The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Alain René le Sage [most read books .txt] 📗

>himself; was now determined to seize the substance as well as

catch at the shadow, by an act of unquestionable credit with the

subject, and high utility to the king’s service. For that

purpose, he had recourse to the emperor Galba’s contrivance,

consisting in a forced regurgitation of ill-gotten spoils from

individuals who had made large fortunes, hell and their own

consciences knew best how, in the superintendence of the royal

expenditure. When he had squeezed these spunges till they were

dry again, and had filled the king’s coffers with the drainings,

he undertook to render the reform permanent by abolishing all

pensions, not excepting his own, and curtailing the gratuities

too frequently bestowed on favourites out of the prince’s privy

purse. To succeed in this design, which he could not carry into

effect without changing the face of the government, he charged me

with the composition of a new state paper, furnishing the

substance and the form from his own idea. He then advised me to

raise my style as much as possible above the level of my ordinary

simplicity, and to give an air of more eloquence to my

phraseology. A hint is sufficient, my lord, said I; your

excellency wishes to unite sublimity with illumination, and it

shall be so I shut myself up in the same closet where I had

already worked so successfully, and sat down stiffly to my task,

first calling to my aid the lofty and clear perceptions, the

noble and sonorous expressions, of my old instructor, the

archbishop of Grenada.

 

I began by laying it down as a first maxim of political

philosophy, that the vital functions, the respiration as it were

of all monarchy, depended on the strict administration of the

finances; that in our particular case that duty became

imperiously urgent, irresistibly impressing on our consciences;

and that the revenue should be considered as the nerves and

sinews of Spain, to hold her rivals in check and keep her enemies

in awe. After this general declamation, I pointed out to the

sovereign, for to him the memorial was addressed, that by cutting

down all pensions and perquisites dependent on the ordinary

income, he would not thereby deprive himself of that truly royal

pleasure, a princely munificence towards those of his subjects

who had established a fair claim to his favours; because without

drawing upon his treasury, he had the means of distributing more

acceptable rewards; that for one branch of service, there were

viceroyalties, lieutenancies, orders of merit, and all sorts of

military commissions: for another, high judicial situations with

salaries annexed, civil offices of magistracy with sounding

titles to give them consequence; and though last, not least, all

the temporal possessions of the church to animate the piety of

its spiritual pastors.

 

This memorial, which was much longer than the first, occupied me

nearly three days; but as luck would have it, my performance was

exactly to my master’s mind, who finding it written with

sententious cogency, and bristled up with metaphors in the

declamatory parts, complimented me in the highest terms That is

vastly well expressed indeed! said he, laying his finger on a

passage here and there, and picking out all the most inflated

sentences he could find that language bears the stamp of fine

composition, and might pass for the production of a classic.

Courage, my friend! I foresee that your services will be worth

their weight in gold. And yet, notwithstanding the applauses he

lavished on my classical composition, a few of his own

heightening touches, he thought, would make it read still better.

He put a good deal of his own stuff into it, and the medley was

manufactured into a piece of eloquence which was considered as

unanswerable by the king and all the court. The whole city joined

in opinion with the higher orders, deriving the most flattering

hopes of the future from these grand promises, and concluding

that the monarchy must re cover its pristine splendour during the

ministry of so illustrious a character. His excellency, finding

that my sermon on economy was fraught with practical inferences

of utility to him, was kind enough to wish that I should profit

by the exercise of my own talents. In conformity therefore with

his new system of patronage, he gave me an annuity of five

hundred crowns on the commandery of Castile; and the acceptance

of it was so much the more palatable, as no dirty work had been

done for it, but it was honestly, though cheaply, earned.

 

CH. VII. — Gil Blas meets with his friend Fabricio once more;

the accident, place, and circumstances described; with the

particulars of their conversation together.

 

NOTHING gave his lordship greater pleasure than to hear the

general decision of Madrid on the conduct of his administration.

Not a day passed but he inquired what they were saying of him in

the political world. He kept spies in pay, to bring him an exact

account of what was going on in the city. They particularized the

most trivial discourses which they overheard; and their orders

being to suppress nothing, his self-love was grazed now and then,

for the people have a way of bolting out home truths, without any

nice calculation where they may glance.

 

Finding that the count loved political small talk, I made it my

business to frequent places of public resort after dinner, and to

chime in with the conversation of genteel people whenever

opportunity offered. Should the measures of government happen to

be canvassed among them, I pricked up my ears, and greedily took

in their discourse; if anything worth repeating was said, his

excellency was sure to hear of it. It can scarcely be necessary

to hint, that I never carried home anything which was not likely

to pay for the porterage.

