Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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The Augusta Serninm y Aimual. 13 Thackeray, as Reflected in The English Humorists. IT is amusing as well as interesting to see the mirrored like- nesses of the literary men where they have been unconsciously reflected in their own works. The candid admiration, the wit and humor, the unerring penetration, and above all that touch of sympathy which makes the whole world kin, shows us the nature of the man infinitely better than the most polished and correct biography ever could. Who that has read Macaulay ' s great Third Chapter has not felt the force of the man ' s intellect ' { Hifi repeated images, like so many dazzling lights, make the eyes of less gifted mortals bUnk at their brilliancy. Who has not felt the gentleness, the wit and the humor of Lowell in reading his Essays, and, charmed by his grace, involuntarily wished to make him a bosom friend :• Is there one of us who does not feel the rugged manliness of Carlyle on reading his ' ' Essay on John- son, of whom he says, He was nowise a Clothes-horse or a Patent- digester, but a genuine man ? If we see in their writings the characters of Macaulay, of Low- ell and of Carlyle, far more plainly do we trace the outlines of Thackeray in his English Humorists. What could be more generous than the words in which he commends to us the dear parson in the tie-wig : When this man looks from the world, whose weaknesses he has so benevolently described, up to the Heaven which shines over us all, I can hardly fancy a human face lighted up with a more serene rapture, a human intellect thrilling with a purer love and adoration than Joseph Addison ' s, There could hardly be sweeter praise, there could hardly be words which would betray Thackeray ' s own benevolence, humanity and piety more plainly than those in which he himself describes another. The society and the lives of these lordly, laughing, careless wits, hide not a secret from this great reader of the mind and heart. He has di ' ined them all, and when we read of them as he has portrayed them, we can almost see his blue eyes twinkle

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12 Tlie Augusta Seminary Annual, his merry crew, with Trip away, Make no stay, Meet me all by break of day. Another kmd of fairy is dainty Ariel, hght as thistle-down and inyisible as air, who flies to and fro at Prospero ' s bidding. One thinks of music in connection with Ariel, of fleecy clouds, of morning mists, of all things that are light and joyous and, above all, free. Like Titania and her maidens, Prospero ' s tricksy sprite is very small ; his bed is the cup of a cowslip bell, and he seeks shelter from rain Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. The Httle people of A Midsummer ' s ]S ight are the fairies of childhood, the creations of one who, living in the world, as yet has looked only upon the surface of life, but Ai-iel is the produc- tion of a mature man, who has sounded life ' s profoundest depths and scaled its loftiest peaks, and now, from the heights above the clouds, is able to conceive as a crowaiing glory the Tempest, with all its soul and tenderness embodied in the person of dainty, faultless Anel. With the Tempest Shakspere ' s Hterary career came to a close. It is thought to be his last work, and it may be that the breaking of Prospero ' s rod, by which Ariel ' s soul was set free from its long bondage, symbolizes the laying aside of that magic wand which, vielded by the master ' s hand, after a lapse of nearly three centu- ries, still weaves around men ' s hearts, with all its fonner potency, its magic charms of wonder and delight. Cabeie Pbeston Bell.

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14 The Augusta Seminary Annual. with amusement at each new discovery of a weakness or pet sin, and soften with pity at each newly revealed misfortune or hidden skeleton. The periwig seems never so ridiculous; the coffee- house never so full of bustle, wine and wit; the doubtful gal- lantries of these merry men never so extravagant or fascinating as when shown by Thackeray. But the heart of the writer appears under all this account of frivolity in the words, Ah ! it is a weary feast, that banquet of wit where no love is. He pen- etrates into the cavern of Swift ' s gloomy heart and finds even in its dim recesses some fitful gleams of tenderness. There is still a lock of Stella ' s hair in existence wrapped in a paper on which is inscribed in Swift ' s own hand, Only a woman ' s hair. Some critics have denounced this little phrase as a desire of Swift ' s to veil his feelings under a cynical mask of indifference, but Thack- eray sees only a pathetic shrinking from the cold eyes of the world, a remorseful shuddering over the grave of a tender victim whom he had not the heart to see die. In his impartial judg- ment of this lonely giant, he shows his hatred of meanness, his hori ' or of skepticism, and his thorough knowledge of life. It is in his Essay on Steele that his geniality, his philosophy, his tenderness, his sympathy, are displayed most. He takes us to Dick Steele ' s house where the Christian Hero is hastily excusing his departure to his wife, then down to The Rose, where the young Captain cuts quite a smart figure and where Dick bragged not a little ; but with all his swagger we love him every step of the way, seeing with tlie charitable eyes and feeling with the kind heart of Thackeray. His wit sparkles through all his essays. Perhaps it is shown at its brightest in his Essay on Congreve. His description of the Phoebus Apollo of the Mall and Spring Gardens is fairly ablaze. But even while Congreve ' s comic feast, which is set before us, flares with lights and while we are yet dazzled by its brilhancy, the heart of Thackeray cries to us that A touch of Steele ' s ten- derness is worth all this finery — a flash of Swift ' s lightning — a beam of Addison ' s pure ray, and this tawdry playhouse taper is invisible. It is in this mirror of his OAvn workmanship, this portrayal of The English Humorists, that the image of Thackeray is reflected,