"
"I never went to him," the Mock-Turtle said with a sigh:
"he taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say.
"I never went to him," the Mock-Turtle said with a sigh:
"he taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v06 to v10 - Cal to Fro
This is well exemplified
## p. 3304 (#278) ###########################################
3304
BLISS CARMAN
in 'Resignation' and 'A More Ancient Mariner. ' His chief defects,
besides the occasional obscurity already referred to, are a tendency
to looseness of structure in his longer poems, and once in a while, as
in parts of 'The Silent Lodger,' a Browningesque lapse into hardness
and baldness when the effect aimed at is colloquial simplicity.
Chart G. D. Nobals
HACK AND HEW
ACK and Hew were the sons of God
In the earlier earth than now;
One at his right hand, one at his left,
To obey as he taught them how.
H
And Hack was blind and Hew was dumb,
But both had the wild, wild heart;
And God's calm will was their burning will,
And the gist of their toil was art.
They made the moon and the belted stars,
They set the sun to ride;
They loosed the girdle and veil of the sea,
The wind and the purple tide.
Both flower and beast beneath their hands
To beauty and speed outgrew,—
The furious fumbling hand of Hack,
And the glorying hand of Hew.
Then, fire and clay, they fashioned a man,
And painted him rosy brown;
And God himself blew hard in his eyes:
"Let them burn till they smolder down! "
And "There! " said Hack, and "There! " thought Hew,
"We'll rest, for our toil is done. "
But "Nay," the Master Workman said,
"For your toil is just begun.
"And ye who served me of old as God
Shall serve me anew as man,
Till I compass the dream that is in my heart
And perfect the vaster plan. "
## p. 3305 (#279) ###########################################
BLISS CARMAN
3305
And still the craftsman over his craft,
In the vague white light of dawn,
With God's calm will for his burning will,
While the mounting day comes on,
Yearning, wind-swift, indolent, wild,
Toils with those shadowy two,—
The faltering restless hand of Hack,
And the tireless hand of Hew.
From Behind the Arras': copyrighted 1895, by Lamson, Wolffe and Company
AT THE GRANITE GATE
HERE paused to shut the door
A fellow called the Wind.
With mystery before,
And reticence behind,
THE
A portal waits me too
In the glad house of spring;
One day I shall pass through
And leave you wondering.
It lies beyond the marge
Of evening or of prime,
Silent and dim and large,
The gateway of all time.
There troop by night and day.
My brothers of the field;
And I shall know the way
Their wood-songs have revealed.
The dusk will hold some trace
Of all my radiant crew
Who vanished to that place,
Ephemeral as dew.
Into the twilight dun,
Blue moth and dragon-fly
Adventuring alone,-
Shall be more brave than I?
There innocents shall bloom,
And the white cherry tree,
With birch and willow plume
To strew the road for me.
## p. 3306 (#280) ###########################################
3306
BLISS CARMAN
The wilding orioles then
Shall make the golden air
Heavy with joy again,
And the dark heart shall dare
Resume the old desire,-
The exigence of spring
To be the orange fire
That tips the world's gray wing.
And the lone wood-bird - Hark!
The whippoorwill, night-long,
Threshing the summer dark
With his dim flail of song! -
Shall be the lyric lift,
When all my senses creep,
To bear me through the rift
In the blue range of sleep.
And so I pass beyond
The solace of your hand.
But ah, so brave and fond!
Within that morrow-land,
Where deed and daring fail,
But joy forevermore
Shall tremble and prevail
Against the narrow door,
Where sorrow knocks too late,
And grief is overdue,
Beyond the granite gate
There will be thoughts of you.
From Behind the Arras': copyrighted 1895, by Lamson, Wolffe and Company
THE
A SEA CHILD
HE lover of child Marjory
Had one white hour of life brim full;
Now the old nurse, the rocking sea,
Hath him to lull.
The daughter of child Marjory
Hath in her veins, to beat and run,
The glad indomitable sea,
The strong white sun.
Copyrighted by Bliss Carman.
## p. 3307 (#281) ###########################################
3307
LEWIS CARROLL
(CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON)
(1832-)
T
HAT the author of the best nonsense-writing in the language
should be a professional mathematician and logician, is not
a paradox but a sequence. A gymnast cannot divert us by
pretending to lose his balance unless perfectly able to keep his
balance. Actors who counterfeit insanity must be acutely sane.
Only a competent classical scholar can write good macaronics; only
a good poet can write clever doggerel. The only ones who can use
slang effectively are those who do not need to use it at all. Nor is
the tone and temper of mind evinced by these dry and severe studies
out of keeping with the airiest play of fancy or the maddest fun.
The one is indeed a frequent relief from the other, and no intellect-
ual bent is related in the least to any special temperament. Extrava-
gant drollery can be mated to an aptitude for geometry or a
passion for analysis as well as to a love of pictures or of horses.
But the parentage of Alice in Wonderland' and its fellows is
closer to their creator's intellectual being even than this. A very
slight glance at their matter and mechanism shows that they are the
work of one trained to use words with the finest precision, to teach
others to use them so, to criticize keenly any inconsistency or
slovenliness in their use, and to mock mercilessly any vagueness
incoherence in thought or diction. The fantastic framework and
inconsequent scenes of these wonder-stories mask from the popular
view the qualities which give them their superlative rank and endur-
ing charm.
The mere machinery, ingenious and amusing as it is, would not
entertain beyond a single reading; it can be and has often been
imitated, along with the incarnated nursery rhymes and old saws.
Yet these grotesque chimeras, under Lewis Carroll's touch, are as
living to us as any characters in Dickens or the 'Ingoldsby Legends,'
and even more so to the elders than the children. Who does not
know and delight in the King and Queen and Knave of Hearts, the
elegant White Rabbit and the conceited and monosyllabic Caterpillar,
the Cheshire Cat and the Mock-Turtle, the March Hare and the
Hatter and the Dormouse; or the chess White King and the Queens
and the White Knight, the Walrus and the Carpenter, of Looking-
Glass Land?
## p. 3308 (#282) ###########################################
3308
LEWIS CARROLL
The very genesis of many of these is the logical analysis of a
popular comparison into sober fact, as "grinning like a Cheshire cat,"
"mad as a hatter" or "March_hare," "sleeping like a dormouse,"
etc. ; and a large part of their wit and fun consists in plays on
ambiguous terms in current use, like the classic "jam every other
day," "French, music, and washing," "The name of the song is
called or in parodies on familiar verses (or on the spirit of
ballads rather than the wording, as in Jabberwocky'), or in heaps
of versified non-sequiturs, like the exquisite poem" read at the trial
of the Knave of Hearts. The analyst and the logician is as patent
in 'Alice' as in the class lectures the author gave or the technical
works he has issued; only turning his criticism and his reductiones
ad absurdum into bases for witty fooling instead of serious lessons or
didactic works. Hence, while his wonder-books are nominally for
children, and please the children through their cheaper and com-
moner qualities, their real audience is the most cultivated and keen-
minded part of the mature world; to whom indeed he speaks almost
exclusively in such passages as the Rabelaisian satire of the jury
trial in Alice in Wonderland,' or the mob in Sylvie and Bruno'
yelling "Less bread! More taxes! " before the Lord Chancellor's
house, or the infinitely touching pathos of the Outlandish Watch.
'Alice in Wonderland' appeared in 1865; it received universal
admiration at once, and was translated into many languages. By
the rarest of good fortune, it was illustrated by an artist (John Ten-
niel) who entered into its spirit so thoroughly that the characters
in popular memory are as much identified with his pictures as with
Lewis Carroll's text, and no other representation of them would be
endured. Through the Looking-Glass' followed in 1871; its prose
matter was almost equal to that of its predecessor, — the chapter of
the White Knight is fully equal to the best of the other, and its
verse is superior. Part of the first book was based on the game of
cards; the whole setting of the second is based on chess moves, and
Alice's progress to queenship along the board. He has published
several books of humorous prose and verse since; some of the verse
equal to the best of his two best books, but the prose generally
spoiled by conscious didacticism, as in Sylvie and Bruno,' which
however contains some of his happiest nonsense verse. The Hunt-
ing of the Snark' is a nonsense tale in verse, but oddly the best
things in it are his prose tags. Rhyme and Reason' is a collection
of verse, some of it of high merit in its kind: The Three Voices' is
spun out and ill-ended, but has some passages which deserve to be
classic.
