Pierre; or The Ambiguities Part 31

The very intelligent-looking man re-examined the page, and then slowly stroking his shaven chin, with a fork, made of his thumb for one tine, and his united four fingers for the other, said softly and whisperingly--"Anywheres in this country, sir?"

"Yes, in the country," said Pierre, evasively, and bridling his ire.

"But now show me to two chambers, will you; the one for myself and wife, I desire to have opening into another, a third one, never mind how small; but I must have a dressing-room."

"Dressing-room," repeated the man, in an ironically deliberative voice--"Dressing-room;--Hem!--You will have your luggage taken into the dressing-room, then, I suppose.--Oh, I forgot--your luggage aint come yet--ah, yes, yes, yes--luggage is coming to-morrow--Oh, yes, yes,--certainly--to-morrow--of course. By the way, sir; I dislike to seem at all uncivil, and I am sure you will not deem me so; but--"

"Well," said Pierre, mustering all his self-command for the coming impertinence.

"When stranger gentlemen come to this house without luggage, we think ourselves bound to ask them to pay their bills in advance, sir; that is all, sir."

"I shall stay here to-night and the whole of to-morrow, at any rate,"

rejoined Pierre, thankful that this was all; "how much will it be?" and he drew out his purse.

The man's eyes fastened with eagerness on the purse; he looked from it to the face of him who held it; then seemed half hesitating an instant; then brightening up, said, with sudden suavity--"Never mind, sir, never mind, sir; though rogues sometimes be gentlemanly; gentlemen that are gentlemen never go abroad without their diplomas. Their diplomas are their friends; and their only friends are their dollars; you have a purse-full of friends.--We have chambers, sir, that will exactly suit you, I think. Bring your ladies and I will show you up to them immediately." So saying, dropping his brush, the very intelligent-looking man lighted one lamp, and taking two unlighted ones in his other hand, led the way down the dusky lead-sheeted hall, Pierre following him with Isabel and Delly.

BOOK XVII.

YOUNG AMERICA IN LITERATURE.

I.

Among the various conflicting modes of writing history, there would seem to be two grand practical distinctions, under which all the rest must subordinately range. By the one mode, all contemporaneous circ.u.mstances, facts, and events must be set down contemporaneously; by the other, they are only to be set down as the general stream of the narrative shall dictate; for matters which are kindred in time, may be very irrelative in themselves. I elect neither of these; I am careless of either; both are well enough in their way; I write precisely as I please.

In the earlier chapters of this volume, it has somewhere been pa.s.singly intimated, that Pierre was not only a reader of the poets and other fine writers, but likewise--and what is a very different thing from the other--a thorough allegorical understander of them, a profound emotional sympathizer with them; in other words, Pierre himself possessed the poetic nature; in himself absolutely, though but latently and floatingly, possessed every whit of the imaginative wealth which he so admired, when by vast pains-takings, and all manner of unrecompensed agonies, systematized on the printed page. Not that as yet his young and immature soul had been accosted by the Wonderful Mutes, and through the vast halls of Silent Truth, had been ushered into the full, secret, eternally inviolable Sanhedrim, where the Poetic Magi discuss, in glorious gibberish, the Alpha and Omega of the Universe. But among the beautiful imaginings of the second and third degree of poets, he freely and comprehendingly ranged.

But it still remains to be said, that Pierre himself had written many a fugitive thing, which had brought him, not only vast credit and compliments from his more immediate acquaintances, but the less partial applauses of the always intelligent, and extremely discriminating public. In short, Pierre had frequently done that, which many other boys have done--published. Not in the imposing form of a book, but in the more modest and becoming way of occasional contributions to magazines and other polite periodicals. His magnificent and victorious _debut_ had been made in that delightful love-sonnet, ent.i.tled "The Tropical Summer." Not only the public had applauded his gemmed little sketches of thought and fancy, whether in poetry or prose; but the high and mighty Campbell clan of editors of all sorts had bestowed upon him those generous commendations, which, with one instantaneous glance, they had immediately perceived was his due. They spoke in high terms of his surprising command of language; they begged to express their wonder at his euphonious construction of sentences; they regarded with reverence the pervading symmetry of his general style. But transcending even this profound insight into the deep merits of Pierre, they looked infinitely beyond, and confessed their complete inability to restrain their unqualified admiration for the highly judicious smoothness and genteelness of the sentiments and fancies expressed. "This writer," said one,--in an ungovernable burst of admiring fury--"is characterized throughout by Perfect Taste." Another, after endorsingly quoting that sapient, suppressed maxim of Dr. Goldsmith's, which a.s.serts that whatever is new is false, went on to apply it to the excellent productions before him; concluding with this: "He has translated the unruffled gentleman from the drawing-room into the general levee of letters; he never permits himself to astonish; is never betrayed into any thing coa.r.s.e or new; as a.s.sured that whatever astonishes is vulgar, and whatever is new must be crude. Yes, it is the glory of this admirable young author, that vulgarity and vigor--two inseparable adjuncts--are equally removed from him."

