The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-11-17

hardened by gross cooking, it has lost all
power to discrimination to appreciate delicate
and subtle favors. 1t needs the broad farce
of Wardle or Weller before it will grin, and
indeed is ignorant that the keenest humor will
not provoke laughter at all, but rather de-
lighted sense of something perfect in allusion
and suggestion This high humor abounds in
all the novels which Charles Reade has written,
and is rather akin to Cervantes and Moliere
than to Charles Dickens.
1t may indeed be said that the mind of
Charles Reade always sees the humorous side
of every incident, and is sometimes even so
occupied with this side that it disturbs his
tragic powers, although they are also of the
very strongest as thousand passages which
will recur to his readers minds at once are
there to prove. AS for his not being cheer
full writer, know notwhether this is intended
as compliment or a reproach If to be
"cheerful" is to be full of loving kindness to
men and animals, to be hopeful of humanity
more hopeful than it warrants-and to incul-
cate faith, forbearance, mercy, and tolerance,
then is Charles Reade cheerful" and to be
more cheerful than this would argue, in a
grown man, either ignorance of the woes of
the world or insensibility to them.
In this article it is further asserted that he
has never depicted persons in the lower mid
dle-class of English life. 1t has always APP
peared to me that his characters invariably
belong to the middle-class: Dodd mer-
chant-skipper, and score of others, belong
to the lower middle-class; Hardy, the
banker, and Wizard, the squire, to the upper
middle-class; mechanics, farmers, clergy
men, doctors, lawyers, sailors, the whole of
the middle class in fact, constitute all his
dramatis persona. And here Iapproach what
has always seemed to me the greatest lacuna
in Charles Reade's works: as he never by any
chance draws q man of the world,
so does he never by any chance
draw a gentlewoman. The femme du
monde is to him an unknown creature. His
most charming women behave on occasions
like kitchen maids. Of all that is implied in
the old adage, noblesse obligue, he seems to
have no comprehension.
Take, for instance, Zoe Wizard, who is de-
scribed as Of good birth and breeding; she
speaks and acts like a barmaid giggles and
cries "La!" Julia Dodd (whose mother, we
are told, is of great culture and refnement)
does the same. So does Grace Garden; also
Helen in Foul Play" Christie tombstone and
Peg Wellington are admirable, because they
are quite true to their respective stations; but
when he draws what he calls lady (of which
odious word he is very fond) he fails entirely,
and her manners are those of a third-rate
school girl Even Katherine Gaunt, the best
Of his female characters, too often offends in
this vulgar fashion, and when she goes to
sleep on the same bed wit Mercy (Gaunt's 9TH
er Wife) becomes something more than Of
coarse FIBRE His only idea of woman is the
middle-class woman, and not the best speci-
men of that The woman of the people he
can draw Though he does not draw even her in
her nobler phases), but the gentlewoman he
cannot, or will not, or at all events does not;
and of the femme du monde he is utterly
ignorant
Of-the woman who is essentially of our time
woman of high culture, of artistic taste, of
profound knowledge of men and manners, of
delicate cynicism, of unconscious extravaganza,
who is always dams lie movement always diff
ficult to interest, often a little sad at heart
when most surrounded and most fattered,-
of this woman he has never had even the
faintest imagination. Nor has he had any
either of a less complete type, which, less Of
and in the world, is yet high bred, and, being
so, is incapable of the "bridling," the "gig-
Cling" the "palpitating" the "fuming, " and all
the various forms of effusion which he dis
tributes SO literally between all his heroines,
and which disfgure even so fine creature as
Ja6l D6nc6 III One OF the In6SG rOInanc6S, Put
Yourself in His Place"-a story so picturesque
and vigorous that it merited better title.
Indeed the crackjaw and interminable titles
which Charles Reade has often selected may
have had something to do with his failure in
obtaining the universal fame which he I'M
doubleday deserves. They do not remain on
the public ear, and do not do justice to the
work they name. Another cause for that
lack of universal popularity which the article
herein comment on egrets is probably to be
found in the habit Charles Reade has grown
into of using both hldeous and ludicrous
names for his characters and unusual and
ugly words (such as "IOlf' and "nape" to ex-
press the head and the back of the neck),
which lamentably disfgure his text They are
terms correct enough, no doubt; but they and
many similar ones constantly recur, and are
Earring and tiresome, and too often spoil his
finest passages. They showed napes" is his
expression in "A Woman-Hater" to signify
that two people turned their backs upon each
other in fit of temper.
In the language of passion also he is def
cient No English writer ever seems to know
it except Mr.. Swinburne and Mr.. Browning
The language and the feeling of art also are
absent from these works; into that enchanted
land Charles Reade seems never to have wan
dered Humanity, and not the highest hu-
mainly, seems alone to have power to attract
his interes It 1t may be said that he is the hap
piest i'll animated movement, in the recital of
perilous and heart-stirring incident There is
heroic grandeur in his treatment of these
themes, and one feels that he ought to have
been great and adventurous soldier, or singer
of war. lie is also, when he chooses, mas
ter of pathos, and has, perhaps, not given way
often enough to his instincts of Tenderness.
The scene in "Neyer Too Late to Mend, where
the exiles listen to the English lark, is unsur-
passable in exquisite beauty, in simple and
nat11ra1 faa1iDos hna11tif11Ilv rendered. This
union of grace and force is very rare in any
writer and it is, to my thinking, deeply to be
regretted that these rare powers are often
marred by the use of a Earring or an ignoble
word, such as I have alluded to, sadly break
ing the melody of his mellow and manly Eng
lish.
In conclusion, must lament that the article
here refer to goes out of it's path to attack
"Romola" Now, no one can see the defect of
"Romola" better than | can do, because it's
sole defect is that it is not in the very least
Italian. From the Florentine citizen who is
made to love mutton Ia meat abhorred by all
Tuscans) to Romola herself, who is a purely
northern character, and even Tito, who as
Greek or an Italian lover would never have
:roubl6d his head about Tessa after fort
night of her, the whole book is purely north
ern; ii has not breath of italian air in it.
But, setting this apart. "Romola" is a fine
work by reason of the intellectual power and
harmonious cohesion which were the especial
attributes of George Eliot; and the dragging
of SRomola" into an essay on Charles Reade is
so precisely specimen of one of the many
radical defects of English criticism, that |
must be allowed to condemn it. No French
critic would so err as to drag into review of
Alexandra Dumas a sneering censure OF work
of Octave Feuillet oFrench critic would say
in writing of Victorien Sardon that he did not
resemble Emile Gaborian, as this article says
Charles Reade does not resemble Anthony
Trollopel Why should he resemble Troll
lope? IF he be great author, he will resem-
bic no one of his contemporaries. And this,
indeed, is the power and charm of the creator
of @Christie tombstone" is entirely and
delightfully."- original; if he had not waited
those fifteen years or more between being
called to the bar and allowing himself to
write he might perhaps have been yet more
delightful and yet more original than he is.
Also, there can be no doubt that he would
have been finer artist in fiction had he con-
sidered and dealt with his work as work of
art alone, and not overweighted each with
some social question as cumbersome to lncor-
porate as it is ephemeral in interest
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Detroit Free Press.
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IL. nS