ART OF PORTRAYING HUMAN TYPES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23145, 17 September 1938, Page 1 (Supplement)

ART OF PORTRAYING HUMAN TYPES

By NORMAN BOYES

interesting early form of literature, now superseded by the essay, novel and short story, is known as the character. It is in fact a character study, representing a human type, not an individual, though the original of it may have been. Like most of our art forms it originated in Greece, one of its principal exponents there being Theophrastus (B.C. 372-287). But if you think that this means that people were very much different in his time, consider the following from his collection, called "The Stupid Man" : "The Stupid Man is tho sort of person who reckons with counters, finds tho total and then asks someone: 'How much does that come to?' Tho day he is defendant in a law case, he forgets all about it and goes into tho country. H ho goes to the theatre, ho falls asleep and is left thero alone. . . . . He puts away something that has been given him and then looks for it without being able to find it. Ho is told of a friend's death and invited- to tho funeral; ho looks mournful, weeps and says: "Good luck to him! Ho secures witnesses when ho is to receive payment of a debt. In the middlo of winter he scolds his slaves for not having brought cucumbers. He makes his children run and wrestle, but does not notice they aro overstraining themselves. . . • Someono asks him how many funerals havo gone through the gate to the cemetery and ho replies: 'I only wish you and I had as many!' " Addison and Steel Although character types aro an essential part of most creative writing, tho character, as such, later adopted by both tho English and tho French, was naturally very limited in its scope, and in consequence was soon absorbed by more ambitious literary forms. It will remain, however, of general interest, if only to show us an earlier edition of ourselves. Perhaps the best known characters appear in "Tho Spectator" from tho pens of Addison and Steel. Sir Roger do Coverley needs no introduction, while Will ' Honeycomb, Sir Andrew Freeport and Tom Courtley aro almost as famous as Sam Weller, Malvolio or tbo Mayor of Casterbridge. John Earlo (IGOI-1665) was a renowned character-writer. To him wo owe the following called "A Child," a perfect gem of its kind: •• He is Nature's fresh picture newly drawn in oil. which time, and much handling, dims and defaces. His soul is yet a white paper unscribbled with observations of tho world, wherewith, at length, it becomes a blurred notebook. He is purely happy, because ho knows no evil, nor hatl made means by sin to bo acquainted with misery. Ho arrives not at tho mischief of being wise, nor endures evils to come, by foreseeing them. Ho kisses and loves al and, when the smart of tho rod is past, smiles on ] his beator. Nature and his parents alike dandle him, and 'tice him on with a bait of sugar to a draught of wormwood. Ho plays yet liko a young prentico the first day and is not como to his task of melancholy. Alt tho language lib speaks yet is toars, and they servo him well enough to express his necessity His hardest labour is his tongue, as if ho were loath to use so deceitful an organ; and ho is best compiiny with it when he ran but prattle. Wo laugh at his foolish sports, but his gamo is our earnest; and his drums, rattles, and hobby-horses but tho emblems and mocking of man's business. His father hath writ him as his own little story, wherein he reads those days of his life that ho cannot remember and sighs to see what ninocenco ho has out-lived. Tho elder lie grows he is a stair lower from God; arid liko his first father, much worse in his breeches. Ho is tho Christian's example, and tho old man s relapse; tho one imitates his pureness. and tho other falls into his simplicity. Could ho put off his body with his little coat, he had got eternity without a burden, and exchanged but ono heaven for another." Our Practical Age Nowadays we aro not inclined to regard childhood with these rapt eyes, possibly because we have graduated from a spacious and reflective to a less mysterious and a practical age, where our homage is more substantially expressed per media of institutions and

A Stroll Along an Old Literary By-Path

societies devoted to child welfare. Thero is a little too much perfection mixed with tho colours for modern consumption. Yet in this as in works so diverse as the Old Testament and the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, that which we have come to regard as human nature shines forth like a ray of sunshine across a forest path, with the appealing novelty of acts of yesterday. Though tho thought, without offering a tangible solution, writes its answer in our hearts, it is not exactly fanciful to wonder, if a day will ever come when human nature will refuse to grow true to type. Through permutations of togas and knee-breeches, it has remained constant, down to an era of spats and plus-fours. For this constancy, almost as much is dependent upon nutrition and environment as upon hereditary tendencies. Neither science nor speculation can indicate with the prescience of imagination just how much that is Western evolves from wheat, and how much that is typical of tho East emanates from rice. Beauty of Life A little loss sunshine due to a slight change in tho sun's orbit, a consequent deficiency in the vitamin content of staplo cereals, and malnutrition is on tho way to change a species, possibly to change or at least to vary inhibitions native to it for generations. Moreover, synthetic foods aro more than a dream of scientific cranks. At some time therefore, farewell to the gourmet and the tippler, the gravicd steak cushioned with steaming onions, the ritual of kitchens, the benignity of housewives, the armoury of

pans and pots and tho scintillating china. Grocers and butchers will belong to a barbarian ago interesting only to historians. All the virtue will (lee Jack Falstaff and the Fat Boy who, if they remain at all in anyone's memory, will figure thero as objects of curious speculation liko tho monoliths of Stonehenge or the effigies of Easter Island. From here it is but n step to an era that finds Shakespeare unintelligible and Schubert a savage symphony. However enlightened in other ways it may be, if such a day dawns, most of tho real beauty and meaning of life will pass away. "A Young Man" By these tokens, wo may thank God that we aro still able to see tho truth in an obsolete art which in the hands of a master like John Earle is not without tho beauty which is said to bo synonymous with truth. There is space only to quote in part a portion of his character entitled "A Young Man": "He is now 'out of Nature's protection, though not .vet ablo to guide himself; but let loose to tho world and fortune, from which tho weakness of his childhood preserved him; and now his 'strength exposes him. Ifo is, indeed, just of an ago to bo miserable, yet in his own conceit first brains to bo happy . . . . Ho sees yet but the outside of tho world and men, and conceives them according to their appearing, flitter, and out of this ignorahco believes them. He pursues all vanities for, happiness, and enjoys them best in this fancy. Ilis reason serves not to curb but understand his attitude, and prosecute tho motions thereof with a more eager earnestness. Himself is his own temptation, and needs not Satan, and tho world will como hereafter. ... lie is minified with the vices of tho afro as the fashion and custom, with which ho longs to be acquainted, and sins to better his understanding lie scorns and fears and yet hopes for old acre, but daro not imagine it with wrinkles, lie loves and hates with the samo inflammation, and when the heat is over is eool alike to friends and enemies. . . • Ho offers you his blood to-day in kindness, and is ready to take yours to-morrow. Ho does seldom anything which ho wishes not to do again, and is only wiso after a misfortune. Ho suffers much for his knowledge and a great deal of folly it is makes him a wise man. . . . Every action is his danger and every man his ambush, lie is a ship without pilot or tackling, and only good forttino may steer him. If he scape this age, ho has scaped a tempest, and may live to bo a man."