Allow me to request
your honorable attention for these modest products of my own
ingenuity.
your honorable attention for these modest products of my own
ingenuity.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v14 - Ibn to Juv
) or to fall down and worship.
She asked for a
little money. I saw that she was beautiful and pale. She might
have stepped out of the stable of Bethlehem! I gave her money
and helped her on her way into the town. I had guessed her
story. She too was a maiden mother, and she had been turned
out into the world in her shame. I felt in all my pulses that
here was my subject marvelously realized. I felt like one of the
old convent artists who had had a vision. I rescued the poor
creatures, cherished them, watched them as I would have done
some precious work of art, some lovely fragment of fresco dis-
covered in a moldering cloister. In a month as if to deepen
and consecrate the pathos of it all — the poor little child died.
When she felt that he was going, she held him up to me for ten
minutes, and I made that sketch. You saw a feverish haste in
it, I suppose: I wanted to spare the poor little mortal the pain
## p. 8096 (#296) ###########################################
8096
HENRY JAMES
of his position. After that, I doubly valued the mother. She is
the simplest, sweetest, most natural creature that ever bloomed
in this brave old land of Italy. She lives in the memory of her
child, in her gratitude for the scanty kindness I have been able
to show her, and in her simple religion! She's not even con-
scious of her beauty; my admiration has never made her vain.
Heaven knows I've made no secret of it. You must have
observed the singular transparency of her expression, the lovely
modesty of her glance. And was there ever such a truly vir-
ginal brow, such a natural classic elegance in the wave of the
hair and the arch of the forehead ? I've studied her; I may say
I know her. I've absorbed her little by little; my mind is
stamped and imbued, and I have determined now to clinch the
impression: I shall at last invite her to sit for me! ”
« (At last '—'at last'? ” I repeated in much amazement. Do
you mean that she has never done so yet ? ”
"I've not really had -a- a sitting,” said Theobald, speaking
very slowly. "I've taken notes, you know; I've got my grand
fundamental impression. That's the great thing! But I've not
actually had her as a model, posed and draped and lighted, before
my easel. ”
(
»
«Are you
What had become for the moment of my perception and my
tact, I am at a loss to say; in their absence I was unable to
repress headlong exclamation. I was destined to regret it. We
had stopped at a turning, beneath a lamp. "My poor friend,” I
exclaimed, laying my hand on his shoulder, "you've dawdled!
She's an old, old woman for a Madonna! ”
It was as if I had brutally struck him; I shall never forget
the long, slow, almost ghastly look of pain with which he
,
answered me. “Dawdled — old, old! ” he stammered.
joking ? ”
“Why, my dear fellow, I suppose you don't take the woman
for twenty ? ”
He drew a long breath and leaned against a house, looking at
me with questioning, protesting, reproachful eyes; at last, starting
forward and grasping my arm - "Answer me solemnly: does she
seem to you truly old ? Is she wrinkled, is she faded, am I
blind ? »
Then at last I understood the immensity of his illusion;
how one by one the noiseless years had ebbed away, and left
him brooding in charmed inaction, forever preparing for a work
## p. 8097 (#297) ###########################################
HENRY JAMES
8097
>
(
>
« Old
forever deferred. It seemed to me almost a kindness now to
tell him the plain truth. “I should be sorry to say you're blind,”
I answered, but I think you're deceived. You've lost time in
effortless contemplation. Your friend was once young and fresh
and virginal; but I protest that was some years ago. Still, she
has de beaux restes ! By all means make her sit for you! " I
broke down: his face was too horribly reproachful.
He took off his hat and stood passing his handkerchief me-
chanically over his forehead. “De beaux restes ? I thank you for
sparing me the plain English. I must make up my Madonna out
of de beaux restes! What a masterpiece she'll be! Old-old !
Old — old! ” he murmured.
“Never mind her age,” I cried, revolted at what I had done,
never mind my impression of her! You have your memory,
your notes, your genius. Finish your picture in a month. I pro-
claim it beforehand a masterpiece, and I hereby offer you for it
any sum you may choose to ask. ”
He stared, but he seemed scarcely to understand me.
- old! ” he kept stupidly repeating. "If she is old, what am I?
.
If her beauty has faded, where - where is my strength ? Has life
been a dream ? Have I worshiped too long, - have I loved too
well ? » The charm, in truth, was broken. That the chord of
illusion should have snapped at my light, accidental touch showed
how it had been weakened by excessive tension. The poor fellow's
sense of wasted time, of vanished opportunity, seemed to roll in
upon his soul in waves of darkness. He suddenly dropped his
head and burst into tears.
I led him homeward with all possible tenderness; but I at-
tempted neither to check his grief, to restore his equanimity, nor
to unsay the hard truth. When we reached my hotel I tried to
induce him to come in. « We'll drink a glass of wine," I said,
smiling, “to the completion of the Madonna. "
With a violent effort he held up his head, mused for a
moment with a formidably sombre frown, and then giving me
his hand, I'll finish it,” he cried, in a month! No, in a fort-
night! After all, I have it here ! ” and he tapped his forehead.
“Of course she's old! She can afford to have it said of her
a woman who has made twenty years pass like a twelvemonth!
Old-old! Why, sir, she shall be eternal! »
I wished to see him safely to his own door; but he waved me
back and walked away with an air of resolution, whistling and
XIV-507
## p. 8098 (#298) ###########################################
8098
HENRY JAMES
swinging his cane. I waited a moment, and then followed him
at a distance, and saw him proceed to cross the Santa Trinità
Bridge. When he reached the middle he suddenly paused, as if
his strength had deserted him, and leaned upon the parapet gaz-
ing over into the river. I was careful to keep him in sight; I
confess that I passed ten very nervous minutes. He recovered
himself at last, and went his way, slowly and with hanging head.
That I should have really startled poor Theobald into a bolder
use of his long-garnered stores of knowledge and taste, into the
vulgar effort and hazard of production, seemed at first reason
enough for his continued silence and absence; but as day fol-
lowed day without his either calling or sending me a line, and
without my meeting him in his customary haunts,-in the gal-
leries, in the chapel at San Lorenzo, or strolling between the
Arno-side and the great hedge screen of verdure which, along
the drive of the Cascine, throws the fair occupants of barouche
and phaeton into such becoming relief,- as for more than a week
I got neither tidings nor sight of him, I began to fear that I had
fatally offended him; and that instead of giving wholesome im-
petus to his talent, I had brutally paralyzed it. I had a wretched
I
suspicion that I had made him ill. My stay at Florence was
drawing to a close; and it was important that before resuming
my journey I should assure myself of the truth. Theobald to
the last had kept his lodging a mystery, and I was altogether at
a loss where to look for him. The simplest course was to make
inquiry of the beauty of the Mercato Vecchio; and I confess that
unsatisfied curiosity as to the lady herself counseled it as well.
