No More Learning

In Per-
rault's tale Hop o' My Thumb makes the
ogre kill his own children; but in many
forms the captor is either cooked, or forced
to eat some of his relatives, by means
generally of some trick. The substitution
of the ogre's daughters is suggested by
the story of Athamas and Themisto, whose
children are dressed by her orders in
white, while those of her rival are clad
in black; then by a reversal of the plan,
she murders her own. In most variants
the flight of the brothers is magically
helped; but Perrault uses only the Seven-
League Boots, which are no doubt iden-
tical with the sandals of Hermes and
Loki's magic shoes.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. -This ancient
story is very evidently a myth of the Sun
and the Dawn. In all the variants the
hero and the heroine cannot behold each
other without misfortune. Generally the
bride is forbidden to look upon her hus-
band, who is enchanted under the form of
a monster. The breaking of the taboo
results in separation, but they are finally
reunited after many adventures. The
anthropological school of myth interpret-
ers see in this feature a primitive mar-
riage custom, which still exists among
many savage races of the present day.
One of the earliest forms of the story is
the Vedic myth of Urvasî and Purûra-
vas. ) Another is the Sanskrit Bheki, who
mårries on condition she shall never see
water; thus typifying the dawn, vanish-
ing in the clouds of sunset. Müller gives
an interesting philological explanation of
this myth. Bhekî means frog, and stands
for the rising or setting sun, which like
amphibious creatures appears to pass
from clouds or water. But in its Greek
form Bhekî means seaweed which is red,
thus giving dark red; and the Latin
for toad means “the red one,» hence
the term represents the dawn-glow or
gloaming, which is quenched in water.
In Greek myths we find a resemblance
in some features of Orpheus and Eury-
dice); and the name of Orpheus in its
Sanskrit form of Arbhu, meaning the
sun, hints quite plainly at a solar origin
of this cycle of tales. A more marked
likeness exists in the myth of Eros and
Psyche by Apuleius, and in the Scandi-
navian tale of the Land East of the
Sun and West of the Moon. ) More or
less striking parallels are seen in the
Celtic (Battle of the Birds); in the “Soar-
ing Lark,' by Grimm; in the Kaffir (Story
of Five Heads); in Gaelic, Sicilian, and
Bengal folk-lore; and even in as remote
a quarter as Chili. The investigation of
minor fairy-tales, nursery rhymes, and
detached features running through many
myths, will yield an abundance of in-
teresting information. For instance, the
swan-maidens and werewolves, the bean-
stalk (which is probably a form of the
sacred ash of the Eddas, Yggdrasil, the
heaven-tree of many myths), can
found in ever-varying combinations.
We can allude to only a portion of the
voluminous literature on this subject. In
the general works on mythology, the
Aryan theory is maintained by Müller in
his Essay on Comparative Mythology
be


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
61
new
(1856), and “Chips from a German Work.
shop' (1867–75); by Sir G. W. Cox in
Mythology of the Aryan Nations) (1870),
(Introduction to the Science of Compara-
tive Mythology and Folk-Lore' (1881), and
Popular Romances of the Middle Ages);
by Grimm in his «Teutonic Mythology)
('Deutsche Mythologie, translated by
Stallybrass) (1880–88); by A. Kuhn in
his (Teutonic Mythology, and the De-
scent of Fire (1872); and by W. Schwartz
in (Origin of Myths) (“Ursprung der
Mythe); 1860).
The most important works on the basis
of the anthropological theory are E. B.
Tylor's Primitive Culture) (1871); An-
drew Lang's Custom and Myth' (1885);
his Myth Ritual and Religion (1887);
and John Fiske's Myths and Myth-Mak-
ers) (1872); as well as J. G. Frazer's
(Golden Bough' (1890). W. A. Clouston
in Popular Tales and Fictions) (1887)
supports the Indian theory. The best
works directly bearing on Fairy Tales
are J. Ritson's Fairy Tales) (1831): T.
Keightley's Fairy Mythology) (1833),
both somewhat antiquated; J. T. Bunce's
(Fairy Tales, their Origin and Meaning)
(1878); J. O. Halliwell-Phillips's Popular
Rhymes and Nursery Tales (1849);
R. Koehler's European Popular Tales)
(1865), and his Essays on Fairy Tales
and Popular Songs) (1894); E. S. Hart-
land's Science of Fairy Tales' (1891);
Andrew Lang's Edition of Perrault's
Popular Tales) (1888); W. Adlington's
Most Pleasant and Delectable Tale of
the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche,' with
(Discourse on Fable) by A. Lang (1887);
and Joseph Bedier's Fables) (Les Fa-
bliaux') (1893).
The most notėworthy collections of
the folk-tales of individual nations are
Dasent's Popular Norse Tales) (1862);
Campbell's “Tales of the West Highlands';
Frere's (Old Deccan Days'; Steel and
Temple's Wide-Awake Stories) (1884);
L. B. Day's (Folk Tales of Bengal (1883);
Callaway's 'Zulu Nursery Tales) (1866);
Theal's Kaffir Folk Lore); Cosguin's
Popular Tales of Lorraine) (1886); Mas-
pero's "Tales of Ancient Egypt, 2d ed.
(1889).
Physiologus (The Naturalist). A very
remarkable book of animal allego-
ries, some fifty or sixty in number, pro-
duced originally in Greek at Alexandria,
as early probably as the final comple-
tion of the New Testament, or before
200 A. D. , and in circulation for many
centuries, in many languages, as a kind
of natural Bible of the common people;
more universally known, and more pop-
ularly regarded, than the Bible even,
because so familiar in the memories of
the masses, and not dependent upon
written copies.
So entirely was it a book of tales
and traditions of the uneducated mass,
more often told to hearers than copied
out and read, that any one who made
a written copy varied the text at will,
enlarging or abridging, and inserting
ideas or Scripture quotations at
pleasure. It was in this respect a re-
flection of the literary method of the
Græco-Hebrew writers of the time of
Christ, and of the Greek Christians of
the New Testament age, 50–150 A. D.
