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memories and portraits-第28章

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her gracious Majesty; may boast their great collections; but to the 

plain private person they are become; like Raphaels; unattainable。  

I have; at different times; possessed ALADDIN; THE RED ROVER; THE 

BLIND BOY; THE OLD OAK CHEST; THE WOOD DAEMON; JACK SHEPPARD; THE 

MILLER AND HIS MEN; DER FREISCHUTZ; THE SMUGGLER; THE FOREST OF 

BONDY; ROBIN HOOD; THE WATERMAN; RICHARD I。; MY POLL AND MY PARTNER 

JOE; THE INCHCAPE BELL (imperfect); and THREE…FINGERED JACK; THE 

TERROR OF JAMAICA; and I have assisted others in the illumination 

of MAID OF THE INN and THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO。  In this roll…call 

of stirring names you read the evidences of a happy childhood; and 

though not half of them are still to be procured of any living 

stationer; in the mind of their once happy owner all survive; 

kaleidoscopes of changing pictures; echoes of the past。



There stands; I fancy; to this day (but now how fallen!) a certain 

stationer's shop at a corner of the wide thoroughfare that joins 

the city of my childhood with the sea。  When; upon any Saturday; we 

made a party to behold the ships; we passed that corner; and since 

in those days I loved a ship as a man loves Burgundy or daybreak; 

this of itself had been enough to hallow it。  But there was more 

than that。  In the Leith Walk window; all the year round; there 

stood displayed a theatre in working order; with a 〃forest set;〃 a 

〃combat;〃 and a few 〃robbers carousing〃 in the slides; and below 

and about; dearer tenfold to me! the plays themselves; those 

budgets of romance; lay tumbled one upon another。  Long and often 

have I lingered there with empty pockets。  One figure; we shall 

say; was visible in the first plate of characters; bearded; pistol 

in hand; or drawing to his ear the clothyard arrow; I would spell 

the name: was it Macaire; or Long Tom Coffin; or Grindoff; 2d 

dress?  O; how I would long to see the rest! how … if the name by 

chance were hidden … I would wonder in what play he figured; and 

what immortal legend justified his attitude and strange apparel!  

And then to go within; to announce yourself as an intending 

purchaser; and; closely watched; be suffered to undo those bundles 

and breathlessly devour those pages of gesticulating villains; 

epileptic combats; bosky forests; palaces and war…ships; frowning 

fortresses and prison vaults … it was a giddy joy。  That shop; 

which was dark and smelt of Bibles; was a loadstone rock for all 

that bore the name of boy。  They could not pass it by; nor; having 

entered; leave it。  It was a place besieged; the shopmen; like the 

Jews rebuilding Salem; had a double task。  They kept us at the 

stick's end; frowned us down; snatched each play out of our hand 

ere we were trusted with another; and; increditable as it may 

sound; used to demand of us upon our entrance; like banditti; if we 

came with money or with empty hand。  Old Mr。 Smith himself; worn 

out with my eternal vacillation; once swept the treasures from 

before me; with the cry: 〃I do not believe; child; that you are an 

intending purchaser at all!〃  These were the dragons of the garden; 

but for such joys of paradise we could have faced the Terror of 

Jamaica himself。  Every sheet we fingered was another lightning 

glance into obscure; delicious story; it was like wallowing in the 

raw stuff of story…books。  I know nothing to compare with it save 

now and then in dreams; when I am privileged to read in certain 

unwrit stories of adventure; from which I awake to find the world 

all vanity。  The CRUX of Buridan's donkey was as nothing to the 

uncertainty of the boy as he handled and lingered and doated on 

these bundles of delight; there was a physical pleasure in the 

sight and touch of them which he would jealously prolong; and when 

at length the deed was done; the play selected; and the impatient 

shopman had brushed the rest into the gray portfolio; and the boy 

was forth again; a little late for dinner; the lamps springing into 

light in the blue winter's even; and THE MILLER; or THE ROVER; or 

some kindred drama clutched against his side … on what gay feet he 

ran; and how he laughed aloud in exultation!  I can hear that 

laughter still。  Out of all the years of my life; I can recall but 

one home…coming to compare with these; and that was on the night 

when I brought back with me the ARABIAN ENTERTAINMENTS in the fat; 

old; double…columned volume with the prints。  I was just well into 

the story of the Hunchback; I remember; when my clergyman…

grandfather (a man we counted pretty stiff) came in behind me。  I 

grew blind with terror。  But instead of ordering the book away; he 

said he envied me。  Ah; well he might!



The purchase and the first half…hour at home; that was the summit。  

Thenceforth the interest declined by little and little。  The fable; 

as set forth in the play…book; proved to be not worthy of the 

scenes and characters: what fable would not?  Such passages as: 

〃Scene 6。 The Hermitage。  Night set scene。  Place back of scene 1; 

No。 2; at back of stage and hermitage; Fig。 2; out of set piece; R。 

H。 in a slanting direction〃 … such passages; I say; though very 

practical; are hardly to be called good reading。  Indeed; as 

literature; these dramas did not much appeal to me。  I forget the 

very outline of the plots。  Of THE BLIND BOY; beyond the fact that 

he was a most injured prince and once; I think; abducted; I know 

nothing。  And THE OLD OAK CHEST; what was it all about? that 

proscript (1st dress); that prodigious number of banditti; that old 

woman with the broom; and the magnificent kitchen in the third act 

(was it in the third?) … they are all fallen in a deliquium; swim 

faintly in my brain; and mix and vanish。



I cannot deny that joy attended the illumination; nor can I quite 

forget that child who; wilfully foregoing pleasure; stoops to 

〃twopence coloured。〃  With crimson lake (hark to the sound of it … 

crimson lake! … the horns of elf…land are not richer on the ear) … 

with crimson lake and Prussian blue a certain purple is to be 

compounded which; for cloaks especially; Titian could not equal。



The latter colour with gamboge; a hated name although an exquisite 

pigment; supplied a green of such a savoury greenness that to…day 

my heart regrets it。  Nor can I recall without a tender weakness 

the very aspect of the water where I dipped my brush。  Yes; there 

was pleasure in the painting。  But when all was painted; it is 

needless to deny it; all was spoiled。  You might; indeed; set up a 

scene or two to look at; but to cut the figures out was simply 

sacrilege; nor could any child twice court the tedium; the worry; 

and the long…drawn disenchantment of an actual performance。  Two 

days after the purchase the honey had been sucked。  Parents used to 

complain; they thought I wearied of my play。  It was not so: no 

more than a person can be said to have wearied of his dinner when 

he leaves the bones and dishes; I had got the marrow of it and said 

grace。



Then was the time to turn to the back of the play…book and to study 

that enticing double file of names; where poetry; for the true 

child of Skelt; reigned happy and glorious like her Majesty the 

Queen。  Much as I have travelled in these realms of gold; I have 

yet seen; upon that map or abstract; names of El Dorados that still 

haunt the ear of memory; and are still but names。  THE FLOATING 

BEACON … why was that denied me? or THE WRECK ASHORE?  SIXTEEN…

STRING JACK whom I did not even guess to be a highwayman; troubled 

me awake and haunted my slumbers; and there is one sequence of 

three from that enchanted calender that I still at times recall; 

like a loved verse of poetry: LODOISKA; SILVER PALACE; ECHO OF 

WESTMINSTER BRIDGE。  Names; bare names; are surely more to children 

than we poor; grown…up; obliterated fools remember。



The name of Skelt itself has always seemed a part and parcel of the 

charm of his 

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