Generally, there is some information
concerning
the wrecks
off Iceland; those who return have seen the tragedy from afar,
or else have found some wreckage or bodies, or have an indica-
tion to guess the rest.
off Iceland; those who return have seen the tragedy from afar,
or else have found some wreckage or bodies, or have an indica-
tion to guess the rest.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v16 - Lev to Mai
To this spot the she-goat often betook
herself, abandoning her own kid and remaining with the child,
so that it was not known what had become of her. Lamon, who
was grieved to see the kid neglected, watched the dam's move-
ments; and one day when the sun was burning in his meridian
heat, he followed her and saw her softly enter the thicket, step-
ping carefully over the child so that she might not injure it,
whilst the babe took hold of her udder as if this had been its
mother's breast. Greatly surprised, and advancing close to the
spot, Lamon discovered that the infant was a male child with
well-proportioned limbs and handsome countenance, and wearing
richer attire than seemed suited to such an outcast; for its little
mantle was of fine purple and fastened by a golden clasp, whilst
near it lay a small knife with a handle of ivory.
At first Lamon resolved to leave the infant to its fate, and
only to carry off the tokens which had been left with it; but he
soon felt ashamed of showing himself less humane than his goat,
and at the approach of night he took up the infant and the
tokens, and with the she-goat following him, went home to Myr-
tale his wife.
Myrtale, who was astonished at the sight, asked if goats now
gave birth to babes instead of kids; whereupon her husband
recounted to her every particular of the discovery, saying how he
had found the child lying on the grass and the goat suckling
it, and how ashamed he had felt at the idea of leaving the babe
to perish. His wife declared that it would have been wrong to do
so, and they thereupon agreed to conceal the tokens and to adopt
the child. They employed the goat as his nurse, affirmed on all
sides that he was their own offspring, and in order that his
name might accord with their rustic condition they called him
Daphnis.
Two years had elapsed, when Dryas, a neighboring shepherd,
met with a similar adventure whilst tending his flock. In this
part of the country there was a grotto of the Nymphs, which
was hollowed out of a large rock rounded at the summit. Inside
there were statues of the Nymphs carved in stone, their feet
bare, their arms also naked, their hair flowing loosely upon their
shoulders, their waists girt, their faces smiling, and their atti-
tudes similar to those of a troop of dancers. In the deepest part
of the grotto a spring gurgled from the rock; and its waters,
spreading into a copious stream, refreshed the soft and abundant.
## p. 9200 (#212) ###########################################
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LONGUS
herbage of a delightful meadow that stretched before the en-
trance, where milk-pails, transverse flutes, flageolets, and pas-
toral pipes were suspended, the votive offerings of many an old
shepherd.
An ewe of Dryas's flock, which had lately lambed, frequently
resorted to this grotto, raising apprehensions that she was lost.
The shepherd, to prevent her straying in future, and to keep her
with the flock as previously, twisted some green osiers so as to
form a noose, and went to seize her in the grotto. But upon his
arrival there, he beheld a sight far contrary to his expectation.
He found his ewe presenting, with all the tenderness of a real
mother, her udder to an infant; which, without uttering the
faintest cry, eagerly turned its clean and glossy face from one
teat to the other, the ewe licking it as soon as it had had its fill.
This child was a girl; and in addition to the garments in which
it was swathed, it had, by way of tokens to insure recognition, a
head-dress wrought with gold, gilt sandals, and golden anklets.
Dryas imagined that this foundling was a gift from the gods:
and, inclined to love and pity by the example of his ewe, he
raised the infant in his arms, placed the tokens in his bag, and
invoked the blessing of the Nymphs upon the charge which he
had received from them; and when the time came for driving
his cattle from their pasture, he returned to his cottage and
related all the circumstances of his discovery to his wife, exhibit-
ing the foundling, and entreating her to observe secrecy and to
regard and rear the child as her own daughter.
Nape (for so his wife was called) at once adopted the infant,
for which she soon felt a strong affection; being stimulated
thereto, perhaps, by a desire to excel the ewe in tenderness.
She declared herself a mother; and in order to obtain credit for
her story, she gave the child the pastoral name of Chloe.
Daphnis and Chloe grew rapidly, and their comeliness far
exceeded the common appearance of rustics. The former had
completed his fifteenth year and Chloe her thirteenth, when on
the same night a vision appeared to Lamon and Dryas in a
dream. They each thought that they beheld the Nymphs of the
grotto, where the fountain played and where Dryas had found
the little girl, presenting Daphnis and Chloe to a young boy of
very sprightly gait and beautiful mien, who had wings on his
shoulders, and who carried a little bow and some arrows in his
hand. The urchin lightly touched the young people with one of
## p. 9201 (#213) ###########################################
LONGUS
9201
his shafts, and commanded them to devote themselves to a pas-
toral life. To Daphnis he committed the care of the sheep.
When this vision appeared to the shepherd and the goatherd,
they were grieved to think that their adopted children should,
like themselves, be destined to tend animals. From the tokens
found with the infants, they had augured for the latter a better
fortune; and in this expectation they had brought them up in a
more delicate manner, and had procured for them more instruc-
tion and accomplishments, than usually fall to the lot of shep-
herds' offspring.
It appeared to them, however, that with regard to children.
whom the gods had preserved, the will of the gods must be
obeyed; and each having communicated his dream to the other,
they repaired to the grotto, offered up a sacrifice to the com-
panion of the Nymphs,-"the winged boy," with whose name
they were unacquainted,- and then sent the youth and maiden.
forth into the fields, having however first instructed them in their
pastoral duties. They taught them, for instance, whither they
should guide their herds before the noonday heat, whither they
should conduct them when it had abated, at what time it was
meet to lead them to the stream, and at what hour they should
drive them home to the fold. They showed them also in which
instances the use of the crook was required, and in which the
voice alone would suffice.
The young people received the charge of the sheep and goats
with as much exultation as if they had acquired some powerful
sovereignty, and felt more affection for their animals than shep-
herds usually feel; for Chloe reflected that she owed her pres-
ervation to a ewe, and Daphnis remembered that a she-goat had
suckled him.
It was then the beginning of spring. In the wood and mead-
ows and on the mountains the flowers were blooming amid the
buzzing murmurs of the bees, the warbling of the birds, and the
bleating of the lambs. The sheep were skipping on the slopes,
the bees flew humming through the meadows, and the songs of
the birds resounded among the bushes. All nature joined in
rejoicing at the springtide; and Daphnis and Chloe, as they were
young and susceptible, imitated whatever they saw or heard.
Hearing the carols of the birds, they sang; at sight of the play-
ful skipping of the lambs they danced; and in imitation of the
bees they gathered flowers, some of which they placed in their
XVI-576
## p. 9202 (#214) ###########################################
9202
LONGUS
bosoms, whilst with others they wove chaplets which they carried
as offerings to the Nymphs. They tended their flocks and herds
together, and carried on all their vocations in common. Daph-
nis frequently collected such of the sheep as had strayed; and if
a goat ventured too near a precipice, Chloe drove it back. Some-
times one took the entire management both of the goats and the
sheep, whilst the other was engaged in some amusement.
Their sports were of a childish, pastoral character: Chloe
would neglect her flocks to roam in search of day-lilies, the stalks
of which she twisted into traps for locusts; while Daphnis often
played from morn till eve upon a pipe which he had formed of
slender reeds, perforating them between their joints and securing
them together with soft wax. The young folks now often shared
their milk and wine, and made a common meal of the food which
they had brought from home as provision for the day; and the
sheep might sooner have been seen to disperse and browse apart
than Daphnis to separate himself from Chloe.
## p. 9203 (#215) ###########################################
9203
PIERRE LOTI
(1850-)
IERRE LOTI is the pen-name chosen by Louis Marie Julien
Viaud, the French novelist and poet who was born at
5. 8. Rochefort, France, on January 14th, 1850, of an old Protest-
ant family. He studied in his native town; and it was while at
school that he received from his comrades the nickname "Loti,"
which he adopted later as a literary pseudonym. He was extremely
bashful and retiring as a boy; and his playmates in derision called
him Loti, the name of a tiny East-Indian flower which hides its face
in the grass. He must have left school very
early; for he was only seventeen when he
entered the French navy, having obtained
an appointment as midshipman (aspirant de
marine). For several years he saw a great
deal of active service, particularly on the
Pacific Ocean, where his vessel was sta-
tioned; and this unquestionably gave him
that love for and that knowledge of those
exotic countries which he has so admirably
and faithfully described in his books. Ever
since he joined the navy (1867) he had
given much attention to literature, and his
fellow officers often teased him on account
of his retiring and studious disposition. He
was regarded by them as a dreamer; but no one had ever any criti-
cism to make concerning the manner in which he performed his
duties.
PIERRE LOTI
It was not until 1876 that he published his first book, 'Aziyadé,'
although it is possible that some of the many volumes he has pub-
lished since then were written before that time. 'Rarahu' appeared
in 1880, and was afterwards given the title The Marriage of Loti. '
Had the French author been familiar with Herman Melville's 'Typee,'
he would have hesitated to write his own book lest he be charged
with imitation. In 1882 the war with Tonquin broke out, and Loti
distinguished himself in several engagements with the enemy. About
this time he committed an imprudence which, however pardonable in
a writer, was inexcusable in an officer on active service. He sent to
## p. 9204 (#216) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9204
the Paris Figaro an account of the cruelty of the French soldiers at
the storming of Hué; and this so incensed the French government
that he was at once placed upon the retired list. But by that time
Loti was a public favorite, and there was a loud clamor for his re-
instatement. The government, perhaps in an attempt to regain some
of its lost popularity, gave way, and Loti was restored to his com-
mand the following year. Shortly afterwards (1886) he published
'An Iceland Fisherman'; a volume full of poetic feeling and dreamy
impressionism, and which is considered by many critics his best
work. It won for him the Vitet prize of the French Academy, and
had the honor of being translated into the Roumanian language by
the Queen of Roumania. In 1887 he was decorated with the cross of
the Legion of Honor, and in this year he published one of the best
known of his books, 'Madame Chrysanthème,'-less a novel than
impressions of a sojourn in Japan.
Loti was now one of the most prominent authors of his day, and
his election to the Academy was looked upon as a matter of course.
In 1890 he published another remarkable book, entitled 'Au Maroc';
an account of the trip to Morocco by an embassy of which the author
made part. In 'Le Roman d'un Enfant' (1890), which is autobio-
graphical in character, he shows how he was won over by modern
pessimism; how, chilled by the coldness of Protestantism, he was for
a moment attracted by the glittering ritual of the Catholic Church,
only in the end to lose his faith utterly. 'Le Livre de la Pitié et de la
Mort' (1891), contains reminiscences of the divers incidents and periods
during his career which have cast shadows on his life and thoughts.
On May 21st, 1891, he was elected to the seat left vacant in the
French Academy by the death of Octave Feuillet, receiving eighteen
votes out of thirty-five cast. He was on board the man-of-war For-
midable when he was told of his election to the most august literary
body in the world. The occasion of his reception at the Academy, in
view of the social prestige that he had gained, was the most brilliant
in years.
