WILLIAM SHARP (FIONA MACLEOD) A MEMOIR COMPILED BY HIS WIFE ELIZABETH A. SHARP by ELIZABETH A. SHARP (best ebook reader ubuntu txt) đź“–
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immortality, and that many of our best and most intelligent thinking
men and women abjure it as unworthy of their high conception of
Humanity....
But _is_ Humanity all? Has Humanity fashioned itself out of primal
elements, arisen and marched down the long, strange ways of Time—still
marching, with eyes fixed on some self-projected Goal—without ever a
spiritual breath blowing upon it, without ever the faintest guidance
of any divine hand, without ever a glance of sorrowful and yearning
but yet ineffably hopeful love from some Being altogether beyond and
transcending it? Is it, can it be so? But in any case, whether with the
Nirvana of the follower of Buddha, the absorption of the soul in the
soul of God of the Deist and Theist, or with the loss of the individual
in the whole of the Race of the Humanitarian, I cannot altogether
agree. It may be the “old Adam” of selfishness; it may be poverty of
highest feeling and insufficiency of intellectual grasp; but I cannot
embrace the belief in the extinction of the individual....
23d October, 1880.
I am glad you like my short paper in the _Sectarian Review_ and I think
that you understand my motive in writing it. It is no unreasoning
reverence that I advocate, no “countenancing beliefs in worn-out
superstitions,” as you say; no mercy to the erring, but much mercy to
and sympathy with the deceived. I do not reverence the Bible or the
Christian Theology in _themselves_, but for the beautiful spirituality
which faintly but ever and again breathes through them, like a vague
wind blowing through intricate forests; and so far I reverence the
recognition of this spiritual breath in the worship of those whose
views are so very different from my own....
I have been writing a good deal lately—chiefly verse. There is one
thing which I am sure will interest you: some time ago I wrote a sonnet
called “Religion,” the drift of which was to show the futility of any
of the great creeds _as_ creeds, and two or three weeks ago showed
it to my friend Mr. Belford Bax. It seems to have made considerable
impression upon him, for, after what he calls “having absorbed it,”
he has set it to very beautiful recitative music. There are some fine
chords in the composition, preluding the pathetic melody of the finale;
and altogether it has given me great pleasure. But what specially
interests me is that it is the first time (as far as I am aware) of a
sonnet in any language having been set to music. The form of this kind
of verse is of course antagonistic to song-music, and could only be
rendered by recitative. Do you know of any instance having occurred?
The sonnet in question will appear in _The Examiner_ in a week or two.
Lo, in a dream, I saw a vast dim sea
Whose sad waves broke upon a barren shore;
The name of this wan sea was _Nevermore_,
The land _The Past_, the shore _Futility_:
Thereon I spied three mighty Shadows; three
Weary and desolate Shades, of whom each wore
A crown whereon was writ _Despair_. To me
One spoke, and said, “Lo, I am He
In whom the countless millions of the East
Live, move, and hope. And all is vanity!”—
And I knew Buddha. Then the next: “The least
Am I, but once God’s mightiest Prophet-Priest”—
So spake Mahomet. And then pitifully
The third Shade moaned, “I am of Galilee!”
I also enclose the record of a vision I had lately:
Lo, in that Shadowy place wherein is found
The fruitage of the spirit men call dreams,
I wander’d. Ever underneath pale gleams
Of misty moonlight quivering all around,
And ever by the banks of sedgy streams
Swishing thro’ fallen rushes with slow sound
A spirit walked beside me. From a mound,
Rustling from poplar-leaves from top to base,
Some bird I knew not shrilled a cry of dole,
So bitter, I cried out to God for grace.
Whereat he by me slackened from his pace,
Turning upon me in my cold amaze
And saying, “While the long years onward roll
Thou shalt be haunted by this hateful face—“
And looking up, I looked on my own soul!
Nov. 20, 1880.
If this note does not reach you by New Year’s Day it will soon after—so
let me wish you most heartily and sincerely all good wishes for the
coming year. May the White Wings of Happiness and Peace and Health
brush from your path all evil things. There is something selfish in the
latter wish, for I hope so much to see you before long again. Don’t
despise me when I say that in some things I am more a woman than a
man—and when my heart is touched strongly I lavish more love upon the
one who does so than I have perhaps any right to expect returned; and
then I have so few friends that when I do find one I am ever jealous of
his or her absence.
* * * * *
S.—I wonder if this late Kentish violet will retain its delicious
scent till it looks at you in New Zealand. It is probably the last of
its race.
Feb., 1881.
I may say in reference to the Religion of Humanity that my sympathy
with Comtism is only limited, and that though I think it is and will
yet be an instrument of great good, I see nothing in it of essential
savingness. It is even in some of its ceremonial and practical details
a decided retrogression—at least so it seems to me—and though I do
not believe in a revealed God, I think such a belief higher and more
precious and morally as salutary as a belief in abstract Humanity.
