Hestia now interrupted Alcibiades with the question whether all the women in nebulous Britannia were as grotesque1 as those that he had described.
Alcibiades smiled and said:
"Not all of them, but all at times. Women must necessarily adapt themselves to the nature of their men, as clerks do to that of their patrons, or soldiers to that of their generals and officers. The Englishman buys his liberty at the expense of much human capital; which cannot but make him eccentric and grotesque. The women attune2 themselves to him, although no foreigner has a clearer nor a more depreciative idea of Englishmen's angularity than have English women. As women they do not, as a rule, care for liberty at all, and hence consider the sacrifices made by men for liberty as superfluous3 and uncalled-for. A woman wants in all things the human note, which the average Englishman hates. Hence the surprising power of Continental4 men over English women. A hundred picked Greeks from Athens, Sicyon and Syracuse could bring half of all English women to book—for Cytherea. How could it be otherwise? The animated5, passionate6, direct talk of a Greek is something so novel to an English woman that she is as it were hypnotised by it. She[Pg 102] thinks it is she and her personality that has given her Continental admirer that verve of expression which she has never before experienced in the men of her circle. This alone is such flattery to her that she loses her head.
"If one resolutely7 goes on scraping off the man-made chalk from the manners and actions of English women, one is frequently rewarded with the pleasure of arriving at last at the woman behind the chalk. This is more especially the case in women of the higher classes. The only time in England I felt something of that painful bliss8 that mortals call love, was in the case of a lady friend of mine who, under mountains of London clay, hid away a passionate, loving woman. She was tall and luxuriously9 built. Her hands were of perfect shape and condignly10 continued by lovely arms, that attached themselves into majestic11 shoulders with the ease of a rivulet12 entering a lake by a graceful13 curve. Over her shoulders the minaret14 of her neck stood watch. In charming contrast to the legato cantabile of her body was the staccato of her mind. Her words pecked at things like birds. Sometimes there appeared amongst the latter an ugly vulture or two; but there were more colibris and magpies15. I had met her for months before I surmised16 that there was something behind that London clay. But when the moment came and the bells began sobbing17 in her minaret, then I knew that here was a heart aglow18 with true passion and with the dawn of hope divine. Like all women that do truly love, she would not believe me that I sincerely felt what I said. Doubt is to women what danger is to men: it sharpens the delight of love. She never became really tender; ay, she was[Pg 103] amazed and moved to tears at my being so. Her heart was uneducated; it was gauche19 at the game of love.
"Amongst the persons dressed in female attire20 I also met a number of beings whom, but for my long stay at Sparta, I should hardly have recognised as women. A French friend of mine remarked of them: 'Ce ne sont pas des femmes, ce sont des Américaines.' The species is very much in evidence in London. They reminded me violently of the Spartan21 women. They are handsome, if more striking than beautiful. I noticed that in contrast to European women, American females gain in years what they lose in dress at night. They look older when undressed. They have excellent teeth, and execrable hands; they jump well, but walk badly. Their great speciality is their voice, which is strident, top-nasal, falsetto, disheartening. The most beautiful amongst them is murdered by her voice. It is as if out of the most perfect mouth, set in the most charming face, an ugly rat would jump at one. That voice, the English say, comes from the climate of America. (This I do not believe at all; for I have noticed that in England everything is ascribed to the climate, as to the thing most talked about by the people. Climate and weather are the most popular subjects in England; the one that is never out of fashion.) As a matter of fact it comes from the total lack of emotionality in the Americans;[Pg 104] just as amongst musical instruments the more emotional ones, like the 'cello22, have more pectoral tonality, whereas the fife, for instance, having no deep emotions at all to express, is high and thin toned.
"Nothing seemed to me more interesting than the way in which the American female reminded me of the Spartans23 and the Amazons. Could anything be more striking than the coincidence between two conversations, one of which I had, far over two thousand years ago, with the Queen of an Amazonian tribe in Thracia, and the other with the wife of an American flour dealer24 settled in London? When I called on Thamyris in her tent, one of her first questions was as to the latest dramatic piece by Sophocles. I at once saw that the Queen wanted to impress her entourage with her great literary abilities. I gave her some news about Sophocles, whereupon she turned round to her one-breasted she-warriors and said with a superior smile:
"'You must know that Sophocles is the latest star in Athenian comedy.'
"She mixed you up, O Sophocles, with Aristophanes. With the American flour dealer's wife my experience was as follows: He had made my acquaintance in a bar-room, and invited me to his house. On the way there he said to me:
"'My missus is quite a linguist25. She talks French like two natives. Do talk to her French.'
"When we arrived at the house and entered the drawing-room, a rather handsome woman rose from an arm-chair, and stepping up to me said something that sounded like 'Monsieur, je suis ravie de faire votre connaissance'; I thanked her, also in[Pg 105] French, when suddenly she bowed over me and whispered in American fifes:
"'Don't continue, that's all I know.'
"When I left, the husband accompanied me to the door. Before I took leave, he twinkled with his right eye, and asked me with a knowing look, 'Well, sir, what do you think of the linguistic26 range of my madame?'
"I did not quite know what to reply. At last I said: 'Like a true soldier she fights on the borderland.'
"One of the strangest things to note in London society is the fascination28 exercised by American women on Englishmen. Many of the really intelligent men among the English are practically lost as soon as the American woman begins playing with the little lasso of thin ropes which she carries about her in the shape of an acquired brightness and a studied vivacity29. The most glaring defects of those women do not seem to exist for the average Englishman. He takes her loud brightness for French esprit dished up to him in intelligible30 English. Her total lack of self-restraint and modesty31 he takes for a charming abandon. The real fact is that he is afraid of her. She may have many a bump: she certainly has not that of reverence33. Her irreverent mind makes light of the grandezza of Englishmen, and thus cows him by his fear of making himself ridiculous.
"The first American woman (—sit venia verbo, as you would say, O Cicero—) I met in London was one married to an English lord. She was tall, well-built, with rich arms and hips34, an expressive35 head, very fond of the arts, more especially of[Pg 106] music. Even her head, which was a trifle square, indicated that. When she learnt that I really was the famous Alcibiades, her excitement knew no bounds. She was good enough to explain it to me:
"'Just fancy that! Alcibiades! (They pronounce my name Elkibidees.) I am simply charmed! I have so far every year introduced some new and striking personage into drawing-rooms, in order to stun36 the natives of this obsolete37 island. I have brought into fashion one-legged dancers; three-legged calves38; single-minded thought-readers; illusionists; disillusionists; disemotionists; dancers classical, medi?val, and hyper-modern; French lectures on the isle39 of Lesbos, after a series of discourses40 on the calves of the legs of Greek goddesses in marble; not to forget my unique course of lectures given at the drawing-room of the dearest of all duchesses, on the history of décolletage.