His main works are as follows:-'Aziyadé' (1876); 'Rarahu' (1880),
republished in 1882 under the title 'Le Mariage de Loti'; 'Le Roman
d'un Spahi' (1881); Fleurs d'Ennui' (1882); Mon Frère Yves' (1883);
'Trois Dames de la Kasbah' (1884); Pêcheur d'Islande' (1886); 'Le
Désert, Madame Chrysanthème' (1887); Propos d'Exil' (1887); Ja-
poneries d'Automme' (1889); 'Au Maroc' (1890); 'Le Roman d'un
Enfant (1890); 'Le Livre de la Pitié et de la Mort' (1891); 'Fantômes
d'Orient (1892); 'Le Galilée,' 'Jerusalem Matelot. '
Pierre Loti's success has been largely due to the peculiar sym-
pathy and charm with which he has depicted the simple, open, and
naïve life of the Orient and of the far East. The sensations, the
## p. 9205 (#217) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9205
ideas, the types of civilization,-in brief, the whole life and manners
of the people and countries,-successively set forth in 'An Iceland
Fisherman,' 'To Morocco,' The Desert,' 'Phantoms of the Orient,'
and 'Madame Chrysanthème,' contrasted so vividly with the formal,
complex, and sophisticated civilization of France, England, and Amer-
ica, and this life was laid bare with such penetration and insight, and
withal invested with such spirit and poetry and romance, that it is
slight wonder it appealed strangely and strongly to the overwrought
and overstrained nerves of our Western peoples.
Loti had apparently been one of those young spirits, so frequently
to be met with nowadays, to whom the intense, highly developed, and
artificial life of the time brought even with a first taste a pall of
ennui. With a cry of anguish and discouragement he had fled to far
distant lands. As a naval officer he was able to give rein to his
antipathy, and the years that followed found him searching this corner
and that of the earth in quest of the unconventional and the unique.
It was awakening Japan which appeared to have given him his first.
literary impulse; and it was the curious and richly colored volume in
which he describes his love affair with one of the daughters of that
country, to whom he gave the fanciful title of Madame Chrysanthe-
mum, which won for him his greatest acclaim in the field of letters.
Other volumes of a similar character followed rapidly, and the young
writer quickly found himself elevated in popular esteem to the first
rank of French littérateurs. It was an open door and a step into the
Academy.
It is to be noted in passing, that the Orient and the desert- their
life, their customs, their literature, and their religions-have always
exercised a strong attraction for the French mind: a fact exemplified
in the long line of writers from the stately declamation of Volney's
'Ruins,' and the weird tales of arabesque and grotesque, down to
the poet Leconte de Lisle, whose melancholy and majestic verse has
so strongly influenced the poetry of the day.
Loti caught a phase of this life which had been touched upon by
no other writer. The East, to Volney, was the inspiration of philo-
sophical reflections upon the rise and fall of nations; to Gautier, a
land wherein his imagination and love of the antique might run riot;
to Leconte de Lisle, a sermon upon the evanescence of all earthly
things. To Loti it was none of these. With the eye of the poet and
with the pen of a realist he saw and painted the lands and people
which he visited. And into these pictures he infused a sympathy and
a human interest which lifted his pages from the dull and common-
place routine of ordinary sketches of travel, into an atmosphere whose
warmth and glow afforded a new and rare sensation to the reading
public. Above all, there is in Loti's work a delicacy, a subtlety of
## p. 9206 (#218) ###########################################
9206
PIERRE LOTI
understanding, a poetic instinct, and the play of a dainty and lively
fancy, that lend to his descriptions a quality which is hardly else-
where to be found.
He is an admirable artist, some of whose work is tainted by mor-
bidness and sensuality, but who at his ethical and artistic best-in
'An Iceland Fisherman' and 'The Book of Pity and of Death,' for
example has great charm and power.
THE SAILOR'S WIFE
From An Iceland Fisherman: A Story of Love on Land and Sea. ' Trans-
lated from the French by Clara Cadiot. William S. Gottsberger, New
York, 1888.
THE
HE Icelanders were all returning now. Two ships came in
the second day, four the next, and twelve during the fol-
lowing week. And all through the country, joy returned
with them; and there was happiness for the wives and mothers,
and junkets in the taverns where the beautiful barmaids of
Paimpol served out drink to the fishers.
The Léopoldine was among the belated; there were yet an-
other ten expected. They would not be long now; and allowing
a week's delay so as not to be disappointed, Gaud waited in
happy, passionate joy for Yann, keeping their home bright and
tidy for his return. When everything was in good order there
was nothing left for her to do; and besides, in her impatience,
she could think of nothing else but her husband.
Three more ships appeared; then another five.
only two lacking now.
"Come, come," they said to her cheerily, "this year the Léo-
poldine and the Marie-Jeanne will be the last, to pick up all the
brooms fallen overboard from the other craft. "
There were
Gaud laughed also. She was more animated and beautiful
than ever, in her great joy of expectancy.
But the days succeeded one another without result.
She still dressed up every day, and with a joyful look went
down to the harbor to gossip with the other wives. She said
that this delay was but natural: was it not the same event
every year? These were such safe boats, and had such capital
sailors.
But when at home alone, at night, a nervous anxious shiver
of apprehension would run through her whole frame.
## p. 9207 (#219) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9207
Was it right to be frightened already? Was there even a
single reason to be so? But she began to tremble at the mere
idea of grounds for being afraid.
The 10th of September came. How swiftly the days flew by!
One morning-a true autumn morning, with cold mist falling
over the earth in the rising sun-she sat under the porch of
the chapel of the shipwrecked mariners, where the widows go to
pray; with eyes fixed and glassy, and throbbing temples tight-
ened as by an iron band.
These sad morning mists had begun two days before; and on
this particular day Gaud had awakened with a still more bitter
uneasiness, caused by the forecast of advancing winter. Why
did this day, this hour, this very moment, seem to her more
painful than the preceding? Often ships are delayed a fortnight;
even a month, for that matter.
But surely there was something different about this particular
morning; for she had come to-day for the first time to sit in the
porch of this chapel and read the names of the dead sailors,
perished in their prime.
IN MEMORY OF
GAOS YVON
Lost at Sea
NEAR THE NORDEN-FJORD
Like a great shudder, a gust of wind rose from the sea, and
at the same time something fell like rain upon the roof above.
It was only the dead leaves, though;-many were blown in at
the porch; the old wind-tossed trees of the graveyard were losing
their foliage in this rising gale, and winter was marching nearer.
Lost at Sea
NEAR THE NORDEN-FJORD
In the storm of the 4th and 5th of August, 1880
She read mechanically under the arch of the doorway; her
eyes sought to pierce the distance over the sea. That morning
it was untraceable under the gray mist, and a dragging drapery
of clouds overhung the horizon like a mourning veil.
Another gust of wind, and other leaves danced in whirls. A
stronger gust still; as if the western storm which had strewn
those dead over the sea wished to deface the very inscriptions
which kept their names in memory with the living.
## p. 9208 (#220) ###########################################
9208
PIERRE LOTI
Gaud looked with involuntary persistency at an empty space
upon the wall which seemed to yawn expectant. By a terrible
impression, she was pursued by the thought of a fresh slab which
might soon perhaps be placed there,- with another name which.
she did not even dare think of in such a spot.
She felt cold, and remained seated on the granite bench, her
head reclining against the stone wall.
NEAR THE NORDEN-FJORD
In the storm of the 4th and 5th of August, 1880
At the age of 23 years
Requiescat in pace!
Then Iceland loomed up before her, with its little cemetery
lighted up from below the sea-line by the midnight sun. Sud-
denly, in the same empty space on the wall, with horrifying
clearness she saw the fresh slab she was thinking of; a clear
white one, with a skull and crossbones, and in a flash of fore-
sight a name,- the worshiped name of "Yann Gaos"! Then she
suddenly and fearfully drew herself up straight and stiff, with a
hoarse wild cry in her throat like a mad creature.
Outside, the gray mist of the dawn fell over the land, and the
dead leaves were again blown dancingly into the porch.
She rose,
Steps on the footpath! Somebody was coming?
and quickly smoothed down her cap and composed her face.
Nearer drew the steps. She assumed the air of one who might
be there by chance; for above all, she did not wish to appear
yet like the widow of a shipwrecked mariner.
It happened to be Fante Floury, the wife of the second mate
of the Léopoldine. She understood immediately what Gaud was
doing there: it was useless to dissemble with her. At first each
woman stood speechless before the other. They were angry and
almost hated each other for having met holding a like sentiment
of apprehension.
"All the men of Tréguier and Saint-Brieuc have been back
for a week," said Fante at last, in an unfeeling, muffled, half-
irritated voice.
She carried a blessed taper in her hand, to offer up a prayer.
Gaud did not wish yet to resort to that extreme resource of de-
spairing wives. Yet silently she entered the chapel behind Fante,
and they knelt down together side by side like two sisters.
## p. 9209 (#221) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9209
To the "Star of the Sea" they offered ardent imploring
prayers, with their whole soul in them. A sound of sobbing was
alone heard, as their rapid tears swiftly fell upon the floor. They
rose together, more confident and softened. Fante held up Gaud,
who staggered; and taking her in her arms, kissed her.
Wiping their eyes and smoothing their disheveled hair, they
brushed off the salt dust from the flag-stones which had soiled
their gowns, and went away in opposite directions without another
word.
This end of September was like another summer, only a little
less lively. The weather was so beautiful that had it not been
for the dead leaves which fell upon the roads, one might have
thought that June had come back again. Husbands and sweet-
hearts had all returned, and everywhere was the joy of a second
springtime of love.
At last, one day, one of the missing ships was signaled.
Which one was it?
The groups of speechless and anxious women had rapidly
formed on the cliff. Gaud, pale and trembling, was there, by
the side of her Yann's father.
"I'm almost sure," said the old fisher, "I'm almost sure it's
them. A red rail and a topsail that clews up,-it's very like
them, anyhow. What do you make it, Gaud? "
"No, it isn't," he went on, with sudden discouragement:
"we've made a mistake again; the boom isn't the same, and ours
has a jigger-sail. Well, well, it isn't our boat this time, it's only
the Marie-Jeanne. Never mind, my lass, surely they'll not be
long now. "
But day followed day, and night succeeded night, with un-
interrupted serenity.
Gaud continued to dress up every day; like a poor crazed
woman, always in fear of being taken for the widow of a ship-
wrecked sailor, feeling exasperated when others looked furtively
and compassionately at her, and glancing aside so that she might
not meet those glances which froze her very blood.
