CHAPTER IX. SMOLLETT. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HIM AND FIELDING.-'PER- SPIRITUAL THE jolly, riotous kind of life which I have spoken of as characteristic of one class of novels of the last century is fully displayed in the pages of Smollett. He reflects, in many respects, the character of the age more fully than any other writer-its material pleasures, its coarse amusements, its hard drinking, loud swearing, and practical jokes. His heroes are generally libertines, full of mirth and animal spirits, who make small account of woman's chastity, and whose adventures are intrigues, and their merriment broad farce. Such are the chief features of 'Roderick Random' and 'Peregrine Pickle,' neither of which, however, is so offensive as the 'Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom,' the hero of which is a blackguard and a scoundrel, without a redeeming virtue. The French critic, M. Taine, whom I have already quoted, thus speaks of Smollett: "He exaggerates caricature; he thinks he amuses us in showing us mouths gaping to the ears, and noses half a foot long; he exaggerates a national prejudice or a professional trick until it absorbs the whole character. He flings together personages the most revolting with the most grotesque a Lieutenant Lismahago, half roasted by Red Indians; sea-wolves who pass their lives in shouting and travestying all their ideas into a sea jargon; old maids as ugly as she-asses, as withered as skeletons, and as acrid as vinegar; maniacs steeped in pedantry, hypochondria, misanthropy, and silence. Far from sketching them slightly, like Gil Blas, he brings into prominent relief each disagreeable trait, and overloads it with details, without considering whether they are too numerous, without reflecting that they are excessive, without feeling that they are odious, without seeing that they are disgusting. The public whom he addresses is on a level with his energy and roughness, and in order to shake such nerves a writer cannot strike too hard." * One of the chief differences between Smollett and Fielding is this-the scenes and adventures in Smollett's novels are laughable and farcical in themselves; but have little or no bearing upon the progress of the * 'Histoire de la Littérature Anglaise,' vol. iv. p. 323. story. They are too much like the disconnected slides in a magic-lantern. But Fielding makes each separate adventure, especially in Tom Jones,' subservient to the plot, the issue of which is worked out with admirable consistency and skill. It will be sufficient, for the purpose of giving an idea of Smollett's humor, to take two of his stories, 'Peregrine Pickle' and 'Humphry Clinker.' Peregrine Pickle is the son of Gamaliel Pickle, and at his birth his mother conceived an unnatural aversion to him, which she continued to feel until her death. He is adopted by an uncle, Commodore Trunnion, who, with his friend and companion Lieutenant Jack Hatchway (with a wooden leg), and his former boatswain Tom Pipes, has retired from the navy and ensconced himself not far from his brother's house near the sea-side, in a habitation which is called the Garrison, defended by a ditch, over which he had laid a drawbridge and planted his court-yard with patereroes continually loaded with shot. There is little doubt that Sterne took the idea of Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim in Tristram Shandy' from Commodore Trunnion and Jack Hatchway. The Commodore gives every thing a nautical turn, and hardly ever speaks without uttering a volley of oaths. Smollett himself had been a surgeon's mate, and was per fectly at home in sea-phrases. Mr. Gamaliel Pickle has a sister Grizzle, "with a very wan, not to say sallow, complexion," a cast in her eye, and an enormous mouth, and slightly addicted to brandy, who sets her heart on engaging the affections of the Commodore. She is aided in her schemes by Jack Hatchway, who persuades Pipes to get on the chimney belonging to the Commodore's chamber at midnight, and lower down by a rope a bunch of rotten and phosphorescent whitings, while he put a speaking-trumpet to his mouth and in a voice like thunder shouted out "Trunnion! Trunnion! turn out and be spliced, or lie still and be d-d." This so terrifies the gallant sailor that he yields to the lady's advances, exclaiming, "Well, since it must be so, I think we must e'en grapple. But . . . 'tis a hard case that a fellow of my years should be compelled, d'ye see, to beat up to windward all the rest of my life, against the current of my inclination." I have already described the dress he wore at his wedding, but not the adventure that befell him on the occasion. When he had mounted his horse, attended by his lieutenant, to meet the bride at church, a pack of hounds unluckily crossed his path. Off set the two horses, and Jack Hatchway was soon deposited in a field of clover, while the Commodore was carried past him at a gal lop, crying out, "O, you are safe at anchor. I wish to God I were as fast moored." His horse takes a five-barred gate, "to the utter confusion and disorder of his owner, who lost his hat and periwig in the leap, and now began to think in good earnest that he was actually mounted on the back of the devil." After various other mishaps, he is first in at the death of the stag, and, being refreshed by a flask of brandy, explains to the sportsmen the cause of his strange appearance. He says he was bound to the next church on the voyage of matrimony; but, "howsomever,' the wind, shifting, blowed directly in their teeth, so that they were forced to tack all the way, and had almost hauled up within sight of port when the two horses luffed round in a trice, and then, refusing the helm, drove away like lightning. "I have been carried over rocks, and flats, and quicksands, among which I have pitched away a special good tie-periwig and an iron-bound hat; and at last, thank God! am got into smooth water and safe riding; but if ever I venture my carcass upon such a hare'um scare'um . . again, my name is not Hawser Trunnion. . . The ceremony of marriage was performed at a later day in the Garrison, and the wedding-supper consisted of a huge pillau, two dishes of hard fish flanked by lobscouse and salmagundy, a goose "of monstrous |