"'This year, to be quite frank with you, Mr Elkibidees, I meant to arrange in the magnificent drawing-room of an Oriental English lady, the uniquest and at the same time the boldest exhibition ever offered to the dear nerves of any class of women. I cannot quite tell you what it was going to be. I can only faintly indicate that it was to be a collection of all the oldest as well as latest inventions securing the tranquillity41 of enjoying just one child in the family. This, I have no doubt, would have been the greatest sensation of the season.
"'The city of Manchester and the town of Leeds would have publicly protested against so "immoral42" an exhibition. Of course their councillors would[Pg 107] have done so after careful study of the things exhibited. Three bishops43 would have threatened to preach publicly in Hyde Park; while five archdeacons would have volunteered to be the honorary secretaries of so interesting an exhibition.
"'I communicated the idea to Father Bowan, a virulent44 Jesuit, who in the creepiest of capucinades, delivered on most Sundays during the season, gives us the most delightful45 shivers of repentance46, and likewise many an inkling of charming vice47 of which we did not know anything before we learned it from his pure lips. He was delighted. "Do, my lady, do do it. I am just a little short of horrors, and your exhibition will give me excellent material for at least four Sundays. I hope you have not forgotten to illustrate48 by wax figures certain methods, far more efficient than any instrument can be, and most completely enumerated49 and described in the works of members of our holy Order, such as Suarez, Sanchez, Escobar, and others. Should you not have these works, I will send you an accurate abridgment50 of their principal statements of facts."
"'When I heard the Rev32. Father talk like that, I could scarcely control myself with enthusiasm in anticipating the huge sensation my exhibition was sure to make. It would have been the best fed, the best clad, and the most enlightened sensation ever made in England since the battle of Hastings. I really thought that nothing greater could be imagined.
"'And yet, when I now come to think what a draw you will be, Mr Elki, if properly taken in hand, duly advertised, adroitly51 paragraphed, con[Pg 108]stantly interviewed, and occasionally leadered,—when I think of all that, I cannot but think that I shall have in you the greatest catch that has ever been in any country under any sun. In fact, I have my plan quite ready.
"'I will announce a big reception, "to meet" you. Some ladies will, by request, arrive in Greek dress. The public orator52 of one of the great Universities will address you in Greek, and you will reply in the same language. Then three of the prettiest daughters of earls and marquesses will dance the dance of the Graces, after which there will be a dramatic piece made by Hall Caine and Shaw, each of them writing alternate pages, the subject of which will be the Thirty Years' War, in which you excelled so much.'
"I interrupted her," said Alcibiades, "remarking that the Thirty Years' War was two thousand years after my time; my war was the Peloponnesian War.
"'Very well,' she exclaimed, 'the Peloponnesian War. I do not care which. Hall Caine will praise everything in connection with war, in his best Daily Nail style. He is, you know, our leading light. He always wants to indulge in great thoughts, and would do so too, but for the awkward fact that he cannot find any.
"'Shaw, on the other hand, will cry down in choicest Gaelic all the glories of war. It will be the biggest fun out.
"'And then, entre nous, could you not bring with you a Lais, a Phryne or two, in their original costumes as they allured53 all you naughty Greeks in times bygone? It would be charmingly revolting.[Pg 109] When I dimly represent to myself how the young eagles of society will tremble with pleasure at the thought of adding to their lists of conquests, in pink and white, a Corinthian or Athenian demi-mondaine of two thousand years ago, I feel that I am a Personality.
"'If I could offer such an unheard-of opportunity I should get first leaders in the Manchester Guardian54 and mild rebukes55, full of secret zest56, in the godly Guardian; let alone other noble papers read by the goody-goody ones. The Record would send me a testimonial signed by the leading higher critics. I should be the heroine of the day and of the night.'"
The gods and heroes encouraged Alcibiades by their gay laughter to tell them all that happened at the "At Home" of his American lady friend, and he continued as follows:
"When the evening of the Greek soirée came, I went to the drawing-room in company with Phryne and Lais, who were most charmingly dressed as flute57-girls. When we entered the large room we saw a vast assembly of women and men, mostly dressed in the preposterous58 fashion of the little ones. The women looked like zoological specimens59, some resembling Brazilian butterflies, others reptiles60, others again snakes or birds of prey61. The upper part of their bodies was uncovered, no matter whether the rest of the body had gone through countless62 campaigns enlivened by numerous capitulations, or whether it had just expanded into the buds of rosy63 spring. The men looked like the clowns in our farces64. They wore a costume that no Greek slave would have donned. It was all black and all of the same cut. Instead of looking enterprising, they all looked like[Pg 110] undertakers. Each of them made a nervous attempt to appear as inoffensive, and as self-effacing as possible; just like undertakers entering the house where a person had died.
"When we entered the room the whole assembly rose and cried: 'Cairo—Cairo!' (they were told to cry Chaire—but in vain). I could distinctly hear remarks such as these: 'How weird65!'—'Is it not uncanny?'—'It makes me feel creepy!' After a few minutes there was a deep silence, and an elderly gentleman came up through the middle of the room and, bowing first to us and then to the people assembled, stepped up to the platform and began a speech in a strange language, which I vaguely66 remembered having heard before.
"Phryne suddenly began to giggle67, and so irresistible68 was her laughter that both Lais and I could not but join her, especially when in words broken by continuous laughter she told us:
"'The old gent pretends to speak Athenian Greek!'
"It was indeed too absurd for words. There was especially that vulgar sound i constantly recurring69 where we never dreamt of using such a sound; and our beautiful ypsilon (γ) he pronounced like the English u, which is like serving champagne70 in soup-plates. When he stumbled over an ou, he pronounced it with a sound to which dentists are better accustomed than any Athenian ever was, and our deep and manly71 ch (χ) he castrated down to a lisping k. I remember Carians in Asia Minor72 who talked like that. Our noble and incomparable language, orchestral, picturesque73, sculptural, became like the Palace of Minos which they are excavating74 at[Pg 111] present: in its magnificent halls, eaten by weather and worm, one sees only poor labourers and here and there a directing mind.
"I imagined that the good man meant by his speech to welcome me back into the world, and so when my turn to answer him came, I got up and, leaning partly on Phryne and partly on Lais, who stood near me, I replied as follows, after speaking for a little while in Attic75, in the language of the country:
"'It is indeed with no ordinary satisfaction that I beg to thank you, O Sophist, and you here present for the pleasant reception that you have given us. My lot has on the whole not been altogether bad. Your studious men, it is true, affect to condemn76 me, my policy, and my private life. Perhaps they will allow me to remark that the irregularity of my past morals is a matter of temptations. Diogenes used to tell us that one of my sternest historian-critics in Syracuse left his wife, children and house on being for once tempted77 by the chamber-maid of one of my passing caprices; and the historians of your race who so gravely decry78 a Madame de Montespan would, did Madame only smile at them, incontinently fall into a fit of hopeless moral collapse79.
