Mark Twain, a Biography - Volume II, Part 2: 1886-1900 , livre ebook

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pubOne.info present you this new edition. The Browning readings must have begun about this time. Just what kindled Mark Twain's interest in the poetry of Robert Browning is not remembered, but very likely his earlier associations with the poet had something to do with it. Whatever the beginning, we find him, during the winter of 1886 and 1887, studiously, even violently, interested in Browning's verses, entertaining a sort of club or class who gathered to hear his rich, sympathetic, and luminous reading of the Payleyings- "With Bernard de Mandeville, " "Daniel Bartoli, " or "Christopher Smart. " Members of the Saturday Morning Club were among his listeners and others-friends of the family. They were rather remarkable gatherings, and no one of that group but always vividly remembered the marvelously clear insight which Mark Twain's vocal personality gave to those somewhat obscure measures. They did not all of them realize that before reading a poem he studied it line by line, even word by word; dug out its last syllable of meaning, so far as lay within human possibility, and indicated with pencil every shade of emphasis which would help to reveal the poet's purpose

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819944782
Langue	English

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MARK TWAIN, A BIOGRAPHY
By Albert Bigelow Paine
VOLUME II, Part 2: 1886-1900
CLXII
BROWNING, MEREDITH, AND MEISTERSCHAFT
The Browning readings must have begun about thistime. Just what kindled Mark Twain's interest in the poetry ofRobert Browning is not remembered, but very likely his earlierassociations with the poet had something to do with it. Whateverthe beginning, we find him, during the winter of 1886 and 1887,studiously, even violently, interested in Browning's verses,entertaining a sort of club or class who gathered to hear his rich,sympathetic, and luminous reading of the Payleyings— “With Bernardde Mandeville, ” “Daniel Bartoli, ” or “Christopher Smart. ”Members of the Saturday Morning Club were among his listeners andothers-friends of the family. They were rather remarkablegatherings, and no one of that group but always vividly rememberedthe marvelously clear insight which Mark Twain's vocal personalitygave to those somewhat obscure measures. They did not all of themrealize that before reading a poem he studied it line by line, evenword by word; dug out its last syllable of meaning, so far as laywithin human possibility, and indicated with pencil every shade ofemphasis which would help to reveal the poet's purpose. No studentof Browning ever more devoutly persisted in trying to compass amaster's intent— in such poems as “Sordello, ” for instance— thanMark Twain. Just what permanent benefit he received from thisparticular passion it is difficult to know. Once, at aclass-meeting, after finishing “Easter Day, ” he made a remarkwhich the class requested him to “write down. ” It is recorded onthe fly-leaf of Dramatis Personae as follows:
One's glimpses & confusions, as one readsBrowning, remind me of looking through a telescope (the small sortwhich you must move with your hand, not clock-work). You toilacross dark spaces which are (to your lens) empty; but every now& then a splendor of stars & suns bursts upon you and fillsthe whole field with flame. Feb. 23, 1887.
In another note he speaks of the “vague dim flash ofsplendid hamming-birds through a fog. ” Whatever mental treasureshe may or may not have laid up from Browning there was assuredly adeep gratification in the discovery of those splendors of “starsand suns” and the flashing “humming-birds, ” as there must alsohave been in pointing out those wonders to the little circle ofdevout listeners. It all seemed so worth while.
It was at a time when George Meredith was a reigningliterary favorite. There was a Meredith cult as distinct as that ofBrowning. Possibly it exists to-day, but, if so, it is lessmilitant. Mrs. Clemens and her associates were caught in theMeredith movement and read Diana of the Crossways and the Egoistwith reverential appreciation.
The Meredith epidemic did not touch Mark Twain. Heread but few novels at most, and, skilful as was the artistry ofthe English favorite, he found his characters artificialities—ingeniously contrived puppets rather than human beings, and, on thewhole, overrated by their creator. Diana of the Crossways was readaloud, and, listening now and then, he was likely to say:
“It doesn't seem to me that Diana lives up to herreputation. The author keeps telling us how smart she is, howbrilliant, but I never seem to hear her say anything smart orbrilliant. Read me some of Diana's smart utterances. ”
He was relentless enough in his criticism of aliterature he did not care for, and he never learned to care forMeredith.
He read his favorite books over and over with anever-changing point of view. He re-read Carlyle's French Revolutionduring the summer at the farm, and to Howells he wrote:
How stunning are the changes which age makes in manwhile he sleeps! When I finished Carlyle's French Revolution in1871 I was a Girondin; every time I have read it since I have readit differently— being influenced & changed, little by little,by life & environment (& Taine & St. Simon); & nowI lay the book down once more, & recognize that I am aSansculotte! — And not a pale, characterless Sansculotte, but aMarat. Carlyle teaches no such gospel, so the change is in me— inmy vision of the evidences.
