The man who had 'achieved' his greatness, the chief who had made his
way through such angry hosts of rivals, and through such formidable
social barriers, from his little seat in the Devonshire corner to a
place in the state, so commanding, that even the jester, who was the
'Mr. Punch' of that day, conceived it to be within the limits of his
prerogative to call attention to it, and that too in 'the presence'
itself [See 'the knave' _commands_ 'the queen.'--_Tarleton_]--a place
of command so acknowledged, that even the poet could call him in the
ear of England 'her _most_ dear delight'--such a one was not going to
give up so easily the game he had been playing here so long. He was
not to be foiled with this great flaw in his fortunes even here; and
though all his work appeared for the time to be undone, and though the
eye that he had fastened on him was 'the eye' that had in it 'twenty
thousand deaths.'
It is this patient piecing and renewing of his broken webs, it is this
second building up of his position rather than the first, that shows
us what he is. One must see what he contrived to make of those
'apartments' in the Tower while he occupied them; what before
unimagined conveniencies, and elegancies, and facilities of
communication, and means of operation, they began to develop under the
searching of his genius: what means of reaching and moving the public
mind; what wires that reached to the most secret councils of state
appeared to be inlaid in those old walls while he was within them;
what springs that commanded even there movements not less striking and
anomalous than those which had arrested the critical and admiring
attention of Tarleton under the Tudor administration,--movements on
that same royal board which Ferdinand and Miranda were seen to be
playing on in Prospero's cell when all was done,--one must see what
this logician, who was the magician also, contrived to make of the
lodging which was at first only 'the cell' of a condemned criminal;
what power there was there to foil his antagonists, and crush them
too,--if nothing but throwing themselves under the wheels of his
advancement would serve their purpose; one must look at all this to
see 'what manner of man' this was, what stuff this genius was made of,
in whose hearts ideas that had been parted from all antiquities were
getting welded here then--welded so firmly that all futurities would
not disjoin them, so firmly that thrones, and dominions, and
principalities, and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this
world might combine in vain to disjoin them--the ideas whose union was
the new 'birth of time.' It is this life in 'the cell'--this game,
these masques, this tempest, that the magician will command
there--which show us, when all is done, what new stuff of Nature's own
this was, in which the new idea of combining 'the part operative' and
the part speculative of human life--this new thought of making 'the
art and practic part of life _the mistress_ to its theoric' was
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account