She had fallen into the habit of going at the early morning
right to the end of the headland, on the high cliffs of Pors-
Even; passing behind Yann's old home, so as not to be seen by
his mother or little sisters. She went to the extreme point of
the Ploubazlanec land, which is outlined in the shape of a rein-
deer's horn upon the gray waters of the Channel, and sat there
## p. 9210 (#222) ###########################################
9210
PIERRE LOTI
all day long at the foot of the lonely cross which rises high
above the immense waste of the ocean. There are many of these
crosses hereabout; they are set up on the most advanced cliffs
of the sea-bound land, as if to implore mercy, and to calm that
restless mysterious power which draws men away, never to give
them back, and in preference retains the bravest and noblest.
Around this cross stretches the evergreen waste, strewn with
short rushes. At this great height the sea air was very pure; it
scarcely retained the briny odor of the weeds, but was perfumed
with all the exquisite ripeness of September flowers.
Far away, all the bays and inlets of the coast were firmly
outlined, rising one above another; the land of Brittany termi-
nated in jagged edges, which spread out far into the tranquil
surface.
Near at hand the reefs were numerous; but out beyond, noth-
ing broke its polished mirror, from which arose a soft caressing
ripple, light and intensified from the depths of its many bays.
Its horizon seemed so calm, and its depths so soft!
The great
blue sepulchre of many Gaoses hid its inscrutable mystery; whilst
the breezes, faint as human breath, wafted to and fro the per-
fume of the stunted gorse, which had bloomed again in the
latest autumn sun.
At regular hours the sea retreated, and great spaces were
left uncovered everywhere, as if the Channel was slowly drying
up; then with the same lazy slowness the waters rose again, and
continued their everlasting coming and going without any heed
of the dead.
At the foot of the cross Gaud remained, surrounded by these
tranquil mysteries, gazing ever before her until the night fell and
she could see no more.
September had passed. The sorrowing wife took scarcely any
nourishment, and could no longer sleep.
She remained at home now, crouching low with her hands
between her knees, her head thrown back and resting against
the wall behind. What was the good of getting up or going to
bed now? When she was thoroughly exhausted she threw her-
self, dressed, upon her bed. Otherwise she remained in the same
position, chilled and benumbed; in her quiescent state, only her
teeth chattered with the cold; she had that continual impression
of a band of iron round her brows; her cheeks looked wasted;
her mouth was dry, with a feverish taste, and at times a painful
## p. 9211 (#223) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9211
hoarse cry rose from her throat and was repeated in spasms,
whilst her head beat backwards against the granite wall. Or else
she called Yann by his name in a low, tender voice, as if he were
quite close to her, whispering words of love to her.
Sometimes she occupied her brain with thoughts of quite
insignificant things; for instance, she amused herself by watch-
ing the shadow of the china Virgin lengthen slowly over the
high woodwork of the bed, as the sun went down. And then
the agonized thoughts returned more horribly, and her wailing
cry broke out again as she beat her head against the wall.
All the hours of the day passed; and all the hours of even-
ing, and of night; and then the hours of the morning. When she
reckoned the time he ought to have been back, she was seized
with a still greater terror; she wished to forget all dates and the
very names of the days.
Generally, there is some information concerning the wrecks
off Iceland; those who return have seen the tragedy from afar,
or else have found some wreckage or bodies, or have an indica-
tion to guess the rest. But of the Léopoldine nothing had been
seen, and nothing was known. The Marie-Jeanne men- the last
to have seen it on the 2d of August—said that she was to have
gone on fishing farther towards the north; and beyond that the
secret was unfathomable.
Waiting, always waiting, and knowing nothing! When would
the time come when she need wait no longer? She did not even
know that; and now she almost wished that it might be soon.
Oh! if he were dead, let them at least have pity enough to tell
her so!
Oh to see her darling, as he was at this very moment,- that
is, what was left of him! If only the much-implored Virgin,
or some other power, would do her the blessing to show her
by second-sight her beloved! either living and working hard to
return a rich man, or else as a corpse surrendered by the sea, so
that she might at least know a certainty.
Sometimes she was seized with the thought of a ship appear-
ing suddenly upon the horizon; the Léopoldine hastening home.
Then she would suddenly make an instinctive movement to rise,
and rush to look out at the ocean, to see whether it were true.
But she would fall back. Alas! where was this Léopoldine
now? Where could she be? Out afar, at that awful distance of
Iceland, forsaken, crushed, and lost.
## p. 9212 (#224) ###########################################
9212
PIERRE LOTI
All ended by a never-fading vision appearing to her, an
empty, sea-tossed wreck, slowly and gently rocked by the silent
gray and rose-streaked sea; almost with soft mockery, in the
midst of the vast calm of deadened waters.
Two o'clock in the morning.
It was at night especially that she kept attentive to approach-
ing footsteps; at the slightest rumor or unaccustomed noise her
temples vibrated: by dint of being strained to outward things,
they had become fearfully sensitive.
Two o'clock in the morning. On this night as on others,
with her hands clasped and her eyes wide open in the dark, she
listened to the wind sweeping in never-ending tumult over the
heath.
-
Suddenly a man's footsteps hurried along the path! At this
hour who would pass now? She drew herself up, stirred to the
very soul, her heart ceasing to beat.
Some one stopped before the door, and came up the small
stone steps.
He! O God! -he! Some one had knocked, it could be no
other than he! She was up now, barefooted; she, so feeble for
the last few days, had sprung up as nimbly as a kitten, with her
arms outstretched to wind round her darling. Of course the Léo-
poldine had arrived at night, and anchored in Pors-Even Bay,
and he had rushed home; she arranged all this in her mind with
the swiftness of lightning. She tore the flesh off her fingers in
her excitement to draw the bolt, which had stuck.
"Eh ? »
She slowly moved backward, as if crushed, her head falling on
her bosom. Her beautiful insane dream was over. She could
just grasp that it was not her husband, her Yann, and that noth-
ing of him, substantial or spiritual, had passed through the air;
she felt plunged again into her deep abyss, to the lowest depths
of her terrible despair.
-
-
――――
Poor Fantec-for it was he stammered many excuses: his
wife was very ill, and their child was choking in its cot, suddenly
attacked with a malignant sore throat; so he had run over to beg
for assistance on the road to fetch the doctor from Paimpol.
What did all this matter to her? She had gone mad in her
own distress, and could give no thoughts to the troubles of oth-
ers. Huddled on a bench, she remained before him with fixed
glazed eyes, like a dead woman's; without listening to him, or
## p. 9213 (#225) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9213
What to her was
even answering at random or looking at him.
the speech the man was making?
He understood it all, and guessed why the door had been
opened so quickly to him; and feeling pity for the pain he had
unwittingly caused, he stammered out an excuse.
"Just so: he never ought to have disturbed her—her in par-
ticular. "
"I! " ejaculated Gaud quickly, "why should I not be disturbed
particularly, Fantec ? »
Life had suddenly come back to her; for she did not wish
to appear in despair before others. Besides, she pitied him now;
she dressed to accompany him, and found the strength to go and
see to his little child.
-
At four o'clock in the morning, when she returned to throw
herself on the bed, sleep subdued her, for she was tired out.
But that moment of excessive joy had left an impression on her
mind, which in spite of all was permanent; she awoke soon with
a shudder, rising a little and partially recollecting-she knew
not what. News had come to her about her Yann. In the midst
of her confusion of ideas, she sought rapidly in her mind what
it could be; but there was nothing save Fantec's interruption.
For the second time she fell back into her terrible abyss,
nothing changed in her morbid, hopeless waiting.
Yet in that short, hopeful moment, she had felt him so near
to her that it was as if his spirit had floated over the sea unto
her, what is called a foretoken (pressigne) in Breton land; and
she listened still more attentively to the steps outside, trusting
that some one might come to her to speak of him.
Just as the day broke, Yann's father entered. He took off
his cap, and pushed back his splendid white locks, which were in
curls like Yann's, and sat down by Gaud's bedside.
His heart ached heavily too; for Yann, his tall, handsome
Yann, was his first-born, his favorite and his pride: but he did
not despair yet. He comforted Gaud in his own blunt, affection-
ate way.
To begin with, those who had last returned from Ice-
land spoke of the increasing dense fogs, which might well have
delayed the vessel; and then too an idea struck him,- they
might possibly have stopped at the distant Faroe Islands on
their homeward course, whence letters were so long in traveling.
This had happened to him once forty years ago, and his own
poor dead and gone mother had had a mass said for his soul.
## p. 9214 (#226) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9214
The Léopoldine was such a good boat,—next to new,— and her
crew were such able-bodied seamen.
Granny Moan stood by them shaking her head: the distress
of her granddaughter had almost given her back her own strength.
and reason. She tidied up the place, glancing from time to time
at the faded portrait of Sylvestre, which hung upon the granite
wall with its anchor emblems and mourning-wreath of black
bead-work. Ever since the sea had robbed her of her own last
offspring, she believed no longer in safe returns; she only prayed
through fear, bearing Heaven a grudge in the bottom of her
heart.
But Gaud listened eagerly to these consoling reasonings; her
large sunken eyes looked with deep tenderness out upon this old
sire, who so much resembled her beloved one: merely to have
him near her was like a hostage against death having taken the
younger Gaos; and she felt reassured, nearer to her Yann. Her
tears fell softly and silently, and she repeated again her passion-
ate prayers to the "Star of the Sea. "
A delay out at those islands to repair damages was a very
likely event. She rose and brushed her hair, and then dressed
as if she might fairly expect him. All then was not lost, if a
seaman, his own father, did not yet despair. And for a few days
she resumed looking out for him again.
Autumn at last arrived, a late autumn too,-its gloomy
evenings making all things appear dark in the old cottage; and
all the land looked sombre too.
-
The very daylight seemed a sort of twilight; immeasurable
clouds, passing slowly overhead, darkened the whole country at
broad noon. The wind blew constantly with the sound of a great
cathedral organ at a distance, but playing profane, despairing
dirges; at other times the noise came close to the door, like the
howling of wild beasts.
She had grown pale,-aye, blanched, and bent more than
ever; as if old age had already touched her with its featherless
wing. Often did she finger the wedding clothes of her Yann,
folding them and unfolding them again and again like some
maniac, especially one of his blue woolen jerseys which still
had preserved his shape: when she threw it gently on the table,
it fell with the shoulders and chest well defined; so she placed
it by itself in a shelf of their wardrobe, and left it there, so that
it might forever rest unaltered.
## p. 9215 (#227) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9215
Every night the cold mists sank upon the land, as she gazed
over the depressing heath through her little window, and watched
the thin puffs of white smoke arise from the chimneys of other
cottages scattered here and there on all sides. There the hus-
bands had returned, like wandering birds driven home by the
frost. Before their blazing hearths the evenings passed, cozy
and warm; for the springtime of love had begun again in this
land of North Sea fishermen.
Still clinging to the thought of those islands where he might
perhaps have lingered, she was buoyed up by a kind hope, and
expected him home any day.
