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and style.
"St. Leon," for instance, is | can be no doubt that it was because he
in its opening scenes to no small extent was shocked at the liberties taken and
historical, and keeps up the historic the ignorance shown in these works,
connection to some degree throughout; that that eminent and excellent anti-
but, except for a few bare facts, the quary, Mr. Joseph Strutt, determined
whole thing is a gross anachronism only to show the public how their ancestors
to be excused on the inadequate ground really did live and move and have their
that in 66 a romance of immortality" being in the romance of "Queenhoo
you cannot expect much attention to Hall.' I am ashamed to say that my
miserable concerns of time. There is knowledge of that work is entirely con-
not the least attempt to adjust the man- fined to Scott's own fragment, for the
ners to those of Francis the First's book is a very rare one; at least I
day, or the dialogue and general inci- hardly ever remember having seen a
dents to anything known of the six- copy catalogued. But the account of it
teenth century. The age still told its which Scott himself gives, and the
novels as it mounted its plays with a fragment which he seems to have very
bland and complete disregard of details dutifully copied in manner from the
such as these. And Godwin was a original, are just what we should ex-
purist and a pedant in these respects
as compared with the great Anne Rad-
cliffe. The rare lapse into older care-
lessness which made the sun set in the
sea on the east coast of Scotland in
"The Antiquary" is a peccadillo not to
be named beside the astounding geog-
raphy of the "Mysteries of Udolpho,"
or the wonderful glimpses of a France
such as this gifted lady imagined it to
have been in the time of the religious
wars. Clara Reeve, the author of the
once famous "Old English Baron,"
writing years before either Godwin or
Mrs. Radcliffe, and on the direct and
acknowledged model of Walpole, threw
the lessons of her master (who really
did know something both about medi-portant of all, as we have finished the
æval history and manners), entirely to account of the days of ignorance (to
the winds; and though she took Henry adopt the picturesque and pleasing
the Sixth's youth and the regency of Arab expression for the period of Ara-
Bedford for her time, made her picture bian annals before Mohammed), it
one of no time at all. Her French con- would be obviously improper to bring
temporaries were doing just the same in the Prophet himself at the end of
or worse; and all over Europe the re-even a short preliminary inquiry. And
turn to the Middle Ages was being
made to a Middle Age entirely, or al-
most entirely of convention.

If we could attach quite as much importance to Scott's intromissions with "Queenhoo Hall" as he himself seems to do in regard to the genesis of "Waverley," the performances of the Reeves and the Radcliffes might be credited with a very large share in determining the birth at last of the genuine historical novel. For there

pect. Strutt, probably caring nothing for a story as a story and certainly being unable to write one, busied himself only about making his language and his properties and his general arrangement as archaically correct as possible. His book therefore naturally bore the same resemblance to a historical novel that Mr. Oldbuck's "Caledoniad," could he ever have got it done according to his own notions and without Lovel's assistance, would have borne to an epic poem.

And now as we have brought the historical novel safely through that period of ante-natal history which some great authorities have thought the most im

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there is all the more reason for not
doing so because this is the place in
which to consider what the historical
novel is. It will not do to adopt the
system of the bold empiric and say,
the novel as written by Scott."
some of the best of Scott's novels (in-
cluding "Guy Mannering" and "The
Antiquary") are not historical novels
at all. Yet it may be confessed that
Scott left but little in a general way to
be found out about the style, and that

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his practice, according as it is less or in the days when he let "the young more successful, may almost be trans-men" do the work with too little revilated into the principles of the art.

