- caturists delight to represent him so: round, short-necked, pimple-faced,
apoplectic, bursting out of waistcoat like a black-pudding, a shovel-hatted fuzz-wigged Silenus."
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,—[1]
"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,—[2]
"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:[3]
"As the archdeacon stood up to make his speech, erect in the
middle of that little square, he looked like an ecclesiastical