"'But if your men write against me, irrespective of what they really feel about me, I am sure your women take a much more lenient80 view of the case.'
"(Discreet applause.)
"'They feel that ambition did not eat up all the forces of my soul, and that in worshipping Ares (Mars), I never forgot the cult81 of Aphrodite (Venus) either. We Hellenes ventured to be humans, and that is why now we have become demi-gods. You,[Pg 112] my friends, do not even venture to be humans, and that is why you remain the little ones.
"'I notice in the northern countries of Europe men do not, or to a very small degree care for women. Perhaps that is the reason why the Roman Catholic idea of the Holy Virgin82 has had no lasting83 hold on these nations.
"'I have seen,' continued Alcibiades, 'too many faces, masks, and pretences84 to be much impressed by the apparent indifference85 of the northerner to the charms of women. It never meant more than either an unavowed inclination86 towards his own sex, or sheer boorishness87. Even we Hellenes had very much to suffer from our political and social neglect of women outside emancipated88 ones. The Romans acted much more wisely in that respect; while the nation of our hostess has practically become what we called a gyn?cocracy or women's rule, where man is socially what our Greek women used to be: relegated89 to the background. I hear, this is the privilege of Englishmen. I understand. When I was young I learnt but too much about that privilege.
"'But if I should be asked for advice I would tell your men to take your women much more seriously. I know that Englishmen are much more grave than serious; yet with regard to women they ought to be much more intent on considering them in everything their mates, and in several things their superiors. Of course, this is an unmilitary nation; and such nations will always remain boors90 in Sunday dress.
"'One of your great writers who, being outside the academic clique91, has always been maligned92 by the officials, has written a beautiful essay on the[Pg 113] influence of women. Poor Buckle—he treated the problem as a schoolroom paper. He came to the result that women encourage the deductive mode of thinking. However, women are more seductive than deductive, and their real influence is to charm the young, to warm the mature, and not to alarm the old.
"'I, being now above the changes of time, I only, contemplate93 their charm. And what greater potentialities of charm could one wish for than those that your women possess? If those magnificently cut and superbly coloured eyes learned to be expressive; if the muscles of those fine cheeks knew how to move with speedier grace; if that purely94 outlined mouth were more animated—what possibilities of fascination, like so many fairies, might rise over the dispassionate surface of those silent lakes! As they are, their several organs are positively95 hostile, or coldly indifferent to one another. The forehead, instead of being the ever-changing capital of the human column, setting off their beautiful hair, as ivory sets off gold; the shoulders, the seat of human grace, instead of giving to the head the pedestal of the Charites; and the arms and hands, instead of giving by their movements the proper lilt and cadence96 to everything said or done;—all these hate one another respectively. The arms do not converse97 with the face; theirs is like other conversations: after a few remarks on the weather all communication stops. So sullen98 is the antipathy99 of the arms, that as a rule they hide on the back, as if begrudging100 the face or the bust101 their company. It is in that way that English women who might be as beautiful and charming as the maidens102 of Thebes or of[Pg 114] Tanagra, have made themselves into walking Caryatides, whom we invariably represented as doing a slavish labour, with their arms on their backs, and with a heavy load on their heads.
"'Remove the arms, O women of England, from your badly swung back and bring them into play in front of your well-shaped bust and your beautiful faces! Let the consciousness of your power electrify103 your looks, your dimples, and your gait; and when from musing104 Graces you will have changed into graceful Muses105, your men too will be much superior to what they used to be.
"'See how little your influence is, as your language clearly indicates. Is not your language the only idiom in Europe that has completely dropped that fine shade of sweet intimacy106 which the use of thou and thy is giving to the other languages? Is not a new world of tenderest internal joy permeating107 the French, German or Italian woman who for the first time dares to tutoyer her lover? You women of England, the natural priestesses of all warmth and intimacy, you have suffered all that to decay.
"'To your men we Hellenes say: "Imitate us!" To you women, we do not say so. We ask you to exceed us, to go beyond us, and then alone when women will be what we Hellenic men were, that is, specimens of all-round humanity, then indeed you too will rise to the higher status, and the golden age will again fill the world with light and happiness!'
"After that speech of mine," continued Alcibiades, "there was much applause. I mingled108 with the public, and was at once interpellated by one of the American ladies present:
"'Most interesting speech,' she said. 'What I[Pg 115] especially liked were your remarks about thou-ing. And what I want to know most is whether Caryatides were thou-ing one another?'
"I was a little perplexed109, and all that I could answer was: 'Their dimples did,' and this seemed to satisfy my American lady marvellously well.
"Another lady asked me how many Muses we had, and on hearing that their number was nine, she was highly astonished. 'Only nine? Why in London there are mews in every second street. How strange!'
"A third lady asked me what I meant by shoulders being a pedestal. Her shoulders, she was sure, were no pedestals, and she would not allow anyone to stand on them. She added, that she was aware of my having said that the shoulders were the pedestal of the Charites, but with her best intention she could not allow even charity to be extended to her shoulders. I smiled consent.
"A fourth lady, whose name was Valley, but who was a mountain of otherwise rosy flesh, asked me what I had meant by maidens of Podagra? She was sure that young maids never suffered from that ugly disease. I told her that I really meant Chiragra. This satisfied her marvellously well.
"During that time Phryne and Lais were the heroines of the evening, lionised by women, and courted by men. The women asked them all sorts of questions and seemed extraordinarily110 eager to be instructed. One of them, a brilliant duchess—(who had three secretaries providing her with the latest information about everything, the first preparing all the catch-words from A to G, the second from H to N, and the third from O to Z)—asked Phryne[Pg 116] whether she would not permit her to convince herself of the accuracy of the estimate in which Hyperides held the exquisite111 form of Phryne's bosom112. (A middle-class woman thereupon asked Mr Gox, M.P., what Hyperides meant. Mr Gox told her it was the Greek for Rufus, son of Abraham.) Phryne volunteered to do so at once, and the women disappeared in a special room, from where very soon cries of amazement113 could be heard. The pure beauty of Phryne enchanted114 the women. The sensation was immense, ay immensest.
"The representative of the Daily Nail offered first ￡2000, then ￡3000, finally ￡5000 for permission to kodak Phryne.
"The Bad Times at once prepared a folio edition of The Engravers' Engravings, payable116 in 263 instalments, or preferably at once.