It was the lesson only of the story,
not its exact text, which was regarded;
facts were of less account than the truth
meant to be conveyed. Some of the
animals of the stories were imaginary;
and with animals were included the
diamond, the magnet, the fire-flint, the
carbuncle, the Indian stone, and such
trees as the sycamore and one called
peridexion.
The facts in each story
were not those of science, given by Ar-
istotle or any other authority; but those
of folk-lore, of popular tradition and
fable, and of frequent touches of the im-
agination. It mattered little as to the
facts, if they were of startling interest:
the important thing was the spiritual
lesson. Thus the one horn of the uni-
corn signifies that Christ is one with the
Father; the wonderfully sweet odor of
the panther's breath, attracting all other
animals except the serpent, signifies
Christ drawing all unto him except the
Devil. The riot of legend and fable,
which under «Physiologus says,"
took the popular fancy in proportion as
it was wild; and credulity thus stimu.
lat
th
strongest belief. The
ideas thus taught passed into all the lit.
eratures of Europe, and found incessant
expression in art, and in emblems carved
upon churches and even upon furniture.
The Greek text of Physiologus,' and
versions in great variety, have been
printed; and in the Geschichte des
Physiologus, by F. Lauchert, 1889, a full
account of the origin, character, and dif.
fusion of the work is given, with the
Greek original and a Ge an transla
tion.
ran
was


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62
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
its pursuit of the ideal. Apuleius excels
every other ancient writer in catching the
changing aspects of nature and of hu-
man comedy; and with all liis fantastic
imaginative power, he is as realistic as
Zola, and sometimes as offensive.
He
describes, for instance, the agony of a
broken-down horse tortured by swarms
of ants, with the same precision that he
uses to relate the gayety of a rustic
breakfast, or a battle between wolves
and dogs. On the other hand, he puts
in no claim to be a moralist, and is
much more concerned about the exte.
riors of his characters than about their
souls.
sees
Golde
olden Ass, The, by Apuleius. A
collection of stories divided into
eleven books, and written in Carthage,
not later than 197 A. D. It is usually
described as an imitation of The Ass)
of Lucian; the author himself tells us
that it is a (tissue woven out of the
tales of Miletus »; but probably both
works are based on the same earlier
originals. The plot is of the thinnest.
A young man
an old sorceress
transform herself into a bird after drink-
ing a philter. He wishes to undergo a
similar metamorphosis, but mistakes the
vial and is turned into an ass. To be-
come a man again, he must eat a certain
species of roses, and the pilgrimage of
the donkey in search of them is the au-
thor's excuse for stringing together a
number of romantic episodes and stories:
stories of robbers, such as “The Brigand
for Love,' where a youth becomes a ban-
dit to deliver his betrothed; (The Three
Brothers, where the three sons of a
wealthy peasant are massacred by a fero-
cious squire and his servants; and (The
Bear of Platæa,' where a heroic robber
lets dogs devour him in the bearskin in
which he has hidden himself. Then come
ghost stories: The Spectre,' where the
phantom of a girl penetrates in full noon-
day into a miller's yard, and carries off
the miller to a room where he hangs
himself; Telephron,' where a poor man
falls asleep, and supposes himself to
awaken dead; The Three Goat-Skins,
where the witch Pamphile inadvert-
ently throws some goats' hair into her
crucible, instead of the red hair of her
fat Boeotian lover, thus bringing back to
life in place of him the goats to whom
the hairs belonged. But the prettiest and
most finely chiseled of these tales are
those that paint domestic life: (The San-
dals,' where a gallant devises a very
ingenious stratagem to get out of an un-
pleasant predicament and regain posses-
sion of his sandals, forgotten one night
at the house of a decurion; and sev-
eral of the same kind. Many others are
real dramas of village life. The most
famous of all is (The Loves of Psyche. )
It occupies two entire books, and has
inspired poets, painters, and sculptors, in
all ages and countries; though perhaps
the author would have been rather as-
tonished to learn that the moderns had
discovered in the sufferings of his hero-
a profound metaphysical allegory,
symbolizing the tortures of the soul in
Daphnis and Chloe, by Longus. This
charming pastoral romance was writ-
ten in Greek during the fourth century
of our era. It was first translated into
a modern language by Amyot, who pub-
lished a French version in 1559. Other
renderings were soon made, and had
great influence on European literature.
Many English, French, and Italian pas-
torals were suggested by this work; but
the one derived most directly from this
source is Saint-Pierre's Paul and Vir-
ginia,' which is almost a parallel story,
with Christian instead of pagan ethics.
On the island of Lesbos, a goatherd
named Lamon finds one of his goats suck-
ling a fine baby boy, evidently exposed
by his parents. The good man adopts
him as his own child, calling him Daph-
nis, and brings him up to herd his goats.
The year after he was found, a neigh-
bor, Dryas, discovers a baby girl nour-
ished by a ewe in the grotto of the
nymphs. She is adopted under the name
of Chloe, and trained to tend the sheep.
The two young people pasture their
herds in common, and are bound by an
innocent and childlike affection. Eventu-
ally, this feeling ripens on both sides to
something deeper; but in their innocence
they know not the meaning of love, even
when they learn that the little god has
them in his especial keeping. After a
winter of forced separation, which only
inflames their passion, Daphnis sues for
the hand of Chloe. In spite of his hum-
ble station, he is accepted by her foster-
parents; but the marriage is deferred till
after the vintage, when Lamon's master
is coming On his arrival the goatherci
describes the finding of the child, and ex-
hibits the tokens found with him. Here-
upon he is recognized as the son of the


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
63
master of the estate, and restored to his
real position. By the aid of Daphnis's
parents, Chloe is soon identified as the
daughter of a wealthy Lesbian, who in a
time of poverty had intrusted her to the
nymphs. The young people are married
with great pomp, but return to their pas-
toral life, in which they find idyllic happi-
ness.
