THE FULL EFFECT OP A SPANISH PETTICOAT.
Notwithstanding the rampant Calvinism of the duchy, the Lords of
Holstein--for the province has a nobility of its own, and a most
important, bulbous-looking nobility they are--had established a
theatre near the market-place; and on this night there was to be a
performance, as several large red and yellow bills, posted on the
corners of the Platz and porch of the great church, informed those
who could read them. Accompanied by M'Alpine and Ian, who had never
witnessed any thing of the kind before, and who stole away for an
hour or so from his guard at the Round Tower, I bent my steps towards
the place. We paid a rixdollar for one of the best seats, and found
ourselves lodged completely to our satisfaction.
I had heard old people speak much of the theatrical representations
made at Aberdeen in 1603, by one William Shakespear (whose dramas are
becoming popular among his countrymen) and other English players, who
had been sent by Elizabeth, their queen, to perform before his
majesty King James VI. of wise memory, and his good subjects of "the
brave city," to the great scandal and indignation of the Calvinist
clergy, who abhorred all such matters as trumpery, that savoured too
much of the popish mysteries of the past age. I had seen one or two
representations on the Schoolhill (when I was at college), which
forcibly reminded me of the remarks of that gallant soldier,
Cervantes, when writing of Lopez de Rueda; "until whose time," says
he, "we were not acquainted with all the machinery now necessary, nor
with the challenges given by the Moors to the Christians, and which
are now so common. We saw no figures rise from underground, nor
cloud-borne angels come to visit us; the simple ornament of the
theatre was an old curtain, _behind which_ certain minstrels and
musicians performed an old romance." Thus had I seen, or rather
heard, the plays of Davie Lindsay in open daylight, and I must
confess to being in no way prepared for the brilliancy of the
spectacle which burst upon us, when entering the theatre of Christian
IV. at Glückstadt; and as for my cousin Ian, being but a plain
Highland gentleman, wholly unaccustomed to cities and their
splendours, reared in the voiceless solitude of a wooded glen, he was
for a time struck dumb.
The large hall of an old-fashioned house, the three wooden gables of
which were propped on columns of oak, and overhung the Platz, had
been recently fitted up for the occasion, and for the first time in
Holstein a famous dancer was to make her debut.
Across the upper end, as on a dais, the stage was erected, and
curtained off from the main body of the hall; before it sat the
members of the orchestra, and behind them were the people of the
town, seated in close rows on wooden benches. Along the sides were
balconies hung with crimson cloth, emblazoned with the arms of all
the princes of the Protestant League, and lighted by oil lamps of
warmly-coloured glass, for the accommodation of the pompous
burgomaster and grandees of the city. The stage, which was
surmounted by the arms of the duchy, and the triple helmet, was
profusely gilded, and brilliantly illuminated by rows of wax candles,
having reflectors, which threw a blaze of light upon a blue curtain,
leaving the audience comparatively in the shade.
We were all attention, and as we occupied the most prominent stall
next to those of the burgomaster and Sir David Drummond, governor of
the town, we had a good opportunity of observing the citizens as they
crowded into their places. This species of entertainment was almost
new in Glückstadt; thus, as the expectation and excitement were
great, the theatre was soon filled, and in the most prominent part of
the pit I observed our Hausmeister, with his bombasted breeches, high
ruff, and great basket-hilted espadone, and with a Dutch pipe in his
mouth, like most of the men around him, enveloping himself in a cloud
of smoke, which soon concealed him from the indignant glances of the
blooming female audience. These were dames whose gay dresses made
the area appear like a parterre of flowers; and I observed that they
were generally softly featured, and brightly complexioned--the young
wearing their fair hair dressed over high combs of fretted silver or
gold, after the ancient fashion of Holstein; while the old and the
married wore large linen coifs, like those of our Lowland women at
home.