«<
Lewis Carroll is in fact the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who
(disliking publicity) lives in retirement at Oxford, and the world
## p. 3309 (#283) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3309
knows little of him. He was born in 1833 and received his degree
in Christ Church, Oxford, with high honors in mathematics. In 1861
he took orders in the Church of England. From 1855 to 1881 he
was mathematical lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford. He has pub-
lished several works on mathematics, including 'Euclid and His
Modern Rivals,' and 'Mathematica Curiosa,' a very valuable work.
'A Tangled Tale,' 'Pillow Problems,' and a 'Game of Logic' are
scientific and humorous, but are only appreciated by experts in
mathematics and logic. Delighted with Alice in Wonderland' on
its appearance, Queen Victoria asked Mr. Dodgson for his other
works; and in response "Lewis Carroll» sent her his 'Elementary
Treatise on Determinants' and other mathematical works. It is sel-
dom that the dualism of a mind-writing now nonsense so thor-
oughly and vigorously witty, and now exploring the intricacies of
higher mathematics - has a more curious illustration. Certainly the
illustration is seldom as diverting to the public.
(
ALICE, THE PIG-BABY, AND THE CHESHIRE CAT
From Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'
"H
ERE! you may nurse it a bit, if you like! " said the Duchess
to Alice, flinging the baby at her as she spoke. "I must
go and get ready to play croquet with the Queen," and
she hurried out of the room. The cook threw a frying-pan after
her as she went, but it just missed her.
Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a queer-
shaped little creature, and held out its arms and legs in all
directions,-"just like a star-fish," thought Alice. The poor little
thing was snorting like a steam-engine when she caught it, and
kept doubling itself up and straightening itself out again; so
that altogether, for the first minute or two, it was as much as
she could do to hold it.
As soon as she had made out the proper way of nursing it,
(which was to twist it up into a sort of knot, and then keep
tight hold of its right ear and left foot, so as to prevent its
undoing itself), she carried it out into the open air. "If I don't
take this child away with me," thought Alice, "they're sure to
kill it in a day or two: wouldn't it be murder to leave it
behind? " She said the last words out loud, and the little thing
grunted in reply (it had left off sneezing by this time).
grunt," said Alice: "that's not at all the proper way of express-
ing yourself. "
"Don't
## p. 3310 (#284) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3310
The baby grunted again, and Alice looked very anxiously into
its face to see what was the matter with it. There could be no
doubt that it had a very turn-up nose, much more like a snout
than a real nose; also its eyes were getting extremely small, for
a baby: altogether, Alice did not like the look of the thing at
all,—“but perhaps it was only sobbing," she thought, and looked
into its eyes again, to see if there were any tears.
No, there were no tears. "If you're going to turn into a pig,
my dear," said Alice, seriously, "I'll have nothing more to do
with you.
Mind now! " The poor little thing sobbed again (or
grunted, it was impossible to say which), and they went on for
some while in silence.
Alice was just beginning to think to herself, "Now, what am
I to do with this creature when I get it home? " when it grunted
again, so violently that she looked down into its face in some
alarm. This time there could be no mistake about it: it was
neither more nor less than a pig, and she felt that it would be
quite absurd for her to carry it any further.
So she set the little creature down, and felt quite relieved to
see it trot away quietly into the wood. "If it had grown up,"
she said to herself, "it would have been a dreadfully ugly child:
but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think. " And she began
thinking over other children she knew, who might do very well
as pigs, and was just saying to herself, "If one only knew the
right way to change them » when she was a little startled by
seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards
off.
The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-
natured, she thought: still it had very long claws and a great
many teeth, so she felt it ought to be treated with respect.
"Cheshire Puss," she began,- rather timidly, as she did not at
all know whether it would like the name: however, it only
grinned a little wider. Come, it's pleased so far," thought
Alice, and she went on: "Would you tell me, please, which way
I ought to walk from here? "
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,”
said the Cat.
"I don't much care where- » said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you walk," said the Cat.
«<
-so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explana-
tion.
-
## p. 3311 (#285) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3311
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk
long enough. "
Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another
question. "What sort of people live about here? "
"In that direction," the Cat said, waving its right paw round,
"lives a Hatter; and in that direction," waving the other paw,
"lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad. "
"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: " we are all mad
I'm mad. You're mad. "
here.
"How do you know I'm mad? " said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come
here. "
Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on,
"And how do you know that you're mad? »
You grant
"To begin with," said the Cat, "a dog's not mad.
that?
"I suppose so,
» said Alice.
"Well then," the Cat went on, "you see a dog growls when
it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl
when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore
I'm mad. "
"I call it purring, not growling," said
Alice.
«
"Call it what you like," said the Cat. "Do you play croquet
with the Queen to-day? "
"I should like it very much," said Alice, "but I haven't been
invited yet. "
"You'll see me there," said the Cat, and vanished.
Alice was not much surprised at this, she was getting so well
used to queer things happening. While she was still looking at
the place where it had been, it suddenly appeared again.
'By-the-by, what became of the baby? " said the Cat. "I'd
nearly forgotten to ask. "
"It turned into a pig," Alice answered very quietly, just as if
the Cat had come back in a natural way.
"I thought it would," said the Cat, and vanished again.
Alice waited a little, half expecting to see it again, but it did
not appear, and after a minute or two she walked on in the
direction in which the March Hare was said to live. "I've seen
hatters before," she said to herself: "the March Hare will be
much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won't
## p. 3312 (#286) ###########################################
3312
LEWIS CARROLL
―――――
be raving mad - at least not so mad as it was in March. " As
she said this, she looked up, and there was the Cat again, sitting,
on a branch of a tree.
"Did you say pig, or fig? " said the Cat.
"I said pig," replied Alice; "and I wish you wouldn't keep
appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy. "
"All right,” said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite
slowly, beginning with the end of the tail and ending with the
grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.
"Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin," thought Alice;
"but a grin without a cat! -it's the most curious thing I ever
saw in all my life! "
THE MOCK-TURTLE'S EDUCATION
From Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'
"W
<<
HEN we were little," the Mock-Turtle went on at last,
more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and
then, we went to school in the sea. The master was
an old Turtle we used to call him Tortoise- "
"Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one? " Alice
asked.
―――――――
"We called him Tortoise because he taught us," said the
Mock-Turtle angrily; "really you are very dull! "
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself for asking such a sim-
ple question," added the Gryphon; and then they both sat silent
and looked at poor Alice, who felt ready to sink into the earth.
At last the Gryphon said to the Mock-Turtle, "Drive on, old fel-
low! Don't be all day about it! " and he went on in these
words: -
"Yes, we went to school in the sea, though you mayn't
believe it
>>
"I never said I didn't! " interrupted Alice.
"You did," said the Mock-Turtle.
"Hold your tongue! " added the Gryphon, before Alice could
speak again. The Mock-Turtle went on.
"We had the best of educations- in fact, we went to school
every day.
>>
"I've been to a day-school too," said Alice; "you needn't be
so proud as all that. "
## p. 3313 (#287) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3313
"With_extras? " asked the Mock-Turtle a little anxiously.
"Yes," said Alice, "we learned French and music. "
"And washing? " said the Mock-Turtle.
"Certainly not! " said Alice indignantly.
"Ah! then yours wasn't a really good school," said the Mock-
Turtle in a tone of great relief. "Now at ours they had at the
end of the bill, 'French, music, and washing-extra. '"
"You couldn't have wanted it much," said Alice; "living at
the bottom of the sea. "
"I couldn't afford to learn it," said the Mock-Turtle with a
sigh. "I only took the regular course. "
"What was that? " inquired Alice.
'Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with," the Mock-
Turtle replied; "and then the different branches of Arithmetic -
Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision. "
"I never heard of 'Uglification,'" Alice ventured
"What is it? »
to say.
The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in surprise. "Never
heard of uglifying! " it exclaimed. "You know what to beautify
is, I suppose? "
-
"Yes," said Alice, doubtfully; "it means to-make
thing-prettier. "
"Well then," the Gryphon went on, "if you don't know what
to uglify is, you are a simpleton. "
Alice did not feel encouraged to ask any more questions about
it, so she turned to the Mock-Turtle and said, "What else had
you to learn? "
"Well, there was Mystery," the Mock-Turtle replied, counting
off the subjects on his flappers,-"Mystery, ancient and modern,
with Seaography; then Drawling- the Drawling-master was an
old conger-cel, that used to come once a week: he taught us
Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils. "
-
any-
"What was that like? " said Alice.
"Well, I can't show it you, myself," "the Mock-Turtle said:
"I'm too stiff. And the Gryphon never learnt it. "
"Hadn't time," said the Gryphon: "I went to the Classical
master, though. He was an old crab, he was.
