It might have
so much of the hues of life that the reader should sometimes think it was
intended for a picture, yet the atmosphere should be such as to excuse
all wildness. In the Introduction, I might disclaim all intention to
draw a real picture, but say that the continual meetings I had with
Americans bent on such errands had suggested this wild story. The
descriptions of scenery, etc., and of the Hospital, might be correct, but
there should be a tinge of the grotesque given to all the characters and
events. The tragic and the gentler pathetic need not be excluded by the
tone and treatment. If I could but write one central scene in this vein,
all the rest of the Romance would readily arrange itself around that
nucleus. The begging-girl would be another American character; the
actress too; the caravan people. It must be humorous work, or nothing.
III.
May 12th, Wednesday.--Middleton found his abode here becoming daily more
interesting; and he sometimes thought that it was the sympathies with the
place and people, buried under the supergrowth of so many ages, but now
coming forth with the life and vigor of a fountain, that, long hidden
beneath earth and ruins, gushes out singing into the sunshine, as soon as
these are removed.
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