A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Part 7

There was n.o.body in the box I was let into but a kindly old French officer. I love the character, not only because I honour the man whose manners are softened by a profession which makes bad men worse; but that I once knew one,--for he is no more,--and why should I not rescue one page from violation by writing his name in it, and telling the world it was Captain Tobias Shandy, the dearest of my flock and friends, whose philanthropy I never think of at this long distance from his death--but my eyes gush out with tears.

For his sake I have a predilection for the whole corps of veterans; and so I strode over the two back rows of benches and placed myself beside him.

The old officer was reading attentively a small pamphlet, it might be the book of the opera, with a large pair of spectacles. As soon as I sat down, he took his spectacles off, and putting them into a s.h.a.green case, return'd them and the book into his pocket together.

I half rose up, and made him a bow.

Translate this into any civilized language in the world--the sense is this:

"Here's a poor stranger come into the box--he seems as if he knew n.o.body; and is never likely, was he to be seven years in Paris, if every man he comes near keeps his spectacles upon his nose: --'tis shutting the door of conversation absolutely in his face--and using him worse than a German."

The French officer might as well have said it all aloud: and if he had, I should in course have put the bow I made him into French too, and told him, "I was sensible of his attention, and return'd him a thousand thanks for it."

There is not a secret so aiding to the progress of sociality, as to get master of this SHORT HAND, and to be quick in rendering the several turns of looks and limbs with all their inflections and delineations, into plain words. For my own part, by long habitude, I do it so mechanically, that, when I walk the streets of London, I go translating all the way; and have more than once stood behind in the circle, where not three words have been said, and have brought off twenty different dialogues with me, which I could have fairly wrote down and sworn to.

I was going one evening to Martini's concert at Milan, and, was just entering the door of the hall, when the Marquisina di F- was coming out in a sort of a hurry: --she was almost upon me before I saw her; so I gave a spring to once side to let her pa.s.s.--She had done the same, and on the same side too; so we ran our heads together: she instantly got to the other side to get out: I was just as unfortunate as she had been, for I had sprung to that side, and opposed her pa.s.sage again.--We both flew together to the other side, and then back,--and so on: --it was ridiculous: we both blush'd intolerably: so I did at last the thing I should have done at first;--I stood stock-still, and the Marquisina had no more difficulty. I had no power to go into the room, till I had made her so much reparation as to wait and follow her with my eye to the end of the pa.s.sage. She look'd back twice, and walk'd along it rather sideways, as if she would make room for any one coming up stairs to pa.s.s her.--No, said I--that's a vile translation: the Marquisina has a right to the best apology I can make her, and that opening is left for me to do it in;--so I ran and begg'd pardon for the embarra.s.sment I had given her, saying it was my intention to have made her way. She answered, she was guided by the same intention towards me;--so we reciprocally thank'd each other. She was at the top of the stairs; and seeing no cicisbeo near her, I begg'd to hand her to her coach;--so we went down the stairs, stopping at every third step to talk of the concert and the adventure.--Upon my word, Madame, said I, when I had handed her in, I made six different efforts to let you go out.--And I made six efforts, replied she, to let you enter.--I wish to heaven you would make a seventh, said I.--With all my heart, said she, making room.- -Life is too short to be long about the forms of it,--so I instantly stepp'd in, and she carried me home with her.--And what became of the concert, St. Cecilia, who I suppose was at it, knows more than I.

I will only add, that the connexion which arose out of the translation gave me more pleasure than any one I had the honour to make in Italy.

THE DWARF. PARIS.

I had never heard the remark made by any one in my life, except by one; and who that was will probably come out in this chapter; so that being pretty much unprepossessed, there must have been grounds for what struck me the moment I cast my eyes over the parterre,-- and that was, the unaccountable sport of Nature in forming such numbers of dwarfs.--No doubt she sports at certain times in almost every corner of the world; but in Paris there is no end to her amus.e.m.e.nts.--The G.o.ddess seems almost as merry as she is wise.

