" What Lord Bacon said of
deformity is doubtless, to a great extent, true. "Whoever,"
said he, "hath anything fixed in his person that doth induce
contempt, hath also a perpetual spur in himself to rescue
and deliver himself from scorn; therefore, all deformed persons
are extremely bold."
As in portraiture, so in biography, there must be light and shade.
The portrait-painter does not pose his sitter so as to bring out
his deformities; nor does the biographer give undue prominence to
the defects of the character he portrays. Not many men are so
outspoken as Cromwell was when he sat to Cooper for his miniature:
"Paint me as I am," said he, "warts and all." Yet, if we would
have a faithful likeness of faces and characters, they must be
painted as they are. "Biography," said Sir Walter Scott, "the
most interesting of every species of composition, loses all its
interest with me when the shades and lights of the principal
characters are not accurately and faithfully detailed. I can no
more sympathise with a mere eulogist, than I can with a ranting
hero on the stage." (7)
Addison liked to know as much as possible about the person and
character of his authors, inasmuch as it increased the pleasure
and satisfaction which he derived from the perusal of their books.
What was their history, their experience, their temper and
disposition? Did their lives resemble their books? They thought
nobly--did they act nobly? "Should we not delight," says Sir
Egerton Brydges, "to have the frank story of the lives and
feelings of Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Campbell, Rogers,
Moore, and Wilson, related by themselves?--with whom they lived
early; how their bent took a decided course; their likes and
dislikes; their difficulties and obstacles; their tastes, their
passions; the rocks they were conscious of having split upon;
their regrets, their complacencies, and their self-
justifications?" (8)
When Mason was reproached for publishing the private letters of
Gray, he answered, "Would you always have my friends appear in
full-dress?" Johnson was of opinion that to write a man's life
truly, it is necessary that the biographer should have personally
known him.
Pages:
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365