"
"I never went to him," the Mock-Turtle said with a sigh:
"he taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say. "
"So he did, so he did," said the Gryphon, sighing in his
turn, and both creatures hid their faces in their paws.
VI-208
## p. 3314 (#288) ###########################################
3314
LEWIS CARROLL
"And how many hours a day did
Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.
you do lessons? " said
"Ten hours the first day," said the Mock-Turtle: "nine the
next, and so on. "
"What a curious plan! " exclaimed Alice.
"That's the reason they're called lessons," the Gryphon re-
marked: "because they lessen from day to day. "
This was quite a new idea to Alice, and she thought it over
a little before she made her next remark. "Then the eleventh
day must have been a holiday? "
"Of course it was," said the Mock-Turtle.
"And how did you manage on the twelfth? " Alice went on
eagerly.
"That's enough about lessons," the Gryphon interrupted in a
very decided tone.
A CLEAR STATEMENT
From Alice in Wonderland ›
HEY told me you had been to her,
And mentioned me to him:
She gave me a good character,
But said I could not swim.
THEY
He sent them word I had not gone
(We know it to be true);
If she should push the matter on,
What would become of you?
I gave her one, they gave him two,
You gave us three or more;
They all returned from him to you,
Though they were mine before.
If I or she should chance to be
Involved in this affair,
He trusts to you to set them free,
Exactly as we were.
My notion was that you had been
(Before she had this fit)
An obstacle that came between
Him, and ourselves, and it.
## p. 3315 (#289) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3315
Don't let him know she liked them best,
For this must ever be
A secret, kept from all the rest,
Between yourself and me.
THE WALRUS AND THE CARPENTER
From Through the Looking-Glass>
HE sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright—
THE
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.
The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done -
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun! »
The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky.
―
No birds were flying overhead -
There were no birds to fly.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand! "
"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear? "
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
"O Oysters, come and walk with us! "
The Walrus did beseech.
## p. 3316 (#290) ###########################################
3316
LEWIS CARROLL
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each. "
The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head —
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.
But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.
Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more -
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
―――
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes- and ships-and sealing wax
Of cabbages-and kings-
And why the sea is boiling hot-
And whether pigs have wings. "
"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat! "
"No hurry! " said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.
―――――
## p. 3317 (#291) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3317
"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar beside
Are very good indeed -
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed. "
"But not on us! " the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do! "
"The night is fine," the Walrus said:
"Do you admire the view? "
"It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice! "
The Carpenter said nothing but
"Cut us another slice:
I wish you were not quite so deaf —
I've had to ask you twice! "
"It seems a shame," the Walrus said,
"To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick! "
The Carpenter said nothing but -
"The butter's spread too thick! "
"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize. "
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.
"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again? "
But answer came there none-
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.
-
## p. 3318 (#292) ###########################################
3318
LEWIS CARROLL
THE BAKER'S TALE
From The Hunting of the Snark
HEY roused him with muffins-they roused him with ice-
THE They roused him with mustard and cress-
They roused him with jam and judicious advice —
They set him conundrums to guess.
When at length he sat up and was able to speak,
His sad story he offered to tell;
And the Bellman cried "Silence! Not even a shriek! "
And excitedly tingled his bell.
There was silence supreme! Not a shriek, not a scream,
Scarcely even a howl or a groan,
As the man they called "Ho! " told his story of woe
In an antediluvian tone.
"My father and mother were honest, though poor—»
"Skip all that! " cried the Bellman in haste.
"If it once becomes dark, there's no chance of a Snark —
We have hardly a minute to waste! "
"I skip forty years," said the Baker, in tears,
"And proceed without further remark
To the day when you took me aboard of your ship
To help you in hunting the Snark.
"A dear uncle of mine (after whom I was named)
Remarked when I bade him farewell—»
"Oh, skip your dear uncle! " the Bellman exclaimed,
As he angrily tingled his bell.
"He remarked to me then," said that mildest of men,-
"If your Snark be a Snark that is right,
Fetch it home by all means you may serve it with greens,
And it's handy for striking a light.
-
--
"You may seek it with thimbles- and seek it with care;
You may hunt it with forks and hope;
You may threaten its life with a railway share;
You may charm it with smiles and soap — › »
(That's exactly the method," the Bellman bold
In a hasty parenthesis cried: -
"That's exactly the way I have always been told
That the capture of Snarks should be tried! ")
## p. 3319 (#293) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3319
"But oh, beamish nephew! beware of the day
If your Snark be a Boojum! For then
You will softly and suddenly vanish away,
And never be met with again! '
"It is this, it is this, that oppresses my soul
When I think of my uncle's last words;
And my heart is like nothing so much as a bowl
Brimming over with quivering curds!
"It is this, it is this"
"We have had that before! "
The Bellman indignantly said.
And the Baker replied: "Let me say it once more;
It is this, it is this that I dread!
-
"I engage with the Snark every night after dark—
In a dreamy delirious fight;
I serve it with greens in those shadowy scenes,
And I use it for striking a light:
"But if ever I meet with a Boojum, that day,
In a moment (of this I am sure),
I shall softly and silently vanish away-
And the notion I cannot endure! "
-
YOU ARE OLD, FATHER WILLIAM
From Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'
"You
ou are old, Father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head-
Do you think, at your age, it is right? "
"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again. "
"You are old," said the youth, «< as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door-
Pray what is the reason of that? "
-
"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his gray locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
## p. 3320 (#294) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3320
By the use of this ointment-one shilling the box-
Allow me to sell you a couple. "
"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak:
Pray, how did you manage to do it? ".
"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life. "
"You are old," said the youth; "one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever:
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose —
What made you so awfully clever? "
"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you down-stairs! "
## p. 3321 (#295) ###########################################
3321
YO
CASANOVA
(JEAN JACQUES CASANOVA DE SEINGALT)
(1725-1803)
HE unique figure of Casanova stands out as a type of all that
was most vicious and most brilliant in the eighteenth cen-
tury. The pre-revolutionary philosophies, filtering through
society, were weakening religious restraints and producing a hypo-
critical conformity to tradition and a new uncertainty which inclined
people to present enjoyment and epicureanism. But even the court
aristocracy, to whom self-indulgence was the rule of life, were
astounded at the unrestraint of Casanova's pleasure-seeking. He pro-
fessed himself a Christian, but during all his vicious career was
never influenced by a conscientious scruple. In a period when social
graces were extolled above all others, when conversation was culti-
vated as a fine art, and when the salon was perhaps the greatest
power in France, he was pre-eminent for talent and charm. His
physical beauty fascinated both men and women; his fearlessness,
often running into a mad bravado which lost no chance to fight,
won him the respect of men. He could be witty in many tongues;
he was an adept in fashionable fads of the day; was supposed to
have a gift for mesmerism, and to be something of a sorcerer.
He could adapt himself to any society, appearing both as the idol
of European courts and a boon companion in low taverns. He had
countless duels and love affairs, and concluded one after another
with the same cynical heartlessness: always a gay soldier of fortune,
experimenting with his various talents; now a diplomat, now an
abbé or popular preacher, and now a writer of political essays.
When Casanova's father, a man of gentle birth, became an actor
and married a pretty actress, Zanetta Farusi, the daughter of an
Italian shoemaker, he hopelessly alienated his family. Jean-Jacques,
their first child, was born in Venice, and during their professional
travels was left there with his grandmother. Her earnest desire was
to educate the beautiful and precocious child; and she economized
from her scanty means until she was able to send him to the Semi-
nary of Saint Cyprian in Venice. He passed his entrance examina-
tions, and studied there for a time, exhibiting unusual ability. Then
at sixteen he was expelled for a disgraceful intrigue, which would
have consigned him to prison but for his mother, whose influence
secured him the protection of Cardinal Acquaviva and a position in
his household, which the boy soon resigned for a gayer life.
## p. 3322 (#296) ###########################################
3322
CASANOVA
After this came a long series of adventurous years, during which
he visited Rome, Naples, Constantinople, and other places, and was
admitted to many orders of chivalry. During these wanderings he
became acquainted with Rousseau and Voltaire; visited the court of
Frederick the Great; went to Russia, where he was smiled upon by
the Empress Catharine II. At Versailles, where he was a familiar
figure, Louis XV. honored him with a personal interview. But even
in a society disposed to be lenient to any one who was amusing,
Casanova incurred disgrace. After becoming notorious over Europe
as a trickster at cards, and for his dissipations, he returned to Ven-
ice in 1755.
