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Zuleika Dobson; Or, An Oxford Love Story
·
Sir Max Beerbohm
69
Salt
Cellar,
that
grey
and
green
quadrangle
visible
from
the
room
assigned
to
Zuleika,
is
very
beautiful,
as
I
have
said.
So
tranquil
is
it
as
to
seem
remote
not
merely
from
the
world,
but
even
from
Oxford,
so
deeply
is
it
hidden
away
in
the
core
of
Oxford’s
heart.
So
tranquil
is
it,
one
would
guess
that
nothing
had
ever
happened
in
it.
For
five
centuries
these
walls
have
stood,
and
during
that
time
have
beheld,
one
would
say,
no
sight
less
seemly
than
the
good
work
of
weeding,
mowing,
rolling,
that
has
made,
at
length,
so
exemplary
the
lawn.
These
cloisters
that
grace
the
south
and
east
sides--five
centuries
have
passed
through
them,
leaving
in
them
no
echo,
leaving
on
them
no
sign,
of
all
that
the
outer
world,
for
good
or
evil,
has
been
doing
so
fiercely,
so
raucously.
And
yet,
if
you
are
versed
in
the
antiquities
of
Oxford,
you
know
that
this
small,
still
quadrangle
has
played
its
part
in
the
rough-and-tumble
of
history,
and
has
been
the
background
of
high
passions
and
strange
fates.
The
sun-dial
in
its
midst
has
told
the
hours
to
more
than
one
bygone
King.
Charles
I.
lay
for
twelve
nights
in
Judas;
and
it
was
here,
in
this
very
quadrangle,
that
he
heard
from
the
lips
of
a
breathless
and
blood-stained
messenger
the
news
of
Chalgrove
Field.
Sixty
years
later,
James,
his
son,
came
hither,
black
with
threats,
and
from
one
of
the
hind-windows
of
the
Warden’s
house--maybe,
from
the
very
room
where
now
Zuleika
was
changing
her
frock--addressed
the
Fellows,
and
presented
to
them
the
Papist
by
him
chosen
to
be
their
Warden,
instead
of
the
Protestant
whom
they
had
elected.
They
were
not
of
so
stern
a
stuff
as
the
Fellows
of
Magdalen,
who,
despite
His
Majesty’s
menaces,
had
just
rejected
Bishop
Farmer.
The
Papist
was
elected,
there
and
then,
al
fresco,
without
dissent.
Cannot
one
see
them,
these
Fellows
of
Judas,
huddled
together
round
the
sun-dial,
like
so
many
sheep
in
a
storm?
The
King’s
wrath,
according
to
a
contemporary
record,
was
so
appeased
by
their
pliancy
that
he
deigned
to
lie
for
two
nights
in
Judas,
and
at
a
grand
refection
in
Hall
“was
gracious
and
merrie.”
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