第 101 节
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这就是结局 更新:2021-02-20 15:59 字数:9320
of Dumas; Henriot; drunk with blood and alcohol; reels within;
and chucks his gory sabre on the floor。 〃All is lost!〃
〃Wretch! thy cowardice hath destroyed us!〃 yelled the fierce
Coffinhal; as he hurled the coward from the window。
Calm as despair stands the stern St。 Just; the palsied Couthon
crawls; grovelling; beneath table; a shot;an explosion!
Robespierre would destroy himself! The trembling hand has
mangled; and failed to kill! The clock of the Hotel de Ville
strikes the third hour。 Through the battered door; along the
gloomy passages; into the Death…hall; burst the crowd。 Mangled;
livid; blood…stained; speechless but not unconscious; sits
haughty yet; in his seat erect; the Master…Murderer! Around him
they throng; they hoot;they execrate; their faces gleaming in
the tossing torches! HE; and not the starry Magian; the REAL
Sorcerer! And round HIS last hours gather the Fiends he raised!
They drag him forth! Open thy gates; inexorable prison! The
Conciergerie receives its prey! Never a word again on earth
spoke Maximilien Robespierre! Pour forth thy thousands; and tens
of thousands; emancipated Paris! To the Place de la Revolution
rolls the tumbril of the King of Terror;St。 Just; Dumas;
Couthon; his companions to the grave! A womana childless
woman; with hoary hairsprings to his side; 〃Thy death makes me
drunk with joy!〃 He opened his bloodshot eyes;〃Descend to hell
with the curses of wives and mothers!〃
The headsmen wrench the rag from the shattered jaw; a shriek; and
the crowd laugh; and the axe descends amidst the shout of the
countless thousands; and blackness rushes on thy soul; Maximilien
Robespierre! So ended the Reign of Terror。
。。。
Daylight in the prison。 From cell to cell they hurry with the
news;crowd upon crowd; the joyous captives mingled with the
very jailers; who; for fear; would fain seem joyous too; they
stream through the dens and alleys of the grim house they will
shortly leave。 They burst into a cell; forgotten since the
previous morning。 They found there a young female; sitting upon
her wretched bed; her arms crossed upon her bosom; her face
raised upward; the eyes unclosed; and a smile of more than
serenityof blissupon her lips。 Even in the riot of their
joy; they drew back in astonishment and awe。 Never had they seen
life so beautiful; and as they crept nearer; and with noiseless
feet; they saw that the lips breathed not; that the repose was of
marble; that the beauty and the ecstasy were of death。 They
gathered round in silence; and lo! at her feet there was a young
infant; who; wakened by their tread; looked at them steadfastly;
and with its rosy fingers played with its dead mother's robe。 An
orphan there in a dungeon vault!
〃Poor one!〃 said a female (herself a parent); 〃and they say the
father fell yesterday; and now the mother! Alone in the world;
what can be its fate?〃
The infant smiled fearlessly on the crowd; as the woman spoke
thus。 And the old priest; who stood amongst them; said gently;
〃Woman; see! the orphan smiles! THE FATHERLESS ARE THE CARE OF
GOD!〃
…
NOTE。
The curiosity which Zanoni has excited among those who think it
worth while to dive into the subtler meanings they believe it
intended to convey; may excuse me in adding a few words; not in
explanation of its mysteries; but upon the principles which
permit them。 Zanoni is not; as some have supposed; an allegory;
but beneath the narrative it relates; TYPICAL meanings are
concealed。 It is to be regarded in two characters; distinct yet
harmonious;1st; that of the simple and objective fiction; in
which (once granting the license of the author to select a
subject which is; or appears to be; preternatural) the reader
judges the writer by the usual canons;namely; by the
consistency of his characters under such admitted circumstances;
the interest of his story; and the coherence of his plot; of the
work regarded in this view; it is not my intention to say
anything; whether in exposition of the design; or in defence of
the execution。 No typical meanings (which; in plain terms are
but moral suggestions; more or less numerous; more or less
subtle) can afford just excuse to a writer of fiction; for the
errors he should avoid in the most ordinary novel。 We have no
right to expect the most ingenious reader to search for the inner
