No More Learning

After the first book on Attica, and gradually as his work progressed,
he gained a sort of literary education, which shows itself in a tend-
ency to group into general introductions, at the beginning of the
great topographical divisions of his work, materials which at first he
was inclined to scatter amid the brief mention of monuments or
localities. That is, he gradually passes from the manner of a cata-
loguer or annalist to that of the ancient logographers, who grouped
about a certain city or country, however prominent, the collective
history of a people or of the known world. But Pausanias never
rises to the level of a philosophical, artistic, scientific historian, like
Polybius, Thucydides, or Herodotus. And he never achieves a good
style, although his style improves from beginning to end of his work.
His book seems to have given him all the education and literary
training he had.
Pausanias shows no special national sympathies like Herodotus, no
social predilections like Thucydides, no political antipathies like Xeno-
phon. In all these matters he is colorless. Even in religious matters
he reveals no partiality for the ceremonial or devotional growths
from Asiatic sources, as might be expected from his own origin.
Beyond a reverential fondness for the great Eleusinian worship and
doctrines, he declares no religious allegiance. Neither can he be
classed with any of the great schools of philosophy. He takes no
distinct attitude, as Plutarch and Polybius do, on the great questions
involved in the relations of the Roman Empire to subject Greece.
Compared with Plutarch, his elder by only a few years, or with
Lucian, his brilliant contemporary, he seems to be in the great world
but not of it. He shows no contact with any great tendency of the
age.
He is unaware of the existence of Christianity. He is a reli-
gious antiquary.
The kernel of his work, and of each division of it, as has been
said, is an enumeration of the notable "sights. " His language here
either expressly claims or at least implies personal visitation and
observation on his part,-"autopsy. " There is no good reason to
doubt the direct claims at least, though some of the phrases which
merely imply autopsy are doubtless literary mannerisms taken from
his sources. He must therefore have traveled over those nine great
divisions of Greece which he describes. But he evidently had trav-
eled farther and seen more. The greater part of Asia Minor, Syria,
Phoenicia, Palestine, Egypt, even the oasis of Zeus Ammon in the
desert of Sahara, Rome and her neighbor cities Puteoli and Capua, he


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PAUSANIAS
speaks of having seen. That is, in preparing his work, he visited
the Greek part of the Roman Empire, and the great seat of that Em-
pire itself. But the notes of what he actually saw constitute really
the lesser half of his work. The greater part is taken up with the
manifold material which he laboriously collected, either orally, from
professional guides and local authorities, or from books.
His range
of literary authorities is immense. He must have had access to some
great library like that of Pergamum. He used the vast stores at his
command freely; and on the whole, considering the literary tenets
and practices of his age, intelligently and fairly. Whatever is in
Herodotus, Thucydides, or Xenophon, he presupposes as known to his
readers. What he takes from his endless array of later sources, he
does not credit to those sources, as modern literary ethics demand.
But the literary standards of his time, and the practice of his con-
temporaries and predecessors, not only tolerated but demanded a
large sacrifice of fidelity in the acknowledgment of borrowed ma-
terial: a sacrifice to the demands of literary form. And so it is that
the modern critical spirit is often offended at citations of authorities
at second hand, with no mention of the intermediate step; at lack of
citation when material is plainly borrowed; at vague phrases of ref-
erence to certain distinct sources; at citation only when exception is
taken to the words of his authority, but not when adjacent material
from the same authority is accepted and incorporated. But all these
sins can be laid at the door of his contemporaries and predecessors,
and above all at the door of his great model Herodotus.
For Pausanias evidently tried to clothe his dry and often tedious
compilation with the undying charm of Herodotus's manner. He did
not adopt the Ionic dialect in which his master wrote, but he bor-
rowed liberally his phraseology, and often affected his deliberate
suspense of judgment, or his naïve intimations of skepticism. But
for this elaborate literary artifice, we might think that Pausanias had
no ambition to be read and handed down as literature, but only to
prepare for his private use a memorandum of his travels, illustrated
by notes from his subsequent voluminous reading.
With all his faults. Pausanias is a precious witness for us of much
that has forever disappeared. Before the great era of excavations
came, Greek classical archæology was little more than a commentary
on Pausanias. The excavations at Athens, Olympia, and Delphi have
subjected him to severe tests; but he comes forth from them with
fresh claims to our confidence and respect.
Pausanias has not been fortunate in his English translations.
The version of Thomas Taylor (London, 1794, 3 vols. ) is now old-
fashioned without any of the charm which invests the old transla-
tions of Plutarch-and inaccurate. The version of A. R. Shilleto, in


