The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1893-08-12
THBHRRoEs OF ROMANCE
they Are Seldom Taken from the
Middle OlassesL
strictiy Speaking, There Are But Tive
Normal Heroes Of Fiction, aud They
Are the Warrior and the
w,tr- uat,n.


II Is lsmentable, indeed, when You
come TO reflect on Il, how large pro.
portion Of useful and respectable call.
ings falls under the ban Of romance.
What poet or romancer ever nude his
first lover, for example, baliff or a
beadle9 Yet bailiifs and beadles are
men and brothers. They may do their
oftentimes dangerous duty with the
dash of a Rupert, or the cool courage
Of Cromwell, says Macmillan's Maya
zine, yet they are frankly impossible
as hepoes Of romance. De Quinoey
makes a remark somewhere to the ef-
feet that one would not be inclined to
think highly Of a man who, in the alb
senoe of predisposing circumstances,
deliberately and for the love Of the
business decided to be butcher Yet
butchers are husbands and fathers,
and have blood in their veins as well
as on their aprons. As matter Of
statistics, believe hardly a day passes
but some solicitor falls in love; vet no
court Of love or literature will give
him audience as a lover, nor take cog
nizance of his pleadings. The breast
Of the stockbroker is swayed by the
bears and bulls Of passion no less than
by the subtler influences of financial
speculation. Yet his name Is not hon
ored In the more than royal exchange
Of romance. Then, with one stroke Of
the pen, romance.rules out the whole
amorous mob of retail traders. They
are not altogether absent from the
pages of romance, these worthy citi.
zens. Only they have TO forego the
heroic parts and put up with being
supernumeraries or villains or comic
characters About the butcher | am
doubtful Not even Dickens, think,
found room for a butcher amid his
Babylon of trades. Nor with Shakes
peare is II any better. Ounce the car
penter, Snug the Joiner, Bottom the
weaver, Flute the bellows-mender,
Snout the tinker, and Starveling the
tailor, are very well to play the fool,
to divert the duke and ladies, but none
of them, not even Bottom translated,
is At object for lady's love. As the
democratic Whitman has complained,
In Shakespearean play the mass Of
Industrious citizens is just a mob to
throw up its sweaty night-caps In some
Ceesars honor at the bidding Of an An
tony. What is there about a trade
thus TO incapacitate man for ro-
manec2
Strictly speaking there are but two
normal heroes of romance, the warrior
and the fairy prince. II there is no
fairy prince at hand, an ordinary prince
will do. The English duke Is as the
American morahst rightly enough d.
vined, only modern variety of fairy
prince. To be mistaken for a fairy
prince the English duke no doubt needs
to be looked at from the other side of
the Atlantic. Seen at close quarters,
in the house of lords, on the race
course or in the law courts, he isept to
appear feshy But he has the essen.
tial attribute of ths fairy prince, which
is rarity. There are but two dozen or
30 Of him all told, and most of these
have been bespoken or used up. He
has besides, for the American girl, an
other of the essential secrets of ro-
manoe-he is exotic. II is the good
fortune and fascinating fashion Of the
fairy prince to descend always from
some unknown upper and diviner air.
That IL Is which makes the Prince
Charming of the fairy tale so irresisti-
BILE. So 1t was that Cupid came to
Psyche, to cherish her with his secret
and invisible godhead. So Perseus
floated on winged sandals through the
welcoming air to Andromeda's feet to
slay the monster. So Lohengrin came
flashing In q swan-drawn slsiff from
the mysterious halls of the Holy Grail,
to champion maiden Innocence against
treachery and slander. The fairy
prince, you see, commonly includes the
warriors part, and is doubly resistlesa
coming In the niok of time to fght q
distressed damsel's battles and to slay
her dragons You may depend upon IL
that what tells chiefly with the girls
against the eminently respectable race
OF bankers and brewers and doctora
and lawyers is their appalling common
ness, their frequency, mean, and fa-
miliarness. What should there be In
one brass plate out Of a dozen IN the
same street TO throw romantic girl
off her emotional balanceP When the
modern novelist would surmount the
professional high hat with the aureole
OF romance, he tricks out his tame hero
to mimic the traditional advantages
OF prince or champion.