Perhaps I had done her injustice, and she was as immortally
fresh and fair as he conceived her. I was at any rate anxious
to behold once more the ripe enchantress who had made twenty
years pass as a twelvemonth. I repaired accordingly one morn-
ing to her abode, climbed the interminable staircase, and reached
her door. It stood ajar; and as I hesitated whether to enter, a
little serving-maid came clattering out with an empty kettle, as
if she had just performed some savory errand. The inner door
too was open; so I crossed the little vestibule and entered the
room in which I had formerly been received. It had not its
evening aspect. The table, or one end of it, was spread for a
late breakfast; and before it sat a gentleman -- an individual
at least of the male sex - dealing justice upon a beefsteak and
onions and a bottle of wine. At his elbow, in friendly proximity,
## p. 8099 (#299) ###########################################
HENRY JAMES
8099
was placed the lady of the house. Her attitude as I entered was
not that of an enchantress. With one hand she held in her lap
a plate of smoking macaroni; with the other she had lifted high
in air one of the pendulous filaments of this succulent compound,
and was in the act of slipping it gently down her throat. On the
uncovered end of the table, facing her companion, were ranged
half a dozen small statuettes, of some snuff-colored substance re-
sembling terra-cotta. He, brandishing his knife with ardor, was
apparently descanting on their merits.
Evidently I darkened the door. My hostess dropped her mac-
aroni — into her mouth, and rose hastily with a harsh exclama-
tion and a flushed face. I immediately perceived that the Signora
Serafina's secret was even better worth knowing than I had sup-
posed, and that the way to learn it was to take it for granted.
I summoned my best Italian, I smiled and bowed and apologized
for my intrusion; and in a moment, whether or no I had dispelled
the lady's irritation, I had at least stimulated her prudence. I
was welcome, she said; I must take a seat. This was another
friend of hers also an artist, she declared with a smile which
was almost amiable. Her companion wiped his mustache and
bowed with great civility. I saw at a glance that he was equal
to the situation. He was presumably the author of the statuettes
on the table, and he knew a money-spending forestiere when he
He was a small, wiry man, with a clever, impudent,
tossed-up nose, a sharp little black eye, and waxed ends to his
mustache. On the side of his head he wore jauntily a little crim-
son velvet smoking-cap, and I observed that his feet were incased
in brilliant slippers. On Serafina’s remarking with dignity that
I was the friend of Mr. Theobald, he broke out into that fantastic
French of which Italians are so insistently lavish, and declared
with fervor that Mr. Theobald was a magnificent genius.
"I'm sure I don't know," I answered with a shrug. "If you're
in a position to affirm it, you have the advantage of me. I've
seen nothing from his hand but the bambino yonder, which cer-
tainly is fine. ”
He declared that the bambino was a masterpiece, a pure Cor-
reggio. It was only a pity, he added with a knowing laugh, that
the sketch had not been made on some good bit of honeycombed
old panel.
The stately Serafina hereupon protested that Mr.
Theobald was the soul of honor, and that he would never lend
himself to a deceit. “I'm not a judge of genius,” she said, “and
saw one.
## p. 8100 (#300) ###########################################
8100
HENRY JAMES
»
I know nothing of pictures. I'm but a poor simple widow; but
I know that the Signor Teobaldo has the heart of an angel and
the virtue of a saint. —He's my benefactor,” she added senten-
tiously. The after-glow of the somewhat sinister flush with which
she had greeted me still lingered in her cheek, and perhaps did
not favor her beauty: I could not but fancy it a wise custom of
Theobald's to visit her only by candlelight. She was coarse, and
her poor adorer was a poet.
"I have the greatest esteem for him,” I said: “it is for this
reason that I have been uneasy at not seeing him for ten days.
Have you seen him ? Is he perhaps ill ? ”
“111! Heaven forbid ! ” cried Serafina, with genuine vehe-
mence.
Her companion uttered a rapid expletive, and reproached her
with not having been to see him. She hesitated a moment; then
she simpered the least bit and bridled. “He comes to see me
without reproach! But it would not be the same for me to go
to him, though indeed you may almost call him a man of holy
life. ”
« He has the greatest admiration for you,” I said, « He would
have been honored by your visit. ”
She looked at me a moment sharply. “More admiration than
you. Admit that! Of course I protested with all the eloquence
at my command; and my mysterious hostess then confessed that
she had taken no fancy to me on my former visit, and that,
Theobald not having returned, she believed I had poisoned his
mind against her. “It would be no kindness to the poor gentle-
man, I can tell you that,” she said. “He has come to see me
every evening for years. It's a long friendship! No one knows
him as well as I. ”
"I don't pretend to know him, or to understand him," I said.
He's a mystery! Nevertheless, he seems to me a little — » And
I touched my forehead and waved my hand in the air.
Serafina glanced at her companion a moment, as if for inspi-
ration. He contented himself with shrugging his shoulders, as
he filled his glass again. The padrona hereupon gave me a more
softly insinuating smile than would have seemed likely to bloom
on so candid a brow. “It's for that that I love him! ” she said.
The world has so little kindness for such persons. It laughs at
them, and despises them, and cheats them. He is too good for
this wicked life! It's his fancy that he finds a little Paradise up
(
6
## p. 8101 (#301) ###########################################
HENRY JAMES
8101
here in my poor apartment. If he thinks so, how can I help it ?
He has a strange belief — really, I ought to be ashamed to tell
you — that I resemble the Blessed Virgin: Heaven forgive me!
I let him think what he pleases, so long as it makes him happy.
He was very kind to me once, and I am not one that forgets
So I receive him every evening civilly, and ask after
his health, and let him look at me on this side and that! For
that matter, I may say it without vanity, I was worth looking at
once! And he's not always amusing, poor man! He sits some-
times for an hour without speaking a word, or else he talks
away, without stopping, on art and nature, and beauty and duty,
and fifty fine things that are all so much Latin to me.
I beg
you to understand that he has never said a word to me that I
mightn't decently listen to. He may be a little cracked, but he's
one of the saints. ”
"Eh! ” cried the man, “the saints were all a little cracked! ”
Serafina, I fancied, left part of her story untold; but she
told enough of it to make poor Theobald's own statement seem
intensely pathetic in its exalted simplicity. “It's a strange for-
tune, certainly,” she went on, “to have such a friend as this
a friend who's less than a lover and more than a
friend. " I glanced at her companion, who preserved an impene-
trable smile, twisted the end of his mustache, and disposed of a
copious mouthful. Was he less than a lover? “But what will
you have ? ” Serafina pursued. "In this hard world one mustn't
ask too many questions; one must take what comes and keep
what one gets. I've kept my good friend for twenty years, and
I do hope that at this time of day, signore, you've not come to
turn him against me! ”
I assured her that I had no such design, and that I should
vastly regret disturbing Mr. Theobald's habits or convictions.
On the contrary, I was alarmed about him, and I should imme-
diately go in search of him. She gave me his address, and a
florid account of her sufferings at his non-appearance. She had
not been to him, for various reasons; chiefly because she was
afraid of displeasing him, as he had always made such a mystery
of his home.
“You might have sent this gentleman ! ” I ventured to suggest.
"Ah,” cried the gentleman, “he admires the Signora Serafina,
but he wouldn't admire me. ” And then, confidentially, with his
finger on his nose, “He's a purist! »
dear man,
»
## p. 8102 (#302) ###########################################
8102
HENRY JAMES
I was about to withdraw, on the promise that I would in-
form the Signora Serafina of my friend's condition, when her
companion, who had risen from table and girded his loins appar-
ently for the onset, grasped me gently by the arm, and led me
before the row of statuettes. “I perceive by your conversation,
signore, that you are a patron of the arts.
Allow me to request
your honorable attention for these modest products of my own
ingenuity. They are brand-new, fresh from my atelier, and have
never been exhibited in public. I have brought them here to
receive the verdict of this dear lady, who is a good critic, for all
she may pretend to the contrary. I am the inventor of this
peculiar style of statuette,- of subject, manner, material, every-
thing. Touch them, I pray you; handle them: you needn't fear.
