ON CHAPTER III SECOND DAY IN NOVA SOLYMA N the morrow the sun was somewhat high in the sky before they were thoroughly awake and had dressed themselves, and just then Joseph, having heard them moving, came with his servants into their bedchamber. He had changed his attire, and was dressed after the manner and fashion of his country, having on a cloak of red silk reaching below his knee. With them the chief marks of honourable rank consist not in gorgeous and expensive robes, but in the colour and length of their ordinary dress, and the law is that each one's dress is to differ according to his rank and dignity, which is as strictly enforced as the distinction of dress between the sexes. For business and the active work of life they prefer a short dress, though they think a flowing robe gives a certain majesty to the walk, gestures, and appearance of a man. There are also certain marks and distinctions of dress for the army, for equestrians, and certain other classes. Joseph, in his proper dress, looked a very handsome man-he was inclined to be tall, and withal of a slender figure, .his expression was kindly and affable, but the brave, manly eyes gave clear signs of a stern seriousness. As soon as Politian saw him, he asked whether they too ought to dress in the Jewish fashion. "By no means," answered Joseph. "We have no dislike for any foreign mode of dress, nor do we follow foreigners with jeers like ignorant boys; and if aliens adopt our dress, we never impute it to flattery or affectation." When quite ready they all went from the bedroom to Bk. I, Ch. III] THE DAUGHTER OF ZION 107 an adjacent corridor, where there was space for walking. Here they meet Jacob, and, after the morning greetings, there is a general conversation, until a message is brought to Joseph that his sister has come and is waiting to see him. This reached Jacob's ear, who at once said: "Let her rather come up to us, for I want to introduce her." So the messenger went back and brought her up. Anna (for that was her name), as she came in dressed all in white, had certainly a distinguished mien, and her manner in returning her father's salutation was quiet and dutiful. Joseph at once rushed towards her and pressed her hand with the freedom and affection of a brother, while she, fixing her eyes lovingly on him, gave him as her reply the sweetest of smiles. When a few eager questions of each had been briefly answered, her brother led her towards the others, and, turning to the new guests, said: "This lady you saw yesterday as the daughter of Zion; to-day she is the daughter of Jacob." Both the young men, when first they saw her, seemed like to those dazzled by a flash of lightning,1 and not quite sure what had happened; but by degrees the fair face of their yesterday's goddess dawned upon their minds, and though now without the pomp of pageantry and ornament, that face alone caused in them such a warmth of feeling and such a rush of flashing thoughts as they could not easily conceal. To see again, so soon, and where 'twas least expected, their goddess, the sight 1 The Latin here is fulguris aurâ perculsi, a phrase bearing on it the stamp of an elegant Latinist. I cannot find that it has been used by any of the great writers of Rome in the Golden Age, or even later on, but it seems well worthy of them. Scholars tell us that aura, amongst its many meanings and uses, signifies tenue quiddam et varium ex aere et lumine resultans, and the locus classicus is Virgil, Aeneid, vi. 204: Discolor unde auri per ramos aura refulsit. The contemporary dictionaries of Milton's days gave fulminatus as the word for "struck by lightning”—this and nothing more. Is it not likely that it was Milton's genius and classic fancy that supplied something so much better? of all sights to them!-that they should find her in the household of their host, and so nearly allied to him by blood! What a blessed home must this be, which possesses so many of the most highly favoured of our race, and that too of both sexes and all ages! Now indeed was Destiny weaving the net of Love's entanglement, and was ready to cast it over unresisting combatants.1 Such were their unexpressed thoughts; but their eyes, their looks, their gestures, could not remain expressionless or unnoticed, and so Eugenius, who, of the two, was the less able to retain his composure, in order to avert suspicion, began to remark to Joseph : "What you say may be true enough after all, for your father seems to be the husband of the city, and so you may rightly be called either children of Jacob or children of Zion." "Yes," said Jacob, "our city of Zion is the mother of all. It is by her favour we live, and we ought to preserve and adorn her with every endeavour." Then said Joseph to his sister : "Oh the pleasure I 1 Latin text is: “Jam quidem fata sibi laqueos nectere, et cessantiubs ultro injicere." Cessantibus is a good classical word in this connection, hailing most likely from Propertius, who uses cessare amori with the meaning "to be given up to love." These young Cambridge students of the seventeenth century were at