*
*
But he never returned. One August night, out off gloomy
Iceland, mingled with the furious clamor of the sea, his wedding
with the sea was performed. It had been his nurse; it had
rocked him in his babyhood and had afterwards made him big
and strong; then, in his superb manhood, it had taken him back
again for itself alone. Profoundest mystery had surrounded this
unhallowed union. While it went on, dark curtains hung pall-
like over it as if to conceal the ceremony, and the ghoul howled
in an awful, deafening voice to stifle his cries. He, thinking
of Gaud, his sole, darling wife, had battled with giant strength
against this deathly rival, until he at last surrendered, with a
deep death-cry like the roar of a dying bull, through a mouth
already filled with water; and his arms were stretched apart and
stiffened forever.
All those he had invited in days of old were present at his
wedding. All except Sylvestre, who had gone to sleep in the
enchanted gardens far, far away, at the other side of the earth.
## p. 9216 (#228) ###########################################
9216
SAMUEL LOVER
(1797-1868)
HE lovable Irishman who wrote The Low-Backed Car,' 'The
Irish Post-Boy,' and 'Widow Machree,' was, as Renan said,
kissed by a fairy at his birth. He had that indomitable joy-
ousness of spirit which neither stress of circumstances, nor personal
sorrows, nor long-continued illness could abate. Besides this charm-
ing gayety, the generous fairy godmother bestowed on him the most
various talents. He was a miniature-painter, a marine-painter, a clever
etcher in the days when good etching was little practiced, a carica-
turist, a composer, an accomplished singer,
a novelist, and a dramatist. And with all
this versatility, he possessed an immense
capacity for hard work.
He was born in 1797, in Dublin, where
his father was a comfortable stock-broker.
From his mother, whom he worshiped, he
inherited his musical talents, his sensitive
temperament, and his upright character.
She died when he was twelve years old, but
her influence never left him.
SAMUEL LOVER
Stockbroker Lover wished to make a
good business man of his clever son; who
however, if he consented to add columns of
figures and to correct stock lists by day,
consoled himself with the practice of music and painting by night.
The disgusted father sent him off to a London business house of the
Gradgrind order, which had had much success in uprooting any va-
grant flowers of fancy from the minds of its apprentices. But in this
instance the experiment failed. At the age of seventeen, young Lover
resolved to turn his back forever on day-book and ledger and set up
as an artist, although he had yet to learn his craft.
He had saved a little money; he found music-copying and occas-
ional sketching to do; and after three frugal years of close study,
he exhibited some excellent miniatures and asked for patronage. Be-
fore the invention of the daguerreotype and the photograph, every
"genteel" household had its collection of portraits on ivory; and the
young painter made his way at once, on the score of being a capi-
tal good fellow. He could sing to his own accompaniment songs of
## p. 9217 (#229) ###########################################
SAMUEL LOVER
9217
his own composing; he could draw caricatures of an entire dinner-
company; he could recite in the richest brogue, Irish stories of his
own writing: and every social assemblage welcomed him.
In 1832 he had the good fortune to paint an admirable miniature
of Paganini, which the best critics pronounced a study worthy of
Gerard Dow. The admiration it excited in London led in time to his
removal thither. His gift for friendship soon attracted to his fireside
clever personages like Talfourd, Campbell, Jerrold, Mahony, Barham,
Mrs. Jamieson, Allan Cunningham, Lady Blessington, Sydney Smith,
Maclise, and Wilkie. Moore was already an old friend. The beauti-
ful Malibran and the clever Madame Vestris became his patrons, and
his work was soon the fashion.
He had already published illustrated by his own etchings—a
successful series of Irish sketches, containing that delightful absurdity
'The Gridiron,' and 'Paddy the Piper. ' After settling in London he
brought out a second volume of the 'Legends and Tales,' and became
a contributor to the new Bentley's Miscellany. His three-volume
novel of 'Rory O'More' appeared in 1836. Of the title character
Mahony wrote: "Hearty, honest, comic, sensible, tender, faithful, and
courageous, Rory is the true ideal of the Irish peasant,—the humble
hero who embodies so much of the best of the national character,
and almost lifts simple emotion to the same height as ripened mind. "
This novel Lover dramatized with immense success; which encouraged
him to write The White Horse of the Peppers,' three or four other
plays, two or three operettas for Madame Vestris, and both the words
and music of Il Paddy Whack in Italia,' a capital whimsicality.
His portrait was included in Maclise's 'Gallery of Celebrities'; and
Blackwood "discovered" him as "a new poet who is also musician,
painter, and novelist, and therefore quadruply worth wondering at. »
It was his clever countrywoman, Lady Morgan, who first prompted
him to the writing of Irish songs. His 'Rory O'More' took the gen-
eral fancy. To its strains the Queen at her coronation was escorted
to Buckingham Palace. To its strains the peasant baby in its box
cradle fell asleep. To its strains Phelim O'Shea footed the reel. at
Limerick Fair, and the ladies at Dublin Castle trod their quadrille.
'Molly Carew,' a better piece of work, would doubtless have at-
tracted equal favor, had not the music been more difficult. 'Widow
Machree,' written for the whimsical tale of 'Handy Andy,' is full of
Irish character. What Will Ye Do, Love? ' written also for 'Handy
Andy,' fairly sings itself; and 'How to Ask and Have' is as pretty a
piece of coquetry as any gray-eyed and barefooted beauty ever devised.
'The Road of Life,' which is the song of the Irish post-boy, was
Lover's own favorite, because of its note of unobtrusive pathos. In
another group are included the laughing 'Low-Backed Car,' 'The Girl
I Left Behind Me,' 'Mary of Tipperary,' 'Molly Bawn,' and 'The
XVI-577
―
## p. 9218 (#230) ###########################################
9218
SAMUEL LOVER
Bowld Sojer Boy. ' In all, Lover published two hundred and sixty-
three songs, for more than two hundred of which he wrote or adapted
the music.
'Handy Andy,' his best novel, was published in 1842. It is almost
without a plot; but unrivaled as a sketch of the blundering, stupid,
inconsequent peasant, whose heart is as kind as his head is dense.
In 1844 appeared Lover's most elaborate novel, Treasure Trove';
not so good a piece of work as its predecessors. His eyesight had
begun to fail, and his purse was light. He therefore invented an
entertainment called "Irish Evenings," in which he read his own
stories and sang his own songs. Successful in England and Ireland,
he decided in 1846 to try his fortune in the United States, where he
traveled from Boston to New Orleans and back to Montreal, appear-
ing before delighted audiences. On his return to England in 1848 he
produced "American Evenings," whose Yankee songs and backwoods
stories met with great favor.
During the last years of his life he wrote songs and magazine
papers, and painted pictures; but attempted no continuous literary
work. His health was delicate; and the need of constant labor, hap-
pily, was over. He removed to the soft climate of St. Helier's, on
the Isle of Jersey; and there the kindly gentleman and accomplished.
artist faded gently out of life. He died in the midsummer of 1868,
and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. He loved his race with
an affection not the less fond that it was not uncritical; and it is
his merit to have written the best Irish peasant sketches and the
best Irish peasant songs in the language.
THE LOW-BACKED CAR
HEN first I saw sweet Peggy,
'Twas on a market day;
WH
A low-backed car she drove, and sat
Upon a truss of hay;
But when that hay was blooming grass,
And decked with flowers of spring,
No flower was there
That could compare
To the blooming girl I sing.
As she sat in her low-backed car,
The man at the turnpike bar
Never asked for the toll-
But just rubbed his owld poll,
And looked after the low-backed car!
## p. 9219 (#231) ###########################################
SAMUEL LOVER
9219
In battle's wild commotion,
The proud and mighty Mars
With hostile scythes demands his tithes
Of Death, in warlike cars!
But Peggy-peaceful goddess-
Has darts in her bright eye
That knock men down
In the market town,
As right and left they fly!
While she sits in her low-backed car,
Than battle more dangerous far;
For the doctor's art
Cannot cure the heart
That is hit from that low-backed car.
Sweet Peggy round her car, sir,
Has strings of ducks and geese,
But the scores of hearts she slaughters
By far outnumber these;
While she among her poultry sits,
Just like a turtle dove,—
Well worth the cage,
I do engage,
Of the blooming god of Love.
While she sits in her low-backed car,
The lovers come near and far,
And envy the chicken
That Peggy is pickin'
While she sits in the low-backed car.
I'd rather own that car, sir,
With Peggy by my side,
Than a coach and four, and gold galore,
And a lady for my bride;
For the lady would sit forninst me,
On a cushion made with taste,
While Peggy would be beside me,
With my arm around her waist,
As we drove in the low-backed car
To be married by Father Maher.
Oh, my heart would beat high,
At her glance and her sigh,
Though it beat in a low-backed car.
## p. 9220 (#232) ###########################################
9220
SAMUEL LOVER
WIDOW MACHREE
ow machree, it's no wonder you frown,
Och hone! widow machree:
WIDOW
Faith, it ruins your looks, that same dirty black gown.
Och hone! widow machree.
How altered your air,
With that close cap you wear
'Tis destroying your hair,
—
Which should be flowing free:
Be no longer a churl
Of its black silken curl,
Och hone! widow machree!
Widow machree, now the summer is come,-
Och hone! widow machree,—
When everything smiles, should a beauty look glum?
Och hone! widow machree!
See, the birds go in pairs,
And the rabbits and hares.
Why, even the bears
Now in couples agree.
And the mute little fish,
Though they can't spake, they wish,-
Och hone! widow machree!
-
Widow machree, and when winter comes in,
Och hone! widow machree,
To be poking the fire all alone is a sin,
Och hone! widow machree!
Sure the shovel and tongs
To each other belongs,
And the kettle sings songs
Full of family glee;
While alone with your cup,
Like a hermit you sup,
Och hone! widow machree!
And how do you know, with the comforts I've towld,
Och hone! widow machree,
But you're keeping some poor fellow out in the cowld?
Och hone! widow machree!
With such sins on your head,
Sure your peace would be fled.
Could you sleep in your bed,
Without thinking to see
## p. 9221 (#233) ###########################################
SAMUEL LOVER
9221
Some ghost or some sprite,
That would wake you each night,
Crying, "Och hone! widow machree! »
Then take my advice, darling widow machree,
Och hone! widow machree;
And with my advice, faith, I wish you'd take me,
Och hone! widow machree!
You'd have me to desire
Then to stir up the fire;
And sure Hope is no liar
In whispering to me
That the ghosts would depart
When you'd me near your heart,
Och hone! widow machree!
HOW TO ASK AND HAVE
H, 'TIS time I should talk to your mother,
"O" Sweet Mary," says I.
"Oh, don't talk to my mother," says Mary,
Beginning to cry:
"For my mother says men are deceivers,
And never, I know, will consent;
She says girls in a hurry who marry
At leisure repent. "
"Then suppose I would talk to your father,
Sweet Mary," says I.
"Oh, don't talk to my father," says Mary,
Beginning to cry:
"For my father, he loves me so dearly,
He'll never consent I should go-
If you talk to my father," says Mary,
"He'll surely say 'No. '»
"Then how shall I get you, my jewel?
