Fors Clavigera (Volume 2 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain — John Shaqi
Fors Clavigera (Volume 2 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great BritainRuskin, John
General
Fors Clavigera (Volume 2 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain
Ruskin, John
Aesthetics; Conduct of life; Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems; Working class -- Great Britain
"My father revered her as much as he loved; and blamed her only
for her too great tenderness for me: but my grandmother loved me no
less. I think I see her yet--the good little old woman! the bright
nature that she had! the gentle gaiety! Economist of the house,
she presided over its management, and was an example to us all of
filial tenderness, for she had also her own mother and her husband's
mother to take care of. I am now dating far back, being just able
to remember my great-grandmother drinking her little cup of wine at
the corner of the hearth; but, during the whole of my childhood,
my grandmother and her three sisters lived with us, and among all
these women, and a swarm of children, my father stood alone, their
support. With little means enough, all could live. Order, economy,
and labour,--a little commerce, but above all things, frugality"
(Note again the good scholar's accuracy of language: "Economy" the
right arrangement of things, "Frugality" the careful and fitting
use of them)--"these maintained us all in comfort. The little garden
produced vegetables enough for the need of the house; the orchard gave
us fruit, and our quinces, apples, and pears, preserved in the honey
of our bees, made, during the winter, for the children and old women,
the most exquisite breakfasts."
I interrupt again to explain to you, once for all, a chief principle
with me in translation. Marmontel says, "for the children and good
old women." Were I quoting the French I would give his exact words,
but in translating I miss the word "good," of which I know you are
not likely to see the application at the moment. You would not see
why the old women should be called good, when the question is only
what they had for breakfast. Marmontel means that if they had been
bad old women they would have wanted gin and bitters for breakfast,
instead of honey-candied quinces; but I can't always stop to tell
you Marmontel's meaning, or other people's, and therefore if I think
it not likely to strike you, and the word weakens the sentence in
the direction I want you to follow, I omit it in translating, as I
do also entire sentences, here and there; but never, as aforesaid,
in actual quotation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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