roleplaying:munchausen:chapter_xxx
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— | roleplaying:munchausen:chapter_xxx [2005/11/22 17:58] (current) – created - external edit 127.0.0.1 | ||
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+ | ====== TRAVELS OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN ====== | ||
+ | ===== CHAPTER XXX ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | //The Baron arrives in England--the Colossus of Rhodes comes to | ||
+ | congratulate him--Great rejoicings on the Baron' | ||
+ | tremendous concert--The Baron' | ||
+ | opinion of the Tour to the Hebrides.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | Having arrived in England once more, the greatest rejoicings were made | ||
+ | for my return; the whole city seemed one general blaze of | ||
+ | illumination, | ||
+ | feats, came on purpose to England to congratulate me on such | ||
+ | unparalleled achievements. But above all other rejoicings on my | ||
+ | return, the musical oratorio and song of triumph were magnificent in | ||
+ | the extreme. Gog and Magog were ordered to take the maiden tower of | ||
+ | Windsor, and make a tambourine or great drum of it. For this purpose | ||
+ | they extended an elephant' | ||
+ | across the summit of the tower, from parapet to parapet, so that in | ||
+ | proportion this extended elephant' | ||
+ | castle what the parchment is to a drum, in such a manner that the | ||
+ | whole became one great instrument of war. | ||
+ | |||
+ | To correspond with this, Colossus took Guildhall and Westminster | ||
+ | Abbey, and turning the foundations towards the heavens, so that the | ||
+ | roofs of the edifices were upon the ground, he strung them across with | ||
+ | brass and steel wire from side to side, and thus, when strung, they | ||
+ | had the appearance of most noble dulcimers. He then took the great | ||
+ | dome of St. Paul' | ||
+ | you would a decanter of claret. And when once risen up it had the | ||
+ | appearance of a quart bottle. Colossus instantly, with his teeth, | ||
+ | cracked off the superior part of the cupola, and then applying his | ||
+ | lips to the instrument, began to sound it like a trumpet. 'Twas | ||
+ | martial beyond description--// | ||
+ | |||
+ | During the concert I walked in the park with Lady Fragrantia: she was | ||
+ | dressed that morning in a //chemise à la reine//. "I like," said she, | ||
+ | "the dew of the morning, 'tis delicate and ethereal, and, by thus | ||
+ | bespangling me, I think it will more approximate me to the nature of | ||
+ | the rose [for her looks were like Aurora]; and to confirm the | ||
+ | vermilion I shall go to Spa." "And drink the Podhon spring?" | ||
+ | gazing at her from top to toe. " | ||
+ | "with all my heart; 'tis the drink of sweetness and delicacy. Never | ||
+ | were there any creatures like the water-drinkers at spa; they seem | ||
+ | like so many thirsty blossoms on a peach-tree, that suck up the shower | ||
+ | in the scorching heat. There is a certain something in the waters that | ||
+ | gives vigour to the whole frame, and expands every heart with rapture | ||
+ | and benevolence. They drink! good gods! how they do drink! and then, | ||
+ | how they sleep! Pray, my dear Baron, were you ever at the falls of | ||
+ | Niagara?" | ||
+ | association of ideas; "I have been, many years ago, at the Falls of | ||
+ | Niagara, and found no more difficulty in swimming up and down the | ||
+ | cataracts than I should to move a minuet." | ||
+ | her nosegay. " | ||
+ | great variety in these polyanthuses. I do assure you, my dear Baron, | ||
+ | that there is taste in the selection of flowers as well as everything | ||
+ | else, and were I a girl of sixteen I should wear some rosebuds in my | ||
+ | bosom, but at five-and-twenty I think it would be more //apropos// to | ||
+ | wear a full-blown rose, quite ripe, and ready to drop off the stalk | ||
+ | for want of being pulled--heigh-ho!" | ||
+ | do you like the concert?" | ||
+ | laid her hand upon my shoulder, "what are these bodiless sounds and | ||
+ | vibration to me? and yet what an exquisite sweetness in the songs of | ||
+ | the northern part of our island: | ||
+ | Mary!//' | ||
+ | Hebrides! But never, never can I think of that same Doctor Johnson-- | ||
+ | that CONSTABLE, as Fergus MacLeod calls him--but I have an idea of a | ||
+ | great brown full-bottomed wig and a hogshead of porter! Oh, 'twas | ||
+ | base! to be treated everywhere with politeness and hospitality, | ||
+ | return invidiously to smellfungus them all over; to go to the country | ||
+ | of Kate of Aberdeen, of Auld Robin Gray, 'midst rural innocence and | ||
+ | sweetness, take up their plaids, and dance. Oh! Doctor, Doctor!" | ||
+ | |||
+ | "And what would you say, Fragrantia, if you were to write a tour to | ||
+ | the Hebrides?" | ||
+ | theatrical tone; "peace to the heroes who sleep in the isle of Iona; | ||
+ | the sons of the wave, and the chiefs of the dark-brown shield! The | ||
+ | tear of the sympathising stranger is scattered by the wind over the | ||
+ | hoary stones as she meditates sorrowfully on the times of old! Such | ||
+ | could I say, sitting upon some druidical heap or tumulus. The fact is | ||
+ | this, there is a right and wrong handle to everything, and there is | ||
+ | more pleasure in thinking with pure nobility of heart than with the | ||
+ | illiberal enmities and sarcasm of a blackguard." | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | Go to [[CHAPTER XXXI]] | ||
+ | |||
roleplaying/munchausen/chapter_xxx.txt · Last modified: 2005/11/22 17:58 by 127.0.0.1