Sweet Mary," says I:
"If your father and mother's so cruel,
Most surely I'll die! "
"Oh, never say die, dear," says Mary;
"A way now to save you I see:
Since my parents are both so contrary-
You'd better ask me. "
## p.
herself, abandoning her own kid and remaining with the child,
so that it was not known what had become of her. Lamon, who
was grieved to see the kid neglected, watched the dam's move-
ments; and one day when the sun was burning in his meridian
heat, he followed her and saw her softly enter the thicket, step-
ping carefully over the child so that she might not injure it,
whilst the babe took hold of her udder as if this had been its
mother's breast. Greatly surprised, and advancing close to the
spot, Lamon discovered that the infant was a male child with
well-proportioned limbs and handsome countenance, and wearing
richer attire than seemed suited to such an outcast; for its little
mantle was of fine purple and fastened by a golden clasp, whilst
near it lay a small knife with a handle of ivory.
At first Lamon resolved to leave the infant to its fate, and
only to carry off the tokens which had been left with it; but he
soon felt ashamed of showing himself less humane than his goat,
and at the approach of night he took up the infant and the
tokens, and with the she-goat following him, went home to Myr-
tale his wife.
Myrtale, who was astonished at the sight, asked if goats now
gave birth to babes instead of kids; whereupon her husband
recounted to her every particular of the discovery, saying how he
had found the child lying on the grass and the goat suckling
it, and how ashamed he had felt at the idea of leaving the babe
to perish. His wife declared that it would have been wrong to do
so, and they thereupon agreed to conceal the tokens and to adopt
the child. They employed the goat as his nurse, affirmed on all
sides that he was their own offspring, and in order that his
name might accord with their rustic condition they called him
Daphnis.
Two years had elapsed, when Dryas, a neighboring shepherd,
met with a similar adventure whilst tending his flock. In this
part of the country there was a grotto of the Nymphs, which
was hollowed out of a large rock rounded at the summit. Inside
there were statues of the Nymphs carved in stone, their feet
bare, their arms also naked, their hair flowing loosely upon their
shoulders, their waists girt, their faces smiling, and their atti-
tudes similar to those of a troop of dancers. In the deepest part
of the grotto a spring gurgled from the rock; and its waters,
spreading into a copious stream, refreshed the soft and abundant.
## p. 9200 (#212) ###########################################
9200
LONGUS
herbage of a delightful meadow that stretched before the en-
trance, where milk-pails, transverse flutes, flageolets, and pas-
toral pipes were suspended, the votive offerings of many an old
shepherd.
An ewe of Dryas's flock, which had lately lambed, frequently
resorted to this grotto, raising apprehensions that she was lost.
The shepherd, to prevent her straying in future, and to keep her
with the flock as previously, twisted some green osiers so as to
form a noose, and went to seize her in the grotto. But upon his
arrival there, he beheld a sight far contrary to his expectation.
He found his ewe presenting, with all the tenderness of a real
mother, her udder to an infant; which, without uttering the
faintest cry, eagerly turned its clean and glossy face from one
teat to the other, the ewe licking it as soon as it had had its fill.
This child was a girl; and in addition to the garments in which
it was swathed, it had, by way of tokens to insure recognition, a
head-dress wrought with gold, gilt sandals, and golden anklets.
Dryas imagined that this foundling was a gift from the gods:
and, inclined to love and pity by the example of his ewe, he
raised the infant in his arms, placed the tokens in his bag, and
invoked the blessing of the Nymphs upon the charge which he
had received from them; and when the time came for driving
his cattle from their pasture, he returned to his cottage and
related all the circumstances of his discovery to his wife, exhibit-
ing the foundling, and entreating her to observe secrecy and to
regard and rear the child as her own daughter.
Nape (for so his wife was called) at once adopted the infant,
for which she soon felt a strong affection; being stimulated
thereto, perhaps, by a desire to excel the ewe in tenderness.
She declared herself a mother; and in order to obtain credit for
her story, she gave the child the pastoral name of Chloe.
Daphnis and Chloe grew rapidly, and their comeliness far
exceeded the common appearance of rustics. The former had
completed his fifteenth year and Chloe her thirteenth, when on
the same night a vision appeared to Lamon and Dryas in a
dream. They each thought that they beheld the Nymphs of the
grotto, where the fountain played and where Dryas had found
the little girl, presenting Daphnis and Chloe to a young boy of
very sprightly gait and beautiful mien, who had wings on his
shoulders, and who carried a little bow and some arrows in his
hand. The urchin lightly touched the young people with one of
## p. 9201 (#213) ###########################################
LONGUS
9201
his shafts, and commanded them to devote themselves to a pas-
toral life. To Daphnis he committed the care of the sheep.
When this vision appeared to the shepherd and the goatherd,
they were grieved to think that their adopted children should,
like themselves, be destined to tend animals. From the tokens
found with the infants, they had augured for the latter a better
fortune; and in this expectation they had brought them up in a
more delicate manner, and had procured for them more instruc-
tion and accomplishments, than usually fall to the lot of shep-
herds' offspring.
It appeared to them, however, that with regard to children.
whom the gods had preserved, the will of the gods must be
obeyed; and each having communicated his dream to the other,
they repaired to the grotto, offered up a sacrifice to the com-
panion of the Nymphs,-"the winged boy," with whose name
they were unacquainted,- and then sent the youth and maiden.
forth into the fields, having however first instructed them in their
pastoral duties. They taught them, for instance, whither they
should guide their herds before the noonday heat, whither they
should conduct them when it had abated, at what time it was
meet to lead them to the stream, and at what hour they should
drive them home to the fold. They showed them also in which
instances the use of the crook was required, and in which the
voice alone would suffice.
The young people received the charge of the sheep and goats
with as much exultation as if they had acquired some powerful
sovereignty, and felt more affection for their animals than shep-
herds usually feel; for Chloe reflected that she owed her pres-
ervation to a ewe, and Daphnis remembered that a she-goat had
suckled him.
It was then the beginning of spring. In the wood and mead-
ows and on the mountains the flowers were blooming amid the
buzzing murmurs of the bees, the warbling of the birds, and the
bleating of the lambs. The sheep were skipping on the slopes,
the bees flew humming through the meadows, and the songs of
the birds resounded among the bushes. All nature joined in
rejoicing at the springtide; and Daphnis and Chloe, as they were
young and susceptible, imitated whatever they saw or heard.
Hearing the carols of the birds, they sang; at sight of the play-
ful skipping of the lambs they danced; and in imitation of the
bees they gathered flowers, some of which they placed in their
XVI-576
## p. 9202 (#214) ###########################################
9202
LONGUS
bosoms, whilst with others they wove chaplets which they carried
as offerings to the Nymphs. They tended their flocks and herds
together, and carried on all their vocations in common. Daph-
nis frequently collected such of the sheep as had strayed; and if
a goat ventured too near a precipice, Chloe drove it back. Some-
times one took the entire management both of the goats and the
sheep, whilst the other was engaged in some amusement.
Their sports were of a childish, pastoral character: Chloe
would neglect her flocks to roam in search of day-lilies, the stalks
of which she twisted into traps for locusts; while Daphnis often
played from morn till eve upon a pipe which he had formed of
slender reeds, perforating them between their joints and securing
them together with soft wax. The young folks now often shared
their milk and wine, and made a common meal of the food which
they had brought from home as provision for the day; and the
sheep might sooner have been seen to disperse and browse apart
than Daphnis to separate himself from Chloe.
## p. 9203 (#215) ###########################################
9203
PIERRE LOTI
(1850-)
IERRE LOTI is the pen-name chosen by Louis Marie Julien
Viaud, the French novelist and poet who was born at
5. 8. Rochefort, France, on January 14th, 1850, of an old Protest-
ant family. He studied in his native town; and it was while at
school that he received from his comrades the nickname "Loti,"
which he adopted later as a literary pseudonym. He was extremely
bashful and retiring as a boy; and his playmates in derision called
him Loti, the name of a tiny East-Indian flower which hides its face
in the grass. He must have left school very
early; for he was only seventeen when he
entered the French navy, having obtained
an appointment as midshipman (aspirant de
marine). For several years he saw a great
deal of active service, particularly on the
Pacific Ocean, where his vessel was sta-
tioned; and this unquestionably gave him
that love for and that knowledge of those
exotic countries which he has so admirably
and faithfully described in his books. Ever
since he joined the navy (1867) he had
given much attention to literature, and his
fellow officers often teased him on account
of his retiring and studious disposition. He
was regarded by them as a dreamer; but no one had ever any criti-
cism to make concerning the manner in which he performed his
duties.
PIERRE LOTI
It was not until 1876 that he published his first book, 'Aziyadé,'
although it is possible that some of the many volumes he has pub-
lished since then were written before that time. 'Rarahu' appeared
in 1880, and was afterwards given the title The Marriage of Loti. '
Had the French author been familiar with Herman Melville's 'Typee,'
he would have hesitated to write his own book lest he be charged
with imitation. In 1882 the war with Tonquin broke out, and Loti
distinguished himself in several engagements with the enemy. About
this time he committed an imprudence which, however pardonable in
a writer, was inexcusable in an officer on active service. He sent to
## p. 9204 (#216) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9204
the Paris Figaro an account of the cruelty of the French soldiers at
the storming of Hué; and this so incensed the French government
that he was at once placed upon the retired list. But by that time
Loti was a public favorite, and there was a loud clamor for his re-
instatement. The government, perhaps in an attempt to regain some
of its lost popularity, gave way, and Loti was restored to his com-
mand the following year. Shortly afterwards (1886) he published
'An Iceland Fisherman'; a volume full of poetic feeling and dreamy
impressionism, and which is considered by many critics his best
work. It won for him the Vitet prize of the French Academy, and
had the honor of being translated into the Roumanian language by
the Queen of Roumania. In 1887 he was decorated with the cross of
the Legion of Honor, and in this year he published one of the best
known of his books, 'Madame Chrysanthème,'-less a novel than
impressions of a sojourn in Japan.
Loti was now one of the most prominent authors of his day, and
his election to the Academy was looked upon as a matter of course.
In 1890 he published another remarkable book, entitled 'Au Maroc';
an account of the trip to Morocco by an embassy of which the author
made part. In 'Le Roman d'un Enfant' (1890), which is autobio-
graphical in character, he shows how he was won over by modern
pessimism; how, chilled by the coldness of Protestantism, he was for
a moment attracted by the glittering ritual of the Catholic Church,
only in the end to lose his faith utterly. 'Le Livre de la Pitié et de la
Mort' (1891), contains reminiscences of the divers incidents and periods
during his career which have cast shadows on his life and thoughts.
On May 21st, 1891, he was elected to the seat left vacant in the
French Academy by the death of Octave Feuillet, receiving eighteen
votes out of thirty-five cast. He was on board the man-of-war For-
midable when he was told of his election to the most august literary
body in the world. The occasion of his reception at the Academy, in
view of the social prestige that he had gained, was the most brilliant
in years.