People pretend that the Bible means the same to themat 50 that it did at all former milestones in their journey. Iwonder how they can lie so. It comes of practice, no doubt. Theywould not say that of Dickens's or Scott's books. Nothing remainsthe same. When a man goes back to look at the house of hischildhood it has always shrunk; there is no instance of such housebeing as big as the picture in memory & imagination call for.Shrunk how? Why, to its correct dimensions; the house hasn'taltered; this is the first time it has been in focus.
Well, that's loss. To have house & Bible shrinkso, under the disillusioning corrected angle, is loss— for amoment. But there are compensations. You tilt the tube skyward& bring planets & comets & corona flames a hundred& fifty thousand miles high into the field. Which I see youhave done, & found Tolstoi. I haven't got him in focus yet, butI've got Browning.
In time the Browning passion would wane and pass,and the club was succeeded by, or perhaps it blended with, a Germanclass which met at regular intervals at the Clemens home to study“der, die, and das” and the “gehabt habens” out of Meisterschaftand such other text-books as Professor Schleutter could provide.They had monthly conversation days, when they discussed in Germanall sorts of things, real and imaginary. Once Dr. Root, a prominentmember, and Clemens had a long wrangle over painting a house, inwhich they impersonated two German neighbors.
Clemens finally wrote for the class a three-act play“Meisterschaft”— a literary achievement for which he was especiallyqualified, with its picturesque mixture of German and English andits unfailing humor. It seems unlike anything ever attempted beforeor since. No one but Mark Twain could have written it. It was giventwice by the class with enormous success, and in modified form itwas published in the Century Magazine (January, 1888). It isincluded to-day in his “Complete Works, ” but one must have a fairknowledge of German to capture the full delight of it. — [Onthe original manuscript Mark Twain wrote: “There is some tolerablyrancid German here and there in this piece. It is attributable tothe proof-reader. ” Perhaps the proof-reader resented this and cutit out, for it does not appear as published. ]
Mark Twain probably exaggerated his sentiments agood deal when in the Carlyle letter he claimed to be the mostrabid of Sansculottes. It is unlikely that he was ever verybare-kneed and crimson in his anarchy. He believed always thatcruelty should be swiftly punished, whether in king or commoner,and that tyrants should be destroyed. He was for the people asagainst kings, and for the union of labor as opposed to the unionof capital, though he wrote of such matters judicially— notradically. The Knights of Labor organization, then very powerful,seemed to Clemens the salvation of oppressed humanity. He wrote avehement and convincing paper on the subject, which he sent toHowells, to whom it appealed very strongly, for Howells wassocialistic, in a sense, and Clemens made his appeal in the bestand largest sense, dramatizing his conception in a picture that wasto include, in one grand league, labor of whatever form, and, inthe end, all mankind in a final millennium. Howells wrote that hehad read the essay “with thrills amounting to yells ofsatisfaction, ” and declared it to be the best thing yet said onthe subject. The essay closed:
He [the unionized workman] is hereand he will remain. He is the greatest birth of the greatest agethe nations of the world have known. You cannot sneer at him— thattime has gone by. He has before him the most righteous work thatwas ever given into the hand of man to do; and he will do it. Yes,he is here; and the question is not— as it has been heretoforeduring a thousand ages— What shall we do with him? For the firsttime in history we are relieved of the necessity of managing hisaffairs for him. He is not a broken dam this time— he is theFlood!
It must have been about this time that Clemensdeveloped an intense, even if a less permanent, interest in anothermatter which was to benefit the species. He was one day walking upFifth Avenue when he noticed the sign,
PROFESSOR LOISETTE
SCHOOL OF MEMORY
The Instantaneous Art of Never Forgetting
Clemens went inside. When he came out he had all ofProfessor Loisette's literature on “predicating correlation, ” andfor the next several days was steeping himself in an infusion ofmeaningless words and figures and sentences and forms, which hemust learn backward and forward and diagonally, so that he couldrepeat them awake and asleep in order to predicate his correlationto a point where remembering the ordinary facts of life, such asnames, addresses, and telephone numbers, would be a merediversion.
It was another case of learning the multitudinousdetails of the Mississippi River in order to do the apparentlysimple thing of steering a boat from New Orleans to St. Louis, andit is fair to say that, for the time he gave it, he achieved a likesuccess. He was so enthusiastic over this new remedy for humandistress that within a very brief time he was sending out a printedletter recommending Loisette to the public at large. Here is anextract:
. . . I had no SYSTEM— and some sort of rationalorder of procedure is, of course, necessary to success in anystudy. Well, Loisette furnished me a system. I cannot undertake tosay it is the best, or the worst, because I don't know what theother systems are. Loisette, among other cruelties, requires you tomemorize a great long string of words that, haven't any apparentconnection or meaning— there are perhaps 500 of these words,arranged in maniacal lines of 6 to 8 or 9 words in each line— 71lines in all. Of course your first impulse is to resign, but at theend of three or four hours you find to your su