Golden Fleece, Conquest of the
("Argonautica'), an epic poem in
four cantos, by Apollonius of Rhodes, a
contemporary of Ptolemy Philadelphus.
Apollonius found all the elements of his
poem in the legendary traditions of the
Greeks; the expedition of the Argonauts
being, next to the siege of Troy, the
most famous event of the heroic ages,
and the most celebrated poets having
sung some one or other of its heroes.
The first two cantos contain an expla-
nation of the motives of the expedition,
the election of Jason as commander-in-
chief, the preparations for departure, and
a narrative of the incidents that marked
the voyage from Chalcis. The third
describes the conquest of the Golden
Fleece, and the beginning of Medea's love
for Jason, the development of which forms
the finest portion of the poem. Her hesi-
tations and interior struggles supplied
Virgil with some of his best material for
the fourth book of the Æneid. In the
fourth canto, Medea leaves her father to
follow Jason. This book is full of inci-
dent. The Argonauts go through the
most surprising adventures, and encounter
perils of every description, before they
are able to reach the port from which
they started. These various events have
allowed the poet to introduce brilliant
mythological pictures, such as his account
of the Garden of the Hesperides. The
work has been frequently translated into
almost every modern language, and is ad-
mittedly the masterpiece of Alexandrian
literature. The Argonautica) of Vale-
rius Flaccus is an imitation of that of
Apollonius, while the style is that of Vir-
gil. Quintilian and other contemporaries
of the author considered the imitation
superior to the original. Most modern
scholars, however, regard it as without
originality or invention, and as a mere
tasteless display of erudition.
Mahābhārata of Krishna-Dwaipayana
Vyasa, The. This great Indian
epic has been compared to a national
bank of unlimited resources, upon which
all the poets and dramatists of succeed-
ing ages have freely drawn, so that
scarcely a Sanskrit play or song lacks
references to it. As the compilation
of long series of poets, it contains not
only the original story of the Kaurava-
Pandava feud, but also a vast number
of more or less relevant episodes : it is
a storehouse of quaint and curious sto-
ries. It tells of the mental and moral
philosophy of the ancient Rishis, their
discoveries in science, their remarkable
notions of astronomy, their computations
of time, their laws for the conduct of
life, private and public, their grasp of
political truths worthy of Machiavelli.
Stories and histories, poems and ballads,
nursery tales and profound discourses on
art, science, daily conduct, and religion,
are all sung in sonorous verse. Written
in the sacred language of India, it is the
Bible of the Hindus, being held in such
veneration that the reading of a single
Parva or Book was thought sufficient to
cleanse from sin. It has been translated
into English prose by Kisari Mohan
Ganguli, and published in fifteen octavo
volumes. Sir Edwin Arnold has trans-
lated the last two of the eighteen parvas
into blank verse; and in his preface he
gives a succinct analysis of the epic
which has been called “the Fifth Veda. "
To ordinary readers much of the fig-
urative language of the Mahābhārata'
seems grotesque, and the descriptions are
often absurd; but no one can help being
amazed at its enormous range of sub-
jects, the beauty of many of the stories
it enshrines, and the loftiness of the mo-
rality it inculcates. In grandeur it may
well be compared to the awe-inspiring
heights of the Himalayas.
تیری تربیت کے لیے عالي - ملا ق کر کے تے مولا علی
Gol
ulistan, or Rose Garden, by Sa'di.
(The Sheikh Muslih-ud-din was his
real name. ) He was born about 1193 at
Shiraz; and after many years of travel
(once captured by the Christian Crusa.
ders he was fighting), and visiting all
the chief countries and cities of Asia, he
settled down in a hermitage at Shiraz,
and wrote many works, including the
(Gulistan. He has been called "The
Nightingale of Shiraz,) and his works
«the salt-cellar of poets. ) Emerson so
admired him that he frequently used his
name as an alias in his poems. Sa'di's
daughter married the poet Hafiz. The
(Gulistan) is a poetical work, and con-
sists of fascinating stories or anecdotes,


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64
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
son.
to
as
with a moral, like the parables of the
Bible. They are replete with homely
wisdom and life experience; the prose
portions are interspersed with verses out
of Sa'di's wide experience of the man-
ners and customs of many men. Their
great charm can only be known by
reading them. Delicacy, simplicity, and
bonhomie are the chief features of Sa'di's
style.
Heimskringla, The, by Snorri Sturla-
This chronicle of the kings of
Norway (from the earliest times down
1177), sometimes known the
(Younger Edda) or the Mythic Ring
of the World,' was originally written in
Icelandic, in the early part of the thir-
teenth century. It has always been a
household word in the home of every
peasant in Iceland, and is entertaining
reading to those who read for mere
amusement, as well as to the student of
history; being full of incident and anec-
dote, told with racy simplicity, and giv-
ing an accurate picture of island life at
that early day. Short pieces of scaldic
poetry originally recited by bards are in-
terspersed, being quoted by Snorri as his
authorities for the facts he tells. The
writer, born in Iceland in 1178, was ed-
ucated by a grandson of Sæmund Sig-
fusson, author of the Elder Edda,' who
doubtless turned his pupil's thoughts in
the direction of this book. A descendant
of the early kings, he would naturally
like to study their history. He became
chief magistrate of Iceland, took
active part in politics, and was murdered
in 1241 by his two sons-in-law, at the
instigation of King Hakon. His book
was first printed in 1697, in a Latin
translation, having been inculcated in
manuscript, or by word of mouth, up to
that time. It was afterwards translated
into Danish and English, and may be
regarded as a classic work.