sion or warning, was prone to it; G. P. We have already seen something of R. James often fell into it; and Harriwhat a historical novel ought not to be son Ainsworth, in those painful later and is not; while the eighty years years when his dotages fell into the which have passed since the publica- reluctant hands of critics who had retion of 66 Waverley," ," if they have not joiced in him earlier as readers, was shown us all possible forms of what it simply steeped in it. It made not ought to be and is, have probably gone merely the besetting sin, but what may very far to do so. For the possibilities be called the regular practice (unconof art, though quite infinite in the way scious of sin at all) of writers like of detail, by no means include very Southey's friend, Mrs. Bray; and the many new things in their general out- unwary beginner has not shaken himlines; and when an apparently new self or herself free from it even now. leaf is turned, the lines on that leaf are This, however, is so gross and palapt to be filled in pretty quickly. Per-pable a fault that one could but wonder iclean and Elizabethan drama each at its deceiving persons of ability and showed all it could do in less than the literary virtue, if the temptations to it compass of a lifetime, though no doubt were not equally palpable and gross. good examples were produced over a A much subtler, though perhaps an much longer period than this. And even worse mistake, comes next, and though I hope that good historical nov- ruins books that might have been good els will be written for hundreds of and very good to this day, though Scott years to come, I do not think that they himself, besides the warning of his will be written on any very different practice, showed the danger of it in principles from those which showed more than one place of his critical inthemselves in the novels produced dur- troductions, and though all the better ing the forty years which passed be- critics from Joubert and Sainte-Beuve tween the appearance of "Waverley" downwards have repeated the warning. and the appearance of "Westward This is the allotting too prominent a Ho!" position and too dominant an interest to the real persons and the real incidents of the story. It is, I suppose, in vain to repeat the aforesaid warnings. Within the last two or three years I can remember two books- both written with extreme care by persons of no ordinary talent, and one of them at least introducing personages and a story of the most poignant interest which were failures because the historical attraction was not relegated to the second place. If Scott himself had made Mary the actual heroine of "The Abbot," had raised George Douglas to the position of hero, aud had made their loves (practically fictitious as they would have been) the central point of The commonest and most obvious the story, I do not doubt that he would form of this error is decanting too have failed. I have always thought much of your history bodily into your it a proof of the unerring tact which novel. Scott never falls into this er-guided Sir Walter in general on this ror; it is much if he once or twice matter, that he never once, save in the approaches it very far off. But Dumas, case of "Rob Roy" (and there the

We have seen how the advent of the historical novel was delayed by the want of a general knowledge of history; and we have seen how in that fate of "Queenhoo Hall" whereof Scott himself is the chronicler, the opposite danger appeared when the first had been removed. The danger of too much history lay not merely in the way of too much pedantry like that of the good Strutt, but in that of an encroachment of the historic on the romantic element in divers ways. This, if not so destructive of the very existence of the thing as the other danger, is the more fatal of the two to its goodness when it does exist.

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reality was but a little one), took his | inquiry and research maim the chances title from a real person, and only twice of art in many, perhaps in most direcin the suggestive, but not hamper- tions, they only multiply and enlarge ing instances, of "Kenilworth" and the fields for this. In the drudgeries "Woodstock" from a real place. For of the very dullest dog that ever edited "The Legend of Montrose " and "The a document there may be the germ Fair Maid of Perth" contain obvious of a Quentin Durward; while our fiction as their main appeal. His suc- novel in itself is perhaps the most cessors were less wise; and they paid purely refreshing of all reading prefor their want of wisdom. cisely because of its curious conjunc

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The canons negative and affirmative | tion of romance and reality. will then run somewhat thus:

"Ob

serve local color and historical propriety, but do not become a slave either

to Dryasdust or to Heavysterne. Intermix historic interest and the charm of well-known figures, but do not incur the danger of mere historical transcription; still more take care that the prevailing ideals of your characters, or your scene, or your action, or all three, be fantastic and within your own discretion." When these are put together we shall have what is vernacularly called "the bones" of the historical novel. In another paper or two we may go on to see what flesh has been imposed on this skeleton by nearly three generations of practitioners. For the present it may suffice to add that the historical novel like all other novels without exception, if it is to be good, must not have a direct purpose of any sort, though no doubt it may, and even generally does, enforce certain morals both historical and ethical. It is fortunately by its very form and postulates freed from the danger of meddling with contemporary problems; it is grandly and artistically unactual, though here again it may teach unobtrusive lessons. Although, oddly enough, those imperfect French examples of it to which we have referred incline more to the novel than to the romance and busy themselves with a kind of analysis, it is of course in its nature synthetic and not analytic. It is not in the least limited by considerations of time or country; it is as much at home on a Mexican teocalli as in an English castle, though it certainly has, hitherto, exhibited the odd peculiarity that no one has written a first-rate historical novel of classical times. While VOL. III. 148

LIVING AGE.