Delicate as they look, it is impossible they should break! My
various creations have met with great success. They are espe-
cially admired by Americans. I have sent them all over Europe,
— to London, Paris, Vienna! You may have observed some little
specimens in Paris, on the Boulevard, in a shop of which they
constitute the specialty. There is always a crowd about the win-
dow. They form a very pleasing ornament for the mantel-shelf
of a gay young bachelor, for the boudoir of a pretty woman.
You couldn't make a prettier present to a person with whom you
wished to exchange a harmless joke. It is not classic art, signore,
of course; but between ourselves, isn't classic art sometimes
rather a bore ? Caricature, burlesque - la charge, as the French
say — has hitherto been confined to paper, to the pen and pencil.
Now, it has been my inspiration to introduce it into statuary.
For this purpose I have invented a peculiar plastic compound
which you will permit me not to divulge. That's my secret,
signore! It's as light, you perceive, as cork, and yet as firm as
alabaster! I frankly confess that I really pride myself as much
on this little stroke of chemical ingenuity as upon the other ele-
ment of novelty in my creations,— my types.
What do you say
to my types, signore ? The idea is bold: does it strike you as
happy? Cats and monkeys, monkeys and cats,- all human life
is there! Human life, of course I mean, viewed with the eye of
the satirist! To combine sculpture and satire, signore, has been
my unprecedented ambition. I flatter myself that I have not
egregiously failed. ”
As this jaunty Juvenal of the chimney-piece delivered him-
self of his persuasive allocution, he took up his little groups
## p. 8103 (#303) ###########################################
HENRY JAMES
8103
successively from the table, held them aloft, turned them about,
rapped them with his knuckles, and gazed at them lovingly with
his head on one side, They consisted each of a cat and a mon-
key, fantastically draped, in some preposterously sentimental con-
junction. They exhibited a certain sameness of motive, and
illustrated ,chiefly the different phases of what, in delicate terms,
may be called gallantry and coquetry; but they were strikingly
clever and expressive, and were at once very perfect cats and
monkeys and very natural men and women. I confess, however,
that they failed to amuse me. I was doubtless not in a mood to
enjoy them, for they seemed to me peculiarly cynical and vulgar.
Their imitative felicity was revolting. As I looked askance at
the complacent little artist, brandishing them between finger and
thumb, and caressing them with an amorous eye, he seemed to
me himself little more than an exceptionally intelligent ape. I
mustered an admiring grin, however, and he blew another blast.
“My figures are studied from life! I have a little menagerie
of monkeys whose frolics I contemplate by the hour. As for
the cats, one has only to look out of one's back window! Since
I have begun to examine these expressive little brutes, I have
made many profound observations. Speaking, signore, to a man
of imagination, I may say that my little designs are not without
a philosophy of their own. Truly, I don't know whether the cats
and monkeys imitate us, or whether it's we who imitate them. ”
I congratulated him on his philosophy, and he resumed. « You
will do me the honor to admit that I have handled my subjects
with delicacy. Eh, it was needed, signore! I have been free,
but not too free - eh ? Just a hint, you know! You may see as
much or as little as you please. These little groups, however,
are no measure of my invention. If you will favor me with a
call at my studio, I think that you will admit that my combina-
tions are really infinite. I likewise execute figures to command.
You have perhaps some little motive, – the fruit of your philoso-
phy of life, signore,— which you would like to have interpreted.
I can promise to work it up to your satisfaction; it shall be as
malicious as you please! Allow me to present you with my
card, and to remind you that my prices are moderate. Only
sixty francs for a little group like that. My statuettes are
durable as bronze,- ære perennius, signore, - and between our-
selves, I think they are more amusing! ”
As I pocketed his card I glanced at Madonna Serafina, won-
dering whether she had an eye for contrasts. She had picked
as
## p. 8104 (#304) ###########################################
8104
HENRY JAMES
up one of the little couples and was tenderly dusting it with a
feather broom.
What I had just seen and heard had so deepened my compas-
sionate interest in my deluded friend, that I took a summary
leave, and made my way directly to the house designated by this
remarkable woman. It was in an obscure corner of the opposite
side of the town, and presented a sombre and squalid appear-
ance. An old woman in the doorway, on my inquiring for Theo-
bald, ushered me in with a mumbled blessing and an expression
of relief at the poor gentleman having a friend. His lodging
seemed to consist of a single room at the top of the house. On
getting no answer to my knock, I opened the door, supposing
that he was absent; so that it gave me a certain shock to find
him sitting there helpless and dumb. He was seated near the
single window, facing an easel which supported a large canvas.
On my entering, he looked up at me blankly, without changing
his position, which was that of absolute lassitude and dejection,
his arms loosely folded, his legs stretched before him, his head
hanging on his breast. Advancing into the room, I perceived
that his face vividly corresponded with his attitude. He was
pale, haggard, and unshaven, and his dull and sunken eye gazed
at me without a spark of recognition. I had been afraid that
I
he would greet me with fierce reproaches, as the cruelly offi-
cious patron who had turned his peace to bitterness; and I was
relieved to find that my appearance awakened no visible resent-
ment. “Don't you know me? ” I asked as I put out my hand.
"Have you already forgotten me? ”
He made no response, kept his position stupidly, and left me
staring about the room. It spoke most plaintively for itself.
Shabby, sordid, naked, it contained, beyond the wretched bed, but
the scantiest provision for personal comfort. It was bedroom at
once and studio,- a grim ghost of a studio. A few dusty casts
and prints on the walls, three or four old canvases turned face
inward, and a rusty-looking color-box, formed, with the easel at
the window, the sum of its appurtenances. The place savored
horribly of poverty. Its only wealth was the picture on the easel,
presumably the famous Madonna. Averted as this was from the
door, I was unable to see its face; but at last, sickened by the
vacant misery of the spot, I passed behind Theobald, eagerly and
tenderly. I can hardly say that I was surprised at what I found:
a canvas that was a mere dead blank, cracked and discolored
by time.
This was his immortal work! Though not surprised,
## p. 8105 (#305) ###########################################
HENRY JAMES
8105
(
I confess I was powerfully moved, and I think that for five min-
utes I could not have trusted myself to speak. At last my silent
nearness affected him; he stirred and turned, and then rose and
looked at me with a slowly kindling eye. I murmured some
kind, ineffective nothings about his being ill and needing advice
and care; but he seemed absorbed in the effort to recall distinctly
what had last passed between us. “You were right,” he said
with a pitiful smile, «I'm a dawdler! I'm a failure! I shall do
nothing more in this world. You opened my eyes; and though
the truth is bitter, I bear you no grudge. Amen! I've been
sitting here for a week, face to face with the truth, with the past,
with my weakness and poverty and nullity. I shall never touch
a brush! I believe I've neither eaten nor slept. Look at that
canvas! he went on, as I relieved my emotion in the urgent
request that he would come home with me and dine.
« That was
to have contained my masterpiece! Isn't it a promising founda-
tion ? The elements of it are all here. " And he tapped his fore-
head with that mystic confidence which had marked the gesture
before. “If I could only transpose them into some brain that
had the hand, the will! Since I've been sitting here taking stock
of my intellects, I've come to believe that I have the material
for a hundred masterpieces. But my hand is paralyzed now, and
they'll never be painted. I never began! I waited and waited
!
to be worthier to begin, and wasted my life in preparation.
