They talk much of Dr. Johnson’s Letter to Lord Chesterfield. Certainly, it is an amazing, a triumphant1 epistle. It is, perhaps, the palmary example of how agony long endured, shame, misery2 and humiliation3 can at last turn to flame and a sword, and rend4 and devour5 and hew6 asunder7 the wretched tormentor8 who is found at last to be but a Wig9 and buckram and a grin and a black heart. Listen to the phrases. They are well known, and yet I think that they cannot be too well known.
“When upon some slight encouragement I first visited your Lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment10 of your address; and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre— that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found myself so little encouraged that neither pride nor modesty11 would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in publick, I had exhausted12 all the art of pleasing which a retired13 and uncourtly scholar can possess. I had done all that I could, and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.
“Seven years, my Lord, have now passed since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed14 from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it at last, to the verge15 of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron before . . . the notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary16, and cannot impart it; till I am known and do not want it.”
“Till I am solitary and cannot impart it.” Johnson’s wife had died in the interval17 between the beginning and the end of the Dictionary. An absurd woman, they say, many years older than Johnson, given to “cordials” somewhat too freely, given also to the extravagant18 use of paint as applied19 to the face; but yet the Doctor loved her dearly. It would have been an exquisite20 joy to tell his “Tetty” how the great Lord Chesterfield was the fervent21 friend of the poor, ragged22, starving scholar, the approver of his work and his helper in it. But Tetty was dead, and it had never been possible to utter that comfortable word; and so, I say, agony turns to flaming fire, to this great letter of denunciation.
There is no letter that I know of worthy23 of being compared with it. But Johnson’s letter is tragedy; the spectacle of a soul on fire, while yet the tears rain down from the man’s eyes. There is no spectacle, I think, that can be paralleled with this. But if I were compiling an anthology of letters, I believe that I could find something on the comic side, worthy at least of being in the same volume.
A little way off the white limestone24 road that winds by the river from Newport to Caerleon-on-Usk, in Monmouthshire, there is, or was, an ancient dwelling25 called St. Julians. In this place lived, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, a certain Sir William Herbert, third son of the first Earl of Pembroke. This gentleman was once annoyed by a Mr. Morgan, who is only known as the object of Sir William’s fury. And thus we begin:
“Sir — Peruse26 this letter in God’s name. Be not disquieted27. I reverence28 your hoary29 hair. Although in your son I find too much folly30 and lewdness31, yet in you I expect gravity and wisdom. It hath pleased your son, late of Bristol, to deliver a challenge to a man of mine, on the behalf of a gentleman (as he said) ‘as good as myself’ who he was, he named not, neither do I know; but if he be as good as myself, it must be either for virtue32, for birth, for ability, or for calling and dignity: for virtue, I think he meant not, for it is a thing which exceeds his judgment33; if for birth, he must be the heir male of an Earl, the heir in blood of ten Earls, for in testimony34 thereof I bear their several coats. Besides, he must be of the blood royal, for by my grandmother Devereux, I am lineally and legitimately35 descended36 out of the body of Edward IV. If for ability, he must have a thousand pounds a year in possession, a thousand pounds more in expectation, and must have some thousands in substance besides. If for calling and dignity, he must be knight37, or lord of several seignories, in several kingdoms; a lieutenant38 of his county; and a counsellor of a province.
“Now, to lay all circmnstances aside, be it known to your son, or to any man else, that if there be anyone who beareth the name of gentleman, and whose words are of reputation in his county, that doth say, or dare say, that I have done unjustly, spoken an untruth, stained my credit and reputation in this matter, or in any matter else, wherein your son is exasperated39, I say he lieth in his throat, and my sword shall maintain my word upon him, in any place or province, wheresoever he dare, and where I stand not sworn to observe the peace. But if they be such as are within my governance, and over whom I have authority, I will, for their reformation, chastise40 them with justice, and for their malapert misdemeanour bind41 them to their good behaviour. Of this sort I account your son, and his like; against whom I will shortly issue my warrant, if this my warning doth not reform them. And so I thought fit to advertise you hereof, and leave you to God.”
How magnificent is “my grandmother Devereux!” The race of such grandmothers is, I am sure, extinct. No man can write such a letter now. No man dares in these days to think so nobly of himself and his ancestors. Sir Leicester Dedlock, even, would not have addressed Mr. Lawrence Boythorn in this superb and exalted42 manner. He would have instructed Mr. Tulkinghorn to take some kind of proceedings43, and though Mr. Tulkinghorn was a great man in his way, after all he was but an attorney. And recourse to an attorney is but a shabby substitute for the resounding44 boasts and the terrific threats of “old Sir William Herbert of St. Gillyans,” as his age called him.