Chanson de Roland. This is the cul-
mination of a cycle of Chansons de
Geste) or Songs of Valor, celebrating the
heroic achievements of Charlemagne, and
inspired especially by the joy and pride
of the triumph of Christian arms over the
Mohammedan invasion, which, through
the gate opened by the Moors of Spain,
threatened to subdue all Europe. The
Song of Roland or of Roncesvalles cele-
brates the valor of Roland, a Count Pal-
adin of Charlemagne, who, on the retreat
of the King from an expedition against
the Moors in Spain, is cut off with the
rear-guard of the army in the pass of
Roncevaux; and, fatally wounded in the
last desperate struggle, crawls away to
die beneath the shelter of a rock, against
which he strikes in vain his sword Du-
randal, in the effort to break it so that
it may not fall into the hands of his en-
emy: -
"Be no man your master who shall know the
fear of man:
Long were you in the hands of a captain
Whose like shall not be seen in France set
free!
The French text of the "Chanson) was
first published in Paris by M. Francisque
Michel in 1837, and afterward in 1850 by
M. F. Genin. The original form of the
lines above quoted is as follows: –
« Ne vos ait hume ki pur altre feiet !
Mult bon vassal vos ad lung tens tenue :
Jamais u'ert tel in France la solue. "
Around this incident have grown a
multitude of heroic and romantic tales,
which have taken form in all the mediæ-
val literature of Europe; but especially in
Italy, — where however the hero appears
with little more than the name to iden-
tify him,- in the Orlando Furioso) of
Ariosto, and the Orlando Innamorato)
of Boiardo. Tyrwhitt, in his edition of
Chaucer, was the first to call the atten-
tion of English readers to the (Chanson);
but English tradition has it that the
song was sung by the Norman Taillefer
just before the battle of Hastings. The
best and oldest French MS. , called the
«Digby,” is preserved in the Bodleian
library at Oxford.
The French poem
contains 6,000 lines. A Fragment of
1,049 lines, translated in Middle English
from what is known as the Lansdowne
MS. , is published by the Early English
Text Society.
Ogier the Dane.
This story of the
paladin of Charlemagne has ap-
peared in many different forms; but the
earliest manuscript is a chanson de geste,
or epic poem, written by Raimbert de
Paris in the twelfth century. The sub-
ject is still older, and Raimbert is thought
to have collected songs which had been
sung in battle years before. The first
part is entitled “The Anger of Ogier,'
and is descriptive of the feudal life of
the barons of Charlemagne. In a quar-
rel over a game of chess, Charlot, the
son of Charlemagne, kills Beaudoin, the
son of Ogier. Ogier demands the death
an


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
65
of with the
Che past 1
oded in
uck agais
Tod is
is of his e
a" koca
Frant
))
Tarsos!
France
. in 1 1
fo:
of Charlot, but is exiled by Charlemagne,
whom Ogier would have killed but for
the protection afforded by the barons.
Ogier flies to Italy, and Charlemagne de-
clares war against his harborer. Ogier
shuts himself up in Castelfort, and with-
stands a siege of seven years; at the
end of which time, all his followers hav-
ing died, he makes his way to the camp
of Charlemagne and enters the tent of
Charlot. Throwing his spear at the bed
where he supposes Charlot to be asleep,
he escapes into the darkness, crying de-
fiance to Charlemagne. Afterwards he
is captured while sleeping, but by the
entreaties of Charlot the sentence of
death is changed to that of imprison-
ment. The country is invaded by Bra-
hier, a Saracen giant, seventeen feet tall
and of great strength. Ogier is the only
man fit to cope with him, and he refuses
to leave his prison unless Charlot is
delivered up to his vengeance. Charle-
magne accedes, but Charlot's life is saved
by the miraculous interposition of Saint
Michael. The poem ends with Ogier's
combat with the giant, who is conquered
and put to death. Among the tales in
which Ogier figures there is a romance
called Roger le Danois,' the Orlando
Furioso) of Ariosto, and the Earthly
Paradise) of William Morris.
In the fourth lecture he considered the
Hero as Priest, singling out Luther and
the Reformation, and Knox and Puri-
tanism. << These two men we will ac-
count our best priests, inasmuch as they
were our best reformers. )
The Hero as Man of Letters, with
Johnson, Rousseau, and Burns as his
types, forms the subject of Carlyle's fifth
lecture. «I call them all three genuine
Men, more or less; faithfully, for the
most part unconsciously, struggling to be
genuine, and plant themselves on the
everlasting truth of things. ”
Finally, for the Hero as King he se-
lects as the subject of his sixth lect-
ure Cromwell and Napoleon, together
with the modern Revolutionism which
they typify.
« The commander
- he is
practically the summary for us of all
the various figures of Heroism; Priest,
Teacher, whatever of earthly or of spirit-
ual dignity we can fancy to reside in a
man, embodies itself here. ))
Carlyle eulogizes his heroes for the
work that they have done in the world.
His tone, however, is that of fraterniz-
ing with them rather than of adoring
them. He holds up his typical heroes
as patterns for other men of heroic mold
to imitate, and he makes it clear that he
expects the unheroic masses to adore
them. The style of Hero-Worship) is
clearer than that in most of the other
masterpieces of Carlyle, and on this ac-
count is much more agreeable to the
average reader.
There is less exagger-
ation, less straining after epigram.
over
men
feiet
Alex
Sude'
e
(
(
antic
the
especie
eto a?
me 72
Furiani
Dham
5 adet
the
(Char
t that
Heroes,
ar
tings
calitate
e Buzz
each?
to
agte
de Es
Lars
oly Ego
Hero-Worship, and the He.
roic in History, On, by Thomas
Carlyle. Carlyle's Hero-Worship made
its first appearance as
a series of lect-
ures delivered orally in 1840, They
were well attended, and were so popular
that in book form they had considerable
success when published in 1841.
There are five lectures in all, each
dealing with some one type of hero.
In the first, it is the Hero as Divinity,
and in this the heroic divinities of Norse
mythology are especially considered. Car-
lyle finds this type earnest and sternly
impressive.
The second considers the Hero
Prophet, with especial reference to Ma-
homet and Islam. He chose Mahomet, he
himself says, because he was the prophet
whom he felt the freest to speak of.
