"Nightmare Abbey" is perhaps the most extravagant of all
Peacock's stories, and, with the exception of "Headlong Hall,"
it obtained more vogue on its publication in 1818 than any of
his other works. It is eminently characteristic of its
author--the eighteenth century Rabelaisian pagan who prided
himself on his antagonism towards religion, yet whose likes
and dislikes were invariably inspired by hatred of cant and
enthusiasm for progress. The hero of the story is easily
distinguishable as the poet Shelley. On the whole the
characters are more life-like presentations of humanity than
those of "Headlong Hall." Simple and weak though the plot is,
the reader is carried along to the end through a brilliant
maze of wit and satire; underneath which outward show of
irresponsible fun there pervades a gloomy note of tragedy.
_I.--Mr. Glowry and His Son_
Nightmare Abbey, a venerable family mansion in a highly picturesque
state of semi-dilapidation, in the county of, Lincoln, had the honour to
be the seat of Christopher Glowry, Esquire, a gentleman much troubled
with those phantoms of indigestion commonly called "blue devils."
Disappointed both in love and friendship, he had come to the conclusion
that there was but one good thing in the world, videlicet, a good
dinner; and remained a widower, with one only son and heir, Scythrop.
This son had been sent to a public-school, where a little learning was
painfully beaten into him, and thence to the university, where it was
carefully taken out of him, and he finished his education to the high
satisfaction of the master and fellows of his college. He passed his
vacations sometimes at Nightmare Abbey, and sometimes in London, at the
house of his uncle, Mr. Hilary, a very cheerful and elastic gentleman.
The company that frequented his house was the gayest of the gay.
Scythrop danced with the ladies and drank with the gentlemen, and was
pronounced by both a very accomplished, charming fellow.
Here he first saw the beautiful Miss Emily Girouette, and fell in love;
he was favourably received, but the respective fathers quarrelled about
the terms of the bargain, and the two lovers were torn asunder, weeping
and vowing eternal constancy; and in three weeks the lady was led a
smiling bride to the altar, leaving Scythrop half distracted. His
father, to comfort him, read him a commentary on Ecclesiastes, of his
own composition; it was thrown away upon Scythrop, who retired to his
tower as dismal and disconsolate as before.
The tower which Scythrop inhabited stood at the south-eastern angle of
the abbey; the south-western was ruinous and full of owls; the
north-eastern contained the apartments of Mr. Glowry; the north-eastern
tower was appropriated to the servants, whom Mr. Glowry always chose by
one of two criterions--a long face or a dismal name. The main building was
divided into room of state, spacious apartments for feasting, and
numerous bedrooms for visitors, who, however, were few.
Occasional visits were paid by Mr. and Mrs. Hilary, but another visitor,
much more to Mr. dowry's taste, was Mr. Flosky, a very lachrymose and
morbid gentleman, of some note in the literary world, with a very fine
sense of the grim and the tearful.
But the dearest friend of Mr. Glowry, and his most welcome guest, was
Mr. Toobad, the Manichean Millenarian. The twelfth verse of the twelfth
chapter of Revelations was always in his mouth: "Woe to the inhabitants
of the earth and of the sea, for the devil is come among you, having
great wrath, because he knoweth he hath but a short time." He maintained
that this precise time was the point of the plenitude of the power of
the Evil Principle; he used to add that by and by he would be cast down,
and a happy order of things succeed, but never omitted to add "Not in
our time," which last words were always echoed by Mr. Glowry, in doleful
response.
Shortly after Scythrop's disappointment Mr. Glowry was involved in a
lawsuit, which compelled his attendance in London, and Scythrop was left
alone, to wander about, with the "Sorrows of Werter" in his hand.
He now became troubled with the passion for reforming the world, and
meditated on the practicability of reviving a confederacy of
regenerators. He wrote and published a treatise in which his meanings
were carefully wrapped up in the monk's hood of transcendental
technology, but filled with hints of matters deep and dangerous, which
he thought would set the whole nation in a ferment, and awaited the
result in awful expectation; some months after he received a letter from
his bookseller, informing him that only seven copies had been sold, and
concluding with a polite request for the balance.
