TWELVE BAD MEN WHO MADE HISTORY

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6755, 7 November 1928, Page 9

TWELVE BAD MEN WHO MADE HISTORY

A Study in Rascals

NO CONSCIENCE TO . i MAKE THEM COWARDS

Mr Sidney Dark’s connection with ‘‘John o’ London’s Weekly” has made kim known to many as one who can present vivid lightning sketches of all kinds of celebrities. He knows his"clients and has no manner of doubt that the vast majority are intensely interested in the adventures of those whose morals are much below par. When ho calls his new book (‘‘Twelve Bad Men” '(London: Hodder and Stoughton) his description of the characters he sets out before us seems impressively accurate, and as the reader walks through this gallery of rogues he .is by turn shocked ,disgusted and amused, and recalls certain sayings about mankind being an adjectival rascal. Mr Dark —suggestive name in this sphere —holds the mirror up, to Nature, and introduces us to a dozen men of various nationalities, widely contrasted social status and intellectual ability, but all alike in being transcendent scoundrels. Casanova, One of the most enterprising of the bunch is the impudent adventurer Giacomo Casanova, who distinguished himself by 1 hobnobbing with statesmen, interviewing kings, and even amusing the Pope. It was easier to do these things in the eighteenth century, tnat frivolous, sceptical, and therefore credulous age. To-day he would very speedily have been laid by the heels, and at best would never have risen above the level of common criminality. His parents belonged to the theatrical profession, and the boy was brought up by his grandmother, educated at Padua, knew Horace by heart, had a good scientific training, and an extraordinary stock of opinions and witticisms. He was an inveterate gambler,' cheated his way from Venice to Home and Naples, resolved to be a soldier, but soon gave up that profession, and got an engagement to plrty violin in a theatre, orchestra.

These were days of superstition ,fopr when true faith vanishes the Nemesis is some, kind of mumbo-jumbo. Rationalism is the fruitful mother of false prophets. Casanova saw a gold mine in fortune telling, sorcery, and black magic ,and used his mpney exclusively for gambling purposes. He created himself a chevalier, went to Pans, got into suspicion, was imprisoned for 18 months in Venice, yet never lost the conviction that the world was his to conquer. To live was to gam|?le. An old Venetian friend,- de, Beruis, had risen to power in the French Government, and secured the silence of Casanova about tho past by putting him in the way of making money. He made it, and had money to burn. Having run through jt quickly he had to get back to starting swindling companies and mixing with card sharpers. Paris grew too hot for him and for many years ho had to keep on. the move. .

Thinking that he might induce England to float a State lottery, and provide him with an office, he went there with £I2OO in his pockets,; but nobody listened ,to his financial suggestions. He took an expensive house in Pall Mall, ran through his money in nine months, and had to escape to Prance. His lottery business 'did not find favour with Frederick the Great, Catherine of Russia, of any other monarch, and eight years of misery awaited hiin. Authorities kept hustling him “furth the kingdom,” but his wit and vica-city-never failed hiin. Without employment or money, his sole possessions were a doubtful reputation and vain regret. When over 5S he was appointed secretary to the Venetian ambassador in Venice, and life again had zest, The wild young Count de Waldstein made him his librarian in the castle of Dux, in Bohemia. Here he spent his last days. The flaw in his rascality was his lack of restraint. He wanted all things at once. His genius lay in making friends, and he died in comfort. Thomas Cromwell. ' . • Another of the 12 scoundrels described by Mr Bark is Thomas Cromwell, whom Chesterton calls a “dirty fellow,” and Proude regards, as one of the great figures of the Reformation. In Italy, Thomas Cromwell served with mercenary forces, and with the help of his wife's dowry, became a wool merchant, studied law, found his way into Parliament, and tlie friendship of Cardinal Wolsey. Per six years he was a virtual dictator “inhuman, a monster impossible to understand.” Convinced that personal rule was the only effective rule, he adopted a policy of ruthless suppression, The nobles were stripped of their power, Parliament was a mere echo, the people were silent. Only the church blocked the way to absolutist. Whatever stood in the way of the King's supremacy was swept aside under pretext of correcting abuses. Executions became common. Cromwell acquired immense wealth ,and kept 100 horses. Like others before him, he fell into disfavour. Cromwell had taught tho king the Macchiavellittn doctrine that a wise prince removes servants who are no longer of use, and the saying was applied so faithfully that Cromwell was beheaded in 1540. Mr Dark allows his religious predilections to obtrude .very frequently, but even those who entirely differ from him on ipost points will agree with his estimate of Thomas Cromwell. . . Frederick the Great. Frederick the Great is soundly rated as one of the greatset blackguards of history. Ho believed the State was the King. His appearance and planners

were offensive, clothes shabby, and covered with snuff, and it is said ho hardly ever washed his hands and face. He delighted in insults and cruelty, and on several occasions his cowardice on the field of battle was of the most distinguished ,order. .Debasing the coinage ,and ordering enemy wounded to be killed, were amongst his peccadilloes. Ho has been called “the polite hrgh-way-man. ’ ? His grandfather laid the foundation of Hohenzollern despotism, was an invincible cheat and liar, and if his father invited men to his table it was for the fun of making them drunk. i 1 . Cellini.

Benvenuto Cellini, artist and a rascal, was contemporary with da Vinci, Raphael, Michaelangelo, Botticelli, Ariostio, and Palestrina. What a galaxy of genius! In those days art covered a multitude of sin. Cellini ’s father wanted to make him a musician, but h,e hated “that accursed art,” and became a goldsmith. The Pope made him Master of the Mint; His love affairs were shocking. More than once he committed murder, and the Pope said that men like Cellini were above the law. Twice he was imprisoned on charges of “criminal immorality. 7 ’ He was goldsmith, sculptor, author, and many more attainments, but he was also thief, forger, murderer, anl blatant sensualist. Had Cellini lived in the nineteenth century the gallows would have speedily ended his career. .

Mr Dark has apparently set out in these sketches with the laudable desire to set before us the true characters of certain celebrities. He not only doubts tho novelists, but the historians, and seems to have a sneaking sympathy with Henry Ford’s declaration that “history is bunk.” In any case, ihe professes to be keen on facts, oven if his own criticism of historians may fairly recoil on himself. And Others. Louis XI was entirely unscrupulous, destestable, cold, detached, abnormal. He was the- royal Uriah Heep, pretending a humility that was always dangerous, \

Among other contemptible fellows who figure in these pages one meets tho astute Mazarin, mean, cowardly, mad on wealth —a cardinal who cheated at cards. Then comes Judge Jeffreys, “born without bowels, without pity or mercy,” and whoso “yell sounded like the thunder of the Judgment Day.” Marlborough was covetous and avaricious belond all men, lied, plotted and betrayed with an eye on the bank balance. Talleyrand lived in falsehood and on falsehood. Foucho was clever but treacherous. Robespierre had a finicky soul, but could tolerate massacre. With him ends Mr Dark’s brilliant sketches of a dozen rascals. May their tribe perish!