The Quiet Corner
I counsel thee, shut not thy heart nor thy library. -C. LAMB. The Memorial Day holidays left the library in a particularly quiescent state for several days. Among the others, Doctor Angelicus...
...Doctor," suggested Primus Criticus...
...THE LIBRARIAN...
...I don't enjoy the flowers and I don't digest my food...
...Father Bear gives a big grunt and Little Bear gives two baby grunts to the de^ light of Mother Bear at her juvenile precocity...
...Savages in the forest drive off evil spirits with tom-toms and invoke their good divinities with a charivari, that descends to us at times of peasant marriages...
...The parterre capers about and the scene closes with a general "Ah...
...I could only sigh, when I noticed that they did not understand the Wagnerian lady's protest as I recalled a passage from Romaine Rolland's Musical Tour, where he takes us back to Italy in the eighteenth century, with its eight opera-houses in Venice, and four or five in Naples...
...At the Meistersinger in the opera-house, I heard a be-spectacled spinster administer a crushing lesson to some Spanish guests who were exchanging some household details behind us during the lovesong...
...they talk, or rather scream, during the performance, from one box to that facing it, standing up, clapping and shouting bravo...
...There's only the pillow left me now and this is my bedside hour...
...Visits are paid from box to box...
...S •! »5 "This quietness in the Corner does not betoken health," declared Hereticus, with a touch of peevishness...
...On the fourth floor a faro-table is kept open on either side of the building as long as the opera continues...
...It betokens a felt-slipper age, a forbidden, Byzantine ideal, against which the Arab tried to protect himself with the trickling of fountains...
...You touch on evolution...
...He would learn of their belchers or colors worn around the neck, under their dials, mugs or faces: their mouths were muzzles or kissing-traps, their noses, smellers, which, when bleeding, were 'drawing the cork,' when the 'snout was damaged.' The head was a nob or knowledge-box or conk...
...when an act has finished, and it has pleased them, they content themselves with shouting until it is performed again...
...it would seem that the peculiar pleasure of the theatre, dramatic emotion, counts for very little...
...At Milan, "each box opens out of a complete apartment, having a room with a fireplace and all possible conveniences, whether for the preparation of refreshments or for a game of cards...
...The public is noisy and inattentive...
...Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit," remarked Hereticus, in his hard classical manner...
...Slang is not an America proprietary: it is ubiquitous and the Professor's oWn references to 'that fine guy,' the recent ambassador to Spain, Mr...
...It was entitled, with all the Doctor's humility: The Old Sinner •"Tired am I of the world, so I might as well be good...
...as though they were admiring a midsummer night bonfire.'" "I sometimes wonder what has become of the old professor of Salamanca, Doctor Don Francisco Gomez, who came to America, as the New York Sun for June 30, 1926, announced, "to teach and preach and practise American slang," said Doctor Angelicus, indulging in a pinch of his newly imported Copenhagen snuff, which has earned the scorn of Britannicus, hopelessly given over to his Prince's Mixture...
...there's the church bell ringing a call for the evening prayer, I think I'll steal round and discover if anything's doing there...
...He recalls to me the young English curate who in the midst of the hunting season addressed me in London as a citizen of the land of the horse and asked me of the recent records of a string of racers whose names sounded to me like a page out of Lempriere...
...The cost of the places in the parterre is a paule (twelve cents American) unless admission is free...
...As for the men, they are more moderate...
...Among the others, Doctor Angelicus revealed a distinct lassitude after a motor trip that covered some six or eight states of the Union, and it was no surprise for Primus Criticus to discover the portly gentleman fallen into an after-luncheon nap, his famous yellow pad on his knees, while something resembling a baby snore sifted from his lips...
...They told me a thing of beauty was a joy to last fore'er, But what is a sculpture or sonnet, when all I ask is air...
...No, there is nothing new under the sun and slang is as old as the human race...
...Thus slang began shortly after the nursing period of mankind...
...Alexander Moore, and to 'the boy-king Alfonso of Spain,' suggesting our recently catalogued boyfriends, would indicate an obliviousness tOi our finer vocabularies, rather than a scientific approach to our national slang...
...At Bologna, the ladies make themselves thoroughly at home...
...What shall I do with my evenings when the daylight saving's done ? No shows, no dances nor pictures can give me any fun— Hark...
...His account speaks for the humanity of the Italian audience: " 'The performance begins, as a rule, at eight o'clock, and ends about half-past twelve...
...as is often the case in Venice and Naples...
...What do I care for the girls and the games when the drinks have all turned sour...
...There were some lines written on the pad and Primus Criticus, ever on the hunt for biographical matter regarding the Doctor, leaned over him quietly and read the sketch of a poem that had been left "to be continued" after his slumber...
...While we are jazzing, mussing and scorching for the last few years, would not a study of the old prize-ring have been of some advantage to the reverend scientist...
...Children love to make noise and some grown-ups among us still use rattles...
...The audience chats at its ease during part of the performance...
Vol. 6 • June 1927 • No. 6