"Seven copies!" he thought. "Seven is a mystical number, and the omen is
good. Let me find the seven purchasers, and they shall be the seven
golden candlesticks with which I shall illuminate the world."
Scythrop had a certain portion of mechanical genius, and constructed
models of cells and recesses, sliding panels and secret passages, which
would have baffled the skill of the Parisian police. In his father's
absence, he smuggled a dumb carpenter into his tower, and gave reality
to one of these models. He foresaw that a great leader of regeneration
would be involved in fearful dilemmas, and determined to adopt all
possible precautions for his own preservation.
In the meantime, he drank Madeira and laid deep schemes for a thorough
repair of the crazy fabric of human nature.
_II.--Marionetta_
Mr. Glowry returned with the loss of his lawsuit, and found Scythrop in
a mood most sympathetically tragic. His friends, whom we have mentioned,
availed themselves of his return to pay him a simultaneous visit, and at
the same time arrived Scythrop's friend and fellow-collegian, the Hon.
Mr. Listless, a young gentleman devoured with a gloomy and
misanthropical _nil curo_.
Mr. and Mrs. Hilary brought with them an orphan niece, Miss Marionetta
Celestina O'Carroll, a blooming and accomplished young lady, who
exhibited in her own character all the diversities of an April sky. Her
hair was light brown, her eyes hazel, her features regular, and her
person surpassingly graceful. She had some coquetry, and more caprice,
liking and disliking almost in the same moment, and had not been three
days in the abbey before she threw out all the lures of her beauty and
accomplishments to make a prize of her cousin Scythrop's heart.
Scythrop's romantic dreams had given him many pure anticipated
cognitions of combinations of beauty and intelligence, which, he had
some misgivings, were not realised by Marionetta, but he soon became
distractedly in love, which, when the lady perceived, she altered her
tactics and assumed coldness and reserve. Scythrop was confounded, but,
instead of falling at her feet begging explanation, he retreated to his
tower, seated himself in the president's chair of his imaginary
tribunal, summoned Marionetta with terrible formalities, frightened her
out of her wits, disclosed himself, and clasped the beautiful penitent
to his bosom.
While he was acting this reverie, his study door opened, and the real
Marionetta appeared.
"For heaven's sake, Scythrop," said she, "what is the matter?"
"For heaven's sake, indeed!" said Scythrop, "for your sake, Marionetta,
and you are my heaven! Distraction is the matter. I adore you, and your
cruelty drives me mad!" He threw himself at her feet, and breathed a
thousand vows in the most passionate language of romance.
With a very arch look, she said: "I prithee, deliver thyself like a man
of the world." The levity of this quotation jarred so discordantly on
the romantic inamorato that he sprang to his feet, and beat his forehead
with his clenched fist. The young lady was terrified, and, taking his
hand in hers, said in her tenderest tone: "What would you have,
Scythrop?"
Scythrop was in heaven again.
"What but you, Marionetta! You, for the companion of my studies, the
auxiliary of my great designs for mankind."
"I am afraid I should be but a poor auxiliary, Scythrop. What would you
have me do?"
"Do as Rosalia does with Carlos, Marionetta. Let us each open a vein in
the other's arm, mix our blood in a bowl, and drink it as a sacrament of
love; then we shall see visions of transcendental illumination."
Marionetta disengaged herself suddenly, and fled with precipitation.
Scythrop pursued her, crying, "Stop, stop Marionetta--my life, my love!"
and was gaining rapidly on her flight, when he came into sudden and
violent contact with Mr. Toobad, and they both plunged together to the
foot of the stairs, which gave the young lady time to escape and enclose
herself in her chamber.
This was witnessed by Mr. Glowry, and he determined on a full
explanation. He therefore entered Scythrop Tower, and at once said:
"So, sir, you are in love with your cousin."