Gryll Grange Part 28

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Why, sir, if it were a question whether the Romans had any such deity, I would unhesitatingly maintain the _negatur_. Where do you find her?

_Mr. Gryll._ In the first place, I find her in several dictionaries.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ A dictionary is nothing without an authority.

You have no authority but that of one or two very late writers, and two or three old grammarians, who had found the word and guessed at its meaning. You do not find her in any genuine cla.s.sic. A bald Venus! It is as manifest a contradiction in terms as hot ice, or black snow.

_Lord Curryfin._ Yet I have certainly read, though I cannot at this moment say where, that there was in Rome a temple to _Venus Calva_, and that it was so dedicated in consequence of one of two circ.u.mstances: the first being that through some divine anger the hair of the Roman women fell off, and that Ancus Martius set up a bald statue of his wife, which served as an expiation, for all the women recovered their hair, and the wors.h.i.+p of the Bald Venus was inst.i.tuted; the other being, that when Rome was taken by the Gauls, and when they had occupied the city, and were besieging the Capitol, the besieged having no materials to make bowstrings, the women cut off their hair for the purpose, and after the war a statue of the Bald Venus was raised in honour of the women.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ I have seen the last story transferred to the time of the younger Maximin.{1} But when two or three explanations, of which only one can possibly be true, are given of any real or supposed fact, we may safely conclude that all are false. These are ridiculous myths, founded on the misunderstanding of an obsolete word. Some hold that _Calva_, as applied to Venus, signifies pure; but I hold with others that it signifies alluring, with a sense of deceit. You will find the cognate verbs, calvo and calvor, active,{2}

1 Julius Capitolinus: Max. Jun. c. 7.

2 Est et Venus Calva ob hanc causam, quod c.u.m Galli Capitolium obsiderent, et deessent funes Romanis ad tormenta facienda, prima. Domitia crinem suum, post caeterae matron, imitatae earn, exsecuerun^, unde facta tormenta; et post bellum statua Veneri hoc nomine collocata est: licet alii Calvam Venerem quasi puram tradant: alii Calvam, quod corda calviat, id est, fallat atque eludat. Quidam dic.u.n.t, porrigine olim capillos cecidisse fominis, et Anc.u.m regem suae uxori statuam Calvam posuisse, quod const.i.tit piaculo; nam mox omnibus fominis capilli renati sunt: unde inst.i.tutum ut Calva Venus coleretur.

--Servius ad Aen. i.

pa.s.sive,{1} and deponent,{2} in Servius, Plautus, and Sall.u.s.t n.o.body pretends that the Greeks had a bald Venus. The _Venus Calva_ of the Romans was the _Aphrodite Dolie_ of the Greeks.{3} Beauty cannot co-exist with baldness; but it may and does co-exist with deceit.

Homer makes deceitful allurement an essential element in the girdle of Venus.{4} Sappho addresses her as craft-weaving Venus.{5} Why should I multiply examples, when poetry so abounds with complaints of deceitful love that I will be bound every one of this company could, without a moment's hesitation, find a quotation in point?--Miss Gryll, to begin with.

1 Contra ille _calvi_ ratus.--Sall.u.s.t: Hist. iii.

Thinking himself to be deceitfully allured.

2 Nam ubi domi sola sum, sopor ma.n.u.s calvitur.

--Plautus in Casina.

For when I am at home alone, sleep alluringly deceives my hands.

3 (Greek pa.s.sage)

4 (Greek pa.s.sage)

5 (Greek pa.s.sage)

_Miss Gryll._ Oh, doctor, with every one who has a memory for poetry, it must be _l'embarras de richesses_. We could occupy the time till midnight in going round and round on the subject. We should soon come to an end with instances of truth and constancy.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Not so soon, perhaps. If we were to go on acc.u.mulating examples, I think I could find you a Penelope for a Helen, a Fiordiligi for an Angelica, an Imogene for a Calista, a Sacripant for a Rinaldo, a Romeo for an Angelo, to nearly the end of the chapter.

I will not say quite, for I am afraid at the end of the catalogue the numbers of the unfaithful would predominate.

_Miss Ilex._ Do you think, doctor, you would find many examples of love that is one, and once for all; love never transferred from its first object to a second?

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Plato holds that such is the essence of love, and poetry and romance present it in many instances.

_Miss Ilex._ And the contrary in many more.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ If we look, indeed, into the realities of life, as they offer themselves to us in our own experience, in history, in biography, we shall find few instances of constancy to first love; but it would be possible to compile a volume of ill.u.s.trious examples of love which, though it may have previously ranged, is at last fixed in single, unchanging constancy. Even Inez de Castro was only the second love of Don Pedro of Portugal; yet what an instance is there of love enduring in the innermost heart, as if it had been engraved on marble.

