登陆注册
5161500000021

第21章 FAIR AND BROWN

George Eliot, in one of her novels, has a good-natured mother, who confesses that when she administers justice she is obliged to spare the offenders who have fair hair, because they look so much more innocent than the rest.And if this is the state of maternal feelings where all are more or less fair, what must be the miscarriage of justice in countries where a BLOND angel makes his infrequent visit within the family circle?

In England he is the rule, and supreme as a matter of course.He is "English," and best, as is the early asparagus and the young potato, according to the happy conviction of the shops.To say "child" in England is to say "fair-haired child," even as in Tuscany to say "young man" is to say "tenor." "I have a little party to-night, eight or ten tenors, from neighbouring palazzi, to meet my English friends."But France is a greater enthusiast than our now country.The fairness and the golden hair are here so much a matter of orthodoxy, that they are not always mentioned; they are frequently taken for granted.Not so in France; the French go out of their way to make the exceptional fairness of their children the rule of their literature.No French child dare show his face in a book--prose or poetry--without blue eyes and fair hair.It is a thing about which the French child of real life can hardly escape a certain sensitiveness.What, he may ask, is the use of being a dark-haired child of fact, when all the emotion, all the innocence, all the romance, are absorbed by the flaxen-haired child of fiction? How deplorable that our mothers, the French infants may say, should have their unattained ideals in the nurseries of the imagination; how dismal that they should be perpetually disillusioned in the nurseries of fact! Is there then no sentiment for us? they may ask.

Will not convention, which has been forced to restore the advantage to truth on so many other points, be compelled to yield on this point also, and reconcile our aunts to the family colouring?

All the schools of literature are in a tale.The classic masters, needless to say, do not stoop to the colouring of boys and girls;but as soon as the Romantiques arise, the cradle is there, and no soft hair ever in it that is not of some tone of gold, no eyes that are not blue, and no cheek that is not white and pink as milk and roses.Victor Hugo, who discovered the child of modern poetry, never omits the touch of description; the word BLOND is as inevitable as any epithet marshalled to attend its noun in a last-century poet's dictionary.One would not have it away; one can hear the caress with which the master pronounces it, "making his mouth,"as Swift did for his "little language." Nor does the customary adjective fail in later literature.It was dear to the Realist, and it is dear to the Symbolist.The only difference is that in the French of the Symbolist it precedes the noun.

And yet it is time that the sweetness of the dark child should have its day.He is really no less childlike than the other.There is a pretty antithesis between the strong effect of his colouring and the softness of his years and of his months.The blond human being--man, woman or child--has the beauty of harmony; the hair plays off from the tones of the flesh, only a few degrees brighter or a few degrees darker.Contrast of colour there is, in the blue of the eyes, and in the red of cheek and lip, but there is no contrast of tone.The whole effect is that of much various colour and of equal tone.In the dark face there is hardly any colour and an almost complete opposition of tone.The complete opposition, of course, would be black and white; and a beautiful dark child comes near to this, but for the lovely modifications, the warmth of his white, and of his black alike, so that the one tone, as well as the other, is softened towards brown.It is the beauty of contrast, with a suggestion of harmony--as it were a beginning of harmony--which is infinitely lovely.

Nor is the dark child lacking in variety.His radiant eyes range from a brown so bright that it looks golden in the light, to a brown so dark that it barely defines the pupil.So is his hair various, answering the sun with unsuspected touches, not of gold but of bronze.And his cheek is not invariably pale.A dusky rose sometimes lurks there with such an effect of vitality as you will hardly get from the shallower pink of the flaxened haired.And the suggestion is that of late summer, the colour of wheat almost ready for the harvest, and darker, redder flowers--poppies and others--than come in Spring.

The dark eyes, besides, are generally brighter--they shelter a more liquid light than the blue or grey.Southern eyes have generally most beautiful whites.And as to the charm of the childish figure, there is usually an infantine slenderness in the little Southener that is at least as young and sweet as the round form of the blond child.And yet the painters of Italy would have none of it.They rejected the dusky brilliant pale little Italians all about them;they would have none but flaxen-haired children, and they would have nothing that was slim, nothing that was thin, nothing that was shadowy.They rejoiced in much fair flesh, and in all possible freshness.So it was in fair Flanders as well as in dark Italy.

