The Vagabond in Literature Part 7

"'You talk like a Gorgio-which is the same as talking like a fool-were you a Romany chal you would talk wiser. Wish to die indeed! A Romany chal would wish to live for ever.'

"'In sickness, Jasper?'

"'There's the sun and stars, brother.'

"'In blindness, Jasper?'

"'There's the wind on the heath, brother; if I could only feel that, I would gladly live for ever. Dosta, we'll now go to the tents and put on the gloves; and I'll try to make you feel what a sweet thing it is to be alive.'"

Then again there is the inimitable ostler in _The Romany Rye_, whose talk exhales what Borrow would call "the wholesome smell of the stable." His wonderful harangues (Borrovized to a less extent than usual) have all the fine, breathless garrulity of this breed of man, and his unique discourse on "how to manage a horse on a journey" occupies a delightful chapter.

Here are the opening sentences:-

"'When you are a gentleman,' said he, 'should you ever wish to take a journey on a horse of your own, and you could not have a much better than the one you have here eating its fill in the box yonder-I wonder, by the by, how you ever came by it-you can't do better than follow the advice I am about to give you, both with respect to your animal and yourself. Before you start, merely give your horse a couple of handfuls of corn and a little water, somewhat under a quart, and if you drink a pint of water yourself out of the pail, you will feel all the better during the whole day; then you may walk and trot your animal for about ten miles, till you come to some nice inn, where you may get down, and see your horse led into a nice stall, telling him not to feed him till you come. If the ostler happens to be a dog-fancier, and has an English terrier dog like that of mine there, say what a nice dog it is, and praise its black and fawn; and if he does not happen to be a dog-fancier, ask him how he's getting on, and whether he ever knew worse times; that kind of thing will please the ostler, and he will let you do just what you please with your own horse, and when your back is turned he'll say to his comrades what a nice gentleman you are, and how he thinks he has seen you before; then go and sit down to breakfast, get up and go and give your horse a feed of corn; chat with the ostler two or three minutes till your horse has taken the s.h.i.+ne out of his oats, which will prevent the ostler taking any of it away when your back is turned, for such things are sometimes done-not that I ever did such a thing myself when I was at the inn at Hounslow; oh, dear me, no! Then go and finish your breakfast.'"

IV

It is interesting to compare Borrow's studies in unvarnished human nature with the characterizations of novelists like Mr. Thomas Hardy. Both Borrow and Hardy are drawn especially to rough primal characters, characters not "screened by conventions." As Mr. Hardy puts it in an essay contributed to the _Forum_ in 1888.

"The conduct of the upper cla.s.ses is screened by conventions, and thus the real character is not easily seen; if it is seen it must be pourtrayed subjectively, whereas in the lower walks conduct is a direct expression of the inner life, and their characters can be directly pourtrayed through the act."

Mr. Hardy's rustics differ from Borrow's rustics, however, in the method of presentment. Mr. Hardy is always the sympathetic, amused observer.

The reader of that delicious pastoral "Under the Greenwood Tree" feels that he is listening to a man who is recounting something he has overheard. The account is finely sympathetic, but there is an unmistakable note of philosophic detachment. The story-teller has enjoyed his company, but is obviously not of them. That is why he will gossip to you with such relish of humour. Borrow, on the other hand, speaks as one of them. He is far less amused by his garrulous ostlers and whimsical landlords than profoundly interested in them. Then again, though the Vagabond type appeals to Mr. Hardy, it appeals to him not because of any temperamental affinity, but because he happens to be a curious, wistful spectator of human life. He sees in the restless Vagabond an extreme example of the capricious sport of fate, but while his heart goes out to him his mind stands aloof.

Looking at their characterization from the literary point of view, it is evident that Mr. Hardy is the greater realist. He would give you _an_ ostler, whereas Borrow gives you _the_ ostler. Borrow knows his man thoroughly, but he will not trouble about little touches of individualization. We see the ostler vividly-we do not see the man-save on the ostler side. With Hardy we should see other aspects beside the ostler aspect of the man.

A novelist with whom Borrow has greater affinity is Charles Reade. There is the same quick, observant, unphilosophical spirit; the same preference for plain, simple folk, the same love of health and virility. And in _The Cloister and the Hearth_, one of the great romances of the world, one feels touches of the same Vagabond spirit as animates _Lavengro_ and _The Romany Rye_. The incomparable Denys, with his favourite cry, "Le diable est mort," is a splendid study in genial vagrancy.

