MIDNIGHT was once more chiming from all the brazen1 tongues of the city when he awoke, and, all being still around him, ventured to put his head out of the brass2 door of the stove to see why such a strange bright light was round him.
It was a very strange and brilliant light indeed; and yet, what is perhaps still stranger, it did not frighten or amaze him, nor did what he saw alarm him either, and yet I think it would have done you or me. For what he saw was nothing less than all the bric-à-brac in motion.
A big jug3, an Apostel-Krug, of Kruessen, was solemnly dancing a minuet with a plump Faenza jar; a tall Dutch clock was going through a gavotte with a spindle-legged ancient chair; a very droll4 porcelain5 figure of Littenhausen was bowing to a very stiff soldier in terre cuite of Ulm; an old violin of Cremona was playing itself, and a queer little shrill6 plaintive7 music that thought itself merry came from a painted spinet8 covered with faded roses; some gilt9 Spanish leather had got up on the wall and laughed; a Dresden mirror was tripping about, crowned with flowers, and a Japanese bonze was riding along[65] on a griffin; a slim Venetian rapier had come to blows with a stout10 Ferrara sabre, all about a little pale-faced chit of a damsel in white Nymphenburg china; and a portly Franconian pitcher11 in grès gris was calling aloud, “Oh, these Italians! always at feud12!” But nobody listened to him at all. A great number of little Dresden cups and saucers were all skipping and waltzing; the teapots, with their broad round faces, were spinning their own lids like teetotums; the high-backed gilded13 chairs were having a game of cards together; and a little Saxe poodle, with a blue ribbon at its throat, was running from one to another, whilst a yellow cat of Cornelis Lachtleven’s rode about on a Delft horse in blue pottery14 of 1489. Meanwhile the brilliant light shed on the scene came from three silver candelabra, though they had no candles set up in them; and, what is the greatest miracle of all, August looked on at these mad freaks and felt no sensation of wonder! He only, as he heard the violin and the spinet playing, felt an irresistible15 desire to dance too.
No doubt his face said what he wished; for a lovely little lady, all in pink and gold and white, with powdered hair, and high-heeled shoes, and all made of the very finest and fairest Meissen[66] china, tripped up to him, and smiled, and gave him her hand, and led him out to a minuet. And he danced it perfectly16,—poor little August in his thick, clumsy shoes, and his thick, clumsy sheepskin jacket, and his rough homespun linen17, and his broad Tyrolean hat! He must have danced it perfectly, this dance of kings and queens in days when crowns were duly honored, for the lovely lady always smiled benignly18 and never scolded him at all, and danced so divinely herself to the stately measures the spinet was playing that August could not take his eyes off her till, their minuet ended, she sat down on her own white-and-gold bracket.
“I am the Princess of Saxe-Royale,” she said to him, with a benignant smile; “and you have got through that minuet very fairly.”
Then he ventured to say to her,—
“Madame my princess, could you tell me kindly19 why some of the figures and furniture dance and speak, and some lie up in a corner like lumber20? It does make me curious. Is it rude to ask?”
For it greatly puzzled him why, when some of the bric-à-brac was all full of life and motion, some was quite still and had not a single thrill in it.[67]
“My dear child,” said the powdered lady, “is it possible that you do not know the reason? Why, those silent, dull things are imitation!”
This she said with so much decision that she evidently considered it a condensed but complete answer.
“Imitation?” repeated August, timidly, not understanding.
“Of course! Lies, falsehoods, fabrications!” said the princess in pink shoes, very vivaciously21. “They only pretend to be what we are! They never wake up: how can they? No imitation ever had any soul in it yet.”
“Oh!” said August, humbly22, not even sure that he understood entirely23 yet. He looked at Hirschvogel: surely it had a royal soul within it: would it not wake up and speak? Oh dear! how he longed to hear the voice of his fire-king! And he began to forget that he stood by a lady who sat upon a pedestal of gold-and-white china, with the year 1746 cut on it, and the Meissen mark.
“What will you be when you are a man?” said the little lady, sharply, for her black eyes were quick though her red lips were smiling. “Will you work for the Königliche Porcellan-Manufactur, like my great dead Kandler?”[68]
“I have never thought,” said August, stammering24; “at least—that is—I do wish—I do hope to be a painter, as was Master Augustin Hirschvogel at Nürnberg.”