"The Daily Marconigraph started a public discussion in its columns: 'Shall the lower part of the upper anatomy117 of the female trunk be unveiled?'
"The excitement became so universal that Mr Gigerl See at once convened118 a national meeting for the erection of ten new statues to Shakespeare; and General Booth ordered an absolute fast of 105 hours' duration.
"All the directors of music halls, the next day, stormed Hotel Ritz where Phryne had a suite119 of six lovely rooms, and offered impossible prices for a performance of five minutes. Phryne, after consulting me, consented to appear at the Palace Theatre, in the immortal120 scene when, in presence of the entire population of Athens, she descended121 into the sea. Half of the proceeds were to be given to a fund for poor women in childbed. Endless advertisements[Pg 117] soon filled every available space on London's walls, parks, newspapers, 'buses, railways, and shops. Tickets sold at tenfold their original prices.
"At last the evening came. In the first two rows there were practically nothing but clergymen. The following rows were filled with lawyers, M.P.'s and University professors. In the boxes one could see all the aristocracy of the country. When Phryne's turn came, the orchestra played Wagner's 'Pilgrim's Chorus,' toward the end of which the curtain rolled up, and the scene represented the Pir?us with apparently122 countless people, all in Greek dress. When the expectation was at its height, Phryne appeared clad only with the veil of her perfect beauty, and descended into the sea. Before she entered the water she said her prayers to Aphrodite, and then slowly went into the waves.
"Everyone in the audience had come to the theatre expecting to be badly shocked. To their utmost astonishment123 they found that there was not only nothing shocking in the scene, but even much to fill the people with awe124. Like all the barbarians125, the little ones deem nudity a shocking sight. What shocked them that night was the fact that they were not shocked. They felt for a moment that many of their notions and views must be radically126 wrong, and that was the only shock they received. Phryne triumphed over Londoners, as she did over the Athenians.
"My American lady friend was in raptures127. The incredible sensation her Elki and his Athenian women had caused in blasé London society made her the centre of all social centres for a fortnight. She received innumerable letters from innumerable[Pg 118] people. The greatest writers that the world has ever seen, such as Miss Cora Morelli, wrote to her saying, that:
"'She had from her infancy128 onward129 taken a deep interest in Alcibiades and his time, and that now, having actually seen him, she would forthwith publish a novel under the attractive title of "The Mighty131 Elki," let alone another novel, full of the most delightful shivers, called "Phry, the Pagan."'
"Mr Hall Caine, in a thundering article, fulminated against the row made over Phryne, and solemnly declared that the charms of his Manxman were incomparably greater. One day Mr Caine called on me. He implored132 me to become a Christian134, and assured me that the shortest way to that effect would be to attend a performance of his piece of that name. I thanked him for his kind offer, but politely declined it. Whereupon Mr Caine remained musing, until at last he surprised me with the question: 'Mr Alcib, you are the man to solve the problem of my life. Do you not think I bear a remarkable135 resemblance to Lord Bacon?'
"I answered that I could discern no resemblance between him and the witty136 Chancellor137, but that I was bound to confess that there was a striking resemblance between him and Shakespeare.
"Mr Caine smiled a superior smile. 'I wonder,' he said, 'you are not aware of the fact that Shakespeare was written by Lord Bacon.'
"'Very strange—very strange,' I replied. 'We in Olympus think that Shakespeare was written by the victory over the Armada, and published by Elizabeth and Co.'
"'Do you really think such stuff in Olympus?'[Pg 119] exclaimed Mr Caine; 'then I do not wonder that I have never been invited to that place. What has the Armada to do with Hamlet or King Lear? You might just as well say that my novels were written by our victory at Colenso and Spion Kop. It is revoltingly absurd. A book is a book and not shrapnel or bombs. Sir, I am ashamed of you; the purple of red indignation rises swellingly into my distended138 physiognomy, and my thought-fraught forehead sinks under the ignominy of such life-bereft incoherences!'
"I advised Mr Caine to drink Perrier; he thanked me profusely139, and assured me that he had always done so. He evidently mixed it up with the Pierian sources of literature which, I learn, provide the innumerable papers of the Associated Press with the necessary water under the name of Perrier.
"In my honour my American lady friend gave, a few days later, a concert. The little ones call a concert a series of instrumental and vocal140 pieces played for sheer amusement, and without any relation to poetry, dance, or religion. I have these three to four hundred years accustomed myself to their music, which is thoroughly141 different from ours, being polyphonous, whereas ours was never so. Dionysus, who presides at their music, has often told us that he introduced it into the modern world in order to show his exceeding power even in times when the men and women have lamentably142 fallen from the height of[Pg 120] our Grecian culture. Our music was essentially143 Apollinic; that of the moderns is Dionysiac. You remember, O Zeus, that even Apollo was moved when three of the moderns had the honour to perform before him. Even he praised Mozart, Chopin, and some pieces of Weber. You need not blush, Frédéric, and you might help me to entertain and charm our holy circle by playing us one of your compositions in which beauty of form is married in tender love to truth of feeling."
Thereupon, at a sign of Zeus, Milo of Crotona, the Olympian victor of all victors, carried a piano on his mighty back, and put it down gently in one of the mystic barks. Chopin, bowing to the gods, and more particularly to Juno and Diana, sat down to the instrument and played the second and the third movement of his E minor Concerto144. Round him waved the three Graces, while Dionysus laid an ivy145 wreath on his blessed head. Even the gods were moved, and when Frédéric had ended, they applauded him with passionate admiration146.
"I wish, O Chopin," continued Alcibiades, "I had known you in my mortal time. What Terpander and Thaletas, the great musicians, did for Sparta, you might have helped me to do for Athens. It was not to be. The thought saddens me still. More than Sophocles and Aristophanes or Socrates, your incomparable music would have helped to keep the Kosmos of Athens in due proportions."
A short pause ensued, and all looked with timidity on Zeus' immovable face.
"But let us drop these sorrowful reminiscences and return to the London concert given by my American hostess.
[Pg 121]
"She had engaged the best-known artists. For the solo songs she engaged a woman who had to be carried into the room in a motor chair, and was not allowed to stand up, before three architects had examined the solidity of the floor. Her range was from the deep p to the high l. She sang baritone, and soprano at the same time, and what her tone wanted in width her taille amply replaced. She sang nothing but Wagner, whose music, it would appear, is written for two-ton women only. No smaller tonnage need apply. While she sang, three dozen violins executed the tremolos of five hundred whimpering children, while forty counter-basses gave, every three minutes, a terrible grunt147 in x minor. There were also fifteen fifes, and twenty-one different kinds of brass148 instruments, some of which had necks much longer than that of the oldest giraffe. The music was decidedly sensual and nerve-irritating. It was full of chords, both accords and discords149, and what little melody there was in it was kneaded out into a tapeworm of prodigious150 length and such hydralike vitality151, that no matter how frequently the strings152 throttled153 off its head, it yet constantly recurred154 bulging155 out a new head.
