New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-04-19

4
out of her skim / saw at once had an ally IN his
wife NO. said he sapping down his coffee
cup on Heming and Condells dedication-nis pre-
| cous folio was open at that page-I won't spoil
! nv book for any oner Spoil your book? Why,
| YOU blockhead' shouted I, your precious DOCK
| is utterly spoiled already. 1t is cropped 1t Is
| incomplete, and can never be perfected unless
! YOU pay some 1900 or 1900 for the missing lear.
This was the substance Of what sald out
| clothed in the most guarded and courteous IAN
| guage."
| That last clause is eloquent. In this wise did
Locker terminate his adventure with the man
| who owned the missing leaf with the verses, ana
| so he terminated every adventure he ever mad
with 1.-THE most guarded and courteous language
But always there is left his quiet little hlns a'
| the things or the people that troubled MIN. "heh
| he saw that he could not get his Shakespeare
Folio he went up stairs to bed, and there was no
fire IN the CRATE but in It's stead powerful down
draft of icy air. mingled with smoke, ana through
tn. Ill joinery of the door there also came IN
zephvr that blew my boots off. striped drugget
partially concealed the brick floor The drawers
| of the only chest in the room were hiied WIN
/ curtains and their rings. and some more ia'oie"
| persons rament and rags. This IS the sor' VI
| treatment that self-respectng guest shouiu &c.
| sent = Why is this quoted? Simply because 1t
Is so like Locker All through the book one Is con-
| stantIv enioying the pathetically humorous way
| in which he speaks of the things trat dlspiease
| him His resentment was never very fierce now
aver There is. for instance, his comment on what
| had been said of him by dear friend. He tells
| II in a footnote Last year Alfred Tennysoh'
| sneaking of my personal appearance, said that
| Looked like a famished and avaricous Jew NOW
fram,r 10 this 7 confess have tried TO cultivate
thet fine old genlemanly vice, but entirely WIN
ont success I have never got beyond d '''''iu
and pitiful parsimony. II is only fair TO add 'ha'
he also said that in his portrait py Mii'a''' 40
| rendered by Barlow's print he himself was so'e
| thing between-'a prig and scarecro" Nv"
| that Is perfectly true" Does not there ecno
family and yet surely through TINS an aneo''o''
| ate almost endearing tone? That Is the 'o"e
| which is heard. in all Of Lockers Autobiography
20, nages He took life with unfailing sweetness
| Of temper and cared greatly for his frienas Inc
| latter were among the most distinguished men
| and women OF his time. and when 1t IS said .na'
| in a sentence or in phrase he someho" or'ns'
them into his pages 1t may be surmised no" III"
terestng he Is
He talks about the years In the neis"oo'
| ~ 1871 when Thackeray edited the old Corn
| humble" he says II strove as at this moment
| am striving. not to be obscure not to be nat
| and above all not to be tedious" And IT Ia OF
| this time that he says: During these years
met many distinguished people We used 10
stav at Frogmore with the Duchess OF Kent
She liked whist; she would play caro- ana
| take transitory nap and we were quite hapPy
to wait until she awoke and picked up the tricK'
which she did with dignity and very dei'is'
She was very kind. She used to pity me TOT
having to inhae the 'fogues 0ogs) OF LONDON
have a grateful remembrance or this exai'ed
and benevolent lady" In this entirely appre-
ciative even critical certainly fearless and yet
somehow tender vein he rambles on about every
one else whom he met. And whom DID ne NOT
meet? Within few lines OF the passage which
has Just been quoted he clludes TO those ""o''
he was ant to see. and did see. when he made
his yearly visit TO Lady Elgin. his mother-ih-
| law. in Paris They Iamar'ine. AIRY
| Scheffer, Victor Hugo. Ristorl. Jenny Lima
Prosper Mermee Tocquevllle Sainte-Beuve'
| Renan and as many others Of equal eminence
From Paris on the very next page. he passes
| to London but pauses In a footnoie to describe
! a visit to Paul de Kock. to whom he said tha'
| he believed his Holiness Pope Gregory and him
| self were his two most enthusiastic admirers
| If at that point. however. Locker returns 10
| London in order to note that he nrst maze the
| ACQUAINTANCE of the Brownings there. he goes
| back to Paris again 10 talk of Browning being
| at Lady Elgin's to read to her the poetry OF
| Keats The good fellow never read his own
| he savs 81 knew but little OF his wife, he runs
on "She died comparatively early. l never
| saw her in society. but at her own nreside she
struck me as very pleasing and exceedingly
r sympathetic. Her physique was pecular-curls
pnpdo Of rat
| poor little hands-so thin that when she We
| coined YOU she gave you something like the foot
I of a. young bird. The Hand that made her
! great had not made her fair" Following the
! utterly discu sive impulse which seems to have
| controlled the writing OF this whole volume
! Locker dismisscs Mrs Browning and her hus
| band only tc fit there could be no better world
to Rome; and yet II he fits. II there Ia some
| thing In his intellectual movement so light. so
| airy. that he recalls the butterfly muse who
| presides over his lyric volumes. he nevertheless
| preserves the pose. the finish OF one for whom.
as has been said above. noblesse oblige Is the
! only possible motto.
How charmingly he writes OF Rome! Il shall
| never again see Nemi. Palestrina or Castel
Fusano; but love the pleasant impresson-the
| ct ego in Arcadia Wiki. Changed as hear Rome
now is-the Papal Principally shrunk to Vatican
| and garden-I presume It still possesses its leap
ing fountains. its ruined temples and shattered
porticos with the weird desoation Of the Cam
pagna the scattered tombs. the stretch of Cauii-
an aqueduct, the baths OF Caracaa. thick with
lex and myrtle. the Coliseum. and the Basilica
of St Peter" Continuing ne says that Rome Ia
more to be remembered by It's Campagna than
it's cookery, by its women, than its wine," and
In the same breath he speaks Of those with whom
he there became Observation-Disclosures Fortuny
Overlook and w. w. Story (whose daughter he
SAYS Is referred to "in the last couplet Of my me-
diocre rhyme on Thackeray's admirable absurd
ity The Rose and the Ring: And you see