There he was as gay and as dissolute as ever, but in his inter-
vals of spare time he wrote a refutation of a work by Amelot de la
Houssaye upon the condition of the Republic. He had hoped it
would reinstate him in public opinion, but it failed to do so, and
before long he was denounced to the government as
a spy and
thrown into prison. In the 'Récit de sa Captivité' (1788) he himself
has told the dramatic story of his confinement in the garret of a
ducal palace, and of his wonderful escape. The hot Italian sun beat-
ing down on the leaden roof added to his discomfort, and he was too
daring and too ingenious to suffer long in patience. With the aid of
an iron bolt which he had sharpened, he bored a hole through the
wall of his cell and gained access to another prisoner, Father Balbi.
For a long time they plotted together, and at last after many ef-
forts and dangers they extricated themselves by way of the roofs.
This feat added greatly to his fame. He was fêted and courted
everywhere, and his extravagances set the fashions for years. But in
spite of the admiration he excited, he was too dangerous a citizen to
be allowed long in a place. He was expelled from Varsovia in con-
sequence of a duel.
Then Paris, and later Madrid, drove him away.
His life of excesses had broken his health, when in 1782 he
attached himself to the Count of Waldstein, a German prince whom
he followed into Bohemia. Soon after, he began the famous 'Mem-
oires,' his chief literary achievement. He wrote several historical
works, a translation in verse of the Iliad, and many political sketches.
Others of his writings, such as Eighty Years Spent among the In-
habitants of the Interior of the Globe,' show him possessed of a
lively imagination. But he evinced especial zest in the preparation.
of the 'Memoires. ' In a style as audacious as his life, strong and
sparkling with wit, he told the strange story of his career.
flects the social habits of his time, the contemporary point of view.
He re-
He lived on in Bohemia until he was seventy-eight, and then he
died at Dux, retaining to the end what Janin terms "his marvelous
instinct for vice and corruption. ”
## p. 3323 (#297) ###########################################
CASANOVA
3323
CASANOVA'S ESCAPE FROM THE DUCAL PALACE
From The Escapes of Casanova and Latude from Prison›
THE
HE greatest comfort to a man in suffering is the hope of a
speedy release. He sighs for the moment when he shall
see the end of his woes; he fancies that his wishes can
hasten it on, and would do anything on earth to know what hour
is fixed for the cessation of his misery: but no one can tell at
what moment an event will happen which depends on the deter-
mination of another, unless that person has announced it. But
the sufferer, who is weak and impatient, is predisposed to be
superstitious. "God," says he, "must know the very moment
when my pain will cease; and God may permit that it should
be revealed to me, never mind how. " When he has once fallen
into this train of argument, he no longer hesitates to try his
fortune by any means his fancy may dictate, if he is more or
less inclined to believe in the revelations of the oracle he hap-
pens to select. This frame of mind is not conspicuously unlike
that of the greater number of those who were wont to consult
the Pythia, or the oaks of Dodona, or of those who, even in our
own day, study the Cabbala, or seek the revelation they hope for
in a verse of the Bible or a line of Virgil;-this indeed has made
the Sortes Virgilianæ famous, of which many writers tell us; or
finally, of those who are firmly convinced that their difficulties
will all be solved by the fortuitous or premeditated arrangement
of a mere pack of cards.
I was in this state of mind. But not knowing what means to
employ to compel Fate to reveal through the Bible the end in
store for me that is to say, the hour at which I should recover
the incomparable blessing of liberty-I resolved to consult the
divine poem of Messer Ludovico Ariosto, 'Orlando Furioso,' which
I knew by heart, and in which I delighted up in my cell. I wor-
shiped the genius of that great poet, and thought him far better
fitted than Virgil to tell my fortune. With this idea I wrote
down a question addressed to the imaginary intelligence, asking
in which canto of Ariosto's poem I should find the day of my
deliverance prophesied. Afterwards I composed an inverted pyra-
mid of the numbers derived from the words in the question, and
by subtracting nine from each pair of figures I had nine for a re-
mainder. I concluded that the prophecy I sought must be in the
## p. 3324 (#298) ###########################################
3324
CASANOVA
ninth canto. I pursued the same method to arrive at the line
and stanza containing the oracle, and I found seven as the num-
ber of the stanza, and one for the line.
I took up the poem, my heart beating as though I really had
the most entire confidence in this oracle. I opened it, turned
over the leaves, and read these words:
"Fra il fin d'Ottobre e il capo di Novembre. »
The perfect appropriateness of the line struck me as so remark-
able that, though I cannot say that I altogether believed in the
oracle, the reader will forgive me if I confess I did my utmost
to verify it. The curious part of the matter is, that between
the last of October and the beginning of November there is but
the one instant of midnight; and it was exactly as the clock
struck midnight on the 31st of October that I quitted my prison,
as the reader will presently learn.
The hour strikes. Hark! the angel!
Soradaci was about to fall on his face, but I assured him that
this was superfluous. In three minutes the hole was pierced
through; the board fell at my feet, and Father Balbi slid into
my arms.
"and now mine begins.
"Your task is done," said I,
We embraced, and he gave me my crowbar and a pair of
scissors. I desired Soradaci to trim our beards, but I could not
help laughing as I saw the creature, open-mouthed, staring at
this strange angel, who looked more like a demon. Though
utterly bewildered, he cut our beards to perfection.
Being impatient to survey the locality, I desired the monk to
remain with Soradaci, for I would not leave him alone, and I
went out. I found the hole rather narrow; however, I got
through. I got above the cell in which the Count lay; I went
down and cordially embraced the venerable gentleman. I saw a
a figure il suited to surmount the difficulties of such an
escape over a steep roof covered with sheet lead. He asked me
what my plan was, and told me that he thought I had been
rather heedless in my action.
man
"I only want to go on," said I, "step by step to liberty or
death. "
"If you imagine," said he, "that you can pierce the roof and
find a way along the leads,- from which, too, you must get
## p. 3325 (#299) ###########################################
CASANOVA
3325
down, I do not see how you can possibly succeed unless you
have wings. I have not courage enough to accompany you. I
shall stay where I am and pray to God for you. "
I left him to inspect the outer roof, getting as close as I
could to the outer side of the loft. Having succeeded in touch-
ing the inside of the rafters at the part where it was lowest, I
perched myself on a beam, such as are to be found under the
roof of every large palace. I poked at the rafters with the end
of my bar, and to my joy found them half-rotten; at each touch
the wood fell in dust. Being sure, therefore, that I could make
a large enough opening in less than an hour, I returned to my
cell and spent the next four hours in cutting up sheets, counter-
panes, and mattress covers, to make ropes of. I took care to tie
all the knots myself, to be sure of their firmness, for a single
knot badly tied would have cost us our life. When all was done
I found we had about a hundred yards of rope. There are cer-
tain things in every great enterprise which are of the highest
importance, and for which a leader worthy of the name trusts
no one.
When the rope was finished, I made a bundle of my coat, my
silk cloak, some shirts, stockings, and handkerchiefs, and we all
three went into the Count's cell. This worthy man first con-
gratulated Soradaci on having been so lucky as to be put in the
same room with me, and being so soon enabled to recover his
freedom. The man's stupid amazement almost made me laugh.
I no longer attempted any concealment, for I had thrown off the
mask of Tartuffe, which I had found most inconvenient while
this villain had compelled me to wear it. I saw that he was
convinced I had deceived him, but he could not understand how;
for he could not imagine how I had communicated with the
sham angel so as to make him come and go at fixed hours. He
was listening eagerly to the Count, who declared we were rush-
ing on our fate; and, coward that he was, he was revolving in
his mind a scheme for avoiding the perilous attempt. I told the
monk to collect his things while I went to make the hole in the
roof of the loft.
-
At two hours after sunset the hole was finished; I had
worked the rafters to powder, and the opening was twice as
large as was needful. I could touch the sheet of lead outside.
I could not raise it single-handed, because it was riveted; the
friar helped me, and by pushing the crowbar between the gutter
## p. 3326 (#300) ###########################################
3326
CASANOVA
and the sheet of lead I detached it; then raising it on our shoul-
ders, we bent it up high enough to allow of our squeezing
through the opening. Putting my head out to reconnoitre, I
saw with dismay how bright the moon was, now in the first
quarter. It was a check which we must endure with patience,
and wait till midnight to escape, when the moon would have
gone to light up the Antipodes. On such a glorious night all
Venice would be out on the Piazza below, and we dared not
venture out on the roof; our shadows cast on the ground would
have attracted attention; our extraordinary appearance up there
would excite general curiosity, and above all, that of Messer
Grande and his spies, the sole guards of Venice. Our fine
scheme would soon have been disturbed by their odious interfer-
ence. I therefore decided positively that we were not to creep
out till the moon had set.