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PAUSANIAS
11215
Bohn's Classical Library (London, 1886, 2 vols. ) is more inaccurate
still, but has the advantage of being written in a modern style. The
most convenient and accessible text of Pausanias is the Teubner
text-edition, edited by Schubart (Leipzig, 1875, 2 vols. ).
B. Pierin
THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS AND ITS TEMPLES
T
THE Acropolis there is only one approach: it allows of no
other, being everywhere precipitous and walled off. The
vestibules have a roof of white marble, and even now are
remarkable for both their beauty and size. As to the statues of
the horsemen, I cannot say with precision whether they are the
sons of Xenophon, or merely put there for decoration. On the
right of the vestibules is the shrine of Wingless Victory. From
it the sea is visible; and there Ægeus drowned himself, as they
say. For the ship which took his sons to Crete had black sails,
but Theseus told his father (for he knew there was some peril
in attacking the Minotaur) that he would have white sails if he
should sail back a conqueror. But he forgot this promise in his
loss of Ariadne. And Ægeus, seeing the ship with black sails,
thinking his son was dead, threw himself in and was drowned.
And the Athenians have a hero-chapel to his memory. And on
the left of the vestibules is a building with paintings; and among
those that time has not destroyed are Diomedes and Odysseus,-
the one taking away Philoctetes's bow in Lemnos, the other tak-
ing the Palladium from Ilium. Among other paintings here is
Ægisthus being slain by Orestes; and Pylades slaying the sons
of Nauplius that came to Ægisthus's aid. And Polyxena about
to have her throat cut near the tomb of Achilles. Homer did
well not to mention this savage act.
·
·
And there is a small stone such as a little man can sit on, on
which they say Silenus rested, when Dionysus came to the land.
Silenus is the name they give to all old Satyrs. About the
Satyrs I have conversed with many, wishing to know all about
them. And Euphemus, a Carian, told me that sailing once on
a time to Italy he was driven out of his course by the winds,
and carried to a distant sea, where people no longer sail. And
he said that here were many desert islands, some inhabited by


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PAUSANIAS
wild men and at these islands the sailors did not like to land, as
they had landed there before and had experience of the natives;
but they were obliged on that occasion. These islands he said.
were called by the sailors Satyr-islands; the dwellers in them
were red-haired, and had tails at their loins not much smaller
than horses.
And as regards the temple which they call the Parthenon, as
you enter it everything portrayed on the gables relates to the
birth of Athene, and behind is depicted the contest between
Poseidon and Athene for the soil of Attica. And this work of
art is in ivory and gold. In the middle of her helmet is an
image of the Sphinx,-about whom I shall give an account when
I come to Boeotia,- and on each side of the helmet are griffins
worked. These griffins, says Aristus the Proconnesian, in his
poems, fought with the Arimaspians beyond the Issedones for the
gold of the soil which the griffins guarded. And the Arimaspians
were all one-eyed men from their birth; and the griffins were
beasts like lions, with wings and mouth like an eagle.
Let so
much suffice for these griffins. But the statue of Athene is full
length, with a tunic reaching to her feet; and on her breast is
the head of Medusa worked in ivory, and in one hand she has a
Victory four cubits high, in the other hand a spear, and at her
feet a shield; and near the spear a dragon which perhaps is
Erichthonius. And on the base of the statue is a representation
of the birth of Pandora,- the first woman, according to Hesiod
and other poets; for before her there was no race of women.
Here too I remember to have seen the only statue here of the
Emperor Adrian; and at the entrance one of Iphicrates, the cel
ebrated Athenian general.
And outside the temple is a brazen Apollo said to be by
Phidias; and they call it Apollo, Averter of Locusts, because
when the locusts destroyed the land the god said he would drive
them out of the country. And they know that he did So, but
they don't say how. I myself know of locusts having been thrice.
destroyed on Mount Sipylus, but not in the same way; for some
were driven away by a violent wind that fell on them, and others
by a strong blight that came on them after showers, and others
were frozen to death by a sudden frost. All this came under
my own notice.
There is also a building called the Erechtheum, and in the
vestibule is an altar of Supreme Zeus, where they offer no living


