Thomas Medwin

“ She swooned with horror: when she recovered, the ghost told her that in future his visits should be announced by a passing-bell, and these words, distinctly whispered, ‘Mina, I am here!’ Their interviews now became frequent, till the woman fancied herself as much in love with the ghost as she had been with the man. But it was soon to prove otherwise. One fatal night she went to a ball:—what business had she there? She danced too; and, what was worse, her partner was a young Florentine, so much the counterpart of her lover, that she became estranged from his ghost. ”

“ Nothing I envy him so much as to be able to read that astonishing production in the original. As to originality, Goëthe has too much sense to pretend that he is not under obligations to authors, ancient and modern;—who is not? ”

“ Besides, one must write for particular actors, have them continually in one’s eye, sacrifice character to the personating of it, cringe to some favourite of the public, neither give him too many nor two few lines to spout, think how he would mouth such and such a sentence, look such and such a passion, strut such and such a scene. ”

“ Nothing provokes me so much as the squeamishness that excludes the exhibition of many such subjects from the stage;—a squeamishness, the produce, as I firmly believe, of a lower tone of the moral sense, and foreign to the majestic and confident virtue of the golden age of our country. All is now cant—methodistical cant. Shame flies from the heart, and takes refuge in the lips; or, our senses and nerves are much more refined than those of our neighbours. ”

“ Sheridan, who was not very scrupulous about applying to himself literary property at least, manufactured his play without so much as an acknowledgment, pecuniary or otherwise, from Lewis’s ideas; and bad as ‘Pizarro’ is, I know (from having been on the Drury-Lane Committee, and knowing, consequently, the comparative profits of plays,) that it brought in more money than any other play has ever done, or perhaps ever will do. ”

“ I met Bowles once at Rogers’s, and thought him a pleasant, gentlemanly man—a good fellow, for a parson. When men meet together after dinner, the conversation takes a certain turn. I remember he entertained us with some good stories. ”

“ He has such extent and versatility of powers in writing, that, should his Novels ever tire the public, which is not likely, he will apply himself to something else, and succeed as well.
“His mottoes from old plays prove that he, at all events, possesses the dramatic faculty, which is denied me. And yet I am told that his ‘Halidon Hill’ did not justify expectation. I have never met with it, but have seen extracts from it.”
“Do you think,” asked I, “that Sir Walter Scott’s Novels owe any part of their reputation to the concealment of the author’s name?” ”

“ Rogers was very much offended at its being said that his ‘Pleasures,’ &c. were to be found shining in green and gold morocco-bindings in most parlour-windows, and on the book-shelves of all young ladies.”
“But, don’t we all write to please them? I am sure I was more pleased with the fame my ‘Corsair’ had, than with that of any other of my books. Why? for the very reason because it did shine, and in boudoirs. Who does not write to please the women? And Rogers has succeeded: what more can he want or wish? ”

“ Shelley, when I was in Switzerland, used to dose me with Wordsworth physic even to nausea: and I do remember then reading some things of his with pleasure. He had once a feeling of Nature, which he carried almost to a deification of it:—that’s why Shelley liked his poetry.
“It is satisfactory to reflect, that where a man becomes a hireling and loses his mental independence, he loses also the faculty of writing well. ”

“ The players retrenched, transposed, and even altered the text, to suit the audience or please themselves. Who knows how much rust they rubbed off? I am sure there is rust and base metal to spare left in the old plays. When Leigh Hunt comes we shall have battles enough about those old ruffiani, the old dramatists, with their tiresome conceits, their jingling rhymes, and endless play upon words. It is but lately that people have been satisfied that Shakspeare was not a god, nor stood alone in the age in which he lived ”

“ And yet he deals praise very liberally sometimes; for he wrote to a little friend of mine, on the occasion of his late publication, that ‘he was born with a rose-bud in his mouth, and a nightingale singing in his ear,’—two very prettily turned Orientalisms. ”

“ The republican trio, when they began to publish in common, were to have had a community of all things, like the ancient Britons; to have lived in a state of nature, like savages, and peopled some ‘island of the blest’ with children in common, like ——. ”