It was time to be off. The moon had set.
## p. 3304 (#278) ###########################################
3304
BLISS CARMAN
in 'Resignation' and 'A More Ancient Mariner. ' His chief defects,
besides the occasional obscurity already referred to, are a tendency
to looseness of structure in his longer poems, and once in a while, as
in parts of 'The Silent Lodger,' a Browningesque lapse into hardness
and baldness when the effect aimed at is colloquial simplicity.
Chart G. D. Nobals
HACK AND HEW
ACK and Hew were the sons of God
In the earlier earth than now;
One at his right hand, one at his left,
To obey as he taught them how.
H
And Hack was blind and Hew was dumb,
But both had the wild, wild heart;
And God's calm will was their burning will,
And the gist of their toil was art.
They made the moon and the belted stars,
They set the sun to ride;
They loosed the girdle and veil of the sea,
The wind and the purple tide.
Both flower and beast beneath their hands
To beauty and speed outgrew,—
The furious fumbling hand of Hack,
And the glorying hand of Hew.
Then, fire and clay, they fashioned a man,
And painted him rosy brown;
And God himself blew hard in his eyes:
"Let them burn till they smolder down! "
And "There! " said Hack, and "There! " thought Hew,
"We'll rest, for our toil is done. "
But "Nay," the Master Workman said,
"For your toil is just begun.
"And ye who served me of old as God
Shall serve me anew as man,
Till I compass the dream that is in my heart
And perfect the vaster plan. "
## p. 3305 (#279) ###########################################
BLISS CARMAN
3305
And still the craftsman over his craft,
In the vague white light of dawn,
With God's calm will for his burning will,
While the mounting day comes on,
Yearning, wind-swift, indolent, wild,
Toils with those shadowy two,—
The faltering restless hand of Hack,
And the tireless hand of Hew.
From Behind the Arras': copyrighted 1895, by Lamson, Wolffe and Company
AT THE GRANITE GATE
HERE paused to shut the door
A fellow called the Wind.
With mystery before,
And reticence behind,
THE
A portal waits me too
In the glad house of spring;
One day I shall pass through
And leave you wondering.
It lies beyond the marge
Of evening or of prime,
Silent and dim and large,
The gateway of all time.
There troop by night and day.
My brothers of the field;
And I shall know the way
Their wood-songs have revealed.
The dusk will hold some trace
Of all my radiant crew
Who vanished to that place,
Ephemeral as dew.
Into the twilight dun,
Blue moth and dragon-fly
Adventuring alone,-
Shall be more brave than I?
There innocents shall bloom,
And the white cherry tree,
With birch and willow plume
To strew the road for me.
## p. 3306 (#280) ###########################################
3306
BLISS CARMAN
The wilding orioles then
Shall make the golden air
Heavy with joy again,
And the dark heart shall dare
Resume the old desire,-
The exigence of spring
To be the orange fire
That tips the world's gray wing.
And the lone wood-bird - Hark!
The whippoorwill, night-long,
Threshing the summer dark
With his dim flail of song! -
Shall be the lyric lift,
When all my senses creep,
To bear me through the rift
In the blue range of sleep.
And so I pass beyond
The solace of your hand.
But ah, so brave and fond!
Within that morrow-land,
Where deed and daring fail,
But joy forevermore
Shall tremble and prevail
Against the narrow door,
Where sorrow knocks too late,
And grief is overdue,
Beyond the granite gate
There will be thoughts of you.
From Behind the Arras': copyrighted 1895, by Lamson, Wolffe and Company
THE
A SEA CHILD
HE lover of child Marjory
Had one white hour of life brim full;
Now the old nurse, the rocking sea,
Hath him to lull.
The daughter of child Marjory
Hath in her veins, to beat and run,
The glad indomitable sea,
The strong white sun.
Copyrighted by Bliss Carman.
## p. 3307 (#281) ###########################################
3307
LEWIS CARROLL
(CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON)
(1832-)
T
HAT the author of the best nonsense-writing in the language
should be a professional mathematician and logician, is not
a paradox but a sequence. A gymnast cannot divert us by
pretending to lose his balance unless perfectly able to keep his
balance. Actors who counterfeit insanity must be acutely sane.
Only a competent classical scholar can write good macaronics; only
a good poet can write clever doggerel. The only ones who can use
slang effectively are those who do not need to use it at all. Nor is
the tone and temper of mind evinced by these dry and severe studies
out of keeping with the airiest play of fancy or the maddest fun.
The one is indeed a frequent relief from the other, and no intellect-
ual bent is related in the least to any special temperament. Extrava-
gant drollery can be mated to an aptitude for geometry or a
passion for analysis as well as to a love of pictures or of horses.
But the parentage of Alice in Wonderland' and its fellows is
closer to their creator's intellectual being even than this. A very
slight glance at their matter and mechanism shows that they are the
work of one trained to use words with the finest precision, to teach
others to use them so, to criticize keenly any inconsistency or
slovenliness in their use, and to mock mercilessly any vagueness
incoherence in thought or diction. The fantastic framework and
inconsequent scenes of these wonder-stories mask from the popular
view the qualities which give them their superlative rank and endur-
ing charm.
The mere machinery, ingenious and amusing as it is, would not
entertain beyond a single reading; it can be and has often been
imitated, along with the incarnated nursery rhymes and old saws.
Yet these grotesque chimeras, under Lewis Carroll's touch, are as
living to us as any characters in Dickens or the 'Ingoldsby Legends,'
and even more so to the elders than the children. Who does not
know and delight in the King and Queen and Knave of Hearts, the
elegant White Rabbit and the conceited and monosyllabic Caterpillar,
the Cheshire Cat and the Mock-Turtle, the March Hare and the
Hatter and the Dormouse; or the chess White King and the Queens
and the White Knight, the Walrus and the Carpenter, of Looking-
Glass Land?
## p. 3308 (#282) ###########################################
3308
LEWIS CARROLL
The very genesis of many of these is the logical analysis of a
popular comparison into sober fact, as "grinning like a Cheshire cat,"
"mad as a hatter" or "March_hare," "sleeping like a dormouse,"
etc. ; and a large part of their wit and fun consists in plays on
ambiguous terms in current use, like the classic "jam every other
day," "French, music, and washing," "The name of the song is
called or in parodies on familiar verses (or on the spirit of
ballads rather than the wording, as in Jabberwocky'), or in heaps
of versified non-sequiturs, like the exquisite poem" read at the trial
of the Knave of Hearts. The analyst and the logician is as patent
in 'Alice' as in the class lectures the author gave or the technical
works he has issued; only turning his criticism and his reductiones
ad absurdum into bases for witty fooling instead of serious lessons or
didactic works. Hence, while his wonder-books are nominally for
children, and please the children through their cheaper and com-
moner qualities, their real audience is the most cultivated and keen-
minded part of the mature world; to whom indeed he speaks almost
exclusively in such passages as the Rabelaisian satire of the jury
trial in Alice in Wonderland,' or the mob in Sylvie and Bruno'
yelling "Less bread! More taxes! " before the Lord Chancellor's
house, or the infinitely touching pathos of the Outlandish Watch.
'Alice in Wonderland' appeared in 1865; it received universal
admiration at once, and was translated into many languages. By
the rarest of good fortune, it was illustrated by an artist (John Ten-
niel) who entered into its spirit so thoroughly that the characters
in popular memory are as much identified with his pictures as with
Lewis Carroll's text, and no other representation of them would be
endured. Through the Looking-Glass' followed in 1871; its prose
matter was almost equal to that of its predecessor, — the chapter of
the White Knight is fully equal to the best of the other, and its
verse is superior. Part of the first book was based on the game of
cards; the whole setting of the second is based on chess moves, and
Alice's progress to queenship along the board. He has published
several books of humorous prose and verse since; some of the verse
equal to the best of his two best books, but the prose generally
spoiled by conscious didacticism, as in Sylvie and Bruno,' which
however contains some of his happiest nonsense verse. The Hunt-
ing of the Snark' is a nonsense tale in verse, but oddly the best
things in it are his prose tags. Rhyme and Reason' is a collection
of verse, some of it of high merit in its kind: The Three Voices' is
spun out and ill-ended, but has some passages which deserve to be
classic.
