M EREDI T H G EO RG E J. H E. C A STU DY O F H IS WO RKS MCMX V I I I AC KWE LL B. H. BL. m p: RE I GN o r TH E E M PER OR. M g.

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2 G EO RG E M EREDI T H A STU DY O F H IS WO RKS AND PERSON AL ITY J. H. E. C REES M. A. HEA D MA STER O F M. A UT H OR o r D I DA S C A LU S PATIENS _ T A. ( L nd.) o HE CRYPT GRA MAR CE STER M S C H OO L G L O U D.e. PR O B U S E TC. m p: RE I GN o r TH E E M PER OR OX FORD B. H. BL AC KWE LL BROAD ST REET MCMX V I I I l 5 M g

3 PRI N ' I E D BY HAZ ELL \VA I SON AN D V INE Y L D LONDON AN D AYLESBURY.

4 P R E F A C E NINE years have p a sse d since George Meredith was united again to Earth th e subj ect and the inspirer of so many of his finest pages and it seems worth while to essay a considered j udgment of his con tribu tio n to li t erature. Th e present writer has walked all round his subj ect and taken a Meredithian elevation from different points of view. He must now leave it to oth ers to decide wheth er his j udg ments a r e correct. live in and with Meredith to read and reread To th eighteen or so volumes e o f four t five hundred o pages that h has left us is an ordeal as well as an e experience a discipline as well as a It delight. may result in the student s being swept into the Meredithian orbit to revolve as an obedient satellite around a powerful may be more One luminary. ever miscarrying with abortive Yet a epigram. conclusion safely on this side of moderation would be first that the art of writing is an art which novel- even in th e hands of but a middling practitioner demands more respect than is always accorded it and secondly that M eredith himself in his com bination of most vigorous intellect with fervent V

5 Pr e face p o e try a nd all th e normal qualities of the novelist in his cre ation of what is almost a new literary form that of th e didactic prose epos th e philo sophy of history applied to life and its problems is an unparalleled and wondrous phenomenon o ne of those rarely appearing giants of spe ech and thought whose kinship in tenseness of intellectual life and myriad-mindedness win them th e epithet Shakespearean. With Meredith w e climb to the Andes of the intellect and th vastness of e th prospect the e radiance o f th sun illumining so many erent e diff intellectual kingdoms atones for th touch of frost e in th But the thin aether is a trial for weak e air. hearts and Not all can scale these heights lungs. still fewer can these tablelands of abide o n lone Ye t th hardened mountaineer will win e intellect. full many a thrill of sudden discovery such as he can never gain in softer climes. One must scale these ascents by oneself. Yet a word o f recognition and of thanks is due to th ose who have climbed these altitudes before us. Mr. Tr e vel y an s handbook on Meredith s poems is of great service in one s earlier steps and his fine essay in M the work of a critic Clio a use I S more mature who can now give asy and lightful ex fre e e de pression his mellowed j to Ve r r all s udgment. Dr. brilliant essay th work of a scholar gifts of e Whose heart and intell ect would have made him a worthy comrade of any of Meredith s great intellectuals does vi

6 P r e face full j ustice to th e master s Wi t so well defined as manipulation of meanings though the friendly controversy waged by Mr. Trevelyan with him as to the diff erence between poetry and wit seems to dissolve into verbal legerdemain. Mrs. Sturge Henderson has made a painstaking study o f the various novels. Mr. Clo dd s Recollecti o ns would seem to contain many interesting things 1 and Mr. Gallienne s enthusiastic essay should not be le probably Ye t everyone who j ourneys neglected. through Meredith will prefer to tell his own story for himself and to each his own will experience se em the thing o f highest value. H ere no ca ta lo g u e ml sonne of Meredith s novels and poetry will be attempted but rather a study of th e different elements in his personality which contributed to his greatness. With Meredith a writer s difficulty is not lack of matter. Th e vein is rich ; o ne quarries and quarries. One admires at first his cleverness then his poetic ecstasy lastly his noble It was his poetry soul. h told e Clo dd that he valued most yet perhaps Mr. a study of his genius must take account chiefly of that to which his most strenuous efforts were devoted his novels and over his poetic power more can be triumphantly demonstrated best in some of his They treat of life s problems not novels. with too rosy view but they stand far apart a 1 I. have no t se e n th e book. Tw o r efe r e nces take n from it a r e gl e a ned from a r evi ew. vii

7 P r e face from the novels of the stews o r the poetry o f th e overripe. It was his aim to treat life philo sophically to study character more minutely than before to make the novel an aid to the art of living as well as an intellectual recreation. How far does he rise to his own ideal It would be needful to review each novel to answer fully. No t all have reached an equal height. Art abides constant but inspiration comes and goes and few masters a r e always at their greatest. Th e E g o i st is the Meredithian type supreme and unsurpassable Th e Or d ea l of Ri cha r d P ever el is tenser a rare e xample of the tragic Eva n Ha r r in g to n is the fi nest example of the extravaganza B ea uchamp s Ca r eer stands not unworthily near The Or dea l One of O ur Co n q u er o r s is crammed so full of rich fare as to be difficult to queasy stomachs Th e Sha vi n g o f S ha gp a t is an astonishing feat of virtuosity in style Th e Tr a g i c Comedi a ns is a masterpiece of subtle p s y ch o lo gy and impetuous narrative. And if we cease to enumerate we feel that it is unj ust to slight the others and then that much than more a passing word is d to ue th poems even e which- the most grow in force and meaning as abstruse we return to them. It is indeed an embarrassment of riches. Truly here is God s plenty.

