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that stripped my life of joy and sorrow, and I desire not ever to dream of
your beauty any more. For I have been able to love nobody.
And I know that it is you who have prevented this, Queen Helen, at every
moment of my life since the disastrous moment when I first seemed to find your
loveliness in the face of Madame Dorothy. It is the memory of your beauty, as
I then saw it mirrored in the face of a jillflirt, which has enfeebled me for
such honest love as other men give women; and I envy these other men. For
Jurgen has loved nothing not even you, not even Jurgen! quite
wholeheartedly.
Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice
Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice
151
"And so farewell to you, Queen Helen! Hereafter I rove no more aquesting
anything; instead, I potter after hearthside comforts, and play the physician
with myself, and strive painstakingly to make old bones. And no man's notion
anywhere seems worth a cup of mulled wine; and for the sake of no notion would
I endanger the routine which so hideously bores me. For I am transmuted by
time's handling; I have become the lackey of prudence and halfmeasures; and it
does not seem fair, but there is no help for it. So it is necessary that I now
cry farewell to you, Queen Helen: for I have failed in the service of my
vision, and I deny you utterly!"
Thus he cried farewell to the Swan's daughter: and Queen Helen vanished as a
bright mist passes, not departing swiftly, as had departed Queen Guenevere and
Queen Anaïtis; and Jurgen was alone with the black gentleman. And to Jurgen
the world seemed cheerless, and like a house that none has lived in for a
great while.
48. Candid Opinions of Dame Lisa
"EH, sirs!" observes Koshchei the Deathless, "but some of us are certainly
hard to please."
And now Jurgen was already intent to shrug off his display of emotion. "In
selecting a wife, sir," submitted
Jurgen, "there are all sorts of matters to be considered "
Then bewilderment smote him. For it occurred to Jurgen that his previous
commerce with these three women was patently unknown to Koshchei. Why,
Koshchei, who made all things as they are Koshchei, no less was now doing for
Jurgen Koshchei's utmost: and that utmost amounted to getting for Jurgen what
Jurgen had once, with the aid of youth and impudence, got for himself. Not
even Koshchei, then, could do more for
Jurgen than might be accomplished by that youth and impudence and tendency to
pry into things generally which Jurgen had just relinquished as overrestless
nuisances. Jurgen drew the inference, and shrugged;
decidedly cleverness was not at the top. However, there was no pressing need
to enlighten Koshchei, and no wisdom in attempting it.
" For you must understand, sir," continued Jurgen, smoothly, "that, whatever
the first impulse of the moment, it was apparent to any reflective person that
in the past of each of these ladies there was much to suggest inborn
inaptitude for domestic life. And I am a peaceloving fellow, sir; nor do I
hold with moral laxity, now that I am fortyodd, except, of course, in talk
when it promotes sociability, and in versemaking wherein it is esteemed as a
conventional ornament. Still, Prince, the chance I lost! I do not refer to
matrimony, you conceive. But in the presence of these famous fair ones now
departed from me forever, with what glowing words I ought to have spoken! upon
a wondrous ladder of trophes, metaphors and recondite allusions, to what
stylistic heights of Asiatic prose I ought to have ascended! and instead, I
twaddled like a schoolmaster. Decidedly, Lisa is right, and I am
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goodfornothing. However," Jurgen added, hopefully, "it appeared to me that
when I last saw her, a year ago this evening, Lisa was somewhat less outspoken
than usual."
"Eh, sirs, but she was under a very potent spell. I found that necessary in
the interest of law and order hereabouts. I, who made things as they are, am
not accustomed to the excesses of practical persons who are ruthlessly bent
upon reforming their associates. Indeed, it is one of the advantages of my
situation that such folk do not consider things as they are, and in
consequence very rarely bother me." And the black gentleman in turn shrugged.
"You will pardon me, but I notice in my accounts that I am positively
committed to color this year's anemones tonight, and there is a rather large
planetary system to be discontinued at halfpast ten.
So time presses."
"And time is inexorable. Prince, with all due respect, I fancy it is precisely
this truism which you have overlooked. You produce the most charming of women,
in a determined onslaught upon my fancy; but you forget you are displaying
them to a man of fortyandsomething."
Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice
Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice
152
"And does that make so great a difference?"
"Oh, a sad difference, Prince! For as a man gets on in life he changes in many
ways. He handles sword and lance less creditably, and does not carry as heavy
a staff as he once flourished. He takes less interest in conversation, and his
flow of humor diminishes. He is not the tireless mathematician that he was, if
only because his faith in his personal endowments slackens. He recognizes his
limitations, and in consequence the unimportance of his opinions, and indeed
he recognizes the probable unimportance of all fleshly matters. So he
relinquishes trying to figure out things, and sceptres and candles appear to
him about equivalent; and he is inclined to give up philosophical experiments,
and to let things pass unplumbed. Oh, yes, it makes a difference." And Jurgen
sighed. "And yet, for all that, it is a relief, sir, in a way."
"Nevertheless," said Koshchei, "now that you have inspected the flower of
womanhood, I cannot soberly believe you prefer your termagant of a wife."
"Frankly, Prince, I also am, as usual, undecided. You may be right in all you
have urged; and certainly I
cannot go so far as to say you are wrong; but still, at the same time ! Come
now, could you not let me see my first wife for just a moment?"
This was no sooner asked than granted; for there, sure enough, was Dame Lisa.
She was no longer restricted to quiet speech by any stupendous necromancy: and
uncommonly plain she looked, after the passing of those lovely ladies.
"Aha, you rascal!" begins Dame Lisa, addressing Jurgen; "and so you thought to
be rid of me! Oh, a precious lot you are! and a deal of thanks I get for my
scrimping and slaving!" And she began scolding away.
But she began, somewhat to Jurgen's astonishment, by stating that he was even
worse than the Countess
Dorothy. Then he recollected that, by not the most disastrous piece of luck
conceivable, Dame Lisa's latest news from the outside world had been rendered
by her sister, the notary's wife, a twelvemonth back.
And rather unaccountably Jurgen fell to thinking of how unsubstantial seemed
these curious months devoted to other women, as set against the commonplace
years which he and Lisa had fretted through together; of the fine and merry
girl that Lisa had been before she married him; of how well she knew his
tastes in cookery and all his little preferences, and of how cleverly she
humored them on those rare days when nothing had occurred to vex her; of all
the buttons she had replaced, and all the socks she had darned, and of what
tempests had been loosed when anyone else had had the audacity to criticize
Jurgen; and of how much more unpleasant everything considered life was
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