"Dunsany, Lord - Why The Milkman Shudders When He Perceives The Dawn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

one of them tell it, as I have said, not heralded by any
master of ceremonies but as though it arose out of the
warmth of the fire before which his knotted hands would
chance to be; not a thing learned by rote, but told
differently by each teller, and differently according to his
mood, yet never has one of them dared to alter its salient
points, there is none so base among the Company of Milkmen.
The Company of Powderers for the Face know of this story and
have envied it, the Worthy Company of Chin-Barbers, and the
Company of Whiskerers; but none have heard it in the
Milkmen's Hall, through whose wall no rumour of the secret
goes, and though they have invented tales of their own
Antiquity mocks them.
This mellow story was ripe with honourable years when
milkmen wore beaver hats, its origin was still mysterious
when smocks were the vogue, men asked one another when
Stuarts were on the throne (and only the Ancient Company
knew the answer) why the milkman shudders when he perceives
the dawn. It is all for envy of this tale's reputation that
the Company of Powderers for the Face have invented the tale
that they too tell of an evening, "Why the Dog Barks when he
hears the step of the Baker"; and because probably all men
know that tale the Company of the Powderers for the Face
have dared to consider it famous. Yet it lacks mystery and
is not ancient, is not fortified with classical allusion,
has no secret lore, is common to all who care for an idle
tale, and shares with "The Wars of the Elves," the
Calf-butcher's tale, and "The Story of the Unicorn and the
Rose," which is the tale of the Company of Horse-drivers,
their obvious inferiority.
But unlike all these tales so new to time, and many
another that the last two centuries tell, the tale that the
milkmen tell ripples wisely on, so full of quotation from
the profoundest writers, so full of recondite allusion, so
deeply tinged with all the wisdom of man and instructive
with the experience of all times that they that hear it in
the Milkmen's Hall as they interpret allusion after allusion
and trace obscure quotation lose idle curiosity and forget
to question why the milkman shudders when he perceives the
dawn.
You also, O my reader, give not yourself up to
curiosity. Consider of how many it is the bane. Would you
to gratify this tear away the mystery from the Milkmen's
Hall and wrong the Ancient Company of Milkmen? Would they
if all the world knew it and it became a common thing to
tell that tale any more that they have told for the last
four hundred years? Rather a silence would settle upon
their hall and a universal regret for the ancient tale and
the ancient winter evenings. And though curiosity were a
proper consideration yet even then this is not the proper