GEORGE SAINTSBURY.

From The Fortnightly Review. A VISIT TO COREA.

THERE is hardly a country I have visited and I have visited a good many that is quainter and more interesting than Corea. To a superficial observer, or to the casual globe-trotter, the country and the people would have but little fascination, for neither is the scenery very grand, except in some remote districts, nor are the folks likely to enchant one with enticing little ways and a marvellous artistic capacity like their neighbors the Japanese. In fact, the Corean people have no arts and no industries.

"What is the use of working and making money," said once a Corean to me, "if, when the work is done and the money made, this is taken away from you by the officials, and you are worn out for having done the work, and as poor as before, if, mind you, you are fortunate enough not to be exiled to a distant province by the angry magistrate who has enriched himself at your expeuse ? Now," added the Corean, looking earnestly into my face, "would you work under those circumstances ?"

"I am hanged if I would," were the words which, to the best of my ability, I struggled hard to translate in the Corean language, to show my approval of his philosophic way of thinking.

There is no doubt that what the Corean said to me was perfectly true, and that the system of "squeezing" is carried on, on a very large scale, by the magistrates, just the same as in China,

and it naturally has a very depressing | shops are built in the middle of the effect on the people "squeezed." street itself, thus forming as it were It is really painful, when you first three parallel streets of one street; but land in Corea, to notice the care worn, these houses are removed and pulled sad expression on everybody's face; down twice or three times a year when there they lie about idle and pensive, his Majesty the king chooses to come doubtful as to what will happen to out of his palace, and goes in his state them to-morrow, all anxious for gener- chair either to visit the tombs of his ations that a reform might take place ancestors, some miles out of the town, in the mode of government, yet all or to meet the envoys of the Chinese for centuries too lazy to attempt to emperor, a short way out of the west better their position. Such is human gate of the capital, and at a place where nature ! a peculiar sort of triumphal arch, half built in masonry and half in lacquered wood, has been erected, close by an artificial cut in the rocky hill, which, in honor of the Chinese messengers, goes by the name of the Peking They are born philosophers, and they Pass. All the cities in Corea are make the best of what they have, or walled, and the gates are opened at rather of what they have not. When sunrise and closed with the setting sun. you hear Coreans talk, the topic of the | I well remember at Seoul how many conversation is invariably "" money; "times I have had to run so as not to be if it is not "money," it is "food." If locked out of the town, and vivid bethey have quarrels among themselves, what can the cause be but "cash;" and if you see a deadly fight in the streets, what could it be about if not for probably the equivalent of a farthing?

It is hard, indeed, to suffer, but it is nothing as compared with the trouble and worry of improving one's own standing; and no one better than the Coreans knows this.

As we have dropped on to the subject of fighting, I must say that the lower classes in Corea are much given to it, and the slightest provocation, in money matters, is sufficient to make them come to blows. With one hand they catch hold of each other by the knot, in which the hair of all married men is tied on the top of the head, and while a violent process of head-shaking is followed by a shower of blows and scratches administered by the free hand, the lower extremities are kept busy distributing kicks which should land on the antagonist, but which occasionally, in fact often, reach some innocent passer-by, as the streets of Coreau cities are seldom wide enough to let four people walk abreast.

