Traducción
Original
Capítulo XXX
Género satírico
A la vuelta de Arabela, la dijo el barón:
—Ya tienes ahora, sobrina mía, alguna idea del mundo y de sus diversiones: ¿se te* puede preguntar si te agradan?
—Os confieso –respondió sonriéndose– que no deseo renovar la función de hoy. Si son estos los grandes placeres que he oído elogiar, me parece que pronto echaré de menos la soledad y los libros de que acabo de separarme.
—Pero, prima –repuso Carlota–, ¿qué otra especie de diversión aguardabas, pues? No hay paraje en Inglaterra, excepto Londres, donde haya tan buena sociedad como en Bath: el baile era lucido, te han celebrado y admirado mucho, y me pareció que todos se divertían... Fuera de que aquí es imposible fastidiarse128: por la mañana se tiene la sala de las bombas y por la noche la de ostentación y sociedad, donde todo el mundo se reúne, y si a esto añades las partidas de campo de las sociedades particulares, tendrás con que ocupar deliciosamente todas las horas del día.
—Me parece –satisfizo Arabela– que el tiempo es harto precioso para merecer que se emplee con más utilidad; creo que los que solo gustan de los placeres que has referido existen penosamente… ¿Qué pensaríamos de una mujer (cuya historia se hubiese escrito) que hubiera pasado su vida en el tocador, en el baile, en el paseo y que nunca hubiese tenido trato sino con personas tan frívolas como ella? No hay duda que la despreciaríamos. ¿Me convencerás de que esos hombres que hemos visto, con apariencias de mujeres, cuyas voces son tan melifluas y cuyos movimientos son tan acompasados, puedan nunca representar otro papel que el de desocupados? ¿Los juzgas propios para distinguirse en una batalla? ¿Imaginas que tengan idea de aquella especie de gloria que caracteriza a los hombres grandes?
—¡Vaya, prima mía, que no hablas más que de guerras y de choques! ¿Son las gentes amables a propósito para pelear? Ese es oficio de soldados.
—Pues si el heroísmo pertenece a estos, dime: ¿bajo qué título conoceremos a los que se adornan, se pasean y bailan continuamente, pues alguno han de tener?
—Nunca hubiera imaginado –interrumpió Tíncel– que un sujeto tan amable fuese acérrimo enemigo del placer. p. 189
—Os aseguro, caballero, que no lo aborrezco, pero sin duda que las nociones que yo tengo de él son diferentes de las vuestras. Permito a las mujeres que, hasta un cierto punto, se ocupen en los adornos de sus personas, pero estos cuidados me parecen indignos e impropios de un hombre, que ni ha de sacar de ellos su dignidad ni la consideración pública, pues son bienes que solo han de deberse a la elevación de su modo de pensar… Si es soldado, que derrame el oro sobre su coraza para que sean más notadas sus acciones y que ponga hermosas plumas sobre su morrión, pues allí están mejor que en un sombrero de máscara y un diamante en su lanza hará mejor efecto que en su dedo. No es mérito en un hombre hacer una cortesía con gracia, bullir en un paseo público o parlar sobre niñerías en una tertulia129.
—Ahora digo –saltó Carlota– que hay más malicia en tus reflexiones que en lo que Tíncel nos contó en el baile.
—Nada he dicho, sin embargo, que no sea relativo al modo con que dices que aquí se vive y me parece que es permitido hablar contra las cosas que llevan en sí mismas sus censuras.
FIN DEL TOMO SEGUNDO
Chapter IX
Being a chapter of the satirical kind.
At their return, Sir Charles told his niece that she had now had a specimen of the world and some of the fashionable amusements, and asked her how she had been entertained.
“Why, truly, sir,” replied she, smiling, “I have brought away no great relish for a renewal of the amusement I have partaken of tonight. If the world, in which you seem to think I am but newly initiated, affords only these kinds of pleasures, I shall very soon regret the solitude and books I have quitted.”
[161] “Why, pray?” said Miss Glanville. “What kind of amusements did your ladyship expect to find in the world? And what was there disagreeable in your entertainment tonight? I am sure there is no place in England, except London, where there is so much good company to be met with as here. The assembly was very numerous and brilliant, and one can be at no loss for amusements: the pump room in the morning, the parade* and the rooms,* in the evening, with little occasional parties of pleasure, will find one sufficient employment, and leave none of one’s time to lie useless upon one’s hand.”
“I am of opinion,” replied Arabella, “that one’s time is far from being well employed in the manner you portion it out. And people who spend theirs in such trifling amusements must certainly live to very little purpose.
“What room, I pray you, does a lady give for high and noble adventures, who consumes her days in dressing, dancing, listening to songs, and ranging the walks with people as thoughtless as herself? How mean and contemptible a figure must a life spent in such idle amusements make in history? Or rather, are not such persons always buried in oblivion, and can any pen be found who would condescend to record such inconsiderable actions?
“Nor can I persuade myself,” added she, “that any of those men whom I saw at the assembly, with figures so feminine, voices so soft, such tripping steps and unmeaning gestures, have ever signalised either their courage or constancy; [162] but might be overcome by their enemy in battle, or be false to their mistress in love.”
“Law!* Cousin,” replied Miss Glanville, “you are always talking of battles and fighting. Do you expect that persons of quality and fine gentlemen will go to the wars? What business have they to fight? That belongs to the officers.”p. 260
“Then every fine gentleman is an officer,” said Arabella, “and some other title ought to be found out for men who do nothing but dance and dress.”
“I could never have imagined,” interrupted Mr. Tinsel, surveying Arabella, “that a lady so elegant and gay in her own appearance should have an aversion to pleasure and magnificence.”
“I assure you, sir,” replied Arabella, “I have an aversion to neither: on the contrary, I am a great admirer of both. But my ideas of amusements and grandeur are probably different from yours.
“I will allow the ladies to be solicitous about their habits and dress with all the care and elegance they are capable of; but such trifles are below the consideration of a man who ought not to owe the dignity of his appearance to the embroidery on his coat, but to his high and noble air, the grandeur of his courage, the elevation of his sentiments and the many heroic actions he has performed.
“Such a man will dress his person with a graceful simplicity, and lavish all his gold and embroidery upon his armour, to render him conspicuous in the day of battle. The plumes in his helmet will look more graceful in the [163] field than the feather in his hat at a ball, and jewels blaze with more propriety on his shield and cuirass* in battle than glittering on his finger in a dance.
“Do not imagine, however,” pursued she, “that I absolutely condemn dancing, and think it a diversion wholly unworthy of a hero.
“History has recorded some very famous balls, at which the most illustrious persons in the world have appeared.
“Cyrus the Great, we are informed, opened a ball with the divine Mandana at Sardis. The renowned king of Scythia danced with the princess Cleopatra at Alexandria; the brave Cleomedon with the fair Candace at Ethiopia; but these diversions were taken but seldom, and considered indeed as an amusement, not as a part of the business of life.
“How would so many glorious battles have been fought, cities taken, ladies rescued, and other great and noble adventures been achieved if the men, sunk in sloth and effeminacy, had continually followed the sound of a fiddle, sauntered in public walks, or tattled over a tea-table?”
“I vow, cousin,” said Miss Glanville, “you are infinitely more severe in your censures than Mr. Tinsel was at the assembly. You had little reason, methinks, to be angry with him.”
“All I have said,” replied Arabella, “was* the natural inference from your own account of the manner in which people live here. When actions are a censure upon themselves, the reciter will always be considered as a satirist.”