| Share page |
|
138 Glimpses of Our Ancestors. |
||
|
lesson or a hint until he became the proficient he was—until his French had all the exquisite netteteand finesse of a Parisian, and his German was acknowledged to be classic. It was, doubtless, in languages that the bent of George Richardson's genius lay most strongly; but he had tastes and talent in many other directions, and, as opportunities offered, he followed them out. He was devotedly fond of music, but had no voice—and little ear; and yet he laboured to sing Mozart with the same assiduity, though not with the same success, that he did to recite Schiller or Korner. How well do I remember his singing-lessons!—and his pathetic entreaties to his instructress (a very patient, good-tempered young lady), after successive failures in u La ci darem" or " Nott' e
giorno," for " just once more, my dear Miss --------!—just
that passage, if you please, once more:" that " once more" being as illimitable as space!
To the Graces, indeed, though our friend Richardson made tremendous sacrifices, his sacrifices were not altogether acceptable. He carried the same indomitable perseverance into his cultivation of them that he did into the severer studies of language, and, later in life, science, but not with the same result. In music and dancing (and, oh ye Gods! how he did labour to dance!) he failed decidedly, and in acting he was not successful. He played Iago to, I think, Barnard Gregory's Othello on the Brighton stage, and I don't know which was the worst of the two; but, between them, Shakspeare got terribly maltreated! No, the Graces were not propitious to George Richardson, devoutly as he worshipped them. In literature, he was much happier. He wrote in many styles—in verse and in prose—as a translator and as an original author—as an essayist, a critic, and in a light pleasing polished style that recalled the social sketches of Addison and Steele in "The Spectator" and "The Tatler." A series of these, under the title of " The Visitor," appeared in the Brighton Herald between 40 and 50 years ago, and they contain matter that would justify a more permanent form of |
||