«<
Lewis Carroll is in fact the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who
(disliking publicity) lives in retirement at Oxford, and the world
## p. 3309 (#283) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3309
knows little of him. He was born in 1833 and received his degree
in Christ Church, Oxford, with high honors in mathematics. In 1861
he took orders in the Church of England. From 1855 to 1881 he
was mathematical lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford. He has pub-
lished several works on mathematics, including 'Euclid and His
Modern Rivals,' and 'Mathematica Curiosa,' a very valuable work.
'A Tangled Tale,' 'Pillow Problems,' and a 'Game of Logic' are
scientific and humorous, but are only appreciated by experts in
mathematics and logic. Delighted with Alice in Wonderland' on
its appearance, Queen Victoria asked Mr. Dodgson for his other
works; and in response "Lewis Carroll» sent her his 'Elementary
Treatise on Determinants' and other mathematical works. It is sel-
dom that the dualism of a mind-writing now nonsense so thor-
oughly and vigorously witty, and now exploring the intricacies of
higher mathematics - has a more curious illustration. Certainly the
illustration is seldom as diverting to the public.
(
ALICE, THE PIG-BABY, AND THE CHESHIRE CAT
From Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'
"H
ERE! you may nurse it a bit, if you like! " said the Duchess
to Alice, flinging the baby at her as she spoke. "I must
go and get ready to play croquet with the Queen," and
she hurried out of the room. The cook threw a frying-pan after
her as she went, but it just missed her.
Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a queer-
shaped little creature, and held out its arms and legs in all
directions,-"just like a star-fish," thought Alice. The poor little
thing was snorting like a steam-engine when she caught it, and
kept doubling itself up and straightening itself out again; so
that altogether, for the first minute or two, it was as much as
she could do to hold it.
As soon as she had made out the proper way of nursing it,
(which was to twist it up into a sort of knot, and then keep
tight hold of its right ear and left foot, so as to prevent its
undoing itself), she carried it out into the open air. "If I don't
take this child away with me," thought Alice, "they're sure to
kill it in a day or two: wouldn't it be murder to leave it
behind? " She said the last words out loud, and the little thing
grunted in reply (it had left off sneezing by this time).
grunt," said Alice: "that's not at all the proper way of express-
ing yourself. "
"Don't
## p. 3310 (#284) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3310
The baby grunted again, and Alice looked very anxiously into
its face to see what was the matter with it. There could be no
doubt that it had a very turn-up nose, much more like a snout
than a real nose; also its eyes were getting extremely small, for
a baby: altogether, Alice did not like the look of the thing at
all,—“but perhaps it was only sobbing," she thought, and looked
into its eyes again, to see if there were any tears.
No, there were no tears. "If you're going to turn into a pig,
my dear," said Alice, seriously, "I'll have nothing more to do
with you.
Mind now! " The poor little thing sobbed again (or
grunted, it was impossible to say which), and they went on for
some while in silence.
Alice was just beginning to think to herself, "Now, what am
I to do with this creature when I get it home? " when it grunted
again, so violently that she looked down into its face in some
alarm. This time there could be no mistake about it: it was
neither more nor less than a pig, and she felt that it would be
quite absurd for her to carry it any further.
So she set the little creature down, and felt quite relieved to
see it trot away quietly into the wood. "If it had grown up,"
she said to herself, "it would have been a dreadfully ugly child:
but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think. " And she began
thinking over other children she knew, who might do very well
as pigs, and was just saying to herself, "If one only knew the
right way to change them » when she was a little startled by
seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards
off.
The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-
natured, she thought: still it had very long claws and a great
many teeth, so she felt it ought to be treated with respect.
"Cheshire Puss," she began,- rather timidly, as she did not at
all know whether it would like the name: however, it only
grinned a little wider. Come, it's pleased so far," thought
Alice, and she went on: "Would you tell me, please, which way
I ought to walk from here? "
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,”
said the Cat.
"I don't much care where- » said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you walk," said the Cat.
«<
-so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explana-
tion.
-
## p. 3311 (#285) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3311
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk
long enough. "
Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another
question. "What sort of people live about here? "
"In that direction," the Cat said, waving its right paw round,
"lives a Hatter; and in that direction," waving the other paw,
"lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad. "
"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: " we are all mad
I'm mad. You're mad. "
here.
"How do you know I'm mad? " said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come
here. "
Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on,
"And how do you know that you're mad? »
You grant
"To begin with," said the Cat, "a dog's not mad.
that?
"I suppose so,
» said Alice.
"Well then," the Cat went on, "you see a dog growls when
it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl
when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore
I'm mad. "
"I call it purring, not growling," said
Alice.
«
"Call it what you like," said the Cat. "Do you play croquet
with the Queen to-day? "
"I should like it very much," said Alice, "but I haven't been
invited yet. "
"You'll see me there," said the Cat, and vanished.
Alice was not much surprised at this, she was getting so well
used to queer things happening. While she was still looking at
the place where it had been, it suddenly appeared again.
'By-the-by, what became of the baby? " said the Cat. "I'd
nearly forgotten to ask. "
"It turned into a pig," Alice answered very quietly, just as if
the Cat had come back in a natural way.
"I thought it would," said the Cat, and vanished again.
Alice waited a little, half expecting to see it again, but it did
not appear, and after a minute or two she walked on in the
direction in which the March Hare was said to live. "I've seen
hatters before," she said to herself: "the March Hare will be
much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won't
## p. 3312 (#286) ###########################################
3312
LEWIS CARROLL
―――――
be raving mad - at least not so mad as it was in March. " As
she said this, she looked up, and there was the Cat again, sitting,
on a branch of a tree.
"Did you say pig, or fig? " said the Cat.
"I said pig," replied Alice; "and I wish you wouldn't keep
appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy. "
"All right,” said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite
slowly, beginning with the end of the tail and ending with the
grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.
"Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin," thought Alice;
"but a grin without a cat! -it's the most curious thing I ever
saw in all my life! "
THE MOCK-TURTLE'S EDUCATION
From Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'
"W
<<
HEN we were little," the Mock-Turtle went on at last,
more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and
then, we went to school in the sea. The master was
an old Turtle we used to call him Tortoise- "
"Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one? " Alice
asked.
―――――――
"We called him Tortoise because he taught us," said the
Mock-Turtle angrily; "really you are very dull! "
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself for asking such a sim-
ple question," added the Gryphon; and then they both sat silent
and looked at poor Alice, who felt ready to sink into the earth.
At last the Gryphon said to the Mock-Turtle, "Drive on, old fel-
low! Don't be all day about it! " and he went on in these
words: -
"Yes, we went to school in the sea, though you mayn't
believe it
>>
"I never said I didn't! " interrupted Alice.
"You did," said the Mock-Turtle.
"Hold your tongue! " added the Gryphon, before Alice could
speak again. The Mock-Turtle went on.
"We had the best of educations- in fact, we went to school
every day.
>>
"I've been to a day-school too," said Alice; "you needn't be
so proud as all that. "
## p. 3313 (#287) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3313
"With_extras? " asked the Mock-Turtle a little anxiously.
"Yes," said Alice, "we learned French and music. "
"And washing? " said the Mock-Turtle.
"Certainly not! " said Alice indignantly.
"Ah! then yours wasn't a really good school," said the Mock-
Turtle in a tone of great relief. "Now at ours they had at the
end of the bill, 'French, music, and washing-extra. '"
"You couldn't have wanted it much," said Alice; "living at
the bottom of the sea. "
"I couldn't afford to learn it," said the Mock-Turtle with a
sigh. "I only took the regular course. "
"What was that? " inquired Alice.
'Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with," the Mock-
Turtle replied; "and then the different branches of Arithmetic -
Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision. "
"I never heard of 'Uglification,'" Alice ventured
"What is it? »
to say.
The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in surprise. "Never
heard of uglifying! " it exclaimed. "You know what to beautify
is, I suppose? "
-
"Yes," said Alice, doubtfully; "it means to-make
thing-prettier. "
"Well then," the Gryphon went on, "if you don't know what
to uglify is, you are a simpleton. "
Alice did not feel encouraged to ask any more questions about
it, so she turned to the Mock-Turtle and said, "What else had
you to learn? "
"Well, there was Mystery," the Mock-Turtle replied, counting
off the subjects on his flappers,-"Mystery, ancient and modern,
with Seaography; then Drawling- the Drawling-master was an
old conger-cel, that used to come once a week: he taught us
Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils. "
-
any-
"What was that like? " said Alice.
"Well, I can't show it you, myself," "the Mock-Turtle said:
"I'm too stiff. And the Gryphon never learnt it. "
"Hadn't time," said the Gryphon: "I went to the Classical
master, though. He was an old crab, he was.