Literary comparisons, though they discover affinities, but serve to emphasize in the long run the distinctive originality of Borrow's writings.

He has himself admitted to the influence of Defoe and Lesage. But though his manner recalls at times the manner of Defoe, and though the form of his narrative reminds the reader of the Spanish rogue story, the psychological atmosphere is vastly different. He may have taken Defoe as his model just as Thackeray took Fielding; but _Vanity Fair_ is not more unlike _Tom Jones_ than is _Lavengro_ unlike _Robinson Crusoe_.

It is idle to seek for the literary parentage of this Vagabond. Better far to accept him as he is, a wanderer, a rover, a curious taster of life, at once a mystic and a realist. He may have qualities that repel; but so full is he of contradictions that no sooner has the frown settled on the brow than it gives place to a smile. We may not always like him; never can we ignore him. Provocative, unsatisfying, fascinating-such is George Borrow. And most fascinating of all is his love of night, day, sun, moon, and stars, "all sweet things." Cribbed in the close and dusty purlieus of the city, wearied by the mechanical monotony of the latest fas.h.i.+onable novel, we respond gladly to the s.p.a.cious freshness of _Lavengro_ and _The Romany Rye_. Herein lies the spell of Borrow; for in his company there is always "a wind on the heath."

IV HENRY D. Th.o.r.eAU

"Enter these enchanted woods You who dare."

GEORGE MEREDITH.

I

Th.o.r.eau has suffered badly at the hands of the critics. By some he has been regarded as a poser, and the Walden episode has been spoken of as a mere theatrical trick. By others he has been derided as a cold-blooded hermit, who fled from civilization and the intercourse of his fellows.

Even Mr. Watts-Dunton, the eloquent friend of the Children of the Open Air, quite recently in his introduction to an edition of _Walden_ has impugned his sincerity, and leaves the impression that Th.o.r.eau was an uncomfortable kind of egotist. He has not lacked friends, but his friends have not always written discreetly about him, thus giving the enemy opportunity to blaspheme. And while not unmindful of Mr. H. S.

Salt's sympathetic biography, nor the admirable monograph by Mr. "H. A.

Page," there is no denying the fact that the trend of modern criticism has been against him. The sarcastic comments of J. R. Lowell, and the banter of R. L. Stevenson, however we may disagree with them, are not to be lightly ignored, coming from critics usually so sane and discerning.

Since it is the Walden episode, the two years' sojourn in the woods near Concord, that has provoked the scornful ire of the critics, it may be well to re-examine that incident.

From his earliest years Th.o.r.eau was a lover of the open air. It was not merely a poetic appreciation such as Emerson had of the beauties of nature-though a genuine poetic imagination coloured all that he wrote-but an intellectual enthusiasm for the wonders of the natural world, and, most important of all, a deep and tender sympathy with all created things characteristic of the Eastern rather than the Western mind. He observed as a naturalist, admired like a poet, loved with the fervour of a Buddhist; every faculty of his nature did homage to the Earth.

Most of us will admit to a sentimental regard for the open air and for country sights and sounds. But in many cases it reduces itself to a vague liking for "pretty scenery" and an annual conviction that a change of air will do us good. And so it is that the man who prefers to live the greater part of his life in the open is looked upon either as a crank or a poser. Borrow's taste for adventure, and the picturesque vigour of his personality, help largely in our minds to condone his wandering instinct. But the more pa.s.sive temperament of Th.o.r.eau, and the absence in his writings of any stuff of romance, lead us to feel a kind of puzzled contempt for the man.

"He s.h.i.+rks his duty as a citizen," says the practical Englishman; "He experienced nothing worth mentioning," says the lover of adventure.

Certainly he lacked many of the qualities that make the literary Vagabond attractive-and for this reason many will deny him the right to a place among them-but he was neither a skulker nor a hermit.

In 1839, soon after leaving college, he made his first long jaunt in company with his brother John. This was a voyage on the Concord and Merrimac rivers-a pleasant piece of idling turned to excellent literary account. The volume dealing with it-his first book-gives sufficient ill.u.s.tration of his practical powers to dissipate the absurd notion that he was a mere sentimentalist. No literary Vagabond was ever more skilful with his hands than Th.o.r.eau. There was scarcely anything he could not do, from making lead pencils to constructing a boat. And throughout his life he supported himself by manual labour whenever occasion demanded.

