Isabel Burton

“ As religion, it is instructive, edifying, and devotional; as art, it is a powerful and absorbing drama, quite unique in the world, with nothing to shock the most refined and sensitive religious instinct, or yet the most ignorant. If any one objects, it will be the slightly educated, and that only to pose, for they probably understand not art, nor heart, nor religion. ”

“ Ubi bene ibi patria; wherever Lord Houghton may have settled himself, he is equally surrounded with the signs of elegance and ease ; therefore, to adopt the Latin proverb, he is at home everywhere, even as, wherever he receives them, he makes the guests whom he delights to entertain with his graceful hospitality emphatically at home too. On the present occasion, however, let us elect to visit him within easy driving distance of Pontefract, which he represented for twenty-five years on both sides of the House, at Fryston Hall. A house more delightful than this it is difficult to imagine. ”

“ Though the beetle's foot o'er the basil crawl?'
And though Arachne hath webbed her toil.
Shall disgrace attach to the princely hall
And the pearl's clear drop from the oyster-shell,
Comes it not on the royal brow to dwell ?
On the Guarded Tablet was writ by Fate,
A double self for each man ere born,
Who shall love his love and shall hate his hate. ”

“ Are they better than the Crusaders who acted the Passion? Better than the saintly Abbot of St. Alban's, who composed and acted them with his scholars? Better than holy, excellent Father Daisenberger, the priest-dramatist of Ober-Ammergau, the author of so many Biblical and historical plays and drams, the pious man who undertook this very play "for the edification of the Christian world"? ”

“ Trip o'er the landscape, and pursuing sleet
Earth's brow beglooming, robs the skies of smile:
Lies in her mourning-shroud our Northern Isle
And bitter winds in battle o'er her meet.
Her world is death-like, when behold! ”

“ Five African explorers have pined for the honour of discovering the sources of the Nile, and each one in his turn has believed himself to be that fortunate person, until now that Livingstone (the one who cared the least for that honour) has discovered waters more southerly still. We have all been looking forward with eagerness for this news. Judge, then, of my mortification at the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Monday night, to hear all the papers read and discussed almost without reference to Captain Burton, who is en route to Damascus. ”

“ This and the affliction he sustained in the death of Lady Houghton are the two hard blows which the lord of Fryston Hall can allege against Fate that he has received. His career from the first has, with these exceptions, to eouple the mensurable with the incommensurable bereavements, been almost unique in its unbroken success, prosperity, and brilliance. Yet there was a time when at least one authority would have declined to draw such a horoscope of Monckton Milnes's future. When he was a lad in Rome, he confided to a lady eminent in Roman society his ambition to shine in the Roman world. ”

“ I have seen all the best actors and actresses of my day, and I have never beheld this before. There is never a stage strut nor a loud emotion; save when the Jews grow excited and passionate over their revenge--it is quite an Eastern idea--the gravest woes are calm and dignified.
There is no tour de force, no thirst for reputation; it is their religious and dramatic training, from the cradle to the grave, which enables them in so artistic, realistic, and devotional a spirit to portray thus the life and sufferings of Jesus. ”

“ Years passed away; the boy had travelled, had entered Parliament, had become the author of the Memorial of a Tour in Greece, Poems of Many Years, Palm Leaves, and other works of poetry, memoir, and travel; had developed into a cultivated and useful man of the world; had taken his part in the political movements of his time; had made his ten-o'clock breakfasts, his quarter-to-nine dinners, and his subsequent receptions talked about, not only in London, but throughout Europe. He happened to meet the queen of Roman fashion who had predicted his failure in the seven-hilled city. ”

“ Many a hardened sinner may be induced to shed tears of penitence at the sight of the dear Redeemer, at the sight of the bitterness He was compelled to endure for our sins; and, under the influence of Divine grace, these tears may be the foreboders of true conversion. The witnessing of the Passion may become the means of the Good Shepherd seeking and finding the lost lambs of His flock."
So may it be. Long may the Passion-Play at Ober-Ammergau continue in this spirit to glorify the Name of Jesus the Crucified, and kindle new faith and love in Him! ”

“ I always think of a prima donna at Trieste, with regard to the public. We import our operas from Milan two years before they appear in London. "We have an excellent Opera house and three theatres, always full, and the Triestines are so severe and so critical that artistes become extremely nervous; they know if they can pass Trieste they may sing anywhere. ”

“ Captain Burton, who had learnt something of sculpturing when a boy in Italy, took the sculptor's pencil from Mr Papworth's hand, and with a few touches here and there made a perfect likeness and expression. As I stood by, I was very much impressed by this singular coincidence.'
A MOULDED mask at my feet I found,
With the drawn-down mouth and the deepen'd eye,
More lifeless still than the marbles 'round —
Very death amid dead life's mimicry ”

