Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-04-02
LOVERS IN FICTION.
kOOlNG SCENES PAINTED BY WELL
KNOWN NOvELiSTS.
torne Lovers Kneel and Some "Gambol
Like Tigers'-Making Love by Intimida-
ton In Feminine Fiction-Simple and
Poetic Scene In "John March,"

Like 11gers"-Making Love by 1ntimitla-
ton In Feminine Fiction-Simple and
Poetic Scene In "John March,"
The love scene occupies prominent
Place in fiction. and there are many which
are cited as proof Of their authors deli
cate skill. Literary fashions may wax
and wane, but the love story still remains
the prime favorite with the general.
So enslaved are we by the nursery tradi
ton that we feel we have been cheated
out OF something if the novel doas not end
with some version of the old fairy tale for
mula, so they were married ana lived
happy ever after" although WE have learn
ed by our own experience or that Of others
that matrimony is not always the gateway
t. Elysium.
Love scenes in fiction are of many
kinds. Howells once described some spar
rows in garden as ''squabbling like the
lovers in lady's novel; and it is fact
that the average feminine novelist makes
her turtledoves peck each other with great
frequency and vigor. They bicker and
pout, squabble and part forever several
times week until finally they kiss and
make friends as a prelude to matrimony
Often there are pair of light comedy
lovers to balance those whose passion as
sumes tragic cast
1t is our tradition to believe that the
greater ardor is felt by the man, but even
as Samantha, in those long gone days,
invoked the moon and twirled her brazen
wheel, chanting the while, my magic
wheel, draw home to me the man love"
there have always been women who wove
spells to lure toward them the tickle or
timid love. 1t has been said, "When he
who loves is dumb, she who is loved is
deaf, yet there are heroines of fiction
who go considerably more than half way
to win the hero from his naughty silence.
So we find it in the case OF Charlotte
Bronte's Shirley, who, in her proud, inn
perious way, lets the poor tutor sec
glimpse of her heart, as if feeling that
her beauty and fortune permit her to ex-
erciso the right of queen. The wild love
scenes beween Emily Bronte's Heathcliff
and Catherine are like the fierce gambol-
ings of u pair of tigers whose claws are
seldom sheathed even in play. In feminine
fiction the gentleman often pays his adj
dresses in manner that savors of intimi-
dation. He seems to fancy that he can
for himself and is usually successful in so
doing.
But this is not the ideal lovemaking.
We imagine that there should be tender
reverence on tho man part, for, as Thack-
cray says: Men serve women kneeling.
When they get on their feet, they walk
away" The lover who does not believe
his sweetheart an angel has want of
idcalism that will make marriage appear
to him very dull, sordid thing, lacking
chat rosy glow with which illusion irradi
atcs the commonplaces.
Tho walk of Ruth Pinch and John
Wostlocb in the Temple garden is usually
ranked among the famous love scenes of
fiction, and there is another garden cpl
sode-that between Give and Ethel New.
come-which is as sincere in sentiment
and touched by far finer literary art. II
is not always easy for novelist to present
to the mind the charming childishness CT
lovers without making them seem silly
and mawkish, but this Charles Reade in
Peg Wellington and Christie tombstone
has succeeded in doing. There arc pas
sages in the courtship of Victor Hugo's
Marius and Cosetto which have wonder
full grace and prettiness and likewise an
artlessress that does not always belong to
lovemaking in French fiction.
The figures of Tito and Romola, when
the dark and bright curls minglc in their
first embrace, stand out with a colorft;
picturesqucness against the rich back
ground of old romance which is wanting
in modern tales, but though more impress
i've, in certain sense, these old world
lovers are not more actual than Clym Yeo-
bright and Eustacia wye as they walk
hand in hand through tho furze and fcrsi
of Egdon heath. Still more vivid is tho
aurora lnilitaris which the sword play of
Sergeant Troy created about Bathshcba
Evertlcne, ending with that sudden kiss
which startled her rebel heart awake.
OF late years the river scene in "Rich-
ard Fcvoml' has often been mentioned as
an example of all that is idyllic, but any
writer who is stirred to emulation will
find it Il difficult model. 1t is so easy to
work ones self up into tho eiaculatory
mood. Given plenty of ink and paper,
there is no reason why one should not
continue indefinitely to reel off such SEN
fences as: Pipe, happy sheep boy, Love-
1rradiated angels, unfold your winds and
lift your voices. Pipe, happy love, pipe
on to these dear innocents."
A real idyl, not less simple than poetic,
is to be found in Cables John March,
The time is spring-the
tardy spring of the north-and the man
and maid are straying through the green
ing meadows and copses apart and each
one dreaming of the other IS nearness. The
girl hears afar the springtime cry of the
the quail, two clear glad notes of ma
lures voice, " and mimics it in memory of
her days Of childhood. The youth, who
had idly uttered the note, faneies himsele
answered by a bird, and so they go on
calling and recalling, following the sound
until they come face to face startled and
wondering, all their unconfessed love
shining in their eyes.-New Orleans
Times Democrat.
Tennyson at Home.