As I carried my idea out of the Opera Comique with me, I measured every body I saw walking in the streets by it.--Melancholy application! especially where the size was extremely little,--the face extremely dark,--the eyes quick,--the nose long,--the teeth white,--the jaw prominent,--to see so many miserables, by force of accidents driven out of their own proper cla.s.s into the very verge of another, which it gives me pain to write down: --every third man a pigmy!--some by rickety heads and hump backs;--others by bandy legs;--a third set arrested by the hand of Nature in the sixth and seventh years of their growth;--a fourth, in their perfect and natural state like dwarf apple trees; from the first rudiments and stamina of their existence, never meant to grow higher.

A Medical Traveller might say, 'tis owing to undue bandages;--a Splenetic one, to want of air;--and an Inquisitive Traveller, to fortify the system, may measure the height of their houses,--the narrowness of their streets, and in how few feet square in the sixth and seventh stories such numbers of the bourgeoisie eat and sleep together; but I remember Mr. Shandy the elder, who accounted for nothing like any body else, in speaking one evening of these matters, averred that children, like other animals, might be increased almost to any size, provided they came right into the world; but the misery was, the citizens of were Paris so coop'd up, that they had not actually room enough to get them.--I do not call it getting anything, said he;--'tis getting nothing.--Nay, continued he, rising in his argument, 'tis getting worse than nothing, when all you have got after twenty or five and twenty years of the tenderest care and most nutritious aliment bestowed upon it, shall not at last be as high as my leg. Now, Mr. Shandy being very short, there could be nothing more said of it.

As this is not a work of reasoning, I leave the solution as I found it, and content myself with the truth only of the remark, which is verified in every lane and by-lane of Paris. I was walking down that which leads from the Carousal to the Palais Royal, and observing a little boy in some distress at the side of the gutter which ran down the middle of it, I took hold of his hand and help'd him over. Upon turning up his face to look at him after, I perceived he was about forty.--Never mind, said I, some good body will do as much for me when I am ninety.

I feel some little principles within me which incline me to be merciful towards this poor blighted part of my species, who have neither size nor strength to get on in the world.--I cannot bear to see one of them trod upon; and had scarce got seated beside my old French officer, ere the disgust was exercised, by seeing the very thing happen under the box we sat in.

At the end of the orchestra, and betwixt that and the first side box, there is a small esplanade left, where, when the house is full, numbers of all ranks take sanctuary. Though you stand, as in the parterre, you pay the same price as in the orchestra. A poor defenceless being of this order had got thrust somehow or other into this luckless place;--the night was hot, and he was surrounded by beings two feet and a half higher than himself. The dwarf suffered inexpressibly on all sides; but the thing which incommoded him most, was a tall corpulent German, near seven feet high, who stood directly betwixt him and all possibility of his seeing either the stage or the actors. The poor dwarf did all he could to get a peep at what was going forwards, by seeking for some little opening betwixt the German's arm and his body, trying first on one side, then the other; but the German stood square in the most unaccommodating posture that can be imagined: --the dwarf might as well have been placed at the bottom of the deepest draw-well in Paris; so he civilly reached up his hand to the German's sleeve, and told him his distress.--The German turn'd his head back, looked down upon him as Goliah did upon David,--and unfeelingly resumed his posture.

I was just then taking a pinch of snuff out of my monk's little horn box.--And how would thy meek and courteous spirit, my dear monk! so temper'd to BEAR AND FORBEAR!--how sweetly would it have lent an ear to this poor soul's complaint!

The old French officer, seeing me lift up my eyes with an emotion, as I made the apostrophe, took the liberty to ask me what was the matter?--I told him the story in three words; and added, how inhuman it was.

By this time the dwarf was driven to extremes, and in his first transports, which are generally unreasonable, had told the German he would cut off his long queue with his knife.--The German look'd back coolly, and told him he was welcome, if he could reach it.

