explanations in a foreign tongue at Cronstadt, the reader's most
humble servant assumed the lowly office of purser--wages, one shilling
per month. The passage was rough, the engineers were not enthusiastic
in their work, some of the seamen were sulky; and, in a word, the name
of God was frequently in the skipper's mouth. Otherwise he did not
strike one as being a particularly religious man. Nevertheless, when
Sunday evening came round he sat down and read the Bible with genuine
fervour, spelling the hard words aloud and asking how they should or
might be pronounced; and he informed me, by way of explaining his
attachment to the Book, that he had solemnly promised his wife never
to omit his weekly devotions while on the deep. Though I never shared
the literary tastes of Mr. Wilson Barrett, the captain's unfathomable
ignorance of the Gospels, Isaiah and the Psalms startled even me; but
on the other hand he had an intimate acquaintance with a number of
stories to be found only in the Apocrypha, with which he had
thoughtfully provided himself. To gratify my curiosity he read me the
tale of Susanna and the Elders. Being young, my first notion was that
I had chanced on a capital subject for an opera; and I actually
thought for ten minutes of commencing at once on a libretto. Later I
remembered the censor, and realised for the first time that in
England, when a subject is unfit for a drama, it is treated as an
oratorio. As soon as possible I bought Handel's "Susanna" instead, and
found that Handel curiously--or perhaps not curiously--had also been
before me in thinking of treating the subject operatically. In fact
"Susanna" is as much an opera as "Rinaldo," the only difference being
that a few choruses are forcibly dragged in to give colour to the
innocent pretence. Handel's librettist, whoever he was, did his work
downright badly. That he glorifies the great institution of permanent
marriage and says nothing of the corresponding great institution of
the Divorce Court, is only what might be expected of the horrible