第 17 节
作者:
竹水冷 更新:2021-02-20 05:39 字数:9322
ince in 〃The Sleeping Beauty;〃 though not by the same process; to break the charm。 He gave up calling at a house where he was warmly appreciated; because father; mother; daughter; bombarded him with questions。 〃I never came away without feeling sure that I had in some way perjured myself。〃
On his shyness waited swiftly ensuing boredom; if his neighbour at table were garrulous or BANALE; his face at once betrayed conversational prostration; a lady who often watched him used to say that his pulse ought to be felt after the first course; and that if it showed languor he should be moved to the side of some other partner。 〃He had great charm;〃 writes to me another old friend; 〃in a quiet winning way; but was 'dark' with rough and noisy people。〃 So it came to pass that his manner was threefold; icy and repellent with those who set his nerves on edge; good… humoured; receptive; intermittently responsive in general and congenial company; while; at ease with friends trusted and beloved; the lines of the face became gracious; indulgent; affectionate; the SOURIRE DES YEUX often inexpressibly winning and tender。 〃Kinglake;〃 says Eliot Warburton in his unpublished diary; 〃talked to us to…day about his travels; pessimistic and cynical to the rest of the world; he is always gentle and kind to us。〃 To this dear friend he was ever faithful; wearing to the day of his death an octagonal gold ring engraved 〃Eliot。 Jan: 1852。〃 He would never play the RACONTEUR in general company; for he had a great horror of repeating himself; and; latterly; of being looked upon as a bore by younger men; but he loved to pour out reminiscences of the past to an audience of one or two at most: 〃Let an old man gather his recollections and glance at them under the right angle; and his life is full of pantomime transformation scenes。〃 The chief characteristic of his wit was its unexpectedness; sometimes acrid; sometimes humorous; his sayings came forth; like Topham Beauclerk's in Dr。 Johnson's day; like Talleyrand's in our own; poignant without effort。 His calm; gentle voice; contrasted with his startling caustic utterance; reminded people of Prosper Merimee: terse epigram; felicitous APROPOS; whimsical presentment of the topic under discussion; emitted in a low tone; and without the slightest change of muscle:
〃All the charm of all the Muses Often flowering in a lonely word。〃 (25)
Questions he would suavely and often wittily parry or repel: to an unhistorical lady asking if he remembered Madame Du Barry; he said; 〃my memory is very imperfect as to the particulars of my life during the reign of Lous XV。 and the Regency; but I know a lady who has a teapot which belonged; she says; to Madame Du Barry。〃 Madame Novikoff; however; records his discomfiture at the query of a certain Lady E…; who; when all London was ringing with his first Crimean volumes; asked him if he were not an admirer of Louis Napoleon。 〃LE PAUVRE KINGLAKE; DECONTENANCE; REPONDIT TOUT BAS INTIMIDE COMME UN ENFANT QU'ON MET DATES LE COIN: OUI … NON … PAS PRECISEMENT。〃
He had no knowledge of or liking for music。 Present once by some mischance at a MATINEE MUSICALE; he was asked by the hostess what kind of music he preferred。 His preference; he owned; was for the drum。 One thinks of the 〃Bourgeois Gentilhomme;〃 〃LA TROMPETTE MARINE EST UN INSTRUMENT QUI ME PLAIT; EL QUI EST HARMONIEUX〃; we are reminded; too; of Dean Stanley; who; absolutely tone…deaf; and hurrying away whenever music was performed; once from an adjoining room in his father's house heard Jenny Lind sing 〃I know that my Redeemer liveth。〃 He went to her shyly; and told her that she had given him an idea of what people mean by music。 Once before; he said in all seriousness; the same feeling had come over him; when before the palace at Vienna he had heard a tattoo rendered by four hundred drummers。