"
"I never went to him," the Mock-Turtle said with a sigh:
"he taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say. "
"So he did, so he did," said the Gryphon, sighing in his
turn, and both creatures hid their faces in their paws.
VI-208
## p. 3314 (#288) ###########################################
3314
LEWIS CARROLL
"And how many hours a day did
Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.
you do lessons? " said
"Ten hours the first day," said the Mock-Turtle: "nine the
next, and so on. "
"What a curious plan! " exclaimed Alice.
"That's the reason they're called lessons," the Gryphon re-
marked: "because they lessen from day to day. "
This was quite a new idea to Alice, and she thought it over
a little before she made her next remark. "Then the eleventh
day must have been a holiday? "
"Of course it was," said the Mock-Turtle.
"And how did you manage on the twelfth? " Alice went on
eagerly.
"That's enough about lessons," the Gryphon interrupted in a
very decided tone.
A CLEAR STATEMENT
From Alice in Wonderland ›
HEY told me you had been to her,
And mentioned me to him:
She gave me a good character,
But said I could not swim.
THEY
He sent them word I had not gone
(We know it to be true);
If she should push the matter on,
What would become of you?
I gave her one, they gave him two,
You gave us three or more;
They all returned from him to you,
Though they were mine before.
If I or she should chance to be
Involved in this affair,
He trusts to you to set them free,
Exactly as we were.
My notion was that you had been
(Before she had this fit)
An obstacle that came between
Him, and ourselves, and it.
## p. 3315 (#289) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3315
Don't let him know she liked them best,
For this must ever be
A secret, kept from all the rest,
Between yourself and me.
THE WALRUS AND THE CARPENTER
From Through the Looking-Glass>
HE sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright—
THE
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.
The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done -
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun! »
The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky.
―
No birds were flying overhead -
There were no birds to fly.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand! "
"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear? "
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
"O Oysters, come and walk with us! "
The Walrus did beseech.
## p. 3316 (#290) ###########################################
3316
LEWIS CARROLL
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each. "
The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head —
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.
But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.
Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more -
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
―――
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes- and ships-and sealing wax
Of cabbages-and kings-
And why the sea is boiling hot-
And whether pigs have wings. "
"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat! "
"No hurry! " said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.
―――――
## p. 3317 (#291) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3317
"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar beside
Are very good indeed -
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed. "
"But not on us! " the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do! "
"The night is fine," the Walrus said:
"Do you admire the view? "
"It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice! "
The Carpenter said nothing but
"Cut us another slice:
I wish you were not quite so deaf —
I've had to ask you twice! "
"It seems a shame," the Walrus said,
"To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick! "
The Carpenter said nothing but -
"The butter's spread too thick! "
"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize. "
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.
"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again? "
But answer came there none-
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.
-
## p. 3318 (#292) ###########################################
3318
LEWIS CARROLL
THE BAKER'S TALE
From The Hunting of the Snark
HEY roused him with muffins-they roused him with ice-
THE They roused him with mustard and cress-
They roused him with jam and judicious advice —
They set him conundrums to guess.
When at length he sat up and was able to speak,
His sad story he offered to tell;
And the Bellman cried "Silence! Not even a shriek! "
And excitedly tingled his bell.
There was silence supreme! Not a shriek, not a scream,
Scarcely even a howl or a groan,
As the man they called "Ho! " told his story of woe
In an antediluvian tone.
"My father and mother were honest, though poor—»
"Skip all that! " cried the Bellman in haste.
"If it once becomes dark, there's no chance of a Snark —
We have hardly a minute to waste! "
"I skip forty years," said the Baker, in tears,
"And proceed without further remark
To the day when you took me aboard of your ship
To help you in hunting the Snark.
"A dear uncle of mine (after whom I was named)
Remarked when I bade him farewell—»
"Oh, skip your dear uncle! " the Bellman exclaimed,
As he angrily tingled his bell.
"He remarked to me then," said that mildest of men,-
"If your Snark be a Snark that is right,
Fetch it home by all means you may serve it with greens,
And it's handy for striking a light.
-
--
"You may seek it with thimbles- and seek it with care;
You may hunt it with forks and hope;
You may threaten its life with a railway share;
You may charm it with smiles and soap — › »
(That's exactly the method," the Bellman bold
In a hasty parenthesis cried: -
"That's exactly the way I have always been told
That the capture of Snarks should be tried! ")
## p. 3319 (#293) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3319
"But oh, beamish nephew! beware of the day
If your Snark be a Boojum! For then
You will softly and suddenly vanish away,
And never be met with again! '
"It is this, it is this, that oppresses my soul
When I think of my uncle's last words;
And my heart is like nothing so much as a bowl
Brimming over with quivering curds!
"It is this, it is this"
"We have had that before! "
The Bellman indignantly said.
And the Baker replied: "Let me say it once more;
It is this, it is this that I dread!
-
"I engage with the Snark every night after dark—
In a dreamy delirious fight;
I serve it with greens in those shadowy scenes,
And I use it for striking a light:
"But if ever I meet with a Boojum, that day,
In a moment (of this I am sure),
I shall softly and silently vanish away-
And the notion I cannot endure! "
-
YOU ARE OLD, FATHER WILLIAM
From Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'
"You
ou are old, Father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head-
Do you think, at your age, it is right? "
"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again. "
"You are old," said the youth, «< as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door-
Pray what is the reason of that? "
-
"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his gray locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
## p. 3320 (#294) ###########################################
LEWIS CARROLL
3320
By the use of this ointment-one shilling the box-
Allow me to sell you a couple. "
"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak:
Pray, how did you manage to do it? ".
"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life. "
"You are old," said the youth; "one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever:
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose —
What made you so awfully clever? "
"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you down-stairs! "
## p. 3321 (#295) ###########################################
3321
YO
CASANOVA
(JEAN JACQUES CASANOVA DE SEINGALT)
(1725-1803)
HE unique figure of Casanova stands out as a type of all that
was most vicious and most brilliant in the eighteenth cen-
tury. The pre-revolutionary philosophies, filtering through
society, were weakening religious restraints and producing a hypo-
critical conformity to tradition and a new uncertainty which inclined
people to present enjoyment and epicureanism. But even the court
aristocracy, to whom self-indulgence was the rule of life, were
astounded at the unrestraint of Casanova's pleasure-seeking. He pro-
fessed himself a Christian, but during all his vicious career was
never influenced by a conscientious scruple. In a period when social
graces were extolled above all others, when conversation was culti-
vated as a fine art, and when the salon was perhaps the greatest
power in France, he was pre-eminent for talent and charm. His
physical beauty fascinated both men and women; his fearlessness,
often running into a mad bravado which lost no chance to fight,
won him the respect of men. He could be witty in many tongues;
he was an adept in fashionable fads of the day; was supposed to
have a gift for mesmerism, and to be something of a sorcerer.
He could adapt himself to any society, appearing both as the idol
of European courts and a boon companion in low taverns. He had
countless duels and love affairs, and concluded one after another
with the same cynical heartlessness: always a gay soldier of fortune,
experimenting with his various talents; now a diplomat, now an
abbé or popular preacher, and now a writer of political essays.
When Casanova's father, a man of gentle birth, became an actor
and married a pretty actress, Zanetta Farusi, the daughter of an
Italian shoemaker, he hopelessly alienated his family. Jean-Jacques,
their first child, was born in Venice, and during their professional
travels was left there with his grandmother. Her earnest desire was
to educate the beautiful and precocious child; and she economized
from her scanty means until she was able to send him to the Semi-
nary of Saint Cyprian in Venice. He passed his entrance examina-
tions, and studied there for a time, exhibiting unusual ability. Then
at sixteen he was expelled for a disgraceful intrigue, which would
have consigned him to prison but for his mother, whose influence
secured him the protection of Cardinal Acquaviva and a position in
his household, which the boy soon resigned for a gayer life.
## p. 3322 (#296) ###########################################
3322
CASANOVA
After this came a long series of adventurous years, during which
he visited Rome, Naples, Constantinople, and other places, and was
admitted to many orders of chivalry. During these wanderings he
became acquainted with Rousseau and Voltaire; visited the court of
Frederick the Great; went to Russia, where he was smiled upon by
the Empress Catharine II. At Versailles, where he was a familiar
figure, Louis XV. honored him with a personal interview. But even
in a society disposed to be lenient to any one who was amusing,
Casanova incurred disgrace. After becoming notorious over Europe
as a trickster at cards, and for his dissipations, he returned to Ven-
ice in 1755.
