WILLIAM SHARP (FIONA MACLEOD) A MEMOIR COMPILED BY HIS WIFE ELIZABETH A. SHARP by ELIZABETH A. SHARP (best ebook reader ubuntu txt) đ
- Author: ELIZABETH A. SHARP
Book online «WILLIAM SHARP (FIONA MACLEOD) A MEMOIR COMPILED BY HIS WIFE ELIZABETH A. SHARP by ELIZABETH A. SHARP (best ebook reader ubuntu txt) đ». Author ELIZABETH A. SHARP
I have also schemed out, and hope soon to get on with, a prose play,
dealing with the deep wrong done to women by certain existing laws.
Among other prose books (fiction) which I have âon the stocksâ nothing
_possesses_ me more than a philosophical work which I shall probably
publish either anonymously or under a pseudonym, and, I hope, before
next winter. How splendid it is to be alive! O if one could only crush
into a few vivid years the scattered fruit of wasted seasons. There
is such a host of things to do: such a bitter sparsity of time, after
bread-and-butter making, to do them inâeven to dream of them!â
* * * * *
These various schemes planned mentally were never realised. William
constantly projected and of the roughly drafted out possible work that
absorbed him during its conception, but was put aside when a more
dominating idea demanded full expression. âBacchus in Indiaâ remained a
fragment. Neither the tragedy nor that prose play was finished, and the
philosophical work was never begun. A new impulse came, new work grew
out of the impressions of that Roman winter which swept out of his mind
all other cartooned work.
PART I (WILLIAM SHARP) CHAPTER XI ( ROME )
_Sospiri di Roma_
Winter in Rome was one long delight to the emancipated writer. It
amply fulfilled even his optimistic anticipation. He revelled in the
sunshine and the beauty; he was in perfect health; his imagination was
quickened and worked with great activity. We had about us a little
group of friends, who, like ourselves, intended to live quietly and
simply. Among these were Mrs. Caird who had come abroad for her health;
Sir Charles Holroyd, who had a studio in the Via Margoutta, and Mr. and
Mrs. Elihu Vedder. Mrs. Wingate Rinder joined us for three weeks, and
with her my husband greatly enjoyed long walks over the Campagna and
expeditions to the little neighbouring hill towns. His Diary for the
beginning of 1891 was kept with creditable regularity, and contains
a record of some of these expeditions and of work done in Rome, in
particular of the dates on which the poems of _Sospiri di Roma_ were
written. From it I have selected entries.
â_Jan. 2nd._ ... Read through and revised âBacchus in India.â Added the
(I think good) adjective âsun-sparkled wood....â
Poetry is a glorious rebirth of prose. When a beautiful thought can
be uttered in worthy prose: best so. But when it moves through the
mind in music, and shapes itself to a lyric rhythm, then it should
find expression in poetry. The truest poets are those who can most
exquisitely capture, and concentrate in a few words, this haunting
rhythm.
_Jan. 3rd._ The morning broke well, though not so promisingly as
yesterday.... Caught the 9 A.M. train for Albano-Laziale. Marnio
is a fine and picturesque hill-city. After passing it we admired
the view of the Lake of Albano, with its abrupt variations of light
and profound shadow. Arrived at Albano we walked by the way of the
Viaduct to LâAriccia, with lovely views of the Campagna to the right:
of Monte Cavo and Rocca di Papa to the left. Then on by a lovely road
to Genzano. Having gone through the lower part and out again into
the Campagna we turned southward, and in due time reached the high
ground, with its olive-orchards, looking down upon the Lake of Nemi.
It looked lovely in its grey-blue stillness, with all the sunlit but
yet sombre winterliness around. Nemi, itself, lay apparently silent and
lifeless, âa city of dream,â on a height across the lake. One could
imagine that Nemi and Genzano had once been the same town, and had
been riven asunder by a volcano. The lake-filled crater now divides
these two little hill-set towns.... Walked through Albano to the N.W.
gate, past the ancient tomb, and along the beautiful ilex-bordered road
leading to Castel-Gandolfo. Saw two Capuchin friars with extraordinary
faces. They fitted the scene. Magnificent views of the Campagna,
tinted with a faint pink-grey mist: of Ostea, etc.: and of the strange
dreamful, partially sunlit Tyrrhene sea. Then through Castel Gandolfo,
with lovely views of Lake Albano. Broke our fast with some apples.
