bad job!gone! well, then, honorius falls out with his old friend andronic because latter will not yield up the necklace. honorius demands to know who has it. andronic will not name ginevras name before that woman and all the lofty lords, and then theres a grand scene. in the first place, it seems that in shylocks venetian time, the venetian lords, when obliging venice with a riot, called upon venetians to put out their lights, and this the lords now do, (we are on the piazza,) and out go all the lights as though turned off at one main. then there is such a scrimmage! honorius lunges at andronic; this latter disarms former; then latter comes to his senses, flies over to his old friend, and all the venetian brawlers are put to flight. then honorius says,and pray, pray, mark what honorius says, or you will _never_ comprehend act v.,then honorius says, taking andronics previous advice about flying, i will go away, _and fight the adriatic pirates_. now, pray, dont forget that. i quite distress myself in praying you not to forget that,to wit,_honorius goes away to fight the adriatic pirates._ oh, if you only knew the big secret! act v. this, of course, is the knifing act. seated is shylock before an hour-glass, and trying to count the grains of sand as they glide through. oh, if you only knew the big secret! you remember that in that original play antonios ships are lost merely. bah! we manage better in this matter: the ships come home, but they are empty,emptied by the pirates; though why those adriaticians did not confiscate the ships is even beyond the greek chorus, who says, they were very polite. at last all the sand is at rest. crack,as punctual as a postman comes andronic; and as the venetians are revolting against the flesh business, about which they seem to know every particular, andronic brings a guard of the just doges soldiers to keep the populace quiet while the business goes on;all of which behavior on the merchants part my friend the chorus pronounces to be stupid and suicidal. then comes such a scene!andronic calling for ginevra, and the jew calling for his own. breast bared. then thus the jew: feeble strength of my old body, be centred in this eye and this arm! thou, my son, receive this sacrifice, and tremble with joy in thy unknown tomb! knife raised. oh, if you only knew the big secret! and i _do_ hope you have not forgotten that honorius went away to fight the adriatic pirates. for, if you have forgotten that fact, you will not comprehend honoriuss rushing in at this moment from the adriatic pirates. yes,but why did he go amongst them? the big secret, in fact. if honorius had not gone, why, i suppose shylock would have had his pound of man. as it is, honorius and his paperwhich latter has also come from the piratesdo the business. why, the whole thing turns on the paper. how lucky it was honorius went amongst the pirates! honorius has vanquished the chief of the pirates,who was named arnheim,and that disreputable widower, just before his last breath, gave honorius the said paper,though why, it is not clear. andand this paper shows that andronic is that son stolen away from sarah, deceased, and shylock,that son, not only the image of abel, but of moses, too. great thunderbolts! then, very naturally, (in a play,) in come all the characters, and follows, i am constrained to say, a very well-conceived scene,tis another appeal to filial love. the jew would own his son, but he remembers that it would injure the son, and so he keeps silent. i declare, there is something eminently beautiful in the idea of making the jew yield his wealth up to andronic, and saying he will wander from venice,his staff his only wealth. and when, as he stoops to kiss his sons hand, ginevra (who of course has come on with the rest) makes a gesture as though she feared treachery, the few words put into the jews mouth are full of pathos and poetry. and so down comes the curtain,the piece meeting with the full approval of chorus, who applauded till i thought he would snap his hands off at the wrists. a very moral play, said a stout gentleman behind me,who had done little else all night but break into the fiercest of apples and pears,a very moral play,meaning thereby, probably, that it was very moral that a jews child should remain a christian. now there were some good points in that play; but, oh, thou m. ferdinand dugué, thou,why didst thou challenge comparison with a man who wrote for all theatres for all times? the poets singing. in heat and in cold, in sunshine and rain, bewailing its loss and boasting its gain, blessing its pleasure and cursing its pain, the hurrying world goes up and down: every avenue and street of city and town are veins that throb with the restless beat of the eager multitudes trampling feet. men wrangle together to get and hold a sceptre of power or a crock of gold; blaspheming gods name with the breath he gave, and plotting revenge on the brink of the grave! and fashions followers, flitting after, oertake and pass the funeral train, thoughtlessly scattering jests and laughter, like sharp, quick showers of hail and rain, to beat on the hearts that are bleeding with pain! and many who stare at the close-shut hearse envy the dead within,or, worse, turn away with a keener zest to grapple and revel and sin with the rest! while far apart in a bower of green, unheeded, unseen, a warbling bird on the topmost bough merrily pipes to the poet below, asking an answer as gay, i trow! but he hears the surging waves without, the heartless jeer, and the wild, wild shout: the ceaseless clamor, the cruel strife make the poet weary of life; and tears of pity and tears of pain ebb and flow in every strain, as he soothes his heart with singing. the tide of humanity rolleth on; and mid faces miserly, haggard, and wan, between the hypocrites and the knaves, the hapless idiots and the slaves, sweet children smile in their nurses arms, and clap their hands in innocent glee; while, unrebuked by the heavenly charms that beam in the eyes of infancy, oaths still blacken the lips of men, and startle the ears of womanhood! on either hand the churches stand, forgotten by those who yesterday went thronging thither to praise and pray, and take of the holy body and blood! their week-day creed is the law of might; self is their idol, and gain their right: though, now and then, god sees some faithful disciples still breasting the current to do his will. the little bird on the topmost bough merrily pipes to the poet below, asking an answer as gay, i trow! but he hears the surging waves without, the atheists scoff and the infidels doubt, the pharisees cant and the sweet saints prayer, and the piercing cry for rest from care; and tears of pity and tears of pain ebb and flow in every strain, as he praises god with singing. a journey in sicily. chapter i. palermo. in the latter part of april, 1856, four travellers, one of whom was the present writer, left the vittoria hotel at naples, and at two, p.m., embarked on board the calabrese steamer, pledged to leave for palermo precisely at that hour. as, however, our faith in the companys protestations was by no means so implicit as had been our obedience to their orders, it was with no feeling of surprise that we discovered by many infallible signs that the hour of departure was yet far off. true, the funnel sent up its thick cloud; the steward in dirty shirt-sleeves stood firm in the gangway, energetically demanding from the baggage-laden traveller the companys voucher for the fare, without which he may vainly hope to leave the gangway ladder; the decks were crowded in every part with lumber, live and dead. but all these symptoms had to be increased many fold in their intensity before we could hope to get under way; and a single glance at the listless countenances of the bare-legged, bare-armed, red-capped crowd who adhered like polypi to the rough foundation-stones of the mole sufficed to show that the performance they had come to witness would not soon commence. our berths once visited, we cast about for some quiet position wherein to while away the intervening time. the top of the deck-house offered as pleasant a prospect as could be hoped for, and thither we mounted