"The men present liked the singer; the women adored the music. It gave them all sorts of shivers, and although they did not understand it at all, they yet felt that here was a new shiver. Or as one of them, the bright Mrs Blazing, remarked: 'Quel artiste que ce M. Wagner! He has translated into music the grating noise of a comb on silk, the creaking of a rusty156 key in an old lock, and the strident rasp of a skidding157 sleigh or motor on hard-frozen snow.'
[Pg 122]
"The next artist was a Belgian violinist. For reasons that you alone, O Zeus, could tell us, the Belgians are credited with a special gift for pulling strings in general, and those of the violin in particular. Being a nation midway between the Germans and the French, they are believed to possess much of German musical talent and something of French elegance158. This would easily make them good 'cello players. But not satisfied with the 'cello, in which they have excelled more than one nation, they must needs be great violinists too. However, the violin, while not at all the king of instruments, is yet the most vindictive159 and jealous amongst them. It is like the Lorelei: it allures160 hundreds, only to dash their bones against the rock of Failure. It wants the delicacy161 of a woman and the strength of a man. It requires the soul of spring and the heart of summer to play it well.
"A Belgian is eo ipso debarred from reaching the height of violin-playing; just as a Chinaman, with his over-specialised mind, can never well play the orchestral piano. A Belgian heart is moving in a colourless and slouching andante; the violin moves in a profoundly agitated162 adagio163 or allegro164. The violin is the instrument of luckless nations, such as were formerly165 the Italians, the Poles, and the Hungarians who gave us Paganini, Wienavski and Joachim. The Belgians have nearly always enjoyed the embonpoint of fat prosperity. 'Leur jeu bedonne,' as Mrs Blazing would say.
"The Belgian played your Chaconne in D minor, O Bach."
At these words of Alcibiades all the thinkers and poets present rose from their seats and bowed to[Pg 123] John Sebastian, who stood near Strabo and Aristotle, being exceedingly fond of geographical166 lore133. Even the gods applauded and Polyhymnia allowed him to kiss her hands.
"You remember, O John Sebastian, when I met you near Lützen at one of your solitary167 walks and you spoke168 to me of your Chaconne. I listened with rapt attention and told you that your composition, which you then played to me on a violin which the old inn-keeper lent you and which had just arrived from Steiner in Tyrol, rendered as perfectly169 as possible the sentiments I had felt when for the first time in my life I went to the Oracle170 at Dodona, where the winds rush through the high oak-trees with a fierce power such as can be heard in no other spot in Europe. I re-imagined my awe-struck meditations171 in the holy grove172; I heard the stormy music of Zeus' winds in Zeus' trees; I again felt all through me the soul-moving chorus of the priests which ends in a jubilating mood, and finally I left with deep regret at having to re-enter my life of stress after having spent a day in sacred and mystic seclusion173.
"When the Belgian artist played it, I listened in vain for Dodona. What I heard was the rustling174 of silken tones through the wood of the chairs and tables at the Carlton. Where was the Oracle? Where the chorus of the priests? Where their jubilation175? The only thing that I found were my regrets. But the public was charmed. It is imperative176 to admire the Chaconne, chiefly because it is played Violin solo. Mrs Blazing explained the matter to me with her wonted rapidity of mind: 'Why wonder at our admiration of the Chaconne? Do we not say: "Chacun à son go?t?"'
[Pg 124]
"The next artist was a pianist, whose name sounded like Pianowolsky or Forterewsky. He was of course a Pole. The English have long found out that -welsky or -ewsky goes with the name of a great pianist, as the pedal goes with the piano. It was for this reason that Liszt, the Orpheus of the last century, never had any success in England. He ought to have called himself Franzescowitch Lisztobulszky, and then, no doubt, he would have scored heavily. Rubinstein had indeed much success in England, but it is patent that most English took his official name as a mere178 abbreviation of Ruben Ishnajewich Stonehammercrushowsky. The English taste in music is remarkable; it is somewhat like their taste in fruit. They prefer hothouse grapes to natural ones. In the same way they prefer the piano music of Mendelmeier, called Bartholdy, to that of Stephen Heller or Volkmann. What they more particularly like are the 'Songs without Words' of that composer, which in reality are Words without Songs. His piano music is nothing but congealed179 respectability, or frozen shockingitis."
Aristoxenus, interrupting Alcibiades, exclaimed: "Do not, O son of Clinias, forget the man's marvellous compositions for the violin as well as for the orchestra. Diana frequently commands his Midsummer Night's Dream when she dwells with her nymphs in the mystic forest near Farnham Common, where Bartholdy composed it under the trees of Canute."
"You are quite right, O master of all Harmony, and I want to speak only of his piano music. The pianist at the concert had a very fine profile and beautiful hair. This helped him very much in a country where the sense of stylishness180 is exceedingly[Pg 125] acute. A coachman must have a broad back; a pianist, a fine profile; a violinist, long legs; a 'cellist181, beautiful hands; and a lady singer, a vast promontory182. Once these indispensable qualities are given, his or her music is practically a matter of indifference.
"The pianist then performing played well, as long as he played forte177 and staccato; but he had neither a legato nor, what was fatal, a piano, let alone a pianissimo. Fortunately his sense of rhythm was very well developed; otherwise he did not rise above a first prizeman of a conservatory183.
"He played a transcription or two by Liszt. This the English condemn; it appears unlegitimate to them. To please them, one must play one of the last sonatas185 of Beethoven, preferably those composed after his death, that is, those that the man wrote when he had long lost the power of moulding his ideas in the cast of a sonata184, and when his vitality had been ebbing186 away for years. A transcription stands to the original as does an engraving115 of an oil-colour picture or a statue to its original. Most people will enjoy a fine engraving of the Transfiguration or of Our Lady of Milo much more readily than they would the original; just as I now know that you gave us, O Zeus, great artists like Scopas, Praxiteles, Lionardo, or Domenichino, because we could not bear, nor comprehend the sight of the originals of their divine art, as long as we still move in our mortal coil. The transcription of some of the ideas of Mozart's Don Juan by Liszt is the best and most illuminating187 commentary on that incomparable opera.
"More interesting than the play were the remarks which I overheard from among the public. The men dwelt exclusively on the big sums of money the pianist[Pg 126] made by his 1526 recitals188 in 2000 towns of the United States. The profits they credited him with ranged from ￡15,000 to ￡100,000. A Viennese banker present drily remarked that he wished he could play the difference between the real and the imagined profits of the virtuoso189 on a fine Erard piano. The women made quite different remarks. Said one:
"'Herr Pianoforterewsky has been painted by royalty190.'
