Said I, you might as well confound
Alexander the Great with Alexander the Coppersmith, my lord! -
"'Twas all one," he replied. -
- If Alexander, King of Macedon, could have translated your
Lordship, said I, I'm sure your Lordship would not have said so.
The poor Count de B- fell but into the same ERROR.
- Et, Monsieur, est-il Yorick? cried the Count. - Je le suis, said
I. - Vous? - Moi, - moi qui ai l'honneur de vous parler, Monsieur le
Comte. - Mon Dieu! said he, embracing me, - Vous etes Yorick!
The Count instantly put the Shakespeare into his pocket, and left
me alone in his room.
THE PASSPORT. VERSAILLES.
I could not conceive why the Count de B- had gone so abruptly out
of the room, any more than I could conceive why he had put the
Shakespeare into his pocket. -
Mysteries which must explain themselves are not worth the loss of
time which a conjecture about them takes up: 'twas better to read
Shakespeare; so taking up "Much Ado About Nothing," I transported
myself instantly from the chair I sat in to Messina in Sicily, and
got so busy with Don Pedro, and Benedict, and Beatrice, that I
thought not of Versailles, the Count, or the passport.
Sweet pliability of man's spirit, that can at once surrender itself
to illusions, which cheat expectation and sorrow of their weary
moments! - Long, - long since had ye number'd out my days, had I not
trod so great a part of them upon this enchanted ground. When my
way is too rough for my feet, or too steep for my strength, I get
off it, to some smooth velvet path, which Fancy has scattered over
with rosebuds of delights; and having taken a few turns in it, come
back strengthened and refresh'd. - When evils press sore upon me,
and there is no retreat from them in this world, then I take a new
course; - I leave it, - and as I have a clearer idea of the Elysian
fields than I have of heaven, I force myself, like AEneas, into
them. - I see him meet the pensive shade of his forsaken Dido, and
wish to recognise it; - I see the injured spirit wave her head, and
turn off silent from the author of her miseries and dishonours; - I
lose the feelings for myself in hers, and in those affections which
were wont to make me mourn for her when I was at school.
SURELY THIS IS NOT WALKING IN A VAIN SHADOW - NOR DOES MAN DISQUIET
HIMSELF in vain BY IT: - he oftener does so in trusting the issue
of his commotions to reason only. - I can safely say for myself, I
was never able to conquer any one single bad sensation in my heart
so decisively, as beating up as fast as I could for some kindly and
gentle sensation to fight it upon its own ground
When I had got to the end of the third act the Count de B- entered,
with my passport in his hand. Monsieur le Duc de C-, said the
Count, is as good a prophet, I dare say, as he is a statesman. Un
homme qui rit, said the Duke, ne sera jamais dangereux. - Had it
been for any one but the king's jester, added the Count, I could
not have got it these two hours. - Pardonnez moi, Monsieur le Count,
said I - I am not the king's jester. - But you are Yorick? - Yes. - Et
vous plaisantez? - I answered, Indeed I did jest, - but was not paid
for it; - 'twas entirely at my own expense.
We have no jester at court, Monsieur le Count, said I; the last we
had was in the licentious reign of Charles II.; - since which time
our manners have been so gradually refining, that our court at
present is so full of patriots, who wish for NOTHING but the
honours and wealth of their country; - and our ladies are all so
chaste, so spotless, so good, so devout, - there is nothing for a
jester to make a jest of. -
Voila un persiflage! cried the Count.
THE PASSPORT. VERSAILLES.
As the passport was directed to all lieutenant-governors,
governors, and commandants of cities, generals of armies,
justiciaries, and all officers of justice, to let Mr. Yorick the
king's jester, and his baggage, travel quietly along, I own the
triumph of obtaining the passport was not a little tarnish'd by the
figure I cut in it. - But there is nothing unmix'd in this world;
and some of the gravest of our divines have carried it so far as to
affirm, that enjoyment itself was attended even with a sigh, - and
that the greatest THEY KNEW OF terminated, IN A GENERAL WAY, in
little better than a convulsion.
I remember the grave and learned Bevoriskius, in his Commentary
upon the Generations from Adam, very naturally breaks off in the
middle of a note to give an account to the world of a couple of
sparrows upon the out-edge of his window, which had incommoded him
all the time he wrote, and at last had entirely taken him off from
his genealogy.
- 'Tis strange! writes Bevoriskius; but the facts are certain, for
I have had the curiosity to mark them down one by one with my pen;-
-but the cock sparrow, during the little time that I could have
finished the other half of this note, has actually interrupted me
with the reiteration of his caresses three-and-twenty times and a
half.
How merciful, adds Bevoriskius, is heaven to his creatures!
Ill fated Yorick! that the gravest of thy brethren should be able
to write that to the world, which stains thy face with crimson to
copy, even in thy study.
But this is nothing to my travels.
