There is a strange pathos in his criticism when he was first shown the
magnificent but somewhat appalling portrait of himself painted by Mr.
Herkomer, taken when he was not far from the end. "Do I really look as
though I held the world so cheap?" he said. It was like a kind of
recantation, a kind of protest against the opinion which held him to be
so innately an unkindly man; a kind of claim to be reckoned as one of
the human race whom he was popularly supposed to despise.
An impressive figure is gone from us. We cannot, without a pang, see our
characteristic types pass and disappear from the gallery of life. The
late Master of Trinity possessed, perhaps, a character that appealed
more to the older, to the humorous than to the young, the generous, the
ardent. But we shall terribly misunderstand him if we do not see that a
heart beat beneath the cynical mask, that the figure inside the sardonic
shrine was of pure gold.
1886.
HENRY BRADSHAW
THOSE who on that grey February day, with its pitiless east wind,
straggled sadly away from the shadow of the great church where they had
laid all that was mortal of their friend, must have found it hard to
believe that the familiar figure would never again be seen pacing down
that very walk. Day by day it used to pass along the huge white front of
the Fellows' buildings, with steps short but never hurried, the broad
shoulders swaying almost imperceptibly, the great head set back, and the
kindly humorous eye glancing over the great buttresses that fronted him,
as he clasped the well-worn note-book to his side. And the mourners felt
the blank still more, because it was just on such occasions as that
which they had been attending, that he knew how to render sympathy and
comfort as no one else alive could do. They could some of them remember
how in such moments of unutterable regret, he would come close to them
with no easy words of healing, for a grief that words could not touch,
but with love and sadness and mute inquiry in his eyes, would in tender
demonstration take and retain a hand--and nothing more--only saying,
perhaps, "I understand," and so pass on, knowing that by showing human
fellowship, by suffering with you--for he made no pretence not to
suffer--he had done far more than if he had pointed you to a help of
which you knew already, and to a strength to which you could not yet
aspire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account