A third, perorated a long and beautifully written review, by the bold and startling announcement--"This writer is unquestionably a highly respectable youth."

Nor had the editors of various moral and religious periodicals failed to render the tribute of their severer appreciation, and more enviable, because more chary applause. A renowned clerical and philological conductor of a weekly publication of this kind, whose surprising proficiency in the Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldaic, to which he had devoted by far the greater part of his life, peculiarly fitted him to p.r.o.nounce unerring judgment upon works of taste in the English, had unhesitatingly delivered himself thus:--"He is blameless in morals, and harmless throughout." Another, had unhesitatingly recommended his effusions to the family-circle. A third, had no reserve in saying, that the predominant end and aim of this author was evangelical piety.

A mind less naturally strong than Pierre's might well have been hurried into vast self-complacency, by such eulogy as this, especially as there could be no possible doubt, that the primitive verdict p.r.o.nounced by the editors was irreversible, except in the highly improbable event of the near approach of the Millennium, which might establish a different dynasty of taste, and possibly eject the editors. It is true, that in view of the general practical vagueness of these panegyrics, and the circ.u.mstance that, in essence, they were all somehow of the prudently indecisive sort; and, considering that they were panegyrics, and nothing but panegyrics, without any thing a.n.a.lytical about them; an elderly friend of a literary turn, had made bold to say to our hero--"Pierre, this is very high praise, I grant, and you are a surprisingly young author to receive it; but I do not see any criticisms as yet."

"Criticisms?" cried Pierre, in amazement; "why, sir, they are all criticisms! I am the idol of the critics!"

"Ah!" sighed the elderly friend, as if suddenly reminded that that was true after all--"Ah!" and went on with his inoffensive, non-committal cigar.

Nevertheless, thanks to the editors, such at last became the popular literary enthusiasm in behalf of Pierre, that two young men, recently abandoning the ign.o.ble pursuit of tailoring for the more honorable trade of the publisher (probably with an economical view of working up in books, the linen and cotton shreds of the cutter's counter, after having been subjected to the action of the paper-mill), had on the daintiest scolloped-edged paper, and in the neatest possible, and fine-needle-work hand, addressed him a letter, couched in the following terms; the general style of which letter will sufficiently evince that, though--thanks to the manufacturer--their linen and cotton shreds may have been very completely trans.m.u.ted into paper, yet the cutters themselves were not yet entirely out of the metamorphosing mill.

"Hon. Pierre Glendinning, "Revered Sir,

"The fine cut, the judicious fit of your productions fill us with amazement. The fabric is excellent--the finest broadcloth of genius. We have just started in business. Your pantaloons--productions, we mean--have never yet been collected.

They should be published in the Library form. The tailors--we mean the librarians, demand it. Your fame is now in its finest nap.

Now--before the gloss is off--now is the time for the library form.

We have recently received an invoice of Chamois---- Russia leather. The library form should be a durable form. We respectfully offer to dress your amazing productions in the library form. If you please, we will transmit you a sample of the cloth---- we mean a sample-page, with a pattern of the leather. We are ready to give you one tenth of the profits (less discount) for the privilege of arraying your wonderful productions in the library form:--you cashing the seamstresses'---- printer's and binder's bills on the day of publication. An answer at your earliest convenience will greatly oblige,--

"Sir, your most obsequious servants,

"WONDER & WEN."

"P. S.--We respectfully submit the enclosed block---- sheet, as some earnest of our intentions to do every thing in your behalf possible to any firm in the trade.