As types of the Poet Hero in his third
lecture, he brings forward Dante and
Shakespeare. “As in Homer we may
still construe old Greece; so in Shakes-
peare and Dante, after thousands of
years, what our modern Europe was in
faith and in practice will still be legible. ”
XXX-5
OIT
e
as
28,
Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, Oli-
ver: With Elucidations by Thomas
Carlyle. These elucidations amount
an ex-parte favorable rearrangement of
Cromwell's case before the world, sup-
ported by the documentary evidence of
the Protector's public speeches and his
correspondence of every sort, from com-
munications on formal State affairs to pri-
vate and familiar letters to his family.
For almost two hundred years, till Car-
lyle's work came out in 1845, the memory
of Cromwell had suffered under defama-
tion cast upon it through the influence of
Charles the Second's court. When the
truncheon of the Constable for the peo-
ple of England ») — as Cromwell (depre-
cating the title of king) called himself-
proved too heavy for his son Richard
after Oliver's death, and the Stuarts
.
aimet
of it
ce
102
che


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66
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
or
reascended the throne and assumed the read to-day mainly by students of the
old power, all means were used to destroy author's style and times, this sententious
the good name of Cromwell. While to volume has attractions for all lovers of
the present day opinion widely differs quaint and pleasing English.
concerning Cromwell's actual conduct, and
his character and motives, the prophetic Dialogues of the Dead, by Lucian.
These dialogues, written at Athens
zeal and enthusiasm of Carlyle has done
much to reverse the judgment that had
during the latter half of the second cen-
long been practically unanimous against
tury, are among the author's most pop
him.
ular and familiar works. They have been
translated by many hands, from the days
Crom
romwell's Place in History. Founded of Erasmus to the present; an excellent
nn Lectures delivered at Oxford. modern translation being that by Howard
By Samuel Rawson Gardiner. (1897. ) Williams in Bohn's Classical Library.
A:nong scholarly estimates of Cromwell's They are filled with satire, bitter
true rank as a statesman and stature as delicate according to the subject, and
a man, Mr. Gardiner's may perhaps take illustrate admirably Lucian's ready wit,
the first place. It interprets him as the and light, skillful touch.
greatest of Englishmen, in respect espe- The scene is laid in Hades; and the
cially of both the powers of his mind only persons appearing to advantage are
and the grandeur of his character: in the Cynics Menippus and Diogenes, who
the world of action what Shakespeare are distinguished by their scorn of false-
was in the world of thought, the great- hood and pretense.
The Sophists are
est because the most typical Englishman mercilessly treated; and even Aristotle
of all time, yet not “the masterful is accused of corrupting the youthful
saint of Carlyle's “peculiar Valhalla. ) Alexander by his flatteries. Socrates is
It explains, but does not deny, the er- well spoken of, but is said to have
rors of Cromwell in dealing with Ire- dreaded death, the Cynics being the only
land”; admits that “Ireland's evils were ones to seek it willingly. The decadent
enormously increased by his drastic treat-
Olympian religion and the old Homeric
ment,) and consents to a verdict of heroes are exposed to ridicule, and it is
(guilty of the slaughters of Drogheda twice demonstrated that the conception
and Wexford. ) But it refers the errors of Destiny logically destroys moral re-
and the crime to “his profound ignorance sponsibility. There are several dialogues
of Irish social history prior to 1641," that hold up to scorn the parasites and
«his hopeless ignorance of the past and legacy-hunters so abundant at Athens
the present of Ireland. In this, and in and Rome; and Alexander and Cresus
every respect, the volume, though small, make themselves ridiculous by boasting
is of great weight for the study of a of their former prowess and wealth.
period of English history second in in- The futility of riches and fame is shown
terest to no other.
in the dialogue of the boat-load of peo-
ple who have to discard all their cher-
Good
ood Thoughts in Bad Times, by
Thomas Fuller (1645), is the first of
ished belongings and attributes before
a trio of volumes whose titles were in-
Charon will give them passage; only ster-
ling moral qualities avail in the shadowy
spired by the troublous days of Charles
and Cromwell, when Fuller was an ar-
land of Hades, and only the Cynics are
dent loyalist. (Good Thoughts in Worse
happy, for they have nothing left behind
Times) (1649), and — after the restoration
to regret, but have brought their treas-
of Charles II. —Mixed Contemplations in
ure with them in an upright and fearless
character.
Better Times, followed, completing the
trilogy. The present volume, like its two Dunciad, The, by Alexander Pope.
successors, is packed with wise and pithy This mock-heroic poem, the Iliad
aphorisms, often humorous, but never of the Dunces, was written in 1727, to
trivial; and is pervaded by that «sound, gratify the spite of the author against
shrewd good sense, and freedom of in- the enemies his success and his malice
tellect,” which Coleridge found there. A had aroused. It contains some of the
moralist, rather than an exponent of spirit- bitterest satire in the language, and as
ual religion, the cavalier chaplain devotes Pope foresaw, has rescued from obliv-
more attention to a well-fed philosophy ion the very names that he vituperates.
than to the claims of the soul. Though The poem is divided into four books, in


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
67
To escape
an
the first of which Dulness, daughter of scathing and many of them mean. The
chaos and eternal night, chooses a favor- joke was perpetrated by James Hogg,
ite to reign over her kingdom. In the the “Ettrick Shepherd,” whose original
early editions this prominence is assigned paper was greatly enlarged and modified
to Theobald, but in 1743 Pope substi- by Wilson and Lockhart, and who him-
tuted Colley Cibber. In the second book, self declared that “the young lions in
which contains passages as virulent and Edinboro' interlarded it with a good deal
as nauseating as anything of Swift, the of devilry of their own. ”
goddess institutes a series of games detection, the Blackwood men described
in honor of the new monarch. First the themselves as well as their rivals: Wil-
booksellers race for a phantom poet, and son was the beautiful leopard from the
then the poets contend in tickling and in valley of the palm-trees, whose going
braying, and end by diving into the mud forth was comely as the greyhound and
of Fleet Ditch. Lastly there is a trial of his eyes like the lighting of fiery flame.