“Bravo!” said all the real bric-à-brac in one breath, and the two Italian rapiers left off fighting to cry, “Benone!” For there is not a bit of true bric-à-brac in all Europe that does not know the names of the mighty25 masters.
August felt quite pleased to have won so much applause, and grew as red as the lady’s shoes with bashful contentment.
“I knew all the Hirschvögel, from old Veit downwards,” said a fat grès de Flandre beer-jug: “I myself was made at Nürnberg.” And he bowed to the great stove very politely, taking off his own silver hat—I mean lid—with a courtly sweep that he could scarcely have learned from burgomasters. The stove, however, was silent, and a sickening suspicion (for what is such heart-break as a suspicion of what we love?) came through the mind of August: Was Hirschvogel only imitation?
“No, no, no, no!” he said to himself, stoutly26: though Hirschvogel never stirred, never spoke27, yet would he keep all faith in it! After all their happy years together, after all the nights of[69] warmth and joy he owed it, should he doubt his own friend and hero, whose gilt lion’s feet he had kissed in his babyhood? “No, no, no, no!” he said, again, with so much emphasis that the Lady of Meissen looked sharply again at him.
“No,” she said, with pretty disdain28; “no, believe me, they may ’pretend‘ forever. They can never look like us! They imitate even our marks, but never can they look like the real thing, never can they chassent de race.”
“How should they?” said a bronze statuette of Vischer’s. “They daub themselves green with verdigris29, or sit out in the rain to get rusted31; but green and rust30 are not patina32; only the ages can give that!”
“And my imitations are all in primary colors, staring colors, hot as the colors of a hostelry’s sign-board!” said the Lady of Meissen, with a shiver.
“Well, there is a grès de Flandre over there, who pretends to be a Hans Kraut, as I am,” said the jug with the silver hat, pointing with his handle to a jug that lay prone33 on its side in a corner. “He has copied me as exactly as it is given to moderns to copy us. Almost he might be mistaken for me. But yet what a difference there is! How crude are his blues34! how evidently[70] done over the glaze35 are his black letters! He has tried to give himself my very twist; but what a lamentable36 exaggeration of that playful deviation37 in my lines which in his becomes actual deformity!”
“And look at that,” said the gilt Cordovan leather, with a contemptuous glance at a broad piece of gilded leather spread out on a table. “They will sell him cheek by jowl with me, and give him my name; but look! I am overlaid with pure gold beaten thin as a film and laid on me in absolute honesty by worthy38 Diego de las Gorgias, worker in leather of lovely Cordova in the blessed reign39 of Ferdinand the Most Christian40. His gilding41 is one part gold to eleven other parts of brass and rubbish, and it has been laid on him with a brush—a brush!—pah! of course he will be as black as a crock in a few years’ time, whilst I am as bright as when I first was made, and, unless I am burnt as my Cordova burnt its heretics, I shall shine on forever.”
“They carve pear-wood because it is so soft, and dye it brown, and call it me!” said an old oak cabinet, with a chuckle42.
“That is not so painful; it does not vulgarize you so much as the cups they paint to-day and[71] christen after me!” said a Carl Theodor cup subdued43 in hue44, yet gorgeous as a jewel.
“Nothing can be so annoying as to see common gimcracks aping me!” interposed the princess in the pink shoes.
“They even steal my motto, though it is Scripture,” said a Trauerkrug of Regensburg in black-and-white.
“And my own dots they put on plain English china creatures!” sighed the little white maid of Nymphenburg.
“And they sell hundreds and thousands of common china plates, calling them after me, and baking my saints and my legends in a muffle45 of to-day; it is blasphemy46!” said a stout plate of Gubbio, which in its year of birth had seen the face of Maestro Giorgio.
“That is what is so terrible in these bric-à-brac places,” said the princess of Meissen. “It brings one in contact with such low, imitative creatures; one really is safe nowhere nowadays unless under glass at the Louvre or South Kensington.”