8 C O N TEN TS CHAPTER I INTRODU CTORY CHAPTER II THE COMIC S PIRIT THE SENTIMENTALIST CHAPTER III YOUTH CHAPTER IV MEREDITH s POETRY CHAPTER V MEREDITH s PHILOSOPH Y CHAPTER VI MERE DITH THE ARTIST CHAPTER VI I CONCLUSION INDEX

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10 G EO RG E M ER EDIT H CHAPTER I INTRODU CTORY L O of hu ndr eds who aspir e Eighti es p e rish ni neti es tir e They who b e a r up i n spit e of wr ecks a nd wr acks We r e s ea soned b y C elesti al h ail of thwacks. Fortu ne i n this mortal r ac e Builds o n thwacki ngs fo r its bas e Thus th e All-wise doth make a fl ail a staff A nd s epa r at es His h e av e nly cor n fr om cha ff. So sang Meredith o f the history of the reformer. His progress is encompassed by thwackings ; thwackings are the milestones which mark his path the rewards which celebrate his achievements. And such too often is the career of a writer of original force who must educate the world before he can delight it for in the realm o f mind it is as hard as elsewhere to make th e best of both w orlds. Some great writers have won immedia te immortality by limning once and fo r ever the age in which they lived by recording legibly that all may read the ideas and aspirations of th e present elevated and B

11 of the slings and arrows o f outrageous criticism. G e org e M e r e dith tr a nsfi g ure d b y t hat one touch o f genius which makes all ages kin changing the contemporary into the eternal. Others perhaps o f equal gen ius but of less felicity pioneers harbingers o f an age they never saw hav e incurr e d a painfuller im mortality widening the bounds o f men s thought purging it of imperfections bestowing o n the world lasting delight and permanent profit - fo r a daily wage of disesteem o r contumely toiling at a task which offered them the martyr s crown before the laurel wreath. Aeschylus happy in the Opportune ness of his birth portrayed the Athens o f the Persian War a nd the men o f Marathon M a p a ew VO / d a t with their simple piety and homely heroism even at the moment o f the passing o f that golden age ; while Euripides deeming no myth sacred putting every View however time- honoured under the microscope gained the j eers o f Aristophanes and the mockery o f the groundlings whose sons and successive posterity were to swear by him as the only tragic poet. Th e idol o f the future is the Aunt Sally of the present. Th e pioneer of intellect ploughs a lonely furrow. He is assailed by invective beset by contumely th e butt of ridicule the San Sebastian He is depressed by disregard chilled by the icy waters o f contempt haunted by the dread of beggary the recompense of s toutness o f conviction. He has the bitter epithet of bungler hurled at him by far inferior rivals while his conscience forbids 2

12 A Intr o duct o r y the winning of an easy victory with their o w n weapons. And when detraction recites its palinode his sole compensation is to reply ( from the Elysian Fields ) I told y o u so. Music better perhaps than any other art affords examples o f the trials and privations o f genius born before its time. But literary greatness to o follows a course directly opposite to worldly greatness. It passes from contempt to canonisation from insulting disregard to the dubious honours o f the cult. But yesterday none was so poor to do o u r genius reverence to- day a miracle has come to pass and he awakens famous. We still stone our prophets and build them sum p tu o u s memorials after. Ta nta e molis erat such a tribulation is it to inaugurate a new era. Our ~ a im is to portray the personality and to appraise the performance o f such a harbinger of this latest age. Privation and dire poverty seem no t to h ave fallen to his lo t and the breeze- swept chalet o f Bo xhill was a far happier habitation than the attics o f Grub Street. Yet Meredith s path through life was painful enough t o colour his views and to trammel his activities. Experience taught him endure criticism with indifferent mildness to to submit to approbation with ironic patience. En th sm usia fo h work evoked humoured r is good- insouciance or amused Time doubtless surprise. brings with it callousness and genius grows accus to d to But that me o ne w h at had o thirty- o ne neglect. given d Richa r Fe ve r et to the world shoul d win scant

13 G e o rge M e r e dith honour be fore sixty is neither natural nor no rmal and unheeding apathy so much more dire a tr ibul a tion than the bitterest ridicule must have chilled a man of Meredith s keen sensibility. It is not true that it made no difference to Meredith whether the world regarded him as a prophet or not. The scant success o f his novels the complete failure of his poems had the inevitable financial results. Instead of writing poetry as he desired Meredith must needs write potboilers which he detested instead of writing great novels he must to win his daily bread peruse bad grammar and sorry fiction fo r Messrs. Chapman 81 Hall Apollo day- labourer to Admetus. Yet painful as neglect must be to genius neglect neither soured the sweetness of Meredith s disposition no r narrowed his range o f interests. A man of great physical vigour he delighted to excess in violent exercise. He flung himself with the keenest zest into numerous sports ; his was a pedestrian Muse. He combined two characteristics different if not contrary : he was a good Hampshire man but he was also a good European. Th e visionary ardour o f the Celt flamed in an intellect of super subtle keenness ; he united with a romantic sym pathy for nature an all- pervading irony and a rare mastery of words. Rarely has one seen a more many- sided personality rarely has there arisen a man of letters who came so close to nature. Th e felicitous union of these qualities was the 4