Kinglake used to regret the disuse of duelling; as having impaired the higher tone of good breeding current in his younger days; and even blamed the Duke of Wellington for proscribing it in the army。 He had himself on one occasion sent a cartel; and stood waiting for his adversary; like Sir Richard Strachan at Walcheren; eight days on the French coast; but the adversary never came。 Hayward once referred to him; as a counsellor; and if necessary a second; a quarrel with Lord R…。 Lord R…'s friend called on him; a Norfolk squire; 〃broad…faced and breathing port wine;〃 after the fashion of uncle Phillips in 〃Pride and Prejudice;〃 who began in a boisterous voice; 〃I am one of those; Mr。 Kinglake; who believe R… to be a gentleman。〃 In his iciest tones and stoniest manner Kinglake answered: 〃That; Sir; I am quite willing to assume。〃 The effect; he used to say; as he told and acted the scene; was magical; 〃I had frozen him sober; and we settled everything without a fight。〃 Of all his friends Hayward was probably the closest; an association of discrepancies in character; manner; temperament; not complementary; but opposed and hostile; irreconcilable; one would say; but for the knowledge that in love and friendship paradox reigns supreme。 Hayward was arrogant; overbearing; loud; insistent; full of strange oaths and often unpardonably coarse; 〃our dominant friend;〃 Kinglake called him; 〃odious〃 is the epithet I have heard commonly bestowed upon him by less affectionate acquaintances。 Kinglake was reserved; shy; reticent; with the high breeding; grand manner; quiet urbanity; GRATA PROTERVITAS; of a waning epoch; restraint; concentration; tact of omission; dictating alike his silence and his speech; his well…weighed words 〃crystallizing into epigrams as they touched the air。〃 (26) When Hayward's last illness came upon him in 1884; Kinglake nursed him tenderly; spending the morning in his friend's lodgings at 8; St。 James's Street; the house which Byron occupied in his early London days; and bringing on the latest bulletin to the club。 The patient rambled towards the end; 〃we ought to be getting ready to catch the train that we may go to my sister's at Lyme。〃 Kinglake quieted his sick friend by an assurance that the servants; whom he would not wish to hurry; were packing。 〃On no account hurry the servants; but still let us be off。〃 The last thought which he articulated while dying was; 〃I don't exactly know what it is; but I feel it is something grand。〃 〃Hayward is dead;〃 Kinglake wrote to a common friend; 〃the devotion shown to him by all sorts and conditions of men; and; what is better; of women; was unbounded。 Gladstone found time to be with him; and to engage him in a conversation of singular interest; of which he has made a memorandum。〃
Another of Kinglake's life…long familiars was Charles Skirrow; Taxing Master in Chancery; with his accomplished wife; from whose memorable fish dinners at Greenwich he was seldom absent; adapting himself no less readily to their theatrical friends … the Bancrofts; Burnand; Toole; Irving … than to the literary set with which he was more habitually at home。 He was religiously loyal to his friends; speaking of them with generous admiration; eagerly defending them when attacked。 He lauded Butler Johnstone as the most gifted of the young men in the House of Commons; would not allow Bernal Osborne to be called untrue; 〃he offends people if you like; but he is never false or hollow。〃 A clever SOBRIQUET fathered on him; burlesquing the monosyllabic names of a well…known diarist and official; he repelled indignantly。 〃He is my friend; and had I been guilty of the JEU; I should have broken two of my commandments; that which forbids my joking at a friend's expense; and that which forbids my fashioning a play upon words。〃 He entreated Madame Novikoff to visit and cheer Charles Lever; dying at Trieste; deeply lamented Sir H。 Bulwer's death: 〃I used to think his a beautiful intellect; and he was wonderfully SIMPATICO to me。〃 But he was shy of condoling with bereaved mourners; believing words used on such occasions to be utterly untrue。 He loved to include husband and wife in the same meed of admiration; as in the case of
Dean Stanley and Lady Augusta; or of Sir Robert and Lady Emily Peel。 Peel; he said; has the RADIANT quality not easy to describe; Lady Emily is always beauteous; bright; attractive。 Lord Stanhope he praised as a historian; paying him the equivocal compliment that his books were much better than his conversation。 So; too; he qualified his admiration of Lady Ashburton; dwelling on her beauty; silver voice; ready enthusiasm apt to disperse itself by flying at too many objects。
He was wont to speak admiringly of Lord Acton; relating how; a Roman Catholic; yet respecting enlightenment and devoted to books; he once set up and edited a 〃Quarterly Review;〃 with a notion of reconciling the Light and the Dark as well as he could; but the 〃Prince of Darkness; the Pope;〃 interposed; and ordered him to stop the 〃Review。〃 He was compelled to obey; not; he told people; on any religious ground; but because relations and others would have made his life a bore to him if he had been contumacious against the Holy Father。
Kinglake was strongly attract