The Silver Domino; Or, Side Whispers, Social and LiteraryCorelli, Marie
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The Silver Domino; Or, Side Whispers, Social and Literary
Corelli, Marie
English essays -- 19th century; Literature -- Criticism and interpretation; Satire
The "vulgarity of the world" and the "outside vulgar" are phrases
by which the literary folk designate the vast Public, without whose
substantial appreciation, they, the inside elect, would starve. The
"outside vulgar," however, with unerring good taste, have purchased
Tennyson's work for the past fifty years, and in the rich harvest
of thoughts they have thus gathered, they can smile with a tender
indulgence at their Kingly Minstrel's shrinking aversion to the
"crowd" who loved him. He was the greatest poet of the Victorian era;
and, draped in the flag of England, as befits his sturdy and splendid
patriotism, he sleeps the sleep of the just and pure-minded who have
served their Art, as worthy subjects serve their Queen, loyally and
unflinchingly to the end. It was "fitting," I suppose, that he should
be laid to rest in dismal "Poet's Corner"--(beside Browning, too! the
Real singer beside the Sham!)--but many would rather have seen him
placed in a shrine of his own,--a warm grassy grave under the "talking"
English oaks whose forest language he so well translated, than thus
pent up among the crumbling ashes of inferior and almost forgotten men.
Another change has come "o'er the spirit of my dream" since, in the
language of the _Daily Chronicle_, I flung back the curtain and made
my bow to the public "in a breezy, not to say slap-bang, manner." The
_Pall Mall Gazette_ has changed hands and politics. Once, as will
be seen in the ensuing pages, I adored the _Pall Mall Gazette_. Its
fads, its whimsies, its prize "booms," and above all its religious
notions, were my delight. It was, as I said, a "bright particular star"
in the sphere of journalism, but I doubt whether it will continue to
shine on. I much fear that its days of Whimsicality and Boom are over,
though it now has a serious and gentlemanly Scot for an editor, who
does not find his chief amusement in levelling cheap sneers at Crown
and Constitution, and advocating a dangerous and (at heart) unpopular
Democracy. However, we shall see. In the interim, though I may not now
"adore" the _Pall Mall_, I mournfully respect it.
I fancy I have made a slight error in that harmless, but Grundy-scaring
jest of mine entitled "The Journalist's Creed." I have alluded to the
excellent and brilliant Henry Labouchere, as "very Rad of very Rad." It
should have been "very Tory of very Tory." This is absurd? Incongruous?
Impossible? Well! Events will prove whether I am right or wrong. And
I beg to assure all whom it may concern, that I consider there is no
more "irreverence" in the "Journalist's Creed" than is displayed by the
respectable church-goer who murmurs an address or prayer to God in the
hollow of his stove-pipe hat, rather than spoil the set of his trousers
by kneeling down.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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