Down the steep front till we joined the road just above the little
station, where we caught the train 10 minutes later. The Aqua Felice
and Claudian Aqueducts seen to great advantage in returning across the
Campagna to Rome.
_Jan. 5th._ A fine morning, with a delicate hint of Spring in the
air.... Caught the train for Champino, near Frascati. The officials at
the station seemed amazed at our descending there. No one ever does
so, it seems! There was literally no regular way out of the station,
and when I asked how we were to get out the man did not know. Neither
he nor the clerk, nor the others who gathered round knew the road back
to Rome! At last some one from the train suggested that if we struck
across country we would come to the Via Appia. We had a pleasant walk
across a barren part of the Campagna intersected by railway cuttings,
and at last came to a place called Frattochie, whence a road led us to
the Via Appia Nuova. From this again we struck across a field and came
upon the Via Appia Antica, adown which we had a splendid and absolutely
solitary walk. We saw no one but a few shepherds at a distance, with
their large white dogs and sheep. Often stopped among the ruins, or
at the top of one of the grassy tombs to hear the wind among the
pines, along the grass, or in the crevices of the wall. A few drops
of rain fell as we neared the tomb of Cecilia Metella, and soon the
rain-storm, which we had watched approaching across the Campagna, came
The first three wayside _trattorie_ we came to were shut, but inthe fourth, a peasantâs resort, we got some bread, and white and poor
Marino. We shared some of the bread with a large dog, and gave some
wine to a malarious-looking poor devil of a labourer. Returned by the
Gate of San Sebastiano.
_Jan. 8th._ ... Bought _LâEvolution des Genres dans lâHistoire de
la LittĂ©rature_ by Ferdinand BrunetiĂšre; Rouxâs book on Italian
Literature; Pierre Lotiâs _Mariage de Loti_. After dinner copied out
âRebirthâ (Springâs Advent) to send to _Belfordâs_, and âThe Sheikâ for
_N. Y. Independent_.
This forenoon the house nearly opposite fell in. We saw one man brought
out dead. Seven others were said to be buried in the ruins. The King
came later on and himself helped one of the wounded out and took him to
the hospital.
_Jan. 9th._ Wet and rain. The Campagna covered with snow. In the
forenoon I wrote four more of my âEbb and Flowâ Series of Sea
PoemsââPhosphorescence before StormâââTempest MusicâââDead Calm:
Noonâ and âDead Calm: Midnight.â The others were written some on the
French coast some on the English in 1887. âTempest-Musicâ and the
two âDead Calmâ are as good if not better than any in the series. In
all the latter I care most for the âSwimmer at Sunriseâ and âThe
Dead-Calm-Noonâ: also for âTempest Music.â
... After dinner read to Lill for a bit including the prose version
(outline) of my âLilith.â
To-day the anniversary of the Death of Victor Emmanuel, 13 years ago.
The Italians idolise his memory, and call him âThe Father of the
Country.â He is rapidly becoming a Presiding Deity. 10th rewrote and
greatly improved âPhosphorescence.â Its two opening lines, originally,
âAs hill winds and sun and rains inweave a veil
Of lichen round vast boulders on the mountain side.â
were out of keeping in imagery with the rest: and in every way
âAs some aerial spirit weaves a rainbow veil
Of Mist, his high immortal loveliness to hide.â
are better. Should have preferred âwildâ to âhighâ in this line, but
the 4th terminal is âwild.â Perhaps not, after all.