Many of our Scottish cavaliers, in their bright corslets and laced
doublets, with their high ruffs and white scarfs, and a few of the
counts and barons of the swampy neighbourhood, were in the balconies;
and some of the wild-looking clansmen of my own valiant regiment, in
their tartan plaids and buff coats, were scattered here and there,
gazing with active-eyed wonder from among the mass of stolid-visaged
Holsteiners, some of whom wore hats and ruffs, in fashion a hundred
years old. The people waxed impatient, and the clatter of heavy
swords and spurred boots on the floor, announced it from time to
time, though the orchestra endeavoured to soothe them by performing a
piece of music with their fiddles, viols, sacbuts, shalms, and flutes.
I was just wondering who a very pretty damsel, in a brocaded boddice
and low-bossomed ruff, might be, when Ian exclaimed--
"Ece! behold!" and I turned towards the stage.
The blue curtain had suddenly vanished, and a beautiful scene was
disclosed.
It was a bright shore, beyond which lay a brighter sea, whereon an
orient sun was shining; rocks lay in the foreground, with light green
vines overhanging them, and many a heavy cluster of the purple grape.
On one side lay the ruin of a temple; on the other, an ancient
fountain poured forth its sparkling current from a Triton's shell
into a marble basin, which, without overflowing, seemed to receive
the whole current of that living water. Afar off, the capes and
promontories of that fairyland seemed to be sleeping in the glorious
sunlight, vanishing away into the summer haze exhaled from an azure
sea; and so real seemed the whole, that I am sure our wild Mackays
and fierce M'Farquhars in the seats below, as they crossed themselves
under their belted plaids, and muttered to each other under their
thick mustaches, thought it was all reality, or framed by the spells
of the Daoine-shie.
Anon the musicians struck up a Spanish dance, the sound of castanets
was heard, then, like a dazzling vision, a light and beautiful girl
appeared before us. Whether she was a human being or a fairy, it
seemed for a moment difficult to decide; until recollection--quick as
the flash of a cannon--came upon me, and I recognised my mysterious
beauty, and gazed upon her, wonderstruck and speechless.
Her native charms, which were very great, were enhanced to the utmost
by the elegance of her costume, which reached scarcely below the
knee, and had innumerable little red and black flounces. Her boddice
and stockings were of scarlet--the former was low-bosomed, and
revealed the beautiful contour of her form; her arms were bare, round
and white as snow; but how shall I describe the smallness of her feet
and hands, for every way this being seemed perfect? The luxuriance
of her glossy hair was braided into a coronet, and amid its darkness
shone a row of pearl pins, from each of which depended a little
golden ball. Her smiles seemed full of love and fascination; and her
dark and glorious eyes were full of joy and ecstasy.
In the lightness of her movements she seemed to float upon that flood
of melody, which filled the whole theatre, and made all our hearts
swell and leap, we knew not why. Mine was full of new and delightful
sensations--my voice was gone--I had only eyes. While beating time
with her castanets, the beautiful Spaniard, turned, whirled, and
bounded with the lightness of a spirit, at every pirouette making her
whole muslin dress stand out in a circle around her waist; thus my
eyes wandered in astonishment from her finely formed ankles to her
snowy arms, from her white shoulders to her braided hair, her smiling
face, and flashing eyes.
Young, inexperienced, and susceptible, having but lately left my
native land, where no such exhibition would have been tolerated for a
moment, under penalty of the iron jougs and cutty-stool, I was borne,
as it were, away from myself; my whole soul was riveted on the
graceful motions of this dazzling dancer, who seemed to move amid a
sea of light and harmony, nor did I rally until a roar of applause
shook the rafters of the theatre.
"How she pirouettes!" said an old countess in the balcony near us;
"oh, the light flounces--the pretty feet!"
"The devil! she is quite enchanting! beautiful--beautiful! such
ankles!" said a major of Reitres.
"She dances like a fairy, a trold, an Elle woman!" said the
burgomaster's wife.
"Or like the Lady Margarette of Skofgaard, who danced twelve knights
to death!" added the burgomaster, Dubbelsteirn.
"Herr Baron," said I to Baron Karl of Klosterfiord, a captain of
Danish pistoliers, when the blue curtain had fallen, and the lady
retired, "how is this fair damsel named?"
"We only know her as the Señora Prudentia Bandolo."