His main works are as follows:-'Aziyadé' (1876); 'Rarahu' (1880),
republished in 1882 under the title 'Le Mariage de Loti'; 'Le Roman
d'un Spahi' (1881); Fleurs d'Ennui' (1882); Mon Frère Yves' (1883);
'Trois Dames de la Kasbah' (1884); Pêcheur d'Islande' (1886); 'Le
Désert, Madame Chrysanthème' (1887); Propos d'Exil' (1887); Ja-
poneries d'Automme' (1889); 'Au Maroc' (1890); 'Le Roman d'un
Enfant (1890); 'Le Livre de la Pitié et de la Mort' (1891); 'Fantômes
d'Orient (1892); 'Le Galilée,' 'Jerusalem Matelot. '
Pierre Loti's success has been largely due to the peculiar sym-
pathy and charm with which he has depicted the simple, open, and
naïve life of the Orient and of the far East. The sensations, the
## p. 9205 (#217) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9205
ideas, the types of civilization,-in brief, the whole life and manners
of the people and countries,-successively set forth in 'An Iceland
Fisherman,' 'To Morocco,' The Desert,' 'Phantoms of the Orient,'
and 'Madame Chrysanthème,' contrasted so vividly with the formal,
complex, and sophisticated civilization of France, England, and Amer-
ica, and this life was laid bare with such penetration and insight, and
withal invested with such spirit and poetry and romance, that it is
slight wonder it appealed strangely and strongly to the overwrought
and overstrained nerves of our Western peoples.
Loti had apparently been one of those young spirits, so frequently
to be met with nowadays, to whom the intense, highly developed, and
artificial life of the time brought even with a first taste a pall of
ennui. With a cry of anguish and discouragement he had fled to far
distant lands. As a naval officer he was able to give rein to his
antipathy, and the years that followed found him searching this corner
and that of the earth in quest of the unconventional and the unique.
It was awakening Japan which appeared to have given him his first.
literary impulse; and it was the curious and richly colored volume in
which he describes his love affair with one of the daughters of that
country, to whom he gave the fanciful title of Madame Chrysanthe-
mum, which won for him his greatest acclaim in the field of letters.
Other volumes of a similar character followed rapidly, and the young
writer quickly found himself elevated in popular esteem to the first
rank of French littérateurs. It was an open door and a step into the
Academy.
It is to be noted in passing, that the Orient and the desert- their
life, their customs, their literature, and their religions-have always
exercised a strong attraction for the French mind: a fact exemplified
in the long line of writers from the stately declamation of Volney's
'Ruins,' and the weird tales of arabesque and grotesque, down to
the poet Leconte de Lisle, whose melancholy and majestic verse has
so strongly influenced the poetry of the day.
Loti caught a phase of this life which had been touched upon by
no other writer. The East, to Volney, was the inspiration of philo-
sophical reflections upon the rise and fall of nations; to Gautier, a
land wherein his imagination and love of the antique might run riot;
to Leconte de Lisle, a sermon upon the evanescence of all earthly
things. To Loti it was none of these. With the eye of the poet and
with the pen of a realist he saw and painted the lands and people
which he visited. And into these pictures he infused a sympathy and
a human interest which lifted his pages from the dull and common-
place routine of ordinary sketches of travel, into an atmosphere whose
warmth and glow afforded a new and rare sensation to the reading
public. Above all, there is in Loti's work a delicacy, a subtlety of
## p. 9206 (#218) ###########################################
9206
PIERRE LOTI
understanding, a poetic instinct, and the play of a dainty and lively
fancy, that lend to his descriptions a quality which is hardly else-
where to be found.
He is an admirable artist, some of whose work is tainted by mor-
bidness and sensuality, but who at his ethical and artistic best-in
'An Iceland Fisherman' and 'The Book of Pity and of Death,' for
example has great charm and power.
THE SAILOR'S WIFE
From An Iceland Fisherman: A Story of Love on Land and Sea. ' Trans-
lated from the French by Clara Cadiot. William S. Gottsberger, New
York, 1888.
THE
HE Icelanders were all returning now. Two ships came in
the second day, four the next, and twelve during the fol-
lowing week. And all through the country, joy returned
with them; and there was happiness for the wives and mothers,
and junkets in the taverns where the beautiful barmaids of
Paimpol served out drink to the fishers.
The Léopoldine was among the belated; there were yet an-
other ten expected. They would not be long now; and allowing
a week's delay so as not to be disappointed, Gaud waited in
happy, passionate joy for Yann, keeping their home bright and
tidy for his return. When everything was in good order there
was nothing left for her to do; and besides, in her impatience,
she could think of nothing else but her husband.
Three more ships appeared; then another five.
only two lacking now.
"Come, come," they said to her cheerily, "this year the Léo-
poldine and the Marie-Jeanne will be the last, to pick up all the
brooms fallen overboard from the other craft. "
There were
Gaud laughed also. She was more animated and beautiful
than ever, in her great joy of expectancy.
But the days succeeded one another without result.
She still dressed up every day, and with a joyful look went
down to the harbor to gossip with the other wives. She said
that this delay was but natural: was it not the same event
every year? These were such safe boats, and had such capital
sailors.
But when at home alone, at night, a nervous anxious shiver
of apprehension would run through her whole frame.
## p. 9207 (#219) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9207
Was it right to be frightened already? Was there even a
single reason to be so? But she began to tremble at the mere
idea of grounds for being afraid.
The 10th of September came. How swiftly the days flew by!
One morning-a true autumn morning, with cold mist falling
over the earth in the rising sun-she sat under the porch of
the chapel of the shipwrecked mariners, where the widows go to
pray; with eyes fixed and glassy, and throbbing temples tight-
ened as by an iron band.
These sad morning mists had begun two days before; and on
this particular day Gaud had awakened with a still more bitter
uneasiness, caused by the forecast of advancing winter. Why
did this day, this hour, this very moment, seem to her more
painful than the preceding? Often ships are delayed a fortnight;
even a month, for that matter.
But surely there was something different about this particular
morning; for she had come to-day for the first time to sit in the
porch of this chapel and read the names of the dead sailors,
perished in their prime.
IN MEMORY OF
GAOS YVON
Lost at Sea
NEAR THE NORDEN-FJORD
Like a great shudder, a gust of wind rose from the sea, and
at the same time something fell like rain upon the roof above.
It was only the dead leaves, though;-many were blown in at
the porch; the old wind-tossed trees of the graveyard were losing
their foliage in this rising gale, and winter was marching nearer.
Lost at Sea
NEAR THE NORDEN-FJORD
In the storm of the 4th and 5th of August, 1880
She read mechanically under the arch of the doorway; her
eyes sought to pierce the distance over the sea. That morning
it was untraceable under the gray mist, and a dragging drapery
of clouds overhung the horizon like a mourning veil.
Another gust of wind, and other leaves danced in whirls. A
stronger gust still; as if the western storm which had strewn
those dead over the sea wished to deface the very inscriptions
which kept their names in memory with the living.
## p. 9208 (#220) ###########################################
9208
PIERRE LOTI
Gaud looked with involuntary persistency at an empty space
upon the wall which seemed to yawn expectant. By a terrible
impression, she was pursued by the thought of a fresh slab which
might soon perhaps be placed there,- with another name which.
she did not even dare think of in such a spot.
She felt cold, and remained seated on the granite bench, her
head reclining against the stone wall.
NEAR THE NORDEN-FJORD
In the storm of the 4th and 5th of August, 1880
At the age of 23 years
Requiescat in pace!
Then Iceland loomed up before her, with its little cemetery
lighted up from below the sea-line by the midnight sun. Sud-
denly, in the same empty space on the wall, with horrifying
clearness she saw the fresh slab she was thinking of; a clear
white one, with a skull and crossbones, and in a flash of fore-
sight a name,- the worshiped name of "Yann Gaos"! Then she
suddenly and fearfully drew herself up straight and stiff, with a
hoarse wild cry in her throat like a mad creature.
Outside, the gray mist of the dawn fell over the land, and the
dead leaves were again blown dancingly into the porch.
She rose,
Steps on the footpath! Somebody was coming?
and quickly smoothed down her cap and composed her face.
Nearer drew the steps. She assumed the air of one who might
be there by chance; for above all, she did not wish to appear
yet like the widow of a shipwrecked mariner.
It happened to be Fante Floury, the wife of the second mate
of the Léopoldine. She understood immediately what Gaud was
doing there: it was useless to dissemble with her. At first each
woman stood speechless before the other. They were angry and
almost hated each other for having met holding a like sentiment
of apprehension.
"All the men of Tréguier and Saint-Brieuc have been back
for a week," said Fante at last, in an unfeeling, muffled, half-
irritated voice.
She carried a blessed taper in her hand, to offer up a prayer.
Gaud did not wish yet to resort to that extreme resource of de-
spairing wives. Yet silently she entered the chapel behind Fante,
and they knelt down together side by side like two sisters.
## p. 9209 (#221) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9209
To the "Star of the Sea" they offered ardent imploring
prayers, with their whole soul in them. A sound of sobbing was
alone heard, as their rapid tears swiftly fell upon the floor. They
rose together, more confident and softened. Fante held up Gaud,
who staggered; and taking her in her arms, kissed her.
Wiping their eyes and smoothing their disheveled hair, they
brushed off the salt dust from the flag-stones which had soiled
their gowns, and went away in opposite directions without another
word.
This end of September was like another summer, only a little
less lively. The weather was so beautiful that had it not been
for the dead leaves which fell upon the roads, one might have
thought that June had come back again. Husbands and sweet-
hearts had all returned, and everywhere was the joy of a second
springtime of love.
At last, one day, one of the missing ships was signaled.
Which one was it?
The groups of speechless and anxious women had rapidly
formed on the cliff. Gaud, pale and trembling, was there, by
the side of her Yann's father.
"I'm almost sure," said the old fisher, "I'm almost sure it's
them. A red rail and a topsail that clews up,-it's very like
them, anyhow. What do you make it, Gaud? "
"No, it isn't," he went on, with sudden discouragement:
"we've made a mistake again; the boom isn't the same, and ours
has a jigger-sail. Well, well, it isn't our boat this time, it's only
the Marie-Jeanne. Never mind, my lass, surely they'll not be
long now. "
But day followed day, and night succeeded night, with un-
interrupted serenity.
Gaud continued to dress up every day; like a poor crazed
woman, always in fear of being taken for the widow of a ship-
wrecked sailor, feeling exasperated when others looked furtively
and compassionately at her, and glancing aside so that she might
not meet those glances which froze her very blood.
She had fallen into the habit of going at the early morning
right to the end of the headland, on the high cliffs of Pors-
Even; passing behind Yann's old home, so as not to be seen by
his mother or little sisters. She went to the extreme point of
the Ploubazlanec land, which is outlined in the shape of a rein-
deer's horn upon the gray waters of the Channel, and sat there
## p. 9210 (#222) ###########################################
9210
PIERRE LOTI
all day long at the foot of the lonely cross which rises high
above the immense waste of the ocean. There are many of these
crosses hereabout; they are set up on the most advanced cliffs
of the sea-bound land, as if to implore mercy, and to calm that
restless mysterious power which draws men away, never to give
them back, and in preference retains the bravest and noblest.