_Jan. 16th._ Although it was so cold and wintry with signs of snow
in suspension caught the train for Tivoli. The scenery extremely
beautiful, and doubly fascinating and strange from the whirling snow
falling every here and there, in strangely intermittent and separate
fashion. The sheep and disconsolate shepherds on one high healthy part
made a fantastic foreground. At Tivoli, which was like a hill town in
Scotland in midwinter, with a storm raging, we walked past the first
cascades, then up a narrow hill-path partly snowed up, partly frozen,
to the open country beyond. Then back and into a trattoria where we had
lunch of wine, omelette, bread, fruit, and coffee.
_Jan. 17th._ Midwinter with a vengeance. Rome might be St. Petersburg.
Snow heavy and a hard frost. Even the Fountain of the Tritone hung all
over with long spears and pendicles of ice.âLater, I went out, to walk
to and fro on the Pincio Terrace in the whirling snow, which I enjoyed
beyond words. There was a lull, and then I saw the storm clouds sweep
up from the Maremma, across the Campagna and blot out Rome bit by bit.
Walking to and fro I composed the lyric, beginning:
âThere is a land of dream:
I have trodden its golden ways:
I have seen its amber light
From the heart of its sun-swept days:
I have seen its moonshine white
On its silent waters gleamâ
Ah, the strange, sweet, lonely delight
Of the Valleys of Dream!â
Returning by the Pincian Gate, about 5.45 there was a strange sight.
Perfectly still in the sombre Via di Mura, with high walls to the
right, but the upper pines and cypresses swaying in a sudden rush of
wind: to the left a drifting snow-storm: to the right wintry moonshine:
vivid sweeping pulsations of lightning from the Campagna, and long low
muttering growls of thunder. (The red light from a window in the wall.)
_Jan. 19th._ After dinner read a good deal of Beddoes to Lill.... How
like Poe the first stanza of âThe Old Ghostâ: every now and again there
is a gleam of rare moon-white beauty, as in the lovely 3rd stanza
of âThe Ballad of Human Lifeââthe first quatrain of the 2nd stanza
of âDial Thoughts,â and that beautiful line in the fantastic and
ultra-Shelleyian âRomance of the Lily,â
âAs Evening feeds the waves with brooks of quiet life.â
_Jan. 22nd._ In the evening read through Elihu Vedderâs _Primitive
Folk_. There is a definite law in the evolution of sexual _morale_, I
am sure, if one could only get at it. The matter is worth going into,
both for Fundamental and Contemporary and Problematical Ethics.
_Jan. 27th._ Elizabeth and I went to the opening lecture of the
ArchĂŠological Society, at the Hotel Marini. Lord Dufferin in the Chair.
Mr. Porter, U. S. Minister, delivered an address, mainly on Cicero....
Lord Dufferin afterwards told us incidentally that a friend of his
had gone into a book shop in the Corso and asked for _Max OâRell: En
Amérique_. The bookseller said he neither had the book nor had he
heard of it: now the visitor persisted and the bookseller in despair
exclaimed, â_Dio mio_, Signor, I never even heard of _Marc AurĂšle_
having been in America!â
_Jan. 30th._ After lunch we went for a drive in the Campagna....
Delighting in the warm balmy air, the superb views, the space and
freedom, the soft turfy soil under foot, the excited congregation of
larks twittering as they wheeled about, soon to pair, and one early
songster already trilling his song along the flowing wind high overhead.
Between 9 P.M. and 12 P.M. my ears were full of music. Wrote the
Sospiri, âThe Fountain of the Aqua Paolaâ; âRuinsâ; âHigh Noon at
Midsummer on the Campagnaâ; âSussurriâ; âBreath of the Grassâ; âRed
Poppiesâ; and the lyric Spring.
_Jan. 31st._ Wrote to-day. âThe Mandolinâ (_Sospiri di Roma_) (115
lines). In afternoon wrote âAllâ Ora della Stellaâ (Vesper Bells),
partly from memory of what I have heard, several times, and partly
modified by a poem I chanced to see to-day, Fogazzaroâs âA Sera.â
_February 2nd._ Second day
Comments (0)