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PAUSANIAS
11217
sacrifice, but cakes without the usual libation of wine.
And as
you enter there are three altars: one to Poseidon (on which they
also sacrifice to Erechtheus according to the oracle), one to the
hero Butes, and the third to Hephæstus. And on the walls are
paintings of the family of Butes. The building is a double one;
and inside there is sea-water in a well. And this is no great
marvel; for even those who live in inland parts have such wells,
-as notably the Aphrodisienses in Caria. But this well is
represented as having a roar as of the sea when the south wind
blows. And in the rock is the figure of a trident. And this is
said to have been Poseidon's proof in regard to the territory
Athene disputed with him.
Sacred to Athene is all the rest of Athens, and similarly all
Attica; for although they worship different gods in different
townships, none the less do they honor Athene generally. And
the most sacred of all is the statue of Athene in what is now
called the Acropolis, but was then called the Polis (city) which
was universally worshiped many years before the various town-
ships formed one city; and the rumor about it is that it fell from
heaven. As to this I shall not give an opinion, whether it was
so or not. And Callimachus made a golden lamp for the goddess.
And when they fill this lamp with oil it lasts for a whole year,
although it burns continually night and day. And the wick is of
a particular kind of cotton flax, the only kind indestructible by
fire. And above the lamp is a palm-tree of brass reaching to the
roof and carrying off the smoke. And Callimachus, the maker of
this lamp, although he comes behind the first artificers, yet was
remarkable for ingenuity, and was the first who perforated stone,
and got the name of Art-Critic, whether his own appellation or
given him by others.
In the temple of Athene Polias is a Hermes of wood (said to
be a votive offering of Cecrops), almost hidden by myrtle leaves.
And of the antique votive offerings worthy of record, is a folding.
chair, the work of Dædalus, and spoils taken from the Persians,—
as a coat of mail of Masistius, who commanded the cavalry at
Platæa, and a scimitar said to have belonged to Mardonius.
Masistius we know was killed by the Athenian cavalry: but as
Mardonius fought against the Lacedæmonians and was killed by
a Spartan, they could not have got it at first hand; nor is it
likely that the Lacedæmonians would have allowed the Atheni-
ans to carry off such a trophy. And about the olive they have
XIX-702


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11218
PAUSANIAS
nothing else to tell but that the goddess used it as a proof of
her right to the country, when it was contested by Poseidon. And
they record also that this olive was burnt when the Persians set
fire to Athens; but though burnt, it grew the same day two
cubits. And next to the temple of Athene is the temple of Pan-
drosus; who was the only one of the three sisters who didn't
peep into the forbidden chest. Now the things I most marveled
at are not universally known. I will therefore write of them as
they occur to me. Two maidens live not far from the temple of
Athene Polias, and the Athenians call them the "carriers of the
holy things"; for a certain time they live with the goddess, but
when her festival comes they act in the following way, by
night: Putting upon their heads what the priestess of Athene
gives them to carry (neither she nor they know what these things
are), these maidens descend, by a natural underground passage,
from an inclosure in the city sacred to Aphrodite of the Gardens.
In the sanctuary below they deposit what they carry, and bring
back something else closely wrapped up. And these maidens they
henceforth dismiss, and other two they elect instead of them for
the Acropolis.
THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA
M
ANY various wonders may one see, or hear of, in Greece:
but the Eleusinian mysteries and Olympian games seem to
exhibit more than anything else the Divine purpose. And
the sacred grove of Zeus they have from old time called Altis,
slightly changing the Greek word for grove: it is indeed called
Altis also by Pindar, in the ode he composed for a victor at
Olympia. And the temple and statue of Zeus were built out of
the spoils of Pisa, which the people of Elis razed to the ground,
after quelling the revolt of Pisa, and some of the neighboring
towns that revolted with Pisa. And that the statue of Zeus was
the work of Phidias is shown by the inscription written at the
base of it:
-:
>>>>
"Phidias the Athenian, the son of Charmides, made me.
The temple is a Doric building, and outside it is a colonnade.
And the temple is built of stone of the district. Its height up to
the gable is 68 feet, its breadth 95 feet, and its length 230 feet.
And its architect was Libon, a native of Elis. And the tiles on


