Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges

William Makepeace Thackeray

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• Publié par: orkie
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 32
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

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Title: Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four
Georges
Author: William Makepeace Thackeray
Release Date: July 10, 2009 [Ebook 29363]
Language: English
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
HENRY ESMOND; THE ENGLISH HUMOURISTS; THE
FOUR GEORGES***Henry Esmond
The English Humourists
The Four Georges
By
William Makepeace Thackeray
Edited, with an Introduction, by
George Saintsbury
With 15 Illustrations
Humphrey Milford
Oxford University Press
London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Copenhagen,
New York, Toronto, Melbourne, Cape Town,
Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, ShanghaiContents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The History Of Henry Esmond, Esq. . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Dedication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Preface. The Esmonds Of Virginia . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Book I. The Early Youth Of Henry Esmond, Up To
The Time Of His Leaving Trinity College, In
Cambridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chapter I. An Account Of The Family Of Esmond
Of Castlewood Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Chapter II. Relates How Francis, Fourth
Viscount, Arrives At Castlewood . . . . . . 38
Chapter III. Whither In The Time Of Thomas,
Third Viscount, I Had Preceded Him As
Page To Isabella . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Chapter IV. I Am Placed Under A Popish
Priest And Bred To That
Religion.—Viscountess Castlewood . . . . . 59
Chapter V. My Superiors Are Engaged In Plots
For The Restoration Of King James II . . 66
Chapter VI. The Issue Of The Plots.—The Death
Of Thomas, Third Viscount Of
Castlewood; And The Imprisonment Of His
Viscountess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Chapter VII. I Am Left At Castlewood An
Orphan, And Find Most Kind Protectors
There . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Chapter VIII. After Good Fortune Comes Evil . . 104 IX. I Have The Small-Pox, And Prepare
To Leave Castlewood . . . . . . . . . . 114iv Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges
Chapter X. I Go To Cambridge, And Do But
Little Good There . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Chapter XI. I Come Home For A Holiday To
Castlewood, And Find A Skeleton In
The House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Chapter XII. My Lord Mohun Comes Among Us
For No Good . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Chapter XIII. My Lord Leaves Us And His Evil
Behind Him . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Chapter XIV. We Ride After Him To London . . 183
Book II. Contains Mr. Esmond's Military Life, And
Other Matters Appertaining To The Esmond Family201
Chapter I. I Am In Prison, And Visited, But Not
Consoled There . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Chapter II. I Come To The End Of My Captivity,
But Not Of My Trouble . . . . . . . . . 211
Chapter III. I Take The Queen's Pay In Quin's
Regiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Chapter IV. Recapitulations . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 V. I Go On The Vigo Bay Expedition,
Taste Salt Water And Smell Powder . . . 238
Chapter VI. The 29th December . . . . . . . . . 251 VII. I Am Made Welcome At Walcote . 258
Chapter VIII. Family Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 IX. I Make The Campaign Of 1704 . . . 277
Chapter X. An Old Story About A Fool And A
Woman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Chapter XI. The Famous Mr. Joseph Addison . . 298 XII. I Get A Company In The Campaign
Of 1706 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Chapter XIII. I Meet An Old Acquaintance In
Flanders, And Find My Mother's Grave
And My Own Cradle There . . . . . . . 316
Chapter XIV. The Campaign Of 1707, 1708 . . . 330v
Chapter XV. General Webb Wins The Battle Of
Wynendael . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Book III. Containing The End Of Mr. Esmond's
Adventures In England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Chapter I. I Come To An End Of My Battles And
Bruises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Chapter II. I Go Home, And Harp On The Old
String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
Chapter III. A Paper Out Of The“Spectator” . . . 400 IV. Beatrix's New Suitor . . . . . . . . . 421
Chapter V. Mohun Appears For The Last Time
In This History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Chapter VI. Poor Beatrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448 VII. I Visit Castlewood Once More . . . 455
Chapter VIII. I Travel To France And Bring
Home A Portrait Of Rigaud . . . . . . . 466
Chapter IX. The Original Of The Portrait Comes
To England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Chapter X. We Entertain A Very Distinguished
Guest At Kensington . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Chapter XI. Our Guest Quits Us As Not Being
Hospitable Enough . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Chapter XII. A Great Scheme, And Who Balked It 520 XIII. August 1st, 1714 . . . . . . . . . . 526
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
The English Humourists Of The Eighteenth Century . . . . 544
Lecture The First. Swift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545 The Second. Congreve And Addison . . . . . 587
Lecture The Third. Steele . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629 The Fourth. Prior, Gay, And Pope . . . . . . . 671
Lecture The Fifth. Hogarth, Smollett, And Fielding . . 722 The Sixth. Sterne And Goldsmith . . . . . . . 758
The Georges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798
The Poems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798vi Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges
Sketches Of Manners, Morals, Court And Town Life . 801
George The First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 802 The Second . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
George The Third . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 859 The Fourth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 891
Footnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 925Introduction.
Thackeray In His Study At Onslow Square. From a painting by
E. M. Ward
We know exceedingly little of the genesis and progress of
Esmond. “It did not seem to be a part of our lives as Pendennis
was,” says Lady Ritchie, though she wrote part of it to dictation.
She“only heard Esmond spoken of very rarely”. Perhaps its state
was not the less gracious. The Milton girls found Paradise Lost
a very considerable part of their lives—and were not the happier.
But its parallels are respectable. The greatest things have a
way of coming “all so still” into the world. We wrangle—that
is, those of us who are not content simply not to know—about
the composition of Homer, the purpose of the Divina Commedia,
the probable plan of the Canterbury Tales, the Ur-Hamlet.
Nobody put preliminary advertisements in the papers, you see,
about these things: there was a discreditable neglect of the first
requirements of the public. So it is with Esmond. There is, I2 Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges
thought, a reference to it in the Brookfield letters; but in several
searches I cannot find it. To his mother he speaks of the book
as “grand and melancholy”, and to Lady Stanley as of
“cutthroat melancholy”. It is said to have been sold for a thousand
pounds—the same sum that Master Shallow lent Falstaff on
probably inferior security. Those who knew thought well of
it—which is not wholly surprising.
It is still, perhaps, in possession of a success rather of esteem
than of affection. A company of young men and maidens to
[x] whom it was not long ago submitted pronounced it (with one or
two exceptions) inferior as a work of humour. The hitting of little
Harry in the eye with a potato was, they admitted, humorous,
but hardly anything else. As representing another generation
and another point of view, the faithful Dr. John Brown did not
wholly like it—Esmond's marriage with Rachel, after his love
for Beatrix, being apparently “the fly in the ointment” to him.
Even the author could only plead “there's a deal of pains in it
that goes for nothing”, as he says in one of his rare published
references to the subject: but he was wrong. Undoubtedly the
mere taking of pains will not do; but that is when they are taken
in not the right manner, by not the right person, on not the right
subject. Here everything was right, and accordingly it“went for”
everything. A greater novel than Esmond I do not know; and I
do not know many greater books. It may be “melancholy”, and
none the worse for that: it is“grand”.
For though there may not be much humour of the
potatothrowing sort in Esmond, it will, perhaps, be found that in no
book of Thackeray's, or of any one else's, is that deeper and higher
humour which takes all life for its province—which is the humour
of humanity—more absolutely pervading. And it may be found
likewise, at least by some, that in no book is there to be found
such a constant intertwist of the passion which, in all humanity's
higher representatives, goes with humour hand in hand—a loving
yet a mutually critical pair. Of the extraordinarily difficult form ofIntroduction. 3
autobiography I do