While I fancied my creation was growing, it was dying. I've
taken it all too hard! Michael Angelo didn't when he went at
the Lorenzo! He did his best at a venture, and his venture is
immortal. That's mine! » And he pointed, with a gesture I
shall never forget, at the empty canvas. "I suppose we're a
genus by ourselves in the providential scheme, - we talents that
can't act, that can't do nor dare! We take it out in talk, in
plans and promises, in study, in visions! But our visions, let me
tell you,” he cried with a toss of his head, “have a way of being
brilliant, and a man hasn't lived in vain who has seen the things
I have! Of course you'll not believe in them when that bit
of worm-eaten cloth is all I have to show for them; but to con-
vince you, to enchant and astound the world, I need only the
hand of Raphael. I have his brain. A pity, you'll say, I haven't
his modesty! Ah, let me babble now: it's all I have left! I'm
the half of a genius! Where in the wide world is my other
half ? Lodged perhaps in the vulgar soul, the cunning, ready
## p. 8106 (#306) ###########################################
8106
HENRY JAMES
fingers of some dull copyist, or some trivial artisan who turns out
by the dozen his easy prodigies of touch! But it's not for me to
sneer at him: he at least does something. He's not a dawdler!
Well for me if I had been vulgar and clever and reckless, - if I
could have shut my eyes and dealt my stroke! ”
What to say to the poor fellow, what to do for him, seemed
hard to determine; I chiefly felt that I must break the spell of
his present inaction, and remove him from the haunted atmo-
sphere of the little room it seemed such cruel irony to call a
studio. I cannot say I persuaded him to come out with me; he
simply suffered himself to be led, and when we began to walk
in the open air I was able to measure his pitifully weakened
condition. Nevertheless he seemed in a certain way to revive,
and murmured at last that he would like to go to the Pitti Gal-
lery. I shall never forget our melancholy stroll through those
gorgeous halls, every picture on whose walls seemed, even to my
own sympathetic vision, to glow with a sort of insolent renewal
of strength and lustre. The eyes and lips of the great portraits
seemed to smile in ineffable scorn of the dejected pretender who
had dreamed of competing with their triumphant authors; the
celestial candor, even, of the Madonna in the Chair, as we paused
in perfect silence before her, was tinged with the sinister irony
of the women of Leonardo. Perfect silence indeed marked our
whole progress, - the silence of a deep farewell; for I felt in all
my pulses, as Theobald, leaning on my arm, dragged one heavy
foot after the other, that he was looking his last. When we
came out, he was so exhausted that instead of taking him to my
hotel to dine, I called a carriage and drove him straight to his
own poor lodging. He had sunk into an extraordinary lethargy:
he lay back in the carriage with his eyes closed, as pale as death,
his faint breathing interrupted at intervals by a sudden gasp,
like a smothered sob or a vain attempt to speak. With the help
of the old woman who had admitted me before, and who emerged
from a dark back court, I contrived to lead him up the long steep
staircase and lay him on his wretched bed. To her I gave him
in charge, while I prepared in all haste to seek a physician. But
she followed me out of the room with a pitiful clasping of her
hands.
« Poor, dear, blessed gentleman,” she murmured: “is he dy-
ing? ”
Possibly. How long has he been thus ? »
(
>
(
## p. 8107 (#307) ###########################################
HENRY JAMES
8107
“Since a night he passed ten days ago. I came up in the
morning to make his poor bed, and found him sitting up in his
clothes before that great canvas he keeps there. Poor, dear,
strange man, he says his prayers to it! He had not been to bed,
nor since then properly! What has happened to him ? Has he
found out about the Serafina ? ” she whispered with a glittering
eye and a toothless grin.
« Prove at least that one old woman can be faithful,” I said,
«and watch him well till I come back. ”
My return was delayed through the absence of the English
physician on a round of visits, and my vainly pursuing him from
house to house before I overtook him. I brought him to Theo-
bald's bedside none too soon.
A violent fever had seized our
patient, and the case was evidently grave. A couple of hours
later I knew that he had brain fever. From this moment I was
with him constantly; but I am far from wishing to describe his
illness. Excessively painful to witness, it was happily brief.
Life burned out in delirium. A certain night that I passed at
his pillow, listening to his wild snatches of regret, of aspiration,
of rapture and awe at the phantasmal pictures with which his
brain seemed to swarm, recurs to my memory now like some
stray page from a lost masterpiece of tragedy.
Before a week was over we had buried him in the little
Protestant cemetery on the way to Fiesole. The Signora Sera-
fina, whom I had caused to be informed of his illness, had come
in person, I was told, to inquire about its progress; but she was
absent from his funeral, which was attended by but a scanty
concourse of mourners. Half a dozen old Florentine sojourners,
in spite of the prolonged estrangement which had preceded his
death, had felt the kindly impulse to honor his grave. Among
them
my friend Mrs. Coventry, whom I found my
departure waiting at her carriage door at the gate of the cem-
etery
“Well,” she said, relieving at last with a significant smile the
solemnity of our immediate greeting, and the great Madonna?
Have you seen her after all ? »
"I've seen her," I said; "she's mine — by bequest. But I •
shall never show her to you. "
"And why not, pray ? "
My dear Mrs. Coventry, you'd not understand her! ”
«Upon my word, you're polite. ”
was
on
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## p. 8108 (#308) ###########################################
8108
HENRY JAMES
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»
« Excuse me: I'm sad and vexed and bitter. " And with
reprehensible rudeness I marched away. I was excessively impa-
tient to leave Florence: my friend's dark spirit seemed diffused
through all things. I had packed my trunk to start for Rome
that night; and meanwhile, to beguile my unrest, I aimlessly
paced the streets. Chance led me at last to the church of San
Lorenzo. Remembering poor Theobald's phrase about Michael
Angelo,— “He did his best at a venture,” — I went in and turned
my steps to the chapel of the tombs. Viewing in sadness the
sadness of its immortal treasures, I fancied, while I stood there,
that the scene demanded no ampler commentary. As I passed
through the church again to depart, a woman, turning away from
one of the side altars, met me face to face. The black shawl
depending from her head draped picturesquely the handsome
visage of Madonna Serafina. She stopped as she recognized
me, and I saw that she wished to speak. Her eye was bright,
and her ample bosom heaved in a way that seemed to portend
a certain sharpness of reproach. But the expression of my own
face apparently drew the sting from her resentment, and she
addressed me in a tone in which bitterness was tempered by a
sort of dogged resignation. "I know it was you, now, that sepa-
rated us,” she said. “It was a pity he ever brought you to see
me! Of course you couldn't think of me as he did. Well, the
Lord gave him, the Lord has taken him. I've just paid for a
nine-days' mass for his soul. And I can tell you this, signore,-
I never deceived him. Who put it into his head that I was
made to live on holy thoughts and fine phrases? It was his own
fancy, and it pleased him to think so. Did he suffer much ? »
she added more softly, after a pause.
«His sufferings were great, but they were short. ”
“And did he speak of me? " She had hesitated, and dropped
her eyes; she raised them with her question, and revealed in
their sombre stillness a gleam of feminine confidence, which for
the moment revived and illumined her beauty. Poor Theobald!
Whatever name he had given his passion, it was still her fine
eyes that had charmed him.
“Be contented, madam," I answered, gravely.
She dropped her eyes again, and was silent. Then exhaling
a full, rich sigh, as she gathered her shawl together: "He was a
magnificent genius! ”
I bowed, and we separated.