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PAUSANIAS
11219
the roof are not of baked earth; but Pentelican marble, to imi-
tate tiles. They say such roofs are the invention of a man of
Naxos called Byzes, who made statues at Naxos with the inscrip-
tion:
"Euergus of Naxos made me, the son of Byzes, and descended
from Leto, the first who made tiles of stone. "
This Byzes was a contemporary of Alyattes the Lydian, and
Astyages (the son of Cyaxares), the king of Persia. And there
is a golden vase at each end of the roof, and a golden Victory
in the middle of the gable. And underneath the Victory is a
golden shield hung up as a votive offering, with the Gorgon
Medusa worked on it. The inscription on the shield states who
hung it up, and the reason why they did so. For this is what
it says:
"This temple's golden shield is a votive offering from the
Lacedæmonians at Tanagra and their allies, a gift from the Ar-
gives, the Athenians, and the Ionians, a tithe offering for success.
in war. "
-:
The battle I mentioned in my account of Attica, when I
described the tombs at Athens. And in the same temple at
Olympia, above the zone that runs round the pillars on the out-
side, are 21 golden shields, the offering of Mummius the Roman
general, after he had beaten the Achæans and taken Corinth,
and expelled the Dorians from Corinth. And on the gables in
bas-relief is the chariot race between Pelops and Enomaus; and
both chariots in motion. And in the middle of the gable is a
statue of Zeus; and on the right hand of Zeus is nomaus with
a helmet on his head; and beside him his wife Sterope, one of
the daughters of Atlas. And Myrtilus, who was the charioteer
of Enomaus, is seated behind the four horses. And next to
him are two men whose names are not recorded, but they are
doubtless Enomaus's grooms, whose duty was to take care of
the horses. And at the end of the gable is a delineation of the
river Cladeus, next to the Alpheus held most in honor of all
the rivers of Elis. And on the left of the statue of Zeus are
Pelops and Hippodamia, and the charioteer of Pelops, and the
horses, and two men who were Pelops's grooms. And where
the gable tapers fine there is the Alpheus delineated. And
Pelops's charioteer was, according to the tradition of the Trozen-
ians, Sphærus; but the custodian at Olympia said that his name.
was Cilla. The carvings on the gables in front are by Pæonius


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II 220
PAUSANIAS
of Mende in Thracia; those behind by Alcamenes, a contem-
porary of Phidias and second only to him as statuary. And on
the gables is a representation of the fight between the Lapithæ
and the Centaurs at the marriage of Pirithous. Pirithous is in
the centre, and on one side of him is Eurytion trying to carry
off Pirithous's wife, and Cæneus coming to the rescue, and
on the other side Theseus laying about among the Centaurs
with his battle-axe; and one Centaur is carrying off a maiden,
another a blooming boy. Alcamenes has engraved this story, I
imagine, because he learnt from the lines of Homer that Piri-
thous was the son of Zeus, and knew that Theseus was fourth in
descent from Pelops. There are also in bas-relief at Olympia
most of the Labors of Hercules. Above the doors of the temple
is the hunting of the Erymanthian boar, and Hercules taking
the mares of Diomede the Thracian, and robbing Geryon of
his oxen in the island of Erytheia, and supporting the load of
Atlas, and clearing the land of Elis of its dung. And above the
chamber behind the doors he is robbing the Amazon of her belt;
and there is the stag, and the Cretan Minotaur, and the Stym-
phalian birds, and the hydra, and the Nemean lion. And as you
enter the brazen doors on the right in front of the pillar is
Iphitus being crowned by his wife Ecechiria, as the inscription
in verse states. And there are pillars inside the temple, and
porticoes above, and an approach by them to the image of Zeus.
There is also a winding staircase to the roof.
The image of the god is in gold and ivory, seated on a
throne. And a crown is on his head imitating the foliage of the
olive-tree. In his right hand he holds a Victory in ivory and
gold, with a tiara and crown on his head; and in his left hand
a sceptre adorned with all manner of precious stones, and the
bird seated on the sceptre is an eagle. The robes and sandals
of the god are also of gold; and on his robes are imitations of
flowers, especially of lilies. And the throne is richly adorned
with gold and precious stones, and with ebony and ivory. And
there are imitations of animals painted on it, and models worked
on it.
There are four Victories like dancers, one at each foot
of the throne, and two also at the instep of each foot; and at
each of the front feet are Theban boys carried off by Sphinxes,
and below the Sphinxes, Apollo and Artemis shooting down the
children of Niobe. And between the feet of the throne are four
divisions formed by straight lines drawn from each of the four