“ I thought the performance as near dramatic and artistic perfection as human acting could be, and that it could be done nowhere else than here, where such a peculiar combination of circumstances exist, generations for centuries having been brought up to it; but I am grateful also for the safeguards which exist--since the villagers' temptations are great and the sums they have refused are enormous--for preserving its simplicity, devotion, and art.
Firstly, the Ammergauers are quite cut off, by their geographical position, from the contaminating influence of the outer world. ”

“ I should not have ventured to trouble you with this letter, but Captain Burton is en route for Damascus, and I have written to him to supply the public with a complete account of the scene of Dr. Livingstone's supposed captivity, which may tend to suggest the properest measures for securing the safety of a Christian hero who has offered up the flower of his days to the grand task of regenerating the Dark Continent. ”

“ He was the first to conceive the idea twenty years ago, the first to enter and to penetrate that country, which he did under every obstacle and difficulty, bringing back sufficient information to smooth the path to all who chose to follow him. ”

“ On referring to the page (216) alluded to and to my MSS. I find a whole line has been omitted. My notes show (line 22) , "but not a bit better one than the other. I need not trouble you with Gamand-gamanam," &c. The omission of these few words has caused this heartburning.
The criticisms to which I alluded were that the learned professor was said to be afflicted with the craze of wishing to have an Indian college at Oxford, and that the hat was going round for subscriptions. The Anglo-Indian public, which loves its joke, converted his Gamand gamanam into our homely word "gammon." ”

“ The other Gypsies have chiefly warned us of having to fight through our lives, and to be perpetually on guard against treacheries and calumnies "chiefly through jealous men and nasty women" Well, we have mostly left them to God, and they nearly always come to grief. I may add that all that Hagar Burton foretold came true, and I pray God it may be so to the end, i.e. "never long apart" in Life or Death.
Isabel Burton.
↑ Gyp. Lore Soc. Jour. II 5 p. 318.↑ A reprinting of the letter in Isabel Burton's biography appended the phrase "and is the only man, not a Gypsy, with that peculiarity". ”

“ Livingstone has undoubtedly discovered the sources, and must rank the first, but no man can claim the second honour, or the water nearest Livingstone's discovery, but Captain Burton, and no one can deny the fact that he, so to speak, opened the oyster for the others to get at the pearl. ”

“ I cannot better conclude than by quoting those earnest words, for they sum up the whole essence of the motive of the sacred Play:--
"Through the living remembrance of the Saviour's sacrificial death, many Christians will be moved and edified, strengthened anew in their faith and love to Him, and will return to their homes with renewed determination to be truer followers of Christ. Many of the lukewarm and light-minded will not be able to cast aside all the earnest impressions of what they see and hear ”

“ THE ARRANGEMENTS There are seventeen principal performers, including the Choragus, or the Proclamator, and the Conductor--these are the intelligent, cultivated, artistic wood-carvers; between five and six hundred persons appear on the stage--these are the peasants; and the theatre altogether, with workmen, machinery, etc., etc., gives occupation to seven hundred out of the thirteen hundred inhabitants of Ober-Ammergau. The money that flows into the village through the Passion-Play is divided into four parts: the first to the poor; the second to the expense of the theatre ”

“ It will not be forgotten that our good friend Paul du Chaillu made sundry stout-hearted attempts to reach that mysterious basin, concerning which he is also of opinion that it is wholly independent of the Nile Valley. ”

“ I should here remark that all the twenty-six groups or tableaux, which represent the Old Testament foreshadowings of the New, are most artistic, but I would single out the Israelites being fed with manna. The hundred and fifty little children, some looking up, and all collecting and catching it, is one of the finest. ”

“ As for art, while there was no formal picture-gallery, there was a host of fine family paintings — Reynoldses, Romneys, Gainsboroughs, Lawrences, Hoppners, and Richmonds ; some good landscapes besides. ”

“ Captain Burton had recently returned from Africa. The annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science had just taken place at Bath, and poor Captain Speke's sudden death was still fresh in our memories. "We had been invited by the artist to look at Captain Speke's bust, upon which he was then employed. Mr Papworth said to Captain Burton, "I only took the cast after death, and never knew him alive ”

“ Forbid the people ridiculing the plays and players, as they should be held in veneration, but not from witnessing the plays, and least of all this Play, which is a something that should not be touched, which has a halo of its own, from its origin, its religious importance, its native refinement. ”