Fine Art in Romantic Literature [pp. 52-66]

F'ine Art in Romantic Literature.
thetic kindliness of the author to the reader
whose leisure he has been beguiling. Where
shall one seek among the ancients for the
humor of Holmes and Lamb? Who will
bring to light a Greek "Autocrat of the
Breakfast Table," or the Latin "Essays of
Elia "?
Through the whole mediaeval period there
is, as we have seen, a continuous growth of
personality. Man becomes aware of himself,
and retreats to the forest and sandy plain to
feed his soul with contemplation. He closes
his eyes upon worldly distractions, and purges
himself from the grossness of the flesh. Cleaving to unseen realities, the patterns of visible objects, he discerns the archetype of
pure beauty, and it becomes fateful to him.
With headlong haste he pursues the fleeting
shape, and when he is just upon it, perceives
that it has eluded his grasp. Falling into
reverie upon the vanity of all his endeavors,
he moralizes over human destiny and his
own shortcomings, until he is plunged into
a gulf of despair. Thence emerging, he
falls to criticizing the associates among whom
his lot is cast, and becomes a satirist through
his perception of moral ugliness. Evil in corporates itself in grotesque and frightful
forms, crouches by his pathway, obtrudes it self in the very temple hallowed to pure and
lofty meditations, and appears engaged in
deadly and ever-renewed combat with good.
This combat becomes the only serious thing
in the whole circle of his observation. Up on a vast theatre these antagonists, in Pro tean disguises, with names as various as
their masks, play in succession all the parts
in an interminable repertory. But evil is
active or passive; it is either malevolent or
neutral; it is Richard the Third or Panda rus; in Mephistopheles it is both. The im mense stage, upon which all men and women
are merely players, contracts to the Globe
Theatre on Thames-side, but still the drama
is unchanged. The woof of comedy is shot
athwart the web of tragedy. Ther e is a
Strange intertexture of golden and sable
threads. Every one runs to view it, because
he recognizes in it precisely what exists in
himself. Change the dranmatic form to that
of genial commentary, but retain the comic
and tragic elements, and you have the most
precious form of humor, namely, that which
is so subtly blended with the substance of pathos as to be inseparable from it.
Thus far it is man himself who, irresistibly attracted toward what he conceives to
be the highest good, but incessantly assailed
by temptation and discouragements, looks
vainly about him for a perfect deliverance.
But presently, to his heated imagination, the
whole universe is filled with spiritual intelligences, who impress into their service, on
one side or the other, all the inferior creatures and all the phenomena and forces of
nature. Thus the whole series of created
existences becomes a group of symbols. Everything stands for something else. Every
hard fact is transformed into a potent algebraic formula. Gain its secret, and you have
conferred upon yourself a magical power.
As in the German fairy tale,. if you have eyes
to pierce through the solid crust beneath
your feet, the interior of the globe will grow
transparent as crystal, and the gnomes will
ascend as through an unresisting medium,
bearing with them the gold and jewels from
the central mines. Hearing may be sharp ened until it takes cognizance of the grow ing of the grass, and the understanding un til it can interpret the song of birds. Thus
allegory is born, and with it, though the two
must not be confounded, a belief in magic
or necromancy. In the Rorman catacombs
the lamb and the fish are employed as a
kind of shorthand, to denote the person and
attributes of Christ. In the Old English lit erature we come upon two poems, "The
Panther" and "The Whale," which, after
describing the supposed peculiarities of the
two animals, end by regarding them as types,
the one of Christ and the other of the Arch Fiend. Dante's Epic is one long allegory.
The forest in which the poet walks is a sym bol: the panther signifies worldly pleasure;
the lion, ambition; and the she-wolf ava rice; or, again, they stand respectively for
Florence, the French Monarchy, and Rome.
Virgil is a symbol; Rachel and Leah are
symbols; Beatrice stands for Divine Wis
1885.]
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