Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-06-15
MARRIAGE PROPOSALS.
The esUGeraI Methods Adopted by
Lovers I'm English Nove1s.
tFr0m the London Daily News.l


There is no subject in the whole range
of human affairs so interesting to work
ing majority of the race us the theory and
practice of proposals of marriage. Men
perhaps cease to be very much concerned
about the matter when they have been
through with it. But the topic never
loses its charm for the fair, though they
are presumed only to wait and to listen,
this theory has its exceptions appears to
be the conviction of many ovelists.
They not only make their young ladies'
"lead up to it" like damsel in play of
last season, but heroines occasionally go
much further than that, and do more
than prompt an inexperienced wooer.
But all these things are only known to
the world through the confessions of nov
elists, who perhaps themselves receive
confessions. NJ. Goncourt not long ago
requested oil his fair readers land we
hope he has not many to send him notes
of their own private experience. How
did you feel when you were confirmed?
How did Alphonsc whisper his passion
These and other questions quite rs init
mate were set by NJ. Goncourt. He
meant to use the answers, with all dis
Greet reserve, in his next novel. Do Eng
lish novelists receive any private informa-
ton, and if they do not, how are we to
reconcile their knowledge-they are all
love adepts-with the morality of their
lives? 1--WE live like other people, only
more purely" says the author of Some
Private Views, which is all very well.
No man is bound to incriminate himself
But us in the course of his career sue
cessful novelist describes many hundreds
of proposals, all different, are we to be-
lieve that he is prompted merely by i'm
agination? Are there no documents,
, as NJ. Zola says, for all this prodigious
deal of ve-making? These are ques-
tions which await n reply in the interests
of ethics and of art. Meanwhile Mr..
1 Abel has selected ve-and-thirty sepa.
rate examples of popping the question,
I as he calls It, from the tones of British
g fiction. Mr.. Hogg is the publisher of 6
: compilation which interests science TC
c begin with an early case, when Tom Jones
returned to his tolerant Sophia, he callet
her MADAM" and she called him 'Air
Jones' not Tom. She asked Thomas hov
: she could rely on his constancy. when th'
lover of Miss Segrim drew mirror from
&c his pocket Qike Strephon in "Iolanthe'')
u and cried, "Behold that lovely figure
3l 3l that shape, those eyes" with other com
:, pliments "can the man who shall be il
!; "a possession of these be inconstant ?" Sophi
80 was charmed by the imam in possession,
|. but forced her features into frown
Presently Thomas "caught her in hi
s. arms" and the rest was in accordanc
with what Mr.. Trollope and the best au
id thorities recommend. How differentl
IN did Pen mot the Colonel Pendennis" c
Il. an accurate contemporary, how different
ly did Arthur Pendennis carry himse
vc when he proposed to Laura and did nc
or want to be accepted Lord Farintosh-
k, his affecting adventure is published hel
II, proposed nicely enough, but did M
&C. behave ut all we'll when he was rejecte,
'rc BY the way, when young men in move
NJ are not accepted they invariably ask IL
,,ss lady whether she loves another. On
S, ct, some ladies', and young men whom til,
~, ~, have rejected, know whether this is cor
in. mon in real life. 1t does not seem qui
cit right.
Knecling has probably gone out, thoue
)rc Mr.. Jingle knelt before the maiden aun
and remained in that attitude no less thi
ds, five minutes In Mr. Howells's 'Model
lch Instance knceling was not necessary, ai
ny the gushing heroine kept thrusting Ii
face into her lovers necktie, SO the auth
Tells us. lneopnle tautler says til
ladies invariably lay their heads on Il
80 So shoulder of the man who proposes (if
n''- is the right NAM, and for this piece
=, "business' (as we regret to say he co
an ou' siders it) he assigns various motives. b
he was Frenchman, and the cynicis
of that nation Ito parody speech of Tc
the Jones's) cannot understand the delica
line of ours. Mr.. Blackmore Gn Lor
and Doone) let's his lover make quite nt
on. and appropriate speech, but that was
we the seventeenth century. When Arten
sser Word began harangue of this sort, b
ny sy Jane knocked him of the fence
'me which he was sitting, and, first critic
ant ing his eloquence in trenchant sty
ore, added, "If you mean being hitched,
,,i in it," In other respects the lover
:, rui9 Lorna Doone behaved as the best {
;,s thorities recommend. Mr.. Whyte NJ
.,ps vile ventured to describe Chastelar
proposal to Mary Stuart, but it was
the least in Mr.. Swinburne's mann
ina and, where such historical opinions d
HIM agiee, no reliance can be placed
at a speeches which were not taken down
,g u the intelligent reporters. Mr.. Slope
'ster his ears boxed when he proposed to NJ
Bold but such Amazonian conduct