Page:Satire in the Victorian novel (IA satireinvictoria00russrich).pdf/229



apoplectic, bursting out of waistcoat like a black-pudding, a shovel-hatted fuzz-wigged Silenus."
 * caturists delight to represent him so: round, short-necked, pimple-faced,

Whereas, he goes on at length to show, the reverse is the case. Both sides are more or less illustrative of the ''argument ad hominem''.

It is Trollope who really writes of Clerical Snobs. The house-party at Chalicotes shelters a hierarchy. Mr. Robarts arrives,—

"And then the vicar shook hands with Mrs. Proudie, in that deferential manner which is due from a vicar to his bishop's wife; and Mrs. Proudie returned the greeting with all that smiling condescension which a bishop's wife should show to a vicar."

From here the "young, flattered fool of a parson" is persuaded to go to Gatherum Castle and there gets into trouble. Brought to his senses, he meditates ruefully,—

"Why had he come to this horrid place? Had he not everything at home which the heart of man could desire? No; the heart of man can desire deaneries—the heart, that is, of the man vicar; and the heart of the man dean can desire bishoprics; and before the eyes of the man bishop does there not loom the transcendental glory of Lambeth?"

The mixture of affectionate indulgence, shrewd amusement, and fundamental loyalty which made up Trollope's attitude is recorded in this symbolic portrait:

"As the archdeacon stood up to make his speech, erect in the middle of that little square, he looked like an ecclesiastical