“ People do wisest who take care of their fame when they have got it. That’s the rock I have split on. It has been said that he has been puffed into notice by his dinners and Lady Holland. Though he gives very good ones, and female Mæcenases are no bad things now-a-days, it is by no means true. Rogers has been a spoilt child ”

“ The Irish and Scotch make better husbands than we do. You will think it was an odd fancy, but I was not in the best of humours with my countrymen at that moment—you know the reason. I am told that Ada is a little termagant; I hope not. I shall write to my sister to know if this is the case: perhaps I am wrong in letting Lady Byron have entirely her own way in her education. I hear that my name is not mentioned in her presence; that a green curtain is always kept over my portrait, as over something forbidden; and that she is not to know that she has a father, till she comes of age. ”

“ That magico prodigioso must be worth reading, and nobody seems to know any thing about it but you and Shelley. Then the vision is not unlike that of Marlow’s, in his ‘Faustus.’ The bed-scene is from ‘Cymbeline;’ the song or serenade, a translation of Ophelia’s, in ‘Hamlet;’ and, more than all, the prologue is from Job, which is the first drama in the world, and perhaps the oldest poem. I had an idea of writing a ‘Job,’ but I found it too sublime. There is no poetry to be compared with it. ”

“ I have a great curiosity about every thing relating to Goëthe, and please myself with thinking there is some analogy between our characters and writings. So much interest do I take in him, that I offered to give 100l. to any person who would translate his ‘Memoirs,’ for my own reading. [1] Shelley has sometimes explained part of them to me. He seems to be very superstitious, and is a believer in astrology,—or rather was, for he was very young when he wrote the first part of his Life. I would give the world to read ‘Faust’ in the original. ”

“ This page, for instance, is a brilliant one; it is full of wit. But let us see how much of it is original. This passage, for instance, comes from Shakspeare; this bon mot from one of Sheridan’s Comedies; this observation from another writer (naming the author) ”

“ There are fine things in all the Plays on the Passions: an idea in ‘De Montfort’ struck me particularly; one of the characters said that he knew the footsteps of another. [2]
“There are four words in Alfieri that speak volumes. They are in ‘Don Carlos.’ The King and his Minister are secreted during an interview of the Infant with the Queen Consort: the following dialogue passes, which ends the scene. ‘Vedesti? Vedi. Udisti? ”

“ Miss Medwin thought Gildea more charming in his capacity of intelligent amateur captain than as consummate master of things social. They moved down together towards the stern, and stood there talking and looking forward. Mrs. Medwin and Alcock were standing together talking a little way in front of them. Then Edgar appeared with seats and rugs, which he offered to Mrs. Medwin and Alcock, who sat down, Mrs. Medwin with a rug over her knees, and then came aft to the other two, who accepted two chairs, but for the present remained standing as they talked. ”

“ Medwin, we may admit, even if he was not the “perfect idiot” he has been called, would have been a dull fellow enough if he had never met Shelley or Byron. But he did meet them, and as a result he will live to all eternity, or near it, a little gilded by their rays. He was not, Mr. Forman contends, the original of the man who “saw Shelley plain” in Browning’s lyric. None the less, he is precisely that man in the imaginations of most of us. ”

“ Medwin’s testimony, and sometimes deprives it of all value.
That the successful schoolmaster (bound alike by his interest and the obligations of his office to be mindful of the proprieties) disgusted little Bysshe, and delighted the rest of the class with obscene jocosity in reference to a familiar passage of the Æneid, is less probable than that Tom Medwin’s memory betrayed him. It is easier to believe that in a mood of unusual irritability and dullness Dr. ”

“ I can easily satisfy him that he will run no risk of losing his reputation by honoring me with his notice. I have the honor to refer Monsieur St. Maur to Mr. ——, now at the St. Charles, whose character for honor is too well known throughout the country to be disputed." And, bowing low, Medwin left the room.
"Well, now this is a pretty scrape," said St. Maur, subsiding at once; "and I don't see how I can avoid fighting him. He is not such a cockroach!" and the Frenchman turned a little pale, despite his yellow skin.
"Nonsense," replied Allington, "you shall do no such thing. ”

