There might perhaps have been room for fear lest such a proceeding4, on the part of a man of seventy-five who was living in retirement5, should result in an ill-digested mass of detail, tempered or rather distempered by the grumbling6 of old age, and exhibiting the marks of failing powers. No anticipation7 could have been more happily falsified. The advance in good temper of Gryll Grange, even upon Crotchet Castle itself, is denied by no one. The book, though long for its author, is not in the least overloaded8; and no signs of failure have ever been detected in it except by those who upbraid9 the still further severance10 between the line of Peacock's thought and the line of what is vulgarly accounted 'progress,' and who almost openly impute11 decay to powers no longer used on their side but against them. The only plausible12 pretext13 for this insinuation is that very advance in mildness and mellowness14 which has been noted—that comparative absence of the sharper and cruder strokes of the earlier work. But since the wit is as bright as ever, though less hard, it seems unreasonable15 to impute as a defect what, but for very obvious reasons, would be admitted as an improvement.
Except Brougham, who still comes in for some severe language, no one of Peacock's old favourite abominations undergoes personal chastisement16. On the contrary, indirect but pretty distinct apology is tendered to Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge by appreciative17 citation18 of their work. Even among the general victims, Scotchmen and political economists19 have a still more direct olive-branch extended to them by the introduction of the personage of Mr. MacBorrowdale: there is no more blasphemy20 of Scott: and I do not at the present moment remember any very distinct slaps at paper money. Peace had been made long ago with the Church of England, through the powerful medium of Dr. Folliott; but it is ratified21 and cemented anew here not merely by the presentation of Dr. Opimian, but (in rather an odd fashion perhaps) by the trait of Falconer's devotion to St. Catharine. So also, as the fair hand of Lady Clarinda, despite some hard knocks administered to her father and brother, had beckoned22 Peacock away from his cut-and-dried satire23 of the aristocracy, so now Lord Curryfin exhibits a further stage of reconciliation24. In short, all those elements of society to which very young men, not wanting either in brains or heart, often take crude and fanciful objection, had by this time approved themselves (as they always do, with the rarest exceptions, to les âmes bien nées) at worst graceful25 if unnecessary ornaments26 to life, at best valuable to the social fabric27 as solid and all but indispensable buttresses28 of it.
In all these 'reconciliations29 and forgivenesses of injuries,' however, it is very important to observe that there is no mawkishness30; and, whatever may have been sometimes thought and said, there is no 'ratting* in the real sense. As must be obvious to any attentive31 reader of the novels, and as has been pointed32 out once or twice before in these introductions, Peacock had at no time been anything like an enrolled33, much less a convinced, member of the Radical34 or any party. He may have been a Republican in his youth, though for my part I should like more trustworthy evidence for it than that of Thomas Jefferson Hogg, a very clever but a distinctly unscrupulous person. If he was—and it is not at all improbable that he had the Republican measles36, a very common disease of youth, pretty early—he certainly had never been a democrat37. Even his earlier satire is double-edged; and, as must be constantly repeated and remembered, it was always his taste and his endeavour to shoot folly38 as it flew, to attack existent and not extinct forms of popular or fashionable delusion39. Such follies40, whether in 1860 or since, have certainly not as a rule been of the aristocratic, monarchical41, or Tory order generally.
He found plenty of these follies, however, in the other kind—the kind which he had begun to satirise smartly in Crotchet Castle—and he showed pretty decisively that his hand had not lost its cunning, nor his sword its sharpness. The satire, though partly, is not mainly political; and it is an interesting detail (though it only refreshes the memory of those who knew the facts then or have studied them since) that barely she years before a far more sweeping42 reform than that of 1832, a very acute judge who disliked and resisted it spoke43 of 'another reform lunacy' as 'not likely to arise in his time.' And these words, it must be remembered, are put in the mouth of Mr. MacBorrowdale, who is represented as merely middle-aged44.
It is fortunate, however, for the interest of Gryll Grange that politics, in the strict sense, occupy so small a part of it; for of all subjects they lose interest first to all but a very select number of readers. The bulk of the satiric45 comment of the book is devoted46 either to purely47 social matters, or to the debateable land between these and politics proper. A little but not very much of this is obsolete48 or obsolescent49. American slavery is no more; and the 'Pantopragmatic Society' (in official language the Social Science Congress) has ceased to exist as a single recognised institution. But there is not much about slavery here, and if pantopragmatics have lost their special Society they flourish more than ever as a general and fashionable subject of human attention. You shall not open a number of the Times twice, perhaps not once in a week, without finding columns of debate, harangue50, or letter-writing purely pantopragmatical.