((
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## p. 8109 (#309) ###########################################
HENRY JAMES
8109
Passing through a narrow side street on my way back to my
hotel, I perceived above a doorway a sign which it seemed to me
I had read before.
little money. I saw that she was beautiful and pale. She might
have stepped out of the stable of Bethlehem! I gave her money
and helped her on her way into the town. I had guessed her
story. She too was a maiden mother, and she had been turned
out into the world in her shame. I felt in all my pulses that
here was my subject marvelously realized. I felt like one of the
old convent artists who had had a vision. I rescued the poor
creatures, cherished them, watched them as I would have done
some precious work of art, some lovely fragment of fresco dis-
covered in a moldering cloister. In a month as if to deepen
and consecrate the pathos of it all — the poor little child died.
When she felt that he was going, she held him up to me for ten
minutes, and I made that sketch. You saw a feverish haste in
it, I suppose: I wanted to spare the poor little mortal the pain
## p. 8096 (#296) ###########################################
8096
HENRY JAMES
of his position. After that, I doubly valued the mother. She is
the simplest, sweetest, most natural creature that ever bloomed
in this brave old land of Italy. She lives in the memory of her
child, in her gratitude for the scanty kindness I have been able
to show her, and in her simple religion! She's not even con-
scious of her beauty; my admiration has never made her vain.
Heaven knows I've made no secret of it. You must have
observed the singular transparency of her expression, the lovely
modesty of her glance. And was there ever such a truly vir-
ginal brow, such a natural classic elegance in the wave of the
hair and the arch of the forehead ? I've studied her; I may say
I know her. I've absorbed her little by little; my mind is
stamped and imbued, and I have determined now to clinch the
impression: I shall at last invite her to sit for me! ”
« (At last '—'at last'? ” I repeated in much amazement. Do
you mean that she has never done so yet ? ”
"I've not really had -a- a sitting,” said Theobald, speaking
very slowly. "I've taken notes, you know; I've got my grand
fundamental impression. That's the great thing! But I've not
actually had her as a model, posed and draped and lighted, before
my easel. ”
(
»
«Are you
What had become for the moment of my perception and my
tact, I am at a loss to say; in their absence I was unable to
repress headlong exclamation. I was destined to regret it. We
had stopped at a turning, beneath a lamp. "My poor friend,” I
exclaimed, laying my hand on his shoulder, "you've dawdled!
She's an old, old woman for a Madonna! ”
It was as if I had brutally struck him; I shall never forget
the long, slow, almost ghastly look of pain with which he
,
answered me. “Dawdled — old, old! ” he stammered.
joking ? ”
“Why, my dear fellow, I suppose you don't take the woman
for twenty ? ”
He drew a long breath and leaned against a house, looking at
me with questioning, protesting, reproachful eyes; at last, starting
forward and grasping my arm - "Answer me solemnly: does she
seem to you truly old ? Is she wrinkled, is she faded, am I
blind ? »
Then at last I understood the immensity of his illusion;
how one by one the noiseless years had ebbed away, and left
him brooding in charmed inaction, forever preparing for a work
## p. 8097 (#297) ###########################################
HENRY JAMES
8097
>
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>
« Old
forever deferred. It seemed to me almost a kindness now to
tell him the plain truth. “I should be sorry to say you're blind,”
I answered, but I think you're deceived. You've lost time in
effortless contemplation. Your friend was once young and fresh
and virginal; but I protest that was some years ago. Still, she
has de beaux restes ! By all means make her sit for you! " I
broke down: his face was too horribly reproachful.
He took off his hat and stood passing his handkerchief me-
chanically over his forehead. “De beaux restes ? I thank you for
sparing me the plain English. I must make up my Madonna out
of de beaux restes! What a masterpiece she'll be! Old-old !
Old — old! ” he murmured.
“Never mind her age,” I cried, revolted at what I had done,
never mind my impression of her! You have your memory,
your notes, your genius. Finish your picture in a month. I pro-
claim it beforehand a masterpiece, and I hereby offer you for it
any sum you may choose to ask. ”
He stared, but he seemed scarcely to understand me.
- old! ” he kept stupidly repeating. "If she is old, what am I?
.
If her beauty has faded, where - where is my strength ? Has life
been a dream ? Have I worshiped too long, - have I loved too
well ? » The charm, in truth, was broken. That the chord of
illusion should have snapped at my light, accidental touch showed
how it had been weakened by excessive tension. The poor fellow's
sense of wasted time, of vanished opportunity, seemed to roll in
upon his soul in waves of darkness. He suddenly dropped his
head and burst into tears.
I led him homeward with all possible tenderness; but I at-
tempted neither to check his grief, to restore his equanimity, nor
to unsay the hard truth. When we reached my hotel I tried to
induce him to come in. « We'll drink a glass of wine," I said,
smiling, “to the completion of the Madonna. "
With a violent effort he held up his head, mused for a
moment with a formidably sombre frown, and then giving me
his hand, I'll finish it,” he cried, in a month! No, in a fort-
night! After all, I have it here ! ” and he tapped his forehead.
“Of course she's old! She can afford to have it said of her
a woman who has made twenty years pass like a twelvemonth!
Old-old! Why, sir, she shall be eternal! »
I wished to see him safely to his own door; but he waved me
back and walked away with an air of resolution, whistling and
XIV-507
## p. 8098 (#298) ###########################################
8098
HENRY JAMES
swinging his cane. I waited a moment, and then followed him
at a distance, and saw him proceed to cross the Santa Trinità
Bridge. When he reached the middle he suddenly paused, as if
his strength had deserted him, and leaned upon the parapet gaz-
ing over into the river. I was careful to keep him in sight; I
confess that I passed ten very nervous minutes. He recovered
himself at last, and went his way, slowly and with hanging head.
That I should have really startled poor Theobald into a bolder
use of his long-garnered stores of knowledge and taste, into the
vulgar effort and hazard of production, seemed at first reason
enough for his continued silence and absence; but as day fol-
lowed day without his either calling or sending me a line, and
without my meeting him in his customary haunts,-in the gal-
leries, in the chapel at San Lorenzo, or strolling between the
Arno-side and the great hedge screen of verdure which, along
the drive of the Cascine, throws the fair occupants of barouche
and phaeton into such becoming relief,- as for more than a week
I got neither tidings nor sight of him, I began to fear that I had
fatally offended him; and that instead of giving wholesome im-
petus to his talent, I had brutally paralyzed it. I had a wretched
I
suspicion that I had made him ill. My stay at Florence was
drawing to a close; and it was important that before resuming
my journey I should assure myself of the truth. Theobald to
the last had kept his lodging a mystery, and I was altogether at
a loss where to look for him. The simplest course was to make
inquiry of the beauty of the Mercato Vecchio; and I confess that
unsatisfied curiosity as to the lady herself counseled it as well.
Perhaps I had done her injustice, and she was as immortally
fresh and fair as he conceived her. I was at any rate anxious
to behold once more the ripe enchantress who had made twenty
years pass as a twelvemonth. I repaired accordingly one morn-
ing to her abode, climbed the interminable staircase, and reached
her door. It stood ajar; and as I hesitated whether to enter, a
little serving-maid came clattering out with an empty kettle, as
if she had just performed some savory errand. The inner door
too was open; so I crossed the little vestibule and entered the
room in which I had formerly been received. It had not its
evening aspect. The table, or one end of it, was spread for a
late breakfast; and before it sat a gentleman -- an individual
at least of the male sex - dealing justice upon a beefsteak and
onions and a bottle of wine. At his elbow, in friendly proximity,
## p. 8099 (#299) ###########################################
HENRY JAMES
8099
was placed the lady of the house. Her attitude as I entered was
not that of an enchantress. With one hand she held in her lap
a plate of smoking macaroni; with the other she had lifted high
in air one of the pendulous filaments of this succulent compound,
and was in the act of slipping it gently down her throat. On the
uncovered end of the table, facing her companion, were ranged
half a dozen small statuettes, of some snuff-colored substance re-
sembling terra-cotta. He, brandishing his knife with ardor, was
apparently descanting on their merits.
