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zanoni-第35部分

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five…and…forty; what; in all probability; may Clarence Glyndon

be?  Since you are ambitious I leave that question for you to

decide!  Now turn to the other picture。  Clarence Glyndon returns

to England with a wife who can bring him no money; unless he lets

her out on the stage; so handsome; that every one asks who she

is; and every one hears;the celebrated singer; Pisani。

Clarence Glyndon shuts himself up to grind colours and paint

pictures in the grand historical school; which nobody buys。

There is even a prejudice against him; as not having studied in

the Academy;as being an amateur。  Who is Mr。 Clarence Glyndon?

Oh; the celebrated Pisani's husband!  What else?  Oh; he exhibits

those large pictures!  Poor man! they have merit in their way;

but Teniers and Watteau are more convenient; and almost as cheap。

Clarence Glyndon; with an easy fortune while single; has a large

family which his fortune; unaided by marriage; can just rear up

to callings more plebeian than his own。  He retires into the

country; to save and to paint; he grows slovenly and

discontented; 'the world does not appreciate him;' he says; and

he runs away from the world。  At the age of forty…five what will

be Clarence Glyndon?  Your ambition shall decide that question

also!〃



〃If all men were as worldly as you;〃 said Glyndon; rising; 〃there

would never have been an artist or a poet!〃



〃Perhaps we should do just as well without them;〃 answered

Mervale。  〃Is it not time to think of dinner?  The mullets here

are remarkably fine!〃





CHAPTER 2。IX。



Wollt ihr hoch auf ihren Flugeln schweben;

Werft die Angst des Irdischen von euch!

Fliehet aus dem engen dumpfen Leben

In des Ideales Reich!

〃Das Ideal und das Leben。〃



Wouldst thou soar heavenward on its joyous wing?

Cast off the earthly burden of the Real;

High from this cramped and dungeoned being; spring

Into the realm of the Ideal。



As some injudicious master lowers and vitiates the taste of the

student by fixing his attention to what he falsely calls the

Natural; but which; in reality; is the Commonplace; and

understands not that beauty in art is created by what Raphael so

well describes;namely; THE IDEA OF BEAUTY IN THE PAINTER'S OWN

MIND; and that in every art; whether its plastic expression be

found in words or marble; colours or sounds; the servile

imitation of Nature is the work of journeymen and tyros;so in

conduct the man of the world vitiates and lowers the bold

enthusiasm of loftier natures by the perpetual reduction of

whatever is generous and trustful to all that is trite and

coarse。  A great German poet has well defined the distinction

between discretion and the larger wisdom。  In the last there is a

certain rashness which the first disdains;



〃The purblind see but the receding shore;

Not that to which the bold wave wafts them o'er。〃



Yet in this logic of the prudent and the worldly there is often a

reasoning unanswerable of its kind。



You must have a feeling;a faith in whatever is self…sacrificing

and divine; whether in religion or in art; in glory or in love;

or Common…sense will reason you out of the sacrifice; and a

syllogism will debase the Divine to an article in the market。



Every true critic in art; from Aristotle and Pliny; from

Winkelman and Vasari to Reynolds and Fuseli; has sought to

instruct the painter that Nature is not to be copied; but

EXALTED; that the loftiest order of art; selecting only the

loftiest combinations; is the perpetual struggle of Humanity to

approach the gods。  The great painter; as the great author;

embodies what is POSSIBLE to MAN; it is true; but what is not

COMMON to MANKIND。  There is truth in Hamlet; in Macbeth; and his

witches; in Desdemona; in Othello; in Prospero; and in Caliban;

there is truth in the cartoons of Raphael; there is truth in the

Apollo; the Antinous; and the Laocoon。  But you do not meet the

originals of the words; the cartoons; or the marble; in Oxford

Street or St。 James's。  All these; to return to Raphael; are the

creatures of the idea in the artist's mind。  This idea is not

inborn; it has come from an intense study。  But that study has

been of the ideal that can be raised from the positive and the

actual into grandeur and beauty。  The commonest model becomes

full of exquisite suggestions to him who has formed this idea; a

Venus of flesh and blood would be vulgarised by the imitation of

him who has not。



When asked where he got his models; Guido summoned a common

porter from his calling; and drew from a mean original a head of

surpassing beauty。  It resembled the porter; but idealised the

porter to the hero。  It was true; but it was not real。  There are

critics who will tell you that the Boor of Teniers is more true

to Nature than the Porter of Guido!  The commonplace public

scarcely understand the idealising principle; even in art; for

high art is an acquired taste。



But to come to my comparison。  Still less is the kindred

principle comprehended in conduct。  And the advice of worldly

prudence would as often deter from the risks of virtue as from

the punishments of vice; yet in conduct; as in art; there is an

idea of the great and beautiful; by which men should exalt the

hackneyed and the trite of life。  Now Glyndon felt the sober

prudence of Mervale's reasonings; he recoiled from the probable

picture placed before him; in his devotion to the one

master…talent he possessed; and the one master…passion that;

rightly directed; might purify his whole being as a strong wind

purifies the air。



But though he could not bring himself to decide in the teeth of

so rational a judgment; neither could he resolve at once to

abandon the pursuit of Viola。  Fearful of being influenced by

Zanoni's counsels and his own heart; he had for the last two days

shunned an interview with the young actress。  But after a night

following his last conversation with Zanoni; and that we have

just recorded with Mervale;a night coloured by dreams so

distinct as to seem prophetic; dreams that appeared so to shape

his future according to the hints of Zanoni that he could have

fancied Zanoni himself had sent them from the house of sleep to

haunt his pillow;he resolved once more to seek Viola; and

though without a definite or distinct object; he yielded himself

up to the impulse of his heart。





CHAPTER 2。X。



O sollecito dubbio e fredda tema

Che pensando l'accresci。

Tasso; Canzone vi。



(O anxious doubt and chilling fear that grows by thinking。)



She was seated outside her door;the young actress!  The sea

before her in that heavenly bay seemed literally to sleep in the

arms of the shore; while; to the right; not far off; rose the

dark and tangled crags to which the traveller of to…day is duly

brought to gaze on the tomb of Virgil; or compare with the cavern

of Posilipo the archway of Highgate Hill。  There were a few

fisherman loitering by the cliffs; on which their nets were hu
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