The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-01-18


often go hand in hand, and many pure
woman has suffered from the venom and
the falsehoods that have sprung from The
tattle of the Gossip. / could fill column
or more with what the poets have writ
ten of Scandal. With the Bible and
Shakespeare in hand you can need moth
ing further in condemnation of Slander
and Scandal, and yet how full the great
authors are of these unkind, cruel indul-
gences Of evil tongues. / will cite some
of the many rebukes administered to ia
nous writer's. Of all the greatest poets
that very splendid, almost Incompatible
genius. Edmund Spenser, has written the
most brilliantly and fiercely of this great
evil-Scandal, or SANDER. He has de-
scribed the Slanderer in most excoriating
words that scarrfy and burn. He is so
rich and full here it is difficult to select:
Her face was ugly, and her mouth dis
tort
Forming with poyson round about her
In which her cursed tongue full sharpe
and short
Appear'd like asp's sting that closely
Or cruelty does wound whomso she
wills
Again quote from the great Spcnser:
'No wound. which warlike hand of
enemy
Inflicts with dint of sword, so sore
doth light,
AS doth the poysnous sting which in
fanny
Infixeth in the name of noble wight"
One more selection from him:
"A foul and loathy creature sure in
sibht
And in conditions to be loathd no Jesse,
neSSe
For she was stuffed with rancour and
despight
Up to the throat, that oft with bitter
ness
1t forth would breake and gush in great
eXcesse,
Pouring out streames of poyson and of
gall,
'Gainst all that truth and vertue do
pTOIeSSe.
l retain the spelling of the poet who
was before Shakespeare, and next to
him. with possible one exception. the
most splendidly endowed of all modern
poets.
Shakespeare has given the world many
striking passages sof of which are quoted
here. He wrote for instance:
"Whose edge is sharper than the sword;
whose tongue
Out-venoms all the worms of Nile;
whose breath
Rides on the posting winds
This vigorous SANDER enters the secrets
of the grave"
Hear the master again.
THE shrug, the hum or ha; these petty
brands,
That Calumny doth USE
For Calumny will scar
Virtue itself:-these shrugs, these huns,
and has,
When you have said, she goodly, come
between,
Ere you can say, she's honest
Once again:
"And so woman that hath name,
But falsehood and corruption doth it
shame"
Once more let the greatest poet of all
the world in all time be heard:
mo might nor greatness in mortality
Can Censure scapc; back-wounding
Calumny,
The whitest virtue strikes: What King
so strong
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous
tongue?''
1 could quote on for a full column from
the poets. come to later poet and a
great poet-Lord Byron:
1.-THE world, as usual, wickedly inclined
To see a kingdom or house oerturned."
Listen:
Kilrd by a truth to deepen Scandals
tints,
With all the kind mendacity of hints,
While mingling truth with falsehood.
sneers with smiles,
thread of candor with a web of wiles,
plain blunt show of briefly-sp
seeming,
To hide her bloodless hearts southland
ened scheming,
A lip of lies, a face form'd to conceal
And without feeling, mock at all who
feel;
With vile mask the Gorgon would dis
own.
A check of parchment, and an eye of
stone"
And still one more:
THAT abominable tittle-tattle.
The cGd eachew'd by human cattle"
From Confucius to the present time
prose writer's have written of SANDER and
Scandal--Socrates, Ben Jonson, Bishop
Hall. Larne. Jerrold, Addison, Cicero.
DIR. johnson, Joubert, ST. Bernard, Field
ing, William Penn, Leighton, Helps
Swift OuarleS Laurin. BrtlVere, F,Dic-