贝壳电子书 > 英文原著电子书 > the magic skin >

第4章

the magic skin-第4章

小说: the magic skin 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!




seemed to have taken their tone from the heavy gray sky。



Fitful gleams of light gave a foreboding look to Paris; like a pretty

woman; the city has mysterious fits of ugliness or beauty。 So the

outer world seemed to be in a plot to steep this man about to die in a

painful trance。 A prey to the maleficent power which acts relaxingly

upon us by the fluid circulating through our nerves; his whole frame

seemed gradually to experience a dissolving process。 He felt the

anguish of these throes passing through him in waves; and the houses

and the crowd seemed to surge to and fro in a mist before his eyes。 He

tried to escape the agitation wrought in his mind by the revulsions of

his physical nature; and went toward the shop of a dealer in

antiquities; thinking to give a treat to his senses; and to spend the

interval till nightfall in bargaining over curiosities。



He sought; one might say; to regain courage and to find a stimulant;

like a criminal who doubts his power to reach the scaffold。 The

consciousness of approaching death gave him; for the time being; the

intrepidity of a duchess with a couple of lovers; so that he entered

the place with an abstracted look; while his lips displayed a set

smile like a drunkard's。 Had not life; or rather had not death;

intoxicated him? Dizziness soon overcame him again。 Things appeared to

him in strange colors; or as making slight movements; his irregular

pulse was no doubt the cause; the blood that sometimes rushed like a

burning torrent through his veins; and sometimes lay torpid and

stagnant as tepid water。 He merely asked leave to see if the shop

contained any curiosities which he required。



A plump…faced young shopman with red hair; in an otter…skin cap; left

an old peasant woman in charge of the shopa sort of feminine

Caliban; employed in cleaning a stove made marvelous by Bernard

Palissy's work。 This youth remarked carelessly:



〃Look round; monsieur! We have nothing very remarkable here

downstairs; but if I may trouble you to go up to the first floor; I

will show you some very fine mummies from Cairo; some inlaid pottery;

and some carved ebonygenuine Renaissance work; just come in; and of

perfect beauty。〃



In the stranger's fearful position this cicerone's prattle and

shopman's empty talk seemed like the petty vexations by which narrow

minds destroy a man of genius。 But as he must even go through with it;

he appeared to listen to his guide; answering him by gestures or

monosyllables; but imperceptibly he arrogated the privilege of saying

nothing; and gave himself up without hindrance to his closing

meditations; which were appalling。 He had a poet's temperament; his

mind had entered by chance on a vast field; and he must see perforce

the dry bones of twenty future worlds。



At a first glance the place presented a confused picture in which

every achievement; human and divine; was mingled。 Crocodiles; monkeys;

and serpents stuffed with straw grinned at glass from church windows;

seemed to wish to bite sculptured heads; to chase lacquered work; or

to scramble up chandeliers。 A Sevres vase; bearing Napoleon's portrait

by Mme。 Jacotot; stood beside a sphinx dedicated to Sesostris。 The

beginnings of the world and the events of yesterday were mingled with

grotesque cheerfulness。 A kitchen jack leaned against a pyx; a

republican sabre on a mediaeval hackbut。 Mme。 du Barry; with a star

above her head; naked; and surrounded by a cloud; seemed to look

longingly out of Latour's pastel at an Indian chibook; while she tried

to guess the purpose of the spiral curves that wound towards her。

Instruments of death; poniards; curious pistols; and disguised weapons

had been flung down pell…mell among the paraphernalia of daily life;

porcelain tureens; Dresden plates; translucent cups from china; old

salt…cellars; comfit…boxes belonging to feudal times。 A carved ivory

ship sped full sail on the back of a motionless tortoise。



The Emperor Augustus remained unmoved and imperial with an air…pump

thrust into one eye。 Portraits of French sheriffs and Dutch

burgomasters; phlegmatic now as when in life; looked down pallid and

unconcerned on the chaos of past ages below them。



Every land of earth seemed to have contributed some stray fragment of

its learning; some example of its art。 Nothing seemed lacking to this

philosophical kitchen…midden; from a redskin's calumet; a green and

golden slipper from the seraglio; a Moorish yataghan; a Tartar idol;

to the soldier's tobacco pouch; to the priest's ciborium; and the

plumes that once adorned a throne。 This extraordinary combination was

rendered yet more bizarre by the accidents of lighting; by a multitude

of confused reflections of various hues; by the sharp contrast of

blacks and whites。 Broken cries seemed to reach the ear; unfinished

dramas seized upon the imagination; smothered lights caught the eye。 A

thin coating of inevitable dust covered all the multitudinous corners

and convolutions of these objects of various shapes which gave highly

picturesque effects。



First of all; the stranger compared the three galleries which

civilization; cults; divinities; masterpieces; dominions; carousals;

sanity; and madness had filled to repletion; to a mirror with numerous

facets; each depicting a world。 After this first hazy idea he would

fain have selected his pleasures; but by dint of using his eyes;

thinking and musing; a fever began to possess him; caused perhaps by

the gnawing pain of hunger。 The spectacle of so much existence;

individual or national; to which these pledges bore witness; ended by

numbing his sensesthe purpose with which he entered the shop was

fulfilled。 He had left the real behind; and had climbed gradually up

to an ideal world; he had attained to the enchanted palace of ecstasy;

whence the universe appeared to him by fragments and in shapes of

flame; as once the future blazed out before the eyes of St。 John in

Patmos。



A crowd of sorrowing faces; beneficent and appalling; dark and

luminous; far and near; gathered in numbers; in myriads; in whole

generations。 Egypt; rigid and mysterious; arose from her sands in the

form of a mummy swathed in black bandages; then the Pharaohs swallowed

up nations; that they might build themselves a tomb; and he beheld

Moses and the Hebrews and the desert; and a solemn antique world。

Fresh and joyous; a marble statue spoke to him from a twisted column

of the pleasure…loving myths of Greece and Ionia。 Ah! who would not

have smiled with him to see; against the earthen red background; the

brown…faced maiden dancing with gleeful reverence before the god

Priapus; wrought in the fine clay of an Etruscan vase? The Latin queen

caressed her chimera。



The whims of Imperial Rome were there in life; the bath was disclosed;

the toilette of a languid Julia; dreaming; waiting for her Tibullus。

Strong with the might of Arabic spells; the head of Cicero evoked

memories of a free Rome; and unrolled before him the scrolls of Titus

Livius。 The young man beheld Senatus Populusque Romanus; consuls;

lictors; togas with purple fringes; the fighting in the Forum; the

angry people; passed in review before him like the cloudy faces of a

dream。



Then Christian Rome predominated in his vision。 A painter had laid

heaven open; he beheld the Virgin Mary wrapped in a golden cloud among

the angels; shining more brightly than the sun; receiving the prayers

of sufferers; on whom this second Eve Regenerate smiles pityingly。 At

the touch of a mosaic; made of various lavas from Vesuvius and Etna;

his fancy fled to the hot tawny south of Italy。 He was present at

Borgia's orgies; he roved among the Abruzzi; sought for Italian love

intrigues; grew ardent over pale faces and dark; almond…shaped eyes。

He shivered over midnight adventures; cut short by the cool thrust of

a jealous blade; as he saw a mediaeval dagger with a hilt wrought like

lace; and spots of rust like splashes of blood upo

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0

你可能喜欢的