meaning; if the obvious course of the narrative be tedious and
displeasing。 It is; on the contrary; in proportion as we are
satisfied with the objective sense of a work of imagination; that
we are inclined to search into its depths for the more secret
intentions of the author。 Were we not so divinely charmed with
〃Faust;〃 and 〃Hamlet;〃 and 〃Prometheus;〃 so ardently carried on
by the interest of the story told to the common understanding; we
should trouble ourselves little with the types in each which all
of us can detect;none of us can elucidate; none elucidate; for
the essence of type is mystery。 We behold the figure; we cannot
lift the veil。 The author himself is not called upon to explain
what he designed。 An allegory is a personation of distinct and
definite things;virtues or qualities;and the key can be given
easily; but a writer who conveys typical meanings; may express
them in myriads。 He cannot disentangle all the hues which
commingle into the light he seeks to cast upon truth; and
therefore the great masters of this enchanted soil;Fairyland of
Fairyland; Poetry imbedded beneath Poetry;wisely leave to each
mind to guess at such truths as best please or instruct it。 To
have asked Goethe to explain the 〃Faust〃 would have entailed as
complex and puzzling an answer as to have asked Mephistopheles to
explain what is beneath the earth we tread on。 The stores
beneath may differ for every passenger; each step may require a
new description; and what is treasure to the geologist may be
rubbish to the miner。 Six worlds may lie under a sod; but to the
common eye they are but six layers of stone。
Art in itself; if not necessarily typical; is essentially a
suggester of something subtler than that which it embodies to the
sense。 What Pliny tells us of a great painter of old; is true of
most great painters; 〃their works express something beyond the
works;〃〃more felt than understood。〃 This belongs to the
concentration of intellect which high art demands; and which; of
all the arts; sculpture best illustrates。 Take Thorwaldsen's
Statue of Mercury;it is but a single figure; yet it tells to
those conversant with mythology a whole legend。 The god has
removed the pipe from his lips; because he has already lulled to
sleep the Argus; whom you do not see。 He is pressing his heel
against his sword; because the moment is come when he may slay
his victim。 Apply the principle of this noble concentration of
art to the moral writer: he; too; gives to your eye but a single
figure; yet each attitude; each expression; may refer to events
and truths you must have the learning to remember; the acuteness
to penetrate; or the imagination to conjecture。 But to a
classical judge of sculpture; would not the exquisite pleasure of
discovering the all not told in Thorwaldsen's masterpiece be
destroyed if the artist had engraved in detail his meaning at the
base of the statue? Is it not the same with the typical sense
which the artist in words conveys? The pleasure of divining art
in each is the noble exercise of all by whom art is worthily
regarded。
We of the humbler race not unreasonably shelter ourselves under
the authority of the masters; on whom the world's judgment is
pronounced; and great names are cited; not with the arrogance of
equals; but with the humility of inferiors。
The author of Zanoni gives; then; no key to mysteries; be they
trivial or important; which may be found in the secret chambers
by those who lift the tapestry from the wall; but out of the many
solutions of the main enigmaif enigma; indeed; there bewhich
have been sent to him; he ventures to select the one which he
subjoins; from the ingenuity and thought which it displays; and
from respect for the distinguished writer (one of the most
eminent our time has produced) who deemed him worthy of an honour
he is proud to display。 He leaves it to the reader to agree
with; or dissent from the explanation。 〃A hundred men;〃 says the
old Platonist; 〃may read the book by the help of the same lamp;
yet all may differ on the text; for the lamp only lights the
characters;the mind must divine the meaning。〃 The object of a
parable is not that of a problem; it does not seek to convince;
but to suggest。 It takes the thought below the surface of the
understanding to the deeper intelligence which the world rarely
tasks。 It is not sunlight on the water; it is a hymn chanted to
the nymph who hearkens and awakes below。
。。。
〃ZANONI EXPLAINED。
BY。〃