Note 1 — BOOK THE FIRST. THE RED CHAMBER (continued 2)
Reading edition
There have been one or two persons, who have made themselves merry with this passage. These persons, however, belong to that large class of literary pretenders who are always in the market, as the phrase goes, willing to edit anything, publish anything, take one side to day, another to morrow, for a little notoriety and a little bread. Their criticisms, do not demand an answer. You can have their good opinion for a dollar, and be adored by the whole tribe, for the gift of a dinner.
But, a word is due to the candid reader, in regard to the Doomsman’s description of Capital Punishment in the olden time. The author is not responsible for a single line, word, or comma. He has left a wretch, embrated, nay, demonized by spectacles of carnage, to describe the slow agonies of a horrible death, in his own way.
In the same manner, in another work, the author has introduced the Moloch of modern law,—the Hangman,—who but the cowardly instrument of a cowardly vengeance, puts a rope about his defenceless victim’s neck, and in a dark jail yard, chokes him slowly to death, while Ministers of Religion stand by, and approve the murder, with copious texts and learned references.
The author is no more responsible for the ravings of the Hangman, than he is for the ravings of the hireling critic.