HESTER AT HER NEEDLE Hester Prynne, therefore, did not flee. On the outskirts of the town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitation, there was a small thatched cottage. It had been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned, because the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation, while its comparative remoteness put it out of the sphere of that social activity which already marked the habits of the emigrants. It stood on the shore, looking across a basin of the sea at the forest-covered hills, towards the west. A clump of scrubby trees, such as alone grew on the peninsula, did not so much conceal the cottage from view, as seem to denote that here was some object which would fain have been, or at least ought to be, concealed. In this little lonesome dwelling, with some slender means that she possessed, and by the licence of the magistrates, who still kept an inquisitorial watch over her, Hester established herself, with her infant child. A mystic shadow of suspicion immediately attached itself to the spot. Children, too young to comprehend wherefore this woman should be shut out from the sphere of human charities, would creep nigh enough to behold her plying her needle at the cottage-window, or standing in the doorway, or labouring in her little garden, or coming forth along the pathway that led townward, and, discerning the scarlet letter on her breast, would scamper off with a strange contagious fear.
Lonely as was Hester's situation, and without a friend on earth who dared to show himself, she, however, incurred no risk of want. She possessed an art that sufficed, even in a land that afforded comparatively little scope for its exercise, to supply food for her thriving infant and herself. It was the art, then, as now, almost the only one within a woman's grasp—of needle-work. She bore on her breast, in the curiously embroidered letter, a specimen of her delicate and imaginative skill, of which the dames of a court might gladly have availed themselves, to add the richer and more spiritual adornment of human ingenuity to their fabrics of silk and gold. Here, indeed, in the sable simplicity that generally characterised the Puritanic modes of dress, there might be an infrequent call for the finer productions of her handiwork. Yet the taste of the age, demanding whatever was elaborate in compositions of this kind, did not fail to extend its influence over our stern progenitors, who had cast behind them so many fashions which it might seem harder to dispense with.
Public ceremonies, such as ordinations, the installation of magistrates, and all that could give majesty to the forms in which a new government manifested itself to the people, were, as a matter of policy, marked by a stately and well-conducted ceremonial, and a sombre, but yet a studied magnificence. Deep ruffs, painfully wrought bands, and gorgeously embroidered gloves, were all deemed necessary to the official state of men assuming the reins of power, and were readily allowed to individuals dignified by rank or wealth, even while sumptuary laws forbade these and similar extravagances to the plebeian order. In the array of funerals, too—whether for the apparel of the dead body, or to typify, by manifold emblematic devices of sable cloth and snowy lawn, the sorrow of the survivors—there was a frequent and characteristic demand for such labour as Hester Prynne could supply. Baby-linen—for babies then wore robes of state—afforded still another possibility of toil and emolument. By degrees, not very slowly, her handiwork became what would now be termed the fashion. Whether from commiseration for a woman of so miserable a destiny; or from the morbid curiosity that gives a fictitious value even to common or worthless things; or by whatever other intangible circumstance was then, as now, sufficient to bestow, on some persons, what others might seek in vain; or because Hester really filled a gap which must otherwise have remained vacant; it is certain that she had ready and fairly requited employment for as many hours as she saw fit to occupy with her needle. Vanity, it may be, chose to mortify itself, by putting on, for ceremonials of pomp and state, the garments that had been wrought by her sinful hands. Her needle-work was seen on the ruff of the Governor; military men wore it on their scarfs, and the minister on his band; it decked the baby's little cap; it was shut up, to be mildewed and moulder away, in the coffins of the dead. But it is not recorded that, in a single instance, her skill was called in to embroider the white veil which was to cover the pure blushes of a bride. The exception indicated the ever relentless vigour with which society frowned upon her sin. |
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ESTER AGUJA EN MANO Por consiguiente Ester no se movi de all. En los lindes de la poblacin, aunque no en la vecindad inmediata de ninguna morada, haba una choza o cabaa, construida por uno de los primeros colonos, y abandonada porque la tierra era demasiado estril para el cultivo. Su aislamiento y distancia de la poblacin, la ponan fuera del crculo de la actividad social que ya se notaba en las costumbres de los colonos. Aquella pequea habitacin estaba a orillas del mar, medio oculta por un bosquecillo de rboles no muy corpulentos; y en ese lugar solitario, con los pocos recursos que posea, y gracias al permiso de los magistrados que aun ejercan una especie de vigilancia inquisitorial sobre Ester, se instal sta con su niita. Inmediatamente se asoci a aquel lugar una vaga idea de algo misterioso y desconocido. Los nios, demasiado tiernos para comprender por qu aquella mujer se encontraba separada del resto de sus semejantes, se arrastraban lo ms cerca posible para verla ocupada con su aguja sentada a la ventana de su cabaa, o de pie a la puerta de la misma, o trabajando en el jardincito, o pasendose en el sendero que conduca a la poblacin; y al contemplar la letra escarlata en el seno de su vestido, emprendan la carrera con un temor extrao y contagioso.
