REALITIES FROM THE PAST
True Dialogues of the Dead. • Compiled by Francis Bickley, (Guy Chapman. 6s. net.) True Dialogues of the Dead. • Compiled by Francis Bickley, (Guy Chapman. 6s. net.)
Tun congregation of these figures from the past into this volume has a singular and stimulating effect upon the reader. At intervals here and there down the long corridor of four centuries doors are opened for a moment, and we overhear such famous voices that we tremble at the intimacy.
Mr. Bickley has added nothing of his own creation, and he has chosen his dialogues, as far as possible, from- sources that had not even a contemporary dilution. The printed woids in these little scenes are the words actually spoken by the mouths that once yawned with sleep, and= grew dry with fear. They are words that once sounded, amongst curtains, furniture, and clothes long since mouldered. The most remarkable thing about them is their bareness and austerity ; but that, no doubt, is due to their occasions, which are, in most of the scenes, moments of crisis, when human character is judged by events. So we have the last words of Wolsey, containing his famous regret. We hear also the scaffold speeches of More and of Monmouth. One particularly moving scene is that between the little Lady Jane Grey, aged thirteen, and her tutor, Mr. Aylmer, to whom she turned with all the intensity of her brooding nature, after the bruising of her spirit at the hands of rough kinsmen, because he " teacheth me so gently, so pleasantly, with such fair allurements to learning, that I think all the time nothing whiles I am with him. And when- I am called- from .him, I -fall ea weeping, because Whatsoever I do else but learning is full of grief, trouble, fear, and whole misliking unto me."
Then there is the scene in which Fanny Burney, at the
height of her fame, is entertained to tea at the house of Mrs. Delaney. She there meets the Duchess of Portland, and finds her " very charming, highbred, courteous, sensible, and spirited ; not merely free from pride, but free from affability— its most mortifying deputy." That passage is worth italicizing
as a piece of subtle insight. How terrible that such a clever little woman should have been so -foolish as to allow herself, later, to wither away in the Royal boudoir ; playing a part Which could have been taken without loss of spirit by any Society woman.
There is another scene where honest John Knox says to Miry Queen of Scots, " Conscience, Madam, requires know- ledge." Much more is quotable, but we have space to give only one more extract. The King paints a cruel portrait of his brother, the Duke of Cumberland. It is Wellington who records the words :—
" I remember asking him why the Duke was so unpopular, and he said, ' Because there never was a father well with his son, or husband with his wife, or lover with his mistress, or a friend with his friend, that he did not try to make mischief between them.' "
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