Had he been so disposed he could doubtless have made a fortune-for he had all the nimble versatility of the American character, and much of its shrewdness. His attacks, therefore, upon money-making, and upon the evils of civilization, are no mere vapourings of an incompetent, but the honest conviction of a man who believes he has chosen the better part.

In his _Walk to Wachusett_ there are touches of genial friendliness with the simple, sincere country folk, and evidence that he was heartily welcome by them. Such a welcome would not have been vouchsafed to a cold-blooded recluse.

The keen enjoyment afforded to mind and body by these outings suggested to Th.o.r.eau the desirability of a longer and more intimate a.s.sociation with Nature. Walden Wood had been a familiar and favoured spot for many years, and so he began the building of his tabernacle there. So far from being a sudden, sensational resolve with an eye to effect, it was the natural outcome of his pa.s.sion for the open.

He had his living to earn, and would go down into Concord from time to time to sell the results of his handiwork. He was quite willing to see friends and any chance travellers who visited from other motives than mere inquisitiveness. On the other hand, the life he proposed for himself as a temporary experiment would afford many hours of congenial solitude, when he could study the ways of the animals that he loved and give free expression to his naturalistic enthusiasms.

Far too much has been made of the Walden episode. It has been written upon as if it had represented the totality of Th.o.r.eau's life, instead of being merely an interesting episode. Critics have animadverted upon it, as if the time had been spent in brooding, self-pity, and sentimental affectations, as if Th.o.r.eau had gone there to escape from his fellow-men.

All this seems to me wide of the mark. Th.o.r.eau was always keenly interested in men and manners; his essays abound in a practical sagacity, too frequently overlooked. He went to Walden not to escape from ordinary life, but to fit himself for ordinary life. The sylvan solitudes, as he knew, had their lessons for him no less than the busy haunts of men.

Of course it would be idle to deny that he found his greatest happiness in the woods and fields; it is this touch of wildness that makes of him a Vagabond. But though not an emotional man, his was not a hard nature so much as a reserved, self-centred nature, rarely expressing itself in outward show of feeling. That he was a man capable of strong affection is shown by his devotion to his brother. Peculiarities of temperament he had certainly, idiosyncrasies as marked as those of Borrow. These I wish to discuss later. For the moment I am concerned to defend him from the criticism that he was a loveless, brooding kind of creature, more interested in birds and fishes than in his fellow-men. For he was neither loveless nor brooding, and the characteristics that have proved most puzzling arose from the mingled strain in his nature of the Eastern quietist and the shrewd Western. These may now be considered more leisurely. I will deal with the less important first of all.

II

Some of his earlier work suffers somewhat from a too faithful disciples.h.i.+p of Emerson; but when he had found himself, as he has in _Walden_, he can break away from this tendency, and there are many lovely pa.s.sages untouched by didacticism.

"The stillness was intense and almost conscious, as if it were a natural sabbath. The air was so elastic and crystalline that it had the same effect on the landscape that a gla.s.s has on a picture-to give it an ideal remoteness and perfection. The landscape was bathed in a mild and quiet light, while the woods and fences chequered and part.i.tioned it with new regularity, and rough and uneven fields stretched far away with lawnlike smoothness to the horizon, and the clouds, finely distinct and picturesque, seemed a fit drapery to hang over fairyland."

But while there is the Wordsworthian appreciation of the peaceful moods of Nature and of the gracious stillnesses, there is the true spirit of the Vagabond in his Earth-wors.h.i.+p. Witness his pleasant "Essay on Walking":-

"We are but faint-hearted crusaders; even the walkers nowadays undertake no persevering world's end enterprises. Our expeditions are but tours, and come round again at evening to the old hearthside from which we set out. Half of the walk is but retracing our steps.

We should go forth on the shortest walks, perchance, in the spirit of stirring adventure, never to return, prepared to send back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdom. If you have paid your debts and made your will and settled all your affairs, and are a free man, then you are ready for a walk."

There is a relish in this sprightly abjuration that is transmittible to all but the dullest mind. The essay can take its place beside Hazlitt's "On Going a Journey," than which we can give it no higher praise.

With all his appreciation of the quieter, the gentler aspects of nature, he has the true hardiness of the child of the road, and has as cheery a welcome for the east wind as he has for the gentlest of summer breezes.

Here is a little winter's sketch:-