Read The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton Page 2
certain, whether we should or not; for I, for my part, had not the least suspicion of what our real case was; however, I say, perhaps, before we had weighed, we should have looked about us a little._"
Turning to the other literary qualities that make Defoe's novels great,if little read, classics, how delightful are the little satiric touchesthat add grave weight to the story. Consider the following: "My goodgipsy mother, for some of her worthy actions, no doubt, happened inprocess of time to be hanged, and as this fell out something too soonfor me to be perfected in the strolling trade," &c.(p. 3). Every otherword here is dryly satiric, and the large free callousness and carelessbrutality of Defoe's days with regard to the life of criminals isconveyed in half a sentence. And what an amount of shrewd observation issummed up in this one saying: "Upon these foundations, William said hewas satisfied we might trust them; for, says William, I would as soontrust a man whose interest binds him to be just to me, as a man whoseprinciple binds himself" (p. 227). Extremely subtle is also this remark:"_Why, says I, did you ever know a pirate repent?_ At this he started alittle and returned, _At the gallows_ I have known _one_ repent, andI _hope_ thou wilt be the second." The character of William the Quakerpirate is a masterpiece of shrewd humour. He is the first Quaker broughtinto English fiction, and we know of no other Friend in latter-dayfiction to equal him. Defoe in his inimitable manner has defined surelyand deftly the peculiar characteristics of the sect in this portrait. Onthree separate occasions we find William saving unfortunate nativesor defenceless prisoners from the cruel and wicked barbarity ofthe sailors. At page 183, for example, the reader will find a mostpenetrating analysis of the dense stupidity which so often accompaniesman's love of bloodshed. The sketch of the second lieutenant, who wasfor "murdering the negroes to make them tell," when he could not makethem even understand what he wanted, is worthy of Tolstoy. We have notspace here to dwell upon the scores of passages of similar deep insightwhich make "Captain Singleton" a most true and vivid commentary on thelife of Defoe's times, but we may call special attention to the passageon page 189 which describe the sale of the negroes to the planters; tothe description of the awakening of the conscience of Captain Singletonthrough terror at the fire-cloud (page 222); and to the extraordinarilypicturesque conversation between William and the captive Dutchman (page264). Finally, if the reader wishes to taste Defoe's flavour in itsperfection let him examine carefully those passages in the concludingtwenty pages of the book, wherein Captain Singleton is shown asawakening to the wickedness of his past life, and the admirable dryreasoning of William by which the Quaker prevents him from committingsuicide and persuades him to keep his ill-gotten wealth, "with aresolution to do what right with it we are able; and who knows whatopportunity Providence may put into our hands.... As it is withoutdoubt, our present business is to go to some place of safety, where wemay wait His will." How admirable is the passage about William's sister,the widow with four children who kept a little shop in the Minories,and that in which the penitent ex-pirates are shown us as hesitating inVenice for two years before they durst venture to England for fear ofthe gallows.
"Captain Singleton" was published in 1720, a year after "RobinsonCrusoe," when Defoe was fifty-nine. Twenty years before had seen "TheTrue-Born Englishman" and "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters"; andwe are told that from "June 1687 to almost the very week of his death in1731 a stream of controversial books and pamphlets poured from hispen commenting upon and marking every important passing event." Thefecundity of Defoe as a journalist alone surpasses that of any greatjournalist we can name, William Cobbett not excepted, and we may addthat the style of "Captain Singleton," like that of "Robinson Crusoe,"is so perfect that there is not a single ineffective passage, or indeeda weak sentence, to be found in the book.