14 I nt ro d ucto r y secret o f his greatness. Passion and intellect were loyal yoke- fellows fervour and reason hounds that ran in the leash together. This marriage o f heart and brain marks a new epoch in the realm o f novel- writing pregnant with striking consequences. Man is an animal that laughs. He may with equal truth be termed an animal that narrates. Th e saga instinct is o ne o f the earliest symptoms o f a germin ating civilisation. As soon as man begins to tell tales he has begun to free himself from the bondage o f the actual from the grossest physical necessities from the tyranny o f the struggle fo r existence. Fo r however brief an interval he enj oys the delight of the artist in shaping facts in bringing the world under his own dominion. Th e saga is the first link in the long chain which will reach to the Republic o f Plato that ideal system which is to educe cosmos o ut o f chaos to order the whole world. There is plastic force latent in the saga however spontaneous it may Whichever camp of seem. scholars claims us all its divine freshness fo r o f the morning dew Homer w e must admit it is the product o f many nimble minds shaping and reshaping for centuries a legend which was ever being fashioned anew. It has grown rather with the silent yet unceasing processes of a living organism than by conscious ordered design. It seems at first artless enough a tale devoid of a r r i er e p en sée a pa g eant of blithe scenes o e rbr irnmin g with

15 G e o rg e M e r edith the j oy o f life but over all there looms the figure of War bane of mortals woeful and piteous and the s cene in which Priam endures to do that which none had brooked before him Hector s corpse of Hector s slayer and prays for contains much criticism o f life implicit. N o man indeed child of whatever age who tells a tale with any art at all can fail to betray his thoughts on human life. Th e view may be implied o r explicit simple and naif rather than profound and conscious but view it is. Th e novel is our modern epic. Th e story- telling instinct has at length o ne knows no t why found a divorce from verse. Man s impulse t o narrate is perennial and to that extent the modern novel with all its crudities its falseness o f sentiment its distortion o f view is a more genuine growth than more pretentious literary forms. Its function is primarily and primitively to minister to the desire o f the imagination to range far and wide with fancy free banishing for a while all that cramps and co n fines it within the prisoning fetters o f the daily round to idealise the present and to make the real romantic to give an individual touch to themes o f world wide interest. Th e mind is a thing which cannot work when severed from the body which confines it So to o the novel is a thing which cannot function without its framework of fact. A novel whi ch is not a story is not a novel but a treatise a homily or a vast essay. 6

16 Intr o d ucto r y Obviously then o ne dichotomy o f the novel might be the technique o f narrative and philosophy. Th e novelist must tell his story clearly and directly he must make proper arrangements for the develop ment o f character he must give his story a suitable beginning a regular logical course and a neat conclusion he may enlighten it with wit suffuse it with humour embell ish it but sparingly with Such is the technique of the novel and digressions. though wit a nd humour are a rare equipment the modern novelist has shown that in many respects he is well armed with the lower accomplishments o f his craft and that though the great artists are few the good workmen are many. There are some perhaps who would almost restrict the n o velist to these prosaic tasks. But literature is more than craftsmanship. Some great writers may have been engrossed rather in technical problems and the methods by which new difficulties may be over come to the neglect of the great questions f o life which demand not solution but pondering They have merited the reward of those upon. who have served art well yet the world ; will with reason always love to linger beside the great man who meditates aloud or chats engagingly with hi readers upon things in general rather s than to con the cunning a r tifice r who is prepared to cut up human things into so many lengths of cloth. Th e narrative element which as we have said 7

17 Ge o rg e M e r e dith is the fundamental o f a novel naturally p r e do min ates in the history o f a To m Jones or a Jonathan Wild o r a Peregrine Pickl e. But as early as Fielding men had learnt to digress to discuss their -hero and to moralise upon the world at large. Th novel was loosely knit and the leaning towards e the picaresque accentuated the tendency to produce books whose sole unity consisted in their being the record o f the successive adventures o f a single hero. Th e tendency to concentrate to exercise a more rigorous control to o r g anise the novel has much developed but it developed It slowly. needs in fact a more scientific mind and a more orderly temperament than the Bohemians o f Grub Street could e attained an earlier century hav o r than the teenth could have nine fostered. Th contrast between the repute e o f the novel day and its status hundred years ago is to- o ne Novels were held in contempt deemed marvellous. the fit pabulum only o f weak To intellects. read novels it was declared with j ustice was a pursuit which gave one a distaste for more serious studies. Though novels may still have the defects o f o ne century ago the critic cannot if he would ignore the achievements of o ur modern novelists In the Opinion o f o ne good j udge Professor Saints bury betwee n the years more was achieved in the novel form by writers who adopted that form than was a chieved in any other prose form in an y literature. Th e novelist i s no w no t 8

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19 Ge o rge Me r e di th Poetry has been defined as criticism o f life. Th e definition will suit the great novel even better. Beside and beyond all Meredith s interest in his characters his working o ut of an elaborate intrigue his brillianc y o f expression we find an eager unsleeping Observation of the world o f man an in cessant sensitiveness to all that can react upon the writer in life s vast variety of interests. Meredith drives a coach richly adorne d and heavily laden b ut he moves to a definite though distant goal. To change the metaphor a Meredithian novel is a rich banquet set by the author for his guests in which the variety o f meats is bewildering leading sometimes to dyspepsia. A banquet it is in truth a symposium in which all personages contribute either by word o r deed their View o f certain definite problems a gathering which evokes the complaint if there be complaint at all that the fare is too sumptuous rather than to o meagre. For with Meredith the critical analytic faculty is always at work. further criticism. called a radical Criticism of life provokes always Dickens criticised life and was Thackeray criticised life and was branded as a cynic Meredith in his turn is dubbed by those without the pale an intellectual whose work is caviare to the gene ral. But there is one solid Th novel once a mere anodyne to dull e result. the sense of pam at times so o ut o f j oint or a narcotic whose kindly stupefaction delivers us m the malady of thought is can be a great fro o r I O