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PAUSANIAS
II221
-
feet.
In the division nearest the entrance there are seven mod-
els, the eighth has vanished no one knows where or how. And
they are imitations of ancient contests, for in the days of Phidias
the contests for boys were not yet established.
And the figure
Pantarces, who
This Pantarces
with its head muffled up in a scarf is, they say,
was a native of Elis and the darling of Phidias.
won the wrestling-prize for boys in the 86th Olympiad. And in
the remaining divisions is the band of Hercules fighting against
the Amazons. The number on each side is 29, and Theseus is
on the side of Hercules. And the throne is supported not only
by the four feet, but also by four pillars between the feet. But
one cannot get under the throne, as one can at Amyclæ, and pass
inside; for at Olympia there are panels like walls that keep one
off. Of these panels the one opposite the doors of the temple is
painted sky-blue only, but the others contain paintings by Panæ-
nus. Among them is Atlas bearing up Earth and Heaven, and
Hercules standing by willing to relieve him of his load; and
Theseus and Pirithous, and Greece, and Salamis with the figure-
head of a ship in her hand, and the contest of Hercules with the
Nemean lion, and Ajax's unknightly violation of Cassandra, and
Hippodamia, the daughter of Enomaus, with her mother; and
Prometheus still chained to the rock, and Hercules gazing at him.
For the tradition is that Hercules slew the eagle that was ever
tormenting Prometheus on Mount Caucasus, and released Prome-
theus from his chains. The last paintings are Penthesilea dying
and Achilles supporting her, and two Hesperides carrying the
apples of which they are fabled to have been the keepers. This
Panænus was the brother of Phidias; and at Athens in the
Painted Stoa he has painted the action at Marathon. At the top
of the throne, Phidias has represented above the head of Zeus
the three Graces and three Seasons. For these too, as we learn
from the poets, were daughters of Zeus. Homer in the Iliad has
represented the Seasons as having the care of Heaven, as a kind
of guards of a royal palace. And the base under the feet of
Zeus (what is called in Attic @pavior) has golden lions engraved
on it, and the battle between Theseus and the Amazons,-the
first famous exploit of the Athenians beyond their own borders.
And on the platform that supports the throne there are various
ornaments round Zeus, and gilt carving,- the Sun seated in his
chariot, and Zeus and Hera; and near is Grace. Hermes is
close to her, and Vesta close to Hermes. And next to Vesta is


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PAUSANIAS
Eros receiving Aphrodite, who is just rising from the sea and
being crowned by Persuasion. And Apollo and Artemis, Athene
and Hercules, are standing by, and at the end of the platform
Amphitrite and Poseidon, and Selene apparently urging on her
horse. And some say it is a mule and not a horse that the god-
dess is riding upon; and there is a silly tale about this mule.
I know that the size of the Olympian Zeus both in height
and breadth has been stated; but I cannot bestow praise on the
measurers, for their recorded measurement comes far short of
what any one would infer from looking at the statue. They make
the god also to have testified to the art of Phidias. For they
say that when the statue was finished, Phidias prayed him to sig-
nify if the work was to his mind; and immediately Zeus struck
with lightning that part of the pavement where in our day there
is a brazen urn with a lid.
And all the pavement in front of the statue is not of white
but of black stone. And a border of Parian marble runs round
this black stone, as a preservative against spilled oil. For oil is
good for the statue at Olympia, as it prevents the ivory being
harmed by the dampness of the grove. But in the Acropolis at
Athens, in regard to the statue of Athene called the Maiden, it is
not oil but water that is advantageously employed to the ivory;
for as the citadel is dry by reason of its great height, the statue
being made of ivory needs to be sprinkled with water freely.
And when I was at Epidaurus, and inquired why they use neither
water nor oil to the statue of Esculapius, the sacristans of the
temple informed me that the statue of the god and its throne
are over a well.


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11223
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
(1785-1866)
HIS preface to Cole's edition of Peacock's works, Lord
Houghton describes the author of 'Headlong Hall' and
'Nightmare Abbey' as a man who belonged in all his
tastes, sentiments, and aspects of life, to the eighteenth century.
This characterization of Peacock is to a degree justifiable. In his
indifference to the mysteries of existence, in his common-sense spirit,
in his delicate epicureanism, in his love of ancient and well-established
institutions of government and society, he exhibits the temper of the
age of Pope. Yet he is thoroughly modern in his exquisite humor,
in his skill in pricking the South Sea bubbles devised by the indi-
vidual or by humanity at large, in his sense of proportion, in his fine
carelessness.
He may not have belonged to the enthusiastic, tem-
pestuous, striving age which produced Byron and Shelley in the world
of letters, and led to the Oxford Revival in the domain of religion;
but he may be classed with end-of-the-century pagans as properly as
with those of the preceding century.
Ben Jonson has been spoken of as the prototype of Peacock,
because he dealt in "humors. " The points of resemblance between
the Elizabethan dramatist and the satirist of English life three hun-
dred years later, are not few. The characters of Peacock's novels,
like the persons of Jonson's dramas, are less human beings than
abstractions of certain intellectual eccentricities. Although Lady
Clarinda of Crotchet Castle' and the Rev. Dr. Opimian of 'Gryll
Grange' are warm, lifelike creations, the majority of their associates
are shadowy mouthpieces, through which Peacock directs the shafts
of his inimitable irony against the clergy, against the universities,
against the politicians, against the innovationists, against the whim-
sies of his contemporaries of every creed and party.
His satirical temper, his fashion of ridiculing everything but good
dinners and a country life, his insight into the foibles of his time,
were manifest in his first novel, 'Headlong Hall. ' Squire Headlong,
a hunter and a lover of old wines, has been seized with a violent
passion to be thought a philosopher and a man of taste: so he sets
off to Oxford to inquire for other varieties of the same genera,—
namely, men of taste and philosophy; but being assured by a learned
professor that there were no such things in the university, he pursues