patience, in which all have to listen to And he called from a far country the
the works of two voluminous writers, scorpion [Lockhart] which delighteth to
and are overcome by slumber. In the sting the faces of men. ” Hogg was
third book the goddess transports the «the great wild boar from the forests of
sleeping king to the Elysian shades, Lebanon, who roused up his spirit, and
where he beholds the past, present, and whetted his dreadful tusks for the battle. »
future triumphs of Dulness, and espe- The satire which now seems so harmless
cially her coming conquest of Great Brit- shook the old city to its foundations, and
ain. The fourth book represents the god- produced not only the bitterestexas-
dess coming with majesty to establish her peration in the Constable set, but a plen-
universal dominion. Arts and sciences tiful crop of lawsuits; one of these being
are led captive, and the youth drinks brought by an advocate who had figured
of the cup of Magus, which causes ob- as a “beast. »
As it originally appeared,
livion of all moral or intellectual obli- the satire was headed (Translation from
gations. Finally the goddess gives a Ancient Chaldee Manuscript, and
mighty yawn, which paralyzes mental act- pretended to be derived by an eminent
ivity everywhere, and restores the reign Orientalist from an original preserved in
of night and chaos over all the earth. the great Library of Paris. The publica-
tion of the original, said the editor of
Chali
haldean MS. , The. (1817. ) This pro- Blackwood, “will be prefaced by an In-
duction, in its day pronounced one quiry into the Age when it was written,
of the most extraordinary satires in the and the name of the writer. » In after
language, is now almost forgotten save years both Wilson and Lockhart repented
by students of literature. It was a skit
the cruelty of this early prank.
at the expense of the publisher Consta-
ble, and of the Edinburgh notables spe-
McFingal, by John Trumbull. The
cially interested in the Whig Edinburgh author of McFingal, «the Ameri-
Review; prepared by the editors for the can epic,” was a distinguished Connecti-
seventh number of the new Tory Black- cut jurist and writer. The poem aims
wood's Magazine, October 1817. In to give in Hudibrastic verse a general
form it was a Biblical narrative in four account of the Revolutionary War, and
chapters, attacking Constable, and de- a humorous description of the manners
scribing many of the Constable clientage and customs of the time, satirizing the
with or less felicitous phrases. follies and extravagances of the author's
Scott was that great magician which own Whig party as well as those of the
hath his dwelling in the old fastness. ” British and Loyalists. McFingal is a
Constable was the man which is crafty," Scotchman who represents the Tories;
who shook the dust from his feet, and Honorius being the representative and
said, Beloved I have given this magi-champion of the patriotic Whigs. Mc-
cian much money, yet see, now, he hath Fingal is of course out-argued and de-
utterly deserted me. ) » Francis Jeffrey feated; and he suffers disgrace and igno-
was “a familiar spirit unto whom the miny to the extent of being hoisted to
man which was crafty had sold himself, the top of a flag-pole, and afterwards
and the spirit was a wicked and a cruel. ” treated to a coat of tar and feathers.
Many of the characterizations cannot be The first canto was published in 1774,
identified at this day, but they were all and the poem finally appeared complete
more
»


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68
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
in four cantos in 1782. The work is now jected Addresses' were widely commended
unread and comparatively unknown, but in their day, and still hold a high place
its popularity at the time of its issue among the best imitations ever inade.
was very great; and more than thirty Their extent and variety exhibited the
pirated editions in pamphlet and other versatility of the authors. Although
forms were printed, which were circu- James wrote the greater number of suc-
lated by the newsmongers, hawkers, cessful imitations, the one by Horace, of
peddlers, and petty chapmen” of the day. Scott, is perhaps the best of the parodies;
It contains many couplets that were fa- and its amusing picture of the burning
mous at the time, some of which are of Drury Lane Theatre is an absurd
still quoted. The two that are perhaps imitation of the battle in Marmion): -
the most famous, and which are often
« The firemen terrified are slow
attributed to Samuel Butler, the author
To bid the pumping torrent flow,
of (Hudibras,' are-
For fear the roof would fall.
Back, Robins, back; Crump, stand aloof!
«No man e'er felt the halter draw
Whitford, keep near the walls !
With good opinion of the law ;
Huggins, regard your own behoof,
and
For, lo! the blazing rocking roof
« But optics sharp it needs, I ween,
Down, down in thunder falls !
To see what is not to be seen. ”
McFingal was considered by many Gla
lasse of Time in the First Age, The,
fully equal in wit and humor to its great
Divinely Handled by Thomas Pey-
prototype (Hudibras); and its subsequent
ton, of Lincolnes Inne, Gent. Seene and
decadence in popularity is thought not to
Allowed, London: Printed by Bernard
be owing to any deficiency in these re-
Alsop, for Lawrence Chapman, and are
spects, but to a lack of picturesqueness
to be Sold at his Shop over against Staple
in the story and of the elements of per-
Inne, 1620,' runs the title-page of this ac-
sonal interest in its heroes.
count, in sonorous heroic couplets, of the
fall of man and the progress of humanity
Rejected Addresses, by James Smith
down to the time of Noah. Peyton died
and Horace Smith. This volume
soon after its completion, at the age of
of poetical parodies was issued anony- thirty-one; and there is no record of him
mously in 1812, and met with great suc- outside of this work, which was not itself
cess, both the critics and the public be- known till eighty years ago. A copy,
ing delighted with the clever imitations ;
bound in vellum, ornamented with gold,
though, strange to say, the authors had
illustrated with curious cuts and quaintly
much difficulty in finding a publisher printed, was found in a chest; and there is
for the book. The (Rejected Addresses)
a copy in the British Museum. In 1860
were the joint work of the brothers
an article on it appeared in the North
James and Horace Smith, who wrote American Review, pointing out that it
them as a burlesque upon the many appeared forty years before Paradise
prominent and unsuccessful competitors Lost, but that the similarity of its plan
for the reward offered by the manage-
not disparaging to Milton, as it
ment of the Drury Lane for an address
merely gave him certain suggestions, and
to be delivered at the opening of the had individual but inferior merit. It was
new theatre. The Rejected Addresses)
reprinted in 1886.
