuals and the great equality of mankind find more concise nor
more simultaneous expression. The two apparently contradictory ele-
ments are combined: the endless variety of feeling and expression is
covered by the unchangeable eternity of the subject, of that "old
story which is always new," - the story of man's inner life. The
poets of the world are, as it were, the irradiation of the universal
human soul; the poetry of every one of them is the irradiation of
the poet's individuality; yet every single poem, though itself the
result of individualism, is a focus which gathers all other individuali-
ties and makes them meet on the common ground of their identity
and similitude. Passing over all barriers erected by national distinc-
tions, a Frenchman, for instance, and an Englishman will recognize
in a German poem their identity and similitude with the author,
hence with each other, consequently with all mankind. The cosmo-
politan importance of the most individual of all arts appears clearly
enough, and the circumference of its humanitarian influence stands
in exact proportion with the depth of the poet's individualism. If
measured by this standard, Russian lyricism will count among the
most precious contributors to universal poetry: the human soul in our
lyric songs, like a harp with palpitating chords, vibrates and responds.
to every touch of life.
The blossoming of Russian lyric poetry was sudden, and devel-
oped with a wonderful rapidity, if we consider that its beginning and
its finest bloom are contained in the first eighty years of the present
century. The eighteenth century, or, as it is more specifically called
in the history of Russian literature, the "century of Catherine the
Great," struck in fact no lyrical chords; and this is comprehensible.
Lyricism is not possible without genuine feeling nor without genuine.
ways of expressing it: Russian literature of the eighteenth century
was, per contra, all imitative. Under the impulse of Peter the Great's
reform, the Russian intellect awakens to literary interests; at the
touch of French literature and philosophy of the time, a number of
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poets and writers arise and bring forth that imitative literature which
is known as "Russian pseudo-classicism»: Russian subjects, draped
in the mantle of Greek and Roman antiquity, seen through French
spectacles, and sung in Russian verses. The latter, we must acknowl-
edge, attain a wonderful sonority; and however artificial the whole
gait of that pompous and often ridiculous poetry, the beauty of the
language it had worked out constitutes its everlasting merit for
Russian poetry. But with the exception of the language there was
scarcely anything genuine; for even genuine subjects seemed to lose
their reality through being forced into unsuitable foreign forms.
Poets did not compose because they felt a psychological necessity of
doing so their productiveness was stimulated not by inner inspi-
ration, but by the simple desire of living up to patterns created by
foreign writers, consecrated by public opinion. Our poetry of the
eighteenth century is not so much the result of feeling, as the result
of a deliberate decision on the part of writers to possess a Russian
literature because other nations possessed theirs: it is imbued rather
with a spirit of international competition than with that of national
expression. It is easy to conceive that such conditions could offer no
propitious ground for the blossoming of lyricism. In the first years
of our century the Russian intellect emancipates itself from its pass-
ive acceptance of European influences. The seeds of foreign culture
had germinated in the national soil; writers apply themselves to the
study of national questions, they give up their attitude of confiding
pupils, and consciously and deliberately join the great stream of uni-
versal literature. Russian poetry gives up its spirit of competition;
poets begin to sing because they want to sing, and not because they
want to sing as well as others.
This was just at the time when the romantic flood which inun-
dated Europe stood at its highest. The romantic stream makes irrup-
tion into our country, and fructifies the virgin soil which had been
slumbering for so many centuries. Among the brilliant pleiad of
poets who brought about the vigorous offspring of Russian poetry in
the twenties and thirties of our century, three figures arise, though
with different literary importance, yet each with strong individual
coloring. These are Zoukovsky, the poet of romantic melancholy;
Poushkin, the poet of romantic epicurism; and Lermontov, the poet
of romantic pessimism. Zoukovsky (1783-1852) was the first among
Russian poets who made the human soul the object of poetry, not
without a certain exaggeration and one-sidedness. After the cold
stiffness of the French pseudo-classical style, the new romantic breeze
which came from Germany and England entirely took hold of the
young poet, who seemed by nature the most fitted man to navigate
on the waves of sentimental and fantastic romanticism. His ballads,
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12585
either original, or translated from German and English, became the
funnel through which romanticism inundated Russian poetry. The
main tonality of his lyre is elegy. Simplicity, genuineness, a quiet
melancholy, a serene resignation to the troubles of real life, belief
and hope in the future, a constant thought of death and compensa-
tion in eternity, are, with the extreme charm of their musical fasci-
nation, the chief characteristics of Zoukovsky's poems. In his verses
did for the first time those gentle chords resound which Christianity
made to vibrate in the human soul. "His romantic lyre," says a
critic, "gave soul and heart to Russian poetry: it taught the mys-
tery of suffering, of loss, of mystic relations, and of anxious strivings
towards the mysterious world which has no name, no place, and yet
in which a young soul feels its sacred native land. " This "striving"
towards unknown, unreachable regions is what communicates to Zou-
kovsky's poetry its exaggeratedly idealistic character: earth and real
life to him are but a starting-point; reality seems to present no
interest by itself, to possess no other capacity but that of provoking
sorrow, no other value but that of contrasting with the happiness
which exists somewhere- which cannot be attained in this life, and
undoubtedly will be reached some day.