20 What we may call the philosophising tendency delighting fo r a brief interval to leave his puppets I ntr o d ucto r y branch o f literature as weighty as the Decline a nd Fall as profound and eloquent as the Rep ubli c as impassioned as Romeo a nd J u liet. implicit doubtless from the beginning r e mams l n embryo until the nineteenth century. Th e vogue of the historical novel did much to aid this tendency. Th e true historical novelist feels himself obliged more frequently than others to expound and interpret and the works o f Scott are obviously addressed to a constituency which appreciates the compliment o f being taken seriously and which is well content to pause from time to time whil e the historical background is Th passage e explained. of philosophy from historical romance to plain unadulterate fiction is easy. We next find Thackeray as he calls them to chat to his readers with that delightful ease that mellowed wisdom that clear perception o f life s irony which is the hardest- w o n crown o f the artist in human Th showman e life. as he calls himself moralises incorrigibly senti mental upon the whimsies f His o mortality. creations are no t exactly types they are too intimately known to him for that but his reflections are bound to develop into generalisations. And with his successors the delineation o f character becomes profoundly modifi ed. So far w e - h ave been inclined to look at life upon the surface o r at any rate chiefly to describe the histories o f not very I I

21 G e o rge M e r edith profound personalities. But now we must probe deeper. The science o f psychology h a s been initiated and initiated rather by men o f letters than by the man of science. In proportion as men grow sophisticated the analyst o f mental p r o cesses becomes more subtle. Th e novel is no more the novel of incident but the novel o f char acter true though it may be that no novel can consist exclusively of character or o f incident but must comprise the tw o. We pierce the depths of the human mind with o ur Scalpel we put its subtlest parts be ne a th b ur microscope. Th e art of the novelist has suffered a change similar to that experienced by the art o f the musician which in little more than a century has made the tran sitio n from Glii ck and Handel to ' Brahms and Wagner. We are learned almost academic. Th e Alexandrine age has come. In this passage from the simple to the super subtle from t h depiction e o f the most ordinary types to the delineation by a thousand touches of the most finished products o f a most artificial society the culminating figure is George Meredith. Th e transition from Fielding to Meredith the extreme points in our line o f masters is one which can be easily traced despite occasional br e a l g s and even chasms. At the end philosophy not the mere telling of a tale must now predominate. Life is no more a gay raree-show a kaleidoscope o f many coloured hues a vivid panorama. It ma y b e all 1 2

22 I ntr o d ucto r y this b ut philosophy has now anne xed the novel too. Th e novelist like the philosopher must now declare that the untested life is no t worth living. He sets out to expound the science of human life in many volumes and if the science of human life is the apex o f all sciences the novelist is suddenly hoisted to the topmost place in the literary hierarchy. Such is the new conception o f the novel fi r st x clearly conceived and explicitly enunciated by Meredith himself. Di a na o f the Cr o sswa y s contains the l o cus cla ssi cus. Th e art of the novelist has not yet attained its maj ority being neither blush less infant no r executive man. We must o h! shades o f Smollett and o f Sterne attain a theory of life penetrate to life s core and rose-pink and dirty drab shall pass insight must be Our away. unerring unplagued by the distortions of senti mentalism that refusal to see' facts as they are the arch- enemy of all progress and of true know We must advance towards this goal with ledge. a giant s stride if we can a century a day. Peruse your Realists learn even from them Be wary of the disrelish of br a instuff. Th e b r ainstuff of fiction is internal history and to suppose it dull is the profoundest o f errors Th e example only is needed and our paladin is content doubtless to set it ready if need be to have a dozen for audience as a beginning. History without Philosophy is the skeleton map of events Fiction a picture of figures modelled on no skeleton anatomy. 1 3

23 G e o rge M e r e dith Such was Meredith s manifesto to the world. He wrote content with little more than his specified dozen fo r audience satisfied if only the enlightened the intellectual would give him an occasional round o f Th first chapter e o f written Dia na applause. when he was verging towards threescore only summarises in vivid language those principles which he laid down himself in early years and fo r which he followed despite abuse neglect and contumely until o n the threshold o f o ld age the world at length found that it had been harbouring an extraordinary genius unawares. Be wary o f the disrelish o f br a instuff. It is a phrase mark a new epoch it is the sign to o f the advent o f the intellectual as novelist it heralds an age in which science is be literary and litera to ture Th stuff e o f literature is the whole scientific. o f human life the fittest obj ect of It cognition. is a difficult task the ordering o f human life the interpretation as well as the amassment o f a vast multitude o f particulars the synthesis at a white heat o f science and imagination. And strangest of all the man whose vision can pierce deepest into the penetralia o f human nature is n o t the scientist with all his apparatus and ingenious technique nor even the pro fessed p hilosopher with all ~ his subtlety o f analysis but the great literary artist who comprises within h is larger nature both scientist and philosopher and subconsciously by I 4