Around this cross stretches the evergreen waste, strewn with
short rushes. At this great height the sea air was very pure; it
scarcely retained the briny odor of the weeds, but was perfumed
with all the exquisite ripeness of September flowers.
Far away, all the bays and inlets of the coast were firmly
outlined, rising one above another; the land of Brittany termi-
nated in jagged edges, which spread out far into the tranquil
surface.
Near at hand the reefs were numerous; but out beyond, noth-
ing broke its polished mirror, from which arose a soft caressing
ripple, light and intensified from the depths of its many bays.
Its horizon seemed so calm, and its depths so soft!
The great
blue sepulchre of many Gaoses hid its inscrutable mystery; whilst
the breezes, faint as human breath, wafted to and fro the per-
fume of the stunted gorse, which had bloomed again in the
latest autumn sun.
At regular hours the sea retreated, and great spaces were
left uncovered everywhere, as if the Channel was slowly drying
up; then with the same lazy slowness the waters rose again, and
continued their everlasting coming and going without any heed
of the dead.
At the foot of the cross Gaud remained, surrounded by these
tranquil mysteries, gazing ever before her until the night fell and
she could see no more.
September had passed. The sorrowing wife took scarcely any
nourishment, and could no longer sleep.
She remained at home now, crouching low with her hands
between her knees, her head thrown back and resting against
the wall behind. What was the good of getting up or going to
bed now? When she was thoroughly exhausted she threw her-
self, dressed, upon her bed. Otherwise she remained in the same
position, chilled and benumbed; in her quiescent state, only her
teeth chattered with the cold; she had that continual impression
of a band of iron round her brows; her cheeks looked wasted;
her mouth was dry, with a feverish taste, and at times a painful
## p. 9211 (#223) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9211
hoarse cry rose from her throat and was repeated in spasms,
whilst her head beat backwards against the granite wall. Or else
she called Yann by his name in a low, tender voice, as if he were
quite close to her, whispering words of love to her.
Sometimes she occupied her brain with thoughts of quite
insignificant things; for instance, she amused herself by watch-
ing the shadow of the china Virgin lengthen slowly over the
high woodwork of the bed, as the sun went down. And then
the agonized thoughts returned more horribly, and her wailing
cry broke out again as she beat her head against the wall.
All the hours of the day passed; and all the hours of even-
ing, and of night; and then the hours of the morning. When she
reckoned the time he ought to have been back, she was seized
with a still greater terror; she wished to forget all dates and the
very names of the days.
Generally, there is some information concerning the wrecks
off Iceland; those who return have seen the tragedy from afar,
or else have found some wreckage or bodies, or have an indica-
tion to guess the rest. But of the Léopoldine nothing had been
seen, and nothing was known. The Marie-Jeanne men- the last
to have seen it on the 2d of August—said that she was to have
gone on fishing farther towards the north; and beyond that the
secret was unfathomable.
Waiting, always waiting, and knowing nothing! When would
the time come when she need wait no longer? She did not even
know that; and now she almost wished that it might be soon.
Oh! if he were dead, let them at least have pity enough to tell
her so!
Oh to see her darling, as he was at this very moment,- that
is, what was left of him! If only the much-implored Virgin,
or some other power, would do her the blessing to show her
by second-sight her beloved! either living and working hard to
return a rich man, or else as a corpse surrendered by the sea, so
that she might at least know a certainty.
Sometimes she was seized with the thought of a ship appear-
ing suddenly upon the horizon; the Léopoldine hastening home.
Then she would suddenly make an instinctive movement to rise,
and rush to look out at the ocean, to see whether it were true.
But she would fall back. Alas! where was this Léopoldine
now? Where could she be? Out afar, at that awful distance of
Iceland, forsaken, crushed, and lost.
## p. 9212 (#224) ###########################################
9212
PIERRE LOTI
All ended by a never-fading vision appearing to her, an
empty, sea-tossed wreck, slowly and gently rocked by the silent
gray and rose-streaked sea; almost with soft mockery, in the
midst of the vast calm of deadened waters.
Two o'clock in the morning.
It was at night especially that she kept attentive to approach-
ing footsteps; at the slightest rumor or unaccustomed noise her
temples vibrated: by dint of being strained to outward things,
they had become fearfully sensitive.
Two o'clock in the morning. On this night as on others,
with her hands clasped and her eyes wide open in the dark, she
listened to the wind sweeping in never-ending tumult over the
heath.
-
Suddenly a man's footsteps hurried along the path! At this
hour who would pass now? She drew herself up, stirred to the
very soul, her heart ceasing to beat.
Some one stopped before the door, and came up the small
stone steps.
He! O God! -he! Some one had knocked, it could be no
other than he! She was up now, barefooted; she, so feeble for
the last few days, had sprung up as nimbly as a kitten, with her
arms outstretched to wind round her darling. Of course the Léo-
poldine had arrived at night, and anchored in Pors-Even Bay,
and he had rushed home; she arranged all this in her mind with
the swiftness of lightning. She tore the flesh off her fingers in
her excitement to draw the bolt, which had stuck.
"Eh ? »
She slowly moved backward, as if crushed, her head falling on
her bosom. Her beautiful insane dream was over. She could
just grasp that it was not her husband, her Yann, and that noth-
ing of him, substantial or spiritual, had passed through the air;
she felt plunged again into her deep abyss, to the lowest depths
of her terrible despair.
-
-
――――
Poor Fantec-for it was he stammered many excuses: his
wife was very ill, and their child was choking in its cot, suddenly
attacked with a malignant sore throat; so he had run over to beg
for assistance on the road to fetch the doctor from Paimpol.
What did all this matter to her? She had gone mad in her
own distress, and could give no thoughts to the troubles of oth-
ers. Huddled on a bench, she remained before him with fixed
glazed eyes, like a dead woman's; without listening to him, or
## p. 9213 (#225) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9213
What to her was
even answering at random or looking at him.
the speech the man was making?
He understood it all, and guessed why the door had been
opened so quickly to him; and feeling pity for the pain he had
unwittingly caused, he stammered out an excuse.
"Just so: he never ought to have disturbed her—her in par-
ticular. "
"I! " ejaculated Gaud quickly, "why should I not be disturbed
particularly, Fantec ? »
Life had suddenly come back to her; for she did not wish
to appear in despair before others. Besides, she pitied him now;
she dressed to accompany him, and found the strength to go and
see to his little child.
-
At four o'clock in the morning, when she returned to throw
herself on the bed, sleep subdued her, for she was tired out.
But that moment of excessive joy had left an impression on her
mind, which in spite of all was permanent; she awoke soon with
a shudder, rising a little and partially recollecting-she knew
not what. News had come to her about her Yann. In the midst
of her confusion of ideas, she sought rapidly in her mind what
it could be; but there was nothing save Fantec's interruption.
For the second time she fell back into her terrible abyss,
nothing changed in her morbid, hopeless waiting.
Yet in that short, hopeful moment, she had felt him so near
to her that it was as if his spirit had floated over the sea unto
her, what is called a foretoken (pressigne) in Breton land; and
she listened still more attentively to the steps outside, trusting
that some one might come to her to speak of him.
Just as the day broke, Yann's father entered. He took off
his cap, and pushed back his splendid white locks, which were in
curls like Yann's, and sat down by Gaud's bedside.
His heart ached heavily too; for Yann, his tall, handsome
Yann, was his first-born, his favorite and his pride: but he did
not despair yet. He comforted Gaud in his own blunt, affection-
ate way.
To begin with, those who had last returned from Ice-
land spoke of the increasing dense fogs, which might well have
delayed the vessel; and then too an idea struck him,- they
might possibly have stopped at the distant Faroe Islands on
their homeward course, whence letters were so long in traveling.
This had happened to him once forty years ago, and his own
poor dead and gone mother had had a mass said for his soul.
## p. 9214 (#226) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9214
The Léopoldine was such a good boat,—next to new,— and her
crew were such able-bodied seamen.
Granny Moan stood by them shaking her head: the distress
of her granddaughter had almost given her back her own strength.
and reason. She tidied up the place, glancing from time to time
at the faded portrait of Sylvestre, which hung upon the granite
wall with its anchor emblems and mourning-wreath of black
bead-work. Ever since the sea had robbed her of her own last
offspring, she believed no longer in safe returns; she only prayed
through fear, bearing Heaven a grudge in the bottom of her
heart.
But Gaud listened eagerly to these consoling reasonings; her
large sunken eyes looked with deep tenderness out upon this old
sire, who so much resembled her beloved one: merely to have
him near her was like a hostage against death having taken the
younger Gaos; and she felt reassured, nearer to her Yann. Her
tears fell softly and silently, and she repeated again her passion-
ate prayers to the "Star of the Sea. "
A delay out at those islands to repair damages was a very
likely event. She rose and brushed her hair, and then dressed
as if she might fairly expect him. All then was not lost, if a
seaman, his own father, did not yet despair. And for a few days
she resumed looking out for him again.
Autumn at last arrived, a late autumn too,-its gloomy
evenings making all things appear dark in the old cottage; and
all the land looked sombre too.
-
The very daylight seemed a sort of twilight; immeasurable
clouds, passing slowly overhead, darkened the whole country at
broad noon. The wind blew constantly with the sound of a great
cathedral organ at a distance, but playing profane, despairing
dirges; at other times the noise came close to the door, like the
howling of wild beasts.
She had grown pale,-aye, blanched, and bent more than
ever; as if old age had already touched her with its featherless
wing. Often did she finger the wedding clothes of her Yann,
folding them and unfolding them again and again like some
maniac, especially one of his blue woolen jerseys which still
had preserved his shape: when she threw it gently on the table,
it fell with the shoulders and chest well defined; so she placed
it by itself in a shelf of their wardrobe, and left it there, so that
it might forever rest unaltered.
## p. 9215 (#227) ###########################################
PIERRE LOTI
9215
Every night the cold mists sank upon the land, as she gazed
over the depressing heath through her little window, and watched
the thin puffs of white smoke arise from the chimneys of other
cottages scattered here and there on all sides. There the hus-
bands had returned, like wandering birds driven home by the
frost. Before their blazing hearths the evenings passed, cozy
and warm; for the springtime of love had begun again in this
land of North Sea fishermen.
Still clinging to the thought of those islands where he might
perhaps have lingered, she was buoyed up by a kind hope, and
expected him home any day.
*
*
But he never returned. One August night, out off gloomy
Iceland, mingled with the furious clamor of the sea, his wedding
with the sea was performed. It had been his nurse; it had
rocked him in his babyhood and had afterwards made him big
and strong; then, in his superb manhood, it had taken him back
again for itself alone. Profoundest mystery had surrounded this
unhallowed union. While it went on, dark curtains hung pall-
like over it as if to conceal the ceremony, and the ghoul howled
in an awful, deafening voice to stifle his cries. He, thinking
of Gaud, his sole, darling wife, had battled with giant strength
against this deathly rival, until he at last surrendered, with a
deep death-cry like the roar of a dying bull, through a mouth
already filled with water; and his arms were stretched apart and
stiffened forever.