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11224
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
his search in London, where he makes the acquaintance of Mr. Fos-
ter the perfectibilian, Mr. Escot the deteriorationist, Mr. Jenkinson
the statu-quo-ite, and the Rev. Dr. Gaster, who has gained fame by
a learned dissertation on the art of stuffing a turkey. These four
worthies spend Christmas at Headlong Hall, where each discourses in
season and out of season on his particular conception of the universe.
In Dr. Gaster, Peacock satirizes the English clergy; but he makes
amends for his fun at their expense by drawing the charming Dr.
Folliott in Crotchet Castle,' and Dr. Opimian in 'Gryll Grange. '
These are clergymen of the old school, Tories, whose knowledge of
Greek is only equaled by their knowledge of fish-sauces and old
Madeira. Peacock was too much of an epicurean and Grecian him-
self not to recognize and pay tribute to such merits.
His most biting satire is directed rather against the chimeras of
contemporary poets and philosophers. Although he was a true friend
of Shelley, he caricatures him, in a kindly enough spirit, in the hero
of Nightmare Abbey,' young Sycthrop, who is in love with two
women at once. Byron is held up to ridicule as Mr. Cypress, and
Coleridge as Mr. Flosky. For the dreamy mystical poet of the
'Ancient Mariner,' Peacock could have little sympathy. He intro-
duces him into 'Crotchet Castle' as Mr. Skionar, "a great dreamer
who always dreams with his eyes open, or with one eye open at any
rate, which is an eye to gain," a palpable injustice to Coleridge,
who never knew how to take care of himself. Southey was, however,
Peacock's pet detestation. As Sackput, he makes of the poet a mon-
ument to his ironical contempt.
His own life is in part explanatory of his peculiar aversion to cer-
tain contemporary institutions and classes of people. He was born
October 1785, at Weymouth, England, the only child of Samuel Pea-
cock, a merchant of London. His mother, Sarah Love, had several
relatives in the English navy, from whom Peacock gained his knowl-
edge of shipping, which he afterwards turned to good account in the
service of the East India Company. He was sent to a private school
at eight years of age, remaining there until he was thirteen. After
that time his education was carried on by himself. A residence in
London enabled him to do an enormous amount of classical reading
in the British Museum. How wide that reading was, is shown by the
variety and number of the classical quotations sown through his nov-
els. As a self-educated man, he had an unbounded contempt for the
universities, and he lost no opportunity of expressing it.
From 1808 to 1809 he was under-secretary to Sir Home Popham,
on board H. M. S. Venerable; but the occupation was not congenial
to him, and he resigned his position. Later he took up his residence
in Wales. At Nant Gwillt, near Rhaydar, in 1812, he made the


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THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
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acquaintance of Shelley and his child-wife Harriet. By some con-
tradiction of his nature, he formed a close and lasting friendship
with the ethereal poet, of whom he has left a very just though sym-
pathetic biography. In this biography he draws what is perhaps the
most authentic portrait of the unfortunate Harriet. He does justice
to her physical charms, and to her purity of character. In 1816 he
published Headlong Hall'; in 1817 Melincourt'; in 1818 'Nightmare
Abbey'; in 1822 (Maid Marian'; in 1829 (The Misfortunes of Elplim';
and in 1831 Crotchet Castle. ' In 1819 Peacock had obtained a
clerkship in the examiner's office of the East India Company. He
continued in its employ until 1856, when he retired on a pension, and
was succeeded by John Stuart Mill. From 1831 to 1852 he published
nothing. His last novel, 'Gryll Grange,' was published when he was
an old man in the seventies. He died in 1866.
During the long period of his life he stood apart from the world
of his contemporaries. He was not in sympathy with it, although he
understood it. Peacock was in sympathy with nothing which took
itself seriously. For this reason he hated the Scotch reviewers,
especially Jeffrey and his school; he hated the universities; he hated
reformers, who are always intense and literal. Peacock's works, aside
from their literary value, are important for the light they throw upon
the intellectual peculiarities of Englishmen in the first half of this
century. The historical value of satire has been apparent since the
days of Aristophanes. As Lucian lets the reader into the highly
colored intellectual world of the second century, so Peacock reveals
the colors of nineteenth-century thought in his ironical novels.
He himself is a pagan of the decadence. He takes the world with
exquisite nonchalance, and prefers a well-ordered dinner to a dis-
sertation on the immortality of the soul. His bacchanalian songs,
interspersed through his novels, are Elizabethan in their mellowness
of fancy; they have the quality of fine wine itself. They, rather than
his occasional pieces on conventional subjects, establish his claim as
a poet. Peacock's love of the country, and of an unrestrained life,
finds its most perfect expression in Maid Marian,' an airy tale of
Robin Hood and his Merry Men. It is redolent of the greenwood,
but the odor of delicately roasted venison and the fragrance of
canary wine are always discernible through the sweet smell of the
turf.
Peacock's works are of a rare vintage, but the reader must be an
epicurean in literature to enjoy them. He must lay aside his fever-
ish nineteenth-century prejudices and opinions if he would enjoy the
whimsicalities of this writer, who takes his ease in the world's inn,
while he laughs at the perspiring crowd in the highway.