But so it was not in Spain.The Pyrenees seemed to interrupt the tradition.And as Murillo saw the charm of dark heads, and the innocence of dark eyes, so did one English painter.Reynolds painted young dark hair as tenderly as the youngest gold.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 绝色至尊灵枢篇

    绝色至尊灵枢篇

    一朝穿越,她成了大陆上臭名昭彰的蛇蝎美人,世人唾弃,人人喊杀。某天误闯禁地,招惹了一位万万人之上的妖孽邪王,从此……被他罩着上天入地,呼风唤雨!
  • 永不褪色的骷髅旗

    永不褪色的骷髅旗

    这是一个文明与野蛮,粗鲁与优雅共存的世界,骷髅的旗帜在飘扬,硝烟的味道在弥漫,这里有金币与火枪!这里有女人和朗姆酒!扬帆!向着自由!PS:本文灵感来源于加勒比海盗,作者没看过海贼王!!!本书群:576698846
  • 尘封的罪恶

    尘封的罪恶

    刀鞘的武器就是一把锈迹斑斑的刀鞘,四寸宽,七寸长,弯似牛角。刀鞘凭他手中这把没有任何杀伤力的不是武器的武器,穿梭于东南亚和云南、广西边界,力挫群雄,无往不胜。他声称,江湖上谁能将自己的兵刃插入他的刀鞘,他不仅让出武林第一帮“无刀帮”帮主的宝座,并且赠银百万。若是败在他手中,则将兵刃留下。
  • 梦庭生花

    梦庭生花

    他原以为,只要她能活下去。他们就能携手白头。可他忘了,她的性子是那么倔。花败了,种花的人,也不复了。
  • 最初的光明,最后的黑暗

    最初的光明,最后的黑暗

    1888年的纽约,煤气灯依然闪烁在城市上方,但“电”的奇迹已经萌发。谁能掌握这种把黑夜变成白昼的技术,谁就能创造历史——并且获得巨大的财富。托马斯·爱迪生在这场赛跑中领先,他起诉了仅存的竞争对手乔治·威斯汀豪斯,索赔金额达到前所未见的十亿美元。威斯汀豪斯做出了一个令所有人震惊的选择:他聘用了年仅26岁、没有任何经验的新人律师保罗。爱迪生是一个强势、狡诈而危险的对手,保罗面对的挑战令人胆寒。但他与大名鼎鼎的对手之间有一个共同点,那就是不计任何代价也要获胜的冲动。这桩官司让保罗有机会见识了镀金时代纽约上流社会的疯狂——他发现每个人都各有打算、每个人在表象之下都另有面目,直到他遇见尼古拉·特斯拉——一个脾气古怪却智慧超群的发明家,他手里很可能掌握着击败爱迪生的关键。
  • 谒先主庙

    谒先主庙

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 马可·波罗游记

    马可·波罗游记

    欲知世界各地之真相,可取此书读之。马可·波罗,世界著名的旅行家、商人。1254年生于意大利威尼斯一个商旅世家。17岁时,马可·波罗跟随父亲尼古刺·波罗和叔叔玛窦·波罗,途经中东,历时蹬年多来到中国,在中国游历了17年。回国后著成《马可·波罗游记》一书,记述他在东方最富有的国家——中国。
  • 崩坏一人之霜

    崩坏一人之霜

    群号709150679“为什么重启系统要口令啊?”“口令错误。”“好吧”“口令错误”“...........”“崩崩?”“口令错误。”“崩崩崩?”“口令错误。”“............”“崩崩崩崩崩?”“口令正确,系统启动。”“..............”
  • 女尊之百花寻宝录

    女尊之百花寻宝录

    女尊王朝中有个百花国,百花国里有个青岩山,青岩山里住着一群不想成婚的女子,她们以天地灵气为根,潜心修炼灵术,为天下苍生而战,为事件正义公理而战,也为私情贪恋而战。
  • 佛说沙弥十戒仪则经

    佛说沙弥十戒仪则经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。