The absolute intrinsic value of Zoukovsky's poems is not of an
everlasting character, yet his merits toward national poetry are
great: for those qualities of his lyre we mentioned above, he is the
founder of Russian lyricism; for the beauty of his language and the
simplicity of means by which he obtained it, he is the precursor of
Poushkin. His influence was great on the generation, in the first
decades of our century, when Byronism pervaded our literary life: the
serene tranquillity of Zoukovsky's elegy was enforced by the storm
and gloom of the British poet, and this combined influence produced
that kind of poetry which we characterized as romantic pessimism,
and which found its final intensified expression in Lermontov. In the
minor harmony of these poetical lamentations, the powerful lyre of
Poushkin strikes the chords of the major triton in all its plenitude.
Poushkin (1799-1837) is among our poets the most difficult figure
to be retraced; for the sublime excellency of his poetry comes just
from the fact that he has no predominating coloring. Every poet
has his favorite element, his beloved subjects, his own particular
moods: this makes it easy for the critic,-as a matter of fact, the
more one-sided a poet the easier it is to retrace his portrait. Poush-
kin has no predominating element: his chief particularity is that he
The most many-chorded responsiveness, the greatest vari-
ety of moods and expressions, are fused in a general harmony; if we
may say so, of a "spherical" equilibrium. In another place we charac-
terized Poushkin's lyricism as "pouring rain with brilliant sunshine. "
has none.
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RUSSIAN LYRIC POETRY
>>
We find no other words for expressing its completeness: the whole
scale of feelings has been touched by the poet, from the abysses of
sorrow to the summits of joy; and yet none of his lyrical poems can
be classified into one of these extremes, for in his artistic contempla-
tion of life, human happiness and human misery are to him so equal,
that even in the given moment when he depicts one of them, the
other is present to his mind. Thus never does a feeling appear
single in his verses: joy never goes without regret, sorrow without a
ray of hope; a vague idea of death floats in the background of those
poems which give way to the most boundless gayety, and a smile is
shining from behind the bitterest of his tears. The striking differ-
ence from Zoukovsky's poetry is the absence of sterile strivings in
unreal regions, and a vigorous healthy love of real life: our greatest
romanticist was at the same time our first realist. This combination
is the very quality which assigns to Poushkin's poetry its individual
place in the concert of the poets of the world. Prosper Mérimée
could not conceive how it was possible to make such beautiful poetry
with every-day-life subjects, nor to write such beautiful verses with
words taken from the very heart of every-day-life speech; and the
French writer envies the language which can raise its "spoken
speech to such a degree of beauty as to introduce it into the high-
est regions of poetry. Zoukovsky had proclaimed that "poetry and
life are one" yet in his verses he did not live up to this principle;
his romantic aspirations drew him away from life into a world of
dreams. Poushkin proves and realizes that which Zoukovsky pro-
claimed his is the real "poetry of life. " "It is not a poetical lie
which inflames the imagination," says the critic Belinsky, "not one
of those lies which make man hostile at his first encounter with
reality, and exhaust his forces in early useless struggle. " Life and
dream, real and ideal, are combined and fused into each other in that
poetry which the same critic characterizes as "earth imbued with
heaven. » Poushkin's place in Russian literature is unique. He
marks the culminating point in the ascending curve of our poetical
evolution, and at the same time he is the literary contemporary of
all those writers who came after him: for not only are all kinds of
our poetry contained in his, but all branches of prose, all shadow-
ings of style. He marks the central point of our literature: the pre-
ceding writers converge towards Poushkin, those who come after
radiate from Poushkin. Of no less importance than his literary
influence was Poushkin's personal prestige: he had become a sort of
literary ferment amidst his generation. A pleiad of talented poets
group themselves round their young leader, and cast over the first
four decades of the present century a quite peculiar charm of roman-
tic youthfulness.
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Among these poets, who are all more or less a reflection of Poush-
kin, only one is powerful enough to stand as an independent individ-
uality: this is the already mentioned Lermontov (1814-1841). It is
hard for a critic to speak of Lermontov's poetry without mentioning
the poet's age; it is almost impossible for a Russian to consider as
an accomplished cycle the work of a man who died at the age of
twenty-seven.
