The Scarlet Letter: A Romance -Section 10 - The Governor's Hall

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dream Adio Books presents section ten of The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Chapter seven The Governor's Hall. Hester Prynne
went one day to the mansion of Governor Bellingham with
a pair of gloves which she had fringed and embroidered
to his order, and which were to be worn on
some great occasion of state. For though the chances of

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a popular election had caused this former ruler to descend
a step or two from the highest rank, he still
held an honorable and influential place among the colonial magistracy.
Another and far more important reason than the delivery of
a pair of embroidered gloves impelled Hester at this time
to seek an interview with a personage of so much

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power and activity in the affairs of the settlement. It
had reached her ears that there was a design on
the part of some of the leading inhabitants, cherishing the
more rigid order of principles in religion and government, to
deprive her of her child on the supposition that Pearl,
as already hinted, was of demon origin. These good people

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not unreasonably argued that a Christian interest in a mother's
soul required them to remove such a stumbling block from
her path. If the child, on the other hand, were
really capable of moral and religious growth, and possessed the
elements of ultimate salvation, then surely it would enjoy all
the fairer prospect of these advantages by being transferred to

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wiser and better guardianship than Hester. Prynne's. Among those who
promoted the design, Governor Bellingham was said to be one
of the most busy. It may appear singular, and indeed
not a little ludicrous that an affair of this kind,
which in later days would have been referred to no
higher jurisdiction than that of the selectmen of the town,

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should then have been a question publicly discussed and on
which statesmen of eminence took sides. That epoch of Pristine's simplicity. However,
matters of even slighter public interest and of far less
intrinsic weight than the welfare of Hester and her child
were strangely mixed up with the deliberations of legislators and

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acts of state. The period was hardly, if at all,
earlier than that of our story, when a dispute concerning
the right of property in a pig not only caused
a fierce and bitter contest in the legislative body of
the colony, but resulted in an important modification of the
framework itself of the legislature. Full of concern therefore, but

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so conscious of her own right, that it seemed scarcely
an unequal match between the public on one side and
a lonely woman backed by the sympathies of nature on
the other. Hester Prynne set forth from her solitary cottage.
Little Pearl was, of course her companion. She was now
of an age to run lightly along by her mother's side,

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and constantly in motion from morn till sunset, could have
accomplished a much longer journey than that before her, often nevertheless,
more from caprice than necessity. She demanded to be taken
up in arms, but was soon as imperious to be
set down again and frisked onward before Hester on the
grassy pathway, with many a harmless trip and tumble. We

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have spoken of pearls rich and luxuryant beauty, a beauty
that shone with deep and vivid tints, a bright complexion,
eyes possessing intensity both of depth and glow, and hair
already of a deep, glossy brown, and which in after
years would be nearly akin to black. There was fire

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in her and throughout her She seemed the unpremeditated offshoot
of a passionate moment. Her mother, in contriving the child's garb,
had allowed the gorgeous tendencies of her imagination their full play,
arraying her in a criminal velvet tunic of a peculiar cut,
abundantly embroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold thread. So

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much strength of coloring, which must have given a one
and pallid aspect to cheeks of a fainter bloom, was
admirably adapted to pearl's beauty and made her the very
brightest little jet of flame that ever danced upon the earth.
But it was a remarkable attribute of this garb, and
indeed of the child's whole appearance, that it irresistibly and

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inevitably reminded the beholder of the token which hester Prynne
was doomed to wear upon her bosom. It was the
scarlet letter in another form. The scarlet letter endowed with
life the mother herself, as if the red ignominy were
so deeply scorched into her brain that all her conceptions
assumed its form, had carefully wrought out the similitude, lavishing

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many hours of morbid ingenuity to create an analogy between
the object of her affection and the emblem of her
guilt and torture. But in truth, Pearl was the one
as well as the other, and only in consequence of
that identity had Hester contrived so perfectly to represent the
scarlet letter in her appearance. As the two wayfarers came