“ There is no woman in Melbourne who could help us to consolidate a party in the english social manner as she could. And I really attach—I really do!—considerable importance to the idea.” Such was the subsequent expression of the thoughts which were passing through the mind of Alcock as Gildea, having held back the curtain for Miss Medwin to pass, was opening the piano for her. Mrs. Medwin sat in serene unconsciousness of the possibility of her manners being considered as otherwise than her own, and would have been surprised if she had heard that anyone thought they were open to question. ”

“ Miss Cutter somewhat coldly smiled. "To my power."
"So awfully remarkable in an American."
"Ah, you like us so."
Mrs. Medwin candidly considered. "But we don't, dearest."
Her companion's smile brightened. "Then why do you come to me?"
"Oh, I like you!" Mrs. Medwin made out.
"Then that's it. There are no 'Americans.' It's always 'you.'"
"Me?" Mrs. Medwin looked lovely, but a little muddled.
"Me!" Mamie Cutter laughed. "But if you like me, you dear thing, you can judge if I like you." She gave her a kiss to dismiss her. "I'll see you again when I've seen her." ”

“ Medwin" in The Better Sort: 85–104. — First English book edition "Mrs. Medwin" in The Better Sort (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1903) : 116–142. — First American book edition "Mrs. Medwin" in The Novels and Tales of Henry James 18: 471–506. — The "New York Edition", substantially edited by James and now generally regarded as the authoritative text. "Mrs. Medwin" in Daisy Miller, Pandora, The Patagonia, and Other Tales (London: Macmillan & Co., 1923) : 423–452. — Volume 23 of The Novels and Stories of Henry James, the first posthumous collection of James' works ”

“ Although Medwin heard about the story when he was with the Shelleys in 1820 [vii] and Mary read it—perhaps from the rough draft—to Edward and Jane Williams in the summer of 1821, [viii] this manuscript apparently stayed in Godwin’s hands. He evidently did not share the Gisbornes’ enthusiasm: his approval was qualified. He thought highly of certain parts of it, less highly of others; and he regarded the subject as “disgusting and detestable,” saying that the story would need a preface to prevent readers “from being tormented by the apprehension ... ”

“ Then he saw it; then he groaned in soul, and besought Evan to have one more promenade, saying, with characteristic cleverness in the masking of his real thoughts: 'It gives us an appetite, you know.'
In Evan's face and Juliana's there was not much sign that any protraction of their walk together would aid this beneficent process of nature. He took her hand gently, and when he quitted it, it dropped.
'The Rose, the Rose of Beckley Court!' Raikes sang aloud. 'Why, this is a day of meetings. Behold John Thomas in the rear-a tower of plush and powder! ”

“ For many years he held the rectory of Hardwick, Cambridgeshire. It seems that he was elected master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, at the end of the reign of Elizabeth, in the room of Dr. Thomas Jegon [q. v.] , of whom the queen disapproved, but on the accession of King James Jegon was restored, although Middleton made a fruitless attempt to retain possession (Cooper, Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 446) . Middleton died on 14 June 1613, and was buried in Hardwick churchyard, where a monument, with an English inscription, was erected to his memory (Addit. MS. 5823, f. 180) . ”

“ In Miss Medway were happily blended a strong and energetic mind, a correct judgment and taste, affectionate heart, polished manners, and an education liberal and elegant. Born to high expectations, reared in the lap of wealth and indulgence, loving and beloved, a cruel tide of misfortune deprived her of all, and threw her at the age of nineteen, poor and dependant, on a cold and unfeeling world. But why descend to particulars which intercept the thread of our narrative? ”

“ Hearing her mother's name, Lady Jocelyn was about to return a conventional answer. Recognizing Evan, she said:
'Ah! Mr. Harrington! Yes, I fear it's as bad as it can be. She can scarcely outlive the night.'
Again he stood alone: his chance was gone. How could he speak to her in her affliction? Her calm sedate visage had the beauty of its youth, when lighted by the animation that attends meetings or farewells. In her bow to Evan, he beheld a lovely kindness more unique, if less precious, than anything he had ever seen on the face of Rose. ”