Still more is this the case with another subject which has even more attention, and on which what some think the central and golden sentence of the book is laid down by Dr. Opimian in the often-quoted words, 'If all the nonsense which in the last quarter of a century [it is appalling51 to think that this quarter is getting on for three-quarters now] has been talked on all other subjects were thrown into one scale, and all that has been talked on the subject of Education alone were thrown into the other, I think the latter would preponderate52.' Indeed it cannot be said that after nearly five-and-thirty years, up to and including the present moment, during which Competitive Examination has been a field of battle, much has been added to Peacock's attack on it, or anything said on the other side to weaken the cogency53 of that attack. No doubt he was to some extent a prejudiced judge; for, though few people would at any time of his youth have had less to fear from competitive examination, his own fortune had been made by the opposite system, and the competitive scheme must infallibly tend rather to exclude than to admit persons like him. But a wise criticism does not ask cut bone in cases of argument, it simply looks to see whether the advocacy is sound, not whether the advocate has received or expects his fee. And Peacock's advocacy is here not merely sound; it is, in so far as it goes, inexpugnable. It is true there is a still more irrefragable rejoinder to it which has kept competition safe hitherto, though for obvious reasons it will very rarely be found openly expressed by the defenders54 of the system; and that is, that, under the popular jealousy55 resulting from wide or universal suffrage56, there is no alternative but competitive examination, or else the American system of alternating spoils to the victors, which is demonstrably worse for the public, and not demonstrably much better for private interests.
As for table-turning, and lectures, and the 'excess of hurrying about,' and 'Siberian' dinners and so forth57, they are certainly not dead. Table-turning may have changed its name; the others have not even adopted the well-known expedient58 of the alias59, but appear just as they were thirty years ago in the social and satiric dictionaries of to-day.
It would be odd if this comparative freshness and actuality of subject did not make Gryll Grange one of the lightest and brightest of Peacock's novels; and I think it fully60 deserves that description. But it would be doing it extremely scant61 justice to allow any one to suppose that its attractions consist solely62, or even mainly, in 'valuable thoughts' and expressions of sense, satire, and scholarship (to combine Wordsworth with Warrington). In lighter63 respects, in respects of form and movement, and it is absolutely impossible that he should have been an Evangelical.
We must not dismiss without some special mention the episode—though it is not properly an episode, inasmuch as it has throughout an important connection with the working of the story—of 'Aristophanes in London.' This has sometimes been adversely64 criticised as not sufficiently65 antique—which seems to overlook the obvious retort that if it had been more so it could not by any possibility have been sufficiently modern. Those who know something of Aristophanes and something of London may doubt whether it could have established the nexus66 much better. I have elsewhere pointed out the curious connection with Mansel's Phrontisterion, which was considerably earlier in date, and with the sentiments of which Peacock would have been in the heartiest67 agreement. But it is extremely unlikely that he ever saw it. His antipathy68 to the English universities appears to have been one of the most enduring of his crazes, probably because it was always the most unreasonable; and though there is no active renewal69 of hostilities70 in this novel (or none of importance), it is noticeable there is also no direct or indirect palinode as there is in most other cases. As for the play itself, it seems to me very good. Miss Gryll must have looked delightful71 as Circe (we get a more distinct description of her personality here than anywhere else), Gryllus has an excellent standpoint, and the dialogue, though unequal, is quite admirable at the best. Indeed there is a Gilbertian tone about the whole piece which I should be rather more surprised at being the first to note, so far as I know, if I were not pretty well prepared to find that the study of the average dramatic critic is not much in Peacock. The choric trochees (which by the way is a tautology) are of the highest excellence72, especially the piece beginning—
'As before the pike will fly'
in which Coeur-de-Lion's discomfiture73 of the 'septemvirate of quacks74' is hymned; and the finale is quite Attic75. I do not know whether the thing has ever been attempted as an actual show. Though rather exacting76 in its machinery77, it ought to have been.
