LOVE AND GENIUS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 645, 23 October 1909, Page 11

LOVE AND GENIUS.

nnTffi™ r !v° h t d b , cen .compelled to attendant ™ n i v en to , four dall 3' ilrs - Carlyle wn?W',vmL r" U 1 h fPl"'- r woman, and the .imnl " n'l! ■» -°?j interesting vol- . ® « writes Mr. •Siducv • Low* .wifrh nn air of. almost chilly, detachment,, in an entorLoffi*,"l ? | 01 \"' M , atri i"°»y a«il the Man of £v- i' U r! 1 P e lias 'contributed to- the Nineteenth Century and After." '. Mr ' Low make an- enumeration of , S i ;: ty.ei ? ht auilms v.t-.i \ ; rils of their marriages -ji- the fadt of I'iffi i' coubacy. there is a little touch "of. sp*' Vial-pleading about some of the'notes on. the nwtni.ar.ial 'sioo (saya the "Queen"). Of the ;^ cf T a t rri M B "-' ie , ! '?y? " ,or<! than-"married *?? y, i n V w.scarcely adequatefor such, extremely Uappy s married- lives ag those of Broivmng,-ientiysoii, and Kingsley; And'bv what •extraordinary slip did Mr. Low 'come, to set doun John Stuart l Mill .as "unmarried" WJen he ivas married-to'a woman for whom'his .devotion; and admiration were extreme? iHowever, Mr.-Low-can show easily enough .- that many authors—and, for that matter, many remarkable people :in''other, callings—have 'an aptitude, for. not being. happily married,' or rather, perhaps,,.foreknowing too consciously that they are imperfectly -happy in. their marriages. They think about themselves, which is unwise. I.ow places the bliime partly on the fact that'arwriting man is so much"about the house. The more ordinary man' is out most of the day. The wife has a dull time perhaps, ordering- dinner and paying calls; she is therefore; extremely,, pleased. to. see her husband return and to learn from him what is ffoing on in'the world. Mr. Low's meditations leatl him' to doubt the intellectually ■' fit . can survive in any large number.' He surmises that the domestic unhappiness -of Senilis may ,be "a device of. Nature'to guard against the premature production of a race of super-men.".- • • ' » •• .■These are some of the cases quoted by Mr Lee:— . ' •/' !-.' .. Shakespeare.—Married at ;18, with hasty irregularity, a .woman of ..humble origin eight years older, than' himself. 1 The union .'seems to have been unsympathetic, dud the" terms of the poet's will point to an estrangement between husband and wife. '" ...'. "■ Milton.—Married three times. - The poet's first wifo left him after a few weeks. : He wrote 'tracts on divorce, and jiai'dhis addresses "to a I'very handsome and witty' gentlewoman" until the wife returned. v : : Dryden —Married—unhappily. - , .Pepys.—Married:- Unfaithful, to Jukwifo, and frequently, quarrelled; with..her, ■ . ■ Swift—Secretly ' married . to . a Woman with whom' he never, lived,' and, whom ho, hardly ever saw ! except in the;; presents of fa'fthird -perSOU., Samuel Johnson.—Married a vulgar and affected widow twenty years his senior. - Sterne.—Got oh'badly with his wife, and had various love"-affairs and sentimental philanderinss., - -.., ... .- Scott.—Married—not-.-.quite sympathetically. ,' Southed—Married-twice. -First ,'wife' became insane; Married, his.second wife at age of 00, ; just before "complete failure of has' own mental faculties. : 'J ■' '■ ' ; .•Coleridge.—Mirried-^uhsatisfactyrily.'.Hus-band, and wife .bi'came''almost' completely alienated arid.lived ..apart!:: v, . '. ;Shelley.-rMade an , imprudent : marriage early, in- life.,- :Separated ■: from his wife, who committed .suicide; "■ ; - •V' .''Kea.ts.—TJhmarried.;';Tormonted ; 'by' an 'unhappy love affair. ' • • ;■ •' ." Byron'.-rSeparated'from his wife after a great 6candal, . and, entered-..into various . irregular unions;. ~ .V ! ..Hozlitt.—Married twice. - First -wiife divorced himi.seconfl. refused„to live with him. . Leigh'' Hunt.—Married—not quite happily. - Edward Bnlwer, Lytton.—Separated from his wife, v V'v '''"'■ >'' - V: ' - 'bickered a good good with his wite.- ■'- ( .Ruskiiii—Marriage' annulled.;. . : ;' ;-'r Luudor.—.Quarrelled with his .wife, and: lived many years .apart from her. , ' 1 Dickcns.—Soparatcd'from his 'wifc. " 'There are exceptions, of. course. These'great men, for' instance, were 'aU''"married satisfactorily Bunyan -'(tivicp);' Wordsworth, Thomas Mbbrei'. , DSWiC , » ! -Frtn%^Matoidi^ : .'' ! Ariiol4' ,De, fa^^ i % jl }insMsd^, J permitted.. ; -. " 'Steele. —Twice;.happily; in spite of ■ irregularities; of. conduct-■ ''-v.

;■-Fieldlhg.^Twice; 1 Devotedly'attached ;td' : his first '.wife.; .afte'r.ner death married her maid.:.'"