least more gallant to the ladies than Professor Huxley in the present century. They, as we see, thought they were entering the gladiatorial arena of love, and that destiny was the retiarius who would catch them in his net. Huxley did not hesitate to hint that women themselves were the retiariae. Speaking of "woman's rights," he says: "Let those women who are inclined to do so descend into the gladiatorial arena of life, not merely in the guise of retiariae, as heretofore, but as bold sicariae, breasting the open fray." Since those words were written (c. 1865), the bold sicariae and the shrieking sisterhood have vastly increased and multiplied, though often such women belong to a gens in qua nemo nascitur. How Milton's fiery spirit would have kindled against such unworthy descendants of prolific Mother Eve! Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour; And also France. Gal. iv. 26. Ch. III] THE YOUNG PUPILS 109 had when I saw thee first come into sight, enthroned in all thy virgin glory!" "Well," she replied, "you, by your unexpected appearance, filled me with such amazement and joy that I almost forgot where I was and the great position I was filling. Really, you well-nigh disenthroned me." At these words the eyes of Politian and Eugenius met, and their glances mutually reproached each other. Anna, since her mother's death, had lived away from home in a neighbouring street with her aunt, and now, having seen her brother, the object of her visit, she rose to go. Her father went home with her, while the two guests, after staying some time with Joseph, quite casually betook themselves to a window which looked out into the garden, from which a new scene was presented to their eyes. They observe the two little brothers of the household mentioned yesterday standing side by side against a wall, while in front of them an elderly matron was sitting, who had just begun to address them thus: "Give me your attention, my dear young pupils,1 and before you leave home for school, hear my dream which I have dreamed in my anxiety for you. "I thought I saw you left quite alone on the shore of a certain island in the Atlantic sea, if I mistake not. There dwelt an aged king named Philoponus. His dominions were not of very great extent, but sufficiently prosperous and civilised, and he had divided them into three portions. in his lifetime between his only son Philocles, an illegitimate daughter, whom he adopted, named Philomela, and himself. The son took the northern part, the daughter the southern, while the father reigned over the middle. kingdom. "You were stranded on the sea-shore of Philomela's kingdom, and you were both sitting there, knowing neither the place nor its history. All along the beach were shells. glittering like precious stones, and the fine, clean sand was the colour of gold. The open country abounded with the 1 Lat. alumnuli, a characteristic Miltonic diminutive. many such in Nova Solyma. There are most beautiful trees, which, although they stood too thickly together for the soil to be cultivated, yet gave ample room for pleasant walks. There was everywhere cooling shade from natural arbours with their waving branches overhead, and yet light and sunshine enough withal. The perennial verdure had a most pleasing effect on the eye, and, embellished as it was with many a flower of varied hue dotted here and there, it recalled the brilliant canopy of heaven, and vied with its many twinkling stars. Many shady alleys led in various directions, most pleasant for walking, for they were level and carpeted with the smoothest grass; but often they led nowhere, and there was no certain goal in any case-like a labyrinth, they misled by devious twistings and turnings all who were foolish enough to wander through them. There was one central road, broader than the others and more open, which led by a gentle descent direct to the royal palace. You had not proceeded far on this road, when you unexpectedly met a bevy of damsels in gay and light attire, singing in chorus, while from the neighbouring trees there came such accompanying harmony of unseen music, as if the zephyrs that whisper among the leaves had attuned their voices to the maidens' song. And this, as well as I can recall it, was the strain : "Mid rocks far from man there's Life's joy for the wild ass; Each bird finds Life's joy in the populous forest; 1 Interpicta-coined by our author. Cf. the Comus of Puteanus, which Milton had almost certainly read, for a similar comparison : "Juxta viam amoenissimum quoque pratum erat . . . partim flavis, partim albicantibus florum gemmis relucens; putares in aemulatione coeli in ipsam quoque terram sparsas esse stellas" (ed. 1611, p. 172). For a close parallel passage in Milton we have his description of the loose female troop who seduced the sons of God: They on the plain Long had not walked when from the tents behold In gems and wanton dress! To the harp they sung (Paradise Lost, xi. 580-84.) Also farther on, xi. 614-25, when "the smiles of these fair atheists" and their other evil blandishments are similarly described. |