"'Is that so?' said her neighbour. 'What an interesting face! I wish I could procure191 a photo of the picture.'
"'Do you know,' said a third, 'that Herr Pinaforewsky practises twenty-three hours a day? I know it on the best authority; his tuner told me so.'
"'Which tuner? Herr Pinacothekowsky, my dear, has three tuners: one for the high notes, the second for the middle ones, and the third for the low notes.'
"'How interesting! But suppose one of the tuners falls ill. What does he do then?'
"'Why, it's simple enough. In that case he only plays pieces requiring two of the three ranges of notes.'
"'How intensely interesting! But pray, if you do not take it amiss, my dear, I learnt that Herr Pedalewsky has only two tuners: one for the black keys, the other for the white ones.'
"'My dear, that was so in bygone times when he played sometimes a whole concert on the black keys alone, being 231 variations on Chopin's Etude on the black keys. But it made such a sad impression that some nasty critics said his piano was in mourning[Pg 127] black; other critics said that he was paid to do so by Mr Jay of Regent Street.'
"'How excruciatingly interesting! Do you know, my dear, I was told that Herr Polonorusky plays practically all the time, and even when he travels he carries with him a dumb piano on which he practises incessantly192.'
"'How touching193! I have heard that too, and believed it, until that atrocious man who writes for the Bad Times destroyed all my illusions. He said that if Herr Pantyrewsky did that, he would for ever spoil his touch. Just fancy that! It is not the touch, but the pose of that languid, Chopinesque profile over a dumb piano in a rattling194 car that was so interesting. And now that horrid195 journalist spoils it all. Nay196, he added that the whole story was deliberately197 invented by the artist's manager.'
"'How distressingly198 interesting! You know, my dear, I will not believe the story about the manager. I know too much about the wonderful pianist. I have learnt at Marienbad that he had ten teachers at a time, one for each of his fingers, and that for five years he lived in a tiny village in Bavaria, because, don't you see, it was so central for the ten different cities where his teachers lived. For the thumb he rushed off to Frankfort on the Maine. There is no town like Frankfort for the study of the thumb. That's why they make such excellent sausages there which resemble a thumb to perfection. For the index he went to Rome. And so forth130 and so on. It is most marvellous.'
"All during that time," Alcibiades continued, "the pianist was playing the moonlight sonata of Beethoven. At the end of the piece, the ladies who[Pg 128] had carried on the lively conversation applauded wildly. 'Was it not marvellous?' said one to the other. 'Oh—delightful!' was the answer.
"So ended the concert. On leaving my seat I met Mrs Blazing.
"'O mon cher,' she said, 'why do all these women pretend to enjoy music? They very well know that not one of them cares for it in the least. I frankly200 admit that music to me is the anarchy201 of air, the French Revolution of sounds, acoustic202 bankruptcy203. All our lives we have been taught to suppress our emotions, and to consider it ungenteel to express them in any way whatever. We were told that we must hide and suppress them—which we have done so successfully that after some time we resemble to a nicety the famous safe of Madame Humbert. And then, in flagrant contradiction to all this genteel education, we are supposed to accept with joy the moanings, cries, sobs204, sighs, and other unsuppressed emotions of some middle-class Dutchman or Teuton dished up to us in the form of a sonata. It is too absurd for words.
"'If that lower-middle-class Dutchman Beethoven (or as my Cynthia calls him: "Bête au vent") wants to exhale205 his moral distress199 and sentimental206 indigestion, let him do so by all means, but in a lonely room. Why does he interfere207 with the even tenor208 of our well-varnished life? If my charming Japanese china figures, or my pretty girls and shepherds in vieux Saxe suddenly began to roar out their sentiments, I should have them destroyed or sold without any further ado. Why should I accept such roarings from an ugly, beer-drinking, unmannered Teuton? Why, I ask you?'
[Pg 129]
"'Music is the art of poor nations and poor classes. Outside a few Jews, no great musician came from among the rich classes; and Jews are socially impoverished209. I can understand the attraction of ditties nursed in the music halls. They fan one with a gentle breeze of light tones, and here and there tickle210 a nerve or two. But what on earth shall we do with such plesiosauri as the monsters they call symphonies, in which fifty or sixty instruments go amuck211 in fifty different ways? The flute tries to serpentine212 round the bassoon in order to instil213 in it drops of deadly poison; the violins gallop214 recklessly à la Mazeppa against and over the violas and 'celli, while the brass darts215 forth glowing bombs falling with cruelty into the finest flower-beds of oboes and harps216. It is simply the hoax217 of the century. Would you at Athens ever have endured such a pandemonium218?'
"'You are quite right, ma très charmante dame27,' I said, 'we never had such music and we should have little cared for it. Our way of making symphonies was to write epics219, crowded with persons, divine and human, and with events and incidents of all colours and shades. The Continental nations have lost the epic220 creativeness proper, and must therefore write epics in sound. Just as your languages do not allow you to write very strictly221 metred poetry such as we have written without impairing222 the fire and glamour223 of poetry, and the only way left for you of imitating the severe metres of Archilochus, Alc?us or Sappho is in the form of musical canons, fugues, or other counterpointed music. It seems to me that you English have not done much by way of music epics, because, like ourselves, you were busily engaged in writing epics of quite a different kind: the epic of[Pg 130] your Empire. The nations that have written musical epics, did do so at a time when these were the only epics they could write,—the symphony of Empire being refused them.'
"'I see,' said Mrs Blazing. 'You mean to say that our Mozarts and Beethovens are Lord Chatham, Clive, Nelson and Wellington?'
"'In a manner, yes. Few nations, if any, can excel both in arts and in Empire-making, and had you English been able to hold in your imperial power considerable parts of Europe, say, of France, Germany or Spain, you would never have had either Walter Scott or Byron, Shelley or Tennyson. For the efforts required to conquer and hold European territory would have taxed all your strength so severely224 that no resources would have been left for conquests in the realm of the arts and literature.
"'This is why the Romans, who conquered, not coloured races, but the mightiest225 white nations, could never write either great epics or great dramas. They wrote only one epic, one drama of first and to this day unparalleled magnitude: the Roman Empire. I meant to do a similar thing for Athens, but I failed. I now know why. My real enemies were not in the camp of my political adversaries226, but in the theatre of Dionysus and in the schools of the philosophers. Do not, therefore, ma chère amie, begrudge227 the Germans their great musicians. They are really very great, and not even your greatest minds surpass, perhaps do not even equal them. Your consolation228 may be in this, that the Germans too will soon cease writing music worth the hearing. They now want to write quite different epics. And no nation can write two sorts of epics at a time.'
