The Portland daily press., 1881-05-16
The English Fools.
A Summary of the Idiocy and the News
paper Treatment Of the Idiots.
Hartford Courant.l

Inefe are certain phases OF 1OOllSh sentiment
tality with which the writer, however skilled
iu sarcasm aud caricature, cannot adequately
cope. They require pictorial de'ineation. One
of these phases is the strange form of aesthetic
mania which has been prevalent in England
for some time. ard is breaking out here and
there in our own country. 1t is difficult to de-
scribe it without seeming to be extravaga mt,
for the nature of it is extravaganza, and when
its expressions ale reproduced in pictures or
language, they look like caricatures. 1t is full
of aspiration" 1t is severe and, above all,
''intense.'' 1t is full of ''soul" Ordinary lam
guage is inadequate for the utterance of its
emotion, and it finds expression in sighs, gasps,
wild ganccs, abrupt gestures agonizing atti-
tudes which are supposed to be "sculptur-
esque," and incoherent ordinations 1t de-
lights to dress women and adorn drawing
rooms with a combination of faded tints
splashed here and there with blotches of color
1t hangs hideous old plates on the wall, and
makes the fireplace flare with dreary parasols.
The dado is its delight. 1t affects very tight
and twirlng garments and frizzles the front
hair in a "frightfully fine' manner. 1t culti-
Yates an unhappy yearning expression of coun-
tenance, and indulges in the most astonishing
forms of ecstatic speech.
The votaries of this "kult'' are invariably
ltnguid and detected set. 1t is not good
form" to be cheerful. If some lean, long
haired young man walls forth an insne song
(rondel, he calls i) in gusty strain which ter
min ates in something like howl, solemn
visaged woman, appareled in what looks like Il
scauty lot of twisted gray toweling, fops limp
ly down on the divan, cenches her hands and
exclams that sit is star like"
This "kult' has a language of its own. Our
readers are familiar with its lawfully awful"
"utterly UTTER" and TOO too" One of its pet
adjectiveS is "consummate." No other word so
nearly expresses what may be called its
height of quictness!" These exclamations
are supposed to derive certain additional en-
phaSis by being uttered with the chin firmly
set in the cenched fist, or with both knees
tightly clasped with the outstretched arms
This wretched cultivation of hysteric self
consciousness, this hypercritical atfectation of
| deep emotion, has made its way not only into
| artistic circles, but into the realms of music,
| literature, and religion. 1t gets silly folks into
! imaginary ecStatics over pictures that are sim
ply hdeOus; over poems that are worse than
| the pictures; over music of the modern roman
| tic school that is an utter confusion of sounds
that makes it impossible to say whether the
| fiddlers are saving off right or wrong notes;
| excnsable and abominable trash.
Tbs Misses PrigSby clasp their bony knees
| while "song without words" is simply played,
and say "they never listen to Mendelssohn."
| But why not? because he has no false
| notes!" You can detect false note in the
| playing Of the music of Mozart as readily as a
| finger print on FURNISHED silver, but in Que of
the romantic symphonies of the "intense"
! school, mailman might be fddling away
meanwhile and nobody would suspect that it
| was not "cOnSummate,'
| In delineating this culture of the 'inteuse' -
| so that we conld see its unreality aud absurd.
! ity, Mr.. Du Maurier has done the world a
| great service. Our dear old hump-backed
| friend Punch has never given the public any,
| thing cleverer than the cartoons in which we
| make the acquaintance, and watch the per.
| formances, and listen to the language of Mrs
| Cimabue Brown, Mr.. Pilcox, Mr.. Jellaby Pos
| tlethwaite, Mr.. Maudle, Mr.. Prigsoy and 9TH
erS.
Jellaby Postlethwaite is the great poet who
| has written "SapphicS" sweet youth with
| flower-like eyes, willowy frame and an OK
| quisite, sad smile. Mr. Maudle is a fat, oily
| aesthetic Chadband who painted Mr.. and Mrs.
Cimabue Brown as "Abelard and Heloise."
| They think him "divine!" When Maudle
| speaks of poetry he says that sin the suprem-
| est poetry, Shakespeare's or Postlelhwaite's or
| even Shelley's" etc. When Postlethwaite
| speaks of art he says: "The consummate
painters, such as Velasquez, or Maudle, or even
| Titian,"' etc.
| Pllcox has painted Mrs. Cimabue Brown as
! reclining with all the grace OF faint ragbaby
sick of lilies, and trying to smell sunfower.
| He is modestly afraid it is one Of his failures.
| Mrs. Brown remarks that his failures remind
one of Angelo at his best; whereupon Pilcox
smiles and hopes sit is not quite so bad as
| that!
| Mr. Maudle crawls up to sensible English
| woman and gasps out with his fishy lips, GLOW
| consummately lovely your son is!'' She replies
| that he is manly fellow who has just left
| school and wishes to be an artist. Whereupon
Maudle gasps out "Why should he be any
| thing? Why not let him remain content to ex-
| ist beautfully?'
Postlethwaite now and then excites a little
| pity, as when he enters a restaurant, calls for
glass OF water, puts freshly cut lily into it,
| and that is his dinner. Poor Jellaby says he
| never battles, because he sees himself $50
| dreadfully foreshortened in the water
| Another exquisite bit of criticism is that car
toon of Maurer in which the aesthetic BRIDE
| groom brings home an old tea pot. 'It is quite
| consummate. is it not?" The ''in,ense" bride
gazes at it in speechless ecstasy, then raises her
| eyes to the "dado'' aud calculates, "It is in
| deed! But oh! Agernon, let us live up to
| it!'
| Mr. du Maurier has struck rich vein, and
| is working 1t with remarkable success. Let us
| pray that his efforts to reveal the emptiness
| and righteousness of this mania may not only
| afford the world great deal of amusement,
but effect wholesome re iction and reforma-
| ton,