Seoul, the capital of the Corean kingdom, is the only city where wider streets are found, and the main street, leading to the royal palace, is indeed immensely wide, so much so that two rows of smaller thatched houses and

fore me is yet the picture of hundreds of men, women, and children, on foot or on tiny ponies, or leading laden bulls, scrambling to get in or out while the "big bell" in the centre of the town announced with its mournful sound that with the last rays of light the heavy wooden gates, lined with iron, would be again closed till the morning. How well I remember the hoarse voice of the gate-keepers shouting out, night after night, that time was up, and hurrying the weary travellers to enter the precincts of the royal city; then the huge iron padlocks and bolts were fastened, the gate-keepers retired to the adjoining house to continue the interrupted gambling which occupied their day, and a few rusty old spears standing in a row on a rack were left to take care of the safety of the town and of its inhabitants. With the sun every noise ceased, every good citizen retired to his house, and only an occasional leopard now and then crawled over the city wall and made peregrinations in the darkness over the capital.

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the Japanese, and Jimg-Chiang by the on the tops of the higher peaks in CoChinese. rea, and by this simple means a signal Chemulpo hardly deserves the name sent by the king from the palace of a Corean port, for though it is in Co-grounds is in a very short time telerea, there are but few Corean houses, graphed to any of the most distant the bulk of structures there being Jap- provinces in the kingdom, and vice anese and Chinese. The little trade, versâ. Of course the drawback of the consisting mostly of grain exportation, system is that messages can only be is carried on almost entirely by Japan- conveyed at night. It was a very ese and Chinese, while the importation pretty sight to watch the lights playing of cotton and a few miscellaneous arti- at dark on Nanzam, and to see the cles is done by an American and a Ger- faint lights on the distant mountains man merchant. The post-office is in answering or transmitting messages to the hands of the Japanese, the tele- farther regions. I always noticed that graphs are under the control of the there were never more than five lights Chinese, as well as the customs reve- burning at one time. nue, which is looked after by officials in the Chinese service. Chemulpo is a picturesque harbor, but the water too shallow to allow very large ships to enter it. The tide, I was told, rises as much as twenty-eight feet and more.

One day I ascended the mountain, and it was interesting to notice the sacred trees which are to be found on its slopes, as well as everywhere else in Corea, especially on hilly ground. They are covered with hundreds of The road between Chemulpo and the rags left by different worshippers, and capital is not good, but being mostly in other spots, where certain trees are through flat country, the Japanese, I supposed to be possessed by "the spirremember, had brought over from its of the mountains," piles of stones Japan a few jinrickshaws, and were have been thrown by scared passersable to run them to Seoul, though one by, for it is seldom that a native passes man was not sufficient to draw it, the one of these places without throwing a road being too rough, and two and stone and walking rapidly past for fear even three men had to be employed that the spirits might get in him and and run in a tandem, one man pushing make his life one of misery and unhapthe jinrickshaw at the back. Person-piness. The Coreans are extremely ally I always preferred to ride the tiny superstitious. Here is a curious exbut sturdy native ponies, or walked the ample. distance between the two towns; but the Japanese, who are far from being good horsemen, seem to prefer their own way of locomotion, the advantages | of which, I am sorry to say, I was never able to understand, and far less appreciate. I have no doubt that a good many men are beasts; but one hardly likes to use them as beasts.

Let us return to Seoul. The town is prettily situated in a small valley surrounded by hills, and over these hills goes the wall of the city, a decidedly wonderful work of masonry and patience. Almost in the centre of the town is another high hill, Mount Nanzam, on the summit of which a signal station is placed, and from which, by means of burning fires, signals are transmitted to other similar stations

One day I was sketching outside the east gate, and I was, as usual, surrounded by a large crowd, when a goodnatured old man lifted up in his arms a pretty little child, on whose head he had placed his transparent horse-hair hat, and asked me whether I would like to paint him in the picture. I was tempted by the offer, and, having taken up a fresh panel, proceeded to dash off a sketch of my new model in his pretty red frock, his padded socks, and his extra-large hat, to the great amusement of the crowd, who eagerly watched every stroke of my brush, and went in ecstasy as they saw the likeness come out more and more plainly. I never had an audience so interested in anything I had done before. "Beautiful! "

said one; "Very good!"

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