An injury sharpen'd by an insult, be it to whom it will, makes every man of sentiment a party: I could have leap'd out of the box to have redressed it.--The old French officer did it with much less confusion; for leaning a little over, and nodding to a sentinel, and pointing at the same time with his finger at the distress,--the sentinel made his way to it.--There was no occasion to tell the grievance,--the thing told himself; so thrusting back the German instantly with his musket,--he took the poor dwarf by the hand, and placed him before him.--This is n.o.ble! said I, clapping my hands together.--And yet you would not permit this, said the old officer, in England.

- In England, dear Sir, said I, WE SIT ALL AT OUR EASE.

The old French officer would have set me at unity with myself, in case I had been at variance,--by saying it was a bon mot;--and, as a bon mot is always worth something at Paris, he offered me a pinch of snuff.

THE ROSE. PARIS.

It was now my turn to ask the old French officer "What was the matter?" for a cry of "Haussez les mains, Monsieur l'Abbe!" re- echoed from a dozen different parts of the parterre, was as unintelligible to me, as my apostrophe to the monk had been to him.

He told me it was some poor Abbe in one of the upper loges, who, he supposed, had got planted perdu behind a couple of grisettes in order to see the opera, and that the parterre espying him, were insisting upon his holding up both his hands during the representation.--And can it be supposed, said I, that an ecclesiastic would pick the grisettes' pockets? The old French officer smiled, and whispering in my ear, opened a door of knowledge which I had no idea of.

Good G.o.d! said I, turning pale with astonishment--is it possible, that a people so smit with sentiment should at the same time be so unclean, and so unlike themselves,--Quelle grossierte! added I.

The French officer told me, it was an illiberal sarcasm at the church, which had begun in the theatre about the time the Tartuffe was given in it by Moliere: but like other remains of Gothic manners, was declining.--Every nation, continued he, have their refinements and grossiertes, in which they take the lead, and lose it of one another by turns: --that he had been in most countries, but never in one where he found not some delicacies, which others seemed to want. Le POUR et le CONTRE se trouvent en chaque nation; there is a balance, said he, of good and bad everywhere; and nothing but the knowing it is so, can emanc.i.p.ate one half of the world from the prepossession which it holds against the other: -- that the advantage of travel, as it regarded the scavoir vivre, was by seeing a great deal both of men and manners; it taught us mutual toleration; and mutual toleration, concluded he, making me a bow, taught us mutual love.

The old French officer delivered this with an air of such candour and good sense, as coincided with my first favourable impressions of his character: --I thought I loved the man; but I fear I mistook the object;--'twas my own way of thinking--the difference was, I could not have expressed it half so well.

It is alike troublesome to both the rider and his beast,--if the latter goes p.r.i.c.king up his ears, and starting all the way at every object which he never saw before.--I have as little torment of this kind as any creature alive; and yet I honestly confess, that many a thing gave me pain, and that I blush'd at many a word the first month,--which I found inconsequent and perfectly innocent the second.

Madame do Rambouliet, after an acquaintance of about six weeks with her, had done me the honour to take me in her coach about two leagues out of town.--Of all women, Madame de Rambouliet is the most correct; and I never wish to see one of more virtues and purity of heart.--In our return back, Madame de Rambouliet desired me to pull the cord.--I asked her if she wanted anything--Rien que pour p.i.s.ser, said Madame de Rambouliet.

Grieve not, gentle traveller, to let Madame de Rambouliet p-ss on.- -And, ye fair mystic nymphs! go each one PLUCK YOUR ROSE, and scatter them in your path,--for Madame de Rambouliet did no more.-- I handed Madame de Rambouliet out of the coach; and had I been the priest of the chaste Castalia, I could not have served at her fountain with a more respectful decorum.

THE FILLE DE CHAMBRE. PARIS.

What the old French officer had delivered upon travelling, bringing Polonius's advice to his son upon the same subject into my head,-- and that bringing in Hamlet, and Hamlet the rest of Shakespeare's works, I stopp'd at the Quai de Conti in my return home, to purchase the whole set.

The bookseller said he had not a set in the world. Comment! said I, taking one up out of a set which lay upon the counter betwixt us.--He said they were sent him only to be got bound, and were to be sent back to Versailles in the morning to the Count de B-.