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11226
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
FROM MAID MARIAN>
MAID MARIAN
- Tuck, the merry friar, who many a sermon made
In praise of Robin Hood, his outlaws, and their trade.
- DRAYTON.
-
T
HE baron, with some of his retainers and all the foresters,
halted at daybreak in Sherwood Forest. The foresters
quickly erected tents, and prepared an abundant breakfast
of venison and ale.
"Now, Lord Fitzwater," said the chief forester, "recognize
your son-in-law that was to have been, in the outlaw Robin
Hood. "
"Ay, ay," said the baron, "I have recognized you long ago. "
"And recognize your young friend Gamwell," said the second,
"in the outlaw Scarlet. "
"And Little John, the page," said the third, "in Little John,
the outlaw. "
"And Father Michael, of Rubygill Abbey," said the friar,
"in Friar Tuck, of Sherwood Forest. Truly, I have a chapel
here hard by, in the shape of a hollow tree, where I put up
my prayers for travelers; and Little John holds the plate at the
door, for good praying deserves good paying. "
"I am in fine company," said the baron.
"In the very best of company," said the friar: "in the high
court of Nature, and in the midst of her own nobility. Is it
not so? This goodly grove is our palace; the oak and the beech
are its colonnade and its canopy; the sun and the moon and
the stars are its everlasting lamps; the grass and the daisy, and
the primrose and the violet, are its many-colored floor of green,
white, yellow, and blue; the mayflower and the woodbine, and
the eglantine and the ivy, are its decorations, its curtains, and its
tapestry; the lark, and the thrush, and the linnet, and the night-
ingale, are its unhired minstrels and musicians. Robin Hood is
king of the forest both by dignity of birth and by virtue of his
standing army; to say nothing of the free choice of his people,
which he has indeed, but I pass it by as an illegitimate basis of
power. He holds his dominion over the forest, and its horned
multitude of citizen-deer, and its swinish multitude or peasantry
of wild boars, by right of conquest and force of arms. He levies


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THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11227
contributions among them by the free consent of his archers,
their virtual representatives. If they should find a voice to com-
plain that we are 'tyrants and usurpers to kill and cook them up
in their assigned and native dwelling-place,' we should most con-
vincingly admonish them, with point of arrow, that they have.
nothing to do with our laws but to obey them. Is it not written
that the fat ribs of the herd shall be fed upon by the mighty in
the land? And have not they withal my blessing? my ortho-
dox, canonical, and archiepiscopal blessing? Do I not give thanks
for them when they are well roasted and smoking under my
nose? What title had William of Normandy to England, that
Robin of Locksley has not to merry Sherwood? William fought
for his claim. So does Robin. With whom, both? With any
that would or will dispute it. William raised contributions. So
does Robin. From whom, both? From all that they could or
can make pay them. Why did any pay them to William? Why
do any pay them to Robin ? For the same reason, to both:
because they could not or cannot help it. They differ indeed in
this,- that William took from the poor and gave to the rich, and
Robin takes from the rich and gives to the poor; and therein is
Robin illegitimate, though in all else he is true prince. Scarlet
and John, are they not peers of the forest? lords temporal of
Sherwood? And am not I lord spiritual? Am I not archbishop?
Am I not pope? Do I not consecrate their banner and absolve
their sins? Are not they State, and am not I Church? Are
not they State monarchical, and am not I Church militant? Do
I not excommunicate our enemies from venison and brawn, and
by'r Lady, when need calls, beat them down under my feet?
The State levies tax, and the Church levies tithe.
Even so
do we. 'Mass, we take all at once. What then? It is tax by
redemption, and tithe by commutation. Your William and Rich-
ard can cut and come again; but our Robin deals with slippery
subjects, that come not twice to his exchequer. What need we
then to constitute a court, except a fool and a laureate? For
the fool, his only use is to make false knaves merry by art: and
we are true men and are merry by nature. For the laureate,
his only office is to find virtues in those who have none, and to
drink sack for his pains. We have quite virtue enough to need
him not, and can drink our sack for ourselves. "
"Well preached, friar," said Robin Hood; "yet there is one
thing wanting to constitute a court, and that is a queen. And
――


