Daniel Deronda George Eliot (best book clubs TXT) š
- Author: George Eliot
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āI knew you would like to see my casts and antiquities,ā said Hans, after the first hearty greetings and inquiries, āso I didnāt scruple to unlade my chests here. But Iāve found two rooms at Chelsea not many hundred yards from my mother and sisters, and I shall soon be ready to hang out thereā āwhen theyāve scraped the walls and put in some new lights. Thatās all Iām waiting for. But you see I donāt wait to begin work: you canāt conceive what a great fellow Iām going to be. The seed of immortality has sprouted within me.ā
āOnly a fungoid growth, I dare sayā āa growing disease in the lungs,ā said Deronda, accustomed to treat Hans in brotherly fashion. He was walking toward some drawings propped on the ledge of his bookcases; five rapidly-sketched headsā ādifferent aspects of the same face. He stood at a convenient distance from them, without making any remark. Hans, too, was silent for a minute, took up his palette and began touching the picture on his easel.
āWhat do you think of them?ā he said at last.
āThe full face looks too massive; otherwise the likenesses are good,ā said Deronda, more coldly than was usual with him.
āNo, it is not too massive,ā said Hans, decisively. āI have noted that. There is always a little surprise when one passes from the profile to the full face. But I shall enlarge her scale for Berenice. I am making a Berenice seriesā ālook at the sketches along thereā āand now I think of it, you are just the model I want for the Agrippa.ā Hans, still with pencil and palette in hand, had moved to Derondaās side while he said this, but he added hastily, as if conscious of a mistake, āNo, no, I forgot; you donāt like sitting for your portrait, confound you! However, Iāve picked up a capital Titus. There are to be five in the series. The first is Berenice clasping the knees of Gessius Florus and beseeching him to spare her people; Iāve got that on the easel. Then, this, where she is standing on the Xystus with Agrippa, entreating the people not to injure themselves by resistance.ā
āAgrippaās legs will never do,ā said Deronda.
āThe legs are good realistically,ā said Hans, his face creasing drolly; āpublic men are often shaky about the legsā āāTheir legs, the emblem of their various thought,ā as somebody says in The Rehearsal.ā
āBut these are as impossible as the legs of Raphaelās Alcibiades,ā said Deronda.
āThen they are good ideally,ā said Hans. āAgrippaās legs were possibly bad; I idealize that and make them impossibly bad. Art, my Eugenius, must intensify. But never mind the legs now: the third sketch in the series is Berenice exulting in the prospects of being Empress of Rome, when the news has come that Vespasian is declared Emperor and her lover Titus his successor.ā
āYou must put a scroll in her mouth, else people will not understand that. You canāt tell that in a picture.ā
āIt will make them feel their ignorance thenā āan excellent aesthetic effect. The fourth is, Titus sending Berenice away from Rome after she has shared his palace for ten yearsā āboth reluctant, both sadā āinvitus invitam, as Suetonius hath it. Iāve found a model for the Roman brute.ā
āShall you make Berenice look fifty? She must have been that.ā
āNo, no; a few mature touches to show the lapse of time. Dark-eyed beauty wears well, hers particularly. But now, here is the fifth: Berenice seated lonely on the ruins of Jerusalem. That is pure imagination. That is what ought to have beenā āperhaps was. Now, see how I tell a pathetic negative. Nobody knows what became of herā āthat is finely indicated by the series coming to a close. There is no sixth picture.ā Here Hans pretended to speak with a gasping sense of sublimity, and drew back his head with a frown, as if looking for a like impression on Deronda. āI break off in the Homeric style. The story is chipped off, so to speak, and passes with a ragged edge into nothingā āle nĆ©ant; can anything be more sublime, especially in French? The vulgar would desire to see her corpse and burialā āperhaps her will read and her linen distributed. But now come and look at this on the easel. I have made some way there.ā
āThat beseeching attitude is really good,ā said Deronda, after a momentās contemplation. āYou have been very industrious in the Christmas holidays; for I suppose you have taken up the subject since you came to London.ā Neither of them had yet mentioned Mirah.
āNo,ā said Hans, putting touches to his picture, āI made up my mind to the subject before. I take that lucky chance for an augury that I am going to burst on the world as a great painter. I saw a splendid woman in the Trastevereā āthe grandest women there are half Jewessesā āand she set me hunting for a fine situation of a Jewess at Rome. Like other men of vast learning, I ended by taking what lay on the surface. Iāll show you a sketch of the Trasteverinaās head when I can lay my hands on it.ā
āI should think she would be a more suitable model for Berenice,ā said Deronda, not knowing exactly how to express his discontent.
āNot a bit of it. The model ought to be the most beautiful Jewess in the world, and I have found her.ā
āHave you made yourself sure that she would like to figure in that character? I should think no woman would be more abhorrent to her. Does she quite know what you are doing?ā
āCertainly. I got her to throw herself precisely into this attitude. Little mother sat for Gessius Florus, and Mirah clasped her knees.ā Here Hans went a little way off and looked at the effect of his touches.
āI dare say she knows nothing about Bereniceās history,ā said Deronda, feeling more indignation than he would have been able to justify.
āOh, yes, she doesā āladiesā edition. Berenice was a fervid patriot, but was beguiled by love and ambition into attaching
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