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within the precincts of the town, the children of the
Puritans looked up from their play, or what passed for play,
with those somber little urchins, and spake gravely, one to another, Behold, verily,
there is the woman of the scarlet letter, and of
a truth. Moreover, there is the likeness of the scarlet letter,
running along by her side. Come therefore, and let us

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fling mud at them. But Pearl, who was a dauntless child,
after frowning, stamping her foot, and shaking her little hand
with a variety of threatening gestures, suddenly made a rush
at the knot of her enemies and put them all
to flight. She resembled in her fierce pursuit of them,
an infant pester villance, the scarlet fever, or some such

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half fledged angel of judgment whose mission was to punish
the sins of the rising generation. She screamed and shouted, too,
with a terrific volume of sound, which doubtless caused the
hearts of the fugitives to quake within them. The victory accomplished,
Pearl returned quietly to her mother and looked up, smiling

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into her face. Without further adventure, they reached the dwelling
of Governor Bellingham. This was a large wooden house built
in a fashion of which there are specimens still extend
in the streets of our older towns, now mosque grown,
crumbling to decay, and melancholy at heart, with the many
sorrowful or joyful occurrences remembered or forgotten, that have happened

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and passed away within their dusky chambers. Then, however, there
was the freshness of the passing year on its exterior,
and the cheerfulness gleaming forth from the sunny windows of
a human habitation into which death had never entered. It
had indeed a very cheery aspect. The walls, being overspread,

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were a kind of stucco in which fragments of broken
glass were plentifully intermixed, so that when the sunshine fell
as slantwise over the front of the edifice, it glittered
and sparkled as if diamonds had been flung against it
by the double handful. The brilliancy might have befitted Aladdin's
palace rather than the mansion of a grave old Puritan ruler.

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It was further decorated with strange and seemingly cabbalistic figures
and diagrams, suitable to the quaint taste of the age,
which had been drawn in the stucco when newly laid on,
and had now grown hard and durable for the admiration
of after times. Pearl, looking at this bright wonder of
a house, began to caper and dance, and imperatively required

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that the whole breadth of sunshine should be stripped off
its front and given her to play with. No, my
little Pearl, said her mother, thou must gather thine own sunshine.
I have none to give thee They approached the door,
which was of an arched form and flanked on each
side by a narrow tower or projection of the edifice,

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in both of which were lattice windows with wooden shutters
to close over them at need, lifting the iron hammer
that hung at the portal. Hester Prynne gave a summons
which was answered by one of the governor's bond servants,
a free born Englishman, but now seven years a slave.
During that term he was to be the property of
his master, and as much a commodity of bargain and

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sail as an ox or a joint stool. The surf
wore the blue coat, which was the customary garb of
serving men of that period and long before in the
old hereditary halls of England. Is the worshipful Governor Bellingham within?
Inquired Hester. YEA forsooth, replied the bant, staring with wide

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open eyes at the scarlet letter, which, being a newcomer
in the country, he had never before seen. Yea, his
honorable worship is within, but he hath a godly minister
or two with him, and likewise a liege. YE may
not see his worship now. Nevertheless, I will enter, answered
Hester Prynne, and the bond servant, perhaps judging from the

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decision of her heir and the glittering symbol in her bosom,
that she was a great lady in the land offered
no opposition, so the mother and little Pearl were admitted
into the hall of entrance. With many variations suggested by
the nature of his building materials, diversity of climate, and
different mode of social life, Governor Bellingham had planned his

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new habitation after the residences of gentlemen of fair estate
in his native land. Here then was a wide and
reasonably lofty hall, extending through the whole depth of the house,
and forming a medium of general communication, more or less
directly with all the other apartments. At one extremity. This

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spacious room was lighted by the windows of the two towers,
which formed a small recess on either side of the portal.
At the other end, though partly muffled by a curtain,
it was more powerfully illuminated by one of those embowed
hall windows which we read of in old books, and
which was provided with a deep and cushioned seat. Here

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on the cushion lay a folio tome, probably of the
Chronicles of England or other such substantial literature. Even as
in our own days we scatter gilded volumes on the
center table to be turned over by the casual guest.
The furniture of the hall consisted of some ponderous chairs,
the backs of which were elaborately carved with wreaths of