There he was as gay and as dissolute as ever, but in his inter-
vals of spare time he wrote a refutation of a work by Amelot de la
Houssaye upon the condition of the Republic. He had hoped it
would reinstate him in public opinion, but it failed to do so, and
before long he was denounced to the government as
a spy and
thrown into prison. In the 'Récit de sa Captivité' (1788) he himself
has told the dramatic story of his confinement in the garret of a
ducal palace, and of his wonderful escape. The hot Italian sun beat-
ing down on the leaden roof added to his discomfort, and he was too
daring and too ingenious to suffer long in patience. With the aid of
an iron bolt which he had sharpened, he bored a hole through the
wall of his cell and gained access to another prisoner, Father Balbi.
For a long time they plotted together, and at last after many ef-
forts and dangers they extricated themselves by way of the roofs.
This feat added greatly to his fame. He was fêted and courted
everywhere, and his extravagances set the fashions for years. But in
spite of the admiration he excited, he was too dangerous a citizen to
be allowed long in a place. He was expelled from Varsovia in con-
sequence of a duel.
Then Paris, and later Madrid, drove him away.
His life of excesses had broken his health, when in 1782 he
attached himself to the Count of Waldstein, a German prince whom
he followed into Bohemia. Soon after, he began the famous 'Mem-
oires,' his chief literary achievement. He wrote several historical
works, a translation in verse of the Iliad, and many political sketches.
Others of his writings, such as Eighty Years Spent among the In-
habitants of the Interior of the Globe,' show him possessed of a
lively imagination. But he evinced especial zest in the preparation.
of the 'Memoires. ' In a style as audacious as his life, strong and
sparkling with wit, he told the strange story of his career.
flects the social habits of his time, the contemporary point of view.
He re-
He lived on in Bohemia until he was seventy-eight, and then he
died at Dux, retaining to the end what Janin terms "his marvelous
instinct for vice and corruption. ”
## p. 3323 (#297) ###########################################
CASANOVA
3323
CASANOVA'S ESCAPE FROM THE DUCAL PALACE
From The Escapes of Casanova and Latude from Prison›
THE
HE greatest comfort to a man in suffering is the hope of a
speedy release. He sighs for the moment when he shall
see the end of his woes; he fancies that his wishes can
hasten it on, and would do anything on earth to know what hour
is fixed for the cessation of his misery: but no one can tell at
what moment an event will happen which depends on the deter-
mination of another, unless that person has announced it. But
the sufferer, who is weak and impatient, is predisposed to be
superstitious. "God," says he, "must know the very moment
when my pain will cease; and God may permit that it should
be revealed to me, never mind how. " When he has once fallen
into this train of argument, he no longer hesitates to try his
fortune by any means his fancy may dictate, if he is more or
less inclined to believe in the revelations of the oracle he hap-
pens to select. This frame of mind is not conspicuously unlike
that of the greater number of those who were wont to consult
the Pythia, or the oaks of Dodona, or of those who, even in our
own day, study the Cabbala, or seek the revelation they hope for
in a verse of the Bible or a line of Virgil;-this indeed has made
the Sortes Virgilianæ famous, of which many writers tell us; or
finally, of those who are firmly convinced that their difficulties
will all be solved by the fortuitous or premeditated arrangement
of a mere pack of cards.
I was in this state of mind. But not knowing what means to
employ to compel Fate to reveal through the Bible the end in
store for me that is to say, the hour at which I should recover
the incomparable blessing of liberty-I resolved to consult the
divine poem of Messer Ludovico Ariosto, 'Orlando Furioso,' which
I knew by heart, and in which I delighted up in my cell. I wor-
shiped the genius of that great poet, and thought him far better
fitted than Virgil to tell my fortune. With this idea I wrote
down a question addressed to the imaginary intelligence, asking
in which canto of Ariosto's poem I should find the day of my
deliverance prophesied. Afterwards I composed an inverted pyra-
mid of the numbers derived from the words in the question, and
by subtracting nine from each pair of figures I had nine for a re-
mainder. I concluded that the prophecy I sought must be in the
## p. 3324 (#298) ###########################################
3324
CASANOVA
ninth canto. I pursued the same method to arrive at the line
and stanza containing the oracle, and I found seven as the num-
ber of the stanza, and one for the line.
I took up the poem, my heart beating as though I really had
the most entire confidence in this oracle. I opened it, turned
over the leaves, and read these words:
"Fra il fin d'Ottobre e il capo di Novembre. »
The perfect appropriateness of the line struck me as so remark-
able that, though I cannot say that I altogether believed in the
oracle, the reader will forgive me if I confess I did my utmost
to verify it. The curious part of the matter is, that between
the last of October and the beginning of November there is but
the one instant of midnight; and it was exactly as the clock
struck midnight on the 31st of October that I quitted my prison,
as the reader will presently learn.
The hour strikes. Hark! the angel!
Soradaci was about to fall on his face, but I assured him that
this was superfluous. In three minutes the hole was pierced
through; the board fell at my feet, and Father Balbi slid into
my arms.
"and now mine begins.
"Your task is done," said I,
We embraced, and he gave me my crowbar and a pair of
scissors. I desired Soradaci to trim our beards, but I could not
help laughing as I saw the creature, open-mouthed, staring at
this strange angel, who looked more like a demon. Though
utterly bewildered, he cut our beards to perfection.
Being impatient to survey the locality, I desired the monk to
remain with Soradaci, for I would not leave him alone, and I
went out. I found the hole rather narrow; however, I got
through. I got above the cell in which the Count lay; I went
down and cordially embraced the venerable gentleman. I saw a
a figure il suited to surmount the difficulties of such an
escape over a steep roof covered with sheet lead. He asked me
what my plan was, and told me that he thought I had been
rather heedless in my action.
man
"I only want to go on," said I, "step by step to liberty or
death. "
"If you imagine," said he, "that you can pierce the roof and
find a way along the leads,- from which, too, you must get
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3325
down, I do not see how you can possibly succeed unless you
have wings. I have not courage enough to accompany you. I
shall stay where I am and pray to God for you. "
I left him to inspect the outer roof, getting as close as I
could to the outer side of the loft. Having succeeded in touch-
ing the inside of the rafters at the part where it was lowest, I
perched myself on a beam, such as are to be found under the
roof of every large palace. I poked at the rafters with the end
of my bar, and to my joy found them half-rotten; at each touch
the wood fell in dust. Being sure, therefore, that I could make
a large enough opening in less than an hour, I returned to my
cell and spent the next four hours in cutting up sheets, counter-
panes, and mattress covers, to make ropes of. I took care to tie
all the knots myself, to be sure of their firmness, for a single
knot badly tied would have cost us our life. When all was done
I found we had about a hundred yards of rope. There are cer-
tain things in every great enterprise which are of the highest
importance, and for which a leader worthy of the name trusts
no one.
When the rope was finished, I made a bundle of my coat, my
silk cloak, some shirts, stockings, and handkerchiefs, and we all
three went into the Count's cell. This worthy man first con-
gratulated Soradaci on having been so lucky as to be put in the
same room with me, and being so soon enabled to recover his
freedom. The man's stupid amazement almost made me laugh.
I no longer attempted any concealment, for I had thrown off the
mask of Tartuffe, which I had found most inconvenient while
this villain had compelled me to wear it. I saw that he was
convinced I had deceived him, but he could not understand how;
for he could not imagine how I had communicated with the
sham angel so as to make him come and go at fixed hours. He
was listening eagerly to the Count, who declared we were rush-
ing on our fate; and, coward that he was, he was revolving in
his mind a scheme for avoiding the perilous attempt. I told the
monk to collect his things while I went to make the hole in the
roof of the loft.
-
At two hours after sunset the hole was finished; I had
worked the rafters to powder, and the opening was twice as
large as was needful. I could touch the sheet of lead outside.
I could not raise it single-handed, because it was riveted; the
friar helped me, and by pushing the crowbar between the gutter
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and the sheet of lead I detached it; then raising it on our shoul-
ders, we bent it up high enough to allow of our squeezing
through the opening. Putting my head out to reconnoitre, I
saw with dismay how bright the moon was, now in the first
quarter. It was a check which we must endure with patience,
and wait till midnight to escape, when the moon would have
gone to light up the Antipodes. On such a glorious night all
Venice would be out on the Piazza below, and we dared not
venture out on the roof; our shadows cast on the ground would
have attracted attention; our extraordinary appearance up there
would excite general curiosity, and above all, that of Messer
Grande and his spies, the sole guards of Venice. Our fine
scheme would soon have been disturbed by their odious interfer-
ence. I therefore decided positively that we were not to creep
out till the moon had set.
It was time to be off. The moon had set.