"N. B.--If the list does not comprise all your ill.u.s.trious wardrobe---- works, we mean----, we shall exceedingly regret it. We have hunted through all the drawers---- magazines.

"Sample of a coat---- t.i.tle for the works of Glendinning:

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF GLENDINNING,

AUTHOR OF _That world-famed production_, "_The Tropical Summer: a Sonnet._"

"_The Weather: a Thought._" "_Life: an Impromptu._" "_The late Reverend Mark Graceman: an Obituary._" "_Honor: a Stanza._" "_Beauty: an Acrostic._" "_Edgar: an Anagram._" "_The Pippin: a Paragraph._"

_&c. &c. &c. &c.

&c. &c. &c.

&c. &c.

&c._"

P

From a designer, Pierre had received the following:

"Sir: I approach you with unfeigned trepidation. For though you are young in age, you are old in fame and ability. I can not express to you my ardent admiration of your works; nor can I but deeply regret that the productions of such graphic descriptive power, should be unaccompanied by the humbler ill.u.s.trative labors of the designer.

My services in this line are entirely at your command. I need not say how proud I should be, if this hint, on my part, however presuming, should induce you to reply in terms upon which I could found the hope of honoring myself and my profession by a few designs for the works of the ill.u.s.trious Glendinning. But the cursory mention of your name here fills me with such swelling emotions, that I can say nothing more. I would only add, however, that not being at all connected with the Trade, my business situation unpleasantly forces me to make cash down on delivery of each design, the basis of all my professional arrangements. Your n.o.ble soul, however, would disdain to suppose, that this sordid necessity, in my merely business concerns, could ever impair----

"That profound private veneration and admiration With which I unmercenarily am, Great and good Glendinning, Yours most humbly, PETER PENCE."

II.

These were stirring letters. The Library Form! an Ill.u.s.trated Edition!

His whole heart swelled.

But unfortunately it occurred to Pierre, that as all his writings were not only fugitive, but if put together could not possibly fill more than a very small duodecimo; therefore the Library Edition seemed a little premature, perhaps; possibly, in a slight degree, preposterous. Then, as they were chiefly made up of little sonnets, brief meditative poems, and moral essays, the matter for the designer ran some small risk of being but meager. In his inexperience, he did not know that such was the great height of invention to which the designer's art had been carried, that certain gentlemen of that profession had gone to an eminent publishing-house with overtures for an ill.u.s.trated edition of "c.o.ke upon Lyttleton." Even the City Directory was beautifully ill.u.s.trated with exquisite engravings of bricks, tongs, and flat-irons.

Concerning the draught for the t.i.tle-page, it must be confessed, that on seeing the imposing enumeration of his t.i.tles--long and magnificent as those preceding the proclamations of some German Prince ("_Hereditary Lord of the back-yard of Crantz Jacobi; Undoubted Proprietor by Seizure of the bedstead of the late Widow Van Lorn; Heir Apparent to the Bankrupt Bakery of Fletz and Flitz; Residuary Legatee of the Confiscated Pin-Money of the Late Dowager Dunker; &c. &c. &c._") Pierre could not entirely repress a momentary feeling of elation. Yet did he also bow low under the weight of his own ponderosity, as the author of such a vast load of literature. It occasioned him some slight misgivings, however, when he considered, that already in his eighteenth year, his t.i.tle-page should so immensely surpa.s.s in voluminous statisticals the simple page, which in his father's edition prefixed the vast speculations of Plato.

Still, he comforted himself with the thought, that as he could not presume to interfere with the bill-stickers of the Gazelle Magazine, who every month covered the walls of the city with gigantic announcements of his name among the other contributors; so neither could he now--in the highly improbable event of closing with the offer of Messrs. Wonder and Wen--presume to interfere with the bill-sticking department of their business concern; for it was plain that they esteemed one's t.i.tle-page but another unwindowed wall, infinitely more available than most walls, since here was at least one spot in the city where no rival bill-stickers dared to encroach. Nevertheless, resolved as he was to let all such bill-sticking matters take care of themselves, he was sensible of some coy inclination toward that modest method of certain kid-gloved and dainty authors, who scorning the vulgarity of a sounding parade, contented themselves with simply subscribing their name to the t.i.tle-page; as confident, that that was sufficient guarantee to the notice of all true gentlemen of taste. It was for petty German princes to sound their prolonged t.i.tular flourishes. The Czar of Russia contented himself with putting the simple word "NICHOLAS" to his loftiest decrees.