- And does the Count de B-, said I, read Shakespeare? C'est un esprit fort, replied the bookseller.--He loves English books! and what is more to his honour, Monsieur, he loves the English too.

You speak this so civilly, said I, that it is enough to oblige an Englishman to lay out a louis d'or or two at your shop.--The bookseller made a bow, and was going to say something, when a young decent girl about twenty, who by her air and dress seemed to be fille de chambre to some devout woman of fashion, come into the shop and asked for Les Egarements du Coeur et de l'Esprit: the bookseller gave her the book directly; she pulled out a little green satin purse run round with a riband of the same colour, and putting her finger and thumb into it, she took out the money and paid for it. As I had nothing more to stay me in the shop, we both walk'd out at the door together.

- And what have you to do, my dear, said I, with The Wanderings of the Heart, who scarce know yet you have one? nor, till love has first told you it, or some faithless shepherd has made it ache, canst thou ever be sure it is so.--Le Dieu m'en garde! said the girl.--With reason, said I, for if it is a good one, 'tis pity it should be stolen; 'tis a little treasure to thee, and gives a better air to your face, than if it was dress'd out with pearls.

The young girl listened with a submissive attention, holding her satin purse by its riband in her hand all the time.--'Tis a very small one, said I, taking hold of the bottom of it--she held it towards me--and there is very little in it, my dear, said I; but be but as good as thou art handsome, and heaven will fill it. I had a parcel of crowns in my hand to pay for Shakespeare; and, as she had let go the purse entirely, I put a single one in; and, tying up the riband in a bow-knot, returned it to her.

The young girl made me more a humble courtesy than a low one: -- 'twas one of those quiet, thankful sinkings, where the spirit bows itself down,--the body does no more than tell it. I never gave a girl a crown in my life which gave me half the pleasure.

My advice, my dear, would not have been worth a pin to you, said I, if I had not given this along with it: but now, when you see the crown, you'll remember it;--so don't, my dear, lay it out in ribands.

Upon my word, Sir, said the girl, earnestly, I am incapable;--in saying which, as is usual in little bargains of honour, she gave me her hand: --En verite, Monsieur, je mettrai cet argent apart, said she.

When a virtuous convention is made betwixt man and woman, it sanctifies their most private walks: so, notwithstanding it was dusky, yet as both our roads lay the same way, we made no scruple of walking along the Quai de Conti together.

She made me a second courtesy in setting off, and before we got twenty yards from the door, as if she had not done enough before, she made a sort of a little stop to tell me again--she thank'd me.

It was a small tribute, I told her, which I could not avoid paying to virtue, and would not be mistaken in the person I had been rendering it to for the world;--but I see innocence, my dear, in your face,--and foul befall the man who ever lays a snare in its way!

The girl seem'd affected some way or other with what I said;--she gave a low sigh: --I found I was not empowered to enquire at all after it,--so said nothing more till I got to the corner of the Rue de Nevers, where, we were to part.

- But is this the way, my dear, said I, to the Hotel de Modene?

She told me it was;--or that I might go by the Rue de Gueneguault, which was the next turn.--Then I'll go, my dear, by the Rue de Gueneguault, said I, for two reasons; first, I shall please myself, and next, I shall give you the protection of my company as far on your way as I can. The girl was sensible I was civil--and said, she wished the Hotel de Modene was in the Rue de St. Pierre.--You live there? said I.--She told me she was fille de chambre to Madame R-.--Good G.o.d! said I, 'tis the very lady for whom I have brought a letter from Amiens.--The girl told me that Madame R-, she believed, expected a stranger with a letter, and was impatient to see him: -- so I desired the girl to present my compliments to Madame R-, and say, I would certainly wait upon her in the morning.

We stood still at the corner of the Rue de Nevers whilst this pa.s.s'd.--We then stopped a moment whilst she disposed of her Egarements du Coeur &c. more commodiously than carrying them in her hand--they were two volumes: so I held the second for her whilst she put the first into her pocket; and then she held her pocket, and I put in the other after it.