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第31节

lay morals-第31节

小说: lay morals 字数: 每页4000字

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hat;  for its purpose; is faultless。

It was in much the same spirit that our artist sat down to  his drawings。  He is by nature a Bunyan of the pencil。  He;  too; will draw anything; from a butcher at work on a dead  sheep; up to the courts of Heaven。  'A Lamb for Supper' is  the name of one of his designs; 'Their Glorious Entry' of  another。  He has the same disregard for the ridiculous; and  enjoys somewhat of the same privilege of style; so that we  are pleased even when we laugh the most。  He is literal to  the verge of folly。  If dust is to be raised from the unswept  parlour; you may be sure it will 'fly abundantly' in the  picture。  If Faithful is to lie 'as dead' before Moses; dead  he shall lie with a warrant … dead and stiff like granite;  nay (and here the artist must enhance upon the symbolism of  the author); it is with the identical stone tables of the law  that Moses fells the sinner。  Good and bad people; whom we at  once distinguish in the text by their names; Hopeful; Honest;  and Valiant…for…Truth; on the one hand; as against By…ends;  Sir Having Greedy; and the Lord Old…man on the other; are in  these drawings as simply distinguished by their costume。   Good people; when not armed CAP…A…PIE; wear a speckled tunic  girt about the waist; and low hats; apparently of straw。  Bad  people swagger in tail…coats and chimney…pots; a few with  knee…breeches; but the large majority in trousers; and for  all the world like guests at a garden…party。  Worldly…Wiseman  alone; by some inexplicable quirk; stands before Christian in  laced hat; embroidered waistcoat; and trunk…hose。  But above  all examples of this artist's intrepidity; commend me to the  print entitled 'Christian Finds it Deep。'  'A great darkness  and horror;' says the text; have fallen on the pilgrim; it is  the comfortless deathbed with which Bunyan so strikingly  concludes the sorrows and conflicts of his hero。  How to  represent this worthily the artist knew not; and yet he was  determined to represent it somehow。  This was how he did:  Hopeful is still shown to his neck above the water of death;  but Christian has bodily disappeared; and a blot of solid  blackness indicates his place。

As you continue to look at these pictures; about an inch  square for the most part; sometimes printed three or more to  the page; and each having a printed legend of its own;  however trivial the event recorded; you will soon become  aware of two things: first; that the man can draw; and;  second; that he possesses the gift of an imagination。   'Obstinate reviles;' says the legend; and you should see  Obstinate reviling。  'He warily retraces his steps'; and  there is Christian; posting through the plain; terror and  speed in every muscle。  'Mercy yearns to go' shows you a  plain interior with packing going forward; and; right in the  middle; Mercy yearning to go … every line of the girl's  figure yearning。  In 'The Chamber called Peace' we see a  simple English room; bed with white curtains; window valance  and door; as may be found in many thousand unpretentious  houses; but far off; through the open window; we behold the  sun uprising out of a great plain; and Christian hails it  with his hand:


'Where am I now! is this the love and care Of Jesus; for the men that pilgrims are! Thus to provide!  That I should be forgiven! And dwell already the next door to heaven!'