This train of thought terminated at last in various considerations upon the subject of anonymousness in authorship. He regretted that he had not started his literary career under that mask. At present, it might be too late; already the whole universe knew him, and it was in vain at this late day to attempt to hood himself. But when he considered the essential dignity and propriety at all points, of the inviolably anonymous method, he could not but feel the sincerest sympathy for those unfortunate fellows, who, not only naturally averse to any sort of publicity, but progressively ashamed of their own successive productions--written chiefly for the merest cash--were yet cruelly coerced into sounding t.i.tle-pages by sundry baker's and butcher's bills, and other financial considerations; inasmuch as the placard of the t.i.tle-page indubitably must a.s.sist the publisher in his sales.

But perhaps the ruling, though not altogether conscious motive of Pierre in finally declining--as he did--the services of Messrs. Wonder and Wen, those eager applicants for the privilege of extending and solidifying his fame, arose from the idea that being at this time not very far advanced in years, the probability was, that his future productions might at least equal, if not surpa.s.s, in some small degree, those already given to the world. He resolved to wait for his literary canonization until he should at least have outgrown the soph.o.m.orean insinuation of the Law; which, with a singular affectation of benignity, p.r.o.nounced him an "infant." His modesty obscured from him the circ.u.mstance, that the greatest lettered celebrities of the time, had, by the divine power of genius, become full graduates in the University of Fame, while yet as legal minors forced to go to their mammas for pennies wherewith to keep them in peanuts.

Not seldom Pierre's social placidity was ruffled by polite entreaties from the young ladies that he would be pleased to grace their Alb.u.ms with some nice little song. We say that here his social placidity was ruffled; for the true charm of agreeable parlor society is, that there you lose your own sharp individuality and become delightfully merged in that soft social Pantheism, as it were, that rosy melting of all into one, ever prevailing in those drawing-rooms, which pacifically and deliciously belie their own name; inasmuch as there no one draws the sword of his own individuality, but all such ugly weapons are left--as of old--with your hat and cane in the hall. It was very awkward to decline the alb.u.ms; but somehow it was still worse, and peculiarly distasteful for Pierre to comply. With equal justice apparently, you might either have called this his weakness or his idiosyncrasy. He summoned all his suavity, and refused. And the refusal of Pierre--according to Miss Angelica Amabilia of Ambleside--was sweeter than the compliance of others. But then--prior to the proffer of her alb.u.m--in a copse at Ambleside, Pierre in a gallant whim had in the lady's own presence voluntarily carved Miss Angelica's initials upon the bark of a beautiful maple. But all young ladies are not Miss Angelicas.

Blandly denied in the parlor, they courted repulse in the study. In lovely envelopes they dispatched their alb.u.ms to Pierre, not omitting to drop a little attar-of-rose in the palm of the domestic who carried them. While now Pierre--pushed to the wall in his gallantry--shilly-shallied as to what he must do, the awaiting alb.u.ms multiplied upon him; and by-and-by monopolized an entire shelf in his chamber; so that while their combined ornate bindings fairly dazzled his eyes, their excessive redolence all but made him to faint, though indeed, in moderation, he was very partial to perfumes. So that of really chilly afternoons, he was still obliged to drop the upper sashes a few inches.

The simplest of all things it is to write in a lady's alb.u.m. But Cui Bono? Is there such a dearth of printed reading, that the monkish times must be revived, and ladies books be in ma.n.u.script? What could Pierre write of his own on Love or any thing else, that would surpa.s.s what divine Hafiz wrote so many long centuries ago? Was there not Anacreon too, and Catullus, and Ovid--all translated, and readily accessible? And then--bless all their souls!--had the dear creatures forgotten Tom Moore? But the handwriting, Pierre,--they want the sight of your hand.

Well, thought Pierre, actual feeling is better than transmitted sight, any day. I will give them the actual feeling of my hand, as much as they want. And lips are still better than hands. Let them send their sweet faces to me, and I will kiss _lipographs_ upon them forever and a day.