24 I nt r o d ucto r y mere intuition arrives at j udgments and gains glimpses o f reality which scientist and philosopher can only seize upon study and laboriously j ustify. Dryasdust has no t enthroned himself in the art o f human life as he has in the art o f making history. He recognises it may be his limitations and prefers to transcribe o r even annotate a mediaeval charter. We have to learn that those who seek profound acquaintance with ma n and his psychology must seek it in the pages o f our greatest writers in the I li ad H amlet o r Kin g L e a r The Di vine Comed y or Don Q uixote. Th e insight o f the genius o f the past shone o ut in flashes ; the genius o f the future will have more system he wil l make many more discoveries he will indeed be always making fresh discoveries. He will husband his gains to o pre cions to be flung away in prodigal profusion ; he will attempt himself a science o f human life o r at least enunciate some o f its principles ; he will be always and consciously psychologising. He will write novels with a purpose but his purpose is to demonstrate human life in action he aims to make the novel the highest truest form o f life. He will demand the mental energy th e universal range o f a Shakespeare the powerful reasoning and ordered science of a Newton the p hil o s0 p h i c breadth and artistry of a Plato the soaring rapturous enthusiasm of a Shelley. That it is possible to catalog ue thus the qualities which the novelist of Meredith s vision will need without rendering Meredith himself 1 5

25 spiritual life is recorded fo r us clearly and lucidly G e o rg e M e redi th entirely ridiculous is no slight evidence of the success with which he met the exacting claims made upon him by his exalted conception o f the novel s range. It is a wondrous mind that we shall find portrayed for us when we come to an examination of the Meredithian novels a mind fertile teeming in metaphor beyond most writers brimming over- with imagery learning brilliant phrase and lyric It is not a Protean mind like Shake ecstasy. speare s for in the kingdom o f Meredith all things must be subjected all things must be moulded and fashioned before they become Meredithian creations. Those who were privileged to enj oy his converse tell us that it was rich in the same qualities which are so noteworthy in the novels notable in its wit and humour lambent with a gentle satire marked in its broad manysidedness by keen interest in contemporary topics and a glowing hope in the progress o f the future. But yet he is depicted for us better in his books than by the best o f Boswells. No man ever attained a more perfect unity of thought and deed a completer consistency of theory and practice. His life at least his in his eighteen volumes : quo fit ut o mnis votiva p at e at velati d e scr i p t a tabella vita se nis. 1 6

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27 Ge o rge M e r e dith he h a s too clear a sense of logic. He is no t an exemplar of Laughter holding both his sides for he holds in some contempt the boisterous energy Of those who would assault his sense o f the ' discordant and he insists on subtler He methods. is j ust a supramundane spirit with the clearest insight and a real though detached sympathy w h o grows to tolerate the fool b y describing him whose features j ust yield in a faint smile w h is rarely o perturbed never lacking in w h pins his o charity victims like butterflies a card but does o n no t belabour them with his horsewhip like a furious He will not harrow us he simply teaches farmer. us what we are believing that there is man s best punishment and fittest corrective. Comedy then is something which with a keen sense of the incongruous wages truceless war against the unreal masquerading as the true against pretence in the guise o f reality against the cowardi ce which refuses to look life in the face. These different phases o f o ne great defect o f human nature Mere dith groups under the o ne head Sentimentalism. T o this he gives no quarter ; against this as he confesses in his letters he has an 1nvi ncible pre j udice. He loves the y Outh ardent and courageous wh o has the courage o f his convictions the fair maiden gifted with a woman s finest charm who refuses to base her dominion on se x o r su p e rfi cialit y ' no t content in matters of the mind to be man s f o bedie nt slave. Fo r such as these he has tender 1 8

28 of fine presence who in short has a leg incessantly torment and it is Vernon Whitford smile gently at their failings o r even laugh heartily T h e C o mic S p i rit ness and sympathy in failure or in error but for those who have raised the banner o f sentimentalism in any way he vows implacable hostility. Vittoria is unformed immature a bundle o f impulses rather than a mature woman but even in her crudity she is a nobler creature than the three Misses Pole with their believe their imposture their make- blinking at the Willoughby is doubtless truth. a gallant gentleman w h rules a county and a o house a person country- princely o f great address but it is Willoughby whom the imps o f comedy Phoebus Apollo turned fasting friar who wins the heart o f Clara Middleton. A true instinct urged Meredith to devote himself to comedy. His conception o f life accords in the main with the dictum of Socrates that no one willingly errs that it is lack o f intelligence d u a flia which causes more than half the troubles which afflict the world. One cannot rage furiously against those who are not as wise as we ; o ne can only diverted to the top of one s bent. Thus though The Ordeal reaches a true tragic pitch though The Tr a g i c Co medi ans ends in utter downfall Meredith as a rule is satisfied if his characters all wh o deserve it attain after thrilling adventures and hairbreadth escapes peaceful deliverance from the imps of comedy. He leads them many a dance. I 9

29 fives. It is no t the farcical no r the humorous G e o rge M e r edi th Many of his comedies E va n H a r rin g t o n for in stance are extravaganzas whose drollery forbids the question whether mirth has not banished veri similitude. Meredith is the novelist of the young. He loves to take a character unformed expose it to the Whirligig of fortune trace the gradual development of the heroic in a hero and dismiss him with his benediction. He has no t quite the same range o f emotion as other novelists but within the circle which he has drawn for himself he is supreme. If there had been any doubt as to concep tion o f the true aim o f the novel Meredith s his E ssa y o n Comed y would have dissipated it. Theorist and practician combine felicitously in Meredith who has distilled his p h iloso p h into this brilliant y analysis o f the Comic Spirit the most lucid ex position o i the scope and function o f Comedy from the Meredithian point o f Th Comic Spirit e view. ever held Meredith and with him i annexes the t English novel. We must first define it by nega nor the rollicking things often confused with it. It is based upon the finest perception o f the in congruous it requires a most subtle it delicacy flourishes rarely and only in a society o f cultivated men and Those who do no t skim the women. cream o f life who are attached to the duties yet f the harsher blows make acute and balanced escape Th Comic Muse is one e o f woman s observers. 20