_Miss Gryll._ What is that story, doctor? I know it but imperfectly.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Inez de Castro was the daughter, singularly beautiful and accomplished, of a Castilian n.o.bleman, attached to the court of Alphonso the Fourth of Portugal. When very young, she became the favourite and devoted friend of Constance, the wife of the young Prince Don Pedro. The princess died early, and the grief of Inez touched the heart of Pedro, who found no consolation but in her society. Thence grew love, which resulted in secret marriage. Pedro and Inez lived in seclusion at Coimbra, perfectly happy in each other, and in two children who were born to them, till three of Alphonso's courtiers, moved by I know not what demon of mischief--for I never could discover an adequate motive--induced the king to attempt the dissolution of the marriage, and failing in this, to authorise them to murder Inez during a brief absence of her husband. Pedro raised a rebellion, and desolated the estates of the a.s.sa.s.sins, who escaped, one into France, and two into Castile. Pedro laid down his arms on the entreaty of his mother, but would never again see his father, and lived with his two children in the strictest retirement in the scene of his ruined happiness. When Alphonso died, Pedro determined not to a.s.sume the crown till he had punished the a.s.sa.s.sins of his wife. The one who had taken refuge in France was dead; the others were given up by the King of Castile. They were put to death, their bodies were burned, and their ashes were scattered to the winds.

He then proceeded to the ceremony of his coronation. The mortal form of Inez, veiled and in royal robes, was enthroned by his side: he placed the queenly crown on her head, and commanded all present to do her homage. He raised in a monastery, side by side, two tombs of white marble, one for her, one for himself. He visited the spot daily, and remained inconsolable till he rejoined her in death. This is the true history, which has been sadly perverted by fiction.

_Miss Ilex._ There is, indeed, something grand in that long-enduring constancy: something terribly impressive in that veiled spectral image of robed and crowned majesty. You have given this, doctor, as an instance that the first love is not necessarily the strongest, and this, no doubt, is frequently true. Even Romeo had loved Rosalind before he saw Juliet. But love which can be so superseded is scarcely love. It is acquiescence in a semblance: acquiescence, which may pa.s.s for love through the entire s.p.a.ce of life, if the latent sympathy should never meet its perfect counterpart.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Which it very seldom does; but acquiescence in the semblance is rarely enduring, and hence there are few examples of lifelong constancy. But I hold with Plato that true love is single, indivisible, unalterable.

_Miss Ilex._ In this sense, then, true love is first love; for the love which endures to the end of life, though it may be the second in semblance, is the first in reality.

The next morning Lord Curryfin said to Miss Niphet. 'You took no part in the conversation of last evening. You gave no opinion on the singleness and permanence of love.'

_Miss Niphet._ I mistrust the experience of others, and I have none of my own.

_Lord Curryfin._ Your experience, when it comes, cannot but confirm the theory. The love which once dwells on you can never turn to another.

_Miss Niphet._. I do not know that I ought to wish to inspire such an attachment.

_Lord Curryfin._ Because you could not respond to it?

_Miss Niphet._. On the contrary; because I think it possible I might respond to it too well.

She paused a moment, and then, afraid of trusting herself to carry on the dialogue, she said: 'Come into the hall, and play at battledore and shuttlec.o.c.k.'

He obeyed the order: but in the exercise her every movement developed some new grace, that maintained at its highest degree the intensity of his pa.s.sionate admiration.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Her every movement developed some new grace 275-235]

CHAPTER x.x.x

A CAPTIVE KNIGHT--RICHARD AND ALICE

---dum fata, sinunt. jungamus am_ores: mox veniet tenebris Mors adoperta caput: jam subrepet incrs otas, nee amare deeebii, dicere nee ucuio blanditias capite.

Let us, while Fate allows, in love combine, Ere our last night its shade around us throw, Or Ages slow-creeping quench the fire divine, And tender words befit not locks of snow.

The shuttlec.o.c.k had been some time on the wing, struck to and fro with unerring aim, and to all appearances would never have touched the ground, if Lord Curryfin had not seen, or fancied he saw, symptoms of fatigue on the part of his fair antagonist. He therefore, instead of returning the shuttlec.o.c.k, struck it upward, caught it in his hand, and presented it to her, saying, 'I give in. The victory is yours.' She answered, 'The victory is yours, as it always is, in courtesy.'

She said this with a melancholy smile, more fascinating to him than the most radiant expression from another. She withdrew to the drawing-room, motioning to him not to follow.

In the drawing-room she found Miss Gryll, who appeared to be reading; at any rate, a book was open before her.

_Miss Gryll._ You did not see me just now, as I pa.s.sed through the hall.

You saw only two things: the shuttlec.o.c.k, and your partner in the game.

_Miss Niphet._. It is not possible to play, and see anything but the shuttlec.o.c.k.

_Miss Gryll._ And the hand that strikes it.

_Miss Niphet._. That comes unavoidably into sight.