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THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
now, lovely Matilda, look round upon these sylvan shades where
we have so often roused the stag from his ferny covert. The
rising sun smiles upon us through the stems of that beechen
knoll. Shall I take your hand, Matilda, in the presence of this
my court?
Shall I crown you with our wildwood coronal, and
hail you Queen of the Forest? Will you be the Queen Matilda
of your own true King Robin ? »
Matilda smiled assent.
"Not Matilda," said the friar: "the rules of our holy alliance
require new birth. We have excepted in favor of Little John,
because he is great John, and his name is a misnomer. I
sprinkle, not thy forehead with water, but thy lips with wine,
and baptize thee Marian. "
"Here is a pretty conspiracy," exclaimed the baron. "Why,
you villainous friar, think you to nickname and marry my
daughter before my face with impunity? "
"Even so, bold baron," said the friar: "we are strongest
here. Say you, might overcomes right? I say no. There is no
right but might; and to say that might overcomes right is to
say that right overcomes itself: an absurdity most palpable. Your
right was the stronger in Arlingford, and ours is the stronger in
Sherwood. Your right was right as long as you could maintain
it; so is ours. So is King Richard's, with all deference be it
spoken; and so is King Saladin's: and their two mights are
now committed in bloody fray, and that which overcomes will
be right just as long as it lasts and as far as it reaches. And
now, if any of you know any just impediment-
"Fire and fury! " said the baron.
"Fire and fury," said the friar, "are modes of that might
which constitutes right, and are just impediments to anything
against which they can be brought to bear. They are our allies
upon occasion, and would declare for us now, if you should put
them to the test. "
"Father," said Matilda, "you know the terms of our compact:
from the moment you restrained my liberty, you renounced your
claim to all but compulsory obedience. The friar argues well:
right ends with might. Thick walls, dreary galleries, and tapes-
tried chambers were indifferent to me while I could leave them
at pleasure, but have ever been hateful to me since they held
me by force. May I never again have roof but the blue sky,
nor canopy but the green leaves, nor barrier but the forest


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THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
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bounds; with the foresters to my train, Little John to my page,
Friar Tuck to my ghostly adviser, and Robin Hood to my liege
lord. I am
no longer Lady Matilda Fitzwater of Arlingford
Castle, but plain Maid Marian of Sherwood Forest. "
"Long live Maid Marian! " re-echoed the foresters.
"O false girl! " said the baron, "do you renounce your name
and parentage? "
"Not my parentage," said Marian, "but my name indeed: do
not all maids renounce it at the altar? »
"The altar! " said the baron: "grant me patience! what do
you mean by the altar? »
"Pile green turf," said the friar; "wreathe it with flowers,
and crown it with fruit, and we will show the noble baron what
we mean by the altar. "
The foresters did as the friar directed.
"Now, Little John," said the friar, "on with the cloak of
the Abbot of Doubleflask. I appoint thee my clerk: thou art
here duly elected in full mote. "
"I wish you were all in full moat together," said the baron,
"and smooth wall on both sides. "
"Punnest thou? " said the friar. "A heinous, anti-Christian
offense. Why anti-Christian? Because anti-Catholic. Why anti-
Catholic? Because anti-Roman. Why anti-Roman? Because
Carthaginian. Is not pun from Punic? punica fides: the very
quintessential quiddity of bad faith; double-visaged; double-
tongued. He that will make a pun will I say no more. Fie
on it. Stand forth, clerk. Who is the bride's father? "
"There is no bride's father," said the baron. "I am the
father of Matilda Fitzwater. "
――――
"There is none such," said the friar. "This is the fair Maid
Marian. Will you make a virtue of necessity, or will you give
laws to the flowing tide? Will you give her, or shall Robin
take her? Will you be her true natural father, or shall I com-
mute paternity? Stand forth, Scarlet. "
"Stand back, Sirrah Scarlet," said the baron. "My daughter
shall have no father but me. Needs must when the Devil drives. "
"No matter who drives," said the friar, "so that, like a well-
disposed subject, you yield cheerful obedience to those who can
enforce it. "
"Mawd, sweet Mawd," said the baron, "will you then forsake
your poor old father in his distress, with his castle in ashes and
his enemy in power? "


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THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
"Not so, father," said Marian: "I will always be your true
daughter; I will always love and serve and watch and defend
you: but neither will I forsake my plighted love, and my own
liege lord, who was your choice before he was mine, for you
made him my associate in infancy; and that he continued to be
mine when he ceased to be yours, does not in any way show
remissness in my duties, or falling off in my affections.