Fd + eiey ae University of North Carolina Magazine February, 1903 CRITIQUE OF ‘‘WESTWARD HO.”’ ‘ SETTING. AD Kingsley sought far and wide for momentous crises around which to throw thethe dress of heroic Story, he could not have found two of more significance than those which furnish him the setting of his greatest novels, ‘‘Hypatia” and ‘(Westward Ho.” In the former he makes use of the fierce death grapple between Greek philosophy and Christianity, out of which Christianity came forth gloriously triumphant; in the latter, of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, a defeat which was at once the death blow to Catholic Spain, and the pledge of life and hope to England and her colonies then being planted beyond the seas. The period treated of in ‘sWestward Ho” is worthy to be sung \& in epic measure It wasa period characterized by herotc deeds. Huogland, during the severities and eighties of the sixteenth century, was ' experiencing for the first time the thrill of her new, tapidly expanding life. Her commerce, formerly over- shadowed by that of Holland and of Spain, was begiu- ning to look to the seas. Her national pride, long dormant, was fast awakening to assume its right position. She was ruled by a queen, keenly alive te the possibili- ties of the times, to whom all subjects were loyal. She was unitéd in spirit; terres prepared for conquest. Of her Shakespeare could boast, with an exultant thrilf” of triumph, in ‘‘King John:’* ‘This England never did, nor never shall, Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror, But when it first did help to wound itself.” *Act 5, Sc. 7. - 260 THe UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE And Campbell, looking back at her froma later century in which her true pens th could be measured in exact terms, could sing:* “Britannia needs no Baier: No towers along the steep, Her march is o’er the mountain wave, Her home is on the deep.” She was entering, with her Raleighs, her Drakes, her Grenvils, upon her great world conquest, and no power could stay her. For an opponent in this terrible con- flict, she had none other than Spain, continuously vic- torious for a hundred years and rich beyond measure with the gold of Incas and Moutezumas. These are the two powers which, for several decades, have been crouch- ing for a final spring. Atlastit ismade, And Spain, haughty, Me cruel, and tyrannous so long, goes down —irretrievably down—in "defeat. The scenes of this tragedy, out of which a more abundantlife was to spring, are laid, to be specific, in Devon, in Ireland, off the coast of England, in the Spanish main, and in New Spain. The final battle-field is the great Atlantic, stretching from the dangerous Orkneys to the rippling bay of Santa Martha. This isthe time, these are the events, of which Kingsley treats. PLOT. %—- Compared with ‘‘The Last of the Barons” in seberesee te breadth of plot, ‘‘Westward Ho” is decidedly Tie less comprehensive. evidently" was not Kiugsley’s pur- pose to weave a beautiful cloth of gold in which the forms of many things were to appear, but rather a strong, much-enduring cable, composed of a few tested *Ye Mariners of England. HY gt towed | tiie) ed ener Pan ee: OE ila Thre alee ape [dercr9 ee breadth mK cme CRITIQUE OF ‘‘WESTWARD HO’’ 261 strands. The plot is limited in scope. The fortunes of Amyas Leigh, the hero, form the central theme of the story. While it is true that the activities of England and Spain and the principles for which those countries stood respectively are accurately set forth, still it is with the adventures of Captain Leigh that Kingsley occupies himself. Thus the plot is unified. Furthermore, the plot is consistent. There are but two circumstances, the truthfulness of which can at all be called in question. Amyas and Frank Leigh found it possible to meet Rose Saltern tooeasilyat LaGuayra. Yeo wassomewhat slow in discoveriny his long-lost little maid. But those were days of stirring adventure in which brave knightsdared much for fair ladies and in which stalwart Devonshire sailors were not asgifted in detective faculties as is their countryman, Sherlock Holmes, & today. In one respect the convergence of the plot and the suspense of interest may seem to be partially broken. ‘To the reader of the modern novel, stories of vengeance are not so entertain- ing as stories of love. Asa result, when such a reader finds Rose Saltern, the apple of discord among the mem- bers of the gallant brotherhood, hopelessly lost to them- selves and but partially reclaimed to Frank Leigh, he feels that he has read pages enough. Frank’s wish has been partly realized. His persecutors have received their just reward. Why prolong the story further? To see Amyas kill Spaniards indiscriminately, aud finally, after he is struck with blindness, tamely surrender his noble heart to a new and alien love, why, that is wholly unromantic. The dénouement is positively stupid. But, in reality, such a reader is altogether mistaken. He fails to note the onward, climactic movement. He fails to 262 THe UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE keep up with Amyas. The hero’s strides are too long and swiftfor him. He fails utterly to detect the unifying thread, but of its existence there can be no doubt and it is given here. An intense longing for the life of the sea wrings the strong, already manly heart of Amyas as he stands, amere youth in years, upon the heights of Lundy, eagery gazing at the gliding sail as they fade, ghost- like and sink into that magic sea which washes eternally the shores of the distant west. Love for the ‘‘Rose of Torridge,” and a misunderstanding with Master Brim- blecombe, send him through the Strait of Magellan on his apprenticeship of toil and_obedience, Then vengeance drives him to the omnious overhanging cliffs of La Guayra, and triple vengeance lashes him onward, regard- less of tide and storm, to the thundering, spray-clad shutters off Lundy. And then a power, greater than any of