pesar de lo solitario de la situacin de Ester, y aunque no tena un amigo en la tierra que se atreviese a visitarla, no corra sin embargo el riesgo de padecer escaseces. Posea un arte que bastaba para proporcionarle el sustento a ella y a su hijita, aun en un pas que ofreca comparativamente pocas oportunidades para su ejercicio. Arte que en aquella poca, como hoy, era casi el nico que estuviera al alcance de la mujer,—la costura. Llevaba en el seno, en la letra primorosamente bordada, una muestra de su habilidad delicada y de su inventiva, de que se habran alegrado las damas mismas de la Corte poder aprovecharse para agregar a sus ricas telas de seda y oro los adornos aun ms preciados del arte humano.
Cierto es que, dada la sencillez del traje negro que caracterizaba en lo general las modas puritanas de aquel tiempo, no se presentaran muchas ocasiones en que pudiera desplegar Ester sus talentos con la aguja; sin embargo, el gusto de la poca que se complaca en lo que era complicado en esta clase de trabajos, no pudo menos de ejercer su influencia en aquellos severos puritanos, nuestros antepasados, que se haban desprendido de tantas cosas que hoy nos parecen muy difciles de renunciar. Las ceremonias pblicas, tales como la instalacin de magistrados, y cuanto pudiera agregar majestad al modo con que un nuevo gobernador se presentaba al pueblo, se distinguan por un ceremonial imponente y una sombra pero estudiada magnificencia. Grandes cuellos o lechuguillas, fajas de intrincadas labores, y guantes lujosamente bordados, eran de absoluta necesidad para los altos funcionarios al hacerse cargo de las riendas del poder; y su uso se permita tambin a los individuos distinguidos por su posicin o riqueza, aunque las leyes suntuarias prohiban estos y otros lujos semejantes a los plebeyos. En los funerales, ya en el vestido del difunto, o ya para expresar por variedad de signos emblemticos de pao negro y linn blanco el dolor de los sobrevivientes, haba tambin una demanda frecuente de la clase de labor que Ester poda suministrar. Los paales y faldellines para nios, pues en aquella poca los nios de tierna edad llevaban vestidos de gala, ofrecan tambin ocasin para labores delicadas de aguja.
Poco a poco, aunque no con mucha lentitud, los trabajos de Ester se fueron haciendo de moda, como hoy se dice, ya por compasin hacia una mujer cuyo destino haba sido tan desgraciado, ya por la mrbida curiosidad que da un valor ficticio a cosas comunes o que no tienen ninguno, ya porque entonces, como ahora, se concediera a ciertas personas, por cualquiera razn, lo que otros solicitan en vano, o porque Ester llenara realmente un vaco que se dejaba sentir; es lo cierto que hall frecuente empleo para su aguja, y bien remunerado. Tal vez la vanidad escogi, como medio de mortificarse, llevar a las pompas y ceremonias del Estado los adornos labrados por sus manos pecadoras. Vease su labor en los cuellos del Gobernador; los militares la mostraban en sus bandas y fajas; el ministro del altar tambin dejaba verla en su traje severo; adornaba el gorrito de los recin nacidos, y hasta los atades de los que llevaban a enterrar. Pero no se recuerda un solo caso en que la habilidad de Ester se solicitase para bordar el velo blanco que deba de cubrir el rostro pudoroso de una novia conducida al altar. Esta excepcin indicaba lo inextinguible del rigor con que la sociedad reprobaba su pecado. |
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