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Tracks of a Rolling Stone-Part16_Henry J.Coke(1827-1916)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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which Christians cut one another's Christian weasands.



And who has not a tenderness for the 'beautiful and well-

favoured' Rachels, and the 'tender-eyed' Leahs, and the



tricksy little Zilpahs, and the Rebekahs, from the wife of

Isaac of Gerar to the daughter of Isaac of York? Who would



not love to sit with Jessica where moonlight sleeps, and

watch the patines of bright gold reflected in her heavenly



orbs? I once knew a Jessica, a Polish Jessica, who - but

that was in Vienna, more than half a century ago.



Beninsky's orbs brightened visibly when I bade him break his

fast at my high tea. I ordered everything they had in the



house I think, - a cold Pomeranian GANSEBRUST, a garlicky

WURST, and GERAUCHERTE LACHS. I had a packet of my own



Fortnum and Mason's Souchong; and when the stove gave out its

glow, and the samovar its music, Beninsky's gratitude and his



hunger passed the limits of restraint. Late into the night

we smoked our meerschaums.



When I spoke of the Russians, he got up nervously to see the

door was shut, and whispered with bated breath. What a



relief it was to him to meet a man to whom he could pour out

his griefs, his double griefs, as Pole and Israelite. Before



we parted I made him put the remains of the sausage (!) and

the goose-breast under his petticoats. I bade him come to me



in the morning and show me all that was worth seeing in

Warsaw. When he left, with tears in his eyes, I was consoled



to think that for one night at any rate he and his GANSEBRUST

and sausage would rest peacefully in Abraham's bosom. What



Abraham would say to the sausage I did not ask; nor perhaps

did my poor Beninsky.



CHAPTER XV

THE remainder of the year '49 has left me nothing to tell.



For me, it was the inane life of that draff of Society - the

young man-about-town: the tailor's, the haberdasher's, the



bootmaker's, and trinket-maker's, young man; the dancing and

'hell'-frequenting young man; the young man of the 'Cider



Cellars' and Piccadilly saloons; the valiant dove-slayer, the

park-lounger, the young lady's young man - who puts his hat



into mourning, and turns up his trousers because - because

the other young man does ditto, ditto.



I had a share in the Guards' omnibus box at Covent Garden,

with the privilege attached of going behind the scenes. Ah!



that was a real pleasure. To listen night after night to

Grisi and Mario, Alboni and Lablache, Viardot and Ronconi,



Persiani and Tamburini, - and Jenny Lind too, though she was

at the other house. And what an orchestra was Costa's - with



Sainton leader, and Lindley and old Dragonetti, who together

but alone, accompanied the RECITATIVE with their harmonious



chords on 'cello and double-bass. Is singing a lost art? Or

is that but a TEMPORIS ACTI question? We who heard those now



silent voices fancy there are none to match them nowadays.

Certainly there are no dancers like Taglioni, and Cerito, and



Fanny Elsler, and Carlotta Grisi.

After the opera and the ball, one finished the night at



Vauxhall or Ranelagh; then as gay, and exactly the same, as

they were when Miss Becky Sharpe and fat Jos supped there



only five-and-thirty years before.

Except at the Opera, and the Philharmonic, and Exeter Hall,



one rarely heard good music. Monsieur Jullien, that prince

of musical mountebanks - the 'Prince of Waterloo,' as John



Ella called him, was the first to popularise classical music

at his promenade concerts, by tentatively introducing a



single movement of a symphony here and there in the programme

of his quadrilles and waltzes and music-hall songs.



Mr. Ella, too, furthered the movement with his Musical Union

and quartett parties at Willis's Rooms, where Sainton and



Cooper led alternately, and the incomparable Piatti and Hill

made up the four. Here Ernst, Sivori, Vieuxtemps, and



Bottesini, and Mesdames Schumann, Dulcken, Arabella Goddard,

and all the famous virtuosi played their solos.



Great was the stimulus thus given by Ella's energy and

enthusiasm. As a proof of what he had to contend with, and



what he triumphed over, Halle's 'Life' may be quoted, where

it says: 'When Mr. Ella asked me [this was in 1848] what I



wished to play, and heard that it was one of Beethoven's




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