All those he had invited in days of old were present at his
wedding. All except Sylvestre, who had gone to sleep in the
enchanted gardens far, far away, at the other side of the earth.
## p. 9216 (#228) ###########################################
9216
SAMUEL LOVER
(1797-1868)
HE lovable Irishman who wrote The Low-Backed Car,' 'The
Irish Post-Boy,' and 'Widow Machree,' was, as Renan said,
kissed by a fairy at his birth. He had that indomitable joy-
ousness of spirit which neither stress of circumstances, nor personal
sorrows, nor long-continued illness could abate. Besides this charm-
ing gayety, the generous fairy godmother bestowed on him the most
various talents. He was a miniature-painter, a marine-painter, a clever
etcher in the days when good etching was little practiced, a carica-
turist, a composer, an accomplished singer,
a novelist, and a dramatist. And with all
this versatility, he possessed an immense
capacity for hard work.
He was born in 1797, in Dublin, where
his father was a comfortable stock-broker.
From his mother, whom he worshiped, he
inherited his musical talents, his sensitive
temperament, and his upright character.
She died when he was twelve years old, but
her influence never left him.
SAMUEL LOVER
Stockbroker Lover wished to make a
good business man of his clever son; who
however, if he consented to add columns of
figures and to correct stock lists by day,
consoled himself with the practice of music and painting by night.
The disgusted father sent him off to a London business house of the
Gradgrind order, which had had much success in uprooting any va-
grant flowers of fancy from the minds of its apprentices. But in this
instance the experiment failed. At the age of seventeen, young Lover
resolved to turn his back forever on day-book and ledger and set up
as an artist, although he had yet to learn his craft.
He had saved a little money; he found music-copying and occas-
ional sketching to do; and after three frugal years of close study,
he exhibited some excellent miniatures and asked for patronage. Be-
fore the invention of the daguerreotype and the photograph, every
"genteel" household had its collection of portraits on ivory; and the
young painter made his way at once, on the score of being a capi-
tal good fellow. He could sing to his own accompaniment songs of
## p. 9217 (#229) ###########################################
SAMUEL LOVER
9217
his own composing; he could draw caricatures of an entire dinner-
company; he could recite in the richest brogue, Irish stories of his
own writing: and every social assemblage welcomed him.
In 1832 he had the good fortune to paint an admirable miniature
of Paganini, which the best critics pronounced a study worthy of
Gerard Dow. The admiration it excited in London led in time to his
removal thither. His gift for friendship soon attracted to his fireside
clever personages like Talfourd, Campbell, Jerrold, Mahony, Barham,
Mrs. Jamieson, Allan Cunningham, Lady Blessington, Sydney Smith,
Maclise, and Wilkie. Moore was already an old friend. The beauti-
ful Malibran and the clever Madame Vestris became his patrons, and
his work was soon the fashion.
He had already published illustrated by his own etchings—a
successful series of Irish sketches, containing that delightful absurdity
'The Gridiron,' and 'Paddy the Piper. ' After settling in London he
brought out a second volume of the 'Legends and Tales,' and became
a contributor to the new Bentley's Miscellany. His three-volume
novel of 'Rory O'More' appeared in 1836. Of the title character
Mahony wrote: "Hearty, honest, comic, sensible, tender, faithful, and
courageous, Rory is the true ideal of the Irish peasant,—the humble
hero who embodies so much of the best of the national character,
and almost lifts simple emotion to the same height as ripened mind. "
This novel Lover dramatized with immense success; which encouraged
him to write The White Horse of the Peppers,' three or four other
plays, two or three operettas for Madame Vestris, and both the words
and music of Il Paddy Whack in Italia,' a capital whimsicality.
His portrait was included in Maclise's 'Gallery of Celebrities'; and
Blackwood "discovered" him as "a new poet who is also musician,
painter, and novelist, and therefore quadruply worth wondering at. »
It was his clever countrywoman, Lady Morgan, who first prompted
him to the writing of Irish songs. His 'Rory O'More' took the gen-
eral fancy. To its strains the Queen at her coronation was escorted
to Buckingham Palace. To its strains the peasant baby in its box
cradle fell asleep. To its strains Phelim O'Shea footed the reel. at
Limerick Fair, and the ladies at Dublin Castle trod their quadrille.
'Molly Carew,' a better piece of work, would doubtless have at-
tracted equal favor, had not the music been more difficult. 'Widow
Machree,' written for the whimsical tale of 'Handy Andy,' is full of
Irish character. What Will Ye Do, Love? ' written also for 'Handy
Andy,' fairly sings itself; and 'How to Ask and Have' is as pretty a
piece of coquetry as any gray-eyed and barefooted beauty ever devised.
'The Road of Life,' which is the song of the Irish post-boy, was
Lover's own favorite, because of its note of unobtrusive pathos. In
another group are included the laughing 'Low-Backed Car,' 'The Girl
I Left Behind Me,' 'Mary of Tipperary,' 'Molly Bawn,' and 'The
XVI-577
―
## p. 9218 (#230) ###########################################
9218
SAMUEL LOVER
Bowld Sojer Boy. ' In all, Lover published two hundred and sixty-
three songs, for more than two hundred of which he wrote or adapted
the music.
'Handy Andy,' his best novel, was published in 1842. It is almost
without a plot; but unrivaled as a sketch of the blundering, stupid,
inconsequent peasant, whose heart is as kind as his head is dense.
In 1844 appeared Lover's most elaborate novel, Treasure Trove';
not so good a piece of work as its predecessors. His eyesight had
begun to fail, and his purse was light. He therefore invented an
entertainment called "Irish Evenings," in which he read his own
stories and sang his own songs. Successful in England and Ireland,
he decided in 1846 to try his fortune in the United States, where he
traveled from Boston to New Orleans and back to Montreal, appear-
ing before delighted audiences. On his return to England in 1848 he
produced "American Evenings," whose Yankee songs and backwoods
stories met with great favor.
During the last years of his life he wrote songs and magazine
papers, and painted pictures; but attempted no continuous literary
work. His health was delicate; and the need of constant labor, hap-
pily, was over. He removed to the soft climate of St. Helier's, on
the Isle of Jersey; and there the kindly gentleman and accomplished.
artist faded gently out of life. He died in the midsummer of 1868,
and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. He loved his race with
an affection not the less fond that it was not uncritical; and it is
his merit to have written the best Irish peasant sketches and the
best Irish peasant songs in the language.
THE LOW-BACKED CAR
HEN first I saw sweet Peggy,
'Twas on a market day;
WH
A low-backed car she drove, and sat
Upon a truss of hay;
But when that hay was blooming grass,
And decked with flowers of spring,
No flower was there
That could compare
To the blooming girl I sing.
As she sat in her low-backed car,
The man at the turnpike bar
Never asked for the toll-
But just rubbed his owld poll,
And looked after the low-backed car!
## p. 9219 (#231) ###########################################
SAMUEL LOVER
9219
In battle's wild commotion,
The proud and mighty Mars
With hostile scythes demands his tithes
Of Death, in warlike cars!
But Peggy-peaceful goddess-
Has darts in her bright eye
That knock men down
In the market town,
As right and left they fly!
While she sits in her low-backed car,
Than battle more dangerous far;
For the doctor's art
Cannot cure the heart
That is hit from that low-backed car.
Sweet Peggy round her car, sir,
Has strings of ducks and geese,
But the scores of hearts she slaughters
By far outnumber these;
While she among her poultry sits,
Just like a turtle dove,—
Well worth the cage,
I do engage,
Of the blooming god of Love.
While she sits in her low-backed car,
The lovers come near and far,
And envy the chicken
That Peggy is pickin'
While she sits in the low-backed car.
I'd rather own that car, sir,
With Peggy by my side,
Than a coach and four, and gold galore,
And a lady for my bride;
For the lady would sit forninst me,
On a cushion made with taste,
While Peggy would be beside me,
With my arm around her waist,
As we drove in the low-backed car
To be married by Father Maher.
Oh, my heart would beat high,
At her glance and her sigh,
Though it beat in a low-backed car.
## p. 9220 (#232) ###########################################
9220
SAMUEL LOVER
WIDOW MACHREE
ow machree, it's no wonder you frown,
Och hone! widow machree:
WIDOW
Faith, it ruins your looks, that same dirty black gown.
Och hone! widow machree.
How altered your air,
With that close cap you wear
'Tis destroying your hair,
—
Which should be flowing free:
Be no longer a churl
Of its black silken curl,
Och hone! widow machree!
Widow machree, now the summer is come,-
Och hone! widow machree,—
When everything smiles, should a beauty look glum?
Och hone! widow machree!
See, the birds go in pairs,
And the rabbits and hares.
Why, even the bears
Now in couples agree.
And the mute little fish,
Though they can't spake, they wish,-
Och hone! widow machree!
-
Widow machree, and when winter comes in,
Och hone! widow machree,
To be poking the fire all alone is a sin,
Och hone! widow machree!
Sure the shovel and tongs
To each other belongs,
And the kettle sings songs
Full of family glee;
While alone with your cup,
Like a hermit you sup,
Och hone! widow machree!
And how do you know, with the comforts I've towld,
Och hone! widow machree,
But you're keeping some poor fellow out in the cowld?
Och hone! widow machree!
With such sins on your head,
Sure your peace would be fled.
Could you sleep in your bed,
Without thinking to see
## p. 9221 (#233) ###########################################
SAMUEL LOVER
9221
Some ghost or some sprite,
That would wake you each night,
Crying, "Och hone! widow machree! »
Then take my advice, darling widow machree,
Och hone! widow machree;
And with my advice, faith, I wish you'd take me,
Och hone! widow machree!
You'd have me to desire
Then to stir up the fire;
And sure Hope is no liar
In whispering to me
That the ghosts would depart
When you'd me near your heart,
Och hone! widow machree!
HOW TO ASK AND HAVE
H, 'TIS time I should talk to your mother,
"O" Sweet Mary," says I.
"Oh, don't talk to my mother," says Mary,
Beginning to cry:
"For my mother says men are deceivers,
And never, I know, will consent;
She says girls in a hurry who marry
At leisure repent. "
"Then suppose I would talk to your father,
Sweet Mary," says I.
"Oh, don't talk to my father," says Mary,
Beginning to cry:
"For my father, he loves me so dearly,
He'll never consent I should go-
If you talk to my father," says Mary,
"He'll surely say 'No. '»
"Then how shall I get you, my jewel?
Sweet Mary," says I:
"If your father and mother's so cruel,
Most surely I'll die! "
"Oh, never say die, dear," says Mary;
"A way now to save you I see:
Since my parents are both so contrary-
You'd better ask me. "
## p.