A page or two further; from the top of the House Beautiful;  the damsels point his gaze toward the Delectable Mountains:  'The Prospect;' so the cut is ticketed … and I shall be  surprised; if on less than a square inch of paper you can  show me one so wide and fair。  Down a cross road on an  English plain; a cathedral city outlined on the horizon; a  hazel shaw upon the left; comes Madam Wanton dancing with her  fair enchanted cup; and Faithful; book in hand; half pauses。   The cut is perfect as a symbol; the giddy movement of the  sorceress; the uncertain poise of the man struck to the heart  by a temptation; the contrast of that even plain of life  whereon he journeys with the bold; ideal bearing of the  wanton … the artist who invented and portrayed this had not  merely read Bunyan; he had also thoughtfully lived。  The  Delectable Mountains … I continue skimming the first part …  are not on the whole happily rendered。  Once; and once only;  the note is struck; when Christian and Hopeful are seen  coming; shoulder…high; through a thicket of green shrubs …  box; perhaps; or perfumed nutmeg; while behind them; domed or  pointed; the hills stand ranged against the sky。  A little  further; and we come to that masterpiece of Bunyan's insight  into life; the Enchanted Ground; where; in a few traits; he  has set down the latter end of such a number of the would…be  good; where his allegory goes so deep that; to people looking  seriously on life; it cuts like satire。  The true  significance of this invention lies; of course; far out of  the way of drawing; only one feature; the great tedium of the  land; the growing weariness in well…doing; may be somewhat  represented in a symbol。  The pilgrims are near the end: 'Two  Miles Yet;' says the legend。  The road goes ploughing up and  down over a rolling heath; the wayfarers; with outstretched  arms; are already sunk to the knees over the brow of the  nearest hill; they have just passed a milestone with the  cipher two; from overhead a great; piled; summer cumulus; as  of a slumberous summer afternoon; beshadows them: two miles!  it might be hundreds。  In dealing with the Land of Beulah the  artist lags; in both parts; miserably behind the text; but in  the distant prospect of the Celestial City more than regains  his own。  You will remember when Christian and Hopeful 'with  desire fell sick。'  'Effect of the Sunbeams' is the artist's  title。  Against the sky; upon a cliffy mountain; the radiant  temple beams upon them over deep; subjacent woods; they;  behind a mound; as if seeking shelter from the splendour …  one prostrate on his face; one kneeling; and with hands  ecstatically lifted … yearn with passion after that immortal  city。  Turn the page; and we behold them walking by the very  shores of death; Heaven; from this nigher view; has risen  half…way to the zenith; and sheds a wider glory; and the two  pilgrims; dark against that brightness; walk and sing out of  the fulness of their hearts。  No cut more thoroughly  illustrates at once the merit and the weakness of the artist。   Each pilgrim sings with a book in his grasp … a family Bible  at the least for bigness; tomes so recklessly enormous that  our second; impulse is to laughter。  And yet that is not the  first thought; nor perhaps the last。  Something in the  attitude of the manikins … faces they have none; they are too  small for that … something in the way they swing these  monstrous volumes to their singing; something perhaps  borrowed from the text; some subtle differentiation from the  cut that went before and the cut that follows after …  something; at least; speaks clearly of a fearful joy; of  Heaven seen from the deathbed; of the horror of the last  passage no less than of the glorious coming home。  There is  that in the action of one of them which always reminds me;  with a difference; of that haunting last glimpse of Thomas  Idle; travelling to Tyburn in the cart。  Next come the  Shining Ones; wooden and trivial enough; the pilgrims pass  into the river; the blot already mentioned settles over and  obliterates Christian。  In two more cuts we behold them  drawing nearer to the other shore; and then; between two  radiant angels; one of whom points upward; we see them  mounting in new weeds; their former lendings left behind them  on the inky river。  More angels meet them; Heaven is  displayed; and if no better; certainly no worse; than it has  been shown by others … a place; at least; infinitely populous  and glorious with light … a place that haunts solemnly the  hearts of children。  And then this symbolic draughtsman once  more strikes into his proper vein。  Three cuts conclude the  first part。  In the first the gates close; black against the  glory struggling from within。  The second shows us Ignorance  … alas! poor Arminian! … hailing; in a sad twilight; the  ferryman Vain…Hope; and in the third we behold him; bound  hand and foot; and black already with the hue of his eternal  fate; carried high over the mountain…tops of the world by two  angels of the anger of the Lord。  'Carried to Another Place;'  the artist enigmatically names his plate … a terrible design。

Wherever he touches on the black side of the supernatural his  pencil grows more daring and incisive。  He has many true  inventions in the perilous and diabolic; he has many  startling nightmares realised。  It is not easy to select the  best; some may like one and some another; the nude; depilated  devil bounding and casting darts against the Wicket Gate; the  scroll of flying horrors that hang over Christian by the  Mouth of Hell; the horned shade that comes behind him  whispering blasphemies; the daylight breaking through that  rent cave…mouth of the mountains and falling chill adown the  haunted tunnel; Christian's further progress along the  causeway; between the two black pools; where; at every yard  or two; a gin; a pitfall

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