“And they get even there,” sighed the grès de Flandre. “A terrible thing happened to a dear friend of mine, a terre cuite of Blasius (you know the terres cuites of Blasius date from 1560).[72] Well, he was put under glass in a museum that shall be nameless, and he found himself set next to his own imitation born and baked yesterday at Frankfort, and what think you the miserable47 creature said to him, with a grin? ’Old Pipe-clay,‘—that is what he called my friend,—’the fellow that bought me got just as much commission on me as the fellow that bought you, and that was all that he thought about. You know it is only the public money that goes!‘ And the horrid48 creature grinned again till he actually cracked himself. There is a Providence49 above all things, even museums.”
“Providence might have interfered50 before, and saved the public money,” said the little Meissen lady with the pink shoes.
“After all, does it matter?” said a Dutch jar of Haarlem. “All the shamming52 in the world will not make them us!”
“One does not like to be vulgarized,” said the Lady of Meissen, angrily.
[*] Jan Asselyn, called Krabbetje, the Little Crab53, born 1610, master-potter of Delft and Haarlem.“My maker54, the Krabbetje,[*] did not trouble his head about that,” said the Haarlem jar, proudly. “The Krabbetje made me for the kitchen, the bright, clean, snow-white Dutch [73]kitchen, wellnigh three centuries ago, and now I am thought worthy the palace; yet I wish I were at home; yes, I wish I could see the good Dutch vrouw, and the shining canals, and the great green meadows dotted with the kine.”
“Ah! if we could all go back to our makers55!” sighed the Gubbio plate, thinking of Giorgio Andreoli and the glad and gracious days of the Renaissance56: and somehow the words touched the frolicsome57 souls of the dancing jars, the spinning teapots, the chairs that were playing cards; and the violin stopped its merry music with a sob58, and the spinet sighed,—thinking of dead hands.
Even the little Saxe poodle howled for a master forever lost; and only the swords went on quarrelling, and made such a clattering59 noise that the Japanese bonze rode at them on his monster and knocked them both right over, and they lay straight and still, looking foolish, and the little Nymphenburg maid, though she was crying, smiled and almost laughed.
Then from where the great stove stood there came a solemn voice.
All eyes turned upon Hirschvogel, and the heart of its little human comrade gave a great jump of joy.
“My friends,” said that clear voice from the[74] turret60 of Nürnberg faïence, “I have listened to all you have said. There is too much talking among the Mortalities whom one of themselves has called the Windbags61. Let not us be like them. I hear among men so much vain speech, so much precious breath and precious time wasted in empty boasts, foolish anger, useless reiteration62, blatant63 argument, ignoble64 mouthings, that I have learned to deem speech a curse, laid on man to weaken and envenom all his undertakings65. For over two hundred years I have never spoken myself: you, I hear, are not so reticent66. I only speak now because one of you said a beautiful thing that touched me. If we all might but go back to our makers! Ah, yes! if we might! We were made in days when even men were true creatures, and so we, the work of their hands, were true too. We, the begotten67 of ancient days, derive68 all the value in us from the fact that our makers wrought69 at us with zeal70, with piety71, with integrity, with faith,—not to win fortunes or to glut72 a market, but to do nobly an honest thing and create for the honor of the Arts and God. I see amidst you a little human thing who loves me, and in his own ignorant childish way loves Art. Now, I want him forever to remember[75] this night and these words; to remember that we are what we are, and precious in the eyes of the world, because centuries ago those who were of single mind and of pure hand so created us, scorning sham51 and haste and counterfeit73. Well do I recollect74 my master, Augustin Hirschvogel. He led a wise and blameless life, and wrought in loyalty75 and love, and made his time beautiful thereby76, like one of his own rich, many-colored church casements77, that told holy tales as the sun streamed through them. Ah, yes, my friends, to go back to our masters!—that would be the best that could befall us. But they are gone, and even the perishable78 labors79 of their lives outlive them. For many, many years I, once honored of emperors, dwelt in a humble80 house and warmed in successive winters three generations of little, cold, hungry children. When I warmed them they forgot that they were hungry; they laughed and told tales, and slept at last about my feet. Then I knew that humble as had become my lot it was one that my master would have wished for me, and I was content. Sometimes a tired woman would creep up to me, and smile because she was near me, and point out my golden crown or my ruddy fruit to a baby in her arms. That was[76] better than to stand in a great hall of a great city, cold and empty, even though wise men came to gaze and throngs81 of fools gaped82, passing with flattering words. Where I go now I know not; but since I go from that humble house where they loved me, I shall be sad and alone. They pass so soon,—those fleeting83 mortal lives! Only we endure,—we, the things that the human brain creates. We can but bless them a little as they glide84 by: if we have done that, we have done what our masters wished. So in us our masters, being dead, yet may speak and live.”
