RESERVE:
Thackeray.
It has been hinted that the rhetorical, impassioned, and lofty styles
are in a measure dangerous. The natural corrective of that danger is
artistic _reserve_.
Reserve is a negative quality, and so it has not been emphasized by
writers on composition as it ought to be. But if it is negative,
it is none the less real and important, and fortunately we have in
Thackeray a masterly example of its positive power.
Originally reserve is to be traced to a natural reticence and modesty
in the character of the author who employs it. It may be studied,
however, and cultivated as a characteristic of style. As an artistic
quality it consists in saying exactly what the facts demand, no more,
no less―and to say no more especially on those occasions when most
people employ superlatives. Macaulay was not characterized by reserve.
He speaks of the Puritans as “the most remarkable body of men the world
ever produced.” “Most” is a common word in his vocabulary, since it
served so well to round out the phrase and the idea. Thackeray, on the
other hand, is almost too modest. He is so afraid of saying too much
that sometimes he does not say enough, and that may possibly account
for the fact that he was never as popular as the overflowing Dickens.
The lack of reserve made Dickens “slop over” occasionally, as indelicate
critics have put it; and the presence of reserve did more than any other
one thing to give Thackeray the reputation for perfect style which all
concede to him.
One of the most famous passages in all of Thackeray's works is the
description of the battle of Waterloo in “Vanity Fair,” ch. XXXII:
All that day, from morning till past sunset, the cannon never ceased to
roar. It was dark when the cannonading stopped all of a sudden.
All of us have read of what occurred during that interval. The tale is
in every Englishman's mouth; and you and I, who were children when the
great battle was won and lost, are never tired of hearing and recounting
the history of that famous action. Its remembrance rankles still in the
bosoms of millions of the countrymen of those brave men who lost the
day. They pant for an opportunity of revenging that humiliation; and if
a contest, ending in a victory on their part, should ensue, elating them
in their turn, and leaving its cursed legacy of hatred and rage behind
to us, there is no end to the so called glory and shame, and to the
alternation of successful and unsuccessful murder, in which two
high-spirited nations might engage. Centuries hence, we Frenchmen
and Englishmen might be boasting and killing each other still,
carrying out bravely the Devil's code of honor.
All our friends took their share, and fought like men in the great
field. All day long, while the women were praying ten miles away,
the lines of the dauntless English infantry were receiving and repelling
the furious charges of the French horsemen. Guns which were heard in
Brussels were ploughing up their ranks, and comrades falling, and the
resolute survivors closing in. Towards evening, the attack of the
French, repeated and resisted so bravely, slackened in its fury.
They had other foes besides the British to engage, or were preparing
for a final onset. It came at last; the columns of the Imperial Guard
marched up the hill of Saint Jean, at length and at once to sweep the
English from the height which they had maintained all day and spite of
all; unscared by the thunder of the artillery, which hurled death from
the English line,―the dark rolling column pressed on and up the hill.
It seemed almost to crest the eminence, when it began to wave and
falter. Then it stopped, still facing the shot. Then, at last,
the English troops rushed from the post from which no enemy had been
able to dislodge them, and the Guard turned and fled.
No more firing was heard at Brussels,―the pursuit rolled miles away.
Darkness came down on the field and city; and Amelia was praying for
George, who was lying on his face, dead, with a bullet through his heart.”
Who before ever began the description of a great victory by praising the
enemy! And yet when we consider it, there is no more artistically
powerful method than this, of showing how very great the enemy was,
and then saying simply, “The English defeated them.”
But Thackeray wished to do more than this. He was preparing the reader
for the awful presence of death in a private affliction, Amelia's loss
of her husband George. To do this he lets his heart go out in sympathy
for the French, and by that sympathy he seems to rise above all race, to
a supreme height where exist the griefs of the human heart and God alone.
With all this careful preparation, the short, simple closing paragraph―
the barest possible statement of the facts―produces an effect unsurpassed
in literature. The whole situation seems to cry out for superlatives;
yet Thackeray uses none, but remains dignified, calm, and therefore grand.
