THE VAGARIES OF LOVE. (Liberal Review.)

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 285, 10 March 1874, Page 2

THE VAGARIES OF LOVE. (Liberal Review.)

It it pleasant to see ' spooning ' on the stage. The lovesick Won and heroines of certain comedies, when they are represented by clover and agreeable actors and actresses, rarely fail to make people sympathize with thorn. The assumption is that their billings, and coutngs, and dressings pleasantly remind thoße of mature years of old times and exsite a spirit of emulation and a desire \o become slaves of the tender passion in the young. But it. is only on the stage that most persons caro to contemplate pronounced love-making. This is not sumrising, for off the si age it becomes a vory different and, all things considered, a much less agreeable proceeding — at least so far as spectators are concerned. Perhaps the actors themselves think differently, albeit tliat their appearance and demeanour lead to the conclusion that they are often m u state of what may be best described in the contradictory term, ' delightful misery.' As a mutter of fact, the lore-making of moat individuals is a very common-place and etupid proceeding, if it is not something worse. Many men never appear to less advantage than when they are in love. Graceful posturing and flowing rhetoric do not come natural! jto them at such a time. It is true that the heroes who figure on the stage, labouring under the wounds inflicted by Cupid's honeytipped arrows, are the personifications of easy confidence and elegance, but to this they are true to an ideal, not a reality; and the probability is that w hen these selfn«me nonchnlnnt customers retire into private life and endeavour to do u little business of a similar character on th'ir o»n account, they do not appear to so much advantage. If nn actor were to venture to represent common-place lovemaking exactly as it \», with its intervals of vacuity and its periods of clumsy boldness, ho would very soon discover that it does not pay to bo natural, and that if bo wishes to succeed he mu 4 content himself with presentinc ft fanciful and highly-coloured portrait, and speak his author's carefully rounded and eloquent sentences in that manner which he has reason to imagine will render them most acceptable. History affords mnnv examples of the fact that love-making is not an edifying thing to gsze upon. A very largo proportion of our great men, for instance, have seriously marred their reputations by the va»arirs and acts of idiocy into which they were led whilst suffering trom the tender passion. Were it not a profitless ta*k, many celebrated names might be c ted to prove the truth of thii. All thingg considered, then, it is evident that actual lovemaking should be conducted on the principle of the right hand not knowing what tiie left hand doetb The amorous swdin, who is longing to imitate the successful and talented w.mar whom ho has soon at the theatre, would do well to •nuke the attempt in as unostentatious « mnnneras posbible. The probability is that when ha come* to offer his band and fortune to her for whom hit soul is withering, he will succeed in getting into a quandary and making a sad mess of the whole affair ; and it is certain that the preliminary ' buiinrw,' in which he will, probably, deem it necessary to indulge before taking the final plunge, will compare most nnfavourably with the preliminary businpss indulged in by the individual whoto lot it is to unburden bis mind, m a. general way, at leant once a day. But many amorous 6wams have not the good 6ense to refrain from obtruding upon public notice. There i* a stealthy opennesi about their ogles and murmurings which never fail* to command attention. Th«r blushes, their awkwai-dnessei, their occasional leern of triumph when they imagine that they hava, as the Americana say, ' struck ile, 1 are neither amu6ing, artistio, nor clever but they are very apparent. Their inattention to everything but ono special object is too well known — at is also »he mystery in which they try to enshroud themselves— to be commented upon. Suffice it to remark that they can bo teen through as easily as con a piece of crystal, and that it is the reTeree of diverting to -natch their proceedings, as it

is, unhappily^ the fate of a few p»»plo some tinip durin ' the pourse of their hvea to bo compiled to do. There i* ho wtirer, some excuse for the unpleasnnt line of conduct aloptod by the c'lais under notice. However disagreeablu^ are their doings, it cannot be lorgottrn that they are, probably, the r<nU of real feolrng, and that they will oease to be practise*! nffpr th« lapse of » oerUin time. Tin case i« different, howerer, with another class who go in very eitcn^irely for the isystery q( lovo. It is composed almost entirely of joung Radios who have not eutered upon . tho real business of life. Theje young ladies make a point 1 s>{ oontraotsng with ono another wlut they describe a<» ' eternal friendships.' As a. matter of fact, these ' eternal ' affairs lait, in a general way, until ono, of the contracting parties tntrnos some brute of n. man —and no longer. But while they do continue in. full bloom they are things not to 'be spoken lightly of. The ' friendrf ' arc friends to » positively alarming extent. Many and desperate are their vows and declarations. No man shall ever sever them is the burden of their song. Admitting that they may be entrapped into matrimony, which, by the way, ii a most remote contingency, their husbands shall only have the second place in their affections is their declaration. They care about no one but each other, and this they render evident by attempting to snub or treat with supercilious indifference nine out of e*erj ten people whom they are brougl.t in contact. One ennnot hare a thought without the other being made acquainted with it ; one cannot get a new shawl or a new dress without the other longing to procure one of a precisely similar pattern. Of secrets they possess a countless number, and of each secret they are co-possessors. Traces of tlice secrets are ever coming to the surface. You cannot be in the company of these fair damsels for one Lour without being unpleasantly informed tiiat some people da not think so much of you as you are in the habit of thinlfl ing of yourself, and that there are many mysteries in circu- | lation which must be left mysteries so far as you are concerned. The love the fair creatures bear towards each other is often bubbling up, and a thousand little endearments and caresses are indulged in which vcrj quickly enable people to form an opinion as to the state of the case. A lnrgo portion of the ' friends ' ' time is spent in a lecting gifts for each other. The brooches, the charms, the earrings, the rings, the bracelets they wear are all marks of the intense affection in which they are mutually held. They cannot bo separated without experiencing, the keenest pangs and inflicting an immense amount of labour upon the post-office officials, for which those functionaries are, no doubt, suffij ciently grateful. All this would be very beautiful were lM not for several important facts. In a general way tho display] of affection, in its most exuberant developments, is nothing j more nor less than simple affectation. It is one of the crazes to which young ladies of a sentimental turn of mind seem to be addicted ; and winch is invariably generated by the reading of mawkish books or some flaw in the system of education which has been pursued in reference to them. Fortunately, it docs not last long.