30 Th e C o mi c S p irit best friends and flowers best in a state of society where men and women can meet equally and freely. Where the veil is over woman s face as in the East you cannot have society without which the senses are barbarous and the Comic Spirit is driven to the gutters o f gr ossness to slake its thirst Th e fool is med Co y i i r u Folly is the natural e mark. prey Of the Comic and it is with the springing delight of hawk over heron hound over that fo x it gives her chase never fretting never tiring sure o f having her allowing her no Th Comic e rest. Muse has rarely In England we have to o flowered. been agelasts o h r yp e r g e l Puritans or Bac a sts ch a nalia ns. And yet no country needs the Comic Muse more or would reap greater benefits from it. Prosers would be cut short in the street and left blinking dumb as pillar posts. Th e strength of the Comic Muse is no doubt its weakness also. It appeals to the intellect its laughter is impersonal its test is that it awakens thoughtful laughter. It sits above the world humanely malign and casts an oblique light on the objects o f its consideration followed by volleys o f silvery laughter. Class distinctions are doubtful and changeful but here I is one aristocracy that has sharp lines o f demarca tion an aristocracy of perceptions. Not to have the Comic Spirit is to be bull blind to the spiritual to have it is to have a high fellowship. Look there for your unchall engeable upper class. An s a r isto cr a c y no doubt but an aristocracy 21

31 G e o rge M e r edith which will require all its wealth of intell ect to counter-balance its weakness in numbers. Th e votaries o f the Comic Spirit are like the o o qbo i o f Euripides the inner circle o f the Yet initiated. it is superhuman rather than inhuman it is fo r truly said Estimate your capacity comic fo r perception by being able to detect the ridicule o f them you love without loving them And less. the prophet o f this narrow aristocracy combines his delight in the hunt o f Folly with a strain of ardent poetry. 1 It is a perpetual antithesis a contradiction which we j o y q y accept. In any case the Essay puts us at once in posses sion o f Meredith s standpoint and his novels are only a more CO p io u exposition of his He s views. appeals us to no t by boisterous j oviality o r me ch ni a cal puns but by a subtle perception o f contrasts by exquisite sense a n o f the irony f It is a o things. reflection o f the terrestrial in o ne who dwells in a higher sphere noting and recording with a smile o f perfect kindliness the follies o f an inferior race noting them for a race o f su p e r t e r r e str ial s his kinsmen in the Comic Spirit. It is no t the j olly pastime o f those w h o eat roast beef and drink beer ; it is the diversion o f those in whom the spiritual prevails over the grossly sensual whose veins are filled with ichor and whose food is ambrosia. 1 Me r edith hi mself is e mphatic upon this poi nt a nd s e e s eve n i n Comus a mild moon s r a y of th e Comi c Spi r it. 5 22

32 Even the greatest soul h a s its o w n béte noir e. Th e S e ntime ntalist II. THE SE NTI MEN TALI sr If I did not take sentimentalists fo r obj ects o f study they would enrage me past any tolerance. Th e Tempter o f Mankind never has such a grin as when he sees them mix the true and the false. It is an age when the sentimentalist is abroad. Fine shades and nice feelings are to be found everywhere in a time o f artificial civilisation and they give philosophical novelists the o ur e a s1e st o f targets being the product o f a fat soil that mental attitude which despises gold the child o f In S Bell ni we have an elaborate a ndr a o gold. study o f the sentimental trinity Arabella Cornelia and Adela Pole o r as the irreverent called them Pole Polony and Maypole. They are sketched by a master- hand with gentle but deadly satire. But the satire is the p hilo sopher s xdfla p a i q. Man 1s the laughing animal and at the end o f an infinite search the phil osopher finds himself clinging to laughter as the best o f human fruit purely human and sane and co m forting. Th e Poles are emotional snobs. They are highl y cultivated too highly cultivated for a rough world and they find the crudities of their nearest rivals the Tinl e y s almost as distressing as the a itchl e ssne ss of their parent. They desire : to play the Lady Bountiful in their social realm. to. be % h e arbiters of elegance within a radius of ten 2 3

33 G e o rge M e redith mil es ; they soar in imagination not to coronets for marriage is still a distasteful far- o ff contingency but to the social prestige o f coronets they ; are shocked though they would be to hear it sublimated presentations of Mrs. Le o Hunter. In their cam p a i g n they make great progress though they are retarded by a bibulous Irish grocer s widow named Mrs. Chump who brings them back to term f irm a at once. Mrs. Chump blind to the fine shades a fl o ute r of the delicate feelings was once the in amo r a ta o f Mr. Pole over whom she still has some mysterious hold and when she installs herself at Br o o kfi eld she drinks champagne with her unhappy host till he is distracted. Still another contrast is found in Emilia Belloni a girl with a wonderful voice who is to o near to Nature be romantic She to o r sentimentalist. combines rich contralto notes with a sometimes untied bootlace she sings in a wood by night but ; only because her landlady obj ects to music indoors ; she has a most wonderful father who is an irritable violinist and sometimes throws potatoes at his wife and daughter. She soon wins the admiration of Cornet Wilfrid Pole rides the hippogriff another sentimentalist who one of those who travel to Love by the road o f sentiment and go on accu mul atin g images and hiving sensations till such time as (if the stuff be in them ) they assume a fo rm of vitality and hurry them headlong. In a word Wilfrid is one of Meredith s impressionable young 2 4