[Pg 131]
"'I am so glad to hear you say so,' said Mrs Blazing. 'It relieves me of a corvée that I hitherto considered to be a patriotic229 duty. I mean, I will henceforth never attend the representations of the new school of soi-disant English music. Inwardly I never liked it; it always appeared to me like an Englishwoman who tries to imitate the grace and verve of a Parisian woman, with all her easy gestures, vivacious230 conversation, and delicate coquetry. It will not do.
"'We English women do not shine in movement; our sphere is repose231. We may be troublesome, but never troublante.
"'Even so is English academic music. And I now see why it must be so. It is not in us, because another force takes its place. Like all people we like to shine in that wherein we are most deficient232, and the other day I was present at a scene that could hardly be more painful. At the house of a rich and highly distinguished233 city man I met the famous Sir Somebody Hangar, the composer. The question arose who was the greatest musician? Thereupon Sir Somebody, looking up to the beautiful ceiling of the room, exclaimed dreamily: "Music is of very recent origin...." One of the gentlemen present then asked Sir Somebody whether he had ever heard the reply given to that question by the great Gounod? Sir Somebody contemptuously uttered: "Gounod? It is not worth hearing." I was indignant, and pointedly234 asked the gentleman to tell us Gounod's reply. The gentleman, looking at Sir Somebody with a curious smile, related:
"'Gounod, on being asked who in his opinion was the greatest musician, said: "When I was a boy of twenty, I said: moi. Ten years later I said: moi et[Pg 132] Mozart. Again ten years later I said: Mozart et moi. And now I say: Mozart."'
"This reply," said Alcibiades, "has Attic perfume in it. Having suffered so much, as I have, at the hands of musicians in my time, when dramatic writers were as much musicians as dramatists, I have in my Olympian leisure carefully inquired into the real causes of the rise of modern music.
"'You said a few moments ago, ma très spirituelle dame, that music is the art of poor classes. There is this much truth in that, that modern music has indeed been almost entirely235 in the hands of middle-class people. This being so, everything depends on the nature and dispositions236 of the middle class in a given country. In England, for instance, the middle class is totally different from that of France or that of South Germany, the home of German music. The English middle class is cold, dry, gaffeur to the extreme, afflicted237 with a veritable rage for outward respectability, unsufferably formalist, and deeply convinced of its social inferiority. In such a class nothing remotely resembling German or French music can ever possibly arise. Such a class furnishes excellent business men, and reliable sergeants238 to the officers of imperial work. But music can no more grow out of it than can a rose out of a poker239.
"'This middle class is the result of British Imperialism240, and this is how Imperialism has prevented and will, as long as it lasts, always prevent the rise of really fine music in the higher sense of the term. This is also why we Hellenes never achieved greater results in music. Like the English, or the Americans, we never had a real bourgeoisie, or the only possible foster-earth of great music. However, bourgeoisie[Pg 133] is only a historic phenomenon, one that is destined241 to disappear, and with it will disappear all music. Mr Richard Strauss is singing its dirge242.'"
When Alcibiades had finished his entertaining tale of women and music in England, the gods and heroes congratulated him warmly, and Zeus ordered that, under the direction of Mozart, all the nymphs and goddesses of the forests and seas shall sing one of the motets of Bach. This they did, and all Venice was filled with the magic songs, which were as pure as those produced by the nymph Echo in the Baptistry at Pisa. All the palaces and the churches of Venice seemed to listen with melancholy243 pleasure, and St Mark's hesitated to sound the hour lest the spell should be broken. When the motet was ended, the gods and heroes rose and disappeared in the heavens.
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1
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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2
attune
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| v.使调和 | |
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superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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6
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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7
resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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bliss
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| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
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9
luxuriously
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| adv.奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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10
condignly
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| adv.应当地，应受地 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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12
rivulet
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| n.小溪，小河 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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minaret
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| n.（回教寺院的）尖塔 | |
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15
magpies
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| 喜鹊（magpie的复数形式） | |
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16
surmised
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的过去式和过去分词 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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17
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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18
aglow
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| adj.发亮的；发红的；adv.发亮地 | |
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gauche
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| adj.笨拙的，粗鲁的 | |
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20
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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21
spartan
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| adj.简朴的，刻苦的；n.斯巴达；斯巴达式的人 | |
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22
cello
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| n.大提琴 | |
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spartans
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| n.斯巴达（spartan的复数形式） | |
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24
dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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linguist
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| n.语言学家；精通数种外国语言者 | |
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26
linguistic
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| adj.语言的，语言学的 | |
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27
dame
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| n.女士 | |
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28
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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29
vivacity
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| n.快活，活泼，精神充沛 | |
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30
intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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31
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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32
rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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33
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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34
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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35
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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36
stun
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| vt.打昏，使昏迷，使震惊，使惊叹 | |
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obsolete
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| adj.已废弃的，过时的 | |
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38
calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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39
isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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40
discourses
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| 论文( discourse的名词复数 )； 演说； 讲道； 话语 | |
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41
tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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42
immoral
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| adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的 | |
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43
bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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44
virulent
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| adj.有毒的，有恶意的，充满敌意的 | |
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45
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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46
repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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47
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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48
illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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49
enumerated
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| v.列举，枚举，数( enumerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
abridgment
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| n.删节，节本 | |
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51
adroitly
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| adv.熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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52
orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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53
allured
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| 诱引，吸引( allure的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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55
rebukes
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| 责难或指责( rebuke的第三人称单数 ) | |
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56
zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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57
flute
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| n.长笛；v.吹笛 | |
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58
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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59
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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60
reptiles
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| n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
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61
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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62
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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63
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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64
farces
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| n.笑剧( farce的名词复数 )；闹剧；笑剧剧目；作假的可笑场面 | |
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65
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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66
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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67
giggle
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| n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说 | |
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68
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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69
recurring
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| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
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70
champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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71
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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72
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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73
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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74
excavating
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| v.挖掘( excavate的现在分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘 | |
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75
attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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76
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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77
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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78
decry
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| v.危难，谴责 | |
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79
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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80
lenient
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| adj.宽大的，仁慈的 | |
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81
cult
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| n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜 | |
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82
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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83
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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84
pretences
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| n.假装( pretence的名词复数 )；作假；自命；自称 | |
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85
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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86
inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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87
boorishness
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88
emancipated
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| adj.被解放的，不受约束的v.解放某人（尤指摆脱政治、法律或社会的束缚）( emancipate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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89
relegated
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| v.使降级( relegate的过去式和过去分词 )；使降职；转移；把…归类 | |
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90
boors
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| n.农民( boor的名词复数 )；乡下佬；没礼貌的人；粗野的人 | |
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91
clique
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| n.朋党派系，小集团 | |
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92
maligned
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| vt.污蔑，诽谤（malign的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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93
contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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94
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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95
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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96
cadence
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| n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫 | |
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97
converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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98
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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99
antipathy
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| n.憎恶；反感，引起反感的人或事物 | |
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100
begrudging
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| 嫉妒( begrudge的现在分词 )； 勉强做； 不乐意地付出； 吝惜 | |
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101
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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102
maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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103
electrify
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| v.使充电；使电气化；使触电；使震惊；使兴奋 | |
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104
musing
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| n. 沉思，冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
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105
muses
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的第三人称单数 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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106
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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107
permeating
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| 弥漫( permeate的现在分词 )； 遍布； 渗入； 渗透 | |
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108
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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109