were begun at this time, and were com-
pleted in
few weeks. Among the ime of the Ancient Mariner, The,
imitations set forth in the volume, the by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first
following are the work of James Smith: appeared in The Sibylline Leaves, in
(The Baby's Début' (Wordsworth), “The 1817. It is one of the most fantastic
Hampshire Farmer's Address) (Cob- and original poems in the English lan-
bett), (The Rebuilding' (Southey), guage. An attempt at analysis is diffi-
(Play-House Musings) (Coleridge), “The cult; for, as has been happily said: “The
Theatre) (Crabbe), the first stanza of very music of its words is like the mel-
(Cui Bono) (Lord Byron); the song ancholy, mysterious breath of something
entitled Drury Lane Hustings); and sung to the sleeping ear; its images
“The Theatrical Alarm-Bell, an imita- have the beauty, the grandeur, the inco-
tion of the Morning Post; also travesties herence of some mighty vision. The
on Macbeth, George Barnwell, and loveliness and the terror glide before
(The Stranger. ) The rest of the imita- us in turns, with, at one moment, the
tions are by Horace Smith. The Re- awful shadowy dimness, at another the
was
a
Rime


## p. 69 (#105) #############################################

SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
69
1
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yet more awful distinctness, of a majestic The Second Series of "The Golden
dream. ” A wedding guest is on his way Treasury' appeared in 1897, soon after
to the bridal festivities. He hears the Mr. Palgrave's death. Perfection of form,
merry minstrelsy, and sees the lights in one of the main tests of the first volume,
the distance. An old gray-bearded man holds a subordinate, place in the sec-
- the Ancient Mariner — stops him ond; and here the commonplace has en-
tell him a story, and although the wed- croached upon the simple. The chief
ding guest refuses to listen, he is held value of this collection lies in its serving
by the fixed glance of the mysterious as a kind of shrine for masterpieces like
stranger. The Ancient Mariner describes Arnold's (Scholar Gipsy,' Patmore's "The
his voyage, how his ship was locked in Toys, the Christmas Hymn) of Alfred
the ice, and how he shot with his cross- Domett, and (The Crimson Thread) of
bow the tame Albatross, the bird of good F. H. Doyle.
omen which perched upon the vessel.
The entire universe seemed stunned by Iphigenia,
[phigenia, a drama,
drama, by
by Euripides,
this wanton act of cruelty: the sea 407 B. C. The third and latest, and
and sky sicken, the sun becomes with- altogether the most modern, of the great
ered and bloody, no winds move the masters of Greek drama, twice used the
ship, «idle as a painted ship upon a
Iphigenia story,- once in the fine mas-
painted ocean”; slimy things creep upon
terpiece which was represented during
the slimy sea, death-fires dance about his life, and again in a drama brought
the vessel; and the Albatross hangs
out after his death. The latter repre-
around the neck of the Ancient Mariner. sented the time and scene of the bring-
A spectre ship appears, and the crew ing of the heroine to the altar of sacrifice,
die, leaving the graybeard alone. After and the climax of the play was her read-
a time he is moved to prayer, whereupon iness to accept a divine behest by giving
the evil spell is removed. The Albatross up her life. The other and the finer
sinks into the sea, and the Mariner's play represented a time twenty years
heart is once again a part of the uni-
later. It told how she was snatched from
versal spirit of love. After hearing this under the knife of sacrifice by divine
story, the wedding guest «turns from intervention, and carried away to the
the bridegroom's door, and
land of the Tauri, (where is now the
"A sadder and a wiser man
Crimea,) to live in honor as a priestess
of Artemis, a feature of whose Taurian
The weird ballad is capable of many in-
worship was the sacrificial immolation
terpretations; for the Ancient Mariner
of any luckless strangers cast on shore
is nameless, there is no name for the
by shipwreck. Twenty years had passed,
ship, and her destination is vague. In its
and the Greek passion of Iphigenia to
small compass it contains a tragedy of
return to her own land, to at least hear
remorse, and of redemption through re-
of her people, was at its height, when
pentance. The imagery is wonderful,
two strangers from a wreck were taken,
and the poem is pervaded by a noble
and it was her duty to preside at their
mystery. Wordsworth, Coleridge affirms,
sacrifice. They were Orestes and Py-
wrote the last two lines of the first
lades, the former her own brother. The
climax of the play is in her recogni-
stanza of Part iv.
tion of Orestes, and in the means em-
Gºld
olden Treasury, The, of Songs and ployed by her for her own and their
Lyrics, by Francis Turner Pal- escape. A singularly fine soliloquy of
grave. A volume attempting to bring Iphigenia, upon hearing of the capture
together all the best lyrics in the lan- of two strangers, is followed by a dia-
guage, by singers not living. In his se- logue between her and Orestes, unsur-
lection Mr. Palgrave was aided by the passed, if not unequaled, by anything
taste and judgment of Tennyson as to in Greek dramatic poetry. Her proposal
the period between 1520 and 1850. The to spare one to be the bearer of a letter
book has four divisions, informally desig- to her Greek home, brings on a contest
nated as the books of Shakespeare, Mil- of self-devotion between Orestes and
ton, Gray, and Wordsworth, though hardly Pylades of wonderful dramatic power.
less space is given to Herrick or Shel- The whole play shows Euripides at his
ley. The preface and notes are of great best in ingenuity of construction and
value.
depth of feeling; and all the odes of the
2801
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rc- &;


## p. 70 (#106) #############################################

70
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
are
play are marked by extreme lyrical who finds an asylum on Attic soil, and
beauty. A notable one among them is vanishes mysteriously in the sacred grove
the final one, on the establishment of the of the Eumenides, to become henceforth
worship of Apollo at Delphi.
the protecting hero of the land. The in-
A celebrated parallel to the Iphi- cidents are made up of the violence of
genia) of Euripides was conceived and Creon, the abduction of the daughters of
executed by Goethe. It is not properly | Edipus, their touching deliverance, the
an imitation.
