Doric

“ Some peculiarities of the Doric dialect of Corinth and Sicyon have been noticed above; in general, however, we know little of these dialects; but of the Megarian we are better informed by means of the Acharneans of Aristophanes, and this probably gives a tolerably correct notion of the Doric of Peloponnesus, except Sparta. The Dryopians of Hermione also spoke Doric; at least an Hermionean inscription contains such Dorisms as ἐπιδαμῶντι, ποττὰν πόλιν, τοὺς δὲ λαΐναν δόμεν στάλαν, Boeckh No. ”

“ Apophthegmatic style of expression used by the Dorians. § 3. Apophthegms of the Seven Sages. § 4. Griphus invented by the Dorians. § 5. Symbolical language of the Pythagorean philosophy. 1. It has been shown in the preceding chapter that the national and original poetry of the Doric race was not the epic, but the lyric; which is occupied rather in expressing inward feelings, than in describing outward objects. If this predilection may be considered as natural to the whole race, it will enable us to explain why history neither originated among, nor was cultivated by the Dorians. ”

“ The Doric is the best proportioned of all the orders. The several parts of which it is composed are founded on the natural position of solid bodies. In its first invention it was more simple than in its present state. In after times, when it began to be adorned, it gained the name of Doric; for when it was constructed in its primitive and simple form, the name of Tuscan was conferred on it. Hence the Tuscan precedes the Doric in rank, on account of its resemblance to that pillar in its original state. ”

“ Now it may with safety be asserted, that the principal deities of the Dorians were Apollo and Artemis, since their worship is found to have predominated in all the settlements of that race; and conversely the Doric origin can be either proximately or remotely traced wherever there were any considerable institutions dedicated to the worship of Apollo; insomuch that the adoration of this god may be shown from the most ancient testimonies of mythology to have gradually advanced with the extension of the Doric [pg 220] nation. ”

“ Doris, in the limited meaning of the term, was the valley of the river Pindus. Whenever the Doric Tripolis is mentioned, the three cities meant are Bœum, Cytinium, and Erineus;145 which last place, as being the most considerable, appears to have been also called Dorium:146 but when writers speak of a Tetrapolis, Acyphas (or Pindus) is added as a fourth town.147 This is the country which Dorus the son of Hellen is said to have inhabited, when he brought together his nation on the side of Parnassus;148 a tradition which totally loses sight of the more ancient settlements of the Doric race. ”

“ The representative of the state is Hercules the Doric hero: moreover, the free spirit, the bravery, and the good laws of the Selgæans (although the reverse is sometimes attributed to them) were derived from their mother-state.509 The wrestling youths in the act of grasping one another (ἀκροχειριζόμενοι) represented on their coins, bespeak a love for gymnastic exercises. It should, however, be remembered, that the founders of this colony were, according to a more exact statement, Amyclæans,510 i.e. fugitive Periœci, who perhaps had [pg 139] passed through Cnidos in their way to these districts. ”

“ The Roman Doric order of the portico has much simple beauty. The entasis of the columns is more moderate than is common in later Renaissance design, and the light falls on their rounded surfaces, as they stand relieved against the dark void of the porch, with admirable effect. The façade as a whole is monotonous, but it has an expression of architectural reserve that is worthy of praise. ”

“ Although historical tradition does not extend so far as to prove and verify this view of the subject, still it agrees with all that is characteristic of the Dorians. In the first place then, we know that sculpture was diligently cultivated at an early time in several Doric cities; first perhaps in Crete, the most ancient abode of Doric civilisation;1748 then in Ægina,1749 Sicyon, Corinth, Argos,1750 and Sparta ”

“ Late in April, just before the aeon-shadowed Walpurgis time, Blake made his first trip into the unknown. Plodding through the endless downtown streets and the bleak, decayed squares beyond, he came finally upon the ascending avenue of century-worn steps, sagging Doric porches, and blear-paned cupolas which he felt must lead up to the long-known, unreachable world beyond the mists. ”