And now for an example of a very different school of letter-writing. We are to fall a little in the world. Our polite correspondent is neither a Georgian saint and sage45, nor a high Elizabethan gentleman. He is Mr. Percy Mapleton, generally known as Lefroy, who is in Maidstone Gaol46, awaiting his trial for the murder of Frederick Isaac Gold upon the 27th of June, 1881. He is addressing a lady who, I believe, was a relation of his:
“My Darling Annie,
“I am getting this posted secretly by a true and kind friend, and I trust you implicitly47 to do as I ask you. Dearest, should God permit a verdict of ‘Guilty’ to be returned, you know what my fate must be unless you prevent it, which you can do by assisting me in this way. Send me (concealed48 in a common meat pie, made in an oblong tin cheap dish), a saw file, six inches or so long, without a handle; place this at bottom of pie, embedded49 in under crust and gravy50. And now, dearest, for the greater favour of the two. Send me, in centre of a small cake, like your half-crown one, a tiny bottle of prussic acid, the smaller the better; this last you could, I believe, obtain from either Drs. Green or Cressy for destroying a favourite cat. My darling, believe me when I say, as I hope for salvation51, that this last should only be used the last night allowed me by the law to live, if it comes to that last extremity52. Never while a chance of life remained would I use it, but only as a last resource. . . . By packing these, as I say, carefully, sending with them a tin of milk, etc no risk will be incurred53 as my things are, comparatively speaking, never examined. Get them yourself soon, and direct them in a feigned54 hand, without any accompanying note. If you receive this safely, and will aid me, by return send a postcard, saying; ‘Dear P., Captain Lefroy has returned.’”
It has been remarked, I believe, that the profuse55 use of the italic character is often a sign of a weak and confused mind. It is certainly evidence of such a state in this extraordinary letter of Lefroy’s. It will be noted56 that he italicises phrases which need no italics. “As I hope for salvation,” is quite clear in Roman type; “a chance of life,” “a favourite cat” are phrases which involve no obscurity. There are, indeed, phrases which the commentator57 might write in italics or mark with bracketed notes of exclamation58, and chief of these is Lefroy’s remark that his things were, “comparatively speaking, never examined.” How do you “comparatively speaking,” never examine anything? Clearly, the man’s mind was a heap of foolishness and confusion; he doesn’t even understand how a meat pie is made, as appears by his idle talk about “under crust.” He has been reading silly fictions about prisoners escaping by means of hidden files, the kind of fiction with which Tom Sawyer embittered59 the life of the unfortunate Jim, who “mashed his teeth” by biting on a brass60 candlestick concealed by Tom in the negro’s prison fare. And the “feigned hand” of Lefroy is much on the level of the “nonnamous letters” which Tom insisted on writing to Jim’s gaolers. And it must be said that the poor woman to whom this extraordinary letter was addressed seems to have belonged to the crazy world which Lefroy himself inhabited. She replied. She did not say, as kindly61 as might be, “don’t talk nonsense.” She did not perceive that the file business was sheer idiocy62, but:
“First I must tell you that the delay about what you mentioned has happened through our being told that only two shops in London make them, but trust before you have this it will have arrived safely; if so, say in your next: ‘The little basket with butter, etc., came safely.’”
And her letter, too, is full of italics, and many phrases are in “small caps.” Lefroy, clearly, was a man of confusion, and lived in a world of confusion. If he had avoided italics, he might have avoided Maidstone Gaol, the hangman and the rope.
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1
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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rend
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| vt.把…撕开，割裂；把…揪下来，强行夺取 | |
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devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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hew
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| v.砍；伐；削 | |
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asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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tormentor
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| n. 使苦痛之人, 使苦恼之物, 侧幕 =tormenter | |
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wig
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| n.假发 | |
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enchantment
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| n.迷惑，妖术，魅力 | |
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modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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repulsed
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| v.击退( repulse的过去式和过去分词 )；驳斥；拒绝 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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fervent
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| adj.热的，热烈的，热情的 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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limestone
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| n.石灰石 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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peruse
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| v.细读，精读 | |
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disquieted
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| v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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hoary
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| adj.古老的；鬓发斑白的 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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31
lewdness
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| n. 淫荡, 邪恶 | |
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32
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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legitimately
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| ad.合法地；正当地，合理地 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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chastise
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| vt.责骂，严惩 | |
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bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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42
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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43
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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resounding
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| adj. 响亮的 | |
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sage
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| n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的 | |
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46
gaol
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| n.(jail)监狱；(不加冠词)监禁；vt.使…坐牢 | |
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47
implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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48
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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embedded
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| a.扎牢的 | |
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50
gravy
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| n.肉汁；轻易得来的钱，外快 | |
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51
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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52
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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53
incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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54
feigned
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| a.假装的，不真诚的 | |
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55
profuse
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| adj.很多的，大量的，极其丰富的 | |
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56
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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57
commentator
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| n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员 | |
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58
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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59
embittered
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| v.使怨恨，激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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61
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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62
idiocy
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| n.愚蠢 | |
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