THE CHARACTERS OF "SHIRLEY."

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20197, 27 March 1931, Page 19

THE CHARACTERS OF "SHIRLEY."

TO THS IDITOB Of TH■ ' PKCBB Sir,—l read with'interest the article by E. F. Benson in last Saturday's issue. It called to my mind an interesting editorial in ,The Press of October 23rd, 1903, which I will enclose for republication. Jt may be of interest to Bronte lovers, and those who are unaware of the origin of the characters in "Shirley."—Yours, etc., A. MONRO. March 26th, 1931. [{Che,article our correspondent refers to follows.] A FORGOTTEN CHAPTER IN LITERATURE The papers last week reported the death of Mr William Waring Taylor. There are sometimes wonderful histories—comedies and tragedies—lying behind a simple announcement of this sort. In the case of Waring Taylor this happens to be true. Taylor w»s at one time one of the leading citizens of Wellington. [Here follows a brief descrip-. tior. of the high esteem in which he was he.d —and his ignominious downia'l.] All this would p-carcely be worth the retailing wore it not that it recalls a literary question and involves the interpretation of a prophecy by one of our greatest novelists—Charlotte Bronte. In her novel, "Shirley," readers will remember the Yorke family.' The Yorko family depicted there is the family to which. Waring Taylor belonged, and New Zealand has a special interest in' its members, for at least three were residents in this Colony. There were six altogether—two girls and four bovs. Of the girls, the younger, Martha, appears in "Shirley" as Jesav Yorke. Martha was one of Charlotte's school friends in Brussels, and died there suddenly. There is a touching reference to the event in Shirley." "Here- is the place, green >od, and a grey marble headstone—J eßay sleeps below, she lived through an April day; much loved was she. much loving. . . . The dying and the watching English girls were at that hour alone in a foreign country, and the soil of that country gave Jessy a grave." Jisesy's sister. Rose Yorke, is described and her character analysed with much minuteness. "Rose is a still and sometimes a stubborn girl, her mother wants to make her such a woman as she is herself—a woman of dark and dreary dutiesarid Rose has a mind full set, thick-sown with the- germs of ideas her mother never knew. It is agony often to have these: ideas trampled on and repressed. She has never rebelled yet; but if hard-driven she will -lebel one day, and then it will be once for rill" Whether this imperious will had anything to do with it or not. we need not enouire now, but a few years afterwards .we fine! Rose far from home. "Remote must be the shores which wear that wild luxuriant aspect. This is some virgin solitude 1 unknown birds flutter round the skirts of the forests. No European river this, on whose banks Rose sits thinking. The little quiet Yorkshire girl is a lonely emigrant in some region 'of, the Southern Hemisphere. ■ Will she, come back?" Rose Yorke is Mary Taylor—the Mary T who frequently in Charlotte Bronte's correspondence, nnd whose letters there are by far the best. "Thevirgin solitude" is Wellington: Mary Taylor came there in we think 1&45 Charlotte writes of her that "she was full of frt'ing, noble, warm, generous, devoted and profound. God bless her. I never hope to see in this world a character more noble. She would die willing!* for ,one she lovrd. Her intellect and attainments are of the highest standard." - Miss Bronte felt very deenly her departure. '."Will she ever come back?" 'No, she never did. She sleeps quietly' in the old cemetery in We'lington. When the present writer saw her grave a few years ago it had a very neglected appearance. Perhaps there are sufficient Bronte lovers in this country to care for the grave of Charlotto's dearest friend in a befitting manner. But relative to Waring Taylor, It Is' Charlotte Bronte's description of the Yorke boys that Is mainly of interest. There is a somewhat lengthy portraiture given' of these .boys (the fourth is a baby on-its mother's knee). Space will 'allow us to give only a account of the characterisation of these boys" and of the forecast in which Miss Bronte indulges relative to the future. If those interested will read the ninth chapter . of '.'Shirley," they will And it all there. Mathew, the eldest, is plain-looking, but fascinating, Jet black hair, white brow, highcoloured cheelcß, and quick,' dark eyes, and a face like the eruption of Vesuvius. Flame and shadow seem to be the component parts of his soul. No daylight in it,' and no sunshine, ' and .no ; pure, cool moonbeam ever shone there—*an .Italian stiletto in a sheath of British' workmanship. Is this the late. Mr Waring Taylor I We have reason to believe that it Is not. '. . . Then there is the second boy Mark, with his calm atr, shrewd smile, heavy brow, that speaks temper.' He 'can say the sharpest things in the quietest tones. Life, we are told, will never : have much joy for Mark, by the time he Is five and twenty he will wonder why people ever laugh, and think all fools who seem merry. Poetry will not exist for Mark either in 'literatureor life. Enthusiasm will have his contempt," Mark will: know no ryouth, He Is now thirteen, his soul is.already thirty. Blithe* 1 Is the bonniest-looking, most 'regular featured of the family. Is' Mark Waring Taylor tA little later on the book when Jessy Yorke is defending Robert Moore, she .'says ".he is too bonnie to be false.'.' "Bonn'e." cried Mr Yorke,' "that's the treason that.he should be, and proof that he is a scoundrel." That is a suggestive remark. It has the significance in tne faotthat it cpntains the genu of the ntost striking' figure in flctionr-Tito Mllema in . "Roraola"—Did George Eliot get 'the Idea of 7 her wonderful Creation from this? At any rate, this is the very thesis that she works out in the character of Tito. ("Shirley" was published in October,. 1849, and M H*tmola'-' began, to take shape in 1861,) It is, literary coin* cidence, but it would be no less curious if "bonnie" Mark Yorke should turn out to be the man betrayal Cf trusts led' to the expiation of his crimes in » New Zealand gaol. Or iwas Waring Taylor th« third brother, the youngest of these ' described in "Shirley "f Martin is plain-looking-, there 1 is a husk over him now, .which he will shed presently. Life' may or not be brief for him,, but -It will certainly be brilliant. He will pass through all its Illusions, believe in them,.enjoy them,, outlive them. For a whlli he will be, a downright puppy, eager for pleasure,' desirous of admiration,, alert for knowledge. He will, want all the'world can give him, both, of enjoyment and love. He will talcs deep draughts at each fount'. That thirst satisfied; what nejttf Martin might be a remarkable man, - whether he' will or not, the seer is powerless' to predict, on that subject there is no open vision, one • would rather not thlnk> that Martin, whose sketch Is done in brighter colouts, and who 1 afterwards plays with such boyisjbi bonhomie, and not's little humour, the part of a gobetween. in relation to Robert Moore Caroline Helstone, had ' the unhappy fate of Waring Taylor. There is is suggested poasi- . bllity that life 'may be brief' fpr him. As a matter of fact, one .of the brothers did die of gastrio fever about the age of 82. That would be a happier ending, than .that he should live to old age with the sad piemories that, must have clung around the liiter years of the man who has just passed away.