“ The age of manhood was in Crete dated from the time of admittance into the male gymnasia (there called δρόμοι;) 1452 hence a person who had exercised ten years among the men was called δεκάδρομος;1453 the youth who had not as yet wrestled or run in them ἀπόδρομος.1454 We have no account respecting other Doric towns, and merely know that the classes of the ephebi at Cyrene were called from the number of each, the “three hundred.”1455
4. Thus far respecting the arrangements for training the youths. ”

“ The Dorians in general had evidently less poetical skill and feeling than the Athenians, and did not cultivate those rude attempts of wit and mirth which the festivals called forth, and of which the Athenians knew so well how to take advantage. This incapacity or negligence of the early times enables us to explain why several kinds of Doric poetry were not received into the literature of civilized Greece until the Alexandrian age, of which we may particularly specify the bucolic poetry, and the phlyaces of Tarentum. ”

“ Yet there was also a larger council of 600,402 which may have been an aristocratical committee selected from the popular assembly. Thus much at least is clear, that the power of the people was very limited; and that, as Aristotle says, there was one oligarchy within another.403
5. To the consideration of the gerusia may be joined the inquiry concerning the kingly office in Sparta and other Doric states, as being a cognate element of the constitution. The Doric royalty was a continuation of the heroic or Homeric ”

“ States of this description must soon lose all firmness and character, and fall to pieces from their own weakness; while those which never admit of innovation will at last, after having long stood as ruins in a foreign neighbourhood, yield to the general tide of human affairs, and their destruction is commonly preceded by the most complete anarchy.
2. This description expresses, though perhaps too forcibly, the difference between the Doric and Ionic races. The former had, of all the Grecians, the [pg 004] greatest veneration for antiquity ”

“ How womankind, who are confined to the house still more than men, stand it I do not know; but I have ground to suspect that most of them do not stand it at all. When, early in a summer afternoon, we have been shaking the dust of the village from the skirts of our garments, making haste past those houses with purely Doric or Gothic fronts, which have such an air of repose about them, my companion whispers that probably about these times their occupants are all gone to bed. ”

“ Before we proceed to consider the heroic mythology of the Dorians, which is chiefly confined to Hercules, we will first attempt to sketch the principal features of the religious character of the Dorians, as seen in the several worships already enumerated. Both in the development of modes of religion peculiar to that race, and in the adoption and alteration of those of other nations, an ideal tendency may be perceived, which considered the deity not so much in reference to the works or objects of nature, as of the actions and thoughts of men. ”

“ Welcker. comp. Franck's Tyrtæus p. 173 and 203.1380.See, e.g., Plutarch Cleom. 38.1381.Plato Alcib. I. p. 41. Plin. H. N. VII. 41. Compare the saying of Gorgo in Plutarch Lac. Apophth. p. 258.1382.The Bœotian poetesses, however, Corinna and Myrto, and Diotima the Arcadian (concerning whom see Frederick Schlegel, Griechen und Roemer, vol. I. p. 275.) , were on the rank of Doric women; although in Bœotia the female sex was very much restricted, and placed under the superintendence of γυναικονόμοι (as under the ἁρμόσυνοι at Sparta, ch. 7. § 8.) , Plutarch Solon. ”

“ Mr Dorrit, seeing the whole Marshalsea and all its testimonials in the pause, instantly flew at him with, ‘How dare you, sir? What do you mean?’
‘I beg your pardon, sir,’ pleaded Mr Tinkler, ‘I was wishful to know——’
‘You wished to know nothing, sir,’ cried Mr Dorrit, highly flushed.
‘Don’t tell me you did. Ha. You didn’t. You are guilty of mockery, sir.’
‘I assure you, sir——’ Mr Tinkler began.
‘Don’t assure me!’ said Mr Dorrit. ‘I will not be assured by a domestic. You are guilty of mockery. You shall leave me—hum—the whole establishment shall leave me. ”

“ A man so much in want of airing that he had a blue mould upon him, sat watching this dark place from a hole in a corner, like a spider; and he told her that he would send a message up to Miss Dorrit by the first lady or gentleman who went through. The first lady who went through had a roll of music, half in her muff and half out of it, and was in such a tumbled condition altogether, that it seemed as if it would be an act of kindness to iron her. ”