Evidently I darkened the door. My hostess dropped her mac-
aroni — into her mouth, and rose hastily with a harsh exclama-
tion and a flushed face. I immediately perceived that the Signora
Serafina's secret was even better worth knowing than I had sup-
posed, and that the way to learn it was to take it for granted.
I summoned my best Italian, I smiled and bowed and apologized
for my intrusion; and in a moment, whether or no I had dispelled
the lady's irritation, I had at least stimulated her prudence. I
was welcome, she said; I must take a seat. This was another
friend of hers also an artist, she declared with a smile which
was almost amiable. Her companion wiped his mustache and
bowed with great civility. I saw at a glance that he was equal
to the situation. He was presumably the author of the statuettes
on the table, and he knew a money-spending forestiere when he
He was a small, wiry man, with a clever, impudent,
tossed-up nose, a sharp little black eye, and waxed ends to his
mustache. On the side of his head he wore jauntily a little crim-
son velvet smoking-cap, and I observed that his feet were incased
in brilliant slippers. On Serafina’s remarking with dignity that
I was the friend of Mr. Theobald, he broke out into that fantastic
French of which Italians are so insistently lavish, and declared
with fervor that Mr. Theobald was a magnificent genius.
"I'm sure I don't know," I answered with a shrug. "If you're
in a position to affirm it, you have the advantage of me. I've
seen nothing from his hand but the bambino yonder, which cer-
tainly is fine. ”
He declared that the bambino was a masterpiece, a pure Cor-
reggio. It was only a pity, he added with a knowing laugh, that
the sketch had not been made on some good bit of honeycombed
old panel.
The stately Serafina hereupon protested that Mr.
Theobald was the soul of honor, and that he would never lend
himself to a deceit. “I'm not a judge of genius,” she said, “and
saw one.
## p. 8100 (#300) ###########################################
8100
HENRY JAMES
»
I know nothing of pictures. I'm but a poor simple widow; but
I know that the Signor Teobaldo has the heart of an angel and
the virtue of a saint. —He's my benefactor,” she added senten-
tiously. The after-glow of the somewhat sinister flush with which
she had greeted me still lingered in her cheek, and perhaps did
not favor her beauty: I could not but fancy it a wise custom of
Theobald's to visit her only by candlelight. She was coarse, and
her poor adorer was a poet.
"I have the greatest esteem for him,” I said: “it is for this
reason that I have been uneasy at not seeing him for ten days.
Have you seen him ? Is he perhaps ill ? ”
“111! Heaven forbid ! ” cried Serafina, with genuine vehe-
mence.
Her companion uttered a rapid expletive, and reproached her
with not having been to see him. She hesitated a moment; then
she simpered the least bit and bridled. “He comes to see me
without reproach! But it would not be the same for me to go
to him, though indeed you may almost call him a man of holy
life. ”
« He has the greatest admiration for you,” I said, « He would
have been honored by your visit. ”
She looked at me a moment sharply. “More admiration than
you. Admit that! Of course I protested with all the eloquence
at my command; and my mysterious hostess then confessed that
she had taken no fancy to me on my former visit, and that,
Theobald not having returned, she believed I had poisoned his
mind against her. “It would be no kindness to the poor gentle-
man, I can tell you that,” she said. “He has come to see me
every evening for years. It's a long friendship! No one knows
him as well as I. ”
"I don't pretend to know him, or to understand him," I said.
He's a mystery! Nevertheless, he seems to me a little — » And
I touched my forehead and waved my hand in the air.
Serafina glanced at her companion a moment, as if for inspi-
ration. He contented himself with shrugging his shoulders, as
he filled his glass again. The padrona hereupon gave me a more
softly insinuating smile than would have seemed likely to bloom
on so candid a brow. “It's for that that I love him! ” she said.
The world has so little kindness for such persons. It laughs at
them, and despises them, and cheats them. He is too good for
this wicked life! It's his fancy that he finds a little Paradise up
(
6
## p. 8101 (#301) ###########################################
HENRY JAMES
8101
here in my poor apartment. If he thinks so, how can I help it ?
He has a strange belief — really, I ought to be ashamed to tell
you — that I resemble the Blessed Virgin: Heaven forgive me!
I let him think what he pleases, so long as it makes him happy.
He was very kind to me once, and I am not one that forgets
So I receive him every evening civilly, and ask after
his health, and let him look at me on this side and that! For
that matter, I may say it without vanity, I was worth looking at
once! And he's not always amusing, poor man! He sits some-
times for an hour without speaking a word, or else he talks
away, without stopping, on art and nature, and beauty and duty,
and fifty fine things that are all so much Latin to me.
I beg
you to understand that he has never said a word to me that I
mightn't decently listen to. He may be a little cracked, but he's
one of the saints. ”
"Eh! ” cried the man, “the saints were all a little cracked! ”
Serafina, I fancied, left part of her story untold; but she
told enough of it to make poor Theobald's own statement seem
intensely pathetic in its exalted simplicity. “It's a strange for-
tune, certainly,” she went on, “to have such a friend as this
a friend who's less than a lover and more than a
friend. " I glanced at her companion, who preserved an impene-
trable smile, twisted the end of his mustache, and disposed of a
copious mouthful. Was he less than a lover? “But what will
you have ? ” Serafina pursued. "In this hard world one mustn't
ask too many questions; one must take what comes and keep
what one gets. I've kept my good friend for twenty years, and
I do hope that at this time of day, signore, you've not come to
turn him against me! ”
I assured her that I had no such design, and that I should
vastly regret disturbing Mr. Theobald's habits or convictions.
On the contrary, I was alarmed about him, and I should imme-
diately go in search of him. She gave me his address, and a
florid account of her sufferings at his non-appearance. She had
not been to him, for various reasons; chiefly because she was
afraid of displeasing him, as he had always made such a mystery
of his home.
“You might have sent this gentleman ! ” I ventured to suggest.
"Ah,” cried the gentleman, “he admires the Signora Serafina,
but he wouldn't admire me. ” And then, confidentially, with his
finger on his nose, “He's a purist! »
dear man,
»
## p. 8102 (#302) ###########################################
8102
HENRY JAMES
I was about to withdraw, on the promise that I would in-
form the Signora Serafina of my friend's condition, when her
companion, who had risen from table and girded his loins appar-
ently for the onset, grasped me gently by the arm, and led me
before the row of statuettes. “I perceive by your conversation,
signore, that you are a patron of the arts.
Allow me to request
your honorable attention for these modest products of my own
ingenuity. They are brand-new, fresh from my atelier, and have
never been exhibited in public. I have brought them here to
receive the verdict of this dear lady, who is a good critic, for all
she may pretend to the contrary. I am the inventor of this
peculiar style of statuette,- of subject, manner, material, every-
thing. Touch them, I pray you; handle them: you needn't fear.