The novel is rather full of other verse, but except 'Love and Age'—so often mentioned, but never to be mentioned enough for its strange and admirable commixture of sense and sentiment, of knowledge of the heart and knowledge of life—this is not of the first class for Peacock, certainly not worthy35 to be ranked with the play. 'The Death of Philemon' is indeed a beautiful piece in its first half; the second were better 'cut' 'The Dappled Palfrey,' a very charming fabliau in the original, chiefly suggests the superiority of Lochinvar to which it is a sort of counterpart and complement78. 'The New Order of Chivalry79' with a good deal of truth has also a good deal of illiberality80; and, amusing as it is, is a relapse into Peacock's old vein81 of almost insolent82 personality. Sir Moses Montefiore and Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy did not deserve, though they might afford to despise, the sort of cheap rallying here applied83 to them; and might have retaliated84, not without point, on persons who drew large salaries at the India House, with frequent additional gratifications, and stood up for 'chivalry' in their leisure moments. And 'The Legend of St Laura' is not first rate. But the Italian translations make us wish for more of the same.
On the whole, however, though we may like some things more and some less here, I cannot conceive the whole being otherwise than delightful to any person of knowledge, sense, and taste. And as we close Peacock's novels there is this interesting though rather melancholy85 thought that we 'close the book' in more senses than one. They have never been imitated save afar off; and even the far-off imitations have not been very satisfactory. The English Muse86 seems to have set, at the joining of the old and new ages, this one person with the learning and tastes of the ancestors, with the irreverent criticism of the moderns, to comment on the transition; and, having fashioned him, to have broken the mould.
George Saintsbury.
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1
mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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mellowest
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| 成熟的( mellow的最高级 )； （水果）熟透的； （颜色或声音）柔和的； 高兴的 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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grumbling
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| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
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anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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overloaded
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| a.超载的，超负荷的 | |
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upbraid
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| v.斥责，责骂，责备 | |
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severance
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| n.离职金；切断 | |
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impute
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| v.归咎于 | |
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plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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mellowness
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| 成熟； 芳醇； 肥沃； 怡然 | |
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unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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chastisement
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| n.惩罚 | |
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17
appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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citation
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| n.引用，引证，引用文；传票 | |
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19
economists
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| n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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blasphemy
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| n.亵渎，渎神 | |
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ratified
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| v.批准，签认（合约等）( ratify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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satire
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| n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品 | |
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reconciliation
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| n.和解，和谐，一致 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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buttresses
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| n.扶壁，扶垛( buttress的名词复数 )v.用扶壁支撑，加固( buttress的第三人称单数 ) | |
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reconciliations
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| 和解( reconciliation的名词复数 )； 一致； 勉强接受； （争吵等的）止息 | |
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mawkishness
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attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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enrolled
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| adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起 | |
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radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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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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measles
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| n.麻疹，风疹，包虫病，痧子 | |
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democrat
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| n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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follies
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| 罪恶，时事讽刺剧； 愚蠢，蠢笨，愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
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41
monarchical
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| adj. 国王的，帝王的，君主的，拥护君主制的 =monarchic | |
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42
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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43
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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44
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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satiric
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| adj.讽刺的，挖苦的 | |
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46
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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47
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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48
obsolete
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| adj.已废弃的，过时的 | |
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obsolescent
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| adj.过时的，难管束的 | |
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50
harangue
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| n.慷慨冗长的训话，言辞激烈的讲话 | |
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51
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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52
preponderate
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| v.数目超过；占优势 | |
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53
cogency
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| n.说服力；adj.有说服力的 | |
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54
defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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55
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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56
suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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57
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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58
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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59
alias
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| n.化名；别名；adv.又名 | |
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60
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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61
scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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63
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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64
adversely
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| ad.有害地 | |
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65
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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66
nexus
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| n.联系；关系 | |
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heartiest
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| 亲切的( hearty的最高级 )； 热诚的； 健壮的； 精神饱满的 | |
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68
antipathy
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| n.憎恶；反感，引起反感的人或事物 | |
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69
renewal
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| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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70
hostilities
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| n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事 | |
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71
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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72
excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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73
discomfiture
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| n.崩溃；大败；挫败；困惑 | |
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74
quacks
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| abbr.quacksalvers 庸医，骗子(16世纪习惯用水银或汞治疗梅毒的人)n.江湖医生( quack的名词复数 )；江湖郎中；（鸭子的）呱呱声v.（鸭子）发出嘎嘎声( quack的第三人称单数 ) | |
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75
attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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76
exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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77
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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complement
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| n.补足物，船上的定员；补语；vt.补充，补足 | |
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79
chivalry
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| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
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80
illiberality
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| n.吝啬，小气 | |
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81
vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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82
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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retaliated
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| v.报复，反击( retaliate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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86
muse
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| n.缪斯（希腊神话中的女神），创作灵感 | |
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