DOI article:
Milman, Lena: A few notes upon Mr. James
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27806#0084
80 A Few Notes upon Mr. James
story, “Sir Edmund Orme,” is an example of this. The ghost of
Sir Edmund is invisible to all but two persons, and all that these
two have in common is a great love for one woman—a love so
great that, as we read, it seems almost natural that it should suffice
to rarefy mortal sense and extend its range beyond things of
matter. There is something, too, of this mystical element in
“The Madonna of the Future,” although here the question is not
of the dead appearing, but of one whose gaze is so constantly fixed
upon the ideal that the real becomes a shadow. It is the story of
Don Ouixote over again, but, in place of the knight, we have
Theobald, the poor artist, in place of Dulcinea, his model Sera-
fina, whose virtue, whose beauty is as imaginary as was that of her
Spanish prototype. The scene is laid in the Florence of to-day—
that Florence whose hotel windows look out upon Arno’s bank,
where Dante’s gaze first lit upon Beatrice, where the shrine of
Our Lady of the Flower is thronged by a cosmopolitan crowd
who refuse her homage. And upon this background, mediaeval in
outline but modern in every detail, the little wan figure of the
artist stands out, imaginary no doubt as an individual, but typical
of how much pathos, of how much high endeavour ! There are
some to whom Ouixote himself is merely a caricature ; there are
others to whom he recalls a singleness of aim, a tender sensibility,
an undaunted courage which was once theirs. They are wiser
now : they have seen how ridiculous is vain effort, how contempt-
ible a figure he cuts who sets himself a task beyond his strength,
and yet ... But in this vein Mr. James has never done better
than in the “ Altar of the Dead.” The many will never so much
as read it—the many who can only read stories which they can
imagine of the “ people over the way ; ” but to the few who grieve
when the Master is content to do merely well what he can do
exquisitely, this last story comes as a pledge of yet further possi-
bilities,
story, “Sir Edmund Orme,” is an example of this. The ghost of
Sir Edmund is invisible to all but two persons, and all that these
two have in common is a great love for one woman—a love so
great that, as we read, it seems almost natural that it should suffice
to rarefy mortal sense and extend its range beyond things of
matter. There is something, too, of this mystical element in
“The Madonna of the Future,” although here the question is not
of the dead appearing, but of one whose gaze is so constantly fixed
upon the ideal that the real becomes a shadow. It is the story of
Don Ouixote over again, but, in place of the knight, we have
Theobald, the poor artist, in place of Dulcinea, his model Sera-
fina, whose virtue, whose beauty is as imaginary as was that of her
Spanish prototype. The scene is laid in the Florence of to-day—
that Florence whose hotel windows look out upon Arno’s bank,
where Dante’s gaze first lit upon Beatrice, where the shrine of
Our Lady of the Flower is thronged by a cosmopolitan crowd
who refuse her homage. And upon this background, mediaeval in
outline but modern in every detail, the little wan figure of the
artist stands out, imaginary no doubt as an individual, but typical
of how much pathos, of how much high endeavour ! There are
some to whom Ouixote himself is merely a caricature ; there are
others to whom he recalls a singleness of aim, a tender sensibility,
an undaunted courage which was once theirs. They are wiser
now : they have seen how ridiculous is vain effort, how contempt-
ible a figure he cuts who sets himself a task beyond his strength,
and yet ... But in this vein Mr. James has never done better
than in the “ Altar of the Dead.” The many will never so much
as read it—the many who can only read stories which they can
imagine of the “ people over the way ; ” but to the few who grieve
when the Master is content to do merely well what he can do
exquisitely, this last story comes as a pledge of yet further possi-
bilities,