"What a charming name for a woman so pretty!" said a cavalier in
crimson and gold lace, who accompanied the baron, and whom I
recognised to be a Sleswiger.
"Where does she live?" I asked carelessly.
"I would give my best horse to know," replied the cavalier, laughing.
The baron gave an expressive cough, and said--
"You would not be half so foolish, Fritz."
"But she involves herself in a cloud of mystery," replied Fritz, who
was major of the Sleswig musketeers; "and the fact is, she is a
charming little darling, and would look very well riding at the head
of our regiment."
"Beside the chaplain, eh? Your staff would then be complete, Fritz,"
replied the baron laughing, and curling up his fair mustaches.
"Under protection of the truce between King Christian the Emperor,"
he added, turning to me, "she has only come to Glückstadt until the
troops march towards the Weser; and, as she will dance here a hundred
dollars into her purse every night, she may form a pretty prize for a
foraging party, when we approach the frontiers of the empire."
"Then we musketeers of Sleswig may have her, after all!" yawned
Fritz, as he polished his cuirass with his gauntlet; "do you know,
Karl, that since she has been here among us, she actually pretends to
have turned Protestant."
"Pretends!" I reiterated, shocked at the manner in which these rough
soldiers spoke of a being so beautiful; "surely you mistake, for I
think there is a great appearance of sincerity about her. I would
say all was candour, and there was no concealment."
"Do you judge by the fascination of her smile, or the scantiness of
yonder Spanish petticoat?" said the major, Fritz, still polishing his
cuirass.
"I judge by her face; its expression is quite artless--she really
does not seem to be aware of her own charms."
"The devil! thou art quite smitten!" said the captain of pistoliers,
with a boisterous laugh. "That idea amuses me extremely; I would
give my best helmet to see a woman who was so little aware of her own
beauty that she required to be told of it. I assure you, sir, that
these pretty creatures are quite as artificial as their scenery."
The Sleswig cavalier pulled up his high ruff to conceal how he
smiled; and, though I felt indignant at their severe remarks on the
actress, there was such a frank, pleasant, and soldierly air about
them both, that I could not quarrel with them. They were much alike,
having both the same devil-may-care aspect; having mustaches shorn
off at the corners of their mouths, with broad foreheads and bold
restless eyes; over his right temple the pistolier had a sword-cut,
which was scarcely healed. After a pause--
"I say, Fritz," said he; "have you, who are an enterprising genius,
actually never discovered where this girl lives?"
"How can I with certainty! No one knows any thing about where she
lives--save that she does not live at home." There was a flourish of
music.
"Ece! the curtain rises again!" said M'Alpine, waving his bonnet;
"and again all eyes turn towards her, like flowers towards the sun."
My goddess was again upon the stage, but in a very different dress.
The scene disclosed was a far stretching valley between beautiful
mountains; over one of these rose the pale light of the moon; on the
other died away the last glow of the west; the calm current of a
starlit river wound between the shaded hills, and the lofty arches of
a ruined bridge spanned it; their downward shadows were reflected
deep in the stream below. The white columns of a ruined temple, such
as might have stood in Lybian deserts, arose on one side; on the
other stood the red square keep of a guarded fortress, and dark
Italian pine-woods threw their gloom around them. The white-orbed
moon soared slowly into the blue sky, which became studded by
innumerable stars; it edged the ruins, the rocks, the leaves, and the
riplets of the stream below with a silvery wavering light; and, lo!
there seemed to be nothing but objects of nature standing palpably
before us.
Clad in long and graceful drapery, which was white as snow, girdled
by a glittering zone or bandelet below her rounded bosom, with her
arms bare to those dazzling shoulders, on which her long hair rolled
unbound, with a lyre in her hand, and a bright star sparkling on her
radiant brow, Prudentia, as the Genius of Poetry, arose from the ruin
of a fallen column, around which the leaves of the ivy, the vine, and
acanthus were clustering, and came forward greeted by a storm of
applause. I know not whether it was the style of her dress, or the
subdued light around her; but she seemed paler, and if possible more
beautiful, than before.