these, lays its iron grasp upon him, a power, terrible, yet purifying. Itis the beneficient power of suffering, by which, through gloom and brokeness of spirit, he is led to the portal of generous, forgiving love! CHARACTERS. Kingsley’s characters in ‘‘Westward Ho” are power- fully drawn, ‘They live. They move. ‘They act accor- ding to their opportunities and leave results to care for themselves. It is not necessary to make a detailed, in- trospective analysis of them. A night’s vigil with Mrs. Leigh, as she prays for her sons at sea and meekly re- signs herself and them to the Infinite; a hazardous wandering through trackless forests and danger-be-set mountain passes with Amyas; an hour with Yeo at the guns; a glance at Don Guzman, as, at the bottom of the CRITIQUE OF ‘‘WESTWARD HO’’ 263 sea, with the “‘prawnes and crayfish” swimming around his head, he draws the picture of his ‘‘fair and true lady” from his bosom and bids his officers drink to her;— these chatice views suffice to show the nobility of Kings- ley’s characters. How boundless it is! and how clearly it is thrown into relief by its total absence in Eustace Leigh and his associates! ‘These characters are natural, too. Against Frank Leigh aloue can the charge of af- fectation be laid, and that without real justification. He is a courtier, and necessarily, a Euphuist. But be- neath his courtly exterior he has a heart. He is more than a courtier. He is aman. PURPOSE. Kingsley had a definite purpose in view when writing ‘““Westward Ho.” A bitter anti-Romanist, he wished to oppose a inovement of his day, directed by Newman, to lead the Anglican church into the ranks of Catholicism. In order to carry out his purpose most effectively he placed before the public, by means of his novel, a sig- nificant object lesson. He exhibited, with rare skill, two characters, one of which he represented as being the natural product of Protestantism, the other, of Roman- ism—Amyas and HKustace Leigh. Born of the same stock, yet trained under widely different influences, he represents them as growing up to stand for entirely op- posite principles. Amyas is dull at his books, he likes the open air, he is big hearted, he honors womanhood, he learns to obey, he rules himself, he speaks the truth, he hates, forgives, loves. He is at every point a man. He is Kingsley’s ‘‘muscular Christian.” On the other hand, Eustace, well equipped mentally and physically, 264 ; THe UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE falls into the care of Jesuits and becomes one him- self. Without any appreciation of the truly noble, a veritable tool in the hands of those to whom he sells him- self, a traitor to his country and to his blood, he is dis- missed with contempt by the author as unworthy of continued mention in the pages of a book in which nothing save manliness is countenanced. Amyas is the product of Protestantism, Kustace, of Romanism. Kings- ley holds the two up before a considerate public and asks the burning question: Which will you choose? Thus it is seen why Kingsley chose the closing years of the sixteenth century for the setting of his story. It was the period of a world crisis. Nations still to be born were to rejoice or to be sad at the outcome of the strug- gle then on. What that outcome would be depended largely upon the character of the men who engaged in the conflict; and their character would inevitably be what their training should make it. What was true of Hlizabethan England, Kingsley claimed, would be true of Victorian England. ‘That was the startling, burning truth which he flung blazing before the eyes of his countrymen. ‘That is the truth which ‘‘Westward Ho” was to proclaim. STYLE. Kingsley’s fortunate choice of subject, his success in character portrayal, and the momentous import of the lesson which his story teaches, do not account wholly for the strong hold which ‘‘Westward Ho” has had upon men. Much of its power must be attributed to the hap- py style in which it is written. In ‘‘Hypatia,” and in his other novels, Kingsley seems, at times, unnatural. CRITIQUE OF ‘‘WESTWARD HO’”’ 265 He loses himself in his attempt to give expression to what he supposes is philosophical reasoning. He does not know, absolutely, every phase of his subject. But in ‘‘Westward Ho,” the case is entirely different. He knows himself, as well as his subject. His freshness, his buoyancy, his vigor, effect his style. They make it vital and winning. If analyzed, it will be found to be characterized by naturalness, clearness, vividness. In just what way Kingsley secures the easy onward movement to be noted in almost all of his sentences, it is difficult to discover. But that his sentences do move naturally, freely, isa fact. In reading ‘‘Westward Ho” one never finds himself pent up between two semi-colons, unable to see or move in either direction. One can always glance backward and take his bearing and then move forward inline with the sentence. Numerous short sentences and page after page of natural, spirited conversation, most probably account for this charac- teristic. Bideford ‘‘salts” talk and jest in their own flowing vernacilar. Furthermore, they act, and the in- tensity of their action is reflected in the movement of the sentences in which it is described. They talk while they prime their guns and draw their swords, and what they say under such circumstances cannot be stilted. Naturalness is a step toward clearness. Accuracy and minuteness of detail and figurative illustration are also essential to perspicuous style. Kingsley is sympatheti- cally accurate. He knows what he describes and feels a keen interest init. He is scientifically minute, but not coldly,so, nor can it be said that he is lacking in that peculiar kind of imagination, which, thrown around scenes and events, makes them warm with life. One 266 THe UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE quotation suffices to show his use of accurate, minute de- tail and pointed illustration: *