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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110
extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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111
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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112
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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113
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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114
enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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115
engraving
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| n.版画；雕刻（作品）；雕刻艺术；镌版术v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的现在分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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116
payable
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| adj.可付的，应付的，有利益的 | |
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117
anatomy
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| n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织 | |
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118
convened
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| 召开( convene的过去式 )； 召集； （为正式会议而）聚集； 集合 | |
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119
suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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120
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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121
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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122
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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123
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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124
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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125
barbarians
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| n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 )；外国人；粗野的人；无教养的人 | |
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126
radically
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| ad.根本地，本质地 | |
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127
raptures
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| 极度欢喜( rapture的名词复数 ) | |
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128
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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129
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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130
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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131
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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132
implored
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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133
lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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134
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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135
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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136
witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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137
chancellor
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| n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长 | |
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138
distended
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| v.（使）膨胀，肿胀( distend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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139
profusely
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| ad.abundantly | |
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140
vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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141
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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142
lamentably
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| adv.哀伤地，拙劣地 | |
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143
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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144
concerto
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| n.协奏曲 | |
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145
ivy
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| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
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146
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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147
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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148
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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149
discords
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| 不和（discord的复数形式） | |
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150
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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151
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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152
strings
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| n.弦 | |
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153
throttled
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| v.扼杀( throttle的过去式和过去分词 )；勒死；使窒息；压制 | |
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154
recurred
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| 再发生，复发( recur的过去式和过去分词 )； 治愈 | |
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155
bulging
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| 膨胀； 凸出（部）； 打气； 折皱 | |
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156
rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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157
skidding
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| n.曳出，集材v.（通常指车辆） 侧滑( skid的现在分词 )；打滑；滑行；（住在）贫民区 | |
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158
elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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159
vindictive
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| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
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160
allures
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| 诱引，吸引( allure的第三人称单数 ) | |
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161
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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162
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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163
adagio
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| adj.缓慢的；n.柔板；慢板；adv.缓慢地 | |
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164
allegro
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| adj. 快速而活泼的；n.快板；adv.活泼地 | |
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165
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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166
geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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167
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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168
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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169
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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170
oracle
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| n.神谕，神谕处，预言 | |
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171
meditations
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| 默想( meditation的名词复数 )； 默念； 沉思； 冥想 | |
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172
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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173
seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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174
rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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175
jubilation
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| n.欢庆，喜悦 | |
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176
imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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177
forte
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| n.长处，擅长；adj.(音乐)强音的 | |
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178
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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179
congealed
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| v.使凝结，冻结( congeal的过去式和过去分词 )；（指血）凝结 | |
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180
stylishness
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181
cellist
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| n.大提琴手 | |
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182
promontory
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| n.海角；岬 | |
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183
conservatory
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| n.温室，音乐学院；adj.保存性的，有保存力的 | |
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184
sonata
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| n.奏鸣曲 | |
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185
sonatas
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| n.奏鸣曲( sonata的名词复数 ) | |
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186
ebbing
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的现在分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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187
illuminating
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| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
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188
recitals
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| n.独唱会( recital的名词复数 )；独奏会；小型音乐会、舞蹈表演会等；一系列事件等的详述 | |
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189
virtuoso
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| n.精于某种艺术或乐器的专家，行家里手 | |
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190
royalty
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| n.皇家，皇族 | |
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191
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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192
incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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193
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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194
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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195
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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196
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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197
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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198
distressingly
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| adv. 令人苦恼地；悲惨地 | |
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199
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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200
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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201
anarchy
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| n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序 | |
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202
acoustic
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| adj.听觉的，声音的；(乐器)原声的 | |
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203
bankruptcy
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| n.破产；无偿付能力 | |
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204
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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205
exhale
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| v.呼气，散出，吐出，蒸发 | |
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206
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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207
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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208
tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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209
impoverished
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| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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210
tickle
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| v.搔痒，胳肢；使高兴；发痒；n.搔痒，发痒 | |
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211
amuck
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| ad.狂乱地 | |
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212
serpentine
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| adj.蜿蜒的，弯曲的 | |
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213
instil
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| v.逐渐灌输 | |
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214
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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215
darts
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| n.掷飞镖游戏；飞镖( dart的名词复数 )；急驰，飞奔v.投掷，投射( dart的第三人称单数 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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216
harps
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| abbr.harpsichord 拨弦古钢琴n.竖琴( harp的名词复数 ) | |
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217
hoax
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| v.欺骗，哄骗，愚弄；n.愚弄人，恶作剧 | |
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218
pandemonium
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| n.喧嚣，大混乱 | |
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219
epics
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| n.叙事诗( epic的名词复数 )；壮举；惊人之举；史诗般的电影（或书籍） | |
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220
epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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221
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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222
impairing
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| v.损害，削弱( impair的现在分词 ) | |
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223
glamour
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| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
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224
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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225
mightiest
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| adj.趾高气扬( mighty的最高级 )；巨大的；强有力的；浩瀚的 | |
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226
adversaries
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| n.对手，敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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227
begrudge
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| vt.吝啬，羡慕 | |
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228
consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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229
patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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230
vivacious
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| adj.活泼的，快活的 | |
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231
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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232
deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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233
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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234
pointedly
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| adv.尖地，明显地 | |
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235
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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236
dispositions
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| 安排( disposition的名词复数 )； 倾向； （财产、金钱的）处置； 气质 | |
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237
afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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238
sergeants
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| 警官( sergeant的名词复数 )； （美国警察）警佐； （英国警察）巡佐； 陆军（或空军）中士 | |
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239
poker
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| n.扑克；vt.烙制 | |
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240
imperialism
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| n.帝国主义，帝国主义政策 | |
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241
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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242
dirge
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| n.哀乐，挽歌，庄重悲哀的乐曲 | |
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243
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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