Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol. 2)Trollope, Frances Milton
History
Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol. 2)
Trollope, Frances Milton
Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
As I looked on upon the hideous scene, and remembered the classic
horrors of the Greek tragedians, and of the mighty imitators who have
followed them, I could not help thinking that the performance of MM.
Gaillardet et ***** was exceedingly like that of a monkey mimicking
the operations of a man. He gets hold of the same tools, but turns the
edges the wrong way; and instead of raising a majestic fabric in
honour of human genius, he rolls the materials in mud, begrimes his
own paws in the slimy cement, and then claws hold of every unwary
passenger who comes within his reach, and bespatters him with the
rubbish he has brought together. Such monkeys should be chained, or
they will do much mischief.
It is hardly possible that such dramas as the "Tour de Nesle" can be
composed with the intention of producing a great tragic effect; which
is surely the only reason which can justify bringing sin and misery
before the eyes of an audience. There is in almost every human heart a
strange love for scenes of terror and of woe. We love to have our
sympathies awakened--our deepest feelings roused; we love to study in
the magic mirror of the scene what we ourselves might feel did such
awful visitations come upon us; and there is an unspeakable interest
inspired by looking on, and fancying that were it so with us, we might
so act, so feel, so suffer, and so die. But is there in any land a
wretch so lost, so vile, as to be capable of feeling sympathy with any
sentiment or thought expressed throughout the whole progress of this
"Tour de Nesle"? God forbid!
I have heard of poets who have written under the inspiration of brandy
and laudanum--the exhalations from which are certainly not likely to
form themselves into images of distinctness or beauty; but the
inspiration that dictated the "Tour de Nesle" must have been something
viler still, though not less powerful. It must, I think, have been the
cruel calculation of how many dirty francs might be expressed from the
pockets of the idle, by a spectacle new from its depth of atrocity,
and attractive from its newness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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