Delicate as they look, it is impossible they should break! My
various creations have met with great success. They are espe-
cially admired by Americans. I have sent them all over Europe,
— to London, Paris, Vienna! You may have observed some little
specimens in Paris, on the Boulevard, in a shop of which they
constitute the specialty. There is always a crowd about the win-
dow. They form a very pleasing ornament for the mantel-shelf
of a gay young bachelor, for the boudoir of a pretty woman.
You couldn't make a prettier present to a person with whom you
wished to exchange a harmless joke. It is not classic art, signore,
of course; but between ourselves, isn't classic art sometimes
rather a bore ? Caricature, burlesque - la charge, as the French
say — has hitherto been confined to paper, to the pen and pencil.
Now, it has been my inspiration to introduce it into statuary.
For this purpose I have invented a peculiar plastic compound
which you will permit me not to divulge. That's my secret,
signore! It's as light, you perceive, as cork, and yet as firm as
alabaster! I frankly confess that I really pride myself as much
on this little stroke of chemical ingenuity as upon the other ele-
ment of novelty in my creations,— my types.
What do you say
to my types, signore ? The idea is bold: does it strike you as
happy? Cats and monkeys, monkeys and cats,- all human life
is there! Human life, of course I mean, viewed with the eye of
the satirist! To combine sculpture and satire, signore, has been
my unprecedented ambition. I flatter myself that I have not
egregiously failed. ”
As this jaunty Juvenal of the chimney-piece delivered him-
self of his persuasive allocution, he took up his little groups
## p. 8103 (#303) ###########################################
HENRY JAMES
8103
successively from the table, held them aloft, turned them about,
rapped them with his knuckles, and gazed at them lovingly with
his head on one side, They consisted each of a cat and a mon-
key, fantastically draped, in some preposterously sentimental con-
junction. They exhibited a certain sameness of motive, and
illustrated ,chiefly the different phases of what, in delicate terms,
may be called gallantry and coquetry; but they were strikingly
clever and expressive, and were at once very perfect cats and
monkeys and very natural men and women. I confess, however,
that they failed to amuse me. I was doubtless not in a mood to
enjoy them, for they seemed to me peculiarly cynical and vulgar.
Their imitative felicity was revolting. As I looked askance at
the complacent little artist, brandishing them between finger and
thumb, and caressing them with an amorous eye, he seemed to
me himself little more than an exceptionally intelligent ape. I
mustered an admiring grin, however, and he blew another blast.
“My figures are studied from life! I have a little menagerie
of monkeys whose frolics I contemplate by the hour. As for
the cats, one has only to look out of one's back window! Since
I have begun to examine these expressive little brutes, I have
made many profound observations. Speaking, signore, to a man
of imagination, I may say that my little designs are not without
a philosophy of their own. Truly, I don't know whether the cats
and monkeys imitate us, or whether it's we who imitate them. ”
I congratulated him on his philosophy, and he resumed. « You
will do me the honor to admit that I have handled my subjects
with delicacy. Eh, it was needed, signore! I have been free,
but not too free - eh ? Just a hint, you know! You may see as
much or as little as you please. These little groups, however,
are no measure of my invention. If you will favor me with a
call at my studio, I think that you will admit that my combina-
tions are really infinite. I likewise execute figures to command.
You have perhaps some little motive, – the fruit of your philoso-
phy of life, signore,— which you would like to have interpreted.
I can promise to work it up to your satisfaction; it shall be as
malicious as you please! Allow me to present you with my
card, and to remind you that my prices are moderate. Only
sixty francs for a little group like that. My statuettes are
durable as bronze,- ære perennius, signore, - and between our-
selves, I think they are more amusing! ”
As I pocketed his card I glanced at Madonna Serafina, won-
dering whether she had an eye for contrasts. She had picked
as
## p. 8104 (#304) ###########################################
8104
HENRY JAMES
up one of the little couples and was tenderly dusting it with a
feather broom.
What I had just seen and heard had so deepened my compas-
sionate interest in my deluded friend, that I took a summary
leave, and made my way directly to the house designated by this
remarkable woman. It was in an obscure corner of the opposite
side of the town, and presented a sombre and squalid appear-
ance. An old woman in the doorway, on my inquiring for Theo-
bald, ushered me in with a mumbled blessing and an expression
of relief at the poor gentleman having a friend. His lodging
seemed to consist of a single room at the top of the house. On
getting no answer to my knock, I opened the door, supposing
that he was absent; so that it gave me a certain shock to find
him sitting there helpless and dumb. He was seated near the
single window, facing an easel which supported a large canvas.
On my entering, he looked up at me blankly, without changing
his position, which was that of absolute lassitude and dejection,
his arms loosely folded, his legs stretched before him, his head
hanging on his breast. Advancing into the room, I perceived
that his face vividly corresponded with his attitude. He was
pale, haggard, and unshaven, and his dull and sunken eye gazed
at me without a spark of recognition. I had been afraid that
I
he would greet me with fierce reproaches, as the cruelly offi-
cious patron who had turned his peace to bitterness; and I was
relieved to find that my appearance awakened no visible resent-
ment. “Don't you know me? ” I asked as I put out my hand.
"Have you already forgotten me? ”
He made no response, kept his position stupidly, and left me
staring about the room. It spoke most plaintively for itself.
Shabby, sordid, naked, it contained, beyond the wretched bed, but
the scantiest provision for personal comfort. It was bedroom at
once and studio,- a grim ghost of a studio. A few dusty casts
and prints on the walls, three or four old canvases turned face
inward, and a rusty-looking color-box, formed, with the easel at
the window, the sum of its appurtenances. The place savored
horribly of poverty. Its only wealth was the picture on the easel,
presumably the famous Madonna. Averted as this was from the
door, I was unable to see its face; but at last, sickened by the
vacant misery of the spot, I passed behind Theobald, eagerly and
tenderly. I can hardly say that I was surprised at what I found:
a canvas that was a mere dead blank, cracked and discolored
by time.
This was his immortal work! Though not surprised,
## p. 8105 (#305) ###########################################
HENRY JAMES
8105
(
I confess I was powerfully moved, and I think that for five min-
utes I could not have trusted myself to speak. At last my silent
nearness affected him; he stirred and turned, and then rose and
looked at me with a slowly kindling eye. I murmured some
kind, ineffective nothings about his being ill and needing advice
and care; but he seemed absorbed in the effort to recall distinctly
what had last passed between us. “You were right,” he said
with a pitiful smile, «I'm a dawdler! I'm a failure! I shall do
nothing more in this world. You opened my eyes; and though
the truth is bitter, I bear you no grudge. Amen! I've been
sitting here for a week, face to face with the truth, with the past,
with my weakness and poverty and nullity. I shall never touch
a brush! I believe I've neither eaten nor slept. Look at that
canvas! he went on, as I relieved my emotion in the urgent
request that he would come home with me and dine.
« That was
to have contained my masterpiece! Isn't it a promising founda-
tion ? The elements of it are all here. " And he tapped his fore-
head with that mystic confidence which had marked the gesture
before. “If I could only transpose them into some brain that
had the hand, the will! Since I've been sitting here taking stock
of my intellects, I've come to believe that I have the material
for a hundred masterpieces. But my hand is paralyzed now, and
they'll never be painted. I never began! I waited and waited
!
to be worthier to begin, and wasted my life in preparation.