34

35 sentimentalists Ge o rge M e r e di th Wi th a clear vision o f the real. Sentimentalism is a sham masquerading as a lover of glorious emotions yielding to them passing no farther wilfully blind to unpleasant reality hiding like Wilfrid Pole a stench beneath a perfume. Its votaries float upon the void like Icarus and do no t know that their wings o f wax will melt at the first Despite its impe rfections its stiffness its heat. longueurs of p h ilo so p h dis uisition ic q Emili a in En g l nd works a o ut no t ineffectively the subtly suggested contrast between the laboured futility o f the three fair in chief the cox combry o f Wilfrid mounted o n the hippogriff the despair of Sir Purcell Barrett the dreary organist who could no t face the world with a brave front and who is so indistinct o f character that we scarcely visualise him and the eager ardent impulses of Emilia unformed and immature indeed but sincere to her inmost soul and nobly unconventional. Th e Poles would fain hide their Mrs. Chump but they struggle in vain and the party o n Be sw o r th Lawn witnesses both their grandest triumph and 1 their startling fall from greatness. They are co m p e ll e d in order to save themselves from ruin to flatter Mrs. Chump to entreat her to lie to her and to drink champagne with her a d libitum. Indeed the w maudlin vulgar as she is is nearer Nature f a the nymphs who perhaps so j ustly despise her. The real i s here In full cry after sentimentalism but the elusive quarry scarcely finds its deathblow even 26

36 poses the correcting o f pretentiousness o f inflation T h e S e ntime ntali st though the author forgets at times his admonition to be feeling and sentiment kindly- Fo r cruel. are truceless foes and Meredith gazing at the unholy masquerade yields fiercest wrath and to cannot forbear from tearing the simulacrum to tatters if only in a novel. Sentimentalism then is a timorous apprehension of realities sometimes o f realities in the world at l arge sometimes in reference to a person s im mediate If Comedy indeed p r o environment. f dulness and o o f the vestiges o f rawness and grossness be found among us it cannot fail to to deal some o f its st blows upon the man heavie who lives in a centred Of this acti self- world. vit y o f the Comic Spirit The E g oi st is the supreme Will oughby as Meredith once declared example. to a perturbed friend who feared that he was Will o u g hb is each y o ne o f Yet the most perfect us. examples o f the man concentred all in self are to be found in the landed class for little princes ab o und in a land o f heaped- u p riches and Comedy deals with human nature in the drawing- room of civilised men and women where we have no dust o f t 1 8 struggling outer world it is a game played ; t o throw reflections upon social life and there! fore we ne rdl y setting such as Pa tte r ne Court can give. E g oist is a book o f hairbreadth escapes and thrilling evasions not less humorous because the happy ending 1s within an ace o f tr a g e d y l 2 7

37 Ge o rg e M e r e di th It is a marvellous e xposition of that art which is the opposite of the realistic method that co n scie ntio u s transcription o f all the visible and a repetition of all the audible a method which is mainly accountable for our present branfulness. The E g oist is the to ur de f or ce of a virtuoso revel ling in an ironic fantasia an amazing pattern of verbal sleight- o f hand such as only a highly civilised perhaps a super- civilised age could either bring to birth or admi r e. Incident follows thick upon incident. We are o n probability s verge but we are tolerant and o ur tolerance is amply rewarded. The E g oist has a genuine hero and he is marvel lo usl y analysed. A hero indeed he is the hero o f a whole County its richest landlord and its finest gentleman worshipped with incense and obla ; tion since his youngest Th whole county e days. awaits his marriage choice with awe and much patience it venerates though a mutinous section has an uncanny penetration into his faults. Wil lo u g h b y has in outward seeming all the virtues and all the gifts of Fortune splendid health court line ss an apt turn of phrase a fine figure quick ness of perception. In fact he has a leg though w e need not follow the author into his two - page disquisition o n A fine equipment but alas I! it. he is blind in He is egocentric revolved o ne eye. around by the whole world. He must lord it ove r all with sovranty unquestioned whether it is his 28

38 Th e S e ntime ntali st future wife ; his protégé or rather Vernon s Cross j ay Pa tte r ne o r the unhappy Flitch who in a bale ful hour of independence left Pa tte r ne Court for the great world. Humour him and as Mrs. Mount stuart Jenkinson said you can do anything with him but every religion has its heretics. There was Constantia Durham the racing cutter who eloped with Harry Oxford in preference for though it i s not given to every man to be a hero to his lady-love Willoughby insisted on being hero. Why was it then that he seemed to some intolerable filled others almost with loathing 9 Minute a n alysis of his character seems fitting for it is his o w n first pastime. He is generous by aim o r per haps impulse and disposition as Clara Middleton suggests ; he hates deceit ; he loves silver purity the fruit o f the full bloom he cannot endure a hostile public opinion perhaps for this reason e s chews politics he is implacable it is admitted ; but ridiculous kind Heaven never! And so the whole novel displays a struggle to keep him in perfect balance poised on his self- constructed pedestal Constantia s j ilting dare we use the word i h ad been a deadly blow but a marriage with the adorable Clara would be ample consolation. However the egoist s course of true love never did run At first the thought at smooth. length the word the fateful ominous hideous word twice reverberates with ghastly echoes down the labyrinths of his mind. Constantia h ad 2 9