Concrete humanity appeals more to my sympathy when filled with the
breath of “God” than in its relation to its abstract Self. When I write
again I will endeavour to answer your question as to whether I believe
in a God or not. My friend, we are all in the hollow of some mighty
moulding Hand. Every fibre in my body quivers at times with absolute
faith and belief, yet I do not say that I believe in “God” when asked
such a question by those whom I am conscious misinterpret me. You have
some lines of mine called “The Redeemer”; they will hint something to
you of that belief which buoys my soul up in the ocean of love that
surrounds it. It were well for the soul, if annihilation rounds off the
circle of life, to sink to final forgetfulness in the sea of precious
human love; but it is far better if the soul can be borne along that
sea of wonder and glory to distant ever-expanding goals, transcending
in _love, glory, life_ all that human imagination ever conceived....
Farewell for the present, dear friend.
W.
PART I (WILLIAM SHARP) CHAPTER III ( EARLY DAYS IN LONDON )
The most important influence in the early literary career of the young
poet was his friendship with Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He gained not
only a valued friend, who introduced him to many of the well-known
writers of the time, but one who helped him in the development of his
art by sound, careful criticism and kindly encouragement. His first
acquaintance with the writings of the painter-poet dated from the
Autumn of 1879, when on his birthday Miss Adelaide Elder had sent him a
volume of poems, an incident destined to have far-reaching results. In
1899 he wrote to her:
DEAR ADELAIDE,
Do you know why I thought of you to-day particularly, it being my
birthday? For it was you who some two and twenty years ago sent me on
the 12th of September a copy of a beautifully bound book by a poet with
a strange name and by me quite unknown—Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
To that event it is impossible to trace all I owe, but what is fairly
certain is that, without it, the whole course of my life might have
been very different. For the book not only influenced and directed me
mentally at a crucial period, but made me speak of it to an elderly
friend (Sir Noel Paton) through whom I was dissuaded from going abroad
on a career of adventure (I was going to Turkey or as I vaguely put it,
Asia) and through whom, later, I came to know Rossetti himself—an event
which completely redirected the whole course of my life.
It would be strange to think how a single impulse of a friend may thus
have so profound a significance were it not that to you and me there is
nothing strange (in the sense of incredible) in the complex spiritual
interrelation of life. Looking back through all those years I daresay
we can now both see a strange and in much inscrutable, but still
recognisable, direction.
To quote his own words:
“By the autumn of 1880 I was within sight of that long and arduous
career called the literary life. An extraordinary good fortune met
me at the outset, for, through an introduction from Sir Noel Paton,
I came to know, and know intimately, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, whose
winsome personality fascinated me as much as his great genius impressed
Rossetti introduced me to one who became my chief friend—the latePhilip Bourke Marston; and through Rossetti also I came to know Mr.
Theodore Watts, Mr. Swinburne, and others. By the spring of 1881, I was
in the literary world, and in every phase of it, from the most Bohemian
to the most isolated.”
On the 1st of September, 1881, William Sharp presented himself at the
door of 16 Cheyne Walk. The housekeeper explained that Mr. Rossetti
could receive no one. The importunate stranger persisted and stated
that it was of the highest importance that he should see Mr. Rossetti
and so impressed her that she not only went to report to Mr. Rossetti
but came back with orders to admit him. On seeing his eager visitor,
the poet-painter naturally asked him what he wanted so urgently, and
his visitor answered promptly, “Only to shake hands with you before you
die!” “Well,” was the answer, “I am in no immediate danger of dying,
but you may shake hands if you wish.”
The introduction from Sir Noel Paton was then tendered; and thus began
a friendship that grew to a deep affectionate devotion on the side of
the younger man.
Rossetti took him into the studio, and showed him the paintings he had
on his easels. The two which specially impressed his visitor were “La
Donna della Fenestra,” and “Dante’s Dream.” In a letter written to
me when I was in Italy, he describes the pictures as beautiful colour
harmonies, and continues:
“After I had looked at it for a long time in happy silence, Rossetti
sat behind me in the shadow and read me his translation of the poem
from the _Vita Nuova_, which refers to Dante’s Dream. Was it not kind
of him to give so much pleasure to one, a complete stranger? I also saw
several other paintings of extreme beauty, but which I have no time
to mention at present. He told me to come again, and shortly before
I left he asked me for my address, and said that he would ask me to
come some evening to talk with him, and also to meet one or two. This
was altogether unexpected. Fancy having two such men for _friends_ as
Sir Noel Paton and Dante Gabriel Rossetti! I went out in a dream. The
outside world was altogether idealised. I was in the golden age again.
To calm myself, I went and leant over Chelsea Embankment, where there
were many people as there was a regatta going on. But, though conscious
of external circumstances, I was not in London. The blood of the
South burned in my veins, the sky was a semi-tropical one: the river
rushing past was not the Thames, but the Tiber; the
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