Although using scenery imprecations of the old man against his
and characters nominally Greek, it is a unfilial son Polynices, and his sublime
thoroughly modern play, on lines of dramatic apotheosis. But the beauty of
thought and sentiment quite other than the tragedy consists especially in the
Greek, and with a diction very unlike ideal representation of the noblest sen-
Greek. Of this modern kind it is a timents: the majesty of the aged hero,
drama of the highest merit, a splendid now reduced to beg for bread; the gen-
example of modern psychological dra- tle piety of Antigone; the artlessness of
matic composition.
the rustic chorus, at first appalled by
the mere name of the stranger, but soon,
Doll's House, The, one of the best-
at the request of Theseus, to give him
known plays of Henrik Ibsen, was
a most gracious and hospitable recep-
published in 1879. It is the drama of the
Woman, the product of man's fostering
tion; finally, the luminous background
where Athens appears to the patriotic
care through centuries, — his doll, from
whom nature has kindly removed the un-
eyes of her poet in all her dazzling
used faculties which produce clear think-
splendor. Edipus, the victim of his sons'
ingratitude, has sometimes been com-
ing and business-like action. Nora, the
particular doll in question, adorns a little
pared to Shakespeare's King Lear. But
while the two characters almost
home with her pretty dresses, her pretty
equal in tragic grandeur, there is always
manner, her sweet, childish ignorance.
a reserve, a self-restraint, in the storm-
She must bring up her babies, love her
iest scenes of the Greek dramatist which
husband, and have well-cooked dinners.
is absent from the English play.
For the sake of this husband, she ventures
once beyond the limit of the nest. He
is ill, and she forges her rich father's name OEdipus the King, by Sophocles. Ar-
istotle, whose rules for the con-
to obtain money to send him abroad.
duct of the tragic poem
The disclosure of her guilt, the guilt of a
are mainly
based on the “Edipus,' regarded it as
baby, a doll who did not know better,
the masterpiece of the Greek theatre.
brings her face to face with the realities
of the world and of life. The puppet be-
It is certainly, if not the finest, the most
dramatic of the author's works.
comes vitalized, changed into a suffering
opening scene has an imposing grandeur.
woman who realizes that there is some-
The Theban people are prostrate before
thing wrong » in the state of women as
their altars, calling on their gods and on
wives. She leaves her husband's house,
their king to save them from the terri-
(a moth flying towards a star. ” She will
ble plague that is desolating their city.
not return until she is different, or mar-
Creon returns from Delphi with the an-
riage is different, or — she knows not
swer of the oracle: - The plague will
what. "The Doll's House) is the most
continue its ravages as long as the mur-
striking embodiment in the range of mod-
derer of Laius, their former ruler, re-
ern drama, of the second awakening of
mains unpunished. (Edipus utters the
Eve.
most terrible imprecations against the
OEdipus, at Colonus, bySophocles. assassin, declaring he will not rest until
This was the author's last tra- he has penetrated the darkness that en-
gedy, and was not presented until some shrouds the crime. He thus becomes
years after his death. It has very little the unconscious instrument of his own
action, but nowhere has Sophocles risen destruction; for he himself is the invol-
to higher poetic grandeur. His drama untary slayer of his own father, the un-
is a magnificent hymn in honor of Ath- witting husband of his own
ens and of his birthplace Colonus, in The spectator is hurried on from inci-
which the purest moral ideas are dent to incident, from situation to situa-
pressed in the sublimest language. The tion, until at last the sombre mystery
poet depicts the glorious end of Edipus, through which the hapless king has been
The
mother.
ex-


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
71
ex-
as
endows him with much of his own sense
of humor and Horatian philosophy; and
even though the adventures are not al.
ways thrilling, the account of them, and
the accompanying reflections, are
tremely entertaining. Pleasure, Wealth,
Content, Ambition, Riches, are among
the abstractions of which the author or
his hero discourses; and many of the
passages are undoubtedly intended by
Combe as autobiographic.
In the course of his travels Dr. Syntax
meets various persons whom the author
makes food for his mild satire,- the mer-
chant, the critic, the bookseller, the coun.
try squire, the Oxford don, and other
well-marked types. The descriptions of
rural scenery and of the cities visited by
Dr. Syntax are often clever, and even to-
day are agreeable to read. The very great
popularity of the first tour of Dr. Syntax
(in search of the picturesque encouraged
author and publisher to follow it with a
second and a third series.
blindly groping is lit up by one reveal-
ing flash, and Edipus rushes into the
palace, exclaiming, “O light of day, I
behold thee for the last time! ) There
is no character in ancient tragedy that
excites so much human interest
Edipus,- an interest made up of anguish
and compassion; for unlike the heroes
of Æschylus, he is neither Titanic nor
gigantic. He is an ideal man, but not
so ideal as to be entirely exempt from
weakness and error; and when he suf-
fers, he gives vent to his agony in very
human cries and tears. The other per-
sons in the drama — the skeptical and
thoughtless locasta; the choleric sooth-
sayer Tiresias; Creon, who appears to
more advantage here than in the (An-
tigone) and (Edipus at Colonus); even
the slave of Laius - are all portrayed
with the most consummate art and dis-
tinction of style. The choral hymns and
dialogues have an ineffable tenderness
and sublimity. The (Edipus) has been
imitated by Seneca in Latin, Dryden
and Lee glish, Nicolini in Ita
Corneille, Voltaire, and several others in
French; but none of these imitations has
even a faint reflection of the genius of
the original.
Dr. Syntax, The Three Tours of, by
William Combe. This famous book,
or rather series of three books, was first
devised by its author at the suggestion of
the publisher, Mr.