39 G e o rge M e r e dith forsworn him for another Clara never shall. Elo q u e nce pertinacity crafty hints o f maiden j e a l o us y man oeuvres in which all things from fourteen year o ld boys to ar ninety- ye o ld port play their part no artifice is left the egoist is Fo r untried. the father and child o f He is so highly himself. civilised that the tiniest suggestion Of ridicule is cruellest He has an appalling r fea o n agony. behalf o f his naked eidolon the tender infant elf swaddled in his na me before the world There th e poor little loveable creature ran fo r any mo nth to blow u p on and frostnipped and bruised it cried to him and he was o f. no avail. Through such sen sitive ne ss he had refused to live in town had barred himself in his mansion encircled by a band o f adoring satellites. So to o in conversation he sought accordant notes that subservient harmony o f another instrument desired o f musicians when they have done their solo- playing. So too he loved to throw o ut characterisations o f himself in self- defence. He is unpoetical ; poetry as it is proved to demonstration is o f no account. Th e very intensity o f his perceptions debars him from the bays Call me : a positive mind. Having plumped for science in this a r a r a a vi s amongst country gentlemen he has escaped the vice of domineering self- suffi cie nc y peculiar to classical men. His egoism has its attractive side. Yield t o h im and he is a Prince Charming who loves to be generous ; thwart him by accident or delib e rately 3 0

40 will tell Clara Of Vernon s unhappy secret ma r r Ia g e ton a maiden o f eighteen is described by Meredith T h e S e ntime ntali st and he will cut gallant Captain Pa tte r ne of the Marines a n act inexplicable to poor Cr o ssj a y é will expel Cr o ss j a y without ceremony from the Hall after having nearly ruined him by indulgence. As a Scientist he has early adopted the principles o f Eugenism and that is why he scrutinises Laetitia Dale s complexion so closely he has a deep fo r solicitude for his babes yet is a complex He unborn. character to which no delineation much shorter than the actual novel could do j ustice but despite ; that shivering before public opinion which leads to a ll manner of disguise he is fathomed i t is strange how clearly by his train o f worshippers. The E g oi st is from o ne point o f View the history o f the d e v el o p m e nt ' o f an antipathy. Clara Middle the first o f a host o f adorers with all his wealth of poetic metaphor as a Mountain Echo o ne who carries youth like a flag. and a dainty rogue in ; porcelain She has money health and ; withal. beauty the triune o f perfect starriness which f makes all men astronomers Willoughby is the ' impassioned lover at first sight. He carries the fortress by storm and fixes the date o f the marriage six months hence. Clara and her father Dr. Middle- 5 ton the great scholar come to stay at Pa tte r ne Hall and familiarity breeds In his s aversion. folly Will oughby reveals all his variety o f weak ; nesses and apologises for them in the boastful 3 I

41 G e o rg e M e r edith strain of the true Th maiden hints the e egoist. possibility of alienation Willoughby indignantly denies Th lady s distaste increases but her e it. father a rare enthusiast for good wine has been vanquished by the craft of the self- lover. Pa tte r ne Hall contains in its cellars port such as only the connoisseur can appreciate wine such as can light up candelabras in the brain to illuminate all history and solve the secret of the destiny of man. In a brill iant chapter we behold the scholar overcome by this grand vintage overcome in metaphor not in fact for as he proudly tells us he can carry three bottles and his departure is postponed sine die. scious o f the danger of the situation Willoughby meantime is con intuitively a conj urer in self- defence conscious to o that Clara has tried to escape by train to a girl- friend. His dulness o f vision into the heart o f his enemy was compensated by his agile sensitiveness obscur ing but rendering h im. mir a culo usl y active He offers his hand again to Laetitia Dale who refuses him. But Cr o ss j a y locked o ut o f his bedroom owing to his treachery towards Willoughby and snugly ensconced beneath the ottoman is a hearer and reveals enough to De Craye the Irishman to enable him to disseminate the news. We are now nearing the amazing finale which hurries on with overpowering gusto. In a scene which seems V I sualise d in the manner of a playwright we find differe nt personage s entering in succession : Lady 3 2

42

43 ' G e o r g e M e redith o r a problem of th e higher mathematics. Th e fi ne shades and delicate feelings were never more con vmcm g l y portrayed. It is the finest essence of comedy the ballast being reducible to moisture by a patent process the laughter of reason r e freshed - a deed of the mind which will be a joy for ever. 34

44 as anything in this mortal life. It is fair game CHAPTER III Y OUT H I AN D yet our great exponent o f the Comic Spirit is no t untouched by o r insensible to the ardours and fervencies o f youth. Youth with its profound inexperience its divine seriousness its love Of the extreme can provide the student of the Comic Spirit with as fertile a theme and as copious material for it can always see others follies though never its own. It is a perpetual source of j est to the Adrian Ha r l e vs o f this world to hearts less selfish than the Epicurean o f Raynham Abbey an ever welling spring of some humaner pleasure. Yet it has a noble side. If it is charming in its foll ies it bears itself with a divine air amid its failures. Great writers and noble natures are aware of this. Meredith w ould have been a much smaller man and a far inferior writer had he not estimated his progress in perception of the comic by his ability true to his o w n monition still to love those whom he ridiculed. Even while he noted every minute folly and traced every far branching ramification o f stripling absurdity he could thrill in noble sym pathy with everything sublime in youth s progress t o the higher wisdom with everything tragic in its 35