Page:Adams - Essays in Modernity.djvu/101

Rh consciously or unconsciously insist with such passionate persistence on the special form of milieu which has given him what he feels to be (so far, at least) the dominant factor in his view of things. And this is why, in nine cases out of ten, his dramatis persona melt away so rapidly in the memory, leaving us with nothing but the impression of an admirably piquant and clever delineation. He has probably spent more time and trouble over his 'Soldiers Three,' Mulvaney, Ortheris, and Learoyd, than over any other of the characters of his tales; yet Mulvaney alone is recognisable as anything approaching an organic creation. Mr. Kipling sacrifices everything to his mordant individuality. Mulvaney, the drunken, pugnacious, loquacious, kindly Irish ruffian of the old school, will tell you how 'Brazenose walked into the gang wid his sword, like Diarmid uv the Gowlden Collar,' and will not mention the name of the Queen in ordinary conversation without devoutly invoking upon her the blessing of the Creator! Ortheris, the little vulgar rascal of a cockney, urges his comrade on to an adventure with the quotation:

Go forth, return in glory, To Clusium's royal 'ome: And round these bloomin' temples 'ang The bloomin' shields o' Rome.'

And, when he is rebuked for loquacity under trial,