While I fancied my creation was growing, it was dying. I've
taken it all too hard! Michael Angelo didn't when he went at
the Lorenzo! He did his best at a venture, and his venture is
immortal. That's mine! » And he pointed, with a gesture I
shall never forget, at the empty canvas. "I suppose we're a
genus by ourselves in the providential scheme, - we talents that
can't act, that can't do nor dare! We take it out in talk, in
plans and promises, in study, in visions! But our visions, let me
tell you,” he cried with a toss of his head, “have a way of being
brilliant, and a man hasn't lived in vain who has seen the things
I have! Of course you'll not believe in them when that bit
of worm-eaten cloth is all I have to show for them; but to con-
vince you, to enchant and astound the world, I need only the
hand of Raphael. I have his brain. A pity, you'll say, I haven't
his modesty! Ah, let me babble now: it's all I have left! I'm
the half of a genius! Where in the wide world is my other
half ? Lodged perhaps in the vulgar soul, the cunning, ready
## p. 8106 (#306) ###########################################
8106
HENRY JAMES
fingers of some dull copyist, or some trivial artisan who turns out
by the dozen his easy prodigies of touch! But it's not for me to
sneer at him: he at least does something. He's not a dawdler!
Well for me if I had been vulgar and clever and reckless, - if I
could have shut my eyes and dealt my stroke! ”
What to say to the poor fellow, what to do for him, seemed
hard to determine; I chiefly felt that I must break the spell of
his present inaction, and remove him from the haunted atmo-
sphere of the little room it seemed such cruel irony to call a
studio. I cannot say I persuaded him to come out with me; he
simply suffered himself to be led, and when we began to walk
in the open air I was able to measure his pitifully weakened
condition. Nevertheless he seemed in a certain way to revive,
and murmured at last that he would like to go to the Pitti Gal-
lery. I shall never forget our melancholy stroll through those
gorgeous halls, every picture on whose walls seemed, even to my
own sympathetic vision, to glow with a sort of insolent renewal
of strength and lustre. The eyes and lips of the great portraits
seemed to smile in ineffable scorn of the dejected pretender who
had dreamed of competing with their triumphant authors; the
celestial candor, even, of the Madonna in the Chair, as we paused
in perfect silence before her, was tinged with the sinister irony
of the women of Leonardo. Perfect silence indeed marked our
whole progress, - the silence of a deep farewell; for I felt in all
my pulses, as Theobald, leaning on my arm, dragged one heavy
foot after the other, that he was looking his last. When we
came out, he was so exhausted that instead of taking him to my
hotel to dine, I called a carriage and drove him straight to his
own poor lodging. He had sunk into an extraordinary lethargy:
he lay back in the carriage with his eyes closed, as pale as death,
his faint breathing interrupted at intervals by a sudden gasp,
like a smothered sob or a vain attempt to speak. With the help
of the old woman who had admitted me before, and who emerged
from a dark back court, I contrived to lead him up the long steep
staircase and lay him on his wretched bed. To her I gave him
in charge, while I prepared in all haste to seek a physician. But
she followed me out of the room with a pitiful clasping of her
hands.
« Poor, dear, blessed gentleman,” she murmured: “is he dy-
ing? ”
Possibly. How long has he been thus ? »
(
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(
## p. 8107 (#307) ###########################################
HENRY JAMES
8107
“Since a night he passed ten days ago. I came up in the
morning to make his poor bed, and found him sitting up in his
clothes before that great canvas he keeps there. Poor, dear,
strange man, he says his prayers to it! He had not been to bed,
nor since then properly! What has happened to him ? Has he
found out about the Serafina ? ” she whispered with a glittering
eye and a toothless grin.
« Prove at least that one old woman can be faithful,” I said,
«and watch him well till I come back. ”
My return was delayed through the absence of the English
physician on a round of visits, and my vainly pursuing him from
house to house before I overtook him. I brought him to Theo-
bald's bedside none too soon.
A violent fever had seized our
patient, and the case was evidently grave. A couple of hours
later I knew that he had brain fever. From this moment I was
with him constantly; but I am far from wishing to describe his
illness. Excessively painful to witness, it was happily brief.
Life burned out in delirium. A certain night that I passed at
his pillow, listening to his wild snatches of regret, of aspiration,
of rapture and awe at the phantasmal pictures with which his
brain seemed to swarm, recurs to my memory now like some
stray page from a lost masterpiece of tragedy.
Before a week was over we had buried him in the little
Protestant cemetery on the way to Fiesole. The Signora Sera-
fina, whom I had caused to be informed of his illness, had come
in person, I was told, to inquire about its progress; but she was
absent from his funeral, which was attended by but a scanty
concourse of mourners. Half a dozen old Florentine sojourners,
in spite of the prolonged estrangement which had preceded his
death, had felt the kindly impulse to honor his grave. Among
them
my friend Mrs. Coventry, whom I found my
departure waiting at her carriage door at the gate of the cem-
etery
“Well,” she said, relieving at last with a significant smile the
solemnity of our immediate greeting, and the great Madonna?
Have you seen her after all ? »
"I've seen her," I said; "she's mine — by bequest. But I •
shall never show her to you. "
"And why not, pray ? "
My dear Mrs. Coventry, you'd not understand her! ”
«Upon my word, you're polite. ”
was
on
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## p. 8108 (#308) ###########################################
8108
HENRY JAMES
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»
« Excuse me: I'm sad and vexed and bitter. " And with
reprehensible rudeness I marched away. I was excessively impa-
tient to leave Florence: my friend's dark spirit seemed diffused
through all things. I had packed my trunk to start for Rome
that night; and meanwhile, to beguile my unrest, I aimlessly
paced the streets. Chance led me at last to the church of San
Lorenzo. Remembering poor Theobald's phrase about Michael
Angelo,— “He did his best at a venture,” — I went in and turned
my steps to the chapel of the tombs. Viewing in sadness the
sadness of its immortal treasures, I fancied, while I stood there,
that the scene demanded no ampler commentary. As I passed
through the church again to depart, a woman, turning away from
one of the side altars, met me face to face. The black shawl
depending from her head draped picturesquely the handsome
visage of Madonna Serafina. She stopped as she recognized
me, and I saw that she wished to speak. Her eye was bright,
and her ample bosom heaved in a way that seemed to portend
a certain sharpness of reproach. But the expression of my own
face apparently drew the sting from her resentment, and she
addressed me in a tone in which bitterness was tempered by a
sort of dogged resignation. "I know it was you, now, that sepa-
rated us,” she said. “It was a pity he ever brought you to see
me! Of course you couldn't think of me as he did. Well, the
Lord gave him, the Lord has taken him. I've just paid for a
nine-days' mass for his soul. And I can tell you this, signore,-
I never deceived him. Who put it into his head that I was
made to live on holy thoughts and fine phrases? It was his own
fancy, and it pleased him to think so. Did he suffer much ? »
she added more softly, after a pause.
«His sufferings were great, but they were short. ”
“And did he speak of me? " She had hesitated, and dropped
her eyes; she raised them with her question, and revealed in
their sombre stillness a gleam of feminine confidence, which for
the moment revived and illumined her beauty. Poor Theobald!
Whatever name he had given his passion, it was still her fine
eyes that had charmed him.
“Be contented, madam," I answered, gravely.
She dropped her eyes again, and was silent. Then exhaling
a full, rich sigh, as she gathered her shawl together: "He was a
magnificent genius! ”
I bowed, and we separated.
((
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## p. 8109 (#309) ###########################################
HENRY JAMES
8109
Passing through a narrow side street on my way back to my
hotel, I perceived above a doorway a sign which it seemed to me
I had read before.