The play was a tragedy, which I now remember not, neither have I any
recollection of the other characters; for all my ideas were absorbed
by the fair Spanish jigurante, who now made her appearance as a
singer, and after a short prelude on her lyre, the notes of which
seemed to come from the orchestra, she began to warble, with all the
sweetness of a little bird, a Spanish song, and it seemed to be
somewhat like the serenade I had overheard her practising; and,
however absurd it might seem for a maid of Magna Græcia to sing in
the language of Old Castile, it served the honest Holsteiners quite
as well as the purest Greek that was spoken in the days of Pythagoras.
If I was entranced while this siren sung, I was equally delighted by
her acting. My heart beat like lightning; but I had one source of
disappointment--she never once turned her dark eyes towards me, nor
seemed to observe me, although the balcony occupied by M'Alpine, the
two other cavaliers, and myself, was made sufficiently conspicuous by
the richness of our dresses. I detected, however, one bright glance
of recognition thrown among the closely packed masses of the pit; I
followed the smiling glance, and discovered the round bullet-head and
grey glistening eyes of our Hausmeister.
Remembering the stuff he had so recently told me, about trolds and
fairies and women who were hollow behind, I was making mental
resolutions to punch a bole or two in his doublet, when the sudden
descent of the curtain, and rapid extinction of half the lights,
broke the spell of the place; but the voice of Prudentia still seemed
to linger in my ear, as, in closing the epilogue, she sang the last
verses of Lopez de Vega.
"Will she appear again to night, Herr Baron?" I asked the captain of
the pistoliers.
"No, thank Heaven!" said he, yawning; "the drama is over."
"And I am tired to death," added Fritz, wrapping his mantle about
him; "why, Herr Ensign, you do not mean to say you could endure
another hour of this?"
I neither waited to see their covert smiles, nor bid them adieu, but
avoided Ian and M'Alpine by mingling with the crowd, and hurried
away, that I might see Prudentia as she left the theatre, or at least
contrive to intercept her as she entered that mysterious house which
seemed to be our common residence.
After the glare and heat of the theatre for so many hours, the
moonlit street seemed by contrast to be dark and cold. I rolled my
plaid about me, and, in the shadow of a projecting doorway, stood
watching at the corner of the Platz; still and sluggish as a stream
of ink, the canal lay on one hand; the dark and dirty street, through
which the crowd was dispersing, opened on the other. The storks were
making uncouth sounds on the gables overhead, and before me stood our
tall mansion, the door of which (after my two friends had entered)
was unclosed no more; and I watched in vain till the Laird of
Craigie's drums began to beat _reveillée_, and I heard the shrill
fifes pouring the old Lowland air to the morning wind--
"Cauld an' raw the wind does blaw,
Oh, sirs! it's winter fairly;
But though the hills be owre wi snaw,
We maun up in the mornin' early!"
Every person in Glückstadt had long since retired to their homes, but
I saw nothing of my charming actress, and remembered the remarkable
observation of Major Fritz--that she lived every where but at _home_.
I thought of Herr Roskilde, who seemingly had not returned either,
and my mind began to exchange its obstinacy for anger and jealousy.
Grey morning stole along the waveless waters of the Elbe; the quaint
houses threw their heavy shadows against each other; and the stars,
which had been shining in the puddles of the unpaved streets,
disappeared. The kites, the crows, and other ravenous birds, which,
with the storks, formed _then_ the only scavengers in Glückstadt,
were all busy burying their long bills among the heaps of mud and
other _debris_ of the silent streets, before it occurred to me that I
looked very like a fool or a housebreaker, to be shivering there at
such an untimeous hour.
With this pleasant conviction I returned to my quarters, cold and
weary, vexed and sleepy.
On ascending the stair, I saw the broad hat, the brown cloak, and
espadone of Herr Otto, hanging as usual on three pegs at the first
landing-place; and, on pausing there for a moment, I heard him
snoring as he did every night, like a sow-gelder winding his horn.
"'Zounds!" said I, as I lay down to sleep completely mystified; "for
one moment I have never taken my eyes from that door; none have
entered but Ian and Angus Roy, and here is our Hausmeister, whom I
left at the theatre, snorting comfortably in his own bed!"