Then the voice sank away in silence, and a strange golden light that had shone on the great stove faded away; so also the light died down in the silver candelabra. A soft, pathetic melody stole gently through the room. It came from the old, old spinet that was covered with the faded roses.
Then that sad, sighing music of a bygone day died too; the clocks of the city struck six of the morning; day was rising over the Bayerischenwald. August awoke with a great start, and found himself lying on the bare bricks of the floor of the chamber85, and all the bric-à-brac was lying quite still all around. The pretty Lady[77] of Meissen was motionless on her porcelain bracket, and the little Saxe poodle was quiet at her side.
He rose slowly to his feet. He was very cold, but he was not sensible of it or of the hunger that was gnawing86 his little empty entrails. He was absorbed in the wondrous87 sight, in the wondrous sounds, that he had seen and heard.
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1
brazen
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| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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jug
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| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
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droll
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| adj.古怪的，好笑的 | |
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porcelain
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| n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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spinet
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| n.小型立式钢琴 | |
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gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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pitcher
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| n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手 | |
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feud
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| n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇 | |
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gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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pottery
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| n.陶器，陶器场 | |
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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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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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benignly
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| adv.仁慈地，亲切地 | |
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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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lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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vivaciously
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| adv.快活地；活泼地；愉快地 | |
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humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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stammering
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的现在分词 ) | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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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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disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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verdigris
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| n.铜锈；铜绿 | |
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rust
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| n.锈；v.生锈；(脑子)衰退 | |
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rusted
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| v.（使）生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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patina
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| n.铜器上的绿锈，年久而产生的光泽 | |
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prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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blues
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| n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐 | |
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glaze
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| v.因疲倦、疲劳等指眼睛变得呆滞，毫无表情 | |
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lamentable
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| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
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deviation
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| n.背离，偏离；偏差，偏向；离题 | |
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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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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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gilding
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| n.贴金箔，镀金 | |
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chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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muffle
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| v.围裹；抑制；发低沉的声音 | |
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blasphemy
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| n.亵渎，渎神 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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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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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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51
sham
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| n./adj.假冒(的)，虚伪(的) | |
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shamming
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| 假装，冒充( sham的现在分词 ) | |
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53
crab
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| n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气 | |
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maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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makers
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| n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式） | |
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56
renaissance
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| n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴 | |
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frolicsome
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| adj.嬉戏的，闹着玩的 | |
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sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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59
clattering
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式） | |
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60
turret
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| n.塔楼，角塔 | |
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61
windbags
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| n.风囊，饶舌之人( windbag的名词复数 ) | |
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62
reiteration
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| n. 重覆, 反覆, 重说 | |
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blatant
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| adj.厚颜无耻的；显眼的；炫耀的 | |
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ignoble
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| adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的 | |
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undertakings
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| 企业( undertaking的名词复数 )； 保证； 殡仪业； 任务 | |
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66
reticent
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| adj.沉默寡言的；言不如意的 | |
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67
begotten
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| v.为…之生父( beget的过去分词 )；产生，引起 | |
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68
derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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69
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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70
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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71
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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72
glut
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| n.存货过多，供过于求；v.狼吞虎咽 | |
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73
counterfeit
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| vt.伪造，仿造；adj.伪造的，假冒的 | |
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74
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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75
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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76
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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77
casements
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| n.窗扉( casement的名词复数 ) | |
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78
perishable
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| adj.（尤指食物）易腐的，易坏的 | |
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79
labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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80
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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81
throngs
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| n.人群( throng的名词复数 )v.成群，挤满( throng的第三人称单数 ) | |
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82
gaped
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| v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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83
fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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84
glide
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| n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝 | |
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85
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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86
gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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87
wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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