 

One day, returning from one of these little conversational

parties, my road lay in front of an hospital. It occurred to me

to go in. I walked through two or three wards, filled with

diseased patients, and examined their beds to see that they were

properly taken care of. Among these unhappy wretches, whom I

could not look at without the most painful feelings, I observed

one whose features struck me: it surely could be no other than

Fabricio, my countryman and chum! To look at him more closely, I

drew near his bedside, and finding beyond a possibility of doubt

that it was the poet Nunez, I stopped to look at him for a few

seconds without saying a word. He also fixed his regards on me.

At length breaking silence: Do not my eyes deceive me? said I. Is

it indeed Fabricio, and here? It is indeed, answered he, coldly,

and you need not wonder at it. Since we parted, I have been

working indefatigably at the trade of an author: I have written

novels, play; and works of genius in every department. My brain

is fairly spun out, and here I am.

 

I could not help laughing at such a sketch of literary biography;

and still more at the serious air of the accompanying action.

What! cried I, has your muse brought you to this pass? Has she

played you such a jade’s trick as this? Even as you witness,

answered he; this establishment is a sort of halfpay receptacle

for invalids on the muster-roll of disabled wit. You have acted

discreetly, my good friend, to lay yourself out for promotion in

a different line. But they tell me, you are no longer a courtier,

and that your prospects in political life were all blasted; nay,

they went so far as to affirm, that you were committed to close

custody by the king’s order. They told you no more than the

truth, replied I: the delightful vision of political eminence

wherein you left me last, soon shifted the scene of my incoherent

dreams to a prison and complete destitution. But for all that, my

friend, here you behold me again in a better plight than ever.

That is quite out of the question, said Nunez: your deportment is

discreet and decent, you have not that supercilious and devil-take-the-hindermost sort of aspect, which good keep communicates

to the human face. The reverses of this chequered life, replied

I, have brought me down to the level of the more modest virtues;

I have taken a lesson in the school of adversity, to enjoy the

possession of a good stud without riding the great horse.

 

Tell me then candidly, cried Fabricio, raising his head upon his

hand with his elbow upon the pillow, what your present occupation

can possibly be. A steward perhaps to some nobleman out at

elbows, or man of business to some rich widow! Something better

than either the one or the other, rejoined I, but excuse me from

saying more at present: another time your curiosity shall be

satisfied. It is enough at present to assure you that my means

are equal to my inclination, and that you may command

independence through me; but then you must submit to an embargo

on your wit, and a non-intercourse act between you and the

faculty of writing, whether in verse or prose. Can you make this

sacrifice to my friendship? I have already made it to the powers

above, said he, in my last critical sickness. A Dominican made me

forswear poetry, as an amusement bordering on criminality, but at

all events beside the turnpike-road of good sense. I wish you

joy, my dear Nunez, replied I; beware of a revoke. There is not

the least danger on that head, rejoined he: the Muses and I have

agreed on terms of separation: just as you came in at that door,

I was conning over a farewell ode. Good master Fabricio, said I,

with a wise swagging to and fro of my head, it is a doubtful

question whether your vow of abjuration ought to pass current

with the Dominican and myself: you seem over head and ears in

love with those virgins incarnate. No, no, contended he

peevishly, I have cut the connection asunder. Nay more, I have

quarrelled with their keepers, the public. The readers of these

days do not deserve an author of more genius than themselves: I

should be sorry to write down to their comprehension. You are not

to suppose that this is the language of disgust; it is my sincere

and well-weighed opinion. Applause and hisses are just the same

to me. It is a toss up who fails and who succeeds: the wit of to-day is the blockhead of to-morrow. What cursed fools our

dramatists must be, to care for anything but their poundage when

their plays happen to be received! It is all very well for a few

nights! But only fancy a revival at the end of twenty years, and

what a figure they will cut then! The audiences of the present

day turn up their noses at the stock pieces of the last age, and

it is a question whether their taste will fare better with their

more critical descendants. If that conjecture be probable, the

inventors of clap-traps now will be the butt of cat calls

hereafter. It is just the same with novel writers, and all other

manufacturers of unnecessary literature: they strut and fret for

an hour, and then are no more seen or heard of. The glories of

successful authorship are the mere vapours of a murky atmosphere,

meteors of a marsh, foul coruscations of a dunghill, cathedral

tapers to put out the galaxy, blue flames of coarse paper held

over a candle.

 

Though these caricatures of rival renown were the mere creations

of jealousy in the poet of the Asturias, it was not my business

to correct his ill temper. I am delighted, said I, that wit and

you have had so serious a quarrel; and that the diarrhoea of your

inventive faculties has