“ No,’ said Mr Dorrit. ‘I am—hum—sure of that. Ha. Give me your hand, Young John, give me your hand.’
Young John gave it; but Mr Dorrit had driven his heart out of it, and nothing could change his face now, from its white, shocked look. ”

“ Come with me, darling Dorel!" I never before saw any one who was hungry. Come with me! I live in a country where there is food enough for everybody."
"Where is that?" said Dorel, eagerly.
"I do not quite know, little girl; but it is not in the bosom of the earth, and it is not in the sun-bright deep: so I suppose it is over the hills, and far away."
"Now I know who you are," said Dorel. "You are the lost sylphid; and people say you have travelled all over the world. But, if you do not know the way home, pray how can you tell which road to take?" ”

“ Go at once I must, it stands to reason; because I can’t live without breathing freely; and I can’t breathe freely until Arthur is out of this Marshalsea. I am stifled at the present moment, and have scarcely breath enough to say this much, and to carry this precious box down-stairs for you.’
They got into the street as the bell began to ring, Mr Meagles carrying the box. Little Dorrit had no conveyance there: which rather surprised him. He called a coach for her and she got into it, and he placed the box beside her when she was seated. In her joy and gratitude she kissed his hand. ”

“ You have always (as I have informed Mrs General) been my favourite child; I have always made you a—hum—a friend and companion; in return, I beg—I—ha—I do beg, that you accommodate yourself better to—hum—circumstances, and dutifully do what becomes your—your station.’
Mr Dorrit was even a little more fragmentary than usual, being excited on the subject and anxious to make himself particularly emphatic. ”

“ Little Dorrit’s Lover
Little Dorrit had not attained her twenty-second birthday without finding a lover. Even in the shallow Marshalsea, the ever young Archer shot off a few featherless arrows now and then from a mouldy bow, and winged a Collegian or two.
Little Dorrit’s lover, however, was not a Collegian. He was the sentimental son of a turnkey. His father hoped, in the fulness of time, to leave him the inheritance of an unstained key; and had from his early youth familiarised him with the duties of his office, and with an ambition to retain the prison-lock in the family. ”

“ When Young John appeared at half-past one without the ivory hand and waistcoat of golden sprigs, the sun shorn of his beams by disastrous clouds, Mr Pancks presented him to the yellow-haired Ruggs as the young man he had so often mentioned who loved Miss Dorrit.
‘I am glad,’ said Mr Rugg, challenging him specially in that character, ‘to have the distinguished gratification of making your acquaintance, sir. Your feelings do you honour. You are young; may you never outlive your feelings! ”

“ But that period going by, she became querulous about the cold, and shivered and whimpered. ‘It will soon be over, dear,’ said Little Dorrit patiently. ‘Oh it’s all very fine for you, little mother,’ returned Maggy, ‘but I’m a poor thing, only ten years old.’ At last, in the dead of the night, when the street was very still indeed, Little Dorrit laid the heavy head upon her bosom, and soothed her to sleep. And thus she sat at the gate, as it were alone; looking up at the stars, and seeing the clouds pass over them in their wild flight—which was the dance at Little Dorrit’s party. ”

“ At the close of the evening, when she rose to retire, Mr Dorrit took her by the hand as if he were going to lead her out into the Piazza of the people to walk a minuet by moonlight, and with great solemnity conducted her to the room door, where he raised her knuckles to his lips. Having parted from her with what may be conjectured to have been a rather bony kiss of a cosmetic flavour, he gave his daughter his blessing, graciously. ”

“ I was solicitous to promote Miss Dorrit’s happiness; and if I could have supposed that Miss Dorrit returned your affection——’
Poor John Chivery turned crimson to the tips of his ears. ‘Miss Dorrit never did, sir. I wish to be honourable and true, so far as in my humble way I can, and I would scorn to pretend for a moment that she ever did, or that she ever led me to believe she did; no, nor even that it was ever to be expected in any cool reason that she would or could. She was far above me in all respects at all times. ”