DOI article:
Noble, James Ashcroft: Mr. Stevenson's Forerunner
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21805#0142
Mr. Stevenson’s Forerunner
138
that song translate itself into dying ears ? Did it bring, in one wild
burning moment, father and mother, and poor Irish cabin, and prayers
said at bedtime, and the smell of turf fires, and innocent sweet-
hearting, and rising and setting suns ? Did it—but the dragoon’s
horse has become restive, and his helmet bobs up and down and blots
everything ; and there is a sharp sound, and I feel the great crowd
heave and swing, and hear it torn by a sharp shiver of pity, and the
men whom I saw so near but a moment ago are at immeasurable
distance, and have solved the great enigma,—and the lark has not yet
fmished his flight : you can see and hear him yonder in the fringe of
a white May cloud.There is a stronger element of terror in
this incident of the lark than in any story of a similar kind I
can remember.”
Gasps of admiration are amateurish, provinc.ial, ineffective, but
after reading such a passage as this, the words that come first—at
any rate to me—are not in the least critical but simply exclama-
tory. It is wonderful writing ! Then comes a calmer and more
analytical moment in which one discovers something of the secret
of the art in what has seemed at first not art at all but sheer nature.
Mr. Pater, in one of his most instructive essays, has shown that
the “ classical ” element in art is “ the quality of Order in beauty,”
and that “it is that addition of strangeness to beauty that con-
stitutes the romantic character,” romantic art at its best being
moreover distinguished by a fine perfection of workmanship.
This surely then is an impressive miniature example of romantic
art with its combination of strangeness and beauty, and its flaw-
less technique—its absolute Saturation of the vehicle of expression
with the very essence of the thing, the emotion that is to be
expressed. Note the directness and simplicity of the early
narrative sentences ; they are a mere recital of facts, and their
very baldness only mitigated by a single emotional phrase, “ the
surging
138
that song translate itself into dying ears ? Did it bring, in one wild
burning moment, father and mother, and poor Irish cabin, and prayers
said at bedtime, and the smell of turf fires, and innocent sweet-
hearting, and rising and setting suns ? Did it—but the dragoon’s
horse has become restive, and his helmet bobs up and down and blots
everything ; and there is a sharp sound, and I feel the great crowd
heave and swing, and hear it torn by a sharp shiver of pity, and the
men whom I saw so near but a moment ago are at immeasurable
distance, and have solved the great enigma,—and the lark has not yet
fmished his flight : you can see and hear him yonder in the fringe of
a white May cloud.There is a stronger element of terror in
this incident of the lark than in any story of a similar kind I
can remember.”
Gasps of admiration are amateurish, provinc.ial, ineffective, but
after reading such a passage as this, the words that come first—at
any rate to me—are not in the least critical but simply exclama-
tory. It is wonderful writing ! Then comes a calmer and more
analytical moment in which one discovers something of the secret
of the art in what has seemed at first not art at all but sheer nature.
Mr. Pater, in one of his most instructive essays, has shown that
the “ classical ” element in art is “ the quality of Order in beauty,”
and that “it is that addition of strangeness to beauty that con-
stitutes the romantic character,” romantic art at its best being
moreover distinguished by a fine perfection of workmanship.
This surely then is an impressive miniature example of romantic
art with its combination of strangeness and beauty, and its flaw-
less technique—its absolute Saturation of the vehicle of expression
with the very essence of the thing, the emotion that is to be
expressed. Note the directness and simplicity of the early
narrative sentences ; they are a mere recital of facts, and their
very baldness only mitigated by a single emotional phrase, “ the
surging