The following selection serves as a sort of preface to the novel
“Vanity Fair.” It is quite as remarkable for the things it leaves
unsaid as for the things it says. Of course its object is to whet the
reader's appetite for the story that is to follow; but throughout the
author seems to be laughing at himself. In the last paragraph we see
one of the few superlatives to be found In Thackeray―he says the show
has been “most favorably noticed” by the “conductors of the Public
Press, and by the Nobility and Gentry.” Those capital letters prove the
humorous intent of the superlative, which seems to be a burlesque on
other authors who praise themselves. One of the criticisms had been
that Amelia was no better than a doll; and Thackeray takes the critics
at their word and refers to the “Amelia Doll,” merely hinting gently
that even a doll may find friends.
BEFORE THE CURTAIN.
(Preface to “Vanity Fair.”)
By W. M. Thackeray.
As the Manager of the Performance sits before the curtain on the boards,
and looks into the Fair, a feeling of profound melancholy comes over him
in his survey of the bustling place. There is a great quantity of
eating and drinking, making love and jilting, laughing and the contrary,
smoking, cheating, fighting, dancing, and fiddling: there are bullies
pushing about, bucks ogling the women, knaves picking pockets, policemen
on the lookout, quacks (other quacks, plague take them!) bawling in
front of their booths, and yokels looking up at the tinselled dancers
and poor old rouged tumblers, while the light-fingered folk are
operating upon their pockets behind. Yes, this is Vanity Fair; not a
moral place certainly; nor a merry one, though very noisy. Look at the
faces of the actors and buffoons when they come off from their business;
and Tom Fool washing the paint off his cheeks before he sits down to
dinner with his wife and the little Jack Puddings behind the canvas.
The curtain will be up presently, and he will be turning over head and
heels, and crying, “How are you?”
A man with a reflective turn of mind, walking through an exhibition
of this sort, will not be oppressed, I take it, by his own or other
people's hilarity. An episode of humor or kindness touches and amuses
him here and there,―a pretty child looking at a gingerbread stall;
a pretty girl blushing whilst her lover talks to her and chooses her
fairing; poor Tom Fool, yonder behind the wagon mumbling his bone
with the honest family which lives by his tumbling; but the general
impression is one more melancholy than mirthful. When you come home,
you sit down, in a sober, contemplative, not uncharitable frame of mind,
and apply yourself to your books or your business.
I have no other moral than this to tag to the present story of “Vanity
Fair.” Some people consider Fairs immoral altogether, and eschew such,
with their servants and families; very likely they are right. But persons
who think otherwise, and are of a lazy, or a benevolent, or a sarcastic
mood, may perhaps like to step in for half an hour, and look at the
performances. There are scenes of all sorts; some dreadful combats,
some grand and lofty horse-riding, some scenes of high life, and some
of very middling indeed; some love-making for the sentimental, and some
light comic business; the whole accompanied by appropriate scenery,
and brilliantly illuminated with the Author's own candles.
What more has the Manager of the Performance to say?―To acknowledge the
kindness with which it has been received in all the principal towns of
England through which the show has passed, and where it has been most
favorably noticed by the respected conductors of the Public Press, and by
the Nobility and Gentry. He is proud to think that his Puppets have given
satisfaction to the very best company in this empire. The famous little
Becky Puppet has been pronounced to be uncommonly flexible in the joints,
and lively on the wire: the Amelia Doll, though it has had a smaller
circle of admirers, has yet been carved and dressed with the greatest care
by the artist: the Dobbin Figure, though apparently clumsy, yet dances in
a very amusing and natural manner: the Little Boy's Dance has been liked
by some; and please to remark the richly dressed figure of the Wicked
Nobleman, on which no expense has been spared, and which Old Nick will
fetch away at the end of this singular performance.
And with this, and a profound bow to his patrons, the Manager retires,
and the curtain rises.
London, June 28, 1848.