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oaken flowers, and likewise a table in the same taste,
the whole being of the Elizabethan age, or perhaps earlier,
and heirlooms transferred hither from the governor's paternal home. On
the table, in token that the sentiment of old English
hospitality had not been left behind, stood a large pewter tankard,

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at the bottom of which, had hester or pearl peeped
into it, they might have seen the frothy remnant of
a recent draft of ale. On the wall hung a
row of portraits representing the forefathers of the Bellingham lineage,
some with armor on their breasts and others with stately
ruffs and ropes of peace. All were characterized by the

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sternness and severity which old portraits so invariably put on,
as if they were the ghosts rather than the pictures
of departed worthies, and were gazing with harsh and intolerant
criticism at the pursuits and enjoyments of living men. At
about the center of the oaken panels that lined the
hall were suspended a suit of mail, not like the

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pictures and ancestor a relic, but of the most modern date,
for it had been manufactured by a skillful armorer in
London the same year in which Governor Bellingham came over
to New England. There was a steel head piece, a cuirass,
a gorget, and greeves, with a pair of gauntlets and
a sword hanging beneath all, and especially the helmet and

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breastplate so highly burnished as to glow with white radiance
and scatter and illumination everywhere about on the floor. This
bright panoply was not meant for mere idle show, but
had been worn by the Governor on many a solemn
muster and training field, and had glittered moreover at the
head of a regiment in the Pequot War four. Though

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Bred a lawyer and accustomed to speak of Bacon, Coke,
Noy and Finch as his professional associates, the exigencies of
this new country had transformed Governor Bellingham into a soldier
as well as a statesman and ruler. Little Pearl, who
was as greatly pleased with the gleaming armor as she

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had been with the glittering frontispiece of the house, spent
some time looking into the polished mirror of the breastplate.
Mother cried, she I see you here. Look look esther
looked by way of humoring the child, and she saw that,
owing to the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, the

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scarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so
as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance.
In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it. Pearl pointed upward,
also at a similar picture in the head piece, smiling
at her mother with the elfish intelligence that was so

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familiar an expression on her small physiognomy. That look of
naughty merriment was likewise reflected in the mirror with so
much breadth and intensity of effect that it made hester
Pryn feel as if it could not be the image
of her own child, but of an imp who was
seeking to mold itself into Pearl's shape. Come along, Pearl,

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said she, drawing her away. Come and look into this
fair garden. It may be we shall see flowers there,
more beautiful ones than we find in the woods. Pearl
accordingly ran to the bow window at the farther end
of the hall, and looked along the vista of a
garden walk carpeted with closely shaven grass and bordered with

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some rude and immature attempt at shrubbery. But the proprietor
appeared already to have relinquished as hopeless the effort to
perpetuate on this side of the Atlantic. In a hard soil,
and amid the close struggle for subsistence, the native English
taste for ornamental gardening. Cabbages grew in plain sight, and

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a pumpkin vine, rooted at some distance, had run across
the intervening space and deposited one of its gigantic products
directly beneath the hall window, as if to warn the
governor that this great lump of vegetable gold was as
rich an ornament as New England Earth would offer him.
There were a few rose bushes, however, and a number

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of apple trees, probably the descendants of those planted by
the reverend mister Blackstone, the first settler of the peninsula,
that half mythological personage who rides through our early annals,
seated on the back of a ball pearl. Seeing the
rose bushes, began to cry for a red rose, and
would not be pacified. Hush child hush, said her mother, earnestly,

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do not cry, dear little Pearl. I hear voices in
the garden. The governor is coming, and gentlemen along with him.
In fact, adown the vista of the garden avenue, a
number of persons were seen approaching towards the house. Pearl,
in utter scorn of her mother's attempt to quiet her,
gave an eldrich scream, and then became silent, not from

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any notion of obedience, but because the quick and mobile
curiosity of her disposition was excited by the appearance of
these new personages. End of Section ten Dream Audio Books.
Hopes you have enjoyed this program.