it does the heart good to read of some light-footed troubadour or reverend pilgrim trudging from gate to gate, all the way across a strange country, everywhere welcome as an expected guest, and given the liberty of the host's kingdom. chroniclers give us pretty pictures of the household sitting about the dusty palmer, listening to his pious and spirited homily; of the errant singer, wrapped in his worn velvet cloak, delighting young maids and children with the old burden of roncesvalles, or with the tale of that dreamer rudel who crossed seas to find his unseen lady-love at tripoli, and to die, satisfactorily, in her arms. whether the master of the castle had subsequent cause to regret the shelter proffered to his birds of passage, posterity shall never learn. for those were the days of chivalry; and the brave bounty which accepted the wayfarers without question was able to overlook a deficiency, if such there were, in the family silver. of this best sort, too, was the hospitality of alcinoüs to ulysses, treating him like a king, and dreaming not of his hidden kingliness. spanish courtesy yet keeps a show of heart-whole giving: "this is thy house," an andalusian tells his visitor. an indian, in his forest wigwam, does yet better. if he abide you at all, with your scalp at its accustomed altitude, he tenders whatsoever he calls his, and would scorn to conceal from you the innermost recesses of his savage larder.
"is he not hospitable," quaintly asks one of our american essayists, "who entertains thoughts?"
think of the unlicensed generosity of the roberds-men, dealing out what had but just become theirs by right of might, and of our niggardly modern dispensation! of that duke of newcastle, the lavish splendor of whose receptions bewildered all england; or of another-143- social peer, edward, earl of derby, "in whose grave, since 1572," said thomas fuller, "hospitality hath in a manner been laid asleep." timon began as bravely as any of these. waiving all formal recognition of his royal liberality, he made his frank exordium in the banquet-hall:—
——"my lords! ceremony
was but devised at first to set a gloss
on faint deeds, hollow welcomes,
recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown;
but where there is true friendship, there needs none;
pray sit...."
hospitality hath been called threefold: for one's family, of necessity; for strangers, of courtesy; for the poor, of charity. friendship pushes its privilege to the broad extreme, and loses its sense of ownership.
"cot or cabin have i none,
and sing the more that thou hast one."
the twin playwrights of the reign of queen bess set up their tent "on the bankside;" alternately wearing "the same cloathes and clokes," and having but one bench of the house between them, which the twain "did so much admire"!
a guest should be permitted to graze, as it were, in the pastures of his host's kindness, left even to his own devices, like a rational being, and handsomely neglected. our merry friend, t., has been known to beat his breast and groan while passing a certain suburban house, whose inmates consider themselves his devoted friends. it seems that on his last visit he found only the ladies of the establishment at home,—ardent, solicitous creatures, whose good manners were nearly the death of him. he had a mind to await their brother's return, and while the fair araminta was gathering roses on the terrace, and her sister had momentarily vanished in-doors, our tender innocent, pleased with the landscape, and not averse to bodily comfort, incontinently got into the hammock. he had barely begun to sway to and fro, in his idle fashion, when delicate expostulations smote his incredulous ear. he learned, with respectful awe, that he was liable to headache, to sea-sickness, to certain and sudden thuds on the floor of the piazza, and, lastly, to influenza and kindred ills, by facing the formidable summer atmosphere, in a recumbent position, without wrap or shawl. the climax was capped by the wheeling forward of a portly arm-chair, and the persuasive order to "take that," and be "comfortable." t. was too dazed, or too shy, to protest. when he sought a cool seat in the bay-window, down came the sash, "for fear of a draught;" he made bold to caress the dog, and nero was led away and chained to his kennel, because he was "apt to bite;" he fell in, to his infinite diversion, with the junior member of the household, and master was marched off to bed, with the stern bidding to "be a good boy," and not "trouble the gentleman." like sorrows hovered over him till the blessed hour of release. b. was back at seven, and wondered why his old classmate had gone.
who does not envy them that knew henry wotton, "a very great lover of his neighbors, a bountiful entertainer of them very often at his table, where his meat was choice, and his-146- discourse better;" or the bohemian spirits of 4 inner temple lane, with "the card-tables drawn out, the fire crackling, the long-sixes lit, the snuff-boxes ready for any one's handling, the kettle singing on the hob, glasses and bottles and cold viands within reach, books lying about, familiar guests doing what they pleased, chatting, reading, coming, going,—veritable at homes, with a sense of slippered, almost of slip-shod ease"? but hold! are we to indite a disquisition on the decay of hospitality? are there no open hearts above ground, nor any houses where the elected comer may still hold the key to every room, with no direful blue-beard exclusions? leaving dives to the practice or omission of a virtue eminently appropriate to his coffers, what of the very poor? for there is a paradoxical extravagance in their way of life; a glorious communism between one that is needy and one whom he discovers, day on day, to be needier than himself. where have they learned that sweet readiness of succor? the churl, with them, is he who withholds his little superfluity from a more miserable brother. in the close kinship of suffering, their souls grow mutually pitying, mutually helpful, clinging each to the rest, as a coral atom is moored to the patient island, built from the incalculable depths of the sea. if the wealth that is gracious and thoughtful should vanish to-morrow from the earth, generous giving should find its home in the thin, kind hands of poverty; and then, as now, should some bright-eyed student arise to deny the asseveration of history that the noble old hospitallers are no more.
